That day I woke up early, so early in fact that the usual bright-yellow light morning light was blending with the night time lights creating an interesting mix, I waited for Adam in the living room, he stumbled out of his room a decent two hours later than usual and walked like a crab that shat it’s pants.

“Are you alright?” I asked laying on the couch with my legs propped up on the armrest, one arm handing off the couch centimetres off the cold wooden floor.

“Y-yeah…” Adam’s voice sounded guttural, like if you were to hold your breath and tense up all your muscles before speaking.

“I overdid things yesterday and now my everything hurts…” He explained.

“Here have something to drink,” Lily said handing Adam the white mug filled with a clear brown liquid.

“Ah, thanks…” He grabbed the mug and headed to the couch where he sat next to me.

“Wait a minute, why is she here?!” Adam shouted,

“She came in a bit earlier and I had nobody to talk to so y’know,” I replied not taking my eyes off the ceiling as I lay on the couch.

“Just have a sip of the drink, you’ll feel better,” Lily suggested as she gestured towards the mug.

Adam turned from Lily to the mug, he eyed the liquid, sniffed it and turned back to Lily before asking, “What did you put inside it?”.

“Oh, some honey, a bit of lemon, some hot water…and some red spring flower seeds” Lily whispered the last part really fast.

Adam spilt the tea out onto the floor without breaking eye contact with Lily who screamed a little as she saw what he was doing,

“NO! I SPENT ALL NIGHT DIGGING THROUGH THE SPRING FLOWERS TO GET THOSE SEEDS!” she cried as she dropped to her knees.

“Why are you so mean…” Lily asked collapsed on the floor next to the spilt liquid.

“YOU TRIED TO DRUG ME!” Adam rebuked.

“But that’s only because you won’t-” Lily’s justification was cut short by Adam, “DON’T TRY TO JUSTIFY DRUGGING PEOPLE!”

A loud knock came from the door, Adam stood up to open the door, carefully eyeing Lily to make sure she didn’t have anything in mind.

“Who is it?” Adam asked cautiously, his hand inches away from the door.

No response, the tension in the air rose, Adam turned to look at Lily, she shrugged grabbing a hold of the crossbow she had God knows where.

I sat up and visualised a snowflake patterned magic circle, as soon as I would open my palm I should let out a spray of ice shards.

Adam didn’t have a weapon handy, so he would have had to fight with his bare hands if the attacker came - or so a though, I would eventually find out he uses a spell to make the claw weapons appear and disappear.

Another silent moment passes, the sweat ran down Adam’s forehead.

Adam shot all of us the are-you-ready look, we both nodded and so Adam raised his hand, with his fingers he gestured the countdown until opening the door.

Three…

Two…

One…

With way too much force, Adam swung the door open, it hit the wall causing an audible bang which broke my concentration I opened my palm shooting out a spray of icy chunks, the next scene happened in slow motion, as Adam slowly turned around to see the ice flying towards him,

“Boost!” the words came from Lily as a bright green flash came from behind her, launching her in front of Adam taking the hit from the ice and sending her flying out the door with the ice and rolling down the hill.

“S-sorry…” I said, but I was still in a good deal of shock, I could have killed Adam…

“It’s alright, I’m fine,” Adam replied.

“But what about Lily?” I asked.

“Oh, right. Her sacrifice will not be forgotten.” Adam said in a sombre voice, but he couldn’t keep the grin off his face, "he must REALLY hate her" I thought.

I looked down to find the source of the knock, it was Abe, the black-haired book worm from yesterday, passed out, head pressed against the door, now laying on the floor.

After noticing him Adam gave Abe a swift kick to wake him up.

“Eh? Ah?” Abe looked around the house he was now laying on the floor of before starting to talk. 

“The boss said he’s taking the dryads to the camp for today and that he’d return them this evening.” Once Abe recited the message he went back to sleep.

“Damn, Darthold is really getting into the grandpa thing, isn’t he?” Adam laughed as he turned back to me.

“I guess?” I replied uncertainly, after all, I didn’t actually understand the message delivered by Abe.

Adam looked down to Abe again, he kicked him one more - “If you’re that tired just come inside, you can sleep on the couch for now.” He offered, I found it strange how trusting Adam was, that said I did like that Abe guy.

“It’s alright, the ground here is quite comfortable…” he replied lazily.

Adam picked Abe up, and dragged him to the couch before he let out a sigh, “Is Darthold really working you guys this hard?!” he asked.

Abe shook his head, “Not really…I’m just replenishing mana by sleeping…although I guess we were up late yesterday…” Abe said through a yawn.

“Were you guys partying or something?” Adam asked it’d make sense - after all they did win a battle not too long ago…

“No, it was work…” Abe sighed sadly.

“Work?“ Adam asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, didn’t you guys hear? The town of Boren, east of the capital is allegedly under attack from some monsters…” Abe explained.

“Well, did you guys find any monsters?” Adam asked.

“Nah…just some corpses... but you know… it’s near the capital so corpses are to be expected...” Abe didn’t need to finish his reasoning, “Yeah, I getcha’…” Adam replied.

“Well, did you hear that? Looks like they’re some monsters creeping around the towns near here! This is our chance to show you around!” Adam laughed.

“I have literally no idea what you are on about… teach me the fucking language already!” I demanded.

“Fine, fine, but it’s not something you’ll just learn in a day,” Adam warned grabbing a book from the bookshelf next to the door and walking to the armchair, I sat on the couch, next to the (admittedly short) sleeping figure of Abe.

"I'll have you know I already learned a fair bit of languages..." I replied.

"Ah - that's right, so do you remember all the languages you ever learned?" Adam asked.

"No, I'd say I remember the previous world's language perfectly, and then every world before it my language skills decrease by like fifty percent... except for the profanities," I explained.

"I see, well learning this language shouldn't be a problem for you!"

Adam opened the book he took out from the small shelf located in the space between the couch and armchair.

He taught me a good bit in the short time we were bothered to actually work, my vocabulary was tiny but I had a grasp on the grammatical rules of the language about an hour into learning, it’s actually a lot easier than English, except for the written form which I didn’t bother to learn, giving what is most likely the average level of education in this world.

The grammar resembled English - but it was boiled down to caveman speech in a way.

“Right, I think that’s enough learning for today!” I exclaimed after add or take two hours of work, “Yeah…I haven’t worked this hard in years…” Adam sighed.

“You mean you did this kind of stuff before?” I asked, “I mean, yeah - I forgot you had to learn the language at some point too.” I answered myself before he could say anything.

“That’s not what I meant, I used to go to this big magic school way east of here,” Adam explained.

“Wait, you were a magic nerd?!” I asked in shock, Adam didn’t seem like an expert when it came to magic... though he did manage to explain the laws and types of magic to me, someone with literally no magic knowledge.

I've seen a lot of world with 'magic' - but it's either just a property of the world like chemistry or a simple law of physics - keep in mind these laws change world to world so I didn't bother learning more than I needed to survive and or kill myself.

“I was good in practice, but the theory made no sense to me… I was a professor of microbiology back on Earth and now I had magic explained to my through myths and stories about Gods...” Adam said seeming embarrassed.

“You don’t seem to use a lot of magic in practice either…” I commented.

“What do you mean? I use boost and… I used fireball a few times…” Adam stopped for a second, “Actually, I was also bad at memorizing spells so I don’t know all that many...” he hung his head down in shame with an embarrassed smile.

“By the way, is there a reason he’s sleeping here?” I asked pointing over to the sleeping Abe.

“He was up late searching a local town for some monsters,” Adam replied.

“Oh yeah, you mentioned something about monsters earlier,” I exclaimed thinking back to the event.

“Well, wanna go check the place out?” Adam asked,

“The monster town? I mean we don’t have anything better to do…” I replied.

"Yeah, plus if we kill the monster the people will shower us with money and admiration!" Adam added,

"...and here I thought you're doing it for the good of the people..." I said smiling.

"Dear God you're smiling!" Adam exclaimed.

"I smile all the time..." I replied confused.

"Yeah but nobody's getting injured or insulted!" Adam added.

"Your opinion of me is disturbing... and what's worse accurate..."

“Oh! And if we’re lucky you might get a chance to chat with the native speaker! Except me that is…” Adam exclaimed.

“Alright, let’s go…” I said patting my side to make sure I had my dagger and the few spare coins I keep on me just in case I get into some trouble…or just get hungry.

“Yes, sir!” Adam said standing up, stretching and walking towards the door - I followed.

We made our way down the mountain, to the left was the way to the town of Rennel, to the right was the way leading to the capital, we turned right and kept walking past the road which led to the capital until we left the forested area and entered a dry looking rural town, the entire landscape looked flat and was mostly covered in fields, the fields grew what looked like corn, tall crops with a round ball-like top, it was see-through and filled with some sort of liquid, the stem was thick and dark green, the leaves which covered the relatively straight stem was small and plentiful, they grew like hairs obscuring the stem itself - they were green in colour but had dark purple edges, as for the ball like fruit, it was orange and the liquid was either yellow or clear.

“What the hell are those?” I asked looking at the crops.

“They’re called ullar trees, the liquid is crystallized into sugar and the skin is pickled and used for cakes and stuff, it kind of tastes like a canned peach when ripe... except kind of floral, and the inside tasted like a cross between honey and vodka,” Adam explained.

“So mead?” I asked.

“No, mead has an alcoholic taste, but it doesn’t have that odour that vodka does, in the process of making the sugar, we take the alcohol that fumes and cool them to make alcohol! The stem is used as food for the birds.” Adam explained.

“I guess no part of them goes to waste,” I said looking at the ullar trees closer.

“It is quite an impressive system.” Adam agreed, 

Turning back to the road I was greeted with the large stone walls, they were only about two meters tall, they were made from old, damaged stone bricks. 

The wall was pretty thin, when you go through the massive open gates which didn’t even have actual doors anymore, on the inside the walls had piles of dirt creating a slope you could climb.

The inside was mostly small houses, they were made from stone bricks, less damaged than the walls but still pretty worn out. The roofs were created from grey-red and orange tiles, despite the rustic aesthetic the place was very clean, the roads were dirt but they were extremely flat.

At the centre of the town stood a massive wooden construction, the base of which was stone. The wooden building had several platforms attached to its sides with stairs and ladders linking the different platforms, the sides of the building had massive barrels, so did the top of the buildings.

The massive metal pipes led down the side of the building and through the ground down to a well, where the pipe cut through the path there was a wooden bridge placed over it.

There were little to no people outside, no children, not merchants, only an elderly woman sweeping the front of her home and two men sitting on a fence discussing something.

“Well, this place looks lively…” I said sarcastically looking at the houses,

“It is a rural town, and people are going missing on top of that.” Adam justified the empty roads.

We walked towards the older woman, but before we got a chance to ask her anything she hurried over to her house before shutting the door.

Next, we set our sights on the two men, we walked up to them and I let Adam do the talking.

“Hey there, we heard there’s been some stuff going on in the town lately,” Adam said trying his best to look reassuring.

“First I’m hearing about it.” Grunted the man sitting closest to Adam.

“Don’t be that way, we’re here to deal with this so-called monster,” Adam said playfully giving the man a thumbs up.

