《WTF : Welcome To Fantasy》 Chapter 1 - The king is an asshole Chapter 1 - The king is an asshole My name is James Smith, a 23 years old british otaku. As usual, I was on my way home from the convenience store after buying my favourite food for dinner: quick-to-make burritos. It was dark out there but I was not afraid. I knew a little bit of self-defense and no one would dare attack someone like me who had a tall build and scary face. Or so I thought until a man walking behind me stopped me and tried to pickpocket me. ¡°Gimme all your money immediately if you don¡¯t wanna suffer !¡± Unlike any normal person, I did the stupid thing to do and tried to resist. I mean, I worked hard for this money so why would this random dude get it ? ¡°Or what ? What are you gonna do bitch ? Stab me ?¡± The mugger took out a knife and stabbed me. Shit. As I was falling on the ground and my vision was getting darker and darker I started regretting my action. Looks like I wouldn¡¯t get to listen to my favourite Cocaloid songs while eating a burrito tonight. I never woke up after that. All I know is that my consciousness was stuck in an endless pitch black void without any sound or light. Is that what it feels like to be dead ? That sucks. I didn¡¯t have an amazing life but still I was happy with myself. So¡­ what¡¯s next ? Being sent to Heaven ? Hell maybe ? Was my soul going to disappear ? Or stay here forever ? Or maybe reincarnation ? That would be cool. Please don¡¯t turn me into a spider if that happens; I hate spiders. *** After what felt like an eternity, something finally happened. A bright light surrounded my consciousness and suddenly I was able to hear, feel and see again. Looks like I was reincarnated, just like in these light novels and anime. Now as a fully fledged otaku, I already had a plan in case something like that ever happened to me. You see, it¡¯s all good to be reincarnated but to waste that chance by being clueless is simply stupid. There are a few things to assess first. What had I been reincarnated into : I couldn¡¯t see anything around me except light so I guessed my reincarnation process wasn¡¯t fully completed. Maybe I needed to fulfill a few more criterias first ? Suddenly, a message popped up in front of me. ¡°Oh I see, this must be one of those reincarnations with RPG-like elements ! Nice !¡± I was feeling more and more excited about this. Ok let¡¯s do this carefully. If this is some kind of character-creation process, then I want to be as cool as possible. The message was displaying a keyboard with what I assessed to be letters although it was the first time I had seen them. Somehow though it felt like I knew how to read them. ¡°Reincarnation process step 1: Name selection. CHOOSEYOURNAME_¡± It looks like I was able to choose a name for myself. CHOOSEYOURNAME was the default name displayed so I was going to need to locate the ¡°Backspace¡± button to delete that and overwrite it with my own name. However, I had no knowledge of what kind of world I was going to be born into so choosing a fitting name was kind of hard. I was also still a bit cautious around the unknown alphabet so I decided to use the button in between the ¡°Enter¡± button and the ¡°Backspace¡± one. I had seen multiple games like that before and I was almost 100% sure that it was a ¡°Randomize¡± button. Sure I didn¡¯t get to actually choose but at least I was sure it would be somewhat appropriate. I clicked the button and waited. Soon enough, the message changed. ¡°Step 1 successfully skipped. Your new name will be CHOOSEYOURNAME.¡± ¡°WHAT THE FUCK !? Could it be it was a ¡°Skip¡± button instead of a ¡°Randomize¡± one ? What the hell kind of RPG has that in its built-in keyboard !? Shit¡­ now it looks like I¡¯m stuck with that stupid name !¡± As I was already mortified by my stupid mistake, a second window popped up. ¡°Reincarnation process step 2 : Race selection.¡± Alright, no more mistake. There were pictures associated with the different choices so I couldn¡¯t mess up there. There were the Elf race, Human race, Orc race, Dwarf race and Demon race. Although I was tempted to make myself a Demon - who looked like dark skinned humans with horns and wings - I had to play it safe here. I picked the human option and the window closed itself. ¡°Reincarnation process final step : Auto-scanning of your statistics.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Process complete. Displaying your new statistics.¡±
CHOOSEYOURNAME, Unspecified class. Reincarnated buff - active. Human Level 1 HP: 10/10 MANA: 12/12 INTELLIGENCE : 29 STRENGTH : 25 CHARM : 11 LUCK : 2 LIVES REMAINING : 2
