Before Leah could answer, and before Liam could cut her off, Byrne silenced the both of them.

“The girl can speak for herself, Den’ah. Unless you have something you brought into my village that you’d prefer to keep hidden?”

Around the cramped table, the air grew heavy, as the older man and Liam stared each other down. Liam, to Leah’s surprise, was the one to break off eye contact first. Turning away and closing his eyes, he sighed.

“So you knew who we were pursuing?”

“I might be old, but I still keep my ear to the ground. Yes, I knew you were chasing Latasha. And what of her?”

“Dead. As best as we can tell.”

Cassandra answered this time, an uncharacteristic look of supreme satisfaction on her face. While it wasn’t her real target, getting rid of any psychomancer was a good result to her. Byrne looked between the two of them, then to Leah. A long moment passed as his eyes seemed to bore into her, in a similar fashion to when Liam had done the same. Before she could get a good look at what he was doing, and maybe learn something about it, the look passed, and he nodded.

“Good. I hope its not too crass, but you’re comrades deaths were not in vain. You all helped lift a great curse on this land, and I’ll forgive you your secrets for now, if you can assure me that no harm will come to me and mine while you are here.”

Cassandra and Liam looked at each other, a simple look conveying hours of conversation. Liam sighed once more, feeling he’d be doing it a lot this day, and turned back to face Byrne.

“Our secrets, yes. On my honour, nothing we have with us is of any danger that we know of, and Leah,”

He indicated to the elf between the two of them,

“Is also safe. With luck, we will have time to have proper introductions before we leave, but first, we have bad news for you.”

Byrne leaned back in his chair, the old wood creaking, and raised his gaze to the ceiling.

“I’m really not going to like this am I.”

“I’m afraid not. When we left the region around the barrow, we ran into undead. And from what we found, there will be many of them soon.”

“And what exactly was it that you found?”

Still looking at the ceiling, Byrne’s voice was thick with scepticism, though whether he truly didn’t believe Liam, or was just praying for him to be wrong, Leah couldn’t tell. Perhaps she should get Liam to show her the Lie Detection skill some time soon, though she was unclear as to if that would help with such a deception.

“Most recently, two zombie wolves,”

“And, thats it? Thats nothing to be concerned over, they form naturally-”

“And a Root Ghoul.”

Byrne was cut off after cutting Liam off. The amount of cuttings of sentences in the air threatened to form actual injuries on the participants. The mention of the monster that had attacked Leah and Cassandra in the forest had gotten Byrne’s attention, and wiped away all of his hopes of Liam being wrong.

“Are you certain?”

Cassandra spoke up.

“As certain as we can be, short of actually being in its grips. Leah?”

All eyes turned to her, and for the first time, she was being expected to contribute. This sudden turn of events, from being mostly a tag along, to actually helping, caught her off guard, though she recovered quickly. She gave thanks once more to whatever god decided that she should be able to handle information faster.

“Uh, yes. I didn’t see it exactly, but I felt it with Mana Detection. And Liam confirmed what it was after I showed him a sketch.”

“Not a good sketch mind, but I trust thats what she saw. She’s got no reason to lie to us.”

Leah glared at Cassandra’s comments about her drawing skills, wondering internally if she could raise them up somehow in this world of skills and magic. That would show her. The rest of the group ignored her reaction, however, and continued to talk. Byrne looked at Leah and Cassandra, shrugged, and continued.

“Well, if you say so. So, when was the first contact?”

“Less than a day ago. We think we slowed them down by going down the rock face to the east, but…”

“That won’t stop them for long. We best get ready then.”

Leah piped up, not entirely sure she followed.

“I thought we were heading for the barony?”

Liam nodded, and looked to Byrne.

“That we are, Byrne. We gave you the warning out of kindness, but we can’t stay. We have a quest to turn in, and there is a time limit on it.”

