Misc. Erotica Asian Experience becomes an Isekaie

The thunderstorm raged over the rural town of Toyone-mura in the Kitashitara District of the Aichi Prefecture in Japan. A place he was not from nor born anywhere near the area. No Jake Diaz, a once naive boy from Indiana, now abandoned in Japan by his father years ago when he left his then-wife and him behind. His mother was no help. When it came to custody she could care less about him. His mother was more than happy to pay his father child support if it meant she didn't have to deal with him.

When his father brought them all overseas to visit his wife's, now ex-wife, family, he didn't know his last parent would abandon him as well in another country, no less. The woman he grew up with, thoughtful of like a mother, albeit an aloof mother but a mother nonetheless, abandoned him too in the wake of his father's actions. She didn't say a word to him when she dumped him on her family's doorstep before running back to her cab when he was just standing there like a confused ten-year-old. He never heard from her again. Not that he cared; he was quickly whisked off to an orphanage down in Osio that went by the name of Elizabeth Saunders Home.

The last eight years of his life had been one cruel reminder after another that he did not belong to the Japanese culture. How could he not feel like an outsider when he didn't understand the language, written or verbal. With no one willing to take him in back in the States, he was stuck in Japan until he could find a way to go home. However, as the years passed, he wondered if he even wanted to go back to the States seeing he had nothing left there to return to. Once he had reached the age of eighteen and the orphanage kicked him to the streets, he had to find work quickly or sleep in the streets. Which he did for a few days until the owner of the oden and ramen shop he has come to work at for the past three years of his adult life. The only good thing that came out of it all was that the Japanese government gave him permanent residence, something he knew would open up a lot of work when it came for him to do so.

The fragrant broth bubbled as he brought the noddle basket up and out of the hot liquid, shaking off the excess broth when he lightly struck it against the rim of the basket holder before dumping the hot Udon noodles out into the awaiting bowl. His eyes glanced up as a new ticket was added to the growing orders for that evening, which, in his opinion, was turning out to be a slow night. Not that he minded, really; he enjoyed the slower nights, and since he slept in the back room, he worked a lot of hours. Something he was happy for since he was saving up what he could to move out of the owner's shop and into his own place. Jake knew if he went back to the States he wouldn't feel like the outsider he is due to Japanese culture. He had nothing wrong with it. He was indeed an outsider who they were forced to take care of Jake, something he would always be thankful for. He had picked out a nice little property on the outskirts of town, away from everyone's judging eyes. Something he didn't blame them for. It was just their way when it came to foreigners especially that far out in the country like he was. When the orphanage kicked him out, he took the nearest train to the farthest place with what money he had would get him.

The soy sauce sizzled in the pan as he poured two teaspoons of it into the dish. His Japanese was crisp and fluid as he asked his coworker if he would get the duck breasts out of the refrigerator as he rapidly stirred the vegetables that went with the dish. His knife moved quickly over the cutting board as he sliced the duck adding four of the slices to the pan to reheat the duck, giving it a stir before he turned around and opened the rice warmer where their latest batch was resting. His hand moved mechanically as if he had performed the task he was currently doing a thousand times. Which he had as he packed the rice into the bowl before carefully plating it. He drizzled the contents of the pan around the mound of rice, taking the ticket off the cooking line, and rang the bell, placing the ticket on the counter and then the bowl and plate on top of it. His towel moved over the hot pan as he cleaned it out before putting it back onto the fire.

That was what his life had been like since he came to live in Toyone-mura. Not that he minded; it was quiet, the workers for the dam were decent tippers, and the work was steady if the pay was rather low. His blue eyes glanced up when the owner's daughter spoke to him through the gap of the shelving of the plating counter as he worked over the dumpling pan while his coworker went to the john. Jake nodded in recognition when she passed on the customer's praise of the food he had been served. As their night came to a close, normally around nine o'clock. There wasn't much of a nightlife in Toyone-mura, especially in the middle of winter; it was the reason the young adult population of Toyone-mura was moving out to the bigger cities to find work. He found that little town just what he needed. The only place in the world you will be lost forever, given how it still looked like it did from the 1990s. When the shop wrapped up, he was pretty much left to his own devices once he threw the lock and waved to the owner's daughter, silently telling her the store was in good hands.

