I begin to rouse from my slumber, resolve from my vow last night, still very much alive and burning in my heart, eager to find its purpose. I slowly stretch, squeezing my eyes closed in a futile attempt to fend off the rays of light that creep in through the curtains of my room in Maria’s house. As I begin moving, I hear a small noise reminiscent of a door latching into place. I abruptly sit up in bed to look, but it doesn’t seem like anything’s there. I shrug to myself, thinking old houses make weird noises.
I twist my head side to side, cracking my neck, roll my shoulders out, and grin. Today’s the day. The first step toward becoming strong enough to not only hold my own beside them but be able to allow them to rely on me rather than the other way around. They may know their way around a dungeon, the system, and the new world we’ve been roughly forced into, but I know how to train muscles in ways that they don’t. I’ll make sure they get as much of a benefit as they can, then I’ll raise my Level alongside them and do it all again until we’re the strongest party around.
I step out of my room, running through different workout plans that would best suit their styles, and find Robin and Maria eating some buttered bread with some apples and oranges set to the side. Robin smiles at me, signing, “Good morning, M. How did you sleep?” at the same time that Maria begins speaking.
“Hey, good morning, Mike. I know that you probably had a big training day set aside for us, but uh…” She turns her head toward a groan coming from Carlos’ room: “Everyone’s a bit hungover, and Carlos still isn’t ready to heal us for the Strength training. So, I was wondering if you’d be willing to help me restock on my ores in the meantime. I used a lot to make your weights, and I need to get more from the dungeons.”
I sign back to Robin, “I slept well, you?” before deflating a bit at the idea of leaving all that training on the table. Today is always the best time to start, but tomorrow isn’t a terrible option either. I remind myself that they all have different goals than I do. Training Strength with everyone will definitely give me the most immediate benefit, and while it’ll also probably help everyone else, that doesn’t mean it necessarily suits their goals. Plus, this will give me a good chance to work one-on-one with Maria to train our other stats, and with all of her knowledge and experience with teaching, we could probably both get something good out of this. I shake my head quickly, clearing it and setting it properly. If I want to be of the most benefit to them, I need to work with them on what they need, just as much as we work on what I need. I smile and say, “Yeah, that works. It’ll probably give us a chance to work Strength anyway. Mining sounds like it could make for a decent workout.”
I take a moment as we laugh at another groan making its way out of Carlos’ room before continuing, “What time did you want to head out? I’d like to get a bit of time to work with Robin on her signs before we go if I can.”
Robin hears this and smiles before signing back, “I slept great. This is good. We need to talk.”
Memories of last night flood into my mind, and I freeze as I consider what she might mean by that. Maria interrupts my slight panic by saying, “Yeah, that’s fine. Once you’re finished teaching Robin, I’d appreciate it if the two of you taught me to sign as well. Sometimes it feels like you’re keeping secrets when I see you signing to yourselves.”
I laugh and reply, “I feel the same way when you and Carlos speak Spanish, but you don’t hear me complaining. But no worries, I wanted to focus on teaching Robin first so she has a way to talk other than using her whiteboard. Even if she has to use me as a translator for a bit, it’s a lot faster and easier than writing everything out, but she’s picking it up really quickly, so it shouldn’t take long. Speaking of which, Robin. Why are you learning so quickly? What’s your Intelligence if you don’t mind me asking?”
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Robin begins to sign, but falters as she realizes she doesn’t know the words yet and falls back on her whiteboard, writing, “Technically 372, but my vow of silence buff is up to a 50% on all of my stats, so it’s 558.” I whistle upon seeing that number.
“No wonder you’re picking it up so fast. Maria, do you mind sharing yours so I have an idea of how long it’ll take you to learn?” I ask.
“I don’t mind, but mine isn’t quite as high as Robins is. It’s been sitting at 445 since the last dive we went on. Hopefully, it’ll reach 495 before too long with your training skill. If it scales linearly like I think it does, Robin should learn about twenty-five percent faster than I do, and with the both of you able to work with me, it’ll probably go even faster.” She replies.
“Gotcha, well let me eat, so I can work with Robin, and then we can get going.” I say to her as I sit down across the table from them and begin stuffing warm bread in my mouth.
-
A quick breakfast of bread and fruit later, Robin leads me to her room. A tinge of nerves hits me, and I figure I should just get it out and say, “Okay, before we begin working on your signs, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” She thinks for a moment before sitting on her bed and patting a spot beside her for me to sit.
As she goes to grab her whiteboard, I interrupt, “Nope, no whiteboard. If you don’t know something, spell it out, and I’ll teach you.”
She looks up at me with a roll of her eyes and signs, “Seriously? Later then. I need more words.” I shrug in a bit of relief, as what I expect to be an awkward conversation has been put off for now, and begin her lesson.
We continue on for an hour or so, but I can tell whatever it is she wanted to talk about is still on her mind. I gulp. “Hey, if you want to talk now, I can help you with the words. I know I don’t know you all that well yet, but still. I can tell whatever it is is bugging you,” I assert, then backtrack slightly with, “If you still want to talk to me about it, that is. I don’t want you to feel pressured.”
She sighs and signs, “M, I don’t have words. I have so much up here,” she points to her head, “but I can’t say any of it. I don’t have words for it. S-Y-S-T-E-M gave me a class that is so hard. You’re helping, but you’re the only one I can P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E with. Can you sign E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G you say to me?”
I let out a sigh of relief as I quickly show her the signs for the words she didn’t know and look down at my hands so she can’t see my lips as I think aloud, “Is that all? I thought you wanted to talk about last ni-” I freeze as the last word is leaving my mouth, remembering that Robin isn’t deaf.
Robin cocks her head and asks, “What do you mean?”
“Uh, sorry. I’m not really used to signing with people who can hear me. Just forget I said that.” I say as I can feel my face starting to do its best tomato impression.
“No, no, no. We talk about this now,” she signs as a teasing smile slowly forms on her face. “Is this about?” she asks before making the sign for wine against her cheek. I cough into my hand and realize I’ve given her the answer she’s looking for without a word, as the heat in my face tells me I would definitely win best in show at a tomato festival.
She covers her mouth to prevent a laugh as my face continues reddening and I begin stumbling through words. I sign back, “Maybe. It could have just been the wine, but there was a moment where I thought... I don’t know. It’s been so nice spending time with you, and I think really you’re cool, and I think it would be nice to spend more time with you one on one, and it could even be good for training your stats, and-” she puts her hands on mine to stop my ramble from continuing.
After a moment where she allows me to catch my breath, she signs back, “Mike, slow down. I can’t read that fast. I think-” Before she can respond further, the door opens.
“Come on, big guy, I want to get home before dark.” Maria interrupts, then smiles as she notices the way we’re seated and my face still flush with embarrassment. She continues with a slightly accusatory tone, “Oh? Did I interrupt something? Sorry Robin, I need to steal your man.”
Robin throws a pillow at her and signs back, “Nothing happened. Just talking,” before realizing that Maria can’t read signs, and with a frustrated slap of her hands on her knees, grabs her whiteboard and writes the same message before looking at me and signing, “Talk more later?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and nod yes to Robin, slightly grateful but also completely mortified by the interruption from Maria. I go to speak, and my voice catches in my throat, squeaking a bit. I cough and deepen my voice before asking the smirking woman sat in the doorway, “Ready to go?”