Dren shifted the bow on his shoulder slightly as he watched from his hiding place. His gaze was locked on the small town ahead of him. It had been a week since he stepped through that door onto the newly integrated Earth. During that time he had met only one other native and no other fellow invaders. The native had been an older man with the archer class. His second encounter hadn’t gone as well as the first.

First, he learned that the hood of a cloak being up seemed to prevent identity from working on someone. Unless you were face-to-face with them at least. Dren had tried to sneak up on the archer, intent on just taking him out in an ambush. Only the man had turned around at the last moment. Letting Dren who was only level two by then see that the man was also level two. The startled man had jumped back at seeing him. Lunging he had tried to strike the man in the chest, aiming for the glowing spot marking his heart. But the man was fast, faster than Dren even. They had managed to skip back while twisting their body in what seemed like an impossible way, causing the dagger to miss the mark. Their own padded gambeson helped deflect the dagger thrust slightly. Only letting him leave a shallow wound.

Even moving backwards they had been graceful and far faster than Dren was. ‘Shit he must be fully min-maxed for agility.’ Dren mentally cursed as he rushed after the man who was screaming curses at him. Dren ignored the words and continued to chase right after them. It was only when the man started to draw his bow to shoot. That his speed slowed enough for Dren to catch up. Doing his best to dodge he still took the arrow in his shoulder. It had hurt and done around thirty points of damage. Considering it wasn’t a critical hit, that was impressive compared to the damage his dagger would do with a normal hit.

But despite the pain Dren had slammed into the man with a tackle. Once engaged in a grapple it became very clear that his strength was higher than the man’s. Who even with a much stockier build than Dren couldn’t brake free. Both on the ground, as they fought, Dren’s short dagger proved far more effective. Still, the struggling archer had managed to avoid taking a critical strike for several stabs before Dren managed to land a solid stab into the glowing spot on the side of the man’s stomach. That critical strike combined with the previously delivered normal attacks was enough to end the man. Dren was again glad he had decided to take the life affinity as without it, that arrow would have taken nearly a third of his max health instead of closer to a mere five percent. Then he remembered all his points in toughness and wondered just how hard the bow hit.

Examining the bow he found it did one and a half times dexterity. If that archer had maxed out his agility and dexterity as he believed he had. Then that explained why it did so much damage still. Why did Dren think he had min-maxed agility and dexterity? Because he had also been a level two belly dancer.

“I don’t regret not taking that stupid profession.” Dren said as he stood up still panting slightly from the surprisingly pitched battle. Before pulling out the arrow causing him to let out a hiss of pain through clenched teeth. For a moment he debated before deciding to leave the wound to regenerate on its own. Despite taking a few more points of damage pulling the arrow out. The wound had already mostly stopped bleeding. He had plenty of health potions and his life surge but it seemed wrong to waste either on such a small wound.

After that, he looted the archer. Taking his bow and pouch of potions. It looked as if they had drank two of the health and one of the stamina potions. Dren had played with the bow for a bit trying to figure out how it worked since the archer had no quiver. In fact, an arrow had basically appeared on the string when he drew it back. Dren tried and no arrow appeared. Worse he had released the string. It had scraped along the inside of his forearm causing a few points of damage to his health and hurting almost more than the arrow had.

Realizing the archer had the exact same armor on as he did, he slung the bow over his shoulder effectively making himself look like an archer. Also, he wanted to enchant the bow simply for more enchanter experience. He was certain to be close to level five. Speaking of levels. Killing that archer had pushed him to level three.

Leveling had been slow as the forest he moved through wasn’t filled with monsters. He had battled a few three-foot-tall forest squirrels. But they hadn’t been much of a challenge or worth much experience. Only getting him to level two and he still felt like most of that level was from the mage he had killed. The only other “monster” he had seen were some rather large owl-looking birds. He was pretty sure they were stronger than the squirrels. Since he had seen one swoop in and snatch the squirrel he was sneaking up on right out of his tree. But while he had seen a few they were fast. And you know, flew. Dren figured the archer had gotten to level two by being able to hunt both creatures. Dren definitely wasn’t having class regrets.

But, things had changed earlier on the sixth day. He had found a road and followed it. Finally, coming to a town. Dren eyed the buildings and thought they looked a lot like the ones back in his own home. But that wasn’t unusual. Almost all planets with humans progressed in a very similar manner prior to integration from what he understood. Dren even knew that the translation skill built into the system wasn’t even necessary for a lot of new worlds. Why this was? Dren didn’t know and honestly didn’t care. It just made things easier for him.

