[Maruem]

Maruem very slowly cracked his eyes open. Darkness, but not impenetrable darkness. There were hints of light off in the distance, far over the mountains a great distance from Romalia. He had not yet gone even close to that far, but it was not fear that stayed his adventurous spirit so much as cool and calm and rational thought. He closed his eyes tight, and rubbed the sleep out of them before opening them again.

Stretching loudly, he looked around at what he could see in the very early morning light. The dew was still thick, the trees leaves coated with thick drops and the thick blades of grass far below dripping with condensation. By some great miracle, he himself had stayed dry, though his lance was slick with cool moisture. More so than on the first day he had woken up in this world, he felt the crispness of the air in his lungs.

Much of his original description had stayed perfectly accurate. The air itself still tasted very much alive. It was still far fresher than the air in his hometown. And the only air that had ever even come close to comparing to it was the air from deep in the woods he played in as a child. But the big difference was in the fact that the original interpretation had been while he was in the city of Romalia, now he was not. No, in fact, he was somewhere where his friend Blank, now turned Katarina, would likely greatly disapprove of sleeping in.

He stood up to his full height on the thick twisted oak branch beneath his feet. He had slept up there the night before and despite how uncomfortable it may sound, he liked it. Maybe it was his lumberjack past that made him fine with sleeping in the trees, since he spent so much time up in them anyway back then, or maybe it was just that he was not too picky, but one way or the other he slept great. Surprisingly great actually, not that he was complaining, but it was a pleasant surprise that he had not been disturbed at all the night before. So far, the woods did not seem to dangerous, but maybe he just got lucky.

Perhaps it was wise to upgrade his gear. Looking down, it was not awful per say, no, scratch that, actually it was very awful. The lance was very poorly weighted and already had many small dots of rust on the blade, the brigandine had several little tears, many loose seams, and was just a bit too tight in the chest.

But back to the air. As he had said, it was different from anything in the real world, and even different from the air in Romalia. Alive was not the right word for it anymore. This air was life. The energy that came into him from the simple act of breathing was astonishing. It was cool in his mouth, throat, and lungs, but not unpleasantly so, and so vibrant that he was fairly certain he would not be able to think of it as unpleasant regardless of temperature, though he may come to regret that passing thought some day, whether it be a month or a year from now, who can really say. Any sleep left in him was driven out by the first breath, and from then on it was just a sort of transcendent peace.

He sat down facing the far off mountains, his eyes shut lightly as he relaxed in his calm bliss. The peaks were visible from his seat due to a fortunate break in the wall of leaves around him, and the added benefit of of picking one of the taller trees in the area. He sat like that for probably 15 minutes. His back resting against the sturdy trunk behind him, with one of his legs extended ahead of him while the other dangled over the edge of the branch.

Far off, over the trees and mountains, the sun was burning bright, and Gaia's earth slowly rotated giving day and night to all the people of this new land, just as it had on Earth. It was this cosmic rotation that was now at work bringing dawn before Maruem. In an instant, his face was suddenly bathed with warm golden light, as that orb of radiant fire crested over the mountain and shed its light on the tops of the trees of the Ciminian Forest. In reality it probably happened much more slowly. There were many trees behind him which were likely lit up earlier, and as he opened his eyes, he watched the boundary of illuminated and un-illuminated tree tops gradually move further and further away from him, as more and more dark green leaves came to life, glowing with the life brought to them.

Relaxing as it all was, he could not help but feel a little melancholic. Sure, this world was fascinating, and it brought him bliss, but what did it mean to be here? It had been only a hand full of days since he had awakened in a strange, almost video game world, in a world so completely foreign to him, and it was intimidating, but also breathtaking.

He had started to become awake of his complacency back in the real world. "The real world?" he though to himself, looking at the ever growing field of glowing leaves before him. "Is this world not real? It feels real, it looks real, it smells and tastes and sounds real. What is it missing to qualify?" He began to slowly realize that these were questions he may never have an actual answer for, and that if that were the case, this world, just like the ‘real’ one, held the same constraints of birth, death, and cluelessness. So, really, while he did not have an answer for the world as a whole being real, he at least knew that to him it was real enough to warrant calling the aforementioned ‘real’ world something else, something more accurate.

