Heya SlashCrit here, this is my first sponsored chapter! A big thank you to Gerard, my first ever donator! Well, that"s all from me, enjoy the sponsored chapter!
The frigid cold breeze hits my skin..
Exhaling a visible burst of air from my mouth, dispersing into the atmosphere..
Drops of pure white snowfall are landing on my shoulders..
I would dust them off, but it would be a waste of energy..
Living with the principle, to not do anything that yields different results than the former..
In other words, an action that will not change anything, is better off being ignored..
I deliberate about philosophical ideals and observations while I trudge through the ever-decreasing temperature..
The surroundings were already blanketed with a sheet of dazzling white snow..
Seasons in the other world remained the same as they do on Earth, was what I concluded inside my thoughts..
It has been a few days since I"ve started moving towards the "Elven Continent" to find the whereabouts of the two..
I did not need to rush since I could sense their trail of magic, and I could faintly feel that they were safe through the connection of the slave contract in these strange tattoos..
In the meantime, I was walking at a leisurely pace, studying more and more about this world and it"s inhabitants..
A basic thing to do in another world, which any normal human being would do if they got sent to something as strange as a fantasy world, different from his own, but no, the other personality completely ignored this fact, and just went on with whatever people would say, letting everything go, and acting like he didn"t need to know..
Honestly, this makes me slightly irritated..
I wondered how he even got this far without basic common sense..
Before I noticed it, my head was hurting, and I found my palm stuck to my forehead..
"(Sigh) I guess the sad thing is, that it was technically me who did those things.."
Ah, I can feel my pride of being called a genius breaking into little tiny pieces..
I never really thought about it to this extent, but now that I did, I"m becoming more and more depressed at myself..
So far, while observing the various trees, pathways, people that pa.s.sed my way, I have gotten the gist of it..
The humans who inhabit this world, seemed to look like foreigners, but with different colored eyes and hair color than those who lived on Earth. In fact, I have never thus far, come across someone who looked like a j.a.panese person..
The civilization level at which this world has attained, was quite frankly, outdated..
It was set in the middle ages, where modern technology was not yet introduced, and the world was much simpler..
Except, that this world has the existence of magic..
[Magic], was the general term of all supernatural phenomena that happens in every day life..
I happened upon a peddler, who was traveling from city to city, and perused his goods..
Only to find a book about [Elementary Magic] and it"s origin that cost me a quite expensive sum of 1 large silver coin,,
I guess books were expensive in this world, even though it was just a book for beginners..
When I opened the book while setting up camp one night, I noticed that the paper used to manufacture it, was not the smooth, clear white paperback that I was used to..
It felt rough, slightly like sandpaper, but more brownish in color..
Based on this, the material was something that I have read about in the past, a rough texture of papyrus, made from the leaves of a papyrus plant back in the earlier times of human civilization..
Still, the words were written in black tinted ink, and it was readable due to my skill..
From the information that I got from the book, [Magic] was divided into different types and realms, the known applications of magic were as follows, [Elemental Magic], [Spirit Magic], and [Summoning Magic]..
The book had no further information about the latter two, since the main type of magic that the humans can use, and have been using for a long time, is [Elemental Magic], which was the magic that had chants and spells in line with the different elements that were present in this world..
The various elements were [Fire Magic], [Water Magic], [Earth Magic], [Wind Magic], [Ice Magic], [Lightning Magic], [Light Magic], and [Dark Magic]. There was also a type that deviated from the norm, [Non-Attribute Magic]..
This magic was also called [Daily-life Magic] since it was used for trivial purposes. An example of this type of magic would be the chant to summon the [Guild Card], and [Appraisal] that some wealthy merchants know..
It turns out, that humans were born with the innate ability to control magic, and they each had different elements in line with their birth, some rare ones would be born once in a blue moon, that controlled two elements of magic..
For the other races, I"m not so sure since I have yet to collect information about them and their strengths..
