My expectations of grandeur were appropriately shattered by the remarkably dull surroundings outside the hut. It was one of many and all of them were in similar or worse conditions as the one we had come from.

Vilmar was waiting for me while talking with another person that I identified as male by both their smell and similar attire. When I reached them, the other man looked down at me before returning his attention to Vilmar. This man was also much taller than I was, but not by the same extent that Vilmar was since he was about a head shorter.

Unlike Vilmar or myself, this man also had very large and very visible horns that curled like a furim’s. The thought of a furim made me think of food and fur we got from them in the winter months. Their meat was stringy and the milk we got from them was rich albeit a little sour, but their fur was warm and thick. I could remember having clothing made of it but not what it looked or felt like. There was the vague recollection of being taught how to care for them by someone and, if what passed for my memory at this point was correct, then furim were about the same size that I was.

“Come on, we’ve dawdled long enough.”

Vilmar started to walk away and I had to struggle to catch up due to the difference in our step size. Once I caught up to him I grabbed onto his pant leg. I wasn’t about to be separated from the only person I knew or trusted. Vilmar spared me a quick glance but returned his attention to what was in front of him and the man he was talking to once he saw that I didn’t need anything from him.

Letting myself be directed allowed me to look at everything around us as we move towards wherever it was we were going. The row of wooden huts ended and large piles of stones took their place. It was easy to see several trails of smoke in the sky from fire, but I couldn’t see any of the sources. There were statues around the stone piles, shattered ones one one side with unbroken ones covered in writing on the other.

What drew most of my attention, however, was the sheer number of people that I could see and smell. All of us seemed to be moving in the same direction towards something that I couldn’t see yet. Eventually, the stone piles ended and we entered a large clearing with several posts in the ground all in a neat row each with their own red stain around them. Behind these posts were people all lining up into several rows and behind them were mountains covered in green and tipped with white.

Vilmar and I separated from the man he was talking to and we went to the second row of people and stood beside them.

“Stand beside me and try not to move. If you get too tired and are struggling to stand just lean on me okay?”

I nodded and continued to watch what was happening as a few people joined our row totaling bringing it’s numbers to a little under a hundred.

It was at this point that I saw my first Demons. It was as Vilmar had said, it was very hard to tell what set us apart from one of them, but there were some unmistakably stark differences. One of these was their skin. While ours was lighter, theirs was darker nearing the point of being black. The first one I could see lacked ears of any kind and just had two numbs in their place.

Physically, its build were also closer to that of a mokey; shorter and bulky with exaggerated limbs at about a head and a half shorter than Vilmar. The particular Demon I was looking at had yellowed tusks in addition to a third eye between the two I was used to seeing. There were some other subtler differences like the scent this Demon had. It was that of a predator and it made me skittish to the point I wanted to hide behind Vilmar. There was also the smell of blood, but that was something that I had smelt since entering the clearing. I personally felt that the largest difference was the fact that the Demon was not only better clothed but that it also had a weapon; it also looked well fed.

Once the stream of people stopped, other Demons that vaguely resembled Vilmar started walking alongside the tusked Demon as he started talking and calling out names. The bright red and gold clothing that the Demons wore made it easy to watch them move down the line and I was able to sneak a few furtive glances to better see what they looked like. Again, I was reminded of Vilmar as these Demons were tall even though he had a much thinner build. I also noticed a lack of horns but it didn't seem that odd since both Vilmar and I had hair covering ours.

“Herth. Twenty strokes for not meeting quota. After that you’re in the mines.”

The two shorter Demons that previously flanked the main Demon move towards the line and pulled a man from it to take him to one of the posts. I watched as they tied him to it and one proceeded to pull out a whip that split into several pieces at the end. The main Demon called out another name in addition to a number of strokes but I was too focused on watching the man tied to the post.

The man didn’t scream or yell he just stood there and took the whipping while his blood slowly added itself to the red earth under the post. It was the joy that the Demon seemed to take in causing this man pain that scared me the most and I felt my own back itch as I watched the final stroke tear into the man’s back even more.

After the man’s whipping was finished he was untied and pushed out of the way. Almost like clockwork, his place on the post was filled.

“Felin, you’re in the box today.“

I watched as a woman was led away from us in the opposite direction others tended to be moving in. When she passed I noticed that her eyes were lifeless as if she had retreated to some dark corner of her mind to escape whatever her punishment was.

