Original Work: Pillaging My Way Through Another World Prologue

‘So boring…’ Renias ‘Ren’ Ashwell sighed as he was bored out of his mind with all the monotony. He was a resident of a University Town. This means that apart from studying, there isn’t much to do.

Sure, there is basic entertainment, but he got tired of them a while ago. 

For example, movies are great, but much depends on what is shown on the big screen. Arcades are similar; he got tired of the same machines.

By this point, he retreated to the internet, light novels, manga, anime, gatcha games…

Because of that, he ends up as a loner. Well, it's more like he ended up as a loner because of his attitude at everything.

As he kept on thinking about how boring everything was, white light erupted from the centre of the room; a pentagram-like circle spun into existence and expanded through the whole room and then began to glow brighter and brighter.

‘What the—’

Ren’s eyes widened to a huge degree as this was like a light novel plot!

‘But this is not Japan!!!’

The first thing that came to his mind was that this was not Japan! What the fuck is going on!?

But… he couldn’t hide his glee! Holy shit!

“W-What is going on!?” The girls in the class started to feel fear.

While the guys were more controlled, they couldn’t hide their worry in their eyes.

They looked at this with trepidation.

~~~~~~World Between Worlds~~~~~~

In a white room, a group of 25 people appeared, all dressed in school uniforms.

Before them, a black stone slab with letters rose from the white ground.

The letters began to glow, and a booming voice of a man spoke from all directions… from everywhere!

“Choose your three skills!!!”

“Who?”

“What?”

“Who is that?”

“Where are we?”

Everyone except one looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.

‘You don’t need to tell me twice.’

While everyone was behaving like headless chickens, Ren was reading the stuff available on the stone slab list.

‘So those are skills like in a video game. Classic video game-like system in an isekai world.’

Ren stroked his chin as he read what was available.

‘Sword Skill, Spear Skill, Axe… classic close range wespons …Lightning magic, Fire Magic… classic magic…’

But then he found something far more fascinating.

‘Saint, Berserker, Sorcery…’

These looked very interesting.

Of course, he didn’t take it just because they looked interesting.

They were not MUST skills.

No, those were after.

‘Copycat looks very great—’

But then… Ren’s eyes bulged out as he found something MUST!

‘Pillage!’ A skill that allows him to get more skills!

Ren quickly left the group and walked towards the stone slab.

“Hey, Ashwell, don’t just—”

“I take Pillage!”

Ren’s words caused a reaction as the glowing letters with the word ‘Pillage’ left the slab and merged with the teen.

“Hey, what do you think you are doing!?” The guys from the football club started to walk towards him. 

‘Oh great…’

Ren quickly looked at the other skills; honestly, after taking Pillage, others were supplementary…

‘Oh, that one looks good!’

“I want Alchemy and Lightning Magic!”

After three more words flew and merged with Ren, he glowed white and disappeared!

The football guys who didn’t like him from the start looked baffled at how he just disappeared.

“What the fuck is happening here?”

~~~~~~???~~~~~~

“Phew… that was a close call.”

Ren cleaned sweat from his forehead as he had a close call with a group of self-absorbed morons.

They appear to dislike him because he is ‘standoffish' and thinks that he is ‘above’ everyone…

Yada-Yada-Yada…

It's all the cliche stuff from a group of proud monkeys.

“Still…”

Ren looked around. There was a grin on his lips. He was in isekai forest!

However, he quickly focused as he realised the dangers. While the forest looked normal, with no crazy vegetation… it was still an Isekai forest, meaning that there were many plants that were people-eating in this tranquil…yet beautiful landscape.

“Right… first.”

“Status.”

Out of nowhere, a blue gaming window popped into existence before him.

“Wow…”

Ren was shocked for a second—he was living his Otaku life! But then he composed himself and began to read what was in front of him.

