Chapter 4: Trash

> This part of the universe was interesting indeed. Just like they told me, there really was a lot to be found here. Unlike the filth back at home, the mortals here were far more interesting. They each inhabited their own planet in isolation, with their own System, ignorant of the wider cosmos.

>

> I would have loved to harvest every last one of these measly planets, but I had a mission: to absorb the Wandering God. The killing blow was already dealt. All it took for me was to find the planet they lounged at, and then understand the rules of its System in order to get the upper-hand. Sadly, due to my own miscalculations, the wound I gave them did not delete them instantly. Their persona still lived and managed to flee. Now, I follow and follow, yet their presence alludes me. Even though they would perish eventually from the wound I gave them, the possibility of someone else inheriting their power still existed.

>

> I looked at the planet in front of me. "Perhaps I need to use their purpose against them?"

>

> - [Error]

Tom tried focusing on one of the demons but he didn’t get a clear picture of their aura in his mind. They were too far away and in constant motion for him to discover anything.

Hiding behind a tree for cover, he searched through his satchel. He didn’t have a sword, but he found a dagger. Now the problem was learning how to use it.

One of the demons ran closer to Timmy trying to finish him off, so Tom decided to take his chances. He grabbed the dagger and flung it at the demon. The dagger flew from his hands … and towards Timmy. Ilona managed to block it with her staff.

"Tom, get yourself together. Go back and get reinforcements!"

Sierra lazily threw a dagger at the demon causing him to jump away from Ilona and Timmy.

Sitting on the branches of a nearby tree, a demon looked back and forth between Sierra and Tom. They proceeded to ignore Tom and focused on Hiro, probably guessing he was another spy like Sierra.

"Just as planned," Tom told himself.

A horrifying roar echoed.

Tom looked towards what one of the demons was pointing at and saw a giant bear with one of the demons in its jaw. Or he thought it was a bear. It was a strange mix between a bear and a giant spider. At the bottom of the bear was a spider-like monster merged together. When his teammates got closer, the bear roared and the spider monster started awkwardly punching around, even hitting the bear's arms and wounding it. It was such an eerie creature that Tom stood where he was in confusion, as the others started fighting it.

"What is that thing?"

"Go!" Ilona shouted.

She didn’t have to tell him twice. Tom ran with all his strength towards what he thought was towards the camp. To be honest: his directions got mixed up during the battle. He was still in the weird demonic forest, and then for a moment he felt a strange sensation pulling him. Suddenly the forest changed in the blink of an eye. Now it was a dark oak forest, with very tall trees.

Wasn’t he still in the demonic part of the forest? How did he get here?

In the distance, he spotted an old structure that had to be the ruins they were looking for. "Found it!" Tom turned to see no one there, and the terrain didn’t look like where he came from. If Tom had to guess he came over some hidden pocket dimension or something. Hopefully, the others wouldn't die — right?

Tom shook his head. When in doubt: trust the plot armor. He might as well survey the ruins to see what’s inside.

The ruins were made of stone, and the entrance was up some stairs. He walked inside along a narrow hallway. The walls were carved with the symbol of a key. There was also a drawing of a little girl oddly placed beside the key. The girl was holding a mirror … and making a peace sign? The carving of the little girl was so out of place and childish that it stood out like a last-minute edit.

Further inside he found a bigger room. It looked like an altar with lit-up torches hanging on the walls. He walked up the stairs at the back of the room and found a sword stuck in a rock.

Finally! He found an OP weapon.

Tom readied himself. He pulled on the sword, and … it came out. It actually came out of the rock. He was the chosen one!

"Space yeah!" Wait, why did he say space?

The sword was firmly gripped by his hand. It was a glistening and unfortunately normal-looking sword. The hilt was golden and adorned with a key symbol.

"Greetings. May I ask who managed to pull me out?"

Did the sword talk? He finally got his cool sidekick. "What are you?"

"Me? I am the 50th sword of the 100 sword series. Also known as the supreme sword of mediocrity."

***

"Human, you are making a very unappealing face right now." The sword noted. "Is this sword not strong enough for you?" The sword hummed with a weak glow as if it was making fun of his expectations.

