The Most Absurd Experience

What was the most absurd experience in the world?

If Raymond were to answer.

He would say that the most absurd experience in the world was undoubtedly...

Thinking you had been given an ordinary person's script.

A happy family in childhood, a stable job with decent income after growing up, free time to pursue your interests and hobbies, then slowly growing old and dying.

Though you were merely an insignificant member of the masses, you lived quite happily.

But then one day, after encountering danger, you ignited your "Spark," becoming a Planeswalker—a rarity that might appear only once among tens of millions—and were directly transported into a magical world.

Well, that was not such a big deal, actually.

Strictly speaking, switching from an ordinary person's script to a supernatural one should have been an enormous gain no matter how you looked at it.

Although he had an insidious, cunning, and cruel teacher, and often had to deal with dissected living creatures and corpses, he could at least genuinely learn knowledge from it and gain powerful magical strength.

But just as you settled down and wanted to continue down that path, a terrifying magical plague that destroyed an entire civilization descended from the sky.

The most absurd part was that you were actually the source of the plague, a walking natural disaster.

A perfectly good supernatural script had suddenly turned into an apocalypse script.

Watching familiar and unfamiliar people around you fall ill and die one after another until you were the only one left alive was absolutely a kind of mental torment beyond words.

Then, after finally escaping and thinking you could settle down in a new world, an insufficient energy supply caused an accident during teleportation.

The apocalypse script turned into a desert island survival script yet again.

All of those changes had happened in less than two short years. Someone with even slightly fragile nerves would probably have been driven insane long ago.

Yet Raymond said that his emotions remained stable. He was currently sitting before a campfire, wolfing down fragrant grilled fish while listening to the summoned soldier report on the island's situation.

After all, he had not eaten a proper meal in a long time, so he could not care less about appearances. He only wanted to quickly consume enough protein and nutrients.

"Master, this island is about eighteen kilometers long from east to west and thirteen kilometers wide from north to south. There are many coconut trees, along with other shrubs and wild fruit trees.

"The highest point on the island is this mountain beneath our feet, roughly two hundred meters above sea level.

"About three kilometers from here, there is a very small freshwater lake. It should have formed from rainwater flowing down from higher ground and collecting there.

"The water is very clear and can be drunk directly.

"From the cliffs to the lakeshore, many seabirds of various sizes have built nests.

"Based on my observations, there do not seem to be any large herbivores or predators nearby. The most dangerous creatures are likely the venomous snakes.

"Among the reefs on the western side of the island are many fish, crabs, and sea snails..."

"In other words, there is plenty of food and freshwater, so we do not need to worry about survival for the time being, right?"

Raymond swallowed the last piece of fish in his mouth, looked at the star-filled night sky overhead, and directly summed things up.

For someone stranded on a desert island, what was the most important thing?

The answer was obviously freshwater.

Food came next.

With those two things, a person could survive quite well.

Whether it was fish, seabirds, snakes, crabs, sea snails, coconuts, or wild fruit, everything on this island could serve as a food source.

The former could provide abundant protein, calcium, fat, and vitamins A and E.

The latter were sources of dietary fiber, sugars, minerals, and vitamins B and C.

From a nutritional standpoint, they basically had everything the body needed to survive and grow.

The soldier nodded expressionlessly. "That's right. We are very fortunate. Islands of this size do not have a high chance of possessing naturally formed freshwater reserves."

"Fortunate? Forget it. I would rather have seen a town or village when I passed through that portal."

With that, Raymond casually tossed away the fish bones in his hand and lay on his back atop a crude "bed" made of several coconut leaves.

Of course, that was assuming the thing could even be called a bed.

Since the terrain was not particularly complicated, climbing to the peak of the island's only mountain made it easy to overlook the island's general layout.

Clearly, he was trapped here now, and he had two choices before him.

One was to live on the island for a while, see if any passing ships came by, and signal them for help.

The other was to use the Planeswalker's unstable teleportation and attempt to travel to another world.

As for doing what protagonists in movies and stories did—building a raft or small boat and heading out to sea to test his luck—he should not even think about it.

