Brian yawned as he woke up on the surprisingly comfortable bed, looking over at the sliver of morning sunlight that was peaking in from between the curtains. Nodding his head, he got out of the bed, stretching his new body as he inspected it for any injuries or wounds. The bruise on his arm was already starting to fade, the edges of the deep purple mark already turning brown.
“Might want to see if there’s something like an apothecary or Healer in the town, get this taken care of sooner rather than later,” he muttered as he poked at the bruise, hissing slightly at the pain, “Yeah, definitely sooner.”
Quickly getting dressed, Brian headed downstairs and into the inn’s common room, looking around at the unfamiliar faces as some of them glanced up at him. The Silver Bell hadn’t been hard to find and was a quaint and comfortable little inn. Brian appreciated the advice Alessia had given him the day before as he made his way to the bar to order breakfast.
“Good morning, Sir Mage,” the man behind the counter said, a slightly fearful look in his eyes as he stared at Brian, “What can I get you this morning?”
“Something for breakfast,” Brian nodded, slightly annoyed by the man’s expression, “And there is no need to be afraid of me. I won’t hurt anyone I don’t think deserves it, and even then, I won’t kill unless absolutely necessary.”
“That is…good to know,” the man nodded frantically, “I’ll get you some food right away, would you like a watered ale with it?”
“Please,” Brian nodded as he looked around for a table, spotting a small one in the corner with a couple of empty chairs.
He headed over to it, dodging between the other tables and sitting down with a sigh, before opening his Status Screen and looking over the results.
Name: Brian Andrews
Level: 2
Class: Dark Mage
Job: Scribe
Skill Points: 10
Titles: [Holder of Forbidden Knowledge]
He blinked as he read over his level again, wondering when that had happened. He opened the screen for it, looking at the values again.
Level: 2
Experience Points: 12/200
“Did I get a bunch of Experience from that fight yesterday?” he muttered to himself, “Must have. Good to know that I don’t actually have to kill to get Experience then. Actually, I wonder if I can get experience from both my Job and my Class, or if they level up separately?”
“Your meal, Sir Mage,” the man from behind the bar said as he placed the plate and mug down in front of Brian, who looked up and smiled as friendlily as he could, nodding in thanks, “I-is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Yes, actually,” Brian forced his smile to stay as the man flinched slightly, “Is there a library in town? I would like to do some reading.”
“Of course, Sir Mage,” the man nodded, “It is on the main square, just beside the Mayoral Manor. Is there anything else?”
“No, thank you,” Brian nodded, watching as the man sighed in relief, before hurrying away, “Dammit, now I’ve made everyone afraid of me.”
Shaking his head, Brian quickly set into eating his food. After all, he had a lot to learn about this world, and only a few days to do it in.
------
“How can I help you?” the bored sounding girl behind the counter of the library asked, not looking up from her book.
“I am interested in books on the history of the world, Classes, Jobs and Abilities,” Brian said, the young woman looking up at him in mild confusion, before her eyes went wide in surprise.
“Ah, I apologize, Sir Mage, I had not realized it was you!”
“Does everyone in this town already know about me?” Brian sighed, the librarian blushing slightly as she gave a small nod, “Dammit.”
“Well, I can go collect the books you want, or I can give you the shelf numbers for them,” the girl said quickly, almost stumbling over her words, “Which would you prefer?”
“I’d like to explore the library a bit, so just having the numbers would be fine, thank you,” Brian nodded, the girl nodding back as she pulled out a massive book and began paging through it, occasionally pausing to write down a series of symbols.
Brian watched in interest as she worked, blinking as he realised that he could easily read the strange symbols despite not recognising them.
“Must be because I’m a Scribe,” he muttered under his breath, the girl looking up in surprise as he did, “Sorry, talking to myself. Continue.”
“Thank you, Sir Mage,” she nodded, quickly writing down several more lines of symbols before handing the piece of paper to him, “These are the shelves that cover the topics you asked about. We have beginner and intermediate level books on the subjects, nothing more advanced, I’m afraid.”
“That’s actually perfect,” Brian smiled at her, “I was hoping to brush up on my basics as it is.”
