Across Eternity: Book 1

Prologue

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A rare find, that beautiful crimson hair. That color was usually the result of cheap dye and a childish personality, desperate to prove individuality by opposing normality. It was a rare gift from nature, every strand like melting rubies, when most so-called redheads possessed only a diluted orange hue. But hers was like blood, drawing the eyes of all those around her, including Noah’s. Of all the women he had seen, met, and knew, even intimately, hers was the most purely crimson.

It was after school in early autumn, the light of the setting sun illuminating every strand and reminding him why it was worth it to approach her. She was walking across the empty soccer field, her body trembling from the adrenaline of all the running she had done in her track club. For once, Noah saw her without all of her friends surrounding her or her boyfriend’s arm draped over her shoulders like a boa constrictor. He had been waiting for this chance, longer than she could imagine.

“Lindsey, hey,” he said, meeting her in the open air, free from any interruptions.

“Noah, what are you doing here?”

She asked that question, but she knew the answer. What else would draw a boy to her, what other possible desire? He was going to flirt with her, possibly even ask her out. Would he be nervous? Would he be cocky? Would he play innocent and try to start with some small talk, or would he get straight to the point? Had he planned this? Had he been waiting? They had been friends since she transferred in their Sophomore year. Had that just been in anticipation of this?

It was clear in her eyes, that his intentions had been seen through, but it didn’t dissuade him. Rather, it was something that always amused him, the paradox of human coupling that became both easier and more difficult with age. She already knew what he desired, so unless she desired the same thing, her heart would be guarded, with no opening for a sneak attack to surprise her. It was a challenge that men and women had struggled with since the dawn of time.

“I heard that you and Sean broke up. I know what that feels like, how much it hurts, so I’m sorry. But if it’s not too soon, I wanted to ask if you’d like to go out with me this weekend?”

“Sorry, but since we’re graduating soon, I’m not sure I want to bother dating. After all, when summer comes, we’re all going to split up and go our separate ways.”

A rejection, not an optimal outcome, but it was within his expectations. He just had to convince her to give him a chance, but gently. He had to properly choose his words so that he wouldn’t come off as desperate and frustrated, but not try to ham it up by turning it into a sonnet like an out-of-touch nerd.

“Is that why you two broke up? Because you didn’t see a point in staying together? I doubt that. I think you believe in love, in giving it a chance. A lot of things will happen between now and graduation; Christmas, Valentine’s Day, the prom? That’s plenty of time to be happy, and to change your mind about which path you plan on taking. Plans can change, things can work out. All I want is a chance.”

“Sorry, but I’m just not interested in dating, and I’m too busy anyway. Besides, I like you only as a friend.”

She crossed her arms to warm herself, but she kept them low. It was an instinctive move, one that Noah’s eyes didn’t miss. He gave an exasperated smile and began to laugh. “Ok, I get it. Maybe next time.”

Lindsey, wanting this conversation to be over, walked past him, but beneath his continuing laughter, she heard something, a metallic click, and it chilled her blood. She spun around and saw the knife in Noah’s hand.

“Jesus Christ, what are you doing?!” she screamed while raising her hands to shield herself.

“Don’t worry. This isn’t for you.”

He swung up his hand and stabbed himself in the throat. The strike, it was so fast, but it was gentle, just the tip of the blade breaking his skin and severing his Jugular with pinpoint accuracy. It was a perfect, fluid movement, as if he had spent hours practicing. Blood began to spray from the small wound, and to the sound of Lindsey’s scream, he allowed himself to fall on his back. She rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. Covering it with her hand only slowed the outpour, so she reached into her bag for something to use as a bandage.

“Stop, just keep your hand there,” Noah said calmly. The vein he had struck carried blood out of the head and sent it back to his heart, so the rest of the blood in his system would keep his brain oxygenated, at least while it was still in his veins.

“You’re fucking crazy! I’m not going to let you die like this!”

“I’ve already died like this… more than a hundred times before. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Reincarnation, transmigration, whatever you call it, I count lives like you count years, and every time I die, I’m immediately reborn with all the memories from my past lives. I’ve been born and died so many times, laughed and suffered through so many lifetimes.”

“That’s just blood loss talking. Hang on!” She tried to pull out her phone, but Noah grabbed it with surprising strength.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you? Sean freaked out after you told him and that’s why you broke up.”

Her face became as pale as his. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Because this isn’t the first time I’ve confessed to you. I’m always myself, but the world I’m born into is never the same. Every time I die, I return to the day of my birth, but in a different timeline. I’ll end up in a world where my surroundings are different, or history didn’t go the way I remember it, or events will happen in my future that I can’t predict.

Only in my past seven lifetimes have you been present, and in all seven lifetimes, I could never make you mine, no matter how much I wanted you. Five of those times were because you were pregnant. You and Sean get back together by Thanksgiving, and I and everyone else watch you dance together at the prom. Each time, I kill myself to try again in my next life. These past eighteen years, they’ve flown by like the blink of an eye for me.”

His bleeding was starting to slow, his body going cold and his mind getting foggy.

“Why me? Why would you keep going after me? Why am I worth killing yourself over?”

“It’s the only way I can live anymore, following some task or game that keeps me busy. Every life I’ve lived, it’s been a lie, concealing who I am, what I know, what I’ve experienced. Much of the time, I have to pretend to have emotions, because after all this time, I’ve almost forgotten what they feel like. I’ve almost forgotten what’s like to actually feel something. But when I see you, I get to experience actual longing. I have an actual crush, something so simple and childish, but such a wonderful feeling. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a redhead, but I’ve lived for so long, I have to grasp at any scrap of meaning that can make me happy, and make my existence a little less hollow.”

“What about your family? What about this life you’ve built? You’re just going to throw it all away?”

With the last of his strength, he removed her hand from his wound so that it could bleed freely. Her wrist was limp. Had he convinced her? Or had she simply realized that he had already bled too much and was beyond saving? He covered his left eye with his hand, blinded by the setting sun while Lindsey’s shadow obscured the right side of his face. The light passed through her crimson hair like stained glass, making his blood shine beautifully.

“I’ve seen so many worlds, so many different realities, but none of them could make me happy. I’ve never known what it felt like to belong or feel at home. Every world felt wrong to me. This is yet another reality that I am incompatible with. All I can do is hope that the next world is one I can be happy in.”

The blood at last stopped flowing, and Noah closed his eyes and released his final breath. Then, in his mind, there was a familiar flash of light and he felt himself being pulled to the next world.

A Whole New Game

Without even opening his eyes, Noah knew that something had gone wrong. He was groggy, but he could definitely feel the cold, hard ground underneath him. This didn’t make sense. At this moment, he’d normally be experiencing his own rebirth, coming out of the womb as a newborn baby. His body was also still the same size. He could feel the weight of his limbs, as well as his clothes. His hand was still covering his eye, but just moving it took a tremendous amount of strength. He managed to work his eyelids open and stared up at the blue sky. It was late in the afternoon when he killed himself, but now it looked to be midmorning.

This had never happened before, no matter how many times he had died. Either he had somehow survived his suicide attempt and been moved while he was unconscious, or he had reincarnated without being reborn, breaking into another timeline rather than being properly incorporated. Was his reincarnation power changing?

Noah sat up and looked around. He was lying on an unpaved road in the woods. His hoodie and the shirt underneath were stiff with his dried blood, but when he felt his neck, there was no wound. He had been healed, but had his blood also been replenished? It would have taken at least thirty minutes for the blood on his clothes to dry this much, not enough time for his body to restore any meaningful amount, so this was likely a partial rebirth.

He got to his feet and staggered, struggling to breathe. There was no strength in his limbs and his thoughts were getting weaker by the second. This fatigue, it was similar to blood loss, but also different. It was like there was some kind of extra muscle going crazy, using up all of his strength. If it didn’t dissipate soon, he’d end up passing out again. What in the world? He looked down and realized that he wasn’t casting a shadow. The fatigue must have been messing with his vision. Now that he thought about it, his left eye was itching a bit. He gave it a rub and it was like a switch had been flipped. The fatigue vanished, as if that extra muscle had settled, and when he looked down, he saw his shadow.

‘That wasn’t blood loss. It must have been some kind of leftover trauma from my suicide or this glitchy rebirth. But where am I?’

The road was unusual. The ground was packed, but the sediment seemed native to the spot. In the modern world, even the unpaved roads were made with at least a layer of sand and gravel to prevent it from being overgrown. He had his wallet and his phone with him, but there was no service.

A sound reached his ears, one that most people rarely heard outside of movies and TV. It was the sound of horse hooves. He looked over his shoulder, seeing two adult men on horseback approaching him from down the road. Behind them, an old man driving a horse-drawn wagon and leading… slaves. Wearing rags for clothes, more than a dozen men and women of varying ages were being led by chains.

This strange caravan came to a halt in front of him. The men on horseback and the one driving the wagon stared at him in confusion. “You’re blocking the road. Get the hell out of our way before you end up like them,” the driver barked.

It had been a long time since Noah saw a slave shipment. He normally only found them in post-apocalyptic timelines, when society had broken down. That, or timelines where the south won the Civil War and other such occurrences.

“Did you hear me? Get out of the way!”

“Boss, look at all of the blood he’s covered in,” one of the men on horseback said.

Noah looked at them. Their clothes, they were shoddy, wool clearly not woven by any kind of modern machinery and with coats and boots made of primitively-treated leather. Maybe he had reincarnated to a third-world country? If this was a post-apocalyptic timeline, then whatever happened wasn’t manmade. It happened before the Industrial Revolution, some kind of natural disaster that halted mankind’s development. A meteor?

“I don’t think he understands us. He’s got some weird clothes. He might be the son of some noble,” the other horseman said.

Their weapons, they had sheathed swords but no signs of any guns. So, this was an era before gunpowder was invented. Medieval? It sure seemed like it.

“If he’s a noble, we can ransom him back, and if not, he looks healthy and strong enough to sell for a good price. Chain him up with the others.”

One of the men got off his horse and approached Noah with a length of rope. None of them were aware that he still had his knife on him. As the man reached out to grab his hands, Noah slashed him across the throat. It wasn’t the pinpoint jab like he had given himself earlier, this was a bloody smile stretching from ear to ear. It had been a long time since he had last killed someone, but it was something he was very well-practiced in.

A fountain of blood sprayed forth and Noah threw his knife at the wagon driver, catching him in the chest. Before his first victim could drop to his knees, Noah ripped his sword from its sheath and charged towards the other horseman, already drawing his own blade to avenge his coworker. The throat was out of reach, so Noah deflected the oncoming attack and went for a stab in the side of the gut and up into the right lung.

“Fireball!”

There was a flash of light in his peripheral vision, coming from the old man. Noah’s instincts made him jerk back as a flare shot through the air, missing his face by an inch. It struck a nearby tree and exploded, spraying fire in all directions like a Molotov Cocktail. Noah looked back at the old man, one hand outstretched while the other covered the stab wound in his chest from Noah’s knife. He wasn’t holding a flare gun or any other kind of device that would explain what had just happened.

