The sea breeze gently touched upon my form as I awoke and stretched. The small vessel I traveled on was cramped to say the least, especially for my rather large frame. I was roughly 6’4 and still growing with an impressive musculature level for my age, suffice to say, I did not do well with small spaces. I had taken the quickest route to Traven, far to the south of where I used to live. Looking upon the endless blue was disconcerting, seeing no Eld trees, nor the rough mountains of my home made my heart ache already for what I was leaving behind. But there was nothing there for me, my parents had long been dead, my people practically extinct with mostly halfbloods left. I briefly wondered if I was the only pureblood alive. But surely some others must be alive, it was a large world after all. I rummaged through my travel sack, pulling my cloak around me to stave off the mornings chill and a book to continue my studies in common. My grasp of the language was atrocious, and it was by pure luck the second in command on the vessel knew a smattering of Eldish so that I could book a spot on the ship. I sat between rowing benches against the starboard side, opening the book and reading my fill while pronouncing the words in my mouth without talking. The sailors had taken to ignoring me, I was just a stranger unable to talk to them from a bygone era, a curiosity for an evening, no more. The captain walked down his ship, eyeing the sailors at work and making sure all was well. After spotting my little nook, he gave me a warm smile and approached me.

“How go your studies into common lad?” He spoke with the easy garrulous charm that allowed him to lead dozens of men.

“Ehhh, good I think” I spoke with a heavy northern accent, my mouth was simply too used to speaking my own tongue.

His eyes glimmered with mirth at my words as he no doubt found it amusing. “Well then lad, keep at it and I might let you put those muscles to good work on my crew.”

I nodded politely as he continued his inspection. That was the second time the captain made his offer, and I was tempted at first, but it wasn’t my path. My heart didn’t lie at sea and I wouldn’t cling to the first smiling face that turned towards me.

______________

Before my father died, he told me very clearly to take a path towards schooling myself and learning what I could not myself, such as magic. I imagined his kindly face looking down at me, “Any common man can be a sailor, a soldier, a baker. Do you want to be any common man? No. Exceptional men improve themselves further, they go to places of learning, become scholars, magicians, officers.” His raspy tired voice was filled with a false stern tone. He grinned at my rapt attention, ruffling my messy hair. “Do you see any places of learning around here? Is this a place that makes exceptional men?” To illustrate his point, he waved his arms around himself, pointing towards the Dornwald forest, the mountains, and our humble cabin. He smiled wistfully, imagined what had once been. “Maybe long ago, generations ago, it once was.” I nodded along with him, I too had seen the ruins, walked among the now overgrown town, and explored the ruined fort.

“Promise me Jan, become an exceptional man for me.” The air tasted almost bitter, sad. My father had never been a happy man, he put on an air of happiness around me, he smiled genuinely whenever he saw me, but to me it always felt like he was longing what he missed, my mother. I couldn’t relate to him in this aspect, I never knew her, but I sorely wished I did. In this moment, I easily guessed he was remembering her, and I loved my father too much to let him dwell on her.

“Come, I’ll hunt us a deer and we’ll eat well tonight.” I spoke softly, my face turned away from his. He patted my back and nodded, wiping his face on his shirt.

“I’ll get the herbs, stay safe now, you haven’t gotten a class yet.” He gingerly stretched and got up, hobbling towards the cabin as I fetched my hunting tools.

______________

I jolted out of my fond remembrance at a sailor calling out.

“Land spotted!” He called out from the rigging while pointing. I followed where he was pointing with my eyes, peering into the vast distance to see an imprecise speck of something. Perhaps it would be my last day on the long voyage, an opportunity to stretch my legs. My attention drifted back into the open book as I started my learning yet again.

Hours later the cries of seagulls above me distracted me from learning. Instead, I watched the unfamiliar land we now sailed parallel against. The odd trees, odd birds, and the city we were approaching with its odd architecture. The closest to a city I had been to was the local village near my home, a far distance from where I lived. I started my journey there, so this was the first time I had seen such density of people. Suddenly I was hesitant. Did I make the right decision to journey so far from what I knew? Would I find a living here? Could I find a living here? My resolve firmed itself as I wanted to be confident when stepping off the ship.

Flurry of movement across the ship increased as they made preparations to dock and then unload. Time not spent moving goods was time spent wasting money in the captain’s eyes. The captain made sure to raise his guilds flags and we passed through a semi permeable magic barrier. I had questioned him earlier about the odd tradition. He told me pirates would sometimes target some guilds, so when sailing, to avoid any discrimination or unluckiness, you didn’t sail your flag until you came to a friendly port. The magic barrier was the first magic I had ever experienced, it was interesting, and I wondered how much I would discover.

As we came to port, I asked the captain a small favor. “Where I change coin?” I asked while motioning to my purse.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The captain frowned up at me. “Well, depends if you want Imperial pennies or Keld irons. Imperial would let you get more for your money, but Keld is accepted everywhere.”

I thought it over for a moment before speaking to him. “Keld,” I spoke the simple one-word reply.

He nodded thoughtfully to me. “You’ll get shortchanged anywhere ya go due to your frankly poor grasp of common so far, so I’d try somewhere on helladay row.”

I nodded respectfully to him and gathered my rucksack, ready to take the first new steps into a new life.

