Chapter 4: Welcome to Falst

Crimson was once more in Evans' cart as they pulled into Petea. It was a green little village half a day's travel from the farm he'd lived on for the past week.

For some reason, Billy had seemed the most torn up about Crimson leaving during the good-byes, but that was probably because of the loss in entertainment Crimson's departure meant. Billy had found him trying to figure out how use his body the funniest of them all. Symia had thanked him once more and had given him a small lunch with a few sandwiches - weirdly named: stuffed bread. Apparently, there was a guild of Sand Witches in the desert, so Crimson's original way of translating the word for the food hadn't worked. He'd just got some weird looks.

Regardless, he'd appreciated the lunch as well as his payment of one hundred Royals, plus the bonus twenty-five for the inventory he'd created. While he didn't have a good sense for the currency yet, he had a feeling that he'd been paid a lot of money. The little purse he'd had on him only had ten Royals before the new additions after all.

As the wagon pulled to a stop Crimson hopped over the edge with his bag over one shoulder, and nearly landed on his face as he realized he hadn't practiced jumping yet. What an oversight, he'd correct it during his next morning run.

He stood and dusted himself off as a group of small children stopped playing with their ball to laugh at him, and did his best to act dignified as he shook Evans' hand.

The man chuckled, "Better, it's not as obvious as last time. You're getting better at hiding your embarrassment. Work on the others, yeah?"

Crimson nodded. With his audience he'd had a lot of practice hiding embarrassment. If only his skill in hiding pain translated over to everything else... Oh well, no point in lamenting what would never be. Things could never come easily for him. Well, a part of him couldn't allow things to come easily either.

Crimson left Evans with a simple farewell as the man directed him toward Falst and rode away on his cart, eager to be back with his wife and child. He couldn't blame his former employer. In his shoes, Crimson would have had Billy drive back the temporary employee.

Crimson turned to take a look around. It was a small village that boasted a lot of greenery, a single inn, and a single shop. He headed over to the shop in question and spent twenty-five of his one-hundred-and-thirty-five Royals on things that he'd need to make the trip to Falst: a water bag, bed roll, food, a bigger bag, and a few other various items. He'd been able to talk the shop keeper down from the original forty, and then down even further by offering his knapsack to sweeten the deal. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to afford a weapon. Even the most cheaply made Lv. 1 combat knife still cost one-hundred Royals plus, and buying a kitchen knife wouldn't work because of its low durability. It'd just be a waste of money on a road regularly patrolled by the kingdom's soldiers.

Crimson securely tied the bedroll to the bottom of his new backpack and stuffed everything from his old knapsack inside with the food he'd just bought. When he hoisted it on his back he stumbled a bit.

Fortunately, nobody was laughing at him this time, but he'd get some good practice for his balance during the journey.

Electing to not waste time and money by spending the night in the inn, Crimson set out from Petea and began the journey to Falst on foot.

The trees on either side trundled by slowly as the bag slowed him down, but he was determined and he made good progress as the sun began to set. Fortunately, there were several places along the road that were set aside as designated campsites.

He'd had to pass up the first one he found as a group had already settled there, but the next one wasn't too far and he arrived there in no time.

As he walked closer he felt some kind of mana forming a lattice over the campsite. A barrier? This mana felt more...well, different. It wasn't something he could really explain well, but it wasn't quite the mana he knew. It felt...less natural. Organized and formed - like woven cloth, but that was the easy part to describe. The mana itself felt...gritty. Not quite like the clean mana he'd come to know.

After thinking about it for a moment, Crimson felt irritated at the lack of information he had. He hadn't thought to ask Raften anything on the nature of mana or how it worked, and Evans and Co. hadn't been able to help him - none of their [Classes] used mana even if they did use their Magic Pool. Apparently, there was a difference, but again: he lacked information from someone who knew about this stuff, or a decent book on the subject.

He strolled into the campsite and the moment he did, he felt a sharp pain in his eyes that almost instantly calmed down to pure itching. Rubbing his eyes, he tried to figure out if he’d gotten anything in them, but there was nothing. After a minute, the itching stopped and he was able to relax. Did the gritty mana get in his eyes or something? He walked back through the barrier a few times to test, but it didn’t happen again.

