Chapter 2

I walked for the better part of an hour, it was hard to travel moving through such thick foliage, tripping roots, and low-hanging branches. To my relief, I managed to find what appeared to be a well-worn trail, a pair of grooves in the road indicated this path was used by wagons. With any luck perhaps I might stumble upon a merchant caravan that might give me a lift. I trudged down the road as it curved around tree stumps and large moss-covered boulders. Checking my map, I could see I had crept closer to the spot Shadowfire had pinged, but it still seemed a ways off. I pushed on for another hour, but my legs were getting tired I noted that a green bar had appeared in the left corner of my vision, and it was rapidly reaching empty. I stopped and sat on a boulder keeping my eye on the green bar, after a minute or so it slowly began to refill. ‘So that must be my stamina bar’ I thought. I wished I had some water to drink. Two hours of walking through a thick humid forest had left my throat dry. My stomach rumbled slightly, and I wished I had something to eat. I poked Shadowfire who had fallen asleep on my shoulder. “Hey, I don’t suppose you know where some water or something to eat around here is,” I said to the little dragon as he stirred. He looked around for a moment.

“There is a small stream to the west, and you might be able to find some berries nearby,” he said.

“As long as they aren’t the poisonous kind, I am fine with that,” I said.

“Don’t worry Derek, I would never poison you. Follow me.” He said taking to the air heading deeper into the forest and away from the road. We walked for a few minutes before my ears picked up the faint sound of rushing water. Down a slope, I could just see a small river cutting through the forest. I moved carefully down the slope hoping a wouldn’t slip and twist my ankle. I reached the river; the water was flowing gently, it looked cool and clear. My mouth watered at the sight of it, “I won’t catch some weird disease or something by drinking from this will I?” I asked, Shadowfire was already lapping at the water.

‘No, you're fine’ He responded mentally, his face half-submerged in the river. ‘Good enough for me' I thought back. I leaned down scooping water into my hands. I gulped down the water greedily, it was the coolest, most refreshing thing I had ever tasted. I spent several moments drinking until my stomach couldn’t handle it anymore. I splashed water on my face and neck then stood glancing about at the sides of the river. I spotted what appeared to be a blackberry bush and moved towards it. I picked a couple of the berries and sniffed at them. They smelled like blackberries I turned towards Shadowfire who landed on my shoulder. “What do you think?”

“They are not poisonous.” He stated.

I shrugged and popped a couple of them in my mouth. They were tasty, just the right amount of sweet and tart. I picked several more of the tasty berries tossing a few to Shadowfire who ate them. I was surprised after eating a handful as a prompt appeared in my vision.

Buff added: Black Bush Berries. Affect: All natural healing is increased by 20% for 3 seconds per berry eaten (max 120 secs)

I stared at the window for a moment ‘well that’s cool, these will come in handy' I thought filling my pockets with berries.

“What does it mean by Natural healing?” I asked Shadowfire who was munching on a berry.

“All beings heal slowly over time. It’s different for everyone, some races heal faster than others. I think you heal about 3% of your health every minute. If you want to increase that, you will probably have to find a magic skill tome to teach you.” Shadowfire said munching on more berries

“I see, well since I don’t have any potions on me, I should carry these berries with me,” I said shoving even more berries into my pockets.

“I have never had to eat or drink before it is most enjoyable,” Shadowfire said his mouth full of berries

“Really?” I asked looking at him.

“Before you came along, I existed only as a thought, then you appeared, and I was appointed as your familiar.”

“Who appointed you as my familiar?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t know, one of the Gods I guess” he said with a shrug.

“You say Gods does that mean this world has multiple Gods?”

“There are nine Gods in total, each watches over a different aspect of mortal life. Once, the Gods lived here on Elseria with the rest of the mortals, but a terrible war broke out between the Gods and the Demon Lords. After years of fighting the Gods realized the war would never end as neither Gods nor Demon Lords can truly die. So instead, they cast a powerful spell sealing themselves behind Divine gates and casting the Demon Lords back into the nine hells where they are sealed away. The Gods can still commune with mortals, but their power is greatly diminished.”

“That’s amazing, back on my world…” I trailed off as an odd sound caught my ear. It sounded like someone talking but was low and guttural. I dropped behind a bush scanning the forest for any sign of the voice, a second voice joined the first. Someone was clearly having a conversation, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I crept forward trying my best not to make a sound, I leapt lightly over the river one of my feet splashed down and for a moment the low voices stopped. I kept low to the ground hoping the small bush to my side was enough to keep me from their sight. A few breathless seconds later the voices resumed speaking their voices growing as they crept closer. I moved closer, watching where I placed my feet careful not to step on twigs or broken branches. I still couldn’t see whoever was speaking but I was sure I was getting closer, as the voices were steadily getting louder. I continued my slow careful walk keeping low and stepping as carefully as I could.

