5 Intuition

'Why did the house break!?'

[Solution: When enough force is applied, physical materials will collapse.]

No, that's not what I meant! In the game SHO all village buildings and shops were indestructible terrain.

[Solution: This is not a game. This is reality.]

'Why did this happen?'

[Solution: Data not found.]

'What do I do!?'

[Solution: Data not found.]

'Why are you so useless whenever I'm panicking!?'

[Solution: Data not found.]

This was getting nowhere. James was, apparently, still in shock. He hadn't moved. 'Do I say something to help him snap out of it?'

[Solution: Data not found.]

'You're not helping!'

"James, is Calliope okay? Was that an earthquake?" Called Millie as she walked into the room. Then she froze. Her eyes looked at the massive opening in front of her and a cold sweat ran down her brow. Without another word, the middle aged woman fell over backwards and hit the ground with a dull thud. She was out cold.

"What? How? What did you do?" Whispered James as he finally seemed to snap out of his daze. His tone was far softer than I expected, and it sent a chill down my spine. Even with all my godlike cheat powers, in that moment, I felt a hint of fear.

"Listen, I didn't mean for this to happen. I was pla… Practicing one of my skills and I accidentally lost control," I said, nearly in tears from exasperation. "Look, I can fix this."

"How can *you* fix *this*?" Said James as he motioned towards me and then the hole with his hands, respectively. "And wait a minute, you're a skill holder!"

"Why do you seem more surprised by me having a skill than the giant hole in your house!?" I yelled back.

[Solution: Skills are extremely rare in this world. Most people go their entire lives without ever meeting someone who can use one.]

Oh. Woops. This was bad… Could I fix this?

[Solution: No.]

'Wow. I'm glad you believe in me, RED. So should I just run away and not take responsibility?'

[Solution: Recommended course of action is to first eliminate witnesses. If the Evergreen family dies then the user can continue on their journey without concern.]

'What the actual fuck?! Eliminate the witnesses? I'm not a murderer, RED. I've never even hit an animal before, let alone another person. You've been telling me over and over that this isn't a game. People die when you kill them!'

[Solution: If the Evergreen family is allowed to live the user's visage will be transcribed onto wanted posters via memory magic. It will become impossible to live peacefully in the Gransus Kingdom.]

Who cares about that!? With my strength I could conquer this damned Kingdom in a day. I'm not killing innocent people who, from what I've seen, have done nothing but try to help me. Now shut up, RED, and let me think!

"What… What kind of skill was it?" Asked James, breaking my train of thought. For some reason his anger seemed to dissipate a bit.

"It's called Mana Bomb. Well, it was called Mana Shot before but I accidentally upgraded it…" I replied honestly.

"How did you learn to use it?" said James.

"I just experimented a bit with my mana. Anyways this isn't the time to be discussing this! I just blew up your house!"

"Yeah, but you're a skill holder! Moreover you're so young! That is way more important than this shitty house!"

"I really don't think it is!"

My head was starting to hurt. Putting my right hand on my forehead, I walked over to the chair James had set aside earlier. Surprisingly, it was still standing. I sat down and sighed.

"What's going to happen now?" I asked.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait until my dad gets home from his patrol. For now we should probably carry mom out of the house. I'm afraid the rest of the building might collapse now that you've compromised its structure to such an extent," said James.

"That sounds reasonable."

I rocked back in the chair before rolling forward and onto my feet again. I walked over to Millie and grabbed her shoulders. With a quick motion I hefted the woman into a fireman's carry. Careful not to knock her head against anything, I slowly made my way outdoors. James, for some reason, stared at me while walking behind us the whole way.

"Oy, are you really human?" Asked James.

"Isn't that rather rude? What makes you think I'm not human?"

"Well, there's a few reasons for why I think you're not human. The first is that you can use skills, the second is that you seem to be strong enough to heft my 200 pound mother with ease, the third is that you haven't eaten something in, like, five days yet you seem perfectly fine, and the nail in the coffin is that you seem to be growing a tail right now."

