Gales POV
I felt my head spin as I saw the skill name displayed in front of me, tried to make sense of everything I'd just been told, and leaned against the wall for support. It was completely ridiculous that out of all the things I could have been, the thing I became is basically an extinct monster that this world went to extreme lengths to wipe out. My mind also went back to the moment I was sent to this world and remembered the strange pod that angel put me in, and what she said was, "That can't be the only option left," if I remembered correctly.
"Um, excuse me..."
Was there really no other option besides this? Why was this an option in the first place?!
"Um, hello..."
What did they expect me to do when the majority of the world would probably just end up killing me?!
"E-Excuse me!"
Ashes's yelling pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked at her and saw a worried expression on her face. Once she saw me look at her, she spoke.
"Are you ok?" Asked Ashes as she stared at me.
I was surprised by her concern for me, since I thought her worried look was more about her own safety, as she had just finished telling what was essentially the boogeyman about a power he may or may not have.
I sighed, waited a bit, and said, " I'm fine, thanks for asking."
She smiled a bit, nodded, and said, "You really didn't know any of this?"
"No idea whatsoever. This is genuinely the first time I got any answers about myself."
"Your parents didn't tell you anything about yourself?"
As she asked, I thought about how much information I should be giving out and decided to keep some things to myself. I didn't want to share more than I had to, even with Ashes. There were things I didn't feel comfortable sharing with anyone at this point, and I wanted to limit how much anyone knew about me, so I looked to her and spoke.
"I don't really remember anything from before I was a slave. Nothing about the gods and nothing about the world I supposedly came from. I also don't remember my parents, and the first thing I woke up to after losing my memories was the sound of one of the slavers yelling at me and the system window that told me my name."
As I finished my explanation, she stared for a moment, looked slightly dumbfounded, and said, "So you just woke up without any memories of yourself besides your name?"
"That's right," I replied.
She gave me a strange look, which I already expected, as my explanation was a little vague. I tried to think of something else I could use to avoid any potentially difficult questions until Ashes spoke again.
"Ok I believe you."
I was taken aback by what she said. I didn't expect her to accept my explanation just like that, and I was fully prepared to lie. Once she said this, I asked, "...Just like that?"
"Huh?" Questioned Ashes.
"You don't want to ask me about more things? You don't think that I'm lying about my memories?"
I knew I should have just accepted it, but part of me didn't know if I could accept it and move on, and I wanted to know why she accepted it. I looked at Ashes and waited for her response, and she responded with, "I was scared when I first saw you in the cells. I remembered all the stories I read about the wolves, and I thought you were the same. But when the others held me down and tore off my scales, I saw the look on your face. You looked very kind, and you promised me everything was going to be OK and that you would take me home. I felt really scared and alone in that place, and I decided to stay close to you because you weren't as scary as the stories said you were. There were times when I didn't like what you said, and I thought that you would actually hurt someone, but... then you saved me." She walked a little closer to me and continued, "I thought I was going to die when I got trapped under the rock, and I didn't think anyone would help me, but you did. You went back for me when no one else did, and when you needed help to read the words in the pod, you asked for my help and believed in me. It was the first time anyone did that for me, so..." She then grabbed my hand and smiled and said, "I think that you're a really good person!"
I stayed silent after she said all this and felt a little uncomfortable with everything she was saying, as I wasn't used to all this praise. I really didn't intend to make that promise; I mostly said it without thinking, and I saved her from that rock because of my own past and slightly selfish reasons. I moved my hands slowly away from hers, avoided her gaze for a moment, and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say after all of that, and fell silent for a bit. Thankfully, the awkward silence was broken by the pods' warning.
Five minutes until emergency power shuts off.
At the sound of the warning, both Ashes and I quickly went back to preparing our cloaks, and I mentally prepared myself for our journey. Once I was ready, I stood by the pod's metal door, placed my hands on the wheel, took a deep breath, and turned it to open it to the outside world.
Once I opened the door, a powerful wave of heat blasted me, as if I were standing in front of an oven, and I caught the strong scent of the desert. My nose was assaulted by the dry scent of sand and dirt in the air, and I caught a slight herbal scent on the wind, no doubt from desert vegetation, along with smells I didn't recognize. The smell, while overpowering, was thankfully not as bad as I expected, and I quickly adapted to it; once I did, I looked outside.