Jake was sitting cross-legged as he got his paperwork ready to see if he could acquire the house he was looking at for free, given the government program he had just learned about. His thumb scrolled up on his screen as he sat hunched over on the little mattress he'd been using for the past three years. His eyes read down the screen, nodding along to what he had to do to get that free house. His grunt of annoyance filled the area, knowing he would have to go into the village and speak to someone at town hall to get the ball rolling. He was getting tired of sleeping in the back of a ramen shop. With the papers he needed sorted and tucked safely away, he rolled over and pulled the thin blanket to his shoulder, thinking of the time he would be living in his own house.

The birds sang as he walked through town towards the records building. A smile graced his face, seeing the tiles of the roof of the house he was interested in from below him as he crested the walking path down the slope of the mountain. Thoughts of advancing his life as he made his way down the steps that had been carved into the slope between the winding roadway. However, his eyes widened in recognition of what he was seeing as a strange light encircled his body.

"Oh, hell no! I am not getting Isekaied!" Jake screamed out in his native English. He tried to sprint out of the circle only to have his nose crash against an invisible wall denying him passage back to the life he knew. "Fuck this shit! I am not doing this, you hear me..."

A scent not native to him filled his nose as he leaned against the trunk of the tree he was resting against in his long trek back to the town he first started in its adventuring guild, now called by another name. He didn't know if it was a good thing or bad thing, that he remembered everything from his rebirth to the present. From his childhood, the moment he learned that there was indeed magic in that world as his own made itself known to the years of his apprenticeship as a battlemage. He just thought it would be cool and badass if he could tank damage and deal out world-ending spells. His mood soured when the reason why he was adventuring alone and not a part of a party flashed in his mind as he sipped on his water skin. His teeth tore at the quarter bit of the loaf of rye bread he had left from his rations, knowing he would be arriving in town by mid-afternoon. He was pondering if he even wanted to go to the village as the sight of his so-called friends and the girl he thought he was in a relationship with entangled in one another. He didn't stay a moment longer when he saw them. He was only thankful the quest they were on at the time was already completed and all that remained was to collect his reward at the Guild House. So he packed up his bedroll and left the three of them there in their depravity.

When he arrived at the Guild House before his former party did, he collected his share of the money for the job on its completion. Then, he proceeded to remove himself from the party he had belonged to. He noticed something in the woman's eyes that handed out quests to other adventurers of the required rank so those weak wouldn't take on more than they could and not get killed in the process. It seemed to him that she knew what his former party members were up to. He spun around, asking loudly how many of them knew about his former party members. The way most, not all, of them, looked away told them what he needed to know. And so when he turned his attention back to the receptionist he too saw how she couldn't look him in the eye. He made his displeasure known and what he thought about them all. With that, he went to the Guild's leader asking to be released from his responsibilities with them if that was how he was to be treated, only to have the leader threaten him with being blackballed no matter if he was a battlemage or not. While magic was everywhere, only twenty percent of the world's population could use it to its fullest. The rest could only use the most basic of spells, for the most part, if that at all. So the Guild wouldn't let him go so easily.

When the people he was born to in that world learned that he had the might of a Grand Wizard, they were shocked. His parents didn't hesitate to take the money the mages were offering when they removed him from his childhood home and took him to one of the many towers of magical learning. For years, he hated those people because of how quickly they could throw him away. Then again, he knew that was just how that world was, which he came to learn was called Yardrat. As he moved from one teacher to another, like all boys, he was fascinated with swords and swordplay. Hence why, he sought to become a battlemage if he was to make a living for himself in that world. Still, though, he was not happy about staying in a Guild that would lie to his face for however long they were screwing him over. And so he began to adventure out on his own. He did wonder where the harem he had seen in other Isekai manga and anime was or where he was supposed to have some god-like ability when he was growing up, yet none of that ever happened, nor did he hear some goddess asking him to defeat the Demon King, which isn't a thing on Yardrat, along with that he didn't find other people like him sent there from Earth.