Congratulations you have learned the skill Stealth level 1. Affect: Enemies now have 1% less chance to hear you while stealth is active. Stamina cost while active low.

The window appeared in my vision with a flash, and I gave a small cry of alarm. I stifled my cry a half-second later, but the voices had fallen silent. I dropped to the ground and noticed with surprise a small half open eye in the middle of my vision beneath was the word detected. The eye was slowly opening wider, if my years of playing video games had taught me anything that meant the voices had heard me and were now moving to try and find me. I crouched low trying to stay behind the low bushes. I heard a grunt off to my right and saw a foot emerge from the bush it was green, and the toes ended in small sharp nails. It was small for a foot and reminded me of a child’s foot. I followed the foot up as more of the creature emerged from the bush. It was small only about 4 feet tall wearing what appeared to be animal hides crudely sewn together to form a rough sort of armor. A crude-looking spear was in its hand, it had long pointed ears, black beady eyes, and a crooked hooked nose. I instantly knew what the creature was, I had seen various versions of it in almost every video game or Tabletop RPG I had ever played, that was a goblin. Goblins, at least in my world, were known to be nasty evil creatures who tormented and killed people and here I was staring at one in real life. Lucky for me it didn’t seem to see me, yet.

I had seconds before the goblin spotted me, I leapt to my feet pulling out my sword, and stabbed at the goblin. It saw me a half-second before my blade entered its chest and gave a loud squeal. A red health bar appeared above the goblin; the red was quickly draining out of it. The goblin tried to jab at me with its spear, but I dodged out of the way ripping my sword free of its chest. Blood sprayed from the goblins chest and its health bar flashed a warning before emptying. The goblin collapsed to the ground in a heap, I smiled in satisfaction flicking some of the blood off my sword.

Pain shot through my leg and my health bar appeared in the corner of my vision, half of it drained away and I turned to see the second goblin ripping his spear from my leg. I staggered back each step was agony the goblin shouted something and charged at me I brought up my sword and awkwardly deflected the spear away from my face. The goblin swung the spear again this time aiming for my gut. I side-stepped the spear and swung at its arm. My blade bit deep into the goblin's arm shaving off a quarter of his health. He growled as I wrenched the blade free and jabbed his spear at my gut again. This time I caught the spear with my hand pulling on it, the goblin staggered toward me in surprise, and I brought the hilt of my sword into the goblin's face. A loud crack sounded, and the goblin's nose broke, it staggered back drunkenly. I charged in driving more sword into his chest. The goblins health bar flashed a warning then died. The goblin collapsed and I fell near him breathing heavily.

You have earned 40 Experience for defeating goblin raiders (x2). Congratulations you have successfully defeated your first encounter all experience points earned have been doubled. Total XP: 80

Congratulations you have learned the skill Untrained Combat Level 1: All attacks now deal an additional .02% more damage. Note: This skill can be morphed into melee combat by visiting an appropriate skill trainer or reading a skill tome.

I groaned in pain looking at my injured leg, I briefly wondered if I should tear off some of my shirt to bandage it. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that Derek,” Shadowfire said as he landed next to me on the ground.

“Why is that?” I asked looking away from my leg.

“You still have that buff from the berries with plenty more in your pockets,” he said. I noticed a small icon under my health bar. Focusing on it brought up the buff description. I had about a minute left on the current timer. With the added 20% bonus, my health bar should refill within a few minutes. I popped several more berries into my mouth and the timer shot back up to just under two minutes.

While I sat waiting for my health to refill, I tried not to look at the two bodies several feet away from me. Now that the thrill of combat had worn off the realization that I had just killed two sentient beings was settling in. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, true they had been goblins and everything I knew about them told me they would have killed me if they had, had the chance. Did that give me the right to kill them though? I sat in silence my thoughts racing, after a couple of minutes Shadowfire laid his head on my lap startling me out of my thoughts.

“You do know they were trying to kill you right?” he said softly.

“I know but I’ve never killed anything before,” I replied.

