I woke to a splash of ice cold water on my face. Blinking rapidly at the bright sky above, I saw a grey-haired and wrinkling man standing above me. In one hand he held the rim of an empty bucket. His other arm ended in a stump.

“Time to get up, lad!” he said. “Can’t laze about all morning. And welcome to Trash Heap—finest town in the land! ‘Course it’s the only one, so far anyway. I’m Griff and I’ll be your tour guide this afternoon.”

He put the bucket down and helped me get up from the dirt. It turned out that we were in the middle of what might generously be called the town square, surrounded by unrefined wooden buildings that vaguely resembled shops. A couple even had unpainted signs.

“So, what’s your name and why’d get sent here? You don’t look like a beggar; did owe someone money? Or were you making eyes at some Lord’s mistress, eh?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I—I don’t know.” It was true. The haze and confusion of waking up somewhere unfamiliar was clearing up, but I didn’t remember why I was there. Or my name. Or anything about my past. The realization left me standing there in a daze, wondering if I should have been panicking.

“Don’t want to say? I suppose you are ‘innocent’ then, thrown here completely unjustly? One of those ones, eh? At least give me something to call ya.”

“What? No. I don’t know. I don’t remember anything.” At this point I decided I probably should be panicking, but for some reason I wasn’t. Maybe I was too confused to panic.

“Hmm. What about your Skills? Do you still have them?”

“Skills? How would I have skills if I don’t remember anything?”

Griff let out a sigh. “Think or say ‘Status’ while imagining a display in front of you.”

“Status,” I said, wondering if I was being played for a fool. Instead, I gave a start when a screen appeared in front of me.

Status Obfuscated Status Name Keagan Murray ? Level 6 ? Progress 174/299 ? Statistics Health 67/67 ? Health Regen (/hr) 2.9 ? Mana 113/113 ? Mana Regen (/hr) 6.2 ? Strength 10 ? Endurance 9 ? Dexterity 12 ? Intelligence 17 ? Perception 11 ? Charisma 10 ? Abilities Identify II ? Obfuscate III ? Observe I ? Skills ? Spells ? Attunements Space 16 ? Time 10 Earth 8 Fire 7 Resistances ?

“That is your status screen. No one else can see it when you look at it. There should be a section labeled Skills. Do you have anything listed under it?”

I scanned through my Status, wondering why there was a second column with nothing but question marks, until I found the empty Skills section. “No. Should there be?”

“That’s what I was afraid of. Sounds like you got booked, lad. That’s a rough time.” He gave me a pat on the shoulder that nearly sent me tumbling.

“Booked?”

“Yeah. It’s possible to give up your memories and instincts of a Skill to create a Skillbook, which another person can then use to gain your Skill. There’s a fair bit of loss involved though, so generally only the desperate or dying create Skillbooks. Most people have to get Skills the hard way: lots of time and practice. Anyway, a while back some enterprisin’ fellows came up with a way to forcefully extract all memories from a person to generate a Skillbook. Guess you can be thankful it leaves behind most general knowledge and that the Universal language is automatically granted to all sapients. Wouldn’t wanna have to mime everything, would ya?”

When I didn’t laugh, he dropped his forced smile. “Yeah, that’s not much of a comfort, is it?” he said, looking away.

“Can I get my memories back?”

He shook his head, still not looking at me. “ ‘Fraid not. Even if you use the exact skill books generated, all your personal memories are still lost. And there’s no way back to wherever you were teleported from, so you couldn’t even get those books.”

“What? What do you mean there’s no way back?”

“This here fine settlement is part of the Empire’s latest expansion attempt. They’ve been gathering up all the riffraff and undesirables and chucking us through one-directional portals to various wilderness planes. The nobles make a big show of coming by every fall and magnanimously trading us basic goods—in exchange for all the rare materials we have, of course. It’s spring now, so you don’t need to worry about that just yet. Presumably they will establish permanent trading posts here once the town is large enough. The nobles get their money, the cities get to clean up their streets, and the Empire gets its glory. And us? We get to die by the dozen until the wilderness is tamed.”

“What am I supposed to do now, then?” I asked, perhaps a little bit despondently.

“How about you take a moment to look over your Status again. While it’s considered rude to ask for details about someone’s status, if you tell me your stats and Abilities I can help you find work that suits you.” He gave me a pointed look before continuing. “I can also answer any questions you have about it. After that I’ll show you around, see if there's a spot for you to live somewhere, and whether anyone is willing to teach you some Skills.”

Following Griff’s advice, I scanned my status again. The Statistics section seemed pretty-self explanatory, although I wasn’t sure what good it would do me to have my traits quantified. Not knowing what to look for, I moved on to Abilities.

“What is the difference between Abilities and Skills anyway? I still have some Abilities.”

“Abilities are boons granted by the System every time you gain a Level. All you have to do to activate them is think—just like pulling up your Status. Mostly they just give you information though. Skills, Skills you have to sweat an’ bleed for.”

