I stood there in shock, staring at the cracked, smoking stone. Adda snapped me out of it with a deep, bone-weary sigh. She flopped back into the heavy iron chair behind her desk, the metal groaning under her massive frame, and just stared at me.
"Hey, don't look at me like that," I said, raising my hands defensively while pointedly ignoring the judgmental glare of my two-tailed cat. "I'm just as lost as you are."
"Look, Noah," Adda said, aggressively rubbing her temples. "I'm going to be honest with you. I have way too much going on right now to even begin to untangle the walking anomaly that you are. So, here is what we're going to do."
She sat forward, her mechanic persona taking over as she rapidly outlined a plan. "It's already late. I'm going to send you to the dorms. Get some food. Get some rest. Tomorrow morning, I'll take you down to the Archives to give you some actual backstory and perspective on how this planet operates. Then, we hit the training grounds to see where you actually rank in a fight when you aren't just passively blowing up my equipment."
I just nodded. I was way too overwhelmed by the transmigration, the giant bear-woman, and the glowing UI fading from my vision to put up any kind of a fuss. A hot meal and a bed sounded like the great.
Seeing the fight completely drain out of me, she opened a desk drawer and tossed me a rectangular piece of metal. I caught it clumsily. It was a simple, heavy card with a dull copper sheen.
"That's a temporary Guild Guest Card," she explained, already moving to usher me out of the room. "It'll get you a standard room for the night and let you eat and drink moderately for free at the tavern outside. Do not leave this building, and for the love of Soma, stay out of trouble."
She practically shoved me back out the heavy oak door and into the deafening, roaring chaos of the main hall. Adda immediately flagged down a passing Guild employee—a nervous-looking Wood Elf struggling to balance a towering stack of parchments.
"Take the problem child to the guest dorms," Adda ordered the Elf.
She turned to head back into her office, but suddenly froze. Her round, fuzzy ears twitched, swiveling toward the library section of the hall. Her dark eyes locked onto a group of heavily armored mercenaries.
"Hey!" Adda roared, her booming baritone cutting effortlessly through the din as she stomped toward them. "Who left bleeding Void-Crawler parts in the research wing?! I will mount your skulls on my wall!"
"What a delightfully violent woman," Snow purred in my mind, trotting over to sit neatly by my bare feet. "I think we shall keep her. Now, present that copper rectangle to the nearest peasant and acquire my dinner."
I looked down at the copper card, then at my oversized linen pants, and finally at the terrified Wood Elf waiting to escort me.
"Lead the way," I sighed.
The Elf led me up the grand staircase to a long, relatively quiet hallway, with another set of stairs continuing further upward. She guided me down the corridor to a plain-looking wooden door and gestured silently at me for the card.
I handed it to her. She tapped the copper metal against the stone wall. A glowing runic sigil that I hadn't noticed before lit up on the stone, followed instantly by a matching one carving itself into the wood of the door. With a soft click, the door unlatched.
The Elf passed the card back to me and hurried away without saying a single word, perfectly balancing her massive stack of paperwork the entire time.
I pushed the door open, Snow padding silently in behind me. To my surprise—and immense relief—it looked remarkably like a standard Earth hotel room, just minus the TV. It had a closet, a small washroom, a sturdy desk, and a heavy wooden bed. Right now, it was everything a man could want.
I walked straight over and flopped onto my back on the mattress, letting Snow explore the perimeter of our new territory.
I laid there with my arm draped over my eyes, just breathing, trying to force my heart rate to slow down. I needed to center myself. I took a deep breath of the pine-scented air and slowly started counting backward from one hundred.
Ninety-nine.
Ninety-eight.
Ninety-seven.
...
By fifty, my muscles finally stopped trembling.
By twenty, my mind was focused.
By one, I was ready.
I moved my arm and focused on the small, blinking icon in the corner of my vision. I had been ignoring it since the flashbang incident in Adda's office. The moment I mentally "clicked" on it, the system came flooding back into my vision with a crisp, digital chime.
[ SYSTEM PING ]
[ QUEST COMPLETE: THE REGISTRY ]
[ OBJECTIVE MET: ] Aptitude Stone Contact Registered. (Note: Destructive Resonance ignored for quest parameters).
