Just like Programming…

That was what Sean thought after a day’s worth of studying magic —which to others was around half of it. Technically speaking, though, it was more like using code libraries to construct something. Everything he needed was there in the book. He just needed to understand the concepts and input whatever was needed. And he realized he wouldn’t get anywhere by reading the Spellbook from start to finish, so he’d use his proven and tested method of skimming through the Table of Contents and looking at the things needed.

Right now, he needed a time and sensor component, and he found them within seconds. The sensor component dealt with compressing a circle and then storing that in the object created by the main spell within an Expansion Circle with a time component. Then several other micro-calculations would have to be prepared, which was not in the Spellbook. So essentially speaking, that was a pipe dream with the limited time he had.

On the other hand, the time component was far simpler. He simply had to add a single sigil within the circles that the Magic Circles contained. They were apparently for adding in numbers, which themselves were peculiar signs that resembled, but weren’t quite the Hanzi letters from the Chinese language —while his Mandarin wasn’t great, he did know some basic ones and at least the numbers.

From what he gathered, he could very easily have added it into the spells had he known that. The Expansion didn’t have a time variable of its own and instead relied on a reverse Condensation circle and relied on the time variable in that to execute itself. They were basically two halves of a whole. When used like that, theoretically, the condensed version would be created and then after a certain amount of time passed, it would expand to its original size.

He couldn’t quite practice it yet as he was near everyone else and still lying in the carriage, and was waiting until they got to the next village. As long as he had the plans and blueprint in his mind, the execution itself would be simple enough. It was simply imagining a few circles and then having them exit his body by supplying it with enough energy. And that also meant he could now weaponize his Explosive Mana Balls by giving it a time component!

This time, he wouldn’t be bluffing. He’d be threatening them.

But it was time to hop back to reality. It was high time he ate something and looking for his bag to eat the jerky and bread inside it. That said, how far was the next village, even? He should have asked about that. His grumbling stomach was the only thing that kept him from studying magic. Fighting, especially Mana-intensely, was extremely tiring and made him hungry. And he’d eaten an hour or so before the fight, so there should be little to no reason for him to get that hungry.

He swept the System-integrated book screen out of his way and the grayscale faded, the world regaining its color as it did. Then the noise came back and he noticed that the cart had stopped. Reading System Screens could be done with eyes closed, so he must have been mistaken for asleep and not notified of whatever they were doing, and sure enough, the carts had stopped and no one else was on the cart.

It didn’t have a roof, so the moment he got up, he could see the people. As his arms had started to heal, almost a quarter of the way through to being alright, it was far easier. But still, it was painful and he groaned out loud. Next time the explosion wouldn’t happen in his face!

“You’re awake,” said Ashley from the left, his backpack in hand —the left side was the back and the right was the front due to his orientation. Just what he needed. It was peculiar, how easily he had gotten accustomed to being in this weird world, but it was a fun one. Certainly, beat trying to beat deadlines. It was almost relaxing, despite the currently imaginary peril. It would be easy to escape, but he wouldn’t.

“I was,” he said, not lying as she climbed up to the cart before she took a seat next to him. And then he pulled the zip open after fiddling with it some. It was an obvious mechanism, he supposed, even for someone who had no idea what it was, “So how is it? Leaving your home, that is.”

“I was ready to leave since last year, Outlander. If there’s two people that would feel nothing leaving the village behind, it’s me and my father,” said Ashley as she fixed her hair, putting the batch that had come in front of her eyes behind her ears. The handkerchief that had been tied across her head last time was now gone, “But I can see the children being livelier than normal.”

“Just stretching their limbs, I guess. They’ve been riding for almost a day,” said Sean as he looked at the kids playing catch, zigzagging between the carriages as they laughed. The children… he wondered what would happen to them if the world truly turned into some post-apocalyptic wasteland thanks to the System giving everyone superpowers. Would they grow to be rotten asses? Or perhaps they would be bullied into submission. Neither was an option Sean wanted to choose. Then he remembered. He was almost friends with them, but they didn’t even know his name! He would commit the act of facepalming had his hands been alright, “Also, I’m Sean. I forgot to introduce myself.”

She giggled for a second, and that turned into a straight-out cackle that lasted for around a good 10 seconds, “Sorry, sorry. I expected something more manly. Like Helbram, or Throkk, for example. Your name is surprisingly normal.”

Sean was speechless. Did she really pull that card? Did she honestly pull the ‘your name is lame’ card?

“Well, sorry for having been a normal human instead of the poster child of masculinity,” said Sean, sarcastically. Joking. That brought back images of Clara inside his head. Right, she was what he was trying to protect —so that she wouldn’t be stolen like a damsel in distress, or worse yet, willingly leave him because he became insufficient. And a characteristic silence took over Sean as he slipped out of the conversation, lost in his thoughts.

Then he felt it.

It was a soft and warm sensation on his lips, and Ashley’s eyes were closed, their faces almost touching… no, they were touching. Wait.

