Bijo to Kenja to Majin no Ken Chapter 1

I felt a prickling pain against my cheek as though someone were poking me with the tips of their fingernails.

Again…? With that thought running through my mind, I opened my eyes ever so slightly. An unexpected brightness surrounded me. I could also feel the soft warmth of sunlight over my body. The pain I felt in my cheek was the same as when I fell into the gap between worlds, but the experience was entirely different.

If I were to sum up everything my eyes were seeing into a single statement, it would be “grassy field”. It seemed the grass, swaying in the breeze, was what had been pricking my cheeks. Turns out it had nothing to do with the old man, who had called himself “Clancy’s Disciple”.

Putting my palm against the earth I pushed myself up, turning my head to look all around. Everywhere I could see, there did not appear to be any movement that stood out. Actually, it wouldn’t be wrong to say I couldn’t see any towns or houses, any place people might live.

With things like this, it seems I didn’t just wake from a dream.

After all, all five of my senses were functioning from the moment I had left reality and conversed with that old man. I was torn between the conflicting emotions of wanting to deny the strange reality before me, while at the same time feeling that there was nothing to be done, and I should just give up.

The problem was, as I stood and looked at everything around me, even if I tried denying it all nothing would start. So, I told myself I needed to accept this strange reality and figure out what to do next.

The region I was in gave off a pleasant location kind of feeling. The sun shone, wind flowed gently, vegetation swayed… It wasn’t as though the entire land was covered by soft turf, but it was still the kind of grassy field where a child could run and run, yet never reach the end. There were bumps in the scenery that represented mountains and hills, but there was no bare rock protruding anywhere, all-in-all it was a very gentle scene.

After getting a good look at my surroundings, I turned my attention to myself. I saw something that just didn’t match the natural scene around me, a business man wearing an all too familiar suit. …There was no helping it. After all, I had been on my way home. Giving an excuse no one could hear, I brushed off the dust that had clung to me.

Combining everything that had happened so far, I could say that at the very least, I had been brought somewhere I’d never been before. The issue was whether this was the world I had been, or some different world. What I needed to do to confirm that…

I considered everything until now, and looking at my hand, tried to imagine my status. I hadn’t been told how it works, but if I were to believe the old man’s words, I should have received my ordered skill. If that skill were to activate, then I was undoubtedly stranded in some fantasy world. All of a sudden, in response to my test, a semi-transparent window-like object appeared before me. In it were written all sorts of characters and numbers. It very clearly knocked into me the fact that yes, I had indeed fallen into another world.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
【Name】
Kei Arakawa
【Age】
21
【Class】
Novice
【Level】
1 (00)
【Status】
HP: 144/150
SP: 32/32
Strength: 45 (06)
Endurance: 42 (04)
Fortitude: 93 (83)
MP: 64 (22)
Agility: 35 (01)
Dexterity: 39 (94)
Evasion: 24 (12)
Luck: 8 (00)
Attack: 45 (+0)
Defense: 44 (+2)
　【Affinity】
None
【Skills】
Status★(All), Appraisal★, Martial Skill 1, Negotiation Skill 2, Fortitude 7, Sleep Resistance 4, Pain Endurance 2, Sickness Resistance 2, Self-recovery 4, Status Self-recovery 1, Languages of Florence
【Titles】
Clancy’s Disciple, Foreigner, Company Slave
【Equipment】
Suits (Defense +2)
【Debuffs】
Clancy’s Limitation LV99
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

For the moment, I was relieved that the characters before me were legible… The name is right, even the spelling. However, I could argue about everything else.

My age, for one. If memory serves, I should have been just about to have my twenty-eighth birthday. I remember graduating from college fine, so maybe there was an error in the display…

Next up is the row of numbers. No matter how I think about it, it all looks like stuff from a game. I mean seriously, Attack and Defense? In my own world, battles were a thing set aside for a select type of person, but I suppose this means fighting is normal in this world…? My fortitude seems a little high, and my magic power being so high, when I’ve never used magic before, is kind of concerning. The numbers in parenthesis don’t make any sense either, and it seems something as indistinct as luck also has a value. Even more, the fact it’s so low makes me feel like crying.

