There was a brief silence. Everything seemed to stop. My heart was beating rapidly, keeping the spear tip in his throat to make sure that he was for sure dead. I decided to leave the spear stuck in him; there was a brief moment of confusion, as I didn’t know what to do next. I glanced at the corpses all around and then back at the man I just killed.

Might as well take their stuff

It took a lot of force pushing the mountain lion off the man, but after I was able to grab some valuable looking items. On his side he had a coin bag with about 15 silver coins and 25 copper coins, I didn’t understand the currency here so I wasn’t sure if that was a lot or not. Around his neck he had a shiny silver necklace of a monkey looking animal, in my mind the word gorilla came up. The thing that was the most appealing was the sword he was using, I picked it up and it felt somewhat heavy, it was four feet long and would require two hands to use it properly.

The other bodies had less valuable things, and only a few silver and copper on them bringing my total to 18 silver and 35 copper. I did eat the rat they were cooking for breakfast, which was delicious considering I haven’t eaten in over a day, or maybe it was because the slave food was just awful. Other notable things I found was a decent looking brown leather armor set with a gorilla sketching on the front, these guys were caught off guard when the mountain lions came, they didn’t have enough time to get their armor on. I decided to put on the man’s armor since it was better than just wearing the rags I had, the other basic looking leather armors I placed in a large backpack I found. I frowned when I looked at the dead mountain lions, I just honestly didn’t know what to do with the bodies, it felt like a waste.

A familiar feeling of heat entered me. Right away I felt my wings come back out, making holes through the new armor I was wearing. A grin appeared on my face naturally, as I felt the flames on the wings. It appears to be only a certain amount of time a day I can use the wings, my guess would be a little over an hour. Not wanting to waste the time I shot into the air with my new loot, flying eastward over the mountain pass.

After twenty minutes of flying I saw a small village, it was at the base of the mountain on the other side of where I was at before. The walls of the village looked to be about 8 feet tall and only one entrance in and out at the front. It probably would not be smart to just fly into town, so I stopped about a quarter mile outside town and walked toward the gate.

The gate has two guards; both quite bored looking as they let people in and out. After ten minutes of watching, I decided that I might as well try to get through. I walked by at first not making eye contact and just passing by them, they both brought their spears into a cross blocking my entrance.

“Show your pass please.” The guard on the right said.

“I uhhh…don’t have…”

The guards at the same time brought their spears back opening the passage.

“Sorry sir, I didn’t notice the aspect of the gorilla on your armor, please forgive my insolence.”

“Sure…no problem” I said so low it was like a whisper.

I walked by and then the guards seemed to relax. Apparently, this gorilla guy was a big deal.

I walked in town for a few minutes until I reached what I imagine was the villages market. The road was small and the amount of people inside made it feel quite cramped. As I walked through, I stopped at the first sign that resembled an armor, and entered the shop.

There was a ring when I opened the door and a large bald man was behind the counter, he had a grin to match his body size. His mustache is thick and red. He seemed to have a very positive vibe, which is something I could not trust; whenever the slavers got friendly, it was usually a lead up to physical pain.

“Welcome to Durden’s! Have a look…” his eyes locked onto the emblem on the armor I wore, then to my face.

“Hey…You’re not Lord Balkor, what are you doing in his armor?”

“He’s dead.” I replied nonchalantly.

The man’s face became a little pale after that, he looked around the shop and was deep in thought.

“You kill him?”

“No of course not, mountain lions got him. I just happened to come by in the aftermath and took what was there.” I answered, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

“Yeah…of course. That makes sense; I don’t feel any strong power from you. You can’t be wearing that around here, ya know what I mean? That guy runs this place with his brother who also is a gorilla aspect, that emblem on your chest will get you killed.”

I gulped at that statement, the man was more important than I thought, I was lucky that the guards did not recognize that I was someone else.

“Can I sell it to you then? I got some other armor as well.”

“Hell no. I’ll take a look at your other stuff though. What’s your name?”

It took me a second to think, I didn’t have a name, but saying I don’t have a name felt like the wrong thing to say at this moment so I said the first thing that popped in my head

“Fifty-three”

The man squinted his eyes a bit and opened his mouth slightly like he wanted to say something but decided not to.

“I’m Alic Durden and I own this place, I’ll take a look at your stuff, umm…Fifty-three.”

I brought the armor out of my backpack and Alic gave all of it a quick look.

“These are some basic stuff, but it sells easy. I can give you a silver each.”

I nodded, taking note of the prices.

“So you really should change what you got on. To be honest with a face like that, it looks like you killed that fucker. I just happen to have some armor for a reasonable price. I’m guessing you are a fighter class?”

“Fighter class?”

The man went to the armors in a wooden storage box, and then gave me a long look.

“So you’re new to this world then?”

“Well, I’ve been here for about eight months.”

“What world are you from?”

“The thing is…I don’t remember really anything before.” I scratched the back of my head, really feeling slightly embarrassed that I knew almost nothing about how things work here. Alic laughed quite a bit at my words.

