The Archi River, as Sage learned it was called on his way out of town, flowed pristinely in the distance. With calm eyes, he watched as deer and boars alike, and the often bird of which he didn’t know the species, dipped themselves into the river’s belly; some simply sought to drink or wash themselves, while others, namely the swooping predators of the sky, were out to catch a mid-afternoon meal.  

Sage’s stat screen was open, and after completing his boar quest and his Exp daily task, which simply asked to complete a quest, as well as partaking in a solo boar hunt that would surely contribute to the species endangerment, he had reached level 13. 

---

[Stats]

{Hp: 95 | Mp: 44 | Ess: 12}

Str: 40

End: 19

Int: 10

Agi: 35

Dex: 10

[Home]

---

 

He decided to place his four stat points into agility; strength and agility seemed like the most logical stats to place his points into. Perhaps when he learned more about what they all did, he would invest in others. 

Mura lay at his side; the sunlight cascading off her nearly blinded him when he peered her way. Fighting the numerous boars had made something clear to him: when one fought with a weapon without using skills, it was treated the same as if you used it in Sage’s world. To kill your opponent, you need to fatally wound them. However, if a skill was used, then the attack of the weapon and stat points were taken into consideration, and as long as the skill one used dealt higher damage than the opponent’s Hp, they would die. When Sage had simply pierced a boar's thigh with Thrust and it started convulsing and died, that’s when it became clear. 

His eyes stayed cast on Mura; the blade was beautiful. But who was this Mura person? Were they the one who left the sword with Hera?

Sage clicked home and made his way to equipment, clicking on Mura’s stat screen when the menu gave him the option. 

 

---

{Mura’s Blade} Level 1 Greatsword | Atk: 25

A mysterious weapon from a legend long forgotten. Despite its frail look, the blade is stronger than most steel weapons and would fail to chip even if swung at stone. Sometime’s, the wielder of her may hear whispers….

[Home]

---

 

Whispers….Sage dematerialized Mura in an instant. 

Just as Hera had said, it was masterfully crafted; the thought that it would snap was truly foolish. Whoever made the weapon must’ve been an incredible blacksmith. To forge a level 1 blade with 25 Atk, what would their level 60 weapons be like? 

Patting his pants off as he stood up, Sage looked towards the town. Nightfall was still a ways away, and he had another quest to take care of. If possible, he wanted to reach level 14 before meeting up with Felix and heading to join an expedition team. 

The entrance to the town was the same as usual; there was a steady flow of merchants wheeling in and out empty or brimming carts from either a successful day or fruitless day. Sage braced himself for the hollering of storefront owners, now knowing how relentless they could be with their sale pitches. What he didn’t expect to see was a disgruntled Felix leaning against a post of the stables with his arms crossed. 

Sage’s mysterious friend was a pleasant sight despite his unpleasant demeanor; they could head out earlier than originally planned. 

Felix’s eyes passed over Sage and then doubled back— his doggish expressions were nowhere to be seen. An odd sensation washed over Sage as he watched Felix storm towards him. He’d become used to his benevolent appearance, so much so, he wondered if this were even his trusty companion. 

“Two days, you said. Two days! What happened to that?” Felix said, finally coming close enough to overpower their chattering surroundings. 

Raising an eyebrow, Sage responded, “I don’t see an issue with me coming back early. I’m quite tired from a lack of sleep, but that’s not anything to worry about.”

Felix was taken aback. “What do you mean, early? You’ve been gone for a week; today makes it a week, as a matter of fact.”

“What?” The words left Sage’s mouth though he knew what had happened. Just as when he’d returned home after only spending a day here, two days had passed. 

Now, after only spending half a day in his world, a week had passed here. The disconnected time seemed to go both ways; even if he left right now, there was a high chance that a couple of days could’ve passed, or perhaps only a couple of hours like when he first came here. The time differentiation would certainly pose an issue for his back and forth visits. 

“I’m sorry, I tried passing it off as a joke. Something came up and I got stuck back home for a while,” Sage said. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Felix said, waving off the issue and beginning to walk to the town. “It gave me a lot of time to get some questing done and make enough money to buy some new gear.” 

He opened his arms wide to show off his near-complete, leather armor set. He wore a chest piece that covered up to his shoulders and bracers that reached midway through his forearms— his shins donned the same bracers, only larger. Only the helmet was missing, though Felix probably wanted to show off his golden hair. Under all the armor, he simply wore his usual plain tunic and trousers. 

