The man reflected in the mirror had deep moss green eyes and was around his mid-twenties and somewhat haggard looking and with unhealthily skinny, he was around 180 tall his brown hair unkempt. His cheeks were slightly hollow, the reflection moved its hand uncertainly up to its face moving the hand over the scraggly chin. Edra blinked a few times and sat back down on a creaky wooden bed, swinging his legs up on the bed and looked up into the ceiling. He had just departed from Ben and Hilde, only now realizing that he never got their last name. They had shown him a cheap inn called The Barman’s Bevy, when he had walked inside he had seen lots of animal skins on the floor and some trophies mounting the walls, mostly just boar and elk though. The atmosphere in the inn wasn’t too lively, and in the dark of night the inn utilized wax candles on the tables and lanterns on the walls, only over the counter was there some sort of yellow stone fragments giving off a warm light. Walking in had instantly turned the heads of the locals, Edra had felt their stares weighing his worth deciding how they should feel about him stepping onto their territory. There hadn’t been any trouble though and Edra had gotten himself a relatively cheap room, or at least he thought so, according to Ben and Hilde it was. The building itself was a wooden building all wooden on the inside with no paint; the outside at least had white painted in-between the timber-framework.

It had cost a bit extra to get a room with a private bathroom, but it was a luxury that he felt he could afford, at least for one night. It was obvious that the desert had done its toll on him, was the troubling thought passing through his mind as he studied the wooden ceiling. Ben and Hilde had been nice, and maybe he should’ve gone with them, but there was a strong feeling of adventure gnawing in his stomach, it was a very human feeling, at least where he came from, where man in the pursuit of exploration had gone into the great unknown, he too felt this primal urge, and because of that he couldn’t even consider the thought of working for Ben and Hilde, although he appreciated their friendship. They had given him the short sword he had used earlier, a couple of white and blue linen shirts as well as some pants and a pair of well-worn brown leather pants, which at Hilde’s persistence Ben had finally given to him, as she had put it “it’s been well past a full moon since you could fit those pants you stubborn ol’ goat!” Edra chuckled at the memory. He had also gotten a few living necessities, a comb made out of bone a toothbrush of sorts made out of wood, some sort of strange cream that worked as toothpaste, a big fat soap and a bright red knitted sweater for when the weather got colder. It had already gotten a little colder, there by himself, he felt as he pulled the sweater on and crawled under his blanket, closing his eyes.

The hubbub of a morning in the city woke up Edra, there was the sound of wagons being pulled over the cobble and people talking and yelling and birds chirping. He was tired, and it was as if all of the weariness had caught up with him after his first night of proper rest. It took him almost thirty minutes just to get out of the bed and he finally made it down to the inn-keeper, soon afterwards one of the workers filled up his bathtub with hot water.

There he was soaking himself and scrubbing his body with the soap washing off the dirt and feeling like he was being reborn. Afterwards he combed his hair and shaved off the stubble. He might still look a little sickly but he certainly looked a whole lot better than previously, it was also now that he noticed that he was still tanned from his walk in the desert, was it the vitality that had removed the blisters of the sun? He had many questions, and he intended to solve at least some of them during the day.     

Ben and Hilde had proposed that Edra went and got himself one of the core classes first, the core classes were learnable from instructors or from the class stones which could be found in major cities, as in not in Loktath. However Edra had no such intentions, at least not until he educated himself some more on the topic, so his first order of the day was to visit a library.

The bustling hubbub of a city met him as he opened the old door and stepped into the sunshine, only to walk back inside the inn.

“The library? Young man you don’t look like much of a scholar to me” The barkeep said offhandedly whilst cleaning the counter. He was a stout man with short hair, big eyebrows and small eyes, all in all he looked very conspicuous.

“Regardless of my looks, I am looking for the library” Edra said exasperatedly, he couldn’t help but jest internally, ‘just when was it a crime to ask for the location of a library!’ he threw his hands up in defeat, earning him an askew glance from the barkeep.

