Again, sleep took Davin easily.
"How was the first day?"
"Can you read minds? Cause if you can, it was hilarious, if not, just know I was tortured far beyond what I could imagine."
"Should I be concerned? You seem to be perfectly fine."
"The emotional damage is real."
Chuckling "I see why you would consider the events torture, and yes, quite hilarious."
"Wait, you can read minds?"
"Only because you gave me permission to do so."
Shrugging, "Fair enough, was not what I was expecting when I signed up for this honestly"
"Hmm, yes I can see what you mean, it is a vastly different approach to things than your previous world was known for."
"Well that should be the only time I have to do that, apparently everyone spends a week of testing, and then from there you focus on your strengths, so I'm hoping tomorrow is something a little more fun."
"For you, I hope you are right, but for now, I will let you sleep, I will see you tomorrow."
Before Davin could respond, the world of his dreams slipped away and he was waking up, feeling far less groggy and disjointed than he had the day before.
"Crap, I forgot to ask about my laundry", as Davin pulled the last set of clean clothes from his bag, "need to get more clothes too." As he pulled on his shirt a patch, reminiscent of the ones that scouts use, fell out of his clothes. "Oh, nearly forgot about this", examining the patch like he had been shown.
[Patch: Keen-eyed: grants a small bonus when using perception. Reward from Big Green for using your inspection on something you suspected was more than it appeared].
"That is cool, but how do I use it? guess I'll ask Gale when I see him" pocketing the patch and finishing getting dressed.
The hall was the same, but this time, he made sure to move more carefully, keeping his eyes open for that panel that would trigger the trap. Turns out that there was more than one of the things, having spotted the first one easily. Making it not much more than ten more feet down the hall after passing the first one.
"You're getting better, few more days and you'll make it out of the hall" Gale beamed.
"Wasn't ready for that second one, let me guess, they get harder to spot as I make it further down the hall?" Davin asked.
"Oh yeah, and a whole lot louder, will leave your ears ringing."
Rubbing his ear in a phantom pained gesture. "What's on today's to-do list?" apprehension filled his voice.
"We do the opposite, spot the lie and find the thing, it's far more elegant than I can describe it." Guiding Davin through the twisting halls.
"Oh, before my mind wanders too far, I have a few unrelated questions." Davin felt nervous about what he felt were dumb questions.
Gale smiled easily "Go ahead, I'll do my best to answer them to the best of my abilities."
Taking a breath, "Where do I do my laundry, and what are patches?" The words rushing out as if stopping to breathe would have caused the idea to pop into his mind.
"Laundry, that one is easy, after today's training, I'll get you set up with a few more spares too, as for patches, that’s a little more involved since most don’t find out about patches till they’ve been here a little more." Pulling up a sleeve and showing a band around his arm that had several different patches on it, sewn in and a glint bouncing off them, "They're minor magic items that have to be attached to a special cloth to grant their bonus, and they all have different ways to get them, based on that you're asking about them, I'm guessing that you have at least one?"
Davin nodded "From Big Green."
"Well congrats, that’s a tough one to get since you can only get it on day one, usually only one person from each new group gets one", pride glowed on Gale's face.
Scavenger hunting and having to detect lies and truths was far more fun than the disastrous improv from the day before. The day went quickly, and he found the skills that came to him far more easily as well, his innate ability to spot things based on hints and having to ask the right questions to get clearer ideas of what he was looking for. The one that surprised him was when they had a room set up that he would get a few moments to look at then it would go dark, and he would have to point out the things that had been added or taken away, his memory had gotten a lot better since he got here, but he's sure that it's from his mind and body catching up to represent the stats he has in this world. Feeling yourself become more graceful each day was strange, to say the least, being able to move like those in movies that had been practicing kung fu or gymnastics, he was beginning to grow excited to see how much more different he was here than at home.
When the training wrapped up, Davin was wound up and still full of energy, as though feeling refreshed rather than the exhaustion that he'd felt yesterday. Since these weren't Gale's strengths, he'd been passed on to Jes, she was what is referred to as a Tiefling, which from what she described, was as if someone in your family history had relations with some kind of devil or demon, and boom, horns, tail, colored skin, and a few other tale-tale signs that you're more than just another human. She was nice enough and rather pretty, her dark hair contrasted nicely with her light purple skin, and her horns looked like gems in her hair, adding to her mystique, so Davin enjoyed the time, as a result, he was a little sad when the training came to an end.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
"That was fantastic! You picked this stuff up pretty quick" Jes had said excitedly, "You can come back any time! I'll make sure I come up with some more difficult challenges for you, maybe a few more puzzles too."
Davin beamed "Well, these were common games where I'm from, so it brought back some nostalgia." He shrugged.
"Fair enough, we had a few like them too, I guess that is why I'm here." She giggled, and then composed herself, "Okay enough of that, now let's get one more game in before Gale gets back"
The next hour had passed before Davin knew it, feeling almost disappointed to see his other trainer, but knowing that there was far more to do before he finished his day.
Handing Davin a bundle of clothes, "These should be your size, and that helps keep your ass covered." laughing at his bad joke.
Jes chuckled at the bad pun, stifling it as he looked her way "This one has promise, not seen one this skilled in some time." She waved her hand in Davin's general direction.
"You should have seen him yesterday, he got roasted pretty hard." Wiping a false tear from his face.
"Well not everyone takes to being a liar as well as you did." Jes sniped at him in defense of Davin.
