1 Highway To Orario

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I was just making lunch when lightning struck my home. First, I heard the loud noise of something breaking.

I rushed upstairs to where the sound was coming from. When I climbed the stairs, I noticed the light that wasn't supposed to come from my attic. It had no window and no opening and was dimly lit by a single lonely lightbulb on one of the wooden pillars.

It barely could illuminate the room when supplied with electricity, so why is the attic so bright right now?

I stepped onto the creaky floor of my attic, only to gasp at my lack of luck. Something had destroyed a good part of the roof of my house. The wood in my attic is burning, and most of my stuff has either disappeared or is in cinders scattered around the attic.

"What the fuck happened here?!" my voice was raised in confusion and anger. Thousands of dollars were burning in front of me. I didn't even have the will to go search for water to stop the relatively slow fire from spreading. I even tumble to the ground because I didn't watch for the books that were in the way.

After the lightning, comes the thunder.

It happened in an instant. The deafening sound struck my ears and destroyed them. In an instant, I went from unharmed to deaf. I didn't even have the time to realize what was going on that I lost one of my senses.

Panicking because of the sudden lack of noise, like the terror I felt when I realize that I couldn't hear my voice anymore, I clumsily stand up and I look up to the exposed sky, wondering if God was punishing me for a sin that I simply didn't know about. I, of course, do not believe in God, but it is my way of screaming out my rage at the sheer ridiculousness of what befell on me.

I did not realize that I was walking straight up to the same place where lightning struck once until it was too late.

Thus, lightning struck twice.

#####

Fuck.

What just happened to me? When I try to open my eyes, they nearly burn from the light entering them. It takes a couple of minutes for my consciousness to understand what was going on.

I just died.

And I don't know what to make of it. There was no way the human body could survive a lightning strike. But with the feeling of having limbs slowly coming back to me, I wonder why I was still alive.

Where am I?

My body is in such a bad state that trying to stand up is an uphill battle. First, I realize that I'm on the ground, of the mud and grass variety. Feeling the wet patches all over my body, I sigh knowing that I was probably sent far away from the lightning that nearly killed me. Or did it kill me and am I just in heaven?

I have no idea.

Slowly, I take my first steps towards raising my body. My arms feel like they're jelly, and the killer headache I'm currently suffering from doesn't help either.

"Fuck, it seems that lightning is a bit stronger than alcohol," I tell myself. Chuckling to a private joke no one but me and a couple of old friends can understand, I take in the surroundings.

After careful consideration, I come to a quick conclusion.

"Yeah, there's no way that's Earth," I say to no one in particular. I'm in what looked like a forest if Earth decided to take steroids and probably destroy humanity at the same time.

Trees the size of skyscrapers, probably even bigger, the grass is normal only where I was sleeping. Everywhere else, it's tall enough to cover nearly all of my vision. The plants that I could see are not looking nice either, if the gigantic size, the monstrous mouth, and the way they're looking at me is anything worth mentioning.

"Now, I don't know what I did to you, but whoever sent me here…" I can feel my hurt and sore body pumping adrenaline in my system.

"At least give me a way to survive," I say, not expecting an answer

I start to lose my calm over the sight of the monstrous creature that is supposed to be a flower laugh at my powerlessness.

However, it seems that Fate has not given up on me just yet. At the end of my words, a sizable book appears in front of me. I immediately grab it, wasting no time asking questions, and open it to the first page.

After the first few words register in my brain, I realize that I have no goddamn idea what is the language used in this book. I raise my eyebrow at the thought that someone is really fucking with me.

What kind of bastard god isekai'd me only to drop me unreadable knowledge?

Then it hits me, and it hits hard. The previous headache that, naively, I thought was gone, comes back with revenge, intense enough that my nose starts to bleed.

Or maybe it's not the headache. I have no idea what is happening to my body. I can feel something opening inside of me. Deep inside. Something about...dantians?

As the headache intensifies, I'm forced to drop to a knee because the pain is becoming less and less manageable. It starts from my toes and slowly goes up. It feels like my body is breaking under whatever is roaming inside of it.

Time ticks as the feeling go where my stomach is. The moment it reaches that area, I fall, not able to keep my balance and my vision becomes dark.

I'm sure that I'm forced to stay conscious by something or someone because the pain is too much to endure.

I feel like all the blood in my body is slowly leaving me. All of my facial orifices are bloodied and acting like sewer pipes for my blood. I can't scream and I can't move.

It's torture.

I desperately try to grab something to squeeze, trying to distract me from the burning pain, but nothing can help me. I grit my teeth hard enough to draw blood but considering what's already coming out of it, it might as well be in a drop in the ocean.

The feeling slowly reaches my brain, and suddenly…

Everything is clear.

"H-huh?" I gasp, feeling normal sensations coming back.

Laying down on a puddle of my blood, I take the time to slowly extricate myself from all of it. My T-shirt is a bit stained on the top, but most of my blood simply poured onto the earth.

All the pain is gone. It's as if nothing happened, or as if I was dreaming not even 10 seconds ago.

I stand up with ease and squeeze my hands repeatedly, still not believing in the transition.

Something changed.

I can… I can feel more. The scent, the noise, the scene… everything is more accessible to me.

Frantically, I grab the book once again to see if it has anything to do with what just happened to me.

I can read it. I can read it.

Everything is clearer now. Fuck, that's cultivation, isn't it?

My meridians are open right now. My dantians are ready to gather the essence of this world. Whoever sent me here made my soul into one of a cultivator, and now my body was changed to support cultivation. I went from a normal civilian to someone walking the pathway to the sky.

According to this book right here, entire planes of existence would be fought over what just happened to my body.

