I stopped at the edge of the forest, not sure what to think. I had been traveling for a good hour since my last fight and cleared a good distance. Knowing the woods would be coming to an end soon, making way for farmland. What I saw ahead of me was not farmland or more of the ever-present forest.

The land laid out in front of me was hilly, punctuated by rock outcroppings and a few scattered trees that looked like dead sentinels, watching over the sparse vegetation, daring it to grow.

Herds of grazing animals of some sort could be seen in the distance. The edge of the forest I stood at seemed to end on a rise, like it had just been sliced away cleanly.

This new landscape reminded me of a picture of Saharan Africa I saw once, hopefully, it didn't come with the wildlife as well. I also found it strange that I had not seen a single vehicle since leaving the campgrounds. While I could discount this on the campground road, this was a major road north and there should have been a few cars or people. I did, however, come across two corpses or what was left of them on the side of the road about ten minutes back.

I chewed over these thoughts as I scanned the strange landscape ahead of me. The other odd part is that the two-lane road still ran through the area unmolested if a bit curvier. Flowing through the landscape like a river, instead of the straight boring route it had been before.

"Well, no point standing around here all day," I mumbled, swinging my staff from side to side to work a stiff spot out of my back.

I headed down the road again, this time slowing to a fast walk to give myself time to drop my pack and prepare for any fight that might come my way. It didn't take long to find something.

As I crested the next hill, I saw five little green men in dirty loincloths trying to attack a wagon.

The first thought that came to my head was, 'Dirty Stinking GOBLINS!, I watch entirely too much anime,' was my second thought, but they looked just like the standard description of a goblin.

I could try avoiding them, but there were no hills or trees near this stretch of road to hide from the creatures. I also saw that they were completely alone. The closest other creature I could see was well in the distance and that was one of the grazing animals.

'Best to deal with them now while I have the element of surprise,' I thought, walking quietly forward. I also figured I should at least try to help whoever was trapped since they appeared either unable or unwilling to defend themselves.

They were so engrossed with trying to get at the wagon, which seemed to be protected by some spell, they didn't even see me approach. That all changed when my staff took one of them right to the side of the face. Instantly I got an XP reward for my kill. I was relieved to know they were as weak as they appeared. I also wondered if I got a sneak attack bonus? I would have to look later. The other green-skinned midgets paused in their wanton beating of the shield, screaming at me in infantile rage. I guess they wanted a piece of me now. Oh, and it looked like they were armed, looked like some kind of bone weapons.

"Yea, well here's my bone weapon," I yelled giving the ol beans a shake. Why did I just taunt my enemies? Was I suffering from some sort of battle craze? I did feel the distinctive heart-pumping rush that seemed to come with fighting wash over me as the experience flowed into me. Oh god..., It was glorious.

They didn't seem to appreciate my war cry. One leaped at me dagger held in its outstretched arm, I casually flicked my staff catching it across the midsection before it could stab me in the belly. It gave a squeak that reminded me of a deflated bagpipe as the air was driven out of its lungs, its limp form crashing to the ground.

I jumped back as the third punk tried to stab me. These guys were not very coordinated, two had tripped each other up trying to get to me and were now yelling at each other. Ol bagpipe was rolling on the ground still deflated trying to catch his breath so it was me vs a wee child.

"Round 1, Start," I said as the dumb thing stared at me blankly.

I couldn't have that so I snapped my staff out, right at its knee. My reach nearly three times that of these creatures. The was a nice cracking sound accompanied by the creature's pain-filled wailing. There we go, now he was showing some emotion. Unfortunately, he was also rolling on the ground clutching his destroyed appendage. I almost felt bad for beating up what amounted to children, almost. I dispatched the two that had broken into a fistfight and were rolling on the ground punching each other with two quick jabs.

"Flawless victory," I exclaimed after putting the final blow to Ol bagpipe. The little green turd had tried to crawl away while I sang his friends a nice lullaby. I even got a level up notification along with some other goodies. For whatever reason killing these creatures felt right, I didn't feel sick or disgusted like I did when I saw the dead body of the park official.

Healing Touch: Heals target within 25m range for INT x .5 modifier, Cost 40 mana, cooldown 10sec

Earth Fist: Deals Earth damage INT x .25Modifier to target within 25m range, Cost 60 mana, cooldown 1min

Aura Strike: Your next attack also slows targets attack speed for 5% for 10sec, Cost 25 mana, cooldown 15sec

Endure: Increases maximum Hp by 10% for 60 min AOE-allies within 20m, Cost 150 mana, cooldown 30min

I was stoked about getting a second healing spell; I could even cast it more often than the Rejuvenate spell. The Earth Fist spell gave me another choice for ranged damage over the pistol since I had limited ammo for that and who knew if I could get more. The Aura Strike wasn't all that useful at the moment but I could see it helping in the future on faster enemies. Then there was the crème de la crème skill, at least I thought so. A 10% boost to HP would only increase in usefulness as I leveled.

