2 Chapter 2

Wielding the elemental powers of Anemo was at least similar to learning how to ride a bike and having a form of training wheels also helped a lot in that sense as well, with my training wheels being able to channel the Anemo energy through the sword to easily send my green sword beams with the saber slashes.

Not only was using the sword to channel the Anemo powers far easier but it was also more efficient somehow in terms of my internal energy used.

Though on the other end, Anemo elemental energy did piss all no matter how I used it against other wind slimes other than to throw them obscene distances.

"Note to self... Shredding a water slime violently with dozens of wind blades makes a major fucking mess..." I groused and Lumine nodded also visibly irritated with how she was completely soaked as her little Rasengan that liked to suck in enemies and act as a blender was more like sticking a bunch of water in a t-shirt cannon and blasting it in a certain direction when it sucked up a few water slimes.

I need to remember that Anemo's whole thing is being used to grab other elemental energy and augment them in an explosive reaction, most notably used for the more volatile elements like electro and pyro.

"Well, Mondstadt is only another ten- or so-minute walk from here," I muttered as we made our way onto the main path that I sort of recalled from playing Genshin though I was certainly noticing that the world was bigger in every sense of the word. So, in other words, I wouldn't be able to jog from Mondstadt to Liyue harbor in less than an hour or two like you could in the game.

"So, Jake what are you going to do, when you get to Mondstadt?" Paimon asked me with Lumine perking up in interest.

I hummed in thought as my mind raced and honestly, I was fairly confident in my chances at joining the Knights of Favonius, even if Diluc was right, and other than the vision wielders, the rest of the knights were trash that could barely deal with the local weakest forms of Hilichurls let alone the large shield-wielding variants.

"I think with having my vision I could work with the Knights of Favonius and more importantly join the Adventurers Guild, to get information and jobs for resources." I had little doubt that I was going to step on the toes of the Fatui, the so-called 'diplomats of Snezhnaya' So I needed a way to get information, and what better way other than interrogating the gods themselves to find spatial attribute stuff to possibly get me off this world.

I wasn't sure but I had strong feelings that the elemental gnosis that the fatui were constantly searching for and messing with the countries of the world was an entrance key for a person wielding them to become a god of some sort which would explain how there were several different gods for certain elements over the years other than the Geo Archon who simply killed all his challengers or more likely the Adepti killed anyone making too much noise about challenging Morax.

So, either way, I had a few chances to snag myself a Gnosis more particularly when Signora takes Venti's to assuredly get information and if necessary, I could one day go pick a fight with that Unknown God that ganked both of the Travelers in the prologue to find a way out of this universal bubble.

"What are the Knights of Favonius like then? Do they have a lot of food?" Paimon continued to ask but we all could see where her main thoughts were. The glutton...

Wait Lumine is a kleptomaniac and Paimon is a black hole of glutton that can eat more food than she weighs... I need to be careful not to catch a mental illness if I stay with them.

I kept a light smile and didn't show any mental disturbance to the realization that I was walking around with a couple of freaks as I answered Paimon's questions confidently. "Well, for the most part, the knights do well around the city of Mondstadt, but if they aren't vision wielder then they don't account for much as the whole group go for more of an individual strength culture and even when they are sent out on clearing mission's if they can't clear a camp of monster's they typically just have to report back and wait for the vision wielders to come clear out the camps which overwork them," I explained and couldn't help but grimace at the memories of all the dumbass commissions that were constantly thrown at me in Mondstadt to clear Hilichurl camps and such.

"Hmm but if you are looking for information here in Mondstadt, I highly recommend the Knights at first but if you can, try the Anemo God Barbatos's church. They also have a few vision wielders within their halls and have assassins doing their shadow work..." I spoke and my answer was a number of branches being violently broken and then the sounds of rushed footsteps rushing towards us from the hill to our side.

A young woman dressed in a red jacket and brown shorts jumped off the ledge of the hill beside us and as she rolled to a stop, she pointed at me and Lumine yelling at us she stood at attention with her fist against her chest. "May the Anemo god be with you strangers!" I blinked in surprise as seriously what kind of greeting was someone just diving off a hillside into an admittedly cool roll only to yell out 'God Bless You!'.

But the woman thankfully continued as Paimon flew out from behind Lumine seeing the person wasn't a bandit or otherwise a monster. "I am Amber, an Outrider of the Knights of Favonius. You don't look like citizens of Mondstadt so explain yourself!"

Paimon instantly blustered out as she was shaking her arms out in denial. "We aren't looking for any trouble!"

Amber huffed folding her arms across her chest as she glared at Paimon. "Thats what all the troublemakers say!"

Lumine cut off Paimon's next words which would have likely ended up getting us stuck in the Mondstadt jail cells as she spoke softly. "My name is Lumine and this next to me is Jake Barris." Paimon sniffed at being not so subtly interrupted but I could only nod in appreciation at Lumine's tact and to confirm her words about my identity.

