The old man's hands that gripped the long and rough wooden handle of the pitchfork were visibly shaking as he surveyed the pit with a terrified look on his face, and although he did indeed ask who was there, he was praying to the mighty Gods above that this uncomfortable silence only filled with the buzzing of flies would continue.
However, the gods didn't smile upon him that day, and a voice soon echoed from underneath one of the bodies he had just thrown, "Help", the youthful voice yelled in both pain and difficulty
Once he heard that and noticed some movement from underneath one of the corpses, his blood ran cold, and when the corpse fell to the side revealing the back of a dark-haired youth, the pee he was holding onto almost escaped out of him.
Knowing that there was no running away from it, with a stuttered voice he began investigating, "W...w.whho is it?"
Initially, he was almost certain that there was an undead or something even more ominous lying around, but the voice soon continued much to his relief, "Help, I fell..."
Melvin struggled to stand up after removing the heavy corpse that had landed on his back. Slowly, he began to turn, trying not to startle the old man, whose fear was evident from his voice.
When the two of them finally exchanged glances, a strange silence ensued as the both of them waited for the other to take the initiative to navigate this scary situation they found themselves in.
Not being able to deal with the anxiety, Melvin was the first to break the silence, but before that, he thought, 'How should I address him?'
He knew that the situation was complicated right now, and he wanted to appear the most polite and gentle as he could. He was no longer the grown man who could speak to people normally, he was a teenager, and he was also in a different world so some cultural differences were to be expected.
Then with an apologetic expression, he explained "Elder, sorry for scaring you, I fell in the pit and lost consciousness."
The old man on the other hand didn't lower his pitchfork one bit, but at the same time he was questioning himself, 'This young man seems familiar a bit, I wonder where I know him from...'
With a faint sense of familiarity about the young man before him, his heart somewhat calmed as he inquired, "And what brought you here in the first place?"
Melvin sighed in relief after he noticed that the term, 'Elder', seemed acceptable, and then he awkwardly scratched his head and replied with a wry smile, "I was just strolling around and decided to take a look, but the smell was too strong and it caught me off guard, and... I just lost consciousness here."
The old man finally put down the pitchfork he was holding as he snarled at the youth in the pit below him, "Were you the one who piled the bodies here?"
Melvin hurriedly nodded as he explained, "I tried to use the bodies to help me climb up, but I fell and I hit my head against the head of a corpse and I fainted once again..."
Registering the shocking news, the old man asked flabbergasted, "Brat, how long have you been here?"
'Oh no,' Melvin thought, from what he could tell this man always frequented here as he seemed to be the one responsible for bringing the bodies, and so he had to be very careful about what to say next.
But judging from the time he came today he decided to play it safe and answer according to that pattern, "I came here yesterday at the first signs of dusk, and I woke up at night when I tried to climb back once again, but unfortunately, after I fell I remained asleep until I was hit a while ago by the corpse you threw, elder."
When he said that his face was already grimacing in pain as he tried to soothe his aching lower back pain.
The old man started shaking his head in disappointment and clicking his tongue in annoyance as he got closer, and closer to the edge of the pit, and when he reached his destination, he lowered his pitchfork saying, "Grab this, I'll help you climb up."
When Melvin heard that, an incredulous expression appeared on his face, the old man was both short and thin, and he had some serious doubts about the elder's ability to help him.
However, he didn't want to embarrass him as he already seemed way too annoyed for being horrified by him, and he obliged.
Taking some wobbly steps atop the unsteady corpses, he finally reached the pitchfork and grabbed the metal tines with a strong grip.
The sight he was expecting of the old man struggling to carry him on the other hand didn't happen quite yet, but he only felt his body swiftly approaching the walls of the pit before he used his legs to keep a safe distance, and in but a second or two, his left leg had already the top of the pit and landed beside the old man.
He couldn't help but marvel at the seemingly thin old man's strength after he put the other leg on the solid ground for the first time in this world, as he thought in joy, 'What the old man just did was impossible.'
But of course, he understood that it had something to do with the stats he saw before, and more especially, strength.
He only had 7, and he was sure that the old man must have way more than him, more than a dozen he guessed.
"Brat, you reek!" The old man pinched his nose once Melvin stood beside him.
