Arc 2: Second Chance
Get it together, Daisuke. You got this.
"There you are Daisuke!"- Sara and Hanako rushed towards me
"Good to see you!"- Hanako handed me some sort of pass
"What is this for?"- I looked at the piece of paper, looks like an invitation for a private chat with the author.
"We will have to wait awhile, but we will get a private chat with the author"- Sara and Hanako were excited and restless
"Hello!"- Haruhime greeted them as well
"Is this your sister?"- Hanako pointed at her
"Yes"
"She is so cute"- Sara grabbed Haruhime
"Put her down, Sara!"
"Put me down"
"Sorry."- After Hanako slapped her, she dropped Haruhime
"Thanks"
"Let's grab a drink or something to eat. We have a lot of waiting, let's go guys"- Hanako and Haruhime dragged me around, spacing out again
"Let's sit here!"- Hanako dragged us to a café
"Looks good"
"Would you like to order something?"- A waiter handed us the menus
"What will you like Daisuke?"- Haruhime asked me while looking at the menu
"I will have an orange tea and cookies"- Hanako handed back the menu and then looked at us
"Yes. I will have an Irish coffee and a salad"- Sara looked a little upset
"I would like a….. A…. A sandwich and a… a… a… strawberry tea with, with… with… cookies please"- It felt so awkward to order, too many options
"It's ok Daisuke"- Sara was sketching something with her left hand and browsing her phone with the right
"Look it's Daisuke with them again"- I could hear someone loudly talking from behind me, Haruhime stopped me from turning
"Don't mind them"
"I am curious. Why did you decide to make friends with me? It isn't clear to me why"- The 2 of them suddenly looked at me
"Well. I was curious about you, always seeing you staring at people. Now I am convinced you aren't bad at all"- Sara showed me her sketch. It was of me, siting and drinking coffee
"Well, I decided to give you a shot Daisuke, you can't be that bad"- Hanako was looking at me. The 2 of them were mostly smiling
"Here we go, this is your order"- The waiter handed us our orders, I looked everywhere around me, there was a certain fluttering feeling in my chest, my body felt like burning but in a good way, something that brings me warmth and pleasure.
I, Sara and Hanako finished our meal and returned to the bookstore, it is somehow a little late
"Come in. Aren't you 3 late?"- A shorter woman was standing in the doorway
"A little"- Sara was excited
"Come in, you 3. I had been waiting for you"- She got out of the doorway for us to pass
The bookstore itself was a little cramped, 2 large windows outside, bookshelves everywhere holding around a few hundred books, there was a table with 5 seats.
"So you 3 wanted to talk with me, right"- The author was warm to all of us. I could feel a hand touching my back
"The weirdo is here"- That voice was of Sara's brother, what is he doing here?
"What are you doing here with him. And who is that kid that near the weirdo?"- He didn't bring anyone, thank god. His gaze was just as hateful as before, his hand still on my shoulder
"Let me check your pass. You need one to be here!"- The author got in front of them. She had pushed him aside, she extended her right-hand forward
"What pass?"- He was confused, searching his pockets
"This is a private session. Those without the pass aren't welcomed, moreover, if you don't have a pass and harass people I won't think twice of kicking you out. Get out.!"- The author tried to push him outside
"At least let me talk to my sister, I need to give her something"- He waves a package at Sara
"Looks, I know why you are here. Harassing him is wrong, coming here to my book store and causing all this noise is unacceptable, give her the package and get out!"- The author looked at him with disgust
"Just give it to me and get out!"- Sara clenched her fist
"Wait, I recognize your face from somewhere, yes that creep author that draws disgusting lolicon art. You look like one itself, you brought that kid over there to get a model or something, I won't allow my little sister with a bunch of creeps"- He began laughing
"If so what jackass? Let people enjoy what they like, can't you see how much you are affecting your sister now? Can't you see her?"- I walked near the author, pointing at Sara, which was crying by now
"Shut up Daisuke, you aren't in any position to talk right now. Who is that kid that's with you, she had been talking on the phone for a long time?"- He was pointing at Haruhime
"I am not a kid, I am Daisuke's sister, I just look this way all right? I already called the police"- She flashed her ID and pushed him even further out
