One small step for Michael. One giant leap for Michael-kind.
“Finally! I’ve reached a civilization!” Michael shouted at the very top of his lungs after seeing the stone walls of a settlement from the horizon. “I’ve collected a lot of gregs. Hopefully they count as currency in this world. If there’s different other types of money, someone please end my suffering,” thought Michael as he started approaching the walls.
Michael then came upon the solid metal gate that led to the entrance of the town. “The place is quite large for it to be some small village,” he thought. He spotted five guards nearby the gate, armed with halberds and spears, with swords sheathed in their scabbards and sheaths. He saw even more situated atop the village walls. They appeared to have better plate armour equipped over their massive and burly statures, seemingly over 200 centimeters tall, towering over Michael’s tiny figure of 166 centimeters.
Despite all of these disparities, the five did not have their visors over their face, exposing their clean-shaven faces are clean-shaven, and are void of any scars or damage to them. All of them had vibrant colored eyes, and a chiseled face to boot.
If Michael were a female, he would have been charmed by their faces. Sadly, or luckily for him, he does not play that route, as he is a straight male. Yaoi was just not his thing.
Instead, Michael felt a bit of envy welling inside of him, jealous of their handsome physique. He suppressed those feelings, and made conversation with the men for entrance to the village. “It’s more like a small castle than a village if I’m being honest. Makes me wonder how an actual stronghold or castle would look,” he thought.
Michael called out to the five guards near the gate. “H-hey-lo!” He stuttered and jumbled his words. “Ah, fuck. You’ve got to be kidding me! There goes first impressions…”
The guards were not intimidated by Michael’s blood-soaked body and clothes, evident by their lax expressions upon seeing him. One of them responded to Michael in the same accent as the carriage guards he encountered a while back. “What brings you to Gregorsville, Dwarf?”
Michael became stupefied at the response that the guard gave him. “D-d-d-d-dwaaarf?! Did he just assume my race? Am I that short in this world? God, please send me to the afterlife I deserve now…” His plea went unanswered, so instead, he relaxed himself and replied to the towering guard now standing before him. “Ahem. I wish to enter Gregorsville to seek my fortune.”
The guards all looked at him. One of them spoke. “So, you wish to be an adventurer? You’ve come to the right place! Lucky for you, this is a great place to start off adventuring for a fortune, since not a lot of strong monsters dwell around here. All I need for you is to confirm your identity.”
Michael did not have anything on him that could tell those guards who he is. Or at least, did not have anything that would be counted as official in the world he is in. The guard caught onto Michael’s conflict, and said, “Just come with us. We’ll help get you the necessary papers for identification at a low price.” Michael followed them through the gate and into the walls.
He is led to a table and sat facing another man, who is carrying a wood board, papers, and a decorated writing utensil that looked like a Victorian Era pen. The table is just a bare bones average wooden table. It is only decorated by a shiny silver orb that sat on it. The man has platinum blonde hair, and wore circular monocle on his face. His eyes closed shut, never revealing the color of his irises. From what Michael knew by watching anime, it is that people who have their eyes shut most of the time are not to be fucked with, especially if they begin to open them. The man did not hesitate to speak, and started with what felt more like an interrogation.
“I am Clement White, and am in charge of your identification process. Place your hand on the orb,” said the Interrogator. Michael immediately did just that. He would not want any sort of trouble with anybody right now. The orb glowed a bright red and green before returning to its neutral but shining silver color.
“I will only give you two chances per question. Your name?”
“Michael. Michael Shagger, sir.” Michael wondered what Clement meant by ‘two chances per question.’
The orb glowed a luminescent green. Clement wrote on the paper supported by the wooden board, jotting down what Michael said.
“I assume that Shagger is your surname?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
Green again. Clement wrote down Michael’s surname.
“Your age?”
“24 years of age.”
“Are you affiliated with any factions or guilds previously?”
“N-not that I know of, sir.”
“You are a male, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your height?”
“Five feet and five inches, sir,” said Michael. He grieved inwardly. “Fuck! Why did I have to be on the shorter end of the spectrum in my family?!”
Oddly for Interrogator Clement, the orb glowed green. He never heard of using his feet to measure height.
“What are feet and inches?” Clement asked.
“Excuse me?” Michael, confused by the question, discreetly asked for an explanation.
“I do not understand what these ‘feet’ and ‘inches’ you speak about are. Is that supposed to be your height?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry, but the official measuring system, especially for your height, is zei. We do not understand how one would use their own feet to measure themselves.”
“That’s not what ‘feet’ is-”
“Pardon?”
“N-nothing, sir.” Michael checked his status menu quickly before responding to Interrogator Clement. “It’s 83 zei, sir.”
“Any job? Class?”
“No, sir.”
“Level?”
“One.”
“Have you attempted to obtain a job or class yet?”
“No, sir.”
“What and where is your homeland located?”
Michael’s sweat ran down his face a little. He hesitated to speak about his previous world, so he made a lie to cover up. “I do not have a homeland, sir. I’ve been traveling around, to say the least.” It was not a huge lie. It was half of an entire truth, seeing as how he did not have a place to call his home here in Eternatus, so he wandered around the forest before arriving in Gregorsville. However, the orb he has his hand on began to glow red instead. “Ahh, shit.”
