TWEM Vol. 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – New Powers

“Where am I…?”

Again, I was in a totally unknown environment. I looked around as I spoke.

It was white no matter where I looked, a space that seemed to extend forever.

“Ho ho ho, this is the divine realm. I have called you here.”

A voice suddenly came up from behind. I swung around and found an old man sporting an impressive beard.

“…what’s going on? I was stabbed by the knights in the forest and died…didn’t I? Who are you anyway?”

“About that…you’re still alive. After the knights left, I brought you here before you died and healed you…anyway I am God.”

What? God? I couldn’t naturally believe it, but my chest wound was indeed gone. There was no hole in my clothes either.

Caring little for my confusion, the self-proclaimed god continued talking.

“Actually, the reason why you were almost killed…in other words, the reason why you did not have a Gift and were deemed useless was that I forgot to give you one. As an apology, I brought you here before you died and healed you, in order to give you a skill you desire…though whether the skill will bring you good or bad fortune, all hinges on you.”

Receiving a skill I desired sounded like a very good prospect, but I still had doubts.

“Why would you do so much for me? Do I have to do something in return?”

“The whole reason is as I just said: you are free to live in this world as you wish. I never had the right to impose any restrictions on you, anyway.”

I thought about the god’s words for a bit, then accepted them.

“Hmm…I see.”

“Very well. You are free to do as you will, then. Exact just revenge, live happily ever after, anything.”

“Revenge…yes, I will definitely kill, with my own hands, those who attempted to murder me. No matter what.”

“Hmm. The only warning I can give is not to become someone who kills for pleasure or threatens the world’s existence…in the latter case, you might turn into an evil god…anyway, I shall now return you to the place you were before. During the process, imagine strongly the skill you wish to have.”

Things were proceeding all too quickly, but there was one thing I had to ask before returning.

“There is one last thing I want to ask.”

The god prompted me to go ahead, so I did.

“ —is there a way to go back to my original world?”

That was the one thing I wanted to know the most.

The king said that defeating the demon king would make it possible, but he honestly couldn’t be trusted.

I held a sliver of hope that a god might know, so I asked, but— 

“Returning to your world…I’m sorry to say that it will be difficult. There are people in the past who did, but I don’t know the details. Summoning heroes from other worlds is forbidden magic, something even I cannot interfere with. Not even gods are all-powerful or all-knowing here…I’m very sorry.”

So answered the god.

“…well, knowing that it isn’t impossible is enough, I guess. I’ll just look for the way by myself.”

“I’m truly sorry…may you be blessed by good fortune.”

“Thank you.”

After those words, the space before me twisted and turned, quickly turning pitch black.

My body couldn’t move, nor could my voice come out.

As the god told me, I strongly wished for an ability.

—I wish for the ability to not only be protected, but to protect those important to me, and to go back to earth one day!

<<Unique Skill “All Creation” acquired>>

—the strongest eyes to see through everything, both good and evil!!

<<Unique Skill “God Eye” acquired>>

— I shall repay evil with evil, good with good…I wish for the strength to fulfill this oath!!

<<Unique Skills “Max Skill Growth” and “Experience Boost” acquired>>

I heard a sort of lifeless, robotic voice answer my wishes.

After it finished speaking, I lost consciousness again.

~

When my eyes opened, I was back in the forest.

I felt a bit dazed but I could move without problems.

“First of all…I should check my status.”

If I really acquired the skills the robotic voice mentioned, it should have become pretty insane.

I couldn’t help but tremble a bit in excitement as I called for my status window.

W-whoa, it really turned into something incredible…! Four unique skills are even more cheating than the heroes in my class!!

Shocked and surprised, I started analyzing each skill with Appraisal…which was apparently contained in the God Eye skill.

<All Creation>

Consumes magic power to create any kind of skill, magic included. Cannot create Unique Skills and Gifts.

<God Eye>

Ability to see through any object, appraise, and obtain information. Also enables map function and the ability to see through lies.

<Max Skill Growth>

The level of all acquired skills is maxed out.

<Experience Boost>

Doubles acquired experience points.

I looked at the skills’ details and couldn’t utter a word.

“F-for real…?”

That’s the only thing I managed to say.

I did wish for a lot of things, but the result was just too much…

The ability to create skills alone had pretty much infinite possibilities.

God Eye’s map function did not only show geographical information, but also the presence of people and monsters: it was straight out of a video game.

I couldn’t see any disadvantages in none of the new abilities, so I started creating skills with All Creation.

