What smug bastard thinks they can judge my majesty so poorly? I glare behind me and see standing with a relaxed air, the bastard and the elf. “The fuck are you doing here?”

“Looking for you mostly.” Hearing Grey’s answer it all makes sense.

“ah” I flip him a brown bird and bolt.

“Oi! Wait no! We’re not here to catch you! Shit. Kel can you stop him?”

“Sure.” With a flippant wave of her hand Kel points in my direction, “create water.” With that gesture and incantation, I suppose, a ball of water fired from Kel’s fingertips and decked me.

“ow.”

“Look man sorry about that but we’re not with them, I mean, technically not.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Long story short I was sent to bring you back. Hey wait!” Grey planted his foot on the newly washed portion of my back to stop me from running. I proceeded to rub my hands and shake my hair on whatever part of him I could reach. Life lesson, use whatever weapons life gives you, honor is for banished fire princes.

“Dude! Dude stop! That’s disgusting.” I didn’t. “Ehhhuhhgghuhg ok fine I’ll get off just let me explain.” I waited until he moved his foot before sitting up.

“Alright fine but do it while we walk, I don’t want to get caught chatting.”

“Sure. Anyway, where should I start?”

“How about why you were sent here?”

“He was sent, I tagged along,” Kel interjected.

“Alright ‘how you ended up here’ then, and what’s going on would be nice to know too.”

Grey laughed a little then handed his equipment to Kel. “Would you mind giving him a shower while we walk? Me too cause I feel…dirty.” He shivered. Kel nodded once then cast create water again, this time though, the water sprinkled from above like a shower.

“Anyway, like I said, I was sent here by Mariche as a bit of an accident on her part. Y’see she’s an officer of the army and since I was considering joining, she sent me to look for you before I ever actually got around to joining.”

“But you came anyway?”

“Yeah y’see, I was going to join the army, but seeing their methods concerning people like you reminded me why I didn’t originally. So since I can’t go back without having to explain that to Mariche, and since someone is pretty much obligated to look after you, I figured why not me.”

“…” “I’m gonna need a little more than that. The army? People like me? What?”

“Ah right, you are a foreigner after all. I just thought you knew how things were, so you were living in that house to get away from it all.”

“That was my room.”

“I mean a one-room house is still a house.”

“No I mean that was literally my room from my house back home.”

“Wait so you’re saying your entire room was brought over? That…that’s odd.” Grey stopped for a moment and rested his chin in the ball of his fist, a troubled expression crossing his face.

“Uh…” Always hit A when talking to NPC’s, or PC’s, whatever.

“Right sorry, it’s just that all of the summons I’ve seen only bring over the person. Usually, while they’re walking a portal will appear right in front of them or like under them while they’re sleeping or something. To bring the entire room…hell it’s almost like your room was the gate. Weird.”

“That is weird, isn’t it?” Kel looked at me with a strange expression.

“UHHHH”

“Oh right. Yeah.” Grey cut in, clapping his hands together to focus himself. “Anyway, so first off: the army. Whenever a new foreigner shows up, the army tries to draft them. It’s usually peaceful, but sometimes they force it. The reason is ‘cause so many foreigners end up with really powerful skills, so naturally the army wants them. Most towns have an agreement that in exchange for protection they won’t interfere with recruiting and being forcibly recruited is pretty rare anyway, so I figured it was best to take you there after your room was blown up by that heratosk.”

“Ah right, I don’t think I’ve thanked you for saving me. McChicken payment aside, thanks for that.”

Kel nodded and gave me a thumbs up while Grey waved it off like it was natural. “No big deal, we couldn’t just leave you there after all.”

Grey continued to drone on about why the army was actually useful or something but I blinked as my attention was snapped away from his words. Grey couldn’t just leave me there. Normally I’d dismiss it as a turn of phrase but this is a game. I can’t believe I forgot. The Rise of the Demon King is just a game and Grey is a literal white knight; he literally couldn’t leave me there even though for basically anyone else it would have been the right move to do just that. I frown and glance at Grey, seeing the restless passion in his expression and quick, pointed gestures. I turn and glance behind us to Kel, whose eyebrow raises a silent question at my glance.

