inanis journey[new]

As the lucky person woke up they were greeted by the cave that only had some glowing crystals on a corner and some weak rays of golden light coming from small roles from the cave entrance. Strangely enough they were not feeling tired, nor rested, but it was kind of an obvious outcome as they just turned off and woke up when they willed it and there is their “peculiar” body that don't need sleep.

And the first thing that greeted them was a system notification 

[new mission available: find civilization.

No time limit.

Description: what is a isekai without people? Find some people.

Rewards: 64 shop points.

[Accept] [refuse]

]

They accepted it and immediately went for the shop as they were reminded of something. When you get isekaied and is given a system it is not complete without one particular thing… [appraisal], the bread and water of every isekai, so they bought a similar skill from the shop, it only cost a small amount of points and was named “analyze” instead of “appraisal”.

After getting the skill they immediately spammed it on the walls, ground, their clothes and specially the glowing crystals; they turned out to be mana crystals with a purity of 91% and 519 units of mana on average, whatever that means.

The crystals were protruding from smaller formations like a V shaped flower so they plucked the crystals and left the base before storing them on their inventory.

Following that they went outside and picked some fruits from trees near the river, just 6 of them; they looked like red and orange mangoes.

Funnily enough when they brought them back to the their “home” and sat down they took a bite like an from a apple from the fruit, and it tastes like mangoes, ‘isekai mangoes huh?’ they thought as they took another bite from it, and it didn't have a core, only small seeds sprinkled throughout it.

Remembering the mission they decided that walking empty handed was too suspicious if others saw it so they decided to make a bag, just a sack bag nothing too complicated. When they were finished they stored the rest of the isekai mangoes and 5 crystals on it.

But after storing their items, they sat there in silence, bored, they decided to distract themselves by making sheets of silk of various colors, but even that became repetitive, so they looked at the system status, shop, missions, and the map that had a new addition of dots to indicate plants or animals as they bought [analyze] and the two worked together.

Seeing that if they did nothing they probably would spend eternity doing nothing on the cave they got up, dusted their clothes, picked their bag with the stuff they have and set off, this time they decided to follow downstream.

…

on a medium sized city surrounded by tall stone walls and built by a wide tranquil river, you could find 4 entrances, one for each direction; the city was surrounded by plains and farms, beyond those plains there were forests with people coming and going from it, but few were coming from the side where the river was originating.

each entrance had guards dressed in leather armor and with spears in hand, the entrance by the side of the river didn’t get much movement so it was a boring job for the guards there, boring but necessary, but today it was different, it was going to become not so boring.

the guards were relaxed but vigilant, on the rare occasion people came from the forest by the river they would stop them and let them in after some verification, or sometimes the verification was not needed as the person known by the guards, normal stuff.

one guard called Jo-ohn suddenly turned to the other who was named Mary and said “hey, do you see that?” while pointing to the forest by the river in the distance.

despite the distance they could see it rather well, some kind of ball of black fog moving across the ground by the side of the river, coming in their direction quite fast.

Mary said “do you know what that is?” Jo-ohn “no? i dont know about any fog monster, not around these regions at least”

they waited for a few minutes and the fog monster was indeed coming in their direction, but it slowed down the more it approached them.

When the fog ball got up to 20 meters from the guards they pointed their spears at the fog ball, and as they did so the spears tips started to glow a ominous light blue as they charged some kind of energy attack.

But they didn't immediately fire their attack, Mary screamed “STOP! Can you understand us?!” The towering fog monster stopped, to their relief, the other guard asked loudly “What are you?! What do you want here?!”

After a pause that made the guards nervous the fog started to recede revealing the lucky person from earlier, but the fog did not recede completely, it still covered their face, chest and hips as they got somewhat shy.

When the fog receded they only apologized saying “sorry, I forgot about that, I didn't mean to startle you. I am here to enter the city” their voice surprised them as it was the first time hearing it, but they didn't let it show on the outside, they instead  thought ‘ silky, warm, smooth and mature, just my kind of voice’

Mary asked somewhat confused “umm, why are you doing… that?”