Frustrated, Crimson settled down for the night and wrapped himself tightly in as many layers of material as he could to keep warm - he didn't want to deal with the hassle of lighting a fire, something else to add to his irritation.

After yet another dreamless sleep - he never dreamed - Crimson was up and packing everything away. His growling stomach informed him that he'd forgotten to eat the night before, and he quickly remedied the situation with his rations.

Since he couldn't do his normal morning run, he'd have to jog with his heavy backpack down the road. He stretched, put on his backpack, and started jogging while adjusting to the increased strain. The low pre-dawn light also made things difficult as he couldn't see the path well, but the cold morning air streaming past his face did a good job waking him up and keeping him focused - even if it was way too cold for his tastes.

Not too much later, he was forced to slow his pace as the burning in his muscles warned him that he'd need to stop and rest if he kept the activity up. Still, he'd made good time and he'd gotten some practice jogging under duress, so it was worth it.

He continued along the road and was forced to stop once by his fatigue, but he ate as he rested and was able to get back up and going without any issue after his lunch break.

With less than half the day left, he finally reached a fork in the road. The signs spelled out clearly which way he needed to take so there was no issue with being lost.

As he continued down the road, past the first town he’d seen after Petea, to his destination he finally began to pass a lot of people of all sorts of races: humans, elves, beast-kin, dwarves, and members of the fairy races. Some passed him going the same direction - moving faster because of their higher stats or their mounts, and some passed going the other way. In amusement, he noted that he could pass Gnomes and Dwarves on foot without any issue - even if they seemed way stronger than him.

He also noticed something else, something rather concerning: the second someone made eye contact with him they began to subtly avoid him. They would suddenly cross to the other side of the road, pull hats low over ears, or stare at the ground. He probably wouldn't have noticed, but for the fact that it was consistently happening, what was going on?

Lacking an answer, and the fact that nobody would stop if he tried to talk to them, he forged ahead. Once the sun began to set once more he found one of the campsites and began to settle down. Since this road was far more packed than the last, he was forced to share the space, but he wasn't particularly bothered - he just kept his money well hidden, made sure to avoid eye contact at all costs, and called it good.

The group of five he shared the campsite with...how could he explain this sight to himself? It was a harem anime.

There was one guy who looked way too happy and energetic for a single person, but also looked slightly feminine. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was tall.

The one sitting next to him had white blonde hair, but she seemed like an air-headed elf from the way she was talking. Was she beautiful? Yes, outrageously so. Was he interested? No, her [Intelligence] was probably a 1. Looks weren't, aren't, and never will be everything.

The rest of the girls were beautiful as well, but each in their own ways. There was a pair of Cat-Kin girls who were clearly twins, but they had the whole "opposing hair color" thing where one was blue and the other was red. The blue one had a very neatly controlled expression, but she was hiding from him behind her sister. Probably shy.

The red sister was laughing with an energy to match the guy, and seemed hyper enough to tire Crimson just by looking at her. Her sharp incisors were on full display with how wide her mouth was open during her laughter.

The last member of the group had green hair and had a few leaves and vines entwined with it. There were even a few leaves embedded into her arms and vines that entwined around them, a Dryad. Of course, she was beautiful too. It was clearly harem anime.

Crimson busied himself munching on his rations - no need to get involved with the walking troupe. If he didn't reach Falst tomorrow he'd be out of rations and in trouble - ignoring the fact that there was another town on the road. He'd also need to find a place to stay and register with the guild, that would most likely take a fee and...

Crimsons train of thought was cut off by the protagonist walking over, "Hi! How are you doing? My name is Abel, what's yours?"

Couldn't he talk a little slower? And wait for people to respond to each question individually!

"My name is Crimson."

Crimson stared at the spot just over the guys eyes and a deadpan expression took over his face as there appeared to be stars flying off the kid.

"Wow! Such a cool name! I wish I had a cool name like that! Oh, by the way, your eyes are cool too! How do they do that? I've never seen eyes that color before! Where are you from? Are people with your eyes common where you're from?"

Did Abel seriously expect him to answer all those questions? He decided to keep it simple,

"Apparently, I'm from Kosoka, and I don't know the answer to your other questions."

