“What was that about? Fifty-six thousand meters? Who the hell could track that? And how big is this world?” I scratched the back of my head.

  “It’s not fifty-six thousand, it’s 55,066 meters. You’re thinking of kilometers if it sounds far, but it’s only about thirty-four miles, so it isn’t that distant. Still, no human should be able to pinpoint it that exactly. I didn’t think she knew I was here, but how else would that be useful?” Rabbit replied, and I felt like his OCD was showing through.

  “I say we go find civilization and ask our own questions.”

  “First, let’s go to that plateau she was talking about. She provided us with information, even if it was not directly useful at the moment. For example, this way is east and there is something 28 miles from here. By getting a good lay of the land, we might be able to create a map,” Rabbit explained, and I couldn’t refute it.

  The next thing I knew, we were stepping out of the cave into blinding light. After so long in the dark, it was almost painful. I raised my hand to shield my eyes until they adjusted.

  I was standing on a small plateau, the wind rushing past me in strong, steady gusts. It wasn’t cold, but it was sharp and alive. The sunlight poured across my skin, warm and genuine. After the damp chill of the cave, it felt like I had stepped into another life, which proved I really was in another world. I already knew it, sure, but this sealed it. No simulation had ever looked this sharp, or felt this real. Nothing could replicate the way the wind cooled your skin while the sun warmed it at the same time.

  While this new world scared me, there was nothing I could do to change it. All I could do was figure out how to survive it, and maybe, somehow, find a path home.

  I looked around. The plateau was round, with a sheer drop on every side except for the cave behind me. That was the moment I realized I was on a mountain. The next moment, my stomach realized it, as it started to move backward without my body.

  Instead of looking around, I stared down at several fatal paths that I did not want to take. Taking a step back toward the cave, I asked, “I think we can see from here. Why do we need to go any further up?”

  “Don’t worry. If you fall, I'll try to catch you,” Rabbit assured.

  “Seriously. Can’t you make your map from here?” I asked, fear bleeding through my voice.

  “I probably could, but the next plateau isn’t far and it’s much larger. We should check it out from there.”

  I’d spent most of my focus staring at the ground, or rather the lack of it, and hadn’t realized how much farther I still had to climb. Looking up, I spotted our destination. Like he said, it wasn’t far. The mountain continued upward with narrow breaks in the cliff that made it climbable. Challenging, but possible.

  “What’s wrong? Do you have sheer terror?” Rabbit asked, laughing at his own pun.

  As a friend, he knew me too well. He knew I was scared and was doing a good job keeping me from freezing up. I took a breath, steadied myself, and met his joke with one of my own. “Now that is peak humor.”

  As I began to climb, Rabbit helped out by highlighting the path I should take and any handholds that would be helpful. It was a lot easier that way. One of the most challenging aspects of freestyle climbing was navigating the path and identifying handholds. You could end up going the wrong way and having to backtrack. With Rabbit guiding me, I was exhausted after twenty minutes, but I reached the next plateau.

  The climb had taken everything out of me. Jagged stone, uneven handholds, and roots in all the worst places made every movement a struggle. The view at the top was incredible, but I barely noticed. What I did notice was just how high I had climbed.

  If I fell, I wasn’t getting up.

  At the far end of the plateau, a shallow cave opened into the rock. Its dim interior was painted with ancient symbols and faded murals.

  “Let’s go check it out,” Rabbit said enthusiastically.

  I was drained from the climb and didn’t want to stay close to the edge, so I didn’t fight him that hard. “What are the odds something like this happened to be on the plateau she told us about?”

  “So low it approaches zero, but that is a good thing. My guess is she wanted to give us something, but had to follow her rules. Instead, she suggested we go somewhere, and it worked out.”

  As I entered the cave, the air felt musty and still. I noticed two small statues standing guard on either side of a large stone slab. The statues were intricately carved with great attention to detail. They depicted a boy and a girl, worn down by time and the elements. The symbols and paintings on the walls were faded as well, but were somewhat visible.

  Approaching the stone slab, I felt somewhat trapped by the low ceiling and a narrow entrance.

