John needed about an hour to learn everything he wanted about this world. Step one was to locate a library. Step two was to read history books inside the library, while sending Jack out to speak to people on the street. Step three was to buy Velka a banana to eat (she did prefer meat, but she was an omnivore). Step four was to read a few more books on history, philosophy and magic of this world.

The Kingdom was called Claryles and consisted only of one large plain and an outer ring of water. The world was flat, like a snowdome, and of a rather small size. The entirety of the Kingdom could fit into the state of New York. The city they were currently in was called the Winged Capital, which was a bit uncreative, but John didn’t make the rules.

There was only a single nation in this world, with the Winged Capital at the centre of it, both geographically and socially. The Kyr were this world’s nobility, protecting the peace while being those that benefited the most from it. Justification for their right to rule were the crystal wings. They gave them the ability to fly, a tremendous military advantage which doubtlessly aided them in their unification of the world.

The head of the nobility and ruler of the world was the Great Winged Lord. Rather than by bloodline, they were chosen by the size of their wings. Which meant that they were chosen by bloodline, because one had been breeding for the largest wings for generations and was now established enough to pull in everyone who was born with above average wings.

It was a pretty backwards society, but it wasn’t an unnecessarily cruel one. The slaves on the fields were exclusively from the Kyr nobility. Everyone else was punished with the usual medieval things, being thumbscrews, lashings or hanging. Mages were weak enough that they weren’t even given their own role in society and the history books mentioned nothing about any magocrats. Like enchantments, Innate Abilities seemed to be exceedingly rare.

However, there were monsters around. Greatest of them all, there was some sort of creature that occasionally surfaced and ate entire villages. The description varied too much to make an educated guess of what it was, outside of very large. It was a legendary monster and sounded like the only thing in this entire Kingdom that John needed to be wary of.

‘Hmm, this world could use a number of social reforms,’ the Gamer thought when he closed the last book he had been reading. ‘It’s not a dire need though. If I leave it alone, it will probably take the Europe path and reform over the next several hundred years. Might as well hurry it along while I’m here though.’

“What are you thinking about?” Stirwin asked.

“How to restructure the society without revolutionizing it so much that this whole Kingdom falls apart,” John answered quietly, not wanting to be heard by the librarian. “Whatever great ideas I have about how to better run this place, they count for nothing if they smash the current stability. I suppose I could try to locate some rebels. Seems smarter to just talk to the king, though.”

The crocodile hummed, while Velka played tag with his tail. The floor was covered in a rough, dusty carpet. It was difficult to appreciate vacuum cleaners and modern looms without having seen the awful, difficult to clean mess that old weaves were. Perhaps it was just a statement about the library. Getting in had cost John a couple of his experimental Tokens. Metal had value across worlds, another reason to get that currency on the road. Finally, Stirwin spoke up again, “Since this is a top-down society, it would make the most sense to start at the top. There isn’t much sense in taking a long route.”

“Going straight into the palace and making the ruler my puppet?” John rubbed the dust off his hands with a thoughtful gesture. “I could become a benevolent Cortés.” The Gamer looked at his infinity elemental. “Or would you rather I pose as something like a fated hero, bringing great wisdom?”

“Let’s try that first,” Stirwin said, his deep voice slipping slightly into a reprimanding tone. “There is no need to replace the head before knowing whether it can think on its own.”

“Odd way of phrasing it, but I agree.” John turned to leave. “Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me,” he told the librarian at the entrance. It was just a nice gesture, as was the wave he received in turn. “I now know the history of your world and I promise it will be forever bettered because of it,” he added. The librarian froze. John stepped out of the door suppressing a snicker.

‘Was that really necessary?’ his scaly conscience whispered into his mental ear.

‘If I am going to become a legend, I might as well drop some lines that fit one,’ John answered. ‘Some mysterious things that sound great in hindsight, you know?’

‘As long as you mix in some good lessons in this religion you are starting in this feudal world,’ Stirwin told him. ‘Don’t focus on your entertainment too much.’

