The closer Glenn got to the forest, the fewer the bodies. The scent of rotting flesh lessened, replaced by fresh mud and resin. His heartbeat calmed as the risk of disturbing one of the corpse-eating monsters disappeared.

  It wasn’t exactly zero risk, but he would probably be okay as long as he didn’t yell. Probably.

  Glenn couldn’t wrap his head around the craziness of his situation. Adrenaline pumped into his veins, although less than when he woke up in that macabre mess.

  He fell to his knees, his insides churning. He held his mouth with both hands, grimacing as he swallowed whatever threatened to leave his body.

  I shouldn’t even have anything in my belly, thanks to that monster. Urgh—

  Glenn’s train of thought halted as the need to puke intensified. He breathed in and out calmly for a few minutes, kneeling at the woodland edge. After catching his breath, he pushed himself up and threw a look behind at the bloody battlefield.

  Terrible mistake.

  That scene was enough to force Glenn’s primal instincts to claw up his throat. He barfed for the second time, getting rid of gastric acid and blood. The blood was not too worrying, considering he had his stomach carved open.

  Glenn heaved heavily as he forced himself to stumble further into the forest. Suddenly, as he walked with only thoughts of survival, reality struck him like a direct meeting with Truck-kun.

  “Wait.” He stopped dead in his tracks. “…Did I transmigrate or something? Oh shit, what the fuck is this world?”

  Glenn grabbed his chest, finding the hole in his tunic where the spear had impaled him. No, no, this isn’t at all what I imagined back when I read those isekai novels!

  “I… I need to see my face…” he mumbled, glancing around with panic. The sound of water flowing was unmistakable, and it didn’t take long to discover a river.

  He almost ran right away to the riverbank, but he remembered that predators usually stalked water sources. He hid behind a bush, but he couldn’t find anything in the darkness of the night—despite the bright crimson light of the massive moon. It outshone its smaller, white sister. Glenn wanted to bawl his eyes out just at the sight of the twin moons.

  How the hell does that even work gravity-wise? This certainly isn’t Earth if there are two damned moons!

  Glenn breathed in deeply, shaking these thoughts out of his head and approaching the river. He tried to be as stealthy, but between the twigs breaking under his feet and his ragged breathing, that was likely a failure.

  When he reached the water, he fell to his knees, looking at his reflection. His chestnut hair was messy—covered in dirt and dried blood. His face was no better, his brown eyes bloodshot. He looked like a lunatic. But he was still himself.

  “Thank god…” Glenn sighed in relief, recognizing the man staring back at him.

  That, at least, was excellent news. After all, he considered himself to be quite handsome, and another body would simply not feel right.

  “What do I do now…?” he whispered as his eyes shot around the dark oak forest.

  His circumstance was dire, but it could have been worse. One thing he questioned was why his isekai fantasy—or whatever it was called—had gone so wrong. Where’s the cute priestess? The king in need of a hero to slay the demon lord?

  “This sucks!” he swore softly, not daring to speak too loud. Instead of some cozy castle, he landed in a half-dead state right in the middle of—

  “Urgh…” He nearly barfed again, but he held himself back successfully. That had been enough vomiting for his whole life, and there was nothing left to puke in his stomach anyway.

  Alright, now isn’t the time to complain. Now is the time to get the hell out of here… But first…

  He drew a deep breath and called out to the sky in a strained whisper.

  “Status!”

  “System!”

  “…Inventory? No? Nothing?”

  “Fuck!”

  Glenn kicked a rock. The stone didn’t move, but his foot felt quite the shock. He swore as he cradled his toes.

  No golden finger then. Alright, this… He sighed. This really makes me want to spit on whoever brought me here. I’m sure it’s some hidden god fuckery, like in all good stories, right? Right?

  Only silence responded, shutting him up. Yeah, it certainly wasn’t helpful to get angry. Maybe his energy was better spent finding someplace far—very far away—from the battlefield.

  Deep in thought, he crouched by the river, using the water to clean his face and his hands. Blood covered his body, as well as many other unidentified substances. And before he began worrying about an infection—

  “Ah!”

  He fell on his ass, his eyes wide open in fear as a bloated corpse floated in front of him. A trail of red and a metallic scent followed. That smell was now familiar to Glenn’s nose.

  Glenn clenched his teeth and stood. He winced as he noticed that the body was missing an arm, somehow ripped away. That was no sword wound for sure. Way too messy… But perhaps he was wrong. He was no professional on the matter.

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  What he could see, though, was the corpse’s clothes were similar to his own: a ragged tunic, brown leggings, and a hood. It had a belt with an empty sheath hanging at its waist and leather boots. Glenn examined the torn soles of his own shoes. He wondered whether he should trade footwear with the corpse but decided against it.

  It was only a minor improvement. Like replacing a 5% durability item with an 8% one. There was also the smell to consider.

  Glenn fixed the corpse’s sheath to his belt and peered through the dark oaks as he walked from the river. He’d rather be a long way from something that would attract predators to the area. More corpse-eating monsters? He buried the thought.

  Diving back into the forest, Glenn fought against sharp sticks and thorny bushes as he followed no particular path. His aim was only to escape the battlefield—and the now-tainted river—so the direction didn’t matter.

  And who knows? He’d possibly stumble upon a trace of civilization. Right?

  “Well, fuck my life. Oh, never mind. It’s already fucked!” Glenn spat angrily as he stared at a stump he had passed three times. He sat on it, trying his best to calm himself. He couldn’t continue to run aimlessly.