“We’re telling you there’s no monster!” the repeated sounding more irritated, he more a grey t-shirt with short sleeves and an unbuttoned front down to about midway down the body, he was tanned - it’s evident he worked in the fields.

His hair was black and short, his arms were thick and covered in hair, his trousers were black and made of what resembled tracksuit material.

Physically the man looked a lot larger than Adam. 

The man that sat on the further side of the fence wore a similar outside, but with long sleeves and a straw hat, he had a longer face with sunken green eyes and spiky red hair which hung down to his shoulders.

He was a lot paler than the other man, he was also a lot thinner.

“Are you telling me this town always looks like this?” Adam asked obviously knowing they’re lying.

“What the hell are you implying?” the larger man demanded - grabbing Adam by the collar,

“Alright, look here, there is nothing in this town, no monsters, no murderers, no nothing!” the man roared.

“Now, now - we just want to help!” Adam said calmly.

The man drew back his fist ready to plunge it into Adam’s face, grinning the whole time Adam dodged the punch, stepping forward - hooking the man’s neck and placing his left foot behind the man’s right leg causing him to fall over before placing him in a headlock.

“Come one, buddy. Help us out!” Adam pleaded, gently squeezing his neck, not enough for him to chock but enough to show him that he could choke him.

The red-haired man let out a sigh, “Leave him alone, I’ll explain the situation to you…” he said not taking his eyes off the mid-day sun.

Adam let the man out of the headlock and stood up patting the dust off his clothes, “Thanks!” he exclaimed patting the clothes clean of the dust.

"Somehow I don't see us getting showered with money and gratitude now..." I though.

“I do have a question, what do you intend to do if you find the monster?” he asked.

“Kill it of course,” Adam replied with a shrug.

“And if you can’t?” the red-haired man slowly turned his head towards Adam, his eyes looked empty, with bags under his eyes.

”They will run for the hills and hope someone qualified deals with it.” Adam shrugged.

The red-haired man let out a long sigh, “Name’s Owar, I’m the owner of the brewery here.” he introduced himself, he was pointing to the large wooden structure.

“I’m Adam, and this is…they don’t have a name, so just call the nameless child.” Adam explained the last part awkwardly.

I lifted my hand slightly as if to wave a ‘hello’ at them,

“The guy down here is Derl…he’s the head farmer round these parts…” Owar said gesturing towards the man rubbing his necks after bring chocked.

"So the big building's a brewery?" Adam asked.

"Mm, though we're runnin' a bit low on people."

“Where are you guys from?” Derl asked in a raspy voice.

“We’re from south-west of here,” Adam explained pointing his thumb back towards where we came.

“Well, I bet you guys heard about the murders…” Derl said looking towards some house.

“I’ve heard there were some murders, that’s it,” Adam replied.

“Over in that house, the body was spliced into pieced, the guts were missing - that’s why we assume it’s a monster or an animal,” Owar said moving his head towards the building directly opposite where we stood.

I followed Adam’s gaze, “What’s up?” I asked.

“Allegedly someone got killed in that house,” he replied.

I moved towards the house and looked in through the window, there was no body, but the walls and floor were coated in blood.

“It’s pretty bloody…” I said looking over to Adam.

“Did you bury the body already?” Adam asked the men, 

“Yeah, what was left of it was buried two days ago…” Derl replied.

“Were there any other victims?” Adam asked.

“It’s been one person a day for the last two weeks, and today the population is down to six including us two…” Owar explained, he stood up picking up something Adam and I didn’t notice until now - a long scythe.

“I’ll be waiting here until the ugly son of a bitch shows up tonight…” Owar said in a sombre, exhausted tone.

I tried to open the door, finding that it wasn’t locked.

The room had a strong smell of iron and rot - I stepped inside- the centre of the room was essentially a large puddle of blood.

The walls were filled with bookshelves, there was a table in the corner of the room with two chairs and one bowl set out.

When I looked at the walls closer I saw one long gash cut into the plaster wall of the building, I stepped out of the building and made my way towards Adam - “There’s some big scratch mark thing inside,” I explained to Adam.

“Anything else?” He asked.

“A lot of blood, a lot of books and a table.” I listed off everything inside the building.

I looked up only to see a massive hole in the roof - "There's also a pretty big hole in the roof."

"Yeah - we can all see it from out here..." Adam replied.

"So I'm just that short eh?.." I thought. 

“Well, that’s not much of a clue…” Adam sighed scratching his head.

I shrugged, “So what about them?”.

"Guess it's some big bird that snatched up the victim..." I concluded uncertainly,

"And then placed them back neatly in the house?" Adam asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't underestimate the evil nature of birds... they wanted us to see the body..." I replied.

"...you don't like birds... do you?" Adam asked awkwardly.

"Not in the least..." I replied.

"Why?!" he asked confused.

"Some things are best left unspoken..." I replied thinking to the life where I was abducted by a bird and grew up on a secluded island for four years only to be found by a passing ship which was destroyed by a massive bird, the next day I washed up on the beach of the same God-forsaken island... I was the bird's prisoner...

“The red one is some important guy, he said he’s waiting for the monster to show up so he can kill it,” Adam explained.

“Alright, ask him what kind of people the monster goes after, maybe it’s like that one show with the dog solving mysteries - like the monster actually slaughters people brutally to scare off the villagers so he can take over the place,” I suggested.

“So… are you suggesting the monster is a disguised villager?”Adam took a second to think of the implications of a human wearing a massive bird costume devouring human flesh meant for humanity as a whole, then turned back to the people “What kinds of people does the monster go after, is there a specific demographic?” he asked.

“He started off with the children and the sickly - now he’s after the elderly…” Owar explained.

Adam turned to me, “Sick people, kids and old people in that order, I guess regular adults are next on the chopping block.” he explained.

“Alright,” Alright I replied grabbing my dagger,

“Where was it seen last time?” I asked.

“Are you planning to just go stab it?” Adam asked with a raised eyebrow and a doubting smile.

“I’ll be bait, and then I’ll stab it.” I clarified.

“Well, allegedly this house there is the most recent murder scene.” Adam clarified pointing to the house I just left.

“Are there any kids or sick people left?” I asked.

Adam asked the men and returned with the reply, “There is one sick kid, but she’s been bedridden for most of her life so she’s most likely not even noticed by the monster.” Adam explained.

“Alright, assuming I have a one-hundred per cent chance to get attacked, and being sick and being a child is the same for the monster, that’d be three-hundred per cent,” I exclaimed, 

“I don’t think they’ll let us drag the bed-ridden child out into the streets,” Adam replied.

“Even if the kid dies, that’s a one to the rest of the village ratio - I’d say they’re being unreasonable.” I shrugged.

“Yeah, it’s this thing called morals, it’s not something you’d be familiar with.” Adam laughed.

“Go on, ask them where the kid is.” I sighed.

“Hey, so can we go see where the kid is? I mean that’s the most likely target now.” Adam asked Owar.

“I dunno… I doubt she’d be of any use to you two, she can’t speak properly since she's hardly ever awake - a pity really… poor kid’s done with life from the start…” Derl replied.

“It’s alright, she might be the next target-” Adam was cut off by Owar,

“So she’s bait?” he asked,

“I wouldn’t phrase it like that, but…. yeah.” Adam relented.

Owar let out a long sigh, “You westerners have no morals at all do you?” the man scoffed before standing up and walking towards the big wooden structure.

We followed him, walking up the stairs and through several hallways, the walls were wood, but the floors had a carpet in some places.

We eventually reached a door with something written on the door, the man stood against the door, he took a deep breath and opened the door revealing a horrifically pink room,the walls had pink wallpaper, the floor was covered in a fluffy pink carpet, the bed in the centre of the room had a white bed, with pink sheets.

In the bed lay a person looking either my age of a few years older, she had a shade of hair I find hard to describe, it’s not blond…but it’s yellow… like a very saturated yellow colour. 

"Why are you keeping this child in the brewery? Shouldn't you look for a doctor?"

"Well - we tried getting doctors in here - but they weren't able to do much." Owar replied - "Also this place servers as my house as well - it's not just a brewery..."

“So this is the dying kid?” I asked rhetorically seeing at this did, in fact, look like a dying kid.

“What do you think is up with her?” I asked stepping up to her,

“Don’t get too closer, you’ll get sick.” One of the men in the doorway warned - Adam translated the warning into English for me.

“So - what is the disease?” Adam asked, “It’s the coughing disease…” the man replied.

Adam let out a sigh and turned back to me, “They just called it a coughing disease, around these parts that just means something that makes you cough as a symptom…” he replied disappointed.

“So coughing…she has a fever,” I added touching her forehead.

“Adam, what are the chances of this just being a really bad cold?” I asked.

“As a semi-qualified medical professional, I can tell you a flue doesn’t last this long… a bad flue can last ten days, a cold will clear up in three… they can lead to worse problems but that’s about it.” Adam clarified - "That said, we are making the assumption the bacteria and viruses here ar the same as on Earth - which is a bit of a stretch..." he added.

"I mean... we have trees here too, though..."

"You mean other world don't have trees?" he asked.

"Depends - I'd say about one in ten worlds can be compared to Earth, out of those about ninety percent are earth-like when it comes to plants and stuff."

"So there are worlds with... like... no fungi?"

"Yeah - I'm no scientist but there are a lot of types of life you guys are missing out on," I replied.

"Like?"

"Like for example clouds - they were the equivalent of cells suspended in air - they grew like plants so instead of fields of grass there were vertical layers of massive clouds - as a cool side effect sometimes it rained fruit - as a not-so-cool side effect sometimes it rained rock-hard nuts that annihilated all life below."

Adam looked visibly excited at the mention of this kind of life.

"I wish I got a chance to study them..." Adam said disappointedly.

"We still have a child to fix..." I said pointing at the kid.

"Ah - right, children first, clouds second..."

“Ok, how do we fix it?” I asked.

“We kind of have more pressing matters on our hands right now,” Adam replied uncertainly.

“Yeah, but I’m not bothered to wait for her to wake up and I think I’ll get in trouble for slapping her until she wakes up, so would you cure this?” I asked.

“I guess…antibiotics and water.” Adam shrugged,

“Alright, alright, and what does and antibiotic do?” I asked.

“Kills bacteria…” Adam seemed concerned with my lack of medical knowledge.

“So if I used magic to annihilate all bacteria inside of this girl…” I suggested.

“Then she’ll die…” Adam finished my sentence.

“What do you mean!?” I asked confused.

“Bacteria in our gut help us digest food and absorb the nutrients from it,” Adam explained.

“Alright…what if I just remove the bacteria from her lungs?” I asked.

“I mean… it’d help, but it’s not like the bacteria are located exclusively in the lungs, that’s just where the most obvious symptoms are,” he replied.

“Alright, so clear lungs of bacteria, cast a healing spell in case I fucked up, anything else?” I asked.

“If you could make a spell that specifically increases the number of lymphocytes in the blood that’d help,” Adam explained.

“Ah yes, …lymphocytes…my favourite…” I said showing Adam I have no idea what he’s on about.

“White blood cells,” Adam explained.

