Jason and the dwarf had been walking for around an hour through the forest. The dwarf’s name was Baghric, the gh being pronounced in the back of your throat; he had been very particular about that. Baghric had been answering Jason’s many many questions.

How exactly does stamina, health, and mana used transfer to experience gained? No clue lad but te exact amount ye use is te amount ye gain. What about skill experience? ‘Alf of it ye get to ye overall level. What is this bf that charm increases? Base Favor laddie. Favor? How well someone likes ye, charisma increases ye first impressions. How in the hell does it do that? Magic ye oaf.

There were many many more. Now though Jason was getting to the important questions.

“Hey Bagric---”

“GH!! It’s not Bagric, it's Baghric!” The dwarf shouted.

“Sorry Baghric,” A grunt was the only response he got. “Anyway… Where exactly are we?”

“Well we’re near Invetia. Don’t worry laddie we ‘aven’t gone too far. Those academy schmucks won’t teleport ye too far. Too much mana,” Baghric kept on walking assuming Jason knew what he was talking about. Jason on the other hand was looking around like a deer caught in the headlights. Completely and utterly confused. Baghric noticed the lack of footsteps and turned to face Jason.

“Well ye are one of te students right? Only reason ye’d be out ‘ere during this time of te year,” Jason was caught here. He could either admit that he was teleported from another world and probably another universe or he could lie and act like he was one of the students. He chose the obvious option.

“Yes I am. I was just surprised you knew that’s all?” Jason tried his best to sound genuine. Baghric obviously wasn’t paying that much attention as he immediately believed Jason and continued talking.

“Ah well we’ll get ye to yer family yet boyo. Now come on let’s get walking. We’ve got three days of walking to get to the city.”

The mention of family made Jason pause right after he began walking again. He hadn’t had time to think about them in the caves. His entire mind was on avoiding traps and not dying.

On Earth he hadn’t had the best relationship with his family. His mother and father didn’t talk to him that frequently after he left for college. A betrayal in his dad's mind as he wanted his son to take over the family business and not try to become a psychiatrist. His mother on the other hand just wanted Jason to be home during breaks more and got upset and angry when Jason spent all of his breaks on campus or near college.

Those two were divorced when he was younger. It was an admittedly smooth divorce with both sides being in agreement that it needed to be done, but that doesn’t change the fact that that separated the family. Him going to college was like the final straw that broke the camel's back. They didn’t talk to each other and rarely talked to him. He on the other hand just didn’t want to face their disappointment.

So he avoided them and avoided confronting or talking to them. The dwarf ahead once more turned around after noticing Jason wasn’t walking with him. This time though he was obviously annoyed.

“Alright well what is it ye big sack of potatoes. Come on lad we gotta leg it.”

“I… uhhh… I don’t have a family,” Jason told Baghric. Surprisingly Jason meant it. Not just no family on this planet. Jason didn’t have a family period. They were too estranged now to be called family. After three years of radio silence can you still call that a relationship. Or does that become a lost cause.

Baghric noticed Jason’s furrowed brow, quivering lip, and slightly watering eyes and thought it was for a different reason. “Well laddie. People die all te time. Just ‘avta move on and keep a walking. My guild… my guild can take ye in. We take all the loners, the estranged, the unaccepted. That’s what we do.”

Baghric walked over and patted Jason on the shoulder. Then he sighed. “I suppose ye were one of te peasants te academy roped in. Poor bastard. Ye shoulda known free tuition for yer entire schooling was too big a reward for simply going and training with te students. No wonder ye lost yer Returning Badge and no wonder no one thought to look for ye. They thought ye dead.”

“I was never given a badge. What does it do? Also the schooling sounded nice, but I didn’t even know what they would have taught me. I just knew the academy was prestigious and that it would be a good choice to try and get in and graduate,” Jason was acting natural now while lying which made him entirely more believable. The fact that he had to play the ignorant peasant when he was an ignorant peasant also helped immensely.

“They never gave ye a badge. Te bastards!” Baghric fiercely yelled. His face was a mask of fury. “Well me boy the badge they give ye before te teleport ye into te ruins lets ‘em pull ye back out.” Baghric was now furiously stomping around Jason in what seemed to be a pantomime of him stomping the entirety of the academy under his boots.

“So all the people who go in are supposed to get one? Why don’t they just make a passage down there and then let the students run out or in?”

“Te Academy wanted to own te ruins because they were similar to how an actual dungeon would be. Ter used te be a natural entrance but the academy destroyed it since people who weren’t a part of the academy kept waltzing in and out. Now they just teleport people in and teleport people out.” Baghric stopped stomping on the ground mid-answer and walked back in front of Jason like nothing happened.

The only proof anything did was his still present scowling and the circle of footprints that were on the ground around Jason.

“Why did the cave seem so long? I swear it wasn’t supposed to be that large.” Jason was really betting here that Baghric would assume that the academy would even deign to tell the peasants how large the caves were supposed to be.

“Ah that. Well the space mages once everyone is pulled out use some more magic. They take the dead ends closest to te surface and loop ‘em to the dead ends furthest to the bottom. This is so the beasties can’t easily escape from the caves. The ironic thing is that the academy actually uses a spell and kills all the beasties right after the training ends. Something about not letting any beast get too strong that next year it kills everyone. Though that would be a welcome ting.”

Baghric pauses and looks back to where they walked from. Jason believed it was to where the dwarf first found him. Unconscious on the ground.

“Well it now ‘as a new entrance. Though it don’t look natural. Tere must ‘ave been a strong beastie tere. One that could dig. Te academy is gon ‘ave it rough next year.” Baghric shrugged right as Jason shivered remembering the olm looking thing as it went through the tunnel.

“Ya it was a strong monster. A very strong and scary monster.” Baghric’s eyes bulged when Jason said this.

“Ye saw it and ye are still alive. Ye must ‘ave some skillset on ye. Actually that brings up an important thing. Tell me about yer build. I’ll make sure te guild teaches ye everyting ye need to know bout bottlenecks and how classes and talents work. For now though tell me yer build and how in te hell didya get introduced to te system. No peasant I know of has te money or personal know how to get into te system. Otherwise we’d have a million of adventurer’s and not te few thousand we do.” Baghric looked Jason straight in the eye as he said the first part in the most serious voice Jason had heard Baghric make,

Jason chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

“Boyo. Tell me yer build ain’t stupid.”