A whole new world

Chapter 17: A whole new world

While leaving the forest, Cherry could still serve as a guide, since she had been to the town on the outside multiple times already, mostly to buy supplies and the like. That's also where she got the Skillstones from! Turns out there's an old-ish gemcutter in the town who specialized in <Language> stones. Handy.

The city was a little ways away from the foot of the mountain, so the journey took them quite a while, which was long enough for Cherry to get acquainted with the wolves a little more, and they probably developed some mutual respect or something. In any case, there was no longer any bad blood.

The journey in and of itself was exciting for all of them, since none of them had ever really moved this far out. They hadn't exactly been sheltered, but really finding out about the whole wide world had it's appeal. It took Mercury everything he had to not start singing during the travelling montage. Well, he did actually sing a little though, but at least he didn't break out into a full-scale musical number. The plants were silent that day.

That would've been kinda hard to translate via this medium, huh. Well, I suppose now you'll have to imagine it.

Then, they finally arrived at the city... or rather, its remains.

All five of them stopped as it came into view.

It had been razed to the ground entirely. Buildings were nothing but charred frames, with ash and coals covering the floor. The church, that had been made with large bricks of stone, had been reduced to a pile of rubble. They saw bodies upon bodies littering the streets, and dried blood everywhere they looked, splashed on what was left of any walls.

Every last one of the villagers was dead.

People were killed. Regardless of age, or sex, or gender, or personality. None of it mattered. Not their hobbies, or their jobs, or their hopes and dreams, everything that made them up was crushed in a single night.

There was not a spark of life left in the city. Only smoldering embers and ash.

It was a rude introduction to the outside. Mercury's face scrunched up and Cherry pressed her hands on her mouth, letting out a gasp.

Cherry was confused at the sight, seemingly unable to fully grasp it. Who could have done this? And why? What... what even happened exactly?

The wolves were shocked, frankly. This grade of destruction was beyond anything they had ever witnessed. It was incomparable to anything they had seen before, so all they were left with were questions.

Mercury was only slightly different. He was shook by this, but he had seen similar things before on the internet. He had seen cities wrecked by tsunamis or even nuclear weaponry. He had seen images of slums in poorer countries and of devastating wildfires. This was, as cruel as it sounds, another catastrophe to add to the pile. What he felt the most was… removed. No, perhaps not removed.

He was... angry. He had reincarnated into another world, one with magic and many, many races, where animals can learn to speak, a world with dragons and probably unicorns.

And yet, this was what it looked like? A city, razed to the ground by petty conflict? Maybe it was a war, or a personal agenda. Maybe it was for vengeance, maybe to keep a disease from spreading, but what did it matter?

It was senseless. A charred husk of society. Perhaps one of hundreds, and yet a place that was special to some.

This felt so endlessly far away that he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it. It was like he was looking at it through a window, seeing himself stare at this cruel display of power while simply sipping some tea in a safe little hut. And it made him furious.

Then, a pop-up.

[You have witnessed an event of great effect that was created by the individual <Scarlet Inagra>, alias: "The Incinerator", "Inferno", "Crimson Queen". Would you like to spend your World points to increase her fame/infamy?]

[New functions unlocked: Leaderboard, World points.]

And he slowly activated appraisal.

[World points: A currency granted to you for causing great changes within the world. These can be used to increase the fame or infamy of another individual of your choosing. They cannot be used on members of your party.]

[Leaderboard: The leaderboard ranks individuals based on their fame/infamy points. There are separate leaderboards for each, and different leaderboards in each region. The system will automatically adjust fame/infamy based on the people's opinion. Any individual can use their World points to adjust these measures as well.]

Next, Mercury took a deep breath as he was thrown out of his safe little hut right back into his body, seeing the destruction in front of him.

Then, he took another deep breath to organize his thoughts, turning his mind from a jumbled mess back into a single thread, which he began to spin further.

Finally, he spoke.

"I don't believe this was fair," he said slowly, with rage seething out from between his teeth, taking on the shape of white fog as the night's cold crept in. "I think... we have hunting to do."

Thus, he stepped forward again and after only a moment of hesitation, his party of four followed. Not for the sake of those people down there, not for the sake of revenge, and not for the sake of their own desires. They followed, because there was someone moving forward, and sometimes that is all one can do.