“Oh, there's no need for you to speak like a smart-ass, we know you're smart!” I exclaimed not knowing what to do.

I created a tiny white circle with little spikes - basically it looked like the outline of a white blood cell, I visualised how the spell would work - I imagined it like a ray which penetrates the body and interacts with the blood. 

I opened my palm creating a ray of white light which shot out from my palm, I hovered my palm over the girl making sure not to overdo the spell in any one place.

“Right, this should be good!” I exclaimed, as a side effect I discovered the type of magic emitted from the circle depends on your expectation - as in I wanted a ray and the spell shot out a ray... then again, you have to really concentrate on what you want - you could get a random shape... so if I imagine a projectile I could shoot people with the spell, good to know, but I think creating more circles to describe how the spell works would be safer!

Now I created a black circle, I associate it with death and stuff - I made it the shape of a bacteria’s outline - you know with the little bits sticking out, I imagined the lungs being highlighted like in a video game.

I clenched my fist and was able to see the pale green light visible through the skin and clothes of the person.

“She should be alright now…” I commented confused as to why she wasn't alright instantly.

“I guess she’s still tired, you’re always low on energy after being sick,” Adam explained.

“Alright, how do we fix that?” I asked.

“Food and drink I guess.” Adam shrugged.

“...” I walked to the passed out girl, raised my hand and preceded to slap her until she woke up.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO THE SICK CHILD!?” Derl cried stepping closer only stopping when the girl sat up and began coughing violently,

“Fuck, I thought she was cured already…” I complained.

I felt her grab me by the hand - and then snap it.

I looked down at my hand which now hung loosely as a horrific pain radiated my arm.

In almost and instant I cast the healing spell onto my hand but I could still feel the pain persist for a bit.

I took a deep breath and took out my dagger, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” the no longer sick girl demanded

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN!? I CURED YOUR DISEASE AND NOW YOU’RE BREAKING MY BONES?!” I demanded ready to shoot the child but Adam grabbed me from behind restraining me.

“No, you were just slapping me around, weren’t you?” she asked in the same low, threatening tone as before.

“To wake you up!” I explained.

“STOP MAKING EXCUSES!” I cried back.

“Dude, dude, isn’t it weird that we can understand her though.” Adam awkwardly butted in,

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” the girl and I cried in sync.

Adam breathed a sigh and walked over to the men to explain the situation.

The girl began coughing violently again, 

“Adam, explain,” I commanded pointing at the couching girl at a safe, non-wrist snapping distance.

“The alveoli are still swollen, I guess,” Adam replied with a shrug.

"Ah yes - I'd hate to have swollen ravioli..." I replied straight-faced.

Adam walked over to the girl, “Alright, so you know how to speak English, does that mean you’re from earth?” he asked.

She didn’t reply for a second,

“Wait…you mean you two are from Earth as well?!” she was looking more excited and less violent.

“Yeah, my name is Adam and this is Nameless child.” Adam introduced us, she girl looked over to me again, with more of a doubting and less of a murderous look.

“That’s a weird-ass name…” the girl said as an insulting grin spread across her face.

"Adam, that ain't no child - lucifer reincarnated as a little girl..." 

“Actually he couldn’t come up with a name so he just goes by Nameless child,” Adam explained, although he too was smiling.

“That’s pretty sad…” the girl said looking at me with the same grin.

“That’s it, I’m shooting you all,” I announced.

Adam let out a weak laugh before seeing me raise the dagger into the air, causing him to yell out to the men telling them to run, before anyone could react I found myself at the receiving end of a kick from the allegedly sick girl, sending me through the thin wood walls of the building and out, luckily for me I landed in some tree, otherwise I would have surely died from a fall that long.

I got off the tree and started taking pot-shots at the large wooden construction with weak fire spells,

Meanwhile, inside of the building, the girl walked over to Adam who was seemingly regretting some decisions, “Hey, do you have a coin or something?” she asked.

Adam reached into his pocket, “Sorry I only got….one, two - four copper on me.” Adam said apologetically.

“It’s alright, one will do,” she replied taking the one coin, she took the sheet off her pillow and placed the coin inside, she walked up to the big hole she created, she started spinning her makeshift weapon before releasing it in my vague direction, it hit the tree splintering it into bit.

Moments later I raised a leftover twig with the sheet tied to it as a makeshift white flag.

“How’d you do that?” Adam asked in awe, “I mean if you were bedridden surely you’d be too weak to do that.” he added.

“I dunno,” the girl shrugged.

Adam turned back to the villagers, “H-hey…do you guys know the parents of this girl?” he asked awkwardly.

"Like were they demi-gods by any chance? Was it Hercules? It was Hercules wasn't it?"

“N-no…but according to the note left by whoever brought her here, she’s a half-ogre,” Owar replied.

“A half-ogre?” Adam asked in shock, he turned back to the girl seeing that she does in fact not resemble an ogre.

“Anyway, thank you for the help, and yeah I’m from Earth.” the girl said stretching.

“No problem, but I’m not the one that healed you.” Adam laughed awkwardly pointing to the hole in the wall.

“Oh…crap…that’ll be awkward,” the girl said scratching her head,

“Don’t worry about it, he’s not as terrible as he seems.” Adam shrugged.

“Hah, I thought it’s a girl.” she laughed.

“It’s complicated…” Adam replied reluctantly not mentioning how willing she was to snap the wrist of a child.

“Anyway, let’s go. I have some questions for you guys,” she explained.

“Alright, but first, what’s your name?” Adam asked.

“Oh, that’s right, feel free to call me Kate, it’s what I went by back on Earth,” she explained.

“Alright, where are we going?” Adam asked following the girl as she pushed the two men in the door to the side.

“We’re going down to see this friend of yours,” Kate replied heading down the wooden construction’s halls and stairs until they reached the remains of the tree was near.

“Yo, I hear you’re the one who healed me, after all,” Kate called out to me.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before you tried to kill me…” I replied still in shock almost dying twice today, looking to what remained of the tree.

“Stop being a baby, you’re alive aren’t you?” she asked rhetorically,

I inspected my arms and torso to make sure, “Yeah, turns out I’m alive…heh…” I replied.

“Anyway, thanks I guess,” Kate said, I didn’t reply,

She turned back to Adam, “So, do you guys know why we’re here?” Kate asked,

“No idea, but there are a few other people from Earth I heard off, aside from that we’ve no clue,” Adam replied.

“I see, and what can you tell me about this world?” she asked.

“Let’s see…it’s a fantasy world, we have magic - just about all plants and animals are different, and the people don’t speak English, so you need to learn the language.” He explained.

“Alright, one more thing, why’d you two come to help me out anyway?” She asked.

“That wasn’t our plan, we had nothing to do and we heard that there is some monster in this town - the locals said it goes after sick people and kids, so when we found out you’re both we decided it might be the perfect opportunity, that said we ended up curing your disease so y’ know.” Adam clarified.

“Oh…so I’m meant to be bait?” she asked.

“Kind of, I mean it’d go after you regardless. Think of it as … us guarding you.” Adam explained.

“No worries, I’m interested to see what this monster looks like!” she replied before looking over to me, “But I doubt the nameless brat would be of any use.” she laughed.

“They’re quite the skilled magician,” Adam replied.

Kate rolled her eyes, “Sure, he can heal some people, and he had that dagger looking thing, but what good would it do against like… a dragon?” she asked.

The two men from outside caught up with us, “What’s going on?!” they demanded, 

“She can’t speak the language yet, so I can translate for you guys if you want.” Adam offered in response.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Adam proceeded to explain everything that happened, at first the men seemed reluctant to believe that they’re from another world, but seeing as they could speak a different language and were generally weird people - they eventually believed them.

“So the wall crasher is from this Earth place too?” Owar asked,

“Yep,” Adam replied quickly.

“And she agreed to be bait?” Derl asked?

“Yep,” Adam replied again.

“When’s it coming?” she asked, Adam, translated the question to the two men who replied with “It comes out around midnight.”

“Did you make sure the monster isn’t staying in the wooden building?” Adam asked the men, “No…should we, boss?” Derl asked looking at Owar.

“I guess…but you better tell us if the monster shows…” he warned Adam who just nodded.

As the moon and or sun rose higher into the sky it was near midnight, Adam, Kate and I sat around a small fire occasionally seeing a lamp’s light from inside of the wooden building.

"So... it's always day?" she asked looking at the sun-like moon emitting a pale blue light.

"No - not really, I mean we sleep when the blue sun is out... guess it's harder to see..." Adam replied.

"I understand, the light during the day emits more colours than the night meaning we can recognise more colours during the day and as a result see better."

"...maybe." Adam shrugged.

"Still, it's hard to believe I'm not even human here!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, half-ogre!" 

"What are ogres like here?" Kate asked,

"They're... about two meters tall, greyish-yellow skin, they're mostly nomadic and live in the deserts," Adam explained. 

“Damn, I wish it’d hurry up already.” Kate sighed,

“I don’t know, I enjoy the atmosphere,” Adam replied staring into the starry night seeing the big blue moon coating the world in a blue hue,

“Screw that, I just want to beat the crap out of some monster already…” Kate replied.

She looked over to me seeing me still limply sitting hunched over on the grass.

“Maybe I overdid my introduction a bit…” Kate said looking at me.

“He’ll be back to normal eventually,” Adam replied dismissively. 

In the distance a loud creaking noise was heard grabbing everyone’s attention, they saw one of the massive barrels used for storing alcohol was starting to shake, the lid was taken off as a tall lanky humanoid stepped out, it’s legs were bony and no thinner than tree logs, but he was at least fifteen-meters tall, with stretched out grey skin, and a small round head, two massive eye sockets, they were empty and coated with the grey skin on the inside as wells, it’s mouth was an ‘M’ shape with several hundreds of needle-like teeth twitching in different directions, for the nose it had one hole torn-open in its skin revealing it dry, leathery flesh, black and almost crumbly looking.

On its head were two massive antlers they looked like they weren’t in fact covered in the skin, and were a solid black colour.

The beast jumped down and sniffed the air, slowly it turned it’s attention towards the fire, where it eyes Adam, and I before turning to the Kate.

Slowly at first, the creature moved towards us before breaking into a gorilla-like sprint.

“What the hell is that?” Kate asked seemingly shocked by its grotesque appearance.

Adam took out his claw weapons swiftly attaching them to his arms with the small brown buckles on the forearm bit of the gauntlet.

“Boost!” he exclaimed create a blue circle under his feet which shot him forward towards the creature allowing him to bury his claws into the back of the creature’s leg, the skin was harder than it looked and the flesh was also tough.

I handed the dagger over to Kate, 

“N-no - you keep it!” she demanded,

I didn’t have time to argue and walked towards the monster ignoring Kate’s protests.

I created a red magic circle with a flame pattern, inside of it I had a grey-blue circle with swirly wind shapes, I imagined it would fire one projectile and as the monster drew closer, dragging Adam who’s claws were lodged in it’s flesh I opened my palm before closing it resulting in one fire projectile - as soon as it hit the creature it exploded into a bright light which fizzled charring it’s flesh and causing its flesh to flake off, the fire exploded in the direction I was aiming, if there were any houses behind the creature they would surely be charred by now. 

