CHAPTER 59 ARRIVAL

Sure enough, the sun dipped before I saw the walls in the distance. I wasn’t running at full speed any longer, instead taking the majority of the distance at a sedate jog so I wasn’t too surprised. It also really just hammered home how enormous this continent was. I had gone from the center of Seltas and was running to the southwest section of Alixia. In reality the distance wasn’t that large on the grand scale of the map and yet at the same time it was 1000 miles.

I came to a stop and glanced around. There weren’t any convenient collection of trees this time, and I wasn’t particularly interested in continuing until I found one. My vision during the night was significantly better than I had assumed it would be though. Normally, being human, we struggle to see at night where there isn’t any light. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was an elf or my stats were playing a big role in this, but I could clearly make out everything around me, or at the very least perceive it.

I guess [One With Nature] was playing a particularly big role in all of this, but I didn’t think it was the only contributor either. I found a gathering of shrubberies instead of trees and decided that it would have to do to satisfy my inner desires. Something about my classes was pushing me to want to be around nature more. It was an interesting change overall. I found a slightly more comfortable spot to sit in and then got to work.

The main problem with traveling alone is that you ran into problems like what I had now, from what little I heard the areas I was in were pretty safe to travel, hardly any high level monsters roamed this area, but there was still a chance that one could sneak up on you if you were sleeping so you still wanted to have someone on watch. But if you were traveling by yourself you didn’t have anyone to do that, and unfortunately I still needed to sleep. I hadn’t quite gotten to the point where I could just ignore bodily functions yet. In fact I hadn’t even really noticed a change when I got turned into an elf, but I distinctly remember Illesea never sleeping for the short time I had stayed with the elves. She had been up later than me, and had been the one to collect me from my room.

Strange. Was it not a racial thing allowing her to do that? Was it her level or maybe a bonus from her classes instead? Many things to think about.

I let myself be idly distracted while I started pouring mana into summoning up some wood from my nature based class, which sparked another train of thought as the wood was formed from my mana. I had read a few stories that had the plot device that your class only inherently gave you control over an element, not that it necessarily gave you the ability to create the element in question. That was a completely separate skill. And yet, I had a class that wasn’t explicitly a wood based class and yet I had the capability of creating wood. By that extension did I have the ability to grow or create other things of a nature persuasion?

I stopped making the orb of protection I was going for, it was nearly done anyways. And directed my hand to rest over a small patch of grass and started pouring mana out. I had a picture in my mind of a lily flower that I wanted to try and create. If I could just grow flowers and stuff that meant I could probably just grow berry bushes… With the berries on them, hell I could probably go a step further and create certain varieties of fruits and vegetables unique to Earth. How crazy would that be? It would definitely be a business idea.

And it couldn’t really be called plagiarism either since nobody had created apples. I was pouring a significant amount of mana into this project for what was a simple flower. But the mana was going somewhere, [Mana Sense] showed the flow of mana actually going towards the spot on the ground I was directing it too and not just pointlessly releasing into the air.

‘Ping’ [Mana Sense] Has leveled up 15 > 16

I ignored the skill leveling up and kept my focus on growing the flower. And sure enough a stalk sprouted out of the ground and quickly started to bloom, going through all the stages rapidly as I poured mana into it before fully blooming into a brilliantly pink lily and seemed to positively glow. That wasn’t what lilies were supposed to do. Overly healthy because of the amount of mana used for it maybe?

I shrugged before redirecting my attention back to The Sphere. The little orb I was making was attached and rooted into the ground like a tree. I didn’t want something coming around and trying to push it over while I was inside and I didn’t want some massive bird to come through and try to pick it up either. Who knew what could happen here, it didn’t hurt to be prepared for anything that’s for sure.

The thing itself was roughly 5 feet tall, so not enough for me to stand in and was roughly 8 feet in diameter. So long enough for me to lay fully spread out, the bottom was flat with thick roots spreading into the ground. The edges rounded upwards towards the top creating a teardrop shape. It wasn’t particularly pleasant to look at, but it was unwieldy to try and hold anywhere. I didn’t expect any of this to be necessary, but it took minimal effort to do so it was worth it.

‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled up 4 > 5

Getting tons of levels here. At this rate, it might not be nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I stepped into my orb, this wasn’t going to be comfortable, but I’d have to make do. I settled down with a sigh and tried to get some sleep.

