《Logical Labyrinth》 Prolouge Inside a store made of bricks, I am counting the money I earned from selling all the loots I found last week. In front of me is an old man with a big belly and wrinkles could be seen on his face. His hair is all white. ¡°Phew! With this my expenses for this month is covered.¡± I said as I received the money I earned after hunting like crazy for one week. Normally, I won¡¯t hunt that way since it has too many risk but seeing that my gain in hunting safely doesn¡¯t cover the cost of the maintenance of my equipments, cost of food and lounging I started to hunt like there is no tomorrow and solved the money problems. ¡°Haaa.. If you just give up the idea of being an adventurer and work here then you will never have to worry about your living expenses, Jasper.¡± The old man said to me while he scratched his head. ¡°I have my reasons why I cling for this job gramps. If only not for that reason then I would gladly work here.¡± ¡°Well, have it your way but remember, the job offer is always available okay?¡± The old man reminded me again about his job offer to me. Honestly, I would like to work here since the pay is alright. If only I don¡¯t have a reason to become an adventurer. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Yes yes. Then I will be going now. Take care gramps.¡± ¡°You too, take care.¡± I bid my farewell and went out the store. The sun is too bright since it is almost noon now. I squinted my eyes for a bit and allowed my sight to adjust to the brightness. When it already adjusted to the brightness of the sun, what I saw is a town from the medieval age. Wagons that occupied the streets, pedestrians walked on the side of the road and some of them have sword dangling from their waist. There are also men and women that hold staves and magic book and you could also see knights in their armor patrolling. You might think that I was born and raise on this time of age but you were wrong.. I am not from this time or should I say that this place isn¡¯t the world we know. This world is like a real fantasy world where monsters roam the forest, different races competing with each other and dragons roams the skies. And how do I get here? Well, let¡¯s turn back the time so that I can explain it clearly¡­. Chapter 1 – The Accident I am Jasper Perez a third year college student taking a course of marketing and I love playing video games. Video games let me experience something I don¡¯t experience every day. In games, I can be a knight in shining armor that rescued the princess, an assassin that assassinate important figure of the history, one of the four horsemen of apocalypse, or a demon hunter who is a nephilim. It¡¯s fun playing games. But I am not the type of guy who would locked himself in his room just to play games. I also have friends which I hang out with. Well.. Some of them also like to play video games. Anyways, I will tell you about how did I end up here. I was inside the classroom listening to my professor lecture even though it was hard to hear his voice due to heavy rain outside despite that I tried my best to listen to him. Most of my classmates aren¡¯t listening and they were talking about their own business. Some of them are talking about drinking even though it¡¯s still Monday, some talk about their relationship with their boyfriend/girlfriend with their friends and there are also some flirting with each other at the back. ¡®I hope they shut up for a while since it is already hard to hear the voice of our professor due to the rain.¡¯ I told myself as I desperately write down everything I hear from the professor. The voices got louder and I can¡¯t hear the professor now. *Sigh* I put down the pen and look outside the window. It was dark. It¡¯s already 6:45PM so naturally it is dark but today it looks like 10:00PM already due to the rain. It really was a bad weather. *Sigh* I let out another sigh and wish that the class end soon. I am staring blankly out when a lightning strikes and I saw something due to the light produced by the lightning. It has a shape of a man age 20 years old and covered with black cloak. Seeing this I felt uncomfortable a little bit and my desire to end the class quickly intensified. Time check 6:55PM ¡®Come on.. Sir end it now, there is only 5 minutes left.. Even if you end it here or later it would be the same..¡¯ I said to myself wishing to get out of this room. ¡°Okay¡­ Since it¡¯s raining, we will end this class early..¡± As if the professor heard what I said he ended the class early. Normally, he always used all the minute trying to teach us everything until 7:30PM (class end) comes. Hearing those words, I quickly pack my notes and pick up my bag then went out of the classroom. I am walking towards the gate when I felt someone is watching me. I turned around and saw no one. I quicken my pace and I arrived at the campus gate where there is a bus stop nearby. Luckily, there is a bus and I quickly went inside. I sat at the back near the window and the other students came in. They noisily choose their seats with their friends and I saw three familiar guys walking towards me. They are chatting about something and laughing. ¡°Hey handsome, is the seat next to taken?¡± Asked by a big man. Actually, he is big due to fat and I don¡¯t know why but since our childhood his haircut is always bald. This guy is Gino Cruz. ¡°It¡¯s already taken.. Taken by my baby, Marc¡± I said jokingly. Don¡¯t misunderstand us okay? We are not gay but this is how we normally greet each other. ¡°Yaay! Excuse me biatch!¡± The one who said it is a guy with glasses. He is Marc Hernandez, a slim guy and the smallest in our group. Marc pushes Gino aside and sit beside me with his head resting on my shoulders. ¡°If I only don¡¯t know you guys I would think that you are gays.¡± The one who said this is a tall man. His face is like a girl but he is man. This is Iggy Bautista. He sat beside Marc and Gino sat beside him. The bus was almost full when it started to move. The rain is still pouring but we chatted about everything and sometimes we joke about somebody. This scene continued and I looked at the road. There is a man silhouette in the middle of the road. *BEEP BEEP* The driver used the horn of the bus but the silhouette didn¡¯t move. Suddenly a black tunnel emerged from the back of the silhouette and the driver hit the brakes too hard causing all of us to be pressed forward. The bus stops but the tunnel came nearer instead. The driver change the gear to reverse and hit the gas pedal but the bus didn¡¯t move. The passengers started to panic. ¡°Hey! What are you doing?! Go back! Go back now!¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t we moving?! The tunnel is getting close!¡± ¡°It¡¯s no use! I already changed the gear to reverse and hit the gas pedal but the bus won¡¯t move!¡± Passengers shouted at the driver but the drive explained the situation to them. One of the passengers opened a window and jumped out from it but he was stabbed by a thousand black spears splattering his blood on the bus. ¡°HIEK!¡± The passenger who jumped out died from it and even though he is already dead, black spears keeps piercing his body and soon it look like a beehive. ¡°Are we all gonna die?!¡± ¡°Contact the police!¡± ¡°Mama!¡± ¡°Quickly! Close the windows!¡± Due to that event, passengers began panicking again and most of the girls started to cry. One of them tried to contact the police but there is no signal now. The tunnel look like a huge worm as it came nearer the bus. No.. It is a huge worm. It¡¯s mouth is open and you could see sharp fangs growing from it. The bus got devoured and the surrounding became pitch black. I can¡¯t see anything in front of me and when I looked down, I can only see until my hips. ¡°Jasper! Marc! Iggy! You there?!¡± Gino suddenly shouted but his voice seems to be far away from me. ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± ¡°I¡¯m alive! I¡¯m alive! Thank you Jasper-sama for holding my arms!¡± Marc and Iggy are also fine and Marc didn¡¯t miss this opportunity and throw a joke. But isn¡¯t their voices too far? ¡°Yeah I am also here! But did you guys move from your seats?¡± I asked them but they all said they didn¡¯t even move. Then why their voices seem too far? Suddenly, a blinding light shone and I closed my eyes and block it with my arm. *Twit twit twit* *rustle rustle* The light faded and I heard some birds and the rustling of the leaves of the tree. I opened my eyes and got shocked to what I saw. I am in the middle of the forest and I don¡¯t know how I got here. There is no forest nearby when I took the bus ride since we are in the middle of the city. And the most important thing is, I am alone. ¡°Where am i? Where is everyone?¡± I asked myself. Suddenly, a message box pops up in front of me. *** You are a now a resident of Pinar, a frontier village of the Kingdom of Sevil. Since you are a beginner and didn¡¯t know how to navigate the world system. Would you like to start the tutorial? *** What the hell is this?! Where am I? What is this weird message box I am seeing? World system? Tutorial? Am I inside a game or what? But the technology isn¡¯t advanced like that yet so this isn¡¯t a game or rather, how would I connect to a game when I am riding a bus? Where is this village Pinar and this Kingdom of Sevil? This is the first time I am hearing those places. ¡®Wait.. don¡¯t tell me.. No no.. it¡¯s impossible.. Maybe this is just a dream.. Sooner or later I will wake up from this weird dream..¡¯ I tried to convince myself that this is just a dream.. No.. I firmly believed that this is just a dream because come on¡­ You will never see a message box popping out of nowhere specially in reality.. Yup this is a dream.. Anyway, since I am dreaming I should enjoy this to the fullest and since I don¡¯t know anything about this dream so I will accept the tutorial. ¡°Yes¡± I said since I don¡¯t see any button and I hoped that it has a voice recognition function. *** Since Jasper accepted the tutorial, I will now explain how this world works. 1. This world¡¯s residents has levels. You will start as level 1 which is the lowest and the highest level is level 1000. 2. Experience gathering and leveling: 3. Changing jobs can be done on the village. A villager will issue a quest regarding the job you wanted. Level requirement is level 10 above. 4. To view your status, say ¡°Character Information¡±. 5. To view your learned skills, say ¡°Skill window¡±. 6. Doing bad things (robbery, murder, kidnap etc.) will change your alignment to bad that will make you a chaotic person. On the other hand, doing good deeds will give you an opportunity to change from being chaotic to good. 7. There is no concept of revival in this world. 8. Fame will increase as you clear quest, explore dungeons, and create something. (With high fame, the store will give you discounts and you will have a chance to speak with Nobles) 9. Skills that can be learned are limitless but there are skills that are profession exclusive and some professions had specialization on some skills. 10. Items can be collected through dismantling the corpse of the enemies. This is the end of tutorial. If you wanted to view the tutorial window again, kindly say ¡°Tutorial¡± and the window will appear. *** After reading the tutorial, I don¡¯t know what to say. This is like the light novel where Gino often read. I scratched my head and think how did I end up here. As far as I remember the bus got swallowed by a worm-like monster and then a light suddenly shone inside the bus but no matter where I look I can¡¯t find the bus nor my friends and other passengers. ¡°There is no point on thinking of something that isn¡¯t here for a moment.. Let¡¯s try the commands from the tutorial. Character Information!¡± I said the command words from the tutorial and a window appeared. *** Name: Jasper Perez Race: Human Profession: Villager Title: None Alignment: Neutral Fame: 0 Health: 100 Mana: 100 Level: 1 Experience: 0 Status Points Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 10 Vitality: 10 Equipment Headgear: None Torso: Leather Shirt Leggings: Leather Shorts Gloves: None Feet: Leather shoes Ring (Left): None Ring (Right): None Necklace: None Left Hand: None Right Hand: Rusty Sword Status Damage: 5 (+6) Defense: 5 (+3) Magic Damage: 0 Magic Defense: 0 Resistance Fire: 0 Ice: 0 Earth: 0 Wind: 0 Water: 0 Lightning: 0 Holy: 0 Dark: 0 *** This is like an RPG game.. This must really be a dream, sooner or later I will wake up. ¡°Well, this is a weird dream but let¡¯s just enjoy it for now.¡± I clicked the leather shirt, leather shorts, leather shoes and rusty sword from the window and another window appeared. *** Leather Shirt (Common) Durability: 10/10 Defense: 1 Weight: 1 A simple shirt made from leather. It gives a little defense and it is better than being naked. - - - This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Leather Shorts (Common) Durability: 10/10 Defense: 1 Weight: 1 A simple short made from leather. It gives a little defense and it is better than being naked. - - - Leather Shoes (Common) Durability: 10/10 Defense: 1 Weight: 1 A simple pair of shoes made from leather. It gives a little defense and it is better than being barefooted. Rusty Sword (Common) Durability: 25/25 Damage: 6 Weight: 3 A sword made from iron but due to being not used for a long time, rust could be seen on some parts of the sword. It isn¡¯t advisable to trust this sword with your life. *** ¡°These items are really suitable for beginners. Now for skills, Skill Window!¡± As I said the command, a window appeared. *** No skills are learned yet. *** I press the passive tab but the same information was shown. It make sense since I don¡¯t have any skill for the moment. ¡°Now, where should I go.¡± I looked around but what I only saw are trees. I confirmed earlier that I am in the forest but I don¡¯t know where I should go. The message box before said that I am from the village of Pinar but I don¡¯t know where is Pinar in the first place. I scratched my head and walk forward since I don¡¯t know where I am. I know that it is a bad idea to walk randomly inside a forest but there is nothing I can do. If ever I found a road then this will become easier. When I was walking in a random direction, I hear a sound like a tree getting cut using an axe so I followed it. *tak tak tak* The sound became louder as I got nearer from the source and there I saw an old-man swinging his axe. His head is drenched with sweat. He has a beer-belly, his hair is almost bald due to his age and he is wearing a simple shirt and pants. On his side lays a picnic basket and a water canteen, there are also chopped wood beside it. Maybe he knows where is Pinar so I asked him. ¡°Uhmm.. Excuse me..¡± The man stop and stares at me. Then he suddenly smiled. ¡°Yes, what can I do for you?¡± The man said as he wiped his sweat with a towel. ¡°Can you tell me where am I?¡± ¡°You are inside the forest of Pinar. Are you lost?¡± ¡°Yeah, kind of..¡± ¡°If you follow that path then you will reach the village of Pinar.¡± ¡°Thank you¡± Hearing those words from the old man, I hurriedly went to the direction he pointed. After walking for 5 minutes, I arrived at the path that the old man pointed. I followed the path for about 30 minutes when I saw fields of wheat and corn and a small village. There are only 20 houses and a single well at the center of the village. There were some villagers that are tending with the crops, children playing at the streets, and there are also some armed people who are busy buying or selling at the store. ¡®This is really like an RPG¡¯ I said to myself as I enter the village and went to the well. ¡°Buying anything you found during your hunt! Price depends on the quality of the item!¡± ¡°Selling medicine! Price ranges from 5 copper to 1 silver depending on the effect!¡± ¡°Repairing armor and weapon! Come here and repair your weapon!¡± ¡°Selling adventuring tools for a cheap price! 5 copper for a map!¡± ¡°I am a warrior level 11 looking for a group to hunt wolves!¡± ¡°Looking for a archer for hunting wolves!¡± The center of the village is lively since this is where the stores are located and some are finding for a group to hunt. I stare blankly at the people who are doing their business at the town center. When a man suddenly spoke besides me. ¡°Quite lively even being a frontier village right?¡± I look at my side and found a man that was as tall as I am. He is wearing a leather armor and a sword is hanging on his waist. There was also a shield on his back. ¡°I am Greg, a warrior level 10.¡± Greg introduced himself and stretched his hand towards me. ¡°I am Jasper, i don''t have a job yet and still level 1.¡± I grasped Greg¡¯s hand and shake it. I don¡¯t know why this man started a conversation to me but it would be rude not to answer him. ¡°Oh I thought you are a warrior too since you have a sword on your waist but anyway would you like to hunt with me for a while?¡± Greg asked me to hunt with him. I don¡¯t know why would he bother to asked me to hunt with him since there are more suitable people around here. But I agreed either way since I can¡¯t let the opportunity to gather more information about this world. ¡°Okay then follow me.¡± Greg walked towards the forest on the north, opposite to where I came and I followed him. After walking for about 10 minutes, we entered the forest. The trees are so thick and the leaves block all the light coming from the sun making it so dark. Not a sound could be heard except for our footsteps. I looked at the back of Greg and saw him checking the surroundings and sometimes he look at me. ¡®I don¡¯t like how this man acts. It gives me the creeps.¡¯ Greg suddenly stops and once again checks the surroundings. ¡°This should be far enough.¡± Greg said to himself ¡°Uhmm.. Greg, where are the monster that we are hunting?¡± ¡°Monster? Hunting? Ha! You will be my prey!¡± Greg suddenly draws his sword and charge towards me. Due to his sudden charge, I lost my balance and fell on my but causing his strike to miss. ¡®What the hell is happening here?¡¯ Greg pointed his sword towards my face and said. ¡°This is what I like about new comers, they trust anyone who asked them. Hehe. Just give me everything you have and I will let you live.¡± So he is planning to rob me! Why did my dream became like this! I stare at him dumbfounded and he just laughed. ¡°Hey idiot! Didn¡¯t you hear me? Or are you too scared and you can¡¯t speak?¡± ¡°W-wait! I don¡¯t have anything except for my clothes and this rusty sword! So can you please let me leave?¡± The hell is this! I only started this dream and now I am being rob? What is wrong with this dream! Greg suddenly thrust his sword on my shoulder and blood drips from the wound and it hurt like hell! A red message box pops up in front of me. *** You have been stabbed on your shoulder! You received 25 damage and attack speed fell by 10% *** Despite being level 10 his damage is low. But either way, it really hurts like hell! I shouted as loud as I could when he stabbed me. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± ¡°Huhuhu, this is the best! An idiot who didn¡¯t know anything is now screaming due to pain! Hahahaha! Even if you scream no one will come and help you here!¡± Greg kicked me on my stomach and another message box has shown. *** You received 10 damage. *** 35 of my health has been reduced and I only have 65 health remaining. ¡°I need to wake up!¡± I shouted this words and Greg burst out laughing! ¡°Hahahahaha! This is priceless! You think that this is a dream? You really are an idiot! This is your new reality! If you die right now you will end up dead! This is your new reality remember that you idiot!¡± ¡°This is reality?¡± I stare at him dumbfounded again and he laughed harder than before. ¡°Hahahahaahaha! This is the best! So now you know? If I kill you right now then you will end up dead! So know give me everything you have!¡± Greg kicked me again but this time I caught his feet and pulled it to my side. He lost his balance and fell to the ground. I quickly draw my sword and thrust it to his right hand where he holds his sword. ¡°Ahhhh!! You fucking idiot!! I¡¯ll kill you!¡± He tried to stand up but I stepped on his face and cut his left arm. Blood gushed out on the wound and he screamed louder. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!¡± A smiled appeared to my face as I heard his screams. I don¡¯t know why I smile but I fell refreshed when I heard his scream. I pressed his head harder and cut his other hand. Now he didn¡¯t have any arm to use his sword but I feel it is still lacking. I pierced his left legs and he shouted much louder than before. ¡®Ahhh, shout louder!¡¯ ¡°P-p-please spare me! I will give you anything you want just spare me!¡± ¡°Spare? How many victims did you spare? I think once you get all of their items you kill them right? Well, I will not tell you to give me all your items but I will just enjoy killing you.¡± As I said those words I thrust my sword to his right legs making him scream louder. Tears flows from his eyes and his shorts became wet. ¡°Ohh, you wet yourself huh.. What happened to your threat before?¡± I said as I stab my sword again at his right legs. ¡°Hiiiiiik!! I¡¯m sorry! Please let me live! I only have 5 health remaining one more attack and I will die! I don¡¯t want to die!¡± Greg begs for his life but what is this.. Why do I feel elated by his begging? I wanted him to beg some more! But one more hit and he will die. Die? Wait what am I doing?! Isn¡¯t this murder?! I am killing someone! I stepped backwards due to that and Greg is crying out loud, he is crawling towards the village. My conscience is saying that I should not kill him but there is also a voice that says. ¡®Kill him! He tried to rob you! And besides, isn¡¯t this a dream? Even if this is your reality now, this counts as self defense since he is the one who strikes you first!¡¯ That¡¯s right.. This is self-defense. I¡¯ve done nothing wrong. But killing him is still wrong. I¡¯ve gone too far. I walked towards him wielding my sword on my right hand when I suddenly tripped over a stone and I accidentally killed him. *** You have killed a chaotic person named ¡°Greg¡±. Fame increased by 10. You¡¯ve gained 250 experience. You gained a level! *** In the end, I killed Greg and gained a level. I don¡¯t know what to feel, should I be happy that I gained a level or should I feel bad since I killed a person. Suddenly, I heard the voice again that told me to kill Greg. ¡®This is just a game, a dream. This isn¡¯t your reality so you don¡¯t need to feel bad due to it. If you let him live then surely you will be the one to suffer. Don¡¯t worry, this is just a dream. A game.¡¯ That¡¯s right, this isn¡¯t my reality. This is just a dream. And he tried to kill me and I just fought back. I didn¡¯t do anything wrong. I went near the corpse of Greg and picked up some of his equipment. *** Iron Sword (Common) Durability: 34/35 Damage: 12 Weight: 5 Restriction: Level 2 above. A simple sword made from iron. It has a higher damage and durability than the rusty sword but it was also heavier. --- Iron Shield (Common) Durability: 30/35 Defense: 10 Weight: 5 Restriction: Level 2 above. A simple shield made from iron. It gives a decent protection against attack and it can also block the attack of the enemies. --- Leather Bag (Common) Durability: 45/50 Weight Capacity: 250 Weight: 25 A bag made of leather of an animal that holds the user¡¯s items. It can hold more item than a ransack but it can be easily damaged. *** From the previous battle I got a new sword, shield, and a leather bag. I quickly equipped the sword and shield. The bag is backpack and it had already content, naturally since I obtained it after killing Greg. I checked the content of the bag and found a small pouch. I picked it up and opened it and saw that it contains some copper coins. There are also 3 fangs inside the bag. I put the pouch inside and picked up the bag. ¡®It felt like I am stealing from someone¡¯ I felt guilty of what I¡¯ve done but every time I felt guilt, a voice would say that this is just a game. Hearing those words takes my guilt away and now I can take the items of Greg without thinking about it too much. [Note]: The "***" represents tables since the table from MS Word didn''t appear. :( Chapter 2 – Money is the Problem After that I went to back to the town leaving Greg¡¯s corpse unattended. As I walk, blood drips from my wound creating a trail of blood. ¡®What kind of dream is this? I almost died but I didn¡¯t woke up. This is like the movie I watched a long time ago.¡¯ When I thought about what happened to the movie, I felt every hair on my body stands up. ¡®If it is that movie then if I die here then I would also die in reality.¡¯ I shrugged my shoulder and walk straight back to the village. As soon as people saw me bleeding, a commotion occurred. ¡°Hey that man is bleeding! Call a doctor!¡± One person shouted those words and some run away to get a doctor and the person who shouted run towards me and assisted me as I walk. We walked for about 3 minutes until we stop in front of a house made of wood. The door opened and I saw a man on his mid-30¡¯s carrying a box. He seems to be the doctor of this village. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, we saw him returning from the Dark Forest. Maybe he encountered a goblin since the wound seems done by a sword.¡± The man who is assisting me explained it to the doctor. The doctor guided us on an empty bed and put me down there. The man strips my clothes as the doctor pulled something in the box. It is bandages and some herbs. The doctor tended my wounds with herbs and bandaged it. * * * Low-level bandages have been applied on the wound. Health will recover by 5 per hour. Due to application of Low quality Herbs, healing effect of bandages increased by 5. * * * ¡°Now, what happened?¡± The doctor asked me and I explained about how I got the wound from Greg. Upon hearing my explanation, the doctor¡¯s face turned dark, not only the doctor but also the man who assisted me. ¡°Greg? He returned at last! Call the guards and find him!¡± ¡°Okay!¡± The man ran towards the exit but I grasped his arms. I felt pain due to sudden movements and groaned. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t move like that until you heal completely. Don¡¯t worry, we will catch Greg.¡± The doctor warned me but I looked at the man¡¯s eyes. ¡°I killed Greg already but if you need his corpse, then follow the trail of my blood.¡± I said to the man and he nodded. I let go of his arms and felt my consciousness fade and fell asleep. When I woke up, it is already dark and the doctor is busy mixing some herbs. I tried to stand up but all I felt is pain. ¡°Ouch..¡± ¡°You must rest until tomorrow. Don¡¯t worry, you will not be punished by killing Greg since he is a robber. Just rest until tomorrow.¡± The doctor said without looking at me. A girl entered a room, she is a teenager. Her hair is long that it reaches her waist, it is color chestnut the same with the doctor and she is carrying a tray with two bowls on it. There is also two cup filled with water. She walked towards the doctor and put one of the bowl and cup in front of the doctor and said. ¡°Dad, please don¡¯t overwork yourself okay?¡± ¡°Yes yes, after this I will rest.¡± So she is her daughter. When I looked closely at her, she is wearing a glasses and she gives an aura of a strict person. Her eyes are also color chestnut and her height is the same with me. She is so beautiful that you would think that God concentrated every beauty in the world to her. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake. Can you eat by yourself? By the way I am Kaezar¡± Kaezar said to me smiling and put down the tray on the desk beside the bed. The bowl contain a porridge and it has an appetizing smell. ¡°Yes I can eat by myself thank you. I am Jasper¡± I introduced myself and picked up the spoon but when I reached out my hand, I felt a dull pain causing my face to distort. ¡°Don¡¯t push yourself too hard.¡± Kaezar smiled as she picked up the spoon. ¡®Is she trying to feed me?¡¯ By that thought, I felt my face got hotter and maybe I am blushing. This isn¡¯t the first time that a girl fed me but I can¡¯t help to feel embarrassed if a girl that will feed me is as beautiful as Kaezar. ¡°Here say ¡®ah¡¯¡± She asked me to open my mouth and I hesitantly followed her instruction. I opened my mouth slowly. ¡°A-ahh¡± I ate the porridge she serve and it tasted really good. ¡°How is it?¡± Kaezar asked me while she prepares another spoon of porridge. ¡°It¡¯s the best. Are you the one who cooked it?¡± ¡°Yes, thanks God that it was good.¡± Kaezar smiled. Whenever she smiled, my heart skips a beat. Suddenly, I felt someone who is staring or should I say glaring at me. It was her father, the doctor. The father seems pissed at me. Well, who wouldn¡¯t be pissed if you saw your daughter feeding someone from opposite sex? Specially if that someone is at the same age as your daughter. Feeling uncomfortable with the glare I tried to stop Kaezar from feeding me. ¡°H-hey, it¡¯s okay. I can eat at my own.¡± I tried to snatch the spoon on her hand but she held it high so that I can¡¯t reach it. I tried to get up but the I felt a dull pain from the wound. ¡°Ouch..¡± ¡°I told you to take it easy. Relax so that the wound would heal faster. Leave everything to me.¡± ¡®Uhmmm.. Kaezar, you know I can¡¯t relax since your father is glaring at me the whole time¡¯ Is what I wanted to say but I just nodded at her since her father seems to say that I should just follow her or else. This old man, he glared at me when his daughter feed me but he will glare at me harder if I refuse the kindness of his daughter. Seriously, what would you like me to do? I let Kaezar feed me until the bowl became empty, after that I drink water and lie down to the bed. Kaezar take the dishes and went out of the room. I look at the doctor and saw his bloodshot eyes. I bet he¡¯s thinking how to kill me. ¡°Uhmm..¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I would not kill you for that. Kaezar is a kind girl and everyone that became my patient is treated that way by Kaezar.¡± The doctor seems to read what I¡¯m about to say and told me that I don¡¯t need to worry about it. ¡°Anyways, it is amazing that you kill Greg. Killing a level 3 thief isn¡¯t easy.¡± ¡°Eh? He¡¯s a level 3 thief? He said he¡¯s a level 10 warrior.¡± I got shocked at what the doctor said because I perfectly heard from Greg that he is a level 10 warrior. Wait¡­ Is he lying about his job and level? ¡°Boy, don¡¯t trust someone easily, some of them will take advantage of you. If they said that they are warrior then let the village chief check it.¡± ¡°Check it? The village chief can check jobs and level by glance?¡± I asked since I didn¡¯t know about it. ¡°Nope, not by glance. It is through the ¡®Identification Card¡¯.¡± ¡°Identification Card?¡± Of course I know what identification card in reality is. It is a card that contains basic information about oneself like name, age, gender, address, etc. but it exist here? ¡°Identification Card is a card that contains the person¡¯s name, age, job and level. It is used to identify someone. There is a skill that allows you to summon it but it is only available for a few jobs like village chief or knight. They say that it is created by God after the mother gave a name for the baby. And it is located at your left hand.¡± The doctor pointed the back of his hand when he explained it. I could avoid killing Greg if I knew about it before. Well, there¡¯s nothing I can do now. And this is just a dream, there¡¯s no point on feeling guilty when killing someone in your dream. ¡°Just rest for now and tomorrow went to the village chief¡¯s house. And also, by tomorrow your wound will be completely healed.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The doctor went out of the room leaving me alone. I closed my eyes and sleep. It is weird. Sleeping inside a dream. I experienced waking up from a dream to find out that I was still dreaming but I never experienced sleeping inside a dream. When I woke up, the sun is already up and it seems to be 8:00 AM or something. I sat down at the bed and rotate both shoulder. The pain is gone. I can now move it freely but there is still bandages attached to it. Is it possible to heal a wound from a sword overnight? Here it is possible since it is a dream. There is nothing impossible for a dream. When I stand up, I felt chilly down there then suddenly the door opened. It was Kaezar and she is holding a tub of water with towel hanging on her shoulders. I don¡¯t know if knocking isn¡¯t practice in here or what but Kaezar¡¯s face seems to be color red. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked her and take a step forward towards her but she suddenly let go of the tub causing the water to spill and covers her face. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAA!!¡± She suddenly screamed then I realized I am naked. I don¡¯t know why I am naked in the first place but I covered my ¡®Sword of Light¡¯ with my hand. ¡°W-w-wait!! Don¡¯t scream!!¡± I quickly covers my body with the blanket when I said those words but his father ran towards the room. ¡°What happened?!¡± The doctor asked as he slams the door open and entered the room. There he saw his daughter covering her face and me who is covering my whole body with a blanket. ¡°You pervert!! What did you do to my daughter?! Why are you naked?!¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.He¡¯s angry. ¡°That¡¯s what I wanted to know to! And besides, your daughter didn¡¯t knock! I am finding my clothes when she opened the door!¡± I explained to the doctor to avoid more trouble than this. I don¡¯t want unnecessary troubles. ¡°It¡¯s on the right side of the bed. There is a basket there and your clothes are there and Kaezar, I told you before that if we had a patient knock before you enter this room.¡± The doctor voice is now gentle but his glaring at me as if I planned all of this. I scratched my head and put on my clothes. I say clothes but it is actually equipment. The sword and shield I got from Greg are put besides the basket. I hang the sword at my waist and put the shield at my back. Remembering that most of my equipment now came from Greg, I felt guilt but every time I felt it, the voice would say that ¡®it¡¯s okay, this is just a dream¡¯. I went out to the streets and remembered that I need to pay the village chief a visit. As I was walking towards to the village chief¡¯s house when I someone pulled my shoulder from the back. I looked back and saw the doctor carrying my bag. I seems to forgot about it. ¡°Here you forgot these¡­ And I don¡¯t want to see you come near my little Kaezar¡­ Or else¡­ Understand?¡± He gave me my bag and give a little threat to me. Doctor, you don¡¯t have to worry, after the accident I don¡¯t know how I would approach her even if I wanted to. I just nodded at the doctor¡¯s words since he look serious. This man really loves his daughter. Now that I think about it I only saw his daughter. If his daughter is that beautiful, I bet his wife must be beautiful too. Maybe the doctor has another daughter and I hope it is older than Kaezar. ¡°Good and by the way, if you are going to the village chief¡¯s house then you are going to the wrong direction, the house is located there.¡± The doctor pointed towards his back which is the opposite of where I am going. ¡°And also you forgot to pay.¡± ¡°Gek! I thought it was free!¡± ¡°Boy, there is nothing ¡®Free¡¯ in the world, everything has a price.¡± This dream¡­ It¡¯s so realistic that it somehow scares me. Normally, money transactions aren¡¯t included in a dream right? This sure is a weird dream. ¡°H-how much?¡± ¡°Hmmm.. let¡¯s see for the herbs that I used 5 coins, bandages are 10 and another 8 for porridge so a total of 23 kwart all in all.¡± ¡°Kwart?¡± I asked the doctor since I don¡¯t know what kwart it. Although I have a rough guess about it, it is better to let him explain since I might be mistaken. ¡°Kwart is the name of money. The currency used to represent kwarts is copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. 1 kwart = 1 copper coin, 100 kwart = 1 silver coin and 10000 kwart is equal to 1 gold coin.¡± 23 kwarts! It almost took all of my money. 23 kwarts for one treatment huh, and moreover it is just a light wound but the price is too high. ¡°You might be thinking that the price is too high right? I am sorry but if I don¡¯t charge for each treatment I did then people will suffer since I won¡¯t be able to buy the items needed for the treatment.¡± He got a point. If he treats people for free then he will be the one to suffer. I opened my bag and take out the coin pouch. ¡°23 kwarts.¡± I take 23 copper coins from the pouch and hand it over to the doctor. The doctor accepted it and put it on his own coin pouch that is dangling on his waist. So now I only have 2 copper coins. 2 kwarts.. What can I buy from that money? 2 kwarts will not suffice for my food alone plus I need to rent a room inside the inn. *Sigh* I sighed as I saw the doctor going inside his house. I forgot to asked where can I find the cheapest inn. ¡°There is nothing I can do about it. I can¡¯t earn money if I just stand here. Better went to the village chief¡¯s house then hunt something outside the town.¡± I went to the village chief¡¯s house I don¡¯t have money. If I don¡¯t have money then I can¡¯t eat or sleep inside the inn. No I won¡¯t survive this world if I don¡¯t have money. *Sigh* I sighed again and I found myself at the building that the doctor is pointing. The building looks old and made of stone and wood. It looks similar to other building the only difference is the parts that are made from stones. I knocked at the door. ¡°Excuse me! Is this the village chief¡¯s house?¡± I shouted in front of the door then I heard some sounds behind it and the door slowly opened. An old man that is in his mid-60¡¯s welcomed me. ¡°Yes this is village chief¡¯s house and I am the village chief. How can I help you?¡± ¡°I heard you need me for something.¡± I said at the village chief. The village chief clothes is ragged and he look at me from top to bottom. ¡°Are you really the one who killed Greg?¡± ¡°Yes¡± I answered the village chief question and he look at me with a doubt in his eyes. ¡°Well¡­ There is no use on lying on me kid¡­ [By the power of King he bestowed upon me! I command you to manifest and reveal the identity of this man! Reveal Identification Card!]¡± The village chief says something that someone with an 8th grade syndrome would say. I wonder how can he said something like that. Maybe it is normal for this world to say something as embarrassing as that. Suddenly, my right armed heat up and light shone from it. From my right hand a blue card appeared and floats in the air. The village chief took the card and read the content. ¡°Name: Jasper Perez, Level: 2, Job: None, Gender: Male. You seem to be Jasper and you have a last name but I never heard of Perez family.¡± The blue card is the identification card that the doctor is telling me. So this is how you summon an identification card huh. ¡°I am Noe the village chief I called you here to discuss the matter about Greg.¡± So the village chief called me to discuss about it huh¡­ I think he would just ask some question regarding the incident. There is a limit to what you can learn about what you hear but I thought that they already found the corpse of Greg and I already admitted about killing him so what would the village chief ask me? ¡°Come inside. There is something I wanted to ask you.¡± We went inside the house. The inside is plain and there is no electrical appliances that could be seen. When you enter the door, the first thing that you would see is a wooden table and chairs. Further would be the kitchen and on the left side of the door you would see the stair. We sat on the chair and an old woman brings a cup of water for us to drink. Maybe she is Noe¡¯s wife. ¡°Thank you.¡± I thank the old woman and she smiled at me and said. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± The old woman went back to the kitchen and started a fire on the stove using firewood and flint. ¡°Now the reason I call you hear is about Greg as I said earlier.¡± Noe said and I shifted my attention to him from his wife. I am quite interested on how did his wife make a fire using flint but I that is not the reason I am here. I am here because Noe wanted to ask me something. ¡°Are you really the one who killed him?¡± Noe asked me with a serious face. Is he doubting that I killed Greg? ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Then can you tell me the appearance of the corpse of Greg if you really are the one who killed him.¡± Noe asked me. Why did they need to ask me this? I already told them about the corpse so they should know the appearance of it. ¡°Both of its arms are severed and there are some stab wounds on the legs.¡± I said as I recall the corpse of Greg. Guilt started to haunt me again but the voice calmed me. ¡°You really killed him huh¡­ It¡¯s not that I doubt you but killing a thief will award you depending on their level. Each level will give you 1,000 kwarts minimum. It changes depending on the weight of the crime.¡± Noe paused and give me a red card. I looked at it and it contains the information about Greg. * * * Name: Greg Level: 3 Job: Thief Bounty: 10,000 kwarts Gender: Male * * * So this is how the identification card looks like. It really gives the basic information of the owner. I am fascinated by it and Noe coughed. *Ahem* ¡°That is the identification card for chaotic person. Your identification card is blue meaning you¡¯re good. Anyway I will be giving you that card since you are the one who killed him. Give this to the knight office at the city and they will give you the bounty listed on the card.¡± Noe explained to me. So I need to go to the city to claim the bounty huh¡­ Well, it¡¯s too early for me to leave Pinar so I will be staying here for a while. The problem is the money. ¡°Say Noe, how can I earn money here?¡± I asked Noe since he is the village chief. I can trust him since he is a public figure. ¡°Let¡¯s see. You can hunt the animals at the forest and gather their meat and leather to sell it or you can do some various works at the shops. It would depend on what you wanted to do. I would recommend working at the shops since you can earn money safer there.¡± Noe suggested for me to work at the shops. It is indeed safe but I won¡¯t gain level if I don¡¯t fight. Well, safety first so I think I would apply for various shops here for a while. ¡°Hey Noe can you recommend me for work here? I don¡¯t know If I would be accepted if I just went here and there asking for a work.¡± ¡°I think I can¡­¡± I asked Noe since he is the village chief and for him to recommend me means I have a higher chance of landing a job. Chapter 3 – Information Gathering I think I¡¯ll work inside the village first. Venturing outside without sufficient information would cause accident in worst case, it will take my life. Even if this is just a dream I don¡¯t want to die. ¡°Please introduce me at some work here.¡± I asked Noe to introduce me to some shops here but he look at me dumbfounded. ¡°What wrong?¡± I asked him and he shook his head. ¡°Nothing¡­ I thought that you would prefer to hunt outside than working at the shops inside the town.¡± What is he thinking just now? Did he think that I would hunt in the forest where I don¡¯t know what kind of monsters are there? Maybe most of the people here hunt monsters and working at the shops make you look lame. But they are wrong! Without the support of the shops, you can¡¯t sell your loots and buy the necessity you needed for an adventure! Without shops the town will not progress! Shops are important! ¡°What¡¯s up with that way of thinking? Do you think hunting will make you look cooler? Well yes you look cool and all but in the end of the day how much did you earn? A few copper? I won¡¯t risk my life for a few copper.¡± I said at Noe who become dumbfounded by my explanation. I think my explanation is right in the first place so why is he like that? ¡°You know¡­ Hunting monster gives you more money than working at shops. Each wolf¡¯s leather is 50 kwarts, wolf¡¯s fangs are 5 kwarts each and the meat is 100 kwarts. Each wolf gave 1 wolf skin, 3 to 4 fangs and a meat then one wolf will give you approximately 170 kwarts if you would sell the meat and 70 kwarts if not. It is lower than 200 kwarts per day but you would not settle on one wolf per hunt right?¡± Noe explained to me but didn¡¯t he get the point? My point is that I am safe if I work at the shop. I don¡¯t need to risk my life to gain 170 kwarts if I am inside a shop. Yes, sooner or later I would need to hunt but not now especially if I don¡¯t have enough information about the forest. ¡°Yes I get you point but I don¡¯t need to rush. I need to earn MONEY first without RISKING MY LIFE.¡± I emphasized my point and hopefully he gets it. I don¡¯t need to risk my life yet. I won¡¯t go out of the forest with only sword and shield. I need supplies and some information about the monsters outside. Working at a shop will give me both money and information. ¡°Okay okay I get it. Where do you want to work? Currently, the tavern, weapon shop and armor shop are urgently hiring people and the regular salary of part-timers is 200 kwarts per day.¡± 200 kwarts per day is not a bad offer. But the problem is where should I work? If I work at the tavern I would learn more information than weapon and armor shops but I will be very tired and If I work at the weapon or armor shops means less information. Well, my primary objective is gathering information so should I work at the tavern? ¡°I think I will work at the tavern.¡± ¡°Okay then follow me.¡± I followed Noe. We went out of his house and walk about 100 meter and went inside a wooden building with a two mugs as a sign. This might be the tavern. Inside there are 50 wooden tables surrounded by wooden chairs. The counter could be seen after entering the shop and wooden stalls are lined up. There are some adventurers drinking and exchanging information about the monster they encountered so far and some are falling in line at the left side of the shop and also there is a huge bulletin board beside it with paper pinned on them. Noe and I went to the counter and a man with a muscular body greeted us. He is bald and has a beard. ¡°What can I do for you village chief?