Outside the Fenrir Guild, Town of New Gorpisal:

Ingrid and Cecil had returned to see George still lined up at the “The Heucuva Tavern '' he pointed at the market nearby, indicating that she should check it out. Makes sense, if she was going to be an adventurer she definitely needed to look like one.

The market was bustling with all sorts of people. The market had a large indoor bazaar-like structure and lots of other stalls surrounding it. As they passed, they saw a butcher selling cuts from a pig-like creature, but it was heftier, its body more muscular.

“You think those guys would need a longer boil?” Cecil wondered as they looked at the muscular pig-like creature. It was well marbled and the raw cuts dribbled with its own oils.

“I’d say you just toss these bad boys in a pan and you’re set.” Ingrid said as she moved onto the next few stalls, many of the vegetables looked familiar enough with only a few having strange colors such as carrots with purple leaves and green potatoes.

One stall was selling some kind of donut, which Ingrid and Cecil wanted to try out.

“Is that honey?” Ingrid asked as she watched the goblin expertly dip the donuts into the bubbling molten gold liquid like a master blacksmith at work.

“Straight from the farms this morning” The goblin said with pleasure. With a flick of his hand the donuts were rolled over a mixture of chopped nuts. The donuts were placed on a stick with a notch on both ends, apparently the practice was to hang them there. Money quickly changed hands and the pair walked away, marveling at the market around them.

“Mmmm! It is like honey!” Cecil said as he turned opaque and quickly engulfed the donut. He didn’t need to but a slime turning opaque when feeding was as polite as chewing with one’s mouth closed. “Really Ingrid? This is a steal! Some of the nuts taste like macadamias, for this price!”

“And pistachios, did you see the raw ones back there? They were huge!”

“Don’t get carried away Ingrid, back on earth we’re lucky to have them small enough you don’t need a hammer to eat it.”

“I guess you’re right.” Ingrid said, he had a point. She didn’t like having to eat walnuts straight out the shell and just wanted to chow on them by the handfuls.

In another stall they saw a merchant showing off various weapons and adventurers of all shapes and sizes hefting them, some were visibly channeling their mana and giving it a few light swings.

“Lots of spears and polearms, not as many swords except the two-handed ones.” Cecil said “I guess our HEMA channels got it right, those ‘regular’ one-handed swords are at most self-defense weapons in a civilian setting or a backup.”

Ingrid nodded “at least for this world that seems the case. Our modern pop-culture hasn’t batted an eyebrow at RPG heroes wielding giant swords and wizards using a magic rod, so carrying a spear or a regular zweihander shouldn’t be an awkward thing outside of a battlefield.”

“You plan on getting one, Ingrid?” Cecil asked but she shook her head.

“It’s best to stick to what I know, for now I should just try to blend in.”

Cecil narrowed his eyes as he swiveled the Dialogue Window towards her “Yeah, good luck with that, you’re the only human we’ve seen and you still haven’t w-”

“-orn, used, and frayed! We’ll repair it as good as new!” A repairman yelled over the din. “We got used armor polished so well it looks fresh out of a forge! Come over to Dillian’s! Step right up and armor up for a fair price!”

Ingrid came over, looking on with great interest. The bear-like man waved his paw over at the selection of goods. He wasn’t kidding, they looked like good quality to her eyes. Off to the side a dwarf was working with great gusto, his eyes shining with professional enthusiasm as Ingrid watched the dented piece of armor smoothen out before her eyes.

“What can I get for the little fairy?” The bear said, stooping down so he was on eye-level with Ingrid.

“See? He gets it, he knows I’m a fairy.” Ingrid smiled.

“It’s easier to say ‘human’ after all.” Cecil remarked, turning to the talking grizzly bear he said “Say, can you help me get some armor for my tamer here? Also it would be nice if you could get her some c-”

“Whoa! A talking slime!” The talking bear said. “Hey, Garfin! Check this out!”

The dwarf paused in his work and nodded before getting back to his hammering.

“Old coot never got a sense of humor” the bear muttered, before returning to his salesman voice “Armor, you say? Well it helps to know who needs the armor!”

“That’ll be me” Ingrid raised a hand “I need something that makes my punches and kicks look painful.”

