As I stepped out of the alley, I found myself back on the shopping street.
In the fifteen minutes that I was absent, nothing changed in an even account: merchants still called customers, people and inhumans were moving about their business, and wagons with lizards instead of horses carried cargo through a separate, designated area.
The world has not changed. But I am.
I was looking at OnePiece, so I kind of imagine what [DiamondSkin] does. If someone tried to hit me or hurt me, I would turn it on for protection. However, I suspect that my weight will increase and my strength will not be enough to move my own limbs. Roughly speaking, I will become a motionless, difficult target. But I will survive. Maybe.
[Regeneration] does exactly what it needs to do - not let me die, healing me with inner energy. Given that I am in a world of magic, this energy is most likely mana. From my [InitiateMagician] trait I feel it - it seems to be everywhere, but the feeling is weak, just appeared. It will take time to get used to it and develop something useful.
I decided not to join the crowd, but to go closer to the edge of the crowd so that a wall could be built from one of my sides. It's an old habit, but hard to break. It took me just two minutes to get back to the fountain where I had appeared in this world.
So, what should I do?
First, I decided to take a look.
And looking up, he saw a huge castle.
How did I miss him?
Yes, it was a castle. Anyone can imagine such a thing: glowing roofs, slatelike towers and the white stone that covered the entire building. And yes, it was large even by the modern standards of my time, and for a magical medieval age it was overwhelming. I am very curious about how much effort and time they have put into building such a structure.
Even from here it was clear that there were several roads leading to it, each one of which diverged and went in different directions as if the whole city were woven. One of these branches was just crossing the square with the fountain, so that it could probably have gone straight to the castle without any effort.
But I don't need it yet. Let's leave this information for later.
Apparently, the whole city was divided into specialized zones, as in typical fantasy: a chivalric quarter, a handicraft district, an area for ordinary people and slums. All this could be seen from here, as the whole city was on a mountainous terrain. My location made it easy to see all this, despite the buildings surrounding me. And they were built for the glory: still the same stone, which was sometimes combined with a tree, and sometimes with metal. The good, not all decided to stick to the same color palette, so most houses differed in height and color.
While I was looking through it, my feet carried me forward. I gave them the will - I still don't have a final destination.
It didn't take me two minutes to find myself at a sort of highway. Yes, it was a full-fledged stone road, with various carriages drawn on both sides by giant lizards. They were not the same, and also differed like all other animals: different skin, size, and body structure. All this indicated that although they belonged to the same common species, they clearly differed in breeds and origins...
I have never been very good at biology, but it seems that [Doctor Doolittle] has begun to work, gradually closing the gaps in my knowledge of Inumeric fauna. I haven't even talked to them yet.
The crossing of the road was carried out through an above-ground crossing. Given the small number of people using it, I decided to stand there and think.
I do not know the local language: all the tablets and signs that I passed were completely unreadable to me. They depicted a strange mixture of Japanese hieroglyphs and cuneiform, and neither I understood. So to navigate prices and information, I will have to talk to people in person because somehow I understood the local speech. It seems to be some kind of machine translation I was given when I moved here.
Hence the question: should I use [PerfectImpostor] to integrate into society?
Perhaps this is a bad idea. I knew nothing about the local world, and I doubt very much that the "normality" effect could last long enough. Plus, using a power that has not yet been tested is absurd.
That is, logically speaking.
But to put it bluntly, I didn't want to pretend to be someone else just for a living.
I want to go home, that's right. But now I stand here and see something before me that I could have only imagined in my head. Before me was unveiled a whole unknown world, and an unknown force gave me the tools to explore it. Using someone else's identity just to be here - I'll probably say no. Let this ability wait its time.
And I'll go on.
***
I need to find a job.
I don't have a local currency. The only valuable thing I have with me is my phone and the contents of my backpack. I'm not going to sell either - it's not sure if I'll need it anymore. So, I need to figure out how to make money for the first time.
The simplest and fastest option is to go to a migrant worker. I have the power, and to carry boxes is not my first. Heavy, low-paid and appropriate collective. Let's leave that for now.
