Arlie walked down the early morning street with her aunt Ria. The two of them were heading to the Adventurers guild and then they would be shopping. The Twins had left with Horon to help Horon get his new hammer and they’d be stopping by the guild ter for registration. Meanwhile, Thron was staying at the local Contrey home with Ixil. Current pns for Ixil was that she was going to stay in Arcs with Ria but in the meantime, Thron could watch the demon girl.

  Turning a corner, she entered the local market square where the adventurer’s guild proudly sat. Being not that far from the gate, and several inns and taverns popur with adventurers, it was ideally located. Adventurers were fairly respected since they were tasked with exploring dungeons, dealing with monsters and scouting old ruins. There were several dungeons not that far from Arcs. They were living monster dens that had to be kept in check but also a valuable source of materials. A good part of the local economy, she knew one of them was called the Fairy’s Garden, it was a popur source of valuable herbs, pnts and even special materials like that Fairy’s Nectar that Ria had been using yesterday. Hell that dungeon was in rge part why her family had settled in the region in the first pce, which consequently made it the oldest dungeon in the region.

  Arlie hurried across the square as she noted a crowd was already forming. She knew the guild could get fairly busy. It wasn’t that surprising since a fairly rge contingent of adventurers operated out of Arcs. Ria picked up the pace to keep with her, “Today looks a little busier than usual.”

  “It does?”

  “Well I do live here, I notice things.”

  “And here I thought you spent all day in the workshop.”

  Ria giggled, “Tempting as that would be, no.”

  Reaching the big doors, they followed a group of armored men into the guild. There were a number of rough looking and muscur figures already inside, but a few young women were scattered about in adventuring gear. A familiar figure noticed them come in.

  “Little dy? I didn’t take you for an adventurer.” He noticed Ria, “hmm, is this lovely young dy your daughter or your younger sister?”

  Arlie felt a vein pop, “I’ve got a name.”

  “Daughter!!!?”

  He raised his hands, “Sorry, sorry! Didn’t mean to offend.”

  Another voice interjected, “Careful! Insulting a Contrey isn’t a good idea.”

  “I didn’t insult...!”

  Both of them spoke up in sync, “Yes, you did!”

  “Well sorry about that. I’m still getting used to living here.”

  “Right, right, I tried to ask but those hellspawn showed up...”

  “Hellspawn!?”

  “Those bck-skinned humanoids with far too many teeth, cws and spikes. Those are hellspawn.”

  “Those things were some kind of demon? Maybe I’ll get another chance then!”

  “Demon? What on Valiere gave you that idea?”

  Ria and Arlie gave him a look as if he’d suddenly grown a third head.

  “Huh? Don’t demons come from hell?

  “Who the fuck taught you the pnes? The Mortal races live here on the Mortal pne, meanwhile, demons are found on the infernal pne. In the other direction are the spiritual and ethereal pnes, both are home to the incorporeal races and aren’t for those of us with form to visit. Finally the st upper pne is the Celestial Dark, not to be confused with the Celestial Void. The Dark is a pne right on the border of the Ethereal pne and the divide is just thin enough that ethereal light floods the Dark with otherworldly dispys of light and color. Dotted across the Dark are many isnds that are home to Celestials, they are the only nd there, everywhere else is only empty sky. “Now Hell is one of the lower pnes, it sits right above the Abyss, the pits of hell are doorways into the Abyss, sealed by ancient gates erected by the gods. It is not a pce however that one visits nor leaves. Hell is as much a prison as the Abyss, only different evils are held there.”

  Hikaru gave Ria a look, “For a little girl, you sure know a lot.”

  “Maybe I should make you into one? See how you like being called a child,” said Ria in a cold tone, then she looked at Arlie, “Where did you find this idiot?”

  She shrugged, “Met him at the gate, don’t know much about him. Still want to know where he came from.” Hikaru sighed, “Maybe we should chat at the table?”

  The group shared looks and soon moved over to an empty table. Arlie leaned forward “So where are you from? Clearly can’t be local since you didn’t recognize our line and you certainly don’t look local. I imagine you have a story?”

  Hikaru leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sighed again. It wasn’t a story he was all that fond of. Things hadn’t exactly gone the way he might have imagined. “Well no I’m not local, I wasn’t even on this world a couple months ago. One moment I was rexing in the local park, the next I found myself in a strange room surrounded by oddly dressed women and a few old men.”

  “You were summoned? That would expin a few things,” commented Arlie.

  Ria spoke up, “Like his poor knowledge of the pnes. I mean seriously, the other pnes aside, everyone knows the demons live in the infernal pne.”

  Hikaru replied, “Well things are a little different on Earth... no make that very different. Arcs looks like a town straight out of the European Middle Ages if notably cleaner. Honestly I could almost imagine being in the past, if not for the twin Earth-like moons in the sky and all the magical tools. Speaking of, I find it strange that you people fight with swords and spears, when you have ser weapons.”

  Ria and Arlie shared a gaze, then asked, “What’s a ser?”

  Hikaru blinked, “Seriously? They were using them just yesterday! Those giant guns on the wall.”

  “Oh? The Mystic Ballistae?”

  “Yeah those, those are sers.”

  “Never heard them called that,” commented Arlie.

  “Nor I,” said Ria.

  Arlie steered things another way, “We didn’t really sit down to talk about those anyway. So you came from Earth and were summoned.”

