The Journey Begins (1)

This morning I was given breakfast and a fresh change of clothes. What I’m now wearing is a long-sleeved, dark grey tunic with light blue lining on the edges. Under that was a light grey t-shirt and pants, along with some brown leather boots.

After changing, Lizz used his magic to bring me to a secret room within the castle where Marion and Pink Head were waiting. There weren’t even any guards in the room, and I couldn’t find the entrance to the room either.

The thing I was asking about was a door we were standing in front of. Usually I don’t ask a lot of questions about doors, but this one is standing in the middle of a secret room that didn’t have any entrances, so…

“This is a cosmic doorway, Oliver,” Marion answered. She was now wearing a pink qipao dress with pink tights and pink shoes.

What is it with this fire nation and the obsession with pink? Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen a single flame that wasn’t pink. Is fire just pink in this world?

No, that can’t be right. Isn’t this the planet humans went to after earth got destroyed or something? So why would fire be a different color? It’s completely absurd.

I hate it here.

What was I talking about again? Oh right, the door.

“What’s a cosmic doorway?” I asked.

“It’s a special kind of door that can be used to instantly teleport to anywhere else that there’s a cosmic doorway.”

“Wait, if you can just teleport anywhere then what do I need to go with you for!?”

“Because we can’t jusst teleport anywhere,” Lizz said. “We can’t even get you into the city sssafely if we use the cossmic doorway, sso we have to drop you off in a town to the ssouth of Dragonsss Hollow.”

“Why? What would happen if we ported into Dragons Hollow?”

“At thiss time there ssshould be a large concentration of people in the city, ssso you’d most likely be seen using the cossmic doorway which would most likely lead to you getting found out. Pluss, we’d run the risk of angering Envy if we ussed a doorway that she was trying to access, which iss why teleporting into the city iss ill-advissed in the firsst place. Sso all in all it’s not worth the rissk.”

“So because of all that I’ll need to escort her to Dragons Hollow from this other town. What’s it called?” I asked.

“The town you’ll be sstarting at is named Sshadow Ssshore,” Lizz said. “But before you go off we have a few thingsss for you.”

Pink Head then went up to me.

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this,” he said as he held out a shisu blade, still in its sheath.

The sheath had a dark blue and red design and the hilt of the blade had a similar coloration. I pulled the blade out a bit, it shone a brilliant silver color.

“Thank you,” I said as I put the blade back to a proper resting position before fastening the strapping it to my waist.

“This shisu blade was forged out of pure steeltanium,” the king said. “And we’ve also provided a fire core for the sheath, so you should be able to use fire style blade arts no matter your situation.”

A fire core, huh? Now that he mentions it, the sheath does feel kinda warm.

This is good, I should be able to use all the shisu arts I learned the other- wait, I just realized, what is sword made out of again? Steeltanium? You’ve gotta be kidding, right?

Who names these things?

“And we also have thisss,” Lizz said as he handed me a book entitled. ~The Shisu Blade And Its Many Art Forms~

“Thiss book ssshould help you continue your training with the sshisu blade,” Lizz said. “It hass detailed explanationss about the different sstyles and artsss. You should read up on all of the different elemental sstyles jusst in case you ever find yoursself in an emergency where the fire sstyle won’t cut it.

“Sssteeltanium is especially good at harnesssing elementss. As long as you can get enough of whatever element on the blade you sshould be able to do the styless. I’d ssuggest ssstarting with the air and ground stylesss.”

“Thank you,” I said as I took the book. I put it in the bag I had been given.

It was just a regular bag, nothing special. In it were the clothes I had been wearing when I got reincarnated here and some money they had given me.

This world uses a coin based currency, and there are two basic types of coin: Colorants and Dyes. It’s basically just like American currency, one hundred dyes equals one colorant.

All in all, I had been given one hundred forty thousand colorants, but I was forbidden from spending one hundred twenty thousand of them because they were to be used for a special purpose for the quest. And the remaining twenty thousand was also to be used for living expenses.

I have no idea what value colorants are actually worth, so I’m gonna do my best to not spend that much.

Guess that means I’ll have to activate stingy mode.

“You ssstill have the Mini-Board, correct?” Lizz asked.

“I have it right here,” I said as I pulled out the phone-like device.

