SHIVERS-IN-SUNLIGHT
Following Skips, Shivers reached the compound of the humans. Skips knocked on the door. Shivers felt uncertain, nervous and rather anxious and drummed on the ground. As the door opened, xe spoke in quiet but enthusiastic Unlimited Potential Standard Language: “Hello! My name is Shivers-in-Sunlight. What would your name be?”
The person looked confused or shocked, Shivers was unsure how to interpret them shaking their head and taking a step back. “I… I am Igor. Wh… what brings you here?”
Shivers responded: “Are you aware what happened in the village Shelters-in-the-Dunes-and-Guards-the-Rocks a few… weeks ago?”
Igor’s expression changed and as Shivers understood it, it showed fear: “That village where… folks… were… problematic?”
Shivers nodded in a learned human gesture. “Indeed! I understand that this was a misunderstanding, but that does not mean that we should risk it happening again.”
Igor looked shocked: “What do you mean?”
Shivers smiled in a gesture that felt utterly alien to xir: “I would like to offer my services as a translator and cultural guide to the Scorpions-of-Tsanh and Spiders-of-Tsanh. I take both Lira and deeper knowledge of human culture and your system as payment.” Xe recited the latter based on what Skips suggested. The idea of payment was alien to xir, but with much of the dungeon gear that no scorpion could attune to due to the insufficient drops in dungeons, Shivers understood the need.
Igor steadied himself at the mentioning of prices. “That sounds… interesting. What are your prices?”
Shivers responded: “30 Lira per Unlimited Potential hour. You can reach me via this connection stone.” Shivers handed Igor a round, smooth stone with strange symbols embedded in it.
“How do you use it?” Igor asked.
Shivers explained: “You touch the Syeivanh symbol for about 5 breaths. It is the middle symbol. Then, speak ahead, I will be able to hear you.”
Igor looked confused: “Is this a magical artefact?”
Shivers looked at Igor, then at Skips, then back at Igor: “An object that is made using skills that fall under Skilled Practice? Yeah, it is. It was made by the Village-of-the-Oasis-of-swimming-flowers-that-is-the-source-of-the-river-that-feeds-a-million-mouths.”
Igor nodded with a bit of a delay. “I never knew that the… Scorpions-of-Tsanh had technology like that.”
Skips smiled broadly as she explained: “The Scorpions-of-Tsanh might be the only civilization that invented drop-irrigation of crops before the wheel. They use magic quite naturally.”
Shivers added: “Admittedly, with the sand around here, we cannot really use wheels or roads. We mostly transport things on our backs. And we have quite good movement skills. I know that you might need to traverse the scorpion territory on your route to dungeons. So, I feel that we can help you.”
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Igor nodded slowly: “I see. I will talk to the others.”
TEKI/THRIVES-IN-WATER
The desert was miserable. Teki, no, he needed to remind himself that he was now Thrives-in-Water, slithered through the sand following the others. Thrives looked at the others and was rather worried.
He looked at Skips-one-Step who basically had very few combat skills. She could run away and throw things from a distance. She knew her way around monsters and could get herself and others out of the way.
Nourishes-and-Cares was a user of magical spikes. He was a good fighter if he got into the battle, but then, he had a very hesitant personality. If he could get himself to start slashing at the creatures, he was an asset. If he froze again, he’d be a liability.
Sure-Climbing-Friend was a Spider-of-Tsanh from the mountains. She had abilities to work with nets to restrain enemies. Thrives realised that they had a kind of synergy though: Digs-our-Caves was able to quickly excavate areas in which Sure-Climbing-Friend could hide and entangle an enemy akin to an ambush predator.
Digs-our-Caves was a cave digger, who also used magic to fortify the caves. After the integration, xir sharp claws made xir a formidable melee fighter. In combination with Sure-Climbing-Friend, or Nourishes, Digs could be an asset. However, Thrives never saw xir fight, so he was not sure about this.
Then, there was him: Thrives-in-Water. Weak, not very combat trained but with an excellent sense for magic that could help find hidden foes. Thrives was able to throw things and did so during the last invasion, but this was certainly not enough. In addition, Thrives knew more about the dungeons. As scuffles with salamar showed, Thrives learned that there was another advantage: The visor of his watersuit was reflective and Skips explained how to use the reflected light to lure monsters to his location. Or rather the ambushes on the way. Thrives was shivering the entire time the battle was ongoing. His own contributions, naturally, limited. He did observe these creatures though: “These creatures escaped a Grade 12 dungeon. With the settlement only a few days away, I suggest we clear it.”
Skips nodded: “Any idea where it is?”
Thrives shook himself to indicate a no.
Suddenly, Thrives was blinded by a sand cloud. He confusedly looked around, only to see others being none the wiser. Then the cloud dissipated and Skips appeared in its centre: “Over there is the dungeon… just a hop, skip and a jump away. And it looks like a bit of a chore: It spits out creatures in a continuous stream. Shall we go and handle it?”
Thrives looked at Skips sceptically: “Your hop, skip and jump or ours?”
Skips bit her lip for a moment: “I don’t think it is too far…”
Thrives shook his head: “I understand that this is important and all, I just hope that we don’t get lost here. The desert is still kinda disconcerting for me. Especially here outside of the Kha Za plane.”
Skips nodded slowly: “You are right. I feel it too. Out here, the soil is different. There is a feeling of disconnect with every step.”
Nourishes nodded: “Are you talking about the different sand out here? The Kha Za plain is where Solidarity worked most of its magic. The sand there blooms once a year when the rains come. It doesn’t do that outside the area.”
Sure-Climbing-Friend joined in: “The changes actually exceed the plain, just not that much. Every year, Solidarity extends the area a bit further. We Spiders-of-Tsanh observe the spread as a yearly tradition! It spreads more with our settlement levels. At least this is what we think. This year might be the time where we can test some theories about it. I still cannot believe that all of our repositories are level 8 or higher. I think Unlimited Potential has absolutely kicked the development of our societies downhill.”
Thrives first bristled at the strange expression, but then realised it was meant as ‘has accelerated it’. “It accelerated it? Yeah, I guess the monsters force people to develop new skills faster…”
Nourishes confirmed: “I just hope people develop the right skills… Skills that help with building society.”