"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

Bruce Lee

****

"You know, when I said we should spend the day together, this isn't what I had in mind," Nero said to the group.

"What did you think we were going to do?" Octavia asked, not getting up from her position to do so. She was laying her head on Claudia's lap who, in turn, was staring out the window of the carriage at the passing countryside.

"I don't know, maybe a bit of exploring around the city, a picnic or possibly you guys could give me a tour of what you do when I'm not around."

"Technically, we are going on a picnic." Medea pointed out, looking at him from over her book. Her back was against the wall of the carriage and her feet sprawled over the seat.

"A picnic where I'll be expected to fight for my life." Nero deadpanned in response. "That is not my idea of a day off."

"Don't be dramatic, you'll be fine. The highest level should be ten and, with your extra stat points from training, you should be around that level. Besides, worse comes to worse we step in and help you." Medea waived off his concern and returned to her book. Nero had no idea what it was about, the title was written in some indecipherable script.

"I've been there before, it's beautiful, and the water should be warm enough to swim in once you clear the monsters. It's going to be great training for you and once you're done," Octavia tapped something on the piece of wood in her hand, suddenly a table covered in food rose in the center of the carriage, "we can have lunch."

"I have no idea how you did that," Nero said, eyeing in the newly appeared food with trepidation. "The bottom of the carriage shouldn't be large enough to hold all this. And why did you prepare a roast chicken, how is it even still hot, we've been on the road for a few hours now?"

"Not a chicken, a clicken," Octavia shrugged and returned the table and the food to wherever it was before. "A bird native to Gods' Nature that is similar to, but not exactly, a chicken. As for how I did it? Well, this is my personal carriage, with how big this game is I wanted to be able to travel in comfort. I started on this baby when I was only level fifty, and it has gone through some significant improvements since then. I intend to keep making it better. It is still not bigger on the inside than the outside, and it can't fly yet, but I'll get there someday. If I work hard enough, once it is able to travel through time I'll paint it blue and white."

"So you built it all yourself?" Nero decided to ignore the last part of her statement as a joke. "Medea had told me that your Nature is 'Creator,' I thought it was something like blacksmithing. This is impressive."

"You weren't wrong, my Nature gives me experience whenever I 'create' something. The more involved I am during the creation then more experience I get. Because of that, I am pretty skilled in most forms of production, blacksmithing included. I can make things from as simple as a sword to as complicated this carriage."

"Isn't that kind of unfair though? If you get experience from creating items as well as fighting, doesn't that mean you level up faster than others?"

"Yes and no, it's more complicated than that. It is true that production Natures like mine have an advantage early on, they were the first ones to reach a level a hundred after all, but to keep that rate up for a long time is something that very few can do. But the amount of experience a player receives decreases for each subsequent recreation. If the production-based players do not keep getting better at their crafts, they will fall behind. Mine in particular, 'Creator,' emphasizes new creations. That means if I want to get any significant experience I need to continuously invent items that I have never created before. If I didn't regularly hunt with Claudia, I would actually be pretty low level."

"If I learned a production skill like blacksmithing or woodworking would I also get experience from it?" Nero asked, curious if it would be worth the try.

"Sure," Octavia shrugged in response. "Though, like how I get less experience from hunting, you would get less experience from making things. Actually, now that I think about it, you probably get a reduced about of experience like I do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your nature 'The Beast,' doesn't provide you with any stat boosts or fighting techniques right? At least not yet?" Nero nodded in response. "I thought as much based on the fact you have assimilation and beast tongue. Both of those can be classed as supplementary skills. While not everything is known about the Nature system, players have classified natures into three broad categories. Those like warrior, hunter, assassin, and such get bonuses to combat, and fighting are generally called combat natures. Those like me, blacksmiths, tailors, engineers, and the like are production-based classes. We get bonuses applied to our creations as well as more experience for the effort. Our Natural skills generally allow us to create better items. The final category sometimes called 'lore based' Natures. It's a catch-all category for everything that isn't part of the first two. You'll see the most variety of skills here, but they are generally supplementary ones, they provide indirect benefits, and it is up to the player to put them to use."

"I see, so I have a 'lore based' Nature?"

"Probably, sometimes Natures change after their second advancement. Besides, these are only broad categories that are helpful for general guidelines. Because the Nature system is so fluid and adapts to player growth, every single one might be completely unique. You would have somebody with a warrior Nature, whose description talks about item production and the skills it provides might be supplementary. You just never know."

"So, what is your description then?" Nero asked, curious.

"You can probably guess the gist based on the name. Some name their Nature to be deliberately confusing, but I wasn't one of them. Fair warning though, unless you are really close to somebody do not ask about the description of their Nature. That's essentially asking about the strengths and weaknesses of their characters. In gaming, where there is a lot of competition, that is a major faux pas."

"Fair enough." Nero looked to his other sibling, the one who had barely said a word all day. "What about you Claudia? What's your Nature? Medea said it was something like a mage?"

"Something like that," she smiled demurely as she turned to look at him. "I have a combat Nature, though most of my experience comes from using summoned creatures."

"Summoner? What do you summon?" Nero pressed, noting her straight posture, the way her hands were folded in her lap and her lack of excitement. This was a completely different woman than the one who had tackled him the other night.

