I went over the rest of the interface quickly, the “Quest Tracker” basically let me know what my active quest was and what the objectives were to complete the quest. It took me a minute to wrap my head around that. Quests. I had of course heard of quests, but those were mainly in stories of heroes and legends. Grand adventures that the hero would take to save his village, people, or nation. Knights went on quests, not beggars. I was familiar with the notifications so I just skipped quickly through that part. All that was remaining were the left and right hand spaces. I decided to just get the basic information for those since Flint was beginning to stir. They were fairly simple, they showed what items I held in my hands and then depending on the item it would give different abilities that I had learned to use with that item. I finished the tutorial for the “Primary User Interface” and my real interface showed.

[https://antagonist.games/vagabond/Nibingul-UI-000.png]

I sighed in relief when the portrait on the interface looked like me and not some wretched Dwarf. Though the realism and accuracy of my appearance was more than a little alarming. I glanced at my Physique, Intellect, and Spirit but without digging deeper into what those numbers meant I really didn’t know if they were good, bad, or average.

I spent some time switching items in and out of my hands. I tried my long daggers first and in the six boxes around the icon appeared three different icons. The first icon, at the bottom left of the right-hand symbol, which now had an exact image of my dagger, was what looked like a thrusting icon. When I focused on it, a tooltip popped up with a message that said “Piercing Thrust. This attack is used to hit vital areas on your target, depending on what vital area you choose to target you will have an attack penalty from -4 to -8 to hit.”

Next to that icon was another that looked like it was a thrown dagger and the text on it read “Dagger Throw. Use this attack to fling your dagger at a target within ten feet of you. This attack will be at a -2 to hit unless you are using daggers specifically designed for throwing.”

The last icon had an image of a dagger being thrust into the back of someone and it was greyed out like it couldn’t be used. The text for this tooltip read “Backstab. This attack can only be used from behind a target while you are under concealment. (Stealth or Invisibility) This attack gives you a +4 to hit and will immediately result in double damage, triple damage if the hit is a Critical.”

Wow. That seemed incredibly powerful and, if this is all not just a massive delusion brought on by insanity or a curse, it could explain some things that I had done in the past. I was still a little overwhelmed but a tiny bit of me was curiously excited. I couldn’t explain why I was excited, but with all of this information, it seemed like my life just got a whole lot easier. The strange thing though, other than the obvious, was that none of this started until the morning I woke up before going into Roslicay to see Abrios. While I was blankly looking at the interface I jumped a little when Flint spoke.

“What are you doing friend?” Flint’s deep gravelly voice startled me and I quickly turned to look at the priest, my eyes focusing once again.

“I was jus thinkin’ ta myself.” I replied a bit distantly. “Can you remove curses?”

“Curses? Are you cursed? There are some priests of my order who can do such things, unfortunately, that is not one of my talents. What makes you think that you are cursed, other than possibly the smell and the state of you?” Flint said with a bit of a smirk.

“Meh, you’ll jus think that I’s gone all barmy in me head if I tell ya what be wrong,” I said and then waved it off with a filthy hand. My slim fingers were crusted with dirt and my long yellowed fingernails were cracked and unkempt. Flint sat there watching me with a mix of curiosity and concern on his face.

“I would never besmirch the woes of someone to whom I owe such a debt, my friend. Surely if there is something that is afflicting you I would be more than happy to assist you in any way possible. Please, tell me what is bothering you. There is a temple in Jewel Abbey which is only a day's walk from here, if this is something that the members of my order can help you with, it shall be done.” Flint held his hand to the medallion at his neck and mouthed a few words, most likely an oath to his deity.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Awright then. Four days ago, when I woked up under me bridge I noticed that I had a little sunspot in me vision. I hadn’t seen it before, me vision has always been perfecly clear. As I made me way through the market in Roslicay, that spot kept flashin’ an blinkin’. When I went ta sleep that night I kinda thought about it and it got biggened and I had a box with writin’ in it.” I studied the priest’s face as I spoke about the notifications about his Larceny gaining PIPs but I really didn’t feel comfortable telling the priest what the PIPs were for.

