Indeed, everything was different.
If Tanya had known she'd be dropped in the middle of a preindustrial civilization, she would have taken either of the other two options.
Aqua was likely to know more about this world than Tanya, since Tanya had never been to a place like this and that girl probably had at least a passing familiarity with the world she sent people to, and the Shapeshifting ability would have been much better here, where bureaucracy was more limited and she could claim to be whoever she wanted.
Speaking of her options…
She felt the top of her head, and found the so-called 'Circlet of Greatness.'
She held it up to the light of the sun, studying it.
It didn't form a complete circle, like a hat or crown might, but it instead tapered off to two points near the back of the headgear. It was richly decorated, with the metal, seemingly woven like cloth, forming sculptures of wings, clouds, and other things commonly associated with heaven.
Tanya scoffed at it. Some of the metalwork resembled spirals and geometric shapes, and those portions were fine. But the rest of it looked quite… tacky, especially with the light the metal seemed to produce.
Tanya couldn't tell what sort of metal it was. It seemed to shine more than even a highly polished piece of metalwork in the sun should. She didn't know what it was, but she was fairly certain it definitely wasn't normal.
Well, she knew it wasn't Mithril. She…
She shook her head violently. She couldn't dwell on the past. She had too much to do.
Sighing, she attached it to her belt. It wouldn't be wise to wear something like that here. She might be mistaken for royalty, and while she'd learned some basics of royal etiquette the two times she'd personally met the Kaiser, this world could have entirely different rules.
And it likely did.
Well, first thing was first. She needed to ensure her mana still functioned like normal. If she couldn't access it, for some reason, she would be completely doomed. About to activate a simple formula, she cast a suspicious gaze around.
She was garnering a few odd looks from the people passing her by, but nothing more.
Wait, there were pedestrians here?
She confirmed it. Yes, these people seemed to be milling about.
That meant that this place might not be as rural as she thought. Laborers would likely be working in the fields right now, considering how labor-intensive agriculture was without the help of advanced tools.
She was in some sort of city, then. Nodding to herself, she began to stroll about, quietly analyzing the buildings and people around her.
None of them seemed particularly scared or worried, which boded well for her. The Demon King and danger were likely far away, enough that the people here only felt a small minority of his effects.
She kept walking, soon arriving at an area that seemed to be less on the periphery. The small areas of grass she had seen earlier had now disappeared, giving way to an area of the city that was densely packed and filled with people.
Tanya searched the buildings for some sort of alleyway or area where she wouldn't be interrupted or seen. Magic hadn't existed in her first world, and it had been seen as more of a branch of science in her second. She didn't know how it might be seen here.
For all she knew, it was illegal to all but the highest classes.
She ducked into the alley, dogging past the scraps of trash. Her nose didn't even twitch at the smell; she had encountered far worse on the frontlines.
Within a second, she began to work through the math required for a Reinforcement formula, flexing her limbs to get a feel for its power.
She studied her movements, and noted the drain on her mana. It was…
Larger.
Doing something like this was supposed to be trivial. She'd used something similar in her classes in order to be at the top of the class even before they'd been issued Computation Jewels. This shouldn't have done too much to her mana! But now…
The loss was noticeable.
Tanya scowled. The well, magic was harder here, then. That limited her options, unless she wanted to call on the Type 95's help.
She wouldn't be able to zip around the battlefield like she used to, and the best of her arsenal would be limited to a few uses a day, if she didn't pray to Being X.
The light filtering in from the streets was suddenly cut off, and Tanya scowled. She was trying to think, and having someone interrupt her thoughts was decidedly… annoying.
She quickly dispelled the Reinforcement formula and turned around, only to tilt her head in confusion. Someone was blocking the street, staring at her. He wasn't saying anything, either.
He wore shabby clothing, even by this time's apparent standards. They were a patchwork of other, once better clothes, and seemed to hang about his body. He was hunched over, and though Tanya couldn't make out his face, she thought she saw a flash of… orange hair.
The one good thing about the man, appearance wise, anyway, was the scabbard at his side. While not ornamental or anything, it seemed well cared for.
"Can you move it, buddy? It's kinda dark in here," she said in a relaxed tone, waiting for his reaction. He just grinned, and drew a long knife from the scabbard at his side.
"Are you lost little girl?" he asked, advancing towards her. Tanya didn't move an inch.
Right… she still looked like a little girl, and now she wasn't well known throughout the land thanks to propaganda and being flung from front to front.
In the Empire, people hadn't questioned her on who she was, after a few years of service. They accepted that she was an elite soldier after a simple introduction, most of the time.
He was seemingly disconcerted by her lack of reaction. Eyes narrowed, he stepped towards her again. "Now, now, little noble girl. Don't cry or anything. Just come with me, and I'll bring you back to your parents."
Tanya snorted. Really, this thing thought he could take her?
She might not have been dressed in any sort of battle gear – she'd need to fix that once she found out where she could get clothing – but she could definitely take care of this loser.
The creep seemed even more confused, but he continued to advance, nonetheless.
"Listen here. I have better things to do than to beat you down, so if you leave now, I'll pretend to never have seen you," she supplied. She doubted the man would comply, and she really honestly want him too.
She wanted to test a few formulas out, and this schmuck – someone willing to kidnap children – would be a perfect test dummy.
