The path to the pass was almost entirely uphill. Maria, Bill, and Rina held on for a few hours, but Frank was forced to lower the pace eventually. The relaxed rate of travel, along with the earlier detour, left Frank feeling like Seattle might not be in reach today. That was a little niggling worry for him. He had a lot he wanted to do, and it’d be more difficult the longer he took to get there. The further things were from last Sunday, the more time people had to organize. The last thing he wanted to do was arrive there and have to deal with the arbitrary demands of some recently made government. It might be too late for that, though. He just didn’t know. There was little to be done about it. Mid-afternoon had come, as had signs indicating they were only a short way from Snoqualmie Pass, and Snoqualmie ski resort. He pushed on, his companions struggling, for another half hour, until they crested the top of one more rise, and saw, in an inexplicable and formidable display, a wall of swirling white. It stopped abruptly, making a clean line across the road and into the forest, just like they’d been told. Frank brought the travelling party to a stop. Bill immediately dismounted and threw himself onto his back, breathing heavily. Rina and Maria were both shaky legged as they lowered themselves down to sit on the road. Frank sat too. He still had energy, but no sense wasting an opportunity to rest. “We will have to move through. For now, rest. Eat.” He told the others. No one moved for quite some time. Eventually, Frank got himself some food from his pack, and the sight of him eating spurred the others, pushing their hunger to the fore, past their exhaustion. They rapidly shoved it down. Frank thought it likely none of the others had ever exerted themselves this much before, even relative to their improved stats. Rina finished what she’d pulled out in minutes, and looked at the empty packaging, concerned. Maria and Bill didn’t hesitate to go for seconds. Maria gave Rina a comment as she stared at her wrappers. “Still hungry? That’s pretty normal. I’m always absolutely ravenous after a day hike. This was like that on amphetamines.” Rina nodded in response, and Maria focused on her second helping of food. Rina eventually pulled out a little more food but ate noticeably less than the others. Frank got everyone’s attention with a clap. “We’ll sit another ten minutes, then approach the snowstorm. I suspect this is a field dungeon, which means we can clear it to make the storm go away, or we can just walk straight through.” “The goblins were just a bunch of tents, but this looks like even just the weather is dangerous. Are they really the same thing?” Rina asked. Frank shrugged. “Yea, unless this is something like an individual creature made by the dungeon. Mountains are more dangerous than lowlands.” “Oh,” Rina said. Frank turned his attention towards a system message he’d ignored for a while. He’d levelled up. Frank HP 166/166 Level 12 Human (28900/23040EXP) MP 0 Saviour(5/5) SP 53/132 Strength 11 Knowledge 11 Agility 13(12) Intelligence 10 Constitution 13(19) Stability 10 Vitality 11(10) Wisdom 7(6) A prompt to select a new deed appeared. Available deeds: Fighter: +3 to VIT, CON, STR, or AGI per level Mage: +3 to KNO, INT, STA, or WIS per level Wanderer: +1 to any two stats per level Unlocked by achievement: Assassin: +1 to INT, STR, AGI, and STA per level Survivor: + 1 to any two stats per level, -10% EXP to level Saviour: +1 to any four stats per level Neophyte: +2 to any two stats, +1 to one stat. -1 to one stat. Explorer: +2 to any one stat, +1 to any other stat per level Scavenger: +1 to VIT, CON, INT, -1 to STA Novice Swordsman: +1 to STR, AGI, WIS Frank chose Neophyte without hesitation. He placed two points in knowledge, two points in strength, and one point in constitution. He subtracted a point from intelligence. Frank HP 182/182 Level 13 Human (5855/46080EXP) MP 0 Neophyte(1/5) SP 64/143 Strength 13 Knowledge 13 Agility 13(12) Intelligence 9 Constitution 14(10) Stability 10 Vitality 11(10) Wisdom 7(6) Then he addressed the other three. “I should have done this a while ago, but what are your stats? It’ll let me better judge what we can and can’t do.” Bill happily shared his own. Bill Green HP 81/81 Level 9 Human(800/5120EXP) MP 0 Mage(2/5) SP 60/189 Strength 10(8) Knowledge 12 Agility 9 Intelligence 7 Constitution 9 Stability 3 Vitality 21 Wisdom 10(8) Frank noted with a great deal of surprise that Bill must’ve had truly excellent starting stats. He’d obviously improved his vitality five times, and probably his knowledge twice. The rest was largely innate. Outside the low stability, Bill was an elite, as far as starting points went. He must’ve been telling the truth when he talked about his combat training. Maria gave her status to Frank as well. Maria Reyes HP 130/130 Level 10 Human (1135/10240EXP) MP 0 Mage(3/5) SP 15/90 Strength 9 Knowledge 9 Agility 10 Intelligence 7 Constitution 13 Stability 8 Vitality 9 Wisdom 11 Another person who was above average. Frank noted both of them had higher starting stats than him by a fair margin. Finally, Rina supplied