Damian rubbed the sleep from his eyes tiredly. After his success with magic the night before, he had been unable to sleep from all the excited thoughts running through his head. Slowly, he trudged over to where the other men of the caravan. There was no fire lit, so he guessed it would probably be a cold breakfast that morning, and pulled out a piece of jerky to nibble on.

He sighed forlornly. They didn’t seem to have coffee in this place, and he was seriously craving some caffeine.

As he got closer, he noticed Davis talking with Sir Remond with serious looks on their faces.

‘Right, there was that too.’ Damian had nearly forgotten his deal with Davis from the night before.

Deciding to take the initiative, he approached the two men.

“Damian.” Sir Remond greeted him first. “I heard you managed to learn the basics of qi quite fast.”

“Yes, Sir. I apologize for taking up your time with my deal with your guards.”

“That’s alright. I confess I’m curious as to how you’ll do. Besides, it would be wonderful to have the men in my employ become more capable. However, I must ask that you keep your lessons as short as possible.”

“Of course.”

Sir Remond nodded, satisfied.

“Let’s start now.” Davis put in.

Damian agreed, and a change seemed to come over Davis, his face becoming stern. He turned to the men of his company, and took a deep breath.

“Gather up, you bastards! Except for Roy, I want everyone here right now!” he shouted loudly. Damian barely held back from clapping his hands over his ears. This was a far cry from the quiet man he had gotten used to!

Hearing his yell, the guardsmen quickly snapped to attention, and rushed over to stand in a loose group before them.

“Listen up! Damian here has managed to master the basics of qi faster than any of you lot will ever be able to! Fortunately for you, he’s willing to teach his skills. You’re all grateful, right?”

A chorus of “Yes!”’s and such came from the small crowd.

Before Davis could continue, a voice rang out from the men.

“Captain! Did that kid really manage to learn it?”

It was one of the men Damian hadn’t interacted much with. He supposed it would be too easy for them to trust him immediately. Noticing Davis looking at him expectantly, he figured he would need to make a demonstration.

Damian picked up a small pebble. Focusing his qi on his hand, he shattered it between his thumb and index finger.

A murmur of appreciation started up from the crowd, and they seemed to look at him with a newfound respect. Seeing this, Davis started up again.

“That’s how it is! Anyone else got questions? No? Good! Listen to his instructions. Every man who manages to learn properly will get one big coin added to their pay!”

The men seemed especially fired up at the mention of the pay increase.

Noticing everyone looking at him expectantly, Damian cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Right, for now, everyone should sit down cross legged like this.” He sat down, and everyone followed him. To his surprise, even Davis and Sir Remond followed him.

“To start with,” he continued, “you’ll be learning how to meditate properly. This may be boring for you, but it’s an important part of being able to sense your qi.”

For about thirty minutes or so, Damian guided them through basic meditation. Davis eventually placed a hand on his shoulder and let him know that they should get going, so he ended the practice. The men seemed a little disappointed they hadn’t actually been able to do anything with qi, but Damian was happy to see they remained diligent in learning the skill.

Damian planned to continue the meditation practice that evening before beginning to touch on qi the next morning. He knew he had had a major advantage having already known how to meditate properly beforehand, and figured it would be best to give the men a solid base before having them do anything more complicated.

After the lesson, the camp was quickly packed up and they were on their way again. This time, Damian picked a cart near the back. He almost picked the rearmost one, but realized the trader driving the cart behind him would be able to see him the whole time, which he didn’t want.

After all, he was going to be practicing magic! Damian figured the less people that knew about his capabilities, the better.

He settled in, this time bundling his cloak underneath him as a cushion, and waited for the caravan to start. Once it did, he got to work.

To begin with, there was something he wanted to try. When Roy was casting his magic, he used words that seemed to echo with power, but Damian hadn’t needed to do so when he conjured the flame the night before.

“Flame.”

A dancing ball of yellow fire appeared floating over his palm, and Damian grinned. However, the magic wasn’t any different, and his voice didn’t have the same effect as Roy’s. Was there some kind of trick to it, or was there something he was missing?

He didn’t have enough information. It seemed to have become a common theme, and it frustrated him. He needed to quickly reach the academy to be able to answer his questions.

Next, he wanted to try to move around the magic as Roy had done. As he looked closer at the spell, he found that the ball of mana he had condensed was still there, and was slowly decreasing to fuel the fire. With a mental effort, he commanded the mana to move away from his palm while keeping the fire burning.

Leisurely, it drifted away. However, when it reached the edge of his influence, the flame sputtered out. Damian frowned. Could he only cast magic within the space he could sense mana?

