6 New York City, Its Time To Greet Your New Hero.

Now that I was ready to head to New York and crack some skulls I told my treant friends I would be gone for a little while and that If anyone came by they were to tell them to come back later.

I did not tell Kurama to protect the area because he is coming with me. I know a big blue fox that looks mystical is going to be a strange sight but people are going to know about me sooner or later and Kurama is the least at risk with his ability to travel into the ethereal plane at will.

As for Ma'kala well she knows her job which is to decimate anything that forces its way past my treants. I pity the person who faces off against her.

Making sure I had everything I needed for my journey I grabbed Klatch slinging him over my shoulder where he tightened his hold on me and made sure I had my staff in a firm grip.

Casting Pass Without Trace, me and Kurama started to head toward New York City. Thankfully Raven's camping equipment she gifted me came with some maps and a compass. Once we were walking I remembered I should check the weather to make sure we would get there without any troubles.

After casting Druidcraft a little cloud with sunshine piercing through it appeared before me. Looks like I won't have to worry about any rain but, I should check every couple of hours as different areas will have different weather.

Now that we had a direction to follow I absentmindedly followed Kurama as I thought about some things. Some of the spells I can cast sounded right in dungeons and dragons but now that this magic is real I wonder how they affect me, spells such as Enhance Ability sound simple on paper but in the real world where everything is not controlled by a dice roll its a bit ambiguous on what exactly it does.

I will have to experiment with my spells in the coming month, which is November by the way. You all might be wondering what my reply to Hogwarts was and well I accepted the position but under a few caveats like full access to the hogwarts library, a monthly stipend for teaching, and last but not least an introduction to the Goblins of Gringotts. The last one is practically why I accepted at all and if they don't agree to it I will not go to teach the class, mainly because I believe that rather than wait until I can get the Rogue class and forge my own identity the goblins can magic their way through procedures and regulations cutting the red tape of bureaucracy with their goblin forged words of "NO U" making me legal way faster than I believe I could. Let's just hope the fanfics I have read about goblins are true, at least the ones where they are not trying to stab you in the back 99% of the time.

Another thing I need to check is if I can make magic items or obtain them someway like my staff and if I can only make the official Dungeons and Dragons items since there is more homebrew magic items than there are official, practically everything that one reddit user made on Griffon's Saddlebag is worth dying for. Hell maybe I could make magical objects from other fictions, maybe I should pick up artificer if I want to go down that route.

While I was thinking about this Kurama nudged my arm, looking over at him he turns to the front of us and in front of us was a tree with an oval shaped portal on it's bark shimmering like water despite still looking like bark.

Kurama and I stood there staring at it for a moment before looking at each other and going up to it. Now it might seem reckless to just walk into a random portal you find but I could feel the same energy I felt from Gaea and I have always been fairly adventurous so here goes nothing. Shoving my hand into the portal looking tree thing I felt myself get sucked in and I was in a state of one as I could feel all of the plants and trees within 1000km, as I felt all of this, one of the trees I could feel pinged lighting up like a christmas light.

Focusing on that one tree to see why it was doing that I felt the pull again and I was thrust out of the tree I was in, except it was a different tree and this was not the forest near Ithaca. Looking around I saw some walkways with benches lining them and the occasional trash can. Close to me I saw a sign that said "Central Park" with a map below it, as I finished reading it something pushed me down to the ground. Buried under a bunch of fur it took me a second to get up as tree walking made Kurama dizzy and nauseous, which surprised me since he is used to teleporting and walking between different planes of existence.

Looking back at the tree I saw the portal swirl out of existence and saw a Druidic message twist into shape on the tree that said "Portal To Grove". Well at least Gaea was kind enough to leave me a way back, knowing that made me relax a tenseness I was unaware I had.

Knowing that we were in Central Park short circuited my thought process as I was planning to figure out what I would do on the way here, once I made it here, but now I guess I will have to just wing it.

I wondered if I needed a mask but honestly I think if people had the skills to track me down with the mask having my platinum hair with this hairstyle and a giant blue fox, I don't think a mask is gonna help so I think I will just forgo it.

Searching around I went to another tree with vines growing on it and cast awaken on the vines turning them from regular vines to an Assassin Vine. Now that the vine could move and understand me I asked it to wrap itself around me which it did curling the mass of its body around my legs, arms, and chest before finishing as a robe that wrapped around my body. Telling it to form a hood for the robe but be ready to lash out and strike at my call. This would be my emergency plan since anything within range of it would be screwed unless they had certain powers.

Now that I was ready I started off toward the streets of New York City. Walking around New York more people were snapping pictures than they were freaking out, a lot of them told me my cosplay was cool and asked what kind of animal Kurama is. Needless to say I was incognito . . .

Unlike many of the heroes that I would encounter in this world I did not have a way of travel to utilize yet. Can't wait until Kurama is grown up.

Walking around the city for a while I thought I might meet some thugs or something and save a few people but I haven't found much and I can't hijack some police airwaves, although I could get a police scanner by stealing it or getting a scanner from a pawn shop but I don't want to steal and I have no money for one.