  “Wow. Someone must have gone through a lot of work to bury someone up here and make all this stuff.” What Rabbit said alerted me.

  “What do you mean by ‘bury’? Is this a graveyard?” I said in disgust.

  “Don’t be a baby. No, it’s not a graveyard. It’s an individual tomb. If you look at the paintings on the wall, they go over the journey of one person. Maybe a warrior because he had a sword and died with it.”

  I took a second to look at the paintings. Rabbit’s explanation was understandable. There was a warrior with a sword facing several enemies much larger than him or her. In the end, it seemed like the last group of enemies had won because the picture of the warrior was crossed out.

  Strangely enough, among the paintings, there was a set of symbols carved directly into the wall. Unlike everything else in the room, these carvings carried weight. Not a physical weight, but an emotional one that I could somehow feel.

  It was strange. I wondered, who got feelings from looking at wall carvings? Yet, as I gazed upon them, an inexplicable sensation stirred inside me.

  “Are you feeling that?” Rabbit questioned me as if he could feel the same thing.

  I stepped closer and ran my finger over the first one. It was a tree, but it didn’t feel like one. “What is that?”

  “I know exactly what you mean. I get the feeling of life but not…”

  He was right. “If I had to put a name to it, I would say it felt like birth. That is life, but not quite.”

  “Exactly,” Rabbit chimed in.

  It was nice to see I wasn’t the only one perplexed. Sometimes, feelings and the like were more complicated for him to interpret. Of course, he was a machine, so he could never experience things for himself, but people’s motivations sometimes passed him by.

  Maybe that was why we got along so well. I often found that people weren’t who they claimed to be. They said one thing and did another, hiding behind masks and double meanings. Hypocrisy felt like the currency of our time, and most spent it without hesitation.

  Rabbit, on the other hand, was straightforward. One of the few friends I could count on to tell the truth. He could be blunt, even harsh, but I was the same. It worked for us. With Rabbit, I never had to guess what he meant or pretend I understood something I didn’t.

  “The crown feels like death,” he continued, and it seemed like he was interpreting the others.

  The next one was a bird that was crossed out. It was more detailed than the rest, but I couldn’t feel anything from it.

  “Do you feel anything from this one?” Rabbit questioned me.

  “No, it’s odd because there is a sword that is crossed out that tastes like metal.”

  “I have never tasted metal, so I’ll have to take your word on that, but it is odd that one crossed out doesn’t feel like anything while the other one does.”

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  There was a crescent moon that seemed to embody both light and darkness simultaneously, a bear that radiated strength, and a crossed-out spiral that stirred no feelings at all. It was odd enough that I could feel sensations just from looking at a carving. Even more bizarre was that these sensations didn’t align with what I would have expected them to represent.

  I looked back at the painting and the second-to-last scene, and it depicted the warrior lifeless, a crown piercing through his body. Could that be the reason a sense of death washed over me whenever I glanced at the crown?

  The last scene featured the warrior surrounded by light, and he grew larger. That must have meant he was being honored or sent to a pleasant afterlife, as he was alive, joyful, and still with his sword.

  Perhaps these ancient warriors were akin to the fierce Vikings, who believed in battling in their afterlife. Alternatively, it could be that they held beliefs similar to those of the ancient Egyptians, who thought that they could take their earthly possessions with them to the afterlife. If this were so, this tomb would have held great sanctity for the deceased warrior.

  On that, I only had one thought. “You think there is equipment left here for us to take?” I said, while rubbing my hands and looking around.

  “That’s rich. You still haven’t guessed?” Rabbit said, and my grin immediately began to fade.

  They did indeed bury some armor and clothes, but all of it was too small for me. Even if it wasn’t, it was crushed so badly that it looked like a giant orc had hit it. Oddly enough, there was no body, so I couldn’t tell if my guess was correct or not. Based on the size of the armor, I had to assume it belonged to a race slightly smaller than Humans. Either that, or I had grown as an Elf.