¡± The man said. ¡°I heard that you need some help and brought someone.¡± Noe said as he introduced me to the man. ¡°This is Jasper and he would love to work here. Won¡¯t you hire him?¡± ¡°He has good looks and he might get the heart of woman adventurers. Hey kid, do you have any experience on this kind of work?¡± The man asked me. Good looks? I think I am pretty normal and most of the time girls tends to ignore me. ¡°I don¡¯t have experience but I think I can handle it if I will just deliver and take the order of the customer.¡± I said confidently. Serving the customer is easy for me. You only need to satisfy them and give them what they wanted. If they wanted to talked then listen, if they wanted your opinion about something then answer. It is simple. ¡°Hmmmm¡­ Okay village chief! I think I¡¯ll hire this guy. My name is Mar and I own this tavern. You will be working here from now on so remember that¡­.¡± Mar explained how this tavern works. This tavern serves alcohol, food, and beverages. On the left side is the ¡°Request Area¡± where the residents put their request and adventurers took it. Since this is a tavern, it also serves as information center. I must be well informed about what is happening inside and outside the town, monster information and other stuff. I don¡¯t know about other stuff so I asked Mar and he said that the other stuff means giving advices to the adventurers about their personal lives since Mar said that the other stuff are mainly ordered by women it is mostly about love which is my forte since most of my friends asked me about it. ¡°That is what we deal here so kid change into this.¡± Mar gave me a piece of clothes. It is made from leather and its color is white. It is long sleeves shirt, black pants and black shoes. This will really make me look like a waiter. After changing to my uniform, Mar gave me some pieces of paper. He said that it is the information about the prices of items in the shop, information about hunting spots, and information about different kind of monsters. I read it immediately since this is the main reason why I work at the tavern, to gather information. The information I gathered so far are about the monsters and about adventurers. There are three kinds of monsters known so far. They are wolves, goblins, and orcs. All of them hunt in pack and you will rarely see them alone. First the wolves, they are fast and agile they wear down their prey by attacking by waves. Second are goblins, they are small green monsters their height is the same with a 5 years old child and they wield weapon. Their weapons are consisted of daggers, bow and arrow, and a stone axe. They can build camps and store food there. Goblin¡¯s camps commonly have 15-20 goblins and attacking their camps need at least 5 adventurers. Lastly, the orcs. Orcs wield different weapons such as swords, glaives, bows, mace and staves. Some of them can use magic and they had a small village in the northern part of the forest. They sent scouts to patrol in their territory and they can create strategies when hunting. Raiding their village is not recommended since they don¡¯t know how many orcs are there. ¡°Most of the games I played featured orc is like a human, they have names and each of them has a sense of individuality.¡± I said as I read about the orcs. Next information is about adventurers. The adventurers are treated like mercenaries. They can be hired with enough money and in times of war, they became militia for their kingdoms. Adventurers that pledge their loyalty to one kingdom can¡¯t cross the borders of other kingdom with ease. They must first secure a document that will let them go inside another kingdom just like when you need to get a passport to went abroad. The adventurers have different jobs and only combat related jobs are listed on the paper. It was Archer, Swordsman, Magician, Stalker, and Brawler. Archer used bows for ranged attacks and their health is low but the monster usually dies before they can attack the archer. Swordsmen used swords as their weapon and have a high health. Magician used staff as weapon but uses magic to attack the monsters, they have the same range as the archer but they can deal area-of-effect magic against groups of monsters. Stalkers used daggers as their weapon and can use invisibility. Usually, they are recruited to the party to become a scout. Lastly the brawler, they used their fist as their weapon and has a high dodge rate. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Those five are the basic jobs and when you hit level 25 you can change to an advance job. The information about advance job are not included to the paper given by Mar since he said that there are too many advance jobs and this village only offers basic job change. After reading and remembering all the important information, I went out of the changing room and Mar is already waiting for me. The tavern is almost full of customers and the line near the bulletin board is now smaller than before. ¡°Bring these beers to them.¡± Mar gave me a tray that contains 5 beer mugs and pointed at a group of 5 people near the door. They sitting around the table and there is only one female on their group. As I walked near them, I carefully observed their weapon to figure out their classes. If I can somehow start a conversation with them then I can gather more detailed information about the monster and their respective jobs. The girl is wearing a brown robe and there is a staff beside her. Basing on her weapon and clothing, she must be a magician. On her right there is a muscular man wearing iron armor and on his side there is a big sword, he must be a swordsman. On his right there is another man wearing leather armor and his hand is covered with bandages? Maybe he is a brawler or a stalker but as I went nearer to them I noticed the fist-weapon hanging on his waist making him a brawler. The other two men are also wearing leather armor and quivers hang on their waist making them archer. I approached them and put the beer on their table. ¡°Here is your order.¡± ¡°Thank you. You must be new here first time I saw your face.¡± The brawler said as he drank the beer. ¡®With this I can start the conversation¡¯ I thought as the other members drank their beer. ¡°May I ask a question honorable adventurer?¡± ¡°Sure go ahead.¡± The brawler replied to my question while he picks up his mug to drink. ¡°I heard that outside this forest there are monsters roaming. If ever I get inside the forest, what kind of monster will I encounter? How do I deal with them? Please guide me, honorable adventurer.¡± The brawler hand stop mid-air and looked at me. He looked at me from head to toe as if measuring if I will be one of his competitors one day. I just smiled at him and pretend to ask just for the sake of what if. ¡°Hmmm.. You are not suitable for hunting so why bother asking.¡± The brawler coldly said this to me as he drank his beer. ¡°You see¡­ One day I might need to go inside the forest to gather some herbs or fruits I just wanted to know what kind of monster would I encounter?¡± I said an excuse just in case that he saw me as a competitor. Well, one day I might really went inside the forest to gather herbs but that is for the future. The brawler put down his mug and faced me. ¡°Haaa¡­ Okay I will tell you. If you would just gather herb near the exit then there is no risk of encountering monsters but the herbs you will get is just the normal one. If you wanted to gather higher level herbs then entering to the depths of the forest is inevitable. Listen, 50 meters away from the exit you will encounter a lone wolf. For 75 meters, a pack and some lone goblin then 100 meters away a group of goblin and some orc scout. Fighting a single wolf at your level, you will surely die so if ever you need to gather herbs 50 meters away the exit then it is advisable to post a request of escort.¡± The brawler explained to me while he draws some kind of map on the table using his hand. ¡®I see. If it is just a single wolf then I think I can handle it by myself.¡¯ ¡°Thank you very much.¡± I bowed and thank the brawler that gave me the information and went back to the counter. This scene repeated every time I delivered their beer or foods. Some of them even charged me for the information but I persuaded them to tell me for free. Well, some persuasion failed and I needed to pay the money to learn something new. As time go past, the money I save from my salary got bigger enough for me to buy some equipment, lodging in an inn, and for my food. And also I learned a new skill due to persuasion. *** Persuasion (Passive) Level 3 Beginner Swords aren¡¯t the only weapon for battle. Words can also be used to lower the guard of the enemy. It can also be used to gather information and sometimes it can lower the price of items being sold at the market. *** It is pretty half-assed but still a skill is a skill. It may save my life if everything fails. Apparently, I am the only one in this village with Persuasion skill and other adventurer and the residents didn¡¯t know about it. After my shift at tavern, I went to the weapon store to buy some weapon of course. *ring * As I opened the door, I heard a ring of a bell above my head letting the owner that someone entered the store. Inside there are some weapon rack and swords, spears, axes and other weapons are being displayed. On the wall you can see some bows hanging. Arrows and quivers are carefully arranged near the wooden counter. And there is a door behind the counter where you can hear some noise. A short muscular man emerged at that door. He is in the middle of his 40¡¯s and his hair is long but his height is as short as a 9 years old kid. ¡°Welcome! How can I serve you?¡± His voice is deep and his eyes are squinted. He wears a dirty apron and gloves. On his head, a wielding mask can be found. ¡°I would like to buy some weapon.¡± ¡°Of course you are since this is the weapon shop. It would be weird if you are buying a food here. Hahahaha.¡± This short man tried to joke but I didn¡¯t find it funny. ¡°What kind of weapon do you prefer?¡± The short man asked me. Swords are cool and all but I didn¡¯t feel like going to close combat while I still don¡¯t know what is left and right. Maybe I will settle with a bow. ¡°A bow maybe?¡± I said timidly to the man. The man let out a hearty laugh and went inside the door again. When he came back, he is carrying a short bow and some wooden arrows. ¡°This bow is perfect for beginners since I guess that this is your first time wielding a bow, I will give you these wooden arrows also this small quiver here is also yours for free. Here try it.¡± The man gave me the bow to let me feel it. The string is tightly knotted and the wooden body of the bow feels nice. I tried to pull the strings and a cross shaped crosshair emerged. My eyes widened at the familiar sight of a crosshair. This might be the best dream of my life. First, it felt like an MMORPG game and now it has some aspect of an FPS game? I can¡¯t ask for more. Well, if I can please also include an eroge (adult dating game) or something! ¡°Surprised huh¡­ Well, what you are seeing right now is what we call a crosshair. This will help you aim. So how is it? Would you like to buy it?¡± My life here will be easy. I am from the generation of gamers that grows up playing CS so I can say that FPS games are one of my fortes. ¡°I would love to¡± ¡°That would be 500 kwarts.¡± 500 kwarts?! Such an expensive bow! I can buy though since I have 1,334 kwarts from my saving but 500 kwarts for a beginner bow seems a rip-off. ¡°I can¡¯t afford it. Can you cut down the price to 400 kwarts?¡± I tried bargaining about the price since if I bought it by 500 kwarts then I will not be able to buy arrows and a dismantling knife. ¡°490 kwarts.¡± The man said. ¡°425¡± ¡°480¡± ¡°430¡± ¡°475 kwarts. Any lower than that then the deal is off.¡± So I managed to bring down the price by 5% huh.. I reach for the coin pouch on my waist and gave 4 silver and 75 copper coins. The money I earned for working at the tavern fly away too fast. ¡°Thanks for your business. Here is your short bow for 475 kwarts and the free quiver and free 50 wooden arrows. Hehe¡± The short man laughed pissing me off. No merchant will laugh in the face of losing money even if it¡¯s just 1 kwarts. Maybe this man ripped me off. ¡°*Sigh* Do you have any dismantling knife here?¡± As for the reason why I am buying a dismantling knife is because you need to extract the loot from the corpse of the monster slain. Of course it is only applicable on the beast type since extracting the skin from the humanoid type monster seems too gruesome. ¡°Dismantling knife? I have one for 500 kwarts plus I will be giving you whetstone as a gift.¡± Another 500 kwarts?! I only have 859 kwarts left.. ¡°Can you please make it at 400 kwarts?¡± ¡°Okay sure.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± I tried to bargain again and braced myself to a long bargaining process but he suddenly said yes to 400 kwarts. Something smells fishy here. Maybe 400 kwarts is the right price for the dismantling knife¡­ Never the less I paid 4 silver and got the sheathed dismantling knife from him. The knife 25cm long and the hilt and sheath are made from leather. I unsheathed the knife and check its sharpness. ¡°It is sharp.¡± ¡°Of course! Every item in this store is well maintained!¡± The man puffed out his chest which makes me want to stab it with my dismantling knife but I controlled myself. I quickly turn around and went outside the shop without saying goodbye to the shop owner. I put the dismantling knife on my waist, the quiver on my back and hold the bow by my right arm. After buying the weapon I needed, I went to the Archer¡¯s Guild to try the short bow I got. Even though I grew up playing CS, there is a big difference in playing than experiencing it. First of all, I don¡¯t know how to properly use this bow and I also don¡¯t know how to perform maintenance for it. So I went to the Archer¡¯s Guild hoping to learn those skills. Chapter 4 – Calculation on the ‘Dream’ World I arrived in front of the Archer¡¯s Guild. As the other building in this town, the archer¡¯s guild is made up of wood but the roof was similar to the old Japanese building or should I say it look like a dojo from Battle Realms. Inside, there is an archery range ranging from 10 meters, 15 meters, 20 meters, up to 50 meters. There are also archers trying their best to hit the part of the scarecrow. Most of their shot hit but some of them fell short and other misses its target. Each meter has 5 scarecrows as a target and most of the archers inside used the 25 meters range some of them tried the 50 meters but they seldom hit their target. I went to the 10 meters range since I have a short bow that is suitable for short range archery. I nocked one arrow and the crosshair appeared. It is too big that it almost covered my sight but it was transparent so I can see what¡¯s in front of me. I pulled the string as far as it can go and the crosshair begun to shrink until it became small like in CS. I aimed it at the head of the scarecrow just for fun. ¡®Maybe the arrow would hit randomly inside the circle.¡¯ As I think about it myself, I released my hold and the arrow flew straight to the center of the head of the scarecrow. ¡®There is almost no difference on FPS game and here.¡¯ I nocked another arrow and aimed at the chest. Like before, the arrow hit where I wanted it to hit. 10 meters seems to be easy for me. Since I don¡¯t know how far the range of the short bow is, I tried on the 15 meters range, and the result was the same. I moved at the 20 meters range and nocked the arrow on the bow. ¡°Hey hey, Short bow can¡¯t hit here. Better go to the 15 meter range.¡± A man suddenly said to me. He is wearing a white shirt and on his right hand, he carries a bow longer than mine. Maybe he¡¯s right since I didn¡¯t see anyone carrying a short bow before in this range. Most of the short bow user uses the 15 meter range and some of them still miss their mark. But it is different for me. I came here to see how far my short bow can hit and to learn how to effectively use the bow. Ignoring the man, I nocked an arrow on my bow and pulled it as hard as I can my aim is the head. The crosshair shrunk and I release my grip on the string. The arrow flew but it landed on the feet area. ¡®I see, the maximum range I can hit the target while aiming straight through it is 15 meters. Then how about if I aim a little higher?¡¯ ¡°See I told you. Short bow range maximum range is just 15 meters.¡± The man said something again but I ignored it. I nocked another arrow and aim higher than before. I pulled the string and when the crosshair shrunk I released it. The arrow flew in air and landed on the head of the scarecrow. The man¡¯s mouth opened and his eyes almost pop out. ¡°This isn¡¯t something to be surprised. If you aim carefully, you can hit your target even though they are far away from your maximum range.¡± I said to the man. Wait, it sounds as if I am boasting about it. Well, it can¡¯t be help since I got pissed on this noisy man. I learned this technique from another game called Rakion and Gunbound. You must estimate the trajectory of your projectile so that it will hit your target. * * * You have learned a new skill! Archery Lv1 (Beginner) Passive Gives bonus damage when using bows or skills related to bows. It also increases the hit rating of the bow. + 1% damage when using bows. + 5 Dexterity. * * * I gained another passive skill. It gives a little bonus damage and dexterity. It can¡¯t be help since it¡¯s still level 1. Based on the information I gathered on the tavern, except for the level of the skills, there are also 4 tiers of skill which are Beginner, Intermediate, Advance, and Master. Beginner is the lowest and Master is the highest. They say that most of the people in the village are in the beginner tier and when you went to the town, the lowest tier would be intermediate. There was only less than 50 people achieved the advanced tier and only a handful of people achieved the master tier of their skills. Anyway I moved to the 25 meters range and tried hitting the scarecrow there but my arrow fall to the ground. Even though I adjusted the angle the result was the same. ¡°So the maximum range is 20 meters huh¡­¡± I muttered to myself go out of the Archer¡¯s Guild. My business there is already done so it is time to hunt. I only have 41 wooden arrows left so I need to use it sparingly. If I run out of arrow while in the middle of battle then I think I will manage using the dismantling knife. I went to the village square and looked for a party since it will be dangerous to hunt alone. The wolves are level 5 and I am still level 2 so I can¡¯t solo them for now. When hunting solo, the safest method is to hunt monster that is higher to you by 2 levels, the higher the level of the monster the greater the risk. I arrived at the village square and I heard the recruitment of different parties and the advertisement of merchants. I asked some parties if they would like to take me, a level 2, for hunting but they all rejected me. They said that I would just be a food for the wolves and they can¡¯t guarantee my safety. Of course I said that I use bow for my own safety but they still declined. *Sigh* I sat at the fountain and let out a big sigh feeling dejected. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to gain a level if this continues.¡± I muttered to myself. If this continues, I will level up. If I don¡¯t level up, I will be stuck on this frontier village. Well, it is not bad to be stuck on this village. I can earn money if I work at the tavern and if I save enough money, I could build my own house here but the problem is I would not be able to explore this world. Although it is a dream, I wanted it to be at least an adventure. ¡°Jasper?¡± A familiar voice of a girl called me. When I looked up, I saw a girl wearing a skirt and shirt carrying a basket. Her chestnut hair fell down to his hips and she is wearing a glasses. It is Kaezar. ¡°What are you doing here? I thought you are working at the tavern.¡± Kaezar asked me as she sat beside me. ¡°Well¡­ I wanted to become an adventurer but nobody is willing to invite me to a party. I can¡¯t hunt alone since I am level 2.¡± ¡°Are you perhaps, trying to join a party that would hunt wolves?¡± ¡°Yeah. Isn¡¯t that the weakest monster here?¡± I asked at her obvious question. Based on the information from the tavern, wolves are the weakest monster to hunt in here. So for me to gain a level, I need to join to a party since I you can¡¯t expect a level 2 hunting a level 5 monster. ¡°Yes it is the weakest monster but there are also creatures that you can hunt to raise your level. Since it isn¡¯t the first time that you will be getting out of the village, you noticed some rabbits outside right? Their level range from 1 to 3 so it is recommended for an adventurer wannabe to hunt those rabbit first, then in the forest, they are some wild boars that is level 4 or 5. Normally, hunting wolves that are level 5 takes a party of 5 people with an average level of 10. Even though it is level 5, wolves are quick and usually hunt on pack.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Kaezar explained to me. So it was like that, of course I won¡¯t hear about it at the tavern since most of the adventurer there are level 10 above. And yes, I saw some rabbits hoping outside the village but I thought they were just a critter so I didn¡¯t bother at them. In some games that I played, critter didn¡¯t give EXP and they were there just for the sake of appearance, they didn¡¯t attack nor defend. ¡°Thank you Kaezar, I never thought that rabbits gave EXP.¡± I thanked Kaezar for the information she gave me and she just smiled and said ¡®You¡¯re welcome¡¯. ¡®Ahhh.. Her smiling face is the best!¡¯ I felt my face become hotter and I quickly diverted my gaze at her. ¡®This is bad, she has the same name of someone I knew from the real world.¡¯ I quickly got up and told her that I will be going now. After we parted I quickly ran outside the village and found rabbits hoping freely. They were some that are eating grass on the side and some are being hunted by others. ¡°I only have a few arrows so let¡¯s try not missing any target.¡± The first rabbit that I will be hunting was 12 meters away from me and it was enjoying eating the grass in front of it. It look cute but I need to hunt it to earn some money. I nocked an arrow on the bow and aimed it at the rabbit. The arrow flew forward and hit the rabbit¡¯s butt. The rabbit turned around and saw me aiming another shot at it and it tried to flee but it is too late since I already released another arrow and preparing the other one in case that it misses. If it missed then there¡¯s nothing I can do because it would be the first time I will be shooting at a moving creature. The second arrow hit the rabbit¡¯s head and the rabbit fell down sideward. * * * You¡¯ve gained 20 EXP for hunting a rabbit. Current EXP: 23/200 * * * 20 EXP per rabbit huh? So it means that I need to hunt 9 more rabbit to raise my level. I went to the rabbit corpse and pulled out my dismantling knife. Now that I think about it, I didn¡¯t know how to skin it. I scratched my head trying to figure out how should I skin it. Getting its meat is easy since I know how to cut it since I successfully butchered a pig before but I didn¡¯t know how to separate the skin to the meat. Maybe I should ask someone who know how to separate the skin to the meat. I plucked out the arrow at the corpse and it seemed to be usable even though I used it once. Instead cutting down the rabbit here, I put it at my bag and hunted another rabbit. If I cut here, the meat might become dirty and I will be making a mess here. Furthermore, the hunting time will decrease since I will stop each time I killed a rabbit to get its meat. The hunt continued and I finally gained a level. My bag is already full with rabbit¡¯s corpses so decided to go back to the town and sell the meat at the meat shop. The shop is the same with the meat shop in the market or rather it look like a stall. There are meat hanging on the hooks and some are displayed according to the meat type. Behind the stall was a butcher house. ¡°Excuse me, do you buy a freshly hunt rabbit?¡± I don¡¯t know if they are raising some animals for their meat or they are hunting it but I need to sell these rabbit although selling them as a whole seems to be a waste since I saw some equipment made from rabbit¡¯s fur and I am considering on selling the fur separately at the armor shop but it can¡¯t be help since I don¡¯t know how to separate the skin from it. ¡°Yes. 25 kwarts per rabbit is the price. How many rabbit do you have?¡± Hearing the price from the shop keeper I pulled out all the ten rabbit I am carrying on my bag. ¡°I will be selling 10 rabbits.¡± ¡°Okay. Wait a minute, I will calculate the total price for them.¡± He will calculate? I think it is pretty obvious that 25 times 10 is 250 kwarts but maybe the education on this dream world isn¡¯t available to everyone. ¡°That would be 225 kwarts all in all.¡± The shop keeper told me the total price based on what he calculated. I don¡¯t know how to react at all since I didn¡¯t expect that this will be the total of his ¡°calculation¡±. ¡°Wait a minute here, isn¡¯t it supposed to be 250 kwarts not 225 kwarts? 225 kwarts was for 9 rabbits only. Would you please show me how did you arrive on that number?¡± I asked the shop keeper since I will not agree on this kind of calculation. No matter where you look at it, it is wrong! Or this guy is trying to trick me? I am not an idiot! ¡°That is the result of my calculation! I learned how to add numbers at the school! Seriously, how a mere adventurer who didn¡¯t go to school could told me that my calculation is wrong!¡± So this means that the adventurer didn¡¯t even go to school? Are you kidding me?! They only agreed on the price that the shop keeper would tell them without doubting it? ¡°Look here.. I might be an adventurer but I am different from others you see. I went to school so you can¡¯t fool me.¡± ¡°Oh really? Then can you tell me how did you ended up with a 250 kwarts as the total price of 10 rabbits!¡± ¡°Okay here. 25 times 10 is 250.¡± I answered him with a simplest way but the shop keeper giggled and said. ¡°What the hell is ¡®times¡¯? Are you trying to make up an excuse so that you can earn even a little more kwarts? Well sorry but I never heard of the word ¡®times¡¯ even in the school there are no term such as times.¡± Don¡¯t tell me that the only thing that the school teaches was addition and subtraction? They didn¡¯t know multiplication or division? Wow.. The education of this world is really outdated. ¡°Okay if you really don¡¯t understand the word times then I will tell you in the term you will understand. 25+25 is 50 right?¡± ¡°Well yes 25+25 is 50. So what of it?¡± The shop keeper raised on of his eyebrow and smirked. I separated two rabbit from the other to represent them as the first two 25. ¡°50 + 25 is 75, 75+25 is 100, 100+25 is 125, 125+25 is 150, 150+25 is 175, 175+25 is 200, 200 +25 is 225. Now there was only one rabbit left but the answer is the same with the result of you ¡®calculation¡¯¡± As I add the numbers, I separate on rabbit on the group until I reached the result of his ¡®calculation¡¯. Seeing that there was still a rabbit left, the shop keeper face become red. I don¡¯t know if due to embarrassment or because his attempt to trick me didn¡¯t work. ¡°Okay, now if I add this rabbit to other which already cost 225 then it will become 250 right?¡± The man nodded at my explanation as I put the last rabbit to the group. ¡°Well¡­ Sometimes I make mistakes¡­ Here is you 250 kwarts.¡± He took the rabbit and gave me 2 silvers and 50 copper coins. I happily put the coins on my purse and whisper something at the shop keeper. ¡°If you are trying to trick someone, please make sure that he is dumb enough to be tricked and also, the term ¡®times¡¯ is used at multiplication. I suspect that you only knew addition since you didn¡¯t know the word ¡®times¡¯.¡± Tapping his shoulder I left the meat shop leaving the shop keeper with his mouth open. As I leave the store I think I heard him said something ¡®advance arithmetic¡¯ or something. Chapter 5 - Stay for the night After selling the rabbit at the meat shop, I went outside the town again to hunt. This time, I hunted until evening and now I am level 5 with 10 rabbits to sell. Well, I hunted quite a lot but I can¡¯t carry all of those since only 10 rabbits fit on my bag. I went to the meat shop to sell the rabbits I hunted and I paid the butcher to teach me how to cut or butcher the monsters I defeated. Of course it is limited to beast-type monster since it will be pretty gruesome if I butcher humanoid-type right? Anyways after learning the skill ¡°Butchery¡± I went to the Leatherworker¡¯s Guild to learn the skill ¡°Skinning¡±. This skill allows someone to take the fur of the monsters he/she defeated. The reason I took this skills are to maximize the profit I would gain from the monster I will encounter in the future and for my own survivability as well. I am also thinking of getting the skill that deals with gathering herbs and also cooking since it will be better to learn those skills. It¡¯s already evening when I finished all of what I planned to do and now the problem was where would I sleep? When I was working on the tavern they let me sleep at its quarters since I am employee but now that I decided to become an adventurer I don¡¯t have a place to sleep. Well, there was an inn where I will pay 200 kwarts (2 silver) for one night but the meal isn¡¯t included. I can afford it yet I am hesitant to pay 200 kwarts for a night. Sleeping outside is no good since I won¡¯t be able to rest comfortably. What if I sleep on Kaezar¡¯s place? I am not close enough to ask for that and she is was a girl. It is weird for a man to ask a girl to let him sleep on her house and she might think that I might do something bad. Well let¡¯s say that she would not think of that thing but her father will surely think of something. Money check, 959 kwarts. I can check in for about 4 nights and 10 rabbits means one night at the inn with a change of 50 kwarts. Let¡¯s say that I will be staying for a week there, a day can give me 500 kwarts and it will be deducted by 200 per night giving me 300 kwarts per day multiply it by 7 for one week and I will get 2100 kwarts per week of course the food expenses and other expenses aren¡¯t in the calculation yet. It might not be a bad idea to stay at the inn and if I will think that it is the same as a boarding house then it isn¡¯t a problem. Anyways I just need to sleep for a night for now. Deciding to sleep at the inn for the night, I went to the inn. As I am walking towards the direction of the only inn in this town, someone called me. ¡°Jasper!¡± I look back at the source of the voice and saw a girl running towards me waving her hand. She was wearing a simple white dress and her chestnut hair swayed as she ran. The girl who was running was Kaezar. I stopped walking and stares at Kaezar who was 7 meters away from me. ¡°I finally caught up¡­¡­. Wait¡­. Let me rest for a while.¡± She was panting when she reached me and now she is calming her breath. ¡°Uhmmm.. What can I do for you?¡± I don¡¯t remember doing something that will make her ran at me like that¡­ If it¡¯s because of the incident last time it¡¯s not my fault. She was the one who opened the door without knocking and I don¡¯t know where my clothes that time. ¡°You left your sword and shield at the clinic.¡± Sword and shield? Wait¡­ When I was new to this ¡®dream¡¯ world certainly I have a short sword and after beating Greg I obtained a shield and another sword¡­ ¡°Sorry, I totally forgot about those.¡± I apologized to Kaezar. I am not the type of guy who easily forgot my things. I am stressed out that time so I think that was the reason I forgot about it. ¡°Hehe¡­ I think Jasper is the type of person who easily forgot his things.¡± Kaezer covers her mouth when she laughed. She¡¯s cute. ¡°I am not that kind of person you know.. My mind was wandering that time since I just-¡° ¡°Killed someone for the first time.. Right?¡± Kaezar finished what I was about to say. Yes she was correct. It is the first time I kill even if this was just a dream. ¡°Come! Pick up your stuff at the clinic or my father would sell it.¡± Kaezar jokingly said to me. Sometimes I think if this world was really just a dream but whenever I saw the health bar in front of me I automatically assumed that this was a dream. Well, this is my first time that a dream would last this long. I am quite concerned about the real world now. What if I missed the bus stop where I should get off? My friends are there so it would be impossible since we get off at the same bus stop. Then what if my friends also fell asleep? Marc, Iggy and I could possibly fell asleep at the ride but not Gino. Gino once fell asleep while riding a bus and when he wake up he found himself 2 stops away from the bus stop where we get off since then he never fell asleep while on a trip. Once I thought that this dream was too long and tried to wake up by pinching myself as hard as I could but it¡¯s no use. Come to think of it, I was stabbed by the sword and the pain I felt was so real yet in the end I never woke up. Hmmmm¡­ Did the bus got on an accident while I was asleep? Maybe the worm-thing that I saw before was a representation of the accident on my dream and my body might be on the hospital on a comatose state that¡¯s why I can¡¯t wake up. Thinking about these things makes me shiver. As I was lost in my own thought we already arrived at the clinic and the doctor, who was Kaezar¡¯s father, was waiting for us on the entrance. He is clearly angry based on his expression alone but Kaezar paid no attention about it. ¡°I¡¯m back father.¡± ¡°Welcome back, didn¡¯t I tell you that you can call him tomorrow? It is dangerous for a girl to walk around the night alone. Why didn¡¯t you listen to me?¡± Woah¡­ The father was pretty pissed. Even I will be pissed if I knew that my daughter sneaked out in the middle of the night just to meet some strangers. No, even if I knew who was it I will not allow my daughter to walk outside at night. ¡°But father, you said that you will sell his things first thing in the morning if he failed to get it tonight.¡± Kaezar said to his father. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± Both her father and I were silent for a while. I don¡¯t know what to say about what Kaezar said. I looked at the doctor and he avoided my gaze. Is he embarrassed about it? ¡°Uhmm.. Kaezar, you know¡­ I don¡¯t mind even if he sell those things¡­ In the first place, I was the one who forgot about those so¡­. Yeah.. Doctor sorry for the inconvenience.¡± I bowed deeply to the doctor. I don¡¯t know what to say in the first place. Of course I would be mad if he sells my things without my permission but I already forgotten about those so I won¡¯t blame him if ever he sell it or not. By the time I realized that I forgot those things maybe I have a better gear on hand and will not cry over those things. ¡°Tsk tsk¡­ You¡¯re wrong Jasper, if you found a coin pouch on the ground and it contains a big amount of coin, would you keep it?¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.¡®Yes I would keep it.¡¯ Is what I would like to say but I decided to stay silent. ¡°If it were me, I would find the owner of the pouch. He/she might be looking for it everywhere.¡± She¡¯s a good girl. If I found a wallet or coin pouch lying on the ground the first thing I would do is to look if there were any witness. If not, then quickly picked it up but it inside my pocket and went back home. After it, I would get every single money inside and put it inside a plastic bag with other trash as a cover then throw it away. ¡°I s-see.¡± I said awkwardly at Kaezar who was smiling and said ¡°No problem~¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t need to look for me in the middle of the night. It is pretty dangerous.¡± I said to Kaezar and his father nodded in agreement. ¡°I know that it was dangerous but what¡¯s done is done. I looked for you and found you so everything was alright.¡± Kaezar said while smiling. Well, what she said was right. What¡¯s done is done. Whatever complaint or objection I raised to her action nothing would change. ¡°*sigh* I get it. So can I get the sword and shield now? I need to go to the inn while it was open or I might be spending the night outside.¡± ¡°Inn? It¡¯s already close now.¡± Wait¡­ I know that it was already night but I think it was just 7:30PM now. What kind of inn closes early? Seeing my dumbfounded expression Kaezar explained to me. ¡°The inn here closes early than the other inns since it was in the frontier village and there were just a few adventurers here compared to the city.¡± ¡°What if some adventurer from the city went here due to a quest?¡± ¡°Most of the adventurer that went here went to the inn first before leaving for their respective quest so it is not really a problem.¡± So basically, I don¡¯t have a place to sleep now. Am I going to sleep outside? This would be the first time that I would be sleeping outdoors. Well, if that was the case then I would hunt all night and sleep as soon as I rent a room at the inn tomorrow. Sometimes I don¡¯t sleep for a day or two and since this was just a dream I think I can do fine even if I don¡¯t sleep at all. ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yes. So why don¡¯t you sleep here? Of course it was not for free. Maybe for 150 kwarts per night would be cheap enough right?¡± Kaezar said to me while smiling and I saw her father got surprised at what Kaezar said. Of course I was surprised as well. ¡°W-what are you saying?! This isn¡¯t an inn! This is a medical facility! We can¡¯t just let anybody sleep here specially that man! I can¡¯t tolerate him staying here!¡± Did her father hate me that much? What did I do to make him hate me? I don¡¯t remember anything that would make him angry. If it¡¯s about the incident before then I was not the one to blame for that! His daughter opened the door without knocking! ¡°Father before you let some adventurer sleep here and you got angry at me when I asked for a lodging fee and you said that helping others was the right thing to do right? Then why are you saying that you don¡¯t want him here? Are you saying that we should abandon him? I don¡¯t remember having a father like that!¡± Kaezar got mad at her own father for declining her idea. ¡°But that man clearly has an ulterior motive! Maybe he purposely stay outside and waited for you to come! I mean, who would forgot his own weapon?!¡± What is this old man saying? In the first place I don¡¯t know that the inn closes this early and I totally forgot about the sword and shield. It¡¯s not that I purposely left it here. ¡°Jasper didn¡¯t left it on purpose! He forgot about it since maybe he is trying to run away from the fact that he killed Greg! Why can¡¯t you understand it father?!¡± She¡¯s somewhat correct at that. Seeing that sword and shield reminded of Greg but it is not because I felt guilty on killing him, it is because originally those where his item. Why would I feel guilty killing someone in my dream if it was only a dream? ¡°Then it should be fine if I sell it right?!¡± The doctor shouted at me. Why am I getting dragged on their fight? ¡°Uhmm¡­ Well, I would like to sell it personally..¡± I muttered in a low voice. I won¡¯t be giving money to someone who can earn by himself especially if he has a business. ¡°Father! Let him stay here for the night in exchange he will give you the sword and shield. If you¡¯re still not willing to let him stay here, then I would accompany him at sleeping outside.¡± When did I say that Kaezar? It¡¯s money you know? I don¡¯t like the idea of throwing money as if it was garbage. ¡°Kuh¡­¡± The doctor seems to be in a tight position. He cherished his daughter so much and it can be seen on his actions. ¡°I understand. Hey you! One wrong move and I¡¯ll kick you out!¡± The doctor accepted his defeat and throw a threat on me. He went inside muttering ¡°I¡¯ll kick him out for sure¡± repeatedly. Well, good luck with that. I don¡¯t plan on doing anything suspicious in the first place. ¡°Okay, Jasper you will sleep at the clinic. Follow me.¡± ¡°Is this okay? I can sleep outside you know.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Father is only like that when a boy sleep in our clinic. Well¡­ I can understand him since he cares for me too much.¡± Even I would do this thing if my daughter suddenly brought a man and tell me his sleeping on our house. We arrived at the clinic and Kaezar prepared the bed, although I said that I can do it myself but she said that it was the responsibility of the host to make sure that the guest would be comfortable. After she left, I put my things on the side of the bed. I put off my armor and it smells bad, I think the first thing I would be doing tomorrow was washing my armor but if I did that then I need to stop hunting for a day to watch over it. Maybe I could just left it hanging somewhere and hunt? There¡¯s a chance that it will get stolen. There¡¯s no other choice but to take a break from hunting tomorrow huh? Even though I just started it. As I think about things I would be doing tomorrow, my consciousness faded and I fell asleep. * * * * * * [Note] First and foremost sorry for posting very late. I am quite busy at the moment so i can''t promise that i can pose one chapter a week. Chapter 6 - News * * * Back in the previous world, The girl sat on her desk and put out her notes to review before the professor arrives. She was Kaezar Padilla a close friend of Jasper Perez since high school and his classmate in this subject. While she was quietly reviewing the previous topic, she heard the usual chattering of her classmates but somehow, instead of the topic ¡°love¡± it was replaced by the topic ¡°last night accident¡±. ¡°So I heard on the news that a certain bus was found last night abandoned in the middle of the road and neither the passengers nor the driver could be found.¡± ¡®So something like that happened huh?¡¯ Kaezar said to herself as she listened to the chattering of her classmates. She could not watch the news since she was staying at the boarding house and it didn¡¯t have a free Wi-Fi or TV for entertainment but it has a mini-library so that the boarders can do their assignment even in the absence of the internet. Due to that, Kaezar will eagerly listen to news related chats of her classmates so that she would know what was happening in her surroundings. ¡°They say that the bus was last seen on the bus stop near at our school. Apparently, it was the last bus during the night.¡± Upon hearing the words ¡°bus stop near at our school¡± and ¡°last bus during the night¡± stared at the girl who was talking with a surprised reaction. ¡®It can¡¯t be¡­¡¯ Kaezar shook the shoulder of the girl who was talking while asking ¡°Do you know who the missing passengers are?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.. Geez Kaezar, stop it!¡± The girl shouted and told kaezar to stop. ¡°Ah. I¡¯m sorry..¡± ¡°N-no its okay.¡± Kaezar sat down again at her desk and pretended to review her notes once again. She did something embarrassing. Truth be told, Kaezar love Jasper and when Jasper confessed his feeling to her, she didn¡¯t know how to react so she told Jasper to wait and let her think about it and she ran away. Yesterday night, the day when the accident happened, he saw Jasper running towards the bus. She tried to call him but decided not to since he seems to be in a hurry. ¡®I hope that the bus where Jasper got in isn¡¯t the one on the news¡¯ She knew that the bus which jasper got in last night is the last bus that night but yet she still hopes that ¡®that isn¡¯t the case¡¯. *riiiing* *riiing* The bell rang and the students who were chatting with their friends sat properly at their desk. Kaezar look around to look for Jasper but she didn¡¯t saw him. ¡®Maybe he¡¯s just late. Yup.. Maybe he¡¯s just late.¡¯ Convincing herself that Jasper was late since he always comes late at the first class in the morning. Whether he¡¯s bad waking up or having encountered a heavy traffic she doesn¡¯t know. The teacher went inside the room and announced something. ¡°Ah.. Okay guys. I have something to announce. You might know about the abandoned bus right?¡± Upon hearing those words, Kaezar chest tightened. ¡®Please tell me that Jasper isn¡¯t one of the passengers of that bus.¡¯ Speaking only in her mind. The students said ¡®yes ma¡¯am¡¯ on unison and the teacher nodded. ¡°Mostly of the victim there were our students. And among them some of them are your classmates.¡± Kaezar gulped. ¡®Why did this teacher like to stop talking and look at everyone face before proceeding?¡¯ She complained internally. ¡°In fact, two of your classmate was there. And they are, Jack Daniel and Jasper Perez.¡± Upon hearing the names of missing students, Kaezar¡¯s sight seems to become dark all of the sudden. ¡®Jasper Perez¡­ Jasper was one of the victim¡­ If only I called him that night then this will not happen..¡¯ Kaezar fainted and it causes a commotion in the classroom. The teacher instructed some of the boys to bring Kaezar at the nurse office and let her rest there for a while. * * * I was sleeping comfortably when I heard a shout of a girl in the middle of the night waking me up. It was a cry of pain and you can also hear a man¡¯s voice saying. ¡°It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s alright. Drink your medicine, here.¡± Gotten curious of what was happening, I followed the direction of the voices and there I saw Kaezar and her father. Kaezar was drenched with her own sweat, her face was distorted by pain and she was grasping her chest due to pain while her father was giving Kaezar her medicine with a pained expression. He also wipes Kaezar¡¯s sweat. I quietly went back to bed after it. I lay down at the bed and stares at the ceiling. ¡°She¡¯s sick.