They gave me the staff citing my need for a weapon in case we got into a fight on the way back to town and then we agreed to sort the rest of the items out once we got to an inn. None of them actually lived in Anwich, although Dori had apparently grown up not far from here. As we headed back, they started telling me about the city and, for just a minute; I was able to appreciate the wonder of what I was experiencing.

  Chapter 16- Not My Thing

  Earth Countdown: 392 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes.

  Challenge Countdown: 30 hours, 18 minutes

  It ended up taking over two hours to get to Anwich. I could have walked and walked and never found it. Rather, they had established a network of trails that I had to know how to follow to and from the dungeon. They didn’t seem to believe in road signs.

  The beauty of the walk, though, was that I was getting to experience my increased stats in a new way. Walking speed seemed to be a factor of multiple stats and it was interesting how I could feel the differences. Agility improved my speed, but that was more about reaction time, although flexibility and such certainly played a part in walking speed. Strength also was necessary. With my now greater—than any Earth human in history—strength, I was able to push my body along effortlessly. It was once again, like I’d been wearing an entire weighted body suit before, and now had taken it off.

  It didn’t stop there. My increased perception allowed me to walk faster without any concern of a misstep. It also made the world come alive in ways that I was still coming to terms with understanding. All in all, the fact was that I had four times the stats of an average human if you totaled them up and doubled that of a peak human. It was thrilling.

  Of course, the stats were evenly distributed and some of them were much harder to quantify. Agility was easy, as I felt I could move in ways that an Olympic gymnast would have drooled over. Strength was much the same. Perception got harder, as did Vitality. I could feel the difference. I felt healthy, heartier, just better, but it would have been hard to quantify. Then it completely broke down when I was trying to factor Mind and Will.

  When I asked the others about that, Dori explained that it was likely because Mind—especially, was not so much about improving my mind. It would make tiny improvements to my processing speed and memory, which would add up over time, but the real purpose of the Mind stat was to control magic. Since I’d had no connection to magic before, I didn’t have any way of comparing the new me.

  Will was even more nebulous in some ways. It did apparently affect my willpower, but more in terms of how I would be able to resist certain magical effects, than how I would be able to abstain from that third donut. It also clearly had something to do with magic, since it regulated the rate at which magic regenerated.

  The final stat which confused me was Charisma. Even before I started changing with the system, Charisma would have been a nebulous concept. Dori tried to explain it. “It isn’t just your physical attractiveness, although your appearance will and likely already has been affected. I didn’t know you before you were level 10, so it’s a bit harder for me to say.”

  I looked at her nervously, wanting to ask a question but feeling like it was totally inappropriate given the circumstances.

  “Just ask. If you can fight monsters, you can ask a question like this.”

  “—You have a mind reading ability?”

  “No, and you probably know that. Stop stalling. Either say it or don’t, but just don’t waste my time.”

  “Okay, Yoda. So… am I attractive now?”

  She grinned. “I have no idea what a yo-duh is, but yes, you are. Now keep in mind that is relative. First off, you’re a different species from me. We are both humanoid, so cross-species attraction isn’t uncommon. Then there is the fact that your Charisma, actually all of your stats, are exceptionally high for your level. You aren’t the kind of attractive that is going to make me lose control and start fawning all over you, but that is a function of my Will and Perception versus your Charisma. Of course, experience, personal preference, and behavior comes into play too.

  “Suffice it to say that you’re probably in for a surprise when you get home, but I think I’ll let you figure that one out on your own. The other, bigger, factor with Charisma is not the physical appearance, but the general aura that you can put off. It makes people want to listen to your words more, makes them want to be on your good side, or at least it can.”

  “It can?”

  “Yes, think of Charisma as being similar to natural—or what we call, ambient mana—that surrounds you. In this scenario, you still need a spell to channel ambient mana into a purpose. In your case, you have that passive ability of yours. Adorably Harmless, right?”

  I looked at the ground for a second. “I know the name isn’t the best, but I did get it for killing an overgrown squirrel.”

  “Yeah, still don’t know what a squirrel is, but that ability is what allows you to channel your Charisma. With enough raw Charisma you may still find that you can influence people, but it doesn’t suddenly make you a better or more persuasive speaker, it just causes people to be slightly more inclined to listen or obey you.

  “But with your ability… well, it affects everyone around you. Adorably Harmless is pretty potent, because even after you joined our group, I still feel a lingering effect. It’s less than it was, but still there. Other people, or even monsters, are going to be influenced in how they see you.”

