2 First day

For Emperor, this all felt a little overwhelming... Really overwhelming in fact. So many things were explained and given to him in such a short time. He stayed there a long time lost in his thoughts. Now that he was alone and not bombarded by information incessantly, he had plenty of time to digest everything. Many question appeared in his mind.

What did they gamble on? Was it something important or did they only want to win because of their pride and their dislike for their opponent? With the way his creators acted in front of him, he would not have been surprised if the reward to the winner had been something ridiculous and without value.

Whatever the case, he would do is best as promised. He wondered if he was created knowing he would act this way and follow what was asked of him or if his creators had just been lucky. If he had refused this task would they have just erased him and created a new person instead?

He felt conflicted. He felt deep respect and love for his four creators and wanted to be of use to them but at the same time, he could not help but feel that it was this way because they had decided it would be so. Were his feelings real or imprinted on him? Would it really matter either way? Would the answer change his mind about the quest? Probably not. Still, at the very least, he would have appreciated to know what was the point of it all.

How long did he have to complete his quest anyway? He needed to kill the emperor or at least make him abdicate before he died of old age but he had no idea how old he was. Maybe he only had a couple of years left or maybe he had a decade or two to prepare.

What was he supposed to do to win? He understood that an emperor was some kind of amazing leader by the way his creators described a good emperor to him but he had no idea of the scale of things. How many people did he need to lead to be considered an emperor? Five, ten, thirty? Where could he start?

He didn't even know where he was, how was he supposed to find out where he was meant to go? On top of it all, he knew absolutely no one aside from his four benevolent creators who called themselves gods. With is basic understanding, he knew that gods were beings that were not supposed to interact with living beings very much. They resided outside of the known world and bestowed their grace upon the worthy. It would be hard to find them again to talk in these conditions.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like his task was impossible, he had nothing to work with and couldn't see the goal. He imagined all kinds of scenarios in his head but none of them ended well.

For a start, his name was a problem. Even without much relevant knowledge, he understood that is own name would stand out. His creators didn't hand him a solution about that either before disappearing. How should he present himself to other life forms? Would his creators be angry if he changed his own name? Maybe it would be better to be honest right away and endure the consequences of a different name instead of complicating things with many false names. Or maybe he should cut his name in half and say he was Emp and his family name was Ror, or something like that. If he said it fast it would sound the same but maybe people would say that he tried to mock them with a false name. In the end, he opted to at least shorten it into Emp and think of the rest later.

He let out a dispirited sigh and griped the bottomless bag laying at his feet. He felt like he should start by putting some clothes on. The moment he touched it, he was startled by the appearance of all its content in his mind. It gave him the impression that there was a vast empty space in his head and in that space, object where floating around by the whims of a wind he could not feel. In that space, there was no walls, no boundaries, there was only space as far as he could comprehend.

He tried to raise his hand and plunge it into the bag to pick up a pile of clothes and felt it was very awkward. He felt like he possessed two pairs of arms. One of them didn't really exist, it was just an impression he felt as he grabbed the clothes. He directed the false hand to where he wanted. His mind arm and real arm overlapped and in the next instant, his real hand was holding on to the clothes. He released the bag and the space in his mind became empty again.

Maybe with a little practice he wouldn't need to pay so much attention to pick things up from it. Before he touched the bag, he had not noticed that he had so much space in his own mind. Was this normal?

He dressed himself hastily relying on his inherent knowledge and tied up the bag to his belt. The bag didn't seem so big now that it was at his waist. It was still ugly though. On the other hand, the clothes he had put on where appropriate. They were not spectacular but were not of shoddy quality either. There were underpants, pants, a shirt and a solid vest he would probably be able to wear for a long time before ripping them. They were not too hot for the temperature and the boots that came with them were comfortable.

Thoughtful, he wondered what else was in the bag. He had been so focused on trying to get his clothes and so full of wonderment at the sight of that strange phenomenon that he had not paid attention at all to the rest of his possessions. He plunged his hand in the bag once again and its content reappeared in his mind.