The creature stumbled falling over and landing face-first into one of the small buildings.

I felt a sudden bout of nausea as I bent over spewing what I could only assume was blood, I guess this is the result of using more mana than you have…

“What the hell did you do?!” Kate demanded as she made her way towards me,

I felt my vision going dark - when suddenly I had the best idea yet, I created a white circle with arrows going towards me, and a blue mana circle inside, I made sure to make the grass my target, I was able to gather enough mana from the grass to stand up.

I saw the creature stand up, the skin growing over the charred off pieced of its body, it’s attention still fixated on Kate.

“It’s regenerating!” Adam called out eventually wriggling his claw weapons lose and creating some distance between them before casting ‘Fairy fire’ on the creature, the blue fire did minimal damage to the creature,

“Fairy fire drains the creature’s mana, maybe it won’t be able to regenerate now!” Adam called out,

“I’ll shoot it again!” I called back, I created the same fire spell as before except I made the air circle bigger, the bolt shot towards the creature emitting a whistling noise as it flew before exploding into a roaring flame completely removing its head causing the creature to once again fall forward, this time onto the ground.

“Great, looks like that’s done…and I’m not even dead-” I was cut off by another volley of blood spewed out from my mouth, 

“Shit…why am I bleeding from mana loss of all things…?” I asked rhetorically before absorbing some of the mana from surrounding plants.

”Is it dead?” Kate asked,

“No idea…I’ll go see…” I replied standing up and walking towards the charred body, before long it began to twitch, soon it stood back up letting out a furious roar before running on its two legs straight for Kate, I already had the fire spell ready, 

“Don’t! - You’ll burn her too!” Adam cried.

“...”

“DON’T YOU DARE…” Adam threatened,

“Fine…” I grumbled to myself before casting boost, shooting myself forward and kicking Kate out of the way.

“Hey!” she cried as I kicked her (admittedly with the aid of the boost spell) a good few meters away, I felt a tightness around my torso as I saw the creature picked me up and began moving me closer to its massive open mouth,

“Hang in there!” Adam called out boosting forward slightly trying to get over to me as fast a possible,

“No rush, I’ve died recently - I don’t mind giving it another shot,” I replied jokingly, my voice still panicked.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?” Kate demanded,

“You deserved the kick, that’s all!” I replied.

“And don’t you think for a second this was of my own goodwill, Adam told me not to char you, and I just wanted to kick you around for a bit-” my explanation was cut off by the creature throwing me into its toothy jaw, where I evaded most of the teeth and fell straight into its stomach.

Kate rushed over to the creature a mix of rage and confusion temporarily becoming courage, she rushed over ignoring Adam’s warnings, stabbing and beating the creature who simply regenerated after every hit. 

"Fuck... this was a bad idea!" she called out.

It picked her up, squeezing tightly as it threw her into its mouth, aside from getting cut on the arm she really suffered no damage, she fell down into the stomach only to land in a pile of decaying bodies of the local villagers, they formed an island in the lake of stomach acid.

“Oh, hey. Nice of you to drop in.” I said sitting on the beach of this island.

“You’re alive!” she exclaimed.

“Surprisingly, I guess it’s good that humans are hard to dissolve in stomach acid.” I shrugged.

She looked around seeing her surrounding, seeing that she was standing on rotting and torn up remains of dozens of people she let out a scream followed by vomiting,

“Go ahead, it’s a stomach we’re surrounded by puke…” I replied.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?!” she demanded looking over to me,

“Not much, how about you?” I replied.

“How can you stay so calm in a place like this?!” she cried looking around seeing that everything was covered with blood.

“Oh, did you know some of these people?” I asked realising I may be rude by not reacting to her dead friends.

“No, I don’t know any of them…but still…” she replied clenching her fists.

“Relax, I’ll wait for Adam to get us out,” I said trying to calm her down.

“How am I supposed to relax in a stomach filled with dead people!” I heard her throwing up somewhere again.

Once she was done I walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, “It’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.” in the most uncomfortable voice imaginable.

She didn’t reply for a bit, “You’re shit at comforting people…” she laughed slightly.

“Yeah, I used to get that a lot…” I replied.

“I could usually get us out with magic, but I’m too low on mana right now,” I replied.

“Is that why you were throwing up blood earlier?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s weird - I don’t know how my throat and mana are connected but hey.” I shrugged.

A bit of silence passed, “Sorry about snapping your wrist earlier.” Kate said apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it, I healed myself up,” I replied.

I looked over to her seeing that her hand was bleeding, “Speaking of, I can probably still heal your hand with the mana I have.” I offered,

“Don’t worry about it, this place is gross enough as it is without your puking blood everywhere…” she replied.

I suddenly got an idea, what if I suck the mana out of the monster itself!

I created the magic circle from before and made the monster itself my target, I felt the stream of mana coming from the creature as it began to shake, with my other hand I create a weak ice spell freezing the stomach acid allowing Kate and I to walk over to the massive hole that now appeared in the other of the creature, it turns out that without the mana the creature not only can’t regenerate but it also just falls apart.

Kate and I managed to get out of the monster, falling onto the dead grass outside,

“We’re actually alive!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah…I’m surprised too…” I replied.

“Well…welcome to the new world…” I said unable to hold back a sadistic laugh as I saw Adam run over to us seemingly just as exhausted.

“Oh, hey Adam, you look pretty tired…” I commented seeing him literally look like he was about to cry.

“Shit, you two are still alive!” Adam exclaimed.

“Yeah…it’s weird, right?” I asked.

I felt a slap to the face from my side, it was Kate, “That’s for kicking me earlier…” she sighed before standing up,

“So violent…” I said before turning to Adam,

“I hope you have the teleportation ring,” I said looking at Adam,

“I think I do…why?” He asked.

I lifted my hand revealing my ring, “Because otherwise, you’re walking alone…” I said using the ring to teleport home, Adam didn’t appear for another few hours, eventually, he stumbled back into the house, ignoring the note attached to the door and falling right into bed.

I slept through most of the next day, Adam didn’t even wake up until really late in the night, finding that Abe was in fact still sleeping on his couch.

Late that night Adam was sitting on his Armchair drinking another experimental tea when Darthold popped his bearded head in through the open door, “I’ve come to return the dryads and pick up Abe!” Darthold announced as he grabbed a hold of the still sleeping Abe and dropped the two dryads off near the door.

“You realise he was sleeping here for like two days straight?” Adam asked.

“Abe’s Abe.” Darthold shrugged.

Adam turned his attention to the Dryads.

“How was it?” Adam asked looking at the two dryads, they wore different clothing than usual, they had fur coats.

“It was fun!” Exclaimed the smallest dryad, he was wearing a fur tunic.

“Yep, we went down to the stream and we hunted some bears and then we had fun at the camp.” The oldest dryad elaborated, she too had new clothes, a plain fur dress.

Adam ignored the part about hunting bears.

“Sounds like fun, nameless kid and I were off fighting monsters,” Adam said looking as if he was waiting for praise.

"Oh! Cool!" said the tallest dryad.

"I know right! Anyway - do you guys want something to drink or?..." Adam asked.

“Nah, I should get going. I'll see you tomorrow.” Darthold said as he waved back to the dryads.

“How about you guys?” Adam asked. This is when he realised he had no idea what they’re called.

The two dryads looked at each other for a second before shrugging, “We’re fine, thanks.” he turned to leave,

“Hey, mind if I ask you guys something?” Adam asked the dryads turned back waiting for the question.

“What are your names?” Adam asked, he felt really bad for having to ask, he assumed they’d be offended.

“Oh, that’s right we never got a chance to introduce ourselves!” Said the older dryad.

“I’m Cloe, and this is Al,” the oldest dryad said pointing to her brother.

“Cloe and Al, alright. Thanks.” Adam said standing up and bringing his mug to the sink.

“Good night~,” the smaller dryad said waving back towards the house before accompanying the now oldest dryad back to the forest. Adam was shocked by this for a second but he returned the gesture, “Yeah, you too.” knowing they made it back alright, and knowing he can close his door now that Abe was gone, Adam fell asleep on the couch.

The next morning after the short lesson of the language Adam went outside to water his plants only to find that they are all dead.

“I bet it was that damn Lily!” Adam complained to himself.

“Don’t blame me I didn’t touch your plants…except for the spring flowers I guess,” Lily replied.

“A; why are you here, B; then why are they dead?” Adam replied.

“I guess it’s because of the plant disease spreading around,” Lily replied.

“You didn’t even bother answering A… wait what disease?” Adam asked.

“I do a decent bit of travelling for work reasons, and all across the world, plants are rotting and no new seeds grow… there are some exceptions but even the grass is looking dry.” Lily said pointing and the lime-yellow grass.

“I see… that’s pretty bad. I’d expect mass starvation if the crops fail…” Adam commented.

“Don’t worry about it, the wizard's court is working on a cure,” Lily replied.

“The wizard's court?” Adam asked - his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Mm-hm, they even called for a mass collection of crops to make a cure,” Lily added.

“I see how it is, so they gave up already,” Adam said nervously.

“What do you mean?” Lily looked at him concerned and confused.

“I know the wizard court well, they don’t give a single shit about the commoners, they’re collecting food for the famine that’s about to happen if the wizards from there have given up, then this is a real catastrophe…” Adam explained.

“Wait, we don’t know that for sure!” Lily argued.

“...yeah… I guess you’re right…maybe things changed.” Adam said with a sigh.

“...are you alright?” Lily asked - this was not the side of Adam she usually sees.

“Y-yeah, I’m just pissed that my flowers died… I’ll go drink some fake tea…” Adam said as he turned to go indoors, “Oh, and thanks, Lily, for letting me know.” Adam said as he stepped inside the house and closed the door.

For a second Lily though Adam was being nice before she heard the door lock.

Adam sat slumped on the couch, he wouldn’t expect Lily to know this since she isn’t from earth… but Adam knew no disease that could kill all types of plants around the entire world, not to mention how fast it happened… no this had to be the work of some magician…or perhaps a wizard?

“Are you alright man?” I asked - "I’m starting to feel that that’s all I say nowadays…"

“Y-yeah. of course it is, why wouldn’t it be?” Adam replied in a panicked voice.

“In that case, mind getting off me?” I asked as Adam jumped off the couch realizing I was sitting there this whole time.

“Sorry, man!” Adam apologized quickly.

“Nah, it’s all good. I didn’t need my ribs anyway.” I replied sarcastically sitting up.

“That aside, I’m pretty sure something is wrong,” I added.

Adam let out a long sigh, “Yeah…you’re right, according to Lily all plants around the world are allegedly dying… the current explanation the public is told is that it’s a disease…” Adam explained.

I’m no scientist, but with the years I spent in front of the TV watching nature documentaries, science shows and the sheer amount of hospital-based shows I had a decent idea of the abilities of diseases.

“Can a disease spread everywhere? Surely different types of plants would be resistant to different stuff…” I asked Adam only nodded.

“I forgot a decent amount by now, but I used to be a professor back on earth, I taught microbiology,” Adam said.

“Show-off…” I grunted to myself.

