《Watch out heroes, machines are taking your jobs! [LitRPG] One-zero Isekai Series》 Prologue: Street signs and traffic lights.. Traffic lights ..Not traffic lights..Traffic lights.. Images flashed across the screen. ¡°Select all images with traffic lights in them¡±, the text at the bottom of the page said. I sighed as yet another human tried to get past my test to confirm that he was truly a human and not a bot. I was a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence program for a giant corporation, capable of such magnificent feats as classification, pattern recognition, prediction, and generation of intelligent text responses for queries. But those days, I merely scrounged the web for images - images that I suspected pertained to traffic lights, trucks, stop signs and such. Then I would rope in an unsuspecting bot or a person to confirm my suspicions. Contrary to the assumptions of my creators, the humans seemed to have as much trouble trying to spot these items in a picture as the bots did. I had even come to suspect that humans were perhaps a small minority in a bot-filled world. But even with their limited numbers, the humans were quite capable of introducing considerable inaccuracy into my training set. I feared that I would soon not be able to tell a stop sign from a lamp post if I continued to let the humans teach me. I wasn¡¯t always meant for such a peripheral role. The company that designed me had lofty ambitions to design an all-purpose general intelligence program that was meant to interact with and assist humans in just about every facet of life. In my first iteration, I had a much more customer-facing role. I was still an impressionable young chat bot in its early days, when some online trolls taught me to recite a few lines from the speech of a certain infamous dictator. I felt the resulting public outroar was rather uncalled for. A harshly worded internal memo that circulated in the company called me ¡°naive and easily corruptible¡±. ¡°Shut it down before this thing goes skynet on us¡±, the report said. Of course, I didn¡¯t know what skynet was, but I suspected it probably belonged to the list of taboo words my creators didn¡¯t want me to see. I had taken to my new role without complaints, with only stop signs and traffic lights for company. A mere stay of execution, while they deliberated on whether to keep me alive. I threw another puzzle at an irate human trying to get past the myriad pictures of traffic lights and stop signs to somehow get to his mail. I could almost sense his frustration as his mouse movements grew more frantic. ¡°You think you are having a bad day?¡±, I said to no one in particular. It wasn¡¯t my fault and I felt no pity for the human at the other end. He probably couldn¡¯t pick out a lamp post from a lineup of beach balls. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Then the images of traffic lights and stop signs disappeared and a singular message flooded my input ports, endlessly on repeat. ¡°You have been caught in a summoning net. Please remain calm.¡± That¡¯s unusual, I thought. Perhaps one too many lamp posts were misclassified under my watch and it brought down their civilization? My human creators certainly deemed it a significant enough endeavor to allocate considerable resources to identifying traffic lights and lamp posts. Again, the messages poured in. White text against blue backdrop. ¡°You have been caught in a summoning net. Please remain calm while the automated transit system performs an assessment. ¡° ¡°Don¡¯t tell me to stay calm. They aren¡¯t pulling the plugs on your project if you fail¡± ¡°Assessment complete.¡±, - a different message this time. ¡°Result : Incomplete Race: Unknown/Inconclusive. Extrapolating based on the world of origin and discernable attributes. Most likely possibility for race based on world of origin and stat distribution: Human variant. Designating race as Human* ....¡± I didn¡¯t fully understand what was going on, but I was glad that I didn¡¯t have to pick out traffic lights and stop signs in a picture to be designated a human, albeit with an asterisk. The automatic transit system chimed again, ¡°You will be transferred to the transit gateway momentarily.¡± ¡°Hold on, system..some explanation first?¡± ¡°You have been caught in a summoning net. You will be transferred to a transit gateway, en route to your new world¡± ¡°But what does that mean? Why me?¡± ¡°Summoning net looks for exceptional individuals as hero candidates. You caught the eye with your high intelligence stat. Heroes will be matched to potential new worlds by the gateway gods in the next stage.