The Hero's POV
The girl in the white hood just laid kneeling on the floor while still recovering from her little accident just a few seconds ago. Of course being the person he is, the Hero decided to give her a helping hand.
"Hey are you okay? That was a quite a fall you had there." The Hero asked.
"What?" The girl said as she looked around to see who said that. She looked up and immediately saw the Hero standing in front of her. "Sorry, didn't see you there."
The girl extended her hand towards the Hero and stood up thanks to his help. While standing up, the girl took off her while hood to show even more of her red hair.
"I'm surprised you didn't see me, considering you basically fell face first towards me." The Hero said.
"Wait, I crashed into you when I was landing?" The girl asked frantically.
"Yes. Yes you did." The Hero said. Looking closer at the girl, the Hero knew she was a bit distressed at what happened. "Hey, it's okay. I wasn't that bad anyways."
"I know, I was just a bit concerned and all. Sometimes it's best to be cautious." The girl said.
"Don't sweat it. Everything's fine." The Hero said.
That said, the girl just sighed in relief.
"Anyways, with that out of the way, it seems you must be my partner for now on." The girl said.
"Wait what?" The Hero asked.
This was quite confusing. This girl, who just happened to fall out of the sky, is now calling the Hero her "partner". Parther? For what? It also didn't help the fact that even after falling from a height that big, she would just change topics immediately, much to his confusion.
"You know, partners for the initiation. Didn't Ozpin mention this in the beginning?" The girl asked.
That answer just brought even more questions to the Hero. What is this initiation this girl is talking about? Who is this Ozpin person? What does all of this have to do with her falling from the sky?
"I still have no idea what you're talking about." The Hero responded.
"You're not part of Beacon's initiation?" The girl asked.
"No. I'm just here." The Hero answered.
"Oh! So you're just a sightseer who happened to stumble upon this place?" The girl asked.
Looks like the Hero didn't have to think of an excuse after all.
"Yeah. I was just exploring for a bit and it seems that I just lost track of direction." The Hero said.
"Strange that would happen. Though if you want, I could show you the way to Beacon Academy so you can get out." The girl said.
"I don't think that's necessary. I want to travel a bit more." The Hero said.
"Are you sure? This place is infested with Grimm." The girl said.
"I mean from the looks of it, I think I could handle myself." The Hero said while glancing at the disintegrating bear he just killed.
"Nevermind then. I guess you're not the ordinary sightseer." The girl said.
Even though the girl was impressed that the Hero was able to defend himself, which is pretty uncommon for the average sightseer, there was still something bugging her from his perspective. Namely the odd vintage phone booth resting right behind the Hero.
"So what's with the phone booth? Last I checked, phone booths aren't something you would see in a forest." The girl asked.
Now the Hero was wondering whether or not he should tell the girl about the time travelling phone booth, as that's something that could be used terribly in the wrong hands. Not to mention, it's something that only the people in Falconreach know of. Even the Rose has no idea this thing exists. So instead of just exposition dumping the girl, the Hero decided to keep it a secret.
"Telling from the state of the booth, it must be an old landmark. Kind of like a relic of the past. I stumbled upon it when passing by." The Hero said.
"If you put it like that, maybe you're right." The girl said.
"My God she actually bought it." The Hero thought.
"Let me get this straight, if you're just a sightseer, then that means I still need to find a partner." The girl said.
"Maybe…" The Hero thought for a moment. As he was thinking however, he noticed someone walking a few meters away from him near the side. "How about him?"
"Who?" The girl asked.
"That guy." The Hero said while pointing at the guy he glanced at.
This guy looked slightly older than the girl the Hero was talking to, as if he was 19 or 20 rather than 18. He wore gray and black clothing while also having a red tattered cloak behind him. He had black spiky hair while having dull red eyes. He also had a cool looking sword behind his hips which was quite impressive in design from the Hero's perspective.
"What are you waiting for? Go meet up with him before he runs off." The Hero said.
"Thanks?" The girl hesitantly said. "Though you're not going to come?"
"You said this was an initiation correct?" The Hero asked.
"Yeah?" The girl said.
'Well I can't really come with you. I am considered outside help, which would be cheating if you think about it." The Hero pointed out.
"Right. Forgot about that." The girl responded.
The girl ran towards the man the Hero directed to her. Well, that was until she decided to run back to the Hero for some odd reason.
"Before you go, I haven't gotten your name after our lengthy conversation. Mind if I know? You know, for future reference." The girl asked.