This isn't worth it, my fear came true, I ruined the whole day for them just by being here. I have no right, I better leave, it's for the best, her brother won't stop until I leave
"I am leaving"- Sara and Hanako looked at me, they wanted to grab me a hand reached out and pulled me closer to the exit
"Here, leave, I will help you"- Sara's brother was holding me up, he opened the door and threw me in the street, I landed hitting my head, my vision blurred, trying to stand up and walk back, so a car won't hit me, the building were spinning around me my feet seemed to slip every time I walked. A beeping noise was heard from in front, it was a car that was speeding, rushing towards me, that car seems to go sideways from the park? What the hell, it's coming towards me? Taking a step forward my feet slipped again, my mouth was filled with blood as in my immediate vision a black car appeared, the longer I started, the distance between me and the car increased, the pain in my chest feels like small needles poking my lungs, it burns, the blood still running from my mouth, turning in my side looked at the book store again, Sara and Hanako were held by Sara's brother, as a last effort I tried crawling towards them, got a look at my hand since I was hit, some of my nails fell off, the adrenaline was starting to wear out, my field of vision begins to get darker beginning from the corner of my eyes, until everything turned black
My eye started to see light again? Where am I? What did I do?
"Where am I?"- Looking around, as the light returned to my eyes all around me there was something I could describe as stars, it was like I was inside the universe or something
"Welcome. I am goddess Sara"- A tall, woman with long blonde hair and bags under her eyes welcomed me
"Sara?"- Is she the same person, is this a dream? What the hell is happening?
"I am not her. But as you died in your old world, I will reincarnate you in a new world. I will give you skills based on your life. Now let's see what have you done"- She got a big projection of all my memories
"Damn it"- I am done for
"Ohh boy, you are a total perv. Girls were scared of you, you deserved everything you got. I am disgusted by you, let me think of something"- She looked at a paper that she was holding, when did she get that paper out?
"I will give you a class. The shielder class. You will be marked for this in the next world"- She raised her right hand in the air, a sharp pain ran in the left arm, a succubus tattoo appeared. Turning my head to her on the right side a portal opened, out of the portal a man stumbled in, he had long hair and an over the eye style on his right eye, he had a smooth face and a 9 fox tails, his eyes had an odd pattern almost like a square rotated 45 degrees the corners seems to have some kind of line branching of to the left and some sort of triangles. He got up and looked around
"Who are you!"- Goddess Sara screamed
"Call me Great Sage"- Other portals opened around him, more people, maybe other gods surrounded him
"Well, buddy, calm down. What are you doing here in our universe? It's rare to see another god coming here"
"I just stumbled in here. Well, now I know where I am and, hmm, let's say I would like to spend some time here"
"A sage can't come and stay with the gods, it's not allowed!"- She tried to punch the man, but the goddess just passed through him, almost like he was intangible
"That ability, you must be the Great Sage of calamity then."- The gods that came in had no recognizable face and all of them wear white clothing
"You hear me! Get out!"- Goddess Sara was still trying to punch him
"Quit it out, you retard!"- One of the gods reached to grab Sara
"Let me handle this"
"So you want to fight?, here we go"- Sara prepared a big energy blast, Great Sage opened other portals near her
Goddess Sara release the blast towards him, Great Sage fell down with most of his limbs severed. 2 seconds after all of his limbs started to grow back
"My turn"- He clenched his left hand into a fist, the goddess was surprised as this
"You are supposed to be dead!"- Great Sage leaned back preparing to punch her
"I dare, you punch me! If you're this disgraceful to punch a wom…."- In a split second Great Sage's punch sent goddess Sara flying into one of the portal, other portals opened making her go through them endlessly
"Well, I think we shall leave everything to you then. Take care of kid"- The other gods pat him on the back. He turns to look at me as the other gods are leaving
"Daisuke isn't it"- He was approaching me, he pulled the chair goddess Sara sat on to look closer, as I look into his eyes the surrounding darkness turned into a blizzard.
"Yes, what do you want?"- Strange, while being around him everything began to calm.
