I came rolling to a stop on the other side of the portal, the air knocked out of me completely. I slowly pushed myself up and looked around me. I was next to a dirt road, I didn’t see where it led but behind me I could see a large mountain range. The scale of it was kind of hard to grasp from this distance but I wasn’t too caught up on that at the moment.
Sitting on the ground next to the road I cradled the sword Illesea had given me. She was right I hadn’t truly known her, I should be more worried about myself rather than someone that much stronger than me…
‘Just because I didn’t know you doesn’t mean that I want you to die though…’
“Fuck!” I screamed hitting the ground, “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!” Each syllable accompanied with my fist hitting the soft earth beside me quickly causing a large indentation in the ground that slowly grew with each subsequent hit. I eventually stopped catching my breath before focusing on my surroundings again, I really had no idea where I was, what to do, or where to go. I needed to come up with a plan of action or I’d starve within the next couple of days.
I let out a long breath of air trying to calm myself down, “Well, let’s check what happened with my status. Last I saw there were a bunch of notifications.”
‘Ping’ Heart integration beg-beg-beginning
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/OverlayingStatusTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/AttemptingIntegrationTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/LevellingTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/…
./Forced…
There were tons more lines like that, and I mean TONS more. Read out like a command prompt sequence from a program. Kind of scary honestly, also didn’t help with the theory that I was abducted in the real world and hooked up to some super advanced fulldive vr system. I skipped passed all the lines to the very bottom,
‘Ping’ Heart integration successful. Congratulations!
‘Ping’ Biology enhanced to accommodate Heart
‘Ping’ Third class force unlocked
‘Ping’ Class acquired, [Blessed by Nature] Level 1 - +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Natures Protection] - Nature has chosen you as a vessel and as such it will seek to protect you from danger, you can now form a shell to protect yourself from attacks. Increased protection and reduced cost per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Healing Blossom] Nature now seeks to heal you no matter where you are, a blossom will sprout from the ground and as long as you are within range you will be healed 3% of your health per second. Increased range and health per second per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Elements of Nature - Passive] Nature is one of the most primal forces in existence, any attacks constituting one of the four main elements and their direct derivatives deal 10% more damage. Increased damage by 5% per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Natural Selection] Congratulations, you’ve been selected. You’re more resistant to poisons and curses. Increased resistance per level.
‘Ping’ You’ve successfully integrated the Heart of Nalthien - 10 ability points awarded.
‘Ping’ You’ve escaped - 5 ability points awarded.
‘Ping’ Run.
What?
I thought about it for approximately half of a second before instantly sprinting down the road. There were things you questioned in life and there were some things you didn’t. This was one of those things you didn’t question. Too often I’d read instances where people just ignored the omnipotent entity that warned them of danger and tried to ask questions instead of immediately listening and trying to live beyond the next 10 seconds. Those moments always pissed me off.
As I ran as fast as I could I realized I was running much faster than a normal human would’ve ever been able to achieve. In a few moments I cleared a mile, then two, then three. I made sure to stay on the grass and not the road to help with avoiding kicking up a cloud. Right now I just wanted to put as much distance between where I landed while also making sure I wasn’t leaving a trail in the air to follow. Once I put about 10 miles in between me and my initial starting point I slowed down gasping for air.
If I wasn’t so tired and scared I’d definitely be interested in exploring the limits of my current strength. To get such a massive jump was definitely exhilarating. I caught my breath and grasped my sword glancing around me. The air around me felt heavy, it felt wrong. In my ten mile sprint I came up on a forest to my side, this one looked much more normal in comparison to the ones I had seen so far. I could see the tops of the trees here. I ran off the side of the road into the forest and hid within a bush.
Just when I genuinely started to think I was being paranoid for no reason I saw them. Three figures dropped out of the sky and landed on the road. Easily the strangest group of individuals I’d ever seen in my life. Although I guess that wasn’t saying much. One of them had blood red skin covering their entire body, he was easily 7 feet tall and had enough muscle to make the Rock jealous. The other two individuals were much more normal, at least in their height. One of them had wings of the purest white feathers, they entranced me, there was something completely otherworldly about them. The last one glowed golden, I mean literally glowed. There was an aura coming off them, they had a set of golden horns that spiraled upwards, and was very distinctly female. I’ll let you guess how I came to that conclusion.
