Fantasy Isekai: Crystallize

[Spoiled Bread]

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Nowhere
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"Congratulations, you died." Jayla found herself inside a large dome-shaped room. In front of her was a receptionist desk with a slender woman sitting behind, she was looking straight at Jayla's eyes without showing much expression herself. The room itself had nothing worth mentioning except the fact it was uncannily empty. Its walls were completely white and spotless, there's no scent that she could smell and the only sound that could be heard all came from the receptionist, even if Jayla tried to talk there's no voice coming out of her mouth.

"Apologize, that was inappropriate of me." The woman bowed at Jayla to emphasize her apology. "but I sincerely believe death isn't all that bad. X made a mistake."

The sound of papers rustling against each other could be heard as the woman quickly and precisely pulled some sheets from several different stacks of paper and put it together into one neat dossier seemingly filled with information about Jayla. After skimming through it, the woman gave it a big stamp on the front and showed it to Jayla.

"Regardless. Welcome to Iruna. Please wait as I move your fye into..." Jayla didn't heard the rest of the woman's words as bright light and static noise gradually assaulted her senses. It got stronger and stronger until Jayla could only see white and hear the headache-inducing static in her ears. Like a strained thread that got pulled apart until it snapped, Jayla's consciousnes abruptly faded into total darkness and silence.

...

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Unknown Forest
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Spoiler: Environment

site: clearing inside a forest
Time: 10 am
Weather: sunny

Spoiler: NPC

Vegetable people x30

The forest's usual quietness was broken when a creature in the shape of a walking radish screamed in excitement. During its daily strolling through the forest, it found a shiny mysterious object that immediately draw its attention. The radish was careful at approaching the object, not only the object was something it never see before but the crater around said object mean it was something that was dropped from the sky. After poking it several times the radish was satisfied and deemed the object as safe. Despite the radish was only half the size of the object it enthusiastly pushed the object out of the crater and then rolled it around into what seeminly to be a small encampment of vegetable people.

The radish's excited screaming was joined by other screams as another vegetable people gathered around the crystal ball. Like a whimsical orchestra coming out of a children's story book, the vegetables started to link their thin vine arms together and danced around the shiny ball. The biggest of them all, a walking pumpkin, was strong enough to lift the object and put it on a stone pedestal. The pumpkin then faced its fellow vegetables and let out a few shrieks while pointing at the crystal ball, as if commanded the rest of the vegetables scampered around the camps. After a few time passes they came back to the camps, each of them put items that they thought as valuable underneath the pedestal. Most of them put fruits, leaves or colorful rocks, but a few items were obviously out of place and sticks out like a sore thumb. Those items were a gem, a medallion, a ring and a dried human finger. After they finished gathering their tributes the vegetables linked their arms again and resumed their dance. Screaming and spinning around the object as if infected by some sort of mass tribal madness.

Then the crystal ball cracked open.

 

[The Kitsune Siren]

Dead.

Badump.

She was dead.

Badump.

Jayla Williams was dead and there was nothing she could do about it!

She had thought she was going to pull through! It was an accident. A freaking car accident killed her and now she couldn't go back.

Instead, the young brunette found herself in a weird white room. Only her and someone else who were apologizing like her death was a bad business meeting! And who on earth was this X person?

So many questions went through the brunette's head, but she couldn't find the voice to ask any of them. Literally. It was as if her vocal chords were ripped from her.

The last thing she heard was a strange welcome to someplace before her consciousness began to slip. She tried to raise a hand to reach out to the mysterious woman before she completely blacked out.

━═━═━═━┤➴├━═━═━═━
It is time for you to WAKE UP!
━═━═━═━┤➴├━═━═━═━​

Warm. The next feeling that Jayla felt was warm. Warm and small, as if she had somehow shrunk. What had happened? Was it this X's doing again? Where was she?

Trying to move around, she found that she was somehow in a tight place. And her eyes felt so heavy that she could even think of opening them. Let alone even try to flutter them open.

Well, first things, first: find a way out of this casing she was in. Without second thought, she began to move around in this tight jail of hers, feeling as if she had more limbs than her normal two arms and legs. Never mind, she'll work on that later.

Her attempts proved fruitful when she heard a crack behind her. Perfect! Now she had to just work on the rest.

Continuing to move her limbs, Jayla heard the cracks grow more and more the longer she moved, and she knew that it wouldn't be long before she was out of there.

Finally, with one final crack, the strange casing that trapped Jayla fell apart and broke and she found herself falling a short distance onto some sort of ground. Slowly opening her eyes, she slowly raised her head to get a look around. Was it all a dream? Did she survive and end up in a hospital? What had happened?

But instead of waking up to see anything that was familiar or having the ability to give her answers, Jayla found herself staring at the strange sight in front of her. Vegetables. Vegetables with arms and legs that were dancing around her like it was some weird ritual. What....what was going on?!

