For several minutes now, I kept looking at a pile of items in front of me. Weapons, armor, and other magic items.

“I am not quite sure what happened, but it looks like I have a plenty of work to do.”

I picked up a short sword from the pile and looked over it. I used my enchanting skill to see the engravings on it. As I am carefully inspecting it, slowly I begin to understand it’s functionally. There are four skills on it, I inspect them closer to find what they do.

 

 

“That’s quite a good weapon, very interesting combination of enchantments. It must have been quite difficult to make.”

I wrote everything down into an empty book and then picked up one of those so-called stickers and wrote number one on it before sticking it to the sword.

“Onto the next one.”

After inspecting a dozen or so items, one thing became clear. “There are so many high-ranking magic items. I thought that enchanters were rare in human lands… and yet, there are so many items…”

I tried to pick up a big hammer from the bottom of the pile. “It’s heavy.” But I can only slowly drag it across the ground. I closely inspected the engravings to identify the enchantments.

“This is the highest tier item here. Even I couldn’t make something like that.”

 

 

“What is this? Why does that skill look so weird? I have never seen anything like it. And what’s up with that name? That’s not how it supposed to work. Possibly… Could it be… some kind of ancient script?”

“…”

“Are there any other items like it?” I turned towards the pile. “There’s only one way to find out.”

And find I did. After I inspected all the items, I found plenty more of these unusual skills. [sound_effect_heavy_hammer_blow.mp3 I], [ability_holy_fire_light.script V], [ability_energy_thunder_strike_fog.png VIII], and many more.

“This defies how enchantments should function. It’s fascinating. Whoever made this had a more advanced knowledge than I was aware even existed.” I need to investigate it… Maybe this is the thing that will finally ensure my success.

“Hello there, how is my order going along?”

I got startled as a youthful voice interrupted my thoughts. She is back, that odd purple haired girl. But when did she get here? “Greetings customer. All of your items are already identified and organized.”

“That’s great.” She looked over me. “Although you look quite tired.”

“Seems like I forgot to sleep, how many days was it… Sorry, looks like I am a bit more tired than I realized.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. The same thing happened to me a few times. Like it was getting late, but I thought to myself, just a one more game. The next thing I knew, it was already a morning. Time can be a bitch sometime…”

“Looks like both of us got lost in time.”

“Yes, although lately, it has become a norm… Anyway, I don’t get to see many pointy eared people around here, where do you come from anyway?”

“I, as all elves do, come from the Republic from the other side of the continent. I traveled to this city just recently, you see.”

“How is it there, is it a nice place? I like to travel, so maybe one day I will end up visiting.”

“Beautiful nature, great cities, breathtaking architecture, giant towers, and most importantly, great community. It is an ideal place for an elf to live. Although, if you want to travel there, you might have a hard time. Outside a few selected ports, humans aren’t allowed to travel across the country. So you would not get to see much…”

“I have my methods, don’t worry about it. But it certainly sounds amazing, makes me wonder why you would ever leave?”

“That is a long story…”

“Do tell, I would be interested in hearing it.”

“You see, I worked as an enchanter for a big company in the capital. I wanted to make my own shop but working independently can only be done by a very few in the field. There is too much competition, making it impossible to get by on your own. But I always wanted to achieve something more.

Decades passed, many things changed and yet, I was still making the same mass-produced items. I was always passionate about my work. But no matter how hard I tried, my efforts were never recognized. I saw my colleagues who were less skilled than me get promoted, while I was still stuck in my position.

I tried to figure out what made us different, but I couldn’t think of anything. Until one day, one of my colleagues who was new to the job got promoted just after a month of work. If he were excellent, I would understand, but he was barely average.

By chance, I learned that he just returned from human lands after being there for years. You see, only a handful of elves traveled to the outside of the Republic, it’s not a common thing to do. That’s why I was surprised to learn that almost every person who got promoted was one of those elves. Like, what are the odds.

I then remembered that my grandfather did also travel there, and he just happened to be a high-raking military officer while the rest of the family did common jobs.

I looked further, and what I discovered left me shocked. Almost every of the most influential elves traveled through the human lands in their youth. This can’t be a coincidence.

Is this what I am missing? Is this the barrier holding me back? What is it about their travel that allows them to become successful?

At that moment, I already decided to do the same. I wanted to follow their footsteps and experience the world from a different perspective and find what is holding me back.”

“What a mystery. What could it possibly be?”

