As Jade sat down at the table, he pulled back out his inventory screen, trying to get used to operating it with his mind so as to not attract attention by waving at it. During his people watching throughout the town, he’d never once seen someone look into the middle distance or touch a screen, so it was either common to use with just a thought, or no one else had a visual component.
As expected of what he remembered from playing Errant, he had the Space Wand in his second slot, though the first slot being blank took him by surprise. He had a hammer there before, to modify how the ground looked in the game. The surprise lessened when he noticed the pickaxe he had gone as well. Can’t expect a realistic world to accept floating geometry and a flat world. Guess all the building stuff is not going to work. Jade didn’t mind that, looking over his sparse inventory. The only things of note were leftover Meteorite ore and bars from constructing his armor and wand, as well as the Cythralite bars he’d kept. They were around the same tier as the Meteorite, but more specialized for making melee arms and armor. Good to have in case it’s needed, he thought before frowning at his words. Like I would need weapons. Not fighting anything myself, no thanks.
The armor made Jade look like a monster fighter, but he didn’t think he had the aptitude for it. He barely even learned how to wrestle when he was a child, let alone learning any fighting skills as an adult. He’d always been pretty good at making things, though, so maybe he could do that to get by in the strange new world he found himself in.
The last item of note he looked over was the Magic Mirror, something that had no combat effect, except to teleport. Even then, it could only take you to the bed you slept in the previous night, Jade half tempted to use it right then and there to find the room he woke up in again. Shrugging, he ultimately decided to use it later, wanting to find out more about the local situation before randomly disappearing. For all I know these items don’t do anything and this world doesn’t have ma-
That thought cut off as he looked at the inventory menu itself, almost chuckling at the obvious display of magic. Or madness. The rest of his inventory was mostly empty, save for miscellaneous items like torches, rope, money…
Once Jade noticed the money section of his menu he audibly groaned, catching more attention than he did before by sitting quietly at a table, doing nothing. He’d been using the new features of Errant the last time he played and had used the ‘cheat’ menu to grab bunches of platinum and gold coins by duplicating items. Looking at the ‘999’ sitting next to the platinum coins, he wondered at how rich he made himself in this world.
Deciding to see how rich he was, he finally got up and went to the bar, waving to the bartender who held up a blue finger, Jade nodding as he looked at the other patrons. He could feel his cheeks heating up as they all surreptitiously looked at him. Maybe coming here was not a good idea…
“What can I get for you sir?” the bartender asked, looking mostly human sans the sapphire colored skin. Once again he wore an older style of dress, slacks and a tunic, causing Jade to pause at how old the style looked.
“Any non-alcohol drinks you have?” Jade asked, rubbing the “chin” of his helm as though in thought, though more checking to see if he needed to remove it to eat. Apparently I do…
“Got plenty.” The bartender listed off all of the drinks they had, Jade choosing a random fruit drink to start out with as he pulled off his helmet. He would have loved a mirror at that point, but he was unsure if pulling one from his inventory would draw more attention to himself. Speaking of attention, though, a pink skinned human swiftly sat in the empty chair next to Jade, her leather armor trying its best to show off her curves and not so much on protecting her from strikes. So video game girly armor is a thing… he thought distastefully.
“Hello newbie,” she started out with, Jade trying to hide his answering frown at ‘newbie’ and mostly failing if the dim of her smile was anything to go by. “What brings you into town?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Jade shrugged at that, trying to give the woman a light smile. “Looking for a place to settle down. Bit too much travel for me.” He left it at that, turning to the offered fruit drink from the bartender with a frown. How am I supposed to pay…? He suddenly thought, wondering if his coins would be accepted.
“Oh where are you from?” asked the lady beside him, Jade actually frowning at her not taking his light dismissal.
“How much?” he asked the bartender, deciding to change tact and ignore her.
“This one’s on the house as it’s your first,” the bartender explained, giving Jade a wink and causing his face to heat. “Any after are two silver.”
Jade ignored the huff from the girl beside him, nonchalantly putting four of his silver coins on the counter. All he had to do was just think of pulling them out of his inventory and they appeared in his hand, the coins having no details and just looking like smooth silver disks. He only realized what he did when the bartender grinned, snatching up the coins where they promptly disappeared. Inventories are a thing. Good…
“You know it’s not nice to ignore a nice lady?” the woman snarked beside him.
“You’re nice?” he snarked right back, taking a sip of the drink and finding he loved the taste. “I’m clearly not interested in… whatever you’re selling and you’re still here.” He gave her a look at that, her face turning a darker shade of pink as it scrunched up in anger.
“I’ll have you know I’m quite the-“
“I frankly don’t care. Leave me alone.”
“catch and if you paid attention to me instead of harlots like Jacob-“
“That’s enough, Kim,” a voice calmly stated, startling both of them with how close they got without either person noticing. Turning around, Jade looked into the eyes of a rather tall elf, his pointed ears giving the assumption. His skin was a light green color, almost giving Jade the impression he was ill, though with all of the colors he’d seen so far, that was not an uncommon thought he’d had.
“Oh stay out of it, brother,” the woman, Kim, stated, surprising Jade for a moment. Probably half siblings, he decided, seeing the similar features in both.
“As he’s said, he’s clearly not interested.” Kim huffed at that, finally deflating at her sibling stated it.
“Fine. But you’re buying me a drink later.” She then stomped off to sit at one of the nearby tables with other people, clearly her friends who start ragging on her.
“So you’re the newcomer everyone’s been talking about,” the elf stated, taking up Kim’s vacant stool.
“News travels fast,” Jade blandly replied, taking the last gulp of his fruity drink. “Does everyone in town know or something?”
“Anyone who matters.” The elf didn’t seem put off by Jade’s tone, cocking his head to the side. “Especially one with new magic.” Jade froze at that, shooting the elf a questioning look. “I can practically feel your magic’s upheaval. Must have been a serious power to unlock.” The elf stood at that, giving Jade a smile before walking off.
#
Jade finished the rest of the drinks he was owed quickly, finding the elf’s comments creepy and leaving as soon as he was able to, grabbing his helmet and inventorying it. Once he’d gone a few blocks down and turned down an empty side street, he finally took a deep breath, calming himself down.
Could he tell by just looking at me? He wondered, looking down at his gauntlets. Maybe more people have off the wall items or powers… but how do I go about asking? I can’t take the chance of people from another world like me being so weird I get carted off and experimented on… He sighed at that, not being able to think of a solution in the moment. Taking out the magic mirror from his inventory to distract himself, Jade finally got a chance to look himself over, checking out the armor and finding it looking exactly like the meteorite armor from Errant. Looking at his face, though, lead him to freeze once again in shock.
I’m… I’m blue, he thought to himself, looking his sky blue skin over and finding his crimson eyes somewhat creepy. His sapphire blue hair was also long and in a ponytail, where he’d kept it short and trim before. Otherwise, he looked the same as he normally did, which was a welcome relief. I did like making my characters all weird colors didn’t I… He sighed, counting his lucky stars the skin color didn’t make him look too bad.
#
Space Wand
18 Magic Damage
5% Critical Strike Chance
Extremely Weak Knockback
Very Fast Speed
0 Mana per use
Fires a green bolt of alien magic.