“That’s amazing!” Vanya exclaimed. “Isla, how did you get it up so high? My highest skill is only at level two.” Some of the others nodded their heads at this.
“She has adeptness.” Taloc said before Isla could even reply. “It increases the experience for her to increase her skill levels… or something like that.” He looked to Isla. “What other skill increases have you received so far?”
“I’m at level three in long blades and two in shield.” She replied. “Why are those skills not higher? I’ve been in three fights already.”
“It might be an issue with the level of the opponents,” Ewtain said. “Those skeletons were very weak.”
“I fought against the mummy and the big skeleton also, and then there were the scorpions.”
“Maroftis did most of the work against the big skeleton,” Vanya said. “You got injured. The mummy also put you out of the fight early. Maybe you need more time to use your skills to gain experience for them.”
“There also might be something related to success,” Vultressant said. “That conversation with the Anuran really turned around when you started speaking. You didn’t fare very well against the big mobs we fought, but you still went up in those battle skills more than any of us did. Perhaps if you had been able to do more, the levels would be higher still.”
“Yeah,” Ewtain said, “and I’m pretty sure that you shut me down, too. I had a witty point to make, but I had a sudden urge to not talk.” He pointed at Isla. “Not cool! Keep your witchery away from me. Clearly, my mental wall ability isn’t foolproof.”
“We need to find out more about how the leveling system here works,” Taloc said before Isla could make a retort. “There’s a bar for experience for our character level, and it tells us the percent we are towards the next level, but there are no experience numbers. If leveling is anything like what we’re used to, it’ll take more experience to level as our level increases, or maybe we’ll need to increase the difficulty level to get the same amount of experience. I didn’t have a lot of time to see what the skeletons did to our experience bar, but the mummy and boss skeleton each moved the bar significantly. There’s no indication as to what’s needed for the skills to advance, and we need to ask about both of these issues. I think that Isla should be the one to make any requests of the Anuran in charge; her persuasion can only help, and I think that we should get her to level it as fast as possible.”
Isla didn’t relish the prospect of having to do most of the talking for the group, but she had no argument for his logic—at least, no argument that would not make her sound like a whining child. She did want her skills to go up as fast as possible so she could deal with the role. Isla had typically chosen a Bard class in games because they were always a utility class. Typically, the natural leader of a group was either the main tank or the primary healer. The tank had to call out instructions to the group, telling them which monster to focus on, and the healer had to keep the party alive, which meant primarily healing the tank while also making sure that the rest of the party was close enough for heals. The Bard types usually gave buffs to the party and debuffs to the monsters, and even the Bard classes that had charm or other crowd control abilities were usually instructed which monsters to lock down first by whomever was in charge of tactics. She had two special attacks—shield bash and quick slash—but nothing that buffed the party. The Bard was more appealing to Isla than a straight damage class, but the role-play aspect of her choice for this world had not occurred to her when she was making her character. That, coupled with an ability called born leader, meant that she could not just sit back and let others make all of the decisions for her as she would have liked.
“I’ve been thinking about the questions that need to be asked,” Taloc said, “and I’ve even made some notes in the journal section of the interface.” He accessed the journal and displayed the notes in a small section of the HUD so that he could refer to them if needed. “Okay, we need to get information from the Anurans, and my main goals for this are to get as much info on the geography as we can. Hopefully they have maps that we can look at; it would probably be best if Vult could get a look at them given his mapping skill.” He looked to Vultressant, who nodded in agreement. “I also want to ask about the respawn rate. If we want to go back to that crypt, or encounter another dungeon, it would be helpful to know if monsters will be reappearing or if we have to clear the dungeon, or a level of it, or whatever.”
Taloc glanced at his list, where he had made two more notes that were similar in topic. “I also want to see if we can find out general information about the creatures and races of this region. Specifically, I want to know about major threats and things to avoid until we reach higher levels. Also, I would like to know about the kingdoms that they were referring to. What races live there, what are the politics of each, and are either of them a good place for us to go to?” He had thought of a few other things that he would like to know, but he felt that these should be the priority for now, and he didn’t want to get bogged down in trying to do too much all at once.
“We can ask about those things while they interview us tomorrow,” Ewtain said.
Shaking her head, Vanya said, “I don’t know that we should try to pump them for info too much during the interviews. They’re going to have each of us alone, and they’ll probably want to do most of the asking. Maybe after we’ve cleared their test or whatever protocol they are using, we can talk to them about our needs.”
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Ewtain wore his cloak hood up, but Vanya could see his scrunched face and his slightly tilted head. While he looked to be constipated, Vanya thought that the face must mean he was thinking. “I think that Isla should ask during her interview,” Ewtain said. “She has the skills to help get a favorable reaction, and they might get suspicious if none of us asks them anything.”
