~X~
Fire...
Fire was what I saw as I tiredly opened my eyes. I tried to get up quickly, but my body was just so tired. I groaned as I turned from lying on my back to lying on my stomach. I took a couple of breaths, then placed my right hand on the ground to push myself up. I tried to do the same with my left, but, for some reason, it didn't want to hit the ground.
"Oh..." I said as I looked at my arm to find out why.
Or I would've if it was there.
Yup. My left arm is gone. It seems to have been cut off just below my shoulder.
I don't know how long I stared at it, but...
"Grrr..."
Whatever that sound was, it snapped me out of my daze. I have no idea what it was, but it was low and very guttural. I did not want to find out.
With a burst of adrenaline, I staggered to my feet and quickly looked around. I looked to be in a rather old country village that looked like it was straight from medieval times. There didn't even seem to be any electricity.
I eventually managed to spot a partially collapsed house that I could possibly hide in.
I limped as fast as I could past the broken front door and hid around the corner. It was not a moment too soon because as I peeked back outside the door, I saw...
Oh my God... Are those goblins?
Sure enough, what passed by were these small, green, rough-skinned humanoids, with pointy ears, and long noses.
What the hell?!
I tried to calm myself, waited, and hoped they would not notice me. I've seen Goblin Slayer! I know what happens to any females they capture!
To take my mind off the goblins, I decided to think about how the hell I ended up in this situation while still keeping an eye on them.
Right... So, what happened before this? I was driving home, really tired from working another sixty-hour work week. I was on the highway...
And...
And...
...
I don't remember! Everything goes blank after that!
Okay! Okay... calm down...
Breathe in... Breathe out...
...
Okay... I was tired... I was driving while tired...
Maybe... Did I fall asleep? That... does make sense. I probably fell asleep at the wheel, and then I-
...
Did I... die?
...I-I don't know.
S-Suppose I did die. How did I end up in this village that's being raided by goblins?
...Oh, Shit! Right! I forgot to keep an eye on the goblins! Where are they?!
I scanned the road, but I couldn't find a trace of them. Suddenly, it felt like something screamed at me to move. I jumped to the side as fast as I could.
"CLUNK*
An arrow impacted the wall where I was standing, right where my torso had been.
I quickly turned to the direction the arrow came from and saw the goblins there. I quickly bolted out the door and ran in a random direction. The goblins gave chase. I weaved around all the debris from the collapsed buildings, broken carts left on the road, and... some bodies as well. All the while dodging arrows the goblins were firing.
I don't know how I was moving the way I was. It was almost like parkour... or maybe it was because I'm pretty sure I did a double kong over that wide cart despite only having one arm.
Still, despite my newfound parkour skills, the goblins kept up. How? I have no idea.
Damn it, I don't think I can keep running. I was already tired, to begin with, and I'd been bleeding from my stump. So, the added blood loss was not helping. The only thing I could think of was to turn and fight. But I don't know how to-
"KFFF!" I slid to a stop and gripped my head as this huge migraine came all of a sudden.
Teacher...
a desk...
Symbols on the chalkboard...
...
I... What?
I... suddenly had this new information in my brain. Runes and spell matrixes and...
"GLBA!" the goblins yelled and caught up.
Oh, forget it. I'll figure it out later.
Now... How do I activate this?
...
open field...
gather mind...
Demonstration...
...
"Right then... Arcane Tier!"
I was surrounded by glowing runes and spell matrixes revolving around me. It kind of reminded me of when Ainz cast Fallen Down against Shaltear.
"GRAAA!"
Right, goblins. Now, how does this spell work?
The relevant memories came up. I pulled on a spell matrix floating to my right and dragged it in front of me. I pushed some mind through it and a small blue fireball flew out toward my enemies. However, the spell was a bit strange. Instead of the air getting hotter, it got colder.
The goblin I was aiming at easily dodged.
Tch. According to the memory fragment, that was a low-level firebolt spell. I need something stronger. I focused once again. I pulled some runes and other symbols around me and added them to the spell matrix in front of me. I don't know how, but I instinctively knew these added runes and symbols would increase the power and speed, and add an AOE explosion to my little cold firebolt.
I pushed mind into this new spell circle and what came out of it was twice the size of the firebolt, but really fast! In the blink of an eye, it crashed into the lead goblin and exploded. The explosion was huge and hit all of the other goblins.
When the smoke cleared, half of them were dead, and the other half were injured and bleeding. Wait... the goblins and ground are covered in ice?
I shook my head. It doesn't matter right now. I shot two more of the same spell and finished them off.
Huh, that... was actually pretty easy.
