I took a few seconds to adjust my thinking so that I could clearly remember. According to Einstein, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” In fact, physicists had theorized that the physical universe existed because we perceived it. It was a sort of mass hallucination that we used to make sense of the mathematical relationships of objects.
For example, my father had a pink corvette for a few days. He thought it looked cool until someone told him it was actually not red like he thought. “I really should not have asked him what matched before going to school,” I murmured to myself. “Good thing I didn’t inherit the color-blind gene.”
That reminded me of my second wife. She could see a lot of color differences that were imperceptible to me. Then again, women, on average, could often see more hues and tints than men.
Just like sight, smells were even more susceptible to interpretation. If I walked into a truly horrible smell, it would be almost like walking into a wall of air that I could not go through easily. This could also apply to creatures, theoretically.
What if a creature was made out of various lighter-than-air gasses. A wall of water would be a solid wall to that creature while we could walk right through. Perhaps ghosts were creatures that actually existed but were made of some special type of substance.
Probably not. They were more likely an existence from another plane of existence or spiritual energy that had yet to dissipate. Then again, I had never believed in ghosts, although they might exist in the new world I had entered. “That would be interesting,” I muttered to myself. “Anyway, back to illusionary reality.”
I remembered that there was an experiment where electrons passed through two slits. If no one observed, each electron would act like they had gone through both slits and would land in one of four areas. However, if observed, the electron would only land in two areas. The particles of light acted as if they knew when they were being observed and changed what they would do if no one was watching.
There was another theory that said that every particle was actually only one particle that was going back and forth in time and through multiple dimensions. That would mean that everyone was connected, which might also explain the double slit experiment. I wasn’t sure that I believed that, however. I couldn’t imagine acting the way I had seen other people act before no matter what circumstances I had been through.
Of course, there was also Bostrom’s theory. It theorized that the universe was a massive simulation. That was looking a little more believable to me after crossing over. I even had a “game system” with levels and everything. Maybe there was a glitch, or someone really liked me in one game and decided to add me to another game.
If that were true, then the gods in this world would not be real gods but might only be computer programs that ran the server that maintained the planet. Of course, the gods on this planet might actually be the “real” people who were playing the “game of fantasy world” where they were the gods. That would mean that everyone else, including myself, were artificial intelligences. If that was the case, maybe I could find a way to escape this reality and download my consciousness into a “real” body.
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Shivering at the thought, I tried not to think about it and murmured, “Let’s think about something else. Things are getting too metaphysical. Let’s stick with Descartes. ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Also, if I was an artificial intelligence, there might be dozens of me running around out there. I’m sure reality would cease to exist if there were more than one of me.”
Banishing those mind disturbing thoughts to the recesses of my brain, I concentrated on the present. For example, there was a small party of kobold scouts quickly approaching my position. Standing up, I waved to them as I started walking toward the kobolds.
“Please check their belongings for any orders, such as who told them to come here,” I told the kobolds. While I was hopeful, they would already think about looking for the documents I wanted to make certain. After all, I somehow doubted a group of mercenaries would be hired at the same time as the visiting kobold ambassador.
Not really wanting to stick around, I flew up into the air and started toward Chuck Norris Bridge with Alsvartr flying behind me. This time I wasn’t going to leave her. If the other kobolds had a problem with her being with me, they could deal with it.
By the time I got close, I noticed Geyma in the distance and landed. Seeing me, she rushed up and looked at me as if looking for any injuries. Not seeing any, she said, “Hurry, head home. While I know you discovered the approaching army, you need to head back and let us take care of it. We are going to lay some traps to slow them down.”
“No need,” I said with a smile. “They are all already dead. I took care of them.”
She was so surprised that she didn’t even react when Alsvartr swooped down and landed next to me. I quickly put my hand on my familiar’s head to let her know the tenebrous bat wasn’t dangerous, at least not to her. After a moment, she looked ready to say something, but she ended up remaining silent.
Finally, she asked, “What? Wait? You took care of them?” She looked at me again, as if unsure she could trust her ears. She stared at me in confusion and clearly had no idea what to say.
I watched for a moment, enjoying the fact that I had rendered her speechless. Still, I only enjoyed it for a moment before weariness started to settle in again. “I’m going to my room,” I said tiredly. Now that I was safely back in the city, it felt like I had been drained of all my energy. I was exhausted. Because of this, I trudged through the tunnels back to my room.
When one of the ambassador’s servants peeked out his door but quickly retreated and shut the door when I noticed him. I was so tired that I didn’t even take notice of which caregiver was standing outside my door. I just nodded to her absently and entered my own room. My limbs felt heavy as I climbed onto the bed. It didn’t even occur to me to fly instead. I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
When I woke up the next morning, there was a pile of magic items and gold coins in the middle of the floor. I couldn’t believe it. I quickly leaped off the bed. I was amazed by how many trinkets Dróttinn had brought me. “Yippie” I yipped as I dove into the pile of treasures and started to make a magical item snow or sand angel. Of course, I ignored the bruises and scratches I received. Just being able to swim in treasures was worth such minor discomforts.
Unfortunately, the novelty soon wore off and I reluctantly decided to get serious. That was the moment when I realized that I was going to have to cast the Identify spell again and again on each and every item. A small sob escaped my lips before I decided that was the price I was going to have to pay for power.
Fortunately, my firm resolution wasn’t needed. Whoever had brought the magic trinkets had also labeled the items with small tags. I felt a surge of affection for whichever kobold had made the labels. Rubbing my clawed hands together, I looked around to see which item I would examine first.