Ishmael no longer had the energy to question what he was seeing, instead he decided to help these people fend of the giant chickens and process his thoughts later. With a grunt he got down on one knee and rested his AK-74N on a Y shaped branch. He took out his PSO-1 sniper scope from his pouch and clipped it onto the AK's dovetail mount, flicking the safety to semi-auto while doing so. Taking a deep breath, he looked into the scope. Being an experienced shooter, he gauged the distance to his target at 75 meters, hardly a challenging shot.

What made the shot challenging was the fact that targets never stopped moving, they were constantly attacking or dodging arrows shot by the people standing on top of the carriages. He decided to wait for one of the birds to stop moving. Patience is an ambush predators most important trait.

His patience was rewarded when one of the chickens backed off after receiving an arrow from one of the defenders. Through his rifle's scope, Ishmael could see the bird trying to pull out the arrow shaft from lodged into its side. Poor bird, Ishmael thought to himself.

"let me put you out of your misery" He muttered to no one in particular.

Two thunderous cracks echoed through the forest as Ishmael sent a pair of bullets into the distracted bird. It let out a painful cluck as the bullets tore through its chest, it's fight or flight mechanic switched on and it seemed to have chosen to flee as it began running away from Ishmael. Sadly for the bird it only managed four measly steps before hunching over and succumbing from its injuries. Not wanting to lose momentum, Ishmael immediately shifted his aim to the other birds who also have stopped moving, surprised by the sudden death of their comrade. Ishmael couldn't help but see himself in the chickens he was about to kill. He reacted the same way the chickens did when Nasir was killed in the opening salvo of the ambush. Banishing the thought from his mind, Ishmael pulled the trigger again.

Two of the four remaining chickens died before they could even react to the ambush. The remaining two broke out into a full sprint, desperately trying to run away from the invisible threat. Not wanting to waste any more valuable ammunition on fleeing targets Ishmael flicked the safety off, he did not make any sudden movements as he continued to observe the people he had just saved.

"Umm.. Hello?"

A loud voice came from one of the individuals standing on the carriages.

The voice was loud, unnaturally loud. Despite standing 75 meters away he could hear it perfectly.

"Would you like to come out so that we can properly thank you?"

The unnaturally loud voice spoke again. Ishmael weighed his options, on one hand he hated the idea of walking across an open area, but on the other hand these people might be able to tell him what he wanted to know.

He sighed as he stood up and dusted some dirt from his knee and walked out of the shrub. His rifle slung in front of him in a neutral position with both hands firmly on it just in case he needed to use it.

The walk from the shrub to the carriages felt long and awkward, both parties eyeing each other the whole way. Ishmael stopped ten meters away from the carriages, looking at one of the giant chickens that he had killed. They were scarier close up, its beak big enough to crush a man's skull, its talons were easily over 10 centimeters long and its spurs were double that length.

"Mighty fine kill, Stranger"

"Tha-"

Ishmael cut off his own reply as turned to his left in alarm, how did someone manage to get next to him without him noticing. He looked at the speaker and his jaw dropped slightly.

He wasn't speaking to a human; he was speaking to an animal. It stood at roughly 1.2 meters and had Lucious red fur covering its body, its head which was also covered in red fur had a dash of white fur near the face, complementing its beady black eyes, a small white furred snout protruded from the lower half of the head with a black nosepad on the tip. Ishmael didn't know how to react, but he did know something from the bottom of his heart. Whatever this creature was, it was absolutely adorable. He remembered seeing a similar looking animal back home in a national geographic magazine, they called it a red panda.

"Everything okay, stranger?" The creature asked, with a concerned expression.

So adorable

"What…. are you?" Ishmael asked, a million questions racing in his mind.

"Did you mean to ask me for my name? I am Crassus Langenhom, merchant extraordinaire. humbly at your service"

The creature named Crassus took off his hat which reminded Ishmael of a paper boat but made of cloth and gave a small bow.

It took Ishmael every fiber of his being to repress the urge of wanting to pick up the creature and hug it to death.

Ishmael took a deep breath and regained his composure.

"No, what I meant was, what are you? You aren't human." Ishmael asked frankly.

"Ahh, me and my companions here are Ailurs." Crassus said as if it was common knowledge.

Ishmael was silent, he got an answer but he ended up even more confused.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Sensing his confusion Crassus took the initiative.