“I don’t know yet, but I am sure that I will find out.”

“Republic is quite a far away. How did you get here from such a distant place?”

“I boarded one of the trading ships, and subsequently I traveled with them in a caravan after we landed. It was a long journey, but everything went smoothly. Although there was a one thing that confused me. When I asked about where the capital is, I got two different answers. The first person said that it was right here, while the other claimed that it was off the coast on an isolated island.”

“That’s a tough one, like all things in life. Who’s to say where’s the capital anyway? Can’t we all hold an opinion on such matters?”

I think that I still don’t get it. Maybe it’s a cultural difference? “Actually, the reason I wanted to go to the capital specifically was because I heard that it is the best place for enchanters in the country.”

“Yeah, you probably got the wrong one. Haven’t seen any other enchanters out here.”

“Really!?”

“Yeah, quite sure about that.”

“But I already have a shop here.”

“Too bad, I guess. For how much did you buy it for anyway? If you don’t mind sharing.”

“Well, that was actually a remarkable coincidence. You see, when I asked about the price, they asked me how much money I had. After I told them that I have around ten million runes, they said that it was the same amount they were looking for. What a coincidence, it was like I was destined to this place. But now, I am not so sure…”

She put her hand on her forehead and made a weird expression.

“Is something the matter?”

“No… feel free to continue.”

“Where was I, right. I brought this place and moved in. After I had everything prepared, I put out a sign outside, so everyone knew what kind of service I was providing. But for whatever reason, even after multiple days passed, I received not a single customer.”

“Did you do anything other to attract customers? Or did you check where are your competitors and what they were doing?”

“Now that you mentioned it, those are some good ideas.”

“…”

“…”

“Did you at least do any research if your services are needed in this area? “

“Actually, I did, when I was about to sign the contract, I got a little bit worried. It was a big investment and I wanted it to succeed. So just in case, I asked them if this area is good for this kind of business. They assured me that it is actually the best place for it in the whole city. That’s why I couldn’t figure out why I am not getting any customers… I could understand getting only a few but none? Maybe there was some big holiday I don’t know about?”

The girl made a pondering expression before responding. “I wouldn’t know, I am not local. But I am your number one customer, so you can’t say that you got none.”

“And I am grateful for your patronage. It is great to have finally some work to do. But unfortunately, even if other customers wanted to come in, they wouldn’t be able to. For the past couple of days, those people kept blocking my front entrance. They are asking for money, but I spent it all on buying this place. I can’t make any money without customers, but I can’t get any customers without money… Although even if I pay them, it might not help.” I sighed as I reminded myself of my current problem.

“I see, what an unfortunate turn of events. I wouldn’t have seen that coming, either.” She paused as she looked outside. “Glad that I had a chat with you, but it’s time for me to take my order. It is getting a little late.”

“Yes, here it is. All the items are cataloged in this book.”

She opened it and listed through it. After reading for a short bit, she stopped and slowly looked towards me. “Some of the skills… look weird…”

“Yes, it is quite unusual. It was my first time seeing something like this. I don’t know how you came to own such unique items. But my theory is that these are ancient artifacts from a forgotten ancient civilization.”

“Really?”

“That would explain everything. These skills are defying how enchantments should function. But it just may be some long-lost ancient code. Look closely at the end of each of these, there’s a repeating pattern, they either end with dot mp3, dot script, or dot png. I suspect that these are magical keywords, I haven’t quite deciphered their meaning yet, but I am closely investigating it.”

She covered her face with her hands and put her head on the table.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s… fine… don’t… mind… me…”

“Are you sure?” She didn’t respond. “In that case, I will continue. Let’s take this enchantment as an example, sound_effect_heavy_hammer_blow.mp3. From what I have seen from the enchantment itself, it looks like some kind of sound attack that triggers when you hit an enemy. But its power is questionable. I can’t quite grasp how it's supposed to be used.”

“OK that’s enough! Let’s forget about it… I will just take my stuff and be on my way. Maybe I will give you some other items to identify, I still have plenty.”

“But is it really alright to leave so many valuable items with me? Before, I didn’t realize how valuable they were, but now…”

“Obviously, I would never leave such valuable Items to a person I met for the first time without supervision. I mean, that much is obvious, not sure why are we even mentioning it.”

“It is? But I haven’t seen anyone.”

“They are hidden, obviously. I wouldn’t risk my items being stolen.”

