Chapter 002:

Anton awoke for the third time. Every part of his body hurt; head, neck, shoulders, arms, back and legs. It felt like he had gone through another beating, though it was good that there was an actual feeling rather than numbness. Images of what he had done came back into his mind; killing hundreds of those yellow goblins then passing out as the Heaviness disappeared. The last thing he remembered was sliding down the roof plummeting to the ground. He was lucky to have survived without breaking his neck.

Luckily he wasn’t on the ground outside, he was on a bed of some sort. The timber creaked and groaned as he moved ever so slightly. The mattress crunched as he moved, it sounded just like the straw that he landed on. There was some sort of fur to protect the skin from the straw, it was a light brown and soft to the touch. However it did have large patches missing, it must be quite well used. Some thick material was used as the blanket. It was coarse but there was another layer of worn fur underneath. It was actually quite nice.

The rest of the room was similarly old but well cared for. Only a rudimentary table and two chairs furnished the rest of the room. The floors were wooden but looked like that had seen a lot of traffic with flakes of dirt compacted in. The walls looked like the handmade ones in the village. He must be inside one of those houses. The wooden windows were also open, letting in some of the morning light.

There was a flicker of a shadow, movement.

Ah shit, I could still be in trouble here.

After throwing off the covers he swung his legs out and onto the floor. Pain surged through his legs as he tried to apply weight. As he slumped back he noticed his chest felt something other than pain and soreness. He still wore the pants and his socks but his shirt and shoes had been removed. His chest was now covered in bloodied bandages, cuts and bruises. Hopefully, the blood on the bandages was his. The idea of getting some blood-borne disease after all this didn’t thrill him. Though the fact that others could have seen his back thrilled him even less.

He tried to stand up again but the pain cut his legs out.

I’m never getting up like this.

His eyes drifted to his glyphed hand. The gods’ powers seemed simple enough. The fire magic could have burnt this entire place down but the lightning did its job well. That left the prayer glyph. Those eccentric gods had never explained what Tethra’s’ abilities were. However, prayer was associated with healing, hopefully. It was worth a shot.

Anton focused the feeling to his hands but imagining the prayer was difficult. The moment his image of a prayer wavered the Heaviness broke and flew back through his body.

Damn, well it was worth a try at least.

“Oh, here goes: If only Tethra would heal me.”

The Heaviness surged to his wounds without his control. It quickly dissipated along with most of his pain, though his dizziness returned. A minute passed before he could tell what was up or down again. The Heaviness began to return as well, perhaps slightly faster but nowhere as thick as when he first arrived here.

Anton tried again to stand. He felt stronger than he had in a while. His mutterings must have been the prayer, he would need to do better in the future, and it probably wouldn’t be that simple again his body told him.

He only made a step before he could hear steps from outside. The Heaviness was thick enough for some lightning bolts at least though not enough for the whole village. He dived underneath the fur blanket but left his hands exposed.

The steps continued to get closer. It sounded like wood on wood. The door slowly creaked open. Anton drew some of the Heaviness to his fingers and waited.

A small old woman emerged. For a moment Anton thought it was one of the elderly ladies sitting at the front of the bus but it wasn’t. She had short dark brown hair in a bob-style, her face weathered from hard and daily work in the sun. Her clothes looked very similar to what the dead woman wore, some brown and grey thick fabric. Still, she looked harmless enough but Anton wasn’t about to let his guard down.

She walked in slowly with a slight limp, each step appeared to require great effort. She put a pile of clothes on the table. They looked similar to the ones she wore but had less dirt and patches.

Very kind of them, at least they’re probably not going to try and kill me now.

The woman jumped slightly when she noticed Anton looking directly at her.

“Thank the gods that you survived. How do you feel?”

Her voice was old and slightly croaky yet motherly at the same time.

“I’m fine.”

Here goes nothing.

“Where are we?”

The old lady smiled, “You don’t know? Hmm. We’re in the Kar Kingdom. Does that help you at all?”

Anton just shook his head. At least this wasn’t Earth.

“My husband will be better to talk too, he knows many things that I can barely understand.”

She chuckled lightly and hobbled to the door.

“HE’S AWAKE!!”

The volume of the old lady was shocking. She sent Anton a playful smile. Very quickly he heard many footsteps. Three men burst in. One, the old man at the front, looked like the male version of the old lady though his hair was grey. The other two were gigantic young men; their muscles were on display, short cropped hair and many scars, all accentuated by the thin singlets they wore.

Both guards stood either side of the door, arms crossed, trying to make their chests look bigger.

