Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Apparently, in this world, the lack of sleep wasn't an issue.
Having no bed and wondering what to do, I decided to look a bit more at the book I found earlier. Much to my bewilderment, it wasn't a book but a mystical interface, a look-alike of the many I've encountered playing video games.
The panel unfolding in front of my eyes was a cruel reminder of my condition. Not only did I knew little about this world, but I wasn't aware of why I had been sent here. This book was the most abnormal item I gathered up to now, and I hoped it contained answers to my questions.
Looking back at that time, it's now painfully evident that this book was only the tool of my perpetual ordeal and that I could only count on my own perseverance with the help of some otherworldly help, sometimes.
Adventuring a bit into the interface, I gathered several pieces of information. First of all, this book seemed to give me quests to complete. These quests also seemed to be related and also categorized into sections. Albeit not being able to directly investigate these sections, I deciphered some of their titles, which led me to believe that these sections were organized in ascending order by technological progress.
The only section available, soberly named "Tier 0 - And So, It Begins", contained a unique quest, called "Your first night," which helped me understand how the questing system worked.
The questing interface could be split into two panels, one displaying the task at hand on the right while the other provided description and explanation on the focused quest.
This one asked me to gather 8 blocks of dirt to complete it. While not on the level of something you'd expect an isekai to throw at you, I wasn't well-settled enough to refuse anything that could have granted me a reward.
Although the night has fallen for quite some time already, I noticed that the backyard of the house I took as a shelter had some dirt lying around.
Hearing noises from all directions, mostly horrendous ones, I decided to step outside in the backyard, fortunately, protected by the little wooden fence. I wondered about the villagers' reactions for a moment before finally deciding that they most likely wouldn't care if I took some dirt here and there.
Digging up blocks was easier than I thought, and I was again left in awe at how this world worked. Considering my past condition as a feeble geek, it was truly astounding to see the blocks piling up in my inventory as soon as I set myself to dig them up.
Since getting that much dirt was proven to be easy, the task was completed in a breeze. According to this scenario's natural course, it would have been normal to reward me for the work I just did, but I wasn't expecting much.
Of course, this was my first task, and the reward should have been an incentive to make me work harder in the next quests, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this world wasn't pleased with me being wealthy and happy. My expectations weren't betrayed when I finally took hold of my reward, which consisted of a single item, seemingly a coin, stamped with a hammer on both sides.
"So in the end, this is all my work amounted for ?"
I couldn't precisely complain here, as the work I did was barely enough to justify any reward, but I was more wondering about what the item I just get amounted for in this world.
Considering I couldn't exactly do something with this coin, I decided to put it aside for now and focused again on the quest book, wondering what objectives awaited me. Fortunately, this wasn't a letdown as a path to new goals has been opened after completing the first quest.
It annoyed me a bit to see that I couldn't grasp how the book was working and couldn't predict how the quests were being handed to me, but it sure was nice to witness some progress after a day of light exploration.
Coincidentally, the sun would rise soon, bringing salvation to my restless wandering inside the shelter the villagers were kind enough to provide me.
Despite the various noises that monsters emitted during the night, the sunrise was accompanied by a relative peacefulness, occasionally troubled by some rumbling here and there. At a point, I considered it safe to go outside to ascertain the surroundings a bit more, which I haven't been able to the last night, giving that the light dimmed too shortly after my entrance through the village gate.
This marked the dawn of my second day in this world. More than the first quest I accomplished during the night, its title - "Your first night" - made me feel that I was but a mere toy playing in the hand of the world I was sent to.
However, even if the dawn of this new day arrived, I couldn't be too careless. Undoubtedly, their number had decreased, but monsters could still be sighted in the village's well
Since their fall, they have been struggling to be kept afloat, waiting to strike if given the opportunity. Curiously, these monsters, although they had fallen to their demise, were the only ones I could saw, which made me wonder how they survived while the rest of their kin died after the sun rose.
This strange sight for an earthling like myself should have been quite common in this place, as the village guards soon began to draw their bows to the unfortunates remnants of night dangers.
As their enemies slowly fell under the rain of arrows that came their way, I could only watch in awe at the outstanding teamwork they displayed in taking down the humanoids made of rotten flesh.
As a thought, surviving in this world won't be easy without displaying a show of force, and I would need to make proper weapons to do it.
