Civilisation

Thomas

The midday sun hovered over the rocky cliffs surrounding the campsite. Thomas opened his eyes to see Anjan sleeping upright with his back against a rock.

There was a dead wolf beside the smouldering remains of a fire, Kurt sitting atop crunching on some sort of crystal. The wolf's flesh was mostly burnt away.

“AJ?” Thomas asked.

Anjan opened his eyes slightly deep tiredness clearly visible within them.

“Hey man.”

“Thank you, for getting rid of the black shit. I appreciate it”

Anjan lifted his hand for a thumbs up.

Thomas stretched out, fully healed. His leg was devoid of scars and felt almost brand new. He dreaded to think what would have happened if Anjan had not burned away the corruption, but still shivered at the fleeting memories of intense pain.

“Check this out,” Anjan said. He shifted over to one of the wolf carcasses and reached out his hand.

A trail of energy flowed from Anjan's hand into the beast, causing the remains to resonate. Moats of light seemed to drift away from the remains, collecting into a swirling mass of dark purple energy. An orb seemed to compress from within the energy, turning into a jagged crystal, absorbing more energy tendrils until it was fully formed.

Thomas got up and walked forward, grabbing the crystal before it fell to the floor.

log item (y/n)

(yes)

Acquired: crystalline mana.

Description: crystalline mana of a young corrupted desert wolf.

“Holy shit,” said Thomas.

“I know right?”

Anjan's smile dropped slightly as Kurt teleported in stealing it from Thomas before he could do anything about it, quickly placing it in his mouth and crunching.

"At least leave some of them," Anjan whined.

"You're like a child with a supercomputer, what are you going to do with it?"

"Can I try?" Tomas asked.

"Yeah, you gotta try and push your mana into one of the corpses, try that one."

Thomas nodded and moved over to the remains Anjan pointed to. He placed his hand over its burnt grimy flesh.

"Got any pointers?" He asked.

Kurt moved hopped over,

"Try to pinch your anus and breathe through your nose."

"you're not helping."

"Just give it a shot, the system should work out your intentions."

Thomas thought about the idea of energy, pushing some of it into the beast, attempting to change the nature of the energy it touched, drawing on it to be represented in the physical world.

attempting to establish skill.

Absorbe crystalline mana?

(y/n)

(yes)

Assessing new information within crystalline mana...

converting....

30 XP gained.

simulating...

skill acquired: essence conversion

connection with remnant crystalline mana successful.

You may temporarily convert the remaining crystalline mana into fluid mana to draw it out of its current container.

continue?

(y/n)

(yes)

Energy coalesced into a jagged crystal once more, forming in front of him. He grabbed it and examined it further.

Acquired: crystalline mana.

Description: crystalline mana of a young corrupted desert wolf.

Thomas whistled.

After Anjan directed him to a few more carcasses a popup emerged saying he had "levelled up" a short cartoon man with a large face giving him a thumbs up.

Then he got a list pop up with sections highlighted.

a picture of a cartoon brain, a picture of cartoon weights and a picture of cartoon energy.

Almost immediately he went into the body and selected agility. The memory of his battle with the dogs still ever-present in his mind, he wanted a way to be useful, to react faster and act better.

He selected it, getting a series of notifications:

Enhancing collagen fibre elasticity...

MK7 absorption in mitochondrial process heightened...

muscle fibre twitch optimized...

...

...

Thomas collapsed to the floor as his body began convulsing, uncontrollable twitches, as he struggled to breathe.

"You just chose your system evolution thingy? Yeah, glad I blacked out for it, unlucky... should pass in time." Anjan said.

Kurt threw a rock at him as froth started forming at his mouth.

"Dude, not cool," Anjan said.

Thomas grew still as the shaking stopped and he lay there for a moment longer.

Acrobatics I

"Holy fucking shit,"

"All good?"

Thomas lay on the ground for a while longer.

"I thought I was gonna die,"

"Meh, you've had worse," Anjan said with a weary smile.

Thomas got up and gathered his collection of crystals. Stretching to see his new increase in flexibility he bent backwards finding himself in the crab position and getting strange looks from his friend before he seemed to nod off back to sleep, resting against the rock.

Thomas focused on a crystal and tried to change its form.

Pushing mana into it as if imitating the final process. He shifted its shape, but it all still appeared crystalline. Each time he changed a part of the crystal, it grew slightly smaller occasionally parts would break off, falling to dust that evaporated in the air.

"What a waste," The small gremlin said.

Thomas focused, pushing a small amount of mana into the crystal, feeling it become unstable. Suddenly he threw it at the rock, seeing it explode next to Kurt making the creature jump and waking up Anjan with a slight jump.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows to give a *not happy* look directed at Thomas whilst Anjan just went back to sleep.

"Don't throw rocks at me, asshole. Your not getting any of these to eat."

Thomas looked at his loot and over at Anjan, they were in an intersection within the rock maze, each passageway unknown. The alternating layers of rock made them wonder what could be beneath. He could see the walls around them blocking any sense of direction, some jagged spikes of rock stretched into the clouds.

"I'm going to get high,"

"I bet," Kurt said, seeming dismissal.

