The Shaman can't become a Hero
Act 1: Shiramine Academy Class 2-7
Chapter 2: Vocation "Shaman"
I open my eyes to the cold sensation of water droplets splashing on my cheeks.
"Ah... I'm alive."
No gaps in memory or dizziness. I only spoke out some dramatic likes about being alive because, flung out of the classroom via Futaba-san's big ass and falling into the abyss, I had prepared myself for death.
T-that was close.
My limbs are still attached, and actually, the fact that I don't have a single scratch on me is to be super grateful for. I feel like I could write a whole essay on the splendor of nature.
Well, even with feeling this great and experiencing the surrounding nature with all my eyes, ears and skin, the way down here was the same as a 90 degree straight vertical descent.
Spread out before me is a verdant forest of such grandeur that the more or less 500m high hill I climbed at an outdoor excursion before doesn't even hold a candle.
I'll, be fine right...
I can't think there's any escaping back to civilized land from the middle of this lush, dense forest that you only get to see on wild animal documentaries.
About my personal experience with the great outdoors, there was the two days one night camping trip with my folks. Well, rather than a test of mettle and resourcefulness, it was pretty much completely leisure.
But still, what a view. Whether you look left or right, you find trees, with more than the accumulated girth of five people, right in your face. These giants of green grow far into the sky, and with their large leaves, shroud the heavens enough to make it hard to find the sun.
Though it's not completely dark, the creeping despair in my heart makes the place feel coated in pitch black.
But there is in fact a brighter side to this.
"Right, the magic circle!"
I never thought I could be this smart.
Matter of fact, as I just noticed I was holding onto my bag, it's not like I had any memory loss, I easily remember what that man said about magic and whatnot.
Thereafter, I opened my bag, took out the notebook, and on the slightly damp, bare ground, put down the page with the circle drawn, all within a minute.
"Umm, so like, I just have to put my hand on this and chant the incantation... right?"
I try to remember if there was anything else, nope, that much should be it. I didn't forget even though I only heard once, it was rather very clear and simple.
"Right, let's do this!"
If I keep meandering about it, I'll start wandering into increasingly negative thoughts like, what if I can't do it, what if the magic doesn't work etc. so for now, I'll just suck up my guts, and wing this magic business.
"Oh Gods above, grant us salvation with the force of thy miracles-"
This magic circle was drawn with a ballpen, more like a rough sketch really. But as soon as I put my right hand there, and recited that one phrase, the magic really began to show effect.
Those lines of ordinary black ink began to shine white under my hand. A light much in similar to when it's original was drawn on the blackboard.
There was a slight shock at the appearance of actual magic right there, but so as not to interrupt the casting, I calmly, slowly, precisely, continued the rest of the incantation.
"-For we shall adhere to thine decree."
And right as I finished.
Uaa!?
On the back of my hand that was placed above the notebook, a magic formation just like the one below, no, a similar one with some of the markings missing, shone with a poisonous looking red light.
As if the back of the hand was imprinted with the brand of the magic circle.
But rather than that bizarre phenomenon-
"u, ah, gyaaaaaaaaa!"
I raised a scream unable to bear the sudden sharp pain that engulfed my whole body.
Ow! ow ow it hurts it hurts dammit- even in my head, it's only screams. A fearsome pain, the first of its kind I've felt in my whole life. As if I was captured by some evil organization and subjected to torture, it was an unforgiving, horrible suffering.
Ah, I'm done, I'll die.
As I had that feeling, my surroundings once again experienced a blackout. Like the lights going out at the flick of a switch, my consciousness was lost.
I hear a voice.
"هوى، مؤمن أو ظهرت في عدة أيام"
Ah, pardon me, can you repeat that in Japanese? My English is severely lacking.
"الآن، يمكنك حتى دون فهم، لا يهم"
I see, I see, Can you Kan nut speek Japaniz... No, wait a sec. Who cares about the language barrier.
I'm still alive.
"-ha!?"
Just as I realize this, I jumped straight up, and shot my eyelids open.
I'm conscious, my body moves, I can see too. I'm not dead yet-
"Yeah no... I am dead..."
This must be the place known popularly as Hell. I can't help but think that.
What reflects in my eyes, is the same pitch darkness I watched as I fell from the classroom just now. I can't even tell if I'm standing or floating in zero gravity.
