He felt sticky and uncomfortable all over. It feels like he was submerged into a warm, greasy oil.

I don't like this. Where am I? The dense liquid around him feels warm, yet suffocating.

The urge to get out and have his skin breathe increased every second. He tried to open his eyes, but something was firmly stuck on his eyelids, stopping him from opening both of his eyes. He put his hands where the thing was.

A hard object came touched his skin with hard edges all around it. A seed shaped thing that fits his face like a glove, sucking on his entire face.

A mask? He tugged the rough edge. It barely moved.

A scenario from a horror movie came to him. A foreboding sense of panic came through him.

His heart started racing.

He yanked the thing it hard. It won't let go. It tightened more on his skin instead.

He tried to flail his hands all around him; trying to find anything to remove the thing out of his face.

His frantic movements against the density of the water made him tired. He realized the more he struggled, the denser the water weighed. His body became heavier and tired.

He ignored his aching muscles and pushed himself more.

At last, he touched something- smooth and soft with slime-like texture that spans around him.

A wall? He thought, felt a sliver of hope within him.

He scratched it with his nails and felt it tear little. He poked the hole and tried to make the tear larger. The liquid around him started to move into the hole's direction.

The dense liquid started carrying his body towards it. He didn't fight it.

His body felt a rush of sudden free fall and hit the ground. His sticky body slithered throughout a hard surface like a snake.

He felt relieved and happy that he could now move without the heavy feeling of water around him.

The mask that was attached to his face started loosened under his jaw. He pulled the thing and freed his mouth.

He kept pulling the mask until he felt something was being pulled inside his nose.

“Oh sh*t.” It dawned to him. His nose hairs were attached to whatever the blasted thing was. He made a few deep shaky breaths.

He ripped the mask hard.

“AHHHHH!” The sharp stinging made his hands clenched and beat the hard floor. His shout echoed around him.

His eyes watered while he breathe through his mouth. The slow dripping of his blood come out of his nose and the stinging pain won't go away.

“I’m gonna kill whoever the sick f*ck braided my nose to that f*cking thing!” He screamed while wiping the blood with the back of his hand.

He angrily tried to find the Mask, but everything around him was hazy.

He blinked his eyes multiple times to adjust against the bluish surroundings.

“PIIIIIIING~!”

“What?” He squinted his eyes to see what’s in front of him.

It’s bluish glowing wall? He blinked a couple more times as his vision became more apparent.

A blue floating LCD screen was in front of him.

A monitor?

He raised his right hand to touch it. His hand went through it instead. He repeated this a couple of times before he accepted the fact that he can’t touch it.

“A hologram, maybe?” he was unsure of what’s in front of him. His eyes schemed through the words on the screen:

Welcome, Mark Cramus to your New World!

Quest: Find your way out of the Old Summoning Pit.

Rewards: (1) World Map

| Quest | Status | Items | Map (Inaccessible) | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

Now this is getting weird. Summoning Pit? One Answer?

Am I in some kind of experiment? He thought. Someone must have snuck him out of the hospital?... but that would not be possible. His mother was there with him in the hospital room and no one else could've gone through the guards with him in tow.

His mother.

The last thing that he could remember was thanking his mother before going to sleep in the hospital bed. He had been feeling dizzy the last couple of days and went to the hospital to see a doctor. If he remembers it correctly, the lab results will be available in an hour and he decided to sleep while waiting.

He looked at the screen again. Wait. Welcome to your new…. World?

There’s a sudden chill run through his spine.

“Am I dead?” His mind was in a muddle. No, he can’t be. He was sure as hell that he was alive. His throbbing nostrils would attest to that.

He stared at the screen. He hated to think about it but he remembered something from the novels he read awhile back.

It’s unthinkable, yet entirely possible.

“Game Menu. Check. Unknown Place. Check. Quest. Check. Rewards. Check.” He thought excitingly. “Isekai?”

It must be.

