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- "This was my day-to-day life for hundreds of years, traveling through an infinity of different worlds. Hoping one day to finish, which never happened."
It was the second day of our arrival in this world; we were still on our way north together, Hunter and I were still searching for signs of life and the panorama had not changed too much, just more sand and rocks. We had been walking for some time now, and inevitably, Hunter was going to get hungry; I had to sacrifice one of my legs several times to keep him alive.
- "Hey, your leg tastes good; the palace chefs could prepare it as a gourmet dish."
- "You've had about three of those already; I see the witch was right about your species; they are simply savage gobblers of human flesh."
- "Humans are delicious, so get used to giving me more of your extremities. Speaking of that witch, do you know each other?
- "By face and name only; I was talking about what happened in the elections; you said you remembered it clearly, but I see you don’t."
- "Hmph... What did you expect? I'm roasting under this hellish sun, you moron, and this damned beast fur doesn't help."
- "Transform to human form and problem solved; I saw you doing it in the elections."
To which Hunter responded by directing his gaze towards me
- "Ah, yes, of course I would, but SOMEONE destroyed A CERTAIN talisman that did just that."
- "You mean this thing?”
- I took the piece of talisman out of my right pocket and showed it to Hunter.
- "!!!!!"- In one erratic movement, Hunter yanked my hand away with the talisman in it.
I stood there watching my blood drain for a few seconds from my wrist until my hand began to regenerate.
- "You just would have asked for it, beast"
- "TO HELL WITH IT!"
- Hunter said to me as he put the talisman around his neck.
The earth shook, and several souls escaped from within the talisman, imbibing Hunter.
A lot of energy was released until suddenly, the talisman burst into flames, setting Hunter's fur on fire instantly.
- "AAAAAAAAAA FUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK EXTINGUISH IIIIIIIIIIITTT!"-
Using my elemental creation ability, I created an enormous drop of water on Hunter, extinguishing Hunter's body flames.
- "YOU DUMB SHIT! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"- Hunter claimed to me. To which I replied.
- Why did you tear my hand off in the first place?
- "Very funny... Now tell me, smarty-pants, why the fuck didn't my talisman work?"-
- "I know many things, but I could only make several hypotheses about it; the talisman had souls inside, didn't it? The energy the travel between worlds is the same as souls; you must be soaked in that energy after the trip."
- "AND WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO TRANSFORM!"
- "I don't know, you'll have to wait; Isn’t that what you wanted at Lydenfrost, right?"
- "LYDENFROST IS LYDENFROST, DON'T COMPARE IT HERE"
- "You know so little about your own world"
- "Huh? what do you-?" - Hunter's sentence was interrupted by seeing the horizon and spotting a change in the landscape in the distance, a place with abundant vegetation.
But that it didn't connect to another place...
It could be.
- AN OASIS?!- Hunter exclaimed, getting on all fours and heading out on all fours towards the oasis.
This madman better rest: it will be dark in a couple of hours anyway; I'll let him enjoy himself alone; I'll be there in a few minutes.
It had been a while since I had been alone, and I could now have some time to review my plans; number one, I needed to check if I could fully or partially repair my bracelet so we don't wander aimlessly; number two, keep him alive until we reach The Origin, and number three appease him a bit until things clear up.
Thirty minutes after Hunter had gone ahead of me, I arrived at the oasis; it was full of vegetation, and I even found some fruit trees that I had seen before in other worlds.
It wasn't that hard for me to find Hunter; he was taking a dip to relieve his heat right in front of me, in the water reservoir.
- "We will spend the night here; I will prepare a shelter and light a fire."
- "At last, you arrive, four-eyes!"- Hunter answered me, floating belly-up on the surface
- "It will get dark soon; you'd better get out of there if you don't want to freeze."
- "Pff whatever, I'll stay here; you better have the campfire ready when I arrive."
- "I will take your suggestion into account."
- "Suggestion? IT IS AN ORDER!"
