Coming back to reality, I walked off towards the path. I had two directions I could follow: upstream or downstream. I tried the old and proven method. Check the water. If the water carries anything that would suggest a settlement, go upstream. If not, go the other way.
Honestly speaking, I had no idea what I was looking for. This was a fantasy world if my guess was right, so I highly doubted I could find anything too telling. There's no way plastic exists, right? Less so light metals like cans or the like.
It was a sparkling clean river. It even had fish, insects, and a plethora of other life forms.
"If water won't give, check the land," I said to myself, returning to the dirt path.
That, too, didn't tell me much. I was not a tracker. It looked agreeably used, but sparsely so.
"...Okay. If land won't give, check nature."
I approached a clump of trees and searched for any fallen branches.
After finding a slightly thick and long branch, I made it stand up on the ground.
"Pretty please, pretty please, show me where to move my feet." I let go of the branch and watched it fall.
It pointed upstream.
"There we go." I tossed the branch back where I found it and began my walk.
That is, downstream. You must be thinking 'Why?'. Well allow me to enlighten you. You should go where the end of the stick/branch on the ground is pointing to. I don't know why, but that has worked for me when I was younger. Twice. That still makes it a 100% success rate. Fight me if you think otherwise.
So began the long walk along the river. Accompanied by the sounds of birds and other small critters, what was late morning turned into noon. This time, however, I was not distracted by the presence of a magical bird, allowing me to fully immerse into myself and try to make sense of what was available to me.
The first was obviously myself. I had somehow absorbed my game character. The game had levels, classes and all the common features of mmo's. My main character was a spear-wielding warrior. I had evolved it from a base Swordsman to a Hoplite, then to a Lancer, and finally a Dragoon. Each class granted a number of skills, with few skill points to level said skills, preventing players from raising all skills to their max-level, suggesting a more balanced skill set where players made personal choices.
Most players, however, went with the tried and confirmed set of skills, and I was no different. The main thing that had caught my attention, though, was that I could feel all the skills at their maxed-out state. Though I could not see them as you would in a game, with text and everything, I still instinctively knew they were there. I knew I could throw my weapon and it would somehow return to me. It was just like how I knew I would need to go to the bathroom a few hours after eating a meal. It all felt linked together.
I was an individual belonging to a society of science, however, so I had to try for myself. Seeing is believing and all that.
I took out my weapon. I felt the same rush of energy as before, but this time it was milder. I had never in my life thrown a javelin or anything of the sort, but I now knew how to, and my muscles reacted accordingly. I picked a patch of grass in the middle of the path a good thirty meters away as a target and took aim.
I threw the pike as if I'd done it a million times before.
It flew in a beautiful arc and embedded itself on the ground just where I had aimed, not a millimeter off. It sunk down to the bottom tip and disappeared from sight.
I gaped at the event. It flew fast and the impact made the ground shake a little. Not one second passed and the pike formed in my hands. It didn't fly back. Instead, it teleported.
"Holy shit!" I breathed out in amazement.
I walked up to the impact area and, sure enough, there was a hole in the ground. Ripples formed on the ground outwards up to ten meters in radius, as if a heavy object had fallen there. It seemed the 'skill' retained its area of effect feature.
I continued walking and trying all the arsenal of skills I could. Some, however, could not be performed. I assumed that would be the case. One of my classes required me to be mounted to access its most powerful skills. Most self buffs and defensive skills worked as normal, however, so that was a nice thing. I struck the air in front of me while advancing with as many skills as I could, and felt the existence of cooldowns carried out into this world, though tamed for the most part.
As seconds turned into minutes, then hours, I realized the defensive buffs were not disappearing. I kept track of the time. Two full hours went by before the buffs wore off.
That was a radical change from the game, which made sense when brought into reality. It was nothing imbalanced like immunity to damage or anything of the sort, just static damage reduction, resistance to knock-backs, knock-down, stagger, slow, arrest, and immobility. Nothing unbalanced. I noticed the skills ready again and used them once more, realizing they were always ready, leading me to believe they were supposed to be up at all times.
Instead of waiting 35 seconds for a charge skill that advanced a set distance, I could charge as long as I felt like, running at a shocking speed. When I stopped, something told me I had to wait for five seconds for it to be available again. In the meantime, I tried out more skills.
All in all, I never stopped swinging, stabbing, impaling, twirling, and spinning, even without the mounted skills as I moved. Being careful myself, I never hit a tree or the ground, so there was no damage to my surroundings.
After around four hours of walking something happened that made me stop as if struck by lightning and fall on my knees.
The path had kept itself right next to the river and the trees around me were growing more and more distant until the canopy was thin enough for there to be gaps. That was the moment when I glanced up while swinging my pike and saw something strange.
Them.
Two suns.
"Yo… That's terrifyingly amazing." I said from my position on the ground.
I had certainly read novels about worlds with two or more suns, but it was a completely different thing to witness it with my own eyes. I raised a hand to cover my eyes and was once again shocked.
My reflection on the plated gauntlet was glowing with a golden hue. I noticed from the corner of my eyes that my nose glowed too. As I removed a plated glove along with the leather one beneath, I inspected my hand. There indeed was a golden glow coming from it. I checked closely and noticed that the glow stayed even when in the shade.
"Is it that... bio photo something?" I remembered some plants and insects 'absorbed' sunlight and glowed in the night. The name, however, escaped me.
My glow was nowhere near as bright as a firefly or fungi, but it was noticeable enough to see it up close. It didn't hurt to look nor did my eyes sting.
"Whatever," I said, standing up. "I'm sure that'll be useful when going underground."
