A week has passed since Cyrn's intense boar fight. For the past week, he's been running alongside the river, hoping to run into civilization.
Along the wa,y he ran into a myriad of weird creatures, all either unique or some strange fusion of animals back from earth.
During this time, Cyrn spent the week drilling Gregory's lone sword form, turning clumsy muscle memory into something usable.
Alongside this, with the help of copious amounts of animal blood, he's been trying to adapt their movements into some sort of weird, hodgepodge, patchwork sword technique.
Turning the boar's lunge into a thrusting attack. Or an abnormally large snake moves into some weird slashing attack.
In reality, none of these attacks was all that impressive or unique. There's only so much you can derive from basic animal movements and attacks, but it was much better than what he entered this world with.
With this, his routine continued, running along the river, hunting animals, drinking blood, and becoming someone who isn't totally useless in combat.
However, today this routine would break, as he finally sees something that resembles a wall constructed of trees, stopping where it meets the river, and a water wheel turning with the river.
Cyrn's face lights up with excitement, a smile blooming across his face at the prospect of finally seeing humans.
His pace quickens, and he soon finds the entrance, darting forward to meet one of the guards.
"Hello, could I get entrance to this village? I'm a traveler." Cyrn's excitement was bursting at the seams, disarming the situation a tad. The guard stared at him, confused.
He turns to the other guard and begins to speak in a foreign tongue, something Cyrn doesn't understand at all.
Oh fuck they don't speak English here, why would they? This is a totally different world I'm in. Why would they speak English? The realization dawns on him as he tries to find a way to communicate with these guards.
Suddenly, a memory pops up, Gregory's memories to be precise. Speaking with his wife and kids, his platoon, and the general. Cyrn had adopted his identity, so he vaguely recalled some words he could speak to the guards, but it would be hard to understand them.
"Ah s-sorry, not from here, no speak language," he barely gets out, stuttering as the words fumble on themselves.
The guards look at him in recognition, chuckle, and wave him to come closer.
The guards speak slowly and simply to Cyrn, saying something he understood as "It's ok, we have solution".
Cyrn walks over and sees the guard's hand raise as his hand lies on top of his head.
Cyrn feels something, a current of sorts, pass through his body and shocks his system. His body immediately rejects this energy passing through him, but the effect has already taken hold.
The guard also fritz's out for a moment, seizing with his eyes wide open, before his body returns to normal.
His face twists into anger as he screams an accusation at Cyrn, "What the fuck did you do to me, boy!"
Cyrn stands there confused. Not understanding what just happened or why he can suddenly understand the guard all of a sudden.
The guard holds his hand up, and Cyrn sees something he never thought to expect.
Faint, whitish blue wisps of what Cyrn could understand as some sort of energy collected above the man's palm, they start weak at first, glitching and fritzing like electronics with water poured over them.
They soon, however, return to normal, flowing like heavy smoke in the wind.
The guard sighs in relief, then looks back at Cyrn, calmer but still accusatory.
"How did you mess with my Soulcurrent boy? That's impossible, especially when casting a simple language spell."
Cyrn stood confused as all hell, having no idea what just happened or what the guard is talking about, trying to process the information he's been given.
Is this magic? Have I entered a world of FUCKING MAGIC! He creams internally, while outside, he replies to the guard, "I'm sorry, sir, that's never happened to me before, Soulcurrent has never acted this way with m.e"
Cyrn tries to play this off as woeful ignorance, trying not to seem like someone who was transmigrated to this world just a week ago.
The guard stares at him in suspicion, clearly not buying the story. "Where do you come from, boy?"
Cyrn's mind works overtime to come up with a response. He chuckles awkwardly in response, and an embarrassed smile falls on his face
"Well, in truth, sir im not from around here, in fact, I'm not really sure where I'm from or where I am. My parents were hermits, and raised me as such, keeping knowledge of the world outside our shack hidden from me till recently. They passed on a little over a week ago, and told me to 'Seek myself out'. So here I am".
A lie based on a truth, the most convincing of them all. The guard scrutinizes Cyrn for a moment longer before his face softens into something else, pity maybe.
"I'm sorry for your loss, boy. This is the village of Westreach, under Baron Windsor's territory, supervised by Earl Burton, and owned by Duke DeBeaumont. This all lies inside the Cindral Dominion, ruled by his Majesty Royce Farbridge Griffin XIV." The guard recites with practiced efficiency, respect, and admiration oozing from his voice
"Thank you, sir. I appreciate the information. I was wondering how one could get some money quickly? I'm limited in my skills, but I can swing a sword decently." As it stood, Cyrn was dead broke, and while he could survive in the wilderness, he'd like to sleep in a warm bed, with fresh food and a roof over his head.
"There's a request board in the middle of town. Anyone can pick up a request to fulfill them for their specified price, or whatever you could haggle for."
"What do the requests consist of?"
"Usually, menial labor. Part-time work. Sometimes monster hunting, but that's usually our job. Trade caravans pass through here as well occasionally, so you may be able to join them if they post something."
Cyrn sighs in relief. Phew, easy work and easy money. Thank goodness.
"What's the currency we use here?"
"The Cindral Dominion uses Solars. For reference, a loaf of bread is about 5 Solars."
Cyrn nodded, doing what he could to plan the rest of his day. "Thank you for the help, sir. I sincerely appreciate it. Have a good day." Cyrn waves politely with a small smile as he walks into the village.
The guard watches Cyrn disappear behind the gate, then signals his fellow guard standing post with him to come over.
"Alert the head guard on duty today to keep an eye on that boy while he's in the village."
"Why, sure, the hermit thing seemed odd, but nothing out of the ordinary? Plus, he's so weak, I couldn't even sense his Soulcurrent from where I was standing."
"That's the thing, I couldn't sense any either, and I made physical contact with him, on top of my Soulcurrent fritzing out when I cast the language spell on him."
"Wait, you're saying that boy had NO Soulcurrent. That's impossible, and you know that."
"Exactly why I'm telling you to notify the guards to keep an eye on him. He's weird".
"On it." The second guard says before he darts off.
Cyrn, oblivious to his newly raised status while inside this city, begins to wander in search of the request board.
During his walk, he finds what he assumes to be the request board, sitting in the center of town. He walks up to it, standing next to a boy of similar stature, with a cloak covering his head and a mask covering the bottom half of his face.
The cloaked figure's body tenses as he feels Cyrn's presence next to him. He tilts his head towards Cyrn to inspect him.
Cyrn sees this entire thing play out and holds eye contact with the boy.
God damn, if I were a girl, those eyes could tell me anything, Cyrn quips as he looks into perhaps the most beautiful pair of emerald green eyes he's ever seen.
Those same eyes widen in surprise, shock, and revelation. The cloaked figure pauses for a second before extending a hand to Cyrn, saying, "Hey! Names Elyon. You feel...wrong. Want to take a mission together?"
The voice was young, about his age, and full of joy and excitement. It was incredibly inviting, and equally suspicious to Cyrn. He's oddly friendly, and what the fuck is wrong supposed to mean?