What the fuck?
A secret message scrawled onto his chest. Who had written it? And when?
“I know someone who might be able to reveal it properly,” said the girl. “But before we do, I need to know something. How did you get here? Kreasel’s bandit thugs make it very difficult for anyone to pass through the caves. That’s why merchants in these parts are so few and far between.”
Max glanced up at the network of caves he had spotted from his vantage point earlier. So that’s where the bandits had come from.
Max motioned his thumb towards the top of the falls.
“That’s where I came from,” Max said.
“You… you were up in Alryn Forest?” the girl uttered, looking aghast. “And you were up there alone? You’re incredibly lucky you didn’t encounter a triocular hornback. You would have been-”
“Actually, that was pretty much the first thing I did encounter.”
Ereni’s eyes were like beautiful brown gemstones, her pupils dilating in awe.
“And you survived?”
“The fight left me with a deep wound and a pretty bad stringworm infection, but I found an abandoned campsite and learned to brew my own antidote, so all was well in the end. I had another battle with some terrorgawks, then I crafted my own hang glider out of some stuff I had picked up along the way, and flew down here into the valley. That’s when this wagon came trundling along and those bastards who had you captive tried to rob me.”
“So you hadn’t prepped for battle at all? You had no weapons or healing potions on you?”
“No, I…” Max paused for a brief moment, wondering if he should hide the fact that he was from another world, but there was something about this girl that seemed fundamentally trustworthy. “I’m not from around here.”
“I can tell,” the girl giggled. “Where are you from?”
Max opened his mouth to speak, but the girl’s cheeks suddenly flashed pink with embarrassment.
“I’m being so rude, demanding to know where you’re from. You rescued me and I haven’t even had the common courtesy to tell you my name. I’m Ereni. Ereni Etralis.”
“Ereni Etralis,” Max repeated, enjoying how the sound felt on his tongue. “Well, Ereni Etralis, I’m Max Knightly.”
Ereni tilted her head a little.
“Yes, that certainly isn’t a Willowdalian name,” she mused.
“I’m from a city called London,” Max revealed.
“London?” Ereni said, looking even more confused than before. “Is that in Tezaria? Or Kharos? I’ve never heard of it, although it’s not that surprising given I’ve never travelled further than the western edge of the Peaceful Pastures. I’ve spent my entire life in Oakhaven.”
“It’s… in a country called the United Kingdom,” Max said.
“The United Kingdom?” Ereni repeated, her voice full of an innocent wonder. “I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds magical.”
Max couldn’t help the short guffaw that escaped him.
“It has its fair share of pretty spots, but it’s often not quite as magical as some assume.” He paused. “The thing is, it’s… not a part of your world. The world I come from is called Earth, but I just woke up here.”
Max could tell by Ereni’s playful expression that she thought he was messing with her.
“I’m not playing around. I genuinely am from another world. A world that works in a very different way to this one. We don’t have HP bars, we don’t have inventories, and we don’t… burst into blue particles when we die.”
Ereni was silent for a moment, evidently processing the fact that Max was being truthful.
“But… how do you measure health? How do you know if you’re low on it? How do you carry items without an inventory? Where do you go when you pass away? Does your world not want those it has birthed to return to it?”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Max considered these questions. The system this world operated on certainly seemed more intuitive.
“My world is a bit clunky, that’s for sure,” was all Max said. “The problem is, I don’t know how I got here, or why I’m here. I just woke up in that forest up there with no memory of how I got there.”
Ereni’s gaze flickered to Max’s bare chest once again. She was evidently thinking the same thing that he was; that the secret message scrawled on him might hold the answer to his question.
“We had better get you to Oakhaven,” said Ereni. “Mrs Lockmire will most likely be having her supper, but she always tells me I’m welcome to call anytime I wish.”
“And she’s the one you think can reveal this message?”
“Yeah, she was a professional revealer up in Brackenwick for most of her life.”
Max eyed the horse and the wagon.
“What will we do with these?” he asked.
“They belong to you now,” Ereni said simply. “You defeated those horrible thieves. You could sell the horse to Farnhal who runs the village stable, or you could rent out a space there and use the horse for riding around the valley. This one seems in pretty decent shape, and it hasn’t been permanently affected by some of the ailments that the bandit horses often succumb to.”
