Iseky?

"Hey guys?" A tall girl named Mika called out, "Does anyone know what this is?"

She brought forth a small crystal, blue in color, no larger than a stick of chapstick.

"Where'd you get that?" Another girl asked.

Mika pointed towards the slain Goblin underneath her, "From this guy. I stabbed his chest and hit something hard so I dug it out and, well, here it is!"

She pushed the blue crystal forward again, allowing the rest of the group to see it.

It's been two days since team two died. We found a couple more of the girl's bodies, all stripped of clothing and bruised beyond recognition.

We also found the exit of the school and finally saw it from the outside. Turns out, we were transported into some type of jungle. The "school" we were locked in looked more like a dojo from the outside with its bamboo accents and traditional gable roofs.

After searching around the perimeter of the dojo and finding nothing, team one returned to the building. We couldn't be expected to aimlessly enter the jungle and search for. . . what exactly? We don't have an objective, a "main quest" if you will.

We're just fucking in it!

So after we buried the bodies of the fallen girls, we established somewhat of a routine – at least until we decide to move somewhere else.

"Maybe it's a magic crystal?" Sherry, a meek girl, the youngest one here at the age of sixteen, suggested.

"What makes you say that?" Olive countered.

"Well it would match the theme –" she looked at the ground, "I think."

"The theme?"

"Well you know. . . this all seems very on par with the genre?" Sherry fumbled over her words.

"The genre?" Olive repeated.

"You know, like manga? Like hit by a bus isekai? My brother reads them a lot back home." Sherry argued.

Olive turned towards me, "Do you know what she's on about?"

I shook my head in response.

I would be twenty-nine this year. After graduating high school, I didn't have much leisure time. The last comics I read were Spider-man, but that was when I was a child.

"Nobody here knows what I'm talking about?!" Sherry looked shocked, like the world betrayed her.

"I think I've heard my son say that word before. . . iseky?" Another woman commented, an older one around my age.

"Alright listen!" Olive shouted, "It doesn't matter how she knows! Sherry, what do we do with it?"

Sherry looked at Olive with nervous anticipation, "I-I don't know! Maybe you eat it?"

The group of six looked towards the girl holding the blue crystal. They each carried an expectant glean in their eyes. Unable to resist the stares of her audience, the woman who discovered the crystal hesitantly placed it in her mouth.

She pushed the rock underneath her molars and, after a few more nervous seconds, bit down.

Her eyes shot open! Her cheeks flushed red and a soft moan escaped from the woman's mouth. She fumbled a step back and let out a deep breath, meanwhile, her skin glistened as sweat began to coat her figure.

"Magic Shards. . ." The woman mumbled, still feeling euphoric at the sudden absorption of magic power.

"What are Magic Shards?" I asked.

"They. . ." The woman continued to catch her breath, clearly taken out of it, "they replenish your Mana!"

"Mana?" I asked again.

"You don't know what mana is? It's how we've been using our Abilities." Sherry replied.

"Wait, do you not use mana, Mr. Demon?" Sherry pondered aloud.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not a demon. . . I think."

"He thinks." Olive interrupted.

"But it's true – Mana isn't mentioned anywhere in my Status."

"Is that why you haven't left yet?" Sherry suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brows.

"Well, normally don't summons drain the Mana of their caster? You've been here over two days at this point and Olive doesn't even look bothered." Sherry argued.

"Hmm –" I looked over at Olive, "Do I drain your Mana?"

"Nope."

I looked back at Sherry with new-found appreciation. Everything she was saying made sense and even if I didn't really understand her manga reference – this was a lot like a video game. If I think about it like that, I should start to expect things like 'mana' and 'levels' to become the norm soon.

After Mika discovered the first magic crystal, we returned to the corpses of the slain Goblins we left behind and cut into their bodies, searching for more magic crystals. After dissecting more than twenty-seven Goblins, we only found five crystals – about a one in five chance.

Not everyone consumed the magic crystal immediately, everyone has quickly come to realize Mana regenerates on its own, albeit at a slower rate. According to Sherry, who has a Mana capacity of one hundred, two hours of rest is enough to go from nil to full.