hers. Rina Harton HP 117/117 Level 9 Human (545/5120EXP) MP 0 Mage(2/5) SP 15/90 Strength 6 Knowledge 9 Agility 7 Intelligence 6 Constitution 13 Stability 8 Vitality 11 Wisdom 8 Rina was more in line with what he’d been expecting. None of them were immediately close to levelling up, so he chose to leave giving them advice for later. For now, focus on rest and recovery. Unfortunately, both Maria and Rina would need more than half an hour. That basically closed off any hope of reaching Seattle today. Frank let the others stretch out and relax, but his attention was placed on the snowstorm in front of him. He’d stopped up several hundred meters short, it still loomed overhead. Whether or not it was a field dungeon would determine his next course of action. Fortunately, it visibly had edges off to either side. Unless there was something exceptionally odd going on, Frank felt that it would be reasonably bounded in size on the side he could not see. He’d check that in a while. First though, to make use of the time, he decided to teach Bill some swordplay. Bill might’ve flopped down onto his back, but he had energy to spare. Even if Frank ran him into the ground he’d be fine before the other two due to his vitality stat. Frank stretched himself out, then got to his feet. He turned to Bill. “Want to learn the sword?” Frank asked him. Bill suddenly looked far more animated. He stood immediately. “Fucking finally. I was wondering when you would offer. I get that we’ve been travelling and shit but it’s kinda unsettling to know you don’t have the skills to really protect yourself.” Frank looked at Rina and Maria. “You two need to rest, but pay attention to what I show Bill.” He grabbed his sword from where it was strapped to his pack. Bill did the same with his. Frank demonstrated the basic stance, and how to properly hold and swing it. It didn’t take long. Bill was a quick learner. The most time-consuming part was getting him to stay in the correct stance. The man’s martial arts training betrayed him, as he naturally wanted to be in a pose more suitable for unarmed combat. Frank led him through it several times until he was satisfied that Bill understood what he was supposed to be doing. Which was just a simple diagonal swing aimed at the shoulder of an imaginary opponent. Frank hadn’t the luxury of practicing swings after being shown the form. He’d built his techniques up ad-hoc, learning from others erratically in exchanges of accumulated wisdom. That’d been why he went with the mace originally. It took less precision because he didn’t have to worry about the angle of the blade. He always felt slightly delayed, like he couldn’t quite go as fast as he pictured it when using edged weapons. Bill would have the advantage of learning correctly from the start. Or at least correctly enough to survive. He only knew that his techniques were effective, not that they were the most effective. Melee weapons skills had to be redeveloped from the ground up. Frank considered that fact. He had never considered himself great, but he was probably the only person around who truly knew what they were doing. He’d have to write down his style. That wasn’t something he could do right now, but once he got to Seattle, it’d go on the list of things he should share. The amount of writing needed would be quite large, not something that could be casually copied and handed out. He’d also need to teach people enough so that they could do it properly. Just reading wouldn’t be enough for most. Bill practiced away, and once Frank was confident his form wouldn’t slip, he left him to his devices and sat back down. It didn’t take long before Maria had a question. “Is there a reason we didn’t take any bows with us? Weren’t they the premier ranged weapon before guns?” she asked. “They become harder and harder to use over time. Once you get past a certain point, no normal bow can leverage your strength effectively. So you stop getting stronger. Plus you need someone to make the bow and the arrows; you are always struggling for ammo. Eventually, you are just waiting for an equipment drop that is suitable for you. Too unreliable. Easier to just throw rocks. Get stronger? Throw it faster, or throw a bigger rock. All that doesn’t even touch on the fact archery is actually really, really, difficult.” Frank explained. “That makes sense, I guess,” Maria said. “You thought you were going to be Katniss?” Bill asked jokingly. “She never actually used her archery skills for anything, come to think of it.” Maria didn’t bother to react, instead of continuing to question Frank. “What’s the plan for that?” She gestured at the wall of white in the distance. “In a bit, see if we get a system message when we get closer. Other than that, there’s not much to do besides put on winter clothing and check it out. I have no intention of going all the way South and around. That’d take at least three days, assuming the way is clear.” Frank replied. Maria nodded. “I hadn’t thought you would take that kind of risk,” she said. “You were so cautious in that ‘dungeon.’” “Dungeons are different. Don’t like what you see, just try again.” Frank