Chapter 18 Tai Chi Monster Style

I didn't know what to wear to run in. Normally, if I were to go on a run, unlikely in any case, I knew I was supposed to wear sneakers, shorts, and a t-shirt. The best thing to run around it would probably be the spider silk protection clothes. The shirt wouldn't be much of a problem, but I really didn't want to wear the pants.

I compromised and put on the blue spider silk shirt and a pair of normal black pants. My boots were the only footwear I had and I wasn't planning on running about barefoot any time soon. I made sure to put the rest of the spider silk clothes in my inventory, partially in case Crue insisted on my wearing the pants.

The spider silk clothes being so costly was another reason. While I trusted that the inn would do its best to keep my room secure, you really didn't know about the other guests. However, I didn't want Daisy to think badly of me. She had nicely packed my clothes away for me, so presumably, she would do the same on laundry day. I left a few sets of clothes and underwear in the chest but placed everything else in my inventory.

I wanted it to appear as though I appreciated her efforts, and I did. She had been more than kind to me and was honestly looking out for my well being. Her actions spoke a lot about her dedication to her patrons and I had to admire her for it.

I knew that I shouldn't eat before running but my stomach began to rumble. 'I was awake now, dammit, why aren't you feeding me?' it seemed to say. I drank a glass of water and began to eat an apple as I walked to our meeting place by the temple. I hoped that something as light as an apple would be Ok. I think it would be better than running while your stomach yelled at you and I had a few minutes for it to digest before the running began. Even I knew you just didn't take off running, you were supposed to stretch a bit first.

The air had that chill it got in the morning when fall was just around the corner. Like it had a bit of a bite. Just cold enough to make you wish for a jacket, but you knew that once the sun rose the chill would be replaced with a pleasant warmth. So you would suffer without a jacket because you didn't want to cart it around for the rest of the day. That wouldn't be an issue for me since I had my inventory, but I never even considered the possibility that I could wear my jacket in the chill and store it away. Some stubborn habits were so ingrained you failed to see the other possibilities.

There weren't many people on the streets. Only a handful of bleary-eyed men either going to work for the day or in some cases going home after a night on the town. It was still dark out, but the magic street lamps were being put out one by one by a woman in a long patched dress, a shawl, an apron, and her hair twisted up in a scarf. I witnessed her smacking one of the drunks in the shin with the pole she carried with her.

She'd lift the pole to the top of the light, tap the light, then the light went out. I guessed it was some sort of magic conductor. Not really a magic wand or staff, but something far simpler. It must have been made of sturdy stuff since she was able to wack at drunks without it breaking.

Crue was standing outside the temple. He was wearing spider silk clothes in shades of dark brown. The tight spandex looking clothes actually looked good on him. He wasn't huge like his brother. If his brother was a football player, Crue would be compared to a swimmer or runner. He had a larger chest than most runners, which made me think his body was more like a swimmer.

Him wearing the spider silk didn't bode well for me, and I was right. He had me go into the temple to change into them. It was going to be embarrassing. I didn't know why he made me wear something so tight. At least with the leather armor, some of my gut would be hidden. Without it, I was just like the fat lady wearing a rubber-band.

It would have been fine if Illia wasn't joining us. Not that I didn't want to be around her, I just didn't want to show her all my embarrassing sides before we even got to know each other. I was feeling like the kid who had toilet paper stuck to his shoe, his fly was down, and he had been hit with the acne stick overnight when his crush walks up to him and asks to borrow a pencil.

I did change, but I wasn't happy about it.

When I got outside Illia was standing with Crue. She was wearing something that looked like a tennis outfit made of spider silk. She had on the same long-sleeved t-shirt we had on and as with me, it left nothing to the imagination. Her pants had a skirt attached that fell two inches above her knees. It looked like something you would see at a swimming pool, the little skirt bottoms moms always seemed to have. There was even a decorative belt that tied into a bow in the back. Her bottoms were green, but her top was blue.

Her hair was braided back against her scalp showing just how long her ears really were. Her hair being naturally fluffy did a lot to hide her ears. Her rabbit ears which normally looked floppy did stand up a bit. In fact, it looked like she might have control over their movements since they stood up a bit more when I approached.

“Morning,” she said in greeting.

“Morning,” I answered back.

