The gnarled roots of ancient trees caught at Jake's boots with every step, the forest floor a minefield of loose stone and rotting leaves. He was lost — properly lost, in a beautiful but bloody world he'd only ever known through a screen, with the girls walking a few paces behind him been nothing than pixels,2 d animation waifus and fan art.
He glanced back. Rem and Ram, twin maids straight out of Re:Zero, walked in near-silence, their faces unreadable. It still didn't feel real. One second he'd been in the orphanage, unconscious from a botched summoning — the next, he was here, dragging two anime characters through an actual forest that smelled like actual dirt.
How the hell did this happen? He kept replaying it: the circle, the surge of power, the notification. Summoning successful. Ram and Rem have been added to your party. Still felt like a fever dream, even standing in the middle of it.
"Is something wrong, Jake san?" Rem's voice broke through his spiraling. Her eyes — softer in the show — held something more careful now. Assessing.
"No, just thinking." He turned back around. "About where we're headed."
Ram crossed her arms. "It would be wise to find shelter before nightfall. This forest is filled with bandits, monster and plenty of creatures waiting to kill and loot an unlucky passers-by."
She wasn't wrong. The light was already dying, shadows stretching long past the horizon with only the faintest of sunlight guiding their path as it descended downwards giving way for night, with strange creatures with glowing red eyes watching them from between the trees.
Wait what! Jake paused his eyes moving back to the glowing red eyes.
Ding.
[New Quest: Survival 101]
Objective: Reach a nearby town or locate shelter before nightfall.
Optional: Defeat a group of Goblins (Rookie Killers).
Rewards: EXP, New skill,Basic Supplies, System Currency.
[Accept/Decline]
"Accept," Jake muttered distractedly. A crude map blinked into the corner of his vision — a marker for what seems like a town flickering a few miles east, a cave symbol closer by, and a cluster of red dots labeled ???? not far into the treeline.
"We've got options," he said, pointing at a map only he could see. "Town's a hike. There's a cave closer. And, uh — something with glowing red eyes."
"Glowing red eyes and clustered together that sounds like goblins or the slightly more advanced versions known as Hobgoblins which are vicious in groups," Ram said.
"They're also stupid," Rem added calmly with an eye roll like glowing monsters trying to kill them was just another regular office day for them. "If we fight, it'll be quick."
Jake's throat went dry. He'd killed a thousand goblins in games. But this wasn't a game. "Cave first," he said. "Let's see what we're working with before we decide anything."
He pulled up his status while they walked.
[Jake]
Level 5 | HP 150/150 | MP 120/120
STR 8 | AGI 7 | VIT 10 | INT 12 | WIS 10
Skills: [Bang] — a concentrated blunt-force burst from the caster's fingertip. Scales with STR/INT. 10 MP, 5s cooldown.
He stared at the skill for a second too long. He remembered exactly what that move did in the anime it was ripped from. Hopefully I never have to use that on something that can talk back.
"Ram, Rem — mind if I check your stats?"
They exchanged a glance, then nodded together. "As you wish," Rem said.
[Ram] — Level 15 (Weakened) | HP 70/70 | MP 150/150 | Oni Bloodline (Weakened), Wind Magic (Advanced), Maid Skills (Expert)
[Rem] — Level 15 | HP 100/100 | MP 180/180 | Oni Bloodline, Water Magic (Advanced), Morningstar Mastery (Advanced), Maid Skills (Expert)
Ram's stats sat well below her sister's across the board. Oni Bloodline (Weakened). That explained a lot. Gotta fix that.
He closed the screen just as a chorus of guttural snarls rose from the trees. Five goblins emerged, crude weapons in hand, eyes lit with something ugly.
"Stay close." Jake drew a rusted short sword from his inventory, dumping a few stat points into VIT and STR on the fly. No glass cannon here battle-mage all the way baby.
Rem stepped forward first, morningstar already swinging. Ram hesitated, breath shallow.
"You good?" Jake asked.
"I can still fight," she said, though her voice said otherwise.
"No. Rem, take point. I've got Ram's back."
Rem moved forward like a blur, appearing before the first goblin and killing it so fast that it was dead before it even registered the hit. The rest swarmed around her. With Jake, standing clumsy with his rusted short sword trembling but fueled by adrenaline and stat points, barely slashed one across the flank, then drove a boot into its chest hard enough to send it into a tree. Dazed injured and still alive, struggling to stand back up he got a look at the face of the creature for the first time; it looked like a generic low lvl goblin that he usually massacred in video game's back home. But he wasn't home anymore.
Ram tried to help, sending a blade of compressed wind magic sputtering weak and uneven towards it. Another goblin closed on her from behind, leaping off a tree where it had laid in wait for an ambush, falling down towards Ram with axe raised high above it's head.
"Ram!" Jake didn't think — he shoved her back out of the way, with the axe grazing his forearm instead. White hot pain shot up his arm radiating like nothing he had ever felt before. He quickly grabbed the goblin's wrist, and twisted until something snapped thanks to his increased strength, and used its own momentum to throw it into the last one standing. Both of them went down and he finally managed to slam the pointy blade of his sword into the creature's neck and he held on for dear Life with the chilling revelation that it was "kill or be killed" even while the goblin thrashed,bite and scratched he still refused to let go until it died.
Rem stood over the bodies, morningstar dripping, expression flat, barely concealed worry for her sister and a fair bit of surprise that he managed to kill one alone.
[Level Up!] [Level Up!]
[Ram's Oni Bloodline: strong bond forming.]
"You alright?" Jake asked, getting up carefully, with one arm supporting his wounded arm that just kept throbbing and burning.
Ram stared at him. "You saved me."
"We're a team," he said. "That's what teams do."
A faint blush crept up her cheeks and disappeared just as fast. Rem's expression softened in a way the show never let her show this openly and early as she fussed over her sister. "We swear our loyalty to you, Jake," she said.
"We're your maids now," Ram added. "We'll serve you faithfully."
Jake felt something warm settle in his chest — and then, unhelpfully, his brain immediately supplied several images that had nothing to do with loyalty oaths. He must have made a face, because—
"You're being a pervert," Ram said flatly.
"I— wasn't—"
"You were," Rem said, gentle but unimpressed. "It's inappropriate."
He groaned internally. Caught red-handed — or red-minded. "Right. Sorry. Let's, uh. Deal with the bodies."
The twins made quick work of harvesting usable materials — crude weapons, scraps of leather, a few teeth sharp enough to sell. Jake noticed, and he noticed not for the first time, that they looked younger here than they had in the anime. Did the summoning de-age them? Or is this just how old they actually are in-universe before the timeskip? Something to figure out later.
He handed Ram a healing potion that he withdrew from his inventory before they set off again. Color returned to her face almost instantly, her movements smoothing out.
"I wasn't as useful as I should've been," Rem murmured, staring at her own hands.
"You were incredible," Jake said. "You saved my life out there. We'll get stronger together — that's the deal."
Ram suddenly gasped heart beating and throbbing rapidly, with her hand flying to her head. "My horn — it's growing back."
Jake checked her status. Oni Bloodline (Weakened) had become just Oni Bloodline. The optional goblin quest marked complete.
They found a shallow cave to wait out the night, Jake taking stock of his starting inventory — potions, coin, a locked Grimoire, a couple of scrolls, a rusted sword, and titles he didn't fully understand yet: The Gamer, Marked by the Akashic Root/Void, and one that just read ???!!!
He didn't sleep much. Neither, he suspected, did they.