Jasko gave me a most incredulous look. “What?”
“Stabby McStabface. That’s the name.” I replied curtly.
Jasko gave an exasperated sigh. “Max, may I ask why you would choose such a name?”
“Well first, I’m hungover. Second, I didn’t get any time to think of one. And third, it’s a term of endearment — like taping a knife to a roomba and naming it Stabby.”
“A what?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I said, clearing my throat. “So uh, not gonna tell me what happened last night? I think I mostly remember everything up until I got the gifts… were they from you… or…” I trailed off.
“I crafted the spear myself, and had the armor made by our village craftsman. Nailah also added some touches to the spear, but she mainly pressured the elder into giving you the map.”
“Well thank you very much. This means a lot to me.”
“You are very welcome, Max. Use them well.” said Jasko. “And as for what happened last night, you took part in the festivities. You also got into a fight with a villager — a fight that you won. I would say that you fight well when drunk, but your opponent was also drunk, and it was really quite embarrassing to watch.”
“I didn’t hurt him did I?” I worried.
“Take a look for yourself.” Jasko pointed at the villager that I had woken up on.
I approached the villager and gave him a good look over. He seemed to be fine, though he had some cuts and gashes on his chest and arms that had since clotted. He also had a rather large lump on his right cheekbone, so I inferred that I must have forsaken Stabby at some point in favor of my fists, which were admittedly quite sore.
I stepped back from the villager and stared blankly. “...at least he isn’t dead.”
“Yes I suppose it could be worse.” agreed Jasko.
…
“I should also mention that the guildmaster wants to speak with you.”
Uh oh. Is he pissed about the fight?
“Is it by chance about the fight?” I queried.
“No nothing of the sort. In fact he was very entertained by it.”
Thank god… wait does this world have gods?
[Why yes it does!]
Hey! Get the hell out of my book! Go write your own!
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Per the advice of Jasko, I went to see the guildmaster. Where was the guildmaster, you ask? Well I found him in the guildhall, though calling it that might be a bit generous. I had only set foot in it one other time when Jasko and I had first encountered the sandworm, and when I first saw the building I thought it was just a large house.
“Hell of a way to christen your spear young hunter!” came boisterous laughter as I stepped into the glorified mudhut.
“Yeah not my proudest moment.” I laughed. “I was told you wanted to talk?”
“That would be correct, Max.” he said, taking on a somewhat serious tone. “Come. Sit with me.” he said as he gestured to a table near an archway leading into another room. Oddly enough, there was a single chair, though it looked pretty beat up.
I guess girtablilu really don’t use them.
I sat down across from the guildmaster who had taken a resting position, sort of like that thing horses do, but with all eight legs.
“So what’s all this about?”
The guildmaster closed his eyes, as if in thought, before sighing. “Well Max, what are your plans? You’ve been here in the village for just about two weeks, and none of us are under any illusion that you intend to stay here. If you want to stay, then I’m more than happy to welcome you as a village hunter, but if you do want to leave, then I want to at least send you in the right direction.”
…
“I’d like to continue learning magic, Darman. I don’t know much about how runes work, but I see potential in learning all I can.”
“Hmm. Magic huh? Becoming a proper magus would definitely benefit you, but you’ll need to travel pretty far if you want to find a good teacher or school. Still got that map on you?”
I nodded, as I pulled out the map and placed it on the table for us to see.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“What you’ve got here is a map of Poporeos — the country we’re in right now. And we-” he pointed to the south of the country. “-are in Dilanja. Right here. It’ll be about two month’s travel on foot to the next major town-” he pointed to a town just to the north. “-right here. That’s Tokal. It’s right on the edge of the desert, and once you’re there, you ought to be able to catch a caravan heading north.” he dragged his finger along a path on the eastern edge of the country. “What you want is to make your way to Elion. That’s the closest place you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for. I hear they’ve got a big school for aspiring magi, and I’m sure they’d let an outworlder in for the novelty alone.”
“I guess that settles it then. I’ll head out as soon as I can. Is there anything I should know for traveling in the desert beyond traveling at night and keeping hydrated?”
I really hope I don’t encounter any more sandworms.
“Cast as little as possible. Water for hydration only. If you cast too much, then you’ll only make yourself easier prey.” he warned.
“Any particularly dangerous animals?”
“Most predators are gonna keep their distance from you if they sense your mana at all, but it’s the lupien and the sunagmy you wanna worry about. A lupien’ll stalk you and only go for the kill when you least expect it. Then you’ll be an easy meal.” he explained. “And as for sunagmy, you already know.”
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I mentally prepared myself that night. Enrolling at a magical academy, while enticing, was also a daunting task as I had to cover quite a lot of land just to get to one. After I said my goodbyes — Nailah was not happy about this — I took inventory again.
