A few minutes later, the pair were walking down the road with a heavy wicker bushel basket swinging slightly between them. It was filled with bicolored apples and each of the two was crunching happily on one of the crisp fruits. Even though their heights were drastically different, a clever bit of engineering negated the issue. A ring of rope was tied through each handle about two feet long. This added a foot to Joe’s grip. With Rhiley holding the basket handle and Joe holding the rope loop, the basket ended up just about level between the two of them.
At first, Joe was worried about the boy wearing out carrying the forty-pound basket all the way to the village. After a few minutes, he realized the young farm boy was struggling less than he was. “Well that's embarrassing,” Joe thought. “I may be spending a point on strength sooner than I thought I would.”
The town of Crowfield was quite pretty. Most of the houses had flower patches or window boxes. The road was made of hard, packed dirt with no mires of mud or filth. The houses were almost all one or two stories with a few that had a third floor. The people were dressed in simple apparel but the clothes were well cared for and as clean as could be expected from a farming community. Villagers waved to Rhiley and called greetings by name. They seemed to take no special notice of Joe at all.
The strangest part for Joe was the variety of races he could see. Humans seemed to be the most common race in the town but only barely. There were elves that seemed to glide as they walked. There were a few dwarves who did just the opposite. The pair by the blacksmith shop seems to trudge with every step. A satyr was working at a loom on a porch across from a reptilian woman who was plucking deadheads from her garden. A being with bark-like skin and fern-like hair waved to Rhiley and then turned back to speaking with a feline neighbor. An avian man with owlish features glided through the trees to land on the village green. As the pair walked into the center of the hamlet, a boy a few inches shorter than Rhiley approached them. He had a shock of brown hair spiking out at all angles and a spring to his gait.
“Hey Ry,” the kid exclaimed in a voice that somehow did not match the stature of the child. It was too gruff for someone so small. With a quick sidestep and darting fingers, the boy flicked an apple up into the air over Joe’s head and caught it on the other side of his body.
“Thanks, kid,” the boy said to Rhiley, “I’m heading to the fishing hole. Let me know if you want me to find you a pole.”
“Just don’t take Mister Dudley’s pole again, Kaid,” Rhiley replied. “ That got me in trouble last time. I am helping Joe today. This is Joe. Is there a peddler around today?”
“Fraid not. I think Old Man Berksken is due in a couple of days. Maybe he’ll have more of those maple candies again.” The small youth looked up and licked his lips, obviously thinking about something tasty. He then quickly looked back at Rhiley. “So, fishing,” Kaid said with a tilt of his head and an expectant voice. “Ya comin’?”
“We got some stuff to do. When we're done and if Joe wants to, we’ll come find you.”
“Two more poles it is,” the boy exclaimed with a smirk before sauntering down the street munching on the purloined apple. “Later Ry,” he called over his shoulder.
“That is Kaid,” Rhiley explained. “He is a lot of fun.”
“How old is he?” Joe asked, trying unsuccessfully to mentally match the boy's manners to his physical frame.
“I don’t know. He’s a gnome so it's hard to tell with them. They grow up slower and they live a really long time. I think he is probably around your age but he gets along better with us kids than he does with grown-ups. I think it’s a gnomish thing. … Or it could just be Kaid.”
The general store was the next building down and was just what Joe imagined. It was one of the bigger buildings, painted a burgundy red with yellow trim and a huge front porch. Two large windows flanked the double doors, displaying fabric, ceramics, and other such wares. Open-top barrels were holding hoes, shovels, and rakes. As the pair neared the open doors, Joe could smell the interior before he even crossed the threshold. Cinnamon, honey, and earthy herbs were all mixed together on top of a dry greenhouse smell.
Rhiley shouted as he entered the store. “Hello, Missus Eldauk, I have the apples Dad picked for you,”
Even though the boy bellowed his news within feet of other shoppers, there was not a single sour look. As a matter of fact, an elderly man tousled Rhiley’s hair with a friendly grin. If Joe had shouted like that in a store when he was a kid, his parents, and the patrons would have been far less pleased. The culture here must be much more communal and outgoing than the more reserved public manners of where Joe lived on Earth.
