Chapter 35

  Introspection

  Erin had walked away from the place where Lexton’s workshop was for a few minutes. By now, she was quite far away from it, but not so far that she wouldn’t be able to make her way back in a reasonable amount of time. The redhead just wanted some time alone and didn’t want to risk one of her companions walking in on her while she was in deep thought.

  She finally stopped after walking for so long and looked around herself. There were rocky mounds all around her. Not large enough to be called mountains, but not small either. A couple of these mounds had caves in them as well.

  Truthfully, Erin shouldn’t have been on her own in such a way. While she could take care of herself, the wastelands were a home to numerous deadly beasts, both small and large. If she were to get attacked like this by anything she couldn’t take on her own, the redhead was very likely to end up in the belly of some beast.

  However, that wasn’t the problem that was bothering her the most at the moment. What she was mostly worried about was whether she would have the abilities she needed to accomplish her goals in this world. Not just when it came to taking revenge on Lune, but also getting to meet Devin and the others.

  The Five Overlords, as her old friends were known as in this world, would surely have all sorts of powerful underlings that the redhead would need to get through before even having a chance to confront any of the five. Because of this, she needed to find a way to get stronger in order to have any hope of surviving whatever they threw at her. Magic and ki would have been obvious solutions for this, but that seemed to not be possible for her.

  There were of course other options for Erin to turn to in order to get stronger, like Lexton had explained. After all, The Five Realms game was known for its wide variety when it came to customizing your character. Thinks like cybernetics and genetic-enhancements were definitely options that were still possible and could possibly work.

  However, unlike in the game where you simply walked into a store, used some in-game currency to buy the thing you needed and that was it, Erin couldn’t help but worry about what it would be like to actually go through these procedures with your own body. There was no telling if she would even survive anything like that. Not to mention all the other problems that would come after the operations themselves were done. What would her life be like after getting cybernetic or genetic augmentations? Would she be able to live like normal or would there be side-effects? And what if she managed to return to her own world? How would she go on living at that point?

  Because of all these possible issues, Erin wanted to avoid such drastic modifications to her own body. But with no other options seemingly available, what else would she be able to do?

  If she couldn’t avoid things like cybernetics or gene-manipulation in order to reach her goals, the redhead wouldn’t avoid them. She still wanted to try and see if she could use magic, which is why she had borrowed the Glow Stone from Arkay. She hoped that perhaps some time alone could help her find a way to get past her inability to use magic.

  “Well, here I am, so might as well give it a shot,” Erin muttered to herself as she looked at the Glow Stone in her hand.

  Much like before, she tried to make it glow by concentrating on it, hoping that she had magical energy in her body that would move into the stone. Unfortunately, the stone remained the same.

  “...I don’t even understand why I thought it would be different this time,” the redhead said with a sigh as she put the stone in her pocket and continued walking.

  Erin thought about what Lexton had told her just before she left. She hadn’t done any meditation before, so it was honestly an unknown thing for her. But seeing as how her options weren’t exactly numerous, she decided that it was worth a try at the very least. The redhead though about what she knew about the art of meditation, which wasn’t a lot, but she did know that you needed peace and quiet for it.

  Looking around for a place that was more quiet, she picked one of the caves that was around. It didn’t take long for her to climb the rocky hill and reach the cave, where she then walked inside a bit before sitting down on the ground.

  Now that she had her meditation spot, Erin took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure how to do meditation correctly, but she decided to go deep into thought for now, hoping to find the solution to her issue through it.

  Some time passed and it didn’t seem like the redhead was making any progress at all. All she had done so far was just sit on the ground with her thoughts wandering everywhere.

  “...What’s the point of this?” Erin eventually said in a slightly frustrated tone. “I have no idea what I’m even doing here, let alone how to solve my problem. All I’ve done so far is just sit on my ass for God knows how long…”

  “About three hours, give or take a couple of minutes,” a voice suddenly said. “I was honestly expecting you to quit way earlier. Glad I wasn’t making bets with anyone.”

  Erin’s eyes went wide as she quickly stood up and pulled out her gun. She furiously looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. It looked like she was still alone.

  “What the hell? Am I losing my mind or something?” the redhead said to herself as nervous sweat was starting to fall down her face. “I could have sworn I heard someone…”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “That’s because you did hear someone,” the voice said again. “Seriously, you’re nowhere close to losing your mind, yet you’re already jumping to conclusions?”

  Erin now realized that the voice had come from right behind her and she whipped around, ready to shoot whoever was there. However, what she saw caused her body to freeze. She was staring a dark humanoid figure, who seemed to be made of a black mist of some kind. It was almost like shadows themselves had formed a human body.

  “Really? Is that the way to greet someone?” the shadowy figure asked in a sarcastic voice. “Especially someone who saved your life.”

  “What are you talking-?” Erin began to ask, but she then recognized the voice of the figure. “You… You’re the one who spoke to me when I was first transported into this world!”

  “And she finally gets it, ladies and gentlemen,” the shadow said mockingly. “I’m honestly very disappointed in you. I know it’s been some time, but not that long. You already forgot about me, didn’t you?”

  “Well, in my defense, I’ve been quite busy with just trying to survive!” the redhead argued. “But enough about that! Who are you and what do you want from me!?”

  “Who I am is not important right now. I might reveal my identity to you later, but you have to prove something to me first,” the shadow answered. “And that actually has something to do with what I want from you specifically.”

  “What would that be?” Erin asked.

  “To put it in simple terms, I want you to be the hero of this world,” the shadow answered. “You can probably see for yourself that this world desperately needs someone to rescue it. That’s where you come in.”

