Misfit - 3 – home sweet home again.

After Pheyis left, the discussions went easier. She’s the strongest person around by a long shot, so with her approval secured, the question shifted from whether I had my place in Wathamber or not to what the practical arrangements would be.

I think I’ve been played somewhat, they forced me to worry so I would be more open about my actual value to the village, but Zaimeia and Guemeros turned out to be really good people. My outburst kind of derailed that plan, but it turned out ok once I calmed down on the surface.

However, my mind is dead set on finding a way towards revenge. Which actually triggered a trait formation.

Trait formation notice: Vindicator (-) +2% [+1 SAN]

Vindicator (minor)

You refuse to let those who have truly wronged you walk away with impunity. A grudge has been created, and it deserve some form of justice. You will see it done yourself if you must. This Trait helps you find ways towards the revenge that might satisfy your heart.

This Trait has enhanced your mind, this effect will be lost along with the trait. Currently : 1 SAN

This Trait is in its forming stage, its effect is reduced (2%).

This Trait is in its forming stage, making it more likely to be lost.

This Trait resonates with your Adaptable Traits, it will grow slightly faster than usual.

This would have probably worried me a couple hours ago, but right now? It’s on point. I’ll watch them burn even if it's the last thing I do. I'm not quite sure why adaptable boost it but I'm not one to refuse a freebie.

Once the issue of settling (an abandoned house that I’ll have to restore somewhat) and being fed (after an initial giveaway for the next couple days, I’ll go see Zaimeia to do some work and be paid from the village food-stores) were out of the way, we actually spent a while chatting of all kinds of things.

Obviously, they wanted to know more about earth, which I was happy to provide. I also used the chance to try to find practical advancement I could suggest to the village. Tactfully explaining that they don’t have the tools to build

But on my side, I learned a lot of things.

Eyes shining with internal light is a telltale sign of a system skill being used. The color is picked by the system and nobody really knows how or why it choses a color rather than another. It tends to change overtime too. Apparently, the first system skills appears at level two, with . Later, at level 5, becomes available, but the system skills progress as people reach higher levels, which is why it was so basic when Zanaris used it to tell me to follow him to the village. The system skills need some mana to work, and they progress through leveling. It's one of the main reward from leveling, along a token amount of stat points depending on the race.

And leveling quickly becomes quite hard.

Experience can come from growing traits, but mostly, people get it from killing things. And more specifically, killing monsters of a higher level than your own is the most efficient choice. Killing lower levels quickly becomes almost useless exp-wise. Most adult villagers in Wathamber are in the 10 to 15 level range. If nothing else, that means I can rest assured that none of them will go out of their way to kill me for the exp I'm worth.

Incidentally, I learned that the rule of thumb for developing a basic trait to its minor stage is around a year of regular effort. The same time is needed to raise it to middle stage and then twice as much for major stage.

But that’s for simple traits.

More advanced and specific ones can take decades to grow all the way to major. Often because they are hard to actually train.

The system is really stingy with rewards.

After perhaps one hour of talks, I had to leave as my hosts were spending a lot of mana from all the translations. Apparently, mana regeneration is rather slow. Standing up again after my legs cooled down was really hard but I made it. Whether I did that with help or not shall remain private.

And Zaimeia brought me here, to my new place. One of those strange hybrids of a pitfall and a dome that serve as houses here. It's one of the small ones, a circle about three meters accross.

This place kind of sucks.

Yeah, they didn’t specify for how long it was abandoned.

The stone walls are still up, but the roof is full of holes, half collapsed. That means the inside is full of chunks of the old dried mud that was once the roof.

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Hey, at least it’s not a dusty corner under a rock. The moss seems to be doing really well in there.

Yeah, it’s not dusty. This counts as soil.

Zaimeia left me in front of the entrance to fetch some food and a couple basic utilities, like some sheets and a bucket.

Just like the chief’s house, the house is actually tall enough to stand in, despite being barely two meter above ground on the outside at its tallest point. I eye the roof suspiciously as I walk in. I know it’s very unlikely that a piece will fall on my head right now but I can’t help it. If anything fell today, it was during the rain this morning. Speaking of which, the ground is still wet. That can’t be good…

I quickly make my way to the spot with the least rubble, which is also the drier since it has more roof overhead. Of course it’s along the wall opposite the entrance, but at least this house doesn’t have any luminosity problem. It's the silver lining of lacking a roof : you have light in your house during the day. I make my way there over the hazardous floor and I clear up some space as best as I can. A path first them a small rectangular area where I'll try to catch some sleep very soon.

And if the clouds that have remained overhead all day decide it's time for some extra rain, I'm almost sheltered.

While waiting for Zaimeia to come back I try to settle down confortably in the cleared space and decide to go over my status.

Status Time since initialisation : 00:004:08:24:58 Localisation : Wathamber (17:24:58) Name : Marc Rosel Race : Human Gender : M Age : 28 Level 1 (40%) Characteristics STR : 105   DEX : 99   HEALTH 93/108   END : 108 MANA 137/137 INT : 128 M. HEALTH 80/94 SAN : 94 (95)   Traits Mental Traits Prudent : "What's the worst that can happen?" - Famous last words you do not live by. Split personality [B] (2) : You're never quite alone. At least he's friendly! - Evolving 1% Cynical : People are selfish, and will always be so. Never trust too much. Altruistic (-) : You're a really good friend to have, shame you rarely get along with people Makeshift Crafter (-) : Forming : 1% Mana Sense (-) : Forming : 8% Vindicator (-) : Forming : 2% Physical Traits Adaptable [R] (+) : Humans have countless defects, yet they always adapt and overcome Adaptable [B] : System-granted superior adaptability. Survive and thrive. Hiker (-) : Forming : 11% - Racial compatibility Mountain Dweller (-) : Forming : 3% Wildland Dweller (-) : Forming : 3% Forest Dweller (-) : Forming : 1%

I haven't been here for five days yet and so much has happened.

Mostly a ton of walking around. At this rate we'll have the hiker trait in a month instead of a year.

Oh, fuck off. don't talk to me about walking anymore.

Well, lets hope Pheyis only has you running during whatever training she'll cook up.

Don't say that, why are you scaring me like that.

...

I better stretch my sore limbs. I feel like stretches will be important in the coming days.

...

My eyes are closed and I'm trying to keep my breathing even through the tension when I hear some noise.

I look up to see a startled kid frozen in his tracks. He's actually made it halfway into my room without me noticing it. A couple more curious heads are poking by he entrance.

I have no idea what to do here. What is this kid even trying to accomplish?

We blankly stare at each other for a couple seconds and he suddenly turns tails and takes off, running screaming something in a high pitched voice.

Eh. Turns tails. Appropriate.

I don't even know if the kid was a boy or a girl actually. Just like most adults, the kids don't seem to bother with shirts, but this one did have colorful light green pants instead of the usual dark earthen tones I've seen so far. They had tiny horns and tails, and were overall cute enough.

I sigh.

I just hope they won't become a problem. I'm really bad with human kids already, and those are supposed to be familiar to me, I was one once. How the hell will I handle gilfeith kids?

The trio disappeared and they don't show up again before Zaimeia comes back with a fairly large bundle of cloth and a clay pot that she leaves close by.

I thank her wholeheartedly. It's not translated but she nods in understanding anyway before leaving.

Well, I guess I'm settled then.

Time to plot?

Time to plot.