That was weird. A guy attacks me, the goddess herself shows up and now look where I am, In the middle of a weird forest! It wasn’t like the forest I killed all those slimes in. Instead of the lush green scenery this was the exact opposite. The sky was dark, it looked like it was night time but the area was too bright for it to be. It’s almost as if the grey clouds just sucked the color out of the light itself.

The trees had no leaves, they looked rotten and drooped over the lifeless dirt.

This was a scary looking place… I don’t see anyone around either.

“Skier!”

Huh? Text appeared. It said it was from Chop. Oh!

“Chop! Hello? Are you there?” I called out. No reply.

How rude can you be to talk to me and then not even answer?

“Can you read this? It says you’re not in a cutscene anymore.”

A cutscene? Was that what that was? Probably why I couldn’t move my body during it.

“...You probably don’t know how to whisper to someone do you?”

Yes! I nodded.

“Even though I can’t see you at all I bet you just nodded, didn’t you? Just go through your menus, hit chat and switch to whisper, it should auto connect with me.”

I did just as he said.

“Hello? Testing one two threeee? I am a beautiful bee!”

“Are you okay in the head man?” Chop asked me. Hurray worked!

“As okay as I can be! Hiya Chop! Where’d you go?” I asked. I decided to start walking down a path I saw. Maybe It’ll lead me outta here.

“More like where did you go? You shouldn’t have triggered a cutscene at the gates at your level.”

“Oh it was so weird! You diss-apired. Dis-serpared? You went somewhere! Leaving me all alone, I walked through the castle when I entered the throne room and this guy in crazy black armor attacked me! I totally was winning when the Goddess showed up and sent me away somewhere. I’m now in some weird dark forest place.”

“...What? You met Kuro already? Dude, that’s like halfway through the story quests. You never left Tenesys right?”

“Yep!”

“Then how did it activate? You need to be far into the game and have an Apotheosis Core on top of that.”

“I have one of those! Well I used to, I found one for Old Man Stan then some jerk stole it but I beat him up and took it back! Then I sold it for four thousand gold!”

“You undersold that, that’s worth waaay more. That’s besides the point though, I think I know what happened. You never finished the quest of meeting the King, that set a cutscene flag for you when you entered the castle. I figured that much and was waiting for you to exit. The weird part is you jumping around in the storyline. I think you glitched the game out, you probably raised some flag when you obtained that Core and that combined with the castle flag sent you ahead of the story. Crap, now that I think about it that town I took you was the one you were supposed to visit for a near guaranteed Apotheosis Core. That probably also set a flag. ”

“Are you saying I time traveled? Awesome!”

“...Yes. You time traveled. Good job, Hououin Kyouma”

“YOU’VE SEEN THAT ANIME?”

“Oh god. Listen, you’re at the heart of a pretty tough area for you. You’ll probably gonna get killed if you face anything. See if you make it to the town nearby and I’ll meet you there.”

“Can’t I just leave and come back to you?”

“Good luck with that. Everything is twice your level, not only that but the place is built as a maze. You’ll just die and respawn in Sleepy Haven.”

“What’s a Sleepy Haven?”

“It’s the town I mentioned. Also-”

Chop went on but I stopped reading there. I heard a weird sound. A deep rumble that shook the surrounding area. Huh? I took a look around but saw nothing.

“-And that’s why the Sleepy Haven Sauna is vastly superior to the Shower Town’s Hotspring.”

“Huh? That’s cool I guess? Hey Sensei… there’s a weird rumble coming from somewhere.”

“Seriously? Dude run. Don’t even reply back to me just start running!”

Why should I run? Isn’t he a bit too worried?

A massive crashed came from behind me. I turned around to see a tree had fallen on the path, behind was the source emerging from the shadows. It was a huge, as big as the tree it knocked over. It stood on two legs hunched over, it’s teeth leaking saliva as it stared at me. It kinda looked like a deformed T-rex. It had spines on it’s back too, which started to vibrate as some sort of power activated.

It opened its mouth and a bright light shined within. I was barely able to duck in time as a beam of light shot out of its mouth flying right over my head.

Okay. Time to run! I hightailed it out of there.

I ran but it followed right after me. It’s jaws almost clamping into me as it got close. Not cool!

“GO AWAY!”

“Wow, I see how it is. My protégé doesn’t need help from me anymore.”

“NOT YOU I MEAN THIS MONSTER HOLD ON-”

I switched the chats back to public.

“GO AWAY!” I shouted again.

It didn’t say anything as it still ran after me. I hopped and jumped over various rocks and fallen trees as it came after me. None of them stopped it as it simply smash right pass them all. Why me!

“Stone toss!” I shouted, throwing a rock at it. It had no effect, it’s HP bar didn’t lower at all. Well that was my weakest attack…

I heard a sound coming from it behind me. Next thing I knew I’m blasted in the back with a laser from it’s mouth. My HP was sent to almost nothing as I was blasted forward from it’s attack.

On the bright side getting hit like that knocked me quite away from it! Haha! Come and get me now that I’m…

Falling off a cliff.

Crap.

I landed with a splat.

You died! 10% of EXP lost. Will revive in the nearest town shortly…

Title earned! The One Who Thought He Could Fly, for attempting to fly in vain! 5+ to DEX and WILL!

Aw man.