“Have a pleasant day,” the girl nodded as he walked off, letting out a relieved sigh as he left.
Brian ignored the sound, instead heading straight to the first shelf, finding it easily enough and beginning to scan through the books. Again, he didn’t recognize any of the symbols on the spines, but he could quickly and easily read them as though they were his mother tongue. Putting it down to his max level Literacy Ability, he picked out a few books and walked over to a nearby table, sitting down and reaching into his satchel. He paused as he felt the bundles that were his provisions and the waterskin, but nothing else. Swearing quietly to himself, he headed back to the counter, startling the girl as he spoke to her again.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I apologize, but I seem to have…run out of paper and ink, would you happen to know where I can buy more? Possibly a new pen as well?”
“O-oh!” she gasped, “Y-yes, Sir Mage! We have a small stock of blank paper and ink, as well as quills and pens, right here. I can give you some!”
“I would prefer to buy them,” Brian smiled at her, “If that’s okay?”
“Of course!” the girl blushed, “I-I meant nothing by it! It’s a silver a page, and five copper for a simple writing set.”
Brian nodded as he checked his money, cringing slightly as he realised that he would be spending almost a third of it in one go.
“That’s fine, give me five pages and the writing set, please.”
“Right away!” the girl nodded, leaning down behind the counter, and pulling out the thick paper and a small box, handing both to Brian as he nodded in thanks and handed over the money, before heading back to his spot at the table.
Brian spent the next several hours trawling through history books and ledgers, as well as books on the different types of a Classes and Jobs, as well as their Abilities. He learned that each level of Ability was called a Tier, with the higher the Tier, the more powerful the Ability. He also found that most Class and Job Abilities seldom went above the fifth Tier, though there were some that could apparently have Abilities as high as tenth Tier, though those were usually only accessible to Heroes.
Speaking of Heroes, it seemed that it was a common enough practice to summon young people from other worlds to fight for them that it was something of common knowledge. That being said, the methods of actually doing so were a closely guarded secret, which Brian could understand. Other than that, he read up on the history of the world and lands he was currently in, finding out quite a bit, writing the most important points down on his note paper.
“Sir Mage?”
The quiet voice broke Brian out of his latest book, looking up at the girl from behind the counter as she fidgeted in front of him.
“I apologise, but the library is closing soon,” she explained, “I’m afraid I must ask you to leave.”
“Ah, of course, sorry,” Brian chuckled, “I got a little too into my research that I wasn’t paying attention to the time.”
“That is quite alright,” the girl nodded, glancing at his notes, a look of confusion on her face, “What language is that?”
“Huh?” Brian blinked, looking down at his notes, realising he’d been writing them in English this whole time, “Oh, it’s uhm…it’s a cypher. Being a powerful Mage such as myself, I have made a habit of writing all my notes in this language to avoid others from stealing my work.”
“I see,” the girl nodded enthusiastically, “I was just wondering, because I have my Literacy Ability at level six, and I still didn’t even recognize the symbols.”
“Ah, yes,” Brian smiled nervously, “So you’re also a Scribe?”
“Also?” the girl blinked, “Your Job is also Scribe?”
“Yes?” Brian leaned back slightly as the girl stared at him in awe, “Uhm…my Literacy level is ten, if you wanted to know.”
“TEN?!” the girl gasped, “No wonder you have so many different books around you! You must be able to understand almost any written language!”
“The Ability says I can read and write in any modern language, so I suppose?” Brian shrugged, the girl still staring at him with stars in her eyes, “Uhm…is something wrong?”
“N-no, not at all, Sir Mage,” the girl seemed to suddenly realise what she was doing, stepping back as her cheeks flushed red, “I was just…it’s rare to see another Scribe, especially one as accomplished as you.”
“Oh, well…thanks,” Brian blushed slightly as well at the compliment, “Well, I suppose I had better get going now. I’ll probably be back tomorrow, and maybe the day after. It depends on when the trading caravan comes by.”
“Of course, have a pleasant evening, Sir Mage,” the girl bowed as he left, her face still red as she stared after him in awe.
