The river gurgled silently, stream of runs down the mountain as lush lined up on the banks. The faint yellow sunlight pierced through leaves, dripping down its radiance as it dappled the ground with a mosaic of shadows.
Arise, who wandered upstream, his stomach grumbling. He stood by the river eyeing various plants and animals nearby. Just above the riverbank was a forest, and he saw mushrooms huddled in clusters under a tree, Arise was overjoyed, and he said: "Finally, something I'm familiar with."
Most mushrooms he saw resembled an edible variety in his world, however, he remained cautious as picking the wrong mushroom could result in his death. He remembered the dangers of foraging, It was one of many topics Eishi often discussed.
"Picking mushrooms is not that hard, but most of these species in unknown to me, I wish Eishi was here, he could've helped me pick out the edible ones. But the rule of thumb is to avoid the brightly colored one."
He excitedly bent down as he picked up a conical mushroom with a milky body and a delicate gill, there was no doubt, he was sure about this earthy aroma that he was so familiar with. "Shiitake!" he exclaimed.
"Mushrooms cannot disappoint me," he muttered, plucking out shiitake as he slid them inside a bag made from his shirt. "So diverse and delicious. No wonder you were my favorite cultivar"
In the end, he ignored the mushrooms with a red cap and white splotches. He continued to forage various things in the forest, he picked up some nuts and fruits until he couldn't carry them anymore. He called it off and went back to the riverbank.
Arise, then picked up some rocks in the forest. He sat on a log and bashed it against each other.
Bang Bang Bang.
The rock slowly took shape, meticulously chipping away stones until. The whole thing fell off which broke the rock he was working on. "This is harder than I expected, I wonder if hominids encountered this exact problem with creating a stone tool, sigh."
Each attempt resulted in the rock breaking off more than expected.
"Seriously?"
"Oh, come on!"
"For crying out loud, where did I go wrong."
Fury accumulated from his face as he attempted to create a stone knife for the 12th time. Focused on the detail, Arise kept chipping away fragments and failed.
"Huff, huff, I... can't go on, how in the world did they do this in the stone age?"
Sharp thud emanated from the riverbank which scared of various animals from the forest. Arise, surrounded by shards of rocks from his 20th attempt was on the brink of lashing out. He got another rock and goes on his 21st attempt. He carefully chipped the rock into a jagged and chipped edge, he broke big pieces off to create a moderately sized knife.
Arise stood up excited and shouted, "Finally, this is hard, I hope this knife lasts a few weeks, I wouldn't want to make another one". He tore a piece of his pants, split a wood in half which he made into the hilt of a knife, and wrapped it tightly with the fabric.
Throughout the noon, Arise skinned a young tree of its bark and tore it into thin strips of fiber then baked it in the sun for hours, Arise.
Arise walked around the forest to look for an animal dropping, he spotted pellet-like feces, It had remains of undigested leaves and nuts which probably belonged to a large rodent. Arise tied an unstable loop and found a branch of a tree that could be bent. Then, he hammered a stick on the ground using a large rock and wrapped the rope around it. He pulled the branch back to wind up the rope he tied to it. He placed some of the mushrooms he found in the middle of the trap and walked away. While on the river, where he heard the river gushing. He waited patiently for a catch.
To pass some time, he brought out a small log of softwood and carved a groove onto it, then set wood shavings on the groove evenly, subsequently, he brought out a sturdy tick which he carved to have a slight pointy edge. He began to push the sturdy stick onto the groove as hard as he could. He was rubbing the stick for hours on end until he saw smoke, Arise hurriedly put dried leaves and grass onto it and blew carefully, orange sparks erupted from the leaves and flames consumed the brush. Once the fire was set, he heard a squeal from the forest, the trap had been disarmed and a dangling hare-like creature moved frantically trying to free itself from the trap.
Upon seeing the hare, he grasped the knife and slid it across the hare's throat. Its blood dripped from the hare as its movement slowly died down. He burned the hare's fur and cut it up into multiple chunks. He dunked it into the river to flush its blood out then skewered the pieces of meat and roasted it on open flame with some mushrooms.
"This hare looked odd, even though its droppings had traces of vegetation; the teeth certainly have molars and fangs as well, It should not belong to a herbivore rodent unless this type of hare is omnivorous.
"
"AH finally, a decent food. Though unseasoned, I'm pretty grateful for this meal. Thank you for the food."
