"Yoohoo, Theo! We got the quest done~!" Called Petra in a merry tone as she kicked open the door to a building that had greeted them soon after they entered the city. She lowered herself down, prompting Minoru to do the same, as they placed the corpse of the monster on the wooden floor of the establishment’s front room. The room was quite large, with the building itself looking to be about three stories tall. It had a noticeable rustic feel to it, and felt rather comfortable to be in, like it was trying to feel welcoming to whoever stepped into the lobby.
To the left was a wall decorated with various paintings and ornaments, while to the right was a lowered seating area- a wide, rectangular conversation pit with a couch, and raised table, and a few chairs scattered around the perimeter. Directly ahead was what seemed to be a counter that stretched across much of the back wall, reminding Minoru somewhat of a bank.
"Agh, Petra! How many times do I have to tell you to stop kicking the door!" A frustrated female voice yelled. Looking past the form of the bounty the three were carrying, Minoru could see a young woman with tied back, brown hair approaching them quickly from behind the counter, her brow furrowed as her heeled boots stepped heavily across the wooden floor as she brought a finger close up to Petra's face, making the seraut crane her neck back a bit in response.
Another, quite important detail, was how the woman towered over all of them as well. From what Minoru could see, she was taller than the monster they had just killed. If he had to make a guess, she looked around ten feet in height, if not taller, as getting an accurate gauge while looking up at her was difficult. And, of course, there were also the details of how she possessed huge horns pointing off to either side from her head, long, fluffy ears, and a thin tail with a tuft of fur at the end, features reminiscent of cattle. There was also the fact her arms looked like they could be used to split him in two if she so pleased– hell they looked just as wide as his own waist– and the rest of her body looked similarly built.
"And what do you think you're doing, setting this huge corpse down in the lobby!? It might not be rotting now, but I can still smell it from a mile away!”
“A-Aahh… s-sorry, but it’s not like I could just leave these guys to carry it while I went in here to report. Besides, you all gotta cart it away from here anyways, right?”
The woman gave a sharp gaze at Petra before looking behind her over at Minoru and Milo. “Ah, hello again, Milo! And…” The woman trailed off, looking over at Minoru with curiosity. “Hm? I’ve never seen you before. You another delinquent Milo managed to befriend?” She joked.
“Oh, he’s Minoru, he’s started traveling with us as of today!”
“Minoru? Hm, you from Haucordia or something? I recall them having names like that over there…”
“Uhh… y-yeah! He, uh, got lost, actually.”
Minoru just sheepishly nodded along. The best thing to do might simply be to go along with whatever the people he would meet assumed about his origin. “I was separated from the group I was traveling with. However, Petra and Milo both helped me when I was attacked by this… thing.” He explained.
“Hm! For a Haucordian, your Villesian is really good! Have you lived here before?” The tall woman asked curiously.
“Well, no, not exactly… I just, uh, had a really great teacher!”
“Hah, that’s what Petra said too when I asked her about how she learned to fight so well.” She mused, looking at the seraut with a little smirk before looking back at Minoru. “Ah, where are my manners? The name’s Theophania, I'm the bookkeeper here." She introduced herself cheerily.
"Bookkeeper? What kinda place is this, anyways?" Minoru said, as Petra guided him and Milo along to a large, wheeled cart
"Oh, have you never been to a guildhouse before? Well, allow me to welcome you! Are you perhaps looking to become a voyager yourself? Did Petra manage to convince you to join her party or something?” She inquired.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure about that just yet, but it certainly does seem interesting.”
“I see. Well, if you do decide to become one, I’m sure you and I will become plenty acquainted. You see, as bookkeeper, I’m here to organize, record, and give out all the requests people post up to the guildhouse for voyagers to take.”
“What kinds of requests get posted here?”
“Oh, all kinds! Farmers might ask for voyagers to try and hunt down pests that are harming their crops, restaurants often post up hunting requests when supplies are low, if the army needs help with, say, finding a missing person or some good ol’ monster slaying they’ll post up requests as well. Really you can find a whole host of requests at guildhouses.” She explained happily. “People have all sorts of problems, but not everyone can solve them.”
“I… suppose that does make sense.” He replied. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of dissonance. This was usually how fantasy worlds worked in games. It was a little surprising that a world like this actually had such a familiar system in place.
“Of course, you’ll have to either get a voyager’s permit or license before being able to actually take quests on your own, but if you’re in Petra’s party you should be fine to whet your appetite with a few quests before making a decision.” She finished, then proceeded to crouch down and lift up the monster’s corpse with ease, almost looking like she was simply picking up a particularly full box with how easily she lifted it. “Should I assume Minoru’s staying with you and Milo, Petra?”
“Mhm, at least for now. Just in case, would you mind getting him another key to our room?”
“Sure thing! Papa can get it to you by tomorrow night. Oh, and once we verify this as your bounty you can claim the reward. I’ll try ‘n’ get that done by morning.”
“You’re a gem, Theo! We’ll be seeing you then!” Petra said happily, waving the large woman off before addressing Minoru. “C’mon, we’ll get you settled into the room, yeah?”
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“And here you two told me you were staying at a hostel. Do all hostels in this world have to do with guilds and adventuring and all that?” Minoru joked.
“Well, only to the extent of Villesia. Voyagin’ doesn’t seem to be too popular elsewhere.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, actually, but… what is Villesia? A country? You said we were in Bolian territory, didn’t you?”
Milo interjected, placing and unfurling a map on the table the three were gathered around. The room itself was somewhat small, as you’d expect from a hostel, but more than enough to accommodate three people, at least, with a couch and a bunk bed, so thankfully Minoru had his own place to sleep that wasn’t the floor.
“I had a feeling you’d ask about that.” The halfling stated with a smile. The map showcased two large islands, each with various territories split among them. In-between was what seemed to be an island nation, taking up two smaller islands. “Everything you see here? This is Villesia. A continent on the smaller side, to be sure, but a continent nonetheless. Our ancestors came from the west, you see…”
He gestured with one hand, pointing off of the west side of the map, slowly tracing it until it began hovering over the parchment, in the water. “They originally lived far away from here, but were blown off course by a great storm while trying to return home from a great battle they had won in another land. They sailed onwards for months, the wind and waves never seeming to allow them to turn back, yet the ocean always appeared to bless them with bountiful catches so that they may survive. After sailing like this for so long another generation was born, they eventually saw a great tree upon the horizon, one that stretched high into the clouds.” Pointing towards the west coast of the continent, his fingers traced over the shore of a thin, tall country, marked as ‘Yggdrasin’ on the map.