“You can’t be serious,” Noah muttered.

“Fireball!” the old man shouted again.

Just like before, a sphere of condensed flames formed in his hand, about the size of melon, and shot at Noah with tremendous speed. Noah dodged and rushed in to close the distance. The first fireball had forced him to let go of his sword and the second had forced him back before he could grab the second man’s. He’d have to finish this with his bare hands.

The horses were all throwing tantrums in fear from the fighting, but the old man continued to launch those mysterious flares. Noah circled around the horses, jumped, and tackled the man. There was no clumsy fumbling for control, Noah simply began beating him with his fist. His current body hadn’t been trained for combat, but he kept it healthy and strong and knew how much force he had muster up with each punch. Blood started spraying with the third punch, the old man unable to fight back and soon blacking out. Noah promptly retrieved his fallen knife and finished him off.

Noah took his time to catch his breath while he wiped off the blade, folded it up, and stored it in his pocket. He took those few moments to quell his annoyance. He was used to being reborn as a baby after every death and considered those early years to be his vacation between each new life, time to properly dispose of old memories, catalogue useful knowledge, and mentally deal with any loose ends. No one depended on him and he usually had a parent or caregiver to take care of him, giving him time to rest his mind. Now he had jump right back into a survival mindset and start from scratch in a world with all new rules.

Those fireballs the old man had launched, that was undoubtedly magic, something that he thought only existed in fantasy stories. He had never seen magic before, not in any of the timelines he had already lived in. Until now, he had operated under the belief of the Multiverse Theory, which stated that there was a timeline for every possible subatomic event. Was it really possible for magic to exist in the multiverse? What did this timeline have that all the previous ones lacked?

The old man would have been a valuable source of information, but with his subordinates now dead, he would never willingly tell Noah anything. It wouldn’t be worth the time and trouble to interrogate him in this situation. Oh well, the answers would come in time, and Noah had learned how to be patient.

He turned his attention to the slaves, staring back at him with uncertainty. They weren’t rejoicing at the death of their captors, fair enough. After all, Noah hadn’t killed them in order to free the slaves or anything like that. As far as they knew, he was about to kill them all or just take them all and sell them himself. Each of them was a variable, possibly benefiting or dooming him. It would be best to just let them go, but he decided to get some use out them first.

The slave traders had spoken with an accent that he had never heard before, but it was English, though they probably didn’t call it that. These slaves must also speak it. “All of you, I give you permission to speak. Do you all understand what I’m saying?” They didn’t say anything, but they nodded in the affirmative. “Are there any among you who are familiar with this area?” None of them answered.

Possessing knowledge could either make them valuable or a liability. They didn’t want to expose themselves unless they knew what awaited them. Noah sighed and returned to the old man, patting him down until he found an iron key, likely going to all of their collars.

He held up the key for all the slaves to see. “I need one of you to guide me to a safe area with a source of fresh water and off the road where I won’t be seen. Whoever volunteers will get their collar removed and can ride in the wagon. Once I’m brought to a suitable location, you will all will be set free.” Six slaves raised their bound hands. “You,” Noah said.

He had ***********ed a teenage girl that looked to be around his age. She was dirty and underfed, but looked healthy enough to be useful to him, and he could certainly overpower her if she tried to betray him. It was hard to gauge her appearance in this state. She had a pitiful look permanently etched into her face, like a basset hound. If he cleaned her up, she might be a real cutie, but right now she was so dirty that he couldn’t even tell her natural hair color.

“What is your name?”

“Tin, sir.” She didn’t make eye contact. None of them did.

“Do what I say, Tin, and you’ll earn your freedom. Go against me and I’ll kill you.” He unlocked her metal collar but left her wrists bound. “Now help me take care of these bodies.”

Noah searched the corpses of the three slave traders, taking everything of value. Along with their swords, he got a couple daggers, some cord, and three makeshift wallets. They were snake skins with stacks of bronze coins inside, tied to their belts. It was a clever concept.

“Tin, is there any danger of wild animals in these woods? Anything that I should worry about?”

“Monsters will surely be drawn by the smell of blood here. It would be best if we moved on now.”

Noah huffed in annoyance. Great, now he had monsters to worry about. This certainly was a world unlike any he had seen before. This ruined his plan of taking the corpses with him. He was sure he could find a use or two for them, as well as take their clothes and anything else of value on their person when there was more time. He also didn’t want to leave any evidence of what he had done.

“Very well. Remove the clothes from the bodies and put them in the wagon.”

She wordlessly obeyed, proceeding to strip the corpses without any shred of unease or discomfort. Most girls her age would be too squeamish to do anything like this. As she worked, Noah searched the wagon and found a canvas bag, smelling too rancid to be used for food. He soaked it with a wineskin, and while it wasn’t ideal, it was good enough for him to use to put out the fires that the old man had started. He and Tin completed their tasks, leaving three naked bodies on the road and a few charred trees. Noah retrieved one of the swords, just a crummy machete, but sharp enough to get the job done. He showed no discomfort in decapitating the bodies and storing the heads in the canvas bag.

“Drag these bodies into the woods, out of sight from the road. That should satiate any beasts that search this area.”

There was no telling what the value of these slave traders were. If they were even slightly important to someone, their disappearance might lead to an investigation. Three nude, headless bodies that were devoured by monsters wouldn’t leave any evidence. They couldn’t even be identified. On the other hand, if they were criminals, then Noah might be able to use their severed heads as confirmation of their deaths and collect a bounty. He had been in a lot of bad situations and chaotic timelines, so this mindset was a skill he knew he could rely on and use as he needed.

Once the bodies were dealt with, Noah took his seat at the front of the wagon and Tin joined him. The two extra horses were tethered to the sides of the wagon and would follow along. Noah cracked the reins and the horses pulling the wagon began moving forward.

“There is a suitable place several miles down this road. I will show you where.”

“Until we get there, I have questions that I need answered. Where am I? What country is this?”

“This is the Algata Province of the nation of Uther.”

“How large is Uther? How much of the continent does it take up?”

Tin bowed her head. “Please forgive my ignorance. I do not know the size of this country, nor what a ‘continent’ is.” The way she had reacted, was she expecting him to punish her?

Her answer was to be expected, though. A slave educated in geography would be an unusual find. It would be good if he could get his hands on a decent map, though in this era, that was probably a lot to ask for. In a world with magic and monsters, there was no telling what the planet’s topography looked like, even the arrangement of the continents. He had traveled previous Earths numerous times, but much of his experience was now obsolete.

“Relax, I’m not going to hit you for not knowing something. Just keep answering my questions as best as you can. Uther, is it a rich country?”

“I… don’t know for sure. Perhaps there is wealth in the capital, but this is the countryside.”

“Does it operate under a monarchy? Or do they elect their leaders?” She looked at him like he had spoken in gibberish. “Does it have a king or queen?”

“Oh, yes, sir. There is a royal family, but I don’t know anything about them.”

“What do they use for currency?”

“Metal coins, like silver and gold.”

Noah retrieved one of the snakeskin coin purses and emptied it out onto the seat between them. It was about a dozen bronze coins and a few silvers. The other two could be expected to hold a similar amount.

“How much would you say this is? Would you say it is a large amount of money or not much?”

She looked at the coins with her glum expression. “I don’t know. I’ve never handled money before.” She picked up one of the silver coins and showed it to Noah. “This is what I’m worth.”

‘Well, that’s a depressing thought.’ “What season is it currently?”

“Mid spring.”

That was good for Noah. In order to get a foothold in this new world, he’d need ample time with the chances of survival at its highest. Winter would hamper his mobility, possible actions, and make life a lot harder. Had he appeared in this world a few months earlier, he could easily freeze to death before reaching civilization.

“You spoke before of monsters. What should I be cautious of in this forest?”

“The biggest danger is the wolves. They travel in packs and kill whatever they see. There are also bears, large spiders that hide in burrows, and goblins.”

Giant spiders and goblins? This world was getting more fantastical by the second.

“Tell me about the goblins.”

“They are small, only about the size of children, and maybe as smart. They have weapons and often ambush travelers.”

“The old man, what was that technique he used? I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”

“That was magic.”

‘Thought so.’ “Tell me everything you know about magic.”

“It is the blessing of the gods, letting people call down divine retribution upon their enemies. It can create fire, control water, make you stronger, and do all kinds of things. There many different kinds of magic users. I’ve heard of some of them; mages, paladins, warriors, shamans, but I don’t know much about what they can do.”

“What kind was the old man?”

“A mage, I think.”

“So can anyone use it? Or is it passed down through the bloodline?”

“I don’t know.”

That was a problem. If it was an ability passed down from parent to child, then he was screwed. His glitchy reincarnation left him with the regular genes of his last parents. If magic wasn’t something he could learn or acquire, life would get exponentially harder. Then there was the mentioning of gods. He had spent several lifetimes searching for signs of the existence of God, some presence of divinity that might explain his existence, but he always came up short. However, in a world where magic existed, perhaps gods might as well.

As they continued through the woods, Noah thought about the slaves walking behind the wagon. Letting them go might be a liability. They knew he had killed three slave traders, they knew where he would set up camp. The slave traders mistook him for the son of a noble, so if the slaves went into some town and started blabbing about him and what he had done, people might come after him. Perhaps it would be better to dispose of all of them? No, the chances of him managing to kill them all would be low and that would be a lot of corpses to deal with, not to mention he didn’t know if killing them would get him into trouble.

‘To think my laziness would compensate for my withered conscience…’

They were passing by a hill with trees blocking much of the view, but all of the horses flicked their ears to it. Noah didn’t miss that tick and reached into the wagon. When searching earlier, he found a bow and a few arrows, none of which seemed very well made. He took aim up the hill, spotting a shadow moving between the hills. It had been a long time since he had last used a bow. It was one of his hobbies about four or five lifetimes ago. This was nothing like the modern bows he was used to handling, but when he let the arrow slip free, it shot between the trees and found its mark. Noah didn’t see what he hit, but there was a shriek of pain that he did not recognize and the sound of multiple entities running off.

“What was that?” Tin asked.

“I assume that was one of those goblins you mentioned.” This was getting dangerous. “You stay here,” he told Tin. He brought the wagon to a stop and went back with his knife and the key. He cut the slaves’ binds and unlocked their collars. “You’re all free to go, get out of here. But don’t even think of trying to follow—”

They ran off before he could finish his sentence. Good, that would make him less of a sitting duck, and they’d draw the attention of anything that might want a piece of him. He returned to the driver’s seat and turned to Tin, holding up one of the coin purses.

“Get me to that safe spot and this is yours.”

—————-

The forest thinned a lit, the trees spreading out far enough for the wagon to go off the road and head towards the sound of running water. They arrived at a clearing where a small waterfall thumped on exposed rock. It was isolated, just the place Noah needed. There was even a cave behind the waterfall where he could make camp. However, they were not the only inhabitants.

