Chapter 3. The Night Horizon

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I have been walking for who knows how long, only seeing grass and this wall.

It was a truly fascinating construct, I couldn't see any bricks or other marks of construction, it was just a big mass of stone.

Is this a natural occurrence in this world? How do they form? Was it modified in some way? How did people figure out the usage for this thing? Is it even stone?

Questions started to bombard my mind, mysteries that I definitely intended to figure out. After I find a place to sleep.

Wait, am I even able to sleep? I am a pile of bones; I don't even have eyelids. Do I go into hibernation? Not knowing anything about this body of mine was so frustrating.

I hit the wall next to me in anger, my fist turning intangible, going through the wall and the gloves, which fell on the ground.

At least this answers a question. I can't go through objects while carrying other things.

Still angry, I put the glow back on and continued walking, trying not to overthink my situation.

…I need to read the books that I brought with me. For that, I need a place which at least possesses that much space. It also needs to be hidden, since it would be preferable for me to hide my physics as long as possible, or until I figure out how to turn myself back into a human.

Is that even- no, don't think about it. Just don't. I will turn back into a human.

After possible miles of walking, I finally found something.

It was a huge gate, made from wood and iron, with several guards standing in front of it, who didn't seem to notice me.

Right, I will try entering through here since I can't find any other entrance. Still, I want to test out something.

I quickly took off my clothes and put them into the bag, which I left at the side of the wall.

Feeling really embarrassed, I walked towards the knights, ready to run at any second.

10 Meters.

6meters

5.

4. 3. 2. 1!

…

…

…

Nothing.

The guards looked past me, bored and uninterested.

I waved my hand before the face of the nearest one, the guy didn't even flinch.

So, as I suspected, I am invisible. That's quite handy.

I ran back to my bag and slowly so that no one noticed it, I started to drag it on the ground.

It took me a solid hour to get into the city, with the tunnel, which was drilled through the wall, to enter the city.

As I expected this was a city, with houses built in medieval architecture style, although their sizes were much bigger than those I ever saw, probably reaching 10 levels.

People here wore old, uncomfortable-looking clothing, some even lacking shoes or shirts.

Welcome to the medieval ages. Technology level: 0

I dragged my bag to a corner where nobody noticed me. It was a small space between two houses where they stored some crates and sacks.

There I quickly took out my clothing and put them on.

Fun fact, I only needed to put my hand into that darkness and pull the thing that I touched. It seemed like the objects that I put in it would come out in reverse order as I put them in.

Like I put my gloves before I put my mask in it. Now I took out my mask followed by my gloves.

Speaking about the mask, I left it in the bag. It was a bloody, solid gold mask, worth god knows how much. What I needed was something more subtle. Like a, like a …bag.

Looking around I noticed several sacks lying in a corner.

…Please, don't be garbage.

I took the cleanest-looking one, opened it, and inspected its content.

Are those…potatoes?

They looked like potatoes and brown lumps of uncooked French fries.

I picked it up and inspected it closely.

Yep, this is a potato. What the hell is it doing here?

If my memory was right, potatoes originated from Peru and were only brought to Europe when the Spanish explorers discovered them. Does this mean that I am…Yeah, another world, I forgot. probably this isn't the plant I know, but some sort of magical vegetable which can cure aids or something. Still…

Curious about something, I bit the glove on my free hand, took it off, and put it into my skeletal hand.

Surprisingly, the mold quickly started to spread all over the vegetable, shrinking it as it absorbed its nutrients. Then something happened.

Like the corpse I killed, a small orb of light rose from the rotten plant but it was way smaller than the last one, the size of a golf ball maybe.

Not thinking I swallowed the light, feeling the warmth spread all over me.

This is strange. Does that mean that what I absorbed from that guy wasn't his soul? Or do potatoes have souls? This requires more experiments.

I threw away the potato, which at the contact with the ground exploded in a thick cloud of green smoke, which lingered in the air for a while.

Potato Smoke Bomb. Tasty.

I emptied the other sacks in the bag, which started to feel heavy, probably signaling to me that it is getting full.

When I was done, I tore two holes in the sack and put it on my head.

Tada! Improvised a poor mask, which gives people the creeps.

I also put two sacks on my feet so that they don't get too dirty, knowing how bad the sewer system was in this period of time and I decided to stay here till it turns dark considering my appearance.

Sigh, this is going to be a long day.

*****

??? POV:

After the commotions happening in our mansion the servants started to search around the mansion, looking for anything stolen.

I and the honorable guests were escorted back to our rooms, so that no harm may happen to us if it turns out there are more intruders.

While watching the sunset my thoughts wandered back and forth on the events that expired today.

I didn't know the details, but I heard that uncle Stolas was found in the cellar, where he liked to lock himself to work, dead, brutally murdered.

This news probably shocked everyone, but it found me unfazed.

Even thought he was a family member who I lived with during my entire life; I had no ties with him. He was a complete stranger to me; we didn't even talk 10 sentences with each other in my entire life.

As I looked out the window, my thoughts wandered back to the intruder who caused all that ruckus. How it moved freely in the air was nothing more than magical, free from any physical restraints or obligations.

Newer in my life have I seen somebody act like that in the past. Such brutality and uncultured, yet it was somehow quite attractive.

I wondered; will I meet somebody like that man?

*****

It's finally nighttime.

I put the book I was reading back into my magic bag and crawled out from my temporary domicile.