  The equipment and weapons were gathered separately. This preservation method allowed the items to remain in excellent condition. Without proper covering, most of the items would have been ruined. Among the treasures was a stunning bow that likely would not have survived being buried with a body. The item that was wrapped the most was a sword. It had three different covers with several ropes. It was as if they didn’t want it to rust.

  Overall, the discovery was truly remarkable, consisting of a rope, a bow, a sword, a dagger, and 14 arrows. This also included several sacks in which they wrapped the items.

  The unusual part came when I was unwrapping sacks and revealed the sword. When I touched its hilt, I got the prompt.

  You are soul-bound to this object. Soul bonds can usually only be broken through an open heart. Be warned, while soul-bound objects do not shape your soul, your soul will shape your bond.

  The odd part was that I didn't do anything to soul-bind this object. It seemed to me that it was automatically bound to the first person who touched it, which was kind of dangerous. What if someone were able to create an automatic soul bond with a dangerous object? What would that mean? I didn't know, and that was what scared me. Despite that, I was happy with the loot.

  I then realized what the sacks were for. They weren’t to keep it preserved, but to ensure that no one accidentally touched it. I hoped this wouldn’t be an issue.

  “Hey, Rabbit, can you identify this sword? It looks impressive.”

  “Yeah.” He complied, and a word popped up right next to the weapon that said ‘Sword.’

  “Come on. Can you give me more details than just ‘Sword’?” I muttered, and then the revised words that appeared in my vision next to the sword changed to ‘Cool Red Sword.’ “Thanks, that was useless.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Rabbit said, and the words disappeared. “This isn’t the game. I don’t know any more than you. Even if I knew more, how am I supposed to present that? It’s a sword, and it’s pointy. If I were to give a random damage number, it wouldn’t mean anything unless we had a basis for it. You have to remember this isn’t a game where I can check extra information on a wiki or value on a bidding site. I only know what you know.”

  I guessed he was right, and there wasn’t much I could expect from him. It was still odd getting used to this new dynamic. I continued to examine all of the loot I received.

  According to Rabbit, the best part of the haul was the arrows. He explained that the effort it took to craft a single quality arrow could be equated to that of making a spear, emphasizing that these were all top-notch arrows. Eager to test the bow, I was ready to draw it immediately, but Rabbit persuaded me otherwise, cautioning that without a sure target, we risked ruining the precious arrows. Given their scarcity, I conceded.

  What I found interesting was the sword. It was like nothing I had seen before. The blade was halfway between red and clear. When touching the other side of the edge, I could faintly see through it. It seemed like a red crystal just from looking at it, but after touching it, I was sure it was metal. A guard curved toward the blade on one side and toward the grip on the other. I continued to admire the item, whose pommel was a round metal with a design of a triangle, seemingly folding into itself repeatedly, ultimately forming a unique snowflake pattern.

  I placed everything in the bag, and my journey began. Or that was what I would have liked to think I was doing.

  Perched high on a mountain, I stepped outside to get my bearings, unsure of which direction to head next. To one side, thick clouds hovered at my level, obscuring most of the view to the north where mountains broke through the cloud cover in the far distance. On the opposite side, the land abruptly ended at the ocean. Rivers originating from the mountain snaked across the landscape, with one terminating close by, nearly merging with the sea at a natural bay. Beyond this bay, the ocean was dotted with distant islands.

  Forests enveloped the mountain on all sides, creating a lush barrier. To the far west, a desert stretched alongside the ocean. It was an unusual sight that suggested frequent flooding might leave the area barren. Meanwhile, to the east, the sea was much closer and seemed to have at least one beach.

  “Well, between the mountain and clouds to the north, we could be on an island,” I said to Rabbit.

  “Interesting thought. I would tend to agree with you based on the fact that this was once a volcano.”

  I interrupted Rabbit, saying, “This is a volcano?”

  “Yeah. Haven’t you seen the amount of basalt around here? I saw other igneous rocks, but I have seen a lot of volcanic rock lying around. Additionally, that tunnel where we were in was a lava tube. Those form when low-viscosity lava flows develop. The floor was a lot smoother than the ceiling, and that is why you didn’t trip as much. Were you even paying attention?”

