One of my main problems with writing this chapter is that I felt it was too short, however I didn't feel up to expanding on it and so I kept shelving it. Another problem is that editing and re-editing chapters is incredibly dull, especially when the problem isn't your grammer or spelling, but the way you wrote things out.

However as I was getting nowhere with releasing a new chapter, I knocked off the unsatisfying timeskip and removed that dramatic plottwist and with a simple edit and a small apology, I'm now releasing it as is.

Honestly I'm not that great at writing out a long story, short stories are more of my thing. But regardless, if you are still reading this you probably don't mind too much.

The gamer skill is a convenient ability which allows him to adapt, change and grow.

A small note since some of you seem to have forgotten, his disguise consists of a long piece of cloth wrapped around his head leaving only a slip for his eyes.

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After leaving the camp, I spent the next two days walking towards the outpost in the mountain gap as I practised my meditation to raise the skill proficiency. From what the mage had shown me, it seemed that meditation was heavily linked with magic and was clearly something I was going to need to learn. Practising meditation at first was extremely difficult, I had to stand still until I entered my state and the slightest distraction was enough to jar me out of it. However as I worked on it, I was eventually able to maintain a steady pace while remaining in the trance and the skill began to level up.

SkillMeditationLevel4 [54%]6% increase in INT while meditating

6% increase in WIS while meditating

12% increase in mental stabilization

The information given in the skill window was simple enough, and while it did sound strange to receive a INT and WIS bonus while meditating, it made more sense if you considered that it meant that you could meditate even as you do other things. As proof of this, I was soon able to walk in a state of permanent meditating, only breaking out of it when my thoughts intruded too deeply into my surroundings or when I remembered something distressing. Entering a state of meditation, a small window would appear in front of me and when I stopped, would disappear.

Now meditating

When I reached the outpost I made sure to stay off the road and look at it from a viewpoint where I could not be spotted. It was mildly disappointing however, there were movable barricades made of sharpened stakes tied in a criss-cross fashion, but they sagged with age and were laid against the side of the road out of the way. The stone outpost itself was built to the side of the road and looked maintained, but uninhabited. I did find that it made sense however, I was pretty sure they had originally planned to have something bigger than a simple camp in the plains but for some reason hadn't worked out, and so no one travelled in this direction. Why maintain a outpost on a empty road? But still, there was the matter of the rift. Surely that was worth protecting?

Travelling on I left the outpost behind me, walking forwards as I trained in meditating. While it was easy to focus on at first, it began to grow rapidly boring. Taking breaks occasionally, I would break up the momentum and take my club out and whack rocks on the ground or through the air to get some form of exercise. It wasn't much of a exercise however, but I did gain 2 points in STR and a single point in END from my journey. After meditating for a few days, I entered a state where I could ignore my limitations, ignore the boredom and continue meditating. Soon I could even slip in and out of meditation at will, focusing on other tasks while remaining inside the meditation state. As long as I didn't think too deeply that was. It wasn't a state I liked to maintain for long however as the world felt muted, as if its a dream with the sensations of my body feeling distant, time being meaningless.

Walking down the road, I encountered my first village. However I didn't approach as I didn't want to give any clues that a stranger they had never seen was in their midst, especially since I looked nothing like a soldier which were likely the only people to pass through. I made sure to keep out of sight of the village as I passed, taking pains to keep out of sight when I saw someone on the road. After passing the second village the people on the road began to grow more common and it began to get very annoying stepping off the road. Resolving to test my disguise, I kept an eye out for the next passerby. Staying on the road as I walked, I kept my eyes out on the road in front of me for the next traveller. Soon I spotted a old man, walking by himself with a small sack on his back. When we drew closer, he had obviously seen me and I was relieved to note that there was no expression on his face other than a mild curiosity as he looked at my head. Seemed it wasn't an irrational hate at the mere sight of me, it could be related to seeing my face however, which I didn't feel the need to test as I could maintain my disguise infinitely.

Growing closer, his eyes still glanced at my face before returning politely in front of me, showing through the gap in the cloth my eyes studied him, looking him over appraisingly. His level was a mere 3 and I felt no need to *Examine* him. But I still wanted to test this disguise a little bit further. If it failed, I could always dig another grave. I still didn't like the idea of killing others, especially humans. But I valued my own existence more and they themselves were trying to kill me.

Stepping in front of him, I held my hand up to stop him. He then showed an expression of apprehension on his face with a slight level of fear, fairly reasonable. Looking at the sack he held, it looked to be carrying many objects and judging from the dirty sack overall and the regular lumpy shapes. I was willing to bet it was some form of vegetable. Especially when his profession above his head said Farmer.

