A low lying fog sat inches above the petrifying black below. The water was foul with the stench of sulfur and decay. Reeds flicked past Yuta’s knees as he trudged through the bog. The only color to be seen peeked through the leafless trees as the sun slipped behind clouds on the horizon.

“How much farther?” he called out to the guide.

“Quarter day yet” the man responded.

“We’re travelling through this half the night?” Yuta asked.

“No way around it” the man said matter of factly.

“You gotta be kidding me” Yuta grumbled under his breath.

A blue screen popped up in front of Yuta’s face as he pulled out his notebook. Most of his stats showed themselves clearly now, and more fortunately, “stamina” was now on display.

*Hrmm, all my attributes say that they reduce the amount of stamina required for relevant tasks, so it seems that stamina is the main resource pool for putting in effort*

Yuta glanced at the bar as it wavered down and then up again as he made his way through the swamp at different speeds.

*There is the main bar that regenerates, and a second bar behind it that limits the maximum it can refill. When I overexert myself the maximum amount of stamina I have decreases*

“Why are you so slow?” Silvia said with her hand covering her mouth in an attempt to reduce the stench.

“If I go any faster I’ll exhaust myself”

“You really need to work out more” she replied dismissively before wading ahead to speak with the guide.

“Yeah yeah” Yuta grumbled before returning to his notes.

*Ever since I got the mana burn, I’ve been a lot more in touch with what stamina really is, and I have to say it is turning out to be kind of useful. In the past I might have walked faster but now, I can confidently state my limit. It isn’t much but at least it is something*

All manner of critters called out to each other as the night sky swept over the swamplands. Bloat frogs and pepper jack beetles leapt out of the way of each step, until finally an orange glow appeared on the horizon.

“There it is” the guide said with a squint of his eye, “bout a league off now”

Silvia mumbled from underneath the rag she had stuffed over her nose and mouth “Great”

“You know, you’d think the stench would wear off after twelve hours of it, but it really doesn’t,” Yuta replied.

The orange glow slowly grew as they waded further through the bog, until at last the spiked log palisades of Potluck towered over them. Silvia lunged out from the bog onto a patch of dirt by the walls, and slumped over in relief.

“I’m never doing that again,” she said as throwing her rag back into the black water.

Yuta pulled himself up and tapped on the log palisade with the flat of his hand, “At least it has a wall, can’t be that bad”.

The guide nodded at the pair of them and led them to the gateway further around, where they were met by two rather unkempt guards. Both men were clearly emaciated, and stood there with their jaws slack. Their rusted chainmail rattled as they turned and laid eyes upon the travellers.

“Who’s this, someone made their way through the bog did they?” the guard closest to them mumbled.

“Oy, it’s that fella, from down the way isn’t it? Other side of the canal down south is where he’s from” the other replied.

“Ah that’s right, I remember him, don’t know these two though”

The guide cleared his throat, “Ahem, I owed these two a favor, so helped them find their way. I have some goods to trade to Yelbert and then I’ll be off before the morn. As for these folk, I don’t know much about their business, you are welcome to ask them yourself”

He then looked at Yuta and Silvia, “I trust you can find your own way from here, good luck to you both”.

The guide waved goodbye and entered through the town gates. Yuta stared back blankly at one of the guards as they blew out a sigh from between rotten teeth.

“Can’t they give you guys proper armor? Seems a bit rough giving the guards junk to work with” Yuta said.

“Yeah, you got that right, not enough appreciation in this town for what we do. But its a living” one of the guards responded, “What you here for then?”

“Looking for a means of travel further north, maybe a horse or two, anything really to help us on our way”

“Into bucker country? Are you mad?” the second guard replied.

“What’s a bucker?” Silvia asked.

“Damn reason most of us folk are stuck here, if it were that easy to head north from here I’d have done it an age ago. Err, how would you describe buckers to those who ain’t seen em Garl”

“Dunno, they got them big red sacks on their neck, and they tall, at least three men high”

“You are forgetting their long arms with claws on em as long as a blade”

Yuta turned to Silvia with a streak of concern etched on his face, “What the fuck” he said under his breath.

