Chapter 2 #3
“That makes sense. Though there aren’t any wagon tracks here, so I wouldn’t expect us to find a village anywhere close in the other direction either.
” Luna strapped one dagger to her belt and tucked the other into her boot.
“I suppose you don’t have, like, a flying spell to move us long distances… or do you?”
He hesitated. Us. That word was a problem. She assumed they would move together. It made sense, in a way, as they were both strangers in a new world. She presented a considerable danger, though, especially whenever he was going to sleep.
But, on the other hand, she seemed to be comfortable in this place, while his survival training consisted of accidentally watching survival YouTube videos when he was so bored that the algorithm took him to them.
And then there was the whole Dreamwalker issue. That seemed to be a very touchy topic for her, but whoever could hijack his transference spell without interrupting it wielded power far beyond what Alsen considered possible. He needed to learn more about him.
“Unfortunately,” he said. “I am from a world low on magic, so for now, my array of spells is limited.”
She headed down the path, her step light, almost skippy, insufferably carefree in a way.
He caught up to her in a few steps. Being taller with quite a bit longer legs made it easy. “Do you know how to hunt?”
“Sort of,” she said, tone high-pitched and merry. “I haven’t done much of it, but I’ve got the general idea. I spotted a river down in the valley, so we should be able to find water.”
“Do you know what a takeout is?”
“I know what taking out a person means.” She threw him a side eye. “You pronounced it strangely.”
So, not from a modern world. “In my world, you can call an inn and order food that they deliver to you.”
She wheezed. “That’s really comfortable. So, I suppose that’s your way of saying you’ve got no idea how to survive in nature.”
Yes. She picked up on that instantly. “We don’t really have much nature left in my world. My greatest survival skill was knowing where to order delivery from at what hour.”
Luna chuckled. “Beware, though, I’m a horrible chef.”
Not that he ever really cooked without an array of appliances.
He had the basic idea of how to cook, but that usually involved an air fryer, a selection of specialized pans, a rice cooker, and everything else the modern world provided.
“That makes two of us. What’s the greatest technological invention of your world? ”
She rubbed her chin, visibly thinking. “That’s complicated, I guess… the main gate of Xona has this really complex mechanism of pulleys and ropes that enables it to be closed with only six people pulling the ropes’ ends. What does your world have?”
“We have cities so vast you cannot see their end. Machines that can fly, even outside the boundaries of our world. We have a network that connects all machines in the world into a single system of information sharing.”
“Wow… you must know plenty of awesome technology. That’ll be useful.”
Will it? The thought unsettled him. Yes, Alsen understood the technology of his home world to a decent degree. Definitely enough to build a power plant on a river. Yet, did he want to? “That’s complicated.”
“We’ve got time. We’ve got about six hours of walking ahead of us before we reach the valley.”
“Right, so the technology of my world sounds great at first. Machines that allow a single man to harvest a field faster than a hundred workers ever could. You can order anything you can think of, and it will be brought to you in a day. But it brings problems.”
“Of being too comfortable?” She laughed. “What a nightmare. I cannot imagine the horror of not having to walk for a mile to get water.”
“All the technology makes it easier for people to live. That has led to people having more children, who also had it easier to live. Yet, people still need to earn a living. With the land worked by machines, very little work remained for the humans. So, we all moved into massive cities, as that was the place where the machines were designed and improved. The cities grew, and soon enough, we built towers that house a thousand people in the area that would have normally hosted a single house.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound so good anymore.”
“It was great for a few hundred years.” He smiled.
“But I didn’t live in them. I was born in an age in which living in a house with a garden was a luxury few could afford.
The world also ran out of magic. We didn’t know if it was because of the machines or because it just happened, but it doesn’t matter.
This world looks like a paradise to me, so I want to see and learn about it first, before I even think about replicating any of my home world’s technology here. ”
Luna studied him for a moment. There was something more in the sideways look, though he couldn’t quite tell what.
“I’m from a world that’s constantly at war.
With vampires, with demons, with itself…
it doesn’t matter with whom or what. There’s always a reason to be at war with some other kingdom.
