Maximilian, brought into a God's rat race to fill the numbers, was transported into another world. Nothing like the brilliant contestants that fill the other spots, Maximilian was an afterthought in the God's game. Confronted with the frustrating reality of being boiled down to three statistics, Maximilian needs to get his act together, or the worlds he's found himself in might very well suffer for it.
Unwieldy (Fantasy & Hammers)
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Index
Synopsis:
Maximilian, brought into a God's rat race to fill the numbers, was transported into another world. Nothing like the brilliant contestants that fill the other spots, Maximilian was an afterthought in the God's game. Confronted with the frustrating reality of being boiled down to three statistics, Maximilian needs to get his act together, or the worlds he's found himself in might very well suffer for it.
A few words:
This story is one I started years ago now, just writing at it at my own pace. It isn't spectacularly original by any means, but I think I have a few ideas that could make it an alluring distraction from life, at least for a little while. This story has had a large portion of its earlier section written before posting, meaning it'll take a little while before I make my way back to the sections of the story that I've been writing in more recent times. Hopefully this will be a fun romp to take you all on, and I hope you'll enjoy it along with me!
Who is the person writing this?
Well, hello there! I'm Sarius, an amateur author from Australia. I'm by no means god's gift to readers, but I doubt you'd expect that from stories written here. Currently I'm working on three different stories, all of which will be posted here at some point, but the other two aren't quite ready to start releasing just yet. I hope that this story will be reason enough for you to check them out when I do get around to it!
What should you expect?
As I said earlier, I have already made significant headway into the story. You can expect to receive one story update per day, usually averaging two thousand words. Though earlier chapters are more loose on word count. This will continue for approximately a month, when I catch up with my current content. From there it'll be about two updates a week of two thousand words!
Anyway! Enough from me, let's get a move on with the story, shall we?
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Chapter 1: Literally the Last
Chapter 1: Literally the Last
Stereotypical beginner forest, check!
Beginner Villager Class clothes, check!
Wolf monster chasing after you, check!
Amazing. Spontaneous transportation to another world is even more unimaginative than I thought!
But, running for your life five minutes after you 'spawn' isn't exactly appealing. In a game, you would run head on into the gaping maws of a monster and go mad. Punch and kick to your way to a few points of experience and some junk items you'll throw away when you hit level twenty.
But when a wolf is nipping your ass, and you won't get to put a few more bucks into the machine and try again, it's terrifying.
So, I'm running for my goddamn life.
And a God damned life it is. I that think I, and a group of other people, were quite literally damned to whatever this reality is.
God likes the sound of his own voice by the way, he went on and on, and I was too flabbergasted to actually take in any of it. Sounded like a bit of a dick if you ask me. Plus, dimensional teleportation doesn't seem to treat the head kindly.
So here I am, woefully underprepared and oblivious to what I should be doing. Also, did I mention that I was being chased by a wolf with leaves for fur?
I rushed through the trees, adrenalin pumping. I knew it was catching up to me, and I was busy looking down at my feet, trying not to trip and get mauled by Mr. Leafy Green.
I knew that I had to turn around and do something, but I didn't know what exactly. Going at it with fists raised seemed like a good way to get brutalized. So instead I did what I knew wouldn't get me immediately killed.
Question is, why was I placed here? Was everyone placed next to a miscellaneous monster to battle? A rite of passage, or a culling process? So how was I supposed to defeat a monster with my bare hands? Was there a weapon I failed to pick up earlier?
C'mon! There must be something that guy told us, that I'm not remembering. God damn headache! The leafy wolf, though, wasn't interested in giving me time to figure it all out. I felt a set of jaws nip at my pant leg, frightening me into a mad dash.
I ran as fast as I could without tripping, my mind combing through the pieces I remembered from God's speech. I remember some gloating about how all powerful he is, something about a coming magic age. Useless!
Ah wait!
I remember something! Something about a weapon. Souls were involved somewhere, something about weapons that… Oh what was it again…
That's it!
I turned around and gripped the air, as if I were holding a two-handed sword. I swung this imaginary sword as hard as I could, hoping beyond hope that this would work.
And it did.
I felt something tearing from my chest, a horrifying feeling, like having a limb torn off. Yet, as the tearing feeling was starting to subside, I felt my hands begin to fill with a strange liquid metal.
So much happened in such a short period of time that my brain struggled to keep up with all the sensations.
It was like part of me was being reconstructed and repurposed, turning this part of me into a dagger or sword. Actually, exactly like that, except this wasn't a short sword. This was a whole lot bigger than a short sword.
The first thing that formed was the handle. The metal filled my hands, ridged dark wrapping forming beneath my fingers. The leather handle stretched on for a while until it was about as long as my forearm. Soon after, the pommel formed. A small, rounded disk of metal engraved with patterns that connected with me in a way I couldn't quite describe.
There was no lost time as the grip gave way to a long spire of glowing metal, reaching towards the canopy above me. I thought it'd never stop, but at two-and-a-half metres, it stalled.
With the handle completely formed, the metal began to fill an invisible cast at the end of the weapon. A block of metal formed on the tip. The corners of the metal were so defined that I'd swear that they'd be able cut. The other end was not mirrored, forming into a glorious horn, tapering downward.
As I admired this strange weapon that had formed in my hands, it fell onto the leafy wolf and slammed into its head. The hammer connected with force, travelling unimpeded by the wolf's head, decapitating it. The hammer, without a moment of pause, followed through, sending itself and the head into the earth.
I stood in stunned silence and the world seemed to stand still with me for a moment.
[One Hit Kill: You killed your first Monster in one hit! Was it luck? Or was it a taste of what is to come? +1 Might]
[Literally the Last: You were literally the last to form your Soul Weapon. Were you in denial or are you just a bit slow? +1 Might]
"Mocking achievements? Really?" I grumbled.
Stereotypical beginner forest, check!
Beginner Villager Class clothes, check!
Wolf monster chasing after you, check!
Amazing. Spontaneous transportation to another world is even more unimaginative than I thought!
But, running for your life five minutes after you 'spawn' isn't exactly appealing. In a game, you would run head on into the gaping maws of a monster and go mad. Punch and kick to your way to a few points of experience and some junk items you'll throw away when you hit level twenty.
But when a wolf is nipping your ass, and you won't get to put a few more bucks into the machine and try again, it's terrifying.
So, I'm running for my goddamn life.
And a God damned life it is. I that think I, and a group of other people, were quite literally damned to whatever this reality is.
God likes the sound of his own voice by the way, he went on and on, and I was too flabbergasted to actually take in any of it. Sounded like a bit of a dick if you ask me. Plus, dimensional teleportation doesn't seem to treat the head kindly.
So here I am, woefully underprepared and oblivious to what I should be doing. Also, did I mention that I was being chased by a wolf with leaves for fur?
I rushed through the trees, adrenalin pumping. I knew it was catching up to me, and I was busy looking down at my feet, trying not to trip and get mauled by Mr. Leafy Green.
I knew that I had to turn around and do something, but I didn't know what exactly. Going at it with fists raised seemed like a good way to get brutalized. So instead I did what I knew wouldn't get me immediately killed.
Question is, why was I placed here? Was everyone placed next to a miscellaneous monster to battle? A rite of passage, or a culling process? So how was I supposed to defeat a monster with my bare hands? Was there a weapon I failed to pick up earlier?
C'mon! There must be something that guy told us, that I'm not remembering. God damn headache! The leafy wolf, though, wasn't interested in giving me time to figure it all out. I felt a set of jaws nip at my pant leg, frightening me into a mad dash.
I ran as fast as I could without tripping, my mind combing through the pieces I remembered from God's speech. I remember some gloating about how all powerful he is, something about a coming magic age. Useless!
Ah wait!
I remember something! Something about a weapon. Souls were involved somewhere, something about weapons that… Oh what was it again…
That's it!
I turned around and gripped the air, as if I were holding a two-handed sword. I swung this imaginary sword as hard as I could, hoping beyond hope that this would work.
And it did.
I felt something tearing from my chest, a horrifying feeling, like having a limb torn off. Yet, as the tearing feeling was starting to subside, I felt my hands begin to fill with a strange liquid metal.
So much happened in such a short period of time that my brain struggled to keep up with all the sensations.
It was like part of me was being reconstructed and repurposed, turning this part of me into a dagger or sword. Actually, exactly like that, except this wasn't a short sword. This was a whole lot bigger than a short sword.
The first thing that formed was the handle. The metal filled my hands, ridged dark wrapping forming beneath my fingers. The leather handle stretched on for a while until it was about as long as my forearm. Soon after, the pommel formed. A small, rounded disk of metal engraved with patterns that connected with me in a way I couldn't quite describe.
There was no lost time as the grip gave way to a long spire of glowing metal, reaching towards the canopy above me. I thought it'd never stop, but at two-and-a-half metres, it stalled.
With the handle completely formed, the metal began to fill an invisible cast at the end of the weapon. A block of metal formed on the tip. The corners of the metal were so defined that I'd swear that they'd be able cut. The other end was not mirrored, forming into a glorious horn, tapering downward.
As I admired this strange weapon that had formed in my hands, it fell onto the leafy wolf and slammed into its head. The hammer connected with force, travelling unimpeded by the wolf's head, decapitating it. The hammer, without a moment of pause, followed through, sending itself and the head into the earth.
I stood in stunned silence and the world seemed to stand still with me for a moment.
[One Hit Kill: You killed your first Monster in one hit! Was it luck? Or was it a taste of what is to come? +1 Might]
[Literally the Last: You were literally the last to form your Soul Weapon. Were you in denial or are you just a bit slow? +1 Might]
"Mocking achievements? Really?" I grumbled.
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Chapter 2: Hammer in the Dirt
Chapter 2: Hammer in the Dirt
"Holy shit."
So, the weapon that formed out of nowhere? Turns out, it's huge. Like one and a half times as tall as me, with a massive hammer head adorning the top.
It's comically large, unusable and ridiculous looking. Like, I get this is a fantasy world and all, but no one could actually wield this thing, right?
The head itself is so heavy that it lodged itself into the dirt along with the wolf's head. The hammer head was halfway submerged into the ground, putting the long handle at a strange angle. So, in light of this new and strange situation, a quick question. How do I get this thing out of the ground exactly? The thing probably weighs a tonne!
Grabbing the handle, I pulled with all my might, only succeeding in losing my grip and falling back onto my ass. The sudden jolt sent my mind into another spat of pain. I grunted with annoyance, it felt like my brain was swimming in molasses. Did dimensional travel have to fuck with my head so bad? Would have been easier to sport a bad cut or something instead.
Even pulling as hard as I could, the massive hammer wouldn't budge. After a few tries, I resorted to starting at the thing in rage. That God had to have known that this would happen, right? Did he give me this weapon or is this what my soul took form as? Whether God is stupid, or I am stupid is an argument for another time. A piece of my soul is currently stuck in the dirt and I can't do anything about it.
Wait, what about that 'Might' I got as reward for killing the wolf? If this world actually had a stupid game system...
"Uh, status?" I grumbled, because who wouldn't feel like a massive idiot while trying to invoke a game system in real life? But, sure enough, some text flitted through my mind. I didn't see it, but it was like something magically brought the information to my attention.
[Might: 9 (7)]
[Mind: 8]
[Agility: 5]
Well, that was a terrible stat screen. You'd think an actual God would be able to make statistics more interesting, but apparently not.
Why even have a status if it was going to be this bad. Were people actually so gullible that they'd believe this wasn't an arbitrary addition? I grumbled, but gave the stats some thought at least, if this was my reality, I may as well try and make use of them.
For one, my stats were pretty low, my Might being the highest with the extra points, then my Mind. The boost to Might was significant, around thirty percent, but I felt no different. No idea if it had even done anything at all.
I sighed, dilly dallying won't help anyone. Time to give this hammer another shot.
I grabbed onto the handle of the hammer and pulled, leveraging all my strength into the action. I could feel veins protruding on my arms as I shuddered, my muscles screaming with the effort. Ignoring my muscles, I continued, pushing as hard as I could. I was going to get this piece of shit out of the ground, one way or another.
Despite my efforts, the hammer barely budged, only moving a tiny bit. But that only propelled me. It excited me, the feeling of moving such an incredibly heavy object. with my bare hands
Then inspiration struck. I changed my grip on the handle, and hung from it, leveraging gravity and my own weight to my advantage. I mimicked the curling motion of a professional arm-wrestler, using my wrist for all it was worth. I pulled with all my might, weight and momentum, all at once in synchronicity.
"Move you fuck!" I screamed, pulling on the handle so hard that I could hear the blood screaming through blood vessels in my ears. The throbbing pain in my head pulsing away with a sadistic glee all the while.
And then I felt the earth the hammer was stuck in give way. I rolled out of the way, dodging the handle of the hammer as it fell. The handle hit the ground with a heavy thump right next to me. I swear that it made the ground shake a little.
"Jesus." I breathed. I lay there, panting in the dirt when I felt something pull my attention.
[Feat of Strength: You've pushed yourself to your limits, using your everything to accomplish something. +1 Might]
Well, at least the stupid system gave me something for that. More liberal with the stats than I had expected from a system this obscure.
Are the achievements different than training? Does training your strength go up in increments of one, or is that separate from the stats? It being separate would be smart, but I wasn't going to hold out hope. See, this is the problem with stupid, vague stat systems, it leaves too much interpretation with no benefits.
Now that I have the hammer out of the ground, and a little boost in strength, I can go figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.
I don't remember much of the God's speech, blaming it on the headache for now. What I do remember, though, was a lot of gloating. There was no point mourning the loss of that information. So, I'll have to figure it out as I go.
I'm going to have to get moving. The sun isn't going to slow down for me, and I don't want to be out in the wilderness lugging this massive thing around at night. That sounds like a good way to get eaten by another wolf.
I get up out of the dirt and brush off my sturdy clothing. I have a feeling that I'll be falling down quite a fair bit, so these tough clothes will serve me well.
I grab the handle of the hammer and try and pick it up, which was the dumbest idea I'd ever had. It got about 5 centimetres off the ground before I couldn't keep it up anymore.
"Damn this thing is heavy." I growled.
Instead, I resorted to dragging the bloody thing across the floor. The dirt and small stones were going to scratch up the hammer's head, but I didn't have much of a choice.
Looking at it now, the forest was quite beautiful, I'd never quite seen a forest that was this pristine before.
The greens of the leaves were vibrant in contrast to the deep brown of the trees. The dirt was a darker brown, almost like a rich chocolate. It was soft underfoot, so much so that you could walk barefoot through here with no real worries. The smell of the forest was cleaner and clearer than any other forest I'd been in.
Most forests were a cacophony of powerful smells all mixed together, but the air in this forest felt pure. It was excellent to breathe, like drinking a cold cup of water on a hot day. It was the best tasting air I'd ever breathed.
I wasn't sure if the air was any more functional than regular air, but it sure didn't hurt.
The only real problem that I had with this forest were the roots. The roots were everywhere, disused by dirt covering them. Thing is, I can't afford to fall over all that much, especially when I am dragging this massive hammer around. One bad fall and the handle could come down on my leg.
So the only way that I could mitigate that was to walk very, very slowly. Even slower than the hammer already made me walk, which was frustrating. Every time I had to lift the hammer a few centimetres to pull it over a snag, it sapped my strength. Soon enough, my muscles were throbbing with the exertion, screaming for rest.
I couldn't pull the hammer through the roots like you might instinctively think. The hammer might be heavy and would be a perfect tool for the job. The amount of strength to not only use the hammer, but also rip through root systems? It'd be insanity for me to even try, even with my increased Might.
Unfortunately, that means I have to pick up the hammer over and over to jump the roots. Talk about a bad back, I was beginning to relate to Atlas. Poor guy.
Progress was slow. It felt like hours of traveling between trees before there was any change in environment. But, as I travelled the density of the forest lessened. That also meant that I also got a good look at the sky, the thick canopy parting enough to see through. Looking up, however, was quite the shock.
Well… at least the sky was blue?
The sun was a whole lot bigger than Earth's was, but that wasn't a big deal, it wasn't the main focus. The main focus was the other planet that was orbiting this one.
Oh yes, another planet, orbiting this planet. You heard me right. It had a whole lot of blue, and a whole lot of land, and it was definitely a planet. You could see it's night sky, hiding it's face away from the sun and facing this planet instead.
