After that, they went back to the main square, entered a strange shop filled with strange things and picked out a so-called ‘phone’. Sam assured Kreig that George would teach him how to properly use it once they got home. But just as Kreig was about to accept that this was it for daily excursions, George gave a timid proposition.

  “Hey, uh, Sam. Couldn’t we bring him to… You know?”

  Now, Sam knew exactly what he was talking about. The school. Frederick High School, just down the street to the right. Where Kreig had last been seen before his… Before whatever happened to him took place. To him and four others. It… Well, by all means, it wasn’t a terrible idea. The school hadn’t shut down or anything, though since it was a normal workday there might be kids about, but…

  Sam turned to look at Kreig where he stood in that damn ‘I <3 IOCRO’ shirt, lumbering like a bear in human form… Those damn kids wouldn’t dare approach him like that. No way.

  But that wasn’t the issue here, and it certainly wasn’t why she hesitated. She had two reasons.

  Firstly, would it be good for Kreig? She was far from psychologically learnt, George knew a whole lot more on that, but she was pretty sure that, all things considered, going back to the place where all the trauma that Kreig (must have) experienced might be… Bad? Somehow. ‘Don’t do or show him anything that might trigger any sort of emotional outburst’, that doctor dude had said. Then again, if he hadn’t responded as badly as she and George had thought he would to seeing mother and father’s obituaries… It might be fine?

  The real defining factor here was that George had suggested it. He probably had his reasons.

  Then, the thing that really made her hesitate was the second point. She knew there were people trailing them. After all, she had noticed them pretty quickly. It wasn’t just in the here and now, they’d been hovering around their apartment yesterday, too. But that was fine. She had accepted it.

  ...Even so, these weren’t just nameless officers of the law. These were people she knew. People who were trained to stand guard outside portals in case something happened, people who were just working in the portal division until they could move to a less monster-heavy division… All these fantastic workers who all collectively agreed that tailing a bunch of siblings out shopping was probably the most boring thing of all, no matter who Kreig was.

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  Would she really accept that these people would have to go on working even more just for her and George to show Kreig his old school-?

  “George, I’m not-,” And while she’d been grumbling about all that stuff, George had already begun walking in that direction, with Kreig sending forlorn gazes at her where she stood. “H-, hey! Wait up!”

  “Watching you think is like watching a penguin try to fly.”

  Sam pouted. “No need to be mean about it! Sometimes things need a good think to clear it all up!” For some reason, George didn’t seem much impressed, scoffing at the mere idea. “Geez. You sure this is a good idea? With the-, with our friends far back, that is. Won’t they be mad we took a detour instead of just doing, like, exactly what we needed to do? We got him a phone, we got him clothes… do we really need to give him a look at what he lost, too?”

  “Sometimes, you need to see what’s behind you to truly move ahead, Sam. Like with the obituaries,” George whispered to the wind. “What’s happening to Kreig isn’t anything easy, but we can’t coddle him and pretend everything is the same as how he left it. He can’t reintegrate into the world of the past, it doesn’t exist.”

  He was right. He was completely right. She knew he was right, and yet-,

  Sam glanced over her shoulder.

  Kreig was walking there, towering above them, hulking and huge and silent. Could he seriously not hear them? Not a word they were saying-? Or had he just decided to keep quiet for some reason? Whatever the reason was, it must’ve been a stupid one. She had heard him speak. He had a quiet, thundering kind of voice that was very unlike how she remembered his voice to be. But the words he spoke were nothing but the truth, his truth, and she respected that.

  If anything, she wanted to hear him speak more. Let it all out. But she’d let him take his time, and if he just wanted to listen to them speaking, that was okay.

  They reached the Frederick High School. Dreary name, really. Named after the founder who thought his first name was unique enough for the school to avoid any plagiarism. Surprise surprise, it actually was. It didn’t make the school any more interesting, though. Filled with jocks who tried their best and nerds who were too lazy to do anything with their knowledge. Kreig had, at the time, been a part of the former.

  Man, he’d been… Quite something. Charismatic. Yeah, that was the right word. Big and brass and when he talked everyone listened.

  Not as good at joking as one might have expected from such a popular boy, but he made do.