  “To walking, not to the type of rock around me, nerd. Is this volcano going to erupt?” I asked because it was the most obvious question.

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t look active, but volcanoes are judged on long timelines. For a volcano to be classified as extinct, it would have to be dormant for a million years. My guess is we are fine for now. I mean, it has already exploded within the last 10,000 years, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

  “How do you know so much about this? It seems a little random.”

  Rabbit breathed out a sigh. Even though he was an AI, he had many human-like habits when explaining something.

  “The western seaboard has two super volcanoes. It's my job to be aware of these types of things and assess the threat. As I was saying, it could be an island formed from volcanic activity. Still, I expected to see more obvious signs of a lava flow entering the ocean, such as the formation of new islands like those in Hawaii. Here, I see little hills everywhere.”

  I looked around to see what he was saying. The forest wasn’t flat, like certain areas in the States, but slightly hilly like you would see on the west side of the country.

  “That makes me think we could be near a shelf, and this could be a peninsula. There isn’t enough data, and it could still be an island. We will find out soon enough when the clouds to the north fade away. But that isn’t the strangest thing.” He then highlighted two points in the distance. “While the first place she showed us was to the east of here, the second one is in the ocean.”

  He was right. There was no land connecting out to where Rabbit had highlighted. The ocean started very close to this mountain, and if that glowing lady was right, then it had to be something like 20 or 30 miles offshore. That meant, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t make it there. “I don’t want to go on her little death-venture anyway.”

  “It's up to you. I've gathered the data I need for my map.” As he finished, a screen materialized in front of me, resembling my status screen but displaying the nearby terrain instead. The map, with the two markers we had just discussed highlighted, lacked detail in many areas but offered a broad overview of the different landscapes. It seemed he could only add forests to specific regions, as that was all that was visible to me. Attempting to zoom out, I found everything beyond my immediate view obscured by clouds.

  “Did you come up with this, or is it a feature of the magic system?” I inquired.

  “I designed and filled it in myself. The system allows you to organize information as you wish, so I chose a tab to visualize the information as I see it. But unless you can visualize all changes in your environment in real time, creating or maintaining something like this would be challenging.”

  Given that Rabbit was an artificial intelligence, it was unlikely anyone else in this world could develop a map of this caliber. And even if they could, what would be the point? It appeared he had to input all the information and continually update it with his thoughts, pushing it into the system only to have it reflected back. Sometimes I was glad he was by my side.

  “I would suggest that we get down from the mountain before nightfall,” Rabbit said, breaking through my thoughts, and he was right. Getting down would be preferable. I didn't know how many days I’d be away from civilization. Starving or dehydration might be a real issue.

  “Now, how the heck do I go down there?” I chuckled inside since he was going to have to find the path for me.

  “Well, there's a fast way and a slow way,” Rabbit replied, and I groaned in response.

  After getting back down to where I started, I was surprised that it was a lot harder than going up. The mountain curved almost straight down with trees growing out on the sides, which should have made it easier to scale up or down. The cliff's sheer drop was daunting. Despite my cautious steps at first, the descent quickly turned treacherous. My hands and feet, searching for secure holds, clutched at what I thought were sturdy outcroppings. Instead, they crumbled into loose stones and slippery earth beneath my touch.

  Panic surged as I fought for control. The branches that once seemed like aids, only to whip against me, offering little solace. My attempts to stabilize myself only accelerated my slide down the mountain's edge. By the time I had stopped, I had been stabbed several times by branches and suffered several joint dislocations. I never broke a bone, but I thought that was only because I held on to every surface I could.

  According to Rabbit, my progress would have been faster if my healing hadn’t been hampered by losing health at the same time. I was just happy to know my healing was faster. Without that, going down the mountain would be much worse and probably fatal.

  Sadly, I had no idea how I could get back up there. And it was where I entered this world, so that was the only way I knew to get out. I explained this thought to Rabbit, and he eased my worries.

  “Just because it was an entrance, that doesn’t make it an exit.” Then he went on to explain about Human defecation and how it was an exit only except for some people, and yada, yada, yada. I stopped paying attention when he went into too much detail.