When I came to, I found myself laying down in a wooden carriage all by myself. I sat up and looked around me, the sky was pitch black with the stars and moons bringing light to the dark sky.

Wait, moons?

I did a double-take at the sky and sure enough, there were two moons in the sky.

I looked at the dark surroundings and was able to spot an extinguished campfire near the carriage which had parked in what seemed to be a grassy plain, with no signs of civilization around us.

“You’re awake?” A voice questioned me from behind.

I turned around to find the knight in blue armor. He wasn’t wearing his blue armor, but without a doubt, it was the same tall muscular man who had almost cut my head clean off. In an instant, I readied my shield which was still in the Scutum shape.

“Is being hostile in your nature? You just woke up.”

“Can you blame me? You nearly sliced my head off.” I replied in anger.

The knight sighed and sat back down. He brought a finger to his lips and pointed to the floor of the carriage with his other hand. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see that my Summoner and her other Spirits were sleeping peacefully together.

Realizing that there was no reason for the knight to start attacking me, I lowered my shield and sat back down.

“I’d like to apologize for almost cutting your head off, if we are to be friends, please call me Roy.” Roy introduced as he offered his hand.

My brain got whiplash from trying to understand how “cutting your head off” and “friends” were used in the same sentence in a casual way, but I decided to not let it get to my head and hesitantly shook Roy’s hand.

“My name is Rin, and uhm, thank you for not cutting my head off I guess.”

“It was your own power that prevented me from doing so, but with my level now, I’d break past your shield with no problems.”

“I’m still having trouble trying to figure out if you’re an enemy or not.”

Roy started laughing loudly, but he soon remembered that people were sleeping around us and regained his composure.

“Anyway,” Roy cleared his throat, “After your shield completely burned down the summoning bar, our Summoner brought us dungeon hunting to gain levels.”

It took me a while to realize and take in what Roy had said.

“My shield did what!?” I shouted, causing Roy to frantically shake his hands for me to remember that people were sleeping. I covered my mouth and after a few deep breaths, Roy continued.

“Your shield is the Shield of Two Opposites, right?” Roy asked.

I thought back to when the gods had given me the shield and armor. I nodded my head.

“If my memory serves me right, your shield has control of fire and water.” Roy continued, “but I don’t know specifically what sort of powers your shield can do, that’s for you to find out.”

“Does everyone’s weapon have elemental powers?” I ask.

“It’s not that common, but my sword has some Ice powers,” Roy points at the short girl in the purple dress. “Liz’s spear, for example, has no elemental power, but because she is a Drakon Spirit, she has immense power.”

“A dragon?”

“A Drakon.” Roy corrects me, “They’re similar beings, but not exactly the same.”

I decide to not freak out about the Spearman being a dragon as I try to drill into my head that this world isn’t Earth. My mind was starting to get tired and dizzy just trying to adjust to this new world.

“You mentioned something about levels, I’m guessing every Spirit has a level?” I ask.

“That’s correct, when people become Spirits, they become a level one Spirit. Right now, all of us are level 15, except you.”

“You managed to get that many levels in one day?” I asked in surprise.

Roy scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh.

“You sort of… were out cold for 3 days.”

“Oh.”

I sighed, not only am I in a party where I am so far behind, my Summoner has immediately tried to kill me as well.

I looked up at Roy as I recalled something.

“Why am I not dead?”

Roy tilts his head and gives me a puzzled look.

“I mean, I was out for 3 days, right? You could have killed me easily like you all wanted to.”

“We didn’t want to kill you,” Roy sighed. “We’re just following orders from Summoner Isabel.”

“Don’t you think that’s still a bit messed up? I didn’t ask to be her Spirit, why should I get killed and cast away for that?”

Roy seemed even more puzzled at my statement, “Isn’t that normal though? Why would anyone waste time on a Spirit that they’re not interested in?”

With what he had just said to me, I was given a strict reminder that not all of Earth’s laws and common sense would apply to this world.

Wait, that kind of thinking is not that uncommon even on Earth…

I gave myself an imaginary slap across the face as I realized that Isabel’s way of thinking was not unordinary to Earth at all. I thought back to when I played RPG games, more specifically Gacha games. Whenever I got a character or equipment I didn’t want, I’d instantly cast it away.

“I’m an unwanted character…” I whispered to myself.

Roy tilted his head, “Pardon?”

“It’s nothing, I think I’ll just get back to sleep.”

Confused with everything and how I should be feeling, I laid back down onto the carriage. As I prepared to sleep to forget the night, I noticed Rin dig into a sort of backpack, filling the carriage with the sound of glass clinking against one another. He finally got his hands out of the bag, and in each hand sat a spherical glass bottle filled with glowing green liquid.

“Rin, drink these.”

“Potions?”

“Yes, they’re level potions. You were lucky that you started at level five instead of level 1, but compared to us right now, you’re still weak.”

I took the glass bottles from Roy and hesitantly opened one up. I smelled into the bottle and was surprised to find out that the potion smelled similar to apple juice. Realizing how thirsty I was, I instantly took a drink of the potions.

Roy could have told me that it was apple juice, and I would have believed it. The level potions tasted exactly like apple juice.

Roy tapped at my shield and words started to appear at the back of the shield for me to read.

 

Rin

-         Defensive Support Class

-         Human

-         Level: 5 ~> 7

-         MP: 20/20

 

“A potion is equivalent to one level?” I asked the knight who was now trying to find a spot in the carriage to lie down.

“It is indeed,” He replied as he finally found an empty spot just big enough to fit his muscular body, “It doesn’t seem that beneficial for us in the lower levels since we could easily get much more levels from clearing dungeons or fighting other Summoners, but these potions could come in handy when we’re in a higher level and in need of that extra power.”

These potions were quite powerful, imagine taking a level 99 Spirit to 100 in a matter of seconds with these potions. I tried to look at Roy, but I couldn’t exactly see him in the darkness of the night.

“Why would you waste these potions on someone like me?” I asked.

Silence fell in the carriage for a while, only the sound of wind rustling the grass was audible until I spotted Roy’s muscular silhouette turn over.

“You got me thinking a bit, I don’t fully understand it myself, but I can kind of see your point about how unfair it would be for Spirits to be killed off when they’re not wanted by their Summoners. Also, as your fellow party member, I must make sure that you are not falling behind.”

Is Roy being sympathetic?

I decide to keep silent and lay my head down to sleep.