 

[Spoiled Bread]

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Unknown Forest
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Spoiler: Environment

site: clearing inside a forest
Time: 10 am
Weather: sunny

Spoiler: Directions

North: Forest
East: Forest, the vegetation seems thicker
South: Forest
West: Forest, a giant tree can be seen on the distance

Spoiler: NPC

Vegetable people x25

Spoiler: Enemy

-

Jayla broke through her shell, and all the vegetables started cheering on her while seemingly congratulating each other. Jayla could see the onion patting the back of the leek, or the potato and the carrot hugging each other in happiness. It's as if they just witnessed the birth of their neighbor's baby and were now celebrating it with the entire village. Their uncontrolled excited shrieking filled the atmosphere with a strange sense of festive.

Regardless, if Jayla looks around she would find herself in the middle of a clearing. She's on a stone pedestal and there's rough tents made of leaves and twigs around the perimeter of the clearing, likely the camps for the vegetables. The clearing was surrounded by strangely tall trees in all directions, but the vegetations on the east seemed to be much thicker than any other direction. The biggest thing that she couldn't possibly ignore, was of course the sight of the tallest tree she ever see on the direction of the west. It towers far above the entire forest, its twisted trunk went up beyond the cloud as if it was a pillar that supports the heaven. If Jayla focused her sight on the tree she might notice countless spheres of light hovering around it, though since it's currently daytime those spheres were barely visible. If she focused on the east though, she might notice the vegetations around there were slightly rustling against each other, something was moving there.​

 

[The Kitsune Siren]

Jayla blinked. Once. Twice. Three times and the dancing vegetables were still there. This was real. This was really real. Lifting a hand to rub at her eye, she stopped when she realized that not only could she not fully reach her face, but the part of her hand that did reach her face, felt a lot sharper than it did before.

Curiously, she looked down and felt her eyes widened at what she saw. That wasn't a hand. It was...it was....a claw!! A startled cry came from the lizard and it scrambled back in fear, managing to roll onto her side.

This couldn't be happening! This really couldn't be happening! Turning her head to try and look at her body more, the first thing that Jayla realized was that she was some type of lizard with how she had clawed hands and a tail from what she could see. The second that she took notice was that she was shiny!

Every inch of her seemed to have a shine to it that definitely wasn't from being hatched? Did she just hatch from an egg? Nevermind that. Everytime she moved, the light would catch onto some part of her skin and reflect a beautiful shine one might gain from a crystal of some sort. Just what was she?

Slowly rolling onto her legs again, and taking notice now how much she really did look like a shiny reptile of some sort, Jayla worked by slowly walking around and getting used to her feet while eyeing the vegetables that were celebrating around her. They didn't say anything that she could understand, so she wondered about their intelligence. The next thing she noticed was the pile of items that were surrounded by her hatching spot. Did the vegetables do this? This was really nice of them, even if she couldn't understand what they were saying around her.

Slowly, the lizard reached out and took a bite of one of the fruits, eyes widening at the the taste of them. Good! They were better than the ones in her old life.

Happily digging into the fruit, Jayla soon realized that it wouldn't be enough as she felt her stomach craving more. What could it be? Was she a meat eater or something? As she thought about it, the lizard took notice of three items that were sprayed around the pile of fruits as well. A ring, a medallion, and a large gem. Trying to ignore the implications of the single finger with the ring, Jayla found herself more drawn to the gem out of them all. Slowly walking towards it, she could feel herself salivating at the thought of eating the rock-wait, what?!

T-that couldn't be right, could it? I mean, out of all the strange things that happened to her so far, the want to eat a gem, a rock of all things, was the most absurd!

But, gulping down the saliva trying to escape her mouth, she was still hungry, and she didn't want to eat all the fruit in case the vegetables wanted it. Besides, she doubted that they would be able to notice her embarrassment if she did this for nothing. Staring at the gem, Jayla swallowed her resolve and took a deep breath.

"Well, here goes." The former human thought before leaning down, maw open as it neared its object of desire. Hoping that the lizard wouldn't be made a fool of in front of the animate fruit.

Crunch.

Jayla was surprised. Not only by how easy it was for her to bite into the gem, but how it tasted. To the lizard it was like biting into a crisp apple, and it somehow managed to taste sweet despite being a rock. Before she knew it, Jayla managed to eat the whole rock that seemed to be equivalent to her in size before letting out a content sigh.

"That was good." She thought before looking at the medallion and ring. They both seemed to have some type of gem on them, so maybe she could save those for later. If not, they were shiny. Making her way over to the ring, Jayla used a claw to carefully move it around before it was placed onto her wrist. On a human, it would fit perfectly, but her claws were only a bit thicker than a chicken's, so she'd have to make sure it didn't fall off. With the medallion, she looked to see if it had anything to wrap around it. Finding none, she simply took it in her mouth before looking around.

