A few hours later and Orrin had cleaned the sick room, the kitchen, and even tried sweeping the hallway to the front of the house; however, the door was magically locked and he couldn’t get it open. He left the small pile of dirt pushed to the side.

Tony’s kitchen had a long counter, a sink, and a small ice chest. Orrin helped himself to some slices of meat that looked like steak and made something that he was hesitant to call dinner.

Tony clomped down the stairs just as Orrin finished.

“What did you do to that?” His face scrunched up as he gestured at the charred exterior.

“I tried to cook.” Orrin grimaced and pushed the other chair out with his foot. “I can cut it in half if you want.”

“Why not,” Tony said as he sat down.

Orrin cut the meat in two, finding it well done all the way through. He grabbed another plate and transferred half, giving Tony the bigger piece.

They both took a bite.

“Bleh,” Tony spat the meat back out. “If you wanted to kill me, you could have just stabbed me in my sleep.”

Orrin chewed and chewed. The meat did not break down. “What is this?”

“It was supposed to be cold cuts for a sandwich. It’s Alnursteer.”

“Steer? Like a cow?”

“Sort of. Alnursteer have ten legs and are the size of a barn. They are raised specifically for the meat, but you eat it raw. I didn’t know what it tastes like cooked... Now I know why.”

Tony stood and dumped both plates into the trash bin. “You didn’t use any ability points, did you? You’ll need one at least and we can talk about some others.”

Orrin glanced at his status. “I have fourteen points.”

“That’s more than we’ll need. I’ve been doing a little research since the last time you were here.” Tony grabbed a book with multiple papers bulging out between pages. “I have a few theories but first you should open up your skill store. You really need to buy [Obscure]. It should only be one ability point. It’ll be faster if you just read it.”

Orrin pulled up the skill in his store.

[Obscure] – Erase skills and spells from your Status. Prevents closer inspection from [Identify], [Detect], and similar skills. 1 AP.

Would you like to purchase for 1 AP?

Yes or No

“So it lets me hide specific skills? Doesn’t [Hide Status] already do that?”

“[Hide Status] lets you block most scrying spells against your specific class. [Obscure] won’t ever show up on your list for others. Nobody will ever know you have it unless you tell them. You can hide skills or spells. It’s one of the first skills an aspiring mind mage takes, because if a guard catches you with the wrong skill...”

Orrin trusted Tony enough to hit Yes. [Obscure] appeared on his status.

“So I just concentrate on the skill and-“ As Orrin did what he said, [Obscure] greyed out on his status. “Oh, that’s cool. So I’m guessing I should hide [Blood Mana]?”

“And [Mind Bastion]. It’s unique. It’ll raise a lot of questions.” Tony started pulling papers out of his book and spreading them around the table. “Tell me when you’re done. I’m not sure where to start here.”

Orrin greyed out [Blood Mana] and [Mind Bastion]. “I’ll still be able to use them right?”

“Yes. [Obscure] does nothing but create a barrier that other scrying spells can’t pierce. You wanted information on the world right? What do you know?”

“What we’ve learned from the books we bought is that the world is called Asmea. There are a few different countries named Odrana, Veskar, and Dey. There was a [Hero] who ended the world a long time ago and put everyone together on this one landmass and through the Pass is monster-land.”

Tony nodded along and waited when Orrin stopped talking. “That’s it?”

“I’ve been kind of busy. I didn’t exactly go in for a history lesson.”

“How has nobody else figured out you’re not from here?”

“Hey! I’ve done a good job keeping my mouth shut and I’ve had Daniel to distract them,” Orrin said, his voice trailing off quietly at the end.

Tony pulled a blank piece of paper out of his stack and wrote something, then begin to fill in Orrin’s lacking knowledge of the world.

“Odrana is Dey’s closest neighbor and while not an ally, they would never attack Dey. No country would, as they’d then have to fund and maintain the Wall and Pass. Dealing with the Hordes for all of civilization is not an easy or cheap task.”

“What does Dey produce for money then? I haven’t seen large farms or mines or anything really.”

“The Guild,” Tony responded. “It started off the remnants of whatever Guild was from before, but turned into a powerhouse of its own. In the time before Odrana and Veskar rose up, they helped set up different merchant lines safely, explored areas and staked claims to different resources, and escorted large groups of people to the unexplored parts of our new home. They have a presence in every city but consider Dey the main base. They pay taxes to keep the city running, as does everyone else.”

Tony held up a finger. “Hold your other questions for now. Odrana is ruled by a family of exceptionally talented [Mages] and they are usually pacifists. The family’s oldest son recently ousted his mother as the leader, though. I’m sure you’ve heard of the war?”

“With the Elves right?” Orrin gestured for a piece of paper and Tony handed one over, along with a small primitive pencil. He started to take notes. Daniel needs this information too. I still can’t believe he didn’t visit me.

Tony sighed in Orrin’s head. “Yes. Although rumors abound on who started what, anyone who knows the Elves knows they would not leave their forest. A few hundred years of persecution and they almost all retreated to their last bastion. I believe the new Mage Lord is trying to expand his own power by taking the Elven forest homelands as his own.”

Orrin considered his Quest

Stop the war in Odrana

Reward: 200,000 XP and Variable.

Failure: Loss of 10 levels.

I need to figure out the best way to stop the war, Orrin wrote a bullet point down of things to do. He used [Through the Ages] to keep it private.

“What’s that you’re doing?” Tony peered at the paper. “A hidden writing skill? Useful.”

