~~~(Jamie)~~~

What the hell?

I'm walking into the kitchen at home one moment, and the next, I'm walking down a cobblestone street. The buildings around me are built of brick, with many of them having glass windows. I can't understand the language written on them, though. I can assume they're shops, based on the displays that are visible.

I've read enough stories to understand what just happened, and mentally curse whatever divine being sent me here.

The people walking around barely give me two glances, though the longer I stay standing here, the longer people stare, so I start walking down the street. Their clothes look fairly modern – I mean, they don't look hand-crafted in most cases, and there are even jeans.

However, their streetlamps are tall metal posts with crystals floating above, no light shining right now. Once the sun sets, they'll probably begin to glow.

Why the hell did the divine being or whatever it was have to decide to bring me here before dinner? Couldn't it have at least waited until I'd eaten, so I wasn't hungry?

At least I was able to use the bathroom first, since I can't understand what they're saying, and I'm not sure how I'd figure out a bathroom immediately after arriving.

That would be really, really awful, now I think of it.

So at least the divine being was nice enough for that.

In isekai stories, there are generally one of two things going on: either someone summoned you, which clearly isn't the case, or some divine being decided you should go to another world. There are outliers, of course, but I doubt this is one of them.

This is probably the latter case, and since it isn't telling me anything, I have to wonder why I'm here.

There are also generally two forms to how things work in isekai stories. Either there's some sort of magic to the world, or there's some sort of magic to the world, along with a game system.

Status.

Name: Jamie Species: Human Sex: Male Total Level: 0 Age: 19 Public Title: None Class: None Health: 45/45 STR: 9 AGI: 10 INT: 10 VIT: 10 Mana: 45/45 END: 8 DEX: 9 WIS: 9 LCK: 10 Rating: White CON: 9 FLX: 10 PER: 9 LIF: 18

I can assume most of those for what they do, but focus and see if I can pull up their information, finding it possible. The rating doesn't tell me anything, and Total Level seems to be the sum of all of my Class Levels.

According to the windows, STR affects physical strength, END affects resiliency to physical damage, and CON affects my Health. I'm assuming CON grants 5 Health per point. These are definitely my physical attributes, there.

For the next trio of stats, AGI affects physical speed, DEX affects skill with my hands, and FLX affects my flexbility. I'm going to assume that those three, combined, affect my reflexes.

INT affects the power of magic itself, confirming the existence of magic. Well, I guess Mana did that. WIS affects Mana, probably at the same rate CON affects Health, and it also affects Mana regeneration and my resiliency to magic. PER is perception, and affects how much I notice from sensory input.

That one seems a bit odd to stick with the other two, but I guess it's because perception is, somewhat, a mental thing.

Now for final set of stats. VIT, or vitality, affects how young I appear, as well as how quickly I recover from injuries and illness. LCK, my luck, affects how often lucky things happen to me. Finally, LIF is lifespan, which says that it's five years for every one LIF, for my natural lifespan – that is, when I'll just fall over and die, not from illness, disease, curses, attacks, et cetera.

Since there's a Class System, I wonder how those work. It would be nice if I could actually understand the people here, so that I could figure out how stuff works a bit more than I already have.

New Skill! Common Language The common language of the world of Tielmar

Skills.

Limitless Adaptation 1 Common Language 4

Limitless Adaptation?

I focus on the Skill and pull it up.

Limitless Adaptation Level 1 Passive You have the power to adapt to the situations around you. The greater the need to adapt, the more likely you will adapt, and the greater the adaptation will be.

So I start off with such a weird Skill. I'm guessing it's not as OP as it seems, though. There has to be some limit, even if it calls itself Limitless Adaptation, right? Seems like it works based on need – such as me needing to learn the local language, speaking only a different one upon arrival.

I can now understand the basics of their language. Or rather… I can really just understand the basic grammar structure, and maybe two or three words.

Walking around the shopping district a few times and listening to various conversations, the Skill goes up to Level 4, and I can understand it almost fluently. An hour or so has passed since I arrived, judging by the clock hovering in my vision. Digital, not analogue, but I'm not sure if that would make a difference.

"Welcome, newbie," a voice startles me out of my thoughts, and I turn to face the speaker.

He's around my age, and has jet-black hair and golden irises. He also has a solid, muscular build, and is dressed in a tunic, a pair of black pants, and a set of leather boots. A sword is strapped to his left hip, though it's simple in design – a plain, leather hilt with a steel cap at the tip and guard at the opening, the hilt of the sword simple and steel.

