The group was greeted early the next morning by three Anurans, females by their coloring, each of whom was carrying a large basket full of eggs. Ewtain hadn’t seen any chickens here, but he supposed that these might not be eggs from chickens.
One of the Anurans made a small bow. “Enjoy. You will be called on soon,” she said.
“Are they hardboiled?” Vanya asked.
The woman shook her head in the negative. “No, cooking spoils the delicious flavor.”
“Thank you,” Vanya said. “Would you mind showing us how to eat them?” The Anuran woman looked perplexed, though since she was being asked how to eat an egg, that seemed reasonable. She shrugged and went over to one of the baskets, but before she could demonstrate, Maroftis grabbed three eggs from the basket near him and downed them, shell and all. He did take the time to chew. Yolk ran down the side of his mouth, which was rather off-putting, and when he finished, he made a satisfied noise and grabbed another clawfull.
The Anuran was unperturbed by the display and simply took an egg and cracked it neatly on the side of the table that the basket rested on. She tilted her head back and opened the egg over her mouth one-handed, as adept as any professional chef. When she was finished, she said, “I would be happy to show you again if you need further instruction.” Her skill in Common was as good as the leaders. When no one took her up on her offer, she simply bowed her head and followed after the other Anurans. Without turning, she said, “Someone will be here soon to bring you to the hall.”
They were all hesitant to just eat the eggs raw, except for Maroftis, who had already gone back for thirds. Taloc grabbed a mug and cracked three into it before downing all of it Rocky-style. Ewtain tried one and ate it as the Anuran had. The yolk burst in his mouth as he closed it. The flavor was very rich, tasting more like a duck egg than a chicken egg to him. Vanya used her potion equipment to begin boiling some, and Vultressant asked Vanya to cook a few for him. Isla just took a pass on breakfast altogether.
The escort arrived soon after the three Anurans had left; Vanya had just finished boiling her eggs and was still waiting for them to cool when they all had to leave. She tucked them away for later consumption and hurried to follow the others, who were already headed down the stairs.
They were brought back to the same building where they had met with the three leaders the previous day. However, instead of being shown to the meeting room, they were each brought to a different room in the back of the lower level of the building. Vultressant and Maroftis were kept together since Maroftis still needed someone to translate for him.
Ewtain decided to spend his wait time looking into what he could about experience. He had an experience bar for his character level, but no actual numbers were present. There was also no indication of experience gain for his skills, but from Isla’s huge haul in her persuasion skill, she must have gained a huge amount of experience all at once. Gaining experience for the skills appeared to be tied to using them, or possibly successfully using them. He knew that experience towards his character level could be gained through combat. The other ways that he had found for experience gains were discoveries, which could be anything from learning a new skill to visiting a land for the first time. Quests could give experience when they were received as well as when they were completed. Major and minor achievements would give experience, and sometimes using skills would give experience, but it was not clear which skills and what circumstances allowed for experience versus those that did not.
He assumed that there was probably more to it, but the help feature was not cooperating fully at this time. A thought occurred to him about the help feature, and he looked for any archived logs of their time here. They had determined that the help feature would only display information about things that were already experienced by the user; logically, he must have already received experience for the listed methods of acquiring it. He found the history file, and he set a filter to search for the word experience. There were dozens of locations within the log that contained the word, and he skipped through them in the same way that he would using a document program. Most of the entries were related to his performance in battle or the success of the group in those battles. He had also gained experience when his skills went up. There were only three instances of that, one each for short blades, dodge, and dual wield, but it was nice to know that he could increase his skills and gain experience at the same time.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He found a few examples of discoveries that he had made, and most had to do with the crypt that they had found. It had been the first dungeon that he had discovered, and it had given him three quests, two of which he had already completed. There had been two quests to kill an elite monster; the giant skeleton qualified for one of the quests, and the mummies had satisfied the other. The last quest, which remained unfulfilled, was to kill the boss of the first level of the crypt.
Ewtain set up the interface to prompt him whenever he received or completed a quest; he thought about doing the same for gaining experience, but that it might be too distracting, so he left it alone. He also changed the opacity of the HUD so that he could keep it up and still see what was going on around him.
A large Anuran, male by his bright purple coloring, summoned him, and he dropped his HUD altogether and followed. He was led to a small room with three chairs; in one sat Svelta, wearing a robe much like the one that Ewtain remembered her wearing on the previous day. She motioned for him to sit, and he sat down in one of the two chairs that faced her while the male closed the door on his way out. “Be welcome,” she said as she gave what must be a smile. She probably meant for it to be a calming gesture, but it made Ewtain feel a bit uneasy instead. “It is good to see you again, Ewtain.”
Ewtain pulled back the hood of his cloak, bowed his head slightly, and said, “It is good to see you as well… Svelta”. The name he added as an afterthought. He didn’t want to offend her, and since she had made a point to address him by name, he thought that it was best to do the same. He didn’t know what was supposed to happen in this meeting since he had been sequestered away from his party, and he wanted to get a better idea of his situation here, so he decided to let her lead until he had a better feel for what was going on.
Svelta stared at him for a moment, and after he showed no inclination to speak further, she asked, “You did not say much when last we met; do you share the views of your companions?”
“What views are those?” Ewtain asked after a long pause. He was not sure what views she was referring to, and he didn’t want to presume.
“They all want to stay in our village for a time, but not permanently. The duration of the stay differs widely among them, but they all wish to go eventually. What motivates you?”
He thought about the question for a minute before answering. He wanted to explore this world, and he had no intention of staying in this village any longer than he had to, but he was not going to leave the group. “I would like to find a city, but my friends want to stay here, so I will honor their choices and remain as long as they wish to… or as long as you allow us to,” he added belatedly.
Svelta appeared to frown, and Ewtain wondered what he had said wrong. She regarded him for a moment and asked, “How many companions did you come with?”
He was taken aback a bit. Did she think that they had left some others outside the village to attack later? Maybe she wanted to know if they had other members of the party who had died or left and wanted to determine if the six of them were responsible or something. Finally, he said, “Just the five that you met.”
Her frown deepened, and she looked like she was going to shoot her tongue out and slap him with it. Ewtain was worried that he had offended her in some way, but he had barely said anything. She reached into a pocket of her robe and said, “I am going to hold out a number of balls, and I am going to ask you how many balls that I hold.” She paused, and he wondered at the strange request. “I want you to respond with a number other than what you see.” And the request just got weirder. Before he could ask the obvious question ‘Why?’, she continued, “Do you understand?”
Baffled, he shrugged and nodded his assent. She removed her hand from the pocket, and when she opened her hand, there were three small, glowing blue-green balls in her hand. “How many balls are in my hand?” she asked.
“Twelve.” He said it with no hesitation. He didn’t know what she was doing, but he was going to follow her directions.
“Thank you for your time. I will meet with the other elders, and we will let you know our decision later today.”
“Wait, that’s it?” He said it in a tone that was more accusatory than he had meant. He had been waiting for hours, and he had not been able to ask any of the questions that he had been set to ask.
“Yes. Thank you,” Svelta said as she stood up and walked to the door.
“Hang on, lady,” Ewtain said. “If you’re done asking me questions, I’ve got a few for you.”
“I am very busy. Perhaps another time.” She bowed her head to him and left the room.