As soon as Jade landed on the other side of the teleport, he looked around with no small amount of wonder. Rather than the dark wood, snow bricks, and snow filled landscape of Candor, this town was constructed of stone and what looked to be oak wood buildings, the buildings themselves being taller as well. It looked more like a proper city than a town, in Jade’s eyes, causing him to frown in thought before a shrieking voice pulled him out of it.
“WHERE ARE WE?!” Turning around, Jade saw that Amy had been the person who grabbed onto his jacket, apparently pulling her into the teleport along with Yondol, who limply held Amy’s arm as the both stared around at the square.
“This is Ormand…” Yondol whispered, his eyes turning back to Jade who just sighed at the elf’s growing excitement. “You teleported us halfway across the country…!”
“Would you keep your voice down?” Jade whispered, looking around to see how much attention they gathered. Thankfully, most just ignored the shouting, going about their day, while the rest were just giving them all strange looks. Using the siblings’ shock to his advantage, he grabbed one of their arms and pulled them both into an empty alleyway nearby.
“How… how is this possible?” Amy asked, still panicked but she no longer shouted. “Teleport magic only works short distances. Not between cities…”
“It’s the Plinth, isn’t it?” Yondol excitedly asked, his calm replaced with eager bouncing.
“Yes, okay?” Jade ground out, holding a finger to his mouth. “Quieter please.”
“But how did you unlock it? All they do is give that warning message with the strange box.”
Sighing, Jade held up the magic mirror still in his hand, glad at least that the siblings were being quieter. “This item is part of my magic. It normally allows me to teleport to a specific location if I’m in trouble, and it apparently can interact with the Plinths.” At least, he assumed that was the case. Considering how new to magic Jade was, he wasn’t exactly sure how it all worked.
After explaining it a few more times, Amy and Yondol finally resumed their composure, Yondol looking around with an assessing look while Amy gave Jade the stink eye. “Can you send us home?” she asked, crossing her arms as she did so.
“Probably. I would just need to teleport with both of you grabbing onto me again.” Jade sighed. “Though I need to get some things done first-“
“WHAT?!” Amy took a step forward with murder in her eyes, Jade nervously taking a step back. “You’ll send us back now or else I’ll shout your secrets to anyone who would listen!”
“Amy,” Yondol chastised tiredly, Amy flinching at his calm glare. “No one’s going to believe you. And even if they do, Jade’s magic can just teleport him back to Candor by himself and leave us both here.”
“B-but I have jobs I still need to do at home and-“
“Which can all be done when Jade is done with whatever he needs to do in Ormand.” He looked to Jade, who gave a slight nod at that. “In the meantime, we get a rare opportunity to explore a different city. Isn’t that what all the stealing was for?”
Amy flinched at that, looking down at the ground with a sullen expression. “Fine. But you don’t leave our sight.” She stuck a finger in Jade’s face at that, prompting him to give another nod.
This day is going to get more stressful, I just know it…
#
After the party took a few more minutes to calm down, though it was mostly Jade shoving his anxiety back into its box, they all headed out to the local mason, once again getting directions from random passerby. Once they reached the shop, the owner looked confused at the amount of stone Jade required, though acquiesced as soon as the requisite gold landed on his counter.
“How do you have that much money anyway?” Amy asked, earning her a glare from Jade. “Seriously. I’ve heard punching monsters makes them drop money, but how many did you have to punch to get that many?”
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“I… got lucky,” Jade reluctantly replied, leading them all back towards the main square to look for a food stall to eat at.
“That is the worst explanation ever.”
“And why exactly do I owe you an explanation?” Amy bristled again at that, though a look from her brother quickly squashed it. Finding a good food stall, the three found a bench to sit at, Jade taking the time to look around at the town. He couldn’t quite get over how… samey everything looked in both towns, the monotone wood color giving him the creeps. Hope I get used to it soon… this is my world now. He doubted he’d be able to get home, that acceptance helping with his anxiety, but only mildly.
