The day after the refugees had joined our boat, I decided to demonstrate what I could do to the captain and sailors. After all, I didn’t want people to panic for nothing. After they settled down, I demonstrated how we could get food and water for the new additions to the boat. Of course, since I was known to have a healing ability, Anise was the one that actually ‘caught the fish.’ I killed a bunch of fish with extinguish, then teleported their bodies near the surface of the water. Then, Anise lifted them the rest of the way onto the deck using {Mage hand}. We claimed that Felix’s mental communication ability also let him sense other minds in our area.
I wasn’t sure if the captain believed us, but he was more than happy to see a large pile of fish float onto the deck, ready for consumption. The sailors hadn’t brought much cooking oil with them, but there was still enough for some basic cooking in the kitchen. If we got desperate, the captain also said that there were ways to process raw fish into fish oil using alchemy. It was much easier with proper machinery, but it was possible. Felix started experimenting with that after the captain mentioned it - more as a way to alleviate boredom than out of need.
After that, Felix ‘invented’ a way to purify moderate amounts of water using his alchemy. Of course, in reality, I was pulling water out of my dress and tossing it into a bucket, before we boiled it.
Combined with my healing, the logistical issues for the new passengers were resolved. I wasn’t capable of resupplying the entire ship, but I could take care of twenty extra people.
About a week into our journey, we also finally got a System notification I had been expecting for quite a while. I had honestly expected it the moment I saw the spatial rift appear in the Northwest, but it had taken a full extra week. I didn’t know why that was the case, but I decided not to think about it too much. Perhaps there had still been some unresolved factors, or there might have been some other factor in play. In any case, I was happy to finally receive my rewards for influencing the war between humans and worldstriders.
Influence (Resolution of previous notices): Have a [Minor] impact on the war between Worldstriders and humans.
Special note: Since there were several smaller instances of unresolved impact on the war, they have been combined into one notification for the sake of brevity.
Achievement +6,120
The reward was wonderful. It pushed me from 10,432 Achievement to 16,552 Achievement. Anise also got a comparable amount of Achievement, bringing her to about 14,000 Achievement. She was also making a decent income in this world.
Of course, our ‘sizeable’ Achievement reward was nothing compared to Felix’s. I had healed a bunch of soldiers for a few weeks and helped a fort or two, as well as wiped out a few Worldstrider camps. I had some impact on the war… but not much. After all, every action I took was on the level of an individual. I didn’t do anything that changed the way the war was fought, or warp the outcome in any meaningful way. My impact was very limited in scope since the war involved millions of soldiers. It was questionable whether I had impacted more than one or two thousand of them.
Felix, on the other hand, made a much bigger contribution. He had helped invent railroads, and invented tube guns. Railroads fundamentally changed the way supplying the front lines worked, so it was a massive contribution. Tube guns had a much smaller impact, since the war ended shortly after their creation. However, they still had a small but noticeable impact on the front lines. Even if he hadn’t done much besides that, those two things had given him a [Moderate] impact on the war. He got a about 15,000 Achievement, bringing him up to 38,000 total. It was such an absurd amount that I gave him a celebratory fish feast the day he got his rewards.
38,000 Achievement meant that Felix had a LOT of chances to become stronger after this world. He would gobble up stats, and maybe even new non-keyword Abilities. We hadn't picked up very many of them so far, since we hadn't even finished our keywords yet... but with this much Achievement, Felix might finally have a bit of leeway for utility abilities. Next world, he might be stronger than the rest of us. I was happy that my friend was doing so well, even if I wished that Anise, Sallia and I had reached the same level of success in this world. Having Felix get more Achievement than the rest of us combined made me wish I could do more.
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The rest of the voyage passed uneventfully. We didn’t run into any pirates, or other trading ships, or unexpected crises. With my help, we resolved our supply problems before they even became real problems. Our greatest threat during the voyage was boredom.
Two weeks later, we arrived at Zanna.
Influence: Have a [Major] impact on saving several refugees from the destruction ravaging the Zelyrian Continent
Achievement +540
540 Achievement was a bit less than I was hoping for, but it wasn’t a bad amount. It brought my total from 16,552 to 17,092. Besides, Achievement was more of an afterthought this time. Regardless of what happened, helping people still felt nice.
After looking through my new System notification, I spent minutes observing our destination.
The first thing I noticed was the wilderness. There was a single massive town on the coastline. It sprawled out like building blocks scattered by a giant. At least in width, it nearly resembled a city from the Zelyrian continent. However, the buildings were much shorter and squatter. More notably, the city was surrounded by green in every direction. Outside the city, trees stretched into the sky, and plants that I didn’t recognize stretched into the distance. Animals that I had never seen before rustled the leaves of distant trees, and the area was hot and humid.
It actually reminded me of the island world, in a weird way. The port city we were arriving in was larger than the villages of the islands… but the blue sea and endless green reminded me of home. It made me smile as we disembarked.
That smile quickly turned into a frown as I looked at the city we had arrived at.
The city was separated into two districts. One district was the area we had docked at - it was a small, walled off inner region of the city. It was small, and had paved roads and expensive-looking decorations hung off many of the houses. The houses were sturdy, well built, and made of a type of rock that resembled marble. The people inside of that part of the city looked healthy, wealthy, and well-fed.
The problem was the rest of the city. Outside of this little, walled-off section, was a massive slum. It was filled with hovels and scattered factories, all strewn haphazardly across the area. Those factories leaked pollution into the city’s only river, and spewed smoke into the rest of the city. The people in that area of the city had darker skin tones, and many of them looked far less healthy than the Damilian colonists.
There was a massive problem in how the natives were being treated here.
“Is this what the colonies look like?” I asked.
“I suspect so,” said Felix, frowning. “I admit, I haven't looked into the way the colonies are run, but... this is not great." He shivered. "I wonder if we would have been treated the same way, if the Megailians from our first life had succeeded in invading the islands."
"This is almost as bad as the slums of Verne. But this time, it feels... more oppressive," said Anise. "I don't like it."
Felix nodded.
"Now that I think about it... with how the natives are treated... what happens once they learn that Damilius has suffered huge losses? Worse, what if Damilius has been entirely destroyed, and the people here learn of it?"
I frowned. I felt that the answer was self-evident.
The people here didn't seem like they were treated with any real dignity or respect. The moment they could escape the control of their colonial oppressors, they probably would. I doubted that process would end well for anyone who seemed to be from Damilius. I couldn’t even say that I blamed them.
When the Megailian empire invaded the islands, I had fought against them precisely to prevent an outcome like this. I didn't want to fight on the other side of a similar war in this world. If I did that, I felt like I would lose something far more precious to me than a few more decades here. After all, if I we had reincarnated in a slightly different area, we could have easily been one of the natives living in the slums here. I wasn't willing to become a colonial oppressor just to ensure my comfort.
I rubbed my forehead, and then motioned Anise and Felix aside. We needed to find a way to get out of here before things went wrong.