”Yim.”

The main Demon spoke and the two that had been gathering people brought him forward and held him in place in front of the Main Demon. The sound of whipping still hadn’t stopped.

“Yesterday you hurt two of my boys and tried to escape.”

The two stared at each other for a moment before the main Demon drew the weapon at his size revealing a sword that had been stained red. No words were spoken as the Demon proceeded slit Yim’s throat and then his gut. The main Demon sheathed his sword and reached into the nearly dead man’s guts and pull some of his entrails out.

By this time Yim was dead and the main Demon stood there casually eating the bloody guts not minding the mess he was making. Finally finishing, he signaled for the other Demons he was with to get rid of the body and as they left two new Demons took their place. The group continued to steadily move down the line almost in rhythm to the ever-present sounds of leather hitting flesh.

Finally, the main Demon reached where I was standing and stopped. He looked me in the eyes and I saw another difference between Deamons and Demons. His eyes where cold, hard, and calculating, they lacked any of the warmth I had seen in Vilmar’s eyes and I shivered as we maintained eye contact. Very slowly I tried to hide myself behind Vilmar and this caused the Demon to sigh.

“Shame. Rea, five strokes for stepping out of line. Vilmar wait here, she’s going with you today since she’s still next to useless. You’ve got a day to get her up to speed of it’s fifty strokes for the both of you.”

“Yes Urik.”

I was pulled from Vilmar and violently dragged to a post with my clothing being forcefully taken off me once we got there. My hands were tied to the post much higher up than I could reach and I was practically hanging with my toes barely on the ground.

I felt the whip before I heard it and it was like fire had been run across my back reminding me of my dream. The second stroke robbed what little strength I had in my legs and I was left hanging with my full weight making the ropes dig harder into my wrists. My vision blurred as someone waked closer and pulled the ropes free causing me to fall to the ground as I curled in on myself.

I heard another sigh as someone grabbed my hair a pulled. It hurt almost as much as the whipping had and, once I had been dragged far enough from the pole, my face was lifted to be level with Urik’s. The smell of his rancid breath threatened to make me gag but I was too afraid to move and somehow incur his ire.

“There are three rules here: You do what you’re told, don’t try to escape, and stay in line. You follow those and things will be a little better for you, not by much though.”

He let go of me and I crumpled into a heap on the ground and a bundle of cloth was thrown at me. I recognized it as the tattered dress I had been wearing and weakly reached for it.

“Vilmar, you’re sorting today. You’re also responsible for the brat as per usual. “

I stayed curled in on myself as I felt my back slowly knit itself together and refused to unfurl even when Vilmar came closer and picked me up. I pressed my face into his chest to try and muffle the sobs that were trying to escape. Urik simply resumed shouting out more names and strokes as if nothing had happened.

The Demon’s were nothing like mokey whose bristle was worse than their bite. No, the Demon’s were predators. If I showed any weakness I was going to die. They would kill me and eat my guts just like they had done to Yim. At this point I was shaking more from fear than I was from pain and I clenched my balled up clothing as hard as I could in an attempt to control it. I remembered what Vilmar had said to me in the hut when I asked him for a promise and he was right. There was plenty out here that I disliked and I could only assume that the list would grow.

Vilmar continued to carry me away from the clearing towards wherever it was he had been directed to go. My back had continued to heal on it’s own and was nearly back to normal.

“I’m going to set you down alright?”

I nodded into his chest and held in a whimper as he knelt down while moving one of his arms to support my stomach instead of my legs. The process was tedious since I slid out of his hold slowly in order to make sure my legs were going to be able to support me. Once I was standing on my own I blinked a few times to clear the tears from my eyes and look up at Vilmar. He had knelt to my height to wipe the tears from my cheeks and I gratefully pressed my face into his hand.

“It’ll get better. Things may be bad now, but they can only get better. Remember that. This isn’t the end; you will make it though this with the rest of us. It’s going to be okay.“

My reaction was to blink more tears away as he gently embraced me. I felt safer, it wasn’t much but it was reassuring and it helped. When we separated he took the clothing from my hands and I balled them in order to stop the shaking.

“Let me check your back. Selmet doesn’t know the meaning of restraint.”