I was given a brief time to analyze my stats. Although that was kind of useless since I could not compare these values to anything yet so I did not know whether they were good or bad. I was guessing however that since it showed my level as ¡°Level 1¡±, there was potential for growth. One thing I noticed though is that I had a ¡°Reincarnated buff¡± and two remaining lives. Did that make me overpowered by any chance ? I really hoped so. Being OP is badass. Soon after, I ¡°spawned¡± into a room with some typical RPG hero clothes on. In fact, they looked very much like the ones the hero from Dragon Next 6 was wearing in the game I bought the other day. My gamer instinct pretty much made me understand immediately I was going to be the generic hero fighting the demon army or something like that. I looked around me and noticed some human nobles, as well as people who I concluded were the king and two princesses. The king was an old man with a white beard and broad shoulders. One of the princesses was a blonde while the other one had silver hair. Both of them were really beautiful and had long straight hair with a diadem on their head. The two sisters both also had very defined curves that were very much to my liking. They were all wearing very refined clothes. Hopefully I¡¯d get to bang them after I complete the main quest. The king stood up when he saw me and started speaking first. ¡°Welcome to the world of Arkmandia, young hero ! I¡¯m sure you must be confused but I have to urge you, for the world is in peril. A war between the Human race and the Demon race has ravaged our countries for far too long. We finally decided it was time to call upon a hero from another world to help us. Do you understand so far, young hero ?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah I get it. There¡¯s a big bad demon lord and you want me to defeat him to bring back peace to the kingdom. Easy peasy.¡± ¡°Your way of talking is a bit weird but I trust in your ability, seeing on how fast you understand the circumstances. By the way, these are my two daughters, Limia and Esmeralda.¡± Esmeralda was the blonde and Limia was the white haired one. I¡¯d remember that. ¡°Alright, just tell me where he is and I¡¯ll go kill that Demon Lord for you. I of course expect fame and wealth after that.¡± The king looked surprised after hearing me say that. ¡°Haha, hero what a fine joker you are. Since you¡¯re so quick on the uptake you obviously must have noticed that you were a mere level 1. The Demon Lord on the other hand is the only living being to have reached level 100 so you¡¯ll have to slay countless monsters to reach that level. Of course, you¡¯ll start with slimes. My daughters can show you the ropes if need be.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ I guessed it would be that way. Grinding is omnipresent in RPGs isn¡¯t it ? But yes please I¡¯d be more than happy to have your daughters teach me !¡± ¡°Alright, now before anything else, I would like to know your name hero. What is it ?¡± Hearing the king ask for my name suddenly made me uncomfortable. But there was no way around it. If I¡¯m lucky, maybe it won¡¯t even sound stupid to the people of this world ? ¡°Yes, my name is CHOOSEYOURNAME. I¡¯m glad to serve you, my lord.¡± The king looked at me with a straight face. Then he looked at his daughters. Then right back at me again. Then he bursted out in laughter. ¡°HAHAHAHAHA, Ah.. ah.. I¡¯m sorry¡­ I shouldn¡¯t be laughing at the one I¡¯m asking for help¡­ but seriously ? That¡¯s your name ? Hahahaha¡­ how stupid would it sound if it was to be passed down in the legends ? The Human race got saved by CHOOSEYOURNAME ? Hahahaha !¡± ¡°...¡± The daughter called Esmeralda seemed to notice my embarrassment and she turned towards her father. ¡°Father please¡­ let us not upset the man we have been through so much trouble to summon.¡± The king looked like he managed to recover his composure upon hearing that. ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. Haha¡­ my apologies, hero¡­ hero¡­ HERO CHOOSEYOURNAME HAHAHAHAHA I¡¯M DYING HAHAHAHAHA !¡± ¡°That¡¯s it, I¡¯m done with your bullshit. I¡¯m out !¡± ¡°No come back, hero hahaha ! We need you !¡± Feeling exasperated, I stormed out of what turned out to be the Kingdom¡¯s castle. Unfortunately, my tragic days as the hero were only starting. Chapter 2 - The blacksmith is a douchebag Chapter 2 - The blacksmith is a douchebag Furious after the humiliation inside of the castle, I ran away as fast as I could. ¡°Well it¡¯s fine either way. Even if the king made fun of me, it sounded like they went through a lot to summon me. So the least I can do is to try to accomplish that quest. When he sees how powerful I am, the king will have no choice but to respect me.¡± First things first, I needed a weapon. I spawned with clothes on myself and my body felt the same as the one I had before - which is not a bad thing, I mean I wasn¡¯t particularly ugly or anything. But I did not have a weapon which I would need if I wanted to fight monsters and level up. I wandered through the town until I finally found a blacksmith. I entered while holding my chest proudly and walked in while announcing who I was. ¡°Greetings, blacksmith ! I am the hero summoned by the king himself. I ask of you that you give me your best weapon !¡± ¡°Yeah sure thing, hero.¡± The blacksmith was an old man with short black hair and a small moustache. He was muscular, as you¡¯d expect from a veteran blacksmith. He left into his backroom and came back soon after with a halberd, a longsword and a battleaxe. ¡°Suit yourself, my friend. They¡¯re all of the same quality and price so which weapon you choose depends entirely on the fighting style you¡¯re aiming at.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ so can I have the sword ?¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± ¡°Thanks, you¡¯re a great help.¡± I took the sword and was about to leave the shop when suddenly a firm grasp grabbed my shoulder and stopped me in place. ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going you little thief, eh ? You still haven¡¯t paid for that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry ? I thought you were giving it to me for free since I am the hero.