I ended up staying there a few days longer than I intended but, I credit those days with me really coming to terms with what and where I was now. This wasn't a dream. I had somehow physically and mentally been teleported here but with all the skills of my gaming character.
None of it made any sense. Absolutely none of it, but I knew I had to accept it whether it made sense or not. When I finally did so, it allowed an interesting thought to enter my brain. What if I wasn't the only one? I mean after all, out of the doubtless hundreds of thousands of players who had signed into YGGDRASIL at one time or another, I couldn't be the lone idiot who didn't exit in time, right? Of course, then that raised the question of how I was going to find any of them. Outside my little group, I didn't really have a knack for recognizing faces so that was going to be fun. Then there was that whole other matter of actually going after the Theocracy. I for damn sure wasn't going to forget what they did to those people, and in fully intended to avenge them. But how exactly was I going to do that?
So there was no shortage of things to do in this new world at least, and I knew that I had Lyra and her friends to thank for that.
Lyra was surprisingly well in tuned with what was happening all over world at least on a geo-political level so I learned borders, capital cities, a few prominent figures here and there, the whole nine yards. I also came to the estimation that my skills had almost completely carried over from Yggdrasil into this world. The only real differences being that it all felt…For lack of a better term, real. I could feel my muscles tighten and loosen with each swipe I took. I could feel the gust of a powerful punch hit me as I dodge it. And the feeling of actually seeing magic being used like Lyra and her associates would use it really made me wish I had chosen a mage archetype. Then again, I guess I had slight advantages over them.
"Had enough Maurice?" I asked slightly tightening my grip under his neck. After a few more bated breaths, he wavered and I released him. So, it was safe to say my strength was probably higher than it was in YGGDRASIL and while I had no idea how that happened, I was really glad it did. As he caught his breaths, I heard the sound and smell of what I thought was food. I looked out across the field and saw Troy exit the cabin with his arm raised over his head gesturing us over. I extended my hand down to Maurice who took it almost immediately. He gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder before taking off. You never would've pegged him acting like that if you looked at him but the guy was actually a kind soul who didn't actually enjoy fighting. But when the time came, you'd be wise to move out of the way. As you can probably guess, he didn't talk much, leaving most of that to his brother.
"Nice move bloodboy," Troy said as I walked back inside and giving me a powerful pat on the back. The guy was probably just as strong as his brother and I got the distinct impression that he didn't have Maurice's disdain for fighting. It really made me wonder why I never trained with him but I never got the chance to ask. I was heading out that day. "You sure you don't want to stay?"
"It's not a matter of want." I replied speaking honestly though saddened. "I need to figure out just what the hell is going on in the world and start building up a reputation." We had reasoned a night or two ago that the best way to start getting a read on the Theocracy as well as getting my name out into the world was to start accomplishing some stuff in it. Slay some monsters, help some people, the usually things you would do in a place like Re-Estize. I also decided it would be best not say that I was dragged here from another world and risk being tossed out on my ass.
"Right. I often forget youngsters don't have patience." Lyra said rubbing her forehead as the sounds of murmured breathing continued from a room at the far end of the cabin.
I looked over to the still unconscious girl still deeply sad by what she had witnessed. "Do you think she'll be ok?"
"I'm not so sure now." She asked sharing my worry. "I thought she would've woken up by now but…I don't know. I'll have to bring a healer by here soon."
"I hope she gets better." I said patting her on the shoulder. "And I'm sorry."
"Thanks, Haon." She said taking a deep breath. "You don't have to do any of this you know?"
"Yeah, well you didn't have to let me stay here. Let's call it even." I said extending my hand to her. She accepted the gesture and not a minute later I wrapped up a warm stew, put it in my cloak and made my way out the door.
"It's going to take a while to get to Carne just so you know." She explained. "And even longer to get to the Adventurer's Guild."
"I'll figure it out." I replied, inwardly thanking whatever deity I could for the necklace I still had on.
"Just so you know, if you ever do wise up, you'll always have a place here." She said with a firm pat on the back.
"Thanks, Lyra." I said as she followed me out. " Take care of Kyla."
"You don't need to tell me that." She said lightly punching my arm as I looked towards the sky. It was probably getting close to dawn considering that the black sky was slowly being shaded blue and the sky was clear of any ominous looking clouds so I had to be thankful for that.
In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have just leapt into the air right there in front of her. But I didn't really think to much of it at the time. Soon enough I was maybe a hundred feet in the air again and unfolded the map in one hand and held my compass in the other. It looked like Carne was east of me so I dashed off towards it.
