Chapter 54: 53. The Initial Returnee

It seems like he’s either playing along with my lies, or he’s genuinely unable to read my thoughts.

I told Loki that I met many people who looked just like me, but I didn’t give him details about what the other Jasons spoke about.

Loki wasn’t convinced, but I said that my memories were still mixed up and that I would tell him more details once everything cleared up.

I made sure to keep the weird message that I received a secret, at least for now.

I wonder if I’ll see the Glitchers in person soon…

I had my Anti-Glitch radar, and I suspected that it would prove to be useful, but I still had to think about the present.

Loki surprised me when he said that we were floating in space above Earth, as I thought that we were stranded around some corner of the universe.

This means that the meeting with the Jasons took place in The Void.

I knew nearly nothing about my latent ability, let alone the Multiverse and the Void.

I sighed; there were too many mysteries that I needed to solve. On the bright side, the necklace that I got from Quetzalcoatl’s temple might allow me to find some answers.

I’ll try to buy as many necklaces from other people as possible.

Loki surprised me when he said that he would send me to Earth this soon, as I expected that he would keep me in his pocket dimension for way longer.

He snapped his fingers, and the view in front of me changed immediately.

Everything within my line of sight turned blue, and I felt nothing under my feet.

I looked down, and a strong current of air hit my face. All of a sudden, I realized what was happening; I was falling.

Oh shit! Loki teleported me above a large water body!

I searched for my bag of holding and found it hanging from my waist. I checked my body, and I had my cape, and crown on. I even had my shirt, shorts and the new suit on.

I was glad that he sent my equipment along with me, but I had to check the contents of my bag of holding later.

For now, my priority was to fall safely, then find the closest land to my current whereabouts.

“[It’s fine!]” I activated my skill, and my body caught fire. I chose the low temperature of six hundred Kelvin, as I didn’t need stronger flames for the purpose that I had in mind.

I propelled myself upward by controlling the flames’ burning direction and intensity, and my falling speed decreased exponentially.

I was a hundred meters above the water at this point, and my speed was rather slow. I wasn’t happy about Loki’s prank, but I couldn’t do anything against him anyway

I also needed to get ready for the meeting of the top rankers, as it would take place once the tutorial was officially over.

There were too many things to do, and I’d better find a System Trading Station soon.

Once I was ten meters above the water, I noticed some weird silhouettes moving underwater. I hastily examined them.

[UniShark] (Uncommon)

Level: 48

 

I still couldn’t see what they looked like, but there were more than ten of them according to the system. Once I was five meters above them, they brought their heads out of the water and opened their jaws widely.

They must be thinking that the sky pitied them and granted them easy prey.

My flames could’ve propelled me even further in the air to fly, but I needed to increase their temperature higher than two thousand Kelvin to achieve the feat of flying. High temperatures might destroy my bag of holding, so I didn’t want to risk it.

Alright, Let’s take the bloody path.

I grabbed my bag of holding and hid it between my hands to protect it from my incoming attack.

I dropped into the water with a splash, and I felt many teeth contacting my body. However, I waited for as many sharks to get around me as possible.

I was three meters underwater at this point, and I was curious about the effect of my powers in such an environment.

“[Kill Them Before They Spread!]” I used my multi-target skill, and a heat wave erupted from my body in all directions.

I heard sizzling sounds and many cracking noises; the water around me took on a deep shade of red.

A system screen appeared in front of me.

[Unishark] (Uncommon) (Level: 48) defeated x6! Host earned 1870000 EXP.

 

I noticed that I haven’t killed all of the Unisharks despite the radius of my attack being large enough to encompass them all.

It seems like my flames don’t work well underwater, but I am still glad that they’re not completely useless.

I controlled my flames to propel me upward and took a look at my surroundings once I was floating.

I noticed some land on my left side, so I swam in that direction. I increased my speed by using the flames as jets, and it took me less than a minute to reach the beach.

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It was a long sandy beach and there was a forest behind it.

I went out of the water and started walking on the sand; I was surprised to find someone already standing there, and it wasn’t a human.

