The Village

Alina arranged a modest resting spot for herself. Her temporary setup included a small stove with water already bubbling on it, prepped for brewing a soothing bag of tea. 

She stretched out on the sleeping bag she had discovered in the rucksack for that unconscious elf. As she relaxed with her back on the tree, her thoughts turned to the elf. 

She looked like your standard elf, yellow hair, long ears, the works. The elf's attire, though not entirely out of place for a fantasy setting, held a certain simplicity. She wore a standard shirt, devoid of buttons but secured with a tie, allowing for a snug fit. 

Her pants were loose, offering ease of movement, and her feet were encased in sturdy leather boots, practical for traversing the rugged terrain of the forest. That was the end of the fantasy bits, though. 

You see, when an elf wore a tactical webbing, one should ask questions about what kind of world they were stuck to. Still, the content was also odd, a bunch of small plastic bottles filled with multi-colored liquid. Alina would say it was potions of some kind. 

Between being turned into a vampire and meeting a wolf robot with a mouth laser, I don't think an elf will surprise me, even if she suddenly pulls out a gun. Still, she might be just a regular elf as far as I am concerned. 

"Ngghhh," the elf groaned. 

"Good evening, how do you feel?" Alina asked. 

The elf then traced her neck, looking at the bites on her neck, but she didn't find any. She then drank a blue potion from the bottle on her webbing. She then shook her head, stretching it, maybe she felt itchy on her neck. 

"A little bit itchy, but thanks," the elf replied. 

"Ilya, isn't it?" Alina asked. 

"Pretty much, but how do you know?" Ilya replied, a hint of surprise was on her face, and then she immediately shook it off. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Thank you for saving me, what's your name?"

"Alina," Alina answered. She then asked another question, "What are you doing in the middle of a forest like this? Are you looking for danger or something like that?" 

"Sort of, I have reports of half-ling attacks in this area, then, all of a sudden, one of those automata from the great magical war showed up," Ilya answered, pointing her finger at the robotic wreck. 

Great magical war? There's nothing magical about that wolf robot.

Confused about their level difference, Alina asked her another question, "I thought you were stronger than me, Ilya. You're level 30." 

"Yes, but you're a vampire," Ilya replied. "Never mind that, can you help me gather my supply back?" 

"Supply? You abandon your backpack or something?" Alina asked. 

"Pretty much. Can you help me gather those things?" Ilya asked, standing up from the sleeping bag and rolling it up before giving it back to Alina. 

Alina nodded. She quickly packed all of the supplies into her Blood Inventory. Ilya only observed her while nodding every once in a while. Alina could feel jealousy on her face, to be honest, to be able to pack this many things at once was convenient. 

Ilya then headed back into the forest with a flashlight in her hand. However, no light came out from the light, maybe it was just because everything was bright enough for Alina to see through. She wasn't sure what they would be looking for, but Alina simply followed the only 'friend' she encountered so far. 

Venturing deeper into the forest, Alina and Ilya searched diligently for the lost supplies. The dense foliage and the eerie silence, occasionally broken by distant animal calls, only made the situation much more unnerving. Alina could see everything, but for Ilya, it was like searching for something in the darkness. 

Eventually, after a bit of tracking, Alina found what appeared to be a campsite, she then pointed her finger at that campsite, "Is that your campsite?" 

"Yes, that's my campsite, let's go." 

Walking to the campsite, Alina noticed that Ilya must have left hastily, with her supplies scattered here and there alongside a spilled pot of instant noodles. Nestled against a fallen log, they found Ilya's abandoned backpack, its contents were strewn about as if hastily discarded during a skirmish.

Beside the backpack lay an object that immediately caught Alina's attention—a sleek, metallic bullpup rifle, but not one that Alina had ever seen on Earth. Something was magical and futuristic about that rifle, with its rectangular shape and the crystal-like element on the end of it. 

[IMLR-6]

A standard run-of-the-mill laser/beam rifle specialized for magicians. It uses the user's magical power into a powerful magical beam that can be fired in any intensity, semi-auto or full-auto, with many variations of beams, from radiant, and necromantic, to lighting. Different from ILR, IMLR doesn't require any Altricite cell to use, but rather the user's magical power.

Laser goes pew pew pew :).

She read books, light novels, web novels, and so on, but never once did she encounter a world combining the essence of sci-fi and fantasy. Like, an elf with a magical laser rifle? How the hell did it even happen?

"So, Alina, where are you from?" Ilya asked, getting what appeared to be a rectangular object from her backpack. 

"It's... complicated," Alina responded, hesitant to delve into details about her origins. Mentioning she was from the States seemed futile, considering Ilya's likely unfamiliarity with such a concept.

"I understand. And thank you, by the way, for your help. My rifle chose quite the moment to fail me," Ilya said with a hint of frustration, grabbing her rifle and replacing the colorful tip with another one. 

"About earlier, the... bite. I'm really sorry," Alina ventured cautiously, referencing the unconventional method she had used to save Ilya.

Ilya's cheeks tinted with a blush. "Let's... not dwell on that, shall we? I know you were on a rather delicate position."

"Are vampires common around here?" Alina shifted the topic, curious about the prevalence of her kind in this world.

"They're rare. I've come across a few in my time, but this was my first... encounter of such a direct nature, they said they were charming and could charm you. I should be paying more attention to that," Ilya mused her tone a mixture of bemusement and regret.

If someone suddenly bited down on her neck and turned her unconscious, Alina be malding at the person. So, what made her more... submissive? Her charm? She might be beautiful, but her face was unhinged. Was it her ability? She wasn't sure. Still, whatever it was, it did make her stronger. 

Ilya then sat down, washing over the dirty pot on the ground with water that appeared from her... hands. She then boiled it down over the campfire while pouring some of the bottles from her tactical webbing. A mix of red, green, blue, and yellow water was mixed in that pot. 

Then, she added several cubes of 'thing' into that pot, turning the mixture color to white with a little bit of yellow tint on it. 

However, what Alina wanted to protest was the smell, it smelled horrible. It smelled like dead ants shoved straight into her nose. 

Closing her nose with her hand, Alina asked, "What the hell is that?" 

"Potent dose of Aether regeneration spell," Ilya answered, then she put the pot aside and waited for it to cool down. Ilya then noticed Alina's disgust for her pot, "What? Is it the smell?" She smiled cheekily. 

"Mind telling me what happened back then? As far as I'm concerned, you're quite a powerful mage, don't you think?" Alina asked. She was a level 30 mage, while Alina was merely a level 2 cleric, logically speaking, Ilya should have stomped those things with ease. Yet, she didn't. 

"Well, take two days of tracking, and a lot of ambush from your local bandits, and you pretty much get a tired woman with no Aether to spend. Let's not forget there were thirty of those dogs before you came," Ilya then drank the potion from the pot before pouring more of those potions into a water bottle. 

"Damn, talking about unfortunate events." 

"It is what it is, so, dear vampire, what are you going to do next?" Ilya asked. 

She could continue her journey to the village, that was the the logical choice. Still, being accompanied by an elf with a laser rifle would make things a lot easier. Maybe Ilya could accompany her to the village. 

"Can you accompany me to this village?" Alina showed the village location on the map on her watch. 

"Oh, that village? Sure thing," Ilya nodded her head.