“Tin, what the hell is that?” he asked, looking at the creature sliding across the ground. At first, he thought it was giant slug, the creature about the size of a beer keg, but he then realized it was translucent. There were four of them.

“That is a slime. They like damp places. Their undersides are like giant mouths, devouring whatever they crawl over. Their bodies are covered with a thin skin, and if you tear it, its insides pour out and change the shape of its body.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Yes. Anything that their undersides touch will melt, same with anything you stab them with. The bigger they are, the faster it happens, and the faster they can move.”

“How do I kill them?”

“You have to hit their brains.”

The slimes hadn’t noticed them yet, so Noah took aim with the bow at the nearest one. It was hard telling the front from the back of these things, but he spotted something floating inside, suspended, an apple-sized lump of solid tissue. He released the bolt, missing the creature’s brain by several inches. It rumbled in pain and its gelatinous insides spilled out of the wound like a runny nose. Upon contact with the air, the viscera began to congeal and develop a layer of skin. It formed an extension of itself, like a second tail, now searching for what had injured it.

‘So, that’s what she meant when she said it changed the shape of its body.’

Already, the arrow was halfway dissolved. That thing was like a giant moving stomach. He would have preferred to take care of these monsters from a distance, but he didn’t have enough arrows to throw away. It would also get dark soon, and he didn’t want to try and look for another spot.

He turned to Tin and cut her binds, then handed her one of the coin purses. “You’re free. Go wherever and do whatever you want. But don’t even think of taking anything from the wagon.”

He got up from the wagon and approached the waterfall with one of the slave traders’ swords in his hand. It was the worst of the two, useful at least for experimentation. He approached the slime, already back to full health after being shot with the arrow. It didn’t appear to have very good vision, didn’t even appear to have eyes. He picked up a stone from the creek and threw it, sending it bouncing a few feet away. It pounced on the rock with surprising speed, smothering it with its body and absorbing it. So, these things could jump. If it could see, it was probably short-ranged, based on movement, or more likely it could sense vibrations in the ground.

He took another rock and threw it at the slime, this time hitting it. The rock ripped through its fragile skin and its guts spilled out. The blow stunned it just long enough for Noah to sprint over and cleave through its brain. As quickly as he attacked, he darted back. He had learned through numerous occasions to always expect an enemy to get back up. Plus, he wanted to avoid getting sprayed with any guts.

Despite his concern, it was a clean kill. The monster, originally a nauseating yellow, turned gray, and its exposed insides began to smoke and dissolve. Unfortunately, smoke was also coming from his sword. This really was a nasty acid. Noah wiped the blade off on the grass and then rinsed it in the river to clean it. It had undergone severe corrosion. Hopefully it would last until he killed them all.

One thing made him happy, though. When he killed the slime, numbers didn’t appear in the air, displaying experience points earned. He started having concerns as soon as that first fireball was launched at him, and when Tin said it was a slime; he thought he had been reincarnated into some kind of RPG world. If at any point, she used the word ‘level’, he would have permanently lost the ability to keep a straight face and take anything seriously.

Anyway, back to killing.

He repeated his strategy with the other three slimes. A fist sized rock thrown with sufficient speed and accuracy could pierce the monsters and stun them long enough to deliver a fatal strike. After the third slime, his sword broke in half, the end completely melting off. There was one slime left, but it would be tricky. It was slithering around behind the waterfall, unaware of what had happened to the others. The vibrations of the water would probably mask Noah’s movements, but he didn’t want to take the chance.

He crept behind the waterfall and threw another stone, striking the slime near the brain. Its body curled up like a slug sprinkled with salt, and Noah rushed over. This time, he thrust the broken blade straight in. He managed to stab the brain, but the sword slipped right into its body. Noah pulled away before his inertia could send his hand plunging into the acidic muck, but several drops splashed him and he could feel his skin dissolving. He thrust his hand into the waterfall and steadied his breathing as the pain faded. That was too close for comfort. He’d have to come up with another way to stop those things if he encountered them again.

The area had been secured, now to set up camp. He stepped out from behind the waterfall, and to his surprise, he saw Tin standing by the wagon, as if waiting for him.

“What are you still doing here? I told you, you’re free.”

“I… don’t know what that means. I don’t know how to be free.”

“I gave you money. Take it to the nearest town and buy yourself something to eat and some new clothes. Look for anyone who will hire you, hopefully offering room and board in exchange. From there, start your new life.”

“Is that an order?”

“No, it’s advice. You don’t have to take orders from me, I’m not your master. I hired you to be my guide, you got your money, and our contract is complete. Now we part ways.” She continued to stand there, looking like a puppy in the rain. “You can have one of the horses. You’ll be able to get to town faster and outrun pursuers.”

“So you want me to prepare for your arrival into town?”

This girl was starting to get on his nerves. “You’re not listening. You don’t have to do anything for me. You’re your own person now.”

“But I’m not. I’m yours.” She was almost whimpering now. Time for some tough love.

Noah retrieved his bow and an arrow and took aim at her. “Leave now, or I’ll kill you and use your corpse for bait to catch my dinner.”

There was a glimmer in her eyes. “If I can be useful as a corpse, I’ll do that. Please, use me as bait.”

Noah sighed and lowered the bow. Were he a harsher man, that wouldn’t have been a bluff. This girl was needier than he would have liked, but her subservience made her more trustworthy than anyone he could expect to find in this world. Maybe it would be good to have an extra pair of hands to help him, at least until he got out of this forest. Besides, it wasn’t like this was the first time he had owned a slave. There were many dark timelines when he followed the rule of ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans.’

“Fine, I’ll be your master. What skills do you have?”

“I can count to one hundred, I can write some, and I can tend to livestock and work fields, as well as perform household chores. I am also very experienced in pleasing men, so I can service you whenever you desire.” She bowed her head as she spoke, not seeing Noah raise his eyebrows at her last sentence.

Depressing as her words were, he wasn’t one to turn down an offer for sex from someone so willing. On the other hand, nothing about her current appearance stoked his libido. He was standing twenty feet away and could smell her like it was twenty inches. Sitting next to her in the wagon had been very unpleasant. Just letting her bathe in the river wouldn’t get the job done.

“Let’s get camp set up and then we’ll talk. You said you can tend to livestock, correct? Then I’ll leave the horses to you. Get them watered and fed and then remove these dead slimes. I imagine they’ve lost their acidity in death.”

Tin obediently went to work while Noah gathered all of the chains and collars that had been used to lead the slaves. There was also plenty of rope in case any of their binds broke during transport. Noah snapped the collars off the chains and used them as hammers to break the weaker links and split the chains into multiple short segments. He split the rope into thinner strands and set up a perimeter around the campsite, then hung the collars and chains on it like Christmas ornaments. Any intruders that tried to enter would hit the tripwire and the jingling chains and collars would give them away. And in case they were set off by the wind, the horses would be the second line of detection. If they started acting up, then a threat was nearby.

“I’m going to go collect some firewood. If any monsters approach, just holler for me and yeet some horseshit at them. The smell will drive them off.” He then stopped and chuckled to himself. That’s right, he no longer needed to use modern slang.

Tin seemed to gist of what he was saying. “Yes, Master,” she said with a bow.

Noah set out into the woods with his only sword and a satchel the old man had been carrying. He didn’t want to stray far from camp, but he had to check out the area and make sure there weren’t any imminent dangers. One thing he was especially cautious of were the giant spiders that Tin had mentioned. She said they hid in burrows, so he kept a close eye on his footing, avoiding any suspicious areas that could be a possible ambush. Webbing on the ground was a telltale sign, proof that he wasn’t the only one using tripwires to detect enemies.

The first thing he did was gather pine boughs from around the site, accumulating a large pile that they would use for bedding and making frequent trips back to the camp. Then he gathered all of the firewood he could carry, but focused only on specific trees. This world was very different to the one he was used to, but most of the trees appeared to be the same. He also filled his pockets and the satchel with medicinal plants and even some edible mushrooms. In every life, her learned and relearned survival skills to keep the information branded into his mind, so even if had forgotten their names, he still recognized herbs that could be useful. As he moved, he had a strong feeling that he was being watched, and he knew what was watching him, especially when he found one of their dead.

It was one of the wolves Tin had mentioned, larger than any he had ever seen. His nose led him to it, the wolf reeking of death and rot. The meat was well beyond eating and its fur and bones weren’t worth the effort to harvest, especially with all the maggots and flies, but there was something that he could definitely make use of.

The sun was starting to set by the time he was done, but there was still plenty he wanted to do. Luckily, dinner was already taken care of. The slave traders had packed enough food for themselves and their cargo. It was hard bread and dried meat, something that Noah’s spoiled taste buds would not appreciate, but he’d seen enough hard times to know how to be grateful.

Before doing anything else, he removed his hoodie and t-shirt. He had kept them on as an added layer of protection in case anything attacked him, but the blood had hardened into a hard crust and he was glad to be able to finally take them off. Had he known he would reincarnate like this, he would have gone home and just hung himself, preferably with his pockets stuffed with useful tools. He laid out his shirt and hoodie under the waterfall, directing the spray right onto the blood stains. He pinned them down with stones so that they wouldn’t be washed away.

He noticed Tin watching him like a curious feline. She had never seen muscles like his before. To survive in the countryside, men required great strength to farm and fight and muscle mass naturally accumulated. Noah’s appeared more defined, like he had focused on improving the quality of his muscles instead of just chasing after the vague definition of strength.

“Tin, take off your clothes.”

“I shall do my best to satisfy you, Master.”

“Not like that. Put that dress of yours here under the waterfall. Do the same with all the clothes you removed from those slave traders. It may be low-quality, but whether we use them or sell them, it would be best if we can at least remove the stink.”

Tin removed her dress, though it was more like a raggedy potato sack with holes cut for her head and arms and a strip of cloth for a belt. She was malnourished and scrawny, but he just had to polish her up a little.

With the last of the light, he searched the river for stones. He’d test their hardness, striking them against the back of his sword. Once he started getting sparks, he returned to the riverbank and gathered up some tinder. He ground some dry birch bark into a fine dust and struck the rock against his sword over it. It took several attempts, but some sparks landed in the dust and it went up like gasoline. From there, he built up a fire on the riverbank with all of the birch wood he had gathered. By the light of the flames, he started digging a hole using his sword and a metal skillet he found in the wagon.

“Master, please allow me to do that instead,” Tin said.

“No, what I need you to do is start collecting clay from the river. If you dig under the silt, you’ll find it. Make a big pile of it here next to me.”

The two of them continued to work, with Noah expanding the pit and Tin gathering the clay. Once he was done, he smoothed out the sides of the pit and then began slathering on the clay that Tin had gathered. He used the leftover clay to make some cups and bowls and put them in the fire to bake. He built a second fire, this time putting it in the pit. It was with a softer wood. He didn’t even need to see Tin’s face to sense the curiosity within her.