It was a bipedal creature whose height reached my waist. It wore a full body suit of leather armor and held a staff with both of its arms.

It had tanned skin, blue eyes, and pointy ears. Its hair was brown, and there were many freckles on its face.

Oh! It’s a female Gnome!

She trembled and looked at me with fear in her eyes.

“Mis…Mister Devilman. Please don’t hurt me, I’ll give you a lesser mana stone,” she said as she bit her lip, “Actu…Actually, I have four lesser mana stones. Take them and leave me alone!”

I wasn’t surprised to see her speaking English, as the foreign races that arrived on Earth all had some kind of language translation skill.

I grinned; I knew the reason behind her reaction. I turned off [It’s fine!], and the flames no longer covered my body.

“Don’t worry, child. I am just a human trying to get back to civilization,” I said with a warm smile, “Do you know the way to the closest System Trading Station.”

I was optimistic about the situation; my Charisma was high enough

All of a sudden, the fear disappeared from her eyes and disappointment replaced it. She stopped trembling and crossed her arms. She turned her face away from me and pouted.

“Oh, so you were just a regular human; I had my hopes up for a second, especially since you’re wearing a cape and a crown,” she said as she gave me a side glance, “First of all, I am not a child; I’m a teenager. You might be a little handsome for a human, but no one gets away with calling me a child. I would’ve totally helped you for free ‘cause you’re strong and can do fire magic, but you’ve ruined my day.”

Then, she gave me an expectant look.

Did she think I was some kind of demon king when I got out of the water at first?

I had mixed feelings about her reply. I was glad that she was open to helping me for free at first; It was proof that my high Charisma was working. However, I felt bad about my mistake of calling her a child; she was too short for a gnome and her facial features were baby-like.

It’s like the old days when I played otome games, the only difference being that I couldn’t reset the save file in real life.

I sighed, then told her about my intentions honestly. I needed to find a System Trading Station as soon as possible, and I’d be wasting time if I kept negotiating with her.

“If you lead me to a System Trading Station within two minutes, I’ll give you one of these,” I said as I pulled a lesser mana stone out of my bag of holding. “It’s the only one that I have, else I would’ve offered more. Also, my crown and clothes aren’t up for negotiation; they’re family heirlooms.”

I lied to her about being poor because I knew Gnomes rather well. Most of them were stingy and they negotiated for hours before striking any deals.

I hope Ratska gives me an easy time when I negotiate with him later on.

Her eyes twinkled and she grinned. Then, she started running in a certain direction. I followed her easily; the shorter legs of gnomes weren’t efficient for running.

We got away from the beach and went through the forest. There were many pine trees around us, but each one of them had a length of at least thirty meters.

Even the plants are affected by the system…

I was interested in this Gnome, as she might be a useful contact later on.

“By the way, what’s your name?” I asked her.

“Nina,” she said without turning toward me, “and you?”

“I am Jason Stubbs,” I replied.

She sneered and gave me a disdainful side-glance.

“You? Being the Initial Returnee? He’s the first human to finish the tutorial, his name is spread all over the world,” she said, “Why would someone like that come out of the sea in such a remote area? I advise you to see Wilkor, he’s an apothecary and he’ll give you something for your delusions.”

People like these infuriated me, as if boasting about being another person would make me popular or bring me happiness.

“You can examine me if you want, the system will confirm my identity,” I said with a grin, “There is no reason for me to lie to a child like you.”

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks and gave me a piercing gaze.

Gotcha!

“My class has the uncommon variant of [Identify],” she blurted, “I’ll use it on you, and we’ll resume our journey after I find out that you’re some random human. Gosh! I am not even sure if someone like you will keep his promise and give me the lesser mana stone once I fulfill my side of the deal.”

I smirked and raised both of my arms a little. I didn’t care much about exposing my identity to become famous, but I wasn’t going to let her call me a delusional person for introducing myself properly.

“Take your time identifying me, Nina,” I said, “I might give you an autograph if you behave well for the rest of the trip.”

#

Special shoutout to:

chris

Water Dragon

GenericKane

Bladesunder

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