Taking a proper look outside, I saw the vast yet enchanting sight of reddish sand stretching for miles in every direction, and I also spotted a few large rock formations in various directions similar to the ones we'd hit. I couldn't see any signs of life except what appeared to be a small lizard covered in red crystals, quickly scurrying toward the rock formations.
Once I finished surveying the area around us, I looked back at Ashes and asked: "Are you ready?" She smiled, nodded, grabbed my hand, and held it, ready to walk out with me. I sighed, let her hold my hand, and we stepped out of the pod and into the desert.
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A couple of hours had passed since we left the comfort of the escape pod and headed toward Ash's home, and the journey was proving more dangerous than I had expected.
Thanks to Ash's knowledge of the desert and its dangers, we navigated some of the more treacherous parts of the Ember Dunes. After two hours of walking, I smelled something slightly foul in the air and heard something massive moving; as soon as I said it, Ash dragged me to a nearby rock formation, and we hid under it, and soon I saw what we were hiding from. It was a massive insectoid creature that almost reminded me of a mantis, but it was the size of an elephant and a similar color to the desert sand. It dragged what looked like a large, not-so-fresh lizard across the desert sand and into a cave. Once the mantis entered the cave, we quickly moved away from the area, and once we were far away, I asked Ashes what that was.
"That was a Razorclaw. They like to hunt other monsters or people in the desert by using camouflage in the sand, then using their claws to rip apart their prey and take it back to their nest. They aren't the most dangerous thing in the desert, but they can be scary."
Scary was an understatement. Other than the massive creature that chased us, this was the first other monster that I actually got to see, and it was terrifying. I already wasn't a fan of bugs, so seeing one the size of an elephant was disturbing enough, but knowing this wasn't the worst this desert had to offer didn't sit well with me.
We continued our journey through the desert and had to take a few detours because different monsters appeared; thankfully, we noticed them before we got too close and had to move to a different location because of one monster in particular. We avoided an area where a giant sandworm burrowed in the sand and only saw it as it started burrowing toward another monster that reminded me of a giant bull but was a dull orange color and had two large, pointed, glowing horns. It began to walk in its territory. In an instant, the sandworm burst from the sand, wrapped around the bull, and soon multiple other worms burst from the sand, bit into the bull, and tried to drag it under. The bull bucked wildly against the attack; its horns began to glow, and it quickly used them to gore two of the worms, set them on fire, and step on another and crush it.
As the monsters continued their fight, we took the opportunity to move away as the bull was slowly being dragged under the sand. As we moved away from the struggle, I noticed Ashes struggling to keep up, most likely because we'd run from so many monsters and had to endure the heat. I nearly forgot I could keep going much longer than her, so I suggested that at the next patch of shade we take a break for a bit, which she agreed to.
We walked for at least ten minutes and, in the distance, saw a small rock formation that provided just enough shade, so we quickly walked toward it, sat down, and enjoyed the shade. Once we settled in the shade, I opened my system, and a memory from a couple of hours ago came up.
Flashback
Just before we fully left the area the pod was in, I checked whether I could take the survival kit out of the inventory. When I checked the system, a new tab was available, and when I checked it, a window displaying my inventory popped up. From there, I saw a screen with rows of empty boxes, and in one of the boxes, the survival kit was displayed. I touched the small box and was given the option to take out the kit; when I agreed, the survival kit appeared in my hands. After checking inside the kit, I confirmed everything was there and was able to place the kit back in the inventory. I also checked the limits of what I could place in the inventory, then went to the pod and checked whether I could place it in the system. Once I touched the pod, a small notification appeared on the system.
'Cannot place any vehicles in inventory. Inventory must be upgraded to do so.'
After reading the notification, I was intrigued that I could upgrade my skills. I wondered what I needed to do to upgrade my skills and whether all my skills could do the same, but I decided to leave it for later and started my journey with Ashes.
End of Flashback
Once I finished that memory, I checked my inventory, took out the survival kit, grabbed a water bottle, opened it, took a sip, and passed it to Ashes, who tried her best not to gulp it down. As I saw her relax a bit with the bottle in her hands, I decided to take the opportunity to take a better look at my system.
I swiped to the skill window.