The blacksmith stared at him for a moment before she huffed out a laugh.

“You’re an odd one, even for an adventurer.”

“I’m not an adventurer,” said Terry. “I mean, I am, but I’m not really. I just needed somewhere that would pay me for killing the monsters that keep trying to kill me. The Adventurer’s Guild was the only game in town.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” said the blacksmith slowly. “You didn’t have an Adventurer’s Guild in your world?”

Terry snorted and said, “We didn’t have that, or monsters, or magic. At least, not the way you talk about them.”

“What do you mean no magic or monsters the way I talk about them?”

“Our monsters were purely of the human variety. As for magic, we didn’t have it. We had other things that would probably look like magic to you, but they were technology.”

“Like what?”

“Devices that let us communicate from one side of the world to the other instantaneously. Devices that let us share huge volumes of information. Entire libraries accessible from something small enough to fit in your hand. Vehicles that could travel faster than a horse or even venture into space.”

“Space?”

Terry was once again stumped about how to explain a term that he’d never really had to define for anyone before. Space was just…It was just space. He thought hard for a second.

“You know there are other worlds.”

“Yes,” said the blacksmith with a nod.

“You know that there are vast distances between those worlds?”

“That’s what they say.”

“Where I come from those vast distances are largely empty. Devoid of everything that sustains life. Just barren, frozen rocks, dust, and light moving through the void. That vast emptiness is space. The area beyond the confines of the world.”

The blacksmith frowned and asked, “You sent vehicles there?”

“We did.”

“With people in them?”

“A few.”

“But—” she started hesitantly before speaking with more confidence. “But why? You said that there’s basically nothing there. Why go?”

Terr opened his mouth and exactly zero words fell out. He knew that some people thought it was just the adventure of it. Some of it had been politically motivated. There were scientific benefits to be reaped, or so he was given to understand. He’d read some articles that suggested that resources could be mined in the nearby asteroid belts. At least, they could be mined eventually. So, there was a profit motive if the technology ever caught up with naked greed. There was also the science fiction standby of finding other habitable worlds, which seemed a lot less fantastical to him now.

Although, it had taken genuine magic to get him to a new world that was actually livable, so maybe that one was still something of a pipe dream. He’d gone through a phase when he thought he was interested in space travel, only to later figure out that he just thought rockets were cool. Honestly, though, he wasn’t sure why people wanted to go to space. The costs of putting anything into space were so astronomical that only governments and eccentric billionaires could do it, and only governments had shown any long-term success at space flight. On top of all of that, the risks were apparently enormous. So, why do it?

“Mostly because they can, I guess,” he finally said with a halfhearted shrug.

The blacksmith blinked at him a few times before she said, “That sounds like a terrible reason to do something.”

“I never said the people where I come from are wise.”

“Clearly not,” she agreed before giving Terry an expectant look.

Terry looked back at her, unsure of what she could possibly be expecting. The mutual looking went on for so long that even he recognized that they had moved well beyond what was acceptable in normal social situations. It felt like he’d inadvertently found himself in a battle of wills. He just didn’t know what they were battling about. Space travel? The potential idiocy of people back on Earth? The air in the room? After another thirty seconds of neither of them uttering a sound, Terry finally decided to break the deadlock.

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“What?” he asked.

She made an exasperated noise and asked, “Are you ever going to ask me my name?”

“Oh, that,” said Terry as he weighed the question. “No. I hadn’t planned on it.”

“My name is—” she started only to come up short. “What? You weren’t even going to ask?”

“I just wanted to buy a sword, and you didn’t introduce yourself. It didn’t seem like you cared about that kind of thing.”

She squinted like she was trying to see something inside of him or maybe behind him.

“Is this normal where you’re from?” she asked.

Terry waggled a hand in the air before he said, “It’s normal for me. I always try to avoid talking to strangers. And acquaintances. And people I know well.”

“You’re a strange man.”

“I’m just shy is all.”

“Is that what they call it on your world?”

Terry barked out a laugh and said, “No. It’s definitely not what they called it.”

The blacksmith leaned in like she meant to ask him more before shaking her head a little and leaning back.

“My name is Nari.”

“Nari. Got it,” said Terry.

“It’s short for Narimia.”