  The living proof that you don’t need to be an expert at studying to be a success in life. She’d always loved that about him. How he seemed to grapple life by the horns and never let go, grinning all the while as if just the act of living was a competition. He made do. Whatever life threw at him, be it a spin ball or a bad test score, he always bounced back. A true optimist.

  He was different now, in almost every way, but… She was sure that he still had that golden heart. He had to.

  Nobody had told her exactly what he did in the otherworld yet. She didn’t know, and her optimism was choking.

  They entered the school.

  can do a pretty cool "out of place" story where you combine eastern and western fantasy stories to make something interesting, but that wasn't the kind of story that this was set up to be. It was a return-from-isekai story, and changing the whole plot into this supernatural thing was just an ill choice. It disappointed me, which, together with several other return-isekais, made me want to pursue creating this story. Oh, man, I'm rambling, aren't I-? A good combination of western and eastern fantasy worlds would be in the webtoon Mookhyang - Dark Lady. Highly recommended.

  I write these kinds of stories, I like having the main character not have any idea how this shit works. Yeah, you could have the mc already understand the concept of levels and evolving, but... It removes so much tension. All of a sudden it isn't a battle for survival, it's just a main character grinding to grow stronger. And unless you know how to do this, it gets boring and the stakes are lost. The less the main character knows, the better. If I'd write someone who did understand the system or whatever, I'd focus in large on subverting his expectations and crushing his psyche to show that no, this isn't a game. I know there has to be a point where the mc becomes objectively strong and starts steamrolling his opponents, but even then, it should never feel like his existence isn't a battle for survival. Evolving is meant to be a quick way of gratification to show the main character has become stronger, sort of like a new piece of gear. It shouldn't happen too often (except a quick moment in the beginning to show that it exists and ensure the mc isn't pathetically weak for too long) but when it does happen, it should be damn cool. I love drawing these evolutions. So cool. The evolution doesn't have to be a multiple-choice thing, it can be linear and undecided, and that's all up to you! Really, the entire system can be as vague or defined as you want. To me, a system is just a means to a goal (clearly showing how strong the mc is), but you do you. Okay, so... What about plot, then? What should actually happen? Well... Your first couple of (many) chapters should focus on him just trying to survive. Slowly growing stronger, evolving a few times... As long as he exists this part more alike a monster than a man, it's good. Oh, just to specify, you can do this as you please, but... I beg of you, don't give your mc an evolution that makes them into a human. Not even a human with horns/wings/red eyes/fangs whatever. The story is about a monster, not a man. If your mc can just waltz into a human city without being attacked, something's wrong. People should fear the mc for their appearance, and, also, if you can write it well... How they act. If you make your mc do monster-like stuff on instinct, that's cool. If you make them do it as a learned behaviour that you have already shown works to keep them alive in the wilderness?? Damn. That's hot. Like, if your mc gained a power that allows them to survive much easier in the wilderness but that seems to backfire as soon as they interact with humans, that's some sweet fucking shit. That's what I'm trying to read here. Bonus points if the humans react with fear and every attempt the mc makes to communicate with them only perpetuates this fear. That is damn hot. Seriosuly though, your main draw here is that your mc should never stop being a monster. They can make human friends that understand that they are passive, but the world as a whole should never love them, and the friends they make should always have this underlying fear that the mc might, at any point, turn to their more basic instincts. Also, uh, on the "don't make them human" point, also try not to make their final-ish evolution just be a dragon. It's cool, I fucking love dragons and if you choose to do this it's fine, but they are a tad overdone. Hm. I kind of sometime want to read a story where the main character seriously goes almost the entire story, never meeting humans. Just gradually growing stronger until they can't fight anything else, at which point they decide to just wanter, finally finding a little human village, but since they're a massive eldritch abomination at that point, they just get attacked. And after so long time fighting everything that attacked them, their first instinct is to fight back with overwhelming force. That shit would be cool, really. I won't write it, but someday... I don't think I'll ever stop writing these kinds of stories, just cuz I love them so much. As of right now, the best story of this kind that I've written is my firefly one, but I'm sure the next one I write might be better. Right now my thoughts on this are surring about "vegan reincarnated as insatiable flesh monster".......... Okay byeee, I love you all! No homo tho