8:32 A.M.
January 7
Veotera
A jolt of air rushed around an empty glade as the world flexed and twisted into a folded point of space-time. The invisible show seemed to reach a climax as the surging wind reached a crescendo and reality snapped itself back into normal contours, bringing an unexpected passenger along for the ride.
Gary stumbled at the imparted motion of his arrival and it took about seven steps before he caught himself and righted his balance. Taking a moment to himself, the seventeen-year-old breathed in the new air deeply through his mouth for a bit. The feeling of great and terrible motion from his journey just now was threatening him with motion sickness and he’d really prefer not to puke his guts up at that particular moment.
“Fuckin’ hell,” he gasped out as his body started properly responding to his will and he stood to his full height. Silver-gray eyes darted about his surroundings taking in the peaceful glade he’d found himself in. “At least I wasn’t dumped in the middle of some hellscape. Small favors, I guess.” Gary stretched once he was fully alright and decided to start up his Virtual Network System to check and ensure its functionality..
The HUD flared to life in his sight, its minimalistic outline and transparency clearly unchanged from his desired settings. A quick mental flick scrolled through the settings and options to find nothing had been added without his knowledge.
Deciding to get this show on the road, Gary turned about thirty degrees to his left and started walking towards the supposed road peeking through the gaps in the foliage. He smoothed down his new off-cream tunic and felt the grasses rustle past his equally new dark brown leather boots. The not-the-same-shade brown trousers with a tie-front completed his ensemble. He’d really been given a bare minimum to work with here. The System was pretty stingy all said and told, but the window he’d interacted with had stopped back by as he drifted to give him new clothes and finally push him to the world it had called ‘Veotera’. As far as things went he was pretty fortunate to not get dropped in the middle of nowhere or somewhere that he’d be labeled as a witch or something for poofing into the world out of thin air.
With unknown magical powers and no equipment Gary was currently a random person trying to survive in a world he had no connections with and was clearly going to be at the bottom rung of for a long while. For shits and giggles, he spoke into the slightly warm morning air as he made his way through the thin stretch of treeline between him and what he could now see was a well-traveled road.
“Status open.” The screen showing his ratings and skills sprung to life in front of him and stayed about a half-arms-length from his front as he moved. “Inventory.” Nothing. After a moment’s pause to think on it he raised his right hand, focused his will into imagining gathering latent energy inside his body into a point outside his palm, and spoke a command. “Fireball.” Nothing once more. No surge of energy leaving him, no blast of light and flame. He lowered his hand back down as he smirked to himself fully now and emerged from the treeline to stand at the side of the road.
“Ehh, it was worth a shot. Now, sunward, sunward… Okay, that way. Hopefully this is east. I’ll call this east.” As he headed down the road towards the presumably rising sun as it seemed this was early-to-mid morning in this new world, he brought up the text file he’d started a few days ago about functionality upgrades for the VN System. Ruefully he wrote in bold letters ‘AUTO-ENABLE COMPASS RING’. As soon as he wrote that in, the HUD’s upper section flashed in his interface before activating some apparently hidden function. A segmented ring appeared at the top of his vision with notches every so often. He glanced up at it out of instinct before realizing he was simply having to perceive it since it was being sent to his brain’s visual centers.
A compass ring had been brought to life. It turned out he’d guessed mostly correct; the ring revealed he was heading east and about eight degrees south as he followed the road. “Well then. Thank you, designers. At least someone was on the ball adding an internal magnetic compass.” The tab pulsed with light one last time before falling dark again. He’d get somewhere safe and sit down to explore the rest of his admittedly limited features, Gary decided. He walked for roughly two hours before cresting a slight rise in the terrain to reveal a sight before him.
In what appeared to be the opening of a valley that stretched further east and disappeared behind a bend that turned to the north fairly sharply a couple of miles ahead of it, there sat a decent-sized city. From the angle and distance he had Gary estimated the design to be some mixture of perhaps Renaissance-era buildings encased within clearly Middle Ages fortifications; namely a roughly pentagonal outer wall with smaller walls dividing the internal space into what Gary presumed was probably wards or quarters. Admittedly not an accredited expert on the matter despite the knowledge he had access to it looked pretty solid to him from here, the divides inside likely aimed at being a measure to buy defenders time to repel invaders who got into various sections of the outer wall.
