Locking the door behind himself as he stepped out into the windy alley his workshop was located in, Merrick sent up a quick prayer that that day wouldn’t be the one the building owners decided to finally come change the locks on him. It would be too unfortunate to lose his all the belongings he had the day before he left the Stronghold.

  “Actually.. I better just try to get a little extra copper from the dungeon run. At the very least, I’m sure they’d sell me by belongings back to recoup some of the delinquent rent.”

  The sun was still high enough in the sky to make some headway into lighting up the dingy alley his residence was located in, but dark enough that Merrick had to make it a point to keep his head on a swivel and watch his surroundings. He’d not been robbed there before, having selected an area of medium-bad reputation to settle down his roots. Every coin saved on rent was another for experiments, now somewhat literally.

  Merrick decided it was probably time to check up on his Status page as he jogged his way through the complicated backstreets that made up the almost-slums of Steelhearth. He figured it was probably better to refamiliarize himself with his skills to keep himself humble rather than lean into the manic high granted by his first Merge success. He’d heard plenty of stories of Heros overestimating themselves and falling to their doom because they were riding the wave of their previous victories.

  [Name: Merrick

  Class: N/A

  Path: Hybrid/Crafting

  Level: 2

  Innate Ability: Systema Coniunctionis Duplicatae Supremum v1.1

  Skill Tier/Type: Unique/Growth

  Resources:

  - Health: 100%

  - Magica: 100%

  - Stamina: 96%

  Innate Skill(s): Merge, Skill Log - BAOD

  Skills:

  - Development: (U) Basic Plant Lore 1

  - Collection: Harvest Plant 4, Harvest Herb 1, Sift 3, Mining 1, Field Dressing 1, Fishing 1

  - Combat: Slash 2, Chop 2, Stab 2, Bludgeon 2, Shield Block 2, Dodge 1, (U) True Arrow 1

  - Magic: (U) Channel Magica 2, (U) Meditation 1

  - Production: Blacksmithing 3, Sewing 7, Leatherworking 4, Weaving 4, Butchering 2, Woodworking 3, Fletching 2, (R) Potioneering 11

  - Utility: Toss 4, Jog 5, (U) Speed Reading 7, (U) Quick Math 4, (U) Stamina Surge 1, (U) Improved Reflexes 1, (U) Haggling 4, (U) Sleight of Hand 8

  Spells: Spark Ember, Condense Water, Lure Fish, Smooth Knot]

  It wasn’t much to look at if you asked Merrick, not after half a decade of attempting experiments in order to master his utility skill, but if you asked anyone else they’d say it was very respectable for a 20 year old man. Though, they’d likely lightly chastise him into picking a specialty and sticking to it and likely ask which Blessed Clerk, a Clerk class with an Innate skill that directly benefited such work, he’d visited to get his groups done as he had. They wouldn’t know that his Merge ability allowed him to rearrange his skills as he saw fit, though it only worked for his own as he was unable to affect another individual’s status page.

  His various skills were the result of the church sponsored exploratory apprenticeships, six months each with an experienced Blacksmith, Woodworker, Forest Ranger, Alchemist, Delver, and a Magic tutor. He’d finished off those three years of learning by spending almost a year with his Mother and siblings, burned out from failures and willing to help lighten her load with his simplistic sewing skills.

  Each exploratory apprenticeship had guaranteed him a chance at unlocking the Common skills for the trade, usually in exchange for menial labor provided during those months, and if you were lucky enough to get through the Basic levels, which capped at 10, you could either merge them into a Tradesman skill or be offered an upgrade in rarity. A good example for a skill merge being his Tend Forge, Shape Metal, Temper Blade, and Sharpen Blade skills all merging into Blacksmithing to give him an overall weaker but much more comprehensive skill.

  If you didn’t have enough of the basic skills to be offered a Tradesman skill, which was often the case as it wasn’t exactly easy to earn the Status Page’s acknowledgement and be granted the skill you were attempting to get, you’d have to hope you specialized enough to get offered a rarity upgrade. After Merrick’s reading had reached level 10, with each level offering him a slight comprehension boost toward text, he’d been offered a few different Uncommon upgrades, eventually settling for Speed Reading. The skill then reset to level 1, keeping all of the comprehension bonuses he’d already earned, and would now cap at 25 like all other Uncommon skills.

  Of course, not every skill started at the common rarity. Only those that just about any individual who committed themselves to learning, along with generous help from someone who already had the skill, would be given a Common rarity. For other skills, like his Magic skills or Combat skills that had to be acquired through arduous circumstances, they’d start at Uncommon. It was generally accepted that although you wouldn’t get to keep the upgrades from leveling a Common skill to Uncommon that way, it was better to outright acquire an Uncommon skill in order to save the copious amount of time it’d take to level it from Common and avoid taking the risk of not having an upgrade available. Merrick had been lucky so far.

  “Watch it!” Merrick had to take several steps back to avoid a carriage as he finally exited the side paths onto a larger road. The path he was taking toward the dungeon was a bit longer than it needed to be, but the extra time was well worth avoiding running into any of his debt holders. Obviously, attempting to collect on debt right now would be as futile as drawing blood from a stone but that didn’t stop Merrick from wanting to avoid the drama. He might be planning on fleeing his debt, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel guilty about it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Merrick wasn’t able to keep avoiding human contact for his entire trip toward the dungeon entrance. Although there was a Major market surrounding the entrance, there were also several smaller markets, some official and some not so much, spread around a little farther out. It was unfortunate because everywhere there were people collecting there was a chance he’d be recognized, but fortunate because the many markets meant he could still get shopping, or potion peddling, done.

