All Asher could do was stare at the man as he scurried about the front desk writing various things down on over ten different sheets of paper. After a few minutes of this the man seemed to have finished what he was working on and stopped to wipe what appeared to be ink off his hands using a blue towel with white flowers embroidered on it. He pulled it out from underneath the counter, right next to the same place he pulled the crystal from. With a few strokes of his hands he had gathered all the papers up and placed them down on the counter in a very neat pile.
“All right then if you would just follow me upstairs,” he said walking out from behind the counter only to direct Asher up the stairs he had seen other people go up and the same exact stairs the man had appeared from when the woman had called for him. The woman still silently stood where she had when Greg had been burnt to a crisp. Her whole body trembled but she didn't move from her place, either she was too terrified to move or she was too terrified of what would happen if she did, either way she remained rooted in place.
“You may go,” the man said to the woman and with a wave of his hand she hurried away as fast as she could, shaking the entire way. Asher followed behind quickly, it was only one flight of stairs before they were upon two massive dark oak looking doors. The man walked up to them and with a hand placed firmly in the middle of each door he easily pushed both open and walked in, holding the right one open gesturing for Asher to walk in. After brief hesitation Asher walked in letting the man shut the door behind them.
Inside was a basic looking office except for all the magical equipment, floating crystals, wands, staffs and scrolls littered the room, some on custom racks other on any open spot they could find. The man walked past the mess somehow slipping past everything without knocking anything over. He then sat down in a large leather chair on the other side of the desk, leaning back he pulled out a piece of paper and began writing things down. Asher stood there for a while until the man finished, setting the paper into a basket and his pen back into the drawer after wiping it of ink.
“Ok then, let's get down to business,” he said, focusing on Asher, his fingertips touching together. His hands became clasped after tapping his fingertips together a few times. His smile fading for a few seconds before coming back, clearly thinking of something that caused a somber moment.
“What exactly do you know, and who are you?” Asher said while taking a seat in a much smaller leather bottomed chair in front of the man's desk. Asher had a feeling that the man in front of him knew he wasn't from this world but it would be stupid to just say that out loud not knowing who might be listening. The man only smiled at him before he rose a hand above his head and snapped his fingers. A blue bubble appeared from him and expanded until both of them were inside. Asher jumped from his chair the moment he saw the bubble, expecting it to hurt him he braced closing his eyes. After a few seconds he opened them realizing that it didn't hurt him, slowly he retook his seat.
“Don't worry, this bubble will make sure that our conversation stays private, you never know who might be listening in.” The man said, shrugging his shoulders, finding Asher's reaction amusing. He clearly understood what Asher was thinking when he asked his previous question. With that the man leaned forward his smile radiating confidence.
“My name is Nick Dram and I am the director of the adventure guild here in Okport. As for what I know, I am aware of your unique origins and I know how little you actually know about this world. But before you ask I do not know how to get you home or where you would start if you decide that's what you wish to do,” Nick said quickly answering Asher's two questions. Asher slowly nodded, he had thought about returning home multiple times in the last couple of days, but he wasn't sure what he was trying to return home to.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Before Asher had awoken in that forest he wasn't anything special. He had tried to start multiple businesses and every time they had gotten to the final step before becoming profitable they failed. In the end he had taken a job as a legal assistant just so he could pay the bills, as for people to return to he didn't really have anyone. No one he could call a lover and not even any family, his mother and father had died in a car crash when he was young and had instead been raised by his grandmother until she passed when he was 22.
“I see, then can you tell me why we are hiding in a magic bubble, and what is it that you brought me up here to discuss?” Asher asked, breaking away from his introspection.
“I brought you up here to explain some of the basics to you, for some reason cultists think other worlders are signs from the heavens and will often go out of their way to kidnap them, to stop that the more you know about this world the better.” Nick said while Asher nodded along, the cultists he had seen when he arrived suddenly made complete sense.
“Well that explains the cultists I found when I arrived,” Asher said, sighing. Quickly Asher brought the six robes out from his inventory, Nick’s eyes went wide as he took a closer look at the robes. He couldn't hide his excitement as Asher finished bringing them out.
“These are very old, I haven't seen robes that look like these except in some of the oldest documents in our library here,” Nick said while picking one up and began examining it. Asher just sat back down in his chair and let Nick do his thing, he couldn't imagine how the robes would help him and he figured he would be able to sell them to Nick based on the excitement he was showing.
“How much are you willing to pay for them? Also can you tell me what you would consider basic knowledge of this world, that way I don't attract more unwanted attention,” Asher said, getting the attention of Nick. Nick finally stopped looking at the robes long enough to nod and began scratching his chin clearly deep in thought.
“I can give you one gold for all six of them as for basic knowledge I already planned on giving that to you, so just count that as an added bonus,” Nick said quickly, pulling out a single gold coin and offering it to Asher. Asher could only sigh and take the gold coin from the director and put it away in his inventory.
“Ok listen well because I'm only going to say this once, in this world you can have up to six cores, cores are dropped from any living creature at random and are used to gain different abilities. Abilities can be combined to create new abilities and you can gain new abilities by using the same core twice,” Nick said as Asher nodded along committing everything he said to memory.
“Once you have four cores you can be considered an adventure, and once you reach level 100 you will be able to raise your rank from F to E. The max rank we think you can reach is A but we don't know for sure, the highest we know of is the emperor at rank D.” Nick said finally taking a large breath at the end of his sentence. His smile still plastered on his face, he clearly enjoyed telling Asher all about this topic.
“Now I know you don't have any cores as when you registered it would have told me what powers you had, some cores are banned by the adventure so make sure to check in with us before you eat any,” Nick said finally taking a break from talking to let Asher catch up.
“I think I understand everything you just said, I have a Bear Core in my possession so if that is a banned core please tell me if it isn't can you tell me how to sell it, after that where can I buy some more cores?” Asher asked after taking a second to comprehend everything.
“The bear core isn't banned but isn't used very often, when you absorb a core you will slowly gain attributes similar to your core the more cores of the same type you absorb. The girl who welcomed you earlier has an elf based core and as such has gained the ears of an elf.” Nick explained quickly slowly standing up, Asher seemed to have understood everything and this seemed to be the end of the conversation.
“Wait did you say eat?” Asher said after getting up, getting ready to leave. He had glossed over this detail when it was first said.