“Seeing this, they recognized it as the mythical ‘Tree of Hope’ from their folktales. Making landfall, they made contact with the natives that lived there.”
“That’d be my ancestors!” Petra proclaimed, chiming in happily. “We’re actually still around, although the outlanders we made contact with back then have mostly taken over Villesia, we’re still alive and well across the continent. Here, you see these two islands?” She noted, eagerly pointing at the two smaller islands that rested between the two larger ones. “That’s Lemuria, it’s where my people live now. Villesia as a whole actually used to be known as Lemuria, y’know!” She proclaimed, putting her hands on her hips, as if proud of simply sharing her heritage.
Milo simply smirked. “Petra might not have paid much attention in history classes, but you can tell she knows her stuff when it comes to her home.”
“You bet! …H-Hey, wait–!” She protested, not immediately realizing the minor jab Milo took at her, simply prompting a chuckle from the two boys across from her, to which she just crossed her arms and put on an exaggerated pouty face. “Well, I consider not having my face stuffed in books all the time to be a good thing, so that’s fine by me!”
“Right, right…” Milo muttered out with a bemused smile before sighing. “Well, that aside, I should explain a little something about Gaia itself.” Milo mentioned, pointing at the country of Yggdrasin. “Remember the ‘Tree of Hope’ I mentioned that our ancestors saw on the coasts here? Well… in the intervening years, there’s been some research done on it. Beforehand, we always believed Gaia to be alive, that there was something moving underneath the ground, watching over us and helping foster life… the goddess who shares the name Gaia with our world.”
“So… the planet itself is alive?” Minoru asked to which Milo nodded.
“Looking more into the Tree, we found something out about it: it’s connected to Gaia’s body. We’re not entirely sure how, but we’ve been able to find out that Gaia certainly is alive, and that she manifests in some way… as far as we can tell, Gaia’s never shown herself, so our guesses for what exactly she looks like are uncertain.”
“So this world’s gods truly do exist… are there any others I should know about?” Minoru asked, to which Milo reached into his own robes, pulling out a necklace, the design was such that it looked like a four-pointed star with the shape of a cross overlaid onto it.
“The Fourfold Church. That’s Villesia’s main religion. Although comparatively recent, it’s what much of the continent has chosen to worship. It was formed in an attempt to unify all of the disparate beliefs in the region beforehand. You can thank the Senecian church for that.” He explained, before pointing at the top notch on the cross. “At the top we have Solaris, the empress of the sun. On the sides we have Gaia, the earthen mother and Lunaris, the father of night.”
“And the one at the bottom?”
“Astraeus, the fallen star.” He replied in a pointed tone before continuing. “These are the four gods many of us believe in and worship. The Senecian church sought to consolidate all of these gods into one religion. In the past, these gods were all worshiped individually by their own communities. However, with the Fourfold Church in place, there’s been a lot of… clashing between these preexisting beliefs over the past few thousand years since it was established.”
Minoru mused on this. “Religious wars, I’m assuming.”
“Exactly right. It took a very long time for the Fourfold Church to become the generally accepted religion here. It’s a very, very long history to look into, though.” He clarified. “Anyways, that’s the gist of Villesia’s history. Now, as for where we are…” He trails off, bringing his finger from the west coast of the continent all the way to the east, pointing at a country on the very southeastern tip of the island to the east, entitled ‘Bolia,’ a somewhat small territory with only two neighbors, and sea everywhere else. “Here, the Bolian Theocracy. Directly neighboring us are the Republic of Yeoels to the west, and the Draetan Kingdom to the north. We came from Yeoels, and currently we’re headed north for here, Camelot.” Milo explained, tracing his finger upwards across the map, moving past various smaller territories.
Swatesia, Gautia, Faegarde– until, finally, he pointed at one territory, one of the largest contiguous countries on the whole map, from what Minoru could see– the Kingdom of Camelot.
The shared name with the court of Camelot intrigued and yet confused Minoru in equal measure. He briefly wondered if there was any connection to be made between this Camelot and the one he heard about in legend, but the thought was quickly dashed as he remembered this world’s status as, seemingly, completely separate from Earth. “What’s so special about Camelot?”
“Ah, right, you wouldn’t know. Mind doing the honors, Petra?”
“Mhm! You see, Camelot is actually one of the older countries on Villesia. Before it was known as Camelot, it was known by my ancestors as ‘Albion,’ even to them it was quite a holy land, inhabited almost entirely by the fae.”
“However, almost overnight, all of the fae seemed to disappear from Albion, just like that. When the ancestors of the Villesians came here, once they got to the east island, Camelot became one of the first territories to be settled. It has quite a long and storied history.”
“So is this some kind of archaeological expedition you two are on?” Minoru posited.
“Oh, no, not at all! You see, such an old country with a long history of knights and magic? Why, it’s practically the perfect place for a voyager to make a name for herself!” Petra proclaimed. “And as a result, it has one of the largest knight academies in the whole of Villesia. Milo and I were accepted just this summer, so we’re on our way there to enroll!” Pointing to herself with her thumb, Petra continued. “Yours truly is going there so she can become a proper knight. And then, once I’m all ready and knighted out, I’ll be returning home and serving the royal family in Lemuria!” Her tail wagged excitedly and her ears flicked eagerly, recounting her goal.
“It’s a dream she’s had ever since she was a kid. She’s been dead set on it all these years. Hell, she even made me want to become a knight for a while.” Milo recalled fondly.
“Pah, Milo says he lost the drive to become a knight, but I keep telling him that it’s not all about swords and shields–” She rattled off, turning to Minoru with almost a shining spark in her eyes and a wide, v-shaped smile. “Did you know there’s mage knights who get access to the biggest libraries in the whole of Villesia, and who get to ride these majestic steeds onto the battlefield? Some of those horsies are even able to use magic themselves!”
