Selene woke up to the same scene as before, except it was now night. Most of the day had passed her by. Her shoulders were sore from her arms being tied behind her back, and lying on the hard ground didn’t help.
She tried to wiggle out of the bindings as quietly as she could, but the woman, Meelara turned toward her immediately.
“Haah, come on, girlie,” Meelara sighed. “Stop that. If I wanted you dead, I’d have done it by now, and if I intended to bring you back to Lon Lon, then I wouldn’t have killed my teammate, now would I?”
“Pff,” Selene spat, and glared at Meelara. “You probably killed him, and expected to kill the other one after he was focused on me, or something, and get all the credit.”
Meelara raised an eyebrow before she frowned and sighed.
“You really have a poor view of us, don’t you?” she said. “Can’t say I blame you, but we’re not all monsters.”
She looked at Selene for a few seconds before she nodded, and stood up.
“Alright,” she said as she drew a knife, and approached Selene. The fire behind her silhouetted her, and the blade, making for an ominous image, as Selene tried to squirm away. “Calm down, girl. I’m going to cut the rope, alright? Then we’ll eat, and I’ll explain what I can. Stop squirming, or I might cut you by accident.”
Selene’s eyes widened, and her heart raced, but she stopped moving. Her eyes tracked the knife until it passed outside of her view. A moment later, her arms were released, and a brief surge of pain flashed through her shoulders.
“Gah!” she groaned.
“Move slowly, and roll your shoulders,” Meelara muttered. “You’re gonna be sore for a while. Sorry about that. It’s not a comfortable position for the shoulders.”
She did as Meelara said, and she felt the pain fade slightly.
Meelara walked back to the fire and sat down. She gestured for Selene to join her.
“Come on.”
Rubbing her shoulders, Selene tentatively made her way over and sat down.
“I’ll just humour her for now, until I get an opportunity to escape,” Selene thought, as she looked at the meat roasting over the fire. “I’m starving. I have to eat, so I’ve got enough energy.”
Meelara watched for a few seconds before she reached out, and cut off a decent chunk of the meat. She handed it to Selene, who took it and wolfed it down.
Selene closed her eyes as the meat filled her mouth with flavour. It tasted great, and her eyes immediately locked onto the roasting meat once she’d swallowed the first piece. Meelara smirked, and after a moment of hesitation, handed Selene another, smaller, knife.
Selene glanced from the knife to Meelara for a few seconds before she grabbed it, and started cutting off slices of meat.
“OK!” Meelara clapped her hands, as Selene kept shovelling food into her mouth. Selene looked sideways at Meelara but gave no indication that she was going to stop eating. “Ehm, right… So, a bit about me.”
Meelara looked down for a few seconds before she continued.
“My name is Meelara Gharo, and I came to this planet around seven years ago. I was not part of the first wave of Invaders, or amongst the first to come here after the conquest. As such, I had some idea about your plight, which is why I came to this region. I figured it was here that I could make the biggest difference… How wrong I was.”
Her eyes were downcast, and she sighed deeply.
“Lon Thrast, and his ilk, the Kin’Tai, are monsters. More monstrous than the creatures of the wild, or the Corrupted Ascended,” Meelara grimaced and spat on the ground. “They revel in cruelty and abuse, and it was all I could do to divert their attention or lessen the blow slightly. I felt so useless… So, I left, and for a few years, I wandered around the region. Lon Lon Town was among the worst, but there are plenty who suffer.”
She met Selene’s eyes, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
“I’ve seen such horrors, such cruelties enacted against your people that I feel sick,” her grimace deepened, and she bared her teeth. Selene almost imagined that she’d heard Meelara growl under her breath. “But, it wasn’t in vain. One of the neighbouring regions is much better than here, and I met some people who could help. You people aren’t treated as poorly, though it’s still not great. I intend to take you there. You can choose what to do from there. I swear to you, that I’m on your side in this.”
Selene had stopped eating as she listened and now sat silently, frowning.
“Can I trust anything she says?” Selene rubbed her sore shoulders as she thought, and swallowed her last piece of meat. “It’s true that there have been some situations where our punishments were lax, or apparently forgotten. Could that be due to her intervention? I don’t know, but I could use some help. I’m completely lost. Perhaps, I can ask some probing questions, and learn some things about the System.”
Selene nodded slightly and met Meelara’s eyes.
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“Alright,” she said. “Say I believe you. Say I trust you. Tell me something then.”
“I will tell you what I can, what I know,” Meelara nodded gently.
“Why don’t I level up when I kill things?” Selene asked the first question she had.
“Why would you?” Meelara asked, frowning. “When you defeat an opponent, their Spiritual Essence expands your potential. You’re still required to shape it and channel it into your core. By doing this, you’ll build upon your foundation, which will strengthen you. At certain milestones, or Stages, you’ll experience a drastic, qualitative improvement, but they usually require you to pass a trial of some kind. They’re unique to each individual, and their Paths. It is somewhat confusing, but the Spiritual Essence you gain from enemies is different from the Spiritual Essence you can use for advancement. What you gain from enemies is expended to improve your potential, while you constantly generate a slight amount of Essence within yourself.”
“So,” Selene pondered the information. “The bridge is my foundation? It seems like it, and so far it sounds like she’s telling the truth.”
