Her eyes are shining slightly with a soft purple glow. She’s humanoid but certainly not human, even though her features are beautiful in a wild kind of way, like the face of a mischievous spirit of nature. Her skin is a light shade of lilac and she’s got a pair of bone-white horns starting at her temples and curving to end by her ears, clearly contrasting against her red hair. She’s wearing leather boots, dark pants held up by a thick belt that also holds a few pouches..

Think all those darker stains are blood?

Yes, she feels like danger.

Her torso is naked, showing multiple scars, some perfectly defined abs and a smooth area where a human would have breasts. Whatever she is, it’s not a mammal. The eerily still tail ending in a sharp scaled tip seems to confirm it, as it definitely has a reptilian look. A large circular tattoo covers most of her left shoulder, it's a strange sigil of beautiful arabesques.

She’s absently nibbling on one of the sharp claws of her left hand as we consider each other, while her right hand is resting on the matching dagger at her side, yet she looks relaxed rather than threatening, like she knows she could overpower me before I even realize what's happening. Because she’s aware of how inexistent a danger I am.

She’s probably right.

“Nob srola àjed, tse’q euq ut se?”

I note that she has a nice voice, soft and almost musically linking together the sounds of her tongue.

“Hmm, I’m sorry but I didn’t catch that...”

She slightly tilts her head to the side, and her eyes flash brighter for a second before dimming down completely. Uh. They are actually a deep dark purple, with a weight of experience in them that makes me wonder if she isn’t far older than the 20-odd years I gave her at first.

Then she speaks again, as a notice drifts into my mind

“So, as I said, what are you?”

I recoil a little. This is super weird. I can still hear whatever incomprehensible thing is her actual tongue but I also know exactly what she’s saying. I don’t understand the words but the meaning is crystal clear.

Compatible system detected.

Localization and local time synchronized.

Automatic translation active.

And here I was actually starting to believe this thing was useless.

Right. Better answer the demon lady.

“I’m human. My name is Marc, what about you?”

A glance at my status tells me we're currently in the Enatom Mountains and that the time is 10:34. Nice. I'm not sure how she triggered the translation thing but I'll take it. Sure beats non verbal communication.

“Human? Never heard of that. Or seen anything quite like you. I’m a gilfeith and my name is Pheyis.”

Interestingly, she pronounced the word "human" perfectly understandably to my ears. So that didn't get translated somehow. I barely register the strange names before she goes on.

“How are you alive? You’re clearly too soft and weak to live in the mountains.”

Ouch.

Well she isn’t totally wrong, we’re not up to speed.

“Uhh... Yes. Well, I kind of just got here two days ago.”

Am I even supposed to say I come from Earth to the people in the Study? It probably wouldn’t make much sense to this gilfeith person anyway.

Her tone of voice is different now, seems that she’s suddenly much more interested.

“Are you the reason for the recent anomaly? You can’t have missed the huge bubble of mana and the lack of wildlife right?”

“I’ve… Been wondering if that was linked to my arrival, yes.”

“You haven’t seen anything like a massive monster fight?”

What? Is that an actual environmental hazard around here? She's dead serious though.

“No... Uh, should I have seen that?”

“No, anyway, you don’t look like you would have survived. But considering the size of the anomaly, I'm looking for something flashy. Where are you coming from?”

I realize that I can’t lie to her. There’s no way I’ll spin a coherent tale knowing nothing from this world.

“Earth. Another planet very far away.”

Disbelief is clear on her face as she stares at me for a second. Her expressions are really quite human.

“And how exactly did a level 1 got here from very far away?”

“Well, there’s this… This place, we call an evaluation center. I went there, and next thing I know I woke up out here in the mountains. I was as surprised as you are.”

Hey, I barely fumbled this explanation.

“So, you went to a place in another world, some kind of accident happened, and you just happened to arrive here?”

“I see you don’t really believe me. Hum, well, it wasn't really an accident, the facility is meant to sent people explore faraway places. I just… am missing some memories of exactly what happened.”

“What a convenient explanation.” she muses. “And whatever magic brought you here caused the mana disturbance.”

I see she doesn’t believe me.

“And what are you? Some kind of champion of humans? Why are you alone?”

I can’t help but scoff a little at the idea of being a human champion.

“No, no. I’m just a fairly regular guy.”

She narrows her eyes slightly at this.

“I’m sure you are. Your only saving grace is that I can’t see why anyone would come up with your bullshit out here.”