“I’m making a wash basin. No offense, but you stink. But for now, let’s eat.”

With two fires burning, Noah and Tin dined on low-quality rations. There wasn’t any conversation between them. Once he finished eating, Noah reached into his satchel and took out what looked like a giant dirt clod. In reality, it was a lump of animal fat. He had gathered it from the carcass of the dead wolf, rolled it into a ball, and packed it with a shell of dirt to keep it from making a mess when he carried it. It cleaned it off and put it in the metal skillet, then set it over the fire.

“Now, while that melts, let me see your teeth.” It was a request that Tin wasn’t used to hearing, but she obeyed, flashing her teeth like a snarling animal. “Huh, not too bad.”

Despite her poor lifestyle, her teeth were in good condition. She grew up in a world without processed foods, sugars, or chemicals, so despite never brushing, there was no rot that he could see. Her breath was pretty bad, but that was because she lacked the concept of flossing.

Noah walked over to one of the horses hitched to a tree, nibbling on the pile of grass that Tin had gathered for it. He cut a lock of its long hair, washed it in the river, and returned to the campfire, where he braided several strands into a strong thread. He made a second and turned to Tin.

“Take this thread and do as I do.” He used the thread to floss his teeth, something which Tin had never seen before. The thread was thick and coarse and broke a few times, but it got the job done, and he showed her the pieces of meat from their dinner that he had gotten out.

She mirrored the action to the best of her abilities, and while she did that, he looked at the skillet, now with a puddle of melted fat. He gathered some white ashes from the fire and mixed it in, as well as some water.

“Now I’m going to show you how to make soap.” Last, he added a handful of ground-up pine needles and started stirring the mixture together.

“Soap?”

“You’ve never heard of it?”

“I heard that the nobles use it. It makes them smell nice.”

“It’s been a long time since I did this. If I had time and proper tools, I could make something of a much higher quality, but this should get the job done.” He set the skillet back on the fire so that the water could be boiled away. “Have you gotten every tooth?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then take a mouthful of this.” From next to the fire, there was also a cup made, of all things, tin. It was full of water brought to a simmer, with ground charcoal and pine needles mixed in. He let it cool and then handed it to her. “You said you could count, right? Well swirl this around your mouth and start counting. Once you reach one hundred, swallow it.”

She took a mouthful and handed it back to him so he could finish it off. With that taken care of, Noah took the skillet off the fire and examined his soap. It certainly would never sell in a grocery store, but it would get the job done tonight. Next, he turned his attention to the wash basin and the withered fire. The clay packed onto the sides of the pit had hardened and could now retain water.

Noah carved the soap off the skillet and handed it to Tin. “Here, use this to shovel as much charcoal and ash out of the basin as you can, then clean it in the river and use it to fill the basin with water.”

As Tin went to work, Noah started on his own task. Like her, he went to river, but started collecting stones. He’d bring them back and put them in the campfire to heat up. By the time Tin had finished with her task, the rocks were all sufficiently hot, and using sticks to handle them, he moved them into the basin until it had reached the perfect bath temperature. It was still ashy from the fire, but that wasn’t a problem.

The reason why he had used different fires for the basin and soap was because of one of the resulting chemicals, lye. Despite being a caustic substance, it was required for making soap. It was collected from the ashes of hardwood, like birch. He had used a softer wood in the fire to harden the sides of the basin so any leftover ashes wouldn’t turn the water too alkaline.

“All right, now to test it.”

Noah stripped down to match Tin and grabbed a piece of fabric from the wagon to use as a washcloth. He got it wet in the basin, rubbed some of the soap on it, and, satisfied with how it lathered, started wiping off the sweat that had accumulated since his arrival to this world.

Tin held a piece of soap in her hand, staring at it with wide eyes. “It smells… sweet!”

She mimicked Noah, using a makeshift washcloth and the soap to scrub herself raw. She was frantic, leaving no spot untouched. The two of them cleansed their skin, lathering themselves up and then rinsing in the river to keep the bath water clean. With the dirt removed, much was revealed to Noah. Neither of them said anything about the countless scars, bruises, and brands that covered Tin’s body. Finally, he had her lie on her back and lowered her head into the basin, then scrubbed her hair with the soap until the bathwater turned as black as ink. She sat up and rung the water out of her hair as he stood up and stretched.

“Huh, so you’re a blonde. I honestly couldn’t tell your natural color. You were so dirty that I wasn’t sure if the drapes matched the carpet.” She didn’t say anything back, just crouched by the basin, holding herself. Wait, she was trembling. “Tin?”

She looked up at him, and though her face was wet from the bath, he could clearly see her tears. “I… I’ve never smelled this clean before!”

He rubbed the top of her head. “I’m glad.”

She reached up and grasped his hand, desperation in her eyes. “Master, can I please service you now?”

A small laugh escaped Noah. “My, my, what a greedy little slave you are.”

He leaned down, lifted her chin, and left a soft kiss upon her lips. She shivered from that touch, gentler than any other in her life. She took the initiative, kissing him in return while her tongue slipped into his mouth. As they swapped saliva, she reached out and began caressing his manhood, erect and throbbing. She had been eyeing it since the moment he stripped down, her mind buzzing with all of the ways she would please him.

When Noah finally pulled his lips from hers, she knew what he wanted and was eager to provide it. She leaned in, his cock disappearing into her mouth, only to reappear with a glistening layer of spit. Tin wasn’t shy in the least, she put all of her skills to work. She deepthroated him to make herself gag and salivate, then would use her hands to work the shaft while she slurped on his head like a lollipop. Despite her joy at being so clean just a minute ago, she was certainly making a mess, her face covered in spit with big foamy drops dribbling onto her breasts.

Noah rested his hand on her head and groaned. “I’m glad I decided to keep you.”

She released his cock, gasping for air with her eyes full of joy. “Am I doing good?”

“You’re magnificent, Tin.”

She went back at it, this time with a different target in mind. While she jacked him off, she sucked vehemently on his jewels, rolling them around in her mouth and balancing them on her tongue. She switched between her techniques with masterful skill, giving Noah no time to brace himself. He didn’t even need tell her when he was going to cum, she could tell just by his breathing and the way his muscles twitched. She swallowed his manhood like a voracious beast, her face pressed to his stomach as he swirled around inside her throat.

Several thick jets were pumped directly into her stomach, a salty dessert after her meal. Tin fell back, once again gasping for air. “Master,” she panted, “please don’t hold back. Use my body however you wish.”

“You’ve done well in pleasing me, but has anyone ever took the time to give you pleasure?”

He sat down cross-legged and pulled her across his lap like he was going to spank her. He held her by the throat, just a gentle grip to keep her still, while he free hand slipped between her legs and reached her honeypot.

“You’re so wet. To think you took so much joy in your work.”

Born and raised a slave, she had been abused and violated in all ways imaginable. She thought she had grown numb to it, but the feeling of Noah’s fingers touching her most private, sensitive area, they made her shiver and gasp. There was strength in his fingers, but his movements weren’t rough or clumsy. Rather, she sensed that his experience surpassed her own.

His fingers penetrated her, making her moan in a way she thought she never again could. His attack was relentless, probing every sensitive spot like an assassin striking her pressure points. She was a slender girl, body fat being a luxury for a slave, but her flesh rippled from the vibrations drumming from her ass. She could feel the weight of her breasts with every movement, and the sounds he was making, the sounds he was forcing her body to make, the squelching of soft, wet flesh, it was like she was experiencing this all for the first time.

The pleasure was beyond words, she wanted it to go on forever, but her body wouldn’t obey her commands. Her muscles spasmed without pause like she was being tickled. She inadvertently tried to pull away, her body wanting to protect itself from these sensations it couldn’t contain, but Noah’s grip on her throat remained firm. This position, what he was doing to her, it was so strange. She felt almost like an animal, like livestock, and Noah was the farmer, preparing her for breeding with some strange husbandry technique. Ironically, that wasn’t far from the truth.

She cried out, climaxes rushing through her like a flash flood, but Noah didn’t stop, even as she became limp. He continued mercilessly finger-blasting her, while his other hand released her throat and he forced his fingers into her mouth. She sucked on them like they had a honey glaze. They were her lifeline, all that was keeping her conscious. The movements of her tongue and lips, the quivering of her throat as she slurped up the flavor of his fingertips; if she didn’t work with all her might, the almost cruel assault of orgasms would rob her of all thought and crush her mind.

Only when her moans finally stopped did Noah let her experience peace. He laid her on her back and leaned over her. The lewd, exhausted look on her face, the way she panted with flushed cheeks and swimming eyes, it was an expression he always loved to see.

“You said I could do whatever I wanted with your body, right? Are you going to tell me that you can’t keep up with your master? That you lied and you can’t fulfill my desires?”

She reached out to him, her skinny arms coiling around his neck to pull him in. “Master, take me,” she begged.

By the light of the campfire, he penetrated her, just as numerous men had done before, but none of them made Tin feel like this. His lips joined hers, a passionate but gentle kiss, while in comparison, his thrusts, so fast and forceful, made her cry out to the stars overhead.

.

.

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Civilization

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.

The rising sun shining in his eyes awoke Noah from his sleep. It was not a deep sleep, due to his current circumstances, but he at least felt rested. It was his first dawn in this new world. He and Tin were lying on a pile of pine boughs, keeping them off the ground and insulated, and wrapped in the canvas wagon cover, which they were using as both a tarp and a blanket. The freed slave was snuggled up tightly against him, both for warmth, and out of affection. The term “freed slave” fit her ironically, as Noah had given her freedom, but she chose to remain his slave anyway.

As he started moving around, she slowly stirred. “Master?” she murmured.

“Time to get up, we have work to do.”

It was a chilly morning, so the first thing Noah did was build up a fire while Tin collected their clothes from the waterfall. They had been set under the spray to be washed, and after a night under the pounding water, they were clean as could be reasonably expected. They were hung up to dry around the fire, while Noah and Tin had breakfast. Last night, Noah had made some cups and bowls using the clay that Tin gathered and left them in the fire to bake overnight. Now, he was using them to boil water and make pine needle tea.

“What do you want to do, Master? I can lead you to town if you like.”

“How long would it take to get there?”

“Another two or three days.”

Noah weighed his options. This wasn’t an optimal situation. “No, we’ll stay here for another day. We have a defendable position here, but if we return to the road, we’ll be like sitting ducks. While I have faith in my fighting abilities, I can’t defend myself, you, and the horses. Let’s try to improve our chances before we set out.”

“What should we do?”

“Yesterday, while I was looking for rocks in the dark, I think I might have seen some slimes moving about. They’re usually small, right? Not big like the ones I killed yesterday?”

Tin nodded. “They’re usually the size of rats.”

“Perfect. First, what we’re going to do is make a lot of lye.”

“What’s lye?”

“It’s the stuff in ash that I used to make that soap last night. It’s a very nasty chemical. I’m going to start gathering wood. I want you to bail out the bathwater from the basin and refill it. Rain water would be best, but river water will have to do. Then take the stones and put them back in the fire. You remember what to do if something attacks?”

