The herbalists shop was a mess, some of the shelves had been broken and there was blood just about everywhere, some of it Andius’. The worst of the damage was the fact that some of the plants had been torn or cut in the fight, the other player wasn’t exactly being careful where he swung his weapon. Andius quickly went about taking off the player’s armor, much to the disdain of the other two.

“Are you seriously going to steal from the dead!?” The woman called out, disgust in her voice that made Andius flinch and look up at her. Could he tell her about the players? The game never stated a rule about it, but would the system really let him break immersion like that?

Andius decided to do something in between, a half-truth. “He’s not dead, not completely. People like him come back twelve hours after they’re killed, with everything they have on them. If I don’t take his gear, he’s just going to come back and try to kill you again.” He didn’t explain that he was the same way, obviously. Andius didn’t wait for either of them to reply before he got back to work, unfastening straps and pulling away large plates of metal.

Both of the people in the room were stunned into silence, after all he had just told them that the person who just tried to kill them was immortal. Andius was nearly done with removing all of the armor when the hunter spoke up, “So… what, are you hunting these things?” He asked cautiously, the tone in his voice was suspicious and almost a little frightened, which Andius thought was completely understandable.

Andius shook his head a few times, looking back over to the hunter from his crouched position, “I am hunting them, but they aren’t things, they’re people. Shitty people, but people nonetheless. All of the members of the Bloody Blades come back like this, so if you ever manage to kill one, make sure to take their gear.” He was silently cursing himself for not taking the gear from the two he had just killed last night, but there wasn’t much he could do now.

This time it was the woman who spoke up, and her voice was haunted. “So…. The Immortals have returned.” Her words had such weight in them that both the hunter and Andius stopped in their tracks, just looking at her with equal parts confusion and interest. The older woman just sighed and shook her head, “Do neither of you know anything?!” she cried out, almost sounding as angry as she did when the player was harassing her. “The Immortals were the first people to inhabit the world, created at the same time of the gods by the first one,” she began speaking the words almost as if they were something she had said over a hundred times, something she’s committed to memory. “Their leaving is what caused the magic of the world to dwindle, and the creation of the Mana-wells. No one knows exactly what happened to these people, but the prophecies say that they would one day return, igniting a new age of magic and strife.

“The stories are as old as the Dwarves, they are the only living race to have claimed to ever have seen them, but it is said they will pose as humans, bringing Chaos wherever their feet take them.” Andius noted that this was sounding a whole lot like the prologue to a book or game, why had it taken him so long to gain this information? “But not all of the immortals were evil, in fact some of them wound up becoming the greatest heroes of legends, like Jorgmun, who slew the white dragons of the north.”

Andius took all of this in with a shocked look on his face, the developers of the game had made the AI so advanced that they could understand everything he had just said, and worked in a lore reason as to why the players don’t stay dead. He had to admit that he was really impressed with the developers despite the glitch that was keeping him from logging out. “So…” Andius started, picking his words carefully, “what would you do if you met a friendly one?”

“I’d train them to the best of my abilities, introduce them to trainers and teach them how the world worked.” Her response was immediate and serious, her eyes locked to Andius with a knowing gleam that proved she had seen through him already. The hunter just looked confused, looking back and forth between the two of them. “My name is Charla, a retired wizard. My husband Herald and I decided to give up the adventuring life after I got hurt, and now I just outfit other adventurers with healing herbs for a low price to keep others from sharing my fate.”

Herald’s head snapped to Charla in an instant, “Charla! You’re not supposed to be telling people that, you know what would happen if the people knew you were a Wizard!” There was genuine panic in his voice, even worse than when the player was messing with him, whatever the people here would do, it must have been a lot worse than being stabbed.

Andius looked at the pair of them in confusion for a moment, “What’s wrong with being a Wizard, and is it like being a Sorcerer?” He asked, immediately wincing at the shocked look from Charla. He recognized that look, the look of someone who just found an opportunity; his manager gave him that look a lot.

Charla stepped away from the counter and looked over Andius carefully, before grabbing hold of the Shadowheart bracer in her hands, eyes gleaming with greed. “Just like the other one… Boy, did you know that only the college knows about Sorcerers?” She asked with a very smug grin, “In fact, most people in this world assume Wizardry is the only way to manipulate mana. The fact that you have an elemental foci and even know about sorcery proves that you are one!”

Andius flinched back and pulled his arm free from her weak grasp. He hadn’t wanted it to get out that he could use magic, the other players would probably come after him for that and try to either recruit him, or lock him away so he couldn’t be an enemy. “I-is it… bad to be a sorcerer?” He asked cautiously, making Herald’s jaw drop.

Charla shook her head with a soft smile, “It is a blessing. Sorcery was always rare, even in the time of the immortals. The only known sorcerer in this age is the kings adviser, and even he is a weak one, he doesn’t have an elemental foci, just an arcane foci we Wizards use…” She trailed off for a moment and seemed to think about her words before she spoke up again, this time a little more calmly, “But… the less educated members of our kingdom are… cautious around magic. They think it comes from the Demon Lord, which isn’t true obviously, but they can sometimes get uh… lets just say aggressive?” Great, the locals hate magic.

“Wait wait wait, you’re not being serious are you? You’re saying this man is a sorcerer? That’s ridiculous, he didn’t use any magic when the Gnolls attacked me, he would have been able to kill them no problem!” Herald called out, his face turning a bit red as he tried to convince the other two that they were being crazy.

Andius just shook his head a few times, and with a metal flex the shadows peeled away from the walls, writhing around on the ground like a thick black fog. Wherever there was direct sunlight, the shadows withered away quickly. The display made them both recoil in horror, quickly moving to any available sunlight to get away from the bone chilling mass. “That’s my magic… I didn’t have it until after I fought the Gnolls, and I don’t really know any offensive magic, just how to move the shadows, really.”

