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New world,
I have finished analysing the soil yesterday. The founds are truly interesting. It seems as if it primarily consists of the remains of beasts, unlike the composition of on earth. It is true that we have encountered a myriad of animals, but most of them probably ran away before we even crossed their paths. My theory is that the mana speeds up the growth and birth proses of the beasts, and lends them the energy to move. As such they only need nutrition to growth. That probably leads to an overflow of animals that tear each other apart, building an interesting balance.
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*MC POV*
In front of me laid the dead, the mutilated body of what I can only assume was a human maybe hours before. What the hell happened to him?
Suddenly I felt a strong sense of nausea, I just killed him.
"I murdered another human!"
"hey get yourself together;" Only now realizing that I said that out lout I cramped down, the nausea was getting worse.
"First of all that wasn't a human he may look like one, and he probably had human ancestors, but he is first and foremost a worship one dedicated to the old ones. And even If he was anything other than part of the race that enslaved us, he would be grateful that you purified him."
I nodded, half convinced but determined not to bring any more trouble on our already ardours journey by wasting food, I suppress the nausea with my will. A strange thing to do, but to some extend my body does not function the way a normal human body should.
Maybe it was part of the incomplete body enhancement surgery my teachers did on me when I was little, since I was definitely not through a full one. I would have noticed it.
We burned the body ,but it didn't catch fire as good as it did last time, so we had to add heaps of wood from the surrounding forest.
"We do this to ensure that the dead stay dead, you never know what strange abilitys such creatures have. You have seen the wound it would have been fatal."
Judging by his expression he had experienced such a situation before.
Yes, even a normal human would be enhanced by the use of magic, although it was not so apparent yet with us having not nearly as much mastery as the man from before.
"My teacher had a similar saying, never think an enemy is dead before you cant see the XP."
"what is XP?"
Ah right there was no way he would now something like this.
"Just a saying"
I looked at the man I could most probably call a friend,
"does this happen often, I mean people going insane?"
He gave me a weak smile, "What do you think."
I seriously hate this world, what do you mean there are endless horrors running around and even creatures that can make you lose the one thing that is truly yours, your mind.
Leonard made a quick check of his backpack before resuming his march down the road.
"We should start moving again, whatever was it that he encountered we want to be as faar away as possible."
Packing my things aswell i chose to just trust him, with the little experience I have I should trust him.
Just as we walked for a few hundred meter, all my hair stood up and my body turned cold. turning around I witnessed a sight I would never forget in my whole life.
The sky seemed to open up a little and a pure stream of sunlight shone on a part of the forest near where the worship stumbled out before. For a moment it seemed like the world stood still, and I was looking at a beautiful picture. Mesmerized by the sight I failed to notice the subtle raise in temperature. Luckily I wasn't alone.
"Run, this isn't something we can hope to deal with, and even the fleeing monsters could kill us."
Why did I have to run into so much trouble in such a short amount of time? Resining to my fate I turned around and followed Leonard.
After nearly two hours of running and then walking for another three days the forest finally began to change. Instead of the trees that adorned the roadside before, now we were surrounded by small hills.
I could see the visible relief on Leonard's face, he remained on edge ever since we had the strange encounter before. He even increased the pace so that we arrived outside the forest in two thirds the time. Apparently neither the worship nor the things they fought were good news, and although he had previously reassured me, even he apparently underestimated the scale of the situation.
Slowing down a bit, we completed the rest of the journey in a leisure pace, I was even able to enjoy the landscape for once.
Then finally we arrived at what seemed to be a village at the coast. It seemed to be fairly large, and had enough housing for about two thousand people.
An interesting detail was that there was no farmland in sight, apparently it was not safe, and it would get ravaged by beasts anyway, safe farmland was an absolute luxury.
It was lit bright, and from afar I could see lanterns hanging on every door, which gave it the impression of a festival. But the truth was far from it, the only reason for these lamps was to ward of beasts and insects, as they too avoided the light.
But once came closer, the village revealed its true face. The houses, made solely out of solid stone, were all barred and closed. Not a single window was open, most only functioning to let in air rather than to illuminate the insides, not that the moon was particularly bright anyway. The village in general looked ragged, and if it wasn't for the trash and smell that permeated every corner, you would have thought that it was abandoned.
The whole place gave an oppressive feeling, probably also stemming from the fact that the houses were build with minimum space between each other, making the walkways small, narrow and a sheer labyrinth.
"Is it always so empty?"
I could clearly feel that Leonard wasn't happy either, he visited similar places before. No wonder he chose the life of a merchant, at least as such he was free.
"Well It is never lively, as these people constantly live in fear and isolation. Better die an early death, than that. What is strange however is that we have not seen a single hunter jet. They should return here at about this time and sell their game to the merchants that arrive, like me."
Before we could further discuss the topic we could hear a commotion from the centre of the city,.
"Hey Leonard, I think we will get an answer to our questions, lets hurry over there."
In response i only received a nod. He would always be quiet whenever something serius happened, well I don't think that anyone would be able to catch us if we decided to flee. Well if it is not something like we saw in the woods.
Careful not to stand out too much we walked towards the middle of the village in a hurried pace. And what greeted me there was truly shocking.
A crowd of people bigger than I had ever seen gathered before us. Consisting of humans in ragged clothes, with a few standing out by they're possession of spears and bows. Probably the hunters. They were standing before a raised platform on which poles had been erected in a half circle. Bound by ropes people, suspended in the air, were on them.
In front of them stood a man in wide, but open clothes. He probably came out of a hot part of the continent. On his chest was the same silver emblem as the man we came across in the woods. What did he call them, a worship? He however did not have the pale almost white skin of the other. Instead it was almost golden. His head was shaved and empty aside from the silver earings he had. He had weird white eyes too, looking completely indifferent, as if whatever happened had nothing to do with him.
And with an indifferent monotone voice he spoke.
"These beasts behind me have adorned what little worth they had by trying to learn magic. Look at what beasts they have become, and tell me, do you truly believe that humanity is suited to play with the powers of gods?"
As if to underline his point, one of the constricted humans let out an agonizing screech and tried to break free.
"they shall be cleansed by the light."
Turning around the worship laid his hand on the first pillar "burn" and burn it did, bright and blinding.
It was sickening, were they even mad because of magic, or were they just borne with an mental illness, and shunned for it. Watching the priest lit one pillar after another, and burn the people threw my mind into chaos. Cold sweat was all over my body and my hairs stood up. Slowly, almost withought thought, my shaking hands reched into my bag to grab a granade.
Suddenly I felt a strong grip on my shoulder. "stay put"
Trying to calm down I continued watching. I knew i could do nothing. Even if I did free them, what would come after that? My own survival stood in the foreground, revenge could come on a later point, once I had mastered magic. And there were probably thousands of such cases all over the world, and not one person was responsible, it was the very system they lifed in, were born in. Despite knowing this it was still hard not do do anything, but it would not be the last time I would face such a situation.
In this knowledge i continued watching the flames in silence, joining the silent crowed, this silent and slumbering race fallen into slavery.