So he just went about life like he would have done on Earth. He didn't think he would be able to return to Earth even if he wanted to since he had no idea why he was brought to that world. He would have thought whoever did that would have erased his memories since he wanted nothing to do with why he was brought to that world. His life might have been shit on Earth, but it was still his life. Whoever brought him there had no right to mess it up no matter how shitty it was. He might have access to magic and whatnot. He might have only been an Udon slinger in his old life; it might have sucked greatly, yet his life was never in danger like it was now just to make coin.

Granted, he wouldn't be as rich as he is now back on Earth. Still, he would give that all up as he stared out onto the rolling green hills he hadn't seen for a year due to the quest he had been on to subjugate the Giant Earth Boar that had been terrorizing the northwest region of the continent. As large as it was, it transversed a vast area; however, in the end, it now lay dead, and his reward was waiting for him back at the Guild Hall. They knew not to mess with his pay, given how he nearly destroyed the place when the Guild Master thought she could pocket half of his reward simply because she could. That almost cost the woman her head, and shortly afterwards, he was sent on this quest. He was thinking throughout the year. The Guild couldn't do anything about another guild in another country, no matter how large his Guild was. Not that he cared if he had to start over from the bottom up since he'd already hit the highest rank within the Guild.

The only thing that had been holding him back was the fact they were in the middle of the country, and it was two months travel, if one disregarded his teleportation magic to places he'd already been to, in either way to reach the borders of the kingdom he found himself in. His metal gauntlet rested on his knee as his red eyes, something he's learned was a common thing in Yardrat, scanned over the fields. He sensed the goblins that were hiding in the tall grass. A magical word danced in his mind as he conjured a bow above his hand as his detect enemy spell highlighted their bodies.

His will guided the conjured arrows to their targets, easily killing such weak monsters compared to him. As he rose from his spot, flashes of his early days played out before him as he drew his dagger from its sheath, recounting how hard it was when he was first starting out killing goblins. It was why he chose the profession of a battlemage rather than a normal mage, seeing how he wasn't going to rely on someone else to protect him whenever they were out on quests. He opted to become what he was now. He wasn't saying he couldn't throw a fireball, sling a bolt of lightning, or freeze his enemies in their tracks. He could and has done such; they just didn't have the power to level mountains like a normal mage could if they had the mana pool. His spells tended to focus more inward than outward.

The burlap bag bumped against his thigh that was filled with the right ears of the goblins to serve as conformation on his kills. While the ears weren't valuable on their own, given each only fetched three copper pieces, which were half the size of a fifty yen coin. While silver coins were the size of a five hundred yen coin and gold were the size of the old half-dollar coins of the country of his former birth. He put a barrier around the bag so the goblin blood wouldn't stain his armor. The ten ears would only net him thirty copper, just enough to buy the cheapest meal at the inn. Still, it was something not that he needed the money; he was a millionaire many times over if he converted all the gold he had to the Japanese Yen or the American dollar. The metal of his sabatons glinted the sun off its polished surface as he strolled down the dirt road that had seen its fair share of wagons, given the ruts that had been cut into the path. It was the reason he had been walking since he had landed in the port after exploring an island's dungeon for regents. Wagons tended to draw the wrong crowd, and he was in no mood to deal with bandits. Sure, he could easily handle them with ease. Why bother? He saw no need to go out of his way to rid the world of a few rogues.

