"This...this is amazing Kojo!" He turned his head towards me, as I gazed around us in open-mouthed wonder, stepping across the mossy floor and touching the wood of the trees nearby.

"How? This is just a regular forest." He smiled cheekily at me. Grumpily, I tore my gaze away from the splendid forest around us to look at the smug wolf. Something about leaving the caverns had me feeling...better. Almost like a weight had been lifted off my back. I don't even know why he didn't feel the same.

"Well, yeah, but something feels different. Almost...uplifting." His eyes widen, and he turns his head back towards the landscape. I can see the cogs working in his head, before something seems to set in behind his eyes. Did I say something weird to make him act like that?

"Ahhh. You're talking about the [Aura]." Wait...hold up. That's a new word. Something that I don't think I've heard before. Is...is the animal translation stuff actually real-time translating? No, wait. Focus on things you can get answers to. What does he mean by [Aura]?

"What do you mean?" His brow furrows as we walk through the undergrowth. However, as we step into an open area, we see the signs of something that I hadn't ever seen so far, a dead patch.

Before now, everything that I had seen had either been in a state of life, or a state of change. There was nothing that had just outright shown such a downright contrast. This patch of death, was quite literally a grey and black stain upon the landscape. However, despite all the trepidations, Kojo just leads me in closer towards it. At first, I thought perhaps something had been drawing him closer to the center of the patch, but thankfully he had stopped at the edge, where he put a paw upon a dead tree.

"You know how when we went into that forest, back in the valley, and there were magical plants and weird animals?" Weird direction to start with, especially since we're in this place, but alright.

"Yeah." At my affirmation, he seems to nod to himself before he extends his claw upon the tree and seems to almost mold it before the carving he's doing looks like a rudimentary circle. Once he had done so, he struck two marks within it before turning his head back towards me.

"Well...we entered a [Domain]." Another new word...and apparently no further explanation judging by how Kojo turned his head back towards the alive portion of the forest and just continued to walk on. I, of course, follow right behind as I want to get out of the dead patch, but I think that I still need this conversation to happen. Otherwise, I might have some confusion heaped upon me at a later time.

"What's a domain?" He stumbles a bit at my question, almost stopping due to the lost rhythm of his gait, before he finds the proper pace he had been at before.

"Oh. You must've lived somewhere peaceful then, yeah?" Peaceful? What does that have to do with anything at all? Maybe he means whether or not we had monsters around?

"...Yeah." He stopped walking at my affirmation, before turning himself around. His eyes seem to study me for a bit before he sighs, stoops down, and turns his head so his eyes can look at me.

"Ok. So, this might take a while to explain. Would you like to get on top of me so that you won't have to focus on anything other than my words?" The words almost take me back for a moment. What kind of information is he going to have to delve into, where I will have to sit down? Maybe it's something to do with the fact he mentioned peaceful? Is there something about reality that's generally dangerous? Either way, I still want to get on top of him. His moss is comfy either way.

"I don't see why not. Thanks for letting me on you buddy." I reach out towards his mossy pelt and begin to climb on. My feet find purchase quite easily, but my climb ends almost as soon as it starts, for Kojo's moss just starts pulling me up in surges until I'm firmly situated upon the back of my friend, none the worse for wear except my black hair windswept from the motions.

"No problem, friend. Just feel like things probably need to be said and asked." At that final note, I found myself lying down on his back, no longer being held by the moss, stretching my joints before the familiar creak and pop fills my bones.

"So...why is it so important that I sit down?" At my utterance, I'm jolted a bit as Kojo stands back up and starts walking with purpose once again. It's a bit hard to time myself to the rhythm of his walk, but I eventually get the hang of it and start rocking myself from side to side.

"Do you know what a God is?"...Getting a bit sociological there, but I guess maybe they exist here or something? Maybe it's just natural phenomenon they can't explain. I mean, he is a wolf after all. Probably think rain comes from a rain god and the sun is a god...then again, magic exists, so maybe they're just people with a lot of magic at their disposal? Who's to say?

