It was a day just like any other, with the figure of a young man lying on the bed, nestled within his sheets as the alarm blared beside him. The room was cold and dark, to others it might have been a place to avoid, but for Arlo, it was a safe haven.
As the alarm continued to sound, Arlo remained in bed. He wasn't asleep; on the contrary, his eyes slowly fluttered open, revealing that he was wide awake.
With a heavy sigh, he turned to face the alarm, staring at the glowing numbers displayed on its face.
7:00 PM.
Once again, Arlo had wasted an entire day trapped alone within the confines of his room. The longer he stared at the clock, the more bitterness welled up inside him.
He closed his eyes, tempted to drift back into the embrace of sleep, but the growing hunger in his stomach had other plans.
"What a pain..." Arlo muttered as he grudgingly rose from his bed and made his way to the door.
His room was a chaotic mess, with clothes and bin bags scattered across the floor. As he carefully navigated through the clutter, he made a mental note to clean it all up soon.
With that thought in mind, he opened the door to his room, stepping out into the hallway of his house. There, he found an empty food tray, a note, and a ten-dollar bill resting on top.
[Hey brother, I saw that the food Mom left for you was getting cold, so I ate it to avoid wasting it again. Don't worry, I left some money here so you can go buy something to eat if you're hungry.
-From your dear sister.]
Reading the note, Arlo's brow furrowed, and a vein bulged on his forehead.
"'Dear,' my ass. Just another attempt to get me to leave the house," he grumbled.
Despite the irritation that surged through him, Arlo swallowed his anger and made his way to the bathroom to prepare himself for the inevitable trip outside.
After a quick shower, Arlo brushed his teeth, got dressed, and grabbed the money his sister had left him. As he stepped out the door, a chilly wind greeted him under the night sky.
"It's cold..." Arlo muttered under his breath, making his way to the nearest grocery store.
As he walked, he kept his head down, as if afraid to make eye contact with anyone who passed by. It had been a while since he'd last ventured outside, and the experience left him feeling both anxious and somewhat liberated.
The closest grocery store was only a ten-minute walk from his house, and he reached it in no time. Once inside, he headed straight for the aisle with the instant noodles.
Grabbing his usual plain salted flavor, Arlo made his way to the checkout line, only to find himself standing behind a group of students.
The sight of them stirred up unpleasant memories, prompting Arlo to quickly avert his gaze. Instead, his attention was drawn to the news playing on a television screen mounted in the corner of the room.
The channel featured a reporter broadcasting the latest developments.
"Once again, the number of gates opening has been increasing. There's a chance the human habitation zone will continue to shrink at this rate. Fortunately for us, there's also been a rise in the number of hunters, but will that be enough to combat this change of events?"
As Arlo stared at the screen with hollow eyes, he muttered under his breath, "Looks like things are getting bad, huh? Well, not like I can do anything about it. I'm just a high school dropout and a shitty F-rank hunter, after all..."
He turned his attention back to the checkout line, noticing that the students who had been in front of him had already paid for their items and left. Finally, it was his turn.
After paying for his meal, Arlo quickly left the store and began his journey home. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, and he wanted nothing more than to devour his food as soon as possible.
However, during his hasty walk back, something bizarre occurred. Out of nowhere, an object fell from above, striking him on the head before landing on the ground in front of him.
"Ow!" Arlo groaned, rubbing his head as he stared at the object that had hit him.
It was a small book, its white cover adorned with strange, unreadable symbols. Confused, Arlo looked up and around, trying to determine where the book had fallen from, but there were no apartment buildings or tall structures nearby.
Moreover, there was no one in the vicinity who seemed to have dropped it.
His curiosity piqued, Arlo crouched down to pick up the book. The moment his fingers touched its surface, something extraordinary happened.
[New Host Detected.]
[Initiating connection sequence.]
Startled, Arlo quickly retracted his hand and watched in awe as the letters on the book's cover began to glow and morph into something comprehensible.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
As this transformation unfolded, Arlo frantically scanned his surroundings, searching for the source of the voices echoing inside his head. But the street remained empty, with no one else in sight.
[Connection sequence established.]
[Transferring ownership rights.]
[New Host has been appointed.]
Upon hearing these words, Arlo's gaze snapped back to the book. To his astonishment, the previously unreadable symbols on the cover had ceased glowing and now displayed a clear, readable title:
[A Magician's Grimoire.]
"...A magician's grimoire?" Arlo muttered, his brow furrowed in suspicion.
At first, he stood there, scowling at the book, wondering if someone was playing an elaborate prank on him. But who would go to such lengths, and what would they have to gain?
After contemplating his next move for a few moments, Arlo cautiously crouched down and tapped the book again, bracing himself for another unexpected occurrence. To his surprise, nothing changed.
With a mix of relief and intrigue, he picked up the thick tome and placed it in his shopping bag.
"I don't know what this is, but... my hunter's instinct is telling me that it might be worth something," he mused.
Driven by a growing sense of urgency, Arlo hurried home, his mind torn between anxiety and excitement at the prospect of examining the mysterious book. As soon as he reached his house, he rushed up the stairs and into his room.