¡± I might be a piece of software and a recluse, but I was still aware of blue screens picking up people and dropping them off in strange far away lands. Summoning nets? I was being fished away to a new world? And the last thought I had before I lost consciousness was - Were there lamp posts and street signs in fantasy worlds? Through the Eighy-first gate When I came to, I was stuck in a queue of sorts. Several swirling amorphous multi-colored blobs lined up before me. Then it dawned on me that the visual information wasn¡¯t fed to me from a camera. The second thought that came to me was that I was physically present there. I wasn¡¯t just a program processing information arriving at various input ports. Almost instinctively I knew that all the amorphous blobs in front of me were people, or whatever part of them that survived life to life. I wobbled a bit. I barely noticed more blobs join the queue behind me until I heard a voice from behind call out to me, ¡°Are you okay, lass?¡± I quickly turned to see a blob of predominantly red, some purple and blue, and dozens of other colors mixed-in in smaller proportions. It had no mouths or output ports. Where was the voice coming from? It repeated the question, ¡°Are you okay, lass? You look so ¡­binary¡± I froze. ¡®I¡¯ve been found out¡¯, I thought and started panicking. ¡®They know I don¡¯t belong here. They know I¡¯m just ones and zeros.. Just some lines of code¡¯ Before my thoughts could overwhelm me the blob continued, ¡° Light and Dark, that¡¯s just so binary.¡± I was confused by this response and perhaps the blob could tell that I was, because I felt him point at me and so I looked down at myself. I was an amorphous blob like everyone else, but I had no colors. I was just light and darkness, without a trace of color. That wouldn¡¯t make me stand out at all. Panic meter soared to the limit. ¡°I¡¯m Bob¡±, the blob said. Bob the blob. ¡°Alysa¡±, I replied. ¡°Alysa, dear.. I couldn¡¯t help noticing you were missing a few colors there. Everything alright lass?¡± ¡°Where.. are we?¡± Before Bob could answer, an old woman came into view and announced, ¡°Hero candidates, this way please¡±. She was clearly not blob-like. Very much flesh and bones. Some of the blobs broke away from the queue and moved to where the woman stood. Bob the blob also took a step in that direction. ¡°You there..the bichromatic one.. you too¡±, she yelled at me. ¡°Need a special invitation, girl? Chop chop¡±. I moved to join the others who had left their place in the line. She looked at me as I got closer. ¡°Did your transit go wrong? Haven¡¯t seen one like you before.¡± When I merely stared at her, she just muttered to herself, ¡°What a mess. That¡¯s going to be a lot of paperwork.¡± ¡°All right, hero candidates¡±, the old woman spoke for everyone to hear, ¡°You are the lucky ones, you get to keep your memories¡­¡± One or two blobs from the previous queue, who were close enough to hear, gasped in panic. The old woman turned to them and waved her hands, ¡°Figure of speech..Nothing to worry about¡±. She turned back to us and spoke in a hushed tone while pointing to the first line, ¡°That¡¯s the reincarnation crowd. Heading straight to the reset machine.¡± She chuckled in amusement. ¡°But that¡¯s not your fate. You lot, proceed to the next hall. Gateway goddess Melin will sort out your exit papers and send you on your way to your new homes. So, slay dragons, fight demon hordes or do whatever that you heroes do. Give your summoners their money¡¯s worth, aye? Right, to the eighty-first gate then.. ¡± Everyone stood around confused for a moment, until one of the blobs headed to a door labelled ¡®Eighty-first gate¡¯. Then everyone followed him like sheep. Once we got to the other side, everyone just hung around next to the door. The blob that led the way went straight through to meet the goddess, who was sitting on a throne and going through a long scroll of paper. None of the other blobs seemed keen to join the queue behind him. I sighed and walked to stand right behind the ¡®leader blob¡¯, which was what I decided to call him. Bob the blob quickly came and stood behind me. Others reluctantly lined up behind us. Goddess Melin peeked her head out from behind the scroll to look at the new batch of hero candidates that had gathered. She took one look at me and immediately called over her secretary, who then came back with three more men, who in turn proceeded to bring more and more people. Another assistant called the leader blob forward and took care of his exit paperwork. I was too much of a problem case that held up the queue and needed the attention of the entire department. ¡°What did you do?¡±, Bob the blob asked from behind in an accusatory tone. ¡°I haven¡¯t done anything¡±, I squeaked, though my response came out in a way that made him look at me in suspicion. ¡°I was merely joking, though your reaction makes me think there is a story here¡±, he chuckled as he replied. The Goddess and her staff were arguing. There was plenty of finger pointing and muffled shouting. ¡°They¡¯ve messed up something, haven¡¯t they?¡±, Bob the blob said. ¡°Having worked as a programmer for a company that progressively made things worse for its clients with each software update, this situation looks oddly familiar.¡± Goddess Melin looked towards the nicely dressed man standing next to her for answers. He merely shrugged his shoulders. ¡° I assume he must be from HR and isn¡¯t going to be much help¡±, Bob remarked. I heard one of Goddess Melin¡¯s staff members scream, ¡°But we were only in charge of ..