Mark got up and started cooking breakfast with some leftovers of the rabbit he had yesterday, together with some herbs he found during his hunting in the forest. It was already a month since he came to this world, and he has long since completely adjusted to his current body, and has no problems whatsoever with moving anymore. He has also been eating well these days so he considerably buffed up and he rose up about 3cm. His stats have also risen considerably, compared to what they have been a month ago.
Name: Mark
Class: None
Level: 3
Experience: 21/40
MP: 10/10
SP: 24/24
Strength: 8
Agility: 11
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 5
Skill:
Precise Shot LVL 3 EXP 1/40,
Novice Bow Mastery LVL 3 EXP 17/40,
Novice Dagger Mastery LVL 3 EXP 23/40,
Stab LVL 3 EXP 5/40,
Stealth LVL 2 EXP 62/80
*Sprint*
Run much faster.
LVL 2 EXP 3/20
*Double Tap*
Shoot two arrows at the same time, arrows will land very closely together.
LVL 1 EXP 17/20
*Quick Step*
Make an instantaneous step in any direction.
LVL 2 EXP 11/40
Thanks to his training regime he not only improved in the stats department, but was also able to unlock three new skills. He was certainly satisfied with them, the only thing was that the skills were stupidly ambiguous about their meaning. Through tests and trials he found that the [Precise Shot] improved accuracy of the shot by about 5% and [Stab] was doing about 15% more damage than a normal stab from him was supposed to.
Also up to now he had no other contact with any monsters, although he found an increasing amount of goblin trails, all he could find were just wild animals that mostly looked just like normal Earth animals, just that they sometimes had some strange mutations. Deer with six legs, rabbits with horns, boars with sharp bone shards jutting out of their spinal cord. Fortunately, their meat tasted exactly like they tasted on Earth, that's at least one problem down.
When he ate the rest of his rabbit he took his things, packed up into a backpack made out of the strange six legged deer's hide and went out of his little house in which he lived for the past month. He got to the fence of the Alpacows and freed them, they were very gentle animals and provided him with milk, all the time he spent here so he decided to free them instead of killing them for meat, in the end he could always hunt some more game later, so there was no need for him to butcher them. After chasing them to the part of the forest where there were little to no predators and generally where only small game lived he looked for the last time at his new and old home, and went out to seek more information about the world he ended up in.
...............................................................................................
He got to the crossroads near the river and after deliberating at it for a moment he decided to go right. He was walking for a couple of hours, when he was met with yet another crossroads. Here his dirt path merged with a road made out of cobblestone, so it should be much more busy than the one he traveled. He also found an old almost faded sign.
An arrow was pointing to the right and left, the left one was completely unreadable at this point, faded with time and elements, and the right one had a barely discernible name inscribed on it. When saw the letters he was immensely relieved when he found out it was written in English alphabet, because he wasn't sure if he could read it if it was written in some strange local language. The sign said "Pharia" he thought that it may be some town or at least a village, if so then he may at least get some information about the surroundings and how to get to the nearest city.
With that he could access more information, and maybe if there was such a thing here join some Adventurer's Guild or some Mercenary Union, with that he could also get a job or something to get an income from. Maybe even get some sparring partners that could help him practice his skills to a higher degree. In the end on Earth there was no such thing that would tell you how good you are at something, or how developed your body truly is.
Thanks to that system he has a much better way of tracking his progress, maybe thanks to that he will be able to bring his abilities to never before seen heights. But it would all take time as the abilities he was specializing in on Earth were coming back very slowly and through continuous use, so for now he was still very weak. And because of that he had to be extremely cautious.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
And that is why instead of going by road he decided to go BY the road and look if there are any dangers laying ahead, he also knew that bandits must be everywhere. They existed even on Earth that was so much more technologically advanced than this world, then there should be no question that they will be here, as long as humanity exists, there will be people who are too lazy to work for themselves, and would rather prey on others. That is why he had to be aware of any ambushes on the road even before the bandits knew he was there. With that he will always have the surprise advantage.
He started moving and after another couple hours he stopped to catch a break, he sat in some bushes by the road and took the dried meat out of his backpack and drank a mouthful of water. After a couple of minutes of resting his back against a tree, he hit the side of the road again.
The day went on without any surprises. When the sun was about to set he climbed a tree with a thick foliage, and bound himself to it with a belt that he could take of at any moment and slept through the night. He woke up the next morning ate breakfast and continued on his journey, during midday he stopped once more and ate his dried meat again.
Two hours after his break, a wooden palisade appeared on the horizon with a couple of people waiting at the gates being checked by three guards, or at least he assumed they were guards. They had uniform clothing and all of them held spears, the whole shtick.
He was happy that he finally found some civilization, he was starting to feel strangely lonely in his hut, he also found out that he was sometimes talking to himself. That was what worried him the most. When he came close to the gate he realized that the spears the guards held were completely identical to the one he was holding on to, albeit in a little better condition. He closed in on the gates and the guards stopped him before the entrance.
"Halt, who are you, and what are you doing here?"
