As I regained consciousness, I took in my surroundings. I was no longer sitting down having a nice cup of tea, but rather I was on my ass in the middle of the woods. All I had with me were the clothes on my back. I closed my eyes and listened. I heard water, along with sounds from creatures I've never heard before. So, Zuter, was it? It would have been nice for Iris to drop me in a town or something. This feels kind of ridiculous.
Well, let's figure out where to go from here, I guess.
This was certainly a forest, but not one like I've ever seen. Most of the trees looked pretty similar to the ones I'm familiar with, but the plant life was something else.
Oh man, that one looks carnivorous…Let's go take a look at that stream. Maybe I could follow it to some sort of civilization.
I began walking again until I found the water, and began to follow it downstream. I wasn't even walking for a minute before something broke through the brush behind me. Before I could think about what was happening, I was on the ground. I was pinned down by a boy who had to be at least five years younger than me. He was wearing a set of light looking armor with simple garb underneath. I attempted to shove him away, but his force was overwhelming. Where was all this strength coming from? This guy doesn't even look like he should weighmore than me.
"Oi! Settle down, girlie. Guys! I think I found the source of the light!" He yelled off into the trees and a few seconds later another three figures emerged, two girls and another boy. One of the girls had the ears and tail of a cat. A beast person, I assume? Gonna have to get used to seeing things like that. Thank god- er Iris? That I don't have to deal with those ears. That brings the question, what type of 'beastkin' even am I? As I kept observing her outfit I noticed something slung around her shoulder. A rifle..? Hang on, what time period are we in again? Isn't this other kid wearing armor?
The cat-eared girl sighed and spoke up. "Ugh, this is a pain. So uh, hey, will you make this easy for us and tell me what it is you're doing here? I'd really hate to have to beat it out of you." She crouched down to meet me closer to the ground. "We're just getting back from some other business. I'd hate to be late getting home." She looked over at the other male in the party, a dark haired man, who had someone slung over his back. I'd say it was kidnapping but they seem well taken care of. At least I could understand what these people were saying. Those books I saw in the study were something else, I'm glad I didn't have to learn another language from scratch.
I returned my focus to the beastkin girl. She seemed annoyed that I was even here in the first place. If it was up to me I'd be in a nice town right now figuring out what I could get for food around here. Was I close to civilization after all? If I was trespassing I'd have to be near some kind of property. I'll play nice and see if these guys can get me to civilization. I looked up at the beast girl.
"Sorry for trespassing, I'm not exactly familiar with this forest. If you could just point me in the direction of the nearest town I'll be on my way." I said.
"Don't play with me. You made quite an entrance. What kind of transportation magic even was that? Nothing like anything I've seen before." The girl continued to ask me questions while ignoring my comment. "You didn't even use concealment magic. It's like you wanted us to find you."
"I can't exactly answer that, I'm not sure about the whole magic thing. I was, for lack of better words, dropped here?" I answered honestly. Well, partially honest.
The cat-eared girl looked over at the brown haired girl and exchanged a few glances. The brown haired girl looked at me and she seemed to grow puzzled. She turned back to the cat-eared girl and shrugged.
"Listen, I wanted to avoid this, but you're coming with us." The cat-eared girl responded. She made a motion with her hand and what appeared to be cuffs made of some kind of rock bound my hands together. I heard the other girl muttering something and I suddenly drifted to sleep.
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"Freya. You don't have time to waste. They know you're here."
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"Who?" I asked the ceiling above me. I sat up to find myself in a small room with no doors or windows in sight. The room was illuminated, however, from origins I couldn't pinpoint. Okay, how'd I get in here then..? I didn't have to think about it for too long before a voice came through from somewhere above me.
"Greetings, trespasser. Can we start with a name?" The voice asked me. I didn't see any reason to lie so I answered the question.
"My name is Freya. Just Freya." How the hell am I supposed to get out of here? I kept scanning the room while the voice spoke up again.
"Why were you in the forest? Why have you come here?"
