So,... yeah, I found the file containing >230k words of the original version of this fanfic and started editing the chapters. Yay🎉!
Don't worry, while I will change how Henryk's skills are described, they still work much the same as the 1st version did, just more concise.
Also, some of the characters will avoid some choices that are questionable at best. For those who have read the original chapters 1 and 11, those chapters contained some of the blunders I'm erasing.
Well, keeping the characters, their actions, monologue/dialogue and the majority of things around them mostly the same could only happen up to chapter 50 or so, where I stopped writing this version of the fanfiction. After chapter 50, you will notice differences due to change in my writing during the better part of the last two years.
With a little further ado, enjoy!
(Line Break)
"Talking"
'Inner Monologue/Dialogue'
{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}
(PoV)
(Flashback and Flashback End, including the text)
I hope you enjoy reading this fanfiction.
(Line Break)
(MC PoV)
Hmm? The damn sun. I didn't get enough sleep ye-....
I don't think this is my room, nor is it where I normally sleep in the forest. The floor is made of cobblestone. A street, maybe an alleyway. It might be in a rural area by the looks of it.
Anyway, staying in this alleyway will yield me nothing. I should see if I can call her.
(3rd person PoV)
The MC of this story, a young man called Henryk, is nineteen years of age, has earth brown hair and deep verdant-green eyes. He is also of above average height, standing slightly above two meters.
Henryk exited the alleyway he woke up in. In this unfamiliar place he found himself in, he wanted to call his companion. A companion who was sure to stalk him if and whenever he was outside his home.
And so, he, with all his might, whistled.
The people passing by him gave him strange looks. He dressed differently to them. He also looked suspicious, whistling like that in the middle of the road.
"YOU THERE! DON'T YOU BLOW OUR EARS OFF! YOU HEAR ME?" Someone shouted in justified anger.
Some of the people got curious and stuck around to see what was going on.
"PIIiEee PIee" A bird's sharp call, a peal, was heard in the sky of the city.
It was an unusual sound to hear in the city. As such, some civilians looked at the sky above them. That was when they saw it. A paralysis demon with wings, one which took the form of a bird of sorts. It was a monster that escaped the depths of the hellhole under Babel, or so they thought at first.
Well, that was until they slowly realized that it was just a species of abnormally large eagle, and most of them partially dismissed the fear.
"Hoo there, buddy. Sheath your toy. This eagle is my girl" Henryk tried to make these weird cosplayers sheath the weapon-props they had on them. His girl does not take kindly to weapons once her attention is drawn to them.
All Henryk got was the rest unsheathing their weapons. They were cautious about such birds. For some reason, they feared its unfamiliar appearance and size.
"FEY! DOWN!" Good for them, the eagle, now identified as Fey, did not care about them. Her attention was solely drawn towards her human. She landed on his extended right arm. She appeared to be a little higher than a meter.
"Who is a good girl? Of course, it's you" Henryk started scratching under her beak, as she leaned down for it, to coax her to listen to his next order. "Now, Fey. No attack" Henryk said while pointing to the cosplayers.
"Piee" Fey spread her wings and did a little beat and peal. She listened.
'Are those the security? I mean, people are parting for them to pass through. Now that I think about it, I might be in a place that has a backward cul- Scratch that. I'm in a fantasy world. That's a cat-girl standing there. Going by the movement of her tail and ears, it is too real to be anything else. I should avert my eyes, lest I incur some sort of lawsuit for ogling her for too long' Henryk was thinking that this was all a deliberate prank by his wealthy friend. If it was, it would not have been the first.
That line of thought was shaken after seeing how natural everything was. There is a level of naturality to things not achievable by acting or electronic props. He started thinking that he was in an unheard-of country that was not so advanced, however that could be with all the transportation going around.
He dashed both possibilities after seeing the race that does not exist in his reality.
The security personnel raised their spears at him. "PIIEEE" In response, Fey pealed strongly at them. As if to tell them to lower their "talons".
"There, girl. You can ignore their weapons for now" Henryk rubbed her chest to calm her. Thankfully, he succeeded.