Byrne caught the look in his eye, and grumbled, pulling the bottle back over to himself and topping his mug off. Taking a long drink, he looked Liam square in the eyes again.

“So, what do you want?”

“Want? Friend, of course we don’t want anything from you-”

“You are planning to stay and help, or you would have been on your way the moment you arrived. So what do you want in return for your aid?”

Liam raised his hands palms forward, and shook his head.

“Really, you take us for bandits. Of course, if you truly need our aid…”

And thus, negotiations began. Liam and Byrne began to argue back and forth, the bottle being passed along with their conversation. Leah and Cassandra left the room, feeling that their presence wasn’t exactly needed any longer. Leaving the house into the moderately fresh air, Cassandra looked to the sky, one hand on a sword at her waist. Leah spoke first.

“So, when were you going to tell me we are going to fight?”

“Tell you? I thought you would have worked that one out on your own.”

She glanced down at the smaller elf, the edges of her mouth turned down.

“Unless you were planning on fleeing and leaving this lot to their fate?”

Leah bristled at that comment, but she couldn’t deny the truth in it. She opened her mouth for a harsh response, but didn’t have time before Cassandra continued.

“I thought so. I honestly thought better of you, but if thats what you were thinking of, then-”

Leah couldn’t hold it in any longer. She barked back at Cassandra.

“Really? You are really going to hold some fear of fighting against someone who has no fighting skills, has never fought before, hell,”

She threw her hands up in the air, looking around at her surroundings, eyes wild.

“Until yesterday, had never even seen a dead person. I’m SO sorry if you think lesser of me because I might be just a little bit scared of going up against creatures that only existed for me in scary stories and fantasies until now, with no way of actually defending myself, trusting my safety to people I barely know. Clearly I should be rushing headlong into danger like I’ve been doing it my whole life! Besides, its not like I’m in a new body or anything, having already died once, nooooo, lets have a go at Leah because she doesn’t meet my lofty expectations!”

She held her stance, breathing heavily and staring at Cassandra, who was now looking at her in surprise. She hadn’t planned on going that far, but all the frustrations and stress since she’d died bubbled over at once, and she ended up taking it out on one of the people who was helping her get to grips with things. She lowered her arms sheepishly, and looked down.

“I’m… sorry, I didn’t mean to get so-”

“No, I’m sorry. I was taking things out on you, and you are right, you shouldn’t be expected to just be a natural at things right away. I gave you grief in the forest as well, and I shouldn’t have done that either. But, we do need to help these people. Not least because the whole point of this village,”

She waved her arm around her, hand no longer on her blade.

“Is to provide safety for travellers like us, and we just brought a danger upon them that they can’t hold off on their own. Its only fair that we pay it forward.”

She raised her hand to stop Leah’s response.

“Yes, I know, you can’t fight. But you also picked up skills before faster than I’ve seen anyone I’ve ever met. We have until evening, and unless Liam has other plans, I’m going to be putting you through your paces with any weapons we can get our hands on. We might be dragging you into a fight, but I for one won’t be letting you die pointlessly.”

Leah rolled her shoulders, and her hands went up to her ears, subconsciously rubbing them. She noticed that it felt good to do so when she was stressed - was this another one of those reflexes from her body? With the wind taken out of her sails, she gave a small smile in Cassandra’s direction.

“Well, thats some of my concerns alleviated then. Honestly, I thought that was going to be a whole big thing between us for a moment.”

“Really? We’re both adults, so we should act like it. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather you air your grievances than just let them fester. And clearly,”

She mirrored Leah’s smile.

“You needed to blow off some steam. I can’t say I understand everything you are going through, but I do understand blowing off steam. And swinging a sword is a tried and true method of doing so. So lets get going.”

Before the two could set off, a window opened from the house they left from, and Liam poked his head out.

“If the two of you are done with your lovers spat, can you fetch Ox for us? He’ll be at the practise ground, most likely.”

He ducked his head back in as a stone was whipped towards him. Leah was really curious as to where Cassandra kept getting those stones.