I turned and waited as Vilmar traced the scabs that had replaced the wounds. He sighed and I was momentarily engulfed in darkness as my dress was pulled back over my head. It didn’t do much in the way of protection, but it made me feel less exposed, less vulnerable.

“I’m worried. You’re healing much slower than you used too and it’s only gotten slower recently. When this started you wouldn’t even have a mark after each lash. Sadly there isn’t very much I can do about it. It’s been overworked just like the rest of you.”

Vilmar still hadn’t stood yet and it seemed like we weren’t going to be moving anywhere for the moment.

“Before we reach the sorting area I need to teach you a little bit of magic. If I don’t, you won’t be able to sort the iron out with the rest of us and you’ll just end up on the post again. You were always good at picking things up, especially magic, so hopefully this won’t take too long.”

I sat down knowing that my legs weren’t going to be able to support me if this explanation lasted for very long and Vilmar waited till I was focusing on him again to continue.

“This is a very simple spell, one of the few they let us use. It will let you identify everything including yourself. First though, is mana.”

A small colorless sphere began to form in Vilmar’s hand. I could see the end result but the little pieces that it was building itself out of seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Normally, mana can’t be seen, only felt, but it’s everywhere. The air, the plants, even inside us, and anyone can use it. We are special though as blessed children of our goddesses Isra and Asra. Our people can hold mana in our bodies while most can only channel it to cast spells. A few of our race have even had the rare ability to create mana inside their body meaning they didn’t have to worry about depleting the area of magic after using large spells. It’s not a trait you’ve ever shown nor is it one you’ll develop.”

“So then how do they restrict magic? It seems like that shouldn’t be possible if it’s everywhere.”

Vilmar shifted his weight to turn around while lifting up his hair to show me a small black circle on the back of his neck. The inside of the circle was filled with a mess of symbols but I lost interest in it in favor of looking at the wounds I had given him. They had healed already but had left scars, merely adding to the patchwork of them that covered him back.

“They limit us through this brand and it’s the magic itself that is restricted not the mana. The brand is a form of dark magic that binds itself to our souls and it will remain their for the rest of our lives and, depending on what faith you believe, any that would come after this one.“

“Is mine there too? On my neck?”

He shook his head.

“Yours is on the back of your right shoulder. They needed more room than your neck had space for when they first branded us. These brands are a curse because they are meant to monitor whoever they mark. Because of them, anyone can look at even the most private things about us that we could normally hide. The only benefit is that it allows us to very easily identify ourselves. This is the only benefit mind you, and the price for it is something I would rather never have had to pay.”

“So then what am I supposed to do? I can’t feel this mana so how could I cast anything?”

Vilmar held out a hand for me to grab and pulled me to my feet. He started to walk away and I follower after him.

“It’s not hard. Most people can’t feel mana but they can still get spells to work for them regardless of this. Part of it is believing that the spell will work, part of it is what you say along with how you say it. A good example of this is quests.“

“Quests? Like, go get something for me quest?“

“Similar, but that’s a very specific case. It’s more of promise that is protected by magic. Each side agrees to something and has to carry it out. There are limits to it since it’s a weak spell and there are ways to get around how it works to protect either side. However, anyone that would be doing that isn’t someone you should have been associating yourself with in the first place. Giving you one of these is actually the easiest way for me to show you how magic works.”

“[Quest].”

The first thing I noticed was that the word had power. The kind of power I associated with the word god. This type of power was something that could make you strong. It was something that could make you immortal.

For the quest itself, there was no flashing light, no message for me to read, just a mental request from Vilmar and the question of if I would accept it. Somehow I knew he wanted for me to give him a quest and in turn he would teach me how to identify things. It was simple and fair; something I would readily accept in a heartbeat if I knew how.

“So how do I accept it?”

“Just say yes for now. In the future you’ll be able to do the entire process in your head but that’s for later. Also make sure you’re thinking about the quest when you say yes or it won’t work.”

“In that case, [Yes].”

I felt the power this time, it was raw and uncontrollable but for some reason it listened and flowed through me and left just as easily. The amount of mana I had felt in that instant was suffocating and I was suddenly very glad that I wasn’t able to feel it all the time. It had given me a sense of what I needed to do though, as if it was just another muscle that had been left to atrophy and I had only just found it again.

“[Quest].”

Vilmar was right. Intent was almost more important than the words used to say the spell, but the intent alone couldn’t tame the mana for use. It was the words that did that. Time seemed to slow and I realized I needed to give a request along with something in return for its completion. I had nothing to offer though except for trust and Vilmar already had that.

