Magical energy converged in the quiet grove, a bird flies away from its perch at the sudden activity. Magical circles appear on the ground from which Akil and Sevala materialize. Akil looks at Sevala.
“Now stay hidden from a safe distance behind me, if you see anything dangerous don’t hesitate to use the artifact.” (Akil)
Sevala bites her lower lip.
“As you command, headmaster, I know you probably don’t need it but please be careful yourself. We can’t afford to lose you.”(Sevala)
Sevala backs off and begins chanting the incantation for multiple spells.’
[Flawless Invisibility], [Traceless Steps], [Silent Steps]
Her body disappeared from the spot and not a noise or mundane disturbance could be seen. If it wasn’t for the slight disruption in the magical ambient magical aura in the air Akil would never have noticed her. It would require a very strong detection spell to see through it but Akil felt that even if someone did just so happen to have the capability to use it and happen to have it active that he would at least be able to protect her long enough for her to escape.
It was time to find civilization, at least, hopefully find civilization. It would be a bit of a letdown if this world was completely free of intelligent species for some reason. Akil began casting.
[Locate City]
A small magical pulse shot from his location and not long after he felt a detection a couple of miles to the east of his current location. He could have got there quickly by flying, short range teleportation or even just running but with thought towards Sevala, he decided against any of those faster means of transport. He debated summoning a horse but without knowing the general level of technology he decided against it. He began the hike with a sigh, using his staff like a walking stick.
The surrounding forest quickly became much thicker and darker than it was in the grove. The soft sounds of animals became much more sinister, deep growls and snarls. He could sense animals not far away but it took a couple of minutes before any got brave enough to approach him. He felt the presence of 8 large creatures surrounding him cutting off any avenue for escape. The largest one approached him from the front, sharp teeth the size of a grown man's arm and caustic drool dripping from its gaping maw. It looked like some form of mutated wolf but it was the size of a small bus. Its pack slowly started appearing from the forest, snarling and drooling much like what he assumed was their leader. Each one was the size of a full sized car. These creatures would have been considered quite strong on Gathilion. It would probably take a party of at least an average of 12th level to take them on, and it would have been close depending on their composition.
Akil closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The beasts thinking they had found an easy prey leapt at their newfound opportunity. Akil’s eyes snapped open, in less time than it took to take a single breath Akil cast an 8th level spell.
[Electric Discharge]
An electrical hum immediately filled the air as thick bolts of electricity spread outwards from Akil’s location. The pack of wolf-like creatures convulsed for a few moments before all but the leader fell over, dead. The pack leader stood alone, barely holding on to life. It took a few steps towards Akil before collapsing on the ground, whimpering. Akil walked up to its side, looked down on it with pity. It would definitely die if he left it alone but that would be inhumane.
“Sorry, but if our situations were reversed you wouldn’t have shown any mercy either.”
Magical energies gathered towards the staff in Akil’s hands and in the blink of an eye it transformed into an ornate scimitar. Before the creature could even register that Akil had moved, its head cleanly detached from its body. With a practiced efficiency and skill, Akil took a small time to clean and dress each animal. He stored the monster parts inside his magic bag on his waist. The magic bag was something he made especially for himself, it had an extreme capacity of 100,000 lbs and 1000 sq ft. As a tradeoff the small bag was pretty heavy at the weight of 100 lbs. Transforming his staff back from its scimitar form, Akil set off back towards the town.
After a bit more than 45 minutes a small town appeared on the horizon. He had a few more distractions on the way in the form of a giant snake, a flock of flaming birds, and a bear with claws the size of swords. Each one safely sat in his bag as a bunch of parts.
From his previous spell he knew there were less than 1000 people currently in the small town coming up. It looked like a medieval era town from Ray’s world, even Akil’s world was more advanced from what he could tell. Walls surrounded the city, going up to about 50 ft. He sensed a relatively strong magical energy from the center of the city, he quickly identified it as a protection spell that would keep monsters at bay.
