A New World

I wake up lying down in an open grassy field. The daytime sun beats down on me at a comfortable temperature, as a nice daytime breeze slowly drifts by.

I slowly sit up and look around, the area appears to be surrounded by trees and nature.

“Where am I?” (Chandler)

My headache begins to calm down, and I regain some of my senses.I look down to the bottom left near the ground and what I see in my vision shocks me to some extent.

“WHAAT!?” (Chandler)

I see a... health bar that states:

<HP: 100/100>

What the hell? Could it be... that one of my deepest fantasies became reality?Could it be that I’ve gotten... isekai’d?

I suddenly get really excited, and I start rolling around in the grass squealing with a huge smile.

I take a hit from my schmonin, then blow a cloud into the air to relieve some of my excitement to get a hold of myself and think.

If I have gotten isekai’d like in those anime, then in this game-like world do I start out overpowered or weak?

Sometimes the protagonist of an isekai is an all powerful undead magic user, who no one in the world can stop.Other times the protagonist is weak and incompetent, and just overall not very good in a fight.

This makes me wonder which of the two categories I happen to fall under. I hope I am an unstoppable sorcerer.

I look around for some sort of menu, so that I can view my stats and inventory.

Let’s see... I frantically look around, until I end up looking at an icon in the bottom right that reads “menu”.

How do I open it?Some time later, it opens. It seems all I have to do to open my menu is think about opening it while looking at it.

I have three options in the recently opened menu:

<Stats>

<Inventory>

<Party>

I open the stats option by thinking about it, and what I see leaves me very disappointed.

It appears I am level 1, damnit this fucking sucks. My menu closes during my frustration.

On the bright side, now that I think about it, most isekai protagonists are surrounded by all kinds of beautiful girls in their very own harem.

I wonder... maybe I’ll get a harem of cute girls, and they will be naked all the time!

All kinds of stupid thoughts rush through my head.

But then, suddenly something in the distance begins rushing through the field in my direction.

It looks like a bull!Above the dark creature is a health bar and a label that says:

<Monster Bull, Level 7>

Shit at this rate that thing is gonna kill me!

I hope when I die, I get isekai’d again in a world where I’m more powerful. Shit I’ve barely even been in this new world, and I’m gonna die? I’m really getting shafted here.

I brace myself for my impending death.

Blood and brain matter suddenly sprays everywhere, painting the grass dark red, and it isn’t my blood.

The monster bull collapses dead with an ice shard that was shot into the side of it’s head.

How did this happen? Was it magic that killed the bull? I look around for the source of the ice shot.

I end up making eye contact with a beautiful young girl with purple hair up in a pony tail.This girl has a proper look with a somewhat petite build, and a decent bust size. She is wearing a fancy looking white shirt and leather legging armor.

The girl approaches me with a straight face.

“Are you alright? What are you doing out in these woods laying on the ground? Are you asking to get hurt?” (Girl)

Damn she’s totally my type. I should hit on her and get her to start a harem with me.

“Um... thanks.” (Chandler)

My smooth talk is definitely gonna get me laid.

The girl stares at me briefly, then begins to speak, with a concerned expression.

“Your clothes are very odd, you must be a foreigner, they are soaked in blood too, you should get changed.” (Girl)

Now that I realize it my clothes are wet from the blood that came from that bull. I am wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, basketball shorts and running shoes.

“I guess your right, by the way where are we?” (Chandler)

The girl has a confused expression.

“Are you kidding me? We are currently in a territory called Willows Den, it’s a popular monster hunting ground for adventurers, and even has it’s own local adventurers guild building.” (Girl)

“Sorry I’m kind of new to this world, I just got here because I was isekai’d. I’m actually from a different world as crazy as that sounds.” (Chandler)

The girl looks even more confused now.

“That’s ridiculous, how do you expect me to believe such a thing?” (Girl)

“I think I have a way for you to understand.” (Chandler)

“Huh?” (Girl)

I reach into my pocket and pull out the schmonin.The girl tilts her head as she looks at the vape.

“Is that some sort of other worldly magic artifact?” (Girl)

“I guess you could say that. Just take a hit and you’ll understand.” (Chandler)

“This is pretty strange, how do I take this hit?” (Girl)

I put the vape in my mouth and breath in to take a hit in demonstration, then blow out a cloud.

“Just breath it in like that and hold it in for a bit, trust me you’ll thank me later.” (Chandler)

“Ok, fine” (Girl)

I hand the purple haired girl the vape and she takes a hit as I instructed her to.She then coughs cutely with watery eyes, I can tell she has a good buzz.

“I believe you, you are probably not from this world, because that was an out of this world experience that even magic couldn’t produce.” (Girl)

She hands me back my vape then smiles slightly.

“My name is Claire, and I’ve decided I’m going to take you to the adventures guild to get cleaned up. You are pretty interesting, Mr. Other-worlder.” (Claire)

“You can just call me Chandler.” (Chandler)

We begin walking through the woods toward the local adventurer guild.

“So, can you tell me a little bit about this world.” (Chandler)

“Sure, we are currently in the Kingdom of Skywatch, one of the the 3 great nations, this particular territory we are in right now is not far from the capital city.” (Claire)

So it seems that we have the whole fantasy setup. Kingdoms, monsters and magic all seems to be present in this wold, this is a good thing, I like it.