Tom nodded. "Correct." He stabbed the sword back into the rock and proceeded to leave.

"Wait, where are you going! Don’t leave me here, I am one of the legendary aura swords. Don’t you need power to defeat your enemies?" The sword pleaded. It was gleaming with flickering light, and humming with more force.

Tom felt sick of everything. Was a stereotypical otherworldly adventure too much to ask? Why did the universe have to be so woke and cancel power fantasies? All he was doing was making a fool of himself, and running away. This was no different from before.

"Nah, to space with this fart." Wait a second, why couldn’t he swear? There was a cussing filter? God, this stupid world was even making him sound ridiculous.

The sword hummed. "I know, I could curse way better without it as well. The one that created the filter is a goody-two-shoes kid," the sword said.

Tom nodded. "And don’t get me started on the obvious main cast of characters. Like, why is nobody noticing them? A priestess who can heal wounds like it's nothing. It’s obviously the saintess. Don’t get me started on that demon spy."

"I know, this world is a mess."

"This world's creator or what not should have read more fantasy books before making this mess. Maybe reading web novels would also … Wait a second, who told you to read my mind? I don’t remember signing a contract or anything with you."

"What do you mean? Our contract started the moment you pulled me out of that rock. As my wielder, I have a mental connection with you. Don’t get caught up in the ranking, I am one of the … scratch that, I am THE most awesome sword of all the aura swords. You are obviously an otherworlder, so your life is bound to be intriguing to follow. Take me with you on your journey! I am able to—."

"No."

"At least let me finish!"

A horrid scream echoed throughout the ruin. It must be one of those weird creatures that followed him into the ruins. "Space no, this is the no-choice-but-to-take-this-decision-to-save-my-life cliché isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. What a nice way to say you have no choice."

Tom sighed. "Only if you promise to not read my mind ever again."

The sword hummed. "I guess I could go with that."

He picked up the sword, which started humming in excitement. Even though he could see and feel it humming with a weak glow, he felt no vibration in his hand.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The shadow of the approaching beast was visible at the end of the room.

"So, how can I kill this beast?"

"Hm, I wonder how."

Tom gulped. "Wait, you don’t know how? You piece of trash!" Was this really it for him?

"Don’t call me trash! And stop panicking, you’re stressing me out. I can sense something in your satchel. Can you pull it out?"

Tom instinctively knew what it was talking about, and pulled out the vial of water that also gave him a strange sensation. "This is probably not water."

"Technically it is, however, it has been embodied with a poison spirit." The sword said.

"Embodied?"

It hummed. "Think of it as poison hidden inside the water. A normal detection skill would find nothing, however, when the liquid comes in contact with a living being the poison comes out. It's an inherited demon ability."

Sierra probably embodied his water in secret while he rested. Speaking of her, she must also have thrown away his sword on purpose. "Great to know, but I don’t think I will be able to feed this into the beast's mouth."

"No need. See that fire over there?" Tom could feel a pull to the right and saw a burning fire. "Put me into the fire to ignite me with its aura."

Tom did as the sword said, and pulled the blade into the fire. When he pulled it out, the sword had changed its form. What used to be an unimpressive sword was now a sword with a bright orange hilt, and the hilt started glowing like a fire from the heat.

Tom shrieked from the immense heat and lost his grip. The sword fell to the ground with a thud.

"See? I said I was awesome. As the 50th aura sword, I have the same aptitude for all types of spirits. Normally I would be stuck to the type of spirit my wielder is most compatible with. However, since you are an observer, you are the perfect wielder for me and allow me to use all types of spirits."

Tom nodded. "That's cool and all, but the hilt is too warm to wield."

"… Yeah, that is a problem. Usually, your body would have heightened heat resistance if you specialize in fire affinity, but I guess that doesn’t apply to you. What an intriguing predicament."

Tom could hear the creature get closer. "Just tell me the plan."

Emptying his satchel, he wrapped it around his hand and used it to grip the sword's handle. He could still feel the heat but the satchel made it more bearable.

"I only know the skill [stabilize] so I am not sure what I can do."

