Dante asked the shopkeeper, "I didn't catch your name." The enderman used one of his upper arms to slap himself on the forehead. "Oh where are my manners. You many call me..." His eyes went distant for a moment as he raised up one of his six fingered hands raising his index finger.
His emerald eyes returned to their previous appearance, "Oscar Hemsworth. This is not my actual name, as you could not even understand my true one. So, is this acceptable?"
Dante raised an eyebrow and looked over to his father who shrugged, "It's fine Oscar. Hello I am Dante Stone and this is my father Frank Stone." Dante said and both he and his father extended their hands to shake the shopkeeper's. Dante using his right, his father, using his left.
Oscar crossed his upper arms and shook both of their hands. "Ah it is always good to meet new business associates. Tell me would you two like to see what happens in the back?" Dante turned to his father, "So dad, do you want to know how this stuff get made?" Dante paused for a moment awaiting an answer, but his father simply raised up his index finger and walked over to example the merchandise on the right side of the shop. Towards the items ment for more traditionally minded male clients.
(The right if you are coming in the doorway. I'm just going to call it left and right from now on.)
A question popped into Dante's mind, "Hey you said that this place runs back to the next street over, right?" Dante asked Oscar. "That is correct. Would you like the address for when you and your father return with the spoil of your adventure. I will give you good prices for anything that you bring in." Oscar said with a slight smile, his lips pulling back to reveal, white almost human like teeth.
"Sure can i get the directions?" Dante asked wanting to have a good relationship with Oscar. "Do you not have the Map?" Oscar asked, his normally choir-like voice becoming somewhat jumbled, as if to portray his confusion.
"Do you mean a map on my Hud? No I don't." Oscar raised all four of his hands and nodded his head, "Oh then this is a simple fix. All you have to do is open the system store and request a map. What you are looking for should be the first result." Oscar said, then returned his lower arms to their previous positions. While he rested the elbows of his upper arm on the counter.
Dante did as he was instructed. There as the top search result was what was described as, "Your video game map come to life." Dante checked the price and found it to be a modest 20 gold. With some reluctance he purchased the map. What proceeded was a small download bar appearing. It only lasted for a few seconds however. WHen it completed he was greeted by a minimap that hung in his field of vision.
The map appeared a small black box, which slowly began to fill itself in. He was then greeted by the ping of a system notice, that opened up before him.
Thank you for your purchase of the System Minimap.
As an added bonus for your store purchase, your are granted the skill, "Cartography Lvl. 1"
Cartography Lvl. 1
This skill aids in the production of maps. Increased aptitude for drawing per level of the skill. Skill level increases draw range of User minimap. Accuracy and quality of Minimap increases with skill level.
The map however was not like the text that he had read from the system. Instead it seemed to hand in the air up and to his right, away from him by 2 feet, within arms reach.
"By your reaction i can assume you have received the map?" Oscar asked his voice once more like a choir's singing. "Yes, it's not what i had expected though. It's actually a bit better." Dante stated, partially thinking aloud.
Oscar reached across the counter, holding out his hand for Dante to take. Dante hesitated for a moment before deciding to trust Oscar. Dante once more grasped the man's large hand.
Shop, "The WorkHorse", has been added to your minimap!
Shop, "The Golem Menagerie", has been added to your minimap!
Shop, "The Walking Corpse", has been added to your minimap!
Congratulations! Your Cartography skill has leveled up!
Your Cartography, skill is now level 12!
Shopkeep, "Oscar", has granted you his knowledge of his shops!
Trust from, "Oscar", has increased!
The world swirled as Dante felt his mind expand ever so slightly. It felt as if a small door in the back of his mind had opened up for a brief moment, and what he saw before him was the result. He watched as all at once where the minimap had been vague drawings it was suddenly like a satellite overview.
'Holy shit!' Dante thought. His expression became one of disbelief. Oscar smiled wide and laughed a hearty laugh, what he assumed was a laugh anyway. His laugh sounded much more like a church's organ being played.
"You seem shocked. So I shall enlighten you upon what has just transpired. I have granted you my own knowledge of my shops. Thus you can now see these locations on your map and will find it much easier to return to any of my businesses." Oscar said with a bright smile.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Dante spoke to Oscar stating, "I really appreciate you giving us good prices on whatever we bring in. My mom is out browsing and we are going to be drowning in her purchases in none too long." Dante said with an expression of genuine worry, which elicited another cacophony of laughter from Oscar. "Many who I have met have said the same thing. Some things never change." Oscar said as he wiped some green tears from the corners of both his eyes.
Dante's father finally rejoined Dante and Oscar at the counter and addressed his son, "Ok I have come to my decision. I am ok, with this place." He paused for a moment turning to Oscar, "You seem like a very nice man, and it helps that you speak..." The eye's of Dante's father went distant for a moment as if he were recalling something. Dante moved to shake his father only for Oscar to motion for him to wait.
A moment later Frank's eyes returned to normal and he said, "You don't speak english do you? It's the system translating." Oscar's warm smile became a sad one, "I am sorry good sir. You are correct." Everyone was silent for a moment, before Oscar's joyous smile returned.
"However, this is not a bad thing. Though the system's translations are not always perfect. As we come to understand each other, the system learns to better the translation. Thus by a simple conversation we help others we will never meet, even long after we are gone." Dante and his father smiled, their enhanced mental capabilities helping them to understand.
Oscar clapped his two sets of arms in unison and the door behind the counter to his left opened up. From the door walked what appeared to be Oscar's identical sibling. "Watch the front I am going to show these two around." Oscar stated, "Sure thing." Not Oscar stated, his voice was identical as well as his appearance, except he was wearing what looked like a blacksmith's attire. Oscar began walking toward a closed doorway to his right.