Shaking myself out of my celebration I realized I should see if the person in the wagon is okay, and what an odd wagon it was. It was skinny only about half the width of a car, with a tall barrel-shaped roof. There were items of all kinds hanging off the sides with 2 posts in the front for pulling it and a door in the back. The cart was a myriad of colors that all seemed to fit together somehow. When I tried to approach I got to within 10 feet and encountered the barrier I saw the goblins beating against. I ran my hand against the barrier and it felt like how old CRT screens felt with the static buildup.

"How odd," I whispered before calling out, "Hello in there, um you are safe now, I got rid of the attackers." I decided to go with attackers since I didn't know if they were goblins or if whoever was inside knew what a goblin was.

I heard and saw the wagon shifting as the occupant moved around inside. I saw a small slit window open and something looked out. I couldn't tell what as it was a bit dark and the sun was in my eyes. Then I heard the door creak open and a small bipedal dragon-man step out. He was about 5 feet tall with metallic green scales and a short tail that didn't quite reach the ground. He was also wearing an immaculate set of clothes. What looked like green silk pants with gold embroidery on them, along with a white silk undershirt, neatly tucked into the pants, a matching green and gold vest on top of that.

"Ah, yes thank you, traveler, those pesky goblins caught me unawares," He said with a slight lisp probably because of all the sharp teeth he had.

'Ha I knew they were goblins,' I thought, patting myself on the back mentally.

"My name is Frathsar, traveling merchant extraordinaire, and how may I address my savior this fine day?" he said looking at me with a big toothy grin.

Now, I want to say that I wasn't freaked out in the slightest at being addressed by a bipedal dragon but I did grip my staff a bit tighter. That was one bonus of the staff as a weapon it was always ready to go with a swing or a jab, unlike a sword that had to be unsheathed.

I cleared my throat, "I'm Paul."

"Well Mister Paul, thank you again for the timely rescue. I was just on my way to Eldenberry to sell my wares when they jumped me. It's a good thing I invested in this personal protective dome enchantment," the man said jovially.

I kind of liked this merchant, he seemed like quite the likable fellow, and that would make sense since he is a merchant. I wondered how much his charisma score played into my opinion of the man.

"This Eldenberry, um how far away is it?" I asked having never heard of a city with that name.

"Hmm well, with no burden I could be there in another hour up this road... That's Odd. What is this, the path I was on was dirt and this is smooth and flat like a city street."

"Well, that's a bit of a story that I may only have a partial answer for, do you know what the Mana system is?"

"Yes, I am educated, although, maybe not as much as the nobles."

"Don't know any nobles myself, but anyway it seems Earth, the planet we are on just joined the system today," I said with a shrug.

Now I expected a few different reactions from the Merchant. Overwhelming joy wasn't one of them.

"Oh heavens above what a day to be alive," Frathsar said dancing around in a little circle.

"Not the reaction I expected, uh why so happy?"

"You are new to the system so you do not know how rare it is for a new planet to be brought in. I think the last was over a millennium ago."

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"Okay, but that still doesn't seem like something to be this happy about."

"You would be correct about that, usually a world is brought into the system when 70% of the population agrees to the activation and the populations have time to prepare and designate locations for safe zones. These zones then become the major trading hubs for system resources."

"I have heard stories of early civilizations that joined the system without meeting these criteria and something called the rending occurred to their worlds. Where parts of multiple worlds were sort of smashed together, or torn apart depending on how you look at it, to form completely new areas of land. This rending happens to every world connected to the system as a small chunk is swapped between worlds and the world that just joined the system. It doesn't seem to harm anything but it can bring over unknown monsters or creatures."

"I believe one of these early times released the beast known as goblins upon many unwary worlds. Now I can't be sure but from your reaction, I would guess you had never heard about the System prior to it activating, from your leaders. While that is not ideal, it isn't why I am happy. I am happy because I was transferred over... The cost to transfer from one world to another is quite steep, also I have a whole new market, virgin territory untouched and me Frathsar merchant extraordinaire here to profit," he said, like a giddy child opening Christmas gifts.

This was knowledge to think about later when I was in a more tenable situation.

"I see, well I wish you luck in your endeavors," I said, waving to the man and planning to be on my way.

"I apologize, Mister Paul, where are my manners, I have all kinds of trinkets and items for sale if you wish to browse my wares. It seems only fair since you saved me."

