Down at the local theatre, Frank Carter was busily working away in the costume workshop putting the finishing touches on the outfit for tomorrow’s main lead, Kassandra. Kasper, who was actually responsible for it, had not only been behind schedule like usual, but he had also been down with something for the past few days; the period in which he’d usually get all of his work done.
They had as such asked Frank if he was willing to work overtime. In return, he got the usual deal of getting access to the theater’s tools and materials for his own projects. While it sounded a little sketchy, the actual legality of their agreement was not something he had properly looked into, nor did he care about it. If he had cared, he wouldn’t have suggested it in the first place a few years ago.
He knew that this agreement was the only reason he could reasonably afford his cosplay hobby whilst actively studying at university for most of the week. Even that was only because he was lucky enough to be born in a country where the government covered the cost of education.
“Ooh! The costumes are looking good,” he looked up at the woman who’d spoken. Matilde smiled at him with an excited but tired look. “I’m heading home, so you’ll be the last one left,” she paused on her way out. “Do try to actually get home tonight, alright? I know you love your projects, but this place really is not meant for sleeping.”
Despite her saying something similar at least once per week, Frank couldn’t help an appreciative smile from forming. “I will, and thanks for caring. Have a good night, Matilde.” He said, knowing full well that he’d probably not be home before the morning at the earliest.
After finishing up Kassandra’s outfit, he could finally start on his own stuff. Not that he didn’t like working on others’ costumes; he absolutely did. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have suggested the overtime deal in the first place. He just cared about his own projects more.
The first costume part he got out was a gray spear prop that he had almost finished last Saturday. All it needed now was a red coat of paint and his Lancer cosplay would be ready for the convention next week.
A few years back, when he had gone to kung-fu two to three times a week, he had gotten a basic course in a number of weapons. Sadly, he had to drop out before he could really get much further with any of them besides the spear which he had focused on the most. From then on, he continued to practice alone and unarmed casually twice a week for the workout. However, watching Unlimited Blade Works a few months ago and seeing Lancer had reignited his interest in the spear. As such, he had fashioned himself a spear-length staff to include in his training. That then set the theme for his next set of cosplays.
With that said, it obviously wouldn’t do to show up to a con of two full days with just a single costume, so a second one was needed. This other one was a bit more unusual, at least for a guy like him. The second was Alisha Diphda from Tales of Zestiria. Not because he particularly cared for her as a character, but he had recently watched the anime where she used a spear, and he liked her design.
As for why he picked a female character for his second cosplay, that was simply how he had done it for the last few years. He had long enjoyed seeing how much he could convincingly change himself. After spending a lot of his childhood and early teen years in the theatre and cosplay scenes, he had tried his first proper crossplay at 16 simply because a friend had jokingly suggested it and it had sounded like fun. He was now 20 and had since then aimed for roughly a 50/50 split.
The first few years were a bag of mixed results, but as he both improved his costume-making skills and worked on a female voice, the results became increasingly convincing. While it was still far from perfect, he was by now able to convincingly pass for woman while in costume most of the time.
With that said, he still required a proper costume to pass, so he had to get on with his work. He had already finished the spear and armor parts of the outfit, so all that really remained was the tunic-style surcoat and styling the wig.
By the time he finished, he had gone through two 12-episode seasons of the last seasons trash isekai anime. Them being called trash was not without reason, but hey, they were at least fantasy stories, and they had done a wonderful job as background noise. Once he had cleaned up after himself and closed everything, the clock had already passed 7:00. He smiled tiredly to himself “It may be late, but I’m at least going home. So, I did keep my word, Matilde.”
Half an hour later he called out, "I'm home," expecting no response from his otherwise empty apartment. As usual, no one answered him. It wasn’t because his parents were asleep or had somewhere to be so early on a Saturday morning. No, that would have actually been nice. Instead, it was because they had passed in a car-crash two years ago.
While it had broken him completely at the time, he had by now at least gotten used to it. He still felt it a little every time he came home, explaining why he often either slept at the theatre after work or took trips to stay in the wild; something he had often done with his parents when he was younger. The former helped him get a bit away while the latter made him feel closer to them.