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, hero, hero, that¡¯s what they all claim themselves to be, my friend. But this is a business not a charity. If I start giving away my stuff to any random nobody calling himself the hero, I¡¯m not gonna last long in the industry, you get me ?¡± ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll pay you then, sigh¡­¡± As I reached towards my pocket I realised I didn¡¯t get my ¡°starting funds¡± from the king since I left before he could give them to me. So I was left with no money to pay the old man. ¡°What about lending ? Do you lend your stuff ?¡± ¡°No money, no deal. Get out before I call the guards, you broke hero wannabe.¡± Sigh¡­ without any starting funds, I couldn¡¯t buy my equipment¡­ and without that equipment I couldn¡¯t slay monsters, loot them and sell that for money¡­ This was an endless circle of disappointment. Should I just swallow my pride and go back to the castle ? After all, it¡¯s not like there was anything I could do like that. As I was lost in my thoughts, I heard someone calling my name from a distance - and I wish I didn¡¯t¡­ ¡°CHOOSEYOURNAME ! Hero CHOOSEYOURNAME ! Please come back !¡± The one screaming my stupid name was the blond princess, Esmeralda. Come to think of it, she was the one who had told her dad to stop messing with me as well. Maybe she was not as bad as her father. ¡°Yeah, yeah I hear you Princess. No need to scream that idiotic name like that.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s an idiotic name, hero ! I think it¡­ hum¡­ ugh¡­¡± ¡°No need to force yourself to compliment something like that.¡± ¡°Ahem¡­ anyway, I came here to give you your starting funds.¡± ¡°Oh I thought you were going to tell me the king is sorry for making a fool out of me. Well I guess that¡¯s not how the royal family acts around here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m so, so sorry¡­ I wish I could tell you that myself but¡­ the fact is Father was still laughing when I left.¡± ¡°Pff, that geezer needs to learn some common sense. At this rate his precious hero is more likely to side with the Demon Lord than the Humans.¡± Hearing me say that, Esmeralda seemed to become very angry. ¡°Please do not ever say something like that again, even as a joke ! The Demons are vile creatures that have brought death and destruction to our peaceful country¡­¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I know. It¡¯s the usual RPG setting, I¡¯m used to it. I bet they¡¯d make fun of my name too anyway.¡± ¡°RPG setting ? What ?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Esmeralda looked genuinely confused. Well I guess that¡¯s to be expected, everything is reality for her. To me too but I have to admit that this generic reincarnation setting left me kinda disappointed if anything. Anything is so close to the games I¡¯ve played it¡¯s almost like I already know what¡¯s going to come up next. Oh well, it is not like EVERYTHING is exactly similar. For instance, the fact that the hero is not respected more than a regular delinquent is quite surprising. ¡°Before I go back to the castle, let me give you a piece of advice. Leveling up will be much easier if you create a party by registering yourself at -¡± ¡°- the Adventurers'' Guild. Yeah I guessed that.¡± ¡°Oh wow, you sure are a man quick to adapt.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what they say.¡± The princess left and I went back to the blacksmith. ¡°Alright mate, I got the money so can I buy the sword now ?¡± ¡°Of course. But with this amount I¡¯m afraid you can¡¯t afford the one I showed you earlier.¡± ¡°I figured. After all it¡¯d be kind of broken for me to receive an end-game sword at level 1, right ?¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°What ?¡± ¡°Never mind. Just give me the best you can offer for this amount.¡± ¡°... Ok.¡± Just like before, he left and came back a minute later with a wooden sword. ¡°Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME !?¡± He gave me the training sword and took the money I had dropped next to his desk. ¡°Hey, you literally got your money¡¯s worth, my friend. Now get out of my shop unless you¡¯re buying something with real money.¡± I left the shop in disbelief. Was I so important to the kingdom that I did not even get the luxury to start fighting with, you know¡­ A REAL SWORD !? Let alone making fun of my name, did this bastard king even take my summoning seriously ? There was something I did not understand. If summoning the hero was so important to the survival of the kingdom, why was he treating me with so little care ? Making fun of me, not giving me any meaningful advice whatsoever, not promising me anything in exchange for completing the quest he gave me to slay the Demon King, and not even giving me enough money to buy decent equipment ? And in case one argued that a training sword was good enough to defeat slimes, I¡¯d like to remind them that I had not bought a meal, proper defensive gear such as a helmet or a shield, a map, basically everything that¡¯s important for me to start my quest and I was already broke ! And no, I did not get tricked by the blacksmith. I thought at first that the money may have been weak or something in this country but what I received from the king was literally 50 copper coins. On my way here, I saw a tavern that advertised its beers for 45 copper coins per pint so 50 copper coins for a training sword actually seemed like the normal cost.. God¡­ I had not even spent one hour in this new world and I was already sick of it. Everyone treating me badly, me being broke from the start and having to complete a near impossible quest with barely any help. Also the fact that this world was so cliche it was sickening at times. I sighed even harder and started making my way towards my next destination: the Adventurers'' Guild¡­ *** ¡°So you want to register as an Adventurer ? Very well, may I take your name, sir ?¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ CHOOSEYOURNAME.¡± ¡°I beg your pardon ? I regret I am not allowed to choose your name myself, sir. Please give me your actual name.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m Slade Burnstar ! That¡¯s what my name is.¡± ¡°Sir, I¡¯m afraid I am able to see your ID page, much like anyone else using the basic skill ¡°Observe¡±. Since you do not have a level high enough to conceal your name, I can see clearly that your name isn¡¯t Slade Burnstar. I will register you by your real name, which is¡­ CHOOSEYOURNAME¡­¡± I waited a second or two and inevitably, the serious looking receptionist started struggling to keep a straight face. Given ten more seconds and he had already let out a little dry laugh. ¡°My apologies. This is an usual name, that¡¯s all. But let¡¯s remain professional, shall we ? Now you¡¯re registered as¡­ CHOOSEYOURNAME so this will be displayed on your Adventurer card. I¡¯m sorry sir.¡± ¡°Tsk, no need to be sorry. Just do your job and shut it.¡± The receptionist paid no mind to my provocative tone as he knew himself he was not being professional. ¡°Alright. Your card is done. I have registered your class as Hero. Now you can take on side quests from the Adventurers'' Guild and form a party with other guild members.¡± ¡°Yeah right.¡± I took the card from him and headed towards the quest board. It was currently empty. As I was looking at it, someone called out to me from behind. ¡°Hey, newbie. All the quests have been done so if you¡¯re looking to make a quick buck, I suggest going out to slay a few goblins and bring the loot to the Guild¡¯s loot manager. It looks like you¡¯ve just started but anyone could take out goblins with any basic steel weapon.¡± The person behind me was a tall woman with a deep voice and red dreadlocks. She was not exactly a muscle woman but she was more ripped than me, that¡¯s for sure. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve been suggested to start with slimes¡­¡± ¡°Slimes ? Haha, you¡¯re a funny one. Even kids can slay slimes you know, what¡¯s the point ? You¡¯d just be wasting time ! As long as you¡¯ve got any proper weapon you can¡­¡± She stopped talking as she noticed the wooden sword hanging from my waist. ¡°Wait, is that really your weapon !?¡± ¡°... Yeah.¡± She could hardly contain her laughter at this point. ¡°Go ahead and laugh, I¡¯m used to it by now.¡± ¡°Pffhaha¡­ no sorry. What class are you ?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ a hero.¡± ¡°Oh, the hero class, huh ? Sounds like you had some trouble with your start up heh ? You know what, I¡¯ll help you. After all, the hero is meant to save this country right ? Can¡¯t have you struggle when we need you to defeat the Demon Lord as fast as possible !¡± ¡°For real !? That¡¯d be a great help, thanks !¡± ¡°Alright let¡¯s head towards the plains on the outside of the town. We¡¯ll find some goblins and wolves there. I¡¯ll help you leveling up fast, ok ?¡± ¡°Sure !¡± Finally it looked like luck had smiled upon me. Or did it ? Who am I kidding, my adventure as the ¡°hero¡± of this world was only going to get worse... Chapter 3 - The guildmate is a lying bitch Chapter 3 - The guildmate is a lying bitch I was preparing myself to follow Cyath (that¡¯s what the woman called herself) outside of the town. It obviously did not last long since I barely had anything to prepare in the first place. After offering to help me, she had gone ahead of me and had told me to meet her at the town¡¯s gate. On my way there however, I was stopped by a very old man wearing simple dark robes. The bald grandpa approached me and talked to me. ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re one of them aren¡¯t you ? How many does that make ?¡± ¡°I beg your pardon ?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ so you don¡¯t know yet¡­ poor child. In addition to being summoned, you¡¯re reincarnated, aren¡¯t you ? ¡°H-how do you know that !?¡± ¡°I know a lot of things, young boy. And while the future is uncertain, I pray that you will make the right decisions at the right time. If you do, then we¡¯re bound to meet again. Also big boobs don¡¯t lie so beware of flat chests, fufufufufu...¡± After saying such enigmatic sentences, the perverted old man vanished in the crowd. Enigmatic characters are a common trope in RPGs but knowing that does not give me any clue to decipher the advice he gave me... Thinking deeper about it, there was one special thing that made me curious ever since I got summoned. The act of summoning me was performed by the king himself with the purpose of using me to turn the tide of the war. But¡­ during the character creation, it was made clear that I could be born as an Orc, Dwarf, Elf or¡­ Demon. If the war is between Demons and Humans then how come I had the option of being reincarnated as the enemy of those summoning me ? That did not make any sense¡­ Either way, Cyath was still waiting for me so I hurried to the gates. I noticed her from afar when I finally reached them. ¡°Ah you took some time, for someone who doesn¡¯t have anything to prepare, heh ?