Chapter 1

"Well, that should do it for today." I muse as I stand and stretch. Closing my laptop, I place the machine in my back pack and head on out of the engineering building. As I leave the room I was just in I find myself looking out the windows of the 3 story building I'm in. Staring out at the sky's darkening colors I can't help but sigh at what my life has become. 5 years into college and I'm barely any closer to graduating than I was 3 years ago.

I don't have a dream, something I want to do in life, or even a short-term goal really. I'm just kind of… coasting. Everyone had always said that I should go to college, so I did. But… nothing really changed. My life has been the same it has always been. Sleep, get up, eat, go to class, workout, eat some more, do homework, and sleep. Well, I mean a few things have changed. All my friends have graduated by now, a few have even gotten married. But me? All I've got is a whole bunch of student loans that I need to repay with almost nothing to my name. Sure, I know how to speak 5 different languages, I get bored easily, and know how to break someone's arm 3 different ways, again I get bored, but other than that? I can't help but sigh. I simply… existed.

Sure, I enjoy hanging out with my friends and family, but… I don't have anything that really sets me apart. I'm just another face in the crowd. 'Maybe I could be isekai'd. heh, that'd be something.'

I can't help but chuckle at the immature thought. God when was the last time I had even thought about something like that? A small, and rare smile breaks out on my face as I think about the times I would have dreamed of that kind of thing happening to me. 'Those were good times. No need to worry about the future, playing around like the kids we are, and just having fu-eh?'

Suddenly, I felt myself begin to shift forward and fall. Looking down I realize that I had managed to make it to the stairs and had just managed to miss the top step completely and was on my way to a world of pain with a 50% chance of death. I wildly reach out with both hands in an attempt to grab something to stop my fall only to find nothing in reach.

"Oh fu-"

I felt something shift.

"-uck. Ow!" I cursed as I landed face first on cobblestone.

…

…

…

Wait… cobblestone? I feel a light breeze on my skin. My eyes shoot open and see a stone ground right in front of me. Ignoring the headache, I slowly prop myself up, ignoring the puddle of drool on the ground, and take in my surroundings and freeze. High cobbled walls to my left and right, clearly in some kind of alley though why it looked like something straight out of an anime I have no idea. Looking up, I saw that it was midday, the sun shining brightly, and saw what appeared to me clay tiled roofs.

"What the fu-!?" my hand immediately went to my throat at the higher pitched voice that came out of it, noticing the distinct lack of beard I have. Paling, I quickly pat myself down, a part of me notes the distinct rough feel of the clothes I'm wearing but don't really process that in my desperate panic to make sure I'm still… well, a man. It isn't until my hands go down under that I let out a sigh of relief. I have not been un-manned.

Unfortunately, that does little to help my overall confusion. My body, despite still being a man's, is different. Rather than the usual chub I had, I was no fat just a bit bigger most, I felt muscle, and a decent amount of it too. I felt better, stronger, faster, and… shorter? Being a solid 6 foot 3 inches before this, I couldn't help but feel that everything looks a little… big. Now, by no means was I a midget, but I most certainly wasn't as tall as before, probably somewhere between 5 foot 7 or 9. I quickly looked to my right and my jaw dropped at the reflection.

Looking back at me was a young man with golden hair, blue eyes, and a… regal face I believe is the best word to describe what I'm seeing. Well, it would be if it weren't for the gob smacked look on his, no, my face? If this was my face then… 'oh god, I'm a fucking pretty boy.'

I think my brain checked out after that for a little while cause the next thing I know is that my face is flat against the ground with a girl holding a brown standing over me with a look of concern saying something.

"Hubbadawha?" is my oh, so elegant response. I look up at the girl and see a moon hanging in the sky behind her. 'Is, does she have silver hair? And why is she dressed like some kind of maid and/or waitress from the middle ages?" The lighting and my eyes could have been playing tricks on me, but the girl looked like she had silver hair and eyes. Not to mention what she was wearing. A green maid like outfit, a frilly white apron, some nice-looking boots, and one of the frilly white things that maids tend to wear that a cannot for the life of me remember what they're called.

Suddenly the girl spoke, and I blinked. I didn't understand a word she said, nor did I recognize the language she spoke, I should know, one of the few things I could do is learn languages and I'm fluent in at least 5, can read 3, and can recognize several others when they are spoken. And this girl, she didn't speak any of them. 'But maybe I just misheard her.'