I can’t tell. Is the game not realistic enough? Or too realistic? Grey and Kel could both be NPC’s and I would never know. My frown deepened as I watched as Kel’s eyebrow falls back to its earlier position, then further into an annoyed furrow. She pointed a hand at me.

“Create-”

“-which is why I think you shouldn’t disregard the opportunity the army could still represent for you. After all-” I heard Grey finishing what sounded like a long speech full of great life advice.

“-wind” Only for him to be interrupted by a blast of wind sweeping past the both of us. As suddenly as it started, it died down, leaving Grey’s, and probably my own, hair in a poofy afro. I patted my head a bit to smooth it out.

“Change.” Kel said while holding out two pairs of white shirts and trousers.

“Ah, thanks Kel!” Grey grinned and accepted the proffered garments. I moved to take my own set but was stopped by a small hand grabbing my wrist.

“Don’t think about it.” Kel said. “It won’t get you anywhere worrying, so just have fun. It is, after all, a game.” Kel watched me for a moment before nodding and considerately turning her back so we could put on our new clothes.

Rough cotton clung to my damp skin as I forced the new shirt over my head. It was a far cry cleaner than the clothes I’d just spent as much effort struggling out of, but I still found myself glancing at unidentified stains now uncomfortably close to my skin. “Man I wish I had my stuff, it was all new too.”

“I have it.” I stopped for a second and looked at Kel, who simply stood there with a blank expression.

“Pardon?”

“Your things. I have them.” Kel responded with exactly the same expression.

Grey waved his hands a bit to get my attention. “Yeah I didn’t explain Kel’s job, she has the traveler skill like you, and transports goods on commission.”

“Why not use a wagon?” I asked while clinging like a koala to Kel’s pack.

“Wagons can’t go up mountains and into forests without roads.” Kel grunted, spinning in a circle in an effort to dislodge me.

“So that’s why Mariche liked this skill, it’d probably be invaluable during wartime for the supply line.” I replied, stonefaced, while my legs flopped in midair and my hands dug into pliable hemp cloth.

“Yeah that’s right. They probably gave your stuff to Kel to sell in the city since you can get a pretty good price for stuff that’s been used by a foreigner.”

“Really?”

“Well some foreigners are famous so if you imply they used it you get a good deal. If you went to the city to sell your stuff you’d probably get robbed.”

“Naturally.” I cried a little on the inside but I’m a man, no biggie. “Well, can I have it?” I said looking up at Kel. She stopped spinning and promptly dropped the bag before pulling out my stuff, minus a few pouches and my sap.

“I work for a commission you know,” Kel said with a chuckle. Eh, I probably got a discount anyway.

“Anyway like I said it’s not a bad gig.” Grey said while I put on my gear. “Those famous foreigners all either got their fame working for, or with, the army, and they offer training for almost any job from skilled people within their ranks. You also get a wage based on your rank within the military itself. That’s why a lot of foreigners join when offered. The other big reason is because the guild is a military guild. All the foreigners I’ve run into thought that adventurer would be a common job when they first started out, but I don’t see why that would be. Monster subjugation and escort services are usually either handled by mercenaries or the army, all an adventurer would do is explore and starve.”

“Eh? What are you then?”

“I’m a mercenary. I was trained by the Red Wolves mercenary gang that lived in my town when I was younger. It’s basically the same job as what foreigners typically think an adventurer is; we just actually get paid.”

“Ok so if everyone’s a mercenary or in the army, why didn’t the army offer a job to me? They just told me what jobs existed and said good luck? If I’m important to them shouldn’t they try to recruit me? Hell, why be so underhanded?? That would probably scare more people off than it’d gather!”

“It’s origin.”

“What?”

“Your skill, origin. Origin is a forbidden skill so they couldn’t take the chance you’d refuse. They planned on sending you straight to the lord so he could mark you or, if you didn’t go, find a reason to arrest you so he could come to you. When you left the guild, I was sent as a messenger to warn him about you but you didn’t show up. Then, while we were waiting, we got word that an ‘abnormal heratosk’ was attacking a village. The lord immediately rode out to help and I went as the only person who had experience fighting it. When we got there the only thing left was broken earth and burned buildings. I don’t know what that thing is but we’re probably lucky it wasn’t interested in fighting us. Actually if you remember what hurt it back then, it would probably help.”

“Commander Crunch. You know, for a mercenary, you sound like you do an awful lot of hero work.”

