Jack finished the last of what he’d come to think of as “ligament stew”—the disgusting slurry that made up a Chian’dir’s morning meal. It was filling, yes, and being fed was always better than being eaten, but that didn’t change the fact that it was flat-out awful. If he hadn’t lived through the Great Depression, it would probably be the worst thing he’d ever eaten.

When he had commented to Canus about it not agreeing with his system, the Chian’dir had been insistent; explaining that only eating muscle meat would make a person sick in the long run. Apparently, you had to eat all the joints, organs, marrow—you name it—to get the right nutritional balance from an all-meat diet. Which was good to know, but it sure as hell didn’t make the stuff taste any better.

“Are you done, my friend?” Canus asked as Jack reached the bottom of his bowl.

“Looks like it,” he answered, spooning up the last of the cartilaginous mess as he tried to ignore the burning spice that clung to his tongue. “I ain’t normally one to criticize another culture’s cuisine, but you folks need to work out a better way to season this stuff.”

“I thought you liked garu!” Canus said with a grin, his large canines gleaming in the morning sun. He lifted the bowl of dried red flakes that the Chian’dir used to season their food and shook it in Jack’s direction. “If you eat it from birth, I assure you it is delicious. Now come, we must visit the elders before you leave us.”

The huge Chian’dir warleader rose from the bench and Jack followed suit, the pair heading out of the dining area with only a quick stop to toss their bowls into the barrel of rust-coloured grubs that passed for a dishwasher in the village. Not only did the things eat away at the leftover food until the stone plates were spotless, but they also bred like crazy. When there got to be too many, the Chian’dir would dry them out and grind them up to sprinkle on their food like red chilli flakes—also known as the flavouring they called “garu.” Damn things tasted like chilli flakes, too, if not hotter. Jack had never been one for spicy food, but the Chian’dir had stuck a whole mess of them in his pack anyway under the misguided impression that he liked the things. Not surprising, considering how much he put on that damned stew. It was the only way to kill the taste.

The duo headed out of the dining area and made their way across the village, with Jack doing his best to ignore the looks he got from the Chian’dir as they passed. Apparently, word had gotten out that he’d used Speak With the Dying to prevent Pash from kicking the bucket during his evolution to warrior, and now they were staring at him like a buncha wide-eyed loonies.

Jack grimaced at the attention. At first, he’d been okay with staying another night, but now that everyone was acting weird, he was ready to get going.

Upon reaching the edge of the village, Jack saw that Elders Novus and Kaeso were waiting for them, as was Sextus. The old warrior sat calmly on the ground with the stumps of his legs sticking out in front of him, his demeanour so composed that he made it look like a Chian’dir’s legs fell off naturally once they reached a certain age.

Of course, being 5-feet tall sitting down probably helped.

“Thank you for staying another night,” Novus said as Jack approached. “We discussed your presence here late into the evening and concluded that since we cannot deduce why you were brought here, we should allow you to leave and discover a way forward on your own.

“I was gonna do that anyway,” Jack said.

“Yes, but we questioned what else to tell you before leaving.”

He shrugged. “I’m all ears.”

She smiled, her own not-inconsiderable incisors being revealed by the action. “You are an oddity to our tribe. A human who is unafraid of us and respects our ways. But you also have power in you. At first, we attributed it to the Ability you displayed when you took Pash beyond the boundary of death, but we have since realized it is more than that. To put it simply, we do not wish to make an enemy of you, Jack.”

Jack’s bushy eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t plannin’ on it, Elder,” he said. “And while I appreciate that you think I have some sort of power, all I care about is getting to Palmyre and finding my family. Don’t suppose you could help me out on that front?”

“Of course,” Novus said. “Kaeso?”

Kaeso stepped forward and nodded to Jack. “I can give you some knowledge to write into your Tome that might assist you on your voyage.”

“I can do that?” he asked. He brought his Tome into being and found a blank page. As soon as he thought about needing to write down some notes, the shoddy chunk of charcoal he’d used to X out the notifications portion of his Tome appeared in his hand.

