The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

"I'm going to rip their throats out," Nali growled as bile rose in her throat again.

"We're almost there," Din assured her, using a cloth to dab the sweat from Nali's brow. "Just hang in there a bit longer."

Nali groaned and leaned further over the side of the boat to empty the meager contents of her stomach. The vomit splashed on the side of the ship before hitting the water, adding to the foul smell that already clung to the wood.

"You talked such a big game on the docks, I wouldn't think a little seasickness would be the thing to do you in." A grizzled old man leaned on the rail a few feet away from Nali, taking a swig from his flask.

The man had ignored them for the majority of the trip, and Nali hadn't bothered to introduce herself to the other prisoners.

She had been too busy puking her guts out for two weeks straight.

"It emerges from the depths," Din said sarcastically.

The man shrugged. "I've never been too fond of water myself, though I'm not trying to feed the fish mama-bird style."

"I could feed you to them instead," Nali growled. "I'm sure you taste a lot better than—"

She dry heaved.

"Focus on the horizon," the man said. "I heard it's supposed to help."

Nali considered slapping the man across the deck, but she swallowed her pride and forced her eyes to the horizon line.

To her surprise, it did help a little. Not enough to stop the queasiness in her stomach, but at least she didn't feel like she was going to throw up again.

"Where are you from?" Nali asked, not taking her eyes away from her anchor to sanity.

Sea travel wasn't common. It was slow and dangerous, and besides a few islands off the coast, there wasn't much to sail to.

The man said something unintelligible.

Nali's gaze flicked to him and back to the horizon line, catching his name tag in the brief second before the boat rolled again.

[Herald Blanc — Level 25]

[Human]

"You're one of the Chosen?" Nali asked, not looking at the man.

The man didn't say anything else for a few minutes and Nali focused on not falling off the boat.

"Sorry about that," Herald said. "My translation skill is only active for three minutes out of ten. It's a pain in the ass, but it's better than nothing. What was the last thing you said?"

"You're one of the Chosen?" Nali repeated.

"Is that what you all are calling us?" He shook his head. "Dumbest name I ever heard. I'm from Earth, if that's what you're asking. Nearly got spawn-killed by a bunch of rabid dogs, but the folks who pulled me out of there weren't very happy with my presence. Not even sure what I stumbled onto."

"How are you using the translation skill in the first place?" Nali asked. "The boat has a ward to block the use of abilities."

Were that not the case, Nali had a fair few spells that would work on queasiness or seasickness, even if Basic Heal was useless.

Herald shrugged. "Maybe they didn't think I was worth blocking. I'd prefer if you don't remind them I exist. They seem happy enough to ignore me and I like it better that way."

"Then why did you come out to talk to us?" Din asked, sounding annoyed.

"Truth be told, I'm a sympathy puker," Herald said. "The less this one heaves, the less queasy I have to feel. Hard to pretend this is a vacation if everything smells like that." He wrinkled his nose before taking another swig from his flask. "Have a nice day."

He stumbled away, smacking his head on the door frame as he disappeared below deck.

"I think he's drunk!" Din exclaimed.

Nali grinned. "I know he is, but his advice is actually helping."

Somehow—largely thanks to the horizon trick—Nali managed to avoid throwing up for the next couple of hours. As soon as the land came into sight, they were forced below deck and told to wait there.

Nali took deep breaths, closing her eyes against the return of nausea. She wished Hinesh was there to distract her, but as a member of their secret society, he was on a different boat.

This boat was only for prisoners and crew.

The boat shuddered and Nali opened her eyes. They weren't rocking anymore. Had they reached the island?

Herald snored loudly, sprawled out in the corner of the brig. He reeked of alcohol and his shirt had disappeared sometime during his nap.

Where had he gotten the alcohol?

The more Nali learned about the Chosen, the less they made sense.

She was distracted from her musing by the return of movement. Only this time the boat didn't rock side to side with the waves, instead the floor pressed against them as they were lifted into the air.

"They're flying the boat?" Din asked incredulously. "That would take an extremely powerful mage-type Class."

Nali shook her head. "I don't think this is magic. Or if it is, it's not being done by a single person. They wouldn't have forced us below deck if they weren't hiding something from us."

Several minutes later, the boat stopped moving.

One of the guards came to usher them out. Herald wouldn't wake, so the guard threw the man over his shoulder, leaving his shirt on the floor.

At a look from Nali, Din collected the man's shirt, frowning at it in distaste. Nali took the shirt and shoved it into her satchel.

They followed the guard above deck, where the other prisoners were gathered in a group.

"Ignore them," another guard said to the group. "They're set for a different destination than you lot."

Nali's guard led them to the back of the boat.