Everything returned to normal speed as I finished the breath I had been taking. Using the spell without completing it had given it the chance to fall apart and return to rejoin the chaotic swirl of mana I had drawn from. This dispersal also felt like it had taken something from me, something that I wasn’t going to be able to recover by healing.

“It took something from me." There was a small amount of panic in my voice that sliped out, "When I failed to cast it, it took something from me.”

“That feeling was your body becoming fatigued from using mana. It’s not dangerous unless you go past what your body can naturally handle. I’ll show you what I mean when you can use Identify so don’t worry about it. Anything else or are you ready to try again?”

My legs were starting to get tired and I stopped walking in order to sit again but Vilmar knelt and picked me up instead. I rested my chin on his shoulder and held on while he continued to walk.

“I have nothing to give in return. You already have the only thing I can offer. What do I do?”

“That’s fine. I’d take your sadness or pain if I could but that’s not possible. Fortunately, quests don’t need to have a reward for completion. They can be one sided as long as both people are fine with it.“

I nodded and tried to give Vilmar a quest again, the only requirement was that I wanted him to teach me identify. There was no reward and when I finished I felt like I had done a good job and realized that I knew I had finished the quest Vilmar had given me.

Another small mental ping told me that Vilmar had accepted my quest for him. Using quest again still had the same effect of something leaving me but I wasn’t worried about it because Vilmar had said it wasn’t anything to worry about. I was tired however and it was easy to see how using magic could easily exhaust someone.

“Identify is one of the strongest spells there is even though it’s considered weak. This is because it allows you to learn anything. There are ways to resist identify but if someone is good enough at the spell then nothing can stop them from learning anything they want. With quest you need to want to trade something or want something done.”

Vilmar took a few turns and I began to make out the sounds of people shouting and objects hitting each other in the distance.

“With identify you need to have the desire to learn something. The stronger the desire the more accurate the spell but the more it will cost. I’m telling you this so you don’t try and Identify too many things at once. It’s not expensive compared to other spells but it’ll still drain you fairly quickly with how much you’ll be needing to use it; especially if you try to learn as much as you can. Try to identify me. Nothing else except the desire to learn my name.“

“But I know your name. It’s Vilmar.“

“It is. But just do this for me okay? It’ll give you a sense of how draining this can be once I have you try to use it on yourself.“

“[Identify].”

Just like with the quest there was nothing to initially indicate that I had done anything. The draining feeling was still there but it was far less that when I had used quest. This time however, instead of being mentally told the information I was able to see Vilmar’s name while looking at him. After being displayed for a few seconds I lost interest in what I was seeing and the ghostly letters faded in nothingness like smoke on the wind.

“I did it. Now what?”

“Now you need to use it on yourself.”

“And how do I do that?”

“Nothing too difficult, you just need to look at or think about yourself while using identify.”

“[Identify].”

There was a very tangible effect from casting identify this time as it felt like all the energy I had was being forcibly removed from my body. I slumped and Vilmar hoisted me up to reset how I was positioned in his arms. I was struggling to keep my eyes open due to how tired I was after casting identify on myself.

“You going to be able to stay awake or do you want to take a nap? I know that took a lot out of you so it’s okay if you need to rest.”

I lifted my head up to reply but found that I couldn’t actually keep it up for more than a few seconds and just groaned to try and communicate something to Vilmar.

“The information won’t go away if you’re worried about that. It’ll remain there until you no longer have an interest in it. Go ahead and nap. We’re almost to the sorting area anyways so when you wake up you can help me and I’ll explain what you’re seeing on your status screen.“

With another groan I let my eyes stay closed, happy for the chance to rid myself of the heavy feeling that had spread over my body. The swaying of Vilmar walking helped and I quickly found myself lulled into the realm of dreams. It’s hard to say if I actually slept during that time or if I was simply unconscious, but either way there was nothing but darkness in my mind’s eye as I rested. It was oddly soothing.

Talking, clanging, and the shifting of rocks were the sounds I woke to. That and the lack of Vilmar.

I knew he wasn’t going to be there when I woke up, some small internal voice told me he couldn’t be, but either way it was still disheartening. He had helped me greatly even if there were a few awkward bumps in the road to get there. My body felt better than it had in any of the memories I possessed and all of the loss that I had been concerned about after casting the few spells felt like it had been returned.