“Don’t get smart with me young man” the barkeep spoke as he stopped cleaning the desk and leaned in close to Edra “but I suppose I was somewhat to blame, what business of mine is it anyhow?”

After receiving instructions as to how he could find the library Edra left joyfully, only to realise he still hadn’t eaten any food, so much to his annoyance he returned one last time to the inn for breakfast before he finally left.

It was a strange feeling for Edra to walk through the streets of Loktath, every time he thought that he had accepted his new reality he felt that he was met with more mystery or change that made him review, on one hand he felt like he was walking through a town in an old European country, on the other hand he saw men and women carrying huge logs with ease, strange birds fluttered around making strange sounds, he quickly realised that everything was strange to him. He enjoyed it, back in his old life he had owned a small private tourist company, in a way he didn’t feel too different from going to a new location to scout, but on the other hand he felt truly alien whenever he saw something previously impossible now possible in front of his very eyes! He marveled at a street jester who used some sort of illusion magic to make himself appear in plural and reappear in all sorts of strange fashions, the entire show only got better when a chubby man pointed at him and accused him of stealing his pouch, unbeknownst to anyone the chubby man was apparently a magician and used his strange magic to form a small golem out of the cobble and soon the guards were involved in a fight that seemed as fantastical as unbelievable! Yet Edra noticed that he and the kids were the only ones with shining eyes, for everyone else it was commonplace.

The commotion was quickly calmed down with the presence of the guard and everyone could leave the scene shortly thereafter.  Although Edra had experienced much fear and desperation, he now felt much more at ease and saw a glimmer of purpose, which gave him an extra kick in his step as he went forward towards library.

The librarian gave him a once over as he stepped inside the building, the man haggard and raggedly looking, wearing a worn scabbard with a worn sword, aside from his clean shaven face he looked rather sickly “Excuse me sir but no steel in the library, you can leave it here in the reception” She looked very much uninterested in continuing a conversation with the recently arrived patron.

Edra silently handed over his sword, he noticed the dispirited look he was given but ventured on regardless “Could I bother you to tell me where the books about classes are located? As well as book about races and world history? Thank you” He said with his best smile plastered across his hollow face, making him look slightly unnerving. He could almost hear the librarian sigh inwardly, but she went ahead and showed him each section personally.

The public library was fairly big, it had two floors and a high ceiling. It was a dome like building made with big slabs of cut rock. The windows each a different mosaic representing the section they were located in. The book-shelves were made of birch tree giving it a starch contrast to the cool stone slab building style. There were a few reading tables and reading lambs which held similar pieces of the same style of crystal which Edra had seen in the inn. Originally he hadn’t thought too much about it, but now he realised that the ability he gained from his dragon title proved fruitful in reading too as he saw different languages written with different letters, and understood them, this also brought forth the fact that so far all of the writing on the buildings appeared to be the western alphabet of his own time.

When he went to look at the classes books he noticed that there weren’t too many. A quick glance revealed the books to be more detailed descriptions of the same thing, eventually he went with a smaller booklet with more general information.  He sat down at a reading table and got comfortable, looking around he saw a lot of people in robes and fancier clothing, he now understood now why the inn-keeper and the librarian had given him such looks.

The Small Guide to Understanding Your Class

Written by Lady MariMar of the house of Vestiga.

Third Era of the lord Astair the 4’th, Year 182.

Introductory information

To whomever is reading this, students and adults alike, this guide is meant not as a descriptive guide of classes but more of a case study into how classes are obtained and the general merits and demerits of the major classes, keep in mind that there is endless possibilities of classes based on your own choices in life, these possibilities are more often than not expressed at your first class branching.

Edra quickly browsed through some of the content that he wasn’t looking for until he reached the section he was hoping to find.

