After the altercation with Sharla and her henchmen, I decided to take Fiona back to my place. Well, mostly I tried to convince her to find some other place to stay but she just kept saying that wasn't possible. She said something about her Life Bond and that she needed to keep me safe. Eventually, I relented, figuring if we were attacked that I liked my odds better with the two of us together. We made sure to keep our eyes open as we made the trip back to my place.

It would be interesting to see what had become of my home in the eleven days I was gone. A change of clothes would be nice as well. I decided to put off looking for friends and family until I wasn't being hunted by a group of slavers, deciding the people I cared for might be safer that way.

We made our way, stopping occasionally near patrols of soldiers to scan for the Assassin. The absence of the man was making me nervous almost to the point I wished he would just attack us so we could get this over with. Then I could move on to doing other things.

As we got closer to my house there were far fewer roaming patrols of soldiers, which wasn't surprising since I lived kind of on the outskirts. I did finally get to see my first active vehicle since the system came alive. The Humvee rolled down the street with a silent hum, turret manned by a soldier that eyed us warily as they passed.

"Wonder what they did to get it to run?"

"Sounds like a mana engine," Fiona said in reply.

I turned to her raising my eyebrow hoping she would elaborate. She huffed at me but explained.

"Mana engines run on mana, of course, they can be powered by mana stones or mana hearts as well. They aren't all that powerful though and only the rich in my world ever wasted money on the devices. Your soldiers would be better off with mounts like horses or lizards, although, they wouldn't be able to mount that weapon to any of those unless it was being pulled by a carriage."

"Yea seems like a bit of a waste but it's their money."

I lead Fiona through a large warehouse-type of building, that seemed to be abandoned. With its multiple exits I was hopeful that we could shake any tail we might have, by exiting in a random direction. We cut across to an adjacent building to see if anyone came looking. Sure enough, five minutes later a figure appeared from the door we exited. They looked around for a bit before turning back the way they came.

"Looks like we should be clear for now," I whispered.

"This hiding and running around is getting tiring, I wish to take the fight to these fiendish people," Fiona said angrily.

"Yeah, well unless you think you can take a level eighteen Chaos Mage on by yourself, you may have to wait a while."

"W-What, she's level eighteen?"

I had forgotten that Fiona didn't have the ability to identify people. I wondered about that, So I figured I would ask.

"Yes, and while we're at it, why don't you have an ability that can be used to identify people?"

"I never needed one. I was a city guard, not some adventurer. This meant I was always in a patrol group, where at least one person had the skill. Plus it's not like I or my family had a lot of credits to spare. I have more money since coming over here than I have seen in my lifetime."

I guess that made sense, It's not like they would go around killing people for the money or experience. That just brought up another question.

"Ok, well how did you level then?"

"Very slowly. Guards can earn experience from completing missions assigned to them. Usually, something like, arrest this many people or patrol this many miles. These missions didn't give out a whole lot of experience. Some people, like the Commander, served in our military for a time, earning experience that way. Occasionally we would get sent out to subjugate monster nests and gain experience that way. I got a bit of a leg up, my parents were able to pool their money together, to get me a dungeon dive before I became a guard. For my age, I am considered a quite high level in my world.

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes, most worlds that join the system are not as wild as yours. I expect that once word gets around, more people with the means will transfer over to take advantage of the easy leveling."

Yep, that sounded like a recipe for disaster. We rounded the last corner and there she was home sweet home.

I was honestly surprised to see my house still standing and unmolested, unlike some buildings and houses we came across. Hell, even the doors were still locked. I guess it helped that my house was on a little-used road and it wasn't much to look at. I pulled out my keys glad they survived the journey and unlocked the door.

As we entered my first impulse was to log into my computer to surf the internet, weird how urges like that still existed. My next urge was to open the fridge and get a snack, luckily I managed to prevent myself from doing that and stinking up the entire place. I can't imagine what the inside of my fridge smelled like after eleven days of no electricity.

"So this is your home?"

"Yup, I know it isn't much but it is mine, well I guess maybe if the banks were still around they might disagree," I said, chuckling.

"This house would be considered a large house in my world... wait, those other houses we visited were those all single-family homes as well?"

"Yes, probably for two parents and a few kids," I said, shrugging.

"Your world is odd, even from what I have heard from other worlds."

"Yea, I'm sure we are, make yourself at home," I said as I started to pull some items from my pack.

Fiona walked over, "What are you doing?"

"Setting up an early warning system just in case," I replied hanging the chitin plates from the door.

She just walked away looking through the house while I set up my traps.

"Is this your family," she said holding up a picture.

I stopped what I was doing to take a look, "Yep, my mother, father, me, and my younger sister," I said pointing to each.

"Do you think they survived?"

"No, they died when I was nineteen in a car accident."

"Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't know," she said, turning red from embarrassment.

