“A distraction is always helpful. I’ve been with corpses for most of my life, so it’s not much of an issue anymore, but… you know. Thank you, Joseph. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“Actually, yes. Is there a place on a ship, where I can work out alone? Oh, and there was a shower somewhere, I couldn’t find it.”

“Oh, that’s too easy. There are empty rooms for Razor Cannons in front of the ship, which weren’t finished in time, so they are empty right now. Just go through the third or fourth level. The shower is right behind a corner, on a right-hand side in Crew Quarters. Oh, and before you go, I assume you did get yourself a place to sleep?”

Did he? He was assigned to Ralf by Captain, but other than that, nothing was really explained to him.

Joseph described his situation to Roth.

“I see. Usually, new people just ask senior members about that. In your case, it’s all backward. But don’t worry, you can just take a free bed in any room when night comes. People don’t mind. Mostly.”

“Mostly? Alright, thank you, doc… Last question for now… What about the food?”

Pat snorted from behind him.

“What, already hungry? You are quite a fragile flower, it seems. How did you even end up in a Threshold at all?”

“That’s what I wanna know…” Muttering through clenched teeth, Joe turned around to face a rat. ”No, I am not. I’m just asking so that I don’t have to waste my time later.”

Pat tilted his head.

“The alarm. When the alarm sounds, the food is ready. Or you can just ask a cook, and maybe he’ll get you something. And, just a warning, I’d not go into a kitchen and take anything without permission.”

“And the cook is?…”

“You know him already.”

Was he? But if Pat is sure that Joseph has seen him, then it could only be… oh no. His skill with kitchen knives makes perfect sense!

“You can’t be serious…”

Pat grinned, enjoying a full-blown horror realization on Joseph’s face. Even Roth couldn’t help, but laugh a bit at his distress.

“What’s wrong, snowflake? He is a good cook. I thought you were on good terms with him, no?”

Joseph shook his head.

“No, I believe that he is a good cook, but… why does he look like that?”

“That’s the question you wanted to ask? Judging people on appearance, now?”

“Pat, enough.” The doctor decided to intervene. “Nobody really knows about his condition, but… I have a theory. Not going to discuss it now, since we have already wasted enough time, but maybe later. When opportunity comes…”

“This is some sort of curse, right? I mean, I have nothing against his appearance…”

Well, that’s a fat god damn lie.

“...But there is no way a human could look like that, I believe.”

“You have a point, but…” Roth shook his head. “It’s not a Curse. At least, not one I am aware of. I’m pretty sure his condition can be traced to something in his body functions.”

Well, there wasn’t much that Joe wanted to discuss further. He could just stand there and fire questions at Roth the whole day, but that would simply distract the doctor from work. So Joseph excused himself and left.

The doctor’s room was quite comfy. A simple clean bed, a wardrobe shelf, a bookshelf, a chest, a table, and a drawer. A number of write robes were hanged on the rope near the wall.

“’Anatomy of Man, Rhevalian and Arid.’ Hmm, I wonder…”

Joe took a book off a shelf and opened it on a random page. He quickly went through pages, sometimes stopping to read a text that caught his eye.

Of course, he needed more time to actually explore the book through, but he did get some information from a brief reading here and there. At the very least, he knew that the studies of anatomy were very close to modern levels - even some obscure terms, like 'Dactylion', 'Fraenum' or 'Supercilium' were there.

He also now got the names to attach to two out of four new races he encountered. The Captain’s one was still a mystery, Grigory was a mimic. Now, he learned that dragoncats like Xander were called 'rhevalian', and horned vampire people were 'arid'.

Look at me going. Learned a couple of names, already ready to conquer an Empire.

Despite being hit by his own sarcasm, he did feel proud of himself. Although most of it was not because of his own accomplishments, he had to admit. If anything, things had been going fairly smooth so far because of his weird burst of luck. They were going far, far better than they had any right to. What if he wasn’t rescued by the Morning Star, and was stuck on a slaver ship, or killed by Xander right then and there? What if he got shot during a ship battle? Not to mention that a Captain took his time to help him, agreed to teach him, despite all the problems he already has to deal with, and, as far as Joe could tell, even vouched for him in the first place?

