"I'm Lalo Alvarez. First year. History major. Abomination." I remark, answering the question directly. The professor studies me for a moment before nodding. He doesn't say anything for a minute before asking if I can do something about the bounty hunters. I think for a moment before looking at two of the larger zombies accompanying him. They have builds like quarterbacks and have the blue skin that is common with zombies in this world.
"Hi there! Can you gentlemen hold my attackers?" I ask politely while pointing at the zombies. They both nod and go over to one of the men, putting him in a headlock. I thank them and then hit the man with an anti-magic ray. This liberates him from the effects of my paralysis rays and he takes a breath.
"Ah! You… You dick!" He roars, and I actually laugh. This angers him but when he tries to struggle the zombies tighten their hold on him and turn him to face the ghostly professor. I hear his struggles intensify as the ghostly academic steps forward and then touches his head. The man goes still and the ghost's eyes glow.
"Hmm… I see." The academic mutters. The ghost's see-through fingers rise from the head of the bounty hunter and he looks at me.
"Allow me to do this to the other one." He commands. I nod and just go along with it, but not before I paralyze the first hunter again. When the man is frozen I ask the zombies to turn their attention to our other "Friend" and they do as I ask. We repeat this process and when it's done, and the second man is paralyzed once more, the ghost turns to me and begins to speak.
"Did you know someone had put out a bounty on you?" He asks, and I shake my head. This is a lie, but I'm protected by perks and it's not like I know the figure who put a bounty out on me. He considers this for a moment and I can feel him perceptively study me. After a few moments he relaxes, though he's naturally somber and serious.
"Hmm… Well, I'll go ahead and investigate, and for now we can hold them in the university's dungeon. If an official body, like a kingdom, put the bounty out on you that might be a problem. But if a criminal group did it then you'll be fine. Either way, we can't do much without more knowledge." The professor tells me, before commanding the zombies to carry the hunters away. Another pair of zombies join them and each hunter is carried by two undead beings out of the castle grounds and towards a building on the far end of campus.
I lied earlier but this was a calculated risk. I have a large number of perks for stuff like this; charisma in general, charisma with authority figures, lying and being believed/trusted, and dealing with undead creatures like ghosts. I coupled this with a refusal to hurt my foes; merely paralyzing and disarming them and bringing them to an authority figure which further cements my trustworthiness in this regard.
The professor is quiet before turning without a word and walking back into the castle. When he's done, multiple people approach me, and I smile as a bunch of different people, some men, some women, some another gender, talk to me. Their voices overlap and I spend minutes introducing myself and answering questions. I am eventually invited into the castle and the crowd of excited college students continue to badger me with questions. We make our way to a communal space, a lounge-like area filled with stereotypical "Spooky" furniture and colored in a way that matches that overall aesthetic.
I spend the morning swapping stories with undead monsters, engrossing them with tales of my lair; real, actual memories of the life "I" lived before now, and listening as they tell me the stories of their lives and, in some cases, un-lives. I tell them about my abilities and listen as they share theirs, though I keep my dreaming and sleeping powers, hunter nature, anti-magic ability, necromancy (including my damaging rays), and my petrification power a secret, as those are heavy duty. Still, I keep up my curious habit of being honest and forthright with information I deem unimportant. This level of honesty makes it easy for people to trust me and this is of course amplified by how powerfully my build builds on charisma.
During the course of the conversation older undead and various other monsters enter the space and some join us while others watch curiously. I note that werewolves and other lycanthropic creatures who enter the castle are all… animal-ed out, despite it being the day and I assume this must be something related to the curious magic that surrounds the castle.
By the time a few hours have passed some of my classmates have their laptops out next to me and show me their schedules, as well as offer to help me with social media. I'm techie enough to know how to use stuff but I have them believe I'm new to technology since my backstory is that I defeated my parent and then went and made a lair and lived there for 18 years, only minimally interacting with others.