Taloc felt that it would be best to just wait until they could get the information while he was present, because he preferred a first-hand account in order to be able to make his own judgments about the information. If anyone did get any answers on their own, however, he could always ask the questions again himself. “I don’t know if we have to worry about them getting suspicious of that, but I agree that we might not want to hijack their interviews. Maybe we should try to ask questions, but if anyone gets shut down, then just drop it and let them do the asking.” Any objections were stifled by the sound of multiple people coming up the stairs.
No one drew a weapon, but they all prepared themselves. They relaxed when five Anuran females appeared, four of whom were carrying trays of food. They looked for somewhere to put down the food and settled on using two mostly empty shelves. When that was done, they all left except for the one who had not been carrying anything. She looked around and asked, “Vultressant?” Vultressant lifted his hand slightly and pointed a finger up. “I am for you,” she said.
Ewtain looked both amused and incredulous. “What?” he asked.
Taloc was laughing, but Vanya just rolled her eyes and asked, “What are you here for?”
The Anuran pointed a finger at Vultressant. “For him.”
Vanya looked at the Anuran, placed her hands on her hips, and sternly said, “Yeah, I got that, but why?”
“We talk.”
Vanya nodded in understanding and visibly relaxed. “Is this a language lesson?” The Anuran nodded enthusiastically, and Vanya shook her head in a chiding manner at Ewtain and Taloc.
Vultressant and the Anuran began speaking her native language as they all went over to peruse the food. One tray contained two types of small fish a bit larger than sardines. There were blue-skinned fish in what appeared to be seasoned oil on one plate, and the other plate contained a clear liquid with grayish fish in it. In both cases, the heads had been removed, and a V had been cut down the back to remove the bones. Another tray contained several fillets of white-fleshed fish that were each about two feet in length, and while there was no pool of liquid in the tray, it was clear that the filets had recently been soaked in something. The third tray had filets that looked to have come from the same type of fish as the second tray, only these appeared to have been smoked. The final tray contained a large pot of fish stew as well as several bowls and spoons.
The stew and the smoked fish were the most popular, since the others looked to be raw. The blue fish were in a spicy oil, while the other fish on that tray were pickled. Ewtain had been the first to try both of those, while Maroftis had gone right for the larger raw filets, which turned out to have been soaked in some sort of fruit juice. He had quickly downed two of the larger ones, and was about to grab a third when Vanya said, “How are you able to eat so much?
His claw stopped just inches from another piece, and he turned to her and shrugged. “Always hungry.”
Vanya looked at him as if he were insane. “Vult, help me out here. Ask him why he’s eating all the time.” Vultressant did so and translated for Maroftis as he switched to Koraken.
Maroftis replied, “Yeah, that’s because I am always hungry. This…” He moved his claws up and down his body, indicating himself. “Well, I must burn through it faster now, and I only want meat. I must have taken on the traits of my new race.”
“Do you want to eat the Anurans?”
“They look tasty,” Maroftis said, looking at the female Anuran, “but I am not raging to kill one. If I came across a dead one, though… Also, some of my other feelings have changed.”
“How so?”
“Well, before I changed, I thought that both Isla and Vanya were pretty hot, but now, I don’t think that I’m into mammals.”
“What’s so funny?” Vanya asked as Vultressant burst out laughing.
When he was able to control his laughter, Vultressant tried to explain. “Since he became a reptile, he’s no longer attracted to you two.” He nodded at Isla just in case she missed his meaning.
“So, his race is dictating some of his likes and dislikes, huh?” She looked at the Wizard. “What do you think of us?”
“I think that you’re very pretty,” he said.
Vanya didn’t know if he meant that as a collective ‘you’ or if the compliment was just meant for her, but either way was good in her opinion. She nodded and smiled at him.
The Anuran had turned to observe the exchange. Her eyes were narrowed, and her enormous mouth was pressed tightly enough to extend what would be her lips out a few inches. The expression was almost comical, and it looked like she was extremely confused. Vultressant seemed to understand the cause of her confusion, and he spoke a few words of frog-speak to her. She looked at him skeptically, but then she shrugged and continued the lesson. Vultressant held a finger up to pause the lesson as he had more interpretation to do.
Vanya looked at Maroftis more critically. “There’s probably something to that. The rest of us are either Human or a race close to Human, so that might be why our physiology wasn’t altered like yours seems to have been.” She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. “Well, I haven’t noticed anything, but I don’t really know what differences there might be between Elves and Humans. I think that I have a stronger desire to eat plants, and watching people eat most meats seems to bother me, but I’ll try the fish.” She looked over at Vultressant and waited for him to finish translating. “We can talk to Vult about his Gnomish urges, and I think that we should try to find out what we can about the different races. Elves might be tricky, since there always seem to be many different kinds of them, and they share some traits but not others. I wonder if I’ll stop aging or age more slowly now.” She smiled mischievously at Vultressant, who laughed and translated for the Korak.
“Maybe you can choose, like in the Tolkien books,” Maroftis replied.
Vanya shook her head. “I think that only works for Half-Elves.”
Maroftis shrugged. “Yeah, that sounds right. Well, we could ask the frogs, but my guess is that we need to find more actual Elves and Gnomes to get real information.”