Sean’s face flushed slightly and his eyes widened. That was his first! He’d been saving it for Clara! But there was a part of him that liked the sensation, a part of him that wanted to do it again as it ended and Ashley pulled away.

“That was unexpected,” said Sean, word by word, as he touched his lips where she’d kissed. Despite her being smelling less than ideal and being a tad bit dirty, that felt surprisingly good. Definitely not how he imagined he’d lose his first.

“Sorry. You probably have someone back in your world,” said Ashley and stared down at the ground, as if guilty, “But that was a… token of my gratitude. Is that how you say it? I’ve only heard about princesses saying that from stories. If it weren’t for you, I would be at the top of the mountain, serving Helthur by now.”

Albeit dazed, Sean was still conscious and engaged in the conversation. More than before. And he caught it. ‘Serve’. What did that word entail?

“What do you mean by that?” asked Sean, and she most likely understood what he meant. His brows furrowed and one of them was raised as he asked the question. Sean was under the impression she’d die, get eaten or something.

“Helthur likes to keep many women by his side, and every girl that reaches womanhood is to be sent to the Mountain to serve him. Fillmore is the only one in the village who’s ever been up to the mountain, and he is very reluctant to talk about what happens there,” said Ashley, explaining her situation. So this giant was some sort of pervert instead of a terrifying cannibal? That wasn’t expected, “Father made it out as if I’d die, but I would have been alive. But I guess living on the run is better than living in some cave, huh?”

“I suppose,” said Sean as he thought about what the other women in the cave were forced to go through. He was by no means a hero, but as someone from a civilized world, he didn’t like the implications of it, “At any rate, instead of using your body indecently, can you put a piece of jerky in my mouth. My hands aren’t all that operational right now.”

“Aren’t you a mage? Can’t you do it with magic?” she asked as she pulled one out regardless. They were around the size of his palm, which meant it was large. She folded it in half, but being meat, it didn’t give very easily so she started to twist it, trying to split it in two, “It feels like you saved me to serve you instead of the giant.”

“First up, Magic isn’t as simple as that,” said Sean and paused. Well, it was the particular magic he chose, but what about the others? Apparently Elementalism was simpler, so if he’d chosen that and used air, he could perhaps move it. But before he got lost in his thoughts, Sean managed to continue the conversation like a normal human for the first time in a while, “And second, I paid you ahead of time with the cho-”

But before he could finish his sentence, the split half of the jerky was shoved into his mouth. Talk about bad customer service.

“I was jesting,” said Ashley and simply sat there in silence as he chewed the jerky. Spitting it out wasn’t an option, considering he was famished, so he didn’t answer. After at least half a minute of chewing, he swallowed them bit by bit, savoring the taste. It was good. Whether because it was tasty or because he was hungry, he didn’t know.

“Thanks. I’d have died from hunger sooner than by the giants without you,” said Sean after he swallowed it. There was little that he could, “That’d be more anti-climactic than falling from a horse to screw over my ankles.”

“You’re a good man,” said Ashley, completely off-topic. Not that there was a topic, “There aren’t many men like you.”

“Don’t count on it. I’m only being brave because I won’t die,” said Sean with a cheeky grin. He then gave her a thumbs up, to which she simply stared at, mystified, “I’d have wet my pants at the prospect of fighting them otherwise.”

“No. I don’t mean your bravery,” said Ashley and she sighed deeply, “I mean your motivations. That’s something that hasn’t been seen for a long time down here. A man that is willing to go to such heights to achieve his goals. Everyone is crestfallen, taking head on whatever the world throws at them instead of fighting against it, like you.”

“I’m not really… fighting,” said Sean, confused by the development. His cheeky grin from before froze in place.

“You are, without even knowing about it. I admire that about you,” said Ashley and her melancholic attitude disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Her more joking persona popped back in, “But you’re still a coward, though.”

These weren’t expectations.

This was the kind of attention he didn’t hate —one in which he wasn’t expected to abide by the wishes of the people but simply got their goodwill by his actions every now and then. She didn’t expect anything. Not at the moment, at least.

“Yeah, yeah. Can you at least feed me that and another piece before you start badmouthing me? Better yet, do that while I’m eating so I can’t retort,” said Sean as he opened his mouth. And she put the other piece into his mouth and pulled out another piece, starting the splitting process again.

“Yeah, I’ll do just that,” she said.

***

They’d come to the next village, which was far larger than the other one. On his way, Sean read more about the time component and how it could be utilized as well as how he could potentially make his spells stronger —which simply ended up being answered with getting his hands on artifacts and equipment that would empower him. Suffice to say, that wasn’t a good answer to his current dilemma. Not that it’d be a problem for very much longer. Although they were giants, they were still supposed to be tutorial monsters, so perhaps mages should be able to beat them. That was what he was thinking about for the last few hours.

Sean wasn’t all that impressed. It was basically the same as the one they’d evacuated from, but a bit larger. There was a sort of marketplace or so he heard. The System was giving him a chance to buy an artifact, he’d thought. He’d get some magical equipment, he thought.

