Chapter

Eleven

The next day he was so sore he could barely move. His legs were aching even without moving, and when he tried to flex them they screamed in protest. He tried to sit up, and that’s when his abs made themselves known. They hurt like nothing he’d ever felt before. They hurt worse now than when he had been kicked. He couldn’t move.

Hogg must’ve heard him groaning, because he appeared next to him. “You’re up. Finally. I feel like all you do is sleep and cry.”

“And kill monsters thirty times my level. Did you forget that part?” said Brin.

“I thought up some more questions while you were asleep, and now that the others are far away from here, I can finally ask. Are you really an adult?” Hogg asked.

“I’m twenty-six years old. Or I was. I have an adult’s mind, in a child’s body. Only… things feel a lot more new than they did before. A lot more raw. I… sort of feel like a kid again. It’s strange,” said Brin.

“Fair enough. Just so you know, I don’t know corker dung about being a parent. The only reason I decided to adopt you was because I figured you were already grown up. I’ll do my part to see you protected and fed, but don’t expect me to… you know… raise you.”

Brin laughed, but had to cut it off. It hurt too much. “That’s fine. Preferable, really. But are you sure I didn’t break anything back there? I don’t think I can get up.”

“I’m sure. I can see what my light touches, and I have a kind of light that goes through you,” said Hogg.

“X-ray?” said Brin. It was surprising, but this language actually had a word for that. Searching his mind, he also found he knew the words for germs, microorganisms, and antibiotics. Apparently, this society had an advanced understanding of medicine. “Well I’m still pretty sore.”

“If you really were a kid, I would have already given you more medicine for the pain, only it might be you want to work through it yourself. The System might give you something for toughing it out. You’re a little behind what a kid your age should be at, as far as attributes go.”

“I’ll try,” said Brin. “Help me stand.”

He found that with Hogg’s help, he could stay on his feet, though even those were sore. Theoretically he knew that walking around a bit would be the best thing for his sore muscles, but it didn’t feel like it. And walking around was one thing. Bending over was not happening, so he just stood by uselessly while Hogg picked up the camp.

Hogg stuffed the bedrolls and leather tarp into a big hiking backpack that Brin hadn’t noticed before. It had one of the skeleton’s heavy black swords hanging from a loop. “Thought you might like a souvenir,” Hogg said when he noticed Brin looking at it.

It didn’t take too long before everything was ready. Hogg made his backpack invisible as soon as they set off, which explained why Brin had never noticed it before. Was there a reason for that?

Before he could ask, Hogg said, “I said I had questions. Here’s the next one, and I want you to think about it before answering. What would you have done if someone from a different world showed up at your home planet?”

“Wow. Is this some kind of reverse psychology thing? I would make him our king and⁠—”

“Stow it,” said Hogg. “Sure, lie detector Skills don’t do well with sarcasm and humor. But you didn’t know that, did you? You’re just a smart-ass. I’d like a real answer please.”

“Our government would throw the Outworlder in a cell and interrogate him for every scrap of information. They would keep it a secret from everyone,” said Brin.

“Fair, and our king will do the same to you if he ever gets wind of your origins, which is one reason I told you not to spread it around. But that’s not what I want to know. I’m more interested in what you would do,” said Hogg.

“Oh. Ok, in that case, I’d worry about germs, not that there’s much I could do about it if the Outworlder carried diseases,” said Brin.

“That body was born here,” noted Hogg.

“Do we know… whose body this is?” asked Brin. “Is there a possibility that he’ll want it back?”

“I’ll look into it, but we’re getting distracted. What else would you be worried about?”

“Um… I guess I’d want to know if they had knowledge that would be dangerous. Weapons they could build, for example,” said Brin.

“I see. And? Is there anything I should be worried about?” asked Hogg.