…From this we can gather that classes can be earned, not just granted through an instructor or a class stone. A class can appear by obtaining titles and performing certain deeds, however this is often not replicable, which leads to the current theory being that a person willfully trying to replicate another’s actions, often times won’t succeed. For example many of the earned classes are possible to be replicated, however some require creating your own spell, in which case it is not enough to simply learn a spell or variation thereof, some require developing a battle move and not just being taught it, this doesn’t mean that the spell or battle-move should be unique, but that the personage should come to these conclusion themselves, similar reasoning is applicable in regards to other professions be that alchemy or blacksmithing etc.

NOTE: Current research points in this directions, but there is still singular examples pointing in different directions.

The second alternative to the standard methods is attaining a class through a quest, the reward is not always specific upon the outset, and some of the interviewees have even been recorded saying that the class was not shown until after choosing it. This type of attaining a class is often time reliant on too many variables to replicate, at this point in time there is no known cases within the kingdom of Brutsch, and this author is not aware of any other cases of replicating a quest based class outside of Brutsch.

In both cases of either earning through steps, or finishing a quest the class will often times be better than your regular class, this can often times be amended later on when the classes branches and depending on the persons achievements, quickly turning a standard class unique, or a unique class standard. Both options can replace your main class as easily as you would through a stone or an instructor.

Quite interesting, although Edra realized that there were many difficulties in either of the two, and it was something he simply didn’t have time or patience for, so he quickly skipped through the book again.

…The class stones have been the most traditional way of attaining a class since the unity of the three worlds according to historical records. They all allow the learning of one of four main classes, warrior, healer, mage and thief, it is believed that the classes granted by the gods were provided as a way to survive in the harsh nature, although this is widely discussed, and the lack of reliable records makes any conclusion impossible; regardless the classes are versatile in nature when the branching begins.

…The instructors are a bit of a special existence, it is a class that is generally granted as an option in only a select number of classes; albeit there are records of outliers. The accepted and well known instructor classes are the four main classes, almost any class that relates to a profession of work, such as blacksmith or farmer. It also includes more specialized versions of the four main classes, although the specialized versions often have certain conditions put on them, for example squire, court mage, magical engineer etc. The instructors are always well taken care of within any of the known kingdoms; they are a vital part of the backbone of the empire.

Edra quickly went through the remainder of the booklet reading up on the four main classes, although he found that specialized classes seemed good, the recommendation at the end of the book was to choose one of the main four classes as they allowed the most amount of branching later on, the reasoning being that many people might end up disliking the class that they ended up with.

... At any one time a personage can only have one main class, and before ones first branching only one subclass. A subclass functions slightly differently than the main class, and there are two types of sub-classes. The first by achieving a high enough job-level within a main class, and upon replacing it can be moved into a subclass retaining some of its functions as well as allowing three skills from that class to be used, these skills can be changed at any time.

The second option as a subclass is attaining a subclass specific, this can be achieved through various means and there has been no conclusive studies done on this! Albeit one thing is certain, and that is that all classes have the possibility of starting a subclass related quest.

 It is important to keep in mind, that when choosing a subclass that you’d have to receive the most amount of benefit, for example a warrior class can utilize warrior related skills almost regardless of the class, unless restrictions applies, often times a warrior will chose their subclass based on skills they cannot learn otherwise, for example healer or mage, similar is true for other classes.

To whoever read this study,

Best of luck with your future choices, and may you be blessed by Oksop.

With a light movement of his hand he closed the booklet; he now knew which class to choose, it could only be the mage! Who wouldn’t want to wield magic, just like he had seen earlier between the jester and the chubby. Before long he had returned the book to its shelf and found a book on history, looking through it he found that there was too much specific information related to the greatness of Brutsch, and that he would have to find a more general book.

After a lot of searching he found a book that went through the creation myth, this made Edra frown somewhat, as it seemed that some of the citizens apparently considered the unification of the three worlds for a myth. However there was a paragraph detailing it.

… It has yet to be established whether there ever was a unification to speak of? Or if the people have misinterpreted the gods? Another belief is that the unification isn’t about the world but rather about the unification of some of the major gods attaining an alliance. Very little is known since the last great war which devastated the known continents and left little to be salvaged.

