My name is Nakamura Yoshii, but I go by the name of Hex now.

Like everyone else, I was summoned to another world by that shitty kingdom….

This world is in constant war. Be it against the forces of evil or against each other… conflict is the norm of the day.

Seeking to have an edge against its neighbors, that shitty kingdom summoned all of us here. I won’t lie, at first I was kind of happy… I mean, this was the childhood dream of most Japanese boys.

American kids once grew up with dreams of being astronauts and flying to the moon. Japanese kids took it a lot further than that. We are talking about going to a whole new world filled with magic, swords, and above all… Hot elves and cute animal girls.

Sadly that dream was short-lived.

After finding that our unique skills were garbage by this world's standards… most of us were kicked out of the palace.

This once again reminded of how unfair life can be… there are those that have and those that have not.

Afterwards, my attempts to join some of the parties that were being formed didn’t go so well… correction, it was an utter failure.

Most of the guys were forming groups around the leftover girls with the only exception to this arrangement being Yoshihara Reina. She was the most popular girl at our school but like the rest of us, was kicked out because her skill was garbage.

Her boyfriend and former followers did nothing to stop her expulsions.

Thinking that they now had a chance with the former queen bee, many guys approached her, but she shunned them all and left the capital one day.

I thought I was never going to see her again, little did I know just how wrong I was.

***

I started working as a merchant in the city. Thanks to my dimension storage skill, I could easily transport goods from one place to another. That being said, there wasn’t a lack of merchants who could use the skill… which meant that I was unable to make full use of the skill as a cheat.

Nevertheless, I was making a decent income… Enough to make me a rank-E merchant, which was not bad considering there were three ranks below me.

My appraisal skill was also pretty handy. It was stronger than most appraisal skill users that I meet.

This gave me the edge in 4 out of every 10 negotiations.

As time passed I managed to get myself into a routine. I would wake up in the morning and head for the adventure guild. Finding out what quests were taken was key to my business. Sometimes I would accompany the adventures on their quest if they were hunting monsters whose materials were hard to carry back.  

Merchants who had a dimension storage skill were plenty but it was hard to find adventurers who had that skill.

This provided a great opportunity for me… I would tag along and store any monster they killed. I would then handle the business of selling the monster materials to various merchant stores in the city, with me taking a 20% cut

For the adventurers, this arrangement was more profitable than selling it to the guild.

It wasn’t the most amazing life I could ask for from an isekai adventure, but I was making a living and having fun… what more could I ask for?

As it turns out, a peaceful life was the right answer…

“Check the inns… They must be there.”

I woke up in the middle of the night after hearing a ruckus outside. When I opened the wooden window I saw knights of the kingdom raiding every inn along the street.

‘Eh? Did some bandits manage to get into the city?’ I thought before noticing the guys they were taking out.

They were my former classmates and schoolmates.

“Don’t let any of the summoned people escape!” a knight yelled

‘Summoned people? Does he mean people like me?’

Sensing danger, I high-tailed it out of there. I walked in the dark alleys of the city. Narrowly avoiding patrolling knights until arriving at the thief’s guild.  

It cost me a lot of money but a contact of mine managed to help me escape the city.

I was on the road for some time after that. I managed to gather information from traveling merchants about the reason the kingdom was capturing the people it had deemed unworthy.

Turns out that the people who were chosen as heroes got wiped out in battle. They were either dead or missing in action, either way, the kingdom need something to fill the void, and that something was the extras they threw away.

‘Those Bastards. I hope they die a horrible death.’

I decided to change my name to Hex and leave the kingdom.

On my journey, I ran into an old man and a young girl. They were on their way to a small village near the border where the girl’s parents and his daughter were currently living.

According to the old man, his daughter and husband left the capital for the village a year ago. The plan was to have his son-in-law pick them up later in the year, but his daughter got pregnant and had recently given birth.

The baby was fine but the mother fell ill afterward.

Unable to leave his wife behind, the old man had no choice but to travel with the girl alone. As a former knight, he assumed it would be alright despite his age, unfortunately, he was wrong.

The trip proved too much for him and he was now pleading with traveling merchants to help out.

Being the weak will person that I am, I agreed to do it.

He insisted on paying me, but he lacked the money.

I told him that it was okay but his knightly pride wouldn’t let it go.

 After going back and forth we agreed on a price. In exchange for delivering them to the village, he would teach me his sword skills.

In this world, there are two types of skills. Those that you learn as a result of your profession and those that you learn as a result of training.

It goes without saying that the people who learn through training have a harder time than those who were originally born with the class where the skill originated.

It is for this very reason that most merchants have dimensional storage while adventurers do not. It is hard for them to learn the skill.

 Being the merchant that I am, the agreement between the man and I was done through a magic contract.

A magic contract is a sill that all merchants possess and for some funny reason, it is my unique skill.

It’s probably why I was labeled a failure.

It was a pretty smooth journey and because I was with a former knight, I was able to pass checkpoints without any trouble.

“There it is. Kakari Village.” The old uttered when the village came into view.

“Is that where mama and papa are?” the little red-haired girl asked

“Yes… I am sure they will be happy to see you again. So will your younger brother.” the old man softly replied

We safely arrived at the house his daughter and son-in-law were living and were greeted by them both.

Luckily the lady made a recovery from her illness. She had a gentile smile and thanked me for helping her father and daughter.

***

“Alright… As promised, I will teach you my skills.” The old man uttered the next day.

I held in my hand a wooden sword and was preparing to learn the skills the old man had.

I would need to copy everything that he did and repeat the motion over and over many times before a new skill appeared on my status skill. How long this could take differed from person to person, however, the more basic the skill the easier it was to learn.

“First is the sword slash skill… The most basic of them all.” The old spoke before activating his skill.

<Sword Slash>

<Alert: Unique Skill (magic contract) Activated: Skill – Sword Slash Acquired >

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh!”