The world bucked and swirled as his world view was violently shifted. He passed through some place extraordinarily cold for a split second before erupting out of nothing and back into a familiar, green pastured plain. This time though, instead of small towns and villages scattered off across the plain with farms and homely huts, there stood a monolithic city.

It sat atop a rise, and at its center was a gleaming tower with sharp ramparts and balconies jutting off of it like branches. The rest of the city was hidden behind a gigantic white wall, with outcroppings of the same white stone on the top. Around the walls were several small guard huts, similar to the homes he had destro- seen.

Thousands of people milled about outside the walls, in something resembling a line. They all had the same destination, the two great gates that stood on either side of the wall. The gates themselves were carved of the same white stone as the walls and the tower, they had ornate patterns of stag charging through bramble and stone. It was a majestic sight that filled many a man’s hearts with wonder and hope.

Trult city was one of the pinnacles of human achievement on continent, though it showed signs of wear. Trult was a free city one time, until the Gazzril Empire came stomping to the west with it’s host of warriors and slave creatures, the leaders of Trult had given the city over with little to no fanfare. Since then the gates have not closed once, save against wild beasts, as doing so without threat from an outside source would be considered an act of war. No one in Trult had any misconceptions about what that meant.

Most of the travelers were garbed in worn clothing, and were slouched over. There were many merchants wearing much finer clothes, all of them were making their ways towards the gates. At the gates were four guards, they wore silver armor and blue tabards. They all had halberds gripped in their fists, and they were guarding a bored looking man with a large leather bound book.

“Next.” the bored man said. A group of three peasants shuffled forward, eyes downcast. The man in the front of their group looked up, he had brown eyes, matted hair, and a timid smile.

“M-may we come in sir?” he asked, scraping his foot against the ground.

“Names and purpose.” the bored man said again, not even looking up from his tome.

“I’m Yole, and my two sisters here are Tali and Moira.” he said indicating the two girls behind him, first the small girl with bright yellow hair, and then to the one equal to him in height and hair color. He wore close fitting rags, while the two girls wore large dirty robes that covered their forms.

The bored man sighed, “Purpose…”

“O-oh yes.” he swallowed nervously, “We came in from the east, you see we were part of a caravan that was bringing goods here. But we were ambushed,” he choked down a sob, “our traveling companions were killed. But we” he indicated the girls, “survived by hiding. We have been on the run ever since, trying to get here. To the grand city of Trult, where w-”

“Enough.” the man rubbed his brow in annoyance at the overlarge explanation, “Just go.” he waved them in.

The three companions entered the city, the leader stood awestruck at seeing the tower up closer. It looked like it scraped the heavens, and it was absolutely massive, as wide as several of the larger houses he had seen here. The area directly outside of the gate entrance was a cobbled road with shops lining either side, they had glass windows on the front to advert their wares. The brown haired man strolled forward, a strange skip in his step, as he peered at all manner of wild objects.

Many of the citizens gave a wide berth to the strange smelling man, he barely noticed as he searched for a clean enough alley to rest. He had no money to buy lodging at an inn, nor time enough to find work for now. He needed to find the layout of the city, and so he turned sharply towards the first alley he saw. There was some garbage, and several alleycats feasted on it, but the cleared out soon enough at the sight of this man.

He sat down and waved his hand, the two girls disappeared in a puff of multicolored light. He wiped at his face and body, as one would when bathing, and his false clothing and face dissolved. Revealing a bandaged one eyed man sitting alone in an alley, covered in dried blood.

“Whew! Close one there.” he clapped his hands together, it had been risky doing what he did. If the guards of anyone had looked closer at his companions, they would have seen that they had no faces, and their bodies didn’t move. He had made the false robes to hide that fact, and prayed no one would notice.

He looked around the alley, a sense of calm filling him at the familiar sight of broken bottles and boxes scattered about haphazardly. It reminded him of that fateful night, him bleeding out through a wound in his side. Shards of broken glass digging into his back, and a beautiful girl with blood red hair finding him. She wore strangely little clothing, and her smile was sad. But she was kind to him, and she saved his life. She never told him what she was doing out so late, and he had never asked.

