Where am I?
That was the first thing coming to Seika Ryu's mind. His consciusness has not fully returned to him yet. He was at least aware that he was lying down on a grass land. The sky was dark with silver sparkles all about.
What happened?
Another question popped into his mind. He had no memory of how he got into this place. The latest memory that he could retrieve from his mind was the moment when Ur ship exploded.
In other words, a disaster.
Ur was one of the many spaceships within Artificial Relicit to Keep Species (ARKS), a military group dedicated to eradicate planet-corrupting creatures known as Darkers. Losing an ARKS spaceship is a rare occurence which only could happen in battles against a greater Darker known as Dark Falz.
Ur just happened to be one of the unfortunate ships. There were hundreds of such city-carrying spaceships within ARKS fleet. The Dark Falz would have been defeated one way or another.
As of now, the most important thing for him is to assess his situation. He raised his left hand to reach his left ear, where a communication device has been implanted. A standard equipment for any ARKS operative.
"The comm is not responding..."
He looked around, seeing if he could notice some kind of intelligent life in the vicinity. There was nothing other than a wide grassland, as far as his eyes could see.
Next was to see if he still possessed his combat capability. ARKS operatives do battles by utilizing energy particles known as photons, depending on their aptitude and alignment. Photons exists in every place, barring very few exceptions. He had to confirm if he was in such place by extreme unfortunate chance.
Ryu took the weapon that was strapped on his back. It was a rod with retractable handle. When used, the rod was almost as long as his body height. The head of the rod had three sharp purple prongs pointing slighly outwards from the center. Near the head the rod's body was thicker with the color black and red. The handle was thinner and purple, and at the tail of the rod was a counterweight in the shape like a plus sign if pointed directly to one's eye. The name of the weapon was Weddle Park
As a Force class, Ryu's combat capability was in the same sense as an elemental wizard in most fantasy settings. He was able to manipulate Photons into projections of common elements: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Wind, Light, and Dark.
Ryu was specialized in Thunder and Dark element. He still could use all other elements, though not as potent. In fact, his Weddle Park had an innate ability to amplify Dark element attacks he casted.
Still, he decided to first use a spell of an element he is not specialized at.
Foi... wait!
He was about to cast Foie, a fire spell which produces a fireball, but at the last second he realized that he could start a wildfire, so he halted it.
Sazan!
Sazan was a wind spell that produces a miniature tornado at the target area. If the target area was close enough from the caster, all enemies between the caster and the target area would be pulled into the miniature tornado.
But what came out was different than expected.
Instead, a giant tornado capable of devastating an entire city appeared at the target area. For a few seconds, Ryu stood still with his mouth agape. He was physically unaffected by the tornado thanks to his photon defense system, but everything else would be less fortunate. Moreover, the tornado did not look as if it would disappear quickly like how it should have been.
Cancel! Ahh, nope!
Ryu was shocked out of his wits. Barring some exceptions, Photon Techniques could not be cancelled while in effect. Sazan was not one of them. He had to quickly think of a way to disperse the tornado.
Razan!
Razan was a spell that produces an upward outburst of air from the ground like a geyser. He hoped that the upward burst would somehow blow the tornado from within and make it disperse.
The upward burst which came out had a tremendous strength. It was so strong that the tornado blew up violently from within, as he had hoped. He covered his face with his arms to brace from the resulting gust of air. His photon defense system still held him in place, but he definitely felt the force of the wind and pieces of soil falling like rain around him.
When the wind and soil rain calmed down, he let his arms down and looked at the aftermath, and once again his mouth went agape. In place of a grass field, there was a hole about a hundred meters wide. The depth of the hole was about one meter, revealing fresh red soil beneath what used to be a grass field. Pieces of soil along with the grass that had grown on them were strewn all over the place.
"H-how is this possible?"
There has never been any recording of Photon Techniques being this devastating. Even the heroes of Six Pillars were not capable of this level of destruction. Ryu was just another operative without exceptional feat, there was no way this could have happened. Moreover, wind element was outside his specialization.
He started to shiver, thinking about what would have happened if he had casted either thunder or dark element.
Maybe I should refrain from casting anything until I figu... what?
Before Ryu could make a sure decision, he saw something coming from a distance. There were figures of two person. One of them was a rather old man in a butler suit. His body was overall very well built. His hair was white, and the same applied to his immaculate beard. The other person was a woman dressed in a maid uniform, though the maid suit seemed to have armored parts over it. Both of them approached with their hands raised, implying that they came in peace.
In response, Ryu also held his hands up, trying to tell that he would do no harm. The other party seemed to understand, seeing that they put their hands down in relief.
After both parties were close enough to talk, the elderly butler was the first to speak.
"Greetings. My name is Sebas Tian"
"My name is Seika Ryu. You can call me Ryu"
"Ryu-dono. Our master noticed the feat of power you have done and he would like you to meet him"
This might be bad.
