Disclaimer: The following story is for personal enjoyment. Contains crossovers from games, anime/manga, books etc. Characters belong to their respective authors.

Legend

Word: message/signs

Word: Thoughts

"Word": Speech

[Word]: Skill/Spell name

"Word": Speaking in Different language

Previously on D&D Gamer of the Multiverse:

Naruto snorted, "Let's get out of here before they find us again."

"Hopefully the next time we visit they will have forgotten about us." Unsaid was the fact that Sariel would retaliate two-fold if need be.

Once again a circle appeared under their feet and whisked them away to destination unknown.

Chapter 11 Beginning of An Adventure

For the first time, Sariel and Naruto appeared in a wooded area that she did not recognize. The weather was fair and the scenery resembled that of a fantasy land. Turns out that they had appeared in the Thydelsia continent, the world of Log Horizon.

"Naruto can you try waving your hand?"

Naruto did so and was surprised when a screen appeared in front of him. He looked at his mother curiously and Sariel explained that the screen was a representation of his abilities in this world. It was a game world yet simultaneously a physical realm.

"For example strength is a measure of how much damage you can do physically whereas vitality is a measure of life force and defense to a degree."

The two were a mixture as they could access the status screen but otherwise were People of the Land. Sariel checked both of their stats, both were at level 1 though fortunately their basic stats were relatively high since they had been training in prior worlds.

The entry labeled 'Class' and 'Subclass' were currently empty. A pop-up asking the two to choose a class to complete the process of character creation.

Sariel ended up picking Cleric to bolster her healing skills, she was currently limited to a melee healing spell and rituals/manipulating mana which was not efficient. For her subclass, she eventually decided on Craftsman an all-round crafting subclass. Sariel wanted to be able to craft whatever she wanted, even if it took slightly longer to level up.

Naruto chose the Assassin class since it resembled his ninja training and abilities. He chose the Rogue subclass since he could prank others amongst other skills.

Sariel's mini-map turned out useful as the location of other people, monsters and gather points were all marked. She could even enlarge the map and zones were conveniently labeled with names and relative monster strengths.

After this, Naruto and Sariel familiarized themselves with the system. Sariel's Gamer interface seemed to be fused with the system while they were here. All her items were present, intact and unchanged which was a relief.

"Well then, according to the map there's a village nearby. Let's go check it out."

The pair walked along a dirt road, the monsters seemed to stay in the wild/fields. The village was a collection of houses located near a number of hunting grounds geared towards lower leveled players.

Sariel noticed a number of adventurers socializing, their faces set in a neutral expression, their words almost robotic. It contrasted greatly sometimes with the actual words said.

Must be before the Catastrophe, well at least there's time to prepare.

Naruto glanced around curiously, the village was more rural than the previous world they had visited.

"Hello we are travellers and new to the area. I was wondering if a local could share some tips?" Sariel asked after she walked up to the nearest merchant.

"Well the area has traffic form adventurers that hunt in the nearby areas. The forest houses boars, deer and other wild game while the fields contain grubs and slimes. People usually need help culling monsters or gathering materials."

Since Sariel and Naruto were able to access the status screens, it seemed the People of the Land considered them adventurers.

In thanks, Sariel bought some basic materials from the merchant such as skins and string.

Sariel returned to Naruto and said, "Looks like the area is good for beginners. We can train here and I can gather crafting materials leveling both the sub-class and the skill that I had previously."

The two left and found a small clearing They equipped themselves with their weapons: a staff that Sariel had prior and a pair of short swords and a weapon pouch for Naruto. Sariel equipped her robes and quickly crafted a set of leather armor using the materials she had just bought. The pieces were a bit crude but that was to be expected since her subclass level was still in the single digits even with a slight bonus from her [Crafting] skill.

Both had checked their skills before heading out; Sariel still had access to her other spells despite differing origins. They had been slightly changed (added cooldowns) but otherwise remained the same. Naruto kept any jutsu he learned (the basics) and took note of the new skills he had.

Sariel and Naruto walked into the entrance of the forest hunting ground, weapons out and ready. The first monsters that they encountered were a pair of boars, they screeched before charging.

"Hit and run tactics!" Sariel barked as the two each faced an enemy.

Sariel swung her staff, the orb at the tip bashed into the boar's forehead. The force of the strike smashed a small crevice into the ground causing the creature to burst into colorful bubbles. Sariel stared blankly at the loot left behind while hearing a ping sound signifying a level up. She turned to Naruto who had also defeated his enemy with a sword slash.