“Well, how about that,” he muttered. He started to write a header for his notes, but as soon as he drew his first letter, a paper flashed into his vision, followed by the hunk of charcoal transforming into a poorly sharpened pencil.

NEW GENERAL SKILL LEARNED!

Writing – Skill Level 12 (Tier-I)

How did you get to almost a hundred years old with a barely functional writing ability? Your dog must have eaten a LOT of homework.

Tier-I Bonus: Decreased chance of writing being misunderstood. Scales with level through to end of Tier-II.

*Since this Skill predates your arrival in Arenia, it has been set at a level commensurate with the practical ability you already possess.

750 XP Earned (cumulative)

“Jackass,” Jack grumbled. He flipped to the notifications page and re-drew a big “X” through the section. “There. No more horse crap from you.”

He looked up, only to discover everyone staring at him, slack-jawed. “What’s everyone lookin’ at?”

“Friend Jack,” Canus said. “Did you just turn off your notifications?”

“Yeah, why?”

“If you can’t see your notifications, how will you know what you have done? What you are capable of doing?”

Jack shrugged. “I’ll know ’cause I’ll be doing it.”

Kaeso stuttered, seeming to not want to ask her next question, before finally saying, “Jack… do you even know your Base Stats?”

“You mean the list with all your Strength and stuff? Yeah, I’ve got it here somewhere. Didn’t seem like much use, so I ignored it.”

He flipped through his Tome and found the page they were talking about. It seemed like it had more stuff on it than he remembered, but it was still a bunch of gobbledygook so he showed it to them anyway:

JOHN “JACK” MILSOM

Renown: Level 16 – Unclassed

Species: Human

Age: 95

Experience: 65,000

Experience to Next Level: 4,900

Base Attributes

Strength – 20

Constitution – 22

Endurance – 24

Dexterity – 22

Willpower – 24

Intelligence – 19

Charisma – 13

Luck – 32

AVERAGE: 22.0

ABILITIES

*Boon – Deus Ex Machina

Any Last Words (temporary)

Speak With the Dying (temporary)

Threat Assessment

TRAITS

Well-Aged

Evolving (human)

Self Defence

Sure-Footed

GENERAL SKILLS

Tier-II:

Climbing – 22

Dodge – 22

Rope Use – 23

Tier-I:

Animal Handling – 12

Jumping – 11

Writing – 12

SURVIVAL SKILLS

Tier-III:

Fishing – 30

Hiking – 38

Sense Danger – 33

Tier-II:

Campcraft – 23

Orienteering – 25

Snares – 21

WEAPON SKILLS

Tier-I:

Fists – 18

Tier-0:

Improvised Weapons – 3

Shields – 3

FIGHTING STYLES

Tier-II:

Japanese Ju-jitsu – 20

Judo – 27

Tier-I:

1-Handed Weapons – 12

ACTIVE QUESTS

Get to Palmyre!

His action brought a chorus of grunts and whines from the Chian’dir. If Jack didn’t know better, he’d have said they looked embarrassed.

“Jack, you cannot do that!” Novus exclaimed.

“Do what?” he asked.

“Expose your full Character Sheet! Perhaps humans strip naked and pleasure themselves in the street, but that is not our way.”

Jack scowled. “It’s just a buncha numbers!”

“It is far more than that,” Kaeso said firmly. Then she cocked her head at him and the colour of her fur undulated once. “Since you did show it though, did my eyes see correctly? You have only 16 levels of Renown and no class, yet your base average is 22.0?”

“And your Luck!” Canus said. “It is so high. Now we know how you were able to survive discovery by my war band!”

Jack grimaced at the words. “Trust me, my Luck ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Hell, I don’t even know what’s considered normal in this place.”