[Renias Ashwell]

[Lv 1]

[Job: None (Reach lv 10)]

[HP: 100]

[MP: 110]

[Strength: 1]

[Magic: 2]

[Intelligence: 2]

[Wisdom: 2]

[Constitution:1]

[Dexterity: 1]

[Skills: Pillage Lv 1

           Alchemy Lv1

           Lightning Magic Lv1]

“Hmm… why are the stats so low?” Ren stroked his chin, looking perplexed by his stats. They looked far too low, even by RPG standards…

Something was weird… 

So he quickly pressed on his first skill: Pillage.

[Pillage:

Level: 1 

Type of Skill: Evil

Description: Allows the user to Pillage deceased enemy’s skills

Effects: Pillage Skill per Kill [1] {Active}

]

“Well, this is no good.”

Ren’s NEET and Otaku's sixth sense tingled when he read the ‘Type of Skill’ section.

If he knows his Isekai, he knows that the place he lives in is most likely biased on skills and that anything ‘Evil’ is prosecuted.

Not good at all.

‘To think that ‘God’ sends people to the new world with Good and Evil skills.’

The teen grimaced briefly, but getting such a skill was far too good of a chance. 

He then quickly checked Alchemy.

[Alchemy:

Level: 1

Type of Skill: Creation

Description: An ability to make concoctions like potions, enchantments and pills with a wide variety of effects.

Effects: Alchemy (Skill Level based) {Active}

              Boost Intelligence and Wisdom by 1 per Level Up {Passive}

              Boost MP by 10 permanently.

]

‘Hah, so it is what boosts the stats, it’s the skills. No wonder Pillage is considered evil.’

Ren realised that the more skills he has, the bigger his stats will be.

This is to double-check that he checked his last skill.

[Lightning Magic:

Level: 1

Type of Skill: Elemental Magic

Description: One of 5 basic element magics, considered the most destructive of the element magics 

Effects: Lightning Manipulation (Skill Level Based) {Active}

              Lightning Affinity (Skill Level Based) {Passive}

              Boost Magic by 1 per Level Up {Passive}

]

“So it is like that, more skills, more stats. In other words, your stats could be garbage even if you are high lvl. One needs skills to be OP truly.” 

Ren couldn’t stop smirking, as his Pillage skill was the key to his existence as an OP.

He can assume that the boost to stats will happen with a higher skill level.

After checking skills, it was time for the stats themselves.

As expected, they do what they are supposed to…

[Strength: Strength governs Muscle Strength and ability to exert Physical Force]

[Magic: Magic governs Magic Power and Ability to exert Magical Force]

[Intelligence: Intelligence governs the ability to process information and exert Mental Force]

[Wisdom: Wisdom dictates Mental Ability to store and recall information]

[Constitution: Body’s Durability and ability to recover from wounds at increased speeds]

[Dexterity: Body’s flexibility and reaction speed]

‘So basic stuff, thanks to my skills, I am moving towards mage build without even doing anything.’

He realised that with each level up, he would get two points in Intelligence, Magic, and Wisdom; that’s a totally mage build.

‘For now, it will do. Now to look for a shelter, a source of water and some food.’

After checking his stats, Ren began to walk towards a random location. So far, he has no idea the landmarks of this place, so he needs a starting point.

‘A river valley should do. I need to locate a stream of some sort.’

As he was walking around, he didn’t see anything particularly fascinating—that is until he heard voices.

“Hmm?” 

Ren stopped for a second, then quickly walked to the closest tree and leaned against it, trying to see what it was.

‘Something is there…’

He looked around until his gaze went lower, and he saw green midgets!

Big ears, long noses, scrawny build, dressed in fur loincloths and wielding wood clubs.

‘Are those… goblins!?’

The teen expected isekai stuff, but not five minutes into exploration!

‘Damn… they are ugly and… I wonder from what kind of trope they come from?’

Ren knows ‘bad Isekai’ worlds where goblins are a menace to females with their lust, and then there is ‘good’ isekai where they are low-key monsters good for early grind.