Interrogator Clement did not seem pleased at the orb glowing red. Michael sweated bullets, and his instincts had him immediately take his hand off the orb. “Put your hand back on the orb now.” Clement urged Michael. Michael swiftly placed his hand back onto the orb before incurring more wrath from the Interrogator.
Clement warned Michael with a cold tone of voice. “Do not attempt to deceive me, Michael. Fail to share accurate information with me again, and I shall have you sent in a cell. Understand?”
Michael became baffled at the threat of jail time for not speaking the entire truth. “Well damn! Trying to arrest me for a little lie?! This is an abuse of authority! I demand fair justice!” Michael would have said this out loud to Clement, but with the possibility that the Freedom of Speech is not present in this world, he just opted to curse Clement within his psyche. “Fuck you, Clement. You piece of asswipe.”
Interrogator Clement asked the previous question about Michael’s homeland once more. “I will not ask this question again, Michael. What and where is your homeland located? You know what will happen if it glows red again after you answer this wrongly.”
Michael this time responded truthfully towards the Interrogator. “No way out of this one, huh,” he thought before speaking. “Umm, I was born and raised in the… United States, located in the continent of… North America…” He paused before speaking about where he came from before arriving in Eternatus.
Seeing as how the orb glowed a bright green before shifting to a neutral grey, Interrogator Clement became confused. He has never heard of this ‘United States,’ or ‘North America’ after all. He became curious at this unknown area, and so, he asked another question regarding it. “Where is this ‘North America?’ I’ve never heard of a continent like that anywhere on our maps.”
Michael yet again, nervously responded to the question. “Uhh… North America is located at the… Northern Hemisphere…”
“God! Just shut up about my world already! I don’t wanna be reminded about it,” thought Michael solemnly.
Curiosity struck Clement again. “What is the Northern Hemisphere?” Clement asked.
“It’s… it’s the upper part of… Earth,” said Michael.
“Another interesting term,” thought Clement.
Michael, fed up with the questions, attempted to go on the offensive against Clement. “Interrogator, what is the point of me informing you about my homeland? We’re getting nowhere with this farce!”
Clement’s face twisted into a stone cold expression, his gaze piercing into Michael's soul. “Do not attempt to test me. I could have you thrown in the cells for that as well.”
“Jeez, this dude is a grade A asshole,” thought Michael.
Clement closed his eyes, placed his board, papers, and pen down, then raised his hand up to his chin and formed a thinking pose. “Well… Maybe I’ve went too far with prying into your world. But for your question, it is more for a background check, if anything.”
“Nevermind. I’ll place him on a grade B for now,” thought Michael. “Background check?” he asked.
“It is especially necessary for us to scrutinize those that are from war torn provinces, like Nabhivarsha or Kyokutou. Those that came from violent provinces more likely are violent themselves, being raised on nothing but blood, death, and anger. There are some exceptions, but we still are cautious about them, no matter what,” said Clement.
“Damn. Even this world has problems,” thought Michael.
“As you suggested, we shall move on. What is your race?” Interrogator Clement picked his stuff up and readied himself to write more notes on Michael.
“Human, sir,” responded Michael. “This is gonna take forever. Can I skip this cutscene please?” thought Michael.
Night fell upon Gregorsville. Michael sat in a cell by himself, with nothing but his blood-stained clothes, and some food. After Clement stripped him of his items and information, he was thrown into jail to await his identification. “Great. I still ended up in a jail cell regardless. I think I’ll move him back up to being a grade A asshole.” Initially, the Interrogator offered some cooked meat to Michael, but Michael declined it, wishing for some fruits and vegetables instead. He did not wish to consume any meat because of what happened in the forest. He felt nauseous even thinking about eating meat.
“A lot has happened in these past few days since I’ve been here. Finding out my skill is almost useless, getting my balls nearly torn off by a wolf, fighting and grinding for more corpses to harvest. At least corpses were harvested and the bones discarded before I got here,” thought Michael. “Now I’m surrounded by walls and guards now. I can rest easy knowing that, unlike in the forest.” He sighed. “Will life really get better for me here?”
As Michael finished his food, he started getting exhausted. Tranquility entering his mind, he soon succumbed to the silent night.
“Hey. Wake up,” a voice called out.
“Hey. Don’t make me smack you awake. I’ll do it,” the voice aggressively stated.
A resounding smack echoed in the dungeon floor where Michael slept.
|
Michael has been bitch-slapped! Super effective! |
“OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!”
Michael’s screams effectively awakened the denizens of Gregorsville. He clenched his face with his hands, fell off a large wooden plank he was forced to call a bed, and rolled on the floor in agony for a hot minute. After that, he immediately rose from the floor to confront his attacker; Interrogator Clement.
“Bruh, what the fuck was that for, huh?!” exclaimed Michael, with his face still bright red and aching from the pain.