The two arrived at the eastern edge of the village, where up against the wall, a small clearing had been made. About 10 meters across, and containing only a pair of ragged archery targets and a straw bale with a sword inexpertly tied to it, the ‘training’ area was hardly anything to write home about. But it would have to do. While they were looking around, the door to a small hut pressed right against the wall opened, and a giant of a man emerged. Standing at least 7 foot tall, with a balding head and tattered beard, the man simply stared at the pair of elves, as if he had never seen anyone before, let alone two non humans. Leah and Cass looked at each other, then back at the man. Leah spoke first.

“Are you… Ox?”

The man nodded, just barely avoiding banging his head on the lintel of the door. He continued to stare at them. Getting to be slightly uncomfortable, Leah motioned behind her, and continued.

“Byrne wants to see you, Ox.”

The man nodded again, and stepped out of his hut, closing the door behind him with care, as if he was handling a delicate vase. He walked past them, stopped at the edge of the training ground before the houses and storage sheds started again, and looked back at the pair.

“Bye bye, pretty ladies.”

Then he was gone. The discomfort faded in Leah, and a light switched on as she realised what had happened.

“Well, he was nice.”

Cassandra folded her arms, and watched the corner the man had disappeared around. Her ears twitched back and forth.

“Nice would have been not staring at us like we were nymphs. You did see how he was looking at you, right?”

Leah stopped for a moment, running through exactly how she was going to explain this to Cass. It was a rather novel experience in this world, being the one who knew more about something, but it still didn’t make it an easy subject to broach.

“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but… I don’t think he knows any better. Some people are just born different, Cass, don’t hold it against him.”

The light of realisation spread to Cassandra, and she loosened her crossed arms and widened her eyes.

“Oh.”

“You haven’t met anyone like… him, before?”

“No, Elves are generally born hardier, for lack of a better term. And from what I understand of humans, people like him tend to die quick.”

“Evidently not all of them. We can ask Byrne about it later, but I think we came here for a reason…”

“That we did.”

The pair turned back to the training dummies, and Cassandra tutted her disapproval.

“Not good, not good at all… though for a beginner, it might suffice.”

She moved over to a covered barrel, pulling back the covering and inspecting the training arrows inside. Still shaking her head, she looked around for any signs of a training bow to go with them. Leah moved over to the targets, poking and prodding at the ragged holes in the straw, and the wall behind them.

“Aha!”

A crash behind Leah urged her to turn around. What had appeared to be a bundle of firewood and scraps turned out to be a rack containing two bows, one with a snapped string, and the other well worn but functional. The crash had been from the detritus that covered it being thrown to the floor by Cassandra.

“Make more noise why don’t you.”

“Relax. We aren’t doing anything we shouldn’t. I don’t think anyway.”

Leah sighed, and walked over to the bows that Cassandra had found, shaking her head.

“And you told me not to do anything roguelike.”

“Hush you. Now, you said you hadn’t shot before, right?”

“Right.”

“So, we’re starting from scratch then. Which is good, because it means I don’t need to beat any bad habits out of you.”

“Beat?”

“Metaphorically. Mostly.”

Cassandra picked up the one bow that was still strung, and looked along its length. Shrugging, she handed it over to Leah, and pointed to the barrel.

“Now, go grab a bundle of those. We’ll start with archery, and if you pick it up as quickly as I think you will, we can move on to swordsmanship.”

Leah did as she was bid, not exactly enthused with the idea of learning to fight but recognising the necessity. Plus, it was probably about the closest thing to fun she was going to have since she died. She died… She shook off the dark thoughts, and carried the bundle she had collected to where Cassandra was pointing now.

“So, first things first. If I EVER see you shooting without an arrow, I will drive one so far up your arse…”

“No no NO! Watch what I’m doing, for the gods sake.”