“And I keep telling you those kinds of mounts are only for the highest ranking mages. The ones who are naturally gifted, you know? I’d probably end up being a foot soldier more than anything.”
“Whaaat? Come on, you know you’re way too smart to just be a simple soldier, think of the kind of general you could end up being! Commanding armies with a wave of your hand, casting magic across the fields to make everyone stronger, shooting huge fireballs at the enemy commander, I’m talking magic duels on horseback, Milo! Think about how cool it’d be!!” Petra narrated, waving her hands around in exaggerated gestures as she moved like how she believed a mage general would.
“Come on, Petra, you know I’m not fit for the battlefield. Besides, I already told you that if I’d become anything from the academy, it’d be a librarian. I’d much rather be toiling away and creating spells to help people than using them for senseless slaughter.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get you, a bookworm like you’d never cut it as a general.” She said with a snide smirk.
“Hmph, if you’re trying to get me worked up so I’ll try and prove you wrong, it won’t work.”
“Dammit…!” Petra cursed in a hushed tone.
Interjecting in their banter, Minoru spoke up. “Hey, just out of curiosity… this Camelot… it wouldn’t happen to be ruled by a ‘King Arthur,’ would it?”
“Oh, wow, how’d you know about him?” Petra asked, surprised, with Milo giving much the same reaction. “Well, actually, it did have a King Arthur, but he ruled a long, long time ago. His family is still ruling, though… who’s their current ruler again?”
“Queen Artorius the ninth, or Queen Astrid, if you’re going by her birth name.”
“The ninth? How long does this family tree go back for?” "Minoru asked incredulously.
“That’s exactly the question historians much smarter than I am have been asking. King Arthur’s family seemingly appeared out of nowhere in Camelot and took the reins a few centuries ago. We’re still trying to figure out exactly where his lineage goes back to. As a matter of fact…” Milo mused, continuing on his train of thought.
“Oh boy, now you’ve got Milo going on about history. We’ll never be free now.” Petra joked under her breath to Minoru. Still, perhaps this would serve as a good history lesson to gleam more about the world from. And so, Minoru put aside many of the questions in his head aside for now, sitting back and listening as Milo began sharing his suppositions and positing his own theories as the hours passed by.
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“W-Wait wait wait, how many vills!?”
“Well, the guys who put in the request were Senecian missionaries, you know they don’t pay lightly for their requests. When they want something done, they make sure voyagers can’t pass it up!”
Petra whistled, impressed as Theo stacked the paper notes, each deemed by the values written upon them as being worth five hundred vills each, handing the stack of ten of them to Petra. “I guess those guys really do have lotsa dough to be throwing around. Always thought folks were just exaggerating!” Petra mused as she picked it up, waving it a bit in her hand, almost astonished to be carrying so much money.
“I was pretty surprised too, I guess that theriwolf-thing spooked them hard enough that they wanted it gone as soon as possible. Guess you don’t see things like that very much in the ‘Holy Land,’ huh?” Theo joked.
“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe! Milo and I went through it on our way here and they don’t even need guildhouses there! They hit monsters with such prejudice it’s a little scary.”
“Yeesh, you think it’s scary? Remind me to watch my back if I ever end up there.” She said, prompting a chuckle from Petra, before she waved goodbye to her friend, exiting the guildhouse to greet Minoru and Milo once again.
“So? How much did we get?” Milo asked.
“Hehe~” Petra said, before whipping out the ten bills she had been handed. “Only about five gold! Or, you know, five thousand vills! ” She joked.
“No way, five thousand? What in the world, it was just a simple extermination!” Milo exclaimed.
“Those Senecian missionaries have real deep pockets for these kinds of things. We should keep an eye out for any more requests from them while we’re here!”
“So…” Minoru interjected. “How much is that?”
His question gave pause to Petra and Milo. “Ahh… uhm… Milo! …How would you explain to Minoru how much it is? ‘Cuz… I’m at a loss…” She asked sheepishly.
“Hmmm… well… five thousand vills is five gold, one gold is one hundred silver, and one silver is a hundred copper…” Milo rattled off, his eyes scanning the street they were on, before locking onto a produce stand across the way. “Oh! Here, look over there, Minoru.” He pointed at the stand, a mother with her child looking at the various fruits. Some of them were familiar to Minoru, while others were completely alien. “You see those red fruits?”
“The apples?”
“Oh, do they have those in your world too?” Milo asked, getting a nod from Minoru. “Well, those apples are worth about ten copper each, or one vill. That means with just one gold, you could buy around a thousand of them.” Milo explained, gesturing as he made his points.
“Really? Geez… it seemed like a pretty simple mission for you guys.” Minoru commented as the three began to walk through the town, Petra putting the reward money into a small bag into a satchel that hung on her hip.
“You see, the request was posted by guys from Senecia. You remember seeing it on the map last night, right?” Milo asked, prompting a nod from Minoru. “It’s called the ‘Holy Land’ for a reason, Senecia’s capital is considered one of the most sacred locations in all of Villesia. For one week in the summer, it’s one of the only places where you can see the sun, the moon, and all of the constellations in this hemisphere of Gaia at once. People often travel there to offer their prayers where all gods may hear them. It’s a very important area, so Senecia takes great care in keeping it clean of monsters. I suspect many of its missionaries have hardly ever seen one in their lives, let alone one like what we took down.” Milo mused.
“Hehe, just makes them a veritable cash cow for us voyagers!” Petra said with a happy grin, moving her hands to rest behind her head as she walked ahead of the other two, guiding them along the paths of the town.
Looking around, Minoru’s eyes caught the sight of many different kinds of folks, all with their own quirks in their appearance. Some looked perfectly human, others were tall and lithe with pointed ears– lunans, a race remarkably similar to elves that Minoru had seen in some books and games– others looking completely human, save for various animal features– different breeds of seraut. Some strange groups of individuals stood out to him. Peppered around the city was a kind of crow person, short and stocky, with large heads almost identical to that of a corvid, while their bodies were built in a more humanoid manner, with large wings in place of arms, their bodies covered in what looked to be a coat of shimmering feathers, with comparatively thin legs reminiscent to that of most avians supporting them. These were kränix, a special race in the world of Gaia, often only found in Villesia, as Milo explained.
