I kept hinting to Amea about my desire to get laid. It had been so long since my manhood was last blessed. I was so focused on getting the hell out of the jungle that I hadn’t thought about it… until last night.
“We have to leave soon,” she said, packing our stuff.
“Let’s rent another night, then! Come on, I’m sure you get what I’m going through!”
Imagine having sex twice or thrice a day for months and then going cold turkey. It was torture.
“The nymphs aren’t that generous.”
I had no other choice but to comply. Hopefully rubbing it off while peeking at Amea bathing somewhere would do… if there was a safe place to bathe other than this copse.
“How do you know a lot about nymphs, anyway?” I said as I wore the bag.
“I studied them back home.”
I wanted to ask more about that, but it didn’t seem like she wanted to speak more. So I just let her lead the way.
As we moved further north, I detected more heat signatures coming from deep within the mountains. They were humanoids with inconsistent sizes. Although I hadn’t told her about my skill, Amea was aware of the monsters, so she advised we don’t wander too close to the mountains.
We found ourselves back in the jungle somehow. The same tall grasses, overgrown trees, and Jurassic insects greeted us again. Thankfully there weren’t any spiders above, but that didn’t reduce the creepiness of this shithole that much.
It was a tough journey. The malevol ward was reliable, but my worries came from those lizard hunters. I slept lightly every night, waking up every couple of hours to scan for potential threats. Thankfully no one ambushed us in our sleep…. at least not yet. Such sleep pattern ruined the day for me, though. I’d been yawning a lot and my senses were slightly dulled.
I'd never felt so damn dirty and annoyed from the horrible terrain we had to cross. Even if I wanna bathe, there was no source of water around. But we got our fresh water from the dew of huge, low-hanging leaves. The best course of action was to keep moving forward.
"Crossing the mountain is becoming more appealing everyday," I said as I hacked the grasses with my pathetic dulled dagger.
I moved on to parting our path with magic. It was more efficient.
“Why didn’t you escape in the first place?” she said as she tailed me.
“And I thought you wouldn’t ask.”
There was a short moment of silence before she spoke. “I didn’t want you asking back.”
I turned at her. “Because I wanna know more about the world I forgot before escaping.”
We just looked at each other for a minute. Despite being so dirty and messy, Amea was still adorable. I never thought iris-less eyes would look so hypnotizing. She was the first to break the eye contact.
“That must be a terrible thing to happen.”
I shrugged my shoulders, resuming the task of clearing the path. “Not really. I no longer care about whatever my past life is. I have a new one and I intend to make it better.”
I didn’t get any response. Although this was an opportunity to ask her about herself, I didn’t take it. Maybe one day she’d be comfortable enough around me to tell her story.
Three days passed since we traveled, and I had a feeling the mountains just led us back to the heart of the jungle. The trees were once again as tall as buildings. Sprawling canopies almost blocked all sunlight. If not for [Eyes of the Hunter(Master)] and the malevol ward, we’d have walked straight into a monster den. The ground was murky and the best path were the gigantic tree roots. I just couldn't understand how the conquistadors conquered the new world in such horrible conditions.
Although she had enough sleep, Amea was internally exhausted. The sheer terror a massive flora induced alone was horrible, let alone the hostiles that inhabited it. I learned to be an owl in that regard, twisting my head in all directions to scan for any potential threats.
"There's a cave there, let's rest there for now," I said.
The ground cave led to a small cavern thirty meters deep. The only tunnel was the way out. Unless this jungle had tunneling monsters, then we should be able to remain safe here.
After setting up a campfire, Amea fell asleep almost immediately. Just as I was about to lay down, I cut my palm on something sharp. I looked down to find a rusty knife lodged within a shallow crevice. It looked more sophisticated than a lizard hunter would use.
“Was someone else here?”
I discovered more than a knife. Wood carvings and some pieces of metal scattered in the same spot. I found clusters of feathers stuck between rocks, too.
"Someone was here," I said, but Amea was snoring.
I broke my rest and inspected the area. It was an obvious sign of fletching, but then I found metal balls. What did they use it for? I also found pieces of ripped clothes. Out of curiosity, I smelled the fabric. Yup, I was right.
"Gunpowder.”
This world probably wasn't as backwards as I thought. They were obvious evidences of a musket or something similar. As for why they made arrows, they probably ran out of gunpowder and went the primal route.
The question was, what the hell was this person doing here? Was he a conquistador too? I didn’t find any more clues other than the ones I already had. But it did make me wonder why people would make guns in a world with magic.