“Throw horse dung and holler for you?”

“Right.”

Noah departed, heading back into the forest. Just like the day before, he was gathering hardwood from birch, oak, and maple trees. He moved cautiously, hearing movement all around him. He also returned to certain areas he had visited before, with prey on his mind. He came across a spot he had just yesterday done his best to avoid. There was spider silk on the ground, and nearby, an obvious trapdoor. Noah put a large stick on his foot and readied his bow, taking aim. He kicked the stick over by the trapdoor, and instantly a spider burst out to seize what it thought was its meal. The thing was huge, almost five feet in diameter.

Noah released his arrow, striking one of its eyes and leaving it screeching in pain. Before it could duck back into its hole, he shot another arrow, this one drilling through its skull and ending its life. While it was still fresh, Noah rushed over, pulled out the second arrow, and thrust his fingers into the hole. He stirred his fingers around in the spider’s brain, causing its legs, now curled up into a fist, to start spasming. While not familiar with spider anatomy specifically, he was tickling what he hoped to be the cerebellum.

“Come on, where are you… Ah!” He found the magic spot, as the whole body convulsed and the abdomen started expelling silk at a frantic rate, like he was squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Het got to his feet and dragged the spider with him, laying out the silk so that it wouldn’t stick to itself. He had come up with this idea on a whim and was overjoyed to see it work. When flow of silk stopped, he removed his fingers. “That’s right, ladies, I am just that good.”

He then began rubbing dirt into the silk like he had with the animal fat he had collected the previous day, something to keep it from sticking to anything. It was good thick line, and strong as well. Next, he started gathering up the older, thinner webbing it had used for its den. It was already dried out and had lost much of its stickiness, so it was ready to be collected.

He returned to the camp, carrying the spider with him as well. He was sure he could think up something to do with his corpse, maybe use it like a scarecrow to ward off goblins or something. When he arrived, Tin had completed her task and stared in amazement at the dead spider.

Noah walked over to the wagon and pulled out a small wooden barrel. It had originally been filled with salt, which the slave traders used to preserve their food, but now there wasn’t much left. What remained, Noah poured into some of his clay jars. He then hung the spider to drain its blood into the barrel. There wasn’t much, and it had begun to congeal immediately after death, but that just made it sticky like syrup. He swirled it around the inside of the barrel, covering every inch, and then filled it up halfway with some of the used ashes from the birch fires yesterday. He didn’t touch the ashes with his hands, and upon closing the barrel, he shook it up. Once completed, the inside of the barrel was coated with thick layer of ash.

Putting it aside, Noah began moving hot stones from the fire and putting them into the basin, bringing the water to a boil. Then, he started shoveling birch ashes until it filled up half the basin. For the next half hour, Noah would swap out stones, making sure the water was always boiling. Soon a film began to settle on top of the water. It was liquid lye, rising from the ashes. Noah harvested it from the surface, careful not to touch it, and put it in the skillet on the fire to boil away the moisture.

“Ok, I’m going to go back and get more firewood. I want you to keep swapping out the stones so that the water stays boiling hot, and as the lye gathers on the surface, skim it and put it in the skillet. Whatever you do, do not let it touch you. The waterfall and the river are keeping the air moving in one direction. You want to stay upwind so that you don’t breathe in any of the fumes. You got that?”

“Yes, Master.”

And that was how they spent the entire morning and much of the afternoon. They kept burning birch wood, and once the basin stopped producing lye, they would swap in fresh ashes and resume harvesting. Between collecting firewood and tending to the fire, Noah created more pottery with the river clay and baked it in the fire. The skillet was routinely filled with the lye mixture, and once the water evaporated away, Noah would scrape the lye into one of his clay jars. It was the middle of the afternoon when he declared that they had collected enough.

“Now to test it.” With his knife, he collected a small bump and put it on his arm. He could feel it burning his skin like an aching sunburn. Had he taken his time with this, it would have been burning a crater into his skin, but in this case, quantity was better than quality.

“Yeah, this will work well. You did good,” he said, rubbing the top of Tin’s head.

“Thank you, Master,” she replied with what he assumed to be a rare smile.

“Let’s eat some lunch and then move on to the next step.”

They moved away from the fire, sick of its heat, and ate by the waterfall. While chewing on tough jerky, Noah studied the horses. They weren’t tied to any trees, at least not now, and were wandering around the campsite, nibbling on whatever they liked. The trip wire was doing a good job of keeping them close, but they would probably run out of food by tomorrow. They’d have to move on by then.

“Master, if my may ask, how do you know how to do these things? I’ve never seen anyone fight like you do, at least not someone your age, and you have the skills of an alchemist. What kind of training have you done?”

“An alchemist? I kind of like the sound of that. Let’s just say that I have a lot of life experience. I’ve lived through good times and bad. Anyway, we should move on to the next stage. I’m going to go along the river and catch small slimes. I want you to find the corpses of the big slimes I killed yesterday and try to collect their skin.”

Tin was obedient, not voicing any of her doubts and instead setting off to do as her master ordered. Noah retrieved the barrel he had tinkered with earlier and filled it with water, then began walking through the river, searching the banks. It was only up to his knees, and there were plenty of large boulders for slimes to hide by. On his hands, he wore some rough leather gloves that one of the slave traders had been wearing. The slimes he found were usually about the size of his fist, and with great care, he’d pick them up and put them in the barrel.

The water in the barrel, thanks to the ash, had a raised pH level. The slimes were acidic, but their pH level wasn’t very low. The alkalinity of the water and the ashes kept them from melting through the sides of the barrel. He also tossed in some food to keep them from starving. Hopefully they’d still be able to digest it. If they were all still alive by the next morning, his plan was a success.

When he returned to the camp, Tin had gathered up the skins of the dead slimes from the day before.

“I’m sorry, Master, but the skins are too fragile for any kind of use.” Noah put down the barrel and examined the shed skin. It was crinkly and soft, a far cry from any kind of leather, more like a snake’s shed skin.

“No, they’re perfect, just what I wanted.” He handed her one of the daggers the slave traders had carried. “Here, start carving them up into squares, about as long as your hand. You know how big, right?”

She nodded and went to work. While she did that, Noah collected more long hair from the horses. He took the squares that Tin cut up and used them to wrap up small piles of lye, then tied them shut with the horse hair. The slime skin, despite its fragility, still maintained many of its characteristics. Slimes were like living acid, so they had to be able to control their pH level. Their skin not only kept their guts in, it kept basic substances out, substances like lye, making it perfect for holding it.

With their combined efforts, they were able to create just over thirty lye packs, plus another twenty filled with alkaline ashes.

“Ok, let’s test one of these out.” Noah took one of the extra squares, filled it with ashes, tied it off, and threw it at a nearby boulder. The slime skin held together while being handled and thrown, but upon striking a hard surface, it burst open and sprayed its contents in all directions. “Perfect!”

“So we’re going to throw these things?” Tin asked.

“That’s right. This lye isn’t very strong, so it doesn’t do much to skin, but if it gets into your eyes or you breathe it in, you’ll go down. All we have to do is hit our enemies in the face and they won’t stand a chance. Now, I know we’re both tired, but we still have a few hours of daylight left. Let’s work on a couple other ways to improve our situation, and tomorrow, we’ll head for the nearest town.”

—————

They departed the next morning at dawn, wanting to get an early start. They were traveling at a faster pace than before, mainly because there were no longer slaves in tow. The two horses the traders had ridden were no longer walking alongside the wagon, but were now helping to pull it. With the spider silk Noah had collected and wood from the forest, he managed to create extra harnesses so that they were leading. The horses moved in a steady trot, nothing compared to the cars from Noah’s previous lives, but fast enough to possibly outrun an untrained man.

For Noah, this was a scene he was familiar in. He had fought in numerous wars and seen countless post-apocalyptic worlds, living through one anarchic hellscape after another. He was familiar with the need to grow eyes in the back of his head, to expect enemies at all times.

“Master!” Tin exclaimed.

“Yeah, I see them.”

Swarming from the side were a pack of wolves, each one almost as large as the horses pulling the wagon, but Noah had planned for this. He handed the reins to Tin who whipped the horses into a full gallop. He took out his bow and began launching arrows. Most of these arrows, he had made himself. He had to rush them, so they weren’t his best work, but they got the job done for short-range encounters.

The wolves dodged the arrows as they charged, but it managed to spook them into moving around back to attack from the rear. Noah climbed into the wagon and stared them down through the open back. Changing their attack angle had momentarily slowed them down, but they’d catch up in seconds and flank them. Noah tossed a bundle of branches and greens out of the back of the wagon, but they were more than they appeared. It was actually a net with thorny bushes and bristles woven in. The net was dragged behind the wagon, and the wolves that stepped on it cried out as their paws were spiked with sharp seed pods. Those who were injured gave up the chase, while the rest of the pack learned and split up to avoid the net.

Before they could leave his view, Noah opened up the barrel of slimes and began throwing them. Even if the small beasts didn’t make a direct hit, they exploded like water balloons. The acid splashed on the wolves, who instinctively knew that slimes were to be avoided. The pack realized that this prey wasn’t worth all of the trouble and gave up. One threat had been neutralized, giving them time to breathe, but it didn’t end there.

Bears and other forest beasts would pop up every now and then and need to be dispatched by arrows. The tiny bolts couldn’t do much damage, but the pain would make the beasts reevaluate whether or not to continue attacking. Any monsters he managed to kill, he would harvest for parts. With Tin controlling the horses, he would work in the wagon, removing skin, teeth, organs, and anything that looked valuable or useful. Every now and then, they’d even stop so that he could collect medicinal plants and mushrooms. But the more he fought, the more Noah realized how unprepared his body was for all this. He was healthy and strong, and had lifetimes of combat experience, but his hands hadn’t built up a layer of calluses that a native of these lands would have. Every time he gripped his sword, he could feel blisters forming on his palm.

Then, in the afternoon, the next challenge revealed itself. In the distance, a tree lay across the road. A rider on horseback might be able to jump it, but never a wagon like this. Whether or not it had fallen naturally, Noah knew who would use this opportunity.

“Tin, stop the wagon.” They came to halt a hundred yards from the tree. “Turn the horses around. If I die, ride back the way we came. Stay at the waterfall until someone uses this road and then travel with them.”

“Master, are you sure about this?” she asked with her basset hound eyes.

“I’ve handled worse.”

He got off the wagon with his sword in hand, and on his arm, a shield made from the carapace of the spider he had killed. He was wearing one of the slave traders’ coats, the closest he could get to leather armor, and he also had his satchel, filled with lye packets. Rather than approach the tree, he dove into the woods. If there were any goblins in hiding, he’d flank them. As he approached the barrier, he spotted them, hiding behind the trees. They were the size of children, but with protruding stomachs and green skin. Their ears and noses were pointed, their faces overall barely even humanoid. They were armed with swords and bows, likely stolen from slain travelers.

