To my surprise, I slept like a baby. Maybe all the walking we’d done the day before finally caught up to me. With that being said, I woke up sore all over, my muscles aching, and my stomach growling with hunger. Glancing around, I noticed no one else was sleeping nearby, so I guessed I must’ve been the last one to wake up.

Despite the chaos from yesterday, the village had its charm. People back home would pay good money to visit a place like this. The architecture of the houses was amazing. Instead of concrete and bricks, wooden houses were scattered around, and some on the edge looking like they were made from some sort of mud mixture. There had to be some magic involved, as some houses looked like they were about to collapse, yet it gave them interesting shapes. There were more people than I had anticipated; some must have taken shelter yesterday rather than joining the fight.

I wasn't exactly lost, as the village was quite small, but it seemed I had missed a turn, finding myself at the edge of the village again. The center of activity seemed to be the rampart from yesterday; they were quick to start repairs, I'll give them that. It was almost fully restored.

However, my little detour had one benefit; I spotted Arduin. He was working with others at the barricade. When he noticed me, he headed my way.

“Good morning, or is it way past that already?” I said.

“Well, lunch will be served soon, so it might be more towards the afternoon.”

“I walked all day yesterday; I’m not used to that level of physical exercise. By the way, is the day here still 24 hours?” I realized, after saying it, that hours were an arbitrary concept.

“I don’t know how long your hour is, but most people from other worlds said the day is basically the same length.”

“Well, speaking of lunch, what can I get for,” I said, making a show that my pockets were empty, “no money?”

He smiled. “It’s nice of you to offer, but you helped yesterday. The least we could do is get you some lunch.”

As he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood or anything, the question just slipped out. “I don’t want to bring back bad memories or anything, but who were the soldiers from yesterday?”

“We're currently in Aurora Valley. A few years back, the border between the two neighboring territories shifted to the river running through this valley,” he sighed. "Now, we find ourselves facing occasional raids from Celestria. Yesterday's was particularly intense."

“And are you originally from Shadowmere?”

“We're within their territory now, but we used to be part of Celestria.”

“Both have a tendency to complicate our lives instead of helping,” he said, motioning towards a building we were passing by. Entering it, there were like a dozen small tables and a few larger ones. We sat at a nearby table, and a... either a dwarf or a little person came immediately to take our order.

“What can I get you?” said the burly man with some sort of accent, but still understandable, while facing Arduin.

“I’ll have the stew of the day, please.”

“And for you?” He was about our height as we were sitting, and he was exactly how you’d imagine a fantasy dwarf to be: lots of hair, wide for his height, and an angry look on his face. The coincidence was too great, so maybe there was a way back to my Earth; clearly, someone made it back at least once.

Finally realizing I was staring, I cleared my throat. “The daily stew sounds nice, and if you have some water or any non-alcoholic beverage, it would be perfect,” I said with a little stammer between words.

After he left to take our order, I had to ask, “Are there other races other than humans?”

“Yes, people and creatures have been coming here for thousands of years, but humans remain the vast majority of intelligent creatures.”

“So, what other races?” curiosity getting the better of me.

“Trolls are actually pretty close by to the east, orcs, goblins, centaurs,elves then bird people, and maybe others. But they are very far away, and maybe they are made up; you can’t really trust everything travelers say.”

“That’s amazing; our fantasy stories have those exact races. It means someone must have come back from here.” One race was maybe a coincidence, but not all of them.

"You should ask Alira; she is from the capital and knows more about the wider world than me," the chief said.

That was weird. I assumed she would be a villager here so I continued, "From the capital? Why was she setting traps in the forest then?"

"I admit I don't know. She appeared a few months ago, and she has been patrolling these forests using our village to resupply. We assumed she was some sort of scout."

I was about to ask more about her when she walked into the establishment. Upon spotting us, she made her way over and sat down at our table.

"I heard you were finally awake," she said.

"Yeah, yesterday was pretty exhausting. Let's hope not every day is that intense."

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“So, what are your plans now?” she asked.

“Well, I was thinking about going to a big city, maybe learn more about magic. You?”

"Really? I was actually about to head to the provincial capital myself to report the attack," she said while opening her backpack and removing a pack and handing it to me. "Now were even" she said.

Opening the package, there were some sort of leather shoes, and looking at other people, they seemed to be similar to what fashion or necessity called for.

“Thank you,” I said simply but continued after a short pause. “What is the city called, the capital, I mean?”

“Moonbrook,” there was a hint of sadness in her voice, probably for the hardship suffered by these people.

So, trying to keep the tone in my best serious voice, I asked, “Do you mind if I travel with you to the capital?” Trying not to sound too eager, I added, “Plus, it seems the region is not that safe; two sets of ears might be good at night if trouble comes while we sleep.”

She gave a short laugh. “Yes, the one sleeping until noon around dozens of people making noise would make for a very good sentry.”

Trying to sound hurt, I said, “If anything, my snoring will keep you from sleeping too deep, so you’ll be more alert.”

“Well, how can I say no to that?”

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as possible, I would have already left but wanted you to have the shoes first. Finish your food, then come meet me at the rampart,” she said, turning and leaving the tavern.

