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Two Steps Back In Another World

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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Otaku's Divine Comedy

My name is Masamune Hiro. I'm 17 years old. My apartment is in the Sangen-Jaya area of Tokyo, and I am obviously not married. I don't smoke or drink, because I'm underage. I work as an employee for an internet café, and am about to be late for work, which is highly unusual for me. This is all to say that I have done nothing but live a quiet life.

As I run through the crowded sidewalks I wonder why this chain of events has happened. Last night I stayed up late getting a 100% completion on a very difficult new game that just came out. I was apparently one of the first people to get such an achievement. This is all well and good, but I cut into my sleep schedule a fair amount and had less than half of my regular eight hours of sleep last night. I was so tired, I slept through my alarm that wakes me up to guarantee that I get ready for work and get there with plenty of time to spare.

At my job, I am an ordinary employee who deals with things like maintenance and customer service. For the past few months I have been working with a girl named Sakura. And honestly, she's pretty, but kind of mean. For whatever reason she gets mad at me and other times she makes fun of me, but this is perhaps justified as she is the only girl that I have actually spent time with or talked to in real life to any substantial degree in a long time.

"I am sure to be chastised by her when I get in to work," is a thought that crosses my mind as I jostle through the crowded sidewalks. I'm in such a rush that I cross the street when the light changes without even noticing my surroundings.

A large truck came straight for me as if the very hand of fate was guiding it.

"Truck-kun." I thought in the split second before I died. "So this is what it's like…"

The front bumper slammed straight into the center of my body.

It certainly hurt, but only for a moment. And when I opened my eyes, I found that I was atop what looked like a cloud and above me was a Cherry blossom tree in bloom. The only other thing I saw was a beautiful woman who I instinctively recognized as a goddess.

"Cool." I said which seemed to draw her attention.

"Ah, you're here." She said. "As you have realized, you died just now and I am here to prepare you for your next life.

"I'm going to be reincarnated?" I asked. "Am I going to another world?"

She simply answered, "Yes."

"Hooray, my prayers have finally been answered!" I cheered. "I'm so grateful!"

This reaction caught her off guard judging by the expression on her face.

"I see you're excited to get going, but before you do I'd like to give you a bit of information regarding this new world." She stated. "This world functions similar to other role-playing games you are familiar with. You will take the role of a beginning adventurer with nothing but what you currently have and you may do what you wish. But beware, this world is filled with adventurers, dangerous monsters, and evil villains who will certainly try to kill you, especially if you do anything to reveal that you are from another world, so don't do that, okay?" She said with a cute head tilt.

"That sounds about like what I would expect from an Isekai. What about the language of this new world, or magic or other such game mechanics? Will I already know these things or do I have to learn them?" I asked.

She seemed happy to enlighten me. "You will be able to understand the spoken and written languages including signs and symbols of any humanoid in this world, but you will have to learn everything else, including skills and game mechanics by yourself or from someone inside the game."

"And if I get stuck or need help, I probably won't be able to rely on you or other gods for help?"

"Correct. Additionally, you will only have one life with no guarantee of resurrection or reincarnation from anyone or anything." She explained.

"So I'll have to start from level one in this new world with my life in danger… do I get some kind of special skill or weapon?" I ask.

She then stepped closer to me, "Please be careful and live a good life." She said with a smile. "Now, hold out your hand, Hiro."

I did so.

Suddenly her smile morphed into a sadistic expression and she pierced into my chest with her hand. I grimaced as this pain was far worse than the truck hitting me earlier. I felt her remove her hand and then something touched my outstretched palm.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in yet another location. I was standing in the middle of a massive grassy plain. The object I felt in my hand was a crystal clear bead that had a faint glow that died down after a moment.

I massaged my chest where I had been attacked as I took in my surroundings. There were no visible landmarks, people, or monsters for as far as I could see.

I was disoriented after experiencing such a rapid and confusing chain of events. However, I knew that my next course of action was clear. I needed to find civilization: a town or city of some kind, and from there my adventure could begin properly.

"But how am I supposed to know how to get there?" I asked. "On second thought, I'm the hero of an isekai, whichever way I go is bound to work out, right?"

And so I began walking in a straight line. As I did so, I tried to get some knowledge about how this game-like world operated.

In one corner of my vision I saw a red bar that I guessed was some kind of health bar that stayed consistently at a full 199/199 along with another bar beneath it that wasn't moving either.

I tried out jogging forward a little bit. As I did so the bar very steadily got smaller as I jogged going from 99/99 down to 98 or 97 and then refilling back to full. The results confirmed my assumption that it was some kind of stamina meter. I shifted into a full sprint and watched as the bar depleted exponentially faster, and then I slowed down to more of a walking pace to let it recharge. Then a thought occurred to me that I could learn to maximize this movement, so I gathered up a couple stones on the ground, and tested out how efficiently I could move.

My first step was walking. In one step I used no energy, but also didn't move forward very far, the next step was to jump forward, in this case I could cover a larger distance, about twice as far, but at the cost of some stamina it varied how much exactly but somewhere between three and five, and finally sprinting at full speed I could cover a fairly large distance quickly but at a heavy cost of my stamina bar of at least seven per step. So far jogging has been the most efficient form of movement.

