POV: Victor Sterling

  Once the sun was only a three fingers above the horizon, the sound clopping of hooves became loud enough that I could recognize it. It came from the trail behind me, so I turned to meet the first person that I am to see in this world. I couldn't see them past a bend in the road. As the sound approached, other sounds became audible. The clanking of metal and the creaking of wood. I activated my Ring of False Face.

  Once they came into view, all the sounds made sense. A two horse covered wagon with a single driver, escorted by six individuals in a wide variety of armor and equipment. Front right, next to the forest, was a person in full-plate, holding a tower shield and a bronze colored long-sword. Front left, next to the river, was a female elf in chain-mail, holding a composite longbow and two short-swords at her waist. Center right was older man in a cloak with a crooked wooden walking stick. Center left was a man in a long flowing robe and a metal staff with a crystal ball mounted atop it. Back right was a man that was all mussel he only had an animal skin over his pelvic area and a giant maul. Back left was a woman dressed in a robe similar to priestess and a staff topped a symbol. The man on the wagon was an older, short in stature and plain dressed, the wisdom could be seen in his eyes.

  The others were very alert, but upon seeing me the elf yelped and everyone stopped. The elf raised his bow towards me. I shrank slightly and raised my hands. They were at about one hundred feet away after a moment the armor clad individual and the man with the staff approached slowly. At thirty feet they stopped.

  The man with the staff spoke first, “Who are you? What is your purpose here?”

  “I am a humble smith named Victor. I awoke in the wild near here so I was trying to make it back to civilization. I fear I am completely lost.”

  They studied me seemingly unconvinced. The wizard spoke again, “A simple smith, hardly.”

  “First, I never said simple. Second, may I join you on your journey? I can pay for the escort.”

  The man eyed him up and down and furrowed his brows. I slowly took my free hand behind my back. The man grew suspicious but said nothing. Figuring the player inventory was not common in this world I hid what I was doing. I pulled out an ingot from my inventory. It glinted with blue-white radiance as a revealed it from behind my back.

  “Is that ...” the wizard's words died in his mouth.

  “Refined mithril.” I finished his sentence.

  The man in plate turned his head to the wizard and nodded. The wizard looked back to the rest of the group and they all nodded in the affirmative as well. Turning back to me he spoke, “We will take you to Sterlingstead. That is the city our current client is going.”

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  I nodded. I was intrigued by the name of the city. The caravan approached, both the the two who were negotiating with me and I joined up with them. Many questions rose into my head. Why was the city's name similar to my last name? What was with the reaction from the wizard to the mithril? What is my strength compared to this world?

  “So where are you from?” the priestess of the adventures asked.

  Feign ignorance sounds like a good plan, with that in mind I answered, “I don't know exactly. I lived next to a cave with many minerals within. By the way who are you guys?”

  “Oops, forgive me. I am the priestess of The Great Angelic Goddess Empyrea, Sophie. Our party's leader is the wizard, Arthur. Oriryn is our elven ranger. The brute over there is Bukir. In plate armor is Ashus. Loki over there is our druid. We are the adventuring party known as Cross Soldiers.” Empyrea that is the name one of my few friends from Emberheart went by. I managed to conceal my recognition before Sophie noticed. I need to know more. “The man on the cart is Tharaeg Orchelm, our other client is a materiel merchant.”

  “Can you tell me about this city?”

  “No problem. It is a city dedicated to the production of magical items in honor of the last and greatest god Sterling the Creator. His volcanic home, Forge of Creation, resides next to the city.” She then looked at me and asked in confusion, “Wha? Whats wrong with you?”

  My face must have went vampiric white, I shook my head and answered meekly, “Nothing.”

  “Do you know of Sterling and the Forge of Creation?”

  Time to fake things to get out of this, “Yes, I learned my craft from this book.” I reached in to my coat to pull out a book from my inventory. I showed it to her, the cover of it read “Artifice and Item Creation by V. Sterling”.

  “You must be a true master at your craft. To learn from a book written directly by the God of Creation himself...” her voice trailed off.

  We continued in silence for the next couple of hours as I though about everything she told me. It was hard for me to wrap my head around that people worship me as a god, well the idea of me. This made it even more imperative to keep my identity a secret for the time.

  I need to find out how strong these people are. Before casting spells, I should just ask them directly, “Umm. Sophie how strong is your party? I'm just curious what I paid for.”

  “Your in luck we're a level 56 party. My level is the lowest at 35. Ashus is the highest at 79.”

  They are so weak my own level is over a thousand. If my levels are one to one with theirs then I truly am a god. Wait how do they know their levels?

  “Who or what judges your level?”

  “Most get an approximation from a guild assessor, there are spells that can tell what level you are but they are inaccurate. But we went to the High Temple of Empyrea to use the Jewel of Status. A gift brought to us by Empyrea herself. Only 20 of them exist but only 19 of them are used. The god Sterling has yet to be seen, so his is still missing.”

  Crap. They use an item from the game that all players get early on as a basis to assess their levels, so a level are the same for both of us. The thing is as a weird idea one day I went and learned how to make the jewel, so I have 36 on me and countless more in Forge of Creation.

  “How far is the city from here?”

  “We should be there by evening.”

  The mountain that I had build my base into came into view by dinner time, it was as majestic as I left it. A squat volcano with a wide crater with the sheen of obsidian coating the outer shell.

  “A magnificent view.” Arthur confirmed.