( Luke's POV )
Unlike Leo, Luke did not admire simpler things in life like nature, art or poetry.
While on a journey, his mind did not work towards how the game mechanics worked or how realistic the world looked, but instead worked towards solving realistic worries that were under his control.
Once enroute, his mind wandered towards subjects like what if the guy that he had beat outside his apartment returned with more bad guys to cause trouble?
Or what if other sector E workers started to form makeshift weapons out of objects that they had carried from home and used it to form gangs and cause violence?
Did he need to possess a weapon of his own for his own and Leo's security?
What if he had to fight an opponent to death someday? Did he really have the guts to take a life for real?
These were some of the questions that bothered Luke as he deeply contemplated the answers to all of them while being on a journey.
If it were Leo instead of him on this journey, what he would have noticed would be just how fast the mounts and caravans moved in this world and how they came engraved with spells that worked like suspensions to give the riders a smoother ride.
Although there were no concrete roads and no hard pavements, the journey was incredibly fast and smooth with the carriage maintaining an average speed of nearly 80 km/h.
Back on Earth, such speeds were only achieved by proper cars driving on relatively traffic free roads, however, the more important thing was not the speed but rather the distance it represented.
It was a one and a half day journey for a merchant group to go from Panjim Town to the royal capital and they were travelling for close to 16 hours off that one and a half day.
This meant that the distance between Panjim Town and the Royal Capital was at least 1200 kilometres, if not more, which just went to show just how big the world of Terra Nova really was.
Although Luke did not know about it yet, the peak length of the empire he was a part of was close to 3400 kilometres and its peak width was about 2400.
The current Emperor controlled a humongous territory which was then divided into four regions controlled by the four Archdukes having four smaller duchies each within them to create the 16 dukedoms.
These dukedoms were further subdivided into Counties, Viscounties and Baronies with most Barons also serving as the Mayor of a small town.
The real world of Terra Nova was extremely diverse and there were all sorts of ethnicities and people living within it.
For now, Luke had not come into contact with much of this world and hence he did not care much for it, however, as time passed and his importance to the empire would grow, this would be critical information that he would always have to keep in mind before making any big decision.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Suddenly, Luke was jolted awake by the sudden sound of gunshots being fired.
At first he thought he was mistaken as guns did not seem to fit into the theme of the mediaeval Terra Nova world, however, he was sure that it was definitely gunshot noises that he heard once more shots were fired.
*SCREECH*
The carriage he was riding came to a screeching halt, a small slit made into the carriage front helping him see that the horse that was dragging his carriage was down on the ground with his foot seemingly having sustained a gunshot wound.
" AMBUSH-"
" IT SEEMS LIKE THEY CARRY WITH THEM THOSE DASTARDLY DWARVEN WEAPONS "
Two different masculine voices shouted as Luke felt worried as to what was going on.
" Don't worry, our protection group will handle this easily" the merchant who was riding the carriage alongside Luke said calmly as Luke felt surprised to see his calm demeanour.
"The opponent's have guns" he said, as he tried to highlight the importance of their weapons as back on earth a gun was considered to be the greatest equaliser.
It did not matter if a gun was being used by a short 4 foot man who could probably not even throw a proper punch, or by a 7 feet muscular guy who could easily eat anyone when it came to a physical brawl.
If they shot a bullet against each other, both men would most likely die, when the result would have been vastly different had it been a sword fight or a fist fight.
Making a gun and using it to make a hefty profit was one idea that even Luke had when he was wondering how to make money within Terra Nova, however, it seemed like someone else had got to it before him.
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
"Agghhhh"
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
" What the fuck? Why are these guys not dying from being shot?"
"Aghhhhh"
Luke heard all sorts of screams and shots outside the carriage as it seemed like the protection group that the merchant hired was going after the gunmen trying to rob them.
Not being able to hide his curiosity, Luke slightly opened the carriage door and peeked outside, shocked to see how easily the hired mercenaries were dodging and deflecting bullets.
A group of three players, all level 7 or lower seemed to shoot bullets towards a tall well built mercenary who deflected all three shots with an easy flick of his wrist as all three bullets seemed to have perfectly collided with his sword.
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
All three players were killed in an instant as they stood no chance against the strong mercenary.
Luke watched with his eyes wide open as he could not believe what he was witnessing, yet it seemed like the greatest equaliser of humanity meant nothing much in the world of Terra Nova and that the warriors here had reflexes that far surpassed the speed of bullets.
"What the fuck did I just witness?" Luke questioned, as he realised that he did not even understand 1% of the world of Terra Nova yet.