As far as the original believe that the unification between the world of gods, the world of magic and the non-magical world, well from this author’s point of view there is little to claim as evidence towards this believe except age old faith based systems.

Edra lifted an eyebrow, he couldn’t be sure, but it seemed that the creatures of the world weren’t a result of the system changing, but perhaps were residents of the other two worlds. He still lacked information as to what happened, and what was going on with the lack of technology. Before long he had gotten his hands on a book about non-magic inventions and sciences, most of it was about drainage, toilets, lightning rods, farming, it was in the chapter of experimental sciences that he found what he was looking for, at least to some extent.

… A long lasting theory is that by utilizing electric power it should be possible to power machines, however any attempt at this has proven futile; it is surmised that the mana in the electricity somehow interrupts the flow of electricity in these processes, however other attempts at powering more advanced machinery has also proven futile, leading many scientists to believe in Anon’s law of godly interference, that there is simply certain sciences that the gods deem forbidden, either because they could prove harmful, or that it is beyond man’s comprehension. It is also to be noted that Anon’s law is disputed widely in the scientific community, especially in the dwarven circles, where they have successfully operated steam machines via magic and non-magic contraptions.

Was that it? Was it the system that stopped scientific progress? Why? Or was it one of these so called gods?  Or was it the influence of mana that somehow kept things in check? As it was Edra was no man of science previously and he simply lacked the knowledge to begin making his own claims. He did remember that when he told Ben and Hilde about his life previously, he had only really noticed that when he mentioned the simulation it had been translated wrongly every time, even when he wrote it down it was different, but now that he thought about it they hadn’t actually questioned any of the strange contraptions of which he spoken, this was very abnormal, perhaps they hadn’t heard of anything strange except the passing of time, which in hindsight they had taken quite well, even if they didn’t fully believe him.

Edra could at this point draw some theories; one, that no one would be able to explain things from the past world to their counterparts? Or that when the unification had happened, possibly everyone forgot about the past? Was he the exception then? Edra felt a headache lurching, and stopped thinking too deeply about it, not only was there nothing to be gained by questioning these, he was also not in any position to actually investigate had he had more of an interest.

Evening came faster than he thought, and he had to leave the rest of his research for the next day. He passed through the streets silently. It was overcast once more and small drops of water fell from the rumbling sky hinting at more to come. Edra hastened his step as he didn’t wish to become soaked. In his haste he quickly got lost.

Seeing a group of three taking cover from the rain in an alleyway he quickly jogged over “Excuse me sirs, could you help me find the Barman’s Bevy inn?” he wiped his wet forehead with his sleeve, the rain had gotten significantly worse, it was good to be in cover for a bit.

“You crazy!” one of the men turned around, quick as lightning, and slammed Edra against the wall and pushed a dagger against his throat, his face grim and crooked, with dirty hair and a stinky breath, the other two walked over, looking somehow worse than the first guy “you think we’d let you go after seeing what we did eh?” The man pushed his dagger towards his throat, he was being slow, playing with his prey.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Edra realized that he had somehow stumbled upon something that he had no clue about, but his biggest concern was the dagger that was spilling his blood drop by drop, desperation and fear, he wanted this scum away from him, he wasn’t ready to die, he refused to die! He activated Invigorating roar out of reflex.

Additional abilities has been unlocked for skill: invigorating roar – now also pushes back any enemies within a meter of the user pushing foes back 5 meters. Skill also inflicts fear and confusion in relation to user and target’s level

The three men were pushed back and fell straight on the ground under the might of the reverberating roar. Edra fell to the ground gasping for his breath, he did notice that the men didn’t look scared or confused, it was definitely because there was too big a gap in levels, after all he had none. Luckily for Edra he could hear the guards whistling from a distance making the three men scramble to their legs.

But before they left one of them turned to Edra “We’ll get you boy!” and then he followed his friends into the rain.