¡± I muttered to myself and closed my eyes. It seems that I can¡¯t sleep. Maybe because of what I saw but I am not sleepy now. Kaezar was sick but I didn¡¯t know that. Maybe her sickness strikes again due to her running around the town looking for me. When I thought it like that, I felt pain in my chest. ¡°Maybe it was my fault.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. Kaezar has a weak body in the first place.¡± I heard a man voice at the door. I look at it and saw the doctor carrying a bottle. ¡°Would you like to drink with me?¡± He said while shaking the bottle on his hand. I nodded and get up. We went to the living room and he puts a cup and filled it with alcohol. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I drink alcohol¡± He said while filling his own cup. ¡°It¡¯s the same with me. I think it¡¯s been months since the last time I drank.¡± We toast our cups and drink. The alcohol is a little bit sweet. I savored the taste of the alcohol and relaxed my body on the chair. ¡°How is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good.¡± Actually, I prefer to drink ice cold beer than wine but I think it can¡¯t be help. ¡°Haaaa¡­. You know.. Ever since Kaezar was a child she was prone to sickness. Maybe she inherited it on her mother. Her mother has a weak body and got sick when she gave birth to Kaezar. After 3 months, she died. Heh.. It¡¯s pretty ironic right? A pharmacist wife died due to sickness.¡± After the doctor said this he filled his cup and drank it again. ¡°I think it isn¡¯t ironic since even in my wo-.. where I came from, doctor¡¯s family can also got sick and some of them died.¡± I almost said ¡®my world¡¯ but stopped since this was just a dream, there¡¯s no need to tell it ¡®my world¡¯. I never thought that I will be drinking alcohol in my dream. ¡°Hmmp.. Well, maybe you¡¯re right. But you know, this isn¡¯t a dream.¡± The hell is this man talking about? Can he read my mind? ¡°You know kid, I met someone with the same expression like you when I told him that my wife died.¡± He drank another cup of wine and started to tell a story about the past. ¡°It was a long time ago. Back then I was working as a pharmacist in the city and right there is where I met him. He was a beginner adventurer back then and just like you. He also killed a thief and brought to my place. Kaezar was 2 months old at that time and my wife was bed ridden due to her sickness. I tried different known medicines but it was ineffective. We somehow became close friends and he told me different things about him. He said that he has a family in ¡®reality¡¯ which I didn¡¯t understand at first¡­ I mean I don¡¯t know what ¡®reality¡¯ is he talking about at first but I finally understood what he meant when my wife died.¡± The doctor drank another cup and filled my cup with alcohol once more. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°When my wife died, I felt my whole world crumbled to pieces and I don¡¯t know what should I do with my life. And he said, ¡°You have a daughter to raise, don¡¯t be down just because your wife died. Even if this was just a dream I don¡¯t want to see a child growing in a wrong way because of her father!¡± That was the time I finally understood what was his reality. So I told him that this wasn¡¯t a dream and if this was his dream then he can bring back my wife. But he just stood there and remained silent. I don¡¯t know why but I got pissed on him and tried to punch him but he easily dodged my fist. ¡®This is a dream right!? If I punched you then you¡¯ll wake up right!?¡¯ I shouted at him. Oh by the way, I am crying back then. Upon hearing my words he stood again without moving or talking. That time I tried punching him once again but that time, he didn¡¯t dodged and accepted it. My punch made him staggers on his feet and fell on his butt. He holds his cheek, where my punched landed, and laughed. ¡®So this isn¡¯t a dream after all¡¯ he laughed louder than before which really pisses me off so I beat him up and he repeatedly said ¡®Sorry¡¯ while laughing. After 5 minutes of my beating, I got tired and sat down. He get up and fixed his clothes. And said, ¡®It really does hurt like in rea- no.. It really hurts. You¡¯re right, this isn¡¯t a dream. This was definitely reality.¡¯ ¡° He pauses after his lengthy talk and drank another cup. I also poured another wine to my cup and drank it. To tell you the truth, I don¡¯t care what is the doctor was saying. I am just accompanying him. ¡°You might not care about what I am talking right now but thank you for pretending to listen to my story.¡± The doctor said which surprised me. Can he read others mind? ¡°I told you before right? You look the same with someone I know. Even your expressions are the same.¡± Who is this person that the doctor was talking about? Why did he said that I was the same with the person he knew? ¡°Well anyways just pretend to listen okay? Where was I.. Oh right right! After he said that, he said that he will support me and my daughter financially since he can¡¯t support his own family if this was his new reality, he said. You really resemble him you know¡­ Hey can I ask how old are you now?¡± Surprised by his sudden question I almost spilled the wine which I am pouring to my glass. ¡°I am 21 now.¡± ¡°21? Hmmm.. Your name was Jasper right?¡± ¡°Y-yes¡± The doctor fell silent and think for a while. Sometimes he scratched his head and look closely to my face while muttering ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­¡± ¡°Maybe he was¡­¡± and ¡°Well he said that time¡­¡± ¡°Uhmmm.. Is something wrong?¡± I asked the doctor since it felt creepy when someone look at you closely while muttering something. ¡°Ah sorry sorry.. I am just lost in my thought.. Well, last question..¡± Perhaps the doctor saw my creep out expression he apologized to me. ¡°Are you perhaps¡­ No.. Can you tell me who your father is?¡± ¡°What¡¯s with that question?¡± What¡¯s with that question? Really.. Why did you suddenly got interested with my father name? That is what I wanted to say but only said the first question since his eyes was serious. ¡°Percival Perez¡± Telling my father name, the doctor eyes got wide and grasp both of my shoulders. ¡°YOU ARE THE SON OF THAT BASTARD!!¡± ¡°Huh??¡± I got shocked at what the doctor did and his words takes time to be processed on my brain. And when my brain finally caught up.. ¡°WHAT!!! HE¡¯S ALIVE!!¡± This time I was the one who was grasping the doctor shoulder. ¡°Calm down! Calm down!¡± Hearing the doctor plead for me to calm down. I let go of his shoulder and said ¡°sorry¡± ¡°Yup you really are that bastard¡¯s son. No doubt about it.¡± It seems that my father and this doctor were close enough to insult each other. Even though I am doing it the same thing with my friends, I don¡¯t know why men can openly insult their friends and still be friends. Sometimes, you are already insulting your friend but they will just laugh and insult you as a payback. ¡°You seemed a close friend of my father..¡± As I said those words, the doctor face broke out with a smile and drank another cup of wine. ¡°Well of course. He was also the one who bought this house you know? But I wonder what would that guy say if he found out that you were here.¡± The expression that the doctor was showing now was peaceful and he seems to be remembering the past. Actually, I didn¡¯t personally know my father. I only saw his face on pictures but my mother said that I have the same personality as my father. My mother said that father died in a traffic accident when I was just 3 years old. I remember the grave we used to visit before and my mother would cry every time we visit it. Sometimes she would talk to the grave as if giving a report to him and until now, every time something bad happened my mother will go to the grave complained. ¡°So he¡¯s still alive here huh¡­ Hey doc, can you tell me where could I find my father?¡± ¡°Hmmm.. Maybe he¡¯s in the capital? Well, the last time he visited here was a month ago.¡± I don¡¯t know why but my heart pumps harder when I heard that he just visited here last month. Maybe because I was excited to meet the father I never knew. No not maybe, I am excited! The father whom I thought was dead was here! Alive and Kicking! I don¡¯t know if I would recognize him or would he recognize me but I wanted to meet him! But how did he end up here? Is this afterlife? Am I already dead? Thinking about that I felt the blood on my face got drained. The excitement I felt before became despair. I felt the world suddenly crumble beneath my feet and I am falling down. ¡°I¡¯ll guess that you are thinking that this was afterlife too right?¡± I only nodded at the doctor¡¯s question. I mean, my father was here (which was already dead) and I am also here after getting swallowed by that weird worm. I guess my body became poop already. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? This is reality! You¡¯re not dead yet.. at least here.¡± The last words were said in a low tone so I didn¡¯t get it. ¡°This isn¡¯t afterlife you hear me!? Damn.. Why would the son inherits his father flaws!? Look here kiddo, in this world it was common to summon someone from another world to slay the Overlord! It always happened when a new overlord was born.. You know, this was happening for almost 20 years now and yet the overlord isn¡¯t moving right now and the other summoned heroes were doing their best to find him! So cheer up! You¡¯re not dead yet! *sigh* you can stay here for as long as you¡¯re here at the village. I think this will lessen some favor I owe at that bastard.¡± Saying those words, the doctor stood up with the wine bottle on his hands. His face was color red and when he walks away he staggered a bit. Is he already drunk? But the words ¡°dead¡± and ¡°afterlife¡± was stuck on my head and I can¡¯t stop thinking about it. Of course I can¡¯t since I learned that my dead father was here. Doesn¡¯t that mean that this was the afterlife right? Does my body become a poop now? I slowly stand up and went back to the bed and lay down. There are too many things that keep bugging me right now. Let¡¯s leave it for tomorrow and for now let¡¯s sleep. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. Chapter 7 - Unexpected Announcement The next day I still think that this is the afterlife but after about an hour (I guess?) of thinking I realized that isn¡¯t the case. Well, if you think of afterlife then the first thing that you will think would be the immortality right? I mean, in heaven you live for eternity at peace and prosperity while on hell you will suffer for eternity. I killed a man and I think that was a solid proof that this was not the afterlife. I mean, if this was the afterlife then that man wouldn¡¯t be dead right now, right? So anyways, after convincing myself that this isn¡¯t the afterlife, I left the room and saw Kaezar who just woke up. Her face is pale and her breathing was rough. Upon seeing me, she smiled awkwardly and greeted me. ¡°Good morning Jasper.¡± Even though she smiled, that didn¡¯t last for long since her face contorted with pain and she grasped her chest. I quickly run towards her to assist her but she raised her hand, the one that was grasping her chest before, and face me with a smile. ¡°I-it¡¯s okay. I-I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not fine at all. No matter where I look, you¡¯re not fine.¡± I lend her my shoulder even though she was against it. When I look at her, her cheeks was kinda red maybe due to embarrassment. ¡°Where are you going?¡± I asked her but she hanged her head down and avoided my gaze. ¡°Hey tell me, where are you going?¡± ¡°toilet.¡± ¡°Ha?? I can¡¯t hear you.¡± ¡°I n-need to go to t-the t-t-toilet.¡± She said with a low tone and it seems like she just muttered it to herself. Her ears also become red and she covers her face with her free hand. ¡°*sigh* why are you getting embarrassed by that sis? This isn¡¯t the first time I lend you a shoulder and guide to the toilet.¡± This is bad. I called her ¡°sis¡±. It¡¯s not that I see her as my sister okay? It was just, that was how I call the Kaezar Padilla in reality, no in my previous world. At first I didn¡¯t call her sis because I thought that this was just a dream so I didn¡¯t take it seriously. But now that I know that this isn¡¯t a dream, I accidentally called her ¡°sis¡±. ¡°Sis?¡± She looks at me and tilts her head. The redness of her face was gone as if she was not blushing before. ¡°Perhaps, I looked like your sister and you mistook me from her.¡± She added. No it¡¯s not my sister it¡¯s Kaezar from my world. Is what I would like to say but I just said ¡°Yes, I am sorry¡± since I will feel awkward if I tell her about Kaezar from my world. And in the first place, I don¡¯t have a sibling, I am the only child of my parents. But she simply smiled and said. ¡°Is that so? Then think of me as your sister and call me ¡°sis¡± and I will think that you are my older brother and call you brother.¡± I just smiled at her proposal and I help her until we reached the toilet. - Back at Earth - Kaezar Padilla just woke up from her sleep and remembered the news she heard yesterday. Jasper Perez was one of the missing passenger of the bus which was found abandoned in the middle of the road. That news made her faint yesterday and today she feels down as she recalled about it. Opening the door at her room, she saw Jasper wearing some outdated clothes which could be seen at movies themed at medieval age. ¡°Sis?¡± Jasper was looking at her with a worried expression and when she reached out her hand, Jasper¡¯s figure disappeared. ¡°Am I still dreaming?¡± She asked herself since she saw Jasper, who was missing, wearing clothes from medieval age in front of her then suddenly disappeared. Maybe she was still half-awake or it was because of thinking about Jasper, she didn¡¯t know. She only knew that she cared about Jasper so much that made her hallucinate about him. She smiled and walked towards the bathroom. The reason why Kaezar called Jasper ¡°Sis¡± was because they were close enough. Before she only call Jasper as sis when she wanted to tease him and now it was the nickname of Jasper but only Kaezar can call him like that. If other person called him sis, he will get angry and say ¡°Who are you calling sis?¡± That simple act made her happy since she was the only one who can call him sis, making her feel special. But now that man who made her feels special, the man whom she loves was missing. Making her feel depressed and hopes that one day she would see that man again. -Back to where Jasper was ¨C After helping Kaezar went to toilet, I am now fetching water from the well which could be found at the back of the house. At the back of the house, there I found something that look like a shed. It was made from wood, even the roof was made from wood. When I went inside, I saw a dipper hanging on the nail which was embedded at the back of the door. The floor was also made of stone. This must be the bathroom and I tried to find soap but found nothing. I heard soap was a luxury at this age so maybe instead of buying soap they buy food instead. Oh, the reason why am I fetching water is because I was planning to wash my clothes since they stink. Not only my clothes, I am planning to wash my armor too and I think it would be fine since it was made from leather. I am preparing to wash my clothes when Kaezar¡¯s father saw me and asked me what am I doing. ¡°I am going to wash my clothes and armor since it stinks.¡± I said while picking my upper clothes and he stopped me. ¡°There¡¯s no need to manually wash your clothes in this household since I can use magic to wash it. Look [Cleanse]!¡± The clothes I was planning to wash, even my armor, is now emitting a green light and the stains slowly disappears. When the clothes stopped emitting the green light, it was now clean. Oi oi, this was cleaner even if you use a washing machine, it was like I bought new clothes but for the armor, the damaged parts was still there. It only clean the dirt and stains but it didn¡¯t repaired the damaged on my armor. ¡°Normally, [Cleanse] was used to cure poison on the person but I noticed that whenever I use it at my patient, not only the poison was gone, even the stains of blood on the patient¡¯s clothes was gone. So I tried to stain as much as possible one of my rags and cast [Cleanse] on it and it became clean as if it was new. Sadly, it didn¡¯t repair the damaged from clothes. But keep it as a secret okay? It would be bad if other knew that [Cleanse] can also be used like this.¡± I heard about the effect of [Cleanse] on online games that I played before but I never thought that it can be used like this. It feels wrong to use [Cleanse] like that but it got up to my list of essential skills that I needed. If it only cures poison then I think I don¡¯t really need it but if it can act as a washing machine then it¡¯s a different story. The doctor told many stories about my father which I listened carefully since I don¡¯t really know my father and maybe due to talking too much, he left and went inside the facility/clinic which also serves as my room. Now that I think about it, I don¡¯t know the doctor¡¯s name yet. Maybe I should ask him about it one of these days. My clothes and armor were clean and I don¡¯t have anything to do now. It was about 9-10 in the morning, based on the location of the sun, so I decided to hunt something for our lunch. While I am walking towards the forest, I saw someone who looks like a Sparta. He had a sword hanging on his waist, a round shield on his left hand and a spear on the right. He was wearing leather armor, the same as me except he also has a leather helmet. He was talking to the weapon merchant here but instead of talking, it look like he¡¯s bothering the shop owner which was also the only smith in this village. ¡°Oi oi, look at him bothering another shop again.¡± ¡°Yeah I heard that he also done that to the armor shop and meat shop. I don¡¯t know why though.¡± ¡°Maybe he¡¯s just learning some skills but what was the point of learning all the crafting skills?¡± ¡°Maybe he wanted to become a crafter?¡± ¡°Would you learn each and every crafting skill if you wanted to be a crafter? Also look at his equipment, he look like a warrior.¡± ¡°Hmmm.. Well, it¡¯s not our business. So why don¡¯t we go to the tavern and have a drink before getting a quest?¡± I heard this conversation while I was looking at the unusual man. Now that I think about it, Gino like crafting and if ever he was also transported on this world then I think that he will act like that man. I walk away the scene and went to the forest where I hunted some rabbits. Of course, I recycle my arrows since it will be a waste if I don¡¯t. I also used my newly acquired skills on its corpse. I skinned the rabbit to get a rabbit fur and sliced the remaining corpse to small parts. I also got a new accessory. It is named as [Rabbit¡¯s Foot], it gives a passive skill [Luck 1] that raises the chances of landing critical hit to the enemies. You might think that it was a drop item but it¡¯s not. They say that rabbit¡¯s foot is considered as lucky and so I cut one of the feet of the rabbit I hunted and it suddenly shines and when it settled down, I found a necklace with a rabbit¡¯s foot. I don¡¯t know where the chain came from but I just thought that it was part of the system, after all I can see my own status with a game window. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. So in the end I hunted 15 rabbit and I got 12x [rabbit¡¯s fur], 20x [chopped rabbit¡¯s meat] and 1x [rabbit¡¯s foot]. It was almost noon when I ended my hunt so I decided to went back at Kaezar¡¯s place. As I am walking towards Kaezar¡¯s place, I hear something like a bell chime and after it a window appeared in front of me. * * * Stat system successfully changed. The new stat will be composed of: 1. Strength (STR) ¨C it increases the physical strength and melee physical damage of the individual. 2. Intelligence (INT) ¨C it increases the magic power, mana regeneration and maximum mana capacity of the individual. 3. Dexterity (DEX) ¨C it increases accuracy and ranged physical damage of the individual. 4. Constitution (CONS) ¨C it increases maximum health, health regeneration, and stamina of the individual. All of the previous allocated skill point will be reset. * * * As I read the content of the window that suddenly appeared in front of me, I scratched my head. ¡°What the hell is this? Is this really my reality now?¡± I close the window and go back to Kaezar¡¯s place. When I arrived, I found the Sparta-guy talking to Kaezar¡¯s father. ¡°Hey, master! Please teach me [Pharmacy] I heard you are the only pharmacist here right?¡± ¡°I already told you no, and besides, why do you want to learn [Pharmacy]?¡± ¡°That is because I want to learn how to create recovery pill and the like!¡± ¡°Then.. Why don¡¯t you just buy it?¡± ¡°Because I need to buy my needs! So please, Master Fernando! Teach me!¡± So Fernando was Kaezar¡¯s father name huh? Wait.. This guy voice seems familiar¡­ He can¡¯t be¡­ ¡°Gino Cruz?¡± I said the name of my friend and the Sparta-guy quickly turns towards my direction. Seeing his face, I am now sure. This guy is really Gino Cruz, one of my friends and also one of the passengers on that day. ¡°Ohh!! Jasper!! You¡¯re also here! I¡¯m glad!!¡± Gino quickly grasped my hand and shakes it. I just smiled wryly in his behavior. I look at the doctor who seems to be surprised by the situation. ¡°Hey, doctor. Why don¡¯t take this guy as your apprentice? He¡¯s good with his hand.¡± ¡°You mean I am good at handjo-¡° ¡°Okay please spare me with your dirty jokes. Marc isn¡¯t here to support you with that.¡± This guy likes to joke around. You can still talk to him normally but when Marc was with him, then surely you will not be able to talk straight because of their puns and dirty jokes. Oh, before I forget, he also likes to tease someone. ¡°Ahem.. if Jasper say so then I think I don¡¯t have a problem with it.¡± ¡°Yaay! Thank you Master Fernando! Thank you Jasper for supporting me!¡± The reason I help this guy is because I know that I will be the one who will benefit if he knew those skills. He¡¯s my friend so it¡¯s natural for me to help him and he will naturally help me since I am his friend. What?? You think I become friend with him because of the benefits I will gain? Nope.. Actually, I know him since childhood and it was because of common hobby, the PC games. After it, Kaezar appeared from the door connecting to the house and asked her father ¡°What would you like for lunch?¡± Hearing that, I give her all of the rabbit¡¯s meat and ask her if she can cook it, of course at first she declined, not only her even her father declined. But I said that ¡°I am sleeping here for free so I must help out.¡± In the end, they agreed and Kaezar took the rabbit¡¯s meat. Looking back at Gino, he is now grinning from ears to ears while looking at me. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.. I just thought that this dream is nice~ You and Kaezar look like a married couple.¡± I feel my face become hot, maybe I am blushing¡­ No, I am blushing. ¡°I-idiot! This isn¡¯t a dream and she is not the Kaezar you know!¡± ¡°Yes yes.. This isn¡¯t a dream and that isn¡¯t Kaezar.¡± He said with a light tone. This guy didn¡¯t believe me at all! I want to punch him! No, not only punching, I want to beat him so bad! But for friendship sakes, I contain my anger. ¡°Ahem.. Then why don¡¯t I start teaching you already?¡± Fernando coughed and said. Maybe his coughing meant to say ¡°I am still here! Did you forget that I am here?¡± Actually, I forgot for a moment that he was there. ¡°Well then, see you later Jasper.¡± Saying his goodbye, Gino and Fernando went inside the house and I am left behind in the clinic. ¡°Now then, what should I do?¡± That time, I remember the announcement I read before. I forget to ask them about it and disturbing them while they are doing something is rude. I scratched my head and summon the status window. * * * Name: Jasper Perez Race: Human Profession: Villager Title: None Alignment: Neutral Fame: 0 Health: 110 Mana: 105 Level: 5 Experience: 200/500 - - - Status points - - - STR: 14 DEX: 14 (+5%) INT: 12 CONS: 14 - - - Equipment - - - Head: None Torso: Leather Shirt Leggings: Leather Shorts Gloves: None Feet: Leather shoes Ring(Left): None Ring(Right): None Necklace: Rabbit¡¯s Foot Left Hand: Short Bow Right Hand: Short Bow - - - Status - - - Damage: 13 (+1% when using bow) Defense: 5(+3) Magic damage: 0 Magic defense: 0 - - - Resistance - - - Fire: 0 Ice: 0 Water: 0 Earth: 0 Lightning: 0 Holy: 0 Dark: 0 * * * I don¡¯t know why the quiver didn¡¯t appear in my status window but when I look closely, there isn¡¯t a waist category on it, maybe because of that it didn¡¯t appear on it. I pressed the status points panel and another new window appeared. It was the same as the status points on my status window but now it have an green icon for +, of course it is for adding stats, and red - but the - is color grey. I try pressing the ¡°+¡± beside the STR and it increases by one and the ¡°-¡° sign become red. Maybe it indicates that it is now available so I press it and my STR returns to being 14. ¡°Okay, what should I add?¡± I muttered as I stare at the panel. Hmmmm.. Since I am an archer, adding DEX will be common choice but that was before since I don¡¯t have a meat shield(tank) before but now it is different. Gino is here and he will become my meat shield(tank). What? You think that calling a tank as meat shield is rude? Isn¡¯t it normal for a tank to receive damage and charge as frontline right? In that sense, they were meat shield but don¡¯t get me wrong here. It¡¯s not that I look down at tanks okay? If they were not there then the enemies will surely massacre the thinned-armor mages and support? The other melee fighters you say? Yup they can hold it for a minute or two but when the enemy have an advantage on numbers then they will be just crushed like an insect. So in that aspect, I respect tanks. But no matter how you glorify their role I will still call them meat shield. Okay back to the problem. I don¡¯t know status should I add. By the way I have 12 status points available and every level up gives 3 points. I scratched my head and think. If I add STR then I also need to add CONS since I will become a melee fighter. If I add DEX then I will continue to become an archer. If I add INT then I will become either a support or mage but since I don¡¯t know any magic then it is crossed out. If I add CONS then I will become a meat shield. I now have Gino to act as a meat shield so I don¡¯t need it but maybe I will add it by 1 per 2 levels if I want to become an archer or 1 per level if I want to become a melee fighter. Wait, what if I become both. A melee fighter which is also capable of attacking on range fight? Isn¡¯t it beautiful? I will become a like a samurai at Battle Realms but what about the stats distribution? Would it be 1 STR, 1 DEX and 1 CONS per level? I think that isn¡¯t how I should put my stats and it I will also be weak compared to other people if I did that. Hmmmmm¡­ Maybe I¡¯ll just add 2 STR and 1 CONS when I level up 2 DEX and 1 STR. This way my STR stats will be the highest so I will have more damage on melee fights than ranged fight, and also this way I am not a squishy ranged fighter. I think it is a good idea so I put 6 STR, 4 DEX and 2 CONS leaving me with 0 status points. Feeling satisfied, I close the panel and my STR become 20, DEX become 18 and CONS become 16. I nodded as I check my stats and close the window. By the time I close my window, Kaezar already finish preparing lunch so I call the two who are busy with their business to eat. Chapter 8 – Party Hunt After eating lunch with Gino, Fernando(doctor/Kaezar¡¯s Father) and Kaezar, Gino and I decided to hunt together and we are on our way to the forest. ¡°Hey Gino, what is your current level?¡± ¡°Wait let me see¡­ Level 8 you?¡± I am surprised by how fast he manages to attain level 8 when we started at the same time. No, I work for the tavern for about a week so maybe he gained that level when I am gaining my daily expenses. ¡°For your information, I hunted after a week after we are transferred here you know. I dedicated my first week on gathering information and learning some [Crafting] skills.¡± It¡¯s no use on denying.. We started on the same day yet he has a higher level than mine. I hung my head down due to that fact. Before he would feel down every time I finished a game before him, even though he was the one who gave me a copy and now, I think I know how it feels. Noticing that I am feeling down, Gino patted my back and said. ¡°I bet you are just hunting those critters right? Don¡¯t worry, we will not hunt those thing today. We will hunt goblins. By the way, I killed a goblin for the first time when I am level 1. Aaahh¡­ It¡¯s quite hard you know? They are small and fast. I can¡¯t land a hit if I don¡¯t predict their movement. Hahahaha¡± He boasted about killing a goblin on level 1 which seems to be strong but even I killed someone who was strong, it was a level 3 thief named Greg. ¡°Hey, can we really hunt goblins by our level?¡± I ask since I am worrying about it. I mean, from the tavern they say that goblins are stronger than wolves. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry¡­ This is just a dream. Even if we die here, it¡¯s not that we will die for real right?¡± This guy still thinks that this world is a dream huh. ¡°Although it¡¯s quite weird since a whole month already past yet I didn¡¯t wake up. Am I in a comatose state at real world?¡± Gino was saying his thoughts aloud so I involuntary, take note okay? IN-VO-LUN-TA-RY, smack his head with all of my strength. Knowing this idiot meat shield(tank), his stats build will be like this 1 STR and 2 CONS stat build. ¡°WHAT WAS THAT FOR?¡± He faces and shouts at me while patting the portion of his head that I hit. ¡°Are you now awake? Oh idiotic meat shield(tank) of mine?¡± ¡°I am awake! At least here in the dream.¡± This idiot. The reason why I hit him because I want him to realize that this isn¡¯t a dream yet in the end he didn¡¯t realize it. Well, I know that it is hard to believe that this is our new reality.. Maybe time will make him realize that this is definitely his new reality. We are almost at the forest and I see some rabbits hoping peacefully. Some of them run away when they saw me. I wonder why. ¡°Look, you are hated by the rabbits because you hunted them before. I really can¡¯t believe that you killed critters for EXP.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t blame me! I don¡¯t know where a level 2 villager can raise its level!¡± ¡°Ohh.. I thought that you investigated a bit but you didn¡¯t huh.. As I said before, there are goblins inside the forest. Not only goblins but there were also wolves there. Hunting them will yield more experience than these critters.¡± I already know about them since I heard about it at tavern. If this is a game then I probably.. No. I definitely hunted goblins rather than rabbits. But I¡¯ll just pretend that I didn¡¯t know about those monsters since I will be getting some crispy trash talks if I tell him. ¡°Oh, is that so? Then are we going to hunt those monsters?¡± ¡°Yeah since it will give us more EXP. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll tank agro them so you can comfortably shot them.¡± Saying those words, Gino tap his round shield with a smile. ¡°Of course, that is the right thing to do since you are a meat shield.¡± ¡°Hey you know, can you please stop calling tank roles as meat shield. It¡¯s rude!¡± ¡°Yes yes¡± After walking while chatting for a while, we are now inside the forest. The trees are thick and you can lose your way in here if you are not familiar with it or if you didn¡¯t play enough games, surely you¡¯ll be lost. In our case, as long as we didn¡¯t take some weird turn we won¡¯t have a problem. Familiarizing yourself with one look at the scenery is a must in an RPG games. Because of that, I develop a habit of remembering some land marks whenever I walk into unfamiliar places. For example, there is a big rock on the feet of one of the trees inside the forest near the entrance, once I see that when I go back I will automatically know where the exit is. Anyways, we enter deeper in the forest and we encounter a little green humanoid creature. It is as small as an elementary student, it has a big nose and two fangs are peeking out of its mouth. Its ears are triangular with a color yellow eyes and it is carrying a tattered round shield and tattered spear on its hand. A piece of cloth is hanging on its waist. Base on its appearance, it is a goblin. In some MMO games, golins are considered as the weakest creature and it didn¡¯t have any intelligence despite being a humanoid type monster. I hope that this is also the case in this world. Gino suddenly rush at the goblin with his shield leaving a trace of yellow light as he run. Maybe it is a skill since it has this showy effect. The goblin got hit on its head and got push back a little but it didn¡¯t move for a while. Does that skill have a stun effect? Anyway, this is a chance so I quickly draw an arrow from the quiver at my back and nocked it at my bow. I aim between its eyes releases my grip at the string. The arrow flies straight my mark hitting the place between the eyes of the goblin. * * * EXP acquired 150. * * * This is sweet, gaining 150 EXP just for one goblin! Certainly, it has a higher level than mine but I didn¡¯t expect it to give 150 EXP. Because of that, a smile appears on my face which Gino didn¡¯t fail to notice. ¡°It gives a better EXP than the rabbit right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. With this, I can catch up with you if you slack off even the slightest.¡± ¡°Well, it can¡¯t be help right? If I stop hunting for a day or two since I have production skills and I need to level them up.¡± Gino said while picking up the tattered shield and tattered spear. I thought that after picking up the shield and spear we would continue to hunt but he draws his sword and sliced the chest of the goblin. I am dumbfounded by the next scene. Gino puts his hand inside the opened chest and he seems to be finding something inside. Blood spurts everywhere while he keeps on messing the inside of the goblin. When he pulls out his hand, it was covered of blood and meat and he is holding a shiny thing on his hand. ¡°I like gore and violence but I hate this part of hunting.¡± Gino said while wiping the blood and meat on his hand by the cloth of the goblin. ¡°What.. did you do?¡± I ask him since I don¡¯t understand what he did. ¡°Oh¡­ I collected some money.¡± He said while showing a crystal shaped like a human heart. * * * Goblin¡¯s Heart [Material] It¡¯s the heart of the monster called goblin it contains a small magic. * * * When he shows me the heart-shaped crystal, a window appeared describing the item. My mouth hangs open when I read the description and some question floated in my head. ¡°How can it pump blood if it is crystalized? Why do you need to open up a corpse of a monster to gather loot?¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I ask Gino while he put the goblin¡¯s heart inside his bag. ¡°I don¡¯t know. And this is a dream. You¡¯ll lose when you start using logic here.¡± He got up and looks around the surroundings. Maybe he is searching for another monster to hunt. ¡°But¡­ This isn¡¯t a dream you know?¡± I said while I tried to pick out my arrow that I used. It lodged itself too deep and I got trouble on pulling it out. I pulled it with all of my strength and the arrow broke. I sighed and throw away the broken arrow. That¡¯s one arrow gone. ¡°Hah?! What the hell are you saying? Of course this is a dream. There¡¯s no way that this is reality! I mean, there are monsters and this world is like the light novel I read.¡± Gino strongly denied that this is reality and gives some proofs that this is a dream. I can¡¯t blame him since I also thought that this is a dream before. I hope that time can make him realize that this is our new reality now. ¡°Okay if you think that this is a dream then okay. I hope you don¡¯t regret the things you did when you realize that this is our new reality.¡± I scratch my head and we continue to hunt again. I said hunt but we are just walking at random places. If I were to compare our situation now to a game, I guess we are now walking at tall grasses to encounter wild monsters. As we are walking in the tall grass, I mean in the forest, when I see three goblins surrounding a bonfire. They seem to be grilling something. ¡°Hey, Gino, three goblins ahead! They seem to be cooking something.¡± I whisper to Gino since it will be bad if the goblins hear it and started to attack us. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I said there are three goblins ahead.¡± I repeat what I said since I think Gino didn¡¯t hear me. ¡°No no.. I can hear you. But I can¡¯t see any goblins ahead.. Are you sure there are goblins?¡± I nod as a response to his question. ¡°What the¡­ I thought your eyes were starting to become blurry? What happen?¡± Gino asked me while pinching my cheeks saying ¡®Are you really Jasper?¡¯ ¡°I don¡¯t know, somehow when I got the [Archery] skill my eyesight become clearer. And now I can see farther than before.¡± I said while brushing off his hand. Actually, my eyes was in the bad state before I came here and back then, I am thinking of buying some glasses. My eyesight become bad because I played too many games since CRT monitor are commonly used at computer than today¡¯s LED monitors. And when I acquired the [Archery] skill, my sight became clearer. If I were to compare it to video resolutions, it is like I am watching a video with a resolution of 480p to suddenly become a 1080p(HD). ¡°I¡¯ll lure them here so prepare for battle.¡± I said as I draw the bowstring as far as I could. I also adjusted the angle so that it will hit the target. It is 20m away, even though they were hidden by the bushes and trees, I can see them clearly. I released the bowstring and the arrow flew hitting the nape of one of the goblin, killing it on the spot. The other goblins look at us and they hurriedly pick up their weapons. The remaining goblins have a rusted spear on their right hand and a tattered round shield on the left. ¡°Oohh!¡± Gino prepared his shield to receive the goblins which are running towards us. I draw my bow again and released another arrow. This time I aimed at the feet of one of the goblins. As the arrow flew towards its feet, the goblin tried to block it with his shield but it was too late. The moment he lowered his shield to block my attack, the arrow already pierced his left foot slowing him down. The last goblin look at his comrade but didn¡¯t stop running towards us. Gino also charges in and used his skill [Shield Rush] skill, it is the skill he used before. The skill hit the last goblin, stunning it. Gino slashes the goblin from upper left to lower right of the goblin, leaving a deep wound on it and I can clearly see the crystal heart pumping blood. I shot another arrow aiming at the head of the slowed goblin. It hits and killed it. You might think that we are overpowered right? Since we hunts goblins even though we are still villagers. Actually, if you aim at the vital spots of the enemies, you can kill them instantly. Even if they survived, we can easily kill them since they would be weaken. We keep on hunting goblins until dusk and I gained a decent amount of level. * * * Name: Jasper Perez Race: Human Profession: Villager Title: None Alignment: Neutral Fame: 0 Health: 210 Mana: 108 Level: 9 Experience: 37/900 - - - Status points - - - STR: 20 DEX: 20 (+9%) INT: 14 CONS: 18 - - - Equipment - - - Head: None Torso: Leather Shirt Leggings: Leather Shorts Gloves: None Feet: Leather shoes Ring(Left): None Ring(Right): None Necklace: Rabbit¡¯s Foot Left Hand: Short Bow Right Hand: Short Bow - - - Status - - - Damage: 21 (+3% when using bow) Defense: 6(+3) Magic damage: 0 Magic defense: 0 - - - Resistance - - - Fire: 0 Ice: 0 Water: 0 Earth: 0 Lightning: 0 Holy: 0 Dark: 0 * * * I got 4 levels and my [Archery] skill also leveled up. I don¡¯t know why it didn¡¯t level up when I was hunting rabbits but now it is level 3 which gives +9% DEX and 3% damage when using bows. I also got 5 [Crystal Heart], 2 [Tattered Shield], and 1 [Tattered Spears]. The shield and spears must have the same number of the Crystal heart but some of them got broken when it receives an attack from Gino. We are now walking back to the village when I heard some rustling at our back. So I look back and found nothing there. ¡°Hey what is it now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I heard some rustling of the leaves at our back, but when I turned around, there is nothing there.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a wind.¡± Gino said while he shrugged his shoulders. He may be right but¡­ I feel something is wrong¡­ I did feel some presence when I heard the rustling sound. It is, as if, observing us. I grip the sheath of my sword just in case that ¡°that¡± thing decided to suddenly attack us. I look at Gino, he looks like he doesn¡¯t care about it. His hand is in the back of his head as if he¡¯s just walking around his neighborhood but I see his left hand ready to use the shield, which is hanging on his back, in case of emergency. We remained vigilant until we reached the village. Somehow I feel disappointed. It didn¡¯t attack us or pursue us. It just observes us once and vanishes into the shadows. ¡°What a letdown¡­ I thought that we are going to fight it but it didn¡¯t show itself.¡± Gino voiced out his complains and I also feel the same. If this is a game, I would chase it regardless if it¡¯s a player or not. Killing players are more enjoyable than killing mobs. Even if I fight boss class mobs, I find it quite boring since once I found out its pattern, it will be too easy. But in contrary of that, players don¡¯t have a specific pattern, they fight based on the move of the other player so it¡¯s quite fun. Note: Thank you for Ayskrimm (my friend) for editing this chapter :D Also i will be quite busy at school works so new chapters will come slower than before. Chapter 9 – Field boss A week has passed since then but we never knew who was that stalker or observer. I am now level 15 and since you can change your job at level 10, I change mine and now I am an [Archer] not a villager. Also, Gino and I become an adventurer. The adventurer has this ranking system just like from the anime I watched before. The lowest is bronze, iron, silver, gold, mithril, and the highest adamantite. There are only 2 teams of adamantite in the Kingdom of Sevil proving that only those who have talent and guts can attain the rank of adamantite. For now, both of us is bronze and we are almost there to become an iron adventurer. Also, based on your rank is the difficulty of your quest. Bronze request mainly composed of [Gathering] quests. This quest will only requiring you to gather some medicinal plants outside the town. Well, it¡¯s pretty boring and you can also rank up if you finished 100 quest of your rank. For us, we already finished 98 quests. Mainly because we gather almost every item we found in the forest so that when we register as adventurers, we already have the quest item good for 50 quests. Also, there is some subjugation quest available for bronze adventurer, it was killing 5 goblins and collecting its tooth, which is also a factor why we finished 50 quests in 1 day. Anyway, I said that I am now an [Archer], my [Villager] job still exists. [Villager] job didn¡¯t give anything at all but it is a pre-requisite for you to take other jobs. Oh, did I tell you that beside from your original level (which is also known as Base level), there is also Job level. Job level strengthen your job as it grows and it is also the key for changing jobs. For combat classes, you need to have a level 10 [Villager] to change, and that goes with support classes. While Crafting classes (some call them ¡°Utility class¡±), you need just a level 5 [Villager]. It is possible for your job level to be higher than your base level but most of the time base level and job level are at the same level. Also a job gives additional bonuses/buffs to someone. In my case, [Archer] gives [Small Increase DEX] and [Marksmanship]. I don¡¯t know how small is this increase in DEX since it is not written on the status screen and I think [Marksmanship] assist my accuracy. Also, after leveling your first job (the job that you pick after leveling [Villager] to level 10) until level 20, you can pick another job. You might think that having multiple jobs seems troublesome but by picking another job will unlock a higher tier/tier-2 job. For example, when you take [Swordsman] as your first job then get [Thief] or [Brawler] then you will be able to change your job to [Warrior]. There are also so-called rare jobs and legendary jobs. Rare jobs are jobs that only a few can attain it due to its hard requirement and someone who has a rare job didn¡¯t publicize the information about how to obtain it. Legendary jobs are jobs that were written on the history. For example, the [Hero] job class which was said that it was the job of the hero that sealed the demon lord 1000 years ago. Believe it or not, heroes, demons, and Gods exist in this world and because of that, I got a feeling that the reason why we are transported here is because the demon lord seal is getting weaker. Well, it¡¯s just my thought. Anyways, the legendary jobs aren¡¯t only limited to heroes, there are also [Tracker], [Tamer] and [Sage]. These four legendary jobs are one of most known legendary jobs in this kingdom since the persons who have these jobs are the founder of it. ¡°Hopia, mani(peanut), pop-corn! Here is 100 Wooden Arrow per request.