"Lizzie! Lizzie, where are you?" Toby Alton searched for a small ball of fur that was usually getting in his way wherever he went.

"Is she outside? Stupid cat." He jogged outside of the house and saw the cat promenading in the middle of the road. He wanted to turn around and let the first car squash the stupid thing that only brought him trouble, but at that moment, he saw a figure watching behind one of the windows of his neighbour's house.

"It has to be Miriam!" He remembered one ot the residents of the house, it was not very clear who was watching, but his youthful imagination done the rest. He recalled the incredibly hot girl in his head and all kinds of scenarios began unfolding at once.

"Lizzie, I will save you." He immediately jumped forward in the momentary surge of hormones, not caring about the traffic that much, as most of the cars driving by were not going fast in residental areas.

Which proved to be a fatal mistake.

Quite hilariously, he ended up as the true saviour of the cat, because Lizzie ran away as soon as she saw him coming, but the next thing he himself saw was the pavement, as a powerful impact threw him aside. Due to shock, he did not even feel much pain, but was aware that there was something terribly wrong with his body.

He died before he could find out what it was.

* * * *

"Agh, another one." A person in a tight black and white dress sighed after glancing at him. She was quite a beauty with her hair being black and white as well, even having the same color scheme pronounced in her eyes, her left eye being the white one.

"Ok, make it quick, will it be a fantasy world, mecha world or a harem world? Oh, we have even an evil protagonist world here and a masochist world, which is the currently the trending one."

"Excuse me? W-What?" Toby Alton stared at the girl dumbfounded.

"Hurry and choose. There is so many protagonists dying because of saving someone that we had to deploy extra resources to handle them all!" She began tapping her finger impatiently at her desk.

"Just something normal?" He was still in shock.

"Alright, then it is the trending one . ."

"NO! Wait, not the trending one." He yelled in panic.

"Which one then?" She furrowed her eyebrows at him, that were naturally one black and one white following the color scheme.

"Eu-eeee.. the normal fantasy, no masochist harems or such." He blurted out hurriedly.

"Fine, medieval fantasy it is. Do you want some extra abilities based on the circumstances of your death?" She seemed to look at him with more approval now.

"Yes, yes, extra abilities are good." He nodded in a hurry.

"Oh dear, another is coming. Off you go, enjoy the world. Just say status, you know the drill." She waved her hand like dismissing a subordinate and the scenery of the eerie room vanished replaced by something less out of norm.

A dirt toad.

"Status." He said immediately, like an experienced reincarnator.

Toby Alton

Level 1 Elf Stargazer

Fitness - 5

Mysticism - 5

Chronomastery - 5

[SP 5]

[Experience 0/100]

Unique Bonus Abilities -

[Selfless Saviour] - You do not like killing, you care for lives of even little kittens. You won't receive any experience for killing, but you now receive experience for saving lives of all creatures. The amount depends on the level of threat prevented and the level of the saved creature.

[Impress The Elderly] - Nothing warms your heart more than impressing your grandpa with your heroic deeds when he is watching you! Your experience gain is trippled, when you manage to impress the elderly with your deed.

At that moment the truth dawned on him.

"Fuck, it was not Miriam." A really bad feeling washed over him.

"Ugh." He trembled again. The consequences of his mistake were grave, he looked again at his ability [Impress The Elderly] and a quiet, pained moan escaped his lips. Yes, he died to impress Miriam's grandfather.

"Most unfortunate." He said with a blank face, but then cursed wildly for another minute.

"Fine, compose yourself Toby, it is still thousand times better than to be send to that masochistic harem world or something." Subconsciously, he immediately started looking around if he was in the right place.

"That is a relief, it seems that I am not that unlucky." His mood improved by a notch.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He was surprised by being an elf, but not too much and he always liked trees anyway, so why not. He knew nothing about being a Stargazer, or how the system worked, but he was worried about his level now.

"Leveling up by saving creatures? That seems complicated." Killing was dangerous, but simple. Another source of his worries was the fact that it would be hell of a difficult task to save sameone as level one grunt.

The up-side of his ability was, that there might be ways to save lives while being relatively safe himself.

