Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Picking a destination.

Practically bouncing as I approached the main screen, I considered just where I wanted to go, pausing only when I saw the message on the screen had been updated. “Press here to complete my quest, huh?” Shrugging, I did just that, smiling as the quest complete window popped open.

Scanning it quickly to confirm if I’d earned the bonus training time and ‘patch point’ (I had) as well as if there any new or important information hidden in the sass of the prompt (there wasn’t), I closed it again, eagerly looking back towards the screen and grinning as I saw the blinking text.

You have one new world slot available. Would you like to select a new world to explore?

(Y/N)

Without a hint of hesitation, I reached out and selected yes. As it turned out, it was a touch screen, accepting my input easily enough and helping me avoid the embarrassment of leaving fingerprints on a standard TV screen like a five-year-old with sticky fingers. The screen flickered, new text replacing the old.

Would you like to explore an original world, or a pre-existing world from popular media?

Please be aware that connecting to a mirrored version of an existing world is considerably easier than forging a connection to an original world of your specifications, and thus will have fewer downsides and/or restrictions.

Furthermore, it is advised that you consider your available patch point whilst selecting your new world, as spending it whilst in the process of world selection will allow you to adapt a portion of the target world’s available powers into your existing Protagonist powerset.

Curious about what the patch point could change, I focused on that section, and was delighted when the system provided an example in the form of a tooltip.

With this in mind, I took a moment to consider what sort of world I wanted to go to. There were several game worlds I could think of that would be perfect, but I’d grown to enjoy the anime-style of mirror earth in the time I’d been there and wasn’t quite ready to give that up.

I was also man enough to admit that growing strong wasn’t my only consideration whilst choosing a world to explore. Being perfectly honest, I was pretty sure the system had handed me the tools to build the harem of my dreams (because let’s be real, what else was Waifu Exp supposed to do?), and a lot of top tier babes I would love to get to know on a more intimate level were from various anime.

Theme chosen, I started narrowing down my choices, cycling through all my favourite anime to find something that could work. Adhering to the needs of the moment, I said a silent and unhappy goodbye to the romance and slice of life anime I was fond of and would’ve loved to visit, making a mental note to come back to such worlds when there wasn’t a dire need for me to grow stronger.

Still, there were plenty of action and adventure anime to choose from. I just needed to find the right one.

Unfortunately, any world based on KonoSuba was right out for the moment. Despite hosting some of the worst-best girls in anime in the main three heroines, the starting city would be terrible for initial growth, in line with a major plot point from the show. Even the presence of Wiz, an adorable lich and my personal best girl for the series, couldn’t sway my decision.

Like this, I continued considering various titles, weighing the merits of each. Some were rejected for the spread-out nature of the monsters I’d need to fight, the time wasted in travelling from place to place currently unacceptable, whilst others didn’t make the cut due to lack of easy access to civilisation, and thus decent equipment. After several minutes of careful deliberation, I’d finally reached my answer, the world of DanMachi.

DanMachi, or ‘Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?’ as it was also known, was an anime I rather liked set in a fantasy style world. The main story of the series was based around an adventurer in a large city known as the ‘Labyrinth City Orario’, the only city in the setting known to be built around a dungeon.

As the story went, most of the gods of this world had forsaken and sealed away their divine powers, choosing instead to live amongst mortals on the surface. These gods built organisations known as ‘Familia’ around themselves, empowering mortals through a process known as ‘Falna’, and creating strong and loyal bands of adventurers.

As far as I was concerned, the choice was perfect, encompassing both an endless source of level appropriate monsters to fight and a sprawling and vibrant city in which to acquire equipment (and, possibly, waifus).

Entering my choice into the screen, I excitedly read through the next section, which contained basic information about my choice.

‘Well, that’s not in the least concerning,’ I thought sarcastically, wincing slightly at the last of the so-called modifications. From a brief exploration of the screen, I found that the backstory section was an option I should usually be able to customise, a nice drop-down menu showing me several lovely options such as ‘childhood friend of the series protagonist’, that I simply could not pick.

My eyes returned to the modification responsible for this lack of choice, a small frown on my face. ‘Major powers, huh? I’d be willing to bet it’s Freya.’ The system remained quiet on my assertion, but that did little to change my mind. ‘Something-something forged stronger, something-something flames of adversity.’ I mentally grumbled, going over what I knew of the goddess.

In the anime, the goddess Freya had taken a liking to the main protagonist of the series, a rookie adventurer named Bell Cranel. In the series, her interest quickly morphed into obsession. She would do anything within her power to see him grow. This could sometimes be helpful, like leaving a ridiculously expensive book of magic lying around for him to stumble upon, but more often than not, it meant throwing poor Bell into the figurative fire.

With me on her radar, it was likely that I was in for the exact same treatment.

‘Does that really change anything?’ I thought, before shaking my head. ‘If she wants to throw powerful gifts and tough challenges at me to help my growth, then let her. That is the goal, after all.’ Course reaffirmed, I continued on with the rest of the details.

