PSA: Sorry I haven't uploaded for a while. Some stuff has come up, such as work, and skyrim (which has a pretty epic overlord mod).

I have exams and other assessments coming up in the next few weeks, so I probably won't be uploading for a little while, or as much.

That being said, I still have plenty of ideas and motivation.

BTW, does anyone know any good stories similar to the one I'm currently writing, where fantasy/modern stuff meets? (apart from gate of course)

I also have a fairly good idea of how I'll handle the effects/effectiveness of modern weapons, although I'll probably look at things on a case by case basis, since fighting a death knight is going to be a lot simpler in terms of skills/abilities involved than something like a floor guardian.

Steel and Sorcerers - Chapter 5

It was another bright sunny day in the special region. However, Itami and his squad were unable to enjoy it, as they were currently cramped inside a Type 96 Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier. It had eight wheels which compacted the earth as they sped along, and a browning 50 cal machine gun mounted up top. The 6 members of his squad including himself sat on two benches which lined the interior of the vehicle. Small windows set into the walls allowed them to peer outside at the grassy plains and blue skies as they moved towards their objective.

Besides the thrum of the APC, there was the sound of another engine. The JSDF had learned from the incident that occurred just a couple of days earlier, or rather they had acquired new resources. Thus, a Type 74 main battle tank was currently driving just ahead of their vehicle. It was an older tanks, but its 105mm rifled gun would be able to easily deal with anything comparable to the creature that had attacked them before. Although…

Itami thought back to the first time they had gone to the village they were heading to, and how that monstrous undead had appeared. He had felt a deep primal fear awaken within himself when he saw that creature. He wondered, was the Type 74 capable of instilling a similar fear? He doubted it, but felt a lot safer with it around.

The vehicle slowly came to a halt. "Alright, everyone out!" came the driver's voice over the radio. The door was hydraulically lowered onto the ground, allowing a stream of light and grassy fresh air to enter the vehicle. Itami and the rest of his squad disembarked and examined their surroundings.

They were in the midst of grass covered plains with rolling hills. As expected, the village wasn't in direct line of sight. This was to prevent the villagers from seeing their vehicles and becoming suspicious. It was a miracle that they hadn't encountered many people on their first foray. The knights had been killed by that monster, but the mages were still out there.

The JSDF was now far stricter about preventing leaks of information and maintaining secrecy now that they knew that there were enemies that couldn't be defeated by conventional firearms. Parking the vehicles in this secluded location was just one example of this new approach. Looking over at his squad, like himself, they wore simple clothing. These outfits were the result of long-distance observations of the village by lookouts, and were selected as they didn't stand-out too much, especially when compared with their previous camouflage uniforms. Since they were fairly close to the main base, they were allowed to carry concealed radios and suppressed firearms, as well as bodycams, but on missions that took them further away, they wouldn't be permitted to carry anything that could be linked back to the JSDF.

"Hey Itami, all this get-up and secrecy reminds me of all the black-ops me and the boys went on," said Akira. He too was dressed in plain clothing, although he was permitted to keep his mohawk fade haircut.

The rest of the squad formed up as they prepared to head over the hill towards the village. The squad was composed of 6 people. Himself, Akira, Kurata, two women, and the linguistics expert from before. The reason for still having the expert with them was because the higher-ups said that even though the spoken language seemed to be the same, the writing system could be different and they might encounter other languages.

As they crested the hill, the village came into view. Unlike before, it now had a large wooden wall under construction. As they came closer, they found the main path and began walking along it, not looking to appear as infiltrators. In the distance they could see goblins stopping work on the wall, and gathering at the main gate to meet them.

The appearance of goblins and the presence of a new wall wasn't a surprise. Observers operating from the forest had spotted the goblins and villagers working on it just a couple of days ago. One of their objectives was to figure out the allegiances of these goblins. It was hard to tell from a distance, but they looked healthy and well equipped, unlike the ragged individuals that had attacked Ginza just a week earlier. Still, these could just be the higher-ups or elite troops, and they might not be fully sentient.

For these reasons, Itami ordered his squad to be ready to draw their weapons. They had each been given a sword or dagger which was held in a sheath at their waists, but if a real fight broke out, they wouldn't be using those weapons.

At their waists they each had a holster disguised as a satchel, containing a supressed P-9 pistol. Since the village was so close to the gate, they should be able to control the flow of information in case they were forced to use them and some villagers saw the resulting firefight.

Once they came within about twenty metres of the goblins, one held up his hand, ordering them to halt. "Who are you and what is your business here?" he called out.

Itami stepped forward to respond. "Greetings, my name is Itami, and we are representatives from a foreign company looking to do business in this area. We were wondering if you had someone who could help us in this regard."

The goblin scratched his chin in thought, before saying something to one of the other goblins, who promptly ran back towards the village. "We'll have someone over shortly, but don't try any funny business" he explained.

After a few awkward minutes of silence, the goblin who had run off returned with a human by their side. He had tanned muscular skin and a face full of wrinkles, making him look more than forty years old. He wore a fairly plain clothes and a hat, which one could see greying hair poking out from under. He carefully studied the group before saying "If you're looking to do business, you'd be better off going to E-Rantel, it's about 20km south from here."

