24 2.13

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Standing in front of God, selecting the Return option, I bought ten days of time, for a first exploration. However, I did not immediately get teleported, and instead discovered something new.

I had assumed from my questions to God that I would be teleported not only at the time I had left the mission, but also in the same place.

However, I now had the opportunity to choose where I wanted to appear. The destinations were not very diverse, but that still helped.

To start with, I could only get in Skyrim, despite the game's franchise taking place in an entire continent. I wonder whether the other regions are completely inaccessible or if I could head there in the game.

Not that they had much appeal, as I knew nothing about them.

But even within Skyrim, I could only select 10 locations: the 9 holds of Skyrim, or the main cities, as well as where I had left.

Even though this wasn't as efficient as Skyrim's in-game teleportation, if used well, I could save a lot of time, as traveling between cities took days, according to Ralof.

This also changed things a little.

Canceling the purchase, I said, "Change of plans."

Sarah tilted her head, and I said, "We will only exchange for a single day at first, and we won't teleport in the same place. I want you to teleport to Winterhold, and try to see if you can join the city's magical academy. If you can't, then at least try to learn their requirements. Don't ask the folks about the information though, they are averse to anything related to magic. Head to the bridge leading to the Academy, you should see someone there. Ask them."

Sarah nodded, and asked, "Anything else?"

I nodded, and handed over to her the book I had picked up in a cell under Helgen.

"Sparks?"

"Yes, a Novice Rank Destruction Spell that allows you to shoot lightning out of your hands. You won't need an entire day to learn about the academy, so use your time to learn this. Your progress with it by tomorrow should also tell us about your talent in magic."

I was about to purchase the Return, when I saw Sarah smiling. Confused, I asked, "What?"

She shrugged, still smiling, "Nothing, you're just sweeter than you look."

I… what?

Turning away from her, I said nothing, and quickly bought the return. But as I was whisked away to Skyrim, I'm pretty sure I heard a chuckle from behind.

Troublesome woman.

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I woke up the same way I had left, leaning against the Mage Stone. Remembering what I had told Ralof for what must have been only minutes for him, I quickly set off, to avoid an embarrassing situation.

There was nothing worse than saying farewell to someone and seeing them right after.

So I continued running down the road, going as fast as I could as I was on a timer. I had 24 hours before I would go back to God's Dimension.

And I had things planned, for these 24 hours.

The beginning of the game had three major places of interest to me: Riverwood, Bleak Falls Barrow and Embershard Mine.

Of all my overarching goals, only a single one lay around here, and it was within the Bleak Falls Barrow. However, for my other goals, having Septims would help, and this area was perfect for this.

As for the three locations, the Embershard Mine was the closest, and was naturally my first destination. It was only a minute away from the Guardian Stones, with my speed, and I knew this area like the back of my hand in the game, so reaching it wasn't hard.

This world wasn't the exact same as the game, but it was still very similar. It felt more like everything had been stretched, more than anything, so as long as I was familiar enough with the area, I could still find my way around.

Something else that would certainly help a lot was the presence of actually useful signs. In the game, with Quest Markers and the map, pretty much every player ignored the few signs on the roads. But here, I already saw three of them, all of which showed the way towards the nearby points of interest.

In any case, just like in the game, the front of the mine was guarded by a bandit. It was an Argonian, the lizard people of Skyrim.

As he saw me, he opened his mouth to issue what no doubt would be a warning, but as my full frame came into sight, he took a step back, immediately taking out an iron mace. I guess approaching with my sword on my shoulder doesn't strike a peaceful sight.

Since I had confirmation this was a bandit, I didn't have any remorse as I extended my palm towards him, and used Force Pull.

I had been leaning quite a lot on the Dark Side lately, and it had been steadily growing in power, despite my relative lack of negative emotions. I knew that if I did not control myself and dived into fits of anger, my powers would grow quickly, but I would also lose control.

In comparison, I preferred what I did much more. Instead of anger or fear, I used the darkness in my heart to fuel my Force Powers.

This was something I did not even know I had, although it might have very well appeared only recently. I think it was the reason why murdering people had become so easy, although it might be the opposite.

The Force Pull caught the bandit completely off guard as he stumbled forward, falling to his knees. Before he could raise his head, my sword swung down, severing him from the middle, at his unprotected waist.

Compared to the Imperial Soldiers, this was a joke. Not that they were much stronger, but at least they had good equipment, armors that did protect them. This bandit, like most other bandits, only had a Hide Armor, which left most of the belly exposed.

Well, now he was dead.

Entering the mine, I did not have my hopes up for any meaningful fight, and just as expected, it felt like a breeze.

The bandits were not only several times weaker than me, they also had barely any armor. The only one that came even close to being a slight danger was that one archer on the suspended bridge, but she too ended up dying without putting a wound on me.

But while disappointing in fights, I got plenty of what I came here for. Loot.

I was now 269 Septims richer, got 2 Health, 1 Magicka and 1 Stamina Potions, lesser versions of course, a spell book for Clairvoyance and another book on Smithing, 'Light Armor Forging' from Revus Sarvani and finally three precious gems.

An Amethyst, a Ruby and a Garnet.

So overall, this was quite the haul, especially for such low efforts. Raiding bandits really is a good way to earn a living.

Among all my loot, I found the book on Smithing to be the most interesting though. I hadn't started reading it yet, it's not really the time for that, but if I had the time, I wanted to either pick up Smithing myself, or have one of my teammates pick it up, as it could allow us to make our own weapons, and improve them.

And so, with that small errand done, I headed for Riverwood, the town of the Holy Chicken.