Upon further testing I learned that after depleting my stamina bar greatly, it took longer to recharge. This was good to know, not that I was going to dash my way all around this world, but now I know to be more careful about it.

For fun I decided to test out some other forms of movement while I was at it. I tried to isolate my variables as much as possible and use the same patch of ground with all of my energy available. I tried tumbling and rolling, which covered more ground than jumping, but also ate up my stamina almost as badly as sprinting. I also tried out moving in different directions, things like side hopping, and backwards running, none of which seemed practical in the slightest, but at least no one was around to see me acting like a weirdo in the middle of a field.

Until I finally got around to something I would describe as back stepping, which admittedly felt like the least normal movement I had tried so far, probably because it functioned like it does in a game more than everything else which had more of a realistic feel to it.

When back stepping, I found that I had to place my arms and legs in a very particular position, as if I was getting ready to run from a standing position, but then immediately force my body backwards with my feet providing additional momentum.

But of course this form of transportation would turn out to be the min-maxed strategy that I had been looking for. At the cost of exactly five stamina points I could move marginally faster and farther than jogging. In fact, this form of movement even seemed to regenerate stamina about as fast as jogging even when my stamina bar was lowered.

So as strange as it seemed, I began my journey in earnest by back stepping across the expansive grassland until by chance or fate I would stumble upon something different, that I would have no idea of unless I stopped to look back (which really messed up my chain of back steps) so I didn't do that until I really had to.

I sadly realized too late that the meadow I had been traversing came to an end at a large river when I promptly fell into it and got my clothes completely soaked.

This adventure was not turning out to be so glamorous yet.

I clambered back out of the river and decided to follow along beside it. In the water I could see some fish swimming upstream and I ended up traveling in the same direction for a short stretch before I realized that I was getting closer to some foothills with mountains in the distance.

After a bit longer I found myself before a massive waterfall. The fish that I could see more clearly now were koi fish and had gathered at the base of the waterfall, and some were even in the process of swimming it. I could feel a strange sort of aura of divine reverence all around me.

One by one, the fish seemed to give up against the herculean challenge, all except for two, a gold and white one that was holding in the lead, and an almost all black one not far behind it.

"Why does this scene remind me of something?" I thought.

The fish were nearing the top, but just before the golden one made it, the clouds above parted and a lightning bolt flew down and struck the top of the waterfall.

I saw the gold koi go flying off from the explosion, and then the black koi leapt over the top of the waterfall. Before my eyes, I saw it transform into a majestic dragon. This dragon was like one of those western fantasy dragons with a monstrous head, a spiked body and long limbs with dangerous talons on the ends. And then, it was gone.

I saw the other koi flopping on the ground not far from where I was standing. It looked uninjured from the freak lightning bolt, but it was clearly exhausted. So I figured I would be nice and place it back in the river, even though it smelled fishy.

I watched some other koi swim all the way to the top, but they didn't transform like the other one. In fact, it seemed like whatever that feeling I had earlier was gone. "Tough luck buddy, looked to me like you were the rightful dragon there, I guess someone just has it out for you." I mentioned as I steadily dipped it into the rushing water.

I decided I had had enough of this and decided to turn around and back step downstream instead. Surely that way I would finally find some kind of civilization. The only strange thing was that golden koi seemed to be following me.

"What, does this fish want to join my party?" I thought to myself. "Sorry fish, unless you're a cute girl, you can't join. Classic isekai rules." I told it. It merely looked back at me with those characteristic fish eyes and continued following me, whatever.

I kept following the river for a long time. It was completely uneventful, so I worked on coming up with a nickname for my only traveling companion. "How about, Sashimi?"

After what felt like an eternity, I finally came upon some kind of actual civilization. However, when I tried to head for what looked like an ordinary starting village, Sashimi decided to try and follow me by jumping out of the river.

"Sashimi! What do you think you're doing?" I scolded him. "Fine, come here, I'll go find something to carry you in."

I didn't see a sign with a name of the village, but from what I could tell, it was a pretty traditional medieval European town with a small population of humans. There were homes, businesses, and an inn. One building had a sign that said Zoul's Adventuring Shop on it.

I stepped inside and was greeted by a portly old gentleman. "Welcome to Zoul's Adventuring Shop, I'm Zoul, may I help you, please?"

"Uh, hi, yes I'm looking for some kind of fish tank so that I can take care of this fish." I told him.

"Mhm, I see." He said. "I might just have something."

He searched around for a little bit before he pulled out some kind of metal plate. "This right here has a permanent water bubble enchantment on it which will allow you to travel anywhere in the world with an aquatic companion."

"That would be perfect, how much is it?" I asked.

"About 1600 merits." He said.

"I'm afraid I don't have any coin on me right now, actually." I admitted. "But I really need something quick, is there anything you can do?"

He frowned. "Well, I have been meaning to get some help moving some of my heavier merchandise lately. I'll tell you what, if you help me out with that for the rest of the day, there would be thirty merits in it for you. One merit for a basic fish bowl, and the rest is yours."