"Well, let's say, I just stumbled here. Well, as it seems, I am the only god here. So I will give you a second class and some blessing, and a curse just to make sure"
"Thanks, wait a curse? Why?"
"It won't allow me to make it a blessing, but it's still a blessing, so don't worry"
"That's a strange rule."
"What class do you want?"
"I don't know? Maybe assassin?"
"Good. Now, after you reincarnated, I will tell you more about your blessings. Ohhh, and don't forget this"- Great Sage stabbed the palm of his hand left hand with his nails, the blood that leaked out began spinning and forming a knife, the knife was entirely of a crimson color.
"I will be gone now. See you in the new world"- Everything fades to black
I woke up in an alley with my head hurting, tried to look around only to find a dead end, turned the corner, human and human looking people with animal features appeared in the field of vision. Demi-humans? Medieval styled building everywhere, even the etiquette was different from the human world
"You are awake Daisuke"- I could hear a familiar voice in my head, sounds like Great Sage
"Great Sage?"- Was this great sage?
"Yes. That's me. Do you want any information?"- Information?
"Yes, where am I?"- I looked around, couldn't read anything, I didn't understand the language here. Where am I, the only recognizable signs were fantasy signs from anime, but that's it. A wine glass and a plate with steak that's supposed to represent a tavern. A sword and armor sign, supposed to represent a blacksmith. A quil and paper that supposed to represent a guild
"Well, yes. You are in the country of Wiefra. The quil and paper represent the guild. You got the rest right, kid. Ohhh and you are the only one that can hear me and I can only hear you. People rarely hear us talking. Only you, me and a few select people can actually hear us talking"- Great Sage became silent after this
I knocked on the guild's door. An elf? A female elf opened the door.
"How can I help you, sir?"- She had a straight face on her. I didn't know what to say to her?
"I am new here. Can you show me the ropes, or more information about this world?"- I didn't want her to see me embarrassed, I kept a straight face as well, it looked awkward for them
"New here, huh? Follow me"- I followed her to a counter, 3 more people were there.
"They are Demi-Humans, Daisuke!"
"Someone new? I see"- The elf girl whispered to the man
"Come here son. Show us your dominant hand. We shall use it to identify you"- The man had some kind of device in his hand, like an inking machine
"How will you do that?"- I looked at him starstruck
"This is a magical device. You will be able to keep track of your level and skills as well as class, the seal only works on your dominant hand. So please trust me"- I rolled my left-hand sleeve up. The elf man held my hand and applied some kind of tattoo on my arm
"Wait what is that tattoo?"- One of the wolf girl has seen the succubus tattoo, is this even relevant
"The succubus tattoo"- The man rolled my arm to see it
"Yes. He is one of those people, died in another world, came here and suffered the horrific fate of meeting the most idiot goddess ever, Sara. She branded 80% of this country with this, she acts brain-dead all the time"- One of the wolf-girl laughed
"Yes, sorry. Now let's get back to reading your skills, follow me, these 2 will help you in the process, please come back once done"- I followed the 2 girls in a new room, began to look around the room, in the right it had paper and ink. I could see stacked shelves with paper, there were a few tables and a booth that I didn't know how to read. Wait, how do I know the language?