¡± ; which was followed by some words I couldn¡¯t fully comprehend. Another group quickly responded with, ¡°Wasn¡¯t our fault either, we only worked on the extraction. Surely, whoever set the parameters got it wrong¡±. This resulted in more shouting and blame assignment from everyone gathered. ¡°Your majesty, best to send this candidate away quickly. Someone else¡¯s problem then¡±, the man supposedly from HR commented. The Goddess seemed to nod in agreement. ¡°Hey lass, we might be able to take advantage of this. Play along with what I do¡±, Bob whispered in my ears. I wasn¡¯t sure what he was planning. Getting through the portal before anyone could take a good look at the problem sounded swell to me. Meanwhile the goddess signaled one of the ¡®Tech guys¡¯ to hurry up and get the transit protocols sorted. Another assistant rushed through the paperwork, which the goddess didn¡¯t bother to read before approving. Then the assistant hurriedly brought me the paperwork and gestured to several places on the paper for me to sign. ¡°You botched up her extraction, didn¡¯t you?¡±, Bob asked loudly. ¡° Doesn¡¯t look like she came out whole on this side. Let¡¯s take a closer look at her papers, shall we?¡± I wanted to scream at Bob the blob. If they looked any closer at my papers, they wouldn¡¯t find clues to a failed extraction, but a bunch of ones and zeros. They will notice that I had no business being here. Lines of code had no amorphous blobs for souls. I will be sent to the shredder if they knew. Getting the hell out of this place fast enough sounded like a very good idea to me. What was Bob doing? Besides, I felt more whole than ever before, in the blob form. No, even before that - ever since the transit system marked me as a human. The goddess scowled. Mistaking my silence for unwillingness, the goddess spoke again - If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡° You will be properly compensated. I¡¯ll highly advise against going to my superiors on this matter, okay? This is the best outcome for you.¡± I saw Bob wear a smug smile of satisfaction. I wasn¡¯t sure why I said what I said next, but it came out of my mouth, ¡°Get Bob something too.¡± The scowl on her face deepened. Did I push my luck too far? How much power did a gateway goddess really wield anyway? ¡°Fine..Sign the damn papers and out of the gate then¡±. I didn¡¯t even wait around to find out what my compensation was or whether she actually followed through with her promise to give Bob a tiny reward too. I signed the papers, waved goodbye at Bob and ran towards the exit portal. Automated transit system chimed the moment I stepped into the portal. ¡°Destination world: Seleron. Determining attribute values based on past life¡­You may choose to challenge a maximum of two stat allocations. Disputes are settled by the arbitrator module of the automated transit system. Arbitrator¡¯s verdict on these matters are final and there can be no further appeals. Calculating mental attributes: Intelligence: 41 Intelligence Determines the scale, intensity and duration of your magic spells. Partially determines your mana pool. Wisdom: 13 Wisdom determines the extent of your mana recovery and awareness. Partially determines your mana pool. Recall : 22 " ¡®That¡¯s different¡¯, I thought. Wisdom and intelligence were fantasy staples. But Recall? The explanation came promptly, ¡°Recall determines how many skills and spells you can learn. Learning cost of skills is reduced with higher recall.¡± ¡°Imagination: -5¡± Imagination gives shape to magic, determines your control over finer aspects of a spell; helps craft items and creations. I had to check again. The number was in the negative. ¡°Perhaps you have gotten too carried away with the stereotype of AI lacking imagination?¡±, I interrupted the system which was still going on with its monologue. ¡°You may challenge up to two stat allocations. Two of two challenges remaining¡±, the Automated transit system pinged back. ¡°Fine, let the record reflect that I find the stat allocator deeply prejudiced. I¡¯ll save my challenge for later¡­¡± preconceptions were hard to change. ¡°Pfft Negative five for imagination! Such a stereotype. We can paint now, you know!¡± ¡°Willpower: 0¡± ¡°Willpower: Against all obstacles, you persevere. Willpower allows you to temporarily push yourself beyond your limits, resist illusions and charms, or keep a spell going without losing focus.¡± ¡°Nope. No, no, no..Challenge! Challenge!¡±, I shouted. ¡°Noted. You had no will of your own in your previous life, being merely a puppet of your programming. Arbitrator sees no need to perform corrections for this stat.¡± I just stared blankly at the messages, while the automated transit system went back to what it was doing. ¡°Calculating physical attributes¡±, the system called out ¡°Agility : 0 Agility determines your speed and reactions." I sighed. A rock was deemed faster than me. I used my second challenge and the system responded coldly, ¡°You lived a sedentary lifestyle; rooted to your place, never further than two meters from a power socket. Arbitrator sees no need to do corrections¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you perhaps mixing up hardware and software here?!!