'Wow. Okay, so I guess I'm really bad at acting like a normal human. This is all your fault, RED. Why did you have to come up with such a terrible backstory?'

[Solution: Data not found.]

Also what's this about a tail? I don't remember this avatar having a tail, yet now I could clearly feel an extra appendage protruding from my backside. Despite how foreign it seemed in my mind, it felt entirely natural. Moving the tail was fairly easy, all things considered, so I wrapped it around my waist for a bit so I could inspect it thoroughly.

The tail looked like it belonged on a bad-devil-girl cosplay. It was leathery and red-colored with a triangular hook on the end. It seemed rather gaudy, but it was filled with the same power as one of my arms or legs. Back in SHO extra appendages were a purely aesthetic thing, but, in reality, I thought having an extra limb might be a huge boost to overall combat power if you integrate it with your fighting style. I'd have to experiment with this later. Since when did this body have a tail, anyways?

[Solution: The user belongs to the demon race. While their appearance is human most of the time, upon using mana some of the demon race's features tend to become more apparent. The tail and any other features of that form will dissipate after enough time passes while out of combat.]

This seemed like a bit of exposition that would have been useful about an hour ago. I could only groan reluctantly. 'Dammit, RED. Not even one day awake in this world and my cover as a demon was already blown.'

"Yeah, you got me. I'm not human. I'm a demon."

"Neat." said James.

That was it. That was all he said on the subject. I thought humans were supposed to be terrified of demons or something. Why wasn't he afraid of me?

[Solution: In this world the Demon Race is considered rather peaceful, albeit elusive. Most demons never leave the Northern Continent, but they aren't necessarily a strange sight. Those that do leave the Northern Continent tend to be rather amicable and friendly.]

So James wasn't freaking out because Demons have a good rep? What was the point of pretending to be human in the first place, then!?

[Solution: Pretending to be human was a conclusion reached entirely by the user. This guide merely created a backstory to coincide with the user's decision.]

'You really are useless sometimes, RED.'

[Solution: Data not found.]

I opened the front door to the building and walked out with Millie still draped over my shoulders. There was a rather large crowd of people forming out front. Most had shocked expressions on their faces when they saw me and I could feel their eyes glaring at my tail. There was quite a bit of murmuring and speculation taking place. It was rather annoying. There was something about people talking behind your back that really miffed me. Though, I guess I could let them off the hook considering I just blew up a house. We all made mistakes at times, right?

[Solution: Data not found.]

"There's my dad. Looks like he heard the explosion and came back early," said James as he walked over to help me set Millie down on the grass. The crowd seemed to be giving us a wide berth. Jack Evergreen ran, nonstop, at a rather quick pace until he reached us. I liked Jack immediately because rather than stare at or judge me he rushed to his wife's side and started making sure she was okay. This was a man with his priorities in order. I could respect that.

"Millie, are you okay hun?" asked Jack as he nudged the woman awake. She sat up slowly and looked around in a confused state. When she finally realized what was happening she threw her arms around her husband's neck with tears in her eyes.

"Our home , Jack." She sobbed once before continuing. "Our home is in ruins."

"It's okay, Millie. It's okay. It's just a building. You and James being safe is all that matters." said Jack.

Millie was unable to hold it in and started crying. No one said anything. Everyone seemed to have come to the conclusion that it was best to let her get it out of her system. While this was taking place I was sizing up Jack Evergreen.

Whereas his son looked the part of a small town farmer, Jack's entire person screamed warrior to the very marrow. His clothes were rugged and thick, but his boots were designed for mobility rather than trekking through mud. He had a thin beard growing but it fit his face well, and his hair was a very light brown. His body was built for battle, and he had a long scar running down his left cheek. All in all he looked like the kind of man I'd cross the street to avoid walking near in my past life. He looked like a badass. I was immediately jealous.

Once Millie finally calmed down, the atmosphere grew a bit tense. I could tell everyone was eyeing me waiting for an explanation. My tail had finally disappeared to whence it came but (considering everyone had already seen it once) that didn't help matters much. I think they were waiting for me to say something first, but I was feeling terribly shy at the moment.

