Opening the small sack that Ruven had tossed him, Lee found it full of dried meat. Good thing I didn't mention some elf stories making them vegetarians. He tossed some meat into his mouth expecting a standard cheap jerky-like taste, but he received an almost surprising amount of herbs and spice flavors. With his mouth now salivating, he quickly ate the rest.
He looked around after the snack of jerky and discovered that Neia had finished collecting firewood. Ruven was nowhere to be seen. Deciding to try and help in some way. he began to grab small sticks and some small bundles of leaves to make some kindling. He could at least help gather everything to help start the fire.
Neia looked over after dropping the last of the wood in her pile and asked. “I do not mean to pry, but do you have some kind of sickness? You do not look healthy.”
Looking down at himself, Lee realized that beneath the absurd fashion statement of the hospital gown, he was still very thin and malnourished from not being able to keep food down in the hospital. “Before I arrived in your forest, I said I had died. I died from an illness called cancer. I was feeble and bedridden for months and could hardly keep food down. I am just malnourished I think.”
Neia went to create a small pit for the fire while Lee kept working on his kindling. Lee tried to fish for more information and continued the conversation. “Believe it or not, I used to look way worse. Do you know what cancer is?”
Neia spoke without turning away from making the firepit. “I do. The study of sickness is dangerous, but it has been done. The cancer you speak of is not a danger to the settlement.”
Lee was now aware that Neia asked about whether he was sick not for his well-being, but for the safety of her people. A valid concern. Before he could continue Ruven entered the clearing with a dead rabbit with antlers on its head. “Is that a jackalope?” Lee asked.
Jackalope - Level 1 - (Corpse) - Small and nimble, Jackalopes are commonly found in forests and plains. Do not underestimate a Jackalope, with its speed and its antlers they will charge in self defense. Weak to Fire.
After reading the Identify prompt, he looked more closely at the Jackalope's corpse. It was much larger than your average rabbit, around five times larger, with antlers to rival a deer. Its velvety white fur stood out sharply to the dark brown of the antlers, and the large round black eyes that looked like voids were startling. The fluffy ball it had for a tail looked like cotton candy, so it wasn't completely disturbing to look at.
After dropping the Jackalope's corpse to the ground, Ruven looked at Lee, seemingly in thought, he glanced at Neia, then back at Lee. “Yes Lee, also I have some questions for you when we eat.”
Neia, catching the look from Ruven, finished up with the firepit, tossed some logs in, and grabbed the kindling from Lee. She stuffed the kindling in the center of the logs and snapped her fingers. Suddenly the kindling flared, and the fire grew. Lee gawked at Neia as she casually walked towards the Jackalope's corpse. I have so many questions about everything.
Neia placed a hand on the corpse's fur and suddenly, the body started to fade away as if it were a mirage. In its place lay fur that seemed to have been cut and cleaned, and 3 chunks of meat. Neia quickly scooped up the spoils and walked towards the fire to cook.
Ruven had watched to see how Lee would react. He then easily dragged a fallen log towards the firepit to act as a chair. Lee, seeing this, returned to his gawking. I'm acting like a damn country bumpkin. Breaking out of his surprise, he went over to return the small sack that Ruven had given him earlier.
Lee sat down beside Ruven and watched as Neia skewered the Jackalope meat onto sticks to cook near the fire. The fire, now fully aflame, occasionally shot out purple, yellow, and red sparks. When will I stop being surprised…
As Ruven watched the fire beside Lee, he spoke. “How convinced are you that this is no longer your world?”
“I’m 80% convinced this is a different world, and the other 20% is me pretending this is a hallucination.” Lee replied.
Ruven looked away from the fire, toward Neia. “I’ve never heard of this happening before, but I have an Ability that lets me detect lies. So either you’re insane or you’re telling the truth. I have also never seen whatever it is that you are wearing and there is a zero percent chance that you made it into these woods without help, armor, weapons, or levels. So I do not believe you are insane or crazy.”.
Neia, still watching the meat, was also listening in on the conversation. Lee didn't know how to respond. I need help, but can I trust these people? What do these people have to gain from helping me? I don’t have anything to offer. Or do I?
“To the best of my knowledge, I have died and have somehow been transported here, into your peoples forests, with no prior knowledge of any of this existing. To the best of my knowledge I have not told you any lies. My world is very different no stats, no monsters, no magic, and no other races other than humans.”
Ruven, seemingly aware that no lies were spoken, nodded. “You are like an infant in this world. You lack basic knowledge, you have nothing, and are no threat. What do you want?”
Lee looked into the blazing fire and immediately responded, “I want to heal.”
Ruven nodded slowly. “We can help you heal back to full strength at the settlement, but you will also need to share information.”
Lee understood exactly where this was going. If I suddenly stumbled upon a person from another world, I would most definitely want the information from their world. Lee says. “You misunderstand. It’s not me that I want to heal. It is others.”
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Ruven looked at Lee with a raised brow. He detected no lies and, seeing the honesty in his expression, slowly said. “A noble path, I can see you have not chosen this path in greed. Healers are very expensive, and alchemist health potions are even more so.”
“I have an ability that heals injuries and illness, it has healed me from my cancer I think.” Lee reveals.
Both Ruven and Neia immediately locked onto him. Neia harshly spat out her words. “Do not ever tell others what you have just said unless you trust them with your life.”