¡± ¡°Sorry, sorry. Now let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Right.¡± I let Cyath lead the way and followed her through the plains that surrounded the town until we finally managed to enter a forest. ¡°This is the Echo Forest. They say some spirits can sometimes be felt in here.¡± ¡°Alright, so do the goblins or wolves spawn in here ?¡± ¡°No, normal monsters like these spawn in the plains we just left.¡± An anxious feeling suddenly rose through me. Why did she bring me in here then ? ¡°Huh ? Weren¡¯t we meant to hunt wolves and goblins together ?¡± ¡°You¡¯re pretty naive, I have to say. Well I guess you could call it a beginner''s mistake. Look, did you ever bother trying to check my guild card ? You should have, before accepting help from me. Because unfortunately for you I don¡¯t have one. I¡¯m sorry to disappoint but I¡¯m just a regular thug disguising herself as a senior adventurer in the hopes of luring naive newbies like you.¡± She took out a knife and pointed it at me. ¡°Pfff¡­ you saw I didn¡¯t have anything worth stealing right ? So why ?¡± ¡°Are you joking ? Your sword may be worthless but your hero clothes are pretty rare. I can make a lot of money by selling them.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ I have no way to defeat you so I¡¯ll just give you my stuff¡­ ahh this sucks¡­¡± I undressed and was left only in my underwear. I gave everything else to her. ¡°Now, I¡¯m sorry but having a witness know about my undercover work will be troubling so don¡¯t struggle and let me get rid of you quickly and painlessly.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ not this shit again... ¡° She started walking up to me and all I could do was to use the basic skill ¡°observe¡±. Yup, she¡¯s level 24. There¡¯s no escaping her now¡­ ¡°Why am I so unlucky¡­ ?¡± That was the second time I was falling from getting stabbed already. It was getting old. My vision got darker and darker until finally I lost consciousness. Suddenly, a window popped up. ¡°You have died.¡± ¡°Well, no shit Sherlock ! Thanks for pointing that out captain obvious, the bloody knife in my heart wasn¡¯t already a dead give-away, you know !¡± ¡°Respawn ?¡± Oh yeah I forgot. My stats did mention I had 2 spare lives. But then again did I really want to go back to this world ? Meh¡­ but hey nothing can be worse than staying in a dark void without being able to do anything forever. ¡°Yes, respawn.¡± At least I¡¯d respawn back to full health and within the safety of the town¡­ that way I could make an easy new sta- ¡°You have not yet visited a church. Your body will be randomly spawned within a small radius distance from where you last died.¡± Sigh.. of course it could not be that easy¡­ Well with a bit of luck, that lying bitch should be gone by now. I finally managed to respawn the very same way I had appeared in the royal room. However, I still did not recover the clothes stolen from me by the bitch. Suddenly, another window popped up. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Durability of your underwear : -10.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ no¡­¡± ¡°Hero underwear, current durability : 0/15." Straight after reading that message, my underwear literally imploded. And so the so-called ¡°hero¡± was left butt-naked in the wild plains around the starting town¡­ *** As I was walking in a circle, dejected and unsure of what to do next, I remembered the old man¡¯s advice ¡°beware of flat chests¡±. And Cyath did indeed lack breasts. What a fool I was. To be honest, at this point in time, I really felt like crying. Nothing had gone my way ever since I had been reincarnated and I was getting fed up about it. I no longer had any clothes, money or weapons so fighting monsters was nothing but a distant idea. So how was I going to make money now ? I tried to remember how one could make easy money in my old JRPGs. After all this world was so similar to one of these that it might be worth trying anything that I could do to get richer in those games. Aside from selling loot, fighting monsters and find treasure chests, the one thing that came into my mind was¡­ entering NPCs¡¯ houses and breaking stuff to find items and money in them ! But¡­ realistically speaking there was no way even the hero would be allowed to that¡­ right ? Well, it¡¯s not I had anything left to lose anyway¡­ I headed towards the town and managed to make it past the gates, despite the guard¡¯s judgemental stare due to me being naked. I entered the first house I could find and found a vase. I threw it on the floor and broke it. But it was empty. ¡°Figures¡­ after all, this is not a game, this is real life¡­¡± I was about to leave the empty house when an old man popped out from the kitchen. Shit, was he going to call the guards !? Was I going to get arrested !? But as I looked at his face, I recognised him. It was the perverted old man from earlier. ¡°I see you ignored my advice heh¡­ Luckily you had an extra life.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ignore your advice, it was just stupidly vague, you old geezer !¡± ¡°Ah was it now ? I thought since you come from a world that has games that features stuff like puzzles and cryptic messages, you¡¯d be used to it.