“It’s okay,” Isla said to try to avert any sort of conflict. They were going to need to ask questions that might be considered inappropriate by their hosts, so she said, “Our culture is very inquisitive, and we love to ask questions as we seek knowledge. We will be asking questions of you as well, and none of us mean to offend any of you… except maybe Maroftis, but luckily, he won’t be talking.” Maroftis perked up at the mention of his name, and she gave him a big smile. She noticed that there were more notifications for her to read, but she wanted to pay attention to the conversation, and while ignoring everyone around you to look at your phone was commonplace in her world, similar behavior could certainly be considered rude here. Well, it was rude in her world too, but it was generally accepted behavior.
“It’s fine,” Vultressant said. “I have an ability called language sense that helps me learn languages very quickly.”
“I have never heard of something like that, but if it has taken you from rank zero to rank five in a day, then it is truly amazing.” Svelta looked impressed, and if languages worked as she claimed, which was basically how they worked on Earth, then his ability truly was amazing.
“What’s a skill book?” Taloc asked.
Svelta eyed Taloc, but she made some internal determination and said, “It is possible to learn a skill naturally, but many skills take a long time to learn, and some even require years of training. Using a skill book allows you to learn the skill immediately, provided that you have the prerequisite attributes, level, affinity, and any other requirements for knowing a skill. These books are expensive, so most try to learn naturally. As your personal level increases, you will gain new skills at certain levels, so many take the skills that take longer to learn as the perks of leveling and try to learn other skills on their own.”
“Is it the same for learning spells?” Vultressant asked excitedly.
“More or less,” Svelta said. “As you level or increase the level of your magic skills, you will gain access to more spells, so there is less need for books for learning them. However, they do exist.”
If the other skills just needed practice to increase in level, then they needed somewhere safe to get stronger before stumbling around in the wild. These Anurans seemed to be hospitable, so Isla decided to just come out and ask them for their aid. “Would it be too much to ask of you to allow us to stay with your people while we practice our skills? We have already encountered several dangerous things in the very short time that we have been in this world. We wouldn’t need to stay long.” She had more that she wanted to say, but something made her stop talking.
The three Anurans regarded Isla for a long moment. Svelta finally spoke. “It will likely take a very long time for you to increase your skills substantially. It is true that practice in a weapon skill will increase its level, but extremely slowly. If you practice with an opponent who is far more formidable in skill than you are, then the rate will increase, especially if there is also proper instruction during the training. This is also not a very fast process. Actual fighting against enemies, especially those that are stronger than you, is the quickest way to level up in those types of skills.”
“Then just a few days then. That should be long enough for us to at least get our bearings, and if you could provide us with some instruction as to how to navigate this forest and direct us to a city, that would be great.” Isla held her breath, willing a positive response.
“We haven’t talked about staying here,” Ewtain said.
Isla turned toward him. “I’m getting tired of being seriously injured. You may be nearly immune to being hit, but I’m not so lucky.” He looked like he was going to say something, but he closed his mouth. She was surprised—she may have made a compelling argument for staying, but Ewtain was always ready to argue his point.
She turned back to Svelta. “I can’t speak for all of us, but I would be willing to work for the privilege of staying here.”
Svelta looked at her, considering for a moment, then she looked at each of the other five members of their party. “I think that you do speak for them. Very well, you may stay. We said that we would aid you, and we will. We will speak with each of you individually tomorrow and decide upon the duration and terms of your stay after that. You will stay in an unused storehouse, and we will have a meal brought to you tonight.”
“How are we going to talk to the Korak?” Gelum asked.
“I think that Tomar knows something of the language, but if not, then we can have Vultressant interpret for us,” Svelta replied.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Before they left, Vultressant asked, “Would it be possible to get someone who could further instruct me in your language to stop by tonight?”
Svelta looked at Vultressant, but Cynila spoke first. “That can be arranged if you will agree to teach me Koraken. If your ability aids your learning, it might also aid you in teaching others.”
“I’m happy to try,” he said. “In my world, I’m not a linguist, and I only dabbled in one foreign language, but I will do my best to instruct you in the language.”
They were brought to a building that was almost the size of the one that they had just left. This one was built for function, not aesthetics. There were empty shelves in every room except for one on the second floor. On these were glass jars, some containing liquids and others containing foodstuffs. It looked to be mostly fish and eggs, but some of them contained vegetables. They decided to stay on the second floor, where there were a few windows that provided light as well as a nice view of the lake.