  “Yeah, as harmless…”

  Crag jumped in. “There are worse things than being seen as harmless, especially when you aren’t. Because of my size, a lot of people expected me to be violent even when I wasn’t. You have an advantage in that ability, you just need to learn how to make it work for you.”

  Nevin laughed and added, “Besides, it makes you so adorable…”

  I didn’t even bother with a response.

  Dori suddenly asked, “So, why did you come to our world?”

  “It wasn’t like I got a choice. I was given three challenges as part of my testing to become a Forerunner. The first one sent me here.” Then I explained about the portal and a little bit about my Uncle Dan without going into detail.

  “What rank is your world in the induction competition if you don’t mind telling us,” Nevin asked.

  “Third at the moment, but falling. We’ve been two years without a full complement of Forerunners. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get up to speed, or if I’m even going to be able to pass this challenge. Honestly, killing monsters seems easier than completing this challenge even though the difficulty is marked as minimal.”

  Everyone went silent for a minute before Nevin said, “Third place wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, our world was third place. About a tenth of the original population survived from what I studied, but we are repopulating, and new races are settling here. We’re becoming more cosmopolitan I guess.”

  “90% dead, geez. I’m sorry, man.”

  After another minute Dori said, “We could help you. I mean, with whatever your challenge is here. You seem like a good enough guy, and I don’t want to think about what happens if your world slips into fourth place. Oh, and Crag will never shut up if we don’t help you.”

  “Damn straight.”

  I chuckled at the big man. His enthusiasm for being a Forerunner was contagious. “Okay, well, here’s the deal.”

  Then I shared the challenge description with them.

  Challenge: Obtain the signatory ring belonging to the mayor of Anwich which he uses for placing seals on official documents by any means necessary. How you achieve the goal will influence the rewards you receive as well as displaying things about your nature and suitability as a Forerunner.

  Crag was the first to respond. “I’d say that’s pretty easy. The mayor isn’t very high level. I don’t think he’s over level fifteen. You could possibly take him if you surprised him. But…”

  “What Crag means to say is that we’d never advocate such a thing. Mayor Nitrin is a pretty fair-minded individual. Acting violently against him seems out of line.”

  Crag said, “Yeah Grazo’s a stand-up guy. He’s the only reason we were allowed to get this dungeon slot.”

  “I thought you had to bid to get it.”

  Dori coughed. Nevin said, “That is true as far as it goes. We’ve been here taking odd jobs and staking out the dungeon, learning what we could while we waited for an opening. Most weeks there isn’t much of a bidding for it. Transhek Corporation gets about ninety percent of the weeks. Occasionally, a bigger adventurer comes in and wants to run their nephew or something through. They’ll bid against the corpies, but most natives won’t take the risk.”

  “Corpies?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry for slipping into that slang. It’s a derogatory term used to describe the employees of one of the major interstellar corporations.”

  “Doesn’t the government set limits on them?”

  “There isn’t any world-wide or even national government since we were inducted and turned into a dungeon world. Our entire social structure was upended. But even in more established parts of the multiverse, the corporations are the ruling force.”

  I nodded along. I had tons of questions, but this was clearly above my paygrade. I’d need to look into it later, though. “So then how?”

  Dori took over. “The rep here got called away for a meeting. So we put in a bid for what the corporation usually pays. Most mayors wouldn’t have accepted and kept the bidding open until Resha, that’s the corporate agent here, got back. But not Mayor Nitrin. He accepted the bid and followed protocols precisely so no one could say he didn’t.”

  “Will there be trouble with this Resha person when we get back?”

  “Hopefully not over one week. Just watch out for her muscle, a guy named Bek.”

  “None of this solves Silas’ problem though,” Nevin pointed out.

  Crag said, “Well it is a rogue challenge and rogues are a sneaky bunch, no offense, Dori.”

  She grinned back at him.

  “If it was a warrior challenge, then I suppose it would be about smashing his head in and taking it, but you’re probably supposed to sneak in and steal it.”

  I shook my head. “I just don’t think I could do that. I mean maybe before you told me about how he helped you out, but even then, stealing really isn’t my thing.”

  “Read the language of the challenge again closely.” Nevin posited, “I think you may find that we are over-complicating it. You’ve already displayed aspects of your character to us, and I think that might just be enough to complete this, at least if the text is as simple as it seems to be.”

  Dori looked at Nevin and asked, “Are you thinking what I am?”

  “Telepathy isn’t included in my powers, so I can’t really say.”

  “Oh, I think you are. I think you are.”

  Chapter 17- Anwich

  Earth Countdown: 392 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes.

