Chapter 2: The Black Hood

A dog? No. I’d never seen a dog play with a limb before.

The playful thing glared at them, then vanished into the trees, leaving a trail of blood from the limb

Then she said

“So, you’ve been… with the mercenaries?”

Are you seriously ignoring what just happened? Is that normal here? Ah for real

He replied, face contorted in disbelief.

"To tell the truth, I don't know how I ended up here, but something similar to your case happened—a teleport. And I'm not a mercenary, I only know basic self-defense. "You mentioned a dungeon exploration?"

"Yes. We were clearing... the third level. That trap teleported... everyone to random locations... scattered us all. I don't know where the others are. But I know this forest... wasn't part of the plan."

She stared into the darkness beyond the trees. Something in the distance cracked—like branches snapping under heavy paws.

"We need to move... We have to get back... This place carries too much danger... we need to find them..."

She paused briefly, glancing at him with a touch of irony.

"And with an injured warrior... I cross from reckless... into suicidal."

He gave a crooked smile, even through the pain.

"Warrior? I'm not a—"

She continued.

"With the severity of the wounds... you carried when I found you... people die from far less..."

True enough. Resilience stands as one of the few qualities I possess. Then asked her

“So, you mentioned finding your group, right? This place hardly looks like a location that permits long stays without trouble surfacing. Where should we search—any idea where everyone might reunite?”

They scan the surroundings. The Cleric narrows her focus, studies every direction, then speaks:

“North of here… I recognize the route… the teleport… failed to carry me far… I carry an artifact… one that weakens… hostile magic aimed at me… my group also… carries similar items… so we might reunite inside the dungeon again.”

After that brief explanation—about their purpose inside the dungeon and several other details the young man barely absorbed, since her slow, gentle cadence lulled the senses in a pleasant way, almost making him take a nap

Her voice flowing smooth and soothing until—they catch a sound. When they turn toward the forest, it seems to smother its own light. The trees, black and twisted, carve silhouettes that sway with the wind—or with something else.

She lifted him and supported him against her shoulder. After healing his wounds completely, she spoke

"Soon... your strength returns... just a bit more time."

Still leaning on her, he takes a quick look around

Too peaceful… maybe it’s not that game. Ah, forget that—the dog playing with a limb? Yeah, I only know 2 other games like that, all of them are impossible to not die one time.

This otherworldly forest definitely belonged to one of the games I played in childhood—only real, with millions more pixels.

But i needed confirmation, details to affirm which game had Isekai’d. After all, many dark RPGs featured sinister forests like this and have healers and thing like that.

Discovering the game reveals the path to survival

He lingered in denial once more.

Please, let this not be that Dark Fantasy RPG, since this place no longer functions as a game, and I only got one life... AH, I just want to live in peace and tranquility…

“The dungeon… lies about two hundred… meters from here,” the Cleric says, narrowing her eyes as she tries to pinpoint the exact spot. “The entrance should sit just beyond that cluster of standing stones… if it still stands open.”

“You know, no offense, but why do you speak like that? Just curiosity.” He asked with a straight face

“To maintain focus… Healing demands calm… to function properly…”

She keeps his arm hooked over her shoulder, steadying his weight as they move. With her face inches from his, he doesn’t glance sideways—because distance vanishes when bodies press that close, and her presence fills his awareness

Before he could respond about the healing, a sound sliced through the silence.

SHHHHHHRRAAAAKK.

The metallic sound of something enormous dragging across the ground echoed through the trees. Like a blade... but not a common blade. The sound scraped against their ears, as if it rasped inside their heads. Both turned at the same time.

After some seconds, a figure came out of the mist slowly.

One arm missing. The other gripped a blood-drenched sword. Red painted their entire body—face, torso, legs—dripping it with a little of flesh together onto the ground with each unsteady step

The blade rose, he glared at them, tip wavering as it aimed first at him, then at the cleric beside him.

A weak voice cut through the silence.

“Heal me… cleric, leave that guy aside… NOW!”

Hey, it’s the limb owner… I think

...

The pair didn’t say a thing for some seconds

“What are you waiting for… we don’ have more time… he is coming here”

Through the mist, a figure emerged—tall, deformed, vaguely humanoid.