“Did you sleep well?” She asked her ears twitching a bit more.

“Actually, yes. I read a bit before bed,” I answered intentionally leaving out the part about the sleeping powder.

“Alright, so we are going to start running. We will start out easy, to the gate, around the East Quarter, then to the Guild. At the Guild, we will start our combat training. After that, we will run back. We'll bathe, change, and Tuck will have breakfast ready for us.

“I've got clinic hours from nine until noon. Then I'd like for us to go out hunting. I'm going to have Tuck pack us up a lunch,” Crue explained.

“I haven't had the chance to speak to Mary about my schedule yet, but my hours are similar. I work the morning shift from eight until noon, but the first hour we aren't open it's just time for me to tidy up without other people being in the building. Mary won't mind as long as I show up on time to open.

“I can meet you at the temple after I talk to Mary and if we are going out I'll need to run back home and grab my gear. I can meet you at the temple around twelve-thirty.”

“That works, and Eri what are your plans?” Crue asked.

“I think I'll go to the library with Illia. I need to get some reading done and that's the best place to do it.”

I really should read the books I have checked out and maybe find a book that will tell me about the town of Yellow Springs, how the government works, and a basic understanding of the laws and rules in this kingdom.

Crue's stories yesterday made me realize I didn't understand how crime and punishment really worked here. While I had witnessed the justice system from a front row seat, that wasn't normally how things played out. I needed to know what sort of things were considered criminal. While the obvious things like murder were crimes, what about the smaller things. Stealing was a crime, but would it be a death sentence crime? What about prostitution? There was a red light district with willing ladies, but were they actually committing crimes? At home, it was a crime and women still sold themselves risking arrest. These were just the what-ifs running through my head. If I knew the rules, then I would be able to relax a bit knowing I wasn't going to be hung for peeing against the wall while drunk.

Crue began us off with stretching. Illia and I followed his movements like school children in gym class. Then as a group, we began to run. It started off as a light jog, but then once we were down the street and around the first corner Crue picked up the pace.

My thighs began to burn almost immediately. Shortly after that my breathing became harder. The chill morning air didn't help with the breathing. It felt like I was inhaling ice shards. By the time we were at the gate, I was a mess and wanted to kick Crue for not even breathing hard. He wasn't even sweating. He was acting like this was a leisurely stroll through the park.

Surprisingly, Illia was doing better than me. With her small frame and admitted lack of training, I expected her to struggle as much as me. That wasn't the case. She too was treating this like a walk in the park. It was obvious the both of them were slowing their pace for me. It wasn't a good feeling holding people back.

I did manage to make it to the Guild, though it felt like my lungs were burning. I had jogged to Yellow Springs, and I had been able to maintain that pace for a few hours stopping frequently to kill the Green Apes. The pace that Crue set was a lot faster and was harder to maintain even for shorter periods. I could run up and down a soccer field, but the pace was always changing and you got to stop for short periods. Running all out for thirty minutes was harsh, my body even boosted by stamina and agility was yelling at me.

On paper, my stamina and agility were higher than Crue's. It became clear that what Crue had been trying to tell me about experience was true. Even though I had the stats without the work, the numbers on my status screen meant very little. While I wasn't feeling tired, and the muscle-burning went away as soon as I stopped, it seemed like I had to put in the work so that my physical body was able to keep up with my stats.

The recovery time was nearly instant. Perhaps that's why my stop and go run to Yellow Springs didn't seem as harsh as this even though I had covered more ground. My breathing evened out, my muscles stopped aching, and my body wasn't feeling any fatigue.

It seemed like my levels would only help me out so much. I could have an incredible amount Physical Power, but still wouldn't be able to pick up a person and carry them to safety. It was probably like that with all my stats. While they increased my potential without actually putting some work in, that potential would only get me so far. I really couldn't afford to be cocky. It could literally cost me my life.

The instant recovery could work in my favor. As long as I had the time, I could recover and be ready to repeat the exercise. I was sure that I wouldn't be able to do it infinitely, but it would be worth it to see how much I could accomplish with pauses. I already knew that I could run hours with pauses. The question was did I push myself like I did just now, or did I stop and take frequent breaks?