He kept his disgust at the smell that filled the air as animal droppings marred the road as drivers guided their wagons through the streets. Riders following after, their animals leaving their presence behind. Tennis shoes were another thing he would rather have than the so-called shoes they had on Yardrat. However, his feet had toughened up throughout the years. Still, he would kill for a pair of sneakers! His highly polished sword bumped against his left thigh. While he could conjure a sword out of mana. That would still put him at a disadvantage should he run out of mana. Plus, there were monsters and such that were resistant to magic and magical items such as conjured weapons. He ignored the looks he was getting, walking in full armor minus a helmet and his shield, but he could conjure them, so he saw no need to hinder his hearing and sight with a metal helmet and cloth didn't provide enough defense for his liking no matter how much cloth boosted his mana output and damage. His conjured helmet met the same defense as any runic steel helmet that he saw lining the armor stalls he ambled passed.

Raising the hood of his cloak, not that it was going to rain anytime soon. No. He just would rather not deal with the stares. It was like they had never seen magical armor before, or was it because he was a gold-ranked adventurer? He didn't know, nor did he care, yet he wasn't stupid enough not to stuff his guild identification beneath his breastplate. A scowl formed on his face as the sign for the guild swung in the breeze. He was nearly run over by newly minted adventurers as they burst out the door on their way to start their new path in life. The four young upstarts just stared wide-eyed at his armor as they parted for him. Jake - he never went by the name he was given when he was reborn - heard their excited chatter through the door as it closed behind him. Nevertheless, he would take the greenhorn's stares over the ones that currently were levied at him.

Jake had no problem returning their hateful glares when he lowered his hood. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword as he walked up to the receptionist's desk. His eyes moved to and fro, peering out the corners of his eyes, making sure no one would try to make a move on him. Never taking his hand off his weapon, with his free one, he reached back and pulled out the boar's right tusk from the pouch that lined the back of his belt.

"The jobs done, the boar is slain, now for my money," Jake said coldly as he stared down at the woman. He paid no attention to how quiet the hall went when the words 'boar' and 'slain' in one sentence.

"Hello to you too," the woman huffed. "I see your year away didn't teach you any manners."

"Manners? This coming from the very person who tried to stiff me on my reward, how is stealing from me akin to manners? Manners aren't lying to my face for however long you lot knew about those fucks, now my gold," Jake asked, continuing with his coldness.

"Here," the growl never touched the air, yet Jake heard it in her words as she dropped the heavy bag of gold onto her desk after the Guild Master had counted out every single piece of gold that was a part of the reward, "now take your gold and leave."

"Hold your horse's sweet cheeks; as soon as I know that there are three hundred pieces in there, I will not before," Jake said, picking up the heavy bag. It did feel like three hundred pieces of gold. "Put those eyes back in your head before I pluck them out," he said darkly to those eyeing him.

"You can't talk to us like that!" a young boy he'd never seen before exclaimed as he strode towards his table. "We're all adventurers here; we need to support..." The boy looked at Jake oddly when he simply belted out laughing.

"You think these idgits here care about any of that?" Jake took note of the copper plate that dangled on the leather cord that was tied around his neck. "Kid, be careful of who you trust in this guild; they're nothing more than liars and cheats. I'd advise you to seek other..."

"That's enough!" the Guild Master thundered.

"Is it?" Peering up at the woman, "You sent me off to hunt that damn boar before I could hash this out with these lying curs," Jake said, spreading his arms wide. "You tried to cheat me, and you wonder why I hate you."

"Be thankful that you're a mage; otherwise, I'd have..." Her heart was in her throat. A chill cut her to the core as those murderous eyes of his glared up at her as his magical pressure pressed down on all of them.

"Go ahead and try, I dare you. If you think you can do what the boar can't, I'm all for it," Jake uttered, taunting her to act.

"Count your gold and get out; there's no place for you here..."

"Oh? Does that mean I'm free to seek other Guilds?" Jake asked with hope.

"Oh no, no, no," her laughter filled the hall as her head was bowed as she shook it, causing her hair to sway side to side, "no you simple fool, I'll never, ever let you go because I know how much being apart of this guild pisses you off! And I love pissing you off!" she laughed madly.

"Easy there, Jake, there's no need to get so riled up," Jayla, one of the other ten gold-rank guild members, said, holding a blade to his throat to keep him from doing something foolish.

