Chapter 2
'...ea!'
The gate opened and I found myself stumbling into a big field outside of a modern-looking town.
Quest Completed!
Make it safely to Earth and don't get ripped apart when leaving the Dimensional Gap. [x]
Rewards: 500XP, 1 Gatcha Token
Congratulations!
You have finished the tutorial!
You have reached LvL 2!
"What the fuck just happened?!"
The voice was deep and seemed to carry an otherworldly richness to it. And it was completely unfamiliar to me.
What was even more of a shock was the realization, that it was my own voice. Since being awakened by Tia in The Void I had never actually talked out loud. I had so far only used the innate connection Tia and I seemed to have to communicate with each other.
Pfffft!
I felt a sense of amusement in the back of my head. A notion, that I was beginning to associate with the feelings Tia was sharing with me.
"Are you making fun of me, Tia? What was that all about? The Quest specifications painted quite a bad picture of your little stunt! It said we could have died, Tia! And now I'm talking out loud with the voice in my head like a crazy person! Great."
Tia's amusement seemed to grow at that.
'Wait a second. Hold up! Did you purposely word that Quest like that?!'
Maybe?
I briefly closed my eyes. Great. She was a prankster.
Come on! No harm no foul, right? I wouldn't have followed through on the teleportation if the risks were too high. All I did was add a little spice to the notification!
'Right. I don't know how, but I'm so going to get you back for that little stunt!'
Don't be like that. Maybe look at your Status? You DID level up after all!
'I think we should first find out where exactly we are. And find a safe place to stay at.'
I looked around me. The portal had opened a couple hundred of meters outside of what looked like a modern town.
Well, at least I was in the right period. And on earth. Those were the two most important things.
First things first. Finding out where we are. I should be able to find out what the town is called by a town sign. So heading towards the road that leads further into the cluster of houses before me. If that failed, I would have to find someone to ask. That shouldn't be too big of a problem.
I started to walk towards the closest road. Only to stop mid-step.
'Tia?'
Yes?
'I'm naked, aren't I?'
Uhm, yes?
I closed my eyes.
'Is there a particular reason for it?'
Well, after we spend so much time working on your new body, I thought we shouldn't hide it, you know?
She was fucking with me again.
'And when exactly were you planning on letting me in on the fact that I was walking around stalkers?'
Oh, don't worry! I don't really see what the big deal about clothes is anyway. I'm not wearing anything, either!
'That's… not exactly wrong. But you don't risk the chance of someone labeling you as an exhibitionist and pervert! Since no one can see you in the first place!'
Point.
Give me a second. I'm pretty sure I can magic something onto you!
And just like that, I felt a comfortable coldness wash over me as a simple black T-Shirt and Jeans formed on my body.
'Huh. Neat. Can you always do that? Or is this a one-time thing kind of deal?'
Nope. I should be able to always dress you in stylish black clothes!
Well, that's helpful!
So the risk of me pulling an accidental naked man like the typical harem protagonist are basically null. That's good. Being in an ecchi-harem anime of all things means I have to look out for something like that, right?
Just imagine walking in on Sona or Rias while naked. If their sis-con siblings would hear about it, I'd be dead faster than I could apologize! That's one thing less to worry about at least.
And I can dematerialize them just as fast!
Or maybe not.
'Just don't do it without a reason, okay? Please?'
Don't worry!
I continued to make my way toward the town sign next to the road closest to me. Only to stop dead in my tracks when I was close enough to read what was written on it. There, written in big white letters for all to see:
WELCOME TO KUOH
HOME OF KUOH-ACADEMY
"Oh for fuck sake!"
It had been ten days ago when her King had stormed into her room late at night to tell her about abnormal spikes of power in her little sisters' territory.
So the Behemoth, or Beli-Chan to her King, the Maou Leviathan, had been sent to investigate and if needed evacuate her King's little sister and her peerage.
And while the raw power could still be felt on the outskirts of Kuoh when she got there, the origin of it was nowhere to be found.
But the sudden appearance of someone or something that powerful in Serafall's little sisters' town was concerning enough to warrant stricter security.
Which was why she had been camped out in this Maou-forsaken field for close to two weeks!
And for ten days nothing had happened. Whatever had been here seemed to be long gone and didn't intend to come back.
At least that's what she had thought when around an hour ago a black and purple, triangle-shaped gate opened right in the middle of the field where the previous power spike had led her to.
But the, to her unknown, and wasn't THAT exciting, gate wasn't the end of it. Nor was it the most interesting. No, that honour would be claimed by the young naked man that had stumbled out of it.
Not only had he been swearing from the get-go, but the way he talked and behaved had been interesting. And a little amusing.
And leaving all of that aside was the biggest and most exciting thing. He was of an unknown species.
The thought alone made her giddy. She was The Behemoth. She had been swimming in the molten lava rivers before even the Gods had been born. And she knew every race that had ever graced this world. Or at least, that's what she had thought.