“Look at it this way, if those goblins were still alive, they probably would have attacked someone else. There is probably a merchant or farmer who will get home to his wife and children now because he won't be attacked by those goblins. Because of you, someone else in this world is safer, even if they don’t know it.” He said reassuringly.

I thought over his words, he wasn’t wrong. I was no longer on Earth, here monsters existed and would probably do everything in their power to end my life if given the chance. I took a deep breath and looked at both goblins again. I accepted what I have done and would most likely need to do again if I was going to survive in this world. I stood to my feet with determination, Shadowfire landed on my shoulder, and I turned to head back towards the road. I had taken two steps before Shadowfire said “aren’t you going to loot the bodies?”

I looked back at the goblins and blanched at the thought of having to dig through their pockets for whatever useful things they might have. Still, they might have coin and if I was going to get supplies at the settlement, I was sure to need money. I reached down hesitantly towards the goblin; it was face down on the ground as soon as my hand touched it a gridded window appeared before me. I starred for a second before a smile broke across my face, “inventory system, sweet.” The goblin only had a couple of items on him, but I pulled them from the window putting them in my pockets.

You have found 2 silver coins

You have found:

Crude Dagger

Weapon Class: Dagger (Crude)

Damage: 4-6

Durability: 8 of 12

“You know, you could use your inventory to store things, right?” Shadowfire said.

“Wait, I have an inventory?” I asked in surprise, Shadowfire sighed dramatically rolling his red eyes. A window appeared before me showing a 4x8 grid, it was empty I placed the berries into my inventory, and they appeared taking up 1 grid showing the number 82 at the bottom of their icon. I placed the dagger and the 2 silver coins. The coins didn’t appear in the grid rather a counter at the bottom now read silver coins: 2. I also noted a tab above inventory that read Equipment. I mentally clicked it and the inventory switched to a slowly rotating view of myself. I stared at myself for a moment, I looked the same as I had on Earth, same short dark brown hair and blue-green eyes I realized at that moment, I was no longer wearing my glasses and I no longer seemed to need them, thankfully that hadn’t come with me, unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten any taller still standing a little over 5’4. I checked the boxes next to my avatar that showed what I currently had equipped.

Simple Cloth shirt

Durability 20 of 20

Simple Cloth pants

Durability 20 of 20

Leather Armor chest piece

Armor rating 12

Durability 20 of 20

Leather Bracers

Armor Rating 6

Durability 19 of 19

Leather Leg Guards

Armor Rating 10

Durability 18 of 20

Long Sword

Weapon Class: Sword (Good)

Damage: 10-12

Durability 24 of 25

“Sweet,” I said, now I wouldn’t have to keep shoving things into my pockets. I moved to the other goblin and repeated the process.

You have found: 4 silver coins

You have found:

Basic healing potion

Potion rank: Basic

Effect: Heals 12-15 points of damage.

Heck yeah more money and a healing potion, this whole adventurer thing might not be so bad after all. Of course, I had no idea what this worlds currency was, was 6 silver coins enough to buy food and lodging? Would I need more? Or maybe 6 silver was a small fortune? I doubted that last part since I had found the coins on the goblins. Everything I knew about goblins from video games said they were weak monsters that low level adventurers killed to earn their first few levels. I doubted they would be carrying a small fortune in coin. I was happy in this moment that not only had I survived my first encounter in this world, but it had been with a relatively easy opponent I shuddered to thick what would have happened if it had been something stronger.

I left the goblins behind and turned to start heading back towards the road. I noted however where I was currently standing on my map seemed closer to whatever settlement I was headed for, if I headed back for the road, it would probably take me longer to get there. While trudging through the dense forest wouldn’t be easy, I wasn’t even sure if the road reached the settlement for all I knew it could be a mile from the road. Squaring my shoulders, I turned and headed roughly in the direction of the settlement leaving the road behind.

For 3 more hours, I walked through the forest taking breaks occasionally, to let my stamina refill. Back on Earth I had never been the most athletic of people, I had enjoyed the occasional bike ride or roller skating in my youth, but age and a demanding job had ended that. I barely had time to exercise and put on a little weight because of that. Thankfully this body seemed a little more athletic and handled the several hours walk better than my old Earth body could have. I wasn’t sure what time of day it was, but the sunlight coming through the trees seemed to be fading. After another hour I stopped abruptly when I heard a familiar sound. The rough harsh language I heard the other goblins speaking. I immediately dropped into stealth, a closed eye appeared in my vision and the word hidden was beneath it. I crept forward towards the sound of the voices, there was definitely more than 2 this time.

