Strangers From Another World 12 Greenhill

From the forest on the outskirts of Atra, Alex, Gene, and Tina traveled on foot towards the town to the northeast, one called Greenhill. With a steady pace, they travelled along the lesser known paths to avoid the guards while wearing cloaks to both hide their appearance from those that may recognize them and to hide from the glare of the afternoon sun.

After two hours had pa.s.sed since they had first set off, their pace began to slow.

"Getting tired?" Gene asked.

"A little, yes," Alex replied, the slow tempo of his speech reveals his fatigue.

"Walking for two hours nonstop is too much. We ain't adventurers like you were, Gene. We're not used to traveling like this," Tina complained.

Kids these days, Gene wanted to say. Then again, it's not like he's not tired either, he's simply ignoring the screaming of the muscles on his legs, and there's definitely something not right with his knees. Have I pushed them too far? Gene asked himself, referring to both Alex and Tina and his legs.

"But if we don't reach Greenhill by nightfall, we're not going to be able to have dinner you know."

"Hot d.a.m.n, you're right! Alright, Alex, pick up the pace!"

"Ugh... I'll try."

In the end, human beings would do anything for comfort, anything for a good meal. There's another three hours of distance to cover. For the sake of the sensation of a pa.s.sable bed, for the sake of the smoldering sweetness of roasted flesh, the three continued onwards.

***

They travel a bit and rested a bit, and with a considerably gentler pace they went on. By the time they arrived at the outskirts of Greenhill, the sun had already set. Both Tina and Alex are exhausted by their long trip with only Gene doing relatively fine.

"Just a little more. It's just over those walls."

The walls of Greenhill aren't like those of the city, it's only sufficient enough to keep out wild beast and discourage bandits. If it's Gene, then he would be able to scale it easily. Tina could probably do it too, but right now she seems to be a little too exhausted for it.

"I'll climb up first, then I'll put the both of you up with a rope."

No one disagreed with the plan.

Under the cover of darkness, the trio sprinted for the walls, and though their legs were long exhausted, the thought of finally arriving at a resting place lit a fire beneath their hearts hot enough to for them to work those appendages once more.

With his iron hooks equipped to his hands, Gene scaled the stone walls with incredible ease, and from the top, he lets down a length of rope to pull the other two up. To avoid detection, they acted as quickly as possible, and in hardly anytime at all, they were over the wall and finally made it into Greenhill.

As it is nighttime, few citizens are on the streets, making the trio stand out. And so, to avoid detection, they stuck to the shadows and hid whenever a patrolling guard pa.s.ses by. Though in theory, the guards should be most lax at this time, their minds focused more on ending the patrol and returning home rather than on the streets, the trio wanted to leave nothing to chance.

Steadily moving onwards from shadow to shadow, they eventually picked themselves an inn, and finally, at long last, they were able to rest.

***

The dinner that night was heavy, their exhaustion made it difficult for them to have an appet.i.te. However, as a seasoned adventurer, Gene knew that one should eat when they have the chance, and so made everyone clean their plates to the very last drop of gravy.

After dinner, they each retreated to their rooms. Gene had a room right next to Alex's, while Tina's was right across. Being relatively close to one another, means the rest could react when something comes up in one of their rooms, allowing each of them to sleep much more peacefully.

Soon after settling into his room, a knock came from Gene's door. Before opening it, Gene checked the gap underneath, making sure that there is only one set of shadows beneath before opening the door. He hadn't heard too many sets footsteps before the door was knocked on, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Behind the door was Alex, standing there and fidgeting slightly. Don't tell me he can't sleep on his own, Gene thought jestingly.

"So, Gene, I'd like to talk to you about something. Can I come in?"

"Feel free," Gene invited him in with a smile, wondering what's on his mind. "Come, take a seat."

Alex took a seat on the bed and Gene sat next to him, crossed legged and ready to talk, waiting for Alex to speak his mind.

"So, um, could I take a look at your rods perhaps?" Alex said timidly, not sure if that would be allowed.

"I don't see why not." And from beneath the bed, Gene pulled out the three rods he hid beneath, on a spot that would be easily reachable should he be lying down. There's also a sheathed knife hidden beneath his pillow should he need it.

With both hands, Alex received the rods and he wastes no time to look them over with his mystic sight.

"Why did you want to see them?" Gene asked as Alex was looking.

"Well, I mean, you have difficulty using your own mana right? So I thought maybe I could help by enchanting your staff for you, you know."

Gene smiled, very rarely does he meet a Stranger so openly kind. Most of the times, due to the fact that they had gotten lost in this strange new world and had to fend for themselves, Strangers tend to be rather uncharitable. It's a good thing, truly a good thing that Alex was found as soon as he arrived, before anything terrible happened to him.