"Ehh? Really? But you've got to know how your eyes change! It's the coolest thing ever! And what do you mean you don't know if it's common where you're from! That's like saying you don't remember your home!"

"My memory of Kosoka isn't there."

More like it never existed, but that shut Abel up, for about three seconds before the guy burst into tears.

"Waaaa! I've never heard something so saaaad! Not remembering your home is saaaad!"

Crimson got looks of gentle pity from three of the four girls, and the elf was starting to tear up too. Was everyone in this group emotional? It would make it hard for him to deal with them.

Nope. Too far. The sobbing guy tried to grab him in a hug, but putting a hand on his head and keeping him at arms length wasn't too difficult.

"Stop crying."

"Noooo!!! It's soooo saaad! Let me hug you!"

"Not happening, you’ll get snot on me."

"Waaaahhhh!"

The dryad took this moment to cut in, "It isn't a big deal Abel. He probably left when he was really young, that's why he doesn't remember, right?"

Crimson had long memorized the "story" Raften had given him, but he needed to be careful while telling it. If there was some kind of lie detection magic... Well, his day might not end well. How could he explain in such a way to completely tell the truth about a lie?

"Well, I was told that I'm from Kosoka and that I fell into a Fairy Circle, but I don't remember any of it. I can't even remember the face of the person who told me this."

100% true. He was indeed TOLD that he was from Kosoka. He had never seen Raften's face, so that was also true. There, so long as lie detection magic worked like he thought it would there wouldn't be any issues in the future.

He turned his attention to the group to find that what he'd said had shut the dryad up. That...hadn't been his intention, he'd just wanted to tell the "truth." She looked like he'd dumped a cup of lemon juice in her mouth. Her face was also starting to turn red, but she didn't seem angry.

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Abel chose that moment to stop his attempts to hug Crimson and began to use a different approach, "Well, it's fine! We can be your new family! You haven't received your [Blessing] yet, right? Neither have we! We decided to put a party together and join the [Brass] rank at the Adventurer's Guild to get stronger and prepare for our [Blessing]s! That's where you're heading, right?"

Crimson answered in some bemusement, "Yeah, I'm heading to join the Guild, but I'm going to go alone. I don't need to join your "family" - wouldn't want to get in the way of you and your girlfriends."

Abel tilted his head in confusion as he responded while four pairs of female eyes bored holes into Crimson, "Huh? They're not my girlfriends. What made you think that?"

The deadpan expression returned to Crimson's face, "Do you not understand how this looks?"

There were protests in the background, but the loudest of them all was muffled as blue quieted her sister forcefully. Clearly, none of the girls were interested in Abel.

There protests only intensified with time and created quite an ongoing storm of protests that Crimson was forced to withstand. It even lasted a good five minutes, but once it ended the distance between him and the group had shrunk. Literally and figuratively.

At some point, they'd hauled him into the circle around the fire to continue their protests. Even the blue hair Cat-Kin had spoken for a second as she kept her sister in a strangle hold, "Not interested."

The tide of protests had only ended when the elf had approached him and gotten really close to stare into his eyes, "Wow! They really are pretty! Kinda scary too, but pretty! Can I have them?"

Avoiding eye contact at a point blank distance is hard, and did she just ask if she could have his eyes?

"No."

"Awwww, just a little?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

He put a finger on her forehead and gently pushed her away. He didn't do well with people in his personal space, and he had found the position to be very awkward. She went easily and scooted away with a pout.

"Oh yeah!" Abel chose that moment to cut in, "I forgot to introduce you to everyone! The girl who you just talked to is Cecilia! The one with the red face who needs to breathe -loosen your grip Sapphire- is Ruby! Her sister is named Sapphire, and that's Midori!"

Abel, could he not read the mood? The girls had all spent five minutes making it very clear he'd had no chance with them, but he hadn't taken any damage. Was he...? Nope, better not to go down that line of thought.

He decided to respond, "Nice to meet you. Once more, I'm Crimson. I hope you all have a good night."

A chorus of confused "Huh?" echoed behind him as he got up to leave.

He tried to slip off to bed, but was stopped by a hand on his sleeve, he turned to see a blushing Midori holding onto his sleeve, "Um, actually, could you join us for dinner?"