…and here’s what I made first.

<Parallel Thought>

Parallel thought becomes possible. Correct usage makes it possible to use multiple skills at the same time.

<Martial Unification>

Unification of martial skills. All martial skills are grouped in this category. Currently acquired skills: Sword Arts, Spear Arts, Shield Arts, Bow Arts, Axe Arts, Barehanded Arts, Ground Shrink, Detect Presence, Intimidation

<Magic Unification>

Unification of magic skills. All magic skills are grouped in this category. Currently acquired skills: Fire Magic, Water Magic, Wind Magic, Earth Magic, Lightning Magic, Ice Magic, Light Magic, Darkness Magic, Recovery Magic, Time-space Magic, No Chant, Physical Boost

I created all the skills I could think of and they were automatically unified in martial and magic skills. I felt I went a little overboard, but I was still pretty much in the norm.

“So, what should I do now…oh, but first…”

I closed my eyes and repeated to myself what I had decided to base my life on in this world.

“In order to live here, I will never forgive anyone who takes away what is mine. I will repay hostility with hostility, intent to kill with intent to kill. Injustice with injustice. In order to go back to earth, to Japan, I will not hold anything back.”

I repeated it to myself out loud in order to always remember it as my creed.

After all, I was almost killed because of my lack of wariness and taking this world too lightly.

I did have some suspicions, but I never expected them to try to take my life so casually.

But after almost dying like that, my perceptions had to change.

In this world, life was treated lightly.

I had to be alert at all times and not hesitate even to take others’ lives.

If I didn’t, the result would definitely be my own death.

Thus I decided to face any enemies without mercy and kill without hesitation when necessary.

First of all, I was going to exact revenge on who summoned me then tried to kill me, the king and Mariana — no, their whole kingdom.

Of course, I would also look for a way to go back too…

I was lost in such thoughts when a wolf-like beast jumped out of the bushes in front of me.

It was probably led here by the smell of blood, as the knights said. The knight who told me that the forest was “easy to cross” tricked me too, then.

Calmly, I activated God Eye on the wolf.

The beast was 20 levels higher than me, but it didn’t have any noteworthy skills.

The Greywulf tried to pounce me, but I used the Physical Boost skill to strengthen my body, then struck with a spin kick-like martial skill.

The Greywulf couldn’t dodge it and received the full brunt of the attack. With a yelp, it flew a few meters away.

It was probably enough damage to kill it: the robotic female voice resounded in my head.

<<Level up>>

Defeating it netted me experience points, I assumed.

I checked my status right away.

Even if the beast’s level was much higher than mine, the level boost was unbelievable…

And I had more titles too.

After I got over the surprise, I headed again towards the next town.

I fought all monsters I encountered on the way, to level up and get used to fighting.

Monster parts can be sold in town, apparently, so I extracted them every time I defeated one, but soon enough my bag became full.

God Eye could tell me what parts could be removed and sold, so I only took what I needed and threw away the rest, but my bag was small in the first place.

The parts also smelled of blood, so they might attract other monsters.

“I did have time-space magic too, didn’t I…I might be able to create a storage space with it.”

I tried picturing it in my mind and a 30cm wide square space warped in front of me.

“Is this it…?”

I tried putting the materials next to it and they were absorbed inside.

The warped space too disappeared as soon as I willed it to.

I tried thinking of taking out the materials I just put in and the square space warp appeared again.

I tried putting my hand inside, slowly and very carefully, and feeling my way, I grabbed something.

I took out my hand and found out it was the material from before.

“I see, very convenient…”

I focused on the space warp and its details appeared in my head.

<Dimensional Storage>

Time-space magic spell.

Items can be stored in the dimensional pocket. The time flow of stored items can be stopped or accelerated.

I realized I hadn’t checked the time-space magic in detail, so I did.

<Time-Space Magic>

Magic manipulating time and space.

Regardless of skill level, magic used via time-space magic skills is regarded as Divine Age grade.

In the divine age, it was commonly used for storage, but because of the great amount of magic power required, in the modern era, time-space magic is no longer used by individuals and can only be used by groups of people pooling their magic power together.

Large scale trading companies create magic bags via this type of magic, which are sold at high prices.

Divine Age? What’s that now? I thought while reading the explanation about magic grades, which promptly caused related information to flow in my head.

There were seven grades of magic spells. Counting from the top, their names were Divine Age grade, Ancient Age Grade, Highest Grade, High Grade, Medium Grade, Low Grade, and Basic Grade.