“That’s not what I mean, no pathogen can target all plants, not to mention that the idea that it would have spread everywhere already is crazy…” Adam’s voice became more panicked as he spoke.

“So do you think it’s magic?” I asked - I felt I knew the answer but even if I was correct, would there be anything we could do?

“I’m almost certain, it must be some sort of instant death curse targeting plants, but this kind of spell would require an ungodly amount of mana, the only place in the world I can think of that could have that much… is the wizard court.” Adam explained.

“Is that like a mage guild?” I asked.

“Not exactly… a mage is a person who practices magic as a profession, for example, court mages, army mages and mercenaries, although a man selling balloons made from mana is still technically a mage as well.” Adam explained.

“So what is a wizard?” I asked.

“A wizard is just a title, it’s anyone who is a member of the wizard court, essentially an organization which aims to collect skilled mages from around the world, or so they’d have you believe… A good few times they used their ever-expanding power to pressure the governments around the world to act as they wish, they tend to stay out of most of the world’s troubles luckily…” Adam’s tone was becoming irritated.

“In that case, is the disease our problem?” I asked,

Adam didn’t reply for a while.

“What I’m asking is, are you going to investigate it, we’re not some sort of heroes and we have no obligation to go do anything for this world,” I explained my point of view.

“I guess that’s right… We don’t have to act…” Adam said, he seemed distant…

“Actually… no… I have people in this world I care for, Cloe, Al, Darthold and all the people at the Camp.” from the distance Adam heard a loud “AHEM”

Adam sighed, “And I guess I have acquaintances like Lily too…”

“That’s so cold…” the distant voice of Lily complained.

“So, I guess what I’m saying is that you may not have obligations in this world, but I do,” Adam said with a satisfied smile.

“YES, I pulled off the cool speech!” He thought to himself.

There were a few seconds of silence before anybody spoke up.

“Man, Lily’s right, how cold. I have friends here - like I think me and that one guy from the bandits with the glasses really hit it off.” I said sarcastically.

“Plus I’d hate to have the dryads hurt… That old man carried me around for a bit so I guess I owe him something in return…” I continued naming off people.

“But seriously, all I was asking is if you’re going to take action, and I guess I have my answer,” I said with a shrug.

Adam smirked, “Yeah, sorry for thinking you’re such a loner…”

“So what’s the plan?” I asked,

“I guess we should train a bit, I can't be all sore for two days after every bit of trouble we could run into!” Adam replied.

“Right, I guess I should train my magic,” I said getting up and getting ready to leave.

Adam grabbed me by the collar, “Oh no you don’t! We won’t have Darthold to carry you around everywhere, so you’ll need to get in shape too, you lazy ass.”

“That’s too cruel, man.” I cried and I tried to break free of his iron grip.

“I am a proud member of the couch potato community and this is abuse!” I added.

“Besides, you’ll need more than just magic to survive the outside world, you need at least some combat ability,” Adam added as he let go of my collar.

I let out a sigh, “Yeah, I guess you’re right… Still, I don’t know what weapon to choose, I guess I have a dagger but that seems like more of a sneaky weapon rather than an oh-my-god-there’s-a-bear-chasing-me type of weapon.” I replied.

“Yeah, I guess you have a point, plus I’d have no way of teaching you anything about fighting with a dagger… what do you think about ranged weapons?” Adam asked.

“I guess that’d be best, I don’t think I could take too many sword slashes as I am right now…” I commented looking at my petite form.

“Yeah, but a bow would be useless in close combat, a crossbow is a decent mix but the amount of fiddling with it to reload it could be too much…” Adam thought about the different types of ranged weapons.

“Blowpipe?” He suggested.

“No way man, that would look really stupid,” I replied.

“It’s not all about looks…- no you’re right it would look stupid…” Adam ended up agreeing with me.

A few seconds of silent contemplation passed.

“...”

“...”

“Man, I wish we had guns here…” I commented.

“Yeah…” Adam replied

“...”

“...”

“Wait a minute!” I exclaimed, “I could make a gun with magic!” I explained.

“That’s genius… but you’d have to carry a ton of ammunition on you at all times… ... ... I know!” Adam exclaimed.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There is this one blacksmith I know, we’ll ask him to make the weapon from a blueprint, of your creation,” Adam said, he sounded excited about the idea of a gun in this world.

”I don’t see how this solves our ammo problem…” I replied.

“Don’t worry about it, I have an idea for that. The real question is if you can make a blueprint of a gun.” Adam replied.

“I saw a lot of TV shows talking about how stuff is made, but the only one I can really remember in any detail is a revolver,” I explained.

“Yeah, that should work, I’ll bring you some paper,” 

Adam said as he left the living room, he headed to his bedroom where he returned from with a small stack of what looked like old, stained paper, he placed it in front of me and then handed me a piece of black chalk… or was is charcoal? I’m not sure, but I know it felt terrible in my hands, it’s like how some people hate the sounds of a fork scratching a plate, I hate the feeling of chalk.

And so began my long task of trying to sketch out a blueprint of a gun, that I only saw a few times.

Later that night Adam entered the dimly lit living room, he saw me sitting on the couch and perfecting the sketch. “Still working on it?” Adam asked with a sympathetic voice.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t want it exploding in my face,” I replied with an exhausted yawn.

Adam laughed at that comment.

“Shut it, perv,” I replied sarcastically.

Adam went over to the fridge, I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but he said he essentially cheated while making the fridge by using magic ice that never melts.

Adam opened the fridge revealing the variety of vegetables and fruits, along with some raw meat and a few small shelves, Adam opened on of the shelves and inside were several vials of a bright yellow liquid.

He took out two of them and placed one on the table before me, “Here, they’re like homemade energy drinks.” Adam explained.

Without questioning anything at this point, I grabbed the vial and downed it in an instant.

“I was going to say that for a person your current size you’d only need one-third of a vial, but okay.” Adam was trying not to laugh as he downed his vial and sat down on the couch next to me.

“It’s alright, I didn’t need my liver anyway,” I replied not taking my eyes off the page.

“So this is how you make a gun?” Adam asked looking at the scribbles before him.

“I think so, that said making ammo is a whole different problem, we’d need saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur,” I explained.

“Were you a terrorist or something back on earth?!” Adam laughed.

“No, man. I told you I just watch a lot of TV.” I explained waving my hand dismissively.

“Is that so…” Adam replied leaning back on the couch.

A few hours earlier - far from Adam's house...

The pitter-patter of rain masked Lily's wet footsteps.

She headed to one of the outer districts of the capital city of the human country - Excersia.

The large crossbow she wore on her back covered by the fur cloak she wore.

A man sitting under a roof of what looked like an inn sat down - he was rubbing his hands to warm up whilst smoking a pipe, Lily headed towards the shelter provided by the roof and stood with her back pressed against the wall of the inn.

"You waiting for someone?" the man asked in a raspy voice - "No - just waiting for the weather to clear up," she replied,

After a while of silence Lily let out a sneeze - and as if the man was waiting for his cue - he asked "Need a handkerchief?" he extended his hand holding out a piece of cloth folded into a neat square.

"Thanks," Lily replied opening up the handkerchief revealing a detailed portrait of a person, as well as time and location - the folded it up and pretended to wipe her hose before handing it back to the man.

"Thanks,".

"Anytime," he replied in a sudden, sombre tone before heading back into the building - minutes later Lily left, walking down towards the alley and using boost to jump up onto the roof of one of the buildings - she took out her corssbow - moved the quiver from her back to her side, counting about a dozen bolts, she loaded a bolt into the crossbow and waited for the person to appear.

Moments later a group of armoured soldiers walked out and lined up into a rectangular shape - she noticed they were standing next to the tunnels which she planned to use as an escape route - that shouldn't be a problem though - there are a few other ways out of the city.

In front of the group walked out another armoured guard - this one wore what looked like a cloak on top of their armour and had a different helmet shape.

"So that's him..." Lily mumbled remembering the description given on the handkerchief - "A well built, adult male with a pale complexion and considerable facial hair - a captain who was planning to act against orders for whatever reason."

"A-alright - I'm afraid the captain is a bit late today...so I'll be filling in for him until he shows up..." the timid voice of a younger man spoke, Lily lowered the crossbow when she heard that - she hoped the captain would show up soon - "Since the prince's faction has mysteriously vanished a few days ago - all the higher-ups are scrambling to keep things running..." the man explained.

The man started reading something off a piece of paper which he sheltered from the rain with one arm, Lily was busy thinking about why the captain of the guard would betray their orders - it's a good job - pays way more than working as a hitman and or hitwoman

.

"-Oh, and here he is..." the man announced stepping aside letting a larger looking armoured figure walk up - this one had larger shoulder pads, a flowing blue cape and a breastplate that must have left loads of room inside.

The figure spoke up "Good to see this many men signed up for the mission." the voice was deep and Lily instantly imagined the speaker to look like the portrait on the handkerchief.

She aimed the crossbow up at the man, waiting for the right moment to strike so that the bolt would fly through the eye hole in the helm - "Y-yes. that's our new recruit from Arneval - always glad to see more people from the north join the military!" the man explained before the man who spoke before left to line up with the rest of the soldiers - looking slightly out of place due to his sheer size.

Suddenly the sound of a carriage cut through the sound of rain - as it pulled up to the men - a person dressed in bright gold armour stepped out - red gems decorated their armour such that it sparkled even in the rain.

"Ok - he's clearly an important person - though he's a little too fancy for a captain..." Lily though as the person walked up to the front and cleared his throat revealing a soft angelic voice - "Uh - hey. I'm here on behalf of the church of the four gods - and I'd like to take a second of your time to talk about our holy order..." Lily felt a shiver up her spine as the man spoke.

"So - like, as you all know, it's commonplace for knights to become paladins, and to do that they have to join an order - and I'm here because our order is actually - like - really low on members..." the man spoke making exaggerated gestures.

"So - if any of you are interested in joining the celibate order - please raise your hand..." the man waited for any response - eventually the large man who recently joined the rows of soldiers raised his and - "Ah - glad to see someone interested!" the man exclaimed to which the figure replied "No - it's just... I wanted to ask a question." he replied.

"Oh - well, go ahead!" the man exclaimed giving the man a thumbs up.

"What does celibate mean, exactly?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Umm...it's like...just this thing...we are..." the man was uncertain how to reply and so just handed out some leaflets which the soldiers took out of pity before leaving.

"W-well...that was an interesting person..." the man in the front announced - "I think that's all the big stuff - now we're just waiting for the captain and - oh there he is!" the man stepped aside as the normal-looking man walked out in front of the men - his face looked exactly like the portrait - Lily aimed at the man who wasn't wearing a helmet - and pulled the trigger - the bolt shot towards the man and as Lily was ready to see the area coated in a crimson shower - nothing happened.

Uncertain of what happened Lily loaded another bolt and shot again - looking at it closely she noticed it was getting hit from somewhere else - she looked around seeing another cloaked figure standing at the opposite rooftop - it was a man holding a slingshot, he too was aiming for the captain.

Appalled by his rude behaviour Lily loaded the crossbow again and shot him a warning shot which he shot down in mid-air with one of the rocks he used as ammunition for the slingshot.