They briefly conferred with each other before the red one looked around briefly looking towards the forest. They didn’t come over though and instead the group took off into the sky. I waited, I wasn’t about to come out of hiding with the possibility they could’ve already detected me and were just trying to bait me out. So I waited. After an hour my paranoia finally relaxed.
“Who the hell were they even?” It was too strange… They were probably the ones that attacked the elves. The thought chilled my blood. Not only had they managed to defeat the elves but somehow they managed to follow me out here despite the portal being closed behind me. If they were here that meant that Illesea probably didn’t make it, neither did the Speaker.
Another wave of sadness washed over me, I quickly subdued my emotions on the matter. I needed to focus on the present. I could cry over it when I wasn’t in immediate danger. Focus. I slowly came out of the forest and continued down the way I had been headed when I started running. I wasn’t too sure of the direction that other group had gone so any direction was as good as the next. Hopefully by following this path I’d eventually get to a town or something and at the very least plan my next move from there. If it came down to it I’m sure my new class would at the very least allow me to eat random crap out of the forest. Any poisonous mushrooms out there would hopefully be neutralized by my new skill. I had a brief chuckle over the skill [Natural Selection] and the implications behind it. I still remember the days people were snorting condoms and eating tide pods.
“Morons…” I muttered under my breath with a brief chuckle. While I was walking down the roadI focused on my status sheet.
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 61
Class - [Shock Enthusiast] - Level 1
Ability - [Jolt]
Ability - [Shocking Grasp]
Ability - [Paralyzing Shock]
Ability -
Ability -
Class - [Blade User] - Level 1
Ability - [Trained Physique - Passive]
Ability - [Slash]
Ability - [Parry]
Ability -
Ability -
Class - [Blessed by Nature] - Level 1
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability -
Ability -
Ability -
General Skills -
Identify - level 1
Status -
Vig - [31]
End - [24]
Str - [24]
Dex - [39]
Agi - [32]
Int - [33]
Wis - [33]
Health - 310
Stamina - 240
Mana - 330
61 ability points. I held onto them for now. I still wasn’t sure what kind of stat allotment I was going to need going forward in the future. Maybe there would also be alternative uses for them as well. My third class was a purple class, which was insane. Completely busted abilities as well, with insane potential. Hell, one of them even had a 10% damage increase that capped at 60% at level 10.
A majority of my stats were now in the 30’s as well. It seemed my health was tied directly to my vigor, stamina to endurance, and mana to wisdom. If I had to make a guess on the rest, str was just what it said it was. Dex affected my hand eye coordination. Agility was how fast and easily I could move. Probably worked with dexterity to enhance acrobatic maneuvers as well while vigor probably enhanced my perception. All of this was just pure speculation from my end but I felt I had read enough about this stuff in my world that it seemed unlikely to not work that way. There was always the chance I was wrong though.
Still only had one general skill. Although not that I had really had a chance to learn any more of them. Walking further down the road I noticed smoke rising up in the distance. Smoke meant there were people. Which was a good thing, I could finally get an idea of where I was and what to do. I got a little pep in my step, excited to finally see someone that more than likely wasn’t an elf since coming here. It’d be nice to see a human and see something a little more on the normal end.
Wait. Wasn’t there a group of homicidal renegades running about looking for me? This wasn’t good. I took off running and quickly came up on the source of the smoke. A wagon was burning in pieces off to the side of the road, bodies littering the ground around me. The smell was nauseating. Some of the bodies were burned, others were torn apart, and the remainders had a single hole through the middle of their heads. No survivors. I moved off to the side and threw up. This was the first time I’d actually seen a corpse in person, and the smell of burned flesh was not helping me get accustomed to it.
‘I’m sorry strangers, survival of the fittest seems to be how this world operates unfortunately. May the resources you had serve me better than they did you.’
With that brief thought I went to work. I flipped over bodies and dragged them over to the side of the road and lined them up. It was particularly stressful trying to match lower halves with top halves, but I managed to do it. Twelve people. Twelve people all died a senseless death. Such was the way of this world it seemed. It didn’t sit right with me, but I came from a world where peaceful lives were the norm. I’m sure if we had a system like this world, my life would’ve been vastly different and a lot less safer than it had been.