“Helping doesn’t cost anything.”

I’m afraid you might one day find you’re wrong about that. Oh well, stay pure, Grey.

“Anyway did you say Commander? Why was a commander there?” Grey pestered.

“So because you guys were distracted going to that village, was that why I wasn’t marked?” Grey made a bit of a sour expression as I ignored his question but filled me in regardless.

“Yeah, the mark is a kind of forced contract. If you were marked then you would have been forced to work for the army for a set number of years. At some point during that time the army usually finds a way to keep you there or you get used to it anyway so it works pretty well. It requires the recipient to be conscious as well as some other criteria that meant it was easier to wait for you to wake up by yourself. I mean you didn’t have a reason to try a jailbreak since you were going to be let out in the morning so they weren’t too careful. Speaking of, why did you run? And how? Also, commander?”

“Ah I’ll explain in a sec, first tell me the rest about that mark.” Yes. Suffer, Grey. Feel what it feels like to be left in the dark. What COULD this commander be? Maybe you’ll never know.

“Ugh, alright well they usually use it on either extremely dangerous or extremely valuable individuals. Since origin is a rank B forbidden skill, they probably thought you were dangerous rather than valuable, which is good news for us because that means they’ll stop coming after you if you can somehow prove irrevocably that you’re harmless.”

“How?”

“Well origin doesn’t really work well with traveler so you’d just have to prove that you’re not going to use it with enigma to become a master assassin or that you have no interest in creating undetectable bombs. Well since you don’t have the tinker skill that one is less likely anyway.”

“Um, so when you say use enigma to be a master assassin…” *sweats a little*

“Yeah, so enigma is generally a useless skill that only hides info on your status plate or makes your handwriting utterly illegible, even high class users can, at most, make themselves harder to notice for people who aren’t paying attention.”

“Which makes them assassins?” *sweats more than a little*

“No. Sometimes, for like one in ten thousand users, the skill works differently. When those users activate the skill they can control their presence to the point that they can make themselves or even other people invisible. One of the most powerful users of the skill was the founder of the only assassin guild in Taron; he was said to be able to hide his entire guild in the throne room of the king.” *SWEATS A LOT*

“Doesn’t that mean enigma should be forbidden?? That’s frickin’ terrifying.”

“Ahaha well yeah that would make it sound pretty bad, but you have to remember that there have been like twelve people ever who were able to hide even just themselves. So it’s generally not a concern. Plus you would need a lot of training to be able to make use of it and the dark guilds are very strict in who they teach. What might make it dangerous is origin.”

“With a risk like that in enigma and it’s fine, what can origin do?”

“Everything.”

“Uh…”

“Origin is one of the least defined skills ever recorded. It’s on the level of severance, observation, control, and end. Those skills commonly pop up as subskills which can make a skill more powerful, but to appear alone means that the skill is incredibly flexible. For example, my skill godspeed slash makes me hard to detect for an instant when I attack. I have severance as a subskill in godspeed slash. This means that I can either ‘cut more effectively’ when using the skill, or sever my presence before I activate the skill making me even harder to detect. If I had severance as a standalone skill, however, it would mean I could do anything from ‘sever’ a person’s life just by activating the skill to ‘severing’ laws of the world for a limited time.”

“What the fuck.”

“Just so you know severance is a rank S forbidden skill, people who have that skill are either forcibly drafted or eliminated before they become a danger.” By this point I had long ago donned my gear and noticed that we were headed back in the direction of the clearing where I started, we were almost back in the mountains.

“So instead of ‘severing’, origin ‘returns to what it used to be’ right?”

“Mostly. Origin has also been used in the past to ‘become origin’ and mimic the natural state of people or things. It couldn’t be used for a long time but it would allow people to blend in about as effectively as enigma. The biggest fallback of origin is that for some reason it can’t be used indefinitely, even at higher levels there are limitations on how long or how often it can be used. That’s the biggest reason it’s only a rank B skill, it can typically do incredible things once a day in a limited range. In the army there are only two people with the skill, and they serve as clerics to heal extreme wounds of very important people. They don’t see one more cleric as a high priority target, so they’re more focused on locating and subjugating that heratosk.”

“Wait T-Aang? He’s the reason I’m not being chased?”