Chapter 3: New Skills

Reyna pushed open the door and led the way into, the now bustling Inn. Looking around I noticed that several people were already seated at some of the tables. Morgan was rushing behind the bar where Gloria was busily pouring drinks. Elena was busy walking around with a tray, cold drinks balanced precariously on top.

She appeared to be serving the thirsty customers and taking orders from several others. A hand sneakily came out and tried to pinch Elena on the rump. Without breaking her concentration, she whipped the tray around and slammed it into the patron’s face. ‘None of that now’ she said. The people at the table all laughed as Elena, after finishing taking their orders, sashayed towards the bar. I glanced at Reyna, she was smiling proudly. I shook my head ruefully and led the way towards the Bar.

Sitting down at the bar I placed my wooden sword against my bar stool, Reyna sat down beside me. I glanced at Elena who was busy loading up more drinks onto her tray as we sat down at the bar. Morgan looked over at us and wordlessly poured a couple of drinks for us, ‘Here you go. I’ll get Elena to show you to your rooms when things quieten down’ Morgan said hurriedly. He began talking to Gloria about meal preparations as Elena walked over to another table, diligently serving her customers. I smiled as I picked up the wooden tankard that Morgan had placed down in front of me. I took a small sip from the tankard and looked down at the mug in surprise. Morgan had served us an apple cider instead of the ale from before, he must’ve overheard our conversation earlier. I took another swig and was surprised when I realised it wasn’t alcoholic. I glanced at Reyna to see if she was as surprised as I felt. She noticed that I was looking at her, ‘What?’ She asked me curiously.

‘The cider. It’s non-alcoholic’ I said pointing at her tankard.

She raised her tankard, ‘Really? Huh, I didn’t notice.’ She replied.

I shook my head and turned to see that several of the Inn’s guests had noticed us and where watching us curiously. After a few seconds, some of them noticed I was watching them and turned back to their respective conversations, still sneaking peaks at us ever so often. I shifted back to face the bar and noticed that Reyna was watching me quizzically. ‘I guess we’re a couple of celebrities now’ I said shrugging. ‘Still… You would think they’d stop staring after a while. I feel like I’m in a zoo’ Reyna nodded in agreement beside me.

‘We don’t get a lot of outsiders that visit us here at the Inn,’ Morgan said hearing the end of our conversation.

He was busily drying a mug with a dish towel, ‘and those who do aren’t normally dressed like the two of you. Also, probably doesn’t help that you saved my daughter’s life. Word of your deeds would have gone through the town like wildfire,’ Morgan shrugged, ‘Its probably why things are so busy tonight. People wanting to see the Heroes who saved Elena,’ shaking his head slightly, Morgan picked up another tankard to dry. I looked down at myself at the clothes I was wearing, I guess you could say they were strange. I glanced over to Reyna, she appeared to look more normal than I did. She seemed to look like a hunter or a woodsman. Where I looked like a run of the mill warrior possibly even a mercenary. I shrugged to myself and took another drink from my tankard. The small amount of calm that had appeared around the bar disappeared as Gloria came through the curtained off section leading to the kitchen, carrying several steaming bowls of stew. Morgan placed the mug that he had been drying and moved to help. After a few moments, Elena came by with her tray filled with empty tankards. She gave us a brief ‘Hello’ before moving to load up her tray again. Sighing I took another swig from my almost empty tankard. I glanced over to Reyna, ‘So, do you know how to use those things?’ I asked glancing at Reyna’s daggers.

She placed her hand on the hilt of one of them then looked back up to me. ‘Not really. I guess if someone gets too close I’ll just wing it’ She said.

I facepalmed, sighing I looked back at her. ‘Have you ever heard of the duel-knife-defence? I asked.

She thought about it for a moment, ‘No, I don’t think I’ve heard about the duel-knife-thingy? She replied shaking her head slightly.

