Chapter 2 Meeting
"Ah.. My name is…"
Reinhardt
The name is at the tip of my tongue as I hold it in. This was my third life, my third chance of living, with it I wanted my past to merely be a connection to a former self then my identity moving forward. With that I smiled brightly,
"Ren.. my name is Ren."
The girl no… Aria has a slight smile before standing up, but her eyes turn hazy and dull, as she starts falling forward into the stream!
Reacting quickly I dash across it a couple meters away and I quickly catch her in my arms, water splashes, as I feel something pull.
'Damn it I got a cramp!'
And…
'I can't stop, I feel it… my bone will dislocate if I force a halt.'
Gritting his teeth Ren twisted as little as possible allowing his body to slip across the damp grass and turn his back slamming into a tree.
"AHgGh.."
"Hiek!"
A painful groan followed by a yelp, exits our mouths,
'Faaaah, damn it hurts! My back!'
'I-i didn't fall in the water?'
His back sliding down onto the trunk of the tree he looks at Aria in his arms asking.
"Are.. you okay miss?"
She lazily opens her closed eyes nodding with a grimace
"Yes.. Thank yo-"
|CONDITIONS ARE MET|
|INITIATING ATLAS|
|.|
|..|
|...|
|....|
|.....|
|...|
|█ █ █ █ █ DETECTED|
|SEARCHING SOLUTION|
|ALTERNATIVE FOUND|
|CONVERTING █ █ █ █ █ |
|CONVERSION COMPLETE|
|CONVERTED CONDITION ACQUIRED|
|ACQUIRING STATUS|
|2%|
|3%|
|6%|
|12%|
|24%|
|30%|
|48%|
|60%|
|72%|
|80%|
|93%|
|98%|
|STATUS ACQUIRED|
|Welcome to the Atlas System!|
A soft voice neither female or male is heard,
'Judging by her stare it seems she sees it too.'
'What is that? He sees it too?'
We continue to watch.
|Nothing is impermanent, nothing is eternal, one may feel lost in the seemingly endless, fret not the Atlas the guide to the endless|
|In front of █ █ █ █ the Mind and body may shatter, may seek a way to fight back|
|Fighting █ █ █ █ , creating a prison whereby one traps themselves into a hell of thy own creation|
|Scour for the solution to █ █ █ █ uselessly as one can not touch upon what is everything|
|Heroes charge █ █ █ █ , but are consumed lacking the solution to tip the balance|
| █ █ █ █ is constant yet everchanging|
|Do not give up|
|Do not give up|
|Do not give up|
|Amidst these possibilities the Atlas bore witness, Bearer of the Heavens Do Not Give Up, █ █ █ █ is not eternal|
|Good Luck Warriors|
As soon as the voice disappears, my eyes widen as a painful headache comes over me, looking down I see Aria sweating clenching her teeth experience the same pain as the words we just heard are deeply ingrained in our memory with only '█ █ █ █ ' remaining chaotically static.
After about a minute the headache subsides and one word leaves both our mouths,
""Atlas""
|Status|[1]
A window appeared in my view, as we both stared we came to a sudden realization. I slowly turned my head down at the girl in my arms as she looked up at me.
"Are you.."
"You are.."
"a Transmigrator?"
"not from this world."
…
'Odd another person transmigrated with me..'
Thoughts swirled in Aria's mind as she stared at the boy before turning back to the status screen,
'The letters 'E' and 'F' were grades in Witch's Wandering. Are the worlds connected… no in the first place why is there even a system? And why is this system made for two people?"
Shaking her head, Aria's mind felt heavy from the headache moments ago coupled with the mana exhaustion she experienced from attempting to use a complex spell it would seem she would find it hard to move quickly for a while,
Looking down I think in my mind the words 'condition', A new section appears,
|Condition|[2]
The page was separated by [Lasting] and [Temporary] conditions, It showed Aria what she was experiencing and also what she did not know she was experiencing,
'Mental fog… me?'
Having a clear mentality was generally good to have but it was especially true for mages who were required to quickly calculate and cast spells at a moments notice, this condition further cemented how weak she had gotten.
'I also see the conditions of Ren… Sickly and Manaless?'
[Sickly: Prone to illness, poor health, Susceptible to curses]
[Manaless: Lack of mana]
Aria looks up at the boy, up close I can see his pale face and slight sweating from over exertion from catching her earlier, a feeling of 'pity' settled in her chest
'Even if my talent is bad, I'm not manaless, I can only hope he takes it well.'
