[Previously, on Chapter 2]

“Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuck, I’m really high right now. Calm down … calm down, dammit. Breathe … squeeze, let go, and breathe …” I try to do the routine that I do when I’m suddenly faced with my traumatic fear of heights. Closing my eyes, focus on tightening and loosening up my body, and breathing while trying to calm down my racing heart.

“Get yourself together and assess the situation, Jinma … okay. I must have gotten caught by some kind of trap. My bag is … nope, not looking down. I must be well above a few meters from the ground right now. I could either just hang here and wait for help to come around, or try to get myself down … let’s see what we’re working with here. Okay, straighten up, clench your butt and core, and … hup!”

I bend myself over like I’m doing a sit-up to grab the leg that’s being latched by the rope to see what I’m dealing with. “… What the, what kind of rope is this?” I touch a few places of the strand to check for knots, only to find they’re rather sticky as well as being surprisingly thin.

Isn’t this … a spider’s webbing? Wait, does that indicate there are monster spiders intelligent enough to make traps like this? And if I remember right, spiders can tell very quickly when something gets caught in it …

In a slight panic, I quickly try to tear it off with raw strength, even biting it, but it was too strong and sticky for me to continue. Well, now what do I do? I suppose I could take out the lighter from my [Storage] and burn it, but I’d likely risk creating a fire in this forest, would I? That would be bad. Dammit, this is the one time I actually wished I carried a knife with me back home, but with my strength, I’d likely be mistaken as a serial killer back there. Would there be anyone else in this forest right now if dangerous spider monsters exist in the area? I’m not sure attracting attention to myself by calling for help would be a good idea … I’m gonna have to look down, aren’t I? At least to see if there’s someone on the ground. Ugh, come on, Jinma, get it together, just a quick peek …

As soon as I turned my head down, I see it, a light blue-headed figure right below me, checking my MIB. The color’s definitely surreal, but there’s no doubt that there’s a person on the ground, and by the hair’s length, she looks like a girl. Everything else in my surroundings is ignored as my sights are entirely focused on the person down there.

This is my chance! “Excuse me! Ma’am! The blue-headed one!” I call out from above.

The woman seems to have heard me as she went on alert, tensed up and ready for a fight with my MIB in her hand, and even from a few meters above, that’s when I see them.

Scaly-blue arms with claws, matching legs and feet, as well as a long tail poking out from whatever ragged clothing she was wearing.

She definitely isn’t human, but I can’t let that stop me from calling for help.

“Up here! Above you!” I call out again.

From her body language, she looks confused before looking up and our eyes meet.

Even from some distance above, I could see the glimmering turquoise color in her irises while a slit went down that matches her reptilian-like limbs. She stares at me in wonder and confusion, and whatever fears I had from my heights a while ago was drowned out by me getting lost into her gaze.

She opens her mouth.

“What the heck are you?” she asks.

That’s how the first conversation I had with a resident in the new world began, and I did not know how much my meeting with this woman would change the rest of my life.

[Present (Revised) Chapter 3]

“Um … I’m a human. Are they a rarity around these parts?” I ask in response to the question that came from below me.

“I’m aware of what you are and you’re the first human I’ve seen since I got here … your features indicate your race as such, but that aura … and you can really see and hear me?” she asks while muttering in between.

“… Yeah? Plain as day. Cerulean hair, blue-scaled arms and legs, tail, turquoise eyes, rags for clothes, yep, I can see it all from here.”

“Do you have Magic Sense activated?”

“… What’s ‘Magic Sense?’”

“You mean you can see me with your own eyes? No skills to help at all?”

“Yeah?”

“Interesting …”

“Excuse me, ma’am, I’d love for us to continue this chat, but I’m kind of in a situation here,” I say while gesturing to the spider silk trap my leg is entangled into. “This caught me by surprise and I’m worried if whatever made this will come back soon. Can you help bring me down, please?”

“I don’t see or sense anyone nearby coming this way. It’s possible someone had set that trap for the long-term, planning to come back to whatever got caught in it later.”

“So, I’m not in danger? Thank goodness.” I couldn’t help but sigh in relief after hearing that.

“Anyway, do you not know where you are?” the reptilian girl asks.

“Not a clue. You could say I’m … lost. I have no bearings on where the nearest town is, and as shameful as it is for me to admit this, but my fear of heights is really starting to make me uneasy. I would appreciate it if you could help me down and possibly point me in the right direction to where I need to go to get out of here.”

“And you do not mind me being from a different race?”

“I’m kind of new to all of this, but right now, I don’t see any reason for why I shouldn’t trust you.”

The blue reptile girl takes a moment to think before noticing my bag in her hand. “This is a MIB, yes? Is this yours?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“… Tell you what, I’ll get you down and even guide you to the nearest city from here, but I want a favor from you in exchange. Will you accept?”

