ACT II ­­– Zach

Deal

With the crabs dealt with, Zach stood and watched the people he had just rescued. The three gathered a bit away, keeping alert and their weapons ready as they watched him in turn. The bird-person had landed and kept one of its bombs in its hand, keeping it behind its back and attempting to hide it. Bright spots in his vision informed him of all of their weak spots, his |Weakness Sense| telling him exactly where to hit in order to neutralize them. He doubted that they would be able to counter his skill; only one person ever had, and the monster just didn’t care if you went for the weaknesses and openings, as it wouldn’t matter in the end. Regardless, he did not intended to fight them. They were all much weaker than him. Instead, he stared right back at them, allowing them to make the first move.

It took a moment for the three to get the hint, but eventually the lizard-person took a step forward and cleared his throat.

“Uh, hello. Thanks for the assist,” he said. “We are adventurers from Port Helios. You really saved us back there.”

“You are welcome,” Zach said, giving them a smile. Hearing that they were adventurers brought memories of when Earth had such things—before everything went to shit.

“You are of course welcome to any loot that dropped from these monsters. You did most of the work, after all,” the lizard-person said.

The bird-person grabbed his hand and whispered, probably thinking that Zach couldn’t hear, but he changed his breathing form and entered {Focus}. The sounds around him cleared, and he heard what they were talking about.

“…need that loot! If we don’t get enough Essence to pay back the guild…” the bird-person said.

“Do you want to tell him that he can’t have anything?” the lizard-person whispered back.

The woman then spoke for the first time. “Riss is right, we shouldn’t antagonize him. He is clearly a high-level adventurer. He has an awakened weapon!”

Zach turned around as he listened and looked at the monster corpses. He had no gathering skills, so their bodies were of little use to him. There were two chests on the ground, having appeared once the crabs died. Both had a green tint to them, meaning that any items inside were of an uncommon variety. Zach didn’t really need anything, as his ring was already filled with all sort of items, artifacts, and relics, from common to epic rarity.

He turned to the group and interrupted them.

“It’s fine. You can take everything,” he said. He had already gotten the Essence for the kills—only ten Greater Essence, but still, that was much more than the highest-leveled monsters on Earth had been giving to him toward the end.

The three stopped arguing and looked at him in askance. Then the woman nudged the lizard and he coughed uncomfortably. “Thanks,” he said, but none of the three moved.

Zach realized that they were truly afraid of him, and that made him think about the state of this world. Please, let this world not be like Earth. He could not bear another Earth. So he dropped his {Focus} technique and put a smile on his face as he spoke.

“I’m Zach, by the way. I’m new around here.”

The lizard glanced at his companions and then spoke out. “I’m Riss, this is Qiyanna, and that is Urda,” he said, gesturing to his companions in turn.

Zach bowed his head in their direction. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I was hoping that you might be able to help me. As I said, I am new here, and any information you can provide about this area will be welcome.”

Zach wondered about how much he wanted to reveal, but the truth was that he was tired of lies, of hiding and seeing the worst in people. He just wanted to see some goodness. The more he debated with himself, the more he leaned toward telling them the truth. He saw no harm in it; they were not a threat to him, and they could provide him with information he needed.

The three whispered something that he didn’t catch, and then the woman took a step forward. Taking that as an invitation, he walked over.

“We are going to be making camp. You are welcome to come with us. The night will come soon,” Qiyanna told him.

That brought Zach’s attention to the darkening sky and he frowned. “The sun doesn’t move,” he said.

“Of course it doesn’t! What, were you born yesterday?” the bird-person—Urda—snorted, but then his black eyes widened and he looked unsure. His companions were looking at him like he had grown an extra head.

Zach only chuckled. “You could say that.”

Seeing that Zach took no offense, the group excused themselves and went to gather the loot, taking the chance to speak privately again. Zach didn’t intrude; instead, he watched the sky as it darkened and the sun turned into a moon. He watched as stars appeared in the darkness, but they did so in a strange manner, almost as if someone was turning them on one by one. They were strange in other ways, too—each appeared the same, as a golden dot that made up an image etched on the sky, forming a golden chalice surrounding the moon. Zach wondered what that meant.

Once the group was finished, they returned and all four of them walked up the path between the cliffs that took them away from the coast. The landscape was rocky and filled with hills up here, with stone formations peeking out of the ground everywhere. They walked in silence toward one of the larger formations, where there was already a camp set up, or at least a circle where a campfire had been made before along with some rocks placed around it as chairs.

The three immediately started to set up two tents, pulling out two tent bundles out of their rings, and impressing Zach with their coordination and skill. While they set up the tents, Zach prepared the fire by some unspoken agreement. He saw them cast curious glances at him when he pulled firewood out of his ring. He didn’t know how things were done here, but on Earth he had learned to be always prepared for everything. In any case, his ring had enough room, so why not make use of it?

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After they all finished up, they relaxed around the fire. Zach did notice that none of them removed their gear or weapons. Zach, on the other hand, had put his sword back in his ring, leaving him only in his white cloth robe with his chainmail beneath. He didn’t comment; if it made the three feel safer, then he had no problem with it.

Still the uncomfortable silence stretched, and Zach didn’t speak first. He wanted to let them have the initiative, make them feel in control.

“You said that you are new in this area?” Riss, the lizard-person, asked.

“Yes, just arrived today.”

“We are pretty deep into the Golden Coast,” Qiyanna commented. “Were you shipwrecked?”

Zach shook his head. “No.”

“Did you use a teleporter?” Urda asked, his strange bird eyes narrowing at him.

