I already missed the old lady and her simple lunches. We ate the same disgusting gruel as the night before, and I was still very much opposed trying the weird purple alcohol. My sister’s reaction when she had put her lips over the glass had been enough for me to take the decision, to be kept for an indeterminate amount of time.

“Kan, before we begin. You understand that one day, one evening, will be far from enough for us to receive all the information we need.” Gaëlle skipped through the pleasantries entirely.

The [Soldier] didn’t seem bothered by it. He even gave us a scarred, crooked smile.

“Of course. But I taught Rik everything I knew about the [System], and he’ll be with you often to oversee the placement of the traps.”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” The younger elf said softly.

“I’m happy to hear it. Then to you, I think Nielle would agree, we would like to ask about Solace.”

“Yes. That is our destination.”

Kan gave us a conflicted expression. “Why, if I may ask? In many ways, the Upperseas Cities are more dangerous to you than the Overworld. The rules of society are much less forgiving than down here. Solace especially. You got a taste of what some of the men in power are up there, with your…I’m sorry to say but with your beauty, you’ll be very much sought after…with no way to refuse without endangering your lives.”

I grimaced. “Yes, I thought as much. But not everyone can be like the members of the council.”

Kan looked at Rik for a moment. “I…I don’t know, to be honest. I have never left the region of the Redwoods. The things I know about Solace are through stories and talks with the merchants and builders that came from it. Some seemed nice enough, some were problematic.”

“We are not the best people you could ask about the Upperseas.” Rik added.

“Yes. And in any case, you will not be able to leave for Solace so soon. To ask an Ascensus to carry you up with him would force you to get twice the money you currently hold. I could find a way to pay you for your oil, of course, but…”

“We will not sell things that come from another world here. You saw what happened with Benedict and Henry.” I stopped him immediately.

Kan closed his eyes, inhaling sharply. “Of course.”

“We have the Ascensus class.” Gaëlle dropped it like a bombshell.

“WHAT!?” Kan hit the table with both his hands as he rose to his feet. “How? When!?”

“We found a class Book in the crow’s nest.”

“A class Book? Wait we? Both of you? Two class books?”

“They have the twin skill, Ida.” Rik was also shocked, his mouth falling back to a half-opened state.

“Do you have any idea what…No of course not. Selling that book would have given you enough funds to access the city and pay for a trustworthy security detail. But you two having a class could help us tremendously.”

“We won’t replace the Ascensus here, Kan.” I noticed his expression, and I didn’t like it.

“No, no you were very clear about that. But still, if I could convince you somehow…”

Gaëlle sighed, anger flaring up. “Sir, you may have abandoned any hopes for justice, but we haven’t. We have taken up the quest to put Gorunt Fay to justice. He is the first secretary of the Solace council, and the one working with Henry and Benedict. We will find him and put him to justice, and if that isn’t possible, we’ll kill him.”

Kan stared at her for a moment, then sat back down.

“I see. This Benedict…it’s all about him for you two, isn’t it? What has he done to you?”

I heard a large crack and felt something crumble. I had a piece of the table in my clawed hand.

Kan and Rik looked at me in silent horror. They couldn’t see the claws but could very well see the hole on the side of the table.

Gaëlle stared as well but smiled. “Don’t do that when we’re holding hands, please.”

“Sorry.” I let go of the wood, breaking down even more as it crashed on the ground. I gave a quick glance to my hand; it was back to normal.

Kan asking me that had put me very close to losing it.

Elle’s expression was anything but a smile when she looked back at Kan.

“I think it’s pretty clear we don’t want to talk or hear about that. Ever.”

“…Understood. At least your intentions are clear.” The [Soldier] answered. “But…Maybe we should talk about our [Status]. I am a level 125 [Wood Elf] level 50 [Soldier].”

“Ida?” Rik seemed taken aback by the sudden shift of tone of his father.

“I need to know how strong they are, what they can do and how I can use them. I apologize saying it like this.” He immediately added for us. “But someone with under 200 global [Strength] would never have been able to break this table. I am not asking about your past or your other world, but please tell me your level and stats so that I can protect this village the best I can until the delegation from Solace arrives.”