“The System? How does it grant Abilities, and how does the Status work, for that matter?”

“Do I look like a scholar or priest to you, lad?” He peered at me briefly, somehow looming despite being my height. “The System exists and lets you interact with your Status. You will for things to happen, and they do. That’s all I’ve ever needed to know. As for the Status, well, near as I can tell, it’s more of a representation of you. If you spend all your time lifting heavy crates, your Strength goes up. You lose a hand—” he waved his stump at me “—your Dexterity plummets.”

“Makes sense,” I said as I focused on my Abilities, pulling up their descriptions.

Identify II: Identifies and gives a short description of an object or plant of up to Uncommon Rank. Lower-ranked objects will have a more detailed description. Observe I: Shows information from the Status of a creature or person. Level disparity, Observe rank, and familiarity with the target affect how much information is gained. Obfuscate III: Creates a false Status for others to read in place of your real one. False Statuses can be detected with sufficiently high Level disparity, high Observe ranks, or certain artifacts. Higher ranks in Obfuscate decrease chances of detection.

Ah. So that’s why there are question marks, I realized. Clearly I had something to hide before. Was I Booked because I was caught? Do I need to keep hiding? I hadn’t introduced myself to Griff yet, so I could still falsify my status for anyone that Observed me. Unless Griff had Observed me already and just asked for my name to be polite. Oh well, I thought, it’s better to try now, when I can play it off as an experiment with my Abilities, than later when me people might have Observed me. I settled on the name Sean Holman—the second name I thought of, just in case the first name was an alias I had used previously. I willed the name to appear in my Obfuscated Status and, thankfully, it did.

Was I hiding more than just my identity? It certainly didn’t make sense to show Obfuscate as one of my Abilities. Well, unless I wanted to pretend I had nothing to hide and wasn’t using it, but that seemed too convoluted. I also didn’t know enough about other Abilities to pretend I had them, so I would have to lower my Level to match the number of Abilities I had. Furthermore, it would make people underestimate me, which would help if I ever had to fight others—a distinct possibility in what was apparently a penal colony. To that end, I lowered some of my Stats before looking over my Attunements section.

“So, how do Attunements work?” I asked.

“Those’re mostly for magic, so folk don’t normally bother with ‘em. Spells generally require a certain Attunement level in at least one element, and having a higher Attunement can improve the spell and make it more Mana-efficient. Casting spells is the best way to improve your Attunement; throw a bunch of fireballs around, gain Fire Attunement. You can also become more attuned by spending enough time working with the element. I myself did so much digging in the legion that I gained 15 Earth Attunement. I’ve heard some rumors that if you get an Attunement high enough it starts changing you—skin turning to stone, that sort of thing—but I’ve never seen it myself.”

“Okay,” I said while making a show of looking over my Attunements. So, my Space and Time Attunements would be unusual. I hid those, but left the others in the hopes that I could learn—or relearn, as the case probably was—some magic. The Resistances section was empty, so I left it alone. I took a second to double check everything before turning my attention back to Griff.

Status Obfuscated Status Name Victor Murray Sean Holman Level 6 3 Progress 174/299 82/172 Statistics Health 67/67 34/34 Health Regen (/hr) 2.9 1.5 Mana 113/113 49/49 Mana Regen (/hr) 6.2 3 Strength 10 10 Endurance 9 9 Dexterity 12 12 Intelligence 17 12 Perception 11 11 Charisma 10 10 Abilities Identify II Identify II Obfuscate III Observe I Observe I Skills Spells Attunements Space 16 Time 10 Earth 8 8 Fire 7 7 Resistances

“Well, it says here that my name is Sean Holman,” I said with a wry grin before relaying the rest of my Obfuscated Status. I did leave off my Health and Mana because I had no basis for what would be normal. Luckily, he didn’t enquire.

“Alright, we can work with that. You have levels and above average stats, which is more than can be said for most of the folk we get here. With those Attunements you probably even knew some magic. A couple people here know a basic bolt spell, and’ll probably be willing to teach you, but that’s all we’ve got for magic ‘round here. Observe’s going to do ya a lot of good; there are a lot of unfamiliar plants and animals out here even for those of us with our memories. We’ve spent enough time standing here, though, so let’s get going on this tour.”

He led me to a nearby building. “This here’s the general store, run by Rupert. He’ll buy or sell just about anything. You’ll probably have to barter for any goods you want, unless you’ve got a coin purse hidden in those pants?”

“Nope,” I shook my head.

“Well, bartering’s common in town anyway, since there aren’t enough coins to go ‘round. If you do happen across any, we keep to the Empire’s rates of 10 copper to a silver, 10 silver to a gold, and so forth.” He snorted. “Not that there is any platinum in town, let alone any magical coins.”

