Ever been to space? No? Well same here — I have never been to space. But man, that dream was probably as close to it as I would ever get. Well, except for that one time, but that’s a story for another time.

I opened my eyes to find myself floating aimlessly amongst the dust and debris of a nebula. The eminent glow of the stellar corpse was awe-inspiring, the frigid yet blazing light making for quite the ambience. The dust and glow extended infinitely in all directions as I looked around.

And speaking of temperature — I actually felt kinda warm. The overall feeling of it was rather balmy, like I had been floating not in space, but in the warm aftermath of creation itself. It was a strange feeling. I could feel the temperature, but waving my hands around yielded no resistance, as though there were no atmosphere to provide such a sensation. And yet at the same time, I could feel the air rush into my lungs with every breath I took.

“You seem confused. Would I be correct in assuming that you would like an explanation, Maximillian?” a disembodied voice rang out, seemingly from everywhere at once.

“Yeah one of those would be nice. Could I maybe get some fries with that too?” I sneered.

The voice paused a moment. “I can do that.”

And just as I was about to voice my confusion, an open carton of fries appeared just to my left.

A wise guy eh? I suppose I did start it.

I reached out and grabbed the fries, unwittingly sending myself into a spin — the lack of air resistance immediately became troublesome as I had no easy way to correct the spin. Why I only then started spinning was beyond me. “Ah shit.” I sighed. “This a dream? You fuckin’ with my dreams or something?” I said, munching on one of the fries. They were frozen.

The as-of-yet unknown entity materialized near me without much fanfare, almost like an NPC spawning in. His likeness was that of a young boy, not a year older than thirteen. His head sported a brunette bowl cut framing his face with a pair of rectangle-framed glasses. He wore a gray dress shirt under a blue sweater vest. “I am the God of Technology — the Goddess of Jokes tipped me off on your existence, said you were of interest to me.”

Ah shit not another one. Could be worse though. Maybe this one is less… antagonistic?

I took another fry out of the carton, losing some in the process. “Sooo… not a dream god then?”

The outwardly youthful god shook his head. “No, but now that you mention it, I really should cover up my tracks here.”

Oh?

I raised a brow. “And what does that mean, exactly?”

The god crossed his arms. “Allow me to pose you a question first. You are an outworlder, that much is clear — humans are not native to Helsa. With that in mind, I was told you possessed items and knowledge that would be of interest to a being as sophisticated as myself. Is this true?”

Hmm. He seems a bit more tolerable than the comedy one, but that line of questioning is sketchy.

Mr. Technology caught on rather quickly to my hesitation. “Worry not, no harm will come to you — even the arbitrary kind. I am not Jokes. In fact, I apologize on her behalf — I too have grown weary of her antics.”

I take another fry and flick it at the god. “Alright then, if you want to know, then… maybe? I dunno man — you just said you’re the god of technology. Humans on Earth are plenty advanced, but isn’t that like… your thing?”

It must have been something I said, because he seemed visibly irritated by my answer, though it wasn’t long before he composed himself. “It’s my domain. There’s a difference. Gods have domains, and we are not the be-all end-all of our domains. I represent technology, and have some influence over it. I don’t know all there is to know about technology — that would be absurd.”

Ohhh okay. That’s… interesting.

Technology cleared his throat. “Interesting indeed. I’ll allow you to come to your own conclusions, but my point is that I am cut off from your knowledge and experiences. I only know what exists here on Helsa.”

I locked eyes with him, narrowing mine. My spin made this a challenge, so the impact was probably lost. “Did you just read my mind?”

“No. I simply listened in on your thoughts.”

“Isn’t that the same thing??”

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“Your internal monologue is separate, and easy to access.” the god smirked.

By this point I had been spinning long enough to become nauseous, however that works in a dream. “Alright listen, before I tell you anything then, could you give me some air resistance or something?? This spin is making me sick.”

And just like that, I felt a pressure on my body as my spin slowly came to a halt. The new air was somewhat cold, though not unbearable. “...you did that, right?”

The god shook his head. “This is your dream. You could have done that from the start, the fries too. Oh and might I ask you to make haste with your response to my initial question? I do not have much time here. Proper discourse will be easier at a later time.”

“Oh- alright. Uhh I guess from what I’ve seen so far, Earth is probably several magnitudes more advanced. Like this phone!” I pulled out a dream phone. “It can take notes like a book, transmit my voice over long distances, record accurate pictures of the world, and all kinds of other stuff!” I explained.

Technology pondered for a moment, before regarding me with a subtly deranged expression. “Would you be willing to demonstrate?”