I blocked the entrance and slept better than the past few days. Sure the ground was hard and bumpy, but I didn’t have to worry about monsters. When I woke up, I relayed the information I discovered to Amea.
"Adventurers," she said while we ate, "they probably came from the free cities up north, beyond the Bloodscale Sea. I wouldn’t trust them if I encountered one.”
"You sure know a lot."
"I try my best to keep up with the world.”
“Is that also the reason why you’re good with directions? You’re like a map, you know.”
“I studied cartography.”
Well, she finally opened up.
“You did? Why am I not surprised?”
She opened her mouth, but closed it. She probably realized she shared too much. Well, it was a glimpse of her background.
"Do you really not remember anything?" she said, stirring the pottage in her bowl.
Not like I could tell her I was a fraudster back on Earth. But thanks to Suruina, I discovered I might have the body of a desert nobility. Other than that, I had zero information on who this body belonged to.
"None whatsoever. I don't even know my name."
Amea smiled. "I've only realized that. My sis— the cult have grown used to calling you the Champion."
"It's because I don't have a name."
"You should. Everyone deserves a name.”
“Champion is good enough.”
She shook her head. “Do you want to keep reminding yourself of the cult? That’s already far behind us.”
She was right.
“Use whatever comes to mind.”
The first that came to mind was my previous life's name, Caesar Cooper. I always thought it was pretty cool. Not like the name carried any memories I would want to forget. I’d rather look back to my past life as a lesson I learned from. It deserved to be honored.
"Caesar."
A voice echoed in my head all of a sudden.
Name [Caesar] has been set.
The Prince of Lust greets you, Caesar, Viceroy of Chimera.
Oh, wow. I didn't think she was still paying attention. Not unless it was automated.
She raised her brows. "I haven’t heard of that word before. Does it mean anything?"
"It does not. It just sounds nice."
Not like Latin existed in this world. It probably did somewhere, but I’d rather not involve anything Earth related here.
We took our time in the cave to recover our physical and mental energy. Whenever we needed food, I went out to hunt small critters and insects. Amea helped identify the berries we foraged, too, so food wasn't a problem. Unfortunately, sex was out of option. She kept her distance and spent most of her idle time carving figurines.
After three days, we resumed our journey. There was no change in scenery but so far, no encounters with the lizardmen. It didn't take long before we spotted several tracks. It grew into a paved path as we followed it.
"Should we keep following it?” I asked, but Amea trudged on.
The more recent tracks were a mix of boots and bigger feet that didn’t seem human.
"Slavers," Amea said, curling her fists.
I could guess from her reaction what these people meant to her. Her anger seeped even with her back turned against me.
What mattered was we found the way out. Finally, after all these days we’d finally be out of this green hell.
"Then let’s follow it. It's our best way out of this shit-hole."
We followed the path without directly traveling on it. The path avoided the thickest, monster-infested areas. At some point, we arrived at a clearing that was once used as a camp. Trash like wood carvings, food leftovers, and other wastes littered the area. There were even splatters of dry blood. We camped nearby for the night before continuing.
Another day of travel and the rain poured. Huge droplets of water fell from the canopies. Although the raindrops weren't too frequent, it was an instant bath to be hit by one.
The next day, the tracks were almost cleared. The ground grew muddier, but it did nothing to reduce our desire to get the hell out of this place. It wasn't long before we finally came upon fresh tracks. My heat signatures detected a lot of humanoids about a quarter of kilometers away.
"Let's be careful," I said, "I have a feeling someone’s out there."
If I was alone, I would've approached them and joined their journey. Not like I had something against them, anyway. But Amea was fuming. She’d gone quiet and irritable ever since we discovered the existence of slavers. She frequently woke up deep at night, too, doing nothing but stare into the fire.
I called her twice, but she didn’t say anything. Not even a groan. It worried me, but there was nothing I could do.
"Let's approach them," she said, trudging along the mud with big strides.
"Wait, are you sure?."
Her fists were clenched and she looked angrier. I had a bad feeling about this. She definitely had a history with slavers.
I grabbed her arm, forcing her to a halt. "It's not worth it, Amea. Even if you decide to burn them all you'd be involving the innocent people they captured."
"I don't care."
She yanked her arm away and continued. Before I could follow, I noticed more heat signatures appear from nowhere, and they had tails. They encircled the camp.
"Wait!" I said, grabbing her again, "something else is going on!"
Screams echoed and metals clashed. Soon, gunshots rang, filling the jungle with deafening booms. It didn’t stop Amea. In fact she began sprinting.
"Amea!” I called out but she didn’t stop.
That damn girl.