Ilaria stood and walked over to Ray. She was smiling. Out of nowhere, Ilaria wrapped her arms around Ray. She lay her head against his chest and whispered “Welcome to Finrial village. Home and seat of power for the Aliri clan”

Ray didn’t know what to do in this situation. It was no secret that he thought Ilaria was beautiful. Now that he was feeling her warmth up close, it just felt right. She quickly released him and muttered words of apology. Ray didn’t really want her to stop but decided it would be inappropriate to pursue anything more. They started walking towards the exit together.

“Well, that took a long time. What do we do now?” Ray asked

“I Imagine Arj will come pick you up to show you to your room. You can wash up and change your clothes there. As it’s getting late in the day, I imagine you’ll probably want to rest and we can get you some basic gear in the morning” Ilaria responded.

That was music to Rays ears. Finally some time to rest and just process his emotions. They walked back through the corridors and as Ilaria had said, Arj was waiting to collect Ray. He was holding a small box.

“Congratulations on not being killed” Arj said with a smile on his face

“Let’s be real, that was never in the cards the moment the elders showed up the way they did”

Ilaria looked surprised. She had legitimately thought they had come in ready to kill. To her absolute bewilderment, Arj began laughing heartily.

“You saw right through us then! It seriously seemed like you didn’t have a care in the world, almost like you were goading us to just do it” He said.

“I mean, why bother trying to intimidate me if you’ve already captured me. You could have killed me on the spot anyway”.

Arj laughed again. “I guess that was my mistake. We had already voted to let you live from the beginning. Honestly, I just wanted to see how you would react” Arj said

Ray smiled widely. He knew that Arj would become a good friend over time, even if he is older. He seemed to have a similar sense of humour to Rays. “So, what’s with the stodgy old box and what can I get to eat around here?”

Arj handed the box to Ray, who proceeded to open it and pull out a small copper looking coin with a picture of a female wearing a crown. The female was not human but rather looked like she had scales. “What’s with the lizard chick?” Ray asked

“She’s not a lizard chick. She’s a Dragonborn. Blood of dragon and elf. She comes from the equal strongest race on Arkus, the only competitive race is also a dragon bonded offspring being a Draconis. They have human and dragon blood. Anyway, I’m rambling. That’s Arcturia. Current highest rank on Arkus”

Ray stared at the coin in wonder. This lizard was the strongest person on the planet. Ray was about to pocket the coins into his inventory but Arj suddenly spoke up.

“Now for your first lesson. Use Identify on the coins” Arj said.

Ray followed his lead and used identify on the coins…

Identify Used

Arkus Coins x 100

Lowest denomination of currency used on Arkus.

10,000 Arkus coins combine to make an Arkus Bar.

10,000 Arkus bars combine to make an Arkus Sphere.

[Congratulations, Skill: Identify has levelled to 2]

“Well, that’s good to know” Ray said “So, skills level and the coins I’m getting are probably basically worth jack crap yeah?”

It was Ilaria who broke in, possibly feeling a bit left out. “I wouldn’t say worthless, a loaf of bread for instance will cost you about 10 Arkus Coins. 100 is literally just enough to get a basic reasonable quality dagger and maybe some basic armour”

“Well, that’s just great. So, I’m no better then a beggar right now” Ray said

Arj looked at him and smiled. “Cheer up” he said, “Let’s get you something to eat and then you can go back and rest”.

They toured around the evening markets and eventually settled on something that seemed similar to chicken skewers cooked on a barbeque. The meat was clearly different to chicken. It was slightly tougher but tasted similar to a teriyaki flavoured beef. Honestly, Ray could have eaten dirt and it would still have tasted like heaven. By the time he was done, he had consumed over ten skewers and a flagon of ale. Yes, an old timey flagon of ale.

Whilst Ray was eating, Ilaria departed, she had headed back to her home. Ray, being tired, followed Arj back to his place. Ray was so tired that he didn’t even draw a bath. He was a bit disappointed that there didn’t seem to be anything like a magic shower that he simply flopped onto the bed in the spare room and fell asleep.

Ray didn’t dream that night but when he woke early in the morning, he didn’t want to get up. His emotions had finally caught up with him. Realising that he was along, he let out a loud sob and began to cry. He wouldn’t let his emotions show in public but he needed an outlet and now was his chance.

When Ray finally did get up, Arj was already awake and cooking breakfast. Ray slipped on some new clothing which had been prepared for him. The clothing was pure black and almost looked as if it had come from his own world.

Ray walked down the stairs and was surprised when he didn’t just see Arj. The entire group who had captured him were there except for Maethel. When they saw him, they let out a cheer. They were clearly already drinking.

“What’s up with you lot? I didn’t think you liked me that much.” Ray said. Though, truthfully, Ray was happy to see them. These people were the only ones he knew here, even if for just a short time, he was starting to feel a bond with them.

“We figured now that you’re basically free, we could celebrate with a nice breakfast. After you eat, you can go into town, get your gear and do what you want with your life” Alif said.

