“All of the stories…” Ceira breathed heavily as she tried to walk, “About heroes trekking through a forest… has them effortlessly going all day…”

I shrugged, “Sounds like you read the wrong stories.”

“You don’t… seem to have a problem,” she said.

“I mean, I went through physical fitness training,” I pointed out. “Along with Senan,” I gestured to Ice Guy. In our current situation, it was easier for us to just use real names for each other, especially since we would be traveling together for… at least a while longer.

“It was also my job,” Izzy said.

Midnight also worked on his physical fitness- but being able to ride on my shoulders gave him alternative options. Ceira was an average sized human woman, so that wasn’t exactly something we could sustain for more than a few minutes. So we took more frequent breaks, which was for the best because we needed to find as much water or supplemental food as we could. Just eating dried panther was not great. Though when Izzy and I couldn’t confidently identify scavenged plantlife, we erred on the side of not dying to horrible poisons.

Moving around gave us time to stretch out our kinks from sleeping in suboptimal circumstances, and frequent breaks let us keep going for more of the sunlight filtering through the trees above. But just because Ceira was the one showing the most fatigue it didn’t mean the rest of us were doing just fine. Senan was still in the best shape… probably. Midnight was mostly uninjured. Izzy had her arm, and I really needed to just sleep for a few days to let my internal mana take a rest.

“Should we look for something to fight…?” I asked. “So I can level up.”

“Why?” Izzy asked. “You should level up tonight if you get in a decent spar, right?”

“Probably,” I shrugged. “But I might have to push myself some. And I’d rather expend the effort earlier in the day.”

“... Would we just attack some beast?” Ceira asked. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. They just live here. They aren’t hurting anyone, are they?”

“A fair point,” Senan said. “Anything that attacks people can’t be tolerated near populated areas, but out in the wilderness provoking battle is unnecessary and unwise.”

“We could hunt something, then. If we could find anything small enough we wouldn’t waste too much of it, at least.”

“Everything’s getting bigger,” Izzy said. “But maybe some insects?”

“I’m not sure any of us know how to cook those,” I admitted.

“Like lobster or crab?” Ceira surmised. “Boil them for a while in their shells? I don’t know if that would be any good though.”

I didn’t know either. It made me both a little bit hungry and a little sick feeling to think about it.

Ultimately, we didn’t hunt anything down, but after a proper spar at night I just pushed over the border to the next level.

Turlough (No surname)

Level: 30

Experience: 2325/2480

Storage +5 (4|1)

Firebolt +3

Shocking Grasp +5 (3|2)

Grease +3 (2|1)

Force Armor +7 (6|1)

Mage's Reach +4 (2|2)

Translation +1

Alter Time Flow +5 (4|1)

Disguise

Familiar Bond +5 (4|1)

Enlarge +2

Energy Ward +3 (2|1)

Sonic Lance +3

Scrying +1 (1|2)

Shield +1

Stoneskin +3 (2|1)

Mana Crystal Deposition +4 (1|3)

Water Breathing

Variable Freedom +2

Basic Light Magic +2 (1|1)

Locate Object +2

Alter Portal +1 (0|1)

Gate

Arcane Sight

Sending +1 (0|1)

Chain Lightning +2 (1|1)

Clean +1 (0|1)

Shelter

Remaining Points: 11

Purchasing the Shelter spell took 15 of my 30 points, and then I upgraded Familiar Bond once for another 4. The remaining points would stay in reserve, possibly to be spent on upgrading Gate next level. With these remaining points, I could upgrade it twice which should put me on the very edge of being able to cast it next level. It would probably still be over the threshold where I passed out and thus not useful… but it was an option to consider. Alternatively, I could pour points into upgrading Storage. I could get 25 whole pounds of storage with 10 points. Which was both a lot, and not that much.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ve got it.” Since we’d been planning for this, instead of looking for a cave Izzy had found for us a relatively open area. “If I recall correctly, this doesn’t create a particularly large place. So don’t expect much.”

