Eventually, I decided to travel downstream. It was mostly on a whim, with no real logic behind it. Moving upstream would’ve put me closer to where I spawned, so perhaps the logic was to reveal more of the map, after all? That was more a consequence, than a conscious choice, though.

Interestingly, I did notice something about the minimap as I walked. It wasn’t just my own cursor that I could see on it. Of course, there was the large, white arrow that pointed in the direction I faced. It lay at the center and the map moved around it, rather than it moving around the map.

My four pets also seemingly had their own cursors, light blue diamonds that seemed to be indistinguishable unless I focused on them, in which case a label with their name would pop up.

There were also various yellow dots in the river and on the land that moved around somewhat randomly. A large bird that flew overhead matched with a cursor that passed by my group. A school of fish that swam downstream matched with six cursors passing us.

Once I knew what to look for, it wasn’t difficult to track down all sorts of beasts, both familiar and fantastic. How else could I describe what appeared to be a three-headed ostrich with feathers that looked like leaves? That was, of course, ignoring how I even knew what an ostrich was.

The terrain of this ‘Garant Outlands’ was quite strange though. The further downstream I walked, the livelier it became. The blackened, almost burnt approximation of grass slowly giving way to an off-green color.

Perhaps not all of this place was nearly so dead then, despite first appearances. There might even be someplace that I could find shelter. The river would do well enough for food if I could catch some fish. Probably anyways.

Sadie began growling and Monty gave off a strange sound halfway between a chirp and a hiss, which pulled me from my thoughts though. Glancing at them, I noticed they were looking further downstream. I couldn’t quite make out what had gathered their attention.

Looking at the minimap, though, I saw a rather large, red star surrounded by several smaller, red dots, all making their way towards me. My hand shot to my sword, almost on instinct, and I had already drawn it before I fully realized it.

Within moments, several specks revealed themselves on the horizon. It was difficult to make out, but they appeared to be on the shorter side. They were mostly green but covered in a mixture of grey and brown.

A moment more, and I could see that they were roughly humanoid in shape, and covered in all manner of armors, mostly mismatched sets that didn’t appear to have any rhyme or reason – some rusted steel armor, some studded leather, some bronze, and all manner of weapons in hand. There were probably less than a dozen of them, if only just, and all clearly following a larger figure with similarly green skin.

The larger figure had an entirely different look to it. While they had large, bulbous noses and faces full of boils, the larger one was about the same height as me with smoother skin. He almost looked like a human that just happened to have green skin, with larger muscles and the only matching set of armor of the bunch, one of pristine bronze.

Glancing around, the openness of the Garant Outlands left me with nowhere to hide, and there were probably at least three of those short ones that had bows, based on what I could tell. Could I fight the whole group with just my pets and myself? Wait! Could Observe tell me anything? It was worth a shot.

Greenskin Party

A party of dirty greenskins consisting of six goblins wearing mismatched armor and one orc commanding them. The goblins aren’t anything special and will likely go down rather easily or run away after first contact. The orc is wearing unenchanted, bronze armor and should be the priority when contact occurs. Using Air Magic is preferable for causing the most impact. Burnt goblin flesh somehow smells worse than when they’re still alive.

That sounded a bit more aggressive than I was expecting if I was being completely honest. Still, it was at least good to know what I was facing off against. Seven dirty greenskins with probably the combined intelligence of a couple rocks.

Wait, what? Where did that come from?

“Oh, I’m getting a notification here that two of your starting traits just activated for the first time.” Eve spoke up, even as I watched the party meander closer. They hadn’t seemed to notice my own party yet. “Let’s see… oh, it seems like that group over there activated your [Prejudiced (Goblin/Male)] and [Prejudiced (Orc/Male)] traits.

“It’s not really uncommon for someone to pick up one or two traits like that to get some extra points in character creation, but it is pretty interesting that you have so many of them. Basically, the System will just adjust your personality a tad when you interact with certain race and gender combinations, to make you think more negatively of them. Nothing to worry too much about, especially since orcs and goblins are sworn enemies to the Saxe anyways!

“And even if they weren’t, there are questlines to remove negative traits if you really want to, so just have fun, and let the chips fall where they may, hm?” I nodded along as she gave her explanation, gripping my sword a bit more tightly as one of the goblins seemed to finally have noticed my pets and me.

