Greetings, heroes of another realm. I have summoned you __ to fight for a great cause. _____upon your world and heard your discussion of besting a black dragon. I was greatly ____. I am sorry to force this summons upon you, but scrying across ______was incredibly costly, and I can't imagine what would be required to _____So, all I can do is this message scroll. I hope you can forgive me in____ and join me in this righteous cause. ______great danger coming to this world. I am afraid the common people are _______equipped to_______We are in dire need of __who can ___great feats and defy the odds. When you adjust ___ world, come and find me at the ____tower of Northsong. _____ well. I will see you soon.

  Jed was... ok. He wasn't an expert tracker, as much as he pretended to be, but he did have something impressive. It was an Eagle Eye skill. He could spot details from far away. The team walked through the forest as Jed pointed out deer right on the edge of what the others could see. The deer turned and stay out of normal sight, so the others would have never known they were there. Zig wondered aloud if deer had sharp teeth. Gretta looked at him strangely.

  "Of course they do, Zig. How else would they eat?"

  Zig tried to explain that some animals, himself included, did not have sharp fangs and did just fine with normal (to Zig) teeth.

  Jed listened in with a slight frown. The team hadn't explained Zig's strangeness to Jed. There was something off about him. The gold ring and green shirt looked more at home on a noble compared to the rough brown clothing the others wore. He also didn't look Zig in the eye, but preferred to speak to Hepp or Gretta instead.

  The team walked through the forest, looking for tracks and traces of wolves. They didn't need to complete this quest, they could have gone back to the guild for something easier. But Zig never gave up on a challenge. The harder something was, the better he felt when he finally did it. As they walked, he thought about the message in his dreams. The previous night, Zig had the dream again. This time, it was Jed running after him, waving the scroll. That was weird, because up until now it was always a creature that had tried to kill him that chased him in his dreams.

  The message was much clearer now. Zig could make out almost all the words. Someone had summoned him from Earth. Someone had... heard him discussing a black dragon? Zig almost walked into a tree. No way. Someone had heard Zig talk about defeating a black dragon, in a damn game, and thought Zig was the hero this world needed. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. "Great danger" and "dire need" didn't sound good. He hoped this person would manage to solve their problems without Zig.

  "Slow up," Jed said softly. The team stopped walking. "There's a pack of wolves up ahead on that ridge. I think they'll just move away if we approach them directly. We should... We should split up. Hepp and Gretta, you can move up that slope to the right, Zig, you and I can come up the left. If we can't get them directly, at least we can scare them into the team coming from the opposite side."

  It sounded like a good plan. The team split up and Zig followed Jed into the trees. Zig bent down and picked up a rock. They crept toward the wolves, trying not to be seen or heard. Jed was leading them, but somehow Zig ended up in front. They got closer and closer until they could hear a low growl. Zig looked up from his creeping and saw two wolves stalking him as much as he was trying to stalk them. There was an awkward pause, and then the wolves lunged forward. Zig quickly stepped back and swung the rock in his fist. It hit one of the wolves in the jaw with a loud crack, and it flew sideways with a cut-off yelp. The second wolf missed Zig's throat, but landed on Zig and the two of them fell over. Zig grabbed the wolf's snout and tried to hold its jaws shut while they wrestled. It wasn't going well. The wolf was clawing at Zig, and Zig couldn't spare a hand to pick up another rock. They wrestled for quite a while, until Zig found a position where he could kick the wolf away and lunge for a stone lying on the ground. He kicked hard, reached over for the rock, but didn't need it. There was a yellow flash and the wolf went still.

  Panting and reeling from the near-death moment. Zig looked around wide-eyed to see Jed, standing a safe distance away, looking quite unharmed.

  "Where were you? I almost died!"

  Jed pointed to the side, where a third wolf lay. Wolves always circled around you. Zig remembered a soldier in the army mentioning that. So Jed was just... taking care of the ambush? Zig still didn't like how untouched Jed was, while he himself was covered in scratches, bite marks, and all the clothing in his front was torn to shreds.