“Well then!” The grizzly bear said, reaching for what looked like a measuring tape “Let’s see what fits you!”

“Well that was embarrassing.” Ingrid said as she continued her walk, she thought she had more money but either she had miscounted or her Armory was still glitching out. All she had to show for it were matching leather gloves and short boots with metal studs making it look like she had bought from a fantasy world’s version of Hot Topic.

Fortunately, the bear salesman was quite understanding, possibly due to the fact that she had mentioned she was going to be an adventurer and thus would be back soon once she had earned some more money to buy better gear.

“We should get back, George’s probably waiting for us now.” Cecil said, tying her hair back to her familiar ponytail with a scarf they bought from another stall. “There we go! Now you’re looking more like the usual Star Lily, except for the lack of Raiment.”

“I AM the Raiment!” Lily said, striking a fashion model pose. Some glanced her way, but it was more of the novelty of seeing a floating portal following the strange creature that was Ingrid strutting down the market.

At The Heucuva Tavern, George was already seated and drinking with his friends. After making the perfunctory greetings with the other town guards Ingrid sat down and got to drinking with her newfound friends.

“Alright, just to make sure you already know this, but so long as the gates are open, the entry fee is two silvers. Once the gates close, it’s four.” George explained.

“What about those farms outside of the town?”

“They get in for free, the fee’s for outsiders.” Said a grumpy owl man.

“Who protects the guys outside of the walls then?” Cecil asked, he had a tendril dangling over a tankard, his preferred method of drinking alcohol was simply letting osmosis do the work.

“The Night Men of course, you don’t got any night men where you’re from?”

“Men working at night?” Ingrid asked sheepishly, a little buzzed from her drink.

“The undead of course!” George laughed “don’t get too close during their downtime or they’ll chew your ear off with their endless anecdotes!” he finished with a burst of guffaws.

“Undead?” Cecil asked “No, we’ve never used undead where we’re from.”

“Fae-landers, figures…” The grumpy owl said, finishing his drink he spoke “If someone’s got the money they can pay necromancers to anchor their consciousness onto a body.”

The other orc who introduced himself as Roger continued for him “...back in the day they used real skeletons but today they use an artificial skeleton-like body… some of them are real hardcore though and prefer to use their actual remains.”

“Huh?” Ingrid frowned “That doesn’t make sense! Unless you got bones made of iron, it’ll crumble after some time.”

George nodded and pointed a finger at Ingrid “See? She gets it! Yet most kids think they’re bad and scary when a night man uses his actual bones.”

“Bunch of old fossils.” the grumpy owl muttered “great-grandfather’s too miserly to get himself a proper skeleton, thinks that his armor will do the trick, that’s not how blunt force works, it goes right through it.”

As the men talked Ingrid and Cecil gradually learned that undeath was something people signed up for, though it was rather costly and had regular maintenance costs to stay undead. There was also the limitation of range, as it turns out that some of the towers they had passed by were used as a sort of extension field for the undead to wander through.

The vessels that the undead used to store their souls were known as Phylacteries. They were stored in a temple, sort of like a server for souls. Some Phylacteries were small enough for an individual to carry, but were generally avoided; there were horror stories of undead being trapped in remote areas for years, yearning for an end that would not come and drive them insane.

But apart from the macabre nature, the men seemed to suggest that they pretty much retained their previous personalities although it gradually faded over time, and most cultures’ sense of ethics were to release these souls that were subconsciously wishing to take the next step into the great beyond.

Later that night, Ingrid and Cecil slept at the stables. Ingrid’s protective aura and Cecil being (mostly) confined to a plushy bedroom undid any discomforts one would have sleeping rough, but in retrospect it turns out that it wasn’t uncommon for itinerant travelers to spend the night this way.

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Next Morning, Courtyard of the Adventurer's Guild "Fenrir":

"You failed. Train more and come back in a few months." the gruff instructor said.

The Elf archer staggered to his feet and limped away.

"Next, the Human, Ingrid Lily!" The Instructor called.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"What's a Hyoo-mun?" the gathered would-be adventurers murmured amongst themselves.

"Hyoo-mun? Sounds like a bird person."

"Naaah, sounds like Troll language so it's probably that big grey troll over there."