We would need to tell those to Rik anyway for him to help us understand things, so I nodded sideways.

“We can tell you that. Will you use that information against us?”

He shook his head. “Never. This will never leave this house.”

I checked with my sister. Was this too big a risk? Her eyes told me she would defer the decision to me.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I sighed.

“Fine.”

“I’ll begin.” Gaëlle jumped on the occasion. “First of all, me and Nielle aren’t human, we are [Homo Chimeras Sapiens] which give us a different initial stat distribution.”

Rik and Kan gasped audibly. “That…that is a new race. Isn’t it? [Chimera] is it? I have never heard the word before.” The [Soldier] fumbled his words.

“Yes. You know the word [Homo]?” I didn’t quite understand my sister’s question.

“Obviously. We all are [Homo], we don’t add it because it’s implied. If you have two legs and look elfoïd, then you have the [Homo] prefix.” Kan provided.

“Huh.” I exclaimed. “So what is your full race title?”

“[Homo Elfus Sapiens Lignum]” The original version coming out of Rik’s mouth and the English one sounded completely different. “In short, [Wood Elves], because everyone has Homo and Sapiens.”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Okay, okay, let’s focus. That’s interesting but not important right now.”

Rik gave me a half-smile. “Yes, I suppose there are many new things for you two. But you are right.”

“So, you are a new race. That I know of at least.” Kan repeated. “Are your inner stats close to their maximum potential?”

Gaëlle and I raised an eyebrow.

Rik looked away with a grimace.

“…uh…yes.” Seems like Kan had been disturbed as well. Was this the creepy twin effect? I glanced at my sister; she had a conniving grin. “When you ask the Blue to show you your [Race] in more detail.” The [Soldier] continued. “It will show you your race’s maximum potential. Are you close or far from it?

“Potential?” Gaëlle was confused. “It just says that we’ll get those stats once adults, and because we’re adults, we have those stats.”

Kan didn’t seem to understand, but Rik’s eyes grew wide. “You arrived in this world as adults. So the Blue just gave you the normal potential of your race! That makes you two potentially very strong women.”

“Wait, you’re not supposed to reach the potential?” I was already lost.

It took half an hour to clarify things.

Basically, as [Homo Chimera Sapiens] adults, we could reach a maximum potential of 120 in body stats, 100 in mental stats, and the weird 230 [Power] and 20 [Control] Hydrology stats. But everything that happened in your childhood would diminish those characteristics permanently. Skipped meals? You lost a [Constitution]. Lazed around too much? Lost a point in [Strength] and [Agility]. So by skipping our childhood, at least according to the system, it had just given us the baseline of our [Race]. Except no one ever reached that Baseline. It made us even stronger than we thought, albeit, not by much. Instead of humans having a hundred in [Strength] in general, it meant that most had eighty. Still, it explained why even though we had lowered levels, Elle had managed to keep up with someone like Grognar, who had racial bonuses on his [Strength] and [Agility], while we had only some in [Strength].

We also explained how we had distributed our stats, though without saying anything about how those stats transferred in other worlds.

“The fact that your [Hydrology Control] is abysmal is a very, very terrifying thought. Had your sister not invested heavily in fixing the discrepancy, you may have found yourselves unable to drink any water, ever.” Kan nodded. “I suppose it is a good balance to the advantages you have. The Blue is always just, after all.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If there is more than a few points of difference between [Hydrology Control] and [Hydrology Power], skills that use the power of the Blue directly do not work. Keeping things balanced like you did was a good idea. Nielle, you should try to get your control at the same level as your power as fast as possible though. If you ever get stranded, not being able to use [Purify] is a death sentence.

I gulped. We had guessed as much, but knowing compared to maybe knowing, wasn’t the same.

“I’ve started to do that, but I’ll need a lot more levels, thirty or so, to reach it.”

“…Not an impossible goal. Now it would have been better for you not to take a class until you reached that point, but with your special oil, this shouldn’t be that hard to get. Being able to kill monsters we can usually only wound and force to flee is going to help tremendously.”

“About that…Ascensus isn’t my only class.”

“Wait, what? Girl, how many of those books did you squander thoughtlessly!?” Kan almost choked on his drink.

