A cool breeze wafted down from somewhere and brushed against my face, stirring me from the slumber which had me so peacefully embraced.

I groaned and turned onto my side.

"Time to get up already?"

The breeze blew stronger, insisting that I wake up.

"Alright, alright. I'll get up."

I slowly pushed myself up to my knees and rubbed my eyes, feeling the roughness of my hands.

"Wow my hands are dry. I really should do something about that..."

I turned and looked out the window, noticing the pleasant warmth of the morning sun as it shone down into the dusty room I was in, particles floating around through the air, clearly visible by the ray of light.

"Man these details never cease to amaze me."

"Wait... Where am I?"

I looked around, completely unfamiliar with what I saw. Where was my glorious throne of obsidian? Where were my rows of skeleton guards? Where was my right hand, the Dark Knight Draconisia? I had never respawned before but would have expected to start in my throne room.

Instead I was surrounded by barrels and crates, all containing various food and drink. I noticed a few of the barrels lined up on a shelf with spigots attached that were probably ale. If anything, this looked like some sort of storeroom for an inn or tavern, not the Black Tower where I had just been.

"What the hell was I doing here?"

And why did I feel so weird?

I noticed a wooden door to my left and walked over to it, opening it slowly and exiting the storeroom into what looked like a shop.

The room was dark, lit only by the light coming through the window behind me. I noticed a torch ensconced beside me and went to cast "Level 1 Flame" to ignite it.

"You have not learned Level 1 Flame."

"What the hell!?"

Level 1 Flame was not only one of the most common and basic spells in all of Horizon Online, but It had been a starting spell for me. I hadn't even had to learn it.

I tried again, sure that it was just a glitch or something.

"You have not learned Level 1 Flame."

"Stamina -5 for repeated attempts."

Okay, now I was sure something was going on. I had never failed to cast Level 1 Flame before. Perhaps I had a debuff from dying so recently...

I opened my status menu and nearly fell onto the floor in shock.

Name

Fergral

Level

1

Class

Merchant

Race

Lizardman

Buffs

Town NPC Bonus

Debuffs

None

"What the hell!? This isn't my character!"

I grabbed a countertop in front of me to balance myself, knocking over a sword and dagger in the process.

Had I accidentally logged into someone else's account? Maybe I just got lucky with their password.

"I'll just log out and select HellBlade and be back in the Black Tower. This will all end up being just a stupid glitch that people will post about on the forums. Maybe the devs will even reward me for the inconvenience."

I opened my menu and looked for the logout button, sure that I'd be sitting on my throne and laughing about this with Draconisia in no time.

It was gone. The spot where the logout button had been was simply empty. Not only that but so were the Help and Support options. Looks like I would be unable to contact a GM about this issue.

"Okay, don't panic. There has to be a perfectly logical explanation for this."

I knew that for my brain to get to work figuring this out, I'd do well to act. Act first then figure it out as you go. That's how I not only became the number 1 ranked player in all of Horizon Online, but also the ruler of the entire Dark Nation. By doing, not waiting.

So, I took in my surroundings and let my brain begin planning.

There was a flat wooden countertop in front of me, covered in some sort of red cloth and all sorts of weapons and pieces of equipment, minus the ones that I had just knocked over. I bent down and picked up the dagger, placing it back in its spot, then reached for the sword.

"You do not have the ability to equip sword-class weapons."

"Are you kidding me!? Oh right, I'm a merchant at the moment. Looks like I can equip daggers though."

How was I supposed to clean up the mess I had made, If I couldn't even pick up the sword?!

I tried to think on what Merchants abilities were, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, being an evil overlord had allowed me little interaction with merchants. Why purchase when you could just take?

So, I checked my stats.

Health 250 / 250 Mana 15 / 15 Strength 10 Dexterity 9 Intelligence 7 Endurance 8 Charisma 5 Wisdom 9

"Ugh," I groaned, seeing for the first time how weak I was compared to when I was HellBlade. How could this happen? And how was I supposed to be a merchant with such horrible Charisma!? As an Evil Lord, I hadn't had particularly high Charisma, but that hadn't mattered. Fear was as good a motivator as anything.

I checked my Skill screen to see what I was up against.

Skill Type Level Mana Description Non-Human Passive N/A N/A As a Non-Human character, you get -5% to your Charisma. Trading Passive 1 N/A

Gain +3% profit from selling items x Skill Level.