I did recall a lot of those [Prejudiced] traits from looking at the list. Did the past me just use it for some quick points to make a better build? Or were the groups he chose people that he wouldn’t get along with anyways because they were untrustworthy or sworn enemies to the race that he chose?

He would certainly know better than me, so I would just trust his judgement on this and do my best to survive long enough to remember. That’s all that I could do, after all. What other choice did I have?

My pets remained at my side even as the goblin that noticed me began shouting to his friends and pointing at me excitedly. They drew their weapons in no particular order as the orc gave a command I couldn’t hear. Six goblins rushed towards me at varying speeds.

It was after a moment that I realized my pets still hadn’t moved. Were they were waiting for an order perhaps? “Attack.” I delivered the line with a calm that I didn’t really feel, and watched as they launched their own, more well-coordinated assault.

Monty took to the skies and dove downwards, somehow wrapping his body around one of the goblins near the front. He took back to the skies, squeezing hard enough that green skin was turning purplish, and the thing’s eyes were practically bulging out of its skull.

His strangled cries became more distant as Monty became nothing more than a receding dot in the sky. Losing one of their companions seemed to put a halt in their steps. Sadie used the opportunity to pounce onto another of them, using her massive fangs to rip out the throat of her target, staining her bleached-white bones a nasty red.

The other four probably should’ve run, cowards that goblins were, but instead finally chose that moment to form ranks. The glance back at their slowly approaching orc leader might’ve been the cause of that. Shields raised, they probably thought to fight back.

The quartet, each one probably half my size, had their shields still high enough for Charlotte to crawl under, her massive fangs finding ample flesh to pierce one of their legs thanks to the mismatched armor offering very little consistent protection. The goblin writhed in pain, screaming loud enough that I almost felt sorry for it past the System making me unfazed.

Maybe this is why the past me chose goblins as a prejudice? I know I should feel… something watching these creatures being killed, but I couldn’t help the lack of empathy as I witnessed my pets tearing through them. Perhaps it was better that way.

One of the other three broke ranks, only to trip on a rock behind him, his shield flying wide as he tried to catch himself. Squishy moved with a speed that was far greater than I imagined possible. Its body encapsulated the thing’s head, silencing any screams before they could occur. Whether it was morbid curiosity, or something else, I was unable to turn my head as it began to devour the rest of the goblin’s body from the head down.

The remaining pair screamed in terror, running past the orc even as the first goblin dropped from the sky, turning into a red and green splotch on the grass next to the still approaching orc. He ignored his mutinous men, with a bloodthirsty grin on his lips even as he moved forward, ax and shield in hand.

The orc spoke something then, and it sounded like it was supposed to be some kind of language, but all I could make out were grunts and snarls. Perhaps he noted my confusion, because he then started to speak in a way I could understand.

“Grom’s Saxe not great, but good enough, Grom thinks.” It was clearly broken, but I could at least understand him now. “Saxe are good warrior, good fighter. Not seen Saxe fight with monster before. Grom interested.”

He stopped moving forward and stood a few feet away. My pets returned to my side, standing behind me and watching the orc. “These are my pets, and I’m Wulfric Blackwell.” I introduced myself, sword in hand as I watched the orc, Grom, for any movement.

“Grom not heard of Blackwell before. Grom makes it a point to know all the Saxe clans in this place. Grom thinks Wulfric is not from the Outlands. Is Wulfric an adventurer from the Cities? Or maybe, are you an Aetherborn?” Wait, do the people in this world know about people from the White? [From the Aether] was the… Origin, I think, that I had.

Grom’s eyes seemed to light up, maybe he saw something on my face as the thought crossed my mind. “Grom has not fought an Aetherborn before. Grom thinks it would be fun to fight one before they can become a Hero. Maybe Igazi will reward Grom for fighting a Saxe Aetherborn. Maybe Grom could be a King!”

His grin turned into a sadistic looking snarl as he gripped his ax harder, his bronze armor glowing a bit as brown eyes turned a bright red. “Prepare yourself, Aetherborn Blackwell! Monsters or not, Grom will have your head and become Orcking!”