Livia was trying to get back to her new normal and so kept busy working in the guild hall, figuring things out about how her new Skills worked; when the voice next spoke.

[Hmpf. Ehum, Good morning, Livia, we did not have the opportunity to finish our talk last night.]

Then another horrible realization quickly dawned.

"You're somehow here to stay, aren't you?"

[I still need to tell you about the other perks of your matured Mark, for example I notice you have been working on upgrading your bookkeeping Skill… Why don't I just:]

[Skill Upgrade: Basic Bookkeeping -> Advanced Bookkeeping]

The notification made Livia's jaw drop, but there was a note of sadness in her eyes as well.

"I had been working on that for months, you can just upgrade it like that?"

[Well, not without the groundwork. But I can certainly have the System push it through once you're reasonably close, and have given the upgrade a proper direction.]

Okay, so at least there is that. I just won't ever know if I could have made it the whole way on my own. Lovely. To upgrade a Skill without reaching a capstone was rarely done, and there were different theories regarding the usefulness of it–likely due to the variety of Systems in use among those partaking in the discussion.

Some claimed such an upgrade took the slot of a Skill you would have gotten later on when upgrading your Class; while others said that upgrading a Skill only increased the likelihood of being granted additional new Skills by the System, since it proved you were putting its power to good use.

Of course it was difficult to get anywhere productive when the various Systems were treated as entire species' greatest military secrets.

And now it seemed Livia was stuck with a warmongering know-it-all, who would constantly be chiming in about her choices not being in accordance with proper military doctrine. What did ‘proper’ direction mean anyway?

Or maybe? "Does that mean you're going away again after?" She asked with a note of hope.

Mr Beard didn't even deign to respond.

Livia felt her frustration mounting, thankfully she was alone in the [Guild] house. "I have plans of my own you know, it could well be that I have something left to do with a Skill before I mean to upgrade it, so don't do anything like that without asking again."

It wasn't that Livia wasn't grateful for the help, she just knew this was not something she had earned. And that she still needed to consolidate and learn to actually wield her Skills, rather than just collect them and using the System to upgrade their fundamental power.

[I see, I was expecting some gratitude, but I understand what you are saying.]

When Livia went to continue working the voice spoke up again. [That actually brings me to my final point, the direction of your Class.]

I knew it. "What about it, I have plans, I'm just working them out still. I'm only level 3."

The voice took another characteristic pause. [I realize that, and you are doing a fine job.]

Uh, okay. So for once it’s going for diplomacy. Livia actually softened slightly at that, she could at least tell Mr Beard was trying.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

[It's just I notice how you have been neglecting to discuss anything that would force you to think about home. And frankly I do not know how you expect to create something innovative here by forgetting the things that make your people who you are, that make you so needed here.]

Livia's instinctive response was snapping back; that she did not mean to forget anything but that she just had so much to figure out about her new world that it all naturally had to take a back seat.

But upon closer inspection she found how that wasn't really true. What she should be doing was trying to marry her world and this one, in a way. Find ways to combine the two and make something new in the process.

Instead she had been shying away from even using words from home, even names. They were still calling the mosswolf Mossy for crying out loud, but every time Livia wanted to think of a name her mind went straight to popular culture and from there to earth and she immediately shied back and found another task that needed doing.

[I know it's difficult, and that what we did was not fair, but you still need to make the best of it, now that you're here.]

She knew that, she had told herself that, lying awake at night.

It was just hard.

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Oscar had had quite the couple of months. First Kalle got himself into trouble and had to be saved by yours truly going to get the others; then the ant warriors arrived and Harold got another reminder how much further he still had to go, while Oscar looked on not even having gotten to take the first step yet. There's levels to feeling frustrated, that's all I'm saying.

And now Liam was suddenly giving him a stern talking to, disguised as a sympathetic pep-talk, about something Oscar knew he did not do. He didn't even find Livia very attractive.

"Yes, and so, really all I'm saying is that if you feel the urge to do something strange, maybe at night when the house is feeling lonely; you just take care of business yourself the way I'm sure your brother has accidentally shown you at some point. Don't bother others unless you've been previously invited, even a look can be quite troublesome at the wrong time."

Oscar was giving the old man a queer look of disbelief, but it clearly wasn't biting.

"And if you need any advice I'm free to talk to, don't worry about it. I don’t judge." He clapped his hands down on both of the young man's shoulders and then walked off decisively, considering it a job well done.

Oscar glowered after the old man’s swiftly receding back.

He was thinking of going to check on what Kalle was doing, but one did not bother the [Esperlock] unduly.

I could go check on what Livia is up to first…Hmm. Yeah, let's do that. Hopefully this weirdness doesn’t extend to her too.

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Harold was just returning from an evening visit to Brunner when he came across his younger brother and decided to ambush the kid.

It somehow failed, despite Harold's increasing quickness. Oscar was doing everything possible to keep up after all–and being ambushed had been part of his life since childhood– albeit by the somewhat clumsy Harold.

When Oscar told him the plan he was all aboard, and that was how the two found themselves arriving at Livia's office right as there was a building commotion in the square.

Apparently it was Brunner's turn to raise his personal alarm. And the message was short.

Hostile traders -- -- ---