Testing Fate

Bright sun and a nice breeze, it felt like an early Japanese spring outside. The lack of clouds explained why I was getting blinded in the audience chamber. A slight pinkish-orange tinted the blue sky even though it was still close to noon. It did add to the overall otherworldly vibe, if a little off putting. I missed Japan.

A terse salute from the guards bringing their hands together over their torso snapped me back from awe. Right, I had a new place to get used to. I pulled on the leather travel pack on my shoulders, time to see what I was in for.

A large wall enclosed the castle with an impressive gate leading into the city. I didn’t get a good view of it from the small hill it sat upon. But as I stepped through, the sounds of a busy day filled me. It was the first time I got to have a good look at the people.

The whole glowing hair remained a constant. This wasn’t the sort of fantasy I knew, even if it did continue to affirm that I wasn’t on Earth anymore. They looked human, but with wild color combinations and sparkling like glitter. It was the eyes that I didn’t know what to make of. I thought it was just the King. They had felt rather intense with the bright kaleidoscopic pattern of colors. It felt like they were changing, but as I stared it didn’t. Maybe it was just an optical illusion. A little dizzying, but blending in wasn’t going to be possible. I stuck out like a sore thumb.

It seemed to be just humans as far as I could see. I wondered what that meant for the world. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. This was a fantasy world, there had to be elves or dwarves, something a little more rare. But perhaps this was just a heavily human settlement. They were a bit taller than me, making it difficult to look around easily.

Though to my surprise none of them seem to take much notice of me despite being obviously different from them. They all just went about their day. A skinny university student didn’t make much of an impression I guess.

From where I stood, a massive crystalline spire shined a brilliant emerald in the distance. According to the quartermaster, the Markets could be found around that. He was right about it being easy to spot. I had two choices, that or testing what’s been on my mind. Frightening as a real fight was in my head, understanding the world and my capabilities seemed more important. I could return later to the Markets.

Following the wide stone street from the castle, I guessed it would eventually leave the capital proper. Though to my surprise, everything was crammed in tightly, nearly more so than a block in Tokyo. There weren't any alleys that I could really spot, just buildings smashed together like a long brick wall funneling you away. And really tiny windows poking out. Not the usual style of medieval I was used to from the media.

But I eventually reached the gate out of the city. I could see some large mountains in the distance, but I was pretty certain they were very far away. The size made it seem like what I was used to seeing in Japan, but if they looked that big from this far away, they had to be huge. I’ll use that as a landmark if I get too far from the walls.

Before I got into a fight I needed to test out how this worked. Pulling off my pack, I dug around through the couple things I got from the castle as a parting gift. One was an emergency potion, they said to use if I was dying. Apparently, they weren’t completely dismissive of me. And the second was my weapon. “There is it, balls…”

A pair of silver looking spheres that together fit just barely in my palm. According to the quartermaster, these were the weapons of an Astral Priest. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I was expecting a staff or book of some sort, not two large marbles. What the hell was I going to do with them, trick a rabbit into breaking its neck?

Staring at them in my hand, I saw a bit of text appear. That answered another question I had. Out of curiosity, I tapped it to see if anything happened. A description expanded from the text.

‘Iron Stellar Well - A basic tool of the Astral Priest of no remarkable qualities, but a well polished pair of spheres.

The Astral Priest saw its promotion to a frontline warder in the Northern Gal’Sleic War through the noble heroics of Fredrick Herbert. And yet that only hastened its negative reputation with the numerous fatalities in efforts to master it. Despite that the Kingdom of Al’Shel still reveres the widely maligned role.’

Even the description didn’t refer to it as a healer. That didn’t bode well for me. Someone seemed to find a way to make it work, though the wording almost made it feel like they met a tragic end.

Returning to the Stellar Well in my hand, I did have to admit there was some heft to them. So I could probably bludgeon someone with a good throw, but then I’d be out a weapon. I somehow doubted that was how they were meant to be used.

I kept them in my right hand while I lifted my left arm to look at the menu. Open, I went to the ability and spells to tap to see if anything happened when I clicked ‘Lunar Ray’. Nothing. I looked around, maybe it needed me to give a target. Focusing my mind on a spot of grass five meters in front of me I tapped again. Zilch. “Ruling out needing a living target for now, let’s try this. Lunar Ray!”