"Sure, Kojo." At this his back loses some tension I didn't realize he had, the vines and bark underneath the moss loosening a bit, where I can almost see something glowing within my sight before it's hidden away. Was that...no. It can't be. I can just see mana. I can't see...that, can I?

"Good. I didn't know what I could say to explain that bit to you. That makes this easier to explain. So...a God likes to be in certain places, yes?" My inner musings were brought to a halt as the conversation continues on without me. My brain has to work a little bit harder to catch up to what was said to me, while in the meantime, Kojo stops and sniffs around a bit before continuing on, probably finding a familiar scent in his mind. OK, putting aside the fact that he thought I was stupid enough that I needed the concept of a god explained to me, what was he actually asking of me? Is he asking me for my opinion on them? How am I supposed to know?

"I mean...I guess?" My ambihuous statement causes him to hum for a little bit, before I could hear a certain grunt. And that was when I noticed that the 'hide' underneath me and in front of me was changing. Almost like radiation, a flower blooms, spreading leaves and coloring the left shoulder of Kojo a shade of orange. Meanwhile, his right shoulder, started to become quite rugged and jagged, as bark formed crevasses, and arising from the center of the bark, was a singular thorn, penetrating the tiny heavens of the air around it.

"Certain gods like places more than others. They influence that spot so much it starts to gain their traits. That is what that inner part of the caldera was." At that, the flower seems to fade away, while the leaves slowly turn back towards the moss that they had been formed from, with the bark quickly taking over the areas that had been lost, the thorn moving along with it, before it grew bigger within the center of his shoulder blades. The bark, forming a bowl.

I look behind me at the caverns we came from and looked up. Trees dotting the sides of the mountain before simply fading away to grass and rock before a slight fog of a cloud leaves the mountaintop's lip barely visible. It's edges go far and wide across my vision, travelling in a very familiar curve. I bring my head back towards the back of my friend, very impressed with the amount of detail he had been able to portray of the caldera. He wasn't even looking while he'd been doing it! Wait...I'm in a conversation. Shit! Stop getting distracted man! Focus. Think on the information you're taking in via osmosis.

"So, a domain is a place where a god likes to be?" Kojo manages to shake his head a bit, which causes some of his torso to shift swiftly, leading to me almost losing the seat I had gotten.

"No. Simply a place a god likes. That particular bit was someplace a god liked a bit too much. It put a lot of aura in there. That is why it is a domain. It is filled with something that feels different to other normal places." Ahhhh. So there's somehow just a sort of pressure differential then? Makes a bit of sense. It also kind of explains why me thought patterns changed as soon as we got out of there. Instead of the worry that had infested my mind, it was the aura affecting me. Makes a bit of sense. Normally, I'm not that depressed about things. Sure, those thoughts still exist in the back of my mind, but that's just the normal state of things for people. If you don't give it attention, it cannot thrive within you, and that place kept making me give attention to it, for some reason I can't think of.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Thanks for telling me about it Kojo." I express, feeling all the gratitude for the explanation. If I had not know that there were places like this in the world, I would've just assumed that I would have needed to go back to my pills again, which would only cause me more heartache. After all, I really doubt that there's any manufacturer for them around these parts.

"No worries. If you didn't know, then you'd probably die later on." Kojo's words take a minute to process, before they begin to make me slightly worried.

"Is there a reason I'd die? Are domains so normal a thing?"

"No. From what my family says, domains are few and far between. It's just that those that do exist tend to hold the most dangerous predators and hard-to-catch prey." Ahh, so probably more of the same from what we had to deal with in there. Which is both good and bad, considering that we didn't even encounter the strongest monsters in that place. Or at least, I don't think we did. Kind of hard to say since we didn't exactly explore all that much in there. However, with the conversation done, I kind of don't exactly know why it was at all necessary to have done what we did before hand.