He let the shadows flow back to their natural positions, and Charla immediately bolted forward with a wild look in her eyes, “You’re an Umbramancer! That’s one of the rarest kinds! And you didn’t use any incantations or sigils, that proves you’re a Sorcerer!” Her voice was getting a bit crazy, and Andius wasn’t sure he made the right choice by revealing all of this to them, though it was good to know that he had a rare type of magic. “But you said you didn’t have your magic when you were born? How did you get it?”

Andius paused, should he really tell them how he got it? What if they revealed the information to other players and wound up making new sorcerers?… That wasn’t even the important part, if Umbris hadn’t made a pact with him he would have just kept being torn apart by his own mana. He didn’t want others to go through that, but this woman was a font of knowledge that he couldn’t just waste. “Well… I attacked this giant panther and-”

“You ATTACKED the guardian!?” Herald called out, “How dare you comm-”

“Let me finish!” Andius cut him off in turn, his eye twitching in irritation. “Anyways, it talked to me a bit and tried to kill me, but I wound up getting thrown into this weird glowing water. It healed all of my wounds, but then I kind of…. popped?”

The room went completely quiet for a moment, the two just staring at Andius in shock. Charla was the first one to break the silence, her words so quiet that Andius almost couldn’t hear them. “The pillar of light… was you?” She blinked a few times, looking up at Andius with confusion and a hint of anger on her features, “Wait, but that would give you wild magic, not Shadow magic, how…?”

Andius shook his head with a frown, “Sorry, I don’t want to go into any more details than that, but could you explain the difference between Wizardry and Sorcery for me?” Charla didn’t seem happy about Andius relenting the information, but she nodded and pulled out a strange item from her pocket. It looked like a ring that extended out to the edge of the finger like armor, tipped with a claw that was made of some kind of gemstone.

Charla began drawing in the air, slowly muttering in a strange language, and a second later a small breeze blew through the building. “The first difference,” she began, a smile on her face, “is that I need to intone and draw sigils even for me most basic spells. Sorcery pulled mana through one’s own body, letting it affect your mind but having an instant effect.” she walked over behind her counter and pulled out a large orb that looked like it was polished quartz, “See, Mana has an effect on the mind of the person who uses it. You may not have noticed it yet, but darkness magic will eat away at your emotions the longer you use it. The effects are almost always temporary of course, but it can still lead to trouble.” She set the orb on a small stand and slid it over towards Andius. “Wizardry distances ourselves from the mana, manipulating it outside of ourselves so that the Mana can’t affect our minds. Touch this orb with both hands please.”

Andius was reeling from all of the sudden information, and nearly set his hands on the orb without even thinking, but he hesitated at the last moment, “What does this thing do? I don’t want to touch magical stuff without knowing what it could do to me.” This only served to make her laugh, and Herald just stood around by the door looking vaguely uncomfortable.

“Wise to be cautious, but this is simply a magical tester. It’s whole purpose it to reveal the latent talent of a magic user, to see if it is worth them pursuing the arts, or if they’re better off going down another path.” Charla explained with a wheeze, it seemed like talking too much was a strain on her, but the excitement in her eyes showed that she did not care. “Since you’re a sorcerer, your aptitude is likely very high, but it’s still exciting to see what happens!”

Andius let off a slow sigh, this seemed like a waste of time, but if it would get her to give him more information then it couldn’t hurt. He stepped forward and put both hands atop the orb and at first nothing happened, but after a few seconds, a mote of darkness appeared inside the murky crystal, slowly expanding outwards. Charla was watching the orb with a look of wonder as it filled all the way to the edges, when suddenly a crack appeared on the surface of the orb, and a myriad of colors flashed to life inside of the swirling darkness! More cracks appeared on the surface, and blinding light radiated out from the orb as Mana flooded from it! “Get down!” Andius knew exactly what was about to happen, he was in this poor orbs place just the other day.

Everyone ducked as best they could as the entire orb exploded, sending shards of crystal in every direction and leaving a charred mark on the surface of the counter. Herald caught a piece of the shard in his leg and collapsed to the ground groaning in pain as he pulled it out, “Gods damn it all, enough with the magic! You two are going to turn this shop into a damn graveyard!” Despite his harsh words, Charla just started laughing like a lunatic, and Andius couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit as well!

When Charla finally got her laughing fit under control, she shook her head a few times and said, “Well, either my orb was broken, or you have a lot of magic in you. Tell you what, come back tomorrow and I’ll have something for you. In the mean time, did you come in here for something?”

Andius smiled and nodded, this entire morning had turned out to be a great use of his time, not only did he manage to kill what he could only assume was a high leveled player, but he also met someone who could teach him about magic! “Actually, I was coming to see if you had poison, but you said you didn’t sell any so-”

“I lied. I just didn’t want to sell any to that guy. Guessing you want to put them on your blades?” Charla cut him off, already pulling out jars and bottles. Andius gave her a nod and she slid a jar forward on the counter, “This is Kain root, pretty common actually. Those pink flowers that grow in the more marshy areas have these in their roots. Just put some on a cloth and rub them into your blades, and it will make your target feel like their veins are on fire!” She chuckled at that and added, “But it wont actually kill anything, it just hurts a lot. For anything that will actually kill someone, you’d need an alchemist. The jar is good for ten applications, five for each blade, fifty silver.”

Andius took her words in stride and nodded with a smile, setting down a whole gold on the counter and walking away with two new jars of the stuff. It looked like it was mashed up with a bit of water, which would make it a lot easier to work with, admittedly. With all that work done, he walked out of the store feeling pretty good about himself, he had only gotten a small wound in the fight and now he had poisons to make the fights swing a bit more in his favor!