Part 1: The Tutorial Fight

==???==

Everything ached.

Even in my daze, I could tell everything ached.

My body felt more stiff than usual and the back of my head felt dizzy as if i had just spun in circles for hours. Hell, even the light behind my eyes burned--

Wait.

I opened my eyes immediately and stared directly into the blue skies overhead.

The light was practically blinding but I could feel a smile, a grin more like, come to life at the corner of my mouth.

"Aha!"

My hands tightened into fists as I yelled out in excitement. I was sprawled out like a starfish and I could feel them tightening and digging into what felt like earth.

Yeah, my eyes burned, but I was just so happy to see blue skies again that I was willing to take a little ache just to see it all.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position, my legs still splayed out in front as I felt the grass beneath my hands.

...Grass?

I looked out from where I was and saw rolling hills of grass laid out before me. Off to the distance I could see forests, mountains, and what looked to be a town to the east. I, myself, was on top of a particularly tall and grassy hill overlooking what looked to be unpaved roads. The blades of grass were a green more vibrant than I'd ever seen in my life. It was like it was more than alive, more than just grass. It had... something else to it.

Something magical.

Wait, where the hell am I anyways? This isn't New Haven...

Unless Connecticut suddenly turned into something straight out of "Anne of Green Gables", this definitely wasn't home.

...Well at the least if this WAS "Anne of Green Gables" I'd at least be situated in Canada. Who would complain about Canada?

Focus.

Wait- Mary-!

My hand quickly darted to the inside of my coat and felt for my holster. Mary-chan's cool metal touched my fingers.

Phew, she's alright. I had [Mary-chan] on me.

Dusting off my black combat pants — something easily gained when you're a military brat — I stood up onto boots at the top of this hill.

A breeze swept across the hills, rushing through my hair and kicking the tail-end of my coat upwards. It was a fresh, clean, and clear wind. It held nothing yet in it I could instantly tell it was unlike anything I had ever breathed in before.

Wherever I was, I was most certainly [here].

With a step both heavy and light, I started to scale down the hill, headed for what looked to be the main road.

==???, The Road==

As I walked, I couldn't help but wonder where exactly I was.

It wasn't everyday that someone fell into some dark void and woke up in... another...

Goddammit was this an [Isekai]?

This was one of those 'trapped in another world' story-lines I sometimes heard about from the kids at my school.

When I first moved to America, I figured that the best place to go would be the Japanase-English student exchange. It was supposed to be a club where people could talk about the differences in culture, and maybe meet friends to learn the language. Everyone constantly asking me about anime this and manga that, what idol culture was like...

All I got were weebs, asking me details about Tokyo and Kyoto, Okinawa and--

I was from Sasebo, Nagasaki!

Give it a rest already!

Anyways, I had heard about these isekais from them. I never paid all too much attention but there was this one where a guy had a smartphone and a gun, so I guess that was cool.

But.

Where was my big breasted goddess?

Wasn't there supposed to be someone waiting on the other side of this, telling me things like:

"Our world has chosen you as our savior, our hero!! We needed great power, and obviously we needed some random teenager from Japan with no combat training whatsoever but a love of roleplaying games! Here, take this [CHEAT ABILITY] or this [Really Boring But Secretly OP Power If You Think About It Enough] and go save our world!!"

Then we were going to adventure together and I might collect some sort of harem or something of likable girls(but never actually get together with anyone because that would defeat the point) as I found ways to hack the game world and become some sort of badass.

This was some kind of scam or grift.

Or maybe just a mistake.

If there was some sort of God, then they were late.

I can reschedule, y'know. I don't mind at all.

Staring up at the sky and noting the lack of response, I couldn't help but grimace.

If this world did have levels or some sort of hacks, they could've at least told me how to open my menu.

This meant I was on my own.

Dammit.

As my thoughts mulled about in my head my foot bumped into something.

What was this? A book? A piece of wood?

I looked up, having somehow been so lost in my thoughts I had completely hadn't noticed that I was right next to what looked to be a fallen carriage. No... it had some sort of white canopy, meaning it was a wagon. It was fallen over, had several boxes broken and strewn about in a mess, and the horses were missing.

Perhaps an accident? My touched my finger to what looked to be a split in one of the broken wheels.

The split was too clean. It had to have been some sort of hard metal.

Yeah, no accident.

This was an attack.

I scanned the area, my head darting around as I did.

No one else seemed to be around.

...Well, might as well.

I started looting.

[Food & Water] get.

[Knife] get.

[Papers] get.

The papers were absolutely gibberish. Wherever I was, I couldn't read a lick of the language.

As I was rummaging around I noticed that, while there was certainly blood, there were no bodies around to be found.

Did they get to escape? Were they captured?