He thought it might be just a matter of his mental image, but before he attempted anything new, he realized he probably shouldn’t be playing with fire in the middle of a flammable forest.

Instead, he attempted the water magic he had seen Roy cast.

Damian pulled together a new ball of mana, and focused on it the image of water vapour from the air condensing. He watched it for a few seconds, but nothing seemed to happen.

No, when he looked closer there was actually the tiniest bead of water visible in the middle of his mana ball.

If it was only that much, was it only affecting the air within the sphere of mana?

Damian thought for a minute, trying to solve the problem. Eventually, he found he might’ve been thinking about it the wrong way. Perhaps the area around him where he could sense mana wasn’t actually under his direct control, and only the mana that he could move was under his influence. In that case, it would make sense if only the vapour within the sphere of his mana was able to be affected.

Actually, he figured the shape of the mana probably didn’t matter at all, and confirmed this idea by making a long thin line of fire appear. In that case, how could he gather water from a larger area?

By dispersing his mana.

Damian changed his mental image with this in mind. He directed the mana first into a standard ball, then sent his mental instructions to it. First, it was to disperse into particles, and move into the surrounding air, then it was to collect water vapour in said air, and return back to his palm with the influenced water.

Casting the spell, he watched as the mana seemed to explode outwards out of the area he could see, and after a few moments, droplets of water began to form in his palm, expanding until he had a handful of fresh water in his hand.

Damian realized that by doing this, he had inadvertently proved that he could cast magic outside the area he could see it, he just couldn’t influence it once it left. It seemed he just had to imprint instructions in such a way that it would continue to work outside. This relieved him. If he couldn’t do so, how was he supposed to cast fireballs?!

However, the strain of using such a complicated mental image was considerable, and he assumed the effort would only increase as he tried to cast more powerful spells.

Damian passed some time by moving the water he had collected around in different shapes. He found the mana in the water decreased as time went on, just like with the fire, but it lowered much more slowly. He figured that because, in the case of the fire, he was also using the mana as fuel, it consumed more mana to keep it lit.

Next, he created an image of the ball of water shooting forward, and released it onto the mana. Gleefully, the water ball shot forward and splashed against the ground.

After doing so, he figured out something important. If the mana was actually pulling water from the atmosphere, couldn’t he also influence other materials? He tested this with a few grains of the strange cereal, and found he was able to make them levitate!

Damian grinned happily. It seemed this magic was really capable of anything! The only downside was the fact that he had to use the mana from his sphere of influence, so if he used it all up then he would have to wait for more to move in from the area around him, or move to a new area where the mana wasn’t depleted. Also, the strain from keeping up the mental images meant he would have to find a way to make it easier to handle, or give up on casting large scale, complicated spells.

Hopefully, the Academy would be able to alleviate one or both of those problems. For the rest of the ride, he decided he would practice forming, and applying mental images, as well as manipulating his inner energy.

Four hours later, a whistle blew from up front, and the caravan stopped suddenly. The four grains of tax that had been whizzing around his head fell around him. A few seconds later, the guards from the back of the convoy shot past him, galloping towards the whistle.

Was it an attack?

Damian remembered he had been told to stay with either Sir Remond or the merchants in the event of one, but Sir Remond was up front where the fighting presumably was. Damian had counted five guards as they sprinted past him, all of the ones who were in the back.

Didn’t that mean the merchants were unguarded? Damian understood the feeling of wanting to prioritize the man with the money, but wasn’t that a bit reckless?

If he were a bandit lord, he’d have the main force attack from the front, while a smaller force flanked from behind.

Of course, it could also be one of the magic beasts he had heard about. He was curious to see what they were all about, but he was on a job. He had to at least check on the merchants. If he missed the action, well, that was okay as well. He didn’t have a habit of getting himself in dangerous situations just for fun.

Damian scooped up his borrowed spear and hopped off the cart lightly, and ran towards the back of the caravan.

Almost immediately, his concerns were verified. A rough looking man in furs stood on the edge of the front merchant’s cart, waving a rusty, jagged knife in the terrified man’s face.

‘Oh, shit!’

Without taking much time to think, Damian scooped up a hefty rock from the road and imbued it with the concept of velocity. The rock shot out of his hand at high speeds and made a beeline for the bandit’s head. Damian could almost hear the thunk of the rock impacting the man’s temple, and watched as he stumbled back, falling onto the dirt road heavily.

Sending qi into the muscles in his legs, Damian blasted forwards! He nearly stumbled on the second step after the acceleration, but somehow managed to recover, and reached his destination in seconds.