The man shot her an angry look before quickly pulling back the slingshot - Lily was an expert but there was no way she could load a crossbow as fast as he can with a slingshot - she saw the rock fly towards the oblivious captain before once again it disappeared - both Lily and the man were in shock - he looked up at her and Lily just shrugged they looked around seeing a girl with a longbow in her hand standing on the roof next Lily.

Lily started pointing at herself and making the sticking up her index finger as if to say "I was first." the girl nodded and placed an arrow into the bow and shot it at Lily - the arrow was quickly stopped by the man's slingshot - the bow-girl now looked over to him with a 'what gives' look to which the man gestured a knock one he head as if to say 'Are you crazy!?'.

The bow girl replied by pointing at Lily, gesturing the number one - then pointing at the captain and gesturing the number two.

Fed up with the confusion the man tried to shoot the captain once more - this time none of the string-based weapon users could reload in time - his projectile was stopped once again - confused he looked around - both of the girls sighed - that's when the man spotted another hooded figure with a blowpipe standing very close to the captain - Lily panicked realising she might lose her target - the man quickly reached for the next stone to load but the bow-girl was one step ahead of them and already fired her projectile - the arrow flew like the wind - cutting through the rain and penetrating her target's skull.

The bow girl looked at Lily and the man on the other side with a blank expression before giving them a thumbs up - Lily looked over realising she didn't shoot the captain - but rather the blowpipe guy who was now laying on the ground dead.

The two assassins shook their heads violently as if to silently scold the bow-girl for her actions to which she just sat down on the roof - seemingly upset.

Lily looked over to the slingshot guy - he gestured at himself, then the captain, then Lily than the captain - they both get a shot at killing him.

Lily thought about it and just as she was about to agree a massive rock flew in from somewhere - it was at least two meters in diameter.

Almost in slow motion Lily, bow-girl and slingshot-guy looked over to see a cloaked figure standing far beyond the walls of the district with a trebuchet - they quickly looked back to the rock seeing it crumble into pieces - they squinted to see what caused it shocked to see that not only was it the blowpipe person - arrow still in their head - but also the soldiers didn't seem to have noticed the boulder being hurled and then broken in their general area.

"Did he just break a boulder with a blowdart?" the bow-girl asked blankly causing Lily and the slingshot-guy to put their index fingers to their lips - but it was too late - the soldiers heard her (but not the boulder) - "Who's there?!" the captain demanded before him and several of the soldiers were crushed by the trebuchet's boulders.

The bow-girl and slingshot man ran away almost instantly - the blowpipe guy stumbled away - trying to remove the arrow from his head but it was stuck.

The surviving soldiers fled - seeing this Lily took her opportunity and jumped off the roof and ran into the tunnel.

A massive collection of tunnels under about half of the city - they are long since abandoned - and are used by various shady people thanks to that fact.

Heading down the wet, slimy stairs made of large stone bricks which became worn over the years of water dripping from the ceiling.

Lily took a deep breath now that she was in the clear - that said the tunnels were completely dark without a torch, Lily could have cast a light spell - but for all she knew she could have been followed down here, she decided that as long as she sticks to the walls she'll be fine. 

Suddenly she felt a cold breeze - that wasn't all that abnormal in the big open tunnels - but it was accompanied by a tap - Lily realising it could be a tunnel-rat turned around - they won't stalk prey that seems lively.

After what felt like a few minutes of silence Lily turned around and started walking only to bump into something big and cold - it felt like dry sack filled with tightly packed flesh - after falling to the ground she stood back up - hearing more tapping behind her, although now it resembled scuttling - she rushed towards the exit - hearing the noise come closer and closer - the occasional breeze became a constant stream of cold air which surrounded her.

Seeing the light now within her grasp Lily felt her leg grabbed by what felt like a coiling ring of sharp teeth - she created a bright white circle in the palm of her hand - for a second the light illuminated the disgusting creature, it looked like massive maggot - with grey hide and several unevenly-sized legs - several of these legs were pressed down on her leg - the razorblade like teeth digging into her flesh.

The creature recoiled from the light - thrashing as it returned into the darkness still clutching her leg.

"Boost!" she exclaimed as a blue circle appeared on the sole of her boot launching her towards the exit seemingly safe now she stumbled out - the throbbing pain from the severely damaged leg was hard to ignore - it was bad with the adrenaline but by the time she made it into the forest outside Adam's house she passed out, hearing footsteps coming closer as she did.

Back at Adam’s house he and I were done with the blueprints, Adam was trying a new batch of his pseudo-tea while I was making another attempt at the language, I made Adam only speak in the language to me so I’m forced to learn it.

“So, how are you?” Adam slowly pronounced the words so that I could understand.

“yes.” I replied not understanding a single word other than ‘you’.

“Oh, you’re getting better!” Adam exclaimed.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, last time I asked you how are you, you replied with ‘no’ so I’d say this is a step in a positive direction,” Adam explained sarcastically.

“Very funny,” I replied equally sarcastically.

A knock came on the door followed by the voice of the older dryad, Cloe.

“Come in!” Adam said as he made his way to the door, he only now realised it was getting bright outside.

Adam opened the door seeing the two dryads, Cloe and Al, holding what looked like an improvised stretcher made from sticks and large leaves, on the stretched lay the injured Lily seemingly unconscious.

“We found her bleeding outside of the forest and remembered she comes here sometimes so we decided we should bring her here.”

“Is she alive?!” Adam inquired nervously.

“Yeah, we closed her wounds with some special roots but she’ll need to remove them as soon a possible,” Cloe replied.

Adam clicked his tongue as he heard the news and sighed, “Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped.”

Adam took the disturbingly pale Lily off the stretcher and carried her to his room over his shoulder. “Looks like I’m sleeping on the couch today.” Adam sighed before turning back to the dryads standing in the door.

“Thanks for helping her out, I’ll make sure she’ll buy you some snacks once she’s back to normal,” Adam said with a smile.

The two dryads exchanged an excited look before turning back to Adam. “Great, then we’ll get going now,” Cloe said as they both waved bye to Adam, who once again did the same.

“Move over, I want to go to sleep,” Adam said as he sat down on the couch.

“Just go to sleep in your room, man,” I replied.

“There is no way in hell I’m sleeping in the same room as that psychopath,” Adam replied with a yawn.

I got off the bed and decided to head to sleep too, as I fell onto my bed I awaited the moment when I‘ll pass out… but I didn’t.

“Damn it, I can’t sleep…” I groaned to myself, it must have been that energy drink I got from Adam.

What the hell am I supposed to do… I don’t want to be asleep while Adam does all the cool things… I guess all in all I can’t give out that much about this world, it’s more violent, there is a crossbow-wielding murderer sleeping next door, I’ve lived with a tea obsessed adopted father of two grass people who are out in the day doing stuff with a literal camp of barbarians…it’s a hell of a lot more interesting than life on Earth... most lives for that matter...

I never realised when I fell asleep, I woke up to strong rays of light outside my window, I looked outside expecting to see the usual scenery but instead I saw large patches of dead grass, the tree leaves were turning brown and falling off mid-summer, Adam was right about this not looking like a natural phenomenon.

I made my way to the living room where Adam was sitting, already awake.

“Sup…” I asked - my tone the usual morning end-me-now tone.

“Aside from crippling back pain, I’m good,” Adam replied, I saw he was fiddling with a few vials of the energy drink in his hand.

“You shouldn’t drink too many of them y’know.” I told him with a sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, I know mom,” Adam said with a defeated chuckle.

“Did you check on Lily?” I asked him.

“Nope, sleep is very important for the body to regenerate, besides it’s not like she could be hurt that badly…” Adam said in a reassuring voice.

I rummaged through the shelves in the kitchen for the ingredients I’d assemble into some breakfast.

“Make me something too!” Adam said without even bothering to look towards the kitchen.

“Fine, what do you want?” I asked, I already had something in mind.

“I’m good with whatever, really.” He called back.

“Alright.”

I never really got the appeal of cooking back on Earth, I mean what’s the point of putting effort into something that’s going to get eaten? Like what’s the point of ice sculptures…unless you live on the north pole or something - that said humanity was doing it’s best to melt that place too last time I was on Earth so the metaphor might break down in twenty years or something, however recently I gave cooking a shot, I started off with some scrambled egg, than I slowly got onto more and more complicated things, I’ve yet to burn down the house so I’d say I’m doing fairly well.

In a bowl, I mixed together two cups of flour, some salt, some sugar… I think I was meant to add baking powder…or was it baking soda?... what’s the difference anyway?! either way we don’t have any.

Next, in a separate bowl I beat a few eggs, I added a splash of milk and mixed it into the flour mixture. Allegedly you’re not supposed to over-mix it, but whoever came up with that rule has too much time on their hands and is trying to complicate cooking for us normal people…

(After all the pancakes came out pretty tough so maybe I should have mixed them less…)

I served the pancakes with some butter like they do on TV, there were exactly ten pancakes so I decided I’d serve three per person, that’s including Lily, leaving us with one I was hoping to bring to the dryads to try, if they like it than I’d take them into account when making pancakes, for all I know they could be starving out there…

Or maybe I just like seeing people eating my food

“Here you go,” I said placing the plated pancakes in front of Adam with a fork, I also put my ones down with a fork next to his, I then headed to Adam’s room to bring some food to Lily.

I opened the door only to see Lily in a euphoric state of bliss laying on the bed rolling around in what I assumed were Adam’s clothes.

We made quick eye contact before I placed the food down on the floor and slowly backed out of the room.

As I re-entered the living room I saw Adam finishing off his second pancake.

“Is she awake?” Adam asked.

“...y-yeah…don’t go in there for a while…she’s changing…or something…” I walked into the kitchen and grabbed the large pancaked with some melted butter and placed it in a wooden box resembling a primitive lunch-box.

“Are you going somewhere?” Adam asked seeing me walking towards the door, a look of disgust still on my face after the image of Lily which lingered in my head.

“Yeah… I’m going to bring a pancake for the dryads to try out… you can have my ones… I lost my apatite.” I said as I closed the door and made my way down the path to the dryad’s forest.

Adam shrugged and slid my plate over to his side.

On my way I made sure to inspect the plant life around the forest, it seemed to be doing alright when it came to plants but I heard significantly fewer insects than usual, than again I’d consider that a good thing, insects and owls are the spawn of evil…and jellyfish. I mean come on they literally don’t have a heart.

“Hey, dryads!” I called out, out from a bush shot out the two heads of Cloe and Al.

“Yes?” Cloe asked in an excited voice.

“I’ve got some food I’d like you to try, if you’ll like it I’ll bring you it more often,” I said, I’m not good with kids so I just tried to speak as nicely as possible, not to mention my grasp of the language is still imperfect, and I didn’t want to be so dependent on English, since I could only communicate with a hand-full of people with it.

“Food?” Al the smallest dryad asked looking over to the box I was holding.

“Yep… so I guess I’ll just…leave it down here.” I said placing the wooden box down and pushing it in their general direction.

“Thanks…eh….sorry, what’s your name?” Cloe asked she was squinting her eyes as if she was trying to recall my non-existent name.

“Yeah, I don’t have a name… I couldn’t pick one so I decided to stay nameless.” I explained.