He smiled sadly remembering her, before he smacked his head against the stone wall behind him, leaving a smear of grime and blood. He had no immediate plan, he wanted to become an adventurer, so he needed to become more presentable, and come up with a false identity. He laughed, he had no idea how to do that, and so he did what any half clever person would do, he opened his notifications.

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

…

You are level 47!

Quest Complete!

[Devil in the Tree]

You have freed the devil from his prison! Great work? He has rewarded you for your efforts!

Reward:

Ability - [Pocket] - Cost 275 Stats

XP

[Pocket]

At rank one the user is able to create a pocket reality for storage.

Title gained! [Devil Dealer]

You have made a deal with the devil. Good job?

+500 Reputation with creatures of demonic origin.

Title gained! [Walking Disaster]

You nuked a village.

5% bonus damage to area attacks.

Ability Increase!

[Chaos Manipulation]

[Chaos Illusion]

Beginner III - Beginner IV

Beginner I - Beginner II

He smiled, though his progress was slow, and his ability to use Chaos was still in its fledgling stages. He felt good making progress, and he hoped that soon, after becoming a professional monster murderer, he could make much, much more progress.

With no more notifications, and still unsure on how to spend 235 stat points he wiped his pants briefly and stood up. He cracked his neck and stretched his back. He looked down at his dirty bandages, covered in dried blood and grime. He needed to get some new gear to blend in with the other adventurers, and he needed to get washed up, but as it stood he was flat broke.

A wolfish grin curled his lips as a thought popped into his head. He had stolen money before, pickpocketing and slashing purses, why not use some of that experience? While it was definitely easier to steal from unwary people when you only went up to their hip, he decided he could make do with being taller.

Slipping out from his alley he stepped back out onto the streets, slipping between the crowd of people. Most wore peasant clothes, but several had vibrant hued clothes on, those ones also had their fat pouches of gold on display. They would be the targets.

Despite the difference in how the area looked and what everyone wore, this situation was similar in many ways to his younger years. He did as he did then, he found an unoccupied street corner, bustling with men and women going about their lives. Few spared glances at the obviously bedraggled man sitting with his arms outstretched, he smiled. He had learned long ago that if you didn’t want to be seen, the best way was to become something no one wanted to see. In this case, a beggar.

He watched with an unnatural focus for his usually wandering mind, looking for anyone with a fat purse that seemed a bit lax in their attention. He eventually spotted one, they were walking slowly, peering into each shop along the roads. Every once in awhile stopping to come closer and peer past the glass, never to actually go in.

Tobi smiled, the man was paying barely any attention to his surroundings. Tobi stood up slowly and made his way towards him, taking a slow meandering route that brought him from storefront to storefront, but always in the general direction of his quarry. The man was young, with wild curling black hair and no stubble on his chin, he wore vibrant blue robes and his coin pouch was strapped to a belt on his left side.

Tobi walked through the bustle of busy men and women towards his target, his target at the moment was peering into another store, fingering his pouch longingly. The sound of roaring chatter and boots and hooves clopping on the cobblestone road faded away. His mind was focused on his task, everything else seemed more distant, less important.

He sidled up to the man, and accidentally bumped him, his hand flashing flashing out towards the pouch, secreting it away in the folds of his clothing, “Shorry bout’ thath my lad.” he said jovialy, slurring his words, “Been hitting the bottle a bit hard.” he chuckled, miming a drinking motion.

Tobi stumbled away from the startled youth, his mouth partially open in response. As soon as he was out of sight his awkward walk was replaced instantly with his usual skip walk. He made his way into a nearby alley, away from the masses of people, many of whom were dressed strangely, he assumed they were adventurers.

He crouched behind a pile of boxes, ignoring the stench of rot and waste. He opened the pouch with quick motions and upturned it on the dirty stone floor. Several silver coins fell out, some had a stag head embossed on the center but others had no picture. He counted them out quickly, he had seven silver coins, he scratched his head, “Am I broke? Or am I rich?” he asked himself, not knowing how much seven silver was worth, or if the picture, or lack thereof, meant anything to the price.