I had the feeling that both were the answer. I would have to push until I was feeling like I was about to collapse, then I would pause. Repeating that process seemed like it would gain me more. There was the lingering thought that I might be able to achieve the same results without enduring the pain. I was by nature a sedentary type of person and really wanted to take the easy way.

I was sorely tempted to take the easy route, but I did have some evidence that the easy route wouldn't be very beneficial. I had run for roughly for an entire day off and on, and I didn't see any loss of weight. I hadn't eaten anything but strawberries and water either. If I had burned that many calories my body would be trying to make up for it by getting me to eat. It could be that the instant recovery actually bypassed that, making my caloric intake stabilize.

Crue and Illia were doing some stretching. I had just been standing there like a table. I bent over and tried to touch my feet. I made it to the top of my ankles. I needed to work on my flexibility too. How did someone increase their flexibility? I had never really thought about it.

So flexibility, endurance, and overall physical fitness were what I needed to work on. Perhaps just running once in the morning wasn't going to be enough? Even Illia who said she couldn't go out hunting by herself seemed to be in better physical shape. I know I heard somewhere that you should try and exercise a few hours before bed. Perhaps running both in the morning and at night would help?

After the stretching Crue took us to the back of the Guild. The training area was packed earth and was sectioned off with flimsy-looking fencing made of wood scraps. There wasn't anyone training this early, but there were a handful of people milling about the building going about some random tasks.

I wondered if the Guild ever closed, so I asked.

“There is a night shift that consists of about three people. Some monsters are easier to find at night so you would need to be able to turn in your kills.

“So there is a receptionist, a dismantler, and usually someone comes in and cleans at night and tends to the animals in the stable.” Crue nodded at a young man who was busy gutting some odd-looking fish at the dismantler station.

So they did stay open. Not that getting my monsters to the dismantlers in a timely manner was going to be an issue. The thirteen Green Apes I had killed yesterday were still in my inventory, and it was not like they were going to rot.

Crue led us upwind from the dismantler. Whatever that fish thing was, it smelled super fishy. I was glad to not have to smell it during our entire session.

Crue's idea of martial arts was to lead us through an hour of what felt like Tai Chi. We just followed his movements the best we could as he flowed through the stances. He did call out the stances as he did them. Most of them were named after monsters, animals, or different types of trees.

I did notice that the attack like movements were usually named after monsters. The majority of the defensive movements were named after animals and plants. My mental image of a Nurggal was completely wiped clean by the odd leaping movement we had to imitate.

This sort of training was low impact, wasn't straining, and was oddly calming. It didn't feel like I was doing martial arts, but something more like an interpretive dance. In the beginning, Crue would correct our posture or our arm and leg placement, but towards the end of the session, we hardly needed any guidance.

I didn't quite know how to use these moves in actual combat yet, but some of the stances and the attacks were obvious. Some of the other more flowing movements were a bit harder to guess the practical application.

*Skill Gain- Smooth Movement ~

*Skill Gain- Stance~

*Do you wish to activate this skill now? Yes/No~

I activated both of them but didn't add any additional Exp. I wanted to see if I could get them to Lv 2 without adding anything. I wanted to see if I would still have the skill gaps if I just worked at it instead of adding Exp.

However, it might be hard to gauge that just based on martial arts since both of those skills were sub-skills. I glanced through my unactivated skill list. I didn't want to be going around singing or dancing all the time to test my skill gap. I considered restraint or telekinesis, but both seemed to be more advanced mental skills.

It would be good to start off with something basic. Rock throwing was basic but didn't seem very useful. Dismantling was something most adventurers had some basic knowledge about even if they didn't necessarily have the skill. It would be impractical to carry an entire monster in if all you really needed was the heart. That problem didn't really apply to me though.

Appraisal would prevent me from being ripped off in the market when Crue wasn't with me. It would also help in gauging the value of different monster parts, plants, ect. At least that was the idea. It was something I could use repeatedly in everyday life as well.

I decided to activate both Dismantling and Appraisal. So I had four new skills to test this theory on. I could test both a mental skill and physical skill as well as testing two sub-skills. I wouldn't add any extra Exp to them to level them up but would let them level up naturally as I used them. I wanted to test the rate of a natural level up. I would also need to figure out a way to test the skill later for a skill gap. Crue could help with the sub-skills and possibly the dismantling, but not for the appraisal. I'd have to find someone with that skill and have them test me, but that was a bit in the future.