"I know we did not start from scratch but this is weird. It should have taken at least a few hits considering I am a caster class."

"These things are very weak?" Naruto said confusedly.

"Well here numbers rule. I assume that stat-wise we could be considered at higher levels. At least this will make life easier." Sariel replied.

She picked up the loot: a few coins, a fur and a boar tusk.

"Come on Naruto, we probably don't have much time before the Catastrophe occurs. We need to be a decent level to avoid or deal with unsavory characters."

The pair spent the rest of the day hunting monsters, quickly leveling up to level 15. At that point the experience gain from the monsters became negligible. Sariel was happy that the monsters almost always dropped something. They would not have any money problems (she already had a fortune) and she had a plethora of crafting materials for experimentation, despite the fact that she could enter a personal dungeon for farming.

Naruto had a blast applying his previously learned skills, not to mention any child's dream of going on an adventure in a fantasy land.

Sariel decided to stay at the local inn for the next few days to settle into the new world.

"That will be 100 g for a night's stay." Sariel would have thought the price ridiculously high if she had not realized that it was equivalent to 1 gold in her home realm.

"Thank you very much." Sariel said as the money was exchanged for a key.

The room was simple, but cozy with a pair of comfortable looking beds with a table and chairs. Sariel spent some time experimenting with her crafting as it was more hands on. Using the skins she had collected, she crafted a few sets of leather armor as well as some miscellaneous accessories from claw, teeth and beads.

Leather Tunic: +15 DEF +5 DEX

Leather Boots: +10 AGI +5 DEF

Leather Gloves: +5 DEF +5 DEX

Boar Tooth Necklace: +3 ATK

The items were pretty basic but the crafting gave Sariel much needed crafting experience. She also tried enchanting her creations by carving runes somewhere on the clothing. She learned that she could add 2 effects, 3 is they synergized well. For armor the effect was usually resistance against certain damage types or regeneration. By the time night had fallen, her subclass had caught up to her class level.

Too bad I did not get to try out some of the healing skills. On the other hand I got quite a bit of practice with my magic staff, Sariel mused. Her usual weapon was the tessen, but gaining experience with her other weapon was a plus.

"Good night mom." Naruto murmured sleepily from the bed.

Sariel tenderly patted his head before going to sleep.

Over the course of the next week, Sariel and Naruto threw themselves into leveling and crafting. She also got a shock via the world's quest system when she bumped into an adventurer.

"Oh I am so sorry I did not see you there."

"It's fine." The adventurer answered back. Sariel winced at the monotone.

Then a pop-up appeared.

Would you like to create a quest?

Curious she pressed yes, prompting another screen with blanks to appear. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl as she made her choice. Sariel decided to act like an NPC in the game and started to speak, believing that the blanks would be filled in with her words.

"I am an aspiring craftsman but I seem to have run out of materials. Could you hunt nearby monsters for at least 10 pieces of leather? If you get any other materials I will give a bonus."

As she spoke, the quest info filled itself, though Sariel needed to input the reward manually. She ended up offering a choice between the pieces of armor she had already crafted. The bonus would be an additional piece of armor or an accessory.

The adventurer nodded his head before walking to the nearest hunting ground. Luckily, the adventurer's class actually used leather armor otherwise he would have probably refused.

Since the adventurer would soon return for his reward, the pair stayed in town, helping citizens and stocking up on supplies. Once their level was high enough, the two would travel the continent for adventure.

A few hours later, the adventurer returned with twice the number of skins and a bag of animal claws/tusks.

"Oh this is more than enough! Here pick two pieces of equipment and take this necklace I made."

She displayed a set of armor for his purview. Though the adventurer's face remained flat, she had a feeling he was surprised. He ended up picking the tunic and gloves and equipping the pieces.

"Thanks!" The man waved before walking off.

Curious at the response, Sariel paid a visit to the local merchant.

"Hello. Could I ask for a professional opinion on these pieces of equipment?"

She brought out the remaining pieces of leather armor she had crafted. The merchant picked up a pair of pants, eyed it critically and then whistled.

"Ma'am, this is quality clothing. It even has magic effects on it! This stuff is hard to find around here, it would sell for quite a bit."

"That's a surprise. Thanks for the help."

Sariel bought more materials for future crafting endeavors. Turns out crafting and magic did not often mix. Most magical items were found on strong monsters or rarely created by certain magic users.

This area is meant for beginners so having magic enhanced armor would be rare. No wonder he looked closely at the items.

