In most isekai stories I’ve read, there’s usually a meeting with a god or some greater entity, maybe a princess or a wizard. Even when the main character is just dropped into a random forest they usually have… something. Even more western stories fantasy stories I’ve read usually involve something more than ‘this guy woke up here’...
Unbalanced and overpowered abilities, notes written by the gods or the wisest scholars, a status menu to know what they can do and how to get stronger? Or the all powerful “Appraisal skill” that just lets you know things for free!
To be fair, I do have an ability that could be very powerful… anti-magic. I’ve encountered various magical traps in that rotten temple, the first person I met used magic, the first… monster(?) I came across couldn’t see me, likely because it sees with magic?
It’s not all powerful, I doubt it could help me if someone shot me with a gun or a bow, or if I was attacked by a guy with a stick stronger than me, but there were six times so far where I only survived because of this anti-magic power. It was probably greedy to think this, but I wanted more. I wanted ‘information’ so much more. That would have kept Milvarr alive, at least… If only I wasn’t an idiot with that key, why didn’t I think it would affect the puzzle!?
DAMMIT ARMIN!
I walked forward as I stewed in my regret and thoughts, the buzzing of insects tickling my ears, muddling my thinking. The ‘shore’ was uneven, jagged, and dense grass was growing- practically bursting from between the cracks in the stone-like ground. I didn’t understand how this made sense, but it did make it hard to walk on without paying attention.
Brushing past a twisted and oddly smooth ‘tree’, I was entranced by all of this… this completely foreign geology, the vibrant plants that sprouted from the ground here and there (that only made me think of poison), including the smooth tree that seemed almost polished but otherwise just looked like a tree, the complete lack of sand on what was clearly a stone shore, the fishipede… and the humanoid fish sitting on a rock, fishing with a bone-like fishing rod from the sea. How had I not seen this thing earlier!? It might have been obscured by the tree, but it had the presence of a rock! Even when I looked right at it I didn’t notice it despite it being a weird blue on a brown and green backdrop!?
The naked scaly blue-grey figure slowly turned to regard me as I got close enough to see it. Two large bulbous yellow eyes rotated in their sockets to look at me as it nonchalantly threw a line into the water. It creeped me out the way those yellow eyes stared at me with large void-like pupils that seemed to constantly dilate and contract, like it was measuring me on some unknowable level…
For half a second there, I thought it might be someone in a fish suit, but that was immediately impossible. Looking at this fish fisherman, while their overall body structure looked ‘humanoid’, it twisted and bent in ways that seemed to mock the idea of joints and the human body. This was a completely different creature, a fish in vaguely human form… maybe a merman, or a mermaid?
This definitely wasn’t the mermaid Lorelei… or the stories vastly exaggerated her beauty.
If I were to liken this creature to a merman or mermaids folklore I knew of, it would be the japanese variant. ‘Hideous harbingers of calamity’.
First lizard people, and now mermaids. Would I be bombarded with every folklore from earth in this strange world!? I found myself wondering if the myth of eating the flesh of a mermaid to gain immortality was real in this world too?
I quickly shook the thought from my head, I was losing track of reality with every fantastical thing I had seen in the past day, I needed to focus or I could actually die!
I was about 6 or 7 steps away from this person and considered backing away and running, but its lack of hostility and the fact that I already met a lizard person numbed my fear. My mind ran through several trains of thought, and I won’t lie, in the end it came down to ‘why not?’ and I decided to talk to this person. (They were probably a person)
“H-hello there.” I stuttered as I greeted the fish… man(?), raising my right hand limply, feeling the pain of the wound, while my left one hovered close to the sword handle. The response I got back was beyond my comprehension. It sounded like three people gurgling and gasping for breath at the same time. I heard at least three distinct pitches and if there were words, I couldn’t recognise them as words…
Their gills flared as their mouth opened and closed, there was the musk of raw fish pouring out of this creature reaching even as far away as I was, overpowering the ocean’s stench.