  "I'm glad you're ok, Zig, I stopped this third wolf just in time to see you wrestling that one. They aren't dead, by the way, I only know a stun spell."

  Jed drew a knife from his belt and went over to finish off the stunned wolves. Zig stayed on the forest floor, just watching. Jed killed the one near him, and walked over to the one Zig had been wrestling. As he neared Zig, holding the bloody knife, Jed paused for a moment. Zig felt all kinds of weird senses tingling, but Jed just continued on to the other wolf and cut the throat.

  They caught up with the others, and Gretta's shield had a few claw marks but they were otherwise ok. Hepp sighed as he saw Zig's chest, which was a mix of blood and rags.

  "Zig, adventuring's not profitable if you need healing every time. You ok?"

  "I made the rookie mistake an adventurer should never make, Hepp."

  "What's that?"

  "I didn't stay close to Gretta."

  The team began a grisly work of skinning the wolves. The pelts were worth ten copper each, so six of them would end up doubling the quest reward of three silver. Zig had seen more blood coming into this world than he had his whole life back home. They took two pelts each, pressed them together nasty-side to nasty-side, so that only soft fur touched anything, then rolled them up and stuck them in their backpacks. Zig broke off the biggest teeth from each animal too, and pocketed them.

  They went to meet the farmer who had set the quest to kill the wolves. It was the same farmer that had set them on the horse.

  "Do you make all the quests for Lancre?" Zig asked incredulously.

  "Ho! Ha, no, but I do make a lot of them. It's good fun, and it lets me meet people like you."

  The farmer, Haggold, led them around the back to see the horse they had caught for him.

  "I named her Teeth. She's a beauty. I haven't had the courage to untie her yet, but she seems to have calmed down a bit."

  The horse eyed Zig like she was going to murder him in his sleep, which was indeed an improvement from the previous "I will murder you right now" look she had before. She looked... bigger.

  "Is she pregnant?"

  Haggold beamed with pride.

  "Sure is. She must be a real monster, because I've gained several skills just for having her on the farm. Beets are not my focus now, you're looking at Adept Monster Farmer Haggold."

  Haggold looked a bit bashful all of a sudden.

  "It's all thanks to you lot, you know? I didn't expect anyone to actually catch the beast. It's worth a lot more than I paid you. I'll pay you back, soon as I can. In the mean time, if you manage to catch any more beasts, I'd love to take them off your hands. You can count on old Haggold!"

  The beet-turned-monster farmer hurried into his house, and returned with the three silver for the wolves, along with four bags of beets as a bonus tip. Jed spent the whole time looking at the monster horse with a disturbed look on his face.

  "You guys caught that thing?"

  "Mostly Zig." Hepp replied cheerfully. He pulled a beet out of his bag and took a big crunchy bite. The others stopped to stare, but Hepp wasn't phased in the least.

  "I grew up with this. You get used to it."

  Zig shrugged, and decided to put his Eat Anything to good use. He started munching on one of his own beets, which convinced Gretta to try. Her expression spoke volumes, and she tucked the beet with a bitemark back into her bag. Jed didn't try at all. He kept looking from the horse to the Zig munching down on a raw beet.

  They left the farm in good spirits. Jed promised to meet them the next day at the adventurer's guild, and took a different direction as soon as they came inside the city gates. Zig watched him go.

  "What do you think about Jed?"

  "Good eyes," Hepp commented.

  "Weird," Gretta commented.

  "Felt like he might have killed me, if he had the chance," Zig commented. He was still torn up and bloody from the fight with the wolf. Jed had stepped in to stun the wolf, but only at the last minute when Zig was about to get a rock and turn things around. So did Jed save Zig? Or did he just give up hope on the wolf? Was Jed secretly a wolf tamer? Were they Jed's wolves? Was Zig getting paranoid?