At first, I thought it was Earth. Which it obviously wasn't after a moment of observation. It's continents are different, and you can see them all with your naked eye! Super trippy by the way.
No, it was a totally different planet, casually orbiting this one. Don't ask me how that works, physics is as unknowable as magic is to me.
So that's cool, I guess. If this world was a stereotypical game, that'd be where the was 'Demon Lords' were, right?
Wanna put a bet on it?
"Holy shit."
So, the weapon that formed out of nowhere? Turns out, it's huge. Like one and a half times as tall as me, with a massive hammer head adorning the top.
It's comically large, unusable and ridiculous looking. Like, I get this is a fantasy world and all, but no one could actually wield this thing, right?
The head itself is so heavy that it lodged itself into the dirt along with the wolf's head. The hammer head was halfway submerged into the ground, putting the long handle at a strange angle. So, in light of this new and strange situation, a quick question. How do I get this thing out of the ground exactly? The thing probably weighs a tonne!
Grabbing the handle, I pulled with all my might, only succeeding in losing my grip and falling back onto my ass. The sudden jolt sent my mind into another spat of pain. I grunted with annoyance, it felt like my brain was swimming in molasses. Did dimensional travel have to fuck with my head so bad? Would have been easier to sport a bad cut or something instead.
Even pulling as hard as I could, the massive hammer wouldn't budge. After a few tries, I resorted to starting at the thing in rage. That God had to have known that this would happen, right? Did he give me this weapon or is this what my soul took form as? Whether God is stupid, or I am stupid is an argument for another time. A piece of my soul is currently stuck in the dirt and I can't do anything about it.
Wait, what about that 'Might' I got as reward for killing the wolf? If this world actually had a stupid game system...
"Uh, status?" I grumbled, because who wouldn't feel like a massive idiot while trying to invoke a game system in real life? But, sure enough, some text flitted through my mind. I didn't see it, but it was like something magically brought the information to my attention.
[Might: 9 (7)]
[Mind: 8]
[Agility: 5]
Well, that was a terrible stat screen. You'd think an actual God would be able to make statistics more interesting, but apparently not.
Why even have a status if it was going to be this bad. Were people actually so gullible that they'd believe this wasn't an arbitrary addition? I grumbled, but gave the stats some thought at least, if this was my reality, I may as well try and make use of them.
For one, my stats were pretty low, my Might being the highest with the extra points, then my Mind. The boost to Might was significant, around thirty percent, but I felt no different. No idea if it had even done anything at all.
I sighed, dilly dallying won't help anyone. Time to give this hammer another shot.
I grabbed onto the handle of the hammer and pulled, leveraging all my strength into the action. I could feel veins protruding on my arms as I shuddered, my muscles screaming with the effort. Ignoring my muscles, I continued, pushing as hard as I could. I was going to get this piece of shit out of the ground, one way or another.
Despite my efforts, the hammer barely budged, only moving a tiny bit. But that only propelled me. It excited me, the feeling of moving such an incredibly heavy object. with my bare hands
Then inspiration struck. I changed my grip on the handle, and hung from it, leveraging gravity and my own weight to my advantage. I mimicked the curling motion of a professional arm-wrestler, using my wrist for all it was worth. I pulled with all my might, weight and momentum, all at once in synchronicity.
"Move you fuck!" I screamed, pulling on the handle so hard that I could hear the blood screaming through blood vessels in my ears. The throbbing pain in my head pulsing away with a sadistic glee all the while.
And then I felt the earth the hammer was stuck in give way. I rolled out of the way, dodging the handle of the hammer as it fell. The handle hit the ground with a heavy thump right next to me. I swear that it made the ground shake a little.
"Jesus." I breathed. I lay there, panting in the dirt when I felt something pull my attention.
[Feat of Strength: You've pushed yourself to your limits, using your everything to accomplish something. +1 Might]
Well, at least the stupid system gave me something for that. More liberal with the stats than I had expected from a system this obscure.
Are the achievements different than training? Does training your strength go up in increments of one, or is that separate from the stats? It being separate would be smart, but I wasn't going to hold out hope. See, this is the problem with stupid, vague stat systems, it leaves too much interpretation with no benefits.
Now that I have the hammer out of the ground, and a little boost in strength, I can go figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.
I don't remember much of the God's speech, blaming it on the headache for now. What I do remember, though, was a lot of gloating. There was no point mourning the loss of that information. So, I'll have to figure it out as I go.
I'm going to have to get moving. The sun isn't going to slow down for me, and I don't want to be out in the wilderness lugging this massive thing around at night. That sounds like a good way to get eaten by another wolf.
I get up out of the dirt and brush off my sturdy clothing. I have a feeling that I'll be falling down quite a fair bit, so these tough clothes will serve me well.
I grab the handle of the hammer and try and pick it up, which was the dumbest idea I'd ever had. It got about 5 centimetres off the ground before I couldn't keep it up anymore.
"Damn this thing is heavy." I growled.
Instead, I resorted to dragging the bloody thing across the floor. The dirt and small stones were going to scratch up the hammer's head, but I didn't have much of a choice.
Looking at it now, the forest was quite beautiful, I'd never quite seen a forest that was this pristine before.
The greens of the leaves were vibrant in contrast to the deep brown of the trees. The dirt was a darker brown, almost like a rich chocolate. It was soft underfoot, so much so that you could walk barefoot through here with no real worries. The smell of the forest was cleaner and clearer than any other forest I'd been in.
Most forests were a cacophony of powerful smells all mixed together, but the air in this forest felt pure. It was excellent to breathe, like drinking a cold cup of water on a hot day. It was the best tasting air I'd ever breathed.
I wasn't sure if the air was any more functional than regular air, but it sure didn't hurt.
The only real problem that I had with this forest were the roots. The roots were everywhere, disused by dirt covering them. Thing is, I can't afford to fall over all that much, especially when I am dragging this massive hammer around. One bad fall and the handle could come down on my leg.
So the only way that I could mitigate that was to walk very, very slowly. Even slower than the hammer already made me walk, which was frustrating. Every time I had to lift the hammer a few centimetres to pull it over a snag, it sapped my strength. Soon enough, my muscles were throbbing with the exertion, screaming for rest.
I couldn't pull the hammer through the roots like you might instinctively think. The hammer might be heavy and would be a perfect tool for the job. The amount of strength to not only use the hammer, but also rip through root systems? It'd be insanity for me to even try, even with my increased Might.
Unfortunately, that means I have to pick up the hammer over and over to jump the roots. Talk about a bad back, I was beginning to relate to Atlas. Poor guy.
Progress was slow. It felt like hours of traveling between trees before there was any change in environment. But, as I travelled the density of the forest lessened. That also meant that I also got a good look at the sky, the thick canopy parting enough to see through. Looking up, however, was quite the shock.
Well… at least the sky was blue?
The sun was a whole lot bigger than Earth's was, but that wasn't a big deal, it wasn't the main focus. The main focus was the other planet that was orbiting this one.
Oh yes, another planet, orbiting this planet. You heard me right. It had a whole lot of blue, and a whole lot of land, and it was definitely a planet. You could see it's night sky, hiding it's face away from the sun and facing this planet instead.
At first, I thought it was Earth. Which it obviously wasn't after a moment of observation. It's continents are different, and you can see them all with your naked eye! Super trippy by the way.
No, it was a totally different planet, casually orbiting this one. Don't ask me how that works, physics is as unknowable as magic is to me.
So that's cool, I guess. If this world was a stereotypical game, that'd be where the was 'Demon Lords' were, right?
Wanna put a bet on it?
Chapter 3: Boo!
Chapter 3: Boo!
The one upside to living in a world with a stupid stat system is that you can use it to rationalize things. For example, you can use it to rationalize why the hell you are dragging a massive damn hammer through the dirt.
"I'm just testing if you can gain Might from training is all, not because I have no choice, not at all!" See, like that. Easy.
I had started walking again, turns out you can only look up at the sky in awe for so long. One mind can only be so blown, so walking seemed like a good compromise instead.
The forest had opened up into plains, with only the odd tree here and there. It was nice actually, there was a cool breeze, and it wasn't too hot. The sun was warm, and slowly reaching down to the mountain range, which wasn't so good, but it sure was pretty. Though the amazing air of the forest had dissipated, which made me unreasonably sad.
Something that I hadn't realised about this place was the fact that the sun didn't move. In fact, it stayed entirely stationary just slightly off centre in the sky, at least from this point of view. What that did mean, though, was that the other planet that was slowly moving to cover the sun from my view meant that night was coming.
Not ideal conditions by a long shot.
My legs are burning like hell, my shoulders were too. My shoulders were always at an odd angle because I wasn't strong enough to hold the handle at a good position. You have to understand, it isn't only the head of the hammer that's heavy. The handle of the hammer is also mad of the same metal. Only good thing is that it is long, so it gives me more leverage when dragging the head through the dirt.
Other than that, it was still stupid.
I kept scanning over the little hills, and soon enough I found what I was looking for. A river.
If you've ever watched a survival TV show, then you'll know that a river is excellent news. Not only is it a source of water, which is vital to survival if you didn't know, but it is also a good marker for civilization.
Villages are usually built very close to a water source or sometimes even surrounding it. The reasons for doing so are obvious, but we don't care about the reasons, we care that they do, that it's predictable.
So, If I follow this river downstream, I'll find civilization before nightfall. It at least gives me more hope than walking around in any direction does.
With a new spring in my step, I started to walk towards the river. I could use a good drink of water. All the dragging of hammers makes a man quite thirsty.
Back to the topic of how my body is going. I'm starting to see improvement in my physical capabilities. To be honest, the only physical attribute I had going for me before this was my height, which is around 6'2. Which, in the modern era, only served to reduce my legroom in transport. Though it did make me extraordinarily useful when grabbing things from the top shelf.
In other words, I'm not exactly the pinnacle of physical performance. There had to be trade-offs for a sedentary bookworm and gamer lifestyle, right? Regardless, I went from 7 Might to 10-
[In for the Long Haul: Pulling heavy objects long distances is amazing for your muscles! Might +1]
Make that eleven, I guess. Anyway, my Might went up four points in the matter of a few hours. Truthfully, The more time I thought on it, the more I found this system stupid. There was no clear baseline, no help to understand and apply the numbers. It was all a mess, which you'd think would be hard when you only had three lines of text to express the statistics with.
I was starting to believe that you could only gain statistics from the achievements. Does that mean training is useless and won't give you anything? Will I need to go gallivanting across the world to force some obscure achievement?
I shook off my pet frustration as I saw a curving river that swept through the landscape.
I dropped the hammer's handle and rushed to the water. It was wide for a river, but not that deep, only going up to my hip in depth. It was quite cold, not freezing, but unused-swimming-pool cold. It was nice after waking for so long, having cold water on your overworked muscles. I submerged myself in the water for a minute, letting myself float without using any of my muscles.
Feeling the gentle current tug on me I was a state of bliss, I almost wished it wouldn't end.
My glorious reprieve was rudely interrupted by a shock of pain from my headache. For hours it had been pulsing with pain whenever it pleased, making my brain feel like a soggy bowl of cereal. I sighed underwater.
I had to get things done and letting myself float into oblivion wouldn't help me, nor would it keep me alive very long.
I burst out of the water, taking a deep gasp of air before trudging the few metres that I'd floated to the riverbank. However, not before stopping to quench my thirst. As I cupped my hands and lowered them into the water, I looked at myself in the reflection. I wasn't changed physically in any way, which I'll call a blessing. I'd always considered myself handsome enough, short brown hair, brown eyes and a good jaw. Nothing close to a male model, but handsome enough to be proud of. I quickly slurped a few handfuls of water to satisfy my dry throat, then turned away from the water.
I walked over to my hammer and picked it up, muscles complaining with pain. The soak in the water had only really helped momentarily, as the fiery pain returned with a vengeance as soon as I started to move again.
Thankfully, walking along the bank of the river was a whole lot easier than walking over hills. For one, it was pretty flat alongside the river. So I didn't have to worry about crushing myself by losing control of my hammer going down a hill. I can't imagine that having that hammer land on your toe would end well.
I could see that the other planet was slowly covering the sun. It was only eclipsing a small part of it at the moment, but it wouldn't be long before it was night.
And everyone knows that all the bad beasties come out in the night.
Also, the water source was also a point of interest to those same beasties as well as humans. That the only chance that I have of finding any sort of civilisation is also the most dangerous place to be.
Anxiety started to set in. I knew it, I'd been too well composed up till now, even with that god-damned headache. I could feel my anxiety level start to raise, my headache rising to match as the sun was slowly eclipsed. Suddenly my mind was in overdrive, I was looking over every hill I could, checking all the shadows twice. I could feel that night would bring something bad.
The planet orbiting this one travelled slowly, its mass restricting the light further and further, its darkened sky slowly subsuming the sun its entirety. Leaving me…
Alone, in the darkness.
To be honest, I don't think I've ever been so afraid. A mix of the dark, the sounds of the wilderness and being in another world with monsters, makes for the most terrifying experience of my life.
Great thing is, terror is a great motivator for walking really fast. And walk really fast I did. With a total disregard for how tired I was, I rushed as fast as I physically could along the side of the river, eyes wide and scanning.
I was making tonnes of noise, but I didn't have much of a choice while lugging the stupid hammer around. If something caught me, then I'd just have to look threatening, which hopefully wouldn't be too hard with this hammer.
Every step that I took coincided with a beat of my heart, every shuddering breath desperately trying to keep up with the physical exertion.
Until I saw it, drinking at the riverside.
It was massive, as tall as me easily. Its outline was stocky and muscular, and the outline of its head had two wicked looking tusks adorning its mouth. I stood stock still, hoping beyond hope that whatever I had seen didn't hear me.
The only thing that I could think of that fits the outline of this monstrosity is a boar. Its facial structure is so different that it probably wasn't even close to one. Regardless, it scared the fuck out of me. My mind went into overdrive as I stood entirely still.
I examined the little silhouettes of ears that I could see on top of its head, as they twitched ever so slightly. I was so scared that I even held my breath. If that thing saw me then I was dead, there was no way that I could make myself look scary enough that I could scare it off. It would eat me.
I stood so still that I didn't dare to even blink. My hands were sweating and tingling from the amount of adrenalin pumping through me. The only sound being the beat of my own heart.
I saw the massive creature move ever so slightly, sending a shock of fright down my spine. It scanned the landscape, it's mighty breaths loud in the quiet night. Somehow, it managed to miss my form in the dark, standing there frightened still. After a long moment of observation, it turned its head away and started to trudge off into the distance.
I stood still like a statue for what felt like an hour, waiting, hoping that the monster's head wouldn't pop back up over the hill it had disappeared behind. But even when I was sure it was gone, I couldn't help but go from a complete stand still to as close to a run as I could possibly achieve.
I ran and ran and ran, blindly following the curves of the river, looking at the ground, afraid of seeing anything I didn't want to see. I listened only to the thumping of my feet on the dirt, the sound deafening to my terrified mind.
Before suddenly, a sharp snap of the fingers and a stony elderly voice called out, accompanied by a flash of bright light.
"What are you doing?"
[Boo!: You endured extreme fright, a real test of the Mind. +1 Mind]
I could only reply with a blood curdling scream.
The one upside to living in a world with a stupid stat system is that you can use it to rationalize things. For example, you can use it to rationalize why the hell you are dragging a massive damn hammer through the dirt.
"I'm just testing if you can gain Might from training is all, not because I have no choice, not at all!" See, like that. Easy.
I had started walking again, turns out you can only look up at the sky in awe for so long. One mind can only be so blown, so walking seemed like a good compromise instead.
The forest had opened up into plains, with only the odd tree here and there. It was nice actually, there was a cool breeze, and it wasn't too hot. The sun was warm, and slowly reaching down to the mountain range, which wasn't so good, but it sure was pretty. Though the amazing air of the forest had dissipated, which made me unreasonably sad.
Something that I hadn't realised about this place was the fact that the sun didn't move. In fact, it stayed entirely stationary just slightly off centre in the sky, at least from this point of view. What that did mean, though, was that the other planet that was slowly moving to cover the sun from my view meant that night was coming.
Not ideal conditions by a long shot.