The roasted meat sizzled as oil danced on the surface. Its aroma combined with the earthen fragrance of the mushrooms had Arise drooling. He chewed the meat slowly as he looked up in the sky, admiring the stars. Arise noticed there were a lot of stars than the Earth, he saw constellations that weren't familiar to him, so he decided to create a tool before sleeping to measure his coordinates on the planet.
After eating, he hung the hare's meat on the rising smoke as embers danced in the air. He climbed up the tree and laid on top of a branch. "Food is secured for now, It should last for several days if I rationed it out."
The thin veil of mist was covering the riverbank, with the sun looming behind the titanic mountains, and its orange-yellowish sunlight covering up a quarter half of the forest. The other side of the mountain is still dark.
Arise woke up atop a branch of a tree and hopped down immediately. He walked to the river scooped a handful of water and washed his face. The cold water touched his skin combined with the chilling wind of sunrise; it made him shiver.
Arise climbed to the highest point on the riverbank to see the sunrise. He pulled out an angled stick tied together by rope. He aimed it at the rising sun and measured the horizon. "This primitive of a sextant is not the most accurate thing in the world, but any information about my location would help. 8 degrees of the horizon and up the sky. 8 degrees off the equator... roughly 23 minutes after sunrise. I guess my estimation yesterday was off the chart, but I can't equally trust this information due to its inaccuracy."
"No no, my measurement is really off the charts, guessing will only make my error worse. A proper tool could've helped me, I guess I need to find an active civilization in this world," Arise glanced at the mountain as he strode along the riverside. He could hear the birdsong as the chilling morning wind touched his skin.
"Wait a minute... this is wrong, If people here have the same mindset as they were on earth... they could've built a town within the plains, not the mountain side, therefore, I should not head to the mountain but a few degrees off it, I think I have a high chance of encountering a civilization that way."
Well, that was the history book taught him. He diverted from his original course and headed to the forest. Leaves crumpled as Arise passed by all he saw were acres upon acres of trees. Yet he paid no mind and kept on walking, as he walked peacefully, he slid his hand on a fiber bag that he made before he slept, and he chewed on the smoked hare's meat as he observed the forest.
"I can still feel this tingly feeling all over my body, oh yeah right, magic exists in this world, could it be magic? I really don't know, that's the first thing I'll ask If I spot a living breathing human. Using magic is out of the question, I'm absolutely clueless about how to use that."
After he roamed for hours, he reached the end of the forest, he saw a vast grassland along a river, a numerous bovine-like creatures roaming around. He focused his eyesight on a specific thing, a smoke, or a sign of a build. He didn't find a single thing. Arise continued to walk along the grassland. The fresh breeze blew throughout the plains as the yellow sunlight kissed the sunflowers.
A smile formed on Arise's face as he savored the idyllic scene. "This feels good, such a refreshing view, worth it. I think I'll head east, where the sun rose, I wonder if this planet is the same as Earth."
Within the pleasant day, Arise passed through a field of dandelions, he saw many strange animals that he could only see in a fantasy textbook. "I guess this is a fantasy world."
Winds suddenly swept throughout the grasslands as a huge figure flew overhead. "What in the world, Is that a dragon? I would never imagine I'd see one. How curious"
He followed the beast; he admired its red scales and robust build. He never imagined seeing one, Eishi was the one who discussed dragons, and It seems that some of his theories were right about dragons. "It could be a wyvern, but Eishi said that realistically, the dragon would have 4 limbs, two legs, and two wings. But this dragon has 6; It could be that a six-legged fish might have evolved alongside that 4-legged fish. To come up with such a crazy theory about a mythical creature, such a biologist Eishi is."
Arise quickly lost sight of the dragon, he sighed and continued.
A man clad in garb adorned with a golden clock hands, observed Arise behind a tree. He looked at him with curiosity and said: "So, you arrived this late, pretty Ironic, one of the first to die was one of the last to arrive here."
Arise felt like he was being watched, he carefully glanced in all directions, and all he saw was a faint flash of light behind him. He pulled his knife out but there was no one behind him.
Arise feeling threatened, ran away from his location and dashed through the brush and hid. "I could've sworn I felt someone watching me, this is dangerous."
He did not anticipate that, he vanished as fast as he appeared. Arise lowered his body and peeked through the gaps. He heard a rustle behind him, he was surrounded.
His eyes widened, and he saw a creature he was not familiar with.
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It was vaguely humanoid, its body as soft as butter, dribbled a matter that resembled rotting matter. A strong smell of foul eggs assaulted his nose which made him revolt, all the plants around them withered, and all of their energy was sapped by the creature. It approached Arise slowly, which in turn made Arise turn back. "Hell no, I'm not letting that thing touch me, after what it did to the plants without touching it, I'm not gonna let myself wither with that"
The creatures started pacing towards him, mimicking how Arise ran. "What? they can run too? shit, fuck, how am I gonna escape them, I have no means of fighting them... if only I know magic..."
