"Ughh…" Alexis squinted as his ears rang with a deafening ring coupled with a headache. He had just been involved in a car accident, so he immediately understood that it might be his body's response as it heals.
Oddly, though, he cannot feel the soft and comfy hospital bed. Instead, he seemed to be laying down on a hard wooden bed. After struggling to open his eyes, Alexis discovered that he was in a damp wooden cottage. Although it didn't really look extravagant, at least it doesn't really look shabby either. After helping himself up, he stood and inched towards the doorway, when all of a sudden…
The rustling of leaves neared the cottage, and from a bush nearby, a disheveled and damp woman, with silky black hair and almond-colored skin rushed upon seeing him. Her silver eyes held a desperate plea, her dried lips mouthed something, which Alexis recognized as the word "Help" before fainting and falling down into the ground.
Knowing that only trouble will come if the pursuers find the girl lying in front of his house, Alexis clicked his tongue before proceeding to carry her into his cottage, hiding her inside so as to not let them see her.
A little less than an hour later, a group of men dressed in leather and cloth similar to that of the attire of medieval men walked towards him, with torches bore in hand. They saw him foolishly plowing the forest soil, causing them to furrow their brows in total confusion.
"Hey, barbarian!" The man leading the group shouted at him. He was average in stature, about 5'6 as Alexis evaluated, with brownish hair and dark eyes. He was about to haughtily stride towards Alexis but he was stopped by one of the men behind him, "Young Chieftain, the barbarian seems to be a fool, plowing the ground of the forest. I don't think he will be trusted by Priestess Leisandra to save herself. It's much more likely that she will go towards the neighboring tribe of Kaldenoi instead." The man said.
The Young Chieftain, though disgruntled with how the man interrupted him, understood what he said. Clicking his tongue, he waved his hand, gesturing to the pack to move forward. When the group began to continue their pursuit, the man who stopped the Young Chieftain looked at the "foolish man" and bowed down with a sharp glint in his eyes.
After doing so, he followed suit with the rest of the group.
Only after ensuring that everyone of them had left did Alexis finally stood up and cracked his back, heaving a sigh of relief. Several minutes before the search party arrived, Alexis took the extra mile by erasing the footprints and marks on the ground by getting a garden tool that was readily available inside and began plowing the entire area.
The disgruntled Alexis huffed. He wasn't even able to process why on Earth he was in the middle of a forest when a problem suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The only solution he was able to think of from the get-go was to act stupid, because who in their right mind would plow the soil in the middle of a damp forest? At that time, his only thought was to imitate the brain of the Trojan War, the person who tried to avoid being pulled into it by acting dumb. The only difference was the group did not have a leverage for him to act otherwise.
Having dispersed the group, Alexis turned and walked into his cottage. He looked at the disheveled woman, most likely the Priestess Leisandra that they're talking about, and thought of how to deal with her once she wakes up.
For now, though, he needs to figure out what the hell he is doing in the middle of the forest.
After a couple of hours mulling over the predicament, Alexis could only figure out some things.
One, there are tribes here, and they spoke perfect English, which is odd. He can conjure up some tribes who can speak English, but not that kind of fluently.
Two, with how they were dressed, their clothing technology seems to be not that advanced. But giving them the benefit of the doubt, they might just be maintaining a traditional custom of wear.
Three, the trees in this forest are strange. He was about to check if he would be able to identify where he was by identifying what species of tree surrounded the area, but it was but a futile effort. The trees here possess strange, glowing patterns unrecorded in the internet or in catalogues.
Other than that, he has no knowledge whatsoever about the place that he is in right now. Heck, he even began speculating that he was transmigrated into another world like those novels on the internet. Of course, if that was true, he could only hope that he has a system to get by.
Suddenly, after thinking of "system", a strange sound reverberated in his mind.
[Host has initiated contact with the system. Initializing…]
[Beginning assimilation… Binding Task received.]
[Binding Task: In order to establish a contract between the host and the system, the system has put forward a request. If the Host wishes to continue the task, it shows that the Host is willing to establish a relationship with the system and thus is giving consent to its involvement in the Host's life. Similarly, the system will be required to provide quests and tasks and give ample rewards to the Host upon completion.]
Being bombarded by those words, Alexis became both frightened and excited. Frightened because he might really be transmigrated in another world, but excited because he is in for a myriad of new possibilities!
After revelling in the thought, he once again prompted the system. As expected, a blue artificial panel appeared in front of him, similar to a game panel for MMORPG games. For now, it looked oddly plain, only having the [Binding Task] panel displayed.
Figuring it must be because, as the system said, he and the system still have not established any interactive contact with each other. Of course, he was willing to have the system.
With that in mind, he opened the [Binding Task] Panel.