Chapter 1: Chapter 1: A Familiar New World

My hands were shaking, fists clenched in excitement. Surrounding me was an odd circle made up of concentric glowing rings. Numerous foreign symbols and patterns lined the circle and danced around it, pulsating and shining brightly. I could feel my vision start to blur as my eyes began to water. It was happening. I was being summoned. Years of enjoying isekai novels, manga, and anime, had prepared me for this moment. I didn’t feel a shred of hesitation as a bright light enveloped my room and swallowed me whole.

Ever since I was little, I could remember loving isekai stories. The protagonist being summoned to, or reincarnating into a fantasy world always sounded so exciting. After becoming enraptured by this world, I consumed every form of isekai media I could find. The main series’, the obscure hidden gems, the generic harem trash, the knockoffs, the knockoffs of the knockoffs, and even the awful fanfictions. I liked to think that I had seen more isekai series than any man alive. Most of the visitors on my review blog seemed to think I had at least. Despite being only fifteen, I had even tried to learn other languages like Japanese and Korean so that I could read novels that hadn’t been translated yet.

Unfortunately, my school life was nothing to speak of. I had no girlfriend, or friends for that matter considering that I devoted all my time to reading and reviewing isekai series. The one thing I thought I would never experience though was a true isekai. I had never been brave enough to jump in front of a moving vehicle to try and get reincarnated, besides it seemed like I’d have to travel to japan if I really wanted to do it authenticity which was a little out of my budget. I tried numerous other methods though. Everything from falling asleep while playing mmorpgs to buying mysterious old trinkets and books from shady shopkeepers and shaking them while begging them to send me to the other world. Alas, all my efforts were in vain as nothing ever worked. I eventually had to accept that there was no way to go to another world.

At least that's what I thought but now here I was, standing in a wooded area next to some sort of shrine. It seemed to be carved of stone and resembled a simple pillar, roughly four feet in height. The pillar was intricately carved with hundreds of runes and symbols. Atop it hovered a shiny black stone roughly the size of quarter with a small hole going through the center. I hesitantly touched it but nothing happened. When I tried to move away however the stone edged towards me, still hovering atop the pillar but pointing towards me like a compass.

Aw, you don’t want me to leave do you buddy. Alright, in that case, I’ll take you with me. I pocketed the weird stone and began walking. Hopefully, I would find a town somewhere nearby. As I was walking aimlessly through the forest. I began to experiment a bit. “Status!” Nothing. “Stats!” nothing. "System!” still nothing. I tried several more callouts and even tried tapping the air, focusing on the corner of my vision, and drawing the little squiggly thing from Alicization but nothing seemed to work. Apparently, this world wasn’t one of those game worlds with stats and levels. There must be some other way to find out about my skills and magic though. I decided to focus on walking. I'm sure I could figure it out by the time I reached a town.

“Help!” A sudden scream resounded through the forest. It was coming from my left and by the sound of it, the scream originated from a young girl. Alright, first flag here I come. I broke out into a full sprint in the direction it came from. I was in decent shape so I didn’t have to worry about getting winded. Based on everything I read. This was likely one of two events. Option A, a young village girl wanders too far from home and is attacked, or B, a young noble girl's caravan is attacked by bandits or monsters. There was also the more elusive option C where the young village girl is actually a noble in disguise who snuck away from home but those scenarios never really made sense to me. As I rounded the corner, I was immediately thrown into a scene of carnage. I had read plenty of scenes like this but the real thing was still hard to prepare for.

In front of me lay a dirt road, upon which a gilded carriage was currently under attack. Several knights fought with a group of ragged wolves. I saw a downed soldier and reached for his blood stained weapon. The scent of blood assaulted my nose but I managed to hold my breath as I picked up the weapon. Shit, it was heavy, I thought as I tried to raise it. An ear piercing scream caught me off guard causing me to drop the blade back into a puddle of blood. I turned and saw one of the wolves tearing the carriage’s door off its hinges. My legs were shaking but I slapped myself as I steeled my resolve. I ran at the wolf and drove my knee into the unsuspecting beast’s stomach causing it to tumble down. Looking inside the carriage, I could see a young girl with bright red hair in a stunning dress clutching a dark haired maid tightly. As I entered the carriage, I could hear the beast snarling behind me. I jumped forward and pushed the two girls to the ground as the beast leapt over me and crashed out the carriages window.

“Let’s Go!” I yelled as I pulled on both their hands, dragging them out of the carriage. I picked up the young noble girl as her maid ran alongside me. “Where are we going!” she asked as she ripped the front of her maid uniform’s skirt, making it easier to run. “The hell away from here!” I yelled. I didn’t have much of a plan. I had no way to fight since I didn’t know how to use my abilities yet so my only option was to run. The young noble girl was clinging tightly to my chest. She seemed to be around six or seven so thankfully she was quite light. The sound of an approaching wolf became audible as I slowed down. “Can you use magic?” I asked the maid. She looked to be around my age and had dark red hair. “Fire magic, but it’s very weak. I can’t kill a dire wolf with it.”

So they were called dire wolves eh. How generic. “What if it wasn’t moving?” I asked as it continued to gain on us. “Possibly,” she replied. That was all I needed. I stopped and picked up a rather large branch from the forest floor. It would have to do. “Let go kid” I said as I tried to shake the young noble girl off me but she refused to let go. Her tiny arms were wrapped tightly around me like a koala. I turned around as I heard a ferocious roar only to see the dire wolf lunging at me. I held the branch horizontally and logged it between its jaws. The force of the beast's lunge knocked me back but I continued to hold on tightly to the branch. “Now” I yelled as I struggled to keep the wolf at bay. Its open jaws, mere inches from my face. The panicking maid began chanting some sort of spell as the wolf hung over me, the creaking branch threatening to break at any second. It finally snapped, right as a plume of fire shot out of the maid’s hands. The wolf's fur caught fire and it began to yowl as it rolled on the ground trying to smother the flames.

The sound of more footsteps was approaching in the distance. Unless I suddenly awakened my abilities now, we were royalty fucked. I tried to peer through the trees as I struggled to catch my breath and sit up straight. The maid girl also seemed winded from using her fire spell. Suddenly, a knight riding a horse burst through the trees. “My Lady. Art thou alright?” he asked as he stabbed the injured wolf cleanly through the neck. “I detected a pulse of distressed signal magic from your carriage and came as quick as I could.” More knights began to emerge from the direction the first had come. The leader, or who I assumed to be the leader, helped me to my feet. I tried to hand over the crying girl but she still refused to let go of me. It was at that point that I noticed the front of my shirt was completely soaked, and warm. Evidently, the young lady had wet herself. Quite the troublesome damsel indeed.