The other races he could see slotted pretty well into what he could expect from a world so similar to those of fantasy he had seen before, albeit many a lot more civilized than they were usually portrayed. Dwarves, faeries, goblins, orcs, other halflings. And even slimes, curiously enough, hopping and sliding around the roads and intermingling as though they were a completely natural part of the community.
All in all, Minoru noted the extreme lack of hostility between any of the numerous races he could see, not to mention how peaceful and happy people looked to be intermingling without any regard to their differences, almost like the question of race didn’t matter at all, and everyone was already used to be living in such a melting pot of sorts.
It was… certainly a bit of culture shock, to be sure, very different from much of Japan in the relative homogeneity of its residents, save for the rare presence of some foreigners he’d pass by on occasion. In a sea of many people of one identity, Minoru and his father– their dark complexions and long hair sticking out like sore thumbs– often felt ‘seen’ to an uncomfortable degree, even as Minoru made his efforts back home to not stand out or attract attention, standing out at all was scorned enough to make him noticeable, just for that. Even if it wasn’t all negative or positive, it was a feeling that crawled under Minoru’s skin.
Here, though? Sure, his clothes– still held over from being transported to this new world so suddenly– stuck out, with their modern designs, crafted through technology that simply didn’t exist in this world, but other than that? His appearance seemed to fit right in. Among a town full of humanoids with such radically different heights and builds, animal features like ears, tails or horns, ones that towed the line between humanoid and animalistic like the kränix, or those without a human form at all like the slimes. A young man of his stature was hardly noteworthy. It felt… refreshing, in some ways.
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Being led into a shop by Petra, adorned with a sign with the design of a shield and what appeared to be the city’s crest plastered onto it, the seraut opened up the door, letting Minoru and Milo to enter first before hopping in after them with an enthusiastic greeting. “Yoohoo, boss! Petra’s back again!”
Inside, Minoru was immediately greeted with enough weapons to kit out a small army, lining the walls, collected together in barrels, and displayed on numerous racks were weapons of all kinds. Swords, lances, axes, daggers, bows, flails… There were so many that Minoru could hardly make any estimate on how packed the establishment was with them.
From the back of the building– which was so far back and hidden behind the various shelves that it, with its lack of windows, was hidden in shadow– came a voice, rough yet hearty. “Oi, welcome back, Petra! Thinking of buying that armor after all?”
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Minoru and Milo followed Petra into the darker area of the store, until coming upon the store’s counter, an oil lamp on one end that illuminated this area, as Petra walked up and leaned onto the counter, conversing with the stocky man– who looked to be human– as they trailed behind her.
“Sorry boss, nothing new for me today. My new friend, however? I’m looking to get him kitted out!” She explained, gesturing to Minoru as he came up and stood beside her, to which he raised his hand in a gesture of greeting.
“Ohhh, well hello there, lad! Looking to get into voyaging, are we?” The man asked with a hearty smile as he addressed Minoru.
“You could say that, yeah.” Minoru responded, crossing his arms casually. “Petra here recommended we stop by, saying you’re our best bet for the best equipment for cheap.”
“Well lemme tell ya, this little lady here has a good eye for fine craftwork, you best heed her word when she says something is good!” He commented, making Petra puff out her chest a bit in pride.
“Hehe, that’s just what happens when your parents are smiths~!” She declared proudly.
Smiling fondly at the girl’s pride, the man behind the counter turned his attention back to Minoru. “Well, getting down to business, what’re ya looking for, son?”
Being put on the spot like that was a little surprising. Minoru didn’t really think much about that before coming here, and so he turned his gaze around the store, trying to make it look like he was lost in thought as he tried making a decision.
“Ah… well, Petra’s pretty strong, right? I was thinking it might be good for me to be able to support her in some way. I wasn’t thinking anything too fancy, so… maybe just a sword and shield for now? O-Or a lance, I could see the range being beneficial…” He rattled off, trying to appear as though he had a bit more sense of these things than he really did.
“Already thinkin’ about how to help your friends out in a fight, eh?”
“Is… is that bad?”
“Of course not! Although I will say, when you’re on the frontlines, you gotta have a good head on your shoulders. You got the shield, but you’re not gonna be the only one relying on its protection. Lotsa power in a sword, far more responsibility in a shield.”
Minoru suddenly felt a weight cause his shoulders to droop as he took his words into consideration. Petra didn’t really have any form of protection aside from her armor, and Milo lacked any armor at all, albeit in possession of a few tricks with his magic.
“I… see.” Minoru said solemnly. He wasn’t sure if he could handle that responsibility.
“Oh, c’mon kid, don’t get all down cuz of what an old fart like me has to say. You’re just startin’ out, if protectin’ your friends is what you wanna do then I’ll get you kitted out for just that. Besides, you kids are just going out huntin’, yeah? You can learn the ropes as you go, and then if something really dangerous shows up you’ll have some experience under your belt.” The man said as he stood up out of his chair, walking over to one corner of the counter and exiting through a small swinging door. “You only learn voyagin’ by doin’, no two ways about it.” He stated as he walked towards the shelves behind the group. “C’mon, I’ll show you the goods.”
As he walked ahead of them, Minoru glanced down, seeing that one of the man’s legs looked to stop at around the knee, abruptly transitioning into a thin, uncovered wooden leg.
Minoru had his reservations about becoming a voyager, for sure, but he swallowed them as he followed the man.
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The flowing green fields outside of the city rustled audibly as the wind whipped through them. Walking heavily through the grass, Minoru looked down at his own figure, his arms outstretched to either side, observing himself and how his new outfit fit on him.
At the shopkeeper's recommendation, Petra had spent a good twenty five silver to buy Minoru a solid set of armor for a starting voyager. Over much of his body was a gambeson with a coatlike design, with the padded armor reaching down to his knees. Over his chest and shoulders were extra pads of leather armor. Noticeably more protected than Petra was, Minoru figured this would be a good approach to go for when he wanted to be the one guarding the other two. As for weaponry, Petra shelled out an extra fifty five silver to outfit Minoru with a simple iron broadsword and a heater shield of similar make. It was all quite a bit of weight to put on the teen’s back, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
“Alright, lessee here…” Petra said contemplatively as she pulled out a small piece of paper, looking it over a few times. “The request I picked out for us today says there’s been two packs of small fry mammal-type monsters out in these woods, wolflike, based on their description… Apparently they’ve been stalking some farmer’s livestock and trying to break in.” She read off. Nearby was a tense packing of trees, leading off into a wider expanse of woods, where said monsters apparently made their home.