He didn't look important, and no one would look for him.
He peered at her, for a moment, until he began to crack up. Loud peals of laughter issued from underneath the man's shabby hood as he doubled over. She didn't take her eyes off his sword. She wouldn't risk this being a feint.
He straightened up, looking towards her once more. "Awfully brave, even for a noble, since you don't have any weapons. Now come along," he said, motioning his sword towards her.
She just smirked and pointed at him while pouring mana into a formula, deciding that she would kill him.
He seemed to violently flinch as she began to grin at the feeling of mana coursing through her, but before he could do anything more, she began to work through an Explosive Vaporization formula to send towards the dumbfounded man.
She didn't want to destroy the buildings around her, after all, and that formula would be a perfect test.
As the mana continued to build up, she became worried when the formula didn't shoot out of her index finger after a long ten seconds. He was glancing at her with a confused look on his face, but she was saved from any further confusion as the formula completed itself, albeit while draining more mana than usual.
The man was now rushing away from her, fear apparent on his now visible face. Tanya gulped, and hoped that the extra start time for the formula wouldn't translate to a formula that could damage the buildings around her. She pulled the mental trigger and watched as the ball of light left her finger and propelled her backwards.
It flew towards the man.
In an instant, his torso and head were consumed in a ball of fire. His forearms fell to the ground, the sword that had been clutched in his hands clattering as the scabbard was set flying away.
Tanya attempted to rise for her position, panting slightly.
She grimaced as she walked towards the sword and picked it up. It seemed that she still needed Reinforcement formulas to brace against the recoil, and it also seemed that any formula she tried to use would cost more mana here.
Tanya swung her new sword as she walked towards the entrance to the alley and picked up the scabbard.
Now, she had a weapon. It might not have been much, but it would work in a pinch. Hopefully, she'd get a gun, but if she couldn't…
She shook her head. If she could reinforce her body beforehand, she could pack enough punch with just the sword to defend herself, if nothing else.
She continued to look around the alley, and found the singed cloak of the man. She searched it, glaring at the garment.
It was beyond filthy, of course, but she soon found enough to justify touching the thing. A small pouch of money and a smaller dagger were quickly added to Tanya's belt.
Now sure that she had taken everything, she headed back into the street.
Instead of vaporizing the man and the rest of the five feet of alleyway left between him and her, it only destroyed his head and chest it a ball of fire. The rest of him quickly fallen to the ground.
That was hilariously underpowered for the mana she had poured into it. It seemed her thoughts about her powers being weakened were correct. Though, that problem would be solved if she used the Type 95…
She shook her head. She wouldn't fall for that temptation. It wasn't worth it.
GROWL!
Tanya blinked and looked down at her body. Her grumbling stomach reminded her of what she needed to do.
Find somewhere to eat.
-OxOxO-
After concealing her weapons, Tanya had utilized her cuteness and still-high-pitched voice to ask pedestrians where the center of the city was. They'd been strangely accommodating, spouting off about "the town of beginning adventurers."
Others had been quite… apprehensive of talking to what appeared to be a twelve-year-old, which was a bit odd.
She had eventually gotten clear directions, despite everyone's varying reactions to her.
She'd woven between the streets, marveling at what she saw. It was relatively peaceful, and people didn't seem all that concerned. Maybe this place was more advanced than she had thought?
There were public areas of recreation, after all. She'd seen what looked like a park, and a lot of the buildings had trees and grass in front, like the typical American home.
Maybe they just looked like peasants?
Regardless of the oddities of the people around her, It hadn't taken long for her to reach where she'd been directed to. She needed to find somewhere to eat, sleep, and get information. She didn't really have that long to look, either.
The sun was beginning to set.
So, she followed another group of people who had weapons. She saw a few swords, some sort of quarterstaff, and a bow. Hopefully, if they were going to rest here, she could too. They headed towards an inviting building, and she followed them, noting its appearance in the case that this was somewhere worth spending her time, should she stay in the town.
It was, from what she could tell, a fairly large building compared to the buildings around it. The outside was some sort of brick, while a number of windows dotted the outside of it. There was some sort of sigil on the front of it. Maybe it was for the person that owned it?
A red-tiled roof topped the building off. The group pressed inside, but Tanya didn't when the sound of breaking glass echoed from inside. Now cautious, she cast one last look towards the merchant stalls in front of the building before walking in and pushing past the doors.
Tanya peered inside, mouth agape as she stared at the interior. It wasn't what she'd expected.
Instead of some dimly lit room, with tables and people strewn about in whatever way they desired and a low hanging ceiling, it was fairly open and well furnished.
The stone floors, instead of mismatched cobblestone or uneven floorboards, was made of some sort of polished stone, arranged in a clear pattern. The ceiling was far above her head, a large statue stood in front of her, and potted plants decorated the entrance to her right and left.
Instead of candles, some sort of lantern dotted a pathway, illuminating the interior. In neatly arranged tables, groups of people, in various states of dress ate, talked, or laughed.
The food…
It looked delicious, and it looked modern.
There had not been much recognizable fare in the Empire. None of it was like anything from her homeland, and even the overseas products that were available in Japan, like hamburgers, were nowhere to be found in that world.