The reason I am doing this is because this information is crucial if I want to fulfill the request of that d.a.m.n mysterious G.o.d, who when I saw, had unfathomable strength..
My other personality could not see through his playful att.i.tude, but I could see that in my present state, I was not enough to defeat him, in a fair fight..
So, in light of that, I inferred that if that guy had that much strength, what"s to say about the others..
The other reason was, that I was slightly elated at learning new things in a different world, since absorbing knowledge had become second nature to me, and I could not control my instincts..
I am not, in the least embarra.s.sed to admit this part of myself..
In terms of wealth, I had no problem on that front, considering the large amount ama.s.sed by my teacher..
In my travels, I have experienced what it felt like to camp outside for the first time, and fending off demons in the night, attracted by the scent of food. Although, the food didn"t taste as good as before, but since I followed all the instructions in my head, I decided to let it off as me, thinking about it too much..
The more I walked towards the direction of the west, the less people pa.s.sed by me, and now, there were none at all..
I think I made it to where there were no cities nearby..
There was one time I got a.s.saulted by bandits on the roadway though, now that I recall, it was pretty amusing..
{"Halt! Hey strange purple-headed kid, leave your money and belongings here, or do you want some trouble?"}
He said as he moved his cloak, revealing a long sword sheathed at his side..
The man looked scruffy, like he was inebriated every single day, an unhealthy pale complexion, and gruff voice..
He was surrounded by about 10-15 men that looked like him, but only more ugly, in both meanings of the word..
When they heard what the guy that seemed to be their leader said, they looked at me, and then snickered like hyenas..
I could only sigh at the scene in my head that time..
{"Oi, brat, didn"t you hear me? Leave your stuff here and scram!"}
I decided not to mind them, and calmly walked through the side of the leader, and his lackeys, making them dumbfounded for a moment, to the extent that some even absentmindedly let me pa.s.s..
Were all the bandits in this world stupid like this? Was the thought I had in my head that time..
When they regained their bearings they got angry of course, and looked towards the direction that I walked..
Naturally, I wasn"t there anymore since I used [Aura Flash] to get a certain distance away from their perception..
I thought they gave up with this, but I was wrong..
The day after, I was resuming my walk, and had just finished packing up the travelling tent, and various utensils..
When I sensed a large amount of anger and blood l.u.s.t at my back..
At that split second, I dodged a sword swing aimed at my head, by dropping down my body into a crouching position..
Then, put my hands on the ground, and lifted my body up, twisting my limbs, and finally struck the a.s.sailant in the chin with a fast leg kick to his lower jaw, knocking him away unconscious..
When I turned around, it turned out to be a lackey from the bandits that I met the day before, and the leader, including the others had surrounded my position..
There were men with swords unsheathed at the ready, glaring at me with red faces, and veins that almost seemed to pop out of their foreheads, men armed with bows at the sides, preparing to shoot at me at the moment the order from their leader arrives, and people with bucklers to defend against attacks..
They must have been mad at my arrogance and decided to pursue me, even at the cost of getting tired..
But, I am impressed at how they came up with this plan, I guess there was something in that leader"s head after all..
Yes, I"m trapped, cornered at all sides, having nowhere to run to, victory was a.s.sured, was what they were thinking..
A testament to that conjecture was the wide grin on the bandit leader"s face, with a self-serving att.i.tude..
I guess there was no choice..
{"Don"t blame me for this alright, you were the ones who decided to follow me.."}
With those words as the provocation, the leader was angered, but still retained his smile, and gave the order to attack..
While simultaneously, I made up a plan on the spot, and moved at a speed they couldn"t follow with my enhanced muscles, limbs, and senses. The bows were shot, the men screamed a half-a.s.sed war cry and proceeded to direct their killing intent in the direction I was in..
Naturally, they found nothing but empty air as their targets..
This scene made them surprised and disillusioned at the same time, questioning their eyes..
They remained stock still for a few seconds in order to register the situation..
