Synopsis: A sudden summoning was held by the Sleeping God Azathoth which brought forth the current story of Clodwal and the others. While exploring and looking for shelter in the forest, Clodwal encountered goblins and saved an injured woman from the brink of death. What happens next?
The girl wore a cute maid uniform and had a slim body matching that of a girl in her teens, as well as a beautiful maiden face with her golden hair tied into two ponytails by red ribbons.
Clodwal: "Proceed with your introductions..."
Lilileen: "M-my name is Lilileen! Thank you for saving me!"
I sighed and rushed to the main topic as I didn't want to talk about meaningless and invaluable things.
Clodwal: "Tell me where you live..."
Lilileen turned red from the sudden interrogation from the handsome young man who have just saved her.
Lilileen: "W-wait! Isn't this a little bit too fast!?"
The latter seemed to be very flustered and slowly turning into a tomato color while fidgeting and stroking her hair restlessly.
I was confused as to what she was thinking and came to the conclusion that she might have misunderstood the question I have asked.
Clodwal: "Don't misunderstand... I would not ask for something as unimportant and unnecessary as that..."
Lilileen: "O-oh, ofcourse! What was I thinking?"
Clodwal: "Don't ask me for something you already know..."
Lilileen calmed down and slowly regained her composure. She was now ready to be taken information from.
Clodwal: "Let's go straight to the point... Tell me where we are with utmost detail."
Lilileen: "Did you by any chance got lost after coming into this forest?"
Clodwal: "Something similar... And I'm the one asking the questions here, now proceed..."
It was afternoon, Lilileen hastily explained to me about my current location, I seemed to be in a place commonly referred to as the ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ฃ๐ข๐ณ๐ข ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต located within the Arkheist Kingdom of the 5 Great Nations. I have also asked what the world's name was and I had the same answer over and over again every time I asked to confirm. It's name was "Amalgia".
After gaining enough information about my whereabouts, I asked Lilileen to guide me to her home and she eagerly led the way. After rescuing her, as I have recently mentioned before, I asked her things about magic.
Lilileen: "Magic is the fundamental law that allows us to do things much easier. Atleast that's what I know... There are seven elements! Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Dark."
Clodwal: "Did you not mention seven..? Why are there only six..?
Lilileen: "I don't really count it as an element, but the last one is Unattributed. I may not be an excellent mage, but despite that not being an element, the Tower Of Magic decided that it is."
Clodwal: "Having no element, huh... That does seem like a valid argument... And did you not say just now that you were a mage..?"
Lilileen: "Yup! I am!"
Clodwal: "Then why did you get beaten by an insignificant race such as goblins..?"
From being overly confident, her expression changed to that of embarrassment.
Lilileen: "That, eh, uh... That's because my inborn specialty is light magic. So I focused only on healing magic from the start..."
Clodwal: "Hnn, I see... That edgy liquid from the arrow tip must have had an anti-regeneration effect..."
Lilileen: "That was the problem."
My next question is one that popped up after Lilileen mentioned her attribute.
Clodwal: "How does one discover their own elemental attribute..?"
Lilileen: "The most widely used method is through a magic ball while the second is by testing all the elements yourself. As for me, I had my parents bring me to a shady magic shop to find out my attribute."
Magic balls to identify one's attribute sounds truly fantasy-like. I will have to visit one some time, I'm quite infatuated with the thought of learning magic myself.
Lilileen: "And by the way, Clodwal-san. Have you been hiding your magic power with an unattributed spell this whole time? I can't sense any magic in you."
Clodwal: "No, I am currently unable to use magic as I lack the knowledge to perform such..."
Lilileen: "E-Eh..? Does this mean that..."
Clodwal: "What?"
Lilileen: "...You're a muggle."
Depending on what she just said, according to the oxford english dictionary and the Harry Potter series... Muggles meant someone who can't use magic or had no shred of magic in them.
Clodwal: "I see..."
Lilileen: "Eh?! You're not going to cry or something at all?"
Clodwal: "I see no value in crying over such trivial matters, it may have been unfortunate that I couldn't learn magic but I'm powerful as is without it's assistance..."
Lilileen: "E-Eh? Muggles like you often throw a fit after discovering something like that. Magic is really important in this world, afterall. But since you were able to save me without magic, that means you're a martial arts cultivator, right?"
