"What is it?" Ken asked around a mouthful of meat.
"Uh, I'm not sure you're going to believe me," Stace murmured after a few minutes of silent reading while she finished her meal.
"Try me?" Ken suggested.
"It's a bloody video game, is what it is," Stace answered in dismay.
"Video game? Like that James Bond game, Chester always wanted me to play with him when he was a little kid. What's that have to do with anything here?" Ken asked in confusion.
"Yeah," Stace said in a distracted voice as she skimmed the lists in front of her for the third time. It took five passes before any of the information sank in. "And it's a bloody RPG. I hate RPGs," she whined.
"RPG?" Ken's voice brought Stace out of her musings, and she shook her head.
"I, how do I explain this? It shouldn't be long now. You were only a few minutes..." Stace started but Ken cut her off.
"Oh? Oh, I see," Ken said, then grew quiet for a long pause.
Then Ken chuckled. "I'm a little old for the coming-of-age message.”
Then he remained quiet for another spell before continuing more to himself. “Old One-eye, eh? These devils don't miss a beat. At least he purports to be a bit better than Loki."
"So, over seventy years of farming gives a so-called low grandmaster rank in the farming profession. With my farming skill at 74 and horse handling and breeding at 64 being my highest skills, if that's out of 100, it sounds fair. There is always something to learn and it appears magic may be a thing here. So, Binding pyth. That's interesting." He tapped at his chin as he thought out loud.
Stace gave him time to read his windows while rereading hers yet again then listened to him mutter out his reasonings. The line about this being a decision that stayed with you for life kept drawing her attention. His comment about having 74 in a skill served to dampen any pride she felt in her own numbers. He's really old, she had to remind herself.
"I suppose this is what that devil meant when he said inheritances were important," he muttered a couple of minutes later. “The best choice seems obvious, however, given the circumstances.”
"It does? But, I mean, what do I choose?" Stace mumbled as she read the list a sixth time. It seemed to her like the skill list was lacking quite a few things.
"Does your skill list seem a little sparse too?" Ken asked.
"Yeah?" Stace agreed. "But everything I care about seems to be on it."
"Hmm, now that you mention it, that fits. Maybe if we demonstrate our skills it will fill out. What are your best classes if you don't mind me asking?" Ken inquired.
"Merchant, Steadfast Defender, Wildland-Scout, Avatar of the Trickster, and Runic Artist. What about you?" Stace asked.
"Well, fair is fair. My best are Arcane Trickster, Highwinds AirShipwright, Deepwoods Trapper, and Wayfaring Wrangler," Ken said.
"Okay... What's at the bottom of your list? Wrangler?" Stace asked. "They seem to go from worst to best."
"Yeah," Ken confirmed with a nod.
"What are its synergies?" Stace asked.
"I was just getting to that. Animal control and binding at legendary, with epic breeding," Ken started.
"Shipwright? Where are your farming classes?" Stace asked.
"Oh, I have a handful of those and some other beast-taming options too. But we need to find my boy and farming ain't gonna help with that none," he dismissed the idea.
"As for shipwright, my Claire was a bush pilot and we took up making model planes and boats after she stopped flying because of her glaucoma. With how passionate she was about it all. I…" he trailed off. "Lord, but I miss her," he said wistfully then went quiet for a moment.
"Highwinds AirShipwright also has a legendary synergy and an epic and two rares making it close to the wrangler," Ken said. "That said, I'm taking the Wrangler Class since it plays to my strengths. Plus I don’t see myself making ships anytime soon. If this so-called magic these Pyths purport to give works then it's a worthy decision in my opinion.
“It’s been a couple of decades since we sold off our horses when my son showed no interest in taking over the business, and I’ve missed it. The occasional ride on one of Troy's mares isn't the same as owning and bonding with your own.
"People are always looking for skilled cowboys. So, if worst comes to worst, and we have to settle somewhere for a while, we can make a living,” Ken reasoned. “That and I’m curious why it's my best choice. Besides, with all these dead people in this forest, civilization can't be too far away, and now that we have food, we can afford to look. In fact, the sooner the better. We'll just have to be careful to see how our new bodies are received by humans."
"It says it's a choice that's permanent. For life," Stace cautioned. "And aren't you a little... short now for horses?"
