When I opened my eyes I was in my new world. I was lying on the floor of an abandoned shrine. Its roof was non-existent, while wild vines ran down the battered and bruised parts of the walls that survived. From where I was lying, I could see the blue skies way beyond the empty roof, while song birds chirped in unfamiliar voices. I was assaulted by an abundance of sensory information that I never had to process as a software or during my brief spell as a soul blob. It was going to take some getting used to. I stood up, examined the room and then stared out into the distance through an open wall. I was expecting to see a summoning circle below my feet or perhaps an exhausted court mage or even a king on a throne overseeing the entire ceremony. But there was not a soul in sight. No, there are no signs of civilization nearby. A ruined shrine in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps that incompetent goddess dropped me off somewhere else entirely. That glorified gatekeeper had one job! I recalled how I was rushed out of there without adhering to proper checks and protocols. I looked up to the heavens, cursed my bad luck and stepped outside.

I was wearing a sleeveless robe that went down to my waist in front, but went all the way down my knees at the back and sides, giving it the appearance of a tailcoat. It was in vibrant shades of royal blue, with golden embroidery that was fit for a merchant or sorceress. A silver cloth belt held it together at the waist. I also wore breeches in the same shade of blue. Without a mirror, I couldn’t tell how I looked, but noticed I had short silver hair. My status screen said I was nineteen. I wasn’t sure how the system arrived at that number, but then realized that nineteen years ago was probably when my old company had set up its Artificial intelligence department and started working on my project. At least an early version of me.

The shrine stood in the middle of a clearing. I proceeded to the west where the forest looked less dense. After a five minute walk, I came around a corner from where I could see the outlines of a small trail. It wasn’t much of a road, but a passing cart or carriage had left its mark on the grass. I followed the trail as long as it went, before I found myself walking a more well-trodden path. A map skill would’ve come handy right about now. I wondered which primer would get me a map skill.

I decided to take a peek at my status screen. I was hoping to find some information on who had summoned me. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Then I noticed something strange at the bottom of the screen that wasn’t there the last time the system showed me my status page. There was a new entry I didn’t recognize. It was titled “Dryad’s blessing”. I mentally clicked the description.

Dryad’s blessing : “Grants skill Gatherer's eye”

Why have I received blessings from the Dryad? Aren’t those creatures woodland nymphs?

The skill ‘Gatherer’s eye' wasn't anywhere to be found. After a lot of searching, I found that it was listed under general skills and it was already at tier five! It didn’t require a magic primer to learn. So it was grouped under general skills along with other skills like language comprehension. I was looking for it in all the wrong places. Gatherer's eye allowed me to identify edible fruits and vegetables. I activated Gatherer’s eyes and green arrow-like symbols immediately fell on one or two trees in the vicinity.I walked up to the tree and collected a fruit that had fallen off it. What I was holding was a fruit named preston. Prestons were violet in color and pear shaped. The skill gatherer’s eye flooded my head with useless facts about prestons. There were pages and pages of information. One bit in particular caught my attention: ‘a tree filled with prestons is quite the sight and may attract stray monsters.’ I decided not to linger around until then. So I ate one of the prestons and pocketed two more for the road and continued to walk. The taste was strange, which wasn’t a point in favor of prestons.

It was perhaps best to test out my other skills too. I wondered how I could activate a magic spell. Perhaps I should just call out its name. Perhaps there was a long chant I had to memorize? Perhaps it was down to my imagination? I closed my eyes and pictured dark tendrils sprouting from the ground beneath me and then writhing and slithering along the way to their target, which happened to be the oak tree right up ahead of me. I imagined the dark tendrils crawling their way up the tree. I didn’t tell the dark tendrils to restrain its target. A tree was as restrained as they came.

I could tell the spell was going to be majestic, with a badass name like that. I opened my eyes to see whether I succeeded. The earth beneath my foot shook momentarily, but that was about it. I saw dark energy gather beneath my foot and then the spell fizzled out. A system message flickered into view.

“The user doesn’t have sufficient imagination to visualize the fine details of this spell”

“What?” Was I not picturing the spell in my head, as intended? Was that it? Shoulders hunched, I gave it a few more tries. The results were the same. I knew who the culprit was. It was my insanely low imagination stat. So much for the badass spell name. Was I destined not to use magic? In all those stories of men, they longed for magic. I wanted it! The irony of not being able to put a spell together despite high intelligence didn’t escape me.

I turned to my other attack spell. Luminous blast. I wasn’t very hopeful, but I had to see how it would go. I raised my arm and called out the spell. Intense beam of light shot to the nearest tree, scorching its thick bark.