"Here, I'll add you on Foulbook." One of the creatures, a female mummy named Arsinoe, says. She is a tan, beautiful woman, a year older than this current body of mine and she has the sort of personality I'm probably weakest too: confident, playful, and domineering. A sort of mean-girl/queen bee personality. I know myself, and I can detect both my attraction to her and her attraction to me.
She has a sleekly designed cellphone and I'm surprised that as I study it I note how purely scientific it is. It's just technology, not magitech, which is funny since magitech exists in this world. My dwarven-cellphone back in Veiled Earth was more magic than technology, though it was more like 60%-40% magic and technology respectively.
"Arsinoe… He can't add you back. He doesn't have a computer." Andrew, a Frankenstein's-Monster type flesh golem tells her. She looks annoyed at the man and rolls her eyes.
"Well let him use yours, Andrew." She says. There's a power in her voice that I can hear and I watch Andrew successfully shrug it off hinting that she's either not very strong or she's not really trying. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle. Andrew does hand me his computer and opens an incognito tab. The girl who helped me make my profile helps me log in, and I see Arsinoe's request, which I accept. Other people, particularly Arsinoe's friends and circle of minions, tell me to add them.
"So Lalo do you have a job or are you just gonna be Professor Cranium's research subject?" Andrew asks, when I send him a friend request. Abomination Area is an infamous place on campus, given the weird nature of many of the inhabitants and many people can make educated inferences. I consider the question before admitting I just got here and don't know what I'd be good at and what would work well with my schedule. He nods gently.
"The surface is pretty confusing. But hey, you got friends. You got us." He says with sincere kindness. The smile I flash at him is genuine, and I thank him.
I go to grab lunch with the group, eating with them before I head to the library. I go to "Sleep" in the odd way that I can and I get back to work. I type a bit less fast than the average person does in this state but I power through and do plenty of research, as well as do little things to increase how social I am such as going to join groups on Foulbook that are about the community I'm in and the university.
I take breaks from writing, usually taking a break every two hours and use these brief disruptions to my work to explore parts of the library. When I do I tap my grimoire to books in the library bookshelves and save them to my grimoire. This ability is not something I took advantage of during my last jump, mostly because it wasn't hugely necessary, but here and now it's powerfully helpful. In the few breaks I give myself I don't make an enormous amount of progress but if I do this daily… Oh if I do this daily my grimoire will be thick, internally, in no time.
One thing I note that is genuinely annoying is that I don't have the money for buying things. I don't have the knowledge needed to make a computer with the materials I can dream up, though I suppose I could learn how to do so or even, if I want to be really creative…
I quietly decide not to rush getting unnecessary things, especially since I have a few aces up my sleeve I could use before I do something as big as get back to my monster-creating ways. My final ace is simple; I have my genie magic if I want to skip a lot of stuff. At worst I could create a monster for the sake of getting wishes to grant and then using my powers on them to make them wish for specific things. I'm almost tempted to try it, but I keep that option as a secret tool.
My current build isn't as powerfully built around teaching people stuff as it could be but it's got some nice potential. I have an incredibly sharp mind and I have a teaching perk that could make me a fierce tutor. If I can keep my grades up I'll be able to apply to work as a tutor, and I can definitely make some cash before then if I need to use my skills. I shouldn't overcomplicate stuff without a good reason. When I awaken from my odd form of sleep I get cracking on more work at an even faster pace. At the same time I accept an invite from Andrew to go to the gym tomorrow and I continue to work through the evening.
Sunday morning comes and I go to get breakfast before I head back to the library. I finish nearly half a semester's worth of work before it's time for me to go to the campus gym. The place is a state of the art facility and I get a good workout, exploring the limits of my body and finding that my strength and speed are on par with some somewhat bestial monsters like weaker lycanthropes, who are well beyond human in terms of strength and speed. Hunter is a good perk and I can absolutely tell I'm gonna use it more actively if I ever go to adventure jumps where combat and stuff are normal and expected.