‘Two birds, one stone, right?’

‘Don’t make me gnaw at your ankles, young man,’ he got a joke right back. ‘So, what is your plan, just waltz into the palace? Relying on their want to hear about new innovations could work.’

‘I don’t know, they don’t seem THAT much into the idea,’ John told Stirwin. ‘They didn’t try to directly escort me to their ruler, so they must be only minorly interested in what I can bring. I wouldn’t play to that strength. No, I think I’ll earn their respect by doing things they should think are impossible.’ He set eyes on the keep at the heart of the city. ‘And I have just the tools to do it.’

It wasn’t a long walk from the library to the keep. A hoard of knowledge was understandably close to the centre. The busy crowds that walked through the streets spilled onto a large plaza. Density was lost on the open field of cobblestone and the previously narrowing avoiding people now distanced themselves largely from the out-of-place Gamer, as he approached the retractable, wooden bridge.

From up close a number of things about the fortress revealed themselves as fit for the nobility. There were several entrances on the second and third story, as well as landing pads on top of the towers. All only made sense thanks to the flying ability of the Kyr. For the average citizen, there was a walkway across an incredibly disgusting moat. Hygiene standards of this world were awfully low and much of what was passed seemed to land in the moat. Its vileness was doubtlessly wanted. Everybody who entered that water with the smallest of cuts was guaranteed to get an infection. It was a simple and effective medieval defence strategy, often paired with sharpened sticks under the murky surface.

‘People in the middle ages were pretty smart, even if they hadn’t figured a lot of stuff out yet,’ John surmised. ‘Well, and malnutrition would have sliced a lot of IQ points out of the average peasant’s brain, but that’s neither here nor there.’ John didn’t actually want to approach from the front. Not at this point in time anyway. “Alright, I need you two to wait here,” he told Stirwin and Velka. “Just sit right here.”

Tilting her head, the Magryph obeyed, as did Stirwin. Sitting a few steps from the bridge, the two impressive animals of light and dark colouration (or literal light in one case) were left behind as their summoner/owner left to find an exploitable spot in the castle’s layout. He didn’t have to search for too long. Disturbing as the moat was, it was seldomly more than five metres wide. All John needed was one open window and a piece of brick that had fallen out of one of the nearby walls at some point.

Activating Arcana Ray at a range so low that he could hide the purple energy beam in his closed fist, John let the mana drain from him. He kept a close watch on his interface, waiting for an icon to appear under his HP bar. Once it was there, he waited for a little bit longer. A two appeared on top of the icon. Then a three. Finally, the highest it could go, a four. The Arcana Ray was deactivated and John flung the now Possessed piece of brick across the moat with a casual toss.

It landed inside the building. Then John was inside the building. Shifting Momentum came in handy in situations like this.

The teleportation skill had five limitations. He could only teleport up to ten metres, he had to see the ground he was teleporting to, he had to generate stacks by spending 1400 mana on spells, he could only hold a limited amount of stacks and the stacks would decay after 160 seconds.

“What by the winds…?” he heard a patrolling guard whisper. They had seen him toss the rock, but were now wondering where he had suddenly disappeared to. John had followed the normal ten metres teleport with the two metre that the Skittersteps allowed him to do. His steps silenced and invisible for one second was enough to take two of them. He let himself turn visible for one moment, then teleported with the next stack of Shifting Momentum, Skittersteps and walked another two steps.

He appeared just long enough that the people saw him flicker into existence, but not long enough that they did more than rear their head and wondered if they had even seen anything in the first place. By the last teleport, John stopped in a remote corner of the grey-stone building. Then he waited.

After about ten minutes, a patrol crossed that part of the building. “Hello,” John greeted him nonchalantly, when he came around the corner, “you will answer my questions.” His immediate shock was overtaken within moments by the deep relaxation the Hypnotic Gaze invoked in people whose minds were vastly inferior compared to John’s Charisma.

“Yes,” the person responded sheepishly.

