Chapter 2

The idea of reincarnation had been a distant thing to Naro, something he had only seen in shows or books, a person thrown into a new world would find a place to belong. The idea of that did excite him, however as he stared up at the blue sky above between the cracks of two buildings, the harsh sun bearing down on him, he wondered what exactly to do now that he was alive again.

Climbing to his feet he figured the first thing he should do was figure out where he was, he noticed he was at least given clothes, though it only consisted of a torn tunic and matching shorts. He would have been more bothered by it since he was not even being given shoes but opening and closing his hands he couldn’t help but smile glad to at least be alive with a body.

Walking out from the buildings he found himself on a long path that was a mix of stone and sand with a variety of items on display all around him, he realized he was in what seemed to be a large bazaar, stores running along the path, with people calling out to anyone passing by. The only way out seemed to be through the light crowd or the alleyways leading to other parts of the streets, and where more shops were calling out to passerby.

He found himself a bit disoriented surrounded by the people, yelling and colors on all sides, clothing, rugs, tarps and foods, each way he turned something was always in view.

Stumbling he put his hands out and caught himself on something, looking up he found he was holding a mirror and found himself looking at his own reflection.

“I look…completely different.”

Reaching up he touched his face trying to take in his new ‘self’. He was younger than he used to be and skinnier as well. The only thing that really matched his old self was the black color of his hair which was completly disheveled, everything else from his amber eyes to his slender form was far different from who he used to be.

“I look like a side character from a show…maybe a middle brother,” he said.

He noticed his clothing which consisted of a torn tunic and ripped drawers that stopped above his knees. His mouth twitched a little, upset they couldn’t give him an actual outfit.

“...starting character in a video game must be part of the basic package,” he mumbled.

“Hey take a step back.”

Naro flinched, catching another voice and turning noticed the stall’s owner glaring at him.

“If you ain’t buyin-” The person trailed off eyeing him for a moment. “Then don’t touch the merchandise, you’re scaring off potential customers.”

“S-sorry.”

Naro raising his hands took a step back before continuing down the pathway, he double checked his pockets even feeling the emptiness of them and confirmed he didn’t possess money either, whatever the currency of this world was.

After a fair bit of wandering, Naro gained a bit more understanding of where he was. It took more effort than he cared to admit to get people to talk to him, but he was in the town of Uilaz, named after a Sage who had saved the town. No one explained to him what a Sage was, but multiple Sages played a key part in the town's success. At the gates of each town were white totem like objects with what seemed to be wind flowing through them. These were Gale Conditioners that circulated wind keeping the town from heating up. This explained why while they were in the middle of a desert it was relatively cool, almost like spring.

He also realized who the guards were as well, they were dressed in what seemed to be full sets of leather armor, accompanied with leather helmets, some were even riding horses. They were the few willing to answer his questions, though when their hands rested on the swords at their waists, something in him told him to walk away.

While he had suspicions about the ‘Gale Conditioners’ and their strange naming, what really drew his attention was what he found at the West Gate.

“Mr. Guard….may I ask a question?”

One of the guards glanced at Naro, their eyes scanning him before his mouth twitched as his faced grimaced slightly. Naro was used to the look at this point as anyone he spoke to had done the same.

“Speak.”

“Thank you. Why is there a forest here?”

Naro pointed ahead at the mass of greenery resting just outside the gate, stretching far into the distance beyond what he could see. He was doubly bothered because there was sand when one stepped out of the gate and it turned into grass within a few steps. He could see living things moving around, and even flowers blooming with the forest.

“The Sage created it.”

The Guard answered succinctly and Naro looked over at him, he spoke to the guard again unable to drop the matter.

“Yes but…it’s a forest…in the middle of the desert.”

The guard clicked his tongue realizing he’d have to keep talking, he glanced at his companion who turned his head. With an audible sigh he spoke again.

“That’s the power of a Sage. The founder of Uliaz's great power is the reason this town survived. This forest is one of our pride and joy’s.”

Once he started speaking about the town he seemed more willing to talk which was enough for Naro to find out a bit more about the forest itself. It was completely self-sufficient, a raincloud would even appear over it on occasion to ‘water’ it. The forest continued westward until one reached the sea, thus it went on for miles.

So long as only a little was taken from the forest it would also regenerate anything taken out of it, due to that one needed express permission to enter the forest.

The guard made sure to make that point very clear before making Naro leave commenting that he didn’t have time to educate him about everything.

Naro wanted to comment but seeing the man’s hand rest on his sword he thanked him and quickly walked away.

“Hey hold on a second.”

Naro stopped and looked at the other guard as he called out to him, the man motioned to him then pointed in another direction.

“You want permission to go into the forest you can talk to the Adventurer’s guild, I hear they're looking for people.”

“A guild? Thank you for telling me about that, I’ll check it out.”

“I mean I doubt you’ll get hired, but hey, I was a vagrant myself once, I mean I didn’t look as slovenly as you do, but to each their own. I’m just paying it forward.”

After putting aside the guard’s comment the best he could he made his way forward, during his walk he noticed a few other things that stood out to him, mainly from the stalls he passed by.

“Come get your hamburger here! Hamburger with fries!”

“Curry, delicious curry! With whatever side you want!”

“Soda! One taste and you’ll be hooked!”

This world wasn’t like his own, he realized that during his walk and from what he could see this society seemed to be in the medieval age, thus he wasn’t sure why modern foodstuffs were around. He couldn’t approach to ask as he couldn’t even pretend to be a customer in his current state and most just shooed him away.

“It’s fine…once I get some money…whatever that is here I can figure it out.”

The guild was thankfully easy to find, it was one of the larger buildings in the town. A large white bricked building with an emblem hanging on top of it, that seemed to be of an armorered warrior their sword pulled back ready to strike. It really resembled what he’d think a guild would look like, though he noticed a few things once he drew closer.

The first was that some of the paint was peeling off the walls of the building, vines grew along the edges and along the black tilled rooftop, if not for the lights he could see through the windows, he may have wondered if the place was abandoned.

“I shouldn’t judge appearances,” Naro said walking up to the twin double doors.

He couldn’t hesitate at this point, he pushed his fear down and pushed the doors open.