“So why did you need all that stone?” Amy asked around her sandwich, Yondol completely ignoring her at that point, just people watching the street.
“It’s how my magic works,” Jade stated vaguely, a smile coming to his face as he was reminded of it. “May need some iron too…” he mumbled, looking into the crafting section and selecting the furnace he knew would be there. Adding yet another crafting station to the menu didn’t end up revealing much, though he could now convert the leftover Meteorite and Cythralite ores into their bars, freeing up two slots in his inventory.
After his lackluster response, Amy huffed and finished her sandwich, getting up from the bench with a stretch. Jade soon joined her, Yondol trailing after as he got directions and headed to the local blacksmith. Again, he was given a strange look when asking for just iron bars, though Jade suspected it would have been much worse if he’d just asked for the ore outright. Money spoke volumes once again, Jade smiling at the 30 bars as they left the smithy, once again adding another crafting station to his menu in the form of an anvil. That’s when the crafting menu really expanded, multiple weapon types for Meteorite, Cythralite, and Iron showing up in the section now.
“And I… think we’re done.” Jade stated to the siblings, Amy looking relieved and Yondol looking quite sad. He didn’t say anything though, Amy being the one to give the elf a glare that time. “Now to head to the…” Jade trailed off, noticing people rushing off in different directions, most looking up at the sky with urgent expressions. “What-“ His next question was interrupted as something slimy smacked Jade right in the face, almost tripping him up as he flailed around.
#
Luckily, Jade had his helmet equipped, even if it looked invisible, so the substance only clung a few inches away from his face. Good thing too, because he recognized the look of the thing attached to his face. It was a slime. A very basic monster for new players, but he suspected in this world that they were quite acidic.
“Slime rain…?” he wondered aloud after getting the slime off his helmet, looking for the siblings and seeing them hiding underneath an awning nearby. “Is this… common?” He walked straight up to them, mostly surprised at the lack of damage from the slime.
Both nodded their heads, Yondol taking up the explanation. “From what I’ve heard, it only happens in the cities with the Plinths, but it happens once a week or so in our town.”
“Annoying…” Amy muttered, flicking her hand and throwing what looked to be kunai at the slimes, popping them instantly before they could reach the party.
“Does anything… else happen?” Jade asked cautiously, pulling out his meteor wand and firing green bolts at the slimes Amy missed. It felt remarkably easy and natural to do so, Jade even feeling the magic inside his body flow into the wand as it was fired.
“Like what?” the elf asked, looking somewhat bored as he did not contribute to the extermination. “It rains slime for an hour or so and then it stops. Nothing more noteworthy than that.”
I hope so… Jade thought to himself, remembering the basic rule of slime rain from when he played Errant. Unless you wanted to summon the slime boss, you stayed inside and did not kill any slimes. Once a certain number of them died, the boss would spawn, and Jade definitely did not want to deal with a teleporting giant slime.
Sure enough, the sky cleared up after about an hour of raining slimes, Amy and Jade easily handling the ones that dropped near them. Strangely enough, each one dropped a little marble when killed, which on touch, would go into a person’s inventory. Jade still wasn’t sure if everyone had them, but Yondol certainly did, as he was the one who went out from under the awning to collect all of the marbles.
With a shrug, Jade stepped out from below cover, before freezing at a message popping up in front of him, similar to what happened with the Plinth.
[Royal Slime has awoken!]
Jade cursed, drawing weird glances from the siblings before screaming could be heard in the distance. Another pop-up made him curse even harder and look to the siblings with concern.
[Party automatically created due to Boss monster in vicinity. Yondol and Amy have been added to your Party! Party color assigned: Blue]
Both of the siblings frowned as they presumably got a similar message, Amy looking up to Jade in dismay. “I’m almost out of shuriken,” she admitted, prompting Jade to pull up his crafting list.
“Any thrown weapon will do?” he asked, ignoring the perplexed look on Amy’s face. He then started crafting his first weapon, prompting his vision to go black.