Ray didn’t know what to do in that moment. It was no secret that he thought Ilaria was beautiful. Feeling her warmth up close, in a place that still didn’t feel real, it hit him in a way he hadn’t expected. It felt right, or at least it felt like a reminder that he wasn’t completely alone. Ilaria pulled back quickly and muttered an apology, cheeks a little darker than before. Ray didn’t really want her to stop, but he knew chasing that right now would be stupid. He wasn’t in a position to play games, and she wasn’t either. They started walking towards the exit together, side by side.
“Well,” Ray said, glancing at the doors like he expected someone to change their mind and drag him back. “That took a long time. What do we do now?”
“I imagine Arj will come pick you up to show you to your room,” Ilaria said. “You can wash up and change your clothes there. It’s late. You’ll want rest. In the morning we’ll get you some basic gear.”
That was music to Ray’s ears. Finally, time to sit still and let his brain catch up. They walked back through the corridors and, like Ilaria said, Arj was waiting. He was holding a small wooden box like it was a gift, or like it might bite him if he opened it himself.
“Congratulations on not being killed,” Arj said, smiling.
“Let’s be real,” Ray replied. “That was never in the cards the moment the elders showed up the way they did.”
Ilaria looked surprised. She had genuinely thought they had come in ready to kill him. To her absolute bewilderment, Arj started laughing, properly laughing, like Ray had told the best joke he’d heard in a month.
“You saw right through us then,” Arj said. “It seriously looked like you didn’t have a care in the world. Almost like you were goading us to do it.”
Ray shrugged. “I mean, you captured me. If you wanted me dead you could’ve done it already.”
Arj laughed again. “Fair. We’d already voted to let you live from the beginning. Honestly, I just wanted to see how you’d react.”
Ray smiled wide. He liked Arj. He could tell already. The elf had a similar sense of humour, and in a place like this, that mattered more than it should. “So what’s with the stodgy old box,” Ray said, “and more importantly, where can I get something to eat?”
Arj handed him the box. Ray opened it and pulled out a small copper-looking coin with the image of a crowned woman. She wasn’t human. She had scales along her cheekbones and neck, like a reptile trying to look regal.
“What’s with the lizard chick?” Ray asked.
“She’s not a lizard chick,” Arj said, annoyed but amused. “Dragonborn. Blood of dragon and elf. One of the strongest races on Arkus. The only real competition is the Draconis, people with human and dragon blood, usually bonded offspring.” He paused, realising he’d gone on a tangent. “Anyway. That’s Arcturia. Highest rank on Arkus.”
Ray stared at the coin a moment longer, then turned it between his fingers. One hundred coins. One hundred little pieces of metal. It was enough to keep him alive for a bit, but it wasn’t enough to be safe. He didn’t say that out loud. He was learning quickly that fear was something you handled quietly, especially when you were surrounded by people who could put an arrow through your hand without even looking.
Arj tilted his head. “Now for your first lesson. Use Identify on the coins.”
Ray did it.
====================================
Identify: Arkus Coins x100
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These coins are the lowest denomination of coins used on Arkus.
10,000 coins automatically combine to make an Arkus Bar.
10,000 bars automatically combine to make an Arkus Sphere.
====================================
[Congratulations, Skill: Identify has levelled to 2]
“Well, that’s good to know,” Ray said, rolling the coin into his palm. “So the coins I’ve got are basically worth jack crap, yeah?”
Ilaria spoke up, possibly feeling left out. “I wouldn’t say worthless. A loaf of bread costs about ten Arkus coins. One hundred is enough to buy a basic dagger and maybe some basic armour. Not good armour. Just something.”
Ray sighed. “So I’m no better than a beggar right now.”
Arj clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Cheer up. Let’s get you something to eat. Then you can rest.”
They walked through the evening markets, and Finrial felt different at night. Lanterns floated above the streets like lazy fireflies that never landed. The smells were stronger too. Smoke, meat, sweet bread, spices that reminded Ray of home but weren’t quite right. They eventually settled on skewers cooked over a proper open grill. It looked like chicken at first glance, but the texture was wrong. Tougher. The flavour was somewhere between teriyaki beef and something gamey. Ray didn’t care. He could have eaten dirt and it would still have tasted like heaven. By the time he finished, he’d eaten more than ten skewers and downed a flagon of ale.
At some point during the meal, Ilaria departed. She said she needed to return home, then disappeared into the flow of people like she’d never been there at all. Ray watched her go longer than he should have, then forced himself to stop. His head was warm from the ale, his stomach finally full, and for the first time since Earth ended, his body wasn’t screaming at him.
