Maroftis awoke early to find that his appetite was back with a vengeance. It was still dark out, so he went downstairs to look for something to eat. There was only a young Dwarvish woman sitting at a table; no one else was around. “Do you have food?” he asked in his rapidly improving Common.

She looked up from a ledger, and she seemed startled by him. He thought that it must be his size or appearance because she must have noticed him approach. “Sir, it is more than an hour until first rise, and the cook has not arrived yet.” She looked off to the side in thought. “I can go fetch some bread and cheese,” she said, looking to him for a response.

“No bread, but the cheese sounds good,” he said. “Could you bring me some eggs?”

“Sir, they are not cooked.”

“Fine.”

She looked to him for more, but as nothing was forthcoming, she asked, “Do you want me to crack them into a bowl, or...”

“Still in the shell is fine,” he said, rubbing his belly for emphasis. The woman got a little wide-eyed, and she scurried off to the kitchen. She came back with a basket of about ten eggs and a cheese wedge. Maroftis thanked her and said, “Room eight.”

She nodded. “I know. We only have one Korak staying with us.”

He thanked her and headed towards the docks, snacking on the food on the way. A few of the eggs he swallowed whole, but he bit into most of them so that he could taste the rich yolks as they slid down his throat. The cheese was less satisfying, but he was famished, and he powered through the odd flavor. Prior to arriving on this world—before changing into a reptile—cheese had been a staple of his diet, but his tastes now ran towards meat, preferably raw, and he decided to go to the river to hunt fish and other marine life in the hopes of sating his incredible hunger.

Maroftis swam in the river, far away from the docks. He caught and consumed nearly a dozen fish and one large octopus. He ate them whole for the most part, but a few of them were large, and he had bitten off the tail prior to eating the rest in one or two bites. The octopus had been another story: it had attached its suckers to his tongue and the roof of his mouth, so he had torn it apart with a claw and ate the pieces. The ink was the tastiest part; it was a shame that the thing had expelled most of its ink in an effort to get away.

He felt no urge to breathe, so he believed that he was an amphibian and not a true reptile. He lacked gills, but he reasoned that the oxygen was being absorbed through his skin—that was how frogs did it, right? When the first sun began to rise, he noticed the change in the lighting above him. He was still hungry, but the need for food was not as strong as it had been when he awoke. The plan was to head to the caster’s residence when the second sun came up, something that the locals called second dawn, or second rise, or something like that. Maybe they used both terms? Whatever it was called, Maroftis knew that he had to head back to the inn in order to not be late. He caught one more fish before surfacing. He nearly ran into a boat, and he startled an old fisherman, who dropped his pole and backed away from the side of the boat as Maroftis swam by.

He got his bearings and noted that he was pretty far away from the docks, so he submerged and swam the rest of the way. He broke the surface and saw the suns blazing as they reflected blindingly off the water. It looked like light was hitting oil on the surface of a tiny puddle. He quickly swam to a dock where he climbed out of the water and began his walk back to the inn. It was too bad that he couldn’t just swim back, since he swam far quicker and with much more ease than he could move on land. His tail was amazing in the water, but it slowed him down on land.

Maroftis turned a few heads on his return trip; people had finally risen for the day, and while the streets were by no means full of people, there were a few that moved about as he passed. The city was primarily peopled with Dwarves and Gnomes, but here at the docks, there were more Humans than anything else. Most of the people that he encountered just went about their business, but more than a few hastily crossed the street to avoid him. It was for the best, since he was in a hurry.

When he entered the inn, Maroftis found Taloc waiting at the bar and eating a plate of eggs and sausage. The area was not large enough for the Korak to sit down, so he stood next to the Ranger, who nodded as he approached. “Where’s Vult?” Maroftis asked, finding it odd that the Gnome wasn’t here as well. In real life, his friend was generally never late, and it was certainly odd for him to not be here already.

“He’s off buying some herbs for Vanya,” Taloc said. “She’s short a healing potion that she needs to trade that hedge witch today, and she’s getting it started while Vult picks up the only ingredient that she lacks.”

Vanya had said that she had completed the brewing, and it wasn’t like her to miscount. “I thought that she had already finished the order,” Maroftis said.

Taloc shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but she said that one of them had disappeared. I’m not going to argue with her, but I think that she had the count wrong. She was working for hours and really looked tired last night.”

Maroftis thought differently, but he didn’t remember how many vials she had completed when he had been in her room. Theft didn’t make sense because then all of the potions would be gone, wouldn’t they? He was still hungry, so he ordered a plate of the sausage uncooked. He received a strange look from both the bartender and Taloc, so he said, “What? We’re in a hurry, right? Just trying to help.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Vultressant arrived as Maroftis’ plate arrived, but the Wizard only waved to them as he ran up the stairs. The stairs were designed for the smaller races, so Vultressant was able to ascend them quickly and without issue. Maroftis, on the other hand, normally had to go up them three steps at a time, and he had to angle his feet to ensure that he could maintain his footing on the narrow steps. Vultressant returned quickly, but Maroftis was done with the tasty spiced sausage a full minute before the Gnome made it back to them.