  Each of the smaller markets had a bit of a specialty, and the one he was traveling through now was known for apprentices selling their goods that were not good enough to be put on display at their master’s shop. Not only was it one of his favorite places to pick up discounted glassware, vials with weird coloration or nonstandard sizing, but it was also a great place to sell his potions. The discolored glass, especially, helped with his sales since his Merge dust-based potions were almost always a different color than the generally accepted recipes. It was far easier to sell a light green colored potion of healing when the contents were almost indiscernible from the normal ruddy red color.

  Unfortunately, he’d sold most of his most recent batch, all that didn’t fit into his 15 slot bandoleer, to buy goods to build up his dust stores before travel. He still didn’t know how his potions, or the dust for that matter, would react to Nexus Portaling but he was most than willing to make an educated guess that the unmixed, raw product was more likely to survive the transportation unaltered. Not to mention, the potions tended to have better effects if they were consumed closer to production.

  “Merrick! Over here, buddy!” an overly cheery voice called out to him as he was attempting to slink his way between two rickshaw market stalls that were both selling food, one peddling glazed mystery meat skewers and the other dry-rub grilled mystery meat skewers.

  Sighing to himself and mourning his failed stealth mention, Merrick ran a hand through his sandy-brown hair to straighten it out and turned around with a forced smile on his face.

  “James! Hey there, I didn’t see you when I was passing through. What’s going on?” Merrick asked with false enthusiasm. He was never much of a fan of the pleasantries people exchanged to feign closeness, but he’d learned that greasing the wheels of the social machine made other parts of his life easier and so he treated it like a necessary chore.

  “That’s what I was going to ask you. I would have thought you’d be holed up for at least another week considering how much you bought last time you were here. While you’re here though, do you have any more of that Wood Polish potion you make? Master Kendrick really likes the way it stains the grain when I’m working on higher end arrows.”

  James was a local Bower’s apprentice, though he still hadn’t graduated away from fletching arrow shafts. Merrick semi-frequently traded a potion he called Wood Polish for James’ subpar shafts since they dusted for a favorable ratio of Corporis, Recurvo, Vita, and Lignum dusts, though at random ratios. If he tried to Merge the raw materials, he’d not receive any of the Recurvo and frequently missed out on Corporis as well, so trading for the processed products was best.

  Luckily the potion itself only needed Recurvo and Lignum to produce so Merrick was able to carry the Corporis and Vita over for other projects, both of which primary ingredients in his various healing potion recipes.

  “Ahh, no. Like I said, I won’t have any in stock until sometime next week. What about you? I’d have thought with how much you traded for that you’d be stocked up for a while as well.” Merrick had run a bit of what he’d taken to calling a fire sale, trading at a better price than usual for anyone willing to swap potions for products a few days prior. James had cleaned him out of Wood Polish, Wrist Relief, and Wood Drier, all products that he was able to craft with the byproduct of failed Merges using wooden materials.

  “About that.. after seeing the prices you had for the day I kind of blew through my entire stock of fletched shafts, including the ones I was supposed to turn into Master Kendrick for the week. I figured I had enough wood to make up the difference but I fell a little short. I’m meeting up with Mary and Rod to scavenge the first few rooms of the dungeon.” James had the wherewithal to look bashful as he explained his predicament, likely thinking he’d taken advantage of Merrick’s self-declared ‘financial hardship’ that lead to the sale.

  Of course, James had no way of knowing how little it took to produce the products he purchased, nor that the sale was to lighten Merrick’s load for the undisclosed travel coming up. He’d done a good job being super evasive about his production process, offloading credit for the recipes to his fictional ‘Traveling Master Alchemist’, who also ‘ran his own caravan’ which he used to justify his weird purchases of subpar products, declaring that his master sold them to smaller non-stronghold settlements for a decent markup.

  “Oh, good luck with that!” Merrick smelled a forced social interaction incoming and immediately activated his evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately for him, James happened to be heading to the same destination and followed the same route as him.

  After ten minutes of small talk, Merrick’s sworn enemy and greatest weakness, he spotted Mary and Rod, friends of James, in the distance. His eyes lit up and he made ready to take off, only to feel a hand on his shoulder.

  “You know, Merrick, I’d almost think you didn’t consider us friends by now. It’s pretty obvious that you’re heading to the dungeon as well, considering the empty pack and the sword I never see you carrying. You don’t have to be so shy about asking to tag along with us, we’d be more than happy to take you along.”

  The tone of mild disappointment and firm grip on Merrick’s shoulder told him it would be difficult to give no for an answer. Truthfully, a larger party would be much safer and would even allow him to potentially kill a few spawns and collect coins. He only needed to figure out a way to explain his gathering of eclectic experimentation supplies and utilize his sleight of hand skill to fib a ‘Bronze Coin’ drop.

  “James! Oh, Merrick!” Mary’s soft and excited voice confirmed that they’d been spotted in turn, thus locking in Merrick fate. Oh well, he’d do his best to enjoy his last day with the closest thing he still had left to a friend group before fleeing the Stronghold and changing his identity.