On some of the bodies I found things similar to dog tags. They were all the same color, a solid blue. The tags seemed magically enchanted somehow, it’s possible the people could be identified by them somehow. Some of the bodies didn’t have the tags, if I had to make a guess the tags signified an adventurer party whereas the ones without were probably the ones that had hired them. Some of the bodies had coin pouches. I gathered all of them up into a single pouch. 35 silver, a pretty decent amount if I had to guess. I found a cloak and picked it up, throwing it over my shoulders.
The party had seemed relatively balanced, a warrior, mage, archer, priest combo. Ah there was a rogue underneath the remains of the wagon. I dragged the rogue to be next to his buddies and yanked his tag off storing it with the rest. The rogue had a bag that was still in pretty good shape. It smelled like burnt flesh though. Inside was some rations, a water canteen, a blanket, a spare knife, and a bound piece of paper. I opened the paper to see what it said. And unknown would the contents remain since I apparently could not read the language it was written in.
I identified some of the gear the party had on them, but nothing was particularly magical other than the staff the mage had. I went around to each of the members of the party and took their primary weapon, the sword of the warrior, the bow from the archer, staff from the mage, and the pair of stilettos from the rogue.
What I did next was purely instinctual. I could feel the Heart of Nalthien calling out. It seemed as hurt by the scene before me just as much as I was. It guided my hand as I, for the first time, casted magic. Wood swirled out of the air around me stretching across the ground and covering the bodies. It roiled over them like smoke, connecting and smoothing over creating a flat surface covered in intricate designs and flowing patterns. I formed a plaque towards the front and on it the Heart assisted me with creating the inscription since the finer details were harder to achieve for me right now. The inscription read such:
“Here lies those who died, names unknown. May they find rest, peace, and happiness in whatever afterlife awaits.”
With that the Heart withdrew and I fell to a knee, sweating profusely.
Mana: 35/330
Used practically all of my mana to do that. But it was worth it, the grave they had gotten was easily better than a shoddily dug grave that would’ve taken hours to accomplish. I felt terrible for what had happened, but it was also completely out of my control. With a final look over the heart-wrenching scene I continued on down the road. Anxiety slowly began to creep up in my heart. It seemed like everything that could go wrong was going wrong and it only made me paranoid of what was going to happen next. Was I just going to come across a city completely ravaged and torn apart? I pressed on regardless, even if that’s what awaited me I still needed to press forward. I needed information about this world before I did something stupid that got myself killed.
After several more hours of walking I saw several pillars of smoke rising in the distance and instantly my heart leapt into my throat. I started running expecting to see another site like what I had just seen, eventually I saw it in the distance. A town, very much not on fire. I saw the walls surrounding the town, roughly 10 feet in height made of stone. The path led to a gate on either side of the gate was a guard. I walked up towards the gate expecting them to stop me and tell me there was a toll, but neither did. They did give me extremely strange looks however before finally speaking,
“Welcome to Vinwood, try and stay out of trouble.”
At least I could understand the language even if I couldn’t read it. I nodded in reply to the guards.
“Do you know where I can find the adventurers guild?” Here was hoping that concept existed and these weren’t some mercenaries or something.
The guards briefly glanced at each other before one of them replied giving me direction towards the center of the town and from there to the guild. I thanked them before heading inside.
‘They made that conversation way more awkward than it needed to be, what the hell was going on with them?’
I headed through the town before coming up on the building the guard had described to me. This was going to be the hard part. This felt like going into a doctor's appointment, except the circumstances were a lot more depressing. I psyched myself before pushing through the door. I drew a lot of looks as I walked up to the main counter where I could see a couple of people working. I assumed the looks were because I looked terrible and was carrying a strange assortment of weapons. The inside of the building looked very typical for an adventurers guild. One side seemed to be the more restaurant/bar area for socializing. The opposite side of the building had a bulletin board lining the wall with tons of pieces of papers lining it. Eventually I made it to the counter where a girl looked up at me giving me a big smile, and said,
“Hi! Welcome to the Vinwood adventurers guild! How can I assist you today sir elf?” She had an extremely cheerful and boisterous personality.
“Thanks, I came fro- wait… What did you just call me?”