¡± Gino stands up and give me 4 bundles of wooden arrows. Oh yes, Gino become [Jack of All Trades] which is one of the rare jobs but also the weakest among them. His job can learn all skills available for the first job or tier-1 jobs, even if it is a combat/crafting/support skill, but he can¡¯t raise it to [Master] level. Well, it is to be expected to someone who learns any skill that caught his attention. And by the way, I am not envious of his rare job okay. ¡°Thanks¡± I take the arrows and put 50 arrows on my quiver and the other 50 are left inside my room. Ever since he became [Jack of All Trades], he started trying his crafting skills. Right now he can make only make wooden arrows, simple clothes made from rabbit skin, and recovery pill. At first, his success rate on crafting is only 5% but after familiarizing himself on crafting, his success rate went up to 80%. With this guy around, I don¡¯t need to buy arrows from the shop. Oh and also, he can repair some minor damage on our gears and do some maintenance on it. Also on battles, he become all-rounder since he learn many different skills but now he¡¯s still acting as a vanguard and I even if our party become bigger, he will still be the vanguard. ¡°Hey you two! Here¡¯s your lunch. It¡¯s roasted rabbit meat and cooked rice.¡± Kaezar appear from the kitchen holding two wooden lunch box. She¡¯s wearing a typical villager girl outfit which really suits her. ¡°Thanks sis. Ah..¡± I thank her the way I thank Kaezar from the previous world. Ah, I should have not said that. Lately, I incidentally called her ¡°Sis¡± whenever she did something similar or acted similar to the Kaezar from the previous world. Even though I know that this Kaezar here is different from the Kaezar there, I still commit the same mistake. I told Gino about it but he said that ¡°I might be missing Kaezar(previous world) so much that I often mistake the Kaezar here.¡± Well, maybe he¡¯s right. After all, I am used to be with her side for a long time ago. Since high school we are always together and from that time, I fell for her. But I only told her what I felt just before the accident happens due to various reasons. Oh and also, Gino realized that this isn¡¯t a dream. By the time he realized it, he shouted ¡°HEEEEEEELL YEEAAAAH!! BEING TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER WORLD JUST LIKE A PROTAGONIST ON A LIGHT NOVEL!¡± I hit him hard on his head since that time it was in the middle of the night. He might waken up the neighbors since he shouted. ¡°You called me your sis again. Hehe, it¡¯s okay you know? You can call me sis if I really resemble your sister that much.¡± Kaezar chuckles while she tells me those words. I only nodded at her and saw Gino grinning while looking at me which somewhat pisses me off. So I lightly punched him and said ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± We both departed from Kaezar¡¯s house and went to the forest. Kaezar is smiling while seeing us off and I noticed his father glaring at me from window. - - - Kaezar¡¯s P.O.V (Previous world) This is the third day since Jasper disappeared. The police are doing their best on looking for the persons that are missing from the bus incident but there is no lead so far. I even heard once from my father, which is a police officer, that the scene was too clean. It was as if all the people inside the bus disappeared in the thin air. I¡¯ve been feeling down since then and yesterday I hallucinated seeing Jasper but he is wearing different clothes. It was somewhat, outdated.. No.. It was a clothing of people from medieval age. When I remembered that, my face become red. Maybe I really miss him so much. I loved him since high school but I can¡¯t tell him how I feel back then since my cousin, that is so dear to me, loved him. Oh also, even if my cousin didn¡¯t love him, I still can¡¯t tell him how I feel since I am not shameless. I am a girl. So it¡¯s shameful to confess my feelings first. That is the tradition, or should I say how Filipina girl acts. Actually, most of the youth now days are quite daring. Girls seduces men, courtship are done in the streets instead of the girl¡¯s house, there are girls which drink heavier than men, and also sex is now a common act for couples. I don¡¯t quite understand what happened to the traditional Filipina women. It changes too much and only a few can be called ¡°Maria Clara¡±. Maybe it¡¯s because of the different culture that got mixed up in the Philippine culture. Anyways, today is a Saturday so we didn¡¯t have a class and I am relaxing at the sofa when someone pressed the doorbell. *DING DONG* I quickly stand up and ask ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± even though I am still in the living room. As I went near the door, I see another hallucination. It is Jasper and Gino sitting on the floor. Both of them are wearing some leather armor and Gino is giving Jasper wooden arrows. On his back, there is a shield and on his right side, there is spear. Jasper have a bow laying on his right side and receiving the wooden arrows from Gino. Both of them are smiling and they suddenly look at me and Jasper¡¯s mouth open saying ¡°Thank you sis. Ah..¡± I almost call both of them when I heard another ring of the doorbell. Then they disappeared from where they are sitting. I feel¡­ Lonely all of a sudden. Maybe because, I saw a hallucination again. ¡°Kaezar! It¡¯s me your dad! Can you open the door? I forgot my keys so I can¡¯t open it.¡± My dad voice brings me back to the reality and I opened the door. - - - Jasper¡¯s P.O.V We are now in the middle of the forest and honestly, I am tired of hunting goblins. Ever since we entered the forest, all I saw was goblins, goblins, and goblins! Does this forest only have goblins? Well, goblins heart fetch a good price so it¡¯s not that bad but I want to fight other enemies. I am tired of these little-green-ugly creatures. I let out a sigh as I sit beneath the tree. We are taking a quick break and I am drinking some water when I heard footsteps going towards us. I quickly tell Gino to prepare for battle and he obediently obey my order. Just like a dog. ¡°Hey! Are you thinking rude about me?¡± As if he read what¡¯s inside my mind, he glares at me. Of course I said I didn¡¯t and the footsteps came nearer and nearer. I draw my bow and aim it towards the direction of the footsteps. If it is a goblin, then I will shoot it quickly. But the one we see are 5 humans. They are running for their lives and some of them have a pale complexion. There are others who are bleeding and being carried by their teammates. ¡°Hey what happened?¡± I asked the [Swordsman] who seems to be the leader of this group. ¡°A field boss respawn! Run for your life! You can¡¯t handle it with only the two of you!¡± He said while running. Field boss? I wonder what it is. Is it the Goblin Leader? Alpha Wolf? Or Red Bear? I look at Gino and he nodded at me. We let the group pass us and when they are far enough, we slowly advance towards the direction where they came from. I heard some roar and armor clashing from a far. Maybe some adventurers are fighting the field boss. We decided to stealthy watch the battle so we went nearer. There I see almost two hundred ferocious looking green creatures fighting a three meter tall red bear. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.The green creature¡¯s height is approximately 190cm. Some of them are two meters tall. They have bulging muscles, and fangs grew out of their mouth. All of them are wearing armor made from the animal hides and bones. They are wielding badly maintained glaives, axes, and clubs. They are attacking Lupos, the red bear, and some of them got swept by Lupos strong arms. Even though they are attacking Lupos, there is no scratch can be found on Lupos, , maybe because of its fur or because their gear aren¡¯t properly maintained. Every time Lupos swing his paw, two to three green creatures fly. Oh right, this green creatures are Orcs. I don¡¯t know why they didn¡¯t look like a pig but I think I saw similar orc from a game. The fight continued and looks like the orcs are in disadvantage. The battlefield where they are fighting are green before but now it is covered by blood and corpses of the orcs. 50 orcs already died when the leader orc issued a retreat command. The surviving orcs quickly run away showing their defenseless back towards the bear. The bear used this opportunity to bring down some orcs who are falling behind. Before the orcs disappears, 25 of them died resulting to 75 orc¡¯s corpses on the field. The bear didn¡¯t chase too far and come back to where the battle happened. ¡°Shit, we need to get out of here.¡± Gino whispered to me but it¡¯s too late. The bear is now charging towards us. It didn¡¯t chase the orc maybe because it felt that there are more intruders to its territory, which are us. It wanted to eliminate everything that trespasses on its territory. I quickly released the arrow on my bow, which is readied in case of this occasion. The arrow bounces back from the fur of the bear. Well, I can¡¯t really expect it to penetrate that fur which easily wards of weapon made from iron. But even so, I launch another arrow. This time aiming at its eyes, even if its fur is hard, you can¡¯t expect that the same applies for its eyes. The arrow lodged itself deep on the left eyes of the bear causing it to increases its speed while roaring. *ROOOOOOOAR!* ¡°Gino! Can you intercept this guy? I¡¯ll try to shoot its other eye!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try!¡± Gino draws his shield and correct his stance. He lowers his hips and separate both of his feet intending to receive the impact. On his right arm, he pointed the spear towards the bear and on his left, the wooden shield is covering his body. I don¡¯t think he can endure the charge of a three meter tall bear but I¡¯ll trust him. Trust in your party members is important because they are the one who covers your back. But you can¡¯t trust strangers in the first place, so I am grateful that my party right now is someone I can trust. I shoot arrows as fast as I can but it always misses its mark and bounces off from the bear¡¯s fur. The bear came nearer and nearer to Gino and Gino tightens his defense. Is he really going to receive its charge? Then the bear clashes at Gino. Gino flew aside due to the impact and his body is in the bad shape¡­ Or that what I thought what will happen. Gino skillfully uses the bear¡¯s momentum to divert it to the tree nearby. As the bear passes through him, he pierced the red bear¡¯s bottom. Blood came out and the bear hits its head on the tree making it fall. ¡°Jasper! It¡¯s fur is not that hard! It¡¯s hard enough to repel dull blade and wooden arrows! Use your sword! Your arrow is ineffective! Who the hell did make those arrows?!¡± Gino jokes about his own crafted items. ¡°Okay! The name of the crafter is Gino Cruz! When you saw him, can you punch him in the face!¡± I replied with a joke. You might think that we are relaxed on this situation but to tell you the truth, we are not. Who the hell would be relaxed if they are fighting this giant bear?! We joke around like this when we are almost panicking. It always happens when we play games. Actually, Gino and Marc insult each other whenever we are in this kind of situation. Even though we are hunting for a time now, this is our do-or-die battle. Our heart beats fast due to fear but even so¡­ We will fight! It¡¯s better to die fighting than die running away! After all, with its speed it can catch us even if we run away now. The bear slowly got up and shakes it head. It faces us and stands up on its two feet and roar. *ROOOAAAR!* I feel intimidated by its roar and I quickly throw away my bow and draw my sword. ¡°Oy oy.. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re scared! I never know that Jasper is scared on this big stuff toy.¡± Gino slightly provokes me but with this atmosphere, I know that he¡¯s just joking. ¡°I am not. Maybe you are the one who¡¯s scared, look at your left hand, it¡¯s shaking.¡± ¡°Idiot! The impact is too strong and I thought my left arm is going to get crushed by the impact. Luckily, it didn¡¯t.¡± I know it. It is impossible for a human to fully block that charge. Maybe thanks to his stats, his left arm is still attached; or rather he barely survives because of that. The bear charges again but this time we didn¡¯t plan to receive it. I am in the left side of the bear and Gino is on the right. I slowly moved to its left hoping that when I dodge it, I land on its blind spot since its left eyes is gone. When the bear almost hit us with its charge, I jump to its side and slice its left arm with my sword. That is the plan, but the reality is different. The bear seems to be more threatened by me, who take out his left eye. The bear heads turn toward me and performs a quick swipe with its left hand. I luckily dodged it by jumping backwards using all of my strength on the left foot which landed first after I jumped sideward. But I lost my balance due to that jump and my leather shirt got torn apart by the bear¡¯s claws. The bear didn¡¯t miss that chance and tried to maul me but Gino prevented it by stabbing the bear on its right side. The bear staggered back and glare at Gino while growling. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Got scared by my spear? Ted-dy Bear?¡± Gino provoke the bear and quickly fix his stance. He looks at the eyes of the bear directly. I also fix my stance and say my thanks to Gino. The bear charges at us again but this time, I noticed that it¡¯s targeting Gino. The bear come nearer and nearer and when it is on the range of my sword, I jumped to its left side. The bear didn¡¯t notice my move since its sight is lock on Gino. Taking advantage of that, I slice its left arm. The sword dig deep and the resistance is so great that I need to use my two hands and all of my strength just to cut it. The bear lost in balance because of the cut and it fell down on the ground. Its defenseless neck is clearly seen on my side so I stab it using my sword. No matter how strong you are, when your neck got pierce you¡¯ll surely die. That stab decided the fight. The bear let out a small growl and stop breathing. * * * Congratulations! Due to killing the Field Boss Lupos, you are awarded of the title [Lupos Slayer] All stats increase by 1. * * * You gained a level! You gained a level! You gained a level! You gained a level! * * * For dealing the finishing blow, you are awarded by [Lupos¡¯ Cloak] * * * I didn¡¯t expect this at all. To gain four levels just by killing a single monster, well I¡¯ll complain if I didn¡¯t level up after that hard fight. A light suddenly shine in front of me and when it fade out, I see a red cloak made from the fur of Lupos. I quickly pick it up and astonished with its effect. Beside from giving a high defense, it also gives [Lesser Physical Resistance] and [Lesser increase in STR]. I quickly wear it over my armor. I noticed that the effect of leather shirt disappear and on its place, the effect of the cloak appeared. It seems to be treated as a Torso which is good. Gino sit down from where he¡¯s standing and I jump down from Lupos neck. We stare at each other for a while and laugh. It feels so good surviving a do-or-die fight! Aaaaaaah! I feel my strength escaping from my feet making me sit on the spot. If a monster appeared suddenly, I don¡¯t think that we will survive since we poured all of our strength fighting Lupos. But in the end, it really feels good to hunt something that is stronger than you. My blood is still boiling and the smile on my face didn¡¯t disappear for a while. Suddenly, we hear the rustling of the bush behind us accompanied by many footsteps. Did the orc come back? This is bad.. I can¡¯t move. I didn¡¯t think that the first time I felt like this will be my last. I am readying myself to embrace death since there¡¯s nothing I can do in this situation. Gino is also the same. He looks at me and smile. ¡°This is our end huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, quite likely.¡± ¡°Aaah¡­ I don¡¯t want to die as a virgin. Maybe I should have confessed on Jeziel back then.¡± ¡°Heeh, so you really like her huh?¡± I begin teasing Gino. Even if we already accepted our death, we continued to joke around. Honestly, I think I should have confessed to Kaezar since the start of the semester. Maybe if I confessed to her back then, we might be already a couple now. This might be my last regret in this world. I should have confessed earlier. The footsteps come nearer and nearer and our face become stiff due to fear and despair we feel that time. I mean, even if we joke around this time we will surely die. I close my eyes and let the creature or monster kill me. I hope that I die painlessly. But betraying my resolve, the one who emerged was the party whom I served the beer before when I am working at the tavern. ¡°Oya? It¡¯s already dead? Say.. Did you two kill it?¡± The brawler asked me while smiling. His voice makes me feel safe and I nodded. The brawler scratched his head and asks us if we can stand. We both said we can¡¯t so the brawler ordered the two archers behind him to carry us both. He also said that the swordsman and him will be the one to drag the corpse of the bear and said that ¡°don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t take anything from it¡± while winking at me. Honestly, I feel disgusted being winked by a fellow man. Well, I don¡¯t I¡¯ll mind if they take a claw or two since they are helping us. When I said that, he slowly shook his head and said. ¡°It¡¯s only natural to help someone. And¡­ Taking an item from other party¡¯s hunt leaves a bad taste on our mouth.¡± I look around and all five of them nodded. I see. Even I will feel bad if I take something from the hunt of other just because we helped them. But I think if it¡¯s Gino, then he will gladly take the items they will be giving him. He¡¯s that kind of man after all. Chapter 10 - Little Sister In games and movies, when the protagonist defeated a strong enemy it will result in a heartwarming scene where the heroine would hug the protagonist when he returns. I thought that it will also happen since this is the other world but apparently, it is limited to movies and games only. Right now I am kneeling down while being scolded by Kaezar. As for Gino, he is being treated in the clinic due to his injuries. His left arm is dislocated due to the charge of Lupos. Well, it¡¯s expected since he received that huge bear charge. ¡°Are you listening to me!?¡± Kaezar, who is scolding me, shouted at me. She¡¯s scolding me for about an hour now and it doesn¡¯t look like that it will end anytime soon. As for the content of her scolding, I¡¯ll just summarize it on 3 words, ¡°Stop Being Reckless¡±. At this case, she is the same with the Kaezar from the previous world. That girl also scolded me when I messed up back then and she will continue for about 2 hours. How did this happen? Well, let¡¯s turn back the time when I arrived at the village. During that time, one of the brawler¡¯s companions was helping me to walk since I got really exhausted from the fight. We chatted for a while about how we defeated Lupos and about the orcs. Their face become serious when I told them about the orcs and they said that we need to hurry since the orcs might attack the village of Pinar. Naturally, we increased our pace and that time, I can almost see the village. From where we are, I saw a girl waiting at the village entrance(?) waiting for us. I thought that it was brawler¡¯s lover but as we get nearer, I recognized the true identity of the girl. It¡¯s Kaezar. With her arms crossed in front of her, she¡¯s looking at our direction with worried face. Back then, I thought that it was the previous world Kaezar since she (Kaezar previous world) was also the one who waits for us whenever I did something reckless. I thought I will not get scolded by her since they are different person but I was so wrong. The moment she can see us clearly, she suddenly ran towards us. Thinking that I might get some emotional reunion like the one in the movies, I forced myself to ran to her and when we¡¯re one step away from each other, I felt a sharp pain on my cheeks. I got slapped and fell down. I hold my cheek where she slapped me and look at her confused. We¡¯ll anyone would be confused when you suddenly got slapped when you return from battle. And damn! Her slapped shave off a little of my HP! ¡®Even though she have a weak body, how come that her slap can damage me?¡¯ That¡¯s what I thought at that time. After slapping me, Kaezar asked the adventurers to bring us at the clinic while she will call her father. It seems that her father was on the village chief¡¯s house at that time discussing on how to tackle the field boss. After dropping us at the clinic, Kaezar and her father came. When Kaezar¡¯s father saw us, he immediately told Kaezar to prepare the beds while he lend his shoulders to me and Gino. Of course after that would be the treatment scene and since it doesn¡¯t have any interesting happened, it will be omitted. Now let¡¯s go back to where we are. Kaezar¡¯s scolding still continue and I almost memorize everything she¡¯s saying since it is redundant. After another 15 minutes or so, she finally stops scolding me and went to Gino. Maybe he will receive her scolding too. I pray that he will be scolded much longer than me. I tried to get up but my feet seem to be asleep and I fall down due to it. ¡°Still even though I am in a different world Kaezar remains to be Kaezar.¡± I mutter as I walk outside the house. As I step outside, I see someone who looks familiar. It is a girl with a shoulder length black hair, a pair of black eyes that is the same as me and she¡¯s wearing a robe and carried a staff. Maybe she¡¯s a mage? Although in this world magic exist, only a few of them can use it on combat and they are the so-called Magician or Mage. It is also a job but I heard that it there are only few of them, most of them are nobles though, because you need to practice how to control mana efficiently. She¡¯s walking leisurely and basing on the direction she¡¯s walking, she¡¯s going to the village chief¡¯s house. But even though she looks familiar, I can¡¯t pinpoint where I met her. I want to call her out but I might be seen as someone who¡¯s picking her. ¡®Well, if she¡¯s important then maybe sooner or later I will remember her.¡¯ I said to myself and walk towards the adventurer¡¯s guild. * * * As I enter the tavern (adventurer¡¯s guild) I saw the brawler and his party entering the guild master¡¯s room. They seem to report the incident about Lupos. Well, it¡¯s better for them to report about it since if I were the one who report, I think the guild master would just consider it as a lie since I am just a bronze rank adventurer. No matter where you look at it, if someone who is a bronze-rank reported that they defeated a field boss, no one will take them seriously. Anyways, the reason why I am here is to give the goblin¡¯s tooth we gathered for today, we have 20 of them that will enable us to rank up¡­ or so I thought. When I give the teeth on the receptionist, she said that we are now qualified to take the promotion test. When I hear about it, I almost yell that ¡°Are you kidding me?! This isn¡¯t Leag*e of L*gends!¡± but somehow, I manage to contain it on myself. ¡°You seem to be surprised about the promotion test. Is this the first time you heard about it?¡± The receptionist tells me who really is surprised about it. I just nodded at her question and she gives me a wry smile. Please don¡¯t tell me that it is included on the explanation before¡­ ¡°Actually, it is included in the explanation before but¡­ You seem to be not listening back then. Well, most of the new comer really didn¡¯t listen about the explanation seriously.¡± She sighed at this point and on her face, you can see her thinking how bothersome to explain it again. ¡°As I said before, after completing 100 quests in your rank, you will be allowed to take the promotion test. It doesn¡¯t matter if you are alone or with your friends, as long as they are also within the same rank and eligible to take the promotion test, you can take it with them. Promotion test are simple. You will be given 5 tests to take and you only need 3 pass for you to rank up.¡± While she is saying these words, I concluded that this promotion test is really equivalent to promotion ser*es of L*L. Well, it is relatively easy if it is the same with L*L. If it is really like L*L then when you fail your serie¡ªI mean test, then you will be deducted by 10 quests or so then you can just gather some herbs or goblin¡¯s tooth outside then you¡¯re already eligible again to take the test. But if that is the case, then why are there too many bronze adventurers. ¡°Also in case that you failed three times, you will start over again at the very beginning. That said, you will need to finish 100 quests again to take the promotion test. Is that clear?¡± So the quest counter (or something I call it) reset to 0. That¡¯s why they are too many bronze adventurers. Actually, we are abnormal since we, who are also a bronze adventurer, manage to take the promotion quest within a few days after we registered. ¡°Ah yes..¡± ¡°Are you ready to take the promotion quest?¡± ¡°Uhmm.. Actually, my friend is still resting due to his injuries so I will wait for him to recover before taking the quest.¡± ¡°Ara.. I see. You are someone who will not leave his friend. So you will not take the promotion test. Okay. Then do you need something else?¡± The receptionist asked me. Actually, the reason why I didn¡¯t take the test is because in some animes and games that I have played, this kind of promotion test will always be a battle. It will be troublesome for me, who is an archer, to fight someone alone. Although I have a sword, I don¡¯t plan to fight in a close quarter as much as possible. ¡°There¡¯s nothing more, sorry for taking up your time.¡± After I say goodbye at the receptionist, I get out of the guild and went back to the clinic. After walking for a while, I saw the mage-girl coming out of the village chief¡¯s house and now she¡¯s walking to my direction. To be precise, the adventurer¡¯s guild direction. As we walk nearer and nearer to each other, I now remember where I see her. It¡¯s in my dream. Well, that sound weird, but I swear I saw her once in my dream. I think it was a month ago when I have this weird dream of having a little sister. I don¡¯t quite remember if she¡¯s the child of my mother or father at the different person but I accepted her as my little sister. Maybe because it is a dream or I wanted to have a sibling, but I accepted her as if it was natural. In that dream, I introduce her to my friends and almost all of them have fallen to her except Iggy, Marc, and Gino. She is extremely close to Iggy, who is an otaku, since they have the same hobby. I think her name is¡­ ¡°Skyla..¡± The mage-girl, who is now in front of me, stops walking and look at me with surprise. ¡°Uhmm¡­ Have we met before?¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. She asks me while she put her index finger at her cheeks. ¡°I¡¯m sorry but are you talking to me?¡± I ask her since I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s talking with me or someone behind me. I look behind and see no one, even to my side there are no people. So maybe she¡¯s talking to me, but why? ¡°Yes, I am talking to you.. Have we met before? You said my name but I don¡¯t remember even meeting you. So maybe, I met you before but I forgot who you are.¡± The girl look likes she¡¯s confused, or rather trying hard to remember where I met her. ¡®I said that name aloud huh.¡¯ ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I just muttered the name of someone I know since I am wondering if what is she doing now.¡± I tell some lies to her because I really can¡¯t say that it is the name of my imaginary little sister¡¯s name. ¡°Is that so? I am sorry.¡± How polite, she¡¯s even bowing when she apologize. ¡°No no.. It is my fault in the first place so I¡¯m also sorry.¡± I also apologized. But isn¡¯t it weird? To meet someone with the same name of a girl inside your dream in real life. Maybe Skyla is a common name in this world. ¡°Ah! Excuse me but I need to go to the adventurer¡¯s guild now.¡± The mage-girl bow again and continue walking towards the guild. She¡¯s really polite. How adorable. I also continue to walk towards the clinic. * * * Skyla¡¯s P.O.V I am Skyla Perez a 15 years old lady, just to be clear okay? I am not a noble but I have a family name (well, Perez was my father family name and it is a tradition on their family to pass it down to their children even if it is a girl), daughter of Percival Perez who is a member of the adventurer group called ¡®Odyssey¡¯ one of the adamantite-rank adventurer in this kingdom. My father and his companion are amazing you know! They survive even though they met a dragon twice! And not only survive, they also wounded it! But they didn¡¯t manage to kill it; they said that it is so powerful that every time it roars, the ground shook. Its breath can melt even the hardest metal as if it was just a paper. But they manage to survive after meeting it twice and they also wound it! Amazing right! They said that its two eyes are now blind due to them and were really furious but they somehow manage to survive! Eh? You¡¯re asking why the dragon didn¡¯t hunt them down? It is because they also manage to seal it! The one who manage to seal it is my mother you know! Mother and father met because they are adventurer. Isn¡¯t it romantic? Now, I am an adventurer because I also want to have a romance like my father and mother. And I know this is something you might not want to hear but let me tell you the story behind the name of ¡®Odyssey¡¯. I am just a 5 years old girl when I asked my grandfather, who is also a member of it, what does ¡®Odyssey¡¯ means, he said that it was a novel back on his hometown where the protagonist was having a journey to go back to his home and also he said to me that he and my father isn¡¯t someone originally from this world. He also said that just like the protagonist, my father and grandfather was finding a way back to their original world. I cried at that time and tell him not to leave me behind. My grandfather, smile wryly at me and patted my head. He said ¡°That was back then, I don¡¯t want to leave this world since Skyla(me) is here, it is the same with your father.¡± When I heard those words, I felt so happy but now, I feel guilty (because my grandfather and father can¡¯t meet their previous family because of me). My grandfather also told me that I have a big brother at their world. I think his name is ¡°Jasper¡±. He said that my father told him that he found himself in this when my brother is only 3 years old. Back then, he said that my father take drastic measure to get back to their original world and almost got killed too many times but my grandfather protected him. When I heard about it (the brother part), I have a strong urge to meet him (even now, I still have that urge) so I ask my grandfather to find a way so that I can meet him but he only patted my head and said ¡°I think it is impossible since even though how many years I live in here, I haven¡¯t found a single clue on returning to that world. Even your mother gave up after trying for many years.¡± while looking sad about it. That is the reason why I become a magician. I want to create a spell that can connect the two worlds so that I can meet my brother and grandfather and father can see their previous family. But right now that I am a magician, I don¡¯t know where to start. To begin with, there isn¡¯t any research material about it. But I won¡¯t give up! One day I¡¯ll connect the two worlds and meet my older brother! Right now, I am currently researching about how monsters spawn. Do they have a family? Do they pop out of thin air? Or are they transported, just like grandfather and father, from another world? I want to know since maybe they have the key to connect the two worlds. And that is the reason why I am here. In this village, Pinar, they have a unique monster that can only be hunted once every 10 years. It is Lupos the red bear. It is considered as a field boss but unlike any other field boss, it came out from the black circle that suddenly appears out of nowhere. Normally, a normal monster become a field boss if they have gathered enough strength, they are not something that came out of nowhere like Lupos. It¡¯s almost 10 years since the last time that Lupos was hunted so I went here to see how it spawned personally. I feel that seeing that phenomenon will give me the key about my research so I went here as quickly as possible. My father was supposed to go with me but my mother is currently pregnant so he can¡¯t. He is worried because I¡¯m still too young to travel and I might become a victim of a bandit and be solved as a slave or got attacked by monster and die. But I am already 15 years old, I am considered as an adult now but my father told me that in their world, 15 years old still too young and you will only be called an adult if you are at the age of 21. But I told him ¡°That was on your world and we are not there. In here 15 years old is considered as an adult and I am also a silver-rank adventurer!¡± My father tried to argue but my mother told him that I am right and she also persuaded my father to let me go. I have the best mom in the world! Looking back at my mother and me, my father reluctantly agreed and he said on one condition, and that is to greet everyone he knows at the village of Pinar, which was the village chief and the only doctor there. I am so happy because my father agreed so I quickly rented a horse and went on to Pinar. But when I am on my way to Pinar, I always feel that something is watching me. Luckily, I didn¡¯t meet any bandit or monster. After arriving at Pinar, I rented a room in the nearby inn and went to the village chief¡¯s house first since it is just a straight road ahead from where the inn was. Then after visiting the village chief, I went to the adventurer¡¯s guild. On the way, I saw this man who seems to be an adventurer. He¡¯s wearing leather armor and on his waist, his sword could be seen. Strangely, I felt something familiar from the man, he¡¯s like father. His hair and eyes are black, he have a good looking face that somehow resemble my father. I tried to ignore him but he suddenly said my name in a low tone. ¡®Do I know him?¡¯ Is the question that first appeared on my head so I ask him if we met before but we he denied it. Well, even though how hard I think, I can¡¯t remember him. He said that he muttered the name of someone he knew but I think my name is pretty unique. So far, I haven¡¯t met someone with the same name. Well, the world is big so I just apologized to the man while bowing my head. My mother said that I need to be polite at someone who is older than me. After apologizing, I went to the adventurer¡¯s guild to ask about Lupos. The guild here seems to be quite lively. Although there isn¡¯t so much crowd here but the every adventurer was drinking alcohols and eating as if there is a feast. I only drank an alcohol once, and that was when I become a silver-rank adventurer. Well, after one cup, I got drunk. I am weak at alcohol. While making my way to the receptionist, who is smiling from ears to ears, I heard some words that pique my interest. It is the name of ¡°Jasper¡±. Maybe it was a different person but I tried to listen on what I can under this rowdy tavern. When I arrived at the front of the receptionist, I asked if Lupos already appeared. Sadly, it already appeared so I miss my chance to see that black circle. I hang down my shoulders due to disappointment but the receptionist told me that it was also subjugated. I think that it was natural since there are some silver-rank adventurers here but what surprised me was the one who subjugated Lupos was two bronze-rank adventurer and more than that, they just registered for just a few days. Due to my surprise, I asked the receptionist if I can know the name of these two bronze-rank. I got a feeling that, that ¡°Jasper¡± was the one who subjugated it since his name was constantly being said here and there. The receptionist told me the name which really surprised me. The one was a Jack-of-all-Trade Gino Cruz, I thought that he was a noble but the receptionist told me that they aren¡¯t even though they have a family name. ¡®So he is like me¡­ Wait, maybe he is like my father, another summoned human from another world.¡¯ That isn¡¯t what surprised me but what comes next. The other one was Jasper Perez, an archer. This really surprised me! If it was Jasper Perez, then there is a chance that it was my brother! But I slightly ridiculed my father¡¯s family in my heart, why did his family got summoned here 3 times in a row now. First is grandfather, second is father, and now is my older brother. I asked the receptionist about the whereabouts of this Jasper Perez. She happily replied that he was currently staying at the house of Fernando, the only doctor in this village and also my father¡¯s friend. I got a little excited on going on that house now. After asking for direction and saying my thanks at the receptionist, I quickly ran towards the house of Fernando. I am praying that this Jasper Perez is really my older brother! Chapter 11 – Little Sister(2) Jasper¡¯s P.O.V I am inside the clinic and currently telling Gino that I saw someone who resembles my dream world little sister. Hearing that, he just laughed and said. ¡°You know that this is another world right? There¡¯s a possibility that there is someone who looks like your father and married a woman who looks like your mother and instead of having a son, they get a daughter. Just like Kaezar, she have someone who resemble her to the point that you are confused. Maybe that girl is the ¡®you¡¯ in this world.¡± Actually, I also think that it¡¯s like that. The Kaezar from the previous world have someone who resemble her in here, and that is also named as Kaezar. Maybe in my case, it would be a girl me instead. ¡°Well it doesn¡¯t matter, as long as she¡¯s cute I¡¯ll make some moves on her.¡± Hearing this really surprised me. Gino didn¡¯t show any interest on girls back then¡­ No, he always hides his interest about them. Whenever he sees Jeziel, he acts as if he didn¡¯t like her or he didn¡¯t have any interest on her. Actually, there are sometimes that I thought that he is a gay but after hearing what he said back at the Lupos incident, I am confident to say that he¡¯s not a gay¡­. probably. ¡°You have someone you like right?¡± I reminded him about Jeziel. ¡°Well, you know, this is a different world. I can ¡®play¡¯ as much as I want. Though I know that no one will be willing to play with me.¡± The last line was said in a low voice. I¡¯ll just pretend that I didn¡¯t hear it. This is the first time I heard something like this from him. I mean, back then he always has this confident tone but the last line sounded someone who doesn¡¯t have a confident. Actually, his looks are pretty normal, have a good personality and his patience is as big as the world(as long as that person is someone he knows). But the only downside I can think of is, he¡¯s fucking lazy. Due to his laziness, his body become covered with fat and there is a time that our friend, Marc, told him to get rid of his fat and Gino¡¯s reply was this: ¡°I love my muscle so much that I protected it with my fat! My fat is equivalent to my armor! And besides, eating is quite fun!¡± He said that with a serious expression. But he¡¯s not someone NGSB (No Girlfriend Since Birth). He actually managed to get at least 1 girl in his life. Back then when he¡¯s in a relationship with the said girl, even though he¡¯s playing the Leag*e of L*gends, a game that needs your full concentration to trash-talk I mean, to play. He still manages to call his girl while playing and at the same time, flirting with her. Suddenly, a knock can be heard coming from the door. Fernando, also known as doctor and Kaezar¡¯s father, entered the room with the dream-world-little-sister. ¡°Dude it¡¯s her.¡± I whispered at Gino who immediately look towards the two. ¡°She looks like you dude.¡± Gino whispered back. She looks like me? I look at the girl¡¯s face but I can¡¯t really see anything resemblance. Maybe his eyes are getting bad now. ¡°Gino, can I have a moment with Jasper?¡± Fernando said to Gino. The girl looks at me and smiled. ¡°Ah yeah sure¡­ But can I ask who¡¯s the girl behind you?¡± ¡°Ah, she¡¯s Skyla. Skyla that man who¡¯s on the bed is Gino, Jasper¡¯s friend and companion.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you Gino, I am Skyla Perez, daughter of Percival Perez and Elizabeth, a magician. And maybe, Jasper¡¯s little sister.¡± Her introduction surprised me, not only me but also Gino. Seeing Fernando expression which says that it¡¯s expected for us to be surprised, he knows about it. Yet, why he didn¡¯t tell me that before? Is she really my little sister? ¡°Sorry for keeping it a secret, but I didn¡¯t want to stick my nose with someone else problem, especially if its family matters.¡± His right, leave the other family¡¯s matter to their self. I scratched head and introduced myself. But how should I do it? Maybe I¡¯ll just copy her since Fernando didn¡¯t make a fuss about it. Maybe that was how someone introduce himself/herself in this world. ¡°I am Jasper Perez, son of Percival Perez and Catherine Perez, an archer.¡± After telling my introduction, the girl seems to be really quite delighted hearing it. ¡°As I thought! You¡¯re my big brother! Kuya Jasper!¡± [Note: Kuya is prefix used in the Filipino language (Tagalog) which means ¡°big brother¡±. It can also be used to address someone who¡¯s older than you as long as they are male.] ¡°Kuya? Where did you learn it? More importantly, we don¡¯t really know if I am your older brother. Even if we have the same family name, it doesn¡¯t mean that we are siblings.¡± Kuya is a Filipino word. In this kingdom, the spoken language is [Zoe]. It is the same with English and also the written language is also in English. So how did she know some Filipino words? I guess that there are 3 possibilities on how she learned that. First is by her parents, her father to be precise. Percival Perez is the name of my father but he died on an accident when I was just 3 years old, or he was transported here by that time. The second is by her companions in the past. Let¡¯s assume that there are other Filipinos who got transported here, then it isn¡¯t weird for her to learn some words from them. Third is there is a country out there with similar language as the Philippines. The world is too big so it isn¡¯t strange if it has too many languages. But the one who have the highest chances of being the truth is the first one. I learned that my father is still alive in this world. So maybe she really is my little sister. ¡°Hmm?? Kuya Jasper is the son of father right? And father said that Kuya is the term for big brother in their previous world.¡± Hearing her answer, maybe he really is my father. But back then it isn¡¯t weird for someone to have the same name, Percival isn¡¯t that common but at the same time, it is not rare. Maybe he¡¯s one of my father¡¯s relative that I didn¡¯t know. So assuming that, I can¡¯t be sure that this ¡®Percival Perez¡¯ is my father. Even when Fernando told me about him, at first I believed it but after thinking about it carefully, there¡¯s a chance that man is not my father. Well, there¡¯s no point on thinking about this matter right now. I can only be sure if I meet the concerned person. ¡°Hey hey Jasper, isn¡¯t this a weird. You actually met someone from your dream in real life, even though it¡¯s the different world, you actually met her.¡± Gino whispered to me. Actually, it creep me out. Sometimes, there are some content of my dream that became true. ¡°We are not sure if she really is my little sister. Percival isn¡¯t a unique name, and there are too many Perez in the Philippines. So we really can¡¯t say that she is my little sister.¡± I whisper back to him. He nodded and said. ¡°That¡¯s true. But isn¡¯t it weird? You met someone with the same name and background from your dream. If she isn¡¯t your little sister, then maybe she¡¯s your destined one?¡± Gino is now grinning. I wanted to punch him right now but he¡¯s like that. I am used to it now. Also there is someone I love. It¡¯s Kaezar from the previous world. So I don¡¯t need this kind of encounter. ¡°You know that there is some I love right? And if I will going to fall in-love here, the biggest candidate would be Kaezar.¡± As if hearing our whispers, Fernando glared at me. It feel likes he¡¯s going to kill me with his glare. Is this what they call ¡°Killing Intent¡±? ¡°*Ahem*.. Anyways, you can call me Kuya since I am older than you but let me clarify this. We are not sure that I am your older brother. As long as I don¡¯t see my father directly, I won¡¯t believe you.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Okay then let¡¯s now go to the Linabanan! There, you will meet father and grandfather and you can confirm that I am really your little sister!¡± (Skyla) I said those words so because I don¡¯t want her to think that I am SURELY her brother but.. I didn¡¯t expect her answer. She¡¯s saying that we must go to Linabanan and meet her father and grandfather. And where is that Linabanan? Is that the royal capital? Why is the name of the royal capital the same where my hometown (Libmanan) got its name? Please don¡¯t tell me that the name of the King is Handiong. ¡°Not now okay? Maybe in the near future but not now. I still need to express my gratitude to Fernando and his family. So traveling to the royal capital needs to wait.¡± It¡¯s one of the traits of Filipinos called ¡°pagtanaw ng utang na loob¡±. It means that receiving a good will must also be paid by goodwill. I am indebted to Fernando¡¯s goodwill so before I leave Pinar, I¡¯ll make sure that everything is settled. It¡¯s not because of Kaezar okay? The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°When would that happen?¡± Skyla asked me. ¡°I think after I paid all the goodwill we received from Fernando¡¯s family.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Jasper. You can pay that ¡®goodwill¡¯ if ever we went to the capital. So you don¡¯t need to hold back and go to your father.¡± Fernando tells me while emitting bloodlust. I don¡¯t know what I have done to deserve this kind of treatment. He doesn¡¯t treat other people like this. He even treats Gino kindly yet why is he cold with me. ¡°No no.. It will make me shameless when I didn¡¯t return all the goodwill you¡¯ve given us.¡± I said to him with a polite tone. I don¡¯t want to make our relationship worsen than this. Instead of rebutting me, he just smiled. He is smiling yet there¡¯s only hostility on his eyes. ¡°In that case! Why don¡¯t you help me with my research Kuya Jasper!