The Beginning of Another World

"Thirty thousand Japanese gamers awake one day to discover that the fantasy world of Elder Tales, an MMORPG that was formerly their collective hobby, has become their cold hard reality. Severed from their everyday lives, they confront a new horizon filled with ravenous monsters, flavorless food, and the inability to die! Amid the chaos, veteran gamer Shiroe gathers his friends, the guardian Naotsugu and the assassin Akatsuki, and together they embark on an adventure to change the world as they know it!"

- Volume 1 description

Log Horizon 1: The Beginning of Another World is the first volume of the Log Horizon light novels.

Chapters

 * Prologue
 * Chapter 1: 'Catastrophe' (profile: Shiroe)
 * Chapter 2: Small Assassin (profile: Naotsugu)
 * Chapter 3: Battle of Roka (profile: Akatsuki)
 * Chapter 4: Deep in Palm (profile: Maryelle)
 * Chapter 5: Escape (profile: Serara)

Synopsis
On May 3, 2018, thirty thousand Japanese players of the popular MMORPG Elder Tale found themselves trapped in&mdash;or a world startlingly similar to&mdash;the game.

A reclusive yet well-known Enchanter, Shiroe, is among them. After quickly contacting his long-time in-game friend Naotsugu, a Guardian, the two of them wander about the streets of Akihabara, their player city. While assessing the situation, they are found by one of Shiroe's friends, a bubbly female Cleric named Maryelle, who takes them back to her guild hall to exchange information with them.

After some days of exploration, Shiroe and Naotsugu meet yet another of Shiroe's companions, a stoic Assassin named Akatsuki. "He" turns out to be a "she" that was stuck in her male avatar, but is saved from her plight thanks to Shiroe's possession of a rare appearance-changing potion. Because of this, she dedicates herself to him as his "ninja," and together, the three work on honing their fighting skills as they witness the deteriorating situation in the city. On one of their days out fighting, they are attacked by player killers (PKs) outside of the city. After defeating the rag-tag group with their superior coordination, they find no choice but to kill its members, since it was the only possible way to deter PKing when people were able to revive in this world.

Not too long after, Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Akatsuki are called over to the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild hall. There, Maryelle and Henrietta inform them that one of their members, a low-level Druid named Serara, was trapped in the city of Susukino, having gone there just before the Catastrophe struck to complete the quest. Now, with the transport gates down, she has no means of escaping Susukino's slave-trading guild Brigandia, which now also ran the city. Although she had been saved by a benevolent Werecat Swashbuckler, they wanted to get her back into the relative safety of Akiba. Knowing full well that the Crescent Moon Alliance wouldn't be able to get to Susukino quickly enough, Shiroe's Party offers to help and make the journey up themselves.

Upon arriving at Susukino, they discover that Serara's benefactor was in fact Nyanta, an old friend of Shiroe and Naotsugu's from the Debauchery Tea Party. Together, they defeat Brigandia's guild master, Demiqas, and second-in-command, Londark, and make their way back to Akiba.

Characters

 * Shiroe
 * Naotsugu
 * Maryelle
 * Henrietta
 * Akatsuki
 * Serara
 * Nyanta
 * Demiqas
 * Londark

Alternate Titles

 * Chinese: 異世界的開端
 * French: Premier pas dans un autre monde
 * Korean: 다른 세계의 시작

Translation Differences
Changes between Yen On's translation and Crunchyroll's translations:
 * The expansion pack is more appropriately titled Homesteading the Noosphere, in comparison to Crunchyroll's Novasphere Pioneers.
 * Shiroe is called the "Machiavelli in glasses" rather than the "villain in glasses".
 * Brigandia is named the Briganteers and the Crescent Moon Alliance is now the Crescent Moon League.
 * Demikas is now Demiquas, Londark is Rondarg, and Shoryu is Koryu. (The latter is a misspelling and was corrected in future volumes.)
 * To note, "Demiquas" is technically the most accurate spelling and reading of how his name is written. (The anime chose to make the "qu" sound more like a hard "k," while Mamare decided to spell it "Demiqas" as used above.)

Changes between Mamare's spellings and Yen On's translation:
 * Maryelle was changed to Marielle. (Mamare's choice of "Maryelle" wasn't shown until volume 6.)