Thomas started climbing. he grasped at ledges and ships, using them as natural handholds, his new agility allowing him more easily to climb the surface.

He climbed up a wall and onto a spike, the spike he noticed was cut off past a point leaving a plateau. Higher he went, looking down to see the spec of Kurt no doubt looking on disapprovingly. Eventually, he reached just under the plateau and swung himself up.

wiping a spec of sweat from his brow he looked around. Tracing his steps back, he saw where the wolves were, and paths close to the cavern though overlapping and interchanging paths making it out as though they had barely travelled. Still, the darkness of their previous path was almost hidden now, the mountains almost out of view and now only a slight shimmer of its snow mist visible across the horizon.

The distance they were heading showed a steep cut off point, the dusty red rock of the maze ending in a dip. Something creating a faint shimmer. Focusing his gaze through it he saw the green of trees, the shimmer caused by the condensation of a new very different atmosphere —a single green hill unmistakably popping out of the horizon.

His eyes grew wide. Quickly he climbed and jumped back down to where Anjan was resting, moving to grab their things. He tapped the side of Anjan's head.

“Sorry mate, but we need to keep moving.”

Anjan partially woke up, still amid a dream.

“Yeah, hey, I don’t have your kidneys no, wai—”

“You okay?” Thomas asked.

Anjan groaned something unintelligible. “I'll just get my things.” He started fumbling around, picking up a sword and a bunch of berries to pocket. He threw some in his mouth, then carried on.

They walked a path laid out by Thomas, Anjan following whilst Kurt sat on the back of Thomas's rucksack.

"You guys seen Star Wars?" Kurt said facing Anjan.

"Yeah,"

"Was gonna watch it, other shows reference it a lot. "

"You ok with spoilers?"

"Hit me,"

"There's this bit where the main guy, Luke goes to that Darth Vader guy, and he takes off his helmet, all this time, the guy was Bruce Willis"

"That doesn't make sense."

"Tell me about it, fucking space film where people fight with swords."

"Whatever bitch, when I get another tablet ill just finish breaking bad," Kurt said with a childish smirk. "

Thomas was more annoyed with being a piggyback ride,

"You think your funny but you're just coming off as an asshole,"

"Whatever pussy, you got your leg burnt off, ever spent three years in a jar?"

"I'm sorry man, but I really don't want to be fighting you this whole time."

Everyone became silent. An arch was covered by a shimmering trailing off into the maze. As they came closer, they finally saw a shimmer of green. They had not come across anything this green since they had left the cavern.

Without a word to each other, both Anjan and Thomas began to run frantically. They arrived at the archway and stood, panting. Open fields and a hilly landscape stretched out towards the horizon.

In the distance, a river flowed down from the hills, meandering around the landscape until it reached a small fortified town. A small settlement with great walls surrounding it.

Stepping through the archway, they could see the large spikes of the rocky chasm. Cascading jagged rocks protruding through the ground and into this new ecosystem almost like a wall only the occasional one jutting out further into the fields of grass.

“If I didn’t know better, I would say that’s a non-goblin kind of settlement,” Thomas said, pointing to the fortified town.

"Don’t jinx it."

“Good point. We should go right now. It might disappear.” He was only half-joking.

Thomas took his first step and Anjan seeming to be unable to take the excitement again sprang forward and started running.

“Wait! Hold up. No.” Thomas held up a hand. “Everything we have met so far has tried to kill us—-” Anjan had bags under his eyes, he stared at Thomas almost pleading.

"Please, let's just go."

They walked on, Kurt having moved into Thomas's backpack.

As they moved closer, they saw guards standing on the wall, and a couple by a gate. A few were already looking at them as they approached. The place looked as though it was ready for an assault; the stone walls were reinforced and along the wall’s archers stared down at them. It was a small town for such defences. After a brief walk down, they arrived at the gate and found a couple of guards staring them down.

“What happened to you?” One of the gate guards asked, pointing to Anjan with a jovial expression. An archer was curiously looking over the wall. Thomas threw a glance at Anjan's clothes. They were clearly burnt — and covered in the blood of diseased wolves.

“Accidents happen,” he said in response, trying to casually walk through the gate.

The guard stopped him. “Stand back, seriously. Where have you just come from?”

Anjan met Thomas’s gaze. It was clear that the rocky maze wouldn’t be the right thing to mention — and probably not Earth. Thomas moved forward, hoping his silver tongue would help to gain the guard's trust.

“We went for a walk,” he said. Then he stopped and looked back at Anjan, realizing how stupid what he said was.

The guard gave out a laugh, and replied, “Oh yeah, and I’m just standing here to admire the view. Now, what have you really been up to?”

Before Thomas could answer, the archer shouted from above, “They’re not goblins are they, just let ’em in.”

The guard looked up at him and down again to Thomas, and then replied: “Alright, alright, just trying to have a bit of fun.” Then, looking towards Anjan, he bowed and said: “You may enter, good sir.”

They got into the town and looked around, finally thinking they had made it. Kurt squirmed in the backpack.

