Long-Term Stay Possible

The moment I fully cleared the dimensional gate, the air hit me first.

I stopped dead where I stood.

Wind blew.

It smelled like the edge of a forest.

Earth. Grass. Tree bark warmed through by the sun. Somewhere an insect was buzzing, and farther off a bird called out short and sharp.

The breeze skimmed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠across the skin of my arms where my long sleeves ended, and over my legs beneath the pants.

It didn't hurt. It wasn't cold, didn't cut, didn't crush.

I pressed the tip of my shoe into the ground once.

Dirt. Real dirt.

A few dry blades of grass lay over it, mixed with a scatter of crushed pebbles. Not glass. Not flesh. Not some weird metal.

Just ordinary earth under the sole of a sneaker.

I drew a slow breath.

My lungs were fine. My ears weren't ringing. My eyes didn't ache. When I lifted my head, the sky wasn't some black curved surface.

Blue sky. Clouds drifting slow. Sunlight.

That was all of it. Actually all of it.

In that moment, a calm blue window rose into the center of my vision.

I stared at those lines for a long time.

Long-term stay possibility.

The words stuck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in my eyes in a way that felt almost wrong.

Long-term stay.

Not "hold out for a few seconds."

Not "bounce the second you go in."

Not "bail before you die."

It meant I might actually be able to stay here for a while.

"...For real? Is this real?"

The words came out almost on reflex.

The window paused a beat, then floated the next line.

That single sentence hit with a weird, solid sense of reality.

Safely.

Yeah. That word was right.

I felt my heart kick hard once in my chest.

And below that—

I looked at the screen twice.

Heavenly Mana Body?

My chest jumped.

Am I... about to start using Heavenly Demon martial arts? Holy shit, am I the Heavenly Demon? Is this finally my payout? After enduring every fucked-up world, enduring and enduring and enduring... am I finally collecting legal fees plus emotional damages?!

As if the Archive had already predicted that exact delusion, it helpfully floated another line.

"Ah..."

I closed my eyes, then opened them again.

"Ha. Of course."

It wasn't so much that I was disappointed the direction was wrong—more that I felt like a complete idiot for hoping for that first.

Still, I didn't feel bad.

Heavenly Mana Body.

The name was overblown, but it was still the first trait I'd gained in this world.

Not a message telling me to run, the way Human Ranch or the Flesh-Script Corridor had. Here, it meant my body had actually received something.

I looked around again.

The forest was denser than it first seemed.

Ahead there was a gap that might generously be called a path, but the moment I turned my eyes even a little to the side, branches and brush tangled into each other like they were shoving for space.

The first thought that hit me was how badly I would have been scratched up if I'd still been in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.

The next was how lucky I was to have come through in long clothes and sneakers.

A second ago the relief of I can survive this had come first. Right on its heels came something else.

Fuck. It's a forest.

I looked back.

The dimensional gate was still open.

A rectangular crack floating in the middle of this perfectly normal forest scenery—which somehow made it feel even more alien.

Looking at it, I reached a very simple conclusion.

This is it.

At least for a while.

If I'd found one world that was normal, that allowed long-term stays, that had people living in it and a civilization that actually ran—then I was supposed to see that world through first.

There was no reason to leave this place and go look at another insane dimension.

Human Ranch. Glass Beach. Flesh-Script Corridor. Atlantis. Black Space Breeding Farm.

Leaving a functional world to open another door wouldn't be curiosity. It would be a suicide urge.

I muttered under my breath.

"That's enough..."

Not for anyone else's ears.

"I'm not going anywhere else."

Saying it out loud made me feel just how badly I meant it.

"At least this one—I'm seeing it through to the end!"

Standing in front of the dimensional gate settled something in my chest.

I turned and looked over Astrania one more time.

Blue sky.

Dirt.

Forest.

Wind.

Air that worked.

This is the good stuff.

I looked at the gate a moment longer, then turned my eyes forward again.

This time I had no urge to go back to the studio apartment.

I was already dressed for it, and this world wasn't trying to kill me on contact.

For the first time, I was actually curious about a world.

Nice~

I slowly scanned the forest's edge.

Charging straight in wasn't the move. Heading toward where people lived was. Civilization confirmed, after all.

