I filled my backpack with as much as I could carry. Despite its magical properties, I collected only about a tenth of the treasure. I prioritized gems and smaller items of obvious value, knowing their worth-to-weight ratio would be superior.
There was another dagger among the hoard, clearly magical from its faint aura, but when I attempted to examine it, nothing happened. The System—that’s what I’d started calling whatever controlled this world’s magical rules—didn’t acknowledge it as something I could use. Class restrictions, perhaps.
However, I wasn’t completely out of luck. Behind the pedestal where the Intellect Core had rested, buried under a cascade of gold and silver coins, I found a staff of gnarled oak, polished to a warm sheen. My heart raced as a message flashed before me:
[Would you like to bind the Staff of Balance to your core?]
I mentally assented, feeling the connection form between the staff and my newly acquired class core. I ran my fingers along its smooth, twisted surface. I was becoming a proper Gandalf.
I still had little idea what I was doing and wanted to see exactly what these items did for me. Surprisingly, with a mere thought, I brought something like a “status screen” into my field of vision. It displayed:
Dragomir Valdrik
Class: Wizard
Level: 0
Experience to Level 1: 5,000/1 (Level-up available!)
Attributes:
Power: 11 (B10 + 1)
Coordination: 11 (B10 + 1)
Endurance: 11 (B10 + 1)
Intellect: 11 (B10 + 1)
Spirit: 11 (B10 + 1)
Charisma: 11 (B10 + 1)
Spells:
Magic Missile: Deal concentrated non-elemental damage to a single target. Damage scales with level and Intellect. Cooldown: 9 seconds.
Gear:
The Nightwhisper Dagger (Gold-Tier): +4 to Power. Rising Ruin: For each strike on a target, increase the odds of instant death by 1%. Rising Ruin can only trigger once a day. Does not work on enemies of Mythic rank or higher.
The Staff of Balance (Silver-Tier): +1 to all attributes. Base Balance: Reduce cooldown of all spells by 10%. Core Restriction: Wizard.
I frowned, interpreting what all this meant.
What confused me was why I wasn’t leveling up yet. It appeared a mere single experience point was all that was required to reach Level 1, yet the System still showed it as pending. Perhaps I needed to undertake some deliberate action to trigger the advancement—something to research when I returned to Karadesh.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I noticed my cooldown for Magic Missile was now 9 seconds rather than 10—evidently an effect of my new Staff of Balance’s cooldown reduction property.
Looking at my attributes, it seemed they were all being enhanced by 1, again from the staff. But if the dagger gave me +4 to Power, shouldn’t my Power attribute be 15 when equipped?
I focused my mind on the dagger and felt a connection of sorts “snap” within me.
I saw my Power attribute jump to 14—not 15. I had lost the +1 to everything else.
I switched back to the staff, and once again, the numbers went back to how they were.
It seemed I couldn’t benefit from multiple weapons’ enchantments simultaneously. I’d have to choose which to wield based on the situation: the staff for general magical enhancement, switching to the dagger when enemies came close.
I could figure out all these nuances later. Right now, my pack was completely full and, despite its enchantment, impossibly heavy. I reluctantly left behind most weapons and gear, prioritizing gems and as many gold coins as I could carry. Upon returning to Karadesh, I would visit Osman and buy a better pack with this “Featherweight” enchantment in addition to more capacity. I could certainly afford such luxuries now.
A satisfied smile spread across my face. No one on Eyrth knew of this treasure cache. All I needed to do was meet the Varkiss captain at the rocks and explain Sathi’s absence.
But even as I considered this, I realized it wouldn’t work. They would grow suspicious regardless of my deception skills. As Sathi’s kinsmen, they might insist on investigating his disappearance. And if they discovered what remained of him in the cave, not to mention the treasure…
I decided I simply wouldn’t show up. I’d leave the cave immediately and walk all night, bypassing the shipwreck entirely. If I ran into trouble, well, I was hardly defenseless now, was I?
Decision made, I walked toward the mouth of the cave. On my way, I carefully pried several dragon scales from the beast’s corpse, enough to fit in my pack. I was curious what Yasmin would pay for such rare alchemical components.
But I stopped short when, from the corner of my eye, I saw something entirely unexpected.
The portal. It was back.
I approached the mouth of the cave with widened eyes. It was here. It was real. Right where it had been before—a shimmering blue oval hanging in midair, its surface rippling like liquid sapphire.
Why was it back? Now, of all times? Had my slaying of the dragon triggered it somehow? Was there some connection between dragons and these portals that I didn't understand?
For a wild moment, I wondered if my desperate desire to return home had somehow called it forth, as if the universe itself was responding to my need. But that seemed too convenient, too... purposeful. This world had rules and systems; nothing I'd seen suggested it bent to mere wishes.
But perhaps an exception had been made, just for me?
Whatever the reason, here it was—offering me a choice I'd never expected to have so soon.
I stood before it, aghast. Within seconds, I could be back on Earth. Back to Bulgaria. Back to Irina.
But I also felt a twinge of annoyance. I was starting to enjoy myself here, making progress, discovering power. My curiosity burned to see what this world offered. What I could become.
The Wizard's knowledge inside me whispered of arcane secrets yet to learn, power yet to claim. Here, I wasn't just a failed academic or a desperate telemarketer. Here, I could be something more.
Somehow, I knew that if I went through, the portal would close behind me, just as it had before. Indeed, peering inside its eddies, I didn't see collapse and ruin. I saw instead a familiar park close to the flat I shared with my wife and child.
Was I imagining that? Was the portal trying to assure me?
I wondered. Could I bring my newfound treasures with me, or would they lose their powers? Would the gold turn to dust in my world?
I knew what Petya would have done, and probably most anyone else in my situation.
But I wasn’t just anyone else.
I stood at the threshold of two lives, caught between what I’d lost and what I’d gained. Between my daughter’s smile and the intoxicating power I now possessed.
On Earth, I had been a nobody—a failed academic hawking shoddy vacation properties to gullible foreigners.
Here, I was a Wizard who had slain a dragon.
That was evidence that I could be someone more. Someone important.
And Irina…would she really be better off with me? A father returning to a life filled with debt and misery and Elena’s constant disappointment?
Or would she prefer the stories I could tell her someday about this magical world if I found a way to bring her here?
This was proof that this portal, and perhaps others like it, would appear again in the future. Perhaps I could even create them myself as a Wizard.
At last, I sighed, speaking into the blue plane glowing before me. “I’m sorry, my little sparrow. Someday, perhaps, you’ll understand.”
With that, I turned toward the mouth of the cave as the portal disappeared behind me.
It was time to begin my new life as a Wizard of Eyrth.
Wizard rather than a Socialite.
- Throughout the series, his heavy reliance on magic is well-established, so this change fits thematically.
- If I continue his story, it’ll be far more engaging to explore his Wizard class progression rather than revisiting the Socialite path.
- The shift requires only minor adjustments that don’t significantly alter the overall narrative. So instead of Socialite → Wizard = Lexicant, it’s now Wizard → Socialite = Lexicant.