I sat in the cold of the night, the army was full of chatter and the sky had a glee to it that sparkled under the moonlight. The sound of crickets manifested from the nearby forest and an occasional wolf howl could be heard. There were tents set up in a perpendicular fashion that signified the main campfire in the middle was the center of the camp itself.

Grotesque and masculine men ate at their rations while laughing at jokes and harmless horseplay. A few of the men were reserved like myself, with a million thoughts running through their minds. I was the same as them. Although I had pulled off marvelous feats in such a short span of time, it all had felt like a game until now. I had incredibly usurped the Overseer and made a lucky escape from the Slavopolis society. There was so much left behind there that I didn’t want to ever experience again. Tylor’s memories alone were enough to run me off.

The brutal beatings of the children for collapsing and the forced intercourse between slave noblemen, sent electric shock up my spine. It gave me goosebumps to think about where Hibe and I had came from. That sandstone underground pit, full of dust and sweaty manual labor. The working conditions were so bad that life expectancy wasn’t any higher than thirty for a slave.

The Slavopolis city itself had never been a great sight in itself. It was like a desert town with magical bearing to light the dark caverns. The caverns that had been mined out by sweat and blood, not by the men above ground in Luthric, nor the noblemen. It was the slaves who engaged that task head on because they were forced to. A hundred years of history, those dark years of Tylors life--my life, were an indisputable and inhospitable hell.

I had begun to cherish my life for what it was. Real. A somber thought ran through my mind, what if the men back home were dead when I got back. What if I were to die? Would Lincoln and Hibe miss me? I began to think about that timid but bold blondie, and that short and stout Hibe. They made me smile. If it weren’t for the slaves sacrifice back at the mountain colosseum, that ugly Baron would have won again!

Baron Roghan, a nasty fellow. At least three-hundred pounds, and five’ five, he was the epitome of slob. The man had a mustache that curled upwards like he was some cartoon character back on Earth. I could just imagine that man twisting his whiskers like the wretched cat he is. His yellow tinted eyes and blonde hair were a staple to his distinguishable look. He looked to be in his mid-forties.

These anxious thoughts pestered my mind relentlessly, I decided it was time to stop thinking about such unambiguous thoughts and find an officer who would take me up in his squad. Surely Tylor’s muscled figure would be a selling point to any officer right? I walked along the dirt path that had been formed by many feet. A few pebbles crunched under my feet as the air bristled on my skin. The breeze was calming and reassuring, but carried the fortune of death amidst its direction.

A few men sitting at a campfire some ways off from the main camp were talking and laughing. The officer was notable by his blue tunic with white buttons. The officer had red hair and was relatively young. He had the face of an adventurer, but it spoke charisma. For some reason, out of all the officers, this red-haired fellow was the most approachable of the bunch.

“--And then I said...fuck me silly you ugly bastard!” His voice came into perspective and the group immediately bursted out into laughter. A large framed man with brown hair and a buzzcut was laughing more than the rest. He was super muscular! Like even more than me. He wore a white t-shirt and green pants. Which was a strange fashion for the times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were magical tailors in the area who specialized in the skill.

That brought me to another question. Where could I learn magic? It seemed to be one of the more important things in this world that should be addressed early on. Yet, I guess I fared at a disadvantage, being reincarnated into a slave’s body and all. I shrugged off the bad thoughts and walked closer to the group before noticing a boy younger than the red-haired officer. He had lush blue hair and blue eyes to fit the color of the sea itself. He was rather tall, being the tallest in the group while also being the slimmest. He had a large silver sword strapped to his back. The other men had swords strapped to their sides, but this man was a monster looking individual in comparison. How could such a warrior be so young!?

“And then he said--” The officer immediately cut off his joke when he saw me. The man in the white t-shirt and green pants hissed, “Hey! What happened to the story? This is my favorite one and you cut off at the best part! Gahhh! Damnit.” He glanced over to where the officer had landed his attention. “Oh…” He said, now fully understanding the situation. I suddenly felt very out of place when the group of five looked at me.

The other two were less interesting figures to me. One had grey hair and seemed rather bland, the other had white hair and hardly had a presence. The two of them were a pair, like a ghost that had seeped into the area without any notice and was ready to haunt me into pissing myself. I’m a scholar, not a hardened warrior!

“Well--hello there! Take a seat with us why don’t you? Tell us your name, and I’ll tell you mine.” He motioned that I should sit over at the empty seat where a space was open on the cut log. The fire was warm and permeated my skin into a brisk shower from the cold and fervent wind. I sat down and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible with the five of them staring me down with hawk-eyes.

“I’m Tylor Justifix, and you guys are?” I asked. The officer nodded. “Well, I’m Roger, you can call me Officer Roger if you like. The guy sitting beside you there with the big ass sword is Ferdinand, and this buzzcut muscle-boy beside me is Griffin.” He said with a pretty big smile. Griffin waved at me, and Ferdinand crushed me with his gigantic hand as he gave me the awkwardest side hug I’ve ever experienced. Was this a courtesy hug in this world--or was he just weird?