  Glenn sniffled before wiping the tears off his face. Now wasn’t the time for self-pity. He needed to find civilization, because he was certainly not living in this creepy-ass forest—nor dying in it! He had a family back home. A sister who’d miss him.

  He had to survive this hell. Because this was hell, no doubt. Where else would there be a bloodstained moon and corpse-eating monsters?

  His resolution steeled, Glenn pushed himself up, revitalized.

  Civilization, where might you be? He glanced at the sky, but the canopy made it impossible to see anything. He’d have to climb a tree.

  Glenn sneered. Well, isn’t that a nice idea.

  He approached the widest, tallest tree he could find and evaluated the ascent. The many branches would make it relatively simple, and climbing had been a habit of his ever since he took those recreational classes. Fun times.

  But climbing with something hanging from his waist seemed like a bad idea. Abandoning the sword on the forest floor wasn’t a good choice either. After untying his belt, Glenn wrapped his sheath around his back.

  “Witcher-style, baby.” He chuckled and rubbed his hands together.

  Glenn jumped and grabbed the lowest branch, grunting as he pulled himself up. His climbing skills weren’t too rusty, but his stamina was. With a lot of effort, he reached the top of the tree.

  Gasping with difficulty, Glenn wiped the sweat off his eyebrows as he gazed at the forest in front of him. The corner of his lips curved upwards as he took in the phenomenal view. Crimson painted the treetops, a gift from the blood moon. The sky was clear and empty of pollution, with way too many stars for him to count.

  He enjoyed the moment of peace silently, listening to the wind whistling gently as owls hooted in the night. There were also a few howls far away—likely wolves. But that seemed too distant to worry about. Glenn caught his breath and concentrated on the matter at hand. On his left, unmistakable, black smoke clouds carried burning flesh. That was the bloody battlefield he woke up on—now ablaze.

  People, hopefully non-monstrous ones, had probably lit those fires. But he couldn’t risk going back to check. He didn’t know what factions had stakes in that battle. And more importantly, he didn’t know what said factions would think of him. What guarantee did he have he wouldn’t be pierced by another spear the second he showed up?

  He turned, and his face lit up as he found a gray mountain. The peak was strange—barren of vegetation and completely flat—but it was a better vantage point compared to this tree.

  And he didn’t have other options.

  Having made up his mind, Glenn carefully began his descent. It would be ridiculous to fall and die when he had miraculously survived having his guts torn out.

  Can I still count on that… healing ability that patched up my wounds? Ideally, I’d test it out, but not like this…

  He placed one foot after another on the thickest branches until he suddenly heard a low growl. Instinctively, he crouched and pressed close against the tree. Quickly glancing down, he bit his lip when he saw a majestic, black wolf; its hackles raised and its pelt as dark as night. It could probably eat ten Glenns for breakfast, so he fortunately wasn’t there to become a chew toy.

  The wolf’s fangs dripped saliva, and it snarled softly as it took one step back. Despite its powerful muscles, it looked… Scared, somehow? It backed up further, shivering.

  Glenn followed its gaze, trying to find what was intimidating the beast, but—

  Thump!

  The wolf whined as a red vine shot out of the bushes and wrapped itself around the canine’s torso.

  A second later, the wolf was gone.

  Adrenaline pumped through Glenn’s veins, preparing him for whatever lurked in the brush. Glenn muffled his mouth, struggling to regulate his shaky breathing while holding onto the branch. Sweaty palms weren’t helping, making him fear a slip and fall.

  He cursed mentally at his trembling limbs before glancing at the canopy.

  Should I just spend the night up here? That might be the better option…

  Glenn almost wanted to swear at the creature wandering in the woods.

  I walked in this godforsaken forest for hours and didn’t see anything. The second I leave the ground, something terrifying happens!

  Perhaps he should consider himself lucky. No, if he was, he wouldn’t be in these damned woods in the first place.

  At least I’m not dead… he thought, trying to rationalize the situation.

  Even if the branches were easy to climb, he didn’t trust himself not to doze off and fall like an idiot. He had no rope to fasten himself to the tree, and his belt certainly wasn’t long enough. Unless four walls magically sprouted from the trunk to protect him, he was out of luck.

  “That’d be great…” Glenn whispered as he looked at the sky, but nothing happened. Why would it?

  He also had no guarantee that whatever stalked the forest floor couldn’t snatch him from the trees. What if it could climb?

  Yeah, no sleeping up here, he concluded as he threw a tense look around, failing to find the creature that pulled the wolf into the darkness.

  As he did, a plan formed in his head. Noticing a particularly thick branch, he wondered if it was possible to hop across the canopy to a safer part of the woods.

  No, that’s a stupid idea…

  Or was it?

  Glenn wasn’t confident in his acrobatic abilities, but he was running out of options.

  He knew his safety in this tree was relative. And a broken leg seemed a lot easier to heal than whatever that monster could do to him.

  He stood back up, getting rid of the stiffness in his legs. He drew a deep breath and repositioned himself to jump, cursing his plan.

  His goal was the thick, sturdy-looking branch of the neighboring tree. It was what, three meters away? Easy. If he jumped from tree to tree until he reached the mountain, maybe he’d be able to survive until dawn—assuming the high ground was safer than the forest.

  A hopeful thought indeed.

  Come on… Glenn gritted his teeth. One… Two… Three!

  He huffed and pushed off with all his strength. Suddenly, the branch broke under his feet, and he tumbled towards a certain death.

  Only one word came to mind.

  “Shit!”