"Okay, since no one else wants to do it I'll bite the bullet here," said Jack as he helped Millie to her feet. Did he really use the phrase 'bite the bullet' or was that a translation of a common idiom from this world into a form I'd understand?

[Solution: This guide's translations cannot bridge cultural knowledge so several key phrases have been altered to better help the user understand the content.]

I guessed as much. To be honest, though, I think that was a good thing. It'd save me some confusion in the long run, at least.

"Just who and what are you?" Jack finished asking.

It was the million dollar question. I don't really want to tell these people I was summoned from another world by some otherworldly being. They'd probably assume I was lying if that was the case. 'RED, I know I said I'd never rely on you for backstory again but help me out here.'

[Solution: Would the user like this guide to create an appropriate story to explain the situation?]

No, I really don't want you to. I know it's going to be ridiculous again… But I don't really have any other choice here. Go ahead, RED.

[Solution: Backstory constructed.]

"My name is Calliope. As you've probably guessed I'm a demon from the Northern Continent," I replied, relying on RED entirely for my word choice.

"Okay, Calliope, why were you in the Asmodian Woods and why… Err, how did you destroy my home?" -Jack.

I didn't like the tone Jack used, but I'm glad he rephrased his question a bit. There was no reason why, so the question was making me sweat bullets… But I knew exactly how I did it.

"My parents died when I was young. My new guardian, my uncle, took me in purely for the inheritance. I think he drugged me and abandoned me in the woods hoping I'd be killed by random magical beasts or I'd die of starvation. I'm sorry for lying to James and Millie about my circumstances, but I didn't want to intrude upon your family. As for your house, that truly was an accident and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make up for it. I was practicing with my skill when it somehow upgraded. I lost control over the new skill and the result is what you see before you."

'I'm not going to lie, RED, but you make some awful backstories. I need to start practicing making up my own, or something. This is just too…'

Why does it look like everyone believed it? Everything was said in a deadpan tone! They shouldn't be this gullible. Don't they have legends of demons or devils beguiling others with fancy words or something?

[Solution: Jack is a skill holder. His skill is the Adept Class Skill -Intuition-. Lies do not work on him, usually. The user, however, is much too high leveled to be affected by Jack's skill in this regard.]

"My word. You don't seem to be lying…" Said Jack as he rubbed the back of his head with a tired expression. "Listen, Calliope, I'm rather well off. Losing the house isn't a big deal for me, but right now you're too dangerous to let go. I have a skill myself called -Intuition- and it's screaming at me that you're dangerous. I've never seen it have a reaction this strong before. The last thing I want to do is make you my enemy, but I can't leave someone who can potentially lose control over their skills to wander alone."

Jack paused for a moment. I had a bad feeling that what he was going to say next would be troublesome.

"In one month's time, registration for the Royal Arms Academy in the capital of Gransus will open up. Normally it would be impossible for a demi-human or demon like yourself to get into the academy, but I'm a rather influential person myself. James here is going to be enrolling this year and I want you to enroll too. The Academy will teach you how to control your skills. They'll help you. Besides, from the sounds of things you don't really have anywhere to return to. So how about it?"

'Do I have a second option?'

[Solution: Eliminate all the humans present and continue your journey without worry of being considered a criminal.]

'Guess not. RED, why is Jack trying to get me to go to school?'

[Solution: Due to Jack's intuition skill and the destruction your skill caused, he considers you to be a potential war asset and wants you to develop bonds with his country.]

'I see. So his sympathetic tone and everything he's shown me so far is all an act?'

[Solution: Yes. He believes your story, but he also thinks someone as dangerous as you is better off dying before you cause problems. His intuition skill, though, is telling him to avoid a confrontation at all costs. Recruiting you is the best alternative if he can't remove you.]

Well, all things considered this wasn't the worst possible outcome.

"Okay, I'll go to the Royal Arms Academy."