Griff held the door and ushered me into the general store. Inside there was plenty of counter and shelf space, but only about half of it was filled. Just glancing around from the doorway, I noticed various flint tools, a lone iron pot, rope, woven baskets, a few bows, and some leather clothing.

“Hello there, Rupert,” Griff called out to the man arranging some sacks in the back of the store. Rupert was balding and only slightly younger than Griff. As he turned towards us I noticed he had a wooden stump in place of one of his feet.

“Hey Griff,” he replied, glancing at me. “We get another one this week?”

“Yep. This is Sean. He showed up with even less than normal, so any help you can give him would be great.”

“Hello,” I said.

“Hello, nice to meet you, and all that. I’m afraid I can’t really spare much at the moment,” he said, looking around his shop and pulling something out from underneath a table. “There is this though. Free of charge.” He held up a roughly made blanket of stitched together pelts.

It was the ugliest blanket I had ever seen; I assumed so anyway. I couldn’t imagine anything uglier. Given how poor the construction was, I was surprised there weren't still bits of flesh attached to the pelts. It would beat cold nights though. Probably.

“Thanks, I’ll take it. I, uh, appreciate it,” I said, still eyeing it even as he handed it to me.

“Yes, thanks Rup. Come on Sean, I’ve got more people to introduce you to,” Griff said, leading me back out of the store.

What followed was a whirlwind of introductions to all the shopkeepers and everyone Griff saw in the streets. Face after face, name after name, profession after profession, and even the occasional backstory mixed in. After the third person, I was just smiling and nodding along. Apparently high Intelligence doesn’t necessarily correspond to a good memory. Or perhaps I can excuse myself by saying I was already in a daze from waking up with no memory. Or maybe it was an aftereffect of the Booking? Yeah, that must be it. Definitely. My recall would otherwise have been perfect, I’m sure. And Observe could tell me their names anyway, so there was no real reason to bother remembering them. Well, most of them anyway; I tried to Observe Griff while we were walking and just got a blank screen. I figured his level must have been far above mine.

I do remember meeting Cassie, the apothecary, and seeing her shop. The shop itself had shelves lined with color-coded wooden and ceramic potion bottles. The only glass vials were behind the counter. Cassie didn’t have anything to give me (and neither did anyone else that Griff asked, for that matter), but she did say she would give me a good deal for any rare herbs or other ingredients I could find.

Other people that Griff introduced me to included a tanner, a blacksmith, builders, carpenters, fishermen, and lumberjacks. Most of them were men, and many of them were disfigured. After the fifth missing limb, I couldn’t hold my curiosity any longer.

“So, umm, how come so many people have been injured? Is it that dangerous here?”

“Ha,” Griff grunted. “No. There may be a few territorial animals in the woods, but this is the safest wilderness area I have heard of, as safe as some of the forests within the Empire proper. No, most of us were injured in the service of the Empire. Anyway, that there is the tavern,” he said, pointing at a large building nearby. “Jared runs it. They serve food that will fill your stomach and drinks that will get you drunk. ‘M partial to the fermented Garru berries myself. Next to it is one of the outhouses. You’ll find a few of them throughout town. If you start making trouble, you’ll find yourself having to dig a new one somewhere.”

“What sort of trouble?” I asked. “For that matter, who’s in charge here?”

“Officially some noble, but none of them would deign to show their face here, even if we started killing each other off. Most people listen to me, but we convene a tribunal when we need to. Punishments are public labor, exile, or death. Rules are basically common sense: no killing, stealing, raping, or anything else of the sort. You best not be thinking about making trouble, lad, especially without any Skills to defend yourself with.” He gave me a pointed glare.

From there the tour continued until we wound up at a small shack on the outskirts of town. There were noticeable gaps between the rough-hewn logs of the walls and in place of a proper door was a large wooden panel. Griff dragged the panel to the side and briefly stuck his head inside.

“Everything looks good in there. Well, not good, but no animals have moved in. This house and the furniture inside are all yours. You’re lucky you arrived in the spring, so we have plenty of space available and you have plenty of time to prepare for the next winter, otherwise you’d be begging other people to take you in. You’ll want to properly insulate the place and put a fireplace in before then, or you’ll wind up freezing to death here.” He said this without any sort of a grin and a faraway look in his eye that made me decide I’d rather not know why the building was vacant.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I’ll leave you to get settled in for the moment. If you want, I’ll come back in about twenty minutes to try teaching you some Skills to survive around here?”

“Yeah, umm, that sounds great,” I said. It wasn’t like I had any other options.

After some quick goodbyes, Griff left and I headed into my new home. When my eyes had adjusted to the dim light, I took stock of the interior. It didn’t take long. There was a dirt floor, a mildewy straw sleeping area, a crude chair, and an even cruder table. I threw my blanket by the straw and sat in the chair to reflect upon the strange situation I had found myself in. Or at least I assumed it was strange. I didn’t have much for comparison, but losing one’s memory couldn’t be an everyday occurrence, right?