"Welcome to Lapis," he said, hopping over the railing. He fell ten yards to the ground, landing solidly on his feet. Miraculously, Herald still didn't wake up. He motioned for Nali and Din to follow.

Nali hopped over the railing, landing gracefully on the solid ground. She had never been so happy to be standing on a dirt road.

"Nali, I'm going to need you to catch me," Din called.

Nali's former student built her stats up almost entirely as a mage. She couldn't make this sort of jump on her own.

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Trusting Nali, Din hopped over the edge without hesitation.

Nali intercepted her, bending her knees as they collided to soften the landing.

Din grinned. "Thanks."

She hopped out of Nali's arms, following the guard, who was already walking down the dirt road.

"You're too impulsive," Nali told her, unable to keep the smile out of her voice.

"Learned from the best," Din called back over her shoulder.

Nali shook her head, just happy to be off that damn boat.

They followed the guard in silence. Nali could take him easily enough, especially now that she could use her abilities, but she was there for information, not to blow up the island.

Not to mention, the fact that they didn't think they needed to keep blocking Nali's abilities meant there were probably much more powerful problems to face on the island than a lone guard.

Also, if Nali was going to escape, she would have done so before they put her on a boat.

"All right, here are the rules," the guard said, dropping the drunk man on the ground. "You have full run of the island. Once you're here, there's no going back, so we don't force residents to stay anywhere specific. That said, there's a city about a mile that way—" He pointed further down the road. "—that has warm beds and good food as long as you're willing to work. If you'd rather take your chances with the monsters, there are some fortified caves up North that will provide you with some basic shelter."

"What's to stop us from finding a boat and going back to the mainland?" Din asked.

"Besides that one's constitution?" the guard asked, nodding at Nali. "The beach is seeded with sandworms and there are worse things in the sea. It's about a two week trip back to the mainland if you happen to have someone with the skills to hide you from the monsters in the depths. Also, the three of you are already tagged. We'll just come find you again, but if that happens, you won't be welcome in the city a second time."

Nali kept her expression neutral. "We're not planning on running." She looked down at the unconscious man on the ground. "And the three of us will stay in the city."

The guard shrugged. "Stay or don't stay; you get yourselves there. My job ends here." He walked back in the direction of the boat, not even glancing back at them until he was out of sight.

"What a jerk," Herald said, sitting up.

Din swung around to stare at the man. "I thought you were drunk."

Herald grinned. "You get out of a lot of things when people think that. No, I just reek because I haven't managed a bath in weeks. Trust me, if I was drunk, you would know."

Nali activated one of her translation skills so the man wouldn't have to keep refreshing his three minute emergency skill.

"I underestimated you," Nali said.

"Most people do," Herald said, getting to his feet. "I don't suppose one of you grabbed my shirt?"

Nali pulled it out of her satchel and passed it to him.

Herald dragged his shirt over his head, pulling his flask out of his Inventory and taking a swig of what was likely just water. "Should we get going?"

"If you let me carry you, we can get to the city a lot faster," Nali offered.

Din screwed her face up in distaste, but she didn't object. Nali knew Din hated being carried, but she hated running even more.

"No thanks," Herald said. "I'd rather take the scenic route. A mile isn't even a morning jog."

It took them nearly thirty minutes to reach the city. As soon as Herald realized that Nali was handling the translation, he talked non-stop all the way there.

"I'm from Texas originally," Herald said. "Moved to Kentucky a few years back when I got laid off. Got into the game as a way to blow off some steam."

"Game?" Din asked.

"Yeah," Herald said. "It was a video game, you know? The kind that looks like it's part of real life? Took a bit to get used to seeing monsters everywhere and the government nearly had a conniption fit when monsters were popping up in the middle of the road. That got patched really quickly."

"So, I've been curious," Din said. "You all keep claiming that you didn't know that any of this was real. How is that even possible?"

It seemed that Din had gotten over her dislike of the man. Perhaps his unwillingness to be carried—and by extension her not having to put up with it—had helped her warm up to him.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first game I played with this sort of plot," Herald said. "Although it was the first AR game I played. I usually go for console."

Nali only understood half of what the man was saying. She asked for clarification on a few terms.

"AR is augmented reality," Herald explained. "It means you have some sort of goggles—or in this case a brain chip—that projects digital elements of the game onto what you're seeing. As for console, it's a type of gaming interface. There's also desktop, games that you play on your computer, and mobile, a game that's played on your phone or tablet."

His response only brought more questions, but Din asked the one that was really on Nali's mind. She meant to ask Rayna this, but the girl disappeared so quickly that Nali hadn't been given the chance.

"And you all did this for… fun?" Din asked hesitantly. "Pretended you were part of our world?"

