Chapter 5 - Listen, Learn, Fight

Chester was trying to observe his surroundings carefully as he headed towards the marketplace.

"The buildings, made of stone, dirt and wood, seem to be two stories high at most. The floors are mostly flagstone and the air is quite clean."

"Everyone looks at you as if you're cruel and instead of walking past you, they retreat across the road. Another strange thing is that everyone who carries a weapon has a cloak. Except you, of course."

Mag realized it when he said it. Almost everyone holding a sword or a stick had a cloak. He seemed to need a cloak. Being stared at with sharp eyes was not a problem for him, but attracting the attention of the patrols in the city could be troublesome for him who could not even explain himself. On top of that, a new problem was emerging.He was hungry and thirsty.The tests in the lab had taken a long time, and apart from a packet of crackers and juice in a five-minute break, he hadn't eaten anything for twelve hours. He needed to find something to eat, but he didn't have a dime to buy or anything to barter with.He had folded and put away all her clothes and belongings to test the armor in the lab.Except for her necklace.The necklace had become her purpose in life.It was the only thing that reminded him of her.

He shook his head negatively from side to side and acted as if it had never occurred to him.

"What about the language analysis thingy?"

"I'm working on it and I have good news.

They speak in a way that is quite similar to the language structures on Earth."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I solved the hardest part of learning in an hour.

It will take me less than two days. If the marketplace is active enough, I can learn their language by the end of the day."

"Let's get this cloak done first. Then we can move on to the marketplace. While you work on the language, I'll steal something from the stalls. At least we won't go hungry today.

"That's unethical behavior, -great-, I don't approve."

He wanted to smile, but the seriousness of the situation prevented him from doing so.

"Did I ever tell you I like your broken voice better?"

Chester answered quite coolly.He knew he was nervous too, but he couldn't do anything about it.Even though he knew that a little time would help relieve the tension and make him feel more relaxed, he couldn't relax.He took a deep breath and got rid of all the unnecessary thoughts in his mind, tried to convince himself that he should just take things as normal.Chester decided that instead of going down the street, he would take the back streets where there was less attention. Suddenly he found himself in a deserted and unlit street.Homeless people and semi-humanoids were lying exhausted on the floor and against the walls, and two men were fighting fiercely for a piece of moldy bread in the middle of the street.Chester reached for the console again and pulled on a black cloak that looked as if it had been cut in half. Chester wanted this cloak, which was on the right side of his body, to be half.The cloak would restrict his movements as little as possible and allow him to use his left hand comfortably.The other advantage of this childish cloak was that he could keep his right-hand panel away from prying eyes if necessary. It also concealed the plasma sword hanging from his right waiAs he had expected, the homeless and beggars around him did not mind the dark street suddenly filled with light.

Except for one child;

This thing, barely looks seven years old, with a starved, emaciated body, two short horns in a clumsily sewn sack, skin covered in blue-white scales, and a tail, came up to Chester, tugging admiringly at the cloak he had just made.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"It looks like a lizard. Maybe it's a dragon or something. I need a DNA sample for a better guess. I've already started archiving some photos and proof of its existence.

Will you take it with you?"

"No way. I think It would be better for his health to starve on the street."

He gently pushed the boy aside and surreptitiously handed him the coin in the pouch he had stolen while crossing the street.

Then he turned around and walked out of the dark alley.

"It's sad that these children are trying to live in such conditions. Maybe different races are treated differently."

He confirmed his own idea with a nod.

"Write that idea down, Mag. We may need to adjust our tone accordingly later."

But Mag was astonished.

"I wonder how you managed to get the pouch full of money without me i mean, yourself and the others on the street noticing. Are you sure you're really a soldier?"

He answered Mag with a rather sarcastic remark.

"If you only knew how sorry I am that I can't be a soldier of your ideals."

Chester then opened the pouch in his hand and shook it on the floor, hoping something would fall out. But what he hoped for did not materialize.

"Anyway, a pouch full of money is not a very good expression anymore."