“Oh, and they are called buckers on account of how they jump, kinda rumble forwards then then toss their chin up, causing them to buck”

“Does anyone know how to get past these things? Like does anyone hunt them?” Silvia asked.

“Oh yeah, we all do that. I mean, not often, but we do our best to kill em of course when the need arises”

“Do your best?” Yuta said as he tilted his head.

“Yeah, they don’t die easy, even if you manage to gut one it’ll just stuff it back in its mouth and buck on off. That and the bastards breed like nothing else you’ve ever seen. Only thing stopping them overwhelming us here is they kill their own”

“Come on, there has to be a path or something around them? What if we went back over the canal and made our way over the wastes until we were past?” Silvia replied.

“Sure if you wanna head back the way you came”

Silvia turned to Yuta “What do you think? We just rest here a bit, stock up on supplies and head back around?”

Yuta pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m not going back, we’ll just have to figure it out”

“There is one way through though” the guard responded.

“And what is that?”

“Miss Dermon’s lottery”

“Oh okay, great, where can we find her?”

The guards looked at each other sheepishly before responding, “The manor on the hill at the back of town, the only building not falling apart”

Yuta nodded slowly, “Yeah, she seems the one to speak to. What about an inn?”

“Just through the gate on your right. It is usually where folk stay who come”

“Alright, we’ll be off then” Yuta said with a tap to Silvia’s arm.

As they stepped through the gates, the ramshackle town looked more like mounds of debris rather than rows of houses. Walls were a patchwork of dried clay, broken branches, and patches of bark. There wasn’t a house in sight that didn’t have a hole in it, and not for the use of windows either, just plain old holes, like well worn shoes.

The pathways were made of grit and mud, and were slick with what looked like oil.

“God it smells here too?” Silvia complained as they headed over to a worn down sign by the side of a small hut.

“Whoa” Yuta said as he hopped over a brown puddle by the door, “Wait why are there chunks in it?”

“Don’t ask, I doubt a place like this has working sewers” Silvia responded before tapping the door with a flurry of knocks.

“Aye, what can I be doing for you?” a young man who looked like nothing but skin and bones asked.

“We are looking for a place to stay the night,” Silvia responded.

“True, but can you pay? Five scales per bed a night”

“Scales? Don’t you take silver? Or gold perhaps?”

“Well, no, only the Lady is allowed to handle foreign coin, but don’t fret, I accept trade, you have anything useful on you”

“Ah, sure?” Silvia said as she rummaged through her pack.

After dealing with the bill, the man opened a hatch down into the floor and motioned to them to follow. Within the dank underground basement were four rag piles.

“Well, good night then” the man said as he climbed back out and shut the hatch.

“This town is fucked” Yuta muttered to Silvia under his breath.

“Yeah, but better than sleeping in the swamp or out with those bucker things the guards were talking about”

“Screw the rag piles, I’m just taking this clear spot over here and I’ll just use my rollout”

“Yeah, same”

“Well, night”

“Yeah, night”

…

The shuffling footsteps of a halfling echoed off the cave walls as it made its way over to a bag full of tinctures.

“Ah this is the one” the creature said before waddling back to Alyssa’s side.

“What happened?” she grumbled.

“Rainal grew tired of your brother’s machinations, and then he beat you to within an inch of your life”

“Is this… A cell in the dungeon?”

“Oh no princess, this right here is my little hole in the wall, a secret of your father’s”

“You knew my father?”

“In a manner of speaking, before he took ill of course decades ago”

The princess winced in pain as the halfling plunged a needle into her side and injected the tincture.

“So you are a servant? Then I must thank you for saving my life”

“Not a servant, I work for different masters now. You are just lucky they decided it best you live”

“Who are your masters?”

“Perhaps in time they’ll deem it prudent to tell you, but for now my task is to get you well and then smuggle you out of the city”

“And where would we go?”

“Across the sea of course”

“To the mid continent?” she replied as pressing down on her side where the needle had been, “Couldn’t we just head west, to the Desert Elves?”

“Rainal is already pressing his attack on their capital, you won’t find aid there”

“Wait, how long have I been out?”

“Almost a week”

“A week… And he is already besieging their capital, how is that even possible?”

