First Contact

The warm early morning air hit me like a train, pun not intended. It couldn't have been later than 4 AM, and yet the sky was already turning bright and the moons were vanishing. Stores were already opening, to take advantage of the fresher air, and to compensate for the long period of time most of them had been closed the previous afternoon.

“Here,” I turned to hand the dragon a healing potion.

Good thing I don’t leave the train without one of these or the antivenom.

The dragon was staring at the dimming stars in the sky with a lounging expression.

What did I do? Why did I do it?

Those weren't really the correct questions to ask. Without him, poverty was a certainty.

Least I can do is be transparent about it.

“Here, you should have this,” I repeated.

He finally looked down towards me. He examined the potion before taking it and drinking it without hesitation. He had an unreadable expression on his face, which turned to disappointment when the burns on his arms closed over.

I frowned.

What did he expect?

“Let's sit down and introduce ourselves, alright?” I nodded and pointed towards the tree.

The carpets under it had been rolled up for the night, so we had to roll them flat on the ground again before sitting down.

Although he helped me get the carpets down, he hadn't said a word to me this entire time.

There are two ways to go about what I'm about to say, and I think this time I won't lie.

“My name is Chiyo Hara,” I introduced myself, trying not to sound too awkward. I knew how what I was about to say was going to sound, but I didn't want to lie to someone whom I'd be travelling with for at least a few weeks. “This will sound very strange, but I'm actually from a different world. A god sent me here after accidentally … Well, sending me here. I have been living,” I shook my head at that word. “I was out in the desert for the past month, and when I came to this town, no one would trade with me. This knight I talked with earlier mentioned that you could help with that.”

He listened to me carefully, making a visible effort to control his expression. Then, he glanced at the carpet, thinking something over.

“What did that woman say, 35 Rolai? How about I pay you that back with interest, and we call it even. 70 Rolai should do. I can get you that within two weeks if you give me a spear. Deal?”

That's the first thing he says to me? Not surprising, all things considered.

He frowned as I took too long to reply.

“No deal then,” he added with bitterness in his tone.

“No, no, I was thinking that too,” I tried to quickly correct him, but it seemed that moment had passed.

Before another awkward silence could fall over us, I asked:

“Is your name Knox?”

He scoffed at that before quickly covering his mouth with the back of his hand. There was a glimmer of something venomous in his eyes that lingered for a heartbeat longer than the chuckle.

“Danyar.”

He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes, all but indicating that he was done talking to me. I decided to give him his space for now and focused on the more imminent issues. Although I was confident in my armour and fighting combo, I couldn’t just drag Danyar with me into the desert. I only needed him to sell things, technically, but even then, he needed a way to defend himself.

I rummaged through my pockets. Their contents were meagre: three rice biscuits, an anti-venom, the three gems Medina had given me, a tissue, a gem from one of the trees that I’d thankfully missed earlier, and two square tin coins.

“Do you want a rice cake?” I asked as I got up.

Danyar looked up at me with a questioning expression, but didn’t reply.

“Here,” I tossed one to him, before opening one for myself.

He examined the wrapping with an appropriate amount of suspicion for someone who’d never seen plastic before.

Right!

I wanted to hit myself in the face for being so silly.

Maybe I shouldn’t give out and speak about things that don’t exist in this world.

Danyar noticed me staring. He’d clearly seen how I opened my own rice cracker, so it wasn’t that he didn’t know how to do it. What he chose to do was stare right back at me.

What is my role in this world, as an otherworlder? There’s so much I could do with the knowledge I have. Even without my degree in transport logistics, just with how much I know about mathematics and science …

But that’s not really my place.

“Did you want something?” Danyar eventually broke off the staring contest.

I don’t know why that was the moment I noticed he had two moon-crest-shaped tattoos under his left eye. But he was right, I did have things to do.

“Yes, you’re a spearman, right? I got up to buy you a weapon, so we can head out soon.”

My tone made it abundantly clear that I didn’t want to stay in this town any longer than I had to.

“Hmpf.”

Danyar tore open the rice cake package and ignored me.

“So that’s a yes?” I asked, unsure of how to proceed.

He continued to ignore me, and I left it at that.

Trading that gem was the most straightforward thing ever, as the seller who was manning the exchange stall hadn’t been there the day prior, and had watched me walk over from where Danyar was. That knight had been right.

---

After some shopping, including for a pair of knee-high boots for Danyar, and some breakfast, we headed out into the desert just as the moons vanished off the bright-blue canvas of the sky.

We walked west, in the opposite direction from where I'd left my train.

I thought it over while shopping, and I decided I needed to see if Danyar was trustworthy first. With how many monsters there were around these parts, I didn't doubt this trial of sorts would last long.

Sure enough, after about an hour of silently walking at a respectable distance from one another, the sound of something running through sand got our attention.

We exchanged a look, checking if the other had heard it too.

Danyar tightened his grip on his spear, and I raised my gauntlets up, bracing for whatever came our way.

Noises of something large running through sand continued to approach, bringing with them a diluted smell of rot; something that’d lingered after multiple clear attempts at washing it away.

The creature stopped, but an arching dune still separated it from us. It most likely could smell us, though.

Danyar looked at me with a firm expression, but I shook my head, silently telling him that we wouldn’t attack first.

The ground below our feet shook.

Danyar and I exchanged another look as we both took wider stances, bracing ourselves. There wasn’t much else to do in response to this kind of small earthquake, in the absence of shelter or dangerous obstacles.

But it triggered something within that creature.

A piercing howl came from the other side of the dune, and a giant wolf leapt towards us. It ran, and sand collapsed under its oversized paws, partially under its speed, partially due to the still quaking ground.

Danyar shot me one last glance before lunging, cutting the wolf off mid-charge.