  They didn't have enough gold to heal Zig again, it would leave them completely broke. So he'd have to bear the scratched up torso for a while. He did need new clothes, that was non-negotiable. They went to the market square, and instead of the rough brown wool he picked up in the army, Zig spent a whole silver on some finer clothes. A beige tunic and brown pants, still shades of brown, but softer and closer to cotton. The colors suited Zig, he thought they might help him blend into the forest whenever they needed some stealth. They found a vegetable merchant and sold most of their beets. Hepp and Zig kept a couple for snacks later.

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  "I wish I could show you snacks from back home, Hepp. You'd never eat another beet again."

  "But you've eaten snacks from your home, and you're eating a beet right now."

  "I'm broadening my horizons." Zig gestured vaguely. "Plus it's fun to see what I can eat with my Eat Anything skill."

  "...you have a legendary skill and you use it to eat beets."

  "Yup."

  They browsed the stalls, looking at the different vegetables. They all looked similar to Zig, not quite the same but similar. They didn't have a kitchen, they just ate at inns and the adventurer's guild, so Zig hadn't tried cooking anything in this world. When they went outside of Lancre, they just brought food they could eat without cooking, like fruit and jerky. And beets.

  After the vegetable stall there was one full of wood carvings. Some were decorative, like a wooden horse, with tiny little wooden fangs poking out of its mouth. Others were functional, like wooden spoons, cups, bowls, and plates. Zig picked up a cup and noticed a dark smooth coating on the inside. Some kind of wax, to make it water tight? Zig thought back to his jars of goblin goop, as he started to fondly call them. He had a flammable pitch, a sticky tar, and a purple goop that glowed like the shaman's staff had. A waterproofing wax would go nicely with his collection. He asked the merchant about it, and the man shrugged and offered his half-used jar of beeswax for twelve copper. Zig smiled with a glint in his eye. His goop collection was growing.

  The next stall over was weapons. Zig knew that a single rock would defeat all these shiny blades. Rock beats scissors indeed. But there was an elegance to a steel blade, etched with carvings of a lion. The handle was a lovely bronze color, and there was a red silk tassel at the end of the handle. Zig checked a little card next to it displaying the price. Six gold, eight silver. Zig backed away slowly. Rocks seemed like wonderful things. He looked at other weapons. There were a lot of knives, some spear heads, other more simple swords of various styles. The merchant was eyeing Zig's clothing and trying to figure out whether to shoo him away or not. Zig seemed to barely make the cut. The merchant gave him a nod.

  "Anything you're looking for boy?"

  "Just browsing, I think. But, I have a question—it makes sense to get a weapon if you have a skill for it, but you'd only get such a skill if you used that weapon. I guess I'm asking which comes first, the skill or the weapon?"

  "Ha, good question! Some people have skills that transfer to new weapons. Heavy Blow is a great one, no particular weapon needed. Arc Slash would limit you to bladed weapons, you can't really slash with a cudgel. Some people do just pick something and hope to get the skill later on. What's your budget? Maybe I can suggest a few things."

  "Budget is, ah, flexible at the moment. What are your cheaper options?"

  "Well, nothings cheaper than a club. Just a shaped stick, really. Add some spikes to it, that'll cost," the merchant looked Zig up and down, "six silver. You don't strike me as a club sort of person though."

  "I don't?"

  "No, you're a more refined type, something with more finesse. Let's see."

  The man offered a set of very thin daggers for Zig to hold, chuckled, shook his head and took them back. He gave Zig a halberd and again shook his head as Zig tried to swing it and almost lost balance. He went through various weapons, but Zig felt like he was aiming for something. Eventually he reached for the rapier with lion carvings that Zig was first admiring. He asked Zig to slay a melon he set on a wooden crate. The weapon felt light and comfortable in Zig's hands. The tassel flashed as he defeated the melon with a single strike. Of course it was Zig's preference. It was the most expensive thing the merchant had. Zig handed the blade back with a sad smile.