Sitting up wasn’t that big of a deal seeing as I had been propped against the wall of a hut. The wall was warm to the touch and I was able to hear talking and clanging coming from the other side of it. There was also the smell of fire, sweat, and something caustic burning but I had no way to know what was creating those smells.

I tried to stand and found that I didn’t need the help of the wall like I thought I was going to. My next goal was to look for Vilmar and it was surprisingly easy to find him. He stood about two heads taller than most of the others; it was something that I hadn’t thought to look at back when everyone was made to stand in the lines.

A constant flow of people moving past the area between Vilmar and myself meant the I was forced to take a longer route to get to him, but that gave me some time to look around. The building I had been leaning on had black smoke coming out of the roof that reminded me of the smoke I had seen in my dream. It was also worth noting that this building was made completely out of stone and the lack of wood most likely had something to do with the fire inside.

Vilmar himself was near a large pile of rocks with an equally large hammer and cart next to him. Every so often he would pull a chunk of stone about half the size of me from the pile and break it apart before picking up certain bits of it and putting them in the cart. Any of the stone he wasn’t collecting was being shifted through and carried away by someone who looked to be closer to my size. They were still larger than me by a fair margin, but compared to Vilmar and most of the people I could remember from the line up, they were much shorter.

I also noticed that I was having a much harder time making out Vilmar’s scent but I attributed that to the number of people that seemed to be in the area in addition to the smells coming from the hut behind me. It also found that a haze had settled over my vision giving everything a red tint to it that I couldn’t make go away no matter how much I rubbed my eyes. I decided that asking Vilmar about it was my best option and continued to make my way to him.

When I finally reached him he had just started to hammer another chunk of stone into smaller pieces.

“Vilmar.”

He turned to see I was there and stopped what he was doing while wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Rea, you’re awake, that’s good. How do you feel?”

“Much better actually. But I have a couple things that I need to ask about.”

“Sure. Just give me a second.”

The person that had been taking the stone away after Vilmar crushed it had returned and he turned to address them. Their smell was different mainly due to the fact that it was both mixed with and heavily accented by their sweat. Regardless of this or perhaps because or it, their scent was more appealing, attractive even, and definitely female.

“Lindi, go take a quick break now that Rea’s up. I’ll have her help once I make sure she’s good to go. I’m also going to leave it to you to explain a few things to her since she’ll mainly be working with you.“

“Don’t go casually handing off your responsibility to someone else, she’s still your problem and you know it.“

The two locked eyes for a moment before both of them started to chuckle.

“Seriously though, go take a break we’ve been at this for hours.”

“Happily. I’ll be back in five but let me know if she’s ready before then and I’ll tell her what she needs to know. May even be able to teach her something since you suck at that.”

“I’ve done alright so far.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Lindi walked away in the direction of the hut I had come from, skillfully weaving her way between the people that continued to cart things back and forth.

“Did I know her? Before this?”

“Not really. You would have if you were older but that’s neither here nor there. I wouldn’t dwell too much on it. She’s nice if you get to know her and we’re pretty good friends so I think she’ll warm up to you just as fast.“

“She smells different too, better. Is that from her heritage?”

Vilmar let out a belt of laugher before ruffling my hair. I didn’t mind but it got in my face requiring me to move it out of my eyes.

“Nah, that one’s just you.”

He bent over and picked up one of the pieces of shattered rock around him and held it out to me.

“Here, try to identify this. Just look to see if it has iron in it, nothing else.”

I took the rock that was about the size of my fist and nearly dropped it even after lifting it carefully from his palm. As far as I could tell there was nothing special about this rock as opposed to any other.

“[Identify].”

Just like the first time I used it, letters appeared near the rock in the shape of the word ‘yes’ and I relayed this information to Vilmar.

“Alright, in that case put it in the cart.”

He tapped the cart beside him and I did so. I returned to looking at Vilmar and he had a look on his face that resembled amusement.

“I’m surprised you haven’t asked about your status yes.”

“I honestly forgot about it.”

“No worries. Just focus on it and it’ll appear. The magic shouldn’t have dispersed quite yet. “

I did so and a long listing of information appeared in front of me on a wispy transparent screen. It was overwhelming and I looked up at Vilmar with pleading eyes.