"It's fine. I accepted their deaths long ago. I'm just grateful that they didn't have to live through this insanity. My sister may have been ok but my parents would not have been able to cope. You mentioned parents, any other family back in your world?"

"I have an older brother that joined the military and my parents are knight retainers. I would have joined our military as well but our military didn't allow women so I joined the Royal Guard. My parents objected but it was my choice."

"I was also betrothed to the son of some lesser noble but he ended the betrothal when he found out I joined the guard. Good riddance to the pompous dilettante," she said, disdain in her voice.

"My family managed to find another suitor to marry me, and I was scheduled to meet the man a few days ago but as you can see I was transported to your world first," she said not sounding all that sad about it.

I got the sense she had a bit of rebellious streak to her, it reminded me so much of my sister.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She turned to look at me, "Why did you save me?"

"You know why," I replied curtly, not really wanting to talk about it.

"I-is that the only reason you rescued me?"

"Yes," I added, not understanding what she was getting at.

"Although, now that I think about it... You do sort of remind me of my little sister."

I swear the woman physically deflated after she heard those words.

"Thank you again," she said softly, "For rescuing me and freeing me from slavery...I can never fully repay you."

I wanted to say there was no need for her to thank me, I was being paid to get her to her destination. I felt it would diminish her heartfelt words so I choose to remain silent. She walked into the living room and I moved to the back door to continue my preparations.

When I came back, I saw Fiona practicing in the living room. I was surprised she hadn't hit anything and I watched for a bit until she noticed my arrival.

"Sorry, I was a bit rusty and wished to practice," she said apologetically, sheathing her sword.

"No, that's fine but you may find more room in the garage, with the car gone there is plenty of space to move about."

"Thank you, I will do that. Um, which way is the ga-ra-ge?" she asked, butchering the unknown word.

Her butchering of the word reminded me of something I wanted to ask Frathsar but never got around to.

"You know I never bothered to ask this before but why does everyone speak the same language?"

"There's an easy answer to that question, they don't. I'm speaking my native language and the system does the rest. There are some lower languages the system doesn't bother to translate; the Sulid's battle cant for example."

The more I learned the more I found the System both fascinating and horrifying at the same time, with how it could alter worlds and people. Idly I wondered if my feeling about the System would differ if it hadn't been hidden from the world and I had grown up waiting for the activation day, like a kid on Christmas morning.

"The garage is right through here," I said waving her to follow, "By the way, how did your meeting go in the Bazaar?"

"Not great, they can only send one person over through the spatial link because of the expense and he will be bringing supplies through in a week. That is when I am required to return with him to the barracks," she said sounding melancholy.

"Well, I'm sure you will be glad to be back among your people and free from me."

Maybe she would be ordered to stay with her Commander. Not that I didn't appreciate her help, just that it still felt odd having someone that tried to kill you now trying to befriend you. It felt decidedly foreign to me.

She just huffed, "I can find the gar-age from here," she replied, stomping past me to the only possible door she could go through.

I wasn't sure what I said to upset her but I wasn't stupid enough to argue with the woman. Despite her Life Bond, she wasn't my slave and could do as she pleased, all except harming me of course. I headed back into my home office, I had some rune work to do. The desk would make working with my new carving tools much nicer.

I spent hours working on improving my craft having skimmed through the three books while Fiona practiced in the garage. I didn't have any specific need in mind right now so I just tested combinations.

My skills had improved greatly and I even managed to eke out a few more percent improvements on my armor inscriptions. I also found out that putting runes in a Celtic knot pattern enhanced them a bit. I would have to play around with designs a bit more later. I decided to stop for now. Getting up to stretch and eat a snack from my cabinet. I grabbed one for Fiona as a peace offering.

I needed her in a good mood as it was now time for me to do some practice. Despite her rather large lapse in judgment, she was still the best person I could turn to for practice at the moment. I knocked on the door to let her know I was coming in; I didn't need to be hit by a random sword slash if I could avoid it.

I could hear her stop moving and a muffled voice say, "It's safe to enter."

"Figured you could use a snack and a break," I said, handing her a granola bar, "Just tear the package open like this," I said, showing her how with my bar.

"Thank you."

"I had ulterior motives, kind of wanted to test out my new skills, or at least one of them, not sure I have enough room in here to try the other out."

She raised an eyebrow, "Did you not choose your skills when you leveled earlier?"

"Oh yeah, I choose my level skills but I had two free that I earned for clearing dungeons."

Fiona stared at me dumbfounded, "When did you have time to clear dungeons?"

"Oh well, I cleared one on the first day. It was a level one goblin dungeon. You'll laugh at this next one. After you kicked me off the cliff I found a level 5 horde dungeon that I was able to clear. And for being the first solo person to clear them I got the extra skill slots," I decided not to mention the ability points I earned. A guy needed his secrets.

