The young man was on death's door.
His bones were demolished,some portruding out of his skin in a ghastly sight which the young man's eyes choose to avoid.
He was loosing blood at a dangerously fast pace and could feel himself getting even weaker.His lungs and heart felt like they were crushed into a mush.He felt a strange emptiness where his stomach and intestines should have been.
It should have been painful...but the reality was worse,he was numb.He lost the capability to even feel pain,atleast in his insides.
His skin and bones could probably still feel agony,but adreline was shielding him from the suffering.
In that moment, one would have had no expectations of a long life for the young man.
He did have a strong will to live,but he was too greviously injured to put that will into action.
He lay there,awaiting an encruicating wave of pain or the sweet release of death.
His will had already wavered,now that he had felt the extent of his injuries.
He hoped his consciousness would subside before his mind could fully grasp the pain of his lacerations.
Then the most beautiful notification he had ever heard sounded his ears.
[Level up!]
[Received {Leather cloak-Grade I}]
[Level up!]
[Received {Eliver Of Life-Grade II}]
[Gained 30 Exp!]
[Congratulations! You are now a Level 3 human!]
The young man didn't waste even a single second looking at his status.
[Used {Eliver Of Life-Grade II}]
[HP- 5/50 -> HP- 40/50]
His body suddenly began to repair itself.His organs regained shape,he felt his spine gaining rigidity once again,his bones arranging themselves.
It looked uncanny,but the young man couldn't care less.However it looked,having a whole body was better than being in the state where he was before.
The young man had recovered from his wounds,not fully though. His body was quite weakened and his bones still ached.The regions where the bones had torn the skin were covered by mild scars.Most importantly,his mind became composed again.
But he also had no time to waste.
Who knew what kind of horrors dwelt in this new world?He had to gather information and try to avoid death.
He tried his best to keep calm.
He let a lot of his repressed memories enter his mind once again.
He learnt a lot more about the world where he came from,Earth.He also remembered his designation in detail,
He was an engineer at Palstom,a company which manufactured trains.Also he was an advocate for better public transport.
An increadibly passionate one at that.
He loved designing metro coaches and spent a good portion of his time hosting debates,preaching the populace about the great boons which a transit-oriented development model could bring and beseaching goverment officals to implement his ideas.
It was something he loved doing,enough to spend his entire life doing it.
He loved it so much he wanted to do the exact same even in this new world,if he could find another human settlement.....or any civilized life forms at all.
Endless possibilities filled his mind.
Perhaps the whole world was just this desolate,or was he banished into a particularly terrible region?
Maybe he was trapped in an illusion of some sort?
Why were there so few life forms in the area which he landed?
Was there some greater horror in the land who kept them away...or hunted them to extinction?The goblin duke was still moving around so perhaps the horror was inactive?
Or was the land like this because of some curse or a terrifying magical attack?
Then he remembered the most important agenda.
[The System]
"Open status window"
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[PLAYER STATUS WINDOW]
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Name: Manav ____
Level: 3
Species: Human (Awakened)
Title: —
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HP: 40/50
MP: 2/50
Stamina:30/50
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STATS
Strength: 30
Agility: 30
Vitality: 50
Mana: 50
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Designation
[Constructer-Grade II]
Skills
[One free slot(empty)]
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ACTIVE QUEST
[No active quests]
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A translucent blue glow pulsed before Manav's eyes, each letter etching itself into reality as if the world itself acknowledged the system's authority.
Atleast now he knew his name.
He was a system user now.He was an 'Awakened'
Oddly his surname was missing from his name.Infact he couldn't remember anything about his family.It seems he was likely an orphan in the previous world.Something about this information made him feel a bit unnerved.
He also explored some more of the system's features.
"Open inventory"
He saw the Leather cloak he received sitting there in the first slot.
He only needed to think his intentions for the Cloak to manifest itself in reality,the same had also happened with the Elixer that saved his life.
[Equiped {Leather Cloak-Grade I}]
He was now ready to explore the desolate world,and find fellow humans.
He glanced around and checked his surroundings.
Behind the great dusty mountains he noticed something strange.
As he peered closer...
What he saw horrified him.
A gigantic life form towered above the mountains.
It was too large,too ominous.
It's very existence felt like an abnormality,an utter impossibility.
The horror was tens..no... hundreds of kilometers in height.
An unimaginable amount of strange,virulent noise filled the young man's mind,resembling the headache he received while receiving the flood of memories but far more insidious.It felt as if a hundred rusty iron nails were being hammered into his skull.
The Behemoth was truly staggering in its sheer scale,it made Manav feel small...tiny...insignificant.
The unfathomable beast looked like a...
Manav turned his eyes away.He could feel even looking at the giant could be detrimental to his sanity,almost by some deep,primal instinct.
Maybe the noise somehow ringing in his head but not his ears was proof enough to the absurd creature's horrific ability to deprive one of their sanity.
It was pointless to run. The beast was too large and he was too small for his efforts to even matter.
Luckily it seems the horror didn't notice the miniscule human.If it wanted him dead,he would be.Him simply continuing to breathe,life and exist was proof of the monster's obliviousness.
Manav,keeping his eyes turned the other way,moved in the exact opposite direction to the beast.
He made sure to make as little noise as possible,as he scurried away.
He was sweating,on the verge of hyperventilating from the oppresive tension.But he stopped himself,he had escaped death once and he would escape it as many times as he needed to inorder to live.
He wouldn't die so easily.He had a great purpose..
He had to build great,convinient and cheap public transport for the citizens of this world!
He moved forward.One calculated step at a time.
Then another.
Then another.
Then another.
He moved ahead only looking straight ahead.He moved towards the edges of the grass clearing.The canopy of dense but dry trees were only a step away.
Safety,atleast his perception of it,was only a step away.
But then he heard an indiscribable growl which echoed across the mountains.
By the same instinct which made him look away from the horror,he looked towards it.
The giant had turned it's head....
With it's ten pitch black eyes ,it was staring...
It was looking at the intruder.
It was looking at Manav.
Manav was afraid,no...he was in no state to even be afraid.
The being was truly grand and looked.....magnificent.Manav closed his eyes as deep as he could.He was filled with an indescribable emotion.What stood beyond fear?
Maybe that was what he was experiencing.
He continued to keep his eyes closed,waiting for the creature's retaliation.
Was he going to die ?
or was he going to face a fate far worse than even death?
Several seconds passed in aniticipation.
Then it was minutes.
But Manav kept his eyes closed.
Until the tense silence grew too overwhelming.The anticipation was more painful than the action itself.
It was a stupid thing to do but-
He opened his eyes