POV of Selena

I had just sent John out in hopes of finding Jacob as I tap my foot in impatience [What's taking them so long?] “I hope he didn't run off” I quietly mutter under my breath although apparently not quite enough as my sister Sophie grins as she turns to me.

“Worried your new love interest ran away?” She asks in an innocent voice.

I blush slightly “No I just don't want our strongest fighter to disappear.” I reply hurriedly.

“Rigggght.”

“My lady Jacob has returned and is talking to John at the edge of the old campsite!” Yells one of the male guards.

“Thank you. I will go and tell them to hurry up.”

“Sure you don't want a piece of eye candy before the road?” Teases my sister.

“Shut up!” I yell as I hurried to walk over to where the guard gestured while trying not to get my dress dirty. [ Jacob being attractive has nothing to do with anything…] My eyes widen as I see the pale handsome boy lunge towards John with a mad glint in his eyes.

Ony for the blade to stab mid-air as space seems to tremble and warp as a horrific screeching sound violates my ears. Appearing from the distorted space was a horrific-looking monster. It had the general body of a giant boar with red fur but for two key differences. For one it has covered by brass colored cones resembling trumpets, and for another, it has a large spiked club at the end of its muscley tail.

I take a step back in fright [A trump-boar] I may have the power and magic from my family but I didn't like to dirty my hands. [If I remember correcty they hunt in packs while invisible.]

As if on cue Jacob stubbled to the side as if hit by an invisible force. Disturbingly his grin only widened as he jumped onto the visible Trump-boar with natural grace.

Looking around I see the rest of my guards grimacing in pain as they form a protective circle around me. Casting my gaze back to Jacob I grimace as I watch him drink the blood from the now-dead trump-boar. [What is that peasant doing? I can't believe I was attracted to that.] (Shallow bitch )

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MC POV

Once I had filled my mouth with the blood of the odd monster I spin on the balls of my feet while squirting the blood out like a fountain, revealing the once hidden monsters.

"Peek-a-boo"

With a flick of my wrist, I send a knife into the remaining 5 monsters causing them to become visible. Sensing movement in the air behind me I tilt my head to the side and catch the invisible attack, and throw the would-be assailant into its comrades.

It flys into 3 of the monsters and knocks them over like bowling pins [Mother fucker, so close to a strike]. Lunging at the only standing monster I slit its thought as I pass it before gracefully slaughtering the rest, who were still struggling to stand.

"Well, that was boring. What shall we do with the corpses?" I ask in false consideration.

Selena's face becomes red before turning around and storming off. [Resist the urge to read their emotions Jacob its good practice. Referring to myself in the third person is a great sign for my mental health tehe. Now her face was red so she is mad at me? Because I didn't leave any for her to kill? or because I was late? Fuck knows.]

John talks with the rest of the guards before clearing his throat as he approaches.

"We will probably leave the trump-boars here..."

[Oh so that's what they are called] I create tentacles that dig underground to absorb the corpses but I give slight support to the skin as I leave it intact to not arouse suspicion.

I didn't listen to his explanation, something about need to leave fast for a call or some shit.

“ Anyway, we need tot start heading off, are you ok to leave? We couldn't find any of your stuff so we assumed you have it on you?”

“ Yeah I am good to go and these pockets ain't just for show. Ha my rhymes are a crime and I am a poet and I didn’t even know it.”

“Please stop.”

“Haha. Let's go what are you making us wait for!”

“Oh for fuck sake. come on then…”

“Watch your fucking language you little shit I have innocent ears you cunt.”

“Yeah John you bastard, watch your language around the kid, you are so irresponsible with that vulgar mouth of yours.”

“Fuck sake John we can't take you anywhere. But seriously Jacob that was pretty cool how you dealt with those trup-baors.”

Both Betty and Holy come up from behind us carry the last of their camp equipment as they join in on the banter. Once we reached the carriages the two women try to put their bags into the storage compartments.

“It's too big it won't fit.”

“Push it harder.”

“But it's too tight.”

“Just push it harder. Harder, there we go.”

“Well, John how many men do you think have heard those words from those two?”

Both women turn to stare at us and start yelling as we laughed. After another few minutes of us being lectured by the two, it was eventually called to a stop as the carriages began to move. John and I then moved away from the woman as we started our guard duty.

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POV MC Half a day later

At first, I was excited to travel around on the road, but I quickly came to realize that it is so fucking boring. The guards did not talk because it was unprofessional unless they were on a break so we walked in silence along with the horse-drawn carriages. With nothing to do I go through Paul's and my memories trying to find anything useful, sadly I could not find anything that I could experiment with while walking with other people.

With nothing better to do, I made my poisons and venoms more potent but there is only so far I can go without magic involved, but the results are still favorable. After tinkering with the deadly chemicals inside my own body I decided to try and start production of a truth serum. [From Paul's memories it appears that people lie less when they are drunk. Is it because they are happy or is it the depressant drug effects of alcohol in the body? Most likely the drug effect. (depressant drugs slow the signals the nervous system produce.)]