***

Aight.

So that was easily the worst experience I’ve ever had with sleeping. I’m not going anywhere again without a bedroll or something. It was horrible. Barely got any sleep. I woke up with a grumble. The entire thing was completely closed off except for a few small holes in the top to allow air to still flow through.

With the light filtering through I could still easily see around me in the darkness of my little hovel.

I sat up while grumbling and moved to dismiss my creation before stopping. I might as well leave it up and take the time to practice with my arm.

I dismissed my arm and took the time to form a new one. I didn’t get a level for it this time, but I definitely knew progress was being made, which was definitely better than nothing.

Once finishing off the new arm, I dismissed the orb letting it crumble down around me. I stepped out onto the grass, it was currently early morning/ I stretched my arms and let out a long groan. I would definitely need something to make that more comfortable. It was not a pleasant experience overall, and while it worked, it wasn’t something I was interested in repeating.

I planned to make it to Verdanst today. I had been taking my time since I had crossed the border into Alixia. I had skipped over the first major town since coming to this country and passed the multitudes of others and was now slightly regretting it as I probably could’ve just stopped earlier and stayed the night in one of the inns there. I got out some more of the jerky to snack on, I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry overall.

I set off at a brisk walk while I ate trying to mentally gauge how far I’d come so I knew how close I was to my destination. After a while I gave up, I knew vaguely where I was after passing the towns and using the sun to tell where I was. Or at the very least keep me going the right direction on the road.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Once I finished my jerky I started jogging. I hadn’t stretched before this but I hadn’t really felt the need too. Something I noticed was that I didn’t feel nearly as sore after doing strenuous workouts either through fighting or running extensively like I would’ve on Earth. As such I didn’t hurt if I didn’t stretch either, definitely another benefit of having stats. It allowed you to get away with a lot of stuff that you normally would be paying dearly for if you ignored it.

I slowly started to pick up the pace, I was feeling a little anxious. I had already been on the road actually moving towards Verdanst for nearly 12 hours now, so I should be getting relatively close. Or at least I thought I would be, it’s sometimes hard to tell how much distance I’ve traveled without something like an odometer. That or a GPS. I didn’t realize how spoiled I was by having this stuff, I was old enough to remember a time before GPS systems were commonplace in phones, my parents still drive without one and I don’t know how they do it.

Once again the world passed by me in a blur, all the while I kept stretching my senses in every direction possible in hopes to either level my general skills or my one class that had a sensory ability. I didn’t really expect to get anything for the class since the experience being gained was negligible compared to killing something, but it was better than nothing for sure.

I just hope I wasn’t too far away from Verdanst, I was starting to get bored.

***

FINALLY.

It’s taken the course of a couple days, but roughly 28 hours of travel later I’ve finally made it. If I could’ve traveled at my full speed the entire time I could’ve made it a lot sooner, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to sprint the entire way.

But I finally see the walls of Verdanst, or what I assume is Verdanst. I guess I’ll find out when I approach the gates, I’m sure they’ll probably want me to pay some stupid toll like they tried at the border, unfortunately I’ll actually have to pay this one if they try to scam me. Can’t go on the run in the city, although it is pretty big, I could probably hide somewhere within it, the main problem being I don’t know how to navigate the city yet. It’d be an exercise in futility to try and beat them on their home turf like that.

Whatever, I slowed down to a brisk walk once I got within about 100 yards. I was kind of nervous, I heard that people in the Empire tended to be a lot less friendly than people in Seltas, I wasn’t sure how true that was though. So far I had only just met the guards on the border, I hadn’t taken the time to stop in any of the villages on the way out here. I probably should’ve just so that I had an idea of what to expect from everyone.

I decided to take a couple of precautionary measures. I first removed about half my gold coins and wrapped them in a ball of wood that I then attached to the inside of my wooden arm. Then I changed my mind and only left five gold coins in my pouch out of the 20ish I had left. Still a pretty decent amount, and five coins should be enough to pay for enough stuff. If I was careful I should be able to survive a decent amount of time off this alone without making any profit.

I didn’t really expect them to try and rob me blind, but I also knew I couldn’t really trust in the goodness of the human heart, 9 times out of 10 you’d get betrayed over something stupid, especially in settings like this where there are general minimal repercussions for anyone in a position of power.

