Aeric stumbled through the streets, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed. Normally he’d be able to find his way just fine in any city, he grew up in a variety of them after all. But here he was in the middle of a medieval city that somehow appeared as he rounded the corner to his apartment.

Now Aeric was an avid reader of litrpg and other similar genres, isekai’s were pretty prevalent among modern fictions and stories. For those unfamiliar with the litrpg genre, it was basically fantasy or sci-fi with game elements. While an isekai was when someone was brought from Earth to another world. He never expected it to happen however, not to him surely.

Aeric considered himself a boring person, a social chameleon. A nice enough person to be sure, but not an outstanding one. He coasted through life, just going with the flow. Perfectly content with an average nine-to-five job, with his dog happily wagging her tail upon his return and his roommate with her trademark smirk as she went around doing another of her wacky projects. If there was one thing that could be considered remarkable about him it was his tendency to utterly lose himself in a project.

Aeric kept walking, his head on a swivel as he stared at the various races and the unfamiliar architecture, he knew what was needed. First, a source of income. He needed a job to survive in this city, in this world. At first glance the city was new, at closer inspection you could tell it was thriving. New buildings were being built, people seemed to be immigrating. The streets were busy and hawkers were crying their wares. Armored figures with a bear's head on their left shoulder patrolled the area, most likely the local form of police or guardsmen.

When he crested a hill and looked around, his jaw dropped at the sheer size of the walls that surrounded it, even as far away as he was they loomed over everything in the surroundings. From his guesstimation, they would have to be sixty feet tall at least! Looked wide enough to drive a car on. It circled the city, leaving a decent chunk of empty land near one of the walls for ongoing building projects.

Normally in the stories the main character would head towards the nearest adventurer guild. Yea… Not happening.

Aeric knew himself, he couldn’t fight to save his life. He was a bit of a softie and aware of it, a proud pacifist if he was being honest. If there was any way to do things without violence, that would be his choice. So that meant finding another means of employ. He heard the trademark sound of hammering that alerted him of a nearby smithy. He headed towards the noise, as he closed in on the cacophony of hammer strikes a blaze of warm air caressed his skin. A bit further up the street, with an area cleared up around it, he found what he was looking for.

A number of men in overalls were hammering away at steel, it looked like steel as far as his inexperienced eyes could tell, pulling at bellows or sweating over glowing metals.

Aeric shuffled his way towards what looked to be a counter. He stepped up to a young man who was sorting swords and hanging them on the nearby racks., his clothes were of a nicer, more mercantile cut than his colleagues labouring over their anvils.

Aeric cleared his throat as he approached, “Excuse me could you help me?”

The young man turned around and put on his customer smile, “I sure can, what do you need help with, sir?”

Aeric looked the young man in the eyes and scratched his copper-coloured bearded chin. “I’m looking for a job and I was wondering if there was an opening here?”

The young man nodded to himself unsurprised. “A few questions to get us started if you don’t mind sir?” Aeric gave a nod of assent, “First I would need your name.”

“Aeric Redwool”

The young man wrote down his name on a piece of parchment, and then posed his next question, “Where do you live?”

“I only recently entered the city so, at the moment I’m still looking for a place of residence.”

Another confirming nod from the young man, unsurprised at another new addition to their ever-growing city. “Current level in the blacksmithing trade?”

Aeric blinked, but realised quickly what he was asking. That at least answered the game element question he had been wondering about. Levels and magic confirmed? Aeric shook his head, “None at the moment I’m afraid, nor do I have any non-level experience in smithing.”

The young man looked up with slightly widened eyes at that and scratched his neck, “That would make joining us an issue I’m afraid sir. We are a rather well established forge, we don’t usually allow people to join without any prior experience, we never really even accept people below level fifteen truth be told.”

Aeric sighed, that made sense, levels would work like a Curriculum Vitae did back home. An easily verifiable means of identifying someone’s skill and drive. “That makes sense, sorry for wasting your time.” His shoulders drooped a bit.

The young man looked around slightly awkwardly, “Not a problem sir, I’m happy to help. To be frank with you sir, it’s going to be a near impossibility to find employment under a craftsman without any prior experience or skill. Especially at your age, unskilled employees and apprentices are usually fourteen years old at most.”

Aeric frowned. It made sense of course, who hired people without skills or experience at his age, which was not THAT old, mind you. He was twenty-six. Still that was plenty old enough that people expected you to have some experience. The young man tapped the counter and looked at Aeric thoughtfully. “Honestly sir you seem a bit, out-of-place, if you don't mind me saying so.”

Aeric smirked at that and nodded, “Let’s just say that my move to the city was unasked and unprepared for.”