You really don’t need to do that, I’m not going to run away.

What Anton did notice was the glints off their belts. Knives. They did take some precaution at least after seeing what he did the other night.

The old man and woman dragged the chairs to the right of Anton.

“Um,” began the old man, “I’m not really sure how to do this right, but, who are you and why are you here?”

Shit, what should I tell them? Probably not the thing about gods and me being from another world just yet. I need to tell them something though, something harmless…

“My name is Anton, I think?”

The old man looked over at the old woman who nodded.

“I think he may have lost his memory, dear.”

The old man nodded then stroked his chin. His hands were missing a few fingers. They did not look fully healed yet.

“Well Anton, my name is Bertram. I don’t have a second name, not a royal or noble, no. Not that there are any left in these parts anymore. This is my wife, Sybil.”

Sybil nodded.

“So, why are you here?”

Bertram’s face darkened slightly and the two guards shifted so they could reach for their knives quickly.

“It’s odd to see a mage out here. Even odder for one to turn up when everything’s going really bad. We don’t have gold or jewels to pay you and very little in the way of goods…”

Ah crap, play this gently.

“I…don’t know why I’m here or even who I am. I woke up in one of those barns, heard all that noise, two people were killed in front of me without me understanding anything that was going on. I don’t know how but I knew how to use lightning magic, killing those yellow goblin things, finding the big fight in the plaza area then doing what I could. I take it that you guys won?”

Bertram took a moment to process the information, his mouth opening and closing. He was probably waiting for some ridiculous demand for saving their lives. It didn’t say much for magic users in this world.

“Well, yes we did. After that Thunderous Roar that you used the yellow goblins retreated.”

“Never seen 'em run so quick.” Said the guard on the right, he slurred and had something of a cockney accent. The left guard glared at the right but he didn’t seem to care.

“They did retreat and we are thankful for that.” Bertram glanced at the right guard then bowed still seated, “Though it may have just delayed our deaths.”

Anton didn’t say anything but cocked his head.

“Can you walk? It’ll be easier to talk outside.”

“I think I can.”

Anton shuffled out of the bed and stood up. It took a moment before he was properly balanced.

“It’s amazing that you can walk,” Sybil said, “When we found you crumbled after having to hit some crates on the way down.”

No wonder everything hurt.

His chest was still exposed, minus the bandages. He had no intention of showing off his back to anyone. Luckily no one had mentioned it. Anton grabbed the first shirt from the stack and put it on. It was a light brown shirt that itched every time he moved. The others wore worse looking clothing, surely he would get used to it.

The guards looked hesitant to let Anton leave but Bertram waved them away. They opened the door and Anton found himself in a short corridor. It felt good to walk again, although he was still in his socks. Anton collected his shoes which were left just outside the door.

Must be a custom of some sort.

This appeared to one of four rooms in this quite large building. Bertram guided him outside.

The light was bright but not blindingly so. It was a warm yet lightly overcast day. A gust of wind blew, reeking of burnt flesh. The fried goblins were still splayed over the plaza. There were only a few people out, shuffling and prodding the corpses, despite it being early in the morning. Anton had always thought that medieval societies would need all the light they could use but apparently not here.

Anton had been put into one of the larger buildings that formed the perimeter of the plaza. In fact, it was the same one that Anton had clambered on and slid down the other night. The other buildings, around 25 or so, looked similar but were noticeably smaller. Bertram must be an important person.

“Over here, Anton. I don’t like to be cooped up inside all the time, especially when I’m sick.”

Bertram pointed to a table in the plaza that had been overturned. The right and left guard took this instruction, righted it and gathered some chairs. Quite a lot of the outside furniture had been broken or was still being used as part of the barricades.

“Thank you, Jeff and Jeff. We’ll be fine now. Can you get the others awake and out here helping with the clean-up? They can’t spend all their time huddling away inside.”

Both Jeff’s grunted in obedience then departed.

Must be some sort of Elder of Chief. Better try and stay on his good side then.

Sybil didn’t make any move to sit down.

“I need to go and get things ready for the mid-day meal. Hopefully, the Jeff’s will have woken everyone by then.”

Bertram nodded, gave her a little kiss and she was hobbling off. He watched her leave giving Anton ample time to observe his handiwork. There were clusters of goblins everywhere, giant scorch marks burnt into the ground. If one of those had hit a human he probably wouldn’t be sitting here.

“Well,” Bertram began as he turned back to face Anton, “What do you want to know? I don’t know everything though.”

This is a good place to start gathering Intel. Ugh, I hate that I keep using the word.

“Where are we?”

