“-And then I finished the Crab off with a hail of attacks while it was still on fire. Though looking back on it, most of that fight was just me running while it chased. So it’s probably not that good of a story to tell, huh?” Jordan finished as he sat in front of his new companion.

He’d just spoken about his battle with the Crab the other day, though he did make the conscious choice to leave out some key details. Such as the existence of Advancement Crystals, and instead had just vaguely said that he had a one-use item in his pocket space that allowed him to set the Crab aflame. Jordan figured that if the much more powerful person in front of you didn’t know that they could turn your corpse into a gem, then it might be safer not to say as much while basically trapped with them.

“Mmm,” Haje hummed with crossed upper arms.

It was only while they were directly in front of each other that Jordan noticed that the stone giant had six fingers. Four fingers that were of even length, and then he had what could only be described as a pair of thumbs, one placed at each side of his hand. It was just another point in the column of differences that, in reality, made ‘humanoid’ a less accurate description.

“If fleeing from a fearsome foe and yet still defeating them is not a good story, then I will have to forget many of my own. There are cowards who run to hide, and then those who make distance to win. I know of a clan to the south of my own, back home, who would use mighty spears to hunt and puncture a thousand holes into beasts who were too dangerous for close combat. And yet I would never have dared to call them cowards for such a way of fighting.” As Haje had spoken, all four of his arms had imitated the throwing of a spear.

Jordan simply nodded. “Fair enough. So, how about your turn for a fight story? Would it be that Wyvern you wrestled just now?”

“Hah! No. While the flying lizard was fierce in its act, its teeth and claws couldn’t match that. I doubt that even a single swipe or bite was enough to scratch me. No… if there is one story that I must tell to anyone who has not heard it yet, it would be the one behind this.”

Haje then turned around while still sitting, and gestured at what was apparently his back. It was a bit hard to tell before, since even when speaking, Haje’s voice seemed to somehow emanate out from across his whole body in all directions.

Yet when Jordan saw what was on the other side of the stone torso, he blinked with surprise. When the snow was wiped away, the rock that made up the larger being’s body was rather smooth, almost to a polish. On his back, however, there was a jagged scar that ran across almost his entire back. One which was about a foot wide, and at least just as deep.

“Damn, what gave you that?” Jordan asked while looking closely. The inside of the scar was also rather smooth, which he assumed meant that it’d come from something rather sharp.

“The Lord of the Mountain, as my people have called it for generations. A terrible beast that terrorized my clan for just as long. Some even said that it was born from our ancestor’s wrath, claiming it to be punishment for forgetting the old ways. Bah! I believed it to simply be a creature like any other. And so, with nothing but my own four fists, I sought to prove it. If I could slay the Lord of the Mountain with no weapons, and only my own body, then none could deny my greatness!” Haje began with a prideful tone.

“But it was a mountain that not even I, as one of my clan’s most promising warriors, could climb. All the beast needed was just one strike to end the battle before it had even begun. The only reason I live was the attack sent me falling off the side of the mountain, and it chose not to leave its nest to finish me off. I held a grudge about that day for many years. Now, however, I am somewhat thankful for the lesson in knowing my capabilities. So as you have now heard for yourself, I consider even a humiliating loss a good story. Even if it is one where I failed to land one strike of my own in return.”

Jordan frowned slightly as a thought came to mind. Haje had mentioned this event taking place years ago. Yet, just what was that in reference to? How did his people keep track of a calendar? How long were the days on his homeworld, just to begin with? So, just to satisfy his curiosity before the conversation moved on, he decided that now would be the best time to ask.

“Just to ask, how long is a year on your homeworld? Like for mine, it’s 365 days. Which is… weirdly the same amount of time that our Quest Series has. So I’m just wondering how that relates to your experience, from someone whose planet should be totally different in that regard?” He inquired while rubbing his gloved hands together, wondering about the other man’s thoughts on the very specific time the System had set on the Quests.

“It’s the same,” Haje replied simply after turning back around.

“For… the Quest?”

“For everything you said. Long ago, the clans came together to also make a schedule that we could all follow. They decided to mark a year as 365 day and night cycles. To tell the truth, I did find it strange that this world has the same length of day as my own. But I chose not to give it much thought.” He gave the idea a nonchalant, four-armed shrug.

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“Wait, now that’s where things are different!” Jordan exclaimed at the sudden contrast. “This planet is like two-thirds the length of my own for a full day and night. So why is both the number of days in a year and length of one day the same for you, but then the latter is different for mine?”

Jordan would have been willing to find it acceptable if it had been consistent. If Haje had said that his own planet also worked off 24-hour days, then he would have chalked it up as some weird shenanigans from the System.

