As rain continued to fall and he lacked any new recipes with the creation of this ingot, he simply sat there and considered if he should begin some construction with the wet, soft dirt instead of waiting for a painful dry sort.

His strength made either a breeze, but he worried about the water causing the ground to revert ever so slightly, destroying his work.

In that case, he really needed something to do but couldn’t afford to walk about in such weather. Heat remained one of the few fallibilities of this body, although he did not know if growing ill was a possibility. Dying of hypothermia of the like isn’t exactly much better though, and he waited beneath his oak tree with a warm oven to pass the time with Sal.

It must have only been about an hour before the rain finally let up as the necklace informed him. While it also made clear that another brief pass would occur in an hour or two, just this time was enough to head back home and sit in the pleasurably warm quarters.

After two days of leaving the lantern on at all times, he found the cold room heated up considerably. But this also came with a suspicion that the bricks stored or transferred heat extremely slowly. No one complained about it, and certainly never him.

“I’m stuck between going out to collect more pages or heading mining for more of those tablet pieces. I really want to see what other rituals there are, it’s just a tough choice.” Through the day, he’d grown far more accustomed to stating his thoughts to Sal. It helped think things through a bit better. “Rain should be done by now, let’s just go do some collecting… I still have this on me, why the fuck?” He stared in confusion whilst the inventory informed him of the item rack still within. Maybe he just overlooked it on all the past visits, but right now it took up valuable space.

He left Sal in the room this time alongside the windchimes and notes on rituals.

After that removal, only 10 orbs remained empty. The splattered sounds of rain finally closed, but a harsh brush of wind still combed through the forest, fortunately it only sent a chill through him instead of something more serious. He first searched through that prairie, something he decided to call it on guesswork alone.

Luckily, grass seeds aren’t exactly hard to find in a field. Just minutes after he entered, a bundle of longer grass stalks referred to him a handful of seeds which the cube seemed satisfied with.

Barley proved harder though, and he searched through the wet field for what seemed like ages. With an overcast day giving little light, he simply looked for plants which absolutely stood out compared to the tall grass, even going so far as to circle the lake deep into this place.

On the way he mostly talked about how annoying it felt to have lots of fine strands rub his legs. His genitals were spared from the torture thanks to his skirt at least, and he began to give in for the day. Grab a sunflower at least, and then just wander the woods for a while until sunset in hopes of more notes turning up.

However, when walking about he began to appreciate the lack of predators in his eyes. His natural answer to this conundrum fell to something pushing them far away from his starting point, whether a strange rule of this world or purposely done so is a question he considered as well.

“I should head back. Guess the mining can wait for tomorrow, after I build a shed that is.”

Or so he’d have liked to.

As he turned to return to the grey tree forest, the sight of a walking figure stood out to his right. At first he thought he hallucinated a zombie, but a second look confirmed what he saw.

A human figure in the distance, coming out of a completely different treeline

To the right side of this prairie, which followed into a swamp, was the tree line he entered from on one side, but then a far larger one full of red-brown trees, but not so tall to be called a redwood forest. In fact, its leaves were far spiny like pine trees, but he never gave it too much thought.

Who said that trees in this world had to be a perfect match for Earth?

But it was through these trees that the two people walked through, and they very clearly pointed towards him… Well, one did. The other tried to wave but the only thing which caught his sight was the spears on their back.

Or at least, some long weapon he couldn’t identify at this distance. At first, the unquantifiable hope for other people had been quenched, but then the realisation set in about what the natives of this world may be like.

Cannibals? Xenophobes? Cultists?

More negative words failed to fill his mind as concern filled him, and without even waiting, he just sprinted back towards his woods.

As long as he reached the workshop, he could lose them and hide.

That plan did not work.

As soon as he started running, so did the other two, and it only took a few moments for him to see how every single stride of theirs doubled his, it would only take half a minute for the distance between them to close, at which point he’d be toast.

Or a kebab if they liked flesh a bit too much.

He pushed his body to its limits, and for once a slight ache passed through his legs, tiring him ever so slightly but not enough to dare stop running. Never before had he felt tiredness with this body, but that changed as he ran like hell. Forgetting anything about nettles or dangers on the floor whilst just making sure he didn’t slip.

But the two behind caught up so much more than he anticipated, the distance to the grey forest stood too far ahead… Would this be his second death?

However, as he thought that, one of the two shouted at the top of his breath, “Please wait! We didn’t mean to startle you! We just want to talk!” They panted heavily at the same time, clearly using every bit of spare energy to catch up.

Under his breath, he said, “Ah fuck it. Maybe I can talk myself out of this, or they are actually friendly.” Though, little hope struck him with that final suggestion.

Eventually he came to a stop and cautiously turned around to face the two now seeing them at a distance with great detail. Just like him, both possessed tanned skin and whilst similarly muscular, it wasn’t exaggerated to the point of bodybuilding.

The leading one was ever so slightly taller, but both actually exceeded him in height by a few inches at least!

Both of them wore clothes of fur and hide, with what appeared to be string of plant material to keep things tied together. On appearance, his cuirass certainly looked fancier, but the two clearly had access to proper tanning equipment! Meanwhile, they wore leather slippers which also featured a buckle to tie around their ankles, keeping them in place even when running hard.