"I see…" replied Itami. "Is there anything else that you could tell us? We aren't very familiar with the area."

The chief folded his arms, looking away. "I'm sorry, but that's all I can say. I don't know much about business, so I'm sure those over in E-Rantel would be able to help you out better."

Itami had given up, and was saying "I see, well thank-" When a female voice from behind him shouted "Hey, what the hell is this!"

"We came all the way to your village in the middle of nowhere and you barely tell us anything! I don't even know your name or who you are! You don't even invite us in or anything, instead having these goblins treat us like intruders when we were being perfectly polite! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Itami and everyone else froze in shock. He slowly turned around, rotating on his axis to see who had interjected, a pained smile on his face.

It was one of the female members of the squad, Shino Kuribayashi, although Itami knew her as the one with big breasts. She had brown hair which was set in a short ponytail off to the side of her head, as well as brown eyes, and a furious expression. It looked like she was about to make another remark which could cripple future relations with this village, so Itami decided to try and say something.

"Now now Kuribayashi, that's no way to talk to someone you just met for the first time. I'm sure they must've been through a lot recently, um, I meant to say, we are strangers after al-"

"Shut it you otaku!" yelled Kuribayashi. "Your weird hobbies disgust me, and you always fail to make eye contact whenever I talk with you! Even now!" Itami lowered his head in shame.

Just as she drew a new breath, undoubtedly to lay out some more verbal punishment, the villager spoke, bowing his head in apology.

"I'm terribly sorry for my actions, please forgive me. We've recently just been attacked, so I was being paranoid. I am the village chief, and these goblins are helping us out around the village. Please come inside so I may answer any questions you might have."

Itami felt a little guilty, but accepted his offer. The chief brought them to his house, which was a simple dwelling with just a few rooms. Since there weren't enough chairs, some members of his squad sat on the floor or leaned against the wall, which the chief apologised profusely for. It was then that Itami was able to begin his questioning. He had been given an extensive list of topics by the joint Japanese-US think-tank that had been set up in lieu of the gate's appearance, so he wouldn't be running out of things to ask.

After questioning the chief for about half an hour, there was a knock at the door from another villager. They needed to speak with the chief about something, so Itami decided that it would be a good point to let them go. They had gathered plenty of information already, and the think-tank had outlined that asking more could come off as suspicious.

At one point during the discussion, the chief had remarked about how someone just a few days ago had asked for similar information. However, he was unwilling to elaborate any further.

As a show of appreciation for his trouble and to help mend ties, Itami presented the chief with a small nugget of gold at the conclusion of their conversation. The chief's reaction to immediately try and refuse it, saying it was no problem at all indicated that gold definitely had significant worth here.

All in all, despite the initial difficulties, Itami would've called it a successful mission. Briefly summarising, they learned some basic information about the surrounding countries and geography. The withered old husk that was the linguistics expert was practically salivating when the chief had brought out a map, which had unknown writing on it.

They learned that the land on the way to E-rantel had monsters such as goblins and ogres in the area. These monsters were hunted by adventurers, making the main roads mostly safe. This piqued Itami's otaku interests. After all, becoming an adventurer in a fantasy world was something that one could ordinarily only ever dream of.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the chief confirmed the existence of magic, mentioning that there was a mages' guild in E-Rantel, and that they had a magic item in the village that produced water. Itami saw how magic could be important, but the higher-ups seemed obsessed about finding out about it, making it a top priority. Thus, it was one of the first questions he had asked the chief. The JSDF officials also insisted that he not talk to anyone else about discoveries made in the special region, and that it was crucial that this information remained secret.

It was still light when Itami and his squad arrived back at the base, although grey clouds had begun to form in the sky. As they stepped out of the APCs into the cool afternoon air, the roar of chainsaws could be heard all around. As they were about to head over to the main area of the base from the parking lot, they were intercepted by a duo of people donned in full chemical and biological protective gear. Itami and his squad were about to ask what was going on, when one spoke in a muffled voice.

"New regulations. Until further notice, on return from outside the perimeter of base camp you are to submit yourselves for mandatory decontamination, quarantine, and testing. Please follow us."

They then gestured towards a number of portable buildings that had been set up adjacent to the parking lot, before heading in that direction.

"Hey, what's going on? Why are we only doing this now?" asked Kurata as they walked.

One of the HAZMAT suited individuals sighed, before explaining "While there has been minimal pathogens in this area, and the ones that have been found are similar to those found back on Earth. You have just been out in a different environment, which may harbour new diseases."

"Ah, I see" said Kurata, "Thank you for explaining!"

There was a simple nod from the HAZMAT person in acknowledgement.

Itami could see a grin growing on Akira's face.

"Hey, how come we don't have to get decontaminated before going out of the base as well? We wouldn't want to be spreading any diseases to the good people of the special region now would we? Unless that was your intention?"

The HAZMAT people were silent. Although, one of them mumbled something about resource shortages.

"Heheh, taking a lesson from the colonial days are we?" continued Akira.

"Leave them alone, they're just doing their job. If you have a problem with what's going on you should complain to the higher-ups."

The one who had spoken was Mari Kurokawa, known to Itami as the one with small breasts. She had long black hair and deep blue eyes.

Akira looked like he was about to counter with something, but instead just looked down, muttering something about them 'just following orders'.