That was the first thing that came to Ryu's mind. There was no way his test that had gone haywire had gotten noticed this fast. Moreover, sending only two plain looking subordinates to approach the source of such devastation was either stupid, or he was confident in the strength of them. More likely the latter because Ryu's instict kept telling him that these two were powerful beings.
"If I may inquire, is this a peaceful invitation or are you going to capture me alive?"
"It is the former, Ryu-dono. Our master has no intention to bring you to him against your will"
Sebas' speech was smooth. Ryu could not tell if he was telling the truth or he was really good at lying. In either case, this was a chance to obtain information on whatever place he had ended up into, though said chance was also placed on a bet whether he would come out alive with that information or not.
I will risk it.
"Very well. I will come with you."
"You have our sincerest gratitude, Ryu-dono"
Ryu walked along with Sebas and the maid, who has not spoken any word ever. Sometimes he felt that the maid gazed at him in disgust, as if he was a lower life form than her.
"Narberal. Refrain from doing such thing. He is an honored guest of the master"
"...My apologies"
The maid bowed her head down, but she didn't show signs of regret. It was as if she would openly do that again once Sebas is away.
"Please forgive the rudeness of my subordinate. She is not used to... outsiders"
"Ah, I'm fine with it. By the way, is the residence far from here?"
"It's just ahead, Ryu-Dono. We can see it from here"
Ryu looked ahead, in his sight about one kilometer ahead was a structire of what seemed like an old tomb. The structure still stood strong, but there was no sign of it being used by any human being. It even gave the feeling of being an undead nest.
"Forgive my rudeness, but is your master by chance... an undead?"
"Indeed he is, Ryu-dono"
"Is it too late to change my mind?"
"It is not, Ryu-dono. It is unfortunate if you do, but we have no right to stop you"
Narberal silently gave her gaze of disgust again.
The last question was not asked because Ryu wanted to go away. He was trying to see their reaction upon hearing it. From the reactions he had seen, he guessed that if he really went away, he probably would get away with it, but with a high chance of being enemies the next time they meet. He probably would end up enemies with them anyway, but he wanted it to happen later. Not now when he still had no information about this world.
"I will still come with you. There are questions I would like to ask from your master, if possible"
"Unfortunately it is not in our power to answer that"
"By the way, isn't the place a bit far away? I hope your master is patient"
"Truth to be told, the two of us are capable of leaping there in an instant, but we do not wish to leave Ryu-dono behind"
"Ah, in that case..."
Should I do it?
Ryu was thinking of the one spell he usually used for quickly moving around. The spell is capable of propelling him forward at high speed, zapping any hostile he touches along the way. However, with the recent event of Photon Techniques being mysteriously empowered beyond belief, he was worried.
"Sebas, Narberal, I'm going to cast a spell to move myself forward at high speed. It is a little unstable, so please keep on your guard"
"Understood, Ryu-dono."
Ryu then took his weapon, charged it with energy, and jumped as high as he could. His jumping strength was not far above a normal human, so the height he reached was not impressive at all.
Ilzonde!
Upon casting the spell, Ryu's body was instanly enveloped in lightning. The lightning aura brought him forward at incredible speed, the distance between him and the old tomb was covered in two seconds. The spell's effect stopped about ten meters away from the entrance of the tomb.
Ryu stood still, once again with his mouth agape. Normally, Ilzonde would bring him only about fifty meters forward at a much slower speed than what it just had done. He shivered, thinking about how hard he would hit the door of the tomb if the spell had lasted just half a second longer. He slowly turned around, looking at the long trail of burned grass behind him. He had jumped to minimize the damage caused to the ground by the spell, but it seemed that it all had been futile.
"Ryu-dono. Are you all right?"
Sebas, who had caught up along with Narberal, asked as if he noticed something was wrong.
"I... I need to take a deep breath"
Ryu then did exactly as he had just said. He knew that he needed to calm down, and taking a deep breath was his attempt at that. Fortunately, it worked. He regained his composure, although some feelings of shock still remained.
"Did the spell exhaust you, Ryu-dono?"
"A bit. My body just never get used to the speed"
"Shall we rest a bit before entering?"
"No need."
"Then I shall bring you to where our master is at"
"I shall be in your care"
The three of them entered the tomb. The trip through the interiors of the tomb was quiet and peaceful, as if the impression of being an undead nest was just an impression after all. Then again, two of the three lived in this tomb, so probably the undeads here recognized them all as friendly.
Later, they arrived at what seemed like a large gladiator arena. At the center of the arena was a number of humanoid creatures kneeling to a large skeletal figure. The figure wore a dark, gaudy robe which still left its chest bare but covered everything else other than the hands and face. The skeletal face had hollow eye sockets that gleamed a red light from each. Underneath its ribs there was a bigger red spherical light. Could it be its core?
