Josh woke up from his bed for the first time in a while. The capsule offered some space and comfort, however the bed was far superior as a sleeping spot.
The capsule housed people who played the game, it was designed to almost immediately put a player to Lothaedan. This made people who played through night to feel... Uncomfortable waking up.
Whether the lack Non REM sleep caused that wasn't completely known to Josh.
Josh felt refreshed after waking up and he quickly stood up, going to shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and lastly going to school all in the span of 30 minutes, he seemed motivated.
Josh and France met up on school but only really talked about Lothaedan, neither Josh nor France would call each other "true friends" outside of the game.
After school,
"You seemed to be more active today Josh. You performed all of your tasks the quickest of all the class.", Isaac, his teacher remarked.
"Isn't it creepy for you to say that, Sir Isaac?", Josh casually asked, Isaac built his reputation as an easygoing teacher so this shouldn't upset him.
"Is that so? Well then I'm sorry Joshua.", he laughed out as he waved goodbye.
'Time to buy a hotdog.', and so he got his food. He left the school not long after that, he was interested about France's creation and decided it to be interesting enough to immediately go home and play the game.
*****
[Welcome, Josh.]
Josh raised his eyelids and saw the trashyard to be burning. He was about to go closer to inspect until he heard screaming?
"HOLY CRAP!!!", A distant yell was heard. This grabbed Josh's attention more and headed for the direction.
'Where in the heck is France? Oh... Nevermind.', Josh had asked himself and the answer was clearly shown. The loud yelling, about France's location; it was all answered as a man who stood above a cart covered with steam.
Josh ran up to France and asked, "What the hell is this? Is this what you call a steam powered cart?"
"Yeah, is there a problem with it?", France answered with a question of his own.
"The design looks like you were about to put a random part of a steam engine that wasn't a true part."
"I- It's expected for this to happen. After all, this is my first time making a cart that can travel 20kph.", Josh said acting
"I'm genuinnely surprised that piece of junk can travel that fast.", Josh wasn't talkative, he listened primarily and did his thing then. This isn't the case for bantering and verbal confrontations, he found them fun and he participated in bickering quite a lot.
"I am surprised too, so anywho, did you see an ocean of hellfire when you logged in?", France reluctantly asked.
"Yes."
"Did you put the fire out?", France asked.
"No."
"Can you?"
"Yes."
"Will you?"
"Why?", Josh asked, he was far more intrigued by France's questions, why? Because France didn't care for something that had no current use.
"I kind of... let's say started a small fire-", France said before he was interuppted.
Josh snickered in response, with his scornful laugh however, he immedately put up a field, one that allowed him to control some objects. Little droplets of water were pulled from the atmosphere until hundreds if not thousands of water droplets floated.
[Water Field: Rainfall] was the skill he used. Something that he gained when he leveled up to 50, it had been entirely useless for now, mostly because Josh never had a reason to activate it.
Rain flowed down to the ground and the area that was reminiscent to Josh's idea of hell extinguished.
"Anyways, can you power this thing?", France pointed towards their cart.
Josh sighed in frustration and he showed that by firing off a fire ball towards France. France reacted quickly, slicing the fire ball the moment it went to his range of attack.
*****
The cart set off to Stadshamn, the kingdom of the dwarves. France laughed at the front, steering the cart as Josh looked to be annoyed sitting at the back regulating the fire of a furnace.
Thanks to France's amazing information gathering skills, they found that a regular cart takes 3 days.
This would be amazing information, if they knew the average speed of the carts. In all likelyhood, their cart would probably reach Stadshamn in 30 hours instead of 72.
It was currently noon, about 2 hours after they left the city, about 20km in their journey and the scorching sun could be felt inside the cart. He had asked France awhile about the sorroundings, France said that it was something reminiscent of a desert without sand.
Josh was worried, after all the Elven village wasn't too far away. Josh couldn't care less about the Elves but if the old man "Zhe" wasn't there anymore then Josh wouldn't get the cloning skill.
They traversed about another 500 meters, and Josh stood up.
"Are the sorroundings still dry?", he asked. Josh couldn't see much because he stayed inside the cart, whereas France was the one who steered it.