My legs are burning like hell, my shoulders were too. My shoulders were always at an odd angle because I wasn't strong enough to hold the handle at a good position. You have to understand, it isn't only the head of the hammer that's heavy. The handle of the hammer is also mad of the same metal. Only good thing is that it is long, so it gives me more leverage when dragging the head through the dirt.
Other than that, it was still stupid.
I kept scanning over the little hills, and soon enough I found what I was looking for. A river.
If you've ever watched a survival TV show, then you'll know that a river is excellent news. Not only is it a source of water, which is vital to survival if you didn't know, but it is also a good marker for civilization.
Villages are usually built very close to a water source or sometimes even surrounding it. The reasons for doing so are obvious, but we don't care about the reasons, we care that they do, that it's predictable.
So, If I follow this river downstream, I'll find civilization before nightfall. It at least gives me more hope than walking around in any direction does.
With a new spring in my step, I started to walk towards the river. I could use a good drink of water. All the dragging of hammers makes a man quite thirsty.
Back to the topic of how my body is going. I'm starting to see improvement in my physical capabilities. To be honest, the only physical attribute I had going for me before this was my height, which is around 6'2. Which, in the modern era, only served to reduce my legroom in transport. Though it did make me extraordinarily useful when grabbing things from the top shelf.
In other words, I'm not exactly the pinnacle of physical performance. There had to be trade-offs for a sedentary bookworm and gamer lifestyle, right? Regardless, I went from 7 Might to 10-
[In for the Long Haul: Pulling heavy objects long distances is amazing for your muscles! Might +1]
Make that eleven, I guess. Anyway, my Might went up four points in the matter of a few hours. Truthfully, The more time I thought on it, the more I found this system stupid. There was no clear baseline, no help to understand and apply the numbers. It was all a mess, which you'd think would be hard when you only had three lines of text to express the statistics with.
I was starting to believe that you could only gain statistics from the achievements. Does that mean training is useless and won't give you anything? Will I need to go gallivanting across the world to force some obscure achievement?
I shook off my pet frustration as I saw a curving river that swept through the landscape.
I dropped the hammer's handle and rushed to the water. It was wide for a river, but not that deep, only going up to my hip in depth. It was quite cold, not freezing, but unused-swimming-pool cold. It was nice after waking for so long, having cold water on your overworked muscles. I submerged myself in the water for a minute, letting myself float without using any of my muscles.
Feeling the gentle current tug on me I was a state of bliss, I almost wished it wouldn't end.
My glorious reprieve was rudely interrupted by a shock of pain from my headache. For hours it had been pulsing with pain whenever it pleased, making my brain feel like a soggy bowl of cereal. I sighed underwater.
I had to get things done and letting myself float into oblivion wouldn't help me, nor would it keep me alive very long.
I burst out of the water, taking a deep gasp of air before trudging the few metres that I'd floated to the riverbank. However, not before stopping to quench my thirst. As I cupped my hands and lowered them into the water, I looked at myself in the reflection. I wasn't changed physically in any way, which I'll call a blessing. I'd always considered myself handsome enough, short brown hair, brown eyes and a good jaw. Nothing close to a male model, but handsome enough to be proud of. I quickly slurped a few handfuls of water to satisfy my dry throat, then turned away from the water.
I walked over to my hammer and picked it up, muscles complaining with pain. The soak in the water had only really helped momentarily, as the fiery pain returned with a vengeance as soon as I started to move again.
Thankfully, walking along the bank of the river was a whole lot easier than walking over hills. For one, it was pretty flat alongside the river. So I didn't have to worry about crushing myself by losing control of my hammer going down a hill. I can't imagine that having that hammer land on your toe would end well.
I could see that the other planet was slowly covering the sun. It was only eclipsing a small part of it at the moment, but it wouldn't be long before it was night.
And everyone knows that all the bad beasties come out in the night.
Also, the water source was also a point of interest to those same beasties as well as humans. That the only chance that I have of finding any sort of civilisation is also the most dangerous place to be.
Anxiety started to set in. I knew it, I'd been too well composed up till now, even with that god-damned headache. I could feel my anxiety level start to raise, my headache rising to match as the sun was slowly eclipsed. Suddenly my mind was in overdrive, I was looking over every hill I could, checking all the shadows twice. I could feel that night would bring something bad.
The planet orbiting this one travelled slowly, its mass restricting the light further and further, its darkened sky slowly subsuming the sun its entirety. Leaving me…
Alone, in the darkness.
To be honest, I don't think I've ever been so afraid. A mix of the dark, the sounds of the wilderness and being in another world with monsters, makes for the most terrifying experience of my life.
Great thing is, terror is a great motivator for walking really fast. And walk really fast I did. With a total disregard for how tired I was, I rushed as fast as I physically could along the side of the river, eyes wide and scanning.
I was making tonnes of noise, but I didn't have much of a choice while lugging the stupid hammer around. If something caught me, then I'd just have to look threatening, which hopefully wouldn't be too hard with this hammer.
Every step that I took coincided with a beat of my heart, every shuddering breath desperately trying to keep up with the physical exertion.
Until I saw it, drinking at the riverside.
It was massive, as tall as me easily. Its outline was stocky and muscular, and the outline of its head had two wicked looking tusks adorning its mouth. I stood stock still, hoping beyond hope that whatever I had seen didn't hear me.
The only thing that I could think of that fits the outline of this monstrosity is a boar. Its facial structure is so different that it probably wasn't even close to one. Regardless, it scared the fuck out of me. My mind went into overdrive as I stood entirely still.
I examined the little silhouettes of ears that I could see on top of its head, as they twitched ever so slightly. I was so scared that I even held my breath. If that thing saw me then I was dead, there was no way that I could make myself look scary enough that I could scare it off. It would eat me.
I stood so still that I didn't dare to even blink. My hands were sweating and tingling from the amount of adrenalin pumping through me. The only sound being the beat of my own heart.
I saw the massive creature move ever so slightly, sending a shock of fright down my spine. It scanned the landscape, it's mighty breaths loud in the quiet night. Somehow, it managed to miss my form in the dark, standing there frightened still. After a long moment of observation, it turned its head away and started to trudge off into the distance.
I stood still like a statue for what felt like an hour, waiting, hoping that the monster's head wouldn't pop back up over the hill it had disappeared behind. But even when I was sure it was gone, I couldn't help but go from a complete stand still to as close to a run as I could possibly achieve.
I ran and ran and ran, blindly following the curves of the river, looking at the ground, afraid of seeing anything I didn't want to see. I listened only to the thumping of my feet on the dirt, the sound deafening to my terrified mind.
Before suddenly, a sharp snap of the fingers and a stony elderly voice called out, accompanied by a flash of bright light.
"What are you doing?"
[Boo!: You endured extreme fright, a real test of the Mind. +1 Mind]
I could only reply with a blood curdling scream.
Chapter 4: The Cost of Not Knowing
Chapter 4: The Cost of Not Knowing
A strong hand clamped over my mouth before my scream went on any longer, cutting the screech short. The hand was like an iron vice, completely blocking my mouth, not allowing any movement from my jaw.
"Be quiet, would you? I'm not going to kill you." The aged voice said, sounding annoyed but subdued. The hand didn't move, and I didn't try to resist. This guy was a tonne stronger than I was, just from the strength of his hand alone I could tell that much. This guy could probably just snap my neck if he wanted me dead.
"Huh, didn't think that would actually work." The old voice said, surprise leaking into his voice. I was being as non-aggressive as I could be after being scared half to death, and it payed off. The old man gradually lessened his grip over my mouth, a test as to whether I'd begin screaming again. Makes sense. After a second of waiting, the hand was completely removed from my mouth, dropping away from my face entirely. I turned my face to the side, trying to get a look at the man.
He had moved about a metre away since removing his hand from my mouth. He wasn't a particularly tall man, about dead on average. He was, however, muscled. He was wearing basic leather protection gear that covered most of his torso but was otherwise covered in simple clothes similar to mine. But even in the covering clothing, his musculature was prominent. Even more impressive was his age. The man had to be in his sixties at least, his skin covered in wrinkles and sunspots, his skin sagging. His face was half stern, half bushy eyebrows. His jaw remained set like stone, giving the distinct stoicness, and his bushy eyebrows spoke of his emotions. He had his eyebrow raised inquisitively. His stony-grey eyes adding pressure on to me, finally resulting in me blurting out whatever I could think of in that second.
"Uh, good evening, sir?" I fumbled out. A second after I had spoken, the man's eyebrows shot up in disbelief before morphing into amusement.
"Good evening to you too, kid. Now, do you want to tell me what you are doing all the way out here dragging a…" The old man looked behind me, seemingly trying to interpret what it was he was seeing. He raised his left arm, and I finally noticed the light source that had flashed on earlier. Or what it was, specifically.
He was holding fire in his hand.
It floated a few centimetres above the palm of his left hand, a little ball of fire. The fire lapped at an invisible container, pushing up against the air, trying to free itself. But my mind skipped all of that initially and just gawked at the fire. It was strange, seeing something so impossible right in front of your eyes.
"Is it a plow or something?" The old man looked to me, only then noticing my gawking. He looked down at his left hand and his eyebrow raised slightly.
"Jesus, you can actually do magic…" The words leaked from my lips before I could stop them. I knew, logically, that I should hide my status as being from another world, even if it was just so that I could avoid any unwanted attention. But if everyone could use magic here then I had given myself away with just that sentence. I started to sweat, the fear returning to the pit of my stomach. I hoped beyond hope that the man ignored it.
But I had no such luck. The old man turned back to me, his brow furrowed severely while he processed my words. His eyes wandered for a moment, before coming to rest on what was see able of my hammer. Then his eyes rapidly widened, and I knew that I was busted.
"Did you say 'Jesus'?" He demanded.
"Huh?" I said dumbly. Shocked at the sudden change in conversation. 'Jesus'? That's what he picks up on of all things? Not on my surprise at his use of magic, but my use of the word 'Jesus'? Why would he want to know that? I honestly didn't really know how to respond to that other than to just tell the truth.
"Uh, I guess so. What about it?" The old man's eyes narrowed significantly. In one swift motion he pushed past me to stand over my hammer, using the ball of flame to see the metal monster that laid behind me.
He examined the hammer closely, and then brushed off the side of the hammer's head. An uncomfortable feeling overcame me as he touched the hammer, like a spider crawling down my spine.
"Uh, hey! Can you not, like, touch it? Please?" I mumbled. Damnit why can't I just speak like a normal human being right now.
The man turned to me, looking me dead in the eye and waiting a moment. I nervously looked at his hands, hoping that he wouldn't touch the hammer again. It felt kind of disgusting for some reason.
"It's a Soul Weapon, isn't it." I paused for a second, my mind started to go into overdrive again. I was being found out! The fear in my gut surged up to my throat, forcing my mouth into saying whatever I could to get out of this situation.
"Ah, no. No, I don't know what you are talking abo–" But I didn't get to finish before the man placed his hand on the head of the hammer.
All of a sudden, I felt disgusting. Nothing like before, now it was like I was covered in filth, inside an out. It made me sick to my very core, it felt as if something of mine was being defiled. I couldn't take it, so I rushed forward towards the man, and kicked out at his chest, wanting nothing more that to keep him away from my hammer, to stop him from touching it.
However, with a simple push from his hand I was sent tumbling backwards in the dirt, the disgusting feeling gone for the moment.
"It's a Soul Weapon." The old man intoned darkly. "Are you one of them?"
I didn't respond right away, trying to catch my breath from the sudden combat.
"I-I don't know what you mean!" I called, and a hand clasped over the hammer's haft again, the horrifying feeling returning. My mind was overtaken by the need to get him away, forcing me to rush forwards with reckless abandon once again. In the middle of my mad dash, the man threw the small ball of flame he was holding.
I was forced to dodge as best as I could, throwing myself to the side with reckless abandon. For all I knew it was capable of burning a hole in me, but with the terrible feeling escalating further, it was slowly overwhelming my ability to think clearly.
Now I was on the floor, writhing in disgust. Like millions of bugs were crawling all over my body, in and out of every orifice, and it was only increasing in severity, becoming more vivid of a feeling.
In a last ditch effort I simply screamed.
"I don't know what you want! I'm from another world!" And the disgust stopped.
No, not just stopped, completely gone. It was as if they were never there in the first place. I panted, struggling for breath not only because of the acrobatics. That disgust was something so overpowering, it caused everything in my body to seize up and clench all at once, leaving my muscles exhausted.
I groaned with the effort to sit up, pushing against the ground with my tired muscles.
In a way I was still terrified. I knew, just from the feeling itself that it could have gotten so, so much worse than it did, spiralling into a torture beyond possible words.
I looked up at the man who stood next to my hammer. He started at me, then crouched to be closer to my eyeline. He looked at me for a long, long moment, not daring to break eye contact with me, searching my eyes for something. He sighed and hung his head in a dismay, breaking eye contact with me for a brief moment.
Something in me wanted to race forward, try to give the man a surprise and take back my hammer, but I shot it down as the instinct hit me. He could overpower me easily and he could torture me through a massive lump of metal I could barely move at a walking pace.
After a long moment he looked back up, meeting my eyes with his grey, stony ones.
"I'm sorry about that. I mistook you for something you weren't." It was a gruff apology; one that inspired a small flame of anger at the injustice of the situation.
"You could have at least checked first." I growled, but the man didn't get angry back, his face remaining calm but apologetic.
"I couldn't have. If I gave only a moment for me to check, I could have died." He shook his head sadly. Me? Kill someone? I almost laughed at the absurdity, but the man wasn't joking. He saw my eyebrow raise inquisitively and he sighed.
"The cost of not knowing is too great." He looked at me with genuine eyes, but stone cold in their conviction. He did exactly what he thought was right. In a way, knowing that there was a reason so important that there was a cost of not knowing sort of made it a little better in mind.
"What would the cost be, exactly?" I growled, retaining the anger in my voice.
The man looked at me for a long while, his eyes piercing into mine. It was as if those stone-grey corneas could see directly right through me, deep into my mind. His face changed multiple times. Emotions flicking through his head that were strong enough to provoke a strong facial reaction from the seemingly stern man. Strong enough that I could swear that I felt them myself.
It wasn't long before his eyes refocused, returning to reality. His face settling on an emotion that I think I may have only ever seen a handful of times in my life. But before I could identify it, the man sighed, his mouth opening slightly, before hesitating once again. He looked deep into my eyes, and only after a moment did he close his eyes and speak.
"The Champion War." He whispered, sorrow dancing on his lips.
Oh, that's what that emotion was.
Loss.
A/N: And thus, we meet our fist character! A friend? A bit of a harsh introduction, don't you think? Hope you're all enjoying the story!
Any comments or interaction would be appreciated! Would love to talk to you all
A strong hand clamped over my mouth before my scream went on any longer, cutting the screech short. The hand was like an iron vice, completely blocking my mouth, not allowing any movement from my jaw.
"Be quiet, would you? I'm not going to kill you." The aged voice said, sounding annoyed but subdued. The hand didn't move, and I didn't try to resist. This guy was a tonne stronger than I was, just from the strength of his hand alone I could tell that much. This guy could probably just snap my neck if he wanted me dead.
"Huh, didn't think that would actually work." The old voice said, surprise leaking into his voice. I was being as non-aggressive as I could be after being scared half to death, and it payed off. The old man gradually lessened his grip over my mouth, a test as to whether I'd begin screaming again. Makes sense. After a second of waiting, the hand was completely removed from my mouth, dropping away from my face entirely. I turned my face to the side, trying to get a look at the man.
He had moved about a metre away since removing his hand from my mouth. He wasn't a particularly tall man, about dead on average. He was, however, muscled. He was wearing basic leather protection gear that covered most of his torso but was otherwise covered in simple clothes similar to mine. But even in the covering clothing, his musculature was prominent. Even more impressive was his age. The man had to be in his sixties at least, his skin covered in wrinkles and sunspots, his skin sagging. His face was half stern, half bushy eyebrows. His jaw remained set like stone, giving the distinct stoicness, and his bushy eyebrows spoke of his emotions. He had his eyebrow raised inquisitively. His stony-grey eyes adding pressure on to me, finally resulting in me blurting out whatever I could think of in that second.
"Uh, good evening, sir?" I fumbled out. A second after I had spoken, the man's eyebrows shot up in disbelief before morphing into amusement.