“Oh, I see… so what should we call you?” Cloe asked although Al’s attention was clearly drawn to the box.

“Ehm… I don’t mind what you go with.” I replied.

“Anyway, just bring the box back whenever,” I said with a shrug as I made my way back up to the house, thankfully the awkwardness of that encounter successfully wiped the image of Lily in a pile of Adam’s clothes out of my mind.

“Did they like it?” Adam asked, returning from the kitchen, presumably after washing the dishes.

“I dunno’, I’m not good with kids and the whole conversation was a bit awkward so I left ASAP.”

With a loud crash, Lily left Adam’s room and stumbled her way into the Living room.

“Feeling better? Perhaps feeling good enough to let me sleep in my room? Eh?” Adam spoke with a wry expression.

“Y-yes. I’m sorry about all this… I need to tell you something… in private…” She glanced at me for a second before continuing to stare at Adam.

“Alright, I got the message,” I said, hands raised in the air lazily before leaving to the bathroom.

Little did Lily know I was still listening to everything through the closed door.

“What did you want to tell me?” Adam spoke in a tone suggesting he was annoyed and tired at the same time, most likely from sleeping on the couch.

“There is something wrong in Exversia,” Lily explained.

“Aside from a few bars, nothing is right in that city…” Adam replied half sarcastically and half realistically.

“That’s not what I mean! There were dozens of these…humanoids in the tunnels beneath the city, they were pale and violent!” Lily rebuked,

“Yeah, I believe you… that said that is the description of a vast majority of the people who live in Exversia.” Adam replied.

“I’m telling you, they felt wrong… what kind of people collect in the tunnels beneath a city, in such large groups before trying to stab them to death?!” Lily demanded.

“Drug addicts and drug dealers, that describes about fifty to seventy percent of that city’s-” Adam was interrupted this time.

“FINE, I’ll go back alone!” Lily stomped out of the building shutting the door behind her and walking off down to the path, past the dryads and past the monster hunter camp.

I left the bathroom, “Do you really hate her that much?” I asked sitting down on the couch.

“If I didn’t, I would have told her to remove the stitched from the would or they’ll decompose inside,” Adam replied.

“Christ man that’s dark… but admirable… in a twisted way.” I replied.

“Don’t worry about her, she’s an idiot, but she’s an idiot with a lot of survival experience, I’m not sure why she felt like she needed to tell me this but, hey…women,” Adam said as he leaned back on the couch.

I didn’t say anything and just leaned back too.

“So how did you meet Lily anyway?” I asked eventually.

“It’s a bit of a boring story… I can tell by your behaviour that it’s the same gown ass, albeit lazy and unmotivated man inside that body of yours, but for the rest of us, and by that I mean us that remember Earth, we usually only remember it later on in life, and sometimes we can dismiss it as a fantasy altogether.”

“Thing is, my childhood was all sorts of messed up, it’s not like I’m refusing to talk about it because I’m scared by it or something, I just don’t want people to think I’m selling them a sob story for some sympathy,” Adam explained.

“Don’t worry about it man, I would never dream of giving you any sympathy,” I said reassuringly, yet sarcastically.

“Basically, my parents were really big fans of magic, I mean like send your son abroad to study magic from the age of seven in a super fancy school and disown him when you find out he’s only slightly above average,” Adam emphasized the word slightly.

“In other words, I went from living like a snobby noble to living on the streets, granted a few years later I got picked up by the monster hunters and I guess you could say my life’s been going pretty well from that point on…except you know…”

I nodded.

“I guess I had a bit of a hero complex, not that I walked around in a cape or anything like that, but I liked acting like the selfless hero… I guess nobody suffered from that act so it’s not like I regret it.”

“I wasn’t exactly back to eating fancy cheeses and drinking vintage wine, but I made a decent living with the monster hunters, every week or at-least whenever I could I would walk down to Exversia, the big capital city round’ here and if there were some homeless kids I’d buy them some bread and soup or just hand them some money. I stopped giving money to adults after I met this one homeless man who kept trying to beg me for money and immediately going off to get drunk, I felt betrayed, man.”

“Keep in mind I was kind of sore after my parents backstabbed me, so it’s fair to say I wasn’t exactly all that rational.”

Adam began telling his story…

It began when I was sixteen or seventeen, I did my usual tour of the streets when I saw a new face, or rather a new head since the face was planted obscured as the figure was sitting in a foetal position, with dirty white hair and bruised feet and hands.

“Hey, are you alright?” I asked, ready to hear out the tragic back story and comfort the poor soul oh-so-heroically.

The pale, dirty face of the perv we all know and sometimes tolerate looked up at me, she was a bit younger than me at the time…and most likely still is.

She didn’t say anything and just went back to silently sobbing, my first reaction was oh well, guess the hero act would be wasted on her, there weren’t any people around to praise my heroism so I just left her there.

Next week, unsurprisingly, she was still there.

“Hey, I remember you!” I said as I approached the girl, sitting in the same place as before, granted she looked even worse than before.

She looked up at me again and again didn’t say anything.

“Y’know you’d get more money if you interacted with the people,” I said not quite sounding upset, but more disappointed.

“I don’t want your stupid money.” The person we now call Lily said.

I was shocked by this, maybe she wanted to starve to death or something? I got pretty depressed when I was left alone.

That was the first time in a very long time that I was speaking genuinely to someone outside of the monster hunter camp.

“Damn, this place looks like shit…” I commented.

She didn’t say anything…

“Are you really all that sad?” I asked.

“of course…my parent…and my brother…they’re…” Lily’s voice became shakier until it became impossible to understand and I just got confused and left.

Next week, I walked past the same stops, as usual, go to the east side and visit the orphanage ran by the old man, he’d always go on about how generous I am… I didn’t get a chance to listen to his praise this time, I had somewhere to be… Lily was once again my last stop.

I saw her there, in her usual spot, this time no longer sitting in the foetal position, but rather just sitting pressed against the wall of the building, the same rags she wore up until now, getting dirtier every time.

“You know, starvation is a pretty crappy way to go…” I said handing Lily a piece of bread I pretended to have got for breakfast and instead selflessly gave it to her, in reality, I just got it specifically to look good, I’m not sure for who…before you ask I wasn’t interested and am still not interested in her, but I guess I felt good just putting on this façade.

She meekly took the bread, at first it was a small bite and before I knew it I watched her eat the whole thing before standing up and leaving.

It was only on my way out of there that I realised “Holy crap I didn’t wait for her to thank me…” now you may think this inspired me to be a better person or something, but in reality, it was like a genuine cherry atop my cake of lies.

I kept up my ritual, I started realising Lily was looking worse and worse every day, not only was she horrifically thin, but she was looking bruised as well, this was something that the heroic I couldn’t…care less about…

That said, I found myself looking for a justification to help, I was up all night in the camp, which was located near the city back then, and once I decided that if she’d see me heroically saving her from whoever was attacking her, surely she’d give in and praise me as the glorious saviour I obviously am, I was able to plan what I’d do the next day.

I went to the city one day earlier, and after I ran all my stops, I made my way to where Lily usually sat, there I saw the sight that haunted me for a long time, it was Lily, being held by the throat, a gentle stream of blood trickling from her mouth and nose.

“Why can’t you manage to get money like the other kids, you brat!?” The man demanded landing a punch to her gut.

But this was not what scared me, it wasn’t the blood or the sight of four grown men beating this defenceless girl, it was that split second when I looked at her and she looked back, that short exchange of eye contact… but what was I to do, this wasn’t one man… this wasn’t one teenager… these were four grown-ass men…they could have had weapons…and so I did nothing… I fled.

What was I supposed to do?….

Never once have I felt worse, not when my family disowned me, not when I ended up living on the streets for years, and not when I tried to drown myself in the canal to be done with this world…

This was a different brand of pain, this was the pain of helplessness.

Not even the next day, that night I went back to the city and headed to that alley.

I saw that same, white-haired girl rolled up in a ball of sadness, laying on the street and I couldn’t explain the feeling I felt… It wasn’t pity or regret…well maybe some regret…no I felt rage, a blood-lust, unlike anything I felt before.

I didn’t know what to say, I sat down in that muck and dirt and mud beside her, took off my fur coat and threw it over to her.

At first, she didn’t react.

“You’ll get sick…” she said, sniffling as she said it.

“Nope, I can’t,” I replied plainly.

I sat there for the several hours, I saw the moon above me, the whole time I was looking for a way to apologise, screw the hero act I thought, if I needed to get on my knees in the mud to apologise I would.

“Why are you doing this?” She asked, sitting up slowly and placing her back against the wall.

She placed half of the coat she was using as a blanket to cover me up, but it ended up with it only being able to reach around to one of my legs.

“I’m sorry about before…” I said I felt a tightness in my throat as I said that.

“I-it’s alright…you have nothing to be sorry for…in fact you’re too nice to someone you don’t even know…” for the first time since I saw her, she spoke with a smile albeit a sad one.

“You’re wrong… it’s not because I was nice…I just wanted to feel good about being nice…” I replied It took all the manliness I had left in me not to start crying there and then.

“Then why are you here?” Lily asked with a half-smile.

“...”

I wasn’t sure how to respond, I knew why I was there… but the truth was I genuinely wanted to help this poor (literally and figuratively poor ) girl, but my mind at the time couldn’t comprehend such pure thoughts on my behalf and so I replied, “I don’t know…”

After some silence Lily spoke up, “Thank you.” she said, leaning her head onto my shoulder, at the time, that that was pretty sweet, nowadays I gotta’ lock my windows at night or she’ll sneak into the house…

I waited until morning, “Thanks for staying with me for the night… and thanks for letting me use that coat… you should go back home now.” Lily tried her best to make a full smile.

“I will, soon,” I replied.

It must have become clear to her what I planned to do at this point because she grabbed a hold of my hand.

“Don’t do anything stupid, those men…they said if I do something stupid they’ll track me down and kill me and everyone around me…” Lily pleaded.

“Really?” I asked, “How would they find you?” I asked.

Lily lifted the dirty rage of a dress-up slightly revealing a seal, it’s like a tattoo that does magic stuff.

I put a hand on Lily’s forehead wiping away some of the dirt, “I promise if you’re ever in trouble again, just let me know and I’ll help you out.” I said.

I grabbed Lily by the hand, “I have a plan.” I said as I dragged Lily out the city and back to my home, that being the monster hunter camp, you may think that they may have had a problem with my plan but nope, if nothing else those monster hunters are fiercely loyal, when I told them my friend was in trouble they just asked how they could help and I mean every last one.

For the next few days Lily lived with us, there was a fair share of women in the group so it wasn’t as awkward for her as it could have been.

They got her new clothes and whatnot.

Every day until the fourth night Lily was clearly nervous, she must have wanted to escape but I explained the situation about her being threatened to Darthold (yes he was still in charge back then too) and he agreed we need to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t run away until the plan is complete.

That night, we saw a few men with torches approach the camp, there must have been ten of them or so, they walked into the camp, their laughing and sniggering stopped very quickly as we lit the lights in the camp revealing the fact they were surrounded by a small army of armoured, muscular men with axes and swords, they tried to turn to run but the exit was also blocked off.

