CHAPTER 12 “Isekai.” Part 1 (Patreon)

When Kalysto tried to open her eyes, she felt numb.

Her body felt dull and somewhat sore. But her head felt like it was made of cotton. And the world around her was nothing but a bunch of blurry colored blobs with no meaning. A strong dizziness churned her stomach, and she felt the bile rise up into her throat, she thought about rolling over to try not to throw up on herself, but as soon as she tried to move, the whole left side of her body protested and pain shot through every nerve, leaving her breathless.

A scream escaped her throat, and she hurried to close her mouth.

The last thing she needed at that moment was for Mrs. Tanner, her landlady, to come into her room and see her in that state.

“What on earth happened last night...” She tried to open her eyes again, expecting to meet the familiar white ceiling of her room, but instead, she found a clear sky of a slightly more vibrant shade of blue than usual. ”Is that aquamarine? Who mixed the color palette wrong...” she groaned. “How drunk was I last night?” she wondered. Of the few times she had been drunk, she had only gotten to see things double on two occasions, but never before had her alcoholic brain changed the color of things. She let out a long moan, fearing that the drunkenness was stronger than she had suspected a few seconds ago, as she felt all the accumulated fatigue taking its toll. “I won’t drink again,” she promised herself. And she had a vague recollection of making the same promise after the first time she’d let Jessica, the Spanish teacher, convince her to join her for a couple of drinks at the beginning of the year. Less than a month later they had both repeated the odyssey, but with Sakura, the Japanese teacher.

That woman is the devil in a bottle! And Kalysto was absolutely sure that she could seduce even a saint, not for nothing more than half of her male students were head over heels in love with her. Worst of all, despite having the face of a beautiful doll, she had more stamina to drink alcohol than a seasoned truck driver.

“Where the hell am I?” She opened her eyes again and was concerned to see that high in the sky the soft figure of two full moons, one larger than the other, decorated the daytime celestial vault.”... That definitely wasn’t there last night!” she groaned.

The sound of a bell echoed in her head and two holographic screens appeared before her, one blue and one violet. The blue one said:

[Welcome to Elinor!]

The violet one, on the other hand, said:

[Welcome to Elinor, hero!]

Hero? Is that some kind of mistake? She wondered, still feeling confused.

Another blue window appeared in front of her.

[User has entered a world that already has another version of the system.]

[System upgrading...]

“Oh no, not this again!” She complained.

[...]

[The system used by the user is of a higher version than the system available in this region. The system does not need an upgrade and will retain the current configuration].

And immediately a new purple screen appeared before her.

[Take the potion!]

“Potion? What potion?” What the hell is he talking about? It was at that moment that the rest of the memories of everything that had happened a few hours ago came to her mind, along with another wave of intense pain.

[The one in your inventory. Just as we had agreed.]

“What? Which inventory?” As soon as the words left her lips, two other windows, one blue and the other violet, appeared in front of her. In both were three tabs, of which only the one for inventory was active. Showing her a square five boxes wide by four boxes high in the blue window, two of which were occupied: one with the second goblin’s club, the other with his black backpack.

The purple window, on the other hand, was five boxes wide by six boxes high. And only one of them was occupied with a beautiful bottle decorated with a gold arabesque ribbon, filled with a transparent liquid.

Kalysto stretched out her right hand, wanting to reach for the bottle. But she remembered what had happened before when she tried to touch the blue screen for the first time, so she stopped.

“Excuse me, boss, how can I get the bottle out of inventory?”

[Just stick your hand inside the screen and you can take out or put any object inside the box you touched].

“Thank you for the information,” she mumbled, as she clenched her jaw and lips as she tried to endure the wave of pain that swept over her.

As soon as she was able to recover a little, she raised her hand and touched the first box. To her surprise, this time instead of going through the screen as had happened to her before, she could feel the coolness and smoothness of the glass of the bottle, grasped it firmly, and pulled it out of the inventory. And although her mind was spinning at the lack of common sense of what she had just done, she could observe with surprise the bottle now in her hand.

“What is this?” She questioned, expecting her new boss to be the one to give her an answer. Instead, two small windows opened before her. Both asked her the same question:

[Do you wish to use the skill “identify” to see the stats of this object?]

“Identify?... Yes, sure,” she frowned as she said it, and a new pair of windows opened in front of her.

[Bottle of high purity holy water. Quantity: half liter. Holy water can heal any kind of wound and regenerate tissues depending on its level of purity...]