  Hikaru nodded and unched into a discussion of his unfortunate summoning. He still remembered the incident like it was yesterday. The vilge he’d been summoned to was up in the mountains, more specifically it was out east in the foothills of the Drakian mountains. The Vil of Varitul was a mining vilge, surrounded by fairly high walls and built right up against the base of a cliff, one that had several deep tunnels dug into its side. Quite the pce, but Hikaru recalled most how unexpected being summoned there was. He’d read more than one isekai adventure novel and being summoned to a small vilge was a curveball he’d never heard of. Usually, you’d meet the king and be told about some demon lord or other grave threat. Along the way you’d meet a cute girl, usually a princess and start an adventure with her. Reality wasn’t at all like the stories and he learned that quickly.

  At the time Varitul had been facing some troubles, notably a dragon had moved in nearby, it was harassing the vilge. After several attempts to drive the dragon away. The local mage cn came to the conclusion that they needed help, so they chose to summon a hero. He’d been that hero they had summoned. Hearing he’d be facing a dragon had been a bit daunting but being a hero meant he’d have some sort of cheat right? A blessing from the gods that would let him power through any obstacle. Reality spped him in the ass hard on that one. Oh, he did get a boon but he wouldn’t call it a cheat. He was physically stronger and faster than he used to be, but he wouldn’t call his abilities superhuman. The only other boon was that he was able to learn faster than he used to. Apparently the kind of blessing he expected required cultivating favor with a god. Not that anyone told him, until after he’d thoroughly humiliated himself.

  He’d foolishly challenged the dragon less than a week after he got here, ignoring the advice of the mages who wanted him to train and study. Saying he would need to develop some skills first and that the dragon could wait a few days.

  Arlie chuckled, “Yeah that does sound foolish, so what happened?”

  Hikaru shrank a little, “... I spent the next couple of months as a... pything. I’d um rather not talk about it,” he said, his voice getting smaller with every sylble.

  The two ughed, “Well sounds like you had fun.”

  Hikaru gred at them, “It...”

  Ria interjected, “Spare it, you were a pything for two months. We have a dragon that fancies herself our family guardian.”

  Hikaru blinked, “How is th...” something dawned on him, in a quiet voice he said, “She doesn’t make you go naked when she visits does she?”

  Ria whispered, “Well, he’s definitely met a dragon.”

  Arlie blushed a little as she recalled Aurora not giving her a chance to get dressed during her visit. Good thing the boys hadn’t been around at the time, that would have just been embarrassing.

  Hikaru noticed that, “So she did do that to you, figures.”

  Arlie changed the subject before it went any further, “Right, so, um, how’d you get away from the dragon?”

  Hikaru looked down, “... I didn’t.”

  Arlie chuckled, “She let you go? Can’t say I’m surprised.”

  Hikaru blinked, “You aren’t?”

  Ria sighed, “Dragons aren’t something to be taken lightly, not only do they have powerful bodies, but they have potent magical abilities to go with them. Even I would hesitate to challenge one.”

  Hikaru chuckled, “Yeah I don’t think a young girl would fare much of a chance.”

  Ria gred at him, opened her mouth then closed it. Her eyes fshed, and then Hikaru jumped in his seat as a lightning bolt struck him from above. “What the fuck was that for!?”

  “I’m not a kid, I’m an Archmage, it takes years to master magic to the point you can cast chantlessly. Not that you seem to understand that.”

  Hikaru looked between them, “I’m sorry but when I look at you two I see two little girls. One of whom stuffs her chest to look more mature.”

  “I don’t stuff my chest!” excimed Arlie indignant. Several surrounding figures noted the commotion. Including a young woman, her slightly pointed ears gave away her half-elven heritage, she had intelligent ice-blue eyes, rosy cheeks, a small button nose and a bright smile. Wavy ice-blue hair fell halfway down her back. Arlie guessed she was about 150 centimeters tall, maybe slightly taller, but she clearly didn’t have much of a chest. The woman was dressed in rugged reinforced mage robes and sturdy boots, the gear of an experienced adventurer mage. Yet it didn’t really hide her figure, the robes being built for travel and combat clung to her tighter than the ones Arlie wore.

  “Harassing young women again, are we Hikaru?”

  “It’s not like that!”

  Arlie stood up, “I’m Arlie Contrey and you are?”

  “Contrey? I’m honored to meet one of you, I’m Polca and I see you have already met Hikaru the Failed Hero.”

  “So I have, and Failed Hero? I’ll have to remember that.”

  Hikaru protested, “Failed!? I messed up one time!”

  “One? And here I thought it was three times.”

  Hikaru groaned but didn’t say anything more.”

  Polca changed the subject, “Anyway, I can’t say I’ve seen you here before. Was there some kind of quest you needed?”

  Hikaru blinked, “Right, right, I did not expect to run into you here either. Maybe I could help.”

  Arlie sighed, but Ria spoke faster, “I’m here to register my niece as an adventurer. It’s time she travelled the world a bit. Not to mention she’ll need it, given she will be taking the trials of the five temples.”

  Polca blinked, “The trials of the five temples? That’s a rather serious quest.”

  Hikaru frowned, “What...”

  Polca answered swiftly, “Not something that really matters to anyone outside the mage cns, but it's fairly famous within said cns. The trials start with the Red Temple, an old structure up north. Not all that easy to reach though, but I was there once.”

  Hikaru blinked, “You were?”

  Ria commented, “Many mages take the trial, it’s basically a right of passage to us.”

  “A right of passage? Like a test of courage or something?”

  “Or something,” said Polca as she looked Arlie over. “Now why don’t I help you with that registration, and then after we should go shopping. Those robes aren’t suited for the kind of traveling you’ll need to do.”