Brin thought about guns. Frenarian didn’t have a word for gunpowder, but there was a word that meant “sparkpowder,” which could be the same thing. Could he make a gun? He vaguely knew how the chamber operated and how rifling was supposed to work. Would people of this world consider that knowledge a game-changer like it had been on Earth? After seeing what Lumina, or even Lurilan, was capable of, probably not.

What about the extreme end of the scale? Could he make explosives? Nukes? He had no idea what C4 or TNT were made of. He did know how nuclear bombs worked. It wasn’t that complicated, just shoot two chunks of refined uranium at each other at high speed. Refining the fuel was the difficult part, and he didn’t even know enough to start with that.

It was painful not to have the internet. Just five minutes, and he’d be able to unleash the kind of technology that would make him a billionaire and unleash a new golden age in this world. But he only knew how to use technology, not how to invent it.

“Not that I can think of,” Brin finally answered.

“Hm,” said Hogg. “Alright, next question. [Know What’s Real]. Tell me the story about that.”

“It lets me see through illusions. I don’t think it helps me see through lies. And it’s not great at helping me spot things that are invisible unless I’m looking right at them. There might be other applications, but I haven’t found them yet,” said Brin.

“Ok, but tell me the story. How did you get it?”

“When I first arrived, I wasn’t taking it very seriously. I thought I was dreaming, or crazy, or something. Being teleported into someone else’s body just… doesn’t happen. And maybe I didn’t want to believe in what was happening, because that would mean… It would mean my old life is over, that I’d never see my friends or family ever again. Then I got that Skill. And I knew that this was all really happening. That this is real life, that the people I meet are real people with thoughts and dreams and aspirations just like me. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.”

“But how do you know the Skill is telling the truth?” asked Hogg.

“I just do,” said Brin.

“Philosophers call that the Great Question. Is this real? The System, the way it can change things, makes reality seem fluid, like a dream or a shared illusion. Do other people exist other than me? Because if they’re illusions or inventions of my own mind, then I can treat them however I want. But if they’re as real as I am, that leads to all sorts of conclusions about how I should behave.”

“Well, I know the answer. I’m real and so are you,” said Brin.

“But what if the Skill is just making you think that? Not being able to question your own perceptions just makes you sound delusional,” said Hogg.

“And you sound… way smarter than you do when other people are around. What would you do if I told everyone your real secret? Not the [Illusionist] thing. What if I told everyone that even though you act tough and cynical, you’re actually a⁠—”

“A scholar?” Hogg said with a sly smile.

“A nerd,” Brin whispered conspiratorially.

“You know I can still kill you.” Hogg chuckled. “I’ll lose my Class and levels, but some would say that’s a small price to pay.”

“To answer your question, I don’t think that’s what’s going on. It feels more like… truth. Like the System is unveiling my eyes, showing me little pieces of ultimate truth. Like I’m getting a glimpse of true perception. Not fogged by the mirrors in my eyes and filtered through the expectations of my brain, but pure vision of what’s really there. Sure, I can entertain the idea that it’s lying as a hypothetical. As a thought exercise, I can imagine that I’m crazy. The Skill might be doing some kind of mind control to force me not to doubt the conclusions it wants me to make. But I don’t believe that. I can’t. And yeah, I get that I wouldn’t be able to doubt it either way.”

“Huh,” said Hogg. “I’m going to need to think on that one.”

“Yeah, it’s a lot,” said Brin. “I have a question for you, though. Is it really alright to just go home to your little town? What if there really is a Burrow City? Shouldn’t we evacuate the nearby towns and villages?”

“If the undead army grows into something the kingdom can’t manage, I’ll be the first to know, and I’ll be in the perfect place to start the evacuation. Plus, I’m retired! I don’t mind sending mirror images around to do some work, but my physical body is old.”

“You’re not that old. You can’t be more than fifty,” said Brin.

“I’m sixty-three. You slow down aging at a certain level,” said Hogg.

Brin didn’t let that blow his mind. This was a new world, there were bound to be stunning revelations. “Then you’ve still got half your life ahead of you.”