"Nice silver tongue you've got there,"

Thomas ignored him and they finally began to relax, the worry of being murdered by the guards finally past them. Thomas realized he hadn’t thought this far ahead, and now he was actually in something representing civilization he had no idea what to do.

“I need a bath,” said Anjan.

“I need a drink,” Thomas replied.

Thomas rummaged in his pockets and pulled out a few of the crystals. “Maybe I can get something with these.”

Anjan had already started walking off and he called over his shoulder, eating one of the berries, “Sure.” Whilst Kurt made a disapproving grunt.

They looked around until they found what they assumed was some sort of general store, and Thomas went to the counter. Behind the counter was an assortment of tools clothes and peculiarities many adorned with similarly glowing gems to the ones Thomas had but in different colours, shapes and sizes.

“How much for these?” He put forward the dimly lit crystals from his pouch. The man looked up and down at him and peered through the door to see the slightly charred Anjan waiting outside. He looked back to Thomas and further inspected the gems.

“I guess they might be useful for some,” he said in a matter of fact way. “I can give you thirty-seven franks each, as a friendly offer,” he added.

The silver-tongued Thomas looked back at Anjan again, seeing him stare at the pool in the centre square of the outpost. Then he looked back to the shopkeep. “Here,” he said and gave them away, taking the franks.

He walked out after the trade, much to the surprise of the man. Ah, he thought, am I meant to barter? The realisation hit him a bit too late, and he felt a pang of embarrassed regret.

"You have no idea what you just sold do you?" Kurt said through the pack.

"No, because you won't tell me,"

"You just got ripped off,"

Then Thomas saw Anjan, half passed out and lying in a pool of water only a few inches deep. People eyed him in curiosity as they passed through the centre square of the town.

Thomas went back into the shop and managed to buy a large makeshift fur blanket, that he soon handed to Anjan. He was going to freeze if he stayed out as wet as that.

Eighteen franks left each, they went to the local tavern, ordered two drinks for three franks and a room for ten, and with that, they got a rough idea of how much things cost. Sort of.

Sitting down at a table, Thomas nudged Anjan. “Looks like this is our life now.” The drink tasted like a dark lager, bitter but refreshing.

Anjan took a sip himself. The bags under his eyes were really starting to show at this point. “At least it’s not all bad,” he said with a smirk.

Two more drinks down, and they were starting to feel more than tipsy. Thomas slurred, “Hey, I’m gunner try and talk to the girls over there.”

Anjan was too tired to stop him this time and just murmured, his head in his hands.

Thomas walked over leaving his rucksack and bumbling against the tables. He stumbled towards a group of two women and one man, who were laughing in their own seemingly private social circle.

Waving around, Thomas exclaimed, “Hey, how you doin?” He was, bizarrely, putting on a Boston accent.

Anjan cringed, refusing to look over. It wasn’t his problem. He was too tired. His drink was still in front of him half-finished. He bent a bit further down into the table and waited for either sleep or an inevitable situation he would have to resolve. He nodded off a bit, but a sharp, short dream of a wolf diving towards him woke him with a start.

When he looked over, he saw that Thomas hadn’t been shoved away. In fact, the laughter had started growing. Anjan went over, bringing the rucksack to see what madness had happened. “Hey, this man, he’s ma boy, he’s a good fella,” Thomas said hunching over Anjan who was too exhausted to do anything but give a weary smile.

“Your friend is highly unusual,” one of the women said, motioning towards Thomas. Thomas went back to what he was doing. Thomas started again.

Talking to the guy at the table now, Thomas said, “Hey you, you are a big man right, I’m one of these special people here you know, you should know, we’re something big! We might be like, super people, but I really don’t know. And shu gutta ksheep jat a sheecrut.”

One of the girls burst out laughing again.

The rucksack started making an annoyed humm.

“Alright fella, I think you’ve had enough,” said the man at the table.

“Naah. ONE MORE ROUND ON ME!” Thomas exclaimed.

Anjan moved in. “No seriously, I think you’ve had enough.” He slowly started leading the drunk Thomas away.“You know what, I think you’ve had enush!” Thomas replied

“Come on man, I’m tired.”

“What’s the worsh that could happen?”

One of the women pointed to his backpack.

"Hey, I think your pack is making a weird sound."

Then suddenly both Thomas and Anjan were lifted into the air by the back of their collars and thrown into a table. The people at the table stood up and backed away.

Thomas and Anjan turned around, readying defensive positions. There stood a woman clad in armour. Black hair fell to either side of the fierce grin on her face. Their heart beat faster as they looked at her in confusion, but then they realized.

“ROSIE—” Thomas spit out.

Rosie’s grin grew larger and she reached in to clasp them in the most vicious of bear hugs, her heavy armour crushing the two.

“Captain,” said the man Thomas had been entertaining. The man was holding a salute towards Rosie.

“Give us a moment,” she said, and then he quickly dismissed himself with his drinking partners.

“So, what can I call you guys?” She asked, lightly punching Thomas in the arm.

“Thomas and Anjan?” Thomas said perplexed.

She chuckled. “That’s boring man, we’re in a new world. Be whoever you want to be.”

“What are you then?”

She announced proudly, "I'm Captain Seras. And you bitches better not forget it.”