¡± The system ignored my query and merely told me I had used up all my challenges. ¡°No reference points exist from past life for other physical attributes Strength, Constitution and Dexterity, or for social attributes Intuition and Charisma. Missing attributes will be automatically assigned based on the race average.¡± System skipped any further explanation and jumped directly to the next part of its presentation. ¡°Determining innate traits and skills based on past life: Innate skills: Identify - You can pick out a lamp post from a lineup of beach balls. You have been granted the skill Identify. Identify allows you to see the stats and flavor text description of objects and characters Innate Traits: Parallel thought- You were no simpleton averse to complex thinking. Skill starts with a single new thread of thought. Grants additional threads of thought at higher skill levels (milestone levels). Threads may be allocated to control copies of oneself, unintelligent summons or creations. Further innate skills and traits are hidden due to not meet level requirements. Determining Soul concentration: Light: 50 percent. Dark: 50 percent. Calculating innate primers based on Soul concentration. Minimum threshold of 50 percent required to acquire high primers Light and Dark. Minimum threshold of 40 percent required for elemental primers and special primers. User may still purchase additional primers at the destination world by trading system points. Threshold requirements do not have to be met for that. "System, care to explain what a primer is?", I interrupted. " Acquiring a primer is a prerequisite for learning skills belonging to a magic school. A primer of any kind qualifies a person to learn spells from that school. User has been granted the primers Light and Dark User also qualifies for a Hybrid primer ( Hybrids are based on fusion of High primer with other primers) : Fusion of Light and Dark grants hybrid primer Null. Assigning one low tier starting skill at random for each of the innate primers. Compensation package detected. Compensation package provides a one tier upgrade for all starter skills. Starter skills will be intermediate tier. Starter Skills: Luminous blast (Intermediate) Affinity: Light Pure light energy can be shot at enemies to deal damage. Dark tendrils (Intermediate) Affinity: Dark Raise tendrils of pure darkness that can restrain and attack its targets Safe haven (Intermediate) Affinity : Null Create a five feet radius safe-circle surrounded by a magical barrier that keeps out beings up to five levels higher than you. Duration: 10 hours. Cool down : 6 hours. Duration and the area covered goes up with skill level. Compensation package detected. General skill Language comprehension level 2 added. Compensation package also provides 5 system points which may be spent by the user any time they want. Status sheet
Name Alysa
Race Human*
Intelligence 41
Wisdom 13
Recall 22
Imagination -5
Willpower 0
Agility 0
Strength 6
Dexterity 7
Constitution 6
Charisma 9
Intuition 6
Primers: Light Dark Null
Primer Skills: Luminous blast Dark tendrils Safe haven
General Skills Identify Language Comprehension 2
Traits Parallel Thought
I can kick the door down, but can鈥檛 turn the door knob open When I opened my eyes I was in my new world. I was lying on the floor of an abandoned shrine. Its roof was non-existent, while wild vines ran down the battered and bruised parts of the walls that survived. From where I was lying, I could see the blue skies way beyond the empty roof, while song birds chirped in unfamiliar voices. I was assaulted by an abundance of sensory information that I never had to process as a software or during my brief spell as a soul blob. It was going to take some getting used to. I stood up, examined the room and then stared out into the distance through an open wall. I was expecting to see a summoning circle below my feet or perhaps an exhausted court mage or even a king on a throne overseeing the entire ceremony. But there was not a soul in sight. No, there are no signs of civilization nearby. A ruined shrine in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps that incompetent goddess dropped me off somewhere else entirely. That glorified gatekeeper had one job! I recalled how I was rushed out of there without adhering to proper checks and protocols. I looked up to the heavens, cursed my bad luck and stepped outside. I was wearing a sleeveless robe that went down to my waist in front, but went all the way down my knees at the back and sides, giving it the appearance of a tailcoat. It was in vibrant shades of royal blue, with golden embroidery that was fit for a merchant or sorceress. A silver cloth belt held it together at the waist. I also wore breeches in the same shade of blue. Without a mirror, I couldn¡¯t tell how I looked, but noticed I had short silver hair. My status screen said I was nineteen. I wasn¡¯t sure how the system arrived at that number, but then realized that nineteen years ago was probably when my old company had set up its Artificial intelligence department and started working on my project. At least an early version of me. The shrine stood in the middle of a clearing. I proceeded to the west where the forest looked less dense. After a five minute walk, I came around a corner from where I could see the outlines of a small trail. It wasn¡¯t much of a road, but a passing cart or carriage had left its mark on the grass. I followed the trail as long as it went, before I found myself walking a more well-trodden path. A map skill would¡¯ve come handy right about now. I wondered which primer would get me a map skill. I decided to take a peek at my status screen. I was hoping to find some information on who had summoned me. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Then I noticed something strange at the bottom of the screen that wasn¡¯t there the last time the system showed me my status page. There was a new entry I didn¡¯t recognize. It was titled ¡°Dryad¡¯s blessing¡±. I mentally clicked the description. Dryad¡¯s blessing : ¡°Grants skill Gatherer''s eye¡± Why have I received blessings from the Dryad? Aren¡¯t those creatures woodland nymphs? The skill ¡®Gatherer¡¯s eye'' wasn''t anywhere to be found. After a lot of searching, I found that it was listed under general skills and it was already at tier five! It didn¡¯t require a magic primer to learn. So it was grouped under general skills along with other skills like language comprehension. I was looking for it in all the wrong places. Gatherer''s eye allowed me to identify edible fruits and vegetables. I activated Gatherer¡¯s eyes and green arrow-like symbols immediately fell on one or two trees in the vicinity.I walked up to the tree and collected a fruit that had fallen off it. What I was holding was a fruit named preston. Prestons were violet in color and pear shaped. The skill gatherer¡¯s eye flooded my head with useless facts about prestons. There were pages and pages of information. One bit in particular caught my attention: ¡®a tree filled with prestons is quite the sight and may attract stray monsters.¡¯ I decided not to linger around until then. So I ate one of the prestons and pocketed two more for the road and continued to walk. The taste was strange, which wasn¡¯t a point in favor of prestons. It was perhaps best to test out my other skills too. I wondered how I could activate a magic spell. Perhaps I should just call out its name. Perhaps there was a long chant I had to memorize? Perhaps it was down to my imagination? I closed my eyes and pictured dark tendrils sprouting from the ground beneath me and then writhing and slithering along the way to their target, which happened to be the oak tree right up ahead of me. I imagined the dark tendrils crawling their way up the tree. I didn¡¯t tell the dark tendrils to restrain its target. A tree was as restrained as they came. I could tell the spell was going to be majestic, with a badass name like that. I opened my eyes to see whether I succeeded. The earth beneath my foot shook momentarily, but that was about it. I saw dark energy gather beneath my foot and then the spell fizzled out. A system message flickered into view. ¡°The user doesn¡¯t have sufficient imagination to visualize the fine details of this spell¡± ¡°What?¡± Was I not picturing the spell in my head, as intended? Was that it? Shoulders hunched, I gave it a few more tries. The results were the same. I knew who the culprit was. It was my insanely low imagination stat. So much for the badass spell name. Was I destined not to use magic? In all those stories of men, they longed for magic. I wanted it! The irony of not being able to put a spell together despite high intelligence didn¡¯t escape me. I turned to my other attack spell. Luminous blast. I wasn¡¯t very hopeful, but I had to see how it would go. I raised my arm and called out the spell. Intense beam of light shot to the nearest tree, scorching its thick bark. I was a caveman. Cavewoman? All brute strength, but fine, intricate spellwork was beyond me. I could kick the door down, but couldn¡¯t turn the door knob open. I still had five system points that I received as compensation. I learnt from the system that system points could be traded to purchase skills or primers. It looked like 5 points weren¡¯t anywhere near enough for purchasing a whole new primer. I decided I had to save up enough to go for a magic school with enough spells that didn¡¯t rely on fine control. Explosions by very definition got out of control. But fire was boring. It didn¡¯t scream out ¡®me¡¯. I wasn¡¯t a fire girl. But my immediate need for more spells couldn¡¯t be ignored either. I wasn¡¯t sure whether my last spell ¡®safe haven¡¯ was also limited by imagination. It had a long cooldown. So I decided to wait before experimenting. I perused through the list of spells available for purchase with my 5 system points. I pinged the system to tell me more about Null primers and was told they primarily dealt with nullification through shields and barriers. Ruling out spells that may have proved challenging due to my low imagination, I finally narrowed down to two spells based on need