Adam

That's all I can see for him, but the moment I see it, a message appears in my vision.

New Skill! Appraisal Passive Allows you to see information about that which you are observing. The higher the Level of this Skill, the more information you see.

"Newbie?" I ask him after realizing he's watching me, and a smile twitches at the corner of his lips. "Why'd you call me that?"

"It's quite clear," he responds, and I notice that his canines are just a little bit sharper than I've ever seen before. A little bit sharper, and a little bit longer. "That you're new to this world. Some god finds it amusing to pull people from other worlds and just drop them here. The fact that you understood me is amazing – it's rare to find someone who already knows our language when they arrive."

Should I tell him how I know it?

Probably not, as I have no idea just how rare this Skill is, and it might cause problems for people to know.

"I'm Adam," he smiles at me again. "And you're the first person I've met who hasn't run off when I tried to approach them."

"Why would I do that?" I ask.

"My fangs," he indicates his canines, then points to his eyes. "They tend to unnerve people. I'm half-dragon, and anyone with a good enough Appraisal could tell that. You see Species at Level 2. You're human, right?"

"Yeah."

"Most from other worlds are," he says. "You probably gained Appraisal after looking at me and actually focusing on me, right?"

"Yeah," I admit. "That's all it took?"

"It really just takes," he says. "Focusing on something, whether it's living or not. Most people have it at Level 3 by the time they reach our age, though as a half-beast, I have a slight nerf to it, so it's only at Level 2 for me, right now. I'll probably bring it to Level 3 soon."

"So you can see my name, then?" I ask.

"Indeed, Jamie," he answers.

"I have a burning desire to know if you were born from a woman or hatched out of an egg."

"Born," he answers.

"So you have a bellybutton?"

"Yup," he lifts his tunic up, showing me his innie and six-pack abs, before tucking the tunic back in. "Though there are some of my kind who are hatched instead. It depends on which is the dragon, or if it comes from both parents being half-dragon, half-whatever. For me, both of my parents were half-dragon, half-human, so I popped out half of each."

He says 'popped out' as if that's the normal way to reference being born.

"Sorry if my question was rude," I say. "I couldn't help it. I tend to be really curious about things, and meeting someone like you… I'm now really, really curious."

"Ask away," he smiles at me. "I'll do my best to answer your questions."

"Well," I say. "Is there any way I can get food? I was on my way to the kitchen at home when I found myself wandering the streets here."

Okay, so it's not quite asking the questions I want about him, but I'm not fully sure what's acceptable and what's not around here, and don't want to push my luck. Especially since that question might have bothered him more than he's letting on.

"Yeah," his smile turns into a full-on grin. "There are plenty of restaurants, including a really good one just around the corner. I'll pay for your dinner."

We walk around the corner and into a dimly-lit restaurant packed with people of varying ages and species. I can see elves and dwarfs and humans, and now there's at least one half-dragon. No fairies in here, though.

A tall, slender woman with pointy ears greets us as we enter, grabbing a pair of menus, a large, single-sheet menu, and two rolls of silverware. Her hair and eyes are both a light brown in color, and she moves gracefully as she brings us to a table to sit.

She keeps glancing at Adam, though, and I get the sense that she's uneasy. Several people glance at him, and I wonder just how obvious it is what he is, and how much of it is them knowing from Appraisal.

And why are people so uneasy around him?

The elf sets down the menus and silverware and walks away, and a few moments later, another one approaches, looking extremely nervous. She looks quite similar to the first elf. In fact, all of the elves are similar in appearance, it seems. Is there no racial variety between them?

"H-h-hello," she greets us. "May name is Lilia. M-m-may I take your drink orders, pl-pl-please?"

"One moment," Adam flips over the menu. "We did just sit down, and he's a newbie who just arrived."

"Yes, sir," she nods.

I flip over my menu. The drinks cover the bottom half of the page.

"Alcohol's on the big menu," Adam tells me. "If you're interested in that."

"Never had it before."

"Oh," he says. "You're from one of those places, where you have to be older to drink it."

"Doesn't stop people from drinking it," I say. "Before then. I just never had any interest in partying it out, or stuff like that. Drinks seem to be roughly the same as back home, though without the soda."

"Try the island twist," he suggests. "It's pretty delicious. I'll have an island twist."

"Same," I flip the menu back over and start looking through it.

I see burgers and pastas and sandwiches, ribs and wings and barbecue, smoked meats, and wow is my mouth watering.

"So are all elves flat-chested?" I ask.