“There’s too much here. I have no idea what a lot of it means.”

“That’s fine. We’ll start at the top and work our way down. What are the first few things you see?”

Name - Rea Race - Deamon Age - NA Gender - Female

“My name, race, age, and gender. What does NA mean? It’s by age.”

“That’s there because you don’t know how old you are. You’re good with everything else there though right?”

“Yeah. How old am I by the way?”

Vilmar hesitated for a moment before answering so I made sure to listen closely to what he say going to say.

“You’ll turn sixteen this year, but you haven’t actually physically aged. None of our race do until we reach level one hundred. Right what are the next few things?”

It was odd for him to skirt around the point of my age so much but it wasn’t something I particularly cared about so I didn’t bring it up. I also noticed that the information filled itself in after I learned it.

Level 1 Health 4/4 Mana 135/140

“I’m level one and I can see health and mana.”

“How much mana?”

“There are two numbers, the first is one hundred and thirty five the second is one hundred and forty. Why are there two numbers for both health and mana?”

“The first number is how much you have left and the second is the maximum you can have or use in the case of mana. They’re vague readings so don’t take them too seriously since there can be some error when the numbers get higher. The reason you have one hundred and thirty five mana is because I made you use identify. So you can probably cast it safely about twenty-five times. After that you’ll start to nod off again like you did last time I had you cast it. What’s next?”

Strength 2 Dexterity 14 Vitality 2 Agility 18 Intelligence 14 Wisdom 10

I told him what the translucent screen was displaying and looked to him for more guidance.

“I’d tell you but it looks like Lindi’s back from her break so I’ll give her the honors of continuing on from here on out.”

“What are you making me do now?”

Lindi had placed her hands on her hips and schooled her face into one of mock anger.

“Explaining statuses to Rea. Probably heritage too seeing as you have one of the ones she does.”

“And what’s in it for me?”

The flippant remark seemed to be another bit of banter between the two of them and it wasn’t hard to see that she was going to tell me what I needed to know regardless of what Vilmar said.

“You get a helper to carry the scrap rock away.“

“Deal. Rea grab a rock or two and follow me. Oh and make sure they don’t have any iron in them, leave those for Vilmar.“

I used identify on the rocks that were around Vilmar until I found two that didn’t have iron in them and followed after Lindi. I could see where she was headed, some collection dump that others were taking the stone from to carry elsewhere in large carts, but that wasn’t what I had been told to do.

“So what were you talking about with Vilmar?”

“Just the stuff on my status screen.”

“I knew that, I’m talking about where did you get in the list.”

“Oh. Um, strength and the others like that. I know what the words mean but not the numbers.”

“That’s not a simple explanation so it’ll take a few trips. Watch were you’re going through his section, tends to be a lot of bone metal fragments on the ground. Almost like they want us to step on them or something.”

I watched how Lindi walked through the stone littered ground and tried my best to copy the path she took. The stones I had taken with me weren’t large but they were already becoming too heavy for me and I could feel my arms shaking from the fatigue of carrying them. We hadn’t even gone that far yet.

“Right. Strength. Strength is how strong you are physically, crude muscle control if you will. It sounds stupid and it is. Muscle heads like Vilmar have a lot of it and it makes them excellent pack mules. The thing you care about, however, is the fact that strength is how much of your bodyweight you can carry. How much strength do you have?”

“Two. That’s not very high is it?”

“Nope. But for people like us who are more about being quick on our feet we don’t really use strength all that much. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing to have and you should get more of it over time. Two strength though, that means you can carry about twenty percent of your body weight and I’d say that you weight about,”

Lindi stopped for a moment and lifted me up with one arm after throwing the rock’s she was carrying away.

“Twelve kilograms? Yeah, about twelve kilograms. Which means you can lift about two, that’s the reason you’re struggling so much with those rocks. Give them here.”

I gave her the rocks I was holding and she threw them towards the top of the pile we had walked to.

“Right. Next is vitality and I’m guessing that it’s also pretty low.”

“It’s also two.”

“So that’s how many minutes you can continuously push yourself to your limit and stay there. Again, not our strong suit so don’t be too worried about it. Does make running away a bit of a challenge though when you can only go for two minute before you need to rest.”

We had made it back to Vilmar and I made sure to try and take lighter rocks this time. Lindi waited until I was ready and we set off again.