I had no idea how to respond to whatever the fish person said to me with such a blank look on their unchanging fish face. “I-I don’t know that language. Sorry about that.” I replied with a weak chuckle, and I didn’t know if they understood me or not, but they seemed to lose interest as their eyes rotated in their sockets unblinkingly and then they turned back to the ocean.
With the overall shape of a flabby human male, maybe around 160cm (5’4”) tall, they had moist blue-grey skin, gills, glistening scales, and the fish head attached to the neck.
From my knowledge of fish this person likely had an endoskeleton with most of their internal structure built around that, which would explain the weird way they could bend in some places.
They had flippers for their feet, so it was safe to assume they were good swimmers, they seemed docile, which was great,
Remember those 3 main hurdles to living in a foreign place? Money, language and knowledge? I couldn’t understand the fish person, which made me realise that every race had a different language, and that would be a hurdle to think about. Maybe they could understand me?
I took a moment to think about this situation. This person could have useful information for me if they can understand me, but it could also just be a waste of time and possibly lead to aggression if I kept prodding.
I thought about asking them what fruits were edible, but how sure could I be that we ever had similar digestive systems and could eat the same things? At least I could ask him if there was a settlement nearby?
“Hey, do you know where I can find a town or village?” I asked, making the fish person look back at me for a few seconds, before raising a hand towards me, palm up… the universal “gimme” gesture. Of course, *sigh*…
Assessing my inventory, aside from my sword (it wasn’t even mine to give away), my waterskin (I need clean water to live), and the clothes I was wearing (not a chance in hell), I had:
1 silver, 2 bronze, 3 big copper, and 10 small copper coins (I don’t know the values)
And in my sack:
A Kettle
A tinderbox
5 candles
3 glass bottles
4 daggers (3 are horribly rusted)
2 empty sacks
2 tins of ‘lantern oil’, aka kerosene
1 set of dry clothes
A repair kit
A medical kit
A healing (?) potion
A (very thin) book about the basics of potions
Small empty mysterious bag
Ornate metal Staff
Guild tag of “of Dolomer’s Wand Guild”, belonging to “Oromar Witechere”
To start, I showed him the coins, holding back the silver because it seemed the most valuable, and this weird fish person just shook their round fish face at me. They didn’t seem interested in this currency… I hoped that it would be useful in whatever settlement I found myself in next…
Then I laid out everything from my sack, aside from the kettle, tinderbox, a few candles, and the bag, staff and tag of Oromar Witechere.
I watched their weird little… okay, big bulgy sideways eyes stare at the items unblinkingly, idly shaking his pole a bit to lure in a fish.
They then pointed at the one clean dagger, the bottles, and both tins of lantern oil, gurgling something. I couldn’t understand them, but I got the idea enough to put the items he pointed aside for him. Luckily I didn’t need those items too badly, so it was likely to be a good deal for me.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
As I wondered how this bargaining was going to end, they got a bite on their line.
They turned to the sea again, their gills flaring up as they let out this bizarre groan that sounded like several people gasping for breath and moaning in pain. The flabby arms covered in fish meat and scales bulged as muscles seemed to form out of fat in some sicky tumorous way, their arms bending in a strange angle as they pulled back on the line, struggling against whatever they had caught.
As I watched this for however many seconds it took, I was just taken aback by what their muscles looked like, they were extremely unnatural. No matter the creature, whatever matter they had acting in the place of muscles, it shouldn’t bulge in such a horrid way, like their inner structure was rapidly and uncontrollably expanding, threatening to rip their skin and burst outwards.
This creature either had a structure I had never seen before in all the anatomy I’ve studied, or had something horribly wrong with it.
… and with a splash, they reeled in a ‘fish’(?)... if that was even the right word for it. Maybe ‘monster’ would be more apt.
Their catch was at least 30cm (1 ft) in length and looked like a leech, a strange multi-headed leech that let out some horrid screeches as the fish person ripped it from their lure with a dextrous yet seemingly uncaring hand. Then, without so much as bothering to kill it, they put a hand on their stomach and pulled the scaly skin apart like a pouch, dropping the still screaming leech hydra thing into said meaty pouch.