We conversed while continuing to walk by the path Lilileen is leading me to.
Lilileen: "Hey, Clodwal-san, where were you from? You don't look like from around here."
Clodwal: "Somewhere far away... Don't ask any more questions about that sort of stuff..."
Lilileen: "What a meanie, alright then. Just follow me!"
She then proceeded to lead the way out of the forest until we heard something very loud and terrifying at the same time.
๐๐ค๐๐ง!
The sound came deep within the forest, it came from the right direction where the Forest's native birds flew off from, a few seconds later large foot steps could be heard approaching us. From the sound of it, I could easily tell it was a monster from this world.
Thereupon looked from above us was a large grizzly bear with some sort of exoskeleton around it's forehead and various body parts such as the chest and shoulders, it was five times bigger than average, it gnawed hungrily and stared at us, Lilileen stuck in place holding my cloth while I stayed calm for an unknown reason. If it were the real me and not Clodwal, surely I've had been in the same situation as her.
Lilileen: "An Iron Jaw... I've heard that they have a keen sense of smell. That they could smell prey from 114 miles away..."
Clodwal: "Seeing that it's already in front of us... One can tell what would happen next..."
The bear began it's attack and raised it's claws against me which I caught with my left hand. I was afraid it would scratch my clothes, and I was unable to dodge due to having Lilileen with me as my main source of information and my current hope for finding a human settlement.
After a moment of it's visibly displeased grunt, the beast launched it's second attack with it's oversized jaws trying to bite my head off. As response, I directed my focus at it's mouth.
Clodwal: ([๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ]...)
I whispered the skill's name instead of saying it. And from the results that followed, it seems my idea of it activating not needing to reveal my voice was correct.
The bear's body was standing in place with it's head missing, it was as if it was cleanly cut off and above it instead was replaced with a black mysterious apparition which was endlessly sucking the blood out from the bear's cleanly cut neck. That blackness was somehow giving me the creeps as it was slowly sucking me in and an instant disappeared with my thought, I had used this skill that could create black holes. The skill, [๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ] which can eat away reality itself, one of my abilities I had received from father in the roleplaying world.
Lilileen then spoke and I came back to my senses realizing she exists.
Lilileen: "W-what just happened to that Iron Jaw?"
Clodwal: "The bear..?"
Lilileen nodded and I gave the word "I see..." as a reply. She then recovered from her paralysis and started asking me questions about what occured during her paralysis which I gladly refused to answer by ignoring her and approached the beast's corpse still standing in place with it's head missing.
Clodwal: "[๐๐ฐ๐ฅ'๐ด ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ]"
Ripples appeared in low frequencies around the bear's chest three times and the body disappeared in an instant.
Lilileen: "T-the bear! Where did it go?!"
Clodwal: "I am in possession of it..."
Lilileen: "E-eh? What do you mean?"
Clodwal: "None of your concern..."
The reason I stored the bear's corpse inside my pocket dimension was because I thought it was a waste and could be used to sell in guilds and earn large amounts of money for starters, as it seemed like a powerful monster in this world by observing Lilileen's reactions.
As for Lilileen, I did not answer her question as I was disappointed at her, I somehow dislike people with extremely low understanding who can't comprehend what they see or sense themselves.
We peacefully continued walking in the forest to reach her home village without talking to each other, she might have had been annoyed at me and thought it insulting for me to talk very harshly or she may have caught on that I disliked talking too much.
After four hours of spending time getting out of the forest, the scenery of her hometown finally came into view. It was a small village with atleast sixty or more houses surrounded by wooden fences twenty feet high. After Lilileen explained to the village guards about my situation of getting lost I lied and told them that I was a peddler who lost my items from a monster attack which Lilileen visibly doubted but silently listened to.
After the inspection they let me inside and the sight of children playing and adults either talking or working welcomed my curios eyes.
Lilileen seemed to be very well known to the other villagers as they greeted her casually. Lost in thought a little boy with red hair came to me.
Chad: "Hello mister! I'm Chad, what's your name?"
Clodwal: "...Clodwal"
Chad: "Oh, Clodwal-san! Are you perhaps Lily nee-chan's lover?"
Lilileen: "F-fweh?!"
Lilileen was flustered and turning as red as a tomato once again, she then suddenly covered Chad's mouth to silence him.