He closed in on the first one, his footsteps giving him away and causing it to screech in alarm. Noah dispatched it with a swing of his sword, overpowering its attempt to parry and lopping off the top of its skull. The others, alarmed by the death of their comrade, turned their attention to Noah and attacked. They launched their arrows, albeit with shoddy aim, but it forced Noah to duck for cover. He pulled out one of his lye packs, focused on a goblin with a bow, and threw it like a baseball. The small pack nailed it between the eyes and exploded. The goblin took an instinctive breath in, and then immediately screamed in agony. Not only were its sinuses and lungs filled with lye, but it had gotten into his eyes, leaving it blinded.

The way it shrieked was nothing less than unnerving. It was like a baby crying, it racked the mind and made even Noah squeamish. The goblins, hearing those screams, became frightened. This was a cruel world, and living in the woods, every day was a bloody fight for survival. But none of them had suffered or seen someone suffer a flesh wound and make that kind of noise.

Noah gave them no time to gather their courage. He dealt with the other goblin archers the same way, leaving them howling in agony. With their long-range attacks neutralized, he closed in. The remaining goblins tried to put up a fight, but he slaughtered them with gruesome hacks and stabs. His spider shield fractured whenever he blocked a swing, but it held together long enough to kill them all. These goblins probably ambushed their prey, catching them by surprise to make up for their weak bodies, but once they lost that advantage, they were easy to dispose of.

He was closing in on the last one, slightly larger than the others and armed with a club. It growled and made a wide swing. Noah didn’t try to block and stepped back out of the monster’s reach, then swung down his sword and cleaved the goblin’s head open. To his discomfort, blood splattered across his face and got into his eye. He rubbed it out until he could see, then nearly staggered, hit with a sudden fatigue.

“What the fuck? That fight must have taken more out of me than I thought.” He pushed through the sudden weight and returned to the road. It was exhausting work, but he moved the tree out of the way. “Tin, come on through!”

The wagon approached and stopped where the tree had lain, but there was a look of confusion on Tin’s face. “Master, where are you?”

“What are you talking about? I’m right here.”

Confusion turned to fear, Tin beginning to panic. “Master, I can’t see you anywhere!”

Noah couldn’t understand. He was standing right in front of the horses. He walked over and grabbed her arm. “Tin, I’m standing right beside you.”

Touching her just made her yelp in surprise. “I still can’t see you! What’s going on?”

That’s what he would like to know. Was something affecting her vision? Maybe she had been hit with some kind of goblin attack, or it was an illness, either a disease or some kind of poison from something in the forest.

“Tin, look around. How is your vision?”

“It’s fine, I can see everything clearly! But I can’t see you!” Was he the problem? He could see himself just fine. Damn it, his eye was still itching from the blood. He rubbed it with his palm and Tin gave another yelp of surprise. “Master, you’re back!”

“I was here all this ti—” He stopped, noticing something. His fatigue was gone. It had disappeared just as suddenly as it showed up. The last time he felt it was when he first woke up in this world. His eye… It had been itching as well. He rubbed left eye again, and Tin once again freaked out. “Tin, can you see me?”

“No, it’s like you vanished into thin air!”

That fatigue, he was feeling it again. He stepped back and began kicking around leaves and dirt. “Can you see this?”

“See what?”

Well, that answered that question. For some reason, the fatigue seemed to deepen when he did that. He rubbed his eye again, and from the look on Tin’s face, she appeared to be able to see him again. “What happened to the road?” she asked. “It just suddenly changed when you reappeared.”

Noah put his hand over his eye again, not rubbing it, but just covering it. He repeated the experiment, making a mess of the road. “Can you see any difference in the road?”

“No.” He covered his eye once more, and she nodded her head. “Yes, now I see.”

“So when I disappear, you can’t see what I do to the road, but when I reappear it suddenly changes, right?”

“Yeah, sort of like flipping a page. Master… I think you’re using magic!”

“Magic? No, that doesn’t make sense. My parents were normal, I haven’t even studied any kind of magic.”

“That’s the only thing it can be. But I’ve never heard of magic that could make people disappear like that.”

“I’m not disappearing, I think I’m becoming invisible. It’s… an illusion. I’m creating an illusion that makes me invisible… and when I alter something around me, it expands the illusion to conceal the change I’ve made until I release it.” He covered his eye and felt the fatigue, then, covered it once more and it stopped. “Covering my eye is the trigger that activates it.”

He then remembered his last moments with Lindsey. He had covered his left eye because the sun was blinding him, and he woke up in this world in that same position. His glitchy reincarnation, it hadn’t just preserved his body at this age, it gave him some kind of magic. Maybe it was the magic itself that caused the error, the magic present in this new world.

“Tin, do they have any kind of word for the energy used for magic? I feel like something is draining out of me when I use it.”

“They call it mana.”

‘You have got to be kidding me.’ “Let’s see what happens when I cover my other eye.”

The moment he attempted it, he fell to his knees, almost blacking out. “Master!” Tin exclaimed. She climbed down and helped him to his feet.

“So, you can see me. That means I didn’t turn invisible. But something clearly happened, or at least, tried to happen. I have a different spell in each eye, but not enough mana to use the second one. It must be like a muscle. I have to train it to increase my stamina.

Anyway, let’s get out of here before the smell of those goblins attracts wolves.”

—————

The next day, while Tin took town the tripwires set around their makeshift camp, Noah was busy experimenting with his magic. He had come across a giant spider, draining the blood from a captured rabbit. As he approached, Noah covered his eye and cast his illusion. His feet on the underbrush, it should have given him away, but the spider didn’t seem to notice. He decided to make more noise, picking up a stick and snapping it, but still, the spider didn’t seem to notice.

“Over here.”

Finally, the spider spun around, its black eyes searching for the source of the noise. It seemed that his illusion also concealed sounds, but not his voice. Maybe because he intended for his voice to be heard? He had been casting his spell on and off since he discovered it, to try and get a better feel of his mana. He couldn’t properly stress himself since he needed to save his strength for when he needed it, but he was starting to sense the flow.

He drew his sword, a new one. After the fight with the goblins, he had taken their weapons, and despite being slightly rusty due to inadequate care, they were higher quality than the cheap machete that Noah had been using until now. He now carried a Medieval-style longsword, a short sword, and his knife. He came up with arrangement with thoughts of ancient samurai, who carried a katana, a wakizashi, and a tanto dagger.

He reached out with his longsword and used it to rustle a nearby bush. The spider didn’t see or hear anything. Noah could feel it, his mana flowing through his sword towards the bush, enveloping it in the illusion. He focused on the energy running through his arm and tried to slow the flow, to keep it from moving beyond his sword. It was exceedingly difficult, like trying to flex a muscle he had never used before. It reminded of him of all the years he spent as a newborn, when his muscle tissue was just slightly tougher than gelatin. He tempered his breathing, driving out all distractions from his mind, and soon, he could feel the flow of his mana, like he had grabbed a hold of it.

He pulled it back, leaving the sword enveloped, but this time, when he rustled the bush, the spider raised his front legs and bared its fangs, believing an animal to be causing the disturbance. Noah slowly approached and tapped one of the spider’s raised legs with his sword. It hissed in fury and swung at something it could not see. The illusion could block sounds from reaching his enemy, but it couldn’t erase the sense of touch, so he couldn’t just turn invisible and stab someone without them feeling it.

There was something else he noticed. When he was invisible, he could sense the mana in others. Tin had very little, likely a sign that she had no affinity for magic, probably a reason why she ended up a slave. The monsters had even less, but not all of them. Lone wolves without packs and many spiders, they seemed to be shrouded in mana. He didn’t get the impression that they could use magic, more like it clung to them, like an odor. What made them so special?

This was just another question that Noah chalked up to something he’d learn later. For now, he should just continue utilizing his magic to its full potential. The spider had its guard raised, but couldn’t sense the presence of anyone or anything nearby, so it could do nothing to stop Noah from ending its life. He harvested what he needed from the body and then returned to camp.

—————

It was a sweet relief to Noah and Tin when they finally left the forest. After two days of repeated ambushes by predators and goblins, the sea of trees that flanked them on either side were replaced with open pastures, fields where farmers and their slaves were planting crops. The road became more uniform, receiving more maintenance due to the increase in traffic. In the distance, they saw the town, Clive, as Tin called it. It was surrounded by a log fence to keep the monsters out. It reminded him of the colonial village museum from his fifth-grade field trip. The creek from their waterfall camp joined into the river that flowed beside the town.

Guards in cheap leather armor with a few metal plates were manning the gate, and they stopped Noah and Tin as they approached. One of them looked over the horses and the wagon with a wary eye.

“These belong to Garrow and his men. How did you come by them?”

“Were you close with Garrow?”

“No.”

Noah slipped the man a few bronze coins, while hoping that they were actually worth something that he wasn’t trying to bribe him with pocket change. “Then I suppose you’re mistaken, right?”

Seeming satisfied, the guard pocketed the money and then waved them in and Noah and Tin entered the town. For Noah, it was like he had traveled back in time to Medieval Europe. Peasants walked the muddy road, street vendors tried to sell their wares, and the air stank beyond all de***********ion. The buildings were brick and wood, only a few of them more than two stories, with their windows using foggy glass.

“What do we do now?” Tin asked.

“We’re going to sell this wagon, everything in it, and the horses. That guard recognized them, so others may as well. Plus, I can protect a stack of coins better than this load of pelts. We can just buy replacements if we need them.” They rode past a beggar lying in the street and Noah brought the horses to a stop. “You there, where can I find a weapon dealer?”

The bearded man pointed a trembling finger to the east. Noah didn’t thank him, but tossed him a copper coin. They turned down one of the eastern streets and a sign caught Noah’s eye. It had an anvil with two crossed swords in front of it like a crest. They stopped the wagon outside and Noah disembarked.

“Look after the wagon. This place is probably crawling with thieves, so be wary.”

She was armed with a dagger and he had faith in her competence. He stepped into the store, with a bell ringing above his head from the door opening and closing. This store was made of brick in order to lessen the fire danger due to the forge in back. Numerous weapons were put on display, from swords to halberds. Back in his previous lives, Noah could have bought a damascus sword online for $60 that would put these to shame, but these would suffice.

He also paid attention to the prices in order to figure out the rate of conversion for money. The numbers were drawn a bit differently from past worlds, but they appeared to have the same values. From what he could tell, ten copper coins equaled a bronze, ten bronze equaled a silver, and ten silver for a gold. The metric scaling made it easiest for Noah to compare them to US dollars, but from what era? There was a suit of armor selling for two gold coins, about two thousand dollars. But was that two thousand dollars back in the Old West? Or was that two thousand dollars in the 21st century, after more than a hundred years of inflation? He couldn’t even tell whether the prices were good or not. This was either all great equipment at a high price or garbage sold to beginners and cheapskates, or even just junk the owner was asking the moon for to try and rip Noah off.