However, as I wasn't sure how to pin my priorities on this second day, I decided to gather the more knowledge I could. Starting with this village and a little experiment.
More or less, I determined that this world took a lot of its mechanics from already established game mechanics that existed in my previous world. To prove my point, I was able to open my inventory the last day, and earlier this night, a quest interface was displayed in front of me.
It was only natural to think that I could do the same with other things, like a map. All it took me was to think about it, and I was soon able to enjoy a topographic view of the world I evolved in.
As I thought, the village I sheltered in couldn't be said to be significant even as flattery. Counting only three houses, the only redeeming feature was a small stronghold, positioned in the southwest corner, guarding the second gate, which was the exact opposite of the first one and linked to it by a gravel road.
This stronghold seemed strangely misplaced, built from many cobblestones and some wood logs that held the structure. It was undeniably the tallest structure built by man in this region and would provide a capable sightseeing spot if I didn't own my topographic map capability.
If estimated that if they had to hold a position during a siege, this village, and its stronghold would have been able to sustain for an extended period. However, it lacked a good food source, which left me wondering how the villagers were eating in this remote place.
Taking another look at the places I overlooked last night, I found a small cabin that was interestingly engulfed in many overgrown herbs and leaves, to the point of being difficult to enter inside. Partially to satisfy my own curiosity and pay back my debt to the people who sheltered me, I decided to clean a bit of the plant that prevented me from accessing the door.
After a bit of work, I could finally see the facade of this old but sturdy house, entirely made from wood, probably built when the village didn't have access to building stones.
The inside was more interesting than I first thought, with a wool carpet on the floor, a strange mechanism, and a chest containing old tools parts.
Workstations occupied the rest of the building I finally acknowledged to be a workshop, all of which I didn't know their purpose, but figured I'd learn how to use them later on.
Quickly turning back, I figured I'd examine other places in the village, envisioning to settle here if relations became good with the villagers.
At this moment, I figured that considering how to village wasn't really well maintained, with overgrown plants and trees everywhere, the villagers weren't very keen on doing an expansion, and as such, wouldn't probably want me to stay in the vicinity of their walls for too much.
If I were to settle somewhere, it would be better to find my own place, not too far from the village, to establish some good relations with these people, but not too close to be as independent as possible.
Considering the size of the forest the village was founded in, it was surprisingly easy to find the right spot. Near a small pond, the place was sufficiently flat to start building a tiny house without a need to clear many trees, albeit I needed to take down some logs to build my new cabin.
After some tree removal has been done in the vicinity, I started the build process, laying wooden planks I previously made using wood logs I gathered from the trees I cut. Albeit being easy to do, the whole process took quite some time, and before I knew it, the sun was already on the brink of disappearance behind the taller trees of the forest.
Far from being completed, my shelter wouldn't be able to serve its purpose should the nightfall upon me this instant. Worried about my predicament, I hastily finished laying the roof.
Admiring my completed work, I was left speechless by the demon engulfed in flames that stood before me and slowly approached my newly built wooden home.
Thinking that the day wasn't a period when monsters decided to attack, I lowered my guards during the building of my shelter and allowed this abomination to come so close combat was unavoidable.
Swiftly escaping the enemy grasp, I retreated to the lake behind me, but without enough success to grant me some rest, as the monster started to run after me.
As if all was lost, I launched an attack at the enemy using nothing but my bare fists. This proved itself to be quite a wrong decision, as the flames that protected the demon suddenly started to attack my fists, which left me no choice but to extinguish using the lake water. Fortunately, this move stunned the enemy, which forced it to be thrown into the lake.
This had a surprising effect, as the monster slowly started to take damage from being in the water as if its fire being extinguished slowly drained its health out of him.
It was more than what I needed. Only by being in the pond, the enemy movement was considerably slowed down, which enabled me to escape in my house, and barricaded myself using the last planks I had in place of a door.
This close to death encounter made me reconsider the danger of the world around me. And while I heard many noises from all directions outside of my dark cabin, the night was relatively peaceful for me as I locked myself in my new home, fearing what was to come in the following days...
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
nwmqpa
nwmqpa Here the second chapter!
I hope you'll be pleased to read the adventure of our character.
As always, comments are appreciated, as well as your thoughts about it so far!
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