responded. Things lapsed back into silence. Somehow Frank felt it was less awkward than usual. He sat and rested for another twenty minutes, his mind going over the way he fought, trying to put what he did into words in his head. It was not easy. Not at all. Muscle memory and intuited webs of potential options didn’t reduce down to sentences without losing some meaning. His mind balked at the task after a short while, so he decided to go look at the storm. He motioned to the other three, pointing his whole hand towards the storm. It took a moment for them to react, but Rina stood up with a groan and started moving. This prompted Bill and Maria to realize he’d used one of the hand signals. “Going to move in and see what that is. Keep your weapons ready.” Frank told them. He hefted his scimitar but left his pack and bike behind. He wanted to be able to move quickly. The walk took several minutes because Frank had stopped well short, in order to have time to react if anything came out of the storm. The others followed his lead. There was no sound of a storm, no wind, no cold air, as they got closer. When they got within fifty feet, Frank stopped the three behind him. “I’m going to examine it, be ready to move quickly, and stay where you are.” He told them. There was no system message as he arrived in front of it, carefully on guard. Only a few feet away, he could see a little ways in. There was a layer of snow, calf-high, and the swirl of white seemed as much already deposited snow strewn about by the wind as it did newly fallen flakes. Frank carefully looked at it for over a minute, before taking two steps to halfway enter it. With half his torso inside, the system finally graced him with a message. Yeti Infested Chateau Level 3 Dungeon Depth 10 Unclaimed Watered There was no experience rewarded for discovering it, so someone must’ve found it already. Frank stepped back out of the swirling snowstorm, then walked back to his posse. “It’s a dungeon. Like the one, we went in before.” Frank told them. “The weather is related, how exactly, I’m not sure.” “So what do we do then?” Maria asked. “Clear it, probably. It’s a lower level, has fewer floors, and probably isn’t as weirdly overstrong as the ruined temple was.” Frank told them. They walked back to their bikes and trailers, rearranging supplies and appropriate gear from their trailers. Then, they headed into the snowstorm. Frank led, with Rina behind him, Bill, then Maria in the rear. Visibility was low enough that Frank had a rope secured to each person so that they could stay together. They slowly trudged through, dragging their vehicles behind them. It was a slog to make any progress, especially with Rina struggling. Her low strength stat was a hindrance, but fortunately, Frank had enough to spare and pulled her along. Getting even a kilometre took quite a while, but eventually, the outline of a building faintly came into view through the snow. Frank headed for it, finding a spot where the snow was lower that he felt was probably the road into the building’s parking lot. He couldn’t see through the thick snow cover to know for sure though. Steady progress approaching the building abruptly cut short when a new message appeared. Enter Yeti Infested Chateau? Frank brought the rest of the group forward so they got the prompt. Then he yelled over the sound of the wind. “Enter it!” he shouted. The others popped out of existence, and Frank followed them in. Frank appeared in the starting room. Unlike the smooth gray walls of the previous one, this entire place was a rich brown, made of panelled wood. A cursory glance at the nearest wall revealed the wood lacked the complex grain and pattern that real wood possessed. Other than the change in material, the room was as featureless as the last, and the same size. The only thing that caught Frank’s attention, was a torn, bloody shirt tossed into a corner. Frank immediately pointed at it, getting Rina, Bill, and Maria’s attention. “There’s someone else here.” All three of them glanced at the bloody shirt. Rina immediately gasped. “Oh no, they’re hurt.” Frank walked to it and examined it more closely. The blood on it was long dried. “It’s old enough to have dried out. Whoever it is is probably okay, for the moment. Otherwise, they’d either be here by the shirt, or the dungeon would have reset.” “We should try and find them. What if they have no idea what’s going on?” Rina said. “We’ll keep our eyes open. But if they’ve wandered into the diversions, there’s not much we can do.” Frank responded. “Whoever it is, be careful if we find them. They’ve probably been here for a long time.” “What do you mean?” asked Rina. “Would you be alright if you were trapped in here alone for years? It could be multiple people, but either way, be careful.” Frank answered. Rina shuddered in response. “That’s horrible. If we can find them we have to.” Maria looked at the t-shirt with a frown. “What’s next then?” “We clear the dungeon or stop when we have only a few days supplies left and leave. I’ll search this level of the dungeon for whoever left that shirt, but ultimately, we won’t linger