“It also said they haven’t been successful yet, so we might be dealing with some hungry monsters today.” Milo chimed in.
“Ahh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The request only said there were about five of 'em in either pack. If they're that hungry they might be tearing each other apart already." Petra mused lightly. “Although we should still be alert, fighting wolves in the woods can be a dangerous game, even if they’re starving. Wolf Like monsters even moreso.” She stressed.
“Oh, right, that reminds me.” Milo muttered, reaching into his bag. “Here, I prepared these beforehand.” He stated plainly, looking up at Minoru as he stretched out his hand, four small containers with a faint, ethereal glow about them were resting in his palm. Taking them into his hand, they were only an inch or so across, small enough that Minoru could hold them between his fingers.
“What are these?”
“Catalyzers. They’re a kind of cartridge that, when activated, casts a stored spell. Think of them like single use magic bombs. Since you haven’t learnt anything about how to wield magic just yet, it’ll be worth your while to use these should the need arise. I loaded two of them with a barrier spell, one with a healing incantation, and another with concussive blast. Use these as you see fit, but try and be sparing, you can only use them once. If that time ever comes, simply press the button on the back and throw them wherever you wish the spell to take effect.” He explained, before dropping them into Minoru’s hand. He looked them over. Two glowed a bright blue, one a deep green, and the fourth a pure white. By the colors alone, he could guess which was which. “Oh, and for the concussive one, be sure to cover your eyes and ears as best you can when you use it.”
“Alright, if we’re all ready then we’re heading on in. Stay alert, guys.” Petra instructed, with the three moving through the underbrush.
The trees were quite dense. Only thin beams of light managed to filter through the canopy, to the point that some areas were plunged completely in darkness so thick it couldn’t be seen through. The fact it was only a little past midday made trekking between these trees all the more tense. It was quite a surreal feeling, if Minoru was being honest, he never went through any kind of area this dense with trees before.
“Mmh… Minoru, you can’t see very well like this, can you? Since you’re a human and all.”
“Do you have some kind of light or something?” Minoru asked curiously, prompting a little chuckle from her.
“No no, Milo won’t trust me with something like a light, and a torch is a bit too dangerous in a place like this. Serauts and halflings like me and Milo can see pretty well in the dark, but here, lemme just…” She trailed off. Cupping her left hand over the other, she snapped her finger repeatedly before suddenly, seemingly from nothing, a tiny flame bloomed to life atop the tip of her finger, suddenly lighting up the area, making vision much easier for Minoru in an instant. Despite the tiny size of the flame, the light was much brighter than would be expected otherwise.
It was surprising enough that Minoru was caught a little off guard. “I didn’t know you could use magic too, Petra.”
“Mmh? Oh, eheh… I can only really use fire magic, although I’m not very good at it. It always gets out of hand, but something like this is easy! I can maintain a flame like this for days if need be!”
“Serauts are very… economical about their mana reserves. Something about their mana streams makes them far more efficient than other races.” Milo explained. “We haven’t quite figured it out yet, but it’s just the way things work for them.” He shrugged. “Everyone else has to use staves like mine in order to be able to match their natural efficiency.”
“Does that mean a seraut with a staff uses up mana at an even slower pace than that?” Minoru inquired.
“Exactly right.” Milo confirmed, before putting a hand to his chin in thought. “Hm, thinking about it, I never quite got down to explaining how magic works to you, did I?” To which Minoru shook his head. “Well, firstly is an important thing to clarify, but mana does not generate naturally within the human body. As far as we know, it’s impossible for us to do so. Secondly, while we do treat mana streams as if they were an organ within the body, they aren’t exactly the same. While very similar to blood vessels, mana streams are an inherently incorporeal part of our body. The way I like to think of them is akin to a network of rivers that flow through the body.” He explained.
“However, just because they are incorporeal does not mean we can’t see them, or that we can’t feel their effects. They are still essentially an organ in our bodies, after all. Once we’re in better light after this mission I can show you, but you can actually make out thin green lines that look like veins if you look close enough at certain parts of your body, like your wrist. They will glow faintly when using magic, and will continue to glow brighter the more mana is being channeled, particularly for strong spells.”
Minoru nodded along. Really, he was quite enraptured by this explanation, and it helped keep his attention from the tense situation of looking for monsters in these woods. “How do you all use mana if you don’t generate it yourselves? Do you pull it from the air?” He asked curiously.
“That’s a good question. Although mana does flow through the atmosphere, we can’t exactly pull it all from our surroundings. Our mana streams are, naturally, blocked off inside our bodies, and while mana streams are incorporeal, mana itself is not. Breathing helps this, somewhat, as our lungs naturally extract mana from the air we breathe, but unless you’re being bathed in unreasonably dense amounts of mana, or are in the vicinity of a ley line, it’s a fairly pitiful amount.” Milo rattled off.
“You see, the best source of mana for us is in the food we eat. Mana disperses naturally throughout the atmosphere, so inevitably, plants themselves are quite good stores of mana, the animals that eat them even moreso, and the animals that eat those animals, well, you see where I’m going with this. Many animals are particularly dense with mana just due to their diet, carnivores especially so.”
“Wait… do you guys hunt and eat carnivores? Like… wolves or bears?”
“Oh no, not on the regular, at least. That sort of diet is unfeasible. I don’t assume the people where you’re from eat those animals either?”
“No, they’re too dangerous.”
“Now how dangerous do you think it’d be to try and regularly hunt, trap, and raise an animal like those if they could also spontaneously shoot fire from their mouths or call down mini lightning storms with a howl?”
“Wait… they can use magic as well?”
“Well, it’s not so much using structured, sophisticated magic like we can, it’s more akin to… how to explain it… spontaneously bending the elements with their incredibly dense reserves of mana. Of course, this is only possible for a select few predators who eat extremely well.”