  "That's the one, for sure. But I don't have six gold. Not yet."

  "Hmm, I see, well I could part with it for... five gold ten silver?"

  The merchant eyed Zig hopefully. But Zig just gestured at the scratches poking out from under his shirt.

  "First priority is healing, unfortunately. Maybe soon?"

  The merchant accepted defeat graciously, and promised that if nobody else bought the blade, it would be waiting for Zig. Hepp bought some more arrows from a fletcher, and Gretta got some kind of resin goop that hardened on the outside of her shield, filling in the scratches and making the shield stronger than just wood. Zig stared at the goop with naked jealousy.

  The next week was filled with small quests. Basic quests, Hepp called them, matching quest difficulty with the same rankings of power that skills came in. Zig could move around, but wasn't his best with a chest full of scratches and claw marks. Some of them were healing up. Some were turning blue and green. Gretta offered a tonic that might help with the infection, but Zig remembered how potions did nothing to him. That skill seemed more curse than blessing.

  Jed joined them, not talking much but helping out with his Eagle Eye skill and stun spell. Zig wasn't super comfortable with him on the team, but it helped get things done, and they didn't have any more mishaps like they had with the wolves. The reward money was often half a silver each at the end of the day. Zig tried to calculate how much he'd need for the healer. All his savings came to four gold, which was a lot when a meal was a copper or two. But last time his leg cost four gold to heal, although he'd gotten around that by offering the glowing dagger. So either he wouldn't have enough, or it would leave him completely broke to heal the wounds on his chest.

  "Hey Jed, how'd you learn that stun spell? Is there a healing spell I can learn, like the healer does?"

  They were pulling up carrots for a farmer. It wasn't even adventurer work, the farmer just needed some extra hands. Jed seemed the least comfortable with this kind of work, but he managed to spot a rabbit and stun it before it took a bite out of Hepp.

  "Learning spellwork requires a few things, if you really want to take that way. You need a mage guild or tower or something, you go away and study for years and come back knowing a spell or two."

  Jed wiped his brow, annoyed that pulling carrots was actually physically demanding.

  "...or you can buy a spell scroll. Teaches you a spell instantly. My father gave me a scroll for stun. It's a family tradition thing."

  "What? Can you give the scroll to us? Four people with stun spells sounds like a great idea."

  "Scrolls are a one-time use deal. The magic jumps from the scroll to the person. If you want the spell, you need to buy another scroll."

  "I didn't see scrolls at the market, where do you buy them?"

  Jed snorted.

  "Not in Lancre. Spells can cost hundreds, thousands of gold. The most basic magic arrow might be fifty gold? It's a lot of money. You only find them in the big cities."

  "Oh. Sounds like a long-term goal."

  "It's not just buying the scroll either. People have different levels of magical strength and mana. Some of it's training, some of it's getting lucky. I get dizzy if I cast stun five times in a day."

  The sun was sinking late in the afternoon, but the field still had a lot of carrots. Zig had an idea.

  "Ok gather round team, we're going to have a competition. Whoever gathers the most carrots from now on, gets a free meal from everyone else. Deal?"

  The adventurers nodded, their dirt-covered hands twitching. They were ready to be done with the harvest, but even more so they were ready for a friendly competition. They spread out, and Zig counted down.

  "Three, two, one, go!"

  The adventurers started rushing through the fields, turning neatly ordered rows into mush as they ripped carrots out of the ground and threw them into piles. Gretta had a big lead at the start, and Zig wondered if she was cheating with her lower height. She didn't need to bend down as much as the others. She tired out quickly, though, using up all her energy at the start of the race. She started to fall behind as Hepp came in the lead. He wasn't sprinting, but he had a practiced rhythm of someone who grew up on a farm. Jed had the smallest pile. Zig eyed Hepp and picked up his pace, desperate to prove he was more than just a rock thrower.