I would swear Crue increased the pace of the run back, but we finished at around the same amount of time so it was probably just my brain yelling at me. It just seemed harder because the sun had come up and had swept away the chill in the air. It was going to be a hot muggy day, it would probably rain later on. This combined to make the run just a tad more miserable than before. Nope, I definitely didn't like running in the heat. Sweat pooled down the crack of my butt leaving me decidedly uncomfortable.

Even with the nearly instant recovery, that sticky gross feeling wasn't going to go away. I was so glad for the baths. I could wash away all the sweat at the faucet. I got into the baths for about five minutes, before I realized that perhaps soaking in a hot spring on a hot muggy day wasn't for me. I ended up rinsing off again with 'cold' water from the faucets. For some reason though today the water just felt slightly less warm than the hot water. I wondered where this water was being pumped from? The hot water could come from the spring but how did they pump in the cold water?

It was probably something magical, a lot of basic heating was done with magic. I would think cooling would work the same. So even though I didn't know the technicalities behind the plumbing system I figured it was something I could place on the back burner with other random odd questions I had about this world.

I arrived in the kitchen alone since Crue went to his room to grab clothes before his bath and was just entering as I exited.

Tuck had made homemade biscuits. These weren't popped out of the can uniform round biscuits either. These were handmade grandma plop biscuits. They were the best sort of biscuit. Slathered in butter they were amazing, adding fresh strawberry jam made them divine. I had no shame, I was already on my second when Illia arrived.

Tuck had just finished my eggs and had placed two questionable looking sausage links next to them. Then I remembered how sausage was traditionally made and understood why the meat looked like it was encased in a condom. I wasn't that squeamish over food, but I did carefully peel the whitish casing off each link before taking a nibble.

Pork, I think, with a lot of spices. It had a lot of anise added to it that gave it that black licorice taste that I wasn't in love with. No, this sausage was not my favorite thing today, but Illia seemed to love it. Tuck had placed two links on her plate as well and she devoured them before even cutting into her eggs or buttering her biscuit. She was really digging into the meat today. Was today her cheat day or something?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

When Tuck's back was turned I lifted the link in her direction asking silently if she wanted them. She scooted her plate closer and I quickly deposited both links onto her plate. Then I helped myself to a third biscuit as she ate those as well. Some people just liked the taste of anise, Illia must be one of them.

Crue finally arrived and got his plate and dug in. He used his biscuit to sop up the egg yolk even though it had butter and jam smeared on it. I knew some people in college that liked putting strawberry jam on their eggs, but I wasn't really expecting Crue to have a sweet flavor pallet. He didn't really seem like the sweet tooth sort of guy, but then Illia had said he had a thing for cinnamon buns.

We chatted idly with Tuck as he worked and discussed the tentative preparations for the chocolate celebration. Dickson was quite pleased with the extra chocolate I had provided the temple, during the trial for the convicts. He had actually expressed some concern that he was drastically underpaying me for the product. The priests were conducting some in-house tests and apparently chocolate was highly popular.

Keeping the popular product secret from the public wasn't actually the goal, but the temple didn't expect such an interest. Every day they had people lining up wanting to know when it would go on sale, when they could try it, when they could buy it. Tuck had sent a handful of the chocolate strawberries out to local confectioneries and he was expecting those shops would be queuing up to purchase the chocolate in bulk.

“Just wait until I teach you how to make chocolate cakes,” I laughed. I was right chocolate was addicting. I wouldn't mind renegotiating with Dickson on the prices, I knew that they could probably sell the bars for a staggering profit because of supply and demand. Soon the demand would exceed the supply. While I didn't mind pulling out boxes in my free time, I didn't want to have to do it all day in order to supply the kingdom. So supply would inevitably be lower than the demand then the prices would skyrocket. Even if the temple kept them affordable, the resale value would be high.

“He's really fretting over it,” Tuck said. “Over dinner last night he mentioned that he had been in contact with some of the other temples and they had expressed concerns that if they didn't give you a fair price you would stop the supply.”

“I wouldn't do that, Amoris told me to help out,” I objected.

