I walked towards White Rose, followed by Arnold, who was now carrying Laura in a piggy back ride. The two clearly liked each other, I’m starting to wonder how the two didn’t become a couple earlier… Arnold just needed a nudge in that direction. An opportunity, and he took it and showed his love for Laura. It was really cheesy, smooth If I may add, but cheesy nonetheless.
I entered the inn and noticed that it looked like a tavern, or a bar, some noisy men were drinking merrily while eating their lunches. When Arnold entered however, the noise died down, You could almost hear a pin falling
“What happened to her?” The old man in the counter was glaring at Arnold.
Arnold could only flap his mouth open and close, while looking for a suitable answer to escape his predicament, the men who were drinking before are now glaring at him – and me as well.
He looked at me as if asking for help; he pleaded me with his eyes.
I shrugged, and said, “He kissed her. “ I said quickly and clearly.
“FINALLY!” Someone shouted, the tavern erupted in cheers and whistles.
This is not what I was expecting. Well, I expected it a little bit, but you know what I mean.
I walked towards the counter where the old man sighed in relief. He asked me, “How did that happen specifically?”
“I gave him an opportunity, “ I answered briefly and shrugged again, “By the way, I need lodging, How much?”
“Thanks lad, I never thought they would be together, he never approached her that much and she never showed her feelings,” He shook his head thanked me, “Now then, how long is your stay?”
“No problem,” I gave him a thumbs up, “For seven days please.”
“That would be 3 bronze coins, “ He calculated using his hands, “And what did that gesture you did earlier mean?”
Education isn’t widespread here huh, they still count using fingers. I handed three coins that I think were bronze. I got them from the thieves. I handed them over and said, “The thumbs up?” I repeated the gesture, “From where I came from, it means approval of something or simply a ‘yes’ “
“Okay, that's 3 bronze coins, thanks, hope you enjoy your stay, “ He nodded at my explanation and said, He then reached towards a wooden drawer behind the counter, “Here’s the key to your room, it’s the last room on the right on the second floor, the toilet is at the back of the building and food comes at sunrise, noon, and sunset, after looking at your room, come back down, it’s already lunch.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at the old man, received the keys and noticed that Laura is gone and Arnold was talking to some of the drunken guys who were asking him questions, he probably brought her back to her room already, this is her house after all.
I went up the stairs and into my room, I used the key on the knob and the door opened, it wasn’t grandiose nor was it shitty, if there were words for it, it would be ‘plain’, but the nice kind of plain, alright?
It was about 4 meters wide and 4 meters long, it might be a little bit cramped for some but it was perfect for me, there was a bed right across the door and a window overlooking the bustling town below was beside it. I went towards the bed and touched it. It was made from some sort of soft material, probably wool, it wasn’t as smooth or soft as those back on Earth, no, it would pale in comparison, but it’s comfortable enough for me, It was around a meter and a half wide and 2 and a half meters long.
At the right side the wall, there was a desk and a gas lamp. A chair was placed under the desk. The walls, ceiling and floor was made from some kind of hard wood.
There were two pillows in the bed and I decided to lay down on it for a while. I almost dozed off when I heard my stomach grumbling, ‘That’s right I haven’t eaten yet…’
I stood up and opened went out of the room.I locked it using the key and walked down the stairs, I went towards the counter where food were displayed, I picked a dish of rice and fried pork. It was self-service, I got an iron spoon and fork from a container at the side of the counter.
I noticed that Arnold was nowhere in sight, The old man said that he already went home after chatting a little bit and buying some food.
Finding an empty seat, I sat at the chair and started eating. The rice tasted differently than those back on earth, it was bland. I could eat it, without much thought, but it was bland, the pork tasted a little better but it also didn’t taste the same like those back home. It still tasted like normal pork but it was just that, plain pork without any real taste. Because of this, I realized that agriculture and cooking in this world is absolutely very far behind.
I finished eating, thanked the old man and went back to my room, next time, I need to find spices.
----------------------------------------
After locking the room from the inside, I took off my vest, I noticed that the chill flower inside the secret pocket haven’t even wilted a little bit. I forgot to ask Arnold about it. I’ll try tomorrow, I placed the vest it the chair and lay down on the bed, I set my lets in a 4 position and put the two pillows under my head.
I need to analyze my ‘Status’…
“Status”, I looked up the ceiling and muttered, the same ethereal black screen appeared.
Looking through the tabs, it seems that it changed a little bit.
The first change would be my level:
Level:
17(15)
It increased by two… hmm… was it because of the thieves I killed? I used my appraisal skill on the word ‘Level’
Based on experience and skills.
A tiny black box appeared beside the status screen. It only gave me a brief description. It seems that my level increases as my skills and experience increases and not the other way around.
