"Hoi, there!" A voice calls out, and I look over to find Thomas approaching.

"Hello," I greet him as I set down the crystal I was examining.

As the hunter enters the range of my [Empathy], I find him feeling a little hopeful, a little curious, a little focused, and a little skeptical. The first two are a little odd, though I was expecting the latter two.

"You said you'd have the gloves ready today?" Thomas asks.

"I do," I answer. "Do you have payment for them?"

"In here," he pulls off his pack and sets it down. "Along with the food."

"Let me check it over," I tell him, then pull everything out.

It's the same food supply as he's been giving me, so I'm going to assume that's what he's decided will be in each batch to exact amounts. Accompanying the ingredients are a variety of glass bottles and jars. The bottles come in the perfect size for storing potions for quick use, while the jars are the right size for storing additional potions or for making jams and other preserved foods.

They're pretty good in quality, too.

"These ones are potion bottles," I note. "I'd just asked for bottles and jars."

"Silvia asked me what I knew about you," he says. "I'd mentioned you were an adventurer, and that I'd seen a mortar and pestle with strange blue mushrooms by it. She said you probably brewed your own potions, so I guess that's why she made those."

I glance by the mortar and pestle on my alchemy prep table, which currently has a basket with a few of my remaining mana disc mushrooms in it. A fair assessment by her just from that information. She might know what green eyes mean, though if he told her about them, she either didn't mention it to him or she did but he's not inclined to bring it up.

Then again, he already suspects I'm a mage so if he found out anything from her, he probably feels it's not important enough to mention.

Yet, at least.

"I do," I answer.

"Are you able to brew me some?" He asks. "One of the things which limits me in the mines is HP and the more I can do in there, the easier it'll be to prepare for leaving here."

He should theoretically be able to handle leaving the area now if it's just a finances issue. Now that he can kill monsters properly, he should be able to earn money more easily. The cost really isn't that high if he's just going to another farming village even with the trip out of here – he'd just wait until the chief is heading into town for the first part to cut down on that cost.

After that, it's just a matter of walking to a village near the town and picking out a spot to build his new home.

"If you're talking health potions," I say. "I don't actually have the reagents for those. Been looking but only have one out of three. Once I do, I can brew them up. Some of what I've brewed, I've only been able to make one of from the stuff I've foraged."

"Oh," he seems pretty disappointed by that even if his expression doesn't show it. "I'd offer to help, but I don't really know what's useful for alchemy or not."

"This area is abundant in reagents," I tell him. "It's just a matter of time before I find suitable ones and transplant them to my garden. If you're still around when that happens, then I'll brew some up for you, for a price. And speaking of prices, let me grab the gloves for you."

I head into the cabin and retrieve the gloves from the wooden box I'd placed them in. When I return outside and hand them to Thomas, he frowns a little as he examines them.

The gloves look like normal leather gloves, for the most part. Unlike the arrowheads, there aren't any visible crystals on them.

"They were treated with alchemy," I tell him. "Using magic crystals I crushed, then dissolved so they'd be in liquid form. It helped enhance their own durability as well. You'll get some good use out of them before they tear."

"I'll have to take your word for it," he says with a mind full of skepticism. "I can't read, so I ain't able to tell what it says."

"Would you like to learn?"

"What?" He gives me a confused look. "You know how to read, too? Isn't that mostly a thing among nobles?"

Even adventurers and mercenaries, who take on random jobs, generally don't need to know how to read. The job requests are managed by the guild and the posters just contain an image and a few easy-to-learn symbols to show what the task and pay are.

"I was raised by a wealthy couple from when I was nine to when I was thirteen," I say. "I learned how to read and write then. It's pretty much required for any family that's nobility or wanting to be. Same with knowing how to play at least one instrument."

"You can do that, too?" He asks. "I've got a guitar, but it's probably not suitable for nobles."

"Some like guitar," I tell him. "I learned the violin while living with them, but picked up guitar while adventuring and learned to play more rural tunes on the violin as well."

Admittedly, the guitar thing was to try and impress a guy in an area I was staying for awhile when I was fifteen. It did earn me some dates and I never bothered quitting even after I left there.

"Might be a bit blunt," he says. "But why come here instead of going to live with your adoptive parents after retiring?"

"They only really saw me as a tool for their reputation," I say. "An act of charity, rescuing a talented boy from a cruel orphanage so that he'd have the ability to flourish. The expectation was that I'd marry someone from a branch family and produce heirs for them once I was old enough."

"Running makes sense, then."