Here, however, she could see salads and fish that were so very different from the meaty diet most soldiers got that was only occasionally bolstered by soup, bread, and, during a particularly memorable month, sawdust.
She smiled in remembrance. Viktoriya had stomached the worst of the sawdust-bread and 'meat' that was just animal hide so that Tanya would get more nutritious food, in the hopes that she might grow a bit.
She shook her head and continued to look around. She could see what looked like an actual hamburger clenched in the hands of a large man who was devouring it with gusto.
Like many people in the room, the man was wearing a bizarre arrangement of clothing. Others wore varying pieces of armor or no metal plates at all and simple cloth.
For the most part, Tanya could say one thing about all of the attire: nearly all of it looked like it was straight out of a video game.
Really, who wore metal armor on their arms, leather pants, and bared their chest? That didn't seem particularly protective. That said nothing about the extremely impractical armor she saw one of the females wearing.
Tanya didn't think there was any reason to wear nothing but a few measly strips of cloth besides a desire to show off.
Above all of them, in the rafters of the building, was a skeleton of some sort of creature. Who would put something expensive like that in an area where drunk people could damage it?
"Welcome! If you're here to…" trailed off a light, airy voice coming from in front of her. Tanya looked down from the ceiling.
Someone wearing a typical maid uniform, excepting the muted green colors that highlighted the white apron she wore, had greeted her. Tanya looked up, passed the person's clothes, to look at her face.
"Er… are you looking for your parents, little one?" she asked, looking around.
Tanya's wonderment quickly passed. This world wasn't like the other two, and it had exceeded her expectations of what an actual preindustrialized world would be. So what?
"I am here to eat, ma'am," she declared while glaring at the girl. Subtly, Tanya shifted her weight as she rested a hand on her newly-obtained sword.
Tanya had forgotten how it felt to have people constantly question you because of your age. People had gotten out of the habit of it during the war, either because they knew of her and her record, or because they knew her personally.
No one that had known her personally dared to describe her as a child to her face without being ranks above her.
The pseudo-maid merely tilted her head. "But you're no older than twelve," she stated.
Twitch.
Tanya sighed, body drooping. On the bright side of the unfortunate fact that she didn't look older, if they couldn't tell that she was sixteen, then at least they were likely advanced enough to not consider malnourishment – and, consequently, underdevelopment – the norm.
Of course, it was also good that they didn't think she was even younger.
When she had gotten her first taste of alcohol, the owner of the beer hall had thought she was ten. It had been humiliating.
Just then, their fledgling conversation was ended by a rude interruption. Both the maid and Tanya looked down.
Tanya's stomach loudly protested not being allowed to eat delicious food when she could see so much of it. Tanya turned red in embarrassment, and held up the bag of money she had been given by Aqua.
The maid directed her to one of the tables, and Tanya trudged towards it silently.
She handed Tanya a menu, and she felt an eye twitch at the options.
Lizard and toad seemed to be common, while more regular items, like beef and fish, were all priced fairly low compared to those… oddities.
She shook her head. This world had menus and restaurants, but it didn't know what good food was. Who ate toad, besides the François?
After a while, the maid came back, and Tanya placed her order while hoping her stomach would stay silent.
It did, and the food soon arrived, leaving Tanya to mope over her situation with the comfort of food.
She had decided to dive into her homeland's cuisine – her original homeland – first. They had looked at her weird for the specific way she wanted the fish and rice prepared, but she couldn't care less.
It was truly wonderful to finally eat something that didn't taste like it had made with sawdust or shoe leather, and while coffee and sweets were nice, she had been deprived of other familiar food for far too long.
"So. What job do you have?" came a voice from her right.
Annoyed at being interrupted, Tanya turned, glaring at the person and raising an eyebrow. She knew the effect of her stare was likely decreased by the fact that her mouth was stuffed full, but she didn't particularly care.
A twenty-something man stood there, grinning down at her. His hair was blond.
Not like her own hair, which was a muted yellow even in the deserts of the Southern Continent, but so pale it could pass for white on a sunny day. A deep red jacket, complete with zipper for the neckline, hid most of his body, while bandages covered his forearms. Some sort of choker wrapped around his neck, and red eyes peered down a short nose at her.
She grinned idly. If this world had zippers and jackets, then maybe it had guns?
It wasn't likely, of course. She'd seen a number of people who were carrying around swords, spears, and other truly archaic weaponry, which meant that she might have to find some gnarled stick to use as a scepter until she could find a way to make a proper gun.
As Tanya thought about her situation, the silence stretched on. The man seemed perfectly willing to wait. Until, after ten seconds, Tanya finished her mouthful of food, set down her utensils, and raised an eyebrow at the man again.
He merely grinned at her. "See, my party's taken a bet. Taylor and I think that you're some sort of warrior, Keith thinks you have a rogue-like job, while Lynn, bless her generous heart, thinks you aren't an adventurer," he explained, motioning towards each of them in turn.
Taylor was the tallest of the bunch. She had short brown hair and some sort of headband, a piece of armor over his left shoulder, and a necktie, of all things, while a sword longer than her own stolen goods was strapped to his back.
Keith wore an outfit similar to Dust, with longer dark hair and a blue jacket with white fur as lining. He had a bow and, presumably, a quiver strapped to his side.
