Riding along on the passenger seat on the cart was a lot more comfortable than I expected. Though I had completely forgotten about the mecha-beasts. Th one that was currently pulling the cart was a faded blue bison. It made the occasional squeaking noise as the gears and engine moved and worked to make the mechanical buffalo move. After a lot of questions that made the old man extremely suspicious of me, I realized I needed some kind of explanation or background to explain why I was so interested in everything that would be seen as common place, so while the old merchant tried to come up with a reasonable way to kick me from his cart I decided simplicity was the best way to go.
"I can see that you're suspicious of all the questions I've been asking, truth is I don't remember my own name where I'm from, or why I ended up here. I only remember broad things like the big names like Shane, and Black. The only personal thing I remember about what maybe my life is a giant fire and then darkness," I know most of the things I said were borderline false I still tried to keep things basic. I was someone who was lost, in trouble, and most likely didn't have a place to return to. Hearing my confession the old man's suspicions seem to dry up, and so we spent the time talking.
It turned out that he was a small time slug seller, his whole business was based on the breeding and selling of the cute little things, Dr. Black had tried to make him sign an exclusive deal to only sell and breed for his company but the old man was made from tougher stuff then that, and had flat out refused the madman. Afterwards he was forced out of his home cavern because his shop was for closed for "safety reasons" so he had sell it to the highest bidder… that was just below Dr. Black and his associates, than had proceeded to buy this very cart to take his slug business on the road, I mean the man had everything nice comfortable environment the giant cases and so much more, but his dreams were almost shattered, because it would seem that the overly vindictive Dr. decided that he wasn't done with the old man, and that's where I came into the story and knocked out one of Dr. Black's goons. Nodding along to the information it gave me a general understanding of where I was in the story. Asking subtle questions about the goings on I ended up finding out that the slugger tournament was just a couple months away meaning that I had only so much time before the new Shane and his gang showed up. So this gave me time to figure out a few things for the future, no one in this world had seen my face yet, so that meant I could go one of two ways, ditch or change all of my gear so Black couldn't find me, or be a hero and face up to the evil madman. Honestly, and not surprisingly, I was undecided about. After coming to this world I realized just how dangerous this place really was, slug could very easily kill a person on accident, and not to mention the gouls that Black would be mass producing, that, in all likelihood, would be actively trying to destroy and kill anything and everything. Did I want to be targeted by black with those steaks. Was I really ready for that type of thing. Was I ready for a war, one where more times than not I was outnumbered, outgunned, and where my enemies would stop at nothing to get rid of me. Sure I faced death but did I want to have that be a daily occurrence for me starring into death's face every day. Because I had ample evidence to show that Black would stop at nothing to put down those he saw as a threat.