“At least it’s not that cookie cutter ringed city from all those isekai animes. Oh, damnit I’m talking in tropes already. Gonna have to ease up on that. Don’t know what the local culture’s like yet, so I need to try and not stand out too much.” Gary mentally appraised himself as he started down the rise and towards the city itself. “My height and eye color aren’t gonna be doing me any favors. Fuck.” His eye color was pretty rare - a light gray that flirted with being a metallic silver in most lighting - and the fact he was six foot one inch tall combined to make him a noteworthy personage in his own time and world; let alone in a time and world where people were bound to be shorter than him. There was nothing he could do to disguise either fact with anything other than a ridiculous and probably criminal obviousness.
As he closed in towards the gate that this side of the city had at the road he walked, Gary took stock of those who approached with him. Most were dressed like he was - some better off, some visibly poorer, but most seemed to be around his current look’s wealth level - but he was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn’t the bright rainbow of technicolor hair in the lines that had formed for entry. Sure there was an individual here and a group there that was clearly family, but most were what he expected to be a normal human range of colors with almost everyone having a caucasian complexion range. Nothing other than humans as far as he could see thus far. He doubted that would remain the case for very long but so far this was a gradual introduction to his new world.
Gary slid effortlessly into the line of people on foot to one side of the gate’s line of traffic. Pedestrians were moving far quicker than the wagons and carts and Gary didn’t have to wait very long to get up to the gate itself. The fortifications were actually pretty large now that Gary got a perspective from within their proverbial shadow. Easily twenty to twenty-five feet tall all around, the gate’s section was easily thirty feet of simple but imposing stone edifice. It was definitely built for dealing with sieges, and if he wasn’t wrong about it bore a few scars from attempts. None of the damage looked recent and had likely been deemed minor enough to leave unpatched. Proud battle scars, perhaps?
Getting up to the gate itself he saw the soldiers were waving most of the foot traffic through with but a glance at their faces. It was probably locals knowing locals letting the line go so fast and without challenge. He knew that was true when a pair of the leather-armored guards caught sight of him head-above the rest of the line and one of them motioned with a small but clear-intentioned wiggle of the spear he had planted butt-first into the ground to one side. Gary nodded and stepped towards the direction he’d been told to by the gesture where another soldier nodded towards a well-used table set into a recess in the shadow of the gate’s opening. It was just shy of the portcullis that loomed overhead that Gary could have raised his arm out and been in the path of.
A quick glance upwards confirmed to Gary that this was actually part of the machicolation network most walls of this type boasted: the so-called ‘murder holes’, with this one looking like it was angled towards the top to allow for an angled spraying of boiling oil judging from the dark and uneven stains into the stone itself. So this was an actively-used feature it seemed. His pale eyes tilted back forward and his head turned downwards to face the man situated behind the desk. He was garbed in the same functional leather armor of the other guards in the area with the exception of a short royal blue capelet trimmed in a simple predominantly-white short fur.
“Greetings stranger,” said the man, clearly in the tone of one who held rank. Gary had an odd time placing it, the jumble sounding like a number of European accents being gargled into something pretending to be not-quite-native British. It was odd, but it worked. Gary was looked at from under bushy black-haired eyebrows by dark eyes. The face they were with was a bit thicker than most of the others; enough to indicate that perhaps the man enjoyed his desserts a little much. It was topped off by some pretty impressive mustache work which was clearly the man’s pride and joy.
“Greetings, good sir,” Gary replied. He bent his head forward a bit as his torso gave a bit more to form a short half-bow as he wasn’t sure exactly how far to bow since he didn’t know the man’s actual ranking. He hoped it was obvious enough to avoid social pitfalls. “Hopefully today finds you well?”
“It indeed does, young man. My subordinates have taken note of a stranger in our midst and as per protocol have directed you to me so as to establish your credentials. It seems you’re traveling a bit light, there.”
Gary gave a small shrug as he made a show of patting his empty hips. “Yes sir. Was making my way when I was relieved of most of my possessions… At least the perpetrator saw fit to not make off with my boots.” It wasn’t a complete lie: the System had indeed waylaid him and relieved him of his Earth clothing. Also there was the fact that the nigh-divinity hadn’t made him go barefoot. What Gary was provisionally calling a guard captain wiggled his mouth a bit making his handlebar mustache bounce to and fro for a moment.
“Accosted this close to Limeroom? I find that hard to believe, boy. My patrols are quite regular through that road.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that. Some people just see an opportunity and take it. Individual did seem rather shady but was a matter-of-fact sort. Like I said, let me keep my decency.”