As I traveled to Helladay row, I began feeling somewhat self-conscious of the attention people gave me, the stares and parting of the crowd where I headed. Surely, I wasn’t that odd? While I was taller and larger than most, I wondered if it was my clothes and weapons that influenced this treatment since the populace were unarmed for the most part. I had well made hide fur and leather clothes well suited for hunting in the Dornwald and covered in useful pockets. At my right hip hung a large axe and at my left hip hung two smaller axes better suited for throwing. I kept an eye out for a market in which to buy food, I couldn’t hunt in a city for my meals, this was a forest of people and things people made. I was entirely out of my depth.

Eventually, my journey to the row ended and I peered down the street to find a craftsman and vendor of various oddities. I walked up to the man’s stall, eyeing the various crystal stones on it with the curiosity of a child. An angry accented voice shouted behind a pile of hides.

“You fuckin break it, you buy it, you steal it, I break you, understand?” The deep voice called out as an extremely short man walked out. He must have been 4 and a half feet tall, around 2 feet shorter than me! He was stocky and wide for his size, with a braided beard and full head of hair.

I nodded respectfully towards him and perused his wares with my eyes. The short man walked up to me with a glare as if trying to intimidate me.

“I fuckin asked ya if ya understand cockwit” He spoke to me with the sort of benign hostility that he must have lived off of.

“Understand, but what cockwit?” I spoke to him unable to keep the thickness and mispronunciation out of my words.

He stared at me for a moment before breaking out laughing. “Dear god, where the fecking hell did you come from lad? Your village decide that even your accent was a bit too thick?” He panted, still chuckling and mildly out of breath.

“Come from Nord, no village.” I replied back to him, trying to figure out a way to steer the conversation back towards changing my money towards Keld.

He gave me an appraising eye, a brief flicker in his gaze. “Aye, I believe that. Don’t look like you grew up in a house. The fuck do you eat? Your mother diddle a bear?”

For some reason, I felt reciprocating his odd style of friendliness would turn out well. I gave him an offended look, “I break stahlbern easy, I eat the size of small angry men.” To finish I gave him a vaguely hungry look.

He grinned back at me, “Dontcha think I’m a wee little too big for ya to handle?” He flexed his oddly buff arms in an outrageous manner.

I grinned down at him, “What is name? I am Jan.” I held out my hand for the man to shake.

“Yorem, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. What can I do for ya? I could find you a common tutor.” He asked in a distracted manner as he began fiddling with a mechanical contraption on the table.

“I wish to change this for Keld” I plopped my purse on the man’s table.

He nodded thoughtfully before opening the purse and frowning. “Never seen this much Dole before.” He gave me another appraising look as if deciding how honest he was going to be. I hoped for another moment that my friendliness would help me.

He stooped for a moment before opening a drawer on his stall and counting out various coins. Finally, he finished with his work and looked at me expectantly.

Catching on, I coughed a bit and nodded. “Could use tutor and guide…”

With a satisfied look he removed a few coins and handed me the rest. “Tutor and guide in one cheap package I can get ya. You have a place to stay yet?” He asked me with a look in his eye that told me he knew the answer.

“I do not.” I left my sentence there; fully aware I could not articulate a better sentence without making a fool of myself.

He gave a smile before shrugging. “Well, I can’t fault you, I in fact have a place for you to stay, provided you are willing to put in a bit of work for it.”

I looked at him intrigued, my expression inviting him to continue.

“My business has attracted some rather unsavory attention on me and my brother, unfortunately, they aren’t too afraid of some short dwarves but if a big strong bodyguard were to enter the picture…”

I nodded. “Men break easier than stahlbern.”

“Perfect, just so you are aware, your bodyguard job will mostly apply to night when we’re sleeping since those fucksticks are afraid to draw attention during day. My brother recently broke his arm… and can act as your guide/tutor during the day.

I smiled at him and flexed my arm. “I’m wee to big for them to handle.” I finished my imitation of his words with an imitation of the raunchy look he spoke them with.

He grinned, much more warmth in it this time. “Lad, I think I’m going to like you.”

______________

Thank you for reading my first chapter!

Since the first chapter is meant to set the plot, I figured it would be best to describe the progression system since I won't in the actual chapters. So, talent and the talent of your body affect the effectiveness of stats. For instance, take two men, one much larger than the other, but both with the same strength stat. The larger man would demolish the other in terms of strength every time due to the bigger frame and muscles. This is how every stat works, they build off of what you have, they do not grant equally. Additionally, due to that, my standard character sheet doesn't have specific health or endurance numbers such as 100 health etc. This ties in to aging as well, you might expect older people to be stronger than younger people due to higher stats and levels, but aging takes its toll on their physical bodies, so the strength their stats exert lessens. As a child grows in this world, they do not get access to classes until around 16-17 years old. As they grow, their stats grow naturally with their body, leading to variations among the general populous and talents standing out more clearly. Upon reaching class age, stats stop growing naturally, and you have to level classes to have them grow. Level also limits how many skills you can have, for instance a child only has a single skill slot, so it is imperative they get a good skill. Much lower levels can easily kill higher levels, stats count for a decent chunk, but they hardly decide everything. Skills also trump stats every day of the week, someone with better skills at higher levels trumps someone with higher stats almost every time. I'll explain how titles work later, but they are more based on rewarding grand achievements. I'm trying to balance the fairness of the system with the realism of a world that could actually accommodate one. Prototype character sheet below.[https://i.imgur.com/wFekOA6.png]

Anyways, Thanks for reading!