He noticed the bandit he had knocked down was struggling to get up, so he grabbed the man by the back of the neck and slammed his head - once, twice - into the side of the cart, before dropping him.

“Take care of him!”, he shot over his shoulder to the merchant.

He didn’t wait for a reply, and tore forward again, passing the second merchant. The man jerked on the ground, blood spurting from a gash in his neck. Damian couldn’t help him.

He turned the corner around the last cart sharply, sliding on the loose dirt. Inside the back merchant’s cart, three bandits shoved items into large burlap sacks greedily. They turned, and looked at him in surprise.

He needed to do something.

Gather mana. Picture combustion. The mana is fuel. Less like wood, more like acetylene. Pull the surrounding oxygen in, feed the flames. Send it forward.

White hot flames roared out of his palms, searing into the back of the cart.

Damian had to look away, the light burned his eyes and the heat roasted his skin. Screams poured out of the back of the cart, ringing out over the roar of the fire. Damian looked back, and watched as a flaming figure of charred flesh tumbled out of the back. It writhed on the ground for a few moments before falling still.

Damian threw up. He looked back, the smell of burnt meat reached his nose - and threw up again. He stumbled away for a few steps, before falling heavily onto his butt.

This was magic?

It had always been something, well, magical to him. Something childlike, and joyful. But now…

Damian had killed people. Burnt them alive. He’d been learning magic for less than a day, and he could already do this? No wonder the mage guilds controlled knowledge so severely.

He stood up on shaky legs. Shouts, and the clashing of steel rang out from the front of the convoy. He wiped his lips on his sleeve, and stumbled towards the front of the burning cart. He stopped when he reached it.

The merchant was dead. Blood spread out from his slit throat, pooling around his head. The bandits had killed one of them. It was self-defence.

The horse bucked wildly in its reins, panicking over the fire at its back. Damian cut it loose with his spear, and watched as it ran ahead on the road.

Damian walked on. The first bandit he had fought lay on the ground. A line of blood flowed out of one nostril, his eyes vacant, and chest still. The other merchant gulped, and watched him with wide eyes.

He stumbled over to the cart he had been riding in, and sat down heavily against the side, the forgotten spear clattering down next to him. Damian knew he was in shock. His heart hammered in his chest, his breath was hitched, and he still felt like throwing up. For now, he needed to calm down.

He took deep, slow breaths, and tried to slow his racing heart. He had managed to calm down somewhat by the time two of the guardsmen returned on their horses.

“Damian! What’s going on?” Ken sported a new cut on the side of his head, and blood was splattered over his chest.

Damian swallowed strongly.

“Four of them attacked from behind. I… Took care of them.”

Ken clicked his tongue. “Damn! We shouldn’t have all gone off at once.”

He signalled with his head, and the other man rode off towards the back. Ken dismounted and approached Damian, getting on a knee in front of him.

“Good job. I know it’s not easy the first time. I’m sorry you had to deal with that alone.” he said genuinely.

Damian nodded.

Ken looked over towards the burning cart, thick black smoke twisting into the sky.

“What’s with the fire?”

Damian shrugged.

“I guess that merchant had a lot of oil.” he gave a lame excuse.

Ken looked at him searchingly, before standing with a grunt.

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“You can just stay here for now. We’ll get this mess cleaned up.”

The other guard returned then, looking at Damian with a newfound respect, and they both rode back to the front, leaving Damian behind.

Later, Damian learned that almost twenty bandits had attacked the front of the caravan, charging with broken weapons and iron tools. The guards had held them off with their superior equipment and Roy’s magic, but one of the guards had gotten ganged up on by three bandits, and was dead.

That made two casualties from their side, with one being a civilian.

The other merchant had screamed at Davis for that, saying it was his job to protect them, and that he had failed. Davis could only listen with a stony face. It was true after all. However, Damian thought that if Ken and the rear group hadn’t rushed to help with the attack, the casualties on the guards’ side may have been much higher.

For their dead, a small cremation funeral was held. The fallen bandits were simply dumped a short ways into the forest, supposedly the animals would take care of the disposal. After pushing the burnt out husk of the cart off to the side of the road, they set off again.

For the first time since they had begun their journey, Damian sat without thinking about or practicing magic.

On Earth, Damian had been a normal person. He had never seen anyone die, or even be seriously injured in his life. He had seen violence in movies and video games, but it was a far cry from the real thing. From doing it yourself.

