Chapter 2

The sun was just beginning to appear in the sky over a large city, as many of its inhabitants were just beginning to awaken. This large city was completely encircled by a giant stone wall that was separated into eight distinctive sections. But the most noteworthy structure in the city would have to be the gigantic tower at the very center. This white tower stood above all other buildings and held an overbearing, but at the same time, awe-inspiring presence.

As this bustling city began to wake up, in a specific part of the city a child had suddenly appeared, quite literally. One moment there was nothing, then the next there a young boy around the age of 10 with short midnight black hair and soft pale skin. This delicate looking boy was dead asleep on the ground floor, his mouth partly opened as he drooled in his sleep.

And as it just so happened, this was Malakai Lowell.

But inside of being injured he was completely fine. Having absolutely no trace of any injuries, or bullet holes. The only real problem would be that he was asleep in the middle of an unknown city with no else around him.

Still asleep, Kai shivered slightly and turned on his side as he tried to find a more comfortable position to sleep, but he was unable to. Most likely because he was laying on cobblestone street with his back against a door.

While he slept in front of the building with a hammer and anvil sign in front of it, the door suddenly swung open as a short stocky man with a long beard walked out. Only momentarily pausing when he finally noticed Kai sleeping by his feet.

Instead of being shocked, the stocky bearded man sighed heavily before nudging Kai with his boot, "Hey, brat, get up," The man's deep baritone voice caused Kai to scrunch his face and instinctively swat the man's boot away.

"Ahh- let me sleep, Nana. It's Saturday," Kai groaned, his eyes still closed as he turned onto his side.

Ticked off, the stocky man growled and swiftly kicked Kai in the ass, "Rghh, I'm not your nana, you little punk!"

Leaping into the air, Kai's pale blue eyes shot open as he was tossed across the ground and landed directly on his already bruised bum. He rubbed his tender injury as he opened his tired eyes only to freeze when he finally noticed his surroundings. Instead of being in his tiny, very cramped room he was somewhere else completely. He was in the middle of a street surrounded by a bunch of wooden buildings with different signs and symbols on them.

Which oddly enough, he actually knew what they meant. Although distracted by his new surrounding Kai slowly stood up and tried to figure out where he was. As he looked around, Kai paused when he saw a short, but incredibly muscular man staring directly at him.

The dwarf-like man had long braided brown hair with broad features, and wore leather clothes that displayed his rather stocky physique. He had several deep scars on his arms that only enhanced his coolness. To Kai, the man looked familiar, but he just couldn't place understand where.

Realizing he was staring at the man, Kai quickly asked, "Who are you?"

But this seemed like the wrong thing to ask, "Who am I?!" The man loudly exclaimed, "I'm the owner of the building your sleeping in front of, you brat. Your germs are probably everywhere by now."

Wincing, Kai looked down and quickly apologized, "Sorry. But could you help me? I don't think I know where I am."

"...Are you retarded?" the man asked seriously, staring at Kai in disbelief.

"What?! No, I just can't remember...anything," Kai hurriedly replied as he tried to recall how he ended up here. All he could remember was going to sleep after reading a few pages of Danmachi, but besides that he was drawing a complete blank.

Hearing this, the man groaned and ran a hand through his hair before replying, "Ughh-just what I need in the morning. An amnesic brat. You're in Orario, obviously, near the Hephaestus forges."

Hearing the words 'Orario' and 'Hephaestus', Kai froze as he tried to figure out if he was dreaming or not. But quickly realized that he still felt pain from being kicked, so obviously he wasn't dreaming.

"The what-Ahh!" Kai said only to yell out and clutch his head as he was assaulted by a series of memories.

In less than a second, Kai remembered everything. He could remember getting on the bus to school only to stopped by a man with a gun. He recalled the gunman threatening to hurt everyone, and him having a stupid idea to attack the man with safety scissors. But most importantly, he remembered being shot...and dying.

Kai remembered everything that happened vividly. He could still feel the phantom pains of the bullet wound in his stomach, but that didn't matter right now. Cause if anything that this man had said were true, then Kai quickly realized something. The only place he had heard of 'Orario' was from...Danmachi.

Opening his eyes wide, Kai didn't know whether he should be yelling excitedly or pinch himself awake.

"Hey, kid, are you okay?" the man asked, slightly worriedly, but mostly because he didn't want a kid to pass out in front of his shop. That would be extremely bad for business.

Shaking his head, Kai slowly nodded his head and said, "I- yeah, I'm fine."

Although he said he was fine. Kai skin looked considerably paler and there was sweat dripping down his forehead. Seeing that the boy was definitely not fine, the man seemed to be internally struggling before sighing heavily.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but come inside," The man said and opened his door, "You look yer about pass out."

"Are you sure?" Kai asked, surprised but also cautious at the man's generosity. He had just meet the man, but he seemed nice enough and didn't appear to have any bad intentions.

"Nope! So, come inside before I change my mind," the man shrugged and entered the building.

Although hesitate, Kai followed after the man as he observed the interior of the building. And much to his surprise, this building was actually a store. A weapon's shop with countless different weapons and armors on the wall and racks. And there was even an open forge in the back.

