James wrung out his clothes, setting them on a mat to dry fully. He had left his village three days ago, and since then not much interesting happened. He did fight his first creature that wasn’t a slime, but as it turns out he was far overprepared for wolves. They barely gave anymore points anyways, three instead of one.

He popped open his skill screen to look at some other skills he could get, although always making sure he would have enough for the spell he wanted after. Not seeing anything in the price range that interested him enough yet, he took a look at his stat page, grabbing a journal so he could take notes on his growth.

[***** *****’s Stats

Health: 630

Mana: 2563

Strength: 345

Agility: 521

Endurance: 280

Mental Fortitude: 1276

Physical Fortitude: 179

Points: 1238]

[Skills: Scan 10, Basic Illusion 10, Illusion 10, Power 2, Speed 5, Enhance 7, Invisibility 10, Blindness 1, Mental Resistance 10, Pain Resistance 10, Basic Magic Ability 10, Magic Ability 9, Fighting 3, Brawling 7, Mana Restoration 3, Mana Capacity 8]

[Title: Apprentice Illusionist]

He didn’t really have anyone to compare his stats to, but he thought they were decent. Thanks to his old buddy scan, his head pain caused his mental fortitude to skyrocket, so that was easily his second highest stat. Endurance was a weird one, since physical fortitude already existed, but he realized at some point it was more about how long you could fight. As for his mana, he learned his pool was so high thanks to his constant magic use since childhood.

As for his skills, these were the real disapointments. Slimes are terrible for points and he could only kill so many a day. So his skills were lackluster, with only illusion magic and his enhance skill being his activatable skills. Power, speed, and mental resistance were generic stat raising skills he got from fighting. He assumed there was one for each stat, but he didn’t get hit as often as he hit things, so he never got the other ones. Fighting was an odd one, as it had nothing to do with his stats but with weaponry. With the two level ups he got, he could feel himself understanding more about the dagger he often used. Of course, he still prefered his fists, so brawling was very helpful, as were the skills with increases to his mana.

Sighing at the idea of his slow growth, James looked down at the lake he was washing his clothes in, very glad he owned more then one set of armor. He finished writing down his improvements in his journal and set it down. Now that he had nothing to kill, he unfortunately had a lot of time to think on things he’d rather forget. For example, why did his name not show up in his stats? He tried scanning for an answer, but all he got in response was a prompt asking for his name, and when he said James, it simply did nothing.

Looking at his reflection, he scowled, seeing all the features he pretended he didn’t hate. His jaw was too square, his brow too deep. He wondered now, what would he actually do with the spell? He knew he wanted to change how he looked, but he never thought too deeply about exacts. Well, how about now?

He used illusion as he looked at himself in the water, changing bits of his reflections appearance. First, he went for a more rounded face, which looked good but it didn’t fit his burly stature. So he made it have a smaller body, more lean and much shorter. That was very nice, but what about the hair? Long to be sure, he liked having long hair, but black hair could be a bit drab at times. So why not the opposite? He made the hair pure white and slightly longer then his, and a bit more well kept but still a bit messy. He smiled at the reflection, which he thought looked rather good now.

Still, he kept seeing things that could be improved. A more curved stomach as opposed to his blocky one, maybe some wider hips. Thicker legs to be sure, just because he would be smaller doesn’t mean every part of her had to be small. Speaking of which, she looked at her chest- wait, chest? Why would she need to make her chest bigger, it was already rather bulky. Suddenly an idea came to her and she blushed. Why the hell was she thinking about giving herself tits?! In fact, now that she thought about it, every idea she was having made her look more like a girl! The illusionist she first saw used magic to look like a woman, but why would she want that?

“Hang on a minute…how long have I been thinking of myself as she?”, she thought to herself. She tried thinking of herself with he and him, but it was too late. Her brain had already grasped on to the pronouns like a starving animal to a kill. Okay, so she was she now. What did that mean? She had absolutely no idea and it scared the hell out of her. Much like the hand on her shoulder would have scared her if she wasn’t so deep in thought-

“The fuck?!” She yelled and turned around, to see a broad shouldered man with flaming red hair behind her. He was wearing traditional knights armor, though not the kind the soldiers of the kingdom wore, more basic.

“Sorry for the scare my fine fellow, but I was just wondering if you were aware of the very real danger you are in?” The man said, and at first she thought he was threatening her. Then she looked at the forest around her, seeing the wolf pack stalking them.