The lucky person “ the fog? It is a ability I have, I am using it for privacy reasons”

Jo-ohn ”not that, we mean speaking 20 words with a single one”

The lucky person shrugged “ I do not know what to say, I have no idea about what you are talking about”

Mary quickly pointed out “that! You didn't even say anything out loud this time! Yet you said you have no idea about it in like, 5 different ways”

The lucky person simply shrugged again and asked “as I said, no idea about what you are referring to, I am speaking normally. Can I enter the city?”

Mary spoke putting their spear away and taking out a glass brick from a pouch on their belt and presented it to the lucky person, they said “you can enter but you need to be verified first, just put you hand on it”

Jo-ohn still was pointing their glowing spear at the lucky person but they didn't approach the guard to touch the glass brick, instead, they asked somewhat worried “if I am guessing right that thing verifies if a person is a criminal right?” The guards nodded, the lucky person continued “ by any chance does that thing verify the soul? Destiny or fate? Or anything like that? Because if that is the case, it is very likely to violently explode or something worse if I touch it”

The guards looked at each other and the one holding the brick said “explode?? ma'am, it simply looks at your chronological stream and uses some simple divination magic to see if you committed a crime, it will not explode, in fact, it can't explode” they said, somewhat unsure of themselves.

The lucky person simply said “okay but if it looks like it is going to explode then I will eat it” as they approached it, the guards found their wording weird but didn't say anything about it.

As the lucky person approached it the guards got more and more tense, they never heard about it exploding before but the confidence in the lucky person's voice made them have some doubts.

The lucky person slowly and carefully moved their hand closer to it, it started to make a ominous buzzing sound worrying the guards but as they carefully and slowly put their hand on the brick it suddenly stopped buzzing and nothing happened, making the guards immediately sigh in relief, but they had no idea how dangerous that was, looking at the past and essentially judging a outer god is a recipe for disaster, luckily this time nothing happened.

Maey simply spoke as the lucky one  retracted their hands from the brick “well, before you are allowed in we have a few questions so please bear with us.”

Jo-ohn relaxed and rested their spear on their shoulder before saying “4 questions actually, your name, what you are, your age/if you are an adult for your kind and if you are going to sell products in the city as a merchant. If the answer to the last question is yes then you will need to pay to enter based on what you are selling. 

You see, Kalaro doesn't get much visitors, and it is the same with our kingdom of Yourichi so we have to be careful with who enter here…and we are assuming you are from outside the region and don't have a guild card which leads us to here”

The lucky person “why do you think I am not from the region?”

The one holding the brick said “well, you didn't react when we said the completely wrong name for the city, or the kingdom, plus we never saw someone like around these parts, so it is easy to see why we are suspicious”

The lucky person “okay then, let us proceed with the questions, I am 31, an adult, kind of, and I am a-” they paused as they almost said human, but they corrected themselves “...low ranking outer god, I probably will open a business on the city if I can, probably selling silk, and my name, ummm, you can call me ###### #### ####”

As they were answering the question the glass brick emitted a green light whenever they spoke the truth, but as they finished Mary  said “ma'am, you spoke your name and what you are in your language, we could only understand the selling silk and age part, and as we didn't recognize it, it probably is not Arachny, and Arachny don't give headaches to those listening, could you find a translation to you race and name?”

The lucky person “hmmm, I am a… ‘being from the outside’ and you can call me uhh, ‘Inanis’”

The guards looked at the brick glowing green, relaxing a bit, the other guard asked “depending on the silk you are selling you will need to pay quite a bit, can we take a look? You can also pay with a small roll of silk”

Inanis took out a roll of silk from their bag and presented it to the guards, they stared at it before saying “that covers the entrance fee,  if you give us this roll we will return you around… 7 iron, how is that?” the guards stated a price based on the quality of the silk, but little did they know that it was worth quite a bit more.

The guards could feel Inanis blinking confused, so Jo-ohn said “aaand you have no idea how much that is, if I am guessing right?”

Inanis simply shrugged.

