Hugh's eyes bulged as he rushed over to it. He couldn't believe he'd almost left it behind. When he picked it up, he could tell its weight had increased beyond the Levitation Tech's capacity to make it hover. It almost felt like he had a brick in his hand.
"Is there a quick way to tell how much weight I'm carrying?"
"Ask your Book," Dex replied as he strolled over to claim a bicycle. Both were identical mountain bikes painted silver. They were cheap models, the kind sold in the toy section of his local department store, but they sufficed for their immediate needs.
Hugh looked down at the Book. "How much do you weigh?" On the front cover, '1.25 Kg' appeared in an embossed font. "I don't understand," he said. "It says one and a quarter. Does the hover Tech not work in travel mode?"
"It's working," he promised. "It took off twenty-five, which means you're carrying twenty-six kilos in total. By American reckoning, that's about fifty-eight pounds. Our weapons alone are probably half of that, even though the bows I spawned were lightweight models. The other weight is all the other gear you've picked up."
Hugh was tempted to go into his inventory and weed stuff out, but he knew there would be time enough for that at the new campsite. He didn't want to waste a minute of daylight if he didn't need to, and it wasn't currently heavy enough to hold him back.
He tucked the book into his makeshift pouch, wincing when it pulled at his belt, and claimed the second bicycle for himself. Then he stopped, realizing he had no idea where they were supposed to go. Scout said two miles north, but which direction was that? Did the sun rise in the east or west? He couldn't remember. Even if he did, he wasn't sure if it was still morning or afternoon. Was the sun still coming or was it now going?
With a huff, Hugh pulled his book out again and woke it. Turning to the page for the map, he noticed the compass' slowly moving image had a shadow under it, marking it as a tool icon. It wasn't something he'd learned to recognize the first time he'd looked at the page.
He pressed it. A rolled scroll appeared in front of him. He grabbed it out of the air before gravity could take hold and quickly unrolled it to discover a copy of his map complete with a working compass in the corner of the parchment. Hugh pressed the button again to bind the tool to his sixth shortcut slot, sent his Book to sleep so he could tuck it away, and resummoned the map using voice command.
Using the map, he turned in place to orient himself with the compass.
"That way's north," he said confidently, pointing straight ahead into a patch of trees no different than any of the others around them.
"Good work," Dex praised, pointing his bike in the right direction. Hugh quickly joined him, although he paused when he realized he didn't know what to do with the map now he didn't need it. He silently held it up in Dex's direction with an eyebrow raised in askance.
"Dismiss it to make it go away," he said.
"Dismiss map." The map disappeared, leaving his hands free for the first time since he opened his Book. He grinned, feeling like he was getting the hang of the game. From here on out, it was just a matter of beating baddies and collecting loot until he could meet up with his friends.
Hugh grinned at Dex as he climbed on his bike, feeling his excitement boiling up. "I should warn you I've only ridden on sidewalks before. It might take me a few minutes to get the hang of being off-road."
"Try not to break your neck," Dex advised.
Hugh laughed and set off. Almost immediately, he had to stop and ruck up his Robes of Affluence when the trailing end got caught in his wheel. With a blush, he tucked it up into his belt, then tried again.
Despite Dex's ominous warning, the terrain was easily manageable for even a city-bred man like Hugh. There were no bushes for him to crash into or exposed roots for him to avoid. The ground itself was virgin and packed smooth with patches of grass so new it might as well have been a lawn in the suburbs. Rocks were either big enough for him to see coming or so small as to be negligible. There were far more of the former than the latter since time hadn't eroded the bigger chunks yet.
Most of their trip followed a gently sloping hill downward, then back up another hill at such a low angle it took no effort to climb. They stopped twice for Hugh to check their bearings and make sure they were still heading north, but otherwise it was a pleasant journey.
His opinion changed when the trees ended at the top of a hill and a giant plain spread out for a full mile ahead of them. Something about it disturbed him on a instinctual level. It was almost too picturesque. He slowed his peddling while he wrestled with the problem, but he couldn't figure it out.
"What's wrong?" Dex asked, noticing how quiet he'd become. He maneuvered his bicycle closer so they were peddling only a few feet away from each other across the barren plain.
"It's empty," Hugh said, realizing the problem. "There's no animals moving around or bugs humming. I haven't seen any birds or been bitten by a mosquito. Hell, I haven't even seen an flies buzzing around, now I think about it. It's too quiet. The only thing I can hear is some of the grass moving, the leaves in the trees behind us, and water moving somewhere over there. It feels wrong."
"You spread your allotment of starting prey animals pretty widely across this continent. They'll multiply with time, but until then... This is why the Nomads call it a Drought. The variety of species has diminished until only a handful remain. It's why your existence will be so meaningful to them. Once you have control of the Genesis Spear, you'll be able to create a new, self-sustaining circle of life. Of course, you could always play the role of a vengeful godling and make them regret bringing you here, but I don't think you're the type."
"For the sake of argument, say I was," Hugh said as he coasted down another shallow hill. "How far would Thrive let me take the role?"