For now, she would keep her skills a secret, she did not want to get swarmed. Between the time it took for Sariel and Naruto to reach a satisfactory level, a couple other advventurers had approached her with animal pelts and teeth. Seems like others wanted nice armor, there was also the fact that Sariel was considered an NPC of which some had repeatable quests.

She accepted the materials and gave pieces of equipment as the reward.

By visiting one of the harder hunting areas, the two continued leveling up.

"Naruto, we are at level 30, this should be enough to start our travels."

"Yay! When do we leave?" Naruto asked excitedly, he was getting bored of fighting the local monsters.

The pair set out after saying farewells to the townspeople. The village was thankful that Sariel and Naruto had stayed since they had been a source of business and also drew some other adventurers to visit. She gifted them with some equipment that they could sell or trade for what they needed.

A distance from the woods, Sariel and Naruto walked along the road that would lead to the nearest city or at least a larger town. Along the way they fought some wolves and other monsters, they were stronger but not a match for the tag team. Sariel also gathered materials such as herbs and ore.

"Mom what are you doing?"

"Replenishing my ingredient and material storages. I have an unlimited storage space I will definitely use it."

Naruto shrugged and joined his mother in gathering as they continued forward.

Each night Sariel would conjure a door to her pocket dimension to sleep and continue crafting. She would start from the lowest quality materials and worked her way up. In addition, before she could craft items she needed to refine her materials: turn ore into ingots and treat skins into leather etc.

Sariel tried her hand at crafting a bit of everything: weapons, armor, accessories and even food. She also had fun personalizing her creations with dyes and placed a symbol of a lotus flower as a trademark. The color schemes stuck with natural or cool colors with occasional splashes of brighter patches. The items even had 'Lotus' added to their names and her items gravitated towards nature/plant motifs.

While on the road they gained a couple of levels with the skirmishes. The landscape was lush and green with a gentle breeze. The climate was mild and comfortable with the exception of dangerous monsters around.

"Mom, I can see some walls. A town must be up ahead!"

Sariel shouted at him to be careful as he dashed forward. There were guards stationed at the entrance though the two passed by without issue. The townspeople seemed on edge and wary. In the town square, soldiers and a well dressed messenger was addressing the crowd.

"Lord Elrond asks for volunteers to help fight against the kobolds. All those interested visit the lord's mansion."

The crowd chattered and Sariel could pick out various bits of conversation, varying from worry about monsters to boasts of strength in battle. Sariel decided to visit the mansion to sell her created items to the town. The items were cluttering her inventory and money was always useful to have. Luckily her funds always came out the required currency or shopping would be much more complicated.

"Come on Naruto, let's visit the mansion. If you want, you can go fight the kobolds."

Naruto returned to her side and they headed towards the lord's mansion. The building was relatively ornate but not overly large. The guards let in them in once they stated the reason for their visit and showed no ill will.

A man whom Sariel assumed was Lord Elrond was in his office along with two others, one was dressed in armor and the other in robes.

Sariel and Naruto bowed to the man, who spoke after.

"Greetings, I am Lord Elrond. I have been told that you have a proposition for me?"

Sariel nodded, "I overheard in the square that the town is being plagued by kobolds. I am offering to sell some weapons and armor to your forces."

Lord Elrond grimaced, "Apologies but the town does not have much coin for armaments, the monsters are usually dealt with what we have."

Sariel glanced at the man; he seemed genuinely apologetic about the situation but also worried about the monsters.

"How about this? My son and I will be in town for a while so I will be selling my wares at a discount unrelated to this incident. Instead, I could enhance what you have currently, all I need is some crafting materials in exchange. In addition, we will help out if needed; the messenger was recruiting as well."

The other two looked skeptical at her words.

Naruto pouted, "I am stronger than I look!"

Sariel patted his head, "Yes you are Naruto but remember that you are still young. It is inevitable that people would worry."

She then turned to the men, "Do not worry, I will demonstrate my skills in enhancement and combat before you make your decision."

She looked to the armored man, "Would you happen to have a plain weapon?"

The man, who introduced himself as the captain of the guard handed her a standard iron sword.

Sariel brought out her tools and carved a pair of runes on the base of the blade. One was for the blade to deal additional flame damage and other for it to be resistant to rust. Once she was done, she handed the blade back to the captain. The three stared at the now flame-imbued sword.

"Should we head outside to test it?" Sariel asked politely.

The group exited to a training area, the captain held the sword experimentally. He slashed at the nearest dummy and was surprised when the strike caused the wooden dummy to burst into flames.