“We’re in the remains of the once powerful Kar Kingdom.” Bertram chuckled slightly, “Everyone’s pretty much dead who held up their banner though. And this charming village is Atros. Probably the last place with sensible humans in the Kingdom now, not that that’s saying much. There were once 5,000 of us, living quite happily away from royal control and bickering. Now it’s around 1,000 and dropping fast. If you hadn’t intervened last night it would have been zero today.”

“There hardly looked to be 1,000 people out there fighting.”

“We hid most people throughout the buildings in the courtyard and the small cave system that runs underneath the village. There’s an entrance in one of the grain barns. We banded together here in the plaza so they wouldn’t start pillaging quite so soon.”

“How long have you been living like this?”

Bertram lent back into his chair.

“Around a year? Time flies when every night you could be killed by those ferocious monsters. Oh, and we do call them Yellow Goblins. They don’t speak anything other than chirps and squeaks so no one’s been able to figure out what they want. They’ve taken up ‘residence’ in the mountain to the north.”

He pointed north and Anton could see the tip of a small mountain. The mountain almost touched the clouds with its snow-covered tip.

“They come from there every few weeks or so; attack, kill and kidnap anything and everything. Recently it’s gotten much worse. Last night was meant to finish us off. They won’t be back for some time, hopefully, a month or so, after they lost so many. They aren’t the bravest things. So again, thank you.”

Bertram bowed again.

“Do you have a map of the area?”

Bertram’s eyebrows furrowed.

“The nearest city that we know that would still be safe, Maxill, is 12 days walk through a monster-infested forest to the west.”

They must think that I’m going to try and leave after hearing their village is doomed.

“Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t know anything about myself other than my name and know nothing about the world. I can’t just up and go in this state. Besides, I don’t think that I was put here just so I would leave again. Perhaps I’m here to help or something, I don’t know, but while I try and figure everything out I should probably help the people that helped me.”

Bertram looked straight into Anton’s eyes.

Please believe me. I really don’t want to be by myself if there are hundreds of those things running around.

Anton held the gaze.

“Alright. Mages are known to be frivolous and can be quite abusive to those that don’t have magic.”

“Did you know any?”

“A couple, most were jerks. There was one that was kind, I forget her name, but it was one out of fifty that were good.”

“I hope to change that then.”

Bertram chuckled leading Anton to smile slightly.

“Well, what can I do to help?”

Bertram still looked a startled by Anton’s question. A friendly and helpful mage must be quite a rare occurrence.

“There’s quite a lot of things that need doing. First, we need to get rid of the evidence of your arrival to Atros. They’ll soon stink and rot. It’s odd that they do that faster than most creatures. See, some are already rotting.”

Bertram pointed towards a cluster of dead Yellow Goblins. There were blue and black crow-like creatures tearing at the body. One jumped onto the goblins face, tearing into its eyes. The crow pulled out the retina of the goblin and gulped it down.

“I see what you mean. What are those?”

“Blue Crows. They love rotting flesh.”

There were several dozen Blue Crows picking at the dead and more kept arriving.

“There’s also construction of the wooden palisade, though that’s fallen behind, and bringing in the harvest. Thankfully the Yellow Goblins would prefer to kill us then pillage our crops. Then there’s the matter of you. The mages that I had been able to talk with have experienced your fainting condition. You used up too much mana and your body feels extraordinarily light then you pass out.”

Well, that confirms it.

“So you’ll need better control and application of your magic.”

Bertram looked towards a particularly large scorch mark.

“I think I’ll help move the bodies first. I'll need some time to figure everything else out.”

“Excellent. Looks like the others are starting to arrive. You’ve been quite the conversation starter. Nothing like some gossip to distract you when you’re staring into the abyss.”

Anton didn’t know what to say and simply nodded. Bertram rose to his feet. He waved over to the group of people behind Anton. Right Jeff was leading the group and hurried over.

“Jeff, I want Anton to help you and the others clear these bodies out.”

“Ours to?”

Bertram sighed, “Yes, there’s nothing we can do for them now. Also get the cart barricades down first, use them to move the bodies to the dumping site.”

Dumping site? They must have won some battles with the Yellow Goblins then.

“On it boss.” Right Jeff smiled and saluted. Perhaps someone here had military training.

“Well, I’m going to find Sibyl and arrange for a feast to celebrate our victory here today. We need some reason to let loose a little… Also to find out what we’ve got left.”

With that, Bertram hobbled off.

It was the first time Anton had been able to inspect Right Jeff intently. He was very tall, over 2 meters, his face was round but he looked like a reliable but not too bright sort of person.