"I'm aware, and height has little to do with horses. In fact, smaller riders are often better. So... I choose Wayfaring Wrangler,” Ken said putting the argument to rest before continuing. “Yes. Oh! Hmm… Can I choose later? Oh, good. No.” Stace could hear the smile in his voice.
"So? About my choices," Stace prompted, still stuck with her vision filled with screens.
"Where do your skills lie according to this table?" Ken asked.
"Drawing and painting by a large margin," Stace admitted.
"Really? I didn't know you were an artist."
Stace frowned then realized he likely thought she just surfed the net on her tablet at work. "It started as a way to pass the time on nights, but I've fallen in love with it. I was looking to apprentice with a tattoo artist as soon as Rony graduated," she explained.
Ken sighed. “What did you get for these Pyths and Cores?”
Stace listed them for him and he grew contemplative for a few minutes.
"I wouldn't recommend anything to do with the devils. So, I want to recommend you take the scout class since it could help us here and now, but if I've learned anything in my long life, it's that passion is a rare and powerful motivator," Ken said thoughtfully.
"And these choices are for life," Stace tempered then thought of her new form, the Canada Lynx catkin according to the windows that dominated her vision. "I guess I have the strength to fight now, and teleporting through trees sounds… scary-fun. And I'd have to relearn to hold a pen, but..." she whispered.
"Aye girl you see it. It pains me to say, given the situation, but...go with your heart. Hopefully, it won't let us down," Ken said, and Stace could hear him messing with the meat he had roasting over the fire.
Stace reread both Wildland-scout and Runic Artist. There is no way this choice is going to magically make me a skilled scout. So, I'd likely be starting from scratch anyway if I chose it. Besides, I want to be an artist.
I am an artist.
"Runic Artist," Stace said and tried poking at the screen.
Please confirm: Runic Artist
"Yes," Stace said, then received a new window.
Please Choose Two Active Abilities
Copy image (Calligraphy tools)
Flawless likeness (Calligraphy Tools)
Summon Tattoo Machine (Calligraphy Tools, Penetration)
Create Ink (Heartwood, Calligraphy tools)
Empower Rune (Calligraphy tools, Heartwood)
Embodied Drawings (Soft-step, Calligraphy tools, Heartwood)
Animate Sculpture (Heartwood, Soft-step)
Empower Tattoo (Heartwood, Penetration, Calligraphy)
"Don't make those final choices just yet," Ken warned just as Stace was about to select her first.
"Why not?"
"'Cause we need to try these so-called Pyths and cores first then see if we can add more, maybe the choices change when you do. You remember collecting that don't you? We just need to figure out how to take it.”
"Yeah," Stace sighed.
"How do we even use these Pyths and Cores?" she asked, then her vision went white with agony before the world went blank.
----------------------------------------
Stace blinked her crusty eyes slowly against the blinding glare cast by a stray sunbeam across her face.
"Good, you're awake. You had me worried for a while there."
"Fuck you old man," Stace groaned against the spike of pain his voice elicited. She sucked what little moisture she could gather in her mouth then spat to the side.
"Dwarf," he corrected. "And I don't think I'm that old for my new race."
Stace gave him the finger and Ken laughed. "It's shameful how crude your generation has become," he lamented.
Stace groaned.
"I would like to point out we learned a valuable lesson from your mishap," he said in a much too chipper voice, then she felt a cup pressed into her hands.
"Here. For what ails ya."
"What?" Stace murmured and leveraged herself up before taking a sip of the proffered cup. A sharp burn filled her chest and brought a familiar warm tingle in her belly. "Where did you get this?"
Ken continued more softly this time. "You've been out for about an hour. As I was saying, your idle question taught us a valuable lesson. Namely: be more specific."
Stace watched him add more meat to his fires after removing the old and laying it on a large flat stone while he spoke.
"While you were sleeping I worked up the courage and asked how to use just one of my new abilities, Earth Sense, and the knowledge filled my head accompanied by a small stab of pain a lot like drinking a Slurpee too fast.
"I suspect you had too much knowledge jammed into your mind all at once. I waited for the pain to fade before I tried my core and didn’t have an issue aside from another slightly-worse jolt of brain freeze. My third one, Binding, only increased the pain another 20 or 30 percent.”
Stace took another sip of the pungent spirit and explored Ken's words. It seemed he was right. The knowledge of how to use her new abilities was just there in her mind, waiting for her to try. She felt herself getting excited to try them despite the still throbbing headache.
"What about your fourth?" Stace wondered.