Apparently, this device was a necessity for adventurers. It worked as an identification and was how quests and payment for quests were processed. Lizz had helped me set it up earlier.

Currently, my adventurer codename is Captain Miracle, and I am an Anti-Hero class adventurer.

I don’t really understand how all the classes worked, but Lizz had told me that the classing didn’t really matter, it just helped the Board sort the quests that would get sent my way.

The Board was what the overall system handling quests was called, Mini-Boards are just the devices normally used to access it.

After I had set up my Board account, I noticed something was already in the active quests section. It read:

~ Special Quest: Escort Marion to FuzzyCoats Academy (details) ~

When I asked why the quest was already on my account, Lizz explained that because I had already taken up the contract to do the quest, the Mini-Board could read that through my soul because it had physical contact with me. And since it was my account, it showed up.

I find it a little alarming that this phone-like device could read my soul whenever I touch it, but… Well, there’s not a but actually, it’s scary.

If technology that could access your soul just by touching it existed in such a casual form in this world, then does that mean there are other things that could access your soul? What could someone do to my soul if they made me touch a device like this? What if-

“-Oliver?”

“Huh?”

Apparently they had been trying to get my attention. I guess I chose a bad time to zone out.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Marion asked.

“How scary it is that technology nowadays can get access to our souls through mere skin contact,” I said. “Although you snapped me out of it before I could start theorizing about all the harmful ways that could potentially be applied.”

“Huh?”

“It doesn’t ma- Where Are We!?!?!”

Apparently my surroundings had changed while I was lost in thought. Instead of being in that secret room in the Castle I was now in a town somewhere.

Above me I could see a clear blue sky and below me was fresh grass. I looked around and saw trees all around the edges of the town, except I could also see a bit of what looked like a beach in one direction, but it was a little dark over there so I wasn’t sure.

All around us were various buildings and people walking around, although some were now looking our way.

My bad.

“We’re in Shadow Shore,” Marion answered. “We just walked through the cosmic doorway.”

So I followed Marion through the door without even thinking about it? Since when did I become so trusting? Especially since the last time I followed someone without thinking about it was at the HomeCorp lab, and that didn’t go too well...

“Did I miss anything important?” I asked.

“I sure hope not,” Marion said.

Great. How helpful…

“So, now what should we do?” I asked. “Should we start heading over to Dragons Hollow now?”

“No, I think it would be best to stay here in Shadow Shore for a while,” she answered.

“Why?”

“Well, we don’t need to be in Dragons Hollow until Monday, and currently it’s Thursday, so there’s no need to rush right now since it’s only about a day’s journey away. And there’s more people in Dragons Hollow than there are here, which means more of a chance of getting caught. So I think we should stay here for at least today, maybe tomorrow also, and then set out towards Dragons Hollow.

“But that’s just me,” she said. “What do you think?”

“…”

“Oh, is it that bad of a plan?”

“No, it’s actually pretty well thought out…” I said. “I’m a bit surprised…”

“It can’t be that good, I just made it up on the spot after all…”

“Then what are your plans like when you sit down and think about them?”

“Better… I guess?”

I wonder…

“Well, I guess we better find a place to stay then,” I said. “Let’s go and see if we can find an inn or something.”

“Ah, right!” Marion replied. “There’s usually a place to stay in the upper rooms of a tavern, plus we can get a quest there too!”

“Then let’s go find the tavern.”

…

After wandering around the town for a while, we eventually found the tavern.

For whatever reason they didn’t ask too many questions as I rented out the room. Must’ve been more concerned with whether or not I had the money than anything else. I’m not too sure how I feel about that, but it’s working in my favor right now, so…

In other words, looking at the rates for the rooms helped me get a grasp on the individual worth of a colorant.

A single bed room was worth about two hundred fifty colorants a night, and for a double bed room it was three hundred forty, while the triple bed was four hundred twenty, and the largest one, a quadruple bed, was five hundred.

Alternatively, you could link a cosmic door for three hundred colorants a night, unless it was a room from the Cosmic Hotel, then you could do it for just fifty. Must be a special exclusivity contract or something like that.

I also got a chance to check out the food menu they had, and each item was placed around ten to twenty colorants.

All in all, it was basically like the paper money I had gotten used to back on earth. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but basically the same.