And that very thing was what "The silver King" Mercury Starlight Rainfall was more than ready to do.

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It took them an even longer journey before they encountered the next city, following only the paths that had been created by decades of usage. Some of them were simple pathways through a forest, while at other places wooden stairs had been made to help with ascending or descending narrow passages. At times, there were even stones laid into the ground to ease travelling.

After around another two weeks, they finally saw a change on the horizon. They exited a forest, and entered a grassy field. On the horizon, they could see a tower with a large bell inside of it. They had found a city, finally. On the journey they did gain a bit of Exp from the food that the wolves acquired, and a total of 405 was added to the pool, with each wolf acquiring 300 themselves. In addition, Mercury was also improving his <Mana Veins>, slowly spreading more and more channels through his body.

After another day's worth of travel, they arrived at the city walls. This one seemed to be a little larger than the last town they had seen, given that said walls were now made from stone, with the occasional watchtower in between. One of the sides of the city was actually covered from attacks by a river, too, which also made that side a convenient location for a gate and farms. In addition, the city has been built on a hill and continuously extended, so there were multiple layers of walls going further down, three in total.

It was fairly secure, to say the least.

Sadly, some of the feeling of sturdiness was lost as they drew closer, when they saw the wagons collecting bodies from the side of the road, as well as the patches of burnt grass and the remains of what might have been siege machines. It wasn't a pretty sight, but at the very least, the city still stood.

Finally, when our small group of friends was approaching the city gate, they saw the stones. There weren't many of them, all places far apart and they were full of names from top to bottom.

Mass graves.

It was another punch to the gut for Mercury, but by now he had assessed the situation. There was most likely a war going on. It was fairly easy to deduct, given that most people with high fame also had high infamy on the leaderboard, such as the man in 7. place for infamy, "Divine General" Jacques Bordeaux, who also ranked 6. when it came to fame.

This trend continued up and down the ranks, with only very few exceptions. Sadly, the board said nothing about power, but he also found a familiar name high up on both sides. 11. and 9. for fame and infamy respectively, "Crimson Queen" Scarlet Inagra.

Well, knowing there was a war going on at least prepared them for these sights, I suppose, though Cherry still seemed a little shaken by it.

But back to the present. As they approached the city gate, they were stopped by two guards in heavy plate armor, their faces covered by helmets only leaving thin slits for their eyes.

"State your name and purpose, tamer!", one of them half-yelled at Cherry, who quickly flinched.

Tamer? Was that like a nickname for people who use animalistic companions. Wait. That meant… the guards were fully disregarding him…? Ah shit, right, he was just a cat. He definitely had to speak up while Cherry was still frozen, huh.

"Actually, I'm kind of the leader. Down here. Yeah, the c-"

"IT'S A TALKING MOPAAW?!?!?! Everyone, attack positions!!!"

And with that, the guard blew into a horn and immediately bows were pointed at them from every single location on the wall.

"Well, that sure was unexpected. Nice to meet you too, I'm Mercury Starlight Rainfall, leader of this little ragtag group. We're kinda here to help with the war."

While the guard was still stunned, Mercury quickly blurted out his name and intentions, as he had been asked to, before weapons were pointed at him. He also seemed confident actually, but let's be honest, you know just as well as I do that he was sweating bullets by now.

Still, he was in this situation, and no amount of internal screaming would help him with it. Instead, he decided to rely on [DIPLOMACY], one thing that he certainly took away from his job. And with that thought…

[Acquired the Ability <Diplomacy lv. 1> through a certain action.]

… he got an upgrade.

Well, fortune among misfortune maybe? But with a wave of the guard's hands, the bows were pointed back downwards, though the heads of probably more than 3 guards were still visible on the wall. To be precise, Mercury guessed there were probably around 50-60 of them.

"Help, you say? And how do you intend to do that, Kitty?" The guard actually leaned down to Mercury, who could see a smug grin through his helmet. Kitty, huh. He was a "Kitty", then? Oh. Oh so that how it fucking was?! I'll fucking give you kitty you dumb, ugly, son of a bi-

"I'm sorry my liege, but please try to maintain composure."