Well, the location doesn't really matter right now. Certainly, it's not the bottommost priority, but a more important existence is standing in front of me. Right, in, front of me.
"ليس مخيفا"
Yes, the person in who's been speaking to me for the past while in English or who knows what language - was a Grim Reaper
If you see a skeleton in black, what else can you think? From under the deep hood, a skull with not a shred of meat or skin peeks out. In the depths of those abyssal eye sockets shine an ominous crimson light.
He's around a head taller than me. That in and of itself is a normal height, but regrettably, in front of a talking skull, I can't really fall back on common sense.[1]
"E-ek... Excuse me..."
Please just spare my life, will something like that get through? Like, this is Hell, and the Reaper is speaking some strange language. But, I have to at least say it.
"Pleas- Fugya!?"
I couldn't even plead for my life.
The Reaper's hand suddenly gripped onto my head. I feel the surprisingly cold, hard texture of the bony palm. Is he gonna tear out my spine now?
"انه لامر مؤلم قليلا، ولكن لا تجعل مثل هذه الضجة على"
My head wasn't plucked off. Instead, the finger was jammed in. Right into my brain.
Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Still grabbing my head, the Reaper's index finger pierces in. Of course, I can't see what's happening on top of my head. I can't see, but I can tell.
That right now, the sharp pointed tip of the finger is vigorously stabbing into my brain. I am made to clearly experience the disgusting feeling of having a fingertip on the inside of my cranium messing with my brain.
I let out a scream as soon as I felt that but- the real pain came a moment after.
"Ngii-"
I withstood the severe pain menacing my brain for perhaps a minute or maybe 10. Or maybe it lasted no more than 10 seconds.
"wha-!?"
I'd fallen unconscious. I noticed it as I was screaming till my throat felt broken, at which point I saw the Reaper take out his finger from my head.
"Name thyself, devotee."
I hear the Reaper's voice. Now that I hear it again, it's still a mysterious tone. Like a man, or a woman. Like someone aged, or in their infancy. I can't tell at all.
Well fine, more importantly... it's about understanding what he's saying. And about that, I'm just hearing plain Japanese.
"Make haste, thy name."
"M-momokawa... Kotarou."
I somehow answer. If I don't, I might really die this time. Or maybe, it'll be two fingers next.
"Momokawa Kotarou, as for now, thou hast but two things to recall."
Ha? I mutter dumbly, but still concentrate fully on the Reaper's words. If I went and said "Say what now?", he'll probably kill me right there. Or maybe even three fingers.
We are called "Curse God Ruinhilde" and thine "Vocation" is-
What was that? I really wanted to ask. With a strangely long Western style name, he's saying something about an occupation or job change or whatever. I'm still a student you know.[2]
But in reality, I only let out a listless "huh."
"-Shaman."
As he thus declared, my heart is pierced. Along with the student handbook in my uniform's breast pocket, the bony hand thrust into and deeply gouged into the left side of my chest.
"We have thus established the contract. Now, Momokawa Kotarou. We greatly anticipate thine following encounter with us."
With those words reaching my ears, I'd already fallen-
A "Vocation" would be job granted to man from the heavens. As in, literally, God personally chooses an occupation perfect for the person and gives it to them.
The students of Shiramine Academy class 2-7 will all be granted vocations by battle oriented Gods, apparently. If you can't fight, you'll simply die, there's no other choice.
Indeed, this granting of a vocation directly implies the attribution of the God's divine protection, in other words, the ability to wield special skills.
For example, if you get the vocation of "Warrior", you can use hand-held weapons to deal mighty blows. As for a "Fire Mage", you can use magic to launch scorching balls of flame.
However, one must not get arrogant with this power. A beginner who just acquired a vocation, cannot unleash much. By repeatedly using this power, or perhaps by overcoming special conditions or trials set by God, the abilities from the vocation will grow strong.
Meaning, the students who just received God's protection, must give top priority to honing their vocation, fighting monsters, growing their skills, is the only and best way to survive.
"...Aha, I see now."
In the hands of my talking-to-himself self, is one of the notebooks. On the page where the magic circle was hand-drawn in black ballpen ink, these sentences were being displayed with a light not unlike that of a PC monitor.
So like the man had said, the "magic that sends information like texting" seems to be working.
What is being displayed, is information on vocations. But the text only showed up on the page with the magic circle. You can't scroll the surface, and it doesn't seem like it will be updated, it can probably only do that one page. Rather than a phone, it's like some shitty pager.
