Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 1 - Chapter 28

We stepped out of the portal and found ourselves just outside the edge of the forest I reincarnated into. It wasn't too far from the city, but we were already about a half an hour's worth of walking away from the city's gate, so it was as a good start we were going to get with my limited knowledge of the area.

I took in a long, deep breath. The night was in full swing. A full moon was shining bright enough to illuminate most of the landscape before us, meaning our preferred method of traveling via teleportation would be fairly easy. The crisp midnight breeze nipped at my sweaty skin and somehow, the wild felt cleaner, more relaxing than that of the city. There were no cars or machines polluting the civilized world, but the difference between the densely populated city and the freedom of nature was unmistakable.

Pulling up my HUD's compass, I found that we were already facing the East and said a silent thanks to the Goddess that recommended the direction to me in the first place. I drew in another deep breath and psyched myself for the journey ahead. Yua smiled warmly at this and set about the usual stretching she'd do before tackling the dungeons. We may be traveling with magic, but we'd still be walking the entire time.

She nodded to me when she was ready and I took a good long look down the well-traveled dirt road that ran as far East past the city as the eye could see. Once I had a fairly good image of what lay at the end of my line of sight and memorized it, I threw open another teleportation door. Much to my surprise, but understanding the sense of it, I found it a little amusing that I could see the exit of the portal glowing bright at the end of the road.

We stepped right on through and now already maybe a quarter of a mile away from where we started, I took a moment to correct our direction, looked into the distance again, and opened another portal.

We traveled like this for about an hour before we ran into a small mountain I couldn't see or teleport around due to its wide base. After a short hike around it and the thick foliage sprouting around the area, with Yua keeping her ears on high alert to avoid us running into any wildlife, we were able to start teleporting again.

After a couple more hours of this, and after several long stops to let my mana regenerate and to rest our weary feet, I put the magic on hold. I wiped the sweat from my brow as Yua started up another round of stretching, gearing up for more walking. Watching her for a moment, curiosity eventually took hold of me and I turned back towards the city. When I saw that we were so far from Amoranth that it no longer registered as a speck of dust dirtying the horizon, I found myself at peace.

We found ourselves in a grassy clearing surrounded on two sides by trees. The sprawling forest in front of us looked maybe a half a mile wide and several times deeper, as the further I looked between the trees, the less light I could see. Meanwhile, the small copse of trees at our backs were few, just remnants the split from the forest proper and just enough to nuzzle up cozily close to another large mountain immediately to our right. Another, smaller mountain rest further to our left, but it was surrounded by several stones that looked to have been sitting there since long before the trees first sprouted.

It was a wide-open patch of land with its own natural border that we could have easily missed had the moon and the stars twinkling overhead not been lighting the path. With no stone buildings to speak of and without the mind-numbing cacophony of noise a densely populated city like the ones I'd grown used to both in this world and my last, it felt as though this secluded place was destined to be called home.

"How about we stop here for the night?"

"Hmm?" Yua hummed, her ears giving a small flick as she limbered up her legs.