He was seated in the magic store now. It had been roughly three days since they left the blacksmith. The store was dimly lit, and an old small woman sat behind the counter. She was staring into a crystal ball, humming to herself. Barbara sat next to him, and eagerly waited. They were waiting to be told what magic was best for him to learn. Once they learned that, he’d get some books and start on the road of being a mage. He’ll then become an adventure. He’d decided this on the second day of traveling while thinking back to the stories he’d read with similar plots. He wasn’t sure if a guild would exist, so that was the first thing they found in town. He’d figure, worse case he had a monster that had destroyed an army of royal knights without breaking a sweat.

“You have no affinity for modern magic!”

“Just like they said. Well thank you…”

“Wait, boy. Modern magic isn’t your thing, but old magic is. You have a high affinity for them. They are very different from new magics. I only got a few books, but I think that’ll do you.”

She left her counter and came back with three old books. One was held with a single metal ring as it had long since lost its cover and binding.

“I’ve had these so long, I won’t charge you for them. They are the basics for the old magics. Old magic relies less-on calculations, and more imagination. It is very hard to learn, and most quit within in a few days. If you quit, please bring me these books back.”

“Thank you, but I don’t think I have that option.”

“Oh, your wife making you. Most men will do anything for a girl.”

“We’re not mar… Stop blushing! That why people get the wrong idea!”

“Apologies, I thought you two were… Never mind, it was my fault for assuming.”

“No… it fine. Thank you. Why are you still blushing? Damn mute.”

The old woman laughed as the pair left her shop. Barbara carried the books, and they went to their room at the local inn. Like before she sat on his bed and helped him read the first book. It had no title and was falling apart. It was missing a few pages at the beginning, but they didn’t seem that important.

… One month ago…

Jackson’s head was fuzzy, and he landed hard on his back. He was in a white room, with the entirety of his class. His teacher, Ms. Jinx was a few feet from him looking shocked. She had dark brown hair, and green eyes. She often looked confused, and had a cute charm making most males want to help her. Her figure wasn’t bad either. White sparkles floated around him, and the room cleared. It was large white rooms, with marble pillars, and statues of hooded figures. It had a different atmosphere then what he was used to. Red hooded figure stood around the walls, and they seemed to be praying. Soft murmurs reached Jackson’s ears. What language they were speaking was a mystery to him.

One cloaked in white stepped forwards. He tried to speak, but the language was still unknown. He spoke repeatedly, but everyone just looked at him in confusion. He coughed, then spoke again. This time it started to go fuzzy, some of his words changing to English.

“Welcome… ???... it… meet ….??? Follow me… Hero…”

Jackson had a headache from trying to understand the robed man. The others held their heads, clearly having the same problem as him. He opened a large marble door and gestured for them to follow. The class did so. Jackson head started to clear, but the headache only seemed to grow worse. Like the robed man, he started to understand the murmurs by the red hoods. It was like his mind was forcibly filtering what they were saying to his own language. Of course, there was several words that didn’t directly translate, increasing the pain. The hallway they entered was very different from the marble room. It was a grey color, field with pictures, and red and gold decorations. This seemed strange and reminded him of a castle. Plots of several stories drifted back to him of stories of people being dragged to another world. Most of the time because of a devil king’s plan to destroy humanity. When classes were summoned, one was the true hero and the rest were support. Normally one had no talent, and that was the main character as he became OP. Jackson laughed at that idea.

They were led into what looked to be a throne room. Several important looking people stood around the room. On the throne was a large man, who looked like he over indulged in food. He had black hair that was long and braded. He was in all red, with a golden crown. On his left was a much younger woman, smiling. Standing next to them was a young man, and woman. The younger ones looked about the age of Jackson, roughly sixteen, and resembled the fat man. They both had black hair, and similar features. The woman seated had blond hair and bright blue eyes. The fat man then spoke with a very dignified voice.

“I am the king of this land. They call me, King Draco Alexander. I’m the fifth ruler of these lands, and the true king of much of the world!”

His pride leaked into all his words. Jackson noted that he could now fully understand the king, and his language.

“As legend has said, when the time is at its most… um… disastrous our Goddess will bestow upon us the heroes who will save this land. Clearly that day has come. We are in a state of constant war, and the tide is turning against us. Your summoning is that of our last hopes. You all are our heroes, the last hope we have of winning this war.”

The room clapped excitedly at the end of his speech. Everyone was happy, and some wiped tears from their eyes. Jackson stopped himself from puking.

“Head, which is the hero?”

The white Hood stepped forwards and pointed to Joseph.

“I sense the goddess’s blessing strongest from him. He is clearly the messiah.”

“Hero, what is your name?”

Joseph stepped forwards and answered the question. He smiled and took in the surroundings. Jackson knew what was going to come next. All his predictions were correct. First his teacher, angered, demanded to be sent home with her students. This was denied as they stated the knowledge of returning wasn’t known to them. Joseph was then asked to be the hero, and once more it was reiterated how desperate they were, and he agreed for his entire class without even asking their opinions. Some of the gutsier stood up, pointed this out, and were shown they had great power. Afterwards, everyone agreed to be heroes in this war. However, Jackson didn’t catch who they were fighting against or why. He brought this up before the king could dismiss them.

“The other kingdoms, boy. The demons of the South, the beasts of the west, the heretics of the east and of course the Berserker.”

“Wait, the Berserker, as in only one?”

Joseph caught that and was surprised.

“Yes, there is only one of it, but… One is still too many. I have lost many of my best men to this beast.”

The king’s saddened expression silenced all other questions.