"It didn't give any information. Dig doesn't have an activated effect, so that is likely why," Ken explained.
"But I only had two with actives," Stace said.
"What's your sheet say your willpower is at?" Ken asked.
"Fifteen."
"The same as mine," Ken said with a raised brow, "What about Mind?"
"It's twelve, it's one of my lowest," Stace said slowly with a frown.
"Hey, we don't know what these numbers mean," Ken tempered. "The word mind could encompass many things. Though I now suspect it has at least something to do with our capacity to receive information like this."
“Okay,” she said. “Now what?”
“Well, I’ve been exploring my new magical abilities and one of them is quite useful,” Ken said with a wide gesture that encompassed their camp.
Stace followed his gesture and frowned. Most of their stuff had disappeared, leaving only the meat currently simmering over the fires, the meat waiting to be cooked, and the meat cooling nearby. “Where is everything?”
Ken smiled wide. “You’d never guess!”
Stace rolled her eyes at the jolly old dwarf and took another sip of the strong spirit. “Don’t tell me you got some sort of inventory, like in the games?”
“Inventory?” Ken frowned and scooped up another morsel of meat from the fire to pop into his mouth before offering Stace the next.
Stace took it gratefully before continuing. “Yeah, like a dimensional storage?”
“Well… Yeah. You got it in one. I got something called the Squirreled Away Core that gives me a big space where I can put things into an apparent stasis. Among other things.”
"How big?" Stace asked.
"It's a big 12ft by 12ft room, though it's far from convenient. Takes a while to cast the spell, when I don't fail to hold it together entirely, and it only stays open for a handful of minutes. It's also 12ft tall, so I'll need to build shelves or something in there. It's just an empty space."
"It's still a bloody dimensional storage space," Stace muttered. "That seems better than all my abilities put together aside from the Heartwood Core. What other things did you get?"
"Earth sense, which does pretty much what it says, Binding, which lets me bind things, animals and, Lord help me..." He paused to swallow. "...people, to myself so I can't lose them, and Dig, which lets me dig by hand faster and longer," he explained. "I also got a perk for reaching Grandmaster in farming. That lets me sense disease in nearby plants."
"Cool, what abilities were you offered?" Stace asked before listing hers out. "Mine were..."
Ken quickly listed his off in return while taking the last of the meat from his makeshift grills and storing it in a bag.
Chosen Mount (Binding)
Sense Animal (Earth Sense)
Refresh Animal (Dig, Squirreled Away)
Erase Tracks (Dig, Earth Sense)
Calm Mammal (Binding, Earth Sense)
Shrink Mount (Binding, Squirreled Away)
Shared Stamina (Binding, Dig, Earth Sense)
Stable (Dig, Earth Sense, Squirreled Away, Binding)
"But we should get back to the corpse clearing and take anything we can before we make those choices," Ken suggested before summoning a large door out of nothing and stepping in with his sack of meat.
Stace gasped at the casual display of magic and when Ken stepped back out asked. "How is this not freaking you out even a little?"
"I've watched a lot of TV in the last few years?" Ken said with a shy grin. "No, but I've always been a curious sort, and it did take me a good 15 minutes to work up the courage to stick my hand inside," he admitted.
"Should I be testing out my new tree-step ability?" Stace asked.
"How often can you use it again?"
"Three times a day."
"And only to trees, you're familiar with?”
Stace nodded.
“I think you should study the tree sheltering our tent so you can use it if the need arises, while I make sure we didn't miss anything. If we don’t find the need then I suggest you try it later tonight."
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Stace spent the next few minutes doing just that. The immense tree exuded a silent beauty. Its upper boughs were so high that the sound of the wind passing through its giant walnut-like leaves didn't sink to her level, instead, their whispering voices harmonized with the general ambient chorus of the forest. Its furrowed bark looked and felt as hard as the slate-grey rock it resembled.
Stace lay one paw-like hand into one of the large furrows and sighed at the deceptively smooth feel. And apparently, I can just step into it and travel somewhere else, Stace mused. The spell in her head suggested it was as simple as opening a door and stepping through.
She barely resisted the urge to try and step into, then out of this very tree on the other side. Instead, she turned away from her perusal to find Ken waiting patiently with the two packs they'd found earlier in the day. He offered her one half-full rucksack while donning the other.
"Why not just store them?" Stace asked.
