Mari sat across from Ben, her teeth grit in what looked to be frustration. Ben felt a little awkward in the silence.
"Why the hell did you send me those points. I didn't ask for them.", she muttered through a clenched jaw.
"Woah woah. Chill out. Really you can think of it as me being greedy if it helps. I'm banking on you helping me. Of course you don't have to, you can still tell me to take a hike, and I wouldn't really have much choice in the matter.", Ben replied with a shrug. "Honestly you could probably kill me in one clash."
"That's besides the point. You've put me in a spot where I feel indebted to you. You're trying to manipulate me. You're- you're trying to USE me.", she whispered at first, her voice slowly rising.
"That's partially true.", Ben confirmed, nodding slowly. Mari was clearly exhausted, and very worked up. He couldn't imagine the night she'd had, he had simply gambled his life on not being found and dealt with the usual nightmares. Meanwhile she had been gravely injured, and was likely looking over her shoulder constantly, if her catching his approach was anything to go on.
"Look. I really want to help you, and I want you to help me. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want, sorry, NEED your help out here.", he said, looking her dead in the eyes.
Persuasion > Level 2
Ben struggled to keep a smile off his face when the notification appeared. He really did feel he was being honest after all.
I guess it's indicative that the skill is called Persuasion, not Manipulation. He mused internally.
With a groan Mari wiped her hands down her face. "Look. I'm sorry. It's just. It's just been a long couple of days. But I guess I'm probably preaching to the choir there.", she said with a dark chuckle.
"Fine. I'll accept. I'll use your points, hell I'll use em where you suggest. My fortitude started at 9, and if I plan on staying in the thick of things, I may as well boost it up now. I'm sick of being beat up.", she muttered, "But! We won't be going straight back the way you came. I'll only accept if we go back to kill that damn red giant who did this to me. I think with the two of us, we could probably do it. Honestly if I had the time to get in a good attack I could probably do some serious damage in one thrust."
Ben considered it for a moment, then asked, "Sure. But I need to know what we're working with. What is your Core Talent?"
This was one of Ben's strongest points, or so he thought. Drawing out information, mirroring people, and making lasting, and typically useful, friendships. Some might say he viewed people the wrong way, but he had always seen things this way, and always considered what he brought to others as a principle value as well.
After a brief pause Mari seemed to nod to herself, "The Plunge. It basically doubles the attack force of thrusting weapons, hence the spear. I was trained with it, among other weapons, in the past."
It makes sense I suppose, what are the chances a total novice, like myself, would have any shot at fighting a group of goblins within the first day otherwise. Fictitious novels are one thing, but reality is an entirely different story. Ben thought.
"Right, so what would the plan be?" Ben asked.
"Well. Do you think you could keep it's attention for awhile? It's slow, but does have the fiery axe thing.", she said.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Hm. Maybe? I nearly died to a doped up Koala creature, but I'm pretty good at running and have a few skills that make me quite a bit tankier, especially in my fists.", Ben relayed his abilities.
"Sounds like a plan. Most don't survive conflict anyways, best to have a basic plan of action and adapt on the fly. That's what my instructor used to say anyways.", Mari said, a slight tinge of embarrassment in her face. She briefly seemed to lose focus, then suddenly smiled. "Ah. I should've leveled up before. That felt fucking great. Oh! And it gave me the 10 points to current HP as well as max!"
Ben smiled, he had found someone competent, if luck was a stat he felt like his would be pretty high in that moment.
"Now get some rest. I'll watch the clearing and wake you in a few hours. We can go try to take this red dude down, and figure things out from there." Ben said.
Nodding Mari laid on a pile of bunched up pine needles and shrubbery, and with one last look closed her eyes.
"Oh! And Mari?", Ben said causing her to open her eyes again, "Thanks for taking me up on the offer. I look forward to figuring this shit out together.", he said, looking her in the eyes.
She just nodded slightly in return, seemingly not knowing what to say back, rolled over, and within minutes was asleep.
Man... She must've been really out of gas. Ben thought with a grin.
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An few hours passed quickly. Mari was already looking significantly better, but still not quite fully healed. Ben had spent the time analyzing the nearby pine like tree he had hidden behind before initially meeting Mari. He had gotten a lot more information from his Identify skill, mostly by peeling away the bark, smelling and touching the sap and resin, and finally slight licking the underside of a peeled away bark piece after rubbing it against his skin to test it's effects.
Mana Infused "Pine" Tree: A tree similar to Old Earth pines, but very different practically. The sap can be used as a food source, the thick mana present in it acting to revitalize the body slightly. The resin can be used as a binder for tool production. (Note: Not a perfect record. May not contain all relevant information, and may be missing crucial aspects.)
Ben considered the last sentence in the display. It seemed as though the Identify skill acted as a souped-up version of his own intuition, saving things he found or elaborating them more completely than he would've been able to otherwise in the same amount of time. Still that left him wondering why Manora Gensis was so fully identified on the initial skill gain.
About that time Mari stirred awake. It was about midday.
Slowly Mari stumbled to her feet, and walked over to the slowly roasting goblinoid over her coals. She began pulling off chunks of cooked flesh from the monster before looking over her shoulder and motioning for Ben to join her.
"Well. Waste not want not I guess." Ben said, mostly to himself as he walked over to partake in his first true post apocalypse meal. Ben had known true hunger in his life, and he knew not to blow off a full belly over stupid social norms.
Better this than eating out of fast food dumpsters. He noted to himself.
After eating a bit more Mari yawned loudly, announced she'd need another hour or so for a bit more HP before they set out, and crashed to her makeshift bed again.
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A few more hours passed before Ben shook her awake, Mari's hand immediately shooting for the shaft of her spear when his touched her shoulder.
"Sorry!", Ben winced as he apologized. "If you want to get this done today we should probably move soon.", he said motioning to the sun dipping slowly toward the horizon overhead.
"Right. No. You're right. I'm sorry." Mari said as she stood slowly, bracing against her spear as she stood. "I'm pretty much fully healed up now anyways, lets go put this monster in the dirt."
After a bit of cleanup, and a few more bites of goblinoid the two set off with Mari in the lead. They trudged through the wooded area for about 2 and a half hours, before arriving near a massive mound around 600 yards across with no trees around it.
"On the other side of this hill is the entrance to the cave, as well as their camp. I say we sneak up on them and get as advantageous of an attack as we can before fully engaging. With any luck they're still in some disarray over the lost members from my last fight, and this will be a cake walk.", Mari whispered stepping out of the tree line and beginning the track up the hill, moving slowly.
Right. With any luck... Ben thought to himself, but kept his mouth shut.