Alif was relatively short for a dark elf. His defining feature was his hair. It was as golden blonde as the sun. Alif was also relatively well built, sculpted in all the right places, aside from his height, on earth, he would probably be an extremely popular model. Here though, it seemed that height mattered a lot in male elves and therefore, he was often overlooked by the opposing sex.

Ray sat down with the group and had a lovely breakfast. He was pleased to find out that pigs and cows still existed in this world and therefore bacon would be a great staple of his food supplies. Chickens, however, did not. The laughter at the table was infections and really helped Ray feel like he wasn’t alone. For some reason, this was especially true from Rayleigh, even though she had not said a word the entire time.

Rayleigh was the most feminine of the group. Even when in the wilds, she wore a petite dress that worked with her figure. She was the slenderest of the elves Ray had seen. In fact, aside from the skin tone and slightly pointed ears. Ray thought that Rayleigh looked most like a human woman. She had black hair, brown eyes and was about the same height as Ray. He would not be surprised if he was told that she was a half elf.

After breakfast, the group took Ray shopping to buy his new gear. They had given him 100 Arkus coins. Just enough to buy the absolute novice gear for most potential trades. Given that he had been an accountant in his old world and didn’t really want to fall back to that here. He had decided to take up adventuring.

Ray knew that adventuring would be dangerous but felt there was no point being part of a fantasy style world without ever getting a chance to see it. He had thought about becoming a travelling merchant but there was no reason he couldn’t set up a business empire while adventuring. If he gathered rare materials himself, it would make perfect sense to do so.

Ray visited as many weapon and armour stores as he could. He eventually settled on basic light gear for himself which only covered his arms and shoulders. Since he was only starting out, he didn’t really have enough knowledge on the types of monsters he would be fighting. He picked out a very basic dagger of reasonable quality and condition and equipped it to a belt he had bought. He chose a dagger simply because he couldn’t afford anything else.

He tried his equipment screen out for the first time since getting anything other then clothes.

Equipment - Armour

Position

Item

Quality

Description

Shoulders

Novice Leather Shoulder Brace

Trash (F)

Armour crafted by a novice smith.

Physical Damage Reduction -1

Left Arm

Novice Leather Bracer

Trash (F)

Armour crafted by a novice smith.

Physical Damage Reduction -1

Right Arm

Novice Leather Bracer

Trash (F)

Armour crafted by a novice smith

Physical Damage Reduction -1

TOTAL VALUES

Physical Damage Reduction -3

Equipment - Weapons

Item

Quality

Description

Dagger

Trash (F)

Basic Weapon

Physical Damage +1

Ray felt good. He knew everything he bought was absolute garbage overall, but you had to start somewhere.

“Well, now that you have some stock standard equipment, why don’t we take you on your first hunt?” Ilaria said

“To be honest, I think it’s time I started out myself. I can’t identify you guys but I’m sure you are fairly higher level then me. I think I want to treat this right and actually attempt some kills on my own if that’s ok with you” Ray said.

Ilaria looked a little crestfallen but he could see she understood. “Alright. Well, at least let me give you some basic stat pointers”

“Sure, lay it on me” Ray replied

“There are two things we haven’t told you about yet. The first is because there was no need. Even if you have armour equipped, you can quick change between regular clothing and equipment. You should know that while you are changed, you will not gain any of the benefits of the armour. Also, armour does take up inventory slots when not equipped. If you fill those slots, you won’t be able to quick change” Ilaria said.

Ray caught on quick and was playing around with the feature. It was like his armour was just suddenly vanishing and coming on. He thought of a lot of potential applications for this.

“The second thing is about the stats themselves. You should know that one size does not fit all. We haven’t worked out a direct par correlation for stats. As an example. Some people level Body and only get 2 increased maximum health. The highest we’ve seen is 8 per level. On the flip side, similar is true with things like Strength. Some people put 1 point in it and can suddenly lift an extra pound or two. Others, more and some less. There is some kind of efficiency correlation, but we have not been able to understand it thus far”

“So what you’re saying is I should just try out every stat and determine what is best for me?” Ray was a bit confused by this. He noticed what Ilaria had said about 8 health per level of Body. Ray had gotten 10 but didn’t want to say anything until he understood.

“To an extent. We suggest getting each stat to 10. You can then go to the sparring arena and try out different weapons and armour to determine what works best for you” Ilaria said

“Alright, thanks for the info. I’ll be off now. Is it ok if I’m gone for a few days” Ray said as he walked towards the village gate.

“Sure, if you arrive back after the week however, you’ll have to pay your own way in town”

Ray took a step forward “Just to check, how long is a week here?”

“9 days” Arj said, a bit surprised.

“Thanks, I’m off!” Ray said, heading towards the village gate.

The rest simply watched him leave. To everyone’s surprise Rayleigh shouted “Don’t you dare die out there!”

Ray just raised a thumb and kept moving.