I had already noticed to some extent, but this world was nothing like mine. In most stories about traveling to other worlds, the world is a mere reflection of my world in the Medieval Era with some magic thrown in. A fantasy world should have castles, wandering knights, and wooden buildings with thatched roofs. To spice things up they could throw in some wizards and magical creatures like elves of dwarves.

This world did not follow that pattern. Not only did they not conveniently speak English, but Everglow’s infrastructure told me of the difference from the moment I saw it. The pyramid design of the houses clashed with every European structure in history. The sheer use of triangles rather than rectangles in practical architecture just seemed wrong.

Furthermore, the literal glow from the bricks indicated that the elements of this world were not the same as the elements on earth or anywhere else in our universe. If I had the technology to view samples of the raw materials here, I would not be surprised to discover differences in the very atoms that made up this world.

The species themselves did not follow the typical creatures seen in such works. Rather than Tolkien’s encyclopedia of Elves, Dragons, Dwarves, and Goblins, I saw reptilian people and a woman with rubbery skin and double rows of sharp teeth. After hearing someone call her a mermaid on my way out, the gears in my mind started to shift and I realized something.

The [Basic Translation: Xamxa] skill was, as stated, basic. It was like feeding words into google translate. While it was extremely helpful, it simply took nouns used by people I was listening to and replaced them in a 1 to 1 ratio with words already in my vocabulary. The name for the receptionist's species, which I filtered out was Daulma, was auto translated to mermaid, my world’s closest equivalent.

Other things like the concept of an inn or the Adventurer’s Guild were also auto translated and thus rather different in reality. The fancy lobby already provoked some thought, but it seems that adventurers were more like wandering knights or hunters who were paid by the entire town to take out local monsters, rather than some teenagers seeking dangerous dungeons for thrill and treasure.

The quest board itself was more like a list of nearby monsters with the bounty on each monster’s head. Even the word monster was misleading, as they labeled any slightly dangerous creature as a “guiva,” which auto translated to monster. This included rats, wolves, and bears to name a few.

Thus, the word sewer was also extremely misleading. My first hint came when I asked to use the restroom in the guild, and I was led down some stairs and into an area partitioned with curtains. The “toilet” at first glance was nothing more than a hole in the ground, however as I got closer, I realized it was a low intensity vacuum which was constantly on. I had to squat to pee, and when I was finished, I got a jump scare by having some water spray me like a Japanese toilet without me even touching a button. It was altogether an extremely uncomfortable experience and made me dread our upcoming trek through the sewers.

After being led to them by a small boy(?) whose body was feathered despite lacking wings, I was startled to realize that, of course, Everglow’s sewers also glowed. In fact, the lighting seemed to be brighter as we headed underground, giving me an eerie feeling as everything in me screamed that this was wrong. The “sewer” itself was an underground tunnel that had obviously been dug out. Actually, seeing me peer around, Elsie gave me some abridged history about this place.

“I remember when people first started moving here, ‘cause I always wanted to ride around on one of those giant mole rat things. Their riders just hopped on and made them dig out tunnels, expanding the system they had already made so that people could live down there. I don’t know when they started moving to the surface, but I wonder if those moles are still around here. Can I ride one if we find them?”

“Uh, I guess it’s up to whoever owns them,” I agreed, not sure what she meant by giant mole rats, but also hesitant to find out more.

Still, knowing that these tunnels were actually remnants of an underground civilization was impressive. I began to notice things like alcoves or even full-on rooms dug into the walls as I marked our path to make sure we could get back. There was nothing wooden around, but the stone remnants clearly displayed how this was once lived in, as I saw things formed out of the stone that reminded me of tables and seating arrangements.

Although the lights were technically “natural,” they still felt artificial, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to live in constant overwhelming artificial light that never dimmed. Honestly, I was more shaken by the idea of that than the idea of living in absolute darkness forever.

The creepiness was only broken by the sounds of Elsie’s shoes hitting stone as she skipped ahead of me and my softer footsteps. I never felt any vacuum of pressure, and the ground was so perfectly clean that I was unsure why even my basic translation skill would call it a sewer.

“Hey Elsie, stop for a second,” I called out after getting an inexplicable chill from my surroundings. She automatically froze in place and turned around, so the fact that I heard the faintest of thuds in the spot where, rhythmically, her next two steps should have been made me realize that my gut feeling of wrongness was something more than a feeling.