Chapter Twenty-Four: Run and Tell the Angels

《Taking it pretty easy, aren’t we?

“Come on!” Marc protested petulantly. “I’ve been training all morning. Just look at the sky. It’s amazing weather. This pond is perfect. It would be a crime not to take some time to enjoy it.”

She didn’t say anything in response, but somehow Marc could hear Kira’s hands on her hips, glaring at him like his teachers did when he wouldn’t come in from recess.

He swam over to the end of the pond near a small waterfall that fell from the cliff above them. He stood under the cool water as it poured over him, enjoying the massaging pressure of the water on his shoulders. Then he walked over to a large rock where he had placed his clothes before jumping in the water.

He swam in his shorts. Sure, he could see every life form in the area larger than a mouse on his map, but he just wasn’t a skinny-dipping person. Maybe it was too many teenage camp-themed horror movies he had watched as a kid.

Standing by the rock he spread his arms and legs apart in a Vitruvian man pose, then closed his eyes. A reddish glow surrounded him, then slowly a mist started to expel from his entire body. After a few seconds of this, he was completely dry.

“I do miss towels though. I just miss the sensation of rubbing a warm towel on your face after a swim. Still, this was definitely more effective, and efficient. Even my shorts are dry.”

《Yes, you have mentioned it many times before. About the towels.》 Kira took on a bored tone.

“Max three times. Maybe four.”

Marc dressed quickly. Then started walking back toward the cabin. While he walked, he checked the map again. This had to be one of his favorite abilities. Learning how to use it greatly increased his feeling of personal safety. As his Interface level had gone up, the detail and range of the Map had increased.

Currently, he could track every living being within ten kilometers. He could filter for specific individuals or types of animals. He could also see topographical elements like rivers, mountains, and even caves. When he focused on a specific dot on the map he could get additional information. He could now even make nearly limitless waypoints and markers.

He checked on the small blue dot that appeared by the cabin. He focused and pulled up Rynan’s status and as usual all her stats were blocked by the privacy talisman. Level 8 was still not high enough to break through the protection of that necklace.

He was happy to finally get to level 8. He had managed to raise the upgraded interface back to level 2 quickly after unlocking his Fire Magic, about a week while he learned how to form his Mana and practice his new skills. But growth after that had been painfully slow again. It took nearly two months to get to level 5, and over four months to finally raise the interface to level 8. He wasn’t sure when he would be offered a chance to upgrade the interface again, and neither did Kira. She said this was to be expected. Each level would get progressively harder to achieve, but with each level, Kira gained greater capabilities.

His inventory was a good example. Initially, he was able to store any object that he could physically carry in one of twenty slots. Each level he had gained had added five more slots, but when he upgraded the interface to stage 2, the slots had all combined into a general storage space. It seems the skill had merged with the personal space skill that he had learned from Rynan when he entered her space. Now his inventory just listed out everything in the space. He wasn’t sure how much he could store there, but so far he felt he hadn’t even gotten close, not that he had a lot of stuff. He could also store things larger than himself, but he could still not enter the space like he had done with Rynan’s.

Another aspect of the storage space is that everything he placed in it seemed to be frozen in time. If he placed hot things in it they stayed hot forever. Cold things stayed cold. Living things… Well, he had once tried it with a cockroach-like bug he had caught in the cabin once. It had been an accident. The bug had been on the table, kind of staring at him when Marc noticed and reacted instinctively, swiping at it with his hand. Instead of getting knocked away, it had latched onto his finger. Thoroughly grossed out, Marc just threw it in his space on reflex.

He went out of the cabin to release it, but against his expectations, the bug just fell to the ground, Dead. No apparent injury. Just very dead. Marc vowed never to put living things in his inventory until he knew how to do it safely if that was even possible.

He asked Rynan about it, but she said that her ability was different than Marc’s. It wasn’t Space Magic as she understood it, and she was this world’s foremost expert at Space Magic, so he was going to figure things out as he went along.