I have no idea why I came here, man. Iris just dropped me in the damn forest. I got jumped immediately after that. Oh how I've fallen.
"To be completely honest with you, I have no idea how I got here." I told the voice. I would preferably like to keep quiet about Iris. I'm not sure how this world's people would react if I told them I just had a meeting with a Goddess. Also, what I said isn't technically wrong.
"This place is hidden very well. I refuse to believe you just stumbled upon us." The voice responded. I mean, I couldn't really blame them, but I was also getting kind of annoyed. I was awaiting another question, but it really seemed to be taking a while. The wall then opened up next to me and a man walked into the room. He had jet black hair and subtle green eyes. He was wearing nice robes making me believe him to be some sort of leader. Okay, the wall totally just opened? Who's this guy now?
"Hey! You're Freya? Right?" He began with a huge smile, "I'm Adam, I kinda run things around here. You hungry? Let's go get something!" Oh? I thought. Just like that? Another person rushed into the room after Adam and began to question him.
"Hey?! Are you sure about this? We don't even know if she's-" They began before Adam cut them off.
"Yeah, I really don't think it's a big deal." He said, then turned back to me. "I can just deal with her if it comes to it." The atmosphere surrounding him changed. Whatever this pressure I was feeling exuding off of him I wasn't familiar with. However even without the know-how, I could feel something coming off Adam. It's like a power was trying to squish me out.
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Adam took me out of the room and we were met by a group of people wearing armor. They pointed their weapons at me as Adam and I walked out. Adam stepped in before anyone got the wrong idea.
"Wow wow wow guys, she's with me. At ease." The group looked at each other and exchanged some 'really? I don't know.' looks at each other before respecting the order that was just given to them.
"Sorry about that, let's go!" Adam continued on and led me down a few hallways until we reached the lobby of the building we were in. This guy must have a screw loose or something. I'm pretty glad I got out of that room so quickly, but why is he so readily trusting someone who 'appeared out of nowhere'?
"Well, sorry about your first encounter with us. My subordinates didn't treat you too rough, did they?" Adam started back up conversation.
"So the ones who kidnapped me work for you?" I asked.
"Yes, however, they typically focus on rescuing others rather than dispatching…" He answered. "Sorry about them, they were just protecting this place from intruders." He answered. "Also, I peeked at those Titles of yours. I'll give any Visitor a solid chance."
"A Visitor?" I asked, "what do you mean?"
"Did you have games in your world? Well, think of it like an achievement of sorts. It seems those of us who have traversed from another world to this one share this Title. Anyway, you should also have a status window as well. Just say the word 'status' and it should pop up!" Adam proclaimed.
Openly talking about traversing worlds, games, and status windows? How common is my situation exactly? Okay, here goes. "Status." I waited a few seconds. Nothing. "So am I supposed to be seeing something here, or?" I asked Adam.
"Well that is definitely a new one." Adam said, staring confused at the blank space of air in front of me. "Sorry, normally those of us who come here have access to this sort of thing. Maybe it's because… nevermind. You still have the title regardless."
"How does my Title prove I'm to be trusted?" I decided to ask Adam about it just to be sure.
Adam laughed, "Well I guess it doesn't!" He regained his composure and continued. "Most people in this stronghold are like you and I. We all come from a different world than this one." Figures as much. "Visitor also comes with the Language Comprehension skill, which is pretty handy! There's lots of languages here, it would suck to have to learn them all!" That's a really nice feature, although I was pretty good at picking up languages for infiltration work back home.
"So, are we grabbing that bite?" I asked Adam.
"Absolutely! It's already the afternoon and we have a lot to go over, let's go!" We walked to the door of the building before Adam turned around and stopped. I almost crashed into him as he did so.
"Forget something?" I asked, startled at him stopping so abruptly.
"Sorry, I forgot about where we currently were! This is the training hall, you can come here to hone your abilities or try and make new ones. For certain schools of magic or combat we have volunteer teachers to help you refine your ability."