A towering Jotun woman stepped out from behind a set of shelves. Joe had seen the Jotun option during the race selections, but there was a big difference between reading about it and coming face to face with a seven feet tall woman. She was wearing a blue dress with an apron over it. The apron was covered in pockets, so it was likely just as functional as it was for keeping her garments tidy. “Good morning, Rhiley, How is your mother?”
“She is much better. This is Joe. He is a healer but he just crossed over today.”
“A healer,” she exclaimed, her azure eyebrows rising. "That is wonderful." Her face settled into a smile that gave Joe the feeling of calculation as if there was something more behind the words that followed. "I am Gurda Eldauk. My family runs the General Store. If you are in need of store credit, I am sure we could come to an arrangement. Your healing for goods here at the market.”
Her immediate, direct enthusiasm aroused Joe’s telemarketer sense. She was a bit too quick with that offer. Maybe she was being straight with him but this felt suspiciously like one of those cold-call sales pitches that popped up on your phone. As hanging up was not an option, Joe tried disengaging. “That is a very nice offer, Missus Eldauk. This is all very new to me. I’d like to get my bearings before making any deals just yet, if that is ok with you.”
“You will find that the Clan of Eldauk is one of the most respected families in this community. The benefits of partnering with us are quite well-known. Just ask young Rhiley here. Why for this bushel of apples alone his father is gaining six gold as credit here at the General Store,” she extolled.
Joe looked over to where the apples in the store were being sold and saw a sign over them that read “1 Bz for 1, 1 Sv for 3.” Rhiley had explained the coins system to him on the way here, and some relative values. Gold pieces were the standard currency. There were four silver quins to one gold piece. You could also break a gold into ten bronze bits or one hundred copper pennies. Joe was good at math but as this equated to US quarters, dimes, and pennies, the currency exchanges were almost second nature. Joe was sure there were over a hundred apples in the bushel. If the bushel was worth six gold then each apple was being bought by the store for six pennies, at most. The store was selling them for almost twice that at a bronze each. Even the three apples for a silver piece was over a twenty-five percent markup. Joe understood that one should expect a bit of a price increase when you went from producer to seller but it’s not like the General Store had any shipping costs. Joe had helped lug that heavy basket here himself. He was quite sure he did not want a business partner, especially one whose goal would be to milk as much money from Joe’s efforts as they could.
“Thank you again. I will let you know what I decide to do once I have gotten settled a bit more.”
She looked like she was about to say more but Rhiley, with the obliviousness of youth, interrupted her next argument. ‘Oh, and Da is giving the credit for the apples to Joe for helping Mom. Do you have any skill crystals that might be good for him? He is looking for something to make her all better.”
“Well that is wonderful,” she replied. Joe could tell she was not yet done trying to employ him but she glanced back at the customer she had been helping and put her pitch aside for the moment. “Joe, the crystals we have are there in that case. See that red leather book there,” she says pointing to a volume on the wood counter over the curved glass display case. “You will find the prices of each crystal written in there. When I am done weighing seed for Admeadeon, I will come back and get any you are interested in.”
She turned and headed back around the shelf. Joe looked into the case and found it filled with stubby crystal points about three inches long and an inch and a half wide. There were five colors of crystal which were how someone knew what attribute each crystal was associated with. The Strength crystals were red. Green for Vigor. Dexterity stones were yellow. The crystals for Perception were a bright blue and the Spirit ones were violet. The crystals also had metal bands that were wound around them. Most had a single copper band, but a fair number had two bronze rings. There were two skill crystals that had three silver bands. Joe guessed that the bands indicated the rarity of the skills inside the stones.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Joe saw an unopened barrel sitting close to the display case. He sat down on it and started leafing his way through the little red ledger, looking for anything he could use to help Missus Dellham. Unfortunately, Nella had been right. The book was filled with mostly crafting skills. Joe noticed there were quite a few fighting skills listed as well, more than he had expected. What he did not see was much of anything to do with healing. The only skill he found was called [Close Wounds] but Joe saw his [Healing Touch] was a better spell in every way. When Joe got to the last page, disappointed, he turned back to the beginning and started again, just in case he had missed something the first time. He hadn’t. The answer to helping Sarsa was not here.
