The Apostle's Descent

I write this here so people will be aware of it: Dialogue is signaled in between -- and thoughts are singaled between <> The "system" (which is only a status screen) will be shown in between []

Changes: February 3rd - Speech changed to "speech" instead of -speech-

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I, Noah Hasegawa am what most would call a "blessed child". My parents were both famous people in their lines of work, which exposed me to fame from birth. Thankfully, they raised me to keep my feet on the earth and always be level-headed.

My father was a famous model from Japan and my mother was a cosmetologist from Switzerland and, according to them, they met while working together for an ad. My mother's products were about to be released on the Japanese market, and she wanted the best models to promote her brand. Since the products were a success, they kept working together and, from meeting to meeting, they ended up marrying. A couple years later down the line I was born.

I had taken the best of both worlds, being 1.9 meters at the age of 18 and fairly handsome. Couple that with the best stylists in the world working with my parents on a regular basis and I had become one of the most successful Japanese models in between my peers.

What else could I ask for, right? Well, I wanted to graduate from a nice college, open a business and live the rest of my life from sales and modeling. That was my dream. Quite vanilla, right? But I was happy with it, the reason being that my true wish was to live a life of adventure, like that of Harry Potter, Sung Jin-Woo or Midoriya Izuku. Something I knew ,or at least thought I knew, was impossible.

As such, I decided to settle for the second best: being the protagonist of my own life. I dedicated myself on improving as a model and acing my studies, which complemented quite well as being good during class increases your value in the minds of the audience.

While I was thinking all of this, I was walking back home from school, something I only did when I needed some alone time to think of stuff. The current topic? Which college I would pick. I was able to decide thanks to a truck that passed by me with an ad for Tokyo U. I could be quite impulsive or even capricious sometimes.

"Then it's decided, I'll be attending to... What the hell is going on?!"

Unluckily for myself, I wasn't able to finish my walk home, as a bright white circle appeared around me, encasing me in a dome of white light. I panicked for a couple seconds, but regained my composure quickly.

<When something suspicious or dangerous happens, always keep your cool> I reminded myself of the self-defense classes I had taken. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was that.

With a clearer mind, I realized this situation was extremely similar to the "summoning" I had read of in Isekai manga and novels. My first emotion was excitement, followed by expectation and then sadness. As much as I loved the idea of being sent to a different world, my parents would be sad about it. So, for the first time in my entire 18 years of life, I got on my knees and prayed to whatever existence could hear me.

<Please don't let them be sad> and after that I was suddenly sucked into a weird black hole-ish portal.

There was no loss of consciousness, no stomach-churning and no vomiting. In fact, I didn't even feel as if I had "traveled" to any place. But I had somehow "fallen", since I was now sitting on my butt. Only after making sure that there was nothing wrong with me did I check my surroundings.

<This place looks like... some sort of RPG dungeon> I looked a bit more around me and realized something serious. There were a lot of dead bodies around me. Now I did feel the stomach-churning, which was followed by the vomiting and the faint consciousness.

I steeled my will, convinced of the fact that, were I to actually faint, my death was nothing but assured. A couple of minutes later, I had finally calmed down. Checking the bodies properly, they were all people from different age groups. Their clothes seemed normal, same as mine. The only "weird" thing that I could notice was that most of these people carried weapons such as swords, spears and bows. Some even had shields. On closer inspection, I realized everyone was carrying military name tags. Even I carried one.

Looking at the place, their clothes and the equipment, I reached one conclusion <This world is most likely similar to that of "Solo Leveling">

I knew how dangerous this could be, so I decided to mentalize myself for death. After all, that was the most likely outcome currently. I took the weapons that looked to be in the best state and equipped myself with them, with the exception of a bow, since I had no idea of how to aim one. Luckily my body hadn't changed at all, which I was sure of after looking at my reflection in the flat side of a sword.

Once I made sure I had everything I needed, I took everyone's name tag and kept it safe on my own neck. Even if I didn't know any of these people, I wanted to bring something back for their loved ones. If I survived, that is. When I finished picking them up and closing everyone's eyes, I began walking in the direction my intuition told me the way out was. It was also my intuition that told me to stop and made me feel as if I had forgotten something. That was when I realized I hadn't tried to do the most simple of things everyone does in this kind of situation.

"System" no response "Hmm... Status" that was when a screen appeared in front of me.

[Name: Noah Hasegawa Level: 1

Job: None Fatigue: 0

Title: The Summoned Rookie (24 hs.)

HP: 100

MP: 0

Strength: 10 Vitality: 10

Agility: 15 Intelligence: 10

Sense: 10

Status Points: 0

Growth Speed Increase: 100% x 24 hs.]

I had no idea if my stats were good, bad or average, but my mind inclined towards average, considering that they all had a value of 10, bar Agility that was in 15. I had always leaned more towards speed rather than strength. There was one thing that did pick my attention, though.

"I have an increase in growth?" I knew that my thoughts were in the wrong place, but my impulsiveness could get the best of me sometimes. And as someone who liked RPGs, this was something I just couldn't let go "Time to grind motherfucker"

*

It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to learn to calm myself down. The first monster I encountered seemed to be some sort of furry goblin. Dumb and aggressive, but quite fast. The problem wasn't the monster, but rather...

"How the fuck do I use a sword?!" I almost panicked when I realized the biggest flaw in my plan: my own lack of experience in actual fighting. Thankfully, I was able to cool my mind quickly enough to place the shield in front of me, blocking a strike from the Goblin's knife.

<This creatures are dumb and impulsive, my best shot is to keep the shield in front and kill them with the spear from a distance. Since the passage is narrow I don't have to worry too much about aiming> Now with a plan, I sheathed the sword and took the spear from my back, placing it beside the shield in what most would recognize as the typical way a Hoplite would wield them.

When the Goblin tried to attack me once again, I thrust the spear forwards. It easily pierced the Goblin right through the neck, effectively killing it, but it also sprayed blood all over the place when I removed it. Neither the smell, the sight nor the knowledge of being sprayed with blood affected me, as I had gotten over those a couple minutes back. It was the feeling I had when I pierced the Goblin with the spear. I could feel how it tore its flesh and the resistance before it broke its vertebrae. I almost vomited again, but made an effort to hold it in. I had to man up and get used to it, or I wouldn't be able to survive in this place, in this world.

Only a few second later, the body of the Goblin disintegrated in ashes, leaving behind an orange stone of small size, something I decided to save, since it seemed to be the typical "core" or "magic stone" that appeared in these kind of set-ups.

Getting my first kill in this place, I kept walking through the corridor. I was going to survive.

"I'll make sure of it"