"Excuse me, that's me he's calling" Ingrid pushed her way through the crowd. Many of the gathered Kobolds, Goblins, Gnolls, Trolls, Elves, Dueregar, Orcs, and other species she's unable to identify looked at her curiously as they stepped aside. Some chuckled in that familiar way when a really drunk frat boy was going to pull off some dumb stunt, others shook their heads.

"What's wrong with that elf?" she heard one say

"Ugh, soft-skin not wearing armor." a lizard man frowned.

"Heh, scarless, what a rookie." another muttered to its companion and chuckled.

“Heh, that’s probably a fake padloi, you can get a few of them in the black market.”

"Check out that aura." one laughed. "What aura?" his companion chortled.

A few more human-looking ones blinked in disbelief.

"You know Ingrid, you should really consider w-" Ingrid's slime familiar Cecil began but was cut off.

"Relax Cecil, they're just having a bad case of Uncanny Valley Syndrome." Ingrid hummed as she sauntered to the center of the courtyard.

"Of course. feels fantastic when you're on the other end of the valley."

"Next candidate is Ingrid Lily...uhhh... former Private Con...contractor? What's that?" Guild Instructor Zardos looked up at the vaguely elf-like creature stepping out of the crowd. The minotaur looked back at the paper he was reading, flaring his nostrils in confusion.

"See? You're just confusing everyone! What's wrong with 'Magical Girl!?'" said a squeaky voice. For a second he thought the dark-haired not-elf was talking, but instead she had hovering to one side a portal with glowing particles gently drifting out of its edges, inside it showed a talking slime inside a well-appointed bedroom.

Well now I've seen everything. Zardos thought, seeing a slime talk inside a hovering portal. He's heard of communication sigils before but this was far more advanced. If this Ingrid was a tamer it made no sense that she didn't have the slime alongside her. Maybe because it was a talking slime it's role was more informational than the usual physical duties expected of such a creature.

"Cool it, Cecil" the entity that called herself a "human" replied. "We're Isekai'd, everyone uses magic."

"That's not how it works!" some recruit yelled somewhere in the crowd.

"What's an Isekai?" another asked.

"No, I think your problem is that you're so ashamed of dying as a Saturday morning cartoon character that your coping mechanism is to pretend to be an FPS character. How mature and classy of you. I'm so sorry, would you have preferred to have your head bitten off on your third assignment!?" said the squeaky voiced slime. But Ingrid ignored him.

"Ingrid Lily, ex-Private Contractor, I provide muscle where it's needed, wet work too." Ingrid replied, putting her hands on her hips in a confident pose.

"What's wet work? You making this up?" Zardos narrowed his eyes. Muscle? Ingrid to his eyes looked like a scrawny elf. If she said she was a sorceress maybe he'd believe her but she wasn't carrying any staff or any weapon at all, not even armored, unless maybe a human's hide was something like Tusk Boar leather or dragonskin and their bones were extra dense. The closest she had for protection was those workman’s gloves and boots which didn’t look enchanted at all, but the Kobold padloi around her neck seemed to insinuate there was a lot more to her than meets the eye.

"Stop high falutin!" The spectral slime squeaked, before turning to Zardos "Cecil here, I'm her assistant. She's talented in getting rough and violent with big scary monsters. Sir." it added the last part after a pause. "I know she's strange to look at, but I can assure you she's very capable."

"This is a physical duel test." Zardos said patiently. "Swords, magic, use what suits you." He jerked his head towards the rack to the side. "The purpose of this test is to see how well you can defend yourself against a physical attacker. You do not need to defeat me, you only need to show me that you can stand your ground when needed."

"I'm ready." Ingrid replied, after a pause she added "I fight with my fists."

Let's get this over with then, Zardos thought. He had long given up convincing candidates with their long list of novelties. As he unsheathed this sword, Ingrid assumed a stance, she stomped her foot, taking a slight step back as she did, a wide steady stance that looked like she was about to pounce, although she was facing him sideways, her arms tensed and fists clenched and low.

But what got to him was the unexpected shockwave. Her foot had impacted the ground with such force he felt the ground shake as he felt her Aura flare out.

