Leveling up the World

MEMORY FRAGMENT

Drunkard’s End, Nerosal, 13 years ago

The first thing that welcomed Arthurows upon arriving into the world was pain in the form of kicks to his face and stomach. The initial confusion numbed the pain initially, but as the kicks continued pouring onto him, he quickly curled up.

What the heck? He thought.

He’d never been in a fight in his life. As a rule, he considered them beneath him, but more importantly, he had never been in a position to end up in one. Growing up, he had a boring, but stable, childhood moving from place to place every few years. Being a military brat, though, he had gone through some training to make sure that if he ever got into a fight, he’d know how to defend himself. That all seemed to be completely useless now.

“Stop,” a dull voice said lazily.

The kicking stopped. After a while, Arthurows looked up. The second thing that came over him was fear. A shabby-looking man was standing about ten feet away, holding an old flask. This was the first time that Arthurows had met him, but he knew everything about him, and most of all, he knew that he was terrified of him.

“Changed your mind?” the man asked as the rest of the group—thugs roughly the same age as Arthurows stood, waiting for the order to start beating him up again. “Where is it?”

For some reason there is a rumors had been circulating that Arthurows had come into possession of a pouch of silver coins. That was a lie, of course. No one in Drunkard’s End had held so much money. The few coins that managed to make their way into the slum of Nerosal were quickly exchanged for alcohol. Everyone capable of leaving the place did so. Those that couldn’t become bitter and did their best to drag the rest with them. Jyan was one such person. According to the rumors, he’d done business with the Mirror Pool at one point. What and how was never specified, but the rumor alone was enough to make a lot of people scared of him. It didn’t help that despite his drinking, he was way stronger than most.

“Break his arm,” the man said.

Instantly, the gang of people rushed, grabbing Arthurows from all sides.

“The left,” Jyan clarified.

Arthurows felt several hands holding his arm. This wasn’t the first time this had happened to him. He’d had several ribs cracked, fingers broken, and even a leg once, all in a similar manner. This time, when he tried to pull away, it actually happened. With next to no effort, his whole arm free itself from, almost as if it wasn’t held at all. And things didn’t stop there. Grabbing the opportunity, Arthurows stood up, pushing one of the thugs so that he could make his escape. The man flew back ten steps, falling in the ground with such force as if he’d been run over by a cart.

Everyone stopped in place. Everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. In their minds—same as in Arthurows’—there was no way he could display such strength. And yet, he had just done so. It was then that the cogs in their minds turned.

“He’s awakened,” Jyan said, more with annoyance than fear, “Lucky punk.” He spat on the ground.

Awakened, Arthurows repeated mentally.

He had no idea what that was, but he knew that it made him strong. His thoughts wandered back to the events of a few minutes ago, back when he was in the small windowless room. The blue rectangle had told him to choose a trait and so he had, crushing it with one strong punch. The punch was so strong that he had even gained the achievement Solid Fist, increasing his body trait by an additional two points. Given that he had just become “awakened” there was no way to tell if a value of six was impressive. However, Arthurows didn’t intend to waste time finding out.

Without hesitation, he turned to one of the people nearby and hit him in the right shoulder. There was a loud pop followed by the loud screams as the man rolled on the ground in pain.

“Get away from him.” Jyan turned around lazily. The guard’s probably on its way.

The city guard?

From what Arthurows could remember—the part of his memories that was from this world—the guard was composed exclusively of awakened. It was said that they had the strength of fifty men, not that he had seen them fight. They never came to Drunkard’s End, and for the rest of the time seemed to focus on pickpockets and the Mirror Pool. It wasn’t that which worried him, though. There was a rumor that they also dealt with stray awakened, and right now Arthurows fell in that category.

A new wave of fear swept through him. According to the law, awakened were not allowed to fight non-awakened. Such was the divine decree from the Moons themselves. The Moons would rarely intervene in the world of portals, but the city guard could.

“He broke my arm!” The thug on the ground screamed, in no condition to get up.

Arthurows hoped that some of his friends would pick him up as they fled, but none did anything of the sort, leaving him behind.

“Shit!” Cold sweat covered Arthurows’ face. There was nothing left for him to do but run.

There were several city forests nearby. If he could reach one of them, he could lay low for a few days and—

A city guard in full armor emerged in front of him. This wasn’t the common soldiers that strolled the streets, but a lieutenant—Arthurows could recognize the decorations on his armor.

Arthurows made an attempt to break loose, but what had managed to dazzle the alley thugs was less than a joke for the lieutenant. His grip was like iron, holding him by the back of the shirt, as if he were a defenseless kitten.

“I didn’t do it!” Arthurows screamed, struggling to escape.

“Calm it, kid.” The city guard said. “What are you doing in Nerosal?”

As they stood, more soldiers appeared on the scene. Some belonged to the city guard, but others were wearing the colors of the lord mayor.

“I live here.”

Several of the guards looked at each other. Arthurows expected there to be more questions. But instead, the lieutenant lowered him down to the ground and let him go. Blinded by the sudden freedom, Dallion attempted to dash away. However, when he did so, he bumped straight into the lieutenant.

What’s going on? He wondered. He had been certain that the man was behind him a split second ago. Could he be in two places at the same time?

“He doesn’t have any blocking items,” the lieutenant said to one of the lord mayor’s men. “What do you want me to do with him?”

“What did the overseer say?”

“Just that he appeared here.” The lieutenant looked at Arthurows again. “Are you a local?”