"Would have been fine… maybe," I say. "Except I have zero attraction to the opposite sex, and that led to some arguments after they caught me kissing one of the boys in the market in town. It wasn't even anything inappropriate, just an awkward first kiss. Then an opportunity came and I took it. We haven't talked since I was fifteen and while they attempted to keep me in their family record so that my adventures would be in their name… I earned enough to pay an Archpriest to sever that."

There's an increase in his curiosity when I mention being gay and having kissed at least one boy before, though judging by the shifts in his emotions, he quickly squashes that because of his wariness of me. Unless he furthers that topic during this visit, I won't broach the possibility of something without commitment between us.

Just because someone has a small attraction to me, that doesn't mean they'd be willing to actually do something if I asked. As with before, I'm pretty sure his wariness of me means asking him would make things worse rather than better.

"So you've got some sort of talent?" He asks. "In crafting? You seem pretty good at it from what I can tell."

The curiosity in his mind feels genuine there so while I'm sure he's realized I'm a mage based on how quickly I made the bath, he doesn't think that's where my talents lie.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Some of that comes from the cruel orphanage," I tell him. "It's not something I like talking about, but the short version is that it forced its kids into labor, and not the standard fare. Woodworking and pottery, and even among the littlest ones. Simple stuff, not anything fancy, but you still learn a bit by the time you're nine. And there were harsh punishments for not being up to standards."

It wasn't the original orphanage I was at, but that one shut down a few months after I arrived and I was moved to the one I ended up in for the next nine years. Had that other one not shut down, I probably would have had a much easier childhood.

"That sort of thing's allowed?" He asks. "I had to do work when I was little, but it was just stuff like carrying lighter stuff for my parents, or helping put seeds in holes, or whatever. Easy stuff a kid could handle until I could handle more."

"Depends on where you are and how bad it is," I answer. "And as I said, I don't really like talking about that time of my life. It wasn't too pleasant."

I can tell he wants to ask more questions, but he opts not to now that I've made it clear the discussion needs to be dropped. He stands in silence for a few moments before a different question comes to him.

"If you can read," he says. "Does that mean you understand Skills and how they work, too?"

"Yeah," I answer. "What did you want to know?"

"How it works," he answers. "Ain't able to get a good answer when I ask in town, but it ain't as if I'm able to just ask the more educated folk."

That's actually pretty fair. Most commoners don't know much about how it works beyond that Skills go up from time to time and they get better at doing things while getting stronger and tougher in small amounts.

"Hm…" I think for a few moments. Best to ask him what he knows first. "What do you know about Skills?"

"They go up by doing stuff related to them," he answers. "I know what each line is even if I can't read – asked that in town years ago – and I can read numbers, so I can tell the values, but I don't really understand much beyond the basics. You do stuff related to the Skill and it goes up after awhile, and that provides bonus to your stats and boosts your ability in that field a little."

Just like most commoners.

"Alright," I say. "That's the basics, yeah. There's a thing called 'Skill Experience'. Each Skill requires the same amount at the same Level, but tracks it separately. Doing things for [Farming] doesn't increase [Ranching] or [Harvesting] or [Foraging], for example.

"And yeah," I say. "Doing related actions earns you Skill Experience. Once you reach the threshold, your Skill Level goes up and the amount of Skill Experience required increases. How much Skill Experience you gain depends on the activity itself. Growing normal herbs in a small garden will earn you a small amount of [Farming] Skill Experience, growing magical herbs will earn you a little more. The rarer or more difficult something is to grow, the more it'll award."

"So hunting an ordinary rabbit will earn me less Skill Experience than hunting stoneseeker wolves," Thomas says.

"Correct," I say. "The reason it can take a year or three of doing something regularly for the first Skill Level is because they require an immense amount compared to how much you gain from activities. And it takes longer for each Skill Level after that because of the increase in how much it requires – and it doesn't include any Skill Experience you earned before reaching that Level in the amount required for the next. You start from none at each Skill Level."

This is mostly just an expansion of what he already knows rather than any new information, if I'm entirely honest. The reason he hasn't figured this out on his own is probably the way he was raised. Out here, everyone just knows it as something which sometimes goes up. Knowing more than that isn't necessary so they don't bother trying to figure out more.

A product of the way he was raised, and it's not one I'll fault him for. It really isn't necessary for people in areas like this to know this information.

"As for the bonuses for reaching the thresholds," I say. "That's the gods' way of rewarding work and enabling us to grow a little bit more, to make what we're doing even easier. At least, that's what Archpriests say."

"I'd figured that bit out," he chuckles. "Is there a way to view this 'Skill Experience' you're talking about? I'm trying to pull it up… though I guess I probably wouldn't be able to interpret it. I really only understand more basic numbers and it sounds like it might be a lot."

