I was sitting with my goblin slave in a corner of a cheap bar. He was sipping beer from a too big mug while I was scanning him over, a skill tome on my lap. He was truly a good purchase. He had an eye for a quality gear, he clearly had been in fights, and after his first attempt at attacking me, he had not made a single move against me. True, it could be because of the slave collar, but I had a different theory.

I took the tome and opened it up in front of him. Skill tomes were a neat trick I had implemented in the world. Some fantasy novels I had read had some kind of skill stones that would allow you to learn skills instantly, and I wanted something like that. So I changed the homework just slightly to look like it wasn’t copied. A person with a skill in some area, could ‘transcribe’ his knowledge, understanding and muscle memory into paper, allowing anyone who read the tome to instantly learn the said skill. Unfortunately the tomes were single use items, so after someone had absorbed all the knowledge they could from it, the text would disappear, leaving you just an empty book.

“Here. Have a look at this” I said to the goblin, and pushed the book closer to him. He put down his jug and picked the book up. Fun thing about skill tomes was that they were not actually written in any specific language, so technically anybody, even illiterate people could use them.

He read through the pages quickly, showing me signs of far more advanced intelligence than I had expected. To be fair, goblins were not dumb beings by any length. Their society was just dealt bad cards to play with. And me being the dealer, I kinda felt bad about it.

I sat on my seat, munching the steak I had bought while my companion finished reading the book. I saw a flash of light coming from the pages as the book dumped its information to the goblin’s brain. And I could swear that I saw a new clarity in his black, beady eyes.

“So. You are finished?” I inquired while studying his face.

“Ye… yess!” He was clearly having some trouble forming the words. Even with the muscle memory, his facial structure was just too different to translate perfectly. Oh well. He would get used to it. “Whhat an inntereshting gifft you have givenn me.”

“Makes the communication easier.” I shrugged, trying not to think about the fact that if I didn’t take the book, I could’ve afforded the magic reading tome for myself. Oh well. Maybe this would work out.

“What’s your name?” I asked, trying to sound polite.

“Why do you wwant to know?”

“Convenience mostly. I’m tired of thinking of you simply as ‘the goblin’.” I shrugged, and took another bite out of the steak.

“Yyou can call me Celeb” Celeb said after a short while.

“Very well then, Celeb. You are probably wondering why I bought that armor for you.”

“Nott really. Yyou are ssending me to fighting pits ffor your entertainment.” His voice wasn’t happy at all. Understandable in his situation, or what he thought his situation was.

“If I were to do that, I wouldn’t have bought you so expensive equipment. Even if I bet on your victory, there wouldn’t be profit for me.” I took a long sip of my drink, letting him process my words. “No. I am… what you may call, an outworlder. I recently came here from another world, and I have no allies or companions. You should have outworlders in your ring, but I don’t know if you have ever met one.”

“I have hheard of yourr kind. But no. I have never met one” Oh look at that. He was adjusting quickly to the new language. Props to him.

“So. With my current situation, I am intending you to be my guardian. You assist me in battles, and I take care of you in return. Once I am strong enough to handle the battles on my own, or find other allies I can trust, I will set you free. How does that sound?”

Now that seemed to surprise Celeb. He sat there for a long time, not moving at all. I could see that he was trying to see if I was lying or not. After a minute or two, he cleared his throat.

“Innteresthing proposall!”

“You really have no options on the matter, even if you didn’t like the idea” I reminded him, raising my hand to show my slaver bracelet.

“I ssee yourr point. I will ffight for you then.” Celeb responded after another moment of thinking.

I was happy with his response. If he didn’t agree, I would’ve simply forced him to be a front line fighter for me, but now that he agreed to it, I was fairly certain that he would perform better in his tasks. Promised freedom was a good incentive. And I intended to keep my promise. There was no reason to be a jerk, even to NPCs.

“So, Celeb. Before we head out, I would like to know more about you. Seeing how you were a part of a raid group, you must be somewhat advanced.” I paused and tried to remember the terms goblins used for sins and leveling up. That little tidbit didn’t come to mind, so I decided to just ask him. “Tell me, what do you call the process of leveling up? And by that I mean..”

“We call it ‘incrreassing ssoulpowerr’, as you abssorb a portion of the ssoul of yourr sslain opponent” Celeb interrupted me. “And to ansswer yourr next quesstion, I have incrreased it ssix timess already, or levelled up as you call it.”

Ah. That was it. Soulpower. But level six? I was surprised by that. But only a little. Goblins didn’t send anyone below level four to the raids, but six was still a good catch on my part.

“How did you allocate your characteristic points?”

“Sstrength, Dexxterity, and Consstitution, with a ssingle point to bring my intelligence up to twelve.” He replied easily.

Not too unexpected. He was a warrior after all. And a decent amount of intelligence too. If my measurement was in place, a single point in any characteristic would translate to roughly ten percent of power, ten being a baseline for a human. To put that in simpler terms, an average human would have ten in every characteristic, excluding magic. And any point below and above that baseline would increase or subtract ten percent to it.

The day was still young when we finished our chat, so I decided to take a look at the job boards. Perhaps something interesting and easy would come up. I estimated that I had roughly eighty sin already, so I was almost halfway to my first level up.

I skipped over the farming and stablehand offers. I had no experience with working in farms or dealing with horses. In my youth I had taken up a few riding lessons, but I soon discovered that I had severe allergy to horses. Oh god. Travelling on land would be a pain. A magical self driving wagon perhaps? Something to look into.

