Chapter 13: Just an early morning stroll
My room was on the sixth floor and the view of the dark pond was comforting in a sense. I'd been staring for a while now.
It was already midnight but I didn't feel sleepy. And I didn't feel hungry either. Which was good. I hadn't eaten anything after Siarre's cooking.
"Six hours, no feeling," I wrote down on a small notebook. I knew of my bad memory and although it wasn't as bad in this world, I still kept a notebook just in case.
It was kind of fun writing in the book cause the pen I used didn't need ink. I just scribbled and it wrote down the words. In a language only I could understand…. Both items were luxury goods though, costing ten Pents each. I'd actually made a connection between our money and the coin system here, and in a sense, even just a typical Tri coin was worth more than a dollar considering you could buy ten pieces of bread with just one. So ten Pents was a lot of money.
"Spacia-" I mumbled.
Nothing happened.
Apparently, you needed a confirmation in your mind when casting spells. To put it more simply, if you just wanted to say a spell's name for demonstrative purposes it wouldn't work. You had to mean the spell and what it did. Aka, visualization and all that. I didn't need that for darkness because I had really good affinity for darkness and it was one of the very basic magics. Actually, I had to actively prevent the spell from activating if I chanted its name for demonstrative purposes. But then again- demonstrate to who?
And yes, magic required MP to cast. I had lots of MP but I had a feeling they'd quickly run out if I started misusing spells.
"Dark-" I played with the street lights. They were far away, at least a hundred meters. And I was six story high.
But.
It went out.
Works from a long distance.
Cost me 4 MP.
"Darken."
Dark only made the light go dim. But darken made a whole one-meter area dim out and almost made it impossible to see through it.
But it also cost me 16 MP.
Ow… I felt my head wobble for a sec. Almost lightheaded. I wanted to find out what a stronger spell would do but I also didn't want to accidentally knock myself out….
I definitely couldn't misuse these things.
Now what though? Stay in the room doing nothing? Go out alone? Or try to sleep?
I didn't know whether I could or not but- but for the time being I tried sleeping.
.
..
…
Yeah, it wasn't working. A whole hour wasted. And no, I wasn't the 'super excited for a field trip that I can't sleep' type. I could sleep fast and whenever I wanted to. But maybe I just didn't need sleep in this body?
Which only meant one thing-
Going out.
***
Creak.
I was bones.
Mostly just damn bones.
And yet, why hell was I heavy? Every step I took, the whole damn building creaked. When I was running, I felt as light as a fucking feather but now I felt like a rock! Argh… I still went down though. It was somewhere around 3 in the morning. And no, this world didn't have clocks. It was just my internal one.
It was an arduous journey, and I almost woke up several angry residents, but I did reach the bottom floor without meeting a single guy. This inn doubled as a tavern.
"Going somewhere?" Escalor said. He was up and having a drink. And there were other people too.
Some of the staff were up too; all half-dead. Yeah, I guess undead really didn't really need much sleep.
"Just an early morning stroll."
"Would it be alright, if I came along… my lord?"
"Just call me Sean," I moved closer to the door. "And sure, why not?"
I could always just wring out more information from him anyway.
***
The city wasn't necessarily all that well lit during the night. Just some magical lampposts. Apparently, those ran through magistones which were like ores and were found all over the world.
These particular stones were used in magicians' wands and staffs to increase spell strength or decrease MP usage. How it worked? No idea. I'd asked Escalor about them but the guy had no idea either and told me to ask Siarre later.
Although dark, it didn't appear dark to me. I didn't see the world around me like day, but it was like a warm afternoon of sorts. And it wasn't just us. there were quite a few half-deads walking about and they didn't seem to mind the darkness either. I didn't see them during the day.
Whenever they saw me, they bowed once or lowered their heads for a brief moment and then moved away. They weren't as awkward as the typical townsfolk.
Most of the people I saw during the day, were nowhere to found, definitely asleep. Some patrol was always running through, making sure everything was alright but-
Definitely a different world.
Kind of dumb to think about that at this point but, I couldn't help but be a bit bewildered….
"Why are half-deads considered superior?"
"It is believed Sarvaine, arguably the strongest of the Ten Primarchs made us in her image and since she was the strongest, we've always considered us to be better than the other races. And there is some truth to that. We are the most efficient nocturnal species only second to Skeletons. But unlike other nocturnal species, we do not require to be sleeping during the day and are just as much active."
"I see. I read some history but there weren't any mention of monsters or beasts. Do you know how they came to be?"
"I'm not quite sure myself but I think there's some dark energy lingering here and there. We undead thrive in such energy and negative emotions but said energy corrupt the living, we get beasts and orcs and goblins and all that," he chuckled. "it's just my theory though. Some believe they are plague sent to us by the gods. I don't really believe in gods though, so that's why I prefer my theory. There's also another theory that one of the Ten wasn't very benevolent and created some of those species but that's just a legend."
This guy was hella talkative. I was asking him one thing and he was blabbing on and on.
Which was good cause I needed to know more anyway but seriously, he talked a lot!
"So, I'd assume there are churches and stuff in the world?"
I actually never heard anyone speak of gods here before. And I didn't see any people of the robe here either.
"Only in Sondar- the realm of men. They seem to worship some gods and goddesses."
"In that case, don't they view us in a horrible image?"
We were moving closer to the pond. for no particular reason. Just a typical walk past the houses, past the bushes, closer to the paved pond.
"They do actually. They are also hostile and have even created beings capable of harnessing the holy element just to harm us: Paladins. But since we're not at war, their efforts are kind of pointless. These days they hide in their walled cities, not daring to venture or trade with other nations."
We'd arrived at the pond.
Dark.
Black waters but- but it wasn't black from wastes. Rather, the water itself was black. And there was something in there.
A chill ran down my spine. Similar to when I met that deer. But this time, a much worse chill, almost making me shiver for a second….
"What is that?" I managed. But of course, only a groan came out.
"A creature of old. It sleeps beneath the city. One day it'll wake up and devour everything but, but they still have like two-three centuries before that happens."
"And the people know that?"
"They do. In fact, they use that to their advantage, claiming whoever could deal with this monster would be revered as the lord of Vestige. That's one of the relics of the ten Primarchs this nation currently holds. It's all just a ploy though. I mean no one can really do anything about this thing. Besides, it's asleep." He shrugged.
Staring at the lake felt odd. Really odd. I could swear whatever was down there wasn't sleeping but at the same time, I had no proof and I hardly saw it or its body. I could definitely tell one thing though.
Whatever it was, it was worse than that deer….
"Do you think I could-" I paused. "No, I can't. Not yet."
He smiled, a knowing smile. "We're leaving next week. I understand it would be hard for you to both learn to read and speak during this small amount of time and we should have stayed with you for longer but," he lowered his head. "Please forgive us. We cannot stay. We must return, secure the funds, and continue our research."
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