Night fell, and I managed to get a shelter ready for the two of us made, with the materials I had on hand, nothing that some vines, old wood, and some leaves wouldn't solve.
I made sure that the shelter was strong enough to physically and psychologically withstand the wayward beast.
Speaking of the devil, he decided to show up just now, soaking wet and shivering from the cold.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
- "You decided to finally show up, sit down, I have stew ready"
Hunter didn't say a word, the crackling sound of the campfire; he just sat down and helped himself to some stew, and when we finished eating, Hunter finally decided to mumble something to himself.
- "You were right. I should have listened to you.”
- "There is no such thing as "should have" Hunter. It is doing or not doing that makes the difference."
- "What did you mean... Before"
- "Mh?"
- "What did you mean I don't know anything about Lydenfrost? I've lived there all my life; you have no idea what you're talking about” -
- "Well, you didn't know that Lydenfrost had a desert in the first place or that behind the border of the dome, there is a fiery hell."
- "Bullshit! And how do you know that with such certainty!? NO ONE has crossed the border."
- "Information from the "Ones from Above," they send that to me every time I arrive in a new world. What, now you pretend you want to know?"
Hunter nodded slightly, looking genuinely intrigued if we didn't count the layers of grief, he had on his face because of what had happened.
- "Okay...
- “If you wish...just imagine...”
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A planet so close to its star that its surface would vaporize anyone instantly, until one day, the "Ones from Above" sent a meteor that impacted the planet's surface. This possessed a kind of crystal that was distributed in the crater, creating a dome where life could take place.
Thousands of years passed, and the terrain split into rings, one higher than the other, until it reached the border of the icy mountains. Each is a unique biome and its respective creatures.
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Hunter, surprised, said to me.
- "V-wow...Incredible..."
- "I visited most of the kingdoms; I know your world from end to end."
- "Stop bragging and tell me more about before the cataclysm. If you vanish at night, I'll never know what happened, so TELL IT NOW!"
- "If you insist..."
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I returned to my little base in the middle of the forest to finally finish my work for the day and send my soul to my bosses.
I inserted the soul into the tube in my right hand, and the screen of my bracelet showed an interface where I could see the data of the soul I was sending.
When I was done reviewing the soul data, I pressed the "Submit" button and immediately extended my right arm upwards. From it came a concentrated ray of the soul in question, transcending dimensions and illuminating the heavens with that phosphorescent green color characteristic of souls.
A couple of hours later, I received my next mission, I would show you now, but my bracelet doesn't work.
It said something like, "Excellent work today, Mr. Spacetime.
Your "harvest" will be used to improve the future of this and other worlds.
We have again credited 24 more hours of life to your "Moebius Bracelet" so that you can continue to enjoy your Conditional Immortality."
A text that they always send. I have read it thousands of times.
After that was what really mattered, my next objective.
In this case, they decided that I would harvest a Central Beast Kingdom mole beast named Leqkyu, a renowned engineer who had been working lately with the Reptilians, who, as I understand it, did not get along very well with those from the Central Kingdom.
The Central Beast Kingdom, known to be the most important economic and political power in the region, consists of 3 subregions suspended above the watery ring of Lydenfrost, a floating city built on what was left of that meteor with three bridges connecting each of the sub-kingdoms to the second ring.
A metropolis made by and for mammalian beasts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hunter suddenly interrupted me.
- "I've lived there all my life; why would you even tell me that?".
- "I don't know to what extent you don't remember"
- "I have a fuzzy memory, not idiotic, but continuous."
- "..."
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After a 6-hour carriage ride to the second ring and a walk of another 3 hours, I arrived at the Central Beast Kingdom, where giant walls greeted me just like other kingdoms in this region, along with four burly Beast guards guarding the entrance, from what I had read on the road, the Beasts are very territorial just like their animal counterparts, they only tolerate their own kind, and thus, I had to camouflage myself.