“Eh. That’s just an excuse. The real reason I’m doing it like this is because of you,” said Hogg.

“What? I never asked you to⁠—”

“I know! We all know. But the System needed a strong Oath to complete the Quest early like that, and this is the only one I could think of that would actually work. That means no matter how much I’d like to be out there warding off the doom of my nation, I’m going to go home with you and play house. And I’m doing that so that the real heroes have the power they need to get the job done. Think about Lumina. She lucked out and got the Class everyone wants. Think about her power. Now think about her ten times stronger.”

“Do you know what her new Skill will be?” asked Brin.

“Officially, no. How would I know? In actuality, yes. If she gets [Greater Element Channeling], she’ll be able to do what she does now, just a whole lot better for less Mana cost per spell. If she gets [Channel Refined Elements], she’ll be able to summon interesting things like lightning, sand, or quicksilver. If she gets [Channel Life and Death], it’ll let her heal or harm directly, with no need to summon the elements as intermediaries. Although if she took that one, she’d have to learn everything again from scratch. She wouldn’t be able to do the magic she’s used to anymore.”

Brin didn’t have to think very long. “She took the second one, didn’t she?”

“Well burn me, how do you figure?” asked Hogg.

“She wouldn’t take the last one, because she needed a power-up right away, to fight that army. It might be the best option in the long run, but it would’ve been selfish to do that right away. The second one was the best compromise,” said Brin.

“Solid logic,” said Hogg.

“What about you? What did you get?”

“There’s only one choice for me, but I can’t take it yet, for different reasons.”

“Well what is it?”

“I could tell you, but where’s the fun in that? Find out on your own. Consider it a learning exercise,” said Hogg.

“Great,” said Brin. “And here I was hoping that the taciturn old mentor who selectively withholds important information was just a lazy plot device that belongs in bad fantasy novels. It’s great to see it play out in real life.”

“It’s not like that. I told you once that at the higher levels, combat is all about information. You need to learn how to find answers to these types of questions, because no, whatever Lumina says, you can’t just ask people.”

Brin’s legs hurt. His feet were bruised. Every step was agony and it wasn’t getting better. To distract himself, he thought through Hogg’s situation. “Well, if we follow Lumina’s example, you’ll probably also get three options. The first is to increase the amount of power you have in what you can already do. You don’t need that. I don’t know what the second option is, but the third option is probably a drastic change. You can probably... make your illusions real. Do direct damage rather than having to hide all the time. Only, you won’t take that one because the Heroes are depending on your illusions right now. Is that it?”

Hogg gave him some serious side-eye. “You can be kind of annoying, you know that? Alright, you’re onto something, but you’re missing one big piece of the puzzle. And as far as I’m concerned, we’re done talking about this.”

While he was chewing on that, Brin got an alert.

Through training you have increased the following attributes.

Strength +1

Vitality +1

Will +1

“What’d you get?” asked Hogg.

“Uh, none of your business, right? Didn’t you just say⁠—”

“Three attributes, huh? Nice. But that means you must be more tired than I thought. Here, drink this.”

Brin took the proffered bottle and downed it without a thought. The liquid was clear and flavorless, but he didn’t care what it was, as long as it would help. Even walking as far as they had, his body was still as sore as when they had started. Every step sent a shock wave of pain through his whole body. “Will this kill the pain?”

“It should. Won’t help for fatigue, though,” said Hogg. “I’ll have to carry you.”

“That’s fine,” said Brin. “I’m slowing you down and we’ve got a long way to go. Actually, I don’t know how far we have to go.”

“Far. It’s a big forest. It’s a big world,” said Hogg. He crouched down, indicating that Brin should climb up on the oversized backpack.

Before he did, Brin took one look back the way they came, into the forest where the Heroes were fighting. “How long do you think it’ll be before I see them again? I won’t get my Class for two more years, and even then…”

“It won’t feel too long. You’ll see. The time will skip on by.”

The End of Part 1