Chapter 14: The Choices

"Can i have a look at this?", Seth reached out for the folder, but it suddenly vanished from the table. As did the pages in his hands. The priest gave him an apologetic smile.

"hum hum, once again, I´m sorry, but this won´t happen."

Simon looked to the bookshelf, where the folder had reappeared. Seth looked at him questioning, but didn't say anything.

"The rules don´t allow something that comes this close to a direct intervention with the natives.", he explained.

"You see, our god travels across dimensions to look for entertainment. He seldomly intervenes with healthy worlds or primitive worlds without sentient lives, as they are boring. But when he comes across a world in trouble, like yours, he reaches out a...helping hand. Ori Huma have a higher stat growth and learning speed than us, who come via the Pathwork. But everything comes with a price.", Simon looked at the young man, to see if he could follow his narration.

"And that price is..?", Seth played along.

"Struggle. He gives you the system to help you survive, but whether you survive or not is up to you and your choices. "

Seth remembered the last thing the system had said, "Whether you die in this foreign world or become the master of your own fate... is all up to YOU!"

"But don´t worry, our god isn't cruel. Right now you have two choices. If you don´t want to struggle outside, you can join our empire and stay in this town. If you do not wish to be bound to the empire, you can only stay temporary. You can trade in this town and buy provision, but you can´t live here permanently.", Simon explained seriously.

Seth thought about it. Not joining didn't seem to have any big disadvantages, he didn't wish to stay here anyways. It was probably a good choice for survivors who preferred a peaceful life. Seth didn't have a good feeling at the thought of joining people. He would probably have to interact with people and take orders... No, he had a different plan, he wanted to find a place to grind his class, before he decided to join a faction or not.

"Say, how did you build such a big town in just two days?", he changed the subject. Simon understood his intentions and went along.

"hum hum, it was not actually built here. Portal-Scouts marked this location as a good place for a frontier village, since there are no high-level creatures or dangerous anomalies anywhere close and the land seems fertile. The whole town is actually something that is prepared in the empire and then teleported to fitting coordinates in other worlds. You may come across similar methods when you meet other races.", Simon said with a benevolent smile. He really looked like Santa Clause.

Seth and Simon talked for a while longer about the town an the empire until Seth stated his interest in exploring the town and excused himself.

Seth left the church with a better understanding of the new world setting. Urth was quite chaotic, with all kinds of end-of-the-world scenarios rampaging. And on top of that extra dimensional powers were setting up camp to claim land and resources in this ownerless world.

On the other hand the surviving natives, the original human or Ori Huma, had growth benefits granted by the system, so those powers tried to reel them in early.

Like hell he would join some faction! Without any power he would probably turn into someones dog. Seth felt lucky, that Simon seemed to be unable to see his class.

Passing the stores he took a quick glance and decided to stock up on provisions for the journey.

The satellite city Deltan wasn't that far away anymore, but he would stay there for a while, if he found a place that fit his criteria.

Seth entered the general store where he found a wiry old man at the counter. It was one big room split by big shelves filled with various miscellaneous wares.

"What can i do for you, lad?", the old man interrupted his thoughts.

"Hello~, I was looking for rations and stuff for travelling. Do you have something like that?"

The old man squinted at him and he felt the glare again! he had used observation on him.

"heh! And what are you gonna pay with? You are an Ori Huma, do you have anything of value you could trade for it?"

Seth had already thought of something and put some of his metal ingots on the counter. After the old man appraised them he vanished into the room in the back. Seth heard him rummaging around in there, before he came back with a big bag of jerky and loafs of bread.

"That's what i can give you for those iron ingots. Take it or leave it~", the old man said as matter of fact. Seth shrugged is shoulders and accepted the deal. He packed up the stuff and left. The ingots actually seemed to be worth more than he thought. And the would be more of them,once he reached his destination. The stuff he got should be enough food for maybe 2 weeks.

He came across the blacksmiths store again and hesitated. Looking around the street slowly filling with people. It was getting late and people were done with work.

Seth was becoming jumpy. it had been a long time since he was among people and he had developed an aversion to groups of people. Despite this he decided to give the shop a look.

He entered a large showroom. There were a great variation of weapons mounted to the walls and some armors sat on their stands gathering dust. Using his <Blacksmith´s Eyes> he could check everything on display, but he found nothing special among the items here.

The best weapons he found were only slightly better than his billhook. Was this really a blacksmith`s shop? How could it be that a bloody beginner like him made stuff comparable to a professional?

"Hoh, I see you have eyes of a craftsman!" a voice hollered from behind the counter.

A dwarf! Not! It was just a small old man, not an actual dwarf. Seth made sure! It was a very embarrassing moment for both of them, when the first thing he blurted was to ask whether the shop owner was a dwarf...

The old man cleared his throat to break the awkward silence.

"I´m not a dwarf. If i was, my skills wouldn't be so mediocre at my age and i wouldn't be stuck in a frontier village...", the old man lamented self-deprecating.

"Anyways, i´m Klod. What can i do for you?"

Seth looked around and was suspicious of his classes performance.

" Maybe you could help me ascertain something? As you said, I also am kind of a craftsman. Actually I´m an aspiring blacksmith, but I wasn't able to compare notes with other blacksmiths,yet. Would you take a look at my weapon and maybe give me some tips?", Seth said and put his billhook on the counter in front of the old man.

Klod picked up the weapon and gave it a good look. He weighed it in his hand and did some practice swings, before checking the blade closer again.

"hmm, it´s a really good weapon! To be able to do something like his at your age shows that you must have great talent. If i had to criticize something, i would have to say that your hammer technique still needs some work. I never seen such a weapon, but from it´s shape and weight i can judge that it's a front heavy weapon; the balance is a little off."

Without so much as a pause the blacksmith kept rattling on. Did he even breath?!

<Ding! You gained proficiency by listening to another Blacksmith!>

"From the chips in the blade here, i would guess that the heat-treatment probably has some problems, but with this kind of blade shape it wouldn't be easy to begin with. All in all, it´s a good weapon for an adept blacksmith.", he finally ended his verdict.

<Ding! You gained proficiency by listening to another Blacksmith!>

Adept blacksmith? But he was only at the beginner level!

"it´s a good weapon for an adept blacksmith?", Seth asked again.

"Hmm, oh yes. Don´t worry i didn't look at your status! i can judge from your work that you are probably adept lv.2 maybe lv.3 ?", he sighed, " You are so young and already almost as good as me. Maybe in a year or two you could even start working with uncommon materials."

With this Seth´s suspicions were verified. His skill growth was separated and different form that of a normal blacksmith. Was it a passive increase from his class, or was it the strengthening from the system? What he created was actually evaluated as the work of an adept, a level higher than his skill was!

It reaffirmed his decision to grind his class as fast as possible! This coincided with his desire to leave the town! The streets started to become packed! Where did all these people come from?!

In a hurry the young man said good bye to the old smith and left the town. The sun was already setting.