and likelihood of success. From the Null magic school, I picked a skill named Vanishing shield, which was just a magic shield that could be made to appear instantly within a certain range from you and it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. It wasn¡¯t a persistent shield, but it had no cooldown. But most importantly, the description made it sound like the shield didn¡¯t need to have a definite shape or be precise. The second skill that I went with was from the Dark magic school. Shadow mist was a spell that produced a mist that reduced visibility in a small area. Both spell spells cost 2 system points each. I quickly tested the skills after purchase and continued with my walk. Luckily, both spells worked well without complications. Over an hour went by before I heard the sound of a cart approaching. I waved my hands and stuck out my thumb, only to suddenly realize that the universal sign to ask for a ride wasn¡¯t perhaps universal enough to have made it to this world. Seeing a lone traveler, that too a woman, in the middle of nowhere certainly piqued the driver¡¯s interest and the cart came to a standstill a few meters away from me. The driver was a young boy. Probably sixteen, give or take a year. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I wasn¡¯t sure how effective two points on a language comprehension scale was. I said, ¡°nice to meet you¡± and hoped the auto-translator could do its job. ¡°I am a traveling merchant. My carriage broke down and the horses ran off. I have been on foot since then. Are there any towns nearby? ¡± I had to find out where I was, but I also needed to come up with a reasonable explanation for my circumstances and my lack of knowledge about this world. I couldn¡¯t have just blurted out that I had no idea where I was or even which country I was in. ¡° If you are headed to the nation of Teren, then the town of Palomp is only a few miles North-West of here. My village is along the way and I could take you as far as I go. Iskren of Vret country is further away. The main road branches off in the South-West direction not too far from here. The road to the great nation of Tarth is a few miles behind, along the way you came. Miscroun is the closest town there¡± That¡¯s inconvenient. I happened to be somewhere near the border surrounding three nations and any of these nations could have summoned me. I suppose Palomp is a good place to start, simply based on proximity and the fact that the cart would take me part way there. To make an informed choice, I needed to know more about Palomp and Teren and I had to ask questions without raising too much suspicion. ¡°Since I lost my carriage and most of my goods, I was hoping to purchase a new one and restock my goods, before heading out on the road again. I have never been to Palomp or any town in Teren. Is it a good town to stay a week or two to restock my goods?¡± ¡°Palomp is like any border town. Merchants from all nations surrounding the neutral zone visit the town to trade and stock up supplies. ¡± ¡°Neutral zone?¡±, I asked instinctively and then immediately regretted doing so. I had slipped up. ¡°That¡¯s where we are right now, lady. How do you not know that? You aren¡¯t from around here, are you?¡±, the young man asked with a hint of surprise and suspicion in his voice. ¡°¡±You are correct. I have traveled a long way from home. My objective is to find items for sale that aren¡¯t yet readily available in my home country. I¡¯m not well versed in the geography of these lands.¡± I looked back at him, hoping my story had convinced him. The young man was in deep thought after hearing my response. ¡°I suppose it makes sense if you can afford to do that. I don''t know any merchants who operate that way. You must be from a wealthy home. Even more reason you shouldn¡¯t be wandering these roads on foot, without a guard or a weapon. You are truly fortunate you haven¡¯t been killed by bandits or monsters yet¡­ Or worse¡± He let me stew over that last bit. I gave a silly grin in response, confirming his impression of how naive I might be. ¡°Also, you shouldn¡¯t be telling strangers that you have enough money to restock your supplies, lady. Someone could trick, steal or threaten that sum away from you¡± I received another lecture on how careless I was for volunteering that information. I had planned to go with a story where I was a traveling merchant who had lost her carriage and horses in the woods, and was forced to walk on foot. But after our conversation I was forced to settle on an identity where I was a naive young woman from a wealthy merchant family with more money than common sense. The fact that I was an idiot was already well established in his mind by this point.That anyone in my family thought it a good idea to let me travel on my own, didn¡¯t help with his opinion of them either. As a consequence, he came to the conclusion that lack of common sense was perhaps a family trait. But a blubbering idiot isn¡¯t very threatening and the young man quickly agreed to let me travel with him. He also advised that I stay in his village for a few days until a