Turning on the lights, he sat at his desk, his eyes fixed on the book's cover as he ate his meal.
"I can't believe I brought this strange thing home... What was I thinking?" he muttered, a hint of doubt creeping into his thoughts.
Although his curiosity had gotten the best of him, Arlo now questioned whether it had been wise to bring it home.
"Well, might as well check it out," he sighed, reaching for the book and flipping it open to the first page.
The initial page greeted him with an array of texts and information, centered around a circle adorned with a star at its core. It resembled a magic circle, the kind often depicted in anime.
Starting from the top, Arlo's eyes methodically scanned the contents of the first page, absorbing the information as he slurped on his cup noodles. With each passing sentence, his curiosity grew.
[Rules Of The Grimoire]
[- Only The One Who Has Been Granted Ownership May Read The Knowledge Stored Within This Grimoire.]
[- The Grimoire Supplies Magical Power Which Is Linked To The One Who Has Been Granted Ownership.]
[- If The Grimoire’s Owner Is Not In Contact With The Grimoire, The Grimoire’s Magic Will Not Be Supplied To The One Who Has Been Granted Ownership.]
[- If The Spell Used Greatly Exceeds The Amount Of Magical Power Within The Owners Body, The Owner May Die.]
"I see... so as long as I'm holding the book, I'll have access to its supply of magic power," Arlo mused, his expression serious. "I wonder how much magic power is stored in this thing?"
His mind raced with questions.
"Wait, before that... what even is magic power in the first place? The power used by those who have awakened and the monsters found in the gates is called Evolution Energy. Is this a completely different source of energy? Magic... I wonder how it differs from Evolution Energy. I've only ever heard of it in anime, but that's just fiction..."
Excitement coursed through his veins as he flipped to the next page. However, his enthusiasm quickly plummeted, and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
At the top of the page, a short text was written, followed by instructions for the first spell. It was the brief message that snapped Arlo out of his reverie.
"Recently, I've found myself getting rather forgetful... I'll often be running into dungeons with my party and forgetting some of the high-tier spells I have mid-chant. It's beginning to worry me, so I made a grimoire for myself to use while chanting the spells. The note here is also for myself, so that I don't forget why I'm writing this grimoire in the first place... It appears my old age is catching up to me... Maybe the next spell I should work on will be an aging spell?
-The Cosmic Sage."
Reading those words aloud, Arlo's cheeks burned with embarrassment as he shook his head.
"I can't believe I took this thing seriously for a moment... It's obviously just some fake prank someone is playing on me. I'm too old for this," he sighed.
With that conclusion, Arlo's gaze drifted to the spell instructions displayed on the page next to the rules.
"Let's see... the first spell... Divine Class Dimension Magic: World Transportation," Arlo read aloud. "To use the spell, you must chant the words while holding onto the notebook. The coordinates of the world are already written in the chant, so I don't have to worry about teleporting to the wrong world or coordinates. If the chant is stopped midway, the spell will fail."
After reading the instructions, Arlo smiled mischievously, glancing at the chant.
"Yeah, right. You can't fool me," he scoffed. "I'll just say the chant to prove this is just a prank, then throw or sell this book away."
He began to recite the spell. "Let's see here... Beyond the bounds of time and space, through the void's embrace..."
As the words left his lips, the chant's text on the grimoire began to glow. Despite his growing concern, Arlo continued, refusing to stop even as the glow intensified.
Halfway through the chant, a magic circle materialized beneath him, its design mirroring the illustration he had seen in the grimoire. It encircled both Arlo and the chair he sat upon, causing his eyes to widen in disbelief as he pressed on with the incantation.
"Heed My Call... Divine-Class Dimension Magic: World Transportation."
The moment the final word left his tongue, everything changed. Darkness engulfed his surroundings, and a sense of weightlessness overtook him, as if gravity had relinquished its hold.
In the blink of an eye, his environment transformed once more. Arlo found himself sitting in the middle of a road, clutching the grimoire tightly, the sun's rays beating down upon him from a clear sky above.
"...Huh?"
Slowly, he surveyed his new surroundings, his eyes widening in shock as the reality of his situation began to sink in.
Arlo found himself in the heart of a medieval town, surrounded by a bustling crowd adorned in period attire. Horse-drawn carriages clattered along the cobblestone streets, adding to the surreal atmosphere.
However, it wasn't just the setting that left him astounded. The inhabitants of this world were a diverse array of beings, many humans, some resembling humans, while others were strikingly different.
Humanoid lizards, dressed in clothing, strolled through the town square, their scaly skin glistening in the sunlight. Individuals with cat ears, dog ears and tails mingled with the crowd, their feline features adding an exotic flair to the already extraordinary scene.
Even an assortment of other fantastical creatures coexisted harmoniously with the human-like residents.
"No fucking way..." Arlo muttered, his eyebrows twitching in disbelief. The realization hit him like a thunderbolt, sending shockwaves through his entire being.
"I... I was actually teleported to another world!?" he exclaimed, his voice echoing through the streets, drawing curious glances from the passersby.