The book disappeared in front of my eyes when I finish that trail of thoughts. I panic, thinking that my only way to get powerful just disappeared, but the knowledge firmly inscribed inside of my mind calms me down. It seems that the content of the book was just downloaded into my brain.

There's just a single problem.

While the person that sent me here decided to give me the body and the mind apt for cultivation and the general knowledge of what cultivation was, it also gave me nothing in terms of technique or knowledge about alchemy.

Quite problematic considering cultivation relies so heavily on those two aspects.

"Anyway, sending a heaven-defying cultivator in the universe of DanMachi… I gotta say," I pause when I start to stretch my vastly superior body.

"Whoever did this, you have bad taste."

It doesn't take me more than a few seconds to take care of the man-eating plant that had been staring at me for the past few minutes, enticed by the smell of my blood.

When my feet propel me towards the plant, when my fist hits it and destroys it, I realize that maybe the god that sent me here wasn't such a bastard after all.

"Alright god or goddess, thank you for funding my power trip," I say as I clap my hand in a mockery of prayer.

"But now...in which direction is Orario?"

#####

After running in all the directions except the one that I needed to follow, I realized that I was sent right next to the city.

Asking a random pallum for direction was the best decision I could have made since I am pretty sure that I would have spent more time searching.

So here am I, entering the grand labyrinth city Orario, the first step of my adventure.

And I'm felt wondering how I could have missed the giant bubble of energy that covers the entire city. The betterment of my senses is not only physical, and only after being submerged by the brimming life of a city as big as Orario, can I understand it.

One thing that stuns me is the blinding variety of the people here. Coming from the 21st century, I have to contain myself if I don't want to gawk every time a cat-person or a chienthrope passes by. The extra appendages are much more attention-grabbing than expected.

Seeing the city and the people is also a shock in and on itself. The transition from anime characters to real-life depictions of them is somewhat disturbing.

The appearance, in the busy streets that I'm venturing into, of the people I'm seeing are often not dissimilar to what I'm used to. Most people are around average even with the extra stuff, like the cat or dog ears, the people standing well over 8 feet tall, or the midgets.

The problem comes when an attractive woman walks by. I don't have any problems with attractive men in this world, even if I recognize the fact that they just are better than what I'm used to seeing in my old world.

Both the males and the females can go from 4 to like 18 on a scale from 1 to 10 for no goddamn reason. Whether it's their face, their body, the way they walk, I can't get enough of the beautiful women in this world.

Maybe those harem animes were onto something.

They also know how to dress to draw the eye. I would guess that most men in Orario are used to it since none are affected as much as me.

And as the only man reacting to their appearance that visibly, I get a few winks and a few disgusted looks as well.

Oh well, you win some you lose some.

The second problem is that these women are not that rare. I suppose this is like a big city on Earth, the concentration of population is so high that you're far more likely to meet extremely attractive people than in the countryside.

If there's one thing this city does well, it's the eye candy. Thanks to a young lady that was willing to give me direction when I asked her, I manage to reach the church Hestia should be living in if I am close to the start of the story. I don't know the details that would allow me to discern the timeline, so I just hope that my attempt to join the Hestia familia would work.

It's early in the morning, early enough that most stands around the city are not open yet. While the brightness of the sun and the warmth of the air might tell me otherwise, the fact that I'm in a different world makes me shrug the divergence in weather.

After all, I died in the middle of winter back in my old world.

I tried to rationalize before entering the city that I was doing it because I had no money, no identity, and no way of delving into the dungeon without revealing too much, but that would be a lie.

If I wanted, I could reveal just a little bit to Loki and easily join their ranks. With my current talent, there's no doubt that I am more than worthy to join the second strongest familia in Orario. Add in the fact that I can create and guide other cultivators, and then the case is closed.

I wouldn't touch the first ranked familia in this city with a pole if I had to, and I don't have the skill set necessary to join the Hephasteus familia. I know that forging is technically also a greatly acclaimed profession in the world of cultivation, but it isn't something I'm keen on doing.

I prefer to rely on the weight of my fists.

No, the reason why I did not choose someone else was that I wanted the best. And that is who Hestia is, the best goddess.

I don't know whether or not Bell is already here, in her familia, and I frankly don't care. I am going to make Hestia mine. That is the entire reason why I am going to join her familia after all. As a cultivator, I can grow stronger by myself, even without resources if I needed to. The dungeon and the Falna were welcomed but not necessary. While it would accelerate my growth, the same could be achieved without it. The stars were within my reach, alone or not.

However, I am greedy and not foolish enough to believe that I can mentally support the loneliness that comes with this path.

I want at least one companion with me, one that can also live forever. Even if I can teach cultivation to someone, I can't anticipate whether or not they have the talent necessary to reach the heavens with me.

Therefore, a goddess is by far the safest picks a cultivator could make regarding mates. And among the goddesses, the one I prefer is Hestia.

If I find out later on that we aren't compatible, then nothing's lost either way. I would just have to concentrate my efforts on someone else.

Feeling the tightness of my clothes, I realize something very obvious: I grew up. My whole body is just bigger, and my T-shirt is under threat of rupture. My simple gray shorts are safer, but they are currently digging into my waistline.

Ignoring my appearance, I know that my smile can make Hestia fall for me.

Let it not be said that I, recently self-named Tian, had no confidence with women.

As the abandoned church enters my sight, I calm my rapidly beating heart and prepare myself for possibly my best move ever.

And, of course, the moment Hestia opens the door when she hears me knocking on the door, I barely manage to stop myself from collapsing due to her inhuman beauty nearly bringing me to my knees.

God fucking damn it.