First, he saw more piles of clothing but since he didn't need them for now, he wished to set them aside. The moment that thought crossed his mind, the clothes moved on their own to the back of the space. It was really intriguing, it felt like his thought had taken a physical form into the space to move the things as he pleased. Impressed, Emp willed the objects inside to parade in front of him and achieved it easily. Everything that was stored into the bag was obeying his will so naturally he could move things around as if they were dancing for him. It would be so easy to pick something up from it. It was definitely an extraordinary gift!

At first he thought it was a little strange to control, especially with the false arm, but now that he understood the bag a little better he could feel that it was much more intuitive than he first thought. He could barely believe that Luck had picked it up at random.

In his mind was sprawled some food, bottles, a bunch of coins, wooden utensils and a small knife. He was really happy to have some food as he knew he needed to feed himself to live but he also knew clearly that he didn't have enough to last him a long while. He would need to get to work quickly and find his own before he ran out but, before his grand departure, he still wanted to familiarize himself a little more with his treasures.

He quickly judged that that the fastest way to learn more about the bag was to ask the book of answers about it. He would then be able to familiarize himself with the book while learning the secrets of the bag. He got the book on his knees and chose to start his experiment by asking it a number of easily verifiable questions.

"Where am I?" He asked out loud while opening the book. On the page he landed on, a lone sentence was written. "In the Bloody rabbit forest, near the village of Ardent-fort, in the Steelwood empire. South-eastern end of the continent." The Steelwood empire? Was he not supposed to beat the emperor of the Green dragon empire? What was he doing here?

"Where is the Green dragon empire then?" He asked. "North-western end of the continent." The book answered him on the next page. So his creators had dropped him the furthest he could possibly be from his adversary? A little more and he would have ended up on the beach. They had probably done it this way to give him some time to prepare. He asked his next question.

"What is the name of the emperor of the Green dragon?" He flipped to a random page but it ended up empty. It was as expected, he already knew the answer.

Suddenly remembering the example of Sage, he curiously asked the book a new question.

"How many stars are in the sky?" The answer of the book was "None". He felt disappointed by the answer even if he understood it. Of course there was none, it was the middle of the day, why would there be stars in the sky? Even if it was the logical answer, that was not what he had meant.

"At night, how many stars are in the sky?" He thought himself clever but the book gave him a blank page. Was he supposed to know the answer already? That made no sense to him. He gave up for now and went for the main subject.

"How much space is there in my bottomless bag?"

Empty page.

"Can anyone else than me take something in it?"

Empty page again. He felt somewhat reassured that Luck had not exaggerated it's abilities.

"What can not be stored in the bag?"

This time, the book had a lot to say. "Disagreeing or unprepared life forms, other bottomless bags of any quality, liquids or gas not held in a container, certain artifacts, magic items designed to stay unaffected by the bag, most anti-magic items, the bag's possessor, the bag itself, planets or anything attached to them and ethereal entities." It seemed like a long list but it was pretty short considering that everything else could be put in it.

"Is it possible to put things larger than the bag inside the bag?"

Empty page. Emperor thought a moment about what it meant, if it was empty, he surely knew the answer. He just couldn't remember Luck telling him anything about this. As soon as he thought that, the answer came crashing down on him. Of course, objects larger than the bag wasn't one of the things on the list that couldn't get into it. It obviously meant that it was possible to do such a thing, but how?

"How do you put object larger than the bag inside it?"

"They only need to touch it." Was the answer he got. It was a very valuable information for when the time to put the hammer away would come. Since he wanted to keep said hammer for last, he went on to study the Ring of allegiance instead.

First, he wished to know how to make a copy of it. Love had said that he only needed to will it, did it perhaps work like the bag? He decided to try it and at the very moment thought he wished for a copy, an iron ring appeared in his palm. He found it marvelous, a ring created out of nothing. He examined it from close up but he could only see a very ordinary iron ring with no marks or details at all on it. He guessed someone needed to wear it for it to change. He did not think further into it and stored the copy in the bag before turning to the book again.