“I received it from the system. Not from a book. So I’m the only one who has it.”

“Shit.” Rik hadn’t said anything for a while, so I was a bit surprised to hear him swear out of nowhere. “Don’t tell me the Blue gave you the [Berserker] class?”

Kan whistled as he filled himself another glass of purple liquid. “It would explain the state of my table.”

“Erm, yes?” I squirmed.

Kan’s expression was undecipherable.

“Well girl, if you live long enough to get those two classes high levelled, you may very well become a one-woman army.”

“Oh no, don’t tell me Daniel is the one who’ll become OP…” I heard my sister complain in untranslated English.

“Is it a good class?” I asked.

“Not really. Not until you reach level one hundred.” Kan shook his head. “But there is a very big difference between a taught [Berserker] and a Blue-given [Berserker]. To my knowledge, it’s the only one where such a difference exists.” Kan took a long breath, then started to explain. “As you may have realized already. The Blue sees all. He knows everything that happens in our world and tells it to us with no lies or deceit.”

“A descriptive system.” Gaëlle smiled.

“Yes, I suppose it is a way to see it. Now, the classes and our levels are things that the Blue gives us. As are some of our skills.”

“The Movement, Defensive, and Offensive skills, right?” My sister asked.

“No. You would better think of it as every skill is given by the system except the General, Racial, Daily Life and Mental skills. Forget the Racial skills, the others represent what the greatest sapiens in this world have ever accomplished.”

Gaëlle nodded. “Yeah, we understood that much.”

“Good.” Kan gave her a sideways nod in return. “But in this case, the Blue sees you as someone who gains immense power when enraged and offers you the [Berserker] class.” He looked straight at me now. “When you accept the class, you gain a Blue skill that boosts your power when enraged. What do you think happens then?”

“Erm…” I was having a hard time following.

“He gets double the power…” Elle clearly didn’t have such a difficult time.

“Exactly. Now, it is still a weak class, as relying on anger to make intelligent decisions is a sure way to die, however strong you may be. But when you reach level 100…You gain the skill [Lull].” I saw in his eyes that Kan was remembering something.

“[Lull]?”

“The ability to use your [Rage] without being angry. But even when you are angry, you can use it to keep some semblance of control. That is when a Blue-given [Berserker] becomes truly monstrous. As he gains the clarity not to make enormous mistakes, his natural improved strength, his [Rage] given strength, and the boost of [Lull]. I know one such man. He is the general of Hope, an Upperseas City that only comes above Canvas once every two years. I saw him kill a [Tooth-Bear] singlehandedly. Each one of his punches sounded as if it shattered the sky…”

My sister groaned. “That sounds so fucking cool! [Speech] on. What about Ascensus? I tried to use the [Move] skill but nothing happened.”

Kan smiled. “The Ascensus class is the most versatile of the three Hydrologist class, it gains every important skill you can hope to get, as for the usage of such skills, I must say that I have no…”

A fifth voice echoed in the room. Like a soft, cold melody.

“You need to tell the system what you want it to do.”

Vi appeared out of the curtains leading to Kan and Rik’s bedroom area.

Things happened fast.

The [Soldier] rose to his feet, immediately lunging for his sword and scabbard hanging off the wall. Rik jumped back in a very Cirque du Soleil fashion, getting his bow in one swift movement.

Me and my sister, clearly not as battle experienced as the two men, looked at the elf walking towards us in utter astonishment.

Since when?

The answer was evident. She had been there the whole time.

“Losing Sarda was quite the challenge. May I serve myself a drink?” Vi didn’t act as if she was two seconds away from being attacked by the [Wood Elves].

Kan emerged from his initial shock. Gripping his sword but not drawing it.

“Vi. May I know what you’re doing in my home, exactly?”

“Making sure you weren’t working with Henry’s associates. But from what I collected, those two are much, much more interesting than that sick man. Not that it is difficult, mind you.”

She sat down next to me, on Rik’s chair, and just picked up my untouched glass.

“So. It seems you two need a guide to the Upperseas. And a guide to your new classes. And I need an Ascensus that isn’t claimed by Solace or New Pettisbrough to carry me to the Upperseas. How about we make a deal?”