She had to figure out where she was and quick. Surely this whole place wasn't just dancing and singing vegetables. Looking around, Jayla noticed how there was vegetation everywhere. A thriving forest everywhere she. If she wasn't so confused, she would've seen it as peaceful. Looking to the west, she took notice of the giant tree that was there. Maybe there was something there that could give her answers. Or maybe people who could talk and explain to her. Glancing at the east, she noticed how something seemed to be moving within the vegetation and knew she would've be able to put up a fight if it was hostile.

With that in mind, Jayla made her way through the vegetables, being careful of knocking them over as she headed towards the west. "Thanks for taking care of me until I hatched. Maybe I'll see you guys again." Jayla thought, sparing a glance at the vegetables before turning and continuing west.

It was easy because of how big the tree was. Towering over others that seemed like samplings in comparison. Though, she hoped there was nothing hostile on this side as well.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

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Unknown Forest
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Spoiler: Environment

site: clearing inside a forest
Time: 11 am
Weather: sunny

Spoiler: Directions

North: Forest
East: Forest, the vegetation seems a bit thicker
South: Destroyed path
West: Forest, a giant tree can be seen on the distance

Spoiler: NPC

Flesh-eating monkeys x3

Spoiler: Enemy

Curious flesh-eating monkey x1

The vegetables waved Jayla goodbye as she headed to the west direction. The path she took was proven to be quite a tranquil one. The breezy wind gently rubs the canopy above her, creating a serene rustling noise that was enhanched by the birds chirping nearby. A group of cheerful group of walking flowers went passed her, they talk in the same unintelligible language as the one used by the vegetables. She also spotted a few more wildlifes along the way like a blue deer with antlers seemingly made of roots and a black-feathered bird with unproportionally large eyes that keep watching Jayla as she walk along the way. Both seemed to be shy and would run away if she approach them though.

After walking for a while Jayla finally arrived at something different, another clearing, a pretty big one. However, this one was completely different from the previous one. For starters, the ground was charred and cracked, as if multiple explosions wrecked the place. On the south was a path seemingly made by something large bulldozing through the trees, Jayla could see countless trees violently shoved to the side in broken state. Least, there's five human corpses on five differents spots on the clearing, each were skewered from their bottom out to their mouth by a root growing from the ground. Their expression displayed an untold pain and there's several red flowers blooming on the roots which pierced the corpses. Based on their already rotting state it might have been at least several days since they died. Jayla also spotted a few monkeys with large sharp fangs jutting out of their jaws next to some of the coprses. They seemed to be busy nibbling on the corpses body parts as if it was some morning snacks.

There was brief rustling coming from above but Jayla didn't have much time to react before another fanged monkey dropped from the tree next to her. The monkey circled the lizard a few times before showing a sinister smirk at her. It seemed to walked away from Jayla only to come back a few seconds later with a wooden stick on its hand. Then without warning it swings the stick towards Jayla repeatedly. It didn't seems to do it aggresively but it puts enough power as if it was trying to crack open a coconut shell with the stick.​

 

[The Kitsune Siren]

"So pretty." Jayla mused to herself as the lizard trudged through the vegetation, looking at all of them in awe. This place, wherever she was, had some plants and life that she's never seen before. Of course, the staring from both the deer and the bird were a bit unnerving, especially considering her size, but she didn't let that stop her as she continued on her way.

But as she travelled, the surrounding area around her soon began to change. The soft ground below her began to harden and feel rough like, as if the land suddenly was sucked out from it. The vegetation wasn't any better. It was like there was an invisible border where the lush green and the destruction before her laid separated for some reason. Oh, but the land didn't look any better. Oh no.

It looked like a complete war zone. Craters everywhere and the destruction that clearly showed that something was there. Something big. And the bodies. the bodies. No one deserved to die and have their body hanging like that. It was haunting. It was a surprise that the lizard didn't throw up at the spot because of it. Was the thing that did this the one who killed them as well? Were they trying to kill it?

Gulping around the medallion, Jayla prayed to never run into the thing that did this when she heard a rustling from above her. Looking up, the lizard squawked at the sight of the demon like monkey in front of her. So scary! That smile was definitely going to give her nightmares if she survived this.

As it raised its stick, the lizard curled up on itself as if accepting the impending doom that was going to befall her, not even hours from being reborn from this world.

She waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But instead of the painful death she expected of being beaten to death with a stick, there was the light thunking noise that Jayla could hear, a small bit of pressure on her back. Sparing a look up, she was surprised to see that the stick didn't do much so far. Maybe because it was a stick, but she didn't want to chance it. Hopefully she could find a way out without garnering any more attention.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

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Unknown Forest
========================

Spoiler: Environment

site: burnt clearing inside a forest
Time: 11 am
Weather: sunny

Spoiler: Directions

North: Forest
East: Forest, the vegetation seems a bit thicker
South: Destroyed path
West: Forest, a giant tree can be seen on the distance

Spoiler: NPC

Flesh-eating monkeys x3

Spoiler: Enemy

Ambitious flesh-eating monkey x1

The monkey was clearly confused when it realized that its simple stick won't do much against Jayla's crystal armor. The monkey ran towards its kins who were enjoying one of the corpse, and then for the next several seconds all four monkeys seemed to have a heated argument consisted of screaming, hairpulling, and beating each other with human bones. Among the chaotic screeching one monkey sneaked out of the group and scurried towards a pile just next to the corpse.

The pile itself from afar just looks like a bunch of charred woods, rocks, leaves and whatnot but from those trash the monkey managed to pull out a burnt axe, likely used to be owned by the dead human. Ignoring its fighting friends, the monkey enthusiastly dragged its new axe towards where Jayla was.

The monkey was definitely smart enough to knows its own limitation and basic tool use. The monkey grunted as it exerted its entire strength to lift the axe overhead, and then let out another grunt before it swung down the axe to Jayla's location.​

 

[The Kitsune Siren]

Jayla found it laughable how thankful she was for having such a hard skin now. If she didn't, she probably would've been crushed. As the monkey ran towards its kin, the small dragon took that as a sign to try and leave as fast as possible. With her head lifted up as not to trip over the medallion, she worked to scramble across all of the debris of bodies, earth, and weapons.

The sound of a the monkey behind her grunting caused her to look behind her, eyes widening at the sight of the axe overhead. Nope. Nope. Nopenopenope!!

Scrambling, Jayla tried to quickly run through the ruined planes, struggling as she still wasn't used to her limbs yet, but that was the last thing on her mind.

Why did she have to be so small!

 

[Spoiled Bread]

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Unknown Forest
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Spoiler: Environment

site: Thick forest, the canopy blocked almost all sunlight
Time: 12 noon
Weather: sunny

Spoiler: Directions

North: Thick forest
East: Burnt plain
South: Thick forest
West: Thick forest

Spoiler: NPC

pixies x3

Spoiler: Enemy

-

A frustated shriek could be heard as the monkey missed its axe swing. It immediately rushed forward to catch up with the running lizard, only to realize that it can't do much against the scales without the axe so the monkey ran back to retrieve the axe before resuming the pursuit. However, it's pretty clear that Jayla would be able to outrun the monkey as long as it was dragging the axe. She would notices several other piles similar to the one the monkey got the axe from, each corpse has their own pile next to them, but with the raging monkey chasing her she would have no time checking.

The moment Jayla stepped into the forest, she would felts an uncomfortable shiver, as if hundreds of eyes of suddenly turned their gazes towards her, or was it the forest itself that stares at her? Either way, the monkey didn't follow her here. Looking around, Jayla would realize the forest she was currently in was very different from the ones before. The trees were so dense that only little to no sunlight managed to reach the ground. While there's still plenty of light coming from the clearing behind her, it seemed the deeper she goes the darker the forest would be.

In front of her was a vast thick forest with no notable landmark and no visible beaten path. Although she could spot a few floating spheres of light here and there, aimlessly wandering the forest as if they're lost. There's a small rustle coming from somewhere on her right and Jayla could see three small figures, even smaller than Jayla's head, hiding behind a mushroom, they seemed curious but also cautious of Jayla's presence as they peeked over the mushroom. Overall they look humanoid, but they had various skin colors like green, red and yellow with equally varied eye and hair colors. They also poses antennaes and insect-like wings that spreads some sort of glowing powders everytime it flutters. They might not be Tinkerbells but Jayla could see their resemblance to a particular fantasy creature, the pixies.​

 

[The Kitsune Siren]

Quickly scurrying away, Jayla felt herself let out a relieved breath as she stepped into the forest. But that was quickly gone by the sudden chill of something watching her from all directions. Not menacingly, not yet at least. But something was definitely out there observing her every move. And she didn't like that fact one bit.

Carefully treading through the forest, she thought of what to do when she was so vulnerable in a world like this. Okay, for sure, she knew that she was some sort of crystal or gem related with her appearance. A lizard, maybe? With her appearance, the sentient vegetables, and just about everything else that she experienced up until now, she had to believe that the world she was in had magic. So, did that mean that she could have magic as well? How would she be able to access it?

As these thoughts ran rapidly through her head, Jayla was distracted by the sudden rustling sound that came from her right. Turning her head, she was surprised by the three light figures not too far from her. Small, as they were able to easily hide behind a mushroom, but still so pretty in her eyes.

Carefully treading forward, her eyes widened at the sight of them. These had to be fairies of some kind, truly! Now, the question remained on whether or not these fairies were friendly towards her or hostile.