“Be that as it may,” Illia interjected, “they have to be worried about you also being an Oracle and not actually a part of the temple.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She means that you are on the one hand a part of the Amoris Temple, while at the same time being separate from it. Then on top of that, you appeared in an area considered to be very rural, even if it is a vacation spot. You aren't as accessible as the head priests want you to be,” Crue commented.

“You are outside of their control in a way,” Tuck added, “and they don't like it.”

“You make them sound sinister when you put it like that,” I laughed thinking I was making a joke.

Crue sighed, “There are politics in play even within the temples. You've disturbed the balance of power so to speak by showing up here instead of in Winter City or King's Cross.”

“Or any other territory capitals for that matter,” Illia added.

“People will want you to be accessible, and you aren't very accessible out here. That will make some priests nervous,” Crue continued.

“That's why they want to pay you more. They think that if they give you enough money you won't run away.” Tuck turned and re-filled my tea.

“I wonder if it might be more than that,” Illia mused while nibbling on her eggs.

“How so?” Crue wondered.

“Well, would the priests necessarily know that Eri has a job with the Guild?”

“I don't see how that would matter,” I injected.

“If they didn't know, then they might be doing this so that they can control your only source of income and thus control you.

“If they do know, then they might be trying to pay you enough so you don't go selling the chocolate to the Guild. The Guild has a better distribution network than the Amoris Temple. Not as good as the Merchant's Guild, but still noteworthy. You could possibly make more money working with a Guild that has a better network in place to distribute. The more they sell in other areas the more money you would make.”

Crue was looking at Illia like she had a second head, but he couldn't come up with any sort of rebuttal to the points. Neither, it seemed, could Tuck, though he didn't seem to be all that concerned about it. After a moment he seemed to think of something to say.

“While I will admit that even the Amoris Temple has its issues, I prefer to think of the more positive side.”

“What are the positives?” I asked.

“Both you and the temple will be making money and if you are making money sooner or later you will be able to buy me dinner at Marge's all the time.” Crue smiled while dodging a wooden spoon chucked lightly in his direction by Tuck.

“I'll remember that next time you sneak into my kitchen at night asking for fourth meal,” Tuck waved his hand at Crue jokingly.

The conversation became more lighthearted after that. Illia told us about a new plot device she wanted to try in her book. Tuck talked about the success of the strawberry jam making. Crue said he'd heard that the bakery next to the inn was getting a new fall flavor pastry in few days and they were keeping it secret. It made the speculation on the new flavor a hot topic for betting.

Finishing up, Illia stood and proclaimed she needed to be getting to work. Crue agreed and decided to walk us to the door since we would be heading in the direction of the clinic anyway. Even though we were using a side door, the line outside the clinic was snaking partway around the building so that we had to dodge around the line when we exited. Crue waved us off, then headed back in.

I followed Illia to the library and waited patiently while she unlocked the doors. She once again went over the cataloging system with me, then left me alone. She made it clear that if I needed help I could ask her. She usually came in early to clean, process return books, and note which books had been checked out too long. Today, she was running behind on her daily tasks so she was hoping I could go independent.

I agreed and found myself a nice corner with a window to sit down and read. I found a hard to follow legal text. It was hard going and I just couldn't seem to be able to focus on the dull book. I decided to just pop it into my inventory then my Gamer Glass would have the knowledge. If I was in a situation where I was uncertain I could look it up at the time. That didn't help me with everyday minor infractions. I sighed and almost gave up and asked Illia, but I flipped past a card with a title that caught my interest.

A Polite Society and You: A Children's Guide the short description on the card led me to think it was mostly about manners, but it seemed like there were some indications that some of the book was how to get along in society without becoming a criminal. I found the book on the shelf and I was right, partially.

Who knew it would be a criminal offense to invite the king to your gathering if you were not of proper social status? Or that is was illegal to bed the wife of a nobleman? I guess things like this were important to the people who dealt with noblemen and kings. Not really useful to me though.

I did learn about proper table etiquette at a fancy party, and what sort of conversations were considered polite depending on if you were talking to a male or female or if they were younger or older than you. Apparently, I'd insult my host if I used the wrong spoon, or if I got up from the table before the lady of the house.

This book was supposed to be for children, what sort of child grew up like this? Going to fancy dinner parties and considering inviting the king to your birthday wasn't completely out of the question for the children this book had been written for. There didn't seem to be much call for this sort of etiquette in this remote area. I guess it would be possible to run into a nobleman on holiday so perhaps some of it might be used. Still though, who warned children about bedding other people's wives?

