AN: Yo, sorry everyone but I didn't manage to finish the next chapter of Friends in the Multiverse just yet. That chapter is already over 17K and I'm thinking it might reach 19K before I finish it up.
So here's something to hold you over for tonight. A bit shorter than my usual stuff, but this chapter wraps up Roy's vacation and travel time in the world of SAO.
Announcement for this story at the end of the chap!
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Disclaimer: I don't own any source material.
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Chapter 4: Cooling down.
The trip to Switzerland was smooth sailing, the attractive flight attendant named Amy giving him an enjoyable conversation for the flight as she explained a few places for him to go see.
If she dropped her number and offered to give him a tour while they were there, he didn't mind.
He got a similar offer and number from the man much to his displeasure however. Theres nothing wrong with being polite but he left the man's number on the plane.
His first stop was the bank, having a private meeting and asking them to discreetly move a certain amount of gold bars from his account to a hotel nearby. Very discreetly.
They seemed to have such requests every now and then as they were very efficient with the delivery. And only when he was sure the coast was clear did he pile the crates of gold into The Lobby.
From there he went full tourist mode.
Did you know the Swiss have ATM's that give out gold? It was a cool find for him and although insanely expensive to the common man, being a tourist in such a rich country was a hell of a lot of fun.
Amy the flight attendant was a wonderful tour guide. And she did incredible things with her tongue.
The Swiss alps were a treasure for skiing and snowboarding. Something Roy was surprised to find out he was quite talented at. Perhaps it was simply a result of his physique.
Although the silent tears of joy at seeing a snowy landscape compared to his dry desert hell was also a motivator for his enjoyment.
Weeks were spent in the country, exploring to his heart's content, staying in five star hotels, eating at Michelin star restaurants, and getting acquainted with the female form.
From Switzerland to France, from France to Germany, from Germany to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, he let life guide him without a care in the world.
Spending money in droves experiencing the fancier things in life while at the same time seeking out the natural beauties of the world, camping in them when possible, wandering the ancient streets of old towns and cities, and falling in love with his wanderlust, never truly staying in one place for more than a few days.
Skydiving, Bungee jumping, Paragliding, Wingsuit jumping, Spelunking, horse racing, race car driving, his desire for fun took him all over.
Not to mention exploring the fashion trends of some of the leading cities in the world. Roy was quite shocked to see many of his own works displayed and photographed in occasional areas.
It made him rethink just how talented he may be with tailoring, but for the most part he put it past him. It was a hobby and skill for the future, he didn't truly care about the public views. He was proud and confident in his work, not arrogant or desiring to flaunt it.
Once he realized Europe wasn't enough, he went farther.
South America, Southeast Asia, the Oceania islands, he went all over throwing money at the best he could get and living a life of exploration and luxury.
The natural beauty of it all was breathtaking. And the female company was appreciated in all the various regions he ended up in.
Designing clothing in a range of styles as he grew more cultured, trying the local foods, hearing the legends and myths of the land. Giving into the various cultures and their auras.
Picking up a slight smoking habit in Europe. Changing it to a pipe in South America. And settling on a kiseru in southeast Asia.
He got tattooed by a ninety year old sun valley native grandma in Peru, a master of her craft using primitive ink and feathers for needles. Getting tribal designs running in lines over his back and sides.
His hair was braided by old warriors in Swedish lands as they laughed at his baby face without a beard, causing him to grudgingly allow a stubble to grow.
He learned much, matured more, got an understanding of things he never really seemed to realize before his horizons were expanded, but at the end of a full year traveling, he was slowly growing bored.
Somehow, even with all the best he could buy, all the things he had seen, the world just seemed….boring in a way. So mundane.
His daily exercise in the dungeons were things he had done hundreds of times and yet it brought tenfold more joy than the normal mundane world.
The people he met were interesting and nice but they were so…limited. Confined by the reality they all came to except as 'truth.'
But their reality wasn't his, no, this was just a stop before the next adventure.