"Ohhh, and about speaking and reading. I am doing all the translation for you, Daisuke, so don't worry. Great Sage always here to help you. And this is the tavern Daisuke."- I felt a little relief
I read the sign, monster loot exchange booth, the sign below read: We don't care who you are or your reputation we will always offer a fair price
"Do you zone out often, kid?"- They were dragging me in the tavern along with them
"Yes. I don't know how to talk to people. I do this often"- I tried not to look at the girl
"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I am Daisuke Suzuki, you are?"- The 2 dog-girls were taken back a little bit
"Why do you want to know our name?"- They were suspicious of me
"I simply do. It's pretty common from where I come. Sorry if I upset you"- I looked around trying to find out what are they doing
"I am going to give you a heads-up. Here demi-humans aren't treated good, slavery is legal, and we are the main slaves that are sold. Normal people can get in trouble with the royal guard if they are overly friendly with demi-humans. Be careful not to pass too friendly with us, or you live shorter than in your past life"- One of them stopped in her tracks, she pointed to a door in the back of the tavern. In the most secluded part
"Enter here, this is the skill room. Sit in the chair near the hourglass"
"I am Mitsude, and she is Petra"- Mitsude, grabbed my left hand and applied some kind of ink and wrapped a paper around it
"Nice to meet you 2"
"Just get this done faster, ok? I don't trust him at all"- Petra turned her back on me
"I am sorry"- She turned around to look for a second then turned back
"My sister is like this. Don't mind her. Ok now we should see your class"- She unwrapped the paper, as she read it in silence her jaw dropped
"Wait. This is almost impossible. Gods give only 1 class. He has 2 classes. And he had got 2 blessings and a curse on him"- She looked at me worried
"Let me see"- Petra grabbed the paper from her hands
"Class 1: Shielder Class 2: Assassin, Blessings, Memento Mori and Infinity, no details available they were protected and details can't be extracted. The curse, Autonomous Great Sage, no info available here either"- Mitsude is perplexed
"Mitsude, go grab the guild master"- Petra got a dagger and shield for me
"I already have a dagger"- I pulled the dagger Great Sage gave me
"I have never seen this material before. Crimson Crystals heh?. I only heard about these in stories, but never thought they were real or if weapons can be made out of them. Who gave this to you?"- What should I say to her?
"Honesty comes a long way, Daisuke"- Is this great Sage?
"What. How should I say it?"
"Tell her some fox god gave it to you. Not far from the truth"
"Someone else gave it to me. In fact, it was a fox god. He also gave me these blessings as well. I don't know about Great Sage"- I tried to modify things as good as I could. I was telling something close to the truth
"I see. 2 goods clashed, and the fox god won and gave you this. And you say you don't know what Great Sage really does. Well your situation is strange nonetheless, usually gods will strip any blessing or class given by other gods, but it's great that they let you"- Petra was sniffing me. Does she know that I didn't tell the complete truth?
"Well no, not that much"
"Well I think you might hear a little voice in your head that tells you stuff, like useful information or even if you ask for information it will try to give it to you, that's what people with the Great Sage skill told me that it does. It's still an obscure and rare skill"
"This was the voice I was hearing then. Thanks"- Petra had a worried look, does she know I am lying?
"Why didn't you tell me about the voice?"- Her question threw me back a bit
"From where I come from, people that hear voices have some kind of disorder or are considered crazy"
"Figured as much, this world is a lot different, magic and things like this might be myths in your world, but in this world they sure damn exist"- Petra's gazed was directed at my knife
"Is it weird to have 2 classes here?"- Petra seems to have this ominous feeling lingering with her, like she secretly despises you
"As a level 1 like you that just got here, yes it is weird. You can get a second class at every 50 levels, but it messes with your statuses. You sacrifice 50 levels and all the stats from them for a new class. Most people here don't do that, they use to prestige their classes, so they have doubled the stats. Example: if you are level 100 and you prestige you are reduced to level 50, but your stats stay like level 100 and the next time you level up to 100 all the stats are doubled like you are level 200"- Petra was sitting near me on another chair. How did the chair get here?
