The system world was about twice as fast as the Beast world, so while only two weeks passed as Andrew's family waited for their new lives to be ready, goblin Andrew had an entire month to work with. He spent a week working on both Observe and Concentrate, before taking Concentrate as a Class Skill. He got both skills over forty before he had to merge them, but he still ended up taking Concentrated Examination, which gave him plus five to Intellect and plus three to Sensitivity, over the more balanced In Depth Examination. He realized that with how insane his Sensitivity already was, he needed to focus on Intellect more.

After getting his study skill, the Shaman advised him not to merge it with his meditation skill until they were at least over twenty, if he could help it, since before that it would just combine them, with no increase in stats. Instead, he should get any other skills he wanted while he worked on the two skills. The Shaman had a list of useful skills and their potential combinations for Andrew to use as a guide, but ultimately it was up to him to figure out where he wanted to go. He only had five Skill Points to work with before his first evolution, so he needed to be selective. His pursuit of Inner Sight already boosted his mental stats significantly, so he wanted something that would help his physical stats a well. He considered the Shaman's suggestion of Dodge and Block, but he didn't like the idea of being purely defense focused like that. Besides, he'd never been all that good at blocking, since his focus had always been dodging.

Still, he liked that one was for Strength and the other was for Agility, so he looked through the list of Strength skills for a suitable replacement. Kick was an obvious choice, since both skills would be focused on his legs, which would allow for easy combinations. Swing was another, though it required a weapon. Bash could be interesting too, though it required a heavy weapon, and that might affect his dodging… There were more options, but ultimately Andrew settled on Kick. It was simple and he liked the idea of merging it with Dodge for leg focused power. His fighting style in the Beast world was focused on his arms, so it would be interesting to switch things up a bit.

With that decided, he'd accounted for two more Skill Points, leaving him three left to work with. He considered picking up more physical skills to merge with Dodge and Kick, giving him a balance of physical and mental skills, but that wasn't really the path he wanted to go down. He wanted to be mental focused in this life. But which direction did he want to go? Andrew frowned at the mental skill list. They were all basic skills, so the stat bonuses were all essentially the same, one point in two stats or two points in one, so he couldn't really make a decision based on that, except maybe trying to avoid Sensitivity. So the question was, what did he want to do?

Andrew frowned as he considered the question, feeling a little overwhelmed by the possibilities. He could do anything! He thought of being like the blacksmith or the apothecary, being a craftsman who made useful tools for people to use. Though… there didn't seem to be much challenge in that. He wanted to do something exciting, not just work all the time. Maybe he could explore? Though… that wouldn't exactly help the tribe. Unless… trade was important, wasn't it? Though he didn't particularly want to do the whole trade caravan thing, lugging things back and forth all the time… maybe he could just find the people to trade with and let others deal with it? Focus on finding routes and resources, mapping everything out so others could do the trading and mining and all that crap.

Andrew nodded slowly. That actually sounded like fun! He could travel the world, experiencing different cultures, meeting interesting people, making friends, and braving whatever danger might be out there! Now, what skills would he need to actually do that? Obviously he'd need to be able to make maps. All his exploring wouldn't be very helpful if he couldn't actually tell anyone where he went and how he got there. That could probably wait though, or he could just do it with General Skills. He didn't need to be an expert at making maps, he just needed it to be understandable. What he needed to be good at was negotiating, or diplomacy. He'd be the one representing his tribe out there, convincing others that they were worth trading with. He needed to be able to make a good first impression.

Now, how did he make a negotiation skill? Hmmm… he'd need to be able to figure out what they wanted, which would be… Imitate plus Deduce to make a prediction skill. Then he'd add in Communicate, right? Or was there another skill he needed to merge with Communicate before adding it to the prediction skill… yes, he needed to turn Communicate into an argument skill by adding in Claim. Andrew paused for a moment. Claim was a skill? Like, just saying that something is? He blinked. It was a pure Will skill. Still, he didn't quite get how you could be better or worse at it. It was literally just saying you thought something! How hard was that?

Andrew shook his head, putting the weirdness of the Claim skill to the side. His issue now was that he had five Skill Points, and he needed seven to complete his plans. He could either do the Dodge and Kick merge, then get halfway to negotiate, or he could focus on negotiate. He decided his physical stats needed a boost as soon as possible, so he focused on Dodge and Kick first. He got them both as General Skills, his Dodge already well over forty, close to sixty, while his Kick was in the mid-thirties. After some practice kicking and adjusting to his new body, he got his Kick over forty and his Dodge to barely over sixty, after which it refused to budge any more. Once he reached level five, after a few days of practicing with Concentrated Examination and Restful Deep Meditation, he took Kick as a Class Skill. It then took him another week of practice to reach level six and merge the two into Swift Kick Counter for plus four to Strength and plus six to Agility.