I came rolling to a stop on the other side of the portal, the air knocked out of me completely. I slowly pushed myself up and looked around me. I was next to a dirt road, I didn’t see where it led but behind me I could see a large mountain range. The scale of it was kind of hard to grasp from this distance but I wasn’t too caught up on that at the moment.
Sitting on the ground next to the road I cradled the sword Illesea had given me. She was right I hadn’t truly known her, I should be more worried about myself rather than someone that much stronger than me…
‘Just because I didn’t know you doesn’t mean that I want you to die though…’
“Fuck!” I screamed hitting the ground, “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!” Each syllable accompanied with my fist hitting the soft earth beside me quickly causing a large indentation in the ground that slowly grew with each subsequent hit. I eventually stopped catching my breath before focusing on my surroundings again, I really had no idea where I was, what to do, or where to go. I needed to come up with a plan of action or I’d starve within the next couple of days.
I let out a long breath of air trying to calm myself down, “Well, let’s check what happened with my status. Last I saw there were a bunch of notifications.”
‘Ping’ Heart integration beg-beg-beginning
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/OverlayingStatusTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/AttemptingIntegrationTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/LevellingTests.cs
./ForcedHeartIntegrationToolkit.tests/HeartAnalysis/Progressions/…
./Forced…
There were tons more lines like that, and I mean TONS more. Read out like a command prompt sequence from a program. Kind of scary honestly, also didn’t help with the theory that I was abducted in the real world and hooked up to some super advanced fulldive vr system. I skipped passed all the lines to the very bottom,
‘Ping’ Heart integration successful. Congratulations!
‘Ping’ Biology enhanced to accommodate Heart
‘Ping’ Third class force unlocked
‘Ping’ Class acquired, [Blessed by Nature] Level 1 - +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Natures Protection] - Nature has chosen you as a vessel and as such it will seek to protect you from danger, you can now form a shell to protect yourself from attacks. Increased protection and reduced cost per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Healing Blossom] Nature now seeks to heal you no matter where you are, a blossom will sprout from the ground and as long as you are within range you will be healed 3% of your health per second. Increased range and health per second per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Elements of Nature - Passive] Nature is one of the most primal forces in existence, any attacks constituting one of the four main elements and their direct derivatives deal 10% more damage. Increased damage by 5% per level.
‘Ping’ Skill acquired [Natural Selection] Congratulations, you’ve been selected. You’re more resistant to poisons and curses. Increased resistance per level.
‘Ping’ You’ve successfully integrated the Heart of Nalthien - 10 ability points awarded.
‘Ping’ You’ve escaped - 5 ability points awarded.
‘Ping’ Run.
What?
I thought about it for approximately half of a second before instantly sprinting down the road. There were things you questioned in life and there were some things you didn’t. This was one of those things you didn’t question. Too often I’d read instances where people just ignored the omnipotent entity that warned them of danger and tried to ask questions instead of immediately listening and trying to live beyond the next 10 seconds. Those moments always pissed me off.
As I ran as fast as I could I realized I was running much faster than a normal human would’ve ever been able to achieve. In a few moments I cleared a mile, then two, then three. I made sure to stay on the grass and not the road to help with avoiding kicking up a cloud. Right now I just wanted to put as much distance between where I landed while also making sure I wasn’t leaving a trail in the air to follow. Once I put about 10 miles in between me and my initial starting point I slowed down gasping for air.
If I wasn’t so tired and scared I’d definitely be interested in exploring the limits of my current strength. To get such a massive jump was definitely exhilarating. I caught my breath and grasped my sword glancing around me. The air around me felt heavy, it felt wrong. In my ten mile sprint I came up on a forest to my side, this one looked much more normal in comparison to the ones I had seen so far. I could see the tops of the trees here. I ran off the side of the road into the forest and hid within a bush.
Just when I genuinely started to think I was being paranoid for no reason I saw them. Three figures dropped out of the sky and landed on the road. Easily the strangest group of individuals I’d ever seen in my life. Although I guess that wasn’t saying much. One of them had blood red skin covering their entire body, he was easily 7 feet tall and had enough muscle to make the Rock jealous. The other two individuals were much more normal, at least in their height. One of them had wings of the purest white feathers, they entranced me, there was something completely otherworldly about them. The last one glowed golden, I mean literally glowed. There was an aura coming off them, they had a set of golden horns that spiraled upwards, and was very distinctly female. I’ll let you guess how I came to that conclusion.