What I had seen yesterday relentlessly bounced around my mind to the point where I didn't even want to think about the fact that I was now in a fantasy world or that flying, an action that I don't think I'll ever be able to not love, seemed to become a depressing act. Even though I had a name for these bastards now, I had no concept of the social structure of the group or country. I needed the names of lords, captains, and especially those who had sanctioned the attack at Harex. Maybe the person who saved Carne had them or maybe not but I was determined to at least find and ask about them first.
I dropped back down just outside Carne right when he sun had reached its high point in the sky tucking my necklace under my shirt and was surprised by what I saw. It didn't look like an attack had happened here at all. People seemed to be going about their daily business. No one looked angry or afraid, instead they just looked content. Maybe even a little happy. I stepped into the village and immediately I felt like something was off. Like there was a deep magical presence here. Similar to how I'd feel back in YGGDRASIL, whenever I'd' walk into a village controlled by another player.
Here I allowed myself to get a little too hopeful and once again tried to pull up my log out again nothing showed up. Still though, I wasn't about to brush off this feeling. And I began to ask around for information about any mages here. I got a few mentions about a man in a mask who reportedly went by Ainz and I eventually found out he was the one who had saved this place. Unfortunately for me, he had disappeared not too long after he had helped them.
Before I could actually mope about having missed him, I heard the sounds of some sounded like nails hitting wood. I looked outwards from the village and saw a familiar species of goblin working on what would become an outer wall. Next to them, I saw a woman who looked like she was the one giving the orders. She was blonde with her hair braided and hazel eyes. She was probably some years younger than me.
" Hey." I called out towards her.
She looked over to me, confused about why I wanted to talk to her. "Yes?" She asked.
"Maybe you can help me out. Are you a mage?" I asked noticing a horn she had strapped to her side that rumbled with magic.
"Oh." She said with a chuckle noticing the look I was giving it. "No, this was a gift from Lord Ainz."
"So Ainz is a he." I said aloud. She nodded as a certain gleam appeared in her eye.
"Yes. He appeared out of nowhere and saved me, my sister, Sir Gazef, and the whole village."
"Sounds like quite a hero." I said sounding a little too hopeful for my own good "So would you know where he is?" I asked.
She shook her had and there went my hope. "I'm sorry. I do not." She replied.
I fought down the urge to groan and instead settled for a sigh. "Great. And I take it you haven't seen him since." I said predicting rather accurately as she nodded in agreement.
"Ok. Adventurer's Guild it is." I said.
You'll notice that I tend to do all my thinking out loud. It's a habit I still struggle to kick as I've gotten older but in this particular instance I'm glad I couldn't keep my trap shut.
"Adventurer's Guild?" She asked. "Nferia left with a few of them a day or two ago."
"Nice. Thanks…" I realized I didn't know her name
"Enri." She said with an introductory tone.
"Enri." I said repeating it and bowing. "Well lady Enri, I must bid you farewell." I nearly activated flight again but luckily I realized that until I ultimately figure out what in the hell I was going to do next, it was probably best to keep a low profile. So I took off onto the road she had gestured to, eager to catch up.
I made a note to myself that I could run a lot further before I needed to stop and breath than I could in YGGDRASIL and most definitely the real world. And maybe it was just me but I felt like I was running faster than before too. Not by so much that it would be obvious but definitely higher than I think was the average for warriors here. Once again, I didn't really think much of it at the time, other than it was pretty cool and continued my rush on the trail of the adventurer's.
As time passed, and day turned to night, It finally dawned on me that I was taking all of this a little too well. For all I knew, I was trapped in a medieval world populated with dangerous assholes and for one reason or another I wasn't worried about getting killed. For the first time in my life, I felt invincible. Like maybe I didn't have to worry about being killed.
I did my best to dash that feeling though almost as quickly as it had dawned on me. I had learned from both life and fiction that there's always someone stronger out there. Strangely enough not too long after I said that, I spotted a small fire off in the distance, a fire that illuminated maybe six figures sitting around it near a large boulder. As I got closer, stepping lightly through the grass and trees I saw that the boulder was actually breathing. I squinted try to get a better picture of the beast before me and the way it shifted, it looked like it had fur. I debated on whether it would be a good idea to go ahead and draw my swords before hearing a voice call out.
"You there." A deep, voice said with a strangely annoyed tone. "If you intend to do us harm, It would be smarter to just go ahead and turn around."