The last member of their 'party' wore a green jacket, a cape, and wore her long hair in a ponytail. Tanya didn't see any weapons on her.
As she studied each of the people he had pointed out, Tanya's eyebrows were furrowed. Rogue-like? Warrior? Adventurer?
Tanya let the silence continue to go on as her face continued to scrunch up, trying to think of an excuse or a reason that such… video game-like words were being used to describe jobs. Was the language she'd been given faulty?
She'd seen something on the menu proclaim the fish had been freshly grown earlier that month, so it was a definite possibility.
Seeing her face grow concerned, he waved his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. "Oh, we won't rat out on you. We don't care if you aren't an adventurer and have that sword anyway, I just want my money," he said, a bit of panic overcoming his face. "I have a few debts with them, and I'll be free if you're some sort of warrior."
Tanya, meanwhile, had a conclusion. Maybe the language was approximating words that she knew that meant the same thing. That was certainly a passable explanation.
She turned her attention to the panicking man and the people behind him. He seemed to be trying his best to calm her down and they seemed awfully mad at him.
Oh. They must have thought he was going to make her cry or something. Judging by the motions he was making, he thought so too.
Well, she wouldn't let them down. She let tears – of frustration at yet another situation she didn't understand, of anger that she had been separated from her past life again, and of sadness that her friends were most likely dead – well up in her eyes.
She knew exactly how she'd get information, and she'd have a nice, long, stress-relieving cry as well.
Tanya laughed. Internally. Outwardly, she began to bawl like the baby she hadn't really been only sixteen years prior.
-OxOxO-
She wasn't about to let these people, as nice as they were, onto the fact that their friend Dust hadn't actually done much.
She'd spun a sob story about her family being killed – true enough, if one considered her second life – and that all she had was what was on her. The other three had treated her nicely, given her some of their food, and generally cooed over her for a while as they shot harsh looks at their friend.
Sometimes, it was nice being malnourished and resembling a girl four years younger than you were with a voice to match.
Not often. But sometimes.
Now, they were waiting. She had stopped acting like a petulant twelve-year-old, to squeak out a few questions about the place she was in.
Tanya had gotten good at lying to both friends and higher-ups about how she had knowledge that she really shouldn't have, or how she knew that the Alliance Cordiale's forces were going to try any specific thing. Trying to justify her ability to speak Akitsushiman to Viktoriya had been the hardest, if only because the looks of suspicion had been so unfamiliar and…
Shame-inducing.
These three were considerably easier, and they bought her act hook, line, and sinker, as expected.
What was this town? She had only been travelling with her father in order to sell some of his stuff.
They were in Axel. It was the beginning town of adventurers, a major crossroad for travelers, and one of the Kingdom of Belzerg's greatest assets. It was isolated from the forces of the Demon King, due to the distance from his castle, as well as its distance from the border.
The Demon King was having enough trouble with the Kingdom of Belzerg and the tentative help of the countries surrounding it. He didn't want to antagonize anyone else, and attacking a town so close to the border wouldn't do him wonders.
What was the money called? She wasn't from around here, and didn't know how to use this weird currency.
The money was called Eris. They were named after a goddess whose followers had a strong presence throughout Belzerg.
Judging from the meal Tanya had gotten, they were probably similar to Yen, although that wasn't all that likely due to the inflation and wildly different economies that the two nations had. She'd figure out more as time went on, she supposed.
Tanya had merely hidden her anger at the mention of the 'g' word, letting her left eye twitch for only a moment and hoping her hair wasn't doing that thing Viktoriya said it did when she began thinking too hard or got really annoyed.
How would she survive? She didn't have any family, as her siblings had all perished.
They couldn't support her, but she could earn money by either becoming some sort of servant or by becoming an adventurer. Tanya had thought, for a moment, about becoming a maid and avoiding Demon King entirely.
Then the contract, still pressed into the folds of her clothing with the relics heaven had given her, burned hotly. She winced, and the adventurers had expressed concern.
Tanya just waved them off, explaining it as "Tummy trouble."
They'd all melted at that, and they had directed her to the Guild's admission desk.
Tanya had thanked them in the high-pitched tone she had been using, and walked away briskly towards the desk she'd been pointed at.
It seemed that the contract would take steps to ensure she would try to oppose the Demon King.
Fine then. Hypothetically, if someone in her situation were to become a maid, then they would be guaranteed freedom and wouldn't have to risk their lives.
Tanya paused her steps, hoping that searing pain wouldn't strike her again.
It didn't.
Emboldened, she continued her 'hypothetical' thoughts. On the other hand, said person wouldn't be able to get that wish.
Tanya sighed. She supposed she would look at what an adventurer could do, and then compare it to the army.
Tanya turned a corner, and stopped the carefree skip that she had adopted as she had walked away from the group.
Now that they couldn't see her, she sighed. Sure, they might not have thought anything was weird with her questions. This was, apparently, some sort of crossroads for travelers, meaning that it wouldn't have been out of place for someone to wander in not knowing anything about the place.
One could never be too sure, however.
Quickly, she strode up to the front desk, studying the receptionist as she approached. Blonde hair, a kindly face, clothing as… open as every other maid that she had seen here, she seemed to be perfect for this job, as far as looks went.