"Enough of thoughts, I am going to be eaten by something out here." Toby looked around quickly and saw that he was surrounded by a forest. Luckily, there was something that appeared like an Elven village nearby.

Well, he honestly did not expect to be thrown in the middle of a bear's den or something akin to such a situation, that would have been clearly unfair.

"Oh, time to get acquainted to my elven brethren." He began to walk with a jump in his steps in the direction of the village.

He arrived very soon, while admiring the unusual trees. Their trunks and branches looked similar to oaks, but there was an occasional streak of blue and red, as there were some trees which leaves were not of green color. The grass covering the ground of the forest seemed to went with similar theme, giving off the feeling of a real, elven enchanted forest how anyone would imagine it from legends and myths. . or online games in Toby's case.

"Aaah, beautiful. . " He entered the village with bated breath before someone pushed him aside.

"Are you stupid? Stay at the side of the path, silly treeless stargazers." Toby stumbled and followed the elf's recommendations.

What was that? Was that bullying among the elves? From the elf's speech, he could tell that Stargazers were not a title for someone lofty. And what was the remark about being treeless?

"I guess, I will be smarter after walking around the village a bit." He noticed many of the trees had some structures atop their branches. There were also some shelters made of wood on the ground, but there was only a few of them. The center of the village was clearly seen from afar, there was an icredibly huge tree with a trunk wider than a house. Toby could see it was hollow and elves used it as some kind of a hall or dwelling.

Between the trees in the village, there were bridges of varied width, he could see elves walking on them. Although there were already stars changing their place with the sun, the elves did not seem to mind the late hour, the stars turning the warm daylight into a silvery dream-like state.

"Hey, you are still here? Don't you have anything better to do?" The elf from before approached him again, his brows furrowed. His hair was long and white, his eyes shining with deep blue color.

"No?" Toby responded uncertainly. He searched for a way to display the pesky elf's status, but did not find any.

"So bold." The elf snorted and put down a large bag he had been carrying on his back, only to hand it over to him.

"You will come with me, at least you will do something useful." He said in a tone that commanded obedience and Toby just gulped and nodded. He was level one and knew nothing, he could not make enemies lightly, plus this geezer looked a little different from others

The other elves wore clothes you would expect of elves, preferring clothes enabling them swift movement with an awful lot of green, but this one elf's clothes had silver trim and its overall tone was not of warm colors at all. It was especially apparent now, that the stars were shining in the sun's place.

Picking up the bag, Toby began following the elf without another word.

At that moment, Toby tensed as he saw something nearing them with extreme speed. The next moment, an unnaturally big black cat ran past them, using the middle of the dirt road, an elf riding on top of it.

The pesky silver elf just glanced at him and one corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk. Toby understood how anyone walking in the center of the road would have ended and had to lower his head in shame.

The pesky silver elf might not be as pesky as he had thought.

"Come, we have a lot of ground to cover." Toby just nodded and followed him obediently. He was wondering about the three stats in his status. Fitness was more or less self-explanatory, but he had no idea what Chronomastery and Mysticism were.

"I guess it is fine for now, it is not like I can choose any of them right now." He thought about asking the elf, but he would like to know if it was normal to see his status, or if it was a speciality just for him.

They went further into the forest and from time to time, the elf handed him something to put it into the bag, mostly herbs. Was he some kind of a herbalist?

"Mister, are you a herbalist, do you make potions from those?" He could not hold back his curiosity any longer after a several hours long trip. The elf just turned around and smiled at him, the silver glitter on his clothes more pronounced than before.

"Herbalist? I thought you were a spy, but can a spy be this clumsy?" He said suddenly and Toby's heart began to beat faster.

"I don't know if you are even an elf, if you are not, you are a clumsy spy using superb magic, extremely strange indeed."

"How did you . .?" Toby's hands started shaking, knowing he was no match for the elf if they were to fight.

"Take out the last ingredient I have handed to you." The elf ordered sternly and Toby immediately took out a round ball from the bag.

"Do you know what it is?" He asked and Toby had the feeling that his life was hanging on his answer. Naturally he had no idea what it was.

"In the forests around us, there is a common animal, kurokawa it is called. It resembles a sqirrel and outsiders consider it cute. The elves consider it less cute as every elf had been hit at least once with its shit while walking under the trees. . . ." The elf leisurely pointed up with his finger.