  Challenge Countdown: 28 hours, 07 minutes

  Anwich turned out to be nothing like what I expected. Then again, I don’t know what I was really expecting from a planet which had been turned into a dungeon world. The road got wider the closer we got to the city, but it wasn’t filled with what I would have called travelers. Instead, everyone seemed to have a distinct purpose.

  There were groups bringing in lumber, others that had carts full of rock which seemed to be quarried just about a quarter mile off the road. There were also hunters bringing in carts full of wild game, much of which I had seen in the surrounding area. The people were all natives like Dori, Crag, and Nevin with their slightly rounded heads and faintly blue skin.

  Many of them stared at me, but none for too long. They seemed to recognize Dori’s group, even if their reactions made it difficult for me to understand if they were viewed in a positive light. There were two things, however, that they all had in common. None of them were alone, in fact even the hunters were moving in groups of three with the loggers and miners moving in groups of six or eight.

  The second thing was that they were all armed. None of the weapons were what I would consider modern weapons but there were bows, heavy knives, axes, clubs, spears, and hammers represented amongst the people. They were mostly male, but at least a full third of their number were women. As I thought about it, I realized that all the weapons I saw carried were of a type which could be used as tools as well.

  “Are they glaring at me or at you?”

  Dori shushed Crag when he snorted. “I’m sure they're looking at you because you’re curious, but you being with us only cements our reputation.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Out here on the new frontier, there is a great deal of resistance to, and for the system. Adventurers like us are viewed as willing accomplices to what has happened to our world. That we gave up our identity and way of life to the oppression of the system.”

  “Hmm…” I wasn’t sure what to say to that. It wasn’t an attitude I’d expected.

  Crag said, “They somehow think that the monsters kill themselves and adventurers exaggerate their importance. They love looking down on anyone who doesn’t have what they call an ‘honest trade’.”

  Nevin sighed. “That even includes those of us who are engaged in the study of magic.”

  “So they’re trying to pretend that the system never came to… uh… I forgot to ask, what’s the name of your world?”

  “Galen,” Nevin offered.

  “Okay, so these people want to pretend like there was no apocalypse on Galen and return to how life was? Is that it?”

  Dori said, “We shouldn’t be too hard on them. I get it. Life is much rougher than it was before the apocalypse. I don’t know what it’s like where you came from, but we had steam engines that pulled trains doing the work of hundreds of horses, and factories where we mass produced a variety of goods.”

  “Nah, that doesn’t sound at all odd. It’s impossible for me to compare the level of technology on your world to mine in just a few minutes, but those things sound very much like the early days of the industrial revolution on my world. Was there magic on your world before the system came?”

  Dori looked at Nevin who frowned but then answered, “It isn’t popular to admit, but yes there were a few groups which studied magic. It was very weak compared to what the system brought as the mana concentration on the planet was quite low. Now, we are constantly learning more about what some people can do with magic. There are rumors that some of the top mages and adventurers have almost reached the level cap for a rare class.”

  I started to ask about the level cap but then decided that now wasn’t the time for any further info dump. I needed to focus on my quest. Information would come soon enough. It wasn’t like I was anywhere near even understanding fully what my basic class could do or this stat enhanced body.

  “So then, they think that if they ignore all the changes then things will go back to normal?”

  Dori shook her head. “It isn’t that. These are people, or more likely the descendants of people, who moved out here seeking a simpler life than the reformed capital represents. You have to understand, I’m only the third generation since the apocalypse happened. Plenty of people here have grandparents and a few have parents who lived before the system came. The past is romanticized and many of them lost loved ones when our world changed. It haunts them.”

  Crag grunted. “It’s worse than that. They’d bury their head in the ground if they could. They act like they can wait out the monsters, and if they pretend hard enough that it will all be okay. Most of them never even bother getting classes. They level up to 10, choose an occupation and are content with that.”

  I got the sense that the way he used the word occupation meant more than just a job did back home, but again, I didn’t push for now.

  Crag continued, “The stat boosts just from reaching level ten are enough to make their work easier. They may only get three points per level, but without any shards, they get to pick where to put those.”

  “And level 10 is the cap for people without a class?”

  Crag nodded before continuing, “Worse than them though are the rich families who managed to hold on to some type of resource they could use on this side of the apocalypse. They buy shards for their kids and then we have people with a class who don’t ever bother learning how to use it. They slowly level up just on the monsters who are drawn to attacking the town and lord their power over the rest. The only ones I hate more are the corpies.”

  “Shh…” Nevin said. “We’re far too close to town for that type of talk.”

  “And the corporations come from off world?”