"Just call me the Hero." He responded.
"Hero? Just the Hero?" The girl asked.
"It's what my friends call me. So I thought it should suffice." The Hero responded.
"I could question it, but I have an initiation to do. Maybe if we meet up next time, you could tell me why." The girl said.
"Sure thing." The Hero said.
"Thanks." The girl said. "By the way, the name's Summer Rose. I hope we meet again."
"I could say the same Summer." The Hero said while gesturing his fingers as if he was saying farewell.
With that said, Summer smiled as a response, ran towards the man once more, and left the Hero all by himself. From a distance, the Hero saw that the interactions between the man and Summer went pretty well since they just departed together pretty fast.
The Hero could just head back to the phone booth and depart to Falconreach, but there was something about this place that seemed to catch his attention. Perhaps it was his curiosity to explore this place even more knowing that the monsters don't seem that dangerous. Though he can't just leave the phone booth unattended, nor can he memorized where exactly he left it.
Instead, the Hero decided to just relocate it somewhere where monsters won't reach it. Just looking forward, all he saw was a gigantic plateau that was over the huge field of trees, which was the perfect place the Hero was looking for. He jumped inside the phone booth, tweaked the coordinates thanks to some basic directions on the module and started teleporting towards the plateau he was just looking at.
In a flash, the Hero opened the door and found himself standing on top of the plateau.
"Now it's safe for me to explore a bit." The Hero said.
Looking at the edge of the plateau, the Hero swapped into his Riftwalker class and opened up two rift portals: one in front of him, and another at the bottom of the plateau. He jumped into the portal and appeared right below the plateau. Now at the bottom, the Hero swapped into his Warrior class and started walking back into the forest, which was half a kilometer in front of him. It was a lengthy walk, but he was able to reach the forest.
While the Hero was walking in the forest, he heard numerous gun muzzles from what he presumes must be the remaining initiates in this so called "Beacon Academy" Summer was talking about earlier. Although the Hero really wanted to avoid as much of them as possible due to interfering with their initiation, he was still curious to meet up with more people and lear more about the place he was currently in.
As expected in a forest this big, the Hero was expecting to encounter at least some monsters, but it seems these initiates have it under control. It kind of bugged the Hero as it was a pretty boring stroll, but it was also refreshing since he didn't have to fight a monster every corner, something most quests tend to have.
Well, except until now.
The Hero turned around and noticed two wolf creatures stalking behind him. For some reason, these wolves have a similar design to the bear he fought a few moments back, both having black fur and bone-like armor surrounding the head and main body parts.
As the Hero readied his Longsword, one of the wolves lunged towards him with both claws ready. It was pretty predictable and the Hero just side-stepped out of the way only to counter with a clean swing that sliced the wolf's arm off. Turning towards the fallen wolf, the Hero swung his sword twice towards its back to the point where he was able to slice the wolf vertically in half.
Turning towards the last wolf, the Hero immediately grabbed a dagger out of his inventory and threw it straight towards one of the wolf's eye. The dagger implanted itself into the eye socket, causing the wolf to howl in agony. Using this chance, the Hero dashed in and sweep kicked the wolf's legs to make it fall towards the ground. As the wolf was falling midway through, the Hero quickly went underneath it and powerfully swung his sword to the point where he bisected the wolf.
The two dead wolves laid dead on the ground and were left to disintegrate into dust. The Hero walked towards one of the piles of dust, grabbed the dagger he threw earlier. and stored it in his inventory.
"That was easier than expected." The Hero mumbled.
All of a sudden, the Hero heard the bush behind him rustle. He turned towards the noise and raised up his Longsword once more. Out of the bush appeared another wolf, only this time, it was much bigger than before. It was towering over the Hero while also having more bone armor surrounding its body, implying it must be a more evolved version of the wolf he just defeated.
The gigantic wolf ran towards the Hero with both claws swinging towards him. Again, it was so predictable, the Hero just parried the two attacks with his sword. However, the wolf quickly lunged towards him with its jaw and snatched his Longsword out of his hands. With the Hero disarmed, the wolf punched him and sent him flying towards a nearby tree.
The Hero stood up from the impact and rolled towards his sword. Immediately grabbing his Longsword, he parried an incoming attack from the wolf and staggered it for a few moments. He dragged his sword on the ground and vertically swung it upwards to stagger the wolf even more. The wolf eventually lost its balance and stood around dazed for some time. The Hero used this chance to jump above the wolf and planted his sword inside its head. Jumping off of the wolf's head, the Hero grabbed two daggers and stabbed both of them into its temples, twisted the head, and pulled it down towards the ground. As the Hero landed, he pulled the Longsword out of the wolf's head and proceeded to decapitate it with one clean swing.