Making a show of placing my hand in my pocket, I pulled out two coins of the lowest worth and pointed towards the sack, holding the coins up to show my intention. He asked me a question, but obviously I didn't understand. I took a guess and held up a finger before closing my hand and pointing again towards the sack, offering the coins in the other hand. Warily, he placed the sack down and reached inside to take out a green vegetable the size of a turnip before offering it to me. I accepted and dropped both coins in his hand. Nodding towards him, I stepped past and continued walking down the road.

Looking at the vegetable in my hand, I thought *Identify*

TomosokeA leafy small vegetable grown above ground. This is similar to a cabbage in both appearance and flavour, but with a spicy aftertaste.

This can be eaten raw or cooked

Taking a bite of the tomosoke, it was exactly as described. Overall the encounter was interesting to me, especially as he didn't display any form of recognition towards my disguise. I did so much want to try it without my disguise, but I feared the repercussions if someone went missing. Later that day, I passed a long caravan with empty carts moving past me. I had travelled a day to reach the outpost, and was on this road for another two days. If my suspicions were correct, this was likely the caravan that made deliveries from the outpost camp.

The next few weeks were spent travelling through villages and on the road, sleeping outside inside my tent on my bed. As I drew closer to the city, I soon had to sleep in the rough, being unable to erect my tent due to raising awkward questions on where it had come from. I probably should have grabbed a backpack while I was at the outpost.

Entering the city was simple, I blended in with the crowd as they moved through the gates with the guards only looking at me the entire time. I guess my disguise attracted more attention than I had originally thought. However I still was able to enter the city with no problems, and now I had the luxury of looking over the place and seeing if I could learn their language by listening. Not that I actually intended to learn it, I still wanted the gamer skill to handle that for me.

Typically this place was set in a medieval setting, stone and wood buildings constructed with wagons being pulled through the streets, thankfully by other humans which meant no unhappy surprises lying on the ground. There didn't seem to be any packmules or horses in the city, it seemed that they were forbidden here. I knew there were such animals around as I had seen them on the roads, commonly pulling carts laden with goods. It was surprising that this place had horses and the like, being another world. Not something I was going to study. It was on another pleasant note that I realized that I didn't smell any of the rubbish or sewage you seem to see commonly mentioned in books centered in medieval times, instead the streets looked pretty clean with guards prowling as they made their rounds with only more than a few glances towards me.

Soon I had identified the typical pub from the sign that jutted from the building and entered, drawing only a small amount of attention in the dark atmosphere as the door let in the light. My eyes focused soon enough and I found a small table to sit at to avoid drawing attention, which took longer than I thought as the people stared at me. I sat there in peace for a few minutes as I looked at my surroundings and the people who sat at the tables. I could see males ranging from teens to old, sitting about tables as they talked to each other. I couldn't see any women drinking however, just the typical barmaids. The place didn't seem to be as civilized as I had originally thought. A few minutes after sitting, a woman approached me and asked me something. I pointed at my ears and shrugged in response. She looked at me with narrowed eyes for a second, then patronised a drinking action. I nodded and took out a coin. Holding it in my palm, I watched her face as I quickly added nine more coins until she was satisfied and took them. I sat there in silence for a minute until she returned, holding a wooden mug filled with a brown liquid. I nodded and *Identify*'d it

Mug of BeerPint of beer produced in a large wooden mug

3% Alcohol

I was suspicious of its hygienic standards, however *Identify*'ing the mug itself reassured me with the simple word 'clean' in the description. Taking a sip, I didn't quite like the taste. However I didn't put it down, choosing instead to nurse it before me to ward off attention. Not that my disguise didn't attract enough already.. When was I going to get the Disguise skill? For those curious, I drank through a gap I made in the wrapped cloth about my face.

Listening in to the conversations around me, I mentally repeated the words and memorized them. I spent a hour like this, mentally repeating what they said and gradually recognising a few words being repeated. Names were easy to recognise, the boxes over their heads being obvious. I sipped at my beer throughout this as the woman moved around, selling beer and refilling empty mugs. I noticed abstractly that some people brought their own mugs to this place, a few of them even looked fancy with handcarved designs and stylized writing around the bases. After finishing my beer, I sat it on the empty table before me as I continued listening in. But minutes later the woman approached me again and took the mug, asking me a question again I gestured towards my eyes and she rolled her eyes before pointing towards the mug. Getting what she meant, I handed over another ten of my coins, however she gave me six of them back which seemed to be the amount used to buy or rent the mug. Luckily as I sat there I still hadn't been approached yet as I intently and obviously focused on the beer before me. I wasn't going to give that up and the beers were cheap enough.

