Neutral God Chapter 3

Chapter 3
God dam, this is a Fantasy World

  On the way to Consforn, about an hour after they started, Lyn started asking Earlan many questions, Dorn, Alex, and Ster the mage answering most of them. Lyn first question, now knowing where he is, asks "where am I? Where I come from magic is such a rarity that it is nearly a fairy tale, with very few actual practitioners." Stern, hearing this, reply's, "Really, you must be from Reslorns, a continent south of Sornal, the continent we are currently on. From what I heard from traders, they never seen magic until they came here. How the hell did you get from there to here?"

  Think, this is a magical world, but you don't know shits from giggles here. Wait, I have a blink spell, if I say I got teleported here, I can show a small example to fortify my story. Lyn, making it up as he goes along, starts explaining, "My master specialized in teleportation spells. We were investigating some ruins master believed was a teleportation portal of some kind, when we were attacked by bandits. Runes on the walls glowed when master activated a teleportation spell on me, it must have amplified the spell and sent me here." God I hope that works.

  Ster thought for a few second, then started a whirlwind of words, "A teleportation location, I see, there are records of one in the land of the dead, but we can't really get to it to find out. I heard most of the Reslorn were unaware of lands far from theirs."

  "Let me explains the layout of the continent. These lands have four major humanoid power, the Kingdom of Menlor, where they currently are, the eastern most country, Kingdom of Nanbor, a western kingdom of multiple races, mostly orcs and ogres, the Firklen empire, a western human empire, and Kingdom of Quelini, an elven kingdom that nearly shares a border with Menlor.  north of the elven kingdom and ours is a nation of dragons, mainly blue, do not worry they are peaceful, and even have keeps all around the continent. There is three major dwarf kingdoms, two of which share a border with us." God dam, this is a fantasy world.

  Dorn buts in and explains "there is multiple of smaller kingdoms and regions, like barbarian tribes and Lands of the Dead to the south, a few smaller countries near the elves, The Beastlings, Drake Lords, humanoid dragons, and Grallistor, or the Grey Country. The Grey Country is near the center of the Sornal. The head of the temple of god governs there, the Demi god Jollin, Son of Leantral." Gods? demi god? Dorn speaks up, "have you not heard of the gods boy? Do they worship anything over in Reslorn?" Well, lie as little as possible, "from where I come from, most people worshiped one god, could you please explain to me about the gods here so I do not look so much like an idiot?"

  Dorn, thinking to make out what Lyn was saying with his terrible grammar, started explaining, "OK, well there is the light gods, like Lentor, leader of the gods and angels, Nethbul, god of death and ruler of the after life, Nelbin god of creation, Mailida, goddess of life and women, Narfren, god of war, and Evlen, goddess of light. After that is the Gods of Grey, like Leantral, god of scholars and wizards, who actually visits the land every ten years, Luctuna, goddess of luck and fate, Lilinath, goddess of indulgence, and Juldiscar, god of justice. After that are the dark and demon gods. There is also a bunch of minor light and neutral gods, but it would take to much time to recite. Look, there is the castle."

  It is late afternoon, Dorn points over to a large stone fortress. The castle has grey walls that look like your typical castle, and look to be thirty six feet high. The walls look well maintained, and has a draw bridge about ten meters in width lowered. The gate consisted of two parts, a wooden, gate, ten meters in width and twenty feet in height, with a portcullis the same size, both are open. In the gate house above, three people with crossbows come out.

  One of the crossbowmen look down, and ask "who goe....Sir Dorn? It is great to see your found the prince, but you look a quite a few men short. What happened?" Prince? the only one he could be talking about is Earlan..Earlan is a prince! Dorn looks up, looks at Earlan, then looks up again and shouts "Zill, I will tell you about it tonight over some mead! Earlan still needs to meet the young lass!" Zill just nods his head, and with the other two men, talk back into the gate house.

  As Lyn and the other riders make their way, Lyn sees people here or there wearing simple linen cloths going about their business. As they go through town, people move out of their way to give them space. Ahead is another wall, similar to the one already passed, with a large stone building behind it. The wall is nearly identical to the one passed, with orange banners flanking the gate. The building behind appears to be a keep, overly decorated. The keep is a large square building with four square towers at it's corners, each topped with a pointed top. balconies could be seen coming out of the keep, but other then a overly large door, it looks very secure.

