“You're back early,” said the woman with a lovely voice. “And what’s this, you bring a guest? That had never happened before.”

“This is Lana, my wife,” Blake waved towards a young woman, “Lana this is, what you name again kid?”

“It’s A- I mean Dave, nice to meet you, Lana.”

Blake noticed as he stumbled but didn’t say anything as the man sat by the table. Blake probably already knew he was using a fake name.

Unlike the man, Lana looked like someone you would save from the goblin or bandit raid. She looked like your typical, would-be, damsel in distress. If he hadn’t already been around beauties, he would have been staring at the lady for some time. The man probably was used to people staring at his gorgeous wife.

The pair reminded him of his past life as Dave was in almost the same position as Blake. It wasn’t easy when the husband didn’t look like he deserved such beauty. Adrin could tell that David and Blake have this in common.

But unlike what he had foolishly thought, women wouldn’t stop getting attention from men just because she was married. Not unless they cover everything up like a devout female priest.

Adrin only noticed this when he was on the other side of the situation. Only now he could see that it probably wasn’t all one-hundred-percent the woman’s fault. He was an idiot. Blaming women because they were pretty was like blaming someone who was born ugly.

“Can you get me Alfred’s stuff, Lana?”

“Yes, of course, but don’t tell me you are giving it to him?”

“You always nagged me about getting rid of them, now I’m getting rid of them, woman.”

Lana pouted at the man’s short temper, but she didn’t say anything before walking away. Soon the woman returned with a small wooden chest in her arms.

The two had a staring competition for a few long seconds before Adrin realized the problem. The woman was reluctant to just give the chest away to a stranger, unlike her husband. Adrin couldn’t pick a side as he could understand where they both were coming from.

“I’m willing to pay for it,” Adrin said to their surprise. “How about two slates?”

“Deal!” Lana excitedly agreed.

“You’ve said it yourself, it is just a bunch of useless trash from a rambling old man,” Blake protested.

“It’s fine, a man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Adrin placed two slates of silver which the wife quickly swept away before handing him over the small chest.

“I’ll make some nice juicy drinks for you two,” the woman quickly escaped to the kitchen. She knew that she had pissed off her man.

“Goddammit woman, does your man’s word mean anything to you?”

Blake sighed heavily when he got no reply from his wife. Adrin completely understood what the man was feeling right now. Being disrespected by your own wife was hard.

“You’ll find the puzzle inside along with his notes among other things,” Blake said. “Hopefully it will be worth it.”

Adrin opened the chest, and the moment he laid his eyes on the cube, he knew it was worth more than just two silver slates. The glyphs carved on the stone cube felt powerful even when it was all jumbled. The spell glyph Rubik's cube was indeed a hidden treasure.

“Mana puzzle?” Adrin read one of the notes and noticed the underlined words.

Blake chuckled, “it seems like it does worth something to you,” he shook his head.

“Yes, I don’t know what this is yet, but it does feel promising,” he could tell as the mana flow was going crazy just around the box.

Lana had a winning smile as she placed the drinks on the table. She had been listening while acting busy in the nearby kitchen. The lady might be a village girl but she was a cunning one, and the drink she made tasted great.

Blake groaned, “there is a reason I’ve decided to give them to him, Lana, the boy is planning to continue on Alfred’s work.”

“You don’t mean-”

“Yes, the old croon would have wanted the boy to have it.”

“Think of it as a keeper's fee,” Adrin butted in, “I see no harm in it.”

Both of their shoulders slacked and looked at each other. He might have just met them but he had no doubt he had found genuine good people for once.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Lana might be greedy but that was because her husband had decided to keep his wealth hidden. Blake only reaped what he had sowed.

David probably had his own part in his marriage’s failure, he was just too blind to see it. There were probably a lot of red flags he had chosen to ignore because he was blind by a pretty face. He had chosen his wife based on looks alone and he got what he deserved.

Adrin sighed inside.

“That’s what Alfred would have said,” said Lana, and Blake nodded. “Are you allergic to hugging too, Dave?” Lana continued.

“Please, for God’s sake, don’t do that,” Adrin said and gulped the drink down before the woman decided to do something unreasonable. “Thanks for the drink, sorry to be rude, but I’m going to busy myself with the chest’s contents,” he said as he got up.

“Mister Blake!” yelled someone as the door slammed open.

