The sound of chains moving as the cart we are riding on shakes, I wonder the guy was so out of breath the cart is being pulled by two horses and it shakes so much that you struggle just to stay sitting down in one place.
It's one thing if you are jumping around and stopping when you hit a wall, only that on this thing the wooden wheels makes one jump back into the center of the cart, starting everything all over again.
A five-day trip cut down into one that only takes a few hours.
Still, it's strange that the road is so broken, I can understand if we were already far away from the city, but we haven't been on the road for even half a day and the entire road is broken.
Slowly the cart begins to slow down and the man gets off, right next to the side of us there were people selling dry corn, rice, beans and so on. One by one the people selling the goods began to load them onto the cart.
Soon we were on our way again.
"So why is the road so broken?" I asked our employer.
"My apologies the attack from the monsters and all of the fighting really did a number on the place, it gets better as we go." The man answered me.
I look at the places we leave behind, Athens really is breathtaking to bad it was both burning and broken when I first got here.
"Why am I doing this? Why did I decide to help this man and why am I bringing this other guy with me?" I asked my self.
"It's okay, I've done this before, as long as I stay busy I won't have to think about my situation and before I know it, I'll be in so deep that things become normal." I remind myself as I try to remember how things were growing up and moving from one place to another.
"Alright what do I know. Somehow I'm in the past and I have the lowers of Gilgamesh or at least the powers of the gate of Babylon and everything inside it, Athens was attacked by Aries, so I'm most likely in the God of war universe."
"What else there was a ship week and I helped save some of the survivors and because of the attack the guild that does odd jobs was booked and I ended up taking one of their jobs."
"So far so good" I said to my self before the cart completely stopped.
"It's them" my employer said as the horses began to shake as they tried to turn around.
As I turn to see what he's looking at, I realize that I really have to start asking questions whenever I decide to do a job for someone.
"You said all I had to do was kill some wild boars" I said to the man as he struggled to keep the horses calm.
"Yes, those are wild boars, only that they are slightly bigger then the normal ones." The man answered me, his voice shook with fear.
"...Please we don't have much and if we try to run away, those things catch up to us and eat us when they do. Ten more men accompanied me when we escaped to get help, I'm the only one left." He said as before he began to cry.
"If I find out you lied to me..." I said before the popout screen shows itself in front of me, the images displayed on it are the options of attack I have, apparently, I can surround the boars with the portals and just fire swords into them, but doing that will leave me open to an attack.
My other option is put the giant pigs in cages, the only other option the screen showed was letting the things attack me and putting up all kinds of shields, doing that, would keep the things occupied long enough for them to either fall from exhaustion or simply get bored and leave.
"Screw it I'm going to kill them" I said as I hopped off the cart, behind me a gold portal opened, like it or not this was my first fight and that meant I would learn the consequences of using any of these weapons, or the consequences of using the gate of Babylon.
The sound of a rocket made me run to look at the gold portal and it was only after a loud thump that I realized a giant spear had been shot from it.
As I turned to look at what it hit, I saw three more giant pigs running towards me, behind them another giant pig laid dead.
This time two more portal opened behind me and two more spears were fired from them, only that this time they didn't hit anything except empty ground. The boars had dodged the attack.
All of a sudden the temperature began to rise on my right side, while on my left it seemed to drop in such a way that I was surprised I wasn't frozen.
A wall made of gold lightning rose from beneath the ground at my left side, while on my right side a giant shield made of steel fell from the sky.
The sound of flesh hitting metal, alongside that of burned meat tells me that the shield held, it's a good thing both of them are giant barriers, but the thing is I know both of these and neither one of them were real. No they only existed in anime and movies.
The shields are vanishing, looks like they are only good enough for a one time use, I guess that's one difference, instead of them breaking up into gold dust or going inside gold portals, they just slowly disappear.
One of the giant pigs isn't moving I can't tell if it's dead or just knocked itself out, the other one is just shaking its head, the thing is bleeding like crazy, it must have broken its skull when it hit the metal shield.
A gold portal opens on top of it and a giant ax drops cutting off its head, it's strange seeing the pig's body move even when its head is on the ground.
It's better to make sure that the other one doesn't become a bigger problem later four gold portals open and in an instant a sword pierces its head, another its heart, another sword its spine and the last one cuts its legs off, how a sword was able to do that on its own, I will never know.
I turn to look at the two men and they just stand there, guessing by their reaction what I did isn't normal, but from all the stories, games, movies, books and legends, don't things like this happen all the time.
"Is that all of them?" I asked my employer.
The man has his mouth open and doesn't answer, so I'm forced to take again.
"Ye, yes sir that was all of them." He answers me, but for some reason he sounds afraid and out of breath.
I still haven't gotten paid, so I just look at him. " So what are we having today?" I asked him and the man blinks before looking at me with his eyes wide.
"Forgive me, I don't have anything ready, we expected things to take longer," he says to me as he bowed his head.
I look at him, his reaction isn't normal, even if I'm not an adventurer, the guy went to a guild, so shouldn't he have known that there are people capable of doing impossible things.
I look at my only companion and he's acting the same way as the in front of me, I haven't asked the young man's name and I haven't even introduced myself.
"That's okay, I can write" I answered the man before I stop for a moment, normally information like this is a common thing, any idiot knows it, but anyone that has moved from country to country will tell you that it's the most common things that will get you in trouble with the locals.
"On second thought why don't you tell me somethings I should know" I say to him before lifting my right hand to stop him from interrupting me.
