CHAPTER 01: FOREST OF GENESIS

"–Mokusei? Hey! ... Hello?"

"..."

I was faced with perplexed looking Yui, waving her arm in front of me as though to wake me from whatever dream I was lost in.

"... Huh?"

"Ah, thank god. I thought you were touched in the head."

Yui sat down on a dry ground in front of me, wearing the expression of both tired and relieved.

I took a gander of my surrounding. There were only big trees– I guessed Pines– stretched along the view, covering most of the scenery. A thin fog was masking the locality, slightly hindering my vision. At the time, there was no one but the two of us, sitting on the leafy and parched ground. The air was quite cold and humid, making it hard to gain any heat without any form of insulation.

I stood up, patting my uniform from the dry leaves and dirts. I had no idea where and how did we got into this place, but atleast I wasn't stupid enough to cry and wait for help here. If you want to survive, you need to be in motion.

"Alright, I don't have the slightest clue of where we are, but let's keep moving for now. There might be a settlement near or something." I extended my hand to Yui. She gripped on it and stood up, while dusting away the filths from her clothes, somewhat copying the same motion I did before.

"You do have a point. This forest might not be as big as it look. Let's go!"

We wandered around the forest for a while, looking for clues of whereabout we were, while seeking for a bit of provisions along the way. I had picked a few acorns, wild berries, some unknown mushrooms, and small sticks and twigs, in case we had to camp here for a night. Yui was busy scrutinizing every single thing of the forest, clearly excited about this incidental excursion. I paid no heed about her, as I was busy tracking stuffs and tuffs which probably could aid us in knowing about the current world we were transported in.

"Hey, Mokusei. What is this thing?"

"It's a Toadstool. It could be poisonous, so don't eat it."

"Hmm... I guess it has no use, then. Farewell, little toadstool."

She lobbed the poor toadstool into the air before crashing down the ground with a slight *thud*. What a waste.

"Don't fool around too much. I want to get out from this cold forest as soon as we can."

"Sure, mr. Big-boss-or-something."

*Skkrsh!*

"Huh?"

I looked at Yui with a puzzled gaze.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, it came from the north. It didn't sounded like a falling twig, though..."

"Keep your voice down."

As I put a finger in front of Yui's mouth, another dry crisp sound could be heard again.

*Skkrshhak!*

Instinctively, I ran behind a nearby big tree while pulling Yui's arm along. She followed obediently. Behind the large tree, with my eyes open, I observed the source of those unearthly sounds.

Two gigantic figures were walking from the north, carrying a plank-sized slender object in their hands. When they got closer, I finally noticed that they weren't humans. One had an "eye" above it's original eyes, with a massive scar spread across it's right cheek, and the other one had one of it's eyes blind, with a golden ring-like object piercing it's nose. Both of them were a head bigger than average human, while wearing clothings that resembled "giant" type of accoutrements, based on my years of gaming experience.

Yes, it was no doubt that these two creatures were giants.

I looked over Yui, now bearing the look of a terrified person. Both of her eyes were widened, her lips were quivering, and a few drops of cold sweat appeared on top of her eyebrows. I was thinking about how to deal with those two gigantic creatures when Yui let out a terrified shriek.

*Perfect timing, great.*

The two gigantic beings, of course, jerked their heads toward our direction, and began jogging in our direction, swinging their clubs, while letting out loud roars.

"Okay, time to run! Fast!"

"O-okay!"

I grabbed one of Yui's hand and sprinted to the opposite direction of the Giants. My agility and stamina are, comparatively, much better than Yui, so she was intensely panting while trying to even our speed, before coming into a full halt after running for a few meters. I looked behind, the giants were still chasing us, although a bit far left behind. Fighting obviously is not a choice, as we both didn't had the skills nor the weapons to combat them. Heck, even with makeshift weapons, I doubted we would even stand a chance against them.

With fighting crossed out of the choice list, we were left with two choices only: trick-n-dash and hiding. Tricking them and run would require someone with great stamina as a decoy to fish them out from the ones with low stamina, then later sneak around them and rejoin with the rest of the team. That'd be a pretty good tactic because–

"Mokusei! They are closing in!"

Alright, no more time to waste!

I quickly told Yui the gist of my plan. Afterward, she hid behind the tree at the rendezvous point I had specified. After chewing the cud for a while enough, I had decided to face them with the plan I had. It'd be great to have a card up my sleeve, but for the time being, I would have to rely on my impromptu plan. I just wished that I won't die again, in view of the fact that I had gained a second chance, so failing wasn't an option.