He began to mull over all the names that came to mind. "Past world? Not video game world? Other world? Old world? Earth? Home?" The last one struck him. This world, whatever it was, it sure as heck was not ‘Home’, at least not yet. But the not yet meant it could become home, and that meant that calling the… place ‘home’ did not work. ‘Earth’ was also out. This place was, to Maruem’s recollection, a half scale representation of Earth, in other words, it was just as much ‘Earth’ as Earth was, well… half as much, but same principal.

Old world felt somewhat archaic almost, but there was not anything necessary wrong with it. ”I could call it anti-vaxxer’s dream-world” he thought to himself sarcastically. Technically the name did work, because to his knowledge, the People of the Land had no vaccines, meaning this world had no vaccines. “I wonder if they programmed disease into this place? Are vaccines even necessary here?” His mind began to wander tangentially.

He caught himself wandering off into the corners of his consciousness and began to focus on his breathing. Not too long before coming to Gaia he had learned from a wise friend of his, a youth counselor, that the mind naturally wanders, and forcing one’s self to focus on a topic is counterintuitive because then your thinking about the thinking about the thing, which distracts from the thing. Instead, if you focus on a natural act like breathing, your not forcing yourself to split your consciousness between various topics, instead it is a topic and a stimulus, which just do not interfere with each other. ”Or something like that…” He finished his remembrance.

Whatever it was exactly that his friend had said, it helped him regain focus really well, with the added benefit of being relaxing, not that he really needed help with relaxing, given how peaceful his surroundings were.

His focus returned to him. “So, anti-vax… nope, I am not calling it that, not making this a thing. ‘old world’, ‘old worrrld’ ‘old worold’.” he stopped thinking it at some point, he was not sure when, but instead it was coming from his lips, and it did not sound bad against his ears. ”It’s somewhat casual. It’s like going to a neighborhood someone used to live in and telling their friend “that’s my old place”. It does not invalidate anything about the place, instead it just means the experiences they had there are in the past now. Or maybe in thinking to much about this. Honestly… I’m giving more thought to the name of the old world than I did for my own freakin’ name.” With that, he realized that he had already used it semi-naturally in his own thoughts, and it did not feel out of place.

He opened his mouth to begin to speak out loud to himself. By now the sun was no longer crimson, and the sky had not a trace of purple left in it. The sun was above the mountains fully now, and it blazed a glorious golden yellow, the warmth happily dancing over Maruem’s skin. “Well, that’s one existential matter sorted. What’s next.” He said aloud. As if on cue, his stomach growled, and it growled loudly.

“Well, back to Romalia it is then.” He stretched his arms forward to his feet again, touching his toes with a slight groan, and then he pulled his arms back, placed then against the branch he was perched on, and slowly and sleepily lifted himself. Looking down he realized just how high he was. ”hmmm… I wonder… did they program fall damage?” the thought scared him a little, and he was not willing to test it. He grabbed the shaft of his lance and pushed it into his pouch, still impressed by the magic that let its full length sink into the small leather baggie.

With no weapon to worry about he began to lower himself from branch to branch like some twisted variation of pull ups where they had to be done in reverse, not that it was the worst thing he had experienced in this world, but even with his endurance, toward the end his arms began to fatigue a bit. There were points when the nearest branch was barely in reach of only the tips of his toes, and he had to drop himself onto then, trusting both their strength, which was not too much of an issue given that most of them were very thick, but also his balance, which was relatively good in the grand scheme of things, but still by no means infallible.

Eventually his feet found the soft and dew dampened grass, the old dried leaves, and the thick gnarled roots of the forest floor. He brushed the loose speks of bark from his hands and clothes, and then turned to walk toward town. Fortunately he had a good sense of direction, and he did not have any need for that compass skill available to all adventurers. ”Hey, I got down that tree really well” he thought out loud, walking away from the tree. “I guess I am in-fall-ible” He said with a chuckle, only to find himself with a face full of grass, leaves, and a bit of pain.