He remembered a very important element from the Isekai Novels he read before; a truck.

“But if this is Isekai, I should’ve been hit by a Truck-kun though.” He declared to no one in particular, with a strong feeling of disappointment “Still, it has Gaming factors. Weird.”

Mark knew nothing's going to happen by just plain guessing. He must look around and investigate instead.

Maybe, someone was playing a prank on him.

Prank or not. He needed to get out here immediately. To go back and to resume his work. His boss will increase his workload the more he takes a leave of absence. With renewed determination, he stood up and looked around to check where he is.

The glowing yellowish liquid around him caught his attention.

“Chemicals?” There’s only one thing that comes on his mind. “Please don’t tell me …I’m in a PowerPop Girl Game? Did Professor XXX made me?”

He doesn’t want to do it. But, he needed to make sure.

With his right hand stretched unto the heavens and his left arms on a bent position, he hopped a little to begin to fly. When there was nothing happening, he bowed his head deeply.

“If there is someone watching me, please turn off your monitors. Thank you!” He shouted.

“Me and my one brain cell.” He whispered in his face redden in embarrassment. Something caught his attention. Beside the floating monitor, a disfigured thing was near his right foot attached to a long branch was on the floor. “The mask!”

The floating monitor distracted him on getting the mask.

Wherever he tried to look, the floating monitor is blocking a part of his view. It's like it's fixed in front of him.

“Now how do I get this thing out of my sight?” He asked himself. He read the screen message again. “Minimize?”

The rectangular floating monitor spiraled into bluish sphere with a size of his fist. It illuminated the whole place.

“Cool.” He stared at it in amazement. “Now, it’s a floating… fireball.. uhh.. blueball?... That’s sounds horrible. Fireball, it is.”

Feeling satisfied with orb, he finally look at the place where he was now.

He was struck in awe by the places’ sheer magnificence. The mossy high walls were dilapidated, but the beauty still remained. The statues are surrounding him looked like warriors. Different from the museums he had seen before. The statues were heavily armored with large shields and overly sized sword. The details of the armor were magnificent; the coated gold swords glistened against the cool marbles of the statues. The other statues had gems of different kinds on its bodies.

It took some of his will power to look away from the statues. Near him was a gigantic old tree. He couldn't seem to identify the type of tree. The leaves had burnt orange color with decaying color of browns on the edges. On one of its large trunks was a deep carving in as big as a person. One of it has yellowish liquid.

There must be where I came from. He thought.

He walked to the trunk. The mask was connected to the deep carved hole on the trunk with the yellowish liquid. He looked at the other empty trunks.

“Weird. It’s like I’ve been hatched or something.” His voice full of wonder. "Am I some type of insect or something?"

He remembered a place stated in the Monitor. He can’t remember how to pop the monitor again. “Menu?” Nothing happened. “Save Point?” Still, nothing happened. “Maximize?”

The Screen has reappeared.

“It’s somewhere here. There..Old Summoning Pit.” He murmured. “Summon? Someone summoned me here, but who?” He looked around finding someone else.

"Hello!" He shouted. Only the echoes of his voice was greeted him back.

Nobody was here. So who summoned me? He wondered. He looked for an exit, but it seems that the place he was in was just a big dome. He looked at the tree again. How did this survived without any sunlight?

“Splat!”

He jolted when something fell near him. He looked the ground where the object lays. It looks like an apple.

He picked up the fruit.

What a waste. He thought and took a bite. He looked back on the floating screen to look for more clues.

“PIIIIING~”

The Blessings of the Ancient World Tree Acquired.

You can now understand any language from this world.

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map (Unaccessible) | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

He was reading the monitor when he heard whispering sounds.

“Touch me…. Touch me……Touch me….”

“Uhhhh.” He slowly looked around for the whispering sound, but there was no one around him. “Whoever you are: I hope you know you’re creepy.”

“Alas…I’m delighted… you heard me.” The whisperer sounded very happy.

