Walking… walking… and more walking…

While there was a lot to see, and Davin was spending most of his energy gathering anything that he could see that from what his survival skill was telling him was edible, which when you're mindset is still largely set to earth, so when he was putting small slow-moving bugs into his pouch that he'd had on his hip his mind came to a screeching halt.

"Hugh… Why am I putting a beetle into my bag?" Davin asked, the concern clear in his voice.

"A bug? What kind?" The mage stepped over and looked.

"It kind of looks like a beetle? It's pretty heavy." Davin held out the bug, holding it by the sides so that Hugh could examine it.

"Oh! That's just a beetle, but they're super tasty, especially when fried or roasted with some seasonings." Hugh got incredibly close to the insect, looking it over. "That’s a big one too, most of the ones you can get in the bastion are about the size of an almond, that one is at least three."

"Roasted? Makes sense, Insects are high in protein." Davin looked over the insect one more time. "Did you bring any jars with lids? I think this guy would crawl out of my bag if I tried to keep him there."

"I'll do you one better! We actually have a bug box." With that, they stopped walking, and Hugh canceled the spell holding up their trunk.

"A bug box? Is that like a container for keeping bugs?" Davin felt a bit dumb about the question, but he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Exactly, normally they are used for storing small creatures when experiments are being done on them, but they'd work perfectly to store a few of the little buggers till we could get a fire going." Sounded excited as he rummaged through the trunk at his feet.

"So what I'm hearing is… more bugs? Okay, never thought I'd have to ask that seriously… like ever."

"These bugs, not just any bugs, most are disgusting, these just happen to be one of the few that most consider palatable."

"Gotcha… do these things have a name?"

"No idea what they're actual name is, bugs aren't my thing. Most just call them Beetle bites."

Davin let out an involuntary shiver. "That just feels like a bad joke that someone messed up and only knew the punchline."

"Likely? They were long before me, but there are a few vendors that you can find roasting them all over the city, my favorite is the garlic ones." A soft sigh came out of Hugh seeming as though he was reflecting on his favorite treat, the small box in his hands as he walked over to Davin.

Placing the bug into the box. "So keep my eyes peeled for these guys."

"If you would, any other good finds while we've been walking? You've been bouncing all over."

"No idea, I've just been doing it subconsciously." Pulling his pouch forward so that he could see. "Rosemary, thyme, and some sage, oh some mint, and a pile of dandelion greens."

"You can eat all of that?" Hugh eyed the assortment of greens that Davin had acquired.

"Yup, most are used in the flavoring of foods." Holding up a sprig of rosemary. "This one is likely one of the ones that can make your beetles tastier."

"Kind of makes me wish I'd learned to cook, I would feel far less clueless about all of that."

"Can't you use these things in alchemy?" Thinking about some of the games that he'd played that used the many herbs that he was familiar with as part of the ingredients for making potions.

"Yes and no, depending on the potion, like for example a healing potion is made using an herbalism kit and some other basic extracts. While alchemy uses distilled essences of those plants as a whole… I think, I'm still learning on the subject, I know that there are a few things that cross over between the two, but most of those things aren't consumable in their base form, otherwise, the wrong kind of salad could potentially be a potion." Hugh pulled out and showed off some of the alchemy supplies that he'd brought with them.

"Good to know, too bad neither of us knows herbalism, that would have been handy with our general lack of a healer."

"Agreed, but we don't want to rely on just potions, mainly, because you can't always drink a potion."

"Fair point. Well no point in lingering on something that is out of our control for the moment, just have to keep our eyes peeled for someone that meshes."

Hugh nodded and shrugged, started casting his ritual for the floating disc that carried most of their items, really wishing that there was another version of it that lasted longer. How quickly the single spell worked its way to mundanity made Davin feel a little jaded, he'd always hoped that the idea of magic would always excite him, but the third casting of a single spell in a day didn't give him much of a reason to get excited.

"You know, I honestly was expecting things to be a bit more exciting, we're on an adventure and I feel that I had hyped it up so much in my head that now I feel like I was let down or like I was cheated out of my prize." Davin let out a huff as he kicked a rock out of the path.

"We are still within the major perimeter of edges rest. So I doubt that we'll see anything too exciting today."

"Still? It's been three hours, shouldn’t we have crossed out of their territory by now?"

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"Nope, we're not moving very fast, but we're also on one of the few roads in the area, so we're making some good time toward the wilds."

"Wait, this isn't even the wilds yet either?" The tone of disappointment in Davin's voice was clear.

"We should just be crossing into the wilds by the time we should be breaking for the night if that makes you feel any better." Hugh Shrugged again.

Davin bobbed his head. "Yeah, that does make me feel a bit better, can we pick up the pace then?"

"We could? Wouldn’t really get us all that much further."

"Oh, okay." Davin's tone bubbled with melancholy.

"If you want we could step off the road, and let you feel like you're blazing a trail." Hugh waved off the side of the road where the shrubs were dense and the grass was long.

"You don't need to patronize me…. But I will walk off the road, but you can stay on, I think I'll find some extra stuff out there anyway."

Davin stepped off the path, while not significant in the grand scheme somehow sent a jolt through him, he was off the beaten path in a world that had roads, that have likely been around for more than a millennia, he was in what no human likely has trod on in ages… and that brought with it an entire line of thought about what happened to the last humans that had come through here… were they the forgotten? Were they hidden in some far reaches of the afterlife in some conclave dedicated to some of the Earth's gods since they weren't represented here. A wave of momentous panic washed over him as he thought of what the people of his home would have been like in a place like this. The dread lingered and was heavy, thinking of all of the atrocities that his people had done in the name of a god or goddess. The shiver that ran down Davin's back was substantial, but at the same time, the fact that not many had seen humans in so long made him wonder if they were the humans from his earth, or if in the infinite layers of the universe, the humans that most were familiar with were different from his. That was when Davin tripped, ripped from his ruminations in an instant, the loud yelp of pain that broke the serenity caused Hugh to burst out into a fit of laughter that echoed through the woods around them.

