Cooper stopped in his tracks, staring at his Stalker, who didn't seem different from before in any way, but Cooper knew he had spoken, or at least communicated in some way.

"You spoke, in my head." Cooper said accusingly to his Stalker, with no response.

"You can't just drop a rock like that on my head without anything further." Wagons slowly passed by Cooper and his Stalker as they had their staring competition.

"Fine. I can think about why you responded earlier and not now later." Cooper started walking again, his Stalker following him.

"So, you can read your own Status, huh? You could actually help with deciding what to do with your Stat points and the like." Cooper felt a tiny tingle in the back of his head.

"Was that you trying to communicate or am I imagining things?" Cooper asked his Stalker, feeling a bit strange with the possibility of getting a response.

"Nothing. Maybe we just need to practice a bit more. Regardless, next time we look at assigning your Stat points and such, I'll keep an ear out for your input." Cooper had slowed his walk down enough that the wagons were stilling passing him, slowly.

"Hurt your leg or something?" Came someone's voice from behind Cooper.

"Tommy, hello. I've had a bit of a revelation is all." Cooper responded to a smirking Tommy.

"Oh yeah? What sort?" Tommy slowed down to match his pace with Cooper.

"Well, for starters, my Stalker here has a bit of a sad story I feel like. He's got a unique skill that says he's the last of his line." Cooper wasn't sure if he should tell Tommy about his 'chat' with his Stalker, if it was a chat to begin with.

"That does seem a bit sad. What does the skill do?"

"It doesn't say what it does, if anything. It just said something like, 'Will you preserve your line or end it.' I don't remember it exactly, but what I do remember is that the skill said 'your', meaning it was meant for him to read, not me."

"That's weird. I've never heard of anything like that. You could ask Darren, or if he doesn't know, the Captain." Tommy suggested.

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"That's.. a good idea. Unlikely, seeing as it came from you." Tommy laughed at Cooper's joke. "Anyways, that's not all. After this, I asked my Stalker if he could read his own status and he... responded. In a way, I think. I'm honestly not sure anymore but I heard a strange sounding 'YES' echoing in my head."

"Are you sure you didn't get thrown into a tree by a troll? I don't know much about Ranger's but I haven't heard about anything like that."

"Very funny. Reta told me that Ranger's do have a bond with their companion, or companions, that allows them to communicate, I just didn't think it would be, well, that."

"It might be normal or it might be one of those mythical hidden skills." Tommy wiggled his fingers in the air pretending to be a ghost.

"No one's told me about any hidden skills before." Cooper said, slightly disappointed in not having been told about this.

"Well, I for one, don't believe they're real. If they are real, they're so rare that there might be three people in the whole world who have them, though it's been rumoured that the Captain has one."

"What even are hidden skills? What do they do?" Cooper asked, excited at the presence of new information.

"Well, it's all rumours for one. The theory most believe is that some people have hidden skills and they grant you powerful benefits or spells or something. They're eventually revealed through some heroic deed or what have you."

"If it's hidden and lets say it's a spell, would you know before or just when it's revealed?" Cooper asked, his mind excited.

"Eh, they say you might accidentally cast it in a moment of need or something, I dunno." Tommy explained casually, much to Cooper's dismay.

"Remind me to not ask you about anything in detail."

"Nobody ever told you to ask me about anything in detail." Tommy retorted.

"Fair. Anyway, I don't think it's that, just wanted to know about these mysterious hidden skills."

Before Tommy could reply, the two heard Darren's voice. "What are you two kids gossiping about hidden skills for over here? Have you looked forward recently? You know you can see the gates of Trand, right?"

The two looked forward and saw that the forest had cleared way for fields and to a sight of a mighty looking gate and imposing walls, snaking up a hill with an impressive stone castle at the top of the hill. "That's Trand? People have been saying that it's not a very large town but it has such impressive walls and a castle, too." Cooper asked, surprised by the sight.

"The actual town inside those walls isn't particularly large, Trand held a strategic position during one of the recent wars and was fortified for the war. When we get closer you'll see that the walls are falling to disrepair and there's cracks all over, there's been no point in maintaining the walls for a while now."

"That's kind of sad to let something like that crumble to dust slowly." Cooper sighed sadly.

"Yeah, that's life, though." Tommy said.

"Oh, the Captain also instructed me to help you two through town and specifically Cooper with the adventurer's guild, if that's still something you wanted?" Darren looked at Cooper.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Well, you've got until we get there to think about it, which isn't that long."