The man looked Gary up and down with a suspicious look now on his face. “I can’t seem to place your accent.”
“Deep south, sir. Not surprised you haven’t.”
“Hmph. Watch the lip, boy.” The man leaned forward, scooping up a metal-tipped quill before popping open a small bottle and helping his writing tool to a dose of simple black ink. “Now, let’s have your name first of all.”
“Gary Zavon, sir.” Scribble scribble went the quill in the ensuing quiet, Gary hearing the shuffle of bodies behind him as the regulars entered the gate without incident behind him. His eyes looked down into the ledger-like book that lay open on the table for likely this very purpose: logging interactions with new people for security purposes.
“Profession?”
“None yet, sir. I was advised to go about and ‘find my purpose’,” Gary said, raising his fingers and doing air quotations along with a tone of voice that meant pretty clearly he was mimicking the words of another. “Got told to pick a direction and go until I found something, and here I am.” The words were being written in a clearly not-English language, but his HUD flared to life once more as he felt the installed skill 「Language: Common Veoteran」 click into place such that he understood the words written as if he was mentally reading it in English and this new language simultaneously without any noticeable issue. Gary resolved to sort through the skill once he could sit down in one place as it fell mostly silent again, humming along in the back of his head as if nothing had happened.
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“So no apprenticeship, and I’m certain I’ve never heard that surname before. You must be from quite the ways off. I assume your lack of supplies means you’re going to be around Limeroom for a bit as you gather funds?”
“At the very least to continue on. Might settle a bit if I find something of particular interest, or a favorable situation.” Gary stood at an easy parade rest, as anything else in the posture department struck him as looking arrogant or criminally fidgety. The man clearly noticed the posture.
“Sharp resting position, boy. Military?”
“Military family, sir. Uncle’s a captain.” A grunt of acknowledgement and more scribbling notes. Still no lies. Gary was feeling confident about this situation thus far. It was then that the guard captain waved the quill in a small but sweeping gesture as he saw the guards tense out of the periphery of his vision at the man’s causal gesture.
“If you wouldn’t mind, can I see your status panel?” Here we go. It was now time to see if that System box knew what it was talking about. Gary shrugged casually and spoke into the air.
“Status open.” The panel flared to life, and following it up he flicked a slider in an upper corner with his left hand that revealed it to those nearby. He could now see the gleam of the panel’s light in the guard captain’s flicking eyes as he read it silently. A low whistle finally came out of his mouth as he leaned back in his seat to mentally process what he’d seen.
“God. I’ve never seen an Origin before. How did you get accosted with that kind of power?”
“Didn’t feel like committing what would effectively be murder. And the fact I have no clothes to change into. Showing up to a gate into a population center covered in blood is a good way to get further accosted.” The first full lie. Gary hoped it’d slide by.
The captain finally recovered from his shock and leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands in a thoughtful pose as the quill moved out of the way in his fingers. He wiggled a pinky and Gary flicked the control back to hide the screen before lowering his hand back into parade rest. The silence reigned in the alcove before the man mustered the will to speak.
“I saw 「Stealth」 and 「Plunder」 in that skill list. Please tell me that you're not going to engage in your Class' namesake in my city.” Well, shit. There went that. The guard captain knew what his Class was. Probably had once had the need to encounter one; or more likely had the fortune to never encounter one on the prowl. Gary decided honestly was the best policy here.
“I don’t intend to go using it since it'll just bring trouble down on my head. It’s just a set of skills I have access to, just like how you guards have access to weapons and tools to do your job with. I was advised that I could pick something else up, but it’s nice to know I have a strong backup in case I need to get loud, if you get my meaning.” A dark look flitted across the man’s face before he heaved a huff of exasperated air out and finished scribbling down notes in his book.
“I don’t have anywhere near the resources to stop someone at Origin level. All I can politely ask is that you don’t do crimes in my city. I don’t want to lose good men because you decide to paint my town with blood while lining your loot container of choice.”
“No intentions of it, sir.” The notes apparently done, a bit of drying powder was sprinkled on the damp ink before the captain waved towards the open gate. Taking the dismissal, Gary gave another short bow and moved on his way. That had been far less painful than he’d anticipated, and the man clearly knew when not to push a point. And with that Gary was past the portcullis and into Limeroom proper.