“Anyway, enough chatter. You’re coming with me.”

Damn this girl is straightforward. Think we’re getting lucky?

I’m not sure what you mean but I think we’re prisoners Bob.

Kinky.

… Of course. Why don’t you go ahead and work on mana detection while I try my best to keep some dignity as I limp her way?

I can only imagine she's going to take me to a stricter interrogatory, which means I get to live a little longer in the meantime.

“So, Pheyis. Where are we going?”

I'm not really expecting an answer right now, but who knows.

“I’ll bring you to Wathamber, it’s the nearest village from here. You’ll fit right in, they're all weaklings.”

I wince.

“How far away is Wathamber exactly?”

She looks at me without breaking her stride, some annoyance in her tone.

“At that pace we’re not getting there before the next third.”

Well, that doesn’t help at all.

“What do you mean by third?” I ask.

“A third of a month, eleven days.” She snaps. “You should save your breath, it’ll be a long hike.”

She doesn't care that I'm limping, and starving, and trying to live through half a mental breakdown, and that I have so many questions I could ask her.

I'm not speaking up for you bro. That woman is scary. And attractive.

Bob, I'm not one to kink shame but keep that to yourself will you?

...Sure.

- - -

Pheyis is silently watching me twenty meters ahead, next to an aggressively orange bush. I’m doing my best to catch up, but she walks fast. It’s like she’s on one of those mechanical walkways you see in airports. Meanwhile I’m limping as best as I can, trying to not trigger my cramp again, but I already feel on my last legs after so much physical effort in the last two days. We’ve barely walked for ten minutes and it feels like a never ending struggle.

As I make it close to her, her eyes flash with that same purple light I saw before, and the notice of system translation drifts into my mind again. Her annoyance is clear.

“This won’t do. Why are you limping?”

Should I be ashamed? I feel some weird kind of shame right now, like I’m not supposed to be worn down to the bone already.

“Well, this morning I had nasty cramps in my leg and its been hurting whenever I move it.”

“Cramps? Why aren’t you focusing some mana in your leg?”

Is that a thing? Can you do that Bob?

Bro, it takes me like one hour to get half a glimpse of what mana even is. I have no idea how we can do what seems to be magic 101.

Right. Let’s come clean then.

At least talking to Bob goes at the speed of thought so I merely spaced out for half a second.

“I had no idea that was possible. I learned about mana two days ago by reading my status for the first time. I’m not really able to use it yet.”

She clicks her tongue in a surprisingly human-like fashion.

“Well, I’d rather spend some mana than carry you on my back. Hold still, this might sting a little.”

She moves before I can react, both of her hands hold me upright while her tail coils around my legs.

“Wai-”

As I start to protest, something happens and everything from the waist down flares up in the most intense and sharp pain I’ve ever felt.

For a split second, pain is all I know, every nerve sending an overload message. Then I blackout.

It can’t have been very long because when I come to, Pheyis is still holding me upright. The pain is completely gone. And it apparently drained away all the weariness that was in most of my body. I feel incredibly good.

You have been forcefully infused with 50 points of mana, pushing you over your normal limit. The excess mana eats at your health (-5 health).

Mana was specifically directed to your legs with the intention to help them function for a while.

Other effects may vary.

Mana sense progress +5%, +5 max mana

A forceful mana infusion has made your body slightly better at retaining mana, +1 max mana.

The system is casually ominous as usual, but I feel like a new man! My deep weariness is all but gone, and I’m overflowing with energy, I can’t help but hop in place in delight and just enjoy the ease of the movement.

Suddenly Pheyis slaps me and I stagger a little, moving a couple paces back. I didn’t see the blow coming at all.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“Checking your balance. Looks like we’re lucky and the infusion worked as intended. There’s a long way to go little human, try to keep up this time.”

And just like that she’s moving again.

What did she mean by the infusion worked as intended?

I jog back to her to catch up and ask just that.

“What would have happened if the infusion hadn’t worked?”

“I’d have to carry you while your body worked off the mana. Usually not a pleasant process.” She answers matter-of-factly. “Save your breath little lamb.”

I don’t want to follow her anymore but she can probably knock me out cold and bring me along regardless of what I feel.

Being faced with someone so obviously out of my league is deeply unpleasant.

It’s not that I would mind another slap but you probably should start moving again~

Come on Bob, don’t be weird.