I immediately ran home through the shortest route that I knew, constantly looking over my shoulder making sure I wasn't being followed. For some reason I had gotten a bad feeling the remainder of the time I was in the black market after buying the map.

I didn't have many skills or talents but something I had learned over many years of misfortune is to always listen to my gut, and something was telling me that I needed to get out of that place as fast as possible.

I didn't see anybody or anything of concern, but as soon as I got home I locked my door and turned off any lights. After waiting for a long time and hearing nothing but silence, I finally managed to relax.

It seemed like it was all in my imagination, well it didn't matter better safe than sorry.

I reached into my pockets and took out the map that was a weird light metallic sheen. It was about six by six inches a weird size proportion in accordance to most maps. This size was usually not big enough to give you a detailed overview of things. I look closely at the map at first i see nothing but a blank page but after I touched its cover a strange sensation flooded my body.

In the front of the page words appeared out of nowhere.

[Do you wish to access the “Interconnected Dual Mana System”?]

[yes/no]

What was this!?

I had never seen anything like this before. It seems like I can interact with it. Its asking me a question. The merchant did not mention these features to me. Maybe I really did get it for a bargain.

Now im even more excited to find out what this “system” its talking about can do and see how the map looks.

Our town was pretty far off from the Capital, but it wasn't completely devoid of technology. We had started to see a lot of stuff start to appear in our village, that either adventurers or the wealthy from our town brought over from other places.

Some stuff was pretty incredible with weird names and uses. Still it was quite difficult for us regular people to get our hands on any of those things, other than by sheer luck.

The most advanced equipment we mostly had contact with on a regular basis, was the village centers “Image Transmitters”. The Transmitters were pretty big screens powered by electricity that would transmit to the village news, events, or disaster warnings from either the Government or different influential organizations.

Whether the Transmitter was in use or not was decided by the village officials. It was given to us by Volunterras Government a good while back, I actually don't even know when, its been there as long as ive been alive at least. It was to be used for official use only, but the towns folk convinced the governance to show some Ranker information or news whenever they could, and nobody seems to be enforcing any kinds of rules on our town regarding it.

Now when its on, its to transmit the latest news in the Ranker world, more often than not. Unfortunately most of the news the village got was obviously watered down or altered in some form or way, most aspiring Rankers didn't find much use for it, other than to not be completely ignorant when it came time for them to give it a shot

Many of us had heard that technology like the Transmitter was everywhere in Volunterras Capital Will City, and that even crazier stuff existed at our neighbor country Scienimo.

That was a given though, those people were science and technology freaks, some go as far as saying the people that live there aren't even people anymore.

I touch the surface of the paper and select the yes option. Afterwards I feel yet another sensation and then another question.

[Do you wish to view contents as?]

[Guest/Owner]

Yet another question and option, let me see I don't know why it has a guest option, but I did buy this thing with most of my gold so why wouldn't I want to be the owner.

Of course view as owner!

I clicked on the owner option. Suddenly I heard a noise and then yet another sensation.

[New user identified, this “Dual System Guider” Does not have a registered owner, do you wish to register as the owner?]

[yes/no]

[Warning! Once you are registered as the owner no other owners can be registered, the information and current status of the new owner will be scanned and registered so as to provide the best assistance. If you do not agree with any of these conditions access this device as guest.]

This thing turned out to be more complicated than I thought, what is it with all these conditions isn't it just a map.

Well i guess it's nice that it can recognize an owner maybe its a security feature, I don't see why i shouldn’t register as the owner. All right “yes” register as new owner.

As soon as I selected the yes option a blue light, similar to the one that came out of the merchants device when he was scanning my Seeier paper, came out of the paper.

It quickly went through me in a scanning motion and then disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. Then more information started appearing in the surface of the paper.

[ New owner user registered. ]

[Name of owner?]

Mmm this time is different, it’s asking me a question but how can I write out my name. Do i use a regular ol pen or writing tool. This thing seems to be more than a paper, it's more like the town transmitter what if I damage it? Can it hear my voice, let's give that a shot.

“ My name is Guso”

[Owner name Guso]

[Guso- Basic Physiological Data-

Biological age: 19,

Density Mass Weight:152 pounds,

Measured Height: 5 feet 9 inches,

Energy Fluctuations: standard,

Mana Energy Levels: virtually none,

Special Conditions: none,

Abnormal Statuses: none,

POF capable of producing: 400 pounds average,

Intelligence and Cognitive Index: 9(average)/119 (decent),

Chemical Balance: mostly stable]

[Battle Data-

Classification- Standard Weapon User

Capabilities: Below average]

[Continue]

What the heck is this, how in the world did it get all this information from me only with that little light?

That's scary!

I feel like this paper knows me better than I know myself. In fact im just barely finding out about some of this stuff. I can produce 400 pounds of force, that sounds pretty good if I do say so myself.

Still it's like i thought, even this paper can see right through me I'm nothing more than mediocrely average. At Everything!

Only my cognitive index is slightly different whatever that means. At least I don't have any abnormal statuses or conditions to speak of that would've been a dream crusher. The last thing I need is to have some sort of disease.

Man this thing is freaking cool, it's a little weird that it does all this but it’s actually pretty helpful now that I think about it.

Alright let's see what else is in store. I confirm the continue option. New information appears again.

[ New owners Data and information will be saved and locked, accessing Guiders contents and database, displaying content options...]

[Dual system Updated World Map]

[Environment Observation Augmenter]

[Image Capture Mode]

[Dual system Scanner Mode]

[Guider Internal Recorded Files]

[Guider Advanced Energy and Field System Hacker Mode]

[Owner and Guider Configurations]

So many Options! I'm starting to think this isn't only a Map. From what i can see this thing can do quite a bit more.

Some of the options im not really getting any clue what functions they entail but from what I can understand it seems that this paper is a camera, magical scanner and and binoculars all rolled into one. Not to mention that it seems to hold some more information other than just the map.

I think I finally hit the jackpot!

This thing is definitely going to be incredibly helpful on my journey. I'm starting to feel bad, I thought black market merchants were usually the ones trying to scam the buyers, not the other way around.

I feel like this thing would be way more than 500 gold coins in any sort of market. Well whatever he's the one that set the conditions its not my fault whether he's bad at business or not.