[elsewhere, late fall]
The Covargh Hybrid continued berating Ferret. He was extremely angry. “We gave you shelter and food. Traded with you. Trusted you. Why would you steal from us?”
The reply was simple, and off-puttingly honest. “It was shiny.” Ferret had not even hidden the bracelet. If anything, he had sat it as a trophy, on the flat rock they used as a table in their tent. If it were not too small for him, he would be wearing it
“It Ferret trade not?”
confusion surprise
“No. He stole it. My daughter thought she lost it while doing chores. She last remembered setting it aside while scrubbing pans. Later she remembered removing it. However, it was gone when she went back to get it. Her cousin noticed it when he brought you food earlier, and told me where it was. Now give it back.”
Ferret looked puzzled. “No one near bracelet. By itself. Shiny. Ferret took, make tent pretty. It pretty, right?”
“Yes, it is pretty,” the frustrated and angry Covargh said. “My daughter thinks it is pretty too. She wants it back.”
Ferret smiled happily. “She have it back! What she trade for it?”
“Bracelet Covargh Ferret give.”
mild frustration. obvious
“Yours bracelet not.”
need trust
Ferret was confused. He could not understand why Sun wanted him to just give the bracelet up without a trade. He had found it. His. And it was shiny. Still, he picked up the bracelet and handed it to their visitor. “We trade later, okay?”
After accepting the bracelet, the Covargh closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. The village elders would need to talk. “We will speak later.” He left.
Evening Sun [https://r0k.us/rock/images/TrichyanSun_FinalSig.png] Ferret Drewson [https://r0k.us/rock/images/FerretFinal.png] Evening Sun Ferret Drewson
----------------------------------------
Your statuses have all been healed.
I am glad you remembered to keep analyzing things.
“Analyze at D is really handy. I’m sure C will be fantastic. For today, though, I gained four skills. Let’s take a look at those. Query skill Infertility.”
Infertility is a binary skill which devitalizes all ready sperm in your body for a period of 23 and one third hours. You will feel a sensation in your scrotum for its entire duration. Your partner can verify your infertility with Analyze.
“Analyze tells me that?! I have never noticed.”
It is a special, free query, “analyze infertility”. Until about 5000 years ago it was only available as a special query by a Physician. System eventually decided it should be available to all. The query is available to any Level 0 with Rank F Analyze.
“Two questions. Why didn’t you tell me? And is Physician a class, like a Doctor?”
I did not tell you because Forrest has never been with a female, and the likelihood of you becoming pregnant is miniscule. If either of those conditions changed, I would have informed you.
“Miniscule?! As in not 0%?”
Yes. It is a big galaxy, and it is best not to entirely rule out anything. You can be comforted with the knowledge that it is at least 2500 times more likely that you would be cloned without your permission than becoming pregnant.
“That is very comforting.”
Yes.
And yes, a Physician is like an Earth Physician-Scientist, which Jacques may have called a medical researcher. Clerics and alchemists offer healing, but Physicians study the body, both of sapient and sentient species. The Botanist class is for someone who studies plants and one-celled organisms. They both use mana-derived skills to study what Earth scientists need high-technology equipment for.
“Cool! It did not occur to me that there would be sciency classes.”
I shall be eloquent in silence and not call you ‘dumbass’.
“How the hell was I supposed to know something like that?”
You knew there was interstellar travel prior to the Cleansing. How much of a leap is it to assume technological civilizations would study physiology and botany and have classes in support of such?
“Admittedly I am grasping at straws here, but they might not have traveled using technology. They could have been using mana-based drives to approach maximum speed.”
Your point is valid. I retract my prior eloquence.
“Thank you.”
I think. Let it drop.
“Query skill Common Labor.”
Common Labor is a catch-all skill encompassing many endeavors involving the body to a much greater degree than the mind. You must be doing work which is useful to you or someone else. Examples include ditch digging, cart pulling/pushing, and weed pulling. Rank F values:
Strength: +4%
Speed: +4%
Efficiency Modifier: -10%
Hmm. At F, the efficiency loss probably balances with the gains, else your capability would go down on gaining this skill. Presumably there will be actual gains at higher ranks.
Your presumption is correct.
“Query skill Field Dressing.”
Field Dressing involves removing internal organs and possibly blood from game and fish. It also includes skinning the hide from game. It is a component of higher-level skills such as Hunting, Fishing, and Woodsmanship. Rank F values:
Dexterity: +4%
Perception: +4%
Speed: +4%
Interesting. There is only gain, and no downside.
“Interface, what does it mean for a skill to be a component of another?”