He was wrong.

“Come one, come all, fresh fish here! The freshest you’ll find!” shouted out one salesman. Sean noticed that there was no real competition. Everyone had their niches. It made sense, he supposed. In fact, he wagered the only thing that made them shout out was the arrival of new people.

Fillmore was to meet the mayor equivalent of the town, from the line of a Jarl much like him. It seemed they had a measure of authority still, even after being dethroned by the giants. All the while Sean stumbled through the marketplace. It wasn’t exactly sprawling, but he’d bumped into a guy —his arm hurt. It wasn’t the point of contact, per se, but the mere fact that he’d hit something more than lightly.

“Watch where you’re going,” said the one that had bumped into him. It was a square-jawed boy, almost 2 meters in height. Suffice to say, he was more than a head taller than Sean, almost as tall as Samson. Whatever that berserker’s blood he was talking about before, it was real. It made people become semi-giants.

Right, juveniles. He hadn’t seen any because there weren’t any back in the other village. Even back in university —not among the ones that attended class, at least. But strangely, Sean felt nothing when he stared up at the face of the guy. Not even a tiny bit of intimidation. He simply said, “Sorry,” and walked past. No anxiety, no nothing. He would have at least winced slightly had it been before. It was surreal.

How he walked was awkward. As he couldn’t quite move his arms —them aching if he did so — they simply lied aside, and even his manner of walking was more akin to a stumble so as to not have his body shake too much. He looked through the entire marketplace that spanned over twenty meters.

Nope, nothing.

The closest it got was a weapon shop, with an old crossed sword hidden behind a shield logo. Unlike the others which were outdoors, this one was within a shack. There were other buildings, but none of them had signs outside. Most likely the houses of the ones running the market.

“Shop’s closed,” said a voice from behind when he raised his arms to open it. The arm slumped —it was a waste of time and effort to raise it, it seemed. Sean turned his head and saw the one he’d bumped into walking away after saying whatever he had. He only caught him turning his head.

“I see,” said Sean. Well, he was only going to do window shopping anyways. The leather armor was still on his body and he didn’t need anything else, since he wouldn’t know what to do with a sword and this was allegedly the best armor. There was no real way to take it off conveniently, and that made some people stare —obviously, not many people wore armor. Not nowadays, he supposed. The giants were the only real threat, maybe. That’s what he thought for now.

Sean lazily walked down the stairs. The pain was subsiding. If he could measure it on a scale of 1 to 10, it had turned from a constant 6 to an occasional 4 compared to the day before. It hindered him but wasn’t too annoying. And he stumbled and fell, helpless to halt his fall. With that, he fell to the ground, face-first.

He tasted blood.

“Fuck,” he mumbled under his breath. Sean didn’t really know how to stand up properly, so he resorted to using one arm to do so. It was a bad choice. The pain from trying to support his body weight with one arm was too great, but thankfully, he was lifted up with an arm that pulled on the back of the armor. Whoever it was, he mouthed a “Thank you,” at them.

It was Fillmore that had lifted him up, with someone behind him. It was a fat man that had a thick brown mustache and plump cheeks. This was the exact opposite of ideal. So far, everyone he’d seen had been fit, and the sole exception was the fat man.

“He’s the Giant Slayer I’ve been telling you about,” said Fillmore as he placed him on his legs. The old blacksmith was strong, at least enough to lift him up and hold him there for a few seconds. No surprises there. He could accurately throw hammers that Sean could barely hold, “Don’t let his pathetic state fool you. He throws out one nasty surprise after the other.”

“Ah, it’s an honor, hunter-mage,” said the fat man with a hearty voice, and he sarcastically bowed. After raising his head, he clapped his hands, “Now then, shall we accompany you to my house? A minor feast is a given, to celebrate your glory.”

He expectantly stared at Sean, as if eyeing him up and down.

Expectations, again.

“I’ll not be partaking. My time is better spent doing something more productive,” said Sean. He was astounded by their boldness. They’d angered the ones that had been oppressing them for so long! So how in the world were they so calm? They could come down at any moment! It felt like he was the only one taking the threat seriously despite them being the ones in real danger, “Where’s a place that no one visits? I need some quiet.”

“The cliff is your best bet,” said the fat man and pointed to the north, to Sean’s left and behind the weapons shop. It wasn’t visible to him, blocked by the building so he walked up to the fat man and looked at where he was pointing from his vantage point —sure enough, a cliff was there, with a sort of plateau at the top despite being more or less a hill on the way there. It was visible, “No one goes there, but no promises. They might be coming to you, not the cliff. Regardless, the villagers from Freicht will be accommodated within my house and the outskirts, if you are to look for them after, hunter-mage.”

“That’s good enough,” said Sean and tried to raise his hands to wave goodbye, but winced. This was annoying. After a moment of awkward silence, he mumbled, “Well, I’m off. Thanks.”