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" I ask, a part of me hoping that I could have just misheard her from having just woken up from my impromptu nap on the ground. However, the only thing I got in response was a very confused look. I tried German. Nothing. French, still nothing. No Spanish either. And lastly I tried Russian, my old roommate was born there so he taught me how to speak it so we could have secret conversations, but still nothing.

"Fuck me." I groan out as I plant my face in my hands, contemplating life and doing my best to quell my growing rage. The girl must have sensed my inner turmoil as I felt something tap my shoulder and I look up to see her looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine, just need a minute, not that you can understand me." I sigh as I rub my head. Before I can gather my thoughts, I hear a sudden shout from the entrance of the alley that we're in, I know it's an alley cause I've been in enough of them to know one when I see one. Looking over I see a 2 people that just make me pause for a moment. Both are adult males, that much is clear, but it's what they're wearing and have on them that cause me to freeze. The both of them are dressed in armor.

The taller of the 2 had black hair, wore some kind of leather on his chest, a muffler around his neck, couple of pieces of other armor that I had no idea what they were, and had a short sword on his hip. The other, a shorter and more stout man with an impressive beard and brown hair, wore what seemed to be full plate armor and had a rather intimidating hammer on his back. Their get up alone should have had me frozen in place from shock as the logical half of my brain rebooted to figure out why they were wearing that stuff. However, I managed to catch a glimpse of their faces and my mind instantly came back to life. Red cheeks, and lustful looks. Getting to my feet I glanced at the girl and saw her take a step back.

The taller man slurred something as he sauntered his way over, the girl taking another step back. 'Alright, I think we all know where this is going. Curse you morals.' Sighing internally, I step between the girl and the guys, raising my hands. The guy up front shouted something, but once again, I could not make out a word of what he was saying. He tries to shove himself past me, and despite the amount of strength he has for someone so skinny, I manage to stop him. He pushes me back slightly, though I manage to stand my ground minus a foot going back for support to stop me.

"Now, now. Let's not do anything we'll regret in the morning shall we?" I ask with a nervous chuckle. Blacky here opens his mouth to speak again only for his companion to say something to get his attention. Whatever it was, it must have pissed him off because the guy yells at his companion before trying to shove past me again, with even more force. Once again, I manage to block him, but have to take another step back.

Suddenly the man let's out a shout of frustration and throws a very fast, but very drunk and uncoordinated punch at me. I quickly push the hand to the side with the hand on the same side as the punch and grab his shoulder with the other. Using his momentum to add to the force, I slam my knee as hard as I can into his gut. This causes him to keel over, his companion to give an angry yell, and my knee to feel like I've just slammed it into the ground. The slight crack I heard certainly didn't help.

Managing to keep my grunt of pain to myself, I grab an arm in an attempt to get him into a standing armlock only to have something hit the back of my head. My legs crumple like paper, and I fall down to the ground, still conscious. I hear shouting. I mange to look up and see the 2 men arguing and shouting before my view was blocked by the girl that I woke up to with a look of fear and concern on her face, the bag she was holding on the ground. Suddenly she was yanked back, and my eyes had widened when I saw that the guy had drawn his sword and was holding it against the girl's throat. I quickly look around and see the other drunkard sauntering over to the entrance of the alley. I looked back to the girl and felt my stomach drop when I saw the man beginning to reach up her skirt. 'Oh, hell no!'

Not willing to just sit back and watch a young woman get well, you know, I force myself to my feet and feel around me for a weapon. Eventually, my hand hits something metallic and I pick up a metal pipe. Slowly getting to my feet to not make much noise, and because that hit to the head fucking disoriented me more than I thought, I sneak up on the rapist. In one fluid motion from years of training from tae-kwon-do sword training, I raise the pipe and swing down with both arms using every ounce of strength I have, hitting the guy square in the base of the skull. I watch as he crumples to the ground. I glance at the pipe, pleasantly surprised that it did not have blood on it and therefore did not break the skin. Guy may be the scum of the earth, but he's still a person and I don't feel like becoming a murderer… yet.

I look back at the girl and see relief in her eyes. Well, right up until fear comes right back and she shouts something pointing behind me and that is pain.

