Setting: Mushoku Tensei
*Insert long-ass light novel title here.*
Chapter 01
I woke up and immediately realized that I got laid last night.
It hasn't really hard to figure that out, given that I could feel the bed sheets rubbing against my naked skin, and I never slept naked, useless something like that happens. Not only that, but I was also feeling the characteristic serenity that came after a satisfying night of passion, and going by the slight soreness of my dick, the night was not only satisfying but intense too.
As my senses began to craw back from the sleepiness, I noticed that the room had a familiar smell, like I needed more proof.
So yeah, I got laid last night.
Too bad I don't remember anything about it.
Grumping a little for my confusion, I push myself to a sitting position, rubbing the last trances of drowsiness from my eyes to check out what I was going to have to deal with.
I was alone in the bed, which was good, because it gave me more time to gather my memories and try to make sense of what happened, but left me a by anxious to find out who I slept with.
It would be fine if it were with some of my female friends, not fine if it was with some of my female friends who were in a relationship, and it would be weird if it was with a stranger woman that I never seen before. But nothing I couldn't handle or hadn't handled before.
It doesn't help that I didn't have any memory of whom I was going out last night. My recollection stopped when I arrived home after a day of work and started to catch up my Game of Thornes episodes, nothing really special about it. I guess somewhere along the line a friend must have called me to get shit face drunk to commemorate the Friday. Nothing new, except the worrisome amount of missing memories, and general confusion.
The room didn't give me any clues either; it was a spartan room made primarily out of wood, with a dull wardrobe, a simple bed, a nightstand- with a weird staff thingy with a big, blues sphere on the head leaning against it. The things stood up immensely against the blandness of its surrounding and instantly draw my attention. I mean; it's a magic staff, that's obvious, and a really well made one too, it looked like something you would see in a cosplay competition, but it wasn't something I'd expect to find in the world blandest room.
Wait, cosplay? Did I sleep with a cosplayer? Was I in a convention?
Shaking my head from that line of thoughts, because the only served to confuse me even more as the next Anime convention was months away.
I noticed an open window to the side, letting in soft sunlight and a slightly chilly breeze. Seeing something that could help me direct myself I made my way-
This is not my body.
There was no mistaking it. At the moment I took out the sheet and saw a pale, well build, much younger form, everything I was feeling but hasn't registering fell on my senses like I wrecking ball. The lightness provided from the lack of the layers of fat that had accompanied me for most of my life, the sheer strength of the taut muscles that coiled over my new form, the new distance that everything seems to have by my new smaller perspective, and the…the vast energy flowing just beneath my skin.
I'm a grown adult, I experienced many scary situations in my life, from something simple like being late from meeting that you can't afford to lose, to something more serious like staring at the barrel of a gun while being mugged. But I can say for certainty that nothing came close to the sheerterror that came with waking up in a body that wasn't my own.
I didn't scream, something that preserved my pride a little if I cared about that. Instead, I tensed my new body, brought was arm closer to me, the other finding something that helps give me focus, my legs spread to shoulder distance, and my eyes dashed around the room, searching for anything that might- a battle stance, I just entered in battle stance and didn't even notice it; a stance that I couldn't possibly know about!
The shock unbalanced me. I had to prompt an arm on the nightstand to keep me standing. I raise my other arm- that was holding the fucking magic staff- and tried to pry my tense fingers from the thing.
A few seconds later [The Arrogant Water Dragon King] fell to the floor.
The Arrogant- what!? The thing has a name!? A name that jumped to my mind just now that I was sure was referring to the staff, and what that kind of name is that!?
My ordeal was steadily making more sense to me, even if the things happening were only increasing my panic. Things were starting to seem familiar, not because I experienced this before, more like I read about this before.
But that shouldn't make any sense! That was a literary concept, a freaking fanfic setting for cry out loud! People don't just- People don't just wake up in another world!
Still unconsciously bracing myself against any possible enemies. I struggled to control my panicked breaths, trying to remember some of the half-forgotten meditation lessons I pulled from Youtube some years ago. My Mana was also agitated by my panic; it kept pulsing and twisting inside my body, ready to be used at any moment- FUCKING MANA!
