A/N: Hi everyone, just realised I didn't update my OC/SI's magic skills, probably because he never used them against the Goblins, still, face palm moment! But I've added them to his stats now. :) Hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Mark's character stats(Beginning of Chapter 7)

Character class: Wizard Knight

Level: 10, 163xp until next level up.

HP: 523 / 523

MP: 630 / 630

Strength: 28

Speed: 20

Spirit: 35

Magic: 49

Weapon: Goblin Dagger

Armour: Traveller's cloak

Footwear: Leather shoes

Accessory: Isekai ring

Skills: None

Magic: Poison, Regen, Sleep, Panacea.

Trance: Balmung strike

Items: 1 phoenix down, Antidote, 13 Goblin Steak

Gil: 180

A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously?

CHAPTER SEVEN

Joining the Pluto Knights after rough sex

I spent close to a week in the castle's infirmary, along with most of the others that had fought that day. Healing magic and potions could only do so much, and those who weren't horribly injured, suffered from extreme fatigue. According the villagers next to me, I had spent the first three days in a coma. Considering how long we were fighting, the injuries I'd gotten, using Trance for the first time, along with being hit by a level 50 monster, I was lucky to be alive.

I will admit, I could have left on the fourth day, but I took advantage of the free bed and a chance to actually rest. Still thanks to the damnable Necromancer, I was able to level up a load, and effectively doubled my strength. As such I had unlocked more spells, but I hadn't gotten around to selecting them yet. I didn't know if people could see menu screens, otherwise I would look crazy, tapping at the empty air. I was in no rush.

The soldiers had already returned to duty, well those that had survived, anyway. As for the villagers, they would be returning to the battle site at a later date to assist with the rebuilding and advising, for now, the state would protect them. It would seem Queen Brahne was actually good at her job, when not slaughtering kingdoms at least, though these were actions of the future.

The following day, I was visited by Emilia, dressed in casual wear, she looked surprisingly feminine and pretty in them for a such a muscular woman when out of her armour. She must be off duty. 'Easy now...' I warned my libido. I always had a thing for strong woman, which often came back to bite me in the arse, as I would never settle down or get married, some took offense to that, despite that I was often upfront about being MGTOW from the start, and strong women punched like men.

"Seems you're awake," noted Emilia, as she took a seat on the edge of my bed. "I was beginning to worry."

"Yep," I grinned. "And it seems you made it to Alexandria in one piece."

"Only just," she replied. "If I hadn't had a few potions to heal me on route..." she trailed off, her meaning obvious, but neither did she want to blame the young fraudster, it had been the right decision. He reacted like a general, despite his fairly low level. She had spoken to Steiner to tell him what happened to his knight, only to learn that while an offer had been made, Mark hadn't actually joined the Pluto Knights yet.

Then why had he insisted on getting involved? Steiner had suggested that the lie was merely a means of preventing her from rejecting his help, perhaps even by habit, men largely avoided the military, women were the warriors in this mighty nation.

"Even if it's mostly women who are our warriors here, that doesn't mean us brave few, can't break that stereotype," said Steiner with a wry grin, before adding Mark to his list of recruit(s). If Mark didn't join, he would be punished for impersonating a member of the Alexandrian army, as a courtesy to the foolish traveller who had done them service twice, Steiner backdated it to a day before the Goblin attack. Steiner winked, and she left laughing. When the Queen, Princess, or the General wasn't involved, he was a rather interesting man, when they were, he was ridiculously serious about his role. Mark would probably fit in with the motley crew that was the Pluto Knights.

Mark made her curious, so she decided to spend some time with me, he was an odd mix of polite and cheeky, and casually complimented her beauty and combat prowess with an ease of a ladies' man, but none of the pronounced perversion of one. Emilia found it rather refreshing, men usually didn't usually do such things by habit, they tended to favour being shy or brazen.

Emilia gave Mark a tour of the city, they watched some small shows, tried out some of the local eateries, she then checked out the armoury, as he his sword had broken in the fight, unfortunately, he didn't have quite enough Gil. It was then that she told him about Steiner enlisting him and why. Mark was a little dejected at the thought of being a private, but brightened up at the idea that all soldiers were supplied with iron armour and swords, better if they were higher ranked.