I started to over-analyze everything again. It was a bad habit of mine.

Through my search I found a false bottom to the wagon. I pushed my knife into a small gap and popped it open. Inside there was a small box.

[Mysterious Box] get!

A box?

The knife looked to be in poor condition, only made worse after I forcibly popped open the hatch. Oh well. I jammed it right into the space around the lock and wood. It took a bit of jostling, but I eventually gave it a hard twist and the thing popped upon.

I looked at the knife in my hand. Well that's useless, but it might come in handy.

[Bent Knife] get.

Inside the box shone what looked to be an orb. It was pearlescent, yet seemed to shine a number of colors, much like a rainbow. It was gorgeous.

I held it up and tapped it repeatedly. Weird.

There was a note attached to it, still written in that same gibberish.

"Man, I wish I knew enough about whatever language this is."

Suddenly the orb let out a bright flash and completely enveloped the inside of the wagon.

More of these goddamn lights—!

It continued on for several moments. Despite trying to shut my eyes and hiding behind my arm, I could still feel the light searing into my eyes.

When it was finally clear and I was able to open my eyes, I heard and felt a tiny crack in my hands. Oh. While not shattered, a large chunk of the orb had chipped off and its luster had faded almost completely. It was nothing much more than a shiny rock.

[Spent Knowledge Star] get.

I looked back to the note in my hand and, unmiraculously, I was able to actually read it this time.

"By the pleasures and the grace of our lands, may this gift of a Knowledge Star be sufficient tribute to the new King Sylfain.

By your grace, Duke Rodgard."

...Well shit.

I could've asked for anything. The meaning of life. How many times I accidentally stepped on an ant. Maybe encyclopedic knowledge of how this world works?

I mean, what's done is done. At least I could now read whatever this was.

Lucky! With a plot point this convenient, maybe this world is looking out for me after all!

With renewed vigor, I was ready to make my way out of the wagon and go on with the rest of my day.

"Didja see that? Look' to be some sorta magical light y'know? What'if we missed something?"

The roughest voice I had ever heard bellowed out from the other side of the wagon, the side facing the road, and I froze in my tracks.

"Exactly why I said to do this in trips. Y'never know whatcha miss on the first run."

"Kyahahaha. You definitely got the brains of the operation! Yer gonna give Bodhi a run for his money one day!"

"That sack of potatoes is getting soft. We need new blood like me to lead the pack!"

It was a bit tricky to tell the difference between their voices, as they kinda had that same generic tough guy sound, but it there were at least three. For now I'll refer to them as Bad Guy A, B, and C.

Was it fair to assume they were bad guys? Probably not. Just because they sounded rough and rowdy doesn't mean they were like that.

"After this let's head back to the hiding spot and see if can jump any other wagons that pass on by. Plenty of merchants use this side route to the city, kyahahaha."

Come on man. I vouched for you.

Looking down at the ground around me, I noticed there were all sorts of debris around. Glass, rocks, wood, trinkets from the wagon. Moving meant giving away my location.

Staying meant death.

If I ran out now they could likely catch me. It's a completely open field and I don't know if they have transportation or if they're faster than me. Plus, there's no town near enough to run to for safety. At best there was that forest a few miles to the east of here but I'm not exactly a marathon runner...

...Yeah, alright. If there's no out, then there's only through—!

"Well, well, well, look at what we have here," I say, emphasizing each step out of the wagon with the crunch of debris.

I put on the most intimidating, gangster level expression as I come out of view and finally spot Bad Guys A, B, and C.

They looked exactly as I expected: patchwork equipment, roughly shaven, and they even had what looked like bandannas around their head. One of them had a red bandanna while the rest had blue, so I guess he's Bad Guy A.

How much more generic can you get!?

"Boss! Someone's here!"

"I can see that you moron! Get him!"

As B and C come closer I raise up a foot and kick the wagon roughly at its side, using the bottom of my boots to really get the right sound.

"Ahhhh? Are you stupid!?"

I sneer, putting on my roughest tone.

"Coming back here when you left this place with slim pickings like this? I wasted my time here scrounging around your second hand garbage. At this rate I should be asking for compensation! Give me back my time and peace!"

If there's anything I learned from watching old boot camp movies, it was that yelling loudly and acting tough was usually enough to demand respect. Pair that with my height of 5'10, and just maybe it'll be enough to scare these guys off.

Two of them flinched, but Bad Guy A didn't seem fazed at all.

Shit.

Bad Guy A stepped up and pulled out what looked to be a set of five throwing knives. He tossed them up in the air and I, almost to my regret, looked up for just a moment to follow the odd movement.

A knife flew out at high speed towards me and I could barely move as it rushed by my face. I could feel warm blood drip down my check from the newly made cut.

H-how—!?