"Good evening to you too, kid. Now, do you want to tell me what you are doing all the way out here dragging a…" The old man looked behind me, seemingly trying to interpret what it was he was seeing. He raised his left arm, and I finally noticed the light source that had flashed on earlier. Or what it was, specifically.
He was holding fire in his hand.
It floated a few centimetres above the palm of his left hand, a little ball of fire. The fire lapped at an invisible container, pushing up against the air, trying to free itself. But my mind skipped all of that initially and just gawked at the fire. It was strange, seeing something so impossible right in front of your eyes.
"Is it a plow or something?" The old man looked to me, only then noticing my gawking. He looked down at his left hand and his eyebrow raised slightly.
"Jesus, you can actually do magic…" The words leaked from my lips before I could stop them. I knew, logically, that I should hide my status as being from another world, even if it was just so that I could avoid any unwanted attention. But if everyone could use magic here then I had given myself away with just that sentence. I started to sweat, the fear returning to the pit of my stomach. I hoped beyond hope that the man ignored it.
But I had no such luck. The old man turned back to me, his brow furrowed severely while he processed my words. His eyes wandered for a moment, before coming to rest on what was see able of my hammer. Then his eyes rapidly widened, and I knew that I was busted.
"Did you say 'Jesus'?" He demanded.
"Huh?" I said dumbly. Shocked at the sudden change in conversation. 'Jesus'? That's what he picks up on of all things? Not on my surprise at his use of magic, but my use of the word 'Jesus'? Why would he want to know that? I honestly didn't really know how to respond to that other than to just tell the truth.
"Uh, I guess so. What about it?" The old man's eyes narrowed significantly. In one swift motion he pushed past me to stand over my hammer, using the ball of flame to see the metal monster that laid behind me.
He examined the hammer closely, and then brushed off the side of the hammer's head. An uncomfortable feeling overcame me as he touched the hammer, like a spider crawling down my spine.
"Uh, hey! Can you not, like, touch it? Please?" I mumbled. Damnit why can't I just speak like a normal human being right now.
The man turned to me, looking me dead in the eye and waiting a moment. I nervously looked at his hands, hoping that he wouldn't touch the hammer again. It felt kind of disgusting for some reason.
"It's a Soul Weapon, isn't it." I paused for a second, my mind started to go into overdrive again. I was being found out! The fear in my gut surged up to my throat, forcing my mouth into saying whatever I could to get out of this situation.
"Ah, no. No, I don't know what you are talking abo–" But I didn't get to finish before the man placed his hand on the head of the hammer.
All of a sudden, I felt disgusting. Nothing like before, now it was like I was covered in filth, inside an out. It made me sick to my very core, it felt as if something of mine was being defiled. I couldn't take it, so I rushed forward towards the man, and kicked out at his chest, wanting nothing more that to keep him away from my hammer, to stop him from touching it.
However, with a simple push from his hand I was sent tumbling backwards in the dirt, the disgusting feeling gone for the moment.
"It's a Soul Weapon." The old man intoned darkly. "Are you one of them?"
I didn't respond right away, trying to catch my breath from the sudden combat.
"I-I don't know what you mean!" I called, and a hand clasped over the hammer's haft again, the horrifying feeling returning. My mind was overtaken by the need to get him away, forcing me to rush forwards with reckless abandon once again. In the middle of my mad dash, the man threw the small ball of flame he was holding.
I was forced to dodge as best as I could, throwing myself to the side with reckless abandon. For all I knew it was capable of burning a hole in me, but with the terrible feeling escalating further, it was slowly overwhelming my ability to think clearly.
Now I was on the floor, writhing in disgust. Like millions of bugs were crawling all over my body, in and out of every orifice, and it was only increasing in severity, becoming more vivid of a feeling.
In a last ditch effort I simply screamed.
"I don't know what you want! I'm from another world!" And the disgust stopped.
No, not just stopped, completely gone. It was as if they were never there in the first place. I panted, struggling for breath not only because of the acrobatics. That disgust was something so overpowering, it caused everything in my body to seize up and clench all at once, leaving my muscles exhausted.
I groaned with the effort to sit up, pushing against the ground with my tired muscles.
In a way I was still terrified. I knew, just from the feeling itself that it could have gotten so, so much worse than it did, spiralling into a torture beyond possible words.
I looked up at the man who stood next to my hammer. He started at me, then crouched to be closer to my eyeline. He looked at me for a long, long moment, not daring to break eye contact with me, searching my eyes for something. He sighed and hung his head in a dismay, breaking eye contact with me for a brief moment.
Something in me wanted to race forward, try to give the man a surprise and take back my hammer, but I shot it down as the instinct hit me. He could overpower me easily and he could torture me through a massive lump of metal I could barely move at a walking pace.
After a long moment he looked back up, meeting my eyes with his grey, stony ones.
"I'm sorry about that. I mistook you for something you weren't." It was a gruff apology; one that inspired a small flame of anger at the injustice of the situation.
"You could have at least checked first." I growled, but the man didn't get angry back, his face remaining calm but apologetic.
"I couldn't have. If I gave only a moment for me to check, I could have died." He shook his head sadly. Me? Kill someone? I almost laughed at the absurdity, but the man wasn't joking. He saw my eyebrow raise inquisitively and he sighed.
"The cost of not knowing is too great." He looked at me with genuine eyes, but stone cold in their conviction. He did exactly what he thought was right. In a way, knowing that there was a reason so important that there was a cost of not knowing sort of made it a little better in mind.
"What would the cost be, exactly?" I growled, retaining the anger in my voice.
The man looked at me for a long while, his eyes piercing into mine. It was as if those stone-grey corneas could see directly right through me, deep into my mind. His face changed multiple times. Emotions flicking through his head that were strong enough to provoke a strong facial reaction from the seemingly stern man. Strong enough that I could swear that I felt them myself.
It wasn't long before his eyes refocused, returning to reality. His face settling on an emotion that I think I may have only ever seen a handful of times in my life. But before I could identify it, the man sighed, his mouth opening slightly, before hesitating once again. He looked deep into my eyes, and only after a moment did he close his eyes and speak.
"The Champion War." He whispered, sorrow dancing on his lips.
Oh, that's what that emotion was.
Loss.
A/N: And thus, we meet our fist character! A friend? A bit of a harsh introduction, don't you think? Hope you're all enjoying the story!
Any comments or interaction would be appreciated! Would love to talk to you all
Chapter 5: Who's an Idiot?
Chapter 5: Who's an Idiot?
[Tortured Soul: You have tasted the disgust that comes with having your soul defiled, however, you were lucky and came out unharmed. Maybe even stronger than before. +2 Mind.]
Not the best time for a notification, but I don't have a choice but to take it, I need all the stats I can get my hands on. At least my Mind seems to want to stay about level with my Might at eleven. My Agility though… still at a measly five. Anyway, I have to refocus.
"The 'Champion War'?" I asked. I had dropped most of the aggression in my voice. Don't get me wrong I was still unhappy with the man, but that wasn't going to get me anywhere. If I yelled and screamed at him now, I would probably end up brushed aside, left alone in the dark again. I had no choice.
The old man looked up at me again, furrowing his brow in suspicion.
"Shouldn't you know this?" A little bit of spite leaked into his voice.
"You mean the bunch of people sent from my world over here?" I asked, I was being genuine. Right now, I was regretting not having listened to the God when he was doing his speech. But, whenever I tried to remember, I could only pull up memories of the pain in my head and confusion.
At my words the old man looked at me in disbelief, an eyebrow raising to accompany.
"You're telling me that you don't know? Honestly?" He didn't seem to know what to make of this. I'm not sure what it was that he expected from me, but I obviously wasn't up to par.
"No! I mean, I think I know what you are getting at, but only through context. I was probably told at some point, but I don't think I was listening, or that I could listen. I had a massive headache, still do." I blurted, flustered by the expectations that he had on me, temples still pulsing with pain again. But now it just seemed like he thought I was stupid. He had that look on his face, as if he were talking to a child. Well, I kind of was in comparison to him, I guess.
"Don't look at me like that! Any normal person would be despondent like I was when they were suddenly teleported into a massive white room. Not to mention being talked at by a dude calling himself God! Saying stuff like, 'You are all part of a test and-'," I stopped speaking for a moment, almost shocked by what I had remembered.
"Oh. That's not good." The old man looked at me curiously for a moment, then his brow furrowed in thought. I could almost see the cogs turning in his head, while he appraised me.
"You really didn't know, did you?" I shook my head, a questioning look on my face.
"Should I have?" I said. I know that it was stupid that I didn't take this all in whilst I was in the room with the God. But I was in pain and bewildered. Was it really all that strange, especially when in that sort of situation?
"If you were the same as the rest of that group, " He said with some acid, "At least you are reacting normally to having your soul messed with. Headaches and brain fog are usually the least of the concerns when playing around with souls." He said. I don't know if he was being deliberately vague, or was just lost in his own thoughts, so I decided to take the plunge.
"Alright man, I'm not sure what you are trying to get at here, but I really need a place to stay, somewhere safer than out here. You can question me all you want if you can give me a place to stay and preferably a bed to sleep in along with it." I looked at him. I tried not to sound like I was pleading, but it was probably so obvious that it hurt to look at. The man's face stayed still, almost as if he didn't hear me in the first place. You wouldn't be able to tell at all if you didn't notice the tiny movements of his eyelids. A small tell-tale, but one nonetheless.
The old man took a while before he spoke again, only adding layer upon layer of insecurity to the pile of anxiousness that was my mind right now.
"Fine." The old man said, staring into my eyes for a moment. I was overjoyed, finally securing a place to sleep was a glorious feeling, especially after the day I've had. However, he quickly turned and started walking at a brisk pace. A pace that was far too fast for my tired legs, at least with me dragging the stupid hammer behind me
But I didn't have a choice, I just had to suck it up and start walking. I hefted the massive shaft of the hammer and started to pull, desperately forcing my legs to push forward to keep pace with the old man's footsteps.
I had only moved a few paces before the old man turned to look at where all the noise was coming from, which was my hammer being dragged behind me. He looked at me funnily, almost as if I were a court jester.
"You can put the hammer away, kid. I'm not going to attack you, not like you could do anything if I did anyways." He said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips as I stared, dumbfounded.
"Put it away? What do you mean?" Then the man froze.
"I mean unsummon the thing." His left eyebrow reaching an all-time high.
"W-wait. I can unsummon it?" I said, disbelief washed over me, shortly before a tidal wave of shame hit me, knocking me to my knees. Oh my God. I'm actually an idiot. The greatest idiot that ever was. My head screamed in sadistic, gleeful laughter, like a villain cackling after a completed evil invention.
The old man looked at me, with my hands covering my face and back to the humongous hammer that laid in the dirt behind me. Then he connected the all the dots, his eyes lighting up brilliantly with humour.
"Wait, you've been dragging that massive thing around the whole time?" He giggled slightly, before waiting slightly, baiting out an answer.
"...Yeah."
There was a moment of silence before a roar of laughter so loud that it hurt my ears came from the old man. I thought I knew shame, but this was on another level. Why the hell didn't I think of that? It's so simple, if you can summon it, you can unsummon it. It was simple stuff, but in my hubris and brain-fog, I had completely forgotten myself.
The pain of my body only served to deepen my shame. It was as if my body itself was lambasting me for my idiocy, whilst the roaring laughter of the old man continued on for minutes. He only stopped to catch his breath before continuing.
After what seemed like half an hour, the old man's roaring laughter managed to taper off into the occasional uncontrollable giggle. After a while he patted me solidly on the shoulder, while chuckling.
"Oh, I don't think I've laughed that hard in my entire gods-damned life," he paused to giggle a bit more, "Come on, unsummon your Soul Weapon and I'll bring you back to my place for the night. If I wasn't sure you weren't like the rest of you are, then I'd be damned sure now." He punctuated his comment with a short giggle and started to walk again, albeit at a much more casual pace.
I removed my hands from my face and placed a hand on my hammer. From there it was only a thought and the massive hammer once again returned to the strange liquid metal state that it had been when I first Summoned it. It leaked into the hand that was touching it like water down the drain of a bathtub.
I sighed, then got to my feet and started to walk after the old man, following the warm light of the little ball of fire in his palm.
God damnit I was an idiot.
A/N: Hey there again! A few very helpful people told me that maybe I should be posting at a different time to fit better with the American time-zones, so here we are!
Another chapter down *checks backlog* many more to go! Hope you all have a great day!
[Tortured Soul: You have tasted the disgust that comes with having your soul defiled, however, you were lucky and came out unharmed. Maybe even stronger than before. +2 Mind.]
Not the best time for a notification, but I don't have a choice but to take it, I need all the stats I can get my hands on. At least my Mind seems to want to stay about level with my Might at eleven. My Agility though… still at a measly five. Anyway, I have to refocus.
"The 'Champion War'?" I asked. I had dropped most of the aggression in my voice. Don't get me wrong I was still unhappy with the man, but that wasn't going to get me anywhere. If I yelled and screamed at him now, I would probably end up brushed aside, left alone in the dark again. I had no choice.
The old man looked up at me again, furrowing his brow in suspicion.
"Shouldn't you know this?" A little bit of spite leaked into his voice.
"You mean the bunch of people sent from my world over here?" I asked, I was being genuine. Right now, I was regretting not having listened to the God when he was doing his speech. But, whenever I tried to remember, I could only pull up memories of the pain in my head and confusion.
At my words the old man looked at me in disbelief, an eyebrow raising to accompany.
"You're telling me that you don't know? Honestly?" He didn't seem to know what to make of this. I'm not sure what it was that he expected from me, but I obviously wasn't up to par.
"No! I mean, I think I know what you are getting at, but only through context. I was probably told at some point, but I don't think I was listening, or that I could listen. I had a massive headache, still do." I blurted, flustered by the expectations that he had on me, temples still pulsing with pain again. But now it just seemed like he thought I was stupid. He had that look on his face, as if he were talking to a child. Well, I kind of was in comparison to him, I guess.
"Don't look at me like that! Any normal person would be despondent like I was when they were suddenly teleported into a massive white room. Not to mention being talked at by a dude calling himself God! Saying stuff like, 'You are all part of a test and-'," I stopped speaking for a moment, almost shocked by what I had remembered.
"Oh. That's not good." The old man looked at me curiously for a moment, then his brow furrowed in thought. I could almost see the cogs turning in his head, while he appraised me.
"You really didn't know, did you?" I shook my head, a questioning look on my face.
"Should I have?" I said. I know that it was stupid that I didn't take this all in whilst I was in the room with the God. But I was in pain and bewildered. Was it really all that strange, especially when in that sort of situation?
"If you were the same as the rest of that group, " He said with some acid, "At least you are reacting normally to having your soul messed with. Headaches and brain fog are usually the least of the concerns when playing around with souls." He said. I don't know if he was being deliberately vague, or was just lost in his own thoughts, so I decided to take the plunge.
"Alright man, I'm not sure what you are trying to get at here, but I really need a place to stay, somewhere safer than out here. You can question me all you want if you can give me a place to stay and preferably a bed to sleep in along with it." I looked at him. I tried not to sound like I was pleading, but it was probably so obvious that it hurt to look at. The man's face stayed still, almost as if he didn't hear me in the first place. You wouldn't be able to tell at all if you didn't notice the tiny movements of his eyelids. A small tell-tale, but one nonetheless.
The old man took a while before he spoke again, only adding layer upon layer of insecurity to the pile of anxiousness that was my mind right now.
"Fine." The old man said, staring into my eyes for a moment. I was overjoyed, finally securing a place to sleep was a glorious feeling, especially after the day I've had. However, he quickly turned and started walking at a brisk pace. A pace that was far too fast for my tired legs, at least with me dragging the stupid hammer behind me
But I didn't have a choice, I just had to suck it up and start walking. I hefted the massive shaft of the hammer and started to pull, desperately forcing my legs to push forward to keep pace with the old man's footsteps.
I had only moved a few paces before the old man turned to look at where all the noise was coming from, which was my hammer being dragged behind me. He looked at me funnily, almost as if I were a court jester.
"You can put the hammer away, kid. I'm not going to attack you, not like you could do anything if I did anyways." He said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips as I stared, dumbfounded.