"Hey, you dirty gigantic fools! Fresh meat here! First to come, first to serve!" I screamed, while throwing a bunch of acorns to their faces. Of course, they were agitated. They focused their attention entirely to me, as they ran slightly faster and with louder roars. Good, they took the bite.

Without straying too far away, I began running away from them at a regulated speed–Not too slow so I won't get obliterated by their clubs, and not too fast so I won't lost them. I could feel their gazes on my back, filled with the intention to kill. I glanced back for a moment, just to make sure that the plan worked, which it did. I saw Yui putting up the thumb-up behind the big tree, indicating that the plan worked well. I didn't feel any danger of losing my breath soon, as long as I kept my stamina up.

A few minutes had passed, as I was still fishing the monsters away from Yui. I was sure that I had baited them far enough from Yui, so as the final trick, I disappeared behind a pretty big tree, then lurked at the terrifying beings. My trick had been executed successfully, as they were confused of my whereabout. In most RPGs, giants are categorized as creatures with low intelligence, so fooling them with simple tricks should be effective. Taking advantage of the thin fog, I darted into a nearby tree, again, and again, before retreating to the rendezvous point in a roundabout.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

"–What took you so long? I was so sure that you were being beaten to death by those gargantuans. Well, glad to see that you weren't."

"Could you be more grateful that I returned in one piece? Geez..."

I met up with Yui at the specified rendezvous point all healthy and well, although it took a while since taking a roundabout was proven to be pretty cumbersome. I would really appreciate it if she could be more grateful, but there was time for that. Right now, we needed to find a safe place to rest and recover.

"Alright, let's lay down the escapade for now. I'm pretty wore down, so we should set up a camp somewhere safe and comfy."

"Yeah... I'm pretty exhausted, too. Man, I wanna take a bath or something... but it seems that I can't. *sigh*"

*The hell are you exhausted for? You did absolutely nothing at all.*

We were squandering inside the thick, foggy forest, while looking for any sign about a good place to camp at. I–being cautious and rational as ever–incidentally picked any sort of provisions that came into my view, leaving nothing for the ground pickers. I was not being selfish, I was just being rational about my current condition and did anything to preserve the survival of Yui and myself. I wouldn't do all of this if it weren't of the cruel fettle. First to come, first to serve, eitherway.

Putting that aside, I hadn't gained even the slightest information about our location. Sure, it might be hard to track stuffs and tuffs in this damned baffling forest, but I did recall that I had participated in a forest camp when I was in elementary school, and it was nothing compared to this. No maps, cellphones, compass... anything. I would very appreciate it if I atleast know where the hell the sun is, but I couldn't, thanks to this good-for-nothing fog.

After a few hours of wandering around, backtracking, and scavenging, we finally found a oretty decent spot to camp. It was flat, dry, pretty sheltered by the big trees, and was pretty nearby to a uncontaminated small lake. There was no reason to refuse, so we prepared all the essentials required to make the place a proper camp site, although crude, but nevertheless, better than nothing. After an hour or so, all preparations to make the place comfy enough was done, and all left was to utilize it properly.

I was sitting on a dead log, warming myself near the campfire I had lit, when Yui called out from the river side.

"Hey, Mokusei. I'll bath myself here for a moment. Could you look after me for a minute?"

"I think I'll do fine here. Thanks but no thanks."

"Aw, c'mon! I can't seriously bath here in peace when there might be some of those gargantuans wandering around here. Please do it for me, please?"

"..."

I glanced over the campfire, then to the lake side.

"... Fine, fine, okay. But be quick, alright?"

"Sure thing!"

I decided to extinguish the campfire for a while, afraid that the campfire might attract unwanted visitors, then made my way to Yui.

As I arrived, I glanced at Yui, who was sitting on a flat rock alongside the calm lake, while–

"W-w-w-wha?! H-hold on! What the hell are you doing?!" I exclaimed, while as-swift-as-a-wind averted my gaze from her.

"... Huh? What? I told you I was going for a bath–"

"You didn't tell me you had already undressed!"

Next to the lake, Yui was sitting on a flat rock next to the lake–not even wearing the slightest bit of clothing. Her pale skin was exposed without any garment, as well as her breasts and her... uh... area. To be honest, I was a bit acting up when I first saw her knockers, because they were decently sized–although we had already seen eachother's bare body when we were still children, but now I felt a different sensation when I saw her naked, compared to how I felt when I was little.

