From behind the tree where I was hiding, I stared at the two creatures I’d stumbled across.

Despite being in some demented version of Narnia, despite having died and come back to life, despite the magical armor I’d summoned from thin air, the mana magically keeping my face warm, and the literal flaming magic staff I had just unsummoned so as to not draw attention to my location, I still had trouble accepting what I was seeing.

They were the first real monsters I’d encountered. Sure, Luke had been corrupted and could shoot dark beams from his hand, but he hadn’t looked any different. He’d still looked human.

These things, on the other hand… I had no idea if they had ever been human, but they sure as heck weren’t now.

Ice Golem

Giant-class Monster

Level: 3

Ice Golem

Giant-class Monster

Level: 2

They were maybe five feet tall and floated above the ground via some invisible means. Their torsos came down to a point, and while they didn’t have legs, they had long arms that went nearly to the ground, stopping just short of touching it. They were featureless, so it was hard to even tell which way they were facing.

Giant was the lowest class of monster (GGCBT: Giant, Goliath, Colossus, Behemoth, Titan), so at least they didn’t seem too bad rank and level-wise. Then again, I was the lowest rank of human. So low in fact that my rank was simply called unranked. Meredith had said an unranked should be able to take on a Giant-class monster, but I didn’t like my odds against two of them, especially considering my utter lack of experience.

I could feel my Contract card wasn’t yet ready to use—I’d had to reactivate it after resurrecting and it would be a while yet before it was charged—but was in no hurry to test it out. It wasn’t immediately obvious how it would be useful, in any case. It wasn’t wizard’s first fireball.

Which given the golems’ composition, would come in handy right now.

I did have a flaming staff, but with how little it had done to the snow, I wasn’t eager to test its mettle against these monsters.

So I watched, afraid that if I moved they would spot me.

Or sense me, as it didn’t seem they had any eyes. And lacking legs though they may have been, I didn’t like my chances at outrunning them, seeing how effortlessly they floated above the snow.

I couldn’t tell what they were doing exactly, but they seemed to be making marks on the trees. Luckily, they were moving away rather than toward me as they did so.

A roar pulled my attention away from the golems and toward the sky just in time to catch a flash of something giant soaring overhead. A few seconds later it landed somewhere in the distance with enough impact to shake the ground.

Was that… a dragon?

Maybe only a leaping dinosaur.

As if that was any better.

I didn’t know how large it was—it had flown by far too quickly to get a good estimate—but for it to shake the ground as it landed, it had to be massive.

I stood there, completely still, barely breathing, listening as the maybe-dragon crashed through the forest, growing more distant with each passing moment until the rumble of its passage faded to imperceptibility.

At least it was moving away from the direction of town.

The golems didn’t seem perturbed at all, and were continuing on in their strange work of marking trees.

I decided I’d follow them.

In retrospect, it wasn’t the wisest choice, but they were heading the direction I needed to go—toward town—and I was curious. Plus, the other way had what might be a dragon.

If it came to a fight, I liked my odds against the golems more.

I let them get a good distance away before sneaking out from behind my tree and examining one of the ones they’d marked.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Lines of ice were etched into the bark, forming some kind of symbol. I wondered what they were, and got that invasive-thought-type message.

Rune, Active

I carefully backed away, glad I hadn’t tried touching it. For all I knew, active meant an active explosive.

I carefully followed after the golems, who eventually arrived at a small village, and my hopes rose as I saw a man come out of a house to greet them.

Then I realized there was something off about the scene. The trees were miniature.

As the man reached the golems, I realized it wasn’t the trees that were miniature, but he who was giant, around twice my own height.

Ice Giant

Giant-class Monster

Level: 11

The monster suddenly looked around and shouted something I couldn’t make out.

I cursed myself, remembering the tingling feeling I’d gotten when Meredith and Torath had inspected me. Unlike the golems, this giant must have detected my inspection.

Luckily he didn’t spot me, instead eying a few of the other houses in the little town, perhaps suspecting one of their inhabitants was spying on him.

Or maybe I was projecting.

In any case, now that I knew he wasn’t human, I could spot the differences. For one, he wasn’t wearing much, just what might have been an animal skin around his waist. And his own skin was blue. Not Avatar blue, but tinted just enough to look alien. As was his hair, which looked somewhat brown against his skin, but was itself a dark, pale shade of blue. His ears were also pointed, but—though I couldn’t be sure at this distance—they looked cut that way rather than natural.