"Put it away? What do you mean?" Then the man froze.
"I mean unsummon the thing." His left eyebrow reaching an all-time high.
"W-wait. I can unsummon it?" I said, disbelief washed over me, shortly before a tidal wave of shame hit me, knocking me to my knees. Oh my God. I'm actually an idiot. The greatest idiot that ever was. My head screamed in sadistic, gleeful laughter, like a villain cackling after a completed evil invention.
The old man looked at me, with my hands covering my face and back to the humongous hammer that laid in the dirt behind me. Then he connected the all the dots, his eyes lighting up brilliantly with humour.
"Wait, you've been dragging that massive thing around the whole time?" He giggled slightly, before waiting slightly, baiting out an answer.
"...Yeah."
There was a moment of silence before a roar of laughter so loud that it hurt my ears came from the old man. I thought I knew shame, but this was on another level. Why the hell didn't I think of that? It's so simple, if you can summon it, you can unsummon it. It was simple stuff, but in my hubris and brain-fog, I had completely forgotten myself.
The pain of my body only served to deepen my shame. It was as if my body itself was lambasting me for my idiocy, whilst the roaring laughter of the old man continued on for minutes. He only stopped to catch his breath before continuing.
After what seemed like half an hour, the old man's roaring laughter managed to taper off into the occasional uncontrollable giggle. After a while he patted me solidly on the shoulder, while chuckling.
"Oh, I don't think I've laughed that hard in my entire gods-damned life," he paused to giggle a bit more, "Come on, unsummon your Soul Weapon and I'll bring you back to my place for the night. If I wasn't sure you weren't like the rest of you are, then I'd be damned sure now." He punctuated his comment with a short giggle and started to walk again, albeit at a much more casual pace.
I removed my hands from my face and placed a hand on my hammer. From there it was only a thought and the massive hammer once again returned to the strange liquid metal state that it had been when I first Summoned it. It leaked into the hand that was touching it like water down the drain of a bathtub.
I sighed, then got to my feet and started to walk after the old man, following the warm light of the little ball of fire in his palm.
God damnit I was an idiot.
A/N: Hey there again! A few very helpful people told me that maybe I should be posting at a different time to fit better with the American time-zones, so here we are!
Another chapter down *checks backlog* many more to go! Hope you all have a great day!
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Chapter 6: I'm an Idiot
Chapter 6: I'm an Idiot
It was only a small village, probably only had a few hundred—if a thousand—residents all in small homes mostly made of wood. They were a little bit dumpy, ramshackle if you were being nice. They were off centre and not at all symmetrical, it seemed a lot like the houses were built with the wood in mind, rather than the house. It was an interesting sight, not quite civilised, but not like the houses made of garbage that you see in some places back on Earth.
Most importantly, it felt fundamentally different than what was back on Earth. It truly was a 'We're not in Kansas anymore' moment. What a strange feeling.
The streets were dirt, not that I expected any different, but I did expect there to be more people out. Just one or two, maybe. Maybe a bit of noise coming from a tavern or nearby home, but there was no sound at all, not a peep. It was most likely sometime in the early morning, but on Earth you could still find cars whizzing past on the main street. Things are different in this world, people actually slept.
It was still cool in the darkness of night, but the smells of the street made me crinkle my nose. They had clearly been heavily used by human and animal. You had to watch your step or you'd end up ankle deep in shit.
My body didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before, whilst I was dragging the stupid hammer. But there was quite a bit of soreness, soreness that I knew would most likely be extreme muscle pain by tomorrow. I was not looking forward to that. Not at all.
The old man didn't speak at all while we walked, so neither did I.
The air wasn't awkward, but the silence was still high strung. Questions to ask whirled in my mind, and I'm sure the other man had a similar amount. So, instead of taking in the open, silence was the only option.
Our steps resounded with the night, cutting through the darkness. It made me feel slightly less afraid walking through this town than if I were alone. I didn't have the best impression of the guy, and to be perfectly honest I still didn't that he'd even gotten close to torturing me... but he was growing on me. Mostly because I felt just a little safer around him.
We slowly approached a house that was just a little further away from the rest of the houses, but that wasn't really what distinguished it from the rest. The house was immaculate. It wasn't a mansion, of even as great as a modern home, but it was absolutely perfectly constructed. In comparison to the rest of the homes, this house's planks were all perfectly cut, exactly the same length as the rest and excellently constructed.
The old man did a little half jog up the few steps to the front porch, a jog that I tried to do but pain flared through my legs and I decided to slow it right down.
"Alright. This is my home, room at the end of the hall to the left is where you'll be staying. Tomorrow we'll talk." He turned to me, giving me one last glance before he disappeared into his house. I had assumed we were going to right into the talking, but it seemed like sleep was king.
I wasn't going to complain, I desperately wanted some sleep, even if I knew that I would feel horrible in the morning.
The allure of sleep dangling just in front of me, I stumbled down the relatively long hallway. It'd been furnished with nice things, small keepsakes I assumed, but rather minimalistic otherwise. I stumbled like I was absolutely smashed and wandering my way home, minus the nausea, thank god. Opening the door to the room, I was greeted with a decent sized bed, sheets neat and tidy, small bedside counter, a chest of drawers. I can't imagine that the old guy got visitors all that often, but this room was immaculate.
Not like I cared, I just about face planted into the bed, barely feeling its comfortable firmness before I began sleeping, clothed and all.
My eyes opened to a bright light shining through a massive window that I hadn't noticed and pain. Oh, the pain.
I sighed, before twitching a leg muscle to gauge how bad the pain was. And it was pretty bad, but not quite as bad as I thought it would be, which was nice, but the pain that was ever present was pretty horrible.
For a while, my body was in the state where it was just telling me not to move at all, holding me hostage in my comfortable bed. Just to spite my body, I started to force myself to move, and as I did, I was quickly greeted with a notification for my troubles.
[A Good Night's rest after a Long Day's Work: A lot happened yesterday, pushing yourself as hard as you could. However, a good night's rest did your body wonders. +1 Might and Agility]
Just as I started to complain about falling behind in Agility I gained some. This system is a weird one, granting so many stat ups didn't really fit in the way I thought it would have. Not like I was going to complain about it, even if it really was stupid.
I stored the idea in my 'ask old guy' folder and moved on. I started to move again, trying my best to be gentle on my aching and creaking muscles. I had never done so much physical exercise ever, not since I was a kid, at least.
The fire in my legs didn't go away when I stood, but I just ignored it the best I could at this point. Today was going to be interesting.
I brushed my clothes down with my hands subconsciously and a small cloud of dust appeared. I groaned, realising I'd just slept in the poor guy's sheets with my dusty ass clothes on. I'd have to try cleaning them later for him. I definitely needed to clean my clothes, they were practically coated in dust, so much that I couldn't even tell you where it all came from. I walked through a forest, for God's sake, not a bloody desert.
I shook my head and moved to the door. I was sure I hadn't closed it last night, so either it somehow closed on its own, or the old man was already up. I say "already" like I know what time it is, but really, I'm clueless. I'd guestimate around midday if I was to go on my sleeping habits from Earth.
Opening the door and then closing it behind me, I walked down to hallway while looking around. Now that there was proper light, I could see some of the little keepsakes that he had on shelves on the walls. I don't know if any of them were of any specific value, of if they were this world's version of souvenirs, but they sure were cool. Most of them I had absolutely no idea how to even describe, but a few of them were somewhat recognisable. Like, one of them was almost definitely a wand. It was intricately carved, in a way that for some reason felt like a young boy's handiwork, adorned in sharp edges in the engravings. Curious, I picked it up, examining it closer.
I wasn't going to actually do anything to it, seems like something an idiot would do, but it was fascinating. The engravings were a lot like what I saw on the hilt of my hammer. It was distinctly someone else. It gave tells to whose it was, but not quite enough to truly let me form a picture in my mind.
"Axen." a clear, voice spoke from behind me, startling me. Before I turned to see the old man standing there in casual clothes, leaning on the doorway to what looked like the lounge room. He looked at me curiously with a cup of some hot drink in his hands.
"Axen?"
"It was his name," the old man nodded towards the little wand, "he gave that to me as a gift for my 50th birthday." He smiled slightly a good memory it seemed.
"It's a wand isn't it? Isn't it valuable?" I asked, for some reason I wanted to know more. Holding this wand in my hands made me feel like I knew this Axen somehow. I wanted to know just a little bit more. Satiate my curiosity.
"Oh it is. It's worth enough to start a small war over." He chuckled as my eyes grew wide and I carefully placed the wand back on the little shelf it came off of, only daring to examine it from a distance.
"A wand is a valuable thing. Because only a few can make wands, only those born with the talent. To find the talent in the first place, you must be trained in shifting. There is no other way to tell," he paused to take a sip of what I assumed was some sort of tea, "Many years ago I taught a young boy the basics of shifting while I was on my way through a village. Turns out that he had the talent, and this was his first wand before he eventually grew out of it. He managed to track me down years later to give it to me. He turned out to be a fine man." The old man took another sip and chuckled, before turning to walk back into his lounge room.
I stood, somewhat stunned by the man's explanation. I don't know what shifting, was, but I'll mentally replace it with magic, for the time being. I'm not sure what I expected but wasn't he a little bit too nonchalant? He had this immensely valuable thing lying on a little shelf in a little wood shack in a small village. It sounded like he had forever changed this kid's life! A chance encounter, that was for sure.
For a moment before I walked away, I looked at the small, engraved wand one last time. Just for a moment, a flash of recognition hit, a small boy with fiery red hair that looked like an explosion on his head grinned like a maniac, holding his prized possession in his hands, a carved wand.
Then it disappeared.
Wands can do cool memory stuff. Noted.
I turned and followed the old man into the lounge room, finding myself in the nicest part of the house. The place practically oozed comfort. It felt cosy just looking at it. The walls were adorned with bookshelves and books, maps and a hundred other points of interest. If the wand was anything to go off of, then these walls were likely lined with incredibly valuable things, one way or another.
The old man sat in a recliner, something that I was somewhat surprised by. I guess theoretically it wouldn't be all that hard to make even with little technology. Regardless, he was sitting down by a fireplace, without the fire going of course, it was the middle of the day and it wasn't even cold.
I eyed the chair sitting just opposite of him, over a small coffee-table that had his cup of tea on it. I walked over to the chair, but before I could sit, the old man stood up straight and extended his hand.
I wasn't really sure what to make of it, but I hesitantly grabbed his hand, and he gave it a small but firm shake.
"Mayer Renue." He said.
"Maximilian Avenforth. Max." I said, following the trend of being succinct.
Mayer sat back down in his chair gently, and so did I, letting my legs rest once again, the pain slowly subsiding. There was a slow silence. I wasn't sure what the silence meant, but I wasn't going to be the one to break it. He could start with the questions. Mayer grunted, seemingly in understanding that he had to start and stopped to think for a second before speaking.
"You're from Earth?" I was shocked a moment, before remembering that he seemed pretty knowledgeable about my situation, so I just nodded.
"Year?" He asked. I frowned, a strange question, but something I could answer, nonetheless.
"2019. Why?" When he heard my answer, he let out a low whistle and sunk into his seat for a moment, in thought. He resurfaced from his thoughts after a second.
"It's been seventy years here since the last Champion War happened. But for you, the last one happened in 1999."
"Huh, looks like Earth and…" I trailed off, realising I didn't know the name of this world.
"Virsdis." Mayer chimed in.
"Virsdis are on different time streams or whatever. Wouldn't that mean that we aren't really in the same universe? Is this another dimension entirely?" I asked, somewhat confused. This was a little bit too much like time travel for my liking. Time travel always ruins a good story.
"To be honest, I have no damn clue. This is the work of Gods, I have no doubt they have the answer, but Gods are notoriously tight lipped." The old man placed his hand on his chin, stroking his beardless face. Lost in thought.
"What is it?" I asked, hoping to get some insight into why that was so important. Mayer looked up at me and after a moment, shrugged.
"Well, if it has only been twenty years over there, then he would still be alive." He said.
"He?"
"An old friend of mine, one of the past Champion candidates."
"Old friend?" I said, shocked. This guy knew the last generation of the Champion candidates? I hadn't even known there was a last generation until a few moments ago.
"Yeah. He was a brilliant man, not any older than you are. Absolutely brilliant he was. A real leader. A warrior the likes I had never seen before, and likely never will again." Meyers grinned to himself, memories flicking through his eyes, "His name was Ryan Hayes. Heard of him?" I frowned and shook my head.
"Unfortunate. I'm sure that he's off doing something real important." Mayer chuckled before picking up his tea and sipping on it again. As he did, a question popped into my mind.
"So, last night you said that you were sure that I wasn't part of the Champions? What did you mean?" I asked. As I said it, the man burst out into a fit of laughing, before finishing it in a cough and a grin heavy on his face.
"Oh no, I didn't mean that. You are definitely part of the Champions. I was talking more about what it was that they stand for." He said, chucking a bit before taking another sip.
"Stand for?" I said, eyebrow raised.
"Well. Ryan told me years ago that the Champion candidates were the best and brightest that Earth had to offer; 50 super geniuses from across your world." I frowned. That didn't sound quite right. I wasn't anywhere near smart enough to be called a super genius. I wasn't talented in any special way. What gives?
"Sorry to break it to you kid, but if you were one of these super geniuses you definitely wouldn't have stayed here for the night. No way I would've let you."
It was only a small village, probably only had a few hundred—if a thousand—residents all in small homes mostly made of wood. They were a little bit dumpy, ramshackle if you were being nice. They were off centre and not at all symmetrical, it seemed a lot like the houses were built with the wood in mind, rather than the house. It was an interesting sight, not quite civilised, but not like the houses made of garbage that you see in some places back on Earth.
Most importantly, it felt fundamentally different than what was back on Earth. It truly was a 'We're not in Kansas anymore' moment. What a strange feeling.
The streets were dirt, not that I expected any different, but I did expect there to be more people out. Just one or two, maybe. Maybe a bit of noise coming from a tavern or nearby home, but there was no sound at all, not a peep. It was most likely sometime in the early morning, but on Earth you could still find cars whizzing past on the main street. Things are different in this world, people actually slept.
It was still cool in the darkness of night, but the smells of the street made me crinkle my nose. They had clearly been heavily used by human and animal. You had to watch your step or you'd end up ankle deep in shit.
My body didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before, whilst I was dragging the stupid hammer. But there was quite a bit of soreness, soreness that I knew would most likely be extreme muscle pain by tomorrow. I was not looking forward to that. Not at all.
The old man didn't speak at all while we walked, so neither did I.
The air wasn't awkward, but the silence was still high strung. Questions to ask whirled in my mind, and I'm sure the other man had a similar amount. So, instead of taking in the open, silence was the only option.
Our steps resounded with the night, cutting through the darkness. It made me feel slightly less afraid walking through this town than if I were alone. I didn't have the best impression of the guy, and to be perfectly honest I still didn't that he'd even gotten close to torturing me... but he was growing on me. Mostly because I felt just a little safer around him.
We slowly approached a house that was just a little further away from the rest of the houses, but that wasn't really what distinguished it from the rest. The house was immaculate. It wasn't a mansion, of even as great as a modern home, but it was absolutely perfectly constructed. In comparison to the rest of the homes, this house's planks were all perfectly cut, exactly the same length as the rest and excellently constructed.
The old man did a little half jog up the few steps to the front porch, a jog that I tried to do but pain flared through my legs and I decided to slow it right down.
"Alright. This is my home, room at the end of the hall to the left is where you'll be staying. Tomorrow we'll talk." He turned to me, giving me one last glance before he disappeared into his house. I had assumed we were going to right into the talking, but it seemed like sleep was king.
I wasn't going to complain, I desperately wanted some sleep, even if I knew that I would feel horrible in the morning.
The allure of sleep dangling just in front of me, I stumbled down the relatively long hallway. It'd been furnished with nice things, small keepsakes I assumed, but rather minimalistic otherwise. I stumbled like I was absolutely smashed and wandering my way home, minus the nausea, thank god. Opening the door to the room, I was greeted with a decent sized bed, sheets neat and tidy, small bedside counter, a chest of drawers. I can't imagine that the old guy got visitors all that often, but this room was immaculate.
Not like I cared, I just about face planted into the bed, barely feeling its comfortable firmness before I began sleeping, clothed and all.