If nothing else, enticing young people into taking up whatever job they were offering here would be fairly simple, if they only thought with the organ between their legs.
"Hello. What can I do for you today?"
Tanya rested an elbow on the countertop, privately wishing that she were taller so that that action wasn't so uncomfortable.
Fighting the urge to glue her face to the woman's chest – sixteen years of orphanage-brand rags and military uniforms to hide whatever bodies women had underneath their clothing could do that to someone when they finally encountered someone showing a bit of skin – Tanya began to speak.
"Yes. I've come to learn about being an adventurer."
The blonde woman smiled, and pointed at the signs that sat to the side of the receptionist area. Tanya walked around, circling the signs, and began to read the chalk boards.
WHAT IS AN ADVENTURER?
HELLO READER! IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT PURSUING A CAREER IN ADVENTURING.
POSITIVES OF DOING THIS:
YOU CAN HELP THE KINGDOM OF BELZERG AGAINST THE CONTINUAL ONSLAUGHT OF THE DEMON KING'S FORCES
YOU GET PAID MONEY TO FIGHT THE VARIOUS MONSTERS THAT CAN ATTACK THE CITY OF AXEL
IF THERE ARE NO MONSTERS, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE ON JOBS NOT USUALLY AVAILABLE TO COMMONERS
And on it went. It described many, many positives of the job, and not one negative.
Tanya just shook her head with a rueful smile. If it didn't list any negatives, then there must have been some sort of drawback – there was with nearly everything. Would she be pressed into fighting? Was the pay lackluster?
Tanya shrugged. If this job wasn't willing to reveal what might be so bad about it, she'd just join the army. She knew how those worked, after all.
Tanya, once again, strode up to the counter. "Ma'am."
The woman looked down from where she had been… filing paperwork.
"Yes. Are you ready to register?" she asked kindly. Tanya shook her head. This world seemed to be an odd mix of advanced and backward, if it had paperwork and, presumably, the printing press, but it didn't have advanced weapons.
"Actually, I was wondering how old you need to be to join the army."
The woman went stiff, clasping her hands together quickly. "Oh, you wouldn't want to do that," she said.
Tanya scowled. "Actually, I do. Being part of an army allows for much faster advancement, and-"
The girl cut her off. "No, it doesn't. The people who join, who aren't connected, are thrown into the conscript force, shown how to hold a spear, and then told to pray. No training, no nothing. I would suggest that you become an adventurer, little girl," she warned, her face losing some of the carefree cheer it had contained.
Tanya blanched. She'd been part of the Empire's relative meritocracy, which allowed for someone to advance through the ranks quickly, regardless of skill, apparent age, or lack of connections. She'd forgotten how much the wider world didn't really like having young girls with no background in their army.
Well, there went becoming a high ranking commander and dealing the fatal blow to the Demon King after letting others do the hard work. She wouldn't even be able to command troops and train them her way. She'd be locked into the lower ranks, constantly passed up for nobles of lesser skill.
"And besides," the woman added, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "the minimum age for recruitment is eighteen. The Princess would have joined it if it was the age of majority, and the King didn't want that."
Tanya filed away that tidbit. It seemed that this world wouldn't be as inherently opposed to her for her outward appearance as a woman as the last one would have been, had she not been born in the Empire's meritocracy.
"Fine, fine. I'll become an adventurer," she relented, throwing a bag of Eris onto the counter. The woman smiled, took the money, and ducked underneath the counter. A few moments of grunting and heaving later, she stood up again, carrying some object.
She soon came out from behind the counter, placed the object down, and held up what looked like a blank index card.
The device looked… out of place. There were golden gears and other mechanisms on parts of it, while some sort of sphere, similar in its glowing brightness to her Type 95, sat at the top. Something that resembled a nozzle dipped down between the two legs of the thing.
"Let me formally explain," she said.
The woman smiled and began to do just that. "Adventurers each have their own occupations, which is kept track of on your Adventurer's Card, which records other information, like the number of monsters you've killed," she said, gesturing to the blank card.
Tanya, however, was panicking slightly. Not out of any fear of monsters – whatever they were, she'd learn later. No, a much more important question loomed in her mind.
Did people count as monsters?
Because, if so, she'd have to explain how she'd managed to kill upwards of two hundred mages and an unknown amount of foot soldiers, pilots, and seamen, and she didn't really think they'd accept any explanation she could give them.
The woman carried on, unaware of Tanya's thoughts. "Whenever you eat food or kill something with a soul, you absorb a portion of its memories, which increases your experience," she said.
"When you have enough experience, your level will increase, unlocking new skills and earning you Skill Points. So please, work hard to increase your level," she finished, bowing at the waist. Tanya nodded back, hoping that her card wouldn't be able to tell what she had already done and wondering about how much this world sounded like some sort of cheap, mobile MMORPG.
Levels? Skills? Points? Experience? Monsters? None of that sounded like it should apply to real life!
But here she was, in a world where that was reality. Tanya sighed. She'd make the best of her situation, like she always had. She turned her attention to the device the woman had gestured to, on top of the counter.
The woman gestured to the device. "Please hold your hand above this crystal."
Slightly dubious and letting her skepticism show through on her face, Tanya held her hand out as indicated, and watched as the mechanisms on the side began to turn and the crystal began to glow brightly.