"I came from that road over there, and I am here to maybe spend a night in a warm bed?"
"Don’t act smart with me punk, now talk. What is your business, I don't have time to play with you!"
"Ok, ok, relax. I lived in the forest up to now, but there were some goblins gathering in the woods around me, so I abandoned my old house and decided to go live in a city, so now here I am."
"Hmph, goblins you say, that’s too bad, how many of them were there, were there any that looked different than the …?"
"Ralph look at that."
At this moment one of the other guards called out to the one I was talking to and pointed at the spear hoisted on my back. It seems that they have also realized that the spear looked like the ones they were carrying.
"Where did you get that spear, kid? Talk."
"Well as I was saying there were some goblins near my house and I killed some, and one of them was holding this. It was in considerably better condition than the other weapons they had on them. So I took it with me, what, is it a crime or something?"
"Hmm, no, it is not it is just that, a couple of months back our town sent a squad of guards to look if there were really some goblin gatherings happening, but none of them got back. We already considered that they died there but now we have got a confirmation. Sigh... that’s some bad news you bring with you, but whatever, it seems that we will have to post some quest for Goblin Leaders to the Adventurers Association again, fucking leeches. Whatever, I assume that you don't have an identity token with you, right?"
"Nope, none at all"
"Eh, come with me then, we will make you one. Stan call Danny and stay here. Your shift ends in an hour. Then it is Daren’s, Tom’s and Gary’s turn. Right, what is your name kid?
"Mark"
"Very well, come with me then Mark."
They went into some building that looked to be bigger than the others around it and made of stone unlike the other wooden buildings. He assumed it was some barracks, cause it didn't look like the a town hall, it was sturdy and had only one floor.
He went in after Ralph, and entered a room, directly to the right from the entrance. There Ralph had him seat by the table. He went to a cupboard by the wall and took some strange device out of it and he set it on the table directly before me.
"It is a Lie detecting Artifact. It will check everything that you say and will start glowing red immediately if you tell a lie, so now let's start. Name?"
"Mark"
"Age?"
"19"
"Class?"
"Hmm, why, is that relevant?"
"Of course it is, it helps us keep the outlaws and bandits out and helps us catch them if they dare show themselves. Everyone that walks the path of crime no matter what he was doing before changes his class to a banditry related one. So, class?"
"Hmm, well none?"
"Ok, and the last one, your level?"
"And why is that important?"
"To allocate you a danger level if you were to do something stupid, ok?"
"Oh, then I am level three."
He looked at him with a strange gaze and said.
"Hmm, ok, wait here.”
He said and then went out. About five minutes later he came back with a small copper token in hand. He passed it to Mark and it instantly expanded in his eyes, exactly like the marks on his wrist when he looked at them, and saw all the information that he gave to Ralph recorded on it.
And when the boy thought about his system he realized something. When he looked at the guards wrist he saw a vambrace covering his whole wrist also there were some runes carved on the wrist guard in the place where the Menu is supposed to be.
He guessed that it was to hide the statistics from others, he didn’t really know why but he guessed that if he asked he would be stared at weirdly again so he didn't.
“If you register with the Adventures remember to return the token, if not it is yours till you decide to leave the town.”
When we went out of the barracks Mark asked him some more questions though.
"Hey Ralph, do you know where I could stay for a while, get something to eat and maybe get better weapons or repair what I have here?"
"Sure, there is Dancing Goblin down the road in this direction and the local blacksmith is a couple buildings down the same road."
"Thanks"
"Don't cause trouble kid."
After parting with the guard Ralph, Mark went to the Dancing Goblin to book a room and maybe get a warm meal. Walking down the road the young man saw many people walking around, from what he saw the situation here wasn't so bad, the people were decently clothed, apparently well fed, and all of them were smiling, also there were no beggars on the streets or abandoned alleys where they would huddle together, and he saw no slums.
After entering the Dancing Goblin what greeted him was a really cozy main hall that during this time has already started filling with patrons. Ignoring the growing bustle he quickly walked up to the bar and was greeted by a slim man who looked to be in his forties.
"How’s it goin lad. Somethin to drink ey?"
"I’m ok, do you have something to eat?"
"Aye, jus a moment, it's goin to be a meal time soon."
"That's great, how much for a mug of beer?"
"Its 2 copper son, you want one?"
"Sure"
After the inkeep gave him the beer, Mark turned around and observed the now crowded inn. There were people laughing, playing some card games, drinking and a couple waitresses running around with beer and greeting new guests. It was pretty much what he imagined whenever he read about those kinds of establishments. He couldn't help but feel strange. The atmosphere was really good with a homey feel to it.
Suddenly he felt his body relaxing, all his worries, anxiousness, fear of the unknown on this strange planet, started to slowly leave him, his head felt clearer, his shoulders lighter. At this moment there was a bell ring sound and all the waitresses went to the backdoor behind the bar, and a moment later exited with plates full of food. The last to enter the hall was the barkeep with only one plate and placed it in front of Mark.
"Thank you"