The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

Qyress woke up to Fyrellia’s incredulous voice and saw that the young master was standing with her, making her jump up in surprise. Unfortunately, her body didn’t respond as well as even her sleepy brain, so she promptly lost her balance.

Then the young master practically blurred as he stepped over and caught her, his arm going under her left arm and wing, around her back, with his hand finally clutching her right side just under her breast. She was first astonished at his speed, then his obvious strength as he pretty much held her up with one arm. Then she blushed at how close he was as well as where his hand was placed.

For his part, the young master just murmured, “careful” as he turned back to Fyrellia, not seeming to pay attention to where his hand was.

Normally, she’d have- at the very least- slapped a man for having touched her like that. But considering his surprisingly forthright history with all three of them, let alone the gorgeous Asami Miki and the terrifying Myra… it was easier than she thought to let it slide.

“Well, I…” he started to say, then turned to look at Arise who’d also woken up, but hadn’t gotten to her feet.

He looked at her for a moment before turning to Fyrellia to do the same, then finally to her. His face was only inches away when he turned to her, causing her face to feel even hotter than before. Surprisingly, the young master’s face also turned red as he hastily apologized while withdrawing his arm and stepping away from her.

Which, for some reason, made her feel… discontent, especially when she noticed that she felt cold where his arm and hand had been after he pulled away.

“Sorry,” he said, again, then cleared his throat as his colour returned to normal. “We haven’t really spoken much since… you came here. Would you mind if we did that now?” he asked as he glanced between the three of them.

She nodded, as did Arise, though Fyrellia spoke her assent out loud. Once confirmed, a small table with four chairs around it appeared on… a deck. Like, a deck that you’d see in front or behind someone’s house. Then it occurred to her that the forest floor wasn’t exactly level, thus making the deck make sense to her.

She quickly took the chair to the young master’s right as he took a seat, waving them to take one for themselves.

“So,” he said to start, then paused as- embarrassingly!- her stomach growled at her, which then caused the others’ stomachs to reply in kind, setting off a wave of red and embarrassed faces. “So, lets start with something to eat, then,” he said, nodding.

She then watched as a meal appeared in front of their eyes, complete with large bowls, forks, and spoons for them to use. She recognized the roast, mashed vegetables, bread, butter, and other vegetables that he’d made for them a few days ago. Even if the meal hadn’t been so visually distinct, the heavenly scent would have given it away at first whiff.

“Eat, and we’ll talk,” the young master said, the proceeded to blow their minds by serving them before himself.

Then she wasn’t sure if she should have been insulted when she noticed that he only took a small sampling of each dish for himself, while he’d veritably piled their own bowls to the brim.

“Aren’t you going to have more,” Arise asked suspiciously as she played with her fork.

“No,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “I don’t actually need to eat, so this is more than enough for me,” he said, then tilted his head to the side slightly before lightly grunt-snorting. “You’ll find that you, also, won’t need to eat soon,” he said, then pointed at the rings that he’d given them almost a week ago.

They each looked at the ring that he’d placed on their respective hands, wondering what, exactly, he’d given them. Yes, it was electrum, a ridiculously expensive metal to use in making a ring, let alone giving them to mere slaves. She’d been happy to see that her name and his had been engraved on the inner band. And, oddly enough, even happier that he’d gone so far as to give her his family name.

Even Fyrellia hadn’t been able to find anything special about them besides being able to resize to fit their fingers perfectly.

“So, that’s what ‘Sustenance’ means,” Arise said, nodding to herself as both she and Fyrellia turned to stare at her incredulously. “What? I wasn’t sure about it, so I didn’t want to worry you without knowing more about it,” Arise said, shrugging.

After a brief… conversation about sharing intelligence that affected them all, the young master explained the effects of the rings he’d given them all, once more stunning them into silence.

Qyress looked down at her ring again, this time seeing it for the treasure that it was. No longer would her people need to be weighed down with supplies while scouting. Whole teams would move lighter and faster than ever if they had such rings. Not only that, but given that Fyrellia couldn’t detect any magic from the rings, the likelihood that they’d be taken away if you were captured was significantly lowered.

Well, if the rings weren’t made of electrum, that is. Anyone would immediately confiscate something as valuable as that, even if they thought it was just a mundane ring.

“Anyways,” the young master continued. “I just wanted everyone to be comfortable here, which includes not going hungry if food production wasn’t up in time,” he said, once more making her wonder just who her young master was.

She’d heard that he wasn’t human, but to her eyes, she couldn’t tell the difference. Even Fyrellia couldn’t detect any trace of [Polymorph] or any such magic that altered a person’s form, making them think that he was just saying that to help calm their nerves or something.

“You’re a strange one,” Fyrellia said, shaking her head, apparently as astonished with the young master as she was.

“I… just don’t like slavery,” he said uncomfortably as he shrugged. “If the laws weren’t like they are, I’d have already freed you three,” he said, still looking uncomfortable.

