Karsten looked around the marketplace at the different food stalls. He sniffed at the air, salivating at all the scents of the different kinds of food that were entirely new to him. He picked out a small stall with a particularly alluring scent whiffing off it to be his first stop. The sign read ‘Piko’s Pedders’, and the person working at the stall was a young, short human girl with curly auburn hair.
He walked over and smiled happily at the young stall worker. The girl reciprocated the smile, though she paused for a split second when she noticed the golden star. She gathered herself in a flash, however, and, like any salesperson worth their salt, smiled even more merrily at the stranger to cover up her initial reaction.
“Hello, Mr. Patron!” She said with a vigor only a child could have. “Would you like a pedder stick? Or mayhaps a braided pedder bun? They’re all freshly made - just came out o' the oven!”
Karsten hummed and looked over the goods. He leaned in slightly and drew in a large breath, smelling the food. The baked goods smelled amazing.
“What would you suggest, Miss Stall Worker?”
The young girl pointed enthusiastically to the braided pedder buns. “These! They are great. I came up with the idea to braid them me-self after I saw the braided bread they had in a bread shop I visited with me Mum!”
Karsten chuckled at the child’s enthusiasm. This kid couldn’t be more than 13 years old. “I’ll take a braided pedder bun, then!” He said with a jovial smile.
The young girl picked up a pair of wooden bread tongs that were as long as her forearm, masterfully picked up a bun and placed it in a brown paper bag in one smooth motion. The bag had a large, blue heart drawn onto it in wobbly lines. She clutched the bag in her hand and looked deeply into Karstens eyes. “2 coppers!”
Karsten looked at her confusedly for a second before he understood that the girl was asking for payment, not talking about the police. He fished out a silver coin and offered it to the young lady. “Here, I don’t have any coppers on me at the moment, but maybe we can exchange this one?”
The girl gingerly accepted the coin and opened a small satchel at her hip. She shoved her hand into it and fished out a handful of copper-colored coins. She slowly counted 13 coins and handed them to Karsten along with the pastry bag. “Thank you very much for your patronage!”
“Haha, you’re welcome,” Karsten accepted the bag and coins. He put the coins into his pocket and discreetly placed them inside his inventory, then turned to leave.
Looking at the different stalls, Karsten marbled at the different ingredients that the people of this world had access to. Some of them looked familiar; Red, plump berries called germa-fruits that looked like strawberries on steroids, pink root vegetables called optaper roots that tasted much like sweet potatoes and small, purple fruits called grapes that tasted like… well, like grapes. He'd asked the stall worker why the grapes were called grapes, but the stall worker just gave him an odd look and ignored him.
‘...Rude.’ Karsten adjusted his golden star and resumed perusing the wares. At a different stall, of course.
He started whistling as he looked around. He chatted with the people tending to the stalls, and even helped out one stall worker hand out food as they were struggling with a long line of people. The stall worker, Kenstrat, or 'Kenny' as he insisted on being called, wanted to pay him for his help, but Karsten refused, saying his service was ‘on the house’ - much to Kenstrat's, a person who isn't exactly leared in English terms, confusion.
Karsten was, however, very interested in the recipe for the deliciously grilled pork-like meat the man was selling. Kenstrat was happy to be able to repay the man, and hastily wrote the recipe down on a napkin with a piece of chalk. Karsten folded the napkin and placed it into his inventory, then started walking toward a park he’d spotted in the distance some time ago.
Finding a hidden-away bench and table, he sat down and started munching down the rest of his food.
He’d been munching on food throughout his food-market adventure, but that was more so tasting the food rather than eating it.
The braided pedder buns were divine. They reminded him of a local specialty from his hometown, with a soft, soul-healing texture and melted sugar on top.
Gobbling down the food like the main straw hat from a certain anime series, Karsten very soon finished it all, and heaved a long, satisfied sigh. ‘I am so, so glad that the people here are more developed food-wise than I first thought.’ He thought to himself, gratitude radiating from his stomach.
The pana and steet-cirn-root Karsten had gotten from Medoly were tasty, sure, but quite primitive. He had feared that this was ‘it’ for this world. Living in a world without seasoning after living on earth his entire life would probably have made Karstens soul disintegrate.
Luckily, such fears proved to be for naught.
The food here was delicious. Delectable, even. There was no sign of overly processed foods anywhere, and almost all of the stall’s wares were fresh. Karsten felt positively blessed as he shoved down his last bit of food.