“I fear he was preparing it for quite some time, and with your brother out of the way, the army set out immediately”

“Oh god, it's really happening, he’s going to war with the twelve kingdoms. Has there been any response yet from the grand council”

“They are undecided at the moment, and have not yet declared a state of war, though this is only officially. Behind the scenes their spy networks are in play, I suppose they are hoping to end this through espionage rather than admit that the treaty has been broken”

“Yes, of course, the lizard folk and insectids have long wanted to separate from the union. I suppose it is prudent to avoid giving them reason”

“Hrmm, I think that is enough talking for now princess, you need your rest if you are to heal” the halfling said as he offered her a steaming cup of tea, “Drink, it will allow you rest”

“What is your name?”

“They call me Gladly” he said with a smile.

“Well, thank you Gladly, for everything, and be sure to pass on my thanks to your masters, I shall be eager to meet them”

“I shall pass it along” he said with a bow.

…

As the sun rose over the spiked palisades, the town came alive with all manner of shades of grey. Like the scales of a moth’s wings, every house was mottled with light ashen colors and streaks of dark charcoal. There was a strange beauty to the way the light spread through the city, almost as though it came from another time. As the sun climbed higher, its delicate beauty was replaced with the acrid stench of sewage and the beading heat of the sun.

As Yuta stepped out of the “inn” he looked towards a lone manor standing atop the hill at the other end of town. Carved out of exquisite stone, it gleamed in the light. He traced his eye line downwards and across the town and saw great mills driven by crowds of workmen pushing them with their feet.

“What are those?” he asked the man at the inn

“The footmills, they grind up swampseeds into branflour, it’s how we make bread here. It’s hard work but it’s gotta be done to live out here”

“Alright, let Silvia know I headed out to the manor when she gets up”

“Mhm”

Yuta stepped over the streetside gutters and plopped his feet on the gravel road. Wedging his thumbs into his pockets he wandered down the street aiming to eventually reach the manor on the hill. As he made his way up the path he scouted several large pits a short walk off from the road. Curious, he strolled over to one of them to peek inside.

The slithers and hissing of snakes caused him to recoil.

“Why the hell do they have snake pits?”

He watched on as a man with tall boots climbed down the ladder and into the pit, where he casually grabbed a snake by the back of the head and pressed its open jaws to a vial. After he was done he tossed the snake to the corner of the pit and pulled up another one.

“Okay…” Yuta said as he spun on his heels and continued to walk.

Large pillars of smoke trailed into the skies up ahead, and as Yuta approached closer he saw men shovelling lime onto giant iron trays with fires roaring underneath them. A man tending to the fire glanced over and after a few short coughs continued to prod at the coals.

Yuta could feel his breath get heavy in the smog that surrounded the piles. It reminded him of exhaust fumes from traffic.

*Hrmm, I wonder if it is full of carbon monoxide? Might be why a lot of the town don’t live very long*

Unlike most towns, there was no bustling city center, or market place, just places of work and places to sleep. As Yuta scanned the town he realised there would be no adventurer guild here, nor any stable for animals. It was a town with very little other than seeds to mill, snakes to milk, and rocks to boil.

Just as he thought he wouldn’t likely find a shop, he smelled the distinctive aroma of yeast wafting from around the corner. He approached closer and saw a man tending to a small corner bakery, with bread, and what looked like meat chunks on the counter.

“Oh you have meat here, what animal is it from?”

“Rat” the man spat back with the voice of a pack a day smoker.

“Oh I see”

Yuta looked closer at the meat to notice the buzz of flies as maggots crawled through the meat.

“Got any scales on ya, scale a piece for a bun or a chunk”

“Sorry, none on me” Yuta said with a shrug

“Bah, off with ya then” the man said before turning back to the oven

Eventually Yuta arrived at the bottom of the hill. The manor was surrounded by lush grasses and vegetation, which looked out of place in such a greyscale town. He strode up the cobblestone pathway and knocked briskly on the door.

“Yeeees” a scratchy voice replied from behind the door

Yuta scrunched his nose as a red imp opened the door to size him up.

“You seek the mistress?” it asked.

“Well, um, yes actually”

The imp nodded and then politely motioned to Yuta’s weapons. He nodded and dropped them at the door. Blue light shimmered from behind a doorway up ahead before abruptly shutting off. The imp leaned over and traced Yuta’s eyeline, it shook its head and flicked its tail in irritation.