Arduin took me to a general shop where he gave me a poncho-type tunic. He explained that you can sleep on it at night, so I guessed it was functional clothing. He also gave me a rucksack that had seen better days, but I was really grateful and offered my hand. It seemed that handshaking was universal. Soon, I was at the rampart where Alira was waiting for me.

“I picked up some extra rations, so give me your backpack,” she said while I took a last look at the village. They were good people, clearly not deserving of all the trouble that came their way. Maybe someday I would be in a position to change something.

The backpack seemed light at first, but my physical condition was not prepared for the pace Alira was setting. I tried to strike up a conversation, but I could barely speak and walk at the same time.

After a few hours, the backpack felt like it was ten times heavier; my shoulders and especially my back were on fire. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. The pain had given me an idea. Focusing on the Mana Shield to bring it closer to my body, it reached a point where it was between my skin and the backpack. When that happened, the weight was suddenly gone. It was as if the Shield was taking all the weight. It still wasn’t clear to me how it even worked or if it consumed some resource.

With the weight gone, I found new strength, and soon I was setting the pace. It was her turn to try to keep up with me, at first probably thinking I was trying to show off, but soon she started breathing heavily for the first time, and soon after that, she stopped and looked at me.

“How are you doing that? Yesterday, you couldn’t keep up with me on a simple run, and now you’re practically jogging with that heavy backpack, which, I might add, I might have loaded up a little more than mine,” her tone was incredulous.

“I have this ability called Mana Shield. It’s what kept me from being sliced up by those soldiers yesterday. Thank you for the help, by the way. I was really panicking. ”Anyway, my back was killing me, so after some trial and error, I realized you could adjust the location of the shield, so now the weight of the backpack is on the Mana Shield and not on my back."

"Yeah, I saw that little barrier of yours, really useful; I never saw a barrier that could handle that much punishment," she responded.

"Really? Are they more like the red shield the mage used?"

"Pretty much. That's why mage's are usually on the backline with others protecting them. If offensive, they are casualties waiting to happen." She said.

"Well, the spell's called Mana Shield, so I assume it's proportional to the mana one has, which should be proportional to the intelligence. So with my higher Intelect, it might be better at surviving hits." I continued.

"What's mana?" she asked.

"You might have another name for it. It's a resource, which would deplete the more magic we used, and it would recover in time or after you rested. But I can’t find anything about it in my stats."

Her face was already in a big smile, holding back a laugh.

“What?” I asked.

“A mystical resource that depletes and recovers? Where do you come up with this stuff, really?” She said now, half laughing.

“I guess your right, I shouldn't apply my world fantasy ideas to this one just because some things match." As she nodded at my statement I continued.

“Well, then how does the magic work?”

Getting more serious, she said, “It’s like asking how come the sun doesn’t run out of heat. Magic just exists, and it is all around us. The more attuned you are with it, meaning higher stats, the more power you can get from it. But as far as we know, it can never run out.”

“Well, I know what keeps the sun hot all the time, as you put it. So, there has to be a reason magic exists here and not on my world.”

“You know why the sun is always hot? That’s one of the mysteries that scholars have tried to explain. Most even believe it is the source of magic.” She was looking at me expectantly.

“Well, I don’t know about the magic part, but it’s not that complicated to understand. But you need to know a lot of other stuff before that. People in my world have discovered many things,” that got me thinking. “Maybe that’s why I have such high Intelligence; it’s just that I know how a lot of things work. But before you think I’m some genius, we have years upon years of school.”

“Then do you know if the sun can die? Most religions are based around the night and the sun; wars have been fought over this.”

“Well, all suns are different...” Didn’t even get to start; she was already asking another question. “There is more than one sun?” Her mouth was practically open. “Yeah, all the stars you see,” pointing up, “are suns, but just very, very, very far away.” For the first time, she had no reply, so I continued to explain how the sun will expand, engulf the earth, then fizzle away into a white small, almost dark sphere.”

“So it will neither die nor remain as it is?” Her anger was flaring. “All those wars and people dead, and neither side was right?”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, people have fought wars on my world for far more idiotic things.”

“I doubt it.” Clearly, her worldview took a blow, and she needed time to adjust.

I tried to think of a really nonsensical reason, and after a few moments, “So we had kingdoms like here at one point, and for some reason, one of them had a bucket as a symbol. Anyway, some drunk soldiers while in that capital stole the bucket, and they were from a neighboring kingdom, and they started a war over that bucket. Thousands of people died, and 1000 years later, they still didn’t get the bucket.”

“You know about some obscure war fought over 1000 years ago?” she said as her anger subsided.

“All our history and knowledge are easily accessible. I just happen to enjoy history.”

“Well, at least you won’t be a boring travel companion with all those obscure wars to tell me about,” she mused.

The night was soon approaching. I was never much of a camping fan, so sleeping on the ground was getting old fast. My back still hurt a little. Would Mana Shield work as a wannabe mattress with a little creative spell work?

As there were apparently gods here, looking up, I said to myself:

It's things like this that would make me a believer.