Those few seconds were all that I needed..
After a short amount of time, which could also be called, a moment, 14 bodies dropped to the dry earth..
The big smile that the man put on, turned upside down, into a grimace..
Sweat gathered at his forehead, and his mouth slightly hanged open..
{"Wha-a-what! What happened?!?"}
Is what the man with a strange tone in his voice grumbled and shouted short of breath..
{"Sleep tight.."}
Were the final words the man heard before his short, amusing end..
Which didn"t happen since I only knocked him unconscious..
Along with all his ill-looking subordinates..
I wasn"t really that mad, since they didn"t even do anything to me, so I rounded up all their bodies and tied them up to a big tree with a rope that I bought from a peddler some time ago..
Yes, one of the things that was annoying was ironically the highlight of my trip so far..
It"s kind of dull walking through this world with no one to share it with..
Those kids taught me that, a lesson that slightly changed my outlook on life..
Anyway, I have not yet come across a single person ever since I met those bandits from before..
I guess this means that I"m getting close?
While I was thinking that, I noticed something running in my direction..
I made it out to be something that was not human..
Since it was over 5 meters tall, with a gigantic stature, white fur, and bright yellow eyes filled with rage..
In my vast knowledge, it was likened to a gorilla from my world, but it was an albino one..
Albeit the fact that it was taller and larger than the average gorilla, it also moved at speeds the latter couldn"t dream of doing in its entire lifetime..
Which meant that it was another type of demonic beast that roamed the continent..
I opened my eye-patch, revealing the sapphire-colored eye, and invoked [Aura Eyes]..
You see, my heterochromatic eyes had influenced the skill, changing it into a skill having various effects..
The blue eye, which was normally used by the other Orion, had the power to [Appraise], and [Identify] every single thing, whether it be an item, person, plant, or beast.
While the red eye, which I currently had out, had the ability to see through an opponent"s moves and weak points, and combined with my reflexes, it stops them, rendering the attacks my opponents make nullified..
A pa.s.sive skill of the blue eye was to see farther distances, while the red one was to perceive the flow of magic..
If you asked me, it was too excessive, but since it was convenient, I would gladly make use of it..
There were three beasts, so I used my skill on them one by one..
Collectively, they were called, [Snow Wind Beast], but the larger one in the middle was different..
It seemed that it was their leader since it"s name was [Groen the Snow Wind Beast King]..
Such an over-exaggerated name for an over-sized gorilla..
Were the insulting thoughts I had swimming in my head at this time..
But wait, this was a new discovery, considering demonic beasts can be named, it made me wonder who named this one..
Well, I"ll keep it in mind, but for now, they"re coming..
-Lena"s POV-
We were currently moving outside of the village to hunt for some game in the forest..
This was because we had to, considering winter was coming soon, and it will make it that much harder to procure food..
I was one of the hunters in this village, I excelled in using traps and pitfalls in hunting beasts..
Making up a big part of our hunter team..
We four, Dale, Sharl, Kizu, and I were childhood friends that grew up in this village, and trained under a pa.s.sing knight..
He came to our village one day, and taught the children how to protect themselves..
We were excited since he said that he was one of the "Heavenly 15"..
That group was famous, since it was one of the very top positions of the imperial army, directly serving royalty..
They are said to have immense power, bringing down beasts and demons in a single strike..
From the news in the village, they were going to the war with the "Elven Continent" to push them back, and win for us..
He was a kind old man with much knowledge, and even if he was old, he didn"t feel senile..
It was like he was a seasoned veteran going into war with a smile on his face..
Anyway, under his tutelage, we became strong, strong enough to hunt beasts for our meals..
So, we were hired by the village chief when we grew up, to be hunters for the entire village..
Since this village was far from the other cities, it was understandable that we had to hunt, since it was very rare to have travelling peddlers and merchants visit us and trade their wares..
For years, we have been hunting with this formation..