That was the other thing. Until she looked like she was ready to pounce, her Aura was unnaturally "quiet." Despite his years in the field he's never seen anyone else's like hers, It was flat and smooth, where it should be like a slowly burning flame. Ordinary people's auras around their bodies looked like how one would imagine if someone was slathered in a weak propellant and set on fire.

The more experienced warriors and mages were like if someone doused them in highly flammable oil. They naturally “burned” bigger and wilder, while the prudent ones used their mastery in control to keep theirs compressed to the same size as everyone else, sometimes a little smaller, but the “flickering” of their flame-like auras looked like time had dramatically slowed down, giving away their actual strength.

Ingrid's was completely still, an outline around her body. When he first saw and sensed her, he had half a mind to assume he was looking at either a projection spell or a spirit that was using magic to maintain a physical form, like an Elemental.

When Ingrid flared her Aura the outline around her thickened and rippled around wildly like a sack full of scurrying Swarm Mice, thick tendrils of energy whipped out but were quickly pulled back in, forming a forest of wriggling arches.

"You sure you don't wanna showboat more?" The slime said, apparently this human and slime seemed to be having some kind of argument. "That discount karate intro is doing you no favors, you know."

Zardos was going to let this play out to teach the two the price one pays when distracted.

Cecil continued "Don't you wanna cartwheel to each ring post and rake in all that cheap pop? Wait wait, I can do you one better." Cecil took a deep breath: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: WEIGHING IN AT FIFTY POUNDS WHEN SOAKING WET, THE UNDISPUTED BURGERWEIGHT CHAMPYAAAAN AAV THE WUUUUURLD!"

Some of the crowd, misunderstanding Cecil, loudly booed and hurled insults, while others laughed, clutching their sides as they realized the human's own familiar was heckling her. What a way to start a test, they thought.

"I will kill you." Ingrid said to Cecil under her breath and her aura flared even brighter. "and there are no ring posts here."

Then before Zardos knew it, the human was right in front of him, her fist was brightly wreathed with Aura, it took the shape of a fearsome maned predator.

It took Ingrid three bounding steps to approach the Minotaur. Cecil's squeaky voice had slowed and lowered to baritone levels as time dilated itself around her.

Her first focus however was the Minotaur's reaction, he still hadn't put up his sword in a position to parry.

"OK, turn it down a little bit, Ingrid." She said to herself and adjusted the angle and power of her punch. She didn't want to end the fight immediately and she still wanted to further test her abilities. Pulling her arm back further and further, she slowed it down just enough so Zardos could block it in time.

The impact sending him skidding back a good thirty feet, she rushed again, her detection aura calculated the trajectory of this sword strike and her aura’s self-puppeting routine engaged. Sigils appeared on her joints and spine and moved her out of the way while simultaneously winding her up for a counter-punch.

“Looks like Automata and Nemea are working just as intended.” Cecil said, referring to Ingrid’s autopilot ability and her big energy lion boxing gloves.

“We’ll see!” Ingrid replied as she met Zardos’ sword strike with her Nemea.

The lion-like boxing glove around her fist impacted against his blade, she could have hit him before he put his guard up but Ingrid held back her power output; she wanted to test Automata’s agility if it was still at the same level of proficiency as her previous life.

Zardos was clearly showing his skill, this man was no pushover and knew how to defend himself. He has to be, Ingrid thought to herself as the fight looked like the world’s best boxer versus the world’s greatest sword fighter in a stalemate, Zardos needs to be able to handle those annoying talented douchebags that show up once in a blue moon and put them in their place.

Neither of them were landing a hit on each other, they were either blocking, parrying, or dodging each other’s strikes, the onlookers started cheering as this was the first time they’ve seen Zardos take the kid gloves off and show more of his real talent.

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That Zardos managed to block that human’s first high-speed punch in time gave him relief, but it did send him skidding back a good thirty feet.

It looked like this human had a way of weaponizing her own auras to create solid constructs. No wonder Ingrid didn't bother to carry weapons or armor. While not a mage himself, he knew that she was doing something that those silly cone-hats had been theorizing for centuries but never implemented.

It was also a while since he had to stop holding back and fight a little more seriously now, and he was sure that Ingrid was doing the same. Both struck each other at the same time, Ingrid was sent spiraling into the air while he himself crashed into a barrier that protected the inner walls of the courtyard.