“It all cost me about ten silver, but as an investment, I say it’s worth it,” Felix said. 

“I need to pick up some armor as well, but seeing as I ate up so much of our time, I’ll leave it till we reach the next city; I doubt we’ll run into anything too dangerous on our way there,” Sage said. 

Felix hummed in agreement. 

“I’ve been completing some quests though, I had taken them before I left the city last week. I’m level 13 now; do you think that’s high enough for the expedition team?” Sage asked. 

With a shrug of his shoulders, Felix painted another piece of Sage’s image of him. He acted on impulse, not gathering information beforehand. 

“I know there are all kinds of different nobles putting together teams; I’m sure we’ll be fine. You’re technically still an F-class at that level while I’m now an E-class since I’m level 15. There are thresholds for adventurers based on levels, but most people would agree levels are simply guidelines. It’s quite possible for a level 5 to best a level 30 under the right circumstances.” 

Perhaps he wasn’t purley impulsive. 

“If that’s the case, we’ll just have to show we’re worth more than our levels would suggest,” Sage said. 

Felix smiled, “Exactly.” 

Walking through the town, the bustling, bright, starting town, Sage felt bittersweet. He hadn’t been there long, but the town and its surrounding fields had become familiar to him. As he now walked through it not to complete a quest, but to move on to further lands, there was a sense of sentimentality. As bitter as it was, the sweetness pushed him forward, as did his goals. 

“Card please,” one of the guards at the north gate demanded. Unlike the patrolling one from earlier, this one wore thicker armor— heavy infantry, most likely. 

When Sage hesitated, the guard repeated himself with some additional information, “I need to check your card to see if you’re level 10 or not, hand it over.”

At the curt request, Sage passed his card to the man. It was a simple process, as simple as it could’ve been. The guard simply looked at his card, read his level, and passed it back to him. 

“You’re clear,” he said. 

Felix was already on the other side of the gate, having been cleared by his guard quicker. 

“Why do we need to be level 10?” Sage asked Felix.

There was no answer. The excited boy simply crested the hill that was just after the exit and spread his arms wide. After a moment, he said, “This is why.” 

Not as energized as Felix, Sage sauntered up the hill. What was on the other side, however, revitalized him like a good night’s sleep. The sun cast the expansive land in a glowing light. The open fields were dotted with tree gatherings and a smattering of ponds; from what Sage could see, the Archi met with a lake far off in the distance. Smoke rose from beyond a hilltop, indicating a settlement of sorts, and Sage swore, far in the distance, that he could make out tall spires of sorts. 

“The moor,” Felix said. “One of many in this kingdom. There are forests and valleys galore out there, along with creatures to match. Do you see that?” He pointed towards the distance where Sage had seen the possible spires, “That’s Hakburn, that’s our destination— the capital of this kingdom. You saw the symbols on the guards’ chest plates, right? That’s the mark of the King, the sun over a moor.” 

A moor? Sage had thought they were prairies, not that he knew the difference; geography wasn’t his best subject. 

“So we’re trying out for the King’s expedition team? I don’t think we’ll have that great of a chance at that,” Sage said. 

“No, no, that’s not how it works. Hakburn is where all the nobles will be gathering, they’ll pick the ones they want for their team throughout the trials,” Felix replied. 

“Ah, I see. Well, before we head there, I want to finish this last quest of mine. Chances are we won’t be coming back this way.”

Felix turned his gaze from the fields to Sage, “What quest is it?” he asked. 

“A shrine restoration in wherever the North Forest is. There seem to be a lot of forests here though so I can’t really say which one is the north one.”

Felix nodded at first but then corrected himself and shook his head, “That doesn’t make any sense. The North forest is there”— he pointed to a large gathering of trees that the Archi river passed through—“but that quest has to be a fake, shrines aren’t built in forests.” 

That seemed ridiculous. Of course shrines could be built in forests— in Sage’s world that was. 

“And why aren’t they built in forests? That seems like a dumb rule,” Sage said. 

Felix sighed and looked at Sage like he was an idiot. To be fair, he most likely seemed like one. Sage’s lack of knowledge now went past just being an out-ringer; to not even know how the religion in your world worked was sure to set off some red flags. Felix would be an acceptance, but he couldn’t let others know of his ignorance. 