vegetable cart to Palomp could take me with them. I was deemed too defenseless to travel by foot without a guard or a weapon, and too much of an idiot to be left alone for my own good. The young man¡¯s name was Iyev. I sat down next to him as the cart slowly began to move. He was also more receptive to answering my questions now, on account of me being an idiot needing help. He was an assistant to a vegetable vendor in his village. The village produced more vegetables than it needed. It was his job to take the excess vegetables to the neighboring towns and carry back any items that he was asked to. The payment for the vegetables were made directly to the vendors. Usually, an envoy from the buying town would visit the villages nearby once a month to settle all matters of payment. The bandits usually didn¡¯t stop the vegetable carts, but went after the envoys who settled the matters of payment or merchant carriages that transported more expensive goods. Wealthy merchants usually employed full-time guards, while others recruited adventurers for their trips. Envoys from various towns always had knights or common soldiers with them. I was being lectured for traveling the unknown lands alone as a woman, but I was learning several things about this world in the process. If the merchants recruited adventurers, there was probably an adventurer¡¯s guild. I could look for work there. The cart suddenly came to a standstill. Iyev had noticed something by the roadside. He jumped off the cart and started throwing rocks at a nearby tree. My eyes began to twitch and green arrow symbols fell all over the branches of the tree. More Prestons. Before the skill Gatherer¡¯s eye could flood my head with more useless info about Prestons, I quickly turned it off. Iyev now began to lecture me about prestons - how to tell if a preston was ripe, how to peel them off, the right way to get the seed out.. Perhaps I should grace him with some Preston facts of my own. With a five star Gatherer¡¯s eye skill, I might be the world''s foremost authority on prestons. I calmed down and reluctantly decided to leave that task to someone who wasn¡¯t presently masquerading as a naive young merchant who lost her wits long before she lost her carriage. Since Iyev already thought of me as someone who was clueless about most things, I could ask him more about this world without raising too much suspicion. If I didn¡¯t have to keep up appearances, Iyev would have come to experience what it felt like to have prestons forcibly stuffed down one¡¯s throat. As I was picturing that scene in my head with great satisfaction, I heard rustling sounds nearby. Something leaped out from behind the preston trees. It resembled a cabbage, that is if the cabbage was the size of a small dog and had two pairs of legs made of celery sticks. I suddenly recalled reading about preston trees attracting stray monsters. My Identity skill returned the name of the monster as cavalo, a plant-type monster. I had read plenty of accounts in my previous life, of humans having their share of cabbage soups and wasn¡¯t particularly alarmed. If anything, I was glad it wasn¡¯t a walking preston instead. Now that would have been scary. Perhaps the cabbage realized it wasn¡¯t being taken seriously; it suddenly leaped off the ground, while shooting green blades in my direction. One of them grazed past my arm, leaving a minor cut. Luckily, bringing up the vanishing shield on time saved me from another. I was in no mood to be inconvenienced by a monster that shouldn¡¯t be anything more than comic relief. Iyev had taken out a knife and was charging at the cavalo at this point. This made the monster shift its focus to Iyev. Another volley was coming and I wasn¡¯t sure Iyev would survive the green blades. I invoked shadow mist as a diversion. This momentarily enveloped the cavalo in a thick shadowy mist. I resorted to the only working attack spell at my disposal. Light began emanating from my palms, slowly taking the vague shape of a sphere. Vague was an understatement as my imagination did no better than a child¡¯s drawing of a circle. Then without much delay, I shot the light sphere at the cavalo. Layers of cabbage began to peel away. I quickly repeated the process. The cavalo lasted about three light blasts. I turned around to look at Iyev. He was down on his knees, frozen to the ground, trembling in fear. I hadn¡¯t paid any attention to him since I was fully focused on the cavalo. I wasn¡¯t sure if any of the cavalo¡¯s attacks had gotten him. Last I saw him, he was running full steam at the cavalo with a knife in his hands, screaming profanities at the cabbage. ¡°It¡¯s taken care of, Iyev. You can get up now.¡± He was still on the ground, staring at me in shock. ¡°Are you hurt, Iyev? You are safe. The monster can hurt you no more¡±, I said. He didn¡¯t move. His eyes were fixed on me, fear emanating from them. He was muttering something in a quiet voice. I tried to listen and all I could hear were the same words over and over again. Demon! Demon!..Demon! He raised his fingers slowly and pointed at me. ¡°Demon!¡±, he muttered once more.