The forest stopped abruptly around 500 ft from the city, it was definitely clear cut for defensive purposes. With his sharp senses, Akil could see people on the ramparts of the wall scurrying about, it seemed his appearance from the forest was a rare event. He let out a sigh.
“Maybe appearing from the forest wasn’t the best idea, but it's too late now to change”
He cast a quick spell to hide his glowing eyes and the gems embedded in his skin as well as another to hide any magical aura from his equipment.
[Alter Form], [Legendary Hide Aura]
His appearance went back to what it was when he was younger than 300 years old. His skin became completely flawless, his eyes turned a platinum gold color, almost seeming to glow even without the magic. He even removed the glow from the gemstone on his staff and scuffed the gem to look much cheaper. He could tell that the people on the rampart were human, he debated turning himself into a more human appearance to match them but he wanted to gauge their reaction and if worse came to worse he had methods to make them forget he was ever there.
Akil approached the city with confidence, lest he make the guards too nervous. As he got close to the wall the two gate guards drew their spears and shouted at him.
“Halt! Identify yourself” (guards)
Akil put his hands in the air in a non threatening way and stopped walking towards them. He silently cast a spell in an attempt to gain more information.
[Detect Thoughts]
“He isn’t one of the hunters from our guild. Who on earth would be crazy enough to come out of the Shadowthicket if they aren’t a hunter.” (guard 1)
“Is he one of those bandits that have holed up in the forest? They have been causing trouble for so long now, I wish a hunter would take care of them” (guard 2)
Luckily he had permanently enchanted himself with the spell Every Tongue. It allowed him to speak and understand every language without any trouble and it seemed to work with a language completely foreign to Gathilion. It seemed his appearance didn’t set off any alarm bells by itself.
“Hello, I am but a simple magical researcher, my research lead me into the Shadowthicket studying some new flora and fauna and I seemed to have gotten lost.” (Akil)
He rubbed his head and let out a small laugh.
The guard on his left seemed to accept it and let down his guard a little but the guard on the right was still wary.
“I bet he’s one of those sheltered professors from the Damerel Mages College. Still he looks rather bulky for a professor…” (guard 1)
“That doesn't explain how he survived in the Shadowthicket normally it takes a party of platinum ranked adventures to even have a chance of surviving.” (guard 2)
“I’m actually looking to be a researcher at the Damerel Mages College, they haven’t accepted one of my thesis yet but I have a really good feeling about this one. I’m glad I made it to a civilization, the magic item I was using to stay safe in the forest was almost out of charges, hahahaha” (Akil)
The wary guard on my right relaxed a bit at that one, it looked like he accepted my explanation.
“Well we will just need a two silver entrance fee as well as a confirmation you aren’t a criminal by touching the stone of absolution and you will be welcome in the city of Graycott.” (guard 1)
The guard pulled out a small box. He opened it to reveal a shimmering white orb. Akil quickly identified it as being enchanted with the 1st level spell Discern Disposition which just so happened to be another spell Akil was enchanted permanently with.
The orb was no problem, Akil had a good disposition to begin with but even if he didn’t he could easily fool such a low level spell. As for the money, well that was a small problem, although Akil had a large amount of currency on him it was all Gathilion currency, that would be too risky to use. He could pull raw precious metals to make money but that would be rather suspicious.
He put his hand on the orb which lit up a light blue color which caused both of the guards to obviously relax. Akil came up with a quick plan for the entrance fee.
“Well you see, I spent all of my money on this life saving magic item so I don’t exactly have any money… but how about this, the magic item has two uses left of the second level spell Invisibility that I no longer need. Surely that is worth 2 silver coins at least…”(Akil)
He quickly pulled a wand of invisibility, using a bit of sleight of hand to make it look like it came out of his sleeve as opposed to his bag. He didn’t know how rare magic items were here and he didn’t want to expose that he had a magic bag. The wand had more than two uses left but he pulled the extraneous uses into his pool of arcane power, a combination of study and his innate magical prowess. It allowed him to use multiple abilities and enhance his spells.
