The day had come when Ray Vallia would leave the hospital and make his way into the new world. He looked out onto the streets in front of the hospital. He knew this day would come soon, but it still managed to strike him as odd. At this point he knew that this world wasn't Earth and thanks to the presence of free computer access within the hospital, he was at this point aware enough of the new world's rules and countries that he would by no means be lost.
But even then, he knew that this experience would be anything but easy. At least at first.
To think that his life would take such an unexpected turn of events. Not that he could say that he had a hard path set for himself beforehand. As he thought of this, he heard the footsteps of the little doctor get closer. "So, are you ready to leave?"
She looked really excited. No doubt due to the opportunity she had been granted by Dr. Arias. Taking a look at Ray, she asked, "Those are new clothes, right? Is that what you went out to get?"
Ray looked down at his clothing. Dr. Arias had given him a few resources under the pretext of "getting started" to Ray. Among them, a bank account with a starting balance of 5,000 Mara, Yolan and Yiris' currency. Judging off of prices online, he could guess this translated to roughly 2,500 dollars which was a fair amount. It was a number large enough for him to take advantage, buying himself a pair of more comfortable traveling clothes for the trip.
Of course, it was also during this trip that he realized he should get his no phone situation sorted. This world only had two payment options. Digital through a portable device, or physical with real cash. At the moment he only had the latter, having taken out 1,000 Mara from his account for the trip.
Ray asked the little doctor, "How do I look?"
"Hm, they match at least, but they aren't my style." Ray looked at her. She was wearing a style of clothing that he could only describe as formal villager clothes. It was a simple look. Ray, meanwhile, was wearing something you'd usually only see in a modern city setting. A pair of black pants with a new pair of shoes along with a deep gray shirt with a lighter beige overcoat. He had also gotten a haircut to fix his annoyance. "How much did they cost?"
"350 Mara for the full set of clothes."
She hummed, "A bit expensive for my taste."
"Isn't your monthly pay like 50,000 Mara?"
"Don't say that out loud!" She explained, "I send a lot of it back home anyway."
Before the two could move on to the next topic, the two of them suddenly heard a voice behind them. "Ema Nara!? Ray Valia!?" The two turned to look as a man stood up from his car and looked around
Spotting the two, he walked over and asked them, "Are you Ema Nara and Ray Valia?"
"It's Vallia, but yes, that's us," he explained.
The man nodded. "Do you have any luggage?"
Ray turned to look at a small bag in his hand. When coming to this world, he had been wearing a military uniform complete with a functional firearm. He had by no means been fully equipped for battle of course, but he wasn't fully unprepared either. Dr. Arias had taken the liberty of handing them over to him in a luggage bag on the way out, warning him to not show people the gun until he had a license.
"I'll carry my bag with me." He turned to Ema Nara's bags. She had brought a few. "I think Dr. Nara will need some help with hers though."
"Oh, yes!" She nodded, "Do you need…"
"No need, ma'am." Ray watched as the guy hoisted up Dr. Nara's three airplane luggage sized bags and walked off with them. Opening his car's trunk, he carefully placed them inside and opened the back seats for them. "You may take a seat."
It was not long after that, that the car left.
As it did, Dr. Arias was seen walking out. "This is going to be quite the show."
Dianna appeared next to him, "But is it the right decision? You know this will not be easy for him."
Dr. Arias smirked, "On the contrary, Dianna. I believe he is someone who can change everything." He turned to walk away, "Of course, at the end of the day, we still cannot be sure. But hey, that's the beauty of it, don't you think? Or have you forgotten? The uncertainty that surrounded Leon's journey as well? It was no different from Ray's."
"That much is true, I guess," Dianna muttered.
Getting comfortable, the two watched as their driver fiddled with their car a bit. "Alastar City?" Ray watched the little doctor confirm for him with a nod. "Very well." Pressing a button that from what he could tell, confirmed the destination in a GPS like function. The driver turned on some music Ray took interest in as he had never heard it, and got to driving.