"Oh. Ok then. I'll be sure to be careful if we come around to any of that. So...I gotta ask something Kojo." I bring up my confusion to Kojo, who only gives me a side-glance before turning his attention back towards the ground ahead of him, following a path I could not see.

"Sure."

"Why did you want me on your back for that? It didn't seem like too much of a difficult thing to answer." He takes a moment to compose himself. His breathing manages to go from the steady use of exertion to something a bit more concentrated before he lets out a sigh.

"Simple. I lied. You are just slow. It is easier to just carry you to where we are heading." Wait...is he saying I'm fat or something? No. He's not like that. Plus these days in the wilderness ain't exactly too bad. I'm just glad I was able to make a little cup for the water in the cave. Without it, I don't think I'd would've been able to go this far. That crafting skill made it a bit easier to do, so I'm happy with it now. I dropped the conversation, seeing that Kojo wasn't willing to speak more on the topic, and I wasn't wanting to bog down the wolf with more questions about the world at this time.

As we pass between the trees, and the birds swoop low to grab the insects clinging to the branches of trees, I ponder some of the things I've put off thinking about. For example, why did I only receive half of the points I normally get for leveling up? I should've gotten 20, but I only received 10. Was that the effect of my Newcomer title? How can I tell unless someone can explain titles to me? I already tried asking Kojo about it while I was in the cave healing wolves, but he didn't know anything about them. And now that I'm looking at my skills list properly and looking back at the system history, why hasn't my physical resistance skill leveling up? It's level 15 now, but I haven't received anything from the system. I mean, I assume it should still be leveling up, as if it was actually done, because every day a little wear and tear is always produced on the body, but it doesn't. I don't know. I just wish I could talk to someone about skills. Wait...I haven't asked Kojo about...that particular issue yet, have I? I mean, I just said I probably shouldn't bog him down with questions...No. It's fine. It's only one anyway, and its importance is kind of paramount here.

"Hey Kojo?" He doesn't make any abnormal movements, but his ears do turn toward me.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know about skills?" His ears twitch a bit with my words, but other than that I cannot see any other reaction he is having from back here.

"Yes." The quick affirmation somewhat surprises me, but I delve headlong into the important ones I need to bring up.

"Why do they sometimes not level up?"

"Level? Do you mean advance?" Kojo voiced the question a little weirdly. Is it a translation error? I mean, he had to physically work his mouth to say 'level' in English. Do they not have a concept of level? Perhaps if I explain it, he'll get the meaning.

"No. I mean level. Like you can tell when it's getting better, but it's just not for some reason." At this his ears turn back forward.

"Ahh. That is just practice and other skills helping it along." I don't think he's getting it. Wait...

"How do you know about skills anyway?" At this, his head seems to tilt to the side slightly, either trying to catch a sound of something he heard in the distance, or perhaps displaying confusion at my words.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ok. Should I just pull the band-aid off with the question? I mean, I've basically been beating around it with this skill talk. I can certainly try to get a feel if I should though.

"Well I mean...this is going to seem silly."

"What?"

"Do you...do you have a little screen that appears in front of you when you say certain words or phrases, like stats?" Even sounding out the words seems a bit hard for me to do. Not like anything physical was stopping me from saying it, but more along the lines that saying them almost briefly causes my mind to recoil from my present reality.

"...Oh! Don't worry friend. That is just the Voice of the Gods." No. No it's...wait. It was a voice to start with before I turned it to written notifications...somehow. I still don't quite understand if I did it right or not. I could try and show him what I mean, but...would he even have the option to do so? I mean, I didn't see any writing in that cave, even if it would've been primitive or crude because of their claws. Kojo's voice once again snaps me out of my ruminations upon bettering his experience of the world.

"Why would you think that that was silly?" His words pulled at a particular seam that I willingly let tear itself open.

