Foster woke up in the middle of the night. Or at the very least, he was able to see the stars through this room’s window.

“Urgh… Did I really just sleep all fucking day..?” He thought to himself, annoyed by what was going on with his body. He was certainly extremely exhausted when he went to bed, but sleeping for this long was weird even for him.

So, while laying here in bed, Foster decided to just look at the sky. There was one particular one that he noticed earlier tonight as well. It was a bright one that was easily visible because it stood high in the air, “Hm, is that, like, the northern star? Wait, nah, I doubt that’s actually north from here… That would be pretty unlikely…” Foster quietly whispered to himself. As he was thinking, he managed to spot the moon hiding behind some trees, “That’s a lot bigger than the moon I know…”

For a while, Foster’s mind wandered as he thought about the stars. Since all of them were just so different, then it was clear that all of the knowledge that he accumulated of the stars had immediately become useless. Although, at the very least he still understood the principles, and those shouldn’t be all too different. Maybe he could find someone to teach him about the stars of this world when he had the chance to. Thiodrus didn’t seem to have a particular interest in them when Foster tried to talk to him about them.

Foster soon rolled over, now facing the wall so that he was only able to see the window from the corner of his eye. He didn’t know why, but despite sleeping for so long, the only thing that Foster wanted to do right now was continue to sleep. But when he did, he suddenly felt his stomach grumble loudly.

“How am I this hungry, Thiodrus even made me some food just before I went to sleep…” Foster groaned loudly as he sat back up, swinging his feet over the side of the bed. He quickly stood up and walked out the room. It was a bit awkward, because he wasn’t wearing his clothes beside his underwear, due to the fact that they had been completely ripped up anyway.

Foster looked around the room, but Thiodrus was nowhere to be seen. On the table just a bit in front of him, a pile of clothes was stacked up. Well, ‘clothes’ may sound a bit misleading, considering that it was just another martial-arts uniform, somewhat similar to Thiodrus’. It had a similar black base color, but instead of a bone-like white, the details placed onto it, including the symbols stitched onto the chest, were colored a deep blue instead.

Foster guessed that these were the clothes that Thiodrus promised to set out for him. Really, that random skeleton was incredibly nice and an amazing host. With a smile on his face, Foster placed the clothes right onto his body. It fit perfectly, although Foster’s build was rather different than Thiodrus’. For one, the skeleton was about a full head taller than him.

“He didn’t adjust his own stuff just so that it would fit me, right..? An animated skeleton that can use healing magic, speak, cook, and even sew? Isn’t that kind of unfair..?” Foster muttered with a wry smile his face. But it wasn’t like he was in any position to complain right now. Only good things were happening to him through Thiodrus right now, after all. Foster had no idea what might have happened to him had he not come across him somehow.

Once he was dressed, Foster started to walk around this cabin to try and find Thiodrus somewhere. He was nowhere to be found on the, admittedly quite small, ground floor. So instead, Foster chose to walk up the stairs to the second floor. The wood creaked loudly as he stepped onto the stairs, but that wasn’t even the worst of it.

When Foster reached the top of the stairway, he was surrounded by nothing but darkness, “Err, Thiodrus, you up here?” He asked somewhat nervously. This situation was more than just creepy, after all.

And that was when Foster heard a voice coming from the darkness.

“&(§$(§$%)!” A voice exclaimed, in the same language that Thiodrus’ voice. It was a woman, standing there on the other side of the room.

“Yo, erm… I can’t understand you, could you come out for a second?” Foster asked nervously, and the woman kept speaking in that language Foster didn’t know in the slightest, “(&)%§?“ß+#-…” She said, but of course not knowing what she was trying to tell him, Foster couldn’t do anything but groan loudly.

“Come on man, just fucking… ehh… No hablo espanol?” He tried, but of course that wouldn’t work. But at the very least, from his tone, the other person seemed to understand one thing. That Foster wasn’t the one that she was looking for.

“%))%§&5…” She muttered as she finally stepped out of the darkness of the room beyond where Foster was standing right now.

With slow, calm footsteps, this woman walked forward, and soon came into sight as she stepped near the window. She was tall, and held a large sword in her hands. Her long, vibrant red hair was tied into a ponytail, and she was wearing something like leather armor. That in itself already remembered Foster of those shows that Jon would watch, the ones that gave him the idea to call out ‘Status’ earlier. In those, most of the time, that other world was a place where society and technology hadn’t developed nearly as much as on earth.

More often than not, it was a world with a medieval society. Since this woman was carrying a literal sword and was wearing that sort of armor, Foster figured that this fact at least wasn’t that far off for this world either.

Foster slowly raised his hands and showed the woman his palms to make sure she didn’t find him threatening, and slowly walked forward toward her.

“Are you looking for… Erm…” Foster tried to remember the exact way that Thiodrus’ name was pronounced in that weird language that him and this woman were speaking, “Th-Thiodrus Argam… Argomna?”

The woman seemed clearly surprsied, and immediately nodded her head. She seemed to have understood that there was a language barrier between her and Foster, and instead chose to hold that, seemingly quite heavy, sword in one hand while pointing at the ground. Or rather, she was pointing at this whole cabin.

“Thiodrus? §$6$(?” She asked, and Foster immediately nodded his head. Luckily, nodding one’s head seemed to mean the same thing here, and the woman began to grin. She was quite excited over finding where exactly Thiodrus seemed to live. However, Foster had a rough idea why she was here. Otherwise, why would she be holding that sword so threateningly?

She was here to try and fight Thiodrus. But to Foster, one thing was clear. If this woman were to fight Thiodrus, she wouldn’t have the slightest chance to win. He’s seen many people that acted like they were extremely strong fighers in his time as a member of the… organization. But even so, most of the time, those guys ended up being people that were more than easily taken care of.

The ones that were truly dangerous and threatening, those that were truly strong… Foster knew those as well. Throughout the years, he had become able to differentiate between the two, gaging the strength of people rather well. And amongst all of them, Thiodrus was by far the strongest person that Foster had ever met. It wasn’t even a contest.

If the difference between the second and third on that ranking, the former first and second, was a single degree, then the difference between the second, Foster’s boss, and the new first, Thiodrus, was like the difference between water freezing and boiling. Not just anyone would be able to fight someone like him.

Slowly, the woman lowered her sword and instead extended her hand toward Foster, looking at him with a determined glare. He figured that she was trying to shake his hand, and quickly followed along and took a step forward, shaking her hand as well.

He wasn’t an idiot, after all, she had a fucking sword. No need to antagonize people for now.

After the two of them shook each other’s hand, the woman raised her sword. She pointed her finger at Foster and then at herself, “%§, (%…” And then, she swung her sword downward, “Thiodrus?”

“Ah…” Foster had a rough idea what she wanted to ask him. Did she want Foster to help her fight against Thiodrus?

“No.” He shook his head without a moment’s hesitation, “Thiodrus is a good guy, why the fuck would I fight him?” Foster crossed his arms before letting out a deep, bothered sigh. The woman understood that Foster didn’t want to fight together with her, however, she seemingly misunderstood it in a whole different way.

She grinned a bit and closed her eyes with a smug expression, before holding her fist forward for a fist-bump, “&($)$. )&!!%)%56!” She exclaimed. Foster didn’t know what exactly she wanted from him, but he simply accepted the fist-bump as the woman stepped past him, keeping up her smug expression as she headed toward the stairs.

“What…?” He muttered, before looking down at his body again. Foster was wearing a martial-arts uniform… He looked like he was also here to fight, so… “Did I just suggest a contest to see who would be able to fight Thiodrus first? After finally meeting the first actual other person in this place…?”