That was the crux of the issue. Nali had heard the terms 'fun' and 'relaxing' thrown about by the Chosen. Even the group outside of the capital seemed way more relaxed than they should be. This world was a nightmare, and no matter how Nali looked at it, she couldn't figure out how someone could mistake it for a game.

Herald grimaced. "I suppose it's not so fun for you lot. Hell, I lost interest as soon as I ran out of booze. The thing you have to understand is, Earth is relatively boring. We've got police to deal with crime, animal control to deal with any of the critters that want to eat us, heck, we even have a job specifically devoted to telling us when it is or isn't safe to go outside.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not a paradise, and as far as safety goes, it's pretty so-so. But in my forty years, I've only feared for my life a handful of times and none of those were because of a monster, much less one that I could go toe-to-toe with.

"Games like Ember Online are 'relaxing', not in the way that they are easy or calm. Rather, they're a way to get our blood pumping. Something to take out our aggression on in a world where there's nothing to fight. Some people used it as a farming simulator, deep diving into the magic aspect—we don't have that either, by the way."

He shook his head. "In a word, Ember is different. Which is something that we strive for daily. Anything to break up the endless monotony of office paperwork or the daily grind. Not to mention, in games, if we work hard we see results. The same can't always be said for real life."

Nali nodded slowly. "Ember was an escape."

Herald nodded. "Exactly."

"If you wanted to escape your lives so badly, why were you all so mad when you were brought here?" Din asked, frowning. "That is an inherent contradiction."

"Ember was a temporary escape. How would you like it if you got dragged away from everything you knew and thrown into a world even more dangerous than this one? And in the game, there was no pain or death. It was just make-believe."

"I see," Nali said.

The human's attitudes were starting to make a little more sense now. There was just one thing that still didn't make sense.

"Then, why are you all so calm?" Din asked, once again beating Nali to the question. "I understood the human's attitudes when I thought you were all in a dream-come-true, but the way you just described it, Ember is a waking nightmare. Why aren't you all hiding in caves or begging for someone to save you?"

Nali wouldn't have phrased it quite like that. Din was a lot more tactful when she was on the job. Take her tavern away and this is what you got.

"How many humans have you met?" Herald asked.

"Three," Din said. "Two outside of the capital, and then you."

Herald raised his eyebrows. "Then what makes you think we're calm?"

"I've heard from others…" Din said, trailing off.

"People are complicated," Herald said. "That goes for humans and Emberians alike. I heard there's seven countries on this continent, do you expect people from Kelinar to act the same as people from Helia?"

It was strange to hear one of the Chosen casually throw around the names of Ember's countries. They were more informed than Nali realized.

"The people of Kelinar and Helia are completely different species," Din countered. "Even in the cities with more diverse populations, there's little overlap."

"There are over seven thousand languages on Earth," Herald said. "A little fun fact I picked up on trivia night. We all may be human, but we come from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Don't expect us to all act the same. That's just going to land you in trouble when you mix up a New Jerseyan and a New Yorker." He chuckled as if he had made some sort of joke.

They reached the gates, where a tall bronze man with elongated ears and a flat nose was waiting with his weapon strapped to his side.

His name tag was visible.

[Lind Em Faran — Level 128]

[Aespic]

"I heard we were getting new folks today," Lind Em Faran said. "Enable you're name tags, please. They are to be visible at all times within the city."

Nali enabled her name tag, trying not to laugh when the man caught sight of her level.

[Nalissa Emery — Level 251]

[Yndar]

He blanched, the effect making the skin of his face look more yellowish than bronze.

Herald whistled. "And I thought Level 128 was impressive. Guess I'm the bottom of the barrel here."

Lind Em Faran ignored the man's comment, clearing his throat. "You're assigned to the Emerald house," he said, handing each of them a green token on a string, as well as a paper map that showed the general layout of the city. "Wear that token around your necks when entering and exiting the city. Keep it on you, as you may be asked to produce identification by local law enforcement." He lowered his voice. "Look, none of us want to be here. Your level is going to get you a lot of negative attention. If it gets too much, just swipe a bed or something and go live in the caves. Nothing on this island will give you any trouble."

"Are we free to enter and exit the city as we wish?" Nali asked.

"The whole island is accessible, but don't go past the beach. Theres a few leviathans between here and the mainland and they're not even the scariest monsters in the water."

Nali thanked him for the information and walked through the gate.

She paused when she realized that Herald hadn't followed yet.

"…any nearby pubs?" the man was asking the guard.

Lind Em Faran shook his head. "New residents aren't allowed to drink or earn money in the first month. Your house will provide everything you need for now. Get settled in, then you can ask your house head about earning some coins."

Herald looked disappointed, but he thanked the man anyway, grumbling under his breath about backwater slavery pits or something.

Nali couldn't help but smile. If there was one thing she had learned from this trip, it was that humans were certainly an interesting species.