The air was filled with an acrid smell as the meaty pouch opened and I was shocked.
What did I just see?
It wasn’t even like a kangaroo’s skin pouch, it was putting that into their body, LIVE! Was that how they ate? Was it just storing it there somehow? How close was it to their internal organs? Didn’t they fear their catch hurting them from the inside!?
They then turned to look at me, even as I could hear the leech screeching in the open gut pocket, and without breaking eye contact, they reached into the still open pouch and pulled out a mortar and pestle and a piece of rolled up leather.
They dexterously unfurled the leather with one hand as another dipped into… something, and quickly marked something on the opened leather before rolling it up again and setting it and the mortar and pestle on the ground next to my items, before scooping up the things I set aside for them and tossing them into their gut. With a simple tap of the palm of their moist wet hand, the stomach closed up with a wet slapping down and there wasn’t a mark left, as I just dreamt up their stomach being opened up to act like a meat duffle bag, and at this point I wasn’t sure I hadn’t.
Jesus, I think I need to puke. They store items INSIDE THEMSELVES!?
What did I just see? Why did I have to see that? My hands were shaking as I picked my things back up and packed them away. The mortar and pestle and the leather roll smelt horrid, and I had to put the tools into a separate sack.
I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the leather roll yet, I just needed to leave. I needed to take a moment to figure out what I just saw.
But when I looked up, the merman hadn’t looked away, one of its bulging unblinking eyes was locked onto me in an eerie way, even as their face was turned towards the sea as if it was focusing on fishing. It spoke something in that unnerving cacophony of gurgles, gasps and moans.
“T-thank you.” I muttered in reply, taking a few steps away as I kept eyes locked with them, before turning and rushing off, my stomach already churning.
I don’t know how long I had walked before I felt comfortable pausing to take a breath.
No, I wasn’t comfortable, I was nauseous. I don’t know how other people would react, seeing what I saw, but if I were to explain myself: I am a surgeon. I regularly cut people up to fix the problems on their insides. I know a lot about human anatomy, I think about it every day, almost, and the thought of how that internal structure would play out compared to a human honestly sickened me.
Everything was wrong. It was just wrong. I swear I could still smell their gastric juices, imagine how their internals worked and how that leech must have just inches away from their digestive system. It reminded me of how I found a 6 metre (20ft) long tapeworm in the gut of one of my patients, but so much worse.
I thought there was nothing about the human body that would disgust me anymore, but god it turned out I was a lot more delicate than I thought. All it took was an eldritch digestive system in a humanoid creature to set me off.
When I felt better, I finally opened the leather roll, which had thankfully stopped smelling as horrid as it did. Unfurling it, I had a leather canvas upon which… was a map!
It was simple hand drawn one, but it showed an island (so I was on an island, not just the coast),
The island could be roughly split into two parts, an upper and lower one, with a narrower part in the middle dividing the two with what looked like a mountain drawn on it.
There was a bigger mountain on the upper half, but I couldn’t see it last night and wasn’t close to anything I could climb and peek above the trees.
There was a small settlement marked on the lower part, and a bigger one in the upper half, which was great news! And I was on the lower part.
How do I know that? Because of the fishing spot marked on the bottom shore. A clear indicator of where I met the merman… and maybe where I can meet them again.
Looking at the map closer, If I kept walking west (if they used those directions here), then I’d find a river I could follow upwards, and there’d be a village if I broke away from the river and went east at a certain point. If I followed my original plan I probably would have gotten there, but it was nice to have confirmation.
And interestingly enough, there were also 3 docks or ports marked on the map. Two larger ones in the upper part, and a small one relatively nearby. I didn’t know how large the island was though, so that could have been hours or days away.
I just needed to keep walking and then I’d get to a settlement! I could (hopefully) buy food and necessities, learn more about this world, find someone to give Milvarr her rites, find out who’s body I was in and give them a send off too, and maybe even find the priest and monk who tricked Milvarr in the first place!