Level G Quest initiated: Cat and Mouse

Having stumbled upon the machinations of some mysterious bandits you have found yourself in trouble. Get out of the trouble alive before the men kill you.

Reward: exp+item

The guards arrived moments after the bandits had run off. They questioned Edra, who then explained what had happened and how they looked like, when he was done explaining he was escorted back to his inn. While eating his food, he found that his appetite from earlier had largely disappeared, his face ghastly as he paid for his food in silence and went to his room, hanging up his wet clothes and wiping himself. The rain drummed against the window rhythmically while Edra was lying in his bed, wide awake grapping his short sword the same way he had done that night in the tent, he couldn’t help but wonder if the men would intrude upon his room.

Maybe it was because of a lack of proper sleep or because he had been so stressed lately, but eventually he fell asleep to the music of the rain. It was only by the knocking on the door that he eventually woke up, it was the guard from the day before, and apparently he too had been somewhat worried and came to check up on him.  A rinse and a breakfast later he was on his way, walking speedily as close to the middle of the street as possible, until he finally made it to the library.

The first book he grabbed was similar to the previous book about classes; it was a short introductory booklet.

The Small Guide to Understanding the Main Races.

Written by Lady MariMar of the house of Vestiga.

Third Era of the lord Astair the 4’th, Year 193.

Of introductory words there is little to be mentioned, the assumption is that you have found this book after having read more books in my small guide series, if not I suggest you do, this is perhaps my shortest book yet with only a few pages and illustrations, however I find that the intricate details of history and culture of the different races are often times superfluous, outdated or misunderstood, so this is an attempt to simply overview the different races.

Surprisingly it was by the same author as the previous book, he opened up the first section under the dim reading light.

Beast-man: Native language SiiThar

It is a race with close relations to man despite having numerous skirmishes over time there has always been a sort of friendly competition, if such a thing exists in war, rather than a blood-feud. The race is generally bold and brave, that isn’t to say that they are all of the warrior category class. In fact after travelling to one of their kingdoms, SharthSaith, and interviewing several officials working at their class stone or instructors it was found that there is a relatively even split between Thief like professions and Warrior professions, a big difference perhaps was that a majority of SiiThar never properly choose a working profession, never gaining any experience as far as merchant work or farming goes. This is not entirely true though, they excel in two auxiliary classes masonry and alchemy, they largely rely on trade with their neighboring kingdoms for much of their needs. The desert kingdom of SharthSaith is a hostile environment and there is many myths and legends contradicting the ones known in Brutsch, as is the case with many of the kingdoms, this is important in terms of SiiThar as they have a trial, a set quest, that will appear when they reach the coming of age. Sadly after numerous attempts at interviewing Siithar of all walks of life, shady and non-shady characters alike, I have yet to find any information on what exactly the trial is or what the purpose is.

This information is based on the kingdom of SharthSaith, not one any of their other known kingdoms, although they all have the same physical characteristic, often leading them to be within a physical class category.

Final physical characteristic: The SiiThar are the pinnacle of animals, intelligent as man, but born with strong and lithe bodies providing them with stronger vitality, strength and dexterity than men, every level they will alternately gain +3 in any of these, however the tradeoff is that they only have +3 freely adjustable points per level. They also all have an innate skill that activates their beast blood heightening their strength and senses for a limited time, after which they will tire.   

Each kingdom of SiiThar has a majority population often fitting with the environmental area they reside, for example in SiiThar there are a lot of cat-folk, crocodile-folk, leopard-folk and jackal-folk, in contrary to the northern SiiThar’s in the kingdom of Grindir who prefer to call themselves Bjarka, there there is a lot of wolf-folk, elk-folk and bear-folk.

Dwarven: Native language impossible to be transcribed into common letters of the alphabet.