Chester threw the empty bag to the side of the road.

"Indeed, you gave the only money in it to a stamped scalie thing you don't know. How much -stupid - soft hearted can you be?"

After taking turns arguing with Chester Mag in the middle of the street like a madman for three minutes, Chester arrived in the middle of the marketplace.

He took advantage of the crowds and stole one or two things at a time from the stalls of the greengrocers, gulping them down without question, all the while examining what looked interesting and exotic in the stalls around him. When he got carried away and got too close, the people at the stalls would say something to him. It was usually something nice, but he could tell by the hand gestures and the displeasure on their faces that some of the grumpy merchants wanted him to move away from the stall.He had spent almost a whole day in the market, stealing things and gawking at circus types. Fortunately, he didn't get in trouble for his strange appearance or for what he stole.

He had been sitting in the middle of the market, next to the ornamental pond, watching the action for hours. The marketplaces had already begun to pack up. If he were on earth now, the sun would set in two hours at most.

"How long are we going to stand here?"

"I'm sorry, but the marketplace was not as active as I expected.

I can understand some things now, but not enough to form sentences."

"Can't we do something to speed things up?

For example, if we listened to an entire city, it would give us a faster result."

"Wow, I never expected such an idea from you. I'll get right on it."

Chester was a little surprised and a little angry at what was happening. And that anger was reflected in his voice.

"When we've got an hour's work to do-"

Mag immediately interrupted him.

"Hey, you don't have to be mad at me. Like I said before, I don't think of it out of the blue either. If you've thought about it before or if it's crossed your mind at least once, I can suggest it. It's not that I don't have my own ideas, but they are quite limited.

By the way, I've done the necessary calculations. At best I can get through this as if nothing happened, at worst I can end up with you going crazy here and me taking over and you losing your own self. If you don't want to continue, we can continue tomorrow. At the moment, I've made about 30% progress."

Even though it was quite risky, he wanted to get away from this unknown land as soon as possible and go to his own world. And in order to get out of here as soon as possible, he needed to get information quickly, in short, he needed to learn their language as soon as possible.

And if he didn't meet a big crowd tomorrow, like in the marketplace, he would probably have to stay in this city for a few more days to learn.

"The sooner the better, get to work."

As soon as Chester finished, small holes began to appear in various parts of the armor, and suddenly millions of sounds began to fill his brain. Rustling leaves, human speech, animal and insect sounds, strange noises that he didn't even recognize.

Chester had fallen off his seat, reflexively covering his ears with his hands, but the sounds were so strong he couldn't stand it. He tried to sit up, to get back on his feet.He had to pretend that nothing had happened without attracting too much attention. She pulled herself together and sat on the wall of the ornamental pool again. After an hour of pain that felt like a lifetime, the voices had stopped. He congratulated himself on not passing out.

"My feedback says the city is about fifteen kilometers in diameter. It's a pretty big city.

By the way, before I forget, there is one last stage left. If you're not feeling well-"

Chester interrupted Mag in a dazed, dizzy state.

"There's more?. Bring it on."

"Don't worry, it's not that painful, it's just-"

Chester sighed deeply.

"Just what?"

"You're going to feel a little weird."

As soon as Mag finished her sentence, Chester began to see his surroundings more blurry and colorful, and every non-living thing in front of him began to speak to him in turn.A chair next to him saying something to him, the roof of the house flew towards him and his feet turned into a bunch of daisies.It got to the point where he could no longer distinguish between the real and the fake, and he was on the verge of going mad.Fortunately, everything was soon back to normal again.

He was healthy and sane again.

"What was that thing you just did?"

"To summarize what I did;

I collected, compiled and wrote in your brain.

The collecting part was the part where I made you roll on the floor in pain. It took about sixty-four minutes.I didn't do anything to you during the compiling part. I extracted and correlated the data I had collected. You were already trying to get up from the floor in a daze at the time. In the part where I processed it into your brain, we can say that I was putting the objects or abstract things that I associated into your brain. Meanwhile, you were about to talk to a rotten apple next to you.I had detected a few other languages spoken in the city, but not as many as I could learn.