Using the hallucinogenic poison as a template I start to make a poison that slows the signals between the brain and spinal cord (How actual truth serum works apparently). Trying it on myself I can ‘see’ the effects and I eventually make a poison with the desired effects. But I am not the perfect test subject as I have a different body to most and I know what is happening.

Before I come up with a solution we reach the end of the forest. We are on a hill overlooking a huge stretch of open land covered in a green sea of grass with giant shards of stone miles high sticking out of the ground at haphazard angles. Huge trees with trunks made from countless interweaving branches that rivaled the ‘skyscrapers’ in height, made colossal arches. Herds of unknown creatures numbering in the thousands roamed the grass sea, while flocks of birds traverse the sky with ease. We continue to walk as I stare at the new landscape with excitement and wonder.

“What's the matter, Jacob? Never seen the planes before?” Asks John

“No I have only seen the streets or the forest and what happened to ‘Talking is unprofessional’?”

“Oh, that was because we were in the forest. Too many places for bandits to hide so, we have to be on high alert, especially after the attack.”

“Oh...that makes sense.” (Sounds like lazy writing to me)

“Yeah. If you think the planes are cool you are going to lose your shit at the rest of the world. Forest Of crystals, floating rivers of lava flying through the sky, levitating islands, underwater cities, upside down bioluminescent jungles, running mountains and so much more.”

“That sounds awesome! Have you seen these things?” [That's why I wanted to become an adventurer, to see and experience the world to its fullest. Just think of the exotic things I can kill and eat.]

“Well no, but I have heard people talk about them in awe and I have seen a couple of memories of some of a person in an upside-down bioluminescent jungle, it is magnificent.”

“How do you see memories?” I ask.

“People can store short memories in memory stones and I paid to see a memory of one of the upside-down bioluminescent jungles. It was worth the money.”

“So can you learn things from these memories stones. Couldn't people learn things easily if they could just have someone's memories?”

“Ha I wish, but no they are far too expensive and as far as I know, can only capture the memory of sight for 5 minutes. Any other sense and the length shortens drastically.”

“Well, there go my plans to learn the world's history in a day. Wait wait, how the fuck does a mountain run?”

“How the bloody hell should I know! I've never seen one.”

“Maybe it's got legs?”

“Yeah I bet it's got some sexy legs”

“What the fuck are you two talking about? You know what I don't want to know. Anyway, I came over to let you know we are stopping in 5 minutes for Selena to make a call to her father to tell him what happened.” Betty tells us.

“Right, ok” John nods in understanding while I am left confused.

“What do you mean make a call?” I ask.

“Oh right you probably wouldn't know but if you have enough money you can buy a pair of mirrors. When one is powered with enough energy will connect to the other and allow a short conversation between the two users of the mirrors.” Answers John.

We spend the rest of the five minutes talking about nothing important as we walk along the empty road. Once the time was up we make a temporary camp at the side of the road so the horses can rest as the same guarding set up as last night is implemented but this time I stay out of curiosity to watch the communication mirrors. Disappointedly Selene talked to her father inside the carriage with her sister and the maid.

With nothing better to do, I sit down and sharpen my knives while using empathy to detect any hostile emotions. Luckily it didn't take long for Selena to walk out of the carriage holding a plane looking mirror if not for the fact it had the shiniest headed man that has ever shined. I mean you could actually see an accurate reflection of the butler standing next to him. Apart from the overly smooth and shiny head, the man was above average in looks with a chiseled jaw and deep brown eyes.

The mirror disappointedly did not have any fancy magical gems or visible enchantments like I expected so I go back to sharpening my knives. Until Selena asks us to gather around her while she holds up the mirror with Mr shiny head.

“Hello, there everyone I would like to, first of all, thank you all for protecting my daughters, my special thanks to Jacob who I have been told without your help the things could have been much worse.”

Not wishing to interrupt I give a nod to the shiny man in the mirror.

“Now as to what will happen next, I have given word for a message to be sent to the tribe of grey beak who will be having a festival in your general area. You will meet with them and wait for a better-prepared escort, all ideas of hiding will be withheld due to the current circumstances.

As for the merchants and any others not directly tied to my faction, I invite you to stay with my daughters so I can send a gift as a sign of my appreciation for helping my children.”

Making eye contact with merchant 1 I nob symbolizing my desire to take the shiny man up on his offer. Both merchants turn and whisper to each other until Merchant 2 speaks up to the shiny man.

“Kind sir we would like to take you up on your offer.”

“Excellent.”

Before he could continue, I see a man whispering in the butler's ear in the reflection of his shiny head. The butler then proceeds to whisper in the shiny man's ear.

“Ah, excellent the tribe grey beak as agreed to look after you until the guards meet you. They will be at…”

After listing a bunch of numbers and letters the shiny head man apologies and then leaves on important business [which is apparently more important than finalizing his daughter's safety, odd if you ask me.]

After her father ‘leaves’ Selena looks at us before announcing “Alright you heard my father, let's go meet the grey beaks.”

[Yay? I hope they are more interesting than this lot.]