"Where I come from, we don't have anything like this unless..." Wait...how do I phrase this? I can't just say video games. He wouldn't even understand the concept. Wait, I know, "it's from stories."

"...Hmmm. Strange. Your kind must've been [Torn] from it a long time ago." Torn? Why was that word new? Something's definitely going on here.

"Why do you mean by torn?" His pace slows down a bit as he starts to inspect the trees.

"Keep in mind that most of what I've heard is basically just relegated towards stories but, there are some things that can't hear the voice without outside help. These are mainly things like the rocks and trees that surround us. There are things that which can hear the voice, but it almost never makes itself known unless something unusual were to happen for that individual, like for me and mine. Then there are things which can always hear the voice. They are...usually uprights, like yourself." Didn't expect the impromptu lecture, but I can welcome it. Plus, it answers some things about how other people might be, considering I did not even know if there were...well, actual people around. It's good to know that there are some humans here though. However...it doesn't explain why that word has a special meaning towards it.

"What does that have to do with being [Torn]?"

"[The Torn] are a myriad of things that used to be able to hear the voice. Whether through their own actions, or the actions of others, they lost their ability to hear the voice. Usually, anything that is [Torm] is essentially ignored, as more often than not it is of an inconsequential nature, unless it's an upright. Then...things tend to happen." Things? I wonder if he can elaborate? This could be a nice cover story or something.

"What things?"

"I don't know. Some say gods do not like it when an upright becomes a [Torn], others say it is simply a punishment. It is hard to know exactly the reason behind it, when even the elders do not agree on the facts." Oh. I'm just fishing for information that doesn't exist, aren't I?

"Sorry for quizzing you, bud. Everything's just confusing for me here."

"I understand. From what you say, most things are new now." His moss ripples slightly as we pass by a patch of sunlight. And with that one ripple, I'm reminded of something that I've put in the back of my mind. I still have that weird green river I have to look at.

"Hey buddy, I'm going to try to do some introspection real quick. You ok being by yourself?"

"Don't worry. Most things in the forest do not bother those that are bigger." Well...guess that's as much of an assurance as I'm going to get. Best to start.

I close my eyes and head into myself. It is far easier than any other time I've done it, but that might just be attributed to me getting used to doing it. This time, however, it seemed I was able to instantly transfer between my soul and whatever the green river was. Handy to know. I tried to shift the liquid inside the river like I moved the mana in my soul however it seems like the way I interact with this is quite different, as nothing seemed to happen when I try to do something. Maybe I need something other than my will to interact with it? Should I use my mana to move it? I was jostled out of it by Kojo. I felt like I was close to a breakthrough dammit.

"What's the matter Kojo? Why you moving around so much?" I opened my eyes to find...no more trees, much more sunlight, and perhaps, the most startling of all. There, in the distance, in the middle of the plain, was a road.

"Well. I haven't been here since I was a pup after all. This is usually where other uprights cross. To where? Why? I don't know."

"Thanks Kojo. For taking me this far." Gratitude spills out of me almost as fast as the words themselves come to my mind. No offense to Kojo, but I sorely missed regular people to talk to. At least then I would be able to get a more sure picture of the world than any other, as I doubt that Kojo and his wolf pack would know if any countries exist, or even the shape of the world itself.

"No problem. I just hope you know what you're doing. Most uprights do not like me. I doubt they would do so now, considering how big I've gotten."

"Yeah...Don't worry about that. I have a plan for that." Bullshit my way through it. Like most difficult things in my life. I stood up off of Kojo's back, tentatively walked forward, and laid my my hand on top of his head. The wind seemed to gently breeze across my face. It was almost calm. Peaceful. Nothing could ruin this-Fuck! Why in the hell do sacks keep falling on my head? Goddamn it!

Completed Quest: Find Civilization

Depositing Rewards...

You have gained 100 GP

You have gained the skill: Common Language

You have gained the option for a second class.