“No way! I’ve heard that it happens sometimes to people, they lose most of their memories when they enter the portal. Never thought I’d meet one though. So this world you’re in is obviously not yours. I’ve been here for about four years, but from my understanding the first humans here were five years ago.”

This news shocked me quite a bit, so everyone is from a different world then. What he is saying about the missing memory is true, so it must happen to other people as well.

“Anyways, not to be rude, but I have somewhere I gotta go in a bit so I don’t have a lot of time to talk about things, have a look at some of these armors and let me know what you think.”

The first to catch my eyes was a shiny silver breastplate; it had designs that I did not recognize in it, but there is some appeal to it, a sort of strength that emitted from it.

“Ah, one of my best products has your interest? It’s about 15 gold coins.”

“Ehh…” I shrugged a bit and shook my head. Alic understood that it was above my price range.

“So what kinda budget we working with here?”

I felt the coin sack on my side as I remembered how much I had, 18 silver and 35 copper from before, but now I have 6 more silvers from the equipment I sold. It seems important that I should keep some silvers after just in case there is other things I’ll need to buy.

“Should be about 20 silvers and 35 copper.”

“Hmm…” Alic put his hand to his chin as he pondered about what to do.

“Alright, maybe I can’t get you any mail or plate, but I can get some decent leather armor that will be not as nice as the current set you got going, but at least it won’t cause any issues.” The man grabbed a clean looking leather armor set, it was true that it wasn’t as nice as the one I was wearing but it definitely was better than the other pieces I looted.

“On top of that I got a cloth shirt and pants you can wear under, it’s a huge improvement compared to the dirty clothes you use now. Also walking around with bare feet is quite strange, I took the size of your feet and I just happen to have some boots you can use. Overall it’ll be…17 silver and 20 copper.”

After a moment of hesitation, I agreed to it and gave him the coins. Alic took my measurements, adjusted the armor, and gave me clothing that will fit, he couldn’t help but mention how skinny and smelly I was.

Looking in the mirror with my new attire it came apparent how dirty I am, the dirt and dried blood on my skin was quite disgusting. Wearing such clean armor was an odd sight with me in it, the white linen with the nice smooth leather chest.

“You know when you first came in here I thought to myself. Damn he looks like he kills children for fun, you still do of course, but you ended up being a decent guy. I’ll give you some advice before you leave, head to the giant black stone in middle of town and select a class, with that big sword you got I recommend the fighter class, it’s well rounded for melee types. I need to close shop now, but I can talk about the basics later with you. See ya!”

Walking out the shop with my new equipment, the gorilla marked armor in my backpack. I headed down the crowded street toward the center; wherever you are in town, you could see the stone quite clearly. Distracted for a second by the black stone I ran into a woman.

“Oops sorry!” I said.

“You fucking imbecile! Watch where you’re…” her brown eyes met mine and there was a brief moment that felt like minutes where she scanned every inch of my face, and her eyes went from anger to the same shocked fear I saw in the man’s eyes I killed. Her skin was darker than mine, and her eyes had a slant to it, the hood over her head showed black hair. After that moment she quickly moved the opposite direction I was going, moving at a very fast pace walk that looked slightly awkward.

She’s a strange one

I didn’t think too much about her while I made my way to the stone, there were many symbols etched across the big rock. I walked around the rock as I read the signs that someone made describing each one.

Fighter: Well-rounded melee fighter that is the best at receiving blows from enemies. A need for every group for adventuring. Weapon and shield style of fighting for most abilities, but there are abilities that complement other fighting styles.

Ranger: A ranged fighter that uses bows or crossbows primarily, if you do not use ranged weapons avoid this! The skill set moves are the best for solo adventurers, a skill exists for a beast companion. Skilled at making traps.

Thief: The stealthy class, it is useful for groups in detecting traps and disarming traps. Primary weapons are daggers and short swords. Takes a lot of talent to do well. Very weak against monsters by themselves. Can do a devastating amount of damage when behind someone.

Mage: A magic caster that focuses on fire and arcane spells. Has ability to make magic contraptions, and travel across the world through portals. The weakest in physical defense. Works well in groups. Uses a staff, known to use a dagger or sword with a magical offhand.

Warlock: A magic caster that focuses more on demon minions to fight for the caster, very exceptional with fire and shadow magic. Uses a staff, known to use a dagger or sword with a magical offhand.

Shaman: A hybrid of melee, fire, and healing magic. Good with groups, has a very deep connection with nature. Can conjure magical totems to assist groups. Uses blunt type weapons.

Cleric: The main healer class, a need for every group for adventuring. Can create magical shields around themselves and other people. Uses blunt type weapons.

The signs I read were information that people knew on a basic level, nothing was very detailed. I then thought about how rough it was five years ago when people just had to guess what it was by just looking at the symbols.

I considered all the options; Alic was right, a fighter was the best option for me. One thing that stuck out is the classes that can do fire magic, but no other element. It must be that since we have the red mark it only allows us to use fire. That was just a guess though.

I walked up to the fighter symbol and pressed my hand on the stone.