Hello! Sorry for making you wait so long, but in between work, driving school, sickness, and my own mood swings, I finally managed to write something that I think has an actually good potential without the need to branch out to the unfinished Paradox sequel, unlike the late Arrogant Love and Sovereignty.
Welcome to "The Way Home is Covered in Calamity", a fanfiction set in the original world of Monster Girl Quest starring my original character Ashton Cobb, aided by a System with game-like mechanics.
Before we begin, there are a few things to say:
The other fanfiction, Sin, will be deleted because... Well, I can't really write a fanfiction where lemon chapters are the main element. I mean, it would be boring having to read about sex and sex, and as a virgin myself, I am not confident I can actually pull off some decent storyline related to it. Think of that story as a fuck-up my alcohol-induced self pulled out of my ass.
As for the actual genre of this fanfiction, well, it will be similar to Arrogant Love, so you can expect dark stuff here.
And now... On the technical stuff!
I don't own Monster Girl Quest! and Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG. However, I will put my hands here and there across the story to patch up some holes in the plot and stuff, along with adding extra details where it counts.
The only thing I own here is my OC.
As for the M-rating, that is there for the episodes of extreme violence and gore present across the story, and also for the traces of pornography placed in between.
As always, I will take my time to answer your reviews, so don't hold back with the questions related to the plot, the characters, and such. Unless it's a serious spoiler, I will properly answer all of those questions.
Volume I
Chapter 1 ─ The Otherworlder
Since the dawn of time, humans have been preyed upon by monsters.
They were creatures of human and monstrous parts blended in a strange mixture, granting these beings the capability to dethrone humankind from its seat as the Apex Predator.
Despite their impossibly huge variety and unimpressively smaller population, many were born stronger, smarter, and bigger. And because of those advantages, they didn't hold back on abusing their authority and power as the strongest species in the world.
They enslaved humans as breeding stock, sometimes they outright devoured them, and there were also a few rare times when human women would join their ranks as new monsters.
But the Goddess Ilias wasn't willing to see her humans being victims of those monsters' cruelty any further and lent her strength to them. And thus Heroes were born, wielding the holy powers of the Goddess to smite down the ferocious monsters.
The battle between the Heroes and the Monster Lord ─ the queen of all monsters ─ lasted for tens of centuries, starting from time immemorial and still ongoing in the present times.
The Monster Lord spread her subordinates across the various regions to attack the travelers who were unfortunate enough to get caught in the wilderness, to wilt down the human population.
The Heroes were fighting back, fending off any threatening monster approaching them and trying to assassinate the Monster Lord and end her frightening regime, granting everyone true peace.
This was how things began, how things were still going, and how things would go for the foreseeable future….
…At least, that's what most people in this particular city said.
Sitting on a bench in the middle of a large plaza, there was a young man lost in his thoughts, blankly staring down at the stone-tiled floor.
His dark hair was short, a common detail that was also seen on his fellow men in this city; his eyes were green, a distinctive color among people, but not truly eye-catching; his clothes were very simple, which was pretty unique as lots of people around the city liked to dress fancily.
But between these details, there was one in particular that he couldn't possibly share with anybody else in the entire world: His origins.
Some people were born in this city, others came from the surrounding region, and there were few people who straight-out came from overseas.
But this young man… He came from a completely different world! A world where monsters didn't exist, a world where humans were the true apex predators, a world where there was no God to protect them from anything, a world where Heroes and Monsters were only parts of fictional tales.
He came from such a world.
But how could he possibly move between worlds when there was the cold and dark space ─ or a greater barrier ─ separating his home planet from his current position?
Well, he had no idea, it just happened.
In one moment, he stumbled down a staircase because he missed a step, and in the other moment, he woke up outside of the city's bordering walls with clothes that didn't belong to him and nothing else in his pockets other than a small bag with some gold coins inside.
Seeing how backward was the city's level of technology and the circumstances around his sudden transportation, he had an idea of what may have happened to him. But upon hearing the various stories of general knowledge about monsters, the Goddess, and heroes that the common folk in this place shared with him, he was certain of it.
He had been a victim of the common trope "Isekai", a word referring to the clichè of being transmigrated or reincarnated in a different world.
