Banished to a Barren Land

Luna followed Andrew into his house and shut the door behind her. She was still kind of scared to be here, in this world, but it was better with these two around. Joseph, being the exuberant merchant, and Andrew, being the brave guide. Without them here, she would be dead by now. She thought back to what Andrew said...

'The land wants us here, for some reason. Wants us to live, and also wants us to die, like it cant make up its mind. It makes it so we don't need food or water, we don't even need sleep, and we haven't aged a second while we were here.'

None of it made sense to Luna. How could a planet want something to die, or even want something at all? None of it added up, and since it just confused her more to think about it, she put it to the side.

"Andrew?" She said, coming out of her trance to gain his attention. He was in front of a chest, his head turned back and facing her as he was still digging through the chest slowly with his hands.

"Yeah, Luna?"

"Do you know anything else on why you were brought here? Like, what brought you here, and for what reason then to kill you with something else?" Luna asked inquisitively.

"Well, all I know is that me and Joseph used to be best friends when we were brought here. I remember like it was just yesterday, which for me I guess it was," He said, looking at himself. He was fully facing Luna now, sitting on the closed chest. There was a small pile of things to the left of him, some tools and a pack. "We had just gotten out of a bar. We had a few drinks, but not enough to actually get drunk. According to Joseph, I just outright disappeared out of thing air, leaving a black and blue smoke behind. Kind of like the color of your coat, to be honest.

"It was a different story on my end. It was like something darkened my vision, to where I couldn't even see Joseph, who he himself was at the moment staring at me in shock." Andrew explained, a trademark of his now.

"He's right, I was stunned silent by the damn thing! Scared the crap out of me I ran so fast to my apartment, which honestly was my very own merchant cart in an alley, and wept for so long I couldn't count the hours." Joseph said, walking into Andrews house after eavesdropping from the window. "I tell ya, I was hoping for at least three nights for it to be a nightmare, and wake up with him trying to swipe a few coins form my shop. Its not like I had anyone else, he was my only friend."

"It wasn't much the same on my side, though. I wasn't here alone, the adventurer was already here chopping down trees and making a house, like he knew he had to do it or something. I tried helping the best I could, and he only gave me a grateful smile. After our house was done, he made two more. One for himself, and one for storage. After about five cycles, Joseph here walked out of the forest and hid in one of the chests." Andrew added.

"I had every right to hide in that chest! I had the same experience as Andrew with the thing, only it was laughing in my face, and I couldn't even hear it! Sounded like a she devil, I tell ya. Dropped me off right in front of a zombie, and it chased me all the way to this here town. It ran off when the adventurer started shooting arrows at it, but I crept into the storage area. I was so scared I wouldn't come out until Andrew here literally opened the chest and smacked me upside the head!" The merchant was laughing at his own expense now, making Luna and Andrew join in.

After the laughter calmed down, Andrew had to continue on. "Well, to get back on topic, the only things distinguishable about our experience was that she seemed to have a demon like quality to her, and she based around the colors midnight blue and black. Does any of that ring a bell, Luna?"

Luna went wide eyed, and could only draw one conclusion; The Nightmare. She shook off her fear and pocketed her suspicion for later. "No, sorry Andrew, doesn't ring a bell." With Joseph now gone to his home to check up on storage, Andrew and Luna were alone. "Anyways, what do you have for me?" Luna asked, eyeing the tools down on the floor.

Andrew got up from his chest seat and grabbed the tools from the ground. From there, he lugged them the short distance to the table and spread them out. "I only have a few things, the things he left in case a new adventurer came along to help. I have," He pointed at the two tools. "A copper pickaxe," He pointed at number one, "And a copper axe," He pointed at number two. " Both of them very well made, able to at the very least help you in gathering materials. The axe will let you chop down trees and the pickaxe will help you mine dirt and rock, maybe finding precious metals inside.

"We also have a copper shortsword for you, since your adventuring out. You're gonna need it to fight the slimes. Hold all questions until the end of the explanation, please." He said, looking at Luna's questioning glance. She blushed, and beckoned him to continue on. "Next, we have some torches. For some reason, they only light to the gel from slimes, so you have to kill a few of those to get said gel. Also, we have rope coils. You can throw these and for some reason we can't explain, the will latch onto walls and drop down, letting you climb them with ease.

"Finally we have this map. It will automatically update with your location and show everything at the lightest it ever was. You can set checkpoints with it by just saying out loud 'set checkpoint' and then 'home' or whatever name you want to call it." At this point, a checkpoint appeared on the map at the current location of the town. "It can change angles at your whim, so it will always help you get back home. It will even tell you where we all are if that region is explored by the map." A good deal of the surrounding area had been uncovered on the map, including many deep caverns.

"The torches and rope were supplied by Joseph, but the rest you can buy from him with coins. You can find them being dropped by any kind of monster that is hostile towards you. Now, any questions?" Luna had nodded and Andrew beckoned her to continue.

"What are slimes?" She ignorantly asked.

"A slime is a gelatinous creature composed completely of this gel like substance that seams to burn very easily. Fire can only burn by non-living gel in this world, so you need to defeat weaker slimes in order to obtain the gel. Strength level of slimes go from, I think, Green, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Red. That is all we really know about slimes, but they digest anything that is in their living gel after a long amount of time. Enough attacks with a sword knocks them apart for good though."

"And what materials do I need to even get?"

"My advice would be to get wood and precious metals and some stone. The stone to see if we can make a furnace and the metals to see if we can make more effective tools. I'm sorry Luna," He said, looking out his window to see the sun halfway through the sky, "but you're on your own now." With this, Andrew sat down in his chair and started reading something from one of his spare books.

"But Andrew, where will I even hold all this stuff?" He simply pointed to a backpack in the corner of the house.

"I got here with that, and for some reason I can hold a ridiculous amount of stuff in it, each item taking up the same space and almost no space if I put another of the same kind in there. Good luck, Luna."

Luna nodded, putting her stuff in the backpack, honestly surprised it all fit in their with ease. She hefted it up and attached it to her side like she would a saddlebag and headed out the door.

"Hello? Hello? I seem to have gotten lost in the forest." Luna heard a voice speak out, and she looked around to see a yellow orange flower stuck to her back and another human enter the town. "Ah yes! Someone, even though not the same as me, still something! Hello, I am Hannibal, the Dye Trader!"