They briefly conferred with each other before the red one looked around briefly looking towards the forest. They didn’t come over though and instead the group took off into the sky. I waited, I wasn’t about to come out of hiding with the possibility they could’ve already detected me and were just trying to bait me out. So I waited. After an hour my paranoia finally relaxed.
“Who the hell were they even?” It was too strange… They were probably the ones that attacked the elves. The thought chilled my blood. Not only had they managed to defeat the elves but somehow they managed to follow me out here despite the portal being closed behind me. If they were here that meant that Illesea probably didn’t make it, neither did the Speaker.
Another wave of sadness washed over me, I quickly subdued my emotions on the matter. I needed to focus on the present. I could cry over it when I wasn’t in immediate danger. Focus. I slowly came out of the forest and continued down the way I had been headed when I started running. I wasn’t too sure of the direction that other group had gone so any direction was as good as the next. Hopefully by following this path I’d eventually get to a town or something and at the very least plan my next move from there. If it came down to it I’m sure my new class would at the very least allow me to eat random crap out of the forest. Any poisonous mushrooms out there would hopefully be neutralized by my new skill. I had a brief chuckle over the skill [Natural Selection] and the implications behind it. I still remember the days people were snorting condoms and eating tide pods.
“Morons…” I muttered under my breath with a brief chuckle. While I was walking down the roadI focused on my status sheet.
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 61
Class - [Shock Enthusiast] - Level 1
Ability - [Jolt]
Ability - [Shocking Grasp]
Ability - [Paralyzing Shock]
Ability -
Ability -
Class - [Blade User] - Level 1
Ability - [Trained Physique - Passive]
Ability - [Slash]
Ability - [Parry]
Ability -
Ability -
Class - [Blessed by Nature] - Level 1
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability -
Ability -
Ability -
General Skills -
Identify - level 1
Status -
Vig - [31]
End - [24]
Str - [24]
Dex - [39]
Agi - [32]
Int - [33]
Wis - [33]
Health - 310
Stamina - 240
Mana - 330
61 ability points. I held onto them for now. I still wasn’t sure what kind of stat allotment I was going to need going forward in the future. Maybe there would also be alternative uses for them as well. My third class was a purple class, which was insane. Completely busted abilities as well, with insane potential. Hell, one of them even had a 10% damage increase that capped at 60% at level 10.
A majority of my stats were now in the 30’s as well. It seemed my health was tied directly to my vigor, stamina to endurance, and mana to wisdom. If I had to make a guess on the rest, str was just what it said it was. Dex affected my hand eye coordination. Agility was how fast and easily I could move. Probably worked with dexterity to enhance acrobatic maneuvers as well while vigor probably enhanced my perception. All of this was just pure speculation from my end but I felt I had read enough about this stuff in my world that it seemed unlikely to not work that way. There was always the chance I was wrong though.
Still only had one general skill. Although not that I had really had a chance to learn any more of them. Walking further down the road I noticed smoke rising up in the distance. Smoke meant there were people. Which was a good thing, I could finally get an idea of where I was and what to do. I got a little pep in my step, excited to finally see someone that more than likely wasn’t an elf since coming here. It’d be nice to see a human and see something a little more on the normal end.
Wait. Wasn’t there a group of homicidal renegades running about looking for me? This wasn’t good. I took off running and quickly came up on the source of the smoke. A wagon was burning in pieces off to the side of the road, bodies littering the ground around me. The smell was nauseating. Some of the bodies were burned, others were torn apart, and the remainders had a single hole through the middle of their heads. No survivors. I moved off to the side and threw up. This was the first time I’d actually seen a corpse in person, and the smell of burned flesh was not helping me get accustomed to it.
‘I’m sorry strangers, survival of the fittest seems to be how this world operates unfortunately. May the resources you had serve me better than they did you.’
With that brief thought I went to work. I flipped over bodies and dragged them over to the side of the road and lined them up. It was particularly stressful trying to match lower halves with top halves, but I managed to do it. Twelve people. Twelve people all died a senseless death. Such was the way of this world it seemed. It didn’t sit right with me, but I came from a world where peaceful lives were the norm. I’m sure if we had a system like this world, my life would’ve been vastly different and a lot less safer than it had been.