Kira also wasn’t much help. While she was ostensibly the control interface for much of his abilities, it seems she did it almost instinctively. She knew what was happening, but not necessarily what would happen. What they had figured out together was that he needed to gather experiences for her to level up the interface. The quest system wasn’t used much anymore in favor of Kira just nagging him to try pushing some ability or travel to some area to expand her map. Then sometimes he would earn an achievement and gain progress to level up his interface.

This is something both Grenn and Rynan had pushed back on. The area was full of dangerous beasts, the distinction being that beasts were developed enough to have Mana Crystals. The amount of time for an animal to grow a crystal varied it seemed, but once they did, the organism would gain accelerated growth, strength, and vitality.

Grenn had taken him on one disastrous hunting expedition just a few kilometers from the cabin where the sight of a dire wolf the size of a small cow had given Marc nightmares for a week. In the end, he was useless for everything except for being able to pack the carcass back to the cabin in his storage space, which arguably made Grenn very happy.

At least they had plenty of meat for the winter. It was still warm, but the mornings and evenings were starting to get quite chilly. Rynan had told him to expect the first snow in the next few weeks. With his Inner Flame skill, Marc was looking forward to the cold weather. He had never experienced a true winter. He had gone up to the mountains to see snow when he was younger of course. Did some sledding and even tried skiing once. He had hated the painful biting invasion of the cold into the deepest parts of his body, however, so he had declared himself a desert person and happily stayed away from snow as much as possible. But now he wanted to see what a real winter was like now that he could turn himself into his own space heater.

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He finally arrived back at the clearing. Rynan had finally agreed to let Marc explore a few kilometers from the cabin, so long as he used his map to avoid any dangerous animals or beasts. Even if he wasn’t watching it every second, Kira would warn him if anything dangerous started to approach.

Marc entered the cabin and went over to the kitchen. Rynan came out of her room and went to greet him.

“So, how was the swim?”

“Fine.” Resisting the urge to roll his eyes. She really was some kind of witch. She had no farsight or prophesy powers, so she said, but still she always seemed to know what he did, or where he went.

“How…”

“The smell. There’s a slight sulfur smell from the minerals in that pond.” She answered nonchalantly,

He just stared at her, then sniffed his shoulder. He couldn’t smell anything.

“I’ve lived here for over fifty years.” She said as though that explained everything. “Do you think I haven’t enjoyed that swimming hole countless times?”

An errant thought invaded his mind and his cheeks flushed a bit but he quickly turned back to the pile of plants that he had produced from his storage.

“Cat tails? Are you going to fry them again?” Rynan asked with interest.

“Not this time, I want to see if I can pickle them. They should be nice during the winter. We have some vinegar right?” He asked.

“We still have some white vinegar left. And also some made from hepic berry wine.”

“Hmm. Let me taste both. I want something that goes well with the garlic cloves from the garden.”

“Sure.” She answered cheerfully as she went to Marc’s small room to open the doorway to the cellar.

“Isn’t Grenn coming today? It’s FifthDay right?” Marc called out to the open doorway.

“He should be coming. It’s late, something must have come up.” Her faint voice came from the underground cellar.

Marc checked his map and noticed a new blue dot appearing from the direction of the City. That must be him, Marc thought.

“Oh, I see him. He’s coming. But still quite far off… and moving fast!” Marc watched as the blue dot steadily moved towards the cabin.

《Marc, that’s not Grenn.》 Kira warned alarm in her voice.

“Huh? Not Grenn?” He said aloud.

“What?” Rynan called out from the below.

“Kira says it’s not Grenn. Whoever it is, they are moving fast. It’s not a beast. It’s a blue dot. A person.” There appeared to be something about sentience that made it easy for Kira to analyze. His map could easily discern a person from a beast from a normal animal. Blue for people, green for animals, orange for wild beasts.

In a flash, Rynan was up the stairs and out the front door. Marc could see a fog forming outside, starting to block the light from the sky turning midday into evening in seconds.

Marc started to follow her when she yelled back.

“Stay inside!”

Marc stopped just inside the doorway and checked the map again. The dot was rapidly approaching the cabin, now just a hundred meters or so away, moving very fast.

He checked the status of the approaching entity. Just as the window opened up a light appeared outside.

