Chapter 2

I awoke in a straw bed covered in an itchy hemp blanket. I jolted up as if my life was in danger since I didn’t know where I was, but I immediately calmed down realizing that I made it into the village. I’m a morning person most of the time but after last night I’m having a hard time getting myself up. “Ah!” Remembering what happened with the weird panther boss I tried to turn and look at the spot on my back where he had scraped across.

“Eh? Just a large scar?”

That’s alarming. I must’ve been in a coma for who knows how long for it to heal to this extent.

At this point, I realized I don’t have any clothes on save for the few bandages wrapped around my chest and I’ve just been standing and staring at myself for the past few minutes in the middle of someone’s room. A bit embarrassed I search around to find that someone has neatly folded and placed my clothes on a wooden desk in the corner.

After dressing myself in what’s left of my shabby torn up clothes from running through a forest in the middle of the night, I start making my way outside the house. Just as I make my way outside the room, I hear some voices. There not quite loud enough to hear but by the tone you can definitely tell that one of them is angry and one of them is apologetic. I inch my way a bit closer trying not to make my presence known. I try to muffle my footsteps and stay behind cover.

[ Skill gained Stealth(Basic) ]

 ‘I’m really going to have to check out this system when I get out of here.’

Turning my focus back to the matter at hand, I notice that these aren’t humans. There a bit taller than an average human and they’re lightly furred everywhere except the head. They don’t have cat ears but normal human like ones. These two at least have fairly powerful builds. Not like body builders but more like a martial artist. At any rate I can hear their voices much more clearly now, but I have no idea what they’re saying. I try to remember some of the words but it’s in a weird guttural sound that’s really hard to produce.

The risks of getting caught listening to them here and the fact that there’s nothing to gain even if I do moves me outside. The air outside is rather chilly and it seems the sun has just barely risen. I’m amazed that I can see my breath in the air even though the surrounding forest has such a tropical feel to it. The sun is a red color and quite a bit bigger in the sky than back on Earth but apart from that it’s pretty similar. There is a bunch of other wooden houses around this area too.

Making my way through the village, I saw a few of these furred creatures and apart from a few curious looks most of them seemed to want to avoid me as if I might start attacking them randomly.

‘I guess the communication barrier is making this situation much more tense than it needs to be.’

Just then, I start some kind of delicious smelling meat reminiscent of a philly cheesesteak and I make my way over to its source. It turns out to be a food vendor and he looks at me questionably and says something in the same sounding language I heard earlier holding up a skewer of meat and some kind of vegetable while holding out his other hand as if to shake mine. My stomach starts growling in anticipation and I start salivating. I don’t know what he wants for the skewer but I have to eat. I must not have eaten in a very long time. I go to grab for the skewer and he scowls at me and pushes his other hand out like he’s trying to shake my hand again. I tentatively grab his hand and a message pops up.

[ Trade 10 points with ??? for ??? ]

Judging by the pop-up about classes earlier and the message now I guess the system won’t tell me something I don’t know or that im not qualified to know and what’s the deal with these ‘Points’? Either way I shake his hand. I can’t resist the smell of whatever this is anymore. I just hope it tastes as good as it smells.

[ Trade successful ]

[ Points remaining - 90 ]

This is by far the best tasting food I’ve ever eaten, but then again who knows how long it’s been since I’ve had anything and I’m completely starving at this point. The food thoroughly exceeded my expectations as the delicious meat quickly made its way into my belly. I just stood there dumbly in front of the vendor chewing. That can’t have been a flattering sight and it seems some more furred creatures have come up behind me and I was holding them up so the vendor made to shoo me away.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[ Skill gained Repli(Basic) ]

“Stop…line” I could suddenly hear him call out.

‘That should be pretty useful. I guess that makes there race Repli’s?’

Making my way back to the house I originally came out of I realized it was much bigger than the surrounding houses.

‘Must be the village chiefs’ house.’

 The pair of Repli’s that I saw arguing with each other earlier are now standing outside. It looks like they just recently noticed that I was gone.

“Was…fun…wander….village?” I could hear with a scowl.