He had a tough mind, though, and was able to mostly recover after a few hours of brooding. It was just that kind of world, after all. If Damian didn’t pick himself up, he’d be left behind. It was the same as Earth in that respect. Damian was just lucky he hadn’t been born in a region where such violence was all too common.

For the rest of the day, Damian practiced diligently. He knew that someday, he might have somebody he needed to protect. Even though it was a power that caused such suffering, he knew he had to train it.

When night fell, he had his students practice their meditation once more before heading to bed. Sleep came easy, though he was in a sombre mood, and the morning came quickly.

For the morning’s training, he had the men try to focus within themselves to sense their qi. To his surprise, four of them including Ken managed to sense it within the time they had. They thanked him with shining eyes, praising his teaching ability. Damian thought it wasn’t a bad feeling to be looked up to like that, and wondered if he’d ever have the opportunity to spread his knowledge again.

The day passed much the same as the previous ones, a long, boring session of traveling through endless trees. The day that followed was the same, and on their fifth day with the caravan, they could spot the walls of Portertown. There were no other attacks during that time, which Damian was thankful for.

During his training, he had managed to extend his field of magic influence out to a full foot around him, and decrease the time it took to concentrate his qi to less than a second. It was progress he was proud of, but he admitted to himself it was a little boring. In the future, he would see if he could focus more on experimenting with the mysterious powers he now had.

In the end, five of the 9 remaining guards managed to use their qi to some effect, with two more on the sensing stage. Damian reassured the other two, telling them to keep up with their meditation practice and they should be able to do it someday.

The walls of the town were nothing special. Instead of guarding against hostile armies, they were more for defence against magic beasts coming from the Highfern forest to the north. Since they didn’t need to worry about siege attacks, the walls were short, made of a reddish brown rock stacked with mortar.

As they approached, they passed through vast flat fields of grains and vegetables, as well as ranches with domesticated animals, used to feed the many people living in the town. Soon, Damian realized he had greatly underestimated the size of the town.

He had assumed that, since the technology was at a medieval level, something at the level of a ‘town’ would have a few thousand people at most. Instead, the town before him stretched far into the distance, clearly able to support tens of thousands. Of course, it was nothing compared to modern settlements, but here, Damian thought it was impressive to be able to support so many people in one spot. Without modern logistics and agriculture, it was likely a difficult task.

Damian realized the Greywall Kingdom had to be bigger than he thought, as well. Portertown was only one of four such towns in the territory of Viscount Irene. For such a large territory to belong to a Viscount, the rank with the second-most authority, he assumed the lands belonging to the Kingdom to be quite vast indeed.

The buildings he had seen dotted around between fields slowly got closer and closer together, until they were passing through a shanty town just beyond the walls. Here, the people seemed to be much more miserable than those in Pond. Their clothes and bodies were filthy, and they looked to be in need of a few meals.

Many people simply sat by the side of the road despondent. Did they not have any work? He wondered how they were able to afford to live, even in such terrible conditions, if they didn’t have any income during the day.

They reached the gates to the city, and stopped to let the guards check them. With one glance at Sir Remond’s face, they waved them through.

Damian noticed the men guarding the gate had much better equipment than the men of the caravan. They had several pieces of metal plate armour that gleamed in the sunlight, which were obviously well maintained.

As they entered the town proper, there was a clear change in conditions. The streets were clean cobblestone, and people with bright expressions walked along the sides, letting carriages and carts ride down the middle.

He saw that the people of the town were much better dressed than those of the village, with muted colours in patterns present. They had clean faces, and went about their business with purpose. The buildings on either side of the main street were much better quality than what he had seen as well. Many were two stories tall, built with cut stones and solid looking wood logs.

Surprisingly, there were also many people with weapons and light armour walking around, mostly in small groups. Generally, they weren’t too well equipped, but they all at least had a weapon.

After travelling for some time on the winding main road, they finally stopped in front of what appeared to be a large warehouse. Damian hopped off his ride, and headed off to the front. On the way, he met up with Ken, and gave him his spear back. The man made a show of checking for damage on every inch of the weapon, and Damian laughed at him. Together, they made their way up the line.

Ken grinned back. “It’s been great to travel with you, my friend. For your lessons, me ‘n’ the guys owe you more than you know.”

Damian smiled at him. “I didn’t do that much. All I did was teach the basics. It’s up to you guys where you go from there.”

Ken shook his head. “Even just that is more than we could ask for. There’s a reason our captain used to be the only one with qi, you know!”

“Are qi users that rare?”

“Rather than that, it’s a matter of getting them to teach anybody. Any practitioner around here was taught at one of the cities, and they have some kind of policy about not spreading the knowledge.”