(Two days later...) Mark POV

Despite being an almost medieval culture at times, Alexandrian women seemed much more like women from my world, or perhaps the lady soldiers followed similar practices to modern soldiers and sailors on earth, when off duty, get busy. After spending the day with Emilia, she invited me back to her home, when we spent the night, and most of the following morning having one hell of a sex marathon. Because her strength stats were much higher than mine, I ended up losing a third of my HP, and rather sore all over by the end of it. I was fine with rough sex, but I had to admit that my HP taking damage was rather alarming. If this was to be more than a one-off, then I needed to bulk-buy potions or level up in a hurry.

Soaked in sweat and our love making, I drifted off to sleep to the sight of her beautiful green eyes. After being stuck in a very dangerous world, I greatly appreciated the chance to release my pent up stress. 'Thank you, Emilia.'

I awoke many hours later, in the late afternoon, Emilia was still asleep, snoring softly. Now with a moment to myself, I decided to open my menu and see what new magicks were available, as new ones were added each time I levelled up five times.

Black Magic (please select one of the following)

* Slow

Slows down target's movements and reactions for battle.

* Stop

Stops targets from taking any action for one minute or less.

* Osmose

Absorbs MP from the target and transfers it to the spell caster.

White Magic (please select one of the following)

* Scan

Scan enemy to determine HP, MP, and weaknesses.

* Stona

Removes Petrify and Gradual Petrify.

* Protect

Reduces damage from physical attacks.

With the black magic, the new option of Osmose, was the obvious choice, I could drain my enemies MP, and keep casting my other spells. I selected it. Now for the matter of white magic, that would be more difficult, for this part of the game, with my limited attack options, Scan was still a pointless skill to learn. Stona had some uses, but it was unlikely that I would encounter an enemy with petrify abilities. Protect though, with my low-ish level, being able to reduce damage from physical attacks would be handy. I selected it.

"Game Alert: You have learnt Osmose and Protect." All the game menus vanished.

Later after another session with Emilia, and a quick wash, unfortunately not together, I headed to the Alexandrian royal castle, in one section of which, the Pluto Knights were based, best to get this over and done with.

(Back to General POV)

Mark was stopped at the gates, and escorted to Steiner, who was in the middle of guard duty of the Princess. Two of his subordinates were with him, not that Mark could recall their names, he wasn't his friend Jonathon, whose game trivia memory was perfect. He looked above their heads. Haagen: Level 10, and Weimar: Level 6.

"Captain," Mark said, with a casual salute.

"So you've arrived," noted Steiner. "We'll work on your salute later," Mark grinned at that remark. Steiner glanced back to Princess Garnet, who was regarding the newcomer with curiosity. "Princess, this is Private Mark, he's a new recruit of the Pluto Knights," said Steiner, gesturing to Mark, who gave a quick, shallow bow. "And this is Princess Garnet, one of the primary charges of the Pluto Knights."

"Princess," Mark said calmly, not bothered by her station as a Princess, as such things didn't hold much sway in his world, and also he had used her character a great deal when playing through the game. Plus she was a fourteen year old kid, what was there to freak out about?

"Alright, go get your equipment and fill out the rest of your paperwork with castle management," Steiner then turned to one of his Knights, and yelled, "Haagen, show him the way!"

"Yes sir!" Haagen yelled back, hurrying over. "Let's go," he muttered to Mark, eager to get out of Princess duty for a bit.

"Long day?" Mark asked, amused.

"Oh God yeah!" complained Haagen, though briefly glancing back to make sure Steiner was out of sight and hearing. "We're supposed to police the castle, and guard the Princess and the Queen, but it's mostly just standing around the kid, being bored, and when we're training, the boss always overdoes it."

"And yet you stick around?" Mark asked as they proceeded down the vast stone hallways, lined with royal artwork.