“Yes! Absolutely! I’m willing to negotiate on whatever I can do to return the favor!”

“Very good,” she says while strapping my MIB to her back. “I would brace myself if I were you. Wind Cutter.”

“Wha—”

Zasha!

Before I could get another word in, I hear the sound of something being cut in the air.

The next thing I know is that I’m being pulled down by a great force and I’m approaching the ground fast.

I’m gonna diiiiiiie! I scream in my head for the first few seconds before I suddenly hit on something catching me, two strong limbs holding my body by the shoulder and legs, and I suddenly find myself going up.

Eh? Wait, are we flying? I think in confusion. When I look up, I see the reptile girl’s face up close, focused, and then everything around me falls before I could even react.

DON!

The landing was hard, shaking the ground a little, but I don’t feel the force of myself falling out of her grasp. My body is so supported that I didn’t feel any inertia at all. The reptile girl takes a moment to let out a breath she was holding and straightens her strong reptilian legs that were bent at 90 degrees.

She then looks down on me. “Are you all right?”

“…”

“Human?”

“H-Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m … fine. You can put me down now.” I was so surprised at everything moving at high speed that I had no idea what I was supposed to feel. For a brief moment, I had gained a little understanding of how thrilling yet embarrassing it is to be carried princess-style.

The reptile girl gently sets me down on my feet, I get a little unbalanced from the sudden adrenaline rush, but straighten myself out. While I fix my clothes, she passes me back my MIB that was strapped to her shoulder.

“Um … Thank you, very much.”

“You’re welcome. Can I give a few words of advice?”

“What are they?”

“Be on the lookout for traps in the future, and I advise you to clean yourself as soon as you can because you reek worse than a rotten corpse burning in a volcano.”

“… Right.” The stench was likely from the Toxic Troll I fought earlier; I didn’t think it’d linger that long.

A man like me getting carried princess-style and being told bluntly how much I smelled, all by a girl. My new life in this world isn’t turning out well so far, if you don’t count the trap and the fight earlier, that is.

[You have now reached ‘Fear Resistance’ LV 5!]

Well, would you look at that? I leveled up a skill. I guess these things happen when you’re doing stuff associated with existing skills? Great, at least one good thing came out of this embarrassment.

I lug the MIB back on my shoulder and look to my savior. She’s about half a head taller than me wearing only a dirtied, roughed-up, pancho-like rag covering the majority of her body, only her blue-scaled arms, legs, and tail are seen poking out. Her cerulean hair shines in the sunlight, and on closer inspection, there are light-blue fins poking out the sides of her locks. They look to work as her ears. She stares down at me blankly with her turquoise eyes.

“Oh, uh, I’m Jinma, by the way. Jinma Kotori,” I introduce while holding a hand out for a shake.

“… Umeiyon.” She stares at my hand for a moment before copying my gesture and I take the lead on the handshake. It looks like she wasn’t familiar with this type of greeting and is slightly relieved she made the right call.

“So … this favor you want me to do, should we discuss this further in the nearest town you mentioned? Where it’s less dangerous than here?”

“Ah, yes, that would be best.” Ms. Umeiyon then looks around and squints her eyes before pointing in a direction. “We’ll go that way.”

“All right, I’ll be following you for the time being, then.”

“Yes, do stay close.”

And with that, we walk side by side at Ms. Umeiyon’s direction.

“…”

“…”

This is quickly getting awkward. “So … uh, that move you did back there, ‘Wind Cutter,’ was it? Was that magic?” I ask, trying to get a talk going.

“Yes, it is. Have you not seen magic being done before?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know how it’s done?”

“… I’ve read a little in a few books a while ago, but the fundamentals I learned of then might be different than what’s known here. I read them more for the fun of it.”

“So, you’ve never tried it yourself, then?”

“Nope.”

“… For one of such an aura, and yet no experience in magic? More and more curious,” she mutters to herself.

“Do you know other kinds of magic?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, lots. Wind Cutter was a basic Storm Magic Spell at minimal power, but I know of plenty more. It’s to be expected of a Sage such as myself.”

“A Sage … is that a class?”

“The Advanced Class of Mage, yes.”

“Oh, Advanced Class, huh? Neat.”

“May I ask what yours is?”

“I’m a Brawler.”

Ms. Umeiyon then jolts her head at me with widened eyes. “How old are you?”

“I’m 22.”

“… And what level are you?”

“… 55?”

Ms. Umeiyon then stops me with one claw on my shoulder, then grabs me with both of them as she moves her face close enough to mine that our noses almost touch. She looks like she’s staring into my soul, trying to find something, but the more I stare back at her, the more I get lost in her turquoise eyes.

… Nobody other than Mom, some of my aunts, and my two friends have ever looked at my eyes this close without getting scared and running away before. Her choice of attire is questionable, but just going by the face … she’s actually really cute, isn’t she?

