There Nathan was—needle-like teeth aimed at him in every direction and his body about to be shredded into fine paste.

  Because he was on the inside of a giant worm.

  A giant worm that he'd sent to space three times. No, it was two—he was losing count from how many damn times this had happened.

  Nathan's body disintegrated into fine mist. The water droplets hit the needle points harmlessly and splattered into dozens of even smaller particles. His clothes flopped and rested on top of the teeth, unable to get cut or seriously damaged without Nathan's extra weight.

  Nathan extended out his watery body and wrapped the clothes inside of himself. He inched his way over to the opening of the mouth and slid out smoothly. As soon as he did, he was hit by the wind. It forced him up against the worm and he nearly fell back in before he accelerated his form forward, then pivoted to the side and out of the danger zone.

  He flew alongside the worm—it didn't seem to notice him.

  Nathan had two options. He could walk away, pretend he had never encountered the worm, and allow it to wreak even more havoc, or he could try to eliminate it again.

  Its guard was down, and Nathan knew it was still vulnerable to the space portal tactics.

  This is only putting it off for a third time, he thought. I really need to figure out a way to take care of this thing permanently.

  But at the current moment, Nathan had absolutely nothing.

  He positioned himself up toward the front "shoulder" of the worm. His focus snapped in place and [Astral Fishing] activated.

  The worm jerked in midair, but it was far too late. It flew straight into the hole in reality and disappeared from sight. Nathan closed it and floated in midair.

  It was gone.

  Just like that.

  Nathan descended back to the ground and equipped his clothing again after transforming back into a human. The worm hadn't reappeared, but Nathan had no doubt that it eventually would do so.

  Nathan was honestly flabbergasted as to how the thing remained alive in the cold reaches of space. Where was it getting the air from? How weren't its blood vessels freezing?

  Nathan didn't really feel like following the worm into space to see how that was possible... Come to think of it, Nathan didn't actually know what was on the other side. He theorized it was space because he'd stuck his hand in and it had nearly frozen on the spot—but maybe it was something else?

  Nathan didn't particularly care at the current moment, he was too tired from running around like a headless chicken.

  He wrung the bottom of his shirt. Water dripped out and hit the ground in wet splatters.

  It was all that damned Leviathan's fault.

  No it wasn't, Leviathan actually had very little to do with that whole incident, but it felt nice for Nathan to blame him anyway.

  Nathan made a slow scan of his surroundings. The castle, ever present and looming in the distance, seemed to have remained at the same location where it had been. That is to say, Nathan hadn't gotten closer or farther from it.

  The forest, on the other hand, was completely gone. He was in the middle of a wide reaching plains that stretched out in every direction. The grass went all the way up to his knees, and a faint breeze created a ripple effect every time it passed over the greenery.

  He had no idea how long the worm had been flying. For all intents and purposes, he was in the middle of nowhere.

  A flicker of brown amongst the green gave him pause.

  He squinted in its direction. A light flickered inside of a few windows. It was barely visible, but with Nathan's absurd senses at this point, it might as well have been a beacon in the sky.

  With nothing better to do, he made off toward it.

  With any luck, he thought. They'll know where the nearest body of water is.

  Nathan flipped through his quest menu until he got to his current class quest.

  — Forest Biome Fish Caught: 49/49

  — Plains Biome Fish Caught: 0/53

  — Hilly Biome Fish Caught: 0/327

  — Ocean Biome Fish Caught: 0/22

  — Swamp Biome Fish Caught: 0/1

  — Volcano Biome Fish Caught: 0/7

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Nathan squinted at multiple of the entries. Why was there only one Swamp Biome fish? Why were there 327 in the Hilly Biome? How on earth were fish even alive in the Volcano Biome?

  Nathan brushed away the quest tab. He'd figure it out eventually.

  He stomped in front of the building. The faint sound of activity and dishes clattering rang out from the inside. He walked over to the handle and pulled.

  The first thing Nathan noticed was that he'd entered a bar. Nathan didn't know what it was with these people and alcohol, but he was starting to get concerned for the public health of the community. This was like the seventh one he'd come across in the past 24 hours.

  The second thing he'd noticed was that every single person at the table had turned and looked at him in dead silence.

  Or rather, they were looking at spots on his elbows. Spots where there would normally be fins running down them.

  "Ahoy, Nathaniel."

  A Lillard stood up from his table and waved Nathan over.

  Someone leaned in toward the Lillard. "Harvester, you know this otherworlder?"

  "He's not an otherworlder. He lost his fins in a boating accident."

  The other Lillard's eyes widened. "Aye, tragic that."

  As soon as these words were exchanged, it was like a spell had been cast over the bar. All of them immediately went back to their drinking. Nathan walked over toward Harvester, and a few Lillards even toasted him as he passed.

  Nathan sat adjacent to Harvester and inclined his head. "It's not been that long."