"It is," I say. "And yes, there's a way you can view it. Only a High Priest or Archpriest of the holy variety can access them, though. It costs a lot of MP as well, and since that's a pretty limited resource and mana potions aren't cheap, they do charge a decent amount. Thousands of c."

"There are types of priests who ain't holy?" He asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "You have dark priests, who don't serve a god but rather, study darker magics and lead… well, what amounts to criminal organizations, and are often heretical. Then there are Spirit Priests, or people spirits have taken a liking to and given a specific type of blessing and who they'll manifest for more often."

"A specific type of blessing?" He asks.

"Spirits can give a few different blessings," I inform him. "More people have one than they realize, but there's one specific one which they can grant, which allows the recipient to perceive spirits in a partially-manifested state. Some people develop that ability on their own without the blessing, and are also considered to be Spirit Priests. If they grant you the blessing, it pretty much just means that spirits like you and that's it."

"Ah," he says. "And since that's all they get, they ain't able to view the Skill Experience?"

"Correct," I answer. "The System is something from the gods, so only the gods can directly interact with it."

The blessing I received from the spirits is an exception to that rule and not something which they grant often. It's also not a sign of someone being a Spirit Priest, and my ability to detect and see spirits which haven't manifested isn't from a blessing.

"Ah."

"And speaking of Skill Experience gains," I say. "Not everyone gains it at the same rate."

"Really?"

"Yeah," I say. "Everyone has something called a 'bloodline', and it contains traits inherent to you. Each Skill Level someone gains it in strengthens that aspect of the bloodline. It makes it a tiny bit easier for their children to learn the specific things they did within that Skill's domain. This also builds up over the generations, if the descendants continue the art. If both parents do it, that also gives a boost."

"And the bloodline gives a boost to Skill Experience based on that as well?" He asks.

"Right," I answer. "And the specific things they did will cause their children to gain more Skill Experience from those. If all of your ancestors have grown potatoes, onions, and carrots for the last five hundred years, but never grew wheat once, you'd gain more Skill Experience from growing potatoes, onions, or carrots than you do wheat."

"So that's why it felt like I gained [Farming] Levels faster than [Hunting] and [Ranged Weapons]," he says. "Because that's basically all my ancestors have ever done, with only a little bit of actually hunting."

"Right," I say. "Someone who moves from a city to a farm when they're twenty might reach Level 5 in [Farming] by the time they're sixty. Since they'd probably have a kid already or have a kid shortly after arriving, that kid wouldn't have any benefits. They might reach Level 2 in [Farming] by the time they're twenty, and Level 5 or 6 by the time they're sixty.

"For the sake of this discussion," I say. "Let's say that they have a child with someone who's the same as them – whose parents came from the city at twenty, no farming or gardening background before. Their child might still only be Level 2 when they turn twenty. And if that kid has a kid with someone who's the same, they might reach Level 2 in [Farming] at twenty… but probably Level 6 or 7 by the time they're seventy. And their kid had at twenty with someone who's the same type of ancestry might reach Level 3 by the time they turn twenty."

"So it's a slow buildup," he says. "But for families which do nothing but farming for thirty generations…"

"It becomes more obvious," I say. "Considering how long out here has been settled, you all probably reach Level 3 or 4 in it by the time you're twenty."

The effect of a bloodline does slow down a bit and takes more buildup and Levels to create a boost the stronger it grows so half a dozen generations isn't too much different from a dozen generations.

"Right," he says. "And speaking of settling… have you met anyone else here?"

Something in his tone and the way his mental focus shifted suggests that he's expecting me to have met someone. This is the same as last time. He really thinks I'd have met someone else, for some reason.

"Other than you and the chief?" I ask. "No, just you two. I'm not going near the village right now. I really do want to get settled into the area more before introducing myself. Get my home set up better, and all that. Also, I have a request to make of you."

"Which is?" He asks.

"Show me your loot and harvests from the mines," I tell him. "And from monsters. I'll give you a fair trade for the ones I can make use of."

Since the mines are in a Mistland region, they have the potential to have more valuable materials. I might actually make a trip into them to try and find some if I can't find some of the more important things soon.

"It probably won't directly help you save up to move," I tell him. "But some of them might make collecting loot easier – such as those gloves or arrows."

"Okay."

There's silence between us for a few moments, so I'm guessing that we've covered everything he wanted to talk about today.

"I think that's all I have for you," I tell him. "The gloves and the request. Was there anything else you wanted to acquire or know?"

Hope fills his mind while his face remains neutral.

"Would it be okay if I used your bath?" He asks. "I don't mind washing the normal way, but baths are pretty relaxing."

That must be why he was feeling hopeful about something when he showed up.

"Sure," I answer, feeling his hope turn to delight.