2 A Quick Change

"Get back into the kitchen, Julian!" a man yelled. He seemed to be around 60, with grey hair. He wore a brown apron and had a stubble beard. He was an overall grumpy guy, and that guy was Julian's boss.

Julian sighed and nodded. The only reason he was working here was because he ate a pill. This pill allowed him to understand everything that he heard. Although he made a little bit of money from this job as a restaurant worker, he was still indebted to the owner.

It had been a week or so since he landed in this place. He lived inside the restaurant, sleeping inside the kitchen. Despite him being there for an entire week, he didn't know anything about this world.

"I'll be clocking out first, alright?" his coworker said, as he walked out the door. Julian nodded. This was in favor of him. He could finally test something he wanted to see ever since he got here.

"Open status!" Julian yelled, pointing into the air. Nothing popped up. He repeated it. Then he dropped onto his knees, sighing. He tried everything. He tried making flames appear from his hand. He even tried to get into a sword fight with one of his co-workers, which he lost miserably.

"Damn you, god! You sent me into this world with nothing at all! This is nothing like those books I read!" he waved his fist into the air, angry. Julian was an avid reader. At first, he was happy about something like this happening. He expected to be an all-powerful king, with several ladies to satisfy him. Sure, it was a delusional dream, but he was in a fantasy world now.

However, nothing happened! He saw everyone around him utilizing mana to create intriguing attacks, but he couldn't do a single thing! Even a little kid could create fire or make a rock appear out of thin air. Nothing! He couldn't do a single thing!

"I expected to be the main character...but I'm really just a side character. In fact, I'm just an extra! Damn!"

Julian walked out of the restaurant. It was midnight. The moon looked so beautiful, being the brightest in the night sky. Julian sat on a bench, staring into the sky. It was a lot more beautiful than the one back on Earth.

Julian was so focused on looking at the sky, he didn't even notice the things that were going on around him. A loud boom was heard and fire surrounded the town. Smoke started to fill the sky, messing with Julian's vision.

"Another fire-related problem? They need to start regulating the use of fire magic!" Julian sighed. He brought his head down and this was finally when he noticed what had been going on. Fires spread throughout the wooden towns and shops.

Goblins pillaged and orcs massacred. Blood stained the road paths and guts decorated the walls. Julian heard the wails of distressed mothers, crying for their children. Friends were broken apart and smoke blinded others.

Julian panted. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated. He fell to the floor, puking. The scene was so bloody, he could not stomach it. His fear grew tremendously as he heard growling right next to him. He looked up.

A goblin stood in front of him. Despite it being so short, it looked so intimidating to Julian. The goblin had a sadistic smile and he held a curved dagger.

"Am I seriously going to die again?" Julian asked himself, staring into the eyes of the goblin. Julian shook his head. He grabbed the nearest object to him. It was a sharp piece of glass that broke off during the attacks.

Julian's grip tightened, despite it causing his hand to bleed. He ran at the goblin. He was scared. But judging from what he knew, the goblin was surely going to be faster than him.

He stabbed the goblin and pushed the glass through the heart of the goblin. Once it stopped showing signs of life, he fell to his knees, panting. He looked at his hands. They shook from fear. But he was proud of himself. He managed to survive. In fact, he was a little happy.

"Another successful raid!"

Julian turned his head to hear where the voice came from. A man in a dark black robe stood behind him. He wore a hood to hide his face.

The man stuck his hand out. Out of his palm, chains made of stone came out of his hand. They wrapped around Julian.

"Damn it!" Julian yelled, struggling to get out of the stone chains.

"Hm. 167 centimeters. Though, you look pretty young. You seem like you'll do pretty good work!" the man in the robe said. Although nobody could see it, his smile was evil and sadistic.

The chains tightened and Julian could no longer move. He started to suffocate.

"No! I'll seriously die! I was really brought here for no reason!" Julian thought.

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

"Wake up, newbie!"

Julian felt a hard kick on his back. He yelled in pain and rolled over, whining.

"What the...? I'm alive!?" Julian looked at his hand, making sure to confirm that he was alive. He seriously believed that he had died. But here he was, alive.

Around his neck were shackles. They were blue and translucent, kind of like water. Julian tried grabbing the shackles, but his hand went right through.

"Jeez, are you new to this world or something?" the girl who had kicked him asked. It was a young demi-human, with brown eyes and brown hair. She had cat-like ears and it seemed that her personality was similar to a cat's. She was pretty short, around 147 cm tall.

"Cut me some slack!" Julian whined, then stood up. He looked around. The area was mainly grassy, with a few wooden buildings in the vicinity. There was a large stone wall to stop us from escaping.

There were a lot of people there! All of them had the same shackles around their necks. They were of different shapes of sizes. Some elves, some humans, and some demi-humans.

"Woah! This place is packed!" Julian exclaimed, in awe at the number of people in the area.

"By the way, I'm Veind. All of us are slaves. You better get ready to work, or else they'll handle you!" the demi-human informed sticking his hand out to shake.

"I'm Julian!" Julian replied, reaching his hand out. As soon as their hands were about to touch, Veind flicked his forehead and giggled, running off. Julian rubbed his head, furrowing his brow.

Julian started to think about what Veind said. He would have to work, or else he would be handled. He didn't know what "handled" meant, but he didn't want to figure it out.

Julian searched for something to work on. After enough searching through the massive field, he finally found a place to work that wasn't full.