I won’t lie, we were a bit sadistic at the time but we killed every last one of them.

The next morning Lily was told that they wouldn’t bother her anymore, and long story short she thanked us - I asked Darthold if it’d be alright for her to stay with us, he was alright with it, she agreed and…yeah… that’s about it.

Adam finished telling his story.

“...damn you were a dick as a kid.” was my only comment on the story, that said that whole story explained why Lily was so into Adam, I won’t stroke his ego but I think he acted pretty heroic towards the end.

“Anyway… I’m not sure what she’s on about now, something about spooky monsters in the tunnels.” Adam made a wriggly motion with his fingers like when people try to show something really isn’t scary.

“Damn, man… Nevertheless, I think you should go check it out, you did promise her you’d help her out.” I replied.

“...I hate how right you are sometimes, you know that.” Adam said that with a straight face, and a hint of disappointment and annoyance in his voice.

Adam got off the couch and headed to the fridge to get some drink, aside from his tea obsession he also tried to recreate some other drinks like orange juice and lemon juice, granted some of those fruits exist here but unlike earth a lot of them haven’t been cross-bred to taste like they do, for example, the melons here are the size of a fist and actually taste like ass, and lemons don’t even exist.

I’ve proven with my tea and cola experiment before that I can create things I remember the taste and texture of here, there are some limitations though, I was never a health freak back on earth so I never read the labels on the backs of stuff, in other words even if I remember the taste of some multi-vitamin, I can’t create it here with the same properties as back on earth.

Adam stood in front of the open fridge as he looked around for anything he’d want.

“I guess I should go over and check…but nowadays Lily’d most likely be able to kick my ass if she wanted… in fair combat at least.” Adam said he was trying to justify his inaction.

“I’d go… but I don’t have my guns yet…” While this was my excuse for not going, it wasn’t wrong, if there was actually something down there I’d be dead weight.

Meanwhile, far below the city of Exversia - through the maze of chambers and tunnels - some flooded or infested with sewer rats, stood the massive compound - in the massive room, almost as big as a lake - the building stood on massive metal stilts almost resembling an oil-platform.

The light from it illuminated the massive area, like a candle in a massive empty room - who knows what stirred below - in the cold, dark waters.

The silence of the darkness was contrasted by the loud footsteps of the people walking on the platform - the sound came from several armoured men and people from the mage-wing of the military.

The military defaults wore heavy iron armour - with short capes and shields, the mage variant wore black trousers, a dark greed greatcoat with thick sleeves, tall black leather boots with metal plates over the toes.

The robes also had a hood - most people chose to wear it, along with the rarely equipped gloves to stay warm in the cold conditions of what they called the under-lake.

In total five people were moving across the metal platform - two mages, two military defaults and a more heavily clothed figure, a woman - looking like she was in her mid to late twenties - aside from the greatcoat, puffier trousers and bigger boots and gloves, she also wore a beret - her hair tied into a ponytail.

While different ranks in the military did have different badges for their ranks - their hats were at all points of the rank-ladder, just decorational.

The group made their way through the platform towards a large wooden door, reinforced with metal plates, the woman in the lead opened the door revealing what looked like a laboratory.

Inside the laboratory sad a man with black hair, it was messy.

“Hey, boss…” the man’s words sounded tried - as if he either just woke up or was ready to fall asleep at any moment.

“Charles…” the person he referred to as boss replied almost as a greeting.

“What brings you down here?” Charles was sitting on a black spiny chair - something not typically found in this world, on the right side of the room ran a long, unbroken line of desks with boxes of papers and pencils.

“Well - aside from looking for a certain escapee-” she raised her voice as she said escapee, “- I’m here to get the progress-report, I had to come get it earlier because the higher-ups want it spell-checked this time…”

Charles looked a little embarrassed - “Sorry about that, still going through a bit of a rough patch with the language…”

She let out a sight “Regardless - I’m also here because - as hard as it is to believe - the general of our military, a person currently holding one-third of the power over all of our military strength is skipping work.” as she talked she walked over to another spinny chair - turning it to reveal a white-haired man, who looked like he was in his mid-forties - he looked thin and lanky, with small dots for eyes - dressed in the same uniform as the woman except he also more a scarf, he was holding a white mug filled with a light brown liquid, it was steaming - that’s what gave away his position.

His expression was still slightly shocked - “Yo…”

“Hot chocolate?” he asked moving the mug over to the woman who looked like she was about ready to choke him.

“I can’t believe you… DRINKING HOT CHOCOLATE WHILE WE’RE ON THE BRINK OF WAR?!”

Charles, looking guilty quickly moved the mug sitting on the side of his desk down under the desk.

“We have tea too…”

“GET YOUR ASS BACK UP TO THE OFFICE!”

He leaned back on his chair, taking a sip of the hot chocolate - “I’m entitled to thirty days off annually.”

“THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT YOUR HOL - wait, how many days off do you get?!” the woman’s tone shifted dramatically.

“Thirty days, the perks of being a general.”

“...”

“N-Never-mind that! You can’t be slacking off now!”

“I’m doing no such thing… ” his tone switched to a more serious one.

“I’ve been working on something big down here for a few days now - it’s all about to come together…” he explained.

“...what is it?” she was starting to get concerned - “What is this big secret - what if it’s classified? …Do I want to know?” she thought,

Without saying anything, them man turned in his chair, pulled out a folder and opened it, as he placed it on the table a picture slid out from the inside.“What is it?”

“It’s an image of the central mountains - specifically the big one in the middle, ” he explained.

“Is something wrong with it?”

“I’m afraid so… it’s all been slowly coming together over the last few days - I had to get Charles over there to help me out with it…”

He pointed to the middle of the picture - “see this little house?”

“Yes…”

“I don’t know which piece goes where…” he said pointing at the roof.

Confused she looked closer realising this was not, in fact, a picture, it was a jigsaw puzzle.

“...are you playing with jigsaw puzzles down here instead of doing your job? And you dare call it work?”

“I told you, I’m on holiday - I’m just saying that I am in fact doing something,” he explained.

“The roof takes up two pieces - but the two roof bits are interchangeable - so I don’t know where to put which one… this is driving me mad…”

With the speed of a titan, he dodged a series of blows from the now irritated woman.

“Stop it! You’re making a mess!” a different person ran over - it was a woman - seemingly an intern or some sort of apprentice - she rushed over, picking up sheets of paper which were blown off the tables thanks to the fighting.

“A new part-timer?” the woman asked with a raised eyebrow,

“Something like that - she just walked in here one day demanding a job - this is a secret military base so it’s either giving her a job or execution so…” Charles’ reply left the woman confused - she looked Issac, the general to ask if that’s really a good idea but he was already busy getting input from the part-timer on how to determine which jigsaw bit goes where…

“ISSAC!”

Issac sighed - “Fine, I’ll go back to the office…” he let out a sigh before walking out “Which teleporter takes you to the castle?”

“We had to close that one - take the green one - it’s the closest,” Charles explained.

Issac nodded and walked away only to poke his head in through the door and say “I’ll be back once she leaves…” to Charles who just gave him a silent thumbs-up.

“ANYWAY… I’m going to need that report now,” she explained.

“Charles, who is this woman?” the part-timer asked discretely,

“Ehh… that’s eh…”

Charles looked towards her - “What’s your rank again? I’m bad with that stuff.”

“It’s Lieutenant-General…” she replied seemingly upset with Charles for forgetting.

“Yeah - so she’s like… four ranks below Issac?” Charles said uncertainly.

“Three actually, also - you shouldn’t refer to your superiors by their first name…”

“We have to - it’s an order.” Charles shrugged.

“...let me guess… the general’s orders?”

“Right.”

“Now - the reports…” Charles stood up patting his pockets and checking the shelves before turning to the intern - “Be a dear and bring me the top-secret reports for me from the office, alright?” Charles tossed her the keyring with a small skull key-chain.

She caught the key and replied with an “O-kay!” then she headed out the door and rushed to the office.

“...”

“...”

“Seriously if you want some hot chocolate, I can get you some.” Charles offered, thinking that was the reason for the awkward silence.

“...you just handed the office keys… to a stranger… and tasked a part-timer and a stranger with bringing top secret info!”

“How much damage can a kid cause?” Charles shrugged.

“You mean aside from accidentally releasing the you-know-what or leaking secret information.”

“It was Issac’s suggestion, you know…”

“The fact our general would do something like this is even more concerning than if you did…” she said in defeat before hearing the door open loudly as the part-timer returned with a notepad filled with various papers.

The mood in the room changed slightly as the part-timer handed the Lieutenant General the notepad - “As you can see, we continued expanding the serum - from the looks of it every vial we get can be expanded to about fifteen-hundred percent of its original size without changing its effect on living things…” Charles started explaining the results of the recent experiments.

“As usual, none survived the process - however unlike the first few batches - we’ve managed to keep these in human-form consistently.”

“There is no greater difference between the elven, dwarven or human subjects - the animal-people seem to struggle longer before turning, but the end result is the same.”

“Let’s see… attempting to place them in a tool has shown some promise at first - before it was discovered that the souls were being attached to the bacteria covering the blade and not the blade itself.”

“So the souls can only inhabit living things?” the Lieutenant General asked,

“Technically all it needs is a soul - so, for example, a human, bacteria or plant, even viruses.”

“Could you place a soul in a sword for example?”

“No - a soul placed in a tool is the same as a soul in mid-air or in some rocks, it’ll either move on or…”

“About that - the wall should be covering most of the planet already.”

“I’ve noticed…” Charles sighed pointing to small glass plates - “I’ve been trying to grow a special colony of fungi for a while no - now they barely even survive much less grow…”

“It’s alright - Issac said it’s just temporary…”

“...right…”

“Anyway - I’ll get going now… I have to read over this to make sure you don’t talk about -” the Lieutenant General cleared her throat “Implanting lemon fouls into best subjects…”

Charles turned red at the reminder of his spelling before turning away on his spiny chair.

“Well, are you ready to get to work?” the intern sounded excited to get to work,

He took a deep breath, “M-hmm…” he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a flame that appeared at the tip of his index finger.

He walked over to the big metal door on the other side of the room and opened it revealing something akin to a torture room - blood and chunks of flesh covering the floor and table - cages filled with animals and people littering the sides, tables of black swirling liquid all over the shelves - hanging blades and tweezers drip blood down onto the floor.

“Don’t smoke in here!” the intern demanded - seemingly upset.

“It’s disturbing how that’s the biggest concern for you in this situation…”

On the table lay an elf - arms, legs and neck clamped to the table, a rag in their mouth to muffle their speech - Charles cleared his throat and began going over the routine he had with the test subjects - “Hello - my name’s Charles, you have been selected to take part in the Exversian top-secret experiment - we would appreciate your full cooperation, else we will be forced to target your family and friends.”

“And I’m Pam - I will be recording the experiments!” the part-timer said excitedly.

“Right… let’s get to work…”

“O-kay!”

“Today we’ll be covering… ‘the effects of taking the solution orally and taking it internally.’ ”

“Eh?”

“Just hand me the scalpel…”

“Gotcha!”