Looking at the elder who only reached his chest in terms of height, Melvin gratefully uttered, "Thank you for the help elder."
The old man hurriedly waved his hand saying, "You're lucky boy, if it was those guards that came here you would have been fined. And were you so bored that you decided to visit the pit of the irredeemable as a recreational activity?"
Hearing what the old man had just said, Melvin quickly noted all of the important information, and though he wanted to just ask about every single thing in absolute detail he knew that it'd be a bad idea after the peculiar way they encountered one another.
Moreover, he also remembered how the old man had previously mentioned something about dark mages with hatred, and so coupled with the other word guards, it didn't take him long to realize he didn't want to be mistaken for one.
He quickly thought about all of that as he replied, "It is indeed my good fortune to be helped by the elder. By the way, has the ceremony started?"
In an attempt to change the subject he quickly diverted the former's attention to something he heard about earlier as well.
When the old man heard the word ceremony, he quickly replied excitedly, "Oh yes, yes, soon."
With that, he seemed to be woken up from his reverie and approached the wooden cart that was filled with dead bodies, and started carrying them one by one and throwing them into what he called the pit of the irredeemable.
Naturally, Melvin could more or less discern from the name that this was the place they threw in criminals.
'To think, this guy was thrown here...' The wider this world became in his view, the more complicated his situation seemed to become.
As he watched the old man busy finishing his job, he also started paying attention to the corpse's clothes because he wanted some new clothes. Unfortunately, all of their clothes seemed to be uniform, and if his guess was correct then all of them were prisoners.
When the old man threw the last body in the pit with a thud, Melvin turned to him and asked, "Elder, do you maybe have some extra pieces of clothing? My clothes are filled with blood from all of the corpses..."
"Tough luck, brat. I've got nothing." Saying that the old man ruthlessly went into the passenger seat of the cart and offered without looking back, "If you want a ride to the city, hop in the back. But don't even think about coming near me with that smell boy."
Melvin was quick to thank the old man before he sat on the edge of the wooden cart, and before long the bear ox monster started walking on a pathway amid the green grass that wound through some trees.
The old man seemed accustomed to this route, and he guided the bear ox with ease, his movements steady and confident, and with a bump the path suddenly transitioned into a smoothly paved road where the rhythmic sounds of the wooden wheels shined once again.
Melvin's body rocked from side to side on top of the cart which only aggravated his aching lower back pain, but the fact that he was finally leaving that pit of despair behind brought him immense relief that the pain seemed inconsequential compared to it.
'How technologically unadvanced is this world is the question?' He noticed how the cart's uneven movement was because one of the wooden wheels wasn't as perfect as the other which made him feel puzzled.
When the being said advanced world, for some reason his mind unconsciously went to technology and assumed some advancement in that category.
However, when he remembered his first and only skill and its capability, then it made some sense for this world to be advanced and evolve in a different direction than his previous one.
As he relished in the beautiful refreshing breeze, he felt happy for deciding to take the risk and ask the old man for help, otherwise, he would have been still in the pit piling up bodies on top of one another and doing all of this trek with his two legs, which would have taken him a long while.
When his mind thought of the concept of time, his previously happy mood immediately came crashing down as his smile stiffened.
Opening the interface he focused his eyes on the question marks once again.
[???: Through an unknown power, the poison inside your body stopped running. The protective effect is temporary and will dissipate in 1 hour and 28 minutes.]
Looking at the menu he had been dreading this whole time, he felt his heart gripped by something.
The number of obstacles that stood in his way to reach a certain standing to be able to heal himself seemed unsurmountable.
Suddenly, Melvin's body lurched forward, prompting his hands to instinctively grasp the cart's edge and side for support. As he stabilized himself, he quickly turned back to investigate the cause of the sudden change.
He then sensed that the cart was gradually inclining, indicating their ascent up a hill. Surprised by this development, Melvin turned his gaze toward the old man, ready to inquire about it. However, what he saw beyond the old man left him utterly shocked.
Eyes ahead, Melvin witnessed a vast city that sprawled out before him, its boundaries seemingly endless, enclosed by towering walls that reached up to the sky. From his elevated position on the hill, he could observe clusters of stone houses with chimneys within the city's confines. On the western side of the city, a vast ocean stretched out beyond the horizon, its shimmering blue expanse extending endlessly.