Sighing again I said. ‘It’s defence. It’s when you take two knives or daggers in your case and cross them over like this,’ I demonstrated by crossing my hands, so they would form an X shape, ‘You try?’ I said pointing to Reyna. She crossed her hands in front of me. ‘Ok now picture your hands are your daggers ok?’ Reyna nodded. ‘Now if my hand was a sword and it came down like this,’ I made a chopping motion with my hand bringing it down on the X shape of Reyna’s hands, ‘you can block it. That is, in a sense, what the duel-knife-defence is. Defending yourself with your daggers and then attacking an opponent while they’re off balance.’

I began to slowly explain the diverse ways she could use this technique. ‘Now if someone tries to thrust at you,’ I indicated with having my palm flat and moving my finger towards it. ‘You can simply deflect the sword or in some cases allow the blade to slide along your dagger bringing them close’ I said moving my finger along the palm of my hand to demonstrate.

Reyna was watching me enthusiastically as I explained all this to her. ‘But how do you know all this? Didn’t you say the first time you ever picked up a sword was yesterday?’ She asked curiously.

I began to scratch the back of my head for a moment, hesitating slightly on how to best answer her question. ‘Well I played a lot of video games and read a lot of books growing up, and I guess I kinda picked it up from that.’ I said nervously. I pointed at Reyna’s mottled cloak. ‘I’ve also read about cloaks like that one’ I added.

Reyna glanced down and began to fidget with her cloak, ‘Really? What have you read?’ She asked cautiously.

‘Ah, mainly that they’re used for camouflage. The mottling of the cloak allows the wearer to hide in forests and shrubbery.’ I paused for a moment thinking. ‘When we were walking through the forest I would sometimes lose track of you, although you were right next to me. Because of your cloaks ability to blend in with the environment.’ I explained. ‘Kinda like what the military use back in our world’ I added.

Reyna looked back down at her cloak and began to swirl it around, looking at in a new light. I shook my head and turned back to the bar to finish the last of my cider. Placing the empty mug down on the counter, I glanced up as Elena was making her wake back to the bar.

‘Is it normally this busy?’ I asked her.

Elena briskly shook her head. ‘No, it’s quite unusual.’ She said. After glancing around for a moment, she turned back to us. ‘So, are you two ready for me to take you to your rooms?’

I glanced at Reyna who nodded once, ‘I was afraid you were never going to ask.’ I joked ‘Yeah I think we’re about ready. Are you sure that you’re not gonna be needed here at all?’ I added, glancing around the room.

Elena waved my comment aside, ‘They’ll be fine for a few minutes without me, besides Mum asked me to show you to your rooms.’

Elena said gesturing for us to follow her. I shrugged and picked up the wooden practice sword I had placed beside me. I turned back and followed Elena as she led me and Reyna up a flight of stairs leading towards the second floor. When we had reached the top of the stairs there was a hallway leading to the left and right. Elena turned right and began walking down the hallway.

After passing two doors on our right Elena stopped in front of the third door. ‘This is your room Lucas,’ she said indicating the door to the right, ‘and this is your room, Elena.’ She gestured to a door on the left, ‘You’ll find a bag filled with the items that we bought for you next to the chest inside. There’s a change of clothes in the chest as well. I’ll come get you when the evening meal is being served.’ With that said she gave a quick twirl and darted back to the stairs. I glanced at Reyna, she shrugged and put a hand on her room’s door handle. With a quick twist, she had opened it up, darted inside and closed the door behind her, before I could say anything. With a large sigh, I opened the door to my room.