“Hmm. Should I be worried?”

Ken laughed softly. “Like I said, we owe you more than you know. Nobody’s gonna be hearing about you from us! Unless you want them to, that is.”

Damian smiled gently. “Thanks, Ken. I hope I see you around after this.”

“We like to hang out at the Hairless Bear off of main street. You’re welcome to have a glass with us anytime!”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

By then, they had reached the front of the caravan. Davis was speaking with Sir Remond, and Damian watched as a large sack was handed over. Sir Remond then headed off into the warehouse after giving Damian a nod.

“Damian,” Davis addressed him. “Here.”

Davis counted out fifteen coins from the bag Remond had given them, and gave them to Damian.

“Isn’t this too many? Only five of your men managed to learn to use qi, after all.”

Davis shook his head. “Good enough just to sense it. You did better than expected. Also, for the bandits.”

Damian rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Oh, alright then.”

Davis looked at him for a while, seeming to consider something.

“Do you… Want to join us?”

Damian looked at him curiously. “The guardsmen? Eh, sorry. Sir Remond is great, but I don’t want to be tied down to him.”

Davis shook his head. “Davis’ Swords. Mercenaries.”

“Oh, I see! Still, there’s a lot of the world I want to see yet, I’ll have to let you down. Did… Did you come up with that name?”

Davis nodded sadly, then proudly at his question.

“Good, right!”

“Yeah! For sure.” Damian tried mostly unsuccessfully to hide his snickers. Who names their group after themselves?

Damian accepted the coins gratefully and stuffed them in his pocket. From there, they parted ways. Damian wanted to explore the town, and see if he could learn a bit more about the culture of the place. Also, he was absolutely filthy, and needed a bath, and maybe some new clothes.

Walking through the town streets was a novel experience for Damian. He felt a bit like he was in the middle of a renaissance fair, but the people here were real, living real lives.

As he turned onto a side street, he was met with a shock.

Carrying a huge bundle of wood down the street was a two meter tall wolf standing on two legs. At first, he thought it was a magic beast that had somehow got into town, but as he saw it stop, and interact with an elderly woman sitting outside her home, he realized it was actually a sapient person.

The wolf man towered over everyone, and was covered in a coarse black fur. It wore no clothes except for a leather harness that wrapped around its waist and shoulders. Its face was that of a canine, but somehow Damian could tell it had a friendly expression on.

He wondered why he hadn’t seen any before when he was on the main street, and decided they were just rare. He was proven wrong, however as he found more and more of them as he drifted away from the main street, most of them doing jobs involving heavy physical labour. Did they have a lower social status?

He thought about it as he wandered around. Were there races other than humans and these wolf men in this world?

‘Would I be able to meet a beautiful elf somewhere here?’, he wondered excitedly.

After some time of walking, he eventually found a small open air market. He bought a skewer of meat for a small coin, and asked around about prices. Doing some mental math, he found one small coin was equal to about three or four dollars. This meant he had earned the equivalent of over $500 already!

The small coin was more valuable than he had originally thought. Since it was the smallest denomination of currency in the nation, citizens had to cut the coins into halves or quarters if they needed small change.

After that, he was no longer able to stand his dirtiness anymore. His hair felt like a block of grease, and he was sure his smell was causing people to walk far around him! After asking a passerby, he learned the town had a few communal bath houses where he could wash. Following the directions led him to a large building.

He broke down one of his large coins and paid four small coins to wash both his body and clothes. For a long time, he soaked in the hot water. He was a little weirded out sharing the room with a bunch of naked men, but powered through for the sake of cleanliness.

Afterwards, he washed his modern clothing as best as he could by hand, making sure to be careful with the buttons and delicate parts. Using magic, he pulled all the moisture away from the cloth, leaving them dry, though still a bit dirty.

Feeling refreshed, he headed out in search of a proper meal. Just down the street, however, he stopped.

In front of him was the most unique store he had found in his wanderings yet. Lined up along the street, as well as stacked deep in the open storefront, were numerous iron cages. Contained in the cages was a variety of interesting animals.

However, it wasn’t the animals that caught his eye.

It was a girl.

Tucked away to the side, huddled into herself within a small cage, was a girl. She wore a tattered sack as a dress, and had short light green hair that looked like a bunch of leaves growing from her head. Most importantly, as Damian thought, were her ears.

“A long eared elf!” he muttered to himself in surprise.

They stretched back about half a foot, and ended in rounded, but sharp-looking points. At the moment, they were pointed to the ground, giving her a sad look.

