“Down, boy”
Cole stood up.
He moved on instincts that he hadn’t even known were there, leaping back, and traced a Runic Strength as fast as he possibly could. In front of him was a huge bear of a man, at least 6 foot 5, with a wild beard, and long shaggy hair worn in a half up, half down style. A scar traced its way from just under his left eye, all the way down to his chin. He was terrifying.
Cole finished the rune, empowering his arms with runic might, spears left on the ground. He bellowed and swung his fist as hard as he could into the man’s chest. He’d amused himself while on his speed cooldowns by picking up rocks and sending them rocketing away, so he knew that he should be able to send this man, no matter how big he was, flying backwards.
The man didn’t move an inch, chuckling as he looked down at Cole’s fist, that remained planted into his huge pecs, seeming bemused at the audacity the young man had to even think of doing something so stupid.
The huge man stepped back, sighing, and raised his fist. An orange glow appeared around it, becoming bright, cutting out, then blasting back into a brilliant flash. As this flash happened, the man thrust his fist forward, straight into Cole’s gut. Cole was sent flying up in the air, reaching up to 4 metres at the top of his arc, before coming crashing down on his ass. As much as it hurt, he had a sneaking suspicion that the man had gone easy on him.
“I said Down” the bear man growled.
He strode over to Cole’s dazed form, placing one massive boot on his chest and pushing him into the dirt. The man began to speak.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing wandering around the Frontier at this time of year, huh? It’s a miracle you’re still in one piece, as unfit and flabby as that piece may be.”
“The… the Frontier?” Cole muttered dazedly.
“Yes boy, the damn Frontier!” the man roared, “This village is the only town in the Artesian Merchants Republic for hundreds of kilometres around, this side of the river that is. You didn’t come with that mercenary group who portaled in a few days ago, and I know sure as hell you didn’t come from the Vestrian Empire. If that’s what you call a class, then my left pinky finger has got 5 of em!”
“So tell me, boy,” he said, leaning on the last word in a way that made Cole feel like he was back in school again “What the hell are you doing out here?”
Cole sat in silence, trying to reconcile what he knew about the lore of Vestria Online with what he’d just been told. The main country of Vestria, which had been the base starting map of the VRMMO, was bordered by various nations, and a vast ocean on the north side. These nations varied in size, and had been slowly released to the player base as DLC updates.
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But what the man was saying didn’t make sense. Artesia was an incredibly vast, barren wilderness, only inhabited by animals. He’d once done a contracting job for an in-game mining company in his time as the Magus Supreme, helping some surveyors locate rare ore deposits by cutting out huge swathes of earth with his Instant Portal technique.
So what did that mean then? If there was an Artesian Merchants Republic, then he obviously wasn’t in the same time period as the world had been when he’d last logged off.
Vestria as well, the man had said something about a Vestrian Empire. That was ridiculous, Vestria was ruled by a body of elected officials. Cole thought, trying to figure out what he was missing.
Wait.
Could he be?
Could this world he had been transported too like some bad isekai, be the same as Vestria Online? Just…
“You still with me boy?” said the huge man, snapping his fingers in front of Cole’s face.
…In the future?
Cole gasped, realising that that was the only thing that made sense.
But what had happened to all the other people that had been in that field? Why hadn’t they ended up in Frontier, as the huge man was calling it?
Maybe something had gone wrong.
Cole snapped back to the present, smacking the clicking fingers out of his face.
“For a second there I thought I’d hit you a little too hard!”
He looked up, “Why were you so angry about me being outside, what makes this a bad time? Is it dangerous?”
The huge man (Cole was going to call him Bear) looked baffled, like he’d been asked why one plus one was two.
“Boy, we’re at the peak of a monster wave, and you’re asking me if it’s dangerous to be in the wilderness!? Are you stupid? Or just way too confident in that class of yours?”
“Uhhhhh… What’s a monster wave?”
As far as Cole knew, monsters didn’t appear in waves. The devs of Vestria Online made sure they couldn’t wander too far outside of the areas they were set to spawn in, aside from when they were used as summons in PvE or PvP of course. This kept the different zones distinct and unique, and also ensured they didn’t have to deal with Titan level monsters wandering into a zone that was only meant for newbie players, where the boss would be a Beast level at most.
Bear looked somehow even more gobsmacked.
“Did I knock all the sense out of you? Maybe I should have gone even easier… The monster waves? Ever since that one Vestrian Magus Supreme who used to mess around with those dimensional gates died, the monster waves have been one of the fundamental parts of life! It’s been this way for more than a hundred years boy, and you don’t even look like you’ve hit 25! ”
Wait.
What did he just say?!
Magus Supreme? Gates? Those were another word for the portals that Cole could create using the Instant Portal Technique.
Did he say died!???
“I’m not from around here…” Cole sheepishly muttered.
“That much is clear…” replied Bear “wait, where are you from?”
“If I said another world would you think I’m crazy?”
Bear barked a short laugh
“Ha! Maybe if you’d showed up during the last monster wave. But it’s just your luck. We had a Vestrian mercenary crew roll through town, they portaled in here at the last point of human contact to stock up their supplies before heading out to the Frontier.”
Cole listened, interested to hear where this was going.
“Before they left, they mentioned something about a commotion in the capital. Apparently a huge gate opened up, dumped a whole bunch of strange people in from another world. Can’t say I truly believed it until you opened your mouth. The mercenaries also had heard similar reports from other cities, and in other countries as well.”
So Cole hadn’t been imagining the other people in that clearing. That was real!
“Do you know what happened to those people?”
“Can’t be sure, apparently the whole situation was hushed up. Temple Guard were sent out to quell any panic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole lot of them weren’t pressed into the army. Damn Emperor.” Bear spat on the ground after that last remark. “May he die in agony.”
Cole remained silent, taking it all in. It seemed like a lot of his fellow isekai victims had ended up in major population centres. But what had gone wrong with him? He didn’t have time to think about it, if being outside during a monster wave was as dangerous as Bear seemed to think, then they should get inside.
“Don’t try anything funny boy,” said Bear, as Cole got to his feet once more.
“Can we go inside the village?” Cole asked.
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said since you opened that mouth of yours, boy.”