"What? –Ohohoho? Are you... excited seeing me like this?"

"I'm... I'm not excited, not even in the slightest! It's not like that you're sexy or something... yes, indeed!"

After releasing a few more giggles, she finally stopped.

"Well, I couldn't possibly having a bath with you watching me directly, so turn around and sit there" she said, while pointing at a seemingly comfy spot on a big rock.

"F-fine."

And there I was, sitting on a rock, while keeping a guard of a girl whom was taking a nice, calm bath in a lake. Surely that'd sound weird and rotten to other people, but it wasn't like I had any other choice, anyway. As I struggled to be awake, a soft humming could be heard in the air. I could only guess it was Yui humming an unknown song while enjoying her bath. Dammit... Why did her little song sounded so good? She could've resolved as a singer if she would.

"... You peeked, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"I said I didn't okay? Now shut up and be quick. It's dead freezing here."

After an indefinite amount of time later, she finally called out to me.

"Hey, I'm done. Do you want to take a bath here or...?"

"...Nah, I'm good for now. I'll take one when the morning come. Let's go already, it's freezing here."

"Heh, sure."

Thus, we both proceeded to the campsite we had prepared earlier. It was nothing fancy, just a campfire in the middle, two makeshift beddings–crafted out of leaves and other soft, springy stuffs, and a pile of our goods stacked in the corner. The big and tall trees had already provided us with minimum protection against rain, and the bushes surrounding our campsite had gave us a tad of concealment against waist-tall creatures. Although I was not sure of what would happen if a group of monsters were to ambush us, since we didn't had any single weapon with us.

Just as I was about to tuck myself into the handmade bedding...

"Mokusei, are you going to sleep?"

"Hm? Yeah, I'm exhausted."

"... Could you please accompany me for tonight? I can't sleep yet, it's just like my eyes is struggling to close themselves..."

"That's ridiculous. Just force your eyes to close and go to sleep already. I'm hella tired to even talk to you, so do me a favor and go to sleep."

"..... Are you really can't...? Fine... *sigh*"

...?

When I glanced at her from my leafy blanket, she was staring at the sky with a sulky face. I think I also saw a few tears harboring on the side of her eye.

*How can't you do this to me? That's so unfair.*

".... Fine, I'll stay up late for you. Just so you know, I'm not doing this for you."

Her face brightened up really fast, then she nodded.

*This girl... just how troublesome could you be?*

I kindled the campfire once again with a lighter I found in my pocket and sat on one of the dead logs laying around near the blaze.

As I poked into the fire with a twig, Yui asked a question.

"Hey, Mokusei. Do you think we could survive in this world together? I mean, we barely have any sort of protections with us..."

"Don't be so pessimistic. Where did all of your usual excitement go? It's still day one, so naturally you won't expect much of loots and gears to find, but I'm sure we can pull through."

"No... it's not like that I don't believe we could survive, but..."

"Hm? What is it?"

"... Nevermind." she said, with a thin smile on her face.

I decided to not poke further into her cloud of unconfidence, and resolved on poking into the fire instead.

"...Hey, Yui... remember that time when the two of us and our parents went into a camp in the forest together? We all had fun, joy, and tears together... so I'm sure it will be no different than now, except that we're juveniles now..." Yui let out small giggles, and I couldn't help but to laugh too. She's still the same old Yui.

"Yeah, I'm sure it will be fun... I still couldn't forget that you even confessed your "love" to me back when were behind the tents–"

"Aw, f-forget about that already! I was still a little stupid kid back then!" I yelled, while throwing the stick I used to poke the fire in her direction. Of course, she dodged it, which made me even more embrassed.

"Yeah, you were still a little kid, so it was all not serious..." she gazed at the fire with a weird look on her face. What was she thinking about?

"Say, Mokusei.... I might accept it if you confess to me again..." she calmly said, exhibiting a sly smile on her face as if it was just natural to say that.

*Wh-what?!*

"H-hold up! What?! What do you mean by confess?"

"Pfft...! Calm down, it's a joke. Do you really think I was being serious?"

*This little brat...!*

"Wh-whatever! I'm going to sleep, you could either keep on watch or just sleep right away, I don't care."