Purchase items for 3% less x Skill Level.

Iron Skin Active 1 5 Gain +20% Endurance for 60 seconds.

Active Camouflauge Active 1 8 Gain +5% Dexterity and blend in with your environment for 30 seconds x Skill Level.

Looks like I had only four skills. I also found the reason for my low Charisma.

Non-Human.

I ran and looked at my reflection in a shiny steel plate of armor, mounted on the other side of the room. For the first time I realized why not only did I feel so odd, but my hands were so rough.

A Lizardman stared back at me with a shocked expression, scales a mixture of greens and browns, sharp teeth around a long purple tongue. I turned to my side and watched as I wagged my new tail, a very odd sensation since I had never had one before.

"But Lizardman isn't even a race option! It's for NPCs only!"

Before I could react or think further on the subject, a pounding sound thumped on the front door, followed by a muffled voice yelling from outside.

"Are you gonna open up in there? It's already past breakfast and I need some equipment upgrades!"

"How dare he!? Who does this person think he is, talking to the great HellBlade like..."

"Oh right..."

It was going to be difficult to get used to this.

I sighed, realizing that I was somehow stuck as this shop's owner, and walked over, opening the front door.

"Just gotta keep moving forward. This will all make sense eventually and I'll be back in my powerful character."

I'd also make sure to add this village to my list of "To Conquer".

A human man barged into the shop, pushing me aside and began immediately browsing through the wares, without so much as a hello. He wore a low-level adventurer's outfit and had a simple sword at his hip. When he realized that he could barely see, he looked up at the wall torches and cast Level 1 Flame on them, lighting the store.

I knew right away that this was another player. For some reason, I decided to check his info.

Name

IKillNoobs12

Level

13

Class

Warrior

Race

Human

Buffs

None

Debuffs

Hungry

What a horrible username. I knew right away that I wouldn't like this person, regardless of the way he treated me. If only I was on my other character...

"Hey, Shop keep. Come here. Do you have any +2 Steel Swords? I have some Wolves in the forest that need killing and I've saved up for an upgrade." The player spoke, not even looking at me as I pushed myself up from where he had knocked me over. I slowly walked up to the counter, unsure of how I should approach this. I didn't even know the value of such low-level items. What was the market like?

If only I had known this would happen, I could have prepared and done my research on the forums. But why would I ever have chosen to give up my power for this? I almost laughed at the audacity of it.

"Hey, what are you smirking about? Are you glitched out or something?"

The player was looking at me with disgust, snapping his gloved fingers in my face.

"I need service," he said. "Otherwise I'll go across the street! At least they opened on time."

"Yes yes, I'm sorry. You said a Steel Sword?" I tried my best to remain calm and ignore the insults. I didn't have the strength currently to fight him anyways. I moved behind the counter and stood before the player, a proper shop keep.

"A +2, were you even listening? I already have a +1 Steel Sword but I need a +2."

"Hmmm."

I looked around the shop, finding armor lined along the walls and all of the weapons on the counter in front of me. Well, all the weapons except...

I moved over to where I had knocked over the sword from earlier and examined it.

Name Description +2 Steel Sword

11-14 DMG

A beginner's sword with upgrades to its craftsmanship.

"Wow, what are the odds."

"Here is one," I said to the player, motioning to the sword on the ground.

"You just leave weapons like that lying around on the floor? Man this town really is going to shit."

I just smiled warmly, thinking everything but nice thoughts. A notification appeared before me.

Skill gained!

-Composed-

Keep your cool, even under stressful or aggravating circumstances.

Level 1

"Yes!" I shouted internally. This skill was going to almost be a requirement in order for me not to try and strangle someone. As HellBlade, I had Composed nearly at its max level and it was one of the primary reasons I was able to manipulate my way to the top of the food chain. Eventually it had lost its charm, as I had become too powerful to care about keeping my cool, but during the grind it was incredibly useful!

"Well, are you glitching again?" The player's annoying voice snapped me back to the shop and task at hand.

"What do you mean, sir?" I added the sir with lots of strain and self-loathing.

"Are you going to hand me the weapon or not? I don't have all day."

"Ahh, yes. I was hoping you could grab it." I didn't want to appear weak... Should I tell him I can't pick it up?