“What? Why? Slavery has been around since… who knows when?” Arise asked, still looking incredibly suspicious of the young master, and his words.

“Well, I come from a place that hasn’t had it for almost two centuries now. We’re a people who firmly believe in the rights of the individual, and that no one is allowed to take those rights away unless you’ve committed crimes against others or the state.

“That said, even if you’ve committed heinous crimes, you’ll just be imprisoned, not enslaved for those crimes. Well, I guess imprisonment depends on where you’re from. Some places still have the death penalty, so there’s that,” he said, seemingly switching to “academic” mode, as she called it when Fyrellia did the same.

“Isn’t that incredibly… inefficient?” Fyrellia asked curiously.

“In what way?”

“Well, wouldn’t the cost of imprisoning so many criminals cost the state vast sums of wealth? Wouldn’t it be more economical and efficient to just sell those criminals into slavery?” Fyrellia asked, making Qyress nod in approval.

Criminals, after all, shouldn’t be rewarded by getting free housing and meals just because they’d committed crimes.

“It would,” the young master agreed. “But my people have very strong feelings about slavery and all that. Instead, the system hopes to reform criminals while they’re incarcerated.”

“Does that work?” Arise asked dubiously, voicing her own doubts for her.

“… sometimes, yes,” the young master said, not sounding terribly happy about that.

“Then why keep such a drain on the system?” Arise asked, pressing the point.

“Honestly, I really don’t know,” the young master admitted. “I know that it’s a broken system, but fixing it would be… epically difficult. Anyways, let’s leave that where it belongs, in another world-,” he said, then cut off abruptly as his eyes widened in shock.

A shock, she might add, that she also felt.

“Another world?” Fyrellia asked, sounding just as shocked as she felt.

“Well, crap on a cracker,” he said, shocking them further with the odd turn of phrase. “This’ll be where I ask you to not share what I’m about to say with anyone else,” he said, turning very serious.

She swallowed, then picked up her cup to wet her throat before trying again.

“You’re a [Hero],” Arise said, sounding more than a little fearful. “Not just a town hero, but an actual [Hero],” she said, now looking around as though she wanted to bolt.

Qyress couldn’t blame her for she, too, felt dread at the thought of her young master being a [Hero].

“No, I’m not,” he said with a sigh. “If you’ll agree to keep what I say secret, I’ll tell you… about me,” he said, now sounding incredibly tired, which did more to calm her than the words he’d spoken had.

“Is it that important?” she asked, speaking for the first time since sitting down to eat.

The young master turned to look at her for a moment, now looking as tired as he’d sounded, then spoke.

“Yeah, it is. I don’t know much about… everything,” he said, making a vague gesture that encompassed, well, everything. “But I know that knowledge is power, and I don’t want anyone to have power over me. Hence why I would need you gals to promise to keep anything I say between us,” he said, then turned to look at Fyrelle, then Arise.

She and her two friends exchanged looks for a few moments before she finally nodded slightly, then turned back to the young master.

“I, Qyress Smith, swear that I will not, without permission, share with anyone else what you’re about to share with me. If I do, may the Great Protector smite me,” she said, swearing one of the strongest oaths under the Great Protector that one could swear.

The young master blinked at her, then seemed to read something before sighing. If it was what she thought it was, then the young master had received a notification from the Great Protector telling him that it had accepted her oath.

“OK, then,” he said, looking surprised as he regarded her. “Can I dismiss someone’s oath, then?”

“You may, should you no longer find it necessary,” she replied far more calmly than she felt.

“OK, then,” he said again, nodding fractionally before turning to her friends.

“I, Fyrellia Smith, swear that I will not, without permission, share with anyone else what you’re about to share with me. If I do, may the Great Protector smite me,” Fyrellia said, using the same words that she had used, causing the young master to once again briefly glance to the side to read the notification.

With an exaggerated sigh, Arise also repeated the oath word for word before slumping down slightly in apparent defeat.

Joram nodded at her, a small smile curving his lips a bit.

“I appreciate your candor,” he said, then proceeded to confirm a few things that they’d suspected.

“I am indeed an outworlder,” he started, then hurried to explain. “I am still no [Hero], though. I am reasonably sure that I wasn’t summoned here by someone, especially due to the fact that I arrived with my apartment. From what I know of [Summon: Hero], it should just grab one person at a time, not their environs,” he said, getting a nod from Fyrellia.

“I arrived, oh, almost three months ago now. Though, I didn’t get my Path until almost about a month and a half ago after clearing a dungeon.”

“You were serious when you said that you’re only Level 17, weren’t you?” Fyrellia asked, sounding awed.

“Yeah? I thought that Arise had already [Identify]’d me?” he asked, more using his tone than the words to ask the question.

“We just thought that you had a Skill that could fool [Identify],” Arise said grumpily, then stuffed a forkful of food into her mouth, reminding her of how hungry she was.