Dale, was a swordsman, he had the cla.s.s [Warrior] in his status so it was indisputable..
Sharl, was our healer, she went to the holy church once in "Virgo City", the city that worships Solaris-sama..
Kizu was our scout, he used a bow and a short dagger, and had keen eyesight and senses, warning us from danger..
With me, the trap specialist, we made our hunting party..
Alone, we would have had a hard time catching even one, but together we hunted [Demon Rabbit], [Demon Deer], and sometimes even [Demon Boar] on special occasion..
Today, was an important day since for some reason, most kids in the village were infected with an illness all at the same time, so we needed more food than usual..
While laughing, chatting, and planning our capture route when we were walking to the forest, we arrived..
So, we entered the forest, preparing ourselves, and searched for our prey..
After a few hours, we caught a few [Demon Rabbits] and [Snow Sparrows]..
But, this wasn"t enough..
The kids needed food to live, and I didn"t want to be the cause of their depleting health..
It just wouldn"t sit right with me, so I proposed that we should go deeper in the forest to hunt bigger game..
I told them that since it was winter, most of the beasts would hide in the inner portion of the forest..
They were reluctant, but even so, they agreed with me due to the small amount of game we hunted..
I knew the forest was filled with unknown dangers, but I had to take the risk, since it was for the children..
With a renewed determination, we went deeper..
Turns out, it wasn"t that dangerous, considering our planning tactics, such as, attacking them when they are alone, and making little to no sound when sneaking around..
Or shooting them from far away, and trapping them in holes we dug..
It was going smoothly, so when we noticed that we caught enough, evident by the almost-bursting rucksacks..
We turned around, and went back to the village, following the trail..
On our way out of the forest, we were talking about our various feats today, which beast we killed, how we killed them..
Things like that, it was a nice atmosphere, that just relaxed your mind after a hectic day..
Thinking things like today was a great haul, and suggestions that we should go deeper from now on..
Trivial topics were the best, at least for me..
But, we were too naive, we let our guard down the moment we saw that we were out of the forest"s range..
We suddenly heard an angry growl that was so loud, it made me shiver unconsciously..
When we turned around, we saw the rustling of trees, and heard loud thuds in the forest..
After a few seconds, two bright, golden eyes were visible in the darkness of the forest interior..
Then what followed were two more pairs of eyes, but this time, they were red..
They were staring right at us..
It was strange since I wanted to run away from the scary scene, but I just couldn"t help looking back..
I couldn"t even move if I wanted to, since my legs were shaking, regardless..
I was stuck in place, like the prey in the face of its predator, we were sweating, and quaking in fear..
What came out were fangs, a ma.s.sive body, tall, tree-like arms, and a scowling face that seemed enraged..
But the bigger one, even more so..
I was suddenly reminded of the stories they used to tell you when you were a child in the village..
That if we were bad, the snow demon will get you..
I treated it like any other tale, something that wasn"t real..
But now I stand corrected, it wasn"t a work of our imagination, this was real..
The danger I feel could only support that this wasn"t a dream, but a terribly cold reality..
It must have followed us from the forest, since it might have made his home there, and we stole it"s prey..
I could only arrive at that reason when thinking about the situation..
But I wasn"t calm. I was despairing at our bad luck, at why this had to happen just because I wanted to save the children..
"Kizu, take the girls and run! I"ll buy time, go!"
A loud voice interrupted my thoughts..
It came from Dale, our party leader, while he brandished his sword, pointing towards the beasts, showing his back to us..
Right now, his back looked reliable, but I knew he was afraid too, and I could never forgive myself if I left a friend to die..
So, I gathered up my courage and told them that I will fight with Dale..
The others looked at me like I was saying something crazy, but they soon changed into daring smiles..
They said that they would join in too, since they couldn"t force themselves to leave us behind..
Maybe they were right, this is crazy, but this is what I"ve decided to do..
"You guys.."
"Don"t be crying on me now, Dale. You"re treating me to a drink once this is over.."