To figure out, he needs to kill one and see their skills.

‘I could get something from rapid recovery to quick growth. These guys are quite valuable from a skill perspective.’

The teen smirked for a second as he lifted his hand, and lightning began to concentrate in a single spot.

Slowly, a ball of energy formed and yellow lightning began to crackle.

‘Soo…cool…’ Ren’s eyes sparkled with giddiness. This was what he had been dreaming of for years!

He meticulously continued to charge the ball. It became something like an electrical orb, humming with power.

Once he was ready, he got into position and threw it at the closest goblin.

“Eh?- agh!!???” The ball exploded, and the goblin was electrocuted to the point that Ren was certain that he saw the creature's bones. 

Smoke and the smell of burned flesh spread through the area, and the creature died on the spot.

Not that Ren had time to grin after his first kill. He quickly created another ball of lightning. The charging was shorter as he had no time. Another goblin was charging at the teen.

Ren could see fangs. These midgets had sharp teeth and long nails that looked like claws.

As the beast got closer, Ren decided to use his ace in the hole! 

Ball Kick…

With the creature close, Ren simply kicked upwards, delivering a devastating strike into the balls of the goblin.

OOF!!!

The goblin’s green skin turned blue as the creature collapsed and assumed a fetal position, holding its balls and rolling around in a lot of pain.

“Yeah, sadly for you, buddy, I am not a knight.” Ren pointed his hand at the creature and released a wave of uncontrolled lightning.

The creature screamed and roared from pain until it completely stopped.

“Another one dead.”  He mumbled to himself, and then a smirk appeared as he said magic words.

“Pillage.”

A dark purple aura rushed from him and consumed the goblin. Seconds later, a new game window screen appeared before him.

[You have pillaged Goblin (Lv 4); select a skill to take]

[Rapid Growth]

[Supernatural Libido]

Ren’s eyes widened for a second to think that they would have THAT skill!

He quickly checked Rapid Growth. 

[Rapid Growth:

Lv 1

Type of Skill: Growth

Description: This skill allows rapid growth through levels and reaches one’s peak maturity at half of the required time.

Effects: Halves Required EXP to Level Up {Passive}

              Enables Rapid Maturity {Passive}

]

‘This shit is broke… as hell! But then again…’ 

Ren looked at the goblin’s corpse. These guys are weak, so rapidly leveling and maturing makes sense… for them!

‘But if you give this to me…with my potential…’

A feral grin appeared on his face as he selected Rapid Growth as a skill he wanted to Pillage.

With a press of a button, a dark purple aura returned to him, and he felt a surge of energy settle inside of him.

‘Amazing!’

The feeling was quite intoxicating!

He then looked at the other goblin. With a hand motion, he activated Pillage again, and a dark purple aura consumed the other goblin.

[You have pillaged Goblin (Lv 5); select a skill to take]

[Rapid Growth]

[Supernatural Libido]

This time around, Ray checked the other skill… he was speechless!

[Supernatural Libido:

Lv 1

Type of Skill: Procreation

Description: This skill governs one’s ability to rapidly procreate, and as such, other attributes are affected as well.

Effects: Doubles the chance to impregnate a female

              Doubles the chance to Impregnate a female from a different species

              Unlocks Instinct as a Stat

              Boost Instinct by 1 per Level Up

              Boost Constitution by 1 per Level Up

]

“What the hell! This is broken!” Ren exclaimed as he checked what Instinct governs as a stat.

[Instinct: This Parameter governs over life, and boosts perception, Desire and Drive.]

‘This stuff is important! Like super important, like… anti-lazy!’ 

The teen realised that with such parameters he could develop a greater drive to be powerful, deny lazy!

‘Hell yeah!’

Without wasting time, he pressed yes, and the dark purple energy returned to him, and a surge of energy began… from hjs balls and spread through his whole body.

At that moment, certain desires began to pop into his mind…