What he did care about was the town ahead of him. He was certain they were all natives. But that was kinda the problem. There were too many of them. And oddly enough many of them were higher level than him. “They must be hunting something else around here. That or killing a ton of their own people.” He didn’t think it was the latter. In the day he had been watching he had seen a few people follow the same road and head into the town. Most were still level one even. They mostly seemed a mix of confused and lost. What he had originally thought of as guards at the entrance seemed more like guides for these new arrivals. Though he could only catch a few words from his hiding spot. It was clear they were trying to orient the new arrivals.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Finally, Dren decided to just attempt to approach the town as he had with the mage. If they proved hostile he would just have to make a run for it. The highest level he had seen was five in their class. Most only having a few levels if any in their profession. Now that he was a level three assassin and level five enchanter he had a fair amount of stats under his belt. At level five he had even gotten to select a new rune for enchanting from a selection of a few. The lesser bleed rune would be a great asset once he got a new dagger to put it on. He regretted enchanting his previous one now.

Retreating a ways back down the road he exited the forest and made his way towards the town. Doing just like most did and walking down the road. He was nervous as he approached the greeters/guards. One was in a set of chain mail and Dren had already identified them as a level four defender. With a level one blacksmithing profession. The other was a level one mage in a teal-colored robe. While their class level was low, they were also a level five guide. Dren hadn’t seen that as a professional option at all. And wondered if it was something only natives were given the option of.

“Hello!” The teal-robed mage said as he moved closer. When he looked up to meet their gaze he could see the man squint slightly. “Oh, an assassin. I thought you were an archer!” Dren tensed thinking the man was onto him. But instead, the man’s face softened, losing some of his joy. “I’m sorry if you lost someone close to you.” His smile revitalized as he continued. “You have leveled a few times and even have your profession to level five! Impressive. I haven’t seen any enchanters yet. That should be a great boon for us!” The man was full of joy and cheer to an obscene level.

“Did you run into those wolf creatures?” The other guy asked.

Dren hesitated a moment before just nodding and speaking softly, still nervous as he lied. “Yeah. I did.” He shifted the bow uncomfortably on his back as he spoke. The defender’s expression grew sullen for a moment but he nodded.

“We’ve had more than one party come in with casualties from those things. Their good experience but their numbers make them too dangerous. Especially if you lack armor or didn’t take any vitality. Who knew how important that stat would be.” The mage chuckled oddly.

“Nothing to worry about, young man. You will find we are already making good progress and you are more than welcome. There are nearly half a dozen guides here already helping both those that want to progress in their classes and professions. With your profession already level five you could easily focus on just that. No need to go around fighting.” The teal-robed man smiled and then shook his head suddenly. “Forgive me. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Richard and this is Frank.” Richard smiled as he motioned to the defender.

“Jeremy.” Dren said remembering the nervous mage from the first day’s name. “I’d like to fight if possible.”

The teal-robed mage seemed surprised by that. While Frank the defender seemed to nod almost approvingly.

“Well. That can be arranged. Let me take you to one of the guides assisting the um adventurers.” Richard said after a slight hesitation.

“Ok. What is a guide?” Dren asked while moving to follow the departing mage. All while trying his best to keep his eye on the defender without making it obvious.

“Oh, didn’t read up about it during the um character creation? Not surprising. The younger folk seemed to mostly glaze over it from what I can tell. A guide is a profession that gives us access to a bit more information about” He waved his hands around. “Everything going on. To well, guide humanity along these challenging times.”

“So you know what is happening?” Dren was ready to bolt.

“You mean this whole integration stuff? Not really. We get a bit of information about the um mechanics of this whole new system. A bit of information to help us grow. Knowledge about things called dungeons and quests. The guide I am taking you to will be able to help you more with those two things. If you are intent on focusing on your um class. They will be of more help. Though, I would recommend focusing on your profession.” He gave a small awkward chuckle. “It is safer and you could be of great help to others.”

Dren nodded. “I’d rather work on my class.” The older man sighed as he shrugged while muttering something about the youths. But continued leading him along. Dren took in the people around him. Some were moving around with a purpose. A few were even working at what he assumed were crude workstations. These two groups tended to have either their class or profession at or near level five. But for every one of these, there were a handful of people just seeming to mill about. Or sitting around. Almost all of these were still level one in both class and profession.

Dren felt a deep sense of disgust for that last group. They had been given an amazing opportunity. The chance for growth during a system integration was beyond amazing. With no factions yet established. No clear hierarchy of power. Dungeons, monsters, and all other resources freely accessible to everyone equally. Instead of being monopolized by those who already had power. And what do they do with this amazing once in many generations chance? They sit and do nothing. Dren wished he could just start completing his quest here and now. But knew that wouldn’t be wise. He had even seen a level-eight defender. Let alone many others around five already.

“Here we are.” Richard said and Dren turned his attention to where the man was leading him. Ahead was a young blonde woman around his own age wearing a plain off-white robe. Using Identify he couldn’t keep his eyebrows from going up.

Human (N)

Healer (8)

Guide (8)

“Jen. I have another one for your um dungeon groups.” Richard said, catching the girl's attention.

She turned to them with a smile that turned into an angry frown just after she focused on Dren causing him to tense up.