Arc 1: A first day filled with anarchy
Road to a hero
Three chances in another world
Chapter 2: The Thief's den
Gray collects himself and stands up.
Gray:" Hey, Soku, right?”
Soku: “Yeah, that’s my name, don't wear it out, Gray."
Gray: “Man they have that elementary school type insults here too.”
Soku: “Elementary school, what? Why are you so weird dude? Your dumb-looking clothes, and that annoying way you talk.”
Gray: “You call my clothes weird when you’re wearing a dirty coat that’s way too big for you. It doesn't feel right being insulted by a child.”
Soku: “HEY! I’m not a kid, I'm fourteen years old! I don't look much younger than you!”
Gray: “Being fourteen doesn't make you a kid? And hey, I’m seventeen, I’m almost an adult! Look, I’m going to be the more mature one and not stay on the level of a child, so stop the bickering, please. Thanks for the save back there I almost got squashed heh.”
Soku: “Well you saved me first, and I’ll give credit where credit is due. I’m surprised you went out of your way to help me, you don’t seem to be from here, and you don’t have rough, dirty, hands or a strong body. You look more like a girl than a boy with that hair and eyes of yours. Are you a Nobleman? Only Nobles wear eyeglasses like those.”
Gray: "My hair isn't that long. It only covers my ears, and I’m gonna take the eye comment as a compliment. And wearing glasses is out of my control, it’s not my fault I can’t see!”
Soku: “Well why did you help me anyway? Do you want something? Because if you want to rob me or get my body I’ll cut your arms off!”
Gray: “Can't a guy do a nice thing without being questioned? Look, I don’t know why I saved you. I just kinda did it to do it ya know?”
Soku: “Ok… so what do you want? I don’t got any money on me right now. Though, you can come with me to my shop. Me and my friends could give you a sword or something.”
Gray: “Oh really? Cool! Yeah, I’ll take that offer if it’s not any trouble.”
They begin walking, and Gray realizes that he doesn't know anything about this world, other than it might be similar to the basic medieval fantasies that he has read.
Gray: “So this is gonna sound weird, but can I tell you something?”
Soku: “As long as you aren't gonna try and do something gross, go ahead.”
Gray: “HEY! I’m not some pedo! But seriously, I’m not really from around here. To be honest, I’m from an entirely different…”
And once again, like in the alley, he surges with power for just a second, which halts his speech. He falls to the ground with tears in his eyes and begins to feel nauseous. Soku reacts by pulling out her sword in front of him.
Gray: “BLEGH!! HEY HOLD UP I … I … blah... Ugh, what the hell was that?”
Soku: “Yeah, I would like to know the same thing dude. If you would’ve done anything else, I may have sliced your throat! Now, what’s with you stopping mid-sentence and shooting out all that mana? And you seem to have a lot of it as well?”
Gray: “So that's what that power is! Okay, so I guess that’s the skill I got. Might have liked some op power, or an Excalibur sword instead of a bunch of mana. But if I stay hopeful maybe I’ll luck out and still get good power! So wait… if I have a bunch of mana does that mean I can do magic? And also can you explain how to use it? Also tell me where I am, and how money and the economy works, things like that would be useful as well!”
Stolen novel; please report.
Soku: “Man, you don’t know anything huh? Damn you're in a bad situation... Where did you come from anyway?”
Gray: “Well I come from Ano… I was walking around my village and I was about to get run over by a wagon when I just warped here in the middle of the street... And my village also doesn't use any of the money here or the language I assume. I also don’t have any knowledge about mana … hahaha .. h. Ug”
Soku: “Well damn... Um, you're in the capital city of the Walgonian Kingdom. And I can tell you if you can use any spells when we get to my place because I have a friend there who can … WAIT HOLD ON!”
Gray: “ YEAH! What’s up?”
The mood changes with Soku getting hostile again. Gray freezes in fear, locking up and standing stiff.
Soku: “So you see my pointy ears right?”
Gray: “Yeah and what of it? You’re just an elf, right? You also seem to be able to do magic, which is AWESOME!”
Soku: “Well… You don’t hate demi-humans right?”
Gray: “Are you asking me if I’m racist to animal people? Because if you are…”
Gray looked at Soku with the most serious look he could muster like he was trying to stare into her soul.
Gray: “I would be caught dead, impaled by a million men before I disrespect a cat girl!”
Soku: “Um…”
Gray: “No, I’m not racist.”
Soku: “Good, because my friend who will be telling you your affinity is a demi-human... if you even have one... if that’s okay.”
Gray: “YES! FINALLY, MAGIC! I HAVE WAITED MY ENTIRE LIFE FOR SOMEBODY TO TELL ME I GET TO LEARN MAGIC!”
They continue to walk as Soku informs Gray of the basics, like how money works, and things going on in the world. Then, they finally arrive at the house.