"So, there's a prison in your training hall too?" I asked.
Adam smiled. "Oh, well, no. You actually weren't locked in there. That was just one of our practice rooms. You could've left if you knew how. That's why we had all those guards outside. Since I give most Visitors a chance, on such short notice I decided they should just keep you in there." He turned around and walked outside. I sat there stunned for a second. This guy is nuts. I followed him outside.
What I saw was quite the sight. Outside the training hall was an outdoor practice area, and spells were flying every which way. It was honestly beautiful seeing all the colors zipping around. We continued walking down the main path and crossed the street to approach another large hall.
"This place is definitely my favorite. Welcome to the cafeteria!" Adam exclaimed. "I haven't eaten yet, you hungry?" He asked.
"Sure, I could eat." I guess I couldn't refuse. Now that I was pretty much off the hook for 'trespassing' I figured I should just listen to the guy. We walked up to the counter and we were greeted by one of the staff members.
"Ah! Good afternoon, Sir Adam! And who might this be with you today?" The woman asked him.
"Hey Gloria! This is Freya. She arrived on Zuter not too long ago. Can we grab two of today's specials please? We're gonna grab a seat."
"Absolutely! I'll put that right in!" She responded. "And Miss Freya, welcome!"
"Uh, yeah thanks." I guess. It's not like I really had a choice in coming here. We started walking towards the seating area when Adam noticed some familiar faces already sitting down.
"Oh, hey this is perfect! Let's go sit with them!" He pointed over to the table and I saw my captors sitting down enjoying their food. Oh, great. We got close to the table when the cat-eared girl noticed us approaching.
"Well well. Guess you weren't bad news after all? Huh. Coulda fooled me." She really hasn't changed her opinion of me, I see. The others looked up at us.
"Knock it off, Anna!" The brown-haired girl chimed in. "If she was going to be a problem for us she wouldn't be strolling around with Adam." Wow, thanks kid. "Let's start over. Hi! I'm Hannah, what can we call you?" She asked, sticking out her hand.
I smiled and accepted her handshake, "I'm Freya, it's good to put a name to the face."
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After a bit of chatting, I learned that the group who was responsible for capturing me was called the Otherworld Rescue Squad. Or, ORS for short. It currently consists of four members. Otherworlders like us are apparently fairly common, thanks to the summonings of the Havensguard Empire. They happen to be the ones Iris mentioned. They wish to use the skills Otherworlders gain upon transmigrating here for themselves. The skill an Otherworlder gets depends on the desire of that individual, so it can take form in all sorts of ways. This squad was created to save as many Otherworlders as possible to give them a chance to live for themselves in this world.
Anna, the cat-eared girl, was the leader. She was born here on Zuter. She specializes in sniping magic, which partially explained why I saw her with a rifle earlier. I'd love to get to know whoever made that for her… There was also Hannah, the one who stood up for me. Her home country was Canada from the same Earth I'm from. Hannah's Unique Skill is called Network. It allows her to establish telepathic connections to others to communicate over long distances. Oliver was the red-haired boy who pinned me down earlier, and he hailed from England on Earth. His Unique Skill is called Freeform. Oliver is able to copy and use the appearance of any being he's appraised. Last but not least there was Kenji. His home country was Japan, also from Earth. His Unique Skill is called Analyze and Execute. It allows him to see a being's weak points, and strengthen his own body for attacks or defence.
"So, what's your skill, Freya?" Anna asked me. "When I asked Hannah about it earlier, she said she couldn't even see it. What's up with that?" Hm, is that why Adam only mentioned my title earlier? Could he not see my skills?I don't seem to have that status window, so maybe it has to do with that? But if he can see my titles that must mean I have something, right?
"Yeah, about that." Adam chimed in before I could answer. "She doesn't have the window." He continued stuffing his face with our lunch. Everyone was now staring at me with the most confused looks.