Shifting on the log, slightly chastised, Lee replied. “Whether I live or die is kind of in your hands for the next few days. I think we both know that I would not survive.”
After a few moments of awkward silence, Ruven decided to speak. “We will help you in return for information, and some help in return.”
Hearing this, Neia snapped her gaze onto Ruven; the surrounding temperature felt like it dropped twenty degrees, and the fire dimmed lightly, she nearly shouted “This is not the way we do things. This is coercion. He will meet with Elder Sono and then we will proceed.”
Ruven hastily responded while suddenly looking fearful. “I am sorry, I did not choose my words carefully. For now, why don't we just answer questions for Lee?”
Neia continued to glare at Ruven coldly, her glowing green eyes visible in the night. “I will pretend I heard nothing of coercion from you. Do not make the same mistake again.” as she finished speaking, the temperature rose back to normal, and the fire returned to its normal height.
Lee, nearly shitting his pants, fearfully glanced at Neia. Catching his fearful look, Neia gave him a look of pity. “I am sorry, you will be safe until we reach the settlement, by my word.” Neia then placed her thumbs and pinkies together and pressed her thumb to her forehead for around 3 seconds. Seemingly done with her oath, she continued speaking, completely ignoring Ruven. “Ask your questions.”
Nearly about to blurt out the very question, he should not ask "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" He carefully tried to think of important questions. “Okay.” He was still a little fearful of what Neia was apparently capable of. “What are classes and professions? You talked about them earlier but I do not see those sections on my status?”
Neia returned to her lecturing tone of voice. “They will not appear until level 5. Once you reach level 5 you will unlock both your profession and class options. Classes will change the way you live your life fundamentally, you will get to choose which class you want if you have unlocked the requirements for them, they also vary in rarity, from common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. There is supposedly one above legendary but we do not know the name.”
Neia took the rabbits off the skewers and handed them out. “Your profession will unlock at level 5, you will not be able to choose, it will be granted based on your actions taken during your life. They are not life altering, but they do have supplemental value and are therefore important to becoming powerful. Take for example, if you have the profession of Gambler, with the common Merchant class. Of course you may increase your odds of winning games of chance, but also occasionally gain extra money from sales.” She took a bite out of her Jackalope skewer, then looked toward Lee as she waited for more questions to be asked.
Lee was not a dumb person, but he completely understood that he was out of his depth. He wasn’t aware of typical common classes or professions, and asking about a list of them all seemed absurd. “How many classes are there roughly? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? I have no frame of reference.”
Swallowing her bite of meat, Neia answered. “An unknowable amount. We know some of them, like the merchant, warrior, scout, mage, and priest. All fairly commonly picked classes, you could find any of them in any town or city, but there are rarities. For example, a Scout class could be the uncommon Thief, another well known class. Sometimes you may even find variations, the rare class Spell Thief is an example of that.”
He was trying to absorb the information as he slowly chewed on his chunk of Jackalope. It wasn’t seasoned at all and it was fairly tough and gamey, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Lee slowly asked “Can I use Identify on you?”
Neia grinned and met his eyes. “Thank you for asking, it is rude to identify someone randomly. You can surely try to Identify me.” Her eyes crinkled in amusement.
Having got his permission, Lee went ahead and tried.
Identify failed! Target has been alerted to your presence.
Still amused, Neia went and patted him on his head, “You’re one-hundred years too early to be trying that with me.”
Lee, remembering that elves are way older than they looked, began feeling a little bit of fear towards Neia again. He then asked. “How old are people on average when they reach level 5?” He was hoping to get some quick early levels to feel more protected.
Neia, now finished with her Jackalope, stoaked the fire and replied. “Most will never reach it, if you recall when I talked about XP I said “You may be granted XP or Experience Points, from slaying beasts, doing your profession, or completing class quests.” Now how do you get experience if you don’t have a class for your class quests, and you don’t have your profession?”
The reality came crashing down on top of Lee. “Killing monsters…”
Neia helpfully added, “And animals” then pointed toward the Jackalope fur she has apparently been sitting on.
Did she really just call that giant fucking Jackalope an animal and not a monster? Lee tried to get some clarification. “Did you say the Jackalope was an animal?”
Neia grabbed the fur from beneath her and showed it to Lee. “Animals can be just as strong as monsters, but animals do not attack people on sight. There are very few monsters who do not attack on sight, and those are the ones you should be the most fearful of. They will plan and they will attack when they have the advantage, not a moment before.”
Lee ran his fingers through the fur of the Jackalope. The velvety-looking fur feels soft, but there was a feeling of something else with it. What is this feeling? It feels so natural. How can something be so natural that I feel it?
He slowly continued to run his fingers through the fur, over and over again, then he felt a connection form.
Skill Gained!
Skill Name: Mana Sense.
Skill Description: Mana Sense is a skill that allows the user to perceive and detect mana, using one or more senses. This skill is a prerequisite of many mana related skills. In addition to detecting mana, Mana Sense can also be used to analyze and identify different types of mana.
Caught off guard in receiving a skill, Lee stopped to read. Neia who had been watching Lee in his trance, looked excited.
Ruven having been quiet throughout their meal, was now gawking at Lee. He was obviously aware of what Neia had done, he turned to look at her. The only thing he saw were the cold piercing green glowing eyes staring back into his.