The knives he tossed up into the air, aside from the one he flung at me, were floating by some unknown means. Well, unknown being magic I'd suppose, if that orb was any indication earlier.

Wait, that orb...

"What, scared kid? That's what you get for yelling at me, Lightning Strike Leed! Kyahahaha! I'd tell ya to give us yer valuables if you wanna live, but somethin' about you just pisses me off."

Bad Guy A started to ramble as he grabbed one of knives out of mid-air and trailed it along his tongue. Creepy creepy.

From what I could tell, he probably has some ability to telekinetically hold and throw those knives. He hasn't retrieved his last one so it must have some sort of range, though I can't discount he might retrieve it later and hit me in the back, and he's not using larger weapons so there must be some sort of power or size limitation.

Alright I can make this work.

But, I need to test something.

"Ah, ah, ah." I pulled the [Spent Knowledge Star] out of my pocket. "If you keep attacking me outta the blue like that, my hands just might slip and drop this thing."

They paused, their eyes glittering with greed.

Okay, good. So it IS valuable.

"Leed! It's a knowledge star! That's like, 15000 sil back in a good town."

"Where the hell'd a kid like you get a knowledge star?"

"This? I found it in there," I say, jamming my thumb towards the wagon. "It's a surprise what you can find when you're being thorough."

In response, Bad Guy A turned and smacked his companions on the head.

"You idiots! This is why I said to look harder, dumb-ass!"

"But Leed! It's not like you found it earlier either!"

"Shut up!"

As the three stooges argued, the knives above him wobbled in place.

"How's say I give you this, then the three of you leave me alone?"

There was no way they were going to take this, but if they did...

"Hah, whaddya think I am, stupid? We've got you three-to-one! I'll just take it after I kill ya."

Figured.

"Alright, then have at it," I say as I then lobbed it through the air, just a few feet in front of me.

"Sunnuva!"

Bad Guy A dashed forward, his eyes up and aimed towards the sky as he followed the orb sailing through the air. The knives that he was holding up dropped to the ground. As I guessed, he had a limited range, a limited amount he could hold up, and he had to focus.

Concentration, broken.

No wind, fifteen paces, and a target moving towards me.

Just like the range.

Easy.

My hand ducked into my jacket, grabbing Mary-chan's grip with clammy hands and trembling fingers.

I've played with guns. I've watched movies. I was old enough to go college.

But at the end of the day, I was still a kid.

I wasn't ready to kill anyone.

But he was ready to kill me.

And I wasn't going down without a fight.

As that famous musical once said: I'm not throwing away my shot.

With my heart pounding in my ears, I drew Mary-chan from her holster, lined her right up with his head, and pulled the trigger.

Sorry Leed, today just wasn't your day.

His body slumped down to the ground alongside the orb, which shattered into pieces. His cronies nearly collapsed on the ground nearby, their eyes wide open in shock and fear as their 'Lightning Strike Leed' laid there on the ground.

Mary-chan's bang can be a bit of a surprise. Her ammo's a little on the larger side, so it takes more gunpowder to fire, leaving her shots to be particularly loud and jarring.

"L-Leed?"

One of the cronies crawled over to his body. They shook him several times and turned him over. The wound was small, it was a bullet after all, but the amount of blood on his face seemed disproportionate.

"It's a Gift! He's got a Gift!"

"Run!"

The two of them immediately booked it down the road and curved towards the woods. I wasn't sure where exactly they were headed, but at least they were away from here.

Sweat ran down my forehead as I moved over to the body.

Shit. I wasn't ready for this today.

I coughed as if I was choking. Something threatened to spill out of my stomach but I held it in.

Despite what happened, the drying blood on my cheek reminded me that I had to do it.

Unceremoniously, I went about to gather the knives he had dropped, as well as the knife he had thrown at me.

[Throwing Knives x 5] get!

Better him than me. I might as well not let these go to waste.

Just I was just about done collecting the knives, just when I was ready to leave in some random direction hoping to hit civilization, a voice spoke out to me.

"...Did... did you do this?"

When I turned around, a girl with a bright blue head of hair was standing behind me. Her outfit was a flashy mix of white and black, with a touch of armor. She was the kind of woman I hoped I'd meet when I arrived: buxom and beautiful, and — if we had met in better circumstances — could have been the beautiful goddess here to introduce me to this world.

In her hands, was a blue fireball the size of her head aimed at my own.

------------------

Inventory

Mary-chan - A customized Glock 21.

Bent Knife - A knife picked up at a fallen merchant wagon. Bent from propping open a box.

Throwing Knives x 5 - Lightning Strike Leed's personal weapons. They're alright.

Glossary

Isekai - This. Refers to stories where people are sent to another world.

Weebs - Folks that glorify Japanese culture.