“You too,” Brian hummed as he left the building, shaking his head at the strange encounter.
------
“Okay,” he muttered to himself as he went over his notes in his room at the Silver Bell, “So the way Skill Points work is that you get a number equal to your current level each time you level up. That means that at level one you get one Skill Point, and at level two you get two.”
He nodded as he looked at his Status Screen, reading over his Skill Point total excitedly.
“Except I get ten times as many because of my Title,” he grinned, “Not that I apparently need them after breaking the system in that safe space we first appeared in. Guess I might as well save them up for a bit until I really need them.”
Brian smiled as he slipped his notes into his satchel, making sure that the paper was carefully placed inside to avoid damaging it.
“I should probably look at getting an actual book to write in or something,” he sighed, “Or at least something to protect my notes. But seeing how expensive just a few sheets of paper were…a book is totally out of the question right now.”
Brian counted through his remaining coins again, having just under ten silver in total, and it costing three copper a night at his inn for the room and breakfast, plus paying for dinner. That meant that he could only hope that the caravan wouldn’t charge him too much to join them. Of course, if he kept up the act of pretending to be a powerful Mage, he could probably join the caravan just by offering to act as a guard or something, though that may seem suspicious if he approached with that offer first.
“Wait…” he blinked as he finished undressing and washing before bed, shaking his head in disbelief of his own ignorance as he lay down in his bed, “I don’t even know the name of the city I want to go to. Guess I know what I’m looking up in the library first tomorrow.”
Brian yawned as he rolled onto his side, closing his eyes, and drifting into sleep.
------
“I’m fucking exhausted!”
“We all are, Miles,” Dylan sighed as they trudged towards their rooms, “This training is harsh as hell.”
“Well, if you think about it, it makes sense,” another boy, Greg, if Dylan was remembering correctly, chuckled weakly, “We’re a bunch of teens from another world. Just cause we got given a bunch of super powers doesn’t mean we’re actually good at fighting.”
“Speak for yourself,” one of the girls huffed, sticking out her small chest proudly, “I practiced martial arts in our world, and I have a Class and Job that work perfectly with them!”
“Not all of us are as lucky as you, washboard,” Miles snorted as the girl snarled at him, “What? I’m just saying it like it is. Personally, I would have preferred to have a Magic Class, just chill at the back while the frontliners protect my ass for me.”
“And make you the biggest target on the field,” Dylan chuckled, “Or did you forget what Sir Darrinwood told us about Mages? That they’re usually the first group targeted by the enemy due to how powerful they can be.”
“Damn, I guess you’re right,” Miles sighed, “But my Class still needs me to move around a bunch! It’s so tiring!”
“You’re just lazy,” the girl huffed again, “Anyway, this is my room, see you all bright and early tomorrow.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Miles groaned, following after Dylan as they headed to their own rooms, “So, dude, what’s it like having a Legendary type Class and Job?”
“Huh?” Dylan blinked, “Where’d that come from?”
“Just asking,” Miles grinned, “I mean, the King was pretty cool about it, but I heard some people talking the other day, saying you were like, a True Hero or some shit.”
“You went sneaking off to avoid training again, and ended up eavesdropping, didn’t you?” Dylan sighed.
“Hey, I’m a Rogue,” Miles chuckled, “Sneaking off and gathering info is training for me.”
“Says you,” Dylan chuckled along, the two finally reaching their rooms, which were thankfully beside each other, “Night.”
“Good night, my good bitch,” Miles laughed as he headed over to his own room, “See ya, Pickle man!”
“Don’t call me that,” Dylan sighed as he entered his room, quickly stripping off the clothes he’d worn to dinner and collapsing onto the soft bed.
His tired mind drifted to thoughts of his family, wondering if they were worried about him, or if the goddess Fiore had been telling the truth about their real bodies being possessed by fake souls to keep them safe. Did that mean that his parents and sister had no idea that he was actually in another world? That he was being trained to fight in a war he didn’t even know if he wanted to take part in? Shaking his head, Dylan rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, pushing those thoughts away as he let blissful sleep take his exhausted body and mind.