Arj led him back to his place. Ray was so tired he didn’t even try to draw a bath. He was mildly disappointed there wasn’t some magical shower he could just step into, but at that point he would’ve slept in a puddle if someone offered it. He flopped onto the spare bed and was out within minutes.
Ray didn’t dream. That was the strange part. No void. No System. No spiders. Just darkness.
When he woke early the next morning, he didn’t want to get up. His emotions had finally caught up with him. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, breathing shallow, then the weight hit him all at once. He was alone. Not just alone in the house. Alone in the universe. He rolled onto his side, pressed his face into the blanket and let out a loud sob. The tears came fast after that. Ugly, quiet crying that he refused to ever let anyone see. He wasn’t going to break in public. He couldn’t. But here, in an empty room, he let it out until his throat hurt.
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Eventually he forced himself up, wiped his face, and looked at himself like he was an inconvenience that needed managing. Arj had left clothing for him. Pure black. Simple, clean, and almost too familiar, like someone had copied the idea of modern clothes without fully understanding where it came from. Ray pulled it on anyway. It fit well enough. It felt good to be in something that wasn’t soaked in dirt and blood.
He walked downstairs and froze.
It wasn’t just Arj. The entire group who had captured him were there, except Maethel. They were already eating, already drinking, and when they saw Ray they cheered like he was a returning hero instead of yesterday’s prisoner.
“What’s up with you lot?” Ray said, trying not to sound too surprised. “I didn’t think you liked me that much.”
Truthfully, he was glad to see them. These were the only people he knew on this world. He didn’t trust them fully yet, but the fact they were here at all made the air feel less empty.
“We figured now that you’re basically free,” Alif said, raising his cup, “we could celebrate with a nice breakfast. After you eat, you can go into town, get your gear and do what you want with your life.”
Alif was short for a dark elf. The kind of short where it clearly bothered him even if he pretended it didn’t. His defining feature was his hair, golden blonde like sunlight. He was also well built, sculpted in all the right places. On Earth, he would’ve been a model. Here, it seemed height mattered far more than it should, and Alif wore that frustration in the way he carried himself.
Ray sat down and ate with them. Breakfast surprised him. Pigs and cows existed here. Proper bacon. Real fat sizzling in a pan. He almost laughed when he realised it, because it was such a stupid comfort, but it helped anyway. Chickens apparently did not, which led to a round of jokes Ray didn’t fully understand, but he didn’t care. The laughter around the table was infectious. It made Ray feel like a person again.
For some reason, Rayleigh made it worse. Better. Both. She still didn’t say much, but her expressions and timing were perfect, like she could land a joke without needing words. Every time Ray looked up, she seemed to already be watching him, calm as anything. Ray knew he was looking back too much. He didn’t stop.
Rayleigh was the most feminine of the group. Even out in the wilds she wore a petite dress that actually worked with her figure. She was the slenderest of the elves Ray had seen. If you ignored the purple skin tone and the slightly pointed ears, she looked the most human. Black hair, brown eyes, and close enough to Ray’s height that it felt strange. If someone told him she was half-elf, he wouldn’t have been surprised. The worst part was Ray could tell she enjoyed the attention just a little. Not enough to make it obvious, but enough that it got under his skin and stayed there.
After breakfast, they took Ray shopping for gear. One hundred Arkus coins wasn’t much. It was “first day” money. Enough to stop him being completely helpless, not enough to make him safe. Ray had decided quickly that he wasn’t going back into accounting if he could avoid it. He didn’t want to spend his second life behind a desk. If he was going to be stuck in a fantasy world, he was going to actually see it.
Adventuring would be dangerous, but there was no point living in a world like this if you never left the village walls. He also figured there was no reason he couldn’t build something bigger while doing it. If he found rare materials himself, he could sell them. Trade them. Build leverage. That felt like a plan, and right now a plan mattered more than comfort.
Ray visited as many weapon and armour stores as he could. Some shopkeepers were polite. Some barely hid their disgust. A few outright refused to serve him until Arj stepped in and stared them down. Ray kept his mouth shut, mostly. No need to start a fight when he was broke and armed with nothing but hope and arrogance.
In the end, Ray settled on light novice gear. Something that covered shoulders and arms. He didn’t know what he’d be fighting, and he didn’t want to commit to heavy armour without understanding the trade-offs. He picked a basic dagger because it was affordable and because he didn’t trust himself with something larger yet. A belt, a sheath, and a small pouch for his remaining coins.