"While I appreciate the thought, I'm afraid enchanting isn't that easy, and not to mention dangerous. If you lose your focus while enchanting, the vessel may reject your mana and expel it all at once, you could get terribly hurt, or worse. A great deal of training must be had before anyone can attempt an enchantment."

"Oh... I guess I got ahead of myself."

Alex looked genuinely disappointed, and the sight of it touched Gene's hardened heart. Once more he affirms to himself, that he must protect this goodness at all cost.

"But if you're interested, I could teach you a few things about it, enchanting I mean."

"Is that fine? Don't you want to rest?"

"The night is still long, I can hold out for a little longer."

And so began the lecture on enchanting.

At the moment, there are two categories of enchanting. There's Corporeal Enchantment, where one attaches magic to a physical object. And then there's Ethereal Enchantment, where one creates a complex form of magic via the use of magic crystals and command spells.

The key to Corporeal Enchantments are the Stigmas, the scars created through mana, etched upon the steel of weapons and tools and weaved into fabric of clothes and cloaks. The Stigmas are that which attaches magic onto the mundane objects.

As the Stigmas take up physical s.p.a.ce on the enchanted object, only so many spells can be enchanted upon a single item, and the larger, more complex the spell, the greater the s.p.a.ce required for it becomes. However, once the Stigma is set, the object will retain the spell forever, even after it runs out of mana, and will be available for use after re-enchantment, which is simply the recharging of mana.

"There's one thing I don't understand though," said Alex with a raised hand.

"Yes?"

"How does Stigmas work? My mystic sight doesn't tell me anything about it."

"Getting right to the point I see. Well, the thing is, no one know for sure how Stigmas work, only that they do. There are a few peculiarities in regards to it that have been observed though. For example: Depending on the person, even when enchanting the same spell into similar objects, no two Stigmas are the same. And it seems that whatever quirks a person may have with the spell they are enchanting, say the inability to create a fire ball for example, apparently gets carried over to the enchantment, making it difficult for the user to form a ball out of the fire magic of the enchanted item."

"So Stigmas and enchantments vary from person to person... But what does that have to do with how Stigmas function?"

"Well, there's a theory floating around that say that perhaps, when we place Stigmas in an item, we are actually conveying our own experiences into it through our mana, and somehow, having the Stigma attached to them, the items managed to remember said experiences and made it a part of its being."

"Are you saying inanimate objects in this world has memories of its own!?"

"We don't really know, but the concepts is not all that out there either. You see, there's a creature that sometimes roams the ruins of past civilization called the Living Armor. As you can imagine form the name, it's a hollow set of armor that moves on its own, patrolling the town or castle as if inheriting the will of those that once wore them. Heck, even from our world, there's a concept of inanimate objects having some sort of consciousness of their own."

"There is?"

"Yeah, in certain mythologies, there have been descriptions of spirits that resides within inanimate objects, and I remember that there's a legend from the far east that talks about how an object may become a spirit after existing for a hundred years. So who knows, perhaps these rods do have a conscious of their own after all."

'That's a very interesting thought. It sure makes you wonder doesn't it, if our stuff complains when we treat them roughly."

"Well, if they do, I'm sure mine would complain incessantly. I'm not exactly gentle after all."

"I noticed."

"Well, well, well, our boy has gotten b.a.l.l.sy I see!" Gene laughed, enjoying the developing familiarity between him and Alex. "Anyways, let's move on to the other category of enchantments."

Ethereal Enchantment, the key to this particular type of enchantment is what's known as a Behavioral Matrix, which is a matrix of layers upon layers of command spells stored within a magic crystal that works together to determine the behavior of the enchantment. Ethereal Enchantments are generally used to create a magical body that has a complex behavior such as a slime in the case of water magic, or a golem in the case of earth magic. Necromancy seems to use a variation of Ethereal Enchantment, but as it is deemed a forbidden art by the Circle of Mages, the study of it is illegal and therefore, no one knows for sure how it truly works.

"So there you have it, the basics of enchantments. Of course, you'll actually have to have some training to actually perform them, but at least now you'll get to skip the pesky lectures and get right to business."

"......"

"Alex?"

But there was no response. Alex was already asleep on Gene bed, the day seemed to have tired him out greatly. Not wanting to disturb his sleep, Gene lets the boy sleep and pulled a blanket over him. Tonight, Gene will sleep against the corner, as he sometime does against a tree during his adventuring days.

That night, Gene dreamt of his tools complaining to him for his rough treatment, with Alex and Tina laughing as they watched from a distance. He had to lecture his tools about how all things will break eventually, but it was only after he promises that he'll be more careful from now on did they finally settled down.

***

End of Chapter 12