"Are…. You…. Okay…?" Hugh's words were broken up by fits of laughter.

Letting out a loud groan. "I think so? Just got stuck in my own mind and wasn't watching where I was going, I think I'll be okay…. Just let me lie here for a few minutes keep walking…. I'll catch up…"

"Okay, If you change your mind, use the whisper stone to get ahold of me."

Hugh kept walking, thinking while he did so, glad that he had met Davin. There were many people that he'd met in his time here, by his accounting, He was sure that he was nearing his fifth year, which in the grand scheme didn’t feel like a long time, but at the same time, it was also the strongest memories that he knows, so in a way it has felt like forever. He was on the 'Adventure' that he'd always wanted, feeling a tinge of shame for not having stepped out of the city beyond the occasional errand… He was so thankful for Davin's drive to explore, he had a reason to follow his own dreams, and Davin seemed to have a feeling that things were going to change here in the afterlife, and he wanted to be one of the first to be able to say that he was there. The gravel crunched under his feet, the road well-worn the occasional groan from Davin broke the otherwise serene atmosphere, but he was happy, he made a new friend, he didn’t have the same complexes that some of the other new arrivals seemed to have. He was a genuinely good guy, the few times that they'd hung out they mostly talked about being adventurers, most others usually talked about binging on some form of carnal pleasure or another… and he understood that it was usually what was promised, 'all of your deepest desires would be seen to in the afterlife', others seemed driven to exterminate the monsters that existed in the wilds or were 'farming' as Davin called it, by repeatedly purging the dungeons of the monsters that would repopulate as they hunted treasures. Davin would regularly refer to this place as if it were 'a game' something called an 'em-em-oh' or some other such nonsense. Thinking about when he first came to the Afterlife he didn't remember anything like that being said, but Davin specifically stated that "It's like a new game plus" whatever the heck that was supposed to mean. His own experiences at the "Gateway" as most usually called it seemed to vary, his own feeling like it was ages ago, barely remembering the experience as if it had all been part of a dream that he'd woken from when he crossed the final threshold into the city, he also specifically remembered that the person that greeted him into the afterlife was one from his previous world.

Davin lay in the dirt for what felt like several minutes, he didn’t think that he was hurt, he just felt that his spirit was broken, games never really made you feel the time of traveling, there were always things to look at, and things to explore, and he knew that he was mostly hyping all of this up in his head. He would have to get over some of that, and he knew it. He groaned, slowly pulling himself up off the ground, dusting himself off, and pulling a few of the small sticks that were stuck to him off, he looked around himself, in fact finding a few things that he hadn't seen yet, and added them to the bag at his hip. He worked his way closer to the road, just passed the threshold of the trees and shrubs that ran alongside it.

Picking up his pace, closer to a march than a leisurely walk that they had been at, Hugh had made a good point, they could be at a much better pace, they had been walking at Davin's gathering pace, which was pretty slow in the grand scheme, the idle thought about power walking made him chuckle, his new pace made it much more difficult to gather things, but he easily caught up with Hugh.

"How was the nap?" Hugh asked with a mildly mocking tone.

"Dusty, but not bad, but you made a good point, let's pick up the pace, I have enough odds and ends pulled together, but once we hit the end of the road, I shift gears, oh, want some berries?" Davin held up a napkin full of berries.

"Oh, nice," Hugh said with excitement as he scooped up a few and tossed them into his mouth. "To where the rivers meet, that isn't a very specific set of directions."

"Shouldn’t be too many right?" Davin asked.

"You are aware that this area is a delta right? We're just in one of the few that doesn’t have any, and that’s likely due to them putting in the road."

"A delta? That's the one made by river deposits?"

"Yup. This whole area used to be like Long Dock, but that was a millennia ago if not longer."

"Damn, so now there are just a bunch of rivers instead?"

"Basically, from what I've seen of the history of the area the rivers still shift, the only area that doesn’t change is the roads."

"Built up on stone?"

"Nope, pillars, like a dock."

"Neat, so then if the rivers change enough it just flows under it like a bridge?"

"Basically."

They took a break around lunch, Davin pulled out the kettle that Jess had gotten for him, brewing a simple tea from some of the gathered plants that they'd come across. Hugh had pulled out the sandwiches that they'd gotten from the Inn where they'd stayed at. Sitting just off the side of the road, they enjoyed the break, Davin's feet were tender, but he was still in a fresh body… Which was weird, he was effectively less than twenty days old. He'd pulled off his boots and socks, resting his feet in the shallow stream that they'd stopped to eat by. They chatted while Hugh looked over and looked over the few maps that they'd gotten for the area.

"We have a few hours to go, and we can get some better rest then, I know your feet hurt, but it won't get any better either."

"I know, I'm used to having calluses, so it's weird not having them. I keep forgetting that I'm still new to all of this."

"Blisters first." Hugh chuckled.

"Ugh, don't remind me, I have pretty good fitting boots, shouldn’t get any blisters till we start getting into some of the tougher terrain." He rubbed his feet, looking them over for the sign of blisters and bruising.

Hugh moved over to join him, pulling off his boots and dipping his feet into the cool water. "Oh, that is good."