The two orbs in my hand started to vibrate and my skin tingled. I immediately opened my hand seeing the metal balls hover in my hand a few centimeters away. One orbited around the other glowing intensely as an array of white and gold carved through the air around the center sphere almost like it was like the sun in an artistic depiction. Blue and silver rings wrapped the orbiting second nearly clinging to the surface. Sparks danced around the gap between like it was trying to paint a scene from space, though with an old retro 60s flair with extra color flourishes of reds and purples.

For a spell that was doing nothing, it looked beautiful. I couldn’t pull my eyes away. I was never one to be into space and planets, but it was hard to deny the dazzling presentation. And yet I wasn’t ready for when a bright beam shot down from above me scorching the grass. I jumped back completely losing my focus and the orbs.

Over where the flash happened, I saw a small blacked mark over a clump of grass. I walked slowly over to it while checking the sky for any more surprise strikes. A neat circle eliminated everything in a five centimeter diameter. The blast site burnt and tore the surrounding grass as well. “That was my attack?”

I quickly went to hunt down my ‘weapon’ to test it again. Another blinding flash struck. It needed a cast time it seemed. Looking around the field, I needed something to test this against. Nothing in the form of animals or monsters was in my sight. Human civilization probably kept them away.

Trekking away from the safety crept into my mind as I followed a trade road. Though the further I went the more my mind wandered about the world. Was it overrun with monsters? Did they even have normal benign animals?

Strange and unusual creatures I expected. But I wanted to avoid something like an ogre or a troll right now. And depending on how it was, even a goblin might be too much trouble for me. As much as a defenseless rabbit seemed like bullying right now, I needed to know my strength, not fight a life or death battle. I was a healer, I didn’t expect a lot of damage.

The outer walls finally shrank behind the hills and I reached the edge of a forest. It had been on the edge of my vision when I started marching out. If nothing was roaming by the open fields, it would be the next best place. But that also introduced a new level of danger. Anything might be in there. As much as I would like to think the world followed nice RPG designs of weak creatures near the starting location, I couldn’t bet on that.

Anxiety started to build up again in my back. Rolling the two balls around in my hand made me wish they had some give to them. They’d make a decent stress toy at moments like this. All I could do would be break a finger squeezing these. Mentally and emotionally was more than enough right now.

I could feel my heartbeat speeding up staring at the darkened shade of the forest. It didn’t even look creepy. This wasn’t a slasher film forest or anything, it honestly looked quite pleasant. The unknown and my mind was the horror director and they were working overtime adding unnecessary folly. I wanted to shut them up. I was sweating so badly the balls were slipping in my rolling.

Step in or stay? I needed to test my strength, but this was bordering on reckless. Indecision was cement in my boots. ‘C’mon Minoru, you’re going to be stuck here if you don’t. And they’ll all still think you're this Cursed Healer. It’s stupid, right? Prove them wrong! Move damnit!’

I moved a shaky foot forward and then another. Then I was standing between two trees with the cool earthy smells filling my nose. “This is very real for a dream,” I joked trying to keep the worry off my back.

A few steps further I heard a noise breaking through leaves and sticks. I immediately just threw my weapon in the direction out of instinct, not even thinking. I only caught a gray streak jerk away from my feeble attempt to bean it with a dull metal ball. “Idiot…” Now I had to go find it.

Whatever startled me long disappeared. I slowly walked around pushing leaves and debris trying to see where the hunk of metal landed. “I can’t have lost my weapon already. C’mon!” It had to be around here somewhere. I didn’t exactly have a baseball pitcher’s arm. My body was a lazy university student that was five years from getting carpal tunnel.

It was a big shiny ball. The light should be bouncing off it or something. With how much trash lined the ground, it seemed like I was more prone to slip on it. I didn’t need that added embarrassment.

A branch snapped and it wasn’t under my foot. My eyes slowly looked over feeling that it wasn’t whatever tiny animal I scared off. Another stomp crushed some leaves and tiny plants hungry for light. An angry deep grunt tore through the forest. It sounded like no animal I’d heard before. “Oh hell…”