In Danmachi?

My mouth was ajar as I gaped at the massive spire towering above me, I was shocked and in a mostly good way after the strangeness of the pervious hour this albeit impossible sight was in an odd way comforting, it was familiar, after all how could you forget the tower of Orario? I shook my head in wonder as I remembered how I got to this moment.

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It was like any other day or at least it should have been, but my quite life of work and home was interrupted by the abrupt death of a cousin I didint even know but was supposed to mourn. So instead of heading to work like every Thursday morning I instead found myself taking the cheapest connecting flight to South Carolina so that I could attend a funeral at my mother's behest. The flight itself was not all that terrible if you ignore the people on either side of me, yes that's right I got the middle seat, right on par with my luck really. Anyway, I was situated between two rather unsavory personages in the window seat to my right was a young mother with a squirming crying baby in her arms that I was sure ran on the misery of others. That things incessant crying lasted the entire 5-hour flight, compared to that the guy on my left was rather tame.

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Around my age(23) the guy was rotund to the extreme parts of him squishing out of his seat and into mine as he sat there quietly the entire flight, not nearly as bad as the baby but still very uncomfortable as well, his blubber acted like a partial blanket for my left side and made me sweat rather profusely and that just made the flight all the worse. Half defend and sweating like a pig stepping into the cool air of the terminal felt like walking through the gates of heaven, that is until my next flight took off, I was not in the middle seat this time thankfully, instead I occupied the aisle seat and was seated next to a rather normal looking guy wearing a trench coat which was a bit weird but to each there own, I guess. Moving on, we had left the ground around half an hour ago when a commotion to my rear made me look behind me and what I saw was certainly troubling.

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Two people were laying in the aisle blood pooling around there cooling bodies as a woman with wild eyes stood over them screaming about some cheating bastard or another while waving a bloodied knife around in random arcs. Deciding I wanted nothing to do with that situation I calmly stood up and began walking towards the nearby bathroom, one of only two places on the plane with a lock. Sadly, though my valiant self-preservation effort failed when I heard running footsteps approach me, turning I was just in time to see the wild-eyed woman stick her knife into my chest a manic grin stretching her lips as she whispered into my ear "Found you~" right as I died from having my heart pierced.

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Now I know what you might be thinking, who was she? Honestly? no fucking clue. Best guess I have is that she mistook me for someone else, which if that is the case is a really disappointing way to go, either way that's in the past now. I was in darkness all-consuming darkness until suddenly I wasn't, the darkness around me now looked more like when you shut your eyelids in the sun, that warm orange red color bleeding through the thin skin. My eyes shot open wide as I sat up, franticly looking at my surroundings as my hands fondled my own chest feeling for a knife or a wound or something. I calmed down not long later, taking deep steady breaths as I confirmed my wellbeing my surroundings were peculiar, I was situated in a verdant green forest clearing a stream flowing through it to my left. The grass beneath me was soft and lush the barely visible dirt a deep brown but the strangeness of my surroundings did not stem from the healthiness of the forest but from the strange glow that encompassed everything and the little lights that floated through the air occasionally, fading away not long after they appeared. In all honesty if you had asked me to describe a magic forest this would be it all it was missing was a few little critters and you had it.

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Thankfully though nothing appeared, and I stood heading over to the small stream to pear into its surface, what I saw though caused my once calm heart to race and my back to stiffen. What I saw in the clear flowing waters was not myself but a stranger, He was young maybe 18 years old with messy dark royal blue hair and bright golden eyes that pierced into me. It took me a moment to realize that who I was looking at was indeed me and when I realized it, I took a step back, by this point I had already realized that I probably wasn't on earth the "Magic Forest" being a pretty big hint, but my new appearance sealed the deal as it were. I looked around once more, this time looking for any landmarks or signs of civilization as right now I was in the middle of a possibly magical forest with nothing but the clothes on my back. Which now that I looked were not what I had on before, unsurprisingly, I was now garbed in a simple tan shirt with a pair of sturdy looking brown pants and leather boots about as simple as you can get in a fantasy world.

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Continuing my search for civilization a weird structure caught my eye rising above the tree line I saw what looked like a tower, it stretched high above me breaching the clouds and disappearing beyond them. Finding the sight oddly familiar I began making my way towards it watching as it disappeared behind the tree canopy as I walked forward, thankfully the forest underbrush was not too thick consisting of a few smaller plants and shrubs for the most part. I walked in the direction I had saw the tower for a few hours coming across nothing much in the intervening distance, a few times I heard movements in the brush, but they amounted to nothing as I continued on not daring to poke my head into some monster's home. Eventually though I came to a break in the trees and exited the forest with the sun shining brightly overhead blinding me for a moment before my eyes adjusted and my jaw hit the floor.

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The tower that I had been fallowing, the one that looked so familiar was Infront of me, its massive size making it stand out in the small valley it stood in. Surrounding the spires base was a large city that encompassed it and expanded outwards with the tower acting as its epicenter. I gazed at the fantastical structure from on top of a raised hill maybe 5 miles away from the city's wall, my mind racing a hundred miles a minute and the only think I could mutter being "I'm in Danmachi?".

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I stood there on top of that hill stunned for what must have been a few minutes simply gazing at the magical city of Orario, I came back to myself and couldn't help the exited chuckle that escaped my lips at the thought of what awaited me in this new life of mine. Days filled with adventure and action filled my head as a stray thought intervened, this was a harem anime, right? if so, why not take a few for myself? Another chuckle escaped me at that thought. I began making my way towards Orario crossing the empty planes outside the city with no trouble excluding a building hunger from the day's toils. Soon I made it to the city's entrance lining up in a small que of people looking to enter the city, it took a bit before it was my turn and by this point my initial excitement had calmed down to the point that I wouldn't act like a hyper teenager when I entered the city.

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I approached the guard handling the entries, looking over his equipment as I did, he wore medium leather-metal amor with a large crest emblazoned on to his chest piece, he carried a curved sword at his waist and a kite shield on his back. He spoke to me as I approached him saying "Traveler, what's your reason for entry?" to which I responded with a simple, if enthusiastic "I came to join a Familia and become an adventurer". The guard nodded at me before writing something down and waving me through the gate then finally I was in. The street in front of me was lined with buildings and businesses of all sorts inn's mostly but also general stores and suppliers, I marveled at the medieval city as I made my way along its cobbled streets enamored by different people and things, I was seeing.

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Many different races of people populated the streets from werewolves to sheep people, and I was fascinated, my wonderment lasted a few more minutes as I wondered down Orario's streets. Soon though it began to darken, and the streets began to empty left with no money for food or shelter I resolved myself to find a nice alleyway to sleep the night in. I walked the progressively darkening streets with slight apprehension but soon I saw the city's other wonder, the sky soon lit up with bright stars brighter than any I had ever imagined and the night sky with those beautiful shinning stars endeared me to this world more than anything yet. I stood gazing at the sky for a time before continuing my search for a place to sleep.