As for how and why he still was in the apartment, which was definitely on the larger side for a student, it was really quite simple; his parents had bought it instead of renting it and actually paid it fully off. So, with a little help from the money he inherited besides the apartment, he was able to get by with just his part-time job. Though he made sure to be quite frugal most of the time; only using the inherited funds on the apartment.
By the time he went to bed, he noticed that he felt surprisingly awake for how long he’d been up. To his actual shock, he realized that he hadn’t even had a coffee since afternoon, when an all-nighter would usually require at least a full coffee pot’s worth. With that said, ‘surprisingly awake’ still meant tired, so it wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
[Condition - Unique Essence Growth obtained]
[Condition - Person of Many Faces obtained]
[Condition - Actor’s Fa?ade obtained]
----
Just as he was about to head for dream land, a weird somehow voiceless voice had spoken in his head and pulled him back into reality. At least, he would have normally assumed it to be as such. Instead, he found himself floating about in a weird space of color.
“What the fu…” was all he got out before – ‘All commercial bananas are genetic clones’ – a random thought took over. ‘The last glacial cycle ended almost 12,000 years ago’ – A shiver ran down Frank’s spine as he noticed a splurge of white – ‘Water freezes at about negative 8.9 °C at 1000 bar’ – and he heard the cracks of ice moving.
The smell of sulfur brought – ‘Fire aspected beasts evolve easier closer to volcanoes’ – him away from the cold as he started sweating like crazy. – ‘Orange is often associated with freshness and warmth’ – The reddish grey splotch he’d noticed was either right up in his face – Volcanic ash primarily exists of fragments of rocks, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass’ – or multiple kilometers away.
Just as soon as he had spotted that, the sounds of thunder over rolling waves replaced an erupting volcano, as a mixed clump of blue, purple, and grey took his attention next. While his mind was bombarded with information vaguely related to storms, lightning, water, and blue, he felt like he was both drowning and being electrocuted at once. If it hadn’t been over as fast as it arrived and his mind wasn’t already stunned, then it would have probably made him panic.
Frank had no clue how long this overload of information, be it arbitrary knowledge or sensory overload, had gone on for. Even the notion that time was passing was far beyond his current state. It in fact wasn’t until a single, seemingly random piece of knowledge entered his mind that something changed.
‘The average airspeed velocity of a barn swallow is about 11 meters per second.’
‘European or African?’ was the first thought Frank himself had in a while, even though it was an instinctive reply. With his mind groggier than ever before, he almost didn’t feel the thought threaten to slip from his mind, pushed out by new random facts. It took everything he had to not only recognize the familiarity of the thought, but to try and hold onto it. Though why it was familiar still eluded him.
The greater his focus on the thought he had instinctively replied with grew, the greater he found his capability to actively think. Slowly, he was suppressing the onslaught of information and gradually started recalling who he was. Starting from what had pulled him out, the fun times in the theater reenacting skits and doing improv. This soon flowed into his time at university, and so on. The real hurdle was when he remembered that his parents were dead; that almost sent him spiraling once more. Two of the last things to return to him were the first time he was out hunting with his dad and all of the winters he’d spent weaving willow branches with his mother.
‘Thank you, Holy Grail…
It was with a slightly bitter smile and heavy heart that he thanked the movie that him and friends had kept quoting to death…
‘Death…’
‘Fuck…
‘I really miss you two…’
For the first time since arriving here, he could actually take a proper look at his surroundings. Thankfully, it managed to serve as an adequate distraction.
It felt like someone had taken all of those incredible pictures of outer space and turned them into a single canvas full of every color imaginable. Though just calling it colors was a disservice; every stroke was made up of some specific material. A clump of browns, greys, and other stoney and earthy tones looked to be actually made up of dirt and stones of all kinds. While the orange next to it somehow burned both more fiercely and calmly than any fire he had seen before.