"You can just call me Paul, and as much as I would like to I don't have any money that you would find useful."

"Nonsense my friend, do you have any trade goods we could barter?"

I shrugged and pulled out my monster drops, even the shitty weapons I got from the goblins that I was just going to toss. Frathsar pulled open a shelf from his wagon and motioned for me to set the items on it. He pushed the weapons to the side while mumbling and then looked at the Bear parts and the seed pods.

"Fascinating," he said, examining a claw. "What type of beast did this come off of?"

"It was called an Iron bear, a large four-legged, furred predator that was mutated by the system."

"A domestic beast?" Frathsar asked, astounded, "It must have been immense, how many people did it take to kill it?"

"Um, I killed it myself," I said a little embarrassed.

The little merchant looked at me askance.

"But you are only level 3, how did you kill a level 6 beast by yourself?"

I swallowed hard at that, remembering my fight at level one against the massive beast and only managing to kill it by sheer dumb luck and my out of class skill I earned. I didn't feel like burdening the poor merchant with this information.

"I got lucky," I said nonchalantly.

"I should say so. Hmm, the weapons I can give you 10 credits for. The teeth and claws 150, and 25 each for the seed pods."

I scratched my face thinking about his offer; I had no idea the value of these items, perhaps he would go for a trade instead.

"Would you give me more in trade?"

"Certainly, would you like to see a list of my trade goods?"

"Sure."

I was expecting a paper list still thinking in earth norms, but I got a popup window with a long list of items, way more items than could fit in a wagon this small. Now you might think standing here in the middle of a road with possible hostile creatures about while perusing a shop would be a terrible idea. You would be correct, except Frathsar was nice enough to invite me inside his shield bubble. There were quite a few items I couldn't afford and with a thought the list updated to exclude anything above what Frathsar valued my items at.

"This is quite the list Frathsar, how does it all fit in your wagon?"

Frathar laughed, and then looked at me when I didn't laugh in return.

"Oh, you're serious. Right, I forgot this technology might not be available on new worlds. Well, there are many ways to fit more into a space then what you can see, I have an extra-dimensional merchant cart."

"Bigger on the inside eh?"

"Exactly," he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

While I perused the list I decided to chat my merchant friend up to see if I could get some more information about the system.

"So how is it you can see levels?"

"Oh that's just a skill, mine is a merchant variant called Appraisal. It lets me appraise many attributes and gives much more in-depth information than some other skills similar to it. If you are interested in the ability I have three variants of it for sale."

He flicked one of his clawed fingers in the air and the list I was looking at highlighting the two items. I assumed the third was out of my price range.

"So you can just purchase skills?"

"Yes and no. Certain skills can be purchased. There are even some magic and other abilities that can be bought. Some have pre-requisites though, like stats or levels or are even class-specific. Although, why buy a class-specific skill when you can earn it eventually you might ask?"

I actually was going to ask about that.

"Well, your skills may level up as you level or if you earn an extra skill slot you can acquire a skill that maybe you skipped over earlier."

"I thought you were just given all of your class skills when you earned the level?"

"You do until level seven. That is when you have to start choosing as you usually only get two skill slots per level. One thing to remember though is these skill slots are only for new skills you may also get upgrades to existing skills if the next level is unlocked at that level, although, this will automatically take one of your free skill slots. Then some skills are passive like my Appraisal that doesn't require an actual slot to use."

"It all seems overly complicated," I said frowning.

"It can be, but the system is extremely diverse. You got a large list of possible classes when the system came online correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, that list was only classes that were known to your world, through stories or jobs or anything that may have existed in your histories. Now when you hit level 20 you will also see every single job available on the System from every planet, because of this bounty of choices the system has to be a bit... flexible," Frathsar said with a smile.

I decided to mull over that information while I browsed his wares

"Can I see this staff?"

"Which one?"

"Um, how do I show you?"

"Again my apologies, just touch the item and flick it in my direction."

I did as the merchant asked, I should have realized it was that simple but I had been paying more attention to his story than the interface and how it worked.

"Ah yes an iron capped staff, simple but a very effective weapon, please hold on while I retrieve it for your inspection."

He scrambled up the steps and I could hear him digging around inside the wagon, I'm pretty sure I even heard him curse in his native language. Something else I saw on the list was a gun, well it said laz pistol, but that item had disappeared when I filtered down by affordability. There were magic and melee weapons, and I had a gun, I guess I couldn't dismiss advanced technology being available as well. I would ask him about it. The dragon-man returned a few minutes later dragging a 6-foot pole.

"Here you are, try it out let me know what you think," he said handing me the staff.