The final section, to my growing delight, turned out to be modifications of a more adult nature. I was given a list of worlds, each with various adult modifications, ranging from tweaked gender roles to normalisation of various fetishes.

As fun as it would’ve been to pick a world lacking a nudity taboo, one world with three interesting modifications quickly caught my eye. My smile grew with each mod I read, the three perfect for a little fun on the side.

All three options sounded pretty good to me. The first two would help in the short term, hopefully skewing things in my favour with the ladies. As for the third mod? It was more of a long-term investment.

If one of my long-term goals was to build myself a harem of beauties (spoiler alert, it absolutely was), then inter-harem cohesion was something I needed to consider. I was no expert on the matter, but it felt like there would be a lot less arguing and bickering if hypothetical members were just as happy playing with each other as they were playing with me. That, and it would be hella sexy to watch.

Grinning to myself, I looked over my choices, making sure that I was satisfied. Finding everything to be to my liking, I breathed in a deep, excited breath, and then pressed the prompt to accept. Languidly stretching out, I took a moment to bask in a job well done. That, naturally, was when an achievement popped up, informing just how much of a bonehead I was.

‘Wait!? Since when was that an option?!?!’

And then I was teleported away, bound for a whole new world.

---

The flickering light of a lone candle illuminated the small office, the only source of light in the otherwise dark building. The citizens of Orario had long since gone to bed, but a lone woman in a crisply tailored uniform could still be seen sat behind the room’s desk, a look of consternated weariness on her otherwise pretty face.

“It’s all good telling me that ‘it’ll sort itself out’,” she quietly grumbled, tucking a rogue strand of her shoulder-length brown hair behind a delicately pointed ear, “but that’s not going to help anyone if we don’t have the people to go ahead with tomorrow’s assessment.”

For what felt like the hundredth time, the young woman scanned through the three files in front of her, fingers moving to massage her temples and to rub her tired, irritated eyes beneath her glasses as she considered her options.

Coming up blank, she slumped forward, her head hitting the desk as she let out a frustrated groan. The groan turning into a full-on grumble as the starter spear that until this point had been obediently leaning against the wall lost its fight with gravity, clattering noisily to the floor.

The woman turned her head to face it as it rolled under a cabinet, sparing a baleful glare for the box of rookie adventurer gear that not a one of her colleagues remembered requisitioning but had still somehow found its way to her office.

Letting out an explosive sigh, she reached for the sticky note she’s found stuck to her desk whilst she’d been away during her mid-afternoon coffee break, once again reading the excruciatingly neat writing.

“The problem will sort itself out if I just stay late, huh? What a load of rubbish. Why do the gods have to make things so damned complicated?! Bloody politics…”

She stayed like that for some time, taking a well-deserved moment to host a pity party for one. The sound of a distant bell caused an ear to twitch, yet another frustrated sigh escaping her lips.

“Midnight, huh? Screw this, I’m going home.”

‘Thunk.’

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Straightening up, the young half elf looked down at her desk, brow furrowing as her eyes fell upon a fourth applicant’s file, something which most certainly hadn’t been there moments ago.

“Casper… Miller?”

Whilst not an adventurer herself, her Half-Elven heritage had granted her a somewhat instinctive feel for the ambient mana around her. It was this sense that caused her to look up in surprised alarm as the mana in the air quickly began to shift, coalescing above the empty chair on the far side of the desk.

She watched the phenomenon with wide eyes, letting out a gasp when, after a moment’s stillness, there was a flash of light bright enough for her to need to cover her eyes. Already off balance, she almost fell off her chair as she unexpectedly heard a distinctly masculine (albeit slightly muffled) shout of frustration.

“Mother fucker!”

---

Letting out a sigh, I rubbed my face with both hands before pushing down the wave of annoyance that threated to make me swear at the top of my lungs… again. Letting my hands drop, I finally allowed the excitement of travelling to a whole new world replace my frustration at missing such a massive opportunity as the save power.

Opening my clenched eyes, I slowly adjusted to the low light of a dimly lit room I now found myself in, the only illumination that of a gently flickering candle.

Then, I froze, my view drawn across a desk to a pair of wide emerald eyes filled with disbelief. A small, self-conscious smile formed on my face as I realised I wasn’t as alone as I’d first thought, my cheeks flushing slightly as recognition quickly followed.

‘Well, as guides go, she’s kind of appropriate.’ I thought, unable to consider the system’s choice to dump me in front of her (rather than spawn me in some quiet alley) as anything other than deliberate. ‘Let’s hope I haven’t made too much of an ass of myself already. Appearing in someone’s office out of thin air has to be worth a bunch of bonus points, right?’

The dumbstruck Half-Elf across from me was no other than Eina Tulle, the personal guide for matters related to the dungeon for the series protagonist, Bell Cranel. When not seeing to specific adventurers, she worked as a receptionist for the Guild, an organisation that governed Familia here in the city of Orario.

‘If I remember my series trivia right, she was a civilian without a blessing of her own. I wonder how that translates to levels?’

As Eina was still staring in wide-eyed wonder, I took the opportunity to Analyse her quietly.