Joe closed the book and turned to the glass-faced display. The case was also sorted alphabetically like the book, which made it very easy to see what skills the General Store had available. The first crystal in the case was a purple Alchemy crystal. Unfortunately, it was one of the more expensive starter skills. The bronze-banded crystal cost sixteen gold pieces. That was exactly what Joe had and while [Alchemy] would give him some versatility and probably synergize with healing well, he did not think it would be a good idea to put all his money into a single stone.
The next skills were [Assess Creature] and [Assess Item] crystals. These copper skills were four gold each and perception based. They would allow Joe to discern the attributes of people, monsters, and items. If he could afford it he would pick up Creature first. [Assess Item] looked like it was used for getting information on other people’s or monsters’ gear. It might be helpful someday but he did not think he needed it right now.
The next one that caught his eye was the blue [Coin Catcher] crystal. This skill caused the loot that flew out of the reward lights to fly into pouches and packs instead of flipping off into the weeds or cracking him in the head. Joe didn’t really need this one but it was one of those quality of life skills that could take the annoyance out of looting. He allotted three gold pieces of his sixteen for this one. He also already had a Perception slot available for it.
There were a bunch in the D’s that caught his interest: [Dagger Expertise], [Deception], [Dirty Fight], [Dodge], and [Dual Wielding]. Of all of those [Dodge] was probably the best choice, but it was five gold pieces, the same as [Parry]. Since he would need some defense he should grab one of them. [Parry] synergized with Staff Skills better; additionally, there was a note in the book that indicated the skill could be directly upgraded to [Parry Riposte]. Dodge had a [Strike Back] upgrade but he would need to have a swift weapon skill to make it work, like daggers or rapiers. Staves were not swift weapons.
In the E’s he found a Healer only spell named [Efferous Endurance]. He had seen its name and description in the book but the spell was not actually used for healing injuries. It was a bronze skill but it was very affordable at five gold, probably since it had such a specific requirement. The stone looked well-scuffed as if it had been kicking around for a while. [Efferous Endurance] gave a boost to Stamina when it was cast on somebody and for the duration, it reduced their Stamina costs by ten percent plus a half a percent per skill level. It also had one odd condition in that it was twice as effective on animals as it was on people.
The more Joe looked through the case and the red leather index the more befuddled he became. There were so many options and combinations. At the moment he had sixteen coins and four skill slots available, one of which had to be a Perception skill. So Joe picked up [Coin Catcher], [Efferous Endurance], and [Parry]. That would leave him with one free slot and three coins left.
Except it didn’t. When Joe reached into his satchel for his money he could not find it. He had wrapped the coins in a small strip of bandage so they would not be clinking around in his bag but the bundle was gone. Joe emptied the satchel on the counter and still no coins. When he looked over at Rhiley he saw the boy’s face change from concern to anger.
“Son of a mule! That jerk!” the boy swore and stormed out of the store.
Joe scooped his healing materials back into his bag as quickly as he could and followed the boy outside but Rhiley had a large lead on him. Joe caught a glimpse of the youth at the edge of town, heading for a river in the distance. Jogging after the boy, Joe passed a large number of curious faces. He hoped none of them would think he was chasing Rhiley for some nefarious purpose. That would be a terrible way to start his time in the village. Thankfully, none of them stopped him.
A few minutes later, Joe found himself running down a trail between two fields. For most of the way, he could see Rhiley until the boy reached a band of trees lining the river. The farmboy vanished between the trunks before Joe could catch up. He stopped and panted for a bit, trying to listen over the sound of his own breathing. Then he heard yelling from his left. Jogging through the trees and Joe saw Rhiley shouting at Kaid on a small dock that extended from the shore.
“... BOTH OF THEM, KAID! BUCK AND MY MOM! AND YOU TOOK EVERYTHING HE HAD!”
Kaid had his hands up. In his anger, Rhiley seemed to tower over the diminutive gnome. Even with the farm boy’s extra size and muscles, something told Joe that if this actually turned into a fight, it would be Kaid who was the more dangerous of the two.
“I didn’t know Ry. How could I? He was just some doofus outsider strolling through town. Of course, I’ll give ‘em back. Look there he is,” Kaid said, pointing as Joe reached the end of the pier. “Here you go, sir. Force of habit. I’m sure you understand.” The little scoundrel tossed the bundle to Joe with a near-perfect throw. “We good, Ry? No more hard feelings? I got us a couple poles and a jug of Apple Jack if you guys want to relax and let bygones be bygones.”