I wasn’t seeking revenge on anything, but they did lead to two people dying and might want to kill me if they recognised me as their last mark, so I at least needed to know who they were. If I could bring them to justice somehow on top, that would be good for every-
And I fucked up, again. I let my mind wander.
I had my head in the clouds and my nose in the map, my ears disregarded all the sounds around me as just the meaningless buzzing of insects and the scuttering about of other critters.
That’s why I didn’t notice the quiet slittering or the creeping feeling of dread. It was only thanks to a foreign ‘sense of imminent danger’ I got from my body and the reflexes drilled into me in training that I noticed a shadow move in the edge of my vision.
In a nearly involuntary response, I twisted my body in a panic as a snake the size of a large dog just barely missed biting my leg.
Panicking, I drew my sword, dropping the leather map as I assessed the situation.
There were two snakes- no, there was one, but it had two heads, and its long tail ended in a blade-like bone that swayed maliciously. It wasn’t anaconda sized, but it was the largest snake I had ever seen outside a zoo. Jesus, if I was half a second off, I might have been dying with a leg full of snake venom right.
The snake didn’t give me a second longer to assess the situation as it zipped forward!
I took a quick sidestep to dodge one bite, but the second came instantly, not giving me a moment to even think as I jumped back, almost tripping over the rocky ground.
The first head came again! I ducked to the side and swung my sword, but I misjudged the length of the sword and barely missed the snake.
I needed time to think, but the snake was quick to slide on the ground to try and circle around me, both heads ready to strike, just waiting to catch me off guard or off balance.
Dammit, I wasn’t equipped for this!
The first head struck, I backstepped, preparing my sword. The second head struck late, throwing me off a bit, but I swung my sword. It would connect this time! And IT DID!
It was a graze, but I drew some blood. And then the tail came at me, and I wasn’t ready for it.
The blade-like bone at the end of the snake swung as the momentum pulled it forward, but it quickly curled like a scorpion’s tail, adjusting its angle, and then pierced the blade into my side!
I must have been lucky, but it got caught in my pouch just before it could pierce my skin, ripping my shirt and scratching me as it pulled away, my pouch falling to the ground, the coin purse splitting out the many coins that clattered about the ground.
I couldn’t let this small opening go, and I swung the sword down with my left hand as my right dug into my sack and quickly pulled out a rusty dagger. The reach was far worse than a sword, but it was a tool I was trained in and used to.
Unfortunately, I only left the snake a shallow cut as well.
The snake hissed at me with one head, the other looking around shiftily. I didn’t like that. I squeezed the rusty dagger as I kept myself on guard for another twist in the pattern.
And the attack continued!
First head lashed out, trying to bite my leg. I twisted on my other leg instead of dodging, keeping myself in place as I swung with the sword.
The second head was a crafty one, it didn’t leap, instead it was waiting and sprung out to bite my hand as I took that swing, but I had my dagger ready and stabbed at the snake head!
Because of the weird angle and momentum, the thrust was off, but it cut fairly deep into one of the snake’s necks as my blade pierced it!
Unfortunately the snake one upped me as well, and the bladed tail came out, stabbing into my thigh as I was too late in moving it away.
DAMMIT! It hurt like hell!
The snake dropped back onto the ground as it stared at me, and I stared at it.
It was injured and bleeding. They weren’t fatal strikes, but my cuts weren’t too shallow either. And I was injured too… looking at the snake, I didn’t believe the tail was venomous, but it had cut fairly deep. I wouldn’t be able to move properly.
It seemed that this was it, neither me nor the snake would die easily. Whoever won wouldn’t be much for this world… Of all the things that could’ve killed me in this fantastical world, I’d be dying to a stupid double snake? I hated this.
As I readied myself for another round of strikes, my hands were shaking as I thought about how I was going to die if I was off by even a split second… the snake didn’t attack.
It just stared for a good few seconds, glancing at me, then itself, before giving me one last glare and then slithered away into the bushes.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who could see that there was no good ending to this fight.
The monsters of this world wanted to live too, it seemed.
Jesus Christ.