“You done with your errand?” Maroftis asked around a mouthful of sausage. “You know how I hate waiting for you.”

Vultressant frowned. “I had a legitimate reason.”

“You always get mad at me when I’m late with a legit reason,” Maroftis countered.

“Dude, ‘because I got high’ is not a legit reason.”

“Agree to disagree.”

Vultressant just rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go.”

The three made their way through the streets of Ildul, and as they headed northwest, the buildings began to increase in both size and opulence. The caster’s estate was not the largest one that they had passed, but it was the most ostentatious. The door opened as they approached, but not by magical means; two Humans in butler garb had pushed the doors open and now stood at attention.

“We are here to see Oeisterdamus,” Taloc said.

“Very good,” said one of the butlers. “I will show you to a waiting room.”

They followed him down a long hallway until he reached a large green door. He opened it, revealing a room matching the color of the door and motioned for them to enter. “There are refreshments on the table. I will return when the master is ready for you.”

“We got to get us a pad like this!” Maroftis exclaimed as he headed over to the goodie table. He flicked his tongue. He could taste cinnamon in the air, but he didn’t know from which plate it was coming from.

“This place is amazing, and we haven’t even seen the upstairs,” Vultressant said as he tasted a pastry.

“I think that we’ve barely seen the first floor,” Taloc said as he sat down on a cushioned chair.

A loud noise from above the room made the table shake as if a small-scale earthquake had just struck. A few minutes later, the door to the room opened, and the man who had led them there poked his head through it. “Follow me,” he said.

The man led them to the upper floor and into a very large room. On one side of the room was what Maroftis believed was a summoning circle, and the other side looked like an office. One of the bookshelves had fallen over, and several manuscripts were strewn about around it. A Human man wearing bright blue robes sat at a desk and was furiously writing something as they approached.

Their guide bowed slightly and said, “Your guests, sir.”

The mage looked up from his writing for long enough to nod and make a shooing gesture to his servant before resuming his writing. A few minutes later, he stood and waved at the three of them. “Welcome! How may I be of service?”

Vultressant was the first to speak. “I want to learn new spells and different magic types. Can you help with that, or tell me how to go about it?”

Oeisterdamus smiled. “That’s a pretty broad ask.” He motioned to a table near the far wall, then walked over to it and sat down. “Uh, the big guy might need to stand,” he said as he considered the chairs and Maroftis.

Maroftis stood at one end of the table and activated his assess other skill to evaluate the mage. He sensed strongly that the caster was much more powerful than he was, and the three of them were likely no match for him. Maroftis turned away from the table and faced the summoning circle. He surreptitiously checked his notification. The notification read: The Sage is formidable, and you should not attempt to attack him, especially in his place of power. Maroftis dropped the HUD and turned back towards the table to find that his friends had sat down. Since there was no chair for him to use, Maroftis went to stand behind Taloc and Vultressant.

“I am Oeisterdamus, the all-knowing giver of knowledge.” After the three of them introduced themselves, the Sage rubbed his hands together. “All right, what types of magic do you currently have access to?” he asked, looking at Vultressant.

“I thought you were ‘all-knowing’,” Maroftis said. “Why don’t you just tell us what types Vult has?”

Oeisterdamus gave Maroftis an annoyed look. “Those are just titles, and both are misnomers. I’m not so much a ‘giver’ as a ‘seller’ of knowledge. This place doesn’t pay for itself. You are pretty big, Korak, but my power is beyond your understanding.” The man actually waggled a few of his fingers as if mimicking casting a spell. When he was satisfied that Maroftis wouldn’t question him again, he looked back at Vultressant.

“I have two: fire magic and wind magic,” Vultressant said. “I only have two spells in fire, but I have five spells in wind. My fire magic skill is at level six, and my wind magic is at level four.” Oeisterdamus twirled a finger, asking for more information, so Vultressant continued. “My fire spells are bolt of fire and fire resistance, and the wind spells are personal shield, wind wave, frost spray, enhanced speed, and wind magic identification. I was told that the identification spells are pretty easy to learn; you just have to have that magic power.”

The Sage nodded. “Let’s start with the resistance spells. Each elemental magic type has a corresponding resistance spell, so you can easily learn air resistance. Go about casting the fire resistance spell in the same manner you normally would, but focus on your wind power instead.”

Vultressant made a few failed attempts before ultimately casting the spell air resistance. “Am I able to make a bolt of air as well?”

The Sage shook his head. “I think that you’re better off modifying your existing offensive spells to others of the same element. This may happen naturally as you level your spells and magical fields, and it certainly will when you increase the tier of your fire magic skill. An upgraded version of that spell will be one that increases in volume as it travels to your target; it may even explode several feet in all directions.”

Vultressant nodded. “So, a fireball spell. That would be awesome.”

Oeisterdamus cocked his head. “Yes… I believe that it’s called ball of flame. For now, however, you can try to focus your fire magic in a different way. Instead of focusing in front of you and hurling the fire towards a target, you can focus on a location or even on a specific thing. Have you tried just lighting a campfire?”

“I shot a bolt at some kindling once. It scattered everything, but I used one of the ignited pieces to start the fire.”