02 - Wonderful Ordinary Start

"First things first, System!"

Gwyn called out but no screen appeared.

"Guess not. Looks like it's a Special Ability after all. That's fine, at least I don't have to deal with one of those snarky ass annoying Systems."

Gwyn then went to a "powering up" pose and then shouted.

"Augment x10!"

But nothing happened.

"Doesn't work. I'm going to have to discover how it works along the way as I live my life. The name is a bit vague too, it doesn't explain what it's augmenting."

Gwyn stroked his chin in thought. Smooth without any hair.

"No beard. I guess I'm not that old."

Gwyn looked down at his body and started analyzing it. An average body with smooth milky white skin. Not fat, not muscular, just average.

His height seems pretty average too considering that his line of sight seems just slightly below that of his previous life.

"If I had to guess...I'm in my teens maybe? That's good, better than being a baby at least. I might be just a year or two younger than my previous life."

Gwyn then proceeded to touch his face all over.

"I can't tell if I'm handsome or not...ooh~! My eyelashes are pretty long and thick! I must look like one of those pretty anime boys with white hair!"

After touching his face some more, he came to the conclusion...that he had no conclusion. He couldn't really tell what he looked like just by touching his face so he needed the input of another party.

He looked over the plains and saw that there was a yellow dirt road meters away from his left. He ran over to it to see where it led to.

Standing in the middle of the dirt road, he looked to his left and right and wondered which direction to go. Suddenly, he saw something over the horizon of the dirt road to his right. Walking a little closer to it, it seemed to be the silhouette of three people walking side by side.

"People!"

Gwyn immediately ran towards the three silhouettes. As he ran, he got closer and closer to the silhouettes to the point that he could see their appearance. It seemed to be a group of girls.

"Hey!"

He shouted to them but he got no reply. He ran faster, and once he was tens of meters away from them he shouted again.

"Heeey~! I want to ask for directions!"

He shouted to get their attention but...that's weird, the silhouettes seem to be getting farther and farther.

Huh, maybe they were in a hurry.

With that in mind, Gwyn ran faster towards them in hopes of catching up.

-x-X-x- -x--x- -x-X-x-

Three village girls walked on the road, each of them holding a basket full of fruits. They had just gone to the market in the next village and are now heading back home to their own village.

"Lucky~! We got a discount from that sucker again. I knew bringing you two along would work again!"

Ael was jubilant. Last time when she went to market and asked for a discount from the fruit vendor all she got was a scolding. But when she brought her two friends along the fruit vendor was all smiles and gave them a pretty big discount.

"But what I don't understand is...Why doesn't that sucker give ME any discount when I go alone?! Why does he only give discounts when I bring you two along! Look at me! I'm pretty!"

Ael had long black hair and black eyes that contrasted with her white skin. Her face was fierce but pretty. She has a thin figure and very long legs, which combined with her aerodynamic torso, gave her a straight and upright posture.

She looked at the other two walking on her left side. The one on the farthest left gave a chuckle and then teased Ael.

"Maybe that mister has a type~. And that..."slender" figure of yours was just not to his preference~."

Euria answered Ael's question with a tease. Euria then gestured to her own body.

"Compared to yours, he must've liked my perfectly proportioned body more~!"

Euria has short dark blue hair in a tomboyish side tail cut, long and thick dark blue eyelashes, and pale white eyes coupled with tanned skin. Her face has a hint of childishness and her toothy grin just enhances it even more. Just like she said, her body was perfectly proportionate with just the right amount of curves. But underneath her clothing, her body was leaning more on the athletic side.

Ael looked at her and scoffed.

"Pssh. Who are you kidding? What he must've liked is this!"

Ael poked at the chest of the girl in the middle which caused the girl's body to jump in surprise.

"This bundle of fat!"

The girl in the middle let out a sad whimper and covered her chest.

"Uuuuu~. I knew this was going to happen..."

Ever since the conversation led to the topic of "bodies" Faela was keeping quiet all this time hoping she wouldn't get noticed because every time the three of them talked about the female body it would always lead to her chest being pointed out, and then Ael would get pissed.

Faela had fluffy white hair and droopy rose red eyes with thick and bushy small eyebrows coupled with her pale white skin. She has a baby face with slightly chubby cheeks. She had a very voluptuous body from the front and back but had a short stature. Just looking at her will give people the feeling of "softness", from her hair, face, and body.