  They raced into the setting sun. Zig grew wild-eyed, snatching carrots and throwing them into his pile with reckless abandon. After a day of being hunched over and doing slow, methodical work, he was pouring everything he could into this. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head, which made him trip and fall into the muddy soil.

  New skill acquired! Bountiful Harvest (Legendary)

  No way. It had been weeks since that fateful mountain accident. Zig hadn't received a single new skill until now. Bountiful Harvest? Zig spat out a mouthful of dirt, and pushed himself up onto his knees. He reached out to the nearest green shoots, grabbed and pulled. There was a bit more resistance than normal, but he tugged up a thick bunch of carrots. A really thick bunch. Usually he'd pull up two or three at a time. There had to be seven or eight in this bunch.

  Zig kept lifting, and something—roots or leaves—snagged on a neighboring plant, and as Zig pulled further, another bunch of carrots, just as big, came out of the ground. Zig stared with a stupid smile at the large bundle of carrots now in his arms. Hepp hadn't noticed. Zig threw the carrots onto his pile and returned to the row he was harvesting. This time he worked slower, a nice moderate pace. His pile reached Hepp's size in no time, and Zig kept going. He finished the row, and then did one more. He looked back at the pile of carrots that would barely fit in a cart.

  "Well, that's ridiculous." He said to himself.

  Hepp, Gretta, and Jed all stopped the race to come examine Zig's giant carrot pile.

  "This is insane. You are insane, Zig." Hepp said softly. "You must never meet my father. He'd hire you and never let you leave."

  "Shave my beard and call me a human." Gretta exclaimed. "Is that it? No more adventuring, we're farmers now?"

  "We're adventurers, Gretta, always will be. We'll just have to find a use for... this." Zig gestured at all the carrots.

  Hepp went in to the farmhouse to negotiate with the farmer. The deal had been eight copper to harvest the field, but they revised it to two silver when the farmer came out and saw how many carrots his field was producing.

  "What a waste," Jed whispered to himself, staring at the pile of carrots.

  "What's that, Jed?"

  "Oh nothing, Zig. Hey, um, I've been noticing your wounds. They aren't looking good Zig... I think you need a healer. How about this, since you've clearly won this race, how about I take you and pay for the healing? Don't worry, I can afford it. Really. You got those when the two of us were fighting together, so I feel a bit responsible anyway."

  Jed did seem like the type that could throw down gold. Zig didn't understand why he was still with them. They were plucking carrots for coppers. But free healing? That was a nice gesture. Perhaps Zig had been wrong about Jed?

  Gretta and Hepp waved them off and went to have dinner with the farmer, with many toasts to a good harvest. Zig and Jed headed into town, toward the center where the healer was.

  "Thanks Jed. I really appreciate it. I know we've been keeping you at arms lengths a bit in terms of the team, but..."

  The two had ducked into an alley, at Jed's suggestion, as a shortcut between two main roads. Zig didn't finish his sentence. Jed turned to him, and suddenly there was a yellow flash, and Zig was frozen stiff. He couldn't move a muscle, and nothing stopped him from toppling over and hitting the ground.

  "That's... That's it? No resistance? I could have done this the whole time?"

  Jed made a cry that was half victory, half frustration.

  "I've been pulling up carrots like a peasant."

  He kicked Zig savagely. There was a small sound further down the alley, and Jed looked up, but relaxed when he recognized the man coming toward him.

  "Put him in the cart. Bind him up. The stun should last five minutes or so, and I don't want him above to move or scream when it fades."

  Zig's hands were tied, and he was wrapped up in some sheets. The two men lifted him into a cart, and a covering was put over the top. The cart started moving, and a few minutes later, when Zig was just starting to feel some movement come back into his hands, a corner of the cover lifted. Zig looked up into Jed's eyes as another yellow flash paralyzed him all over again.

  When the covers lifted for Zig's third paralysis, he could see that they had already left the city behind.