"No...", France said reluctantly.
Josh looked out, what he saw confused him. It was a forest full of dead trees, yet not much farther was a forest that contrasted the almost apocalyptic look from before.
Josh sighed with relief, perhaps that old man was safe after all.
"Josh, stop the steam engine.", France said.
Josh followed his orders and so he stopped the fire and cooled down the water until it stopped boiling.
Josh heard a conversation outside, and Josh left the cart to see. "-ed to go to Stadshamn too.", an unknown person voiced out.
"Why are you in a forest far away from most cities?", France asked.
"I'm looki- My carriage had been pillaged, and I had to escape." He said as he saw Josh walking towards him.
"I see... I'm afraid we can't help. After all, Stadshamn is our destination.", France said at the front.
"Please allow me to join you to Stadshamn. I can just write a letter to my friends and have them get me from there.", the young man said.
"We'll help you, however we are carrying cargo at the back so you can only sit beside me.", France explained.
"Thank you very much for your kindness. I Schein, will repay your kindness.", the man cried in gratitude.
"Don't worry about it Schein.", France said with a confident smile.
Josh went up to France ignoring Schein, "Do I restart it?"
"Yeah. Also, can you try increasing the heat and pressure? It might take us too long if we don't.", France said.
"Are you sure that you just want it to go faster just because of that?", Josh asked. France answered the question by making a shit eating-grin.
Josh decided to end the conversation and started to walk back. He raised a small pillar of rock and took a small piece from it. Josh then went back to the furnace and turned it on.
*****
About 5 hours passed, and the scorching sun from earlier had long been gone. It was a rare phenomenon in Lothaedan that randomly appeared.
There were rumors that mages who ascend to level 200 would gain the ability to flight for small amounts of times, and that scorching sun prevents them from that.
Even then, some people like Josh were lucky enough to not encounter the scorching sun when travelling.
"They're still chatting?", Josh asked himself. He was using his elven ears to listen, and this time they were chatting about trivial things like "How does the cart work?".
"I don't know myself. The previous owner gave it to me and then he told me that it'll power itself with fire."
Josh sighed with relief, France isn't someone who you get to befriend even when talking for 2 hours. Josh didn't trust Schein, the fact that he was close to the elven village when they found him made it suspicious.
"Hey Josh! The cart is going too fast!", France screamed out in horror.
Josh regained his focus and added cold water to the furnace. Josh's mana was almost depleted and he decided to rest, the cart came to a stop after a while and the three took a break.
Josh picked up sticks and twigs from the ground when Schein said, "Hello, I'm Schein. May I ask for your name?"
"I'm Joshua.", he replied.
"..."
"..."
It was getting awkward so Josh brought the twigs next to the furnace. "Is that enough?", Schein asked whilst picking up sticks of his own.
"Thanks."
France went up to Josh, "Do you have enough mana?"
"I'm back to 10%"
"What? Last time, you were back to that amount in a minute. It's been 10 minutes since we've rested.", the confused France said.
"There's not a lot of mana here.", Josh explained.
"Why not use an infusion stone?", France asked.
"I forgot about that.", Josh checked his inventory and took out 2 infusion stones. Each replenished about 5% of Josh's mana.
"Use 5 more."
"Are you sure about this? We can only get these from bosses."
"Uhhh...fine, I'm sure just do it. Anyways, Schein let's head back.", the two walked back to the front.
Josh's mana was almost 50% now, Josh put in a few twigs to the Furnace and set them on fire.
They didn't make the fire hotter, but the wood allowed Josh to regain some of his mana whilst travelling.
*****
Another 5 hours passed, Josh didn't need to rest much so it was a continous journey.
"So France, why are you guys going to Stadshamn?"
"You're just asking that now? Hehe, we're looking for someone." France answered.
Josh listened to their converstation, only to hear pattering and France yelling something.
Josh immediately made the cart stop and came out to see France bleeding, standing with some arrows puncturing his shoulder and leg. Josh could see France's face, one of rage.
[Midnight Phoenix's Growl!], A gigantic phoenix the size of the cart left his scorched greatsword, leaving it to fly through the forest burning everything in the way.
"France what happened?", Josh had asked out of worry.