A Man with a Lightning Charged Axe

With the sun rising yet again on this unfamiliar land I find myself in, I reminisce on the times I sparred with my brother and father. My father was a gun nut and my brother an expert boxer, and all three of us were massive history buffs, me even more so than them. We were by no means a militant family, more a bunch of history nerds who loved learning how people throughout history fought and defended themselves, from Greece to the founding of the United States. But those days seem so far away even though I haven't been here a full week.

The isolation is already pulling at my psyche, I force myself off the ground where I've made my bed. Heading over to the spring of fresh water I splash my face and look at my reflection, a face that isn't mine. A face I stole from a character who I found relatable. I may still be me, but I don't see myself there.

Sighing I stand up and look at the very shoddy wall I built to keep things away from me in my sleep. It's really just a bunch of trees I chopped down and laid in front of the cave, without the new strength I have from being Hector I would've never been able to do this. Pushing the logs away from the entrance, I look up the mountain I'm at the base of. I wasn't able to see it through the dense canopy and my adrenaline made me focus on the threat so I didn't get a good look before. There is no way up other than just to climb and walk when possible. At least it'll give me a vantage point to look for civilization, should I decide to climb it. I will have to at some point, lighting a fire on the mountainside will let anyone who sees the mountain know that someone is living here, if that's a good thing.

I need to make a list of things I need to get done. At least until I manage to find any form of civilization. Firstly food, I already have water, and while it might not be the best it is far better than nothing. The manticore is already well past the point of being safe to eat so using it as bait for scavengers or other predators is the only option for the remaining meat. I'll set the bones aside for now, I might eventually need to use them.

Second, I should get some real walls set up. I don't have a shovel to help break the earth and I don't want to disrespect Wolf Beil more than I already have. I could use some of my armor to try shoveling. Better than nothing, and if I don't want to do that I could try to carve a shovel from one of the trees.

This is tough, I'd always thought I be far more prepared if I were stuck in a scenario like this. Fortunately, I've managed to keep my head on straight and not do anything too stupid. Though peeking my head into a cave that smelt of blood would definitely count as stupid so I shouldn't be too proud. God I wish I was thrown somewhere with people, camping was fun but having to do this for survival sucks.

I doubt anyone is even looking for me, after all, manticores were just fantasy creatures and here I am having killed and eaten one so there isn't a high possibility that I'm still on Earth. Unless some strange magic shenanigans happened I'm not just lost, I'm trapped in a strange new world with who knows what kinda of monsters and beasties. Once again I find myself grateful that I've gotten a physical upgrade. I wasn't unhealthy by any means, but I never really made a large effort to build strength and endurance. Not like my brother.

I miss the bastard already.

I can't let despair or depression take over now, I have to keep moving forward, find someone or something, anything.

I guess I should try to scout out the surrounding area, I doubt anything will come looking around the cave with the manticore's scent and venom still spread around the area. Hopefully, it was the top dog in this area and everything else is weaker than it was. I still don't know my limits in combat yet and I don't want to push it and pick a fight I will lose. There was that ravine to the south I could peek into, and maybe a river at the bottom that I could use to find a city or town.

Sighing I grab what little items I still have and start out into the woods. I don't make much of an effort to hide or cover my tracks so that if a ranger or game warden finds them they will know that someone was here and hopefully they'll find me before I become a corpse.

I find that my expected time to reach the ravine was woefully hopeful. While it shouldn't be more than 2 miles away the forest seems to come alive when I'm not paying attention and make my effort to travel far harder than it should be. Vines seem to sprout out of nowhere to trip me, branches fall from trees scarily close to hitting me. The birdsong that I awoke to is nowhere to be heard as I finally reach my destination.

A peek through the opening in the canopy gives me a decent estimation of how long the trek took. Well over two hours. If the hike back to the shelter takes that long I won't be able to do much scouting, and if it takes longer for some reason that would be even worse. Having a consistent grasp of how long it takes to do things in this forest is looking impossible.

Turning from the sky to the ravine I peek down at the bottom hoping to see a river or other body of water. My luck seems to have run dry just as the ravine has it seems. It does stretch far into the distance, however, meaning that it may just be this section that is lacking water, the light mist and haze would support that theory. I'm not inclined to try to find my way down the cliff face so I decide to just follow the edge.

I follow the rocky cliff face for what the sun tells me is about an hour and a half. What is making me hesitate instead of going back to the little alcove however is that I caught a glimpse of something over the treetops in the distance about twenty minutes ago.

A castle.

There is an old decrepit castle out here.

I can't recognize the style, meaning I've not been thrown into Europe. But the fact that there is still a building means that there was at least some form of civilization here in this damnable forest. I've caught myself from falling into the ravine like five times now and I'm not sure it would be safe to keep going to the castle or if I should risk turning back and coming back later.

I've done what I set out to do today, several of the trees have edible fruit and nuts so food shouldn't be as large an issue as it was, so I can go back.

But something is drawing me to the castle. Something inside me is saying I won't be this lucky again that the vines and whatever is controlling this forest won't let me get near the castle again. Will it even let me get back to the cave?

I come to a simple conclusion.

I guess I should try seizing the throne.