The rest of the flight was uneventful, albeit with the thoughts about the gods and the breaker of chains thing. To distract himself, he tried to find more information about the system…but he gave up halfway through the journey, the only thing that had any description was his class.

After what he felt like hours, by nightfall Alex finally saw what looked like a village in the distance, the place looked about what he expected of a medieval village, large wooden buildings spread over the place, with a stone road connecting them.

They reached the village a few minutes later, night covering the village by that point, the only source of light being torches spread around the village and the full moon overhead. As the broom started to decrease in altitude, Alex stared at the sky, his attention going to the full moon, then to the stars, which shined brightly, something alien to someone whom lived in cities. It was gorgeous.

“So, what did you think about your flight?”

Alex turned his attention towards Alice, whom was staring him with a grin in her face, he now noticing that they had stopped a while ago, he hadn’t noticed thanks to being distracted by the night sky.

“Terrifyingly nice.” Alex mumbled after a short while.

“So, was entranced by the stars? Can’t blame you, they are aligned today.” Alice said.

“If you want to invite him to your cult, please do that later.” Wind said from behind Alex.

“It’s not a cult, it’s a religion.”

“Same difference.”

“You two can argue about this when we are in the inn.” Sky said.

While Alex was curious, he decided that he could ask about it later, and slowly got off the flying broom, glad that his feet were once again upon solid ground.

“Well, you weren’t the worse passage I had at the very least.” Alice said, also getting off the broom, then, she picked a purse in her pocket, and put the broom inside it, somehow.

“You have a bag of holding.”

“Yep. Useful little thing.” Alice said with a grin on her face.

“Never mind that I found the damn thing… ”Wind mumbled.

“More useful for witches”

Wind was about to reply something, but Sky decided to interrupt. “Can we bicker once we are in the inn? I’m sure Alex would rather be somewhere that’s not freezing.”

“I’m fine actually; I think Alice did something to heat me up.”

Sky looked at the witch, an odd look on their face, and then shook their head.

“I see.”

Alex could not help but feel that there was something odd with how Sky said that but didn’t comment on it, immediately afterwards, the saint started walking, the three of them following suit.

“By the stars, both of us know that it’s harmless.”

“Is…there a problem?” Alex asked, looking at Alice.

“Not really, Sky can be a bit of a stuck up sometimes.”

“If you did what I think you did, I’d argue that it’s justified.”

“What did you do to me anyway?”

“That might sound bad, but I threw a harmless curse at you.”

Alex shot a blank stare towards Alice, all of sudden feeling very worried.

“What.”

“It’s not bad, I swear. Just a harmless curse to deal with the cold.”

Alex felt that she was being sincere; she hadn’t really done anything harmful towards him until now.

“Could you explain, please? I don’t know how curses work in this world to begin with.”

“All right, I will simplify because curses are very, very complex things. In the most simple of forms, they are things that happen under a set of circumstances. What I did was curse you to feel a modest heat while you were cold, to vanish when you are nearby a flame.”

“That…sounds harmless.”

“It is, indeed, mostly harmless. But the thing that Alice is neglecting is that curses always have a chance of having…unfortunate results.” Sky said.

“Unfortunate result? Like what?” Alex asked, feeling a sudden sense of dread.

“That kind of stuff is extremely rare and I’m good enough to minimize the odds of something bad happening.”

“I mean…how could moderate heat be bad, exactly?”

“Perspective. What is a moderate amount of heat to you is different to what Alice sees as a moderate amount.” Sky said.

“The difference in rank between you two means that if something like that happened, you would be cooked alive.” Wind said.

A shiver shot through Alex’s spine.

“But-“Alice started to say something, but was cut off by Sky. “We will talk about the subject later.”

He…honestly wasn’t sure what to feel of the subject, but he was admittedly a bit scared that he could have been burned to a crisp.

They continued their walk, no one in the mood to talk, it gave Alex the chance of seeing the town properly, it was weird being in a place like this after spending his whole life in a city. Only torches illuminated the streets and they were mostly empty, albeit he could hear loud noises coming from a few buildings.

Soon, they reached one of the bigger buildings, quite a bit of noise coming from it, Alex noticing that there was a wooden sign with inn written on it in front of the building. As soon as he entered, a bunch of different things hit him at once; the smell of alcohol and food, a heavy singing, the place felt full.

“Are you coming?”

Alice’s voice took him out of the stupor, he noticing that the others were staring at him.

“Sorry, just not used to this kind of stuff.”

“Its fine, would you prefer to rest then? We can talk tomorrow if you would like, it will be far less noisy.” Sky said.

Alex shook his head, it had taken him by surprise, but it was not like he hadn’t been in a bar before. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Alex followed them as they sat around a table. The people of the inn looked…normal. After meeting an elf, a witch and Sky, it felt odd. Most of them had a northern European look, which meant that he fit right in. Except for his clothes, everyone else had some kind of coat with them; he was the only person whom did not get the memo that it was the middle of winter.

He sat down in a chair next to Sky, they called a waitress over, asking for some food that he didn’t recognize…or probably didn’t exist in his world to begin with.

“Are people always this…cheerful around here?”

“Probably not. But we hunted down a nearby slumberer yesterday, so they decided to do a big feast with all of that meat.” Sky said.

“Slumberer?”

“Very big, very slow, but very dangerous if left unchecked. The plus side is that their meat is quite sought after.” Wind said, a grin appearing on her face.

“And off to gluttony land you go…” Alice said

“There’s nothing gluttonous in wanting to taste a bit of rare food.”

“I am fairly confident that it’s the definition of gluttony.” Sky said, Alex was a bit surprised that they joined on the teasing.

Alex idly noticed that the previous mood was seemingly hone as soon as they entered the tavern.

“Right, there is…a lot on my mind right now, where do I start?”

