Davin had never hit yes on anything faster in his life, he didn't plan on getting the skill this way at all, so the fact that it worked out like this made him very happy. Davin's world blinked dark for a moment, and when his eyes came back into focus the world looked a little different, some things seemed to stand out just a little more than others, almost as if they were calling to him, he grabbed one of the tomes that stood out flipping it and trying to see what was different about it. At this point Jes had begun to stare at him, watching as he held the book up.
"What have you got there?" Jes Eyed him dubiously.
"It's glowing?" He stated in confusion, "not glowing, glowing, but it seems to be standing out to me." Holding out the book, turning it over in his hands.
"Oh? What prompted it? Did you do anything?" She looked at him with suspicion.
"Well, I got my expertise prompt for investigation." He held his head up proudly.
"Congratulations!" She threw her arms around his neck excitedly. "I figured it was something to that effect, we each have slightly different results when it comes to our expertise, mine emits as a hum, and that makes it difficult to pinpoint things."
"Neat, but this one stands out, wasn't sure what it meant." He held up the book, offering it to her.
She set the book on the table and opened it. "This should be one of the things that you're looking for since you have a better idea of that than I do."
Davin leaned into to book, the same darkness engulfing him. The trees that sprung up around him were surprising, and the next thing that he knew, he was in the middle of what had to be the densest forest he'd ever been in. Looking around was an experience, the alien flora threw him, but he felt like he knew them, he knew that they weren't dangerous, but he didn't know the exact details of why likely from his survival skills. In the next moments, Jes stepped into the forest, as if walking from a tree.
"Ah, this looks like more of a field guide, so this should be the place, how far out are you wanting to look?" She looked at some of the plants nearby, poking them and attempting to sniff them, frowning in displeasure.
Davin stepped deeper into the woods that surrounded him, strange knowledge poked into his head, being able to identify things that he knows he'd never seen before, noticing things that he would never think to look at, tracks that lead off deeper into the woods, knowing which plants would be the best to eat. The information felt more akin to a memory he didn't quite remember, like a strange sense of deja vu. Davin opted to follow a set of tracks that stood out to him, a small set of tracks something akin to a small dog or fox, but he knew that this was a place of magic and fantasy, and that was only a very small set of what these tracks could be. The time spent in this place was strange because what he thought had been only moments had led him far from where he left Jes, but the creature that he'd been tracking had been found, upon seeing the beast for the first time, he knew it was a strange hybrid of creatures he was familiar with, resembling a fox, but at the same time it had armored plates similar to that of an armadillo, but far stonier, the 'crag fox' Davin now knew were one of the smaller ambush predators in the area, they would curl up and with their stony shell they would look like any other large stone, and when prey would get too close, they would surprise the prey and with their higher weight they could take down creatures as big as a horse without any problem.
Watching the crag fox as it curled up and took on its false appearance helped solidify these creatures as ambush predators, he had watched it and he could barely pick it out of the group of stones it lay with. As he watched, he could see several other creatures that lived near Edges Rest, a large horned four-legged beast, a swarm of chirping lizards, and a bird that Davin was sure would have been able to pick him up. The area outside of Edges Rest was a hugely diverse ecosystem, and if each of the books held only a small amount of information, this process was going to take ages. He didn’t want to learn everything that way, and based on how his skills worked, he would automatically be filled in on the information that his skills covered, thus making what he was doing now mildly redundant. With that realization, Davin headed back to where he'd entered the forest, seeing Jes still distracted by the flowers and her vain attempts to smell them, he stored that little bit of information for later.
"I'm ready to go, while as informative as all of this is, I think I want there to be some mystery left for me once I get out there." He said, the sudden break in the silence made Jes let out a small yelp.
"Oh?" She calmed herself after the shock. "I'm not surprised about that actually, you seem like one of those people that would have always gone out of their way to do things your way."
Davin paused at that statement, he thought about it for a little and then shrugged. "Weirdly I can't argue against that."
She nodded. "And you're not going out there blind, so that was what you were wanting." She brushed along the flowers one last time. "Okay, let's head back out." With that, she headed to the opening and vanished as she stepped through.
Davin followed and the darkness engulfed and rolled back again. Standing back in 'The Collection' his mind swam rather than the harsh slam of the last exit. "Oh yeah, that one was far less awful." He picked up the idol that served as the interface and thought to return the items that he'd had, not sure if that was the process. It worked, the books closed and picked themselves up and they wandered back to their homes. His next thought was mostly a thought on what Gale had said and he concentrated on parkour unfortunately it rang back as a no, which didn’t surprise him, but to know that he was the authority on a thing he knew almost nothing about. "Now that I think about it, how do we do the information bounty? I wouldn’t mind a little more starting capital."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Well, you can do it right here, with the totem if you want, but I suggest not doing it all in one go, it can be rather… taxing, and with everything else you’ve been up to today, I'd suggest saving it for another day." She sat watching him as he thought about the advice.
