The Holy Land Read online

  Items: None

  Allocatable stat points: 1

  Evolution points: 0

  Coins: 0

  (Normal men in their prime have a typical strength, agility, and intelligence of 10.)

  ---------------

  "Haha, it really is a gaming interface!" Wilhelm couldn't manage to hold his chuckle back after seeing the game-like interface. Everything that had happened until now felt surreal. Though, even if it were fantasy or a dream, he figured it would be better to enjoy it while it lasted.

  Unfortunately for him, because of his loud outburst, a few unwanted creatures had heard him. A strange growl resounded throughout the cave and entered into Wilhelm's ears. It sounded similar to the sound of an engine being revved up.

  While Wilhelm was still attempting to process what had happened, along with trying to discern where the source of the sound was located, eight eyes that radiated a deep crimson appeared in front of him. He took a few steps back and gulped audibly.

  The spider, no, the monster, showed itself, causing Wilhelm to open his mouth up wide… "a giant spider?" he shouted in shock whilst taking a few steps back.

  'That damn fairy played me, even with this excellent gaming system… there's no point If I don't survive the first day!?!?!' he thought angrily and turned around to dash away.

  'Even with all of my military experience, a 40-year-old man fighting hand to hand with a 4-meter tall spider? Yeah right,' he smiled gleefully and ran faster than he had ever before.

  Strange sounds rang out from behind Wilhelm as he ran, causing him to slightly glance backward. What he saw made his remaining eye nearly pop out of its socket, 'why is it so goddamned fast?'

  The spider was currently madly charging at Wilhelm, its eight legs moved swiftly and almost looked as though they were creating mirror images.

  'What the hell? Why would that bastard transport me into a colossal spider-infested cave?' Wilhelm lamented and inwardly cursed that androgynous fairy.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The sound of Wilhelm's feet hitting the ground echoed throughout the dark and hollow cave. From behind him, an enormous spider was gradually closing the distance between them.

  Wilhelm started to frantically look for a way out, but to his dismay, they were currently running down a narrow strip. He only had two choices, to continue running forward or fight the damnable creature to the death.

  'Why are the monsters in this world so powerful?' Wilhelm cursed his bad luck as the spider started to visibly salivate in the distance. It was as clear as day that Wilhelm was considered mere food.

  Suddenly, when almost all hope was lost, from Wilhelm's right, the wall collapsed and a wolf standing on its hind legs appeared. it possessed long, white fur, red eyes, and was at the very least, four meters tall.

  Small shards of debris blasted everywhere and scraped parts of Wilhelm's body. However, he momentarily ignored the pain and continued running as fast as he could. To him, it didn't matter how many injuries he sustained as long as he could escape.

  'Put my free stat point into agility!'

  [Agility has been upgraded to level 9]

  Immediately, a warm feeling circulated throughout Wilhelm's body and revitalized it.

  Furthermore, his strides began to noticeably move much quicker than before.

  'This strange system is the real deal!' Wilhelm thought excitedly and looked over his left shoulder.

  The two gigantic monsters were currently glaring at each other as if they were fighting for who had the right over Wilhelm. To them, food was of most importance.

  The wolf-like monster growled loudly and swiped down with its right claw, to which the spider responded by thrusting a few of its legs forward. Both terrors employed quick and lethal attacks, with little to no hesitation.

  As they both collided with each other, the sound of metal clashing rang in Wilhelm's ears, causing him to shiver in horror.

  'M-metal?'

  At that very moment, Wilhelm no longer felt like spectating the dangerous fight anymore and quickly dashed away. He had briefly thought about staying still and killing the injured monster that won the duel. However, their battle would probably attract more and more oversized demons.

  As such, he continued running down the seemingly endless cave for about five more minutes, until ultimately, he saw sunlight at the end of the tunnel. Wilhelm felt as if luck had once again shined down upon him. His dimmed eyes began to finally show a tad bit of luster.

  Then, in accordance with the newfound hope, his pace quickened as he used up the last bit of energy his body contained. His muscles which were under the effect of adrenaline started to tense up, and he could feel the painful aches all throughout his body.

  'Damn, I wish I had been transported into this world when I was still in my prime. My old bones can't even handle this meager amount of movement!'

  Wilhelm clenched his teeth and persisted on, finally making it out of the tunnel. The bright sun rays temporarily impaired his sight and caused him to squint his left eye. He even opted to raise the palms of his hands to shield himself.

  Whoosh! The strong wind fluttered his wavy and unkempt blonde hair.

  Feeling the cool breeze, Wilhelm couldn't help but slowly open his eye and scan his new surroundings in curiosity.

  At the sight, Wilhelm couldn't help but inhale a breath of cold air. He was surrounded by a thick forest. The luscious trees pierced through the clouds, and their trunks were extremely thick. Moreover, tall shrubberies, plants, and other wildlife appeared to be abundant in the vast forest.

  "Huge!" Wilhelm exclaimed. The trees, no, practically everything was ten times greater in size here, than it was on earth. Mountains, trees, bushes, rocks, and even the clouds were humongous.

