“If you only remember one thing about the stats and their interplay, let it be that imbalance is detrimental. Each common stat requires a combination of the others to work effectively.

Physique makes your body stronger, harder, more enduring, and increases the rate at which you recover, if only marginally.

Agility governs the fine motoric skills you possess, the speed of movement, and the explosiveness of your muscles.

Reaction is especially important to balance out high Agility values. It increases your speed of thought, the speed of reaction, the speed with which you improve skills, and your adaptability.

Flow is the outlier. You do need no other attributes to make good use of a high flow value from what has been observed. Though due to how people work they can get more efficient in their flow values. Flow increases in power, with growing numbers. There have been secondary effects reported but those don’t coincide with broader examinations.

Lastly, and most importantly for those who aspire to greatness, after reaching the threshold of one-hundred in a single stat this stat improves drastically over time, so focusing on a single does have merit - though it should not be at the detriment of others.”

Excerpt from a second-hand translation of “The Workings of The Guide”, author unknown, the booklet dates back at least a thousand cycles.

—

Approaching one of the more awake occupants of the room was straight out of the question. They would most certainly try to take advantage of Liana and bully her into a greater price than reasonable. Furthermore, they would also be more inclined to decline or dismiss her offer outright - having to get to their destinations as well.

There was just one issue, with that. The remaining people down here would most likely be very intoxicated, thus being a group of people she had over and over been warned to stay well clear of by both her parents.

She did look at their coach driver then, he was a guertl driver, handler, and tamer - which might indicate a high level - if she remembered the introduction yesterday correctly. She only barely did though, almost everything having slipped her mind, the stress, awe, and bepuzzlement of the situation just too many factors to keep her facts straight.

Putting up her best helpless little girl facade - which came easy to her, being often helpless herself - she approached the driver.

“Could you help me convince one of the fellows around the bar to part with their monster provisions?”

—

Full of irritation Ionis stared at the wake of her first apprentice.

Sure she is dull, but I never imagined that she’s that stupid. She hit her sternum with the balm of her hand. Did the girl seriously forget with who they came here? She had to have seen the man at least half a dozen times. Maybe she’s just that tired.

Be that as it may. She directed her attention at her hands, which were now occupied with crocketing. While it wasn’t strictly necessary for her to pay direct attention, she did see a noticeable degree in quality when she did.

She would have to be fast if she wanted to complete the armlet before Liana returned. It wouldn’t be a masterwork by any stretch of the definition, be it system imposed or else.

If her apprentice wouldn’t manage to buy some feed she would certainly be able to. Interacting with people was just very tiresome. With a large sigh, she thought of the upcoming years, sharing her home with someone else was going to be a chore, but with the girl's flow values it was prone to be a good investment.

—

Getting the nic reduced to the smaller denomination had proved somewhat annoying. Liana had to use Thomas, their driver, to exchange it for els. She would try to not waste the money Ionis had given her but winking she handed Thomas one of the glowing sticks that she got in return for the band of pure flow.

The first three people they approached hadn't even been able to properly respond due to their current impairment, the fourth, sixth, and seventh though had each been more than willing enough to trade, and while initially, each had refused to entertain her, they had stopped once she began showing coin - or glowy stick to be specific.

Els, did have a wonderful effect on the human psyche. Not an intrinsic one, but one based on a human's desire to be rich. An el could easily supply a human with a week of logia and sustenance.

The first partially levelheaded farrier they had come across, had also tried to get a bit handsy and just take the money for himself, but it seemed like a person that dealt with several dozen of guertl simultaneously knew how to help themselves.

Shining brightly, having made such a bargain Liana turned around, with a large smile of success on her face. Only a one in two surcharge worked quite well for them, but that was only half the reason why she smiled.

[Gauge Compensation] - Use external cues to better and subconsciously be able to tell what their financial situation might be and interpret their body language to confirm suspicions ( +1 Reaction)

Unlocking a skill was a happy occasion. Right now, her master didn’t seem interested, she wasn’t even paying attention to Liana, but looking at something under the table. Not having touched the food that must have at some point been brought to the table.

The familiarity she had gained in the last day with Ionis slowly disappeared, she would have imagined the woman to be interested in what she was doing, or at least looking her way as she returned but the woman did none of that.

“I got us the supplies for two guertls, they are ready right now. Thomas is already outside."

“Huh… Oh, that’s good, well done. Come sit down and have your breakfast,” she did then glance at the third bowl standing on the table, for a moment she seemed to consider something, then just shrugged and moved the bowl towards the inside of her outer robe where it disappeared.

The unease of the woman's quietness now, and whatever just happened made Liana uncomfortable, uncomfortable enough to blurt out the first thing on her mind.

“I gained a new skill,” was what she thought of. She did want Ionis to know, truly. She was also disappointed at her lack of interest in the whole matter. She hadn’t even asked for the remainder of the el back.

“No, you didn’t. You can’t without talking to me about it,” came the woman's response as she lifted the delicate wooden utensil in her hand toward her mouth.

A bit quieter than before Liana responded.

“Well, I did unlock it then. Better?”

“Not really, unless it gives you flow. Let me guess it is a bartering skill of some sort. Most likely gives you reaction as an attribute and helps evaluate your trading partner. Maybe it gives you some sort of extra natural instinct or more likely it just increases your perception of certain factors. Am I off somewhere?” asked Liana’s master.

“N… Noo. How do you know?” returned the impressed stuttering of Liana. Every guess basically on the mark and the casual disregarding tone of Ionis making the skill feel worthless.

“Every skill that doesn’t increase your flow values is worthless. For you and I even doubly so. You already have one skill sitting there that does nothing, so I don’t see why you are so happy about it,” came the uninterested answer.

Liana tried to not show her disappointment at the opposite’s reaction, so with all the nonchalantness she could muster she responded.

“Okay.”

“I see you are not entirely satisfied, let us continue this conversation when we are back on the road. Let me just say, that most skills you gain while unclassed are mapped out to the third rank entirely and not very interesting. It is the outliers you want to acquaint yourself with, and precisely the reason why I was interested in taking you as an apprentice. I have not heard of [Ocean Breeze] in my entire life.”

They finished their breakfast rather fast after that, both eager to get on the road. Liana because she was interested in what Ionis could tell her about skills. Hoping that the woman would offer more insights into what was available. After all, the last night's talk had been very insightful already. Ionis just didn’t like the inn very much.

For a small part of the journey - the next small while - Ionis had asked her to sit outside and enjoy the fresh morning air. Rather annoying given the fact that Liana had hoped to immediately gain more information from the frustrating woman.

She ended up consulting with Thomas about his class and skills - the man genuinely interested in deterring people from choosing his way -, enjoying his company, and learning about him.

The man had had such an easy time dealing with the ruffian in the inn, due to his quite ludicrous level. Being just slightly above level one-hundred and twenty placed him firmly into the third-rank class holder league.

He had further explained that he was a lot more physically built than what was strictly necessary, due to his occupation. He had basically completely disregarded the reaction attribute after it had reached eight, giving him more than enough physical capabilities to deal with even the most intoxicated people around him - his two third-ranked skills helped in larger encounters too he had claimed.

He had gone even further out of his way and tried to impart some wisdom on Liana, to not focus too much in one direction. His advancement would probably not be possible, simply due to how much faster one would have to react at that level.

Dawn had passed and it was full blow morning when they left the inn again, bellies filled and awake as before.