"You seem confused, what do you say if we clean up here and head towards a nearby town, I can answer whatever question you have on the way" He offered.

Ishmael could only nod, as he watched the other Ailurs strip the giant chickens of their meat and claws with frightening efficiency.

Twenty minutes later Ishmael sat on the lead carriage next to Crassus who was driving. He told Crassus about what had happened to him in the past ten hours.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong but basically, you got into a fight, you managed to win it only to get killed by a flying beast called a hellish-scooper?"

The Ailur summarized, not taking off his eyes from the dirt road.

"Helicopter" Ishmael corrected him.

"Right helicopter, and after that you woke up and ended up here?"

"Yes"

Ishmael answered bluntly, even he had to admit that the tale was very hard to believe.

"Look, I can pro-"

"I believe you"

Ishmael's eyes widened; he didn't expect Crassus to believe him easily.

"You believe me? Just like that?"

"Yeah, I mean it's pretty obvious that you aren't from here. My skills told me that your equipment is of [Relic] grade. That alone is proof enough"

Ishmael blinked.

"Relic? Skill?"

"As a merchant I have a skill called [Merchant's eye], it allows me to apprise the quality, condition and the trait of most objects"

Ishmael was still trying to process what Crassus said, he couldn't wrap his head around the ailur's use of the term skill. Was it similar to how he was skilled with a gun? But why did Crassus explain it as if skill itself was an object?

"What do you mean by skill?"

"A [Skill] is a special that an individual can perform, usually it is tied to their class"

Crassus held out his hand if front of him.

"[Ethereal Projection: Abacus]"

A sudden burst of purple flames ignited just a few centimeters above the palm of his hand. The flames formed an abacus, its flaming beads moving back and forth as if it was doing a calculation.

Magic. Ishmael couldn't believe that he was seeing real magic in front of his eyes, not some sleight of hand or a trick of smoke and mirrors that he often would see magicians do on the streets or at birthdays. He was seeing real magic. But did he feel a bit disappointed by the fact that his first magical experience is a floating abacus made of fire.

Crassus chuckled at Ishmaels expression.

"I know, I know. An abacus, pretty lame right? But trust me, if you were a merchant like me, you would see its merit"

With a snap of his finger the [Ethereal Projection: Abacus] fizzled out of existence.

"Can anyone learn to do that?"

Ishmael asked with a bit more excitement than he intended.

"Yes [Ethereal Projection] is a universal skill that anyone can master"

"Can you tea-"

"No"

Ishmael excitement deflated in an instant.

Crassus laughed, finding amusement from Ishmaels sudden change of mood.

"I can teach you, but it would get me in hot water with the guilds if they found out"

"The guilds?"

"It's a common term for trade-based associations, most trades have their own guild. The merchant's guild which I am a member of, the adventurer's guild, the blacksmith's guild, yada yada"

Crassus explained as he pulled out a necklace from under his shirt and handed it over to Ishmael. The necklace was very modest. its chain made out of a kind of metal, probably steel or iron. It had a circular pendant hanging from it. The pendant itself was made out of bronze with some foreign text engraved on it.

"The first line says Crassus langenhom, the second line is Merchant's guild followed by Minton which is the branch of the merchant's guild that I signed up with and the last line is the number three, which is my level."

Ishmael tried to follow the ailur's explanation.

"And here is my mage's guild ident tag"

Crassus said as he handed over a similar necklace but this time it had a square shaped pendant with rounded edges. The material of the pendant was also different, it was made of iron. Ishmael tried to read the foreign text on the pendant. He recognized the first line as Crassus' name but everything else was gibberish to him.

"The layout of all guild ident tags is the same, that one says; Crassus Langenhom, Mage's Guild, City of Kalta, level one."

"How many levels are there?"

"It varies from guild to guild, but on average there are 8 levels, but on usually most people only reach level 3 or 4 in their life time"

Ishmael closed his eyes, his head hurt trying to soak up all of this information.

"You should consider joining a guild or two"

"I can?"

"Yes, anyone can join a guild as long as they can pay the administration fee"

"And how much is the fee?"

Ishmael braced himself, expecting the worst.

"It's nothing you have to worry out, you paid the fee when you helped us"

Crassus gave Ishmael a thankful look.

Ishmael look up at the sky, having had such a bad day, he was glad at least something nice was happening to him.