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way I - Wait a second, how do you know all that stuff ? You knew I was reincarnated too¡­ just who the hell are you ?¡± ¡°Intrigued ? Well you just said you didn¡¯t like riddles so I won¡¯t beat around the bush, fufufu. My name is the great mage Elzebor and I am actually a stunningly sexy hot babe. This body of mine is just an illusion.¡± ¡°What, really !?¡± ¡°No, but you wish, heh ? Look who¡¯s perverted now, hahaha.¡± ¡°Pfff, spare me please. So, why do you keep randomly popping up to give me advice ?¡± ¡°Truth to be told, I¡¯m part of the reason you got reincarnated. Unfortunately, I¡¯m afraid this is not the most secure place to discuss these matters. But know that I am greatly interested in you and what you can accomplish, young hero.¡± ¡°Accomplish huh¡­ I don¡¯t think I can accomplish anything in this state¡­¡± ¡°I can help you fixing that. But if you want me to help you, you¡¯ll have to show me you¡¯re worth my time. To do so, you¡¯ll have to find me there.¡± The old man took out a map and showed me a location. It was a cavern not too far from the town I was currently in. ¡°There are a few monsters on the way to this cavern. If you manage to make your way there, I¡¯ll give you my assistance, hero.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ it¡¯s not like I have anything to lose anyway. But you can see how I¡¯m naked, broke and without a weapon. How do you expect me to protect myself against monsters ?¡± ¡°Your stats even as a level 1 are pretty terrible. I don¡¯t think you could defeat the monsters in the plains by yourself, even with a weapon. So you¡¯ll have to rely on your ¡°Reincarnated buff¡±.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, I had that¡­ but it doesn¡¯t mention what it does.¡± ¡°The fact that you¡¯re reincarnated allowed you to create your character right ? The reincarnated buff allowed you to open up some kind of ¡°cheat console¡± that can help you¡­ change a few things. To do so, just shout Cheat console - on ! and you¡¯ll be able to access it. Now then, that¡¯s more than enough advice. I¡¯ll be waiting for you, young hero !¡± Saying that, the geezer disappeared in a smoke explosion. Only to reappear a few seconds later. ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you -¡± ¡°You¡¯re back !¡± ¡°Yes, listen. This world isn¡¯t exactly the same as your games, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve figured that out. So I¡¯m not going to act like an NPC and wait for you forever in this cavern. Get there before tomorrow or else I¡¯ll be bored and leave.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, sure !¡± ¡°Alright, until we meet again, then.¡± Then he vanished again, for good this time. I was still unsure of whether the old man was worth my trust, seeing how I had been betrayed so many times already. But it¡¯s not like I had any other opportunity right now. Chapter 4 - Finally, a decent person ! Chapter 4 - Finally, a decent person ¡°Cheat console - on !¡± As I shouted that, a window popped up in front of me. ¡°Cheat console activated. What would you like to do ?¡± Below the question, there was a list with the multiple things I could do. Change my stats or my appearance, or enter a cheat code. Well, I did not have anything like a cheat code but changing my stats looked like it could be useful. If I was able to change them whenever I wanted, then it would allow me to adapt to a lot of different situations.
CHOOSEYOURNAME, Hero class. Reincarnated buff - active. Human Level 1 HP: 10/10 MANA: 12/12 INTELLIGENCE : 29 STRENGTH : 25 CHARM : 11 LUCK : 2 LIVES REMAINING : 1
A different number of points was allocated next to each statistics. Thanks to my experience, I could guess that by removing or adding extra points, I could alter my stats. While I did not have any free points to allocate, I was able to remove them in a certain area to put them back elsewhere. I decided I would not need so many points in strength since I did not have a weapon to fight with. I did not have a staff or know any magic either so intelligence was pretty useless too. Same went for mana. And with my current reputation, charm was kind of useless already. Thus I decided to lower all my stats to the minimum and increase my luck to the max. After doing so, the new stats page was displayed.
CHOOSEYOURNAME, Hero class. Reincarnated buff - active. Human Level 1 HP: 10/10 MANA: 1/1 INTELLIGENCE : 1 STRENGTH : 1 CHARM : 1 LUCK : 65 LIVES REMAINING : 1
After confirming the change, I felt immediately physically weaker. After a few seconds, it felt like my body adjusted to the change by itself though. Now all I hoped was that my luck was high enough to allow me to travel all the way to the cavern without meeting any monster. I was about to leave the house but as I was reaching out for the door, something caught my attention. There was a set of clothes lying on the bed inside the old man¡¯s house. Could it be he had prepared them for me ? Maybe my luck was already acting ? ¡°Yeah right, as if.