Teaching wasn't so bad, as it turned out. Maybe that had more to do with who I was teaching rather than the process itself, but I had really been enjoying passing on what little knowledge I had rattling around in my head.

Maria definitely made it a lot easier on me with how eager she was to learn and how quickly she was picking up English as a written language, it had only been a month and she was already writing complete sentences! Granted, they weren't terribly complex and had plenty of spelling or punctuation errors but it was years ahead of what I thought I'd be dealing with initially.

Probably had a lot to do with the fact that she was already speaking it fluently, definitely helped her figure out when things went wrong and gave her a frame of reference for what all the little words and symbols meant. Still…I was admittedly kinda proud of my little protégé, pretty soon she'd be ready to help me out with all my inane projects beyond finding things for me to tinker with.

Already she had been tossing ideas around with me for how to make different items, helping me bridge the gap in my knowledge that came from not knowing some of the naturally found materials of Teyvat. It was thanks to her that we were able to start working on bows for the hunting parties, the strings were to be made of tightly woven strands of Whopperflower petals which - in addition to being incredibly durable without losing flexibility - had latent elemental energy infused into each strand.

After learning that the energy didn't leak out upon death I had immediately set myself to thinking up some clothing designs. In my head I could imagine outfits that emitted their own heat, keeping people warm year round even during the harshest of blizzards or even geo infused sets that had the durability of stone…Instead we ended up with a loincloth that constantly felt like someone just took it off, kinda warm but not quite what I intended.

Still, Maria ensured me that it would help out the hunting party immensely, being the brave fuckers that they were meant that they often had to stay out of the camp for days on end sometimes.

Last I checked the party had set out about three days ago, once they were back I was going to put them through the ringer with archery training. Well, as much as I could anyway, I wasn't exactly skilled with a bow so there wasn't much I could teach. Funnily enough Luka already was, kid was a natural for whatever reason, given that he could already hit targets from a good distance away.

When Ivan got back I would have to get him to gather everyone up for training, he would know the best people for ranged combat…I hoped.

I sighed as I finished drawing a proper set of older style clothing and leaned back with the eldest of Ivan's kids surveying my work, I would have submitted some jeans and t-shirts but Maria would have vetoed it again. "Better, it looks like it would hold heat easier but…try adding some fur around the neck, it should help trap it for the upper body." Was that true? Sounded true but she also could have been messing with me.

In any case, "I already did, see? Around the top?" I kind of lazily pointed with my foot as I heard her shift around to get a better look at my dirt art, I really needed to reinvent paper already.

"Oh. I see it now, so that's what that was…I thought you were just messing around again." Hey! I knew my artistic skills sucked but you didn't have to shove it in my face like that. "Still, the design isn't bad and with the right materials it might hold together well. What made you think of this?"

I looked over at the girl while lazing around, her gaze intent on deciphering my scribbles as it always was with anything I thought up. "Just seemed like an interesting combination." Truthfully I had just remembered my time playing Fire Emblem, Dimitri's second stage outfit honestly looked comfy as hell so I just tried to recreate that from memory. "The tribe seems to prefer using pelts and furs so I figured it would be easier to put together." Which just so happened to be the main reason she turned down my t-shirts, well that and she said they looked weak.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her nod absently as she took my designs in and started improving them with little touches of her own. She wasn't exactly the best at drawing either but that just made the image blend together a bit better than it would have if only one half actually looked good.

Despite only having to stay for a few hours a day for study Maria had taken to spending more and more time helping me out in my tent, mostly just to put whatever odd thing that entered my head into a more tangible and believable state. She was starting to become a fixture in my life, an actual friend and companion in a world where I was worshiped, and I honestly didn't really mind.

It was kind of nice having someone to talk to, especially since she didn't seem to mind just how spastic my mind was.

I wasn't really sure how Ivan felt about his only daughter leaving for half the day to go play around in my tent but I also really didn't want to bring it up when he got back in case he didn't know. There was an innuendo in there but at the moment I was too comfy to think about that.

Eventually I heard her sigh and lay down as well, apparently she had enough trying to puzzle out my shaky scribbles. Then again we had been working for a solid six hours by that point, starting when she had arrived with breakfast, so she had more than earned a break.

Learning could wait another hour or so. "You can think up all this stuff, imagining wonders beyond anything our people have seen…but you didn't even know the most common use for Whopperflower nectar." The tone of her voice let me know it was more of a question than a statement, okay then, it was always time to learn apparently.

"I've already told you guys I wasn't a god, I don't just know things damn it. Not that any of you listen to me."

She hummed at that with the same tune she always gave when I tried to correct her. "Yes, well, let's say you aren't one. That makes even less sense because a human would absolutely know these things." Oh…yeah that was a good point, it was would have been really hard to explain that I came from another world, especially since in that world Teyvat was a figment of a chinese game company's imagination. "The only thing that makes any kind of sense is you being a newborn god." I could practically hear the 'you certainly act like one' insult hanging in the air, cheeky brat.