I finish my time in the gym by going and exploring it, which allows me to find classes and the like that it offers that I plan to take advantage of. When we're done it's the late afternoon and we shower in the gym before saying our goodbyes and wishing each other luck on our first day. Andrew and I have no classes together, but he's a freshman like me, which suggests that there was nothing fiat-related to his sympathy when I was in Castle Sombra. I head to the library and take advantage of their "Rent a Laptop" policy which allows students to check out a laptop for free so long as they return it the next day. The computer they give me is a small, fairly basic one but I don't need anything fancy. I make my way back to my dorm and greet other abominations before sliding back into my room on the bottom floor of the apartment building.
In the safety of my dorm room I use telekinesis to create a space for a summoning circle and I arrange everything for summoning a genie. I quietly and patiently go through the steps of casting the spell, doing so exactly as Rosalind taught me. When I finish the spell I feel my magic pour out of me and into the various reagents. They begin to glow and I feel their powerful magic, which nearly immediately vanishes into the air. I am surprised when a vast amount of smoke fills the room. In the middle of the smoke I can sense a new presence, and I wonder if it's Zumurrud but I doubt it.
The smoke clears and I am unsurprised and disappointed, to see that the genie is someone else. I huff in annoyance and I use my anti-magic ray to cancel the summoning before the woman can spot me.
"Well… I knew it wouldn't be that easy." I remark, though I make a mental note of the fact that there is a genie named Zumurrud in this world. Rosalind's genie-summoning magic works on the basis of names, unless I make it more costly and allow it to summon a genie at random. The magic dissipates and I move to sit on my bed. I'm quiet for a moment, filled with sadness at the fact that my friends back on Veiled Earth don't know what happened to me or where I am, or even that something happened to me.
I allow myself to feel my emotions and let them flow through me. As I do I shut my main eyes, my human-like eyes.
"Rosalind… Zumurrud… I'll find a way home." I quietly promise… myself, I suppose. I wallow in my sadness for a second longer before nodding and telekinetically pulling my laptop to me with one ray while using other rays to put the leftovers of the reagents I used for the spell away. I open the laptop and get to work while I hone my skill with my rays. I open up multiple windows on my computer and I do both actual work and also message Arsinoe.
The pretty mummy is clearly interested in me and I won't lie; she's quite attractive. I have powerful charisma perks backing me, and I plan to use the tools at my disposal. She eagerly messages me back and in no time at all we are chatting. I discover that mummies are the sort of undead that don't need to sleep, which is fun.
My first stint of Jumper Time occurs when Monday arrives. My first day of class passes in a blur, with perks such as my heightened intelligence and powerful sociality taking the limelight, especially those with regard to authority figures. In my classes I make new friends, and an immediate standout is a female flesh golem, one of several at this school that seem to be Frankenstein's Monster type constructs, sometimes known as FMs due to a curiosity in this world's literary makeup that makes the stories of these kinds of monsters exist here as well, animated by and with a special connection to lightning and electricity as opposed to the sort of golems I can easily create. The FM is named Ava and she's in my Monstrous History class, which is not a major thing but is one of the courses everyone at the university has to take.
At the same time I discover that my need to take notes is comically limited not only due to my intelligence but thanks to my grimoire's nature as a notebook that now takes its own notes. I participate actively in class, but focus on not being the only student answering and talk to people after class, causing several of my classmates to add me on Foulbook.
I have my first bout of research with Professor Cranium two Fridays from now and I develop a new routine early on in the week. I'm taking 2 classes that are Monday-Wednesday-Friday and 3 classes that are Tuesday-Thursday. This semester most of my classes are general education type classes so what I'm studying is fairly diverse, but for my brain this isn't really a challenge.