Whatever his eyes focused on, he could feel it in a subdued way. The sound of the roaring inferno that had previously helped paralyze his mind, now felt more like the sound of rain outside your house; close by, but not such that you paid it any mind. The same went for the heat of it on his skin, which was more like someone had increased the thermostat by a tic. As for the knowledge that had been injected into his mind. That was more like someone trying to overpower a torrential downpour; completely washed out.
“Where am I? What in the world is going on? Where’s my bed? I’m certain I was just about to fall asleep when that voice woke me. Wait, what was that voice, and did it cause this?” He felt his mind starting to spiral, but he was thankfully interrupted before it got too bad.
Wait…
Interrupted?
“You impress me Frank Carter. You managed to save me the trouble of having to put your mind back together myself. As for your question, I believe the short answer would be yesn’t.” It was the slightly amused, voice of an old man that brought him to a complete mental halt. The voice came from everywhere but inside his head, so it definitely wasn’t the same voice as earlier.
“The slightly longer but still short answer would be correlation, not causation.” The voice continued, as the colors before Frank began to move about and steadily take on a vaguely humanoid shape. Though he found it incredibly hard to focus on, because he just couldn’t tell if the shape was tiny and right in front of him, his size and talking distance away, or an absolute giant kilometers away.
Gradually, the appearance of an elderly man took form before his eyes. Granted, the main indicator of him being elderly was his tan face full of wrinkles and a big, purple-toned grey beard. His body on the other hand looked everything but elderly; while he wasn’t built like a body builder, he was definitely well above average in terms of fitness. That’s without mentioning his orange eyes that looked to burn with the passion of small suns.
With that said, Frank got an uncanny sense of something being off as he looked at the man, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Before he could speak, the man chuckled lightly, probably at his expression or something. “Greetings, Frank Carter. I am Alfred, though I’m most often referred to as The Arcane Scholar amongst many other names. I am in short the god of Knowledge and what you would consider Wizardry. Therefore, it fell to me to catch you after your world expelled you for awakening your essence and mana, as it did to us a long, long time ago. You currently find yourself in my domain.”
Frank silently thought to himself that knowledge apparently didn’t include teaching or being understandable. While he had heard what the apparent god had said, he had barely computed it mentally, being too overwhelmed mentally. It took him a few seconds to come to the conclusion that he should just go with the flow for now and panic later. Simply assume that everything is as it should be and makes sense, or a really weird dream.
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‘Priority number one: do not offend the mysterious, uncanny being that called themselves a god.’
“Salutations, your godliness,” he said, relying heavily on his acting and role-playing practice for the sincere tone. “Thank you for catching me, though I am blind to the circumstance that required such action. I am honored to meet you, and I sincerely hope you can forgive any transgressions I may make; before just recently, the notion of one or more gods actually existing was something I was not privy to. I am as such unfamiliar with any customs that may or may not exist, though I will gladly learn.”
Since he didn’t know where this Alfred god fell on the fickle god scale, he went for the safest option he could come up with on the spot, playing to the knowledge part of him.
Frighteningly, all that came from the god was a sigh and a mutter he couldn’t quite make out, followed by a dismissive wave. “The flowery speech is unnecessary. You need not worry about offending me; I am aware of your world and its view on the divine,” his slightly disappointed tone became a tad bit more approving. “A sensible view to have with what information you are aware of.” He paused a second to let the information set in.
Holding a hand up, he intercepted Frank’s flood of questions. “Before you ask, yes, us gods are aware of your world and able to watch it. No, we cannot interfere there. And yes, we came from that world as well, as did everything else in our world in some sense. Back when we, essence, and the System first awoke, the world rejected us as it has now done you. Lastly, no, you will most likely never be able to return home; we have found little more than ways to spy on your world.”
After taking in all of that, Frank was left with two burning questions. “First, how and why did this happen? Second, what will happen with me now?”
His slight worry that he had phrased his first question poorly was quickly abated when Alfred answered. “How and why you awakened your essence is beyond even me, as are the same questions regarding myself and my fellow gods. On the other hand, you can ask yourself if it really matters; does it matter why you, life, and the universe came to be, or are they simply interesting topics to study?”