Jo-ohn patiently explained “1 copper is the lowest amount, it is worth, well, one copper, 1 iron amounts to 25 copper, there are more ranks but for now those are enough…. But something you might want to know is that we use notes instead of actual metals”

Inanis “okay, but how much does decent clothes cost?”

The guards found this question rather random but Jo-ohn simply answered with “well, low quality stuff costs below 2 iron, underwear around 2 and half iron, and somewhat decent clothes can go from 3 to 7 iron, but if they are made with this silk that I am assuming is from a young Arachne then it can go from 7 to 12 iron based on what it is made into”

As Inanis traded the roll for 7 notes with Mary, Jo-ohn said “you have more silk? It sells pretty well”

Inanis clarified, somewhat amused “I made this silk, but it is good to know they sell well, but I need to get a store first, do you know where I can get one?”

The guards looked at them with a weird face, prompting Inanis to defend themselves “what?... Ah, I see, you are probably thinking I am an Arachne of some kind, right?” The guards nodded “I am not one, zero Arachne blood in me, I just so happen to be able to make silk. 

Now, you mentioned a guild of some kind? And a card for it? Can you tell me a little about it? I am unfamiliar with it”

The guards looked at each other for a moment before Jo-ohn said “well, there isn't much to talk about, it's the guild, the place you sell mercenary stuff like monster parts, mana crystals, useful plants, usual stuff. you can make a guild card, it works as a money card, normal identification, a pass to enter many cities, it can work as both mercenary and merchant identification. and is the place where you can buy a shop or home” 

Inanis thinking of the crystals on their backpack “mana crystals you say? Are they expensive? I might have some”

Mary “it depends, higher purity ones and with more mana sell well, and they are rarer as they are quite random on where they appear, but it can range quite a bit in price, from 4 iron to a few silver, natural ones are cheaper and as they aren’t exactly hard to make, only annoying, they aren’t worth a fortune, but still are worth some money”

inanis thought a bit and decided to reveal some truths. “i got a few that have a 91% purity and 570 units of mana on average, whatever that means, how much is that worth?”

the guards eyes almost jumped out of their faces as inanis said that, one of the guards quickly said “what!? damn, you got quite lucky, 2 of those are enough to buy a shop or home in the city, around 2 and a half sun silver if i am not mistaken, we recommend you quickly sell them and make your guild card”

inanis “okey” :|

after this conversation they took some directions for the guild; it was just down the main road on the plaza after the park. as they walked through the roads inanis noticed that the majority of the people in the city were two thirds or lower of their height, even the non human looking races, there were some animal people, various types of elves, very small people, there were a few living automata and dolls, dragon looking people, one or two people that were the same height as them, there was even one that had completely blue skin, red eyes and gray patterns on their skin that was around the same height as them, and humans of course, but they still were smaller than them.

But this was a sharp contrast to the silent forest outside the city walls, it was simply more… alive, in a way.

And their clothes were as varied as their races, some wore cloaks, simple dresses, leather armor with some metal parts, some wore suspiciously modern clothes, most beastkins that had fur wore more open and less clothes, those with horns decorated them with metals or wood pieces, those with tails decorated them with bracelets of metals, beads, shells, vines and other materials, many wore symbols, crests and runes on their clothes but it was unclear if they were magical or simply fashion.

‘fancy~’ inanis thought.

but something interesting was that most buildings were made for people of the same or higher height as Inanis, the medieval buildings had tall and wide doors, nice colorful glass windows, wooden walls with stone foundations.

and just like inanis was looking at people, the people were looking at them, inanis wasn't exactly discreet. and just like every new face in the city, they attracted some attention, but people didn’t approach Inanis to talk, visitors were not that common but not that rare either.

So they calmly walked towards the guild, on the way they walked by restaurants and bakeries that emitted delicious smells, they saw many food or ice cream carts with people around them, enjoying their wares, inanis walked by many families or various races going about their days; there was even a family of dragon looking people where the mother had a frontal backpack that had a huge egg being carried on it.

Inanis couldn't help themselves and stopped on a ice cream cart, it is isekai ice cream after all.