I must have been knocked out or something, cause next thing I know I'm waking up in a bed staring at a wooden ceiling feeling something that makes a hangover seem like nothing.

"Anybody get the number on that bitch that knocked me out?" I ask no one in particular as I sit up and hold the side of my head. I'm pleasantly surprised to find it wrapped up in bandages. Looking around, I find the room I'm in to be… honestly, I don't know what I was expecting. The walls were wooden, as was the furniture, with the room itself being just a little bigger than my old room back in my parent's house. The bed wasn't a spring mattress, feeling more like a futon, and the blankets were rough. I glance over to the side table and look curiously at the lamp, thing, light source (there we go) that was sitting on it.

As my head slowly begins to become clearer, not from the pain disappearing mind you, I begin to make out voices from the door sparking an internal debate between my self-preservation instincts and my curiosity. In the end, curiosity won out. Shaking my head at how bad of an idea this is, I do my best to ignore the pounding in my head and place my feet on the floor, which was smoother than I expected it to be.

'Well, here we go.' I think as I push myself up, immediately regretting the decision as a wave of vertigo hits me and my head suddenly hurts more somehow as pain shoots through my right knee. I stumble a bit and catch myself on a dresser next to the table. Looking up, I see myself in the reflection. I'm still wearing the same outfit I had on earlier, and I'm still blonde. Actually, now that a take a closer look, I kind of look like saber prototype from Fate stay night. Golden hair, eyes as blue as the sky, and a regal face. Yep, I'm a saber look alike in male form. Not too sure how I feel about that.

I also note, that I'm still wearing the same clothes from before, but the shirt seems cleaner than it should be. Lifting up my shirt I freeze when I see what's underneath. Now, by no means was I fat before, but I most certainly didn't have abs of any kind, though the new muscle isn't what cause me to freeze. No, it's the fact that the single tattoo I got is still there in the same spot. You know Escanor's symbol? Yeah, it's basically that but blue instead of red and a small scar down the right eye of the lion. I check over my body, which was rather difficult with a pounding headache that I'm fairly certain was induced by blunt force and a hurt, but I did it. And other than my tattoo, nothing else was familiar with me. I had no blemishes, no scars, no indication of having lived through life even a little. The only thing that gave any indication of living was my tattoo, as if my body had been… reborn. But that begs the question; why? Why had this happened? How had this happened?

I shake my head and dismiss the questions; I won't get answers here, not like this at least. Looking towards the door, I resolve myself and force myself to stand on my own 2 feet. The only thing that happens is the world starting to spin and stumble back until my hand is on the end table for support and I'm clutching my head in pain. I don't know how long I'm standing there as I try to get the world to stop spinning, only that it's long enough for someone to walk in. I feel strong, but surprisingly small and soft, hands force me back onto the bed as the world stops spinning.

Still holding my head, I look at the person who helped and froze. It was an admittedly cute young woman of about 5 feet tall, dressed the same way as the girl in the alley, only she had brown hair and eyes, seemed a bit older, quite cute and you know, had cat ears! Blinking a couple of times to make sure I wasn't on a drug trip or wasn't hallucinating from the pain, I glanced behind her and sure enough, there was a brown cat tail waving lazily behind her. My brain might have checked out again at that point cause I was brought to again by the cat girl waving a hand in front of my face, whether it was the concussion speaking or just the shear shock at see a person with actual animal… features, that made my brain check out, I don't know.

I stared at her blankly when she started talking and took out a small corked vial filled with a blue liquid, placing it in my hand. I looked at it for a few moments before giving my best 'what the fuck am I supposed to do with this' face. Sighing, the girl took the vial from me and removed the vial and held it up to my mouth. I raised a single eyebrow at this.

Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to do since the girl gave what every guy fears… the look. I quickly take the vial from the girl and after one more moment of hesitation, down the stuff. 'At least this stuff tastes good. Whatever it is.' I muse as I drain the last bit before looking at the girl to see her giving a satisfied nod. It's at that point I feel a strange sensation in my body. It's not unpleasant mind you, if anything it feels nice, but it is definitely a foreign feeling. It doesn't take long before I feel the pounding in my head beginning to disappear along with what I felt in my knee. Pretty soon the pain was gone completely. 'Wait, was that a potion? Did I just drink a fucking an RPG health potion!?' My look of wonder and shock, but mostly shock, must have been amusing as the girl in front of me started giggling.