“Well, shall we get started then?”

Right Jeff smiled and said, “You bet. We need to show how’s it done.”

Oh please let this man not get on my nerves too much…

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It was a simple matter of removing the debris that formed the barricades. Most were simple chunks of wood with crates and furniture thrown in for good measure. By the time that one cart was free, they had gathered quite a crowd. Right Jeff told them to help as well, most seemed to help though some just watched on. Anton couldn’t figure out why but could only hope that it wasn’t a bad thing.

Picking up the bodies was quite an unsavoury task. Bits and limbs fell off after being pulled or touched. These nearly identical monsters were vile to touch but it was far worse with a human body. These people knew each other pretty well, it was hard for them to see their friends or loved ones being thrown into a cart like this.

Perhaps what disturbed the people more was Anton’s fascination with the dead yellow goblins. He stopped after finding a goblin that was mostly intact and had no burn marks. It may have died from a heart attack, if they had one. There were things he would need to know and this seemed like as good as time as any. These people must have thought it strange when he began to pry and prod at the dead.

“What’re you doing?” as Right Jeff.

“Do you have a knife, Jeff?”

“What for?”

Jeff leaned in towards Anton. He had several dead goblins under his arm ready for the cart and was surprised when Anton stopped him from taking his.

“How much do you actually know about these creatures?”

Right Jeff shrugged. “When we hit the enough they die. What’s more to know?”

“I don’t know, but there may be something, something to learn from them, perhaps a weakness of some kind. Who knows what a might be found.”

Right Jeff just stared as if this was beyond him. Anton ignored him and began removing the skin off the dead yellow goblin. The skin came off easily enough revealing the red muscles underneath. They looked strong and well-toned for their size. There was no fat present on any part of its body, the pot belly was filled with a foul-smelling liquid that was not expected. It had a slightly gritty texture yet smelled like grass and leaves. Were they herbivores? And if so why bother attacking if they can just eat grass and leaves. Anton’s amateur dissection was only causing him headaches and painful stares from the perplexed villagers.

These goblins must have a weakness other than just stabbing and slashing them to bits. They appeared to have some difficulty in moving their arms. When they threw those axes they had to use their whole bodies to spin, though that could just the best way for them. Although, this may not be the best place to have done this.

Other villagers were looking at him quite disturbed. Perhaps they thought he was some sort of necromancer or death cultist, not beneficial for getting on their good side.

Anton sighed. The muscles looked identical to everything else he had seen before and the theory about weak joints was erroneous too. He took his half carved goblin and threw it onto the cart. Right Jeff had continued stacking goblins, now the cart was now full.

The carts looked like they should have a creature of some sort pulling them but Right Jeff said the Ix were needed elsewhere to clear bigger debris. Anton had no idea what an Ix was but wasn’t about to argue, though he knew he should try to get to know people better.

On the first trip out of Atros, Anton tried to strike up a conversation with Right Jeff who was helping him pull the cart thought it was Jeff that initiated it.

“So… you’s one of them learn-ed types?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Ha, you remind me of my father. He’s always trying to tell me to be cleverer. Never worked though.”

“Who’s your father?”

“Bertram. Ha Ha, you’ve been talking all day to ‘im and you ‘ad no idea. Can’t you see the resemblance?”

Anton mentally compared the two.

No.

“Not particularly.”

“Ha, at least you’re honest.”

“And the other Jeff that was with you?”

“Nah, he’s a good friend of the family though. He’s a good person, just a little wound up because of what’s happening.”

Anton remained silent as they continued to travel through the village. It was surprisingly large, with over a hundred buildings. Several families must live in each building, though the buildings got progressively more damaged and burned as they neared the edge.

Running along the outside was the attempt at building the wooden palisade. There were many missing sections and those that stood were old and burned, the yellow goblins didn’t even hesitate to go around.

It was here, pulling a cart bouncing with corpses, that Anton saw the outside world. There were miles upon miles of open grassland in every direction. The wind blew lightly, the light rustling of the grass soothing to his ears. There were trees in the distance ranging along the northern mountain, forming a wall running parallel from the mountain towards the south, beyond their sight and yet only a few hours walk away. Anton thought this would be the dumping site but it was to the south.

A few minutes later they arrived. It was just a natural depression in the grass, already filled with old rotting corpses of goblins and humans.

It must take a serious iron will to live like this. The smell alone is vile.

Anton and Jeff threw the bodies into the pit. They thumped, squished and cracked as they fell in.

“How many bodies are here?” Anton asked as he threw the last body.

“Dunno, couple hundred at least today. There’s another one jus’ over there.”