"How many copies of the ring of allegiance is it possible to create?"

"As many as there are individual intelligent life forms possessing fingers."

"How many of those life forms are there then?"

"As much as the number of copies the ring of allegiance can possibly make."

What kind of answer was that! That answer left Emperor speechless for a good minute before he decided to ask the book a new question.

"Do you possess a conscience?"

"No"

"Why do I feel like you are mocking me?"

Empty page...

"Fine then."

Annoyed, he pushed the book against the bag and made it disappear inside. What a strange object. Extremely useful but also a little too peculiar. For now, he decided to believe the last couple of answers the book gave him didn't mean much. He had many things more important to do instead of wondering all day if the book was more alive than it seemed. He finally got to the last item, the great overburdening hammer.

He got back up and stretched his legs before placing himself in front of the gift. He used both his hands to grip the hammer, positioned himself carefully to exert the most possible strength and tried to lift it up. By giving it everything he had, he achieved to free it from the ground and raise it until it was in front of his chest. He had barely reached that point that the muscles in his arms were burning under the efforts and his breath was cut short.

He tried to keep it up as long as he could but despite his best efforts, it was still slowly going back down. Even exerting every ounce of energy he had, he could only watch it unable to retain it. The burning sensation in his arms quickly spread throughout his whole body up to the point where he felt like he was thrown into a giant furnace. Arms shacking, after barely a few breaths, he let the hammer crash on the ground and lied powerlessly beside it in the grass.

Strength had told him that he only needed to train with this thing to get stronger. He really wished to follow the counsels of Strength but at the same time, he had no idea how to do so. It was way too heavy! All he needed to do was to carry it but barely lifting it off the ground for an instant had exhausted him. The longer he would carry it, the stronger he would get but the stronger he would get, the heavier the hammer would get. It was obvious that however much stronger he would become in the future, he would never be able to carry it much longer than what he just did. Would that short moment really buff his physical strength? He couldn't believe Strength had told him not to travel with it on his back! How could he ever even get it there without snapping his spine in half!

He stayed there unmoving for a couple more minutes to rest whilst he thought about his next course of action. He was under the impression that he was trying to do too many things at once and would forget something important. Still, he was unable to focus on only one subject at a time. The day wasn't even over yet and he was overwhelmed by the shear amount of knowledge and questions that were fighting to get at the forefront of his mind.

There was so many that whenever he encountered an obstacle, he could just change his focus to something else easily. The moment a question he was unable to answer presented itself, he just put it aside. He understood it wasn't a good way to do things but it was really hard to focus under the weight of it all. After thinking this, he noticed that he had once again forgot to breathe and inhaled deeply.

He needed to reorganise himself, focus and establish a clear course of action, only then would he be ready to move on from this small clearing.

Keeping the end goal in mind, he had to become an outstanding individual in every aspect in order to become a true emperor. According to his creators, he also had to learn magic and he guessed that some knowledge on how to fight wouldn't be useless either. Sadly, he couldn't learn all those things by himself.

Maybe by using the book he could somehow learn all the secrets and techniques related to those fields of knowledge but he wasn't confident in his aptitude to grasp every nonsense it would throw at him. On top of that, he would probably still need to practice a lot and without a good example to follow, he feared he would have to start from the very beginning all over again at a later date. Since he didn't feel like doing everything twice, the only thing he could do was find someone to teach him. While he was exploring the world looking for a teacher, he would raise the Great overburdening hammer as much as he could.

As he was thinking about all of those things, he started to take notice of his surroundings. He had been there since his creation but had not paid any attention to it yet. Bellow him, a soft ground covered in tall brown grass was nursing him. Above him, a sky without clouds was appeasing his mind as the tall trees around the clearing were giving him a sense of security.