The skeletal figure noticed the recently arrived group. He took a few seconds to look at Ryu.
"Guardians. I have heard and understood your opinions. Then, I shall hand the tasks that were once performed by my former comrades to you. Carry them out faithfully. Now, with the exception of Sebas, dismiss yourselves from this place. I would like to have a private conversation with my guest right here"
After hearing those words, all the humanoid creatures swiftly went away without saying a word. In less than a minute, all that was left in the middle of the arena was Ryu, Sebas, and the skeletal figure.
"So this is the one who created the tornado and later blew it up?"
"Indeed he is, Momonga-sama"
Sebas kneeled as he answered.
I should do the same
"It is a great pleasure to meet you. My name is Seika Ryu"
"Raise your head and stand up. You are my guest, so you do not need to kneel"
Ryu did as the skeletal figure said. He could feel an overwhelming power from it, far beyond the strongest Dark Falz he had ever fought. Making enemies of this figure would be a fatal mistake right now.
"I would like to ask you a few questions, Ryu-san."
"I will answer them with the best of my capability, Momonga-dono"
"What is the name of this region?"
"I'm afraid I have no idea, Momonga-dono. I was already here when I woke up"
For a moment, the lights inside Momonga's hollow eye sockets went out and his jaw dropped a bit. Less than three seconds later the lights went back and the mouth closed again.
"Sebas, leave the two of us alone. The coming topic requires secrecy just between me and him"
"As you wish, Momonga-sama"
Sebas went away from the place swiftly. Now there were only two people there.
"Ryu-san. Are you an Yggdrasil player too?"
"Yggdrasil player? What is that?"
"Don't mess with me! You're just like me, right? Transported to this world all of a sudden?!"
Seeing the mighty skeletal figure dropping the formal speech into what seemed like a frustrated person talking caught Ryu off guard. Still, the fact remained that Momonga was overwhelmingly strong, so answering truthfully was still the best option.
"Yes, that is correct"
"So answer me! You are an Yggdrasil player too, right? There's no way...!"
Momonga's sentence was cut short. He suddenly reverted back to a calm self.
"Tell me about where you came from"
Ryu did as Momonga had asked. He told him everything about his origin. Momonga's eyes went out and his jaw slightly dropped a few times as Ryu told him the story.
"So, you're saying that you're part of a space traveling army?"
"Yes"
"Do you know anything about a planet named Earth?"
"I'm afraid not"
"Do you know anything about video games?"
"Yes, it is one type of entertainment popular among civilians"
"To put it simply about myself, I was a human from Earth playing a video game. My character is an undead skeleton magic caster. Suddenly I, along with my guild base and all the NPC inside, am here in this unknown world as the character I was playing."
"That is interesting"
"My human name is Suzuki Satoru, but still, call me Momonga while I'm like this"
"Understood"
Momonga let out a sigh.
"So it turns out none of us have any information about this world"
"Momonga-dono. May I ask you a few questions?"
"Ask away. And feel free to drop the formality if it is only two of us"
"How strong do you think you are?"
"That is not a simple question to answer. In the game world I came from, I am at the peak of my strength. However, this character was not optimally set up for fighting other players. So over there I would say that I am somewhere between middle and high tier player"
Momonga let out another sigh.
"But the lack of information about this world worries me. I am level 100, but if in this world a commoner is about as strong as level 100, we are totally in danger"
"I see what you mean. Another question. If you were to take the tornado I casted, do you think you would be fine?"
Momonga rubbed his skeletal chin with his right hand, seeming to be thinking.
"A tornado of that scale is roughly equivalent to a 7th tier elemental magic. I might take some damage but it will be minor. Then again, the wind explosion might be as strong as 8th tier. In that case, I would take substantial damage"
Momonga gave his chin another rub.
"Nevertheless, I was speaking on the account that I just stand there and receive it head on. In practice I would either evade or block them with defensive spells"
"I see"
There was a silence for a few seconds.
"Momonga-dono. May I borrow this arena for a while?"
"Huh? For what?"
Ryu then told Momonga about how his Photon Techniques were not supposed to be as devastating. He wished to use the open field of the arena to learn how to control the overwhelming power because he was concerned about the potential collateral damage if he were to use them in combat someday.
"I see. Then use it as you like. I will have my subordinates to keep watch on whatever damage you might accidentally cause"
Hearing the approval, Ryu bowed down to Momonga.
"You have my sincerest gratitude"
"Don't be so laid down. Also, if you need rest, a guest room will be prepared for you"
Before Ryu could say thanks again, Momonga vanished from his sight. He had teleported away from the place. Now he was all alone in the middle of the arena's wide dirt field.
"Yosh!"
With new determination, Ryu began his control training. He was resolved to gather information about this world and someday figure out how to return to his duty as an ARKS operative.
