It was sunset when Erin woke; feeling drained, but no longer intoxicated by the damage to his body. Groaning, he pushed to his feet; feeling feeble, but managing to keep his footsteps steady as he passed through the gate. The same pair of guards were present, but they didn’t acknowledge him in any way; only a momentary sliding of the eyes in his direction indicating that they even saw him. As he passed the guards, Erin noticed several popups that had minimized themselves into the corner of his vision. Curious, Erin enlarged them.

Erin shivered, and closed the popups as if warding away the trauma of his experience. Looking around as he walked, Erin found himself disappointed by the town around him. Ugly huts made from baked clay, and poorly worked stone seemed to make up the majority of the buildings. A few, mostly shops as far as he could tell, were more sophisticated, made primarily from stone while only using the clay as a lining between slabs. Only the most extravagant buildings showed any evidence of wood, and even then only in small amounts. Erin chalked that up to the shortage of water making trees a rare commodity. Once he tired of walking the town aimlessly, Erin hailed a lean, muscled man who was meandering slowly past.

“Excuse me sir, I’m wondering if you could tell me where I can find a dungeon?” Erin asked as politely as he could with his somewhat limited command of the language.

The man shook his head. “I won’t be the one to get you killed today.”

He started to turn away when Erin called out to him again. “Please, I need to earn money. I had to go through extraction just to get into town. I never want to feel that again.”

The man sighed, and reached into his pocket. After digging through it a moment, he flipped Erin a bronze coin. “Kid, you’re better off begging. I’ve seen too many unprepared, desperate people die in dungeons. I won’t help you kill yourself.”

Erin caught the coin, and nodded solemnly at the man, at a loss for what else to do. Without saying anything else, the man turned and walked away.

Erin sighed and resumed walking aimlessly; staring at the bronze coin in his hand. “What did Almera get me into?” Erin muttered to himself.

Before he knew it, Erin found himself in a kind of bazaar where merchants with lumps of clay that acted like tables hawked their wares. Erin explored the area, wondering what he could get with his bronze coin. Before he knew it, he found himself accosted by a pottery merchant.

“Young man, I see you don’t have a jug to carry your water. Luckily, I can help you solve that problem. All it’ll cost you is that Quinn you’re carrying.” The enthusiastic man announced.

Erin recoiled from the aggressive merchant for a moment, before the seed of an idea formed in his mind.

“Just out of curiosity, how much would it cost to fill the jug with water? I’m new in town, and I don’t know what the prices are like here.”

The merchant paused for a moment, his facade cracking for a moment as strain of performing the calculations manifested on his face.

“I would say that one of my jugs would cost ten Quinn to fill. Fifteen if you had one of the larger jugs.”

“Any chance I could buy one of the larger jugs for one Quinn?” Erin asked with a smile.

The merchant’s face broke out in a predatory smile. “Perhaps just this once. Normally they would be two Quinns, but if you ever need another jug, I hope you remember the kindness I’m paying you.”

Erin winked at him conspiratorially. “Of course, friend. I always remember those who are kind to me. Would you do me an additional kindness, and point me toward the nearest dungeon? I’m sure I’ll be back after I spend some time there.”

The merchant’s face fell, but he nodded. “There’s an entrance in the center of town for those foolish enough to enter, but I don’t feel the aura of power from you. You should find a different town if you’re looking to be an adventurer. Our dungeon is ranked intermediate, so it’s unsuited to new adventurers.”

Erin sighed, and shook his head. “It’s too late now. I doubt I’d make it to another town anyway. Thank you for the help though.”

The merchant nodded sadly. “Fare thee well friend. I hope you find your fortunes there.”

Erin nodded at him, and walked away; carrying the jug awkwardly under one arm. It took Erin over an hour to find a location secluded enough for what he needed to do. When Erin finally did locate an alley that would hide him from passerby, he set the jug down on the ground. Holding out his hand, Erin used his magic to produce water in a slow stream. At first he took large gulps for himself periodically to quench his dehydrated body, but once his stomach was filled to bursting, Erin continued filling the jug. Even taking it slowly, nearly his entire mana pool was used up by the time the jug was full. Erin panted, and glanced at a popup.

As Erin panted from the exertion, he was silently grateful that base stats could be increased by training the same way skills could. Otherwise he would have to spend a mountain of stat points simply to increase his max MP to an acceptable level. As he pulled himself to his feet, he could feel the energy return to him as his MP slowly refilled. Erin then encountered a new problem. He couldn’t lift the jug anymore due to the weight of the water.

Begrudgingly, he invested the forty-two skill points necessary to increase his strength by two points. Luckily, the system was rather simple. Increasing a skill would cost a number of skill points equal to the current level of the skill. Likewise, increasing a stat other than HP or MP would cost double the current value of the stat. HP and MP were slightly more complicated, costing the current maximum divided by ten, and rounding up the result. Luckily, increasing HP or MP increased your maximum by ten points so it was functionally the same price as increasing a skill.

With the extra two points in strength, Erin found himself just barely able to lift the jug. Grumbling, he increased his strength another point, and found it much more comfortable. Nodding to himself, Erin made his way back to the bazaar. Finding a water seller, Erin placed the jug on his table.

“Excuse me, do you buy water, as well as selling it? I would say this amount of water is fifteen Quinns worth, so I’ll sell it to you for twelve. I understand you need to make a profit after all.” Erin flashed his most charming smile at the man.

“And where did you find such a large amount of water? It’s not black water is it?” The merchant asked suspiciously.

