God's An Adventurer MvF: Volume I

Chapter 17- Isekai Protagonist I

How had this happened? How was it that one second, excruciating pain filled every pore of his body, and the next he laid on the ground, the feelings of anguish and suffering long gone.

A trickle of something liquid landed on his forehead making him jump into the air. "Huah!" His screams echoed into the unknown darkness. His heart raced at an alarming rate; he patted his forehead searching for the substance that had so rudely awoken him from his slumber. His fingertips searched endlessly for where he had felt the substance land but there wasn't a sign of anything there. His breathing became steadier and his heart started calming down.

"What was that? Was it water? Did someone pee on me?" A thousand and one ideas ran past his head, each more ridiculous than the next. When he was finally done worrying about it, his mind began drifting elsewhere.

"Huh? Where am I?"

Without his knowledge, his eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness around him. There was a shed of light coming from what appeared to be glowing moss. Even so, the room wasn't complete visible, but not completely blinding either. There was a small pond of water a few feet away, the water emanated a subtle glow, making it easier to see things around that vicinity.

Like a helpless child at night finding a source of light, he scuttled over to the pond where he looked down at its reflection. He could see his face, a pair of dark eyes, dark hair that hung over his face, and a much younger face than he remembered.

His fingers ran across his face and the reflection followed. His eyes widen with the realization that this was him after all. "N-no way."

He sat near the edge; his eyes locked on this appearance of his. He tried remembering what happened before he got here.

He was a twenty-four-year-old man, living at home with his parents, a low minimum paying job at some small grocery store in the middle of an unknown town. His life had been pretty much the same after he barely managed to graduate high school; go to work, home, play games or watch some anime, sleep, same thing the next day. Life had gone by this way for the better part of six years, and now-

"What happened..."

There wasn't a clear indication of why he sat here, with a new face and a new body. This stranger in the water was now a reflection of who he was, and every second he looked at it, the more surreal it seemed.

"Did I die?" that was his first thought. As a professional no lifer, he had read countless stories of characters who died and were reincarnated into a new world. His face instantly twisted into a happy gleam. "Am I... a protagonist?!"

His heart leaped in joy, and he followed. "Mom, Dad, I finally achieved my long-life dream." He clapped his hands together and bowed towards the pitch darkness. "Thank you for raising me well."

He felt blessed, even a little special. Was he the only one that it happened to? Maybe he was chosen by a greater power because he had a gift no one else did. The hair on his arms stood up with anticipation but he immediately fell into thought. "If that's true, why am I here, in the middle of a dark cave."

Perhaps the higher being wished to test him, or this is where he would start his journey, from the bottom to the top. The endless possibilities awoken a spirit of adventure he never knew he had.

"Mmmnngh! Alright the first thing I should do is figure out what I am." He looked back at the reflection, and outside of being a younger, there wasn't anything else that distinguished him as something outside of human. "Guess the important question is if there's other things that are not human in this world."

In most books the protagonist was someone of no value to society, or of little impact. A longer or a weirdo who was given a second chance at life in another world. There were a few that did not follow this example, but the majority leaned on that guideline. It was likely they were written that way to give the reader a sense of relatability with the main character as people like him would be inclined to cheer for someone with such a background.