“Shrines are always built where the populace is dense and where there are no obstructions from the sky, that way, the gods can communicate with the people unhindered. Building a shrine in such an isolated, sky-covered location would be blasphemous. Whoever sent that quest is just messing around,” he said. 

“Open menu,” Sage said. He passed through all his submenus and read the quest description again. 

 

---

{Shrine Restoration, F-Rank}

In the forest north of town, there is a shrine in need of restoring. Talk to the maidens and priests for more information on what to do. 

[Home]

---

 

It read the same just as before. Was the quest a bust then? 

“Do these types of things happen often? Fake requests,” Sage asked. 

Now walking down the hill, Felix shook his head, “They don’t, the guilds usually filter out the obviously fake ones.” He stopped abruptly. “Why didn’t they filter out such an obvious one then?” he said. 

Sage closed his menu and caught up with him. They both walked in silence while gazing off into the moor. 

“So we’re going there, right?” Sage said. 

“Without a doubt, there’s no reason not to,” Felix replied. 

The forest looked just like the one he fought the Boar King in; toppled trees and overgrown plant life filled the grounds of the forest. If there was a second Boar King here, as it was made clear that all it took was a boar to be tainted by dark essence, would the two of them be able to handle it? If Sage had more experience, perhaps, but, aside from a fistfight or two, he had none in terms of combat. 

That worried him for the trials Felix spoke of, would they require him to be a capable fighter? They most likely would. 

“Hey,” Sage started. “What exactly is the purpose of an expedition team anyways? I know you said they enter into the dungeons and cataclysms, but can’t you just do that with your own group?”

“No, the land is owned by the royalty, therefore, they own both of those things. They’ve made it so that only those with their permission can enter them— the riches and resources found in those places are too good to give up, after all.”

Felix’s voice was coarse; it prevented Sage from interjecting with any other questions. 

“Anyone caught there without the permission of a recognized noble will be imprisoned or executed, depending on their reason for being there. Expedition teams exist to give adventurer’s a chance to explore those places while granting the nobles a way to excavate them harmlessly; the adventurers will also get to keep some of the finds though, or else no one would do it,” he said again. 

Were Rorrin’s group an expedition team, or are the islands free grounds for adventurers? Sage was apprehended for simply being there, so he leaned to the former. 

“Why do you want to join a team, Felix? You seem to have some….feelings, towards them,” Sage asked. 

Felix chuckled, “I just thought it would be cool, that’s all.” 

He could only see them from the side, but Sage saw vacancy in Felix’s eyes. There was an emptiness that came when they started talking about the teams in a more serious light. He was lying, that was clear, but the reason why wasn’t. 

Sage nodded, “A fine reason, though you should try to have your goals be for others’ sake. That way, you won’t lose interest and give up.” 

“Is that so? Then I’ll do it for you, my clueless friend. There’s no way you can make your way through this land without me; you know too little, for reasons I won’t pry into,” Felix said. 

The two shared a glance before laughing. Their joy didn’t last long. 

A stone path covered in moss stood a few feet away from them. There were two posts at the start that had white, zigzagged symbols hanging from them; when his eyes fell on them, the symbols seemed so familiar. This wasn’t a familiarity like before; these were things he had actually seen. 

“This can’t be right. The path has moss on it, meaning it’s quite dated. There shouldn’t be a shrine here, but this”— he fiddled with the paper symbols—“this speaks for itself.”

“What does it mean?” Sage asked. 

Felix took a step back and shook his head, “I don’t know, but it’s quite unsettling. Are we pushing on?”

Sage was already walking on the path when he asked him that. 

The mossy stone weaved through the trees for a distance and was wide enough to fit three people, yet the two stayed close. The rustle of trees caught in the wind set another oppressive layer onto the already suffocating air around them. 

At the end of the path, pressed into the fallen leaf-covered hill, lay a staircase of the same mossy stone. 

“That’s where the shrine would be,” Felix said, pointing to the hilltop. “Are we sure about this?”

Sage wasn’t. His hands had been gripped to keep them from shaking. But perhaps that was his excitement; there wasn’t a single part of him that sought to turn back.

“Would you want to leave and not know what the reason for all this was? Does your curiosity not bite at you?” 

Felix sighed, “If we left now, I’d probably fail the trials from being lost in thought. Let’s do it.”

The stairs were ever so slightly slippery, and Sage trudged up them with weak legs. His heart raced. 