Still got the screwdriver, my clothes from Earth, my phone (55%), my wallet, and some extra clothes that the village had given me. They couldn’t quite figure out pants, so I guess they went for something closer to a lightweight kilt. The tunic is also very light and airy, perfect for desert travel. I’ve got the map, armor, and spear. And in addition to that, I’ve also got a travel sack of sorts and a set of support stakes wrapped in a tent cloth with a back strap sewn on. Those were from Darman and his wife who I had not been able to meet.
The armor covered my chest, shoulders, biceps, and waist in loose rust-colored chitin plates. The spear had a wooden shaft that tapered into a three inch flat oar-like shape for an as of yet unknown purpose, and the spearhead was a single straight-edged blade that started flared at the bottom and tapered into a razor point at the tip. The chitin blade was fused to the wooden shaft in such a way that I couldn’t tell where wood ended and chitin began. There was a pair of feathers tied where you might expect the spearhead to attach to the shaft. The feathers were a light brown, almost tan, with black horizontal stripes.
I looked into the sky again as I set off, wondering where Earth might be out in that iridescent abyss. I didn’t recognize any of the stars or constellations. I wonder if my family and friends even know I’m gone. Did I leave a body? Did I even die?
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Alright readers, I won’t lie here. It’s a desert. I’m not going to explain in excruciating detail every moment of the trip. Though there were some pretty good sights along the way, like the mountains in the distance that seemed to be ever present as I traveled north. I also saw some strange animals occasionally, like those weird featherless birds I mentioned in chapter three. They were kinda like flying lizards, or bats? I couldn’t really tell. They had scales on their backs, but they had hair between the scales, giving them a strangely fuzzy appearance. As to the function of the hair, I couldn’t say. Their wings were membranous, and they were quite large. A vulture analog perhaps?
I also saw some desert plants along the way, and many of them were similar to Earth’s plants. I even saw what looked like a cactus. Coincidence? I think so! Convergent evolution is a bitch like that sometimes.
I also occasionally heard the sand shift behind me, only to find nothing when I turned around.
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“Create water.” I cast. Gotta stay hydrated! I had been getting pretty good with making water, and I had decided that when I got to Tokal, I would experiment with making some spells. I had also been thinking of a spell to use if I ended up needing a bit of extra firepower in a fight. I had come up with ‘penetrate target’. Something like that would be much easier to control than just saying whatever came to mind.
The sands shifted again behind me. I immediately turned around to hopefully catch the perpetrator, but still found nothing. The clouds covering my moonlight didn’t help at all. I decided that my life was worth more than my phone battery, as I turned on the flashlight and did a sweep around myself.
Oh fuck that is a creature.
This thing was about the size of a wolf, but that’s where the similarities ended. Its whole body was covered in feathers that seemed to rapidly shift in color when my flashlight exposed it. The creature had a sharp beak that seemed to be lined with teeth as it opened its mouth to make a strange hissing sound, likely a threat display. The other end of the creature featured a wide array of tail feathers that fanned out as the rest of the feathers on its body pricked up and made it look a bit larger.
The sudden appearance of this thing gave me quite the startle, prompting me to pull the proverbial trigger on the gun that was my penetrate spell. Stabby would not do in this situation if I couldn’t see what I was swinging or stabbing at.
I grabbed a fistful of my mana and gave it the old same-day shipping. “Penetrate target!”
I could feel the mana pass through my chest, through my arms, and out of my hands as I held my light steady on the creature. My hands emitted bright motes of white light as an invisible force punched a hole right in the feathery bastard’s chest.
I took a step back, suddenly winded, but not in pain. I wheezed briefly before catching my breath and looking over the creature that was now seizing up on the sand. I took Stabby and plunged it right into the spine of the creature, killing it instantly. The feathers immediately lost all color and turned a stark white as it lay dead in the sand.
I stared at the creature, my thoughts still catching up to me as killing something so big so intimately isn’t something your average college sophomore is familiar with. When I had finally processed everything, I decided to attempt to skin the creature, and laid its pelt feather side down in the sand, as I set my tent up and waited for daybreak when I would sleep while the pelt hopefully dried out. It would be crude, but I had thought that I might be able to sell it, since I had no money.
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I folded up my hoodie and placed it on part of the tent cloth that I had left draped on the sand so that I could have a pillow that wouldn’t be full of sand when I decided to wear it later.
I cleaned the blood from Stabby as I prepped to lie down, setting it on the ground next to me. I checked my phone battery one more time before shutting it down to conserve what little I had.
Wait what. I could have sworn it was at like 50% or something.
I was perplexed as the phone now read 78%.
Hang on. I had my phone in my hand when I cast that spell.
…
Holy shit.