"So. Why are demi-humans treated so poorly here?"- This was on my mind since I saw her. I couldn't hold my curiosity
"Well, people are idiots here, that's why it happens. Most people spout that we have animal features and therefore not humans. That's the gist of it. Be careful, you can lose your head if you treat them too kindly or treat them like trash and there is a chance to lose as well, but it's not 100%."- Petra gave the meanest stare I ever saw
"I am not that big on these things. Like I don't really understand why all that hate towards demi-humans, but I won't treat you trash."- Petra scoffed at me
"Yeah, try to be a better liar next time. Many of you kiddos that come here from another world are like 16-17 thinking they can talk their way to respect or to anything really"- Petra left the room, she sounded disgusted
"Here he is, guild master"-Mitsude lead the guild master into the room where I was staying. He was examining my status list
"Ok, time to see your skills that were given to you by your class"- The guild master took another piece of paper, it was red this time, and wrapped it around my arm. After 1 minute, the paper was ready. He took a look at the paper, and he was in shock at was he saw
"Skills: Empathy, you and your companions gain double exp, this applies to slaves if you have a good relationship with them too. Great Sage, source of most knowledge, knows almost anything. Insidious, if you stand still while you activate it you become invisible to monsters until you move again. Great Healer, Healing items gets upgraded by 3 levels while in use by him. Impenetrable, your defense status ignores every defense reversing skill or attack or defense nullifying. Feral Frenzy, it's a special 20-second speed dash with a knife that you can deal repeated damage to someone, your speed will increase by leaps and bounds. Info Sponge, allows abnormal skill growth and evolution Pentimento, that's his last skill, it is a skill usable on lying people, it apparently brings extreme pain if they lie or are hostile towards you"- The guild master was surprised by my last skill, Petra re-entered the room
"Let me his skills as well"- Petra took a look at the paper, she was surprised for a little before returning the paper to the guild master, Mitsude moved behind me
"You really have good skills. Make good use of them kid"- Mitsude whispered this in my ear
"Sis, guide the kid to the blacksmith. I will be there shortly"- Petra exited the room again, her face unchanged
I got up from the chair. Mitsude guided me to a blacksmith where I can buy some light armor. The guild gave me money for a week. Petra arrived in 15 minutes, guiding me through the shop
"Here is the blacksmith"- Petra had opened the door to the blacksmith shop
It was all decorated with shields and swords all over. In the middle there was a rack with all the items that are on sale. On the walls Spears, battle-axes, Daggers, Knife, Bows, and Swords. I could see 1 real shield in the whole shop
"Excuse us sir. We are interested in buying something for a level 1 shielder class. And some light armor to go on with this."
"Hello miss. I only have 1 shield, but it needs some sort of ability. You need an Empathic skill here to use the shield"- The shopkeeper is a demi-human, a fox man
"That's perfect. How much for the shield, Ikeda?"- Petra took a look at the shield. The shield was shaped normally with green and black patterns
"Well, kid, this shield is a unique weapon. It grows with you, if you level up the shield also levels up with you. No one bought the shield due to them not having the ability, and almost no one to this day has empathy skills. And you won't really need to use the shield as much, the defense as if it's weaker than light armor, it's more of a decoration to keep around that will give you bonus it's not much use, you can have it for free"- Ikeda handed me the shield
"Well, Ikeda do you know something about Crimson Daggers that look like they're made of Crystals?"
"I never saw one"
"Here"- I grabbed the knife and put it on the table. Ikeda examined it. He also had a device shaped like a monocle
"I can't read the level. This machine can read up to level 1000. This weapon is above 1000, maybe even 2000, to give me this big of an error."- Ikeda inspected the dagger with curiosity
"How can he use something about 999 levels above him?"
"Kid, slash the dummies there. Until you reach metal. I want to see how good it cuts"- Ikeda handed my knife back
I got in the front of the straw dummy. I grabbed the knife in the left hand and slashed the first dummy. It was a clean slice. I slashed the wooden dummy, another clean slash, the same for the stone block, the last 2 were of an unknown metal. The 3rd was a steel armor, it slashed right through.
"Wow, much more than I expected from a crystal knife. Well, the last 2 are adamantine and orichalcum. The last one is the strongest metal."- Ikeda got closer to me. I took a step towards the metals. Another clean cut through adamantine. I tried to slash the orichalcum, as my knife touched the metal it went smooth, no, this is what happened to every metal. It made a clean cut, but the knife shattered moments after the cut
"It's so strong. It shattered?"- Ikeda grabbed the knife in his hands, the shattered blade began regenerating
"Great Sage, what exactly is that knife?"
