The Elf Who Learned Death Beam (1)
One moment my monitor screen was flashing without warning; the next, I'd been hauled off to a place I couldn't begin to identify.
By the time I came to my senses, I was lying quietly atop an enormous flower petal of all things.
"Ugh……."
What on earth had happened? No matter how I turned it over in my head, I couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. All I'd done was come home from work like any ordinary day and switch on my game — and then, out of nowhere, the monitor had flashed and dragged me bodily to who-knows-where.
As if that weren't enough, my body right now……
"……."
I was a woman.
To be more precise, I was the elf character I'd created in the game, back before I got forcibly pulled into this unfamiliar place.
"If I'd known this would happen, I would've made a muscular pretty-boy instead……"
Who could possibly have seen it coming? That I would end up possessing the character I'd made in the game without a second thought. And of all things, an elf with a petite frame that hadn't even reached adulthood — the regret crashed over me all the harder for it.
— hoo…
I wasn't sure beating myself up like this was the right move when I didn't have the foggiest idea what was what, but either way, that wasn't what mattered right now. Nothing would change, no matter how belatedly I regretted it. Rather than mourning what had already happened, the first order of business was figuring out where on earth this was and what kind of place it might be. There would be plenty of time to regret things slowly afterward.
Joa Lori
Race: Elf
Class: Mage
Level: 1
With my thoughts roughly sorted out like that, I carefully climbed down from the giant petal — and the very instant my feet touched the ground, a familiar-looking window popped up right before my eyes.
"……?"
A translucent, blue-lit window, like a hologram. Inside it, information that felt inexplicably familiar was laid out in a remarkably concise format.
"Oh."
After a brief moment of thought, I realized what this translucent blue window was. It didn't take any agonizing to figure out. Anyone could tell at a glance that it was a Status Window.
Which meant… was this place I was standing in another world?
"……."
Don't tell me the nickname I'd made as a joke in the game had become my name in this world?
"Aw, crap. If I'd known, I would've picked a serious one……"
— plop…
Cursing the me of half an hour ago, I slumped powerlessly down onto the ground. Who could possibly have thought of it? That a nickname I'd carelessly made as a gag would become my name in another world. But this, too, was regret come too late — the water had already been spilled. Blaming the me of half an hour ago wouldn't change a single thing.
"Haah."
Barely managing to shake off my confusion, I slowly pushed myself up from the ground. Perhaps because my body was so small, every little movement felt strangely light. My senses seemed a touch sharper than before, too. Was that because my race was now elf?
"……."
I couldn't spend all day lamenting my lot, so I decided to start by looking around and slowly taking stock of the situation.
— shhh…
It was an incredibly dreamlike scene, as though I'd stepped straight into a frame from a fantasy film. Beautifully glowing fluorescent spores and colossal trees wove together into a breathtaking spectacle. For all that this was an unremarkable forest, my jaw kept falling open before I knew it. So a place with nothing but trees and underbrush in every direction could be this majestic and beautiful.
"Wow…."
Dazed by the incredible vista spread before me, I took a step forward — and in that moment, the giant petal I'd been lying on earlier drifted into my field of view.
"……?"
Sitting incongruously in the center of the petal, spread wide in every direction, were a staff and a worn scroll. Had I been too rattled to notice them before? Only then registering the existence of the staff and the old scroll, I walked straight up for a closer look.
Joa Lori's Staff
Magic Scroll
The instant I took the staff and scroll in hand, yet another translucent window popped up before my eyes, sketching out the details of the items I'd just obtained in the briefest possible terms.
"A Magic Scroll?"
The staff was one thing, but what seized my gaze far more powerfully was, without question, the scroll-shaped Magic Scroll. I'd nearly forgotten that no fantasy is complete without magic. Come to think of it, my class on the Status Window had been Mage, hadn't it……
— shhhk!
I carefully untied the worn cord wrapped around the scroll, then unrolled the tightly wound parchment on the spot without a flicker of hesitation.
Magic Acquired
In that instant, the mysterious emblem etched into the parchment flared with dazzling light and gently wrapped itself around both of my hands.
Elf Death Beam Lv.1
Before long, translucent windows began popping up one after another, each filled with information about the magic I'd just acquired. With an actual spell now under my belt, the fact that I was in another world was starting to feel more real by the second. And yet, for some reason, the name of this magic was deeply ominous.