He gave Frank barely more than a second to consider it before moving on. “Look at me, I’m the literal god of Knowledge and Science. Many great minds of your world would question why I don’t do everything to further my understanding, and I would not fault them; I used to think the same long ago.
“However, like the greater minds, I have come to realize that sometimes, some knowledge is best left unknown or forbidden. Had this happened shortly after I came to be, we wouldn’t have had this conversation, and you would just be a lab rat. Luckily for you, I have learned to consider whether I should do something, before I wonder if I could.”
The relaxed, casual tone as he mentioned what could’ve been Frank’s fate sent chills down his spine. “Though I hope you trust me when I say that I am more surprised about this than you. Your existence alone rejects my very old null hypothesis that what happened with us will not occur again. Sure, you are much weaker than any of us have ever been, but you are still the first being or thing to be rejected from Earth since we were, and I have been unable to find any preceding cases.
“With all of that said, let us move on to your second question. As for what will happen to you next. I will soon send you over to Lydia per her request after which she will send you to our world. We don’t expect you to do anything specific, but we just ask that you do not get complacent for too long at a time; we are all curious about how you will grow, and seeing you stagnate at Level 30 or 40 would be such a waste.” Frank couldn’t help but gulp from the pained tone at hypothetical.
“While we don’t intend to actively interfere beyond that, you are welcome to seek out our holiest places and take a test for our blessings. That said, do keep in mind that if you actively try to offend some of us or our followers, then we will respond as we would any other. Though we are curious and positively inclined; we are not your friends.”
It was as Alfred gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach the eyes that it finally clicked for him what was so uncanny about the god; he was the literal concept of the Elements and Magic made manifest. His skin wasn’t flesh; it was billions upon billions of tiny grains of sand. His eyes were literally flaming balls with pools of void for the pupil. The purplish-grey hair was purple lightning encased in dark-tinted ice.
The god’s expression as he saw Frank’s look of realization frightened him more than anything the being had said until now. “Now, off you go to Lydia. Say hi from me.” As he felt the world start vanishing around him, splotch after splotch of elemental energy vanishing one after another, Alfred had one last thing to say.
“Two last things. As the god of Languages, I gave you the ability to understand the most spoken language across the world. Also, I trust you realize that you can’t speak of what I told you about us to anyone in the world. You are free to share your origin if you believe it wise, but not what I’ve told you of us gods or the System, or we might meet sooner than preferred.” The way too casual, almost jolly, way he spoke terrified Frank many times beyond what a threatening tone could have ever done.
One final sentence was left bouncing around in his mind as the world went dark.
“Some knowledge is best left unknown or forbidden.”
----
Frank was hit by the most concentrated dose of what could only be described as NATURE he had ever experienced before he even opened his eyes.
On his right side, he felt clammy from the sheer humidity, and he could smell many different plants, but there were a few more overpowering ones that reminded him of fruits. It also felt like moss was all around his arm while ants traversed his leg. The rustling whisper of windswept canopies reached him graciously.
On his left side, the air felt so dry that the thought of a spark would set it alight and the severe stench of decomposing carcasses and rotten fruits assaulted both his nose and tastebuds. Though that taste was combined with the sweetest and most delicious apple juice he’d ever had. The prickling of a cactus climbed up and down his back as the screeches of what he assumed to be vultures pierced his ear.
In the background, he heard the gushing of a river, along with the growls of a great number of feline animals, followed by squealing birdsong from squirrels…?
Like when he had first arrived at Alfred’s, these sensations changed rapidly, but still at a slower pace than they had there. As if to give him enough time to take it in.
While this might all sound incredibly overwhelming, it actually didn’t faze Frank all of that much. ‘I wonder, did I adapt to this stuff in Alfred’s space, or is it just because I feel closer connected to nature than magic?’ Since he wasn’t in any particular rush, he just took a moment to enjoy and appreciate the entirety of nature, including the more morbid aspects.