“Oh, uh, no I didn’t. Sorry, normally i’m better at this but i’m kind of having a panic attack right now.”

“Well that’s not good, but you should probably save it for later. We must defeat these foes!” He said, and charged at the wolves. She was very confused by this man, but didn’t have time to question it as she followed him into battle. There were maybe twelve wolves in total, dangerous for a normal person and even still slightly risky for just her. She cast enhance and watched as the man sliced at one of the wolves, killing it instantly.

She turned her attention to the closest one, sliding under it as it pounced and slamming her fist into it’s stomach. It dissolved as it flew up, and she quickly got back on her feet, kicking another wolf sending it to it’s grave. At this point, most of the wolves began to back away, recognizing they had picked the wrong fight, but one particularly large one simply growled at them and lept forward. The man prepared to slice it in half, but it suddenly increased in speed, slamming into him sending him flying backwards.

She realized what was happening and quickly did a scan of the beast. Sure enough, it was using skills. She was sure only smarter monsters could use and buy skills like that, so why was some random wolf able to? It leaped at her, casting the same skill called Jump. She didn’t have time to read what it did, but she could make a pretty good guess and quickly sidestepped. It flew past her and she caught it’s tail as it did. She lifted with all her strength and slammed the beast into the ground over her shoulder. It took a heavy hit into it’s health, but managed to wriggle out. She heard a voice coming from near the wolf.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Skill Aquired, Enhance.”

Shit, this was bad. You couldn’t hide the voice of the system when you were buying skills, so she could hear as it got stronger. She needed to end this quick. Looking at the man, seeing him stand up, she got and idea and ran at the wolf. It charged, and she cast blindness on it. The creature began frantically looking around, and she slipped behind it grabbing it’s tail once more.

It was much harder to pick up thanks to it’s new enhanced strength, but with a heave she lifted it and threw it at the man, who although suprised still understood what was happening quickly enough to stab the creature mid air, skewering it as it dissolved. With it’s death, the rest of the wolves scattered, and she took a seat on the ground breathing heavily. The man did the same, looking toward her.

“That was quite an impressive show there, I suppose you weren’t in as much danger as I thought.” He said, holding out a hand. She took it.

“Thanks, you weren’t bad either. You gonna be okay after that hit?”

“My armor took the brunt of it. The names Ilfon Dawnbringer, you?”

“Uhhh, James?” She said confusedly. That name had never felt right, but now it really didn’t feel right.

“You don’t seem too sure of your own name. Is this related to what was happening before?”

“Don’t worry about it, i’m just dealing with a lot right now, on my way to Tristant.” She said, and Ilfon smiled.

“What a coincidence, that’s where i’m headed! Although this is the main road there, so maybe not a coincidence. But good nonetheless! I propose we travel together to get there, what do you say?”

She thought about this for a moment. She could use some company on the road. First, she took a minute to look at his stats.

[Ilfon Risdon’s Stats

Health: 1043

Mana: 709

Strength: 852

Agility: 158

Endurance: 607

Mental Fortitude: 12

Physical Fortitude: 567

Points: 97]

[Skills: Power 9, Stamina 7, Toughness 7, Fighting 8, Swordsmanship 5, Basic Pyromancy 10, Fireblade 10, Firebolt 10, Fireball 1, Basic Magic Ability 4]

Wow, this guys stats were good. He was clearly a much better physical fighter then her, although she was confused by his twelve mental fortitude, and his last name. Didn’t he call himself dawnbringer? Either way, he could definitely be helpful.

“Sure, that sounds good to me.” She said as she began packing up her things. She also grabed something that the big wolf dropped, some kind of bracelet or collar. It was about mid day, so they had plenty of time to get moving towards Tristant. As they began walking, Ilfon turned to her.

“So, why are you headed to Tristant? Going to become a fine solider of the kingdom?” He asked, and she snorted slightly.

“Nah, couldn’t picture myself a soldier. I’m just looking for a magic teacher there. I’ll guess from the way you just spoke that you’re going there to join the military?”

“But of course! I wish to make my family proud, the Dawnbringer name shall have glory brought to it once more!”

“Isn’t your last name Risdon though?” She asked, and he looked at her confused.

“Whatever do you mean? We Dawnbringers have an ancient history!”

“Uh, nevermind.” She said. It was probably better to stop asking about this, she didn’t want to make this guy mad. They continued walking for a while, staying akwardly silent, before nightfall came and they had to set up camp. Ilfon set up his tent opposite of hers, and he setup the fire almost instantly with his magic.

