Volume 1, 1: The Green Wolf and The First Usage of Magic

The green dog wasn’t that big, but I felt like I couldn’t fight it. After all, I didn’t have any weapons at hand to fight, so I tried to escape.

I dashed in the opposite direction of the green dog, but the uneven terrain and tree roots were in the way, so I couldn’t run as fast as I thought I could. I felt that the green dog followed me. I took a quick glimpse at behind my back after running about 50m. The distance was extremely tight between us!

When I started running, there was a distance of about 10m between me and the feral green dog, but now it had shrunk to about an half. The green dog was about to catch me, and I wondered if I could defend myself with something.

Before long, I spotted a thick tree branch at a height of about 2m and a half, 20m ahead, diagonally to the right. Since it was sort of a dog, maybe it wouldn’t be able to climb a tree, even if it had six legs. Therefore, I ran toward that tree. With the jumping skill from earlier, I jumped with all my might, but I didn’t reach the tree branch.

I turned around and noticed that the green dog was about to catch me, as the distance was no more than 2m between us. I got closer to the tree branch and I tried to jump again. I jumped with all my strength and stretched my arms to the branch, and I succeeded in grabbing it.

The green dog tried to chase after me, but it couldn’t reach me. I was saved.

The green dog was still intimidating, because it tried to climb the tree trunk with the power of its six legs. Would it leave me alone if I waited like this…?

I waited for about 10 minutes, but the green dog didn’t seem to leave. The threat seemed to have stopped, but it sat down and looked attentively at me. This could turn out to be a long-term battle.

If I kept waiting like this, then the night would come. I would like to avoid staying in the forest where strange creatures roamed free. Although this tree branch was reasonably thick, I didn’t feel like sleeping on it.

It was unlikely that I would meet people if I stayed hidden like this. Waiting was also not an option. It could be very dangerous to stay overnight in this forest. I had to escape from here somehow.

I remembered the displayed status earlier, so I tried to look for other commands.

「Equipment! Item! 」

There was no reaction to the “equipment” word, but when I chanted “item”, it felt like something was coming out of my body.

After waiting for about 1 second, something that resembled a white frame in a gray window appeared in front of me. It was quite different from the familiar MMO’s, but it felt like an item box.

Characters 0/1012 displayed in the upper right corner. Was it the capacity of the box?

I tried to grab two leaves from the tree and put them in the white frame. As soon as I tried to put them in the item box without moving my hand, the leaves disappeared.

Inside the item box was a picture of a leaf, with the number 2 in the lower right corner. When I looked attentively at the leaves of the item box, something that looked like a pop-up window emerged.

—

Pole Leaf

Description: Leaves from a Pole Tree.

—

It seemed to function well as an item box. When I tried to take it out, the leaf appeared in my hand, and the number at the lower right corner of the picture became 1.

Apparently, I could save the same species of leaves in just 1 frame.

1/1012 displayed in the upper right corner of the item window. I tried to put the leaf back in the item box, but the display capacity was still 1/1012. The number 1012 was probably the number of total frames in the item box.

1012 was the same as the maximum value of my MP. The capacity (?) of the item box may depend on the maximum value of my MP.

I cut one leaf in half and stored both pieces. The number displayed at the lower right corner of the picture was 3. It seemed that even the ones that were cut into pieces were counted as well. When I wanted to take out the shredded leaves, it came out as a whole. If there were multiple similar items, I would be troublesome to take out several items until I got the desired target item. So it was nice to come as whole, and piece by piece. It seemed to be a convenient function, but it didn’t give me the initial equipment. No, was this current outfit the initial equipment? Well, it was certainly better than the jersey outfit where I stood barefoot. Still, these clothes weren’t suited for combat.

Suddenly, I came up with an idea, and I took out the Pole Leaf in my hand and tried to appraise it.

—

Pole Leaf

Description: Leaves from a Pole Tree. Since it contains oil, it burns well when it dries.