This was Faerûn!

A magical world filled with magic and monsters.

The sea contained far more than predators such as whales, sharks, and giant squid.

There were also Sahuagin, Kuo-toa, and a whole host of other intelligent ocean races, as well as terrifying deep-sea behemoths beyond description.

Sailing out without an experienced navigator and captain was no different from being sick of living and seeking death.

After a brief consideration, Raymond felt that the first option was more reliable.

After becoming a Planeswalker, excluding the time he had cooperated with the Necromancer Archmage—Astar—he had only used his unstable teleportation ability alone twice.

The first time, he had been pulled into an unknown space. His physical age regressed directly to childhood, and he had nearly died.

The second time, although a magic portal had helped stabilize the teleportation passage, an accident had still occurred.

Neither attempt had gone smoothly, and the two consecutive failures had left Raymond with something of a psychological shadow over that ability.

Moreover, the Forgotten Realms—Faerûn—possessed countless fascinating magical teachings, powerful spells, magical items, and even artifacts.

Combined with its uniquely distinctive Weave spellcasting system, would it not be a terrible shame to give it all up and leave directly?

Thus, filled with anticipation and fantasies for the future, Raymond quickly grew sleepy and drifted off into a daze.

He was exhausted.

When he had previously hidden alone within the Floating City Tower, his nerves had remained constantly taut, and he had not dared sleep too deeply.

He had been afraid that he would wake up to find countless undead gathered around him.

Now that he had finally escaped that precarious survival crisis and eaten so much fish, wanting to sleep soundly was only natural.

Seeing his master enter the land of dreams, the summoned male soldier silently remained beside the campfire, taking up guard duty for the night.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, in the low mountains south of the Starspine Mountains and north of Mylatma, an important border city of the Kingdom of Tethyr.

The Red Dragon Vermees paced anxiously through her treasure-filled lair.

Several minutes passed before she suddenly stopped, raised her head, and sternly demanded of the evil servants trembling in the distance, "Still no news?"

"My apologies, great master. Not yet. However, following your instructions, I have ordered all Orc, Half-Orc, and Goblin tribes loyal to you in the surrounding area to expand their search range." An Orc warrior clad in leather armor and carrying a heavy double-bladed battle-axe answered through gritted teeth.

Red Dragons were symbols of power, cruelty, and tyranny.

Every Red Dragon was a born tyrant.

Speaking with such a tyrant was undoubtedly terrifying and dangerous.

Because they might mercilessly kill and devour their servants at any moment simply because they brought bad news.

In fact, before this Orc warrior, several Orc tribal chiefs and Bugbears had already died beneath dragon claws.

So he had to be especially careful, or he could be killed at any moment.

Of course, the benefit was that after taking this position, he could borrow the Red Dragon's prestige to gain authority and command every submissive tribe.

Even if the leaders of those tribes had once been his rivals and mortal enemies.

"Trash! All of you are trash! I'll give you another ten days! If you have not found that human cub within ten days, you know what the consequences will be."

After saying that, Vermees violently beat her wings, whipping up a gust of wind.

Seeing the Red Dragon's rage, how could the Orc warrior dare remain? He immediately turned and rushed out of the cave as quickly as he could.

There was no need to ask who Vermees had ordered her servants to find. It was none other than Raymond, who had been separated from her after passing through the portal.

The reason she was so anxious had nothing to do with any sudden awakening of conscience. It was because the little thing in her brain kept issuing threats through telepathy.

If Raymond could not be found within a certain period of time, part of the Red Dragon's brain would be eaten.

If he still could not be found, another part would be eaten.

This would continue until her brain was so badly damaged that she became an idiotic dragon, or until her entire brain was consumed and she died completely.

Otherwise, Vermees would have been more than happy to get rid of Raymond and never see him again for the rest of her life.

In fact, that was exactly what she had thought when she first flew back to her lair alone with the treasure.

But unfortunately, newly awakened creations were often deeply attached to their Creator and longed to remain by their master's side.