The Adventure of the Outsider

Ideally, I twirled a quarter through my fingers while waiting in Eina's office and said elf was currently busy with other adventures that required guidance. Which suited me just fine considering how I was already confined to my thoughts.

I grimaced thinking back to conversation that I had with my goddess the night before. I had been expecting differences in the timeline. It would be foolish to believe that this new world would be the same as the anime. The second I had set foot in this new world I knew there would be differences, but the main characters death should never have been in the cards to begin with. The three dungeons opposed to the one in the anime was a dead giveaway to the fact but that wasn't the worst thing that I had the displeasure of learning.

If Hestia had the timeline right then my timely arrival in this world was a little to convenient even for my liking. About a month ago would be right around the time that I was dropped here. It could easily be waved off as just some odd coincident, but it was too obvious a of a clue to ignore. Throughout the series it was pretty much hammered over the head that Bell was supposed to be the one to defeat the one-eyed dragon. If that is still even still the end boss of this adventure. Now that he's gone however that opens up a whole new can of worms that I wish had the common decency to not get me involved.

Before I could contemplate my own misfortune more the door behind me opened. I tilted my head back to see who had come in the door and I was greeted by the upside figure of Eina.

She smiled down at me "Good morning."

"morning" I repeated back ignoring the familiar feeling in gut.

'Whatever god that put me back into the body of a teenager is going to get a piece of my mind when I find him'

The half elf crossed the room to get to her desk, she ran her fingers along the top of the wood and slid gracefully into the seat. The same unnatural grace that seems to come easily to most elves.

"So!" she clapped her hands to together excitedly "What brings you here? I saw you come back last night and you seemed fine beyond the puncture in your coat it didn't look like there anything was wrong."

"I think I'm ready for to go down a couple more floors." I replied matter of factly.

Disappointment flashed across her face for second just enough time for to get a glimpse before it was smothered by the cheery personality that I had seen the day before when she was dealing with overconfident adventures. Waving her hand back and forth in a practiced 'not so fast' gesture. I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of adventures had said the same before disappearing into the dungeon never to be seen again.

"Uh, uh, uh not so fast, granted you survived your first time in the dungeon yo-"

"Some of my stats have already increased." I interrupted.

That seemed to stunt her for moment before the blond shook her head. "No that's impossible nobody can grow that fast."

"Do you want to see?" I pressed.

Eina huffed in annoyance but replied "If that will convince you then so be it."

I failed to suppress my amused grin as the elf crossed the room once again. I shimmied off my coat and shifted in my chair to give her easier access to my back. While she prepared an incantation to display my stats, I lifted up the back my shirt to give her easy access. Eina traced my back with her dainty finger once again the digit stopped right below my stats and I could easily feel her bewilderment radiating off of her. Letting my shirt fall back down I turned towards my advisor to see her expression.

Eina had one hand on her face trying to cover her eyes in a vain attempt to unsee my stats. The elf tilted her head up just enough for me to see her looking down at me with an exasperated expression.

Squinting her eyes again she took a deep breath and started again. "Ok so under the assumption that you somehow manage to get agility and magic to G rank you should be able to handle up to the fifth floor."

"Do you even have any spells you can use?" the blond asked bewildered. "I didn't see any you could have used last time?"

Shrugging "Maybe Outsider is somehow a magic spell" I offered.

Truthfully, I have no idea why my magic went up at all. Your stats are like a muscle you have to use them in order for them to grow. Why my magic went up when I don't have a single spell I have no clue.

"Maybe… though with growth it's probably an Excelia booster of some sort." The elf adopted a classic 'thinking' pose for moment and snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. "Alright I won't update what your skill does immediately, that plus your we haven't registered you as the owner of the skill yet. Hopefully, that will keep the stronger Familia's off your tail for a while.

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused. What was this about keeping Familia's off my tail?

Eina regarded me "Right sorry you haven't been adventuring for long so you wouldn't know but an Excelia booster is practically unheard of among adventures. Most Familia's will either try to recruit you or try to buy you but the stronger ones will want to take it from you."