“But how does simply having a lot of mana cause that?”
“Mana is interwoven into our whole world, Minoru. Think of it like threads stitching together the world. That's what the leylines are, after all. Dense stores of mana will pull on these threads, and when the threads are pulled, the whole world is pulled with them. When left unchecked, like in the body of a wild animal, mana can be quite dangerous as it warps the world around it.”
Minoru thought about this in deep contemplation. The power presented by mana seemed… otherworldly, really. In this instance, it seemed almost like the animals were being jerked around by mana itself, rather than them bending it to their whim, if the simple presence of a dense reserve of mana was enough to distort the world around it, what exactly could be done with that dense of a reserve in a skilled hand…? The question was a bit… uncomfortable, and so he put it out of his mind for now.
“Going back to the earlier topic… on Gaia, you all prioritize herbivores for food, yeah?”
“Mostly. Herbivores aren’t quite as dense with mana as carnivores are, just because they aren’t as good doesn’t mean they’re bad. They’re still quite plentiful. However… Even with a diet of meat from these animals, it still isn’t enough to fuel magic on the level we voyagers use it. So how, you may ask, do we fuel ourselves? The answer is actually quite simple…” Milo continued, with a smile as if he was enjoying explaining these concepts quite a bit.
With a flourish of his hand, he seemed to pull two peculiar flowers from his sleeve. One bright, colored like flames with bright yellow petals tipped with deep orange, while the other was a deep, moody blue, tipped with a snowy white on each petal. In the darkness of the trees, they glowed faintly.
“These, Minoru, are what we use. Sol blossoms and lunar blooms. Or simply sol and luna flowers, for short.” Milo gestured for Minoru to take them into his hands. Grasping them gently like precious jewels, Minoru held them in his hands. The sol flower’s petals gave off a radiating warmth, while the luna flower’s form chilled his hand slightly. It was as though he could feel the power emanating off of them.
“What exactly… are these?”
“These are the greatest natural stores of mana we’ve found, second only to ley lines. You see, these flowers absorb the light of the sun and moon, Solaris and Lunaris. These flowers are their gift to us… or so the story goes, at least.” He explained. “The light they absorb stores mana into them in truly awesome amounts. Eating the petals from these regularly will give you more than enough mana to make it almost a non issue.”
“So you can cast spells as much as you want, then?”
Milo made a sound as he gestured, making a wobbling motion with his hand. “Mmh, yes and no. Mana isn’t that much of a concern, but the strain on your mana streams certainly is. Even if they’re ethereal, mana streams are a very peculiar thing in that they can still place strain on your body from overuse. Think of them like a muscle in your arm or your leg. They get stronger with use, sure, but overuse can lead to pain, and going any further than that could cause them to give out or sustain serious damage. It’s even possible for your mana streams to snap.” Milo explained, gesturing as if he was breaking a twig in two.
Just the thought made Minoru cringe. If they were similar to muscles in that sense, he could only imagine the agony that’d come from snapping them. The thought brought him back to a time in grade school where he sprained his ankle while out playing during school hours, which prompted him to quickly try and shake the memory out of his head.
His reaction, however, prompted a small chuckle from Milo. “Don’t worry too much. Just like anything else in your body, your mana streams are fully capable of healing themselves. Really, they heal very fast.” He reassured Minoru, although it was a sort of cold comfort.
Petra’s ears stood to attention as she pointed them ahead of her, keeping her senses sharp for anything that could be hiding in the darkness ahead of them. Suddenly she stopped, stretching her arm out to the side to stop Minoru and Milo.
“I hear something…” She whispered out. Suddenly falling dead quiet, the woods around them took on a much more tense air. Milo readied his staff and spellbook, while Minoru and Petra quickly readied their own blades, Minoru moving his shield so it could cover Milo. “Milo, give me some stabilization here.” She said, moving the hand holding the small flame aloft near him, to which he reached out a hand and seemed to imbue her own with his ethereal wind. In a quick movement, she whipped her hand around in a circular motion before raising it up, sending a larger ball of fire, contained within a pocket of wind. It floated above, hovering in place, illuminating an even greater portion of the woods as Petra held her blade ahead of her.
Closing her eyes she focused her senses, trying to make out anything unusual amongst the quiet of the forest… her ears turned from side to side, listening intently for any possible noise they could pick up. From the front there was a small rustling and the crinkling of some leaves and twigs, prompting Petra to open her eyes wide and assume a widened stance, readying her blade as Minoru and Milo did the same, watching in the direction she was facing.
The sound ceased almost immediately, plunging them into silence yet again. Petra’s eyes stayed focused completely on the spot where she could’ve sworn she made out some slight movements.
Suddenly, her tail bristled and her ears turned back, flat on her head. “Behind you!!” She yelled, suddenly whipping around and looking up into the trees. Minoru just barely had time to react as he turned and looked up, seeing a thin, beastly figure emerge from the canopy, flying through the air towards him.
He had no time to ready his shield, as the monster’s jaws clamped tightly around Minoru’s left wrist. Protected by the gambeson, its teeth didn’t pierce through, but the sheer strength of its jaws made Minoru yell in pain, his hand seizing up and dropping his shield. Wincing, he raised up his sword, driving its pommel forwards and striking the monster right in its snout, causing it to release his arm and fall to the ground. In retaliation, Minoru attempted a downward swing onto its head.
Kicking off the ground, it dashed out of his striking range and clambered into the underbrush, running off into the darkness, leaving Minoru to lift his sword from the earth in front of him and ready his shield once more, eyes darting from side to side as his head moved on a swivel, scanning their surroundings for any movements among the brush.
“Stay alert! Wait for them to come to us, and then strike!” Petra commanded, her tone serious and full of tension. As Minoru picked up his shield, Milo readied a spell, the pages of his book fluttering as he did so. The small mage stood between Petra and Minoru, who’s backs faced one another.
Minoru heard some faint rustling from his left, and quickly darted to cover Milo from that side, crouching down and holding his shield up to cover the both of them. In a flash, two more monsters leapt from the brush, banging against the iron of Minoru’s shield. Just as quickly, Milo called out “Magic missile!”– two bursts of energy escaping his hand, sending six darts of blue magic upwards. They curved through the air and arched over Minoru’s head, flying downwards and striking, embedding themselves inside the two creatures, three darts each running along their backs like spines, making them recoil and stop in their tracks.
