55 Do you wish to deal with those who mean us harm?
"That's why, if possible, would you mind teaching me more about this world?"
My question sounded out in the air... but to no avail. Fay's mother didn't respond right away. And that means, this wasn't something she was going to decide lightly, on the spot. And from how her face tensed up...
'No, there's no point drawing any conclusions. Just sit tight and wait,' I told myself, pursing my lips before they tried to start backtracking on my request to solve the potentially awkward moment before it appeared. "If it's trade that you wish for, then I can't give you good news," the woman spoke after a long while, shaking her head in what looked like regret... and a distant echo of anxiety?
"The men that attacked us today... They were likely companions of the ones you've buried. You are aware of that, I presume," she then added, proving my earlier guess wrong. It wasn't that she didn't want to speak with me about the world. More likely, her reluctance came from what she already said - how she didn't have any good news to share. "I've noticed," I replied and slowly nodded my head, prickling my ears as I was unwilling to let even a single word of the celestial fox go to waste over me just mishearing it. On the other hand, Fay appeared to be all confused, not sure what to feel about the sudden change to both the topic and the atmosphere. "They all came from the same place," Fay's mother paid little to no mind to her daughter's confusion, opting to just continue the story instead. She reached out and grabbed some stray twigs before using them like a pen to draw in the soft soil of the forest's clearing. "This here is the celestial forest, where all sorts of divine beasts reside," she narrated as she drew an irregular blob. "To the north opens up the starlight plain while to the south extends the misty valley."
With just a few more strokes of her hand, she drew the general lay of the nearby lands. My face twitched a little when I heard the familiar name. And while there was no significance in just hearing it... it also proved that my system wasn't just made up of random bullshit. At the very least, when it came to attributes and names for things, it seemed to be pretty much on point. Quite noticeably, Fay's mother raised her eyes on me as she brought up the names of those lands. And without a doubt, she noticed the twitch on my face when she spoke of the starlight plain. Whatever she understood from it, I had no idea. But now I could tell there was a lot more to that open grassland than I already knew about. "Neither of those areas are places a human like you, or even a divine beast like me or Fay could easily cross."
'Which means, we can't go north and south. And that leaves east and west, right?' I quickly translated the woman's words into concrete information I could use. Yet, as I looked down on the drawing again, ready to learn about the areas to the west and east, my eyes couldn't help the allure and draw towards the starlight plains. 'Now that I've raised my endurance...' I thought, before gulping my saliva. 'I wonder if I could last in some of those areas I dared not to even approach before.' The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))
With only a tiny bit left for me before I would advance to the fifth level, I was desperate to find a way to do so. Worst case scenario, I could wait for my gate to refresh, go back to earth, and grab someone strong but living under the law so I could execute him in this world where the system worked properly...
'Ugh, I'm already starting to consider morally dubious options,' I scolded myself, curbing the invasive thought before it could settle itself in my mind. "To the west, there are forbidden lands. There, not even gods can step lightly," the mom fox continued her story... and continued to eliminate the directions I could venture out to. What's more, though, she now brought up the topic of gods... and having them potentially walk the face of this world! 'I guess this is a world where mythos... is not that mythical after all!
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