In accordance with their surmounting of the stairs, the wind blew aggressively, nearly pushing them off the steps. 

When the wind died down, and Sage could see properly, his familiarity from earlier came back, but he now understood why. 

It was a Shinto shrine. The large red archway a short distance from them, along with the oriental designed shrine, with the bell for prayers and all, spoke bounds of its Shinto resemblance. There were starting to be too many similarities between the worlds. What did it all mean? 

“It’s a Nomad shrine. That makes even less sense; Nomads make their shrines in the mountains far from here. Not only is the religion less accepted here, they’d be even less inclined to build one in a forest,” Felix said. 

They walked further out onto the flat hilltop. There were two buildings in between the space of the archway they passed under and the archway at the other end of the hill. One was the shrine with paper lights and a prayer bell hanging from it, while the other seemed to be an ordinary house. 

If this place wasn’t supposed to be here, then what exactly was going on? 

“We should report this or something, we’d probably get a hefty reward for it,” Felix said. 

Before Sage could respond, the doors to the shrine slid open with a slam. The noise drew Sage’s eyes to the white robed person standing at the entrance. His hood was up, and his entire body was covered in the draping robes; there wasn’t a part of his body, aside from his throat and hands, that was visible. 

“And who are you?” Sage said. 

The stranger slowly walked down the steps and said, “How sad that only two showed up, the quality is truly declining,” in a male voice.

“Sage,” Felix said calmly. “Where is your sword?”

“I have it, don’t worry. What’s the plan?” Sage replied. 

He could formulate one himself, relying on the creative thinkers buff, but if it didn’t work on the Boar King, it certainly wouldn’t work on this guy. 

Along with a short gust of wind, the man vanished from his position; it wasn’t like how Sage’s weapons disappeared into blue light; it was more like a blink— he was there one second and gone the next. 

An eerie silence followed, everything was far too still. 

“Move!” Felix yelled as he jumped at Sage, tackling him to the ground. When Sage was falling, he saw the man appear from what would’ve been behind them. He wielded a wooden cudgel and slammed it into the ground. 

They couldn’t fight this person. 

Sage quickly stood up alongside Felix and readied himself. Perhaps they could do it together. 

“Very good,” the man said, clapping three times. “Golden boy, you have passed.” 

He held up three fingers in the direction of some wooden post, and the ropes attached to it began to wriggle and fly through the air. They whipped towards Felix and wrapped around his wrists and ankles, tying him up and yanking him back to the post as if to crucify him. 

Sage didn’t have time to process what happened as the man vanished and the silence returned once more. Felix’s muffled voice emanated from behind him. 

Where would he come from? How did Felix know last time?

“Too slow,” the man said from behind him. A burning sensation erupted from his calves as he was struck by the wooden cudgel. He folded under the pain and fell to his knees. He didn’t even know if the person had vanished again. 

Trying to regain his senses, Sage bit his tongue so the pain would clear his mind. It wasn’t enough. 

“This won’t do.” Sage heard the man's voice again before he was whacked in the arm. The smack nearly made him cry out. 

Where would he come from next? Sage tried gathering his thoughts, but they were too dispersed, his mind was disarrayed. 

Focus. He inhaled through his mouth with his eyes closed. There wasn’t a chance he’d be able to see him, but, just like how Felix seemed to do, perhaps he could feel for him. 

It was like a prick in the back of his neck. Sage felt that if he didn’t turn at that moment, his life would be in danger. 

Materializing Mura, Sage spun on his knee and brought his arms up. The clang of wood on metal echoed through the silent hilltop. If he was any later, he wouldn’t have connected with his cudgel. 

Sage’s arms shook as he held back the pressing stick of wood; the shock he felt when he blocked the attack made his arms weak. 

The robed man stepped back and dropped his cudgel. 

“Congratulations,” he said while clapping three times. “You’ve both passed.” 

He then turned his back on them and waved his arm in Felix’s direction, releasing him from the constraints of the ropes. 

Mura dissipated into blue light when she dropped from Sage’s hands; he was unable to hold her any longer. 

“Follow me, we have much to discuss,” the man said. He walked away from them towards the second building, the house, and entered it without another word. 

Sage stood and gazed at Felix; they both had the same determination on their face.

It took a moment, a brief one, but Sage, followed closely by Felix, followed after the mysterious priest.