V1C1

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Today’s a day like any other. I’m making my way out of town, the sun is shining, and people are completely freaking out up ahead of me. Wonder what that’s about. I can’t imagine it has anything to do with me – most things don’t – so I just keep on walking.

As soon as I get to the town square, it becomes clear why people are freaking out. I would prefer not to have found out, but I don’t have much of a choice.

“Hey! Look at that. Looks like a wyvern!”

“For real?!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! It really is a wyvern!”

“Everybody! Run for your lives!”

“Get to the closest building and hide!”

Not very reassuring things to hear everyone screaming about.

Wyverns are monsters. They prey on people and livestock, and I’ve heard that they sometimes attack towns in packs, and that they’ve been known to tear apart wimpy, straw-thatched houses to get to the people inside. If a wyvern attacks, what you’ve got to do is find the nearest sturdy building and hide until it leaves. You’ve got to do it, because it’s the only thing you can do.

I’m surprised by the screams, and suddenly people are running toward me. Everyone looks like they’ve lost their wits – like they’re too scared to worry about anyone but themselves.

I’m just standing there, but someone still manages to knock me on my butt. Come on! I’m still a little kid, can’t you pay a little bit of attention?

“GWAR!”

An ear-splitting cry washes over me as I rub my poor butt with tears in my eyes. Something huge flies overhead. Something that looks like a big a lizard with bat wings.

I guess that’s a wyvern, huh? Wow. Oops, that’s no good. I’ve skipped right over being afraid, and I’m just lost in my thoughts, avoiding reality. But what do you want me to do? It’s coming this way with that big mouth wide open! It could swallow little ol’ me in one bite!

Maybe it’ll just ignore me? That’s possible, right?

I’m just skin and bones. I wouldn’t even be a snack. Right, Mr. Wyvern? You’ll ignore me, even though everybody else is gone?

Oh, right. There’s nobody left in the plaza besides me – still flat on my butt – and an older boy standing still and looking confused. So, the wyvern only has the two of us to pick from.

Please, I’m begging, don’t pick me.

Oh no. I think our eyes just met, just for a second. The wyvern certainly thinks they did, because it barrels straight towards me with its maw spread wide. Oh hoh hoh. This is it. I’m dead.

That’s all that’s going through my mind. I don’t even have the mental energy to try to run. The wyvern swoops down; it’s right in front of me now.

A feeling runs through me, something I’ve never felt before. The wyvern’s still right there, but it almost looks frozen in place. It’s weird. Suddenly, my body moves on its own and – at the last second – dodges around the maw that was about to swallow me whole.

Again my body moves by itself. My hand grips the rusty knife I brought with me to collect plants. The knife cuts a small arc and slices at the wyvern’s neck as it streams past.

A beat later, bright, red blood gushes from its neck.

How did that happen? How could a rusty ol’ knife like this hurt a wyvern?

The wyvern crashes to the ground, where it lies convulsing. After some time, it lies still.

“Is it dead?” I mutter to myself as I approach it. What are the odds it’s just pretending? That would really suck to be gobbled up as soon as I step close.

I poke at it a bit with my heart trying to leap into my throat all the while, but it doesn’t move at all. It really must be dead, then.

For some reason, I have a feeling I should try this – store!

As soon as the word crosses my mind, amazingly, the wyvern disappears without making a sound. Wow, that’s lucky!

*****************

I decide that I should get a move on. Imagine if someone found out that a little girl like me struck down a wyvern. That would cause quite a commotion. I mean, as far as I know, encountering a wyvern and meeting with disaster are basically the same thing.

Yes, I should go where I wanted to go in the first place – out of the city.

As I put my foot forward to do just that, I’m stopped by the voice of the older boy who’d done nothing but stand still when the wyvern appeared.

“Hey, what was that big monster just now? Are there a lot of those kinds of things around here?”

“Good question. This is the first time I’ve seen one too. I heard a lot of people yelling ‘Wyvern!’ while fleeing, so maybe that’s what it was? Maybe there’s a lot of them; maybe there aren’t. I wouldn’t know.”

“So that was a wyvern? Whoah. I guess this is an isekai. There weren’t any wyverns back on earth. So, yeah, I’ve definitely stumbled into an isekai.” The boy’s face screws up with thought as he grumbles on.

