Marcel had told himself he would get used to the smell eventually, but even after over three weeks his nose refused to adjust. There was something about the smell of horse excrements that just baffled all reasoning. It crawled into your nostrils, and wreaked havoc with an icepick.

It didn’t help that Marcel had hated horses even long before he had been isekaid into this world. His sister had been an avid rider when she was young, and even then Marcel remembered not really trusting these animals. Something about them seemed off to him. There was something demonic in their stare.

But what was he supposed to do? This had seemed to have simply become his fate.

When he had woken up in this world, there were a few seconds where he had been excited. Especially when he had gotten a message that he had received a class.

His fingers had twitched in expectation. A class? That was like his fantasy RPGs. Could it be, could it really be that he had through some miracle landed in a fantasy world? Even if it was a dream, Marcel was ready for it.

When he had opened the message though, he rather seemed confronted with a nightmare.

“Congratulations, you have received the class [Stable Boy] - [Common].”

A stable boy is the foundation of ridden society. Without them no postal system, knight system or other horse based civilisations would work. It is your honor to serve the horses!”

It was only after reading the message that Marcel had fallen into real despair. A despair he hadn’t quite recovered from.

Not knowing what else to do, he had simply followed the few simple quests that had guided him in the beginning. Somehow he had ended up in the employ of a nice old woman running a stable. She apparently had the class “Horse Seller” or something along the lines, and even if Marcel wasn’t sure how, seemed to be content to live a life with horses.

He had quietly resigned to the class he had gotten. Maybe it was a sign of the world that he was destined to be a stable boy. He couldn’t remember how he had ended up in this world, what exactly had happened in his old world, but he must’ve done something truly terrible. Maybe the gods decided he deserved some punishment.

For a few seconds he had dreamed of being a mighty warrior, a crafty wizard or a brave adventurer. He had salivated at the thought of overcoming the impossible seeming rat race and being born anew in a world full of magic. But things hadn’t turned out that way.

Whatever the reason, Marcel had simply let himself be carried by the tide. As much as he hated horses, at least he had a roof over his head. And the Old Woman Nancy was actually a very wholesome and sweet woman. She reminded him of his grandmother in a way. It helped that she made fantastic cookies.

Marcel was shoveling some dung to the side, while idly wondering how half a dozen horses could produce so much shit, when somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

His heart jumped in shock. He hadn’t heard anyone approaching. He spun around and found himself face to face with a man in a black robe. Marcel couldn’t make out any features of the man, somehow his face was hulled in complete darkness underneath his hood, giving him a very sinister air. He didn’t seem aggressive or ill intentioned though.

“Good gods dude you scared me.”

“I’m sorry if I jumped you, that wasn’t my intention.”

The man was hard to read without Marcel being able to see his face, but Marcel trusted his instincts. “All good mate. How can I help you? Want a little shelter from the rain?”

“Young man, say could I stable my horse here?”

Said horse standing behind the man looked more like the shadow of a horse than a real horse. It was almost unnaturally thin, its frail legs barely able to keep it standing without shaking. Its coat was a pale gray, like all the color had drained out of it. If Marcel would’ve seen the horse lying on the ground, he would’ve thought it was dead.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He looked around the stable. They were almost filled out actually, with only one slot remaining.

“Sure,” he said. “You can just lead it over there.”

“Ohh alas I’m afraid I have no money.”

Marcel frowned slightly. It usually costs a few copper pieces to stable a horse for the night. Which was a lot for most people, but usually quite little for the sort of people who could afford a horse. Mrs Nancy never offered anything under the standard rate of five pieces, which Marcel knew was barely covering the costs.

He glanced at the horse again. It really looked like it wouldn’t make it any longer without collapsing. Money was tight for them at the moment, but how much would a horse like that really eat?

“Well we don’t usually do that sort of thing…” Marcel started, but then he shrugged. “But you know what? I don’t care. Your horse really doesn’t look very healthy right now, so just lead it over there and let me deal with it.”

“Thank the gods for your kindness young man.”

“Don’t sweat it.” He took the reins from the man. “What is up with that hood though? Gives you a very sinister vibe.”

The man chuckled. “Let’s call it a security measure.”

“Security? For what?”

“For me,” the man’s voice became amused by now.

“Can’t be safe enough these days,” Marcel said, mostly because he had heard other people say it in the streets. Mostly because it felt like the right thing to say.

“Ohh you don’t know the half of it yet.”

“What?”

The man didn’t answer though. He only stared at Marcel. He got some chills on his spine, it was like the old man was looking inside of him, instead of at him.

Thunder rang outside and interrupted Marcel’s discomfort. He turned in shock to see that a heavy rain had set in.

“Yikes, gotta walk home through that later.” He turned towards the man. “Would you also like a place to stay? It’s not that glamorous here, but it still beats the rain.”

“No thank you. I believe you have shown enough of your character already. And I must say I’m quite satisfied.”

What a weird choice of words, Marcel thought.

“I have something for you and your kindness young man:”

He touched Marcel's forehead and it was like a thousand volts went through it. His vision turned white and he felt like his head would explode.

When his consciousness returned to normal he was suddenly lying on the floor and the old man had vanished. His impoverished horse was still there though, standing in front of him and fixing him with a stare of indifference.

Marcel shrugged, and brought the horse in one of the empty stables. The rain had stopped, but it seemed he had been out for some time, as it was now utterly dark outside. He hurriedly brushed down the newcomer, gave him some oats to eat over the night, and in general made sure the horse could recover.

He was so disheveled in fact, that Marcel got a whole Level in his Horse Brushing skill simply from making the horse appear somewhat nicely.

On his way home a slight drizzle had set in again. The weather in this world was just another little disappointment for Marcel. Luckily the housing Ms Nancy had given him along with the job wasn’t too far off.

His housing was in a somewhat shadier area in the city. Some mean looking people lingering in front of the many drinking and gambling establishments from time to time, but Marcel had never had any problems with them.

The barren room over a tavern that Marcel was 90% sure served as somewhat of a money laundering place wasn’t the best lodging he could wish for, but the old woman was giving it to him for free along with his pay. That was quite generous of her. Especially considering what a hard time her stable had recently.

The few times he had been in her flat directly next to the stable, he had seen how empty the old woman's shelves were. From what she had told him the taxes had just increased exponentially. Which explained the tax collectors and guards coming over two times a week to get their cut from the old lady.

Nothing but thieves in uniform. During his few walks around the city Marcel had seen similar things in other stores. Shops in some parts of the town had almost no items in their windows, whereas the houses and merchants in the streets of some of the city's nobles were flourishing.

It seemed that corruption stayed no matter which world one went to. And that poverty always hits the nicest people. That was why he had felt bad about accepting the man’s horse without pay in the beginning. But he knew the old woman would’ve done the same. She had a kind heart.

As he was making his way through the dark alleys next to the Layson canal, Marcel once again contemplated what just happened. Who was that weird man? And what had he done to him? There was something weirdly familiar about the feeling he had gotten when the man had touched him. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Looking for answers, he opened his status screen. A softly blue glowing box sprang up in front of him.

Marcel Houst - Level 3

Stats

Str: 2

Dex: 2

Wis: 1

Int: 1

End: 3

Vit: 1

Per: 1

Skills:

Animals Brushing Level 5

Animal Handling Level 6

Scrubbing Level 6

Cleaning Level 7

Stabling Aqua Level 8

Feeding Water Level 5

Equestrian care Level 7

It all looked the same as this morning. All but one single line at the bottom of his character screen.

“New Shard detected.”