After looking at Gunther for some time, the paladin said “I think this is the result of another experiment of theirs. William, purge it and catch up with us. Everyone else, let’s go.”
‘Purge? That doesn’t sound good!’ Still gagged, Gunther couldn’t do anything but watch as all the paladins but one left. He looked on in fear as the one who asked about the necromancers earlier approached him, apparently his name was William. Now that he came closer, Gunther could see the paladin was probably not much older than 20.
William lifted his hammer to purge the abomination that never should have existed in the first place, but something stopped him. It seemed afraid and its eyes, its eyes almost seemed human.
Gunther looked on in horror as William raised his hammer, but then the guy suddenly stopped.
“I really hope I won’t be coming to regret this…” William mumbled, after which he walked even closer to Gunther and removed the gag. Gunther gasped as his gag was removed and then smiled.
“Thank you, please don’t purge me!” Gunther said. William looked shocked and it took him some time to regain his composure.
“You can talk?” He asked.
“Of course I can, I’m not some sort of animal!” Gunther replied.
“But Frederic said the necromancers created you, you shouldn’t be more than some mindless monster.”
“So they were indeed necromancers?” Gunther asked, before he shook his head “Doesn’t really matter. Can you untie me?”
“I could, but how do I know aren’t one of the necromancers and this is some kind of trick to kill me?”
“Look, I have no idea who those necromancers were, or even who you are, but they didn’t seem like the kind of persons to take this sort of a risk just to kill one man.”
“Indeed they aren’t, but that doesn’t mean I can trust you.”
“Don’t you have some way to gauge my strength? I’m pretty sure I couldn’t kill you even if I wanted to.”
That seemed to make William think. Suddenly he slapped his head and seemed to focus on Gunther for a bit. He then gasped and looked at Gunther like he was some sort of alien.
‘Well I guess I sort of am an alien, if I’m correct about this not being Earth.’ Gunther thought, somewhat amused.
“You, what is your class and why can’t I see it?” William asked aggressively.
“Class? What’s a class, and do you sound so aggressive all of the sudden?”
“You don’t know?” William asked incredulously, before he glared at Gunther and continued “Your lies won’t fool me, reveal your class at once, or I will purge you right here and right now!”
“Whoah! Easy there buddy! I’m sure we can figure this out together, so why don’t you put away that giant hammer and tell me what it is you’re so mad about.” Gunther hastily said.
“You really don’t know, do you?” William asked, while looking him over warily. He sighed, after seeing Gunther shake his head. “As far as I know, everyone on Elovar has a class. Even newborns have them, although it is just that of their respective race. And then, there you are without one. You also didn’t even seem to know about Inspect, instead you asked about ‘some way to gauge your strength’. You have to agree that this is highly suspicious. However, since you haven’t exactly done anything that has led me to believe you have hostile intentions, I will give you a chance to explain.” Having said that, he looked expectantly at Gunther.
“Honestly, I don’t know how I came to be here. I don’t even know what Elovar is, though I assume it is what this world is called.”
“This world? You speak as if there is more than one world.” William interrupted, somehow even more suspicious than he was a minute ago.
“I don’t know okay? I come from a place called Earth, then I think I died and suddenly I woke up here to a room full of creepy old geezers in bathrobes throwing green balls of death around. By now the only reasonable explanation I can think of is that I’m no longer on Earth and that this is some other world.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
William listened to what Gunther said and responded after thinking about it for a while “Say I believe you and you really are from this Earth you talk about, what will you do if I release you?”
‘That’s a good question, what will I do?’ Gunther thought before answering “I don’t know yet, I can at least promise I won’t attack you if it’s worth anything. But as for my plans after you decide not to turn me into mush, I really have no idea. I don’t have anywhere to go and don’t have any money to pay for food either.”
After thinking some more William said “Alright I think I can at least trust you not to kill me when I release you.” After which he went and removed Gunther's restraints, who just sat up straight on the metal table he had been laying on all that time. “As for what we do now, I might be able to get you some food and water that’ll last you a while. We have to hurry however, because the others will return if I take much longer to catch up to them and they will not hesitate to purge you if they see I haven’t done so.”
