Nina stirred looking around, she saw Ash kneeling next to the corpse of Harrigan, she got to her feet and crawled over to him, she reached for her pouch and pulled out a healing core and began to pulse her mana into the stone, the moment the aura made contact with Ash his arm shot out and grabbed her by the wrist.

  ‘Ash’ she cried bringing her other hand to try peeling his away from her own, she looked into his eyes which were black with golden iris’s but didn’t seem to see her but looked through her.

  She dropped the core which as soon as it made contact with his skin absorbed the stone like water running onto a sponge.

  CORES

  Cores absorbed

  Healing

  Utility – Cleanse - Cleans a target of contamination, higher levels allow for stronger cleaning and decontamination.

  Ability – Minor Healing - Standard healing spell, needs to be in physical contact with the target, higher levels increase the effectiveness and lowers mana cost

  He’s grip released and a wave of healing magic emanated from him as he fell to the ground unconscious. She saw as the wounds on his skin stitched back together and the bruises and busted lip she had vanished.

  ‘What in the hells are you?’ she pondered ‘You also owe me a healing cores tone’

  she dragged him up against a tree and gathered wood to build a fire, placing rocks around it to ensure the flames did not burn past the chosen area.

  ‘Immolate’ she said casually and channelled just a bit of mana so the campfire was soon roaring.

  As she was staring into the fire she contemplated the look in Ash’s eyes, like he wasn’t there, shed seen vision powers before but that was no core power. This troubled the elf so much so that she wasn’t making even the most basic of notes in her pad.

  She whirred through the possibilities, hypnosis – no, fugue state – no, concussion from a head blow – maybe, Demonic possession – maybe.

  She thought about this and the company she was keeping as the suns fell behind the horizon, she looked at her rescuer but couldn’t help but feel a danger from him, like a deeply malevolent force wrapped in a strange idiot.

  ’I wonder which is the truth’ she thought to herself ‘gullible idiot or unfeeling killer’

  The bandits had gotten exactly what they deserved and she herself had incinerated two of them with her flames, but the flames were relatively quick, when she had moved the bodies the three that he had taken out single handedly looked almost tortured.

  ‘What kind of person can do that?’ she thought ‘But he did it to help me’

  she looked at his face sleeping peacefully next to her when his eyes flashed open and he sat bolt upright.

  ‘Nina!’ he exclaimed

  ‘Its ok I’m here’ she said, moving to calm him down ‘I’m right here’

  ‘Are you sure you are ok?’ he said eyes running up and down the woman, his eyes searching for any wounds.

  ‘I’m fine, you need to relax’ she said placing a hand on his chest

  he put his hand on hers,

  ‘Its all a bit of a blur, it was like I was acting but like I was being guided by something’ He said ‘Is that normal?’

  ‘You are anything but normal’ she stated

  ‘Thank you for healing me’ he said

  ‘That wasn’t me, you absorbed my Healing core, which by the way I will be expecting you to replace’

  ‘Oh’ he remarked looking at his own hand ’I don’t suppose there’s a goblin stash where they keep their loot?’

  ‘No’ she said puzzled ‘Why would?, how would?, forget it’ she said exasperated.

  ‘Where are they’ Ash said sombrely

  ‘I put them just out in the tree line, if any monsters want them they are more than welcome to a free meal as far as I’m concerned’

  ‘Did you loot them?’ he said

  ‘I barely wanted to touch them to drag them away let alone root through their pockets’ she scowled

  ‘No the loot system’ Ash said, ‘Did you get a message asking if you wanted to loot them’?

  ‘I have no idea what you are talking about’ she said

  ‘Do you have any colours radiating in your vision?’ he asked

  ‘Is that what that is?, id had my head slammed pretty hard and was waiting for it to go away’

  Ash walked Nina through the pop ups and found that she also had access to see her skills and levels and the various screens, given her history in the new world a bit more of the map was revealed.

  ‘What’s the great wood? ‘He asked

  ‘It’s an elven city, one of the main ones anyway, the great wood is a tree so tall it can pierce the clouds’

  ‘Amazing I’d love to see it one day’ Ash said

  ‘Yes, you and every other human’ She laughed ‘No humans in the woodland realm’

  ‘What, why not?’ Ash asked

  ‘Well there is great power in the great wood, it is held in deference by my people and brings peace and prosperity’ she said ‘Tell me humans wouldn’t want to tear it apart in the search for power’

  ‘I wouldn’t, but I guess I can see your point’ he admitted

  Nina continued to tell Ash how the houses in the city were made by guiding the saplings to grow together using magic and bindings.

  The older houses had grown into the equivalent of mansions where the whole family lived in the one building.

  when two Elves were joined, the equivalent of marriage the planted to trees side by side and they would grow rapidly over the course of a month allowing the couple to move in and live.

  Elven reproduction was rather different, there was still the physical element but the gestation period was 3 years, and they could live to be over thousands of years naturally without core intervention.

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Ash

  ‘Well its more noticeable in the other races but cores enhance the user in ways more than giving them magic, for example a single core user could easily live to two hundred years, duel users four hundred years, Tri users a thousand years and so on.’

