So dark. So scary.
Lynn's consciousness floated up from a chaotic sea of blackness.
The crackling of burning wood reached his ears, along with a strange smell that mixed herbs and animal hide, drilling straight into his nose.
He forced his eyelids open. His vision overlapped and blurred, only slowly focusing on the rough log beams overhead.
"#＊...%#&*...￥?"
A hoarse male voice sounded beside him, rattling on in what felt like some kind of indigenous language.
Lynn turned his neck and saw a burly man with a thick beard, wearing a vest made of animal hide, looking at him with concern.
The man was holding a wooden bowl filled with a pitch-black medicinal soup.
Where is this?
Why am I here?
His memories were a complete mess.
Right now, the only things he remembered were his name, Lynn, and that he came from Earth.
Seeing him awake, the burly man grinned and said another long string of incomprehensible words, then handed the wooden bowl to him.
Lynn propped himself up and realized he was lying on a crude wooden bed. Glancing around, he saw bows, arrows, and animal pelts hanging on the walls. It was clearly a hunter's cabin.
Ignoring the suspicious bowl of medicine, Lynn staggered to his feet and pushed open the door.
Cold wind rushed toward him, instantly clearing his head.
Outside was an absolutely unfamiliar world.
Low stone houses stood in neat rows, thin trails of cooking smoke drifting upward. In the distance stretched endless emerald mountains.
The sky was as blue as a gemstone.
A few long-haired mountain goats lowered their heads to graze on roadside grass, bells around their necks chiming crisply.
Everything radiated a primitive atmosphere.
The burly hunter, Hans, followed him out, still gesturing behind him, probably worried that he might wander off.
But Lynn had no attention to spare.
His gaze was quickly locked onto a stone statue standing in the village's central square.
It depicted an elegant man wielding twin swords.
The figure wore a cloak, his two blades crossed before his chest, eyes resolute as he gazed into the distance.
Lynn recognized who the statue represented.
The Hero of the South.
The man who, before Hero Himmel, challenged all seven members of the Seven Sages of Destruction alone, killed three of them, and ultimately perished together with the Omniscient Schlacht.
This is… the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.
So that means… I've crossed over.
Lynn walked up to the statue, his hand trembling as he touched the cold stone base.
Buzz!
The instant his fingers made contact, a warm current surged from the statue into his body.
Immediately after, a virtual blue screen appeared before his eyes.
[Detected a compatible soul. Beginning synchronization.]
[Synchronization complete.]
[Inheriting partial authority of the Hero of the South.]
[Congratulations. You have obtained the Hero of the South physique.]
[Congratulations. You have obtained the skill: Dual Wielding (Beginner).]
[Congratulations. You have obtained the talent magic: Future Sight] (Incomplete).]
[Current ability acquisition progress: 5%.]
[World language synchronization complete.]
[Please continue seeking statues of the Hero of the South to inherit the complete will.]
In an instant, an enormous amount of combat experience flooded into him.
How to regulate breathing, how to maintain balance during high-speed movement, the optimal angles for dual-blade strikes, the amount of force needed to sever a demon's neck…
Lynn loosely clenched his hands.
A phantom sensation spread through his fingertips, the roughness and weight left behind by years of gripping twin blades.
Though his hands were empty, he felt as if he could split the air before him at any moment.
"Hey! Are you alright?"
Hunter Hans's voice came from behind again, but this time it no longer sounded like incomprehensible babbling.
Lynn turned around, looked at Hans's anxious face, and smiled.
"I'm fine."
Hans let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward, patting him on the shoulder.
"That's good. You slept for a whole day. When you woke up and just stood there without saying a word, I thought the forest miasma had messed with your head."
He continued in his thick, booming voice, "You're dressed strangely. You're not from a nearby village, are you?"
Lynn looked down at his clothes, modern casual wear.
So it was a full physical crossing. No wonder he'd passed out. It was already lucky he hadn't died from environmental shock and gone to meet the goddess.
"If I said I'm not from this world, would you believe me?"
