‘Boredom. It’s a very interesting word to a bored person. You can do many thing with it. Bisect it, trisect it, cultivate it, cook it, fry it, curse it, eat it and it still won’t disappear. A very sturdy word indeed.’

I was riding on Buck next to grandpa’s waggon and playing with one of its heads. It never occurred to me travelling the old fashioned way could be so… boring. Just sitting and waiting for the next tree or next stone to ‘fly’ past you. Instead what flew was a fly, in my mouth. I wanted to rinse my mouth with the Ocean of Vur after that. Worst part was I was slightly glad that fly managed to pull me away from the clutches of nothing to do for some time. But it proved to be extremely insufficient, so I was being bored again in no time. It’s worse than a cockroach…

‘At least it won’t fly in your mouth’ I sighed.

Five days ago.

Three weeks had passed since my birthday and the time the dreadful walls of text were last seen. Today was the last day of grandpas training sessions and Buck was at a pretty decent level for a monster living in the wild not too long ago.

‘If it’s true the young ones learn quicker, he’s either really young or my grandfather is really awesome, maybe both. Hehe.’ I thought pumped up for the upcoming trip.

A thing I learned about magical beasts anatomy is they all have some sort of an energy transmuter, scoop or the likes, sometimes it would be an additional organ, sometimes a crystalline sphere in their brain or chest. As for their eating habits, they use that organ, skin, antennae, or whatever to absorb magic power from their surroundings.

Theory has it the additional structure or structures in their bodies have appeared around the Days of Vor. And the higher its ability to transfer energy to its owner the more powerful the magical creature is.

I’m speculating the magic or mana is something akin to additional force, like the weak and strong force, in the universe or an exotic subatomic particle exclusive or at least more likely to appear in this region of space, maybe even both..

‘I should’ve checked out if Earth is part of the universe before creating a character.’ I thought.

Anyway, as for different types of humans, there are those who can’t use magic, but can still be influenced by all types or elements as one would hear people call them. Those people probably don’t have anything magical about them. Poor souls. In addition there are those who can use some magic, but can’t be influenced by some elements.

For example, let’s take someone whose ancestors have lived mainly in the north or cold parts of the world (snowy mountains for example). According to the book I read, explaining all of this, if they were from the type able to use some elements, but ‘resist’ others, the theory is they have some structures in their bodies that allow them to absorb the types of magic they’re resistant to and turn it to their own magical power.

Of course there are limits, just like you can still drown even though our bodies are made out of seventy-two percent water (on average adult). But that’s the general idea anyway.

The last type is theorized to be the predecessor or prototype for the next kind of people, those who have developed some sort of specialized cells to deal with the addendum of magic to the world. This type would usually have higher magic resistance in his or her major also called primary types and some additional resistance in other, minor or secondary types. Common examples around these parts are people who feel very at home when it’s raining, reason being they have high affinity to magic power formed in or around large masses of water.

The majority people of that type have either earth, air or light affinities, for I believe what are obvious reasons.

Those are the three major types. Other, more rare or specialized ones exist, but from the minor also called secondary types, the most widespread is probably the one where people have developped an additional sense, one that would allow them to feel magic of certain types. In truth, a lot of the people form the third kind have that, but it’s very underdeveloped in comparison to specimen belonging to this secondary type, which is also the reason it is believed they, the secondary type, originated from the third major type.

‘Are you done yet?’ a disembodied voice sounded in my mind.

‘NO!’ I made an imaginary face back at it.

As for what category I fall in, I suspect it must be something dealing either with the mana altered by the electro-magnetic radiation emitted by the brain or something similar going on inside there. Which would also explain why I can’t ‘read’ animal minds and only vaguely understand what people who don’t speak a language I know are thinking. The closer someone thinks similar to the way I do, the better I’m able to understand them without words.

‘What’s surprising is the amount of people I was actually able to establish a link with. I guess I don’t think so much different than everyone else as I thought.’ I thought slightly amused.

‘Still, nothing much has changed, and the more someone is not like you, the more effort needs to be put to understand them.’ I supplemented. ‘Even though it’s a different world, not much has changed in terms of human communication, huh. And even if they have magic here, it’s nowhere near as omnipotent as one would wish it to be.’