Crimson stared at her for a long second as puzzle pieces fell into place. The girls weren't interested in Abel, the group seemed to take an unusual amount of interest in Crimson, trusted him too much, invited him to join them, now the blushing dryad, plus the fact that his contract with Raften said the Overseer would provide him with his "basic needs" for completing his task - like a party. Wouldn't that mean that Raften had put this party together for him, and wouldn't this make HIM the harem anime protagonist? Nope, nope, nope! No thanks Raften!

He decided to take the diplomatic route, "No thanks, I've already eaten, and I like to be up early."

"Really?" the blush got even deeper, why was she blushing so quickly? Love at first sight is not a thing! It's not like she reacted any differently before then either! It's only NOW that she reacts!

"Yes. Good night."

Crimson pulled his shirt out of her loose grip and curled up in his layers of blankets and shirts. He'd deal with the headache of Raften's "party" first thing in the morning. Hopefully, he could slip away unnoticed.

----

Midori watched as the dark-haired boy slipped off to bed. For some reason, he reminded her of someone she'd dreamed about a few days ago. Not only that, his dark hair and flashing eyes were entrancing. She'd wanted to keep looking into them, but he'd ignored her.

It was too bad, but since they were all traveling to Falst she'd be able to talk to him all day tomorrow on the road.

It would be amazing to be able to stare into those hypnotizing eyes while they talked tomorrow. They'd been kinda scary at first, but the longer she looked the more entrancing she'd found them. She glanced at her friends and noticed that they were all looking at Crimson with the same look she had. Not good, she wanted him all to herself tomorrow. A subconscious part of her noted how weird it was of her become so fascinated with one person in such a short time - dream or no dream - it wasn't like her, but her rational mind was silenced by her thumping heart.

The next morning when she woke, Crimson was long gone.

----

Crimson woke up at his usual time and packed up his stuff. He set off without waking any of the group. Well, he'd almost woken those Cat-Kin twins - their ears had begun twitching and he'd been forced to freeze. Once they'd settled back down he'd been able to leave.

On the road he slow jogged for a while before taking it down to a speed-walk. He'd need to reach Falst before mid-afternoon or he'd be in trouble, and he couldn't let the walking harem troupe catch up. Not only was he not interested in any form of harem - too much trouble - he also wasn't interested in anyone he even THOUGHT Raften had chosen. It didn't matter if his guess was off or not - though he didn't think he was wrong - he definitely wasn't interested in that group.

Crimson didn't even dare stop for lunch and ignored the blisters he could feel on his feet as he walked down the path with the sparse tree-line on either side. This level of pain wasn't enough for him to even take notice after all he'd suffered in his previous body.

That said, he still ate lunch as he moved. He'd need the energy, and the fact that the meal finished off his rations only hammered home the fact that he'd need to reach Falst. Not that he was worried, even though he was pushing for Falst there would be one other village before he reached there, but he was ignoring its existence to create a sense of desperation to force himself to move faster. It was working, so there was no need to stop doing it. His stamina could barely keep up, but it was fine - he wasn't going to kill himself at this rate.

An hour after lunch he passed through the town he'd seen on the map and chose to buy more rations - just enough for two meals. It didn't hurt to be safe, but the loss of the four Royals hurt since he lacked any means to make more for the moment. It appeared this town was a bit more expensive than the last one. He'd have been able to get the same amount of food for half the amount.

Though, he noted to himself, anything grain based was fairly cheap. He'd make use of that little detail in the capitol.

Setting off once more he was forced to slip through gaps between people as the road became truly crowded. It was wide enough for two carts to pass side-by-side, but that didn't make it any less crowded, only less densely so. It only took Crimson two hours to reach Falst from the last village. The road led up a small hill before giving a grand view of the...whoah.

The city itself had high walls that went around the exterior and had two entrances that he could see from where he was standing, but based off the architecture there would be two more. There were groups of people streaming in and out of the gates that stretched far above their heads and into the city that was a mix of wood and stone buildings. The stone bespeaking a great age behind them, while the wood was far newer seeming, but none of that was what caught Crimson's attention. No, it was the massive castle that stretched over the whole city.