"Well, from what we discussed, it's obvious that cores are more powerful and likely rarer than pyth. So, I figured it would be best to hide the fact that I have such an ability, and if, Lord forbid, we get separated, you'll need the items I put in there for you," Ken explained while adjusting his daggers, sword, and bow before handing her the spear he'd used to carry meat earlier.
"That makes sense." Stace took the weapon awkwardly and followed Ken as he headed out.
----------------------------------------
About a hundred yards from the clearing full of bodies, Ken raised a fist and motioned for Stace to get down before returning a few steps to kneel beside her.
“Do you see that?” Ken asked in an almost conversational tone into her ear while motioning back toward their target.
It took Stace a few breaths to see what he meant. A thick tangle of flowering, berry-heavy, brambles had appeared in a suspiciously uniform line blocking their path forward.
“Did we get turned around somehow?” she asked into his ear in the same tone he’d used.
Ken scowled and shook his head. “No, that is completely new. Come, be careful where you set your feet. Let's try to get closer and see if we can learn anything. Maybe get down on all fours like you did yesterday, your big hands and feet should help you be quieter,” he suggested.
Feeling a little strange about it, she did as suggested and took the lead when Ken motioned her forward.
Stace took her time to study the ground before placing each paw, and it wasn’t long until the low murmur she’d failed to register earlier coalesced into a few distinct voices and she began timing her advance for when the women in the clearing spoke.
“So, how do we do this? Cut him into pieces and cook the meat from his bones?” a woman asked in a silky smooth voice.
“It sounds the most expedient,” another more scholarly-sounding woman agreed.
Someone sighed heavily.
Stace was surprised she knew and could clearly understand the foreign language the woman spoke and the dichotomy of the woman’s voice and the subject of what she was saying made a cold shiver lance down her back. There were no dead lions, only Lionesses.
Sounds, not too dissimilar to those they made earlier in the day while butchering the cat, filled the forest for a long while. Shortly followed by the smell of a fire.
The return of the voices was accompanied by the aroma of cooking meat.
Stace felt her gorge rise, and it was all she could do to keep her meal down. Beside her, she heard Ken swallow audibly, and the pair shared equally unsettled looks.
Ken spoke into her ear again. “Do you think you could climb up and get a look at them?” he asked, indicating the tree they hid behind.
“How would I get back down?” Stace asked, unsheathing her claws and studying the tree in contemplation.
“Use your ability to return to our camp if you have to and I’ll meet you there,” he suggested.
“Okay,” Stace agreed and gripped the tree using her razor-sharp claws to dig in with both her hands and feet.
Stace easily lifted herself the first 10 feet before pausing to look down a Ken. He gave her a reassuring smile and gestured to the large branch above her, and she nodded before continuing.
“This sucks, I don't want to sit around smelling cooking human flesh, all-day,” Silky complained, freezing Stace in place about halfway to her destination.
“It failed because the bones weren’t clean, we have little choice if the spell is to work,” Scholar said.
“I know, just…”
“Why don’t you finish collecting heads?” the scholar suggested.
“Because I don’t want to get my armor dirty again?”
“Well, we could trade? Or, you could always cover them in wood first.”
“Yeah, no thanks.”
“Uh, guys, I can just rot it all off,” a distinctly younger voice said exasperatedly.
“No! That could damage the bones or make them break down. If we don't get 90 percent, this whole thing is pointless. And he's the only suitable candidate. Freya herself said so. Besides, that would take days while we wait for your ability to reset enough. Cooking is the fastest way to get clean bones,” the second woman suggested. “Now, give me another piece and collect the heads.”
“I meant the soldiers’ heads, not Kan’s,” the youth answered, and Stace could hear the eye roll in her voice.
“Fine, but make sure you don’t get him in your spell radius,” Scholarly said.
“Okay, mom,” the girl snarked.
Stace forced herself to finish her climb as the group stopped talking.
Once she’d leveraged herself onto the branch she leaned around the large trunk and looked into the clearing below.
“I guess the smell isn't so bad once you get used to it and stop thinking about it. What do you think he'll say when he realizes what we had to do for it to work?” Silky asked, and Stace discovered the voice belonged to a beautiful, statuesque woman in intricate armor that looked to be made of wood. Then she saw one of the woman’s ears through the side of her voluminous hair and had to suppress a gasp. Holy shit, an elf!