Looking at his feet there was a fat twisty root he could have sworn had not been there before. He grunted as he pushed himself up. “Fair enough Mr.Oak, it was a pretty bad J-oak.” He said, patting the tree he had slept in. ”Gods do I hate that I love puns” He muttered under his breath as he took large steps away from the tree, carefully scanning for any rogue roots out for vengeance.

His stomach growled again, and again, and again. He got it, he really did, he understood that his body wanted food, but he did not exactly have much on him that he could enjoy. “It’s kind of unfortunate I never got around to taking botany, would be nice to know which of these plants won’t kill me in horrible ways.” That being said, he did hear a stream flowing not too far from him, and he figured that was better than nothing.

The water was brilliant. It was more clear than any he had seen before, and as it flowed the surface shimmered like liquid silver under the light of the sun, at least where it broke though the branches. There were flowers as well, pretty little ones Maruem had no clue the name of, but pretty nonetheless. “It’s magical.” The words escaped his lips, and as they did, a movement caught his eye. Not 8 paces away, a beautiful doe drank from the shimmering water. He bowed before it, and it stayed calm, not making a move to run, but still alerted to his presence.

He was upstream from it, so he took no issue in stepping up to the stream and tasting the liquid silver he so admired. Everything in gaia felt so alive, even the ruins he wandered in with his friend Joel had been teeming with life, from the voluminous sheets of moss coating many of the crumbled bricks, to the rabbits and birds hopping around looking for smaller life to eat. This water was no different. It was cold, and any stress he did not even know he had began to melt out of him.

It was supposed to be something to fill his stomach a bit to carry him over until he reached the town, but he would not mind filling up entirely on this Ichor. Ichor felt like the right word. There was so much energy in this water, like the life-blood of the entire forest, and he had the privilege of partaking.

He focused on his breathing again, his focus returning to his surroundings and his original goal. The doe was slowly walking away. And he rose back up to his feet, shaking the water from his beard with his fingertips. He turned back toward Romalia, taking mental note of the location of this truly magical little stream, maybe he would be able to bring Kat or another friend here some day for a picnic or something of the sort. Finally, after several more minutes of walking through the thick undergrowth beneath his feet, he came through the edge of the forest and saw Romalia in the distance, past empty fields of still germinating crops. It was a beautiful view.

Word Count: 2427
Total Word Count: 2427
Tags: Katarina , Atymnius
Notes: (1/2)

[Maruem]

Stepping into the city, Maruem looked around at the still unfamiliar streets. He looked around at his surroundings, and decided to run up some crumbled bricks of a long destroyed wall and leaped, grabbing the roof corner of the next building over. He strained a little bit to pull himself up, his arms still feeling the effects of climbing down such a tall tree, but he managed to get up onto the roof to get a better look around. Several intersections away was where the life of the city began to show, and not far from that were several smaller restaurants run by the People of the Land.

Maruem clambered over the edge of the building and lowered himself, releasing his strained grip when he was fully extended over the edge, dangling like some crude decoration. He dropped with a soft thud, and a bit of dust poofing up into a little cloud at his feet. Righting himself, he made his way in the direction of the restaurants and shops he had seen.

The steam rising from the various windows smelled very nice, and his stomach began to growl again. ”Yeah yeah, calm down already, would you, you’ll get plenty of food in just a bit.” he though, as he patted his belly. He walked up to one of the stalls, but realized all to quickly it was packed to the brink with many a Lander. It was interesting to see these buildings so packed, somehow he had not anticipated this at all. He had instead expected that the stalls would be almost devoid of patrons and that he would be the first, or at least one of the first. And yet, here he was, standing before full stall after full stall with steam and aromas of all varieties filling the are around him like some culinary cloud of delights.