The young man nodded, “To be fair you look the part. Sir, if I may offer a suggestion?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

Aeric nodded and made a gesture for him to go ahead.

“If you follow the road further down and you take a right,. You’ll find a tailor shop, owned by Miss Aliami. She is known for taking in uuhhmm… Pardon if this causes offense, but strays?”

The young man hesitantly glanced at Aeric, who simply smirked. “I suppose I am a stray at the moment, no offense taken.”

The youngman exhaled softly and his shoulders lost a bit of tension,

“Well that’s a good place to start, even if she won’t take you in she’ll probably help you find a spot.”

“I owe you my thanks ...Sorry what’s your name?”

The young man grinned and stuck his hand out, “Jerma, A pleasure. Perhaps I will see you here again in better circumstances, mister Aeric.”

Aeric grabbed his hand and shook it, “You can leave out the mister, makes me feel ancient.” Aeric grinned, “And let’s hope so, thanks for the help, Jerma.”

“Anytime.”

Aeric waved his goodbyes to the immensely helpful Jerma. Faith in humanity restored! Nice and helpful people even in a new world. Always a good thing to know, he headed down the street and kept his eyes open. He looked around and marveled at the various types of people walking around.

It was incomparable to back home, the strangest thing you might see on the street in a city was a goth or a rebel or someone with a similar style that stood out. Here there were entire species of people, not to mention the cultures, each different in their own way.

Honestly the thought excited him quite a bit, Aeric marveled at the earth golem looking people, or those with an avian aspect. They had an eye-catching plumage, colourful and vibrant.

He made sure he kept in mind where he was so he didn’t miss the shop he was looking for. Eventually, Aeric found a sign with a spool and needle that he marked as the tailor shop. He looked up and read the name, Aliami’s. Just a name to denote ownership, Aeric shrugged. Simple but effective.

Aeric pushed his way through the door and took a look around. Around him were rows of colourfull cloth and racks with clothing. Various different materials both known and utterly exotic to his eyes. He made his way through the store to the counter while staring around in wonder.

He made his way over to one of those avian looking people who stood behind the counter, with a paradise bird coloured plumage. Shocking yellows, with almost neon-greens and stop-light red’s. It looked gorgeous, and was certainly more eye-catching than most other Avian-like people he had seen.

“Uuuhm, excuse me, miss, I was told I might be able to find a job here?”

The girl looked up and raised a golden coloured eyebrow which upon closer inspection was not hair but tiny feathers, “And who went ahead and told you that?”

“Uuuuh, Jerma, from the forgery a bit down the way.” Aeric pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

The girl chittered, “Of course he did, gimme a minute yea?” He nodded and she turned around and walked through a door in the back. “Sis Ali! We got another one!”

Aeric blinked, and waited as the door opened again and a large figure pushed their way through, he almost swallowed his tongue when a large muscular lion walked through the door. Piercing golden eyes, a sharp gaze and a smile displaying even sharper teeth.

Aeric stroked the wrinkles out of his pants in an attempt to calm himself. The leonid opened her mouth and spoke with a smooth rumble. “And who might you be?”

Aeric kept his face carefully blank with a polite smile plastered on, “Uuuuh, Aeric ma’am, a pleasure.”

The leonid snorted a sound so deep he could almost feel the vibrations in his chest,

“Ma’am, he says, welp out with it, why you here? Think it would be a good job where you could ogle my girls, find yourself some exotic tinka-tanka to conquer. A piece of string of every colour ey?”

She leaned over the counter and stared Aeric in the eye. Closing the distance and giving him a more upclose and personal look at her predatory fangs than he was comfortable with.

Aeric leaned back and swallowed, “I’m not sure if I got this right, but you think I’m here because of the girls and not the job, correct?”

The woman nodded, her mane of hair bobbing with the gesture. That looked fluffy, Aeric had the sudden suicidal urge to run his hands through it.

He snapped his gaze back to the piercing one that eyed him as prey.

“Well although I can’t promise I won't… ogle… the eye likes what it likes after all., It is it is not why I came here. I simply need a job so I can eat and get a roof over my head. I don’t have any skills or levels or anything, before you ask. Naught more than you see before you, for that matter.” He said gesturing up and down his body.

The leonid lioness stepped out from behind the counter and looked down at him., Dear gods she was huge, at least eight feet if it wasn’t more. She ran one of her claws over his shirt, Aeric was wearing a rather simple blouse with jeans. She glanced at his pants and sat down on her heels as she eyed his... pants? He hoped she was eyeing his pants. A soft, contemplative sounding growl emerged from her throat.