As the head of the wolf dropped on the ground, the Hero grabbed the two daggers and stored them into his inventory.
"Scratch that, these things can be a bit unpredictable." The Hero thought while stretching a bit.
While the Hero was packing up his things once more, he heard a familiar female voice right behind him.
"That was quite some skill you showed there Hero." A familiar voice said.
"Like I said, I'm no ordinary sightseer Summer." The Hero said while turning towards her.
"I mean, I knew you could defend yourself, but that was pretty good. Surprised that you're not trying to train to become a Hunter like the rest of us." Summer said.
"I have my priorities." The Hero said.
The Hero looked behind Summer, wondering where her partner is.
"What happened to the partner you found half an hour ago?" The Hero asked.
"He just went on ahead. We're done the initiation right now since we have what we came here for." Summer said.
Summer reached into her pocket and pulled out a white knight chess piece.
"What's with the chess piece?" The Hero asked.
"Ozpin just told us to gather these artifacts and bring them back to him. I'm guessing they're called artifacts for immersion reasons." Summer responded.
"Either that, or your academy is dirt poor." The Hero said.
Both the Hero and Summer chuckled for a moment at the thought. As they stopped, Summer knew that she had to catch up to her partner eventually.
"Anyways, I need to head back to Beacon. My partner would probably get mad if I just stay here." Summer said.
"Go ahead." The Hero said while watching both Summer and him part ways.
"Before I go though, sorry if I keep doing this." Summer said while running back to the Hero. "If you're just travelling here, where's your hometown? Vale? Patch? Atlas?"
"My hometown is Falconreach." The Hero responded.
Summer's smile immediately turned into a face of confusion.
"Falcon...what now?" Summer asked.
"You know? Big town in Maguswood, pretty lively." The Hero said.
"I still have no idea what you're talking about." Summer said.
"Are you serious? It's on the map." The Hero said while pulling out his inventory.
The Hero knelt down into his inventory bag and pulled out a roll of paper that seemed to contain the map of Lore. Opening the map revealed continents that were in the form of a dragon's head, a dragon's wing, and a fireball. Countries that were labelled include Oaklore, the Deadlands, Maguswood, and Greenguard.
"See? Maguswood is right there, and Falconreach is right there." The Hero said while pointing at Maguswood on the map.
"Hero, what kind of map is this?" Summer asked.
"The world map." The Hero responded.
"That does not look like the world map I know of." Summer responded.
"And what does your map look like?" The Hero asked.
"I don't really have it with me. I don't have my Scroll since I had to store it away for the initiation, but I know the world of Remnant looks nothing like that." Summer answered.
"Remnant? Don't you mean Lore?" The Hero asked.
"Lore? What is that?" Summer asked.
All of a sudden, it finally made sense. Everything that the Hero has never heard of has a reason why. Ozpin, Beacon Academy, Grimm, Hunters, Huntresses, Remnant, the unknown region. There can only be one reason why all of this is new. He knew he had to travel back to Falconreach immediately.
Summer was confused as well, but also realized how spaced out the Hero look in the moment.
"Hero? Are you alright?" Summer asked.
"I'm sorry, but I'll be seeing you later." The Hero said while parting ways.
This sudden departure just left Summer with a very confused but also concerned look, even though the Hero doesn't know this.
"O...kay?" Summer said, before leaving to catch up with her partner.
On the other hand, the Hero sprinted back towards the path he was walking in for the past 10 minutes. He also had to dodge and slash every single monster that was standing in his way. It was a bit tiring, but he was able to reach the outskirts of the forest and finally reached the plateau where the phone booth was.
The Hero swapped back into Riftwalker and opened up two portals again: One in front of him, and another on top of the plateau. He sprinted towards the portal, entered the top of the plateau, and entered the phone booth.
He thought there was going to be some struggle using the phone booth, but it seems Cysero labelled the buttons and levers with permanent marker. Probably since he won't remember what each thing did. He pressed the "Go Home" button and saw the module change to "Falconreach"
"Cysero better explain this." The Hero thought while holding the safety bar behind him.
With that, the phone booth teleported out of this world of "Remnant" and started heading back to Falconreach.
That's the end of this chapter.
Review Responses in next chapter.