Armin. That’s my name. I am somewhat glad I can recall that at least.

I’d tell you that this is my story. A story about my rise to greatness, my conquest of this world, my battle with and defeat of the great demon king.

But I’m not psychic and none of that has happened yet. Nor would I need to be psychic to tell you just how unlikely things are to turn out that way.

Isekai.

A word well known amongst proper anime enthusiasts or just good and proper level 99 geeks for that matter. It’s japanese. The term used for the ‘transported / summoned to another world’ genre of story. Usually to be the hero. Although sometimes, depending on the story and how twisted the author / audience is, sometimes to be the butt of all the jokes, or just plain ‘lunch’.

I consumed enough Isekai related media to last several lifetimes. From anime to manga, light novels, official novels, to even non-official sources, like amateur novelist websites like RoyalRoad. So I can safely say that I am vastly experienced with all facets of isekai and isekai related concepts and lore.

There are many different types of isekai story. They honestly range from wish-fulfillment power fantasy romps, to dark and uber realistic epic journeys of accomplishment, or even the lesser used reverse-isekai.

So while experiencing a real live isekai is every proper geeks greatest fantasy, I mean why wouldn’t a social recluse or outcast want to experience an epic journey while attracting an entire harem of underage girls and furries, all set in a fantasy game-like world; the reality of it, however, is likely to be far less glorious.

Indeed if any such thing were to really happen, you would have to draw on the more realist and usually far darker kind of isekai story for any kind of actually useful insights. I have consumed many such stories personally and that is why right now, I am scared shitless.

Excited yes. But likely to need a serious change of pants in the not to distant future.

Armin. That is my name. I can not remember anything else, well at least not of a personal nature. I do not remember where I’m from or how I got here. But I know that I do not belong here. I know that I am from another planet. I know what isekai anime is. And I know that trees are not supposed to be purple.

The first thing I did when I got here, aside from stare at the purple trees for five full minutes with my mouth hanging open, oh and then freak out all over again when I realised that I’m also naked. After all that I mean. I did what any self respecting isekai enthusiast would do and verbally commanded: ‘status’

After only a split second of nothing happening, I had already started devolving into a spiral of emotion that was part embaressment, part freak the fuck out. But I was luckily soon rewarded with the somewhat, more expected response. Sort off.

While it was good that all those isekai stories got it right and that upon landing in a new world you could easily access your status screen, usually verbally or instinctively, I had to admit that they mostly missed something rather obvious. Why would you mentally be able to ‘see’ a blue screen. Heck, why would it be blue in the first place.

The information for ‘status’, instead, flooded my brain. If I had to describe it in words, it was like a page of text quickly scrolling through my brain, like it was some kind of command prompt that forgot the pagination switch. But that’s just an approximation, since I can easily perceive it all and it is not actually scrolling, or something like that.

Status: Armin - level 1

Skill points: 0

Gift points: 0

Strength: 8

Constitution: 8

Agility: 10

Charisma: 9

Perception: 12

Spirit: 12

Will: 11

Essence: 100/100

Health: 80/80

Mana: 110/110

Stamina: 100/100

Gifts:

Mana sense

New hope

What the heck are gifts?

Skills? Classes?

Actually before that what fuck is Essence? I tried focusing on Essence, hoping it would reveal a bit more information, but nothing happened. Neither did anything happen when I did the same thing for HP, MP, or SP.

I would naturally have thought that this status screen might be all I’m going to get information wise, were it not for the fact that as soon as I focused on Strength, I received a description proper. I quickly repeated it for each of the attributes in turn, in order to gather my first bits of insight into this game -ahem - I mean world.

Strength: Physical prowess

Provides more base health. Increases physical strength and related damage types.

Constitution: Ability to survive

Offers certain types of resistances e.g (curse, poison). Increases Health and stamina regeneration rates. Increased ability to survive e.g. temperature, hunger, etc.

Agility: Ability to act

Provides more base stamina. Increases movement speed. Increases flexibility, balance and grace. Increases certain damage types.

Charisma: Your effect on others

Increases your visual and mental appeal. Increases your ability to lead and likeliness that others will follow.

Perception: Ability to see and understand

Increases the potency of all your senses. Increases your ability to learn and understand things.

Spirit: Resilience of your being

Increases mana regeneration rates. Increases overall resistance to most forms of magical attack.

Will: Dominion over creation

Provides more base mana. Improves your power and control over mana.

Well that was all rather interesting. Although none of it tells me anything about Essence. Moving onto the gifts then:

Mana sense (Tier 1): Ability to sense mana

Tier 1:

(Description):

Ability to generally perceive mana in both yourself and your surroundings.

(Unlock Conditions: 1/1 met):

Be exposed to extreme levels of some extraordinary sensory experience (e.g temporal, divine, etc.)