The Gamer looked at the soldier in more detail. His chest was just as naked as that of the overseers, but his muscles were covered in oil and swirling tattoos. They seemed incomplete, as if to indicate that his body was meant to remind him that he still had further to go in life. “Who are you?” the Gamer asked, hoping he would get a bit more out of the answer than Observe.

“Ikyr, 55th sword of the king’s guard, protector of King Roykal the Sixth and his family.”

‘And I am so happy you aren’t a woman,’ John thought, momentarily distracted by the imagination of oiled up harpy breasts and the smooth midriff just below. ‘…This is what happens when my entire harem is knocked out for half a day,’ he reprimanded himself. ‘I go to a different world, try to play divine messenger, but all I can think about is sticking my dick into monster girls I really can’t have without doing things I’m rather uncomfortable with. At least if I want to finish this Adventure today.’

‘You can concentrate on your sexual conquests in another Kingdom,’ Stirwin supported his train of thought with a well-meaning nudge. ‘If you would please continue with your infiltration. Your teleportation shenanigans have made the guards fidgety. I am quite certain they will come out here and see what we are up to any minute.’

‘Is a crowd gathering around you?’

‘Not yet. Do you need one for your plans?’

‘Not necessarily.’

‘Then I will just keep sitting here and stare down into this disgusting cesspool they call a moat,’ Stirwin grumbled into his mind. ‘What use is a moat you can’t swim in?’ Opening his metaphysical mouth, John was cut-off. ‘It fulfils its defensive purpose. I know, John. Continue your interrogation, that would get us closer to our goal right now.’

“Who is the closest confidant of your king?” John asked.

“His spymaster, Lencekyr.”

“Where is that spymaster right now?”

“The dungeon.”

“Describe the way to me,” John ordered and was then given a lengthy description of which corridors to follow and which flights of stairs to go down. “Good. Now listen to me and listen to me carefully. You cannot tell anyone about this meeting. Only by the seven times seventh year of your life may you write down your memories of this day. Only by the seven plus seventieth year of your life may you tell people about this meeting. Your lips are sealed and your mind in service to the divine whole. This is the demand the messenger makes of you.”

“I understand.”

“And if you shall fail to heed this demand, I shall come for you and I shall show you that what you did will bring about the fall of your nation and your seeds and you will see that I need not do anything to bring this doom about and you will know that it was your acts alone that did it.”

“Yes.”

‘What was that about?’ Stirwin wanted to know.

‘Well, the hypnotism is going to wear off, so I have to rely on intimidation.’

‘All you need is for him not to ring the alarm. All of this ‘not write about it until you are 49’ stuff is highly unnecessary.’

‘His memory will be fuzzy by then and make the scene sound more dramatic than it actually was. It will add to the historical mysticism,’ John defended himself as he charged up another four stacks of Shifting Momentum. ‘It combines practical effects with a bit of entertainment on my part.’

The pride-watch crocodile growled into his mind, ‘Don’t treat these people like toys just because you won’t ever see them again. What you just told him will have him stressed for the rest of his life.’

John stopped for a moment and considered that angle. How would he feel if he had just gotten mind controlled and been told that a simple few words could bring about the end of the nation. “Worry not, Ikyr. As long as your intentions remain pure and your heart serves the wealth of all, you shall never know harm from me.” John pulled a ring from his inventory, just a simple piece of Baelementium, and placed it in the man’s hand. “This will bless you, wherever you keep it.”

‘Better,’ Stirwin decided. ‘Gaia shouldn’t let you loose on worlds where you can act unopposed. You help, but you’re a giant dick about it. You essentially turn into the Horned Rat.’

‘That stings,’ John protested.

‘Am I wrong?’

‘No, Celestial Devourer,’ he answered like one of the many light elementals that came to seek the crocodile’s advice.

‘Great that we agree,’ Stirwin responded in a warm voice. ‘Now go find that spymaster. Your plan is sound, I just have to keep preventing you from becoming too much of the enigmatic overlord.’