Amber nodded appreciating Lumine being somewhat serious then she frowned and looked directly at Paimon asking. "And what's the deal with this... Mascot?"

I instantly answered the most appropriate response. "Emergency food."

"Paimon isn't emergency food!" The rotisserie chicken-sized being, cried out stamping her feet in the air then harrumphed turning away from me and Lumine who threw a small smile at me for seemingly coming up with the same answer as she was thinking.

"Right... Well, you guys don't seem to be problematic so we should get you back into Mondstadt what with a dragon flying around causing carnage. Don't worry I shall escort you both there!" Amber said seeming to be putting down her wariness towards us.

"But don't you have something else to do around here if you are a Knight of Favonius?" Paimon spoke with her tone showing how suspicious she was of Amber's intentions in leading us around when we could clearly see Mondstadt in the distance.

"Well... I do need to clear a small Hilichurl camp. But don't worry I can deal with them and keep you safe all at the same time!" She said confidently then she shrugged as she pointed at me and Lumine. "Plus, I don't trust you two and with the way you guys are wearing glowing clothes, it's obvious that you are both vision wielders. So, I naturally need to keep an eye out."

I nodded to her explanation as it was the responsible thing to do in this world that treated Vision wielders of note as basically Nuclear Deterrents as they could easily slaughter armies should they not meet a match as shown by Diluc or Childe fighting an army of Hilichurls and abyss mages, or in Childe's case tearing through Ruin Guard's like they were nothing.

"Very well. May I help you so we can get to Mondstadt sooner." I said not even alluding to a reward and instead simply asking if we could just go about our own business sooner.

"I will help as well," Lumine interject with her sword flashing into her hands.

Amber helplessly nodded unable to deny the help of a duo of vision wielders. "Alright just follow me then." With that said we all jogged down the path towards Mondstadt until we found a decrepit chest just lying on the side of the road.

"Are these chests ever booby-trapped and why haven't people emptied such an obvious chest..." I asked incredulously at this world's logic.

Lumine who was about to open the rotten chest with her bare hand heard my words about a booby trap and instead of opening it via her hands she used her sword to break open the hinges and threw the top off.

Amber stayed beside me as the resident kleptomaniac Lumine ran ahead to pillage the chest and answered my question with a wry smile. "Well, most people if they leave their city or village stick strictly to the roads between the places they are traveling to and honestly if you have no combat training and a swarm of pyro or electro slime or heaven forbid a tribe of Hilichurls falls upon you in your travels..." It was apparent that she meant that any caravan that fell into those circumstances didn't last long.

I mean honestly for the fire and electric slimes; they were far more dangerous than the wind ones as the wind ones at least the small ones we came across were literally as dangerous as a football hitting you and likewise for the water slimes shooting a high-pressure stream of water at you. Either way having thick clothes would invalidate those two slimes whereas fire and electric slimes were deadly even if there were just one.

Less said about the world's native orc tribe that were naturally stronger than humans and having greater numbers of magic users than humans the better, even if Vision wielders were far stronger than Hillichurls, that still didn't change how fast they could breed, grow, and the mutations they could undergo turning into large ones, or even becoming mages of a sort.

"So that chest was likely some poor saps cargo coming from that beach behind us I am guessing?" I sighed thinking about the shattered boats that were on that beachfront and how likely some fishermen or whatever used that beachfront to go around and probably attempt to reach Liyue Harbor with how Mondstadt was landlocked besides a weird river that would snake around the north and run by the dandelion sea which was shrouded in an ever-present thick fog.

"Yes, so it's rather common to see chests scattered around Teyvat as Treasure Hoarders go everywhere attempting to gather loot, lose it because of monsters, and then when more Treasure Hoarders grab the previously lost loot, add their own, and then typically die to the same monsters that killed the first party..." Amber said tiredly I nodded knowing how stupidly greedy the so-called Treasure Hoarders were.

Lumine jogged back over to us after happily thinking more, the gold magical currency of Teyvat, a rusty sword I wouldn't touch even if my own sword broke and lastly some enhancement crystals though I didnt know exactly how those would work outside of the game's setting.

"So, what are you travelers doing here in Mondstadt," Amber asked as we walked down the hill and passed a destroyed carriage.

"Me and Lumine have been travel buddies for a long while, and Lumine lost her brother, so she is looking for him now," Paimon answered excitedly.

Amber was feeling awkward about the loss of Lumine's relative as she replied to Lumine and Paimon. "Ah, I see... Well as soon as I have finished my duties, I will help set up some 'Lost' posters around the city." Amber then looked towards me as I was walking by her other side away from Lumine. "And how about you Jake? Why are you here in Mondstadt?"