After not finding any crime, probably because I am just aimlessly walking through random alley ways, I walked up to some passersby and asked where the seedier part of town was. Some looked at me weird and walked away, some just shook their heads, but eventually I met a hotdog vendor named Carl.

"You news to the big apple, kid?" Said Carl.

"Yep just got into town." I replied.

"You gots a map?" He said.

"Yeah right here." I said, pulling my map of New York out.

He then pulled out some red and black markers and pulled the map outta my hands before he started to jot down some circles and writing.

"Here ya go, kid, dis is where yous gonna wants to avoid and dez are some of dose landmarks tourists are always wantin to visit." He told me, pushing the map back over to me.

As I took the map someone dropped right next to me and started talking. "Hey Carl, can I get 2 hotdogs with ketchup, some onions, and a bit of relish." Carl replied. "Sure thing Spiderman. Two dogs comin up."

Well I did not think I would meet spiderman here. Unfortunately with him having just dropped in I truly didn't know what to say. Spiderman, however did have something to say. "Nice . . . robes . . . are you supposed to be a wizard or something."

"Druid actually Wizards are more into periwinkle robes and long white beards, I am more partial to plant robes with wood accents and my wooden staff, plus I have a magic fox." I replied as said magic fox popped into view.

If Spiderman was surprised by Kurama he didn't show it. Instead he just looked us over before saying. "So you know magic?"

"Yep." I replied.

"Got any cool magic tricks to show?" He asked.

Looks like Spidey wants me to impress him. After thinking on what spell to cast to surprise him I decided on something showy.

Looking up I held my hand up and extended my index finger and started swiping my finger in the air writing words.

At first spiderman just seemed confused until he heard a gasp and saw someone pointing into the sky, looking up spiderman saw words appearing in the sky formed from clouds. As he saw it he read it aloud.

"How is this for a magic trick, Spiderman." He said before adding. "It even has a comma and period." Looking back at me he seemed about to ask something before he snapped his head to the right and said. "Carl hold onto those dogs I'll be right back." and started to swing away.

Knowing spiderman the only thing that would draw him away like that is some kind of hero situation so I decided to follow him and check what was happening. Although he could probably handle it no reason to shoulder everything on our friendly neighborhood Spiderman if we could avoid it right?

Running a fair bit I arrived at a construction site where I saw Spiderman swinging through tossing webs around. It didn't look like he was fighting, rather it looked as though he was trying to keep the place from falling apart. He was having a hard time too as I saw a metal beam fall and impale the ground.

Going forward I stepped past the crowd and changed into a Earth Elemental and ran forward casting Mold Earth to support the building where some beams were missing. Once I had it stabilized I began looking around to see if anyone was hurt and while I didn't "see" anyone I could feel someone through tremorsense. Burrowing my way through the ground I came to a collapsed stairwell. "Is anyone there!" I shouted. I couldn't hear their voices but I felt more vibrations coming from 3 guys buried underneath there. Hearing a soft padded landing near me I looked over to see Spiderman looking at me.

"There are three people buried in this stairwell. Wanna help me save em?" I asked. Since only I shifted to an elemental the vines wrapped around me are still there.

"What can I do?" Asked Spiderman.

"I am going to lift all of these rocks and you are going to get them out as quick as possible." I replied.

Speaking in Druidic I told the vines to wrap and encase the rubble as securely as possible so I could lift it. "GO!!" I shouted as I heaved up the giant mass of rubble using the vines as to grip it.

Spiderman darted in and grabbed two of them, tossing them out of the stairwell and carefully lifted the third and leaped out of the way just as I was starting to lose my grip.

The mass of rubble slammed down once he was out of the way and I felt relieved I didn't accidently get Spiderman killed.

Looking at the two guys they seemed alright just a couple scratchs and cuts. The third guy however had a pipe going into his chest and seemed to be having trouble breathing.

Spiderman rushed out of the construction site and was about to swing off before I shouted. "Spiderman, wait I can help him."

Spiderman seemed hesitant but walked over and put him down gently and said. "What are you gonna do?"

Walking over I changed back into my human form and pulled out the pipe before saying. "Cure Wounds." Casting it upon him once seemed to mend the bone and lung a bit, casting it twice healed the lung the rest of the way and casting it a third time mended the flesh completely.

Casting spells back to back took way more out of me than casting them normally it would seem because my vision swayed for a moment before I took a knee resting and catching my breath.

Once I had my breath back I looked up to see the three men being loaded up into an ambulance and Spidey came over and said. "Do you need some help?" Looking up at him I shook my head.

People started cheering Spiderman on, but as I looked at the people cheering for Spiderman two black SUV's pulled up and some suits got out of them.

Welp time to peace out since I am not gonna deal with S.H.I.E.L.D right now. "See ya later, Spidey-Boy." I said as I got up and turned around before running off into the construction building and Wild Shaping into a cat.

Going out the back was easy, as when you are a cat, people tend to ignore you. Once I was out and about I started to head for an abandoned apartment complex that was a bit away. I made it about half way before I was snatched up and carried off.