On the bright side, you should now be able to understand and speak this foreign language."

"One bucket of water from an ocean of problems is gone.

How wonderful."

Chester looked up at the sky.

Three different planets covered most of the sky, looking quite beautiful.

But he hadn't noticed it when he looked up in the morning.The sky was an orangish color. The sun was almost setting.

"Night is falling. Let's find a place to lay our heads. Then I suggest we get up early in the morning and investigate."

Chester thought so too. He hadn't gotten much information during the day, but they had managed to overcome a major obstacle.They could climb back up to the top of the bell tower and spend the night there, or they could put a few vigilantes in their place and take what they could.He was willing to take his chances with the latter idea.Ever since he had arrived here he had been overwhelmed by stress and couldn't stop thinking about what would happen to him.As barbaric as the idea of taking it out on someone was, it might help him make better decisions.For Chester, who had been a soldier for many years, making good decisions under pressure was a piece of cake, but being under pressure for too long was wearing him down.Inside his partly young body was a man of sixty.

The good things about this idea;

He would beat up the bad guys and get paid for it. With the money he could rent himself a place to sleep, a capital for himself in this vast place.He also didn't want to sleep on the hard stone floor of the bell tower, as cold as it felt.

"All right, Mag, we're literally looking for trouble right now. Tell me where the punks are, so I can take them out and get whatever they've got for where we're sleeping tonight."

"So we're looking for a fight, huh? All right, I can see if there's anything for you, but you'll have to wait a long-"

Chester didn't know why Mag's voice had suddenly stopped.

"What happened?"

"The dog got his wish and it rained bones. You really don't have a problem with that? With the unnecessary slang-"

"You're digressing, Mag."

Mag cleared her throat, however virtually.

"Anyway, there's an argument going on two blocks away, 220 southwest, and it seems to be getting more violent.

This could be the trouble you're looking for."

Chester slowly got up from his seat and began to move calmly towards the street Mag had mentioned.

"Why are you moving slowly, they could disappear at any moment!"

"Thugs like that don't just disappear. I'm sure they are the type who like to bully. Even if I beat them all to death right now, the person I rescue might cause me trouble. If I'm there after it's all over, there's a chance that I won't have anyone to rescue, and I'll also have a chance to take the robbed person's property."

Acts as ruthless and emotionless as he was now, in the paradox of his previous time in lawlessness, had become commonplace for Chester. Mag had already lost data about his personality as she passed through the portal.

What she should have known was to protect and support the user no matter what.

She knew Chester again. After a brief pause, Chester continued.

"Aren't you supposed to be able to read my mind? Why do you keep asking me questions?"

"Unfortunately, the mind-reading and prediction system is too damaged for me to repair on my own.Highly sophisticated machines that can operate at picometric levels need to remove the thousands of chips embedded in your brain and repair me gracefully while I am out of order.In short, you can't fix it and I don't think there is anyone in the world who can."

"Then how can you talk to me?You said it was the sum total of my emotional bullshit that got you through."

Mag responded in her full, knowing voice.

"These are quite different things. One reads, the other interprets. To give you an example,

From the ground, in the sky, you can look at an airplane and tell where it's going, its altitude, even what model it is, but you can't tell from the outside how many people are on board, how much it weighs, or how many buttons are on the pilot's box. I need to be inside to understand exactly what you are thinking, whereas it is partly enough for me to be outside to speak. I say partially because the mistakes in my speech are due to my misinterpretations. If I had been inside, it would not have been a problem.

I think that is clear enough.

Back to the topic at hand, my suggestion is that you should get to the scene faster. If you save him from being robbed, you can ask him to show you around or give you information. You also get the bandits' money. You're likely to get less in return, but I assume getting information is a higher priority."

Chester nodded at Mag's suggestion.

"Two birds with one stone. This decision seems more reasonable."

Chester picked up his walking pace for a while, then finally started to run.

