“I don’t mind reading in the same room as long as you don’t stare at me,” Levi said with a smile. “But if you want to spend some time on deck, that’s fine. Just give me a real hug first.”

Seth obliged, then headed up the stairs to the deck of the boat. He meandered about for a bit trying to stay out of the crew’s way before leaning against one of the rails as far from the various ropes as possible. The boat was close enough to the bank of the Proka that he could see the sparse coastal jungle clearly.

“Hey, kid!” someone said behind him and Seth turned to find a yellow vest being waved in his face.

“Put this on,” the woman holding it commanded. “I don’t care if you can swim, if you fall in this’ll keep you up and easy to see.”

“Ok,” Seth said, taken aback. He put on the incredibly light vest that was even brighter than his robes.

“Any time one of your group is up here, they need to wear one,” the sailor said, crossing her arms.

“I’ll let them know,” Seth promised, stepping back a bit to regain some personal space. “By the way, I was wondering why we’re sailing so close to the bank?”

She ignored him and walked away. Seth stood there for a moment before tying the vest the rest of the way and looking out again. A couple minutes later, he heard bits of a conversation between the rude woman and another sailor as they adjusted some ropes nearby.

“...guy’s a priest,” the man was saying. “...some respect…”

“...Virtue…” Seth heard the woman snort. “...do? Not heal…sores…”

“Jen!” the man laughed, wrinkling his nose. “Why…excuse to be…”

“...standing there!” Jen said, rolling her eyes. “...railing, leaning over, no cork…”

As the pair moved out of even tenuous earshot, Seth sighed. The boat was moving slow enough that he could have kept pace on the bank with a light stroll. He headed back down to the passenger quarters, hanging the yellow vest on the stair rail.

“If you go up on deck, you have to put on a special vest,” Seth told Levi as he returned to the infirmary.

Levi nodded, not looking up from what he was reading. Seth sat back down on the cot, leaned back into the corner, and picked his scroll back up. It took a minute to find his place, in the section about wanderer abilities.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Warriors who became Wanderers were usually provided with a special path rod that had never been replicated by anyone. Unlike a normal path rod, it somehow bestowed an ability that was already at the basic level. The special rods were also incredibly narrow in the abilities they provided, with only three known possibilities and a few sub variants.

The Church’s prevailing theory on how this was possible was that the rod’s creation involved a heightening ritual somehow, which also implied a unique Creation ability or high level Creation essence use. The specificity of the rod was attributed to the number of essences that composed it, which was confirmed to be the maximum of six. If the Wanderer path rods were used in an essence aligned area, the resulting ability was only low level and varied. There were notes in the scrolls margin speculating about the exact combination of essences, but Risk, Vital, and Wander essence were the only consistent guesses.

The three abilities Wanderer rods offered were known as Standard Warrior, Skirmish Warrior, and Defensive Warrior, focusing on strength, dexterity, and endurance respectively. Multiple possibilities for the basic effect of each ability were mentioned but not described. Seth guessed that Chadwick had the Standard Warrior ability, and was debating asking to Explicate him for practice.

There was another ability that nearly all Wanderers apparently possessed called Wandering Nature, but it wasn’t from a path rod. Wanderers and people who worked with them for extended periods of time tended to develop the ability, which was considered one of the best low level abilities for holistic bodily enhancement.

The rest of the scroll seemed to have some logistical and political information about Wanderer activities, which made Seth’s eyes glaze over a bit. After more or less skimming that part, he finished the scroll. As he returned it to his room and grabbed the Plant essence scroll, he thought about the abilities mentioned. Getting one of the Wanderer path rods interested him, but he wasn’t a warrior.

That reminded Seth of the Immutable path rods that he had seen in Arfeld. They might not have the same power and consistency, but the idea of developing new unknown abilities stoked his imagination. If he used one on temple grounds, it would even have a virtue aspect. Considering the amount of Value he had left since Levi had returned what he hadn’t used, Seth considered buying a few rods when he had a chance. Perhaps ones for his parents at least? He settled back on the cot with the Plant tome.

Jumping straight to the section he had noticed when he skimmed it, Seth started reading about advanced properties of Plant essence. The part that had caught his interest was about how a person’s connection to Plant essence could be tailored and improved. Apparently, the Plant essence in each living Plant was always at least a tiny bit different from every other. Between plants of the same species this was negligible and unhelpful, but the differences across species could be more expansive.

The Plant essence that an essence user produced was shaped by any kinds of plants they used Plant essence on, but with practice and understanding it could be adjusted. Making such adjustments required a plant with the particular flavor of Plant essence that was desired, such as carnivory or unusual color. Once personal Plant essence was properly managed, those properties could be used in advanced techniques. Seth had no idea what techniques the tome referred to, and realized that skipping to the later parts of the book might not be the best way to read it. He flipped back to the beginning.