  Even before getting to the gate, Lyn could see two lines of knights wearing similar armor to Dorn, but with an orange color at the other side of the wall. They could be seen, all of them facing one another, spread as if they were an honor guard guiding them through the gate, welcoming us. Hell, it might actually BE an honor guard.

  When Lyn and the others were half way down the honor guard, he could see a group of people at the door to the keep, waiting for them. One was a women in a embroidered white dress that went down to her brown shoes, and covered her arms with frills around the wrist, blond, unbound hair, about four and a half feet tall, had an hour glass figure, probably from a corset, and looked around fourteen. Beside here was another woman and a man to her left an right. The women, about five-six was in a embroiled orange dress that went to her boots and covered her arms, a veil covering her blond hair, probably around thirty years old, and most likely the younger girl's mother. What appeared to be the father was wearing an orange robe with a pulled back hood, had black hair, a gold chain around his neck, and boots. A staff, probably magical, was in the right hand. Wow, a lot of orange around here, guess that is part of their coat of arms.

  Lyn, looking to the right, and sees a bunch of horses being guided into a large building, probably the stables at the corner of the inner wall. Looks like they were about to ride out before we got here. About fifty feet from the group, the horses Lyn and the group were riding on stopped and everyone started getting off. Taking that as a Que, Lyn followed suit. As the group was doing this, a young man about sixteen, dressed similarly to the young girl's father, came up to stand behind said father. Probably the son. Lyn's group walked to close the gap between the two groups until they were ten feet away. Earlan walked in front, Dorn behind him to his right, Lyn got pushed behind over to Earlan's left, with Alex behind Dorn and Ster behind Lyn. As they got closer to the group in orange, Lyn could tell they looked all beautiful and handsome.

  The group in orange bowed to Earlan, the father said "it is great you are unhurt your majesty, it seems you are missing a few retainers, and brought this.." The man looks Lyn up and down, Lyn is five foot two, messy brown hair, blue eyes, worn and dirty blue robe, average looks, and without a staff, "peasant?" well, probably better I am a peasant in his eyes, I would hate to... Earlan speaks up, loud enough for some of the knights in the honor at the back be able to hear, "this is Lyn Vuur, the man who saved my life. Within an hour, he killed two Hell Hounds, two Demon Dancers, three imps, and a dominated red dragon, all by himself, while keeping me safe!" At the dragon part, Lyn yet again felt the shock of the people around him. Bloody hell, this could only end badly.

  Earlan continued, "Lyn is from one of the smaller continents, probably Reslorn by how rare others using magic seemed to him, teleported here when his master tried to save him, and a powerful magic user, so call him a peasant one. more. time." With this, Lyn speaks up in a voice the orange group and Lyn's can clearly hear, "umm, I am practically a peasant, as I hold no formal title, and I am just Earlan's new friend, so don't mind me." All that could hear clearly were confused for a second, trying to unravel what Lyn said with his bad grammar.

  Before anyone could respond, Lyn attempts to change the subject, "umm, and you all are?" The father, happy for a change in topic, went off. "My name is Grommer Drauston, here is my wife Prentila Drauston, the late comer is my eldest son, Grodner Drauston, and this young lady, my daughter and Earlan's fiancee, Emilly Drauston." fiancee? must be nice to be a prince. Grommer continued, "well, why don't we all go inside, I am sure you all have had a long day." Grommer takes a second to stare a Lyn, then walk in with everyone else.

  After changing cloths, Lyn putting on his blue dragon robes, went with Earlan to discussing what happened during the day, and large supper of roasted pig, while having small talk. Lyn, afterwards, Lyn went to the go find the toilet, hoping to god there was some type of toilet paper. After asking Dorn, it appears they use the palm tree leaves, called pall leaves here, to wipe. O thank god, I heard they had no toilet paper in our timeline in medievil times, I wonder about baths.