He got his affairs in order, put all the homes, jets, boats, and various other investments and things he purchased over the year under the management of the bank, costing him a pretty penny but he didn't mind.
These things were all staying in this world, and if he ever came back he could just go where he wanted to relax without a care in the world. There was no big threat in this world beyond humans with not a shred of supernatural.
In fact, the nations were even winding down and decommissioning weaponry across the board as everyone was using VR technology to settle disputes.
The modern world was growing smaller, and it was peaceful. Bad apples here and there for sure but it was inevitable.
Roy didn't care about any of that. He had his gear amounting to nothing the thirty feet circle around the signpost in The Lobby couldn't oversee.
By this point the area around the signpost was looking like a little organized garage, with shelves, cabinet, and such to expand his storage space. The thirty feet circle was more of a bubble that he discovered through trial and error.
He liked to organize things in the cardinal directions, supplies in the north, workshop to the west, and his lineup of weapons, gear, and clothes to the east. The south was mostly open so he could reach the signpost without trouble.
He never bothered making a cooking space as there wasn't enough room and making a fire pit was an easy and effortless process with the right tools.
That goes double for a skinning and draining area for the boars and wolves. Best to just let The Lobby clean that up on its own.
He had a dozen bows ranging from fifty to ninety pounds draw weight. Crates of various arrows for hunting with adjustable tips to use custom arrow tips.
Around two dozen sharpened combat knives and enough trapping supplies to last him six full months in the wolf dungeon with daily resets.
A full wardrobe of clothing made from the greatly defensive and comfortable wolf leather and fur, in various shades and assorted designs from super casual to super fancy. Not to mention a dozen pairs of the combat boots in the same material.
Roy really loved using it to make clothing. Light, highly durable, elemental resistant, breathable, slash resistant, and like marshmallows on your skin.
His go to grey fur collared jacket was made from the boss wolves material. Usually worn with a tank top or no shirt at all along with tactical greyish-black pants and boots.
Professional grade sewing equipment alongside the fletching and smithing tools he occasionally used were in the small workshop space.
The crates of MRE's, his gold, and various strings, silk, and cloth materials were stacked neatly. And finally the packed ready bags of clothes, camping supplies, first aid kids and so on were neatly stacked side by side.
He was ready to go.
He had nothing else he could think of getting. He had prepared as much as he could, or at least what he could stand to, with what he had and it was time to move.
'Not to mention I'm tired of the same dungeons.'
He could have moved on to the Orc and Wind Hawks, he really was tempted over the past year, but he tempered himself for three reasons.
One because he was on vacation, the existing dungeons not counting since that was considered a work out for him.
Two because the next two dungeons were a marked difficulty jump with the monsters. One used magic and the other was all the intelligence of a Kobold and Goblin with all the strength and power of the boars.
And three, and honestly the most important reason. One he had done his best to ignore for a good while now.
He was VERY uncomfortable. Ignored through willpower and constant distractions, but he was feeling itchy in his own skin. It was causing his focus to waiver and his steady hands to tremble, messing with his aim in archery and his stitching for tailoring.
It was the main reason he even picked up smoking as a vice while traveling. He only ever paid for top shelf tobacco that had a much higher quality instead of the chemical induced cheaper options, usually sticking to top shelf brands like Black Devil for the flavor options or Treasurer for the pure class it gave, but thankfully whatever minor harm his smoking could do was healed overnight by the boar meat.
It was still a distraction however from the real issue.
The cause of all of this was interesting enough discovered through finding the cure first.
Roy's luck didn't seem to hold out on the first three dungeon boss monsters, getting an 8, 9, and 3 in that order.
But whether it was luck or from the sheer amount of time and effort put into the wolf dungeon, when it came time for a bloody and beaten Roy to roll the die, it landed on #17. The lowest number of the highest tier.
Under his wide eyed look, the chest glowed and opened to reveal…..a small seed. It came inside a jade box along with a folded page. Jade boxes usually meant something good.