He turned, and saw another stall that looked promising.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
The old woman turned to face him. “Why hello dear, here for breakfast are you?” She smiled brightly at him.
“Oh, yes ma’am, if you’ll have me. I was hoping to have something to fill me up before I do a bit more exploring. Still trying to familiarize myself with this world.”
She kept her smile up, but a shadow formed in the back of her eyes for just a second. “Aha, so it’s an early breakfast is it? Not many of your kind wake up this early, I must say im impressed. Usually our stalls are only this active in the morning because the workers eat before going out to work in the fields.”
“Yes well, I find that exploring is easier when there are less people in the places your exploring, I suppose being an early bird certainly helps with that. You must have woken up early to have all this open and cooking already”
“Spend your young years how you will, I’ve already wasted my youth away on ‘exploration’, eventually the time came to settle down and put my early rising to a functional purpose. I suppose you could say i came to terms with my mortality” She said innocently. There was a bitterness behind those words, but Maruem was not planning on pushing the topic, not with her.
“Well then, seems it’s time to see that purpose in action. I suppose I’ll have two eggs sunny side up, a few slices of bacon, and some buttered toast if you would be so kind.”
“Of course sweety, it will be out in just a couple minutes.”
Maruem ate the food with a smile. It was good, though he was not sure he wanted to admit it. Clearly this woman had a problem with him, probably to do with his being an adventurer, which was odd, what was so different between the two of them?

He finished his meal, complemented the chef, paid, and wandered out into the street, heading back toward the Ciminian Forest again. He made his way between the far smaller crowds of people. Clearly the early morning rush was gone, and they were in the lull between that and the morning rush of adventurers.

”What was up with that old Lander woman” he began to think as we left the street filled with food stalls. ”I know that adventurers have only been here a few days, there’s no way we have already messed up so royally that she has reason to hate all of us, have we? How could we have? I mean i get it, there are definitely some real jerks who have spawned in, there is no avoiding that fact really, but enough to make a woman hate all of us? Even if she ran into an entire party of jack asses, surely there was a group of decent adventurers who came along afterwards.”

She did not even seem taken aback by Maruem’s general politeness, so clearly she had seen more than one polite adventurer… What was it! What made her such a sour woman once she learned he was an adventurer. Was she just bigoted? Was it that simple? Did she hate all the adventurers for not being of this land? Like pale imitations of the races that had long inhabited this world? All these thoughts came swirling in Maruems mind as he tried to make sense of it all, and then the last question came to mind, asking him in the back of his mind what she means when she said “I suppose you could say i came to terms with my mortality.” Whatever it was she had meant, and whatever it was that had caused her to dislike him and all his fellow adventurers, he would have to move on from it, no sense carrying a sour persons negativity on his shoulders.

Slowly, he made his way out of town, and he caught his eyes drifting to the rubble he had climbed earlier, it was nothing special, like all the other ruins, but it made him stop and really thing what might have happened to this town, clearly the People of the Land had lived there far before Maruem and the other adventurers came along and apparently ruined things for that old woman, whether intentionally, or simply due to her own skewed ideals.

He walked a bit further, and eventually found himself at the edge of the city border, the forest a ways off in the distance. He slowly walked through the fields outside the walls, now occupied, not densely, but enough to be very noticable, with many of the workers who had been eating in the food stalls not long before. He waved at a few of the friendlier looking ones as he passed then, and eventually, after several minutes of walking casually between the fields, he stepping into the thick forest.

He made his way back to his tree, listening to the calls of the birds and the rustling of the leaves above him as small critters leaped from one branch to another. Despite the calm all around him, he felt something was off. There was a tug, and although he was not sure what was pulling him back toward the small clearing near the stream where he had seen the doe, he did feel that something was there, or that something was going to be there, and so he needed to be there just the same.

Whether it was instinctual or genuinely some force of nature or a game mechanic that was guiding him, he could not be sure anymore, but at this point it seemed like there really was no other option, and besides, it kind of felt right to go back again. He reached the faint path he had made in the mossy forest floor, which would lead him straight to the stream. On his way to it, he saw a few roots that had been there before, but nonetheless brought back memories of the roots that had scared him enough to make him walk with large steps, looking like quite the foolish guy.

The roots he saw now were not entirely alone. Standing amongst them was a figure, faint given the distance and his lack of the faunri people’s keen senses. Nope, they were just a rather small person. A lost child perhaps? He could not recognize them from behind, but they wore a large brown cloak he could have sworn he had seen before, somewhere.