Clodwal: "..?"
Lilileen: "I-its nothing, Clodwal-san! Please forgive this child. And I am not his lover!"
Clodwal: "It's fine..."
Chad was chuckling behind her hands and the sounds of the nearby villagers doing the same could be heard.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Clodwal-san."
Some of the villagers welcomed me with warmth while the rest just shrugged it off as nothing new and continued with their daily activities. I noticed the men were standing on ladders or platforms repairing broken buildings.
"My, I'm sorry but it's truly unfortunate that you came at a bad timing. Everyone is upset right now because of a recent attack from wyverns."
Wyverns exist in this world, huh. As far as my knowledge extends, they are four-limbed aerial draconic creatures with heads similar to that of snakes.
Lilileen: "A-anyway, Clodwal-san please follow me to my house."
Lilileen interrupted my youthful conversation with the person I was talking to. I gave her a cold look as she turned on her back on me.
I walked with her again in search of her house while observing the surroundings. Some houses had visible damage on them. And as I was informed, it came from the recent attack of wyverns from a while ago.
We then reached our destination, Lilileen's house. She then took hold of the door knob and slowly opened it.
๐๐ฌ๐๐จ๐!
The sound of two things flying fast could be heard again and my body reacted to it and dodged while Lilileen got hit by the other and almost fell down. What passed through was a wooden plate and when I looked for it's cause I saw a wooden table bent down as if a barricade, and from behind, a child's voice rang out.
"Who goes there!?"
Lilileen: "U-Uhhnn.. what was that for?!"
"Oh! It's Lily nee-chan!"
A small boy somehow resembling Lilileen with her hair and face seemingly a five year old peeked and jumped out of the table to dash at Lilileen and give her a tight hug, but Lilyn hit him on the head making him slip instead.
Lilileen: "Arnold, what's with this mess?"
Arnold: "I just heard there were wyverns and prepared for it's attack."
Clodwal: "Wyverns, you say..."
Arnold: "Onee-chan! Who is this man?"
Lilileen: "O-Oh, he saved my life in the Garbara Forest when I got attacked by monsters."
After hearing that I saved Lilileen who I assume is somehow related to him by blood, he quickly stood up and bowed down in front of me as a sign of gratitude.
Arnold: "Thank you very much for saving my sister."
Clodwal: (As I thought, they're siblings.)
Arnold looked up and smiled at me after showing his gratitude. I gave him no reply and proceeded to question him.
Clodwal: "Tell me more details about the wyvern..."
Arnold explained that while Lilileen was away, a group of wyverns attacked the village and destroyed some crops and buildings, but no casualties was made. The village guards drove them off but received some injuries. The village's defences doesn't seem to be that well enforced.
Time passed by, I spent the night in Lilileen's home and asked her of many things as we ate our meals and I gained more knowledge of this world, as well as information I did not ask for. Their parents seem to have passed away 6 years ago due to an illness. I then closed my eyes and went to sleep.
Morning came, I bid my farewells to Lilileen and her brother and obtained some useful information about this world. There seem to be guilds I can earn money from by doing quests, the problem was it was located quite a bit far out into the capital city of Arkheist.
Arnold informed that it would take a whole month to get there by carriage, that's why I got the idea of using my skills to get there faster. I went far away from the village first to avoid attention and when I confirmed no living creature was in the surroundings I used a skill.
Clodwal: "[๐๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด]"
Two pairs of owl wings dyed in pure white sprouted out of my back which then fluttered slightly.
Clodwal: "Now the question is... How do I fly with wings..?"
At the thought, my head abruptly experienced pain to the point it was like splitting my head open. Knowledge and experience of bird flight was rushing into my head and I was surprisingly able to perfectly control my wings as I liked.
Clodwal: "What was that..?"
Azathoth: "Just a little help."
Clodwal: "..."
Azathoth's voice was directly played within my mind once again. So he had been watching me all this time.
Azathoth: "Always has been."
Clodwal: "Father, may I ask..?"
Azathoth: "If you're going to ask me how the others are, they're fine."
Clodwal: "I see... You really can read my mind..."
I sighed in relief after gaining a satisfactory answer from him. And once again, his voice disappeared and talking to him was disabled. I then focused on my current goal which was to go to the capital of Arkheist and crouched then spread my wings to take flight.