” She motioned toward the mountains across the valley.
“There are no watchtowers here, so this place looks promising. We have watchtowers everywhere. Like, literally everywhere.”
He snorted. A survivor from a war-torn, medieval world. No wonder she felt dangerous. He stopped talking and focused on walking and enjoying the view. He wouldn’t get much of a view once they got down.
The descent took hours. He couldn’t tell how many, but his legs hurt like hell, and that was with him being in the body of an adventurer who clearly walked all the time.
What looked like a simple slope from above turned into a maze of switchbacks, loose scree, and the occasional vertical drop that required careful climbing. Luna moved with an unnerving sureness. She knew where to go, how to climb down from or over anything, and she could help Alsen while doing it.
He should have taken the rope.
Worst of all, she constantly hummed some tune. Not even a second of silence.
The sun had begun its descent by the time they reached the tree line. The forest stretched before them, thick with undergrowth and shadow, the sound of running water somewhere in the distance.
A wooden sign stood at the edge of the path, weathered but legible, ‘AMBERVALE - 3 DAYS’
Luna kicked the signpost, probably testing its sturdiness. “Three days. Not that close.”
“It might get closer if you kick the sign harder.”
She let out a snort. “Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t need to kick it. I’m thirsty, though, and I hear a river. We should be able to find water.”
Alsen looked at the darkening sky. The blue had shifted to orange and pink, colors he’d only really seen on screens before. Even exhausted and hungry, he couldn’t help but stare. “We need to make camp.”
“Near water,” Luna added, stepping into the forest.
Alsen caught up. “I’ll make a campfire. If you could hunt something to eat, we could roast it.”
The trees stretched tall, but not too thick. They could easily make their way through. Birds and small animals watched them from the branches, completely unafraid of the two intruders.
He stopped. “Wait.”
Luna turned. “Hmm?”
“What’s that?” He pointed at an overgrown structure looming among the trees.
They walked towards it. A ruin of a temple lay in the woods, the symbols covered by moss until they were unreadable, with no sign of occupation. He felt the faintest swirl of natural magical power in the air, his skin tingling, his mind able to almost see it.
Luna clicked her tongue. “I didn’t notice that at all. But in any case, camping on temple ruins is usually a bad idea. They attract trouble. Nothing against whatever god they worshiped here, but there’s something about old temples that attracts monsters.”
“I can still feel some power in the air. We should check this place out tomorrow.”
“Oh, yeah, totally, this could have some decent treasure inside.”
At first, he thought she mocked him through subtle mockery. But with a serious expression, gaze scanning the ruin, she looked like she meant it seriously.
He turned, heading towards the sound of the water. She joined him in a second, still quieter than usual, throwing a glance over her shoulder towards the ruins every few steps.
A bit of walking later, they found a pond.
It sat in a small clearing, fed by a stream that trickled down from the mountainside. The water was dark in the fading light, still except for the occasional ripple from insects landing on its surface.
Luna crouched at the edge, cupping water in her hands. She brought them to her face, ready to drink.
“Wait!” Alsen snapped. “Let me scan it first.” He pulled on his power, his body having recovered enough strength to use magic.
“For what? Do you suspect the pond to be a hidden stash of rum in disguise?”
Alsen scanned the pond with a makeshift spell, searching the water for parasites, bacteria, or magical contamination. The mana in this world made everything easier, so his improvised spell spread through the pond like ink in water, analyzing every drop.
Nothing. The water was pristine. Cleaner than anything he’d ever drunk from a tap.
“It’s safe,” he said.
With a bit of a smirk, she drank deeply.
Right. She didn’t know the concept of natural water being dangerous.
He knelt beside her, reaching into the pond. The water tasted cold and somehow delicious, like a really expensive non-sparkling mineral water.
He really needed to figure out a spell to add some bubbles to the water. For his entire life, Alsen drank lightly sparkling water, and no matter how fresh and natural this pond was, he didn’t like it without the fizz.
When he leaned over the pond for the fourth dose of water, he stopped to see his reflection for the first time.