A bright glow appeared to slowly grow at the edge of the clearing where the hill leads out of the gully was. As it grew, Marc saw the fog quickly disperse. Then he felt a breeze that quickly became a strong wind blowing him back into the cabin.

The fog having been completely blown away, Marc could now clearly see Rynan standing in front of the cabin, around her were half a dozen large spears made of ice, floating in the air behind her. Then in a blink, they shot forward one by one like missiles.

Marc tracked the trajectories and saw as they converged on a figure at the edge of the clearing. Just as the spears were about to slam into it, the intruder leaped up and over them, incredibly jumping forward and up, nearly five meters into the air.

Rynan was ready for this. She swept her right arm around, glowing more brightly than he had ever seen before. A giant stream of water flew through the air directly through the space the jump would take the approaching stranger.

Then, incredibly the figure dodged, in mid-air. Just as the wall of water was about to smack him back out of the clearing it dove for the ground and… did a superhero landing? Firmly landing on one knee, it balanced itself planting a fist into the ground, then leaned forward like a sprinter and shot like a bullet straight at Rynan.

Marc was paralyzed. He couldn’t keep up with what was happening. This whole thing had taken seconds. He wanted to help but what could he possibly do? Warm the assailant up slightly? He wanted to run, but where could he go? This intruder moved like a comic book superhero. Marc couldn’t move a single muscle as the speeding form closed the distance in an instant.

Just as it was about the smash into her, the attack suddenly stopped. Suddenly, standing perfectly still just a step in front of Rynan was a strange smiling man.

He wore a long coat, a very fancy-looking traveling coat/cloak. It was dark green and was the most expensive-looking piece of clothing he had seen since arriving in this world. Under it he wore clothing not dissimilar to Grenn, but with a bit more flourish. The buckles were golden and the boots pointier. On his head he wore a pointy hat, something like a wide-brim fedora but with a tip that pointed forward. The ensemble instantly reminded Marc of the getup worn by the three musketeers in a movie he had seen. Except the colors were all dark green and brown. Less comical somehow and more dangerous.

Then as the brim of the hat rose, he caught a glimpse of the face of their visitor. It was male, but also a bit feminine, and quite young. Maybe in his late twenties. He looked like an actor or a model. He was tall, his skin pale, his nose a bit pointed, and… his ears!

Marc looked at the status window that he had opened up a few seconds ago.

NAME: MESERVI SEN TARI

AGE: 125

BASE LEVEL: 187

RACE: ELF

AFFILIATIONS: THE GUILD

STATUS: HEALTHY

“And a very happy good afternoon to you too my dear Rynan.” He spoke with a high-pitched and rather musical voice.

“Meservi.” Rynan spat the name out as she glared at him. “What are you doing in my home?”

Small clouds had started to form above the man, Marc could see them darken and small lines of electricity started to flit from one cloud to the next.

Looking with concern at the miniature storm clouds above his head, the Elf smiled and raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

“No need for that sweet Rynan. Dear sweet Rynan, it’s been so long since we had a chance to talk. I just wanted to catch up with my old party member.”

A blast of electricity shot from one of the clouds and scorched the ground a few centimeters from the man’s pointy left boot.

“Curses Rynan! Ok. I am here on official business. Grenn has been acting suspiciously for months and we…” he coughed once into his fist. “The Guild needs to know what you are hiding here.”

The man’s eyes then darted over to Marc, still standing in the doorway. His eyes narrowed and he took a long look, then they opened wide.

“Oh my. Rynan. What have you done here?”

“Meservi…” Rynan answered, suddenly lost her words.

He stared at her again. Looked her up and down, then smiled. The smile deeply unnerved Marc, although it did remind him of the look that he got from Rynan when he had first arrived at the clearing.

“Alright. Let’s go inside and you can tell me the whole story. And you can introduce me to your new friend of course.” He walked smoothly, almost glided around Rynan, and walked up the steps and past Marc into the cabin.

Rynan turned to face Marc, but instead of anger or fear on her face, she had a look of embarrassed resignation. As she walked back to the door the man’s voice called back.

“Hey! Where’s the wine? I’m parched after all that!”

Rynan muttered something, but Marc couldn’t make it out. She entered the cabin and closed the door behind her.