Aria’s head pounded as the world came back to her. She looked around half-awake, starting when she saw the girl crouching a few feet from her.

The blonde haired girl had her back to Aria, seeming to keep an eye out from their nest in the bushes.

Aria took a few small moments to watch the girl before laying her exhausted body back against the cool earth. Everything ached, and her head pounded like a drum.

“Argh.” Aria groaned, letting her companion know she was awake.

She didn’t have to fake her discomfort. Everything hurt. The hundreds of micro-tears in her muscles had healed as she slept, but the larger wounds were still rearing their painful heads, letting her know she’d overdone it.

“You’re already awake?” Came the surprised voice of the girl she’d saved.

Aria opened her green eyes. Tilting her head to smile up at the girl. “Thanks for keeping an eye out.” She stuck her hand out over her head, still lying on her back. “I’m Aria.”

The girl’s cheeks lit with a slight blush as she looked away. “Where are your clothes?”

Aria faltered, turning her gaze back down to her bloody and dirt smeared, but still entirely naked, body. “Oh, I’m new. Didn’t spawn with any.”

Aria shrugged like it was the most natural thing in the world, flexing her core into a sitting position. Her head flared, causing her to immediately tip back over, the bushes around her spinning.

“Argh…” Aria groaned as the world spun around her. “It feels like the worst fucking hangover I’ve ever had.”

Her companion's voice came then. “It’s mana burn. You must’ve overdone it in the fight with the werewolf. I’m Senna, by the way.”

Aria remembered then, her recent actions crashing back into her mind. “That’s right. What happened to that thing?”

“I think it ran.” Senna responded, her voice unsure.

“That’s probably a good outcome then.” Aria looked at Senna, smiling.

The girl seemed a little older than herself. Her clothes were bloody. Twigs and dirt clotted in her rich blonde hair. Her clothes were shredded and bloody, they practically fell apart where the fabric was shredded on her back. A sword sat sheathed at her waist. The young woman looked every part of a medieval swordswoman.

Senna seemed to have a hard time looking at Aria, making Aria a little bit more aware of her current clothing situation. Aria had never been a prude, but neither was she an exhibitionist. Senna’s strange looks made her feel all the more aware of her current nudist situation.

“Sooo…” Aria started. “You wouldn’t happen to have any extra clothes by any chance, would you?”

The blonde woman shook her head, making Aria sigh.

“Yeah, I figured. How’d you even get in this situation?”

A dark cloud came over Senna’s face at the question. “Percy.”

The woman practically spat the words, every syllable dripping with venom.

Aria tilted her head, pondering. “So, what happened? Have a fallout with a werewolf lover or something?”

Senna turned her glare onto Aria, cooling slightly after a moment. Then she sighed. “No. Have you ever heard of the De’muth family.”

Aria shook her head, and Senna continued.

“The scion of the house fancies me, so he invited me to hunt with him. Nobles have means of gaining power and combat experience like none others. Prime hunting grounds, elixirs, protection from family security. It’s pretty much a dream for most commoners. So, I took him up on his offer.”

Aria listened raptly as Senna spoke, trying to soak in all the information she could about this strange new reality.

“Unfortunately for me, the guard sent to watch over the young scion is not a fan of mine. He thinks that I was just mooching from the kid.”

Aria smirked. “Isn’t that exactly what you were doing?”

Senna snapped at Aria. “No! I was…” But her fire seemed to die as quickly as it had risen. “Well, yes. But, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Aria giggled. “I’m not accusing you. I’d have done the same. If there’s an easy way to do things, take it. But, I’ve also learned that there is always a catch. Always.”

Senna seemed a small bit taken aback by how serious Aria got when she said those final words. She ponderingly mumbled them to herself. “There’s always a catch.”

Aria continued Senna’s story for her. “So, it was all easy going until the noble’s security found a way to hang you out to dry, he took it, sent a werewolf chasing after you, no doubt making up some excuse for the boy not to help, aaaand that’s about when we ran into each other. Pretty much sum it up?”

Senna looked seriously at Aria, seeming slightly less guarded. Finally, her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”

Aria nodded. “So, was it worth it? I mean, did you gain a lot like you thought you would?”

Senna stared at Aria, disbelieving. “I almost died!”

“Sure, but did you advance faster like you wanted? Was the risk worth it? Did you steal any of their gear? Maybe some of those elixirs you were talking about?”

Aria’s tone was casual, like she was chatting about any old thing, but her words hit Senna, seeming to make her anger flare again.

“I’m not some common thief! I’m not going to steal from the nobles! That would be suicide if they found out!”

Aria shrugged. “Seems to me like they already tried to kill you, and if it weren’t for a lucky encounter with your friendly neighborhood streaker.” Aria pointed both thumbs at herself. “They’d’a succeeded.”

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Senna seemed to think about that. Her blonde eyebrows knitting in confusion.

“Don’t think too hard ‘bout it.” Aria lectured casually, slowly rising back to a sitting position. The world swam about in her vision, but she was able to overcome the short bout of instability.

“So?” Aria began casually. “Is there a city close then? I could use a guide.”

The blonde girl named Senna seemed to come back to herself at those words, a small frown stretching across her pretty, if somewhat dirty, features. “The city is a few days by cart from here.”

Hearing that, Aria changed tactics. “Well, what’s the nearest settlement? I could use a shower and some clothes.

Senna’s blonde eyebrows furrowed. “A shower?”

Aria faltered, her eyes flicking to the girl’s ‘medieval swordswoman’ clothing. Do they not have showers here?

“Yeah….” Aria tried again, a bit more haltingly. “Like a bath. Or maybe even a rub down with a warm washcloth? You have to have some way of getting clean, right?”