“Oh… I must have missed them.”

“Most likely, they are good at hiding. I mean, just logically speaking, someone who would have so many valuable items obviously has many people under their command to handle things like this.”

“That makes sense…”

“You see, I am kind of a big deal, I may not reside in this city, but I have many powerful connections here. Just as an example, I am staying at the city Lord’s mansion during my stay here.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Yeah, not just anyone can do that. But you’re in luck because I can be your customer. In truth, I have many items that need to be identified and even after that is done… you can make magic items yourself, right?”

“I can enchant skills to existing items to be more specific.”

“Right. You see, I could use a personal enchanter and I would gladly employ your services. If you are interested, you can sign an exclusivity contract with me.” She handed me a paper. “Look here, this is the regular, industry standard contact for stuff like this. I mean, you have trouble with your business, and I need work to be done. I couldn’t have arrived at a better time.”

“I am not quite sure…”

I read the first paragraph.

• The employee has to provide their services exclusively to the employer for the duration of fifteen years from the time of signing.

Fifteen years isn’t a short time investment, but I guess it isn’t that long either. But do I really want to give up on my independent career so soon?

“But don’t feel pressured to sign it. If you think that you can run your shop without a need for my help, I encourage you to do so. Trough I need you to decide quickly, I will be going soon and if you aren’t interested, I will find someone else.”

“Fine, I think I will give it a try.”

“That’s great. But it is quite dark already, looks like more time passed than I thought… I don’t mind if you read through it immediately, but you can also sign it now and read through it later. That would be an enormous help, I am in a bit of a hurry.”

“I see. I certainly wouldn’t want to inconvenience you. But is it really alright to rush this?”

“There’s no need to worry, I will diligently abide by the terms of the contract. I am a trustworthy person.”

“That’s good to hear. Alright then.”

“Sign here and here, this is my copy and this is yours.”

“Alright, it’s done, what… now?” When did she leave? I looked around only to find the previous pile of items missing, replaced by a new one. When did she do that? On the table is a coin hundred rune coin with a sticker on it. It reads “signing bonus”.

“Are all human children like this? I heard that humans mature faster than elves, but I didn’t know that it was this extreme.”

I looked back at the contract in my hands. “Might as well, read it.”

• The amount paid and form of payment to the employee is determined by the sole discretion of the employer. But at minimum, six thousand runes a month, or its equivalent.

The pay isn’t anywhere as good as my old work, but that is only a minimum. I am sure that it will be more… I need to also consider that the cost of living seems to be lower here. Food prices certainly seemed lower… I continued reading.

• The employee has no right to change, revoke or renegotiate the contract throughout its duration.
• If an employer requires the employee to work in a different location, the employee is required to be there.
• Any lost or damaged property due to the fault of the employee will have to be repaid in full. (Amount determined by employer.)
• The employee can’t disclose any work-related information to a third party without permission from the employer.

“How should I say it… it’s…  It feels slightly one-sided?” But it’s not like I saw any other contract from this country. Maybe it is really just a normal contact.

---

 

Stupid ass god! What’s up with those enchantment names? That was so embarrassing. He was too lazy to put in proper names for enchantments, wasn’t he? He just copy-pasted random file names in there? Is that it? How lazy can you get? If I ever meet him again I will, I will tell him. Just wait!

Back in game, some weapons played a sound effect on kill, others had some shiny particle effects or special animations. Somehow it all translated into weird skills. Simple as that. I bet there will be a bunch of useless skills on other items as well. What a headache…

And that stupid elf, looking too much into it… Ancient codes? Long-lost civilization? Actual reason? He can find meaning where none is. What kind of society managed to produce such a thing?

“…”

Actually, that’s a good question. He said that anyone who leaves that place for a period gets very successful when they return. Do they just get repeatedly scammed until they grow a spine? And when they return, they will be more vigilant and assertive, making them ask for more pay? So, they end up in higher positions that they otherwise would. Although that would mean that at least the people in charge are competent. That would explain why they don’t let anyone else in. That would be a wild scenario. But maybe that’s the case, I mean, if their whole country is full of pushovers, that would explain it. Ha-ha-ha…”

Wait a minute! A whole country full of pushovers… An entire country full of pushovers…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“That sounds like a heaven on earth, doesn’t it? I could do literally anything and get away with it.”

“…”

“Republic… Looks like I will have to give them a visit at some point. How does one fake passports?”