"How exactly are they supposed to take my skill from me? Would they wait till I was stronger or something besides aren't they unique to the adventures that earned them?" I asked baffled.

The blond shook her head "No there's a spell Transfer Skill which allows adventures to transfer their skills and there are some stronger mages out there that have an overpowered version of the spell that can forcefully remove the skill." A light seemed to turn on in her head as she glanced at the door and then back to me. "Come on let me show you!"

Before I could protest, she had already gotten a firm hold on my wrist and I was just barely able to grab my jacket on the way out the door.

'what did I get myself into this time'

Eina led me to the market district and then through a few more streets down to small one-story building. Even on the outskirts of the city the streets were immaculate compared to the rundown buildings that surrounded the store. The store itself was in relatively good condition none of the windows were smashed or boarded up and with no misplaced boards either.

The elf in question had not let go of her firm grip on my wrist ever since we had left the guild. Still dragging me she pulled me through the door of the shop. Our entry was accompanied by a light ding from a bell that hung from above the wooden door. Inside there were shelves upon shelves of books and on the far side of the store stood an older man behind a counter. What drew my attention wasn't man himself but the wall of weapons behind him. None of them look particularly important there were swords, knives, axes along with pouches of what looked like bolts? Granted I had never seen crossbow bolts in my previous life these looked much too small to be used for one.

Even in my previous life I had never seen so many assorted weapons in one place so the view was startling even to me.

"So, what exactly is this place besides… you know a bookstore?" Eina turned back to me hum for a second before explaining.

"Most of these types of bookstores usually just sell skill books but this one sells some starter weapons as well." She gestured to for me to follow her up to the counter.

"Welcome to my store, how can I help you?" the old man asked politely.

"Where do you keep the starter, Skill books?" my companion asked politely. The owner merely lifted his hand and pointed to one of the many rows of bookcases behind us. Eina nodded her head in thanks and proceeded to the row of books that the shopkeeper had provided, leaving me alone with the shopkeeper.

"Hell, of place to take your first date" teased the shopkeeper.

"eh? Um no were not like that" I said shaking my head.

The shopkeeper grinned at me "Of course I assume she took you from the guild to "help you get started""

"Something like that yeah."

He smiled wistfully "One of my wives did something similar when I was your age brought me out right in the middle of her shift too and got me this." Gesturing towards a small shield.

"Here take a look while you wait on your girlfriend" not bothering to rise to the bait I took the offered shield from him. I held up the shield to inspect it, the shield was circular but small it was just barley large enough to cover my chest so protection from arrows beyond a lucky catch was out of the question. Which only left blocking melee attacks as its only use beyond using it to bash people. Though the shield had noticeable gap at the end where my hand would be.

"what's with this gap here?" The shopkeeper grinned at me with excitement.

"I was hoping you would notice that, flip it over and on the inside by the hand grip there are two buttons push the one the left." Doing as the man asked, I wrapped the main strap around my forearm and slid my hand into the grip and pressed the button. I was rewarded by an audible but faint click from the shield.

"Is this…"

"Yup!" he replied joyfully. "This is a Repeater crossbow shield it saved my life more than few times in the dungeon, if press that button on the right it will fire."

"Wait Repeater Crossbow?" I asked dumbfounded. Lili had used something similar but combining it with a shield hadn't exactly crossed my mind. There was only one way a blatantly unrealistic idea could have come up in anyone's mind.

'dumb magic'

The shopkeeper gave me a proud nod" This here baby can fire ten bolts not including the one already in there and it's fed by two tubes on either side of that can easily be removed and replaced during combat."

Pursing my lips, it sounded cool, but chances are something that complicated would have reliability issues.

"I imagine there are some drawbacks for this right?"

He smiled sheepishly "Well while the extra bulk lets it take harder hits for the material, there is a chance if it's hit hard enough the fire mechanisms will jam and stop working not mention if any dirt gets into it, the thing will break in its entirety."

It made sense in my previous life militaries around the world were almost always trying to make new and more deadly weapons but the more complicated something is the more frequent it tends to break down.

