“And after that… I just roamed around, trying to get stronger, that was until I met you” Astraea finished off while pointing at Michael.
He had listened to her entire story, not expecting her to go into so much detail.
However, she did, and he felt like shit.
‘That was a lot more depressing than I had thought… jokes on me for thinking that people like us would be normal’ Michael snickered to himself.
Comes in a package I suppose, if she hadn’t been delusional, her memories might have not come back.
‘She did say only a small portion of them came back.. but it’s still something…’
“What about you?” Astraea fiddled around with the warm coat he had made for her.
Michael chuckled in response “Me? I believe my story isn’t as interesting as yours.”
‘Though what am I supposed to tell her.. She told me everything, to someone she barely knew…’
Can’t really say ‘barely’, because.. you know..
‘True..’
She put on a big smile “It’s fine, my mana still hasn’t recovered, so we have time.”
Michael looked at her and pondered, was it really alright for him to tell her something like that?
It looked like she trusted him a lot, it seemed unconditional and blind, but it was her delusions that made her so aware of him.
And later on, those delusions turned out to be the truth, her mind was just filling in the gaps from the memories.
‘Well, screw it, not like there would be any other person I would tell this to…’ Michael sighed and proceeded to tell her how his life went before he arrived in this world.
He talked about his loving family and his time serving, he skipped out on the drugs and alcohol he used in his final years of life, it was a shameful thing to remember.
Michael wanted to keep those particular memories in the past, he wouldn’t want Astraea to see him in a such a way.
He changed the story of how he died, instead of dying gruesomely in an alley, he told her that he died after a car hit him.
It was a bit of a pain explaining what cars were, considering the world they were currently in didn’t have them, but nonetheless, the story went on.
He told her about his time back at the orphanage and a little bit about the system, not providing a bunch of details about it since he didn’t know much himself.
The journey, the slums, his time as a Saint, the temple and finally, this world they were both in, he told her all about it.
The story about his past life was not exactly exciting, the most fun he had was during his time serving, after that, it was pretty much boring.
And the trials, he didn’t exactly know how to explain them, so he told her that he regains a portion of his memories upon completion of said trial.
Astraea’s expression changed a bunch of times during the course of his explanation, yet she didn’t seem surprised, it was more of pity at times and happiness when he succeeded.
“And that’s about it.. it was a coincidence that we met..” Michael finished his explanation and checked on her mana, it was pretty much back to full.
“A coincidence? I wouldn’t be so sure” She added and stood up, it was about time for them to search for the portal.
He was a bit surprised she didn’t ask any more questions, his story seemed the most weird out of both of theirs, since essentially, he had many more lives.
It wouldn’t be that surprising if she chose to not believe him, but she did.
‘Yeah.. I don’t know what else it could have been if not a coincidence…’ Michael chuckled to himself and stood up, walking out of the small cave.
The weather had gotten worse, if before it was considered slightly chilly, it was now very cold, to the point where even he began feeling it.
And that’s happening despite his cold resistance and warm clothing.
Michael glanced at Astraea and noticed she was in a similar situation, although she wasn’t shivering nearly as much as him.
As he was thinking that, he saw some movement in the far off distance, he wasn’t sure if it was a bird or something else.
However, he was certain something was indeed there.
“Astraea..” He turned to her and noticed her already readying her threads as if she felt something too.
But no matter where he looked, there was nothing, that small amount of movement was all he could see.
His map was not picking anything up either and his senses were even more useless.
‘System?’ He tried calling out and was met with an immediate answer.
Do not move. Do not even think of moving, stand still, now.
‘What’s the deal?’ Michael asked but nonetheless, proceeded to follow the system’s instructions after also relaying them to Astraea.
He had told her about some of the knowledge that he shared and that it was due to the system’s help.
Remember when I said that the rift could take you anywhere and those places could and most likely would be dangerous?
‘Yes?’
Well… you are in one of the more dangerous regions, Jotunheim.
Michael’s eyes immediately widened upon hearing the system’s words ‘Fuck.. do you mean the land of the giants?’
Precisely, the thing you thought was a bird was nothing more than a fledgling giant, it seems to be looking for something in this particular area.
‘Are the giants.. friendly?’ Michael asked with a tinge of hope as fighting a literal giant was definitely not on his agenda.
They are friendly only if you are invited by them, however, if you happen to accidentally break into their world, then…
‘Fuck me… so not only do we have to find the portal, but we also have to avoid being squashed by the giants?’
Pretty much, most of them walk in their human forms as being extremely tall has its downsides, but the one you saw might just be a curious one.
‘Could I… beat it?’ Michael asked another question and saw movement happening in the far off distance again, this time it seemed a lot closer.
You might be able to scratch it if you attacked it with all your might, this is one of the higher worlds, even their weakest were at the very least Tier 6.
‘Nice pep talk.. though what should I do now?’
Well, my advice would be to stay still and wait it out, however, you only have 5 days… yeah, I have no idea.
Michael rolled his eyes at the system and saw even more movement happening in the distance, he could now see the figure, albeit slightly.
It had what appeared to be leather armor and its skin was completely blue, the same color as its hair.
“Astraea.. do you have any presence masking techniques you could maybe share?”
She heard his voice and slowly turned her head around “I do.. but for us to completely erase our presence, we would need to completely get rid of our mana and put it inside of our cores.”
As Michael was about to speak up, she interjected “Without mana, we would freeze to death in an instant, it’s the only reason we are still alive right now.”
‘Shit… it just keeps getting worse and worse’ Michael sighed and glanced at the giant that was previously in the distance.
Now, however, it was overlooking them, he didn’t even notice when it had gotten so close.
Michael and Astraea were looking directly at it, and it seemed like it knew that they were there as well.
‘Fuck..’
Look on the bright side, it can’t get any worse than this.
As the system’s words fell, Michael began seeing more movement behind the massive giant, and surprisingly two more giants appeared.
Or… maybe it can…
‘…’