The problem was direction. Nothing marked which way was a village and which way was deeper into the mountains.

After a short walk, a narrow dirt track where the grass was pressed unusually flat caught my eye.

It wasn't an animal trail.

The width was consistent, and the ground was packed from being stepped on over and over.

A human path.

I turned that way immediately.

The dirt pressed low under my sneaker soles. Tree shadows swayed across the trail. Somewhere a bird took flight, and something small fled deeper into the brush.

Weirdly, I felt good.

It was nothing, but just the fact that people had passed through here made my chest a little lighter.

Civilization.

Social structure.

The smell of people living somewhere.

Right now, all of that was wildly welcome.

Ah~ was it the sea instead ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the forest~

I hummed under my breath as I walked for a few minutes.

The wind shifted.

This time, mixed under the forest smell, something else came in faint.

Smoke.

Burning wood.

And something like cooking food.

I stopped walking.

The smell of people living.

My heart picked up again.

There might actually be a village.

I might actually meet someone.

I might actually be able to try living here.

That was when it happened.

A scream tore out of the forest. Short. Urgent. A woman's voice, it sounded like.

An unfamiliar language. I didn't know the meaning, but the urgency came through clean.

Immediately the Archive reacted at the edge of my vision.

"Please, no...!"

My heart dropped.

Oh shit.

My body moved first.

A normal person would have stopped right there. I was already throwing myself toward the scream.

Brush scraped my clothes. A low branch skimmed past my face. The ground underfoot changed little by little.

Less dirt. More stone.

Boulders. A slope. Dark shade.

And then a black mouth of an opening, gaping like a cave.

Blood was spread across the ground in front of the entrance.

I stopped cold.

A corpse was sprawled there.

At first I thought it was human. It wasn't.

Small. Child-sized and slight, but the proportions were wrong. Arms too long, legs bowed, skin a dull green.

Torn ears. Short fangs. A cheap leather vest.

Its belly was split deep open.

"A goblin?"

The word rose up completely naturally.

Whoa... this place really is an isekai.

Oddly, that one thought settled something in my gut.

Wherever I went, the worlds were insane. But at least this one wasn't a genre I knew nothing about.

Forest. Cave. Goblin. A scream.

At least I could guess what I'd be dealing with.

Then sound burst from inside again.

"Ah—aah...!"

It cut short.

No time.

I scanned the area on reflex.

Going in bare-handed was suicide.

My eyes landed on the goblin's hand. A short dagger was still clenched in it. The edge was worn, blood on the blade.

"Better than nothing."

I swallowed.

And then, suddenly, the phrase from a moment ago brushed through my head.

Heavenly Mana Body.

I still didn't know what it was, but it was a trait that had appeared in this world.

Better than that God-Halfie crap, at least... please.

I pulled the dagger out of the goblin's hand.

It came free easier than I expected.

The grip was rough and crude, but lighter than it looked. In a pinch, I figured I could stab with it once.

Stone scraped stone deeper in the cave. Labored breathing mixed in with it.

If I was late, it was over.

I adjusted my hold on the dagger.

My palm was wet. My heart was hammering like crazy.

I was scared.

Fucking terrified.

But if I ran now, I felt like I'd think about it for the rest of my life.

I clenched my teeth.

"Fuck... let's go."

And I stepped into the cave.

The inside of the cave was darker than I'd expected.

It had looked dark from the entrance, but one more step in and the outside light died fast.

Damp earth and blood punched up into my nose, and the uneven floor and low ceiling made every breath feel tight. Here and there on the walls, palm-sized patches of something like moss clung on, giving off a faint wet glow.

I held my breath.

From farther in came rough breathing.

A short scraping sound, too—claws on stone floor, maybe.

My heart sped up again.

Sweat slicked the palm gripping the dagger.

One pathetic little blade.

But having even this was better than nothing right now.

Sound came from deeper again.

"Ah...! Stay away...!"

This time the meaning landed almost immediately. The language pattern the Archive had caught once in the forest was carrying straight through.

I eased carefully farther in.

Fuck, I'm terrified.

The cave started narrow, then split after a little ways.

Right dropped downward. Left opened a bit wider.

The sound was left.

I pressed myself to the wall and shifted my weight carefully forward.

Thud.

That was when a sound came from right beside me.