I used my townie garb to try and pass as one of them physically; they are similar to humans, except they have animal vestiges such as ears, tails, an out-of-the-ordinary stature, and more body hair. I did my best to hide my humanity by covering my entire body, leaving only my face uncovered with small fox ears that I generated on top of my head.
I was crossing the drawbridge when one of the guards realized my true identity and raised the alarm to hunt me down.
"HUMAN INTRUDER, HUMAN INTRUDER, GUARDS, GET HIM!" -exclaimed the guards, as I tried to run away as fast as I could
I opted to sneak into an alley; the guards followed me, as expected; I knocked them out with a sneaky punch straight to the head; I remember piling them up against a wall.
Fortunately, there is a tavern nearby, so no one would be suspicious of some passed-out guards.
I realized that my beast costume had a flaw, I may have looked like a beast, but I didn't smell like one.
The good thing is that I now had 4 unconscious beasts and their stinky clothes. It wasn't very pleasant, to say the least.
Back to the mission, due to the ambiguity of the message from the "Ones from Above," I had to look for information on the whereabouts of my next victim by other means and decided to enter the tavern to see what I could find.
As I opened the tavern's doors, I was greeted by a strong smell of beer and other types of liquor; I remember it was lively, with live music, the barkeep dispensing drinks, and the rest of the people enjoying the atmosphere.
Being in there, I walked over to the bar, ordered a couple of drinks, and went to sit at an empty table in the corner of the room, where I took in the sight of the beasts around me.
I saw all kinds of beasts in there, young, old, beautiful, ugly, skinny, tight, female, male, tall and short.
I then noticed a group sitting at one of the tables in the center of the tavern, consisting of a bear beast, a fox beast, and an owl beast.
And I remember they were dressed in extravagant clothes, so much so that they stood out from the rest of the beast villagers; I saw them eating and drinking and looked like they had known each other for a long time.
Probably, they were adventurers. I decided to watch them some more until I saw something that really interested me; the bear beast pulled out a scroll, and they seemed to be on a mission to something.
I finally decided to approach them.
"Nice place for the prices they have, don't you think?" -I told them charismatically as I approached them.
The bear beast put the scroll away, and the three beasts looked at me.
"Do I know you from somewhere? Do you guys know this guy?” – said the bear beast
"Nope."- replied the fox beast.
"Not at all."- Said the owl beast.
Seriously, the bear beast addressed me.
"Talk fast; what do you want?"
"I am not here to harm you; I am simply looking for someone with whom I have unfinished business, and I thought you adventurers might know him."
"And who told you that we are adventurers" - Said the fox beast.
"I could see it; you do not try to hide it; you stand out among all this beastliness; now what I was coming to"
I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket; On it, there was an illustration of Leqkyu's face, and in one quick motion, I put it on the table.
The adventurers took the paper, and each looked at it in detail.
"You see, I'm a bounty hunter, and I've been tasked with this guy, and I wanted to know if you've seen him around. They say he works with the reptilians. If you help me, I will give you a good share of the reward.”
The bear beast, seeing that I was being serious, looked at me and spoke to me again.
"We do not know him, but if he is so related to the reptilians, surely we will meet him in the future; come sit down."- The bear beast told me - "First of all, tell us who you are."
"My name is Spacetime, coming from the fifth ring of Lydenfrost; as I said before, I am a bounty hunter traveler looking to take down the one which I showed you before along with reptilian swill that plagues your kingdom; nice to meet you."
The other three looked at each other and nodded slightly before telling me.
"Mine is Shizar, of the third ring of Lydenfrost, legendary adventurer and leader of this group." -said the bear beast
"My name is Lumi, archmage of the seventh ring of Lydenfrost, adventurer for a year, in charge of the tactics and magical power of the group. -said the owl beast
"They call me Saaden, of the sixth ring of Lydenfrost, a born thief and adventurer thanks to these two who rescued me." -said the fox beast
Shizar pulled me close to the center of the table and whispered to me.
"And we, like you, have been hired by the nobility for only one thing. Exterminate this reptilian plague once and for all."