Closing the door behind me I glanced around the room that I was given, it had very simple furnishings. There was a single bed in one corner with a wooden chest at the foot of it. A backpack was leaning against the side of the chest. There was a washbasin next to the bed with a jug filled with rose water. Glancing around I could see there was also a small table with a chair in the opposite corner of the room. The furnishings may have been simple, but I could tell that this was an amazing room. I placed my wooden sword against the chest and then sat down onto the bed with a contented sigh. I leaned back and lay down on what felt like a feather mattress. After a few moments I sat back up, I had to figure out what was going on. It all felt too real, but it wasn’t a videogame. But I had abilities like a videogame character. I put my face in my hands. I had to calm down and think things through. Ok, what do most characters in RPG’s have? I asked myself. They have status screens, they have inventories and skills. Ok, what do I have? I can call up a status screen by saying Status out loud. I gained a skill by doing something repeatedly, like when I was fishing. I must be able to bring up an inventory screen or something. Hmm, I wonder if I can see what skills I’ve unlocked. ‘Well I guess there’s really only one way to find out’ I said nervously. I squared my shoulders, then took a deep breath to calm myself.

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‘Inventory’ I intoned. I was half expecting it not to work. But instead, an orange window appeared.

It looked strange, it wasn’t like the previous windows which I had opened. Firstly, the screen was split up into two parts, the screen on the left appeared to have an outline of a person. On and around the outline where boxes which appeared to indicate items that could be worn. The boxes indicating my chest, legs, hands and feet were filled.

Above my head appeared to be a box with a symbol for a helmet. There were boxes on each arm which seemed to indicate I could wear some form of armour there. Besides my legs there were two larger boxes, both were beneath each hand.

The box on the left, indicating my right hand, showed the sword that I had received from Flint. The empty box on the right, indicating my left hand, had an image of a sword and shield within it. Looking to the right side of the screen there was a grid of small boxes, all of which appeared to be empty. I looked around myself for something that I could use. Spotting the wooden sword, I moved forward and picked it back up from where it was leaning against the chest. I looked back at the grid gripping the wooden sword loosely in my hand. I put my finger on one of the empty boxes in the grid, it strangely felt like glass. I looked down at the wooden sword in my hand, shrugging I moved the sword up and tried to put it into one of the boxes. As I moved the sword towards the grid, the air around it began to shimmer with an eerie light. The sword was going into the screen!

I couldn’t believe it even though I was slowly pushing it into the screen. After a few more moments the sword disappeared. One of the empty boxes on the right had been filled, in its place was a picture of the wooden sword.

I tentatively reached a hand towards the screen, expecting that my hand would simply stop. Instead, my hand continued forward into the screen, the same light appeared but this time there were ripples connected to it. As I moved my hand forward I began to feel something. It took me a moment to realise that it was the hilt of the wooden sword. Shakily I gripped the invisible hilt and began to pull the sword back out of the screen. The area around where I was pulling the sword from rippled like water. After a moment the ripples disappeared, and I was once more holding onto the wooden sword. So, like a video game I can store items in my inventory and remove them whenever I need to, I surmised. I placed the wooden sword back into my inventory. I stared at the icon of the sword then swiped the screen closed. Sitting back down on my bed I began thinking of what else I could place in my inventory screen.

I patted my pockets realising I hadn’t yet checked what items I had gotten after saving Elena’s life. Sitting back up I began to empty my pockets of all the items that I had hidden away. I slowly began to place each item on my bed. I placed 3 small bottles of red liquid which I assumed where health potions down first. Beside them I placed down 2 small bottles of bluish liquid which I assumed must also be some type of potion.

I collected the purplish red gemstones and placed all 4 of them down next, I remembered from before that they were called soul stones. Beside them I placed down the tattered bit of cloth which I had found before and a small piece of string. I also removed my flint and steel and placed it down next to the string. I began to pat my pockets once more believing that I had gotten everything. As I patted them I could hear the tinkling of coins, I thrust my hands into my pockets and removed all the coins that I had. Counting I had 4 gold pieces and 3 silver pieces. I turned to my left and intoned, ‘Inventory.’ As expected the screen appeared. I hesitated briefly then thrust my hand into the screen to deposit the coins. As I pulled my hand back, numbers appeared next to the pictures of each coin. They seemed to indicate how many of each I held. I nodded satisfied and turned back to my bed. The inventory screen stayed open to my left. I began to slowly go through my items and place them all into the open inventory screen. Each time I removed my hand from the screen, an image for that item appeared in its place. I hesitated when I came to the blue potions. Picking one of them up I said, ‘Observe,’ and an orange screen appeared above it. It read:

Minor Potion of Mana restoration

Grade: Rare

Heals: 25 Mp

Value: 6 Silver

This potion can be drunk to restore a person’s Mana

This mysterious potion restores a Mage’s depleted Mana reserves

I swiped the screen closed. So, it was a Mana potion after all, I surmised. Thought as much. Shrugging I placed the Mana potion into my inventory along with the health potions beside it. After I had placed everything into the orange screen, I looked over all the items that I had.