Needless to say, once he was certain of that fact, he had been inflicted with a terrible panic attack that forced him to stay down on the bench he was sitting on at the moment, still trying to cope with the fact that he was light years away from home, possibly even in a different dimension.
He had no family who could assist him here, he had no friends whom he could trust either. But he did have this…
[IDENTITY]
(Name: Ashton)
(Surname: Cobb)
(Species: Human)
(Gender: Male)
(Age: 19 Years)
[STATUS]
(Level: 1)
(Strength: 113 H)
(Endurance: 164 H)
(Dexterity: 56 I)
(Agility: 106 H)
(Magic: 433 E)
[MAGIC]
(N/A)
[SKILLS]
(N/A)
[ABILITIES]
(N/A)
…This blue screen floating in mid-air right in front of his face was precisely just what it looked like: A System.
As a veteran novel reader, Ashton loathed the idea of stories involving such a cheat-like ability. It was just a cheap way to get the protagonist overpowered quickly while starting from nothing, taking away from the action that each future fight could ever give out.
However, now that he was in such a terrible situation, he was delighted to have this kind of support. At least, he had one of the best supernatural abilities to deal with such a supernatural event.
Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from despairing at the idea of being stranded in an unknown world with nothing other than his own hands to help him.
The noise of the shifting mob around the plaza was being automatically muffled by Ashton's ears, and even though he looked so relaxed and silent at first sight, the young man was feeling his throat tightening from the sheer anxiety he had.
Even though nobody on Earth but him could enjoy such a mystical experience, he really didn't want to have anything to do with it. What was the point of having fun in this world when the source of all of his entertainment wasn't even here?
Was he supposed to get as strong as he could and "conquer the world"? No way! Where was the fun in that?! He just wanted to relax on his bed, playing video games, talking with his friends and such; that was fun, not this!
Still... How did he get here, to begin with?
Was it the whims of some random omnipotent being in the 11th dimension? Was it because of some extremely unlucky circumstance not yet discovered by his world's scientists? Or did this world's Goddess…
"..." Ashton's gloomy thoughts made a quick pause as he remembered a particular detail he had heard a few minutes ago from the local citizens.
This world had a living Goddess inhabiting it according to these people. And while he had no proof of her actual existence, he also didn't have any theory in mind that could prove that she didn't exist either.
This was a world where monsters were a thing, after all. Even if the rumors about the Goddess Ilias may have been biased, the presence of monsters was another matter altogether.
And if such bizarre creatures existed, then it wouldn't be too farfetched to say that the Goddess existed too.
With that in mind, Ashton's eyes saw a guiding ray of hope standing right in front of him, prompting him to unconsciously lift his face and stare at the blue sky above his head.
Maybe the Goddess had the answer he was seeking right now?
If there was somebody who would know about strange things such as this, then an actual deity would certainly be the first candidate. At the very least, she should know more than the average citizens in this city.
"At least I know what to do, but…" Ashton muttered under his breath as he managed to idealize an actual goal, but he still didn't know how he could meet someone like that, not to mention talk with her.
How could a random nobody get the opportunity to talk with the Goddess who blessed the greatest warriors in the world to become Heroes?
Ashton held his chin with a thoughtful look as he reflected on that question. The immediate answer would be to become a powerful warrior so that he would get to meet her when he was going to get eventually baptized.
But that was a lot of work to do, work that Ashton didn't feel enthusiastic to go through, even with the assistance of the system.
He could also try to research the matter, and maybe find a better alternative. However, because the level of technology in this place was so backward, there were only two places where he could find this sort of information: Books and people.
Books would give him a great deal of information regarding that, and in great detail too, but who knew how much time he would have to waste looking around for the specific book he needed to read.
As for asking the public… That was the easiest choice he could come up with, but depending on which person he asked, he may receive the wrong kind of information, which would simply waste his time following useless instructions.
"..." Ashton lifted his head and looked at the blue sky over him, barely covered by a few white clouds. A small sigh escaped from his mouth at the thought of spending lots of time in this world.
He just wanted to return home already, back to his simple life, why did he have to go through this sort of complicated bullcrap?