“Yes.” Arthurows nodded. “I was born in Drunkard’s End.” But why am I so young? Only now did it dawn on him that he was roughly half the age he was supposed to be. Back on Earth, he was approaching his thirties. Upon appearing here, he was half that.

“He hasn’t been to a temple,” one of the guards said with a smirk. “They wouldn’t let someone like that even if he had the money.”

“Did you sneak into an awakening temple?” the lieutenant asked, looking Arthurows in the eyes.

“No… I’ve only seen them from a distance.”

“Has to be spontaneous.” The lord mayor’s man shook his head. “By the Seven… Why did it have to be such scum? People go through their entire life trying and instead…”

“Lucky, it seems.” The lieutenant interrupted. “I’ll take him to the overseer.” He paused for a moment. “Unless you want to present him to the palace.”

“And ruin any chances for promotion? You deal with him.” And just like that, he left along with the rest of the personal soldiers.

Uncertain what to do, Arthurows looked around. None of the guards seemed in the least worried, or even paying attention to him. Somehow, he knew all that was a ruse. The moment he tried to run again, they’d grab him again, and that time he might not get away with a warning.

“Come along,” the lieutenant said. “If you run or cause problems, there’ll be trouble. Understand?”

Arthurows nodded.

They started walking. Arthurows expected to be taken to the nearest guard fort. Instead, he was led to a part of the city that he’d never dare go under normal circumstances. The entire time, people stared at him, wondering what he was doing. Thanks to his awakening, Arthurows could hear their whispers. Most believed him to be a pickpocket, or an illegitimate child of someone important. Given the alternatives in his mind, Arthurows could only wish for that to be the case.

The house they reached was in a noble district of the city. The building, on the other hand, seemed to be rather rundown. It didn’t look as rickety as the buildings in Drunkard’s End; this was a whole different type of rundown, as if the place had been abandoned decades ago.

A cold chill wept through the crack, making Arthurows take a step back.

“Easy.” The lieutenant slammed his hand on Arthurows’ shoulder, then shoved him forward.

The moment Arthurows was inside, the door slammed shut behind him.

This is the overseer’s home? He wondered.

Everyone in Nerosal had heard the rumors about the overseer. Next to the lord mayor, she was the most powerful entity in the city. Supposedly, she was able to see everything that was going on and had the ability to appear where she was needed. Of course, that was hardly true, or she would have spent half her time in Drunkard’s End.

Walls were scarce and furniture—completely non-existent. A railless staircase led to a door on the second floor.

Anyone’s first thought would be to check if the door leading outside was locked. Arthurows decided to do the opposite. Now that he was starting to get used to this world, his Earth mind was taking over. The situation he had found himself in was just another problem that needed a solution. Running away was only going to make things worse, so the best course of action was to go to the overseer.

Just as he started his way up the staircase, a block of blackness emerged in the center of the room. Moments later, a figure rose from it. She was clearly female, completely dressed in black and with a veil covering her entire face. For the fraction of a second Arthurows thought he saw part of a platinum black lock of hair.

“There’s no need to go up there,” the woman said. “It’ll be better if we lead the conversation here.”

“You’re afraid that I’ll steal something?”

“It’ll be a lot safer for you. Having just arrived is probably enough of a shock. There’s no need to add more to it at your present level.”

Level… That’s what the rectangle had written on it when Arthurows had woken up in the room. He was level one. That meant—

“Which level are you?”

“It’s not polite to discuss levels openly.” The overseer moved towards him, almost sliding along the flood as she did. “It’s a lot higher than yours. Tell me, who are you?”

“I thought you knew everything?” Arthurows couldn’t keep himself from asking.

“Everything is overrated. I definitely know a lot. That you’re from Earth, for one thing.”

“You know about Earth?” he gasped.

“I knew someone from there once. He said it’s the world of humans, where miracles happen every day. Of course, it’s possible that he was lying.”

“No, it’s sort of true.” For a medieval society, modern Earth would be full of miracles. “How do I go back?”

“That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. You can’t go back.”

Arthurows felt as if two mountains had landed on his shoulders.

“I’m stuck here?”

“It seems so. All otherworlders are stuck here, although most usually don’t come the way you did. You still don’t know anything about awakening, and it’ll take too long for me to teach you. There’s one thing I can say. In order to breathe through your first barrier you need dedication or the air of an awakening alter. Since you have neither, you must have been born with an abundance of luck.”

“I don’t feel lucky.” Arthurows frowned. “Taking on the life of a beggar in Drunkard’s End is the opposite of luck.”

“You were from Drunkard's End,” the woman corrected. “You’re an awakened now. Your life has changed very much for the better. Even if you don’t amount to much, you’ll never be hungry again. In addition, you’re also an otherworlder. Using the wisdom from your world might get you far… or not. It all depends on what you do. So, tell me who you are. The part of you that was born in this world.”

“I’m Arthurows—a nobody.”

“Is that all?”

“What else is there to tell? I’d love to have been something special, but I’m not. My mother was a drunk. I’m not sure if she’s still alive. I don’t even know who my father was. No one I knew was rich or important. I had to be an errand boy for drunkards to survive.”

“Hmm. That makes even less sense.”

“I didn’t perform any acts of charity. I didn’t find any hidden treasure, although some of the… people seem to think that I got my hands on a pouch of silver.”

“And you still awakened. You are definitely exceptional.”

“Exceptional?” That was the first piece of good news Arthurows had heard since waking up. “Does that mean I get special treatment?”

“No, but I’ll make sure you’re given enough food and information to start. What you do after that is up to you. Keep this in mind. Now that you’ve awakened, I can see you, so don’t do anything that you’ll regret.”