Erin maintained his cheerful composure, despite not knowing what black water was. “Not at all. I bought extra for a trip to the dungeon, but my companion decided not to come. I’d rather not leave this much water lying around for someone to find, so I’d like to sell it to you. Like I said, just twelve quinns for fifteen quinns of water.”

The man looked at him suspiciously for a moment, but then nodded begrudgingly. Handing over twelve bronze coins, the merchant grabbed the jug; emptying it into a large cistern near where he sat. When he was done, the merchant handed back the jug.

“If you happen to come across any more so-called extra water, you know where to find me.”

Erin nodded cheerfully. “You’ll be the first to know.”

Business concluded, Erin walked away, and dropped his false smile. “Man, peopleing is exhausting.” He muttered to himself as he walked back to his hidden alley. Making sure no one was around to see, he filled the jug to a third full, and reemerged. This time he headed toward where the merchant had pointed out the dungeon entrance. Strangely it seemed to the most prosperous area he had seen yet. The town square was paved with poorly maintained flagstones that looked as though they might once have fit together cohesively, but had been reduced to gravel in places. It seemed that any areas which had developed dangerous holes were filled in with clay, producing an odd patchwork effect. The fact that the day's light was nearly gone only added to the bizarre visual effect.

In the center of the square, a gate with gothic architectural designs carved all around the perimeter jutted up from the ground anachronistically. There was a line of people queueing in front of the gate, seemingly waiting for their turn. Examining the line, he noticed the man who had flipped him the bronze coin. The man, seemingly sensing something, turned and scowled at him; shaking his head in disappointment before turning back to stare fixedly at the gate. Feeling strangely guilty, as if he had failed this well-intentioned adventurer, Erin strode up to him.

“Excuse me, I was wondering if I could pay you to escort me through the dungeon?”

The man turned on him, visibly furious. “I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. I won’t be the one to get you killed.”

Erin recoiled instinctively, but forced himself not to take a step backward. “Look, I’m going into the dungeon with or without you, but if I hire someone to guard me, then I have a better chance of making it back out. The fact that you’re standing in this line by yourself suggests you’re strong enough to be worth hiring. Not only that, but I trust the guy who flipped me a coin out of sympathy a lot more than I do the random other adventurers in line.”

Erin glanced around at said other adventurers. “No offense.” He added. The other adventurers either shrugged or nodded in agreement with his assessment.

The man’s face worked its way through several complex emotions before he sighed. “And how much are you offering to pay me? A few hours ago, you didn’t have a single Quinn to your name. Erin thought about this for a second before throwing out a random number. “Six Quinn.”

“A bit light. Make it eight, and we have a deal.” The man grunted.

Erin smiled his best negotiating smile. “How does seven sound? I still need to find somewhere to sleep after we’re done.”

The man rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Seven it is then, and any loot that drops is mine. Show me that you have the money first. I’ll take the payment before we leave the dungeon.”

Erin dug around in his pocket, and pulled out seven bronze coins. The adventurer nodded. “Fine. My name is Jode. While we’re in there, you do what I say, when I say. If you have any useful skills, tell me now so I know what to do with you. If you have any spare skill points for some reason, tell me so I can tell you how to spend them.”

Erin brandished his jug. “Mostly just water magic, but I have a few points in a few other schools of magic, and a bit of training in hand to hand skill.”

Jode’s face darkened. “You’re trained as a water mage, and you’re throwing away your life on a dungeon far beyond your level? Selfish. You should be pulling water from the ground so we have something to drink, not wasting your potential here.”

Erin sighed at the elevated levels of hostility. “I have my reasons to want to get stronger quickly, just trust me. I’m not the type to get myself killed carelessly.”

Jode snorted, but said nothing. After a long pause, he spoke again. “And skill points?”

“I have one hundred ninety.” Erin said after a moment.

“You have that many skill points, and you were going to walk into the dungeon without spending them?” Jode asked flatly.

“I wanted to figure out where they were needed before I used them.” Erin replied defensively.

Jode shook his head in dismay. “I can’t decide whether you’re smart or stupid. Fine. For now, dump them all into mana. Since you’re basically just here to train, you’ll benefit more from a larger mana pool than from higher skills. The more mana you have, the more magic you can use, and the faster your skills will increase on their own.”

Erin nodded. Opening his stat page, he noticed a new entry called “DP” which he assumed was linked to his divinity skill. Setting that aside for the moment, he increased his MP to a much more respectable one hundred fifty six, while he brought recovery up to eleven. Mana regeneration did scale somewhat with max MP, but he still didn’t want to slow Jode down with long recovery periods. This left him with only five skill points, which he used to boost earth magic a single point just because he could.

Erin gave his stat page one final once over, before nodding in approval.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skill Points: 1

+HP: 113

+MP: 156

+DP: 10

+Strength: 13

+Endurance: 12

+Agility: 7

+Intelligence: 15

+Toughness: 5

+Recovery: 11

Skills:

General Magic: 20

Fire Magic(Control): 5

Wind Magic(Control): 6

Earth Magic(Control): 5

Water Magic(Creation): 13

Water Magic(Control): 22

Farming: 18

Hand to Hand: 13

Evasion: 10

Language(Almenian): 25

Language(English): 56

Time Compression: 1

Divinity: 1

Walking: 2

Dehydration Resistance: 5

Pain Resistance: 6

Haggling: 3

Other:

Divine Body

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m ready.” Erin told Jode.

“You keep telling yourself that.” Jode replied, snorting.