I wonder if the ★ mark next to status means I’ve mastered it, or maybe it has some other special meaning? It’s a skill the old man gave me, so maybe that’s it. Only, it isn’t just status that has the mark, but appraisal as well. They sound the same to me, but I can’t help but feel like it’s different from what the old man said about giving me one skill…?

I don’t want to touch on my titles too much. When did I become a disciple of this Clancy character? I should really look into that, but it’s also too much that I’m labeled a company slave even after falling into another world.

My status of Clancy’s Limitation LV99 seems to be what the old man was talking about. As a test, I tried thinking about what happened in the gap between worlds. …Nothing happened.

Next, I tried saying out loud what the old man had called himself, Clancy’s Disciple.

……

……

I had tried to open my mouth and speak, but not only did my mouth not move, no sound came out either. This is quite astounding…

Next up I tried to say the gap between worlds. Yep, can’t say a word. Next up I tried saying I come from another world. This time, not only was I unable to utter a word, I also felt a sharp pain stab into my head. Maybe I had taken Clancy’s Limitation LV99 a little too lightly. Maybe it would be best if I tried to avoid acting too carelessly.

I guess with this, I’ll be unable to tell anyone I come from another world, or talk about myself. Generally, I suppose it isn’t that big a deal, but if I really think about it, I can see what it means.

If this really is another world, then I haven’t got a clue about this world’s common sense. Obviously that isn’t a big deal if common sense is similar to that in my own world. However, the bigger the difference between them, the more important being able to call myself a traveler from another world and seek help would become. Only, the limitation takes away that option. For the moment, I still have no idea if there are even people in this alternate world, but even so, I would like to avoid losing options.

After confirming my status, I decided to walk around and examine my surroundings. I didn’t forget to check the status of the vegetation and earth every chance I got.

The status of earth had practically no meaning. All it showed was red clay, and nothing else. Staring at a small stone and looking at its values, I could see the mass and size, as well as volume of the thing, but I was in no situation to be able to take advantage of that information.

As I walked around nimbly gathering edibles, I tasted each and every one. Most of the plants that were listed as edible tasted horrendous. The only one that was actually somewhat good was Egola Fruit, picked from a certain tree. While it was only one type, finding something palatable allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief.

The next thing I learned was that after about ten-minutes walk, there was a crystal clear river and bank. By checking the status of the river, I found it to be perfectly drinkable. In regards to the basic necessities for life, this was a huge help. The next thing to cause me relief was that in the river, there were fish (of types I have never seen before) and crayfish (well, they looked like crayfish). For a while, I had been concerned over whether there were any living things in this world, but it seems they were fairly common.

Sure fish and crayfish were edible, but as I didn’t have a way to make a fire, I would be forced to eat them raw. Thinking about how my body would react after eating something raw, it was something I wanted to avoid. It goes without saying though that had I not found the Egola Fruit, I would have had to ignore my bodies response and challenge myself to eat them raw…

After securing a supply of food, I started work on preparing a place to sleep. This brings me to the third thing I learned, which is that no matter how far I walked, there was no sign of people. Of course, I have never experienced roughing it outside myself. This made it all the more necessary for me to hurry up and figure out what to do, as I had no idea when the sun would go down in this world.

After an hour, I had a rather luxurious place to sleep, considering it was outdoors. I made a frame using trees, patting down the ground to flatten it out, and covering it all with soft, thick grass. I was able to nicely cushion the ground thanks to the amount of softly textured grass I had gathered. If it were one or two nights, workmanship of this level wouldn’t be an issue at all.

…But, perhaps I didn’t take the situation I was in seriously enough.

After all, I didn’t anticipate that this luxurious bed I had constructed in the wilderness would need to serve me for far more than just one or two nights…

Chapter end