The first spells of all elemental magic skills were classified as Basic Grade: as the skill level advanced, the magic of higher grade became available.

In the present, the highest grade of magic available to an individual was said to be the Ancient Age Grade, but only those who mastered magic arts could achieve it.

Ancient Age magic included offensive spells that could be cast by groups, so the military organizations in various countries called it “Tactical Grade Magic”.

Divine Age magic quite literally meant magic used in the long past divine age. It was mostly lost nowadays, except for a few spells.

“A lost kind of magic…that sure gets my blood pumping…! But I guess people would get suspicious if they saw it, so I should make sure not to show it to others…”

So I said to myself as I started walking again.

~

I had walked for about another hour, fighting any monsters I encountered, when I heard a scream not too far from my position.

I checked the map and found a spot with monster icons and human icons jumbled together.

“I suppose that…they were attacked by monsters?”

As soon as I reached this conclusion, I hurried to the location in question.

What I found, however, was a rather tragic scene.

The road passed through a clearing, where a horse-drawn carriage had been stopped on the side. I could see eight people, three Greywulf and a horse, all collapsed on the ground.

There were four other Greywulf, still alive, their noses deep into the humans’ bellies.

I couldn’t help but frown.

“How horrible…”

I regretted not arriving earlier and thought about what I should do.

The four people and the horse, not eaten by the Greywulf, could still be alive.

Honestly speaking, I had no obligation to help them, and could have left them to their fate, but…

“I guess that guy’s influence rubbed off on me…”

So I said to myself as I rushed into the four feasting Greywulf, quickly taking them out.

I had fought a fair share of monsters on my way, so four Greywulf posed little to no threat to me.

I approached the four people and the horse, still untouched by the Greywulf, and checked their state.

Some of them were missing an eye or a leg, but as long as they were still alive I could heal them.

I sighed, relieved, and cast recovery magic. They quickly returned to normal, including any body parts they missed.

Recovery magic that healed missing body parts was Ancient Age grade, so when they woke up they might start asking questions. I supposed it couldn’t be helped, could it?

I healed all survivors, horse included, and after a while, they regained consciousness, one after the other.

They looked around, realizing what happened, and noticed my presence.

“You have helped us, sir?”

An old man, probably in his early fifties, was the first to talk.

“Yes. I heard a scream, hurried here, and saw the Greywulf attacking you, so I defeated and used recovery magic to heal you. I’m glad I could save at least you people.”

“You healed wounds like that with recovery magic…? No, it would be improper to ask such questions to our savior. Thank you so much! Without you, we would have surely all died!”

I gave a short summary of what happened and the old man showered me with gratitude.

The other three too nodded in agreement.

If they acted arrogantly I would have left immediately…but it didn’t look like they were bad people.

I replied that I just did what anyone else would have done, but they all shook their heads.

“That’s not true, most people would just run away or pretend they didn’t see anything.”

“I suppose that’s true…”

“Yes, no doubt about it. So we are truly thankful to you.”

Said the old man, a big smile on his lips.

~

After that, I duly buried the bodies of the four people I couldn’t save and put the corpses of the Greywulf I defeated into my dimensional storage.

As I did I feel various eyes on me: I turned around and found the old man and the others staring.

Crap, I forgot that I shouldn’t show the storage to other people…!

I was desperately thinking of any explanations for being able to use time-space magic, when the old man came up to me, with sparkles in his eyes.

“To think that someone as young as you has a magic bag…! It’s a very expensive item, so if you have one you must be a very talented warrior…oh, my apologies, I didn’t even introduce myself. My name is Bacchus, I am a merchant. These are Daryl, Loujas, and Gulliver.”

Thanks to Bacchus’ words I recalled reading about the existence of magic bags, so I drew a sigh of relief. It was a very convenient misunderstanding on their part.

I greeted the other people Bacchus introduced and then introduced myself.

“My name is Haruto…I’m heading to the nearby town of Waxe.”

So I said while pointing in the town’s direction, and Bacchus replied with excitement.

“Oh my! We’re going there too, actually. But we were attacked by monsters and lost our escort…Mr. Haruto, would you be so kind as to escort us until town? You would be rewarded, of course.”

Escort, hmm…I was going in the same direction anyway, and I was going to get paid, so it didn’t sound like a bad idea.

“Yes, no problem. Let’s go.”

Bacchus and his entourage beamed after my reply.

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