He was moving quietly, not trying to sneak up on them or anything, just his natural relatively soft foot falls. If they were a faunri they might hear him coming at this distance, though the still damp moss did muffle his already quiet movement even more. He hesitated to disturb them, but after that moment’s hesitation, he breathed and then let himself speak, as he did, so leaves rustled under his feet.

“Hello?” was what he was going to say, up until he noticed that he was not alone with whoever this stranger was. He also noted that the hood they wore flinched at the sound of his foot rustling old leaves. It was in fact a faunri, but it seemed like it was already on alert to something, because it did not avert its gaze from the direction it was facing to look at the source of new sound.

By now Maruem was still several meters from them, whoever they were, but he heard a twig snap off to the right and at the same time he heard very slight rustling to the left of him, and several meters in from the the faunri child. ”Wait… faunri child? There is no way, not a chance in hell that I am this lucky. Of all the people to run into during my first potential combat, I get to have Blank’s help? This could not have gone better.”

At that moment his joy was interrupted. From the sound he had heard the twig snap, closer now but still to the right, he heard another sign of movement, and saw a flash of that movement between the leaves of a bush. ”Oh fuck! It’s a boar! And it’s heading right for him!” His mind screamed as he moved without thinking.

His hand was at his belt in a flash, nothing equipped. He would have found it the instant he reached if it was there but even before he could process that, his hand had moved to his belt. It moved into the magic pouch and out came his dagger. While this was happening his feet had sprung him a few meters forward in quick steps. The boar was too close! He was not going to make it in time! “Not on my watch fucker!” he roared as he leapt the last couple meters, his chest serving as the barrier between the wild animal and his old friend.

His right hand flew out, as he fell with his left shoulder facing the ground. His right hands’ fingers wrapped firmly around the left tusk of the boar and with his own left hand, he drove the dagger ice pick style into the throat of the beast. It let out a horrendous squeal as he hit the ground, it rammed into him right as its legs buckled, and then its momentum lifted its rear, rolling it over his body.

Maruem stood, a satisfied grin adorning his face. He sprang to his feet, ready to check that his friend was alright. His dagger was no longer in hand, he noted. More likely than not is was buried firmly in the now dead boars neck. He turned to face Joel and as he opened his mouth to speak blood dripped out. He coughed, and more crimson droplets jumped from his throat onto the floor of the Ciminian forest clearing.

Whether it was the sudden roar he had given or the impact of the boar against his chest, one or the other had burst some more minor blood vessel in his trachea or lungs. ”Minor...” he rationaled ”because if it was anything too too important I would not be able to breath right now, and there would be more of a dripping or pouring of crimson from my mouth, rather than a small mist of blood in that cough.” Still, fighting with a bloody throat was not going to be the most fun.

His mind was racing, all this though happened in just a second or two, but as he looked down he realized the boar was still very much alive, despite the cold, if crudely constructed, wrought iron blade being hilt deep in its throat. The boar rolled off of its back and rose to its feet shakily. As it stood on all fours, a puddle of blood formed in front of it as it coughed up an impressive deluge of boar blood came from its gullet.

”See? That’s what it would look like if it was major and I had to worry about dying right at this moment!” He thought before quickly mentally scolding himself for being so unfocused. He began to reach for the dagger, holding his other arm out defensively, but it was at that moment he heard several more squeals, and finally understood the full scope of their predicament.

They were surrounded, and that was definitely why Blank had not looked at Maruem when he made the rustling noise earlier. Even if Blank had not thought he was a boar just like the other three maruem counted, he still had to keep his eyes trained or he would have risked getting gored when he looked away. “What a re-reunion.” Klide said, with a small dribble of more blood dripping down from his mouth.

Whatever Blank had done to get himself to this point in the woods, it could wait, Maruem had bigger fish to fry, namely the boars he was keeping his eyes trained on. The same boars who were most assuredly going to make swiss cheese out of him and his friend if he did not get to work making sure he was the only cheese on the menu for the day. He reached into the magical, brown, leather pouch once again, and from it he pulled a long, but poorly crafted, iron tipped lance. It come out to full length from the magic bag at his hip. Still maintaining eye contact with the wild animals, he lowered the tip of the lance toward them. He breathed out deeply, ready to test himself against this new worlds first combat trial for him.

