Chapter 2 – Orientation

One second Kairon was in a gorgeous grassy valley, staring at the lively crowd around him. The next, a column of flame was stretching from ground to sky. He watched with a detached, unregistered horror as the wildlife, trees, and rock were scorched beyond recognition. And in the middle of it all, the screams.

Kairon had no idea what they were saying, but it hardly mattered when moments later they stopped. Only the rush of flame and the whoosh of displaced air in the valley could be heard.

Kairon’s vision went black.

With a snap, the world flung back into being. Kairon had several moments of vertigo before dropping to his knees and vomiting out what little was still in his stomach.

The newly hatched demonic humanoid simply stood, mouth agape. What now? I… Oh my. I’m a demon…

And that class?

Demonic City Warden. That does sound a touch ominous.

Demons were a touchy subject. Frankly, anytime the mention of them came up there were always more questions than answers.

Which means I’m something no one back home knows about.

A sly grin pressed at his lips, somewhat reminiscent of a child with his hand in the cookie jar.

I guess that’s kind of exciting. Even so, best to be safe. This whole situation was beyond abnormal.

“Invoke emergency safety clause of provincial city lord contract. Open ticket.”

Kairon felt just a tiny wisp of a mental connection, and like scissors through yarn, it was cut.

The grin disappeared.

“What? Come again?” he said aloud.

No reply came.

“Invoke emergency safety clause of provincial city lord contract. Open ticket. Please.“

Again, no reply. And this time, there wasn’t even a connection at all.

“No, no, no…”

Flicking through where his city interface should have been… there was nothing. No mental connection to be found.

“Tavaren? Did you fuck me on this?!” he shouted.

The seriousness of the situation really began to set in. A bead of sweat trickled down the now naked, black-scaled demon’s forehead.

He was an unknown and universally hated demonic race, in an unknown world, and had no backup. No way out.

“Oh dear.”

Kairon climbed back to his feet, wiping his mouth clean.

If the entire SLA system isn’t reachable, that means I must be well beyond the frontier.

That was unfortunate. But it would explain his current circumstances. Frontier worlds were already a wild card the System was newly connected to. Beyond it though?

Yeah. This is not good.

Shaking his head, he took several measured breaths. This was just… a snafu. Someone would come by, whisk him up, and all would be fine.

Still… If that didn’t happen. He needed to be prepared for the possibility that this was his new reality. That he’d need to make a home here, and prepare for what came next.

Information first. He took in the new realm.

He was on a small clearing surrounded on all sides by dense forest. Before it, ten-odd orange rocks were set in a circle around him.

That’s when he noticed the ground. Or rather, what had replaced it.

The whole area was a hellscape. Orange and brown terrain carpeted everything, stretching from the base of the tower all the way to the treeline. Wisps of steam and smoke were wafting off the dirt, making lazy arches in the air. Like the system had planted a demonic seed right in the middle of this landscape and let it burn outward.

Interesting. I don’t feel uncomfortable at all, but judging by that steam the ground must be practically burning. Something with my race must grant me immunity to heat?

Glancing south, he could just make out a group of gray mountains sticking up like teeth in the receding forestry.

It was hard to see. But when he really squinted, Kairon thought he made out the faintest wisps of a road.

If that is a road, that means a pass. Passes from where, I don’t know. But it could mean traffic… And if that traffic is anything other than demons…

That was an issue. A potential issue, but an issue nonetheless.

Any sensible race likely would not take kindly to demons coming to their world. And any race that wasn’t sensible wouldn’t be much better.

Other than that, there was nothing but trees in all directions. The nearest ones were smaller, but beyond stretched massive oak trunks that created a dense distant canopy. Birds circled, insects buzzed, and the wind sang.

At the end of his full circle sweep, he came to the center of the clearing.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Oh!”

Rising from the ground was an onyx black tower made of cobbled, shiny stone. His gaze went up, and up, and up.

At its peak, a pulsating, fleshy violet shaded eyeball stared back at him.

“Good god!” he spat, nearly falling over.

The eye didn’t react.

“What are you? Hello?” he called. The shout echoed through the clearing. It wasn’t answered.

Rude.

He chalked it up to another racial feature. If anything, it was probably some sort of sight ability.

All in good time. All in good time…

He looked down, more closely examining his own body. His physical form had altered with his class. Gone was the wiry frame of a System clerk who spent their entire life behind a desk. Instead, a sleek black-scaled frame that stood over two meters tall greeted him. Claws had replaced hands, and webbed pieces where there were feet.

At least I’m still humanoid. Naked. But humanoid.

Kairon flexed, did a few stretches, and even jogged a bit in place to get the blood flowing.

I honestly don’t feel all that different. The system is quite apt at transitions like this. We’ve always gotten good feedback about that.

“Raaaaagh!!!”

Kairon squeaked, nearly toppling over at the sudden guttural noise. Everything was so quiet and serene, he’d thought that no one but him was here. Well, him and the giant eyeball.

It turned out he was wrong. Those little orange rocks? They were moving. It became quite clear that they were not, in fact, rocks. Instead, ten small impish creatures growled and squirmed in various states around him.