“It is better not to pry… This way” it said before leading him to a side room, “Wait here”.

Yuta found himself a place on a red armchair with gold trim, and scribbled notes in his notebook as he waited.

A delightful scent of spring and wildflowers entered the room on a gentle breeze. Gentle footsteps followed shortly behind as a woman with unblemished porcelain skin stared at him with ruby red eyes. Her perfectly straightened black hair flowed in the ethereal winds that surrounded her. Her gaze was intense, yet somehow not quite human as she extracted information from Yuta’s slightest reactions and movements. She could tell things about him not just from the things he did, but with every missed opportunity of the things he didn’t do.

“You are not of this town, clearly you are passing through, what brings you to my abode” she said with a barely perceptible tweak of her neck.

“I am looking for a way north from here, but I was told there are things called buckers”

“You could walk north, there is nothing stopping that” she said matter of factly

“Yeah… Except the buckers”

“And this is a problem to you?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m looking for a way to head north without running into them, I heard you might have a way?”

“There are ways yes”

“Maybe you have trade routes? And I could tag along with one? Help guard it? Something like that”

The woman stared at him blankly and then she reached her delicate fingertips into a pouch under her tightly fit robes. She drew from her waist a small white token with the symbol of bee on it and scratched below it the number 72299.

She approached Yuta and slipped the token into his hand, “Play the lottery, and you may get your wish”

“Uh, yeah, about that” he said as he peered at the coin, “I’d really rather have a more certain way to get on my way, I’m not really much for gambling”

Her eyelids fluttered like the wings of a dragonfly for a moment before continuing her gaze.

“I mean there are obviously seventy thousand of these printed, there is no way I could win”

“That is not true, you are the first one this week that has appeared for the draw. If you wish to play, there is no other”

Yuta sat up straight and looked at the Mistress Dermon seriously.

*This is really convenient, maybe it is a quest. If I say yes I will probably have to do something, and by the end of it I will be sent somewhere. The people in the town must just be npcs so, they just can’t take the leap*

“Alright, I’ll play the lottery then”

The woman nodded to her imp who clicked its fingers and shut all the doors and windows of the house, turning the rooms dark except for the dim glow of tiny lantern stones set along the walls.

Yuta looked from the imp back over to the mistress Dermon and saw a shadow rise from behind her as her tightly fitted robe fell to the floor. With a crank of her neck her porcelain like face pulled away and tucked underneath her bladed foreleg. Insect wings towered over her back, and the head of a mantis rolled forwards and ticked. Her legs split in two and spread out to carry the weight of her now bloated and armored abdomen.

Yuta’s jaw fell slack, as she towered over him.

*Damn it Yuta, you don’t have time to be afraid now, this is a cutscene, you have to start thinking on how this is going to work*

“Now for the test” she said with a flutter in her voice.

*Yes, a test. Maybe it is called a lottery only because most people fail it. I just have to figure out the answer. My high intelligence stat should help me save stamina here, and accomplish more with less*

Yuta brought up his blue status screen in the corner of his vision and kept an eye on his stamina bar as he began to focus his intellect on the task at hand, being careful to balance how deeply he strained himself.

“I am ready,” he replied with focused eyes.

Miss Dermon pulled out three flasks from a small shelf, one red, one blue, and one yellow. She then slid out a clove of garlic, a small iron screw, and a copper coin.

“Which scents are similar?” she said with a click on the end to indicate a question.

Yuta leaned forwards and looked at each vial.

*It can’t just be about smell, if she is some kind of insect, maybe her way of perceiving things is twisted. I have to think about this differently*

*Why two metals and a bit of garlic?*

*And why alchemy flasks?*

*Is she an alchemist? Is that what this town is built for? I mean it is surrounded by swamps so it would stand to reason*

*Okay, so what is the basis of alchemy? Isn’t it chemical compounds?*

*If it is, then copper should be green blue, iron red, and that leaves the garlic for yellow*

Yuta leaned forwards and took the green blue flask and wafted the fumes towards his nose.

*Certainly smells like it could be a copper compound*

He then leaned over and picked up the yellow flask, coughing as the gas hit his nostrils.

