Chapter 1: The summoning
I like isekais. I like modern technology/thinking playing in less developed worlds preferably with magic. I like when MC is struggling against unreasonable/irrational actions from other people. I have read a lot of fanfictions. Now I will try an attempt to write one.
Oh, there is a fantasy section. Let's check it out while I have nothing to do.
Lukas skimmed through the books in the hopes that he would find something to kill his time. He originally wanted to meet up with a friend in this library, but his friend had took the wrong train by mistake, because of a misunderstanding. Thus his friend was forced to take the next available train.
They both were foreigners from Europe intending to do a small tour through Japan for celebrating their graduation from highschool, so they weren't really well versed in the japanese language. Even while 'reading' the book in his hand, he could only pretend to understand anything. The only thing which has attracted him to this book were the words 'isekai' and 'yuusha' whose kanjis were known to Lukas. After all, he and his friend loved anime and mangas, so such terms were not foreign to them.
'This (kanji) (kanji) is being eaten by a monster(kanji). (kanji)…delicious…(kanji)'
With a sight, he returned the book back to its original place after accepting that he absolutely has no clue what is going on in the book.
As he intended to go back to the entrance of the library, he saw a person standing right in the middle of the corridor, effectively blocking any person trying to pass.
Unwilling to completely circle around the bookshelves and also unwilling to disturb the person reading a book, he hesitated for a moment.
'Com'on, Lukas. I'm already an independent adult! I am able to politely ask a stranger to step aside!'
Taking a deep breath, Lukas approached the person. That person seems to be about 20 years old, having messy hair and wearing green clothings.
The person has yet to notice him, being too engrossed in whatever he was reading.
Lukas steeled himself and forced his voice out. "す-すみません…" (su-sumimasen)
Right at that moment some sort of glowing circle with many geometric patterns suddenly emerged from below the floor, encompassing both Lukas and the green man besides of him.
'Wha-'
Only even after a few short moments no trace of them was last behind.
Instantly after the light faded away, Lukas found himself in an unfamiliar room, reminding him of the interior of an old church or castle. People in robes stood in front of him, speaking a language he could not understand. Thoughts flooded into Lukas' mind in search for any reasonable explanation for the situation he is confronting at the moment.
'Where am I? I was in that library a moment ago. Could it be that I fell asleep while reading that isekai book? No, I was about to go to the entrance before I…'
Adrenaline began to shoot into his bloodstream. His heart rate rocketed as his eyes fanatically roamed across his surroundings. His body tensed up as he readied himself to flee a possible prank or kidnapping attempt. He noticed that next to him were people as well holding pieces of weaponry.
At last he found something he could say that he was familiar with. Specifically somebody.
That person he tried to bypass at the corridor was here as well. 'Could he have been the cause? Had he drugged me or something and dragged me to this place?'
This thought was quickly dismissed after seeing his equally irate expression.
"Are you going to tell us where we are?"
One of the people next to me spoke up, confused as Lukas had been. 'So they too were kidnapped? Should I be happy or terrified that I am not alone in this situation?'
The people in robes responded with a pleading tone, still incomprehensible to Lukas.
"Oh, honorable heroes! Please, save our world!"
Everyone responded with a 'Huh?' while that of Lukas had been of a different origin.
For this whole time Lukas felt left in the dark as his the others seemingly effortlessly conversed with their 'kidnappers' who all the time spoke a foreign language from Lukas' perspective. An urge to ask them emerged but was shattered by the mentioning of 'they want to use us as slave labor' but this fear was also diminished as the others protested and after a little discussing, agreed to meet the supposed king of this place.
The most nerve wrecking revelation is that the japanese-looking people were sounding like native-german speakers, as if all are them have been passing their upbringing in Germany since birth.
'How the hell can they understand those cosplayers while replying in a way both me and the cosplayers can understand? This situation is way too weird. Well… I was already transported to another world so it can't get weirder than that.'
Finding his situation unbearable he wanted get a clue what is happening. Seeing no choice but to ask the person he trusted the most right at this moment (The person clothed in green) he approached him.
Already seen him in the library, it would pose less of a challenge to approach him again than Lukas' first attempt. In addition, he remained silent for most of the time and in contrast to the others did not seem like pushy towards the people in robe.
"Excuse me, I need your help. Do you know what language these robed people are speaking?"I tapped him on the shoulders. His head turned to me just to give me a frown.
"Aren't you speaking Japanese? These people are speaking Japanese as well." The man in cpgreen clothes stated with a confused look on his face.
Just relieved by The fact that he could understand him he spared no moment elaborate. "I've got a tiny problem here. I cannot understand a single word those robed people are saying. Can you please tell me to what is going on right now? Sorry for the bother, but it seems like you guys can understand them but I don't. I'm Lukas Weber by the way."