The blonde girl held Aria with an odd gaze. “Of course I take baths. You’re a very odd girl.”

Aria shrugged, “Sorry if that was disrespectful, haven’t spoken to anyone in a bit. I think I might still be a bit on edge.”

With her apology, Aria poked her head from the brambles that the two women were hiding under. “Been a rough few days, ya’know?”

Senna held Aria under her scrutinizing gaze for a few more seconds before turning away, nodding. “Yeah.” The other girl seemed to decide something as she looked back at Aria. “Wolftoad Hamlet. It’s a frontier town close to here. A resting place for the hunters who come after the creatures around here. We can go there, it’ll be safe enough.”

[The next bit might be a bit confusing. As I stated at the end of the previous chapter, the book is changing from a litrpg to a more cultivation style book. Going forward Aria will not have the ‘inquiry’ skill or any skills or classes. She doesn’t have a name for the creatures that she has been fighting. Again, I’m very sorry for the abrupt switch, but this will be, hopefully, the only big switch like this that the book goes through. So, to sum it up, no inquiry, no skills, no levels, Aria is lost as fuck.]

Aria nodded, looking interested. “Wolftoad? Are those the ugly fuckers with the sticky tongues?”

Senna looked slightly taken aback by something, but Aria had no idea what caused it.

“Umm, yes. They are indigenous to the rivers in this area.”

Aria nodded her understanding. “One of ‘em chewed me up pretty good. Nasty creatures. Taste like ass too.”

Senna snapped her eyes back to Aria, meeting her gaze, the blonde girl’s eyes were stern. “You ate one?”

Her question seemed innocent enough, but the tone made Aria feel like a kid who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Yes?” She ventured.

“Gods and goddesses, preserve my soul. Those things are poisonous! Incredibly poisonous. You’re lucky to still be alive!”

Aria nodded to herself. No wonder they tasted like shit and made me violently ill. Poisonous, huh?

“So.” Aria ventured. “If they’re so poisonous, why do people hunt them?”

Senna had said that there was an entire town dedicated and named after the hunters who went after the beasts. Do they make poisons or something?

Senna gave Aria a flat look. “Shamans and alchemists use their organs and blood in potions and elixirs. They are incredibly potent reagents.”

Aria jumped up at that. “So, if we hunt a couple on the way back, can you harvest the useful bits? I’m flat out broke, and if they have people in town who can use the materials, we could make some money, no?”

Senna’s confused expression fell to the verge of exasperation. “What are you doing out here anyway? If you didn’t even know that you could sell the harvested materials, are you just crazy?”

Aria felt a bit chastised by the other woman. She’s like my mom. Always making me feel like a bumbling kid. The thought of her mother made Aria’s nose scrunch slightly. They never had seen eye to eye on, well, anything.

“I’m just lost, okay?” Aria slightly snapped back. She didn’t mean to be venomous, but some slipped into the words anyway. Thinking of her mother always made Aria a bit irritated. But, Aria forced herself to calm, taking a couple deep breaths. It isn’t her fault, Aria, and she’s not your mother. No need to be rude.

“Look. I’ve been in the afterlife for only a few days, and I’ve already been chewed up, spit out, and run through the gauntlet of hell. I just want to have a nice soak and sleep in an actual bed.”

The blonde girl’s confusion seemed to deepen at Aria’s words. “The afterlife?”

Aria studied the other woman’s face for a moment. Not the afterlife then. Another world? Did I fall into some sort of portal, then? Is that even possible?

Aria didn’t know. But, she did know a way to find out.

“I’m just kidding.” Aria laughed awkwardly, feeling a bit lost. “But, where are we, then?”

Senna kept her eyes on Aria, the woman’s gaze searching her face. After a few long moments, she answered. “We are on the frontier of the Almuth Empire. The lands between Almuth and Brei.”

Aria nodded sagely, trying to keep her face placid while her mind screamed. I’m in another world? Another fucking world?! Am I in another dimension? Can I get back? How is this even possible? Are there more worlds than this one? Am I the only one to ever do such a thing?

The thoughts were endless, relentless. The questions came and went, but Aria had no answers. Her mind swam with the possibilities, the implications.

No, Aria, focus. She calmed herself down. Like Grandpa always said, “one step at a time, and the answers will come.”

Wait. Grandpa.

Aria looked down at the tattoo on the back of her hand. The tattoo that looked like the internal workings of a compass she’d been intimately familiar with on Earth. Grandpa disappeared without a trace years ago.

Was he here?

She pushed the thought away, but it lingered, just on the edge of her mind.

Aria silently thanked her new companion. Through all of Aria’s musings, she hadn’t interrupted, just keeping that expression of watching as Aria struggled with the new revelations.

Finally, Aria seemed to find her words. The last question burning in her mind. “What is the name of this world?”

Senna’s face twisted into an odd expression. Confusion, exasperation, pity, wariness, but despite that, she answered calmly. “Karth.”

The broken pieces in Aria’s mind fell into place. Hearth. All of her Grandfather's stories. Stories of heroes battling monsters in a magical land called Hearth. Stories of kings and emperors, of princesses and dragons, of battles between beings that could rock the heavens and Earth with their power.

They were real.

“What?” Senna’s voice snapped Aria back, and she realized she’d said the words aloud.

Aria cleared her throat. “Um, nothing. Just thinking of something.” She tried to stay calm, but her mind raced. She felt the power within her. A mix of darkness and light, a chorus hiding just under her skin. She flexed her will and the power obeyed, flowing at her command. She swirled it, focusing on it as her racing mind calmed. If grandpa is here,

I will find him.

Aria jumped back to her feet, the movement easier than it ever had been on Earth. She held a hand down to her blonde companion. “We were hardly introduced. I’m Aria, and I’m from another world.”