“So, let me get this straight.” Edwin finally settled on, “You’re offering to help me with my alchemy, Skills, and homebuilding to the best of your ability, in exchange for just, quote, ‘the opportunity to watch you work and get the chance to chat and stuff,’ with the added stipulations that you can’t do so just to pester me nor when I’m focusing on my work and need to concentrate and you’re not allowed to try and make me sleep deprived? Also, that I can’t share what I learn from you with other people without your say-so, in exchange for you keeping my secrets as well.”

“Ya!” She was way too eager. There had to be something hidden in that, but what? “Also, nice quote! Do you have a memory-aid Skill? Ooh! Is it Keen Mind? Or do you have Intelligence?”

“No to both of those, though yes. I have Memory. I still just... don’t see what you get out of this, though!”

Inion shrugged, the perfect picture of innocence, “Why do I need to get anything out of it? Can’t I just wanna help you?”

“I don’t believe that’s what’s going on for a second.”

“Well I can’t help that, now can I?” she teasingly turned her nose up at Edwin, “How am I ever supposed to get the reputation of being generous if you won’t accept my gifts? Is this just because I’m a fey? Are you judging me by my heritage? How dare you!” Inion looked away, tipping her head in mock outrage.

Edwin could only sigh and rest his head in his hands in response. This combined so much of what he hated about social interactions into one massive package: obscure rules, incomprehensible goals, and people who were clearly just having fun at his expense. Why did he keep doing this to himself? Still, at least Inion was mostly tolerable to be around. She teased him, sure, but it was clearly all in good fun.

“Okay, fine. I’ll agree to your terms, on one more condition!” Edwin hastily clarified as Inion started to perk up way too fast and too cheerfully, “Honestly and truthfully explain what magical ties, if any, bargains made with you have. Also just what making bargains with other fey does, if it’s different. I need to know what I’m getting myself into.”

She thought about it for a moment, really exaggerating her contemplation as she contorted herself into all manner of poses atop the water’s surface, “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Edwin waited. After a few seconds, maybe a minute of silence had passed, only interspersed with the noise of the waterfall in the background, “Well?”

“Hey! I never said when I was gonna do it!”

Edwin sighed, “Well, I suppose I didn’t either,” he started to get up, “If you feel like explaining, let me know. I’ve got work to do.”

“Wait, wait! …Fine, I guess I’ll tell you now,” she jokingly moped, before perking up once more with a playful shrug, “So basically, like… other things I’m not telling him about! Okay, sorry about that. Anyway, we’re just able to like, actually take the stuff offered. The other way around also works, if you’re stronger and keep your side of the agreement, you could force us to uphold our side, and just… take whatever you’re owed. It also means you can take more kinds of stuff than normal. I heard Elatha took a guy’s ability to see color once with a Bargain, which you normally couldn’t, obviously.”

Edwin just mentally shrugged. Who knew what you might be able to take with magic?

Inion carried on, unaware of Edwin’s musings, “But like, since you aren’t offering anything to me, not really, the Bargain doesn’t do much. Some Bargains are really powerful, though, and some of my kin can get really strong through them, or do things they normally can’t to fill their end of the Bargain? Also what we can take and give varies based on a whole mess of things which I can’t really elaborate on. Some of the Highcourt can also do this thing where you enter into a Bargain that tweaks the way things work, and how people need to interact with them, just by interacting with them. It’s weird and I don’t fully get it, but there!” She crossed her arms, “Your turn!”

Edwin sighed, “Okay.” He didn’t see any problem with the agreement, which just meant that he wasn’t thinking broad enough, he was sure, “I agree to the terms laid out, summarized as such: In exchange for instruction, aid, and assistance, I’ll talk to you and let you watch as I’m working. In addition, we also agree to keep what we say to one another in confidence.”

“And I accept!” The naiad brightened up instantly.

Edwin kept waiting for metaphorical chains to tighten around him, or the wind to change, or glowing lights to spontaneously manifest, but after a minute with nothing, not even a System notification… “That’s it?”

“Ya! See? Nothing to worry about. Okay! So, first things first….” Inion dove beneath the waves and resurfaced a moment later with a… strangely glistening pebble strung on what seemed to be a strand of spun water, “Put this on!”

Edwin accepted the rock, but didn’t move to do anything except look at it. He tried Identifying it, but got no return, “What is it?”

“It’s a muse token! I can make one at a time, it’ll help your Skills grow faster!”

Well. If that were the case….

He checked it with Mana Sense first, just to be sure. It wasn’t magical (somehow), so he shrugged it on, letting the rock slip under his shirt. He… didn’t feel particularly different, though there was something going on that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, “Is this a Skill of yours?” he asked, receiving a nod in response, “Wait, how many Skills do you have?”

Inion hesitated in thought as she counted out on her fingers, “Nine.”

Edwin furrowed his eyebrows, “Wait, so few?”

The naiad just smiled, “Ya, you humans get so many Skills as kids, don’t you? I just get what I actually need. There’s lots of ways to gain power- I don’t need that much past just my,” she flicked her hair back, with the strands slowly drifting through the air as they always were only slightly spoiling the effect, “natural talents.”

“I don’t suppose you could tell me what you have?”