Ingrid herself had suddenly collided with a barrier, but it wasn’t from the guild, she made one in thin air and used it to catapult herself back to him. Zardos met her charge, letting loose more of his aura to enhance himself and the two clashed blows that created a dust cloud on impact.

Let’s see how she deals with fighting blind, Zardos thought but Ingrid had no problem with this and soon the two were rapidly exchanging blows and parrying, creating a staccato cacophony that made it clear to the audience who couldn’t see past the cloud that the two were furiously engaged in combat.

“Scale up! Zardos is getting serious!” Cecil cried, seeing that Zardos was moving faster to try to get another hit past her guard.

A strong gust of wind blew the dust cloud clear and everyone saw Ingrid was rapidly charging up her mana… no, she was doing the impossible, she was drawing the ambient ether around herself and converting into mana.

The crowd stared in disbelief as the girl before them performed the impossible; if ether rushed into one’s mana it could cause a fatal mana burn that destroyed the mystic force the body needs to live. Yet here she was using it as a source of power, something that only the crackpot cone-hats talked hours about but could never do.

The gust of wind was pushing Zardos back, preventing him from rushing into attack. Mercifully it only lasted for a few seconds and Ingrid repeated her stomp-and-ready-to-pounce stance; this time her aura flared more brightly and her image distorted briefly as if one’s eyes were getting drunk and seeing triple.

The two rushed at each other and it seemed to the audience that Zardos was now having the advantage; he was blocking all of Ingrid's strikes while he was landing one strike after another but to everyone’s surprise she was completely unharmed and quickly everyone saw it was another stalemate.

Despite feeling on the backfoot, Zardos was definitely impressed with the skill that Ingrid was showing him. Her "mana armor" as he called it was equally impressive, it wasn't simply a static piece of armor like a regular barrier spell, it pulled and deflected his strikes and several times he was almost sure he was going to lose his grip when her aura grasped the edge of his (blunt edge training) blade and pulled it at violently, or shoved it in an unexpected direction; the leverage threatening to break his wrist.

Now that's what I call a true Warrior Mage the minotaur instructor thought to himself.

Another exchange of hits sent both skidding backwards; the minotaur and human both charged each other, with the latter showing new abilities.

This time whenever Ingrid punched and kicked, the maned effigies sprung in the direction of her fist or foot for a short distance, tripling her striking range, and that was before they detonated with concussive force. When she wasn't striking in a straight line it created crescent-shaped shockwaves.

All right, let's see if she can defend against THIS. Zardos empowered himself with his own aura, shrouding himself and his blade.

"Blade Overdrive!" the minotaur instructor bellowed in a war cry, becoming a blur and proceeding to strike Ingrid multiple times from all directions.

Meanwhile, as the watching adventurer candidates were wildly cheering and clapping, and more than a few wondering if they needed to amount to that much, and a few nervously sneaked out of the courtyard deciding that perhaps they're not worthy, with more than a few literally leaving with their tails between their legs.

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"Take a dive! Take a dive already, Ingrid! I'm sure we passed this!" Cecil squeaked in panic.

Cecil's voice was a few octaves lower in Ingrid's ears as she parried one sword strike after another, due to Zardos' speed, she declined to have her Aura try to snag his blade and just let him do his thing uninterrupted.

She needed to do this, she needed to see how fast she could catch up in her Base Form.

She feinted again and again. But he wasn't noticing. So she intentionally parried the wrong way. Ingrid expected to be sent flying but Zardos stopped just as his (blunt) blade was barely an inch at the back of her neck.

"Sorry, I guess I messed up..." Ingrid laughed uncomfortably.

"Yeah sure... messed up." Privately, Zardos knew that even before he thought he had blindsided her, the Human's eyes were on him.

"Yup, you pass, just one problem now, Ingrid, the next test's for magic."

"Thanks for tip, coach!"

"It's Zardos!" The Minotaur called back. He then turned to the remainder of the candidates.

As the she jogged away Cecil took another deep breath and yelled "THE WINNER AND STILL...UNDISPUTED BURGERWEIGHT, CHAMPYAAAAN AAV THE WUUUUUUUR-OW!"

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