  “You want ME to be a hero!?” the redhead asked. “You can’t be serious! How am I supposed to do something like that!? I don’t have any special powers or anything! Hell, I can’t even use basic magic!”

  “I will admit that it’s not exactly the most airtight of plans. It was honestly just a small part of me that expected you to take up such a path. If someone would have asked for my expectations, I would have said that you’d just hide in a hole somewhere,” the shadowy figure said in a nonchalant tone. “However, you already have become quite the hero by fighting against some of the people behind the oppression of the poor people of this world. Of course there have been some major setbacks, but no true hero knows only success. The greatest of men and women have all come from nothing, before they struggled through painful paths in order to reach the greatest of heights. I’m sure even you can accomplish this.”

  “...Alright, let’s say that’s possible for me. I still need to know something,” Erin said, still not willing to believe the idea that she would become some sort of a hero or savior. “Why me specifically? Doesn’t this world have anyone that would be better suited for this? After all, unlike me, they are at least born in this world.”

  “I’m guessing you’re talking about that issue you’re having with magic, correct? Such a thing can easily be fixed. Besides, I have seen many promising candidates for saving this world, but sadly none of them were exactly up to the task,” the shadow explained. “You see, they all lacked something special that would keep them on the right path. That is something you have. And I’ve put on a bit of an insurance to make sure you never lose it.”

  The redhead was confused for a moment, until her eye went wide with realization.

  “The visions… The ones I see when I’m about to… The ones that show me a person’s past!” Erin said as she started to understand what had been done to her. “You’re the one behind those!? Why!? Why would you do something like that to me!?”

  “I told you already, to make sure you don’t lose that one thing that keeps you on the right path,” the shadow answered and the redhead could swear that she saw a smirk on his face. “We both know that you’re not just anybody, but someone with a rather special connection to the Five Overlords. That is why I chose you.”

  “You know about-?” Erin began to ask before cutting herself off and pointing her gun at the figure. “Just who are you!? How do you know so much about me!?”

  The shadow didn’t say anything in response. Instead, he let out a frustrated sigh, before suddenly appearing right in front of the redhead. Before she could so much as blink in response, he had knocked the gun out of her hands and grabbed her face by the mouth. Erin felt like the blood in her veins froze, as she stared into the face of this figure, even if she couldn’t see any eyes or other facial features.

  “THAT is what you get for threatening me. Understood?” the shadowy figure said in a venomous tone. “Do not make a mistake in thinking that I’m your friend or something like that. In fact, I’m mostly doing this out of my own interest. And if you fail to meet my expectations, I will drop you before you’ll even know what hit you.”

  Seeing as how she was completely at the shadow’s mercy, Erin simply remained silent. She could tell just by this brief exchange that if she were to anger this person, it wouldn’t end well for her. Just a bit more pressure and he could crush her head in his hand. That wasn’t even taking into account all the possible magical powers this person most likely had.

  “Anyways, I believe you were whining about not having magic. Shall we fix that for you?” the shadowy figure asked as he pulled out a small blue stone that had a faint glow. “Seeing as how this worked for the Five Overlords, it should do it for you as well. Unless you dies, that is.”

  Before the redhead could ask what the shadow meant, he violently thrust the gem into her body. Her lone eye went wide as possible, as a scream died in her throat due to the shock from the horrifying pain that she was feeling in the area she had been punched. This agony soon became much worse, as she felt the pain suddenly intensify and move throughout her whole body. This finally caused her to scream as loud as she could.

  After letting out a scream with all her might, Erin’s body dropped to the ground. She closed her eye as she was certain that this was her end.

  “Oh, would you quit being so dramatic and get your ass off the ground? It’s not like I did anything that bad to you,” the shadowy figure said. “Hell, I even went so far as to mend your clothes for you!”

  Not believing what she was just told, Erin slowly opened her eye and looked down at the part she had been punched. She was expecting a large hole oozing blood, but instead it was like nothing had even happened. With a shocked expression on her face, the redhead began inspecting the area that had been hit, only to find out that nothing was wrong with it at all.

  “What the-? I was certain that I was going to die!” Erin exclaimed in shock before turning her attention back to the shadow. “What did you-?”

  “Oh, nothing big. I just got tired of your whining that I decided to fix your problem for you,” the shadowy figure said nonchalantly. “Now, this isn’t some big cheat power that I’ve granted you. It’s basically just a small push to get you started. From this point on, it all depends on you whether you get anywhere with this. In short, don’t get lazy and start slacking off.”

  “What are you talking about? What did you do to me exactly?” the redhead asked.

  “You’ll see for yourself. You don’t need me to explain every damn thing for you,” the shadow said before he began to vanish. “Anyways, I’ve done what I came here to do, so I’m out of here. I have some other business to attend to and can’t stay here helping your ass out all the time. But before I go, you might want to hold onto that stone your friend gave you. It’s going to be very useful for you very soon. Also, get ready to run. Very fast.”

  Before Erin could voice any kind of a protest, the figure had completely vanished into the darkness it had come from. The redhead was left confused as to what was truly going on. The answer she had received had only brought up more questions in the end.

  It seemed like she had been brought into this world for a reason, but who was the one who had actually summoned her? Who was this mysterious shadowy figure and what was he planning? And how did he know her?

  All these questions would have to remain unanswered for now, as Erin heard something moving behind her, where the entrance to the cave was. It was at that point that she remembered the last things the shadowy figure had told her. It seemed like it had been a warning about something heading to this cave.

  The redhead turned around and felt cold shivers of terror run down her spine, as a giant spider was now blocking the entrance to the cave.