Selene nodded, and Meelara continued.
“There are certain treasures, pills, and potions that can provide additional abilities, but it’s difficult to find ones that match your Path,” Meelara said in a calm tone. “It is imperative that you don’t take in too many deviations from your Path, or you’ll find it impossible to advance to the next Stage at some point. The most common pills and potions are the ones that heal, or provide Spiritual Essence for cultivation. They can be made from common materials which can be found in the wild of Earth, but they’re usually of a poor quality.”
“Why is that?” Selene asked. “Why are they poor quality, I mean.”
“Because Earth failed its Integration Trial,” Meelara winced as she spoke. “If Earth had succeeded, the System would have improved the conditions of the planet for the natives. Earth will still improve its condition, but far slower. The Invaders are here to maintain their control until unique, and powerful items start appearing.”
“Is there a specific point for that?”
“No, but it should start soon, I think,” Meelara frowned, and scratched her chin. “It’s different for each planet, but based on what I know, it rarely takes more than 10-12 years for a planet’s characteristics to start engendering certain improvements. Thanks to the presence of the Invaders, and powerful individuals who will exude some Spiritual Essence. The Earth slowly absorbs this Essence, and will eventually begin to generate its own, once it passes a certain point. It’s not too dissimilar to how we advance. We need to take in enough Essence to advance to Stage 1 before we can truly gain benefits.”
Meelara glanced at Selene before she asked a question.
“Is it true that you natives don’t have access to the System?”
“Yes,” Selene nodded after a brief hesitation. “I only unlocked it after I killed Lon Thrast. The System said I’d passed the conditions for removing the restrictions on me or something.”
“Restrictions,” Meelara frowned and shook her head. “That’s too cruel. You’ve lost, and then lose the ability to fight again.”
“Why does the System do that?” Selene had always wondered.
“The System seeks to nurture powerful individuals,” Meelara explained. “As you lost the Integration Trial, you appear lesser to the System. That said, it doesn’t make it impossible. It could have locked you out entirely, eliminating your ability to ever fight. Rather, it makes it near impossible, since you probably had to kill someone at Stage 2, or even Stage 3. For your information, Lon Thrast was nearing Stage 4 when you killed him. You got lucky. He had next to no Vitality, I think, or Strength. His path was one of high Intelligence and Charisma. Which is why you could even break his skin.”
“What do you mean?” Selene reeled back. “Lon Thrast was Charismatic?”
“Ah, yes,” Meelare winced. “The Charisma stat doesn’t necessarily make one more likeable, not unless they want to be. It simply helps them find the right words to say, how to behave to appear confident, and such. It’s one of the stranger stats since some argue that it provides next to no benefit, while others believe it to be one of the most powerful stats of all. Why need any other stats if you can convince everyone to fight for you, right? Anyway, I’ve never heard of someone with such a high Charisma that they can convince everyone. There’ll always be naysayers, and those who are dissatisfied.”
“Right…” Selene frowned and remained silent.
“Have you levelled up, by the way?” Meelara asked gently.
“Uhm, yeah,” Selene nodded absentmindedly. “Once.”
“How did you learn how to do that?” Meelara frowned.
“I was resting, and focusing on recovering after the Bear, or Unbear fight,” Selene said, though she narrowed her eyes at Meelara. “As I fell deeper into a meditative state, I suddenly found myself in a sort of separate space, and I figured it out from there.”
“Impressive,” Meelara said with her eyebrows raised. “Most need some form of guidance.”
“There were dreams,” Selene mentioned. “Once the night after I escaped, and once after the fight with the Unbear.”
“You slept after the fight?”
“Oh,” Selene looked down, and her cheeks grew slightly red. “No, I passed out after I won.”
Meelara blinked a few times before she shook her head.
“Damn, lucky girl,” Meelara snickered. “If anything approached you, you’d be dead.”
“Yeah, I know,” Selene nodded. “Not like I had much choice.”
“You could have not fought the Unbear,” Meelara frowned at Selene. “They’re incredibly slow scavengers. They nearly never catch live prey, though they’re aggressive towards everything, and will always try.”
“Uhm,” Selene’s cheeks grew redder. “Yeah, I sort of wanted to grow stronger.”
“You could have cultivated for that,” Meelara said, and then her eyes widened. “Oh right! You didn’t know that yet.”
“Also,” Selene explained. “In the past, we had certain games that used a similar style as the System. They had stats, and levels, and such. In those games, killing enemies, and completing quests would provide experience, which would increase your level once you gained enough. I… Uh, I expected it to be like that.”
Meelara sat mute for several seconds before she shook her head.
“Heh,” she said. “I see. So that’s how it is. Perhaps some bleedthrough, or some people here had a lesser prescience or clairvoyance, and misinterpreted their visions as inspiration?”
Selene said nothing, though a shiver ran down her back at the implication.
“Alright,” Meelara said. “I think that’s enough explaining for now. You beat the first guard through the element of surprise, and you got lucky against the Unbear, and Marlik, that’s the leader of the hunting squad, by the way. Let’s train. You need to learn how to fight.”
Meelara stood up, grabbed Selene’s arm before she could react, and pulled her into the darkness outside the outcropping.