long. We probably have a week to finish the whole dungeon, before our supplies dwindle. As long as we clear it, anyone inside will be ejected. For now, though, take a nap or something. No need to move while tired.” Frank informed her. “Bill, keep practicing your sword. We will figure out how much you need to rest vs practice to regain your stamina points.” Frank turned and directed him. Frank looked at his watch. He’d have to find a proper mechanical one for the other three later. He undid it and handed it to Bill. “Use this to time it. I want to know how long it takes your stamina to go up by one, and how much stamina you lose in five minutes of practice.” Frank took off his winter outwear, then bundled and secured it to his pack. Their trailers would still be outside, but the time dilation would mean nothing would happen to them unless they got stuck here. It was cool inside this dungeon, but not freezing, and his high constitution protected him from the elements to a degree. Not enough to walk through a snowstorm without protection, yet, but enough that he could walk around outside in cold weather without issue. He sat down and pulled out a paper and pencil from his pack. Frank slowly worked his way through a thorough explanation of what he knew about the system. He’d been thinking about it, and that Sean guy was right. The better choice though was to try and hit both the skeptical and the believing separately. He’d use the downtime here to write for the believing. Then he’d distribute both. Frank thought he’d been a little too insular in his view on how people would react. His companions before were on the skeptical side, and he had messed up in Redstone and made people suspicious. That had biased his thinking. He still had time to correct it, thankfully. Lots of time, given the current location. He started listing his knowledge as individual phrases. He’d gotten about twenty of them down when Bill had the numbers Frank wanted. “Five minutes to restore a point, twenty to lose one,” Bill said, trying to pass Frank his watch back. “Do fifteen and fifteen then, that way you still recover some,” Frank told him after a moment’s thought. He rejected the watch. “Use it to keep track for now.” Frank went back to his writing. Maria sat resting, while Rina managed to fall asleep. Hours passed, and Frank’s pace slowed down as the things he was trying to recall and record gradually became less clear. Either they were intuitive and needed to be turned into words, or they were things he’d only remember if something else prompted him. Eventually, he stopped several pages of facts written down. He looked at Maria. “How much stamina do you have now?” he asked. Maria shook a little, surprised by the sudden words. Her eyes focused in front of her for a moment. “About half.” “Then it’s probably time to start exploring. Wake up Rina, and then get your things together.” Frank told her. Bill, who had been taking a break, got his stuff together. Maria roused Rina, and in a few minutes, the group was ready to sally forth. At first, things proceeded much like the other dungeon. A long corridor, the only difference the material, stretched out before them. It was only when the first enemy appeared, that it became apparent things might be different. Yeti Youngling(Level 1) A short but broadly built looking thing stood in front of them. Long and matted white fur, covered in dirt and grime, obscured its figure, but Frank thought it looked ape-like. The creature screamed a guttural cry and charged straight at Frank. It wasn’t that fast, it’s short legs limiting it. As it approached, Frank crouched low and held his sword ready. The fight was anticlimactic. The creature got close and leapt towards him, only to be cleanly bisected by the curved blade of his scimitar. Frank stepped sideways as it happened, avoiding the shower of gore. Yeti Youngling(Level 1) defeated. Frank awarded 50 EXP. The visceral consequences of what had happened were not something the others were prepared for. The last dungeon had no fleshy enemies, and the skinwalkers had an unnatural look to them after death. The yeti just looked like a killed animal. Rina and Bill turned green and looked away. Maria grimaced. Frank assumed she had gone hunting before, making her better able to handle it. He let them recover for several minutes. The blue motes of the slain enemy disappearing obscured the scene, and he urged them to step past. A few minutes later, the next one appeared, and it died just as easily. Frank made a decision. “This dungeon is much more normal. You three should be able to handle at least the first few floors. Bill or Maria take the lead. If an enemy appears, Rina will try and disable it with a thrown stone. Then you finish it off.” They nodded. Bill looked both excited and uneasy, while Maria’s face had a grim look. Rina looked mostly ill. Frank moved to the back of the party, watching carefully ahead. The next enemy, Frank waited, ready to intervene. It screamed and charged Maria. Rina got one throw in, but it missed, and the beast was upon her. She stayed calm, keeping her makeshift spear in front of her. The