I grumbled while tucking myself inside my bedding, trying my hardest to sleep.

"... I was being half-serious, you know..."

"Did you say something?"

"Nope. Nothing at all."

I could've swear I heard her saying something, but I shrugged it off and went to sleep anyway. Just as I was going to be in the arms of Morpheus, I casted a last glance to Yui.

She was gazing at the dark, starry night sky while displaying a sweet smile on her face, a great pair to her cute face. The moonlights illuminated parts of her body, revealing her perfectly like some kind of beautiful goddess that had descended to Earth because of some curse, like the ones in the folktales. Her dishevelled silver hair only added more surreal elements into the scene. It was all felt like a dream, I literally had my heart skipped a beat.

*Wait... hold on... get a hold of yourself, Mokusei. She's just your bestfriend, no more, no less.*

While she was a little annoying brat most of the time, I gotta admit that she was outstandingly cute. Heck, everyone with a pair of working eyes would perceive her the same. Seeing her gazing at the starry sky elegantly somehow warmed my heart, even though I was practically sleeping beside the campfire.

Okay, I had stared at her long enough, people would call me a weirdo if they ever caught me wolfing her body with my seemingly bawdy stare like that, so I prudently slipped my head back into the makeshift blanket and let the sandman did his job.

*If she wasn't so sassy, I might've actually confessed to her again. Her damned sassy nature.*

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

"–Hey, sleepy head. Wake up! Goddammit, come on!"

"... Huh?"

"We're surrounded! Get back on your feet!"

*What?! Early ambush?! Wait, this is not the time to think about that, yet!*

I quickly shifted my gear and stood up in the blink of an eye. Yui was standing next to me, pale as a sheet. She then shifted into a "floating running start" pose, which induced bad premonitions from me.

At a simple judgement by a glance, there were dozens of enemies surrounding our current campsite. They were all carrying different types of weapon: swords, spears, daggers, axes, and such. But one thing that they had in common was they were all colored in pastel green.

That's right, they were a band of goblins–all creeping closer from every point. In case if that wasn't dire enough; some of them were also mounting boars, while brandishing their pointy spears in our direction. Goblins might be a weak type of monster in most RPGs, but they would be a serious danger if they gang up on you. We still hadn't bought nor crafted any weapons, so fighting definitely wasn't a choice here. I could run away all the way I want to, but the same logic couldn't be applied to Yui, as the aperture between our stamina was quite distinguishable.

"... What should we do...?"

"..."

*... Wait a second...*

"Yui, on my mark, run as fast as you could to the north..."

"Wh-what are you planning to do?"

Good thing I had a bunch of tricks up my sleeve.

I took a lighter out of my shirt's pocket and ignited it, putting it in my grip for a moment as I fiercely faced the ferocious rabble. Yui seemed to notice what I had planning to do, because her eyes widened when she saw my lighter.

"Wait, don't tell me you will..."

"Exactly. Say a few parting words to this temporary campsite, if you want to."

My enemies, although, didn't seem to realize what my plan was, because their faces were unfazed upon seeing me standing there with a lit lighter in my fist, typical low intelligent creatures.

I had always wanted to do this since forever; probably because of my inner pyromaniac spirit or something. With the biggest sinister grimace I could muster, I turned my gaze to Yui, almost snapping my neck, while screaming:

"NOW!"

My handy lighter–who had accompanied me for four months–flew elegantly in the air, as if it was dancing it's last dance, before meeting it's honorable end by crashing down into the bushes with a loud, audible *KLANK!*. Soon, the dry bushes were engulfed in the blazing fire, devouring a few hapless warriors into the remorseless flame. The others who had lucky enough to survive the holocaust had taken a few steps back in an instant, while having a mixture of sorrowful, streaked, and anguished look glued on their faces. There was a feeling of satisfaction when I saw the hopeless goblin warriors flailing around their limbs for help before dying a slow and ruthless death, and couldn't help myself but to let out a small grin. The anguished looks on their faces only ever grew stronger upon seeing my grimace.

Alright, that should be enough to keep them at bay for a moment or so. I waved my hand at them with a mocking intent, and speeded my way to catch up with Yui to the north. I tossed a quick glance to my aggressors... good, they weren't tailing on us. The simple trick of "scorching down your encampment to buy yourself a handful amount of time" was rather complicated, but proven to be a life-saver in certain grave situations. For instance–the critical occurrence I had just a moment ago.