¡± Skyla suggested to me. ¡°And what is the content of that research?¡± I asked since agreeing on something you don¡¯t know will only cause you troubles. ¡°It¡¯s ¡®transportation using magic¡¯! For short term goal, I am aiming on developing of instant transportation from town to town and for long term, it¡¯s connecting two world so you can freely come and go as you wanted!¡± Basing on her statement, there is no teleportation in this world. Just like the previous world but the latter part really worried me. If she succeeded in her long term goal then it will create conflict on both worlds. Especially in mine. Since this world¡¯s science didn¡¯t develop that much, there are too many natural resources to be taken. If a single country obtained knowledge about this world, this world¡¯s resources will be abused. And if other country knows about it, it might become the cause of World War III. Don¡¯t misunderstand me okay? This is based on the anime G*te. It¡¯s a very dangerous goal but how can I tell it to a girl with glittering eyes as she told about her research. This is hard. ¡°It seems good. Certainly, if you successfully created that instant transportation then it will be good but the latter seems to be difficult to achieve and we might not be able to do it in this lifetime, but it might become useful to the future generations.¡± Hearing my reaction, she smiled from her heart. ¡°Then does that mean that you will help me with it?¡± She asked. I don¡¯t know why she asked this question. Can¡¯t she tell that I will support her? ¡°Of course.¡± I said while smiling. She suddenly run towards me and give me a hug. ¡°Thank you Kuya! You¡¯re the best!¡± Being hugged by a girl is really nice~ But suddenly the air became colder. I feel a strong killing intent. It is 10x stronger than Fernando¡¯s killing intent. I look around to find the source of it and there I saw it. A demon with six-arms holding different weapon on each one. It have three face, one is the personification of anger, the second is the personification of hatred and the last one is the personification of jealousy. The demon is glaring straight at me, no it¡¯s glaring at the girl who is hugging me. In front of it stood a single girl and that girl is Kaezar. She¡¯s smiling but her eyes aren¡¯t. She looks at Skyla as if she killed every important person to her. I quickly separated on Skyla and the demon disappeared in the thin air. But her eyes didn¡¯t change. It¡¯s still locked at Skyla with a clear intent to kill her. It¡¯s scary! She comes closer to her father and said. ¡°You¡¯re already here Jasper. Sorry I didn¡¯t notice. But can you introduce me to her.¡± I feel every part of my body wanted to run when she shifted her sight from Skyla to me. ¡°Uhmm.. You see.. This is Skyla Perez, my younger sister¡­. probably.¡± ¡°What¡¯s up with that vague introduction?! I am your younger sister and there is no doubt about it!¡± Skyla, who didn¡¯t notice that her life was in danger a moment ago, shouted. ¡°Well, it¡¯s the truth right? We are not sure if we are really siblings in the first place.¡± ¡°But we have the same father!¡± ¡°The same name of father to be precise.¡± ¡°Grrr¡­ Father told me that I have a big brother on his previous world and his name is Jasper Perez!¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a coincidence. I am not the only one with the name of Jasper and have a family name of Perez.¡± ¡°IT ISN¡¯T A COINCIDENCE! YOU REALLY ARE MY BROTHER!!!!¡± I think Skyla snapped. Her shouts now are louder. ¡°You know, I think it will be not the right time to tell you this but Jasper, Skyla is like the 15 years old Jasper.¡± Gino interrupted our talk and said something absurd. ¡°I am not as shameless as that.¡± ¡°No no.. Back then whenever you let your emotion took control, it¡¯s like that. You shouts louder and louder and louder as if you wanted the whole world to know about your point.¡± Now that I think about it, there really is an incident back then when I shouted with everything I got. It¡¯s supposed to be a secret. I already buried it in my memory as my dark past. Even if the world falls apart, I won¡¯t the content of that past! NEVER! ¡°Really?! I am like Kuya Jasper when he is 15 years old! Tell me more about it!¡± At that point, I saw the expression of Gino. It is the expression I really hate. He only shows that kind of expression when he¡¯s going to blackmail someone using their weakness and right now, the victim is me. ¡°Now, what should I do? Should I tell her or not. Please tell Ku-ya Jas-per~¡± And of course! He said it while grinning and purposely looking at me! Skyla looks at me with pleading eyes saying that ¡°Just a little. I wanted to know about you.¡± Even if Kaezar look at me with those eyes, I won¡¯t allow Gino to tell it! ¡°Nope. Don¡¯t you dare!¡± ¡°Hohohoho. It seems that you don¡¯t know your position now mister. I am the one who will decide if I¡¯m going to tell her or not. You just need to deal with the aftermath but it all depends on your effort. Right now, my throat seems to be sore. I want to drink water.¡± While blackmailing me about my dark past, he indirectly commanded me to fetch her a glass of water. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You know me and my methods. As long as you don¡¯t disobey my orders I won¡¯t talk.¡± This guy¡­ I swear I¡¯ll have my revenge! I run towards the dining room, get some water and give it to him. ¡°Good work mister. For now, I am satisfied with this but I am looking forward to your ¡®service¡¯ later.¡± Once this guy holds something that he can use against you, he will surely make us of it to the fullest. The only way to counter him is that either you find a his weakness with the same value as yours or if you didn¡¯t care about that dirt now. But the latter part will be impossible to achieve. I won¡¯t let anyone know about my dark past and I will take that to the grave! [Note: Sorry for late updates and expect that the next update will also be late. I am busy now since i am on my OJT year. And Thank you all for reading this novel even if the update is too slow.] Chapter 12 – Research and Attack After getting toyed by Gino, we decided to do Skyla¡¯s research tomorrow. I am really tired right now and I wanted to rest. But the self-proclaimed little sister (although her claims have a chance of being true) said that I should accompany her since I already said yes but I told her that I want to rest because of the fight. She reluctantly agreed and told me that ¡°Tomorrow! You¡¯ll accompany me to the place where Lupos spawned!¡± and left with Fernando and Kaezar. Gino fell asleep before I knew it so I decided to rest too. Now then, I got a feeling that tomorrow will be as hectic as today so good night. - - - Time really flies when you¡¯re asleep. I remember closing my eyes while lying down on my bed and by the time I opened it, it¡¯s already another day. I feel refreshed after sleeping for so long and started to stretch my body, wash my face, eat breakfast and now here I am, fully geared with Gino and Skyla. As promised, we are now entering the forest to go back to where I fought with Lupos. I already saw the corpse on village but I wonder if they saw the corpses of the Orcs. While on the way, Skyla asked a bunch of question about the previous world and I answered her. Gino was just silently listening to our conversation while keeping vigilant about our surroundings. Well, we are inside of the forest after all. We reached the spawn point but the only thing you could see is the result of the battle. There are some trees that have a cut mark on it; there are some that are broken and dried blood on the grasses. Strangely, the orcs corpses were nowhere to be found. Maybe their kin took the corpses for proper burial. ¡°So this is where we found Lupos.¡± I pointed at the broken tree. Back then, Lupos swung its arm against the orc there and the tree got caught up of that attack resulting to this scene. Skyla slowly approaches the fallen tree. I don¡¯t know why she act like that because there¡¯s clearly nothing there except the tree. ¡°So Lupos is really strong. To break something this thick..¡± Skyla inspected the fallen tree while muttering this but Gino tapped my shoulder and whispers. ¡°The forest is strange. Back then, there will be too many annoying goblins jumping over the bushes here and there but now¡­ there isn¡¯t any.¡± ¡°Is that so? I think that the goblin got scared because of the fight.¡± I replied in a low tone while watching Skyla doing her investigation. Skyla take out a test tube on her bag and put something on it. She looks like a high school student doing some experiment on her science class. ¡°Not only that, even the corpses of the orcs isn¡¯t here. There isn¡¯t a sign of something buried around here. If this is a game then monster corpses would disappear after a awhile but this isn¡¯t a game¡­ Even goblin¡¯s corpse didn¡¯t disappear after an hour.¡± Gino whispered to my ears again. ¡°Maybe their fellow orc collected the corpses.¡± ¡°Maybe but still, it doesn¡¯t feel right. My intuition is telling me that something is happening.¡± Getting worried because his intuition told him so¡­ This guy is really like this. Even back then, he trusts his intuition more than what we are saying and most of his action while following his intuition is correct but it doesn¡¯t mean that it is always correct. There are also some failures and most of it became a very big problem. ¡°It¡¯s just your imagination. There¡¯s nothing strange in the forest.¡± When I said those words, I never knew that following Gino¡¯s intuition is the right choice. - - - Kaezar¡¯s P.O.V (Current World) I waved my hand and smiled as I see them Jasper and others off. Just like what I did yesterday, I smiled and waved my hand. ¡°I hope nothing bad will happen today..¡± I muttered to myself. Yesterday, they fought Lupos which is one of the strongest in this area. I got really worried when I heard that Lupos spawned and Jasper and Gino isn¡¯t back yet. One of the people who reported it is being treated on our clinic. His left hands and legs got torn off. He almost died because of it but father managed to save him. His comrades said that there were some explorers that got left behind them. I don¡¯t know why but when I heard it, I involuntarily grasp his shoulders and ask. ¡°D-do they have a shield user and an archer?¡± I asked him in trembling voice. He went silent for a moment and tried to remember their appearance. Even though he spoke again after 10 seconds or so but for me, it¡¯s like his thinking for an hour or so¡­ And also at that time, I felt a sharp pain on my chest. Probably because of my illness but I ignored it. Jasper¡¯s safety is much more important than this little pain. Then, he nodded. I almost faint because of it but I managed to remain conscious. I silently prayed to Gods that he is safe while enduring the pain I am feeling on my chest. After a while, one adventurer slammed the door open and said that there are two more people who are injured. I quickly ran towards the village square and there I saw an archer supporting Jasper with his shoulder. I ran towards them¡­ I ignored the sharp pain in my chest and run. I wanted to hug him and asked him if his okay but my hand suddenly moved as if it has its own mind. SLAP!!!! I slapped the weakened Jasper in her cheeks and he looks at me dumbfounded. I started to scold him and he just sits there and stares at me. After that, we went to the clinic. The people inside is lesser before I go out. When father saw Gino, he immediately started to treat Gino while I scold Jasper in the background. In the afternoon, a girl named Skyla came to our house. This girl is the daughter of uncle Percival, supposedly Jasper¡¯s father. She¡¯s asking if she can stay here until her research about ¡®teleportation¡¯ finished. I asked her since I don¡¯t know what teleportation is and she said that it is a spell that can relocate things without carrying it. I am amazed by her but father told her that it is impossible. Even the state magicians with the backing of the king can¡¯t make it but the Skyla said that she will definitely make the spell. Father sighed and let her stay here and then, I heard someone entered the clinic. It may be Jasper. Surprisingly, Jasper denied that he is Skyla¡¯s brother even though they look like each other. I imagined Jasper grown his hair to his waist and wear women¡¯s clothes¡­ He looks like Skyla. Anyways, we are back to the beginning. My chest hurt so badly. I lean on the wall and grasp my chest. Sweats drip down from my forehead and I feel like I will collapse if I relaxed my feet even for a moment. Slowly, I went to the clinic and there I saw my father. My father panicked when he saw me holding my chest so I tried my best to smile and tell him that I am okay. He led me to my room and let me rest. My sickness seems to be worsening as the day passed by. I wonder if I will live long enough to be a mother. It would be good if I can. I want to take care of my child while my husband is working. I want to take care of my husband when he came back from work. He will surely be tired but I will take care of him. Suddenly, Jasper¡¯s face surfaced on my mind. His face replaced the future husband on my imagination. He would pat our child¡¯s head while he went out for his work then when he came back, he would kiss me and tell me that the dishes I cook are delicious and at night¡­ No no¡­ I must not think about those things¡­ But it would be good if Jasper and I ended up a couple¡­Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I cover my face with my hands due to embarrassment. I am embarrassed due to my imagination. I don¡¯t know why but when I think of Jasper, my heart beats fast and the pain will subside. Is this what they call ¡®love¡¯? - - - I am resting on my room when I heard screams outside. ¡°The Orcs are here! They¡¯re invading!¡± ¡°Run! Call the adventurers!¡± ¡°Mommy!!¡± ¡°Lilia!! Where are you?! Lilia!!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t¡­.. P-please!! Spare me¡ª gyaah!¡± Screams asking for help and pleading for their lives could be heard across the village. The Orcs invaded! This is the first time it happened on our village but I heard that some village was also attacked at the past too. I struggled to stand up and went to the clinic where my father is, but it seems that I don¡¯t have enough strength to walk. The moment I put my weight on my feet, I fell down on the floor. Then my chest hurts once more. It hurts like my heart is being grasp with someone¡¯s hand. But despite of that, I endured and crawl towards the clinic. The orcs are invading and I don¡¯t know where my father is! Father is weak at combat and that also goes to me but I can¡¯t simply let my father die! I am going to where he was. Even though I know that I will just be a burden, I dragged my weakened body. Even though I know that I will die if I went there, I can¡¯t leave my father alone. And besides, even if I don¡¯t do anything and lay down on my bead or even if I evacuate, I know that I will end up dying because of my sickness. I don¡¯t feel that I will be leaving any longer. I crawled as fast as I can while the face of my father floats up in my mind. He is smiling towards me but behind him, there were Orcs raising their glaive, preparing to slash my father. I shook my head to shake off the ominous image in my head, and crawled a little faster. I need to crawl faster. Even for a moment, I need to crawl faster. I need to get there even for a moment faster. For the sake of seeing my father once again, for the sake of seeing that smile again. I need to crawl faster! I prayed to God to keep him safe and I hope that the orcs are still not here. If they weren¡¯t here yet, then we can run away from them. Or at least my father can run away from them. I don¡¯t want to see my father die! For that reason, I did my best to increase my speed. ¡°F-father!!¡± I finally arrived at the clinic¡¯s door and called for my father. The door that I always open without second thought seems to be too heavy right now. Behind this, I might see my father¡¯s corpse, or I might see my father preparing to leave. I prayed once again to God that the latter will be true. On the other side of the door, I heard some footsteps. Some of them are running and sometimes, I heard weapons clashing at each other. I pushed the door with all my remaining strength to open it and what welcomes me is the corpse of my father. His lying on his chest, his hand was reaching for the door as if he doesn¡¯t want it to be opened and his face was painted with despair. His mouth and eyes are still open and trails of tears could be seen on his cheeks. On his back, there is a 3ft tall green man with a dagger-like weapon on its hand. It repeatedly stabbing the back of my father and every time it pulled it¡¯s dagger out, red blood splatters everywhere. Behind it, there is an orc carrying a female patient on its shoulder. The goblin stabbed my father over and over again. Blood splatter everywhere when it pulled it¡¯s dagger out of my father¡¯s back. I wanted to shout but no voice came out. I wanted to kill the goblin but I know that I can¡¯t. I wanted to believe that this is just one of the trials of God but right now, I know¡­ Gods doesn¡¯t exist. If God exist then he will not allowed those orcs to invade our village. If God exist then he will protect our family. If God exist then he will not let my father die. But He didn¡¯t protect our village. But He didn¡¯t protect our family. But He let my father die. So I¡¯ll say this again¡­ GOD DOESN¡¯T EXIST. ¡°F-f-father¡­¡± I reached out my hand and grasped my father¡¯s hand. It is cold but the blisters he got when he is working for the medicine. His blistered warm hands are now cold. The hand that take care of me. The hand that support this village on his own way. The hand that is good at taking care of others is now cold. The goblin noticed me and stands up. Its dagger has my father¡¯s blood dripping on its edge. The goblin is smirking and slowly walking towards me. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. ¡®Ahh¡­ I hope Jasper is safe.¡¯ Tears fall down as the goblin comes nearer and nearer. ¡®I should have realized sooner that I love him¡¯ I heard the sound of dagger cutting through the wind and I braced myself to be cut. . .. ¡­ ¡­. But it didn¡¯t happen. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the goblin, the arm that holding the dagger is still on the air. It¡¯s face distorted due to pain and I can see a blade that cut through its chest. ¡°Kaezar! Are you okay!?¡± A female voice that I can easily recognize called out to me. It came from my childhood friend who became an adventurer. ¡°Jeziel!¡± - - - Jasper¡¯s P.O.V Skyla is still diggin- I mean investigating the site while Gino is looking for something around the bushes. And here I am, getting bored about what is happening right now. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!¡± Gino suddenly shouted and he disappeared near the bush. I immediately readied my bow and Skyla raised her staff but the idiot came out of the bush smiling happily. ¡°Huh? Are you already done Skyla?¡± Gino asked Skyla while opening a pack of cigarette¡­ Wait¡­ ¡°Where did you get that?¡± I asked since I am also a smoker. I am quite surprise on myself that I hold up not smoking all this time. Back then, I asked Fernando ¡°Where can I buy cigarettes?¡± and he said that there is no cigarette in this remote village maybe in the royal capital they have it. Gino pointed on the bush and said. ¡°It is under that bush and guess what? I also found this!¡± Then he pulled something from the bush. It¡¯s a black bag. Wait¡­ Isn¡¯t that his bag? He opens his bag and show me its content. It has a laptop with charger, notebook, pencil case, and his wallet. If his bag is here, then it means that is also the case for mine right? ¡°And also catch this!¡± Gino throw another bag to me. I catch it because it looks familiar and on closer look it¡¯s my bag! I check if the inside is also there and yup, everything is here. ¡°Hey hey, Kuya Gino, what is that?¡± Skyla pointed at his bag. Well, it can¡¯t be help that she didn¡¯t know about it. After all, it came from our world. There is nothing like this here. ¡°Ahh, this is my bag on the previous world. It contains my soul so I¡¯m really grateful that I found it.¡± Gino said while hugging his bag tightly. He look like he is in heaven. While Skyla looks to be scared because of it. ¡°Other world¡¯s bag absorbs its user¡¯s soul¡­ Scary¡­¡± Skyla muttered but I think Gino¡¯s soul would be his laptop. Every file he needed is there after all. But suddenly, Gino¡¯s face becomes serious. ¡°Hey Jasper, that smoke is coming from the village right?¡± He pointed behind me so I naturally look back. He is pointing on the thick black smoke that can be seen even inside the forest. ¡°Yeah, it came from the village, they must be roasting Lupos¡¯ mea-¡° Wait¡­ If it¡¯s just roasting, then it will not produce that kind of smoke. We haven¡¯t seen any goblins here. There is a big group of orcs yesterday and now, I can¡¯t see even a single orc here. Don¡¯t tell me¡­ Gino suddenly run towards the direction where the village at and shouted. ¡°Jasper! I think the village is under attack! Let¡¯s come back quickly!¡± Hearing his shout, I also begun to run. Skyla looks confused but she also followed us. ¡°Hey, wait up!¡± Skyla shouted behind but we didn¡¯t slow down. ¡°Hey Gino, do you think that the orcs are attacking the village?¡± Not good! I imagined the orcs attacking the village and they killed everyone in there including Kaezar. I raised my speed and now I am running by Gino¡¯s side. ¡°I don¡¯t know! But I hope that a fire just broke out!¡± Gino look desperate while he said those words. I really do hope that¡¯s it is just a fire but if it¡¯s an attack¡­ My heart beats fast as I saw the figure of Kaezar being sliced by the orcs weapon. I feel a pain in my chest as I think about it. Not good! If the village is under attack, then I need to hurry up! I raised my speed even more and I am now leading the group. - - - We arrived at the end of the forest and there I saw orcs and goblins fighting some adventurers. The adventurers were outnumbered and a man from falls down and flocks of goblin finished him off. Due to it, the adventurer¡¯s formation collapsed and one by one, they are defeated. I pulled out an arrow and load it on my bow but before I can pull the string, Gino stopped me. ¡°Don¡¯t. If they knew that we are here, were doomed. Let¡¯s take this chance and go. I know that it is cruel to ignore them but we need to check if Kaezar are alright.¡± Damn¡­ He¡¯s right. Why didn¡¯t I notice it before? If I shot one of them, then the others will know that were at their back and after they deal with the adventurer, it will be our turn. ¡°So relax okay¡­ I know your princess is in big pinch but relax¡­ Don¡¯t panic, it will only cloud your thinking.¡± He said while he walk around the village finding a place where we can get inside without being noticed. ¡°Haa¡­ Haa¡­ W-what¡¯s the big deal with letting the magician run! You know that we are the type of person who study inside their houses right! So I am not that good at running.. Haa¡­ Haa¡­¡± Skyla finally catches up and she is breathing heavily. She inhaled deeply, and exhaled. She looks at the village entrance and saw the last surviving adventurer desperately trying to fight but in the end, he died. ¡°Wha- mmmmm!! Mmmm!!¡± Skyla almost shouted so I covered his mouth with my hand and said. ¡°Don¡¯t make too much noise, if they found out that we are here then were doomed.¡± Skyla nodded and Gino came back after walking around. ¡°Hey, I found some entrance, let¡¯s go.¡± Gino said and lead us towards the entrance he said. It is at the side of the village and it¡¯s near at Kaezar¡¯s house. We walked slowly so that we won¡¯t make any noise and there I saw the village girls with torn clothes and being raped by goblins and orcs. I imagined Kaezar getting raped and shit!! I tried to shot but Gino stopped me again. He come close to my ears and whispered. ¡°I know that you¡¯re really desperate to save Kaezar but endure it. Atleast, Kaezar isn¡¯t there. Come on, let¡¯s go there.¡± Gino pointed at the tavern/adventurer¡¯s guild. Somehow or another, the doors are closed which is normally opened. It is always open but now, it¡¯s closed or rather, barricaded. The door has signs of being slashed and pounded. I don¡¯t know why did Gino suggested to go there but we followed what he said. Personally, I wanted to go back to the clinic but we might encounter some enemies on the way and it will be very bad we got surrounded. We sneakily approached the guild and we heard some human sounds inside. ¡°Hey! Why are the orcs invading!?¡± ¡°Have you seen my daughter?¡± ¡°Father is still out there! Please! Rescue him!¡± ¡°What are you doing manager!? Contact the royal capital now!¡± Even though some of them are shouting, the orcs seems to ignore this building. Maybe they tried to forcefully entered but failed. But among the overlapping voices, I hear her voice. ¡°Jeziel! Please! Find Jasper and others! They are outside while the orcs attacked! They might still be safe so please! Find them!¡± ¡°You know that I can¡¯t! We barely managed to get in here, so I don¡¯t know if I can do it again.¡± ¡°But¡­.¡± Kaezar is pleading someone named as Jeziel inside to rescue us. ¡°I¡¯m glad that she¡¯s safe.¡± I feel relieved hearing her voice. Knowing she¡¯s alright made me relax but that didn¡¯t last long. A group of orcs carrying a log come near the door and begun to pound it using the log. *Boom* They repeatedly pound it and every time they did, cracks become visible to the door. ¡°Shit! At this rate, the door will break!¡± I shouted while I prepare my bow but it¡¯s already too late. The door shattered and the orcs rushed inside. ¡°We¡¯re too late! Come on!¡± Gino said while he charged inside. Skyla and I followed him inside. When we entered the tavern, the orcs are starting to kill everyone inside. There are few adventurers inside and all of them are occupied with the orcs but the orcs have the greater number so the other orcs who are not occupied by the adventurers started to kill the people who are panicking. I shot the arrow loaded in my bow and aiming at the neck of the orc who is attacking the panicked people. My arrow hit its mark and the orc fell. I prepared another shot but then, an ice-made spear flew towards another orc. The ice pierced the orc¡¯s head killing it. ¡°Oh ice! I order you to pierce my enemy! [Ice Lance]¡± Skyla used magic spell [Ice Lance]. A magic circle appeared on the tip of her wand and then she pointed it towards another orc. Upon confirming its target, an ice-made spear flew out of the magic circle piercing the orcs head. I stare at her staff dumbfounded since this is the first time I saw someone use magic. Of course I can use magic too but what I know are support-type magic so this is the first time I saw attack magic. ¡°Hey! What are you doing Kuya Jasper! Shoot!¡± Skyla shouted to me which bring me back to reality. This isn¡¯t good, this isn¡¯t the time to appreciate those. I nocked another arrow and shoot it. While doing so, I heard some footsteps coming from behind so I turn my head to check what it is. 5 goblins are running towards here while brandishing their weapons. This is bad, if they managed to get near us then it will really be bad. There are also 2 orcs who noticed us so we really can¡¯t entertain those annoying goblins. ¡°Leave the rear to me, focus in the front!¡± Gino run to the entrance and prepare his defensive stance and planted the spear¡¯s blunted tip on the floor. As Gino said, Skyla and I focused on our front. We successfully killed the two orcs since they didn¡¯t seem to care even if we hit them. Does the orc really this stupid? ¡°None of you shall pass!¡± Gino shouted at the goblin who tried to enter the building. One of the goblin got pierced by Gino¡¯s spear and the others tried to break through Gino but ended up getting pierced by Gino¡¯s spear or pushed back by his shield. The tavern¡¯s entrance was big enough for two people to enter at the same time but Gino successfully blocked it by utilizing the reach of his spear. I shot another arrow and there I saw the thing that I never wanted to see. Kaezar is standing in front of the orc whose axe was covered with blood. On its feet, there is a woman lying down with a huge cut on its head. Kaezar¡¯s eyes stared at the woman¡¯s corpse ignoring the orc in front of her. The orc raises its axe and I tried to draw another arrow but my quiver is already empty. ¡®Why did I ran out of arrow at this time!¡¯ I cursed myself as I watch Kaezar got cut by the axe. The axe cut her diagonally from her right shoulder down to her waist. Blood poured out of the wound as she fell down. The time seems to slow down as I watch her fell. If I prioritize on finding her then this would not happen. If I have at least one arrow then this would not happen. If I didn¡¯t leave today then I could protect her from this. If I¡­ There are too many ¡°Ifs¡± in my head as I watch her fell down. Even though she fell, the orc swing down again its axe hitting Kaezar¡¯s body once more. I draw the sword on my waist and charge at the orc who¡¯s still hitting Kaezar¡¯s body. I ignore the shout of Skyla who tried to stop me or the other orc on my right. I don¡¯t care if I die here. I let her die! Even though I know that she¡¯s not the Kaezar I love, seeing her die hurts. Maybe because they have the same face and name¡­ No¡­ Even if they don¡¯t have the same face and name, seeing someone you know die in front of you hurts¡­ Much worse if you can¡¯t do anything about it¡­ I continue to run while the orc beside me raises its weapon. I don¡¯t know what kind of weapon did this orc carry but I think this will be my end. As the orc swings down its weapon, a spear pierced its right arm with its head. ¡°GET A FUCKING GRIP OF YOURSELF JASPER!!!!¡± Gino¡¯s shout dragged me back to reality. I pushed myself using the foot that is touching the ground, dashing straight to the orc who is busy hitting Kaezar¡¯s corpse. I point my sword towards its defenseless back. I am now imitating the Stinger move at DmC. I don¡¯t know why I imitated this move but I managed to pull it off. My sword pierced the back of the orc, and I quickly pulled it out then stab it once again. I repeated this, hitting different places of its back until it¡¯s full of holes. I stabbed it once last time then pushed it to the side. I let go of my sword and carried Kaezar¡¯s corpse on my arms. Her face got a huge cut and I can almost see her brains, her body got numerous cut all over and bones can be seen through it. What a heartless thing to do¡­ I tried to hold back my tears but I failed. Tries drops down on Kaezar¡¯s corpse as I wail. ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!¡± I shouted as I hug Kaezar¡¯s corpse tighter. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t manage to save you¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­ I¡­ didn¡¯t come on time¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± While hugging Kaezar¡¯s body, I kept on asking for her forgiveness. I¡¯m sorry. That is the only words I can say¡­ But... whatever I do, she¡¯s already dead¡­ No matter how I regret on my decision, I can¡¯t bring her back. The only thing I can do is to beg for her forgiveness. Suddenly, light envelops Kaezar¡¯s corpse, as well as the girl who have a huge cut on its face. The light is so bright that I can¡¯t see Kaezar¡¯s figure directly. I closed my eyes due to it and when it settled¡­ ¡°Eh? Sis? Is that¡­ you?¡± I heard the voice of Kaezar once more. Chapter 13 – Welcome to the Other World Kaezar¡¯s P.O.V (Previous world) ¡°It¡¯s already the fourth day since they disappeared. The police said this might be done by a group of terrorist and they are doing their best to find the whereabouts of the people inside the bus. Everyone inside the buss suddenly disappeared and there are no traces of them being there as if nobody was inside the said bus. Is this really a work of terrorist? Or is this a work of alien!¡± Read the full article at zzzzzzzz.com.ph - - - I am lying down on my bed surfing the net using my phone when I read an article about the incident back then. The accident grasped the interest of the internet people as they are talking about it everywhere. Even in 9g*g, t*mblr, r*ddit, f*cebook, tw*tter, or any other site. There are also some people that claimed that it is the work of alien, some said that it is a hoax, and even the other said that they got summoned to the parallel world. At first I got angry at what they said but now, I don¡¯t care about them. I just wanted to know where is Jasper. It¡¯s really difficult if you don¡¯t know what happen to someone you love. I think I¡¯m going crazy thinking about it. I close the browser application and open the gallery. There are 5 albums there entitled: [Selfies], [F*cebook], [Family], [School Related] and [Hang outs]. I pressed the [Hang outs] folder and browsed through it. There I saw many pictures. Pictures of me and my friends hanging out could be seen but I scrolled down since I am looking for a particular picture in this album. I tapped the thumbnail of a picture and the phone displayed its actual size. It¡¯s a picture of me with Jasper and our friends sitting on the beach. It is taken back last summer at our high school reunion and back then, it¡¯s really fun. Playing on the beach on day and on night singing while drinking some liquor. I never thought that a day like this will come. ¡°Where are you Jasper¡­¡± I muttered to myself as I look at Jasper¡¯s smiling face at my phone. I covered my eyes with my arm and put down the phone to my chest. By doing so, I wiped my tears who are about to fall. ¡°I miss you¡­ Please God, bring him back or take me with him¡­¡± Suddenly, my vision become black and the surrounding become dead silent. The bed where I am lying down disappeared and I am falling down. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!¡± I screamed and prepare myself to fall down to the floor. I don¡¯t know what is happening! Why did suddenly become dark! Why did it suddenly become silent! What happened to my bed! WHAT IS HAPPENING!!! I closed my eyes and tightly hold on my phone. Even though my bed isn¡¯t that high, I feel like I am falling down from a high place. Then suddenly, it feel like I am on someone¡¯s arms. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Jasper carrying me while crying. His eyes are close as if it got blinded by a bright light. Then he slowly opened it and he seems to be surprised to see me. ¡°Eh? Sis? Is that¡­ you?¡± I raise my hand to touch his cheeks but I stop and hesitate. I don¡¯t know if this is a dream or what, but I am afraid¡­ If I touch him now, he might disappear. If this is a dream, please don¡¯t wake me up. ¡°Kaezar¡­ Kaezar¡­ Kaezar!!!¡± Jasper suddenly hugs me. I feel his warmth as he hugs me. He somewhat smell of blood but I hug him back. He didn¡¯t disappear. It seems that my fear is baseless. ¡°Jasper¡­ Thank goodness¡­ I really missed you¡­ Please don¡¯t leave me again¡­¡± Tears begin to fall down from my eyes as I said those words. Ahhh... This dream is really nice¡­ Even though I know that I will wake up when morning comes, just being hugged by him is enough. This way, my loneliness will be reduced by a small amount. Jasper hugs me tighter and I can feel my shoulder become soak by his tears. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t make it in time¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­ that you experienced death once¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Jasper apologizes too many times to me but I don¡¯t get it¡­ What does he mean ¡®experienced death once¡¯? ¡°What do you mean? Sis¡­ Are you okay? I didn¡¯t die okay?¡± As I muttered those words, Jasper separated his body and look at my eyes. ¡°Ehh? Sis?¡± What is he doing I wonder? I am right in front of him yet he looks like he can¡¯t believe it. ¡°Yes Sis? Are you okay?¡± I put my hand on his forehead to check if he have a fever but his temperature is about normal. ¡°I mean you¡¯re Kaezar from earth?¡± He asks while looking dumfounded. ¡°What are you saying? Do you think there is another Kaezar at Mars?¡± I said jokingly but he hugs me again and this time it¡¯s tighter than before. ¡°Seriously sis.. Are you okay?¡± I asked him once again since he¡¯s really weird. Well, they said that dreams are weird in the first place. I surveyed our surroundings and found out that we are inside a building made of wood. A thick smell of blood can be smelled and there are some blood stains on the wall. What kind of dream is this? Is this a nightmare perhaps? But even nightmare is comforting when you have someone you love in your side. ¡°KYAAAAAAA!¡± Somebody shouted behind me so Jasper once again separates with me. I look at my back and there I saw that there are too many corpses around us. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!¡± This time, I am the one who shouted. I mean, anyone will shout if they suddenly saw something this horrifying. There is too many human corpses around and they looks like they are killed using a sharp object. There are also some green muscular humanoid corpses around with arrows and stalactite-like ice buried in their heads or necks. There are only 5 humans alive inside. Me, Jasper, a girl with a pony-tailed hair wearing something like an armor, a girl wearing a robe that looks like a girl Jasper, and a fat guy who is one of Jasper¡¯s friend holding a shield on his left hand.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°J-j-j-jasper w-what happened here?¡± I clutched Jasper¡¯s clothes but it felt hard for some reason. When I look at it, it is an armor made of animal leather. This armor looks the same with the hallucination of Jasper I often see. No, something is different. He¡¯s wearing a red cloak made of fur and it¡¯s hood look like a bear¡¯s head. Seriously, what¡¯s up with this dream!! First, making me glad that I see Jasper but now it¡¯s scaring me to the bone. They also say that dreams come from our memory but I never see something like this! This brutality, I can¡¯t take it! Jasper¡¯s friend casually walks towards a green muscular humanoid corpse and pulled out the spear that pierced its arm and head. ¡°Jasper! Are you okay?¡± He asked Jasper if he¡¯s okay but he didn¡¯t even consider if I¡¯m alright. He¡¯s expression stiffen when he saw the girl who screamed first. ¡°Jeziel? Jeziel Abella?¡± ¡°Eh? Gino is that you?¡± I didn¡¯t bother to listen and focus my attention to Jasper. Just to be clear okay? I am not focusing on him because of I don¡¯t care what is happening on my surroundings as long as I am with Jasper but I am focusing my attention to him since I don¡¯t want to see any more of this nightmare. And besides, this is a dream! At least let me do this much!! ¡°Uhmm.. Sorry for interrupting your reunion but¡­ I don¡¯t quite get what is happening right now so please somebody explain this to me.¡± The Jasper look-alike girl timidly raises her hand and asks for explanation. ¡°You see¡­ Skyla, this girl that I am hugging right now is Kaezar Padilla, a person from the same world as I am. And I think she got transported here just like us.¡± So her name is Skyla. It¡¯s a good name. ¡°OOOH!!! A transportation occurred in front of me! But too bad I didn¡¯t see it clearly due to the intense light.¡± Wait¡­ Did Jasper just said ¡®transported¡¯? So are you telling me that I, who is looking at Jasper¡¯s picture, got transported to somewhere? That this isn¡¯t Earth? That this is not a dream but reality? As if!! It can¡¯t be true! Well, I do watch some fantasy movies before but it¡¯s just the fruit of imagination! It can¡¯t be true! ¡°You know, this is really a fantasy world. I know it is hard to believe it but it is true.¡± Jasper said while smiling wryly. Don¡¯t tell me that I said what I am thinking aloud¡­ Ahhh!!! This is embarrassing! I feel my face become hotter due to it. - - - Jasper¡¯s P.O.V - - Jasper¡¯s P.O.V Kaezar is covering her face with her hands and I can see her ears become red. It might be really embarrassing since she practically screamed out what she¡¯s thinking. I don¡¯t know what happened but Kaezar¡¯s appeared while the other one died. And she¡¯s wearing the clothes of the previous one and it is really troublesome to look since there are some big rips on it. And I learned something new in this world, brassiere doesn¡¯t exist! I don¡¯t need to say what I can see from here right? I mean it¡¯s quite embarrassing for a girl if someone from the opposite sex see it. If she noticed it, then I¡¯ll just say that I didn¡¯t see it. But really, I don¡¯t know if I am glad that she¡¯s her or not. In this world, monsters exist and they are there outside this tavern. I don¡¯t know if I can protect her from those. Even if she stays inside a house it is not safe since the monsters can easily invade a village or two. ¡°Kyaaaa!¡± Kaezar suddenly screamed while covering her body. Ahh. She noticed it. It¡¯s bad¡ªI mean it¡¯s good that she noticed it. It is hard to look at her because of that. ¡°Did you see it?¡± Kaezar¡¯s face is red as a tomato and on her eyes there are tears ready to fall down any moment. Of course I said that I didn¡¯t see it officially. ¡°Kuya Jasper! Kuya Jasper! The orcs are coming here! What should we do?¡± Skyla called my attention and she pointed at the door. There are ten orcs there and one of them has an armor and shield. Its weapon is axe and it is bigger than any other orcs that I have ever seen. ¡°Oh? To think that there are someone alive in here, five of them huh? You lot! Kill them! And leave the girls they¡¯re quite a beauty.¡± It appears to be the leader of the orcs. It gives order while looking at the girls while a lustful looks. I put aside Kaezar and picks up my sword. I don¡¯t know if I can fight well in close quarter combat but I don¡¯t have a choice. I readied my stance and Gino and Skyla follow suit. I look at Gino and Skyla and both of them have a strong resolve on their faces. I nodded at Gino and he intercepts the orcs. One of the orc tried to cut Gino but he uses his shield to block it and pierce another orc who tried to run past him. The orc is pierced on its head and fell. The other orc stop running but the leader shouted and the orc started to charge once again. I also charged at them and [Ice Lance] fly towards the orcs. One orc is hit on its knees forcing it to kneel down and Gino stab it ending its life. I don¡¯t know that Gino is this amazing, fighting one orc on front while stabbing another that tried to run past through him. The orc tried to surround Gino but I lounged myself on the other one. I stab its face while keeping my guard up. The other orc looks surprised by my sudden attack and some of them also focuses on me. I am now being surrounded by three orcs while Gino is fighting with two and the last one is running towards Skyla. It managed to run past Gino but I think it¡¯s not a problem since Skyla finished her chant and hit the neck of the orc that is running towards her. As if it is a signal, one of the three orcs attack but the orc¡¯s attack seems slow so I dodged it and cut its head. When I look at Gino, I understand that the orcs attack aren¡¯t slow but the time itself looks slow to me. I don¡¯t know if this is what they call adrenaline rush or what but with this, I think fighting two orcs at once is possible. As if responding to my thoughts the other two also attack, one of them raises its weapon overhead trying to cut me vertically while the other aims to cut me when I dodge. But that isn¡¯t a problem to me. I don¡¯t know what is happening since the time seems slow to me but I will take advantage of it. I slide to my right, where the other orc is waiting and duck as it swings its axe. I successfully dodged it and pushed myself up while pointing the edge of my sword towards the orc¡¯s chin. The orc didn¡¯t have the chance to block or dodge and got pierced by my sword. The sword pierced through its skull and you can see the edge on top of its head. The orc that swung down its mace tried to smash me together with its ally but I already pulled back my sword use it to block its attack. The attack is quite heavy and I got pushed back a bit. [Ice Lance] fly over my head aiming at the orc in front of me but the orc smash it to the ground. Taking advantage of its attack, I run towards it and the orc tried to raise its mace but I used it as a scaffold and jumps in the air. I hold my sword overhead and swung it down as I fall down to the ground. It hit the orc¡¯s head and cuts it into two down to it crotch. The orc fell while spurting blood all over me. I feel sick because of its smell but I ignored it. Looking at Gino, he managed to kill one of the orc that is attacking him but he has a cut on his legs. It isn¡¯t deep enough to obstruct his balance but a cut is a cut. I slip by his side and stab the orc¡¯s stomach while Gino smashed his shield on the orcs face. All the nine orcs was defeated but the leader has a huge grin on its face. ¡°This attack really worth it. I didn¡¯t think that I will find a strong party in here. I guess I¡¯ll enjoy fighting you guys.¡± It readied its stance with its shield facing us while hiding half of his body. I can only see its head, left shoulder and its feet since it is not being covered by its shield. This will be troublesome. Its weapon is completely hidden so I won¡¯t be able to predict what will be his move but anyways, we also readied our stance. Gino copied what the orc is doing while I bend my knees so that I can move easily and Skyla pointed her staff towards the orc. ¡°You aren¡¯t coming? Then allow me!¡± The orc run towards us but it is fast! I didn¡¯t know when he came in front of Gino but Gino responded to it a little bit late so he got pushed aside by the orcs shield. The charge didn¡¯t end there and the orc leader also tried to push me aside but I step back and tried to slash its head. The orc leader raises its shield intercepting my slash and I see its axe coming up from its right. I quickly withdraw and managed to dodge it but some of my hair got cut. Also, the wind generated by its attack is also strong which managed to make me flew back by a meter. I imagined myself getting hit by that attack and see myself flying in the air. ¡°That¡¯s dangerous¡­ I almost die!