‘Now I’m done.’ I said to… myself?

‘FInally, all that theory… Please don’t tell me you won’t do it often. I was dying of boredom over here!’ myself answered.

‘Maybe you should find a better hobby than stalking little girls.’ I thought amusedly.

‘If there was anything better to do at the moment I would have probably be doing it already.’

Looks like that gave it an idea, because when I asked if it wanted to play truth or dare with me it didn’t answer me.

Back to the boredom of reading walls of text, I mean riding a two-headed lizard-dog for days without anything better to do, it was about lunchtime so me and grandpa decided to stop for a break and eat something at the next clearing. A few of the weizards (a type of lizard that surprisingly tastes nothing like chicken) we brought from Kopfer were gutted, washed, and baked on a stick, and then shared between me and gramps. Buck had the leftovers, even though he didn’t really need them, he seems to be the gluttonous type. According to grandpa his species should survive mainly on mana and vegetation. Two heads certainly didn’t strike me as herbivorous, but as he also eats meat, that should mean he’s an omnivore.

‘I should’ve planned better… But I never imaged there would be so little things to do.’ Or rather I never thought it is going to take so long to get even to the closest settlement!

Summary of what I did in the past five days contains. Reading my new book on magic. Reiterating through some concepts until a better understanding is reached or my head starts to hurt. Eating weizards. Listening to grandpa's stories, I never suspected he could actually run out. It seems I’ve been very efficient in getting them out of him. Sleeping in a tent. Counting stars. Counting trees. Counting rocks. God, there’s a lot of rocks and trees in a forest. Eating more weizards. Trying to come for new ways to cook them. Eventually failing. There is only so much you can do outside a kitchen and without any spices other than salt, still we managed to find a few herbs and weed we could use to season the meat. And lately I’ve been riding Buck and eating flies.

‘Why didn’t I bring more books!’ I reprimanded myself. ‘I’m so going to buy half a library in the next town.’ I was thinking while on the road for a settlement bigger than Kopfer in size and leading to the Mercy Pass in the Forsaken Mountain Range.

The town name was Neren. It was situated at the base of the mountain, on the right shore of the ravine of Mersey river. The other shore was a vertical rock colored vertical cliff.

Once we got to the big gate with two circular towers on either side we heard.

“Halt! Who goes there!” from above.

I squeaked internally. The guy at the top of the medieval structure tickled the fan of all that is cliche-fantasy-like inside of me.

“Just a tamer with his granddaughter on the way to the capital” yelled my grandpa back at him.

“Okay. Someone will come get you in a moment. Wait there.” said the big brother.

My gramps waived for me to get on the waggon. While we were waiting he put back in the cage in the back and the moment the lock clicked shut, a small door in the gate opened and an armored soldier came out.

“What it really is just an old man and a small girl.” he said to himself.

“Were you expecting someone else?” asked gramps.

“There have been a group of daring bandits around here lately. We’re a bit on edge, because of them.” he took a closer look at us while talking and waved to big brother upstairs and the gate started cracking open a second later. It must’ve been well oiled, because it didn’t creak.

It was the late afternoon, so we were going to stay the night at inn and depart early in the morning the next day.

Back in Kopfer shops would start closing up after the evening bell, so I didn’t have much time to dawdle and had to go look for a bookstore as soon as we found a place to sleep.

It didn’t take long after passing the gate and going uphill a bit until we found a wide two-storey building from which a pleasant aroma was leaking out.

The place wasn’t very big, but after leading the horses and the waggon to the stable in the back and entering from the backdoor a very comfortable atmosphere surrounded us.

An empty desk with a flower-looking carving and a bell on top was in front of a door leading off to somewhere. After having the owner to ring the bell we waited and followed by footsteps the door opened and a middle aged uncle came out from it.

“Good afternoon. Is the waggon in the back perhaps yours?” he asked with a pleasant to listen to deep voice.

“Indeed it is. We would like to stay the night. Two beds.” said grandpa.

“Would you like dinner with that. Breakfast comes with the room, they’re twenty Imperials for the room and another five for a dinner for two. One set of waggon and horses is included in the rate, for any additional animals it’s half an Imperial per animal.” said the receptionist courteously.