It wore a black cloak that blended into the surrounding darkness.

A tight black hood covered its head, stretched in a strange way, as if sewn directly onto the skin.

In its hands—or claws—it dragged a monstrous cleaver, as large as a man, sharp and uneven, as if crafted for a giant.

The monster stopped. Its breath rasped heavy. The metallic sound still vibrated through the air.

Behind it, between the trees, when the fog dispersed a little, a cabin stood out—old, crooked, dark, built from rotting wood with boarded windows. The home of someone

"That thing lives here..." Karl whispered, his voice faltering.

That creature stood in the back of the one missing limb guy, and then when he turned Is back

“Ah, bad luck—"

The massive great cleaver descended diagonally with unstoppable force. Flesh and armor parted in a wet shhhhnnk, blood spraying as the soldier split in two, his body falling in a gruesome, silent arc.

She didn’t respond. She'd frozen solid. Her eyes, calm moments before, now searched for an exit with urgency. She squeezed his hand, hard, then whispered

"Run."

"What?"

"RUN!"

They bolted through the forest. Branches scraped their faces, the fog rendered everything slippery, and behind them, the sound of the dragging blade resumed—faster, closer.

The sound deafened them now. The monster pursued, and it didn't run... it glided, as if the ground carried it straight toward them.

Everything while carrying what remained of the missing-limb wretch gripped tight by the scalp: a blood-soaked torso with one ragged arm still attached, swinging like dead weight, the head bouncing against its massive fist with every movement forward.

I KNEW IT WOULD END LIKE THIS!

They spotted the dungeon entrance—a stone arch half-covered by roots, embedded in the hillside. It was nearly closing, as if the forest itself tried to swallow the only safe point. The stone walls moved slowly, like a jaw clenching shut.

"NOW!" she screamed, yanking him forward with force.

They hurled themselves ahead. The young man scraped through, tearing his shoulder against the stone's edge.

She dove in right behind, her cloak snagged by a branch. The Black Hood didn’t forgive that and—In the last second she ripped it free with her bare hand and crashed inside on top of the young man.

BAAAAM!

The Black Hooded figure's strike shattered the entrance further, leaving only a narrow gap to exit—one that would force both of them to crawl out beneath the opening.

Suicide to emerge that way and meet the hooded thing face-to-face. The entrance, half-sealed by roots and stones that closed like a coffin, projected an impression of safety.

BAAAM!

The giant blade struck the outside once more, making the walls tremble, and a deformed roar—guttural and far too human to belong to a monster—echoed through the entrance. Then, silence.

Inside, everything felt damp, dark, and cold. But they'd survived. For now.

She panted, both frozen in the same position—him staring slightly past her face toward the entrance, her looking back. The scare cut too deep; both locked up, neither built for physical combat against something like that.

In that same instant, a ball rolled through the narrow gap toward them...

Oh… that Is too much for me in a single day

a fresh human head...

"If that thing possesses a brain... it'll wait outside for us."

The young man swallowed hard after delivering that response—one part from the shock, another from the beauty who still hadn't realized she'd landed on top of him.

Or at least, that's how it seemed. She was pressing down on him with some real weight— enough that the monster hadn't killed them, but he might die from lack of air if she didn't get off soon

She shattered the silence.

"And if it lacks one... and leaves?"

She looked at him, serious.

He'd played countless horror games, he knew that—a death flag.

Is she dumb?

What kind of person would venture out after a brief wait just because the monster "lacked a brain" and wandered off... I don’t want to lose my one life.

"W-well, let's drop that idea and follow your old plan—reuniting with the group. They should be around here, right? In this dungeon. Exiting means death. Staying here with just the two of us seems risky. We lack combat power, so to speak. Let's search for your group. Well, should prove safer than facing that thing outside."

After he said that, she grew pensive for a moment, then climbed off him. She'd finally grasped the situation—a bit late, but, well, he hadn't minded, so all good.

She slapped her thigh a few times to brush the dust that collected on her cloak, then noticed the tears. Fortunately, they only exposed the side of her right leg, so she could still preserve some dignity.

"Let's move forward. Staying here invites trouble," the young man said, striding ahead and leading her toward the depths.