"I get you're angry mate, hell I'd be too if this lot did that to me, but making an enemy of us all isn't a wise choice. So take a breath and really think about your next move because from where I stand, you're good as dead," Uriel, the leading contender for number one, said, stating the obvious.

"Jake, just count your money, take a new quest, and go about your way," the third person said, adding another blade that lined his neck. "No matter what buffs you have on your body, even your magic won't save you at this distance. So lower your magic, and we'll remove the blades."

"Jake, don't get squirrely; this isn't worth it, even you can't stand up to all of us," Jayla uttered, trying to de-escalate the situation that was on the verge of boiling over as she noted how he was contemplating on if he could take them all or not. She knew how powerful he was; they all knew. Battlemages were always powerhouses. That was the only reason their leader was keeping him on when they all knew he wanted out. However, they needed his might in case it was needed to defend the town and countryside, the country itself if need be. She wasn't expecting the magical push that came off his body, pushing her and the others a few feet away from him.

"Don't speak to me like we're familiar with one another. My money better be all here, or I will burn this place to the ground," Jake growled, peering up at the Guild Master, who stared down at him with a sadistic pleasure in her eyes.

"Oh, it's all there, I promise you, little mage. Also, you shall not take another quest. If you want work, you know the..." She was not expecting him to yank the guild plate from around his neck and toss it up at her.

"I'm done with this shit. Done with this town, done with this country. Don't call for me; you can rot for all I care," Jake said, waving them off from over his shoulder. The hairs on the back of his neck began to rise as he was halfway out of the guild hall. As he felt her killer instinct pressing down on him. The black tendrils erupted from the worn floorboards too fast for him to conjure a barrier or draw his sword before it wrapped him in its painful embrace. Before he could utter a counterspell he felt his jaw slam shut as someone placed him under the silence spell. He knew he could best both spells, yet that would take time. Given who spells he was under, he didn't have that kind of time. He wasn't surprised how quick the Guild Master could move; she was the leader of the place she was bound to be overpowered. That wasn't what worried him, it was the look in her eye as she appeared instantly before him. Everyone winced at the blows that landed on his face as she backhanded him.

"I might not have the world's greatest of magics, but I know how to use what I have to inflict pain," her words were cold and dripped with venom as she had the magical tendrils borrow beneath his armor plating. "Yes, scream for me, scream like the little bitch that you are," she hissed, licking her upper lip in hunger as the thorns tore through his undercoat and into his flesh. "You've been gone for a damn year, and you're still on about that woman?! It's been three years. Grow the fuck up!" she shouted, her nose an inch from his. "Fuck!" she hissed in pain, cupping her nose, noting the blood on her hands from the headbutt Jake had given her.

He would admit only to himself the woman's control was phenomenal, seeing how that kind of attack normally disrupted one's concentration. Something one needed to maintain a spell for long durations. He was over Celine; he'd been over her two months after he left their party. It was the lying Jake couldn't stand.

"Shasa!" they all shouted when the Guild Master when the blade of her knife pressed against the skin on his neck, drawing a droplet of blood. Her temper flared when all Jake did was give her a look, egging her to draw her knife across his neck. Jake knew she wouldn't do it. She might be a sadistic cunt, in his opinion, she didn't kill people unless they had a bounty on their heads.

"Guild Master, maybe this would be a fine punishment for him for his attitude," Darline, the guild receptionist, said, holding out the sheet of parchment of a Steel-ranked quest. A quest that was three levels below his own, along with the massive pay cut. "Maybe then he'll have a different opinion of us," she said, matching Shasa's own sadistic look as she handed the parchment over.

"Oh yes, yes, indeed," Shasa said, her evil laugh filled Jake's ears as she read the request for a sword and mage instructor of the minor noble lord on the outskirts of the city. "Hey, Avia, put a curse on this for me," she ordered, holding out Jake's guild plate in her left hand.

"Sure... umm... I don't..."