"Wait a minute, what if..."
"HELP!" he shouted as he ran frantically.
"I call this a special skill: Cowardly run while yelling for help."
"Genius plan"
"HELP ME PLEASE"
Suddenly, the creatures erupted into flames as he heard: "Throughout heavens and earth, Goddess of light guide me, grant me the power of nature, Combust!". Flames danced with the wind,red-haired girl pushed him back as she cast fire spells onto the creatures. 'Combust!"
sudden flashes of fire quickly burned the creatures, resulting in the surrounding vegetation burning.
"That worked?" said Arise much to his surprise.
"Are you okay?" the girl held out his hand to Arise. She looked at him passively as flames continued to consume the environment.
"Y-Yes, thanks to you, but you should probably contain that fire"
"Huh?" she looked at him with confusion, she turned around and shouted. "AH! I'm a Clutz"
She clasped her hands and chanted: "River of purity flow to my veins, Hydrea, the goddess of the sea, grant me the blessing of water, Water Burst!" conical water erupted from her hands; it extinguished the fire.
"Phew, that could be worse."
"Is that magic?"
"Yes? you never seen one before?"
"Yes, I'm quite alien to it."
"Alien?" she titled her head. "I do not understand what you mean by that?"
"I'm not familiar with it."
"I see."
"The fact that I can understand her, and she can understand me means something, is this the gift they're talking about? It would certainly help me; I retract what I said" He thought to himself.
"What's your name?"
"Ah, my name's Arise"
"Arise? quite a strange name, are you an Outlander?"
"You could say that I'm not familiar with this place, if you can help me to get to a town, that would be a great help."
"Sure, I can help you with that, I'm Gwynvelow, call me Gwyn."
"Thank you"
While traversing the forest, Gwyn had told Arise about the area they were in. It was named Solicia region. The plains surrounding the mountains housed multiple municipalities, and each municipality was under the Soren kingdom. While being a small kingdom, it still boasted a large population of thirty thousand, and most of the citizens were hunters or working along the coast where the capital was established.
The majority of income from the Soren Kingdom was through maritime trades, agriculture, and occasionally ores from the Caiman mountains. It kept a stable economy, albeit a low quality of living amongst the commoners. The Soren kingdom operates with a feudal system, with the Soren family as the head, each municipality was governed by revered families in the kingdom. Among the five lands, the capital was managed by the Soren family, the mountainside by the Azula family, and the imbalance of power where the remaining states were governed by the Rhoeia family.
"Wait what? I thought The Soren family was the head of the kingdom, as the royal family.
Then why did they hold so much power?" Arise asked, he was bewildered. While the feudal system existed back on Earth, it was unheard of that the royal family possessed less land than the feudal lord.
"While it was true that the Rhoeia family possesses more states than the royal family, they're still second. The Royal family controlled the army and the capital city, which in turn controlled the economy of the country, and balanced the power struggles. But, if the Rhoeia family tried to usurp the throne, they would have succeeded."
Arise looked at Gwyn and then asked: "Aside from social hierarchy, you mentioned agriculture, what are some main cultivars this kingdom has?"
She tilted her head in confusion, Gwyn said, "Cultivar?"
"I mean, what are the fruits and vegetables, The Soren Kingdom primarily eats and sells?"
"Ah. Well, there's plenty but some notable plants are maizes, golden wolftail, poella, and sandreal"
"Maize? like corn?"
'Is that what you call it? I'm surprised you know that one, considering how clueless are you about this region."
"Y-yeah, but, the three plants are really unfamiliar to me"
As they approached a walled town that loomed over the forest, Gwyn explained the three plants to Arise. Golden wolftail is a grass-like plant that has a golden hue, it has several seed pods that can be crushed into a powder and then baked. While Poella is a tuber that has a rough body that is riddled with impurities, it has a milky white interior full of starch.
"And, as fo-"
As they entered the town, Gwyn suddenly cut herself off and let herself down with her head facing the ground. He noticed the other villagers bowing as an elegantly dressed individual leaving the carriage. The man looked at everyone with a condescending stare as he entered the restaurant.
"Arise, whatever you do, do not lift your head, quick" She grabbed Arise's head and forcibly dragged him down."
"Why?"
"Just listen to me, it's for our own good, and an outsider like you will draw attention."