Taking this opportunity, Minoru thrust his blade out towards one of them, hitting it squarely in the chest, the sword embedding itself into the creature and puncturing its lung before he yanked it out, causing it to fall forwards as it struggled to breathe, convulsing on the ground before Minoru.
The second attempted an escape, but Milo jumped out from behind Minoru’s shield, pointing a finger towards it, another burst of three magic darts shot out, curving through the air and piercing into the creature’s head, causing it to be thrown back by the force and fall to the ground.
In the moment he attacked, however, he couldn’t notice the approach of another monster from behind him. In a flash he was dragged to the ground as its jaws grabbed onto his robes and another monster approached, biting down onto the halfling’s leg. Its fangs dug like knives into his shin, blood pouring from the multiple puncture spots and filling the creature’s mouth, making its pupils dilate as it snarled even more ravenously, beginning to forcefully try and drag Milo off.
Screaming in pain, Milo attempted to fight his attackers off, bashing their heads with his staff. In his position, however, he couldn’t muster up enough strength to get them to back off as they continued to drag him away. “Milo!!” Minoru called in distress, putting his shield on his back, he reached into his pocket as he chased after them.
Meanwhile, Petra had already been attacked by two more creatures. She was swinging in front of her, one beast continually backing off, just out of range of her blade. Suddenly, it jumped to the side before rushing towards her. Swinging her upper body around, her sword’s huge blade sliced through the air. Ducking as it ran, the creature dodged her attack. She attempted another swing only to find that her hands refused to move. Swinging her head to the side, she could see that her previous attack had left her sword embedded firmly into the trunk of a tree that was just a foot too close.
“Shit…!!” Petra cursed, as she let go of her sword and swung her leg upwards just as the monster pounced at her, bringing her boot directly into the underside of its skull, causing it to stumble and flip through the air in response to the kick. It scrambled as it hit the ground, clambering to its feet as Petra rushed over to it. Kicking off the ground, she landed against its neck with her knee, crushing its throat with her weight as she stumbled and skidded across the ground from her landing. “F-Fuck, my knee…! Goddammit, Petra!” She winced, cursing at herself for pushing all of the force of her landing directly through her knee, as sharp pain shot through it.
Almost as soon as she felt it, however, her ears turned to the side, and she whipped to see another monster diving after her. Throwing a punch, she hit it square in its jaw, but the pain in her knee made her leg buckle underneath her, and she fell to the ground as a result. Almost immediately, she felt sharp fangs dig into her wrist and ankle, two more monsters attacking her and beginning to pull, attempting to tear at her flesh.
As she tried to pull herself free, a huge weight slammed into her back, knocking the wind out of her and sending her face first into the ground once more as the beast she had just struck in the jaw pounced onto her back. In an instant, she felt huge jaws biting down onto her skull, making her scream in agony. Still struggling, she couldn’t seem to break free from their grasps. Gritting her teeth, she looked up at one of her assailant’s monstrous, hungry eyes with flaring anger.
“Big mistake…!” She growled out through her teeth, as bright, glowing green lines appeared all over her body, her tail bristling like mad.
“Cover your eyes, Milo!” Minoru called as he pulled one of the catalyzers from his pocket, glowing a bright white, Milo instantly recognized it, squeezing his eyes shut as he used his hands to shield his ears, Minoru clicked the button on the device in before throwing it as hard as he could towards the two creatures attacking the halfling.
Pelting one on the face, it flinched, its eyes locking onto the small, glowing device as it shone brighter and brighter before a loud, sharp BANG resounded through the woods. The two beasts seemed to be disoriented, as they let go of Milo and stumbled about.
Rolling over onto his back, Milo aimed the end of his staff towards one of the monsters, a deep booming sound cracking through the air as magic erupted from it.
“Swift Arrow!” He cried, a projectile firing from his staff, forming into the shape of a spear as it rocketed into his target’s head, ripping through its mouth and almost completely severing the top half of its head from the rest of it, its body going flying back from the force that instantly killed it, the projectile embedding itself into a tree, causing the corpse to hang there lifelessly for a moment before falling as the mana dissipated the arrow’s form. Minoru was quick to follow up onto the other creature, bashing his shield against its face, blood spurting from it as it was knocked to the ground, allowing him to pierce its chest with his blade easily.
With both of their attackers dead, Minoru crouched down and helped Milo up. As the halfling stood, driving his staff into the ground to use it as a cane and keep weight off his injured leg, he reassured Minoru that he was okay.
The two jumped, however, as they heard a yell from Petra’s direction. However, less than a cry of pain, it was more akin to an angered roar. Suddenly, heat blasted about both of them, the wind and foliage whipping from a forceful blast.
Milo let out a frustrated sigh. “And Petra was the one who wanted to keep her magic under control.” He commented, beginning to channel deep blue mana into his staff.
Minoru could only watch in awe as a silhouette of Petra rose up, engulfed in roaring, crackling flames. From her hung the burning and charring bodies of three monsters who had attacked her, all of them struggling amidst the fire. In a few rough motions, Petra threw them off of her onto the ground. Rushing over, she grabbed onto her sword, yanking it out of the tree it had been embedded in. Smoothly running her hand across the blade, the flames surrounding her seemed to engulf her weapon, rushing from her body onto the weapon’s long blade. Coalescing, the blade soon glowed white hot, Petra seeming unbothered by the extreme heat.
As the three beasts struggled to rise to their feet, Petra approached them casually. With a swift upwards swing, her blade seemed to slice right through one monster’s head. In an elegant series of motions, she then swung her weapon through the other two beasts. They all stopped dead in their tracks, marks of her fiery slashes glowing across their visages, before suddenly all collapsing at once. Only Petra could see, but their bodies began melting, their viscera turning into a burning, bubbling goop.
Dispelling her magic, her blade’s glow dissipating almost as quickly as it appeared, Petra seemed to finally notice the carnage left of the monsters’ bodies. “Y-Yikes! E-Ew…” She stammered out, backing away from the corpses before glancing over, noticing a streak of flames still burning among the foliage. “O-Oh shit, Milo, I–” She called out, before a big splash of water washed over her, also splashing among the fires and the corpses of her enemies.