Almost on instinct I tried to reply, “Yes, it was.” even though I could tell the one who had spoken was being sarcastic. The only thing that came out however was “Yes” and some unintelligible sounds.

With shock, they both widened their eyes, and so did I. I hadn’t been trying to say yes in their language but apparently I had.

“You…speak…?”

I couldn’t catch the latter half of that sentence but I knew he was asking me if I could speak their language.

“…much…little.” Is what ended up coming out of my mouth after trying a few different combinations of words.

After an hour or so of relatively unsuccessful attempts at talking to each other, since I couldn’t understand anything relatively complicated at all…

[ Skill Repli(Basic) has been upgraded to Repli(Intermediate) ]

“Finally…It looks like my Repli…skill has increased to a…level.”

I tried to say ‘conversational level’ but I guess the more complicated words haven’t been learned yet. Either way their eyes once again looked like saucers.

“What?”

“Ah, sorry we’re just… that you’re able to learn the skill so fast. Some of the others like you have… the same skill but they took a bit longer. Well that might also be because we didn’t let them talk with so many people. We were told that you were their leader so we wanted to wait for you to recover before any…were made.”

“Anyway, to try and start again my name is Lossa. I’m the chief in this village and this is my general Amlin.”

“How have you been feeling since you’ve woken up? I sent some of the villages best healers to work on you.”

The village chief had a broad chest and an upright posture befitting a typical leader. He carried himself well and had lots of ornamentation on him. The general, Amlin, next to him was quite the opposite. He had the same broad barrel shaped chest but was dressed much more simplistic and had a very rugged look to him. Clearly, someone used to combat.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Zach. I’ve been feeling incredibly well since I woke up, almost better than normal even. I’d like to thank you for taking care of me while I was injured. I wish there was more I could do to repay you.”

The village chief looked concerned. “Yeah, we almost thought you wouldn’t make it, but I’m glad to see you’re alive and well.”

 “Anyways, we’re aware that your lot is new to the Void Realm so you’d better get used to things quickly or you’ll end up food for something else. This brings us to the meat of the matter. First, I would like to explain. As you may or may not know the Void Realm is where everything goes once it reaches its end, not just sentient beings but everything, from stone, to air, and even dimensions. Once here it is absorbed into the Void Tower. No one knows why, or if they do, it might only be information passed around only on the upper layers of the Void Tower. Regardless everything comes here to the bottom layer 1st. In order to keep everything in the multiverse from piling up and becoming an endless pile of trash, all of the Player controlled areas move on to the next floor and anything left over dissipates. This happens every 28 days.”

Alarm seeps into my voice.

“So unless we move on we die? Damn…I thought we’d escaped the worst of it once we got away from those panther creatures.”

[ Quest – Escape the 1st Floor ]

[ Time remaining – ??? ]

[ Reward – Area Water Stone(Basic) ]

 “Many of your people already asked me if they could stay here with us but, unfortunately, that’s impossible. We are the appointed Guardians of this zone. We are the only things that remain behind once the Tower destroys what’s left over after Ascension. We’re only here to provide those new to the tower with some basic understanding. Any more than that and we’ll lose our status and have to climb the Tower ourselves.”

“So I’m going to have to establish my own area then. How do I go about doing so? Is it all those floating rocks in the sky?”

 “In order to establish an area of your own you simply go to one of the appointed monuments and activate it. Each one has its own individual requirement to fulfill. As for the floating masses in the sky, those are also someone’s area. They’ve already met the requirements and are just waiting for the end of the cycle. After wards it’s onto the next zone.”

“How long do we have until Ascension? If it’s every 28 days then we should have quite a bit of time left.”

“Ehhh, not quite. Sorry to say but you only have another 3 days. You were asleep most of the cycle so if you want to make it you’ll need to hurry.”

“Three days?! Shit I’m going to have to get moving. Where are the rest of the people who came with me?”

“For the ones that chose to wait this long for you, we’ve been having them stay in some quickly made huts just outside our outer perimeter. Let’s hurry. I’ll take you to them.”