The old man's hands that gripped the long and rough wooden handle of the pitchfork were visibly shaking as he surveyed the pit with a terrified look on his face, and although he did indeed ask who was there, he was praying to the mighty Gods above that this uncomfortable silence only filled with the buzzing of flies would continue.
However, the gods didn't smile upon him that day, and a voice soon echoed from underneath one of the bodies he had just thrown, "Help", the youthful voice yelled in both pain and difficulty
Once he heard that and noticed some movement from underneath one of the corpses, his blood ran cold, and when the corpse fell to the side revealing the back of a dark-haired youth, the pee he was holding onto almost escaped out of him.
Knowing that there was no running away from it, with a stuttered voice he began investigating, "W...w.whho is it?"
Initially, he was almost certain that there was an undead or something even more ominous lying around, but the voice soon continued much to his relief, "Help, I fell..."
Melvin struggled to stand up after removing the heavy corpse that had landed on his back. Slowly, he began to turn, trying not to startle the old man, whose fear was evident from his voice.
When the two of them finally exchanged glances, a strange silence ensued as the both of them waited for the other to take the initiative to navigate this scary situation they found themselves in.
Not being able to deal with the anxiety, Melvin was the first to break the silence, but before that, he thought, 'How should I address him?'
He knew that the situation was complicated right now, and he wanted to appear the most polite and gentle as he could. He was no longer the grown man who could speak to people normally, he was a teenager, and he was also in a different world so some cultural differences were to be expected.
Then with an apologetic expression, he explained "Elder, sorry for scaring you, I fell in the pit and lost consciousness."
The old man on the other hand didn't lower his pitchfork one bit, but at the same time he was questioning himself, 'This young man seems familiar a bit, I wonder where I know him from...'
With a faint sense of familiarity about the young man before him, his heart somewhat calmed as he inquired, "And what brought you here in the first place?"
Melvin sighed in relief after he noticed that the term, 'Elder', seemed acceptable, and then he awkwardly scratched his head and replied with a wry smile, "I was just strolling around and decided to take a look, but the smell was too strong and it caught me off guard, and... I just lost consciousness here."
The old man finally put down the pitchfork he was holding as he snarled at the youth in the pit below him, "Were you the one who piled the bodies here?"
Melvin hurriedly nodded as he explained, "I tried to use the bodies to help me climb up, but I fell and I hit my head against the head of a corpse and I fainted once again..."
Registering the shocking news, the old man asked flabbergasted, "Brat, how long have you been here?"
'Oh no,' Melvin thought, from what he could tell this man always frequented here as he seemed to be the one responsible for bringing the bodies, and so he had to be very careful about what to say next.
But judging from the time he came today he decided to play it safe and answer according to that pattern, "I came here yesterday at the first signs of dusk, and I woke up at night when I tried to climb back once again, but unfortunately, after I fell I remained asleep until I was hit a while ago by the corpse you threw, elder."
When he said that his face was already grimacing in pain as he tried to soothe his aching lower back pain.
The old man started shaking his head in disappointment and clicking his tongue in annoyance as he got closer, and closer to the edge of the pit, and when he reached his destination, he lowered his pitchfork saying, "Grab this, I'll help you climb up."
When Melvin heard that, an incredulous expression appeared on his face, the old man was both short and thin, and he had some serious doubts about the elder's ability to help him.
However, he didn't want to embarrass him as he already seemed way too annoyed for being horrified by him, and he obliged.
Taking some wobbly steps atop the unsteady corpses, he finally reached the pitchfork and grabbed the metal tines with a strong grip.
The sight he was expecting of the old man struggling to carry him on the other hand didn't happen quite yet, but he only felt his body swiftly approaching the walls of the pit before he used his legs to keep a safe distance, and in but a second or two, his left leg had already the top of the pit and landed beside the old man.
He couldn't help but marvel at the seemingly thin old man's strength after he put the other leg on the solid ground for the first time in this world, as he thought in joy, 'What the old man just did was impossible.'
But of course, he understood that it had something to do with the stats he saw before, and more especially, strength.
He only had 7, and he was sure that the old man must have way more than him, more than a dozen he guessed.
"Brat, you reek!" The old man pinched his nose once Melvin stood beside him.