“In a manner of speaking,” Zach said, then took a deep breath and decided to stop dancing around the issue. “Actually, when I say that I’ve just arrived here, I mean to the Infinite Realm. I’ve been transported from my world a couple of hours ago.”

The three looked at him as if he was crazy, Urda snorting in a strange birdlike manner. “That’s nonsense. You are clearly not a Ranker.”

Zach tilted his head. “What makes you say that?”

“You are too strong, obviously. Is this some kind of a joke?” Urda asked.

“Urda,” Riss hissed at him, but the bird didn’t heed the warning.

“I mean, why are you here, really? Is this some kind of plot to get us to lower our guard and then you rob us? If it is, it is the most elaborate robbery I have ever heard of!”

Qiyanna and Riss looked uncomfortable and kept glancing at Zach as if waiting for him to explode and kill them all. That alone told him a lot about this world, and they were not good things. Regardless, he didn’t want to have a long conversation trying to convince them.

“How can I convince you that I am telling the truth?”

Urda narrowed his eyes before speaking. “Show us your stat window.”

“Urda! That is completely inappropriate!” Qiyanna yelled at him, then looked back at Zach. “Please forgive him, he doesn’t know how to act properly with his betters.” Then she turned at the bird-man and hissed at him. “Apologize now, fool!”

That interaction informed him a lot about the culture of this world. Apparently asking to see someone’s stat window was considered, at the very least, rude. On Earth, they hadn’t really cared all that much—some chose to keep their stats hidden, others showed them. He also learned that those stronger were considered better than those weaker. That made him cringe inwardly, reminding him of Earth. He didn’t allow memories to intrude on his mind and pushed them back. “All right,” Zach said, silencing the argument that had erupted between the three. All of them quieted and turned to look at him, surprised.

Zach pulled out his stat window and made only his name and race visible.

Name

Zacharia Gardner

Race

Human (Earth—Iteration Seven)

“Oh,” Urda said, looking as if he couldn’t really believe what he was seeing.

“Was the arrival that near already?” Riss asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t follow the news all that much,” Qiyanna said.

All three of them had gone quiet, looking at the window. Zach closed it and they snapped out of it looking at him as if seeing him for the first time.

“You are a Ranker,” Riss said.

“You are not?” Zach asked.

“We were all born here,” Qiyanna said. “I don’t even know any Rankers.”

“You don’t look old enough to be born here,” Zach commented. The Framework had arrived ten years ago; even if some Iterations had arrived before, they couldn’t have been born here, not unless he was missing something.

“Oh, time doesn’t pass at the same rate between the old world and here, at least that is what most people say. The First Iteration Rankers arrived here more than a thousand years ago. Everyone around is a descendant from one of the Iterations.”

Zach sighed. It looked like he didn’t know much at all. “Can you help me? I’d like to learn more about this world.”

“How are you even here?” Urda asked.

“What do you mean?” Zach asked.

“I mean, if you arrived today, how did you reach this place? This is deep in the Golden Sect territory, far away from the Ranker arrival areas.”

“Ranker arrival areas?” Zach asked. “I woke up here, on the beach.”

Qiyanna glanced at the others. “That is impossible,” she said as she turned back to meet his eyes.

“Why?”

It was Riss who answered him. “Rankers arrive in designated areas. They get mixed up with other races from other worlds, but an entire Iteration arrives in the same place.”

“Hm…” Zack didn’t say anything. He didn’t know enough to speculate.

“Maybe…” Qiyanna started. “It might be because he is so strong?”

“Perhaps,” Riss said noncommittally.

By now Zach had noticed that they had stopped being afraid of him. Perhaps learning that they were the ones who had him at a disadvantage, at least in terms of information, made them feel better. “What do you mean I am strong? Aren’t there stronger people around?”

“I can’t tell how strong exactly you are, but I have never heard of Rankers as strong as you. They are generally not so strong when they arrive.”

Zach didn’t speak. He knew the reason for his strength—it made him sick just to think about it—but it made him feel better to know that other worlds were not like his. “Perhaps that is it.”

“How did you get so strong?” Qiyanna asked, her tone betraying her eagerness. “I’ve heard that old worlds are Essence poor, that there is nowhere enough of it for everyone to really advance. Not like here, at least.”

“That is true, at least according to what I have seen so far. The air here is filled with more Essence. As for how I got this strong, well, I don’t know what to tell you. I pushed myself as far as I was able,” Zach told them. The truth would not serve him well here.

“Genius,” Riss whispered. “I’ve heard of the great geniuses of the first Iteration, everyone has. You know, when they arrived here in the beginning they had an entire hostile world against them. They tamed it and made it theirs, carved out areas of civilization and established their territories.”

The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

“I don’t know about being a genius,” Zach commented lamely. The entire conversation had started to make him uncomfortable. He knew that he was not strong; he was weak.

“You know,” Urda said slowly. “Perhaps we can help each other out.”

“How so?” Zach asked.

Urda looked at his companions, then back at Zach. “Well, the three of us are here to attempt and reach level sixty. We wish to evolve our Classes. It is not something that is easily done, and the only place where we can get enough Essence for it is here, since we aren’t wealthy enough to just buy Essence Crystals. But as you have noticed today, we are not strong enough for this area. I propose that you help us level, and we answer all your questions and teach you more about Infinite Realm and the way things work around here. I mean, what you want to know can’t be learned from a single conversation.”

Zach could tell that Urda was an opportunistic man, or bird, or whatever. Still, he did need information.

“You have a deal,” Zach said, and extended his hand.