a new village

He fell asleep in my arms. 'Hope he's okay.'

[title: friend of a doppelgänger]

[new items have been added in the shop!]

"Cough!" I covered my stomach, and checked the shop.

[shop! Highest quality items only!]

([regular]) [New!]

I clicked on the "new!" Option.

([New!]). [regular]

Super flexible bandages. 2.5 coins.

Sword proof bandages. 15 coins.

Minor health restoring pill. 10 coins.

Cooking knife.(extra features) 10 coins.

I stared at the shop for a second. 'Well isn't that convenient.' I sold the deer leather, and a bunch of its blood.

[obtained: 23 coins]

[bought! Super flexible bandages]

I took of my shirt, and while making cringe sounds. 'So cringe.' I covered my wound, then thought. 'Wow! I don't have any other clothes!'

At this wonderful discovery, I went back in the blood covered shirt.

'I'll use mana.' I couldn't clean, nor repair it but I could dry it.

Then I went to sleep.

"I'll take care of you." A woman's voice echoed. "You're safe with me." It continued. "You are precious to me." Then the scenery changed.

"W-what, are you!!" The woman's voice sounded disgusted. "What do you mean?" I was confused. I didn't understand. I looked at my hands.

"You vile creature! What have you done to Medina!!" Now I looked at a puddle. There I saw a girls face.

I looked around again, and now I was somewhere else. I looked around and. 'A cage?' Then I started hearing screaming.

'No this isn't screaming.' It was a girls voice crying.

I woke up, and immediately got up. 'What?'

I looked around and. 'There he is.' He had dried blood on his shirt. 'Is he dead?' I quickly walked up to him. "Hey! Wake up!"

****

"Wake up!" I woke up from the loud sound. "Ouch my ears are gonna bleed." I got up, and saw Oliver. "Hi, did I sleep for long?" I asked.

Then Oliver hugged me. "I thought you were dead!" I got flustered. "A-are you c-crying again, i-I'm sorry." "It's fine."

Then he got of me. "Are you okay?" I asked. "Yeah." Now it was just awkward. I sighed and asked. "Should I make breakfast?" At this Oliver nodded.

"Okay, I have some leftover meat, and herbs so I'll make skewers." I quickly lit a fire, and gave him a skewer.

"So, I never got the answer to my questions." Oliver looked embarrassed. "Uhh, it's Medina."

Then he/she Hesitated. "She was a pretty, and a kind girl. Unfortunately she died while playing with me." He/she looked gloomy.

"So do you think you should keep that name?" I asked. "No." He/she immediately answered.

"So what name?" I asked. "I don't know. Can you give me one?" At this sudden request I thought. "Can I call you Christine, Reilly." I asked.

"That's fine, but what about the last part?" He/she asked. "My surname." I answered bluntly.

"And if you end up changing genders, you can swap the name." At this he/she got surprised.

"Uhh, I'll be female." Then she changed into a young girl, roughly half my height, long black hair and with yellow eyes.

"Who's it modeled after?" I asked slightly worried. "You!" She answered enthusiastically 'I knew it.' "That's great." 'I guess we basically are siblings.' I didn't want to go farther than that.

Then we ate kebab.

We talked about our plan. And I talked about who she should trust. "If you get lost, go to an adventurer guilds quest recruitment place. And just wait there until I find you.

'This world is crazy.' Even if kids accepted quests, no one cared.

After talking, I put everything into my inventory, and we started walking towards the town.

"Do we have to go to the town?" Christine asked. "Yes, I need to know where this is." 'I at least want to know where Sophia is.'

Christine decided to not ask more questions. And we continued walking.

*rustle!* 'I'm getting deja vu.' "Aahhh!!!" A kid ran screaming. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Monsters entered the village!" I immediately started running. [activated: minor mana manipulation(B-)]

I covered my legs, and eyes in mana, and jumped. [activated: eyes(A)] I looked around and saw.

'Zombies?' I quickly entered the village. Analysis.'

[zombie]

Skills: scratch. (F-)

Passive: starvation(C)

'Starvation, it makes it so that it can't die from hunger, but it's constantly starving.'

'And the town doesn't even have a barricade, or any defenses.' I saw a couple zombies. I pulled out my bow. 'Seven arrows.'

I pulled back, and shot. 'Ten, seven, thirteen,nine,eleven,twelve,eight. There are still so many left.'

Even though I killed seventy there were still many left. This time I pulled out my dagger.