yeti pounced, and while Maria stayed composed, she was late to adjust the position of her weapon and ended up hastily bludgeoning the thing off to her side. It landed with a thud and scrambled back to its feet, only to be swiftly dispatched by a swing of Bill’s sword. Maria shook her head, disappointed. Bill’s excitement at combat dissipated into a nauseated look at the corpse. Rina had turned away the moment Bill’s blade bit in. Frank made his pronouncement. “None of you panicked. Good enough.” He motioned them to continue. It took five more encounters to reach the midpoint, and this floor’s water source. Frank only had to step in once. A small room, with a booth table off to one side, the seats black pleather, was dominated by a massive icicle that had broken through the ceiling. It dripped steadily into a puddle on the floor, pooled in one sunken corner. After each person had drunk their fill and replenished their waterskins, they all sat down. The booth was big enough for four, but Rina had it to herself. She sat there, head resting on the cheap laminate of the table. Her left leg shook nervously. Frank let her be. She’d held it together while there was danger; now, in an area that coded as safe, she looked to be struggling. He remembered the feeling. The tension disappeared, and the adrenaline faded. Suddenly you had to come to terms with what had happened. There was no immediate distraction allowing you to focus on something else, no lizard brain intent on immediate concerns of danger and survival. He wasn’t the kind of person to be able to help someone else with that. Maybe David, or Jane, or Garrett could have, but not himself. Maria and Bill sat against the wall awkwardly, aware of Rina’s distress but not close enough to her to offer comfort. No one spoke. Frank ate a little, then took out his document, and tried to focus on it. The uneasy atmosphere impeded him, and progress was fleeting. Eventually, he gave up and called everyone to keep moving. The formation returned to the same one as before, and they fell back into the same pattern. Rina, for all her problems, was consistently disabling the majority of the yeti’s that appeared with thrown stones. Even the occasional level two, larger and faster, was no match for the group of three. Frank was able to just watch carefully, without intervening. Their coordination got better, and they fell into a rhythm. Rina would lead with a thrown stone, and Maria would take the point with her spear. Bill would mop up anything that didn’t fall to Maria. The yetis were really quite dumb, thankfully, and never tried anything but madly rushing at whoever was leading. The surroundings gradually got more and more detailed, windows appeared, their outsides covered in solid snow. The floors and walls gradually became more realistic. Scattered pieces of rustic furniture randomly dotted their surroundings as they walked down hallways and through rooms. Every once in a while, ice or snow would break through parts of the wall or ceiling. Rugs began to appear on the floor, fireplaces crackled merrily. Everything remained disordered and haphazard though. The end came abruptly. It wasn’t a separate room, just part of an open area. Light simply failed to travel more than a couple of feet further. Dimly illuminated on the edge was an iron arch. “That’s the end of the floor. I’ll deal with the boss.” Frank told them. He bade them wait there and unslung his pack. His shield and sword in hand, he stepped through the metal entry. Immediately his surroundings disorientingly changed. He found himself in a snowy cave. The ground was smooth and slippery, a layer of ice covering the rock. Thirty feet away from him, a massive white creature slowly stood up. Easily nine feet tall, it glared at him with red eyes, the only thing visible through its thick fur. Yeti Silverback(Level 3) It roared a deep bass, and charged him. The ground shook with each of its heavy footfalls. Frank took a light stance, ready to dodge sideways rather than try and meet it head-on. Likely, he was stronger than it, but it had enough mass to overwhelm him with inertia, especially on slick ground. He slashed out as he sidestepped and slid out of its path. Blood sprayed onto the ice, steaming. The creature was wounded. The rest of the fight proceeded the same. It wasn’t intelligent enough to do anything but charge him, and Frank just filled it with cuts. It’s tough fur and thick skin were no match for his sword. Eventually, it flagged from blood loss. A minute later, it collapsed, and Frank immediately finished it off. Yeti Silverback(Level 3) defeated. Frank awarded 340EXP. Frank awarded an orb of identification. A glass orb lay on the ground. Frank picked it up and walked back through the gate. He saw Rina and Bill sigh in relief at the sight of him returning unharmed. “I’m going to look for the person who’s still here,” Frank told them. There was no reason to waste time. “You should all try and practice, taking turns, while I’m gone. It’ll only be a couple of hours to run through the area immediately around the true path.” Bill nodded and then asked a question. “What