At one point, it was as if he was both in the air and underwater at once, but at no moment did any degree of panic set in, even if he normally would have. Somehow, despite suddenly finding himself in a state where it felt like he should be both falling through the air and actively drowning, he could still feel the solid ground beneath his feet.
After a while, Frank eventually opened his eyes to behold what he expected to be a mad world of crisscrossing climates, and he was not disappointed.
The view that greeted him truly embodied nature in both its purest and most twisted sense. Though calling it twisted might just be true with his perspective from Earth.
He stood on a patch of mini trees with flower-shaped canopies made of feathers.
On his left side he saw giant stalagmites with multicolored coral sprouting into incredible canopies, from which stalactites hung down like on a fruit tree.
In the horizon towered a tree larger than anything he had ever thought to imagine. Even pictures of Californian redwoods or media depictions of Yggdrasil were dwarfed compared to this tree in person. It felt so far away that he shouldn’t have been able to see it at all, even with its size. Yet, despite all of that, when he looked up, the enormous, sprawling canopy that covered the sky – though light still made it through – looked relatively close to the trunk.
Looking to his right, he saw a sea of cliffs between which floated bubbles the size of cities full of life, though it was too far away for him to spot any specific animals. At least that was the case until a ginormous winged blue whale with many sets of legs and teeth dived down from one of the branches and swallowed multiple bubbles at once. The sound of its impact took well over a minute to reach him, and it almost knocked him over.
When his attention turned back to his left, he found the corals replaced with a swamp of magma and bone-like mangrove trees. Though that was about what he had expected after noticing the sulfur smell before turning. The slightly more surprising thing were the swarms of massive flaming dragonflies diving for the swimming bone lions.
In short, no matter where he looked, he saw life sprawling with more vigor and vitality than he had ever seen before. Weirder yet, every time he turned his head and then looked back, the landscape had changed to another. The only constant was the tree towering above him.
This was all without mentioning the sheer variety and number of animals he saw, be they familiar, foreign, horrifying, or completely fantastical. With every turn of his head, he saw something new.
It felt like hours passed as he just looked around. That was until he noticed one of the leaves above him fall off the canopy and drift down. As he feared he’d be crushed, it gradually struck him that it wasn’t growing larger as it descended as if perspective didn’t affect it whatsoever. Slowly, over the next hour or so, the leaf made its gradual descent straight towards him. Frank unconsciously cupped his hands as it hung just slightly above his head.
Just a few seconds later, it shielded his eyes for but a moment, covering his vision completely. After it passed, he stood stunned at what, or more specifically who, had appeared before him meanwhile.
“Hello Frank Carter. Pleasure to meet you.” The woman said with a smile in a mix of multiple accents and tones all at once.
The leaf landing in his hands brought his mind back in focus, and he made a small bow. “Likewise, Goddess Lydia, the pleasure and honor is all mine.” This time around, he toned down the flowery prose – though it wouldn’t surprise him if she actually liked flowery prose – but still kept it courteous.
Lydia, or at least he assumed that was her name, was as incredible and uncanny to look at as Alfred. Like him, she was not made up of flesh and bone, or at least not purely in her case. While she looked generally human, including a darkish skin tone, a closer look revealed that to be a very fine bark. Her hair likewise appeared algae-like, but the ends were replaced with various different animal heads, including a snake or two.
Though most of her upper body appeared to be covered in bark, her right leg was made of pure bone. It wasn’t like a classic skeleton leg. No, this was an actual leg made out of bone; thigh, calf, muscles… everything. Her left leg, meanwhile, had a coral skeleton and water flesh, with numerous tiny fish swimming through what he could only assume to be her arteries.
She wore a simple one piece of skin and vines that covered her chest and barely reached her knees. His gut told him that she probably didn’t wear it most of the time and was just respecting his norms. A feeling that was only strengthened from the almost smirking glint in her literal amber eyes.
This time aware that he was likely facing a god, it was not hard to piece together that she at least represented life, if not nature as well.
“How well mannered. I presume Alfred introduced me,” She sounded a little delighted, almost as if she had imagined either no manners or something similar to his reaction to Alfred, though Frank wasn’t sure which option. “Now, let’s get down to business.”