"You- you don't have any kind of Status? You were summoned here, though. You have the title to prove it!" Hannah exclaimed.
"Hah!" Anna chuckled. "Well, you weren't summoned normally after all, right? You arrived in a different way than most Otherworlders we've seen." The others looked at her.
"Hold on, how were you even summoned here, Freya?" Adam looked up from the food he was inhaling. "I completely forgot to ask!" The rest of the table looked at him stunned, as they watched their boss trust someone so blindly. I still feel the need to be quiet about Iris. 'Yeah so I was summoned by the Goddess of all Beastfolk'. I'm sure that would go well.
"Well, I was completing a contract job on Earth when I was suddenly swallowed in a light and dropped into those woods where you found me." I decided to include the light the ORS described me arriving in. It's not technically wrong. I'm just going to leave out the part where I spoke to a literal goddess.
"Interesting. Well, it's not impossible." Adam said with a mouthful of food. "That's kinda like how Kaede got here, after all."
"Ah, the blacksmith girl? But she has a Unique Skill. Quite a fine one I might add." Kenji said.
"True, I'm just saying that there are many circumstances where people can be brought here." Adam replied. "Freya could've skipped a step along the way. Regardless, for the time being, she's one of us. So treat her the way you would any other new Otherworlder." I appreciated the support there, it bails me out of any extra questions I might've had to answer. Even if the guy had a screw or two loose, he seemed good enough. The others let it go, and we finished up our food. "Whew! I'm full, you ready to leave, Freya?" Adam asked me.
"Yeah, good to go. Nice to clear the air with you guys." I said to the table.
"If you ever wanna hang out, just let me know!" Hannah exclaimed.
"It was nice to meet you." Kenji replied.
"See you around!" Said Oliver.
Anna seemed to be ignoring everyone and had picked up a book by this point. I decided to just let her be. I ran after Adam who was basically already leaving me behind. "Hey wait up!" I yelled after him.
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We were in the cafeteria long enough for it to start getting dark out, but I'm glad I got to chat with the ORS. They seemed like they would have some pull around here, being so closely knit with Adam. It would be best not to make them distrust me. I looked to Adam for where we were headed next.
"Well, we were in the cafeteria for longer than expected, so how about we get you a room and clothes for tonight and we'll call it a day, yeah? You must be exhausted after getting summoned here today." Adam stated.
"Yeah, I could use some rest." I replied, yawning. Maybe a full stomach put it into perspective, but this whole day did wipe me out.
"Alright let's head over to the housing department!" Adam exclaimed. I don't know how this guy still has energy. I feel like he's been yelling all day. We started walking down the street towards the housing area.
"So Adam, you mentioned 'us' all being the same. So you're an Otherworlder, too?" I asked.
"That's right." Adam said. "I've been here for just about thirteen years now."
"Wow, I'm impressed. You founded this place, right? You must've worked very hard." I responded. This 'town', if you would call it that, was quite the sight. It wasn't something that could have been put up in a short amount of time.
Adam's expression became troubled for a moment. "Yeah, a lot of people made it possible for us to get this far." He smiled. "Come on, we're just about there." We walked up the stairs of the building in the center of the housing district. We entered the building and walked up to the main counter. An older wolf beastkin man came up to us and bowed.
"Good evening, Sir Adam. What can I do for you today?" He asked Adam.
"Hello Gunther! I would like to get Miss Freya here set up with a place to stay. She arrived on world just today. Could you help us out?" Adam asked the man.
"But of course, do you already have something in mind?" Gunther asked.
"Hm, I guess so if Freya is up for it. How would you feel about living with Hannah and Anna? They've got an open room at their place." Adam asked me.
Hm, well, Hannah I guess I wouldn't mind. Anna on the other hand, I don't think that girl likes me one bit. However this could get her to open up to me more.
"Yeah, I'm fine with that." I responded.
"Splendid." Gunther said. "I'll get the paperwork started right away. It won't take but a moment." He started fiddling around with things.