I had mana! I have fucking magical energy flowing inside me! I can do magic!
Fuck, I know how to do magic, I know how Magic works, I know how to shape mana and cast spells, many, many spells.
How that fuck I know that!?
This time I couldn't hold the fearful whimper from escaping from my throat. I stumble forward finally losing my balance. My instincts take over on the last second, pushing myself to fall on the bed instead of the hard floor.
I'm a mage, ever though I can't remember even studying magic before. I can cast a high number of spells as if I'd studied the subject all my life; I have a mana reserve to act as a fuel, a massive one apparently. I know how to sing countless incantations to make the spells automatically, and I know how to mentally shape my mana in the ways which the incantations would shape them, to cast the spell silently if I chose.
Someone put this knowledge in my head. And I can't describe how scared that makes me feel.
It took a few minutes for me to gather myself. I think realizing that your mind has been messed with, is enough to fill anyone with disorienting dread, and make them take a few minutes to put their thoughts in orders.
Okay…I have been Robbed, as clique was that sound. I'm much younger than I was before, I'm probably in another world, and I'm a mage now. I'm also still male, thank god for that.
After finally managing to push the panic to the back of my mind, reaching some semblance of calmness. I examined the room once more, trying to find something to cover myself that wasn't the bed sheets.
Soon, I found the letters.
They were on top of the nightstand; two pieces of paper and a small black object that looked suspiciously like an inked block used to place a stamp on something.
I snatched the two papers, looking for anything that would help make sense of my situation.
The first one was small, more like a note than a letter really; it only had one sentence in it, written in barely comprehensible chickenscratch:
'Right now, Rudeus and I don't match up together. I'm going off on a journey.'
…I stayed a few seconds just looking at it, trying to not let the fact that I could understand this completely unknown alphabet perfectly bring forward my suppressed panic.
The wording itself don't mean anything to me, expect the name, Rudeus, Is my- no, the boy I reincarnated into's- name Rudeus? It… Sounded familiar by I never heard that name before, but it sounded like a name of a Japanese RPG protagonist. Is that what I am now, an RPG protagonist?
Its better than a light novel one- or worse in this case; if I had to reincarnate somewhere, I'd definably choose a shitty light novel world which bends over to suck the protagonist dick than a long JRPG one that forcer the protagonist to struggle to survive. It would make for a boring story for sure, but it was excellent if I had to live in it. Better to live an overpowered live in comfort, than face many trials for the sake of entertaining some invisible audience.
I laugh softly of my own lame joke, trying to not let the different voice get to me. Humor, that's good, that normal for someone in high stress, that help me alleviate some of the dread.
The second letter was bigger; it was folded to be at rightly the same size as the first one. I unfolded the paper carefully.
"FUCKING ROB!" I screamed when I noticed the first few lines, which instead of the weird alphabet that I somehow could read, were written in Portuguese.
My impression of "A Letter from ROB" vanished quickly as I read the rest of the content:
'Dear tiny me.
I'm writing this letter to avoid a time paradox- which are a bitch to deal with, believe me on that –and to fulfill that old promise that you made to yourself on your teenager years; so yes you would definitely help your younger self if you managed to crack down time travel. Good job!
In all seriousness, I know you must be freaking out right now, this letter will explain something to you and hopefully make the situation more bearable.
Now, as you already figured out, you are in another world. More precisely, you are in Mushoku Tensei - Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu, search on your memories, its that light novel you read back in 2014, which you actually thought was good. You should remember easily enough.
You are now Rudeus Greyrat the main character of the story. I have no idea what happened to the Japanese guy who was piloting the body until now; my guess is that we killed him when we crash landed, better not to think about it too much. Now that you know that, you should be able to make sense of things.
I'm not gonna lie to you. Yes, you just lost everyone that you ever knew, and you will not be capable of tearing the fabric of the multiverse to go back to Earth anytime soon, so my advise for you is to try and build something on this new life, make some new friends, new lovers, new family. You always had the right idea about what to do in a Self-insert situation; it's pointless to be depressed about what you lost, especially after gaining so much with this opportunity. I know it will sound cold for you now, but take it for me; it was worth it.