Alice shot him a look. “In my experience, the beginning is usually the best start.”

Much as he felt like she was teasing him, he felt that there was truth in it. And the beginning was…

“It’s just me that occasionally sees…stuff in front of me?”

“You mean the system, don’t you?” Alice asked

Alex gave a sigh of relief, if they didn’t, he felt that he would sound a bit crazy.

“So you guys also see blue screens?”

“Nope.” Alice said with a serious tone in her voice. “Mine’s purple.”

“Green.” Wind noted.

“Blue.”

“So…what’s this system?”

“Before you ask that, I will warn you that Alice likes to rant about things that she knows quite a bit.” Wind said with an exasperated look on her face.

“Sure, I love exposition.” Alex said.

Alice gave me thumbs up. “Right, that’s a very complicated question. Basically, the system is a thing that every sapient being has that allows them to use the mana around the world.”

“Mana? And how does that work?”

“Mana is the energy of creation, which can be altered in countless of ways to achieve countless things, and how the system works…the intricacies is probably beyond a mortal mind’s comprehension, but to simplify it, basically, it takes the mana that you receive, and distributes it around your body and soul, and improves them with it.”

Alex nodded slowly, the system was about what he expected. “And how do you receive mana? Killing things, I guess?”

“That is the most effective method, usually, but far from the only one. Everyone passively gains mana from the environment, meditation, potions and a whole bunch of other things can give you mana.”

“Usually killing monsters for mana is reserved for adventurers like us.” Wind said. “Nobles and influential people get access to high-density mana sites, potions, and artefacts to increase their rank.”

Alex nodded, and then stared blankly at Wind. “Rank?”

“Yes, rank, haven’t you opened your status yet?” Sky said, looking at him. “I would recommend you to do so, and to look at your perk and skills.”

Alex slowly nodded. “I have looked at my status screen, but…I haven’t seen any mention of rank.”

Just to be sure, he opened his status screen. Nothing. He opened the skill screen, it listed mental defense…and nothing else, then perks, there, he found something interesting, albeit that wasn’t related to the current subject.

Number of perks: 4 racial types. 2 currently in the process of unlocking.

Besides that, it listed his perks, all of them had the same description as before he decided to ask more about perks later, focusing on the current subject for now.

“That’s odd, but I have read that in rare cases, the system changes the name of things so that the person can understand it.” Alice said. “Everything works the same way, though.”

“Right. So, you increase your mana and gain ranks…or for me, level up.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“So, why did I gain mana from that fight? Does everyone around get mana when an monster is killed?”

“No, unless you are in a party, mana only transfers to the person whom killed the monster. But this situation was a bit different.” Alice said. “To begin with, it was a crisis. Anyone who helps in a crisis gets a mana reward from the system, independent of what type of help it is.”

"So, i gained mana by telling you guys to do something?"

“What matters is that you helped, more than anything.” Sky said. “And don’t underestimate how much you helped us, without you, it’s likely that we would have to retreat, and it would be…troublesome for that thing to have been allowed to roam free.”

Alex nodded, in the end of the day, he felt like it was better to not look a gift horse on the mouth. Before he could ask the next question, a plate full of food was put in front of him, he looking up afterwards, not having noticed the waitress approaching the table.

“As thanks to giving us the beast’s corpse, the food is on the house today.” The waitress said, giving them a smile.

In response, Sky extended a golden coin towards the waitress. “I insist that we pay for it. You can keep the change.”

The waitress seemed to hesitate for a second, but then, she took the coin. “T-thank you sir Sky.” She said, then hurried away from them.

He wondered how much that golden coin was worth. Considering her reaction…he felt that it was quite a bit. Alex then looked towards Sky, a curious look on his face.

“So…no offense asking this, but you are a guy?”

Sky gave him a smile. “Perhaps.”

Alex gave them a blank stare. “You…don’t want people to know your gender?”

In the other side of the table, Alex heard snickers coming from both the woman in front of him, then, he saw Wind throwing something at Alice.

“Not really. It is more like…it doesn’t matter to me, either way. If you want to think of me as a man or as a woman, it is fine. As long as you don’t flirt with me, that is.”

Slowly, he nodded, he didn’t really get it, but he decided to not question it.

“It’s cheating.” Wind said. “He only asked because of that girl.”

“A bet is a bet.”

“You two were betting if I was going to ask Sky’s gender?”

“Not if, When. I thought that you would wait longer to be polite.” Wind said.

“Is it really that common?”

“Everybody who spends any length of time with Sky asks that question.”

Alex nodded, and then focused on the food in front of him, devouring it. He must have been hungrier than he thought, because the food practically vanished from his plate, or perhaps it was because the food was delicious, unlike anything he had eaten before.

“Is…there a problem if I ask for seconds?”

“Not really. Since you are with us, the food would be free. And that was before Sky gave them enough money to build a second tavern.”

Alex nodded, calling the waitress, then stared at Sky. “Isn’t that…a bit excessive?”

“Well…” Sky’s face reddened a bit. “In truth, I ran out of lesser coins, and I refuse to get service for free, so…”

“So you gave her more money than she earned her entire life.”

“There is a good reason why we hired someone to manage Sky’s finances.” Alice said.

“There’s nothing wrong in being generous.” Sky said.

“There is if it leaves you sleeping in the streets.”

“Does it really get that bad?”

“Nowadays, not really. A few years ago, on the other hand…”

Sky looked even more flustered. “Let’s not talk about embarrassing things of the past, please. I know plenty about you two.”

Alice then turned towards Alex, a far too sweet smile on her face. “So, any more questions?”

“Subtle.” Alex said, hearing Sky sniggering at his side. “Quite a few, in fact. This may come out of nowhere, but…can you guys tell me about the gods?”