He handed over the wand and gave his best hopeful look.
The guards looked at each other. Akil could see a slight look of greed from the guard on the left.
“This is worth at least 5 gold pieces, this guy must come from wealth to waste that much value on a 2 silver entrance fee.” (guard 1)
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“This is worth too much to take for such a small entrance fee, well let you pass to sell your magic item and you can pay us back later. You can sell the magic item at the hunter’s guild. Just don’t try to skip out on your debt, we will make sure every gate guard knows about you.” (guard 2)
The guard on the left shot his companion a nasty look for a fraction of a second before putting on a fake smile and nodded towards Akil.
“That’s very generous of the both of you, I will be sure to pay back your kindness when I can. What are both of your names and where can I find the hunter’s guild?” (Akil)
“I’m Dathos.” (guard 1)
“And I’m Narren. You can find the hunter’s guild in the northern part of the city.” (guard 2)
Akil gave them both a small bow as they opened the gate behind him. He thanked them both again and headed inside.
The first area of the city he went through was predictably a slum. It was a logical choice by the city lord, if monsters attacked the city from the forest then the first line of defense was a wall of “undesirables” to take the aggro while the rest of the city mustered a defense. He looked around at the destitute wastrels shuffling around with pity, Akil had always believed that it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak so this kind of cowardly human shield tactic filled him with disgust. He wasn’t going to fully judge the city lord just from this but it left a poor first impression.
Akil kept walking towards the northern part of the city, he had decided to go to the hunter’s guild to both get a better grasp of the power level of this world. So far, based on the reaction of the guards and the random adventurer types he had been passing, it seemed to be on the lower level, probably around the same as Gathilion.
As he walked down the main street he noticed most of the signs were pictures without any sort of text, this usually signified a low literacy rate among the populace. Fortunately, he would just be able to watch for a building with the highest concentration of adventures. After walking for a few more minutes, he found his target. It was a building with a large sign over the doorway of a griffin clawing a western style dragon. He walked in the front door and was hit with a wave of rowdy conversation and rough laughter. It looked like the guild doubled as a tavern, with a bunch of adventures meeting up here often it was probably extremely profitable.
There was only a single haggard looking receptionist handling a long line of adventurers. She had dark circles under her eyes and a permanent scowl on her lips. Akil got in line behind a group of rough looking individuals. While waiting, he scanned the room looking for the aura of magic items. There were pitifully few, out of the room full of maybe 50 adventurers there were less than 5 pieces of magical equipment. Two were slightly stronger than the rest and they happened to be owned by a single person.
He looked towards the owner of the stronger enchantments, he had attractive features, a strong chin, high cheekbones, dirty blonde hair and ocean blue eyes that matched his alignment disposition aura. He was wearing a nicely polished set of metal armor. One of the magic items he had was an ornate sword that was enchanted with a 3rd level fire and sharpness.
Magic was generally measured from level 0-9th, with each level of magic generally denoting an increase of two character levels. So someone who could cast third level magic would have to be at least level 5 or 6 depending on the type of mage the caster was. All casters would get level 0 and 1 spells starting from their first character levels. Innate casters got their first spell level increase starting at character level 4 and every even level after that, while knowledge based characters got theirs starting at character level 3 and every odd. Even though Akil was a combination Innate and Knowledge based caster he had to deal with the worse progression of the Innate caster but his pool of arcane power made up for the difference.
A 3rd level spell was low level to Akil but could be considered quite a bit stronger than the level 0 and 1 spells that enchanted the rest of the magic items in the room. The sword user sat down with a small group of what Akil assumed was his party. They looked like a pretty standard party with a mage, a healer, a swordsman, an archer and a thief.