Now, I'd love to give you a super Grimoire telling you exactly what you need to do to become an uber mage, but I can't. The problem is Time Paradoxes, they are not what you think they are, but they are very fucking troublesome to deal with, I can take the heat, but you can't. So we better avoid then as much as we can.
Yes, I know that left you more curious, so I will throw you a bone; the problem is that the knowledge was to be acquired at some point, if we become an uber mage by creating a time circle of exchanging grimoire, then it will become a Schrödinger Grimoire- and fuck Schrödinger, you will learn is a few years that anything with that name means trouble.
But I can give you some valuable pieces of advice to help you in your new life, and when I said valuable, I mean really valuable, just knowing that some of these things are possible will make a big difference.
First, it's not advice, more like an explanation: You do have Rudeus' memories and knowledge. They stay in mental vault inside your head, you can reach them fairly easily with a bit on meditation. However, the memories of Sword and Magic are deeply integrated to you being, you are now at the same level of Rudeus in term of magic and sword mastery, in a few days, it will feel like the knowledge is fully yours. It's up to you to grow from there.
On to the good stuff: Ok, burn this in your mind; MAGIC IS OMNIPOTENT. If you need things clearer; you can do anything with magic. There is simply no limits on that shit. Oh, it will certainly feel like it have, but any 'limit' can be broken with a little bit of dedication and ingenuity. Nothing is impossible when it comes to magic, from the most overpowered, to the most ridiculous things, never forget that, and be careful with who you teach that.
Because Magic is Omnipotent it means that any ANY CURSE IS REVERSIBLE, it doesn't mean its easily reversible though, or that will happen soon. But there is always hope, remember that. Also, the effects can be softened until a better resolution is discovered, I suggest training Mental Magic... if you know what I mean.
Touki, Fighting Spirit, Ki, Spiral Energy, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. It's the life energy inherited on every living being and some dead ones, it's used in martial arts on this world. You CAN use it, it will take some effort but you can. One more thing: TOUKI IS ALSO OMNIPOTENT… in theory anyway. It takes longer to do, and a lot more effort to accomplish something, and you have to do it in the form of a martial technique. I know that sounds dumb, but when I managed to cut an ice cream into existence, I knew I could go full Solar Exalted if I wanted.
There is an stamp beside the letters; it's a magical stamp that will place a magical tattoo on your body. Just place against your skin and think about the design and the place you want to mark. It will make you invisible to Hitogami's eyes until you manage to do it by yourself. Yes, the existence of the stamp had caused a small paradox, but nothing too serious, and I already dealt with the worst of it, you're welcome. Just destroy the thing after you use it and it should be fine.
And that's it I guess, I wish I could give you more details, but I will do fine with this. Just, life your life the way you want to, and don't forget to have fun along the way.
Stay awesome dude, good luck!
XXXXXXX now known as Rudeus Greyrat, Magic God, 1st of Seven Major World Powers.
P.s: I don't have to tell you to send a letter back in time when you crack down time travel do I?
P.s.s: Hitogami is shitpantly afraid of us, use that information wisely.'
...Wut?
Just… It is too much to process.
Am I Rudeus Greyrat?
Did I just received a letter to myself from the future!?
With my mind more calmed I picked put [The Arrogant Water King] from the floor. Consciously Accessing the strange feeling and impression for the first time.
The mana surged with an unnerving familiarity, shaping the two unformed spell into reality.
They weren't spells per say, just a bolt of raw mana to manipulate the elements.
Slowing, a rock foundation was conjured into existence, rising to my height and making a circular plate right in from of me. The second element sprung into existence filling the plate and forming a reflective water surface.
I saw me, the new me. A young boy just entering teenagerhood, with pretty, noble features, light brown hair starting to past his shoulders, and attractive greenish eyes, one in a lighter tone than the other.
I am Rudeus Greyrat, the protagonist of one of the few decent isekai light novel out there.
Well fuck. What now?
…First, let's see about that tattoo.