My grandpa handed over three ten and a single five note, in addition five small coins for Buck. He could’ve left him a half Imperial but I guess he went for the small ones instead.

The ten years spent here were quite enough to learn the currency in the empire came in the following denominations. The value of the coins being one hundredth, one twentieth, one tenth, one fifth and a whole/big Imperial, their names were accordingly small bits, big bits, small, medium, half and big/whole Imperials. So five bits would make one big bit, two big bits would make a small Imperial, two small Imperials would be one medium one. Two medium ones and one small would amount to half an Imperial and two halves make one whole of course. There were also banknotes of the Imperial bank worth five, ten, twenty, fifty, hundred and ten hundred Imperials. A small bit weight of gold was worth around fifty Imperials.

“Excuse me, could you please tell me where I could find a bookstore?” I asked while he was handing a key to the second floor back to my grandfather.

“Head towards the west gate, when you come out on the main road it’s next to the florist. Look for Lena. And this” he handed over a round wooden chip with the same carving on both sides as the desk in front of us “is for dinner, just hand it over to the attendant and they’ll get dinner for you. The mess hall is the door across the stairs. “He pointed to the stairs behind us and then to the door on the far end of the room compared to where we walked in from. It coincided with the point of origin of the pleasant aroma lingering in the air around us the whole time.

We said our thanks and headed for our room to unload what little we were carrying.

“You looking for a book?” Asked grandpa.

“I was just so bored on the way here. I already read through the other one twice.” I said.

“Here.” he handed over a ten Imperial note to me.

“Thank you grandpa!” I tackled him from the side.

Gramps said he’ll accompany me, but I managed to dissuade him so he chose to take a nap instead while I was out. I was required to return before dusk though. Both for dinner and safety reasons.

With the schedule set I darted out of the inn and off to the main street. The bookstore was quickly found and a woman named Lena was manning the counter ready to receive any stray customers.

“Good afternoon.” she greeted.

“Hello.” I answered.

“Are you lost?” she asked.

“No. I’m looking for a good book. Why do I look lost?” I asked a bit concerned.

“No. It’s just not that often I get customers your age. They usually prefer to jump in run around driving people mad, wreaking havoc and generally spending a lot of energy.” she said.

“Well I also like that, but I need a book for the times I’m otherwise limited.” I answered her.

“Well, do you have anything particular in mind?” she asked.

“What’s the biggest cheapest book you have?” I asked.

“A dictionary and a traveller's journal. Would you like to take a look at either one?” she asked with a playful smile.

“I…” didn’t know what to say.

‘Really? couldn’t you predict that, Memory!’

“Do you have something more… readable?” I asked with a funny intonation.

“Do you have a field you’d like to explore?” she asked me understandingly.

“Magic.” I answered immediately and saw the same playful smile just before she turned around and headed off to the back.

“What’s your price range?” a voice flew from the back.

“Up to ten Imperials.” I answered honestly.

“Hmm.” I could hear from somewhere in the back.

While she was still in the back the door opened a young man past his teens walked in the store and looked my way after he closed the door and scanned the room.

“Hello?” he said in a pleasant voice carrying a tinge of uncertainty.

“Hello.” I answered with a smile. “Are you looking for a book?” I threw the ball back at him.

“Yes. Could you help me?” still uncertain the man said.

“The storekeeper is in the back.” I said lifting the uncertainty off his face.

“Ah.” unsure what to say next he uttered.

“Are you a traveller, mister?” I asked.

“Yes.” he answered glad he doesn’t have to think of a topic.

“My name is Memory, what is yours, mister?” I asked.

“Grail.” he said.

A silence fell again. But then Lena returned with a decently thick book.

“This is a compilation of books on magic theory and history. Is that alright?” she asked towards me then turned to the man greeted him.

He was interested in the book that was presented to me for consideration and nearly missed the girl’s greeting.

“Ah, yes. Hello. Would you perhaps have a second copy of the same book?” he asked.

After looking through the book for a bit I perked up my ears at the man’s enquiry.

“Hey, mister, are you interested in magic?” I asked.

He puffed out his chest and said “I’m attempting to get admitted into the Imperial Magic Academy.”

‘What, why are you so proud you’re not even a member there?’

“Are the requirements harsh?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. They want you to do well at science, math and even some botany, medicine and crafting. There are different specialized courses, but the main requirements are math and science.” he said.