And although I would love to cross examine her mana regeneration with other people, nobody else in the group has a means of utilizing their mana. Sherry is the only person with an active Ability, |Glow|.

Although a practically useless Ability, Sherry is able to make the things she touches glow. That's it. So while we were traversing the hallways of the dojo Sherry had illuminated her skirt, allowing us to see in the darkness. It provided no other buff or benefit, but I guess being able to see was helpful in of itself.

Olive, of course, too has an active Ability to utilize her mana, but she can only summon one dude at a time – and since we just established that I haven't left yet; she really can't use mana.

And speaking of things like mana and summons – if I'm a summon, then where the hell am I going to go after this?

I died and came here. There was no middle destination, no fork in the road. Am I, perhaps, a permanent summon?

After dissecting the final corpse, we returned to the dojo. Spending the last two nights here forced the group to settle in, if you could call it that.

We established our own rooms. Gathered our own twigs and grass to construct beds. We made it as homey as we could, to say the least.

A couple more days passed like this. Olive and I have already established ourselves as the vanguard so we spend half of the day hunting around the dojo, searching for Goblins or snakes, anything to feed us.

The other girls have their own tasks. Sherry received the lucky draw and just has to play with her Ability – she suspects using it a lot might advance it in some way. Lucky brat!

The tall girl, blondie, who found the magic crystal, is in charge of cooking. That includes maintaining the fire and collecting wood. Another girl's job is to collect water and another's is to clean our clothes. Overall, I'd say it's going pretty damn well in the survival department!

The main issue, however, persists.

What are we meant to be doing?

Is there a time limit? Couldn't tell you.

A Boss we have to kill? No clue.

We don't even know what direction to go in, if we did have to go somewhere! We are lost and stranded!

But that all changed on the ninth morning. I woke up that day at the crack of dawn with the sound of birds echoing through the tall trees of the jungle, the orange hue in the sky as the sun creeps over the horizon; instead of an empty field of ungrazed grass before the dojo, I saw a group of people.

And not only that, it was a group of people I didn't recognize. And even worse, this group had men!

"A man. . ." The leader of the group, a tall and wide man, clean-cut with a buttchin and a thick, black mustache, pivoted his hands to the two swords strapped to his belt. He drew his blades, a crisp and sharp "shing" announcing their arrival.

"You!" He pointed one of his swords at me, "Who the hell are you?!" He roared, "Where are the girls?!"

I narrowed my gaze at the man. He was tall, undoubtedly taller than me. Probably stronger too. Even then, the issue didn't lie with the man's build, but his equipment. Two steel swords, a leather chestpiece bound together with chainmail and knee guards with leather boots. He looked like a proper adventurer from children's tales.

"I'm with the girls," I said in no rush, "I'm a summon." I sighed.

"A summon?" He said under his breath.

I watched as his eyes scanned my body. From the tops of my black hair to the bottom of my boots, but before he could get there, he stopped at my black arms. With a nod of understanding, he slid his dual swords back into their sheathes.

He looked at me once more, recognition flashing in his eyes, "I apologize for my rudeness; however, the girl's safety is my concern. If you would –" Then the man bowed, his back arching perfectly at ninety degrees.

"Now hold on –" I noticed Olive approaching from the corner of the hallway and said something that could apply to both her and our guest, "I'd like to know who you are first and why you're here."

I saw Olive stop from the corner of my eye and inwardly sighed in relief. Returning my attention back to the swordsman, I locked eyes with him and waited for his response.

"My name's Isaac –" The dual swordsman stepped forward before turning around and gesturing towards the rest of his group, "and we are the ones who came before you."

"Before us?" I asked.

"You should have arrived nine days ago, right? Well, the girls at least, I don't know when you were summoned." Isaac shook his head, "By the way, since you're around, your Summoner must be nearby. It really would be easier to explain everything to the whole group, not just you."

I clicked my tongue. He was right. But it still felt unsafe. These guys were well armed and equipped. Anyone could tell they were more experienced than us, which was even more concerning. It clearly demonstrated that this group of guys and girls was more than capable of taking down team one.

And I'm a part of team one!

"Fine!" I reluctantly agreed before looking at Olive, "Go get the rest of them."