¡± I complained at the orc leader even though I know that we are fighting for our life here. ¡°Haha! If you are surprised by this, then you will not stand a chance on our lord!¡± The orc leader laughs while readying its stance once more. ¡°Oya? Your magician seems to passed out because of it. Can¡¯t be help since I am one of the strong orcs in our country. That is why I become a leader. Hahaha!¡± As the orc leader said, Skyla seems to pass out. I don¡¯t know why she did but it will be really troublesome if she can¡¯t fight. I look at Gino and he¡¯s slowly rising up but it seems that the damage is really great and I am surprised that he¡¯s still alive. Maybe thanks to his stats that he managed to survive. ¡°Looking at your shield bearer, he¡¯s lacking with fighting spirit! Some of the warrior I fought back then stands up instantly after getting hit by my shield. But, I am surprised by your move back then, not only you tried to attack me, but you managed to dodge my attack. May I know your name boy.¡± I don¡¯t know why but the orc leader is trying to have a talk with me but buying sometime until Gino raise up will be fine. Since if Gino stands up, it will be two versus one which we will have a greater chance of winning against this. ¡°I am Jasper. Jasper Perez.¡± I said my name while readying my stance once more. Gino managed to stand up but his knees are visibly shaking. ¡°A noble huh¡­ What are you doing in this remote village then?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I am not a noble. In my country, we have a family name even for commoners.¡± ¡°Hahaha! So you¡¯re one of those transported people then! No wonder you¡¯re extra ordinary than the others! Don¡¯t worry! After killing you, I¡¯ll rape the girls behind you and take your head as a trophy!¡± The orc leader tried to provoke me but he failed. It¡¯s not that I think that I will win this fight but I know that getting provoke will only disturb your thinking leading to your loss. I know it since my friends always provoke their enemies on an online game. ¡°You didn¡¯t let my words got into your head huh¡­ Well then, here I go!¡± The orc leader charges once more and it really is fast but a spear is following behind him and as if seeing it, the orc leader stops and block the spear using its shield, leaving its back defenseless. I take advantage of it and manage to cut its arm but the wound is not deep enough since he suddenly raises his axe trying to cut me again. ¡°Ohh? You managed to hit me huh¡­ I think my habit of talking while fighting will lead to my death one day.¡± The orc leader said while he charge towards Gino. This time, Gino managed to evade its charge but got hit by its axe. The shield shattered but Gino managed to avert its force saving his life. I run towards orc leader once more hoping to cut one of its hands but he suddenly swings his shield and I got hit on by it on my head resulting of me flying around until I hit the wall. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m lucky or not but I am still alive. The problem is I can¡¯t move my body. ¡°Hahaha! Don¡¯t try to rely on luck boy!¡± The orc leader laugh while leisurely walks towards me. Shit¡­ I still can¡¯t move. My health is apparently on red and I know that when I hit even once then I¡¯ll die. Am I going to die here even though I managed to see Kaezar again? ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You can¡¯t stand? Come on! Where¡¯s the human who managed to injure me! If you¡¯re going to fall from that attack then it will be over you know¡­ Oh! I know! Maybe I should rape those girl before killing you! Hahahahaha! I¡¯ll bet that your face will be a masterpiece by that!¡± The orc leader changes its course after saying those threats. Don¡¯t fuck with me!! How dare you say that you¡¯ll rape Kaezar in front of me!! I slowly get up even though my body is screaming due to pain. I gritted my teeth and endure the pain. I can¡¯t let this fucker to reach them! I pick up my sword and glare at the back of the orc. I managed to stand up while using my sword as a cane. I step once but I feel like I am going to fall but fuck it! Even if I fall I will crawl and cut his feet! The orc leader faces towards me and laugh. ¡°hahaha! That¡¯s it! Become angry! Kill me if you don¡¯t want your precious companion to be raped! Hahahahaha!¡± The orc leader stop walking as if he¡¯s waiting for me. He readied his shield and wait. ¡°That expression! Yes! That¡¯s it! Get angry to me!! Release your anger and kill me! Because if you don¡¯t the girls behind me will get raped!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ F.. fuck with me!! You¡¯ll need to walk over my corpse before you touch them!!¡± Getting swayed by his provocation, my sight become dark but I can see him. The orc leader have this delighted expression on its face. ¡°Hey¡­ Do you need power?¡± Suddenly, I heard a crackled voice whispering to me. ¡°You¡¯re weak¡­ You¡¯re very weak¡­ You¡¯re getting beat up by this lowly orc¡­ Hey¡­ I can help you¡­ I can give you the power you seek...¡± The voice whispered once again. I don¡¯t know who you are but what do you want in exchange of the power. ¡°I don¡¯t need anything¡­ I just wanted to help you¡­¡± I¡¯m sorry but I don¡¯t believe on what you are saying. You can¡¯t possibly give me something for free. Even demons takes a human soul in exchange for power. ¡°Kukuku¡­ You¡¯re right¡­ But let¡¯s see¡­ If you give me a body¡­ then I don¡¯t mind lending you my strength¡­¡± Give you a body? I asked as I walk sluggishly towards the orc leader. ¡°Yeah¡­ Just give me a body and I will kill anyone you hate¡­ I will kill anyone who will threaten you¡­ I will protect you and give you the power to stand above anyone¡­ So¡­ What will you do?¡± The voice whispered once more. But before I manage to answer, the orc leader charges towards me. My feet suddenly move and before I know it, I am at the back of the orc leader. ¡°This power¡­ I¡¯ll give it to you¡­ Just give me a body and I will give it to you¡­¡± Maybe giving him a body is a cheap deal if I can have this power¡­ Besides, there are too many corpses around us now¡­ ¡°Jasper!!¡± Just about when I am going to make a deal with the voice, I feel someone hugs behind me. ¡°Don¡¯t go! Don¡¯t leave me alone again! I can¡¯t afford to lose you now!!¡± I can hear Kaezar¡¯s voice behind and feel something wet behind my back. The darkness in my sight become clear and the voice fade out. ¡°We will surely meet once more¡­ By that time¡­ I hope you have an answer¡­¡± The voice said as it fade out as if it¡¯s getting dragged away. ¡°Kaezar¡­ Stay back¡­ It¡¯s dangerous¡­¡± I managed to tell her that¡¯s its dangerous but instead of moving away she hugs me tighter. ¡°No!! If you¡¯re going to die here then I will also die! Don¡¯t leave me alone!! I don¡¯t know what will happen to me if you disappear again! Especially in this crazy fantasy world!! So please¡­ Don¡¯t leave me!! *sob*¡± Kaezar¡¯s is crying while saying this. Even I don¡¯t want to get separated on her but if I don¡¯t kill this orc leader now, then I will die and she will be raped and I can¡¯t let that happen. I gently touch her hand and said. ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ I won¡¯t go anywhere¡­ I¡¯ll be with you after I beat this orc¡­ and after it, I have something to tell you.¡± If Iggy is here then he will surely say that I raised my death flag. ¡°Ohh.. I didn¡¯t expect that you have that kind of speed! And where is that black aura that you emit before? I think you can¡¯t kill me if you don¡¯t have it.¡± Oh.. I am emitting something like a dark aura huh¡­ I want to look like that again but, it seems that thing only appears when that voice is present. Now that I think about it¡­ That crackled voice gives me the creeps. I don¡¯t want to hear it again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡­ I can still beat you without relying on that.¡± I put a bravado will pointing my sword towards him. ¡°Haha¡­ Hahaha.. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Let¡¯s see if you really can beat me in your state!¡± The orc leader charges towards me. I think it will be good to die with Kaezar but this isn¡¯t the time for it. I raised my sword and swung it down as the orc leader reach the reach of my sword. The sword got deflected and I lost my grip of it. ¡°DIE!!!¡± The orc leader¡¯s axe swung up from below. Is this how I am going to die? I slowly closed my eyes and grip Kaezar¡¯s hand tightly. But the killing blow didn¡¯t happen. I slowly opened my eyes and see the orc leader frozen inside the ice. Did Skyla did this? I slowly look at Skyla but I find her still unconscious. ¡°Who did this¡­¡± As I wonder who froze this orc leader. The ice with orc leader got sliced into two, the upper half slid down and broke down. ¡°Are you okay Jasper?¡± A nostalgic voice of a man to me said. His voice puts me on ease and makes me feel that I am safe as long as I am with him. The man appeared in front of me. He look like my dad from the picture. ¡°Dad?¡± I said with trembling voice as he put his hand on my head patting it. ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ Leave the rest to us. You¡¯ve done well..¡± I feel my consciousness fading away. I tried to fight it since there are too many orcs and goblins outside. I fell asleep then I don¡¯t know what will happen to us. But why does his hands make me feel safe. Maybe I can really leave it to him¡­ And also, Kaezar¡­ Welcome to the other world Chapter 14 – Situation after the attack When I wake up, I saw a familiar ceiling. This is the ceiling I always see when I wake up in this world. In other words, Fernando¡¯s house. I look to my side and there I found Kaezar, holding my hands while sleeping in an awkward position. ¡°Thank goodness¡­ She¡¯s alright¡± I pat her head and her expression become relaxed. I smiled involuntarily but I remembered the death of the other Kaezar. I didn¡¯t manage to save her. It hurts when you see someone you know die in front of you. I didn¡¯t want to experience that thing again so I need to get stronger. Oh right, during the attack I level up too many times. ¡°I wonder what is my current level now. Character Information!¡± A familiar window appeared in front of me. - - - Name: Jasper Perez Race: Human Profession: Archer Lv. 20 Title: [Lupos Slayer] Alignment: Neutral Fame: 10 Health: 525 Mana: 225 Level: 26 Experience: 1087/2600 - - - Status points - - - STR: 39(+1%) DEX: 39(+5%) INT: 19 CONS: 23 Available Stats: 15 - - - Equipment - - - Head: None Torso: Lupos¡¯ Cloak Leggings: Leather Shorts Gloves: None Feet: Leather shoes Ring(Left): None Ring(Right): None Necklace: Rabbit¡¯s Foot Left Hand: Short Bow Right Hand: Short Bow - - - Status - - - Damage: 38 (+1% when using bow) Defense: 12(+5) Magic damage: 0 Magic defense: 0 - - - Resistance - - - Fire: 0 Ice: 0 Water: 0 Earth: 0 Lightning: 0 Holy: 0 Dark: 0 - - - I only gained 5 level despite my hardships huh¡­ The good part is I can now pick another class and have 15 stats points. I added 5 points on STR, 8 points on DEX and 2 on CONS. Now my stats are as follows - - - Name: Jasper Perez Race: Human Profession: Villager Title: None Alignment: Neutral Fame: 0 Health: 110 Mana: 105 Level: 5 Experience: 200/500 - - - Status points - - - STR: 44 (+1%) DEX: 47 (+5%) INT: 19 CONS: 25 Available stats: 0 - - - Equipment - - - Head: None Torso: Lupos¡¯ Cloak Leggings: Leather Shorts Gloves: None Feet: Leather shoes Ring(Left): None Ring(Right): None Necklace: Rabbit¡¯s Foot Left Hand: Short Bow Right Hand: Short BowA case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. - - - Status - - - Damage: 38 (+1% when using bow) Defense: 12(+5) Magic damage: 0 Magic defense: 0 - - - Resistance - - - Fire: 0 Ice: 0 Water: 0 Earth: 0 Lightning: 0 Holy: 0 Dark: 0 - - - It looks pretty weak. Right now I need more stats since I need to protect not only myself but also Kaezar. She¡¯s still level 1 but I don¡¯t want her to gain another level¡­ No, I think she needs to level herself so that she can at least protect herself when I am not around. *Sigh* I let out a sigh since thinking about the future is really troublesome. ¡°Ehmm.. Uhh¡­ Sis?¡± It seems that Kaezar woke up. She¡¯s rubbing her eyes while not letting go of my hand. I personally think that she¡¯s cute but the troublesome part is that there is some drool on her face. She looks at me with an unfocused eyes but I pointed at my cheeks hoping that she will understand what it meant. Her face suddenly become red and let go of my hand while wiping out the drool on her face. ¡°So¡­ May I ask why are you sleeping there?¡± I don¡¯t know why I asked that question but I just wanted to say something. ¡°I am worried you know! You fight with that green muscular humanoid monster and almost got killed in front of me! Why are you being reckless!¡± Scolding after waking up huh¡­ This is really Kaezar Padilla that I know. ¡°Hehe¡± I laugh since she¡¯s really worried. Back then, she¡¯ll scold me if I did something reckless like this. Hearing her scolding me makes me feel relaxed. ¡°Why are you laughing!? You didn¡¯t know how worried I am! After all this time, I finally see you then you started that death match with that monster! I thought that I will lose you again.. Hic¡­ Stop being reckless you idiot¡­¡± Kaezar cried while scolding me. It seems that I really worried her too much. I patted her head and tell her that I am sorry in a gentle tone yet what did I get? I got slapped in my face. It is really hard and I think my cheeks have a red hand print now. ¡°Why are you patting my head like I am a child!? Why do you like acting reckless!? Why are you always like that!? Making me worried too much to the point that I might get a heart attack!? And worse of all! Why are you smiling even though I am crying!?¡± I scratched my head as I listen to her. ¡°Well¡­ You see¡­ It really feels like you are here with me if you¡¯re scolding me like that¡­ It kind a feel good.¡± I explained myself but someone butted on our talk. ¡°Feeling good despite being scolded and slap¡­ Jasper¡­ I didn¡¯t know that you are a masochist!¡± The one who talk is someone from the other bed beside mine. There a fat guy is lying down and bandage can be seen on his hands and body. That guy who didn¡¯t read the mood is Gino. I don¡¯t know if he really can¡¯t read the mood or he only did it to break it. ¡°I am not! So how are you?¡± I told him I¡¯m not and ask him how is he. ¡°I¡¯m good. Even though they say that I need a week of rest I am good.¡± He said while swinging his bandaged arm around but he got knocked on his head by a girl besides him. ¡°Even though they said that you are okay it doesn¡¯t mean that you can move like that!¡± The girl that I am seeing for the first time has a tan skin tone, have a black pony tailed hair and her looks are pretty normal. ¡°Ah¡­ Nice to meet you. I am Jeziel Abella. Classmate of Gino Cruz.¡± Hoho¡­ It seems that this is the ¡°Jeziel¡± that Gino is talking about. I look at Gino while grinning like a mischievous cat. ¡°W-what is it Jasper? Why are you grinning like that?¡± Gino said with his trembling voice. I wanted to make fun of him right now but I¡¯ll save it for later. I will surely thoroughly enjoy it Gino so please prepare yourself. ¡°Nothing. I am Jasper Perez, Gino¡¯s friend and this is Kaezar Padilla, my friend. Nice to meet you too.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you too.¡± After introducing ourselves, I asked Gino where is Skyla and he pointed at other bed besides me. I look there and saw Skyla peacefully sleeping while a man in his mid-30¡¯s is looking at me. I think I saw him before. ¡°Uhmm¡­ How do you do sir? I am Jasper Perez, friend of Skyla.¡± I introduced myself to the man and he was taken aback by my introduction. Is there something wrong with my introduction? ¡°Ah.. Yes, I know who you are¡­ I am Percival Perez, your father and also Skyla¡¯s father.¡± ¡°¡°EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!?¡±¡± I am not the only one who is surprised by his introduction. Even Gino and Kaezar are surprised. I mean, there is someone who is claiming that he is my father even though my dad passed away for too many years now¡­ Wait¡­ now that I look at him, he really look like my father from our family picture when I was 3 years old. So he¡¯s really alive here and Skyla is my little sister¡­ ¡°Are you really my father?¡± I asked since I am not quite sure if he really is my father. ¡°Yes I am, your mother is named Mara right? And you lived at [Town Name], [Province Name], Philippines right? And also, you have a birth mark on your butt.¡± While looking at my father, dumbfounded, he scratched his head and said ¡°Not good enough huh..¡± ¡°You wet your bed until you beco¡ª ¡± ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay I believe in you! You are my father so please stop with that embarrassing topic!¡± I quickly screamed so that the other people in here won¡¯t hear something unnecessary memories. ¡°So Jasper have a birthmark in his butt huh..¡± (Kaezar) ¡°I am quite interested in that last remark about Jasper wetting his bed¡­¡± (Gino) Kaezar seems to be only interested on my birthmark and look at me but I feel that my life will be in a dangerous place if Gino knows about the latter. ¡°Hahaha.. Sorry, sorry¡­ It¡¯s just that, I thought that you don¡¯t believe that I am your father so I thought that I need to tell you something embarrassing for you to believe in me.¡± This father of mine¡­ ¡°Unyaa~~ is it morning already dad?¡± Skyla, who wake up probably because of our noises, said while rubbing her eyes. ¡°No, you can sleep for a while since you look really tired. You exceeded your mana pool once again and fainted.¡± So that what really happened, I thought that she fainted because of fear but because of exhaustion huh¡­ ¡°Yes~ Please pat my head until I fell asleep~¡± ¡°Yes yes.¡± ¡°Ehehehe¡± Skyla acted spoil and requested a pat on her head while my father is smiling wryly while patting her head. Skyla fell asleep at no time and father said that we should get some sleep to since we are leaving tomorrow. ¡°Uhmm¡­ There is something I would like to ask¡­ What happened to the orcs?¡± I asked since it really bothers me. I don¡¯t know when did I fell unconscious and the only thing that I remember is that, I accepted my death by the hands of the orc leader. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about it¡­ They¡¯re already taken care of. Now now, ladies should also get some sleep since it will be a rough journey tomorrow.¡± He said while smiling at me and beckons the two girls to leave us. After he gets out of the room, Gino speak to me. ¡°Your dad is really amazing you know? He cut that orc leader with a single slash. But what I saw after that is really amazing. He cuts 3 orcs with a single slash¡­¡± Gino explained what happened after I become unconscious. Basing on what Gino is saying, I conclude that my father is a monster in a whole new level. I wonder what is, his current level to perform that feat. After that, I sleep for an hour and now I feel rejuvenated. Skyla was already gone when I woke up and Gino is still sleeping. I tried to get up quickly but my body is aching all over so I slowly get up and walk towards the door. Upon exiting the room, I heard some talking noises at the living room so I went there. ¡°So, only five survived huh¡­¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ When we got here, the orcs are raping some women so we thought that they were still alive but apparently, it¡¯s only corpses¡­¡± My father is talking to someone while explaining what happened when they reach here. I remembered the scene where there are too many orcs engaging some sexual act against the girls in the village square and apparently, they are all dead. Those damned orcs¡­ I never thought that they will do something like this. In the game, orcs are proud warrior. They settle everything with might but never forced themselves against others. They are known as berserkers if I say but in here, I think that they are just a group of horny beast. The image of the orcs inside of my mind slowly shatters as my father reports everything he knew. Instead of disturbing them, I went to the kitchen to have a drink and there I saw Kaezar and the girl named Jeziel cooking while Skyla is watching them. ¡°Ah Jasper, you¡¯re awake. Are you okay now?¡± Kaezar noticed me and asked me if I¡¯m fine. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m already fine now. What are you cooking?¡± I asked since I am quite curious on what would they make. ¡°Were making adobo. Please sit there and wait. And uhmm¡­ Is Gino already awake?¡± The one who answered me is the girl named Jeziel. Apparently, Gino love this girl. I can¡¯t wait to make fun of him. ¡°Ok thanks.¡± Before sitting, I drink a cup of water. ¡°Hey Kuya Jasper! Apparently, we really are related by blood!¡± Skyla¡¯s quite happy about it because she¡¯s smiling as if to show off her teeth. ¡°Yes yes I heard about it from dad.¡± I sit down on the chair positioned in front of Skyla. Skyla started to asked something about myself and I answered it and sometimes, I asked question since I don¡¯t know anything about my stepmother and sisters. I hope that this peaceful times continue. - - - Intermission 01 - Different Short Stories Story no. 1: Chicksilog Iggy¡¯s P.O.V I am Iggy Bautista, 18 years old, I am often mistaken as a girl due to my face and now here I am somewhere you can call another world. How did I end up here? Well, I was going home after school and I ride in this certain bus where I met my friends and jokes around as the bus took down the road. It is quite a good ride when suddenly a tunnel appeared out of nowhere¡­ No¡­ saying that it is a tunnel is wrong. It¡¯s a huge worm. The worm ate the bus and the next time I know it, I am in this world. Let¡¯s stop with this flashback thing since I don¡¯t really like it. There is a certain popular anime which did this and I got annoyed by it. Instead of moving the plot forward, it tells the story about its character¡¯s past. Ehem¡­ Anyway, I am right here at the guild tavern waiting for a certain girl. This girl isn¡¯t an ordinary girl that you will find in the reality. If I say, she¡¯s like an anime character. Blonde twin tailed hair, beautiful aqua blue eyes, and a huge breast to boot. The type of girl you will only find on 2D world and being an otaku, I am attracted on this 2D stuffs, even though she¡¯s definitely a 3D girl as long as she looks like 2D then she¡¯s 2D. Oh yeah, her name is Maldita. It¡¯s a name which reminds me of my previous world but I think it¡¯s a good name. Oh yes, I also forgot to mention but this world is like a game, you know, level and stuffs. I am currently level 15 magician and Maldita is a level 18 swordsman and she¡¯s really amazing. Even though I said it before that I hate flashbacks, it is necessary for me to tell you this so that you will know how amazing she is. Back then I am just a level 10 magician when she invited me to a form a party. She took a subjugation quest from the guild but her companion got sick at the day when they are going to do the quest. I know it smells fishy but I accepted her offer. It must be because of those oppai(boobs). The quest only requires us to hunt 25 goblins but we ended up raiding a goblin settlement since there are some girls being held captive there. When we came near the settlement, we got discovered and immediately sprung into combat. Yaaaa~ back then I thought I am a goner since I trip once and the goblins rushes to me but Maldita risked her life to protect me. She¡¯s like a knight in shining armor! Her manliness over flows! Huh? You¡¯re saying that I am girly? Well I can¡¯t blame you but back then I understand the feeling of the princess saved by her knight. It feels good and my heart beats fast. Anyways, we managed to win and rescued the captive girls. While we are going back to the town, she said that we are going to celebrate our win and it will be her treat. When I said that I should be the one to treat her since I am a man but she disagreed that and said, ¡°You can¡¯t be a man since you¡¯re this cute! So be a good girl and let me treat you.¡± She said that while holding my chin with one of her hands, the type of hold you will see on shojou manga and anime. My heart skips a beat when she did that and felt my face becoming hot. And now here I am, waiting at the guild tavern for her. I got into bath as soon as I entered the inn I am staying, used my most presentable clothes and used some perfume I found back then. I am getting excited as the time for us to meet comes nearer and nearer. And then, I heard a familiar voice behind me, it sounds pretty low for a girl but definitely it¡¯s from a girl. It¡¯s Maldita¡¯s voice! She¡¯s here at last! I quickly turn behind and saw some middle-aged man standing. He has this thin arm that you will mistake it for a girl, aqua blue eyes that are as sharp as a sword, and a short cut black hair. His physique is also thin that you can easily mistake him as girl. ¡°Hey! Are you okay?¡± The old man mouths open as I heard Maldita¡¯s voice. ¡°Where are you Maldita?¡± I said but deep inside I know that this middle-aged man standing in front of me is Maldita. I wanted to deny the ugly reality but the middle-aged man said, ¡°Well, it is not Maldita, my real name Maldit a level 18 swordsman, the one you formed a group back then.¡±, breaking my beautiful delusions into pieces. ¡°What happened!? Are you cursed? Don¡¯t worry I can dispel a curse as long as it¡¯s on elementary rank!! Oh spirit! Help me disperse this magic! [Dispel]!!¡± I casted [Dispel] at him but deep down I know, Maldita is really a man! But I don¡¯t want to accept this reality! Bring me back the anime character girl! Please I¡¯m begging you! Bring her baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!! - - - No matter how many times I cast [Dispel] the curse isn¡¯t breaking, this is weird also the cursed Maldita have this guilty expression on her face since a while ago. ¡°Oh right! I remembered! The church can cast holy spell that can lift up high level curses! Don¡¯t worry! I¡¯ll pay for it so for now let¡¯s go to the chur¡ª¡± ¡°Would you stop locking yourself in your fantasy and face reality! I am Maldit! I lost a bet and ended up cross dressing while taking up a subjugation quest and worst of it! I need to have at least one party member! I am sorry for fooling you but consider this celebration as an apology! I will pay everything so you can order anything.¡± And when Maldit(a) said that, I picked up my staff and run away from the guild tavern. There¡¯s no use even if I level up, fantasy is already ended. And as soon as I enter my room, my strength faded and I fell on the floor. That¡¯s why her manliness over flows! That¡¯s why he¡¯s good at using swords! Maldita is man in the first place! Hello guys, I am Iggy Bautista, 18 years of age and swearing that from now on, I won¡¯t trust any girls with big boobs! - - - Story no. 2 I¡¯m in love with you! Why don¡¯t you believe me!? Rhea¡¯s P.O.VUnlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I am Rhea Wingstone, a daughter of the proud family Wingstone. My father is Earl Marl Bor Wingstone which governs the city of Wingstone. It is a city near the royal capital Linabanan. I am an aspiring adventurer and I am a level 5 magician. Even I know that adventurer is not a job suited for a noble daughter like me but I still want to become one because of a certain man that I love. His name is Marc Hernandez, an adventurer with a job of thief and he is level 10. But don¡¯t be mistaken, even though he has a family name, it does not mean that he is a noble. In the first place, a noble with a family name of Hernandez does not exist. In short, he is a commoner. You must be wondering how I, a daughter of the well-known Wingstone family fell in love with a commoner right? Then let me tell you a story. One day, I am walking outside the streets in incognito and I saw a man looking at the displayed food outside the bakery which I often visit. This bakery isn¡¯t that well-known and it is located at the commoner¡¯s district inside our territory. The bread there is really delicious and really cheap and that is the reason why I like this bakery. In fact, it is owned by a retired Gold adventurer. He said the reason why he retired being an adventurer is because his knee got hit by an arrow and also, he is a close friend of my father. Actually, father tried to employ him as his personal baker but he refused saying that he wanted the other people to taste the bread he makes. Anyways, I walked towards the bakery since I am a little hungry as I walked past on that man, his stomach loudly grumbles. I stopped walking when I heard that sound and look at the man. The man is drooling while holding his stomach. He counted the money in his purse and felt dejected. ¡®Maybe it is not enough to buy a piece of bread?¡¯ I said to myself. It¡¯s really unfortunate that someone can¡¯t afford to eat due to financial problem. I approach him while feeling sorry for him. He¡¯s wearing leather armor and on the back of his waist there are two sheathed daggers. His face is so-so, not so handsome to that point that girls will fall for him and not so ugly that girls will find him disgusting. Also, his eyesight seems to be bad since he¡¯s wearing glasses but the frame isn¡¯t made from wood or metal. Perhaps the man noticed my gaze, he looks towards me and said. ¡°H-how can I help you?¡± ¡°Excuse me. I saw you staring at the displayed bread over there so I came to ask you if you are buying?¡± I said and smiled. Mother said that smiling is one way of expressing goodwill. ¡°Ah, no. I¡¯m not¡­ I¡¯m just passing by. Sorry.¡± The man tried to leave but I stopped him since I am interested on his glasses. The frame is made from an unknown material and it quite looks stylish. ¡°Wait. Would you mind if I treat you a piece of bread if you answer my questions?¡± The man looked at me, trying to guess my objective. ¡°I¡¯m interested on your eyewear sir, so I would like to inquire about it.¡± I told him the reason and smile. I don¡¯t want to create a misunderstanding that I am picking him up. Maybe I¡¯ll do it if he¡¯s handsome¡­ no, even if he¡¯s handsome I won¡¯t do that shameless thing. He looks like he¡¯s going to refuse but his stomach grumbles again expressing its complaints. He holds his stomach and blushes. ¡°Okay¡­¡± He accepted my invitation while trying to hide his bashful face. - - - We entered the bakery and there is a man with his bulging muscles that can be seen through his clothes, actually his clothes looks like it will reap apart due to it. He¡¯s bald and has a scar across his left eyes. A well-kept beard and he have this intimidating presence. Honestly, his appearance isn¡¯t suited to be a baker. ¡°Isn¡¯t it the little missy? And¡­ who¡¯s this? Your lover?¡± The baker asked my teasingly while grinning from ear to ear. ¡°I wonder how your father would react if he found out that his little princess already have a lover~¡± ¡°First of all, I am not ¡®little¡¯ anymore since I am already 16 years old and I can now be considered as an adult and secondly, HE IS NOT MY LOVER!¡± I said firmly while he looks at us while grinning. ¡°Yes yes, I understand he¡¯s not your lover¡­ So, what can I do for you?¡± He said that he understands but he still looks at us while grinning. Honestly. I ordered some bread and started to chat with the man. He said that he is Marc Hernandez and even though he has a family name, he¡¯s not a noble. The frame of his glasses is made of material called ¡°plastic¡± but I never heard of it. Maybe he¡¯s from somewhere far away. Time passed by and we got close enough that I can call him as a friend. He surprisingly has a good sense of humor and always managed to make me laugh. He¡¯s also an adventurer and sometimes he complains about how hard his job was. Of course, he¡¯s not the only one who throws jokes around even I know how to make a joke. From then on, I went back to the bakery almost every day and meet up with Marc. As time goes by, the way I see him changes. He suddenly appeared to be handsome and sometimes while he talks, my heart beats fast. At first I ignored it but every time I see him, I smiled and every time he¡¯s about to leave, I wanted him to stay and talk to him more. That night, Marc¡¯s face always appears inside my head that I mistook one of our house servants as him. What is happening to me!? The same night, I went to my big sister¡¯s room and asked her about it. While I was explaining about my circumstances while hiding the identity of Marc, my sister is grinning annoyingly while listening and right after my explanation my big sister shriek ¡°Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa~¡± and suddenly hugs me while patting my head. I don¡¯t get it. What is happening here? Why did my sister suddenly shriek and hugs me? As those thought wonder inside my head, my sister stops patting my head, look directly at my eyes and said, ¡°There¡¯s no doubt! You love him!¡± ¡°¡­ Huh? Love?¡± As soon as I said those words, Marc¡¯s face suddenly appeared in my head and my face feels hot while my heart beats fast. ¡°Hey sister, why did my heart beat fast when his face suddenly appeared on my mind?¡± Confused by it, I asked my sister. My sister smiled and said ¡°As I told you before, it¡¯s love! You love him!!¡± Love? I love him? It can¡¯t be! ¡°It can¡¯t be!! This isn¡¯t love! He¡¯s a lowly commoner and I am a noble so this can¡¯t be love! Right! This isn¡¯t love! In the first place, Marc isn¡¯t that handsome but he have a good sense of humor... but even so! This can¡¯t be love!¡± As I continue to deny my feelings, my sister is grinning while looking at me with warm eyes. But the more I denied my feelings for him, the faster my heart beats, the clearer his image appeared in my head, the more I wanted him right now besides me and the more I realize that I love him. Suddenly, I felt my sister gently hugs me and said in a soft voice. ¡°It¡¯s not bad to fell in love with an adventurer. Mom¡¯s also an adventurer back then while dad is a noble. They fell in love with each other and got married so you don¡¯t need worry about your social statuses¡­ Our parents will surely understand it since it¡¯s the same with their circumstances back then.¡± Those words are the last push I needed to accept my feelings for Marc. After it, I went back to my room while thinking of how I should tell my parents tomorrow. The next day, we are gathered in the dining room and eat breakfast. I am silently eating my breakfast while thinking how I should tell my parents about it. Should I directly tell them that I fell in love with someone or should I tell them indirectly about it? While I am agonizing on how will I tell my parents, my older sister suddenly told my parents every little details of what we talked about last night. Feeling embarrassed, I tried to cover my sister¡¯s mouth but I failed. Every time I reach towards her mouth, she adjusted her position dodging my attempts. Giving up, I look down to hide my face after my older sister finished her explanation. I feel so embarrassed!! ¡°Rhea.¡± My dad called my name so I slowly raise my face and saw my father and mother smiling gently while looking at me with warm eyes. ¡°Please introduce Marc to us okay?¡± My mom told me as dad giggled. Due to my embarrassment, I ran back to my room and refused to went out that day. - - - The next day, I went to the bakery again hoping to see Marc. Last night, I decided to tell him how I feel since I heard that adventurers always risk their lives so they always say their feelings to each other quickly. The problem is how should I tell him? Telling him directly is embarrassing so I think I should beat around the bush and tell him after I found a chance. Calming my heart, I went inside the bakery and there I saw Marc looking at me while smiling. His smile looks dazzling today. I slowly walk towards him and we talked like always and when he¡¯s about to go out, I said to him. ¡°Goodbye Marc! Take care since I love you.¡± I am surprised that I managed to tell him that I love him without stuttering. Marc suddenly stops and looks back at me. My heart beats fast as I wait for his reply. Now that I think about it, what if he rejected me? That thought alone made me wanted to take back what I said. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll take care and your joke about you loving me is really bad for the heart so please stop it..¡± Eh? Joke? Marc leaves while I am dumbfounded with his words. He¡¯s treating my love confession as a joke? The baker pats my shoulder and let out a sigh. ¡°I¡¯M IN LOVE WITH YOU SO WHY DON¡¯T YOU BELIEVE ME!!!¡± That is the first time I shouted in my entire life. - - - Meanwhile in the middle of the streets of streets of Wingstone City¡­ ¡°What kind of joke is that! I almost put my hopes up!¡± Marc is walking with a red face while complaining at Rhea¡¯s confession which he seriously takes as a joke. Chapter 15 – To the Royal Capital After eating lunch which is prepared by Kaezar and Jeziel, we prepared to depart. Although I said prepared, we only picked some medicine in Fernando¡¯s house and stuff it at our bags. I was shocked since Kaezar is oddly familiar with the house and when I asked her about it, she said that she often see this house as a hallucination, she even see us sometimes. ¡°Is everyone ready?¡± Said by the girl with a shoulder length black hair, she looks like Skyla but she¡¯s taller and bigger on the right places. She is Skyla¡¯s older sister and also my little sister too. Her name is Lily. She¡¯s older than Skyla and her age is 18 years old meaning, my Dad married their mother after three years of he found himself in this world. Dad introduced us to his party when everyone wakes up. Dad¡¯s party composition is well balanced. They have a warrior (melee fighter), priest (support), magician (nuker) and assassin (scout). He said that there still 2 members waiting at the capital. The warrior is my dad, the magician is Lily my other little sister, the priest is a man named Alexander Anderson and he is a noble. He¡¯s 35 years old now and dad said that he inherited the title of Baron from his father. Before he is an adventurer and one of the original members of the ¡®Odyssey¡¯, the group name of my father and also one of the two adamantite adventurers. He¡¯s 6ft tall, his hair is also color black and neatly combed back. He also have a well-kept beard and wears a round glasses. When Gino saw him he whispered to me that he looks like a character from the anime Hellsing. The scout is surprisingly my grandfather, Jose. He¡¯s also one of the original members of this party and even though he¡¯s already 74 years old, he is still an active adventurer. Grandfather is just as tall as me and he¡¯s already bald. He has a mustache that is already color white due to his age. The reason why dad quickly knew about this incident is all thanks to grandfather. He¡¯s watching Skyla from the shadows since he is worried about her. ¡°We¡¯re good to go.¡± I said as I carry my bag that is full of medicine. Kaezar changed her clothes and she¡¯s now wearing a white one piece dress that she found at Kaezar¡¯s (the previous one) wardrobe. Since they have the same sizes, it fits her perfectly. Jeziel also changed to one of Kaezar¡¯s clothing. She¡¯s wearing a white top and a knee length skirt. It¡¯s baggy since she¡¯s slimmer than Kaezar. Skyla wears the same robe when I first saw her and Gino carried the armor of Jeziel. ¡°Seeing someone wearing armor while wearing a modern bag looks weird.¡± Kaezar said while looking at Gino and me. ¡°Just think of this as a cosplay and it won¡¯t be as weird as you think.¡± I said while scratching the back of my head. Certainly, If you see someone wearing this armor while having a bag on their back will really be weird but if you think that it is a form of cosplay then¡­ nope, it¡¯s still weird. While we are going outside, I noticed that Gino¡¯s coin pouch that is dangling on his waist seems bigger than before. I don¡¯t remember doing something that will make it like that. Gino noticed that I am staring at it and said. ¡°What? I took the money inside this house since the dead doesn¡¯t need it.¡± This guy¡­ He took the money of Fernando. Even though he¡¯s already dead isn¡¯t too rude to take it. ¡°Do you know that it is wrong to take someone else¡¯s money?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Yes. I know.¡± Gino said with a face that says ¡°isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± ¡°Then why did you take it?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Because he¡¯s already dead and doesn¡¯t need money on the afterlife.¡± (Gino) ¡°Even if that is the case, it does not mean that you can take it. Except if you are his relative.¡± (Jasper) ¡°You know, the knight dispatched from the kingdom might take it and use it to their leisure so I took the liberty of taking it. And Kaezar is his daughter right? I think that Fernando¡¯s soul would like it if Kaezar took it.¡± (Gino) ¡°I am not his daughter and I never know who is this Fernando.¡± Kaezar raises her objection to Gino¡¯s remark. It is as she says, Fernando¡¯s daughter is already dead. ¡°But in this world, you are his daughter.¡± Gino said then continued to walk outside. Maybe he¡¯s right¡­ If we leave it here and the knight found it they might really use it for their own leisure. In this whole village, only we survived the attack so what would happen to the possession of the dead people? Let¡¯s say that they will take it back to the capital and add it to the national budget, the officials will not notice that they take some of it since they¡¯re too many of them. But I still think that it is rude however there are no reactions to others especially from my two little sisters so I decided not to think about it too deeply.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. When we arrived outside, I saw the corpses of the villagers are being carried by the knights via wagon. The knights are wearing armors made from iron and on their waist hang their sword. There are also some knights that have a quiver on their waist aside from the swords and holding a bow on their hand while looking around the area. ¡°Hey, how many of them died?¡± Kaezar asked while she holds my arm. ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact number but their maybe a hundred or more of them.¡± Even though Pinar village is a frontier village, many there¡¯s many people living here. Well, the land is rich and there¡¯s a forest nearby. There¡¯s also a river so water isn¡¯t a problem. There¡¯s a mountain at the south where you can mine iron and gold. That might be the reason why there are many people living here. ¡°Still, there are too many corpses here.¡± As we walk around, we saw a big hole where they dump the invaders remains. They did this not to respect the dead but to prevent the monsters to come. Some orcs lost a part of their body while the others didn¡¯t have a head. The knights also throw some sack in the hole. I wanted to ask what it is but I saw blood drips down from it. It might be a crushed orc but, who did this? Is there someone strong enough in this village to do this? - - - We arrived at the carriage and now we are free from the gruesome scene in the village. All of us (the survivors) were pale but there is a particular human who smiles widely. Even though he also saw that scene, he smiled as if he saw something good¡­ and that man is Gino. This man likes gore and violence but I never expect him to smile at that scene. Normally, you¡¯ll feel bad if you saw that scene but he¡¯s the opposite. Is he really a human? He might be a devil in the human skin. When we arrived, dad saw us while smiling wryly. ¡°Well, it¡¯s your first time that you saw that scene so it can¡¯t be help that you¡¯re like that. But I never expect someone who can smile like that even seeing that scene.¡± Dad is amazed at Gino¡¯s constitution. I know I am repeating myself here but he smiles as if something good happened to him. The girls are pale and Skyla is trembling. This might result to a trauma. ¡°Now now, get inside the carriage so we can go.¡± Dad said as he helped us ride the carriage. This will not be the first time that I will be riding a carriage. Back in the previous world, I rode one when I am a little at a city. Even though there are cars, there are some carriages in there but their route was limited from a certain mall to the market and vice versa. I am the last to get in and when I get in, the carriage shakes a little as if it has a suspension installed on it. ¡°Well, this carriage has a suspension to lessen the vibration and it is as good as a jeepney.¡± (Percival) ¡°Uhmm¡­ Dad, what is a jeepney?¡± (Skyla) Skyla asked Dad since she naturally doesn¡¯t know what jeepneys are. Well, everyone inside the carriage is a Filipino so we naturally know what jeepney is. ¡°It is one of the main means of transportation in our country. It is a car but they can only be seen in a particular country in my world. It also became a trademark of our nationality.¡± Dad said to Skyla. [Note: for more information about jeepney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepney ] By the way, the one who get inside the carriage are Kaezar, Gino, Skyla, Jeziel and me. When I asked why, dad said because we don¡¯t have a contracted beast or a mount. According to dad, contracted beasts are originally monsters or animals that exist in this world. They become one when a tamer successfully tamed them and when tamed, their body disappeared and you will acquire a new spell with the name of the beast and when you use it, the beast will appear. It can be use a mount or pet or companion and you can tame as how many as you want but dad said that taming is really difficult. ¡°So it¡¯s like W*W huh¡­¡± Gino muttered himself and then he shows a small smile on his face. This guy must be planning to tame all the monsters he can but he will probably only use the first tamed monster he gets until the reaches the level gap¡­ Thinking about level gap, isn¡¯t it unreasonable? I mean, my level is only 2% of the level cap which is 1000. I wonder if I can reach the level cap¡­ I sighed as I think about it when I noticed that all of the people nearby are looking at me. Kaezar seems to be conflicted about something, Jeziel have some question mark above her head, Skyla is looking at me with glittering eyes, Gino looking at me while being amazed with something while Dad looks at me while grinning as if he¡¯s saying ¡°As expected of my son!