Still, I shouldn't lower my guard. I quickly scanned around to see if any more goblins were hiding nearby, but I didn't see or sense any. Hmm, I still have Arcane Tier active. Could I put together a spell to scan the town for any?
More fragments of memory popped up to tell me, 'Yes, I can make such a spell.' Better to be safe than sorry. I put the appropriate runes together in the circle and activated it. A pulse of visible mind expanded from me, and I could feel it travel through the area. A few seconds later, the pulse returned to me, and I knew nothing alive was around in a 1-kilometer radius.
For those who don't know, what I made was effectively a sonar spell to find any living being around. That was both encouraging and disheartening.
Encouraging, that there were no more goblins around.
Disheartening in the fact that I was the only survivor here.
...
Haah.
I slowly lowered my hand and stared at the ground in disappointment. Looks like I won't be getting any answers the easy way.
Where am I?
Why am I here?
How am I so powerful with magic?
What are these memory fragments that keep popping up?
Why is my...
...
...
Why is my skin tone a different color?!
I knew something was off! I quickly looked around for something reflective and found a piece of a broken mirror in the remains of a cart.
...
...
"What the hell?! That's not my face!"
Nope, it was not. The 'me' who was looking back had dark skin, shoulder-length silver hair, and ice-blue eyes.
Oh, I also had elven ears.
"W-Whhhaaaa..." I shakily said. I couldn't even finish a word.
"Ah, should I come at another time?"
~X~
I quickly faced behind me, where the voice came from, hand outstretched with a fireball spell matrix already glowing. I saw an elderly man with white slicked-back hair and a long beard. He was wearing a light brown Yukata, a dark brown haori over it, and sandals.
I frown and narrow my eyes in thought. This guy looked familiar. I just couldn't place him.
"We need to talk," he said, unconcerned that I had a spell ready to fire. "We should have this conversation somewhere more comfortable."
Before I could do anything, the old man snapped his fingers and we were suddenly in the clouds. We were standing on a floor of four tatami mats and there were no walls. There was a dresser, an old TV, this Japanese low table, and two cushions for us to sit on. The table had two Japanese tea cups.
"Come, relax, and have a seat," he sat down on his mat and started drinking his tea.
If the old man could snap his figures and send us here, then there was no point in trying to fight him. I disarmed my spell and sat on the cushion.
"Let me get straight to the point," the old man bowed. "I am God and... I made a bit of a blunder and dropped a lightning bolt on you."
I felt both my eyebrows raise in surprise. "What are...? Wait a minute... this feels familiar..." Why am getting a serious sense of deja vu? "Hold on, you said you killed me with bolt lightning? I didn't crash driving home?" I said incredulously.
"No, not at all," he said. "I was actually using my powers to make sure you didn't crash, but then... well, the whole lightning bolt thing," he finished sheepishly.
"Right..." I nodded and assimilated the information. "So, you're the one who brought me to this world."
"I did," God nodded. "I wanted to bring you to a new world, but... I... blundered again."
"How so?"
"I had planned to explain things to you as I am now and get your opinions on where you wanted to go, but I accidentally activated the CYOA option and lost track of you. I apologize once again," he explained.
"CYOA option? ...Hold on.... That Danmachi CYOA I filled out a few hours ago?!"
"Yes, it really is embarrassing," God sheepishly nodded. "Because of that mistake, your memories of this new life have not melded with your mind perfectly. You may have noticed you get flashes of memory? Those were your memories of this life."
...
"Haah, so, now what?" I simply said and hung my head.
There's not much I can do. There's no point in freaking out about this.
"Well, I had planned to send you to the same world as my grandson, but now you're on this alternate Earth," he said. "For the trouble I caused by accidentally killing you and for accidentally sending you to this world, my compensation is this. I will let you choose four free options on the CYOA you filled."
"Free what now?" I deadpanned.
"Four free choices. Two for accidentally killing you and two for accidentally sending you here," he repeated. "You can choose anything; Boons, Talents, Gear, Skills. In fact, I'll throw in the 'Another Adventure' Boon for free."
I blinked at him at that.
"That's just... Isn't that..." I tried to start but stopped.
Maybe... I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. No matter how odd this seems.
"Thank you for your generosity," I ended up saying.
"It's the least I could do for this mess up. Especially since..." he motioned to my missing left arm.
"Hmm. In the Skills section, I could only choose four passives. Could I choose more than four?"
"Hmm, sure that's fine," he easily agreed. "So, what are you going to choose?" he asked as he slid a paper version of my CYOA that showed the choices I already made.
~X~
Author's Note:
I'm stuck with writer's block with Soul of a Fate Gamer, but I wanted to just write something. So, I came up with this new story.
I have a general outline but not completely sure where I want this story to go. We'll see as it continues.
As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.