…

Although that’s just kinda the way things work anywhere isn’t it? Kind of obnoxious now that I think about it.

I passed by a bunch of farmlands on my way to the city and I could already see a bunch of people hard at work. There were probably several hundred people I could see just in the vicinity working, tilling fields, tending to crops of all sorts of varieties. There were ranches herding animals, or just letting them freely roam about as they grazed.

Was that a rice paddy field? I think it is, several of the people working it were spraying water from their hands practically drowning the ditch they were standing in. I guess water magic in this instance would be pretty useful, I had to wonder if there were any qualms about drinking magic water? Would it disappear out of your stomach causing you to dehydrate if you drank it? I wouldn’t think so, my wood didn’t disappear unless I wanted it too and it didn’t cost anything to maintain its upkeep.

Not that I had noticed anyways.

I made it up the wall. A couple of people were trickling in and out, the people going in were farmers and field workers going back inside from their fields to handle other business I assume, as they approached the gate they flashed something on their wrist and the guards nodded them through quickly. A pass system? Was it because they were field workers for the city or something? Interesting.

Eventually it was my turn, I generally kept my hood up as I approached cities to hide my ears, just to keep from startling people mainly, but who knew how people would react to seeing my ears, everyone had a different mindset. Nonhumans tended to be surprised but not alarmed, whereas humans tended to be overly shocked and lose their train of thought. It was kind of funny the first time it happened, but it very quickly stopped being amusing.

“You there, step off to the side please. There’s a toll to enter the city.”

“Alright.” I stepped off to the side like the guard asked.

“Hood down please.” He asked as I approached him.

I let out a sigh, I was hoping he wouldn’t ask me to do that, but I guess I couldn’t be surprised. ‘Something something security risk’ I’m sure.

I complied, reaching up with my good hand and pulling my hood down letting my ears pop out from underneath. I kept my hair tucked into the hood as well so it flowed outwards from the hood as well. My hair had been pretty long before coming to this world and it was one of the things I was the most proud of. You know how whenever you go to get your hair cut and the stylist goes, “Oh man, you have a lot of hair!”

If I did anything it was that I tried to take care of my hair, my thick luscious locks that I was ever so proud of. Turning into an elf had changed my hair. It was still the same brown that it was before, but now it was way thinner and way more straight. Before there had been slight waves to it, but not anymore. It was the typical anime-esque long hair that was unnaturally thin. It made me a little sad, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It still looked nice, it was just another reminder of the fact that I didn’t really look like I used to, even if there were still some reminders in certain areas.

When my ears came out of my hood the guard let out a shout of surprise and immediately lowered his weapon at me, the other guards reacting to his movements.

“Don’t move, elf! Hands where we can see them!”

In a split second all the guards surrounded me and had their weapons lowered at me in a circle, all with halberds or swords.

I was so shocked I couldn’t even react.

One of them poked me with their halberd, causing me to yelp in pain as he drew blood while yelling at me.

“He said hands where he could see them, knifey!”

A small crowd had gathered from both sides of the gate as they watched the commotion happening.

I slowly raised my hands in compliance, unsure how to handle the situation.

I glanced around slowly gathering the levels of all the guardsmen, but most of them were tier three with a few at the high end of two.

I definitely wasn’t fighting my way out of this one, at least not without risking serious injury.

“Alright, bitch.” One of them said with a sneer as he lightly prodded me, “You’re coming with us, you have a lot to answer for.”

I frowned, before trying to reply, “What the hell are you ta-”

“Shut the fuck up!” He yelled while poking me again causing me to hiss in pain, “You don’t get to talk unless it’s answering our questions, now come with us and maybe you’ll get off light. I wouldn’t count on it though.”

I grit my teeth, but didn’t reply so they didn’t poke me again. I committed each of their faces to memory. I would get even one day. Maybe that was a petty mindset, but I was a firm believer of an eye for an eye mentality. If making the whole world blind was the way to achieve world peace, I’d be the first to pluck out my neighbors eye.

I’d definitely remember the way they were treating me now. I wouldn’t kill them unless they gave me a good reason too. But I would get even, especially considering I hadn’t ever been here before but they were treating me like I killed someone. I’d make sure this would come back to bite them in the ass.

Afterall I was a vengeful person.