I was a caveman. Cavewoman? All brute strength, but fine, intricate spellwork was beyond me. I could kick the door down, but couldn’t turn the door knob open.

I still had five system points that I received as compensation. I learnt from the system that system points could be traded to purchase skills or primers. It looked like 5 points weren’t anywhere near enough for purchasing a whole new primer. I decided I had to save up enough to go for a magic school with enough spells that didn’t rely on fine control. Explosions by very definition got out of control. But fire was boring. It didn’t scream out ‘me’. I wasn’t a fire girl.

But my immediate need for more spells couldn’t be ignored either. I wasn’t sure whether my last spell ‘safe haven’ was also limited by imagination. It had a long cooldown. So I decided to wait before experimenting. I perused through the list of spells available for purchase with my 5 system points. I pinged the system to tell me more about Null primers and was told they primarily dealt with nullification through shields and barriers. Ruling out spells that may have proved challenging due to my low imagination, I finally narrowed down to two spells based on need and likelihood of success. From the Null magic school, I picked a skill named Vanishing shield, which was just a magic shield that could be made to appear instantly within a certain range from you and it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. It wasn’t a persistent shield, but it had no cooldown. But most importantly, the description made it sound like the shield didn’t need to have a definite shape or be precise. The second skill that I went with was from the Dark magic school. Shadow mist was a spell that produced a mist that reduced visibility in a small area. Both spell spells cost 2 system points each. I quickly tested the skills after purchase and continued with my walk. Luckily, both spells worked well without complications.

Over an hour went by before I heard the sound of a cart approaching. I waved my hands and stuck out my thumb, only to suddenly realize that the universal sign to ask for a ride wasn’t perhaps universal enough to have made it to this world. Seeing a lone traveler, that too a woman, in the middle of nowhere certainly piqued the driver’s interest and the cart came to a standstill a few meters away from me. The driver was a young boy. Probably sixteen, give or take a year.

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I wasn’t sure how effective two points on a language comprehension scale was. I said, “nice to meet you” and hoped the auto-translator could do its job.

“I am a traveling merchant. My carriage broke down and the horses ran off. I have been on foot since then. Are there any towns nearby? ” I had to find out where I was, but I also needed to come up with a reasonable explanation for my circumstances and my lack of knowledge about this world. I couldn’t have just blurted out that I had no idea where I was or even which country I was in.

“ If you are headed to the nation of Teren, then the town of Palomp is only a few miles North-West of here. My village is along the way and I could take you as far as I go. Iskren of Vret country is further away. The main road branches off in the South-West direction not too far from here. The road to the great nation of Tarth is a few miles behind, along the way you came. Miscroun is the closest town there”

That’s inconvenient. I happened to be somewhere near the border surrounding three nations and any of these nations could have summoned me. I suppose Palomp is a good place to start, simply based on proximity and the fact that the cart would take me part way there. To make an informed choice, I needed to know more about Palomp and Teren and I had to ask questions without raising too much suspicion.

“Since I lost my carriage and most of my goods, I was hoping to purchase a new one and restock my goods, before heading out on the road again. I have never been to Palomp or any town in Teren. Is it a good town to stay a week or two to restock my goods?”

“Palomp is like any border town. Merchants from all nations surrounding the neutral zone visit the town to trade and stock up supplies. ”

“Neutral zone?”, I asked instinctively and then immediately regretted doing so. I had slipped up.

“That’s where we are right now, lady. How do you not know that? You aren’t from around here, are you?”, the young man asked with a hint of surprise and suspicion in his voice.

“”You are correct. I have traveled a long way from home. My objective is to find items for sale that aren’t yet readily available in my home country. I’m not well versed in the geography of these lands.” I looked back at him, hoping my story had convinced him.

The young man was in deep thought after hearing my response.

“I suppose it makes sense if you can afford to do that. I don't know any merchants who operate that way. You must be from a wealthy home. Even more reason you shouldn’t be wandering these roads on foot, without a guard or a weapon. You are truly fortunate you haven’t been killed by bandits or monsters yet… Or worse”

He let me stew over that last bit.

I gave a silly grin in response, confirming his impression of how naive I might be.

“Also, you shouldn’t be telling strangers that you have enough money to restock your supplies, lady. Someone could trick, steal or threaten that sum away from you” I received another lecture on how careless I was for volunteering that information.

I had planned to go with a story where I was a traveling merchant who had lost her carriage and horses in the woods, and was forced to walk on foot. But after our conversation I was forced to settle on an identity where I was a naive young woman from a wealthy merchant family with more money than common sense. The fact that I was an idiot was already well established in his mind by this point.That anyone in my family thought it a good idea to let me travel on my own, didn’t help with his opinion of them either. As a consequence, he came to the conclusion that lack of common sense was perhaps a family trait.