Ah fuck, right, Diplomacy. Thanks, Juno. Mercury made a mental note to thank her later. With a cough, he turned to the guard again, who was still staring at him while the other one kept all the soldiers from raising their bows at the talking wolf. What idiots.

"Sir, I simply think we could prove to be valuable assets to your army. May we prove our mettle in a trial of combat? A harmless mock-fight, of course."

He even put on his best british accent. If the guard didn't accept this, all hope was lost. It was the perfect offer after all.

For a bit the guard paused and then spoke again.

"Alright, a mock-fight then. Arendor, get over here!"

With a yell from the guard, Mercury could quickly witness the gate opening just far enough to let a single man wearing fancier guard's armour and no helmet strut through the opening. He had long, flowing black hair and was clean shaven, his hazelnut eyes containing the sparkle of someone who lived to fight. Or at least that's what he looked like in that sparkling steel armor.

"Arendor, reporting for duty," he said with a seemingly cocky smile.

"Test them. Little Mister Flufferbutts wants to join us in our war efforts."

With that, Mercury heard a chuckle coming from all soldiers but the one who had just stepped out. He was already busy eyeing his opponent up and down.

"I should fight… the mopaaw?"

"Yes, the mopaaw."

"But sir, it's a-"

"Did I stutter?"

When Arendor turned back to Mercury, he actually flinched. He had fought a hundred battles and beat a hundred soldiers, but something about this mopaaw struck him as off. Maybe it was the murderous gleam in its eyes or the foam that was frothing from its mouth, but Arendor was… unnerved.

Still, he drew his longsword and held it with both hands.

"Let us begin then, shall we?"

And with that invitation, Mercury waited for him to come closer with his inventory open and an item selected. After a few moments, Arendor did take a step towards him, only to promptly have a large log strike his foot and disappear again, prompting a chuckle from Mercury's companions and a scream from Arendor.

"Mister motherfucking Flufferbutts...?"

Mercury furiously stared down the knight who was now holding his foot while swearing.

With that, Mercury started using his <Mana Veins>, circling his boiling magical power through his body at a speed that was unmatched to what he had done before. The friction heated it up some more, leading his mana to go from boiling to roaring as it coursed through him, evaporating at a rapid pace. But Mercury didn't need to conserve his magical power. He could focus every single drop of mana he had on this one fight, about to just straight up smash Adrenor.

See, what he was doing was something he figured out while travelling. <Mana Veins> was essentially physical enhancement magic. It was part of the foundation of superhuman combat and the absolute signature Ability that magic-fighter hybrids relied on. It was an Ability so incredible that having it was the foundation for a whole type of "build", and now, Mercury was using it with all of his magical power, which was far above the average for his level, all at once simply to smash this guard. He was going motherfucking show them Mister fucking Flufferbutts!!!

As his mana was rushing through his body and filling his limbs with power, Mercury leapt off the ground and tackled Adrenor straight into his chest with force similar to that of a sledgehammer. It was a one-off attack, naturally, but it was also everything he needed to win the fight. As the sound of something hard striking metal rang out, Adrenor couldn't even yell as the air left his lungs. Then he fell, and his head struck the floor, making him fall unconscious for just a second as Mercury managed to land gracefully for the first time ever.

It was an overwhelming victory as he turned back to the guard who had first issued the challenge.

"Never call me that again," he said as he walked through the opening city gates.

Only when he had already entered did he allow himself to begin breathing heavily and moaning in pain. He could, to a minor degree, use <Mana Veins> by now, but it was still level 1. This had a few restrictions placed on it, namely that he needed to use a lot of mana to produce even the slightest effect.

In addition, he could only control the amount of mana that was actually used up by the Skill by changing its temperature, which he wasn' able to do effortlessly. The third and last hurdle was how many mana channels he had actually created. Currently he only had ones to his main extremities, making a full-body power up barely possible.

However, there was still one more drawback. Even with superhuman power, his skin wasn't hard enough to fully beat metal, so while he knocked over the guard, his entire side was positively pulsating with pain.

All this came together in forming restrictions on the ability. There were restrictiona on the time he could use the power for, the amount of power he could get at any one point, and how often he could use it. Basically, he could use it to get a singular attack per day, that was strong enough to harm a soldier in full metal armor. Maybe he could squeeze two into a day if he used one in the morning and one in the evening, with plenty of meditating in between.