My eyes opened to a bright light shining through a massive window that I hadn't noticed and pain. Oh, the pain.
I sighed, before twitching a leg muscle to gauge how bad the pain was. And it was pretty bad, but not quite as bad as I thought it would be, which was nice, but the pain that was ever present was pretty horrible.
For a while, my body was in the state where it was just telling me not to move at all, holding me hostage in my comfortable bed. Just to spite my body, I started to force myself to move, and as I did, I was quickly greeted with a notification for my troubles.
[A Good Night's rest after a Long Day's Work: A lot happened yesterday, pushing yourself as hard as you could. However, a good night's rest did your body wonders. +1 Might and Agility]
Just as I started to complain about falling behind in Agility I gained some. This system is a weird one, granting so many stat ups didn't really fit in the way I thought it would have. Not like I was going to complain about it, even if it really was stupid.
I stored the idea in my 'ask old guy' folder and moved on. I started to move again, trying my best to be gentle on my aching and creaking muscles. I had never done so much physical exercise ever, not since I was a kid, at least.
The fire in my legs didn't go away when I stood, but I just ignored it the best I could at this point. Today was going to be interesting.
I brushed my clothes down with my hands subconsciously and a small cloud of dust appeared. I groaned, realising I'd just slept in the poor guy's sheets with my dusty ass clothes on. I'd have to try cleaning them later for him. I definitely needed to clean my clothes, they were practically coated in dust, so much that I couldn't even tell you where it all came from. I walked through a forest, for God's sake, not a bloody desert.
I shook my head and moved to the door. I was sure I hadn't closed it last night, so either it somehow closed on its own, or the old man was already up. I say "already" like I know what time it is, but really, I'm clueless. I'd guestimate around midday if I was to go on my sleeping habits from Earth.
Opening the door and then closing it behind me, I walked down to hallway while looking around. Now that there was proper light, I could see some of the little keepsakes that he had on shelves on the walls. I don't know if any of them were of any specific value, of if they were this world's version of souvenirs, but they sure were cool. Most of them I had absolutely no idea how to even describe, but a few of them were somewhat recognisable. Like, one of them was almost definitely a wand. It was intricately carved, in a way that for some reason felt like a young boy's handiwork, adorned in sharp edges in the engravings. Curious, I picked it up, examining it closer.
I wasn't going to actually do anything to it, seems like something an idiot would do, but it was fascinating. The engravings were a lot like what I saw on the hilt of my hammer. It was distinctly someone else. It gave tells to whose it was, but not quite enough to truly let me form a picture in my mind.
"Axen." a clear, voice spoke from behind me, startling me. Before I turned to see the old man standing there in casual clothes, leaning on the doorway to what looked like the lounge room. He looked at me curiously with a cup of some hot drink in his hands.
"Axen?"
"It was his name," the old man nodded towards the little wand, "he gave that to me as a gift for my 50th birthday." He smiled slightly a good memory it seemed.
"It's a wand isn't it? Isn't it valuable?" I asked, for some reason I wanted to know more. Holding this wand in my hands made me feel like I knew this Axen somehow. I wanted to know just a little bit more. Satiate my curiosity.
"Oh it is. It's worth enough to start a small war over." He chuckled as my eyes grew wide and I carefully placed the wand back on the little shelf it came off of, only daring to examine it from a distance.
"A wand is a valuable thing. Because only a few can make wands, only those born with the talent. To find the talent in the first place, you must be trained in shifting. There is no other way to tell," he paused to take a sip of what I assumed was some sort of tea, "Many years ago I taught a young boy the basics of shifting while I was on my way through a village. Turns out that he had the talent, and this was his first wand before he eventually grew out of it. He managed to track me down years later to give it to me. He turned out to be a fine man." The old man took another sip and chuckled, before turning to walk back into his lounge room.
I stood, somewhat stunned by the man's explanation. I don't know what shifting, was, but I'll mentally replace it with magic, for the time being. I'm not sure what I expected but wasn't he a little bit too nonchalant? He had this immensely valuable thing lying on a little shelf in a little wood shack in a small village. It sounded like he had forever changed this kid's life! A chance encounter, that was for sure.
For a moment before I walked away, I looked at the small, engraved wand one last time. Just for a moment, a flash of recognition hit, a small boy with fiery red hair that looked like an explosion on his head grinned like a maniac, holding his prized possession in his hands, a carved wand.
Then it disappeared.
Wands can do cool memory stuff. Noted.
I turned and followed the old man into the lounge room, finding myself in the nicest part of the house. The place practically oozed comfort. It felt cosy just looking at it. The walls were adorned with bookshelves and books, maps and a hundred other points of interest. If the wand was anything to go off of, then these walls were likely lined with incredibly valuable things, one way or another.
The old man sat in a recliner, something that I was somewhat surprised by. I guess theoretically it wouldn't be all that hard to make even with little technology. Regardless, he was sitting down by a fireplace, without the fire going of course, it was the middle of the day and it wasn't even cold.
I eyed the chair sitting just opposite of him, over a small coffee-table that had his cup of tea on it. I walked over to the chair, but before I could sit, the old man stood up straight and extended his hand.
I wasn't really sure what to make of it, but I hesitantly grabbed his hand, and he gave it a small but firm shake.
"Mayer Renue." He said.
"Maximilian Avenforth. Max." I said, following the trend of being succinct.
Mayer sat back down in his chair gently, and so did I, letting my legs rest once again, the pain slowly subsiding. There was a slow silence. I wasn't sure what the silence meant, but I wasn't going to be the one to break it. He could start with the questions. Mayer grunted, seemingly in understanding that he had to start and stopped to think for a second before speaking.
"You're from Earth?" I was shocked a moment, before remembering that he seemed pretty knowledgeable about my situation, so I just nodded.
"Year?" He asked. I frowned, a strange question, but something I could answer, nonetheless.
"2019. Why?" When he heard my answer, he let out a low whistle and sunk into his seat for a moment, in thought. He resurfaced from his thoughts after a second.
"It's been seventy years here since the last Champion War happened. But for you, the last one happened in 1999."
"Huh, looks like Earth and…" I trailed off, realising I didn't know the name of this world.
"Virsdis." Mayer chimed in.
"Virsdis are on different time streams or whatever. Wouldn't that mean that we aren't really in the same universe? Is this another dimension entirely?" I asked, somewhat confused. This was a little bit too much like time travel for my liking. Time travel always ruins a good story.
"To be honest, I have no damn clue. This is the work of Gods, I have no doubt they have the answer, but Gods are notoriously tight lipped." The old man placed his hand on his chin, stroking his beardless face. Lost in thought.
"What is it?" I asked, hoping to get some insight into why that was so important. Mayer looked up at me and after a moment, shrugged.
"Well, if it has only been twenty years over there, then he would still be alive." He said.
"He?"
"An old friend of mine, one of the past Champion candidates."
"Old friend?" I said, shocked. This guy knew the last generation of the Champion candidates? I hadn't even known there was a last generation until a few moments ago.
"Yeah. He was a brilliant man, not any older than you are. Absolutely brilliant he was. A real leader. A warrior the likes I had never seen before, and likely never will again." Meyers grinned to himself, memories flicking through his eyes, "His name was Ryan Hayes. Heard of him?" I frowned and shook my head.
"Unfortunate. I'm sure that he's off doing something real important." Mayer chuckled before picking up his tea and sipping on it again. As he did, a question popped into my mind.
"So, last night you said that you were sure that I wasn't part of the Champions? What did you mean?" I asked. As I said it, the man burst out into a fit of laughing, before finishing it in a cough and a grin heavy on his face.
"Oh no, I didn't mean that. You are definitely part of the Champions. I was talking more about what it was that they stand for." He said, chucking a bit before taking another sip.
"Stand for?" I said, eyebrow raised.
"Well. Ryan told me years ago that the Champion candidates were the best and brightest that Earth had to offer; 50 super geniuses from across your world." I frowned. That didn't sound quite right. I wasn't anywhere near smart enough to be called a super genius. I wasn't talented in any special way. What gives?
"Sorry to break it to you kid, but if you were one of these super geniuses you definitely wouldn't have stayed here for the night. No way I would've let you."
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Chapter 7: God Gossip
Chapter 7: God Gossip
My eyebrow flew up. An unasked question spoken and Mayer rolled his eyes obnoxiously.
"No, I wouldn't have killed you. The Champions, in general, are wickedly smart. They are masters of multiple intellectual fields. Sometimes they are masters of combat, tactics, and social intrigue. They are geniuses among geniuses, and do not make mistakes as large as not surmising that you could unsummon a Soul Weapon. Even if they were subjected to terrible torture. I should know, I've seen it myself. They aren't infallible by any means though." The older man held my gaze thoughtfully, before returning to sipping on his tea.
"What does that mean about me though? If it was supposed to be a group of the elite from my world, why am I here?"
"No idea. In the end there may not even be a specific reason at all. Gods aren't any different than humans in their temperament. If anything, they're worse. They take perceived slights to heart, smiting hundreds of people at once if they feel like they have been personally slandered, though they do have their limits. However, they've also made a random beggar the king of a country. They are random and work in ways that, if they make sense at all, allude us. It is quite possible you being here is just pure random chance." The man shrugged.
Well that's not exactly a super fulfilling thing to hear. Being told about a grand quest of some sort would be ideal right about now, something to set my aspirations to. But being told that you are just here by pure ass? It's disheartening. It lacks the purpose that the other candidates have. Wait-
"Wait, so what's the actual goal here? Why are the rest of the people here?" I asked, desperately clawing at my memory to gleam something to use as an answer but came up with nothing.
"Well, according to Ryan, that God was talking about a magical age coming to your home world. So, in defence, the God wants to find a capable leader for the planet to rely upon going into the magical age. It doesn't sound quite right to me, and Ryan agreed it was bullshit, but we never really talked about it further." I furrowed my brow. Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. It didn't really seem all that legitimate to me, like for example, how far away is this coming of the magical age supposed to be? It had been 20 years on Earth since the last wave of candidates, what had stopped this magical wave from coming then? Was this really as cut and dry the God made it out to be?
But the reverse was true, he was a God, who was I to be distrustful?
It was a trust game, one that goes around in circles, round and round with no end. Hence, I decided to not play by walking the fence. There were more things that were far more interesting than this God, what about–
"Other Gods? Are there a lot in this world?" I asked. The existence of Gods was an interesting prospect for me. Traditionally, I have believed through my life that the existence of a God is unproven. Until proven otherwise, I would reserve my thoughts on the matter. But now I have been given ample proof, and so I now wanted to know more. It was possibly the largest change from Earth to Virsdis; the possibility of active Gods.
"Oh boy, there are so many Gods that I couldn't even give you a number. Nor would I even bother." He chuckled at himself before continuing, "Turns out, that when one culture believes in a Sun God, that God is created if there is ample belief. Now, when another culture believes in a remarkably similar Sun God, only with slight differences, it doesn't just take the original Sun God and add power to them. Instead, another entire God is born." Mayer shook his head, as if lamenting the wastefulness.
"That sounds… confusing?"
"Damn right it is. There are probably a few hundred Sun Gods. They actually have Courts for Gods that have more than a manageable number of peers. There are many whose life's work is trying to unravel the hierarchy of the Gods and their Courts. Usually by examining whatever God related material that they can get their hands on. It is admittedly interesting, when it comes down to it."
So, Gods had their own whole thing going on. I honestly didn't know if this information would ever be useful. I almost wanted it to be. Inter-God Court politics sound exceptionally interesting but maybe I've just watched too many lawyer TV series for my own good. To be honest, I was hooked. I was way in on the God gossip.
"What about a God that is the complete opposite? A God type with only one iteration." At that Mayer thought for a moment. It obvious that he didn't really think about these questions all that often.
"Hmm, well. There are a lot of stragglers that are their own types, not really fitting into any particular Court. But they generally don't have much of a following, they don't have the same cultural span that, say, the Harvest Gods have. Everyone cares about having a good harvest. Not many care about something obscure like a God of Pots." He chuckled at that. It was obvious that he was actually serious about that last one.
"What about a big one though? Like one that commands the same sort of leverage that a Sun God does? Do they exist?" Mayer sipped his cup and smiled.
"The Death God. The one and only. Old Arun does not share titles."
Figures it was the God of Death who was the edgy lone wolf.
"Arun is one of the only Gods to seriously interact on a functional level with the material plane. Whenever someone is dying, they know, because Arun is always standing there, waiting to take you to the other side. Seen him a few times myself, spooks you pretty bad the first time—but the times after that… its almost like seeing an old friend."
Mayer took one last sip of his cup, finally finishing it. It almost felt like a sand hourglass in a way. The ending of the tea meant the day had started. Mayer stood up from his seat and started to walk around. After a minute or two he popped his head into the lounge room.
"Time to get the day started. Can't be sitting around talking all day."
My eyebrow flew up. An unasked question spoken and Mayer rolled his eyes obnoxiously.
"No, I wouldn't have killed you. The Champions, in general, are wickedly smart. They are masters of multiple intellectual fields. Sometimes they are masters of combat, tactics, and social intrigue. They are geniuses among geniuses, and do not make mistakes as large as not surmising that you could unsummon a Soul Weapon. Even if they were subjected to terrible torture. I should know, I've seen it myself. They aren't infallible by any means though." The older man held my gaze thoughtfully, before returning to sipping on his tea.
"What does that mean about me though? If it was supposed to be a group of the elite from my world, why am I here?"
"No idea. In the end there may not even be a specific reason at all. Gods aren't any different than humans in their temperament. If anything, they're worse. They take perceived slights to heart, smiting hundreds of people at once if they feel like they have been personally slandered, though they do have their limits. However, they've also made a random beggar the king of a country. They are random and work in ways that, if they make sense at all, allude us. It is quite possible you being here is just pure random chance." The man shrugged.
Well that's not exactly a super fulfilling thing to hear. Being told about a grand quest of some sort would be ideal right about now, something to set my aspirations to. But being told that you are just here by pure ass? It's disheartening. It lacks the purpose that the other candidates have. Wait-
"Wait, so what's the actual goal here? Why are the rest of the people here?" I asked, desperately clawing at my memory to gleam something to use as an answer but came up with nothing.
"Well, according to Ryan, that God was talking about a magical age coming to your home world. So, in defence, the God wants to find a capable leader for the planet to rely upon going into the magical age. It doesn't sound quite right to me, and Ryan agreed it was bullshit, but we never really talked about it further." I furrowed my brow. Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. It didn't really seem all that legitimate to me, like for example, how far away is this coming of the magical age supposed to be? It had been 20 years on Earth since the last wave of candidates, what had stopped this magical wave from coming then? Was this really as cut and dry the God made it out to be?
But the reverse was true, he was a God, who was I to be distrustful?
It was a trust game, one that goes around in circles, round and round with no end. Hence, I decided to not play by walking the fence. There were more things that were far more interesting than this God, what about–
"Other Gods? Are there a lot in this world?" I asked. The existence of Gods was an interesting prospect for me. Traditionally, I have believed through my life that the existence of a God is unproven. Until proven otherwise, I would reserve my thoughts on the matter. But now I have been given ample proof, and so I now wanted to know more. It was possibly the largest change from Earth to Virsdis; the possibility of active Gods.
"Oh boy, there are so many Gods that I couldn't even give you a number. Nor would I even bother." He chuckled at himself before continuing, "Turns out, that when one culture believes in a Sun God, that God is created if there is ample belief. Now, when another culture believes in a remarkably similar Sun God, only with slight differences, it doesn't just take the original Sun God and add power to them. Instead, another entire God is born." Mayer shook his head, as if lamenting the wastefulness.
"That sounds… confusing?"
"Damn right it is. There are probably a few hundred Sun Gods. They actually have Courts for Gods that have more than a manageable number of peers. There are many whose life's work is trying to unravel the hierarchy of the Gods and their Courts. Usually by examining whatever God related material that they can get their hands on. It is admittedly interesting, when it comes down to it."
So, Gods had their own whole thing going on. I honestly didn't know if this information would ever be useful. I almost wanted it to be. Inter-God Court politics sound exceptionally interesting but maybe I've just watched too many lawyer TV series for my own good. To be honest, I was hooked. I was way in on the God gossip.