"Every time I think I get a good idea of your capabilities you surprise me yet again. I only knew one person from my old world that had an, hear me, an as in singular extra skill slot that wasn't passive like your identify skill. As you can imagine extra combat skills are extremely rare. Sure you can use your class levels for non-class skills but that tends to reduce your class effectiveness overall, so most people avoid it."

"Ok, good to know, just another thing to keep to myself right?"

"That would be ideal," she said, rolling her eyes, "Let's see this new skill or skills, and don't tell me the names. Here let's do this," she added flicking me a screen.

I read the popup message.

Fiona would like to challenge you to a duel, this is a non-lethal duel and combat will end when one combatant reaches 10% health and all health is restored after the match ends

"In here? It's awfully cluttered and what about the bond, won't that interfere?"

"In combat, it's important to keep track of your surroundings and avoid obstacles. And no, because this is a non-lethal duel that both parties agree to, the system will not punish me," she said smiling, her sword seeming to magically appear in her hand.

"You seem to know an awful lot about how the system handles Life Bonds," I said nonchalantly.

"Ahem, yes, well, shall we get started?"

I groaned but pulled my staff from my ring giving it a twirl to check clearance. Most of my boosts were active as I had gotten into the habit of recasting them as soon as they faded. I cast Flurry and Aura Strike on my staff before clicking accept and a 5-second count down appeared.

As soon as the timer hit one I cast Blink Step, that's when I realized a fundamental flaw with the spell or with me. My eyes weren't fast enough to keep up, as I took the first step I blurred across the room towards Fiona swinging at where I thought she was but she was three feet to my right. The jerky movement also made me motion sick causing me to vomit a little in my mouth.

I forced it back down shaking the dizziness away. I stepped towards her again, this time I was close enough that the blurring was reduced and I struck out with my staff. She dodged out of the way of my flurry strike and I spun the staff trying to hit her with a stunning gust. She just took the spell on her sword and redirected it back at me.

"Oh sh-," was all that came out before the attack hit me causing the stun to go off, just my luck.

You have lost the duel

"Well..., that was embarrassing," I said, accepting the hand she lent me to get up.

"Let me guess you lost sight of me for a bit?"

"Yes."

"It has to do with your perception. I'm guessing the skill boosts your Agility?"

"Correct again," I said nursing my sore butt.

"When a stat is enhanced so far over normal your mind and body may have difficulty adjusting. With your skill perception and agility are linked. Now that you know what to expect you should be able to compensate a bit, eventually, you should get used to the sensation. You could also raise your perception a bit higher to help you compensate faster.

"With or without my Wind buff active?"

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "With if it was active at the time you used the spell."

"It was active."

"Your buff probably exacerbated the issue. It's not natural for humans to be enhanced temporarily for two whole points. You are used to it now since you have been using that skill since day one and the enhancement of your new skill will become easier to handle with time. I would recommend avoiding the use of that particular skill for at a few levels at least in combat."

Yeah, I wasn't about to stop using a skill that could be a game-changer, I would just have to practice more with it.

"It should be fine to train with it for now. Shall we go again?"

I accepted and this time when the fight started I Multicast two Earth Fists. She dodged the first one and I placed the second right where she stepped causing her to lose balance, then I rushed in with Flurry to take advantage, or so I thought.

No, she had never lost balance she had made it look like she had and managed to somersault over my staff slicing me across the shoulder as I dove to the side. I hissed in pain coming at her again. I did manage one sweeping blow at her midsection that connected and it must have activated my Impact ability because she staggered to the side giving me an approving grin.

"Good, you're getting harder to read, now it's my turn," She said evilly.

I groaned as she picked me up off the floor again. She had used an ability called water whip that smashed me across the face and left a groove in my wall.

"You still need to work on your feet placement and movement in general, you stand still too much, it makes you an easy target."

This was much better training than what she gave me before we left the north. There she only beat me and expected I would get better or die; now she was actually commenting on my mistakes and how to adjust and for that I was glad.

We fought like this for another few hours and I even managed one victory during the matches when I landed a Stunning Gust followed quickly by Flurry. That was when I learned just how useful my Impact skill was. Turns out it had a 30% chance to activate on each and every blow from Flurry, and although, I didn't get any natural critical strikes during that attack I did do over 560 damage with the one skill. I tried to multicast Impact at one point but the second spell canceled out the first one. I guess I couldn't cheat the system on that one. I would have to try multicast on all of my spells eventually.

Fiona congratulated me on my victory but told me not to rely too heavily on skills, instead, I should work on my actual skill with a staff.

I asked her about that and she suggested I find a combat master in the Bazaar. I guess I hadn't realized that I could find someone to train me there but I guess it made sense if you could buy pretty much everything from multiple worlds there.

After that, we decided to end the training session for tonight. I told her she could have the bed and I would sleep on the couch. I'm pretty sure it was just my imagination or did she look sad when I said I would sleep on the couch, hmm definitely my imagination.