He took a deep breath to center himself, burped, and got into a comfortable position.
He was finally going to confront his Status.
~~~
NAME: Karsten Myhr
RACE: Human - Otherworlder
CLASS AND LEVEL: Bard // Level 1
HEALTH: 50/50
MAGICA: 25/25
STAMINA: 45/45
EXPERIENCE POINTS: 0/50
ABILITIES:
STRENGTH: 13
DEXTERITY: 14
CONSTITUTION: 13
INTELLIGENCE: 9
WISDOM: 10
CHARISMA: 17
PERCEPTION: 10
ABILITY POINTS REMAINING: 0
UNIQUE TRAITS: Otherworlder. You can speak, read and write every language. You have your own personal dimensional subspace.
PROFICIENCIES: Musical instruments (advanced novice), light armor (advanced novice), simple weapons (advanced novice), hand crossbows (advanced novice), longswords (advanced novice), rapiers (advanced novice), shortswords (advanced novice).
SKILLS: Bardic inspiration
SPELLS:
0/4 [See available spells]
CANTRIPS:
0/2 [See available cantrips]
It took Karsten only a minute of meditation to open his Status this time, and as he looked it over, he couldn’t help but feel stumped. He understood the more straightforward things in his status, like Health, Magica and Stamina. If you have 50/50 Health you’re healthy, if you have any less, you’re not - same with the others, basically. Simple. What he didn’t understand was the ‘Proficiencies', ‘Skills’, ‘Spells’ and ‘Cantrips’. He had some knowledge of what Skills and Spells were from games he’d played in the past; He'd even played D&D, which this world seemed to be based on. Still, that was a long, long time ago, and Karsten didn't have a photographic memory. Also, there was no guarantee the game mechanics he remembered would function the same here. This was a 'real' world, after all. He thought. He was pretty sure.
'...'
He tried tapping on the word Proficiencies on the page, but his hand passed straight though as if the page didn’t exist. He tried focusing on the word and gave a mental command to see the details of the things listed, and to his surprise, it worked.
Each Proficiency had a short description. He skimmed through the more obvious ones like ‘light armor’ and the different weapons, and looked at the description of a proficiency he’d been wondering about.
Simple weapons: You have proficiency with clubs, light daggers, staffs, slings, boomerangs, hammers and handaxes.
“I have proficiency with hammers? That’s goddamned hilarious.” The corner of Karstens lips twitched as he glanced at his now-healed thumb. He focused in on ‘Bardic Inspiration’ next.
Bardic Inspiration: You can inspire others through stirring words, music, dances or gestures. Choose one creature other than yourself within 50 meters of you who can hear you. The creature gains increased luck for the next 10 minutes. The degree of effect on the target creature and duration of effect scales with your level. Can be used once a day.
“So like a spoken liquid luck potion? Isn’t that a bit overpowered?” He wanted to try it out immediately, but didn’t have anyone to use as a guinea pig, so it would have to wait.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
‘If only I could cast it on myself…’ He thought as he looked over to the next one. ‘See available pells.’
The bottom of the scroll fell through the table as it displayed a long list of the level 1 spells he had access to and their descriptions. He gawked at the list in disbelief.
“Holy shit…”
He looked through the list of spells one at a time and the giddiness in his chest rose and rose as he read the different spell names and descriptions. All of them seemed too good to be true to Karsten, some even more so than others.
He reread some of the spells he was especially interested in. Among them there was one in particular that stood out like a sore left thumb.
Prestidigitation
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
10 meters
DURATION
Upto 1 hour, some effects do not have time-limits.
SCHOOL
Transmutation
MAGICA COST
1-7
You create one of the following magical effects within range:
* Create a harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
* Light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
* Clean or soil an object no larger than 50 cubic centimeters.
* Chill, warm, or flavor up to 50 cubic centimeters of nonliving material for 1 hour.
* Make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
* Create a non magical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand.
You can have up to three of its effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect at any time. Depending on the effect, more or less Magica is spent.
The spell was like a small lexicon of spells in and of itself, and Karsten couldn’t believe such a versatile spell existed. Idea after idea of the different ways he could use it streamed into his head and he started to grin.
A man just so happened to emerge from between the bushes that surrounded the sitting area at this moment, clearly intending to eat a peaceful dinner in the park.