As Aria stared he noticed her gaze looking down at her, he let out an amicable smile
"Miss Aria, why are you looking at me like that?"
'Oh.. it seems he caught me.'
"Like what?"
"Like I'm an abandoned pet on the street"
"Hmmm you must be mistaken."
I feign ignorance causing Ren to frown turning his head away with a smile,
"At least I'm not an insomniac"
'This brat…!', staring incredulously I sigh.
"Excuse me… can you let me go now?"
"Ah.. yes sorry."
Standing up Aria's arm leaned against the tree Ren had been leaning on,
'My mana is generating too slowly, my legs feel weak..'
"Here, use it as a support."
Looking to her side with a frown she finds Ren holding her staff that was left on the bank of the stream.
"Thank you"
'I take back what I said earlier.'
Grabbing the staff Aria stabs it into the ground letting go of the tree but,
"Ah!"
Her legs were too weak, even with the help of a support she couldn't properly move, Ren caught Aria by the shoulders,
"Woah there!"
"..."
"..."
….
"And I thought I was the sickly one."
I frown at his remark as I move steadily, currently Ren was carrying me on his back his slight trembling from muscle strain was amusing,
"Magic exhaustion is no laughing matter, You might not understand with your lack of mana."
"Lack of mana? I'll have you know I'm an excellent mage or.. was."
My eyes sharpen,
When we first met many thoughts went through my mind, whether he was a person exploring the forest or if he was even human in the first place,
'The status window conforms his race and we already told each other we were transmigrators so his situation is similar to mine, this Atlas thing…it's a high level magic that's for sure'
Anyways my theories on his past continued, he isn't a adventurer he looks too weak to be an adventurer though his previous body may have been different like my situation,
Information about the Atlas was burned into our mind during our meeting, most of it was of the text that appeared, some of how to use the system's functions such as looking at our stats and condition, and lastly was,
'A feeling of familiarity between me and this boy, that we are of similar origin'
''Excellent mage', so he was a mage in the past? Ren… Ren? I don't know anyone of that name, could he have lied? Who's to say he's even from Solaris of Witch's Wandering and plus he has a sword not a staff.'
Many questions flooded my mind, was this his first transmigration or second like mine, why can we communicate in the same language I stare with a sharpened yet curious gaze,
"Say Miss Aria, don't you have a headache? Why are you overthinking so much?"
I frown realizing I had been caught,
"I'm just overwhelmed. I have never transmigrated before and the Atlas seems quite troublesome. I fear that with my stats I'm far too weak."
My frown deepened I found it odd that I spoke so much, It felt like an accumulation of the familiarity I felt to Ren as well as the mental fatigue I felt from both the headache and [Mental Fog] condition it also seemed that my younger age affected my thinking as well,
'Can't control my emotions… What am I, a teenager going through puberty?!'
Ren not knowing my thoughts about my emotional condition responded,
"For a weakling you sure know strong investigation magic."
I flinched at his response when we locked eyes at the stream. I instinctively used investigation magic,
"I have no comment."
He may have been a truly excellent mage.
…
I chuckle internally at the situation,
'This girl is quite the wary type.'
The seriousness of her face was amusing and I felt a familiarity when talking to her like I was talking to someone I was close to, it felt similar to my comrades in the Abyss,
''Similar to my comrades' huh?'
I believed there was a reason for everything, and the same applied to the Atlas system, it seemed to be something mystical or maybe it was just magic, but I felt no magic or even mana from the Atlas window,
Of course with my trait of [Manaless] I couldn't feel mana from the environment, either way my gut told me that this Atlas was something very very very important and that I should trust it or at the very least observe before acting,
|'the Atlas the guide to the endless'|
'A guide..'
My eyes turned cold, I did not have good experiences with prophecy and predetermined outcomes but I still believed that this Atlas would be useful in the future,
If you'd read any web novels, although there are some outliers the system typically worked in the character's benefit and considering it was a shared resource …
"This is actually my third life."
My voice was plain as I felt Aria move slightly at my reveal,
"Is that so?"
"Yes, actually my first life wasn't in a world of magic, my second life was though that's how I understood your Investigation spell and my third is this life now"
I feel a breeze blow past us, my legs burn with lactic acid from the strain yet I ignore the pain looking for a place to rest as the sun starts to set,
"A world without magic?", Aria responses with an interestingly high amount of curiosity
"Yes! It's called Earth, the planet I mean, on it are multiple continents and they rely on technological advancement to prosper."