"I like cute summons." She answered. That told Nero absolutely nothing. This was a girl who once watched a nature documentary and called full grown hippopotamuses cute. Once, for her birthday, she had asked for either a kitten or a poisonous spider.

"What about you Medea?" Octavia said when Nero was going to ask for more elaboration. "You never told us your Nature."

"I told Nero." The sage said, but when noticing the reclining twin's stink eye, she closed her book and elaborated. "I'm a sage, it a 'lore based' nature as well. I get bonuses for raising the knowledge stat and learning spells, but I do not receive any direct assistance from my Nature when it comes to combat."

"So that's why you knew all those enchantments!" Octavia said in realization. At her brother's confused look, she continued. "What do you think the knowledge stat does?"

"No idea," Nero shrugged.

"What is your knowledge stat at right now?"

"Thirty-three, last time I checked." He got some appraising looks for his answer.

"That is pretty high you know, for somebody who has only played Gods' Nature for a few months. If you didn't know what it does, why did you raise it so high." Claudia couldn't help but ask.

"It increased while I was reading. I like reading." He said simply. Octavia's hand met her forehead with a loud smack as Claudia covered her smile with a hand. Medea let out a peal of laughter as well, startling Jorry who had been laying on her lap.

"I should have known," Octavia murmured to herself. "Anyway, the knowledge stat is useless for the most part until it reaches fifty. Once it does, it becomes handy to those who know how to apply it correctly. What it does is present you with all the knowledge you have accumulated in the game. As you said, it increases when you read, but more specifically, when you learn. The more you learn, the more beneficial it can be. Once you have over fifty points in the stat, little popup screens start to appear in your vision.

These are unobtrusive, so they don't block your vision, and they only present you with the information you already know. If you've read about a monster and then meet that creature in the wild little messages will remind you about things like its mating habits, color variations or daily habits. These can range from very useful to completely irrelevant. The higher the knowledge stat, the more popups will appear and the higher the chance of something helpful appearing, like weaknesses."

"But if it only shows you what you already know, then doesn't it become a bit irrelevant if you actually memorize what you learn?" Nero asked.

"Not really," Medea answered him. "Nobody can remember every word of the hundreds of books it takes to raise the knowledge stat to a hundred, let alone multiple hundreds. A single word can change the meaning of an entire thesis, so every little bit helps."

"Not only that," Octavia continued. "Learning is not limited to book knowledge. We are learning every minute we are alive. If you have a high enough stat, these little messages provide you with a wealth of information. I have knowledge at over three hundred, one of the highest in the game due to its use in conjunction with my Nature. It tells me the names of people I have only heard about in passing, the value of the clothes their wearing, what their level likely is and, if I spend enough time around them, what their nature probably is. All this is based on information I already have but do not make the connection. I've heard that if somebody has a knowledge stat high enough, even if they are stupid, they can lead a small army to crush an opponent three times their number."

"It's not perfect of course," Medea took over once more. Nero's head was going to get sore from swiveling between speakers. "It is up to the person to apply that information in real life scenarios, and there is no guarantee that what you learn is true. Just like not all books are factual, not all the popups are entirely accurate. But the more you apply the knowledge to real-life situations, the greater you refine it, the more use you can get out of it."

"Alright, I think I understand," Nero said. "So, when you were talking about enchantments, you mean that because Medea has a high knowledge stat, she should get more popups than you when trying to think up enchantments?"

"Precisely," Octavia nodded, since she was still lying down though, it didn't really appear noticeable. "As I said, I have one of the highest knowledge stats known to players, and I specialize in creating items. Enchantment plays a significant role in that. The only way for her to be able to think of so many different options at the drop of a hat like that is if; A, she specialized in enchanting objects even more than I do, which I highly doubt. Or, B, she had a much higher knowledge stat than I do and got more popups to remind her than I did. The fact that she knows so many different spells that even I haven't heard of mean that her stat must be at least a few hundred points more than me. I'm right, right?"

At Medea's nod of acknowledgment, Octavia pumped a fist in victory.

"So how is it going? Creating a device that will allow you talk to animals, I mean."

"Not too good," Octavia deflated. "With Medea's help I have the right enchantments at hand, and finding the ones I want that can interact adequately and then forming the appropriate runes is always the longest part of making a powerful artifact. The problem is the material, we are talking about an item that will allow the wearer to understand every language that animals and monsters speak, even if we do not know the words or even if it exists in the first place. Unless we want it to be the size of a house, I'm going to need to experiment with the structure for right rune placement and use some of my most valuable material. If I can get it to work, it will be too expensive for most people to afford. It will be enormously useful, so much so that I'm not going to be selling any copies, but expensive to create."

"If you need any help you can just tell me, I can't do much but-" Nero stopped talking when the carriage ground to a halt. Quite frankly, he had forgotten that they were even moving in the first place the ride had been that smooth.

"Looks like we're here," Octavia said, getting up. "Claudia, can you grab the picnic basket. Medea can you make us some swimsuits. They don't have to be anything fancy but something that will last the afternoon." The sage nodded in acceptance. "And you," she rounded on Nero. "You need to disable your privacy setting for the day."

"Why?" He asked, confused.

"Everybody knows that when you do eccentric training regimes, you have to record it, edit it, play a song over it, and make a badass training montage." Sometimes Nero wondered if his sisters were insane, but if the way both Claudia and Medea were nodding gravely in agreement, Nero asked himself if he was the odd one in the group.