After looking at my Level, I looked over to my stats:
Stats:
Strength:
50
Agility
67(66)
Defense:
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30
Endurance:
30(29)
Magic:
57
Intelligence:
61
If you noticed, not much changed except for both my endurance and agility, probably from all my walking and climbing. The parenthesized numbers beside them were the previous stats. Can exercise also increase stats? As much as I hate to train, I need to increase both my defense and endurance.
Alia did say that stats can change easily; they’re relative to the average human’s statistics.
Anyway, next to see is this ‘skills’ section. It looks like it changed a quite a lot.
Skills:
Acquired:
Throwing(Lv.2)
Shooting(Lv.5)
Sneak(Lv.3)
Hide presence(Lv.3)
Knife techniques(Lv.2)
Dagger techniques(Lv.1)
Hand-to-hand combat(Lv.2)
Reconnaissance(Lv.2)
Deception(Lv.1)[new]
Climbing(Lv.1)[new]
Aura(Lv.0)[new]
Archery(Lv.0)[new]
Innate:
Ranged Attack Up(Lv.3)
Unique:
Integration(Lv.1)
Assimilation(Lv.2)[1+]
Gifted:
Appraisal(Lv.2)[1+]
I got new skills and other skills… leveled up, I already know the uses based on their name, but some are enigmas. I got the ‘Climbing’ skill from… well, climbing trees, and the deception skill probably from lying to Arnold about myself, yeah, I’m not guilty for what I did.
I used appraisal on the ‘Aura’ skill first.
To coat one’s body with magic to reduce damage dealt by an opponent.
Oh! So it acts like armor huh? I’ve never used it though, so how did I get the skill? And it’s not even at level one…
I decided to appraise the unique skill ‘assimilation’ next.
Gives a random skill from someone that the user has killed. Skills will be on 2 levels below the original. Higher levels of Assimilation will allow the user to get higher level skills and the ability to choose which skill to assimilate. If the skill level is equal to or less than 2, the user will recieve the skill at Lv. 0.
The user can assimilate 2 skills of level 2 or below per day.
Oh, now that’s a good skill. Is this why the goblin was able to decrease the energy of the bullet that I shot? Though, how can I even know what skills a creature has? Can appraisal do that? Let’s try it tomorrow.
I tried to appraise ‘integration’ next.
Combines and integrates 2 or more level 5+ skills into a new and better skill. Skills that are integrated will go back to level 1. Other things can be integrated using this skill.
There are currently no things to integrate.
Another cool skill!I smiled at this. But I need to level up some of my skills to use it…
Next to appraise are my titles in the respective section
Titles:
Otherworlder
Overseer’s Blessing
Kissed by the Divine
Slayer of Thieves
Assassin from Afar
Unknown Savior
3 new titles are added, I wonder what this is about. I appraise ‘Slayer of Thieves’
Slayer of Thieves
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Kill 10 or more thieves without getting attacked or damaged.
Effects:
1. +10 Fame after being acquired and appraised
Oh, so this was about the support fire earlier, but what is this Fame? I noticed a blinking icon in the ‘Stats’ section. Below it, a section appeared named ‘Sub-statistics’. On the section was ‘Fame' and 'Infamy', with Fame having 10 points.
I appraise it but nothing appears, ‘Maybe my appraisal level is too low?’ I thought to myself.
I shrugged and continued to appraise the other titles.
Assassin from Afar
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Kill 10 creatures from more than 100 meters away without them knowing who you are.
Effects:
1.) +20 Fame after being acquired and appraised.
2.) +5 agility after being acquired and appraised.
3.) Assassination, Ranged, and Hiding skills will be easier to gain and level up.
4.)Assassination, Ranged, and Hiding skills will be 1.5x more effective when title is activated.
Title can only be activated for (Personal Level) minutes per day
Unknown Savior
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Save someone or a group of people without them knowing who you are.
Effects:
1.) +20 Fame after being acquired and appraised.
2.) +5 Defense after being acquired and appraised.
3.) Hiding and Supportive skills will be easier to gain and level up.
4.) Hiding and supportive skills will be 1.5x more effective when title is activated.
Title can only be activated for (personal level) minutes per day.
Kissed by the Divine
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Be kissed by an entity that is as strong as or stronger than a God.
Effects:
1.) +1000 Fame after being acquired and appraised.
2.) Skills and titles will be easier to gain and level up.
3.) Skills will be more effective.
4.) +10 affinities to fire, soil, water, air, life and death after being acquired and appraised
Overseer’s Blessing
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Obtain the favor of an Overseer, an entity that is stronger that a god.
Effects:
1.) +1000 Fame after being acquired and appraised.
2.) Ability to see the user’s status screen without external help.
3.) +10 affinities to fire, soil, water, air, and life after being acquired and appraised.
4.) +30 Affinities to death after being acquired and appraised.
Otherworlder
Title is granted to those who completed the requirements:
1.) Travel between two worlds/realms/planes/ etc. with memories of the previous world
Effects:
1.) +500 Fame after being acquired and appraised.