Someone is talking gibberish.
My eyes opened and 2 humans were talking to each other. I couldn’t understand a thing. I realized how unprepared I was. A different continent, different language! Why didn’t this make sense to me?! How am I supposed to communicate? Moreover, their mana seems extremely low.
I got up and wanted to ask what was going on but they couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand them. It did seem that they realized that I was not from around here. They made some hand gestures but I had no idea what they were trying to say.
It seems a couple has taken me in. The man pointed at the bed I was laying in and held his hands open. Indicating to stop? Or to stay? Stay here?
I nodded. And he ran off. The woman tried to communicate with some gestures but I had no idea what she meant.
The difficulty of killing that Imposter had spiked. My revenge will be oh so sweet. But this is a problem. How long will it take me to learn this language? I had learned a couple of languages before and learning mana runes and mana circles is the hardest ‘language’ I’ve learnt so far. I might be able to learn this language in a year.
A year… to just reach the prerequisites to live on this continent and kill that Imposter. Coming here was a bad idea but I have to commit now.
The man returned with an old man.
He tried several languages until…
“How about Kaledonian?”
“Oh! Yes! I understand Kaledonian!” the couple got very happy.
“You are far from home but you sure are pleasant to the eyes. My name is Inti. I’m a traveler like you. Although… I’m a bit too old for that now haha. Forgive me if my Kaledonian is rusty. I haven’t spoken this in over 30 years.”
“Oh, nice to meet you Inti, my name is Azurra but you can call me Azu.”
“I see, oh this here is my son Q’illu and his wife Tikka. So may I ask what you are doing here? Q’illu told me that he found you passed out on the beach.”
“Oh, I came here looking for someone. I admit I might have come ill-prepared. This person I’m looking for had committed a severe crime on Kaledon, she might even be doing the same here and I’m here to wipe her out.”
Inti petted his beard. “Oh, I see. Hmm well, that might be difficult if you don’t know anything about how things go here. You are not a human, are you?” He looked at my hat. “There aren’t many exotic races here like on Kaledon. It’s just humans. Beast kin live in the jungle but we don’t interact much with them. There might be the odd dragon here and there but you will mainly interact with humans… which brings me to the next problem.” He looked at my hat again.
"I’m aware that the currency in Kaledon is bronze, silver and gold but over here the currency is mana…. We’re not gifted with magic as the Kaledonians are. To put it simply, you will be extremely rich here but… you will also be targeted by everyone. Our bodies are way stronger than Kaledonians so don’t let the lack of mana fool you. I would advise to keep your mana levels to a human level and limit your use of magic.”
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“Oh that… using mana as currency. How does that work?”
“Hold out your hand and channel mana to me.”
“Huh? No! Sharing mana directly is quite intimate!” I couldn’t understand why these people would do something like that.
“Oh right... I forgot that in Kaledon this is only done with close friends, family members or lovers. Well, that’s awkward.”
I weighed my options.
“Ugh, this feels weird but let me try.” I shook his hand and gave him a bit of mana.
“Whoa, whoa there missy you want me to get robbed? You just gave me enough to live off for 2 years!”
“Huh but I hardly gave you anything!” The amount of mana that I gave im was enough to activate a [Fireball] like how most humans use it. Nothing impressive.
“Yes that’s why I told you that you would be extremely rich here. I now have to make sure I don’t get robbed or killed on my way home… anyway. You need to hide the mana you give off and control your mana to be able to… be able to pay for commodities.”
“So I have to refine my mana control even more? That shouldn’t be an issue. But how do you protect yourself from the elements if your use of mana is near nonexistent?”
“We endure it with our bodies!” The old man flexed his biceps. It didn’t occur to me before but this old man is ripped. His son looks like a regular human to me though.
“I see, different continent, different circumstances… Can you teach me the language? Uhm what is it called?”
“Hmm well, we speak 3 languages here in Tuqu village. Nayala is the language everyone can speak on this continent but Ip’nur and Vuq are the regional languages here. I assume you will be traveling after you learn the language so Nayala should suffice. Just know that the people here are stubborn. They can all understand Nayala but they will pretend not to. Either show them whose boss by beating them in physical feats or show off your intelligence or persistence. ”
I nodded and processed everything. Mana is a currency, the inhabitants here fight with their bodies, using mana will get me robbed and probably drained of my mana. The main language is Nayala but there are other languages and the inhabitants will try to speak their preferred language.
“Thank you, Inti.”
“Don’t worry, I’m a traveler like you. I have been in your situation countless times. Rest well. I will tell my son about the situation. He will need to protect you until you get the hang of living here.”
I took my rest seriously as I was completely exhausted.
----------------------------------------
The language wasn’t hard to learn, the writing, however that was a true nightmare. It seemed to be based off an ancient language. That ancient language seemed to have different symbols for almost every material. This language just had different symbols for 3 materials. Wood, stone, and metal. Paper and clothing fell under the wood category. Buildings fell under the stone category unless they were made out of wood. Metal wasn’t used that often here. Mainly for jewelry and weapons. No metal buildings had been spotted yet.
There was hardly any technology here. They lived off the land and since most of the continent was jungle, they all were well-versed in survival techniques. The only technology was… magical weapons. The weapon smiths here were uselessly skilled.
I tried to remember the snippets Agnis had told me about blacksmithing. He was trained by the only blacksmith in Boshi town. Something about magic weapons being extremely hard to make. It was also in his words ‘A pain in the ass to make’.
The magic weapons alone could give many strong individuals from Kaledon a run for their money.
There were many more details that I noticed but I focused on learning the language first and keeping my mana control to the point that I could hold transactions. Tikka had accompanied me many times. She would hold the transactions while showing me many tricks and tips. I would pay her back in mana back at their home. I constantly overpaid her. It took me 7 months before my mana control got good enough to be able to hold transactions on my own without causing trouble.
Tikka was ecstatic. She had gotten tired of trying to hide why Q’illu and her had become so rich.
Everything was different here but adapting wasn’t too bad. The biggest issue was the stares. It was apparent that I wasn’t from here. My [Azure Aura] had bailed me out many times. Everyone here is freakishly strong. I felt like a young and weak Misha again. Running was the only way I could survive. And using magic might not have improved my situation by much as they’re also extremely fast.
Almost everything that I had worked hard for on Kaledon was useless or unusable here. A new continent, a new beginning. It sucks though…