¡± Well, the fact was that the grandpa was much smaller than me. As mentioned before, I am a tall guy with a mean look on his face. Even now, I still have the same physical features as before: scary face, height of 1m87, medium-length laid back brown hair and brown eyes. Despite this, the clothes were a good fit. That must have meant that he had specially prepared them for me¡­ seriously, how much into the future could this guy see ? I was now heading towards the town¡¯s gates. At the same time, I was wondering about a certain thing that had caught my attention while I was messing with my stats. The window showed that my Unspecified class had been changed to Hero class after I selected my class at the Adventurers¡¯ Guild. In fact, I did not bother checking at the time but it was possible my class was changed the moment I was summoner as the ¡°hero¡±. But this basically made me learn a certain thing. My reincarnation and my summoning as the hero were two different things. After all, I was first reborn with an Unspecified class and only then summoned. Besides, the fact that my race could be chosen contradicted with the fact that I was to be summoned from the start. So basically¡­ I could safely deduce that I was summoned as the hero because I had decided to be reborn as a human. So what if I had been born as a demon ? Would have been born in the Demon Lord¡¯s army or maybe even summoned by him ? This was still confusing but I thought the old man would be able to tell me more, seeing as how it looked like he knew a lot about my circumstances. As I was on my way towards the gates, I passed the Adventurers¡¯ Guild. And suddenly I remembered what Cyath had said before killing me. She did that so that she could keep her cover as a senior guildmate and keep doing the same thing to other beginner Adventurers. Now that I knew that she did not even have a guild card, I was free to expose her to the authorities ! But wait a second¡­ I currently had put all my stat points in luck. That meant if she managed to try to kill me out of spite before getting arrested, I would barely stand any chance to survive. I decided that it would be a wiser decision to first meet up with the old mage and then come back to bring her business to light. Alright now that my path was clear, I went outside of the town and headed straight for the cavern. *** Perhaps my plan to redistribute my stats into luck was a good idea because I managed to safely reach the cavern without meeting any goblin or stray wolf. I did see some of them on the way here but it looked like they did not notice me. So I was indeed correct about my gamer¡¯s intuition. The luck stat was most likely something that influenced my random encounter chances (or rather here, my chances of attracting attention) as well as looting chances. In other words, increasing it improved my chances at being stealthy. Well, that¡¯s good to know. I saw the old man as soon as I entered the cavern. Its entrance lead to a single circular room in which he was waiting in the middle. ¡°I was waiting for you, young hero.¡± ¡°Well yeah, here I am.¡± ¡°I will now teach you what you need to know about this world. Listen well.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± His face became serious and after clearing his throat, he started speaking with a grave voice. ¡°As mentioned previously, I am indeed linked with your summoning. My am the great mage Elzebor and I have lived over 600 years. During the first century of my life, I have accumulated great magical knowledge. But as I was getting old, I started to fear death and be scared of losing all of it. As I started to research how to extend my own life I began to experiment on myself until one day, I managed to unbound my soul from my body. As my first body died from old age, this soul of mine was sent into the body of a newborn. But as my body would recognise that my soul had already passed puberty, reincarnation would allow me to not waste any time and thus it would adapt and grow in the matter of a few days. Every time I would reincarnate, my body would become about twenty years old again¡­¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°That¡¯s all good but can you please skip to my own reincarnation ?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. As I was saying, I am over 600 years old, and I reincarnated myself 5 times so far. And for that long, I have researched and tried to perfect this process of reincarnation. Unbinding the soul from the body is something I tried to replicate on other people but I had a hard time doing it. The biggest issue was the physical body of the person. For unbinding to be successful, the soul needed to be still alive while the body needed to be dead, or very close to death. You see, a soul cannot reside more than a few hours in a dead body.¡± ¡°I see¡­ So basically, that means that if you were to unbind someone, they would have to die within the next few hours to be reincarnated or else it would fail, right ?¡± ¡°Yes, you catch on quick. Obviously, that meant that my research was very close to necromancy itself and I when the king at the time learnt about my activities, he banned me from the kingdom.¡± ¡°But¡­ you met me in the human capital didn¡¯t you ?¡± ¡°Yes, but the time I was banned was centuries ago, hahaha. When I reincarnated afterwards, my body wasn¡¯t the same anymore. Even my personality changes to adapt to my new body. Only my knowledge and memories remain. So it was easy for me to be accepted into the kingdom again, although I could no longer conduct my research in the open.¡± ¡°And how does that lead to me ?¡± ¡°Since my research on reincarnation was limited and considered taboo, I decided to try something else. The research parallel worlds. After a very long time trying to find out if such a thing existed, I was surprised when I finally managed to create an interdimensional mirror that allowed me to witness events that happened in your world.