It was the second magic item that really caught Akil’s attention, it was much more subtle and sinister. It was a ring on his finger enchanted with the 2nd level spell False Disposition which would allow him hide his true disposition from magical detection spells like Detect Disposition that the guards had used previously. This by itself was very suspicious but what really pushed Akil over the edge was the white light effect surrounding the heads of his party members. That effect only happened to people that were under the influence of enchantment spells. Whatever their deal was there was definitely something fishy going on with them but Akil told himself that it wasn’t his business right now to get involved, he had issues of his own he needed to take care of and he couldn’t risk exposing himself.
Around this time Akil made it to the front of the line. The receptionist barely looked at him before she said in a monotone voice.
“Welcome to the Graycott hunter’s guild, how may we assist you this afternoon.” (receptionist)
Akil took out the wand of invisibility and placed it on the counter then cleared his throat and put on his best scholarly voice along with a winning smile.
“Hello, I am here to sell this magic item as well as to inquire about joining your guild. I was wondering if you could give me a quick rundown of how the guild operates first if you please.” (Akil)
The receptionist didn’t even bother to hide her disdain, seemingly immune to his charms. With a look of disgust and a curt voice she replied.
“I don’t have the time nor the patience to handhold some greenhorn, you can bring the magic item to the appraiser in the back, maybe she will be willing to humor you.” (receptionist)
She raised her arm and pointed sharply towards a door in the back of the room. Without even so much as a second glance she shooed Akil away and asked for the next person in line. Akil walks towards the door the receptionist had pointed out with a fake dejected look on his face. He could hear a bit of laughter coming from around him, he sensed someone walk up behind him. A strong hand clapped his shoulder and a coarse laugh sounded in his ear. He turned to see a grizzled dark-haired man with a scar over his left eye. While still roughly clapping Akil’s shoulder he said in a loud voice.
“Don’t take Marisha too seriously, rookie, she's always been like that, Bwhaha.” (dark-haired man)
His laugh was loud and grating, but Akil let him finish whatever it is he wanted to say.
“Say.. You look pretty tough, why don’t you join my crew once you have finished the Hunter exam, we are close to promoting to Bronze Rank so you would be on the fast track.” (dark-haired man)
With a grateful tone Akil replied.
“Thank you for the offer but I wouldn’t want to hold you guys back, I’m just a simple scholar, I don’t know too much about combat, I just like to do workouts, my father always said that the body and mind need to be forged together.” (Akil)
The dark haired man rubbed his beard thoughtfully.
“Well if you change your mind the offer still stands. The name is Gralt, just ask about me or the my party, Silver Claws, we’re pretty famous around here” (Gralt)
Akil smiled and nodded as the man walked away. Akil continued walking towards the room that Marisha had indicated without any more interruptions. A bell rang as he opened the door into a room with a small round table with multiple seats surrounding it. There was another door at the other side of the room from which a gentle voice rang out.
“I’ll be right with you” (?)
Akil took a seat at the table and silently cast a spell to send a message to Soothseer.
[Sending]
“Start scrying the cities Graycott and Damerel, report back to me in a couple of hours with basic information about the country and some important current events.” (Akil)
Just as Akil finished sending his message when the door swung open, the person that walked out almost caused Akil to completely lose his composure. From Ray’s point of view, this woman was as close to perfection as possible. She had cascades of soft pink hair, a pair of elegant glasses covering gorgeous seafoam colored eyes. Her face was extremely gentle and nurturing with luscious peach colored lips. Her body, although modestly covered in a flowing dress that matched her eyes, was extremely curvy. If Ray had to rate her next to Elvara purely on looks he would have to give this new woman the slight edge based on his tastes.
But what struck Akil so hard that his mind was in shambles was that this woman looked almost identical to Akil’s wife who had passed away almost 1700 years ago.
As he blankly stared at her trying to pick the pieces of his mind. The woman looked at him with worry.
“I’m sorry… is something the matter?” (?)
