Chương 9: A World Full of Magic and Wonder

Evan put on his new bracers. Their quality was [common], but at least they were comfortable. Now he just needed… well, everything else except underpants, basically. Including a new sword. Hopefully, he could buy one in Oliver's hometown. And hopefully, he would have enough money. Oliver had told him mana stones were used for several purposes, including as currency. His interface said he had 163 mana stones, but Evan had no idea what he could buy with 163 mana stones in this world.

Was that enough for a sword and all the other stuff he needed? If not, where would he get more money? He could try to kill and loot more monsters, but without a proper weapon, that would be tricky. Maybe he could try selling the remaining skill gems he still had. Oliver had said they were quite valuable. His companion was busy cleaning the sword they'd found on the corpse in the ruins, using the hem of his tunic to wipe it down. When he was done, he tried to hand it back to Evan.

"You keep it," Evan said. Before Oliver could protest, he continued.

"It's not a gift out of generosity. You're much better at using a sword than I am. You need to protect us on our way back to your village." Oliver looked uncertain, but Evan remained steadfast. Maybe he really needed to stop giving stuff away until he knew more about the economy of this world, but his reason wasn't flattery. Oliver might be a farm boy, but he at least looked like he'd handled a sword before.

All Evan knew about sword fighting came from that short phase during college when he'd dated a history major girl and binge-watched a bunch of historical TV shows with her. Hell, the first time he'd tried to use a sword in a fight, he'd somehow managed to break it. Yeah, if they ran into more monsters, Oliver would make much better use of the weapon than he could. With the mud golem slain, the way down the stairs that led out of the ruins and down the mountains was free. Evan threw one last glance at the ruins.

Even in their desolate state, the towers and walls, and buildings still looked beautiful, ethereal even. This place must've been awe-inspiring at its prime. He quickly considered asking Oliver to stay and explore a little longer, but then he remembered the corpse they'd found and that the beast that had killed that person might still be roaming around. Maybe he should improve his stats and skills more before he went on another treasure hunt. The thought surprised him. He shoved it out of his head.

He had no business planning treasure hunts. He needed to focus on his real goal: getting back to his own world. As fascinating as this world was, he couldn't afford to stay here any longer than necessary. He was needed back at home. His dad needed him, and his co-workers, too. His department was understaffed, and one of his colleagues was going on maternity leave soon. He needed to pick up some extra shifts to close the gaps in their roster.

His younger brother was starting college next semester and needed help moving into the dorm. And then there was the thing with Leah… she was pretty damn pissed with him, but maybe he could still fix things with her. It wasn't the first time she'd ended it, after all. No matter how tempting exploring this new world and all its wonders was, he needed to get home. People there needed him.

"Ready to go?" Oliver asked after he'd awkwardly fastened the sword to his belt.

"Yes, let's go. You said it isn't far, right?" With the adrenaline of the fight fading from his body, he started to feel his exhaustion.

"About half a day on foot," Oliver said. He looked up into the sky.

"I don't think we'll make it before nightfall. We better get going. I want to be on flatter terrain before it gets dark." They started their trek down the stairs. The steps snaking through the mountain were withered and smoothed, as if thousands of feet had worn them down over the years. Evan wondered if the stairs had been carved into the rock at the same time as those ruins had been originally built. What had Oliver called them again? Celestial ruins?

He remembered the very first message he'd received from his interface: Celestial token consumed.

"Oliver, do you know what a Celestial token is?" he asked, trotting after his companion.

"A Celestial token?" Oliver furrowed his brows, then shook his head.

"No, sorry. No idea. Why?"

"My ledger said I consumed one when I woke up in those ruins."

"Hm, interesting. I wonder if it has something to do with why you are here. The Celestials must be responsible for your coming to my world. There's no other explanation." To Evan, that didn't sound like much of an explanation at all.

"Who are those Celestials anyway? Are they some kind of gods?"

"Gods? No… or yes? I'm not sure. We don't really have gods in this world. They do appear in some really old stories, but I don't think anyone believes they are real. Not like the Celestials. Do you have gods in your world?" Evan scratched the back of his head.

"Man, Oliver, that's a loaded question. Some people say we have them, some think they don't exist. I certainly have never met any kind of god, and I see enough really bad stuff in my line of work that makes me severely doubt there's anyone watching over us."

"Well, the Celestials are definitely watching over us here in this world."

"They are?"