"It’s gonna hurt you, but I’m all for it! All you need to do is to throw the vial at the beast. Anywhere will do as long as it is on the beast’s body, then use me to slice the beast, and finish it by using [stabilize]."

"What will that do?"

The sword hummed as if that was a stupid question. "As an aura sword, I strengthen your abilities. By yourself, you can only use stabilize on living beings, but with my help you can also use it on any kind of spirit. And … I’ll explain later, just do what I said, it has arrived."

The horrid beast walked into the room. This one was a mixture of a deer and some shelled creature. They weren’t that awful apart, however the grotesque way they were merged together was unsettling. It was walking with the legs of the shelled creature, and the legs of the deer helped to stabilize the slight wobbling due to the center of mass being off. One of the deer's hooves was merged through the entire shellfish creature, stabbing a clear hole through it and appearing at the other side. The deer's horns also constantly collided with the shellfish's face, evident by all the scars.

The creature shrieked at him with the sound of a deer mixed with the gurgling scream of the shelled creature. It slowly walked towards him.

His body froze, but he felt a strong surge of courage and amusement flooding him from the sword. What? Was it possible to transfer emotions to someone? No time to think about that.

He threw the vial at the creature, which easily collided with the shell of the charging creature. Then he lunged toward the creature sliding along its bottom side. He felt the palm of his hand burn as the heat had burned a hole in the satchel, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. He aimed for its left side where the center of mass was off and cut the underbelly of the deer.

He managed to cut it, but he felt a surge of pain. One of the hooves of the deer cut into his shoulder, and threw him away. The sword left his hand and he fell on the cold cobblestone floor. Another surge of pain followed from his hand, together with the smell of burned flesh.

The creature backpedaled to turn in an eerie way. He could feel the wrong aura of the beast, but his skill did not focus there; his senses went to the small fire wound and the intense sensation of the poison spirit.

"[stabilize]!"

Instantly, he sensed the aura of the poison spirit dimming in intensity, and a flame set ablaze. The creature shrieked as its whole body was set ablaze. The deer part started crumbling and some of the creature's shells fell off, as if it was burning from the inside as well. It eventually stopped resisting and fell to the floor still burning.

Tom didn’t dare speak until the creature had stopped screaming. "What happened?"

"There are spirits in everything. You don’t get eternal burning fire from nowhere. The torches at my temple were specifically imbued with low grade fire spirits. The fire spirit is very weak, but the middle grade poison spirit is quite potent. With the help of stabilize, the potency of the poison spirit decreases, but the power of the fire spirit increases, setting it ablaze. The weaker poison gas inhaled by the creature is an added bonus. Although, I don’t know why you were screaming what skill you were using. That one is on you."

"I was trying to add some dramatic flare," Tom grumbled. So [stabilize] wasn’t entirely useless. It just required him to be more creative with his fights. "But what do you mean by lower and middle grade?"

"You really don't know anything do you? Although, learning about spirits is the job of observers, so I guess I could help explain," Trash hummed. "Spirits are manifestation of reality. Both in a literal way, and a more abstract way. Normally people would be gaining strength from the excess of spiritual energy, otherwise called mana. Observers mend reality by using spirits, but the strength of these spirits are organized in different grades. There is one golden role for understanding these grades: Reality, purpose, and ideal."

"Reality, purpose, and ideal?" Tom repeated. "As in lower, middle, and higher grade?"

"Exactly. Lower grade spirits are literal manifestations of reality; some examples would be water, wind, fire, and earth. Middle grade are … conditions you could say. This would include poison, shadow, and weather. Higher grades are manifestations of more abstract laws and ideals; such as gravity, honor, and disease. Then there are the higher beings, whom unlike spirits who stay to their nature with little will to interfere with the world, can represent their own ideals or specific liturgi whilst taking an active part in the worlds development."

"So, there does not exist something like a higher grade fire spirit?"

"No. Spirits gain power, or their grade, from how much faith people have to put into them, you could say. The more abstract, the stronger the spirit is. It is a manifestation of reality, nothing more. However, theoretically there could exist a higher grade fire spirit, but then there has to be a specific ideal it would represent."