[Seed of Unification:
Cultivation is to seek the heavenly laws, shatter the mortal shackles, pierce the heavens themselves and achieve immortality. To follow the path of the Dao to its end and become one with your path.
However, cultivation is a constant battle against fate. You must struggle and fight to reach your goal.
Along the way, injuries are common. Soul injuries are rarer and far more fatal.
The Fruit of Unification, grown from this seed, is a natural treasure to heal the bond between body and soul. To strengthen and unify what has been thrown off course.
An injured bond will result in great disharmony, grinding against each other seeking balance.
The fruit shall mend the bond, bridge the gap, return harmony and unify the two halves of the whole.
Planting instructions: …..
Warning: Must wait at least one year for maturation. Extremely bitter and possibly painful without refinement. Wait two years for improved flavor and safety if eaten raw. No cultivation is required for consumption.]
It was a…unique prize for sure. One for an issue he never really thought about before then. There was always a weird itch or twitch or so on since his new life began. A headache here and there.
But things got progressively weird and annoying the stronger he became. Forcing him to do things to distract himself and pick up vices like smoking while he traveled to offset some of his symptoms.
To make matters simple, his soul was far stronger than his body. MOD souls were not intended to last in a single human born body for such a prolonged period of time. For all the good parts of his fresh start, it had its issues as well.
"So much for an easy start, I feel like I got ripped off with a good thing." It's like being handed a bazooka for a knife fight, and then finding out the fight is inside a small stone room.
The body and soul have a very intricate bond. What happens to the soul more than often affects the body and vice versa.
His physical body, which was not originally his in the first place, had been pushed to the very limits of the human limit, and even beyond it to a certain extent.
Humans are inherently limited by their own minds so they don't destroy themselves, but thanks to constant training and constant consumption of the boar meat, his body kept growing and rapidly healing before any long term damage could be sustained.
However the body had limits while his soul was modified to be the very height of combat capable and adaptable by genius's far beyond his intellect.
How did he know these things? Roy assumed it had to do with his time as a MOD soul. He heard and saw things Kisuke would say or do but wasn't able to think about them at the time. They were in his subconscious and occasionally popped up when something related came up. Although the things related to souls were a rare topic to come up in the first place.
In any case, the top quality prize from the chest seemed tailor chosen for his needs, and he was thankful for it.
Having returned to his bunker in Australia that morning, Roy took the grown natural treasure, an item of phantasmal power from a world far beyond any he had known, having been born from the pure energy of the heaven and earth, something cultivation sects would go to war over with a single surviving member swearing vengeance and training for years to defeat their prized disciple, the disciples big brother, the big brothers master, his master's big brother, the sect elder, the sect master, the sect grand elder, the sect…..etc., and basically just a really important fruit.
He went into his kitchen, grabbed a blender, opened the fancy jade box, and dropped the cherry looking fruit into it along with some protein powder, almond milk, and some strawberries and banana and blended it up.
Why eat it raw when he could make a milkshake?
"Wuxia cultivators are noobs to the way of tasty food."
Somewhere, somehow, thousands of all powerful elders looked up into the sky with a frown, having the faint impressions of being slapped in the face.
The sweet sounds of a loud obnoxious blender drowned out all the shouts of exclamation as people who could kill him with a flick coughed blood.
Taking it out, pouring it into a tall glass and dropping in a straw and little umbrella, and it was perfect.
"Perfection." Roy nodded in pride before grabbing his drink and sitting down in a super comfy recliner. "Well, down the hatch. Do your thing magic natural fruit of providence or whatever."
And so he drank it, and so he casually fell into a deep slumber, and so very casually, his soul and body began to mend.
Whereas it was stuck together like glue since his arrival, his soul began to be molded like a ball of dough, slowly compacting and stretching as it grew and changed to fit the physical shell.
The modifications to the soul done through science and magic to optimize a MOD soul for combat and learning were retained while the negative aspects and small damages due to the poor bond and the accumulated stress of a homunculus soul meant for short term use were all washed away.