[ CALCULATING REWARDS... ]
+ 500 EXP
[ LEVEL UP! ] Level 4 —> Level 5
[ REWARD UNLOCKED: ] System Inventory
A brief, warm sensation washed over my skin, like stepping into a patch of sunlight, before settling deep in my chest. Level 5. I flexed my hand, watching the faint blue static dance across my knuckles for a split second before vanishing.
"Okay," I muttered to the empty room. "Let's see what a transmigrator's pocket dimension looks like. Open Inventory."
I mentally "clicked" on the new, glowing bag icon that had appeared at the bottom of my HUD. Instead of a neat grid of empty digital boxes, the screen flashed an angry, warning red.
[ SYSTEM ERROR ]
[ INVENTORY ACCESS DENIED: PHYSICAL BINDING OBJECT REQUIRED ]
[ PLEASE DESIGNATE A SPATIAL ANCHOR ]
I blinked in contemplation. "So... the System needs something physical to bind to."
My mind immediately jumped to the hundreds of isekai anime I had watched. A spatial ring. A magical pouch. A boundless backpack. If this world operated on fantasy logic, I just needed to find an empty vessel to hold the magic.
I looked down at myself. I was wearing oversized linen pants tied with a piece of twine and a scratchy wool cloak. I had literally zero possessions to my name in this world. My eyes drifted to the dull copper Guild Guest Card sitting on the wooden nightstand, but I immediately dismissed it. It was just a temporary hotel key; tying my permanent magical inventory to a borrowed piece of metal seemed like a terrible idea.
"Guess that's a problem for tomorrow's Noah," I sighed, swiping the error message away. I was overwhelmed, but the RPG mechanics were starting to make a weird kind of sense. I just needed to adapt.
A heavy, fourteen-pound weight suddenly dropped onto my chest, knocking the breath out of me. Snow had jumped from the desk onto my ribs, her two silver-tipped tails swishing with obvious impatience. Her ice-blue eyes bore into mine.
"Fascinating as your invisible messages must be," her voice echoed haughtily in my mind, "you are forgetting our primary mission. The large, violent bear-woman told us that the copper rectangle entitles us to food. I have survived a vehicular transmigration, an energy overload, and a confrontation with horrid canines. I require salmon, Noah. Premium cuts."
I groaned, gently pushing her off my chest so I could sit up. My stomach gave a loud, perfectly timed rumble, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since a microwave burrito yesterday morning—which, considering I had crossed dimensions, might have technically been a thousand years ago.
"Alright, alright, your majesty," I said, grabbing the copper card off the nightstand and sliding it into the deep pocket of my linen pants. "Let's go see what passes for tavern food in Vanguard City."
I opened the heavy wooden door, and Snow trotted out into the hallway with her head held high, looking every bit the royal dignitary inspecting her new castle.
We made it about halfway down the corridor toward the grand staircase when a familiar, booming voice echoed up from the landing.
"Denim-Wizard! You survived the bear's den!"
I looked over the banister to see Thorek marching up the stairs. Beside the Dwarf was his silent Beast-Man companion, though I almost didn't recognize him at first. He had stripped off the glowing, high-tech white Alabaster armor he wore in the jungle. Without the helmet, I could finally see his sleek, feline features—pointed ears, sharp jawline, and calculating yellow eyes. He wore a simple, fitted tunic, moving with the quiet grace of a panther.
But what really caught my eye was the creature draped lazily around the Beast-Man's neck. It was a small, glittering silver snake. Two delicate, translucent wings rested flat against its back, and a crest of incredibly vibrant, colorful feathers crowned its head.
"Hey, Thorek," I called out, feeling a genuine wave of relief at seeing a familiar face. I nodded to the Beast-Man and the beautiful winged snake. "Looks like you guys got off-duty pretty quick."
Thorek clapped a heavy, armored hand on my shoulder as I reached the landing, nearly buckling my knees. "Aye, the report's filed! Figured we'd come see if Adda threw you in the dungeon or put you to work. But seeing as you're wandering the halls with a meal ticket..." The Dwarf grinned, gesturing down toward the roaring tavern floor. "...how about we get some actual meat on your bones?"