"Shamanism granted by Curse God Ruinhilde...huh."
I woke back up in the forest just 5 minutes ago. I'd seen this horrible nightmare just now, but the magic on the notebook activated and I got a nice distraction.
And as I read through the information, I began to better understand the nightmare.
That was basically, a ritual performed by God for granting the vocation. It's a God of curse, I can understand him being a skeleton, and doing those painful things, or rather, things that would literally end you if done in real life, is something I don't really agree with, but I get that it's that sort of thing.
"Right, first I gotta see how these shaman powers work."
Luckily, or I should say, already, there's a feeling of change having occurred in my body. I'm already under the influence of the vocation.
Me comprehending the language of this other world is the foremost proof of that.
That Grim Reaper aka Curse God Ruinhilde's words started to make sense right after he was done messing with my brain. I think that it was some kind of translation magic directly engraved into me.
And the decisive proof of that were the words I was reading on the notebook just now. That was actually not in Japanese, but in an alphabet I've never seen before. Despite that, I was able to smoothly go on reading it with no trouble at all.
Yet to be known memories and knowledge have been engraved into my mind. Knowing something I'm not supposed to know gives me quite the creepy feeling, but no choice but to rely on it at this point.
I look through the newly input memories. As I focus my consciousness on that... Sure enough, I see it.
"This is... an incantation."
"Coming to mind, is a short phrase. This is a magic- no, as I am a shaman, this should be called "Curse" I guess. In any case, I get that this phrase is the necessary aria to activate the curse.[3]
Welp, here goes nothin'.
"Plunge into permanent swelter, and curse the body - "Red Fever""
Bam! I thrust out my right hand in an "I'mma shoot" kind of pose. But, it was pointless. As this is the kind of attack that only works with a target on hand.
Well, more importantly, I should consider the effectiveness of this curse of "Red Fever".
"Red Fever": gives the target a slight fever.
That was all the information about that available in my mind.
"Wha... What the..."
Slight fever? You mean the slight fever that makes your body heat up to around 37.5 degrees?
And with that slight fevered condition, you can defeat monsters?
"Yeah right!?"
I just had to do that self-retort. What is this, this needlessly subtle effect. It's not even a matter of strong or weak is it?
No well, I didn't have the image of some flashy attack magic user when I heard about being a shaman. But c'mon, you can be just a bit generous and make it poison or something?
"Slight fever... my ass..."
If the target gets heated up during the fight anyway, doesn't getting them slightly feverish seem pretty useless?
"No, wait, calm down, this must be one of those things that multiply in effect over multiple turns."
I'll unleash the full potential of my gamer brain and RPG knowledge, and definitely figure out a usage for this power.
That being said, the result is...
"Red Fever": gives the target a slight fever.
No other info comes out.
I can't see this slight fever as anything other than giving slight cold symptoms, making the body slightly hot and tired. It's certainly not one-hit-KO immediate effect type attack that takes down monsters. And of course, it doesn't seem to increase the effect per turn, or rather, as time passes.
"P-probably can't hold them off either..."
Bad, unreasonably bad. I really rolled a trash skill there.
"Excuse me God, can you point me to the reset button? Please let me do the skill selection again, c'mon..."
"C-calm down! there's still hope, there's, two more... curses left!"
This was also in the notebook info pack, no matter the vocation you attain, at novice level, you receive 3 skills with it. No more, no less, exactly 3. It seems there're individual differences that determining what skills you are awarded though. I wonder if there are any special Rare Skills included in there. That much, the info didn't say.
Anyway, I still possess 2 more shaman skills aka curses.
Let's think like this: if the first one was super trashy, the other two must be super amazing skills. Everything's about balance. After all, since God is allocating these skills, it must be godly balanced.
"I begeth you, Ruinhilde-sama! Please giveth me some cheateth curses!"
And so I looked up the second curse.
"Pain Return": Return any damage done to self back, as is, to the attacker.
W-wow! This one's totally some invincible reflection skill! No matter the dastardly beast, any wound to me will become a wound back to itself.
The moment I'm dead, they're dead too?!
"No, what the hell... Dead, in the end, I'm, just dead..."
The description in my mind clearly reads "damage done to self". Meaning, as long as I'm not at 0 HP, it'll dish it back with the same force.