Flint looked at me quizzically and smiled for a second. “You mean to tell me that you had notifications? What were they for?”

I felt like my jaw would fall off my face and I stared at Flint in amazement, though to Flint he was just sitting still since his expression was hidden in the deep recesses of his hood. “Well, they was fer gettin’ PIPs in skills.” I finally said.

“And this is why you think that you are cursed? Because you were leveling up your skills in the market?” Flint chuckled a bit. “Friend Nibingul, that is perfectly normal. So you can also see the information for your Attributes, quests, and what is in your hands?”

“Yes, but I ain’t never seen them before a few days back. I just woke up and there they were.” I explained, I was getting a bit agitated at the way he just casually dismissed it.

“Nibingul, you must be mistaken. That is normal. We all see that it is perfectly normal. You are not cursed. There may be many things wrong with you, but I assure you that is not one of them.” Flint stood up and stretched, groaning loudly and wincing as some of his bones creaked and popped. “Tell you what, if you have any questions about your interface just let me know. I would be happy to answer them for you. If anything I would say that you are suffering malnourishment, we will go to the temple and get you fed. You are skinny as a rail and pale as death.”

I sat for another moment watching Flint break camp and begin packing things away on his mount’s saddle and packs. I grumbled a few choice curses under my breath. Maybe I was cursed before and it made me forget that the “Primary User Interface” was normal and it got lifted while I slept? This was all just too confusing. With a huff, I stood up and began to pack up my own things, and when I started to hand the bedroll and blankets to Flint the man wrinkled his nose and waved him off. “Those are yours, my friend, I’m not sure that I would be able to get the smell out of them. You can store whatever treasures that you found on those bandits on Surefoot over there, I’ve already removed what he was carrying to Earbiter to make room for your spoils.” Flint said with a bit of mirth in his voice, pointing first to the large black packhorse who must be Surefoot and then to the slightly scraggly brown one that must be Earbiter.

“Earbiter?” I asked with a bit of a chuckle.

“Aye, get too close to him and you will find out why I call him that. A temperamental beast he is, but he’s sturdy and tireless so I keep him around. This one here…” Flint said, patting the large grey warhorse next to him. “is named Mithril. He’s been my best friend and traveling companion for most of my life. Haven’t you big boy?” Flint then said in an almost childish placating tone to the gigantic grey monster of a horse.

I spent a couple of minutes picking out the better quality weapons, the ones that I figured would bring me the most money and several pieces of the armor, and loaded them onto Surefoot. The black horse just stood there patiently while I struggled with the bindings and saddlebags to get what I could stash onto the horse. Flint came by a few moments after I had finished, looking at the straps to make sure that everything was secured before handing the lead to me.

“He seems to like you well enough. We will walk to Jewel Abbey, we should be there by nightfall or a little after.” Flint said, nodding his head and looking towards the northeast. I took the horse by the reins and led him to the thicket where I had tied up the mule, goats, and stashed my pigeon cage. I slid the large cage onto my back and began walking to catch up to Flint, the train of animals following behind me.

“Really? You are going to drag around that poor mule and those goats? Just set them free, I know that you pilfered enough coins from those bandits that you don’t need to sell them.” Flint said with a raised eyebrow.

“I ain’t letting Branil go, he’s mah War Mule and has been my loyal steed fer longer than I can remember. I also ain’t getting rid of Jastonis or Teril neither, they’s good goats an I haven’t had to feed ‘im in years.” I said a bit defensively to Flint.

“And the pigeons?” Flint said, his eyebrow rising even higher.

“They’re… they’re.. well they’re good eatin’ if it comes to it,” I said in an exasperated huff.

“Now that’s just gross. Not as gross as the filth that they leave down your back, but still gross. You should pray for some rain, I would rather not drag you into my temple in the state that you are in.” Flint said, with more than a little disgust in his tone.