It was pleasant, I had potato souls to eat(temporary name) creating more bombs while reading quite a nice book, titled 'History of our Bellowed World Vol. CCD. Mainly it talks about the history of the world and whatnot. The only thing that annoyed me was that it was filled with religious propaganda, showing the winning side as if God aided him, while the loser was shined.

Still, I learned something quite interesting: there are other intelligent species aside from humans.

Beastman, humans with the traits of animals seemingly populated this area in great numbers. Sadly, in the last war, around 80 years ago if this book is accurate, they lost their lands and now are treated as a slave species, alongside other beings that these humans have captured.

Yep, other than them were Fish-men, mermaids and other aquatic hybrids, Bird-men, humans with wings, and Half-humans, other intelligent species which didn't fit into the previous categories.

All bound and cherished by the shackles of slavery and exploitation. At least that is what I imagined since slavery of other races is a fundamental part of humanity.

Fun facts, two species escaped such fate, called elves and dwarfs. From what I could gather, thanks to the benefits which their races could provide, they became part of humanity, referring to themselves as humans, while the purest breed of mankind often referred to themselves as High humans.

This is so sad; humans don't seem to change wherever they are. Always about race and whatnot. But I am interested in these Intelligent Monsters, as the books call them. What do they look like? How much of their anatomy is different from humans? Do they have completely different bodily functions or their organs can be transplanted into humans? I want to open one up and see his insides!

Grim thoughts started to wail up inside me, without me realizing them when I heard laughter nearby me, zapping me out from my daze.

it was probably some drunkards passing by.

Right, first thing first I need to do some reconnaissance of the area.

When I was done starching, I jumped into the air, landing on the roof of a nearby building.

It was still exhilarating for me to be able to move like this. And the view!

Roofs as far as the eyes could see, illuminated by what I believed to be lanterns from below. Here and there, towers emerged acting as lighthouses with a huge, white building standing proudly in the middle of the city, reminding me of a church that was eaten by a castle, or at least that was what I saw from the distance I stood. Not even the memories that I got with this body prepared for this and the night sky added so much wonder to it.

With no light pollution, the sky was clear, stars shining brightly with a colossal white moon hanging over me.

It was just…magical.

I stared up at the sky, absorbing the beautiful scene into myself, till I was sure that I could remember it perfectly in the future.

I should try out how fast I can run in this body. It will also serve me as an experiment for figuring out the limits of this body.

After several quick stretches, I started to move.

It was quite hard at first, I forgot several times to make my feet tangible, falling face-first onto the roof. Slowly, I started to jog, then from a run, it became a sprint.

This city was humongous, with houses interconnected with each other creating pathways for me to go through.

Like in the parkour videos on the internet, my body naturally jumped, leaped, and crawled over any obstacle, with relative ease, making me speculate about something.

This is too natural, inhumanly so. Can it be that this is some sort of muscle memory from one of the previous owners of this body? Bone motion memory? Bone memory? What the hell am I made of anyway? Can I do other things?

The only inconvenient thing was that the robe that I was wearing wasn't suited for running, slowing me down considerably.

I need to find clothing. There should be a shop or something that sells them here. It's dark so it's probably closed, but I can go through walls so it's not a problem for me.

While jumping around I noticed a wider street stretching before me, with the houses facing it having glass fronts, showing different products.

What surprised me was that there were London-styled lamps here, shining a bright yellow light.

Do they have gasses here? I should check it out.

I jumped down, making sure that nobody was around when I landed.

Quickly I once again jumped, grabbed the top part of the lamp with both of my hands, and checked its inside.

It was... a stone?

Incredibly, in the middle of the lamp weren't flames, but a centimeter-tall piece of yellow rock that emitted bright light.

How is that even possible? I heard stones that emit lights in total darkness, but never of such intensity! And there is so much of it, is it a common item?!

Not doubting that this wasn't my world I jumped down my head filled with another pile of questions.

I-I need to gather more information. I want to know more!

I looked at the dark sky, with a sigh leaving my bonny lips.

Did explores feel the same thing as I? The thrill of the unknown?

I sighed again, and walked to the nearest cloth shop, which seemed to sell traveling clothes. I checked the inside, complete darkness.

Okay, here we go again.

I took off my clothes, put them in the bag, and pushed them through the mailbox. located in the middle of the door, which luckily was big enough for it to go through.

When it was done, I walked through the door and started to try on the clothes inside.

It seemed like the way they categorize their clothes are quite similar to the ones in my world, allowing me to quickly find the man's section.

Leather, leather, and more leather. I know it's durable and perfect for travel but it's so not my style.

In the end, I took a pair of brown leather pants, a pair of leather boots which were my size, a white shirt made from some- non-skin fabric, a pair of black gloves that fitted my hands, and a brown leather coat that reached my knees and had the most pockets in it.

I look like a bloody cowboy. I hate it, but it's better than nothing, I guess.

For the final touch, I put my bag-mask-thing on my head, completely hiding my face.

I grabbed the bag, then I was about to leave when an idea came to me.

This is technically a robbery. I should look around and take some valuables with me. Don't stop halfway, as my mother always used to say.

I checked the counter, where a small pouch of coins was kept, with a book containing records of purchases.

Why the hell is this here? So careless, it's begging to be robbed.

I put them in the bag, which really started to feel heavy, and suddenly started to run!

I broke through the glass wall of the shop, causing quite a nose, then wasting no second, I jumped up onto a roof and started to run.

Yup, this thing is starting out great!