Chapter 1. Part 4.

 

A Doorway to Another World.

Based on several anime tv shows of the isekai type.

By MJM 2025

The Ambush.

A few days after he started at the Academy, (mid September) Mark is ambushed on his way home, by a group of guys from his old school. They aim to bully him and beat him up as they often did. Calling him a coward for changing schools.

Mark is again faced with the problem, that his other world training has not prepared him for fighting people. Maybe if he had a sword he could kill them all, but that is too extreme. This was just a brawl with kids his own age. Unfortunately there were four of them and they did not just stand around while one guy did all the fighting.

Mark thought about running, it might have been the smart move. But he was trying to be a new man. So he stood and fought, trusting in magic to protect him, even if things did not go well. He tried his best, but 4 vs 1 is never an easy situation. Not surprisingly he gets overwhelmed and beaten down. Luckily for him, the ring of protection saves him from any real injury. He just feels the humiliation of them gaining another victory over him, as they kick him while he is down, before running off laughing.

Later in the cabin.

“So thats what happened Bob. What should I do?” he asks his mentor.

“Its good you stood up to them. Cant let thugs push you around. Its also good you did not kill any of them or start tossing fireballs around.” Bob paces around the room. “Sounds like you need a warrior, not an old wizard like me, as your next teacher.”

“So where should I find one?” Mark asks.

Bob considers the matter, “The local village is much to small. So maybe the answer is not in this world at all, but rather in your own. You may do well learning that strange martial arts stuff. It seemed to be superior to most of the fighting styles Iv ever seen around here.”
“Hang on, how do you know about martial arts?” Mark asked in surprise.

“Master Cane knew kung fu. He showed it to me a few times. I even helped him incorporate some spells casting into it. He wanted to fight and use magic at the same time, in a way people could not notice.” Bob explained with some pride.

 

The next day Mark joins the school's martial arts club.
It is the kind of school where everyone is expected to join some sort of club. So nobody thinks it odd. The club leader is quite happy to accept him, and assures Mark that it does not matter if he never had any martial arts training before.

Note – In many shows the main character is rather passive. Stuff happens and they deal with it.

Here we should have a MC who is more active in trying to peruse his ambition. People will not be forcing him into doing stuff, he will be choosing what he tries to do. Life of course will toss in some obstacles.

Getting on with life.

Time for another fast forward montage.

About a month will pass during this time. (from mid September to mid October)

We see Mark going to school, making some friends, hanging out with Gwen at lunch, enjoying life.

We also see him going to martial arts class, becoming a better fighter.

In the other world, we see Mark taking down a few more monsters and going to the village.
We need to cover the first trip to village in detail.

The village of Ravensend is a small place with basic wooden wall. There is no castle. There is only one Inn, but it is large. It also serves as adventurers guild hall. There area a few shops at centre of village. There are a few farms outside village walls.
The main reason Ravensend exists is to provide adventurers, who are foolish enough to go into the Frightful Forest, with supplies and support. Not surprisingly quite a few of the inhabitants are retired adventurers.

Mark first visits the local merchant. A general store that sells all sorts of supplies. He claims to be from a distant land, here to test his might in the monster filled forest. A perfectly reasonable story as far as the merchant is concerned. He sees a lot of adventurers, but not many with the high quality equipment that Mark is wearing. The sort of stuff only an experienced hero would have, or the son of some rich lord.

When Mark pulls a few monster pieces from his bag of holding, the merchant's eyes get wide. “Took them down yourself, did ya, well good job lad.” he cant help saying.

He does not really need the money, having a lot at the cabin. But he wants to get a feel for how things work and establish his cover story. So he sells the bits, without haggling over the price very much.

The merchant directs him to the local adventurers guild, which is run out of the only Inn in town, by a retired adventurer. There Mark joins the guild. He asks a bunch of questions about how the guild works. Are their ranks, is there any minimum amount of quests one must do. Etc..

The guild master / Innkeeper is very relaxed about the entire thing as he explained. “Some of the big city guilds have tons of rules and ranks, but out here we keep things simple. You help out the locals if there are any monster attacks. You provide a written account of any quests you take. If there is a dispute between adventurers you bring it to me, you dont settle it with a duel.”

While there Mark asks about the hero Goodberry Crane, (grandpa)

Everyone knew the stories about the old hero, but nobody has seen him for many years. About 30.

Word is that Crane had a cabin in the forest. Many have gone looking for it, none have ever found it.

Which was not surprising considering the sort of protection spell that was on the cabin. Not only did it keep out unwanted visitors, it also misdirected them so they would not find the cabin. 

 

 

Note – This is where we get the first example of the time difference.
When mark returns to the village two days later, two months have gone by.

Each Earth day being equal to 24 days in the other world, what they count as a month.