"W-why me again..."

Euria giggled at Faela's wronged expression.

"Well, Faela always was the eye candy of many guys in our village. I guess it even extends to other villages as well."

"I'm an eye candy too?! The guys in our village always look at me as well!"

"Yeah with fear, not with adoration."

"Grrrr. What about you then!"

"I dunno, they always just treat me like a dude. I haven't seen any of them looking at me in a..."romantic" way."

"Hmph! That just means you have no womanly charm, that's why they treat you like a boy."

"At least I'm not built like a boy."

"Grk!"

Ael took damage from that one. She let out a resigned sigh and then looked up at the sky.

"When will I ever find someone who'd love me and my slender body."

"Slender might be putting it highly."

"Shut it, I'm having a moment."

She turned her head back down and then swept her gaze across the plains.

"Still. It's really peaceful all the time. I wish we could experience something more exciting other than just our current daily life."

Then, all of a sudden, Ael heard a small shout from somewhere. She looked left and right but found nothing. She turned to the other two to see if they heard it but they were just walking like normal.

"Hey. Did you hear that?"

Euria raised a brow at Ael's question.

"Hear what?"

"It was like someone was shouting."

Euria and Faela turned to each other and then turned to Ael.

""No.""

"What?! You didn't hear it?"

Then Ael heard the shout again.

"There it is again! You didn't hear it?"

Euria and Faela looked at Ael's panicked expression as she kept looking around and they started to get worried as well.

As Ael was looking around she heard another shout again, but this time she was able to gauge which direction it was coming from.

She slowly turned her head to look behind her only to see a sight that frightened her. A naked white haired man was running towards them at full speed while one of his hands was covering his crotch.

Ael nervously took a step backwards and raised her hand to point at the man, her whole body shaking.

The other two looked at Ael funny and then turned to look at what she was pointing at. Their body stiffened and they began to panic as well.

Euria was the first to react.

"Run!"

The three of them didn't hesitate and immediately started running.

While running, Ael looked back only to see that the white haired man was still chasing after them.

"Who the hell is that pervert! And who the hell let that pervert loose!"

Euria didn't look back but just answered.

"I don't know! Just keep running!"

They ran non stop for minutes before looking back again. The white haired man was still chasing them, this time he was closer and was rapidly approaching.

They all turned forward and ran faster. Fear and adrenaline fueling their veins.

-x-X-x- -x--x- -x-X-x-

At this point, Gwyn finally realized that they were indeed in a hurry.

In a hurry to get away from him.

"Wait a minute! Don't run away! I'm not someone suspicious."

Gwyn kicked his body into high gear, running faster and faster. As he was running, he also noticed that he had seemingly limitless stamina...or so he thought. What he was actually feeling was that while his stamina was getting draining, it was also getting replenished at a fast rate.

"Oh?! Is this an effect of Augment x10? Did it multiply the speed of my stamina regeneration by 10?"

He also noticed that his top running speed seemed to be getting faster and faster but only slightly...maybe a little bit...a tiiiiny little bit...maybe increasing about 0.1% per second?

Then something suddenly happened to the three girls he was chasing. The one in the middle tripped and fell.

Gwyn's eyes lit up.

"My chance!"

-x-X-x- -x--x- -x-X-x-

"Eek!"

Faela tripped on air and fell. But most of the reason was due to tiredness.

Faela had tears in her eyes, from fear and exhaustion. This was the first time she ever exerted this much energy so her body couldn't keep up. They had been running for 10 minutes straight after all so her unathletic body failed her.

Ael and Euria stopped running and rushed back to help her. Faela was moved. Even with the massive threat of a serial pervert, her friends still chose to help and not abandon her.

"G-go on without me!"

Ael and Euria ignored her heroic sacrifice and just held her up on both sides. Ael flicked her forehead and scolded her.

"If we get molested, we get molested together! Besides, the worst comes to shove. We just fight that pervert! There's three of us and only one of him!"

Faela looked at Ael with moved tears.

"Ael..."

But before they could have a moment, a shadow overtook them and stopped them on their tracks. The pervert blocked their path.

The three of them stepped back in fear but then went to a fighting stance a second later.