"Mister..."
"The name is Henryk Williams. Glad to meet you" Henryk could not give a courtesy bow at the moment. It was a given, with Fey on his arm.
"My name is Hashana Dorlia. The pleasure is mine. Mr. Williams, you may have to accompany us for some time" Henryk complied, as staying within such a large crowd of curious people might stress Fey. That would result in anything but good.
(Line Break)
Midway towards their destination, Henryk told Fey to relocate to atop his shoulders. He had a protective measure against her sharp talons. He attached some pierce-resistant pads under the shirt after having to deal with a ton of talons he helped raise.
"Mr. Williams, can you leave your eagle outside? We need you alone for this interrogation" As they walked towards one of their interrogation stations, Hashana asked him.
"I would prefer keeping her by my side. I can calm her quickly, as you have seen. By the way, call me Henryk. I'm not all that keen on formalities" Henryk really feared her attacking someone and hurting them or getting hurt as a result.
"That is true" Hashana contemplated over the matter for a moment. "She can stay on the condition of being calm" He allowed it. 'I could stand guard inside. An eagle isn't strong enough to be a threat to Lord Ganesha in my presence'
They entered a room with a man sitting on one sofa. There was another sofa on the opposite side of a wooden table. Nothing else was in the carpeted room.
The man was muscular. He wore a red and yellow elephant mask over his face. He also wore an orange sash that went over his right shoulder and wrapped around his waist. A gold rimmed leather plate sat on his stomach, holding the garb together. He also sported white pants with dark brown under the knee boots - also with gold accents. The man has gold jewelry to further cement the image of "showboat". His jewelry can be seen as a thick gold necklace and arm bands. He also wore gold rimmed gauntlets. He had long, shaggy, ash-brown hair.
"I AM GANESHA! Might I ask the young man's name?" The person who called himself Ganesha was acting in a flamboyant manner. His voice was also boisterous.
'So that tower was truly Babel. I regret not re-watching the show or reading the novels over and over. That would've been helpful. Oh, that Sword Oratoria thing, too. I didn't read or watch it. Good thing he spoiled things on me. I still don't regret punching him square in his face, though' "My name is Henryk Williams, Sir Ganesha" Henryk could give a bow this time. Fey left his shoulder in favor of a sofa's armrest.
"Take a seat, young Henryk" Henryk took the offer and sat down. "Shall we start the questioning?"
"Yes, I don't want to take too much of your valuable time, sir" Henryk replied positively.
"Do you belong to any familia? And if yes, which one?" Ganesh said.
"No, not yet a part of any" Henryk said.
"How do you control this eagle, then?" Ganesha said.
"I hatched and raised her by myself. I just trained her since she was a fuzzy, little hatchling, after she imprinted on me. She understands simple commands; those commands stand out when their sounds are played together. Don't assume for even a second that I can control her, as she can ignore my commands if agitated enough" Henryk said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Do you have any criminal records?" Ganesha asked with a glint to the eye of his mask.
"As far as I know, I shouldn't have one. Well, if you didn't count living in the forest when I have a fully functional house in the nearest city" Henryk said, making a joke at the end. Ganesha smiled at the joke.
"Are you interested in joining our familia?" Ganesha made Henryk a hopeful offer, one he wanted Henryk to accept.
"Whoa there, Sir Ganesha. That came out of the blue" Henryk said while raising both of his open palms between him and Ganesha.
"Your natural bond with what still identifies as a wild bird is interesting" Ganesha said with an interested smile. Henryk did not know why, but he felt like that smile was not meant to be hiding ill intentions behind it.
'She comes from a long-domesticated line, but he doesn't need to know that' "Sorry, but I must refuse. I already have a familia in mind. I will make sure to visit from time to time, though" Henryk said firmly.
"Whose familia are you planning to join? I may be able to help you" Ganesha offered to help this young man before him. He also used this opportunity to inquire about the familia he wanted to join to make sure certain familias did not gain new members.