“Well, there’s that,” he said, then shrugged. “Anyways, I’m Level 17, though I think that I’ll go delving soon so that I can raise my levels some more while getting some more loot to pay for things,” he said, glancing at the Moss Stone structure less than a hundred yards away.

“That’s a Dungeon?” Fyrellia asked, now even more keen on the conversation.

“Yeah, that’s another thing that’ll need to be kept between us all,” he said, the proceeded to blow their minds yet again.

“A Skill that I acquired after clearing that dungeon allows me to make my own dungeons now,” he said, looking again at the stone building. “So, I made one, or rather, six. Anyways, I designed them to help in levelling up anyone who wants to level up.

“They shouldn’t be too hard, though they range from Level 1 to Level 30, so there’s that,” he said as though it was normal.

For her part, Qyress just stared at her incredibly mysterious young master. She hadn’t even heard of myths telling of someone doing anything as ridiculous as making their own Dungeons! And he was telling them that he’d made six?!

“Anyways,” he continued, seemingly oblivious to their internal states. “Recapping. I’m not a [Hero], I can do things that people haven’t heard of. Umm…. I think I’m kind of over-powered, but haven’t really gotten the courage to ask anyone yet,” he said, trailing off at the end as his eyes looked over Arise’ head.

Qyress turned to her right and saw that Asami Miki and Myra were approaching, though they were still a fair way away. She turned back and looked at her young master and saw that he had a slight smile on his face as he watched the pair make their way over.

Even though she knew that they had an obviously close relationship considering that they slept in the same bed, she still felt a bit… uncertain when she saw his smile. The feeling certainly made her more uncomfortable than she was comfortable with, if that made any sense.

While they pair approached, Joram got up and moved his chair away from his end of the table and set it beside her, making her heart inexplicably flutter in her chest. Then the deck and table extended, making her gawk at the sight of it. Once the table and deck had finished doing their thing, two more chairs appeared in the empty spots, along with more dinnerware and food.

“If you haven’t eaten yet, come and eat with us,” he said when Asami Miki and Myra stepped up onto the deck.

She was incredibly disappointed when the young master then sat at the end of the table, leaving Asami Miki to sit beside her and Myra to sit next to a suddenly uncomfortable Fyrellia.

“You’ll be OK, dear,” Asami Miki said as she sat beside her, patting her on the leg.

“What?” she asked, a bit stunned at her words.

Instead of answering, Asami Miki just gave her a knowing smile before getting to the business of serving herself some food.

“Anyways,” the young master said as Asami Miki murmured that he preferred to be called “Joram”, throwing her off a bit.

“I was just telling the gals a few things,” he said, then recapped his making the Dungeon for everyone to use and level up. “Not just for that, though. I populated the dungeons with, well, livestock,” he said, the proceeded to once more shock them by describing the variety of, quite frankly, mundane animals that he’d somehow populated the Dungeons with.

“Fish?” Qyress asked quietly, suddenly missing the prominent food source she’d been raised on.

“Yeah, there’re a bunch down on the lowest level,” the young- Joram, said, nodding. “I figured they’d be a nice addition to anything that gets cooked from now on. Though, with everyone not needing to eat, I’m not sure how much everyone will decide to keep,” he said, outlining the problem as he saw it.

“Umm,” she said, raising her hand, then speaking once he nodded at her. “You say that we won’t need to eat. But will it cause problems for us if we do?”

“Good question,” Joram said, nodding. “The rings will only produce what the body is missing. So, you won’t have to worry about being overfed,” he said, poking his own stomach as though to show that he hadn’t gotten fat.

The five of them nodded at him, Asami Miki seemingly the happiest at hearing that.

“Anyways. The 6th Level of the dungeon, or rather, the 6th Dungeon, might be a bit slow for you, depending on how you fight. It’s all fish. All underwater if you’re not using a fishing pole or something like that,” he said, looking as though he’d overlooked something important.

“That said, I can always just make another dungeon of the same level to help anyone who doesn’t like fishing.”

She exchanged looks with the others, then shrugged along with the rest of them.

“Doesn’t really matter that much,” Asami said for them, then started going over the logistics of helping the younglings train.

That took up the next hour or so of conversation as they ate. She learned that only someone with one of their rings could enter the Dungeon, as they acted as a key to open the gate. From there, they discussed what they should do with all of the extra meat that would be looted from the Dungeon monsters, let alone what the gardeners would produce from the greenhouses.

It took a while, so long in fact that Joram had to create one of those light posts to keep their table lit. Not that she needed it, but it seemed as though the foxkin didn’t have darkvision, or perhaps it was for Joram himself.

They eventually decided to look into setting up their own stalls to sell the excess food they’d produce. It would need to be every day to keep up with the items looted from the monsters, though. Which also meant that they‘d need a steady supply of cloth to wrap the meat in, let alone ice to keep everything cool.

As they threw around ideas, Qyress found that she was… content. Even happy that she’d been purchased by someone like Joram.