The sooner, the better.

He reached the street Mag had mentioned. Actually, it was more like a square with a well in the middle. He couldn't understand how they could get into trouble in such an exposed place. A rather violent argument was taking place. It was possible that the city guards or the residents of the street would hear the sounds of the heated argument, and if that happened, Chester did not want to be at the center of such a commotion. He didn't want any more trouble for a while, he had to keep a low profile.

He turned away and concentrated again on the idea of sleeping in the tower.Just as he was about to take a step, he paused. He sensed something strange. He turned back to the street and glanced quickly at the windows and doors facing the square.

Not a single person on the street was interested in what was going on, not even attempting to look out of their windows. No matter where they were, that much noise should have attracted at least one person's attention. Chester could only think of two things. Either they were on a street where trouble was considered normal, or the troublemakers were members of a dangerous gang.If either of his two assumptions was correct, he had some time before the guards arrived. If his assumptions were wrong, he would be in trouble from day one.He decided it was a risk worth taking.He concentrated on the idea of intervening again and looked across the street towards the crowd. Mag had zoomed in on Chester so that he could see farther away, more clearly.

Three people were pinned down by eleven mountainous half-humanoids. He thought that all three of the three people he saw were around 21 years old. Two of the young people were girls and one was a boy.

The male one had short red hair, a yellow and black patterned fur coat, and two small horns that he seemed to want to hide.He wore a reinforced plate armor with pieces of thick leather armor attached to it, and on his left shoulder he wore a hard-looking shoulder pad with metal spikes. He held a short sword and a small, iron-rimmed stone shield.His inexperienced stance and the way he held the sword suggested that he was not very experienced. But when he looked more carefully, he realized that his stance was more about parrying and returning blows than swinging a sword.Chester quickly tried to memorize the aspects that needed attention in a single sentence.

An inexperienced swordsman. A solid wall.

One of the girls had hair the color of polished silver.

She was taller than the other two. Through her shimmering hair, he could see her long, pointed ears.In her hand she held a short, beautifully crafted bow made of hard metal. His armor consisted of a two-piece knitted chain mail, a long tunic and thin metal bracelets. He also wore dark brown leather gloves that he could barely make out in the dark.She carried two quiver arrows on his back and a leather dagger sheath on his leg. Although the armor she wore did not inspire confidence, his grip on the bow, his demeanor and hand gestures betrayed that he was ready for action. Unlike the other, his body language showed that he definitely knew how to fight.

An agile and experienced archer, but as fragile as a weak twig. 

The last one had light purple hair, a frail appearance and a shorter stature than the other two.

Unlike the others, she wore no armor. Instead she wore a dark navy blue robe with an elaborately embroidered cyan-colored star.This star was located in the center of his torso, but it was small enough to drive symmetry freaks crazy, also had small scars on his face, which he only noticed later. In hers hand was a stick and a stone at the end of the stick that resembled an inverted, hollow spearhead. In his other hand was a medium-sized book in green and black.The book was thick, but Chester was a little surprised that she could carry it with his puny arm without any difficulty.She wasn't using any fighting style or equipment he had ever seen or known.

The only thing he could guess was that she would be a wizard, however fantastical.

He knew the least about his condition.

Without knowledge of its mystery and potential, Chester could not comment on it.

Almost all of the bandits wore cloaks reminiscent of sheepskin, armor reinforced with steel, and helmets. In their hands they wielded broad, long, unkempt swords, with enough muscle to swing them effortlessly. Their movements were dangerous and erratic. They were a group of animal-human mongrel barbarians.

Chester quickly envisioned a scenario in which he would engage in a fight with everyone in front of him. If things went that way, he would have to set his targets. Not knowing his strength and limitations, he prioritized the girl, whom he guessed to be a sorceress, first, then the bandits, who were muscular and wielded long swords, followed by the archer, and the red-haired boy, who he thought could do him the least harm, last.

He had several different tactics and various backup plans in his head.

He felt ready.

"All right, here we go."