He scraped the coins back into his pouch, there was no need to worry about how much they were worth, he might as well just go find out. With that in mind, he put the pouch back under his ‘clothing’ and set out to find an inn with a bath, and some new gear.

Jeris made his way down Merchant Street, his master had told him to find the alchemist shop run by some old man. He sighed, nearly every alchemist shop was run by ‘that damn old man’, why couldn’t he have just said the name of the shop or what the sign was. He had no idea what shop he needed to get to, yet he knew he needed to find some shop that sold mage stones. His master was working on something big in his workshop, and so couldn’t come himself.

Jeris had been given seven silver to buy the five mage stones, he knew he would have to haggle and an anxious feeling settled in his stomach at the thought. He peered into every shop he came by, partly looking for the alchemist, and partly because he was interested in all the items from around the world. Trult got a lot of exotic items as adventurers from around the world would come here to train in the Volin Forest, it was one of the best spots for starting adventurers.

Adventureres. A whimsical smile flitted across Jeris’s face at the though, he often wished he could be like the mages in the stories he had heard as a young boy. Legendary figures that could wipe armies from the face of the world and split the earth with a thought, but he was just a lowly apprentice, with barely enough mana to cast [Candlelight]. His smile died out and he made his way further down Merchant Street.

A storefront caught his eye, it had exotic pets displayed in the window. Strange creatures with seven eyes that looked like normal house cats curled in their cages, alongside small water drakes with beautiful blue scales, he wished he had a familiar, as then he could borrow their mana, instead of being stuck with his paltry pool. He fingered his pouch in longing, but knew that even if he could spend the silver on a familiar, seven silver wasn’t enough for even the weakest rock roach.

He made to turn away but a strange man bumped into him, he had one eye closed and the other was a brilliant yellow. He smelled bad and wore what one could call rags, if they were being kind. He stumbled into him, “Shorry bout’ thath my lad.” he slurred, Jeris was about to respond when he was cut off, “Been hitting the bottle a bit hard.” the ragged man laughed and stumbled away. Jeris’s mouth hung open, he wanted to say something, anything. But as usual, he stood silently and wished the world would go away.

Once the man was out of sight Jeris made his way yet again down the street, no longer stopping at every store that caught his eye. He was passing in front of yet another alchemist shop run by yet another old man, “Hey! Boy!” someone called out, Jeris looked around wondering if someone was talking to him, so used to being called boy by his master. “Over here you dimwit!”

He spun around again looking for the owner of the voice, he spun towards the alchemist shop he was passing, through the darkwood door was an old man with graying hair motioning at him. He could see some of the dimly lit room behind him, and inside was a room filled with shelves of the same dark wood the door was made of. The shelves were lined with multicolored bottles and trinkets, some of them glowed in the dim room.

“Come here.” the man waved at him again so he made his way over, “Your blasted master sent ya’ right? Master wassisname’,” he snapped his fingers, “Jol? Jill? Joil?”

Jeris looked down at his feet as he responded, “Juli.”

“Yeah. That’s the one, he sent you for the mage stones am I right? He sent me a wisp tellin me ta’ look for ‘the awkward blue boy’. I think that’s you right boy?”

Jeris clenched his fists, he hated being called boy, but as usual he took it and responded, “That would be me. Can I have the five stones please sir?”

“Aye. For the ten silver I were promised.” the old man said with a malicious grin.

“What! I only have seven silver!” Jeris’s eyes shot wide, “I’ll give you seven, please, sir.” he said awkwardly, not knowing if he should be firm in his demands or just beg the man.

“Eh. I don’t know. Were promised ten. I think I want ten.” he made a spectacle of scratching his chin, as if thinking over something difficult.

“I’ll give you this.” he took out a piece of white metal from his robe pocket, “Please. I’m already on thin ice with him, I can’t mess this up. He’ll get rid of me.” Jeris decided to beg, he was better at that.

“What is it?”

“It’s a piece of moonstone, you could make a night vision potion with it. It’s a fair trade, sir.”

“I guess I could take it. Though I wouldn’t call it a fair trade,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out five glowing blue stones, “it’ll do. Now. Where’s my silver?”

“Oh! Right here…” he pawed at his belt for the coin pouch, “Uh oh.”