During the next part of our trip, I practiced some more swings and stabs with my halberd. The only difficulty during all this was that I had to be careful with the pole or I’d accidentally hit the elf on my back.

The scenery around us changed, albeit slowly. The grass that we saw was still yellow, bordering orange, but slowly but surely, it became less dense and revealed patches of dirt. At the same time, the terrain seemed to incline downward. It wasn’t much, but I could notice it.

Eventually, something appeared on the horizon. I saw a massive rock wall appear that stretched from right to left as far as I could see. There appeared to be somewhat of a gap in that wall, which is what I assumed Muck meant when he talked about the valley.

It was slightly to the left of the direction I was directly walking in, but I changed my course towards it.

When I got closer, I got a clearer look at what the wall was. As far as I could tell it seemed that a massive breach in the landscape had occurred here many years ago, and that a large portion of the land had sunk.

For a moment, I considered avoiding the troll village that I could now see before the gap in the wall. I was mostly spider after all. I didn’t think I would have much of an issue climbing up on a near-vertical wall. However, it quickly became clear that that wouldn’t be a viable option. The trolls had watchtowers along with the breach. I took that as a sign that multiple people had tried to do what I had just thought of and that the creatures here had no intention of missing out on income.

I came to a halt a few hundred yards out from a village. It was surrounded by walls that were similar, yet different from those I’d encountered before. It was a wooden palisade wall, except that each log was more than twice the length of those that I knew. Its total height had to be over twenty yards high; it was simply enormous.

“Are you serious?” Cellestra said. “How big are trolls?”

“Uhhh, about my size when I’m standing upright?”

“Oh,” The elf let out. “From those walls, I would have said they were much bigger than that.”

“Don’t take my word for it,” I said. “I have no idea what this world’s trolls look like.”

I started walking around the village as I thought I saw distance between the valley and the settlement. After a few minutes, I looked at the checkpoint that Muck had spoken about.

In the gap was a wooden wall with a gate that blocked the way onward. At either side was a wooden watchtower with two archers present in each. In front of the wall were several large creatures that I recognized as trolls.

Their large muscular bodies, short pointy ears, and lack of any clothing other than the loincloths that covered the absolute minimum were all the same compared to my old world. The only difference was that these trolls’ skin was bluer than the greenish-blue that I knew. Then again, I was no troll expert. Maybe there were creatures like these in my old world too.

I felt Cellestra’s nervousness as she took a stronger hold of the hair on my back. I had also taken a tighter grip on my weapon as I already knew combat was likely to occur here.

The first thing I did was cast my multi-barrier. A soon as I did so, the elf on my back did the same.

I slowly approached the two guards in front of the gate.

On the way here, I’d already brewed up some kind of idea on how I would deal with these creatures. I had very little experience with trolls, but I knew two things. First, I was strong. My abilities, combined with the new weapon I’d just acquired made me confident I’d be able to take on a troll — any troll.

Second, if my old experience was still worth anything, trolls valued strength over anything else. Their entire hierarchy was based on it.

Together, the knowledge of these two things could make life easy, relatively speaking.

I sighed deeply as I held my head up high, looking at the creatures who seemed confused by my appearance. Confused, but not afraid.

I was glad to have picked up the troll language when one of them opened their mouth.

“Puny creature,” He said in a loud, deep voice that almost hurt my sensitive elven ears. “You carrying shiny stone. You give or no pass.”

It seemed his attention was on the starmetal chunk strapped to my back. Perhaps I should have covered it up, but then again, I had no intention of paying a thing.

When I didn’t immediately respond, both trolls took hold of their weapons that had been resting on the ground. The one who spoke had a huge battle mace that wasn’t much more than a large block of metal on a pole, but it was still deadly. The other troll held an equally large double-bladed axe.

I smiled slightly at their attempt to intimidate me before finally speaking in their weird language that I could comprehend only because of my blessing.

“I was not planning on paying anything. Instead, I’d like to challenge the strongest one of you for passage. How does that sound?”

Both trolls burst into a burst of bellowing laughter that had me cover my ears as it actually hurt this time. I saw Cellestra doing the same.

“You funny,” The troll with the mace said after recovering. “But I looking forward to fight. You stay here while I get Gor’Lar. No funny business or you and little miss elf die.”

I crossed my arms and kept my eyes on him as he passed me. I then took a few steps back from the other guard.

“Are you sure about this?” Cellestra asked softly. “They seem strong. Will you be okay against the strongest?”

“I am sure about this. I have no doubts I’ll be able to take these guards on and rush through that wooden wall, but I’d like to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Also, they might retaliate against future merchants if I do that. If I’m correct in my assumptions, defeating their strongest will pretty much put me on top of their hierarchy. Muck said something about how they charge exorbitant taxes. Well, maybe I can do something about that.”

“I see,” Cellestra said quietly. “That’s… very kind of you.”

“I’d like to thank him for his kindness and the effort he puts into his village. If word reaches him about merchants being charged a lot less all of a sudden, well… I am sure he can deduce that it was because of me. Even if Millhome is far away from our destination, it doesn’t hurt to have a bit of standing there, you know?”

“But you also want to be prepared for Hograd… whatever he may plan to do to you.”

“Hograd can’t do anything to me directly. Not in this realm. He can only do something to me through his followers, and I think I know what you mean. The thing is, it’s pointless to assume that I can stay hidden. People will know who I am and where I am. There is nothing I can do against that. The best I can do is be prepared and perhaps find allies who can warn me in time for any impending attacks.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” Cellestra said.

“That’s why I’m looking to join a guild. So far, this world seems eerily similar to my old one. A guild should offer me an added layer of safety. Adventurers attacking one another is forbidden by law. Info will also be more likely to reach me.”

“That… is all true. I’m starting to understand why Elysa chose this world. If you didn’t know it was another, I reckon you’d think it was the same.”

I smiled. “The differences are minor, yes. It’s not something I’m unhappy about in general. I wouldn’t know what to do if things were fundamentally different. Do you think there are worlds that are in no way similar to this one?”

“Probably,” Cellestra said calmly. “I cannot imagine them, but I’m sure there are.”

I turned around as a troll appeared in my vision behind me that immediately caught my attention. His skin was different from the other trolls in that it was the bluish-green color that I had seen in my old life. Other than that, he was slightly larger, but far more muscular, which he wasn’t even trying to hide.

His weapon of choice appeared to be a hammer, much like the troll from before, although this one weighed twice as much, judging from its size.

I was happy to have an ability that could block its impact fully. I wasn’t even going to try to have my multi-barrier take a hit from that.

“I was told you want fight?” He said as soon as I’d turned around.

“Better hold on, Cellestra,” I warned the elf as I tightened the grip on my weapon and cast my imbue elements on myself.

The elf nodded and took an even firmer hold of my hair, almost hurting me.

“I defeat you, I get free passage,” I said as calmly as I could.

There was no denying that my heart rate had risen considerably at the sight of such an imposing troll. The adrenaline started flowing even before the battle began and I had difficulties trying to remain calm about this.

“Deal!” He shouted as he lifted his hammer up high in the air.