—

Was it like a pinecone that contained oil? Either way, it didn’t seem to be useful in the current situation. It seemed that my special appraisal by Information Manipulation Analysis was clearly better than what was displayed in the item box.

I also appraised the green dog.

—

Green Wolf

RANK: F

HP: 35/35

MP: 0/0

STR: 32

INT: 1

AGI: 30

DEX: 2

Skills:

—

A muscle-brain. It didn’t have skills.

Was that the standard for its ranking? I didn’t get the impression that the alphabet F was that strong.

It looked like a regular animal but with six legs.

However, STR and AGI were higher than mine were. I didn’t feel like fighting. I wished I had a weapon at least, but I didn’t have anything at all?

…I had something called “Magic Qualities” among my skills. Maybe I could use magic.

Right when I wanted to see the status, it appeared right in front of me. It seemed that I had no need to chant the status for it to appear. The reason why I had to chant last time may be that I chanted it not because I wanted to see the status but because I didn’t know what to expect.

—

Name: Suzumiya Kaede

Age / Race / Gender: 20 / Human / Male

Level: 1

HP: 51/51

MP: 508/1012

STR: 16

INT: 42

AGI: 22

DEX: 34

Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (concealment), Complete Mastery of Different World Languages (concealment), Magic Qualities (concealment), Material Arts Qualities (concealment), Otherworlder (concealment), All-Attribute Affinity (concealment).

—

The MP has decreased. When I activated the item box, I felt that something came out of my body. Was that the MP?

Considering the time I used it, it seemed that my action consumed about half of my MP.

It would be understandable if the MP was consumed because I activated the item box for the first time, but it would be troublesome if the MP got reduced every time I summoned the item box.

I didn’t know if it would be okay or not once the MP got empty, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it, so I decided to refrain from using the item box until I went to a safe place.

When I appraised the remaining skills, I found that the Magic Qualities and Material Arts Qualities greatly accelerated the acquisition of magic and martial arts. It meant that I could improve the abilities of both magic and martial arts.

All-Attribute Affinity was a skill that allowed me to use all magic attributes, and the Complete Mastery of Different World Languages was rather obvious.

—

Magic Qualities (concealment): Unique

Description: Learning magic is much faster. It also increases your ability to use magic. Not displayed with the regular appraisal skills.

—

That’s all. The second half written in this unique appraisal was the effect of concealment. I thought the information was vague. Why didn’t it give more details? But, at least I knew that the range of effects for this skill was wide.

Even in the card games I used to play in Japan, it said, “Cards with short texts are strong”. I wondered if that was true. I wished that were the case.

Although learning magic was much faster, I didn’t know how to do it since I never practiced it before. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I decided to try various things.

Since the attack power seemed to be high, I thought of using Fire Magic for the time being. When I closed the status window, I looked at the green dog and cast a random spell.

「Fire. Flame. Fire Arrow. Blaze. 」

「It doesn’t work… 」

Did I not have any magic? Was that the reason why I could not use it?

I was hoping to create something like a fireball that could fly towards the green dog and turn it ablaze…

When I looked at the green dog with disappointing eyes, suddenly, a small fireball appeared in my hand.

「Whoa! 」

The fireball appeared abruptly in front of me, and I was so surprised that I almost fell from the tree branch. Then, the fireball disappeared. Was it important to picture it in your head?

I put myself together in the tree branch and tried to appraise myself again. I noticed that Fire Magic was added to my skills’ list.

I wondered if I could attack with it.

「Grrrrrrrr. 」

The green dog became wary. It would’ve been great if it ran away. But there was no sign of this happening.

This time, I tried to create a fireball with a clear mind. I imagined it flying towards the green dog.

Then, a red fireball with a diameter of about 30 cm appeared in front of me and flew toward the green dog at a considerable speed. Was it about 40 km / h?

The green dog tried to avoid it, but it seemed that the fireball hit one of its legs. A flame struck the surface of the body from the leg, and the green dog became a fiery doll.

The green dog transformed into a red dog.

The green dog struggled in vain.

*victory sound*

I heard a familiar sound. I looked around, and of course, I couldn’t find anything that could be the source of an electronic sound.