"Works for me."

He held out his hand for a shake. "Then it's settled, uh…"

"I'm Hiro." I said as I returned the handshake.

The next couple hours were rather boring as I carried out some manual labor while Sashimi watched from the sidelines.

That night I rented a room at the town inn for ten merits. I laid in bed and examined my inventory: a coin purse containing 19 merits, my clothes from my previous life, a fish bowl, and that bead that I couldn't identify.

The next morning I came back to Zoul's to buy some fish food and some clothes that would fit in better in this world along with a pack that I could travel with and store a large amount of items. All together it would cost me 8 merits.

He was also kind enough to direct me to the local chapter of the Adventurer's Guild. He told me to save at least 10 merits and that I could get some good job opportunities there.

So Sashimi and I stepped through the front door of the Adventurer's Guild, and were slightly disappointed. To clarify, it had all the basics you would come to expect of an adventurer's guild, a front desk, a large board for jobs, tables, and chairs. But it was also much smaller and emptier than I had expected.

However, with all this being said, the woman at the front counter was actually quite helpful and enthusiastic about recruiting a new adventurer. It turns out that there hadn't been any adventurer's around the town for a couple weeks so a good amount of jobs had piled up.

I officially registered as a newbie adventurer with the required ten merits for a license.

Name: Masamune Hiro

Race: Human

Class: Newbie Adventurer

Level: 1

Blood type: AB

Alignment: Neutral

…

Hit Points: 199/199

Stamina Points: 99/99

Magic Points: 0

Soul Points: 0

Skills: Back step

Unique Traits: None

Physical Strength: 4

Physical Defense: 7

Magic Strength: 0

Magic Resistance: 1

Soul Strength: 6

Soul Resistance: 8

Vitality: 11

Dexterity: 9

Reflexes: 11

Movement Speed: 4

Intelligence: 7

Charisma: 2

Wisdom: 3

Willpower: 7

Awareness: 5

Luck: 10

"Um, what does this alignment mean, are you measuring my morality?" I ask.

She explained. "Not exactly, that records what allegiances you make as an adventurer, so for instance if you officially sided with one side in a war, or were declared a protector or ruler of a region by the governing body. Depending on who you side with though, people may have certain perceptions about said morality."

I was slightly nervous about this.

"Don't worry about it too much, all adventurers start out neutral and no one can force you into any alignment, and even if they did, it has no bearing on The Adventurer's Guild as our resources are freely available to all adventurers no matter what."

"Could you go over what all these resources and perks of being an adventurer are?"

She smiled. "Certainly. All licensed adventurers are welcome in any branch of the guild in the world where they can get the best prices for meals and overnight accommodations in addition to access to the guild's information network and job boards for accepting low level jobs."

"That sounds pretty nice."

"Not only that, but all the jobs you take through the guild are tax exempt and allow you completely free entrance into most countries." She stated. "But yours is only a temporary license that can be revoked by the guild if they so choose and only allows you to take comparatively low paying and safe jobs over the course of the next month. If you plan on adventuring as a full time career I suggest you build up your skills and money so that you can apply for better licenses. In other words, this one is just to get you started."

"I see."

"You're in luck, you can accept almost any of the jobs posted right now and start building up your merit and experience." She said.

"Can I take a few of these easy ones at once?"

"It is expected that when you take a job you go and accomplish it promptly, but many of these and other beginner jobs can be done in less than two hours so you can accept several of these if you wish, but I don't think any other adventurers will be coming by to take these from you in the next couple of days."

And so for the next three weeks I ran errands around the town with Sashimi as if I was a temp. There wasn't even much adventuring to be done, I mean I got to know the layout of the town and the surrounding area pretty well, but I didn't even fight any monsters, not even giant rats or frogs, or slimes for that matter.

I did get to work with Zoul some more by running deliveries and such for him and others around town. Well, I say running, but most of the time I was in fact back stepping. He also introduced me to some of the other shops around town, like the local apothecary run by a sweet old lady and the blacksmith who I ended up helping the most because he didn't just pay me in merits but also had to train me in the basics of his craft to be of any help to him.

I was still level one and none of my stats had increased, but I had picked up the blacksmithing skill which evidently meant that I was proficient enough to make anything a blacksmith could, but that I would have to refine my skills past the general requirement in order to improve my craft. So I decided to work with my own time and resources on gaining the weapon smith skill so that I could fight with something that I made myself.

While I initially wanted to make an excellent katana, my skills had not quite reached that level so I settled for what I was capable of making, which from a glance looked like a katana, but did not actually fit the classification of one, nor was it of the quality that I hoped for. The blacksmith on the other hand said it looked kind of strange, but that it was the best sword he'd ever seen from a beginner.

With my newbie license about to expire in a few days, I gathered up my gear, including my newly forged sword, and headed out into the wild to take on the hardest job I'd taken up yet. I had to deliver a package with a message to another town two days travel away, through territory containing presumably low leveled monsters and bandits, The Everdark Forest.