The person clothed in green thought for a moment, then replied while waving his hands. "No problem, I got you. I'm Naofumi Iwantani. What's basically happening now is that we are summoned as heroes to defend this world from waves, which are very destructive in nature. The legendary weapons we all possess will be the key to their current crisis. Only we can wield them." His eyes were wandering all over me, scrutinising me. "Hey, where is your legendary weapon?"
In that exact moment one of the other supposed heroes pointed his sword towards Lukas, Raising his voice."What about him? He does not have a weapon and is clearly not mentioned in the legend! Are you trining to deceit us?"
Not understanding what the people in robes said again, Lukas was forced to depend on Naofumi.
He felt great insecurity when they mentioned that something about him was wrong.
Naofumi saw his panic and tried to explain him that it wasn't something significant. He began to tell him exactly the details of the reason why they were currently here.
Thanks to him he finally could reorganise himself. What happened to him was: He got unintentionally summoned into a fantasy world alongside 4 heroes with legendary weapons who will fight against the waves which are threatening this world under the request of the king of Melormarc.
'Ok, I'm screwed. Ah, maybe not that badly.'
Something was on his back putting pressure on it and his shoulders. His eyes suddenly sparkled as he remembered that he did not come here without anything. The last piece of his reassurance is his backpack which he would always bring with himself since his beginning of his tour throughout Japan. He could not help but to smile when looking at its contents after opening it up to check. A smart phone. A Powerbank with a solar panel to recharge. Some Pens. Writing pads. iPad. Plastic bottle of water. Japanese language book. Some coins ranging from 1 cent to 2€ and around 100.000¥. And at last some other junk ranging from empty candy wrapper to medical face masks.
Lukas is certain that after a little planning those things could potentially be his saving rope in his not so rare anymore life and death situations.
When Lukas' attention was shifted back to reality, him and the heroes were asked to follow them to the throne room, where they would meet with the king.
It seemed like they landed really in a different world. Different Air, unfamiliar buildings, unknown landmarks.
When they arrived outside the summoning site, they were greeted by the mighty castle walls. Lukas reflexively took some pictures of the castle and the scenery surrounding it. It went not unnoticed by the heroes.
"The heck! How the hell do you have that smart phone? Ehm… you got some pictures of pretty faces in there? I have to tell you, I had a lot of experience." The spear hero got uncomfortably close to him. Both of his hands held Lukas' shoulders and their faces were only a few inches apart.
Lukas instinctively faced away. It was visible to everyone that he felt uncomfortable from the spear hero's actions. Shortly after, he politely shook him of before answering his curiosity.
"I was amidst a tour through Japan before I was stuck here. I was just lucky that I still have everything on me."
Everyone glanced at him with envy. While they had lost everything associated with their original world excluding their clothes, out of everyone specifically he, who is not a hero, had the sheer luck to actually bring something even as important as the symbol of an era (smart phone) across the Summoning process.
All that attention made him a bit light in the head but it soon redirected to the king as they all entered the throne room. The royal gave us all a judging look before introducing himself.
Lukas swiftly took a few more photos of the throne room.
"You heroes are now on the land of Melormarc. And I am their King, aulctray Melormarc the 37. Welcome brave heroes. Please identify yourselves."
The sword hero stepped forward first.
"Amaki Ren. Sixteen years old. High schooler."
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu. Twenty-one, and a college student."
Lukas by now figured out that they should introduce ourselves and he was next to the Speer hero, so he figured that he should step in next.
"Lukas Weber." At that point he realised that the people here were also likely to not understand him, thus he quickly turned to the shield hero and whispered something to him.
That has attracted a lot of gazes, now that the whole throne room has the suspicion that he was the odd one out of the heroes. Some whispering from the crowd also caught his attention.
Naofumi stepped forward and explained: "My friend next to me can't understand your language so I am here to take his role. His name is Lukas Weber. Highschool graduate and eighteen years old. He wasn't supposed to be summoned into this world, therefore he does not have a legendary weapon." Naofumi cleared his throat, "And me. I'm I. Naofumi, twenty years old…"
"I suppose I'm up last. Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, and a high schooler."
The king gave a small nod.
"I see. Ren, Motoyasu, Lukas and Itsuki, huh?" His eyes met those of Lukas', "I apologise for your unique circumstances as we did not intend to summon anybody but the heroes, so I can assure you that you will be appropriately compensated for our mistake. For now you can reside in my castle until we find a more permanent solution for you."