What was she doing in a cage? Damian didn’t like the thought of slavery, but he wasn’t so disgusted by it to attempt to free every slave, or anything like that. Besides, she was the only humanoid in the shop. It was as if someone had mistaken her for a beast.

It piqued his curiosity, and he went up to the shopkeeper, a rotund man with a feathered hat. The man saw him coming, and after giving him a once over, sent him a wide smile and welcomed him.

“Hello there, young man! I can see I’ve attracted your interest. Let me tell you, these fantastic creatures are unlike any you’ll find anywhere else. They come from our very own Highfern forest, and I can guarantee you each one of them will make an excellent companion or guard! I even have several magic beasts, if you have the coin for them.”

Damian was a bit taken aback at the sudden sales pitch, but greeted the man warmly.

“Good evening. I might be interested in purchasing one for myself. Do you mind if I take a closer look?”

“Not at all, not at all! Please, inspect them to your heart’s content. When you do find one you like, I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.”

The man seemed happy to have a potential customer, and Damian walked in among the cages. He made a show of inspecting several animals, before moving to the girl he saw. Most of the beasts ignored him, but several gave low growls as he came close.

For those he inspected, it was actually genuine interest. There were many animals in the shop that he had never seen before, and several had interesting characteristics. There were giant lizards with feathers, panther-like animals, ones with tentacles and odd appendages, and many other interesting features.

As he was walking among the cages, he saw the merchant engage with another customer, and quickly made a beeline to the one he was interested in.

The girl seemed to ignore him even as he took a knee next to her. Now that he could see her face, he realized she was more alien than he had thought. She was still cute, with a heart shaped face and soft features, but what struck him was her nose. It was as if someone had taken the nose of a cat and pasted it onto her face. It reminded him very much of the characters in the movie Avatar.

“Hello there, miss?” he tried.

At his words, her head shot up to look at him sharply. Damian found himself getting surprised again by her eyes. They were bigger than a human’s with an angled, asian shape. They were also solid black, with no whites, and had numerous sparkling lights within, as if he was looking into a night sky.

Slowly, her face scrunched up, and tears began to roll down her face.

Damian was panicked. He hadn’t meant to make her cry!

“Ah, er, sorry?!”

The girl shook her head vigorously, and spoke for the first time.

“You speak… Amarish?” she asked him. It was a soft voice, and Damian had to strain to hear her.

“Well, something like that. Can you tell me how you ended up in this cage?”

“Um, I was walking home the other day, when something grabbed me. It was like someone dropped ice down my back, but around my whole body. Then, I was moving really fast, and suddenly I was in a forest.”

Damian gasped softly. It was just like him!

“I was really scared! I got chased around by this big animal that I’d never seen before, but managed to get away. Then I got captured by some strange men with weapons. I think they were trying to ask me questions, but I didn’t understand what they were saying. They t-took my clothes and brought me here.”

Damian was confused. She didn’t seem to have the same language ability that he had. He wondered what made him different.

The girl seemed to hesitate.

“Do you know what’s going to happen to me now?”

“Hmm. Well, the owner of this place seems to think you’re an animal of some sort, though I don’t know how he managed to convince himself of that.”

“Then, can’t you just tell him that-”

“No.” Damian cut her off. “I don’t know if slavery is legal here. If he finds out you’re sapient, he might sell you off into a worse fate.”

Her face became even more downcast than before, and her ears drooped.

“What should I do…”

Damian sighed. Normally he wasn’t the type of person to play hero and help strangers like this, but he felt a kinship with her. Their situations were so similar, after all. He shuddered when he thought it could have just as easily been him behind those bars. Plus, she was cute. More importantly, she was cute!

“Listen. I can probably purchase you to get you out of here, but it’s going to cost you. You’ll owe me whatever it costs to buy you. Are you alright with that?”

She gave a delicate nod, sending her ears flapping.

“Please…”

Damian gave her a reassuring smile, and stood up to speak to the merchant. The large man smiled at him as he walked over.

“Have you found something you like?” he asked Damian.

“I’m not sure yet. How much does that humanoid one cost?” he pointed out the elf girl.

“Ah, you have a good eye, sir. Usually the man-like ones go fast! That one came in just this morning, some hunters brought it in out of Highfern. Now, normally such a pretty one would fetch a high price, but for you, sir, I’m willing to part with it for 15 big coins!”

‘Geh!’ Damian winced inwardly. That was about $600, more than he had on him!

“For that little thing?! Look how scrawny it is, there’s no way I could use it for anything useful. I can give you 12 at most.”