He wanted shoes like that.

As for their faces, the one behind kept a looser face as though curious about him, but the one in front retained complete tension. He saw the leader as the more serious and tougher of the two, and his steady stature certainly matched it. But that didn’t mean he’d suddenly lie down and die!

“We’re sorry if our actions caused you to worry. We just wanted to ask–” The man in the back repeated the apology but was cut off by the one in front, likely for taking too long to get to the point.

In a harsh and heavy tone he asked, “Are you the one who completed the ritual of the owl?”

He picked between answering truthfully or lying… For now he simply tried to gather more information. “What is that and why would your people care?”

But as the two looked at the rune on his chest, it was clear that his question was extremely stupid. It would've been better if he hid the necklace first.

“It’s a small matter, but if you did complete the ritual, our chief requested for your attendance. We would be honoured to accommodate you for the night,” the reply he received was not warm in the slightest, but clearly held some respect.

“Um, excuse me. May I ask where your rune bag is?” The less charismatic man pointed to his waist in the question, and it took a few moments before he noticed that both the two carried a small leather pouch on them. He didn’t know why though.

“I don’t have one… What does it do?” For both the two, their eyes went wild as though the world itself flipped upside down.

“Are you saying you’ve never felt as though a noose is tightening around your neck at all times whilst out here? Like the world is suffocating you… And about to destroy what existence you have?” The leading man’s tone turned morbid, and he wasn’t sure what this was.

So he only answered honestly, “Not once. What is this about? Is it related to the lack of people here?”

The two clearly didn’t know how to respond and only blinked at one another for a few seconds before failing to produce any words. “I’m sorry, we’re not knowledgeable enough to discuss this. Our chief should be able to answer your questions.”

Whatever he just revealed, it clearly impacted the two men beyond belief, and he just nodded as they turned to lead him. Even when walking, he noted how the two travelled so much faster than him, and only with a simple jog did they all stay in a group.

On the way, he wondered if their words could be trusted, but it was far too late for that.

Travelling to their village took a lot longer than he thought it would, but he remembered the path to the best of his knowledge, and the two natives greatly helped in this by pointing out specific landmarks.

They confirmed that it truly was a prairie that he’d been found in, although he wondered how exactly these people knew to speak English. It wasn’t impossible that the cube allowed him to translate all ‘normal’ languages.

From the prairie, they entered the gravel tree forest which he’d noticed due to their red wood. These trees grew excellently in gravelly dirt, and he remembered that fact about the forest if it ever came up. From this tree, it seemed they walked without much direction, but the two pointed out that they merely needed to pass through it to a stream which cut through the entire forest.

Once at this place, they just followed it downstream until coming to a small waterfall, it was easy to just jump down, but he didn’t feel comfortable following the two’s roll at the bottom to offset the falling velocity. Instead, he climbed down its rock wall, but tried to not take up too much time.

From there, they continued further downstream until reaching a small spread of flowers in the gravel tree forest. He did look carefully for poppies, but he didn’t need to be a botanist to see a lack of red flowers.

They passed through it until coming to a gravel tree of ridiculous thickness, easily four times in size the others which ranged from the thickness of his head to his waist. However, even with such a wide tree, it only grew a few feet higher than all the other trees, standing out in terms of height but not width.

“We’re nearly there now. We must just head slightly west of here and we’ll reach our home. Thank you for following us on this journey, you must be careful in this place as beasts start appearing.

Rather than make a fuss, he followed them head left at the tree for what couldn’t have been more than five minutes. On the way, the two looked up to the right where a bird with large wings flew by, both pulled the spears off their backs, but as it flew off finally relaxed.

“Mountainbeaks, be careful of them. One peck from them will crush your skull to dust.” He almost gagged from the ridiculous power of that beast, but in remembrance of the zombie just accepted it.

The spears of the two not only shined from their metal sides, but contained a strange rune in the middle of the spearhead, one he thought was similar to his necklace. Additionally, while the sharp edge shined, the main spear body was a strange black metal, as though charred.

Perhaps the current weapons his recipes provided were not designed to ever kill monsters or beasts like this, but rather the normal-looking livestock in the plains?

That made far more sense in retrospect.

“How would you recommend dealing with zombies?” Just to make sure, he wanted to check with the two. His question surprised them, and further cemented a strange thought in their hearts.

“If you have a proper weapon, then stabbing its heart or brain is the easiest way… But honestly, just climb a large tree, zombies can only walk on solid ground.” The less charismatic man answered him straight away, and he found that several pieces fell into place instantly.

No doubt, a proper weapon referred to a spear akin to their one.

“Here we are, just stand behind us.” Ahead of him, a tunnel with wooden supports had been built into a massive hill, and he saw some sparse torches lit the way in but the depths could not be seen. As the leading man went forward, the other turned to him with a smile as though to appease him whilst the other said, “Warrior Kalgon returns with the one versed in nature magic! Open the door!”

He didn’t even have to finish as he saw the blackness at the tunnel’s end suddenly split, in reality a door which opened up. Its weight impressed him, and it made sense given the dangers of this world… What else existed out here if Mountainbeaks couldn’t bring about a single shred of fear in the two?

The three walked into the tunnel and he wondered how this would end.