An hour went by as Ray Vallia sat silently with the little doctor, enjoying the relaxing atmosphere after the chaotic first few days he spent in the hospital complex before the driver finally gained the courage to speak to his passengers. Ray turned to the driver as he asked, "So, Alastar City, eh? Any reason why you're taking a trip there this time of year?"
Ray explained, "Is Alastar City very noteworthy?"
The driver asked, "Do you two really not know?"
"What?" What was he talking about?
Dr. Nara stepped in, "Oh, the Hero's Welcoming." She turned to him, "Alastar City was the city that Hero Leon returned to after defeating the demon king 750 years ago. It became a tradition to hold a festival every summer after that to commemorate him."
He got the picture. "I see." He had researched the events of the Human-Demon War back at the hospital but never really got into what happened as a result of it on smaller scales. The Hero's Welcoming, eh? He turned to the driver, "So you're saying it's about to be held soon, then?"
The driver smiled at him, "Of course! I thought for sure that was why you were headed there." Alastar City was the capital of Yiris and thus had a direct line straight to Ekronis Island in the form of a public magical teleporter. Not to mention with Azalea City, the location of Arias Hospital, being at the right edge of the Yolan Dynasty and Alastar City being in the left section of Yiris' main land territory, it wasn't a very far trip. Just a 2 day drive compared to the 2-3 week trip from Azalea directly to Ekronis City. It just came with the caveat that they had to wait for the teleporter to become available in 4 days as it was only open to the public once a week.
"When's it going to be held?" Ray asked.
The driver stopped to think for a few seconds. "To my knowledge it should be held 2 days from now. We are set to arrive just in time to see its opening."
Strangely convenient. Ray muttered, "I see." He turned to the doctor, "Are you open to looking around for a bit? Beats just sitting around and waiting."
She thought about the suggestion, "You have a point. I've never been there either." Might as well go if it opened just in time for them to get there.
Ray thought to himself. It just might shine some light on this so-called Hero Leon as well. He was a historical figure that his research found had been buried in mystery. It was one of his curiosities.
Thinking through that, he looked out the window. Azalea City. The city they were now leaving. The sight brought with it another thought. Azalea and Alastar both used to be part of the same kingdom no less than 50 years prior and thus had very similar infrastructure from what he had seen. Due to being confined to the hospital for most of his time there though, he hadn't really seen much of it. It seemed that he had now been given the chance to see it. The way this world chose to handle its cities.
It was something he wanted to check out since he first saw the buildings. Especially at night when the light sources in the city shined with a strange fluorescent blue he recognized as identical to the color of his own magic power from before. It gave the city a techno feel to it that he couldn't quite describe and made street lights unnecessary. He wanted to see what else was different compared to Earth.
With the end of that thought, he looked back to the driver and Dr. Nara. The two had decided to start a casual conversation that Ray quickly was absorbed into. That was until 3 hours into the drive.
Ray was suddenly cut off mid sentence as the car abruptly stopped. "What?"
"Damn it," the driver cursed out.
Ray asked him, "Is something wrong?"
He pressed the button to open the door as he turned to them, "Can you two fight?"
What? He looked out the front windshield. "What the hell is that?" Just outside the car he looked at it. Whatever had appeared looks like a huge, fatty humanoid covered in warts wearing little more than fur as clothing. It was huge, probably about 5 meters tall and 3 meters wide.
"It's a troll." He cursed, "How the hell did it get this close to a road? Are those monster hunter bastards slacking off again?" Ray watched as the thing lifted up its massive, loglike arms and slammed them down onto the car. Upon colliding with the car, the care shook violently, rocking everyone inside around a bit. Shockingly, all that resulted from it was a violent shake as the car took the force head on without much issue. A reinforced car? The driver started to look angry, "You two need to stay in the car. I'll deal with the troll. Just give me a few minutes." He quickly reached over the driver side door and jumped out, drawing a rifle and shortsword from the glove compartment in the process. Weapons?
