--- [Gael’s perspective]
Me, Isaac, and Iris used to be inseparable…
Our dream had always been to become hunters who’d save people by exterminating monsters; especially the creatures that had escaped their dungeons.
We had already been training for a long time and were starting to reach the level needed for us to pass the F-rank hunter exam, when I started getting cold feet…
I didn’t want to become a hunter just yet…
Becoming a hunter would be a new beginning for us; it would be when we could finally start repaying the hunters who saved our village way back when.
We’d be busy clearing dungeons every day, so I wouldn’t have time to do the one other thing I had always really wanted to…
Experience the world!
The village we had lived in our entire lives was so tiny and secluded.
We hadn’t seen anything.
We didn’t know anything.
We hadn’t experienced anything.
The world is big and so beautiful, yet we hadn’t seen, known, or experienced even a fraction of what it had to offer!
I wanted to take this opportunity before we became hunters to change that!
But…
I knew I had to do it alone.
With them there, I’d just be a burden on them.
Sure, they might have been happy to tag along at first, but how long would that last?
A week?
A month?
Who knows.
Sooner or later, they’d want to go back and continue where they left off.
That would inevitably have led to either conflict or resentment, which would just totally ruin the entire point of the journey…
I wanted to experience all the beauty and joy the world had to offer!
And I wanted to take my time doing so.
So, I was left no choice; for the first time in our lives, we would go our separate ways.
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Of course, we planned to reunite eventually, but when that time would come, nobody knew.
And so, I left.
It was my first time leaving Lux, and honestly, it was scary.
But…!
Even more so, it was exciting!
Throughout my entire journey, from start to finish, I never ran.
I walked.
As I walked across the world, I could better admire the landscape.
Everything from the beautiful mountain ranges in the distance, to the lush jungles that stretched further than the eye could see, to the mindboggling vastness of the ocean.
When I walked, I could fully enjoy those magnificent views to their fullest.
Oh, the way my immediate surroundings slowly changed into the very scenery I had been staring at for hours, only for horizons to shift and evolve into something entirely different alongside them!
It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before!
To imagine that all of this beauty had always been there, and would always be there, was so calming.
It was all there long before I was born, and it will stay there after I die.
I felt so lucky I had the privilege to experience it.
But the world had so much more to offer!
While hiking up mountains, I’d find berries that tasted unlike anything I’d ever eaten before!
While camping in forests, I’d find fruits sweeter than the candy I ate as a kid!
Not to mention all the delicious meats that were nowhere to be found in Lux!
But as if that wasn’t enough, there was still more!
The wildlife…
Oh, the wildlife!
That was something different!
Had I never left, I would have never seen how many adorable little critters there are!
I don’t know what they’re called, but the ones that stored nuts in their mouths and the ones with spiky backs were so cute I didn’t know what to do with myself!
I had read about them in a book before, but seeing a lion up close was something else.
They’re so majestic; how did nature even come up with them?
Oh, and birds!
Wherever I went, there were always birds.
I never knew there were so many kinds!
Although I rarely got to see them up close, I cherished the experience just as much as seeing every other animal.
The thing that stood out the most to me, however, was their songs.
So many tones, so many melodies!
They were a constant throughout my entire journey, and I always looked forward to hearing the local birds singing when I came to a new area.
But this…
This was all just nature.
Even after having experienced all this wonderful stuff, the biggest thing was still ahead of me…
People.
No matter the climate, no matter the biome, there were cities, and towns, and villages, and settlements, and camps.
People had conquered the world!
Wherever there was land, there were people.
Despite that, I had stayed away for a while.
I wanted to see what nature had to offer first.
But when I finally started dipping my toes into humanity, it was just as exciting!
First, I travelled to the big cities.
There were more people densely packed together than I had ever imagined could be true.
There were people out and about anywhere you looked.
Shops, restaurants, and parks around every corner.
The libraries had so more to offer than the one back home.
Stories of genres I didn’t know existed, more knowledge than a single mind could ever contain, and biographies of long-gone people that would have otherwise been forgotten to time.
The architecture was completely different.
The food they ate was completely different.
The way they dressed was completely different.
Even the toys the children played with were completely different!
It was so tempting to stay in one of these mega cities after my journey was over, but I knew I couldn’t.
However nice it was, in the back of my mind, I knew I still wanted to stay with Isaac and Iris for the rest of my life.
This journey was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discard every worry I ever had, and just…
Live.
But my journey was still far from over, I still had all the smaller towns and villages in the outer area left to explore!