Duncan was feeling a lot better with his stomach full of stew and thirst quenched by a beer but was still looking miserable as he checked he had 22 hours to go.
Wazsh looked at him staring into the void and commented, “You need to distract yourself with something. Come with me into the garden and let’s do some weeding.”
Duncan reluctantly raised his bottom from the chair and followed Wazsh out of the kitchen. Once there Wazsh showed him which patch of vegetables he should work on. Duncan had to admit it was kind of relaxing breathing in the fresh air while doing gardening work.
After about an hour he finished his designated patch and Wazsh directed him to another. It was kind of monotone but at least he was not counting the seconds and time seemed to flow faster.
“Wazsh, you said the people here have been basically living a routine for over 150 years. How come no one noticed?” Duncan asked after a while.
Wazsh touched his luscious mustache and thought for a while before he responded, “For me, gardening helped. The plants need a lot of time to grow and you can see some progress. You improve on what you do and how you do it with time. I don’t know how others didn’t notice. I for sure did.”
“It’s weird,” Duncan said.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it has anything to do with my employer,” Wazsh replied.
“What do you mean?” Duncan asked.
“You are how old?” Wazsh asked.
“I am 22,” said Duncan.
“You are probably too young to notice but when your life is a routine, your days kind of melt together. Months or even years pass you by like days. What seems like yesterday happened 10 years ago. I guess that is one thing all sapient beings have in common,” Wazsh explained.
Duncan frowned at that before replying, “I think my mother talked to me once about that. That her days just seem to pass her by without any memories formed.”
“Yeah. Something like that,” Wazsh confirmed before he said, “Now stop loitering about and get back to work!”
“I might be dying in the other world and you want me to be energetic?” Duncan asked.
Rolling his eyes Wazsh retorted, “When I was on your planet, I met a lot of interesting people. One of them was a poet. Well, I met a lot of your poets but I remember a poem from this one.”
“From the present the future
seems like infinite choices.
Take me, take me,
they offer their voices.
The past are echoes
of choices not taken,
the screams of choices,
you have forsaken.
Your choices before,
might have been wrong,
ignoring the echoes
is what makes you strong.
Ignoring the echoes,
the strong rush ahead,
never stopping
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
until they are …”
“You are not dead yet, so stop moping around and pull out those weeds!” Wazsh shouted after reciting it.
Duncan quietly nodded and got back to work. Vegetable patch after a vegetable patch was left without weeds as hours passed in stillness.
“Time for a break! You can check the time now!” Wazsh suddenly yelled.
“As long as you don’t recite another poem,” Duncan replied and came out from the greenery.
He checked the time and he had 16 hours remaining. His head stopped hurting a while ago too so he decided to do some more reading to pass the time even faster.
“Want a cold one?” Wazsh asked him and got him out of his thoughts.
“Sure, thank you,” Duncan replied and got handed a nice cold bottle.
After he drank it, he made his way into his room and laid down on the bed, and started reading again. He finished the bestiary books and made no level-ups in any of his skills. The books were progressively thinner as the number written on the volumes increased.
What surprised Duncan was the number of beasts he knew from Earth’s folklore. Griffins, dragons, and wyverns were just the latest surprises in the last of the books. Volume twelve could have been justifiably renamed to ‘A guide to the types of Dragons’ as basically dragons were all it talked about.
Most of the information on higher levels was speculation and hearsay, whereas before there were actual characteristics and measurements of the beasts clearly defined. Sometimes even detailed drawings were present presenting the fauna of this world in all its glory.
“They really went all out,” Duncan mumbled as he put the last bestiary on the already-read book pile.
He was still feeling alright and decided to do one more.
He picked up the ‘Meditation for beginners’ even though he was conflicted about the one about mana manipulation. Activating his Reading skill, the information was prepared for his brain and the Learn skill added the new information.
Reading skill stayed the same but the Learn skill leveled up and also brought the Meditation skill to his repertoire. The images of breathing exercises were imprinted in his mind together with the vague descriptions of gathering mana from his surroundings.
He checked the notifications and saw Meditation added stats to just Wisdom and he was not impressed. Of course, he tried the new knowledge right away, and other than making the area around his stomach feel painful it did nothing.
“Well, it beats zero gain at least,” he sighed in disappointment.
He checked the time and he had 13 hours remaining. Feeling kind of hungry he went downstairs to bother Wazsh about some food.
Duncan saw Wazsh at the kitchen table stuffing himself with an unfamiliar dish.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Just some venison meat with vegetables. I think your people called it stir fry. Want some?” Wazsh replied.
“Sure. Let me have a taste,” Duncan said and sat down. He knew Wazsh always made more than one serving and he was not disappointed as a plate appeared on the table.
It smelled delicious and Duncan picked up a fork and started gobbling it up. It was hot and also a bit spicy but the taste of unfamiliar vegetables really went well together with the venison.
The only thing Duncan could recognize was the cabbage. The violet-colored pieces that tasted like paprika were something he never tasted before. Some things inside the dish tasted like carrots but were star-shaped and some very spicy tiny orange balls of flame.
Duncan bit through one of the orange balls and his eyes moistened up. Wazsh saw his expression and smiled.
“I see you discovered the Zynnian equivalent of chili,” he said as he smiled.
“You could have warned me,” Duncan said.
“Where is the fun in that? Don’t worry I have a basic antidote and healing potion on hand,” Wazsh said and laughed.
“What’s it called?” Duncan said breathing through his mouth which only made it burn more.
“They call it the Fireberry. It fits, doesn’t it,” Wazsh said and continued eating.
“Yeah, it fits… Do you have any milk?” Duncan mumbled out.
“Here you go. You wimp,” Wazsh said and put a non-branded bottle of milk on the table.
Duncan opened it and swished the contents over his tongue to stop the Fireberries from burning.
"That would be 3 bronze coins," Wazsh said and offered his palm. Duncan fished out 3 bonze coins that quickly disappeared.
He avoided all the other fireberries still hidden inside the stir fry and made a pile of them on the edge of his plate. Duncan looked at Wazsh’s plate and noticed he ate them all.
“You must enjoy spicy food,” Duncan said.
Wazsh sighed, “I do but I can’t get a substitute here for sfeng, this is the closest I got and it’s merely a bland copy of it.”
“Sfeng?” Duncan asked.
“Ah yes, you can call it Gormian chili pepper,” Wazsh explained.
Duncan shook his head. He could not imagine how hot that chili was if this was just a bland copy. Maybe on par with the famous Carolina Reaper or Bhut Jolokia. He was sure of one thing; he would not want to try it.
“Maybe I can bring some pepper seeds back of things that should be similar to sfeng,” Duncan said. He figured a few seeds were small enough for his transfer slot.
“Ahh, that would be very nice of you, I got the cabbage the same way, but that guy didn’t want to bring more stuff over,” Wazsh replied.
“Why not?” Duncan asked.
“He said he needs the slot for his medicine,” Wazsh replied.
“Medicine?”, Duncan asked.
“He never explained what it is but it was a white powder he snorted off the table every now and then,” Wazsh explained.
“I see,” Duncan said trying not to laugh, “What about the others? He was not the only one you met”
“I only found out you could do that, just before all the adventurers left for the war,” Wazsh replied.
“So, adventurers joined that war too?” Duncan asked.
“Well, the later stages. When I and I suppose the mayor came here the war was already going on for several years. Most of the high-level warriors were already recruited and adventurers left as soon as they were confident enough, that they would survive,” Wazsh explained.
Duncan nodded. He checked the time and he had 12 hours and 23 minutes to go. He decided to go back to reading, so he thanked Wazsh for the meal and left for his room.