Jonah had leveled up, three times at that. But his overall level wasn’t the only thing that had risen. The levels of his [Mana Control]—good—and [Decapitation]—not good—had also increased.

“No!”

Jonah slapped his face and dragged his hands down it, tugging on his lower eyelids and cheeks. This turn of events was basically the opposite of what he wanted. The higher the level of his [Decaptation], the higher the level he needed to make it believable. If things continued like this, he would be stuck killing nightmarish monsters for who knows how long.

After somewhat accepting his fate of ending up in a strange new world and looking forward to the magic he could learn, Jonah could hardly wait to enter the Institute and delve into the magic they offered. Doing that would also be the first step he could take toward looking for a way back to Earth.

But instead of finishing up here in the Jador Woods and taking the express route to enrolling in the Chambria Royal Institute of Magic, Jonah would now be stuck getting to a suitable level.

‘I don’t even know what level is suitable!’

Jonah held his head in his hands and sat up. He was almost ready to embrace his legs in a fetal position.

“...what’s wrong?”

Serina noticed Jonah’s distressed behavior and approached nervously. He didn’t look that injured, but she couldn’t be sure. And if something was wrong, she knew it would be because of her.

Jonah looked at Serina through his hands.

“‘What’s wrong?’ Did you just ask me what’s wrong?”

“Um… yes?”

Serina could tell that Jonah blamed her for siccing a Motheater Larva twelve levels above Jonah on him. But the most effective way to level up quickly was to kill enemies at higher levels. And for Serina, the method she used was completely normal. It was how she had started her training when she was younger. And it was how most people set on leveling quickly and getting far trained.

But Jonah came from a moderately peaceful world without the System and without levels. Getting the Motheater to chase him like that was tantamount to attempted murder.

Serina could tell Jonah blamed her, which she kind of understood, but not really since she didn’t know what Earth was like. And Jonah didn’t know that almost getting eaten or killed by stronger beings was one of the most common leveling methods to the point where even kids did it.

Two people with wildly different experiences and perspectives naturally saw the same things differently.

To Jonah, attempted murder was attempted murder. But Serina thought of training as training.

After nearly dying and running until it felt like his lungs were bleeding, Jonah wasn’t far from blowing his top and laying onto Serina about how he would happily go to the inquisitors if she continued trying to get him killed.

But somewhere deep down, Jonah knew she didn’t do it with malicious intentions. She did it for his sake, for his future well-being. Yeah, his success would also lead to her success, but Jonah couldn’t forget that there were other ways she could go about this. With her strength, she could easily kidnap him and force him to do her bidding until he became a threat or was no longer necessary. But she didn’t.

Another thing that was closer to the surface of Jonah’s mind was just that. Serina was a lot more powerful than him. Starting a fight with her was as foolish as it got.

Most importantly, Jonah was too tired to argue, and now that [Decapitation] had leveled up, they had more pressing matters to attend to.

So, after glaring at Serina for long enough to make Serina wonder if Jonah had maybe gotten a heart attack after running that hard, Jonah sighed. Afraid it was the sigh of death that corpses let out as their lungs and all their muscles relaxed, Serina dashed forward.

“Jonah!”

“...”

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him as if trying to bring him back to life. But when he was already—still—alive and well, it did more harm than good.

“H-hey! Stop!”

“You’re alive!”

“No thanks to you.”

Jonah pushed Serina away so he could breathe again. And before she could say or do anything to irritate him again, he explained what had happened.

“Hum. No biggie, I say.”

“What?”

“Yep. You’ll just need to work a little harder if you want to get in this semester.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Jonah hugged his legs after crying out in denial, the first stage of grief.

“Noo!”

***

“You know, Serina, I’ve been thinking about something lately.”

Jonah lay on the ground, splayed out like a starfish. He rested his eyes as he spoke to Serina, who sat on a nearby rock and looked at him with a thoughtful expression.

“Really? And what would that be?”

“I’m a human. And you’re a human, right?”

“I guess that’s true.”

“How?”

“‘How’ what?”

“We’re from completely different worlds, maybe even universes or dimensions. How come both of us are human despite the impossible and universal distance between us? It also doesn’t seem like you’re surprised about it, which means it’s a common occurrence.”

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“So, in other words, how come you, a human, traveled an impossible distance through time and space and ended up in a world populated by humans instead of what? Aliens made of ectoplasm?”

“Exactly.”

Serina sighed lightly and tilted her head as she looked at the blood and gore-drenched Jonah.

“Has anyone ever told you that your brain works in mysterious ways?”

Having those concerns wasn’t that surprising. In fact, it was more than understandable if Jonah spoke the truth about his homeworld.

‘But why the fuck has he been thinking about that now?’

Serina couldn’t understand why thoughts like that had sprouted in Jonah’s mind while he was busy fighting and killing for his life and levels.

“Yeah. My mother said something along those lines when I asked her for help once.”

Serina had no idea where Jonah wanted to go with that, but she could tell that it wasn’t a happy memory, so she steered away.

“Anyways, I don’t know. That’s the short answer. The long answer is a bunch of theories of evolution and the origins of intelligence, inheritance, and civilization.”

“I see. Can you tell me some of those theories?”

“I mean, sure, but why?”

“I need a distraction. My body fucking hurts.”

“Right. Sorry about that. And, once again, good job. This will do.”

“...”

“Ahem.”