“Don’t worry, I got that. I learned this spell specifically to clean up after your messes when you get like that.” Milo declares.
“O-Oh, did I do that again…?” Petra asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Yes, yes you did. Thankfully it was surprisingly contained compared to every other time it’s happened, you’re making good progress on that, at least.” He commented as he limped over to her, using his staff as support.
“Oh geez, you’re hurt, Milo! Here, let’s get outta here and heal you up!” She said hastily, reaching down and trying to pick him up as she sheathed her sword.
“H-Hey, you’re even more hurt than I am!” Milo protested, yet Petra took her first step regardless of his warning. Stumbling from the pain in her leg, she almost fell, but was caught as Minoru grabbed hold of her.
“Whoa, slow down, okay?” He reassured her, pulling one of the green catalyzers from his pocket, before Milo stopped him.
“Hold on. Let’s just focus on getting out of these woods for now. I can heal myself and Petra once we’re out there, save the catalyzers.” He declared, causing Minoru to simply pocket the small device once again.
“Here, lean on me.” Minoru said, wrapping one of Petra’s arms around him and holding onto her to support her as they walked out of the woods, with Milo leading the way back out.
----------------------------------------
“O-Ow!” Petra whined as a deep green magic washed over her leg.
“Stop moving, you should know by now to stay still while you’re being healed.” Milo reprimanded.
“C-C’mon, it hurts!” She protested before gritting her teeth, keeping her eyes closed as the sharp pain from the magic entering her body eventually gave way to a warm feeling. Minoru watched as the wounds on her seemed to heal almost instantly, the wounds closing up and the blood flow immediately stopping. Small bits of dirt and gravel also seemed to be forcibly ejected out of her as the spell cleaned up her wound. After about a minute, the teeth marks went away almost entirely, only a line of red circular marks being left along the length of her leg.
“The hell…? This healing magic you guys have is unreal.” Minoru commented. To which Milo simply smiled.
“Healing magic isn’t the easiest thing to get a grasp on, but it’s immensely useful. However…” He trailed off, giving a winded sigh once his healing was done. “It really takes a lot out of you. I’m not quite so experienced with it, so I can only manage this much healing every few hours… more experienced doctors can keep their work going for way longer.”
“Still, this is extraordinary… if we had this kind of power back home, I couldn’t imagine how many things it’d revolutionize.”
“Hmm… Well, this kind of healing is only good for smaller wounds like what Petra and I had. More severe injuries or diseases aren’t quite so simple to fix.” He rattled off.
“Still, this is amazing…”
Petra stood up, wincing a bit from the soreness in her leg and arm, her head throbbed lightly as well. Taking in a deep breath, she sighed, just thankful to have gotten out of that scrap relatively unscathed. Stretching, she suddenly stopped when her stomach growled loudly, pulling Minoru and Milo’s attention towards her, making her blush sheepishly.
“Eheh… I-I think it’d be good to take a lunch break after that, yeah?” She suggested. “I know we just got out of a fight, but c’mon, we were gonna have a picnic too, right? Let’s eat, let’s eat!” She urged, reaching into one of the pouches on her belt, pulling out something held in a thin wrapping. Earlier, the group had stopped by a food stand, grabbing a few snacks for after. Eyes almost sparkling, Petra quickly unwrapped her food of choice and sank her teeth into it, a baked potato cut lengthwise at the top, stuffed with bits of rabbit meat and topped with melted cheese, garnished with bits and pieces of petals from a sol flower.
“I’m surprised the food’s still intact.” Minoru commented, pulling out his own food, the same item that Petra had purchased from her recommendation, albeit with cattle meat, at his own discretion.
“Ahh… I wish I could’ve eaten this while it was still hot… but it’s still so good~!” She exclaimed happily, although her words were muffled by some of the food still remaining in her mouth.
“You had a fresh one earlier, you know.” Milo commented simply, having pulled out a sort of cone-shaped sandwich, the bread baked into a puffy, conical shape, hollowed out on the inside and stuffed with potatoes and cheese, on top of small bits of steamed broccoli and topped with much the same garnish as the others. The sandwich was big enough that he had to use both of his smaller hands in order to hold it.
Taking a bite of his own snack, Minoru was surprised as he swallowed it, feeling a sudden outpouring of energy, a feeling similar to that of mana when he felt it being used in his vicinity by Petra or Milo. His look of surprise caught Petra’s attention, who looked momentarily before hunching over with a small, muffled chuckle.
Swallowing her food, she addressed him. “Oh right, I forgot to tell you about how it’d feel to eat something with sol flowers on it! My bad, my bad!” She laughed. “That feeling you just had was your body beginning to absorb the mana in the petals, you’ll get used to it, but I’m sure it surprised you, given you hardly had any mana in you before!”
Studying the potato in his hand, Minoru tentatively took another bite, trying to get a chunk with a bit of a denser collection of that garnish of petals, resulting in another wave of warmth and energy coursing across his body, making him shiver slightly, prompting another small chuckle from Petra.
“So… does this mean I’ll be able to use magic now, or…?” He asked, with Milo speaking up in response.
“Not quite. There’s still a bit of training you’ll need to undergo, but it’s nothing too complicated, at least for basic cantrips. Catalyzers will serve you well for now, but you should definitely get a grasp on spellcasting yourself for the future, it’ll do you good to learn sooner than later.”
“Roger. Well, I’m looking forward to you teaching me then, sensei.” He replied in a small, teasing tone.
“Wh– 'Sensei?' When did I say I’d teach you?” Milo shot back in response.
“Oh come on, you’re the only mage I see here, and the only one I know, I thought you’d help out a poor, magically inept voyager like me!” Minoru joked back.
“You–” Milo began, before sighing and offering a simple chuckle back. “Alright, alright, fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on you.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, sensei.”
“And stop calling me sensei.”
Minoru and Petra simply chuckled amongst themselves. Celebrating a successful request, the three simply relaxed and ate away at their snacks, talking amongst themselves amidst the cool breeze of the calm plains…