It wasn't like it was a flying castle - that would probably made it less impressive - it was a massive castle supported by stone pillars and arches that extended from the exterior wall of the city up to meet in the air above the center of the city - where the castle was.

The castle itself had spires galore, with paths and bridges connecting them all together with a main building and its wings below.

Crimson felt his villainous-looking self satisfied smile return. Yes, this was what kind of thing he'd been wanting to see in a fantasy world.

Breaking his focus he hurried down the hill toward the city - he'd need to find a place to lodge for the night.

Approaching the lines of people trying to get in Crimson fell into line and patiently waited his turn. It took over an hour, but eventually he reached the front of the line, only to be greeted by a bored-to-death looking guard who was directing people into the lines they needed to be in.

"Do you have an entrance or citizen pass to Falst?" Could that voice be anymore monotone?

"Yes."

The necklace he'd found in his pocket on the first day had turned out to be his entrance pass to Falst. He'd discovered that when he'd taken the time to inspect it.

"Then you go into that line." Again, that monotone, it was a nasally monotone too.

Crimson headed over to the second shortest line as directed.

Behind him, he heard the guard going through his questioning again, "Do you have an entrance or citizen pass to Falst?"

Looking behind him Crimson saw a group six heavily armed people: three humans, a pixie, an elf, and a dwarf. Nice split: human and non. Their leader was a human with slightly greying hair, but an impressive set of armor.

"No, we are with the Adventurer's Guild."

"Why have you come to Falst?" The guard was a little less monotoned this time, didn't he just ask out of curiosity?

"We want to raid the [Hallowed Graveyard] to help our [Priestess] get her [Lesser Undead Purification] to Lv. 10."

"Ohh, very well. Go to that line."

They were directed to the shortest one. As the group passed Crimson the blonde-haired elf and he made eye contact - silver eyes meeting green. She waved and he nodded in return. On the hand that waved was a gauntlet that was clearly used more for offense than defense, with a similar but differently shaped one on the other hand for defense. What kind of [Class] did she have?

Crimson was burning to ask, but didn't. Not just because he decided not to, but because her group blasted through their line insanely fast.

After a twenty minute wait, he was through the line too and he headed into the crowded thoroughfare. It was wide enough to give an interstate highway a run for its money, and was filled with people. There were stands and stalls on either side with people hawking their goods. Men, women, humans, non-humans, and beasts of burden mingled freely on the street.

At first it seemed harmonious, but as Crimson looked closer he could see some people - mostly male humans - who would sneer at members of other races or look at them with barely hidden disgust. Great, not even in a fantasy world could he escape this form of idiocy.

Shaking his head in disgust Crimson headed further down the thoroughfare till he reached a great circular courtyard.

It also had stalls of sellers lining the edges as well as a ring of people around a central fountain running their own stalls. The scents of food, body odor, animal scat, and greed filled the air as the chaos continued without a sign of ever ending. Crimson found the crowd distasteful. Large groups of people...nope. Just nope. Looking around he noticed a street on the opposite side, leading toward the center of the city.

Suddenly, he took notice of two things that were off: the first was that it wasn't dark despite the fact that he was directly under one of the arches supporting the castle. The second was the person trying to steal his dummy purse.

Crimson reached out and caught the wrist of the thief, and turned to see the person. He couldn't get a good look as they wrenched their hand out of his grip, dropping his dummy purse in the process, and darted off through the crowd. Crimson deftly used his other hand to catch the purse before it hit the ground, then, tucking it back into his pocket, he surveyed the crowd. Best to get out of the crowd - he didn't need something bad to happen on his first day in a new city.

As he moved out of the courtyard he glanced up to answer his curiosity, only to see giant crystals hanging from the undersides of the pillars. They were all giving off a great amount of light and made up for all of the light blocked out by the castle and, once he'd been made aware of them, he also felt mana brush against his face from them. It was faint - even fainter than the slimes - but the fact that he could feel them despite the huge distance bespoke the great amount of mana that they must contain.

Crimson focused back on where he was going and shook his hand to try to stop it from shaking. Even if he hadn't panicked during the attempted theft, he had felt a rush of adrenaline when he'd noticed the thief. It left him trembling. Well, no matter. He had to get used to these kind of situations.