The dwarven are restricted in their choice of living, for that reason alone there is only two known dwarven kingdoms, the BorDoYg mountain range kingdom of the west and the QhiTiYg mountain range of the north. They are physically strong and have a high dexterity and long lives, this is not augmented via stat boosts as it is with beast-men, but a small percent increase in their strength and dexterity, this percent plays a much larger role in later levels, their extended life is often around 220 years. The dwarven are highly skilled in auxiliary classes, and often find themselves with hybrid combat and auxiliary classes, for example [Gun & Anvil] class which is a hybrid class creating a strange synergy between guns and anvils. According to the interviewees, which were dwarven diplomats within Brutsch capital, the dwarven can better utilize these hybrid classes because of inborn talent and naturally long lifespans. They are often not involved in war externally, but have many internal skirmishes against themselves and that which dwells in the deep.

 Final physical characteristic: The dwarven are a stout small people race, the men are known to have big braided beards and hair, the difference between man and woman is often found only in a woman’s lack of beard. They are known to be sly merchants but have honest and brash personalities. They have an innate gift for arcane energies, not to be misunderstood with magic.

That was a new concept to Edra, arcane energy? Maybe if he had time he would look into it, for now it wasn’t something that caught his interest, he looked at the illustration which looked very much like how he imagined a classical dwarven to look like, surprisingly the illustration of the woman was almost the same except for the lack of beard, ‘lady MariMar was not kidding!’.

The Elven: Native Language LáYró

The elven kingdoms are located in the west, they have been relatively secluded since the last elven war against the human kingdom of Baril in the central part of the continent, and since then the elven withdrew their diplomats from almost all cities, and can now almost exclusively be found in the western reaches. In fact because of the lack of any interviewees this information will be based on outdate information, and because of the lack of accuracy the detail will be lowered. They are born with innate abilities similar to dwarven, they have high dexterity and affinity with magic as well as long lifespans around 300 years. Not much is known about their current choice of class, it used to be known that they had a similar split in combat and auxiliary classes as humans, and that they would focus on magic and thief related classes.

Final physical characteristic: They are tall and slim, their skin hue ranging from light skinned to dark skinned, to bluish to greenish essentially a whole lot of spectrums depending on whether they are high, dark, wooden or sun elven; they often times look alien in comparison to human, it is one of the only known races to have intermixed relations with humans, however because human and elven cannot reproduce this is often looked down upon as counterproductive and against the intentions of the gods.

The demon race: native language to vile to be written down.

Their kingdoms residing within the east and south. There is little known information about the demon race, it is rumoured that elven once upon a time made a deal with the devils and were warped into the demon race, lowering their lifespan to little more than man, but granting them a strong affinity with arcane energies and magic. Natural enemy of man, elven and dwarven.

Final physical characteristic: Vile in appearance with horns jutting from their heads, the eyes of a snake and skin either pale as snow or red like hot steel. Unnatural devil-worshippers, and sadly some men worship them too in the pursuit of power, there should only be one outcome for the demon race and that is a slow death.

Edra looked at the illustration that depicted a fearsome demon and shuddered when he entertained that that was truly their appearance, he somehow doubted it though considering the bias that was in the words chosen by MariMar, it was however clear that there was a deep enmity between humans demons.

The GoRc: Is just a mix of Goblin and Orc

Although clearly two different races, they insist that they are of the same race, each kingdom consisting of the two; they have smaller kingdoms through the north, east and south, their unity is admirable, but their allegiance with the demon race makes them the enemy of man, albeit not outright. They often keep to themselves, but at times end up in skirmishes with their neighbors. Although an ally of demon-kind they have certain treaties and peaceful dealings with the beast-men and some human kingdoms resulting in a fragile balance, however I and many human,s consider them enemies of man.

Final Physical characteristic: The goblin are dexterous, small and green with long noses and big ears, known to be intelligent and sly. The orcs are big and strong with small ears and wide noses, grey and green in appearance, known to be courageous brave and brash and misunderstood as dumb, yet their tactics during war has proven their strategic intelligence at the very least.