Well one of them was good. I didn't think I was too loud on my way over here. I came out of my hiding to walked towards them. All of them were on their guard now, but at the very least I could see them clearly now. Four of them we're bunched together in a strange mismatch of colored tunics and cloaks which made me assume they were a band onto themselves. They looked like a strange combo of wary curious warriors. Then there was the two opposite of them. One a fairly tall knight clad in an entire suit dark armor, a red cape, and two massive black blades strapped to his back. Next to him was a rather pale looking woman who opposite of the group beside her, looked like I was nothing more than an annoyance, if that.
Not really knowing how to respond, I just sort of waved awkwardly at them. "Hi." I said inwardly smacking myself at my awkwardness. "I uh, don't suppose you would mind if I enjoyed the fire?" I asked raising my hands into the air away from my rapiers. The group on the right seemed to have in dialogue onto themselves while the pair continued glaring at me. It went on for so long that I started to grit my teeth. "Look, If I was here to attack you guys, don't you think I would've done so by now?"
"I don't know. Would you have?" The knight asked back revealing himself to be the same voice who had called out to me. "You seem to be pretty well armed."
I chuckled as if that was sarcasm "Yeah. Well, I think these toothpicks wouldn't exactly hold up against those bastards on you back." I said gesturing to the frankly obscenely large swords and trying to be bring a little humor to the situation. It seemed to work for the other group who steadily dropped their guards as one of them stepped forward to meet me.
"Sorry if we're a bit on edge, stranger comes wandering through the woods hidden until he's spotted. What did you expect?" He said extended his hand. "Name's Peter." I smiled at the gesture glad to meet some more reasonable people.
"Haon." I replied shaking the hand with my own.
"Glad to meet you Haon. And yeah, sure, plenty of room around the fire." Peter replied. Motioning me to follow. I ended up sitting down opposite of the knight and what I had guessed was his female bodyguard. Who seemed to be deep in their own conversation behind in front of an almost furry looking boulder.
Ignoring that, I looked to the other squad. "So, all of you a team or something."
"Just us four." Peter said pointing at his group. "That's Ninya, Lukeluther, and Dyne." He said gesturing from the youngest to the oldest. I bowed my head in greeting as each waved at me.
"Glad to meet you." I said taking a seat in the dirt with the rest of them. "So what's their story."
"Oh that's Momon and Nabe. We decided to have a joint adventure to guard an alchemist." Peter replied.
"And where's he?" I asked.
"Asleep in the wagon." Peter said pointing to a wagon stored behind them a few feet. "As for Momon himself, it's hard to get a read on the guy. He seems nice enough though. Great warrior too. You guys ever see a guy just man handle ogres like that before?" A choir of no's rang through the group and I looked back over to Momon. He had stopped his conversation with the girl named Nabe was focused firmly on my own gaze. We just kept our glare on each other for maybe a minute before I asked another question.
"And the girl? Nabe?" I asked.
"She's quieter than Momon is but I think she's just as powerful." Ninya said. "She's a mage."
"Ah." I said nodding before my own stomach grumbled. I decided now was a good time to eat some of that stew Lyra had given me but I was interrupted.
"And don't get any ideas. I've got dibs on her." The blonde archer named Lukeluther said eyeing me.
"Hey. Relax man." I chuckled, taking a bite of my food. " I don't think she likes me anyway." I said noticing the glare that I was currently receiving.
"Hey don't take it personally." The older man named Dyne replied. "I don't think she likes any of us anyway."
That seemed rather odd. "Any particular reason? I asked.
Peter shook his head. "Not that we know of but I can't know if we offended her or not." Peter sighed.
Well after, that I did what any subtle mastermind would do.
"Hey Nabe!" I called out over to her and Momon. She looked disdainfully over towards me so I continued. "These guys didn't offend you did they?" I asked. She looked over to Momon before replying.
"No."
"Did I?" I asked back.
She once again replied with "No" so I continued.
"Great." I smiled. "So exactly why the hell are you looking at me like I shit in your scrambled eggs?"
I think I single handedly destroyed the calm atmosphere that surrounded the camp with that comment. Peter and his group instantly grew worried looks while Nabe's gaze narrowed in my direction. Here, oddly enough Momon spoke with a chuckle in his voice.
"Well, you certainly don't beat around the bush."