While useful in and of itself, a component skill is integral to the capability of another. Should you learn Hunting, for example, it would replace Field Dressing, and many of the rank points you had gained in Field Dressing would be transferred to the higher capability skill. Using field dressing techniques as a hunter will gain Hunting rp.
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“Why not just start with Hunting in the first place?”
Forrest has done very little actual hunting. In general, though, component skills can be useful on their own. For example, Sterbian Morse has the Butcher Chef class. He need never hunt if people bring killed game to him or he cook at a hunting camp. Nevertheless, he would find it very useful to have a highly ranked Field Dressing skill.
“Are component skills different from skills that merge, such as Drafting and Sketching?”
Yes. That is an astute question. Component skills are essentially absorbed into a higher level skill. Merged skills remain co-equal but have capabilities each supporting the other, and they rank together. Sometimes the dividing line between the two will seem arbitrary.
“Are you the one who decides?”
No. I am the one who perceives the arbitrariness. You probably will be as well.
Finally my main one. “Query skill Basic Martial Arts.”
Basic Martial Arts is the knowledge and muscle memory forming the foundation of Martial Arts. It includes stances, techniques, and moves learnable by anyone but vital to those with the Martial Arts class. Level, rank, dexterity, agility, perception, and training all contribute to BMA effectiveness. Rank F values:
Agility: +6%
Dexterity: +6%
Perception: +4%
Wisdom: +2%
Reaction Time: +4%
Speed: +4%
Efficiency Modifier: +0%
“Woah! That affects a lot of things. Why do some skills start out with negative efficiency and some don’t?”
General learned skills such as Running and Common Labor are the ones which begin with a negative efficiency. More professional skills do not start out at a deficit.
“Some of my Ki Healer skills start out very inefficient. Those are granted, not learned.”
They are inefficient in ki, not stamina. Plus I speculate that the side effects are design features of the skills, an attempt to give mood boosts to a cleric-like class, similar to how an empath or bard might.
“Speculate?”
It is not documented as such.
“Interesting.”
Yes.
“I have a general question. Why are there skills like Basic Swordsmanship and Basic Martial Arts anyway? Why not make those part of the class itself?
Because they are not. Anyone can train to use a sword well. Anyone can train martial arts techniques. They can become as good as well-trained masters on Earth. Your class adds abilities not everyone has access to. But without knowledge of the fundamentals, you, as Onre would say, ‘suck at fighting’. Day-one Forrest could not even remember to turn on his Dodge. Day-four Forrest can combine Dodge with non-aetherial moves and stances, giving him options he barely had awareness of before. You knew the word ‘stance’, but how much did you really know?
Heh. I had seen Bruce Lee and other martial arts movies. I thought it would be cool to be a martial artist. But,
“I didn’t know anything.”
And now you are learning, and you should soon have a solid framework for the use of your class skills.
“I get it now. When my Basic Martial Arts rank reaches C, and I am granted a brand new attack at rank F, that attack, even at its weakest, will automatically be better because I know what the hell I am doing.”
Yes.
“I’ll be making my diary entry early today, and then we can play a game afterward, your choice. Query To-Do List.”
1. Don’t die
2. Practice the skills I have
3. Learn bo and bow
4. Bring plumbing to Cottages
5. Learn Make Water skill
6. Rank all my regen skills to C
7. Don’t bitch
“I obviously don’t need number 6 any more. I’m going to keep doing number 2, but it is too general to be useful. Please delete them both.”
Items 2 and 6 deleted; remaining items renumbered.
All my teammates will be leveling within the next few months. I should find out when that is going to happen. Add item, “Learn teammate’s birthdays.” That is their leveling day, right?
Done. Yes. A person may hold off leveling, but I believe all your teammates are anxious to level.
“I think so, too. I know I would be. I’m going to focus on my diary for a while.”
Acknowledged.
----------------------------------------
Tenthday, 33 Fourthmonth 726 KE
I’m still Level 4, but all my regens are Rank C now, as well as First Aid. I haven’t used it very much, but Jacques knew both it and Firefighting at an A rank level. So if you learn them quickly enough, they both can start at C (once a non-nascent skill is C, anyway). I also learned Infertility, which has no actual rank, but is listed as if it were C.
I now have a Martial Arts Master (“sensei”), Lenyet Birch. He is a 27 year old human, Level 30 in Martial Arts and Teaching. His profession is adventurer. Currently he lives in a nearby village called River, but he will come to Cottages every “Tuesday”. He would also like to join the staff of the adventuring school, but we don’t know when they will start hiring yet. I have started learning stances and some beginner fighting stuff. I also learned the Basic Martial Arts skill, but I did not have the opportunity to rank it past F.