Let’s see, we had some stone, sand, bits of various rocks and claylike stuff that might make up something like a mortar, a bit of water, splinters of wood… and cloth just to make sure we had actual sheets. It was a weird mishmash of stuff that should really have their own little baggies, but instead I just held them in my hands, to go back into Storage after.

Shelter was a level 8 spell. Not that high in the grand scheme of things, and I would have had plenty of mana even if I’d had to spend more than just that for Force Armors throughout the day- helpful against things so mundane as branches snapping in our face.

In front of us appeared a log cabin. Or perhaps a log hut? I opened the door.

“Looks… cozy,” Ceira commented.

“It’s bigger than my apartment,” Izzy said. “Though only because of the verticality.”

Personally, I thought it wasn’t bad. There were beds arrayed around the room- two sets of bunks flanking a fireplace. In the middle of the room were some stools around an actual real table, and there were windows to let in light… if not much.

“Hmm,” I frowned as I stepped into the room. “Was this the limit? I think I missed a spot for Midnight.”

“I will be quite fine with the furs,” Midnight said. “Humanoid beds aren’t great for me anyway. And it should be nicer regardless.”

“True,” I nodded. Everyone got a few rounds of Clean before they sat down on their chosen beds- Senan and Izzy took the top bunks, with myself and Ceira on the lower levels.

“Hmm, there’s no way to cook on this fire,” Ceira said. “I mean, besides roasting over it with sticks still.”

“I might be able to customize it more,” I said. “We’d need some example metal, I think. I don’t know if weapons steel is any good for cooking?” I tilted my head. “Well, assuming I can change things at all.”

“You must have had some effect,” Senan pointed out. “Feel the sheets.”

I did. It was quite familiar. “Oh, wow. This is super quality.”

“Super quality sounds good,” Ceira said. “Oh, it’s very soft,” she said, burying her face in the bed. “Super indeed.”

“It’s almost like the material Francois makes,” Senan said.

I nodded, “Probably not as durable though. Not that it matters because this only exists for… eightish hours?”

“What? Nooo~~” Ceira moaned, “I want to stay here forever.”

“I think I can extend it, but we’re not exactly going to live here… It’s good motivation to keep moving.” I wondered if I could make the stools and table only for less mana. Would be nice for a midday meal.

We ate properly, and even if it was the same dried meat and tuna, it tasted better not just sitting on logs. Being very hungry helped too.

We all climbed into bed soon after- Izzy making her way stubbornly up the ladder one-handed. She was the one who picked the top bunk, so there wasn’t much I could say.

Despite how exhausted we were, we also woke up at a reasonable time, ready to get moving. Breakfast eaten at a proper table was also tasty, though I did notice how thin our supplies were getting.

-----

“Do you think we’ve lost the murder bots?” Ceira asked.

“I hope so,” I replied.

“I haven’t seen signs of them,” Izzy said. “But I’m also not ranging far. They could still be shortly behind us, and we’re leaving quite a decent trail pushing our way through the underbrush here.”

There wasn’t much to be done about that. We physically couldn’t go around things, so some massive ferns got stepped on and bushes and grasses likewise got damaged.

“Given it is Doctor Doomsday,” Senan said. “I would expect their batteries last an annoyingly long time. So if they haven’t been ordered to give up…”

I nodded. We’d managed a few Sendings back to Earth, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything they could really do to help. Making portals to other worlds wasn’t something supers could do very consistently, and they’d need to have details I couldn’t give them. We did discover something about Sending though. Probably. It could have been random chance, but over the next few days and a dozen messages we had somewhere around a twenty-five percent failure rate for transmission. Which meant that this place was even more removed from Earth than the rest of my world. But Ceira got the full version of class powers, so it should still be the same world, or something markedly similar. I had the feeling this was the right world… just not the right plane. And maybe that made Sending one step more difficult somehow.