The person manning the cart was a hyena woman wearing baggy pants and a bandeau bra, when Inanis approached the cart the hyena woman looked Inanis up and down before she said “Hey there, new face around town, right? Going to the guild?”

Inanis “Yeah, just arrived here, but could not resist the allure of ice cream, how much is it?”

The hyena woman squinted her eyes at Inanis and simply said “one cone is 7 copper, one small bowl is 12, medium 19 and big 27. we have sheep, cow, lizz the lizards, lemon, and today special is nagi’ry the bird”

Inanis was the one that squinted their eyes to the hyena woman this time as they said “why are they all meat… and lemon? Normally I would ask how they are meat flavored but it is probably magic or something”

The hyena woman gave a toothy smile and said “alchemy, actually. We alternate the flavors each 3 days, and today is meat day, not only it is delicious but it is very popular with us A-a’ny’ma or beastkins as some call us, I don't know what you are but you definitely will like it, I recommend you choose a small bowl, one scoop of nagi’ry, one of sheep, one of cow and one of lemon, mix them up and enjoy”

Inanis agreed “ I will take that then” as they handed the hyena woman a 1 iron note, the hyena woman in turn gave inanis an edible bowl with four balls of ice cream along with a small spoon made of hard mushroom.

but before Inanis could leave with their ice cream the hyena woman suddenly said “wait, are you by any chance going to stay in the city for some time? My family runs a ice cream business and have a shop close to the city center, pass there when you have some time, new faces have a 15% discount” she gave Inanis a card with an address and the words ‘hie hie ice creams’ saying “here is our card” Inanis took the card and put in one of their pockets.

Inanis took a spoonful of ice cream and brought it close to their face and suddenly a cartoonish bite mark appeared on the ice cream as if someone took a bite from it before they said “I will stay for some time, I am planning on opening a clothing store here, sell silk clothes and stuff like that, do you know a good place to open it?”

The hyena woman glanced at the ice cream Inanis was holding that kept having chunks of it vanish as if someone was eating it before she said “silk? Well, I recommend the plaza where the guild is, many young merchants open shops there and move to other places later. 

Do you have any silk on you? So I can take a look? My family will probably be a regular customer for you as we often tear our clothes and silk is often comfortable and somewhat resistant… well, it is a common problem for those with claws… and young pups”

Inanis said “sure” and took a roll of silk from their backpack and gave it to the woman; on Inanis’ hands the roll looked relatively small, around 2.5 hands long and one closed fist thick, but it was somewhat oversized for the hyena woman as she took it with both hands.

Inanis immediately said “ take it as a gift, for the ice cream, it is delicious, and I have more rolls on me so do not be shy”

The hyena woman said “thanks” with a smile before rubbing their hands and cheeks against the roll, it was quite comfortable and smooth to the touch, they pressed a claw on it to test it, but as they looked at the results they frowned, or at least did the equivalent of frowning for a hyena because her claw didn't do any damage to the roll, they tried cutting it with their claws but again, no damage, then they tried tearing it to test something but as they put some force nothing happened to the roll, some people who were watching from the start even started to think she was maliciously trying to tear the gift.

They turned to an amused Inanis and gestured to the roll asking “where did you get this?! This is stronger than pandolian scales!” A few people widened their eyes as they knew how strong the hyena woman is and how tough a pandolian is, whatever that is.

Inanis “took a bite” from the ice cream, shrugged and simply said smiling “I have no idea about what a pandolian is but I was the one who made it, and thanks for testing it, I feared they would tear easily”

“”What?!”” was the reaction of the hyena woman and a few people close by.

The hyena woman said “ sorry for asking but, what are you? You for sure are not an Arachne, especially with the eyes thing going on”

Inanis touched their face “eyes thing? My face is covered, you should not be able to see them”

The hyena woman scratched her cheek before saying “I don't know how to say this but… you have been manifesting and de-manifesting eyes that keep looking at everything at fast speeds, all over your body”

Inanis “the what now?” their brain froze trying to process what the hyena woman just said ‘eyes? What is she talking about?’