“I think I found myself a world-walker.” She muttered. The avian girl behind her almost choked as she sprayed the contents of her drink over the counter, she then stared at Aeric with wide eyes.

Aeric frowned and stepped a bit closer to the exit. “Going by what that sounds like, I probably am, is that… common?”

The leonid snorted, “Hardly., It’s known to happen but it is rare, extremely so.

Maybe a couple people every ten years or so.”

“Which means he has no levels, no nothing. We gotta take him in now, don’t we sis. Think of all the ideas he might have!”

The avian girl chirped up with a sudden excited look in her eyes. “The very way he will see the world will be shaped by us! Ooooh how exciting!” She hopped from taloned foot to taloned foot and looked at them with wide eyes.

The leonid snorted with amusement, she looked him in the eye. “Most world-walkers turn out to be quite the people. I wonder…” She leaned closer and stared at him inquisitively “What kind of person are you, what is your home like and how does it compare to ours?”

“Earth, that’s the name of my planet, unimaginative naming I know. But if world-walkers are so rare how did you recognise me as one so quickly?” Aeric asked with a raised brow.

“You smell unlike anything I’ve ever smelled, and being this deep in the city that’s frankly impossible, the scent of the city should already have seeped its way into you if you had stayed for any reasonable stretch of time. The sheer lack of the scent on you is an impossibility.”

“That makes sense, being smelled by people is going to take some getting used to.” Aeric muttered.

“Wait till you find out that some species look right through your clothes” The avian girl said with a chuckle.

Aeric’s eyes widened a bit but he didn’t react too strongly, he never really did have that much shame, he took good care of his body and wasn’t afraid to flaunt it. “Well, I guess this brings me back round to the question, do you have a job for me?”

Aliami looked at him, “Well I was gonna give you a shot anyway, and I would be a fool to turn down a world walker. Best you keep that a secret though, some people like to… gather world-walkers.”

“Wasn’t planning on advertising it, wouldn’t have told you if you weren’t so sure about it.” Aeric answered with a snort. He looked around the shop, “So tailoring, I’m gonna need some help getting started I guess, also any advice on where to stay?”

The leonid took a step back and turned, waving a hand at him, motioning him to follow. “You can stay in the dorms, I have six other employees, we are a rather large shop all in all. All of us live on the floors above the shop, top floor is mine. Don’t go there, that’s mine.” She glared at him for a bit, then pushed through the door in the back and showed him the ‘work room’.

“This is where the work gets done.” The room was clean and looked well maintained, one wall to the side was covered in various tools, and shelves of materials. In the middle there was were a collection of desks where the seamstresses were working, they looked up when he entered, questioning gazes all around. He blinked at the variety of races, not a single one the same.

Aliami grinned that predatory grin of hers and waved at the room, “Let me introduce you to my girls.” She pointed to the closest girl. Who was darker than anything he had ever seen, she seemed to nearly absorb the light, it reminded him a bit of that piece of vanta black he had seen a long time ago. It would have made her features hard to pinpoint if she didn’t have ash-grey or bone white… paint? That accentuated her bone structure. She was extremely slender, nearing the point of anorexic. Beautiful in her own way, a fierceness to her that was near palpable. Sharp, if he had to sum her up in a single word, like a honed blade, ready for war.

“This is Xii, she’s an Aerimian. Don’t piss her off, she will eat you.”

Xii grinned at the comment, showing off her sharp and pearly white fangs. “A pleasure to be sure.” Her voice filled filling the room with a seductive drawl.

“The pleasure is mine.” Aeric said with a polite half bow. Xii smiled in amusement as she eyed him up and down.

“Me next!” The avian girl behind him said, “I completely forgot to introduce myself so it’s unfair Xii got to go first!”

Aliami chuckled, “Shouldn’t have forgotten your manners then, anyways the energetic one is Treeka. She’s an Altrosian, good eyes, light bone structure. Pretty fragile. Hurt her, we hurt you.”

“HI!” Treeka chirped as she extended a hand that ended in vaguely talon like claws, which Aeric shook, carefully.

Aeric showed her a half smirk, “Nice to finally meet you.” Treeka answered with a chirruping chuckle.

Aliami rolled her eyes and pointed at the next ...girl? “This is Lshrkr, name’s a bit of a problem to pronounce we know. She’s a Hivian, apparently she’s the princess of some sort of hive thing. Her people are rare and civilization has only recently made contact with their people. She’s one of the ‘ambassadors’ sent to the city to make contact.”

The Hivian was an insectoid, her exoskeleton or chitin was nearly translucent in its whiteness. She had a face vaguely resembling a human, with a pair of mandibles outside her cheeks and six eyes formed in a triangle. The eyes were like those weird ones a fly has, but then smaller and only the eyes on the right and left side of their respective triangle sat on the outside of her face. She tilted her head as she gave him what he interpreted as an inquisitive look.