“Hmm. Grail, would you like to have this book?” I asked him gesturing to the book in my hands. “In exchange lets travel together to the capital!” I said. Taking him and Lena by surprise.

Lena seemed to want to say something so I turned to her.

“Um, I don’t think it’ll be good if a young girl and a man travel alone together.” She said shyly.

‘Do you still have your V-card, Lena? I wonder why? You’re definitely not lacking in the looks department. Are you too shy?’

Grail needed some time to understand what was just said and slowly started getting redder.

Until he finally managed a singly “I’m not someone dangerous.”

‘Said no dangerous person ever.’ I finished in my mind while laughing.

“I’m traveling there with my grandpa. Don’t misunderstand please. We’re just severely lacking in any other human company.”

Both of them got even more flustered for a second until they reached a soundless agreement to pretend nothing was ever said.

“I’ll be staying the night and leaving in the morning.” Grail said.

“Perfect! Let’s meet at the west gate before the first bell.” I said with a wide smile on my face.

“Lena, I’ll take the journal after all.” I said and placed the note on the counter.

A five note, three whole and two medium Imperial coins were returned to me together with a satisfactorily thick book were handed over back to me.

“Thank you!” I said to Lena and turned to Grail.

“See you tomorrow, Grail.” I said and left faster than understanding could dawn on him.

Afterwards I decided to walk around for a while longer. Not even one of the two stars in the sky was completely behind the horizon yet, so that meant I still have time before the evening bell.

I decided to head for the Merchant’s guild and see if there are any caravans leaving for the capital early tomorrow. As luck had it, there was one. After flashing my member card I managed to arrange for them to let us travel together, without having to pay an escort fees. Buck was used for bartering them away. It wasn’t really hard to make a convincing argument, strength in numbers as they say.

After negotiations were over I headed back to the inn as the bell had already rang and the sky was quickly getting darker. Autumn was coming and the days were starting to get shorter. The weather was still quite warm though. In fact warm enough, back in Kopfer, I didn’t need any bed sheets during the nights for anything except to keep the bugs away. Here on the other hand, at the base of a mountain, next to a river, the air was a lot cooler, so the night here was a bliss.

After I got back to the inn I woke up grandpa and we had a delicious (non-weizard) dinner. A thick vegetable soup and a roasted fish filled our stomachs with no room to spare.

After dinner I shared my experiences from earlier and even though a bit unhappy I didn’t ask him first agreed to travel with Grail and the caravan. Ok, ‘a bit’ might’ve been an underestimation, I barely managed to convince him only proper merchants have a valid Merchants guild registration. After that it took even more time for him to let Grail come along too.

‘My grandpa can be quite tiring sometimes…’

In the morning we get our waggon from the stable, had a breakfast and bought some more weizards from the inn stock and departed for the west gate.

Once there we met up with Grail. Even after spending nearly the whole evening convincing him my gut feeling was telling me he’s a decent guy, he was still a bit unhappy. Okay, ‘a bit’ might’ve been an understatement.

After we mentioned the merchant’s caravan he was happy to be able to freeload thanks to my bartering, but promised to buy us a meal at the next town. That soothed my grandfather and after the caravan was ready we set out through Mercy Pass.

After we were out of town we let Buck out of the cage and he ran over to the nearest tree and then to the river, after which he came back and started jumping around happy he can stretch his legs again.

Grail was a bit startled the first time he saw him, but after I explained he’s tame he relaxed and even gathered enough courage to pet the beast.

After the second star was already traversing the sky on its regular path Neren was no longer in view and even though enough light was reaching us, the place was a bit gloom, because of the tall rocks casting thick shadows.

The hours and the wheels kept rolling and around noon there was a clearing ahead, everyone had lunch there. Some fresh food, bought from the town, and some game that was caught on the way here. Food was shared around the camp so people don’t get bored of eating same stuff again and again for as long as possible.

Whatever cutlery was used was rinsed in the waters of Mersey and we set out again. But after a short while the lead cart had stopped and a log could be seen on the road ahead.

Boredom couldn’t manage to get a hold of us this time.

===

AN: World simulation and Internet spaceships are serious business. Let’s stick only to relatively believable geography.