Kaeso and Novus exchanged glances, neither wanting to say anything.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m from another planet,” he said, waving off their obvious discomfort. “Ya clearly worked it out, and while it probably ain’t something I want to be spreading around, who are you gonna tell? You live in the middle of a forest and eat anyone who might care.”

“You admit it?” Novus said with surprise. “You truly are a Legend?”

“Sure, whatever you want to call it.”

Canus looked shocked. “You impress me, Jack!”

“What the hell for?” Jack said. “I didn’t do anything. I was all set to eat too much turkey and fall asleep in front of a football game when I got picked up and chucked into this forest. That ain’t any more impressive than you bein’ born a hairy bastard.”

Canus grinned and gripped Jack’s shoulder. “You are wise, friend Jack. A Chian’dir is the sum of their actions, not their birth. You are no different. But that doesn’t change the fact that you have the potential to accomplish great things, just as every Chian’dir has the potential to one day become an Elder.”

The sight of Sextus rolling his eyes behind Canus’ back left Jack feigning a coughing fit to keep a straight face.

“Alright,” he said when he got himself under control. “Now that we got that out of the way, what say you give me some info about the terrain around here? High Luck or not, I’m pretty sure I’ll need more than that to get to Palmyre, so any help is appreciated.”

“We would be honoured,” Novus said. Right away, the Chian’dir began giving him a detailed description of what he’d need to know, each of them contributing based on their own points of view and life experiences.

It was interesting to hear them discuss the area. Canus had the most recent knowledge, but Elders Novus and Kaeso had also been warleaders, so their understanding was similarly comprehensive. Not only were they able to give him an idea of the terrain in the area, but he was even able to make some crude maps. Meanwhile, Sextus largely kept silent, but the pieces of information he did supply were more practical; a safe place to sleep, a border to be cautious of, a plant with a contact toxin…. It didn’t take long to work out that when Sextus spoke, he was worth listening to.

Once the Chian’dir finished with the area’s topography, they moved on to the threats he would encounter. Specific creatures, yes, but also sentient species he should avoid. There was a little dissent on that front, but they all agreed that Jack’s safest route was to head northwest until he reached a river, then follow the cliffs that rose above its bank as it flowed west towards Palmyre. They were emphatic that he not head due north to reach the river, however. Apparently, that would take him to a series of waterfalls that culminated in a lake where some kind of water creature called an Ogopogo lived. Given how they described the thing, Jack had no intentions of disregarding their advice. They also advised that he not cross the river, as a bunch of scouts had gone missing on the north bank, and until they worked out what happened it was best not to take any chances.

Unfortunately, Jack could only manage their recommended northwesterly route if he split the difference between two hostile tribes of creatures. One of them was a group of strange teleporting creatures that would ambush you and then disappear just as quickly. Little was known about them other than that they always attacked in pairs, were incredibly annoying to fight, and didn’t have enough meat on them to justify the effort. The other group of creatures was some kind of semi-sentient plant life, but the Chian’dir had even less information about them because of the lack of clarity on whether they were animals or vegetables. Rather than think too hard about whether that particular foe was cookpot-eligible, the Chian’dir simply opted to ignore them. That didn’t mean they were harmless, though. They had several life stages, each with varying levels of threat, but the Chian’dir’s unintentional truce with the creatures had left them lacking details on their advanced stages of development.

“Alright, sounds like I got a plan laid out,” Jack said when the briefing was finished. It wasn’t perfect, but he’d done more with less. Hefting his pack onto his shoulder, he looked at the Chian’dir. “Never been one for big goodbyes, so… guess that’s that. Thanks for not eatin’ me.”

“About your potential,” Novus said before he could leave. “There is an offer we would like to make to you.”

Jack squinted at the Chian’dir elder. She hadn’t said a lot so far, and given how she was talking right now, Jack felt like she was building up to something significant.

“Yeah?” he said. “What’d you have in mind.”

The old Chian’dir drew herself erect, pushing away the weight of her many years as best she could. “Jack Milsom. Human Legend. We would offer you the Blood of the Chian’dir.”