At that point, two things began to bother him. First, it was taking him longer and longer to level, the time it took practically doubling every time! If things continued this way, it'd take him months to reach level ten! The other issue was that despite all the time he had to work on Restful Deep Meditation and Concentrated Examination, they were both only in the high teens, and they were progressing slowly. He brought his concerns to the Shaman, and the Shaman literally burst out laughing in an almost crazed cackle.

"Ha- oh, that is- Haha! Ah, sorry! Ahem, sorry." The Shaman calmed down, still snickering every now and then, while Andrew frowned at him. "Artek (Andrew's goblin name), let me ask you, what have you been doing all this time?"

"Working on my skills?" Andrew offered tentatively.

The Shaman nodded. "Yes, and what have you accomplished in this time?"

Andrew paused. "Uh… level six?"

The Shaman snickered, shaking his head. "No, Artek, levels aren't an accomplishment, accomplishments are levels! You have simply worked on yourself all this time, which only grants you the bare minimum of experience for using your skills. If you want to level, you must actually do something with your skills, something difficult. Instead of meditating in a quiet room, sitting on a soft pillow, try meditating in the middle of the training yard while the guards are running drills. Study something hard to see or understand. Then you will level up faster. But why would you want to push yourself like that at this point? As you've noticed, the more complex a skill is, the more difficult it is to train. Take the time you have to grasp your skills first, then worry about leveling."

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Andrew got back to work. In between working on his meditation and study skills, he got all the skills he needed for negotiation as General Skills and started practicing them. His Claim skill was already weirdly high in his opinion, already over forty! "Why would my Claim skill be so high?" Andrew asked Cathryn and Li Jing, frowning slightly.

"What's a Claim skill?" Cathryn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Uh… essentially it's the ability to say something is true. Like claiming that the sky is green, or that you own something. Stuff like that." Andrew explained.

Li Jing blinked at him. "And you wonder why you're good at that?"

"Yeah?" Andrew replied hesitantly.

Cathryn shook her head. "Andrew, what do you think of Benjamin?"

Andrew frowned. "He's a douche, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Why is he a douche?" Cathryn continued, ignoring his question.

"Because he sucks!" Andrew replied, getting frustrated.

"Andrew, that's a claim." Cathryn pointed out, grinning slightly.

Andrew paused, before beginning to flush. "Oh… okay, yeah, that makes sense now."

The rest of his skills were normal. Communicate was in the twenties, while Imitate and Deduce were in the low teens. Pretty much any skill he actually used in his regular life he could get at a little over twenty, while the more esoteric skills had to be trained more. Still, with all his experience from his other life, none of the basic skills were that hard, and he didn't think they were meant to be. These were skills meant to be gained by young goblins, like the ones he'd been born with. He'd visited them a little after he'd talked with the Shaman, and they were dumb. He understood how they could take over a month to get a skill over twenty. Though considering he had sixteen years on them and his skills were only in their twenties… maybe he shouldn't be so judgmental.

While goblin Andrew was working on his skills and leveling up, Beast Andrew was working on getting his own power back. While they waited in the Outside for everything to be ready, he could hunt pretty much constantly, almost like it was summer again. Plus, now that he knew he could move his aura around, he could be less discriminating with the crystals he absorbed. It didn't give him much of a boost, since he already had a wide range of Beasts he could hunt, and his aura sense and Human ability helped him track down exactly what he needed, but he went from about fifty ability power per week, to about sixty. It was still going to take him a while to get back to where he'd been before he'd been shot.

What Andrew found strange was that while his aura sense hadn't changed, it'd stopped growing after he'd been shot. Usually, every time he absorbed a crystal, his aura sense would grow by a small, but noticeable amount. However, ever since the shot, his aura sense was just static. Even after absorbing a dozen crystals, his aura sense didn't even wiggle! On the other hand, his goblin selfs aura sense was beginning to form as he leveled up. He'd barely even had one when he was first born, but after a few levels, he could already begin to sense auras a few feet away. Not very useful yet, but it was getting there.

Andrew frowned as he realized how weird his aura sense was. How weird everything to do with his aura abilities were. All his other abilities came from a core, but his aura abilities? If he could use them as a goblin, then they had nothing to do with his cores! Or his body for that matter! So where did they come from? He'd always assumed his aura abilities were from being a Beast, since why wouldn't they be? But if that wasn't it… just how weird was he? He wasn't even a Beast at this point! He was- he didn't even know what he was! Andrew let out a groan. He just couldn't be normal, could he?