"Anna just takes some getting used to." Adam said. "She really cares for the people here, so she's just very cautious with newcomers. Just give her some time."
"Apologies for the wait, here is the key to your new home, Miss Freya." Gunther said while handing me a metallic card. "If you need anything please bring it to my attention. Have a wonderful evening" He said with a bow.
"Thanks, Gunther!" Adam exclaimed as we walked back outside.
We walked down one last street and Adam brought me to the front door of my new home. It looked pretty cozy, was this enough space for three people to live comfortably? Adam gave a knock on the door.
"Coming!" I heard Hannah yell from the other side. "Oh, Adam? Freya too? What's going on?"
"I knew you guys had an open room, so I figured you could put Freya up. Get her used to the place." Adam replied.
"Sure! Not a problem with me!" Hannah replied excitedly. She was about to let me in when Anna stood up and started making her way over to the door.
"Just like that?" Anna asked Adam. "Even if she has that damn title you don't know anything about who she was before she came here. You know damn well she didn't arrive in the normal way. Now I have to share a roof with her?"
"Now Anna, I don't see how this is much different than most of the people we bring here." Adam rebutted.
"Yeah. But most of the people we bring here come here the same way. Isn't there something similar going on in the Domain of Spirits? Or did I overhear wrong?" They exchanged glances and expressions for another couple of seconds almost as if the conversation was still continuing. Anna sighed.
"Okay, fine. But Hannah's the one to keep an eye on her." Anna went back to the couch and went back to creating her ammunition. Although now a bit disgruntled. Not that that's anything new, I guess.
"Don't worry about her, Freya. She'll come around." Hannah said. "Come on in!"
The place was kept very well organized. The bedrooms were all separate off to the left of the door just as you walked in. To the right was a cozy living room and just behind it was the kitchen. Hannah led me to the last room on the left.
"Well, this is you for now. Make yourself comfortable. If you wanna hang out after for a bit just come on out! I understand if you're exhausted from your summoning, though." She said.
"Sure thing." I said as I walked into the room. All that was in here was a chair and desk, a bed, and a small wardrobe. I walked to the edge of the room where a window sat and I peered outside. So. Another world, huh? Still can't really believe it. I'll give Anna her space for tonight, while I get some rest. I sat down on the bed.
I need to start gathering information in this world as quickly as I can. This Havensguard Empire was after 'beings like me', right? I have to learn as much as I can here before I come into contact with them. I drifted off to sleep for the night.
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I awoke in the middle of the night. Something was off, but I couldn't tell what. As I sat up, my gaze shifted towards the desk, and I saw someone sitting in the chair staring back at me. Sheesh. Hannah? No. I've never seen this person before.What am I even saying? How did they even get in here? Are the others okay?
"Ah, you're awake! You were just so cute lying there, I couldn't help but watch!" The woman said. Okay, weirdo.
"Who are you? How did you get into my room?" I asked her, jolting upwards out of bed. The thought of this society being as secure as it was stuck in the back of my mind. Did this person manage to slip in undetected? Or are they part of this society?
"Calm down, love. I'm not going to hurt you. And well, I mean, you didn't even put up any wards or shields. I kinda just walked right in." She responded. "Anyway, how's Iris been these days?"
Well now I know who this is, but I wasn't really sure how I should go about this. The woman's hair was a dark black with streaks of my own new hair color in no particular pattern, and her eyes were a beautiful crimson. "Aera, I presume?" The woman smiled and laughed.
"Ah! So she is still bothered enough about our separation to mention me to the new girl! Yes, I'm Aera. I was the previous successor of the Beastkin. What did that bitch have to say about me?"
Well, she told me not to trust you. But right now, I'm still unaware of how long this woman has been in my room. She mentioned 'watching' me, it could've been any amount of time. She probably could've killed me if she really wanted to already. I didn't get to formulate my response before she spoke again.