“You forgot to mention who these two were that were kind of just sitting in the corner over there. Silent as possible. What are your names?” I asked them directly. The white-haired boy simply disappeared from sight and the gray-headed boy hid behind the log, staring at me with contempt eyes. It was obvious I had set them off in some capacity. “--Oh…you need not speak to them or even mention them. The one staring at you now is Evan, and the other one who ran off we call Ghost. They like to keep their anonymity, especially Ghost.” Officer Roger said.

“Well...with all of the introductions out of the way, I suppose you’re wanting to join my squad?” Roger asked. He was confident in his tone, while the other two were just biding their time. Ghost slowly encroached back onto the campsite. I assumed he suffered from some debilitating anxiety. Why he chose this field of work I would never know though. Now, how should I respond to Officer Roger without giving him control? Ehh, guess it doesn’t matter that much right now.

“Yeah, if you’ll have me I’d like to join your squad. I’m new to the army, and especially new to General Lancaster’s techniques. To be totally honest with you, up until a few days ago I’ve been a slave my entire life. I don’t know anything about these lands or the people I’m now fighting for. I was hoping this campaign would return me with life and knowledge.” Shit, I said more than I had planned on saying! I gave them all of the playing cards anyway! Great thinking Tylor, now you’ve really done yourself a favor.

“Oh!” Roger almost gasped in shock, it was such a rare occurence to see a slave on the surface. “Are you a citizen now?” He asked me hastily.

“Yeah I am.” I responded with a short reply, blushing internally at my blunder. He was sure to send me away knowing now of my status in the past. What a fool I am!

“Well, I’ll give you some info on how things are above ground then. This nearby land is divided into three kingdoms. The Kingdom of Luthric, The Western Creed, and The Far Coast. These kingdoms are equal in power and constantly wage war against each other. It’s been like this for hundreds of years. As for what’s beyond the three kingdoms, I couldn’t tell you. They say big things.” Roger spoke of the land, and it sent chills up my spine even against the warm fire.

How could such a land exist? How large were these lands that even Roger didn’t know what was outside of the three kingdoms? I simply had to know more! This was an intense throttle of information that activated my nerd-mode. “Wait, how come you don’t know? Is the land really that big?” I asked.

He laughed, his red hair was shining from the light descending down from the moon. “No, but the lands are quite normal. I don’t know what you consider large, but the magic-astrologist predict that Quigtar is about four hundred million square miles in size. Oh Quigtar is the name of the planet! I forgot you were a slave. Oh do you even know of space, well space is--” He began to explain space.

I was dumbfounded. Four hundred million square miles is huge! Absolutely colossal, and nearly double that of the Earth! What a damn planet, and the fact that there were magic-casters who could calculate this stuff with magic alone was phenomenal. How could something such as this exist? I wanted to learn magic too--shit!

“I see, so once again, how come you don’t know what’s outside the three kingdoms? I would really like to know what reason could cause you--an officer to lack information on other powers in the land.” I stated. I had a sneaky suspicion that made me hot on my buttcheeks! I knew there had to be a specific reason, and it had to do with my ears, I just knew it. My ears had been popping since I was reincarnated.

“If I’m being totally honest, it’s because we’re on the largest plane of Quigtar, The God Mountain. It’s a plateau so high that the air here is harder to breathe, that’s why they’ve been tunneling the mountain out, for resources and to accommodate as much air as possible. A foreseeable stairway down from the plains of God himself. The God Mountain is twenty miles tall.” Roger said in a low tone.

“Then how are we even able to breathe, and how did people even get up here in the first place?!” I was infuriated, as I stood up without realizing it. The group was uneasy about my enthusiasm about The God Mountain. To them, it was unimportant and useless information. They had no aspiration beyond the mountain in question. It was just too big of a plane to leave.

“Calm yourself Tylor, I will answer what I can.” He waved his hand down, as a gesture for me to calm myself and put Ghost and Evan at ease. “Look, I can’t answer your second question, I’m not a historian on the matter, your answers likely are outside of The God Mountain, but the first question I can answer. Anything is possible with the realms of magic. Strange, large pillars that ascend twenty miles in the sky, are at each end of the plateau. No one here really knows where they originated from, but are believed to be the source of air. A forcefield of air maintained by the pillars. I’m sure you saw objects contain magic in Slavopolis.” Roger explained in a rather lengthy monologue.

“Well...damn, you’ve really laid it down on me tonight. Thanks for the info, but I don’t think I can take anymore info dumps, or I might just throw it up.” I held my stomach, trying not to get sick by the thought of being twenty miles in the damn air. That’s unproportionally high for a planet this large. The gravity should have flattened out such a high mountain, but some strange prediction led me to believe that it was the work of a third party to make such a feat possible.

“Give me a minute, I need to go take a piss. Don’t ditch me while I’m gone kay’?” I told the group. “You got it mah man!” Griffin gave me a cheering thumbs up as I went to go gather my thoughts in the woods. They continued their talking when I left. “Damn...that was a lot of information to take in. I need to try and retain it all!” I threw my hand against my face when I heard a distinct crunch of a twig to my right.