The option is more complicated - to go to the carpentry workshop or to the forge. With wood and metal, I am able to work because of the fact that I often work there, so I learned a little. Yes, the working methods will be different from the modern ones, but I think I'll catch up quickly. In the process, you can also stretch your tongue by referring to partial amnesia. At least try.
Or else...
[Doctor Doolittle].
Communication with animals and better understanding how to treat them. It seems to me that the ability to speak with beings no one understands and to act simultaneously as an interpreter and a doctor is a golden life. I don't know if there are any other people in the world who can do this, but let's assume that few or none at all. Why go down the path of low-paid work immediately when I can try to use what Gach has given me?
So, we should try to look for livestock companies or veterinarians who are willing to cooperate with non-locals who have neither the ability to read and write, nor documents, nor a penny in their pocket...
Okay, I've had worse.
Much worse.
If I think of my first job as a watchman...
While I was reminiscing, a strange picture came to my eye: a young girl in an incredibly expensive red-and-black dress and several men were heading into one of the many alleys of this city. I probably wouldn't have noticed it, but two things really stood out: the striking contrasts in appearance and the expensiveness of the clothing between these people, and how the three seemed to surround her from different angles.
And then I saw the sheen of a knife hidden from one of those walking.
I didn't like it.
But should I intervene?
Probably not. It could have been her friends, acquaintances, business partners - anyone. That they walked like this, and that one of them had a gun, could be explained by the simple fact of being safe. All of this could be explained logically.
I did the same thing once before, guided by logic rather than feeling, believing that everything would be fine.
And she died.
With a quick step I headed towards them, and as I approached the alley, I called my right hand [PlasmaCutter]. The good, quick inspection of the inscriptions and a couple of clicks of buttons was enough to understand how to unfold it and where he had the shot button.
Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps I am not getting into my business, and it could have ended badly for me both physically and morally.
But these are the problems of my future.
I entered the alley.
And the first thing I saw were three men with naked knives, one of whom was already holding a blade over his head to the red-haired girl who stood behind my back a few steps away from me.
There was no time to think.
Although the cutter weighed only a couple of kilos, to an untrained person it might seem hard to lift with one hand. Good, I was used to working with heavy tools, so my hand didn't flinch. Holding your breath was pointless.
There was a low-frequency rumble, and the high-temperature plasma's band flew forward within ten meters of each other in a second. She crashed into the very base of the knife without reaching the man's fingers by a few centimeters. The melting line has calcined. The upper part of the blade with a loud call fell to the ground, which made everyone freeze and look at me, and the attacker burrowed a lump of metal and grabbed his hand, which only moments ago felt an insufferable heat.
I paid no attention to the criminals.
But the girl's face almost blinded me with its beauty.
The eyes of unordinary red looked at me with inner contentment and knowledge that it had to be this way. The faint-gleaming lips stretched in a proud smile. The red hair was gathered in a tail, from which two strands were cut, which were on both sides of her face, as if framing it. And though she was a little smaller than me by the head, somehow her presence could be felt in the air. In her hands was a black veil, which was now folded, and her black-red dress had a convoluted cut and opened the view of her rather voluminous chest.
It was a beautiful view.
But let's save the spectacle for later.
I took a few steps in absolute silence, bypassing the girl and standing between her and the bandits, becoming her shield. Razak has been targeted at the supposed leader, the trinity, who never moved from his seat, looking at my weapon in disbelief.
"I think you'd better go."
My words sounded a lot rougher than I had planned, but better. Maybe it's better to get to those idiots.
There was a giggle from behind.
"Well, it's going like I thought. It cannot be otherwise."
------------------------
Feat Achieved: Meet Priscilla Barielle
Reward: +1 Silver Trait Gacha Ticket
------------------------
Well, at least now I know who I'm saving. Maybe.
Author's Note: And here is the first meeting with an important character. And it hadn't even been a few hours.
Ladies and gentlemen - Priscilla Barielle. It's going to be fun.
The chapter turned out to be a little shorter than I had planned, but I decided not to suffer or try to squeeze anything else into it.