Further, unknown to Roy, hidden aspects of his modified soul were washed away as well, command codes to shut him down only known to a handful of people in Soul Society in the case a MOD soul got out and somehow grew too powerful.
The fruit of unity expelled all damages and detrimental effects on the soul in order to allow the purified soul to blend into the body perfectly.
And as the body and soul slowly combined, dormant aspects were being brought to the surface. His MOD souls enhancements blended into the body, pushing Roy's body firmly beyond the human limit without any stress on the body itself.
If this were the world of Danmachi, Roy's body would have firmly just leveled up from level 1 with S stats to level 2 with H stats.
Additionally, an energy lying dormant inside the mod soul was pushed into the physical shell, changing him in a slight but highly beneficial way.
After all, MOD souls were made to be able to fight Hollows, so how could they do such a thing without spiritual energy?
*Line Break*
Roy groaned and rose from his seat as he woke up and held a hand to his head. "Hm…oh, I fell asleep."
He yawned and stretched. "Mnn… I feel great." He blinked and woke up a bit more before standing and stretching out a bit.
"Ohhh yeaahhh~ this is way better. That itch is finally fucking gone." His body felt whole, lighter, smoother.
He grabbed a knife from his belt and twirled it through his fingers with practiced ease. "Woo~ that's way smoother."
There was a slight shake to his hand he always had to suppress in recent months, so it was nice to not be impeded like that anymore.
Roy continued to stretch out for a bit before he turned his head to the side and looked up. "Hm? Whats that?" He wasn't hearing or seeing anything, but he could have sworn he felt a nudge in his head from above.
With curious eyes, he walked to the ladder and climbed to the surface as the feeling kept nudging him slightly.
The hatch opened with a groan and he blinked the sun out of his bright green eyes and looked around. "Well mysterious nudge? Where would you be coming from my friend?"
A soft hiss to his side had the badass who slaughtered thousands of enhanced fantasy wolves jump away with a mini heart attack. "Another fucking giant spider! God I'm so done with this continent for life!"
He held a hand to his rapidly beating chest and glared at the spider before blinking. "Um… I know this place is cursed by God and Satan working together and all, but are they dumping nuclear waste here now as well? Cuz I swear you aren't supposed to be see through and float off the ground."
A hiss was his response and Roy carefully moved closer to look at it.
It looked exactly like a normal giant spider he had seen hundreds of times, unfortunately, except it was pale, see through, and floating off the ground by a few inches.
It turned to him with its beady little eyes full of….something… and he couldn't help it as he stabbed it with a knife. "DIE YOU ABOMINATION!"
Roy might have a trauma.
He honestly didn't expect anything to happen when he attacked but his knife went through the ghost spider and caused it to pop like a balloon and vanish with a hiss.
Roy blinked and stood as he looked down at his knife before looking back to the place the spider was. "I could have sworn I felt I hit something. Hm… maybe this is a hallucination? Did the magical fruit send me on a trip or something?"
Roy scratched his head but jokes aside, he had a decent idea by putting two and two together. "So I have spirit energy now huh? I guess I was sensing a nearby spirit. Man that's going to be annoying, I don't have the first idea on how to deal with this stuff. I doubt there's a manual in VR as well."
Having existed in Kisuke's lab in Soul Society, he was well aware of spirit energy, except he always just assumed he wasn't able to use it as he could never feel it even while meditating daily for a year. So he moved on, but it turned out it just wasn't transferring to his body this whole time.
From what he knew, Spirit Energy, or as it was known, Reiryoku, was an ability all beings had in various amounts. Having more than the average amount made one able to see and interact with spiritual beings.
Having a lot made you capable of emitting it outward with intent, better known as spiritual pressure or Reiatsu.
Spiritual energy was used for various things from casting spells to speed techniques, to enhancing the physical body, to powering Zanpakuto.