With the door slammed shut, Ray and Dr. Nara just sat there as the driver engaged the troll with his rifle. Truly a fight between modernity and fantasy. He sighed, "I had almost forgotten this was a fantasy world." This world's society was definitely modernized but that wouldn't mean things like monsters would just disappear after that.
He stopped as he heard muffled crying. "Huh?" He turned to the doctor. He sighed. "You're scared." Dr. Nara was shaking a bit. He thought to himself, must've been the feeling of its first attack. A blow like that would definitely scare a normal person.
"I guess it's warranted." They were alone so if they couldn't kill it, it would kill them. Which meant…Ray looked out and then back into the glove compartment. "I'm strong now." Those tests back at the hospital proved that. "Let's put that to the test."
"Stay in the car," he told the little doctor. Checking the glove compartment, he noticed a few more weapons, although the driver had definitely taken the best options. He drew a handgun along with a combat knife. Pocketing a few extra cartridges of bullets, Ray took one last breath and jumped out.
"Alright." He ran over to the fight scene where the driver ran around emptying his gun on the monster as it tried to crush him between the vice grips it called hands. "Hey, troll! Look over here!" The thing turned to look at him as he jumped and landed on the monster's elbow, transfering the force from his jump, straight into it. Crack! The immense force from Ray's strength shot straight into the monster's arm. Immediately, the elbow twisted and broke before Ray jumped off, mangling it further. He landed a few meters away as the thing screamed in pain.
The driver yelled out as he ran over and sliced at the distracted troll's achilles tendon, forcing it to fall over, "I thought you couldn't fight!"
He aimed at the troll's head with his gun. No dice. The bullets just bounced off. Alright then. He shot at its eyes, missing the first three but getting the money shot on the fourth. The troll immediately reached for its face with its working arm while swinging around its mangled one violently. "I just asked what that thing was! I never said I couldn't fight!"
The driver shot a few more rounds at the monster, somehow actually piercing its thick skin but not much else. "Most fighters know what a troll is!"
"Oh yeah!?" Ray ran up and jumped up to the troll's shoulder before grabbing on to its ear and planting his foot behind its neck for leverage. "Well most people know aiming for a vital spot is what you should do!" He plunged the knife into the neck where he could see what appeared to be its jugular sticking out and pulled back while jumping off its neck. The force of Ray's jump immediately sent the unstable monster into the ground as a river of blood shot out like a fountain spraying water.
It would be dead within seconds. Landing next to the driver, Ray sighed. "Those moves were actually decent. Do you have some form of training?"
The driver turned to him, "I should be asking you that. You don't look like much of a warrior."
"Really? I think I look the part. You don't get this build from working a 9 to 5." He looked down at the knife, now split in half. He hadn't noticed but part of the knife snapped off when he pulled. That troll was tough. Good thing it was slow. He wondered what would have happened if it managed to land a hit. Definitely not a good thing, that was for sure.
The driver smiled at him and pulled out his ID. "My name is Liam Palmer. A Rank adventurer and part time driver." He leaned over, "It's a pretty good side-hustle, you know. Not many people think about it. Nobles and businessmen pay top dollar to be escorted by someone as strong as me."
Ray got the idea pretty fast. "I see. Guess that explains your strength."
"What about you?"
"I have some military experience."
"Oh. Gotcha." He slapped Ray's back. This guy got comfortable real quick.
The two stopped talking as Dr. Nara looked out the vehicle, "Is it dead?"
Ray turned to it, "I ripped open its jugular vein. What do you think, Miss Doctor?"
She seemed a bit embarrassed, "I…"
Liam interrupted, "No. She's got a point. Trolls can regenerate if you don't kill them fast enough." He walked over, "It bled out pretty fast so I don't doubt that killed it but we should make sure before we leave. We don't want a less prepared idiot to die because we were lazy." He walked over and put the end of his rifle to the back of its head. 3 shots. "There. It should be dead now."