The merchant’s smile seemed to be a little strained at that. Damian knew it was a lowball, but he honestly couldn’t afford much more than 13 coins.

“Now sir, that’s not fair to my product. It’s easy on the eyes, no? It’s more intelligent than it looks, too. I can’t go any lower than 14 coins.”

“You’re absolutely correct, my friend, and you’ll have a deal right now for 13 coins.”

The merchant had a conflicted expression on his face for a moment, before it turned to a defeated one.

“I’m sorry, I can’t-”

“Thirteen big, four small.”

The merchant stared back at the elf girl, and was silent for a long time.

“Damn, alright.” he finally said, “I’ll do it. You’ve got quite the silver tongue there.”

With robot-like movements, Damian held out his hands with the money enclosed in his fists. The merchant held his hands out expectantly.

And waited.

“Hey… Are you going to buy it or not?” He asked Damian, looking at his stony face.

“Ugh!”

With a sound like he was in physical pain, Damian dropped the money into the man’s hands.

A single tear welled up in his eye, threatening to roll down his face.

‘My hard earned cash, all gone in less than a day!’ he lamented to himself.

Damian took the key to the elf girl’s cage and walked over, ignoring the man’s offers for things like collars, and leashes and such.

As he went over and unlocked the cage, the girl inside just watched him with a strange expression on her face, like she was surprised he had come back. Damian offered a hand to her. Instead of grabbing it, however, she started tearing up again.

“Hey now, is this going to happen often?” Damian asked with an awkward expression.

She sniffled, and grasped his hand, letting him pull her up.

“Thank you… Really.”

“Don’t thank me too much, I’m planning on working you hard to pay back your debt, you know.” Damian told her with a wry grin.

“Yes! I’ll pay it back quickly!”

She had a resolute look on her face, with her ears perked up, and Damian smiled. It was much better than the depressed look she had before.

“My name’s Damian, by the way. Damian Hartman.”

She gave a small bow to him.

“I’m called She Who Dreams of Mountains.”

Oof, a tough obstacle right away. Was there some kind of translation error such that a strange name came out, or was it a cultural thing?

“Do you mind if I call you Dream?”

She looked at him a bit confused. “Yes, that should be fine.”

“Right, first thing’s first, I should give you this.”

Damian untied the cloak from around his shoulders, and draped it around hers.

“Until we can get you some proper clothes, this will have to do.”

Dream smiled brightly and thanked him.

‘Yep, definitely better… Almost worth my thirteen coins.’ he thought happily.

Together, they walked out onto the street, and headed off in search of a meal and a place to rest the night. Somewhere they could afford with fourteen small coins…

As the beast merchant watched them stroll away together, he couldn’t help but feel that he had somehow been cheated...

Damian and Dream managed to quickly find a cheap inn in a seedier area of town, renting a single room for the night with an evening meal for as low as thirteen small coins. The meal was just a bland soup, but Dream seemed to enjoy it with how quickly she ate it.

Supposedly, she hadn’t eaten in two days. The beast merchant had given her some kind of unidentifiable slop, which she hadn’t been able to touch.

Since their room only had one bed, Damian rolled out his bedroll onto the floor, and let Dream have the bed. She gave some small protests, but after he insisted, she promptly passed out in it. She’d had an exhausting last couple of days, after all.

Damian stayed up only a little while longer, working on an idea for cleaning magic he had thought of, before drifting off himself.

The next morning saw Damian glaring at a single coin laying on the floor in front of him.

They were broke.

They were unbelievably poor.

They could probably afford a single skewer of mystery meat before declaring bankruptcy.

Damian knew they had to solve this problem by the end of the day, or they’d end up starving. Fortunately, he had some ideas. For starters, he wanted to investigate the suspiciously large number of armed people on the street. They couldn’t all be mercenaries. There was no way there were enough bandits in the area to warrant a small army.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a small yawn. He looked up to see Dream sitting up on the straw bed, rubbing her eyes and clutching his cloak around her. Her ears twitched cutely.

“Good morning.” he called out to her.

She turned her head towards him slowly, staring blankly with her black eyes. A second later, she seemed to remember where she was.

“Ah!”, she started. She gave a slight bow of her head towards him. “Good morning!”

Damian snickered a little at the sight. “We need to earn money for our living expenses today. I think it’s pretty likely we’re going to end up going into the forest you were teleported to. Do you think you’ll be alright going back in there? What about fighting, and the sight of blood, do you think you can handle it?”

Dream didn’t hesitate, despite it clearly being a bad memory for her.

“Yes! I’ll be useful!”