The training had gone on for an hour, with Cassandra getting increasingly frustrated with Leah’s progress. True to form, she had picked up the skill almost immediately, and with Cassandra’s ‘tutelage’ had managed to improve to level 3 quickly.

[Notification]

You have gained the skill, Archery

[Notification]

You levelled the skill, Archery. Its total level is now 3.

Experience gained from levelling a skill.

However, she had hit a stumbling block. No matter how much she watched what Cassandra was doing, and tried to repeat it, she wasn’t improving at all any more, and in fact had made some mistakes that she felt she shouldn’t be at her skill level. She almost dropped the bow and arrow with a yelp, when she felt Cassandra behind her.

“Like THIS.”

She pressed up against Leah, and took one arm in each hand, manhandling her into position. Then, she shifted Leah’s stance to something more like what she wanted. Leah’s muscles burned from the strain of the new position, but not nearly as much as her ears and cheeks burned. She was very, very acutely aware of how close the elf ranger was to her, and how much… touching was going on. She swallowed, and tried her best to focus on the archery.

“Now release.”

She did as she was told, without even thinking, the instructions seeming to skip past her otherwise occupied mind and straight into her muscles. The arrow flew straight and true, impacting the target square in the centre. And finally, she seemed to understand what she needed to do to level the skill. Among understanding other things about herself.

[Notification]

You levelled the skill, Archery. Its total level is now 4.

Experience gained from levelling a skill.

[Notification]

You have gained a level. The following bonuses have been applied:

+1 Dex

+1 Charisma

+1 Intelligence

+3 Free points

“Good. Thats much better. Do it again like that next time…”

Cassandra, her irritation at Leah’s lack of progress fading, also realised the position they were both in. They both froze for a moment, still pressed against one another, before they, in sync, stepped away, talking over each other.

“Well, that was…”

“Informative.”

“Yes, very informative. You did well, good progress.”

“Yes, thank you, progress was made.”

Leah took a moment to check her notifications, to get them out of the way and of course, to give herself a moment to breath.

“Oh, I levelled up from that.”

“Really? It makes sense, given how many skills you’ve been levelling in such a short time.”

“I did have a question about that actually. What are these Free points I’ve been gaining?”

“Oh, those. You get them as part of a level up, and you can allocate them to either attributes or skills. Basically a free level in either, without any of the training needed.”

“Hmm. So they are important then.”

“Very. I hope you haven’t spent any yet, everyone learns right away that its best to save them up until you know what to do with them. How many do you gain per level, by the way?”

“Three.”

“Thre- UN. FAIR.”

Cassandra, now back to irritation, threw her hands up in the air, and stomped away.

“Three points. Of COURSE you get three points as well as being able to learn anything in minutes, not days. You are just the worst, do you know that?”

On impulse, and without really thinking about it, she teased Cassandra.

“Oh, its ok. You can share with me if you like.”

She stopped her huffing and stomping, and went bright red for the first time, looking at Leah in surprise.

“I… no… damn you, don’t mess with me like that!”

“Wait, mess with you? You can do that?”

“Oh, damn, of course you didn’t know.”

She held her head in her hands.

“Yes, you can trade away free points to others, in the same way you share a status page. And its equally… intimate… for obvious reasons. You are giving away something that is incredibly difficult to get.”

“Huh… Well, the offer does stand, if you need any. I’ve not got much use for them right now, and if it helps you help me…”

“No. You’ll need them to catch up to us, and if your secret ever gets out…”

“Yeah, ok. But I am getting a lot, so if you ever…”

“Don’t tempt me. Really, don’t.”

Leah shrugged, deciding the time for teasing was over. Especially after the… moment they had shared earlier.

“So why didn’t you have me use them for training before?”