¡±. ¡°W-what?¡± I asked since I don¡¯t know why they are looking at me like that. Is there something in my face? ¡°Well, you see¡­ I know that reaching that will really make you strong but¡­¡± (Kaezar) ¡°???¡± (Jeziel) ¡°As expected of Kuya Jasper!!¡± (Skyla) ¡°We can reach that but it will take time!¡± (Gino) ¡°So you are going to follow my footsteps huh?¡± (Dad) Kaezar said something while hesitating about something and Jeziel has this question mark just like before. Skyla, I don¡¯t know what you are talking about and Gino, I think it¡¯s normal to a trip to take some time, lastly Dad what are you saying about me following your footsteps. I look at them looking confused by their remarks and Gino who seems to noticed my confused state said something absurd¡­ ¡°You see, you said that you are wondering if you can reach the level cap. But where not that far now you know¡­ It will take some time but we will definitely reach it.¡± Apparently, I said that aloud and Gino! Do you realize that we are only on 2% of the max level cap!! It¡¯s impossible to be a level 1000 in just one life!! ¡°You know tha¡ª¡° (Jasper) ¡°Okay! When we got home, I¡¯ll teach you the best hunting places suitable for leveling to the level cap of 99!!¡± (Dad) I got interrupted when I tried to deny what Gino is saying but what really shocked me is what dad said.. It¡¯s not about the hunting places or whatnot but the level cap¡­ He said that it¡¯s level 99¡­ My mouth hangs open due to it and started to wonder if I read it wrong before¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t worry! It¡¯s proven and tested! I, myself, experienced it since I am one of the people who reached the level cap!!¡± Apparently, Dad is level 99 himself and said that those spots are proven and tested by himself but far from being amazed at my dad¡¯s level, I am more shocked because I misread the level cap in the tutorial which is really rare for me to happen. I mean, I am the type of gamer who seriously read the tutorial of a game. Feeling shocked, I tried to remember what is the keyword for tutorial. Is it ¡®Tutorial¡¯? ¡®FAQ¡¯? or maybe ¡®Help¡¯? As I think of the possible keywords for opening the tutorial window again, a dialog box appeared in front of me. [How can I help you?] I don¡¯t know what is the keyword is but I said my question in my head. ¡®What is the level cap of humans?¡¯ And the dialog box updated its text. [Human¡¯s level cap is 99 but there are some that can reach higher than the cap.] So it really is level 99 but the last part bothers me. There are some that can reach higher than the level cap? Are they really a human? The dialog box updated once again. [In history of this world, there are humans who managed to break the level cap. They are either the hero or the demon lord who both can reach up to level 250] So hero and demon lords can reach up to level 250 huh¡­ But wait! Isn¡¯t this dialog box is a cheat! I can easily know something if I asked it. [I am created to assist the transported people but I won¡¯t answer the question which will directly benefit the user] The dialog box clarified my misunderstanding about it. Oh right! Is the level cap in my tutorial really level 1000? I asked it before I forgot. [The real level cap of this world is level 1000 but it is only available to some beings] Ehhh¡­ So you¡¯re saying that I, a human, can only reach level 99 huh¡­ [I won¡¯t tell you that but breaking the level cap or staying in the level cap is up to you.] So basically, you¡¯re saying that it is not impossible to break the max level of human even though your race is human. [Yes] I wanted to asked more but Gino called me. I turned my face to face him but the dialog box disappeared. I tried to call it again but it doesn¡¯t respond. Maybe there¡¯s a cool down or something when using that. ¡°Hey! Jasper! Don¡¯t worry about it too much, we can surely hit the level cap and become strong just like your father.¡± Gino seems to be consoling me but I think he misunderstand something. It¡¯s not that I am worrying about my dad¡¯s level but I am checking if I read the tutorial correctly or not and apparently, I read it right. Chapter 16 - To the Royal Capital(2) After that, Dad turn backs and cast a spell. ¡°I, the one who tamed you, commands! Show yourself and follow my will! [Summon]!¡± A 2 meter diameter magic circle appeared two meters away from dad and from there two creatures appeared slowly from their feet. The first one is a black horse appeared with wing attached on its body, a Pegasus. Pegasus is mythical creatures that appeared on Greek mythology and I always wanted to see one. ¡°¡°OOOHHH!¡±¡± Gino and I can¡¯t suppress our excitement when we saw the Pegasus. Actually, it¡¯s not just us, even Kaezar and Jeziel let out a voice of admiration when Pegasus appeared. The other one is a big monitor lizard. It is color red and it let out a fire every time it opens its mouth. I don¡¯t know what kind of monster is this but it looks cool! The Pegasus and the monitor lizard snuggles its head on dad and dad pats its head. The beast let out a voice of satisfaction while being patted by dad. Dad let the Pegasus pull the carriage while he and his party get on the monitor lizard. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go!¡± At Dad¡¯s command, the beast started to run. The Pegasus run fast ignoring the weight of the carriage and its passenger while the monitor lizard run as fast as the Pegasus. I have a mix emotion regarding what is happening right now. Today, I saw a Pegasus but it ended up as a carriage horse. I don¡¯t know if I will be happy or not. We are traveling in approximately 130KM/H and dad¡¯s isn¡¯t lying when he said that there is a suspension spring on this carriage. Even though we are running a rough road, I hardly feel the shaking of the carriage. Normally, jeepney vibrates when the engine is running but this carriage didn¡¯t since it has no engine. It¡¯s quite inside the carriage since no one is talking. Kaezar is sleeping while sitting. Her mouth is open so I slowly closed it. Seriously, this girl is always sleeping whenever we ride a vehicle (as long as the destination is far). Skyla is chatting with Jeziel and I think they get along well, I don¡¯t know what is their topic though. Gino is thinking about something. I hear some murmuring a name like ¡°Bebz¡± or ¡°Biboy¡±. Wait¡­ Aren¡¯t those the nickname of Marc? I suddenly remembered the names of Gino¡¯s pet in games, most of them are named after the nicknames of Marc. Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s going to name the very first monster that he tames with that! Time passes by but the Pegasus doesn¡¯t seem to be tired at all same goes with the monitor lizard. I don¡¯t know how far the royal capital is but I think it¡¯s okay to let the beast take a break. I tried to open the carriage door but I see something like a wall peeking out of the trees. ¡°Are we there already?¡± Gino asked Skyla who¡¯s chatting with Jeziel and she looks outside and said. ¡°Yes, Pegasus can really run fast aren¡¯t they? Normal horse would take one day before reaching the royal capital from Pinar but Pegasus can do it by an hour or so.¡± (Skyla) ¡°I thought that Pinar was far from the royal capital but I didn¡¯t know that it¡¯s this close. Considering that Pinar is a frontier village, I assumed that it is near the border of this kingdom. I wonder why it remains like that even though it¡¯s near.¡± (Gino) ¡°You know that monster exist in this world right? Even though it¡¯s near it doesn¡¯t mean that the route is safe. Normally you¡¯ll need to hire adventurer as escorts but we have dad and his team so we are safe. Oh, not only monsters there are bandits too.¡± (Skyla) So that¡¯s why. I am amazed by the fact that Skyla travelled alone even though there are too many dangers when you travel. ¡°So you went to Pinar alone and didn¡¯t encounter any bandits or monsters on the way? You¡¯re pretty lucky!¡± Gino exclaimed as he nod. Skyla scratched her cheeks and said¡­ ¡°Yeah I think I am really lucky since I didn¡¯t meet anything on the way here. But I encounter some corpses of monsters when I am travelling and its wound was still fresh. Maybe there is a merchant with escorts ahead.¡± Skyla said while laughing a little. By her remarks, I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s lucky or not. Maybe one of dad¡¯s teammate was secretly following her and killed all the monsters that she might encounter since there¡¯s no merchant who came before her. And also, if there are adventurers ahead of her then there will be no corpse around since they will properly handle the corpses so that the other monster won¡¯t come due to the smell of blood. As we approach the gate, I saw something flashing outside the window. I look at it closer but the carriage is travelling very fast I didn¡¯t see it clearly. The only thing I saw was a man holding a dagger and a woman who¡¯s casting magic at the back. They are fighting 5 goblins leisurely. The thing that flashes before was the glasses of the man.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I thought that the only thing I can find here is a monocle since I assumed that the residents of this world have good eyesight but I guess I am wrong. There are other transported people here so maybe one of them has bad eyesight. - - - We finally reach the gate and there is a long line of carriage. Some of them didn¡¯t have roofs and some are like a mobile store and they are selling their goods while queuing. We waited for about 30 minutes before we managed to enter the city. The first thing we saw when we entered was the bustling streets of Linabanan. There are some selling fruits, while others are grilling meat and fish. There are also some people walking fully armored and their weapons can be seen dangling on their waist. There are also wearing black cloaks and in their hand are staves or wands. I wonder if they didn¡¯t feel hot inside those since it¡¯s already noon. And also, they are some idiot couple flirting in the broad daylight and knights who patrol the streets to ensure the security. Dad comes near while riding his big monitor lizard. ¡°I¡¯ll be going to the knight¡¯s quarter to report about the attack so Skyla guide them to our house.¡± ¡°Yes dad!¡± Skyla answer cheerfully and dad go to the Pegasus and said something. The Pegasus neighed and we separate from dad. We are now in the plaza of Linabanan. There is a fountain in the middle of it and peddlers are doing business around it. There are some armed men and women wondering around and blacksmith store can be seen almost everywhere. There is also some bookshop but the only one who enters are the ones who wear black cloak. Maybe they are magicians. More stupid couples can be seen flirting while listening to the song of the bards. The instruments that the bard uses are harps and guitars. Seeing guitars in this world makes me feel excited. I like to play guitars back in Earth. Maybe it¡¯s on the blood of the Filipino since we have this act of courtship where you serenade at the house of your loved ones. Well, there are only few men who did this but I think it¡¯s pretty romantic. As I look around, I saw a dancer wearing a revealing clothes dancing on the tune of the bard behind her. All of her watchers are men and some are slouching hiding their flag poles. Well, the dance is pretty erotic so I can only sympathize to them. The carriage continued to run towards a 3 story building with a giant signboard of sword, shield, daggers, and staff on top of each other. There is also a text that could be read as ¡°Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡±. ¡°The adventurer¡¯s guild in Pinar isn¡¯t this big. You can really tell that you are at the royal capital because of this.¡± Gino muttered as I look around. Of course I am surprised by the building but what surprises me is the building made of marbles besides it. It also has a signboard with two staves crossing each other and something akin to a neon light signboard with the text of ¡°Magician¡¯s guild¡± written below. ¡°How should I put this¡­ The Magician¡¯s Guild looks like bar¡­ With that neon light I really can¡¯t see it as the magician¡¯s guild..¡± As I said what I am thinking, Skyla suddenly shouted at me.. ¡°IT¡¯S NOT A BAR! AND THAT GLOWING TEXT IS MADE OF MAGIC AND IT CONSUMES A LARGE AMOUNT OF MANA! ONLY THE MAGICIAN¡¯S GUILD CAN CONTINOUSLY USE IT! IT REPRESENTS THE CAPABILITY OF OUR MAGICIANS!¡± ¡°I-is that so?¡± Feeling startled at Skyla who suddenly shouts, I look once again at the magician¡¯s guild but no matter how hard I tried to imagine it as something majestic, I can only see a bar. We run past both of the adventurer¡¯s and magician¡¯s guild and stopped at a place that is close to the guilds. There stood a 2 story mansion made of wood with a garden surrounding it. The fence stood across the 85m2 lot and a stable could be seen near the gate. Perhaps this is a noble house but the carriage stops in front of its gate¡­ Maybe the Pegasus is just resting since its running at full speed before. Denying my denial, Skyla get off of the carriage and opened the gate. The Pegasus slowly enters allowing us to see the garden up close. There are many kind of flowers on it but I recognize some of them. There¡¯s an orchid, roses, and many more across the flower field. A little ahead of it, you can see a basketball court. Of course there is also a ball of it but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s made up of the same material as the basketball¡¯s ball back at earth. In the middle of the court and flower field stood a hut with a table and chairs surrounding the table that was placed in the middle of the hut. Maybe after playing a game they rest in there. Skyla, who closed the gate she opened, knock on the wooden door. *Knock knock* ¡°Coming!¡± A woman¡¯s voice came inside the house and you can hear footsteps getting near. The door opened and I saw something that made my jaw drop. A woman who looks on her 20¡¯s but the actual age is on her late 30¡¯s. She has a shoulder length silky black hair with a face that looks like Skyla. Her stomach is big and I think that she¡¯s ready to give birth any moment now. Oh right, how do I know her actual age? It¡¯s just a guess since she really looks like someone I know pretty well back in earth. Not only her face, even her gestures and voice the same with that woman. The woman with a name of Mara Perez, my mother. She hugs Skyla tightly and Skyla hugs her back. ¡°Mom¡­?¡± I called her. I know that she¡¯s not my mother since this is a different world. It is just the same case with Kaezar but I call her ¡®mom¡¯ due to shock. It¡¯s the same when I call this world Kaezar as ¡®sis¡¯. The mom-look-alike look at me puzzled by the way I called her. She scratches her cheeks, just like what my mother do when she¡¯s lost, and said. ¡°Who are you?¡± (mom-look-alike) ¡°Ah! Mom! That is Kuya Jasper! Dad¡¯s son in his previous world!¡± (Skyla) ¡°Is that so?¡± The mom-look-alike faces me with a complicated expression. She seems to be happy to meet me but at the same time pitying me. I don¡¯t know why she¡¯s pitying me but if I were to guess the reason most probably it¡¯s because I got transported at a young age. After all, it seems that once you got transported, there is no turning back. ¡°Nice to meet you madam¡­? I am Jasper Perez.¡± I introduce myself to change the topic since I don¡¯t want to see her making that face since she really looks like my mother. Speaking of which, I wonder if my mother is okay. She must be really worried right now. I hope she don¡¯t do anything reckless. ¡°Ah yes¡­ I am Mara Perez, your father¡¯s second wife I think? And it¡¯s also okay to call me mom.¡± I knew it, even their names are the same. I don¡¯t know if this is another world or a parallel world where science didn¡¯t develop and magic exist. I wonder what happened to the original Jasper in this world¡­ ¡°and these are my friends. The one who¡¯s holding a shield is Gino Cruz, on his left is Kaezar Padilla and on his right is Jeziel Abella.¡± After introducing all of them, we finally entered the house. By the way, Pegasus parked the carriage near the stable and the Pegasus scattered into yellow orbs. The furniture inside are all made up of wood even the floors and walls are made up of wood. There are some flower bases with flowers on it. The first thing you will see when you enter the house is the living room. There is a small wooden table with a flowers in the middle of it. It is surrounded by chairs, also made up of wood. When you look at your right you¡¯ll see the kitchen and on your left are the stairs leading to the second floor. There is also brown carpet bellow the table. ¡°Now now, sit there and make yourselves comfortable. I will prepare some snacks so I¡¯ll be going to the kitchen.¡± Mom¡ªerr Mara said while she guide us to the chairs. I sit in the middle while Kaezar sat on my right and Skyla on my left. The chair in front of us is occupied by Jeziel and Gino occupied the seat facing the door. I let my gaze wonder inside the house and found some paintings and a stuffed head of monsters hanging in the wall. The monster are as follow, wolf with a white fur, red goblin, red orc with too many piercing, Lupos¡¯ head, a horse head, and a dragon¡¯s head. ¡°Ah, those are part of dad¡¯s collection. He just displayed some of it but in the basement you will see every bosses he fought. The wolf with a white fur is the Alpha wolf, next to it is the Goblin Leader, Orc General, Lupos, Tikbalang, and an infant dragon.¡± Skyla named every head while pointing at them. ¡°There¡¯s a tikbalang in this world?¡± I muttered to myself but Skyla heard it and said¡­ ¡°There is. It has a face of the horse, body of a man and has two powerful legs of the horse. Are you familiar with it?¡± Skyla kindly explained to me but I am sure that every Filipino know this creature since it¡¯s relatively popular at the Philippines, there was also a show that had a protagonist of Tikbalang. In the Philippines, tikbalang are some sort of guardian of the forest. They are creatures who like to play tricks on humans. Although generally they are harmless (depends on their tricks), when you anger one then you will surely die since they have a monstrous strength. The usual tricks they do is making someone lost their way and the old folks said that for you to counter tricks of tikbalang, you must wear your clothes inside out and they will laugh at you and let you go. ¡°Yes, I am pretty familiar with it.¡± I answered Skyla while thinking about the tikbalangs. Wait¡­ If tikbalang exist then the others must also exist right? I think we should be careful at night since these creatures are nocturnal. Gino chatted with Skyla asking various questions like what kind of monster can be found outside. I look at the kitchen and saw mom preparing some sandwiches. On her back is the sink and beside it is a refrigerator. ¡­ Refrigerator? What is that thing doing here! Chapter 17 – Reunion ¡°Hey, isn¡¯t that a refrigerator?¡± I asked a question to everyone while pointing at the refrigerator. I wanted to ask Skyla since she lives here but in the end I asked everyone for their confirmation. Everyone look at what I am pointing and everyone is surprise by it except Skyla. ¡°Yes it is. Dad invented it.¡± Skyla answer my question and Gino¡¯s eyes sparkles. ¡°Since there is a refrigerator here it means that there is an outlet somewhere.¡± Gino said while smiling. I smile too since when there is an outlet then it means there is electricity here which will enable the charging of Gino¡¯s laptop which means we can watch movies, listen to songs and play games but Skyla pour cold water to our excitement. ¡°I don¡¯t know what outlet is but that refrigerator is a magic tool. It uses ice stone as the mana source that lowers the temperature inside. It¡¯s convenient on preserving foods and for making cold drinks.¡± Hearing those, I feel down since the entertainment I am looking forward will not happen but Gino is still smiling. I don¡¯t know why but I feel that he¡¯s going to do something crazy. ¡°Hey Skyla. You said that your father made this right?¡± (Gino) ¡°Yes. He made it.¡± (Skyla) Hearing Skyla¡¯s reply, his smile become wider and starts to pat his bag or more precisely, his patting his laptop. I don¡¯t know what will he do but I hope that he won¡¯t break his soul(laptop) in the process. Leaving Gino aside, Mom¡ªerr Mara finished preparing the snacks and served it to us. The snacks are simple sandwiches and orange juice. I am not fond of sweet things but having a cold drink is good. Gino eat the sandwiches slowly which is rare for him. Whenever we eat, he¡¯s the first one to finish since he gobbles it up as if there¡¯s no tomorrow but right now, he¡¯s slowly eating it. His eyes wonder all over the room but it always stops at someone and that someone is Jeziel. Jeziel¡¯s eating her sandwiches with small bite and the same goes for Kaezar but Skyla takes big bites as she holds sandwiches on both hands. As for me, I eat slowly. It would be rude to the cook when you just thoughtlessly eat it without properly tasting it. ¡°It¡¯s delicious.¡± I praise Mo¡ªMara and it is not a lip service. It really is delicious. The bread are soft not the typical hard ones and it¡¯s fluffy. The filling is just mayonnaise with tidbits of meat and cabbage. ¡°Ufufufu¡­ You really are his son. The way you eat are the same.¡± Mo¡ªMara said while giggling. She¡¯s covering her mouth with her. Do I really look like my father? I don¡¯t know since the last time I meet him (in Earth) is when I am 3 years old and no matter how much I think of it, my memory is about him is so little. Scratching the back of my head, I replied. ¡°I-is that so?¡± ¡°The way you scratch the back of your head when you¡¯re embarrassed is also the same with him.¡± (Mara) I never knew it. There are too many things that I don¡¯t know about my father. The snack time peacefully past by as Mo¡ªMara says that my gestures are the same with my father. After eating snacks, the other member of the family got home. All of them look tired. Dad sits down on the chair facing Gino. Gino and I stand up letting grandpa and Lily sit. Granpa sits at Gino¡¯s former chair, the one who¡¯s facing dad, while Lily sits to where I was before. Mara served another set of sandwiches with fruit juice. Dad, grandpa and Lily took one sandwich each while Mara pours them the fruit juice. ¡°Ahh.. I¡¯m beat!¡± (Dad) ¡°It really is tiring¡­ I run from Pinar to here then ride salamander¡¯s back going back to Pinar, fighting orcs and riding again going back here and lastly, giving report to the Knight¡¯s Garrison¡­ Ah¡­ I am really tired!¡± (Grandpa) ¡°I don¡¯t care if its tiring or not as long as the cute Skyla is okay then it¡¯s worth it!¡± (Lily) Grandpa and Dad said their complains while Lily hugs Skyla while rubbing her(Lily) cheeks to her(Skyla) cheeks. Skyla is troubled on how she should take care of her big sister while the other girls look at them with a smile. I don¡¯t know what to say or feel when I learn my half-sister is a siscon but I agree at what she said about Skyla. Skyla is cute and when she grow up, she will surely break too many hearts. I smile wryly as I think about Skyla¡¯s future. Seeing me smiling, dad coughed and said. ¡°Say Jasper¡­ Is your mom¡­ okay?¡± That question caught me off guard. I never thought that Dad will worry about mom after he made a family here. But seeing Mom¡ªerr Mara, his wife here, he might really love mom from the bottom of his heart. He married someone who resembles mom a lot. I smile and said that mom¡¯s okay. After that, dad asked more questions about mom and his friends and I gladly answer them all. I take a peek at Mara who¡¯s sitting in front of me but she¡¯s smiling while drinking juice. I thought that she will get jealous since her husband was asking about his ex-wife but seeing her smile means that she know and understand it. Dad is a transported person while Mara is an original resident of this world. There¡¯s a possibility that Dad can go back to his original world, a possibility that Dad have a lover waiting for him to return, a possibility that Dad have a family back there but¡­ Despite all that¡­ She married Dad and created something that he can call home here. She really loves my dad from the bottom of her heart. She accepted all the disadvantage of loving someone who¡¯s not from her world. Smile appeared on my face unconsciously as I continue to look at Mara. Dad, who noticed the smile, look at the direction I am looking. He learns that I am looking at his wife smiling. But instead of getting jealous about it, he also smiled and said¡­ ¡°She¡¯s like your mom right? Not only on the outside, even in the inside.¡± I nod at what he said. She really looks like mom. I don¡¯t know if I will be glad because I knew that dad loves mom this much or should I pity Mara since she became a replacement of mom. I shake my head to erase that thought. I don¡¯t have the rights to blame dad about what he did since I almost did the same with Kaezar. ¡°Ah right! Sir Percival! Would you please kindly teach me how you made that refrigerator?¡± Gino ask Dad to teach him about the refrigerator. Maybe he¡¯s planning on using what he learns to create a battery or charger for his laptop. Hearing Gino¡¯s request, Dad didn¡¯t know what to say at first but he scratches the back of his head while he agreed to teach Gino. They left the living room and walk towards the basement. At first I don¡¯t know where they are going so I asked Mara and she said they have a basement and it is typically used as a workshop. Mara tidy up the dishes while Skyla and Lily help her. Kaezar and Jeziel was guided by Grandpa to their rooms since they look tired. As for me, I want to familiarize myself with the capital so I decided to go out. I followed the big roads where carriage typical thread on. With this, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll get lost.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. After walking for a while, I am back at the front of the Magician¡¯s guild and saw the neon lights again. Yup, no matter what I can only see it as a bar. Besides it, the adventurer¡¯s guild is busier compared to the one back at Pinar. This should be obvious since the population here is bigger than Pinar and the royal capital also has a bigger market than Pinar. I walk past both building and walk towards the plaza where there are too many idiot couples walking around flirting with each other. Just to be clear okay? I don¡¯t have anything against couples but they must be considerate to others. PDA are fine but don¡¯t take it to the extreme where all the single people in the world will get jealous. I just walk around aimlessly at the plaza browsing some items that are being sold. There are also some people who are selling flowers there. Well, since this plaza became the den of idiot couple. I will be surprised if there is no one who¡¯s capitalizing on this. There are also some that operates a food stall selling unknown (at least for me) meat. Besides meat, they also sell grilled frog leg, fried larva and other exotic foods. - - - The almighty third person P.O.V While Jasper is browsing different goods at the store, there is someone watching her curiously from above. It is woman who looks at her mid-20s with blond hair and crimson red eyes. She¡¯s watching Jasper ever since she saw her in front of Magician¡¯s Guild. At first, she¡¯s watching Marc and Rhea and when they decided to went inside the Magician¡¯s Guild, the woman waited at them at the entrance and there she saw Jasper. The woman crosses her hands in front of her causing her huge breast making it look bigger. ¡®I might be wrong but¡­ His aura and face is the same with Ayskrimm-sama¡¯ The woman said to herself as he watches every move that Jasper made. On the side of her view, she catches a glimpse of Marc and Rhea talking to a girl who sells flowers. The girl mistook the two as a couple which draw a small smile at woman¡¯s face. ¡®She inherited her ancestor¡¯s preference for boys.¡¯ The girl muttered and she noticed that a magician who looks like a girl but he¡¯s definitely a guy, walking towards a store that deals with staves and wands. ¡®That guy too. His aura and face is the same with Prinny-sama¡¯ Another guy has been added on her watch list. The girl knew that they are different person than the one she knows since it has been a millennium. The girl went out of the royal capital by jumping over the wall. The wall isn¡¯t low and it¡¯s definitely not a height where a normal human can jump. It stood proudly with the height of 10 meters and 5 meters wide. Its purpose is to defend the royal capital against monsters and invaders but for her, it¡¯s like a 3 feet tall fence. As the girl flew through the skies, her fox tails and ears came out. She has 9 tails which serve as a mark of her strength. Fox people are believed as extinct of the people in this world but there are some who secretly live among the humans. They live secretly not because the beastkin and humans doesn¡¯t go well but the fox people were hunted down by both humans and beastkin since they are afraid of their powers. The beastkin claims that someone from the fox people killed their king so they are hunting them all while the humans hunt them since they said that fox people eats people. Both are just lies since the beastkin king was assassinated by his own son while the humans only heard it as rumors which the beastkin spreads. She¡¯s uses her magic to transform as a normal fox and thread the forest as if it was her garden. Even though she looks like a normal fox, her speed was so fast that it leaves shockwave. Finally she reaches the Fire God¡¯s Mountain where she resides alone. In this mountain, there were no monsters since she hunted all of them. The humans thought that it was a work of God so they build a shrine there and named it as the Fire God¡¯s mountain. The Fire God¡¯s mountain is located at the north-west of Wingstone City where Rhea¡¯s family govern. She went inside a cave at the top of the mountain and what await here inside isn¡¯t the stalagmite and stalactites you will usually saw inside a cave but a room made of marbles. They are framed pictures hanging on its wall. The pictures were taken back 1000 years ago but it still colorful which would be mistaken as something that was printed just a while ago. This picture is made of now considered as ancient magic [photograph] which are invented by Juan and Prinny, her past master¡¯s companions. Back then, there¡¯s no discrimination about fox people and everyone accepted them but time changes and it¡¯s not like this. She stared at a particular picture where her master, Ayskrimm, was smiling broadly with his friends. The said friends are Juan, the vassal of shield, Bebz, the vassal of dagger, Prinny, the vassal of magic, Rhea, the founder of Wingstone City, Felina, the founder of magician¡¯s guild, and lastly her. At the picture, she only has 8 tails and she looks like on her early-20s. Her breast isn¡¯t as big as of now but it¡¯s definitely isn¡¯t small. Compared to the woman who¡¯s in their early-20s, hers are bigger than the average. At the bottom part of the pictures, there are texts written on there. The first one was Aykrimm with a signature atop of it, next is Juan, Bebz, Prinny, Rhea, Felina, and lastly her name, Rena, a companion of hero of the past Ayskrimm. - - - Jasper¡¯s P.O.V I walked out of the shop and decided to go back. When I am browsing the goods at the shop, I overheard a conversation about the promotion exam and suddenly, I remembered that I and Gino are eligible to take it. If I remember it correctly, we would take 5 tests and passed 3 of them. It really feels like L*L. I expect it to be hard since there are too many old bronze adventurers. I wonder if we can pass it. I am walking near the fountain that is surrounded by idiot couples when I notice something that doesn¡¯t exist in this world. And that is, plastic. A man wearing glasses with plastic frame is linking his arms? Or should I say that his arms got locked by a girl wearing a robe. The girl isn¡¯t that high, maybe 4¡¯11¡± ¨C 5¡¯2¡±. Her hair is color pink which I only see at animes while the man looks like 5¡¯4¡± and wearing leather armor. His hair is black the same with me. Two daggers can be seen sheathed and dangling on his waist but what catches my attention is the frame of his glasses. I know I am repeating myself here but it was made of plastic. I stretched out my hands and pull the man¡¯s shoulder. The man faced me with an annoyed expression and it suddenly changed into surprised. The man in front of me has brown eyes. His hair cut is neat something that you will see as the elementary student¡¯s hair. If I were rate his face, out of 5 stars I will give 3. Not good but then again not bad. ¡°JASPER!!¡± The guy suddenly shouts and hugs me. The girl, who¡¯s locking his arms with her, looks dumbfounded by his sudden action. Even I probably have the same expression. The guy who suddenly hugs me is someone I know pretty well. He is my friend namely Marc Hernandez. The girl, the one who locks her arms with Marc, looks familiar but I don¡¯t know where I saw her. Maybe she¡¯s someone from our university but I don¡¯t know. ¡°Jasper! Jasper! Jasper!¡± Marc rubs his head on my chest while saying my name over and over again¡­ Isn¡¯t this supposed to be done by a girl who loves her boyfriend too much? I hold back my complain and let him do whatever he wants. The girl looks at me and Marc alternately and on her eyes, you can see that tears are accumulating. She take a deep breath and asked with a shaky voice. ¡°M-marc¡­ W-who¡¯s that?¡± The girl said while pointing her trembling fingers towards me. Marc looks at her and grins. ¡°He¡¯s Jasper Perez! The love of my life!¡± I got surprised by what he said while the girl¡¯s tear started to fall down. I merciless smacked his head. ¡°DON¡¯T DECLARE SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVEN IF IT IS INTENDED TO BE A JOKE!! YOU¡¯RE MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A GAY!!¡± Honestly, blurting something like this out of nowhere is really Marc¡¯s trademark. As I smacked his head, he let go of me and holds his head and crouch down. He looks straight to my eyes from below and said something outrageous again. ¡°It¡¯s my declaration of love and yet you treat it as a joke! What kind of boyfriend are you! Didn¡¯t we have too much fun back then! You even treated my roughly on bed!¡± Hearing those lies, the girl lost the strength of her legs and falls down on the ground. Her tears that slowly falling down before start to fall down faster. Ah!! She¡¯s crying! She¡¯s crying yet not a single sound could be heard from her. Seeing him not learning his lesson and also making a girl cry, vein started popping on my head and I smiled. I smiled as I slowly, SLOWLY, draw my sword from its scabbard. ¡°Any last words?¡± I said with a cold tone and look at him as if I am looking at a trash. ¡°I-I¡¯m joking?¡± Marc stuttered and sweats can be seen on his forehead. Of course I will not take his life but I think I should carve something on his body. I don¡¯t know what will I carve though. As I am looking at Marc, I heard some muttering behind him. ¡°Marc isn¡¯t gay¡­ Marc isn¡¯t gay¡­. He likes girls¡­ He likes girls¡­ He loves boobs and XXX¡­ Of course since he¡¯s not a gay¡­¡± I slowly look at the girl behind him. She¡¯s still sitting and tears continue to fall down from her eyes but there¡¯s no warmth or light that can be seen on it (her eyes). Very slowly, her hand looks up and her lightless eyes look directly to mine. I feel every single hair on my body started to stand up. ¡°Marc is mine and mine alone! Marc is mine and mine alone! Marc is mine and mine alone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone! MarcIsMineAndMineAlone!¡± She slowly stands up every time she said those words and when she stands up her words become faster and faster. She grabbed something on her back and said¡­ ¡°Anyone who interferes with my love should¡­¡± She slowly draws a knife that is well hidden inside her robe. Raised it on the level of her eyes and said¡­ ¡°DIE!!¡± She charges at me with a speed that you don¡¯t expect to see from a magician! She¡¯s even faster than Lupos! I hurriedly block the knife aiming to my throat using my sword but she forced my hand to get back up in the air! I don¡¯t know what to say! Am I that weak!? Magician¡¯s strength is almost none existent but she managed to overpower me! Am I really that weak!? While my hand that is holding the sword is in the air, she quickly stabbed her knife towards my throat. Shit! Am I going to die on the hands of a magician in a close quarter combat!? As those thoughts run towards my mind, I heard metal crashing at each other. I see Marc deflecting the knife using his dagger and quickly hold the hand of the girl that¡¯s holding the knife sealing its movement. Then he proceeds to take something from his pocket and shove it to the girl¡¯s mouth. After a few seconds, the girl lost consciousness and fall down to Marc¡¯s arms. Marc slowly lie the girl down on the road and looks at me with an apologetic face. ¡°Well, Jasper you see¡­ I didn¡¯t expect her to be like this¡­ I am sorry¡­¡± I just nodded at what he said. The thing that happened right now feels like a dream or rather a nightmare. Is this how someone feels when they are facing an insane killer? Is this how the anime characters feels when they saw a yandere holding a knife? It feels like my soul was going to leave my body any moment back then and no matter how hard I tried to move, I can¡¯t. It feels like there¡¯s too many arms holding down my body. As the tension left my body, so do my strength. I fall down to the ground but someone catches me from behind. I look at my back and see a man that looks like a girl. He¡¯s wearing a robe and he is smiling on me. Tears started to gather on my eyes as I saw the man. The man who¡¯s not as weird as Gino and Marc. The man who¡¯s actually close to being normal than Gino and Marc. The man named Iggy Bautista. Intermission 02 – The Life of the ‘original’ Jasper The omniscient Third Person P.O.V - - - There were once a fort called Noisiv Fort. It is located near the Dragon Mountain Range which is located at the border of Kingdom of Sevil and Lyssup Empire. The fort¡¯s street was bustling with merchants, adventurers, knights and commoners. Even though it is called as a fort, you can mistake it as a city because of the lively chattering and hearty laughter that you can hear in the streets. In these busy and bustling streets of Fort Niosiv, there was a particular boy who likes to play pranks on merchants and other residents. His pranks aren¡¯t something harmful so the people, who got pranked, smiled and laugh at the boys jokes. Sometimes, the boy got scolded because of it but most of the time they just laughed it off. The people didn¡¯t know that this particular boy was the only son of the noble who governs this very fort. The boy likes to go to streets while wearing clothes, or should I say rags, which are unbefitting to nobles to wear. He was different to the other nobles who pay too much attention to their appearances. Even though he was covered with mud, he smiles from the bottom of his heart. There were some merchants who knew the secret of this little noble boy but after seeing that this eccentric noble smiled from the bottom of his heart, they decided to support him. One day, the noble boy got interested about the outside of the walls. The walls were high and it looks really reliable since it is made up of stone. It has a 10 meters tall and 5 meters thick walls. At the top of it, you can see the installed ballista lined up with a 2-5 meters apart from each other. This serves as the air defense of this fort. There are also soldiers who patrol atop of the wall. The gate was also made up of wood. It is 3 meters thick gate and behind it was a metal gate which is 1 meter thick. This is the reason why this fort can have this kind of atmosphere. Guards can be seen checking everyone who enters the fort and a big queue of merchants and peddlers could be seen even though you are just standing in front of the gate. The noble boy sneakily walked past the gate using the shadows of the carriages and wagons. His heart beats fast as he walks. After a few minutes of hiding to the guards, the noble boy successfully went outside for the first time. You can see forest on the west and north side of the fort but when you look at the east and south the Dragon mountain range could be seen. He heard from his mother that the reason why the Dragon Mountain Range named after a dragon because back then there are too many dragons living there. Living near it was impossible since the dragons always fought each other for their territory. Thanks to the hero, Ayskrimm, the mountain becomes peaceful. The hero started to hunt those dragons. The dragons fought back at the hero with their breaths but the hero¡¯s companion, Juan the shield bearer, took the breath attack without flinching. The hero continued to hunt at the mountain range until he found out that there¡¯s no dragon left. The reason why he hunts the dragons in that mountain was because it was requested by the people of the empire. He did not know that the dragons serve as a barrier between the kingdom and the empire. It was a plot devised by the emperor so that they can launch an invasion when the demon lord perished. But the plan failed. The dragons disappeared letting the monsters, who serve as the food of the dragons, run amok. Their population got bigger and bigger then they started to go to the plains and forest beneath the mountains. They only noticed this when they finished building the fort. Even after the fact that there were too many monsters going down the mountains, the empire forcefully marched their soldiers only to find themselves killed by the monsters. The emperor got frustrated because of it. He launched another expedition only to suffer the same result. The monsters began raiding the villages near the mountains forcing the emperor to stop his advances towards Sevir. He ordered the soldiers and knights to control those monsters and let the survivors live in the fort. But even if the dragons aren¡¯t there, it¡¯s still dangerous to go near the mountains. But the boy got curious as to what monsters are there. He walked towards the direction of the mountains. The road was covered with weeds that were as tall as his head yet he continued to walk. The boy finally arrived at the foot of the mountain when heard some noises coming from it. It was a rhythmically beating of drums. The boy wondered why there is something like that in the mountains which became the monsters domain. He nervously walks towards the sound and there he saw something horrible. There are humans, tied at the pole with fire beneath them. Their mouth was gagged and you can smell the flesh getting burned as the fire crawls up the pole. Man, woman, child, and old. They are tied on a pole while some monsters dance around them as if it was a ritual. On his left, he heard a moan. When he looks at that direction, he saw goblins raping human women. Some of the women were already dead and some were crying and asking salvation to the Gods. The goblins continued to raped them even though they are begging them to stop. The boy¡¯s face became pale and he hurriedly ran back to the fort. ¡®He needs to tell this to the knights!¡¯ That was the only thought in his mind. He ran and ran. Even if he tripped, he stands up and run. Finally, back at the gates the guard noticed the boy and his face became pale. Seeing the noble boy covered with bruises, he quickly run towards the boy. He don¡¯t know what would happen to him if this was reported to the lord. He took the boy to the garrison and the boy obediently followed. The guard keeps looking at the boy and he noticed that the boy was crying. ¡®Maybe he met monsters.¡¯ The guard thought. The guard leads the boy inside the garrison and called his superior. A man with the height of 6¡¯5¡± came out. He has a well-kept beard and long hair enough to covers his ears. His body was akin to the orcs since he was big and covered with muscles. If you were to paint him green then the people will surely mistook him as an orc. The man looks at the boy and frowns. The noble boy who smiled from the bottom of his heart was now crying. It broke his heart since he likes him. He wanted him to succeed his father since he felt that the fort will prosper if he became its lord. The man asked the boy what happened and the boy told him about what he saw in the mountains. The boy pleaded on the soldiers but they can¡¯t leave their post without the permission of someone in the top. The man said that he will report it to the lord so the boy must go back to his home. The boy obediently followed what the man said and went back to his home. Later that day, he heard some shouts in the study. He went there and opened the door very slowly. He didn¡¯t open it fully but only enough so that he can hear what they are talking about. ¡°You¡¯re saying to dispatch a rescue team basing on a child¡¯s blabbering!?¡± Said by his father. His father isn¡¯t something to be respected in the first place. The boy knew what his father is doing by what the rumors tell about him. The rumors said that his father was a thrash. He raped anyone he likes and kills anyone who opposes him. He accepted bribes and he was also a slave dealer. He kidnaps young men and women to be sold as slaves and when someone came close knowing the truth, he killed them. At first the boy didn¡¯t believe at it but he came across a certain warehouse where he saw his father putting slave¡¯s collar at unconscious young men and women. Starting at that day, he despised his own father but properly held back what he feels. You might wonder if he¡¯s really a child but believe me, he is.