Jeff pointed to another depression a few meters away, the whites of the bones smothered with lichen and grass. This place covered its death well.

The bodies were all in the pit when the other villagers arrived, around twenty carts in total. The last cart yelled at Jeff that they were finished.

“Ah good, Ya hungry?”

Jeff reached into his pants and pulled out a fruit. It looked just like a pear yet it was deep red like a ripe strawberry. He didn’t offer any explanation and bit into it, pink juices bursting over his face. He leant forward to stop the juices from staining his clothes.

“Want one?”

He somehow had another red pear and tossed it at Anton.

“What it is?”

“It’s called a Karak fruit. It’s ‘apparently the fruit of the Kingdom, reserved for royalty. Now it’s up for anyone. Tastes pretty sweet too.”

Anton rubbed his hand over the Karak fruit. While it was the shape of a pear it felt like a ripe orange. It was quite jarring mentally to bite into something that felt like an orange. Nevertheless, he bit into it. Jeff was right, it burst with sweetness with every bite and chew.

The Heaviness, which he now knew was his Mana, seemed to return ever so slightly.

No wonder the royalty kept this for themselves. I’ll need to find out where they grow this. Maybe I can get this into some sort of concentrated form like a pill or something. Although, that does bring up another question. Where are these people growing their food?

On the way to the pit, there had been only a few fruit trees and a few hundred meters of what appeared to be wheat radiating from the village. Surely that was not enough to feed the 1,000 people now let alone the previous 5,000. It was yet another thing he would have to figure out.

Jeff had finished his first fruit, throwing the remains into the body pit, then pulling out another fruit. The other villagers had almost finished unloading the corpses, Anton had been distracted by the fruit.

“I think we’ve got this Anton. Bit of time before midday.” Jeff looked over Anton, “You don’t look strong enough to help clear the wooden bits.”

“Thanks. I really need to get better grips on controlling my mana. Speaking of which, where did you get that fruit?”

“Oh, it’s a gnarly tree just behind the Village Hall. Apparently, dad nicked it when the kingdom collapsed…or he stole a fruit. I don’t remember.” Jeff shrugged and took another bite of the fruit.

“Thanks, I’ll get some later.”

Anton nodded goodbye before finding an open area before reaching the village.

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Mana control was quite difficult to understand; the flow of mana was like a roaring stream that would surge at the slightest provocation. It took Anton hours just to try and manage the flow properly down to a trickle at will. By the end, he had a good idea on how to control it. He had no idea if this was quick or not to get control but it just felt natural now. It was time to test it out.

A small crowd had gathered to watch Anton, whispering and muttering to themselves while the occasional person pointed at him. Not all of the words could be made out but some appeared outright hostile, mentioning his dissection of the yellow goblins. However, there were words of encouragement amongst them as well, so all was not lost.

He had chosen a dirt patch and was sitting like as if he was meditating. Still, more support for gossip that Anton was some deranged Mage. The Karak fruit was ignored for the meantime, he would need to understand his own limits first before he tried to dose himself.

Okay, let’s try this out. Just a small flame, the tiniest flame will do.

The mana began to surge through his body to his hands. With willpower, it stopped with only a tiny trickle reaching his outstretched hand. It pooled there, sloshing through his blood. Anton concentrated hard for a tiny flame to emerge from the palm of his hand. A tiny roar and the flame was born. Only a few centimetres, it danced over his hand but never leaving it. More mana forced it to the centre. There was no heat he could feel yet it burned some grass that he gathered with his spare hand, nor did his clothes burn either when his hand was brought close to him as he lent over.

Everything about this was peculiar. Did his clothes not burn from his own flame because his mana leaked into it? There wasn’t much else it could be. Then there was the crystal in his hand, rammed into it by Tethra. They hadn’t bothered to tell him anything about it yet it seemed important. It was cool to the touch yet retained no heat. Everything relating to magic was peculiar.

Anton spent nearly an hour slowly expanding and contracting the flame. The method was simple enough, the amount of mana fed determined the size and stability.

He barely noticed Jeff coming up from behind.

“Hey, Anton!”

The booming voice surprised Anton, breaking his concentration. The flame grew to a meter in height in an instant before he could bring it back.

Anton glared at Jeff who was still smiling.

“Dad says it time for food. Wanted me to come get ya’. We’ve got a big meeting all planned and everything. Lots of food, you’ll love it.”

“Sure.”

Anton extinguished the flame and walked behind Jeff. The crowd parted to let them through. Obviously, they would still need convincing that could be helpful but all things in good time.