Serina cleared her throat. Apparently, any mention of the trouble Jonah had gone through to reach the standards Serina had set for him to enter the Institute was also a bad memory. Serina decided to be a little gentler with Jonah’s training in the future. After all, even if it was the most efficient method, fighting higher-level opponents, it wasn’t the only way. If Jonah’s weak mind collapsed because she forced him through something he wasn’t ready for, all Serina’s preparations and work would have been for naught.

“One theory—one that takes no magical or overhuman factors into account—is convergent evolution.”

“Convergent evolution?”

“Simply put, it’s a coincidence. Different organisms in different parts of the same universe and in different universes have evolved over time to develop similar traits. And through some strange, coincidental twist of fate, humans have sprung up in a plethora of worlds, one of them being Thyskria. And then, humans from other worlds have found their way here, and so on.”

“That’s not a very popular theory, is it?”

“Nope.”

“Next?”

“Ah, before I continue, I should tell you that we don’t only get human invaders, nor are humans the only intelligent race in Thyskria.”

“So, aliens?”

“Technically, you’re an alien too.”

“I guess.”

“Oh! I just remembered an interesting and tragic invader.”

“Well?”

“Ah, I don’t know all the details since that fellow was from such a vastly different universe or world that translation magic or healing magic didn’t work on it. Well, it did work, but its physique couldn’t withstand gravity.”

“Gravity in general? Not just the gravity here? And couldn’t you have used gravity magic?”

Serina shrugged, which Jonah didn’t see since his eyes were still closed.

“I told you, I don’t know the details. But what I do know is that that alien, some kind of jellyfish-like being, came from a world without gravity, and it didn’t know how it had ended up here or how to get back. Isn’t that pretty neat? Like, imagine a world completely without gravity! You could just swim through the air. No need to run around like this.”

“That would be pretty interesting, I guess–”

Jonah’s eyes flashed open, and he sat up despite the fatigue and injuries telling his body to remain in stasis until his hair turns grey.

“Hold up! Rewind that a little. Are you telling me that guy, from a world most likely far away and previously unheard of, appeared without knowing how or how to get back?”

“Yeah?”

Serina was startled by Jonah’s sudden burst of energy. But she was also worried and surprised that he could move like that. Maybe he was just exaggerating his pains. In that case, there were no worries about continuing. After all, there was no harm in having a few extra levels to start off the school year with.

Jonah chalked up the chill running down his spine to his pain as he stared at Serina.

“Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

Serina’s eyes widened in realization.

“You mean–!”

“Yes! That’s like my situation! From what you’ve told me, most invaders know they’re going to end up here, and their worlds also aren’t complete strangers to the people of Thyskria for some reason.”

Jonah wasn’t privy to the details, but Serina seemed surprised at not having heard of Jonah’s home planet, which would only be the logical reaction if she had expected to know where he had come from. That meant it was common for the people of Thyskria to know the names of the invaders’ home planets, at least to some degree.

Serina joined Jonah in his excitement, but it faded as quickly as it had come for Jonah. Serina noticed the downshift in Jonah’s mood.

“What? Isn’t this a good thing?”

“Is it?”

Jonah tilted his head to the side with a sour face.

“Isn’t it?”

“I mean, it’s proof I’m not unique. My situation has happened before. But that’s it. Knowing more about that invader won’t help me get back home. And it won’t rid me of this Invader status.”

“But it’s a clue, right?!”

Serina wasn’t as downcast as Jonah, and she did her best to keep his hopes up. Their deal was that she would help him look for a way home, after all. And this realization could be a start in the right direction.

“Clue to what? That the universe likes sending random beings to Thyskria? How is that supposed to get me back to Earth?”

Serina gave Jonah a stern look.

“Hey. Are you looking for trouble?”

“No?”

‘Another personality?’

Jonah couldn’t help but doubt it when Serina showed off yet another sudden change in behavior with her reprimanding tone and question.

“Then why are you so pessimistic?”

“I’m not pessimistic.”

Jonah was a little offended.

“I’m realistic.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Hear me out. Even if this isn’t one hell of a coincidence and there is something connecting us, me and that jellyfish, what’s the next step from here? We know it was in a similar situation as the one I am currently in, except I’m a human, and I have your help, so I will survive at least a little bit. Aside from his accidental invasion, there are no other similarities.”

“So?”

“‘So’? How are we supposed to find me a way back home just based on that?”

Serina shrugged with a blasé attitude and her arms crossed. She clearly wasn’t as bothered by Jonah’s pessimistic analysis as Jonah was.

“If it’s happened once or twice, it’s bound to have happened thrice. We’ll look for similar invasions and look for more clues and similarities. Eventually, we’ll have a pattern and the underlying cause, and from there, we can figure out a way to reverse it or something and get you back to your pile o’ dirt.”

Jonah was skeptical of Serina’s idea. But he couldn’t help but agree that it made a little sense. And it was indeed a place to start. They would gather more information and continue from there. It was like any investigation.

“Alright. How do we get that information, then?”

“Hold your horses, Jonah.”

Serina held up a hand to stop Jonah’s reblossoming excitement dead in its tracks. He had leaned forward in his eagerness to get started. After what Serina had just put him through, which had given him a taste of what life on Thyskria was like, he was more keen than ever on returning to his peaceful life on Earth.

But at Serina’s stonewall expression and hand, he slumped his shoulders with a displeased look.

“What now? It was your idea to look for more invaders in similar situations.”

“Yes. But did you forget something, Jonah?”

“What?”

“You’re weak as shit.”

“Ugh.”

Serina’s words landed a devastating blow, and Jonah fell on his back.