And that still wasn't all! Now that he had used it, his breathing was rough and his muscles were hurt, because using mana on his body was essentially overcharging it. Which meant that in case he failed at properly using the singular attack <Mana Veins> allowed him to pull off, he couldn't fight at full capacity for multiple hours.

But in this case that didn't matter.

None of it mattered.

Not his breathing, or his limits, or the fact that tomorrow his legs would hurt quite a bit. Because right now he had put someone in their fucking place. He had started his absolute eradication of the name "Mister Fufferbutts" from history, nay, from language itself! No longer shall cats be oppressed by such infantile treatment! No more will they be tormented! Be free, my furry brethren!

And while Mercury was experiencing a micro-aggression, Cherry was busy carrying him in her arms, as he had simply stopped and delved into his own fantasy. Needless to say, none of the five noticed that <Daydream> had levelled up yet again.

In any case, while everyone's favourite king, mage and hero was busy exploring the terrible exploitation of cats through cutesy names, the remainder of his posse was busy exploring the city to find a place to stay. Of course, there was something that had to be done first, or so Cherry read in her books, which was to get themselves registered as godseekers.

Yup.

That's a thing.

And it absolutely wasn't nearly as cool as it sounded.

It was essentially this world's version of what's commonly called "adventurers" or "hunters" in other contemporary literature. In the end, those were fancy names for all-purpose mercenaries. Hireable hands, so to speak. Or, phrasing it less charmingly, day labourers.

They weren't hired to "seek gods", as the name may imply. Who the heck would dare challenge being such as the "Demon Lords" or the "Walking Disasters"? Maybe at the rank of hero one would see such things, but as a normal person? Commissions ranged from hunting a few boars to cleaning windows and such.

Most people who actually had a place to live looked down on low-tier godseekers, whose name was more to mock them. Heck, even higher ranked ones were often disliked, since their allegiances didn't lie with any cities or any side of this war, but instead, they helped out whoever paid more. It was a job that was widespread and oftentimes frowned upon, and it was also the only way for godseekers to actually make a genuine living if they rose high enough.

So, Cherry went to register, knowing absolutely none of this. All she knew was that they completed commissions for whoever paid.

She quickly headed into the large building, its sign that of a golden spyglass crossed with a grey sword.

"Welcome to the Alywick gloryhall, how may I help you?"

The building was empty except for a young lady of maybe 20 years at a counter. She had dark brown hair in a ponytail, hazel eyes and wore a buttoned shirt under a green, woolen jacket. She also wore glasses. Yup, glasses. Black frame, big and round.

She looked like a straight up modern-day librarian, Mercury thought.

Except for her, the room was only filled by a few things. The counter she was standing behind spread across nearly the entire room, with saloon doors at either side to let the staff go into the common area or something probably. There were also a few wooden chairs arranged around tables at the right wall and the entire left wall was a giant notice board, plastered with notes upon notes.

Seeing a pair of glasses seemed to bring Mercury back from his dream of fire and plague, as he hopped off of Cherry's head and onto the counter, eyeing the girl again. But while he did so, she was casually reaching out to pet him.

"Awwwe, what a cute ki-"

"Hey, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

And that's the story of how our furry protagonist made a receptionist woman scream out loud before even introducing himself. While the girl was still pressing herself up against the wall and holding what looked like a ring of multiple intertwined metals towards him, Mercury sighed and began with the introductions.

"Sorry if I scared you, my name's Mercury Rainfall Starlight. Yes, I'm a talking c- mopaaw, and no, I don't consume the souls of the innocent."

"Y-y-y-you d-d-don't?"

"I don't, I promise. Pinky promise. Actually, toebean promise. I know it's a little weird to deal with a new kind of customer, but I'm really not here to hurt you. Or anyone, actually. I'm just here to- wait, why am I here?" Mercury turned around to the others as he asked and found the answer in Cherry's big grin.

"To register as godseekers. We could take on commissions in most cities and could enter practically all of them by showing our licenses, Merc. It's pretty handy."

And with that, Mercury turned back around.

"You heard the lady. Just here to get ourselves registered as godseeker. I suppose you need our names?"

When the receptionist heard Cherry's explanation and saw Mercury smile a little at her, her heart rate finally decreased a little again. After taking another deep breath and pushing up her glasses, she found the power in herself to speak to the group of newbies once more.

