Our journey under the mountain was only about ¼ complete when ahead of our cart sounds of battle echoed through the tunnel, but this wasn't sword on sword, it was more like metal on stone.
"What's going on?"
"Oh it's probably just another stampede; nothing to worry about the guards will handle it"
Looking ahead as we joined the queue of carts that had come to a stop, just in front of us about 10 guards were engaged in combat with 3 Gorons, and 2 Stone Golems.
Gorons stood equal in height but twice in girth to the guards, whipping their fists around instead of wielding weapons, the stone golems stood a colossal 12 feet tall, and tried to crush anything in their path.
"Yeah this much isn't to worry about, they venture out here from time to time because we've exposed too much rock face in making the tunnel, don't know if you know this but those guys actually eat rocks.
Course their monster's so trying to negotiate is out, if you stand in the way of their 'meal' they just attack, and well in the past when we'd let them be, they'd eat so much and cause a cave in, making us re-dig the tunnel.
Long ago this mountain range was ruled by the Divine Beast Tellus, she is said to be the progenitor of the Goddess of Terra's Blessing, though there are others who claim the beast was just the goddess's mortal form course most of those folk belong to the Goddess's sect so their more just boosting their own goddess's fame, since few of the gods, and goddess's interact with the mortal races, and even fewer still descend here to walk among us."
[Huh crazy gods are real here, not that it's weird it is a fantasy world so what they call gods might just be immortal beings, however if they can change their forms perhaps they truly are gods or some sort of inhuman races, not sure if demons, or hetromorphs exist here yet but they might belong to one of those races]
As I sat pondering the power of the gods influence on this world, I continued to query Raisa on their influence.
To summarise the religions of this world they are broken down by tiers with;
The God Of Creation/World
The Goddess Of Life The God Of Death
The God of Fire|The Goddess Of Water|The Goddess Of Terra|The Goddess Of Water|The God Of Magic|The God Of War
Below the Cardinal Gods, and Goddess's serve the Servile Gods, and Spirits who take minor roles towards specific things, such as blacksmithing, seasons, food, wine etc.
Each of these "Lesser gods" serves one or more of the greater gods.
While belief and prayer to the lesser gods does occur all major religion in the world is setup to worship the Cardinal Five (Life, Terra, Fire, Water, Air) while cult factions worship The God Of Death in secret.
The God of creation refuses worship and any who have prayed excessively to him were granted with an oracle thanking them but also to tell them they should not waste their limited time on him.
"Thank you Raisa this world is quite a bit different from my own"
"Oh really?"
"Yes well, you could say each country has their own God, or set of Gods, but these themselves change about every hundred years or so, and to our knowledge none have ever interacted with or walked among us, granted though our world has no magic, or monsters. Though part of me thinks we might've had in the past since we have books detailing a great number"
"So a world of only humans, elves, dwarves, and the other races then?"
"ha ha no no… just humans, well us and the animals we either raise or those still found in the wild."
"Sounds like a pretty strange world to me, among the many races Human's aren't exactly strong so to hear that humans rule your entire world seems pretty unreal to me, but if it's that way it must be a safe place to live without monsters."
"Yeah that is very true, but instead you have to watch out for the other humans even more since there are always though who live for blood in any world it seems, and well in my world without monsters that type choose to target other humans pretty excessively"
"Sounds like humans are the same everywhere then hahaha – but if your world has no magic how do you survive? Life on the other side must be very difficult"
"Oh actually it's not so different from here, because we had no magic we created tools that are capable of doing those sorts of things for us"
"Magic tools without magic?"
"Sort of… it's hard to explain"
[Maybe it's easier to show an example but without the crafting menu I cannot create anything like technology yet, so instead my only option would be to purchase something from the store, but magic guns are a bit excessive so should I instead go with candy or some kind of food?]
Quickly opening and manipulating my menu I placed a quick selection of sweet based foods that look identical to treats I know from my days on earth, cashing out and placing the contents in a lunch basket I also purchased at the same time.
Pulling the basket out of my inventory I placed it on my lap.
"Oh what an interesting basket I don't believe I've seen one like this before"
Her eyes gleaming as she started at the basket.
[Seriously it's just a wicker lunch basket, I mean it's different in that the wood used probably doesn't exist here, and sure the design is weird with the whole rectangular basket with a mid handles, and hinged cover]
"This is an example of something we used to use to carry food around, but it hasn't really been used now for probably 200 or so years, I have a couple of food stuffs from my world that I'd like to share with you if you'd accept?"
"200 years… but it's quality why on terra would you ever stop using such a thing…?"
"Raisa?"
"Huh oh yes sorry I just couldn't believe your people would abandon such goods, it makes my head spin trying to think of what replaced it."
'Spftt, spftt'
Cracking open a pair of canned drinks from within the kit, and handing it over to her.
"A cup made of metal, but so thin"
"Yes we use these to allow drinks to be sealed completely similar to how waterskins work, but since metal can be melted down and reformed, it allows for the cans to be resealed to preserve freshness of the contents for a long time."
"Ah yes as you said you developed to get around not having magic like preserve, ingenious to come up with a way of making food last longer without it."
Taking her comment with a coy grin, I placed the can to my lips and took a long sip of the contents.
[Ahhh Rulucsh Peach Iced Tea a perfect drink for a casual conversation, just the right amount of sweetness]
"WHAT! Satou… Satou what in the world is this drink?"
Grabbing my shoulder with her free hand and gripping it tightly Raisa's eyes meanwhile remained locked on the top of the juice can in her hands.
"This is what's called Peach Iced tea; it's a mixture of fruit juice and cold tea"
"But this, it's as sweet as an Uccoli fruit this must cost a fortune!"
My face twisted up in a screw.
[It's not though from what I've seen here that entire can should only cost maybe a couple of iron plates at most]
"No Way!"
Her face full of shock staring over at me.
"Judging from the look on your face this drink here is pretty common in your world isn't it? So that means it's not actually that expensive at all?"
"You've got me there, hate to break it to you but that entire can of Juice is only worth about 2-3 copper coins in my world."
Reality descended and Raisa's jaw dropped so fast I swore it was going to snap off.
"Your world sounds pretty amazing even with what little I've heard of it, but… judging by the size of that basket this Iced Tea isn't the only thing you were planning on showing me of your world"
"You've got me there; I figured it best to ease you into it, since most of my world commoner goods could be seen as the stuff of nobles or royalty here"
"Oh really! Do show me, we won't be moving for quite a while yet so it's a perfect time for a break"
Resigning to her request I started pulling the various goods out of the basket; a metal container with Bon Bon Barriere (Chocolate Bon Bon each with a different filling), a small bag of Sky Salt Toffee (Looks to me a lot like Salt Water Taffy), 2 Cloud ripple Chocolate bars, and a divine fruit platter.
Every item that was taken out was thoroughly examined by Raisa as I proceeded to remove the next item from the basket.
Questions rained down upon me as we setup out little picnic in the cart.
"What is this"
"What did you call this"
"It's stuck… Satou help it's stuck in my mouth"
Mixed in were constant denials of being allowed to have any more than one of each, but I won that argument by stating they were merely leftovers and that I myself do not enjoy sweets so the fruits were more than enough for me.