Tier 2 - locked:

(Unlock Conditions: 0/2 met):

Unknown Unknown

New hope (Tier 1): Hope for survival

Tier 1:

(Description):

Increases the likelihood that you will survive in a new world by greatly improving some of the effects of [Constitution]

(Unlock Conditions: 1/1 met):

Be transported by any means possible, to a new world.

Tier 2 - locked:

(Unlock Conditions: 0/2 met):

Unknown Unknown

Well. Quite a bit of information could be inferred from that lot. Gifts seem to act like something in between skills and classes. Like skills, but much more broad ranging. Hopefully they are not indeed literal gifts, as in given by someone, like the divine for example. That would be a pain in the ass. Although, I doubt this to be the case, cause then there’d be little point to ‘unlock conditions’.

All in all, it seems like I should be able to acquire higher ‘tiers’ of these gifts through my own efforts. Just have to figure out what the unlock conditions are I guess. Also, given a system like this, I am reasonably confident that it should be possible to acquire all new ‘gifts’, although that’s just speculation on my part.

[New hope] is certainly considerate of who or whatever put me here. I know a lot of gamers would bulk in outrage at such a ‘useless’ starting gift. But to be honest, given how the more realistic isekai’s go, I am rather grateful for a more ‘sensible’ gift such as this, since a lot of the possible things in [Constitution] that could be improved by the gift, are things I would likely need for my immediate survival, especially starting out in the fucking wilderness.

[Mana sense] on the other hand is a bit more dubious. I’m well aware that as far as isekai goes, it is rather common to receive some kind of cheat ability or other edge to improve your chances of achieving greatness. Since I start with two gifts, one of which directly helps immediate survival, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that this gift would then be for more long term survival. A.k.a my cheat ability.

That speculation done, I must say it’s hard to imagine the ability to sense mana as a ‘cheat’ on any kind of grand scale. Sure you could probably sense the danger and direction of magical attacks or something like that, which would definitely give you an edge in any battle involving such things. But that is A: a limited use ability and B: the description did not really make it sound all that useful for even that.

Although the ‘system’ didn’t explicitly mention it, I could easily assume that [New hope] is a passive skill -I mean gift. And that [Mana sense] is probably a channeled gift. So I immediately tried to ‘channel’ it.

It was much easier than I thought it would be. I was immediately able to sense both the mana inside my body as well as in a small radius around me. It was beautiful. Like millions of tiny motes of light floating all around me and inside of me, only much more compressed inside my body.

I marvelled at the scene for a good few minutes before realising that time was ticking and that this was entirely unproductive. As wondrous as the scene was, I was far more excited at the prospect of being able to actually use magic. Unfortunately I did not start with any magic related gifts as far as I could tell. But I also could not be certain that such a thing was a prerequisite for using magic either. After all, why would you be given a mana pool, if you could not use magic.

So I tried focusing on a nearby purple rock (yes, even the bloody rocks are purple here) and first moving it, then tried setting it on fire, and finally I tried cursing it into submission. It did not yield, suffice to say.

Well that was a bust. It might be quite difficult to do magic without even knowing the basic principles of it. I pondered the problem for a short while, before reaching out once more with my mana sense. The mana in my body obviously was represented by my mana pool stat. The fact that it can regenerate and that there is also mana all around me, likely means that the mana from outside my body would be used to slowly fill up any room for it inside my body, a.k.a, mana regeneration.

I felt like these were all really safe conclusions to draw so far. Now for the not-so safe conclusions. If mana enters and is stored in my body from outside, then perhaps mana inside my body isn’t simply ‘burned’ to fuel spells, but rather ‘used’ as the spells. Perhaps it needs to leave my body in order to do something.

I tried this approach instead. For a while, I simply focused on pushing mana out of my body, and to my surprise, it worked!

Well, kind of. The mana was leaving my body at a steady rate and I could even guide it somewhat, but that was all. It wasn’t travelling all that fast and certainly wasn’t achieving anything, save for my steadily depleting mana pool and possibly creating a very slight breeze.

I stopped expending mana for now and instead watched as the mana of the world around me slowly flowed into me and pooled in my body. It wasn’t particularly fast, both in terms of the actual flow and of my mana numbers rising back to full. Looks like I’m going to have to use mana carefully in future, it takes a while to fill up. My current estimates just going by what I could see was that it might take as much as several hours to fully refill my entire mana pool from zero.

It would probably be the same for my health and stamina just going by their probable relationship to my various stats and the fact that everything seems to be in about the same range, just like my stats. Not that I was going to be intentionally injuring myself just to test out how health regeneration mechanics worked. Although believe me, I was seriously tempted. I mean what can all be regenerated? Can you regrow lost limbs? Fix brain damage?