I shook my head. " I just don't like it when people give me looks like that. A look that's she still making by the way." I pointed out as I met her gaze with my own. Nabe then looked over to Momon once again and after I might've guessed was a telepathic conversation she turned back to me with a small smile.
"Well then, perhaps I could allow you and Nabe to have a little duel over this." Momon said shifting his weight to look over to an empty field nearby. "There."
"Fine with me." I said standing up and really growing angry with this lady and the glare I was getting from her." She did the same and immediately walked over to the field. I followed suit and soon enough we were standing opposite from each other with a space of maybe fifteen feet in between us.
"Nabe, I don't think I need to tell you not to kill him but all the same. Don't." Momon said. I swear a look of disappointment appeared on her face for maybe a second before she swiftly nodded.
Wow, this woman was a bitch. I decided to keep that last little thought to myself as I drew my rapiers. Judging by her lack of weaponry I guessed that she must've been a mage. Which was quickly proven right when a streak of lightning shot from her hand and straight towards my head. Narrowly I sidestepped the attack and heard it impact against a tree further away. She had a look so surprise on her face that immediately made me smile as I charged towards her. Her surprise shifted immediately though and quickly and eloquently began to side step my swings. This was good. She still underestimated me. Quickly, I threw a wild swing towards her side which she ducked under I could see electricity gathering in her hand as my arm flew past her head and I smiled.
Before she had a chance to use it I shoved my foot into her stomach sending her back gasping for air. She managed to flip herself back and landed not unlike a cat would before giving me another glare. This time, with a lot more rage behind it..
"What? I was under the impression that this was a duel? Did you just expect me to stand still and let you electrocute me?" I asked smirking a just a little bit. Before she got a chance to recover, I dashed forward and threw two slices at her direction. Two then went to four, four to eight, and before long I lost count in the number of times I weakly tried to hit her and have her dodge each attack.
I think right here's where I knew she was holding back. And since I was doing the same, a prolonged fight did us no god. Her look had shifted yet again from anger, to an almost unreadable one though now it held something akin to curiosity. And that was good enough for me.
"Geez. You can dodge with the best of them can't you." I said stopping my assault. She didn't reply of course so I continued. "Look, I'll make it simple. You explain to me what the hell the look was about and I'll call it a draw." I said sheathing my blades.
"What look?" She asked almost as robotic as you could be.
"Seriously?" I asked. "The one that said "You're a piece of shit who's not fit to be around me or my master."" I said summing up exactly what the meaning behind the look was.
She looked to Momon than back to me. "Exactly why does a look bother you?" She asked.
"Call it a pet peeve." I replied. "Everyone's got em. Like I'm sure if I foolishly attacked your master there, there wouldn't be enough of me left put into a jar."
"You're correct." She said as emotionless as ever though she did grow a slight smile. "It is refreshing though, for one to recognize that fact."
"It doesn't take a genius to see that your holding back. Even if he told you not to kill me." I said walking over to her. I think she thought I was going to attack because she stiffened, so I quickly threw up my hands. "Easy. I just want to shake your hand." I said extending my left towards her.
She looked down at it curiously before looking back to Momon. I'm not sure if he did anything in response but not a moment later she took my hand.
"Good workout Nabe. Maybe we can try this again sometime." I said pulling my hand back.
"For your sake, I hope not." Nabe replied, for the first time since I got here using a polite tone, which was more than enough for me.
"You know you could stand to be not so grim." I said following her back to the camp and the shocked stares of Peter and his friends. "Uh…..Sorry about that." I said, growing rather uncomfortable under there stares.
"That was incredible!" Ninya yelled.
"Wow." Peter said in agreement.
"You wield those swords like a master." Dyne said almost astonished as I sat down back on the ground.
"I think you guys are over exaggerating." I replied. "After all I missed every hit on her."
"Dude. Be honest, were you even trying to hit Nabe?" Lukeluther asked.
"Well, I knew if I hurt your girl I'd find myself with a dozen arrows in my stomach."
"Smartass." Lukeluther replied getting a chuckle.
"I have to agree as well." Momon said a few feet away. "Not many can hold their own against Nabe."
"Like I said I was just lucky." I replied as my stomach rumbled yet again and this time I had enough. I reached in my cloak for a specific pocket and pulled out my wrapped up stew from Lyra's. As I undid the wrappings however, the furry breath boulder which had somehow slipped my mind unfurled itself, and looked over to me.
"Is that a hamster?" I asked almost freezing at the sight.
"Long story." Momon replied with what sounded like a sigh.