"I got Isekai’d by Truck-kun! I got put into a game world! And instead of picking a race with cute girls, I chose freaking kobolds!"
Silence.
The kobolds continued to stare at him, unmoving, as if they were NPCs waiting for their next dialogue prompt.
Illiesku let the moment stretch before finally offering, "You could have chosen goblins. They breed faster."
Teo groaned and buried his face in his hands. “That’s not the point,” he muttered into his palms.
Illiesku tilted her head slightly, the faintest glimmer of amusement tugging at the corner of her mouth. “This is a Total War-type game. Would you really rather send cute girls off to die?”
Teo peeked through his fingers, caught between indignation and reluctant agreement. “Well… when you put it like that…” He trailed off, grimacing. Damn it, she had a point. Cute girls dying on the battlefield? Not exactly ideal.
With a graceful gesture, Illiesku motioned toward the cave entrance. “Would you like to view your starting location now, or begin the tutorial?”
Teo sighed, pushing himself upright. “Let’s take a look around.” He stood—and immediately had to crouch to avoid smacking his head against the low ceiling. “Of course it’s kobold-sized,” he grumbled. “Could’ve picked dwarves. At least they build high ceilings for all the beer halls.”
He shuffled forward, navigating around the mostly motionless kobolds, who continued standing at attention like a group of lizard-shaped chess pieces waiting for someone to make the first move. Teo paused just long enough to glance back. “Y’all… don’t blink or anything, huh?”
Silence.
“…Creepy,” he mumbled, then ducked out into the open air.
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The cave’s cool breath gave way to damp warmth, wrapping him in a wave of earthy scents—moss, wet stone, and something floral. Teo blinked as sunlight filtered through a delicate mist, golden shafts of light dancing across the landscape like something straight out of a painting.
He stopped.
Stared.
Whoa.
Before him, a wide river stretched out like a sheet of glass, reflecting towering sandstone pillars that soared into the sky. Jagged spires, streaked with red, ochre, and pale cream, pierced the mist. Trees clung to the cliffsides, roots twisted into rock crevices, their branches reaching for the sun like nature itself was trying to high-five the sky. Some of the taller pillars even had their own mini forests, green crowns swaying gently above the clouds.
Mist curled along the riverbanks, swirling around the base of the cliffs. A narrow footpath wound along the ravine, half-consumed by moss and looking like one wrong step away from an unexpected cliff-diving experience.
Teo let out a low whistle. “Holy shit. This is China.”
Beside him, Illiesku blinked. “What?”
“It’s China—you know, those plateau cliff things? There’s always, like, a kung-fu master meditating on a rock or some temple perched on a ledge. I swear, there was this giant mural at the Chinese Buffet back home—people floating down the river on bamboo rafts—exactly like this.”
Illiesku regarded the landscape, then him. “This isn’t Earth.”
“Huh?” Teo glanced at her, then back at the scenery. “Oh. Right. Not Earth. But, y'know… it looks like Earth.”
Illiesku’s lips quirked ever so slightly. Not a smile—definitely not a smile—but something close. “When you’re ready,” she said, “we’ll begin the tutorial.”
Teo took another long look at the landscape. Gorgeous, breathtaking… and probably full of things that wanted to eat him.
He sighed. “Y’know what? Yeah. Let’s do the tutorial before I wander out there and get mugged by a squirrel or something.”
Note: Google (Zhangjiajie National Forest Park) Totally qualifies as Ravines.
***
Questions:
1. Are Hex tiles Sticky? By that I mean, is there a 25% chance that each tile adjacent to a Mountain Hex is also a mountain hex. Or is it more random?
2. Are hex tiles Transitional or abrupt? By that I mean, can we have Tundra next to Jungle?
3. Is there a smooth transition between tiles? Or is it abrupt like bad Minecraft generation?