Having my faculties temporarily usurped by the marvel and possibilities of it all, I received a rather rude awakening when I was suddenly overcome with a bone chilling wave of emotion. The kind of foreboding that simply transcended fear.

At first I thought maybe I’m going nuts, just projecting. I was naked in a forest likely to be feeling both cold and exposed. Clothes always did give you a sense of comfort beyond just temperature after all. If only that was all it was.

No.

No amount of denying it would ease the feeling of dread. The feeling of knowing death is coming. It will claim it’s prize simply as a matter of course.

I quickly crouched down into the slightly tall lilac colored ‘grass?’ Hoping to disappear myself, like some great escape artist renowned the world over. In reality I was for more likely akin to an ostrich at this point in time, burying my head in the sand.

I searched around me frantically looking for the source of impending doom. It took a while to finally spot the threat, this was understandable given the tall-ish grass and questionable size of the predator.

A caterpillar.

A caterpillar? was standing up on its ‘hind legs’? About a dozen hind legs at that. It reminded me a lot of a meerkat. The caterpillar was completely silent and still, staring straight at me. It had an exotic array of colors wrapping around its body, both blues and purples, no doubt evolutionary camouflage for its surroundings. It also had a full set of razor sharp piranha-like teeth. This might still have been classified as mildly cute, were it not for the fact that it was about the size of a full grown cat and the reason for my current sense of dread apparently.

I don’t know exactly how I knew that, but I could just tell. I could not look away from it despite really wanting to, the creature held me in some kind of death stare. I found myself just staring back silently, both afraid to continue looking and afraid to turn away. My animal brain was warring with my logical mind. How could a single caterpillar, despite its size induce such absolute terror in me. Why could I even feel this fear for that matter? Like it was something tangible in the air that the creature was giving off.

I tried focusing all my senses on the caterpillar, despite myself. This of course included my [Mana sense]. I was desperately hoping to learn something- anything at all. So it was a rather pleasant surprise when information suddenly flooded into me.

Carnivorous caterpillar: Level 43

Shit.

That might just explain the feeling of fear. Perhaps all living things in this world can instinctively feel the strength of creatures around them, especially when there is such a disparaging gap between their levels. That must be it. I doubted it had to do with my [Mana sense], since when I was first assaulted by the foreboding sense of death, my [Mana sense] had not been active at the time.

To be fair, I did not know if it was actually all that dangerous or not. A regular caterpillar from earth certainly wasn’t, probably even if you gave it sharp teeth and blew it up to the size of a cat. But, assuming that anything that came from earth in its known form would be a ‘level 1’ over here; I mean, I know I certainly was. A bold assumption but better to err on the side of caution. Then, how strong would such a creature be at level 43.

Another difficult question to answer. The answer really lies in knowledge of the power ceiling of this world. How strong is strong. In some isekai, creatures could run into the thousands of levels and then they could fight dragons. In other stories, if you reached level 100 you became the equivalent of God. Depending on how the system worked and how you looked at it, I could either be in a fair amount of danger, or I could be waiting for my universally decree’d absolute and final death.

I was currently leaning towards the latter, just going off of the feeling this thing was still putting off.

And then it happened. A few things happened actually. The first of which, was that the Carnivorous caterpillar slowly and elegantly sank back down into the grass and out of sight. The second was the incredibly wave of terror that washed over me, like some indiscriminate kind of blood lust was being directed at me. The third was that my lizard brain went bezerk, every cell in my body screaming at me to run. I obliged. My logic brain was all like. NOPE. I’m out!

And so I ran. I ran through the tall rough grass. I ran around, and sometimes jumped over rocks and boulders, all of which were purple. I ran with every inch of speed my pissy little agility stat could muster. I was too afraid to look back at all, so I just kept running. Deeper into the purple woods, past the oddly structured trees that couldn’t seem to decide whether they wanted to be trees with branches or starcraft-like crystal formations, just purple instead.

I was still running with all my might. Despite not once having looked back, I could still clearly feel the aura of danger. It must be following me. I focused my senses as I ran, but could not hear anything except maybe the occasional rustling of grass, but that could just as easily have been my imagination. I knew it was following me, certain of it, but somehow, it did so in complete silence.

This just served to compound the fear. Am I going to be eaten? How do I survive this? Should I turn and fight?

That last option seemed less than likely. It was likely that the overwhelming aura this thing was putting off, was some kind of instinctual response, or perhaps system induced one, to increase the chances of survival of ‘lesser’ beings. It certainly wouldn’t be an uncommon trope.

But then what? It felt like this thing was stalking me. Like if it really tried, it could catch up to me in a flash. My heart was pounding, my breath short. I could tell, just a ‘glance’ at my status, my stamina was almost up and I was starting to slow down. It was a weird feeling, watching how your stats reflected how you actually felt. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

I needed to do something, or I was not going to survive this. I needed to do it soon.

