Slados stared for a moment as the idea soaked into her. "Wait, are you the Guide mentioned by that display when I was in the void or whatever." The man looked pleased, "That's right. The name's Jacob." He stood up and stretched out a hand to her. She took it readily and noticed he had well-worn hands, like he was used to living in the forest. "Not to be pushy but can you lead me to your house or the nearest town or whatever? I encountered a jelly-thing on the way here and it burned the shit out of my arm." She lifted her less-raw arm to show the Guide. Jacob let out a low whistle and examined the arm. "Yeah, looks like the slime got you pretty good. Best to take care of them at range, unless you get ambushed." He looked away from the arm and made eye contact. "As for your question? That's a big no on both. No towns exist currently in the entire realm we're in." She paled to hear that. "What do you mean there are no towns? Where do you sleep? How do you stay safe?!"

Jacob smiled but it didn't seem to reach his eyes, which she had only just now noticed were dull. It was like there was something *missing* in his gaze. Before she could ask anything about it, Jacob spoke. "You're here to master the twin powers of Creation and Destruction. You will be making the town for the denizens and that's how we will stay safe." He looked her up and down. "It looks like you haven't awakened your powers yet. Don't worry, that's what I am literally here for." Slados threw up her hands to forestall anything else he was about to say. "Hang on. Stop. Let me digest that for a second." She rolled her neck and took a deep breath. "Ok, so, the display said something about Creation with a capital C but didn't go into detail and it didn't mention Destruction (I presume with a capital D) either. Can you explain those to me first?"

Jacob nodded and seemed to settle into a lecturing mode. "Of course, it's my purpose after all. Creation is first. It is fairly straight forward, it is the power to create. You will be able to, for example, take raw wood into your Inventory and channel it into a door or table." As he spoke he drew diagrams with a stick into the dirt. A tree, then a log, then a door. *He's a pretty good artist it seems.* "Or you can take raw iron ore, stand near a furnace, and use the magic within to change the ore into ingots. Then stand near an anvil and borrow it's power to fashion a sword from the ingot!" He drew more diagrams in the dirt of a stick woman standing near a simple furnace and anvil waving a sword around. "I presume that is me?" Slados asked as she pointed to the stick figure. Jacob nodded, seemingly a little abashed. "Sorry, I am not as good with drawing people." Slados let out a hum and agreement. "And where does Destruction come in?"

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Jacob rubbed the dirt until the diagrams were gone. "Destruction is a bit more abstract." He sketched out a slime and an arrow stuck in it. "Once you awaken your powers, you will be able to harvest the remnants of them. For example, you can kill a slime and it will almost always drop some currency and some gel." He drew some circles and some bottles. "That's not all, of course. They can sometimes drop potions or raw ores!" He rubbed these sketches out as well and drew a much larger circle. "Once a number of slimes combine, they become a Slime Lord, which will be one of the first Bosses you will have to slay if you wish to restore Tarac Cleich. The danger and rewards scale up and up with each new boss." Slados was following along fairly well until then. "Do you mean, 'monster of great power'?" Jacob rubbed out the Slime Lord. "That is correct. Each new Boss slain will change the world in some subtle way as their curse if removed from Tarac Cleich."

Slados frowned. "The display didn't mention curses. What do you mean by that?" After wandering back to his stump, Jacob responded. "Well, there are certain ores that cannot be harvested until certain Bosses are slain. Some Bosses drop items to progress further. Some make biomes more or less dangerous until they are slain, like the Desert Wyrm. Until you slay that one, the desert winds will be fierce and blow you about if you are not careful." The mention of deserts got Slados' attention, Wait, you mean there is a desert somewhere nearby this forest? Is that how biomes normally work??" Jacob let out a polite laugh. "I don't know if that is how they normally work but here in Tarac Cleich, there is a desert right next to a frozen tundra biome. Tarac Cleich is a *small* realm but it is jampacked with flavor. The Flesh Zone, the Dripping Muck, Hell, the Subzero Caldera, the Ocean, the Deep. And that isn't even including the Skylands." With that, Jacob pointed up at a floating mass of dirt and rock.

Slados was struck silent as she watched the Skyland drift through her view. "What the shit..." Jacob just quietly waited for Slados to pick her jaw up off the floor before continuing. "All these biomes carry their own dangers but they also carry their own beauty. If you want to complete the task of Restoration, you'll need to master all of them." Jacob stood. "And that all starts with awakening your power. Are you ready to get started?"