Before he realized what was going on, Frank found himself sitting on a chair made of live wood facing Lydia sitting on a similar chair. “While we considered sending you into a civilized place immediately, I sensed that you are experienced with nature and living in the wild despite the sad state of your world. As such, I have an offer for you.” He could hear the pain in her voice at the comment on Earth.
“Instead of being placed near a city, I intend to place you near the youngest child of this old fella,” – She gestured towards the massive tree – “in doing this, you will immediately start the trial for my blessing.”
The notion of beginning a trial immediately upon entering a new world almost terrified him enough to decline right then and there, even though there was something a little tempting about having to survive in the wild. What kept him from doing that was the fact that the offer about fully delving into one of his passions came from the goddess most relevant to it. “I am intrigued, though it sounds ambitious to start a trial immediately. Could you please elaborate?”
“I knew I could count on you,” Her laugh and smile, though contagious, almost had him back out, but he kept cool for now. “Don’t worry too much, the actual difficulty of the trial is a lot lower than what it would otherwise be, but that’s to account for you having to acclimatize to the world as well. The trial itself is actually quite simple.
“Either reach Level 15 in a single
Her smile widened almost dangerously as she continued. “However, I will give greater rewards if you exceed the expectations before declaring to me that you have finished it. Now, I do not wish for you to die without a chance. As such, should you accept this trial, I will grant you the leaf you are currently holding.” She gestured at his clenched fists.
“Once eaten, it will boost your immune System, natural regenerative capabilities, and affinity towards the natural elements. This is to make up for you not knowing anything about plants unique to this world nor being given time to prepare any gear. So, what do you say, are you up for a challenge?” she asked.
Frank was almost certain that she thought she knew the answer already, and she’d be damn right.
Was it scary? Absolutely.
Would it place him in far more danger than otherwise? Most certainly.
Did it play into his interest in wilderness survival? Oh boy did it.
Did it sound worth it? Just getting the leaf would’ve probably convinced him, and he even stood to gain much more than that.
Did he know how to get a Class? Not the slightest clue.
After mulling it over a bit, he gave her a wide smile and sighed. “You already know the answer, don’t you?” She just laughed as he continued. “So, any other stipulations? It’s clear that you’re the goddess of life and nature; any specific things I should be aware of?”
“Not really. Don’t hurt the kid,” – she gestured towards the looming giant once more – “and try to avoid burning the forest down. Though any attempt likely wouldn’t succeed anyway. I don’t particularly have anything against death, be it of flora or fauna,” – a reminiscing look entered her eyes, reminding him of Alfred – “I used to… but we all grow up. Life without death is no life at all. You ready?”
Catching himself just before he agreed, he realized he did have one question. “Two questions. First, how do I obtain a Class. Second, how much should I prioritize protection against dangerous animals?”
She nodded at both questions. “Fair questions. The Class stuff will come naturally. All I’ll say is that you should be careful about taking ones you don’t care about. Danger-wise, Trees of Life do strengthen that which lives around them. But they don’t allow anything beyond plants and even the simplest of animals to live near them for the first few centuries. They are incredibly good at keeping anything unwanted from finding them, so the nearby area should be relatively safe. At least from the truly dangerous animals.
“This is actually another reason why you have been given that leaf. Once consumed, the sapling will no longer try to lead you astray. With that said, I do believe it’s time that I wish you good luck. Please eat the leaf.”
Having received answers to his questions, the latter more satisfactory than the former, Frank did as requested. The leaf crunched quite a bit and was quite juicy. Said juice tasted sublime; far better than anything he had ever had. If anything, it reminded him of his parents’ homecooked meals, just even better. As he swallowed, he felt his mind start to go blank as Lydia said one last thing.
“Good luck Frank Carter. I hope your first meeting with Johnny will be for his trial and not at your death.”
He barely connected that this Johnny fella was likely the God of Death, or something similar. Then his world went black.
[Condition – Arvitae’s Blessing (Minor) obtained]