“You can go to bed first, i’ll take the first watch.” He said, staring deeply into the fire. Something about this guy weirded her out, but she thanked him and climbed into her tent. Time to adress a couple issues. First, the she issue. Why is that suddenly what she thinks of herself as? She couldn’t seriously want to…maybe this issue could wait for tommorow. For now, she pulled out the odd collar thing the wolf dropped. It was clearly magical in some way, having a faint glow about it, but she couldn’t discern how it could make that wolf so much tougher. While looking at it, she noticed a bell on it that for some reason wasn’t making noise. She flicked it, and as it rang out quietly her vision suddenly tunneled, and she saw an image of what looked like ruins of some kind of old building.

Just as quickly as it began, she snapped back to reality. Panicked, she threw the bracelet to the side. If just hearing that noise made her see visions, imagine what wearing it would have done. That poor wolf must have been going mad. Speaking of wolves, she heard a sudden sound of howling outside, and jumped out of her tent. But while she saw wolves, she saw something much more worrying. Ilfon was chasing down a pack, his sword alight, and to her terror much of the forest was as well. He cast a wave of heat at the wolves, and they all perished. Ilfon simply looked around, as though looking for more, and turned to her.

“Ah yes, hurry! We must find where the rest of them are hiding!” He said, quickly running over to her.

“What the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to set the entire forest ablaze?” She said, begining to gather her supplies. She couldn’t save this part of the forest, but she didn’t have to burn with it.

“What ever do you mean? I was simply defeating the monsters! We must find more as soon as we can!”

“They weren’t even attacking us, and the population here is kept to a minimum! Kingdom laws state that you can only run through killing monsters like this if they come back very fast, you of all people should know that!”

At this statement, Ilfons face changed. He grew concerned and angry at the same time.

“If the law says it then- no, screw the law! These monsters must be purged, that is the Dawnbringer way!” He said, trying to look heroic as he lifted his sword and lit it aflame once more. To her, he just looked like a psychopath showing off his murder weapon. She had always been extremely careful when killing slimes, as while their population regrew extremely fast and they couldn’t feel pain, it was still seen as heartless to entirely slay a field of monsters not threatening anyone. Wolves were much more complex creatures, so they were often protected much harder by the laws of the kingdom.

“Come now, are you not going to help me slay these foul beasts?” Ilfon said, pointing his sword toward three animals. It was two deer standing in front of their foal, all of them cowering.

“Get the hell away from me psycho!” She said, grabbing the last of her things and the braclet, before casting enhance and running.

“Where are you going?! Fine, cowards are beasts as well!” He said as she ran, and she felt heat rushing towards her. She had no time to look back, she just pressed forward as fast as she could while it caught up.

Speed 5 -> Speed 6

She thanked the gods as she heard the message, and she began barely outpacing whatever was behind her, and eventually she felt it fade away, although she didn’t stop running for what seemed like hours.

Speed 6 -> Speed 7

Eventually, she came across a wagon moving along the road, and she ran to the front waving at the driver.

“Holy hells boy, you nearly gave me a heart attack! What are you doing running along these roads so late?” The driver said, and she simply hopped into his wagon panting, barely able to speak to him.

“Need to, move faster! Madman, forest fire!” The drivers eyes widened, and he smacked the large cattle he had pulling the wagon. They began picking up speed as she caught her breath, and the driver looked back at her.

“So, you mind explaining what the hell you were going on about?”

“I met someone on the road, we were traveling together for half a day, some kind of knight who helped me fight some wolves. He said he would take first watch, but suddenly while I was in my tent he started going insane! He was attacking wild animals with fire magic, half this forest is probably burnt down by now!” She said, and the driver looked horrified.

“By the gods…alright, at this pace we should reach Tristant by sunrise. Once we get there we can inform the military, they should send some people out to put out whatever fires are left. As for you, I think you need to sleep, running for however long you did is dangerous.”

She nodded, moving around the crates of produce in the wagon and grabbing some hay to use as a pillow.

“How can I repay you for this?” She asked the man driving.

“I should be thanking you really, my farmland isn’t too far out from here. If that fire spreads far enough it could be an issue for me. Just get some rest.”

“Okay, thank you.”

She looked at the odd bracelet one last time before stuffing it in her pack. She had no time for mysteries right now, she needed to sleep. But she had learned a very important lesson that day, don’t trust everyone you meet. Especially those who’s intentions seem pure.