Hollows could use Cero and stuff, while Quincy could make bows and arrows… "Damn I want that." Roy grit his teeth in envy. It was both a versatile and yet not exactly direct power. More like the fuel behind a lot of other things.
He had NO knowledge of spells, speed techniques, or a Zanpakuto. So he was left with just the basic stuff spiritual energy could do like sensing and reinforcement.
"Wait…did I just hurt a spirit in physical form?" Roy blinked at that and looked back at his hand. "This is going to need some more testing…."
Thankfully, or unthankfully depending on who you're asking, the Australian outback was jam packed with things dying daily, meaning there were plenty of spirits floating around for him to attack.
For whatever reason, they seemed to just pop and deflate when he stabbed them before vanishing. "Maybe they are just super weak or something? The anime for Bleach never really went into what happened to insects or small animal spirits when they were hurt. I'm not about to chase down some big spirit though, so I think I'm good with this. Anyway, it seems like I'm right, my body and soul combined, meaning my spirit energy is now focused on my physical body. "
He walked back to his bunker with his hands behind his head. "So now I need to decide if I should stick around and train this new ability here in relative safety where I have no time limit… or get the fuck out and learn on the road."
He tilted his head back and forth in thought before shrugging. "Screw it, I've waited patiently for four… three… years training my ass off, I'm not waiting another day for this. If I die from being impatient then I'm blaming my luck."
He was tired of Australia, he was tired of the mundane world, and the readers were tired of this very long prologue.
It was time to start his journey for real.
Standing in the living room of his bunker, he finished braiding his hair into his customary Viking braid and looked around with a final nod seeing everything in place and called out. "Aschente."
The world shattered for the millionth time in his eyes and yet it never stopped being a fascinating and cool visual image.
Walking up to the signpost surrounded by his myriad items, he looked down at the option he wanted.
ID: Dimensional Door: [SAO World 1], [Random]
He stretched out to hit the screen when he paused and hummed. "Hmm…I feel like I should say something to commemorate this moment…"
He looked around before his eyes lit up. "In honor of VR tech and the world of SAO, multiverse travel STAR-"
["Random multiverse door selected, transfer in 5…4….3.."]
Roy flinched and tripped backwards over a box. "YOU CAN SPEAK?! WAIT! MY MOMENT!"
But life did not wait for him and he soon vanished in a blur.
On the section of the signpost for 'New Notes' a smug emoji expression appeared for a moment before fading.
Meanwhile, a completely caught off guard Roy appeared in a new world, except he was a few hundred feet in the air and was immediately blasted by a gust of frigid freezing air.
"Sweet Australian outback that's cold! Why am I so high up!? Oh look, a giant mountain of snow is there to catch my fall."
His last word was muttered before contact with said mountain and he was buried a dozen feet deep in powdery snow.
A low mutter came from the hole. "At least it's not Australia…."
Chapter end.
AN: Yo, lmk what you think of the chap.
Important announcement for this story. At the end of this chapter marks the cut off point for any world option and pairing option(s) I can think of.
The first choice I made, and I'll see how I feel about it moving forward, is Campione. I wrote two to three chaps for it already.
My offer to you, my readers, is to offer up a world option THAT ROY WOULD fit into. He's in his late teens and take his personality into account.
Your welcome to offer a world, time period, ONE power base, and pairing option(s). It could be a solo pairing, or upwards of 3 pairings, I will not attempt to write anything over 3.
For the power example: If he goes to Campione, he will become a campione, that's his one base. And the benefits are basically just enhancing his base stats to high levels. Authority stuff will follow KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Other examples are: [Just keep things the way they are with what he already has]. [A devil fruit (not lightning)]. [A single Fairy Tale Magic (No dragon/god slayer)]. [Book on Fuinjutsu]. [Etc.]
Remember that the boss chests can literally give him anything as long as rolls high enough. So I got excuses for random shit.
Just keep it to ONE option.
One world. One time period. One Power. One to Three pairings.
Simple and to the point.
Let me know if you got anything interesting for me, and if it hits me strongly, I'll write something for it.