While interesting in an odd way, I needed something else. I went back to the card catalog and found a few promising books. One of them was written for prisoners trying to get out of their legal trouble, but I wasn't too picky. It turned out that the book was really useful in giving me the information in a sideways way.

The book would give the generalized crime, like shoplifting, then give you random legal facts about what sort of circumstances would force a judge to reexamine your case and punishment. Circumstances played a large role in the punishment of criminals for certain crimes, but for other crimes, they had a mandatory sentencing that everyone had to abide by. Rape was actually a more straightforward sentence than murder. You automatically received ten years for rape, the death penalty if it was more than one rape. Whereas murder was more complicated. A wife who kills her husband who was abusing her would only receive 3 years and any children would be cared for by one of the temples while she was in jail. However, a man who kills his wife in a rage would receive death.

It was like that for lesser crimes too. Stealing a horse in an emergency could be forgiven with a fine, but stealing several horses would result in at least five years. Stealing a watermelon out of a field would be a fine, but taking a sheep would mean spending time in jail. If you stole enough of something though it seemed that the sentence was almost always death. I wondered how many watermelons someone would need to steal to warrant a death sentence.

Slavery and forced labor were also addressed. While slavery wasn't a practice used in this kingdom, the kingdom wasn't in the position to 'free' any slaves that were made in other countries. So a slave was still a slave after crossing the border and the guards and soldiers would actually search for them and return them to their owner if found. However, if a slave were to run away and remain out of custody for a year, then they could declare themselves free at that point.

There were other ways for a slave to be declared free in the kingdom. The owner couldn't order his slave to do anything illegal. Nor could the owner do anything illegal to his slave. A slave couldn't legally give consent, so any acts normally needing consent were off-limits.

If an owner was in violation of these laws, then the slave could appeal to the first guardsmen they met and the legality of the offense would be brought up in court. The court would then decide if the slave had a case against his or her owner and would either free them or send them back with their owner. So it was up to the slave to provide proof of misconduct. Seemed to me something that might be difficult to do.

This was all very different from forced labor. Forced labor was a punishment in this kingdom for certain offenses. Desertion of the army during wartime was the example given. These people were not slaves, but prisoners sentenced to do forced labor for the kingdom. Mine and quarry work were listed as possible tasks, but depending on the persons' skill set the labor could be tailored to their skills.

Of course, once they served their sentence they were considered a free person, unlike a slave that had a lifetime of servitude ahead of them. A person could petition to be removed from the forced labor sentence, or have that sentenced changed if they met one of the requirements. They weren't physically able to perform the duty anymore. They believed that their skill set was going to waste at their specific duty. They were mentally unfit for the task.

The example given was a large man was sentenced to the mines. While he was physically fit and able to do nearly all physical labor, he was too large to maneuver around in the smaller shafts within the mines and at one point had to be dug out. How big did a guy have to get to not be able to fit in a mine shaft? Was he half-giant or something?

I was focused on the book, so I was startled when someone came up behind me and coughed.

I turned and there stood a man who was on the far end of middle age. He was balding but had hair on the sides. He had the thickest mustache I'd seen on a man. The contrast was a bit startling. His ears were large and so was his nose. On top of that, he was all over sunburned.

“Sorry, but I was looking for Mary. Do you know if she's in?” The man asked me.

Mary was the other librarian, right?

“Illia is here this morning, I think she mentioned that Mary comes in during the afternoon.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you. Sorry for interrupting.”

“No problem.”

The man walked away, disappearing among the bookshelves.

My concentration broken, I couldn't seem to refocus. I placed a few more texts into my inventory. Then I took them out again leaving behind the digital copy.

I spent nearly an hour looking for books that might be useful. Politics, lists of important persons, merchant's trade guides, wilderness first aid, useful plants and where to find them, a few more monster guides, the last few things I found were magic guides. They were similar to the other books with magic lists, but these taught a person the beginning fundamentals of MP distribution and choosing what type of magic worked best with your particular skills.

Just adding the books to my inventory didn't provide me with the skill. It seemed I had to actually open the books and at the very least glance through it in order to gain the skill.