"Yes, but please give me a second to fetch the required forms. How many registrations would that be? One tamer and some pets or….?"

Mercury tilted his head a little at the receptionist's answer. But he didn't exactly have anything to do but to ask.

"Sorry, I'm really new to this whole 'outside world' thing, so could you maybe explain a little?"

"Oh, yes, of course, sir. As the young lady behind you already explained, as godseekers you will be able to complete commissions for money. In addition, you will be allowed into most cities with a license, so long as the guard doesn't find any commissions that would require you to actually harm someone in said city. That being said, some towns do handle matters differently and reserve the right to keep anyone they want to from entering. As such, we cannot fully promise that you will be freely received in every town, however it should be fine for nearly all major cities." As she spoke, the receptionist seemed to fall into a little bit of a routine, giving her just enough confidence to actually smile at them.

"As godseekers, you will be allocated ranks and occupations. The former is decided solely by the guild. You can apply for an evaluation to increase your rank after completing a certain amount of commissions of your level. This is to first have the godseeker establish that they are capable of executing tasks precisely, and establish some trust in them, before checking to see if their combat prowess might allow them to be of a higher rank. This evaluation can be skipped in certain cases though, namely if the godseeker's level has reached a certain standard or they have achieved some great merit outside of usual commissions."

"As for occupation, these are not solely determined by the guild. To explain, occupations exist largely to allow commissioners to see if the adventurer's that are attempting to clear their commissions actually have the skill set required to do so. If one needs fields tended to, a fire mage may be unsuited for the job due to lacking stamina, for example."

"However, while the guild offers some preset occupations, such as "fighter", "wizard", "hunter" or the like, there is no limit to what an occupation may be. Some godseekers are "farmers" or "carpenters", others are "necromancers" and others again have very specific specializations, such as "rabbit breeder with a talent for shuffling cards". Please don't ask about the last one. It still gives me nightmares!"

The receptionist ended her whole speech with a bright smile wholly unsuited to her words, making Mercury a little confused, but whatever.

"Alright, then I would like five registration forms please."

"That would be five Pales, sir."

"Hm?"

Well, shit. Turns out this whole shtick cost something, and he didn't exactly have any money. Well, turns out Cherry did! And with that, the deal was sealed. Wait. What exactly were Pales? He would have to ask Cherry about that a little later.

After paying, the receptionist disappeared for a second in a door behind the counter, before reappearing with a few sheets of paper in her hand. Actual, genuine paper. What was this weird fantasy world that had paper and glasses and normal clothes with medieval architecture and city walls? Weird shit.

After handing out the sheets, the receptionist introduced herself as being named "Kintra Dresque", a godseeker with the occupation of "receptionist". This girl was bonkers for sure.

But with that, and some writing help from Cherry, all of them were soon registered as godseekers. Mercury was a "tamer", Cherry a "hunter", Gladiator a "fighter", Juno a "spy" and Second absolutely insisted on being an "underling of his royal majesty, Mercury Rainfall Starlight the Great". Well, it was an occupation for sure.

Seems like the ranks were also borrowed from the system. There were all ranks from E to S and an additional F-rank, which was for godseekers who refused to take on jobs involving danger. That one was wholly voluntary though, so our heroes started off at E-rank. The ranks also lined up with the monsters they would hunt. A single D-rank godseeker should thus be on par with a single D-rank monster.

Didn't this mean that practically each of the wolves Mercury had with him already were D-rank? Well, whatever. Everyone started at E, and Mercury wasn't about to beg for favours, so he simply took his license.

The form of the license came as quite a bit of a surprise to him though. It wasn't the usual plastic card he had gotten used to but rather a small, rhombical, purple gemstone. When he tapped it a simple window popped up, saying:

{Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Tamer

E-Rank}

That's it. How… simple. It was quite a bit shorter than he had expected, actually. But apparently, this small thing here would allow them to enter most cities unhindered. Nifty.

With that, they said their goodbyes to the receptionist, heading out to explore the vast new city that they now had time to explore. But wait. How much money did they still have left? They kinda needed to sleep at some point, given that the sun would soon set.

"Hey Cherry?"

"Ya?"

"How much money is a room at an inn?"