He turned to Ray, "Strongman. Don't think I didn't see that enhancement magic. Can you toss this thing into the forest? It's in the middle of the street."
Ray looked at it, "You're a soul type user. Why not you?" He saw it when they were fighting. A green outline of light surrounded him during the fight.
"What do you mean? I'm a wind. Wind soul type mostly just makes you faster." He leaned over, "You on the other hand." Ray looked at the driver with a slightly uncomfortable look. A bit too close there.
Ray sighed, "Fine." He walked over, grabbed the troll by the arm and threw it as hard as he could into the forest. Ray looked on as it flew. Dr. Arias had told him something very interesting. His body's adaptation to enhancement magic had made it so he could subconsciously freely amplify himself further. He still had no idea how strong he was at full strength. He did find out just now that throwing a several ton troll into the forest was a simple matter for him.
The driver watched birds fly away. "Not bad," he commented. Well, that was eventful.
After the fight, Liam explained that they would have to stop for the day. He had to make sure the troll didn't deal too much damage to the car. Luckily, there was a motel nearby so they weren't stranded but there was a chance they would get there a few hours later than what was originally anticipated.
Ray told Liam it was fine, and so they were on their way. Later that day, Ray Vallia was seen walking out of his room and staring up at the sky.
Liam saw that from out his own window and went out to meet his client. Spotting the guy as he waved at him, Ray asked, "You want to talk?"
"Heh. You could say that." Making it to his side, he asked, "You interested in the stars?"
"Huh?" Ray looked up, "Well, you could say that." He was charting the stars. It was not everyday that you got a clear view of a completely different sky.
Liam chuckled, "So you're the type of guy to have his head in the clouds? I like it." He pointed upwards at a particularly bright star, "See that one? My big sis' named after it. Maeve, she's called."
Ray looked at it, "I see. She's got a good name."
"Yeah. Makes me wonder if it was a mistake though. She fits the legends behind that star a bit too well. She's got the pride of a dragon, that girl." He looked at Ray, "You got any family?"
The outline of a woman appeared in his vision. He sighed, "No, not anymore."
"Gotcha." Liam looked at Ray's eyes. "You know, I wanted to ask. You were military, right?"
"Yeah. A little while. Didn't see an actual dispatch though so it's not something I think about now."
"I see." Liam looked back up as Ray studied the sky. "So, I wanted to ask you. Sorry if it's intruding a bit but…why did you sign up?"
Ray stopped scanning, seemingly stopping to think about the question. "Why did I sign up, eh?"
Liam explained, "Yeah."
"Why do you want to know?" Asked Ray.
Liam sighed. "My little brother wants to join up when he gets older. My old man served in the Yigarian War, so he wants to do the same." He grumbled, "I can't understand it really. Putting your life on the line for a country you didn't choose to be born in. I always found it a bit…odd."
"So you're the kind of guy to run, then?"
"I…" He groaned, "No, that's not what I meant. If my family was on the line or something, I would join. But, right now. There's no actual threat."
Ray turned to Liam. "You're worried for your brother so you want to know why he wants to go down such a path. That is why you asked."
Liam scratched his head. "You got it."
"Aren't you also putting yourself on the line? You're an adventurer, right?"
"I guess, but monsters. You don't see them everyday like back in the time of the hero. They're much more controlled than before. That's not to say they are a really rare sight. It's just, you won't see a random dragon appear like before. That troll was pretty much the strongest you'll usually find. Anyone above B Rank is unlikely to die unless caught off guard somehow. It's safer than people think."
"I see." Ray crossed his arms as he thought.
"So," Liam questioned, "why did you join?"
Ray frowned a bit. That was the question, wasn't it? This was not the first time he had been asked about it, but even after over a year, he still had the same response. Why had he joined the military? "I…don't know."