…Present…

Barbara continued to help Jackson study the magic, but it was clear why most gave up on this magic. Instead of calculations, chants, magic circles it relied on choosing the correct word, and imagining the correct outcome. For instance, to create fire one would channel mana, and say the word. Saying fire would do just that, create fire. But saying flame would create a fireball. Inferno might set everything in sight alight. Of course, saying fire could still do the other words’ effects, but it all depended on what he imagined and how vivid it was. The book recommended practicing this by lighting a candle. Envision creating a small controlled flame before saying the words. Summoning mana wasn’t a problem, but for a week he was unable to even begin to start a fire. He finally succeeded in creating a fire, and almost killed himself. The resulting flame covered the room, and Barbara had to shield him. He took to practicing outside. He tried to quit a few times, irritated by the uncontrollable flames, and magic, but Barbara would force him to keep reading and trying. They were still on chapter one after all this time.

Money started to dry up for the pair by the end of the third week, and it was time to become an adventure. They entered the guild, and all eyes watched him. Barbara seemed to not like their gaze and clung to his arm. The building was wooden, and like most of the architecture was gloomy. Behind the counter was a blond woman with pointed ears. It was something one would not see in the north, where he was summoned from. She smiled at them and waved them over.

“Welcome sir, how may I help you?”

“We’ll like to become adventures.”

Barbara nodded her head.

“Give me one moment, but it is unwise for couples to adventure together.”

“We’re not a couple… Stop blushing!”

This was become an annoying habit, one that Jackson hoped to break soon.

“Apologies, a lot of young people come through here. Many men want to impress their girls and tend to die as a result. Just yesterday this girl came in crying after her love was eaten by a dragon.”

“Damn.”

Barbara nodded. For some reason, he couldn’t see her running back crying if he died. Instead, the story of Orpheus came to mind. Does she know how to play an instrument, no maybe she’ll just sing. Wait, she mute. Then the horrible memory of her counterpart echoed in his memory, and how that thing would just rip its way through Hell, killing him again for dying.

“Sir, are you okay? You turned white!”

“I won’t die! I swear I won’t die!”

He turned and gripped Barbara as the thoughts reached their climax. He could see her ripping his head from his body like she did to his arm. The elf looked shock at the sight, and clearly didn’t understand.

“I’ll get the forms…”

She used that as an excuse to slide away from them. Many of the people in the room were laughing at him. He felt they wouldn’t dare if they knew who she was. The Berserker, an unstoppable monster that destroyed armies, slayed dragons, decimated countries and currently held onto Jackson’s arm. He was almost in disbelief that this was the same girl that he fought to the death against just a few weeks ago. The elf returned and handed them two forms. It all had simple information: name, age, gender, and other such needed things to identify them. Jackson had to feel in both of theirs as Barbara just gave him a funny look.

Name: Barbara, he was stuck as to what to give her for a last name. He was going to put his, but that would mean ever she was a sister, or a wife, and as this world seemed to let people marry young, that was too dangerous. Note, the former thought disappeared from his mind, as he simply couldn’t think that she would ever pass as his sister. He hated coming up with names. He’d tried to write stories before but got stuck on what to call his character. Then after a couple of chapters, got irritated with the ones he chose, and went back to change them. His characters were on their Eighth set of names when he was pulled to the other world, and the story was only half way done.

“Hey, what’s your last name?”

Barbara looked confused at him. She then pointed at him.

“No!”

She pointed at him again.

“No!”

She pouted.

“Do we need last names?”

“No sir, if you don’t have one then… you don’t have one.”

He moved on, ignoring the pouting girl on his side. He found it strange that she couldn’t write, but perhaps that was for the best. He then wondered if she could read. He’d test that later. They turned the forms in, and the elf disappeared again. She returned with two blank cards and asked them to tip their blood on it. Jackson did so and watched as his information formed on it. It matched what he’d wrote down. He then held one out to Barbara and gave her his dagger. She looked at him.

“Dip you blood on the card.”

She shook her head.

“It’s a little cut, then we’re done!”

She still shook her head. He grasped her hand, pinning the arm against his side and his upper arm and took the dagger. He slit her finger forcibly and dipped her blood on the card. She broke from his grip and hid her hand. She looked betrayed while staring at him.

“Oh, come on. We needed to do it to join the guild! We need the money!”

“Actually, we could have printed her a card, it would have taken about a week to do so.”

“Don’t listen to the girl at the counter. What the party system like?”

“Party system? I guess that important. Simply put, you declare your party and you both get credit for the job. You gain experience inside the guild at the same rate, and you get promoted together. If people aren’t on the same level, then they can take jobs on the highest level, the lower person move up faster. We also split the reward between the party. If you want I’ll get the forms.”

“Please. Stop sulking!”

Barbara was now facing away from him and was pouting again. She was hiding her left hand, the one he cut.

“I’m sorry, okay. I just wanted to get this over with. I shouldn’t have forced you.”

She turned around and re-gripped his arm with her right one. The elf handed him the form for a party, and he completed them. They went over to the request board and picked beginner jobs. One that they should have no problem completing. This one was about hunting rabbits.

“Can you use a bow?”

She nodded and led him out of the office. While heading back to the Inn to prepare, Jackson noticed her left arm. It was steadily turning into the black armor. He sped up his pace and dragged her into their room. He then forced her to show him her arm. It was slowing growing across her arm. The end that was still forming looked like a liquid. He touched it, and then looked at his fingers.

“Wait, blood? The armor is created from your…”

She nodded. He realized why she didn’t want to get cut, and why she seemed to heal faster than him. The mystery of the Berserker seemed to deepen.