"hmm how much for it?" I inquired curiously.

The old man looked me over for moment before huffing in response. "Why don't you just keep her she'll just collect dust here anyway."

"Are you sure? I'd be happy to pay for it."

He Shook his head "No I've made up my mind just take it. If it matters that much to you make sure you come back here for when you get some skill books of your own. Besides I can already tell your going one of those adventures that gets themselves into all sorts of problems."

I could barely restrain myself from rolling my eyes. It wasn't an unfamiliar trick some businesses would do back in my old world. Give someone a free supplement that would get them addicted and eventually the consumer would keep coming back for more and more.

Eina took that moment to re-enter the conversation by plopping a hefty book onto the counter.

"Find what you needed?" the shopkeeper asked helpfully.

My mentor nodded gracefully and slid the book across the counter to him. He flipped the book around to read the title then regarded the blond.

"That'll be five hundred valis little lady."

Eina slid the amount over to the shopkeeper who nodded his head in thanks and returned the book back to her. Swiftly snatching up the book she tilted her head towards the door in a gesture to say 'follow me'. Smiling back to her I turned back to the man across the counter.

"Thanks for the shield I'll make sure to put her to good use." He snorted amusingly.

"Of course, you will your type always do."

Sensing the dismissal, I followed the blond elf out of the store. Once we had made a decent amount of distant from the store Eina turned back to me.

She offered the book to me. "Here as soon as you open it the skill will be transferred to you."

"That's it? No weird incantation? No sacrifice to some elder god?"

Eina giggled and poked me in the chest with the book. "Just take the book smartass"

Smiling I took the book from her hands and I flipped it over to get a good look at it. The cover was a solid gray with a gold-colored outline but held no title to denote what the skill was.

"What exactly is the skill in this?" I asked Eina.

"It's a beginner skill called Conditioning." the blond replied helpfully "it gives a small boost your physical stats most adventures will naturally gain the skill at some point so it's probably one of the most widespread skills. "she added helpfully.

"You didn't need to get this." I blurted out. "If I would just end up getting this later you didn't need to waste your money on this."

I had hardly gotten any gifts in my previous life after my parents had died my life had gone to purely making sure to take care of my sister. Getting gifts like this made me uncomfortable like I hadn't done anything to deserve them.

"I know." she smiled at me like I had said something stupid but she didn't care. "I just wanted to make sure you would be prepared for the next few floors of the dungeon."

"That way you come back to me alive" she tacked onto the end.

I winced internally the whole 'so you don't end up like the last one' was left unsaid.

"Okay, okay I get it. Just open it and the skill is applied right?"

"Yep!" Eina replied cheerily as if I had just brought up a recently deceased adventurer.

'god she's going to be a little living nightmare isn't she. '

Flipping open the book to first page I was greeted by what had to be some sort magical hieroglyphics that I couldn't read but there was an eerie glow coming from the symbols in the book. I felt something weird something that I had never felt before worm its way into my mind compelling me to turn the pages. As I rapidly began to flip through more pages unaware that time around me had already stopped the glow began to grow in intensity until my vision was encased in a bright light.

When the light finally died down and I could see again my breath was taken away at the spectacle. I was surrounded an endless vibrant green field. I had never seen this much green in my previous life having lived in the city the most I had ever see was the occasional park.

This field however seemed endless but what really took my breath away was the massive tree that stood in the center of the field. The tree was massive it had to be couple hundred miles wide at least and its massive trunk extended into the sky above. I could vaguely see massive branches flourishing with green extending down from the clouds.

"Beautiful isn't it."

I whirled around my hand moving to my sword that lay at my hip in preparation for confronting this unknown.

"You won't be needing that" as the unknown individual spoke these words my sword exploded into shards of metal that began to float aimlessly around us.

The individual was wearing a burly cloak that obscured their face but their voice was distinctively masculine yet I wouldn't put it past magic to be able to change that.

"You wouldn't be wrong on that front but I'm not changing my voice right now." as the cloaked man said this, he flipped back his hood reveling a familiar sight.