"They gave us the ledger and everything that comes with it. The attributes points, the achievements, the quests. All gifts from the Celestials to help us fight the monsters." That was interesting. Evan had already started to wonder if there was some kind of in-world explanation for the existence of the interface, or ledger as people called it here.

"So all people have a ledger?"

"No, not all. Just those who've bonded with an affinity crystal. That's when yours showed up, right?"

"Hm, no. No, it showed up before that." That gave Oliver pause. He turned around and looked at Evan, tilting his head in thought.

"That's interesting. I've never heard of that before. It must have something to do with your status as a world traveler. You must be a Celestial favorite if they have allowed you to travel between worlds."

"A Celestial favorite? When I activated my crystal, I got a gift called Celestial Champion, but I'm not sure what that means." He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of getting those Celestials's special attention either. He was thankful that car accident hadn't killed him, but he wasn't sure being transported to another world, one populated with deadly monsters no less, had been such a blessing. Why were these Celestials meddling with his life? Why had they sent him here? Why him? Why here?

He wasn't special and he had no place here. Maybe it was some kind of accident. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Oh, that is interesting. Everyone gets a gift when they bind their soul to a crystal, but I never heard of yours before. What does it do?" Evan opened his menu to re-read the description.

"It's pretty basic, I think. It says I can generate mana in my soul, which makes my mana regenerate. Currently, it generates at 1 mana point per second." Oliver whirled around so fast he nearly slipped off his stair step.

"Woah, Evan, you really must have the Celestials favor, because that's…wow."

"That good?" Evan asked, suprised.

"I don't really understand the your-soul-generates-mana thing means, but that's not how it normally works. Noone else can do that. At least no one I ever heard off."

"How do you refill your mana then?"

"You have to absorb ambient mana. Some people have skill that allow them to do it faster the normal, and there are skills that allow you to drain mana from monsters or even other people and add that to your own pool, but if you don't have a skill like that it usually takes around a day to absorb enough ambient mana to refill your mana pool. Of course, that depends on the size of your pool and your rank. High ranker do absorb faster, but still nowhere near your 1 point per second rate."

Evan quietly contemplated Oliver's explanation in his mind. So his gift meant he could refill his mana pool within less than a minute, while everyone else at his rank needed a whole day? If Oliver was right, that was an insane advantage. It was like everyone else had a well, while he had a faucet. Tense silence stretched between them. Oliver was staring at him with an awe that made Evan uncomfortable.

"I just don't understand why. Why me? Why did these Celestials pick me, threw me into this world and gave me crazy strong perks?" Was he some kind of chosen one? The thought alone made him shudder, but if the Celestials wanted him to save the world or something, they hadn't told him about it yet. And until they did, he would just continue to do his own thing and put all his effort into finding a way home.

"I'm really sorry I can't answer more of your questions," Oliver said.

"As I said, our village is pretty remote. My life has been pretty simple and uneventful. At least until I met you. I'm sure once we get to Stormhaven, you'll find a scholar much better equipped to answer all your questions." They continued their way down the stairs and reached the end of them by the time the sun slipped behind the horizon, painting the sky orange and purple. The terrain was flatter here, less rocky and with more trees.

"Is this a good place to rest for the night?" Evan asked. He was exhausted. He was only wearing sneakers, not the right footwear for a trek down the mountain, so his feet hurt and the wounds from his encounter with the Spineback still ached, but he refused to waste his one healing potion on himself when his health bar was already recovering. And above all, his head was swimming with a thousand new impressions and a million questions. Oliver paused and looked around.

"I don't see why not. Over there by the trees looks like a good spot. We'll have to sleep on the ground, I'm afraid. I did not bring any blankets, because I didn't expect to be here for so long." They inspected the spot under the trees more closely and judged it adequate. The ground was soft, but dry. Evan sank down with a sigh, leaned his back against the tree trunk, and stretched out his legs.

Oliver's gaze wandered over his blood-drenched clothes, brows furrowed, as if he'd just now remembered Evan had been injured before they met.

"You stay here and rest," he said.

"I'll collect some branches and build a fire."

"Do we need one? It's quite warm." Evan guessed it was still around 70 degrees, despite the setting sun.

"The temperatures will drop quite a bit at night. They usually do during early summer. Plus the fire will keep the critters away."

"Do we have to worry about that? Monsters sneaking up on us?"

"Not really. Nothing like the Mud Golem at least. There are always a few monsters roaming around, but they're usually not so strong that we need to fear them. Stay here. Call out for me if you need help." He went off, disappearing between the trees, and left Evan alone with his swirling thoughts. All attempts at making any kind of sense of his current situation quickly overwhelmed his mental capacities, so Evan just decided to push all those questions aside for the moment.