  Overwhelmed by this sight, Wilhelm glanced behind him and peered back into the ominous cave. He instantaneously decided and gulped down a mouthful of saliva, choosing to unsteadily walk down toward the forest.

  'This forest doesn't seem too friendly, but anything is better than that damned cave' he thought to himself.

  Wilhelm walked beside one of the taller trees and couldn't help but raise his head to look up. The tree seemingly had no end in sight, as he couldn't see past clouds. It seemed to come straight out of something from a movie.

  "Sigh."

  Wilhelm breathed out a long sigh and fell to his bottom, using the tree trunk to support his slouched back — he was far too weary to continue any further.

  'Why did this only seem to happen to me? That fairy said something about being amongst the one percent of humanity. Perhaps, there are others with me?' Wilhelm mused to himself while making himself comfortable.

  After sitting down for some time, Wilhelm couldn't stop himself from raising his head and gazing at the cloud-filled sky. Complex emotions flashed through his eyes as his sight landed on the abnormal mass in the air, it was adjacent to the sun and looked similar to a red moon.

  "The government hasn't killed me and put me in some sort of highly realistic VR, right?" he whispered to himself in agitation.

  He felt a throbbing pain erupt from the small wounds acquired prior, when the huge wolf broke through the wall. It felt so realistic, that it was hard to hold his groans back.

  Wilhelm was no stranger when it came to modern technology. The world was being revolutionized by things such as A.I, games, and even weapons… hell, even the world's biggest library, the internet, was almost at every average person's fingertips. As long as you weren't lazy, you could practically learn anything you wanted.

  With technology being developed so fast, it wouldn't even come off as a surprise to Wilhelm if this were all some sort of joke that someone had played on him. Alas, the pain, smell, and surroundings looked far too natural for him to play it off as a silly joke.

  After a few minutes of rest, he tore off some pieces of fabric from the sleeves of his shirt and wrapped them around the scrapes on his legs. Afterword, he stood up and resolved himself to find some food. His grumbl
ing stomach was an inconvenience to his mental health.

  Wilhelm's bare feet flattened the 2-inch tall grass as he walked forward, warily observed the tall bushes and trees. He made sure that no giant spiders, nor wolves could sneak up on him. But, then, at the corner of his eye, from the left, he could see a large bush visibly shake.

  He took a few steps back and squinted his eyes with the utmost of vigilance. The bush wasn't shaking too discernibly, meaning the animal inside possibly wasn't of colossal size. In fact, he would even go as far as to say that it's likely not bigger than a household pet. Though, it was better to be more safe than sorry.

  Soon, the animal responsible for the ruckus popped its head out. It was a relatively medium-sized animal, possessing large round eyes, brown fur, a set of hefty ears. It looked exactly like an oversized and mutated rabbit from Earth.

  Wilhelm breathed out a sigh of relief and stealthily hid behind a nearby tree. He them plucked out a long and thin piece of bark while keeping an eye on the unsuspecting rabbit. He made sure that the sound conceived was minimal, lest his cover be blown.

  Wilhelm was no amateur when it came to hunting; he had done it many times in the past, whether it was humans or animals. The concept was simple—Kill the target before it can see, smell, or even hear you. This, however, was much easier said than done. Especially since Wilhelm wasn't in possession of a gun, or at the very least, a bow and arrow.

  As he was devising a plan to effectively kill the mutated rabbit, it suddenly raised its head in the air and sniffed a few times. It then looked towards Wilhelm's direction and revealed a set of sharp and pointed teeth. A set of teeth that no herbivore would ever require to survive.

  Wilhelm furrowed his brows and entered into a fighting stance, he used the thin piece of bark in his hands like a spear and put it in front of his body. Although he wasn't trained in the spear, all soldiers were taught to be good at improvising.

  Once the rabbit caught sight of Wilhelm, a strange gleam appeared in its eyes as it revealed even more of its teeth, as if it were smiling. It stared at Wilhelm for a few seconds before it stood up on its hind legs and started rushing at him. The thing moved at a quicker pace than any human could possibly move at. However, it was still easily traceable with the human eye.

  Wilhelm didn't flee, nor was he startled. His expression was remarkably calm as he pointed the end of the bark at the rabbit. He had faced many life and death situations in his time; this one was no different. Once he shifted the bark toward the rabbit, he patiently waited until the rabbit moved into his attack range.

  1 second…

  2 seconds…

  On the third second, the rabbit finally reached Wilhelm and vaulted at him. However, this was within his expectations. He lifted the ends of the bark and jabbed it inside of the opened mouth of the rabbit. In one precise movement, the bark traveled through the rabbit's throat and exited its buttocks.

  The rabbit, which was now skewered on Wilhelm's sorry excuse for a spear, writhed in pain before the life in its red eyes slowly dissipated. As it died, a strange light escaped from its backbone and levitated into the sky.

  Wilhelm reached out with his hands and tried to grab the strange ball of light. Nevertheless, his efforts were wasted as his hands just passed through the obscure light.

