Alica quickly caught the mirror before it could hit the ground. She might only be level zero but it didn’t take super human speed for that. The look on Glenn’s face was unnerving it was like he didn’t recognize himself. She had heard of people who had gone through a traumatic experience having a hard time facing themselves in the mirror but that wasn’t literal or so she thought. “Are you okay Glenn?” She asked the sound of his name pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “Oh yeah I am fine I just. It’s a lot of blood. I had to be more terrifying then that snake.” He lied with a joke. But he could tell Alica didn’t quite believe him. She was looking at his eyes, a flash of skepticism on her face.

  “I know that you aren’t telling me something and that’s fine. We all have secrets, just... you aren’t alone. If you need someone to talk to I am a good listener.” She said her genuine concern obvious.

  “Thanks.” Was his only reply. Though in that single word Alica noted the lack of levity. That was enough for now.

  “The offer stands.” She said then changing the topic. “Any idea what caused the fire?” When the question got another pained reaction from him she tried another approach. “Do you have any family around here?”

  “Alica, please not now.” He replied a bit more forcefully than he had meant to. “I need some time with my thoughts, I am sorry.”

  They walked on in silence for a while talking only of the plan for the night. The journey would require a night of camping. The goal they decided was to just get into the open fields outside of the forest and camp there. The sun having started its downward decent a few hours ago put a bit of a rush but with his [Map] ability he knew that they were making good time. This area was well-traveled with clear foot paths. It seems like the adventurers used this part of the forest often. Because of this, they reached the edge of the forest with an hour of daylight remaining. Walking for awhile longer to put some distance between them and the tree line, they found a slightly raised area, dry and clear of brush, with the remains of a previous camp and set up there for the night. Each unpacking and setting up their own tents. When he pulled a tent out of thin air it had caught Alica attention but she didn’t ask remembering his reaction when she had asked personal questions before.

  “How do you want to handle dinner and we probably should set up a watch rotation. We should be safe but we are still close to the forest.” Alica said as she finished setting up her tent. “I have some jerky and bread. You are welcome to it.” She noted that she had not seen him eat yet.

  “That would be great.” he said, with a smile. “Some of my supplies were lost when I ran from the fire.” Shaking his head he said after a long pause “No that isn’t true. Alica, I don’t want to lie to you. I just can’t explain too much right now.” He wanted to trust her being alone in a world with no one to trust would make everything harder. He just met her though.

  Alica nodded. “I don’t want to pry. I can tell though that whatever you are going through is hard. You don’t have to handle this alone. I am an adventurer we help people that’s my job. I promise that whatever you tell me I will do my best to help you.” Her earnestness threw him off his experience in life was that everyone had hidden motives. He got the sense though, that she was being honest. “Ok let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard of anyone getting an ability at level 0? Also how many abilities do you have?”

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  It was bad form to ask too many questions about a person’s class. Having already told him her class and level there really wasn’t much a level 0 knight could have that wasn’t public knowledge. “Well as a knight I start with [Enhance Defense], [Intercept], [Regeneration], [Slash] and [Taunt] so five. The only people I know of that have a level 0 ability are New Arrivals. Wait are you saying you have a level 0 ability?”

  “Yeah [Stealth].” Glenn let the word hang there. Stealth was a common enough ability she knew the skill and that some classes received it with their class. [Scout] was not one of those classes. She didn’t know too much about [Scout] or any non-combat class for that matter. They were someone else’s problem to her but [Rogue] was a common class with [Stealth] as a class ability.

  “What is a new arrival?” Glenn asked.

  “A new arrival is a person who recently arrived on Valdova. I don’t know when the last [Merge] happened but I know we aren’t supposed to have another for a long, long time.”

  “What is a [Merge]?” Glenn asked getting more and more engaged finally he was getting some answers.

  “A [Merge] is when the System pulls in new people from who knows where and brings them here. [Merges] are catastrophes the legends say. They reshape the land and bring new technology with them. New buildings can spring up over night and the Magic of the world becomes unstable causing massive monster waves. That’s all I know though. They only happen every thousand years I hear. There are some people that have lived through it and are still alive I am sure."

  Looking back at the forest the glow of flames and smoke still visible off near the horizon. Glenn decided he would try trust in this new world. He didn't want to live in a world of magic as a broody loner. He wanted to belong. If it went wrong he would rethink it then. “Alright here we go." he said. "I am an engineer by trade I designed toys for kids. Well I left work, went home, went to bed and woke up in a cave. Outside of said cave apparently lived a flock, no, definitely a murder of Forest Rocs who wanted to kill me. Oh and it turns out the whole area was a Dragon breeding ground. So I may have lit a little fire to try and drive off the Rocs and give me a chance to escape." Glenn looked up to see what her reaction was and waited.

  To her credit Alica only took a few minuets while all of the things she had just heard ran through her head and fit together. Effectively he had just informed her that he was a New Arrival that had come and brought a monster surge. The more important part was that also meant that they were currently camped in the path of said monster surge. She had no words. She said she would help him and so she would.

  "What the fuck!" Alica yelled. Grabbing her bag and she began to pack.

  "Here you are being all moody and it turns out you just didn't want to say, 'Hey I might have started the fire we are currently fleeing?' And to avoid saying that you didn't say 'Hey I saw a family of dragons less then half a day by wing?'" She kicked dirt on the open fire. Taking down her tent. "I truly believe everything you said. Dumbass. Now pack we have to run."

  ----------

  Alica was pissed sure. She spent the day with a man covered in blood, clearly in shock. She had supported him and had to teach him things that children knew. Somethings he had knowledge of like poisonous plants and signs of wildlife. But others like the fact that he kept asking if the units of measure were the same as he would expect. They were. She knew the signs of shock. Keeping his mind going was what mattered until she could get him back to safety. Camping was a concern. If he stopped the stress could hit him hard. She felt that pushing him physically too much would be worse in the long run. He was soft. He was a level 8 [Scout] so he must have been a lookout that got himself stranded. He hiked well enough though high agility classes had it easy and scouts had a bit of extra endurance as well. The big issue was that his eyes were still glassy like he wasn’t really there.

  When they set up camp she planned to get him talking more. She was happy to see he was responsive. That was until he said he lit a fire in a dragons den to chase off a massive group of Forest Rocs. Hell when the snake attacked she screamed because it was a giant snake. She was pretty sure she could have taken it though. When that arrow shined her helmet though the tree seemed safer.