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"What's got you so mopey?" Stephen asked, nudging him slightly as he sat next to him on the couch.

Andrew sighed. "Nothing. Just- I'm so freaking weird!"

Stephen snorted. "Every teenager thinks they're weird, Andrew. And they're right! But that isn't a bad thing. Everyone is unique in their own way, and that's why people are so interesting, and why it's so tragic when they're gone. Even after centuries, you'll never find a replacement for a lost friend."

Andrew frowned, raising an eyebrow at him. "I think my weirdness is a little more weird than people usually get."

Stephen coughed. "Yes, well, you may have a point there. However, your weirdness is based on what you are, not who you are, so it doesn't really matter, now does it? You're still a person, with all that goes along with it."

"Technically I'm two people now." Andrew grumbled.

"You and Cathryn being Bonded doesn't mean you're two people, Andrew." Stephen scoffed.

"Actually I was talking about the fact I've been reborn as a goblin in another world." Andrew sighed. "I literally have two bodies at the moment."

Stephen blinked, then blinked again, shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose, looked back at Andrew, and finally let out a weary sigh. "Helen!" He shouted through the house. "The boy is keeping things from us again!"

"Married or pregnant!?!" Helen shouted back.

"Neith-!" Stephen began to shout back, before pausing and turning back to Andrew. "You haven't married anyone or gotten them pregnant yet, have you?"

"I would tell you if I got married, Dad!" Andrew protested.

"At this point I'm not so sure." Stephen muttered, shaking his head. "And pregnant?"

Andrew flushed. "I-I don't think so… but it could happen."

"So sleeping together, but no warning signs, gotcha." Stephen nodded, causing Andrew to let out an embarrassed groan, before turning to yell again, stopping himself as Helen entered the room with a frown. "Did you catch that?"

Helen nodded. "I'd assumed they were, though it's nice to have it confirmed. Is that what he was keeping from us? You didn't need to call me for that."

"No, it's something weird again." Stephen sighed.

Helen's frown deepened. "Did he Bond with another mortal? Not one of the girls, I hope."

"No, no, something new." Stephen replied, gesturing towards Andrew. "Explain."

"Okay, so, after the second machine showed up-" Andrew began.

"Second machine?!?" Helen interjected incredulously.

Andrew blinked. "Uh… yeah. It happened on the first day of school."

"That was over a month ago!" Helen threw up her hands in exasperation.

"I told Arose?" Andrew offered nervously.

"Of course you did! Because for some reason, you trust him more than you trust your own parents!" Helen yelled, glaring at him.

"N-no! It's just- he actually has the connections to deal with this kind of stuff! I was looking for- for like…" Andrew stalled, not finding the right words, so he started over. "If I'd gone to you, you would have just called Elder Barry, or gone to Arose yourselves! And Elder Barry would have just gone to someone like Arose! It made sense to just take it to him in the first place! It wasn't like I was hurt or anything!"

"He has a point, dear." Stephen commented. Helen huffed angrily, before gesturing for Andrew to continue.

Andrew gulped nervously. "O-Okay, so, the machine…I was playing with its core, and I found a core- uh, an aura core inside it, so I took it out to see if I could figure out what was up with it. When I did, it sort of… attached? itself to my Lizard core, sucking out its aura. I panicked and yanked all the aura out of the machine core and it disappeared. Then, about a week later, I started having these dreams about being trapped in a sack, which I now know was probably the egg or whatever goblins are born from. Then about the same time we moved to the Outside, I was born there, and now I have a goblin body in this world that has a system, and I'm learning how to use it and stuff. I think I'm going to try to be an explorer."

His parents blinked at him. "So what you're saying is, even if you do die, you'll just be reborn somewhere else?" Stephen asked hesitantly.

"Uh… yes? But also, I… kinda can't die. Well, I kinda can, but really it just resets me, which, you know, annoying, but better than nothing, right?" Andrew replied, babbling nervously.

"And how, may I ask, did you learn that?" Helen asked in a dangerous tone.

Andrew gulped. "Uh… well, when- when I was shot? In the head? The reason we had to move?"

Stephen blinked. "Wait, you mean, when you were shot it- it worked?!?"

"My brains went everywhere." Andrew nodded. "But then I got better, because I'm bullshit."

"Huh." Stephen grunted numbly. "So you're immortal immortal. Neat."

"Stephen!" Helen chastised him. "Focus! Our son died and he didn't tell us!" She turned to glare at Andrew. "Let me guess, you told Arose." She growled, her tone dripping with disdain.

