Upon arriving in the next town, which was significantly larger than the one I got called to, things were finally starting to look up a little. Instead of running away or dodging into the next alley, people actually just went about the business and when asked for the way, they actually answered instead of scurrying away. Come to think of it, it really was a strange behavior of the people in that first town. I mean, after what Sarah told me, I could’ve understood that they wanted to be rid of me as quickly as possible, but they were not annoyed, they were scared. Though, considering how it all turned out, maybe they knew more than me, even back then. But I am getting ahead of myself.

After finding the local adventurers guild, where they instantly recognized me as ‘the new champion’, I signed up for swords training. After all, I couldn’t go about defeating the ‘grand and powerful dark lord’, if I didn’t know shaft from blade. Fortunately the training was free for ‘the up and coming champion of the realm’.

I worried for naught though, because as it turned out, my new and improved body came with a bunch of perks, which became apparent once I had actually drawn the weapon I was given. Apparently my body was equipped with some pretty nice muscle memory and by the end of the week, I gave all of the other pupils in the training school a run for their money. Back then, I guessed it was to be expected, seeing how this dream couldn’t expect me to spend years to train the blade. Though I do recall being puzzled, that the dream was even lasting a whole week, but then again, time works different in the dreamscape, so one nights sleep may well seem like weeks or even months...or years.
After graduating the sword school with top grades, my teacher took me aside and revealed to me, that, in all his years of teaching, I was the first champion ever to come to him. Considering the very little effort I had to spend in his school, I can see why. The other champions probably were also ‘natural masters of their weapon’, easily on par with the best fighters of the world. Talk about cheating. I mean, that’s like starting the game with the max level.
After receiving my reward for finishing sword school (yes, there was a reward for finishing the tutorial, imagine that), the guild master sent me on my way towards the capital, where I was to enlist in the army for the fight against the demon king.

So I set out, high from my success and actually thinking that this would be fun.
Of course I was mistaken, but back then I seriously believed that.

After another week or so of traveling over the roads, which were little more than tracks in the dirt, I revised my idea of ‘this actually being fun’. The sun had been burning down on me mercilessly for days, my rations were long since eaten, my canteen was empty and I had no idea, where in the world I was.
And of course there was not a single signpost or anyone I could have asked. For all I knew, I could have been walking in the wrong direction for days and I wouldn’t have been any the wiser. I recall thinking, ‘And this, dear friend, is why you don’t leave without a map and a compass.’
Of course, today I know that ‘wishing for a map and a compass’ was pure folly. Cartography in this world is more reminiscent of a pirates treasure chart, as in ‘Take 20 steps towards the midday sun, starting from the blooming cherry tree’. Of course they barely have sundials, so ‘midday sun’ is a rather loose term for direction. Honestly, how these people ever managed to get anywhere is entirely beyond me.

Fortunately for me, I eventually came across a small river running through the countryside. That was good for two reasons. For one, because thanks to the river, I wouldn’t die of thirst or hunger, if I managed to nab some of the fish swimming within. For another, ‘water’ almost inevitably also means ‘people’ somewhere along the river.

Hence I left the road and started down the small river, praying to whoever wanted to listen, that I would find a settlement and with it a new set of directions before the river would return beneath the ground or take a long walk down a steep cliff or something.
I wasn’t very convinced of my ability to scale a cliff or a mountain and still am not.

Of course, there was no such luck. No 2 kilometers down the river, the bloody thing takes, you got it, a long walk down into a deep and dark hole in the ground.

I still feel silly for even just entertaining the idea of jumping inside to see where it leads, but fortunately for me, rationality kicked in in time before I did something beyond stupid.

So now there I was, at a river that dropped into a hole in the ground with no actual road or any sign of human life to see anywhere.

Of course I considered simply walking the river back up and try again from there, maybe this time going upstream and see where that leads, but as these kinds of stories have it, when you don’t do something stupid by yourself, the world does it for you.

Because just as I wanted to start walking, I spotted a rather sizable fish in the river and figured it’d make a good enough dinner. I readied my fishing spear I made from a long branch and the blade I was carrying and apparently got just a little too close to the edge of the river.

The ground gave way and I fell into the river, which was both a lot deeper and also a lot stronger than I had anticipated.

And then I took a nice long walk down a 10 meter drop into a large water basin.