She raised an eyebrow as it drew in a bit of her mana. No doubt, this was how it recorded the information. Perhaps, just as Tanya could record the signatures of enemy mages to recognize named mages, the glowing device could do something more… specific.
A piercing whine erupted from the thing, and a laser erupted from the nozzle, moving quickly across the surface of the Adventurer's Card.
Tanya leaned in, both anticipating and dreading what it might say. Hopefully, it wouldn't record the people she had killed. If it did, and someone asked questions, then she'd flee.
It stopped after a few seconds, and as the light died down, the woman picked up the card.
"Let's see… Tanya von Degurechaff?" she asked. Tanya nodded.
"Yes, that's me," she said, motioning for the card.
The woman muttered, "What an odd middle name," and continued to hold it, studying it. She gasped in surprise, and Tanya's face fell.
She had been found out. She would have to fly as far as she could, and hope that she could outrun the authorities. How would she fly without the Type 95, and was flying an ability other people had? She needed to fix tha-
"Interesting! You have a mix of different stats. Your Strength is Decently Low, and your Health is Below Average, but otherwise, almost all of your stats are-"
Then the woman stopped. When she continued to stare at the card, a look of disbelief plastered on her face, Tanya saw her chance and asked another question and hopefully distracted her from whatever was wrong. "What did you mean when you said 'Below Average'?"
She looked up from the card, tilting her head at Tanya in bewilderment. "Huh?"
Tanya sighed. "Average compared to what? All living things? All Humans? All sixteen-year-old girls?" she asked, staring pointedly at the card.
If her Strength was 'Decently Low' compared to all humans, then it would make sense. She wasn't that strong without reinforcing her body.
But if her Strength was 'Decently Low' compared to all living things, including stuff like grass, then she'd be humiliated. Because being weaker than grass was probably impossible, unless the grass here was a type of… 'monster,' or something.
The receptionist opened her mouth, for a moment, as if to respond, then shut it with a snap. She chuckled nervously, and began to explain. "Well, it's been theorized that it's compared to everyone else that has an Adventurer's Card, but truthfully, that's only the best guess."
Tanya sighed again. Advanced in some way, backwards in others.
They could easily test that by looking at all of the Adventurer's Cards and calculating the averages. It might be hard to do that over long distances in such a technologically stunted time as this, but even a local survey would help identify the truth.
The woman – whose name she should really find out – shook her head, and continued to stare at her card. "Now, as I was saying, most of your stats hover between Below Average and Above Average, and…" she trailed off again.
Tanya merely made a grabbing motion with her hand, hoping that she wasn't reading something that told her she was from another world or that she had killed a few hundred people. For rather obvious reasons, that would be detrimental to her continued well-being.
"Besides your Strength being Decently Low, your Magic-Power is Extraordinary! And you already have a bunch of skills!" she shouted. Tanya gave her a weak smile, and continued to grab at it.
'Please don't see the people I've killed. Please don't see that she was from a different world. Please, Please, Please.'
The woman didn't hear Tanya's inaudible pleas, and started to lay out what she could be. "Of course, you won't be able to become any sort of Fighter-type jobs, but you could pick up a few of the advanced classes right away! And you even have some Skill Points too!"
Tanya nodded, and then she cringed as the people from around the bar began to surround them and murmur.
"Like what?" she asked, shifting her eyes nervously, still hoping that no one would see anything about her past lives on that card.
"Plenty! Judging by the skills you already have, some of the classes you could pick up right now are: Ranger, an Archmage, or even Enchanter!" she cried out.
The people around them erupted into cheers, but Tanya was just confused. She might have been able to provide a vague guess as to what the last two were, but she had no clue what a Ranger was. Maybe it had to do with scouting?
"Er… can I see what those are?" she asked, motioning for the card again. The woman nodded, and Tanya snatched it.
Finally, she could see what it looked like.
Her name was written across the top, while a simplified picture of the profile of her head was in the upper right corner. Scowling, Tanya noticed that it even depicted that stupid fucking ahoge on the top of her head.
Underneath her name, her age, race, and gender were listed out – 16 and human for the first two, though the last was decidedly… smudged – and under that was a section titled 'DESCRIPTION'.
'ONCE A WORKER IN HIS COMPANY'S HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, AND THEN A BATTLE-HARDENED IMPERIAL MAGE: TANYA VON DEGURECHAFF HAS BEEN THRUST INTO A THIRD LIFE, INTENT ON TURNING THE GODS' BARGAIN ON THEMSELVES. WILL SHE SUCCEED? WHO KNOWS!'
Tanya breathed a sigh of relief that the woman hadn't read it. She continued down, surveying the other fields.
Her 'STATS' resided underneath that description, with a number resting next to each of them. Her Magic-Power number was imprinted in bright blue, while her strength was a dull red. A box labeled 'LEVEL' sat near the center, with a 1 on the inside.
Next to her stats was the most important thing: a list titled 'SKILLS', with a number ten next to it. That number was presumably the number of 'Skill Points' she had.
She looked at the first entry on the list.
'Passive Shell: Deflects debris and small caliber bullets. Shield strength determined by Magic-Power.'