Though, rather than to be called an "escape trick," it was more of an overkill trick, if the term served right.

At any rate, it had been quite a while since I ran after Yui, and I hadn't found her anywhere yet. Did she run off too far away or something? But wait, it shouldn't be entirely possible, on the ground of her relatively weak stamina. Did she stray away from the north point? Well, it didn't help much to fuss myself over it.

Then, as if to answer my internal turmoil, the figure of Yui came into view before far from where I was standing. She was walking back and forth behind a big boulder, muttering some unaudible words while adopting a restless on her face. I had guessed that she was restive whether if I might found where she was or not, which I did.

"Osu, Yui."

"Ah, there you are. I was waiting for you, fretting that you might not find me here. Glad I was wrong." Bingo, hit the nail on the head.

"It's disgusting to see you actually care about me. Welp, anyway, we should keep moving. Our newfound campsite was already burned into the ground, so there's no point of returning. Come on."

"All right, then– wait a second, did that first sentence was supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"

Ignoring her yet another dumb question, I set my foots in motion onward to the north, in hope that we might bump into some non-hostile civilizations. After some useless grumblings, Yui eventually tailed me from behind.

I had lost count about how many footsteps I had taken on since I was transported into this unknown world. My only wish at the time was that there would be some adventurers of a sort come to our rescue after discovering that we were lost, though it never did happen.

It all became tiresome, eventually. To sort the problems: We still hadn't make any kind of weapons at all, we hadn't eaten anything filling for almost two days, and we definitely hadn't changed our muddy clothes for two days.

It became a wonder how did we still be able to walk steadily along the trees.

"Hey Yui... aren't you hungry or something–"

When I turned my vision to Yui, she was gone from where she was standing.

"...Huh? Where did she go? Yui, where are you...?"

"Up here, dunderhead!"

She was sitting on a pretty high branch connected to a tall tree. How the hell did she get up there? Was she some kind of monkey in the disguise of a human?

"Hey, monkey. What are you doing there? Oh, and be careful up there. You might break your neck if you fall from that kind of height."

"Don't call me a monkey, and don't worry, I won't fall down like an idiot. It's disgusting to see you actually care about me."

*Hey, not fair! That was my signature line!*

"Anyway, I think I spotted something on the north. It looks rather like a... small town, or some sort. Yeah, that's probably a town. Think we could pay a visit there?"

"Did you even need to ask that? Of course we could, or rather, we will! Come on, say goodbye to this dumb forest!"

"All right, all right, calm down. Help me get down there."

I extended both of my arms, forming somewhat a bowl, anticipating for Yui's fall. Yui, without any form of incredulity, jumped right away from the branch and landed right into my embrace. I was worried that both of my arms might fell from the sheer of her landing force, but good thing they were still intact.

I was ready to put her down, but for some reason, Yui's cheeks were slightly tinted red when her eyes met mine. She also averted her eyes... weird.

"What's wrong? You got a fever or something?"

"... Nothing."

Welp, I couldn't make a fuss about it, so after putting her down on the ground, we set our foots onward to the town Yui had mentioned. There weren't much obstacles in our way, contrary to our previous explorations.

After crossing the last field of bushes that segregated the vast forest from the level and deserted plain, the outlook of the small town had perfectly came into our view. Although, it looked only slightly larger than a village. The one prominent thing that caught both of my eyes consequent upon laying my vision on the town was the large amount of torches surrounding it. They surrounded every bits of the tiny town, though, they were all unlit in the day. I didn't know if the purpose of those torches were to iluminate the surrounding or to attract attentions from the outsiders.

Eitherway, I jumped from the hillock I was standing on–followed by Yui right after–and began walking closer to the town in order to gain better look.

It was a fairly crowded town, mostly because of the plenty amount of merchant stands and shops that stood clear on each sideways. The loud and hoarse sounds of merchants hawking their wares were good enough to shatter someone's eardrums, though they did a pretty good job for not injuring their own vocal cords. The shops weren't inferior to the merchant stands in terms of hustle and bustle, as I could literally saw an amount of customers deluged a small poor shop in the corner of the small street. They did have a lot of customers, but at what cost?

"Woooaaahhh... it's so rowdy here. I doubt we could pass that flood of people there..."

"Same. But well, we have finally found a civilized settlement, what on earth could possibly be any better? Let's see if they have an Inn somewhere here."

And thus, we entered this little town of fortune.