Tom tried to absorb everything he heard into his head, but he felt like he understood none of it. If he really wanted to fight, then he would have to strategically use different grade spirits, and that sounded super complicated. "What the space, I didn’t want to get isekai’d to use my brain more. Why can't I use more generic spells like [ignite] or something?"

"Since you are an observer, you can only use the skills of an observer. Don’t worry, you will learn better skills as you get stronger."

Yeah, Tom had forgotten about leveling up because there was no status screen. "So the more of these beasts I kill, the stronger I will get?"

The sword hummed, reluctant. "Not really. You get stronger by personal experience, or you can get a blessing from a higher being."

Tom knew it: this world sucked. His only way to venture on the OP isekai protagonist route was to get blessed by a higher being. But at least he had a goal now. There should be a library at the camp that could help him get the information needed without arousing suspicion. If the people here knew what he was after they would probably force him to fight more.

"Yes, cheating. I am all for it. We are perfect for each other," the sword excitedly hummed.

"It’s not cheating you stupid sword. I am just trying to do things in a less stressful way. And what did I say about reading my mind?" His answer sounded a bit more shameful when he said it out loud, but he was an otherworlder. He had to make this second life worth it. "Oh, and my name is Tom by the way."

The sword hummed. "Hello, Tom. Again, we really are perfect for each other. Now would be the appropriate moment to give me a name. Sword sounds too tacky. What about ‘Mountain splitter’, or maybe ‘the Great Sword of Destruction’?" The sword started continuously humming in anticipation for his new name.

"Let’s go with Trash. It fits. Kind of has a nice ring to it."

"Trash! That sounds terrible. Give me another name!"

"Let’s get out of here Trash."

"Don’t ignore me! Ugh," Trash hummed. "Well, as long as I get out of this boring place."

Tom picked up Trash that had now lost its heat. He stared at the burning corpse of the beast: it still hadn’t stopped burning. Strangely he could feel the periodic humming from the beast the same way he sensed Trash, almost as if the beast was crying. Or maybe it was happiness? He wasn’t sure.

He pointed at the beast. "What is that?"

"It’s just an error beast."

The creature had on its death turned back into two beasts with two separate auras. One deer and a shellfish-looking monster. How had these two creatures merged together in the first place? This wasn’t the time to find out. "Trash, how do I get out of this place?"

"Simply walk out. You got inside of this place since you were compatible with me. Leaving is simple … wait, you made me respond to that stupid name!"

Tom was too tired to bicker with his new talking sword. He walked towards the forest, and suddenly the trees changed back to the demonic trees. Outside the ruins he was greeted with the sight of 3 new error beasts.

"Trash, you don’t happen to have a secret hidden power we could use now?" Tom nervously asked.

Trash hummed. "Sorry."

The beasts lunged towards him, and Tom quickly jumped to the side. The beasts collided with each other, giving him some time to run. However, his energy was all spent. He could still feel the burn marks on his hand, the wound on his shoulder, and the sword which was feeling even heavier in his hand. Right now, he was running for his life.

No, this was wrong. This wasn’t him.

"Hey, are you seriously resting now? The error beasts are getting closer."

He could sense the panicked humming from Trash. A talking sword was cool, but Tom was too tired to keep on going. He wasn't a strong brave person who could fight his way to victory. All he wanted was to live a more relaxing life, just like several other isekai protagonists. But as usual he managed to mess everything up.

With his back to a tree, he closed his eyes as he sensed the beasts getting closer. Closer, closer, then … gone. He did not sense the error beast anymore, but he could now sense something else. It was a beautiful aura, it felt encouraging, yet he could feel something else that he didn’t know how to explain.

Tom opened his eyes to see all the beasts dead, impaired with a dark cloak. The cloak looked like the darkness filled with small glistening stars. Tall and enveloped in the cloak, its eyes gleaming a white glow fixated on him. It was a creature that did not make sense to look at, yet he felt like it should have made sense from its aura which was like the starry night sky itself.

"Thanks. Getting killed by you would be a cooler way to die," Tom managed to mutter out before he lost consciousness.