'Swift movement should make things easier.' [semi passive skill: swift movement fully activates]

I smashed the heads of over one hundred zombies, before their numbers looked smaller. [achivement title: zombie killer] [50% buff against zombies]

'Way too many left.' I continued fighting for multiple hours. Using pretty much all my mana, and a skill even leveled up. [skill: gradual combat mastery(E~C) leveled up to gradual combat mastery (C~A+)] I jumped up many times, and finally the last zombie was killed.

[killstreak: 1371 zombies] [achivement: zombie slatherer] [300% boost against zombies]

'Thank goodness they were w-'

*******

It was daytime. I looked up, then down. "A lucid dream."

I got bored so started summoning things. First plushies. 'This is nice.' I held a big plushie while creating other things.

A room, doors, even more rooms. 'Since it can't last forever I'll do what I can.' Then I stopped.

I summoned a phone. I took it, and called someone. "Hi, who is this?" Someone asked. "Hi it's me again." I answered. "Oh, yeah what do you want?" She asked.

"Just to talk to you." I said calmly. "Ohh, isn't that sweet." She responded. "Hahaha, you're such a jerk sometimes."

"That's just how I am!" She said. "Yeah." "I'm sure you didn't just call me for that." The world started to crack a little. "I'm sorry that I failed to protect you." I said.

"What are you talking about?" She said. "I love you." I answered. "I knew. And you still have a chance." I grew flustered, and confused. 'Was I just convincing myself?'

"Enjoy life with the people you care about." She said. "Thanks."

"And remember. A copy with a living heart. Is still alive, even if it's a copy." I got confused. "Wh-"

I woke up sweating, and tearing. "Thanks." I said, as I covered my face the blanket.

"Oh, you're awake!" Then Christine entered the room, and hugged me. "Where are we?" I asked. "In a remote village that's self sufficient! Whatever that means.."

'That's cool.' Then she asked. "Were you crying?" "Haha, yeah.." I said awkwardly.

"It's fine, since you've seen me cry I can see you cry." she said. "It's different I'm a grown adult, and you're a kid." I said slightly embarrassed.

"How is it different?" She asked bluntly. "Because when you're an adult, you have more responsibilities." Then silence.

"Anyway, have you eaten anything?" I asked. "No I haven't." She immediately said.

Then I remembered a video I watched before entering this world. 'Kids are adults with less experience, and adults are kids with experience.' Not sure why I remembered it though.

That was literally all I got from it. "oh yeah, I should introduce you to my new friend!" Christine said happily.

"And you are?" I asked. Then the kid from before appeared. 

"H-hi, I'm Brendon." He said nervously. "I'm Joseph, so how are the villagers?" I asked.

"we're fine thanks to you." A slightly old looking man responded, as he entered. "that's good." I said.

"I'm this village's elder." He said. 'that's expected.' I tried to get up, but got stopped.

"you can relax longer." The elder said. "thanks." I decided to stay down, and focus on circulating mana. 

*******

Christine was outside walking around town, while Brendon guided her. 

"so what's the elder's house." Christine didn't fully understand. "why is it smaller than the other houses?" Then Brendon paused. "you see it smaller than the others?!" He asked suprised.

Christine was confused. "yes?" Then the elder said. "it seems you have better eyes." He said. "what do you mean?" she asked.

Then the elder explained. "That house is indeed smaller than the others. but it was enhanced with magic, long ago." "by who?" 

"By my ancestors, back then there were almost no rules. So growth continued, and... It never stopped." He started sounding upset. "So there was a war. And my ancestors made a house enhanced by magic." 'A war..'

She heard the word for the first time a couple years ago. There was panic people were yelling to "get ready for war." 

"war?" She repeated.

"What?" Brendon noticed something was off. "Hey you're bleeding!" But she didn't hear anything. "haaa...haa." then she started hyperventilating. Her eyes started changing colors rapidly.

*****

I quickly got out of bed. 'what's happening?' All I heard was Brendon yelling.

I got out, and saw Brendon, and the elder. "christine!" I got up to her. "Idon't know what's happening! she just started bleeding!" 

I quickly looked at her. [Skill: minor mana manipulation(B-) activates ]  I hugged her, and I made a solid dome around Christine.

"Hey! Come to your senses!" I yelled. Then her eyes stopped changing colors. "Hey are you okay?" I asked worried.

"I, had a bad dream." Then she fainted. 'I don't think anyone noticed.' Doppelgängers have a slightly blue blood.

[Skill: minor mana manipulation(B-) Deactivates ] "it's fine now." I said to brendon. "what happened?" He asked still worried. "it was a little panic attack, she can recover by getting rest." 

Then I looked at the elder. "I'm gonna go to my room." "Yeah.." He said.