Joseph had no idea, how, and when he was going to pay it all back to Alchfrid. The best he could do was to make an oath to himself.

An Oath, that one day, he will reach the heights he was aiming for and return everything he owed, back.

He should also read the Manual one day.

I’ll make you proud, unknown writer! I’ve dealt with hundreds of pages of text on my job, I can handle a hundred more!

The next book he picked up was called “First Aid in Peaceful and War Times” by Julian Prose.

Joe decided not to be greedy. He wouldn’t be able to carry an entire library anyway, and the System didn’t provide him with an imaginary inventory. So taking one or two books and reading them thoroughly would be his best bet.

He looked through book covers to see if anything else catches his attention. One that did had a simple name “Plants, Poisons, and Extracts” by an unknown author. He decided to grab it too.

Now loaded with some heavy knowledge, Joseph went to a third level, intending to hide in a room that doctor mentioned. As he was passing sailors, who were cleaning, fixing, and loading cannons, he felt guilty for not helping them. But since he decided on his course, that’s what he was going to do. He would work with Weapons Crew the other day.

He arrived at the room.

Well, its disuse was well justified.

The room was unfinished indeed. Even the walls weren’t closed up properly, only fully covering two sides, back, left and a bit at the front. He also saw exposed pipes and wiring.

Just one accident and the entire thing becomes a threat to a ship… Why did nobody fix it yet? Do they not care about it at all, or like to sit on a powder keg the entire time? Some pirates they are…

The exposed metal beam on the ceiling wasn’t looking very encouraging either, but perhaps, he could repurpose it for some exercises.

There was even a metal ladder in the corner. Frankly, the whole room looked like it was barely used ever since the ship was built. There was a lot of dust, but it wasn’t particularly old dust, which was very good evidence that someone was actually visiting this room from time to time, but was quickly done with whatever he was doing, and left it afterward.

Roth knew about the room, but there are a lot of people on the ship, who are definitely aware of its internal structure. The doors to these places aren’t even hidden, after all.

No point guessing, then. Time to get to work.

Joseph opened a book. For a moment, he wished he had a pencil and paper to write notes on. He made a mental note to remind himself the next time. Also, he really should’ve got something to track the time.

Well, next break then.

*****

Knowledge Gained (+)

Skill: First Aid - Added.

That was unexpected. He honestly almost forgot about that little aspect of local life, with everything happening during this couple of hours.

“Well, that’s convenient. No need to waste paper.”

He was joking, but he did notice a small detail he never really thought about before. He could now recall things from the memory way easier, with more details and clarity than ever before. It wasn’t perfect - try as he could, he was unable to remember days long gone, that was never memorable enough to let them stay in his headspace, like his childhood or school period. Still, improved memory was nice. Literally recording learning material into the brain was also nice.

Solidifying his knowledge, that the medicine in this world was very much comparable to the medicine of his world, felt even better. The techniques of bandaging, applying pressure, transporting injured people, and such - everything was well detailed, with clean pictures, demonstrating the practical application. Joe was sure that he had actually seen some pictures before, point-to-point, in his own world.

He mimicked some of the techniques in the book on himself. Of course, without proper medical supplies, it wasn’t all that useful, but practice is practice.

He decided to stop for now. Joe was thinking about reading the other book but delayed it until noon. His plans for this day were more-or-less bare-bones - do things until afternoon, meet Grigory, possibly find a mechanic and helmsman, if they would be free, maybe do some exercises, or actually find something that could be suitable as a replacement for weights and train, maybe talk to Ralf again, ask for marksman training…

He glanced at the metal beam.

Maybe some exercise wouldn’t hurt.

…Who knew that later this day, his plans would be ruined by his greatest nemesis.

The Threshold itself.