"Fair point, so I have to check in with you to come down here?" He asked her, remembering their conversation on the way in.
She blushed slightly and nodded. "That is unless you find another with access that you'd rather work with."
He chuckled lightly, looking her straight in the eye. "Why, when I already have one of the best?"
She playfully hit in in response. "Oh shut up."
Stepping out of the collection had a similar door set up to when he'd come in, helping seal the idea that this place was a high-value location. The slow walk back up to the heart of the city was slow, but the two talked the entire time about what Davin had learned while delving into the last book. The way that you learn things in the collection is apparently in that it feels like you're remembering something, similar to how skills influence the knowledge of this world, but it feels less natural and leaves your mind feeling like it had been recovering from a hangover and is rather unpleasant.
Davin and Jes parted ways once making it back to the main part of the city, he still wanted to find out about quests as well as get his party started. Stepping into the hall had a vastly different feeling than it had in comparison to his previous visits, firstly he had the coin in his pocket, so one of the first things he wanted to do was buy a drink, while most of the beverages in the rogues training hall included some amount of alcohol, buying yourself a drink was a vastly different feeling, or at least that is what he felt. Stepping up to the bar quickly greeted by Big Green.
"Hey kid, back so soon? I usually don't see anyone so soon after I send them outside, drink, quest, or looking to set up that party?" He asked with a giant smile stretched across his face.
"Start with a drink, I'll take something with a little spice, any chance I can get a spiced rum?" Now that he was ordering a drink the thoughts of some of his favorite drinks came flooding back to him. "Do you have the set up for cocktails? Or is it just the basics?"
"What's a cocktail?" The confusion on Big Greens' face was all too informative for Davin.
Shrugging. "Spirits with mixed-in ingredients that change them into different drinks, like a classic would be a spirit mixed with a simple juice. Cranberry and vodka is a solid one to go with." The face that Big Green made had Davin's heart sinking. "I take it that means that means you don’t have much that is stronger than the wine?"
"I have no idea what you're asking, but if you know a stronger alcohol than wine, consider me interested." The grin he had was wide and telling.
"I can help with that as soon as I start my party, I know someone that practices alchemy." His smile widened as the gears started spinning.
"Your first party eh, that’s an easy setup." He pulled out a stone tablet from behind the bar, setting it in front of Davin.
Looking over the tablet in front of him made him think of almost every legal document that he'd ever seen, the top half of the tablet was covered in a cramped scrawl of words.
Party registration
I {blank} hereby acknowledge that I and those that have signed this carter have agreed to form a group and that we wish to seek our fortune outside of the walls of the city, and as such our safety is by no means guaranteed. I and those that have signed below understand that this document has no power over us and that we are the ones that will settle any disputes between its members. We also understand that the tablet's magic makes it so we can find each other when the time arises and can be used as a basic form of communication for members of this party. We understand that each member is required to sign and stamp in blood for the binding to be official and that the aforementioned abilities will not work without it. Registration for a party is the price of one onyx token per party member with an upkeep of one ruby token to be collected after the streaming of the red comet. This upkeep and initial coin collection provide and maintain the items provided by this contract which include but are not limited to whisper stones, access to the quartermaster, as well as the part quest boards.
Leader {Blank}
{Blank}
{Blank}
{Blank}
{Blank}
If more party members are added beyond the capacity of this contract, it is suggested for the formation of a guild.
Davin Read the short contract and pulled out two black tokens from his bag, setting them on the counter. "I'll need to get my second to come sign? Or can I take this with me?"
"These don’t leave the hall, so they'll have to come to sign in person." With that, he pulled out a quill and ink as well as a strange box.
As Davin signed the charter he felt a shiver of excitement run down his spine. He watched as Big Green opened the box, pulling out a needle and a small piece of paper he held the needle out to Davin. "For the blood, just a small amount is needed, so this will be plenty unless you have some resistance."
Davin took the needle, wincing as he poked it into the flesh on his thumb, after letting the blood well, he pressed it to the space that Big Green was holding his finger. "Needles suck in every world."
Big Green took the small piece of paper and pressed it to Davin's thumb, then took out a small stone from the box and twisted it open like a small jar, he placed the blood-soaked paper into the opening inside then closed the stone, it let out a small flash of light and he handed the stone to Davin. "Okay that’s yours, try not to lose it, replacements are a lot more expensive."
"Gotcha, now where do I find the wizards? My friend is there, and I'll let him know to sign and ask him about some of the things I might need for our other question." The excitement was clear on his face.
"The Rise is on the upper level of the north end of town." His smile was wide. "Good luck kid."
Davin waved his goodbye and was on his way.