02 – Setup complete

It wasn’t long until Martin met the first few people along the path, then soon after the faint outline of a city revealed itself. A few towers and plumes of smoke peeked out of the line of trees, and the road began to gently slope downwards towards a lake in the distance. The city was somewhere in the middle between where Martin was and the lake.

With a spring to his steps, he reached the walls of the city sometime around noon. They were tall at least a good five meters, not made of bricks but of huge grey boulders cut and shaped to present a smooth surface, but still irregular where they touched one another and held together by concrete. The gate, along the path that was now a road, was wide open with a steady stream of people going in and out of the city.

As Martin approached, he looked around and studied the land close to the walls. It was flat, artificially flattened in some places where it was higher or lower, and in two spots a river crossed the walls at their base, entering and leaving the urban area. Strangely, there were no buildings, nor fields outside the perimeter of the city.

He crossed the gate, and entered the city proper, eyeing the guards stationed at a small post to the side of the gate as they chatted and rested in the shade, without looking too alert or even attentive. Walking with a purpose, Martin made his way to the city square, roughly at the center of the irregular circle drawn by the walls. The buildings were tall here, three stories or more where the ground floor was stone and the rest was wood and plaster, appearing grey at the bottom then dark brown and yellow towards the top. They blocked the view of the outside forest, except in the direction he came from, where he could still see trees along the slope of the mountain he descended to get here. He had appeared, a quick estimate told him, a third of the way up. After a small stretch the trees grew thin and sparse, then disappeared altogether to leave only shrubs, then moss and snow at the very top.

It wasn’t cold where he was. If this is like anything I know from the past, he thought, this must be no more than a thousand meters in altitude right now, perhaps 1300 where I appeared.

There was a fountain in the middle of the square. Water was coming out of a stone statue representing a great stag, and it splashed in a pool of clear water. He sat on the rim, taking a moment to think. And thinking about what he had to do now, two words came to his mind: adventurers guild.

>>New Quest!<<
>Guilding up! Find the adventurers guild, and sign up as a new adventurer.
>Reward: Random small item.

He nodded, smiling, and quickly got up. As he roamed the streets to both get familiarity with the small, yet complex city he was in and to search for the guild, he could not help but smile. It made him laugh a little how all that was happening seemed to be exactly what he expected of this place, as if he was playing a role in a simulation, or a game. Even though those latter concepts were a bit unclear to him, he had a feeling that he was not wrong in comparing them to his predicament.

I’ll play along, for now.

After scouring the city, and mapping what felt like a great portion of it and most of the important stuff in his mind, he reached a secluded building. It built against the city wall, and it was surrounded by a large garden full of trees, farming tools and wooden dummies, alongside weapons and an assortment of strange animals tied to ropes and leashes in various places. It was like entering a miniature forest, and walking along the path towards the building felt the same as the forest outside. The wall blocked the view, however, making it all feel suffocating and dark, the trees and the bushes hiding secrets in this cramped space. He arrived at the large wooden door no more than two minutes after he first spotted the building, despite it feeling much longer than that, and he noticed that the whole place was made out of wood. Solid, large logs of a wood so dark to be obsidian. A few windows overlooked a tavern, where armored people and strange folks were drinking and resting, others were eating, and a few were standing close to a wall, reading from some signs affixed on a board.

“Excuse me,” he said to the girl at the bar, a young elf in a green and brown dress with white frills. She looks like an elf, I think, plus the huge boobs.

She turned around from cleaning a large mug, and gave him a friendly smile. “Welcome!” she said.

He smiled back. “Where do I go to get registered at the guild?”

“Oh, right over there,” she said and pointed.

He nodded and thanked her, then went towards where she told him to go. On the way there, he looked back once, and she winked at him. He felt heat coming from within, but also a sensation of discomfort, like when bad memories resurfaced after something called them to mind. No memories came, but he felt anger flare back up. He shook his head, trying not to think about it. Whatever it was, was in the past now.

“Hello young… lad.” The voice of the man at the counter, a tall beast of a man, snapped Martin back to reality. He had, despite his best efforts, gone off on a tangent in an attempt to investigate the source of the discomfort. He felt that the girl was, in his mind, patronizing him.

“H-hello. I would like to register.”

“Alright lad.” The man said. “You seem a bit young, and frail.” He looked him up and down. “Are you sure you want to do this kind of job?”

Anger again. He took a deep breath. There was a quest, given to him by the system, and there was a reward. Just smile and nod.

“Mind your own business, I can look after myself.” He snapped.

Fuck.

The man didn’t flinch. “Okay then. Strong will, I will give you that. And guts.” He nodded. “Right. Follow me.” He motioned for someone to take his place and went out a door. Martin followed.

There was a mirror in the empty, small room. The walls were wood, as was the floor and ceiling, light brown planks of a different wood than the thick beams that kept the building from falling. In the mirror was a boy, no older than 18, with short black hair and a forgettable face. Martin.

I was given the isekai treatment. He thought with a mental sigh.

“Touch the mirror.” The man said.

Martin did so. Nothing seemed to happen for a while, and nothing kept happening, almost in an anticlimactic culmination of all the tropes that he was living through. There was no gasp at his power, no people rushing in alerted by a hidden system, no recognition of being special. The man only grunted and nodded, staring at something in the mirror that Martin could not see, until he was satisfied.

“Okay lad. Show us what you can do. My name is Torb, I’m the local branch manager. Here’s your token.”

The token was in the shape of a small pendant, with a crystal encased within. When he touched it, he could see what was inside: information about him, much like his own status.

>>Status<<

>Martin C. Molotov
>Level 1 Human.

>>Skills <<

• Hidden

“You’re not going to say anything about the hidden skills?” he asked.

Torb shook his head. “Everyone has secrets lad.” Then he left, leaving Martin alone in the small room. A message from the system startled him. He had completely forgotten about the quest.

>>Quest complete!<<

A small object was suddenly in his hand, fitting in his grip like it had always been there. It was a small flask, red in color, full of a viscous fluid. The system didn’t react to it, nor did it offer any explanation when he tried to ask it what this thing was.

He looked at the mirror one last time, then left, a complicated expression on his face. He had, more or less, what he wanted. He had avoided the issue he had with the tropes. And yet. I didn’t feel special enough.

For someone this introspective, it was wild just how little control he had over his emotions.

Alright. Time to do some quests and release the dopamine.