"Just make it to where this will never come off unless I take it off. That's all you have to do, Avia; Jake can't touch you because of that," Shasa stated, even though she didn't believe a word of it. "Don't you move. I'll get to you in a minute," she spoke, squeezing him with her vines as Avia worked her hex magic over the item. "Now, you little shit, you're going to be my bitch forever," Shasa proclaimed as she quickly tied the cord around his neck, feeling her hold on him waning.

"Nova cronos." Was the only thing Jake said before a blast of magical energy sent everyone in the guild hall sprawling to the floor. Shasa stumbled back into one of the many tables that every rank of the guild partook their meals at if they cared to dine with their guild mates at a discount. He quickly chanted a fast healing spell before his right hand took Shasa hold by her neck, ready to drive his raised dagger through her forehead.

"Do it, you pussy!" Shasa baited, although her heart was racing like a horse as she stared up at what could be her end. "If you're going to fucking kill me, then fucking kill me!" She felt the hot sting of her piss soaking her pants as the instrument of her death came down. A spray of blood marred the blade of his dagger as it dug itself into the wood. Her heart was in her throat as she looked weakly out her eyes at the blade, wincing at the pain in her cheek, feeling her hot blood running down her face.

"Since you enjoy pain so much, how about I return the favor..." He grinned wickedly down at Shasa as she glared at him through the gap of his fingers. Jake was about to speak the word of his spell only to have the staff of Malduke, the Elven god of protection, rest on his forearm.

"Sorry, but I must end this. Smite." Jake's eyes went wide as the priestess' hand, palm facing towards him; he barely had enough time to throw up a barrier before the brunt of her spell smashed into it, sending him flying backwards.

"Get that piece of shit out of my Guild Hall," Shasa instructed, hoping no one could smell the stench of her piss. She moved quickly to the stairs so she could retreat to her room and change out of her soiled clothes. "When you toss his ass out, tell him, one week, he's forbidden from entering this guild house for one week!"

"You really shouldn't mess with her for a battlemage; you sure aren't smart," the elven priestess said as Jake came to out on the dusty street. She was about to help him stand as Jake shook off the grogginess, only to stop at his cold tone. "With that attitude, you'll never make the platinum ranks." A rank not given out by the guilds. It was the only rank given by the King.

"And stay with you fucks? Not likely," reaching up, wrapping his fingers around the guild plate, and chanting a dehexing spell, causing the elf to gasp, "what did you really think you priests have a monopoly on cleansing spells?" Jake asked, rolling his eyes as he yanked the plate off once again. "Tell that bitch I'm done; she can blackball me all she fucking wants. Even people from my world aren't as fucked up as you lot. Tell her I hope she choaks on it," he said, tossing it at the priestess.

"You do this, you'll never be welcomed back; you know this... seems you do," she said when Jake gave her a look that asked if she was stupid. "I hope in time..."

"Save it for someone who fucking cares, cunt. Don't you have someone else to betray?" Jake asked, walking off and leaving his former lover behind.

"Good..." She started to say her parting words only to blink in confusion when Jake just disappeared.

"What the hell!" She spun around at the sound of Jake's shout from the depths of the guild hall. "What the hell is this shit!"

"I told you, you're my bitch, forever!"

"Not for long!" She rushed into the hall when Jake's magic surged within the building, thinking they would have to magically hold him down until his anger subsided. Only to see magical chains keeping Jake rooted to the floor as he and the Guild Master stared daggers at one another.

"We both know you're not going to kill me, and I'm not going to let you go," Shasa cooed down at him. "Did you think I wouldn't have Avia prepare a hex you can't cancel out? Hmpf! Foolish little mage," Shasa said, taunting him, wagging her finger at him. "I didn't become this Guild's Guild Master without knowing a thing or two about dealing with men like you," she said, grinning down at Jake as the magical chains dissipated. "Now, don't try ripping it off, and you won't be sent back here." She, like all the rest, just gazed in befuddlement as Jake spoke a few words that no one could hear, and a door just appeared out of nowhere which Jake just walked through before it closed. "Did anyone see where it led?!" Shasa asked hurriedly, seeing how transportation magic was a rare thing in their world. If they could get Jake to teach them that spell. They could make a fortune!