"What about a God that is the complete opposite? A God type with only one iteration." At that Mayer thought for a moment. It obvious that he didn't really think about these questions all that often.
"Hmm, well. There are a lot of stragglers that are their own types, not really fitting into any particular Court. But they generally don't have much of a following, they don't have the same cultural span that, say, the Harvest Gods have. Everyone cares about having a good harvest. Not many care about something obscure like a God of Pots." He chuckled at that. It was obvious that he was actually serious about that last one.
"What about a big one though? Like one that commands the same sort of leverage that a Sun God does? Do they exist?" Mayer sipped his cup and smiled.
"The Death God. The one and only. Old Arun does not share titles."
Figures it was the God of Death who was the edgy lone wolf.
"Arun is one of the only Gods to seriously interact on a functional level with the material plane. Whenever someone is dying, they know, because Arun is always standing there, waiting to take you to the other side. Seen him a few times myself, spooks you pretty bad the first time—but the times after that… its almost like seeing an old friend."
Mayer took one last sip of his cup, finally finishing it. It almost felt like a sand hourglass in a way. The ending of the tea meant the day had started. Mayer stood up from his seat and started to walk around. After a minute or two he popped his head into the lounge room.
"Time to get the day started. Can't be sitting around talking all day."
Chapter 8: The Beginning of Pain
Chapter 8: The Beginning of Pain
Mayer rushed me out the door, like a cattle dog herding… well, cattle.
The small town was a lot fuller than during the night. Residents were milling about, taking care of their daily tasks and doing their work.
The townsfolk were all dressed from brutally practical, probably for work and work only, all the way to half decent. Frocks and tunics seemed to be all the fashion, and my clothing even seemed nice in comparison to some.
"Hey Mayer." I called out to the stoically silent man. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "What is this town even called?"
"It doesn't have a name. We're at the very end of a trade road, between two larger settlements. All the towns down these roads are called road towns, imaginatively. There are too many to keep track of, and no one to officialise it." He shrugged.
Well, that was enlightening.
Speaking of trade, I wonder if there was proper trade? This town was on that border of civilised and not quite civilised that made it difficult to tell. Mayer had said that there were other towns, larger settlements even. That meant that there had to be trade of some sort. Its possible that it was trade without use of coins, just goods for other goods, or a de facto good to trade like wheat or something.
As we walked down the dirt street, there were quite a few looks from the townsfolk, eyeing me up—trying to figure out who I was or where I was from, I'd assume. However, once they saw who I was with, they seemed to become entirely uninterested in who I was. Which was interesting.
I'd picked up that Mayer was a little understated on his reputation. He wore the clothes of a normal resident; he even looked the part. But if his home was anything to go by—not to mention his magic—he was more than just that. There was also the wand, because honestly, if that didn't trip someone's "holy shit this guy isn't what he seems" sensor, then I want what they're smoking.
Plus, he also knew Ryan, a past Champion, which means something. I'm just not sure what exactly.
"Um, what are we doing?" I honestly didn't know what to expect for an answer to this question.
"What do you mean, what are we doing? We're going to do some farm work!" Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that.
"Farm work? Uh, why exactly?" I didn't quite understand why Mayer seemed to think that it was so obvious.
"Why else, to pull your weight. You aren't here for free kid." Mayer laughed evilly.
Oh no, this isn't going to be fun, is it.
Holy shit. Kill me already.
I swear to God, or Gods or whatever, this guy is trying to kill me. Not Mayer, he's off doing something else, the slack bastard.
No, it's this other guy, mid-thirties probably and a hard taskmaster. Currently I was using the horned edge of my hammer to break up the earth to plant something in. No idea and can't even bring myself to care.
If there was any way to kill all wonder that you have about a new world with magic, its to work yourself silly. Show you just how undeveloped this world's technology is.
The work was plain body destroying. I was being used in place of a damn horse, doing at least two peoples work, maybe three. The constant strain was unrelenting. I couldn't even use all the little techniques that I'd picked up to help manage the weight, because I was actually using the weight to break the earth. I had to use all my strength to keep the hammer in control at all.
If I hit one little pebble that didn't give in to the weight, then my hammer goes veering off course. Originally, I had tried to pull it along using all of my body weight cartoon style which was—as you could guess—colossally stupid.
The hammer didn't actually stay deep enough into the dirt. Meaning that, when it hit anything, it'd be pushed off course or up out of the earth and right onto my foot.
So now my foot hurts like all hell. Probably not broken. Probably.
I had already spent hours doing this. It was ridiculous, even in comparison to yesterday's exertion. It was worse even. Plus, I hadn't exactly fully recovered, my muscles were still sore when I woke up, so I was already working with a deficit.
I can't possibly imagine that Mayer actually cares all that much about me immediately pulling my weight. Especially not as soon as I stepped foot in the town. He definitely has an ulterior motive. Well, ulterior makes it sound worse than I mean. He obviously knows something more than I do, and he's not telling me for whatever reason, most likely to watch me squirm.
My best theory is that he knows more about the stats than I do. It had become more likely that either only select beings had access to the stat screen or literally only the Champion candidates do. Simply because no-one seems to act the way that you'd think they would with the ability to upgrade your stats. For one, horses were still used for labour, which would be absurd because the farmer would be as strong as a bull from even basic achievements. So, I highly doubted that the average person had the screen. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that people without the stat screen cannot achieve great strength. I'm not sure how life with a stat screen compares with one without here.
Is the screen only an advantage with no drawbacks? It seems like it, at least from where I am so far. Though... what happens when achievements are getting harder and harder to get? Does the screen start to show its downsides?
There is no reason to overthink things for now. Except, overthinking things is the only thing keeping my mind off of the searing pain in my legs right now. So let's return to overthinking things.
I was also somewhat hesitant to call the screen a system. A system is more like a network of things, many different components all converging to create one functioning machine. But I've been given no real indication that this screen is anything other than a stupid–
"Max!" A voice called, breaking me from my overthinking loop. I looked over to Mayer, eyes scalding hot with mock hate at being left to this torture. Mayer didn't seem to care, jumping the low fence and coming over close to me and looking at me oddly.
"Am I done? Can I go rest?" I said, exasperated and more than a little tired. Mayer Held out a hand, making me pause as I started to put down my hammer. I stared directly at Mayer, quirking an eyebrow inquisitively, preparing a question.
"Stay still for a second." Mayer held deadly still; his eyes locked with mine. A few seconds and I started to feel uncomfortable, a few seconds after that I began to be confused, a few seconds after that, intimidation, then finally-
[A Day on the Farm: A day on the farm is hard, especially if you're the horse pulling the plow. Oh wait, you were. +3 Might]
My mouth opened ever so slightly, not enough to notice anything, I would have thought anyway.
"It worked, didn't it?" Mayer said, a crafty grin on his face. I had no choice but to nod. Once I did, the older man's face lit up with a genuine grin.
"That means that it hasn't changed since Ryan was around, or at least not this part. Now that I know that its roughly the same, I can help you at least a little." The old man looked at the farmer and nodded in appreciation, and the farmer dipped his head deeper, more a sign of respect than acknowledgement.
"So, you know about the stat screen?" I said, not actually asking, just really moving the conversation forwards. Mayer nodded.
"Me and Ryan spent hours figuring the thing out. It was an interesting time. Turns out, two heads were better than one. Ryan abused that shitty screen all he could." My eyes widened.
"Ryan thought it was a bad system too?" Mayer laughed quietly.
"Yeah, he was always ranting and raving about it being unscalable and unnecessarily restrictive. He hated that it didn't reward training and practice naturally. Always said it was a ball and chain, but you Champions don't have much choice." I scrunched my eyebrows together, confused.
"Does that mean it isn't strong?" I asked but Mayer quickly shook his head.
"No, you can get extraordinarily powerful with the screen, as you are. The last Champions were uniquely powerful by the time the Champion War started in earnest. But Ryan loved to theorise about how much more progress he could have made if he could train and progress naturally." Mayer chuckled.
I guess even Ryan thought that the screen was as bad as I thought it was. I... didn't know how to feel about that. I felt like I'd been robbed of something. I couldn't help but wonder if Ryan had felt the same, being boiled down to three numbers and some stupid achievements. I sighed heavily.
Well, even so. If Ryan could get powerful with this shitty stat screen, then I could too. I hope.
A/N: Hey there for the second time today! The last chapter was really short, and I felt bad, so here's a second one to satiate the thirst you may or may not have for this story!
A quick notice as well; I have been feeling pretty unwell these past few days, resulting in a General Practitioner visit. I had to go get myself a COVID-19 test, which was unpleasant with a sore throat, but at least the nose part was fine. Seeing as I live in Australia, where COVID-19 has a very low case number, and that my symptoms are significantly improving already, I'll likely be fine—but just in case I don't post for any reason, you can assume that I either tested positive and are working on figuring that mess out, or I'm just feeling terrible.
Regardless of my plight, I hope you beautiful people are all having an excellent day!
Mayer rushed me out the door, like a cattle dog herding… well, cattle.
The small town was a lot fuller than during the night. Residents were milling about, taking care of their daily tasks and doing their work.
The townsfolk were all dressed from brutally practical, probably for work and work only, all the way to half decent. Frocks and tunics seemed to be all the fashion, and my clothing even seemed nice in comparison to some.
"Hey Mayer." I called out to the stoically silent man. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "What is this town even called?"
"It doesn't have a name. We're at the very end of a trade road, between two larger settlements. All the towns down these roads are called road towns, imaginatively. There are too many to keep track of, and no one to officialise it." He shrugged.
Well, that was enlightening.
Speaking of trade, I wonder if there was proper trade? This town was on that border of civilised and not quite civilised that made it difficult to tell. Mayer had said that there were other towns, larger settlements even. That meant that there had to be trade of some sort. Its possible that it was trade without use of coins, just goods for other goods, or a de facto good to trade like wheat or something.
As we walked down the dirt street, there were quite a few looks from the townsfolk, eyeing me up—trying to figure out who I was or where I was from, I'd assume. However, once they saw who I was with, they seemed to become entirely uninterested in who I was. Which was interesting.
I'd picked up that Mayer was a little understated on his reputation. He wore the clothes of a normal resident; he even looked the part. But if his home was anything to go by—not to mention his magic—he was more than just that. There was also the wand, because honestly, if that didn't trip someone's "holy shit this guy isn't what he seems" sensor, then I want what they're smoking.
Plus, he also knew Ryan, a past Champion, which means something. I'm just not sure what exactly.
"Um, what are we doing?" I honestly didn't know what to expect for an answer to this question.
"What do you mean, what are we doing? We're going to do some farm work!" Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that.
"Farm work? Uh, why exactly?" I didn't quite understand why Mayer seemed to think that it was so obvious.
"Why else, to pull your weight. You aren't here for free kid." Mayer laughed evilly.
Oh no, this isn't going to be fun, is it.
---
Holy shit. Kill me already.
I swear to God, or Gods or whatever, this guy is trying to kill me. Not Mayer, he's off doing something else, the slack bastard.
No, it's this other guy, mid-thirties probably and a hard taskmaster. Currently I was using the horned edge of my hammer to break up the earth to plant something in. No idea and can't even bring myself to care.
If there was any way to kill all wonder that you have about a new world with magic, its to work yourself silly. Show you just how undeveloped this world's technology is.
The work was plain body destroying. I was being used in place of a damn horse, doing at least two peoples work, maybe three. The constant strain was unrelenting. I couldn't even use all the little techniques that I'd picked up to help manage the weight, because I was actually using the weight to break the earth. I had to use all my strength to keep the hammer in control at all.
If I hit one little pebble that didn't give in to the weight, then my hammer goes veering off course. Originally, I had tried to pull it along using all of my body weight cartoon style which was—as you could guess—colossally stupid.
The hammer didn't actually stay deep enough into the dirt. Meaning that, when it hit anything, it'd be pushed off course or up out of the earth and right onto my foot.
So now my foot hurts like all hell. Probably not broken. Probably.
I had already spent hours doing this. It was ridiculous, even in comparison to yesterday's exertion. It was worse even. Plus, I hadn't exactly fully recovered, my muscles were still sore when I woke up, so I was already working with a deficit.
I can't possibly imagine that Mayer actually cares all that much about me immediately pulling my weight. Especially not as soon as I stepped foot in the town. He definitely has an ulterior motive. Well, ulterior makes it sound worse than I mean. He obviously knows something more than I do, and he's not telling me for whatever reason, most likely to watch me squirm.
My best theory is that he knows more about the stats than I do. It had become more likely that either only select beings had access to the stat screen or literally only the Champion candidates do. Simply because no-one seems to act the way that you'd think they would with the ability to upgrade your stats. For one, horses were still used for labour, which would be absurd because the farmer would be as strong as a bull from even basic achievements. So, I highly doubted that the average person had the screen. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that people without the stat screen cannot achieve great strength. I'm not sure how life with a stat screen compares with one without here.
Is the screen only an advantage with no drawbacks? It seems like it, at least from where I am so far. Though... what happens when achievements are getting harder and harder to get? Does the screen start to show its downsides?
There is no reason to overthink things for now. Except, overthinking things is the only thing keeping my mind off of the searing pain in my legs right now. So let's return to overthinking things.
I was also somewhat hesitant to call the screen a system. A system is more like a network of things, many different components all converging to create one functioning machine. But I've been given no real indication that this screen is anything other than a stupid–
"Max!" A voice called, breaking me from my overthinking loop. I looked over to Mayer, eyes scalding hot with mock hate at being left to this torture. Mayer didn't seem to care, jumping the low fence and coming over close to me and looking at me oddly.
"Am I done? Can I go rest?" I said, exasperated and more than a little tired. Mayer Held out a hand, making me pause as I started to put down my hammer. I stared directly at Mayer, quirking an eyebrow inquisitively, preparing a question.
"Stay still for a second." Mayer held deadly still; his eyes locked with mine. A few seconds and I started to feel uncomfortable, a few seconds after that I began to be confused, a few seconds after that, intimidation, then finally-
[A Day on the Farm: A day on the farm is hard, especially if you're the horse pulling the plow. Oh wait, you were. +3 Might]
My mouth opened ever so slightly, not enough to notice anything, I would have thought anyway.
"It worked, didn't it?" Mayer said, a crafty grin on his face. I had no choice but to nod. Once I did, the older man's face lit up with a genuine grin.
"That means that it hasn't changed since Ryan was around, or at least not this part. Now that I know that its roughly the same, I can help you at least a little." The old man looked at the farmer and nodded in appreciation, and the farmer dipped his head deeper, more a sign of respect than acknowledgement.
"So, you know about the stat screen?" I said, not actually asking, just really moving the conversation forwards. Mayer nodded.
"Me and Ryan spent hours figuring the thing out. It was an interesting time. Turns out, two heads were better than one. Ryan abused that shitty screen all he could." My eyes widened.
"Ryan thought it was a bad system too?" Mayer laughed quietly.
"Yeah, he was always ranting and raving about it being unscalable and unnecessarily restrictive. He hated that it didn't reward training and practice naturally. Always said it was a ball and chain, but you Champions don't have much choice." I scrunched my eyebrows together, confused.
"Does that mean it isn't strong?" I asked but Mayer quickly shook his head.
"No, you can get extraordinarily powerful with the screen, as you are. The last Champions were uniquely powerful by the time the Champion War started in earnest. But Ryan loved to theorise about how much more progress he could have made if he could train and progress naturally." Mayer chuckled.
I guess even Ryan thought that the screen was as bad as I thought it was. I... didn't know how to feel about that. I felt like I'd been robbed of something. I couldn't help but wonder if Ryan had felt the same, being boiled down to three numbers and some stupid achievements. I sighed heavily.
Well, even so. If Ryan could get powerful with this shitty stat screen, then I could too. I hope.
A/N: Hey there for the second time today! The last chapter was really short, and I felt bad, so here's a second one to satiate the thirst you may or may not have for this story!
A quick notice as well; I have been feeling pretty unwell these past few days, resulting in a General Practitioner visit. I had to go get myself a COVID-19 test, which was unpleasant with a sore throat, but at least the nose part was fine. Seeing as I live in Australia, where COVID-19 has a very low case number, and that my symptoms are significantly improving already, I'll likely be fine—but just in case I don't post for any reason, you can assume that I either tested positive and are working on figuring that mess out, or I'm just feeling terrible.