"I plan to start by meeting one short goddess with black hair and a disproportionate figure. I heard that she was searching for members. Her name's Hestia if I remember right" Henryk said. "Does anyone know somewhere public she frequents?"
Hashana looked at Ganesha. He was asking for permission to answer. Ganesha nodded his head.
"I have a better suggestion" Hashana said, grabbing Henryk's attention. "Why not do something more productive? You could more effectively meet the goddess by meeting her familia member at the guild or leaving a message to him in the hands of his advisor"
Henryk nodded in thanks.
"Then take me to the guild, please. I plan to join their familia as soon as possible, for my own good" Henryk said with some politeness. It was par for the course to be at least somewhat polite when making a request.
Hashana asked Ganesha for some time to guide Henryk to the guild headquarters before he returned to his patrol.
"Can I know from where I could get one of her kin?" Ganesha said to Henryk right before Henryk took a step out of the door.
'Look at this guy. He seems interested' "I'm sorry to tell you, but Fey's very special in this lower world. I don't think you can get a harpy eagle like her anywhere" 'Luckily, she is only 7 years old. She still has more than twenty years to live with me'
"PIIIEEEEEE" Fey sensed a dangerous presence.
She flew away from her comfort at the armrest and onto the safety of Henryk's shoulders again. The feathers surrounding her face were flaring, and her wings were stretched open.
After a good look around, Henryk found the source to be none other than Ganesha. The man was eyeing Fey.
"No" Henryk made a face of denial whilst raising his arms protectively between Fey and Ganesha.
"At least the feathers?" Ganesha's fingers were interlocked under his chin.
"No" Henryk said with one hand resting on a knife on his hip.
"One last thing. We can only legally allow your friend here to accompany you if you were an adventurer. Join a familia in the coming few days so you can keep her free" Ganesha gave his advice.
He wanted to see this young man's future accomplishments. Helping him was the first step in allowing his talent to shine. 'Maybe I can have young Henryk's assistance when it is needed later down the line'
(Line Break)
"Did you have to refuse him that hard?" Hashana sighed yet again.
They were on their way to the guild's building, Pantheon.
"I raised Fey like a daughter. I won't sell her or her body parts. Never" Henryk said with a certain finality to his voice.
Fey was flying from foothold to the next beside the two. Pedestrians were looking at Fey with careful eyes while some of the adventurers looked at her as a prey. Henryk remembered their faces.
The only reason nobody fled or attacked was the presence of a Ganesha familia personnel who was calm in the presence of the flying menace. That, and the fact that it did not hurt anybody, yet.
Henryk whistled for Fey, and she came to his shoulder again.
"Is she not heavy?" Hashana found himself questioning the sight before him.
"Believe it or not, she is only around 10 kg in weight. She is light as a feather" Henryk scratched her chest gently.
"Pie" Fey loves the caresses she gets from Henryk.
(Line Break)
(At the guild's entrance)
"May we meet in the deep floors, Henryk" Hashana said his farewell and turned around to leave and attend to his other duties.
"Can you remind me of your name again? It's easy to forget" Henryk said to him before he got far.
"Oh, you little-!" Hashana was fuming, yet he reasoned that it was the same lame joke. This was not the first time some new acquaintances made it, continuously. "My name is Hashana Dorlia. You better remember it" Hashana realized quickly that Henryk may have seen or heard someone from the familia making that joke.
"Hahaha, of course. I was joking with you" 'I should return the farewell as he said it, no matter how unfamiliar it is. Cultural differences are a thing' "May we meet in the deep floors, Hashana"
They parted ways smiling. It was a pleasant exhange past the initial altercation.
Henryk proceeded to enter Pantheon with Fey atop his shoulders. She was slightly dozing off.
As he entered, the sun was shining behind his back, making his figure unclear. With his height being 2.03 meters and Fey's being 1.3 meters, what the people initially saw was a 3.33 meters monstrosity with two legs, two arms, two wings, two heads and is not inside the dungeon.
"Hey, Fey. Wake up" Henryk called for his little girl.
"Pie?" Fey shook herself awake.
