I wake up early, the sky I can see through my absent roof hasn’t really started to shift from the dawn colors of purple and green to the usual blue. I realize I haven’t yet seen what a clear night sky actually looks like on this planet. Maybe tonight, seems like a cloudless day today.

Surprisingly, I actually slept alright.

Trait progress: Forest Dweller +1% ;Mountain Dweller +1% ; Wildland Dweller +1% ; Vindicator +1%

Experience gain notice : +5%

You are starting to find a place and a direction in this unknown world. 1 SAN and 3 M. Health recovered.

Your poor resting conditions have slightly reduced your natural health regeneration for the night.

The system disagrees, but I’m only quite sore. I can almost completely suppress my painful groans as I do my best to bring some life back in my limbs.

And I had that really sweet dream where I was punching a weird blue alien with a huge head and weak limbs, and everything was just… Peachy.

You do realize that lulling yourself to sleep with fantasies of revenge against the Knowledgeable is probably not a good thing on the long run right?

It got me a trait progress though, just like my dream.

...

Yeah, yeah. Just let me indulge a little. You know that violence isn't really what I'm looking for anyway. I need to figure out something... Greater.

I inspect my feet before standing up. When I checked them yesterday, the blisters on the back of my heels where not just pierced, the skin was long gone, leaving raw flesh underneath. Walking for hours with wet socks was obviously not a good idea.

The area is still sensitive but there is some crust protecting the small wounds now. Guess that will have to do.

My shoes are dry now, but apparently my socks also crusted overnight. From all the filth they accumulated. As I take some nuts to serve as breakfast, I briefly consider using two pieces of cloth from my food parcels as makeshift socks.

Never mind, this cloth is so rough it’s probably going to feel the same on top of being unpractical.

Uh, these taste just like Macadamia nuts.

I don’t really like Macadamia nuts…

The dried fruit has a unique flavor that I can’t really match with anything I know from Earth. It is sweet but slightly acidulous, the taste feels somewhat like what you’d expect if an apple tree had a child with some kind of berries. Whatever that means, it’s really quite good.

I take a tentative sip from my jug of goat milk before leaving. Ugh. This will be really hard to get used to. I take a bite out of a piece of smoked meat to push the taste away.

Maybe I can try to talk them into brewing beer or something. I wonder if that would work here.

Why is the first “progress” you think of that might actually be implementable is brewing alcohol?

Well, we’re from France Bob, even if wine is probably not possible, we have a reputation to hold. Besides, these people seem to have a difficult life, I’m sure it would take just fine. I could certainly use a stiff drink myself.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Standing up hurts, the underside of my feet just took too much abuse and hasn’t recovered yet, even though there’s no actual injury. Still, I can walk almost normally. Hopefully that will be enough for whatever grueling training Pheyis considers light exercise. Still, I'll live through it and force a smile if I need to. No matter what I might dream, the current reality is that I'm a weak stranger in a strange world. Can't go wrong with improving myself.

So it's with a determined pace that I exit my crumbling house.

The village is still very quiet in the fresh morning air. Well I didn’t see it get very busy during the day either. But there is a really charming feeling to the empty paths irregularly bordered by the low white and grey houses.

As I follow the winding path that will get me back to the larger central alley of the village, I can see the taller walls all around, small but sturdy fortifications that keep the town safe. And beyond those are the mountains, with their dress of fiery trees and their glorious snow covered peaks currently reflecting the last purplish tones of the morning sun.

Isn’t that a hole in the wall over there? There’s a dent at least.

Uh.

Hey look, there’s somebody over there.

He’s walking casually, carrying a few empty bags. Not sure what he’s doing but he doesn’t seem in much of a hurry.

“Ooyy!”

He turns my way when I call, some mild surprise on his face quickly turning into an expression I can't really place.

“Regnart. Ut euv ioq?”

Of course this guy isn’t kind enough to activate the translation. No matter.

“Pheyis. I’m looking for Pheyis.”

I try to shrug as I speak to show I don’t know where she is, hopefully he’ll get it.

He scoffs and grins as though I made a good joke, but he beckons me to follow him regardless.

I really need to learn some of their stupid tongue and get to level 5 for the system translation. I get the feeling struggling to convey any kind of meaning will get old really quickly.

As we walk, I point to myself and give my name,

“Marc.”

Then to him in askance and he seems to catch the hint.

“Ej sius Aetmon.”

Great, I just got the words for I am or perhaps I’m called. Humm. Actually, let’s check that right now.

“Aetmon sius gilfeith, ej sius human?”

He actually laughs and shakes his head at my bumbling attempt, but it seems to be in a good natured way.

“Na, na. Marc tse human, ej sius gilfeith.”

Hum, ok, so if I’m understanding him correctly, it seems like ‘sius’ and ‘tse’ match to ‘am’ and ‘is’, while ‘ej’ really was ‘I’.

That little exchange was enough for us to reach the main street, and now his eyes flash in a dark red for a second. He points at a central house, near the chief’s.

“Pheyis live there. Nice meet Marc.”

I nod in thanks. The translation didn’t let me catch whatever the actual words for nice to meet you are, which is a shame because those would be useful right now.

Well, I’ll tell him anyway. Maybe next time he’ll do whatever allows others to use the skill too.

“Nice to meet you too Aetmon.”

I move closer to the designated house. I notice Aetmon chose to stay and watch whatever happens next rather than get done with whatever he was originally going for. Which is probably not a good sign because that can only means he expects entertainment.

Just walk in her house and say hi, what could possibly go wrong.

I am not interested in assisted suicide today so I ignore Bob’s obviously terrible advice. He just wants a peek at the inside of his sweetheart’s residence anyway, completely disregarding my continued well-being.

Is it really well-being? Being, sure, but the well part is surely debatable isn’t it?

I’m in front of the steps going down to her door-curtain. The sun is rising a bit more every second, and the village is really waking up. But she definitely told me at dawn and we’re past it by now.

“Pheyis?”

No answer, and I don’t dare raise my voice to call.

Aetmon comes closer with a twinkle in his eyes and he doesn’t seem to have the same reservations.

“Pheyis! Lia nu leb regnart at ertop uiq tuev not luc!”

The sonorities of their tongue are really strange but I haven’t noticed anything I can’t imagine myself pronouncing yet.

This idiot is grinning like a cat that just ate a deliciously forbidden fish though, what the hell did he just say?

It was efficient at least, because only a few seconds later, Pheyis comes through her curtain. She jumps up to the street level in a perfectly smooth motion and looks at us with arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

Her glare is powerful, and she focuses it on Aetmon who withers under it in instants. He spills some explanations at such a fast clip that I don’t catch a thing. And Pheyis just nods once at the end. Her eyes flash in her trademark purple before she speaks in an unexpectedly friendly tone.

“Hello Marc, you’re early. Usually the little trainings I provide every other day for the kids are during the third and the last quarters of dawn." She then switched to a more incisive tone "But dear Aetmon here just happens to be available this morning, which is unusual enough that I'm sure he doesn't want to miss the chance to improve himself.”

The look she sent his way to dare him to disagree had him looking like a beaten dog.

She turned on her heels after a couple seconds of that glare and started walking towards the northern entrance of the village, opposite the one I arrived from yesterday.