INTEGER UNLIMITED

Buddy turned to face Leo, confused about who would bother them. Though he did turn toward Leo, he did not face him. Leo towered over the dwarf, easily being double his height. This forced the dwarf to look up at him.

The confused look on their faces made Leo wonder if his strategy should have involved the staring. He could tell that his window of opportunity to make a friend in this strange land was quickly coming to a close.

“Hey fellas, beautiful weather, am I right?” Leo struggled to spit out, his anxiety so strong it nearly rivaled him.

“It’s good. The rain cleared up, more sunlight does people good,” Buddy responded, as he gave Leo a slight smile.

“So you’re Buddy, right? It’s nice to meet you, my name’s Leo!” Leo started to sweat, as he hoped he was able to get through the introductions so he could make the lifelong fantasy friendships he read about.

Much to Leo’s discomfort, the smile that Buddy had turned into a frown. It became clear that Leo had already misspoken, though that made sense, considering the fact that he had mis-done everything that led up to this.

“The name is Budmuk, only friends can call me that. It has been nice to meet you, but me and my associate are busy trying to discover what caused this,” grumbled Budmuk, “Have a good day and goodbye.”

Budmuk turned back to work, his companion looked between the two of them. Leo didn’t mean to offend someone he just met, and especially not the first person he met in this world. He was desperate not to ruin this interaction, as his mouth moved before his mind could catch up.

“WAIT!” shouted Leo, “I know what happened to the forest!”

Budmuk turned back to him with an intrigued look, “You know what happened? Please, do tell. Any information helps,” Budmuk said as he turned to a new page on his notepad.

The issue that arises when you speak without thought is the fact that you get yourself into ridiculous situations. Leo didn’t know enough about this world to want to be honest, perhaps he was brought here as some sacrifice, or the destruction of the forest could be a high level crime. They might be tree cops, and they could arrest him for tree murder.

He didn’t want to take such a risk so early, so he decided to lie to them. Leo didn’t know if it was the right move, but he didn’t want to reveal himself, or even worse, miss this opportunity.

“Dragon,” stuttered Leo.

“Dragon?” Budmuk asked.

“Yup, big ol’ dragon. It came right through and dragoned it up,” said Leo, as he wished for a better excuse with each word.

The taller of the two strangers spoke up, his voice was soft and quiet.

His voice was filled with doubt as he asked, “Then where are the burn marks, and why is the path so neatly cut?”

“It’s a new type of dragon, came through and did this,” muttered Leo, as he tried to muster as much courage as possible for a Grandmaster in LoL.

“Where'd it go?” interjected Budmuk, as he stopped his notetaking and looked in awe at the dumbassery that unfolded before him.

“Well, if anywhere, it would have headed up to the Eversunk Mountains, there have been some reports of a dragon recently,” the taller man explained.

“Yup,” Leo said, as he prayed to any God that would listen for his bluff to work out, “it went there.”

“Koram, you can't honestly believe this crap?” Budmuk asked, shock filling his voice.

“I’m not saying I believe it, Buddy, but he could be telling the truth. It wouldn’t do us any harm to check it out,” responded Koram.

“This is unbelievable, you have to be desperate for manure if you’re buying this crap,” spit out Budmuk, exasperated at the conversation.

Koram asked the two, “Well, what if we went there?”

“What?” Leo and Budmuk said in unison, neither of them had expected this conversation to go so far.

“We haven’t found anything of use out here, and there is a possible lead right in front of us. This could be a new species, and it's our responsibility to learn about it,” Koram said, a twinkle of excitement in his eyes.

Budmuk sighed, “Well, we had already planned to go on a trek through the mountains soon. Leo, as the man who allegedly saw the dragon, would you care to join us?”

“Sure, as the guy who saw the dragon, it would be weird if I said no. I guess this is just what I’m going to do now,” Leo responded, as he realized he would be headed out for a dragon he knew didn’t exist.

“Okay, we just need to grab supplies from Irontree for the journey. It’s about 10 days one way with normal delays, so I’ll bring 30 days of food to be safe. I’ll get the supplies ready, you two can prepare whatever you need for the journey,” Budmuk dictated to the two of them.

Budmuk started to walk down the path, as Koram walked by his side. Leo walked far behind them. He couldn’t help but be reminded of school, as he walked behind groups of friends, but never with them.

The rain made the journey simpler, as the wet ground didn’t break underneath Leo’s steps. As they approached, Leo saw Irontree go from a blurry speck to a beautiful bustling village. They strayed from the path Leo created, to a stone pathway through the forest that led to the entrance of Irontree.

Irontree had stunning flowers that were as bountiful as grass, as the smell of food wafted through the air. The townsfolk wandered about and chatted amongst themselves, as children played in the fields as their laughter rang through the air as if it was a beautiful tune.

Budmuk grunted out a noise that Leo couldn’t understand, but when he turned to look, the stout dwarf had already gone halfway down the street. Leo saw as Koram nervously stood by him, seeming unable to start a conversation.

“So, what should we do now?” Leo asked, as he hoped to gain a better look into how this world works.

“Will you need to stop by your house to grab supplies for the trip? Your outfit seems to be heavily damaged, so new clothes may be in order,” Koram said, as he struggled to make any eye contact with Leo.

Leo paused at the question, as he realized that his hoodie and sweatpants had seen better days. Even if he needed an outfit change, he didn’t have any other clothes, let alone a house.

“I’m not from around here, I actually lost everything I had on the way to Irontree,” Leo replied.

This wasn’t technically a lie, but Leo did feel bad about his dishonesty. Despite the guilt he felt, he saw his status pop up in the corner of his eye.

[Leo Eule - Human][Health: 99,999/99,999]

[Class: None][EXP:0 ]

[Strength: 2,147,483,647] {Currently 429,496,729}

[Dexterity: 3]

[Intelligence: 3]

[Charisma: 3] {+1, Deception increased}

[Abilities]

[Curse of the Withered King: Your Strength was permanently set to -2 of current Strength.]

[Conserve Power: You can limit yourself to only 20% of your full Strength.]

He wasn’t certain how he should feel about his stats being so low, especially when compared to his obscene strength score. But even if he was dumb, he was still smart enough to appreciate his improvement.

“Really? I should have assumed you weren’t from around here, considering your odd clothing. I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you,” Koram said, as he tried to make light eye contact and attempted a sympathetic smile, “It may be a bit too tall and thin for you, but I have some old clothes that you could use.”

Leo responded, “Yeah, that sounds great to me, thanks a lot!”

While he looked at Koram, he noticed that the blonde man had large pointy ears. Leo realized that Koram was unarguably an elf, if anime was anything to go off of. He couldn’t believe that not only was this world real, but it really was just like the fantasies he read about.