That it had basically acted as a deity that predetermined each Species to have the same starting pointing. Something that could also be used as an explanation for how they were able to even understand each other, which was another point that needed to be brought up. Though while Jordan was still wrapping his head around the most recent revelation, he wasn’t sure if he could-

“Now you tell me, for something else that is strange. How is it that we share the same language? Your name and way of speaking are similar to those of a far northern clan that we rarely met. But from what I remember of those times, you speak in a way that is not the same, but close. And yet you do from just the head, and not the whole body like us, which is… strange,” Haje inquired.

“I- I’m not sure. While I can’t recognize your accent, your name sounds similar to something people from my own world might use. And that Crab I mentioned, both its name and accent were also identical to the people of a nation from my home world. If I had to make a guess… I can only assume that it’s due to the System. It must be acting as a translator to make it even possible for us to be talking to each other like this. That’s the only thing that makes sense, I’d say.” Considering that the comparison for their accent was apparently a two-way street, Jordan would be willing to bet a lot of money on that being the case.

I wonder if the System is just trying to approximate it in a way that’s close. Like actual language difference aside, there’s no way my ears would be built to even properly hear how Haje would be speaking a stone person with no mouth, who uses his whole body to somehow produce sound. Makes me wonder what else might be translated to what I would understand. When he says clans, is it the same way that I would think of a familial clan from Earth? Or is it a nuanced difference, where clan just happens to be the closest word to what he actually means? Jordan asked himself.

A part of him almost wished he’d taken the chance to talk to the Crab more, in order to learn more about this subject from its perspective. At that moment, the ten minutes must have been up, as his land drone finally disappeared. Something which he only briefly glanced at to acknowledge.

Haje took a moment to brush some snow off himself. “Hmm, well, it makes no difference in the end. We are on this planet now, and we all share the same Quests to grow in power. This System expects us to prove ourselves as the mightiest. So our Species, our home world, our pasts, none of it matters in the face of what must be done. I say that such things are merely distractions, that should be tossed from the cliffs of the mountain beside us.”

“Well… I guess that’s one way to look at it, huh?” Jordan said with a small chuckle. While he didn’t fully agree with the idea of simply ignoring things like that, he could appreciate that kind of outlook on life. But now that he was feeling a lot more comfortable after the talk so far, he felt ready to ask the burning question that’d been on his mind.

“So, Haje. Let me know if this is too personal as a secret you’d rather hide. But just why is that your listed Level is… what it is? And did you really manage to already hit D Grade?” He asked, leaning forward a bit with eager anticipation.

“Bah, I have no secrets worth hiding. The Level is because of the Passive Skill from my Class. It doesn’t do a lot. Just gives me more Experience per Level and increases the Stat points I get to spend from each Level. That’s all. Even gave me a warning that only my true Level will count for the Quest leaderboard,” Haje said in a way that was still way too freaking nonchalant for the enormity of what he had just revealed.

What the fuck kinda overpowered… Jordan found himself immediately thinking. Luckily his face was fully covered with goggles to hide his expression. Although, even if it wasn’t, would a totally alien Species like the person before him even be able to read human facial cues? He wasn’t sure if that would be included in the System’s auto-translate as communicated intent or something.

“That sounds amazing in my opinion,” Jordan then said after schooling his twinge of jealousy. “But if that’s just the Passive, then what are your other Class Skills like?”

“Don’t have any,” Haje shrugged. “Only the Passive, and no starting equipment too. The System gave me all sorts of warnings to make me aware of those restrictions. It even said that I would not be able to select a Subclass at D Grade. Not that I cared much for that, since I have no interest in any of those Trade Classes it mentioned anyway.”

With that clarification, Jordan suddenly found himself a lot less jealous. “But… why? While extra Levels and Stats do sound great on their own, that seems like you’re sacrificing a lot, actually. For that, I can only guess that you get a ton of extra Unspent Points per Level, right? Oh! And did your Passive get a chance to evolve at Level 6?”

“Yes, for the second question, and It did again at Level 11. For something that the System called a Fundamental Evolution. For how many… it changed. When I first got it, it was ten Unspoint Points per Level. After the Fundamental thing, I picked the option that makes it 20 now.”

“And…” Jordan blinked as he wanted to clarify just one more point on that subject. “Did that upgrade get applied retroactively? Like to all your previous Levels’ Unspent Points, or only for that point onward?”

“Oh, right. I did get around a hundred Unspent Points to add. Felt much stronger afterward, even more so after the boost from that Title for being the first to hit D Grade. Which I guess still counted even with the whole leaderboard thing,” Haje replied, again, with the most casual of shrugs.

Meanwhile, Jordan felt like he might perish from a heart attack at that very moment.