There goes my curiosity…

"Yeah," he laughs. "And you do realize that they have better ears than humans, right? Quite a few just heard you."

"Is that a problem?"

"Not if you're my friend," he shrugs. "People will generally leave you alone, in that case. It's still considered rude, though."

"So why are people so nervous around you?" I ask. "They're acting like you're a monster."

"I sort of am," he shrugs. "Dragons aren't exactly nice to other species, and are more likely to kill you than make love with you, and mixbreeds don't ignore one whole aspect of their blood just because they have something more tame."

"You don't seem like a monster."

"You've only known me a few minutes," he laughs. "You haven't seen me angry. The last time I was angry was before I turned eighteen, so I don't have the Skill for it, but when I get furious enough, I activate an innate magic within me that enhances all of my stats."

"Before you turned eighteen?" I ask.

"Oh, right," he chuckles. "Newbie. On this world, you don't gain access until you reach the age of majority. So until I turned eighteen, I didn't have access to the System."

"How old are you?" I ask.

"I turned eighteen a couple of weeks ago," he answers. "You?"

"I just turned nineteen last month."

"Cool," he says as the waitress returns with our drinks.

We place our orders, and once our appetizers come out, focus more on eating than we do on talking. He ordered quite a lot of food, and that's with the large portions. I factored in the sizes I saw on other peoples' plates before ordering, so I probably won't eat as much, though I guess, being what he is, he can eat an impossible amount.

By the time we've finished our meals, he's probably eaten six times as much food as I have. Once we finish eating, he pays with some silver coins, then we leave. No tip given, it appears.

Adam leads me to a crappy little inn, and I raise an eyebrow at that.

"Most places won't serve me," he explains. "That restaurant will only because they don't really cater to the stronger folks, and they know that a beast like me would yield them a fair bit more than a family of three or four. Most tables don't order three appetizers.

"So," he gestures to the inn. "I had to find some place to stay that will take a beast like me. This was all I could find, and that was after threatening the owner."

"You threatened the owner?" I ask.

"I got a little mad," his cheeks flush, and he looks away. "I did apologize after, and I'm paying him double the usual rate for my room. Hopefully, he won't eventually decide to just petition for stronger adventurers to come and remove me."

"How long have you been here?" I ask.

"Tonight is my first night," he answers. "I just arrived in town a few hours before I saw you. I was looking for food, myself, when I spotted you walking around. Come on – let's go inside. I'll pay for a room for you, too."

"Alright," I say, wondering just how much money he has.

We enter the inn, which is about as crappy as it looks from the outside. Everything is old and worn-out, and looking in need of replacement. The bedding won't be filled with bugs, will it?

The lights in here are floating crystals, and now that I think about it, so too were they in the restaurant. These are about as bright as the lights in the restaurant, too, though I think there, that was intentional, while here, it's what they can afford.

"Hello again," Adam approaches the counter. "Jamie here's a newbie, and in need of a room for the night. I offered to pay for a room for him for tonight, if you had anymore open, which I'm sure you do. I'll still pay the double fare you're charging me, even though he's quite human."

"Shared room or-"

"Separate," Adam answers, putting some bronze coins on the counter. They're the size of quarters, while the silver coins he used at the restaurant were roughly the size of nickles. "One night for him."

"Alright," the innkeeper notes something down in a ledger, then hands me a key. "You're in room seven. Good luck."

From the way he said that, I get the sense that he meant for dealing with Adam.

Adam leads me upstairs and shows me my room. It has a single bed, and a small table. It also has a tiny bathroom with a sink and toilet, no shower or bath. I'm guessing washing up has to do with the sink, then.

Adam's been nothing but nice to me so far, so either he has ulterior motives, or he's a genuinely good guy. If it's the former, then I hope I get strong enough to protect myself from him before he acts on those motives. If it's the latter, then I plan on being strong enough that I can make people serve him.

I don't forget kindness, and always repay it, when I can.

"It's pretty late," Adam tells me. "So I'm turning in for the night. Tomorrow, I can introduce you to the basics of Classes and combat. There's a Dungeon outside of town that's good for starting Adventurers, if you stay in the White Zone."

"White Zone?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "There are nine Zones to a Dungeon: White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Black. I'll explain it in the morning."

He leaves, and I test the bed. It at least feels comfortable, and not like some shitty motel bed. I strip off my clothes and lie down. The blanket is soft and cool.

I guess today was more exhausting than I realized, because within moments of lying down, I feel my eyes starting to droop, and then sleep overcomes me.