He wished to stay there for longer, for as long as he could. Sadly, he already felt much better. He had a mission to accomplish and above that, he was very curious of what stood behind those trees. He took a canteen out of the bag to refresh himself before standing back up. He stored both the water and the hammer back into the bag. He felt relieved and extremely lucky that it's tremendous weight didn't affect him when it was inside since he had not thought about this point at all before putting it in.

He looked around him once again, engraving this place in his memories forever. This was the place where his existence had taken shape, where he was, in a way, born. He felt that even if he saw many incredible things in the future, no landscape would ever be as important to him as this ordinary clearing. Once certain that he would never forget it's sight, he chose a direction at random and advanced between the trees, starting his journey.

The low hanging leaves rustled as he moved them out of his way. The ground outside the clearing was covered in moss and small plants. At every steps, his feet deeply buried themselves in them as if the earth wanted to devour him. Still, it was very comfortable and made for a very pleasant exploration. He could hear some birds singing around him, but aside from them, only the leaves could be heard as the gentle wind blew through them.

He walked in the woods for a couple of hours without finding anything useful. On the other hand, he saw some worthwhile scenery. When hunger mercilessly clawed at him for the first time, he made the very wise choice of stopping somewhere to eat.

Passing between two big trees, he found himself standing at the bottom of a gentle slope covered in tall grass. Long straws as thin as a needle where each supporting tens of grass blades standing horizontally like thousands of small flags. Looking up, small fluffy clouds came crowning those herbs and dance with their leaves thanks to the wind. Accompanied by the living music of the infinite scratching of their leaves, the hill was animated by chaotic yet calm waves. It is at the edge of that hill that Emp sat down to eat, absorbed by the beauty of the spectacle in front of him.

After having devoured a handful of berries and some meat jerky, he abandoned the view and resumed his walk. The sun slowly went down on the horizon and in the growing obscurity, he reached a river that was almost ten meters wide.

Its water flowed peacefully but in the twilight, it was impossible to guess it's depth. He chose to follow the current instead, hoping to find something of interest on its bank. Sometimes, big jutting rocks broke the monotony of the riverside. The water eroded those stones slowly but surely and its sound did the same thing to Emperor's consciousness. He felt sleepy. That wasn't a feeling he understood well but he could recognize it since his eyelids felt heavier and heavier the further he walked.

Once the sun had completely disappeared, the orange sky made way to the darkness and the stars. Those were reflected on the waves, making them sparkle in a thousand and one different light. His gaze hypnotized by the beauty of the river and his mind clouded by its unceasing lullaby, he felt sleep approaching gently.

Falling asleep on the riverside was probably a bad idea. He understood that but what else could he do?

It was then that he saw, a little further, after a bend in the river, a light that didn't belong to the stars. A square of warm light was cut from a stone wall just over there. A cottage in the depths of the woods, surrounded by a small garden and a meter high stone wall. Through the wooden shutters of the window, the light from a fireplace was leaking, as if to invite Emperor.

Somewhat woken up by his discovery, he went through the garden without hesitation and knocked tree times on the door. From the inside came a muffled noise and a strong and deep voice.

"Who is it? What do you want?"

"Good evening, my name is Emp. I was following the riverside and let myself get surprised by the night."

"A strange name... So what? What does it have to do with me?"

Surprised, Emp searched for an answer but was only able to come up with a simple conclusion. The man was right, it had nothing to do with him at all.

"I am sorry for disturbing you, I will be on my way now."

Emperor turned around and left the man's garden. His problems were his own, he didn't need to harass unrelated people about them.

But, as soon as he had made his way halfway through the garden, he heard the door open behind him. Curious, he turned around to see a man wearing heavy looking clothes standing straight as a pillar, right in the doorway. He seemed to be a middle aged man with a hand long beard and a harsh gaze accentuated by his frown and crossed arms.

"What are you even doing in those woods in the middle of the night? How did you find this place?"