“How do levels and magic work here?” (Chandler)

“Leveling up is typically a very slow process. You can only see the levels of enemies you are fighting in combat, or anyone in your current party.” (Claire)

That makes sense, that’s why I could see the bulls level but not Claire’s.

“As for magic, you can generally only learn magic that you have an aptitude for, for me I have a high aptitude for ice magic, and that is what I specialize in. Magic is usually initially learned through books or scrolls.” (Claire)

Looks like I’m gonna be looking for books and scrolls soon, I want to learn some badass spells.

“However not everyone has a high aptitude for magic, and instead focus on using physical power through weapons and armor. But some people are great all around magic users, so it varies with each individual.” (Claire)

“Shit, it seems like magic users are overpowered compared to the rest of the crowd.” (Chandler)

“Not necessarily, a good weapon user can use their weapon skills, and stats to rival the power of magic.” (Claire)

So it seems this world at least has some sort of balance, I hope I’m the overpowered all around magic type.

“What exactly happens when you level up?” (Chandler)

“When you level up you have slight increases to stats that you have a natural aptitude for, you can also increase stats through certain items.” (Claire)

So it seems I really need to get lucky if I want to become the ultimate badass sorcerer, that’s unfortunate.

“You can also XP share with party members, so you can level up together, which now that I think about it, we probably should form a temporary party, so you can make progress towards your next level so that you aren’t stuck at a low level together.” (Claire)

A menu pop up appears in my vision, it says:

<party invite>

<accept or decline>

I choose to accept, and join the party.Above Claire, her level pops up, it says:

<Claire, Level 18>

Damn, her level is way higher than mine.

In the top left of my vision it shows our party with full health bars under our names, it says:

<Chandler, Level 1>

<Claire, Level 18>

“Wow, your only a level 1, no wonder you couldn’t defeat a monster like that.” (Claire)

“You don’t have to point it out like that.” (Chandler)

“Sorry, I guess I have to help you get close to level 2, let’s defeat monsters along the way.” (Claire)

Claire takes us on a detour into another open field.

“Let’s defeat some small fry to get you some XP.” (Claire)

She points at some small green slimes bouncing around in the field.

Those little shits don’t look to tough.

Claire opens both palms of her hands and aims them towards the slimes. She appears to be drawing in magic power.

The slimes just noticed us and have began slowly bouncing over.Now that we are technically in combat their levels are now visible, it says:

<Small Green Slime, Level 1>

Claire seems to have finished drawing in the necessary magic power.

“Class 2 Ice Magic, Multi Ice Shard Shot!” (Claire)

About a dozen ice shards are shot from Claire’s hands at the speed of a bullet, and they pierce all the slimes.They all instantly die and splatter on the ground.

Under my party status in the top left of my vision, is our awarded XP shown:

<Chandler XP Gained: 54 x2>

<Claire XP Gained 72 x2>

“What!?” (Claire)

Claire has a shocked expression, I wonder why.“Our XP was doubled, I’ve never heard of such a thing” (Claire)

We have double XP that’s cool, that means I can get out of level 1 soon.

“What’s so strange about double XP?” (Chandler)

“To my knowledge it’s almost impossible to boost XP gain, it only happens in very rare, and special circumstances, but it’s unheard of to be happening without special circumstances.” (Claire)

Hm, then what could be the cause of the double XP, not that I care, as long as I become badass.

“It appears that being in a party with you grants double XP for whatever reason.” (Claire)

Really? I can do such a thing? Well whatever the reason is, I’ll take it.I check my stats and it appears that I’m around halfway there to level 2.

“It appears that there may be quite a few interesting things about you. You must definitely be from another world.” (Claire)

One thing is for sure I didn’t really do anything in this fight, and Claire definitely carried in that fight. I’m still weak as of right now, and she seems to be pretty capable in a fight.

We continue our walk towards the local adventurers guild.

Along the way Claire takes out some low level monster birds flying in the sky.Great, it seems that was enough XP to raise my level. Some messages pop up on the left side of my vision, after the XP is awarded.

<Chandler, Level 1 - Level 2>

<HP +15>

<Strength +8>

<Defense +9>

Damn, I don’t see any enhancements in other categories.

“Good it seems your level has raised, that was rather quick compared to normal people.” (Claire)

Claire then blushes slightly, as if she’s about to ask something.

“Since your Level has just raised because of me, I think I deserve compensation.” (Claire)

God damnit, what the hell kind of compensation does she want, it’s not like I have any of this world’s money, I just got here!

“What kind of compensation are you thinking of?” (Chandler)

She looks away embarrassed for a moment, then speaks.

“Would it be possible for me to use your apparatus again?” (Claire)

“Huh? You want to use my vape?” (Chandler)

“Is it... okay?” (Claire)

This girl... she just wants a smoke for her efforts.

“That’s fine” (Chandler)

“For real!?” (Claire)

She’s getting really excited over this.

I hand Claire my schmonin and she takes a hit, then blows a cloud. After the hit she coughed yet again. She returns my vape to me looking satisfied.

As we continue walking I decide to ask Claire a question.

“Hey, how come when I leveled up I only had stat increases for a few categories?” (Chandler)

“That’s because you don’t get every stat increased after every level up, sometimes more stats are raised, sometimes less, it all comes back to your aptitudes.” (Claire)

Damn, it comes back to aptitude again. I wish I could pick what stats to improve when I leveled up. This is bullshit.After some time we arrived at a large wooden structure with an Inn next to it.

“Welcome to the adventurers guild.” (Claire)