"Yeah, that knife is made out of my blood, I used 1 drop, since that knife it's connected to me, I can use more blood to regenerate it, 10 drops of blood, and it cuts through everything and everyone and won't shatter"
"I have never seen a knife that could do that. I mean I never saw a weapon repair itself in this way, this fast, it's almost like it's a blessed weapon of some sort, maybe a powerful god created it"- Ikeda handed my knife back
"Well, the kid came from another world, he had 2 gods battling for him in the afterlife, one of them one, the god that won is surprisingly a demi-human fox, he let Daisuke keep his previous class and gave him this knife"
"Let's just see how you look like first. Look in the mirror for a bit"
"I say you look good kid"
"Well, what a lucky kid. Good luck in your adventures"
"We will come here again, Ikeda. I need to get him started"
"Kid, come again, I will have useful things for your class"- Ikeda waves us goodbye
"Now where?"- I looked at Petra her face returned to a straight expression
"To a consumable shop than a monster loot shop. The one in the guild isn't working anymore. Come this way the shops are next to each other"- I followed Petra somewhere around the city center, there was a big market, people selling all sort of stuff there, near the fruit sellers I could see cages. There was a person, looks like a noble from his clothes, he bought what looked like a demi-human cat-girl
"Scums"- Petra looked at him in disgust
"Great Sage, any suggestions?"
"Yes, slaves here have a slave stone to them. If you can break it, the slave contract is broken. The stone is embedded in his chest-plate. But most slaves here don't use that, a slave stone is used for high level slaves such as beast people, lower-level slaves don't need that as they can be easily subdued."
"Thanks Great Sage"
"I suggest you do something about it. If you ever want to battle, I can offer you an autopilot mode, you can use it for many things including battle, you might have side effects from this. Be careful as I am only able to use your abilities and skills, if you aren't that fast on your feet or strong I won't be able to do much"
"Got it"
"I wish one day demi-humans can be free. Daisuke, as of now I don't recommend you going into this problem, or ever propose you to do that. King Luxor, the king of Wiefra and its surrounding villages made it legal to own them, you will get your head cut off if you are not careful"
"Just who the hell is that guy?"
"That is one of the king's with his goons. I hate when things like this happen, and I am so powerless to do anything. The king, is the source of our discrimination in this kingdom, he made it illegal to even treat demi-humans as humans now. We have 4 heroes, but they don't seem to do anything about this situation, anyway, forget it. Tomorrow I will hand you your first guild mission, so you can pay the nights you stayed here"- Petra tried to control her anger, she was almost ready to cast a spell at the man
"Look, Petra, I have a plan. Promise you won't tell anyone?"- Petra eyes light up
"What plan? To get us killed faster? Your plan is to be an idiot and get the guild killed?"- Petra leaned closer to me
"Great Sage, speak for me please"
"She is right, kid, you will get them killed if you try this. Don't try to be captain, save a Joe if just arrived."
"Great Sage, I want to help them"
"I understand you want to help them but, remember, you may be in an isekai, but you are not a broken power fantasy isekai protagonist to anything now, you're just a human that reincarnated here. With your current level of skill, I don't doubt that if you go out from Wiefra to another country, you will die on the road"
"Sorry"
"Keep that crap to yourself next time"
"Yes, sorry"
"Hurry up, I don't have all day"
"Hello there dear? What can I do?"- The shopkeeper looked strangely at Petra
"Hello. 2 mana and 2 health potions, please."
I got in front of the counter, the woman reluctantly gave us the potions
"4 silvers sir, and please keep your dog away from my merchandise"- Grabbing the bottle from the table to see if I wasn't ripped out, well she gave me a fair price
"Please respect my friend over there, she is a great help, please respect her"
"Why should I kid? Don't know to tame your dog?"
"She isn't a dog. She is a human"
"You are likely blind kid. Anyway, tell her to her filthy hand off my produce"
"Apologize!"
"Kid, you aren't doing something good. Control yourself"
"She insulted Petra"
"You shouldn't care, what does an insult do? It isn't worth to lose your head because of this"
"Yes, thanks for nothing, we are going out"- Petra dragged me out by the collar of the armor. Outside she further dragged me in an alleyway where she pinned me against a wall
"Look, I told you something"
"I hate to see people treated like this, I hate it very much. You don't deserve to be treated like this just because of how you look"
"I don't care what you think. I told you something before. Shut your mouth, kid, I don't need you defending me like you are a knight in shining armor."
"I am sorry!"- Petra put me down
"Just mind your own kid. Until you grow up a little, don't bring this up again."
"Sorry, Petra"
"Stop it, apologizing won't do anything. Come on, let's get you a room at the tavern, the next day you are doing your first mission, better get some rest today"