Chapter 1

Walking through the portal was easy at the moment, but seconds after his entry into this new world, he was filled with a sense of regret.

I know my life wasn’t the most fulfilling, but I still had family and friends, I never got the chance to say goodbye. The man thought to himself as he took in his surroundings.

He had entered into a city that was easily recognizable, it’s the main city of Caverns & Wyverns Online.

At least I’m in familiar surroundings. He took a while to go through his belongings and check out his stats, but he had nothing.

Thousands of hours of grinding, and I don’t even get to benefit from it.

Racking his brain on how to survive in this new world, he started walking along the paths he had treaded hundreds of times in game.

Considering I’m not even level one, I have no gear or gold, and this world seems to work on realistic logic instead of game logic. Finding a place to stay should be my top priority.

His thought is interrupted as he rounds a corner and is promptly knocked over by a running high elf, who also falls over.

“I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” The high elf asks in a soft tone as she gets back up, offering a helping hand.

He gets a good look at the high elf, noting her long, flowing blonde hair and her emerald-coloured eyes looking over him, checking for any injuries.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine, I think. But why are you running on the sidewalk? Someone could get hurt.” He says as he accepts the offer for help and gets back up.

“If I don’t get to work in time, my boss is going to kill me. She already said that if I’m late again she’s going to personally make sure that I’ll never be late again.”

“Sounds more like she’s offering to help you than a threat.”

The high elf grabs him by the shoulders and he can see a sparkle in her eyes. “You can work as a server, right? We’re short staffed, and the boss might forgive me if I bring a new worker with me.”

“Well I do need a job, but we hardly know each other, and I have no clue what you’re hiring me for. For all I know you’re just leading me to an alley to get stabbed or something.”

“Do I look like I’d do something like that? And my name is Lei, short for Leiophylla. Now you know me so you can trust me.” She says with a beaming smile.

Lei grabs him by the wrist and starts rushing them along to her workplace. “You can tell me about yourself on the way, okay?”

This is a chance to start anew I guess. My name doesn’t really fit with the fantasy theme of this world, so I’ll just steal my character name.

“My name is Ranmir. Nice to meet you. Now would you mind telling me where exactly you’re taking me?”

“I work in a tavern called The Heart & Dagger, and you’re going to be working alongside me hopefully.”

I do need a job. I’ll give this a chance. Ranmir thought as he was pulled along by Lei, running across the town.

After what must’ve been 15 minutes of constant running, Ranmir and Lei come to the front of The Heart & Dagger. Exhausted and out of breath, Lei turns to Ranmir, having a few words to say before they enter.

“So, Ranmir. The manager can be pretty scary, but otherwise we have a pretty friendly environment. I’m sure you’ll be taken in… well.” Lei says with a smile, even as her voice betrays what was supposed to be encouragement, as she finds herself unsure when saying the last part.

As they enter, Ranmir is taken by surprise as a murderous presence clouds everything else. They come face to face with what Ranmir assumes and Lei knows to be the manager.

Ranmir recognized the manager's race, they were pretty rare in the game. She was a Dragonfolk. They usually had a tail and horns with certain parts of their bodies featuring a scaly natural armour and their colouration could range pretty much anywhere. But the manager had blue skin and dark scales with forward pointing horns and a thick tail.

The manager exuded an aura of killing intent, despite her short and slender form.

“Where have you been loitering, Lei? Your work starts at 10am sharp every day.”

The manager says in the coldest tone ever spoken.

Lei hides behind Ranmir, presenting him to the manager.

“Well I was on my way to work early and responsibly when I ran into Ranmir here. He was looking for a job and I thought that we could use a new server.”

Ranmir turns to look at Lei in confusion, but upon seeing Lei’s pleading eyes to go along with her lie he relents.

“Yeah, Lei here told me that you have a job opening so she took me along.”

The manager glared at them, but eventually gave in.

“So do you know anything about working in a tavern? Do you have experience in serving customers?”

“I can handle it,” Ranmir said. I’ve worked in fast food after all.

The manager gave a nod.

“You can start today if you’re ready, Lei will show you the ropes.”

The manager then walked up to Ranmir and shook his hand.

“I’m Sejairi Khoroctus, your new boss from this day onward. I hope you’ll enjoy working with us.”

With that Ranmir started his first work day at The Heart & Dagger. Lei gave surprisingly good guidance during his first day.

But when fetching something from the tavern's kitchen, he came face to face with the tavern's chef. A giant of a woman, a goliath. She had scars all along her body, marking her many fights, her muscles were large, as if she had spent every waking moment working out.

“You’re the new server right? What do you need?” The goliath said, looking down at Ranmir.

Ranmir looked up at her, she had to be at least three heads taller than him.

“Uhm, I need a medium rare steak with steamed vegetables.”

“Okay, coming up.”

Ranmir couldn’t help but watch as the goliath prepared the food with masterful accuracy, he was enthralled by the skill and dexterity of her’s. Noticing this, she turned to look at him.

“Could you not stare so hard while I’m working? It’s making me kind of uncomfortable.” She said blushing.

“Oh, yeah. Of course. Just call me in when the food’s done.” Ranmir said as he left the kitchen in a hurry.

Lei saw Ranmir exit the kitchen and tapped him on the shoulder.

“So you met Fjella?”

“If that’s the chef, then yes.”

“She’s great, but she gets flustered pretty easily, she likes working in the kitchen away from prying eyes.”

Lei says while gazing at the kitchen door.

“But enough about that, we have more work to do”

The rest of Ranmir’s first shift goes by without issue. And he sits down on one of the chairs at the end of the day. Lei walks up to him.

“So how was your first day? I thought you did great” She says with the same smile she usually has.

“Honestly it was a lot tougher than I expected, but I think I did well enough.”

Their attention shifted as Sejairi came from the office and walked up to them.

“I was watching over your work Ranmir. It was acceptable.”

“Well thank you I guess.” Ranmir answered with a chuckle.

“Also, could I perhaps get a room here? I don’t have a place to go for the night.”

Sejairi pondered for a while.

“You can sleep in the attic room, I don’t let customers sleep in it as it’s not up to our standards, and it’s used as storage, but it will still work as a place to sleep.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

“I will take rent from your pay, so don’t go thanking me yet.” Sejairi says with a smirk.

“Take him to his room, Lei. I still have some paperwork I need to finish.” She says as she disappears into the office again.

Lei leads Ranmir up the stairs to the attic, where a singular bed is lined up against the corner surrounded by unused furniture and boxes full of items.

“Well this is your room, it’s not much.”

“It’ll be enough for me. Thanks.”

“Well I’ll leave you here then. Thanks for bailing me out by the way. I’m sure the boss would’ve skinned me if I didn’t manage to bring you in.”

“She doesn’t seem that bad, at least not yet. But thank you as well. Without you I’d probably still be exploring the streets.”

“I guess we both got something out of this then.” Lei says with a smile as she leaves.

Laying down on the bed, Ranmir stares at the roof. Well this is my life now I suppose. Could be worse.

Suddenly a familiar voice called out to him, oh no, it’s her. Ranmir shoots up in bed and looks around, seeing the Goddess lounging about in the attic with him.

“So how’d you enjoy your first day?”

“It wasn’t that bad, it seems your plan failed.”

The goddess pouts for a few seconds before perking up.

“I have a fantastic idea. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be following your exploits more intently from now on, and pulling some strings every now and then to make things happen.” She says smiling deviously.

“Give me a break” Ranmir says as he lays his head down on the bed, falling asleep after a rough day.