So, after layering several concealment charms over herself, she proceeded to follow the young man into the town.
To be honest, I should have expected to find myself in the epicentre of the main plot. Now I only had to find out at what point of the plot I was. Logically speaking we should be before canon started. After all, Ophis was just thrown out of The Void. And I was sure that happened before the start of the actual anime.
Right? Right.
After talking to Tia about it, I wasn't so sure anymore. According to her, time and The Void were hard to define things. Especially when talking about them together. For all we knew an hour in The Void could be a century on Earth.
So, Tia and I had come up with several ideas to find out when exactly we were.
The first idea was for me to find and go to Kuoh Academy and look for any signs of the main cast and see if I would be able to discover anything I could use to narrow down at what point of the plot we found ourselves. Like their age or who was actually present. For example, was Rossweisse there? Was Issei even a devil yet? Knowing that would help a lot.
But as Tia was fast to point out to me: I had no idea if they, the devils, were able to notice me. And what they would do to me if they did. After all, nothing said that the characters I was somewhat familiar with after watching the anime, were anything like that in this dimension.
And even there the Devils were a scheming, manipulative race. Main-Cast included. At least in my opinion.
So going to Kuoh Academy was out. For now.
Looking for Issei at his home was out as well. Depending at what point of the plot we found ourselves, Rias' whole peerage could be living there as well.
So, after a lot of back and forth between Tia and me, we decided to go look for the old abandoned church Raynare and her entourage had used in the anime.
If it was destroyed, we would find ourselves at least after Asia was turned into a devil.
If it was still inhabited by Exorcists and The Fallen we would be at the beginning of the canon events.
And if it was just an old abandoned church with neither signs of a battle or The Fallens presence, we would be at some random point between Ophis' arrival and the start of canon. As soon as the decision was made, I got a new Quest pop-up.
Quest Alert!
Investigate the Old Church on the outskirts of Kuoh Town.
Rewards: 200XP, Knowledge of the state of canon
Failure: You stay ignorant of the state of the supernatural world around you.
Which was why I was currently sitting in a tree a couple of hundred meters away from the church.
Do you think anything is in there, Tai? We've been here for about 2 hours. And nothing has even moved.
'Well, at least the church is still standing. So I suppose it's safe to say that canon as we know it hasn't started.
Which is good, right? At least if we decide to do anything to change canon.'
Not to be the devil's advocate or anything, but doesn't our mere presence change canon?
Well, thinking about it. It actually might.
Well, I never was a fan of the stories in which the new MC didn't change anything. On the other hand. This is now my real life. This world is real. The people here are real. So are the dangers.
'Fuck it. Canon is overrated anyway.'
So, you're going to change it? Nice! You know, a lot of the Isekai stories I've seen in your memories would manipulate the main events and build their own huge harem and rule over all of the rest! Are you going to do that, too?
I snorted.
'Yeah, right. Hard no to the harem thing, Tia. That would simply be more of a hassle than it is worth. It's a nice fantasy, sure. But I doubt it would be that cool in reality.'
If you say so. Are you sure about that? You read an awful lot of those stories in your last life…
I could feel Tia's mirth.
'That's neither here nor there! And anyway, as I said, it's a nice fantasy. But that's it!'
Okay, calm down. I was just teasing you. So you are a one-girl kinda guy then?
'Sure. Let's go with that, shall we? Thank you very much.'
I could practically feel her grin in the back of my head.
Sure, sure. What about the ruling over them part?
I rolled my eyes.
'Tia, I hardly think I'm strong enough to rule over anything at this point. And I honestly don't want to rule over any of the Three Factions. I don't even particularly like them. So hard pass to that as well.'
What are you going to do then? What are your goals?
This got deep fast.
'Well, to start with, we should get stronger. At least strong enough that we can't easily be bullied into doing something we don't want to do.'
I shrugged. I hadn't had time to really think about that yet. By the Void, I hadn't been in this world a whole day yet!
'I'd like to see what this world has to offer. Like, go visit the different realms of the supernatural factions and stuff like that. Maybe meet with some of my favourite characters from the show and see if they are as I imagine them to be.
Aside from that? I don't really have a set agenda yet. Do you have anything that you want to achieve?'
That's fair, I suppose. Well, I'd like to meet my… parents? See if they are what I have seen in your memories.
'Well, we REALLY have to get stronger then, don't we?'
I couldn't help the grin that slowly pulled the corners of my mouth up. Yeah, I had a whole new world to explore. And a whole new range of abilities to develop and master!
'Could you pull up my Status, please?'
I felt Tia mentally nod and my Status appeared in front of me.
Name: Tai'Ren
Level: 2
Class: Void Mage – Novice (5/100)
Title: The Gamer
Alignment: True Neutral
Race: Voidborn
Gender: Male
Status:
HP: 350 (Reg 25/Min)
MP: 250 (Reg 50/Min)
STR: 25
DEX: 15
CON: 25
INT: 15
WIS: 10
CHA: 25
Attribute Points: 5
First things first. I got 5 AP from my LvL-Up.