On some of the bodies I found things similar to dog tags. They were all the same color, a solid blue. The tags seemed magically enchanted somehow, it’s possible the people could be identified by them somehow. Some of the bodies didn’t have the tags, if I had to make a guess the tags signified an adventurer party whereas the ones without were probably the ones that had hired them. Some of the bodies had coin pouches. I gathered all of them up into a single pouch. 35 silver, a pretty decent amount if I had to guess. I found a cloak and picked it up, throwing it over my shoulders.
The party had seemed relatively balanced, a warrior, mage, archer, priest combo. Ah there was a rogue underneath the remains of the wagon. I dragged the rogue to be next to his buddies and yanked his tag off storing it with the rest. The rogue had a bag that was still in pretty good shape. It smelled like burnt flesh though. Inside was some rations, a water canteen, a blanket, a spare knife, and a bound piece of paper. I opened the paper to see what it said. And unknown would the contents remain since I apparently could not read the language it was written in.
I identified some of the gear the party had on them, but nothing was particularly magical other than the staff the mage had. I went around to each of the members of the party and took their primary weapon, the sword of the warrior, the bow from the archer, staff from the mage, and the pair of stilettos from the rogue.
What I did next was purely instinctual. I could feel the Heart of Nalthien calling out. It seemed as hurt by the scene before me just as much as I was. It guided my hand as I, for the first time, casted magic. Wood swirled out of the air around me stretching across the ground and covering the bodies. It roiled over them like smoke, connecting and smoothing over creating a flat surface covered in intricate designs and flowing patterns. I formed a plaque towards the front and on it the Heart assisted me with creating the inscription since the finer details were harder to achieve for me right now. The inscription read such:
“Here lies those who died, names unknown. May they find rest, peace, and happiness in whatever afterlife awaits.”
With that the Heart withdrew and I fell to a knee, sweating profusely.
Mana: 35/330
Used practically all of my mana to do that. But it was worth it, the grave they had gotten was easily better than a shoddily dug grave that would’ve taken hours to accomplish. I felt terrible for what had happened, but it was also completely out of my control. With a final look over the heart-wrenching scene I continued on down the road. Anxiety slowly began to creep up in my heart. It seemed like everything that could go wrong was going wrong and it only made me paranoid of what was going to happen next. Was I just going to come across a city completely ravaged and torn apart? I pressed on regardless, even if that’s what awaited me I still needed to press forward. I needed information about this world before I did something stupid that got myself killed.
After several more hours of walking I saw several pillars of smoke rising in the distance and instantly my heart leapt into my throat. I started running expecting to see another site like what I had just seen, eventually I saw it in the distance. A town, very much not on fire. I saw the walls surrounding the town, roughly 10 feet in height made of stone. The path led to a gate on either side of the gate was a guard. I walked up towards the gate expecting them to stop me and tell me there was a toll, but neither did. They did give me extremely strange looks however before finally speaking,
“Welcome to Vinwood, try and stay out of trouble.”
At least I could understand the language even if I couldn’t read it. I nodded in reply to the guards.
“Do you know where I can find the adventurers guild?” Here was hoping that concept existed and these weren’t some mercenaries or something.
The guards briefly glanced at each other before one of them replied giving me direction towards the center of the town and from there to the guild. I thanked them before heading inside.
‘They made that conversation way more awkward than it needed to be, what the hell was going on with them?’
I headed through the town before coming up on the building the guard had described to me. This was going to be the hard part. This felt like going into a doctor's appointment, except the circumstances were a lot more depressing. I psyched myself before pushing through the door. I drew a lot of looks as I walked up to the main counter where I could see a couple of people working. I assumed the looks were because I looked terrible and was carrying a strange assortment of weapons. The inside of the building looked very typical for an adventurers guild. One side seemed to be the more restaurant/bar area for socializing. The opposite side of the building had a bulletin board lining the wall with tons of pieces of papers lining it. Eventually I made it to the counter where a girl looked up at me giving me a big smile, and said,
“Hi! Welcome to the Vinwood adventurers guild! How can I assist you today sir elf?” She had an extremely cheerful and boisterous personality.
“Thanks, I came fro- wait… What did you just call me?”
