Tales of Tezmar - Chapter 1

I'm interested in writing an original story for Royalroad and I'm posting here to get some feedback for what I've got currently.

Don't have much else written, but I'm hoping to get some opinions on the premise.

My favorite Webnovels are Ar'kendrithyst and Wandering Inn which are both long Litrpgs with plenty of Worldbuilding, slice of life, and action.

I want to write an original story so that I have the chance to create my own world over time which seems like something that I would enjoy.

Not sure you guys are particularly interested in original stories or Litrpgs, but all feedback is appreciated and welcome.

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The Burping Badger was one of the cheaper inns that could be found in the city of Drosa. Situated along the edge of the slums, it was an unremarkable building that catered to those incapable of affording more reputable accommodations. The [Innkeeper] could be seen carrying drinks within, serving a clientele noticeably more diverse than the city’s predominantly beastkin population.

The inn’s second floor offered lodgings consisting of several large rooms with beds and woolen mattresses. In one such room was a young man of average height who sat in front of a mirror as beams of light shone in from one of the nearby windows. He wore dark red robes which seemed to be made of some kind of silk. If one knew where to look they would discover several enchanted runes sewn into the insides of his garments.

With listless green eyes, Seth Kirkwood stared at his own reflection as he took in his new appearance and tried desperately to come to terms with his circumstances. He had pale skin, short dark hair, and an adolescent face that was, in Seth’s opinion, too soft to be considered handsome rather than ‘cute’.

Seth felt like he was looking at a child.

It might be, however, that he just had a skewed perspective considering his reflection was more than a decade younger than he was accustomed.

It had already been several hours since he had found himself torn away from his life and family after waking up in a different world and body. He had spent the past few hours in shock and denial, but he was starting to believe this wasn’t just an unpleasant nightmare.

Although I guess having 2 languages and 17 years' worth of horrific memories shoved into my brain kinda makes it hard to continue doubting, Seth thought with self-deprecation. At least I don’t need to feel guilty about stealing this bastard’s body.

The bastard in question had been a member of the Cult of the Bloodvine—a secret cult of [Nature Mages] that had raised him from birth. Unfortunately for the new Seth, the organization was not a exactly harmless group of treehuggers trying to escape unfair persecution.

He forced down the bile that threatened to leave his throat as unwelcome images of innocent people being devoured by man-eating plants rose in his mind.

Fuck. I could have really done without these new memories.

Seth took a moment to use one of the meditation techniques his predecessor had learned as he focused on his breathing. He really didn’t want to have to explain to the [Innkeeper] why he puked all over her floor.

After a few moments, he managed to calm down and banish uncomfortable memories before returning to his contemplation.

If there was one thing Seth was grateful for, it was the fact that his body’s previous owner had already defected from the Cult and had run far away from them. Not out of any kind of moral objection, of course, but because he had gotten framed for stealing resources from the Cult by one of his peers. As it was, he was just barely fortunate enough to succeed in fleeing from the Magedom of Ivadmore into one of its nearby rivals.

Still, my life would be much easier if all of Ivadmore’s neighbors weren’t so distrustful of [Mages] and magic classes in general.

Seth pulled on the connection that tethered him to this world’s System and shuddered as an alien sensation that was both intimately familiar and completely foreign flowed through him.

[Nature Mage Level 16]

Seth focused inwardly on his classes and the benefits they offered him and was reluctantly satisfied. He knew from his newly acquired memories that the majority of people his age—well, his body’s age—were around level 13.

While having a level of 16 at his age did not make him any kind of genius, it did show the amount of effort and resources the Cult was willing to invest in its members.

Sadly, Seth had a feeling that these extra few levels did not actually help him very much. His situation was quite precarious, and there were many factors that made it difficult for him to safely build a new life in this strange world.

Seth once again took a moment to forcibly push away the dread and panic that he felt when he considered the fact that he might be stuck in this world and might never see his loved ones again.

He could return to that later after he had finished thinking about the best way to move forward.

There were a few different things about his current situation that made things dangerous for him.

First, the Cult of the Bloodvine was aware that he was alive and they would not allow somebody who knew their secrets and who was not a part of their organization to live in peace.

Second, the people of Drosa did not trust him. That distrust was not enough for him to be attacked in the streets or run out of town, but Seth knew that was something that could change in a heartbeat.

Especially if Drosa learned about his past affiliation with the Cult or if they learned about his little passenger.

Speaking of…

Seth could feel the steadily growing insistence of feelings not his own slowly rising up inside of him.

Hunger. Curiosity. Confusion.

Seth resigned himself to dealing with the problem that he had been ignoring ever since he finished assimilating his new body’s memories.

Turning his gaze to a certain corner of the room, Seth began making his way over to the wooden cage that contained an agitated brown-furred rabbit.

Fortunately, his memories made it rather straightforward for him to call on his mana and cast the appropriate Spell.

“[Pacify Animal].”

It wasn’t strictly necessary for a person to vocalize their Skills in order to use them; utilizing the System mentally was a simple matter. However, verbalizing your Skill was not only simpler and easier than connecting to the System nonverbally, but it was also considered polite by most societies in this world. Verbalizing your Skill was a polite way to allow everyone around you to know exactly what you were doing, and whether or not it was dangerous to them.

This was because everyone knew it was impossible to verbalize a particular Skill and instead use another without high levels in a class like [Deceiver] or [Spy].

However, such classes were rare given that people were not able to freely choose their own classes. Instead, the System only allowed you to take on a class if your life experience qualified you for it.

In order for a person to gain the [Deceiver] class, they would need to consistently and successfully deceive everyone around them for a significant amount of time.