"That sounds reasonable, thank you." Lukas gave him a slight bow after Naofumi gave him a real-time translation, before giving worrying looks towards Naofumi, who, because of being ignored by the king, confusedly pointed his finger at himself.
"Hey! You igno-"
The king cut him off.
"Now I have to explain, why we have brought you here." The king began telling them about the prophecy and the role the heroes must play. His assistant also addresses the rewards the heroes would get, if they manage to beat all the waves when it was mentioned by the sword hero.
Naofumi's dissatisfaction faded away into the background, but he was still frustrated. 'How unlucky. Disliked by the king from day one. Is it because he was speaking to me while the king spoke? ."
After finishing listening to what the king had to tell, the heroes examined their weapons and their mentioned statuses.
The assistant also remarked that the heroes cannot farm experience when working together in a party.
Lukas in particular wasn't really important now, when it was revealed that he has no access to the so called status magic. Fortunately for him, all the gazes he earned before lost their interest in him, which unfortunately did not consoled him of his disappointment of not being able to summon a status window.
In his last hopes he asked Naofumi if he could see his stats, which he denied.
Great. What different is this world from a medieval city from his world to him? At least there is magic right?
His mind was occupied by thoughts about what his goal should be in this world at any moment since the king dismissed them.
'This medieval world without access to modern lifestyles is definitely preventing me from living comfortable and if I just laze around sooner or later the king will just kick me out of his castle.'
Only after dinner, when all the heroes and him gathered again in one room, somebody initiated a conversation with him.
It was Naofumi.
"Is something bothering you? Is it that you were so disappointed that you didn't have status magic that you yourself completely shut off? Don't worry about it. This world is big and unknown. There are enough things to look forward to. I heard that magic existed here, maybe you got the talent for that."
Lukas turned his head to face him with his bitter smile "Tank you."
Motayasu patted him on the shoulder. "It must be hard for you, but it's fine man. You are already guaranteed to live comfortable by the king and if you want to I can introduce you to some girls. As the spear hero it will be less than an easy task."
Lukas visibly flinched at his remark, cringing even. 'I rather not. Especially from someone like you who dates a new girl every other day.'
Ren was intensely glaring at motayasu's attempt to liven up Lukas, while next to him Itsuki did not hold back his disgust. "Motoyasu, stop that. Can't you see he's not conftable with you?"
Distancing himself from Lukas, Motayasu laughingly said sorry.
Somehow everyone managed to disagree with each other, well except me and Naofumi who came from the same world. After all both of them got were transmigrated by the same means at the same time.
"So we're really from different versions of Japan?"
Not only that, so long as what you're telling me is true we also came from different universes, or parallel worlds if you want to call it like that.
Lukas noticed that Ren's eyes fixated on my backpack
Something wrong ren?
"Mind telling us what else you got in that backpack. Back when we were entering the castle you took a phone out of it. Bother to tell us what other surprises you got in there?"
[is this out of character?]
Lukas motioned to everyone to get close as he began whispering: "I've got some amazing items in there which are better kept hidden from the people of this world as a sort of trump card in emergencies, do you understand?"
Everybody mutually nodded at his reasonable caution.
Opening his backpack he displayed one item after another only deepening everyone's awe and envy.
Lukas purposefully withheld his iPad as it was his most precious possession. All of his school notes, which most importantly includes equations and formulas from his science classes, could revolutionise the technological level of this backward world. Knowledge is power as many say, but in the hands of the wrong people it inevitably will come to disaster and in the worst case even be lost.
After some heated discussions about how useful it might be in the fight against the waves every one at last agreed that it was time to rest. The spear, bow and the sword hero doubted how a smart phone would prove itself to be of use against a swarm of interdimensional monsters but at least Naofumi tried to find arguments in favour of it as he thinks that it may benefit the people living in the world.
In his assigned room Lukas lied decently comfortable on his bed, scrolling through his collection of pictures he managed to capture throughout his time in this foreign in world. He repeatedly zoomed in and out to on the one hand, always discovering new details he hadn't had on his radar yet. At one point he noticed a humanoid form behind a glass window. Curious of who this person could be, he made closer inspection.
'A woman? Is it a maid or did I manage to take a picture of a princess or even the queen herself?' Laughing at himself, he put his phone away after a few more minutes.
A/N Thank you for reading this Fanfiction. This is my first fanfiction here on this site. English is not my native language (and I seem to struggle with expressions in general on my test papers (also in rl (': )) so I'll see what I can do to improve it. There are a few ideas here and there but I havent really thought about in what direction this fanfic should go. Regarding Updates: I got school and my finals are steadily approaching me, so don't expect frequent Updates (mb monthly updates) (ofc depending how far my perseverance goes, I usually am the type to give up quickly (': ).