Watching everything with amazement, Kai stopped when he heard deep chuckling. Looking up Kai saw that the man was laughing at the astonishment on his face. The man then walked towards him and handed Kai a glass of water before heading towards the stores' counter.

"Thanks you, sir!" Kai exclaimed and greedily drank the refreshing water. His throat felt as dry as a desert.

"None of that 'sir' crap. The name's Fergus," Fergus automatically corrected.

"Hello, I'm Kai," Kai introduced himself happily.

"So, you remember your name. You're not completely retarded after all, Ha-ha," Fergus laughed, as Kai began to pout.

"I'm not stupid. I just can't really recall anything," Kai lied, as he tried to better understand his situation.

Somehow, for whatever strange reason, he was now in his favorite anime Danmachi. Which was pretty much a dream come dream for Kai, but he was still trying to understand just how he ended up here. He had only heard of this happening to people in fanfictions. Not in real life.

"Terrific. You're not in a familia either, but-...," Fergus said suddenly and seemed like he wanted to say more, but stopped himself.

"How can you tell?" Kai asked, curious.

Fergus didn't answer only shrugging his shoulders and smirking, "I just know things, kid, plus orphans are pretty common in these parts."

"Are you in one? A familia, I mean."

"Proudly apart of the Hephaestus familia," Fergus announced loudly with a grin .

Kai was about to ask another question, only to be interrupted when a bell was suddenly rung in the back of store. Hearing this, Fergus moved to the back and only stopped to stare sternly at Kai and ordered, "Now sit tight for a minute, and don't try to steal anything. I'll know."

"Got it," Kai nodded his head obediently. Even if he wanted to steal a weapon here and run away, Kai had a strange feeling that Fergus would still probably be able to catch up him with easily.

Now that he was finally alone, Kai fell deep into about his strange situation. It seemed that he was somehow brought to the world of Danmachi. A world where gods, spirits, and tons of other species roamed the land. It was an actual real-life fantasy world. Almost overwhelmed with excitement, Kai nearly didn't noticed the sudden box that appeared in front of his very eyes.

[Congratulations, Little Soul, for your heroism you have been fairly rewarded. Enjoy your new life in this realm]

[P.S-Sick kill shot, bro☺]

[20%...45%..75%..100%]

[Danmachi System Completely Engaged]

[Would, User, like to display current status screen?]

[Yes/No]

Looking at the message floating in front of his eyes, Kai grinned excitedly as he recognized just what was happening. But paused slightly as he finally found out who brought him to this world. It seemed that since he saved everyone on the bus, a god or some type of higher being decided to reward him.

'Yes, open status,' Kai though mentally as a long screen appeared with all of his supposed information.

[Status Screen]

[Name: Malakai Lowell]

Level: 1

Age: 10

Race: Human~~

STR: I-10

END: I-10

DEX: I-15

AGI: I-15

MAG: F-400

-----

Skills:

[Inventory](C)

[Sensor](C)

[Mental Defense](EX)

Magic:

Magi{Locked}

Chant: Not Required

Development Skills:

[Hero(Locked)]

-----

"This...is...Awesome!"

Kai excitedly and thoroughly read through everything shown on his status screen, from top to bottom. He saw that his name, age, level and race were displayed. Everything shown seemed right, but besides his race there were some lines next to it. Kai couldn't figure out what they meant but figured they didn't matter that much anyway.

It seemed that all of his basic stats were reasonable, except for his magic. Which stood at a whopping 400. Kai figured that his magic stat had to do with whoever brought him to this world. After going through his stats, he then read the skills he now possessed.

Inventory and Sensor were pretty self explanatory as it was only ranked C. They would definitely be useful in the dungeon to carry belongings and sensing monsters around him. But the one skill that stunned him was the EX ranked Mental Defense. It was an Overpowered having such a powerful skill already, but Kai wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Moving down the screen, Kai saw that he even had magic, but it was locked, so there was pretty much nothing he could do about it.

'Hero...huh. That's fitting,' Kai smiled brightly when he saw the Development Skill he could unlock. Something that he was greatly looking forward to unlock.

[Beginners Gift Detected. Would, User, wish to receive gifts?]

'Yes!' Kai mentally exclaimed.

[Beginners Gift]

-1x Swift Katana(C)

-1x Lightweight Armor(C)

-1x Random Development Skill

-20,000 Vails

-----

Kai smiled as he read looked at his gifts, and could instinctually feel them enter into his Inventory. Though he just learned about his skill, he could mentally feel that he had some more room in his inventory.

'It'll probably increase when it ranks up,' Kai pondered and decided to leave his gifts in his Inventory for now. But just before Kai could think about anything else, Fergus appeared in the shop again. But this time he wasn't alone.

Standing next to the stocky dwarf was a beautiful woman with matching scarlet hair and eye, as the right side of her face was covered by black-eye patch. She was garbed in a casual white linen blouse and tight leather pants that hugged her rathery shapely legs.

Recognizing this woman immediately, Kai eyes opened wide and went speechless as she stopped right in front of him.

"So, you're the mysterious boy my child found. Greetings, I am Hephaestus, Goddess of the Hephaestus Familia," Hephaestus greeted as she stared down at Kai. Looking up at the real life Goddess, and one of his personal favorite characters, Kai blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"You're very pretty!!"