did the boss give you?” His eyes looked at what was in Frank’s shield hand. “Orb of identification,” Frank replied. “What does it do?” “Fully gives you information on one thing.” “Thing? So like anything?” Bill queried. “It has to be tangible, something you can see or otherwise perceive. But otherwise, yes.” Frank explained. Bill thought for a moment. “So if you used it on yourself, would it tell you you are a time traveller? Would it tell you what kind of time travel you’d experienced?” Frank furrowed his brows. “It might, but right now I have a piece of equipment that’s a priority to identify.” Frank pulled out the ring he’d received earlier from a pocket in his pack. He’d been loathe to wear it when its function was unknown. There were no objectively bad system drops, but some could have effects that would be negative in most situations. He placed the orb to his left eye and stared through it at the ring. His vision wavered, and the orb disintegrated into nothing. The status of the ring was suddenly clearly displayed. Fool’s Gold Ring of Battle(Level 9) 5GP 100/100 Durability Drop Category: Trickster Resisting Attribute: WIS This cheap ring was worn by a wandering mercenary as a reminder not to trust others easily. All feints and faked attacks are more convincing when made by the wearer of this ring. It was a subtle effect, but one that would be quite helpful against opponents with low enough Wisdom. Frank had never been a super deceptive fighter. He put it on his ring finger, then got his stuff ready. He pared down his pack, leaving medical supplies, some food and water, and a few other essentials, but removing everything else. That done he looked at his companions. None of them had any questions, except Bill, who wanted to know what the ring did. He seemed disappointed by Frank’s explanation. Then Frank jogged away. He felt the effort of doing this was wasted, in terms of actually finding the person. But, it’d assuage Rina, probably. That was valuable. All his allies would have to make difficult, painful decisions. They’d have to harden. But he didn’t want her to break just because he didn’t allow her any sort of satisfaction. It was obvious she was a do-gooder. A couple of hours wasn’t the end of the world to let her feel like they were trying to help people. At least, not in the dungeon. Plus, he wanted to help this person too, and he was curious. What kind of person could stumble into a dungeon, get lost, and then survive for this long? It was neither an eventful or fruitful journey. It took him an hour at a rapid jog to map out the side West of the path, and then an hour and a half to map the right out to the first diversion. Off the main path, there were a few full-grown yetis, which may have given Maria, Bill, and Rina trouble had they faced them, but otherwise, nothing of interest. No sign of any human. He returned to the end of the level, two and a half hours later. “No sign of anyone else,” Frank told the group. Rina looked down at the ground. “We’ll find them when we clear this whole dungeon,” Frank said. Everyone got their things together and readied to move on. Frank led them into the boss room, and as a group, they entered the next floor. Frank pushed the pace, keeping everyone moving until Rina and Maria both needed to rest. There wouldn’t be much in the way of levels available for them here. Not when the yeti’s themselves seemed to have below-average base values, so Frank prioritized progress through the dungeon. He took the lead after they began to flag, cutting through every enemy that appeared. Nine hours from when they began, they stood in the starting room for the fourth floor. The only gains had been two items, one from each boss, and the combat experience Maria, Bill, and Rina had obtained. A health potion was safely placed in Frank’s pack, and, extremely conveniently, a spear went to Maria. It wasn’t a piece of equipment, but it was an actual weapon. Maria finally was properly armed. A spear was without a doubt the ideal weapon for her, given her small stature. Frank addressed the group. “We’ll stop for the night.” He looked at his watch. “Nine hours rest starting from now.” Bill and Rina immediately sat down, shedding their packs and exulting in the ability not to do anything. Maria removed her pack and looked at Frank. “Teach me how to use this.” She said, waving her spear. Frank considered for a moment. What could he teach her, where to start. He was so much more proficient with one-handed weapons, that he’d have to carefully consider it. “I can’t teach you properly,” he said. “You’ll be on your own after I show you the very basics.” Maria stared at him. “Can anyone ‘teach me properly’?” she asked. “I suppose not,” Frank said. Rina bedded down immediately, while Bill watched for a short while as Frank ran Maria through a few basic drills with the spear. Maria was a quick learner, even without prior experience. Frank had no trouble getting her started with a practice drill. Soon, she was in a solid stance, thrusting away with the spear. Frank observed for a bit, and seeing her form wasn’t going to slip, went to sleep himself.