My eyes closed as I let out yet another sigh, maybe I could make a game out of counting how many times I did that in a day? "Look I don't know what to tell you. I know some things, don't know others, know lots of shit I shouldn't. I'm weird." I couldn't help but smirk as I heard my companion let out a quiet snort, at least she knew what she was getting into for hanging out with me. "Besides, if I were some babbling baby god, wouldn't I be a hell of a lot smaller?" Probably be a little less hideous to look at too, if only cause people enjoyed babies.

Another hum, "We don't know how gods are born, maybe you guys are just born as adults? Made out of stars and the elements or something like that?" All good in theory, but I knew where I came from and she sure as hell wasn't as pretty as something like that. "Father always said gods were born from the elements when enough people wished for something…" she trailed off and I could practically feel her face souring at some obscure thought.

Really wished I could read minds.

"Well, if that was the case then wouldn't I be able to use some kind of elemental power? Maybe control them?" My head tilted to the side in order to find Maria's face, her sour look turning instead to curiosity. "Or hell, shouldn't I be able to do some kind of miracle? Maybe something like…" I sat up and looked around for a second, my attention quickly settling on the entrance to my tent as I pointed at the flaps. "Someone will walk through right no-"

At that moment a small head of ginger hair burst through with a smile and a hand-full of plants. "Heya sis, Lord Kamu! Miss Inessa said to bring you these since sis hadn't come back yet."

My eyes went wide as I pulled my finger back to my face and stared at it in fear, who were you and what did you do with my finger?! A side-glance told me Maria was likewise staring at me but with a victorious grin instead, silly girl thought she had won.

I coughed into my hand awkwardly while nodding to the kid, "Thanks Luka, I wasn't sure she was willing to share with how rare they seem to be around here." Kid was carrying some Windwheel Asters I'd asked the old lady for last time I visited, true to what I thought they really were native to Mondstadt normally but Inessa was just stubborn enough to try growing them with some of the few seeds she had on hand.

Luka continued smiling his sunny little smile as he padded over and put the flowers into my waiting grasp. I wasn't quite sure what they were good for in-game aside from leveling up the main character but there had to be some other kind of way to use them. Turning the plants over in my hand I let my other one reach out to ruffle the shock of red hair, much to the youngling's delight…okay maybe I shouldn't have called him that, was getting some Anakin flashbacks.

Turning my attention back to the flowers that were just kind of idly spinning on the stem's axis I barely missed Ivan's youngest tackling his sister in a tight hug, settling quickly into her lap as Maria took to pampering the younger brat. Lucky little…

Anyway, setting aside the bullshit that was circumstance and a little boy getting more affection from his sister than I ever got in general, I needed to get to studying my new flower friends. There had to be a reason they grew the way they did, maybe something with innate anemo energy? That was the only reason I could think of for why a plant would grow adaptations that allowed it to act like a windmill, all the other plants in Teyvat seemed at least remotely similar to ones found back home.

Wolfhook for instance acted a lot like cockleburs did just that they were far bigger in size and could be used for healing, and I imagined that normal chili plants grew in a similar fashion to Junyun Chilies.

Without a word I moved over to one of the bare spots of dirt near the edge of my dwelling and planted them in some pre-prepared holes, even if Inessa had decided not to send the Asters over I probably still would have planted some mint or something. I carefully set the roots down into the mildly hard dirt and covered them up, resolving to getting them some water before bed.

Fuck, I'd have to take care of something besides myself for once…

"U-um, Lord Kamu?"

Head swiveling around at the tiny voice my eyes quickly met with a much more shy looking Luka and what looked to be Maria cheering him on while grooming his wavy hair. I hadn't been staring at nothing for too long again had I? "Yeah? What's up?" Instinctively I withheld a sigh as both siblings looked up with confused faces, that was only funny when people understood the wordplay. "What do you want?"

His attention came back down and quickly switched back to nervousness as he wiggled around on his sister's lap. "Can I um…Can I stay for sis' lesson? I won't be too loud, promise!" Adorable nervousness aside the brat seemed pretty confident in his promise at least.

I shared a look with Maria, her face was carefully blank as she kept playing with his hair, before answering. "Kid. I don't have a problem with you learning with Maria but I think we're a bit too far along for you to jump in on her lessons. If you want to come by another time then we can start from the beginning-"

"No you don't! Sis has been teaching me all of her lessons before we sleep. I'm all caught up, really!" My eyes went back up to the girl in curiosity, she'd been teaching other people what I taught her? Talk about pressure, if I fucked up a lesson then multiple people would pay for it instead of just her, just how many others had she spread it around to?

Maria kept her attention on Luka, though I saw a subtle twitch near her jaw. She definitely told him not to tell me that then.