I felt that the sound echoed directly in my head.

I got curious about it, and I displayed my status again.

—

Name: Suzumiya Kaede

Age / Race / Gender: 20 / Human / Male

Level: 2

HP: 51/81

MP: 508/1512

STR: 20

INT: 48

AGI: 27

DEX: 39

Skills: Information Manipulation Analysis (concealment), Complete Mastery of Different World Languages (concealment), Magic Qualities (concealment), Material Arts Qualities (concealment), Otherworlder (concealment), All-Attribute Affinity (concealment), Fire Magic 1.

—

The level seemed to be rising. And I noticed that Fire Magic had number 1 next to it. No other skills appeared except the ones I already had before. However, I wondered if this Fire Magic had something relevant worth knowing. So I tried to appraise it.

—

Fire Magic: Level 1

Fire Magic is now available.

The magic efficiency increases as the level increases, and it increases the INT as well.

—

What was magic efficiency? I tried to appraise the magic efficiency part, but I couldn’t do it in the end. Was the text in the description out of scope? From the words, it felt like a magical magnitude for MP consumption.

Hmm? MP?

I looked at the status again. My MP remained 508. However, it was 508 before I used Fire Magic and it didn’t decrease after I invoked it.

Wasn’t it supposed to consume MP? Or maybe, it decreased by decimal points. There was no way that I could know it since I didn’t appraise my MP before I used Fire Magic. So I had no reference to compare. Should I waste magic in order to find out the procedure behind the MP consumption?

While I thought about it, I heard a crackling sound. When I turned around, I saw that the area where the Green Wolf died was burning! Yes, it was literally on fire!

Fortunately, it did not seem to be burning so much, but it still had a decent amount of firepower.

「Water! Water!*Agua! 」

I chanted hurriedly and strangely, but it had no effect. Well, it didn’t work because I did it impatiently. I knew that having a picture in my head was important to invoke magic.

I calmed down and imagined water coming out of a fire hose. After a slight sensation came out of my body, water spouted vigorously and the fire extinguished. I looked at my status again, and saw that Water Magic 1 added to my skills’ list.

My MP was now 507. So the MP was consumed by decimal points. First, it was 508, and by using Fire Magic, it probably consumed half a point. And then, by using Water Magic it consumed another half a point. That’s why my MP was reduced from 508 to 507.

Yes, it seemed to work like that. The MP was fuel-efficient.

The water splashed on me when I invoked it, and the feeling was real. After all, this was not a dream, but a different world.

I didn’t know how I came to this world and I didn’t know how to return. Nonetheless, I was surprisingly calm. Come to think about it, when I was in Planet Earth, all I did was take boring lessons, go home and relax with a game or internet. My parents died in a car accident two years ago and I had no siblings. I had no regrets for leaving Planet Earth nor did I feel sad about it.

Many of my skills were like cheat skills, but I didn’t care. I will try to enjoy my new life in a different world!

…Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn out to be a dream in the end.

The green dog stopped moving and died. It seemed that the green dog did not have a convenient function. But, it automatically became an item like the games I played before. I kept the corpse in the item box, which may be useful for something, who knows. But, how could I store it without even touching it? This could be quite advantageous in the end. Or should I say, an all-you-can-use for theft.

Even though the animal was a 6-legged dog, I wasn’t particular guilt for killing the creature. Did I get the experience for murder when I arrived in this world? Well, it was better to have that experience than have guilt.

It was going to get dark soon. If I didn’t find a road or something alike, then I could end up stranded in this forest. I kept walking deep in the forest, and then, I heard a sound different from the sound of the trees in the forest.

I placed my hands in my ears and focused on the sound.

「Gyahhhhhh! 」

A scream? I didn’t know what was going on and I felt like it was not a peaceful situation. It sounded like a person’s screams. Perhaps, there were people over there. I decided to go and see the situation with my own eyes.

Note:

*Kaede first speaks water in Japanese (水/Mizu), and then, he speaks it in English.