There was a sudden swishing sound, then a thunk and rattling as an arrow struck a tree right next to my head. Everyone jumped into action, with Senan conjuring a wall approximately in the direction the arrow came from. But there was no immediate follow up except for someone saying… something.

I sure didn’t know what they said though.

Izzy frowned, ducking behind the wall with the rest of us. “Uh, that’s… elven I think?” She called out something I also didn’t understand.

I cast Translation, for myself and Midnight. Perks of learning English fluently- I could speak without issue and didn’t have to constantly expend mana for Translation, limiting my regeneration. The downside was not always having Translation on if something new came up. Midnight used it if he wanted to be nice to his vocal chords, but it still wasn’t constant here.

“... forbidden … intruders … magic …” said the voice.

“... peaceful … didn’t know,” Izzy said in return. Though for some reason my head hurt as she spoke. There was no way less than 3 mana was pushing myself, right? “Hey, uh,” Izzy looked at me. “I’m getting less than half of what they’re saying.”

“Same,” I said. “Can you keep them talking please?”

Another arrow appeared next to my head, this time on the back side of Senan’s ice wall. Izzy kept trying to speak, and my head continued to hurt, like it was being jerked back and forth. It was like rapidly trying to swap languages. Ah.

“Can you let me try?” I stopped Izzy.

“Sure thing. I think they’re willing to talk, at least. But difficult to understand.”

“Excuse me,” I said, trying to speak whatever they spoke and not the elven Izzy was speaking. “I am trying to use Translation magic so it would help if you spoke more.” Some of those words came out in common since I didn’t know them.

“... agreement with the orcs to stay apart.”

“Terribly sorry,” I inclined my head, “We did not come here on purpose.”

“How could you not?” Translation was finally hitting full stride and I was finally understanding the voice consistently. “It is quite clear.”

“What is?” I shook my head, “I am sorry, we did not even intend to be on this plane, let alone in this forest.”

“Planar travelers? That explains your odd garb. Just return.”

I was hesitant to cast Translation on more people because they might think it was some other kind of spellcasting, so I had to continue to do this. “We can’t choose to return. There is another world with a powerful… warlock. He is bridging between this world and his, and we fled from him through a portal that brought us to this forest.”

“... You know this warlock?”

“We are enemies of him. He captured my friend,” I gestured to Ceira, “And we were retrieving her, but we could not flee the way we came. We don’t want to intrude on your territory, but if you could guide us around?”

“That cannot be done,” said the mysterious figure. “You must be observed. You will speak with a wise one. Follow me.”

Leaping down from high branches, a figure with long sandy hair alighted upon the forest floor. Smooth facial features and olive skin led to pointed ears- obviously. Except they weren’t quite speaking elven.

“Wow, she’s pretty,” Ceira said.

“Equal chances of being a man,” I told her in English. I didn’t get any response to that but Ceira narrowing her eyes as if she was trying to see fine details.

“Come,” the probably-elf said, walking backwards through bushes with a bow dangling, but ready to be drawn if necessary. We all began to move. “Just the orc and his bonded animal.”

“I’m not an animal,” Midnight said.

“You speak as well… regardless, the rest should wait outside.”

“I can cast Translation on others,” I said. “If you just want one, it should be someone better at speaking.”

“That is the reason it should be you,” the elven figure said.

Couldn’t argue there. “Well, looks like Midnight and I are supposed to go alone to talk to a ‘Wise one’.”

“What if they try to kill you?” Izzy said.

“Either this archer is very inaccurate or was never trying to kill me,” I pointed out. “But keep an eye out for lightning and flames if I have to fight my way out. Or I refuse and they bring friends to hunt us down, probably.”

“Hurry up,” said the figure, moving backwards faster than I thought I could probably push through those bushes while seeing where I was going. Midnight and I started following to the best of our ability.