After Shel finished washing her dirty body and put her clothes back on, Dash and Shel sat cross-legged by the river. Shel began explaining what she knew about the world to Dash. The world Dash was in was called Aetheria, a fantasy world where faith in the gods still controlled all aspects of life, including the magic and knowledge of Aetheria's inhabitants.
Long ago, in ancient times, there were two fundamentally different groups in this world, like day and night or light and darkness. The first group was the Children of Light, or Children of the Sky; the races included in the Children of Light were humans, Elves, Dwarves, Giants, and Angels.
The second group was the Dark Tribe, or Children of the Underground; the races included were Demons, Dragons, and Monsters. For centuries, these two groups kept fighting, until the gods finally grew tired of it. Then, when the gods left the world and destroyed nearly all civilization with them, the only civilizations that remained were humans, Elves, Giants, Demons, and Monsters.
They rebuilt civilization individually from scratch. However, the residual spirits of the ancient civilization rose again and attacked all races. That's why all races united to fight them until now, but within this new civilization, there were frequent social inequalities among the races themselves.
The difference between the Children of Light and the Children of the Underground was clearly visible, even though there were no written laws about it. The Children of Light still worshiped the gods, even though the gods had actually left the world, which the Children of the Underground knew about and felt hurt by because they were abandoned by the gods.
So, if there was a cross between the Children of Light and the Children of the Underground, it was considered a disgrace and became a reason for war between the races, or even large-scale enslavement, disregarding the real threat, which was the attacks from the forgotten spirits of the ancient civilization that continued to terrorize life in the world.
"So that's how it is," Dash muttered.
"You are a remnant of the Dragon and Human races because your head is human… a Dragonkin who went extinct a long time ago. This is the first time I've ever seen a Dragonkin race too," Shel said, holding Dash's hand.
"It seems so… I really don't remember anything," Dash replied. "Even though I'm sure I'm something else, if the Dragonkin race is extinct, then I'm the only one, right? No one knows the true form of a Dragonkin according to the stories, so I don't need to correct anything," Dash thought.
"Alright, where do we go after this?" Shel asked.
"Huh? We?" Dash asked, surprised, looking at Shel.
"Yes, we. I've decided to go with you. There's no way I can let someone with amnesia travel alone. It's too dangerous," Shel replied.
"But don't you want to go home?" Dash asked.
Hearing Dash's question, Shel released his hand. She immediately looked down and fell silent. Dash, observing Shel, looked a little confused, but then he realized Shel had just been captured, covered in blood and mud. This time, he took Shel's hand.
"I'm sorry for asking," Dash said.
"It's okay… I don't have a home anymore… the soldiers of the Grandias Kingdom came to my house, which was deep in the woods, in a secluded spot… they killed my father and mother… and then took me to be judged in front of the monastery and then killed… just because I'm the child of my Orc father and my human mother," Shel said, gripping her hands fiercely.
Dash could see the sadness on Shel's face. He opened Shel's clenched fists and then held her hands.
"Alright, since I don't know anything about this world, please lead the way," Dash said, smiling.
Shel immediately lifted her head. She looked at Dash's face as if studying his expression. After confirming that Dash was serious about taking her along, she smiled faintly, and her hand grasped Dash's hand.
"Thank you, Dash," Shel said.
"GRU-YUUK," Dash's stomach suddenly rumbled loudly. He looked down and held his stomach.
"Whoa… I guess I'm hungry, haha," Dash replied, smiling.
"Haha, I'm actually hungry too," Shel replied.
Then Shel stood up and walked toward the river. Dash looked at her, puzzled. Suddenly, Shel raised her hand, and her entire arm emitted a yellow, fog-like aura. "BLAM," Shel then slammed the ground right at the edge of the river. Dash could feel an earthquake beneath him, and he immediately jumped to his feet.
"BLAAAZ," the river water scattered everywhere. "PLUK," suddenly, many fish were thrown out of the river and landed right in front of Dash as the tremor subsided. Then Shel turned around and casually began picking up the scattered fish.
"Wow, what was that?" Dash thought, impressed by what Shel had done.
After gathering the fish, Shel opened her palm again and directed it toward the rocks in front of her. A yellow aura came out of her hand again, and the rocks in front of her floated in the air, neatly arranging themselves into a circle.
Then she directed her hand toward the nearby trees. Several tree roots emerged from the ground, then were cut into neat pieces to build a campfire, and the rest lay beside the rock formation. Dash, who was observing Shel, thought hard.
"So that's what they call magic, like the fireball that was shot at me when I was mobbed," Dash thought.
Shel walked toward the rock formation and placed all the fish on the side. Then she started skewering the fish with the wooden sticks after gutting them. She did it happily, humming a tune. Dash approached Shel and sat beside her.
"Hey, was that just now… magic?" Dash asked.
"Huh… yes. You've never seen magic before? Oh right, you have amnesia," Shel replied.
"Yeah, sorry for asking," Dash said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"It's okay… I can use nature magic. My mother was a sorceress. She taught me how to use magic for daily life and fighting since I was little," Shel said, opening up a fish's belly and pulling out its guts.
"Hmm, I see. Can you explain it to me?" Dash asked.
Shel explained that her magic uses natural energy combined with the magic within her body, like how she moved the tree roots and arranged the rocks just now. She used an attack magic called 'Tremor' to get the fish out of the river. She could also use nature magic defensively to create walls of earth or wood, and she could also strengthen her body.
"Hmm… interesting," Dash muttered.
"Generally, the Orc race cannot use magic because their physique doesn't support it, but they have physical strength far superior to all other monster races. Since I'm Half-Orc and human, I can use magic to support my physical strength," Shel said.
"So you actually could have fought back when you were captured earlier, right?" Dash asked.
"Yes, I defeated half of them, but I was exhausted because I was too emotional… so I eventually lost and was captured," Shel replied, her face slightly shadowed.
"I see. Well, don't dwell on it anymore," Dash said, holding Shel's shoulder.
"Yeah, thank you. Could you please help me start the fire?" Shel asked.
"But I can't use magic," Dash replied.
"Not with magic, use this," Shel said, pointing to a small stick and a slightly larger stick.
"Oh… okay," Dash replied. "Oh, primitive method, huh? Good thing I know how and learned about that during camping," Dash thought.
Finally, Dash sat cross-legged and took the two pieces of wood used for friction and began working.