When they had finished exploring the building, Taloc called a meeting. “Maroftis, were you able to tell how tough the Anurans that we encountered were?” Vultressant translated for him.
Maroftis had been chewing something, and he swallowed whatever it had been before answering. “I don’t know how to tell the difference between saying how tough they are compared to just me and how we would fare as a group. I think that it’s set for comparison to my general abilities. Most of the frogs are no match for me, but the three that met with us are tougher, especially the one that did most of the talking.” He paused for a moment to consider. “I think that we could run this place if we wanted to, but those three might be able to stop us.”
“We’ve probably only seen a small part of this sprawling village, and I prefer to make allies rather than dominate if possible,” Taloc said.
Vultressant shook his head. “I’ve seen you play more games where you deftly conquered the world than I care to count. You love that crap, and these Anurans are pretty much this world’s doormats.” He raised a hand to forestall a protest from Taloc. “I don’t want to mess with them either; they seem nice, but I play the diplomat guy in these games. You’re the fricken’ Borg.”
Vultressant translated to Maroftis, who laughed and said, “Yeah, dude. Vult was always playing the Humans in MOO2, and he made trades with everyone; you were usually the Klackons or Silicoids and tried to conquer everyone—especially me!”
“That’s because you played the Darloks and stole my tech,” Taloc reminded him.
Maroftis spread his arms and put his palms up. “That was all they were good for. You don’t blame a squirrel for grabbing a nut, do you?”
“No, but I can catch and kill it if it does it in my yard,” Taloc said with no expression on his face.
“Well, this has taken a dark turn,” Vanya said. “Can we get on with this meeting?”
“Sorry about that, Vanya.” Taloc then turned to Vultressant. “Tell him he needs to learn Common, so we should take turns teaching him when we have down time.”
“Why do you guys play those old ass games anyway?” Ewtain asked.
“We played them when we were young,” Taloc explained, “and sometimes we bust them out for the nostalgia.”
“Heroes III was another great one,” Vultressant said.
“True,” Taloc said. “Now, talk to the croc.”
Vultressant did, and Maroftis replied, “I didn’t want to learn another language in school, and I certainly don’t want to do it in a game.” It may not have been possible for a giant lizard man to look petulant, but Maroftis made a good go at it.
“It’s possible that my language sense ability will provide some aid in teaching others, so I should probably try to do the lion’s share of the training,” Vultressant said. “The description doesn’t indicate that it’ll make it quicker or easier, and the help function is mum on the subject as well, but it couldn’t hurt.”
Isla grew bored with the conversation. She thought that Maroftis had been foolish to just randomize everything, but she had to admit that she envied his regeneration ability. If she could spend less time feeling the pain of being injured, that would be wonderful. On the other hand, she didn’t regret not being a hideous reptile who couldn’t communicate in this world, so all things considered, she would take what she currently had. He had been great-looking before the change. Now ugh!
She focused on the messages tab at the bottom of her HUD. It had a red bubble in the upper right-hand corner, which meant that she had unread notifications, and when she activated it with her mind, the first notification was displayed. It read, ‘You have gained a level in the skill persuasion, and you will now more easily convince others to do as you request.’ There were eight more identical messages, followed by one that read, ‘You have gained a level in the skill persuasion, and you will now more easily convince others to do as you request. You are now level 10 in persuasion, and your Charisma attribute has increased by one.’ She was amazed at the progress as well as the bump to her Charisma, and after a look at her character sheet, she confirmed that she was at level 11 in her persuasion skill, and her Charisma had increased to 21. “Uh, guys…”
The conversation continued until Ewtain noticed Isla’s expression and asked, with concern evident in his voice, “Isla, what’s wrong?”
She remained distracted for a moment, looking at her HUD, but then dismissed it to find that everyone was staring at her. She then had a thought about the bonus to her Charisma stat and said, “One sec.” She activated her HUD again and focused the help feature on her skill increases. ‘As you level your skills, the primary attribute related to that skill will increase, and some skills have multiple primary attributes associated with them. Level 10 provides the first bonus attribute increase; keep increasing your skills to find out the next bonus level.’ She dismissed the HUD again and said, “We need to work on our skills. I made level 11 in persuasion when dealing with the frogs, and at level ten I got a bump to my Charisma. Look.” She projected the last information message so that the rest of them could read it.