"Well I'm glad I could be entertaining for you." I deadpan at the girl. Suddenly she stops laughing and looks at me with surprised eyes. 'Why would she be, oh, wait, never mind, this is the first time I spoke since she came in.'

I watched her say something before going back to the door and saying one word, something that I actually recognized.

"Mia!" she called out. 'Mia? Like what Mario always says? Momma mia, or something like that.' I can't help but think as the girl leaves the room. Still, my curiosity from before had yet to be sated, if anything, it's been piqued even more. Standing up without any pain, yay, I walk out of the room and into a hallway that reminds me of one of those inns from skyrim. Hell, it had the noise of one too. I heard chatter from below me and on my left was a set of stairs.

Letting myself wander over, I descend the stairs into a, well, a medieval bar, or maybe pub is the better word. I take in the sight at the bottom of the stairs and freeze. I see armored and armed men and women, more girls wearing that green maid outfit, another cat girl this one having black hair, and everyone was talking in that strange language, probably to main spoken language here. But what catches my eye is the sheer number of races here, and I'm not talking about skin color!

I see people with long pointed ears, some with staffs and dressed in robes, others with light armor and bows and arrows. 'Elves.' I saw others with shorter ears that are still pointed decked out in a variety of equipment and weapons. 'Half- elves maybe?' Stout but strong looking men and women, most of them heavily armored, one of them having the most impressive beard I have ever seen. 'Dwarves.' I see an equally short man, but not as well built. 'Hobbit, or something similar maybe?' More men and women with animal features. 'Are those wolf ears or dog ears?' A tall intimidating woman wearing revealing clothing but lugging around a sword bigger than me. 'Amazon.'

I was staring at people that should only exist in fantasy, in stories. Beings that were legends back home. And I was staring at a room full of them. A familiar voice brought me out of my stupor, and I turn to see the cat girl that had run out of the room earlier, the girl from the alley, and a woman that is, well, rather… large. Not large in the sense of fat, but large as in… tall, muscled and intimidating. Very intimidating. Seriously, I have never been more intimidated in my entire life than I am right now. I'll take back all those final exams I was going to have to take please. Standing at about 6 feet tall, she wore her brown hair in a bun, and wears a similar outfit to the other girls, but less frilly and the main dress being a dark grey blue and is also lacking the thing that the others are wearing on their heads. Actually, now that I think about it, they seem… familiar. So does this place, if I'm being perfectly honest.

The silver haired girl from the alley rushes up to me and grabs my hand saying something before pulling me towards the cat girl and the titan of a woman. I hear her talking at a rapid-fire pace, but, as expected, I can't understand a single word. Shame, she seems like she's having a blast telling me about whatever it is she's telling me about.

I see the brunette girl giggling and the intimidating woman giving a soft, almost motherly smile. Eventually, the woman said something catching the attention of the silver haired girl before said girl suddenly blushes and looks rather embarrassed by something. Probably pointing out the fact that I can't understand what they're saying. Yeah, that's probably it.

I gulp when the intimidating woman turns her attention on me. Now, I may know how to break someone's arm 3 different ways by using their own body weight, but I got the funny feeling that it won't help me here. She waves me over to her, and against my better judgement, I do as she says. Now, having been over 6 feet tall back home, I was used to having to look down on people and very rarely had to look up to meet someone's eyes, but being a good 5 to 7 inches shorter now, I had to look up to meet her eyes, making me gulp slightly. 'Dear god, she could break me like a fucking twig!'

She says something to me with a smile in a friendly tone, at least I hope it's a friendly tone, and pats me on the shoulder. Slightly confused now, and a little less nervous, I watch as the woman continues to talk, not understanding a single word she's saying. 'I should probably let her know that I can't understand her.' Here's hoping she doesn't kill me for wasting her time.'

"Um… you do know I can't understand you, right?" I ask hesitantly causing the woman to clamp her mouth shut. She stares at me studying me for what feels like eternity before eventually sighing. She says something to the cat girl before turning back to the silver haired girl. The 2 of them run off as the woman sets her sights on me once more, letting out another long-winded sigh and gives me a 'what am I going to do with you?' look. And honestly, that's a good question.