It took Sam a total of three hours before she finally managed to find the edge of the forest. When she finally got out into the sun, she was extremely relieved. Not that she didn’t like nature back on Earth, but not knowing what monster lurked behind the next tree was extremely frustrating.
In the distance she could see a small village. Unfortunately it proved to be more difficult to reach the village than she thought when she started. The reason for this, was her being attacked by wolves only a few minutes after leaving the forest.
Knowing that her little knife would do her no good against the large animals, she opted to run away instead of fighting the two wolves. Immediately she tossed her bedding towards the leading wolf. This turned out to be one of her better decisions, because the wolf tripped over the bedding. The second one didn’t fare any better, because it was too close to the first one. But only halfway to the village she found out that there were more wolves than she had thought. Apparently she had inadvertently interrupted the hunt of a whole pack of wolves. There were now seven of the beasts running after her.
Without really thinking about it, she decided to put her two statpoints into agility. Immediately she felt the difference, her speed increasing just enough to stay ahead of the wolves. Two points were not that much, but because of her low level it was almost a third of her previous total of seven points.
Log updated: General Skill Running learned.
Finally she made it to the gates in the wooden walls surrounding the village. Two guards were standing there, laughing at her.
“Hey there girl, you want me to protect you from those bad bad wolves?” one of them taunted her, but Sam didn’t have the breath to spare to respond. Now that she finally made it to safety, she felt that her stamina had run out. Apparently you could still move while your stamina points were depleted, but it was a lot harder to do. And afterwards you would feel like a truck had run over you.
While she was catching her breath, the two guards finished off the last of the wolves. The monsters of this world didn’t have good self-preservation, because they had followed her even after she got to the village. The two guards didn’t have any problem killing the silly creatures.
Then another guardsman arrived. This one had some gear on that looked a bit better than the other guardsman.
“What’s going on here?” he immediately asked the two other guards.
“This girl here was attacked by a wolfpack, sergeant. Looks like she barely made it to the gates, even though it was a low leveled pack.”
“What were their levels?”
“The alpha was level nine, the others only level seven.”
The sergeant then switched his attention towards Sam. “And you girl, care to explain what a commoner was doing in the forest on their own?”
This was a difficult question for her. She wasn’t sure how much she could tell these people. Would they believe her if she told them that she was transported from another world? And would they help her or would they try to take advantage of her? She could see that the sergeant became impatient while she was contemplating this. Eventually she decided to place some trust in them, they did save her from the wolves after all.
“I’m not exactly from around here. I woke up in the forest, with no idea how I got there.The only things that I had were my pajamas and my bed. Some of that I tossed at the wolves when I ran. The rest of my bed should still stand somewhere in that forest. If you think you need the evidence of my story, I could try to bring you to it?”
“No need for that, I’ve heard weirder stories. And we do have a way to verify them. Please follow me to my office, where I have a truth- and a status stone.”
The sergeant brought her to his office, where he sat down behind a desk. Sam was directed to one of the two chairs on the opposite side of the desk. The sergeant opened a drawer and took out a box. When he opened it, she could see that there were two gemstones the size of a fist inside it.
‘These must be those status stones he was talking about.’
Her thought proved to be correct. The sergeant picked the green stone first and told her to put her hand on it. When Sam did, she was surprised.
“Nothing happened!” she exclaimed, and right after she said that, the stone started to glow green.
“You’re correct, the stone doesn’t do anything on its own. This is a truth stone, a high grade gem that’s imbued with pure mana. When the person that’s touching it is telling something that he or she thinks is the truth, the gem will expel some mana. This makes the green color around it that you see.” When the sergeant was finished explaining how the truth stone worked, he asked Sam to retell her whole story. With a few pointed questions he managed to have her tell everything she told before, and even the things that she didn’t.
“Thank you for your honesty, but you’ve also just given me the difficult task of thinking about what I should do with you. Luckily we can get a clue with this status stone. This will show me your whole status, just like you can see yourself. You could also tell me everything, but because you are unfamiliar with this world, this will speed up the process.”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Then he walked around the desk and had her touch the stone the same way as the truth stone. Immediately Sam’s status floated in front of her. The sergeant looked over her shoulder to read it with her, and even explained the status where needed.
Name: Samantha ‘Sam’ Bello
Age: 24
Statpoints: 0
Class: Warrior level 2
Skill: Slash
Skill: Grab
Skill: Stab
Skill: Knife
Skill: [Assign]
General Skills:
Language - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 1
Running - lvl 1
Special Skills: [***]
Status:
Str: 7 Int: 5
Agi: 8 Wis: 7
Vit: 7 Cha: 3
End: 6 Luc: 5
Health: 70/70
Stamina: 60/60
Mana: 50/50
“Well look at that, those are the stats of a kid! If anything would prove your story then it’s this. A warrior with the stats of a kid, I’m not sure if that’s happened before. Well, maybe with the nobility.”
“This screen, it’s almost the same as my own, can you tell me why there’s a difference?”