"About a Dim a night. Why?"

"How much money do we still have?"

"Uhm… I have like, 6 Pales and 3 Dims, why?"

"Cherry, I have absolutely no fucking idea what that means."

With that all of them stopped on the street. Cherry's head audibly creaked as she turned it towards Mercury. The realization had just hit her.

This mopaaw came from far away. It didn't have a concept of what money was. The wolves just gained sentience. And she would have to explain it to him. When she was terrible at maths.

"Well Merc, why don't we sit down at an inn and discuss that in there?"

"Sounds great," Gladiator chimed in, "we can start a bar fight!"

"No bar fights please. Wait, actually, no fights in general. Only defend yourselves."

"Okay, but I can wait for carnage only so long!"

"Meathead," Second quietly added.

"Hmpf."

Finding an inn luckily didn't take long, as there were quite a few of them around. The group entered just as the sky went a little darker and dusk settled in. An old man greeted them from behind the dark, wooden counter, having a bald top with a ring of hair around it and a somewhat large belly, he was polishing glasses in a shirt that maybe was white at some point.

After allowing Cherry to order water for who the innkeep referred to as "her beasts", and juice for herself, Mercury was experiencing a micro-aggression but decided to let it slide for the sake of not scaring anyone.

After finishing, Cherry quickly rented out a single room for them, decked out with a bed, nightstand, table and oil lamp. Then, she began her lesson on money.

"Alright, so. Money is all arranged in tens. The smallest instance of money would be a Dark. That one is almost never used except for pocket change, since it is barely enough to afford something like a single vegetable. It's oftentimes used to buy water or some other readily available resource in inns."

As she explained, Cherry put a single blackish coin on the desk in front of her. It was probably about three centimeters in diameter and half a centimeter thick. It also had a few small engravings on it, clouds or something the like. Then, Cherry pulled out a coin that was slightly lighter in colour.

"This," she explained, "is a Night. It's worth ten Darks. It's used for simple meals, like half a loaf of bread. Next up", she said and put a coin on the table that was more of a dark blue by now, "are Glooms. These guys are worth ten Nights and can be used to pay for average meals, like some vegetable soup with a side of bread. They're paid with fairly commonly."

Then, she placed another coin on the table, that one of a steely grey colour.

"This is what we call a Dim. It's worth 10 Glooms and can be used for simple services, like short carriage rides or spending a night at an inn. Also a commonly used coin. But now we're swapping over to fairly expensive stuff and the next coin is also the last one I can show you."

Having said that, she pulled out a blueish white coin and placed it down next to all the others.

"It's a Pale, worth 10 Dims. I've saved up for a long time and accumulated around 11 of these. They're valuable and usually you get them for more expensive goods, like intact bear pelts and such stuff. They can be used to cover the cost of most things. But if you want genuinely magical equipment, you need to move higher up the ladder.

"From now on I can't show you the coins, but you can use ten Pales to get a Glow. Ten Glows for a Spark. Ten Sparks for a Bolt. Ten Bolts for a Bright. Ten Brights for a Flash and that's practically the limit. Well, technically there's the Radiance, which would be worth a thousand Flashes, but I think that one might be a little hard to get. Now, that might be a lot of info, but you'll get used to it."

"Okay, not gonna lie, those coins have some pretty cool names. Where I'm from it was all "Dollar" and "Cent", which is totally less cool than naming a coin fucking Radiance. I support this. On the topic, can you also quickly cover your calendar with me?"

"Sure can. A single day is separated into day and night, which then are separated yet again into hours, minutes and seconds."

Seems like that much aligned with his world, nice.

"Ten days make a page, ten pages a season. Sadly, this trend doesn't continue much further, as only 4 seasons happen in any one year. The trend of tens is weak in the calendar. A shame. The seasons go as follows: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Each day in a page and each page in a season have unique names, but let's leave those for when we need it, alright? A full four seasons make a chapter."

Well, it was… similar at least. They had pages of ten days instead of weeks and making every season have ten pages kinda eliminated months. Maybe their names were actually different though and they were only translated to their equivalents in English, the only difference being "pages", which were similar to weeks but not the same. That would actually make quite the amount of sense.

Language really was quite damn handy.

If only there weren't so fucking much he had to learn about this damn world!