It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
Ray kept catching reflections of himself in shop windows and polished metal. It was subtle at first, the kind of thing you’d dismiss as weird lighting, but it kept happening. His posture looked different. His face looked a touch sharper. His gut wasn’t as obvious as it should have been. He still felt like Ray, still had the same thoughts, the same habits, the same stupid urge to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but his body didn’t quite match the last mental snapshot he had of himself. It was like someone had taken him, cleaned him up, and then pushed him into the world without asking. The System had done that, or something had. That thought should have made him angry. Instead it mostly made him tired.
He also couldn’t ignore how people looked at him. Some elves stared like he was a walking problem. Others looked away like he was dirty. A few looked at him the way men back on Earth looked at a stray dog, equal parts pity and annoyance. Ray caught one woman’s eyes lingering on him a bit longer than the rest, curiosity mixed with something sharper, and it made his mind drift in a way he didn’t want it to. He hated that he could feel it, hated that his brain could even go there after everything, but it was real. Fear, grief, and being around attractive people in a new world did strange things to a man. He forced his attention back to the only thing that mattered. Survive first. Work out what the hell he was second. Everything else could wait.
He held the dagger in his hand and, for a second, it felt like a moment he should be proud of. New world. New weapon. Fresh start. Then his brain did what it always did and reminded him that he’d just spent most of his money on something labelled Trash. He swallowed the thought and focused anyway.
====================================
Novice Dagger
====================================
A basic blade sold to people who need something sharp more than they need something good.
Slot: Main Hand
Rarity: Trash
Rank: F
Attributes:
- Physical Damage +1
- Stamina Cost -5%
====================================
The shoulder brace came next. The leather was stiff and smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned properly. The stitching was uneven too, like someone had learned the craft by guessing. Still, when he strapped it on, it sat firm enough that he could imagine it turning a scrape into a bruise instead of something worse.
====================================
Novice Leather Shoulder Brace
====================================
Stiff leather and uneven stitching. It sits a little wrong, but it will catch a hit.
Slot: Shoulders
Rarity: Trash
Rank: F
Attributes:
- Physical Damage Reduction -1
- Reinforced (less likely to tear)
====================================
The bracers were more of the same. Thin leather wrapped tight, just enough protection to stop him shredding his arms the first time something took a swipe at him. Ray didn’t bother staring at them like they were special. He’d seen enough now to understand that the first step was always ugly.
He tried his equipment screen out for the first time since getting anything other than clothes.
Ray felt good. He knew everything he bought was absolute garbage overall, but you had to start somewhere.
“Well, now that you have some stock standard equipment, why don’t we take you on your first hunt?” Ilaria said.
“To be honest, I think it’s time I started out myself. I can’t Identify you guys but I’m sure you are fairly higher level than me. I think I want to treat this right and actually attempt some kills on my own if that’s ok with you,” Ray said.
Ilaria looked a little crestfallen but he could see she understood. “Alright. Well, at least let me give you some basic stat pointers.”
“Sure, lay it on me,” Ray replied.
“There are two things we haven’t told you about yet. The first is because there was no need. Even if you have armour equipped, you can quick change between regular clothing and equipment. You should know that while you are changed, you will not gain any of the benefits of the armour. Also, armour does take up inventory slots when not equipped. If you fill those slots, you won’t be able to quick change.”
Ray caught on quick and was playing around with the feature. It was like his armour was just suddenly vanishing and coming on. He thought of a lot of potential applications for this.
“The second thing is about the stats themselves. You should know that one size does not fit all. We haven’t worked out a direct par correlation for stats. As an example, some people level Body and only get two increased maximum health. The highest we’ve seen is eight per level. On the flip side, similar is true with things like Strength. Some people put one point in it and can suddenly lift an extra pound or two. Others, more and some less. There is some kind of efficiency correlation, but we have not been able to understand it thus far.”
“So what you’re saying is I should just try out every stat and determine what is best for me?” Ray asked. He noticed what Ilaria had said about eight health per level of Body. Ray had gotten ten but didn’t want to say anything until he understood.
“To an extent. We suggest getting each stat to ten. You can then go to the sparring arena and try out different weapons and armour to determine what works best for you,” Ilaria said.
“Alright, thanks for the info. I’ll be off now. Is it ok if I’m gone for a few days?” Ray asked as he walked towards the village gate.
“Sure,” Arj said. “If you come back after the week, you’ll have to pay your own way in town.”
Ray took a step forward. “Just to check, how long is a week here?”
“Nine days,” Arj said, a bit surprised.
“Thanks, I’m off!” Ray said, heading towards the village gate.
The rest simply watched him leave. To everyone’s surprise, Rayleigh shouted, “Don’t you dare die out there!”
Ray just raised a thumb and kept moving.