"No! I only told Cathryn and Li Jing!" Andrew protested. "Well, I didn't tell them. They were there, so obviously they know." Andrew continued, before suddenly pausing. "Uh, though, I did tell Elder Barry… I had to get my ability strength tested to confirm I was weaker, and… well, it would have been rude not to explain, right?" Andrew offered with a nervous smile.

Andrew could practically see the smoke billowing from Helen's nostrils. "It would have been rude to keep it from Elder fucking Barry, eh?" She snarled in a terrifyingly steady tone. "Because Elder Barry deserved to know, but not your fucking parents!"

"I-" Andrew began.

"I'm not finished!" Helen yelled, cutting him off. "Starting now, once a week, you will sit down and tell us everything that has happened in your life since the last time we talked. And I mean everything! Whether it's in this world, or the other! No matter how embarrassing! And if I figure out you're hiding something from me, I will- I'll-" Helen stumbled over her words as she tried to think of a suitable punishment. "I will throw a feast and make you the guest of honor! You'll have to greet everyone, sit at the high table where everyone can see you, listen to speeches about your 'great' deeds, and everyone will make a big deal out of you!"

Andrew went pale. "No, please, I'll be good!"

"Then talk! What have you been doing!?!" Helen demanded.

Andrew quickly began to tell his parents everything that he'd been dealing with over the past few months. He didn't remember what he'd already told them, so he started with what happened with the Lizard and how he'd begun exploring his aura abilities. As he kept explaining, it slowly turned from just telling his parents what happened, to something more… therapeutic. "And now… I don't know. I know we had to make this step at some point, but I'm still kinda worried that sex is going to complicate everything and someone's going to get hurt and it'll all fall apart." Andrew sighed.

"Andrew…" Stephen sighed. "Okay, yes, things may get complicated, and someone might get hurt. It happens. It happens in any relationship! No one can be perfectly rational all the time, and there will always be disagreements and conflicts. However, what makes a relationship work isn't a lack of conflict, but a dedication to make it work despite conflict! As long as both- er, all three of you are committed to the relationship and willing to work on it together, then you don't have to worry about something ruining it for you, because the only ones who could ruin it would be yourselves."

Helen nodded. "Every relationship has its own struggles, because no one will ever be one hundred percent on the same page as anyone else. The key is that when you do disagree, you work to find the solution that works for everyone, instead of fighting to get your own way."

Andrew carefully considered his parents' advice, going over his relationship with Cathryn and Li Jing as he did. Isn't that what they'd been doing? Since they knew their relationship could be difficult, that there would be problems they'd need to deal with, they'd all been so careful. They didn't let any problems go unaddressed, dealing with everything as well as they could, making sure everyone was comfortable and happy with how things were going. "That makes sense…"

Stephen chuckled. "Well, we have been around for a while. We do know a thing or two." He then leaned forward with an interested expression. "Now, since you're feeling better, I do have a thought. You have multiple cores, you can pull cores out of others, and you've already shown that you can have multiple bodies at once, so… have you tried putting one of your cores in a different body? To see what would happen?"

Andrew shook his head. "Cathryn doesn't like it when I do weird experiments with my ability. She thinks somehow I'm going to end up screwing myself over or something."

Stephen frowned, sitting back and crossing his arms. "Well, that's just unreasonable."

"Stephen!" Helen chastised him.

"What? It is! The boy has this ability, and if he never explores it, how will he know what he can do?" Stephen protested.

Helen rolled her eyes. "Stephen, how is it that you can be almost five hundred years old, and still not get that not everything needs to be done immediately?!? The children are still figuring their relationship out and finding their place in society! They can take some time to just be before delving into the mysteries of Andrew's ability!" Stephen grunted noncommittally, but didn't disagree. He was just so curious! Andrew's ability seemed to have so much depth to it, and he was eager to see how far his son could go.

Andrew hesitantly looked between the two of them. "So… are we good? I don't think I have anything else."

Helen narrowed her eyes at him. "If that's all… Andrew, if you had talked to us, we could have been helping you deal with all of this!"

"I know, but… I guess I just didn't think I needed help, you know?" Andrew replied. "I mean, the things I'm dealing with aren't difficult, they're just weird. It just seemed kinda petty to complain about it."

Helen shook her head. "Andrew, talking about what you're going through isn't complaining! Letting the people you're close to know what's happening in your life is normal! It's how you bond!" Helen sighed. "We're doing this again next week. You don't get to hide your life from us, understood?"

Andrew nodded sheepishly. "Understood."