Emp, thought for a second about how to answer. After all, he couldn't tell him the truth, he would never believe him. He chose to weave a story close to the truth instead, based upon what he had seen that day.

"I have always been in this forest, I just never went this way before. It is only because I chose to follow the river today that I got here."

"You live in those woods? I've been living here for ten years now and I've never seen anyone else before. How old are you kid, were are your parents?"

"Yes, I have been living here since I was born, I am sure of it. As for my age and my parents, I have no clue."

"How can you not know how old you are?"

Well, he wasn't even a day old yet. Emp was pretty sure that wasn't the answer he was looking for. He said something dumb instead.

"It is not as if I tallied the days as they went."

"You really are someone strange."

This was all the man could comment on this.

"What is it that makes me strange?"

"I don't believe even a word of your story. No one can live alone in those woods. It's infested with terrible monsters. What's more, how could a kid alone find enough food to feed himself here?"

"There are monsters here? I never saw them before, that is a good thing to know. You see, just a little further over there, there is a very charming hill. That is where I spent the most time. It was my parents that left me some food before leaving."

"How long have they been gone for? When are they supposed to come back?"

"I do not know, I don't even think they are supposed to return until I've done what they asked me to do. I am not sure, I only talked to them once after all, your questions are really hard to answer.

"Only once? What did they ask you to do?"

It would probably be best to omit the Emperor part, at least for now, so he gave him their parting words.

"They told me to become the strongest and the most intelligent, someone you can depend on. Then, they told me good luck and left."

"Kid, to tell you the truth, I think you're a little scary. You're not some kind of fairy or forest imp are you?"

"I do not even know what those are. Could I be one without knowing?"

"That is also creepy, the way you just spew out nonsense as if it was perfectly natural. Usually, I can see right through the lies of anyone, but yours, I can't. Even if your story is obviously made up and nothing in it makes sense, I still can't feel them, as if you did believe all the things you told me.

"You can not see my lies because there are none, I just hid the strangest parts from you because you would not believe them anyway."

"Are you sent by him? Did he send a simpleton to convince me to come back? That is a strange plan..."

Emperor was getting really tired and this talk was clearly going nowhere, he couldn't even understand the subject anymore.

"I have no idea of what we are talking about now... look, I really did not mean to disturb you, it is just that when I saw your house, I felt it was a much better idea to sleep inside than to sleep on the riverside. I am too tired to try to understand all your questions and it is even harder to find suitable answers for them all. Aside from you, I only know four other persons and none told me anything about the surroundings or those who lived in them. Since you can not help me and I can not answer your questions, I should just leave and quickly find somewhere to lie down."

On this, Emperor didn't wait for an answer and once again started to leave. The man called out to him again.

"Wait kid! It would be stupid to let you wander in the dark in the middle of the woods. I do not believe you but I do not think you are a threat, You can stay the night if you want."

Emp stopped in his track and turned his head around to throw a confused look at the man. He couldn't understand what had changed his mind. The man answered the silent question as he stepped away from the doorstep.

"I do not like to be disturbed but I am not without a heart. Even if it's him who sent you, I won't look at you foolishly braving the darkness without doing anything. Come in and take place near the fire, tomorrow, you will answer my questions."

"I cannot promise they will be more satisfying than those you already got."

"It's fine, just come in already."

Emp nodded and followed the man inside. He locked the door and went back to sit on his bed.

The inside was warm and welcoming but oddly empty. There wasn't much here aside from a massive chest at the foot of the man's bed and strangely shaped set of table and chair. Emp came closer to the fire and after watching it dance for a moment, the drowsiness came back. It was the first time he saw a fire and it was fascinating how it moved angrily on its own but he couldn't fight sleep for longer.

He lied down directly on the wooden floor and instantly fell asleep without paying any mind to the master of the place looking down at him with a raised brow.

"What a strange guy." Thought the man again before he turned back to his own rest.