A man appeared from a back room and stood behind a counter. He was a great bear of a man, buff and dirty from a life spent standing over an anvil. Seeing Noah’s modern clothes, unease crossed his face. “Can I help you?”

“Do you buy weapons as well as sell them?”

“Only as long as they incorporate metal. I don’t buy bows or staffs.”

“Perfect.” Noah returned to the wagon outside and retrieved an armful of weapons looted from dead goblins. He stepped back inside and laid them out on the store counter. “What can I get for all of these?”

There were four short swords, two longswords, six daggers, three spears, and an axe. The blacksmith raised his eyebrows in mild surprise at the size of the haul, but otherwise maintained a poker face for the sake of business. He examined each weapon, making exaggerated grunts and sighs over every chip and sign of rust.

“This is mostly garbage. I can buy them for one silver.”

“That’s a bad joke. That’s less than a bronze coin per weapon. You’re selling daggers for three bronze each. Seven silver.” Judging by the prices of the display pieces, that was more than the blacksmith could sell them for, and while he would have liked to go higher, the blacksmith was really low-balling him.

“That’s ridiculous. My merchandise hasn’t been dragged through the woods. Yours has. I’ll have to spend all night polishing and sharpening these to make them worthy of being put on display. Two silver.”

“Leave them as is and then chalk down the price. You can sell them to some newbie warriors as training gear. Six silver.”

“I can’t come anywhere near that. The best I can do is two silver and five bronze.”

“You can always just forge them into something new and sell at a higher price. Four silver.”

“You think you’re the only one selling weapons by the arm-load? Plenty of adventurers come in here to dump what they found in some goblin tunnel. Scavenged swords are hardly rare on the market. Two silver and seven bronze. That’s like final offer.”

‘So, ‘adventurer’ is a term used here. It probably applies to monster hunters and the like.’ “How about this: my axe, plus two daggers, in exchange for that nicer axe up on the wall? Everything else, you buy at half for what you’re selling their counterparts for. That’s ten bronze for the short swords, another ten for the long swords, four and half bronze for the daggers, and another four and half for the spears. That’s right around three silver.”

The blacksmith gave a huff. Three silver, such a round, whole number. It was five bronze above what he could get if he sold the weapons for half price, but his inner-perfectionist didn’t want to complicate it with a smaller payment. Had Noah planned that from the beginning? Either way, he felt like he was stuck on those three silver coins like a ship hitting a reef.

“Fine, three silver.”

“Deal.” He and Noah shook hands and Noah received the three coins and the axe. “I also have another thing outside that you might be interested in. Follow me.” He led the blacksmith out into the street and showed him the tripwire roll in the back of the wagon.

“What is it?”

“A tripwire system, offering a hundred yards of protection. Any monster that touches it makes the metal alarms jingle. It’s so loud that even the dead can hear it. I’ll trade it for three bronze and the small shield you had in the corner. It’s got to be worth that in materials alone.”

“Fine, but only to get rid of you. You’re exhausting.”

The deal was struck and Noah and Tin set off with a much lighter wagon. The axe Noah had gotten was a large one, perfect for chopping both trees and monsters. The shield he now wore on his arm was only around the size of a dinner plate, but that worked for him. It was strong enough to block a slash from a sword and it wouldn’t hamper his movements. The tripwire was a bit painful to lose, but once they sold the wagon, they would have ended up carrying it with them.

With directions from many of the townsfolk, they sold and traded their wares. The blacksmith wouldn’t buy the bows, but Noah found another weapon dealer who allowed him to trade up to a much better piece and a quiver of good-quality arrows. After that, the medicinal herbs and mushrooms were bought by an herbalist, the wolf pelts went to a leatherworker in exchange for some armor and a strong backpack, and the clothes and bags were traded at the garment shop for some new outfits and a second backpack. Due to the weird looks he was getting, Noah was aware that his modern clothes made him stand out. They were too valuable to get rid of or sell, so he simply packed them away and donned the apparel of the countryside.

He ditched the severed heads of the slave traders into someone’s pig pen and the hogs went to town. From asking around, it seemed that the Garrow fellow he killed wasn’t the wanted criminal he had hoped for. It was a shame there was no bounty to collect, especially after three days of putting up with the smell of those heads.

—————

The owner of an adventurer’s shop yelped in pain from the lye touching his skin. He sold traveling and survival gear, such as rope, candles, dried rations, and other curios to help travelers survive the beasts dwelling outside man’s domain. Now he was buying the last of Noah’s haul, including the remains of several spiders and the barrel of slimes. A test had been necessary to convince him of the lye’s ability.

“So? What do you think? Seven bronze and everything’s yours.”

“I can do five bronze, but only because you actually have living slimes. I’ve never seen them captured like this!”

“No, no, I can’t do five…” Noah pretended to be lost in thought. “Do you sell maps?”

“We do.”

“I want two maps, one of the country and one of the area. Throw those in and I can go down to five.”

“For two maps added, the best I can do is three and a half bronze.”

“Four bronze and you won’t have to deal with me for the rest of the day.”

“Deal.”

With that, Tin and Noah left, having sold everything they deemed not worth carrying. The wagon and horses had already been exchanged for some lovely gold coins, so now they lived carrying everything they owned. Tin was in a good mood, now wearing proper clothes and footwear. She looked nothing like the slave girl that Noah had met when he first came to this world. One might look at her and not even think she was a slave.

The sun had almost set, but they made their way to their final stop, an inn known as the Old Wineskin. It was busy inside, the air stinking of pipe smoke, ale, and poor hygiene, and the floor creaking under countless pairs of shifting boots. The hostess, a large woman looking like she birthed children by the litter, greeted them at the door from behind a front desk.

“Are you here to eat or to sleep?” she asked.

“Both. What are your rates?”

“Five copper coins a night for one room. For ten, you also get firewood, a hot bath, and two square meals a day for one person.”

Noah counted up the coins for him and Tin and stacked them on the table. “We’ll take the full package for three nights.”

The woman handed him an iron key. “Take a seat in the dining room wherever you like and I’ll bring you the house special.”

Noah led Tin through the crowd of drunken villagers, both of them on the lookout for pickpockets. Every man in the bar looked either like a Viking or the kind of guy that Vikings typically killed, all of their clothes made of either wool, linen, or animal hide. Any women were either travelers huddled together, or courtesans sitting across the laps of their drunk clients and laughing at every bad joke as they waited for the alcohol to take its toll.

Noah and Tin found a small table near the fireplace and took their seats with Noah warning Tin to put her bag directly under the table.

“This town is just as I expected,” he said.

“Is something wrong, Master?”

“No, everything is fine. I rather like the atmosphere here, the feel of it.”

He had seen plenty of towns that been knocked out of the modern age in his previous lives, usually due to some kind of apocalyptic event or because it was in a third-world country, but none of them had the Medieval Europe aura like in fantasy books and movies. For all of his life experience, this was something he was glad to finally be able to cross off his list.

“So we’re going to stay here for three days? Then what?”

“I’m not sure yet. I don’t have enough information. I want to know more about this country, about the other countries. I want to see what I can make of myself and what will give me the best chance of survival. But for now, I want to rest up for a few days and learn what I can about the area.”

He took out the maps he had bought and looked them over. Their quality was just as he expected from a Medieval society. The map of the Algata province showed the towns around Clive, as well as vague rivers and mountains, but there was no scale for referencing distance and none of the roads were labeled. The national map was no better, but it did name the bigger towns and the capital of Uther near the southern coast. It was hard to determine the size of the country, but it was probably somewhere between England and Texas.

Right now, what he needed to work on was a backstory. True, this was not a country with an educated public, but Noah was still ignorant of the culture and lifestyle, something that would require years to catch up on. If he claimed to be from somewhere but failed to answer a question that any native would know, it would make him look suspicious. In his past lives, his backstory would generate itself, just like everyone else, and as an adult, when he needed an alias, he could easily craft a new one using his knowledge of the world. He had been forced to hide in other countries and take on new identities in past lives, but this was a whole new ballgame.

The hostess arrived with wooden trays and beer mugs. The house special was a bowl of meat and vegetable stew and a biscuit, with a pint of the local ale to wash it down with. Noah didn’t even want to imagine how a health inspector would react to seeing the kitchen and how the food was prepared, but after three days of nothing but rock-hard bread and dried meat that was little more than salted leather, he ate greedily.

Tin, however, stared at her food. “Master, is it really ok for me to eat this? I need only scraps to survive. Master doesn’t need to be so generous in buying me such wonderful food.”

“You’ve done everything I’ve told you to do and have yet to disappoint me. You deserve to eat proper meals. Besides, I need you strong and healthy so you can continue to assist me.”

She bowed her head with her shoulders trembling. “Thank you, Master.”

—————

The room they were renting was awfully stark, just a bed with some itchy blankets and a fireplace. There was also a table with a lone candle and a pitcher of water. Firewood had already been delivered. As Tin lit the candle, Noah began moving around the room, knocking on the walls, floor, and ceiling, searching for any hidden doors or peepholes. For all he knew, there could be people watching them, waiting for them to fall asleep and then rob them, or worse. He once made the mistake of spending the night in a backwoods motel that was run by a serial killer. The flat tire within walking distance should have warned him, but he refused to believe the cliché.

“You get a fire started while I look around. Don’t open the bags or reveal any of your belongings until I get back, and move the bed against the door.”

He was sure for the most part that no one was listening or watching them at the moment, but that might be temporary. He wanted to check the inn itself. But on the off chance that someone was managing to avoid his detection, he didn’t want to activate his magic. He left the room and locked the door behind him. There were rooms on either side and across the hall, but they would come later. He went downstairs, maneuvering through the crowd and stepping outside into the dark street. The town was clearing out, everyone heading home or to whatever spot they slept on.

Noah walked down the street, and as planned, he sensed a tail behind him. He stepped behind the nearby butcher shop and laid in wait. His pursuer, knife in hand, entered the alley. He never even saw Noah, certainly didn’t see his hand aiming for his Adam’s Apple. A solid blow ripped the air from the man’s lungs and sent him to his knees, unable to even scream in agony. He dropped his knife and Noah got him into a stranglehold, lifting him back onto his feet.

“You weren’t following me before we reached the inn, I certainly would have noticed you, so that means you didn’t see me with Garrow’s wagon and horses. Either someone who did see me put you up to this, or you’re just going after me because I look like an easy mark. So, which is it?”

“Eat shit, you damn kid!” the man gargled. He tried to free himself from the choke hold, but Noah just tightened his grip. He couldn’t see anything, no matter where he looked.

Noah took out his knife and held it under the man’s eye. The blade was invisible like Noah, but the man could feel the blade threatening to pierce the skin of his lower lid. “If you want to save yourself, start talking. I can make you beg for your life and then beg for death in a matter of seconds.”

“This is just what I do, punk! I wait for pieces of trash playing adventurer to make a wrong turn and then I take everything that they have!”