All three of them were surprised by the sudden intrusion.

“Argh, fuck,” Blake groaned.

“Is it acting again?” Lana became worried.

“Yes, please do your thing,” the grown man replied.

“Hold on a second,” Lana said and touched the man’s stump.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“Hush, Aela, I need to concentrate,” said Lana with her eyes closed. “It's here,” the lady said as something happened.

Affinity Skill observed.

Use Inspiration points to learn?

[Soothing Hand] costs 1 point.

Adrin watched in silence. The lady has used a skill he had never heard before, but according to what had happened, it might have something to do with phantom pain. A known issue with amputees which not even modern science could fully explain.

The woman must have used the skill to calm or soothe the nerves which were sending pain signals to the brain. It was a useful skill to have in emergencies. It would save a life by allowing the injury to be treated without the patient thrashing around.

This would also stop any extreme pain-related complications like an erratic heart beating. Being burned by acid wouldn’t be easy to heal if the patient wasn’t cooperating.

After this train of thought that it hit him.

EMG or electromyography, a discovery that enabled amputees to have better control over their prosthetic limb. A proper connection would convey sensory feedback through electrical interfaces with the nerves. It also could be used to control a robotic arm or exoskeleton armor.

This could only mean one thing. If he wanted to make his robotic arms respond as fast as his flesh and bone then he was going to need this skill. It was possible to have someone like Lana to help him experiment with this skill, but her lack of understanding of the concept could lead to failure.

Teaching her about nerves and how the brain sends signals through it to move body parts would take too long and might overwhelm the lady. She also would have a hard time conveying what she felt or discover during the experiment if he used her as a proxy. The human's nerve system wasn’t something simple and the old world had computers and scanners to help them.

The conclusion was clear, he had to learn the skill himself. He had to if he wanted to thoroughly dive into it, using the skill to create a connection between nerves and the prosthetic hand or his exoskeleton armor.

[Soothing Hand] skill acquired.

Soothing Hand [Level 1]

||

Elemental Skill detected, [Life] affinity.

Calculating Affinity,

[Life] affinity [12%]

“Dave, are you alright?" Lana asked. "It is just a spirit wound. This happens from time to time.”

“I’m fine, I’m just distracted for a moment,” Adrin replied. He must have been staring at nothing for the lady to be worried like that.

Blake moved his stump shoulder around, “thanks Lana, the boy must have never seen it before, we can thank Aela for that.”

“I’m sorry,” the girl mumbled with a pout. “It’s just…” the girl stared at Adrin.

“It is just what?” Blake asked.

“Dave, he has the [Lightning Flux] skill, I’ve never seen anyone with such skill. And the story goes that he fights a bunch of snappers and maimed all of them.”

Adrin sighed, “It is only a single snapper and it was stuck under the rocks.”

“But- “

“No one could take a few snappers on his own, not even me in my prime with or without the elemental skill,” Blake interrupted her to explain.

“Aela, people tend to make up stories,” Lana shook her head.

An awkward silence filled the room a few seconds too long.

“Well, thanks again for trusting me with this chest, but I’ll have to get going,” Adrin said and slipped past the girl. Being hugged by the man's wife would only end in tragedy.

Adrin had decided to try and ‘help’ the older man just because of his itching need for something to do, but somehow, it ended up with something very promising. [Soothing Hand] might be useful, but without science, no one really knew the real full potential of this skill.

And if he had to guess, [Soothing hand] should be just a common skill. If her skill was rare, Lana would have been poached by people in power to work for them rather than just become a housewife. Blake might have some influence to mitigate things, but it didn’t make sense for people to just ignore rare skill wielders, well, just like his [Lightning Flux].

But to think that other people were making rumors about him? Maybe he should have used [Crystal Meld] disguised as its stone variant, but he was just curious to see how commoners reacted to the rare skill.

The elemental skill being rare should have been obvious, but the kingdom as a whole would have been far more prosperous if it was made common. This was why humanity in this world couldn’t take full advantage of the abundance of energy sources like mana. Just like the old world, human greed had come in between humanity and progress.

Maybe he should do something about it. Adrin didn’t want to live in a medieval magic world until the day he died of old age. He missed many things the modern world had to offer.

“Dave! Wait up!” shouted Aela from behind.

Adrin sighed. It sounded wrong. He should have definitely not used the [Lightning Flux] to brag.