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  ‘I’m gunna be a thousand years old?’ Ash exclaimed

  ‘Maybe’ she said ‘you can still die and trouble seems to follow you like a stray dog’

  ‘Wow, a thousand years’ Ash repeated

  ‘Maybe, anyway you distracted me, how do I loot?’ she said

  ‘Sorry I have a tendency to do that, just think about looting the bandits and it should pop up’

  ‘Okay, now I just press yes?’ she said

  ‘yes, don’t bother with the terms and conditions no one reads those and if it asks you to click the pictures of a bike it’s the vehicle with two wheels’

  ‘What?’ Nina said looking concerned ‘all I could understand was two wheels’

  ‘never mind, just click yes ’ he chortled

  ‘how do I click?’ she asked

  ‘oh erm, just think yes ‘he said

  Loot rained from the sky landing in front of them, coins, swords jewellery and other items.

  .

  a rustling came from where the bodies had been lain out and something obviously got interrupted midmeal.

  They both froze, looking into the brush looked at each other and then back to the shadows dancing in the firelight just out of sight.

  ‘you get some sleep I’m going to have nightmares as it is’ Ash said

  ‘What’s a nightmare?’ Nina Asked

  ‘Ooo I can actually explain this one, It’s from an old English terms that mean a night demon that made you have bad dreams. Many people thought it had something to do with horses because of the mare part but that’s just a misconception’ Ash beamed at Nina like a puppy waiting for a treat like a good boy.

  ‘I know you feel like that explained a lot and your excitement is nothing short of adorable but as usual it raises more questions, for example you don’t have magic in your world?’ asked Nina

  ‘No’

  ‘But you have demons?’

  ‘No, but they were used to explain things we didn’t understand, wait demons are a thing here?‘ he asked

  ‘Yes, but I haven’t finished, What is a mare?’

  ‘It’s a female horse, and I know the next answer, a male horse is a stallion’

  ‘Actually my next question was what is a horse?’

  For the second time in as many minutes his face dropped from that of a keen puppy to a thoughtful confusion.

  ‘It’s a work animal, like a wolf but longer legs, stronger and vegetarian although they’ll still bite you if the mood takes them.

  ‘So how do people pull carriages?’ He asked

  ‘They don’t, we have magic’ she said ‘If you go to the poorer areas out there with lower mana density things are generally pulled by whatever animals you can domesticate, boars, wolves. I even saw a cart pulled by a giant snail once.

  The fire crackled as the two talked through the evening and they carried on talking, discussing the differences between worlds and the similarities.

  ‘You don’t have custard?’ Ash exclaimed.

  ‘Not from your description, no, I’ve never heard of it’

  ‘Well in that case tomorrows desert is on me, I think we both deserve it after today’ he said

  Nina just nodded and looked into the fire, the silence lasted a few moments as Ash joined her watching the flames dance around the pit.

  ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you today, I shouldn’t have left you’ he said reproachfully.

  ‘Nothing happened’ Nina said ‘You stopped them’

  Ash’s expression didn’t chance ‘That doesn’t mean that you should be exposed to those sort of things’

  Nina looked over at Ash’s frowning face, ‘You have to understand Ash that this world while full of magic is not a fairytale, when people have power over others they think that gives them a right to do what they want with people they deem below themselves’

  ‘Well that’s another similarity in our worlds, magic didn’t change that. It just means that our worlds have at least some similar monsters and it isn’t mana induced madness that makes them’ he said

  ‘It’s all down to the individual, you have more power than them and you used it to save me’ she said

  ‘I could only save you because you roasted two of them, which was amazing by the way I only…’ Ash trailed off

  ‘You only what?’ She asked

  ‘I killed three people today and its only just dawned on me, I’ve never killed anyone before’ Ash looked horrified.

  ‘Ash these men were not making this world a better place, they were bandits which means they do what they want with whoever they can get’ she paused for a moment ‘The world is a better place without them, the next family that drives there cart through the woods won’t be accosted thanks to you’

  ‘I understand that, I really do, but should it be so, easy’ he said the last word softly but it stood out all the more.

  ‘Yes’ she said firmly ‘Those animals were monsters of a kind and were no different than the beasts we’ve been hunting today’

  ‘But they were humans capable of rational thought and had feelings, parents’

  ‘And elves don’t?’ she said

  ‘Sorry I didn’t mean that, I just think that there are certain qualities that raise us above beasts and that should make it harder’ he said

  ‘But it wasn’t?’ she said

  ‘No, if anything it was easier than killing the monsters, with the bandits it was like I was in some sort of trance on auto pilot. I wasn’t angry or in a rage, it was almost like watching it happen on a tv in your mind or as though recalling a dream’ he said

  ‘About that, what cores have you taken in?’

  ‘Just the three I’ve said, smoke, shadow and healing now, why?’ He asked

  ‘They shouldn’t induce that sort of state, I’ve heard of combat trances, but it seemed entirely different’ she said ‘Get some rest and we’ll talk further about it in the morning’