Dante and his father accompanied Oscar through the door into a large back room that seemed more like a warehouse workshop. Dante asked Oscar, "Was that your twin back there?" Oscar stopped for a moment then turned to face Dante and his father. "No that was a magical facsimile of myself." A blue box appeared before Oscar who read it for a moment, "The system tells me that you know of similar magics. Is this true?"
Dante immediately understood as he knew of a spell from D&D that did something very similar. Dante's face became one of realization, a fact not lost upon his father who still did not understand. "Yeah I know something similar."
Dante's father asked, "Hey Dante you seem to understand, can you explain it to me?" Dante turned to his left to face his dad, "Sure, it means that through magic he copied himself. Mind and body, maybe even the soul but I don't know about that. More than likely to help with all the...work." Dante paused for a moment and finished his sentence as he turned and saw no less than six other copies of Oscar working upon various tasks. From directing several individuals of varying races to using a large meat cleaver to chop up what appeared to be a horned rabbit.
Two copies of Oscar were working on what appeared to be a dead minotaur laying upon a large marble table.
"You are quite right. I can always use an extra hand around here. And thanks to magic, I have many. I may not be what you would call a One man business, but I am close." Oscar said with a smile as he held his thumb and index finger together nearly touching.
"Oh yes I almost forgot." Oscar said as he held out an open palm and therein 3 scrolls appeared. "Go ahead and take them. Should you find and slay a most valuable creature, use one of these scrolls upon them. Then bring the corpse to me." Dante reached out and took the scrolls from Oscar.
The scrolls seemed to be made from some kind of animal skin, and smelled of inks and iron. "I suspect I know what these do, but please explain."
"Very well." Oscar said in an exaggerated voice of tiredness. "These scroll when cast upon a corpse protect it from rotting for a time, about 1 day." Dante did not have much experience with such spells but he did remember one of his friends using such a spell in their curse of Strahd campaign. "Oh their scroll's of Gentle Repose."
Oscar's face scrunched. Dante finally noticed something he had missed earlier, Oscar didn't have a nose. Instead he just had two slits that opened and closed periodically.
"I do not know this spell. But by your reaction, it must be similar to the spell that I know." Dante glanced behind Oscar, he saw a door open and from the room stepped an Oscar clone. Behind that clone was another sitting at a desk with a stack of what appeared to be animal skin pages.
Dante looked back to Oscar, "You used to be an adventure I'm guessing?" Oscar gave a bitter sweet smile. "That I did. However, I was forced into an early and permanent retirement when an archwizard decided to take my head off with a beam of black energy. I saw a black flash and then that was all I saw, Black. That is what happens to you when you die under the system. Darkness greets you, and the system." Oscar said, stirring Dante's and his father's curiosity.
"Can you elaborate Please Oscar?" Oscar turned to them his emerald eyes burning with inner fire. "Why certainly, It would seem that you have yet to get very far in your tutorial. So, I shall enlighten you upon death within the system. When one dies. Their essence, their mind, their soul, is moved from this plane to an empty one. There you are greeted by system itself." Dante suspected it was something far greater than Virgil.
"There you are judged. Few people who have been judged have ever returned." That led to the obvious question from Dante, "Were you judged by the system?" "Yes I was. He found me to have been faithful and dedicated to the betterment of my people. I was ready to go and be with those who had gone before me. I could see them there before me, only a few steps away. In a land made of light..." Small translucent green tears rolled down Oscar's face.
Oscar used his upped set of hands to wipe away his tears, "However, the system wanted to make a deal with me. I would return to this plane for a time. That my work could help others and when the time expired and i was ready, he would send me on. That was 1000 years ago, even though my contract was only for 100. I got to meet so many new people moving from one of these zone's to another. When the contract expired, I chose to renew it, and i have done so every hundred years since."
He paused for a moment before finishing with, "It helps me that thanks to the system I dream of my family, who i lost so long ago." Oscar once more wiped the tears from his eyes. "I am so sorry, it seems I have gotten myself all worked up." Dante and his father spoke in unison even without meaning to. "It's fine Oscar."
Oscar smiled brightly, then motioned for them to follow him. "Come this way allow me to show you my pride and joy."
Oscar and his father followed Oscar though his workshop until they arrived at a large set of double shiny, sleek black, metal doors. They stood nearly to the ceiling 15 feet up and were no less than 10 feet in width. "Behind this door is a project i have been working on for a great many years. Very expensive, but it has finally begun to bear fruit. I have learned much from this."
The closer Dante grew towards that door the more he felt its presence.
Congratulations! Your skill, Mana Sense, has leveled up! Lvl. 2...
By the time Dante stood next to the door, he felt as if his body were vibrating. Much like one would do when they were very cold. His Mana Sense was up to level 6. Dante spoke up, "Where does that door lead?" A bit of worry making its way into his voice. Oscar turned his head back to look at Dante, "Fear not my friend."
Oscar raised up his four arms and began to chant in a language that didn't translate. Mana poured out from his palms to form two great rings of intricate design. The door responded. A small light began to emanate from where the two door's would part.
Dante's mana sense level jumped to 10, as he was nearly overwhelmed. As the large sleek black, shiny metal door's continued to part light could be seen it was blinding at first but as his eye's adjusted he saw something amazing.
There behind the door was a large field of tall grass. The doorway seemed to be on a hill, granting them a view into the distance. In said distance several villages could be seen. Oscar motioned for them to follow him though the doors that had stopped their opening. They had opened only so wide as to allow a single person through at a time. Oscar went on ahead, and after a moment, Dante and his father followed.