I hummed a little in thought, what harm could one more hurt? More people learning together could possibly help in the long run anyway, more people to call me out whenever I slipped up and said something wrong. "Sure, if you're all caught up then you can stay. But!" I pointed a finger directly at him just as the kid was about to start celebrating, "you gotta keep up, okay? And I want you asking questions any time you get confused about anything. If you don't then it wont work as well, understand?"

The little tyke's head bounced up and down so fast I started thinking it would go flying off as the little ambient light left had his eyes sparkling, a quick look showed Maria fighting back a tiny smile as she attempted to stay just out of headbutting range.

"Alright, calm down. We got shit to do, stuff to learn, and only a few hours to cram it in." Luka was still vibrating in place but at least he wasn't attempting accidental assault anymore. "Last time we ended off talking about the differences between past and present tense and the differences between them, so I figured we should start with…"

—-

With a quiet grunt I hefted the bucket full of lake water I'd just liberated from its cozy little home. I'd hoped that just that much would do for a little while, enough to tide my new little garden over for a day or two at least, and if it wasn't enough I could always chat up my little minions to do the next run for me!

Chuckling to myself at the thought I shifted around and readjusted my grip on the heavy wooden bucket, as if Maria would go doing anything I said without a solid reason. Luka maybe but that would only be the case if she didn't stop him first, and I doubted the beautiful brunette was okay with a minor case of child labor…

Or maybe she would be, it was the stone age after all.

I spared a quick glance back at the lake I apparently carved on the day of my arrival, even with the Snezhnovich tribe using it as their primary water source it didn't seem to have dropped at all, still just cresting at the edge of the rocks. I still hadn't been able to figure out why I survived a fall like that and even the excuse of 'isekai energy' only did so much for my paranoid mind.

After all, for that kind of thing to be real it meant that something had coated me in it before I fell. I sure as hell didn't have that kind of stuff back home so it had to have occurred during the transfer, which meant that something or someone was watching me, or that they had been watching me in that moment. Possibly even watching me as I drove home that morning for reasons completely alien to me.

Nothing about me was worth taking notice of. Especially not when that notice was enough to Zelretch me and make sure I would survive the process.

Wait it wasn't Zelretch was it?

I quickly shook the thought out of my head, if it was him then I'd have been in a part of the Nasuverse, not Genshin. From what I could remember his powers only linked him to parts of the multiverse where he existed in the first place, he couldn't just rip through into a place where he was never even born.

Which was something I was immediately grateful for, as cool as magecraft was there was no way I was fucking around with magi. Those fuckers were nuts, even Rin.

Then again genshin had a war of the gods and gods of those gods that got genocide-y whenever humanity rose too high so…roughly equal? I still had no idea what was going to happen when the Archon war rolled around either, again the Snezhnovich were probably the group Snezhnaya was named after so they must have done something with the first Cryo Archon to earn that.

Which meant that I was definitely going to be meeting the future ruler of Not-Russia at some point, hopefully he/she wasn't too angry about me playing god for a bit.

I was probably going to die wasn't I?

I turned around back to the forest and began walking towards camp, a bit of water splashing from the bucket onto the the ground from the momentum. I'd always joked about dying back home anyway, why not go out with a godly bang? One hell of a thing to write on my tombstone, 'Played god, got laid down by one,' well assuming I got a tombstone in the first place-

My eyes darted over to the left subconsciously as the hair on the back of my neck started to stand on edge. It was kind of like that feeling you'd get if you went out alone at night without a light in sight, just that unsettling feeling that you were being watched, hunted.

I kept watching the treeline in the direction I felt my hackles being raised in but nothing appeared, nothing moved even as I kept up my steady pace. Hopefully it wasn't a hillichurl, though those probably would have made way more noise. Which meant that I had no idea what the hell I was freaking out over. So why freak out?

Taking a few calming breaths I began to count down from one hundred in my head. I was just freaking out over being alone in the dark again, fucking irrational fears, granted almost being merc'd by a tornado at night didn't help in convincing me everything was alright when I could barely see more than a few feet in front of me. The constant blizzard didn't help either actually…

Well whatever, I was a big man kinda. I wouldn't let some bullshit trick of the human psyche punk me out , I had some motherfucking plants to water!

Which naturally meant that when one of the bushes near me actually did start shifting around I absolutely didn't start running like a bat out of hell.

I just wanted to thank all of you for reading and (hopefully) enjoying my story, you're all wonderful people.

P.S.

To the guest reviewer, Just some guy, sorry but I'm not sure I could do a full chapter of him just teaching. Even just a few scenes is enough to make my head ache from trying to figure out how to write something like that xD. But it wont be left to the side, I'll definitely be popping it in where appropriate. As for powers...who knows?

Thank you all again and I hope you all have a lovely day.