That was an introduction of the major known races who rule the known kingdoms, noteworthy mentions are hobbits who live in the western reaches within the elven kingdoms as well as in the midlands in the human kingdoms. There is also dryads a mysteries race, of which little is known, and which is largely considered a myth, had some interviewees not insisted they are not so, I would not question the myth myself. There is also many smaller races spread throughout the kingdoms, but with no kingdom of their own, some beast-men scholars argue that the majority of these are in fact nomadic beast-men.

Closing the book in contemplation, Edra simply sat for a while thinking about what he just read, he realised that the continent, or continents? were far bigger than he originally thought.

He quickly got up and hurried back towards the inn before the sun would set.  On the way he saw one of the men that had almost murdered him, he was bartering for some alcohol, he hadn’t seen Edra, yet. Edra saw a guard not too far away, but he had no evidence, he had no proof, worst thing that could happen would be to put himself on their radar again. It was whilst he was sneaking past, that he felt his blood rush, a feeling of anger overriding the feeling of fear, why should he cower? Just because he was weak? Weren’t there other solutions? The quest certainly suggested that. High on adrenaline Edra walked up to the man and wrapped his arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner.

“I’ll pay for that good man” He said nonchalantly throwing some coin on the counter, while the alcohol merchant went to the back to get the alcohol, he whispered to the bandit who obviously had no idea as to what was happening “I saw what you did and I want in, I have plenty of coin to smooth things over, meet me in front of the public library at midnight.

He threw cold water in his face repeatedly when he came back to the inn, what was he thinking! Why’d he provoke him, and that meeting, what could he possibly hope to accomplish? ‘calm down pal, calm down, you’ll think of something, alarm the guards, set up a sting operation and catch them in the act, easy… but what if they don’t have whatever it is they are willing to kill over? What if they don’t come? I need certainty before I cry wolf. Good god what have I involved myself in…’.

On the way to the library Edra bought a grey hooded cloak, it gave him comfort that he could hide himself somewhat. When he arrived at the library steps he saw one of the three men. He tried to walk up to him as calmly as he could, he could feel his knees shivering though, he was now even more thankful that he bought the cloak.

Edra simply stared at the man, who stared right back, eventually the man spoke “I didn’t notice when we grabbed you the other day, but ye’re a creepy one aren’t ye” Little did the man know that Edra was simply too scared to speak. The man realised he wasn’t getting a response so he continued “If ye want in then come with me” This was a different man than the one with the dagger, he looked as disheveled but he was bald and had several small scars on his throat; feeling goosebumps rising along his arms Edra followed the man down several alleyways until they finally made it to a small door, the man knocked three times and then two time, after which the door opened. Edra could see a glow from a light inside and followed the man in.

The other two men from the previous evening were sitting around an old table, on it there were three glass vials with some sort of blue dust inside. They looked up when Edra entered, and beckoned for him to sit.

“Listen now, sorry for the other day” The man who had threatened Edra spoke without a hint of guild in his voice “It’s business, you know how it is” he said spreading out his arms apologetically. The other two quickly agreed with him, it would appear that he was the ring-leader.

Edra knew he had to say something now, but he still didn’t know what they were talking about so he improvised something simple, something general whilst attempting to make his voice as cranky as possible “Business!” He said putting his arms out apologetically too, only to begin laughing, the three men seemed to like it and laughed too “It is also because of business that I’m here” he threw his remaining coin on the table in a small leather pouch, it made a significant clanking sound when it landed.

The man with the scars on his throat took a quick look “Where the rest at?” he asked crudely.

Edra swallowed hard racking his brain desperately “Unless I know the operation is solid I won’t invest more than a small amount” he said with as a convincing a voice as he could muster.

The three men began a private discussion for a while, eventually one of them spoke “Okay you’re in, you can see the operation take place in a few hours from now, be at the abandoned farm at the west entrance of Loktath” The man looked at a busted looking pocket-watch, it was only now that Edra noticed that he had seen several clocks already, but it wasn’t until it was in the hands of a degenerate that he really knew that clocks were a thing.