"Are you kidding me? And get arrested? I think not! You have to sell it to me otherwise touching one of your wares will have the town guards here within seconds... Even if you are an animal." He said the last part with a viciousness that surprised me. Even with his ignorant attitude, I hadn't expected such hatred. I guess I had a lot to learn about being a Non-Human.

To be fair, I hadn't treated my Non-Human troops or underlings with any respect either. Perhaps I deserved it at this point.

I turned back to the sword and examined it again, thinking hard about how to hand it to the player. That's when I noticed that I had an option to add it to my inventory.

"Perhaps this will work, as I'm not actually equipping it!"

I selected the option and the Sword slowly faded into digital 1s and 0s.

"You have picked up a +2 Steel Sword."

I checked and sure enough it was in my inventory, alongside a pickaxe, hatchet, and some leather pieces.

"Huh, I wonder what those are for?"

Next, I targeted the player and selected him, seeing my options.

Attack Message Invite Trade Duel

"Hmm, looks like I'd be unable to attack him even if I wanted to. That doesn't bode well for my future plans."

I selected Trade, highlighted the sword and added it to the trading queue.

"Finally, I was about to give up on you." Without an offer, the player added 10 gold to the trade window and clicked accept.

"Hmmm."

I had no idea how much a +2 Steel Sword was worth. I may be getting completely ripped off here, but I also didn't have time to do any research. So, I would keep my haggling short.

"Make it 12," I said, calmly.

The player rolled his eyes, added another gold coin to being the total up to 11.

"Final offer," he said.

I knew that he probably would accept 12 If I pushed it, I also knew that I didn't care if he was a return customer or not. But I agreed regardless and hit the accept button, knowing full well that in the grand scheme of things 1 Gold coin was worthless.

Just earlier that day I had access to millions.

After the transaction completed, I was rewarded with a nice notification.

Gained 11 + 1 (Due to Trading skill) Gold - Total : 261

Gained 30 Exp - Total 30/100

Skill experience gained!

-Trading-

Gained 10 Exp - Total 10/100

"Looks like I didn't gain much trading experience since I didn't really barter much, but that was more experience for the trade than I anticipated! A full 30 points. Perhaps being a merchant, I get more experience that route."

The player left without saying another word, carrying his new Sword. For a brief moment I felt something weird; something that I wasn't used to feeling.

I felt some sort of pride in the fact that he was carrying my ware, off to battle.

"What is happening to me?"

I moved around the store, opening the shutters and letting natural light in. Feeling that perhaps this was okay. Maybe this was a nice break from the endless wars and turmoil of being the Evil Lord. Not having millions of people wanting to kill you all the time was surely less stressful.

Besides, by the time I was bored of this, I was sure HellBlade would be restored and I would be given free gold for the inconvenience. It would end up being a win/win; a nice vacation and free gold.

I opened my menu and navigated to the global chat, realizing that I didn't have access to type anything, just read. It looked like this character really did have NPC limits in place. I couldn't attack players, I couldn't send messages into the global chat.

I could read their stats without asking though, which would come in handy.

I began scrolling through the recent chat to see what was going on in the rest of Horizon Online. A conversation between a few players about an hour ago really caught my attention.

[Ripper] : Did you see?

[Guy123] : See what? I'm in Edlial forest right now grinding away.

[Ripper] : Yeah I know, but something huge just happened.

[Guy123] : Like an event?

[ShadowClone] : You guys are noobs, stop spamming Global Chat and join a party or something.

[Ripper] : Shove off, ShadowClone.

[Ripper] : Yeah, Guy. HellBlade was killed. The throne was taken over!

[Guy123] : Holy shit, are you serious?

[ShadowClone] : Yeah, what? Why didn't I hear about this?

[Ripper] : Oh now you wanna be a part of this convo?

[ShadowClone] : Everyone already is a part of this GLOBAL CHAT convo, moron.

[Ripper] : Whatever, anyways, yeah hes dead and supposedly Draconisia released a statement saying that he's not coming back.

[Guy123] : Like he quit the game?

[Ripper] : No idea but it's gotta be pretty messed up to be betrayed by your right hand.

[Guy123] : Wait, the Light Warriors didn't defeat him?

[Ripper] : =) Nope. It was his own bodyguard.

"Draconisia... son of a bitch!"