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Gary strode into the city and looked at the architecture with a surprisingly nostalgic feeling in his heart. Even the fact he was taking records of everything he passed of even slight interest didn’t distract him from the city’s beauty. It was surprisingly clean and clearly well-maintained, with people going about their business with an easygoing and unrushed manner. A few minutes brought him to a spot at the edge of a small plaza where he chose to stop and sit on the wide lip of a stone flower bed.
It was all well and good to be in awe of being in another world, losing himself for a bit in something that was kind of sort of like stepping back into Earth’s past. There was a bit of a pressing concern however. He lacked shelter, resources, or the credentials to acquire either. As he thought and stewed on this predicament the city continued to flow around him with only a passing glance by people moving by this section of the plaza.
There was always just robbing someone. The problem was that the guard captain would have immediately reported him to the higher-ups once he’d left so they’d be on the lookout for a tall silver-eyed thief or assassin stirring up trouble. It presented more problems than it solved regardless of how well he hid the evidence.
It was possible that there was a staple of the isekai genre around here somewhere: the Adventurer’s Guild. The issue with that was his lack of funds for equipment, or dues for joining or registering if that was a thing. If he’d had a knife or something he could have just winged it in that regard but it was a no-go for the moment. He raised his head to look around the skyline as a thought struck him.
Since there was presumably a religion in this world, there was bound to be a church or temple in Limeroom. Those usually had odd jobs to be done, and perhaps a corner for him to sleep in until he got some resources. He was admittedly guessing here but Gary thought that was a pretty decent option to start with. Hell, maybe if they couldn’t help they’d know where he could start looking. Seeing nothing in the immediate skyline that looked properly church-shaped Gary stood up and walked over to a nearby street vendor selling vegetables off his cart’s back.
“Excuse me, good man,” Gary started as he approached with a hopefully friendly wave. The man - dressed in an outfit not too dissimilar to Gary’s own but clearly well-worn - looked towards the source of the voice and looked slightly up towards Gary’s face. “I’m new to Limeroom, and I was wondering if you could point me to the nearest temple.”
“Of course! Take that street there and follow the curve of the fortifications. It’s on the inner side of the district.” Gary nodded his thanks and moved in the indicated direction. The trip was short as Gary finally saw the building enter the skyline. It had been hidden by the way the city was built which was why he didn’t see it to begin with. Now that he had his objective in sight Gary strode at a reasonable pace but with clear purpose, keeping his pace to that of the foot traffic as he approached the building.
Once he arrived at the structure Gary stopped to appreciate it. The church was comparatively modest in size which had helped it blend into the skyline at a distance. Whitewashed stone greeted his sight as it sat perched on a slight rise in the terrain, the gentle slope having wide and shallow steps of a stone path leading up to it’s closed dark oak double doors. There didn’t appear to be an attached graveyard owing to the pristine landscaping near it. The places outside seemed to be set up more for contemplation and if not a physical retreat from the outside world then at least allowing a person to attempt to pretend with a modicum of success.
All in all despite the structure’s large but not anywhere near cathedral stature, it struck the largely agnostic Gary as a lovingly maintained arrangement for the worshiping faithful. He was probably among that number now, since the two skills in his worrying long list were sitting at the top as if to quietly poke him if he decided to pull up the screen and glance at them. “Apologies, to my world's gods if you exist,” Gary muttered under his breath. “Seems I have to step into another divine’s house for a bit.” The knee-high cobbled and mortared stone fence around the church offered no resistance as he walked through the empty opening, up the wide steps, and paused at the door. A deep calming breath presaged Gary giving three sharp knocks before gently turning the handle and stepping inside.
As his eyes adjusted to the interior’s dimmer lighting - too fast, he noted with a flicker of worried thought to his Class’ nature - a pair of well-worn and clearly lovingly-maintained rows of pews faced towards the far end of the main room of the structure. There were murals painted on almost every wall, the only exception being the furthest wall that held a pulpit, altar, and shelving with various religious paraphernalia. Warm crimson cloth hung in the accent to the murals and to help cover the seemingly bare ceiling and open rafters. The church’s presentation gave Gary a feeling of reverent anachronism; a fitting flavor for a holy place in another world.
Motion at the far end of the room drew his gaze instantly and sharply as a man clearly in his late fifties un-crouched from behind the altar with what looked like a cleaning cloth in his hands. The man squinted a tiny bit as he appraised the appraising Gary before his expression slipped into professional brightness and he spoke in a decently loud voice to cover the distance.