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°But my lord! Your son said that he saw it!¡± The one who responded to his father was the man at the garrison. ¡°None sense!! That¡¯s none sense!!¡± His father slams both of his hand on the desk. ¡°I won¡¯t send anything towards that mountain!!! There¡¯s no human there!! End of discussion!¡± ¡°But milord!¡± ¡°No buts!!¡± He heard footsteps walking towards the door so he hurriedly hide behind a pillar and saw his father walks out. His father¡¯s face was red and every time he walks, the fat in his body greatly shook. Next to exit was the guard. His face was also red but his expression says that one day he¡¯ll kill that pig. The boy locked himself in his room after that. Days had passed yet the boy didn¡¯t go out of his room. He would only look outside the window to pass time. He saw the lively streets of Noisiv making him wanting to go out but whenever he tried to open the door, the memories about what he saw in the mountain. He always hears the screams of agony of the humans overlapping with the laughter of the monsters whenever he approached the door. This makes him run back to his bed and hide behind his blanket crying. This scene was repeated until one day he decided to face his fears. As he walks towards the door, he heard the screams and laughter again. His body instantly wanted to go back to his bed but he steeled his resolve and continued to walk. His hands were visibly trembling as he held the door knob. He turns it and opened the door, the laughter and screams faded out. At last, he managed to go outside of his room but his breathing became rugged and if he knew that if he relaxed his muscles even for a moment, he will fall down. He walked slowly while calming his breath. His destination was the kitchen to get something to drink. If he just pulled the string in his room then the servant will go and serve him some foods but right now he did not want to go back. He¡¯s afraid that once he¡¯s inside his room again then he won¡¯t be able to go out. When the boy was almost at the kitchen, someone pulled his arms. He turns around and saw his mother together with his older sister. His mother was a beautiful woman that looks like in her teens but she¡¯s already in her late-30¡¯s while his older sister looks like in the middle of her 20¡¯s but she was actually just 17. The faces of his mother and older sister were pale and the older sister was surveying their surroundings. What happened? Asked by the boy to his mother but he didn¡¯t get any response instead he was hugged tightly by his mother. After a while, many footsteps could be heard around the corner. This made his mother to hug him tightly and his older sister to take a step backwards. She¡¯s readying to run away if someone they didn¡¯t know show up. The one who emerged was his father accompanied by 10 soldiers. All of them had a pale face and his father, due to his fatness, sweats a lot. The father looks at them and nodded. ¡°Alright lets go.¡± His father said while his mother and older sister followed. He was dragged by his mother while he was thinking what is happening in his home. As they were running, he heard many screams and laughter at the corridors. They came from the rooms where the servant gathers. There are also sounds of clashing weapons indicating that someone was fighting. ¡°Mom! What¡¯s happening!?¡± He shouted at his mother. But his mother didn¡¯t respond but grips his hands tightly. Another turn then it¡¯s the exit. The boy muttered but when they are about to turn, a 7 feet monsters came. Its skin was color brown and it¡¯s holding a throwing axe on its hand. It has a long nose and it has a canine like teeth. It was a troll. Troll has a strong vitality and its regeneration isn¡¯t a joke. It can regenerate a severed hand after an hour and it is usually hunted by gold ranked adventurers or above. The soldier went in front even though they were visibly shaking due to fear. His father, who froze up when he saw the troll, grabbed her mother¡¯s hand and ran. He got dragged away again while his older sister desperately ran with his father. Screams could be heard behind them and he looks behind because of it. What he saw makes him to puke. The troll slaughtered the soldiers¡¯ singlehandedly and sometime it drink the soldier¡¯s blood by raising the soldier¡¯s body and cut its arm. Then it will drink like someone drinking on the faucet. As he was watching the troll slaughtering the soldier behind them, another one appeared in front but it let them pass as if it was an ally. When they were 10 meters away, he saw something flew besides him. It hit his father burying itself on his father¡¯s head. The body fell down like a puppet whose string was cut and blood spurted out from the wound. His mother shrieked from terror but she didn¡¯t dare to stop. She knows that when she slows down then she will be the next one. His sister dashed straight but got caught by another troll who appeared after breaking the wall to her right. His sister got caught but his mother didn¡¯t stop to help her. Her sister pleaded help on his mother but his mother ignored her. He wanted to help but he can¡¯t shake off his mother¡¯s grip. When they were near the window, his mother throws him out. Even though they were in the second floor of the house, she didn¡¯t hesitate and throw him. She knew that her son will land safely since below the window were the pond. She tried to jump after her son but she got caught by the troll who caught her daughter. Her daughter was unconscious and being carried as if she was a sack. The mother tried to free herself while wishing her son to be well. The boy got out of the pond and looks up at the window. He wanted to see her mother who throws him out but she¡¯s not there. He waited for about 5 minutes then gave up. He was in the garden and decided to went out. What he saw wasn¡¯t the usual lively streets but an abandoned one. As if the Fort Noisiv was a ghost town. There¡¯s no soul could be seen outside the streets. He tried to get out of the town but he heard a commotion coming from the plaza. He silently walked towards the plaza and there he saw something terrible. His mother and older sister here tied in a pole. Their legs were apart and their arms stretched out from both sides. His older sister was unconscious while her mother glared at a hooded man. ¡°Who are you!?¡± His mother asked and the man replied with laughter. ¡°I am asking you who are you!?¡± ¡°Milady, don¡¯t you see what¡¯s your situation right now? If you don¡¯t then let me tell you. You are a prisone¡ªno, you¡¯re a sacrifice right now. Sacrifice for the revival of the demon lord! After we caught your son then we will begin the ritual. After all, the demon lord was sealed inside your son¡¯s body.¡± ¡°Are you insane!? He¡¯s only 5 years old! There¡¯s no way that the demon lord, who was sealed for about 1000 years ago, sealed inside his body!¡± ¡°Oh milady believe me. The demon lord was definitely sealed inside your son¡¯s body. After all, Ayskrimm sealed him inside his own body and your son has the same aura as that damned hero.¡± His mom and the hooded man continued to argue but he was deep in thought. The hooded man said that the demon lord was sealed inside him. He also said that he has the same aura with the hero. The boy was pulled back to reality when he heard his mother¡¯s shout ¡°JASPER!! NEVER LET THIS MAN CAPTURE YOU!!¡± ¡°As if he can ran away from the trolls. As of this moment, there were some trolls who¡¯s searching for him. Outwitting those were easy but you can¡¯t fool them easily. And also, shut up.¡± The man snapped his finger causing the dress of his mother and older sister to disappear. ¡°It seems that you need to be punished by your action. Kuha, kuhahaha, kuhahahahahahahaha¡± The man laughed in a bizarre ways as the trolls came near his mother and older sister. The trolls throws away the rags covering their sexual organ and proceeded to rape his mother and older sister. His older sister consciousness came back after being penetrated by the troll and screams out begging the troll to stop but the troll laughed and continued to roughly shoved his XXX to her XXX. His mother had a agonized expression and tears can be seen falling down from her eyes. She didn¡¯t scream or beg but clenched her fist and bit her lips. He wanted to help them but his feet didn¡¯t move. He tried to move it but instead of moving forward, it took a step backwards. He didn¡¯t let his eyes turns away from his mother but his body suddenly turns around as if someone was controlling it. His feet begun to run away from the plaza. He ran and ran away from the Noisiv. Away from his homeland and away from his home. He closed his eyes and run. He don¡¯t know where he¡¯ll go but he run towards the Dragon mountain range. He didn¡¯t noticed that he was at the mountain since he closed his eyes, even though he passed through the border he didn¡¯t noticed it. The next time he opened his eyes he saw unfamiliar ceiling. His body was covered with bondage and a girl with a chestnut hair was trying her best to carry a bucket of water. ¡°Where am I?¡± The boy asked to no one but a guy who looks like a doctor answered him. ¡°You are at Pinar. You were found by Erin a lumberjack. Now tell me, who are you?¡± The doctor asked him with a kind voice but when he was about to answer, he noticed that he didn¡¯t knew his own name. ¡°Who¡­ Am I?¡± He asked the doctor and the doctor got surprised by his question. The doctor puts his hand on his chin and asked once again. ¡°Where are you from?¡± The boy frowns at the question since he don¡¯t know who he is and where did he came from¡­ ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ I don¡¯t remember anything.¡± Once again the doctor got surprised and inside the boy¡¯s head the question repeats itself¡­ Who am I? Where did I came from? He tried his best to remember but he didn¡¯t remember anything. After a few days of staying in the clinic, Erin the lumberjack decided to adopt him and named him as Jaira. Jaira grew up as a lumberjack but he suddenly decided to become and adventurer. He is now 21 years old and a bronze ranked adventurer. His level was 20 and he is a warrior. He went inside the forest to gather the herbs requested in the guild. While he was harvesting herbs, a hooded man appeared in front of him. He didn¡¯t know how he appeared out of nowhere but the Jaira drew his sword and readied his shield. ¡°At long last, I found you.¡± The hooded man stretches out his right arm as if it was trying to reach something. ¡°Now die! [Summon]!¡± After saying the keyword of the summoning magic, a giant worm appeared behind the hooded man and devours Jaira whole. Jaira¡¯s corpse came out at the rear of the worm. It was almost skeleton and sizzling sound could be heard. The hooded man looks at it expecting something to happen but after for what it seems to be an hour, nothing changes. The sizzling sound stops and the corpse remains to be a corpse. ¡°Failed huh¡­ Should I wait another century to try again? *sigh* this is troublesome..¡± The hooded man left and after 5 minutes, the corpse were covered by light and it¡¯s flesh started to regenerate. The half-digested corpse became a human. Its equipment got repaired. The human stands up and looks around his surroundings. The man who appeared is Jasper Perez. The protagonist of this story. Chapter 18 - Reunion (2) Iggy continued to support me while I stare at him blankly. I almost called his name but I remembered that in this world, somebody from Earth has a counterpart. This world feels like Edolas of Fairy Tale but the only difference was that residents here aren¡¯t the opposite of the original or should I say residents of the Earth. They look and act the same even though we have different environment and culture, it didn¡¯t help to change someone¡¯s personality. Seeing that I am reluctant to call his name, Iggy slowly help me stand up on my feet and said while smiling. ¡°Long time no see Jasper.¡± Hearing those words, I am sure that this guy in front of me is the Iggy Bautista that I know. ¡°Finally¡­ A normal friend among¡­¡± I muttered as I look at Iggy. It¡¯s not that I am saying that my (male) friends are all weird but what I am saying is I found someone normal (a male friend). I¡¯m happy that I found someone who will not joke around without reading the mood and someone who will not use your weakness to order you around. ¡°Hey! What does that mean Jasper!¡± Marc voice out his complains but I ignored it and look at the girl. Looking at her closely, she really is familiar to me but I really don¡¯t know where I saw her. It¡¯s not in the university since she looks like a foreigner. If a foreigner wanted to study in the Philippines, then they would enroll at the university on Manila not on the province. ¡°Hey don¡¯t ignore me! Jasper-senpai notice me!!¡± Ignoring Marc again, I continued to stare at the girl trying to figure out where and when did I saw her. As far as my memories goes, she¡¯s not an actress, singer, or model that I know. Suddenly, my vision darkens and I feel someone covering my eyes. ¡°Mou. Jasper-senpai am I not enough for you?¡± Marc tried his best to act like my lover but imagining him acting like an anime heroine gives me the creeps. It feels gross. Acting like this was normal for us but right now I don¡¯t like to go with his jokes. I forcefully grab his hands, which were covering my eyes, using all of my strength and peel it off from my face. ¡°Harder!! More harder!!! Oh yess!! Yes!! Yes~!!¡± Marc shouts as I grab his hands. His breathing became rugged and I almost let go of his hands but when I look at his face, he looks like his in pain. His cheeks aren¡¯t red and I can clearly see that he¡¯s faking his rugged breath. Seeing him acting like a pervert, I grab his hand again intending to break his. ¡°Ouch!! Ouch!! Ouch!! Ouch!! I¡¯m sorry!! I won¡¯t do it again please stop it!!! Please let it go!! OUUCH!!!¡± Saying that he¡¯s sorry but I highly doubt it. He might be saying that he¡¯s sorry but in his heart he isn¡¯t. I let go of his hand and he crease his hands to relieve the pain. I face Iggy and asked ¡°So, where have you been?¡± Iggy has a wry smile on his face. ¡°I¡¯m just here in the capital, investigating things and enjoying magic.¡± Well, this guy likes magic and he¡¯s the one who dragged Gino and Marc at the Otaku world. Even though he looks like a girl, acts like a girl (sometimes), and as gentle as a girl he is definitely a man but there is a slight problem about him. He¡¯s a lolicon. Most of the anime he¡¯s watching before we got here were full of lolis. ¡°Investigating what?¡± I asked him since I am curious about it. ¡°About this world. Haven¡¯t you noticed that something is weird in this world?¡± ¡°Of course this world is weird. It has levels and magic after all.¡± (Marc) ¡°No aside from that¡­ Have you ever wondered why nobody ever wondered where we came from? Nor they talk about the recent update about the status? The former can be explained because of the adventurer¡¯s guild but the latter¡­ have you ever asked someone about it?¡± (Iggy) He¡¯s right. The first person whom I interacted with didn¡¯t raise any suspicion about my identity. Even if the so called ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯ exist, it doesn¡¯t mean that they will not be checked for entering towns. This thing is weird but I didn¡¯t think about it too much since it¡¯s convenient to me. The second one is about the update. On normally, you would talk about it everywhere since your status changed but strangely enough, I haven¡¯t heard it anywhere except to someone who was also transferred to this world. Why did we, transported people, only know about it? Or should I say that we are the only one who talks about it in public. They might know about the update but for them, it is normal. But no matter how normal it is for one person, when a big change comes, then they will always talk about it. And that update was big enough to change almost everything in this world since the status requirement to wear items exist and it also has status raising effect¡­ Wait¡­ Speaking equipment which raises the user¡¯s status, I have one of them. I take out the [Rabbit¡¯s Foot] that is hanging on my neck. - - - Rabbit¡¯s Foot (Common) Durability: N/A Defense: 0 They said that the rabbit¡¯s foot is lucky but there was nothing to prove it. Despite that, people continued to make rabbit¡¯s foot for good luck. - - -Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I am stunned by the description. The [Luck 1] enhancement on it was gone and now it doesn¡¯t had any use now. Seeing me staring at the [Rabbit¡¯s Foot], Marc stands up and pats my shoulder. ¡°I know that you wanted to become lucky but relying on superstition won¡¯t make you lucky.¡± Hearing what he says, I firmly grasped his head and put pressure to it. Marc is saying ¡°Give up! Give up!¡± but I didn¡¯t give any attention to it. ¡°Oh isn¡¯t that a [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]? Though it is considered as a [Common] grade item it gives a small raise on Luck. But after the update, it suddenly became useless.¡± Iggy said while he shows me his own [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]. It has the same color as mine, white but the string is made of metal. ¡°It was a cheap item for 25 coppers each.¡± (Iggy) ¡°So I can only sell this for 25 coppers huh¡­¡± I said while I look at the [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]. I feel a little down since the first item I made only worth 25 coppers, not that I am planning to sell it, but I feel glad at the same time that this item (which was regarded as trash now) cost 25 coppers. A bit contradictory right? I am feeling down since it¡¯s cheap but I am glad that if ever I sell this then I will have 25 copper coins which is 25 kwarts. ¡°Oh right, why did you buy a [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]?¡± I asked Iggy and he seems to be reluctant to answer. He looks at his [Rabbit¡¯s Foot] and said. ¡°Since you have a quiver on your back I thought that you will understand why I wanted a [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]¡­¡± What¡¯s the relationship of quiver and [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]? As far as I can see they are two different items. The quiver holds the arrows while [Rabbit¡¯s Foot] is a necklace. No matter how I think about it, I still can¡¯t get it. Iggy looks at me while smiling wryly and said. ¡°You are an archer so you¡¯ll know that big circle every time you try to use your bow right?¡± Big circle? Using my bow? I still can¡¯t get it! What¡¯s the relationship between my bow and a big circle? Ah! I see.. It¡¯s the crosshair or whatever. ¡°Mine isn¡¯t that big. The biggest circle that appeared has one inches radius.¡± As I said those words, Iggy¡¯s eyes opens wide and stare, glare to be precise, to me. He slowly approached me and holds both of my shoulders. ¡°WHY THE HELL DID THE CROSSHAIR WAS THAT SMALL FOR YOU EVEN THOUGH IT ALMOST COVER MY SIGHT!?¡± Iggy shouted while shaking my shoulders. His eyes become bloodshot and his grips become tighter. Again, I want to know what is the basic stats of magicians!! Do they all have a high strength stats? I want to know! ¡°C-calm down! Calm down!¡± (Jasper) ¡°Iggy¡­ Don¡¯t tell me¡­ you bought something that increases your luck just to hit an enemy with your skill shots? Are you an IDIOT!¡± Marc, who seems to be surprised, said his deduction about why Iggy bought a [Rabbit¡¯s Foot]. Iggy hears what Marc said and let go of my shoulders. I feel dizzy because of what he did but I clearly seen Iggy¡¯s face. It looks like an angry demon finally found its victim. He slowly turns around and glares at Marc, causing him (Marc) to shiver. ¡°Hey hey¡­ Iggy¡­ I know you¡¯re angry but please it was just a joke!! We all know that you sucked at skill shots and we often use it as a joke but you know that it¡¯s only a joke right? We never meant it!!¡± Marc slowly walks back as he tells his excuses while Iggy steps forward towards him. Iggy punch Marc causing him to lose his balance and fell over the fountain. Actually, I am surprised by Iggy¡¯s action, even Marc was surprised. Marc held his cheeks, where the punch landed, and stared at Iggy dumbfounded. Iggy isn¡¯t someone who easily resorts to violence after all. This made me and Marc surprised by his action. Iggy faced me with a refreshing smile and said. ¡°Never mind the trash at the fountain. Where have you been all this time?¡± Suddenly asked by that question, I recover from my shock and answered. ¡°I am at the village called Pinar but unfortunately¡­ It was attacked by the orcs and only 5 survived, including me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that¡­¡± I don¡¯t know if my sadness is shown in my face but Iggy apologized with a pained look. It¡¯s really sad. Seeing the corpses of the human whom I interacted back then with their expression frozen with despair. I don¡¯t want to experience it again. Actually, I¡¯m mad at myself since I was not there when that happens. Maybe, if I were there from the start of that incident then Kaezar, of this world, might still be alive along with her father and Sis, Kaezar of Earth, might not get transported here. Living in this world where monsters exist posed too many dangers and I realized after the attack of orcs that even inside a town, we are not safe to monster¡¯s attacks. ¡°Well anyways! I am with Gino and he is currently at my father¡¯s place so let¡¯s go there!¡± I changed the topic since if we dwell on it too long I will just be depress even more. Iggy nods and Marc stands up then he proceed to carry Rhea on his back. We silently walk towards the house and passed through the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. ¡°Come to think of it, are you an adventurer Jasper?¡± Marc asked while supporting Rhea, who¡¯s still asleep due to the drug. ¡°Yes, Gino and I are registered. Ah come to think of it, we are eligible to take the promotion examination at the guild.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Hooho¡­ May I ask what your current rank is?¡± (Marc) ¡°Currently, I am [Bronze] the same with Gino.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Haah! Weak! Too weak!! NOOOOB!!! Bronze? Heh. A beginner! Wahahahahaha! Noob noob noob noob!¡± (Marc) By what he said, we stop walking and stand right in front of the adventurer¡¯s guild. I don¡¯t know what his rank is but he¡¯s really annoying. What¡¯s wrong with being [Bronze]! After passing the examination I will become [Iron] then slowly climb up to [Adamantite]. Well, I don¡¯t know if I can be an [Adamantite] adventurer in the first place. ¡°Incidentally, what is your current rank?¡± (Jasper) ¡°I am [Iron]! Praise me you noob adventurer!¡± (Marc) This guy¡­ I thought the he will be at least silver since he¡¯s looking down at me like that but he¡¯s just an [Iron]! I think I clearly said that I am eligible to take the promotion examination and soon we will be at the same rank. *Sigh* The only reply I can give to him is a sigh and a lukewarm gaze. I think he¡¯s not an idiot but right now, I doubt my judgment for him. Do I really know this guy? Can I, his friend since high school, proudly say that he is not an idiot? ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? Why do you appear as if you¡¯re looking at an idiot? Just to be clear okay? I only said those just for the sake of saying. There¡¯s no deeper meaning about it okay! I clearly hear and understood what you said so please don¡¯t look at me like that!!¡± Marc begin explaining himself even though no one asks him to explain. ¡°Incidentally, I am also an [Iron] ranked adventurer.¡± Iggy interjected at Marc¡¯s explanation while smiling. I¡¯m really glad that despite being near at Gino and Marc, Iggy remained to be normal. We once again started to walk but we, Iggy and I, completely ignored the explanation of Marc. We walk pass the Magician¡¯s guild but no matter how I look at it, with neon light sign and all, all I can see is a bar. When we arrived at the gate of the house, we saw Lily going outside. ¡°Ara, Kuya Jasper, where have you been? *Kuya Gino was looking for you.¡± (Lily) (* Kuya can also be used to address a male who is older than you even if you don¡¯t know him personally, same with Ate (Big sister).) ¡°I just walked around the town. Ah right, the man who¡¯s wearing a robe is Iggy and the man carrying a girl at his back is Marc, the girl is Rhea. The two guy are my friends and the girl was just an acquaintance I think? And also, Marc and Iggy, this is Lily my little sister.¡± I introduced them to each other but the two of them stared at me with their eyes full of doubt. ¡°Kuya Marc and Kuya Iggy, nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Likewise..¡± (Marc) ¡°N-nice to meet you too.¡± (Iggy) Lily left without closing the gate since we will be opening it once again if we enter. ¡°Hey¡­ I have something to ask is it alright?¡± Iggy asks me while Marc looks at Lily¡¯s back as if he met someone that doesn¡¯t supposed to exist. ¡°Yes.¡± I have a feeling that he will be asking about my little sister but I let him ask it anyway. ¡°How come you have a family in this world?¡± A little bit off the mark but little sister is still counted as a family so it¡¯s okay. ¡°You see, my dad is alive in this world.¡± (Jasper) ¡°I thought your dad died when you were just 3?¡± (Iggy) ¡°Yep, he definitely dead but apparently, he was transported in this world. Made a family and stayed.¡± (Jasper) Iggy seems to be having a hard time processing what he just heard so I asked them to come inside first. As we are walking towards the door, I look at the flower garden (or more likely flower forest) and there are some insect living there. There are bees and butterfly resting on the flowers. - - - We entered the house and saw Gino sitting at the chair using his laptop. The charger is connected and I follow it to see where it is plugged. What I see is a cube with 5 inches length per side and on the top of it, the charger is plug. The laptop seems to be charging but I don¡¯t know how the black cube did it. ¡°Gino, I heard you are looking for me?¡± ¡°Oh Jasper, welcome back.¡± Gino answered without looking at me and continued to fiddle with his laptop. I don¡¯t know what he is doing but he seems to be busy. ¡°What are you doing?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Nothing¡­ Just checking if the files are still here. After all, your dad said that some files in his phone got erased when he first come in here.¡± (Gino) Wow¡­ I never thought that Dad has a cellphone back then. And if he had one, then it would surely be a N*kia with a game of space impact installed to it. Maybe instead of files, he meant text messages and contact numbers of his friends. ¡°It seems that nothing is missing. Thanks goodness.¡± Gino said while he shut down his laptop and he finally faces us. Upon seeing us, he slowly looks at Iggy from Iggy¡¯s feet to his head then down to his feet again and nodded. I don¡¯t know why he nodded though. Then he looks at Marc but somehow, his eyes didn¡¯t move around like when he looks at Iggy. He is staring straight to Marc¡¯s eyes and Marc stares back. After a while, Marc diverted his eyes and said. ¡°Don¡¯t stare too much¡­ It¡¯s embarrassing¡­¡± He tried to imitate a girl from an anime when she undresses in front of a boy. (Actually, it isn¡¯t anime but H ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã) ) ¡°Good. The vessel seems to be functioning and it is following Marc¡¯s command.¡± Gino nodded after he said those words. The vessel refers to Marc¡¯s body because Gino said that the person known as Marc was made up of 99% his glasses, 0.5% trash, and 0.5% other materials. Well, it became a joke when greeting each other and sometimes, I did it too. ¡°Leaving the trash aside¡­ Why are you looking for me?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Well, I thought that you might want to take the promotion examination of the guild so I am looking for you. So, do you want to rank up?¡± (Gino) I asked Gino why he was looking for me and Gino said that it was about the rank up. ¡°I would love to.¡± (Jasper) ¡°So then, let¡¯s go!¡± (Gino) Chapter 19 – Rank up and the Final Boss And now, here we are in front of the guild. Gino and I will be taking the promotion examination while Iggy and Marc will wait for us. About Rhea, she¡¯s still asleep so we decided to leave her. Skyla, Father and Mom are talking about something in the garden so after telling that we are going to the guild we left them. We once again passed at the bar¡ªI mean the magician guild but really, no matter how I look at it, it looks like a bar (I know I am repeating this over and over again but this is how I really see it). ¡°So, good luck with your examination and I hope you fail.¡± (Marc) ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if ever we fail here, one or two of your secret will spread on this town.¡± (Gino) Marc bid us a good luck but he is hoping for us to fail. Isn¡¯t that contradictory? And Gino answered him with a slight threat but I got curious about Marc¡¯s secret but I don¡¯t want to fail this examination. ¡°Ah right right, Iggy would you kindly tell us what kind of examination we¡¯ll be taking?¡± (Jasper) ¡°I can¡¯t tell you since it¡¯s a rule but let me give you a hint¡­ there are 5 examination but it is easy so good luck!!¡± (Iggy) I already know that there are 5 of them so what Iggy said isn¡¯t something new or something that you could consider as a hint but I didn¡¯t know that it is against the rule of the guild to tell what is the promotion examination. Well, he said that it was easy so let¡¯s just trust him. I look at Gino and found that he¡¯s still flirtin¡ªI mean, talking with Marc so I entered first. He¡¯ll just follow me after he realized that he¡¯s alone with Marc so I don¡¯t have to worry about him. The adventurer¡¯s guild here isn¡¯t the same with the one in Pinar. There aren¡¯t any adventurer drinking midday and there are no waiters or waitress serving alcohol and food. All I can see after walking inside are chairs and tables with adventurers sitting on them, a big bulletin board where there are too many paper pinned on it and the receptionist¡¯s table? Or should I say booth since compared to Pinar, the receptionists and adventurers are divided by a glass and there is a divider dividing every receptionists. The adventurers here fall in line properly and the receptionists receive them with a smile unlike Pinar where adventurers rush towards the receptionists without queuing. There are stairs leading to the second floor and a door at the top. The second floor can¡¯t be seen here but there are some adventurers who walk up but there isn¡¯t anyone who walks down. The adventurers who walk up open the door and you can sometimes hear shouts and laughter whenever it was opened. Maybe the second floor is the tavern? ¡°Woah, this branch is clearly different than Pinar. Pinar was rowdy and here, it feels like you walk inside the bank. Except that the clients have weapons and armors.¡± (Gino) Gino, whom I didn¡¯t notice that he already came inside, said. Well, it really feels like I am inside a bank if you disregard the equipment of the adventurers. ¡°You¡¯re right¡­¡± I said agreeing to what Gino had said. I once again look around the guild and I notice that there are wooden board hanging above each receptionist booth. There are 6 of them and there are also 6 booths. The order is from left to right, [Quest Acceptance], [Quest Rewards], [Quest Registration], [Registration (Adventurer)], [Registration (Group)], and [Other Matters]. The booths for [Quest Acceptance] and [Quest Rewards] have too many adventurers queuing on them while there are 3 persons queuing at [Quest Registration] and 1 person for [Registration (Adventurer)] and the other booths didn¡¯t have anyone queuing on them. ¡°Now then, where should we go?¡± I ask Iggy since he said that he transported here and investigated some things in here and also he¡¯s already an [Iron] ranked adventurer so it means that he took the examination once. ¡°It¡¯s the [Other Matters] booth. They process the promotion there.¡± (Iggy) ¡°I see.¡± (Jasper) We, Gino and I, walked towards the booth while Iggy and Marc went to the bulletin board to check out some quest. Upon arriving at the booth, the receptionist greeted us with a lovely voice. ¡°Welcome~! How may I help you?¡± The receptionist has a voice of a lady but contrary to the receptionist voice, he is a man. A man wearing a woman¡¯s clothing that looks like it will burst out anytime soon due to his big muscles. He shaved his beard that you can see that it started to grow while his face looks like a veteran of wars and on top of it, he is bald with too many scars on his head. I held my voice from shouting since it would be rude and I look at Gino and found him covering his mouth with his right hand while his eyes wide open. ¡°Please don¡¯t stare at me that much, I get embarrassed too easy~~¡± The man(?) wriggles while holding his cheeks that is dyed red due to embarrassment. If you are a woman with a cute looks then it will suit you and the one who are looking might fall but when you see a giant man doing it, it makes you wanted to puke. I heard someone giggling at our back so I turn back and saw Marc and Iggy doing their best to contain their laughter. Marc is holding his stomach while Iggy covers his mouth and lean on the wall. I see, that¡¯s why they didn¡¯t come with us since they knew about it. I thought that they will be checking the bulletin board but they just distanced themselves so that they can have a good time. I¡¯ll remember this! Marc and Iggy! ¡°W-w-what are you doing!!¡± I suddenly hear someone shouts at the back of the giant receptionist. There stood a woman wearing the same uniform as the other receptionist. Her hair is color purple, the first time I am seeing it, and it is neatly tied like a bun. She¡¯s also wearing glasses and her face puts models to shame and for those who are interested about her breast, it is big but just to make sure okay? It¡¯s not that the first thing I saw was her breast. It is just big so my eyes got attracted to it. ¡°Weelll, I am entertaining them?¡± The man said while trying his best to be cute. He put on of his fingers on his cheeks and titled his head hoping that it will heal our soul but unfortunately, it does to opposite. It feels like our soul was being dragged by Satan to the pits of the hell while laughing ¡°Buwahahahaha¡±. Honestly speaking, it¡¯s disgusting. ¡°Entertaining? More like you¡¯re torturing them with your gestures!! And what¡¯s with that get up?!¡± (Big Bre¡ªI mean receptionist girl) ¡°A receptionist uniform?¡± The giant answered while continuing his supposedly cute pose. ¡°I know but what I am asking is why you are dressing up like that guild master!¡± It seems that the receptionist is on her limit. You can see her trembling with her fist tightly close. It feels like any moment she¡¯ll explode but, that giant is the guild master? If he wears proper clothes then I might believe it but seeing that giant wearing female clothes while trying his best to act cute¡­ Are you kidding me?! The leader represents the subordinate so seeing him doing something this strange made me think that everyone in this guild is weird.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Well, I always wanted to try wearing female clothes and act cutely but I see¡­ It¡¯s not suited for me¡­¡± The giant drops his shoulder while he is saying this. He looked depressed but the receptionist just stared at him with cold eyes. ¡°Anyways!! Change your clothes and lock yourself inside your office!!¡± The giant obediently follows what the receptionist said and walks towards the back door while looking down. The receptionist looks at the depressed giant while readying her hands to slap the giant if he did anything foolish. After the giant went out, the receptionist turns towards us with a refreshing smile and said. ¡°Welcome to the Linabanan branch Adventurer¡¯s Guild! I am Mary your receptionist for today. How can I help you?¡± I stare at her silently while bracing myself. After seeing their head doing that act, naturally you¡¯ll brace yourself for its subordinate to do the same as its head. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be on guard¡­ He might be like that but he¡¯s a good person, it¡¯s just that¡­ he has some loose screw in his head.¡± Mary smiled wryly as she explained about the giant. It seems that she assumed that I am putting my guard in case that the giant comes back but she¡¯s wrong. I am putting my guard to brace myself to a sudden weird act. ¡°No¡­ We are not raising our guard regarding that¡­ It¡¯s just that¡­ Seeing the head of an organization acts like that, it¡¯s normal to assume that the subordinate will be the same¡­¡± Gino corrects Mary¡¯s assumption and Mary¡¯s face become dark for a moment and muttered ¡°That idiot¡­¡± then it returned to the her bright smile. ¡°The head might be like that but I assure you that his subordinate isn¡¯t like that.¡± Even if she explains it like that, I can¡¯t let my guard down. After all, that first impression got me and worse of it it¡¯s the guild master who did that. ¡°Ahem¡­ How can I help you?¡± Mary cleared her throat and asks once again. ¡°We are here to take the promotion examination¡± (Gino) ¡°Can I please see you¡¯re adventurer¡¯s card to verify if you are eligible to take the examination?¡± We follow what Mary said and gave her our cards. She put it a top of a stone tablet with a magic circle engraved on top of it and it shone with a blue color. This is how they check the adventurer¡¯s card. Blue color represents that the holder is eligible to take the promotion examination, red if the card is fake and yellow if it¡¯s original. I always see it before at Pinar so I am quite familiar about it. ¡°It seems that both of you are eligible to take the promotion examination. The examination has 5 phases and each phase can only be taken once per examination. The phases are as follows: Phase 1 [Gathering], Phase 2 [Subjugation], and from Phase 3-5 are [Match] with different jobs. If you failed 3 of them then you will be retained to your current rank and some points will be deducted to your adventurer¡¯s points. Each phase have their own time limit which will be explained at the beginning of each phase. Exceeding the time limit given will be counted as a failure. While taking the examination, you can still accept quest from the [Quest Board]. So are you prepared to take the Phase 1?¡± Mary explained to us about the promotion examination while giving back our adventurer¡¯s card. At her question, I look at Gino and he nods. ¡°We are ready to take the first phase.¡± ¡°Very well. The first phase is [Gathering]. Gather 10 pieces of [Medical Herb] for each of you. The time limit would be tomorrow at the same time as of now. I wish you good luck.¡± After telling us what to gather, Mary sees us off with a smile while Iggy and Marc already found a quest and they are now queuing. The [Medicinal Herb] is a plant used to create [Lesser Health Potion] and as the name implies, it restore a little of the user¡¯s health. I have 5 of those for emergency use. Well anyways, we went outside the city and started to walk towards the forest. Why the forest? It¡¯s because there are many of those herbs there. Well, you can certainly find it near the walls but they are too small to use and the quantity isn¡¯t enough. The bronze ranked adventurers typically take gathering quest because they lack combat experience and not only that, they also don¡¯t have a good equipment to face monsters. As for us, we were given a beginner¡¯s equipment and we are wearing them from the start when we are transported here. Of course I don¡¯t know if that is the case for others but at least for me I have them. Come to think of it, when Kaezar was transported here she¡¯s wearing the clothes of Kaezar (this world) when she was attacked by the orcs. Same goes with Jeziel. Perhaps, the me of this world was an adventurer and he was killed in the middle of a quest? Maybe I should investigate about it later¡­ Ah. The moment someone was transported here was the exact moment the person similar to the transported here died and this world erases their existence? I think that was what Iggy said to me before. It will be difficult to find about the Jasper here. As we are walking outside the wall, I see some kids ages 8-12 gathering [Medical Herbs] here and there. If we are going to compete with them then it might take a while for us to gather the required amount. I heard from the guard that these kids were orphans and they were taken care of the orphanage inside the town. The orphanage teaches the kids about different works depending on what they wanted to do when they grow up. We walk past them and headed straight in the forest. The forest is 20 minutes¡¯ walk from the gate and the closer you get to the forest, the fewer the people that you will see. The forest is the dens of different monsters, well, I say different but they are just goblins and wolves in the shallow part of the forest so it is relatively safe for the adventurers. As we go deeper on the forest, we harvest and fought the monsters residing inside. After an hour or so, we already got the required herb so we decided to go back. Both of us have ten herbs, 10 goblin¡¯s ear, 10 wolf¡¯s fang, 10 fur, and 10 pieces of wolf meat. There are also some club, rusty sword and daggers dropped by goblins. The time limit is tomorrow but we decided to finished it quickly and take the next phase tomorrow. As we walked inside the guild, we saw Iggy, Marc and the strength type Magician chatting with each other. The strength type Magician smiles brightly while talking with them and she looks cute making me wonder if she was the same person who has greater strength than me. We proceeded on the [Other Matters] and the guild master is there. He¡¯s not wearing the female uniform but the male ones. A butler like clothes. Upon seeing him, we hesitated to come near but the guild master sees us and signed us to come near. ¡°Welcome to the Linabamanan Adventurer¡¯s guild. How may I help you?¡± The voice and tone is manly and adding to his big build, you will feel that you are facing something terrifying¡­ Or if I should say, it feels like we are facing a bear in the wilds, not that I encounter one before. Before it feels like we are talking with a pervert but now it feel like we are facing the final boss. Seeing us bewildered by his action, he scratches his bald head and said. ¡°Did my real voice terrify you that much? If you want I can also use this voice~~¡± (Guild Master) The first part was said by his ¡®real¡¯ voice and the last one was said using the ¡®trying-too-hard-to-be-cute¡¯ voice which can easily pull a soul to the depths of the hell. ¡°N-no, please use your original voice. We preferred it than the latter.¡± (Gino) ¡°Is that so? It¡¯s a shame.¡± The guild master said this while looking depress. His shoulders are dropping and his head is looking down. Seeing the final boss look-alike acting like this isn¡¯t cute. It looks like the final boss was regretting that his offer of giving the half of the world to the hero was rejected and now he¡¯s going to kill someone with a great potential. ¡°So how can I help you today?¡± (Guild Master) The guild master once again looks straight to us and smiles widely but instead of making him look friendly, he looks like a devil that fooled a human anticipating the taste of his soul after the contract was done. ¡°Uhhm¡­ We are here to finish the phase one of the promotion examination.¡± (Gino) Gino said the whole sentence without stuttering! This is an unbelievable! Especially if you are facing the final boss at low level! I admired his courage but when I look closely at him, his knees were trembling and it looks like that if you pat him then he would fall. But even if that¡¯s the case, I admired him. His feat isn¡¯t something that any human could do. ¡°Is that so? So what phase are you in?¡± The guild master (final boss mode) asked us while he¡¯s flipping a record book. Maybe he¡¯s looking if we are really taking the examination. ¡°It¡¯s still phase one and we already gathered the enough herbs needed.¡± As I said, I put the pouch containing 10 herbs to the counter and Gino did the same. The guild master (final boss mode) stops flipping the record book and look at the pouches at the desk. He opened one and checks each herb one by one. ¡°By the look of it, it came from the forest right?¡± The final boss (guild master--) wrong, guild master (final boss mode) said while he keeps on checking the herbs presented by Gino. The guild master (final boss mode) looks at us after checking the herbs. His eyes are sharps and combine it with his big build, he¡¯s very intimidating. He really looks like the final boss of a game. If someone said to me that he¡¯s actually a demon lord I will believe them. ¡°Congratulations on passing the first phase. Now, would you like to take the second phase?¡± (Guild master) He said with a cheerful voice, no not the female kind of voice it sound like he¡¯s having fun. ¡°I would like to rest for today¡­¡± When I voice out my opinion, Gino nodded. Actually, who wants to be received by this giant man? I hope that the onee-san from before will be here tomorrow. We quickly left the guild leaving Mark, Iggy and Rhea. I just realized that the first impression is really important. If we didn¡¯t see him like ¡°that¡± before then I think we won¡¯t survive the final boss vibe of his. Being dragged to hell is still preferable than facing the final boss when you¡¯re still low level. Dropping the story Hey guys! This is it... I''m finally dropping this story. Well, I think the proper term i should use is reworking not dropping. This story is currently being rework under a different title. The story becomes a little different to this but the characters and some situation are still there. Oh, also I added new characters which will be introduced in the later chapters of the story. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Thank you for reading this story, i hope that you will read the rework version of this. The link of the story is at the post-chapter author note. truly yours, chaos234