“Hmm, let me see. I’m guessing you’re looking at your special skills? It’s been a while since I’ve seen that. Most people don’t have a special skill, and it won’t show up on your own screen unless you’ve unlocked it. I do know that some mages are able to get an advanced screen themselves, but most people need to use an advanced status stone.”
The sergeant immediately asked one of the scribes to find the advanced stone that had been gathering dust somewhere in the small library of the office. While they were waiting the sergeant explained some of the stats to her.
The first part she already knew from Earth. The abbreviations were pretty common in a lot of games back home. The second part was a bit more interesting.
“Your level can be reset at every evolution point. Those are 10, 25, 50, 100 and 250, and at every evolution you get one stat point per level extra. When you reset, you won’t lose your statpoints though. This means that someone at say level 50, can have even more statpoints than someone at level 75. But most don’t use this too much, because of the difficulty leveling when you grow stronger. In the last hundred years there have been only three individuals who reset their level after reaching level 250. The most famous was general Adam Lewis. He was ridiculed for his decision, but three years later he was promoted to the leading general of the army. He is also one of the strongest people known.”
The advanced status stone finally arrived, and Sam was prompted to touch it just like the other stones. This time the screen didn’t display her whole status. As the sergeant explained, the advanced status stone was exactly like the name implied. It only displayed the advanced part of the status.
Special Skills:
War Machine - lvl 1
Weapon Specialist - lvl 1
Natural Fighter - lvl 1
Titles:
World traveler
Achievements:
First kill
Run before you walk
“Now look at that, remember that I said that it’s been a while since I saw special skills? You don’t have one special skill, but you have three! And even a title, though your achievements are pretty lacking. I guess that that’s due to your special circumstances. Too bad that we can’t see what your special skills and title do. But I guess it will have to do with fighting.”
While the sergeant was gushing about her status, Sam was pretty distracted herself due to all the messages she got on her private status.
Status updated: Special Skills accessible.
You have found out about your special skills, from now on you will be able to use and inspect them.
Status updated: Titles added.
Your titles have been added to your status.
Status updated: Achievements added.
Your Achievements have been added to your status.
Immediately she opened her status and unfolded all the new additions. If the sergeant was right, then these might be the deciding factor in her life in this new world.
War Machine - lvl 1
It’s all in the name. Your name is war, thus you are war. Your whole being makes you thrive in war and combat. You can make every war related skill into a general skill without losing proficiency.
Weapon Specialist - lvl 1
You are one with your weapon. Bonus proficiency with all weapons
Natural Fighter - lvl 1
Fighting comes natural to you. Bonus experience towards combat skills and classes.
World traveler
You have traveled between your home world and Teglasia. This gives you a unique insight in the workings of both. 10% increase in unlocking new non-class related skills.
First kill
killed your first enemy
Run before you walk
You got an advanced class before you had a basic one
Sam wasn’t sure what to make of this. She was aware that her name meant different things in different languages. Most of the time she was made fun of due to the Italian translation, but one of her friends in high school did tell her that it could be translated to ‘war’ in Latin.
‘I guess he was right. These skills look to be tailored for a soldier or something.’
“... Which one do you prefer?” the sergeant suddenly asked. Apparently she had zoned out while checking her new skills.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I was checking if anything changed in my status.
“No problem, but I could’ve told you that nothing would change.” Sam didn’t think it would be wise to tell the sergeant that she could see all the advanced status options and more. Luckily the sergeant kept talking. “As I was saying, there are several options for fighters like you. First you could join the guards of a village or even a city. I for one would love for you to join the guards of Lucky Meadow to see how you would grow. The second option would be to join the army. For that you would need to travel south, to the city of Irragin. Which is the capital of this country. The last option would be to travel north, to join the legions of Veritas.”
“What’s the difference between the army and those legions?”
“The legions of Veritas are practically a country on their own. Just like the other countries of the world, it used to be a province of the empire of Teglasia. In fact they are the only ones to follow most of the traditions of the empire. If it weren’t for the necromancer of Vaolzod, they would probably still rule most of this continent. For the last two hundred years or so, they have been holding back the undead hordes that the necromancer keeps sending.”
“Undead, ugh, those sound disgusting. Why would I go there?”
“Mostly because the legions are the best for training a strong class, and they only accept low leveled people that have talent. If you sign up for their legion, you would serve for five years. They will house and train you until you can hold your own against the undead. At the end of your service you would probably be one of the stronger adventurers in any of the other countries. That is the same service time that both the army and the guard use.
The guard would mean that you would have a cozy assignment, but you would need to find your own place to stay. Also it would be up to you to make sure that you’re strong enough to face things like wolves, goblins and thieves.
The army would probably be the worst for you. Most countries only accept males, unless you are at least level 50. The armies also have an even higher casualty rate than the legion, due to the frequent wars.”
“I guess it will be Veritas. I lack both the knowledge and training that they provide, as well as another way to make money. And who am I to say no to a free meal?”