“Yeah. But the feeling’s not mutual though.” He replied. He wanted to get out as soon as possible. He had no weapons to defend himself.

Hell, he doesn’t even have clothes right now. He thought in panic. He looked around for a weapon to use.

“I’m deeply disheartened to hear that. If you touch me-“

A wave of absolute disgust came through him.

“Man. I don’t wanna do that okay? You sound like a guy. I don’t swing that way.”

“You are quite mistaken. I am no man, but a tree.” The whisperer replied with a hint of disappointment.

“A tree.” He looked behind him. “You’re this tree?” He gestured in front of him. “Still, no way that I'm going to touch you."

He relaxed his muscles on the non-existent threat he felt a while ago.

“Hear me first …Summoned One …” The whispers deepened. “If you touch me…my bark, you will get inside the room where the great treasures of the Great Zoartrian Kingdom lie.”

“Why are you telling me this?” He replied, his body guarded to any surprised attack.

There’s gotta be a catch to this, he thought. He admits that he had his fair share of idiocy in the past, but he wasn’t born yesterday.

“I am the Zoatian’s Ancient Protector. Tasked on ensuring the Peace of these Lands…Someone summoned from this pit is eligible to have the treasures… Afterall, someone has to be armed to venture out in the open world to save the Kingdom.”

“Save a Kingdom?” he asked. “Sorry, my Quest is only to get out here. So, if you will excuse me, I have to be on my way.”

He started walking towards the opposite direction of the tree.

“I am your summoner. If the summoned o -”

He stopped on his tracks.

“You summoned me?” He said cutting the Ancient tree’s sentence and smiled walking back to the Old Tree. “Why didn’t you say so? Now summon me back to Earth.”

“Any summoned creature was gotten from the Hymn of the Lost Souls… A living creature can’t be transported with a living body.”

“You mean… I died?” He whispered.

“In simplest of words.. Yes.. I am afraid you are dead...in your previous World, Summoned One.”

I am dead. I am dead. The thoughts kept on circling on his mind, but he still didn’t want to accept the fact. There’s a lot of things left to do back on earth. He can’t just die yet.

“If you don’t save the Zoarts in this world, I will cease to exist. Without the life coming from me, you will also cease to exist.”

He heard a creak and the leaves fell down. Some sticked to his skin making him itch.

“Truthfully, Summoned One…I don’t have that energies left to redo the spell. Rather than summoning a soul creature again.. Let’s have a bargain…” The tree's whispering sound deepened as he speaks.

He didn’t reply. His thoughts were still with the things he left on Earth.

“If you heed my wish and successfully done it. I will transport your soul back to your Old World… but I can only summon your soul back to your younger body.”

That caught his attention.

Younger body? He thought about it; If he will be transported to his younger body...it means that he would know when he will die and can do the things that he needed to do before his death.

I promised father to take care of mother. I will go through it even in this current afterlife. On that thought, I can save father before the accident. If the sickness will take me or not, I will be in peace leaving them with one another. He decided. Though, there was one problem if will be transported to his younger body.

“Will I have my memories with me when you transport my soul back?” he asked the tree, he crossed his arms.

“Anything you knew; it will be transported with you.”

He hesitated for a while, before answering.

It's a good bargain. But is this the right thing to do?

He looked around, still no doors and windows at sight. He made his decision. He need to get away from here.

“You’ve given me no choice. I accept.”

“PIIIIING~”

Hidden Quest Acquired: Bend the knee

Quest: (1) Save the remaining Citizens of the Zoartian Kingdom

Preliminary Rewards: (1) Race set to Zoart (2) Ancient Magic Affinity (3) Ancient Zoartian Treasure Room

Ultimate Reward: Transportation of Soul

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map (Unaccessible) | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

He sighed upon reading the Quest.

What would have happened if I didn't eat that apple? His last thought while walking on his way to the Ancient Tree.