“Do you prefer Narimia?”

“No. I just thought you might bother to introduce yourself if I gave you another opportunity.”

“Wasn’t it in the letter?” he asked before he shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m Terry.”

“Just Terry?” she asked.

“Um, Terry Williams the Adventurer?”

“Wow. You’re even worse at this than I am. It’s kind of impressive.”

Terry scowled a little at her but then lifted his hands in a palms-up gesture of helplessness.

“This isn’t my strong suit.”

“What is your strong suit?”

“I’m good at being by myself,” said Terry.

“That’s not really a skill.”

“I’m okay at killing monsters.”

“You’re an adventurer. I would hope that you at least rise to the level of okay at killing monsters.”

The longer the conversation went on, the less certain Terry felt about it. He didn’t know why Nari seemed to be dragging it out. He supposed that she might be one of those people who hated being bothered but also got lonely. It wasn’t really a problem he’d faced, but he’d seen other introverts complaining about it online. If she was one of those, though, he needed to get her back on track quick. Otherwise, he might find himself talking about her mother’s doily collection for an hour. It wasn’t even some special insight into the situation. He’d learned that one through hard experience.

“So, about the orichalcum,” he said. “Where do I need to go to get it?”

She gave him a flat look that suggested she may have seen through his ploy to avoid the doily talk, but she mercifully went along with the change of subject.

“Wyvern Peak,” she said.

Terry frowned at that name. Wyverns were almost always very dangerous in books and anime. The kinds of monsters that even seasoned heroes and adventurers avoided if they could. They always came across like they were scaled-down dragons with no sense of humor and hair-trigger tempers. He was not feeling very excited about the idea of fighting something like that.

“Should I be expecting a lot of big, angry, winged lizards?” asked Terry.

Nari shook her head and said, “No. It’s just been called that for so long that the name stuck.”

“Oh, well, that’s good then,” said Terry in a much brighter voice.

“Not really. Some other monster killed all the wyverns and claimed the territory around the mountain.”

Terry reached up to rub at his eyes. It didn’t help, so he rubbed harder.

“Naturally,” he grumbled. “Does anyone happen to know what this even worse monster is?”

“There’s lots of rumors, but I’ve never heard anything that I’d trust. It might be an actual dragon. It might be a lich. It might be a demon. But it’s anyone’s guess, really.”

“How can no one know? I mean, you asked for orichalcum. So, people must go get it from time to time.”

“No one goes there. Not anymore. As for orichalcum, you can find it sometimes but only imported from places much farther away. It was always rare and expensive, and it’s basically priceless now. It’s the sort of thing that kings buy. Not blacksmiths.”

Terry gave the woman a deeply unamused look.

“What?” she asked.

“You and your sister are more alike than you seem to think.”

Nari looked like he’d stabbed her.

“Take that back!” she demanded.

“I won’t. Practically the first thing that both of you did after I asked for something was point me at a problem involving unknown threats. It’s like you’re both trying to get me killed.”

Nari lifted her chin a little and, in a haughty tone worthy of any noble brat, said, “You’re a rank two adventurer. You can handle it.”

“Words for a gravestone if I ever heard them,” muttered Terry, and he walked toward the door.

“Where are you going?” asked Nari.

“To set up my tent. I need to sleep before I go fight your dragon, or lich, or demon, and fetch you your special metal.”

“They’re rocks,” Nari called after him in a voice that he thought she meant to sound helpful. “Metal ores are rocks.”

“Terrific,” said Terry without breaking his stride.

“Don’t you want to know where Wyvern Peak is?” asked Nari.

Terry did stop that time. Shoulders slumping, he turned around and trudged back.

“Where is it?” he asked in a voice that sounded dead.

Nari smirked a little as she said, “Well, there’s some debate about that as well, but I have several maps we can look at.”

“Of course, you do.”

I like her, opined other-Terry.

You already said that.

I said that earlier because she has spunk.

You like her for some other reason now, I take it? Terry considered for a moment before he said, You like her because she’s aggravating me.

It’s not just because she’s aggravating you, although that is a delicious little bonus. It’s because you want something this time, and she’s making you be a person with her to get it. And you’re super bad at it! Which is just hilarious.

When I find your source code, I’m deleting it.

Not an AI!