“Maybe later,” Joe replied. “I really would like to get these purchases made and Gurda Eldauk gave me an idea for a way I might be able to earn a bit more coin and experience. If you want to stay, Rhiley, I can manage for a bit on my own.”
After giving Kaid a look that clearly showed he was still angry with his friend, Rhiley turned to Joe. “No, I’ll stick with you if you don’t mind, Joe. I have to go see Mister Tienker anyway.”
The two turned and left the gnome on the dock and started back to town. Joe had originally thought he would be annoyed at having to trek back to the village but he found a simple enjoyment in the walk. Again he was reminded of all the years when just being able to take a stroll was beyond his physical abilities. Hiking along this path, with the breeze ruffling the fields of grain on either side of him, was one of those simply beautiful moments that can catch you off guard. Joe found that he didn’t even mind Kaid’s sticky fingers considering how much he was enjoying the walk back.
When they reached the General store again, Joe bought the three crystals he had picked out. Instinctively he knew that he just had to grip the stone tightly and concentrate. He started with the blue one he had the free point of Perception in. He gave the shard a squeeze and he could feel the stone vanish from his palm, imprinting the skill into his mind.
You have learned the basic skill: [Coin Catcher]. [Coin Catcher] allows you to designate a container on your person in which your rewards appear inside when they are released from a reward node. If the item will not fit in the container it will appear at your feet. Cost: No Mana. You have no open Perception skill slots remaining.
A new notification window caught Joe’s attention.
Achievement: You trained your first new skill: [Coin Catcher]. This action has awarded you the following choice of Traits:
[Miser]: Waste not, want not. +5% to coin loot.
[Convenience]: Why make the simple stuff extra work? [Coin Catcher] will become advanceable.
Joe noted that he did not get an extra attribute point for this achievement. It made sense that completing your first quest was a bigger deal than just learning a new skill, even if it was the first one. Joe stopped and took a minute to think about this choice. An additional 5% to loot sounded like it could add up to some serious coin. On the other hand, whenever a game he was playing in his old life received a patch, Joe was always more excited by the quality of life enhancements than he ever was for class balancing or aesthetic improvements. It was hard to put a price on ease of play but that is just what choice Joe was faced with. In the end, Joe chose [Convenience]. He figured he would rather enjoy his time here over getting a bit richer. Looking at the skill again, he saw it could upgrade into skills such as [Helping Hand], [Autoloot], and [Bottomless Bag]. The best part about upgradable skills is they would add abilities to the skill without needing another open skill slot.
Next, he took hold of the yellow crystal and spent an attribute point so he could learn it.
You have increased your Dexterity to 2.
You have learned the basic skill: [Parry]. [Parry] determines your ability to block attacks with your melee weapon, negating all damage from the attack. The higher your Parrying Skill, the more often it will activate. Cost: Minor Stamina. You have no open Dexterity skill slots remaining.
No extra window showed up this time. That made sense. Gaining an achievement bonus every time he learned a skill would be pretty excessive. He took out the bronze skill and spent another attribute point.
You have increased your Vigor to 1.
You are attempting to learn the advanced skill [Efferous Endurance]. You have not met the requirements for a bronze-level skill.
Joe stared at the screen puzzled. The only prerequisite listed in the book was for him to have a Healing skill. He had two: [Healing Touch] and [Heart Fire]. Then Joe noticed the terminology. There must be something different about bronze-level skills.
“Hey Rhiley, what is the difference between a Copper and Bronze skills? It says I can’t learn this one,” he stated holding up the stone.
“Aw, sorry Joe. I forgot how new you are. You need to have at least ten ranks in something to learn a bronze-rank skill from a crystal. It’s more for a silver skill and way more for any of the higher ones. Kaid says it is that way so common folk can’t get too powerful too fast since we are the ones who use crystals the most,” Rhiley said in a manner that seemed like he was parroting something he had been told, but not really fully understood. “Want me to see if Missus Eldauk will take it back so you can get something else?”
“Well, that is a little disappointing, but no. The skill, for that price, is too good to pass up. Besides, I think I know a way to level up my [Healing Touch]. Want to help me find some patients?”
Rhiley’s smile was all the answer he needed.