"Who is he?"
"A nobleman, the eldest son of the Rhoeia family, Alexandris Rhoeia"
For the villager, it was fear, but for Arise it was intrigue and excitement. If he just lay low and did not attract the attention of the nobles, he could extract fortune out of town using his scientific knowledge and then set off to find his friends.
After a few minutes, the tension died off, the villagers went back to their normal day as Arise and Gwyn moved deeper into the city. He noticed the architecture clearly resembled a German-styled house which was adorned with wooden beams accompanied by dull colored walls like white or gray.
After some time, Gwyn dragged Arise into a tavern, she yelled for the waiter and ordered ale.
During the afternoon, there are few patrons in the bar, most of them are from the fields or the mining site near the Caiman mountains. Arise remembered his final moments on Earth, drunk, full of despair. This atmosphere did not help at all, he just sat quietly.
Gwyn held the big mug of ale, she drank half and said, "You know, I was perplexed by your existence, I had never seen someone who doesn't know magic at such an age, and you talk like you did not belong this country. Your name's also strange."
"But as I promised to you, I'll help you, after this, we'll head to the church."
"The church? Why"
"To get your affinity checked, of course, magic is everything in this world. Without magic, you don't have a position in the world. Harsh right?"
"Y-yeah"
"And don't worry, I'll teach you the basics, it is easy," she took another swig from the big mug of ale, and a foam up her lip formed, which gave her beard."
"Pfft"
"Hm?"
'Ah, nothing; you're a sister of the church, yet you act like brutish."
"Sister of the church? Where did you get that?"
"During your magic incantations, you mentioned various names of gods, I figured that you're a woman of the cloth."
"Ah, I'm not, it's just a habit to concentrate when casting magic. You see, I had a very low tolerance for magic, and the only place a person like me could depend to, is the church.
Well, at least until my body was strong enough to tolerate magic which gave me a chance to leave the church. I guess some practices from all those years stuck to me."
'Magic Classism, how nice, I guess this is similar to Earth, even with magic and dragons, this type of behavior is still present' Arise thought to himself.
While in the tavern, Arise sat still and listened to the rowdy patrons that day. He learned a thing a two about Soren kingdom. One, their money was called the Sol- their currency was split into different materials representing its value. Copper, Silver, and Gold. 1 sol is equivalent to 1 copper coin, 100 sol is 1 silver, and 1000 sol is equivalent to 1 gold coin.
"Arise, you're spaced out, are you drinking that?"
Arise shifted his glance and said, 'Ah, no, I don't like booze that well, you can have it."
Gwyn reached for the ale. "You're listening to them huh, you're quite observant; I'll just warn you, hearing a topic you shouldn't hear, can put you at risk."
"How's the preparations? "
"Not good, the security is very strict. I suggest we lay low. We'll be shot down by the family if we're not careful."
Gwyn leaned into Arise and whispered: "Like that, don't meddle, it'll make things worse."
In the lively ambiance, where the smell of jambalaya wafts into people's noses, complemented by the yellow light of the lamps with the chatter of the patron. However, it was different this time. It was cold and silent, all heads kept to the ground as the owner frantically searched the back room for anything in value.
Quivering in fear, the owner was in the crosshairs of the Rhoeia family. Alexandris, who was the eldest son of the Rhoeia family. Personally, went on his way to collect the restaurant's taxes. "What do you mean by that? Are you stupid? I said that this month is the deadline for your taxes, we gave you leeway Trodeur, you have no choice."
"My lord, forgive me but, the restaurant has been in decline, I can only pay this much, I swear I can pay back the missing taxes."
"Did you think 3000 sol is enough for your taxes?"
"My lord, 50% of my income is too much, I only got a revenue of 6 thousand per month, I'll be sacrificing my entire livelihood for this."
"Did I?"
"Pardon me?"
"Did I ask?
"Insolent commoner, I'll give you a chance, if you still haven't paid the full amount, you can say goodbye to your restaurant and your family."
The owner groveled on Alexandris's foot, he cried and begged for mercy; The young noble repulsed in disgust and kicked the owner, "Don't touch me, how disgusting."
The young man left the establishment boarded his carriage and drove to the looming mansion above the hill.
"Those taxes are absurd; they'll pay for this."
The patrons lifted the owner and tended to him. The news spread like wildfire to the municipality of Rosea, maids from different houses shared their versions of stories about the heir of the family's maltreatment towards the business owner.
Their eyes burned with passion as their resentment fueled their rage. It was clear from this moment, that something big was about to transpire.