"D-Death Beam……?"
The name was so murderous I nearly dropped the staff in my hand. Death Beam, of all things. Just what kind of spell had a name this juvenile and this terrifying all at once?
"……."
It was a moment that raised questions on every front, but seeing was believing, as they say. No point thinking uselessly deep thoughts — I would just try casting it once. It was a spell used by a level 1 elf; how powerful could it possibly be? All that menace lived in the name alone. A cheap, low-level spell I'd surely never spare another glance down the line.
— sweep.
So I squared my posture on the spot, lightly aimed the staff at the empty air, and shouted with a bright, sunny expression.
"Elf Death Beam——."
A chant I let fly casually, thinking, this should make it fire, right? But utterly contrary to my expectations……
— KABOOOOOOM————!!!!
With a thunderous roar that seemed to split the world in two, a dazzling beam of white light burst from the tip of my staff as though it had exploded.
"……Huh?"
Everything in the beam's wake — everything standing along that straight line — had been erased without a trace. Even I, the caster, was left staring blankly. This was really, truly a level 1 spell?
"Wh-what is this……."
Even having watched it happen with my own two eyes, I couldn't bring myself to believe it, and I stared vacantly at the tip of my staff. It was astonishing enough that the spell had actually gone off from a chant I'd shouted without thinking. Never did I imagine its power would be this savage, too.
— plop…
A side effect of the spell? A little while later, the strength suddenly drained from my entire body and I collapsed right onto the ground. A crushing helplessness pressed down on me — so severe I couldn't so much as twitch a finger.
"C-crazy……."
Come to think of it, this seemed less like a side effect and more like what happens when the mana required to cast the spell runs completely dry. I had unleashed a spell with this much power without thinking, so in a way, it was only the natural result.
+ EXP
Just as I was forcing out a hollow, feeble smile with a dumbfounded look on my face, a notification suddenly sprang up before my eyes, announcing that I had gained experience.
"……?"
What was this notification? Don't tell me a monster had been swept up in the spell I'd just fired? Then again, with that kind of power and range, there was no way nothing had been caught in it.
Apparently I'd brought down a fairly strong monster, because a second notification appeared right on its heels, informing me that my level had risen.
"Oh?"
Little by little, mana began to stir back to life inside my body. The lethargy that had wrapped around me sank away in an instant. Was this a system where leveling up restored HP and MP to full? I'd been wondering how long I was supposed to keep lying there — what a genuine relief.
— hoo…
I brushed the dirt from my body as best I could and slowly rose to my feet. I had no idea what monster I'd felled to gain that level, but there was no need to think too hard about it right this second. I was starting to get a handle on the situation, so for now, the priority ought to be leveling up. After all, I'd finally gotten my hands on an absurdly overpowered spell starting from level 1 — and I couldn't go through this much suffering every single time I used it.
— set.
With my thoughts roughly arranged like that, I was just about to square up my posture once more — making the most of the fact that it was still a low-level spell — when…
"Kgh, khhak……."
From somewhere in the devastated forest, the faint voice of some unknown person suddenly reached my ears.
"D-damn it……."
When I cautiously turned my head toward the sound, I saw someone staggering feebly toward me — battered to within an inch of their life, as though caught in the wake of my magic.
"Just what kind of guy……"
The shadow concealing his face gradually lifted, and at last, the unknown figure stood fully revealed before me. At a glance, he looked like a hale adult man — except for the grotesquely shaped horns jutting out unsettlingly from either side of his head.
"Oh? A human……?"
"……Hello."
Only then did the man truly register my presence, his eyes snapping wide open.
"Perfect timing… I was just in need of some blood."
Going by his looks, going by his way of speaking — no one could have mistaken him for human. With those horns sprouting from his head, he was almost certainly one of the Demon Race. And he seemed to be regarding me as prey he'd stumbled upon by pure chance on the road?
"Bad luck, kid. Of all the places, running into me here……"
The man forced the words out with difficulty, his voice all but dead, then drew one long, deep breath.
"You're far too young to devour, but given the circumstances, I suppose I have no choice……"
The man's shocking remark landed, and the look in his eyes as he stared at me began to sharpen into something murderous.
"I'll wring that adorable little neck of yours and drink your blood……"
The instant his gaze changed, I cast Death Beam at him without a shred of hesitation.
— KABOOOOOOM————!!!!
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