I saw a few other giants, though only one female, who dressed the same as the males. She was larger overall than the others, but marginally slighter of build.

After a few minutes, when no one was facing my direction, I left the golems and giants behind, sneaking away and taking a circuitous route around the giants’ town and back toward the town of Ventis.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

A little less than an hour of grueling hiking later in which I covered maybe a mile, I encountered more people. Actual ones, this time.

I’m normally suspicious of strangers, but I was just so glad to see something that wasn’t a monster that I threw caution to the wind, waving at them like a madman.

There were two of them, a man and woman who looked a little older than me, and both were reserved as I approached.

“Hail,” the man said cautiously. He was tall with a thin but muscular build made obvious by his being shirtless, and appeared unfazed by the cold. His fists were wrapped in gauze, and he wore a pendant around his neck that pulsed with blue light, as well as something that looked almost like a glass dog collar around his neck.

The woman was more full-figured, covered in a mix of leather, chain, and plate armor. The only thing that stood out were her boots, which looked like regular work boots from Earth. She also wore the same type of collar, but no pendant.

Neither appeared to have any weapons, but neither did I, and I could summon one at any time.

“Hey. Wow am I glad to see some humans.” I frowned. “You are humans, right?”

“Yes,” the female replied slowly, looking over at her male companion.

I felt the faint tingle as they examined me, so I did the same. Unlike with the townsfolk, it worked just fine with them, other than not being able to see their levels.

Human

Rank: Iron

Level: ???

Human-Telandrian-Vorian

Rank: Iron

Level: ???

I let out a sigh of relief. “Good.” I didn’t know what the man having telandrian and vorian in his description meant but didn’t much care right then.

“What are you doing in a tower?” the woman asked. “You’re unranked.” There was something in her voice I couldn’t put my finger on. Not suspicion exactly, but maybe caution? Worry? Perhaps even fear, though that didn’t make any sense. They were two whole ranks higher than I was. And there were two of them.

The man on the other hand had no such qualms. He laughed. “He’s an adventurous prospector!”

“Uh, I don’t know about that,” I said. “I wasn’t planning on visiting. It just… happened.”

“You from the NewCiv that was just integrated?” he asked.

“Yep. Went to go to the bathroom and ended up here.”

The woman frowned. “Were you drunk?”

I sighed. “It’s a long story.”

The man laughed. “With drink it always is.”

“Or extraordinarily brief,” the woman muttered.

“Are you guys headed back to the town anytime soon? Ventis?” I gestured vaguely in the direction of the mountain the town rested upon. “I’d love to tag along if so. I don’t have much experience fighting, and don’t feel like dying. Pretty sure I wouldn’t come back from it this time.” Though as I said it I realized I should have another resurrection token from taking Fodder.

“Dying is a downer,” the man agreed. “We are headed to town, as a matter of fact. Haven’t yet had the pleasure, and I am eager to see what it has on offer.”

“After we check out an ice giant encampment that’s supposed to be in this area,” the woman added.

“It is,” he insisted.

At the time I didn’t wonder how they knew anything about the layout of the floor.

I motioned behind me. “It’s back there. I stumbled across it.”

“Oh?” the man said with a raised eyebrow. “How many giants were there?”

“Not sure. I saw maybe fifteen or so, plus some ice golems.”

The two exchanged a look.

The man raised an eyebrow expectantly.

The woman sighed. “Fine. You were right.”

“You owe me twelve bounty points.”

The woman grunted but didn’t reply.

“You’re welcome to stick with us,” the man said. “Koren Al-Sagoyn.” He gave me a kind of salute, a loose fist touched to his chest. He jerked a thumb at the woman. “And my stunning companion here is Vyrania Trel.” He grinned. “Yes, that Trel.”

She elbowed him. “Stop telling people. And he probably doesn’t even know about that.”

“Your names sound familiar for some reason, but yeah I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ah, right,” Koren agreed with a nod. “You’re new.”

“Nice to meet you both.” I copied his salute, not sure if people from his Earth didn’t shake hands. “Noah Whitehall.”

His expression fell. “That’s… a common name on your world?”

“Noah? Yeah. Pretty common. Actually a funny story about—”

“Run,” Vyrania whispered urgently to me.

“I’m sorry,” Koren said.

“What’s going—” I began, then something slammed down beside me, throwing up a cloud of snow and dirt.

“Too late,” she muttered.