“Before we do anything else though, let’s look for some clothes for you.” Gunther hastily looked down at that, and noticed he indeed wasn’t wearing any clothes. Furthermore, it looked like his body was stitched together. It wasn’t as grotesque as Frankenstein’s monster, but he could certainly understand the paladins thought he was nothing but a mindless monster.
William actually laughed, looking at Gunther’s face “Well, that look convinces me you really aren’t from around here, or at least didn’t know what your current body looks like. Nobody could act that well.”
“Well, good to know this body is useful for something.” Gunther said dryly “Now, if you’re done laughing, can you help me look for something to wear?”
Luckily, he didn’t quite think of this new body as his, so being naked didn’t bother him that much. Still, having something to wear would be preferable. He saw a door and was about to open it, when William hastily stopped him.
“Wait! That door could be trapped, let me.” William walked towards the door and used some kind of spell to shine light on the door. After some time he nodded and opened the door.
“What did you do?”
“I just used a simple trap detection spell to make sure it was safe to open the door.”
They walked through the door and were greeted with the sight of a quite normal looking dormitory. After some looking around, they found the first sort of normal looking clothing Gunther had seen since arriving in this world. It was kind of similar to medieval clothing from Earth. Dark green pants coupled with a brown shirt and an again dark green vest, which was closed using strings. It kind of made sense the necromancers also had clothes that didn’t just scream ‘dark mage’ since they also needed to buy food and other stuff from nearby towns.
“It’s not much, but it’ll have to do.” said William, as Gunther was putting on his clothes “Now, let’s go outside.”
They walked back into the first room and William casually jumped up to the outside world. Gunther stared at him, the guy just jumped at least two meters high as if it was nothing. William looked down impatiently, as if he was expecting Gunther to jump after him.
“Are you coming or what?’” He asked.
“I can’t jump that high, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be able to do so either.” Was Gunther's bewildered response.
“Oh right, you’re not from here, I didn’t realise this isn’t something you can do. Just come a bit closer, I’ll pull you up.” William said looking a bit confused.
“Thanks, for helping me up and for not purging me or whatever you were supposed to do. The name is Gunther by the way.” Gunther said while pulling himself up on Williams arm.
“No problem, you seem like a decent person and I wouldn’t want to kill you just because you’re not like everybody else. A sentiment that unfortunately isn’t shared by a lot of people from my Order. I’m William, as you probably already heard earlier.” William replied. Gunther stood up and looked around. Gunther couldn’t help but stare. It seemed like they were standing inside a forest, but not one of the kind you would usually see on Earth. The trees were gigantic, the smallest one being at least a meter in diameter and Gunther couldn’t even begin to guess how high they were.
“Looking at your bewildered expression, I would say arbor trees aren’t something your world has as well. If that world even exists, of which I’m still not entirely sure.” William said amused.
‘Arbor hmm? So Latin is a thing here as well, or it’s just some strange coincidence.’
William took a wooden box and a waterskin from his pockets. “The box contains food pills, they taste like shit, but they can substitute an entire meal, quite useful if you are in a hurry or want to take food with you on long travels. I’ll just say the box got blood on it during your purging and I didn’t want to take it with me anymore.”
Gunther paled a bit at the casual mention of the fact he could have become some blood splatters on a wooden box if the wrong paladin was sent at him, but he accepted the items with gratitude anyway.
“Thank you, is there any clean water source nearby where I can fill the waterskin?” he asked.
“There’s a stream a couple kilometers that way, it should be clear enough to drink from. I advise you to seek some form of shelter and then look for a way to disguise yourself before looking for any towns. You don’t want to set hordes of scared villagers on yourself because of your lack of a class after all. Also, don't go around telling everyone you're from another world, people might not like that very much. Unfortunately, I really have to go now, I wish you well Gunther, and hopefully we’ll meet again in a less dire situation.” William said, smiling lightly at the end of his words.
Gunther replied with a grin “Likewise, and thank you again for all the help!”
“One last thing, you should find a way to defend yourself. There may not be any high leveled monsters nearby, because of the low mana concentration around here, but there are still enough that can easily kill you should they wish it so.” Having said that, he flew away with a wave.
‘Seems I’m alone from here on out, let’s hope I won’t meet anything too strong anytime soon…’ With that thought he walked in the direction William had said the stream was in.