‘Eila, huh? Similar, but not quite right. Maybe it’s slightly different because it’s a mirror world and not the original?’

“W-w-who are you? And how did you get in here?”

Dragged from any further consideration on the topic by Eina’s (‘wait, no, Eila’s’) startled question, I refocused on her with what I hoped was a reassuring smile. Deciding honestly was probably the best approach considering what she’d already seen, I got stuck in with my explanation.

“Hi, I’m Casper Miller. It’s a pleasure to meet you! As for how I got here… Well, you see….”

---

Walking through the well-lit but near deserted streets of the sleeping fantasy city, I tried (and failed) to not look around like a tourist as I followed my quietly grumbling guide as she led me to an inn; it being the middle of the night in Orario when I’d appeared. I listened in amusement as Eila’s tirade about the gods and their games reached a definitive middle.

Eila had been surprisingly accommodating after I’d told her my tale, a result of my sudden appearance solving a problem she’d been trying to solve. Muddying the waters somewhat was the as of yet unidentified shadowy figure with a propensity for leaving passive aggressive post-it notes, which had been, according to the frustrated Half-Elf, strongly hinting at my arrival for the last few days.

“I mean,” she said to herself, gesticulating wildly, “who writes out a whole passage on myths, legends, and prophecies on a piece of paper no bigger than a coaster? The writing was teeny! It was a miracle I read the bloody thing at all!”

Suppressing my grin, I quietly listened to her grumbling, letting out the occasional “mmmhmmm” and nodding whenever it seemed appropriate. Internally I was fascinated and more than a little amused by the normally calm and erudite woman’s display of frustration.

Reminded of my presence, she daintily stifled a yawn before turning back to look at me, a slight look of guilt and concern growing on her pretty face.

“Are you sure you want to take part tomorrow? I know you’re helping me out of a bind and that you’re in a rush, but…” she trailed off, cutely nibbling on her lip.

Smiling back at her, I internally grimaced, unsure whether to thank or curse Eila’s mysterious note leaver (*cough* probably Freya *cough-cough*) for setting things up as they had. The timing was immaculate.

I’d always been curious about what stopped brave but foolish people without the support of a god or goddess from dungeon diving in the top few floors to farm the weakest monsters. The answer, at least in this mirror, turned out to be something known as a dungeon licence.

Before prospective adventures could receive a blessing from their deity or were allowed into the dungeon, they needed to undergo a basic competency test under the watchful eyes of the Guild. This took the form of a series of matches that pitted rookie vs. rookie in supervised spars, undertaken in a small arena specifically built for the purpose.

“You’re worried I’m going to get my ass kicked for nothing, right?” I finished for her, a wry smile on my face.

“Well, I wasn’t going to put it quite like that, but if I understand what you told me correctly, you haven’t been trained in any form of combat.”

Sighing, I shook my head.

“As much as I would love to take things slow and steady, I have neither the time nor the funds. I only need to win one of the fights to earn my licence, and I do have surprise magic on my side. Trust me, it’ll be fine!”

Giving her a winning smile, I tried my best to assure her with my cheery attitude and sunny disposition, eventually rolling my eyes when she gave me an unconvinced look over the rim of her glasses.

“Anyway, I don’t know what you’re trying to talk me out of it. The minimum participation is four people, right? 'Any less than that, and the whole thing gets called off until next month', is what you said.”

“Fine. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Yes, mam!” I replied, giving her a salute and a goofy grin, my grin only growing as she huffed and looked away, her cheeks tinging pink.

“Just… shut up and get inside, would you? We’re here.”

Following her pointing finger, I turned with interest towards the inn that would serve as my temporary residence until tomorrow’s festivities. My eyebrows rose in surprise as found it was an establishment I recognised.

‘The Hostess of Fertility, huh? I thought it was a pub? It’s been a while since I’ve watched the show, and I haven’t even got round to watching the latest series. Considering I’m here, I should probably fix that oversight when I get time in the other world. Would reading the wiki be cheating? It feels like it’d be cheating.’

Making a mental note to check the wiki when I got a chance anyway, cheating be damned, I opened the heavy wooden door, stepping inside.

---

Authors note: Hi everyone! Just wanted to make a quick disclaimer now we've entered a known world. As stated in the chapter, the world our lovable idiot of a protagonist now finds himself in is a mirrored version of the world of DanMachi. Things may differ slightly from the anime in small ways!

Furthermore, our universe hopping protagonist has access to modern commodities whilst in his hub or in the mirror of earth, which means that, given the opportunity, he should be able to look things up on the wiki. Naturally, this will cause him to run into the same issue that you or I would run into were we to do the same IRL, spoilers!

On this note, please be aware that certain details that have yet to come up in the anime but have been revealed in the light novel may be referenced. I will try to keep things as vague as possible, and may even change things a little to mix things up, but some stuff may leak through.

Please let me know what you think about possible spoilers and the characters having access to wikis in the comments, as if enough people speak up against it, I will contrive a story reason why wiki use is banned for active worlds.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Your friendly neighbourhood Waifu Dealer.

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