His own horse? Max found the idea fascinating.
“Just keep in mind that you’ll need to bond with it, which takes time,” Ereni elaborated. “If you try to ride it before your bond has reached a hundred percent, it’ll just kick you off.”
Another thing in this world that was quantified by hard numbers. Max was beginning to get used to it.
“Noted,” he said.
“And you might want to throw on one of those shirts before we head off,” Ereni said, motioning to a garment one of the bandits had dropped. “It’s kind of frowned upon to go around shirtless in the village.”
“Why did those bandits kidnap you?” Max asked as he picked up the blue merchant shirt and shuffled it on.
“Probably because they need a healer. I’m Oakhaven’s only healer now that Arintha is one with Eldoria.”
Max clocked a slight crack in Ereni’s voice as she said this. Was it what people here said when others died? Was Eldoria their planet, and they believed dispersing into blue particles was them becoming one with it?
There was so much he didn’t know about this world, but he couldn’t wait to learn more.
Max rifled through the rest of the loot dropped by the bandits as Ereni worked on calming the restless horse.
All in all they had dropped, in addition to the shirt he was was now wearing:
1x Loaf of Bread
1x Bandit Bandana
2x Torch
1x Corrosive Concoction Potion
3x Ring of Concealment
1x Shortsword
1x Crude Club
1x Dagger
1x Fingerless Gloves
1x Lockpick
and
236 Eldercoin
Max took all of the gold and watched his total go from just 34 all the way up to 270.
He wondered what he might be able to buy with it in the village.
He knew that taking all the weapons would also be a no-brainer, but he had no free inventory slots.
“Hey, Ereni,” he called. “Is there a way to increase the amount of inventory slots I have?”
“I wish,” Ereni said in a tone that implied she and the rest of the world had been wishing for it all their lives. “Think of all the potions I could carry.”
Max grumbled under his breath. Was there really no way to increase his inventory beyond 12 slots?
“Don’t forget,” said Ereni, “this wagon is yours now. Why don’t you store all of that loot inside it? You have the key to it, don’t you?”
Ereni made a good point.
After Max had gathered everything, he threw it all into the wagon and locked it shut.
“Where am I going to keep the wagon?” he asked, as he and Ereni guided the horse to face the opposite direction and began heading towards the village.
“We have a designated wagon yard,” Ereni explained. “And there’ll be plenty of space. It’s pretty much derelict these days, as we get very few visitors.”
Before long, they were approaching the entrance to the village, and as they neared it, new text appeared in Max’s vision.
New Location Discovered!
Oakhaven Village
+1 Exploration Orb
“It’s going to take me a while to get used to these notifications,” Max said. “By the way, what do I do with exploration orbs?”
Ereni stopped walking and turned to him.
“What did you just say?”
“Exploration orbs. It said I gained one for discovering Oakhaven.”
All the colour quickly drained from Eereni’s face, and for the first time since he had rescued her, she looked somewhat fearful of him.
“What did I say?” Max asked her.
“Only one person in this world has access to orbs, and that person is not you.”
What?
Max had been gaining orbs for all sorts of things; defeating beasts, brewing potions, crafting items. Did nobody else in this world gain them upon doing these activities?
“Tell me you’re messing with me,” Ereni urged him. “Tell me this is a sick joke you’re playing on me.”
“Ereni, I’m not messing with you. Just a moment ago I got a notification saying I had gained an exploration orb for discovering Oakhaven. I got one as soon as I woke up in the forest for discovering the forest too, and for discovering the valley when I arrived at the top of the falls. I also got battle orbs and beast orbs for defeating beasts in the forest, alchemy orbs for brewing potions at the campsite, and crafting orbs for crafting items. What are they? And what can I do with them?”
“Great Gorrimor,” Ereni uttered under her breath. She glanced around conspiratorially, then took a hold of Max’s hand.
“Come with me,” she said hurriedly. “Forget revealing the hidden message on your chest. There’s someone else we need to speak to. And we need to speak to him right now.”