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And thus, as I discovered about your world, I started interesting myself to its culture, languages, technology, and many other things. Watching your world had become my greatest excitement and my favourite hobby. And then, 2 years ago, the Demon Lord appeared. It was a being extremely similar to the ones that appeared in your so-called ¡°RPGs¡±. The Demon Lord started defeating the king¡¯s armies and taking over several towns, crushing any resistance. Seeing as how the humans were about to be defeated, the king decided to call upon a secret kept in the royal family: hero summoning magic.¡± ¡°Is that when I got summoned ?¡± ¡°... Not exactly.¡± ¡°What do you mean ?¡± ¡°Something that no one seems to have bothered telling you is that you are not the first hero to be summoned here. You are, if my memory is correct, the 18th one.¡± ¡°What the hell !? How come 17 heroes have been summoned before me ? Wasn¡¯t a single meant to be enough to turn the tide of the war ?¡± Elzebor¡¯s face seemed to get darker as he answered my question. ¡°You see, I just told you there is only one parallel world to ours. So where do you think the summoned heroes came from ?¡± ¡°Could it be¡­ my original world ?¡± ¡°Bingo. However, summoning is akin to merely teleporting a person through time and space. Nothing more, nothing less. So it is only natural not to expect any military prowesses from a random person from your world, who has no fighting experience at all.¡± ¡°So¡­ what happened to them ?¡± ¡°As you could predict, the king had no knowledge of this. He thought the heroes were Godsent humans so he invested a lot, and by that I mean A LOT of money into their equipment, training and the preparations to send them to war.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s why he lacked the money to provide me with anything, huh¡­¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. After providing so much to the first 10 heroes who failed miserably and got crushed before being able to even reach the Demon Lord¡¯s castle, the amount of goods and money the king was able to spend on the next 7 became extremely limited. In your case it was barely inexistent.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the difference between me and the other 17 heroes ?¡± ¡°In case you haven¡¯t noticed yourself, you weren¡¯t directly summoned from your world. The king became desperate after seeing how every single hero he had summoned had failed spectacularly in their quest. I used this opportunity to present myself to him, revealing who I was and offering him a solution in exchange for a certain favour.¡± ¡°Your solution was¡­ let me guess, using reincarnation and summoning together ?¡± ¡°Once again, spot on ! My theory was that a soul in the middle of reincarnation was not bound by the same rules as someone already born. The proof of this lies in your ¡°Reincarnated buff¡±. So to continue my little story, what happened was that I handled the process of your reincarnation and when it was done, the king summoned you. I took a look at what souls were available and yours had an especially good compatibility. I guess it was because your soul was already used to the idea of parallel worlds, Demon Lords and RPG settings to it made things much easier. Then as you finished your reincarnation, you got summoned. The rest of the story, you know it well.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s how it is¡­ that¡¯s a lot to take in at once¡­¡± The serious face on the pervy old mage disappeared and let place to a huge grin. ¡°Now that you know that, it¡¯s time for you to REALLY start your quest ! I¡¯m expecting a lot from you, you know ?¡± ¡°You know that me levelling up by killing smiles will take ages¡­¡± ¡°No ! That¡¯s another benefit from your Reincarnated buff, you level up much, much faster than normal people.¡± ¡°I see¡­ but I don¡¯t even have a weapon¡­ and I¡¯m broke.¡± ¡°No worries ! Unfortunately, I cannot accompany you in your battles since I am too old now but it¡¯s dangerous to go alone so take this !¡± ¡­ A Legend of Hylda reference, really ? ¡°Hey, did you get the reference ? You did, didn¡¯t you ? At least say something¡­ do you know how long I tried to set up the conversation in way that would allow me to say that !?¡± While harassing me, Elzebor took out a beautiful longsword from behind him. ¡°Could it be¡­ Exca-¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right ! This sword is called Excavator ! Because with it, you¡¯ll bury your enemies ! Smart, heh ?¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ very smart.¡± ¡°Now go, young hero ! And don¡¯t be sad when I die from old age, you¡¯ll just have to find my reincarnated self for more guidance and help !¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to die soon !? Heh ? Heh ?¡± The cavern suddenly started to disappear along with the old man, as if it was an illusion. A mere moments after, there was no trace left of the perverted mage. Oh well, at least I had an objective now. First things first, I had to try out this sword and see how fast I could level up. I headed towards the plains where I could find some low level monsters, preparing myself for my first battle since I arrived in this crazy RPG-like world.