Ahead of me the land dipped forming a sort of natural bowl I estimated it was about 10 feet deep and 20 or so feet wide, the goblin's voices were coming from within the bowl. I crept as silently as I could to the edge of the bowl and looked down. I saw three goblins tearing into what looked to have once been a deer. They were completely engrossed in their meal, chattering amongst each other. I had handled myself against two, but I was hesitant to take on all three. Especially since one looked to be a bit bigger than the others. I wished I could see their levels so I knew whether I should risk fighting them or just move on.

‘There is a skill for that’ Shadowfire said in my mind. I nearly jumped at hearing his voice but thankfully the small noise I made seemed to have gone unheard by the goblins below. ‘What is the skill and how do I learn it?’ I asked speaking to him directly through our mental link.

‘It's called Analysis, but I am not sure how you learn it,’ he said with a mental shrug.

‘I thought you were supposed to know this kind of stuff,’ I thought back at him in annoyance.

‘Hey, I am just here to help you understand stuff, doesn’t mean I actually know how any of it works. Honestly, it's pretty surprising that you’ve already picked up two skills. It usually takes people a bit longer to learn skills. You’ve only been in this world a few hours.’ he said with a mental shrug.

I stared at him for a moment, ‘You’re no help you know that’ I thought back contemptuously. Do you at least know what the skill is supposed to do?’

‘Of course, it gives you general information on your target, Level, stats, that sort of thing.’

‘How could you possibly know that, but not how I learn the stupid skill?’ I asked in frustration. Shadowfire just shrugged. I ground my teeth in frustration.

I thought for a moment turning back towards the goblins. Thankfully my mental conversation with Shadowfire had gone unnoticed and they were all still happily tearing at the deer's remains. I focused on one of the goblins trying to will information about him to appear, after a minute nothing happened. I let out a frustrated sigh, took a deep breath, and tried again. Two minutes of intense staring at the goblin produced no results. I focused on trying to calm myself, clearing my mind of my frustration. I opened my eyes and focused on one of the goblins willing the information to appear. This time I felt something shift in my mind and a tiny surge of electricity ran through me, a blue bar appeared in the upper corner of my vision showing it had dropped a couple of points. Best of all a window appeared before me.

Congratulations you have learned the skill Analysis. Affect: This allows you to see basic information about your target (such as their level, stats, and experience). Note: If the target of your skill is too high level you will learn nothing about them. Mana cost very low, activated.

I wanted to shout in triumph but held my breath. I refocused looking down at the goblins. They were seated in a sort of a circle with two on one side with their backs towards me and the larger one on the other side of the deer carcass. I focused on the left-most goblin he had greasy black hair with some sort of blue feather woven into it, he was wearing hide armor that looked to have been badly stitched together. I activated analysis:

Goblin Raider

Level 1

Experience 20 (total number of points you earn for slaying this monster)

Not bad, I turned towards the goblin on the right, he was shirtless only wearing what appeared to be a sort of loincloth or kilt, he was completely bald with a large bone spike in one ear. “Analysis” I whispered.

Goblin Mystic

Level 1

Experience 25 (total number of points you earn for slaying this monster)

Some sort of spellcaster then? That gave me pause I had no idea what kind of spells this world had. Since I couldn’t see his skills, I had no idea what kind of power he might have access to. I would have to be careful of that one. I focused on the last goblin furthest from me. He was bigger than the other two with a nasty scar on his face and a mohawk that stuck up from his head. “Analysis” I whispered again activating the skill.

Goblin Brute

Level 2

Experience 45 (total number of points you earn for slaying this monster)

I groaned inwardly, that was going to be a problem. Judging by his size he was sure to be stronger than the other two. I could just barely make out some sort of bone weapon next to him, but I couldn’t tell what it was exactly. I crept back from the edge thinking hard, trying to formulate some plan of attack. The Mystic and the Brute were probably the biggest threats, I should be able to take down the raider without too much of an issue. ‘Shadowfire, if I sneak up on them and attack one of them before they realize what is happening will I get extra damage for the attack?’ I asked mentally.

‘Of course, all attacks from stealth are considered Critical hits inflicting double damage. Of course, once you attack something from stealth you break your stealth, so it really only works once’ he responded.

‘Once is all I need... hopefully’ I crept back up to the edge and looked over. I could see the goblins had stripped the carcass near to the bone. Their meal wouldn’t last much longer than they would undoubtedly be more alert. If I was going to act it would have to be now. ‘Shadowfire I am going to need your help.’