Even before this jump my archmage essence granted me post-genius levels of intellect and a flawless memory, and that intellect has been pushed with my current build. I undertake a quiet side-quest and venture into the modern city beside the campus; selling some dreamed-up resources to a pawn shop and familiarizing myself with the area across the street from the Abomination Area part of campus. During this time I encounter more bounty hunters though I deal with them personally and freeze them, before I spot a graveyard but resist a playful intrusive thought that whispers that I could go be a necromancer. Maybe when I graduate and am protected from my special jump-fail condition I'll be a more active mage of death, but for now I'm going to avoid rocking the boat in that particular way.
On both of my first days I find that the work that I did over the weekend is above and beyond what I need for classes of this tier. Nonetheless, I'll continue to work and hone my craft further still. At the same time my little spider friends bond more closely with me, with some of the smaller, more agile ones sometimes sitting in my hair.
My routine is simple. I go to classes in the morning, go to the gym afterward, and then spend time at the library before heading to my dorm. I'd eventually like to spend time in the undead dorm, and I commit to the plan of moving there somehow next year, but that's one of my long-term goals and not something I focus on immediately. On the first real days of class; Wednesday and Thursday I turn in homework assignments that I know are perfect and when they come back to me with those exact scores I am able to calibrate and fine-tune my mental assessment of my course load allowing me to know how much effort I need to put into my work to score a perfect 100 on some types of assignments.
I continue to converse with Arsinoe using laptops, and she, to my surprise, "offers" to just get me a cellphone. She tells me to come shopping with her on Saturday, praising it as a question but it's pretty clear that she is not really offering; she's telling. I don't especially mind this and I accept the "offer". We meet up just after noon at Castle Sombra and she's wearing… surprisingly little as she waits for me in the same lounge we hung out in last week.
In the past she's worn normal outfits but today she's wearing a linen outfit that reminds me of the silly sexy mummy art that people in my native reality made for stuff like the Monster Girl genre of fantasy art. It's distractingly sexy and makes me wish I wore something more fitting.
"Judging from the look on your face I can tell that I forgot to mention something important." She tells me. She's a skilled liar, to her credit, but she's not so good that the fact that she's lying slips my notice. I do not mind that she wanted to look sexy, and in fact I appreciate it, taking in the sight of her with a confident grin.
"We're heading to the Mummy Quarter. It's actually not in town? We're gonna head to my homeland for a bit using magic. I am wearing mummy fashion. It's… a lot right?" She asks, testing me. I smile at her and shake my head.
"I just wish I wore something equally cool looking, you know?" I ask. This time her response is genuine, though still flirtatious.
"You look great Lalo. It makes me a little jealous." She says, and I can hear the soft quivers and wavering in her voice. I smile at her and ask her to lead the way. We leave the lounge and slip into an elevator. When we're alone in the privacy of the elevator I can smell the chemicals and magic used to treat Arsinoe's linen, and she moves closer to me teasingly. I hear her subtle movements and I can smell the way her natural scent mixes with the linens thanks to my well and truly superhuman senses. When we make it to the top of the castle we quickly slip into her room.
Her room is a pleasantly warm place and it is filled with sand. The room is ornately decorated and a plush bed sits in a corner of it while a large sarcophagus looms across from the bed. The room smells of oils, and Arsinoe is happy to coax me towards the sarcophagus. The thing opens of its own accord and reveals a small, darkened interior.
"My sarcophagus is a teleportation device. With it we can go to my homeland." She tells me, brightly. She walks to the thing and enters it before turning and beckoning me to join her. I don't hesitate, sensing her desire, and enter the space. The door magically shuts as I wrap my arms around Arsinoe and she makes a quiet, low sound. The door opens a second later and we are in a new space. Bright sunlight streams into an open-air room. In the middle of the room is a small body of water that is crystal clear.
"Welcome to Ankoros, Lalo." Arsinoe tells me, informing me of the name of her homeland, and she stays close by, not minding our nonexistent distance, while eyeing me in a way that makes me feel objectified. I don't hate that feeling. My other eyes scan the large room, while I process the fact that we're in what seems and feels like a palace.