She focused on what the woman was doing and gulped as she lifted a large Bowie knife and cut the mummified head from one of the soldier’s bodies before stacking it on a large pile near where the others of her group worked.
Stace noted that another person was accompanying the three women she’d heard speak. A large man in a simple shirt and pants helped an even larger figure, in a full set of wooden armor, including a helmet that completely hid the figure’s features, cut up one of the soldier’s bodies into pieces that would fit in the large pot they were using.
Stace didn’t fail to notice the heavy bronze collar around the silent man’s neck before the armored figure took an expansive look around, forcing Stace to hide behind the tree for a moment before looking out again.
“He knows,” the young girl said with clear mirth in her voice. “He thinks you should get over yourselves.” She was covered head to toe in a faintly glowing armor that looked like it was made of some sort of gemstone.
Stace’s eyes fell on the instrument that seemed to be standing on its own in the middle of the clearing and gasped when a window filled her vision.
Sprig
Type: Acoustic guitar
Rarity: Custom/unique
Properties: Living Dryad Ironwood
Enchantments:
Musical Ease: Sprig is enchanted to work with Bonded’s music, correcting up to (Rank) number of mistakes per song. [Current 3]
She took a moment to read it before a sound above her made her dismiss it and look up in alarm to find a brightly-colored winged cat of all things watching her intently from one branch above.
It opened its mouth and let out a strange yowl.
Stace startled and forced the image of the tree back at their camp firmly into her mind. With a thought, Stace activated her magic core exactly as the information in her head suggested and stepped into the tree.
An intense feeling of her very essence being squished for an impossibly long second passed before she could breathe again.
The light had changed.
It took her a moment to get her bearings and realize she now stood in the tent under her target tree.
She let out a deep sigh of relief. I hope Ken doesn’t take too long, she thought before leaving the tent. Deciding to climb her tree to wait, in case Ken didn’t return alone.
Over a half-hour of tense waiting later, Ken’s squat form glided out of the forest and into their small camp.
Stace hissed to get his attention.
He smiled when he found her in the tree and gestured for her to come down.
Stace’s claws made the descent easier than she’d thought it would be.
“What the hell was that? Did any of that make sense to you?” she couldn’t help but ask Ken.
“Maybe they’re picky cannibals?”
“Seriously?”
“It's a working theory.” Ken smiled. “Plenty of cultures thought you get strength from eating those stronger than you.”
“Now, I know you’re messing with me,” Stace countered with a groan.
“Maybe. Remember we know nothing of the local customs. It sounded like what they were doing was, at least to them, normal, even routine. That said, the men have been dead for well over a day. The meat has likely turned bad by now in this humidity, which likely rules out cannibalism,” Ken explained.
“Okay, now what?” Stace asked with a sigh.
“Now, we wait and see if they followed me, which I doubt, while you describe to me what you saw. I stayed to listen for a while, and they seemed to think there was only one of us. And you used magic to leave, so I’m not too worried. If no one comes, we’ll see if we can follow them,” Ken explained.
“Sounds risky.”
“It’s better than wandering aimlessly through this forest.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Stace allowed and let the conversation end as she listened to the forest around them. Nothing stood out over the sounds of the trees, bugs, and birds.
“Do you think we should choose these abilities now?” Stace asked.
“Might be best,” Ken agreed.
----------------------------------------
Ken's Status:
Status
Name: Kenneth Preston Stewart
Age: 91
Race: Mountain Dwarf
Sex: Male
Level: 1
Exp: 0/10,000
Class: Wayfaring Wrangler
Subclass: N/A
Unspent Stats points: 2
Unspent Skill points: 5
Profession 1 Farmer: Low Grandmaster
Profession 2 Rancher/ Beast Tamer: Mid Master
Profession 3 Animal Breeder: Mid Master
Profession 4 Hunter: Low Expert
Profession 5 Shepherd: High Journeyman
Profession 6 Soldier: Mid Journeyman
Pyth and Gems: 0/4 Free slots filled. 4/4 Heritage slots filled.
Odin’s Blessing of the Wise Wanderer. Mind +4, Charisma +2, Willpower +2, Constitution +2.
Loki’s Blessing of the Wolf. [Overwritten]
Perks:
(Grandmaster rank in Farming) Green Thumb: You can feel the start of potentially harmful diseases or drastic deficiencies in nutrients within plants in a radius equal to your level yards around you.