"What buildings people can't enter normally?"
"How much do things cost?"
"Can you tell me things like that" I asked the man before he smiles, his fear is now gone.
The man quickly reaches into the cart and pulls out a leather vest and hands it to me and immediately takes out another exactly the same and gives it to my companion.
"I don't know if anywhere is forbidden for a person such as yourself, but anyone can go anywhere if they have enough gold." He said with a wide smile.
"Sir poor farmers such as myself can never go to extravagant homes like the ones in the city, but we get by well enough. As for money, they only thing you have to worry about is if the merchants try to charge you in gold."
I look at him, there's something about that last line, like if he was saying all of our things are junk, so who cares.
"Are you going to be okay with? I asked him as I signaled towards the giant pig's dead bodies.
" the townspeople will gut them, they will feed us for over a year" he answers me.
I don't know why but for some reason, I can't help but feel the world seemed to have turned slightly colder. The man throws me a bag and in it are fifteen coppers, from what I can tell my companion has the same amount.
The uneasy feeling is growing, its better if we leave this place. The sound of people screaming and talking reaches my ears and when I turnaround, I see a bunch of people surrounding the first pig I killed.
"Those are the people of my town, won't you greet them sir." The man asks me, but I can't help but feel that strange feeling growing.
"No, it's better if I leave." I answer the man before I start walking back towards the city, its a five-day trip by foot but still, its time I can use to get my head straighten out.
The sun is going to set soon, neither one of us have said anything all day, maybe it's better this way, maybe it's better not to make any emotional attachments right now. I can feel that uneasy feeling growing.
It's strange for a road that's broken and monster having attacked not too far away there are people walking on the thing. No, it's more like they have to do it, things need to get done, so far I've passed women and children and even men walking around.
All of them walked around with loose patches of cloths or dresses, I forget what those things are called. I wonder if that makes me stand out considering I'm wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and blue sneakers. As for the guy next to me he's wearing white shorts, a white shirt and the leather vest the guy gave him, alongside wooden padded sandals.
"Do what do you want to do?" I asked my companion.
"..." He doesn't answer.
"Do you want to go back to the sea or do you want to go see what mysteries these lands have?" I asked him but again he doesn't answer.
"I mean I have nothing better to do" I tell him but yet again he doesn't answer.
"...Captain, what are you?" He asks me, what a dumb question.
"Human" I answer him, but he only stops walking and looks at me.
"But sir, you have" he begins only for me to cut him off.
"I'm Human, it doesn't matter what tricks you see, at the end of the day, I'm as Human as you are." I tell him, even as I walk past him.
All of a sudden I hear the sound of footsteps speeding up.
Then if it's okay with you sir, there's one place I want to see. You see when everyone was on the ship, a man told us about a mountain filled with all sorts of incredible things. According to him anything a person wants is there, but to get to it we have to go left until the sun turns red." He tells me.
I just look at the young man, in all honesty, it sounds like nothing more than a lie, but one I can get behind, its better than just walking around with ought any reason.
"Alright, which way?" I asked him and his smile instantly vanishes.
"Are you serious?" He did me with a surprised expression.
"Yeah, its better than not knowing what to do. It's better then what we're doing right now. So hitch way?" I asked him.
"That way" he says to me with a wide smile.
I smiled back at him. "By the way what's your name?" I asked him
"It's Michael she, sorry I don't have a last name." Michael answers me.
"Call me Jose no last name either" I answers him as I left the rod and began to walk into the open field.
"Waite so that's all it took, you lied to him about some mountain and he listened to you."
"Well, yeah. The thing is I wish I had kept my mouth shut back then" exhales "Looking back now, I really should have gone back to the sea, but no, I had to lie to him.
(character change.)
The captain poured me a cup filled with cold water, I didn't know it at the beginning, but the gold cup I have been using is the same one I was lent back on the ship.
As I look at the captain as he poured another cup of water to a group of people we found as we walked three days ago, the people were just that people, men woman and children that had lost everything when Athens had been attacked.
So they were now heading towards the few towns that their loved ones lived. The people of the group still shied away every time one of the magic rings shows itself behind the captain, but they are starting to get used to them showing up.
The people's food had run out long ago, so the captain was forced to give them all some of his own, if anything the man just didn't want to hear all of the kids crying.
Once in a while the men would go out and try to hunt something that catches their eye, but more timed than not they would either return with beatable grass, mushrooms and anything they could get their hands on.
Still even as I watch the captain do his thing, I realize that the man doesn't have any reason to help these people, the man is just bored.
Still there's a distance between the people and him, not by the people, no their reaction is normal, especially considering everything the captain has been bringing out. No one wants to make the man angry, but there's a distance between the captain and the people.
The kind an adult puts between himself and a child he took in.
Still despite us being walking none stop for five days now, the man has yet to bring out anything that might make this trip any easier, no luxury carriages, no horses, not even simple bags filled with what we might need.
No the man just creates a gold ring and takes out whatever he needs.
So far the man has brought out all sorts of knives, and lend them to the people whenever they needed one, hammers that could drive a nails in, with one hit no matter who used them and when the men finally became frustrated of not being able to kill anything he let the borrow a now and arrow that never missed their target, a spear that killed its target no matter where it hit.
That day everyone ate like kings, needless to say the men didn't want to return the weapons, but they nonetheless reluctantly returned them to him.
Yet as the days passed we said our goodies and left those people behind when they finally reached their for us there was a tavern where the two of us could get a drink and get some rest on a real bed.