"Oh?"
"They have a lot of good food from all over the world, I really miss eating that food.."
"They also have these things called games.. How do I put this? It's like paintings that move and tell stories."
At my flimsy but excited explanation I continue to explain Earth before I hear a chuckle from behind me
"'Paintings that move?' That's quite a way to describe video games, what about the different genres?"
I pause my steps at her words
"You…"
"What? Can't I also come from Earth as well?"
"Ah.."
I open my mouth before closing it as I quietly say
"You could've said something sooner…"
"Hmmm but you looked like you were enjoying yourself."
I sigh continuing my walk through the forest,
"Anyways I got sent into a video game called Chronicles of Terra"
"Chronicles of Terra? You mean the game from Mystosoft"
"Yea that's right, do you know them?"
"Yes in fact I was sent into one of their games as well called Witch's Wandering"
"Ah, the romance one right?"
I look up at Aria on my back she seems to be in deep thought, I look around the forest it is still bright but it will soon darken, I slightly frown,
'We haven't found any good shelter, there are only trees around and..'
Looking up I notice grey clouds loaming closer, clouds that herald a common occurrence that one can safely avert with shelter, shelter that we don't have.
It would soon rain.
…
I stared at Ren in deep thought, many questions are answered by his willingness to reveal his past, to me he was an interesting fellow showing trust in the shared aspect of the Atlas,
'This boy…is he foolish?'
Those were my thoughts yet I myself revealed my past as well, I had no right to ridicule him and would be a hypocrite doing so, I notice Ren looking concerningly at the sky causing me to do the same,
'Ah..'
Rain clouds steadily approach though far for now we both knew it would start pouring in no time at all.
Looking around I point towards a tree tapping Ren's shoulder
"We can use those leaves as an Umbrella"
"Nice catch."
With me in tow Ren slowly approaches the tree. It has leaves that are so large in fact that it could cover the both of us. Ren sets me down at the base of the tree as I look around. I stand up taking the time to assess my condition.
[MANA: 37/40]
My mana was nearly full, the condition [Mana Exhaustion] had disappeared, this meant I could walk on my own for now. I noticed Ren staring at me while cutting the leaf with his dagger,
He nodded looking at the condition screen realizing I could walk on my own now. With 40 mana although I couldn't make a mana flame which cost a lot of mana I would have to go for a most cost effective solution,
'Maybe wind magic?'
I shake my head a body had specific elements associated with it, these were called 'Affinities', an example being having affinity with the fire element makes using fire magic much much much easier.
'Without affinities in lets say the water element casting water spells is difficult to both the mind and body.'
'It's slower to learn spells, cast them, and use them effectively, all in all using something that you don't have an affinity for is like trying to play football with your shoelaces tied. Though possible it's hard'
The reason I could generate motes of light despite my abysmal mana capacity was because that was purely mana with no elements mixed inside or a specific magic spell,
With elemental affinities I would be more effective in using my mana to the point that if my calculations were correct I would require a large but reasonable 20 mana to cast an tier 1 attack spell.
'The Atlas doesn't seem to have anything about my affinities though.'
'Wind was one of my elements in my past life but this life is most likely different.'
There were just that many elements, it would be a gamble to assume I could use wind magic effectively only to end up in a state worse than mana exhaustion, the only reason I managed to not fry my body from the investigation magic was because it was a very safe form of magic the only way to be harmed was for a person to check someone way above their rank.
As thoughts circulate, my body tenses, I feel droplets of water falling down looking up as the rain has arrived but oddly it wasn't the rain that caused me to tense.
I look around the dense forest trees everywhere in sight. I then slowly look up in one of the trees nearly a dozen meters in height. I spotted a nest, a large nest, built of large branches. It seemed to be for a bird of a gigantic size.
My eyes widen as the Nest stirs, a large egg reveals itself as if being lifted before being eaten as the thing eating the eat tries to swallow its large round size, I slowly move back behind a tree.
As I watch the Snake swallow the egg that was nearly 5 meters in diameter the loud sound of hissing is heard as the beast looks down, the sun starts to set, but a rumbling is heard as my mind screams at me to dodge.
BAM
Thunder and lightning strike the tree I was hiding behind
'What kind of luck?!'
Tumbling ungracefully around, the snake looking at the commotion locks eyes with me.
I stand still for a couple seconds but it is useless as the snake hisses charging with murderous eyes.
[1] https://i.imgur.com/xoiUYuM.png
[2] https://i.imgur.com/JdP1LVh.png