The tall man took one look at the man that was sitting there - with stars in his eyes and a faint blush on his face, staring straight ahead without moving and grinning from ear to ear, giggling like a lunatic - and promptly turned around and left immediately.
Karsten noticed nothing as he daydreamed of how his life could be going forward.
“So you’re saying,” he started mumbling to himself airily, his grin widening more and more as he spoke, “is that I’ll never have to do laundry again, can set things on fire now, never have to worry about my food getting cold again, and I can create anything I want as long as it can fit into my hand? And I can have the ability to prank people to the high heavens? What will I do with all this power…? What does this mean… for society? Do all Bards get to choose this spell at level 1?
If so, how has the world not turned upside down by now… I mean, just the ideas off the top of my head could, under extremely specific circumstances, be considered war crimes.”
He chuckled incredulously, feeling slightly feverish.
‘Man. I hope I never have to fight a Bard…’
He shook his head and went back up the list to continue rereading the ones he was interested in.
‘Prestidigitation, Sleep, Dissonant Whispers, Distort Value, Mage Hand, Feather Fall, Healing Word, Thunderclap, Faerie fire, Animal friendship and the list goes on… How am I expected to choose only four of these?’
~~~
Karsten thought long and hard about which spells would be best, amazingly managing to sit still for more than an hour - which wasn’t exactly typical behavior for him. His parents would've disowned him, believing him to be an imposter, if they knew.
Now that he’d filled all four spell slots, Karsten looked to the cantrips. A list just as ridiculously long as the previous one fell open before him.
‘Blade ward, True strike, vicious mockery… hm?’
“‘Friends’?”
Friends
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
Person
DURATION
Upto 1 minute
SCHOOL
Enchantment
MAGICA COST
7
For the duration, a creature of your choice that isn’t hostile towards you has their mood altered, and they believe you to be their friend. When the spell ends, the creature will realize you manipulated it. The spell can last upto 1 minute, but ends upon broken concentration.
“Huh… This… this has potential, but...” Karsten mused to himself and grew contemplative. He could think of a number of funny uses for this cantrip, but doubted whether it was worth it to spend one of his only two cantrip slots on it.
Looking over the list of cantrips again, he chose the two that spoke to him the most after much, much grumbling and consideration.
He read over his chosen spells and cantrips before confirming them.
SPELLS:
4/4
Prestidigitation
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
10 meters
DURATION
Upto 1 hour
SCHOOL
Transmutation
MAGICA COST
1-7
You create one of the following magical effects within range:
* Create a harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
* Light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
* Clean or soil an object no larger than 50 cubic centimeters.
* Chill, warm, or flavor up to 50 cubic centimeters of nonliving material for 1 hour.
* Make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
* Create a non magical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand.
You can have up to three of its effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect at any time. Depending on the effect, more or less Magica is spent.
Thunderwave
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
10 meters
DURATION
Instantaneous
SCHOOL
Evocation
MAGICA COST
8
A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from you. Each creature in a 10 meter cube originating from you that has the same or lower constitution than you takes 10 electric damage and is pushed 10 meters away from you. If the creature has a higher constitution than you, they take significantly less damage and the damage they take as well as the likelihood of them being pushed away is lower proportionally with how much higher their constitution is than yours.
Unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 meters away from you by the spell's effect, and the spell emits a thunderous boom audible out to 150 meters.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell, you can choose to put more Magica into it to make it more powerful proportional with how much you choose to invest.
Healing word
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
50 meters
DURATION
Instantaneous
SCHOOL
Evocation
MAGICA COST
5
You utter a word or a short sentence that heals a creature of your choice within range. The creature regains 10 health. This spell has no effect on those without a biological, live body.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell, you can choose to put more Magica into it to make it more powerful proportional with how much you choose to invest.
Feather fall
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
50 meters
DURATION
1 minute
SCHOOL
Transmutation
MAGICA COST
5-9
Choose up to five falling creatures within range including yourself. A falling creature's rate of descent slows, and it takes no falling damage for the duration. The base cost for this spell is 5, and 1 additional cost is added for each person under this spells effect.
CANTRIPS:
2/2
Mage hand
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
25 meters
DURATION
1 minute
SCHOOL
Conjuration
MAGICA COST
1
A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 25 meters away from you or if you cast this spell again. You can control and maneuver the hand freely.
The hand can't attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 5 kilograms.