Nursing another beer, I soon received a message after another hour of intensely listening to the people around me.

Spoken Language: Boligian has reached 50% comprehension

Instantly words began to make sense and I could now follow the conversations of the people around me, a few words still escaped my grasp and sometimes I couldn't follow what they said at all. But I kept listening to them as I finished my beer and ordered another. My beer half finished, I received another message that I had been waiting for.

Spoken Language: Boligian has reached 90% comprehension

The language instantly was crystal clear, every word understandable as I listened to their mundane conversations. Rarely was a word I couldn't understand, but it didn't bother me as I could always guess it from the context. Standing up, I left my unfinished mug on the table as I made my way out of the pub onto the streets again. Now that I could listen to them, I should be able to talk. But I couldn't stick around in the pub, it would be far too weird for me to seek company when I had so obviously avoided it.

I moved down the streets through the jostling crowds of people, no stench of unwashed bodies to overwhelm me. It suddenly occurred to me that I was the one who stank as the people made room around me, days on the road would do that. Spotting an inn was pretty easy, the bed being cartoonized on the signpost sticking from the wall and easy to recognize. Entering the building, the noise on the streets was stilled as I looked around. I stood in a small hallway which ended at a large open room, inside the room were empty tables with an unlit fire in a wall, against one end of the room was a long bench behind which a man sat, his profession above his head was Innkeeper. Behind the bench was a door that led into the kitchens with locked doors lining the walls, rooms obviously. Talking to the man behind the counter, I organized a place to clean myself as well as a room to stay in for 10 coins for the wash and 40 coins for the room. The washroom was happily modern, facets controlling the distribution of hot and cold water to a copper sprinkler raised off the ground to neck height.

I spent the rest of the day in my room studying the papers I had taken from the camp intently, I wanted to understand the written language here as well. Four hours later however the room grew dark and I could no longer read/look at the papers. I had only received 30% in my progress and I still couldn't follow what was written. Going back downstairs, I looked about for a meal and spotted a man turning a large skewer over a fire as he roasted some meat. It looked cooked and juicy and my mouth watered even as I looked at it. I had eaten nothing but salted meat for the past few days. Walking to the man, I paid a few coins for a wooden plates and a few cuts of the meat. As I ate it, I was surprised how delicious it was. At this time the room was rapidly filling up and the seat across the table was soon filled. Sitting across the table, a man sat and introduced himself.

"Hi there! I'm Cal", above his head his nameplate read as Calien. I nodded in return and replied "Jon" as I ate. He took a mouthful of food before swallowing and talking again "So, what's with the getup?" Brilliant, the very first that he brings up. Why do I not have the skill yet? Maybe because it's not fooling anyone? Because it's attracting attention? "Religious custom" "Ahhh" he nodded wisely. "Which one?" I suppressed a groan, he certainly was curious. His job description was of a simple labourer however, so there wasn't any real harm in talking with him. "Church of Spaghetti" I deadpanned, I noted with a little surprise that their language had no word for spaghetti. I quickly followed up with "Would you like to join? Our leader is always looking for more people" while smiling brightly towards him. Cal hurriedly declined as he rapidly backtracked "No no no, I'm fine"

I slowly began to interrogate him, beginning first with the most important question. "Can you learn magic in this city?" He looked at me strangely for a second before looking a bit thoughtful. "Well, I guess. They do have a facility here..", obviously, my next question was "Where is it?" he shrugged "Somewhere in this city, I'm not sure where". I still had more questions however on magic, but from the look he had given me earlier there was something I should have known about magic already, and I didn't think he knew that much on it. I tried to swing the conversation in another direction. "I heard there's a camp in the middle of the mountains a week from here". "Ah that" he grimaced, "A failed world". Interesting.. "Failed how?" "Well you know, they don't have any mana over there and the rift wasn't created properly". That was easy to find out, did they regularly open worlds? He continued without my prompting "And of course, the mage who created the botched rift didn't have the skill to close it and no one else can spare the time to take care of it." Taking a bite, he spoke past the food in his mouth as he said "It's not that bad however, that world has interesting stuff we import"

That was far too easy. I felt somewhat cheated.

While I still had questions that remained unanswered, such as "What is the Boligian Empire" and "How do you know when you have magic". But they were far too obvious and would be something that everyone knew, I couldn't afford to stand out. Not until I had a better handle on this world and how it was laid out.

Leaving Cal at the table, I returned to my room, locked the door and went to sleep.