“Is there anyone else or do you work alone? You really don’t want to lie to me.”

“I don’t need help.”

Noah put his knife away. “Clearly, you do.” For the briefest moment, the man felt Noah’s hold on him loosen, thinking he was going to be let go. Instead, Noah grabbed his head and snapped his neck.

Noah searched the corpse for anything of value and dumped it in the river beside the village. He then returned to the inn and searched the outside. He had measured the distance from the window to the corners of his room, and, assuming that all the rooms were the same size and same configuration, there didn’t appear to be any false walls that someone could hide in.

With his illusion still active, he went inside the inn and maneuvered through the crowds, this time putting all of his effort into not bumping up against anyone. He checked the thickness of the floor and ceiling of each level and found no anomalies. His mana was starting to run out, so he had to hurry with the last step. He returned to the floor of his room and listened to the surrounding doors.

Behind the door across the hall, he could hear two female adventurers talking, making plans for the following day. In the room to the left of his, he could hear a man sharpening his sword. The room to the right was silent. From his pocket, Noah drew a length of wire. It was originally part of the handle of one of the swords he had sold, but he took it before taking it out of the wagon. Lockpicking had been a skill of his several lifetimes ago, so he was a little rusty. Regardless, he managed to open the door and peeked in, seeing the one inhabitant sleeping.

Noah ended his search. He now felt like he could truly relax. He returned to the door of his room. “Tin, it’s me,” he said while knocking.

He could hear the bed, used as a barricade, being moved aside, and Tin opened the door. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, I think we’re safe.”

They both stepped into the room and released their held breaths upon the door closing. Finally, they could let down their guard, at least for the most part.

“Ok, let’s go over the money we collected.”

On the table with the lone candle, he spread out the coins from their sales. There was a great number of silver coins, plenty of bronze, and several copper, as well as some gold. “With all of this, we can stay at this inn for as long as we want. But for now, let’s work on keeping it safe.”

The copper coins would be kept in two of the three snake wallets, as bait or a decoy against pickpockets. The third wallet held the bronze coins and hung around Tin’s neck. As the for the silver and gold coins, Tin worked with Noah beside the fire to hide them in his clothes and possessions, such as the lining of his jacket and the straps of his backpack.

Soon after they were done, there was a knock at the door. “Here with your bathwater!” a chambermaid announced.

Noah let her in and she placed a wooden tub on the floor, filled with steaming water and some rags. In this world, it seemed like outside of swimming, the only way to keep even remotely clean was with a simple wash cloth. Noah tipped her and she departed.

“Good, I’ve needed this,” he said.

As he and Tin stripped down, she approached him. “Master, please let me wash you.”

“What? You didn’t do that before.”

There was a desperate shimmer in her eyes. “Something which I beg your forgiveness for. I must show my gratitude for your kindness.”

“You don’t owe me anything for treating you like a person.”

She embraced him from behind. “It is my duty to service my master. Please, allow me to continue not disappointing you.”

“I never said you couldn’t do it. I appreciate your efforts.”

She made a small noise of relief, almost like a cross between a laugh and a gasp. “Please take a seat.”

Noah sat on the foot of the bed and Tin retrieved some of their leftover soap, then brought to tub next him. She kneeled before him and wetted the front of her body with one of the rags, then with the soap, lathering up her breasts and between her thighs. He could tell she was excited. Despite her perpetually expressionless face, he could see the small curling of her lips, the shimmer in her eyes, signs of joy. It was an ironic combination; she, having never known pleasure from contact with a man, and he, so numb that contact with a woman was one of the last few things that could give him pleasure.

She began by taking one of the washcloths and scrubbing Noah’s legs, trying to remove the sweat and dirt from their days in the woods. Then, her breathing would deepen, and she’d start rubbing her chest up against him, grinding against him like a stripper pole. Her breasts were far from ample, due to her harsh life and poor diet, but what softness there was, she used to please Noah. She made sure he felt every cubic centimeter of fat, as if the mass of her breasts equaled her loyalty.

She washed off the soap and then got on the bed to repeat the process on his arms. Her efforts gave him an amused smile. With her inner thighs nice and sudsy, she’d straddle his hands, letting him cup her womanhood in his palm and feel how wet she was. She was beginning to pant and whimper, her lust building up in her. Her frantic breaths in his ears was likewise getting him worked up. He had a few ex-girlfriends that would give him this treatment.

“Tell me, have you done this before or is this an idea you came up for me?”

“This is new. I’ve never felt so much gratitude to my master before.”

She moved behind him and scrubbed his back, then began smooshing her breasts against him in sweeping motions. It reminded him of washing windows. While she grinded on his back, she washed his chest and her hands naturally fell to his throbbing manhood. She stroked it lovingly, as if wanting to memorize every detail. She started rubbing against him with more force and jacking him off. Despite Noah being on the receiving end, Tin’s efforts were making her breathe heavily with an aroused whimper passing her lips. The feel of her breasts on his back and her masterful stroking were also getting to Noah. Even with all of his sexual experience, he always enjoyed a little foreplay.

He didn’t bother trying to resist and simply ejaculated, while behind him, Tin shuddered as if having a climax of her own. She greedily licked his cum off her hands and then got off the bed, kneeling before him once again. Her gaze, full of drunken lust, was glued to his semi-flaccid manhood in the aftermath of its eruption.

“Master, you’re so dirty. Let me clean you.”

She began sucking on his member with worshipful dedication. Every drop of cum, she slurped off while savoring the taste of his sweat. Like the other night, she paid attention to his balls, either massaging them while his cock plunged into the depths of her throat, or sucking on them and rolling them around her mouth while she jacked him off.

“My, my, you sure do enjoy servicing me, don’t you?”

She looked up at him, a slave both to him and to her desires. “Yes, Master. My body feels so much gratitude for you.” She couldn’t resist, she started playing with herself. “Especially down here.”

She stood up and he allowed her to get on his lap, shuddering in bliss as she felt him enter her. She was so wet, his cock sliding against her inner flesh without any resistance. There was no hesitation in any of Tin’s movements, she didn’t need to adjust her position or let her body become accustomed to the feeling of being penetrated. As soon as she was down to the base, she began bouncing on his cock at full speed.

Noah laid back with his hands gripping her ass. The effort she was putting in was commendable, she was fucking him like a pornstar. Her moans of bliss, she didn’t bother trying to conceal them. She let her voice ring out, escaping their room and being heard by everyone in the inn. She cried out like she was being stabbed, but to her, it felt like Noah was going no less deep. She was putting all of her strength into keeping up this rhythm, dropping all her weight onto Noah’s lap so that he could truly explore her body. She couldn’t allow him to exert himself. There were no fields to work, no livestock to take care of. She couldn’t fight, couldn’t hunt, couldn’t do anything to repay her master for the kindness he had shown her. All she could do was offer her body for his enjoyment, to give him something to unleash his desires on.

But her strength was fading fast. Despite her efforts, Noah wasn’t giving in. In fact, he decided to fight back. He retrieved one of the damp washcloths and wiped the soap off her breasts, making her nipples become erect. He then sat up and began running his tongue and lips across her skin, kissing her areolas and sucking on their peaks. He often pulled his mouth away to join with hers, kissing her with skill she could only call art. Rather than letting her continue bouncing, he implemented his own technique. Cupping her tight ass in his hands, he began gyrating her hips in one direction while he moved in the opposite direction. Now, instead of doing long, deep strokes, his cock was stirring up the depths of her womanhood like he was whisking some scrambled eggs.

The two-fold attacks, they were more than Tin could bear. “Master! Ah! Master!” she moaned.

She held onto his shoulders as a wave of climaxes rushed through her, soaking Noah’s lap in her arousal. Noah fell back, this time while pulling Tin down with him. Tin, lying across his chest, was given no time to rest. He lifted her hips up and began bucking his own, driving up into her at maximum speed and depth. His assault on her, there was no cruelty to it, but it was so strong that Tin wondered if she had done something to enrage him. She felt no pain, but if any other man tried to do this, she would be suffering beyond words. It was his skill and experience, she could feel it with every move he made. He knew exactly what to do to not cause any harm, despite the intensity itself leaving her on the verge of blacking out.

“Master, it feels too good! You’re going to break me!”

“Hold on, I’m almost there.”

She held onto him for dear life, as if a tornado had ripped off the roof of the inn and was threatening to pull her up into the sky. Soon, the storm passed, and Tin felt that final thrust and Noah emptying himself into her. The sensation of her master’s seed flooding her womanhood, the heat of it inside her, it made her moan a single crystal-clear note, like a bird call. Then, she collapsed on top of him, using the last of her strength to run kisses across his chest.

“Master, when you wanted to know the area and me and some other slaves raised out hands… thank you for choosing me.” Noah didn’t say anything. He knew that this was a situation that one couldn’t simply respond with ‘you’re welcome’. Yet after so many lifetimes, he still didn’t know what the proper response was. “And at the waterfall… thank you for letting me stay by your side.”

Then, she closed her eyes and fell asleep, snuggled on his chest like a cat.

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Stamina

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The morning of the next day found Noah roaming the village. Before he made any decisions, he wanted to know what this town had to offer, what endeavors it could support. According to the maps he bought, Clive was far away from the nation’s capital, out in the boondocks, but it appeared to have a strong economy, with many professions one might not expect in such a rough area, like a gold and silversmiths. In fact, it seemed to thrive on tourism, but no one would ever come out here on vacation. It was because of the natural resources.

So far, Clive had some farm land and a river for food, as well as the vast forest for lumber, but its top commodity was monsters. As Noah explored the town, he saw numerous adventurers buying food and supplies before going off to hunt and gather. In the early 17th century, the fur trade exploded in Europe, sending countless men out into the wilderness of Siberia and the Americas to find their fortune. Here, the principal was the same. Furs were in demand in the big cities, but most of the monsters had been wiped out around the more populated areas, so adventurers spread out to the countryside to hunt and sell their catch, and where there is an exploitable resource, you can find capitalists looking for people with money burning a hole in their pockets.

His search brought him to the local apothecary, where numerous pots and jars adorned the walls on shelves while different plants were hung to dry overhead. He recognized several plants, but many were new to him. An old woman ran the shop, watching Noah like a hawk through the smoke coming from her pipe. It filled the air, along with several different kinds of incense. No sunlight was allowed in, so as to preserve the plants and potions on display.

“Anything I can help you find?”

“Do you have potions to help restore mana?”

“Yes. I sell them in three qualities at a price of five, ten, and twenty bronze coins, but you have to buy the bottle as well if you don’t have any of your own. Look to the shelf behind you, the blue potions.”

He examined the vials, three cork bottles with blue liquids, each one a different shade. There was no telling how useful they were. He didn’t know how much mana they could replenish, compared to the amount of mana he had within him. And the color shade, was that because of the presence of a specific ingredient that increased its potency? Or were they just watered down?

“What about health?”

“The red ones, above them, and we also sell bandages. However, those are only for showing my wares.