“Ah welcome, young man! How does the day find a fellow child of God this morning?” Despite his clear age the man’s voice was unwavering and strong. Gary smiled a tiny bit as he thought of his uncle; this man had the same projection to his tone. Clearly an experienced orator.
“Good morning. I find myself in a bit of a need this morning, actually. Some parts are secular, some of a more thinking nature. May I have a bit of your time?” Gary spoke as he approached so they weren’t shouting at each other across the room. The priest tossed his hand cloth down behind the altar and Gary heard a soft sound of damp fabric hitting water. The man had been cleaning then, it was confirmed.
“Of course, my son! Come; sit, sit!” The man shuffled quickly around and gestured to the closest of the pews. Gary met him there and as they sat down he got a better look at the man. His vestments were obviously stripped down at the moment; one didn’t clean in full regalia after all, and so he was clad in a simple cream-colored cassock with a thin crimson shawl that matched the cloth overhead in hue. His hair was greatly thin and revealed a mostly-bald head that despite his wrinkled visage was full of unexpected vigor. It had clearly long gone gray and gave no indication of the original color as the priest’s hazel eyes met Gary’s gray ones.
“Thank you for taking time to speak with me.”
“Think nothing of it, my boy; old Remmy’s been around for quite a while, and I know a thing or three about life. Now what’s troubling you?” Gary nodded in appreciation and decided to keep using the same line of thought he had with the guard captain.
“I find myself in a bit of a predicament. On my way to Limeroom, I was accosted and had my belongings taken from me. While I have a powerful Class it didn’t strike me as the thing to do in taking a swing at them so I let it happen. Pretty sure there’s still laws against what would effectively be murder, right?”
Remmy’s expression shifted to one of genuine concern as he nodded at the words and statement at the end. “It’s good that you’re alright, and that you showed restraint. Many people get a powerful Class and let the power go to their heads, and between us God doesn’t show those kinds of people kindness in the end. I take it from the angle of this talk you’re in a bit of trouble.”
“Nothing of a legal nature, I assure you. The guard captain at the gate was very concerned about my Class but didn’t have a reason to bar access to the city. My secular problems are of two parts: I have no funds, and no credentials to obtain said funds. The thought occurred to me as I pondered my situation that the clergy usually have either methods to solve worldly problems like food and lodging, or can direct me to where I can acquire such things myself. My thinking and thus spiritual problem stems from my Class and how one of my first thoughts was to use it in that way you seem to despise.”
Remmy leaned back against the pew as he stared forward in thought as he pondered Gary’s words. Gary politely looked away from him and surveyed the tools on the shelves. It seemed that this world’s religion - in this part of the world, anyhow - followed the isekai tradition of not!Christianity, as the symbol of a long-bottomed cross was festooned across the murals and iconography in this building. He felt he’d been right to at least seek advice here. Remmy shifting in his seat drew Gary’s gaze back to the old priest.
“I respect that you admit your thoughts about your abilities so openly, and that you have a similar tone of distaste at how your thoughts quickly went there. I doubt you came here expecting to collect alms, as well. A strapping young man such as yourself should be engaged productively, learning things to use in life. That look of yours was appraising the state of this place I take it?” Gary nodded a little, adding a small shrug to give it an ambivalent-to-matter-of-fact feel.
“For the record, I’m perfectly willing to work. It’s just that I could say ‘Oh I can juggle a dozen dragons while making an omelet’ and no one sane is gonna give me the time of day because I don’t have anything official-looking that says ‘Gary Zavon, Dragon Juggling Omelette Maker’ on it to justify them giving me a chance. And there’s way too many cautionary tales about how being innocent cheap labor turns into banditry or worse if the wrong person gets a hold of you. So the way I figured it, I could at least come to a church and if you had nothing to offer you’d know where I could look for legitimate work.”
“Just so! Just so! I like you already, Gary. You’re clearly intelligent in a way most youth aren’t.” Gary gave him a wry look to which Remmy cackled in amusement. “I think we can come to an arrangement. My old bones aren’t what they used to be, and no one wants to offer me any help. I think they just come to worship out of fear they’ll get smote if they don’t!”
“Some people are like that. But yes, I’d be more than willing to help you out. Not sure how good of an altar boy I’d be but I could definitely help out with cleaning and preparations. I’m cheap too; I’m fine with a dry corner and some food.” Remmy patted Gary on the shoulder as he looked around the church before standing up.
“Then let’s get to it. No time like the present!”