After paying the receptionist and getting the keys to a room, I retrieved Marion, who was looking at the Quest Board.

The Quest Board was a special wall that magically produced papers with quests located near the town on them. By picking up a paper and accepting the quest, the paper would then disappear and the quest would appear in the quests section of your Mini-Board via the soul reading function.

A fine combination of magic and technology if you ask me, but I don’t really understand why Marion’s so interested in doing any quests right now. Maybe she always wanted to be an adventurer and now that she has the chance she really wants to do a quest?

Hopefully not, but I don’t really care as long as she doesn’t get into any trouble, because that means I won’t either.

After getting Marion, who was a little disappointed that she couldn’t find any quests to do, we found the room I had rented out.

I unlocked the door and swung it open, hoping that the room wouldn’t be too cramped or uncomfortable.

To my surprise it looked fine. Just like a standard hotel room of good quality back on earth. Although it seemed something else had surprised Marion.

“Why is there only one bed?” she asked.

True enough, there was only one bed in the room. Obviously.

“Because double rooms cost ninety more colorants a night,” I answered. “No need to waste money on things we don’t need like extra beds.”

I may have forgotten to turn my stingy mode off after figuring out how much a colorant was worth. But it doesn’t really matter all that much anyways.

“B-but- there’s only one bed,” Marion said.

Yeah, we’ve established that there’s only one bed, what’s the malfunction, princess? Is the bed too small for your pampered ass? I got the queen-sized one, didn’t I? Ungrateful little-

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Is the bed too small?”

“N-no, that’s not it.”

Well if it’s not too small then what the hell is your problem?

I gotta calm down for a moment. I’m sure it’s just some silly misunderstanding.

“Then what’s the problem, Marion?”

“I-if there’s only one bed,” Marion started, her face getting flustered. “Then doesn’t that mean you- and I- would be-”

Oh, so that’s what this is about. What the hell is up with teenagers only ever thinking about sex anyway? It’s so fricking annoying…

“I’m sleeping on the floor,” I explained. “You’ll be getting the bed all to yourself.”

“Huh?” Marion said, her face quickly turning to one of surprise. “The floor? But won’t that be uncomfortable?”

“As long as I have a pillow and a blanket I’ll be fine,” I said while setting my bag in a space between the bed and the wall. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Well, no, I guess not. As long as you’re comfortable…”

“Uh huh…”

Crap, I accidentally let my sarcasm seep into that one.

“So now what are we gonna do?” I asked.

“We could go look at the Quest Board and see if there’s anything we can do to help out!” Marion said excitedly.

I guess I was right on the money then.

“Princess-”

“Just call me Marion, remember?” she said, giving me a smile.

“-Marion,” I continued. “I’m not too sure it’s the best idea for us to go looking for quests right now. We need to remain inconspicuous, remember?”

“Oh yeah, right…” Marion said, a dejected look spreading across her face. Geez, don’t guilt trip me like that, I almost feel bad for trying to keep us safe. Well…

It’s not exactly that she wouldn’t be safe. She has that healing blood after all, plus despite her looks I still very clearly remember her snapping those chains without breaking a sweat. This is more an experiment to see whether she’d listen to me or if she’d try to fight back when I told her to do something.

So far, it looks like she’s being obedient, but I did have a good point and I wasn’t exactly being unfair or anything. I was kinda hoping she’d at least try to get me to change my stance… but I guess not.

Even though she’s practically dying to do a quest, she still recognizes that it’s not the best idea. But I don’t think one should give up on their dreams so easily… It’s kinda sad.

“But since we’ll be staying here for a bit, I guess a short quest couldn’t hurt.”

At those words, life came rushing back into her eyes.

“Really?” Marion asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “In fact, it’d probably just draw more attention if we stayed here without doing anything.”

“So, we can go on a quest?”

“Well, we can’t do anything too big or it’ll just take too much time, but if there’s an easy one that wouldn’t take more than a day, I think it’d be a good idea.”

“Thanks Oliver,” Marion said as she gave me a hug.

What is up with this girl feeling the need to make physical contact with me all the damn time?!

“Oh, uh, you’re welcome, I guess,” I said as I awkwardly returned the hug.

I hate this.

“Let’s go Oliver!” Marion said as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door. “Adventure awaits!”

I can’t help but wonder what’s going to go wrong.