Looking at the elder who only reached his chest in terms of height, Melvin gratefully uttered, "Thank you for the help elder."
The old man hurriedly waved his hand saying, "You're lucky boy, if it was those guards that came here you would have been fined. And were you so bored that you decided to visit the pit of the irredeemable as a recreational activity?"
Hearing what the old man had just said, Melvin quickly noted all of the important information, and though he wanted to just ask about every single thing in absolute detail he knew that it'd be a bad idea after the peculiar way they encountered one another.
Moreover, he also remembered how the old man had previously mentioned something about dark mages with hatred, and so coupled with the other word guards, it didn't take him long to realize he didn't want to be mistaken for one.
He quickly thought about all of that as he replied, "It is indeed my good fortune to be helped by the elder. By the way, has the ceremony started?"
In an attempt to change the subject he quickly diverted the former's attention to something he heard about earlier as well.
When the old man heard the word ceremony, he quickly replied excitedly, "Oh yes, yes, soon."
With that, he seemed to be woken up from his reverie and approached the wooden cart that was filled with dead bodies, and started carrying them one by one and throwing them into what he called the pit of the irredeemable.
Naturally, Melvin could more or less discern from the name that this was the place they threw in criminals.
'To think, this guy was thrown here...' The wider this world became in his view, the more complicated his situation seemed to become.
As he watched the old man busy finishing his job, he also started paying attention to the corpse's clothes because he wanted some new clothes. Unfortunately, all of their clothes seemed to be uniform, and if his guess was correct then all of them were prisoners.
When the old man threw the last body in the pit with a thud, Melvin turned to him and asked, "Elder, do you maybe have some extra pieces of clothing? My clothes are filled with blood from all of the corpses..."
"Tough luck, brat. I've got nothing." Saying that the old man ruthlessly went into the passenger seat of the cart and offered without looking back, "If you want a ride to the city, hop in the back. But don't even think about coming near me with that smell boy."
Melvin was quick to thank the old man before he sat on the edge of the wooden cart, and before long the bear ox monster started walking on a pathway amid the green grass that wound through some trees.
The old man seemed accustomed to this route, and he guided the bear ox with ease, his movements steady and confident, and with a bump the path suddenly transitioned into a smoothly paved road where the rhythmic sounds of the wooden wheels shined once again.
Melvin's body rocked from side to side on top of the cart which only aggravated his aching lower back pain, but the fact that he was finally leaving that pit of despair behind brought him immense relief that the pain seemed inconsequential compared to it.
'How technologically unadvanced is this world is the question?' He noticed how the cart's uneven movement was because one of the wooden wheels wasn't as perfect as the other which made him feel puzzled.
When the being said advanced world, for some reason his mind unconsciously went to technology and assumed some advancement in that category.
However, when he remembered his first and only skill and its capability, then it made some sense for this world to be advanced and evolve in a different direction than his previous one.
As he relished in the beautiful refreshing breeze, he felt happy for deciding to take the risk and ask the old man for help, otherwise, he would have been still in the pit piling up bodies on top of one another and doing all of this trek with his two legs, which would have taken him a long while.
When his mind thought of the concept of time, his previously happy mood immediately came crashing down as his smile stiffened.
Opening the interface he focused his eyes on the question marks once again.
[???: Through an unknown power, the poison inside your body stopped running. The protective effect is temporary and will dissipate in 1 hour and 28 minutes.]
Looking at the menu he had been dreading this whole time, he felt his heart gripped by something.
The number of obstacles that stood in his way to reach a certain standing to be able to heal himself seemed unsurmountable.
Suddenly, Melvin's body lurched forward, prompting his hands to instinctively grasp the cart's edge and side for support. As he stabilized himself, he quickly turned back to investigate the cause of the sudden change.
He then sensed that the cart was gradually inclining, indicating their ascent up a hill. Surprised by this development, Melvin turned his gaze toward the old man, ready to inquire about it. However, what he saw beyond the old man left him utterly shocked.
Eyes ahead, Melvin witnessed a vast city that sprawled out before him, its boundaries seemingly endless, enclosed by towering walls that reached up to the sky. From his elevated position on the hill, he could observe clusters of stone houses with chimneys within the city's confines. On the western side of the city, a vast ocean stretched out beyond the horizon, its shimmering blue expanse extending endlessly.