*Skill Gain- Botany~

It only showed up after I glanced through the book. I didn't activate it, but another notification showed up.

*Botany-can become Pharmacology if paired with the Alchemy Skill.~

So some skills could become different skills if paired with other skills. Would this be considered a higher form of the skill, or did it happen just with the presence of the change triggering skill? Crue had this skill so I would ask him about it later.

I found an old book that I assumed was magical in nature. I had been going through the magical section of the books and while browsing I found this book stuck behind another group of books on the shelf. It looked like it had fallen behind the shelf from above, so I wasn't certain about where to re-shelve it. I thought that Illia would deal with it when she had time.

Looking through the book, I just couldn't figure out what it was about. There were a lot of diagrams, math, and even what looked like cookbook lists involved. The book didn't even have a title, so I couldn't even guess what it was about from hints about the title.

What did drawing an elemental circle mean and what did that have to do with the algebra problems beneath the instructions? I placed the book to the side, adding it to my inventory just to see if a title came up. The place that usually listed the title of the book said 'Unknown.' Well, that wasn't helpful.

The diagrams in the book were usually full-page examples and were oddly beautiful in a mandala sort of way. I knew the diagrams were magical in some way, but since the book didn't actually tell you what it was you were drawing the diagrams or doing the math for, it was hard to say in what way they were magical.

I had the feeling that this was a more advanced text that needed a knowledge of something I currently didn't have to understand it. It would be like picking up a trigonometry book without understanding the basics of math. The math done in the book wasn't as complicated as trigonometry, but the comparison was apt.

I spent more time than I probably should have trying to figure it out. The diagrams were art in themselves, so it was easy to get caught up in the ascetic aspect. Some used basic black, others were done in color. The color ones really got my attention because those pages seemed to smell a bit like vanilla and cherry. I think it might have been the ink. The smell was very faint, and you only got the slightest hint of it when you turned the colored page.

I went through the book twice before I finally put it on the edge of the desk so that it was separate from my other stacks of books. I had one small stack of books I wanted to check out to read and another larger stack of books to be put back. Some of those books were not what I was looking for and some of the smaller ones I had actually flipped through.

My desk was getting a bit crowded and I really wanted to look through a section I found on mapping migration patterns of monsters. Those books were surprisingly large, so I decided to take my books to be reshelved up to the small tea cart Illia used for shelving. I wasn't expecting the hilarious drama that unfolded.

Name- Eri Veritas

HP 2500/2500

MP 64/64

Level- 11

Age- 18

Race/Species- (Human) Unknown

Gender- (Male) Unknown

Occupation- Surveyor of Adventurers Guild

Exp- 3360

Physical Power- 220

Stamina- 280

Defense- 348

Agility- 492

Intelligence- 101

Magic Power- 8

Metal Rain Lv 1

Healing Hands Lv 1

Paralysis Resistance Lv 3

Mind Magic Resistance Lv 1

Skills

Staff Fighting Lv 2

Basic Sword Lv 2

Skull Bashing Lv 2

Martial Arts Lv 2

Stance Lv 1

Smooth Movement Lv 1

Spear Lv 1

Stalking Lv 1

Jumping Lv 1

Running Lv 2

Cooking Lv 1

Pain Tolerance Lv 3

Deception Lv 2

Poker Face Lv 1

Etiquette Lv 3

Dismantling Lv 1

Appraisal Lv 1

Leather Work Lv 1

Metal Work Lv 1

Rock Throwing

Dancing

Singing

Harvesting

Empathy

Telekinesis

Small Talk

Discretion

Party Tricks

Restraint

Alcohol Tolerance

Monster Biology

Entomology

Zoology

Botany

Special Skills

Abyss Walker

Racial Ability-

Hidden Among the Masses- 20

Stealth- 95

Party- 10

Items Equip

Inventory Bracelet

Succuba Star

Gold- 0g 7s 53c (753c)

Blessing 1- All Map Exploration

Blessing 2- Exp Points Required by Level Up / Current Level

Blessing 3-Exp Increase X Current Level

Blessing 4- Item- Gamer Glasses

Titles- Emissary of Amoris

Devotee of Amoris

Oracle of Amoris

Prince of Dreams

Grateful Petitioner

Lover of Leaves

Enemy of Apes