"Need to play the man's role... even though she knows this place better," he muttered to himself.

She advances and grabs his arm.

"Hey, what's your name? I forgot to ask. Mine's Lily."

He turns back, meets her gaze.

"My name's Karl. And thank you for healing me outside, when I'd passed out."

She smiles with a happy expression—and tells him

"Let's go, Karl. I'll cast some enhancement spells... on us for insurance."

Still gripping Karl's arm, she channels energy into him, rendering him stronger, faster, and tougher.

"Strength Boost... Fortify... Haste... Resolve... Rejuvenate..."

By this point he'd reached the strength equivalent to two men—nothing spectacular, but better than nothing.

They continued through the dungeon corridor—narrow and dark, lit only by ancient, unstable runes on the walls—their light pulsed as if breathing, dying and reigniting with every step.

The smell of mold and old blood mingled with the tense silence, broken only by drops falling from the ceiling and Karl and Lily's cautious footsteps.

He led the way. They discovered bodies on the ground—dead mercenaries. He grabbed a shield and sword, plus a piece of leather gear that seemed to offer some protection.

More than that he couldn't bear, because despite the enhancement, he recognized that speed mattered, and couldn't be compromised.

After all, without it, both would've perished to that monster—the one resembling a psychotic hooded figure of horror movies.

She walked behind him, staff in hand, eyes alert to every crack in the floor.

"We're close," she said, voice low. "The room where… the trap separated us... should lie just past this turn. If the rest of my group survived—no, they survived, they're strong—maybe they've returned there... or left signs."

Karl listened, then nodded.

They turned the final corridor and arrived before a double door of black stone, half-open. A faint red glow escaped through the cracks. Lily approached, touching the symbol carved at the center.

"This is it..."

After entering and heading toward the center, they spotted a mark on the floor. She immediately attempted to decipher it, checking whether it came from the mage as code, or served as a response to another dungeon mechanism.

"This message... carries too much complexity... to be code from my group. Must be an instruction... left by the dungeon's former master. An extremely intellectual message… difficult to comprehend."

"Looks like... Elvish..."

At that, she—who'd crouched down to examine the message closely—after failing to decipher it, glanced back, lifting her face. Upon seeing Karl, she noticed something.

"Karl... are you alright?"

He responded, horrified.

"I... I understand what's written... we're screwed..."

"What happened, Karl? You understand? How...? I mean, what does it say?"

Karl went pale. He'd already looked white because he always avoided the sun, but somehow managed to drain even further. After all, the message written on the floor read nothing more, nothing less than

Try finger, then hole.

The famous message left by veteran gamers in every single death-heavy game that allowed players to leave messages for others—where you die easily 50 times if you know nothing, before any progression occurs.

This shrank his hopes even further, and also narrowed the possibilities of which world he'd been transported to one of the type that's, well, extremely difficult to survive.

He looked at her and spoke

"It says... well, it's a message from ancient veteran warriors, ones who faced absurd adversities and left their trail behind as a warning sign to guide people, help them avoid death, and spare them from suffering the same things they endured".

She looked at him.

"Wow, Karl, I didn't know you... possessed such knowledge of the ancient language. And, well, these veterans seem cool..."

Before she could say anything more, a thunderous crash echoed from behind. The double stone door slammed shut with a crack, sealing the pair in that hall. When things seemed bad—after the message Karl read—they'd just gotten worse.

Among the shadows, the sound returned

SHHHHHHHRRAAKK…

On the other side of the room, a rune flickered faintly, pulsing, revealing what surrounded it. There he stood.

The Black Hooded figure. The same immense cleaver, now stained red—he'd used it on someone while searching for the pair—dragging across the floor and producing that sound that scraped the soul. He spoke no words. Only stared. And began walking slowly.

Karl scanned the surroundings in panic, trying to analyze the environment and what he could do. Then Lily asked

"You know how to fight?" She positioned herself behind a pillar and began channeling some kind of cleric power.

"Not enough," he responded. "But enough not to die for free."

The Black Hooded thing charged at once. His giant cleaver descended like an executioner's axe. Karl raised the shield on reflex. A deafening thud echoed when the blow struck—the shield shattered partially, cracking in two, and he flew backward like a rag doll.