That was a fairly accurate description of her Passive Shell, even if it was a bit vague. And so she looked down the list. It described each of her formulas – though it called each of them by the archaic term 'spell' – and put them into different categories. Her shields and most of her more combat-oriented formulas were considered under Magic-User Type, her Reinforcement formulas were for Monks, while a fair few of her Observation formulas were considered Rogue-Like Type. Her ability to pray and then activate the Type 95 was marked as Priest Type.
Most importantly, however, was the fact that a fair few of her skills were labeled 'Crafting'. Almost all of them were related to her ability to imbue her projectiles with formulas.
She needed all of them to continue to function as she had, and trying to learn some new way of doing things could take too long.
Being X wouldn't let this go unpunished, after all. Tanya was sure that once heaven had enough mana, Being X would, at the least, send her another angry rant detailing how she should have just submitted to him already.
If he sent someone after her while she was in the middle of trying to adapt to a new way of fighting, she might very well die.
Besides that, learning a new way to do things could also mean missing out on killing the Demon King. It wasn't as if everyone else reincarnated to this world would simply wait for her to retrain before trying to kill him.
Tanya looked up at the woman. "Er… miss… What is your name?"
The woman, who had been leaning in, straightened up and chuckled a bit. "Sorry about not introducing myself. I'm Luna," she supplied. Then, she leaned in again. "Have you decided which ones you will give up?"
Tanya sighed. She hadn't looked at every skill she had, but she knew one thing. She didn't want to give up any of her current arsenal.
While each of her skills had been listed as a different type, none of them had been described as belonging to a single job. She wasn't about to lose what over five years of training and fighting had instilled in her, not without a much more concrete future ahead of her.
Of course, she was most familiar with using a gun, something that she doubted the people here had invented yet. She wouldn't be able to imbue her bullets with formulas if she didn't have any bullets. Which meant that she'd probably need to learn how to make one, or pay someone to do it for her.
"Is there any class that would allow me to keep everything I have?" she asked, looking up from her card.
Luna's face fell, and she began to play with her hair. "Well… there is… one. The Adventurer Job is the most basic one possible. Your skills won't get boosted like they do if you choose a regular class, and learning more advanced skills from other adventurers means you have to pay more Skill Points," she laid out.
Tanya nodded, and the woman continued. "But you can learn any skill once you've seen it performed, regardless of class, and the Adventurer Class can be easily switched to a different one later on."
Tanya nodded, and began to weigh her options. She looked back down at her card.
'Crafting Type', huh?
"Er… what are the Crafting Type jobs?" she asked.
Luna smiled brightly again, happy to be talking about any other job than the Adventurer one. "Crafting Type jobs are a wide variety of different things. They do, as the name implies, involve creating something. The Enchanter can imbue objects and weapons with mana, while a Creator can mold the elements into beasts to do their bidding," she explained.
Tanya nodded. "Are there any other ones?" she asked.
"Well," she said, counting her fingers, "those are the only two I know of that you could have. The Blacksmith is another well-known one, but that has a Strength requirement that you do not meet."
Tanya grinned. If the name of the job was anything to go by, learning some of a Blacksmith's skills meant that she could remake her rifle. She wouldn't have to give up her style of fighting, hopefully.
"Alright. I'll take the Adventurer Job, please. I'm already used to what I have," she said, handing her card back to Luna.
The receptionist sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and began to fill out the card using the device that Tanya had first seen. "Alright, then. Your loss."
Tanya looked at the crowd, who seemed to become less interested. Tanya crossed her arms, and attempted to sound as confident as possible. "That's just what you think. I could beat anyone in this bar at an arm wrestling contest using my unique skills," she claimed.
Laughter echoed from the crowd, and Tanya turned to them as Luna handed her back her card. "Oh, you don't think I can? Or do you all think that someone with a Strength stat like mine can't win?" she said boastfully, eyeing the crowd.
"Heh, I'll take you on!" came a voice from the crowd. Tanya watched as Dust stepped forward, pushing past the people. The crowd began to mutter.
"How despicable, Dust will even fight children…"
"We should have expected it, from the pathetic Dust."
"How deluded is this girl, to think she can beat Dust with such a low Strength stat?"
Dust walked to a table and the crowd glared. Tanya was confused as to why everyone was looking at Dust like he was the scum of the Earth, but she ignored the why and focused on what it meant. They thought that Tanya would lose, even if they wanted to root against Dust.
Head shaking slowly, Luna strolled back behind the counter, and Tanya thanked her silently. That the receptionist wasn't intervening meant she'd have free reign to establish herself.
The faster she was established as being powerful, the sooner she could gain allies that could help her take down the Demon King.
Team members, sure, but also regular people. People who had skills or services Tanya might need to increase her own chances of survival, considering none of that would be provided to her for free if she wasn't in the army.
The man walked over to her, sat down at a nearby table, and crossed her arms. "Before we start this, we've gotta have some sort of wager," he said, grinning.
Tanya, having taken her seat, raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wager?" she asked hesitantly. She wasn't going to do some vague 'in the future' promise. But, based on their first conversation, he probably wanted…
"Monetary."
Tanya's skeptical eyebrow lowered, and she retrieved the remaining money she had from within her clothing. Most of her money had already been spent registering as an adventurer and on her meal. This was what she'd taken from that thief.