Vicious mockery
CASTING TIME
Instantaneous
RANGE
50 meters
DURATION
Instantaneous
SCHOOL
Enchantment
MAGICA COST
3
You unleash a string of insults laced with subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range. If the target can hear you (though it need not understand you) and has the same or lower Wisdom than you, the creature takes 5 damage and has its Strength Lowered by 20% of its original value for 1 minute.
The damage dealt by this cantrip is increased by 1 for each level you gain.
“Phew,” Karsten let out a sigh and slumped on the bench.
The sun was already going down. He’d spent the last three plus hours comparing spells and cantrips, reading and rereading descriptions when he couldn't make up his mind, and his brain felt as though it had slowly wasted away in a vat of acid.
Still, he could now officially call himself a spellcaster!
Any person from earth would agree that they’d give anything if it meant gaining magical powers, and now Karsten Myhr (of all people) had attained humanity’s dream.
Not that he could share his findings, though…
Still, Kartsten wondered what would happen if he ever found his way back to earth. How would people react? Would he even retain his powers in the first place…
He sighed.
Thinking about how helpless he actually was in his current situation - which was basically completely, given the fact that he had no idea how, or perhaps even more importantly, why, he had come to this world . He coulcn't help but lose a bit of his confidence.
'...'
Had he been chosen? Why? On what basis, if on any basis at all? Was this a random, impossible thing that happened only because of some weird, unlikely coincidence? Was there someone behind the scenes that had caused his transmigration, or was it indeed nothing but an impossibly unlikely yet somehow real coincidence?
‘...’
*SLAP*
"OW." *Cough*
“Well! No help will come to those who cling onto things they can’t control.” Karsten slapped himself out of his stupor, and finally got up to leave the park.
He then had to immediately sit down again because his legs had fallen asleep.
~~~
The sun had just dipped completely over the horizon when Karsten rounded the last corner before reaching his destination - The Tavern!
Henry had mentioned he was going to a tavern (that was conveniently named ‘The Tavern’) when they parted, and as Karstens schedule was conveniently free (because what responsibilities did a newbie Bard even have?) he graciously decided to tag along with his new… friend? Karsten wasn’t really sure if Henry could be called a friend… yet, anyway.
‘Well, 'A night of drinking can break even an iceberg', as my dad used to say’ Karsten snorted.
Jovially humming a tune to himself, he swished open the western-styled swing door of The Tavern and waltzed in, making sure to keep the utmost charismatic bearing as he swished off his new coat elegantly and folded it gently over his forearm.
If this had been on the non-magical earth and he had made such an entrance, every single person in the locale would likely have thought he was some pompous asshole that was deluding himself by roleplaying as a nobleman or something - but here, on the magical… whatever this world was called, he had a charisma stat - one of 17, no less.
Being a Bard and having a charisma stat that was above average (though only slightly, compared to other Bards) would allow Karsten to not only get away with, but actually pull off such a play. If Karsten willed it, he would have an 'air' about him, like a natural grace or naturalness to his actions.
As such, his actions just now seemed like they were only, well, natural, and he drew not just a few eyes his way. The boisterous rumble of conversation in the tavern died down a few notches, and many whispered conversations ensued.
Karsten had done this as a social experiment of sorts, and he had gotten the response he’d been expecting.
‘What a good feeling… Having this back on earth would have made my life, any life, a quazillion times easier… Man, I wish I could go back, if just to show off…’ Karsten grieved and looked over all the different groups in the tavern, searching for Henry.
He wondered how many of the tavern’s patrons thought he was Henry, though. As it turned out, Karsten and Henry were like twins from different mothers, or maybe the term ‘doppelgangers’ would be more suitable? Either way, they looked almost exactly alike, and as this was a tavern that Henry frequented, they must be positively buzzing with curiosity.
Karsten guessed his hunch was right - The eyes that had turned to him upon his entering were still wide open and staring at him, after all.
He notices many gazes were shifting from Karsten, then to the right of him, then back again repeatedly, and his curiosity was peaqued.
'They must be looking at Henry.'
He followed the directions of their gazes, and searched for Henry.
‘Not the bar… Not the tables… Hm?’
In the darkest corner of The Tavern, on the floor and surrounded by toppled chairs and broken glass. Henry leaned against the wall, his right leg still on the toppled over chair in front of him, clearly unconscious and…
… covered in alchohol, broken glass and his own puke.