Her house was an old run-down two-story brick building with a smaller wooden building attached to it. It wasn't the nicest looking house but it wasn't in the nicest looking area either so it fits nicely.
Soku: “So there it is! Home sweet home.”
Gray: “Looks nice compared to the rest of the buildings. Oh, can I uh, ask you why we haven’t seen anybody around?”
Soku: “Well, with all these cult maniacs running around, especially in this area, nobody comes outside after six or so.”
Gray: “Wait, cultists? Like, dress up in robes and burn people while worshiping some super duper evil god?”
Soku: “Well, that’s what propaganda will tell you. To be honest, they aren't the bad guys. At least in their ideals. They go against the ideals of consumerism, the way the kingdoms do things, and they usually go around the slums and more run-down areas of cities and villages where people hurt by the world usually are.”
Gray “They don’t seem all bad then. Why are the people inside?”
Soku: “Well, their main ideals aren’t bad, but it’s what they do and the people involved in the Sect act like that's bad. They wish to destroy society and social norms, they kill and burn the people surrounded by it. At least they don’t kill randomly; they mainly attack knights or people who go against them.”
Gray: “Well maybe you should have started with that?”
Gray {If this follows norms in the media, this cult is probably the bad guy I’m gonna have to face. If I am like the main character of this world or something, heh I wonder if that’s true like I have some grand destiny, I wonder if I could be breaking the fourth wall right now.}
Finally, they approach the small building attached to the house, open the door and walk inside.
Inside the building, there was a bar table with some chairs with things like shields, swords, chests, and pieces of armor sitting on a shelf behind the table.
Gray: “So this is the loot house? More like a loot room. Seems to have less stuff than I thought…”
Soku: “It's hard to snag good stuff with all these knights walking around alright? HEY OPHELIA, WERE HERE!!”
Gray gets spooked hearing Soku scream so suddenly, and then BOOM! The door opens behind them, and there stands another small girl.
Gray's face goes blank looking at her. Ophelia gets scared by the look in his eyes. Soku gets agitated, thinking Gray is going to do something to her. Then out of nowhere, Gray begins to shout.
Gray: “NO WAY ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW BRO?!?!”
The young girl has dark black hair, whiskers, and purple eyes. And the biggest thing drawing Gray's eyes is her cat-like ears.
Gray: “LET'S GO! IT’S A GODDAMN CAT GIRL!"
Gray scares the two girls with his mindless wails, though strangely Ophelia doesn't seem to pay much attention to it, and just continues.
Ophelia: “This guy’s strange! But he’s really kinda funny hehe, wait, why are you here mister? Are you Soku’s first boyfriend?”
Soku's face goes bright red, blowing wind in Gray's face, knocking his glasses off.
Soku goes to explain who Gray is while Gray goes to pick up his glasses, but notices something very strange…
His eyesight seemingly has been fixed.
Gray: “NO WAY!”
Ophelia and Soku: “WHAT?”
Gray: “I CAN SEE WITHOUT THESE STUPID GLASSES! Wait, why can I see without these stupid glasses?”
Soku: “Wait, Ophelia, do you think he may have a spirit arts affinity?”
Gray: “Spirit arts?”
Soku: “Oh yeah! Ophelia, can you use your mana to tell him what mana affinity he has?”
Gray: “Wait, before you do that, what are the possible ones I could get? Is it just the basics like fire, water, earth, and wind, oh, and something to do with spirit arts?”
Ophelia: “Well yes, those are possibilities there is also the chance you have more than an affinity and you get an absolute affinity, which just lets you use that element without having to do spells or a form of spirit magic.”
Soku: “Alright, just tell him, damn…”
As Ophelia goes to touch Gray, he gets enveloped in a purple aura and Gray looks in amazement.
Gray: “COME ON, PAPA NEEDS A BRAND NEW PAIR OF SHOES!”
Ophelia: “OK AND IT IS! Oh, he does have one!”
Gray: “Wait what? Has what? TELL ME!”
Ophelia: “Well you have a high affinity for the spirit arts, … Though that’s strange since usually, demi-humans have stronger connections than normal humans.
Gray: “So I can do summonings or incantations? That’s cool I guess.”
Ophelia: “No dummy! That would be spirit magic. Having an affinity for the spiritual arts means you have a great connection to the spirits, allowing your natural mana to be able to access things made by spirits with much more ease than most people. It also increases your natural healing and mana regeneration.”
Soku: “It's kinda like the spirits are just more friendly to you.”
Gray: “So I can’t do any spells or anything?”
Ophelia: “There are a small few, but they are kinda hard. There is a basic spell called Cenic though.”
Gray: “Cenic huh? What does it do?”
Ophelia: “Cenic translates to blinding spell in the spirit language. And it does just that, you use mana, and the spirits release mana, and they mix to become a black cloud of smoke to blind your enemy. It doesn't discriminate between opponents so it’ll blind you too sadly… So just focus mana around you and scream CENIC!”
END OF CHAPTER
TWO