But then I found the lifeline of every adventurer. Combat missions. There were dozens of them. Not worthy enough to be put on a guild board, not that I had access to them in my current state, but still. A good start to begin with.

I found all the classics! Wolfpacks harassing near sheep farmers, thieves raiding trade caravans, sewer slimes that needed to be culled down. And there it was. A cannibal cult kidnapping everyone and everything north of Olvia. This one would lead to one of my main storylines, since in my premade quests, only one involved cannibals north of Olvia.

I pointed out that notice to Celeb “We will be going after this job. Cannibals, not far from here. They are not armored, and the parties they send out rarely have casters or dangerous threats.” Those would come later. And the best part? The city paid ten silver for each proof of kill.

My new servant took a closer look at the poster, seeming a bit surprised that he could read the text. Skill tomes for the win.

“Why cannibalss?” He asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Beyond that they are easy targets that will pay well?” I ripped the poster and started walking towards a general goods shop. “Well, their boss is using the people they kidnap to power a ritual that summons an elder god. And that would be an apocalypse type event. So I would really love to stop that from happening.”

Celeb gave me a curious look. “Howw do you knoww thiss?”

Crap. Those were gamemaster secrets that I accidentally spilled. How should I answer? Another improvised backstory about being related to the boss? No, that wouldn’t do.

“I just do. Now help me gear up for our journey. I’m sure it will take a few days, and I am in no way an experienced camper.”

After a brief visit to a nameless general goods shop, I was another thirty silver poorer, but a proud owner of camping essentials. Celeb had proven his worth in selecting the gear, since I had no idea what I should prioritize. I knew the basics of course, a tent, water skin, rations and a sleeping bag. But anything beyond that, I simply didn’t know what would be important.

In the end we had gathered a good set. Two tents, and bags, enough rations for a week’s journey, three water skins per person, some heavy duty rope, and cooking equipment, which included pots, pans and flint and steel. I had good knives from the noble house already, so I was able to save a few coins in that regard. We also bought a small hand axe for firewood.

That all being done, we walked outside of the city and set the direction to the northern plains. Olvia was in a rather illogical place for a city, as far as geography was concerned. No hills or mountains to provide environmental defense, no nearby lakes for a source of water or food. Just plains as far as the eye can see. Even the nearest proper forest was three days to the south, if you were walking.

The reason for this oddity was that the city had started as a military outpost near the kingdom border. As time went by peacefully, more and more people moved in to take advantage of the fertile ground, and cultivated it into rich fields growing grain and fruit. And that led the city to transform into a food source for the kingdom, and a hotspot for good wines and beers. The people went as far as to dedicate the city temple to the gods of alcohol and drinking. At least that was the backstory for the place in simplicity. There were more details there, but I couldn’t be bothered to recount them for myself as we were walking.

The sun started to set behind us after hours of walking, and we hadn’t even crossed the farmlands yet. I should’ve bought a horse.

“I think we should soon set down for a night.” I said to Celeb, breaking the silence. “I’ll see if I can get a place in the next barn that comes up.”

Celeb nodded, scanning the horizon. “I ssee one overr there!” he pointed at a small black dot that was illuminated by the setting sun.

“Good eyes.” I complimented and picked up my pace to hopefully get there before night fell properly. We were still too close for the city for there to be any night beasts looking for a snack, but I didn’t want to run across any potential bandits on the road.

After another hour of walking I was standing in front of a small farmhouse. And when I say small, I mean it. The whole building was just over two meters tall, and the door barely reached my chest. I knocked the door with my knuckles and took a few steps back to wait for it to be opened.

When it was opened, I nearly squealed in joy. Through the door crack, I saw a hairy face poking out, eyeing us suspiciously. A dwarf! A proper dwarven household! I had seen other races briefly in Olvia and the airship, but I had not interacted with any yet.

“Evening” The dwarf said in a thick russian accent. Right! Dwarves were from the fourth ring, and since I loved doing russian accent myself, I had decided to make it a dwarven accent, instead of the typical scottish one. “May I help you?”

I collected myself from my elation, coughed to my fist to clear my throat and put on the most charming smile as I could muster.

“Good evening sir! Me and my travel companion have been heading north the whole day, and are looking for a roof over our heads just for the night. If you would be so kind as to allow access to your barn, we would be more than happy to compensate you for your troubles!”

Celeb gave me an odd look while I spoke. He hadn’t seen me making a fool out of myself speaking like this before. I ignored him and focused on the man behind the door, trying to emanate a soothing presence.

The dwarf looked at us both, clearly trying to deduce if we were up to no good. His eyes lingered on Celeb for a long time, before his gaze met my eyes again.

“I’m sorry but I don’t know you. Even though you are polite enough, I simply cannot give permission. Especially when you have a filthy goblin as your travel companion, fully geared for a battle.” He seemed genuinely sorry, having to deny us, but I was prepared for this outcome.

I flashed two silver coins in my hands, making sure that he saw it.

“We really need a safe place to sleep, and the goblin is collared. Please sir. Let us spend the night here.”

Celeb let out an annoyed grunt at the mention of his collar, but kept his mouth closed otherwise. The dwarf sighed deeply, and opened the door fully.

“Make it three silvers and… I suppose you can stay, if you give me your word that you mean no harm for me, my family or my livelihood.”

I fished out a third coin and gave them to him.

“Thank you! Of course you have my word! My name is Niko. It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Bergan” The dwarf, Bergan, grunted. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the barns.”

He took us to another building, further in his courtyard. It was hard to see in the darkness, but Bergan lit up a candle and pointed at hay piles. “You can sleep on those. Hope you have food on you. We have already eaten.”