"Whatever, I don't really even care about that pretender anyway. I just came to check in on her new pawn." Aera stated. Pawn, huh? It makes sense why Iris wouldn't want me to trust this woman. Their relationship couldn't have ended well if both parties are acting this way. Perhaps I shouldn't put my faith fully into either one yet, even if one is a literal Goddess. For now I'll try to get as much information as I can out of Aera.
"Iris didn't exactly give me a ton of insight on this place, nor about you. I didn't really have too long to chat with her. You say I'm being used, care to enlighten me on how?" I asked.
"Of course! That fox may have gone on about replacing her. But, she's actually raising you as a vessel for her personal use." Aera responded. A what?
"But why would she even use someone like me for that? I don't seem to have any powers of my own." I asked.
"Oh boy, she really told you nothing of your station. Alright, Freya, crash course in the 'creators' of Zuter." Aera responded, quite annoyed. "The current beings who run this world, as I said earlier, are imposters. They all used to be mortal like you or I."
"So how does one become a god from being a mortal?" I asked.
"Long ago, there was a great war that brought all of the intelligent races together to stand against the mad god who used to take care of this place." She continued, "Once the mad god was finally subdued, the leaders of each clan took a portion of the mad god's power for themselves, effectively turning them into divine beings. Are you still with me?"
"Yes, go on." I responded. She wasn't exactly leaving much room for imagination here.
"As Iris and the other clan leaders were once mortal, their bodies cannot contain the power they stole for forever. The power wasn't originally theirs, so they're breaking down over time. That's where people like you and I come in. Once we are accustomed to 'their' power, they will move their consciousness into our bodies. In turn, our own personalities get overridden." Well that's fucking rude. I quite like having my own body. The more Aera explained about the past the more I started to believe her. I mean, this is way more information than Iris was willing to give me on the matter. I did however have a question for Aera.
"While all of this information is helpful, I am curious about what happened between you two to make Iris summon me instead?" I asked.
"I'll put it this way." Aera began, "I didn't fucking ask to be here. That bitch doesn't care what happens to either of us, nor what we've already been through. Do what you will with that woman but don't come crying to me when you get in trouble." Okay, fine. "Oh, about our power. I assume that Adam character tried to check out your abilities by now?"
"Yes actually, he tried. We can't seem to see if I possess any, though." I thought about the dumbfounded stares I was given when I couldn't show them off to the ORS earlier.
"Well you see, the powers we receive from the Gods are essentially an 'echo' of their power. We don't have those silly little status windows the other Otherworlders receive. Our power uses the same laws those of Zuter follow. You must first work on your ability to sense and manipulate magic particles before you can even formulate an ability. I've also given you a [Necklace of Concealment], which has hidden this fact from those with {Appraisal} abilities."
"And when did I receive that? When I was sleeping?" I asked.
"No silly, I gave it to you when you first got here! Right before you awoke and those children showed up and whisked you off to this society. I wanted to hand off a couple of other artifacts, but I figured you'd be fine with just that for now. I couldn't have you lose any because you didn't know how to use them. Oh, and Adam might've tried something if he knew about your connection to Iris, good job keeping quiet." There was a knock on the door to my bedroom which honestly startled me as I was giving my undivided attention to Aera. I heard Hannah pipe up from the other side.
"Freya? Are you talking to someone in there?" She asked in a very sleepy voice. I guess she must've got up for the bathroom or something. I looked back towards the chair Aera was sitting in to find that she was no longer in the room with me. And there she goes…
"Ahh, no. Just muttering to myself. I'm going to try and sleep now." I responded. Aera, and especially Iris, are not talking points I'm going to bring up to just anyone.
"Okay, goodnight!" She replied, yawning.
I layed back down after this weird encounter I just had and recalled my conversation with Iris. Wait, can't Iris hear all of my thoughts? Why didn't she jump in when I was chatting with Aera just now? You'd figure she'd want to stop me from getting closer to her, being that she told me to stay away from her altogether. Whatever, if she wanted to she probably would've. For now I just pushed the thought aside and went to bed.