"Armrest" Fey headed towards the armrest she saw Henryk point at and dozed off again. It was on an empty, lone couch.
The adventurers and guild employees calmed down. They thought that he was an adventurer with a taming skill. They were still vigilant. They are not going to trust something they do not know. Tamers often lost control of their monsters, especially if the monsters were stronger than the tamer.
'This one is an animal and not a monster, which makes it less risky if things went south,' was their collective thought.
Henryk went to the receptionists and searched for a specific someone. A half-elf with brown hair and green eyes. He found her.
"Good afternoon, lady. My name is Henryk Williams. May I have yours?" Although he already knew her name, he acted otherwise. He did not want to paint himself a creep on their first meeting. He also smiled to ease her mood.
"Good afternoon to you too, mister Williams. My name is Eina Tulle. How may I help you today?" She gave her best business smile. The paperwork her coworker threw her way was not hers to begin with. She almost gave up on correcting her coworker's mistakes and doing her piling paperwork all the time.
"Do you know an adventurer affiliated with the Hestia familia?" He unwittingly made a suspicious move.
He should have asked someone else about it. Asking the boy's dungeon advisor as if he did not know it, that was not a bright move at all.
"May I inquire about your business with my charge?" Eina's eyes spoke volumes about the situation he may find himself in if he answered wrong.
"I wanted to join his familia, the Hestia familia. Lord Ganesha pointed me here to make contact through you, seeing as you are an advisor to one of her children" Henryk said belatedly.
"I can understand up to there, but why pick me out of everyone here? And why do you know a familia with absolutely no fame?" Eina's glasses glossed over. "Also, Lord Ganesha surely did not know who I am or who I am the advisor of, did he?"
"Well, I'm a desperate adventurer hopeful with no falna, and I heard of a certain someone inviting people left and right" Henryk sighed. "Next, when I heard that he was a young man, choosing to ask for your help seemed to be the more likely option to bear fruit, seeing as many young men have a thing for elves and half-elves. That is the main reason I didn't go to her" Eina guessed wrong. Henryk pointed at a chatterbox two counters away. "Not that there aren't other reasons" He took a quick glance toward the desk full of clearly untouched, neglicted files in front of her, some of which Eina was dealing with on her own desk.
"What's it about me?!" Asked Misha with her eyebrows furrowed.
"We were talking about how lazy you are. Happy?" Henryk had no mercy. He took a throw in the dark and it connected. Eina's glasses remained glossed over as a small laugh threatened to escape her inflated cheeks.
"Hey, Eina! Don't you dare laugh!" A flustered Misha said.
"Oh, do not worry about me. Why don't you worry about the work piling on your desk?" Eina said, her voice jittering from holding back laughter as she also returned Misha's share of paperwork to her. It was uncharacteristic of her to almost laugh like this. 'Even a complete stranger-!'
"Anyway. When will that young man arrive at the guild? If possible, I want an official meeting as a prospective member of his familia" Henryk wanted to be introduced to Hestia through Bell. It will make it easier to get into the familia that way.
"MISS EINA!" A boyish voice reverberated through Pantheon's main hall.
'He truly looks like a rabbit. Let's see how well he takes to that' "Talk about the almiraj and he should come hopping" Henryk said.
"Huh?! An almiraj?! Where is it?! How did it escape the dungeon?!" Bell started searching for the rabbit monster that was not there. His weapon, a dagger borrowed from the guild, was unsheathed and ready for combat.
"..." Three people... No, correct that. All occupants of the guild looked at him funny, whilst Eina almost burst a giggle or two at the clueless boy.
"Why... is everyone looking at me like that?" Bell asked awkwardly.
"The almiraj we were talking about" The man standing in front of Eina's desk pointed in his general direction.
"... DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" Bell did a "Bell pose" and shouted in embarrassment. Eina broke out of character, laughing hysterically for a few seconds.
(Line Break)
After Eina calmed down, she took both men to a booth and left them there. She asked Bell if he wanted her to observe the conversation, but he proudly told her that he could handle it. He will be a grown man soon!