I noticed something different with the inventory screen. There was a column at the top right of the screen. In the column appeared to be pictures of 3 different coins and numbers beside each of them. It took me a few seconds to realise that the pictures represented the coins I had placed into my inventory. After checking that everything was in order I swiped the screen closed.

Stretching I slowly made my way to the chest at the foot of the bed, unbuckling my sword and placing it next to the chest as I did so. Opening it I found a notebook and pen sitting on top of a grey shirt, underneath there was a pair of black pants. I also noticed that there was a dark grey cloak underneath everything. I decided for the moment to leave it in the chest. I quickly changed out of the clothes that I was wearing and put on the new clothes. Gloria had an amazing eye for size, the clothes fit me perfectly. I folded the clothes that I had been wearing and placed it on top of the chest. I hesitated for a moment with my leather jerkin, then placed it beside the folded clothes. I sat back down on the bed and glanced at the notebook in my hands. It was a simple leather design bound in a green fabric. I glanced at the pen that was on top of it. I was surprised that in this world that they even had pens. Unstoppering it I discovered it was a fountain pen. ‘Huh, awesome.’ I said slightly surprised. Opening up the notepad, I began to write down everything that had happened since coming to this place. I never knew when such information would become valuable, besides, I wanted to remember everything that had happened. After I had finished recounting everything, I began to note down the abilities and skills I had found out.

Closing the notebook I began to think what else my ability could do, Well I can create an inventory for storing items. Now it’s time to see if I can have a look at my Skills, I hoped. Taking a deep breath, I said outload, ‘Skills,’ yet nothing happened. I clasped my hands together and began to think of words that I could use. A phrase entered my mind unbidden. I hesitated for a moment, it seemed too simple. I shrugged, I had nothing better to do. Taking another deep breath, I spoke outload once again and said, ‘Skill… List’ this time an orange screen appeared in front of me. It also appeared different to the other screens that I had summoned. The screen was mostly blank except for 6 small boxes, 2 of which were greyed out. The boxes where arranged 4 across and 1 down, the rest of the area was blank.

Each box held an image of something, I glanced at the first one. It appeared to be someone meditating. I gently placed my finger on the image. It opened another window in front of it. This window held a more detailed picture of the person meditating, it seemed to look like me in some regard. The figure was in the top left, next to it read:

The Gamer’s Mind (Passive)

(Level: Max)

There was also a brief description which read:

The user can calmly and logically think things through. Allows a peaceful state of mind even during horrific events, Immune to psychological status effects

I reread the description again, ‘“Allows a peaceful state of mind even during horrific events”’ I read aloud. This must be why I’ve been so calm about my situation in this strange world. I’d been scared sure, but after a few moments I calmed down and assessed the situation. Interesting, I thought swiping the window closed. I moved to the next box in the list, it appeared to be a flexed bicep. Curious I clicked on it opening up the skill window. At the top left was a larger picture of the bicep. I glanced at the skill and began to read the description:

The Gamer’s Body (Passive) (Level: Max)

Description:

Grants the user a body with which allows them to live within the world like a game character

‘Huh, a body like a game character. Interesting’ I wondered out loud. I pondered for a few moments thinking about what it meant.

Shaking my head to clear I began going through the rest of the skills I had. Including The Gamer’s Mind and Body, I also had Observe at level 1 and Fishing also at level 1. There were also two skills which were greyed and had question marks in the boxes. I scratched my head wondering what they were.