"Unbelievable," the elf priestess muttered in stupefaction. She did see a place full of lush greenery and a house in the distance; where it was she didn't know.

Jake's eyes moved over the meadow where he had set up his house in the middle of the Haunted Forest of Jura. He knew no one below a gold rank would be reaching him that deep in the forest, and those that could reach it would never be able to breach the barrier, no matter how strong a mage they had. He wasn't saying his barrier would stop anyone at his rank or higher; it would just be too costly to do unless they really needed to pass the barrier. However, all that didn't matter to him as he listened to the undead roaming the woods. Any sane person wouldn't venture this deep into the woods. The past conquests lined the walls as he entered his home. His first battle with a demon flashed in his mind as the devil's skull greeted him as he used his magic to light the lamps that dotted around his three room cabin he had restored when he found the place. The blue light of the second room glowed eerily along the floor as it caused the seal to release revealing the hidden compartment where he stored all his gold. He wondered just how much gold he actually had as he added the three hundred coins to the infinite storage chest he had found in this old ruin that hadn't seen an adventurer for decades.

His rag moved over his breastplate as he rubbed oil to the metal and leather straps. His master's words rang out in his mind at his master's mantra he had drilled into him as the woman's apprentice. Women battlemages were not common, yet their power could not be ignored. Once his maintenance on his gear was done, he sat within a ring of candles as he trained his mind. He kept ten balls circling him without running into one another. As he practiced his magical control on the objects floating around him. He pondered on what he was going to do now. He wasn't going back to that guild. No matter what that cunt thought, he would find a way to remove the plate around his neck. He sat there, stroking his chin, wondering if he could lie and just show up at another guild and use a high-level illusion magic to hide the guild plate. The question was would someone sense the curse item around his neck if he did. If they did, he would just tell them the truth.

He spent two weeks honing his skills when he wasn't out wandering the forest for regents to sell. By the time he returned to his home on the last night, he had a bag full of bundled up dried herb leaves, powdered roots, crushed bones of the undead (an ingredient in the cure for rot), and many other items. He wanted to show the guild he was going to his worth, and hopefully, they would overlook the reason why he was there. Rolling his shoulders to insure that his pauldrons didn't hinder his full range of motion once he donned his armor. The golden faces of the lions shone in the light as they stood out against the silver-grey color of the base metal. His sword followed effortlessly through the air as he went through the stances his master had taught him just to make sure he wouldn't encounter any problems. If he was set upon by rouges, he wanted to be sure he could end their lives without being hindered. His hand moved over the pit of sand he had made, chanting a scrying spell, causing the sand to float up and solidify into a 3D map. His hand waved over the map, causing it to zoom out, showing the four towns that were situated around the forest to keep an eye on the place and to keep the monsters within it thinned out. Still, each town was over twenty miles from the forest. He wasn't walking twenty miles. He never did. He used teleportation, a spell he found when he was still a Silver-rank adventurer ages ago.

However, he normally didn't just appear in a town. No, he knew how very rare that kind of spell was given the talks he'd heard from other mages. So, he was never flashy with it. The only time he's shown he had such a spell was in the guild hall. A place he was sure they were trying their damnest to find out where he went. Since he didn't plan on ever showing that spell to them again, he knew they would never find his home. Given how the Haunted Forest of Jura was located on the eastern edge of the kingdom over many hundreds of miles away from the city his former guild was located. So he knew they wouldn't look this far out for him. A smirk formed on his lips as he gazed at the town east of him. Looking for a grove of trees he could teleport to that was close to the town. The reason he chose that town was simple, it wasn't in the same kingdom as his former guild was. While it was officially a part of the kingdom, it was automatous within it due to the terms of their integration into the kingdom. So he knew he could work there without ever having to return to that guild. Adjusting the strap of his bag as he stepped through the doorway, wondering why he hadn't done this before.