“Well, you were not waking up from all the noise that I’ve been making. The other prisoners are ready to go. Why are you not so?” questioned Clement in a calm tone.
“The fuck?! You were barely making any noise to begin with!” shouted Michael.
“On the contrary, I’ve been smacking on the steel bars hard enough with this here pole for everyone else to hear in the prison. Out of everyone, you were the only person to not rise from your bed. If you were a prisoner, I would be treating you more harshly,” said Clement as he exposed mentioned metal pole, his face showing his amusement.
Michael showed his confusion at the Interrogator’s unusual behavior, and asked, “Why are you acting like this now? When you were interrogating me, you was like ‘tell me your name or I’ll throw you in jail.’ Now you sound less like an asshole.” Michael imitated Clement with pinpoint accuracy, with ice cold tone almost the same as his. “He’s now a grade S shithead for smacking me awake,” he thought.
Clement simply smiled, his eyes shut from the contact of the world, yet still somehow is able to navigate through the prison. “You are a very interesting person, Michael. An anomaly that is only experienced once in a lifetime. From what I can tell based on the interrogation, you are not from around here, are you?” he questioned Michael.
Michael simply responded, “Well of course not. I just got here from the forest, so what did you expect?”
Clement shook his head. “I’m not talking about you coming from the forest. It is like you just got here, not to here from the forest, but to this world. It feels as if you were just transported here, from another realm. The homeland you mentioned does not exist here, after all. However, I did some research overnight, and there are historical records mentioning not only your homeland, but others as well. One such other name would be Japan. Is that a part of your realm as well?”
Michael silently processed the information that was given to him. “Other people from my world have been here too? From different continents and countries as well? Shit. It seems like trucks are going on a rampage. If that’s the case, I hope that I don’t run into anybody I know. Well, the chances of that are slim as fuck,” he thought.
Little did he know, that hope would be crushed.
In the palace of another kingdom, a ritual consisting of fifty magicians took place. They are sacrificing their lives to summon powerful Messiahs. A magical explosion occurred, ripping all fifty of their lives away, in exchange for a mere four individuals. The King, who is lazing on the throne became enthusiastic at the thought of his kingdom’s power growing with just these four. He called out to them.
“O, great Messiahs, summoned from the Other Realm incomprehensible to we inferior beings, lend us your strength!”
The four summoned have revealed themselves. One is a very tall male with fair white skin, and a chiseled yet muscular body. His eyes an intense blue full of courage, and hair a short spiky golden blonde. His face sports a jaw carved out by the gods, with perfectly lined teeth that complements everything. The other male is not as tall as the other, but is just as muscular. He has deep hazel eyes and a face that every woman would die for, and what any man would envy. To top it, his bright brown hair in a slick cut fitted well with his clean shaven jaw.
The first female has dirty blonde hair with a flawless facial complexion. Blemishes absent from her face, she exudes an aura of beauty with eyes as vibrant as the sun. She has been blessed with a tall and curvaceous figure that women envied whenever they saw her, creamy white skin, and smiles that could charm any man. However, that woman could not smile anymore. The second female with smooth caramel skin and face void of flaws from anything that would bring her complexion down. Her body was not as curvaceous as the first female, but she is more tall and muscle toned, which expresses her athletic skill. Her dark hair takes on the sun’s heat, and her eyes void of any color.
“What is going on?” questioned the blonde female.
“What the hell is this?!” exclaimed the golden blonde male. He stepped forward to the King who sat on his throne.
“Please present us with your names, great Messiahs! We wish to know the names of our future saviors!” shouted the King.
“Saviors?” wondered the caramel skinned female.
“Messiahs?” questioned the brown haired male.
“Wait, can you please tell us what’s going on? We don’t even know where we are!” exclaimed the curvy female.
“Allow me to formally apologize for inciting panic on you. This kingdom summoned all four of you here as our saviors! Our Messiahs! To rid of all that threaten to bring upon its collapse and ruin. I, no we plea for the safety and prosperity of the kingdom. For all its people. We beg of you!” claimed the King. He rose from his throne and bowed to the four revealed saviors.
The blonde man stepped forth, and proclaimed his name in a booming yet charismatic and courageous voice. “I am Chad McMillian.” The revelation of his name to the King incited others to do the same as well.
The brown haired male came soon after, and presented himself as Chad’s brother, finding the courage to do so after his brother said his own name. “I’m Brad McMillian.”
The caramel skinned female came forth to the King. “Marie Ann Cortez here.”
Despite everyone revealing their names, the curvy female did not proclaim her own. She still seemed skeptical about the situation around her. The blond man named Chad turned to her.
“Hey, Beth. I know that this is a weird situation we’re in now, and that you’ve just mourned the loss of your older brother, but the best thing to do is say our names and learn of the situation at hand,” said Chad.
The blonde female seemed to ponder at the thought, before replying, “Alright then. Only because you said so, Chad.”
She stepped forth along with Chad, and proclaimed her name to the prostrating King while attempting to smile her brightest.
“My name is Bethany Shagger. You can just call me Beth.”
Templary· Feb 9, 2020
vic20· Mar 31, 2020