"Awfully trusting aren't you?"

Not that I wanted him to second guess me but I didn't want him being ripped off by other people.

"Do not worry, Paul, even if I didn't trust you, you cannot move past my bubble while still holding the staff, until you purchased it that is. You also cannot harm me while inside my protective sphere or you will be forced out by the inherent magic," he said without any malice.

"Good to know, but you are right I would never steal from you or harm you unless you tried to harm me first. I'm a live and let live kind of guy. You should be careful around some humans though, we aren't known as a species that tolerates differences very well."

"Oh, I have met plenty of humans before, I am well aware of their proclivities."

This news threw me for a loop this would mean humans existed on other planets. I decided to think about all this information later. For now, I tested the staff. Surprisingly it was lighter than my current "staff" which was just a trimmed tree branch, heck it wasn't even completely straight just as straight a stick as I could find in the short time I had. I gave the staff a twirl, then a thrust and an overhead swing letting my hand slide to the end of the iron cap, something I couldn't do on the homemade staff. It felt good.

"I will take the staff and the basic identify spell," I said having looked at both spell options.

Identify: Displays the identity and levels of monsters and people within 50m, upgradable, passive ability. No slot required. Just need to actively concentrate on the target

The other identify spell had more features but for a much higher price.

Identify Flora and Fauna: Displays the identity of flora and fauna including levels and class if available

I saw there were upgrades for the cheaper version to include those same features later if I wanted them but were unneeded at the moment as far as I was concerned. With the Identify spell, I could at least know the level of the beast I was fighting.

"I thought you might like the skill so I brought that out with me as well," Frathsar said handing me a silver plate about the size of a credit card.

As soon as I touched the plate the information on the skill transferred into my mind and the plate turned into motes of light. I looked over at Frathsar and saw a title and level displayed above his head.

Frathsar | Merchant Extraordinaire | Level 14

I chuckled, here I thought he was just hyping himself up, no his actual class was exactly what he said it was. I was also surprised by his high level so I simply asked what was on my mind.

"Frathsar, you're level 14, surely you could have easily defeated the goblins?"

"Like I said before they got the jump on me, I can't attack outside of my shield. I would have to allow them in, and because goblins aren't named I would have to invite them all in. Five I could take easily," then I noticed him looking around with a bit of worry, "Where there is one goblin there are usually many more," he said in a lower tone.

I decided to look around as well since I was a good deal taller but saw no other goblins. Just an open expanse like I saw before.

"Looks clear to me."

"That's even more worrying, it could mean a goblin dungeon around here and these are just the rabble that was booted from the hive."

Upon hearing the word dungeon, something in me stirred. Logically I knew it was safer to stick with this Merchant and head back to town, to be safe and sound. That was the boring old me though, the new me wanted more. Perhaps not to risk death but maybe to test myself and see just how far I could go with these new powers. I felt I would be relatively safe with my healing magic.

"I might have a look around," I replied, but before I did that I went over my new staff's stats, now that I had something to compare my old staff to.

Crafted Ironwood staff

Quality: Low

Damage: 12-24 bludgeoning x2 critical damage

Iron Capped Staff

Quality: Average

Damage: 15-32 bludgeoning x2.5 critical damage

Not too shabby, while my old staff had some decent damage the big wow factor was the critical damage boost.

"Before you go, Paul, please take these as a token of my thanks."

"Hmm?" I said lost in my thoughts, "Oh no, that's not necessary," I said trying to wave him off.

"I insist, and it's considered rude to refuse a gift," he said, handing me a leather something or other with two items on top.

The two items on top turned out to be a health and mana auto-injectors. Well, I guess that answers my question about advanced technology.

"Just press the injector against your skin and it will refill 100 health and 100 mana respectively."

Next, I looked at the leather.

Leather Jerkin

Quality: Low

Armor: 5

Slashing resistance: 15%

It wouldn't fit over my hoodie but I could put it over my shirt. It was essentially a leather vest. Frathsar helped me tighten the straps and showed me how to remove it without having to readjust it every time I took it off. I slid my hoodie back on over it and you couldn't even tell that I was wearing it.

"Thanks again Frathsar, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. If you are looking for larger towns I suggest you head south," I said, pointing the way he had come from, "there are larger cities down that way, it will also be warmer. Now I don't know how far the nearest city is due to this rending caused by the system but I was about a day's walk away before I ran into you. This road should take you straight there. I may meet up with you again. I want to see about this dungeon."

"Be safe Paul, and I would advise against entering the dungeon alone, note the location, and bring a party back to clear it if you must."

We waved to each other as the merchant turned his cart around and started walking back the way he had come.