Despite the horrors that they contained, Seth was lucky that he had inherited his predecessor's memories and experiences, otherwise it was doubtful that the System would have allowed him to keep his [Nature Mage] class at all.

Seth pulled his thoughts back to the present as he felt the magic flow through him into the rabbit and quickly caused it to cease its anxious movements.

Seth couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of wonder and awe after casting his first spell.

I doubt I’m ever going to be happy about my impromptu isekai adventure, but being able to cast magic is one benefit I could grow to love.

Unfortunately, Seth found it difficult to fully enjoy the moment given what he was about to do.

You’ve eaten plenty of animals before. This is not all that different. Just make it quick.

Pushing away his hesitation, Seth pulled on the connection that he had with his passenger and informed them that it was time to eat.

Hunger. Excitement.

Slowly, a single crimson-colored vine that was completely covered in razor-sharp thorns pushed its way out of his wrist and began enthusiastically searching its surroundings.

Seth marveled that such a wicked-looking thing managed to emerge from his skin without harming him at all.

Magic is really freaking weird.

The young Bloodvine was not able to sense its surroundings without Seth’s assistance, so he quickly used their mutual connection to share his senses and allow to vine to see the rabbit while also instructing it to feed quickly.

Confusion. Curiosity. Query.

Seth could tell that the Bloodvine was curious about why he had instructed it to feed quickly when he had never done so before. After telling it that this was simply how things would be from now on, the Bloodvine seemed to reluctantly accept his orders.

Seth watched with equal parts horror and fascination as the Bloodvine swiftly buried its thorns into the rabbit and began draining the animal of its blood.

It was a very good thing that the Burping Badger was not the most reputable of Inns and that the [Innkeeper] did not care at all about what Seth was doing as long as he was not making a mess.

However, he still thought it was probably a bad idea for the previous Seth to bring animals into his room to practice nature magic on and occasionally feed to the Bloodvine, even if it was safer than practicing magic out in the woods.

The people of Drosa were barely willing to reluctantly tolerate a relatively harmless [Nature Mage] who kept to himself and occasionally went out into the woods to bring back valuable herbs. If they learned that Seth was not at all harmless and was instead carrying around a blood-drinking plant inside of him that could devour a fully grown man, then he would be lucky if he managed to make it out of the city before the [Mage Hunters] arrived.

Seth turned back his attention to the Bloodvine as it rapidly finished its meal, leaving nothing behind aside from fur, bones, and skin.

Seth expected to feel a sense of revulsion at the sight, but the only feeling that he could muster was discomfort over his own lack of feelings on the matter.

Have I really been that affected by these new memories?

It was probably a good thing that he wasn’t panicking over a dead rabbit given that he would regularly need to feed the Bloodvine in the future, but he really didn’t want to end up becoming like the previous Seth.

Satisfaction. Tired.

Finished with its meal, the young Bloodvine returned back to hiding beneath his skin so that it could go to sleep.

That’s something that I can definitely agree with you on, little buddy.

After storing the remains of the rabbit in a leather bag and resolving to dispose of them tomorrow, Seth sat back and tried to relax as began to plan for his future.

As far as he could tell, there were two overarching goals that Seth would need to work towards if he wanted to be safe.

His first goal would need to be to increase his levels so that he would have to ability to protect himself from the Cult if they ever managed to find him. While this was something that was easily said, it was actually much more difficult to accomplish in reality.

This System of this world did not come with stats or experience or any of the other things that someone might expect from a game-like world. The only things that the System inexplicably granted to the people of this world were their Classes and their Skills.

If a person wanted to level up in this world, then they couldn’t just run around and kill things for experience points. Instead, most people gained levels in their Class by learning and overcoming challenges. For example, a [Cook] who challenged himself to learn how to make difficult new dishes with exotic materials that they had never tried before would level much faster than a [Cook] who never did so.

The challenges and risks of combat could indeed allow a [Mage] to quickly gain levels, but the majority of people who continuously bet their life would eventually end up losing it.

There was a good reason that most [Mages] preferred to slowly gain levels through studying magic in a safe Academy and pushing themselves to learn more difficult spells.

The second goal that Seth would need to pursue was garnering trust with the people of Drosa.

There were no realistic options that would allow Seth to safely remove the Bloodvine from his body, and he was under no illusions that he would be able to hide it for the rest of his life.

He could try to go somewhere else before that happened, but the Magedom of Ivadmore’s aggression had ensured that Seth would need to travel far to reach somewhere more tolerant of Classes that used magic, and actually getting to such lands was unrealistic.

If Seth wanted to have any hope of living a life in this world without feeling the need to constantly look over his shoulder, then he would need to build trust and fully integrate himself into the community.

Seth could feel bone-deep exhaustion settle into him as he contemplated his future; the past few hours had been the longest of his life by far.

Seeing no reason to deny himself some sleep, Seth looked around his room while he got up, closed the blinds on his window, and made his way to the bed.

Random books, papers, and items were strewn around in a disorderly manner. He gave a quick glance to the enchantments on the wooden door and window that would alert him to any intruders before laying down in his bed for rest.

Reaching into his robes, he channeled a small amount of mana into one of its hidden runes and let out a sigh of relief as the [Rune of Cleanse] removed the dirt and dried blood from his body.

Too tired to bother changing out of his robes, Seth closed his eyes and returned to thinking about his plans for the future.

As his thoughts grew sluggish and sleep slowly claimed him, Seth fell asleep with faint hope.

Hopefully, when I wake up, this’ll just be a strange nightmare and I’ll be able to laugh about it with my family.