For example, if I get flattened under the feet of some Indian elephant like monster, I'll become pancake. And right after, the Indian Elephant monster will also suffer pressure death.
Indeed, it has the ability to beat any opponent, but having to trade your own life for it is a no go. It's basically a single usage thing.
The ones satisfied with this kind of effect would be either, people out for revenge with no regards to their life, or some 1-man-1-life creed believing terrorist. I'm just some high schooler, and I really care for my life.[4]
"Uwa... it's getting worse and worse..."
I reflexively held my head and squatted down right there. Goddamit, got a bit of sand in my eyes...
"I beg you God... please, pleeease let the last one be..."
I hold a desperate prayer, hoping for this last one. If this one's also a 0 offense...
"Intuition Pharmacy": Effects of ingredients are known, somehow.
"AaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Forget curse, this is just an appraisal skill! Not even a single, itty bitty bit of attack power in this. No attack, no defense, not even useful for evasion.
In the first place, with only some paper, pens, and a jersey, I have no ingredients at all to use to make medicine. And with nothing to appraise, the skill is completely useless.
At this point, it's an even trashier skill than "Red Fever".
"Ha, haha... No way... I must have some hidden 4th curse..."
No way there's anything that convenient. I know myself best. God wouldn't give me something like a cheat skill. Weell, if I was still in middle school, I might have believed in some hidden power.
Well, once you've met with one of those "chosen people", you get it. That yeah, you're not anyone special at all. I experienced this just the other day right?
I can't rely on God's blessing. Miracles won't happen either- In short, I gotta open the path I walk on with my own strength. As a person, it's only natural.
But, if there's none of that strength to begin with...
"Uu, it's the worst... Impossible, like... what is this, this skill selection, worst.game.ever"
Whining pathetically like this, I lean back towards the towering, wide tree behind me as if collapsing.
Of course, being depressed like this isn't going to cause a change in these powers, and complaining like this won't help me find some game-like reset button and play from the start again.
Doesn't matter if I'm in a fantasy world with magic, reality is just that, reality.
"Ah... seriously, I'm stumped..."
Before something bad happens, should I commit suicide- No, dying is still way too scary, I can't. No matter what happens I didn’t have the guts to kill myself.
Ah, but, I wonder if I can die painlessly if I eat these deadly looking poisonous red mushrooms growing down here.
I must be gazing at these red mushrooms growing at the base of this tree with empty, dead eyes.
If I eat this fly agaric-like poisonously-crimson with white polka dots mushroom, I can really die in a single- No, wrong. Eating this poison shroom will make you suffer in burning pain for a while, and put you on the brink of life and death.
"...Ah."
Right now, I was strangely able to imagine what would happen if I eat this red mushroom in a super realistic way.
"I see, so this is Intuition Pharmacy."
This image inside my head isn't just my delusions, I have the utmost confidence in it. It's as if I have experienced eating this mushroom once before.
Seeing the effect of Intuition Pharmacy, suddenly roused my interest. I immediately got myself up and began carefully observing the mushroom.
I plucked out the red poison mushroom and looked at it closely. I knew by intuition that it's fine to touch bare-handed.
Right, as I thought, it looks surprisingly similar to the fly agaric I saw a picture of as a kid. But that similarity ends at the round umbrella like part, the trunk, no, for mushrooms, was it called the stalk? Anyway, the stalk has a red striped pattern, so it must be different.
This mushroom... probably works on monsters too.
Its effect shouldn't be limited to only humans. If eaten, almost anything should suffer a high fever.
"Might, just work."
As I stowed the shroom into my bag with this realization, I let out words of hope.
"Red Fever", "Pain Return", "Intuition Pharmacy", the 3 curses can't be used in battle by themselves.
But, if ingredients can be made into poisons or medicine, suddenly, my choices of action increase dramatically.
If wounded, I could treat it with herbs. With powerful poisons, I could maybe utilize them in defeating monsters. If it doesn't kill them, it should still give me the time to escape.
"Great, let's do this... it'll be alright, somehow, someway."
I'll definitely work something out. The reason? I still haven't the tiniest desire to die.
[1]I'm using 'he' for now. The original is ungendered.
[2]Puns.
[3]Jujutsu is normally TLed as magic/sorcery, but this should be appropriate too. I think. I'm taking liberties. All of MC's powers up till the current raw chapters seem curse-ish/spiritual
[4]Is that an Akumetsu reference?