"A-ah, sure. Let"s beat these things and head on home.."
The exchange between the two best friends, no two men who were willing to fight was heard..
Smiling fearlessly, we faced the demonic beasts with renewed vigor..
We started the attack..
First, Dale would slash at the leader, to keep it at bay, and we would kill the other two first with traps and long-range tactics, it was harsh for Dale, but it was the only plan we could come up with, given the situation..
So, Dale started sprinting towards the leader and held him back with his swordplay..
Or at least, should have been..
*Smack*
I was dumbfounded at the scene..
When Dale charged towards the beast"s abdomen..
He was gone in the next moment..
One flick of the wrist, and he was sent flying..
The beast seemed amused and puffed out its chest slightly..
Dale, after flying in the air for a few seconds, landed on the cold, snowy ground..
He was coughing up blood, and I feared that he wouldn"t last long, given the temperature of the air..
When this registered in my mind, I felt conflicting emotions come over me..
Anger, anger at the fact that our plan was useless, and that Dale might be gone in a few minutes..
Fear, fear at the ent.i.ty before us, which treated humans like toys, and had enormous strength..
And helplessness, despairing the fact that I, we, couldn"t do anything about it hurts the most..
After comprehending the simple fact that beating them wasn"t possible, my legs suddenly lost strength..
The beast seemed satisfied, and came closer to us..
Kizu was shielding Sharl, and she was trying to heal Dale, as the beast slowly approached our personas..
This was the end, I thought..
The children wouldn"t get their food, and the village will starve for the winter, were the thoughts that filled me with despair and grief while staring at the deep, bright eyes of the beast..
"I"m sorry.."
I say out loud, to at least ask for forgiveness to my friends, the children, and the entire village..
But I knew it was just self-satisfaction that I unconsciously said to make myself feel better..
It didn"t matter either way..
So I closed my eyes and waited..
Just when I was thinking that, and accepted my fate, I heard a grunt from the creature..
I opened my eyes, and saw that the creature wasn"t looking at me anymore, but was looking to the direction of the east..
Even though this was a grave situation, curiosity still got the best of me, and I turned my head sideways, like the beast..
I couldn"t see anything in that direction, but after a few moments, I squinted my eyes, and slightly made out a dark silhouetted human-shaped shadow in the distance..
The moment that I saw that, the beast roared, and signaled to the others to follow him, was what I thought..
Since after the roar, he proceeded to run towards the mysterious silhouette, at a speed I couldn"t believe..
I was even more saddened by this since it proved that even if we ran, we still wouldn"t escape..
I was apologizing in my heart to the person who was about to get caught up in our mess, an innocent bystander was going to be hurt, or even worse, because I was overconfident that we could enter the inner part of the forest..
I couldn"t take it, and looked away from the impending slaughter..
As I was ridiculing myself and my hubris while sprawled on the cold, white snow..
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
Suddenly, I heard a loud explosion from a distance..
When I turned towards the noise, I was shocked..
The towering beasts from before, had holes in their foreheads, bleeding out a thick amount of blood and brain matter, and were now being dragged around with rope on their necks with one hand by the mysterious stranger..
Before I knew it, the boy reached the place where we were, and noticed us..
He looked strange, a youth with purple hair, and white bangs, pale skin, covered in dark clothing, wearing an eye-patch with one of his eyes colored red, showing a bored look on his face..
But he didn"t look strained even though he was dragging the three heavy bodies of those beasts, with one hand..
I thought he was a demon, but since there weren"t any horns on his head, I let go of the scary thought..
When he came close to me, I came back to my senses and started to stand up..
It was a little hard, considering I just lost my strength, but I still stood upright in order to greet and thank the person..
So, when I did, I held out my right hand, offering a handshake greeting towards him..
But his next words were unexpectedly different..
With a slightly irritated tone, and eyes that stared right into mine, he said..
"Oi, were you the ones who sent these small-fry to attack me?"