"You two get along well, let me guess, your specialties make you bitter enemies and likely a failed relationship," Davin stated accusingly. The two of them suddenly stopped their jabs at one another and looked anywhere but at each other or Davin. "Don’t worry, it's a fairly standard cliché, opposites attract, but that doesn’t hold a relationship together." He shrugged, thinking back at a few of his relationships. Holding up the items to his body to see if they were his size, Davin had to admit, Gale did a good job, it was exciting to have more than just a few sets of clothes.
"Laundry?" Davin seemed to almost state the question as a fact rather than as an inquiry.
"Yup, and we can drop your new clothes when we grab your dirties, might want to change while you're at it." Gale fanning his face as if he was pushing away a bad odor.
With a gentle punch to Gale's shoulder, "You don't smell like flowers either my friend."
Chuckling, "In our business, you do not want to smell like flowers, you want a neutral odor that will go unnoticed unless you're planning to be a ruffian, then be my guest, smell like a trashcan left in the sun."
Gagging at the phantom smell, almost retching, "That is not a smell I want to relive…"
A look of disgust ran over Gale's face "Ugh, you've smelled that?"
"Quite a few times, a few times when the garbage pickup was delayed and it was full of dirty diapers." An involuntary shiver ran through Davin as the memory rolled through his mind.
"That is foul, I can't even imagine that, and I have no desire to, so if you stumble upon this smell in your time with me, please, by all means, keep it to yourself" Gale stated with his nose in the air.
Grabbing his bag, and pulling out the items he wouldn’t need, for the time being, he put his dirty laundry in, changed, and then they made their way to where the laundry was done. Not sure what to expect, he found himself standing near an elevated warm water stream, where a few of the others that he'd seen in the dining hall were all washing their clothes.
"Is it do my own? Or is there a service?" Davin asked as he kept looking around at the mostly primeval washing setup.
"Get ready to get your hands wet, this is also where the baths are", pointing towards the back from where the stream flowed.
"Does that mean that that is bath water?" A tone of disgust in his voice.
"Nah, just easier to only have the one furnace to worry about," Gale answered this like he had many times before.
Davin spent the next few hours working on his laundry and taking one of the best baths in his memory. Getting acquainted with this world's version of soap was far less awful than he was expecting, them having similar to his world's handmade soaps, he would need to go back to The Hall and see about getting his own since most of them are dual duty. You usually don’t see how dirty you are until you're washing, and Davin was surprised about the amount of grime that had collected in his clothing, and that is assuming it wasn’t there before he put them on. His bath was a vastly different setup than he was expecting as well, he thought that it would be much more akin to a Roman or Japanese bath house, but instead, it was a tangle of stalls and showers, well until he entered one of the small cubicles. First, they were larger than he was expecting, having a similar setup to the bathrooms he was used to, with a tub shower combo, a toilet, a sink, and enough room for him to stretch out on the floor if he so chose. Davin thought to himself "A good stretch before a bath would do me wonders". Stripping off his fresh change of clothes, Davin went through the processes of washing, filling up the tub, and soaking, the whole experience helped, he felt "more human" than he had over the last few days. At the peak of this relaxation, this is when things went south…
The cold wet rag that hit Davin in the face was by far the thing that had caught him off guard the most today, interrupting the Zen he had hit with his bath. "Gale, if this is your rag, I will, in fact, break your knees." Yelled Davin as he pulled himself up, and stood, looking to see where it could have come from.
"Well, then I am very glad I am not that lout." Jes's voice rang like a bell right next to him.
"Huh? Jes? What are you doing here?" Davin's face went a little pale as he remembered where they were.
"You said you were going to do laundry, and that reminded me of how good a bath would be." The splash of her bath as her body moved in it.
Davin dropped back into his water, "Doesn’t say how you found me in here."
"What makes you think I was looking for you?" A haughty tone in her voice.
"You did just hit me with a towel." Davin's annoyance faded.
"Fair point, but, are you saying you don’t want the company?" A teasing tone in her voice.
"Not the easiest place to talk" With that, a knock on a small latched door that Davin had missed when he came into the room, sliding the latch open and swinging the door open, meeting the eyes of Jes.
"How's this? Should make talking a little easier." Her smile mildly mischievous.
"That is pretty handy." He looked into her bathroom and accidentally caught a glimpse of more than he was expecting, pulling back and settling back in his bath.
"Don't be so shy, we're all adults here, and I had to look to find you, so it is only fair." The playful tone in her voice was more pronounced.
Davin blushed at that, and dunked his head under the water for a brief moment, "So, what brings you to my side of the tub?"
This caused Jes to let out a full laugh "Haha, oh you know, I like to check in on students I feel have potential."
"Potential? They were just games that I'm familiar with." In an attempt to play the whole thing off.
"Game or not, you are very skilled, and I think you would do well to have at least one of my skills as one of your primaries." The excitement edged into her voice.
"Insite was one of my carried-over skills, and I was planning to take Investigation and Perception as some of my skills." Davin thinking about what his 'build' was going to be. "Likely going to grab Stealth and Acrobatics too, the others aren't in my wheelhouse."
"Oh, so you will be spending some time with me, that should be fun." The last words rolled off her tongue with a sultry tone.
Jes and Davin spent the next hour just talking, getting to know each other. Their chat carried over even after the bath, Davin grabbed his mostly dry clothes, tossing them in his bag, and the two of them made their way to the dining hall, where they met up with Gale. The two sniped at each other while the three of them enjoyed their meals, the conversation never dropping. Jes parted ways after dinner, saying she had more to finish before she called it a night. Davin and Gale made their way back to Davin's room, where the two of them chatted while Davin hung his laundry. Calling it a night the two parted ways, feeling like he'd started making some real friends here. He fell asleep easily.