Chapter 23 The Old Man

I felt the golden light overtake me and saw that familiar golden arrow appear on my character portrait. Notifications were pouring in now that combat was finished, as this strange place disappeared, and the world came back to us. I minimised the notifications, stooping to pick up Miggy’s broken body.

‘We did it huh,’ he said, twitching in my arms.

‘Yeah, kid,’ I said, trying to keep my voice level, reassuring. ‘You kicked ass.’

‘Ha, yeah,’ he said, ‘I kicked ass…’

Though my own body protested, I carried him all the way back to the cave. I knew we would be easy pickings for any mobs who wanted a piece of us now. But with Larry at my side, I knew none would dare.

I worked quickly, glad to have my increased survival and cooking skills. I placed him down on his furs, applying bandages to his open wounds. I had already torn out the arrowheads, vaguely remembering something I’d read in the old world that you shouldn’t do that, but hoping the system would fill in the blanks at my intention. I applied poultices, and administered to him my last health potion. Larry growled, settling by the fire. He seemed…different. Bigger, stronger, but I was too tired myself to investigate further. Lighting the campfire, I set about bandaging myself and applying poultices. Then, crawling under the furs on my makeshift sleeping mat, I promptly fell asleep.

A murky morning dawned, and I smiled. God, if there was one thing I would always love about this place, it was that there was apparently no grievous injury that couldn’t be fixed by some bandages, poultices and a good night’s rest. I didn’t move for the moment, still basking in the glory of our victory. Ten thousand experience points. That was more than three side quests would’ve granted us.

I fought the urge to immediately check through the notifications, the achievements that I had unlocked, and instead went to check on Miggy. His injuries had been far more grievous than my own, and he was still out cold. Then again, on the night he had dragged me from Adrian’s war band, when those metal gods had wiped them out, I’d been out for two days.

The death zone. I stared down at Miggy. He would probably be asleep for many more hours. A day even. Larry too was snoozing by the fire. I examined him, and confirmed my hope. He was level five. I in fact, had jumped to level six. For the first time since I’d arrived in the savage lands, I felt like I was actually winning. And looking to the sovereign beast and the stealthy archer, it actually felt good to not be doing this alone.

We couldn’t move. Not yet, not whilst Miggy was recovering. I had some time to kill. I looked to my level up, the sheer excitement I felt every time I saw that golden arrow would never ever go away. But there was something else, drawing my attention. With the day to kill, I made my move. This was a safe zone, so Miggy would be safe. Besides, with Larry now apparently a permanent member of our party, it felt like we’d gotten the biggest bully in the playground to sit with us at lunch.

I didn’t know what I’d expected when I came back to the death zone. I had moved cautiously, glancing at my hotbar about once every ten seconds or so, ready to Shadowstep the fuck out of here at the first sign of those metal gods.

Despite Miggy having shown me several times, I still couldn’t figure out how he managed to find those PvP-free zones. If there was any danger, I would have to hope Shadowstep was enough. The scene was almost idyllic. A breezy, beautiful plain. The little bags dropped by Adrian’s war band had entirely disappeared by this point. The crater remained however, the system, I guessed, allowing for persistent destruction here.

I sat for maybe ten minutes. What was I doing here? I wondered. This was stupid. I was letting curiosity get the best of me. My goals were clear. Head to the main quest. Find the gate. Advance to the next epoch. Why was I letting myself get distracted by war gods in mech suits? Whatever epoch they were from, it was one that was a long way from now.

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Idly, I opened up my inventory, frowning when I noticed a little glowing symbol alerting my attention. It was coming from the original Reaver’s inventory, and when I opened that up I saw that the strange orb device was…well, it was doing something. I took it out of my inventory and examined it.

I shouldn’t have bothered of course. I did not meet the requirements to examine it, but still…it seemed to respond to this place. Was the original Reaver’s odd item from the same epoch as those war gods?

I heard a whine. I stowed the object and got to my feet. Coming here had been foolish. They were on their way, and despite whatever my curiosity was telling me, I did not want to be here when they arrived.

I headed back to the camp, my mind elsewhere, still on those metal gods. I wasn’t really paying attention, and despite being out on a wide-open plain, it was almost when he was upon me that I actually noticed him.