Before Eina closed the door, Fey hopped in through the it behind them then flew and landed on the armrest closest to Henryk.
"Let's start with our names. My name is Henryk Williams. This is my girl, my daughter, Fey" Henryk said with a thumb pointed at Fey "Fey, say hello"
"Pie" Fey greeted Bell with a peal. Her eyes showed an unsettling glint, which Bell did not notice at the time.
"My name is Bell Cranel, the only member of the Hestia familia" Bell was distracted by the big bird before him. It was cool in his eyes, eyes that gleamed with interest. "Mr. Williams, are you a monster tamer? To which familia do you belong? Wh-" Bell was not going to stop with his rapid-fire questions on his own. He had to be stopped.
"Slow down with the questions, Bell. First and foremost, you can call me Henryk. Now then, to answer your questions. No, I'm not a monster tamer, seeing as Fey is following me willingly. I didn't receive falna yet, either. Assuming you were going to ask about my level, I will be a fresh level one if lady Hestia accepts me" Bell's face went from disappointed, to hopeful and then to absolute joy. It is going to be a celebration tonight. What both him and his goddess thought would be an arduous path gained the tiniest amount of hope just now. A person wants to join their familia. What more, he has a bird that looked like it could hunt a few goblins on its own.
Nevertheless, Bell, being the honest, pure soul that he is, needed this person, Henryk, to know of their situation beforehand, so that he does not allow for a chance for Hestia to feel hurt and disappointed when Henryk later learns of their living situation and turns his back to her. Not to mention, he did not want to mistreat Henryk by lying to him. He wanted him to join, for them both to forge a relationship built on trust and friendship, and that starts by being honest.
"Before joining us, it is your right to know of our situation" Bell said, conflicted feelings clearly clashing in his eyes.
"I'm all ears" Henryk gave him the green lights. He was going to listen and compare it to what he remembered.
"I have to be honest with you. Our familia is poor. Our familia home is a crumbled church. We have no proper food. Not to mention, I am the first and only member. That was only for two days, at that. Do you still want to join the Hestia familia?" Bell was not going to give up this chance if it was for him. Sadly, Henryk had the final say in this. Even if Hestia accepted him, he could refuse to join.
"Does falna differ from god to god? I mean, would lady Hestia's falna give me any less than the others' just because of your living situation?" 'Logically speaking, it should be the same no matter the god or goddess' Henryk thought while talking.
"No, it will be the same falna regardless of the patron deity" Bell was shocked. He did not expect someone to join their little and upstart familia so soon. "Bu-"
"We should go see lady Hestia" Henryk cut him off. 'Indulging in long-winded conversations fueled by disbelief isn't gonna be great for his mood, is it?'
"Yes!" Bell's happiness went through the roof. He had a bright smile that reached his ears.
'Maybe it's because he is a bunny, but he gives the impression of having floppy rabbit ears right now' Henryk thought. He just could not help himself. He felt like protecting this child and his innocence.
A certain stomach growled in hunger.
"Piee" Fey eyed Bell. She drooled over him. The thought of eating this big rabbit made it seem all the more worth it in her eyes.
'Well, the entire world and plot armour favor him, except for this girl. She may prey on him if I leave her to her devices' "Fey, no" Henryk then pointed at Bell "Friend" It was one of the words he trained her to recognize. It meant not attacking the target until explicitly asked to.
"Pie" *grrrrrrrrRrrrRrRrRRRRR* The sound of her being famished prompted Henryk to remember that neither of them ate anything today. It is evening now.
"Mind grabbing a bite on our way? Fey eats raw meat, by the way" Leaching off of him these few days might not be a bad idea after all. It started tempting Henryk to do so. 'I should pay him back for it, though'
"If it means not getting eaten in my sleep, I will be glad to" Bell nervously answered.
He felt danger. It was not because Fey was stronger than him, no, far from it. It was like how a stag with impressive horns would still run away when faced with a predator. It could give the predator a crippling or a fatal injury, but it still decides to run in most situations.