"While I might complain, what we do is important, if something happened to any of the royalty, we would never hear the end of it, and Alexandria would be in trouble, and I like relaxing by the moat's waters, I couldn't do that without working here," Haagen replied with a wink. "Okay, it's in here."

Mark was led into a small office, where several spectacled people were hard at work with mountains of paperwork. One looked up, a hooked nose, and messy black hair, Adrian: Level 2. "Yes?" he asked as we closed the door behind us.

"New recruit, Captain's already signed him up, but we need to get his wage account and equipment sorted out," replied Haagen.

Adrian sighed. "Sit down, I'll get the paperwork," he made a gesture, and one of his colleagues passed him a stack of papers. "Name?" he asked, holding his quill at the ready.

'So, they fill it in?' thought Mark in surprise, but then given that parts of Gaia were primitive, many people here were probably illiterate. "Mark Green."

"Age?" Adrian asked.

"Twenty-Eight."

'Hmm...A bit old to be joining the military,' thought Adrian, scribbling the number down. "Level?" he asked.

'So it's common knowledge, the level system?' thought Mark in mild surprise. "I'm level ten."

'Oh, same as me,' thought Haagen, as he lounged against one of the walls, waiting for them to finish. 'So he's higher level than most of us?' The Knights of Pluto, by reason of their guard duty, were lower level than normal Alexandrian soldiers, they saw little combat, and most had been low level, normal guys who had joined mostly for the work, most of them goofed off when they were on duty, only a few, himself included, actually tried, and even then it could be tough to focus. It was why he liked relaxing so much by the moats waters, it was relaxing.

Mark spent about twenty minutes answering the questions, making sure to keep up the lie from being from Treno. When that was done, he had an account set up, and each month he would be paid 3000 Gil, and would collect it from the treasury on the 1st day of the month. Unfortunately, he would have to wait a while before his first payment, luckily, Pluto Knights had accommodation within the castle, and three meals a day with the other Alexandrian staff.

The rooms were tiny and basic, and the food for servants was basic but healthy. He would be able to save most of his wages. Calculating the Gil into Sterling, he had a good idea of his wages compared to the real world, while not great, it was about double the minimum wage back home, and had a free place to live, and meals, excellent! It seemed he wouldn't need to worry about eating that goblin meat in his item sack or paying expensive inn rates.

"Okay, lets head to the armoury," said Haagen as they left.

"Thanks, and sorry about the wait," Mark replied.

"It's fine," Haagen replied. "I'd be standing about anyway."

The armoury was tended to by a massively muscular animal person, Frederick: Level 20. I was fitted with an iron helmet, chest plate, metal gauntlets, and armoured shoes and leg guards. It was lighter armour that favoured speed, unlike the full body armour that Steiner wore, but it was still much better that he already had, he was also provided an iron short sword, ideal for him, as he would struggle to use a broadsword effectively.

Acquired: Pluto Knight armour, iron short sword.

Mark regarded myself in a mirror in the changing room, he pulled off the look rather well, he thought. Though to think he had joined the military. Two years, he would just have to endure two years, and then the game would begin.

'I wonder what skills I can learn from this armour?'

CHAPTER END

Next chapter: Guarding the Princess

Mark's character stats(End of Chapter 7)

Character class: Wizard Knight / Pluto Knight X

Level: 10, 163xp until next level up.

HP: 523 / 523

MP: 630 / 630

Strength: 28 (40)

Speed: 20 (15)

Spirit: 35

Magic: 49

Weapon: Iron short sword

Headwear: Iron helm

Armour: Iron armour

Footwear: Iron shoes

Accessory: Iron gauntlets

Skills: None

Magic: Poison, Regen, Sleep, Panacea, Osmose, Protect

Trance: Balmung strike

Items: 1 phoenix down, Antidote, 13 Goblin Steak, Traveller's cloak, Isekai ring

Gil: 180

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, now I've got to get back to work editing the submissions for Monsters 'N' Things, out of amazon, Halloween.

In an unrelated note, if anyone fancies doodling Mark in Pluto armour, PM me a link. :) Check out an illustration of me in this story's icon.