I kept walking. This time focusing on my ephemeral inventory. After a while I chuckled.
I had all my items, plus all of my account character's inventories and their respective banked items. In terms of currency, I had over twelve billion gold coins. Farming all the time was showing its results. As for useful items, I had nine mythical weapons, result of playing for long hours trying to get the pike I now held. I also had seven sets of equipment optimized for endgame content. One for the wizard calss, one for the cleric class, one for the scout class, two for the archer class, and two for the swordsman class. Each set specialized for a specific role.
I had all the costumes too. Costumes are justice. School uniforms, animal costumes, Victorian-era dresses, futuristic space suits. You name it, I had it. I had a lot of consumables too. Potions, scrolls, enhancing anvils, repair kits, identifying magnifiers, food, drinks, the list goes on: I was serious about the game, after all.
An unexpected surprise, but a welcome one.
While checking my inventory and walking, the suns began their descent in the sky. Late afternoon turned into early evening and the only thing changing was the width of the river. I stopped once to relieve myself after eating ten dumplings and a few soft drinks. I even had toilet paper, a result of too many failed gacha pulls. The developers of the game were known for their joke items. I was grateful, however. I didn't want to use leaves.
After burning the evidence with a fire-based weapon, I resumed my trip.
The late evening turned into the night a few hours later, and, much to my surprise, the path joined with a proper road both wider and much more used. There were even tracks that looked like horses' and thin marks I assumed were from carriages or the like. By then, the river was no longer covered by the canopy and the sky was visible from the road, the forest edge on my right as I looked up into the sky and the three moons.
Yes. Three.
One purple, one white, and one that looked like a small planet but much smaller than any of the other two.
"This really is a fantasy world, huh?" I whispered as I stared at the moons.
The purple and white moons were closer to each other than the small planet in the sky. The latter being in the other side of the visible night sky.
The sounds of birds and wildlife were replaced by owls and other nocturnal animals, like the distant howls of wolves and sometimes a cat meowing loudly.
Even after having walked most of the day, I didn't feel tired. My feet were surprisingly comfortable in my leather socks and metal boots. My legs actually felt reasonably well-rested instead of pained and tired as I'd expected them to be. That was either due to my new body being more resilient or the equipment being far better than I initially thought; whichever it was. I kept on walking.
Lit by the many stars and the three moons, the night was as uneventful as the day. At times I got hungry and ate a dumpling, at other times I drank water from the river or soft drinks from my inventory. I also relieved myself in the bushes a few times.
As the sun rose, I got bored. Nothing was happening.
"Is this the Nile or something? How long is this river? Give me some people, for fuck's sake!" I grumbled while having breakfast and dipping my feet on the river.
Then, I had an idea.
I fixed my armor, took out my pike, aimed it down the road, and charged. As the skill did its thing, I also activated all my buffs. That must have increased my speed exponentially. I heard a loud boom around me and then silence as I sped down the road. I heard nothing but the sound of the wind hitting my face and rushing past my ears.
Did I just break the sound barrier? I wondered, not wanting to open my mouth in case some magical bug entered. And I had seen many bugs so far. The world around me flew past and even though my speed was ridiculous, I could still see in detail and was able to steer myself when the path followed a curve in the river.
Though the world was silent for me, it was still a sight to see. And so, time passed.
After hours of me running full speed, the suns began their descent.
I also saw the road change. It was as straight as could be. I could even see for thousands of meters ahead. I could even see the carriage I was closing in on.
A carriage! I shouted in my mind. Civilization! Gods be praised!
As soon as I saw the vehicle, I was almost reaching it. I slowed myself by 'deactivating my skill' and only using my legs, which was quite fast still. I must have saved myself a week of walking by just charging and running. I'd need to check my math, though.
As I came up to the carriage, I noticed the few horsed people around it. There were ten escorts surrounding the carriage. After I completely stopped, the sound of my speed caught up to me. We were surrounded by a powerful burst of wind. The horses panicked and their riders clutched their heads in fear.
They all turned around while unsheathing their swords.
"Who goes there!?" the nearest man to the carriage shouted, pointing his sword towards me.
With his shout, all the guards pointed their weapons at me as well.
They were all wearing matching leather armor, brownish with a green 'Y' on the chest. There were seven men and three women, the latter noticeable due to the difference in their vests. They have boing boings. As far as special features, most had tanned skin with sun-bleached hair, while a couple had lighter skin and darker hair. Brownish eyes and generally malnourished bodies.
"Hello, there." I said. I had no clue what to say.
"Who are you?" the man who had shouted brought his horse closer to me, an aggressive look on his face.
"Natasha, you?" I gave my name. This was my first interaction with people in this world!
"Hmm." his face relaxed. "Haven't heard of..."
"HELP!" his words were cut off by someone in the carriage screaming at the top of their lungs.
His face soured and I couldn't help but give him a suspicious look.
"Finn! Go check up on the Lady!" the man facing me shouted back.
"Yes, sir!" a young-looking guard responded and approached the carriage.
As he opened the cloth at the back, a leg struck out and hit him square on the face. He crumpled to the floor as a figure shot out of the carriage.
"HELP!" a woman running for her life screamed again. "THESE ARE BANDITS! PLEASE HELP ME!"
I noticed various things happen at the same time. The carriage flickered and became a cart, the man in front of me raised his sword, and three 'guards' moved to block the path of the woman.
I was in shock. Not because of the illusion, nor the man preparing to attack me, nor the fact the woman who was running with all her strength was naked, not a centimeter of skin without a wound. Her ears. Long at around 20cm, her ears bounced every time she took a step.
I felt my mouth fall open.
An elf! I thought, just as the sword hit me in the neck.