Orrin finished writing and looked up. “So, hypothetically, how would one stop the war?”

“Short of killing the Mage Lord and placing another pacifist at the head of the family? Destroy the Elven forest. They’d have to relocate and spend the next hundred or so years setting up in the forests south of Dey. Is that the [Hero] Quest?” Tony’s eyes shone as he asked.

“Yep,” Orrin said. “Here take a look.” He gave a blue box to Tony without actually sharing the Quest.

“Stop the war in Odrana. That’s the Quest,” Orrin told the truth and lied at the same time. Luckily, Tony was distracted and reading the Quest box.

“Amazing!” Tony’s hands held the air to the sides of the box like it was a physical thing. “I guess you could also try to just stop the fighting. An announced [Hero] holds a lot of weight in the politics of this world.”

“What’s an announced [Hero]?”

Tony gave Orrin a look that screamed “stupid” without actually saying anything.

“Just someone who isn’t hiding and announced it, huh?” Orrin asked sheepishly.

Tony put another piece of paper over the first. “Odrana covers the most land area of the populated world. It produces most of the food we import and is split into a few different territories that all answer to the Sanerris family. That’s the Mage Lord’s family. Each territory also has its own specialty products or commodities but Mistlight is the crown jewel. It’s the only port town that survives the monsters of the sea and that can actually send out ships. Nobody has ever returned with proof of other lands but they still have merchants that can travel the coastline and the deeper rivers. I’ve heard they are taking most of the army by boat to the coast of the Elven forest to attack. Mistlight also is home to the Sanerris School for Spells, one of the most sought after education locations for magic users.”

Tony continued and pulled out a small, less detailed map than the one Silas kept. “This entire area is Odrana.” He dragged a finger along the top half of the map. “This is the Elven forest.” A small circle above Dey, abutting the sea above.

“And the forest next to Dey? Is that under Odrana or Dey’s control?” Orrin pointed out where he and Daniel had first arrived.

“Technically, it belongs to Veskar but nobody lives there. The Lords of Dey sent out teams to keep it clear of dungeons. I’m sure they could send a bill but Veskar is...well...Veskar.”

“Guy from another planet here,” Orrin said, pointing to himself. “I don’t know what that means.”

Tony rocked in his chair in thought. “Veskar is the land that nobody else wanted. It isn’t as fertile, it doesn’t have much in the way of resources, and there are a lot of swamps. People who come from there are usually a little rougher and more ready to fight. It’s not so much an actual country as a loose collection of groups that have agreed not to kill each other. A lot of them end up joining the Guild. Some of the best fighters in the Guild are from Veskar, but there is the odd magic user or even healer.”

“Veskar is also where the Orcs ended up after the Dwarf and Orc Wars.”

“What about the Dwarves? I’ve seen a few around.”

Tony shook his head. “Nobody actually knows. Well, we know they hollowed out a mountain but nobody knows which one. They have an entire network of [Teleportation Site]s set up in the major countries. They trade for food and keep away from the other races for the most part. They bring weird things back sometimes too, like monster hides and parts. So a few of the higher ups think they have another way through the mountains.”

Orrin wrote more notes. “That reminds me, I have some Kniferunner legs I need to sell.”

“I know a few people who would be interested in that, I’ll give you their names. What else do you want to know?”

“So much.” Orrin organized his thoughts. “I’ve got three big ones related to my skills and spells...if that’s okay.”

Tony gestured for Orrin to continue.

“Obviously the first thing is my [Blood Mana]. Is there a way to use it and not get hit with the consequences?”

Tony pulled a few more papers and slid them across the table. “Maybe.”

“What? That’s it?” Orrin pulled the papers close and browsed them. Some were notes from the same [Vampire] book he had bought already. A few seemed promising though. Most of it was terrifying.

“So if I use my own mana, then use [Blood Mana] to refill it using a living thing’s mana, this will definitely happen?”

“Every time. I couldn’t find a hard number for how much or how long it takes, but your class would change to [Vampire].”

Tony’s notes were a study of multiple books. In short, using [Blood Mana] on others was how a person could “earn” the new class change. Draining a person of their mana could also kill a person if overdrawn and the descriptions in Tony’s notes were graphic.

Eyes shriveled in her head...veins standing up against the mottled skin...hair dry and brittle...rigor mortis of the face, set into a broken-jawed scream...

Orrin pushed the notes away. “I just stopped throwing up. Why?”

Tony leaned across the table and waited for Orrin to look him in the eyes. “I wanted you to understand just how dangerous that skill can be.”

He pushed a single piece of paper to Orrin.

After studying the [Vampire] for several months, I made a fascinating discovery. He could drain his own health for more mana. After I had tapped him dry, the subject cast his [Hypnotic Gaze] on my assistant. The boy died but I was able to keep the subject contained. I began watching his intake with greater care and was able to create an [Analyze] subskill that monitored his mana and health distribution during the use of his blood skill. After this, the experiment was-

“What experiment? What happened?”

Tony waved a hand over the papers. “That doesn’t matter. If I recall, the [Vampire] broke out and killed dozens before being put down. Did you notice the [Analyze] subskill? If he created something to monitor the intake and outtake of [Blood Mana], you can too. Maybe even a way to track how much you can use a day before taking backlash.”

“How would I even know what to monitor though? Sure, I know how much mana I’ve got and I know how many times I cycle to get to full, but I don’t actually know what that means.”

Tony pulled out another stack of papers and smiled. “How much do you know about mana?”