I kept myself consoled in Sigmir’s arms as much as possible, trying to ignore the cruel world around me. I let Adra deal with the family that had given us boarding, especially when, shorty before dinner, Liaste’s parents returned from their work. That got me slightly interested, simply because I was curious what they worked at but not to the point that I felt like engaging with them. No, I simply stopped ignoring the world and listened to Adra, Rai, Stelur and the two newcomer talking. Luckily, Adra seemed to be as curious as I and asked.

It turned out that the village had adopted a curious form of hunting and gathering, in which pairs roamed together, one of them trained to scout for game, the other trained to find valuable plants while both were trained to fight and defend the other. A short glimpse told me that the two parents were actually quite close to each other in level, Luron, the father, level thirty-seven and Temia, the mother, level thirty-nine.

Soon, Helia brought out plates, serving a hearty stew with some unidentified meat and a strange, rather hard tack that needed to be soaked in the broath to become chewable. But, all in all, it was good food, tasty and hot.

As we ate, Luron and Temia were quizzed by Adra and Sigmir about the area, especially where the wolverine we had agreed to hunt for them had its range and the creature’s habits. I silently listened, even if the information given was rather sparse. The wolverine seemed to originally have had a den beneath a large tree but after crossing the first Divide, that was no longer suitable. Instead, it had made a new one into a nearby hill but mostly it was roaming a large area, hunting and killing everything it came across before devouring it. Not even vegetation was safe, as the wolverine seemed to have a taste for some plants, devouring them to the root if it happened to come across them. Neither of them had heard of the wolverine using any obvious magic, maybe it just hadn’t gained any when crossing the first Divide. We would have to see.

The next morning, after a night in front of the hearth and a hearty breakfast, again accompanied by the quite tasty herbal tea, we set out to hunt down a wolverine. I had taken a bit of time during the night and logged out, once again marvelling at the fact that I felt perfectly rested when getting out of the capsule. Even a few days ago, when I had barely managed to crawl into the capsule after training with Mrs. Wu, I wasn’t stiff or sore when getting out. Knowing that Mrs. Wu was expecting me to train and, from the evil smile she had on her face when I had staggered out of the gym, I was expecting the training to become more difficult. With that in mind, I had pushed myself before staggering back into the capsule, letting it carry me into Sigmir’s embrace.

Shaking off those thoughts, I focused on my surroundings, to make sure I wasn’t walking into a tree or something equally ridiculous. It would be a little embarrassing, even if I doubted that there was anything that could seriously threaten us, not as close to the village as we were.

“Lenore, would you like to take a look from above?” I asked the bird that was riding on my shoulder. While walking, it was easier for both of us when I didn’t use the perch-staff, instead continuing to carry her on my shoulder. Otherwise, I’d either have to carefully place the staff for every step, negating the benefit of using it in the first place or I could use it as a normal walking-staff, jostling Lenore with every step I took. Either was uncomfortable for one of us, so I simply continued to carry her on my shoulder, it wasn’t as if she was truly heavy for my strengthened body. She either ignored or didn’t notice my ruminations and simply took flight after I asked her.

I watched her flap her wings for a moment before she rose above the trees, vanishing from my sight. Part of me was jealous, the times I had shared her memories and mind, they made me yearn to fly, to soar through the skies. I had tried to accomplish something akin to flight using my Ice-Magic, trying to place a piece of Ice below me and push against it, using that to lift myself but it had failed, the magic simply fizzling out. Similarly, trying to use Magic to push against a stationary piece of Ice, trying to use the counter-force to lift myself had proven unsuccessful, mostly because there was no counter-force as one would expect. Magic seemed to work outside what I knew of the laws of physics, which was, on second thought, rather obvious.

Ultimately, I should have expected that it would be difficult, maybe even impossible to fly, especially early in the game. Pantheon Entertainment had tried to make the non-player characters as similar to the player-characters as possible, outside of the resurrection of player characters. So, if player-characters were able to fly, so would non-player characters. And magic that allowed almost everyone to take to the skies would take away huge parts of normal gameplay, especially regarding exploration and problem-solving. It would also completely change how a culture would develop if flight is easily achieved early in their technological advancement, which might be another reason, to keep a sense of familiarity and immersion.

And so, I could only watch in envy as my partner and feathered friend vanished from my sight. Instead, I focused on my environment, making sure that I wasn’t missing anything. Not that it truly matted, a bit in front of me were Adra and Ylva, followed by Rai, while a bit behind me was Sigmir, the one whom I trusted more than anyone else. It would be embarrassing to wander around in a day-dream but other than that, it hardly mattered.

For two hours, we kept walking towards the area where the Wolverine was supposed to roam, with Lenore periodically coming back into range, telling me what she had seen, or rather, not seen. Namely, the wolverine.

Ylva was the first to get a whiff of our enemy, literally. She suddenly stopped, her hackles rising making her look a little strange, but I knew that it signaled her agitation. At her soft growl, everyone of us stopped, weapons going into ready position as we scanned our surroundings, trying to see what had her spooked.

“I can smell it. It is…” she paused for a second, before continuing, “...intense. I’m not sure how long it has been, but I don’t think it has been long, not if it stinks this bad.”

She started to head into a slightly different direction, her nose not going to the ground, as if the smell was strong enough to get to her, even without that. Now, that I knew there was something, I took a deep breath, first only scanning with my nose, before trying to see if I was able to find something magical in the air, changing my focus to my magical senses, trying to figure out what they were telling me.

Seconds after that idea, I was reminded that sometimes, I should think before acting, especially if magic was involved. The senses I used to parse magical information were smell and taste, while Lenore used sight. And those senses told me that I had made a grave and very serious mistake.

There was no way to describe the vileness that invaded my senses, it was as garbage had been left out on a hot day, fermenting and seeping into the carcass of an animal rotting below. And it wasn’t so much physical, allowing me to spit out whatever invaded my mouth, or the hold my nose closed. No, it was already inside my senses, polluting them.

The breakfast I had eaten earlier decided that it didn’t want to be associated with someone like me and staged an emergency uprising, causing me to bend over and vomit into the snow that remained in the shadow of a tree, stumbling as I tried to regain balance from the sheer disgust that was overcoming my mind.

“Are you alright, love?!” Sigmir asked from behind me, holding my shoulder and trying to gather my hairs in the back of my head, as another wave of nausea shook me, my stomach trying to purge everything I had ever eaten. I might never want to eat again.

Answering was out of the question, as I continued to shake, the others now around me. In a bit of insanity, I instantly projected the runes for Liquid Moonlight, creating a large glob of it, before using my Ice-Magic to direct it to my mouth, gargling with it in an attempt to get the foul taste from my mouth.

Moments later, a wave of pure cold shot from my mouth as I exhaled, the Liquid Moonlight mostly unbound and turned to Ice-Type Astral Power, creating a large, white cloud and freezing the tree I had just vomited behind.

“If that thing smells even half as vile as its magic, you have my condolences.” I told Ylva, trying to ignore the strange looks I was getting.