Maybe he would find answers in that city Oliver had mentioned, but for now all he could do was go with the flow. He took a deep breath, taking in the unfamiliar scents in the air. Earthy, fresh, clean. Very different from the mix of antiseptic and misery of the hospital he'd left… what? Twenty hours ago? He had lost track of time, but was sure not even a full day had passed since he got here. He breathed in the air and listened to the sounds surrounding him, just as unfamiliar as the smells.

Even nature looked not quite like home. There were trees and bushes and flowers and weeds, but Evan didn't recognize a single one of them, although they didn't look terribly different from the flora on Earth. Oliver returned with an armful of twigs and branches and quickly arranged them in an orderly pile, fit for a campfire. He'd done this before, that much was obvious. To Evan's surprise, he did not use some archaic method to light a fire, like rubbing a stick or smashing stones together.

Oliver pulled a small rectangular stone from his inventory. It had a blue gemstone in the middle. The way it shimmered reminded Evan of the skill gems he'd used. Oliver touched the blue gem, and a moment later, sparks erupted from the stone and lit up the campfire. Evan leaned forward.

"What's this?" Oliver looked confused for a moment before he realized Evan was talking about the object in his hand.

"Oh, this? A lighter. Don't you have those in your world?" He handed the stone to Evan so he could inspect it more closely. It had almost the same size as an Earth lighter, but as far as he could tell it had no actual mechanism. Just a stone, with a few of those rune-like symbols he'd seen in the doorframes of the ruins carved into the edge of the stone and the red crystal in the middle.

"What are those?" he asked, pointing at the symbols.

"Runes," Oliver said.

"They make the lighter work as intended. In combination with the crystal shard and the skill gem, of course."

"The same gems and crystals we use?" Oliver nodded.

"Yes. They can be used in crafting to give objects magical abilities as well. This lighter, for example, has a fire crystal shard core and an ignite skill gem. The runes control the raw magic, so the object does what it's supposed to do. They basically do what the human mind would do otherwise." Evan turned the little stone lighter in his hand, wondering what other feats of technology were solved with magic in this world. He would find out soon.

When he handed Oliver his lighter back, his stomach gave off a clearly audible rumble. Oliver grinned.

"Sounds like it's time for dinner."

"Do we have food?"

"I packed some sandwiches before I left the farm." He accessed his inventory and pulled out a small package, wrapped in thick brown paper, out of thin air. He unwrapped it and revealed a perfectly cut sandwich. Bread, cheese, and slices of meat. He handed it to Evan, who bit into it right away. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he should be more careful about consuming food and drinks in this world. This was an entirely different world after all. Who knew how his body would react to these ingredients?

They might carry pathogens he wasn't immune against or cause an allergic reaction. But then again, he'd recently bound his freaking soul to some magical crystal and it had given him awesome magical power, not allergies, so this sandwich was probably fine.

"Tastes great," Evan said, mouth full.

"Fresh. Can't believe it kept so well after all we've been through." Oliver grinned at Evan's healthy appetite.

"Food and drinks stay fresh inside the inventory. Don't ask me how that works, but it does. One of the major perks of being a mana user." They ate in comfortable silence, and after Evan had wolfed down his sandwich, Oliver pulled out a bottle of water from his inventory to wash it all down. By the time they were done with their makeshift dinner, the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, and inky darkness surrounded them, the only light sources were the crackling campfire and the stars above.

Evan lay down, crossed his arms behind his head, and gazed up into the night sky. One moon, he noticed, just like Earth. But it looked different here. Bigger. And the stars… so many stars. Like someone had carried in an entire galaxy's worth and splashed it haphazardly over the black canvas. A beautiful sight, even if he did not recognize any of the constellations. Was one of these stars the sun of Earth's solar system?

Was he still in the same galaxy, just on another planet, or was this an entirely different reality? One more question he filed away. For later. Or possibly never. His muscles felt heavy, and sleep started to take hold of him. And for the first time in forever, Evan drifted off without a myriad of problems whirling in his head.

He didn't have to worry about getting his father to take his morning pills, or catching the bus on time, or dealing with his bitchy co-worker Vanessa, or finding more bills to pay in his mailbox when he got home from work, or convincing his father to take his evening pills. None of that mattered here. All he had to do tomorrow was hike through this beautiful landscape and explore a world full of magic and wonder.