  While he was enthralled by the obscure glow, a few sounds interrupted his train of thought.

  [Carnivorous Raabite has been slain]

  [180 experience has been acquired]

  [you have leveled up and gained one free allocatable stat point]

  Wilhelm stared blankly at the strange popups that appeared in his line of sight, as if he were looking at a gaming interface. In the corner of his eyes, he could see the notifications.

  Wilhelm felt conflicted. None of this felt real until now. He had just been living a dull and peaceful life while sitting on his porch, until suddenly, an androgynous fairy transported him and others into some fantasy-like world with an RPG gaming interface.

  Although he prided himself on his adaptability, getting thrown into a new world and almost dying to a few oversized monsters was not healthy for his aging body. On the contrary, he felt as though he had aged ten years and became an old man at this point. A troubled smile appeared on his lips as he shook his head, discarding his unnecessary thoughts.

  He lifted his right leg and kicked the skewered rabbit off the thin piece of bark. If he was being perfectly honest, the bark was much sturdier than he had initially thought. According to common sense, the center section of bark would've snapped in half while being stabbed into the weird rabbit. But, who was he to complain?

  Wilhelm snatched the sharp point of the wood and rubbed it against the rabbit's neck. It wasn't very sharp, so he had to continuously slash at the rabbit, until eventually, it's head plopped off. He grabbed the corpse by its abnormally long legs and held it upside down, as to drain all of the blood.

  Once he was finished, Wilhelm heaved the now drained rabbit over his shoulder and ran away. He didn't want to stay in a location where the smell of blood wafted through the air, who knew what kind of monstrosities it would attract.

  He jogged eastward for about 45 minutes until he decided to take a break and catch his breath.

  'if only I were in my prime' he thought bitterly as he sat down. He then shifted his attention to the falling sun and frowned.

  "Tsk"

  He clicked his tongue in displeasure. If he cooked the rabbit now, it would attract bugs and other unwanted creatures. Not to mention, he didn't know what kind of monsters traveled through the night. He glanced upward and his sight lingered on a nearby branch.

  Wilhelm approached the thick trunk and started to climb it. Although it was too thick for him to wrap his entire body around, he was perfectly capable of using his firm grip to hold on to the pieces of bark. Like this, In just a matter of five minutes, he had made it to a broad branch which could hold him, and the rabbit.

  He grabbed on to the branch and hurled his heavy body on of top it. Once he made it on top, he rested his back against the trunk of the tree and used the rabbit corpse as a blanket. As disgusting as it seemed, Wilhelm was willing to do what was necessary to survive.

  Once he was in a relatively safe location, he finally had time to think about his future. He didn't know what the fairy hoped to gain from sending him here. However, he wasn't going to let himself die too easily. To do this, he needed a solid plan. As someone who had played a surplus amount of RPG's and MMO's when he was a kid, such as Morrowind, Daggerfall, Balders himself and Dungeons & Dragons, he was no rookie.

  There were generally four paths and many sub-classes based on these paths. They were respectively the warrior, rogue, mage, and archer. The warrior was strength-based. The rogue revolved around speed and agility, the mage relied on mana, intelligence, and spells, while the archer was a ranged agility class.

  Although he wasn't essentially choosing a class right now, he was determining where his free allocatable stat point should be placed. He felt that it was essential that he didn't waste a single stat point.

  Wilhelm stroked his chin in deep contemplation. Being a man who preferred being alone, he needed a class that could survive without the help of others. Unfortunately, according to his knowledge, all classes were capable of being useful by themselves. Thus, he decided to focus on what he was good at.

  He was very coordinated with his hands and held exceptional perceptive abilities, while his physical strength couldn't be considered optimal. Thinking to here, he inwardly crossed out the warrior option and focused on the other three.

  "Sigh, I'll just decide tomorrow," he whispered to himself and closed his eyes, drifting into a deep slumber. The sheer number of events that occurred today had exhausted his old bones.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The next morning, the bright rays of sunlight gleamed onto Wilhelm's face, causing his eyes to flutter and slowly open. As he woke up, the abnormal mass of weight that held his body down was becoming more an
d more apparent. In addition to the rancid smell, Wilhelm couldn't take it anymore.

  Soon, his eyes snapped open, and he pushed the rabbit carcass off of his body, and almost immediately after, the cold breeze assaulted Wilhelm; making him almost regret removing the morbid remains. It caused his hair to stand up and shiver within the chilling breeze.

  He scrunched up his nose and surveyed his surroundings. The morning sun was hung high in the air, illuminating the dense forest. The trees' branches fluttered in the wind alongside the stiff breeze, generating an almost mystical image.

  Wilhelm couldn't help but admire the beauty of the world; alas, nothing was perfect. The cost of this rich and vibrant world was a large number of deadly monsters that roamed the surface. When he was attempting to fall asleep, the sheet amount of howling, fighting, and screaming that he heard during the dead of night was indescribably tremendous. He felt as though he had traveled back in time to the prehistoric age, full of dinosaurs and mindless beasts.