Quest Cat and Mouse updated

Now level F quest, risk increased rewards updated.

Five hours was all he had, it took him an hour just to find his way back; on the way he had time to think things through better. Either the men were testing him, or they were incredibly stupid, he leaned towards the latter. First he went back to the inn, he didn’t know if they were following him, but he didn’t want to risk anything, as soon as he got back he crawled out of his window and somehow made it to the ground safely, at which he bolted to the nearest guard post.

At the pre-determined time Edra showed up at the abandoned farm, it had apparently been burnt down as there were only sotted parts of the framework left. The sun was rising slowly giving some colour to the landscape.  A short while later the three men showed up, they explained that their contact would be there any time now. It didn’t take long for a hooded man to show up, he beckoned silently for the three men to come near him and for Edra to stand back, it appeared that they were having a silent conversation, this didn’t last long before Edra lifted a scroll up in front of him and yelled out “Friria” and he scroll burnt to a crisp releasing a large cone of flame enveloping the three. Feeling his mana being drained and his adrenaline disappearing. He fell up against a sotted wooden beam, glad that it was finally over, he slid down the beam to a sitting position, and just in time as the man with the dark robe came out of the flames cutting at his previous position with a long sword. Edra quickly rolled to the side and used invigorating roar to give himself some space whereas he desperately pulled his sword up to guard himself just in the nick of time as the stranger’s sword fell on him, he only had the strength to parry once before his sword was knocked flying! Luckily before the man could finish the job an arrow penetrated the hood, and soon more arrows fell, the hooded figure turned around, blood sputtering from all of the arrows, then he fell to the ground, dead.

Edra had cooperated with the guards, at first they were distrustful, but they got serious as soon as he told them about the vials with powder. Apparently it was a sort of drug made from a mixture of magic crystals and some special plants, it was highly dangerous and highly addictive, mages used it to amplify their magic for short spurts of time, nobility used it for pleasure, and the poor to ruin themselves.

F-level Quest Complete: Grade C

Successfully completed Cat and Mouse quest, you are no longer pursued.

Quest reward: +50exp +leather gloves of  reaction(increases reaction with +5)

+63exp for the Bandit’s Bane title track for killing three notorious bandits and drug sellers.

Because Edra Walker has no class, Experience points will be turned into experience towards Bandit’s Bane title track

It was a stat that he was unfamiliar with, but he still equipped the gloves, and instantly felt more alert. Most of all he was just relieved that it was over with. On the way back he looked at the hooded man whose face was now visible it was an older man with a grey beard, nondescript somehow, and very much dead.

While Edra was leaving the scene and the guards were gathering the corpses, there was a figure in a nearby tree watching what had happened, she watched in anger as her dealers were burnt to death, and even more in anger as her smuggler was turned into a pin-cushion. She looked at Edra closely before she dropped down from the tree onto her horse and rode away from Loktath.

After a number of hours of searching, Edra finally located the hideout of the three men and showed it to the guards, they found the evidence they needed and rewarded Edra, it wasn’t a big reward, as the magic scroll had been quite expensive already. Some of the guards suggested a public bathhouse to release some stress, and Edra went there with them, the public bathhouse also had alcohol and it didn’t take long for all of the merry-men to get drunk; it was in a sleepy drunken daze that he finally walked in through his door and fell on top of his bed.

“You barely have enough money to pay for an instructor to initiate the class quest, but you cannot afford the ingredients, I suggest that you wallow over to the warrior’s guild they take just about anyone” The door of the mages guild slammed behind Edra as he was almost thrown out from there, he hadn’t even considered the costs involved, spell books, tutors, wands and scrolls. He shook his head, nothing was meant to be easy for him, he grumbled on his way over to the warrior’s guild.

Main Class Quest initiated: Warrior

Edra Walker has accepted a class quest from instructor Lüdwig.

Complete the training given by the instructor.

Reward: Main Class Warrior