I attempted to turn on the dream phone, only for it to cease to exist. “...huh. Uh, sorry – I don’t think I can do that in the dream. Maybe too complex?”

Technology shrugged. “Dreams can be strange, and are often arbitrary. I think I have enough information here, so I think we’re done for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Immediately after he finished speaking, his form blinked out of existence, and the dream came to an end as I felt myself disintegrate at the atomic level.

Oh what the f-

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I woke up in a cold sweat, shooting up from my resting position. It seemed that I had overslept, since people had already been packing up the camp and had begun returning to the wagons.

Very soon after my sudden awakening, Sanon opened the door to my tent. “Wake up Max it’s time to… uhh. Max, are you okay? You look terrible!”

“I never thought I would find out what being snapped felt like…” I muttered.

Sanon cocked her head. “Snapped? Was it a bad dream then?”

“Yeah… you could say that.” I chuckled. “Are we heading back then? Hittin’ the road?”

She nodded. “Yes. Be quick too, you’re late.”

I saluted her. “You got it boss.” I said in an exaggerated Boston accent.

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It would be two more weeks before we would stop at our first town, that being Nauphi. The leader of the caravan addressed us all once we stopped outside the town.

“We will only be here for a day, so you’d all best stock up on anything you happen to need, and enjoy the downtime. We will reconvene at sunrise tomorrow!”

And with that, the caravan dispersed into the town. Nauphi was similar in style to Tokal, though the dominant style of building had shifted toward the brick variety. The size of the town was easily triple that of Tokal though, so there was plenty to explore.

Sanon and I had decided to do our exploration together. Of the two of us, she was the only one that had any money, so we decided to be light on our purchases, save for maybe some amenities. The caravan had plenty of rations, and hunting for food was almost always an option.

Over the previous two weeks of travel, I had managed to spear a large fish-like creature out of a distinctly non-saturated river. It was large, covered in thick scutes like a sturgeon on Earth, and had four flippers in addition to a pair of pelvic fins and a dorsal fin. The tail tapered off at a point without fins, not unlike a plesiosaur. The head sported internal gills that it had expelled out its body in a sort of threat display after my first stab had failed to kill it. In that state, it looked almost like an axolotl with down syndrome. It tasted very similar to the fish of Earth, albeit with a distinctly nutty taste.

I had also managed to catch and kill a large crustacean-like creature of some kind. Brom had said they were edible, but that preparing them was often a bit of a chore. The creature was actually similar to a crab, which ended up dragging up some old knowledge about carcinization. Which is to say, eventually all will become crab. Or in this case a large terrestrial crab that primarily dines on flora. The armor was tough, but it didn’t really expect me to unload Stabby’s penetration spell directly into it point blank. Suffice to say, it made for a fantastic soup after we figured out how much of the meat hadn’t been ruined by the internal organs that had been shredded by the spell.

Anyway, back on the topic of the town. Sanon and I had made the executive decision to share some of her limited funds with me. Why she did this, I do not know even to this day. We made our way to every smithy in the town in a half-assed attempt to find spellsilver. No dice.

We did find a pretty nice spell scroll though. It had some kind of fancy spell for shaping heated metals. Sanon took quite a bit of interest, though unfortunately it was well out of our combined price range.

Another few hours later, we made our way to the central square of the town. There stood a very ornate fountain spewing water beneath a rather imperious bronze statue. It depicted an elven warrior of some kind wielding a large sword, a blade wide as an old oak tree. It was honestly kind of comical, but knowing this world, comically large swords might be possible with magic.

As of writing, I’ve seen these swords in action a few times, but to be completely honest, I’m still baffled by the fact that anyone considers them practical. The way they’re used reminded me of a certain game about hunting monsters back on Earth. Comical indeed.

I looked to Sanon, who had been gazing longingly at the sword. “Got any idea who this guy is?” I asked.

“Not a clue. Some kind of war hero perhaps?” she pondered before approaching the statue.

I followed behind her. “Something special about the sword?”

“Not inherently, but they’re pretty rare to be seen in use. I’m not an expert, but growing up in a forge teaches you things. People that use greatblades are an eccentric bunch. They’re normally forged with spellsilver and then filled to the brim with enchantments and various other spells. And because of that, they’re exceptionally rare.” she said as she brought her hand up to the sword.

Sanon and I both heard an offended, snooty gasp from behind us. We turned around to see an elven man with brilliant azure feathers briskly walk up to us. He slapped Sanon’s hand away from the statue. “And just what do you think you’re doing laying hands on my dear uncle’s statue?!”