“Always a pleasure to meet one as out of place as me. Then again you are even further from home than I am, are you not.” Lshrkr spoke with an odd accent that oddly enunciated each word with deliberate care, sounding quite odd but pleasant to his ears.

“A pleasure to meet you too,. Although I must admit I'm curious why an ambassador for her people would be in a shop like this, a question for later I suppose.”

“Later.” Lshrkr said with a nod, somehow making the word sound like a tantalizing promise.

“Next up we have Yisillia.” She pointed to an elfin standing in the corner, who bowed slightly in greeting. The only difference with her and the average blond supermodel back home was her ears.

“Nothing that exciting compared to the other species I’m afraid, I must admit we elves look boring compared to some of the people who live here.” The woman said with a friendly smile.

“Some familiarity will probably be welcome in a place as strange as this.” Aeric responded with a smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean!” The last figure stepped forward aggressively, she looked human enough. If you discounted skin like leather and musculature that could give the hulk a run for his money. She reminded him a bit of Hagrid in all honesty.

Aliami stepped forward and put a paw on the woman’s shoulder, “Relax Hurma, he’s a world-walker. Everything here is weird as all balls to him, he meant nothing by it. He probably has quite literally, never seen another species before today.”

The woman instantly deflated, “Right uuuhhhh, sorry. Didn’t mean to be that way.”

Aeric stepped forward with an open hand and a smile, “No harm done!”

Hurma blinked at him and gingerly grabbed his hand. Pumping it up and down before settling back in her chair, "We might be a tad protective of each other sometimes. Sorry again.

Yallisia smiled, “Well for better or worse we ARE a family. A bunch of misfit orphans banding together.”

"Sounds pretty fun, technically I'm not an oprhan though. My father is just so far away that it'd be easier to fly into the sun.

A round of chuckles answered. Treeka put a talon on his shoulder, “Yup, he’s gonna fit right in.”

Aliami pointed a thumb at the ceiling, “Well I’ll head up and get a room ready for another resident, I’ll have the girls show you the job while I’m at it. I’ll show you around our home at the end of the day, if that’s alright with you?”

“Sure, sounds great. Thanks.” Aeric sent her a grateful smile, she returned a wink and headed through a door to the left of the room which turned into a set of stairs that headed up.

“Now you get to pick who helps you figure out the job.” Yisillia smiled slightly.

Aeric blinked and looked at the girls surrounding him, he shrunk in on himself slightly. “Uuuuuuuhhh, do I have to?”

The girls chuckled, Xii stepped forward. “No you don’t, she was teasing you. Despite her polite and mature demeanor she does that quite a bit.” She slung an arm around his shoulder and guided him to a chair, as she sat down next to him.

Yisillia sent a wink at him and returned to her spot, the rest returning to their own work as well. Aeric stared as Hurma used her huge hands to swiftly stitch together some leather, her large digits moving surprisingly dextrous.

“Aaah right you probably aren’t that familiar with skills, Hurma has a skill for precision. Her size is in opposition to her speciality. Each of us has skills of our own, honestly for most of us working here at the tailory is a side job. I only have about ten levels in it myself, it’s something to keep me busy between jobs.”

Aeric looked over at his self appointed instructor, she pointed an ebony finger topped with an ivory nail at one of the racks. “For now grab some of that red linnen would you?”

He headed over and grabbed one of the rolls, which weighed a good bit more than he had been expecting and took it over to the table. He gently placed it on the table and glanced at his tutor. “Well I won’t leave you hanging, I’m an expeditionist first and foremost. This city was built at the frontier by a high level warrior called Ursmir Björnsworn, who is now the current lord of the city. Regular expeditions are sent into the wild, but they usually last a few months on end, and when we return we have a month or two of rest before we go out again. Most of us get a bit stir crazy if we have nothing to do for months, so we get a job for a while. I work here, but most of my comrades take jobs at the adventurer’s guild.”

She gestured to the cloth and showed him how to fold, when she shot him a questioning eyebrow he nodded and folded his cloth the same way, she started slowly sewing the sides together, showing him how she was using a cross stitch pattern. Something he was familiar with as he had seen his dad doing it a lot, he’d used it quite a bit himself. He nodded and followed her motions. She checked before nodding to herself.

“So I’m only a part-timer, I’m around for half of the year. Yisillia and Lshrkr are both only part-timers as well. Hurma and Treeka work here permanently, the two other girls don’t really do much tailoring to be honest. One is an adventurer and the other works as secretary for the lord of the city. They started off here though and they decided to keep living here with us, you’ll see them around sometime soon.”