I sighed not really knowing how to answer this without lying too much so I just said the truth. "Well I just washed up on the beach a couple hours ago and I figured I might as well see if I can get some work from the Knights of Favonius and the Adventurer's Guild."

Amber hummed in thought thinking over my words but thankfully she didn't get a chance to speak as a Hilichurl popped out of some smoke a few meters in front of us cutting off any chance of conversation as the short black-skinned monster hopped in place screaming as it pointed at us.

The Hilichurl was an ugly thing with its weird tribal mask covering its face and it was only clothed in some brown bandages on its forearms and a brown skirt that covered its bottoms.

Thankfully its abnormal appearance wouldn't cause any mental distress so I didn't have any qualms about launching a blade of wind at the Hilichurl making a deep cut into its stomach.

"Get them!" Amber called out and she ran a bit off to the side as me and Lumine ran up the game trail as soon as we crested over a small hill, we saw a small camp of Hilichurls numbering a couple odd dozen, armed with wooden maces and a few archers posted on rickety platforms off the ground.

"Amber get the archers!" I called out sending a couple of wind blades at the shield wall that formed in front of me by the Hilichurls to break the formation apart so Lumine could dive in and create her wind vortex spell that dragged in all the destabilized Hilichurls into the spinning wind blades and mulched them horrifically.

I froze for a few moments at seeing the literal example of someone shoving a half dozen humanoid-shaped beings into a fucking woodchipper and even as the majority of the Hilichurls turned to smoke as they died, they still left blood splatters and other things behind when they died...

I was broken out of my stupor when one of Amber's Pyro coated arrows hit one of the red barrels the stupid hell, archers were standing beside, and then I was smashed in the chest by a large branch from the stand as the archer and the stand were destroyed by the explosion.

But just as the stand exploded, I felt the silver energy within me instinctively stir and the area the branch smashed into was coated in the light leaving me only feeling like someone pelted me with a marshmallow at high speeds.

I realized instantly that the silver energy within me was my aura and as much as I wanted to throw out a series of glyphs or whatever with how I was made a Schnee or whatever. Sadly, I knew that I was going to need to pick that up on my own as my aura was sluggish and unresponsive in comparison to my Anemo energy.

I got back into the battle and when Lumine got surrounded by a number of Hilichurl's she made a condensed small tornado that picked up all the monsters and carried them away while cutting them to pieces with wind blades within the tornado. "Amber shoot the tornado with pryo!" I yelled and I laughed seeing the green wind blade tornado double in size and power as it dragged the majority of the other Hilichurl's into its grinding inferno as it burned a bright orange.

Thinking to myself I decided to make my own 'elemental burst' or ultimate ability and seeing Lumine already had her control technique that captured and took enemies away I stabbed my saber into the ground as the last half dozen Hilichurls surrounded me.

A forest of razor-sharp wind blades grew out from the ground around me, and I ignored the cries of the Hilichurls that were staked upon the large sabers that grew out from the ground with a grunt of effort I made my sword twist in the ground and all the sabers around me moved in a complete circle around me slashing everything in their way.

I just like Lumine was clearly exhausted by our large-scale abilities, but we still gamely stood up and walked over to Amber who was jogging over to us from her little perch she took to snipe the Hilichurl's archers.

"I got to say, you both surprised me with your moves out there Haha." She laughed and stretched out her hands to get out some kink from shooting several dozen arrows at high speeds. "Thanks for the backup."

"It's fine," I said simply with Lumine nodding and Amber could only huff at us not giving her much to work with.

"Well, I have officially finished my duties for today, so let's get you guys to Mondstadt now before Stormterror makes another loop around these parts," Amber announced and we then made our way back down the game path and onto to main road that led to Mondstadt.

A few minutes into our walk Paimon asked Amber a question that even I had questions about. "So why are the Hilichurls allowed so close to the city, Jake said only the vision wielders in the knights are able to clear out camps, is that true?"

Amber sighed and brushed a hand through her brown hair as the question obviously hit a sore spot with how proud she was at being a Knight of Favonius, she wasn't blind to the sheer ineptitude of the non-Vision-wielding members of her Order.

"Well... Yeah I mean the normal knights can deal with the wandering slimes and such that approach Mondstadt from the water or the wind slimes that blow over sometimes, but realistically no knight can deal with a Mitachurl, the large variants of Hilichurls as even a dozen knights would simply get slaughtered should they face them in open combat." Amber sighed thinking of such things happening before.

If what she says is truly the case, then that explains why you never see knights in groups outside Mondstadt, unlike how you could see their spear-wielding counterparts in Liyue who probably used spear formations to kill enemies that they certainly couldn't on their own.

"When we get into Mondstadt. I will show you both around and help you both get all your details squared away at the Adventurer's Guild!" Amber spoke excitedly as we began walking over the large stone bridge between the mainland and the island the city of Mondstadt laid upon.