She shrugged, “I can’t tell you all of it, but I have… Tender of the Streams, which was originally Aquatic Presence, Bestow Gift from Fey’s Presence- with Muse’s Token between them- Nature’s Warden from Gardening, Seer of the Natural Realm from Identify, Strands of Fate from Status, Appearance of the Natural One from Misty Illusion, Gaze of the Watchful Fey from Seeing, and Maker of the Creek’s Bestowal, which started off all so long ago as Basic Hydromancy.”

“And the last two?”

She just shrugged, “Can’t tell you those,” she wiggled her fingers, “Those are the rules.”

Edwin mentally recalibrated the sorts of things he should be expecting from the seemingly airheaded fey, just giving a distracted “‘Kay” in response. Inion talking about her Skills got Edwin thinking about his own, and, well, no time like the present?

Level Up!

Skill Points 478→488

Progress to Tier 2: 700/1590

Identify Level 41→42

Seeing Level 29→31

Survival Level 28→33

Nutrition Level 25→26

Packing Level 27→29

First Aid Level 28→30

Memory Level 31→34

Polyglot Level 36→39

Congratulations! For successfully hunting a deer, you have unlocked the Hunter path!

Congratulations! For field dressing a fresh kill, you have unlocked the Butcher path!

Congratulations! For performing a basic sacrificial ritual, you have unlocked the Novice Ritualist path!

Congratulations! For successfully awakening an ancient fey, you have unlocked the Feycaller path!

Congratulations! For peacefully negotiating with an ancient fey, you have unlocked the Fey Friend path!

Congratulations! For entering into a Bargain with an ancient fey, you have unlocked the Feybound path!

Congratulations! For gaining a Token from ancient fey, you have unlocked the Feytouched path!

His Paths were the usual fare of 60-point options. Butcher he wasn’t interested in, Hunter, while only 30 points, was also not something he cared too much about. It might be useful, sure, but he couldn’t help but feel he was better off trying to focus on what he was good at rather than try to do everything. The Fey paths were cool, though. He’d take the Feytouched path this Tier, and save the others for later. He’d need to think a bit more about what he was pushing off, though.

He was offered the usual list of new Skills, as always, and readily dismissed most of them. One in particular caught his eye, though. Harvest seemed… like it might be useful. Not only would it help him out with a profoundly unpleasant task, it might help him when he started going after magical creatures for their magical parts. Ultimately, he still decided against it. He would maybe try to get some sort of general-use construction Skill, maybe Assembly or Creation if those were Skills, to help him if he was going to lean further into the Alchemist/Artificer route like he had been. Maybe in the long term he could use it to make golems or something. Other than that… maybe another magical skill? He’d want anything he got to be really special. He had enough moderately cool Skills, he wanted something that would really stand out! Or a skill to help his thoughts stay focused, that would work too. Bonus points if it also helped him resist the mental manipulation Skills that seemed to be everywhere.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“No…” Inion cocked her head to the side, “You get distracted a lot just on your own, don’t you?”

“Ahhh… I can, yeah. Is it really that obvious?” Edwin admitted, “I just think about a bunch of different things at the same time, and what actually gets my attention flips around a lot. It can be really helpful, but sometimes it’s just annoying. Why do you ask?”

A smile played across her lips, “I see. Well, hopefully my Token will... aid you in that endeavor. So, my musee, what may I aid you with?”

Edwin considered his options, “Well, it’s getting a bit on the late side tonight, but I’ll be processing logs for my home in the morning. Stripping bark, making them more even. Any chance I could get some help with that?”

“Hmmm…. Bring ‘em over here, would you?”

Edwin gave Inion a flat look. Packing and Athletics or no, the logs were still something like five hundred pounds. Eventually, he sighed, “Fine. Just give me a few minutes per.”

For whatever reason, unless he actually lifted the logs, Packing didn’t kick in, which made it ironically easier to pick up and carry the massive tree trunk sections than it was to try and roll them. He was pretty sure it wasn’t an actual limitation of the skill, though, just that there was some trick to it which Edwin hadn’t picked up on yet.

When he first got the Skill, it was as much on a whim as anything. It certainly didn’t seem to add too much to his arsenal, just the ability to carry more around with him. Admittedly, given his circumstances, that had been really important at the time, and hadn’t entirely stopped being so since, but he felt it had so much room for experimentation. Was it like that with all of his skills, or was Packing unique in that regard? If it were the former, then he needed to do a lot of tests to figure out what else his abilities might be able to pull off. If it were the latter, then it only reinforced his decision to ensure every Skill he took could stand entirely on its own merits, instead of him accepting every last one which was offered to him.

As he dropped the first log, letting it thud into the soft ground and trigger a small collapse of the riverbed, Inion gave him a sidelong glance, to which he just shrugged, panting, “What? It was heavy.”

He only got a shake of the fey’s head in return before she returned her attention to the log. She tapped it with a finger, and quicker than Edwin could track, the bark fell off into thousands of tiny pieces, where they drifted onto the ground and seemed to melt away. Edwin’s slightly tired mind instantly snapped to, “What the heck was that?”

“Mmm. Nature’s Harvest. It was a couple advancements ago from Nature’s Warden. Lets me process plants rapidly, so long as they have water in them.” She was trying to act nonchalant, but Edwin could tell she was delighted at his sudden reaction, “So, did you want me to do the rest of them?” she added innocently.

Edwin groaned. Well, guess he wasn’t done for the night yet after all.