  "A strange coincidence, indeed." He shook his head. "I'm amazed you made it here on foot—unless there's a horse you have that I don't know about?"

  Nathan opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again.

  "I used an alternative means of transportation," he said.

  Yeah, he was flown around by a gigantic eldritch worm from another dimension.

  Harvester nodded and took a sip of his drink. "I see, I see." He set his drink back on the table. "What brings you about these parts?"

  Nathan didn't really see the point in lying. It would just make things overly complicated for no reason.

  "I'm just looking for some rare fish."

  "Fish, you say?" Harvester's eyes widened and he leaned in and dropped his tone. "Are you the fellow who saved Father Butcher?"

  "I have no idea who that is."

  "He was being attacked by a troll."

  "That sounds vaguely familiar."

  "He has 14 children?"

  "Yep, I definitely recognize him." Nathan tilted his head. "Why do you ask?"

  "As soon as he got back to a safe location, he started telling everybody of your exploit. He's a well respected figure in this region, so his word means a lot."

  Harvester looked Nathan up and down. "And you're alive."

  "Why would I not be?"

  "Because you were going to fight the Beast of the Forest, weren't you?"

  "Oh yeah, that." Nathan debated the best way to explain what had happened before giving up because the entire thing would have sounded ludicrous to anybody without context. "It's dead."

  The other person who Harvester had been previously talking to turned and stared at Nathan like he'd grown another head. Harvester's drink shuddered in his grasp.

  "That's a joke, right?" Harvester said.

  "No, it's dead."

  Being consumed by a killer worm from outer space would do that to any creature, he thought.

  At that, Harvester went very still. His eyes narrowed by a fraction of an inch, and Nathan got the distinct impression he was being put under a microscope.

  "We could use somebody who's handy in a fight," Harvester said.

  "Hard pass."

  "But you haven't even heard my proposal!"

  "Sorry, I'm on vacation." Nathan brought his hands up into an x-cross. "I sympathize, I really do, but I can't help."

  Nathan put his hands on the table and started to stand up—

  "Did you know that there's a fish that's nearly impossible to get around these parts?"

  Nathan sat back down at the table. "Tell me more."

  Harvester leaned in.

  "You see," he said. "It only spawns in a fishing hole inside of a cave far, far in the middle of nowhere. The cave is well concealed, and its location is passed down from generation to generation. Now, if you're really a collector of rare fish, I imagine that's the sort of thing you'd like to acquire."

  It was then that Nathan realized that he was going to get involved in this, wasn't he?

  "And if I help you, you'll speed up my search by giving me the location. Am I getting the right vibe?" Nathan asked.

  Harvester nodded. "Right on the money. So what do you say?"

  Nathan massaged his temples.

  It would just be a brief detour. No big deal, right?

  "What is it that you need help with?" he asked.

  The building was composed of an extremely dark gray stone with gold ornaments sculpted into the side. There was a shuttering door over the inside, and some sort of pedestal to the left.

  Nathan couldn’t help but feel like this was plagiarism.

  "I swear I’ve seen this design somewhere before," Nathan muttered. "And you said it’s called a shrine?"

  Harvester put his hands on his hips and nodded. "The Shrine of Blessing. There’s a handful of these around the world. They provide increased growth speed to nearby crops over a good 10-mile radius."

  Nathan stepped forward and ran his hands along the stone. "So what happened?"

  "A few days ago, all of them shuttered up. Worse, the blessings were reversed. The crops started to die, and the water went bad. We’ve been limping along, but things are going to turn ugly fast if things aren’t rectified."

  "And you think I can do something about it?"

  "Maybe. It might be worth a shot, right?"

  Nathan got the overwhelming urge that he was being tricked or that there was something that he didn’t understand about the current situation.

  Even so, he needed the location of that fishing hole.

  "So how do I get into this thing?" Nathan asked.

  "Set your hands on the pedestal."

  Nathan tilted his head. "If that’s all it takes, why didn’t you do it?"

  "I don’t think it’ll work for me. Trust me, we’ve all tried in the past."

  "Why do you think it’ll work for me?"

  "Call it a gut feeling."

  Nathan shrugged and stepped over to the pedestal. He rested his hand on it and felt the cool stone against his fingertips.

  The pedestal lit up with flowing blue lines that ran down and into the main shrine exterior. The base shuttered and the doors folded up into the ceiling, revealing the inside.

  Harvester removed his hat from his head and pressed it to his chest. "Praise be. You really are him, aren’t you?"

  "I’m who?"

  "Nothing, nothing at all, uh. Do you think that you can go inside and solve it so that we all don’t die of starvation?"

  Nathan shot him a thumbs up. "Will do."

  Nathan walked over to the inside. The ground sank underneath him, the entire floor moving down like some sort of elevator. He made a quick salute to Harvester. Harvester grinned, though there seemed to be a little bit of liquid in his eye.

  Weird, Nathan thought. Someone must be cutting onions.

  GUYS