“Ah, well, that’s good then.”

Of course, Damian didn’t intend to have her fight. He remembered well the power of his magic when he used it on the bandits, and didn’t think anyone else would be necessary. Rather, he thought he would have her carry the loot back.

Damian shared one of the last pieces of dried meat he had left from the caravan, and they headed out.

After asking a passerby, they found that the small armed groups wandering around were actually something called Hunters. Apparently here, it was a much more involved job than most places. Since the wildlife of Highfern forest was so much more dangerous than normal, the hunters of Portertown had to have much higher combat ability. They were more akin to professional mercenaries than anything.

Most importantly, they had a guild hall, where people could post bounties on certain magic beasts, or request someone to gather rare materials from within the forest.

They were able to quickly find the building after following some directions. As they stepped inside, they were hit with an atmosphere that was more like a bar than a business. Chairs and tables filled the floor, with hunters gathered in small cliques, drinking alcohol or otherwise relaxing.

Along one wall, posters were hung up describing the various bounties available. In one corner of the room sat a bar manned by a gruff looking man, and in the other corner was an empty desk with a doorway leading back further into the building.

To begin with, Damian went to the bounties and looked through them all. With his new memory trick, he was able to easily memorize all the current ones. Most of them were for certain herbs or plants. Of those that were calling hunters to defeat magic beasts or animals, only a few were for a certain beast that had been causing trouble. The vast majority were materials requests. Things like the hide of a certain animal, or the ivory of another one, were common.

Heading over to the bar, he used his last small coin to buy a lonely man a cheap drink. After loosening his lips, he learned that the hunter’s guild was actually very relaxed. One didn’t have to be a member of the guild or anything to use their basic services. Anyone could try to complete a bounty on their own, and the guild would payout to anyone successful. The only benefits to actually joining the guild was that there were some hidden bounties for the more capable people, and a considerable collection of information on the dangers of Highfern forest.

Damian would have liked to see some of that information, but the guild membership required money. Of which Damian now had exactly zero.

Damian leaned back in his seat and looked over at the job board. He figured that for now, they could take it slow and safe, and just go for a few of the herbs. He didn’t want to go too deep into the forest, lest he put Dream in danger. He was aware that his magic ability, while powerful, wasn’t omnipotent, and there was always the chance that something could happen.

Of course, there was also the option of earning money with his magic in the city, but…

Damian was in a bona fide fantasy world! There was no way he could pass up the chance for a little adventure.

He turned and grinned at his companion.

“Well Dream, what do you say we go earn some money?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The massive doors to the throne room swung open with a low groan. A clanking could be heard accompanied by the sound of something dragging along the floor.

Passing through the doorway was a knight clad in gleaming silver and gold plate armour, dragging a dirty man towards the throne. The man had unkempt black hair that hung down past his eyes, and was clothed in a strange garb. One eye was blackened from a previous blow, and his lip bled lightly from a cut. His arms and legs were bound in metal chains, which were causing the clanking sound.

They reached the middle of the spacious room, and the knight dropped the man, letting him fall to his knees. A clang rang out as the knight’s fist hit his chest over his heart.

“Long live the Lord Emperor! The prisoner has been brought, as requested!”

The black haired man lifted his head at that, looking up at the figure before him.

Sitting on a large wooden throne was a regal looking man with a bored expression. His long golden hair coiled around his shoulders, and his ears ended in points. He raised his hand to acknowledge the knight, before addressing the man.

“Tell me, thief, assassin, or whatever you are. Just how were you able to get so deep in the palace without anyone noticing? You don’t seem to have the skills to sneak in, so I cannot for the life of me figure out how you did it. Truthfully, that is the only reason you have yet to be executed, so I recommend you to be forthright with the information.”

His voice was soft, but it seemed to echo around the room, reaching every corner.

The black haired man mumbled something, and received a solid kick from the knight.

“Speak up! You are before the Emperor!” the knight commanded.

“Your… Your Graciousness.” the man croaked out. “I truthfully don’t know how I came to be in your glorious palace. One moment I was home, then, after an ice cold feeling, I was here.”

The emperor perked up at that, his look of boredom gone.

“Oh ho? A Traveller then? Perhaps I should send you to the interrogation room, they will be sure to rip every scrap of information from you.”

The black haired man made a strangled sound.

“Please, your Majesty… There’s no need for that, I will tell you whatever you want to know!”

The emperor leaned forward, looking intently at the man. “I suggest you begin talking then, human.”

“R-right.” the man cleared his throat. “I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?”

“I come from a world called Earth.”