Lynn spoke cautiously, already prepared to be treated like a madman.
Hans scratched his messy beard, but instead showed an expression of realization.
"I believe it. Why wouldn't I? After all, the place where you collapsed wasn't ordinary."
"The place I collapsed?"
Lynn frowned as a gap appeared in his memory.
His last impression was touching a stone monument at some tourist site. When he opened his eyes again, he was in the hunter's cabin.
"That's right."
Hans pointed north of the village. "You fainted right in front of the Goddess Monument in the northern forest."
"Our village has always had a legend. The Goddess Monument is a gate connecting worlds.
There are stories of it sending people back to the past, and plenty of tales about bringing people from other worlds here."
Lynn's heart jumped violently.
The Goddess Monument.
He remembered this setting. The Goddess Monument was an extremely ancient ruin, said to be connected to the power of the Goddess of Creation.
"If it can bring me here, is there a way to go back?"
Lynn asked urgently.
He didn't want his parents on Blue Star to worry.
Hans's smile faded. He shook his head.
"That, I don't know. Legends are just legends. In hundreds of years, you're the first outsider to appear at the Goddess Monument."
Lynn's eyes dimmed.
"Don't look like that, kid."
Hans waved a big hand, clearly uncomfortable with the gloomy mood. "Since you came from there, maybe the answer can only be found there too.
The Goddess Monument is very old, covered in ancient writing we can't understand. There might be some clues."
"Sir, could you take me to see it?"
"Of course. Follow me."
Hans turned and took a polished single-handed axe from the wall, fastening it at his waist.
"But let's make this clear. Once we're in the forest, don't wander off. The beasts have been especially vicious lately."
Lynn nodded and followed him.
They passed through the village and soon arrived at the monument deep in the forest.
The Goddess Monument was carved from a single massive slab of bluish-gray stone, its surface covered with marks left by wind and rain.
Countless mysterious runes were etched across it.
Lynn carefully scanned the inscriptions.
Most of the writing was unreadable to him. Even with world language synchronization, these ancient characters were beyond its scope.
Soon, his eyes were drawn to a line of text near the base of the monument.
The carving looked relatively new, clearly added later with a sharp blade.
Land of Soul's Rest.
Just four words sent a shiver through Lynn's entire body.
Land of Soul's Rest.
He knew this place all too well.
It was the final destination of Frieren's journey, the legendary land where one could speak with the souls of the dead.
Frieren had set out on her travels to go there, to see Hero Himmel once more.
Could it be that reaching the Land of Soul's Rest would allow him to find a way back to Blue Star?
But with only five percent of the Hero of the South's power, he would be wiped out on the spot if northern plateau monsters surrounded him.
Not to mention that entering the Northern Plateau required either a first-class mage certification or the accompaniment of a first-class mage.
Right now, he had nothing to his name.
As he worried over this, a scene suddenly unfolded before his eyes.
In the image, a white-haired elf carrying a vintage suitcase walked at the front, her expression lazy, her steps dragging.
Behind her followed a purple-haired girl gripping her staff tightly, cheeks puffed as if complaining about something.
At the rear of the group was a red-haired boy carrying a giant axe, his head drooping, his face full of despair.
The scene was incredibly clear. He could even see the ruby earring swaying from the elf's long ear with each step.
This was a scene from two months in the future.
And the three figures were none other than Frieren's party.
At this point in time, Frieren's group should be preparing to head toward the magic city of Auserst.
If he could hitch a ride with Frieren, the problem of a first-class mage would be solved easily. And along the way, they would pass through Fabel Village, where another statue of the Hero of the South stood.
"This future sight doesn't respond to conscious control at all. Looks like the only way to improve it is by touching more Hero of the South statues."
Lynn rubbed his temples.
Uncontrollable future sight was useless in actual combat.
"The wind in the forest is getting colder. Time to head back."
Hans tightened his animal-hide vest and scanned the darkening trees warily. "The forest after nightfall is a different world. You don't want to be targeted by monsters."