All my current skills relied heavily on my INT stat. So boosting that would give me more damage output. Which was nice. It also seemed to boost my overall maximum Mana. And the rate at which it regenerated. Triple nice. All into INT it is, then.
What's next? Didn't I get a Gacha token?
'Tia? How do I use my Gacha token?'
Oh, just open your inventory and use it!
Inventory? Inventory. Right. I was The Gamer. Of course, there was an inventory!
Inventory:
Gacha-Token: 1
I mentally selected it and accepted the prompt to roll it.
Rolling one Gacha-Token!
…
…
Congratulation!
You have rolled 1 (One) new item.
Familiar Orb (Ci Annwn) (Very Rare) has been added to your inventory.
'What? What the heck is a Ci Annwn?! Tia? Any Idea?'
Uhm, sorry. Never heard of it.
'How is that even possible? Aren't you The System itself? Where did the Orb even come from?'
Well, yeah I am. That doesn't mean I know everything! I've been at this just as long as you have, remember? And as far as I understand, the Gacha-Token copy's a random item from existence. Any existence.
'So, how do we know what it is?'
Maybe select it and look if it gives you any description of the item?
I mentally selected to orb in my Inventory.
Familiar Orb (Ci Annwn) (Very Rare)
The Gamer can use this orb to summon a familiar which is automatically bound to him.
This Familiar Orb contains a Ci Annwn. A medium large fey. The Cŵn Annwn are spectral hounds of the welsh underworld. They are one of the more dangerous creatures used in The Wild Hunt.
Huh. Look at that!
'Looks like I really lucked out on that pull, right?'
I'd say! I mean, it could have been anything from anywhere. Like literally. You could have pulled a stone from some random world!
Lucky me indeed! I selected the Orb and used it.
Congratulation!
You have acquired your very own familiar!
...
A separate Status Page has been created!
Name: -
Level: 5
Class: Familiar
Title: Hound of The Wild Hunt
Alignment: Unaligned
Race: Medium Fey
Gender: Female
Status:
HP: 143 (Reg 17/Min)
MP: 260 (Reg 52/Min)
STR: 17
DEX: 18
CON: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA: 13
Abilities:
- Incorporeal Movement
- Keen Hearing and Smell
- Pack Tactics
Well, would you look at that! This thing is actually pretty strong!
Wait a minute!
'Tia! My familiar is a higher level than I am! I can't be weaker than my own familiar!'
Well, you should start getting stronger soon then, shouldn't you?
I slumped dejectedly. Seriously. What kind of Isekai MC was I to be weaker than my own familiar?!
I squared my shoulders in determination soon afterward. As soon as we had a place to stay, I was going to use my skill to create a dungeon and start farming XP. This just couldn't stand! I was The Gamer for Void's sake!
Let's get this scouting mission over with first. I summoned my newly acquired familiar.
The Ci Annwn announced her arrival with a chilling howl and seemed to materialize out of fog right in front of me.
She was bigger than I had expected. With her shoulders coming up to the middle of my torso. She must have been around 1.5 Meters in height and close to two Meters in length.
Most of her body was covered in snow-white fur that seemed to flow around her like she wasn't affected by gravity. The head was more akin to that of a wolf or a fox. With long ears and light lilac-white eyes that shone with intelligence.
Her paws were a dark black that slowly changed into a bloody red the further up her legs they got.
She was beautiful. Absolutely magnificent.
I smiled at her and slowly lifted my right hand to scratch her behind the ears.
"Hey, girl. We'll talk more later, okay? Right now, I need you to have a look around the church over there. As stealthily as possible. Okay? I need to know if anyone is in there. Or has been in there in the past? Can you do that for me?"
She cocked her head and seemed to enjoy my head scratches a second longer before turning around and bounding over to the aforementioned church, picking up speed the closer she got before jumping right through one of the west walls of the church.
Huh. That must have been one of her abilities. Neat!
It took close to ten minutes until I saw a mass of white running back toward me.
"Hey beautiful, did you find anything?"
She shook her head in the negative.
"So there is no one in there? No signs of anyone having been there recently?"
Another shake of the head.
"Well done, girl!"
Quest Completed!
Investigate the Old Church on the outskirts of Kuoh Town. [X]
Rewards: 200XP, Knowledge of the state of canon
Failure: You stay ignorant of the state of the supernatural world around you.
"I'll re-summon you later, alright? We've still got loads to do today."
And with that, she vanished back into the mist she had come from earlier.
I made my way toward the big double door of the church and walked into its main chamber.
Line after line of old wooden church benches lined both sides leading to a slightly elevated stone altar at the other end of the large chamber. An altar that I knew blocked a staircase towards a hidden cellar.
'Well, Tia shall?'
'Activate I.D. Create!'