". . .and I am sure none would put it into a bag like a holy relic of an ingredient." Toby froze, dropping the excrement in shock.

"Honestly, I wanted to kill you, but I have been deliberately leaving myself exposed the whole time and there was not even the slightest attempt to attack me." The elf came a few steps closer and looked into Toby's eyes, like he wanted to see his very soul.

"You are not an assassin, you are too clumsy for a spy, but you surely do not belong here in the forest. I do not know what to think." He stretched out his hand and Toby realized he wanted to return his bag, so he returned it promptly.

"You are not trustworthy, I cannot let you stay in the village. If you follow the dirt road out of our land, you will arrive to Durkan, try your luck there whoever you are." The elf pointed him in the direction of the road.

Toby's brain burned with activity as he was thinking of a way to get at least something from the encounter. He was sure the elf was ready to kill anyone he considered a threat to the village, he could not be reckless with his questions. He must not reveal anything about his transmigration in case the elf would consider it a threat.

"What is your level?" He asked trying to sound ambiguous, looking at the sword at the elf's hip.

"Level?" The elf asked in a rhetorical manner.

"Oh, my level! " He followed Toby's eyes with his.

"I would say my swordsmanship level is above your ordinary city guard." He smiled at Toby, who did not dare to try his luck any furhter and parted ways with the elf hurriedly.

"He did not know about levels?!" Toby replayed in his head what the elf had told him, while walking along the dirt road. This could mean so many things, it was good he had not asked about anything more sensitive. No matter the situation, ne desperately needed to level up, thus to save someone. He hoped there would be some opportunities in the city, if he could get there alive.

Suddenly, he heard growling and turned immediately in the direction of the sound. If there was someone in distress, he might get his first load of experience points!

He quickly followed the growls to arrive at the place where the event took place, but the one in distress was a wolf, who had its paw stuck in a trap. It was similar to an ordinary bear trap, but somewhat smaller.

"Easy boy, easy. Don't you have some elderly relatives? No? It is fine, I can"t have everything." He was nearing the black wolf, which in turn intensified its attempts to get free, causing much pain onto the animal.

"Damn, ungrateful dick!" Toby had to jump away fast, as the wolf snapped at him, its jaws missing him only by accident.

"What the hell man? I mean wolf? Isn't this the part where I save your life and we bond with each other and will get all friendly and cozy? Just read your script before you act!" It was quite complicated, it appeared the wolf intended to put his fangs where Toby's throat was, no matter how he tried to persuade it not to do that.

"This will be a disaster." The only thing he managed to think of, was to wrap half the clothes he had around his left hand and wave it in front of the wolf until it bit into it. When its jaw was occupied with his left hand, he stepped on the trap and used his right hand to open it.

[You have gained experience +50]

"Yeeeeah!!" Toby cheered, but the wolf was not done with him. He let go of his left hand and tried to bite his throat again. He desperately forced his right hand into its maw, and realized the fun was over when a wave of intense pain flooded every fiber of his being.

"Stupid wolf!" He kicked the wolf, but it did not work. Toby then reached for a stone and began slamming the stone against the wolf's skull until it went limp. Thankfully, he managed to get his hand free in the last second of their struggle, he would hate to have his hand stuck in the jaws of a dead wolf. Toby leaned against a tree and slided to the ground slowly, his right hand pulsing with every beat of his heart.

He reached out to the beast's jaw with his left hand and looked at its teeth.

And groaned.

"Filthy."

It meant he should clean the wound, unless he wanted to get a nasty infection. The problem was that the wound was quite large because of the struggle, even though it was not that deep.

"Fuck! What am I supposed to do now? Make a fire and stick my whole arm into it or what?!"

Another idea was to piss on it, but he doubted it would work on a wound this large.

"I should have let you die. That girl surely screwed up, this has to be that masochistic world." Toby lifted the dead wolf's hind leg to look whether he had some equipment.

"Pf, a male, so not even a yandere world." After exhausting his last reserves of his twisted humor, he decided to continue along the road. There were only two possibilities, he would either reach some sort of a healer in that city in time, or he would die on the road.

It was the worst walk in his life.