Chapter 4: The Gray Hero Stands in Another World
With that old man’s filthy voice as background noise in the white space, I was enveloped in a blinding light.
At last, I was heading to another world.
No—
More importantly, I managed to make that old man eat that pitch-black bread.
Just thinking about that made my heart start beating faster.
While I was wrapped in the light, the first thing I noticed was the smell of earth.
Not just any smell—
It was the rich scent of soil after the rain.
The light gradually faded.
Judging that it was no longer blinding, I slowly opened my eyes.
What spread out before me was a deep forest.
“Huh?”
I was definitely supposed to have been summoned as a Hero and sent to another world.
Is this what being summoned as a Hero looks like…?
Something feels very… off.
I don’t know what a “normal summoning” is supposed to be like, so anything I think is just speculation—
But would it really be considered “normal” to summon someone only to dump them into an undeveloped forest like this?
That old man said, “Ask the one who summoned you for the reason.”
Doesn’t that imply I’d be in a situation where I could question them after being summoned?
Or maybe if I wait, the summoner will come to pick me up?
Or…
No.
I don’t even want to consider this possibility.
But what if—
This is an irregular situation, and I have to survive here alone without any help?
“…No, it’s not decided yet.”
Thinking too much won’t help me overcome the situation.
For now, I need to confirm my current state.
“《Status》”
Haiba Aki — Level 1
Race: Hero
Occupation: Unemployed
Titles: Gray Hero, Mis-Transfer
Skills:
Appraisal — Max Level
Magic Control — Level 1
Magic — Level 1
Mana Increase — Level 1
Danger Detection — Level 1
Presence Detection — Level 1
Beast Tamer — Level 1
Physical Enhancement — Level 1
Mana Perception — Level 1
Throwing Technique — Level 1
Healing Magic — Level 1
Alchemy — Level 1
Universal Resistance — Level 1
Unique Skills:
Dark Summoning
Trickster God (Camouflage + Perception Interference + Fixed Concept Reinforcement + Illusion + Acting Ability)
Material Transfer
Absorption
Item Box
Intrinsic Skills:
Hero’s Charisma
Hero’s Blessing
Potential Boost
Abilities:
[Room Creation] Level 1
“…Haaa—”
I took a deep breath.
To keep myself from losing my composure.
“Mis-Transfer…”
So that’s what it is.
Now I understand the situation.
This is completely irregular.
They abducted me and dumped me somewhere random—
That’s beyond sloppy work.
When my life is on the line, I absolutely cannot tolerate this kind of carelessness.
That white bastard old man…
I’m not letting this end casually.
Absolutely not.
Well, whatever.
Right now, there’s nothing I can do about it.
I have a total of twelve skills from winning the dice gamble.
Plus Appraisal, which I got as a parting gift, making thirteen in total.
Pretty standard choices.
Stealth-type skills, survival-focused ones—
For offense, throwing techniques for long-range precision kills.
Plus magic.
And Beast Tamer and Alchemy are for enjoying the other world.
No issues there.
Those are all the skills I chose in that white room.
The problem is the unique skills.
There are two I don’t recognize.
The first is [Dark Summoning].
Since skills are listed in the order they were obtained, this should be something I originally had.
Maybe it’s something I possessed as a latent talent without realizing it.
[Trickster God] is the skill I obtained during the dice gamble.
Honestly, I was nervous the whole time about getting caught, but it worked out.
I could have chosen [Thought Processing Power], but after using [Appraisal] on that white space, I abandoned that idea.
Just like the old man said, even if it’s theoretically possible to calculate how the space would act, actually doing it is practically impossible.
So I switched strategies—
I chose [Trickster God], a skill packed with deception abilities, and aimed to trick the old man instead.
And it worked.
Just imagining the look on his face when he realizes he was deceived makes me feel refreshed.
Maybe I’ll make that my go-to stress relief method.
[Material Transfer] and [Absorption] are the unique skills I got from the dice gamble.
[Material Transfer] lets me transfer objects.
It’s the skill I used to force-feed that old man the pitch-black bread.
There are two methods—
One is transferring within line of sight, and the other is registering a location.
I’ve already registered the inside of that old man’s mouth.
So I can send things into his mouth anytime from anywhere.
Maybe I’ll send some dirt as revenge.
[Absorption] has various functions, but the main one is absorbing skills from defeated enemies.
It can’t take unique skills, so I shouldn’t rely on it too much.
And then there’s the second unknown skill—
[Item Box].
I have no idea why I have this.
Maybe it’s something all Heroes get as a bonus?
[Dark Summoning] might have been mine originally based on the order.
And [Item Box] is listed last, so maybe it’s something like that.
I decided to try using [Item Box].
It seemed like something was already inside.
An image of the contents flowed into my mind.
I focused on taking something out—
And with a popping sound, it suddenly appeared in front of me.
It was a letter.
A fancy pink letter.
I picked it up and read it.
“If you’re reading this, then you must already be in the other world.”
“You’ve probably already noticed, but where you are is not the intended summoning location.”
“It’s what you’d call a mis-transfer.”
“Oh, but that’s because you took too long choosing your skills.”
“As an apology for my management oversight, I’ll give you the unique skill [Item Box].”
“Be grateful.”
“I’ll say it again—it’s your fault for taking too long.”
“So there’s no point blaming me, got it?”
“……”
I impulsively tore the letter apart and kicked it away.
I almost envy the talent required to write something this irritating.
Is that old man secretly the one writing spam emails?
But…
I get it.
I understand.
There’s no point expecting rescue.
From now on, I have to survive here on my own.
Yeah.
I understand.
For now, I need a goal.
People or water.
I should search for those.
I picked up a suitable stone from the ground and began marking trees as I walked.
The direction is random.
For now, I’ll just move straight ahead and believe I’ll reach something eventually.