He moved his feet faster than I could follow, and swept at the wolf’s legs with his tail. The wolf lept to dodge it, which was when Danyar impaled its flank.

Danyar’s stoic expression shattered into surprise, and he yanked his spear back, taking a few steps away from the animal.

The wolf stopped in its tracks and growled, turning its head towards Danyar.

I gasped at the sight of the animal’s flank. Purple pus was bubbling where the spear had pierced its pelt.

The wolf’s eyes were a murky white, and it sniffed the air before taking a decisive step towards my companion.

It was already the size of a small car, but when it growled again, its fur stood up, and its body seemed to extend, growing in length and size.

Danyar shot me a quick glance to gauge my position, then charged the wolf again.

He tried impaling it from below its jaw, but the animal snapped at his spear, forcing him to jump to the side to avoid its fangs.

That same purple pus dripped from the wolf’s mouth.

Alright, that’s enough for the test…

I ran forth. I pulled back my shoulder and punched through ... the air.

I briefly lost balance as my gauntlet was met with nothing.

Danyar, who’d been on the other side of the wolf, gave me an incredulous look. The wolf had dashed out of the way and spun on itself, sniffing the air.

We didn’t have time to try and form a strategy before it ran at us at twice its prior speed. The purple pus lingered in the air behind it, like children’s soap bubbles.

Danyar landed another hit, while I decided to make up for my clear lack of dexterity by becoming bait.

“Hey!” My other gauntlet appeared over my left arm, and I clanked the two of them together.

The wolf did not react.

“It’s blighted, it’s no use,” Danyar called out.

He dodged a snap of fangs and stabbed it in the chest with an angled sweep of his spear.

The wolf didn’t react. It took a few steps back and launched at Danyar, maw open.

Change of plans.

I rammed into it, shoulder-first, barely having had the time to summon the top of my armour as I did so.

It collapsed into the sand, and I caught myself just in time before collapsing into it.

The impact seemed to have damaged its spine. Its hind legs twitched. It barked and whined as it tried to push itself up with just its front legs.

I looked over at Danyar, who was looking at me in shock.

He held a dagger in his off-hand, and his stance showed that he’d been ready to take the hit and take the wolf down with him.

“Can you get its core?” I asked, making sure to call the gem properly so he’d know what I meant.

He nodded, and a few strands of hair dropped from behind his ear, hiding whatever expression he had when he approached the wolf.

< Creature slain: blighted dire wolf.>

< EXP: +400.>

< Split EXP? >

Between me and Danyar? How do I do it? Is it just a percentage?

“How do I split the EXP?” I asked.

“However you wish,” Danyar replied with a disinterested tone, before tossing to me a small yellow gem. This one had cracks and inclusions of purple mass within it. Even I could tell it wouldn’t be worth as much as the others.

It left a stain on my gauntlet.

Danyar planted his spear in the sand and tried to wipe the purple residue from his hands on his trousers.

I gave Danyar 70% of the EXP, or rather, I thought about doing so, and upon checking my stats, realised that it’d worked.

“I’m not sure how to preface this,” I said, turning towards him.

Just summon the train, come on, I can do it. If he thinks it’s weird, then who cares?

I care…

Danyar shrugged, gave up on getting the goo off his hands, and holstered his knife, which I only now realised I didn’t know where he got it from.

“My class is a Summoner, and what I can summon is a train.”

That nonchalant and unimpressed expression vanished from Danyar's face the second my locomotive and the wagon attached to it appeared behind me. They landed onto their rails with a loud metal thunk.

Danyar raised his spear into a guard position, then glanced at me, then back up to the train, before very slowly and cautiously lowering his weapon.

He frowned as he walked towards it, clearly forcing himself to brave his fear.

“I don't have a name for her yet, but this is my girl,” I patted the front-most part of the locomotive, and invited Danyar to go up with a hand gesture.

He gave me one last wary look before hoisting himself up the ladder.

“So what is a train?” He asked when I joined him in the cab.

“Oh, oh,” I shook my hands excitedly, “they're a means of transport first invented in Europe during the industrial revolution-”

Danyar raised an eyebrow, and I stopped the hand gestures. I forced a cough and corrected myself.

“They're a means of transporting goods and people, usually run on coal or petrol. Although this one just works like magic,” I patted the console.

“It's not alive, correct?” Danyar asked.

He spun around to look closer at the console and almost hit me in the knees with his tail. I had to step outside the cabin to avoid it.

“Sorry,” he muttered, bringing his tail closer to his body.

“That's alright ... But to answer your question, no, trains are not alive like you and me. They're fully mechanical, built from the ground up with extremely creative engineering feats,” I explained. “There's more,” I led him to the inside of the locomotive.

“This is where I sleep,” I gestured to my sleeping bag.

Could I summon one for him? Probably. He can have mine until we reach a city. If not, I can make my suit quite comfy.

“Here is where I keep the food,” I tapped one of the drawers, “and this is for water,” I lifted my water bottle from the top of that drawer.

Danyar slowly walked through the room, looking through the yellow-tinted windows.

He pushed open the door that led to the cart, and the cart door itself.

“Is this all cocatrix meat?” He asked, stepping into the wagon.

“It is. I salvaged what I could from the chickens.” I explained as I followed him in.

He looked around at the meat that I'd hung from rope I'd found in one of the abandoned houses that the desert had reclaimed.

Then, he nodded, as if coming to terms with something.

“I've misjudged you, Chiyo Hara,” he turned around. “I don't know what your motives are, but you can clearly stand your own out here. Let's start over,” He extended a hand.

He was trying quite hard to hide it, but admitting this made him rather embarrassed.

I can't imagine why.

“Sure,” I smiled brightly at him and shook his hand. “Let's work together well.”