Dust caught her unsure look at the bag, and Dust waved a hand. "We can skip that, I guess. It's almost not worth the effort," he bragged.
Tanya shook her head, grinning at him. "No, you're right. Need to show I think I can beat you, right?" she said, placing the money on the table.
Dust's eyebrows rose now. Then, he grinned and placed a similar looking bag on the table. "Alright, little Tanya. Let's go!"
With that, Dust slammed her arm on the table.
A person who had spent years of his life adventuring. A petite little girl, wearing what amounted to dirty, thin clothing and a tattered rag of a cloak. Based on how they looked, it seemed obvious who would win.
Appearances were deceiving. No one here knew that Tanya had two items worth more than a good portion of the interior of the guild for their artistic value alone. No one knew that Tanya had spent nearly half of her current life subverting everyone's expectations besides her own and, near the end, the ever-faithful Viktoriya's.
Languidly, Tanya placed her elbow opposite of Dust's. Her speed in doing this wasn't just to present an air of superiority. She was also stalling for time to test how much the Reinforcement formulas would cost in terms of mana.
It had taken hours of using the Reinforcement formulas in her last life before they could show signs of damage in a user, but that was with a Computation Jewel and in a different world. She would have to use more magic, based on her earlier experiments with the formulas.
She'd see what this experiment yielded.
As Dust grinned, Tanya began to calculate her Reinforcement formula, taking care not to let any of her mana stray towards the Type 95. She wouldn't be known as anything other than a religious nutcase if she began spouting off about some invisible man in the sky.
"Nervous? Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, squirt," he claimed as he gripped Tanya's had.
She just smiled at him, and cheered victoriously inside her head as a confused look overtook his face. He wasn't taking her seriously.
The two of them waited a moment more, and when Keith said, "Give her a lesson Dust!" she took it as the signal to start.
Muscles bulged. Mana flowed. Neither moved, and the crowd grew quiet.
Or, Tanya didn't. To the observers, it looked as if Tanya hadn't moved an inch, and that she wasn't even slightly struggling. Her arm remained perfectly still, her clothes didn't make so much of a whisper.
Dust, meanwhile, arm taut beneath a layer of clothing, was pushing with all of his might as the table groaned beneath the force of their struggle.
Tanya, aware that she could, maybe, keep this up for an hour or two, brought her free hand to her mouth. "Is that all, Dust?" she said, pretending to yawn.
He grabbed her hand with his other hand, and pulled down on it, cheating to try and move it at all. Still, it didn't budge. Tanya just smirked at his rising frustration.
He continued to try and move her arm, muttering, "How the hell are you doing this, loli?"
Twitch.
A strand of hair at the top of her head danced as she processed what he'd said, before it became still.
She had not had that word thrown at her, ever. Germanian had no equivalent, and she had been thankful for that small mercy of the demanding language.
How dare he.
She smiled widely at him, and he tilted his head, likely confused. He was also wholly unaware of the massive amount of mana flowing into the formula.
I'll make you pay for that!
The force on her hand – strong, to be sure, but not as immense as the presence of Being X when he decided to stop time – slackened for a moment. Tanya's smile, small and innocent, turned predatory as she finally decided to stop waiting and to really push.
Dust, still shocked by Tanya's appearance of immovability and very demented smile, was sent flying from his seat as Tanya launched him across the room.
The crowd remained silent for only a moment more, until a grand cheer went up in the crowd. Tanya stood on her chair and raised her arms up, brandishing the money, all the while laughing at the look of fear that marked Dust's face.
Served the bastard right. She didn't even break any of his bones for that comment.
Keith rushed over to the toppled man, while Taylor and Lynn walked over to her. "That sure was impressive, Tanya. How'd you do it?" she asked.
Tanya looked to the one she had beaten, and she saw that Dust was looking happy about something Keith had said to him and the small slip of paper in his hand.
Tanya wrote it off; as long as he wasn't trying to get this money back, he could look at whatever coupon all he wanted.
The crowd around her, who had heard the question, all quieted down, wondering how she had thrown him across the room with a Strength as low as hers. Tanya just laughed. "Sorry to say, even if I could tell you, you wouldn't be able to learn it. You all have regular jobs, right?" she questioned.
A round of laughter began to bubble up, and more people lined up, eager to test their strength. Tanya sighed in relief. No one had really tried to pry into how she had done it, and that was good. It showed no one would be overtly nosy about her business, as long as it looked clandestine.
Tanya looked at the two bags of money in her hands, and then began to grin. She'd be able to afford a room in no time at all.
She eyed the crowd, watching maids deliver drinks. Maybe a drink or two wouldn't be out of place, with such a wonderfully light atmosphere? She never got the chance to enjoy hers before she'd been immolated in her last life, after all.
-OxOxO-
A/N: And that's that! She'd just started out on this journey, and already she's beginning to question the sanity of this world. Not only is it at war, it sounds just like a video game. How odd.
Well, I hope you're enjoying the story. Please, continue onward. Tanya has a lot to figure out – mostly due to her assumption that, since the last two worlds she visited had advanced past the steam engine, that the next one would too.
Do you think she'll give up her weapons? I don't – I mean, she's held out against Being X for so long, so she'll probably have to have something… drastic done to convince her of the futility of that action.
But what do you all think? Please, tell me what you think in the comments.