  After Lyn returned to his room, Earlan invited Lyn to come to the lord's bath with him, Dorn, Ster, and Alex. They went to the bath, which thankfully, with the use of some magical equipment,  was heated to a nice temperature. The bath was a large basin that could probably accommodate fifty people, however other then Alex, Dorn, and Ster, no one was present.

  Lyn was the first to speak, "so.. are you happy your marrying that girl? I don't know what it's like here, but where I come from most people are able to choose who they marry." Earlan, without hesitation, said "I am glad I am marrying her. We were childhood friends, and I know we both have feelings for each other. I know most nobles do not get a choice, and it is usually worse for the women."

  After that, Lyn and Earlan had small talk for about five minutes. Before they leave, Dorn asks the group for their attention. "Lyn, this is just a rumor, but I heard Grodner is going to challenge you to a duel tomorrow, and that he is going to get secretly use help from the top wizard here. Grommer  is pushing him to do it, he seems to have a dislike, which Grodner is of the same mind of, that a peasant should not be mingling with the nobility." Lyn and the rest think it over, but Earlan is the first one to speak. "Why! Lyn defeated a Dragon! With magic. It is a lost fight, so why?" Ster is the first one to answer, "probably he thinks it's a hoax, or he just has the usual over self confidence the nobility seem to have."

  Well, this would be a great test to get my bearing in terms of strength. I wonder if I will be using magic or sword, either I have confidence in. With that, Lyn ask, "what will we be fighting with, magic or sword, or other means?

  With this, Dorn looks confused, then understanding clicks in, and begins to explain. "I guess you do now know how most of Menlor society works. OK let me give you the basics. For the most part, all nobles are wizards to some degree or another. From royal family to count, generally they are wizards. Wizards themselves are like knights, as in they are given the title of wizard like knights are given the title of knight. Mages, on the other hand, are like the soldiers, less pay, less privileges, and so on. Most nobles look down on swords, so it will be a battle of magic." Lyn, thinking back, ask another question, "what is the difference between mages and wizards?"

  Ster interjects, " I will answer this. A magic users rank is determined by attack power, mostly. Above a certain threshold, a magic user becomes a wizard. With ranks, starting from highest to lowest are Champion, Archmage, Grandmaster, Master, Feldept, Adept, Cilinept, and Novice. To be a wizard, you need to be Feldept rank, or like some nobles, just act the part. To get ranks, you need to be able to defeat a certain amount of dummy demons and rival mages to rank up, and of course be able to produce that level of spell."

  "An example of each rank would be, in fire for example, from highest rank to lowest, Sunfocus, a spell that could take out an army, Firestorm, basically a tornado of fire, Cometstorm a long range, massive barrage of an artillery spell, Inferno basically one bolt from Cometstorm, Fire Barrage, usually three to six large fireballs, Large Explosive Fireball, self explanatory, Barrage a bunch of firebolts, and firebolt. These ranks are usually given on merit, but nobles being nobles. Other then nobles, even though they number about fifteen percent, are knight's children, people from commoner background which is very rare, but with the amount of commoners, equals about fifty percent of magic students, and bastards from noble families, The usual group of new students are around two hundred per year, and about sixty become wizards, most are from nobles and wizard families, given a better education in magic. Mages are usually healers, used to support wizards, or ranged troops on the battlefield, so the rest get hired up quickly."

  Lyn's final question, before they all retire for bed, is "what rank is he? I do not know what ages are usually able to do what." Ster, again, answers, "Well, most magic users are sent to the Grey Country, because they have the best academy there. Children around fourteen go there, expected to already be novice rank. Before going there, their masters are suppose to teach them the basics spells for combat, and for the next six years they learn at the academy. Grodner is twenty two, so he is at least a wizard, and I heard a rumor it was from merit. If he was not, the titled family would either keep them at school,  less likely, denounce them from the family, or pay for the title, the more likely one."

  Lyn, processing all of this, finally says, "OK, time to see were I stand, although I lack utility spells, I am very confident in my combat skills. It is soon time to see where I weigh in with the rest of you, hey?" With a chuckle, Lyn leaves for his room, mentally preparing the spells in his mind before he sleeps.