And as if the heavens themselves responded (might have been tempted to say a prayer of thank you if I believed in such a thing), the grass in front of me gave way to a river. It was a fast flowing river of what I hoped was water, but it was hard to tell given the same lilac hues as most of the surroundings.

The river was wide, deep and fast flowing. Not so fast flowing that I should not be able to cross it, but fast enough that I felt safe that it might just save me. After all, caterpillars can’t swim- right? Well let’s hope that remains true for carnivorous caterpillars or level 43 caterpillars for that matter.

I could for the first time hear my pursuer making noise as it moved through the grass. It must finally be going in for the kill. The fact that it chose to do so now, likely confirms my theory about its inability to cross the river. It doesn’t want to lose its lunch, and knows that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

I finally reached the edge of the embankment. The river is a beautiful and magical sight, truly lending credence to the whole ‘fantasy world’ thing. Its mystical beauty undoubtedly only enhanced by the salvation it offers.

Planting one foot down, right on the edge, I launch myself into the air with every ounce of remaining strength that I can muster. My arms and legs are still pumping instinctively as I sail through the air like some cartoon character before gravity kicks in. As I reach the apex of my long-jump, I spin my head around in an attempt to see the caterpillar one last time.

To be honest I think I just wanted to see it, so that I could mentally mock the fucker. No lunch for you Bitch! And all that. Reality is seldom ever so kind though. And I guess fantasy-reality even less so.

In hind-sight, I realise the only reason I would even be able to see the caterpillar is if it wasn’t in the tall grass anymore. This is exactly why my heart immediately sunk into the pits of despair. Suffice to say, the caterpillar was not in the tall grass anymore. No. Instead the fucker had jumped. I mean how does a caterpillar even fucking jump!?

Despair turned to confusion and then back to even deeper despair at the realisations that followed, the order going something like this:

The caterpillar Jumps

Current emotion = despair

The caterpillar for some reason jumped straight up and therefore will not be getting anywhere near me?

Current emotion = confusion

The caterpillar lands upside down against an upwardly angled tree branch. It had used considerable force in its jump, enough to bend the branch even further upon impact, despite the branch’s thickness and the caterpillars relatively light weight. This display of power alone would be cause for huge concern, were it not for the fact that during this impact, the caterpillar coiled itself up, not dissimilar from a cobra rearing to strike, and used both the energy from the coil and the recoil from the branch to redirect and launch itself straight at me from its elevated position, like a fucking cannon ball!

Current emotion = Absolute fucking dread

Despite the dread I was feeling while I fell towards the water and the caterpillar barrels towards me like a bullet, I was also left dumbfounded. This thing had elected to jump upwards likely cause it couldn’t see me all that well from the grass.

Not only that, but the maneuver it just pulled off! What a ridiculous display of both power and dexterity. Was this what it meant to be level 43? No wonder this thing was putting off such a feeling. This measly caterpillar was a being far beyond my existence. Not just that, but the intelligence it possessed in order to come up with and execute that insane plan in just a moment. This is supposed to be a caterpillar, right?

Regardless, I could only watch in dumb-founded horror as it flew straight towards me. Just as I was about to hit the water, I performed a desperate last-ditch maneuver in an attempt to avoid the razor sharp teeth attached to the front of the incoming missile. I twisted my body sideways, trying to angle it outside of the caterpillars path. The monster soared by me only grazing my stomach, but still leaving a nasty gash all the same, but otherwise only taking off about ten of my health.

At the same time I finally broke through the waters surface. Instead of giving in to my instincts and swim for the surface, I quickly opened my eyes and looked around to see if I could find the threat, or any other threats for that matter. I had noticed earlier that the water looked reasonably clear, despite its unusual color. And I would probably have much better vision of what was going on from under water than above.

My decision to open my eyes to see under water was immediately rebuked with regret. Whatever was in the water, or if that's what it even was, was burning my eyes really painfully. But I knew I had to bear it, had to risk potential damage, I needed to know where the caterpillar was.

After only a moment I spotted it. The monster was a fair distance away from me. Apparently it’s flight-form had allowed it to penetrate the water like an arrow and it had travelled quite a distance before the water resistance finally put a stop to it. The result was one very scary but totally harmless caterpillar monster wiggling about rather helplessly while the water current carried it along. Guess it can’t swim after all.

A few notifications then popped up as my vision blacked out:

You have suffered damage and have minor bleeding:

-2 health / minute

Duration: 1 hour

Your eyes have suffered extensive damage resulting in blindness:

Status: Blinded

Duration: 5 hours

Oh fuck! Was all I could think as I attempted to swim for the surface sans my sight.