"THE INVENTORY!"
Waking up, Xenos sat upright in his hammock, roaring loud.
He immediately flicked his hand, pulling the system menu open.
—
{Inventory}
—
It wasn't gray anymore.
He could finally use it now!
"Ohhh Tartaros yeah."
He grinned and picked up the sword hanging from a branch beside him.
Focusing on the sword, he imagined it vanishing, and sure enough…
"Huh."
It disappeared, making his heart skip.
In the Inventory tab, a new line appeared.
—
{Inventory}
[Basic Sword]
—
"Niceeee~."
He called it back, and in the blink of an eye, the sword reappeared, solid in his grip.
"NICEEEEE~!"
He swung it once, knowing just how much trouble this would save him.
Eris hummed inside his mind, Her voice curious.
'Oh, so you can use Space so easily?'
Xenos chuckled.
'I know, right? I bet there's a limit, but this is incredible, arguably better than a shop.'
'That's good...'
She didn't get exactly what he meant by 'shop' at the end, but Her tone softened, pleased to see him so happy.
'Now, why don't you prepare for the journey ahead? Food and drinking water will be scarce, I'm sure.'
He flipped out of the hammock, tumbled onto the dirt, and scrambled for his clothes, a bit too excited to test this out, wanting to see if it was similar to the game or not.
"Yes, ma'am!"
...
Xenos worked fast, slicing monkey meat, smoking it over the fire, cutting strips, and tossing a tiny sample into the new inventory space, wanting to know more of this storage space.
And yes, 'storage space,' after all, this was simply him sending his items from one space, i.e., his hands, into another, the inventory. He didn't know if this other 'space' was somewhere that could handle storing food without it rotting.
After about five minutes, he pulled the meat back out and inspected it.
Unsurprisingly, it looked exactly the same.
Yes, exactly, not the least bit dried or any change in smell.
It was perfectly preserved, instantly making him reach a conclusion.
"…is this 'space' out of time?"
Eris answered like she'd been waiting for him to ask:
'It seems 'They' bestowed on you something out of this realm.'
That gave him pause as he rubbed his chin and stared into the fire.
'No wonder I had to level up a little before it allowed me to use it.'
Shrugging his shoulders a little, he began cramming his meat into the storage.
He did the same with every little thing he owned, as well as water, until—
Ding!
—
[Limit Reached!]
—
"Ah. Expected that much."
Because this was tied to his Soul, it couldn't be infinite.
He stared mournfully at his hammock.
"You were a good friend. I'll miss you."
Eris's chuckle echoed in his mind.
'Stop with the comedy act and go.'
Xenos laughed back.
"Yes ma'am~."
...
The road stretched before him, and he, standing in the middle of it, kept turning around.
His eyes scanned every direction, as if picking up on pieces of familiarity.
After a few seconds of doing that, he pointed in the river's direction.
'Hm...'
Moving his hand a little more to the right, he now pointed eastward, where no paths stood, only unclaimed lands and green grass for as long as his eyes could see, which was a lot, as he could see very damned far.
"The Academy should be there... somewhere."
Without pause, he stepped off the path and confidently walked forward.
His sword disappeared into his inventory and reappeared every other second.
It seemed that even this he was practicing, making sure his body knew the process by heart.
Time passed without much change, as he ate strips of monkey meat on the move, slept under trees when the sun dipped low, and walked again when it rose.
Day bled into night, and night into day.
Walk. Eat. Sleep. Repeat until finally...
After Gods-knew-how-many hours of trudging, he came across it:
Calamity.
Before him were long plains of tall grass rolling out in waves, and tucked in between the blades—
'Ah.'
Was a still bleeding corpse.
Xenos crouched, prodding it with the tip of his boot.
"Damnation."
He knew exactly what this meant.
A land war!
Whenever a Rune from a higher stratum dropped on neutral territory, Houses, both Main and Lower, fought tooth and nail for it, throwing their disposable men at each other until one side decided that it had lost enough.
But this body…
'Even Lower Houses gave their fodder uniforms.'
It wasn't dressed like a House goon.
What he thought was fact, so this made no sense, unless...
'Bandits?'
Eris agreed.
'Likely bandits. I doubt even Debtors of Oath would be treated this way.'
Hm, Xenos saw that as the only possibility.
Though Debtors of Oath were basically this realm's legal slaves, the Houses held enough 'standard' not to abuse them, but of course, it was only because that'd ruin their image in the Noble public; they didn't care for those beneath them.
They wanted to act the part of honor, even though most didn't even have a lick of it.
Because yes, these Debtors of Oath were worse than slaves, with no chance of freedom.
Sure, their body parts wouldn't be used to make clothes and accessories like those of his home plant, and they wouldn't be abused to Tartaros and back, but just because they swore a Rune Oath and failed to meet the requirements, they would be kept alive for hundreds of years, doing as their owners' liked, only to then be killed and have their Runes extracted out of them.
Those Runes would then be given to their own children, who now bore responsibility over that Oath Debt, all until they deemed the requirements met, which was usually never.
The Houses usually touted themselves as merciful for keeping them alive even though they failed a Rune Oath, but that wasn't life; a million deaths would've been more preferable.
Such a truth would have infuriated many, but Xenos was unfazed.
...He'd seen and dealt with worse.
Anyhow, bandits meant less trouble. Most were crude, greedy, and usually weaker than the average House goon, their 'soldiers.'
Yes, they had no preset moves or any sort of trained rhythm he could predict like those two-headed dogs and monkeys, but Xenos wasn't worried.
People were predictable in their own ways.
'Besides, I can just avoid them.'
Yeah, he'd only attack if confrontation was necessary.
Or so he thought.
Because a little further ahead, on a charred patch of grass, he spotted something else:
A group of Lyacon, this realm's wolf-men... guards; one of them was gravely injured, and most were bloodied and exhausted.
They stood in a circle, and at their center was another Lyacon, though younger.
Wolfish features were most apparent on him: long, fluffy gray fur for hair, pointy ears, clear blue eyes, a twitching tail, and sharp nails, dressed in finery that screamed "young master."
Many, many dead bodies littered the plain around them, making it obvious what Xenos had just stepped into.
'Ah... we're wrong. This was a hit.'
Eris hummed in agreement.
'It seems so. Will you interfere?'
He smiled, slow and amused.
Would he save the damsel in distress?
Though this "damsel" was a young master, he found himself inclined to.
'Maybe if he's willing to fork up.'
If there was drachma involved, he was in!
"There's no running now!"
The bandits tightened their circle, weapons raised, ready to rush forth.
But Xenos wasn't about to allow that to happen to his piggy bank.
"WAAAAIT!"
He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs:
"DON'T ATTACK!"
Every head snapped his way, and he...
"Wait for me!"
He casually strolled forward, slipping one hand behind his back, willing his sword into it from inventory without anyone seeing.
"How about we talk first?"