Now you might be thinking the pound got me or some catnapper. Well you would be kinda right as a woman wearing some hippie clothes carried me into the back of a store and went up to another woman.

"Hey Rachel look I found a cat outside just walking down the sidewalk." The woman who has cat napped me said.

"Phoebe you can't just bring in a stray cat you could get fired." Said Rachel.

"No its fine he is just here for a visit isn't that right little cutie." Said Phoebe

"Woah whats up with the cat, I can't get any cat hair on me today, I've got an audition." Said a man with raven black hair.

"Oh stop worrying, just give it a hug Joey." Phoebe said, holding me toward him.

"Hey is that anyway to treat a cat." Said a brown haired fellow before taking me from phoebe and sitting down on this orange couch.

Starting to pet me the man said. "Don't worry Chandler won't let the crazy lady use you as a weapon."

Another woman sitting in a chair across from the couch said. "Chandler I thought you like dogs not cats."

"I do but how could I let a poor defenseless animal be used like that without doing anything." The man known as chandler said.

"Monica, Chandler stole my cat you should punish him." Phoebe said with a pout before walking over to a guitar leaning against a stool.

As she walked over to it I heard Chandler say in a mumble. "And let the torture begin."

Before she could start playing though a man walked in and everyone said. "Hey, Ross."

This Ross replied "Why. . . Why does everyone hate me!" Looking at me he started to make his way over saying. "Oh look who's a good girl."

Reaching out his hand I clawed it for calling me a girl and then darted out of the store before I was subjected to anymore humiliation.

Once I got a far distance away I changed back into a human in a nearby alley way and pulled out my map and started for the apartment complex I was headed for. As I got closer to my destination the city started to look more abandoned and there were some alley ways filled with homeless huddled around fire barrels.

Standing in front of a run down building I made my way in and up a couple of floors before finding somewhere to crash for the day. Telling the Assassin Vine to set up around the door and to watch for intruders I pulled out a bundled up camping kit and started setting it up.

After I had my place set up I decided to take a long rest and regain all of my spell slots and abilities.

Talking to Klatch for about an hour I found that there were some more books I could read and learn from, one of them being Backgrounds, and the other being a book on Proficiencies and Skills. Both books would allow me a choice I could make to add to my knowledge of the world Dungeons and Dragons.

Reading each of the books I went through the various choices before settling on Sage as it fit Druid and would help me to understand my magic further. Furthermore my scholarly training was in being a Professor of Nature. Sage also gave me access to two more languages of my choice which were Draconic and Goblin. Along with this knowledge came a small sack containing a bottle of ink, a quill, a small knife, a set of common clothes, and a small belt pouch containing ten gold coins in it.

Seeing the items that came with the background I said. "Klatch what happened to my items from my class selection?"

"You already have your weapon, Master, It is the staff you use that also functions as a Druidic Focus and you are wearing the leather armor I gave to you when we first met. The explorer's pack that comes with it is stored within me, do you require it?" Said Klatch.

That makes a lot of sense actually. I guess instead of getting a Druidic Focus and two weapons I got a staff that doubles as both of those items and then some. Posing another question I said. "Does this mean I am already proficient in various armor, weapons, and skills?"

"Of course Master you are proficient in Light and Medium Armor, Shields, most simple weapons, Herbalism kit, and you have Nature, Animal handling, Arcana, and History as your skills." Replied Klatch.

Okay I am just gonna ask. "Klatch how do you know all this stuff about me?"

"I know everything about the things I hold, such as this." Klatch replied as he pulled out a scroll of paper handing it to me.

Taking the scroll I unfurled it. It was a character sheet for Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, more than that it was my character sheet. Looking it over it had my real name on it as well as my class and spells I had prepared for today. there was even a bio and description of me.

Carefully I rolled the character sheet up and gave it back to Klatch telling him to stow it away. I do not want to know what happens if that gets damaged.

Something I have noticed since my last long rest was that since I have leveled I can gauge when I will level next. I gained a bit of experience from healing that construction worker and saving his two buddies. I suspect I will have to throw myself into more danger to get more experience, if that is true we will know after tonight.

As I am not at my grove, I can't improve my alchemy or herbalism that much other than reading, instead I asked for a book on cooking from Klatch, thankfully that was a book he had.

Reading this book on cooking was quite interesting as there was a bit of magic in the way you cooked in this book, as in you actually infuse some magic into the ingredients and tools as you cook. All in all it was a really good read and I would have to practice this soon.

Eight hours passed as I ate, slept, and rested while talking with Klatch. It was finally time to go out and earn some cash while crashing a gangs meet up. I had talked with some of the various pigeons and rats around the area while I was relaxing and they told me of some info they had heard or places where they had seen a lot of humans. Sifting through a lot of useless information, I heard two pieces of info that could be a gang. One was about a place with lots of humans with metal bang sticks that had packages of this white powder, the rat I got this from told me his friend died from eating a small chunk of it but not before going rabid. The other piece of info was from a pigeon complaining about these humans at the docks who get really noisy every wednesday.

So I will check out the rats info first and tomorrow, which is wednesday, I will check out the pigeons info and hope one of them has something to do with gangs.