Word Count: 2425
Total Word Count: 4852
Tags: Katarina , Atymnius
Notes: (2/2) Sorry it's such a long start, I kinda got... carried away XP

- Combat Status, Probably -

Maruem
Status: Mostly Healthy, if a little Bruised ...and Bleeding ...from his mouth.
Status Effects: N/A

Atymnius
Status: Technically not here yet, but seemingly Healthy
Status Effects: N/A

Katarina
Status: Healthy, hopefully?
Status Effects: N/A

Boar Alpha
Status: Suffering, but still Dangerous
Status Effects: N/A

Boar Beta
Status: Healthy
Status Effects: N/A

Boar Gamma
Status: Healthy
Status Effects: N/A

Boar Delta
Status: Healthy
Status Effects: N/A

[Atymnius]

template by punki of adoxography

HOME

AWAY FROM HOME

“Ugh. I need to upgrade my gear, but I have no money to do anything! If only I had my real-world wallet on hand…”

Despised by the Western community, people known as whales seemed to thrive in Chinese/Korean MMOs. Their grindy and often times exploitative nature made it so you were practically forced to pay up varying sums of money if you wanted to stay on top. Xinyi was an unfortunate victim of such things, looking for an escape from his oppressive life led him to depend far too much on these unhealthy games, and he could see now just how badly it affected his ability to self-reflect and truly see what was wrong with him and his life. Ironic, then, that he had changed so quickly when he arrived in Gaia. boy. Yes, boy. Though his appearance would fool many. Pink hair, effeminate face and girlish mannerisms. Everything about him said girl, but he was a boy. It was relieving to be able to let go like this, in this new world, without having to worry about his family breathing down his neck, whether it be by strict parents or Machiavellian siblings.

But… what was this world anyway? How did they get here? Was this virtual or some sort of other dimension? Did the old world know people were being brought to this new dimension? Perhaps most importantly, why were they brought here? These sorts of things didn’t happen by chance. They happened for a reason, but why? Would it be some sort of epic quest where they fought the baddies and won, sending everyone home? He highly doubted it’d be that simple, and… well, he didn’t want to go home. Not back to an oppressive environment. Not after tasting freedom. Bigots would always exist, but he no longer faced material consequence for… being himself.

Being himself. What a terrible crime.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Regardless of how rosy the world was, he was still an adventurer. For as much glamourisation as adventuring had, it was still a dangerous job that invited treachery and death. Not that death bothered adventurers much, but as far as Atymnius was concerned, this was a real world and thus had real consequences. If not to himself, it’d be for others. Landers didn’t have the privilege of being able to shrug off death, and he did not want to bring suffering to others.

However, that was still no reason not to have fun. Now that he could go all out… why not? Firstly, he needed something to replace the hideous starter equipment he had. He was pretty sure there was some equivalent to costumes in Gaia, so that was a priority. Get something better. After all, what use was pretty looks if he couldn’t complement it with pretty clothes?

Simply put, stats were not priority.

And yet for his priority on getting to Romalia and taking some quests, he had little desire to leave the forest with any measure of haste. Perhaps due to the somewhat claustrophobic environment of Hong Kong, Atymnius found himself very taken to all this greenery and space. Curious creatures everywhere, even if the scenery was marred by the occasional nasty goblin. Besides, he needed materials to make clothes and perhaps sell something he came across.

However, it seemed that his mental compass had a habit of leading him in the direction of danger rather than peaceful scenery, for he had stumbled into a rather combative scenario. A man, tall, slightly injured, and incredibly handsome, defending a small, adorable little Faunri. While not necessarily in a combative mood, he would nonetheless jump in to lend assistance to the lance-wielding gladiator.

“Greetings, sir! You don’t mind help, do you?” He said, pulling out his flute, “As a support, I don’t steal your spotlight, so you have nothing to lose.” And with that, he pulled out his Dizi and played a oriental-sounding, if slightly off tune. The Moderato buff came into effect, passively healing the gladiator and giving him a minor boost to his attack. Not much, but useful nonetheless.

---

681 words