"Miss, if you can do something even remotely similar to this any man will be able to much more easily route the kobolds." The captain said, impressed.

The robed man, who was revealed to be a treasurer of sorts was worried about costs but Sariel reassured the man that to her at this point, crafting materials were more useful than money.

"I have funds but it is sometimes a pain to continuously buy materials."

They quickly came to an agreement that Sariel would get access to a portion of the crafting materials from the kobolds. People could gather materials on their own personal enhancements while she was in town.

Lord Elrond was relieved that the town would be getting support without steep costs. One of them then remembered what Sariel had offered afterwards.

The captain looked uncomfortably at the two, "What classes are you?"

"I am a Cleric and my son Naruto is an Assassin."

Fortunately, this was not overly out of place despite the fact that adventures mainly had combat classes. The men were relieved that they had an additional healer available though they were still a bit doubtful of Naruto.

"Why don't you have a practice match if you are still concerned." Sariel said to pacify both sides.

"That sounds right. Captain Samuel I shall leave this in your capable hands. Apologies Treasurer Adwell and I have paperwork to complete."

With that the two returned indoors to face the bane of any in a position of leadership. The immortal monster that creates a never ending plague, paperwork.

"The barracks for the others are this way." They walked to another larger training area with a number of people hitting dummies, aiming at targets and sparring.

When the captain arrived, the group stopped and saluted with varying degrees of familiarity. The regular forces were likely helping out the new volunteers.

Naruto walked into the sparring circle after equipping his dual short swords and other pouches.

The captain announced, "Anyone free for some sparring? These two are helping out with the kobolds."

The crowd looked confused since a kid was essentially asking for a fight. Sariel decided against saying anything, afterall actions would speak louder than words.

One man walked forward and said cockily, "What's a kid doing here? Let's see what you've got." He added sarcastically.

Naruto's opponent held a sword loosely in his hand. With a confident smirk he struck at Naruto. His expression turned to shock as the kid easily dodged out of the way and disappeared from view.

Sariel mentally giggled as she saw Naruto move behind his opponent and tapped his shoulder.

"What the?! How did you get there?"

Naruto smirked foxily and struck with his dual swords. His opponent managed to evade the first few strikes but Naruto just continued pressuring him. Eventually Naruto knocked his opponent's sword to the ground, his own pointed at the man's throat.

The crowd was silent as Naruto said, "How did I do?" before stowing away his swords.

The man stood and replied grudgingly, "Better than I thought."

The others chattered amongst themselves and someone pointed out.

"What about her?"

"I am a cleric, I shall be staying at the rear for support. Worry not, I can keep myself alive."

Sariel answered after praising Naruto for his spar. Naruto smiled and held himself from laughing at her downplaying her abilities.

Since that was over, the captain also explained that Sariel would be upgrading their equipment in exchange for an amount of crafting materials.

"I can add effects to either armor or weapons. However, there is a limit to their power which is why I am offering my services in exchange for whatever materials you can find and spare. The particulars depend on the materials given."

Naruto walked over to the captain and poked him.

"You should probably demonstrate the sword from before in case."

The captain drew the improved sword, "Sariel has already showed the lord and me her skills. Gather around and I will show you as well."

Once again he slashed one of dummies, this one made of straw. It split in half, both pieces bursting into flames, leaving only ashes when it was extinguished. The crows awed at the weapons, it was something that they rarely saw.

Sariel was them swamped for the next few hours as many people approached with materials for her services. She enchanted the weapons but limited herself to one, rarely two runes. It would horrible if the wrong people found out about the scope of her skills in enchanting, not to mention her other skills.

"Okay here, this sword will not rust at all and the spear will deal electrical damage upon a successful hit. Thank you very much for the materials."

Naruto stayed away from the crowd and practiced his moves in the training area while introducing himself to the other volunteers and soldiers.

"Hello, my name is Naruto!"

The people were very friendly, Naruto even got a few pointers on his sword style and other small tips. He also got a clearer picture of the situation which he would relay to Sariel after they were free.

As the sun began to set, Samuel had one last announcement.

"Remember tomorrow a group of people will be scouting the forest for signs of kobolds. We need to find their lair to deal with them permanently. Good luck out there!"

The crowd cheered as they separated, Sariel and Naruto returned to the town's inn to rest and prepare for sleep.

"Naruto, are you going to join the search tomorrow?"

Her son nodded his head, "If I can, it does not sound too bad. I've been itching to explore someplace new as well."

Sariel kissed his forehead before tucking him in.

"Good night."