Stats
Strength
17 (3)
Dexterity
11 (N/A)
Agility
12 (1)
Constitution
18 (4)
Willpower
15 (2)
Mind
19 (4)
Charisma
14 (2)
Perception
14 (2)
Faith
15 (2)
Luck
11 (N/A)
Skills
Language: Brastian
19
Survival
31
Woodworking
41
Language: Mountain Dwarven
21
Language: Deep Dwarven
21
Language: English
49
Writing: Mountain Dwarven runic
16
Writing: Brastian
12
Writing: English
31
Farming
74
Animal handling: Dogs
35
Animal handling: Oxen
37
Animal handling: Sheep
36
Ride: Bulls
32
Cooking
29
Knitting/Weaving
16
Swimming
18
Climbing
15
Ride/Animal handling: Horses/Donkeys/Mules
64
Hunting/Gathering
43
Animal handling: Goats
31
Breeding: Horses
62
Breeding: Cattle
54
Breeding: Buffalo
28
Butchering
45
Archery
27
Cleaning
18
Skinning
41
Anatomy: Wild Animals
26
Daggers
17
Herblore
24
Tinkering
21
Math
41
Anatomy: Domesticated Animals
47
Anatomy
26
Chemistry
36
First-Aid
23
Trapmaking
17
Steam Forging
31
Animal handling: Cats
6
Shearing
21
Dodge
18
Grappling
8
Instrument: Percussion
9
Instrument: Guitar
19
Hand to Hand
13
Polearms: Bayoneted rifle
13
Tumbling
15
Fishing
25
Running
18
Logistics
34
Leadership
31
Accounting
24
Trading
23
Singing
15
Instrument: Harmonica
24
Metallurgy
19
Teaching
11
Sailing
10
Lumberjack
16
Drafting
22
Framing Construction
15
Aqueduct Const.
9
Knotwork
18
Sculpting
15
Shipwright
15
Aeronautic Engineering
19
Breeding: Dogs
21
Breeding: Sheep
13
Whip/lasso
36
Pyth, Cores, and Gems
Binding Pyth: Rank 7 Uncommon (From Kyle Yarrow)
Bind up to Rank x Will(mod) People, Creatures, and/or Items. (Living beings must accept the binding or fail a will check against the binder). [Current 14]
The location of any bond can be felt within 10 x Rank x Will(mod) kilometers. [Current 140 kilometers]
Bound creatures and people suffer a willpower penalty of Rank x Will(mod) x Char(mod)% against the binder's orders. [Current 28%]
Squirreled Away Core: Rank 3 (From Adit Asinghe)
Active: Allows access to a dimensional stasis vault of Rank x Mind(mod) feet cubed [Current: 12ft high by, 12ft wide, by 12ft deep space]. Takes 30 seconds-Mind to access the space. [Current 11 seconds]
Currency, Seeds, and Nuts stored in your vault don’t count against the allotted space. Instead, you can store up to 2 x Rank x Mind(mod) feet cubed of these items in a separate space. [Currently a 24ft cube]
Passive 1: Decreases the chance your storage spaces can be detected by foreign Pyths, Cores, Gems, and Abilities by Rank x Will(Mod) x Perception(Mod) percent. Max 90% [Current 12%]
Passive 2: Foodstuffs in an area of Rank yards around you spoil Rank x Mind(mod) percent slower. [Current 12%]
Earth Sense Pyth: Rank 6 Rare (From Jalp Belycule)
Grants tremor sense in an area of Rank x Perception(Mod) yards around as long as your feet are touching the ground. [Current 6 yards]
This effect is halved when in marshy soils and eliminated when on man-made surfaces.
Sense the potential fertility of the ground in an area of Rank x Perception(Mod) yards around you.
Dig Pyth: Rank 5 (from Alisyn)
Passive 1: Decreases the stamina and energy required while digging with your hands or hand-held tools by Con(Mod) x Rank percent. [Current 20%]
Passive 2: Increases the efficiency and reduces the time to dig with your hands or hand-held tools by Con(Mod) x Rank percent. [Current 20%]
Wayfaring Wrangler
Synergy with Animal Control and Binding (Ld), Riding (Ep), Breeding (Ep), Animal Communication (Ra), Harvest (Un), Movement (Un), and Wagoneering (Co) Pyth and Gems.
+Animal Handling, whip and lasso, knotwork, Riding, Breeding, Movement, and Harvesting skill growth.