"You're that old man from the shop!" I exclaimed.

He merely smiled back at me "Not the first time someone has called me old but I prefer to go by another name."

The old man's kind smile morphed into a shit eating grin that just screamed of the incoming misfortune.

"Names Odin Outsider!"

'why can't anything ever be simple'

[Outskirts of village east of Orario]

As autumn began to set in many farming villages began taking in their last harvests before winter set in full force. Normally these villages would have festivals or some kind celebration to celebrate a good harvest. Yet the scene that played out in the village below was anything but that.

Large fires burned coming several wooden houses within the village itself the smoke coming from the fires billowed into the sky blotting out the moon to villagers below. The smoke would be seen for miles telling of the carnage that was happening in the village proper. Villagers ran from their burning houses as their loved ones could be heard screaming as they burned to death, trapped by the collapsed building above them. Those that were able to escape the fire would only be cut down by the horde of monsters that had swarmed the small village.

Groups of survivors had rallied together in the vain hope of being able to stem the tide of the ravenous monster horde before them. Yet even their best efforts were for naught as they one by one they started to fall and eventually succumbed to the never-ending wave of monsters attacking them. The assortment of different monsters howled in victory as the village and its occupants burned. As this all happened a group of men gazed down village beneath from protective cover of the trees and foliage of the nearby forest.

The men were well hidden by the brush of the forest yet it did not obstruct their view of the slaughter that was occurring in the village. Each was well armed yet not one held a semblance of uniform with another. Their armor could be barely called that, consisting of rusting iron pieces and a verity of animal and monster skins creating a rough look no different than your stereotypical barbarian.

Yet one stuck out like sore thumb compared to the others clad in a crimson surcoat under chainmail armor with black metal plates covering vital areas along his chest, arms, and legs. Yet his face was exposed reveling a grizzly man with ginger red hair. He had one hand resting comfortably on his sword handle not fazed by the group of bandits that surrounded him.

"your plan worked surprisingly well Rakian" said one of the bandits begrudgingly.

The ginger did not bother to turn around to address the bandit that spoke.

"How'd you do it Rakian" growled another with contempt.

His hand never left its resting spot atop his sword sending a clear message that the bandits couldn't touch him even if they all threw themselves at him. Not that they would the group was clearly a bunch of cowards some the group could be seen shifting around nervously as the screams from the village could be heard loud and clear even from the distance away that they were.

"Every animal needs to eat" The Rakian spoke patronizingly like he was talking to a child. "Even these lowly monsters require substance every now and again but what happens when you starve them? When you light a little fire where they squirrel away their food?".

"The answer is rather simple from then."

The redheaded Rakians eyes roamed over the destruction plaguing the village as the incessant screaming finally ceased to be replaced by the cries of victory from the various monster species.

"They go rabid"

One of the bandits finally stepped forward from the group to address the Redhead. "What about our payment Rakian we don't work for free."

The redhead finally turned from the carnage of the village to fix the leader of the bandits with a searing gaze. The bandit didn't back down from his gaze whether from courage or being from plain stupidity. What ensued was a short staring contest between the two which was only broken when the redhead nodded approvingly and returned his gaze to the carnage as he began to speak.

"Your reward Highway man" the Rakian sneered. "Are the belongings of those villagers down there, they won't be needing them after all." Turning from the carnage the man walked forward through the group of bandits who gave him a wide berth as he passed.

"We can return at first light when the hoard has started their charge to the next settlement." added on the Rakian.

The bandits briefly looked between their leader and the redhead before following after him. The bandit leader looked back at the village as the sinister howls of the monsters still echoed into the night and the smoke from the village had begun to clog the sky. Which would send a clear message to the surrounding villages who would no doubt share their fate.

Sneering he wiped around and followed after his men back into the foliage.

Sorry for the wait on this chapter had a bad case of writers I didn't notice this before but Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon actually exists already under the Japanese name of the anime. So I'm going to end up moving the story over there next time I update. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this one and I'll see you in the next chapter.