Akil’s mind raced as he quickly regained his willpower, he shut his mouth that had been hanging open and wiped the surprised look off his face.
“That was very rude of me, my apologies. You reminded me of someone that I used to know and it took me aback.” (Akil)
The woman turned from worry back to a gentle expression.
“That's quite alright, I’m sorry to say that I’m not who you used to know, I definitely would remember meeting someone as unique as you. Let's start this meaning over, I am Selena, I work part time as an appraiser here at the hunter’s guild.” (Selena)
She flashed a smile that was brighter and more cheerful than the morning sun. If it weren’t for Akils strong willpower he would have lost his composure all over again, he felt a deep throbbing ache in his heart. He hadn’t felt this way in over a thousand years and he didn’t even realize that it was possible to feel this way again. Maybe it was possible that his fusion with Ray had heightened his feelings due to his younger perspective. He used a meditation technique to clear his mind of any unwanted feelings, completely washing away his longing. He replied with a cool tone.
“It's my pleasure to meet you Selena, I am Akil, a scholar and Damerel Mages College aspirant. I am here to sell my magic item as well as inquire about joining the hunter’s guild.” (Akil)
Akil took out the wand of invisibility and placed it on the table. With his newfound calmness he noticed that she was also wearing two relatively strong magic items. A ring on her finger was enchanted with 3nd level protection magic and her staff was enchanted with 2nd level metamagic that would allow her to strengthen her spells.
“Ah, I will get that situated for you. I bet Marisha gave you a hard time, she despises dealing with newbies. Try not to hate her… She's actually a sweet girl at heart, she just gets dumped so much work by the guild master of this branch that she's constantly busy.” (Selena)
She began chanting a spell, her hands making complex signs, sigils appeared around the wand on the table.
[Identify]
It took her about a minute after the spell was fully cast to fully identify the item, she looked up at him with slight surprise in her eyes.
“This is enchanted by the 2nd level spell Invisibility and it has two charges left but it had about 50 charges total when it was created. How did you get your hands on such an item? We definitely don’t have a magic item crafter here in Graycott that could make such a thing.” (Selena)
Akil quickly followed up with his prepared lie.
“Well I needed to do research in the Shadowthicket so I used my life savings on it. It only had 6 charges when I bought it second hand but it still cost quite a bit of money… although it was definitely worth it because it saved my life many times over. ” (Akil)
Her hand went up to her mouth as she exclaimed.
“You went into the Shadowthicket?! That's too dangerous even with an item like this, there's creatures that can see through invisibility that live there, they would have torn you to shreds.”
Akil let out a fake sigh.
“In the pursuit of knowledge a little danger is a sure thing.” (Akil)
“Well you need to avoid such excessive risks, what about the people who care about you?” (Selena)
She had closed her eyes and started lecturing me like some doting mother. She shook her head one more time and continued on.
“Well either way, we can offer you 4 gold for this wand. You could probably get a little more selling it on auction or to a private buyer but the guild needs room to make a profit.” (Selena)
Akil had expected the item to be worth around 5 gold in the first place so 4 wasn’t that far off. He had seen some exchanges while waiting in line in the guild so he knew the currency was the same as Gathilion. That meant there was copper, silver, gold and platinum with each one being worth 10 of the previous. Most common day to day exchanges were done in copper. He looked back at Selena.
“That works for me, it's enough to get me back on my feet.” (Akil)
She took the wand and counted out 4 gold pieces. She finished the exchange and added.
“I still have some work to finish up. I should be free in about an hour to give you an introduction to the guild if you want to wait around in the front.” (Selena)
He nodded and thanked her one more time. They parted ways as she went back deeper into the guild and he went back out to the front of the house.
He let go of his meditation and all the feelings from before washed over him again. What was that, was she possibly related to why Akil was summoned into this world? He refused to believe it was a coincidence that someone who looked exactly like his deceased wife so soon after coming to this world. He rubbed his head listlessly and added it to the list of ever growing recent mysteries.