The natives of this world had no idea about the ‘system,’ and it would be impossible to ask Kidu about an increase in his skills. He would probably think I was raving mad or having another one of my ‘god-touched’ moments.
“Well, enough with all these fun and games, you two best get off your backsides. We’ve got to get back—I need to be spending some well-earned gold on strong drink and loose women!” exhorted the Rogue, eager to be back in the welcoming arms of civilization.
Taking a moment to gather ourselves, we slowly rose up on unsteady feet. Despite our exhaustion and aggressive clash, we found ourselves smiling at each other. I realized that I was noticing the weight and restriction of my armor less and less as time went on. Was it human adaptability, my increased attributes, or simply just the very nature of Heavy Armor skill? Possibly it could be a factor of all three, I surmised as I slowly got my breath back.
Once I had suitably recovered, I decided that it would be best if I helped here and there about the camp. Between chores, I scoffed down a few bites of lizard meat, which helped restore some of my Stamina and a tiny amount of Health. I chose to dilly-dally a little, as I wanted my Mana to reach at least five points before we ventured forth on the return leg of our journey.
Finally, when we were ready, I let my companions lead the way while I held our donkey’s reins and followed along behind them. The sounds of the forest followed us wherever we went, and I could see various woodland creatures skittering about the upper boughs of the trees. I also saw a massive creature that looked like a gigantic millipede from Earth’s prehistoric past raise its antennae at us as we passed. My hand had reached for the weapon at my hip, in combat readiness, before Elwin shouted at me to stand down.
“Just a Happyfeet, no need to get your underclothes in a twist. They eat mulch and leaves,” explained Elwin as he turned around to look at me, his eyes rolling in exasperation. “Sometimes I really just can’t get the measure of you. You can do some of the most incredible things, yet at other times you're like a babe just newly born,” he chortled, eyes alight with mirth.
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Suddenly without any preamble, Kidu called for us to stop, holding up a hand. The wild man stooped low over a fallen log, inspecting it for something.
“Boomhead,” he stated simply, as he took out a knife to gather the mushrooms.
“Broomshead,” corrected Elwin, which drew a small grunt of annoyance from Kidu and simply caused Elwin to shrug.
“May I try?” I inquired, interrupting their little exchange as I knelt down beside the log, hiding the shade of eagerness in my voice as best I could.
“Yes, I will show you how,” said Kidu flatly, pausing for a moment to look at Elwin, before continuing, “Cut as deep as you can to take the soft wood too. Roots of the mushroom come with us and it will help it keep for longer.” Kidu then began to cut around the mushroom slowly, explaining in his usual curt manner, how to best extract the fungus.
I could see from the corner of my eye that Elwin was probably fighting a war to restrain himself from correcting Kidu’s use of the common language. Even with my own limited understanding, I could see that he had mangled the sentence structure in places. However, it was not important to me in the slightest, as I had a hypothesis to test out.
The Broomshead mushroom only had a passing similarity to its namesake. It had a short stem, with dark gills under a large brown cap covered with small, black hairlike fibers.
Mimicking the Hunter, I cut as far as I could with my knife around the base and harvested as well as I could. Using the knife in such a manner would no doubt dull the edge and the flowing snake-like blade was already a devil to sharpen. As we continued collecting nature’s bounty, I was finally given a new notification informing me of my latest achievement.
You have learned Herbalism (lvl.2)
It was annoying that I did not earn an extra point in Wisdom along with the skill. However, I felt that I was making real progress in understanding some of the rules and the nature of this world. The small amount of experience gained was also welcome, and perhaps the Hamsa would reward me with a little extra for bringing him more of the mushrooms. Puzzling on the ins and outs was, in a way, just another test, another challenge that I would have to overcome if I was to thrive in this magical land.