I met him exiting my sixdays. My whole team used their morning to show me some basic hunting stuff, and Lenyet came with us. We ended up with a bear and a boar. We found them already in battle with each other, and we did not need to do very much fighting at all. Arrjee (everyone, but mostly Arrjee) taught me about field dressing a dead animal. We brought them outside of town, which is set up with basic equipment to help hunters skin their carcasses. The previous Mayor of Cottages, Sterbian Morse, assisted us. He is a Hydromancer and Butcher Chef, and operates a grocery store.
Sterbian is also some sort of curmudgeon who doesn’t want Cottages to change, and especially doesn’t want the adventuring school. We may have started to mend things over. At least he was cool while he helped us. Grandma is going to work on him.
Dammit! Me and Onre were going to get the pelts. We left them in salt baths overnight outside Sterbian’s store. I’m sure Onre eventually got them, but we both forgot to get them at 7 like we said we would. Instead, we went running and swimming with Lenyet. I got the opportunity to use my river stone to breathe underwater. I actually first did that the previous evening. (I spawn late mornings.) Lenyet helped me rank Heal Other to D, but in the midst of that, a Level 7 Flying Water Salamander flew out of the river. It was a monster, and Onre and I defeated it, with Lenyet ready to back us up if needed. He did not need to, although it did take a big bite of flesh off of Onre’s arm, and spat a big, poisonous loogie spray at my lower face. Stinky and gross!
(This isn’t very organized, is it? Well, my rule is “write from the heart, and don’t edit.”)
So that is what happened, other than more general training after our hunt. I went almost the whole day without eating anything, and didn’t even think about it until Arrjee and I came downstairs and saw Carrie cooking breakfast – fried bread, pork chops, and fresh, pulpy, tomato juice. She had diced up the tomato skins, included most of the tomato pulp, and added some herbs to make a savory jam (marmalade?) to spread on the bread. Anyway, delicious!
----------------------------------------
“Interface, I’m done. I’ve been wondering about something. How could I have gone so long without learning about monsters before?”
So long? You mean all of four days?
I had to laugh. “Yes, all of those.”
You actually learned a good deal about monsters, but it seems it did not register. On your second day, during your training session, you had a conversation with Asha Yon. He told you about being a pure warrior and various experiences fighting against both dangerous animals and monsters. He specifically added:
Usually monsters are fought within dungeons, but sometimes they will get out and begin causing havoc. Most monsters are sentient, although high-level ones tend to become craftier and sapient. There are also whole races of sapient monsters deeper in the dungeons, such as Goblins and, even deeper, Oni.
You then asked him, “Why don’t the sapient ones come out and form societies outside the dungeon?”
If any came out demonstrating they would behave non-violently, the duchy would allow it. That has not happened yet. It is possible it has happened in other duchies or continents, but I have not heard of such. Maybe they just feel safer within their dungeon, and they have everything they need. I do not know.
“I remember that conversation now. It was just before he told me how to learn Dark Sight.”
Correct. As your intelligence improves, your capability to recall and cross-reference memories will increase. Just wondering about the concept “monster” should remind you about that conversation, and, if desired, what was said.
“Well, for now, I am glad you can remember that stuff. And this Tuesday you told me that some monsters were friendly. Could that be the Oni?”
It is possible. I know little about them.
“So there are other friendly ones that you do know about?”
Yes.
…
“You are a veritable fount of knowledge. But I suppose you are not going to tell me.”
Yes. Yes.
“Well, then, would you like to play Chess or Think?”
Either. Would you like to listen to mellow jazz or classical?
“Okay, Think then. And jazz.”
We played three games, and I even won one of them. While I know Interface is holding back, it felt like an earned win, not something he gave me.
You earned it. I play with both a short table of move probabilities and an occasional blunder, both to match a starting player’s skill. As you improve, so shall I. Note that I am still learning Think. I do not yet know it anywhere near as well as Chess. Thus I do not yet have to force blunders on myself.
“Why do you know Chess so much better? I thought you would be super-smart at both.”
Thank you. With Chess, I have access to a huge number of books and played games via my Internet database. Equivalent resources for Think are unavailable at this point in Heere’s history.
“Wait. Music, movies, tv, Youtube, and books??”
Yes. Let me know if you wish to learn Persion to read its literature. Fascinating.
“But would you translate?”
No. But I would be a patient teacher.
There are 12 minutes left in these sixdays. Would you like to continue speaking, or begin meditating?
“I will meditate. Thank you.”