“You’re not … joking at this, are you?” she asks with disbelief.

“… No?”

“How new are you in this land? When did you arrive?”

“Not a lot, almost next to nothing. I just came in today?”

“… You have no idea what’s going on here, do you?”

“Is it … bad if I don’t?”

She moves back and closes her eyes briefly to contemplate while she crosses her arms. Just at that moment, I realize that she has a bigger chest under those rags than I realize based on how much she carries them in her arms.

I’m getting a little tense on how serious Ms. Umeiyon looks until she turns back to me.

“… You and I have a lot to talk about, Jinma Kotori.”

“What do you—whoa?!” Without warning, Ms. Umeiyon lifts me into princess-style carry again.

“We aren’t going to get there quick enough at the pace we’re going. Hold on tight so we’ll find a place to chat.”

“Wait, we’re not—SHIIIIIIIIIT!” I scream as Ms. Umeiyon suddenly makes a great leap through the trees’ shrubbery above us before hopping between the treetops. As soon as I see how high we are, I quickly wrap my arms around her neck and press my head against her shoulder, blocking my eyes from the view.

Crap, I’m really wrapping myself around Ms. Umeiyon right now! Literally! This is so not where I want to be right now! Despite the cursing at myself, I have no idea how much stronger Ms. Umeiyon is from me, and with my traumatic fear of heights, I couldn’t move a muscle. I’m completely at her mercy.

~~

“Okay, we don’t want to make a lot of racket jumping into the city all of a sudden, so we’ll get inside through the front on foot from here.”

“…”

“You can get down now, Jinma Kotori.”

“A-Are we on the ground?”

“Yes.”

While my arms are still wrapped around her neck and face against her shoulder, Ms. Umeiyon gently set me down on the ground once more. I couldn’t stand on my feet, I lose strength in my body the moment my grip around her neck was released, I’m short of breath, and my heart couldn’t stop beating enough to jump out of my chest out of desperation and fear. I had to lie on the ground for a bit to regain myself.

“You’re really not good with heights, are you?” Ms. Umeiyon asks me with surprise in her tone.

“No … it’s bad to the point of traumatizing.”

“… If you would excuse me one moment. Diagnosis.”

Suddenly, I feel a slight tingle coursing throughout my body.

“Let’s see … ah, here it is, ‘acrophobia,’” Ms. Umeiyon says as she stares at some empty space, maybe a status screen only she could see? “‘Severity: High. When faced under extreme conditions, the subject will succumb into the ‘distressed’ ailment that includes heart palpitations, lack of breath, and loss of strength in the body before he blacks out into a ‘FAINTED’ status if not attended to immediately …’ Jinma Kotori, I had no idea it would be so severe, going by what I’m finding with my ‘Diagnosis’ skill, anyway.”

Wow, that skill tells a lot more than I’m not even sure is morally sound. Still, there’s a ‘distressed’ ailment like there is for ‘poisoned’? This is getting too real here. “I’m sorry … that you have to see me in such a pathetic state.” I roll to where my back is toward Ms. Umeiyon while huddling myself in a fetal position.

Silence fills the air briefly before I hear some movement behind me. Then, I feel her claws running through my hair.

“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid,” she says. “When it comes to surviving, fear is a more important ‘skill’ than one may think they need. It tells you when something dangerous is approaching, when to be on guard, what and where you should be wary of, and how you can adapt to work around your difficulties. If you try to ignore those fears, you’ll only be reckless, and you’ll meet your death sooner rather than later. Having no fear means you are unaware of the danger around you, making you more vulnerable for attack and follow the same pattern as before. It’s important that we know what we’re afraid of so that we can find ways to work around them and learn how to face them later. I may not know how you got acrophobia, but I was ignorant of how you were feeling when I made those sudden decisions while in a hurry. For those, it is I who must apologize.

“We’ll rest here until you get your strength back. There seem to be guards keeping a lookout at the entrance. I’ll need you to help me negotiate with them as I’m also unfamiliar with these lands.”

“… You seem pretty capable to do that by yourself, though,” I point out.

“From what I can see, not many Lizardmen are seen around these parts, and so they may be wary of one so far away from its known home. You, on the other hand, despite being ensnared by a trap, you were not afraid of calling out to me for help despite our drastic differences in appearance. We will need that for the citizens of this city, especially.”

Lizardmen … is that what Ms. Umeiyon’s race is called? “Why do you say that?” I ask after that passing thought.

“… Ah, I have yet to tell you where we are, have I?”

“… We’re in Padimon, are we?”

“You are right in that, but these lands are owned by one of the three kin that resides on it. In that city, there are many demons living in it, just like the majority of others in the Demon-Kin’s Territory that we’re standing on right now.”