She glanced over to check his work, nodding in approval as slowly but surely pants were starting to form from his hands and thread.

Aeric glanced up and looked across from him where Lshrkr was working on her own thing, “Now might be an opportune time to ask why a princess is working in a tailor shop.”

The insectoid looked up and he could almost see a sparkle of amusement pass through her faceted eyes. “Well I work a lot of jobs, unlike what is expected from the other races. As I hear it, princesses are supposed to lay around languishing in luxury and being weighed upon by servants.” A soft tremble ran through the room, an odd sound that he soon identified as her laugh.

“People from my home are different, I work hard for my people, I am ambassador, warrior, leader, tailor, architect, builder and guide for our people.” Her mandibles spread slightly in what Aeric assumed was a smile.

“How do you hold so many jobs at once?! That has to be tiring.”

The room filled with chuckles, once more that odd tremble rang through the room. “Aaah you see I am unlike those that you probably know. I am not a mere ONE, I am MANY.”

Aeric looked around in confusion being greeted in turn by amused smirks.

“I don’t get it.”

“There are many of me, I do not have one body, I have five. Even now I am both leading the forces of my hive in defense, speaking with the lord of the city, guiding and helping my people expand our hive and discussing options with the Queen mother.”

“Well damn, sounds efficient.”

He got a vague sense of approval from the Insectoid. “”Efficient indeed.”

“I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but honestly Lshrkr is more familiar to me than the two of you. Is it rude if I ask about what race you are and uuuh what they are known for? Aerimian was it?”

“Indeed, good memory.” Xii smirked, opened her mouth and traced one of her fangs with a fingernail. “Alimia’s quip about eating you was a reference to my people’s tendency to eat the dead. We believe not in waste, for in the wastelands we come from, waste is a good way to get both you and your clan killed. My people are warriors all, it is in our blood, war and battle calls to us and we are… proficient in it.”

Treeka snorted, “Proficient she says, her people are basically the big bad that everyone avoids. Once everyone started avoiding war with them at all costs if they could, the Aerimians switched over to mercenary work. Which was to the benefit of all involved, because an Aeriminiam mercenary is expensive and loyal to their death as long as you provide them with enough battle to satisfy their bloodlust.”

Xii raised a disapproving eyebrow before continuing her explanation. “We use a lot of what we earn to buy food and other essentials which we send back home we are trying to revitalise the wasteland. I am the vice commander of the group that has moved to the city, expeditions are dangerous and a great source of income and danger. Ursmir has been a wonderful commander, he has no problem finding us plenty of enemies.” Her smile turned bloodthirsty and cruel for a split second before melting back into her usual lazy drawl.

A shiver and tingles swept through his Aeric’s body as he watched the swift switch of expressions.

Xii’s face turned stony, “Pardon me, I did not mean to frighten you.”

Aeric blushed, “Yea that wasn’t what happened…”

Xii’s grin returned, “Owh truly? How..... Quaint.”

Aeric was quick to turn his attention to Hurma, “How about you?”

She looked up with her dark eyes and frowned, “Half-ogre.”

“What kind? The horns on the head club wielding type of ogre? The baby eating and rock throwing kind, maybe the friendly guide kind?”

Hurma started as she stared at him, the others broke down in laughter. Aeric just stared around as he felt blood rush up to his cheeks. “What’d I say?!”

She stared at him for a few moments before sighing, “The baby eating kind.”

“Cool… So are you like, super strong?”

Another surprised look. “I am stronger than most, yes.”

“How far could you throw me if you really tried?”

“Wait what?”

“If you grabbed both of my legs and swung me around and then tossed me, how far would I go?”

“Uuuhhh…. Pretty far?”

“Cool, we should try that sometime, near a lake or something.”

“I suppose that’s a possibility.” Hurma stared at him with such a confounded look on her face that Aeric had trouble keeping a straight face. Treeka and Xii had long stopped trying and were bent over in laughter. Yisillia was chuckling and Lshrkr did that amused mandible opening thing.

Hurma just kept looking around, “What is happening?”

Yisillia put a hand on her shoulder, “He’s just trying to reassure you that he doesn’t see or think of you as a monster. That he’s completely at ease with your heritage.”

Hurma looked back over at Aeric, “Is that what that was?”

Aeric blinked. “Uhhhh sure…. It’s not like I was really wondering how far you could throw me and how fun it would be.”

Treeka and Xii started gasping for breath as they laughed harder, this time both Yisillia and Hurma stared at him.

“What? I thought it would be fun…”