Alright, well, looks like he doesn’t need me anymore. Time to get going!

I stop in my tracks as the boy suddenly cries out, “Display status!”

Okay, buddy, I don’t really need you screaming right next to my ear. You trying to make me deaf or something?

Hold on. Is this guy alright? Why’s he yelling nonsense all of a sudden? Did the wyvern scare one of his screws loose?

“Huh? That’s weird. Why isn’t anything showing up?”

I want to butt in and make sure he knows that he’s the only weird thing here, but spending more time with a crazy person definitely isn’t a good idea. I’m going to leave right now.

I step forward again. This time, I’m getting away from this guy.

“Whoah, hey! Hold up a sec. I’ve still got a bunch of questions!” The boy grabs my arm.

“I’m just a kid. I barely know anything. Why don’t you ask one of those adults over there?” I shoot back. Seriously, what could he expect from me? Not to brag, but there’s a pretty hard limit on what an eight year old like me knows.

“Over where? All of the townsfolk fled as soon as they saw the wyvern. There’s nobody in the streets right now. Come on, you can answer a few questions, right?”

“No, I can’t. I’ve gotta go earn my dinner for tonight. I don’t have time to just goof off. If you really need your questions answered, you’ll have to walk and talk.”

“Alright, that’s fine. So, first, how do I check my stats?”

More nonsense right off the bat, huh?

“Stats? I’ve never heard of those. What are they?”

“For real? Damn, I guess it’s not going to be just like a game or light novel. Okay, uh, are there levels in this world?”

“Wow, you’ve got a level? That’s cool. I’m pretty sure that almost everyone in this town is level zero – me included. I’ve never seen someone with a level before!”

“No, uh, I don’t know whether I do or not. That’s why I tried to check a second ago. How do I know what my level is?”

“Hmm, so what you do is think really strongly about how you want to check your abilities. They should kind of appear in your head then.”

The boy stops walking, closes his eyes, and keeps completely still.

I maybe have a second to realize that he must be trying to see his ability scores before he opens his eyes and lets out an excited holler. This is just how he is, I guess – loud.

“I– I see them! I can see my stats! This is just like a game!” He pauses for a second. “Huh? What’s up with these stats? They remind me of an old-school, Showa-era RPG – Level, Attack, Defense, Agility, Intelligence. Is that all? And they’re all zero?!”

All of the excitement drains from his face, and he seems to wilt. Crushed, I guess, by his pitiful ability scores. I don’t think it’s worth getting upset about – in this town that’s normal.

In fact, I tell him that. “There’s no point getting depressed because you’re level zero. I said this before, but almost nobody in this town has a level. The only people who have levels, really, are those that hunt monsters for a living. It’s not like levels even matter for your day-to-day life anyways.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Like, what are you really going to use Attack and Defense for in your regular life? Agility’s the same. Of course, if you’re going to hunt monsters, then they might be important, but for a normal person?”

“Damn, I wasn’t expecting to hear something so lame from a kid. You’re telling me you see your level and you don’t just want to make the number go up? What about the Intelligence stat? That seems like it’d be pretty useful!”

“If you raise your Intelligence, all that happens is you get a little better at remembering stuff and a little quicker at doing math. That’s what I’ve heard, anyways. Plus, it’s not like you forget things easily or you can’t do math with an Intelligence of zero. My dad used to say that being level zero with ability scores of zero was normal – anything higher is just a little boost.”

This boy is older than me, but he somehow doesn’t know any of this stuff that’s common knowledge. What a weirdo.

“That reminds me,” I continue. “You probably don’t know about this either, huh?”

“Huh? About what?”

“This is something I heard from my dad. Well, it’s something that everyone’s taught by their parents, I guess. You should be ready to be killed if you dare ask someone about their level. I was taught never to say ‘level’ where somebody I don’t know could hear me, so you can imagine how surprised I was when you started talking about it all of a sudden!

“Anyways, I’m kind of busy. So, bye bye!”

Seriously, I don’t want to waste any more time with this crazy guy. If I don’t get a move on, it’ll get dark, and I’ve got to secure my dinner before that happens!