Regardless of my plight, I hope you beautiful people are all having an excellent day!
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Chapter 9: About a Bet
Chapter 9: About a Bet
I woke in Mayer's guestroom, a radiant day to greet me through the large window. How lovely.
Aside from the pain, but that was quite alright. I could deal with a little bit of pain, but what I wasn't sure I could deal with was Mayer.
How the hell was I going to do anything even close to as extreme as what I did yesterday. My body was royally fucked, beyond belief. My muscles felt like they had been torn in half and sewn back together again. I glared at my stats, bloody minded. So much for being a videogame character.
I sighed to myself and pushed myself up from the comfortable bed. I didn't have much of a choice. If Mayer had a plan, then I could do nothing but to follow it. He seemed like a nice enough guy, all in all—I just don't know how he'd take me saying no. I don't know him well enough to even speculate.
Each step I took made me feel like I was bleeding from my pores. I don't think I've ever been in this much muscle pain in my life.
I trudged over to my clothes—laying on the floor where I dumped them yesterday—and I put them on. I moved the shirt over my head slowly, trying not to agitate my arm or back muscles in the process.
Walking through the surprisingly heavy door of the guest room, I made my way to the living room—where I knew the devil himself would be, lounging about drinking tea. Only stopping before the doorway to catch my breath before I willingly walked into hell. I took a deep breath in, trying to relieve myself of the worry that comes with every new day on this planet. I exhaled and walked through the doorway, greeted with the sight of the older man sipping on tea and reading a book that seemed relatively old.
"Ah, young Maximilian. Nice to see that you have awoken from your slumber." The old man said in a mockery of what seemed like a rich, posh asswipe. Looks like things stay constant amongst worlds, there still existed the pompous rich and those that mocked them. Though Mayer's accent was rough around the edges to say the least.
"Oh yes, my dear Mayer. I had just a wonderous dream! It was truly spectacular. You see, it was a dream in which my poor old body didn't have to move itself today! No pain and a great deal of resting for me—insanity, I know." I said, doing my best true posh English accent, a little bit frilly to add a pompous air to it. Mayer looked at me, mutely surprised. He raised an eyebrow, a small smile working its way onto his face.
"You're pretty good at that, are you highborn in your world? I assumed you were a commoner based on your accent." He asked curiously. I scoffed imperiously at his disparagement of the Australian accent. Which only happened to be entirely true. I let a grin grow on my face, settling into the day's more relaxed atmosphere.
"No. Not even remotely. I come from Australia in my world. Australia isn't a big fan of Kings and Queens. A lot of the values of our country come from harshly exiled criminals. Those exiles originally came from a country called England, which was a powerhouse on a global scale back in the day. Our accents are derived from their accents. Why?" I said. Mayer's face entered thought mode.
"The origin of this world is quite similar to you own country. Many people that did not conform were sent through to this planet as way of execution. It has been around two or three generations since then, I think. What was once a collection of murderers and thieves—most for moral or lawful reasons, mind you—is now an actual functioning world. To an extent." Mayer chucked lightly. I laughed too.
"Let me guess, it's still a bit of a jungle out here. Lots of crime, lots of lawless areas?"
"Precisely, hence why I am here on this rock—instead of the other one." Now it was my turn to frown. I had sort of assumed that Mayer was a bit of a lord here. He seemed to be treated quite well by the townsfolk, judging by the look he'd gotten and the scant conversations I'd overheard. I wouldn't be surprised if he had such a position.
"You are the lord of this place, right?" Mayer looked at me dumbfounded.
"Of course not, I couldn't ever be the lord of anything. I don't think that I'd ever be able to deal with the social parties and conniving, political interactions all day. I think it'd melt my brain inside my skull from the mixture of boredom and bitterness. I just hold a sword and hit people with it real good—otherwise I'm a bit of a chump." Mayer laughed at himself, giving me a distinct impression that he was way underselling himself.
"So, then why are you here? What is it that could pull you over here if you aren't interested in capturing a slice of land and ruling it zealously?" The old man's face twisted into a grin.
"Because this is where all the nasty beasties are. And where the nasty besties are, I usually am."
"Oh," I said, not enlightened but more of a 'I probably should have just guessed that one' kind of 'Oh'. "So, I assume that this place is used as execution lands for particularly devious criminals or naysayers. A kind of ultimate punishment then?"
"In a way. All sorts were sent here years ago because of some war that happened, but now there aren't really any being sent anymore. Those over there," Mayer pointed in the rough direction of the other planet, orbiting this one, "have forgotten about the people they sent here, which I can't help but find interesting."
"Interesting? Why?" Mayer took a deep sip of his tea, thinking for a moment.
"Well, on that other rock floating around this one—Orisis—they haven't even found out that countries are forming on Virsdis yet. For years, one of the things that has been keeping some of those countries politically stable has been wanting to get back on Orisis." I looked at him confusedly.
"Why would Virsdis want to go back to Orisis? They'd get into a war as soon as they stepped a toe on Orisis. There is no way that Orisis will take kindly to it, and I can only assume that Orisis is far more powerful in general. Teleporting across worlds can't be that easy, right?" Mayer nodded, crossing his arms after placing down his tea.
"Well, life is hard here. Many believe that if they could simply get back to Orisis, their life would be made easier. Some people want war, to strike back against those that once oppressed them. But the real push comes from those that have made their way into power. For years they have been convincing others that war with Orisis is inevitable and important, even. Honour is a massively important feature to Orisian culture and Virsdis is much the same." My eyes widened, dumbfounded.
"I'm going to be honest. That sounds like just a bad idea on all fronts. What stake does the average Virsdisian have in this whole war scenario? Are they just going to throw themselves at Orisis, farming hoe first? Against a society that can send people to a planet they orbit?" Mayer laughed lightly.
"I suspect so, boy. Orisian honour lives strong on Virsdis. They want to take from Orisis, rightfully so. But it's a difficult political matter. Many only have revenge to guide them. Those that live on this world are only a few generations deep. The wound is still raw." I rubbed my face in exasperation, plopping myself down in the chair opposite Mayer dejectedly.
"Mayer, you said that this happened a few generations ago. What about all the people that grew up here, never knowing Orisis, never knowing what it was like? Never really understanding what it was that happened over there aside from stories told by their Mother and Father. Maybe they hate Orisis in their parent's stead. Maybe they would even stick a spear into a man's gut for their parent's honour. But what about their children? When it is a story that grandpa once told dad who is telling them? Would they have the same hate that their father has in their great grandfather's stead? What about the generation after that? Do they remember at all? Or was it just something they heard about from a friend's Dad?" The man held his hands up in surrender against the barrage of frustrated questioning, consoling me with a look.
"I understand, Max. I do. But even after generations this will be a political goal for King after King. It will only be a few more generations until something is produced, and then a war will begin, if it hadn't begun before then. With the next Champion War somewhere on the horizon I wouldn't be surprised if it gets significantly interrupted. But, well, there are also other reasons to want to leave Virsdis, Max." I quirked an eyebrow at that, ready to hear some silly response, but what I got was a… little more compelling.
"On Virsdis there is an ancient race called the Nightfell. They are few in number but are immensely powerful. There are only legends of old warriors fighting against them and eventually banishing them to Virsdis. They live on the dark side of Virsdis, a place so dangerous that I'd need to think twice about going." His face was deadly serious. Not a silly response then.
"These Nightfell… how powerful are we talking?" I asked hesitantly.
"More than powerful enough to make Champions stay away from them in the last wave. It has been seventy years since then, and they haven't gotten any weaker." He responded dryly. I grimaced, realising I'd been working on half the information. Mayer hadn't told me, but still.
Then I remembered back to my first day here, as I looked up at the beautiful sight of Orisis' night cloaked sky as it orbited across Virsdis' vision of the sun.
I had made a bet. A stupid, stupid bet. The words echoed in in my ears, even as I scrunched my face in embarrassment.
'If this world was a stereotypical game, that'd be where the 'Demon Lords' were, right?'
"God damnit, why'd I have to jinx myself." I grumbled, and Mayer raised a bushy eyebrow in response.
A/N: Hey, hey people! I'm glad to say that I feel significantly better than I have the past few days, as well as receiving my COVID-19 test results with the news we all wanted to hear…
Negative!
Hope you all have a great rest of your day!
I woke in Mayer's guestroom, a radiant day to greet me through the large window. How lovely.
Aside from the pain, but that was quite alright. I could deal with a little bit of pain, but what I wasn't sure I could deal with was Mayer.
How the hell was I going to do anything even close to as extreme as what I did yesterday. My body was royally fucked, beyond belief. My muscles felt like they had been torn in half and sewn back together again. I glared at my stats, bloody minded. So much for being a videogame character.
I sighed to myself and pushed myself up from the comfortable bed. I didn't have much of a choice. If Mayer had a plan, then I could do nothing but to follow it. He seemed like a nice enough guy, all in all—I just don't know how he'd take me saying no. I don't know him well enough to even speculate.
Each step I took made me feel like I was bleeding from my pores. I don't think I've ever been in this much muscle pain in my life.
I trudged over to my clothes—laying on the floor where I dumped them yesterday—and I put them on. I moved the shirt over my head slowly, trying not to agitate my arm or back muscles in the process.
Walking through the surprisingly heavy door of the guest room, I made my way to the living room—where I knew the devil himself would be, lounging about drinking tea. Only stopping before the doorway to catch my breath before I willingly walked into hell. I took a deep breath in, trying to relieve myself of the worry that comes with every new day on this planet. I exhaled and walked through the doorway, greeted with the sight of the older man sipping on tea and reading a book that seemed relatively old.
"Ah, young Maximilian. Nice to see that you have awoken from your slumber." The old man said in a mockery of what seemed like a rich, posh asswipe. Looks like things stay constant amongst worlds, there still existed the pompous rich and those that mocked them. Though Mayer's accent was rough around the edges to say the least.
"Oh yes, my dear Mayer. I had just a wonderous dream! It was truly spectacular. You see, it was a dream in which my poor old body didn't have to move itself today! No pain and a great deal of resting for me—insanity, I know." I said, doing my best true posh English accent, a little bit frilly to add a pompous air to it. Mayer looked at me, mutely surprised. He raised an eyebrow, a small smile working its way onto his face.
"You're pretty good at that, are you highborn in your world? I assumed you were a commoner based on your accent." He asked curiously. I scoffed imperiously at his disparagement of the Australian accent. Which only happened to be entirely true. I let a grin grow on my face, settling into the day's more relaxed atmosphere.
"No. Not even remotely. I come from Australia in my world. Australia isn't a big fan of Kings and Queens. A lot of the values of our country come from harshly exiled criminals. Those exiles originally came from a country called England, which was a powerhouse on a global scale back in the day. Our accents are derived from their accents. Why?" I said. Mayer's face entered thought mode.
"The origin of this world is quite similar to you own country. Many people that did not conform were sent through to this planet as way of execution. It has been around two or three generations since then, I think. What was once a collection of murderers and thieves—most for moral or lawful reasons, mind you—is now an actual functioning world. To an extent." Mayer chucked lightly. I laughed too.
"Let me guess, it's still a bit of a jungle out here. Lots of crime, lots of lawless areas?"
"Precisely, hence why I am here on this rock—instead of the other one." Now it was my turn to frown. I had sort of assumed that Mayer was a bit of a lord here. He seemed to be treated quite well by the townsfolk, judging by the look he'd gotten and the scant conversations I'd overheard. I wouldn't be surprised if he had such a position.
"You are the lord of this place, right?" Mayer looked at me dumbfounded.
"Of course not, I couldn't ever be the lord of anything. I don't think that I'd ever be able to deal with the social parties and conniving, political interactions all day. I think it'd melt my brain inside my skull from the mixture of boredom and bitterness. I just hold a sword and hit people with it real good—otherwise I'm a bit of a chump." Mayer laughed at himself, giving me a distinct impression that he was way underselling himself.
"So, then why are you here? What is it that could pull you over here if you aren't interested in capturing a slice of land and ruling it zealously?" The old man's face twisted into a grin.
"Because this is where all the nasty beasties are. And where the nasty besties are, I usually am."
"Oh," I said, not enlightened but more of a 'I probably should have just guessed that one' kind of 'Oh'. "So, I assume that this place is used as execution lands for particularly devious criminals or naysayers. A kind of ultimate punishment then?"
"In a way. All sorts were sent here years ago because of some war that happened, but now there aren't really any being sent anymore. Those over there," Mayer pointed in the rough direction of the other planet, orbiting this one, "have forgotten about the people they sent here, which I can't help but find interesting."
"Interesting? Why?" Mayer took a deep sip of his tea, thinking for a moment.
"Well, on that other rock floating around this one—Orisis—they haven't even found out that countries are forming on Virsdis yet. For years, one of the things that has been keeping some of those countries politically stable has been wanting to get back on Orisis." I looked at him confusedly.
"Why would Virsdis want to go back to Orisis? They'd get into a war as soon as they stepped a toe on Orisis. There is no way that Orisis will take kindly to it, and I can only assume that Orisis is far more powerful in general. Teleporting across worlds can't be that easy, right?" Mayer nodded, crossing his arms after placing down his tea.
"Well, life is hard here. Many believe that if they could simply get back to Orisis, their life would be made easier. Some people want war, to strike back against those that once oppressed them. But the real push comes from those that have made their way into power. For years they have been convincing others that war with Orisis is inevitable and important, even. Honour is a massively important feature to Orisian culture and Virsdis is much the same." My eyes widened, dumbfounded.
"I'm going to be honest. That sounds like just a bad idea on all fronts. What stake does the average Virsdisian have in this whole war scenario? Are they just going to throw themselves at Orisis, farming hoe first? Against a society that can send people to a planet they orbit?" Mayer laughed lightly.
"I suspect so, boy. Orisian honour lives strong on Virsdis. They want to take from Orisis, rightfully so. But it's a difficult political matter. Many only have revenge to guide them. Those that live on this world are only a few generations deep. The wound is still raw." I rubbed my face in exasperation, plopping myself down in the chair opposite Mayer dejectedly.
"Mayer, you said that this happened a few generations ago. What about all the people that grew up here, never knowing Orisis, never knowing what it was like? Never really understanding what it was that happened over there aside from stories told by their Mother and Father. Maybe they hate Orisis in their parent's stead. Maybe they would even stick a spear into a man's gut for their parent's honour. But what about their children? When it is a story that grandpa once told dad who is telling them? Would they have the same hate that their father has in their great grandfather's stead? What about the generation after that? Do they remember at all? Or was it just something they heard about from a friend's Dad?" The man held his hands up in surrender against the barrage of frustrated questioning, consoling me with a look.
"I understand, Max. I do. But even after generations this will be a political goal for King after King. It will only be a few more generations until something is produced, and then a war will begin, if it hadn't begun before then. With the next Champion War somewhere on the horizon I wouldn't be surprised if it gets significantly interrupted. But, well, there are also other reasons to want to leave Virsdis, Max." I quirked an eyebrow at that, ready to hear some silly response, but what I got was a… little more compelling.
"On Virsdis there is an ancient race called the Nightfell. They are few in number but are immensely powerful. There are only legends of old warriors fighting against them and eventually banishing them to Virsdis. They live on the dark side of Virsdis, a place so dangerous that I'd need to think twice about going." His face was deadly serious. Not a silly response then.
"These Nightfell… how powerful are we talking?" I asked hesitantly.
"More than powerful enough to make Champions stay away from them in the last wave. It has been seventy years since then, and they haven't gotten any weaker." He responded dryly. I grimaced, realising I'd been working on half the information. Mayer hadn't told me, but still.
Then I remembered back to my first day here, as I looked up at the beautiful sight of Orisis' night cloaked sky as it orbited across Virsdis' vision of the sun.
I had made a bet. A stupid, stupid bet. The words echoed in in my ears, even as I scrunched my face in embarrassment.
'If this world was a stereotypical game, that'd be where the 'Demon Lords' were, right?'
"God damnit, why'd I have to jinx myself." I grumbled, and Mayer raised a bushy eyebrow in response.
A/N: Hey, hey people! I'm glad to say that I feel significantly better than I have the past few days, as well as receiving my COVID-19 test results with the news we all wanted to hear…
Negative!
Hope you all have a great rest of your day!