*Yup that’s sulfur*

With a quick sniff of the red liquid he was certain of his answer and placed each piece next to its corresponding element.

“What is the point of this test exactly?” he asked

The mantis twisted her head, “Correct”

“The purpose lies in the room behind me” she said with a cock of her head motioning him to follow.

The imp pushed ahead and opened the doors before them, revealing a grand magical circle inscribed in the floor.

“Ah, you really are a magician” he said with a hint of wonder in his voice.

The insect twisted back into human form and led Yuta to the center of the circle, “Now, you shall join the others,” she said with a blink.

“Wait, no, don’t!” he called out as blue light shot up around him.

The air within the circle moved like a mirage on a hot summer’s day as everything in the surrounding room was drowned out by blue. As the light receded Yuta was surrounded by what seemed to be endless rows of shelves stacked full of flasks of colored liquids.

He stumbled out of the circle in a daze.

A stern looking red haired man in a robe rushed over and gripped him by the arm. As quick as lightning the man pulled out a wand and tapped it on Yuta’s neck. A shackle shot from the closest wall and secured itself around his neck. He tried to scream but his voice was cut off by magic.

The man dragged him by the arm into the next room, where he saw rows full of townsfolk from Potluck slaving over boiling flasks with ingredients in buckets at their feet.

“Hurry on then” the mage snapped, “To your station”

Yuta felt a jolt at his back as he was thrust towards an open table.

*Wait? Is this what I think it is? Alchemy done by slave labor!*

The sound of boiling flasks and the ring of glass being gently slid into place filled the room, as far too many rows of men within the room brewed their potions.

*What the hell?!*

… 3 months later…

Yuta’s hand shook as he took hold of the next flask and put it over the burner. His breaths were shallow and laboured as he tried his best to recover what remained of his stamina before he had to continue with the next step in the potion. The mage looked over at him with venomous eyes. He gulped and flicked his eyes to the stamina bar on his status screen. He needed a few more seconds before doing the next task if he was to avoid reducing his maximum stamina pool further. He decided to buy it by squinting and looking around in a daze.

“Are you blind, it is right in front of you” the mage quipped before striking him across the back with an ethereal whip.

“Ahh!” he whimpered before crawling his hands back onto the desk to continue.

As work ended for the day, Yuta crawled into the small rag pile under his desk and balled up to get some rest. As the lights went out and the mage left to the hall and a shadow crept in from the far hall.

Silvia gazed through the dark with her elven eyes, and spotted Yuta under the desk. She crept over to him and looked over his broken and blistered skin.

“Psst, wake up, I’m breaking you out”

“No, if they find out, you don’t understand what they can do”

“Just shut up and follow me” she replied as dragging him out of his hole

She slung one of Yuta’s limp arms over her shoulder and led him into the hallway and over to a side room. By the edge of the room a small patch of moonlight broke through a window. Silvia dragged him over to where she had affixed a rope, and then tied him to herself, before climbing over the ledge.

Yuta, emaciated and half in a daze, couldn’t have resisted her if he tried. As she abseiled down the side of the building Yuta swung his head around and saw that he had been inside a great tower that was surrounded on all sides by the ocean.

“Where are we?” he asked, “I thought I was under Potluck”

“We are on an island just off the southern kingdom’s coastline, Dermon works for the mages in the tower here. She has a teleportation circle in her manor which she uses to send slaves and resources”

“How did you find me?”

“You went missing after going to the manor, so I took a look around town and put two and two together. It was obvious Dermon was shady, so I took a look around in her bed chambers and listened in on her communication with the mages. I couldn’t travel through the circle without getting caught myself, so I had to travel by foot most of the way”

“Does that mean you went back through the bog and the wastes to come find me?”

“Yeah” she nodded as he dropped off the rope and planted her feet on the ground, “No time to talk about it now, we have to get out of here”

“Okay” Yuta said as nodding.

Waves crashed against the rocks by the shore as three cloaked figures readied the oars and untied the mooring rope. The satisfying thunk of wood over water echoed under Yuta’s feet as he was lifted into the boat and pushed to a seated position on the floor. Silvia took up an oar and nodded to the others, and they rowed off into the waves as they reflected the moonlight.