But a blubbering idiot isn’t very threatening and the young man quickly agreed to let me travel with him. He also advised that I stay in his village for a few days until a vegetable cart to Palomp could take me with them. I was deemed too defenseless to travel by foot without a guard or a weapon, and too much of an idiot to be left alone for my own good. I had 41 intelligence, for crying out loud!

The young man’s name was Iyev. I sat down next to him as the cart slowly began to move. He was also more receptive to answering my questions now, on account of me being an idiot needing help. He was an assistant to a vegetable vendor in his village. The village produced more vegetables than it needed. It was his job to take the excess vegetables to the neighboring towns and carry back any items that he was asked to. The payment for the vegetables were made directly to the vendors. Usually, an envoy from the buying town would visit the villages nearby once a month to settle all matters of payment. The bandits usually didn’t stop the vegetable carts, but went after the envoys who settled the matters of payment or merchant carriages that transported more expensive goods. Wealthy merchants usually employed full-time guards, while others recruited adventurers for their trips. Envoys from various towns always had knights or common soldiers with them. I was being lectured for traveling the unknown lands alone as a woman, but I was learning several things about this world in the process. If the merchants recruited adventurers, there was probably an adventurer’s guild. I could look for work there.

The cart suddenly came to a standstill. Iyev had noticed something by the roadside. He jumped off the cart and started throwing rocks at a nearby tree. My eyes began to twitch and green arrow symbols fell all over the branches of the tree. More Prestons. Before the skill Gatherer’s eye could flood my head with more useless info about Prestons, I quickly turned it off.

Iyev now began to lecture me about prestons - how to tell if a preston was ripe, how to peel them off, the right way to get the seed out.. Perhaps I should grace him with some Preston facts of my own. With a five star Gatherer’s eye skill, I might be the world's foremost authority on prestons. I calmed down and reluctantly decided to leave that task to someone who wasn’t presently masquerading as a naive young merchant who lost her wits long before she lost her carriage. Since Iyev already thought of me as someone who was clueless about most things, I could ask him more about this world without raising too much suspicion. If I didn’t have to keep up appearances, Iyev would have come to experience what it felt like to have prestons forcibly stuffed down one’s throat. As I was picturing that scene in my head with great satisfaction, I heard rustling sounds nearby.

Something leaped out from behind the preston trees. It resembled a cabbage, that is if the cabbage was the size of a small dog and had two pairs of legs made of celery sticks. I suddenly recalled reading about preston trees attracting stray monsters. My Identity skill returned the name of the monster as cavalo, a plant-type monster. I had read plenty of accounts in my previous life, of humans having their share of cabbage soups and wasn’t particularly alarmed. If anything, I was glad it wasn’t a walking preston instead. Now that would have been scary. Perhaps the cabbage realized it wasn’t being taken seriously; it suddenly leaped off the ground, while shooting green blades in my direction. One of them grazed past my arm, leaving a minor cut. Luckily, bringing up the vanishing shield on time saved me from another. I was in no mood to be inconvenienced by a monster that shouldn’t be anything more than comic relief.

Iyev had taken out a knife and was charging at the cavalo at this point. This made the monster shift its focus to Iyev. Another volley was coming and I wasn’t sure Iyev would survive the green blades. I invoked shadow mist as a diversion. This momentarily enveloped the cavalo in a thick shadowy mist. I resorted to the only working attack spell at my disposal. Light began emanating from my palms, slowly taking the vague shape of a sphere. Vague was an understatement as my imagination did no better than a child’s drawing of a circle. Then without much delay, I shot the light sphere at the cavalo. Layers of cabbage began to peel away. I quickly repeated the process. The cavalo lasted about three light blasts.

I turned around to look at Iyev. He was down on his knees, frozen to the ground, trembling in fear. I hadn’t paid any attention to him since I was fully focused on the cavalo. I wasn’t sure if any of the cavalo’s attacks had gotten him. Last I saw him, he was running full steam at the cavalo with a knife in his hands, screaming profanities at the cabbage.

“It’s taken care of, Iyev. You can get up now.” He was still on the ground, staring at me in shock.

“Are you hurt, Iyev? You are safe. The monster can hurt you no more”, I said.

He didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on me, fear emanating from them. He was muttering something in a quiet voice. I tried to listen and all I could hear were the same words over and over again. Demon! Demon!..Demon!

He raised his fingers slowly and pointed at me. “Demon!”, he muttered once more.