Kalysto didn’t even finish reading the whole text, and instead, uncorked the bottle with her teeth and drank almost half of it in three long gulps while lying still with her head tilted to one side. All the windows she hadn’t bothered to close followed her vision, blocking her view. But that didn’t matter to her.

What really mattered was that the pain magically ceased as soon as the cool liquid ran down her throat. It was as if she had never been hurt in the first place. Thrilled at the immense relief she felt, she was about to continue drinking the rest of the bottle, but immediately a purple window appeared before her.

[Stop!]

[You don’t need to drink the whole bottle to heal those kinds of wounds! Two small sips are more than enough!]

Why didn’t you tell me earlier? She thought, but didn’t dare say something like that out loud to her new boss.

[You’ll have to be more careful next time, Kalysto! Holy water of that level of purity is practically impossible to come by nowadays... Or at least it will be until you yourself are able to create it for me in the future, and you’re years away from arduous training to get there!]

“Sorry,” she apologized immediately and put the bottle, uncapped, back into her violet-colored inventory.

At least ,my whole body doesn’t hurt anymore. She thought. She wanted to sit down, but she preferred to lie down for a few minutes while the holy water potion she had just taken took effect. It’s better not to risk it and stay still. It is not going to be that, by moving, I inadvertently damage any bone or tissue that is regenerating. An insistent itch was spreading up her leg, down her arm and onto her left foot.

I’m not going to scratch it! I’m not going to scratch it, no matter how much it itches!

[... You have a lot to learn.]

Kalysto could almost imagine her new boss sighing as he covered his eyes with one hand, praying for a little patience to an unknown entity.

Would they have the same religions in this world? Or would they be like the Romans and Greeks who had multiple gods? she wondered. And she promised herself that she would look into the matter later... When the left half of her body was not so itchy.

I have to distract myself with something! Now she had a tingling sensation running up her leg and she couldn’t wait to shake it, but she restrained herself.

[... Let’s start with the basics.]

[Pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you because I’m not going to repeat this information.]

“Of course, boss,” she hastened to reply.

[Wait a moment...]

[Why does the map tell me that you are in a different location than the one I summoned you to?]

Kalysto could almost feel the distrust coming in waves from his boss. She was about to ask about the map, but decided to clear up the misunderstanding first.

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with it, but while that symbol of light was being drawn at my feet, two of my classmates ran to meet me, trying to save me from the orc that attacked me. The two of them had a similar design under their feet, but the color was different.”

[...I see...so the humans advanced the summoning of their heroes.]

There was that word again. Kalysto frowned. She was about to ask about it, but her boss continued speaking.

[...Considering you were so insistent that I respect your rest times and since you seem to be in human territory now, I’ll let it go...just this once. Just make sure that the next time I summon you there’s no one around to cause a disruption].

That last felt more like a scolding than a command.

Excuse me? It’s not like I did it on purpose! I’ve never participated in a summoning before! How am I supposed to know all the things I’m supposed to watch out for if you don’t warn me first?

Instead, she asked:

“Map? What map?” Human territory? Why is he always alluding to that? When is he planning to tell me what race he is?... Besides, there’s something about the way he says human that seems like he’s referring to cockroaches... If he dislikes us so much why did he hire me in the first place?

But the young former waitress didn’t have time to delve much deeper into it, for as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a violet screen unfolded before her. A drawing of a large expanse of land half opaque and surrounded by water appeared. Within which, two dots, one violet and one yellow, glowed. Considering that both the screen and her boss’s summoning had been violet, it was not difficult to guess who the violet dot surrounded by a huge forest inside the map was. She guessed that the yellow dot, located in a region with a smaller amount of forests, a couple of desert areas and surrounded by mountains, identified her.

So there are more differences between the two systems other than the number of squares I saw in the inventory... Good to know.

“So that’s Elinor’s continent?” She questioned, remembering the name she read on the welcome sign.

[Of course not!... Elinor is the name of this world, just as yours is called Earth. Tanish is the name of the continent we’re on. You’d better take advantage of your stay with those humans and learn some geography, kiddo!]

“... Of course, boss,” she answered. She was sure that name rang a bell. She just couldn’t remember why it was so familiar. Tanish... Tanish... Where have I heard it before?

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Just to clarify: it seems that in English there is a difference between mage and wizard, the latter being used only to refer to men. In this story, a mage or a wizard can be male or female. The difference is that a mage can only wield one element, (usually fire or water), while a wizard is a special type of mage that can wield more than one. (From this chapter onwards, this is something that must be taken into account.)