Crimson had to ask directions, but once he had them he was able to find his way to the place where the residential and business sectors met in a place the person he'd asked called "Falst Phase 5." Weird.

When he reached the area he went from inn to inn to ask prices. Well, he only went to the cheap-looking ones to ask for the price. Eventually, he was directed to Falst Phase 9 by one exasperated inn keeper to the "most dirt cheap inn in town" as the guy put it.

From the questions he'd asked of the guy, Phase 9 was right on the edge of the slums - not a place any sane person with a purse and no discernible strength would go, but Crimson decided that he'd just take a look. It was still early afternoon after all. Things probably wouldn't get dangerous for a few hours.

The man who gave him directions wasn't kidding, the inn was in Phase 9, but really was on the edge of Phase 10 - the start of the slums districts.

He couldn't really say no to the price though: 10 Royals a week. Dirt cheap. The cheapest one in Phase 5 had been 45 for two weeks. The wooden building was in decent condition, well cared for even if it did seem like it was about to fall apart, but it got a "decent" from him because it was a lot better than expected.

Crimson moved in immediately and hid his purse behind a loose wall board. He even made sure to not hide all the Royals in one place - just in case.

Even though it was still pretty early he was tired from his travels and killer pace, so he ate half of his remaining rations and went to bed. He'd go to the guild in the morning.

----

Crimson set out first thing in the morning. He'd reluctantly left his traveling gear in his inn room, but he made sure not to leave anything too valuable in the room.

From the people in he ran into in Phase 8 the night before, he'd learned that the guild was in Phase 2, so he went that way. It was easy to get around in a general sense. The different phases were set in a circle around the city like twenty-four pie slices, so getting from the current one to the desired one was easy, getting to a specific place in any Phase got a little tricky, but he wasn't worried. Just getting to Phase 2 would be enough, then he could ask more people for directions.

Well, that was the plan, but he wandered into a small empty courtyard that ended in a dead-end. The only thing in the courtyard was a statue of a man in armor on a horse that dominated the space. The whole thing was on a plinth, so it was a decently tall piece, but... there was something weird about it. He could feel that it wasn't quite natural, and the fact that there were some cobblestones near the statue that were unnaturally placed meant that the thing probably slid. What was under it?

When Crimson placed his hand on it he felt mana flowing through the whole piece. It wasn't the natural ambient mana he'd felt in the Phoenix Leaf, but the ordered and weaved mana of the barriers around the campsites - just a different pattern. The mana didn't have the same "gritty" feeling to it though, more of a...sharpness.

The mana all flowed to a single point, and Crimson placed his left hand on the toe of the Knight. He found a place on it he could depress, so he did so. As the button was depressed the way the mana flowed changed - like opening a stop-gate. It flowed toward the horse's head. Crimson braced his foot against the plinth and raised himself to reach the head and gently pressed on the side of the beast's nose. The head rotated unnaturally, and the whole statue began to slide to the side. Dropping off it Crimson stared at the place it had been.

There was a circle of blue stones that formed a fascinating pattern of interlinked stone and some kind of metal. Crimson knelt down next to it and touched it with his right - non-dominant - hand just in case it did anything bad. Nothing. Curious, Crimson guided some of his mana out of its spot in the right side of his chest and down his arm to the stones. He watched in fascination as it flowed along the metal and the stones began to glow.

The whole thing didn't feel dangerous, so he decided to do something stupid: he stepped onto it. A moment after he stepped on there was a rumbling and the circle of stones began to lower into the ground. It went down maybe twenty or so feet and stopped, letting Crimson see the a tunnel. There were yellow burning torches burning on both sides of the walls, and the place was made of the same dark stone as the rest of the old buildings of Falst. What was this space?

Crimson yearned to investigate, but he'd have to put it off till later, he needed a way to make money and survive - then he could engage his curiosity. Not only that, recklessly exploring the space may end his life a little too early - better come back later. Stepping back onto the "magivator" it raised him back up to the surface, and the statue slid back into place.

Good thing he was good at retracing his steps, he'd need to find his way back to this place.

He set off once more for the Guild.