“Like I said, they are hard to get, and I assumed you didn’t have another unfair advantage over everyone else. Anyway, it would have been pointless. For some reason, you don’t get on well with archery, despite how fast you’ve grown, so we’ll save that for another time. Let’s move on to swords now. Now where do they keep the training swords…”

The two of them went through forms and techniques for another few hours, first with the training swords, and then, once Cassandra thought she had reached an appropriate skill level, one each of Cassandra’s blades. Then they moved on to fighting with a sword and shield, which Leah struggled with initially. A new notification made that slightly easier, however.

[Notification]

You levelled the stat, Strength. Its total level is now 9.

Cassandra’s blade came up short, and she looked at Leah, puzzled.

“Why did you stop?”

“I just improved a stat. My strength.”

“Ah, that would make sense. It was 8 before, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’ll be low enough that raising it wouldn’t be too much effort. With all the effort you’ve been putting in, and those cheats of yours, I’m not surprised you gained a level in it this quickly. Though I wouldn’t count on it in the future. Once you get it up to 10, it gets exponentially harder to improve.”

“Maybe I should be saving up my free points for stats, then. At least the ones I don’t use often.”

Cassandra shrugged.

“Its a common philosophy, especially among adventurers. And considering you don’t have to worry about your intelligence or wisdom, at least…”

She sighed.

“Honestly, coming up with a build for you is going to be interesting. You’ll have to throw out a lot of common knowledge, simply because you make it irrelevant. You could half arse things, and still end up stronger than most people.”

Leah smirked with smug pride, which earned her a rap on the head with Cassandra’s sword.

“Don’t think that means I’m going to let you slip behind on training though. The day you can beat me in a fight, is the day you can take it easy.”

“Yes boss.”

The two continued trading blows, the shield much less of a burden on Leah now, with her improved skills and stat.

[Notification]

You have gained the skill, Swords (Longswords)

[Notification]

You levelled the skill, Swords (Longswords). Its total level is now 7.

Experience gained from levelling a skill.

[Notification]

You have gained the skill, Shields

[Notification]

You levelled the skill, Shields. Its total level is now 3.

Experience gained from levelling a skill.

As they fought, they continued their conversation, Cassandra hoping that making her multitask would make her either slip up, or improve faster. Leah simply turned following the conversation over to her submind, with Multitasking.

“Mind you, I don’t think you’ll need to learn as much physical combat.”

“Really? Why?”

“With your mana capacity, and your clear talent for it, maybe you should be focused on going to mage path.”

“Why haven’t we been training that then?”

Cassandra stepped forward and smacked her shield into Leah’s unguarded head.

“Idiot. Because neither of us know any spells. You learnt Mana Detection on your own, remember?”

Stepping back and rubbing her likely to become bruised head, Leah responded.

“Ow. So I should be trying to make up spells on my own, then? What even is the difference between skills and spells?”

“Yeah, don’t do that. Mana isn’t a toy, and you are just as likely to make yourself explode than you are to spontaneously develop a spell.”

Seeing that the fighting was taking a break for the moment, Cassandra also stepped back, and lowered her weapon.

“I don’t know all of it, because I was never taught, but I think that you can use skills, like manipulation skills, to make magical effects happen. However, it takes a lot of mana to do that, and its incredibly inefficient. Our mage… our mage hated doing it.”

She stopped for a moment to sigh.

“Anyway. You don’t get as much bang for your buck, but you do have flexibility if you use manipulation skills. Spells, on the other hand, are skills in their own right, that the system recognises. No one knows how new ones are developed, only that they are efficient, and can be learnt independently of any other skills. Apparently, a lot of skills that use mana are basically spells anyway, just really focused ones. Thats about the extent of my knowledge, and that was only what Thomas talked about. And he would NOT shut up.”

Leah realised that she was talking about one of their fallen comrades. One of the ones in the handcart outside the tavern. She looked in that direction, and Cassandra caught her gaze.

“Don’t worry. I’ve had comrades die before. It sucks, and when I get a chance to grieve, it’ll suck worse, but I’m not going to fall apart over this. Lets get back to training.”

The two returned to clashing swords.