“You could always take one you know.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.“

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

“No biggie, just take one next time. Between using magic and having to do labor that you’re not used to you won’t last very long. So next is Dexterity.”

“That’s fourteen.”

“Much better. That’s what we excel at; being quick and nimble. Dexterity and Agility are actually the hardest to explain so I’ll do my best. Dexterity is kind of a catch-all for fine motor control skills be it balance, drawing, or picking a lock. How much of it you have determines an upper limit to how well you can use that fine motor control and how fast you can reach it through practice. Agility. How much you got there?”

We dropped the rocks off and started to head back to Vilmar. I had been around Lindi enough that I was starting to be thrown off by her smell and I wanted to know why.

“Why do you smell so good? It keeps messing with my head.”

She stopped and looked at me with a bewildered expression on her face.

“Good? I think I smell horrid. Pretty sure that's something unique to you." She paused for a moment,"Though thinking about it you may be smelling somethign I can't. It wouldn’t surprise me actually given your heritage.”

“Vilmar said that too. And why would heritage matter.”

“I’ll…get to that in a bit. For now lets focus on the things that’ll keep you alive in the future. So agility, number?”

“Eighteen. It’s the highest too.”

Lindi nodded in agreement and tapped Vilmar on the shoulder.

“How close are you to quota?”

“Bout halfway, why?”

“Just curious. Let’s go squirt. Got a rock? Good.”

I followed behind Lindi for a moment in silence.

“Agility?”

“Hm? Oh yeah. So agility is the opposite of vitality. Where vitality is long term, agility is shot bursts. Like a scout who only needs to get back to their unit quickly compared to a messenger who has to go long distances without stopping. Agility is how many of these bursts you can do before needing a rest and how long you need to rest for. It also determines how good your reflexes are.

“Last up is intelligence and wisdom. I don’t care about the numbers, for now the important thing to know is that they’re a pair like agility and vitality or strength and dexterity are. Intelligence is how fast you can learn something and how long it takes you to learn it while wisdom is how well you can use that information and how fast you can think when put on the spot. They’re the easiest pair to raise through hard work but they give a nonexistent benefit for doing so because of how high they need to be to show their effects. Leave these one’s to the mages kid; they’re really not worth the effort.

“Finally that brings us to regeneration. But before I go into those I need to tell you about heritage.”

The two of us had to stop while a group of people hulled large amounts of a shining brick past us.

“It’s the iron." Lindi answered the question i was about to ask before we continued back to where Vilmar was.

"Heritages are tricky to talk bout because they’re so specific to the individual. For myself, I have feline and reptilian heritage in addition to our Deamon heritage. And this is the part that Vilmar wanted me to explain to you. These heritages determine how we grow and how our bodies develop. Because of my heritages I have a tail, most of us do for that mater, and you’ll get one too when you’re higher level. And let me tell you, the thing grows in so slowly it’s almost painful. My feline heritage gave me the traits you think a cat would have. I’m more nimble and flexible. My ears are like your but covered in fur and my senses are better than most people’s.”

“You said you had a tail but I don’t see one.”

“That would be because they cut it off and that brings me to my next point. You and I are a bit of a rare anomaly in that we both have the same quirk given to us by our reptilian heritage; regeneration. The thing is it’s not perfect. With the case of my tail they cut it off but it didn’t grow back. If I still had the tail at the time I could’ve reattached it but instead the wound just closed and healed over. The same happens if we get something stuck inside us. Our bodies don’t push the thing out it just heals around it and keeps repairing any damage that having it still inside causes. You’re actually really lucky that Vilmar got the piece of bone metal out of you when he did because if the wound had finished healing over he would have had no way to know it was there.

“Another thing to remember is that just like you can have good days and bad days so to can your regeneration. Its not perfect and constant use with a lack of good nutrition to support it causes it to flounder and fail. So let’s look at those heritages, what’s your first one?”

Avian Heritage

-8 starting Strength and Vitality

+8 Agility

+4 Intelligence

+1 Agility every five levels

Gives trait - Hollow Bones

Hollow Bones

Blunt trauma from all sources deals twice as much damage.

You are too weak to wear heavy armor without breaking bones.

You are too light to set off pressure related traps.

I read off everything that was listed under the avian section before stopping.

“Want me to do the rest?”

“Nope, stopping there’s fine for now. So I don’t think much explanation about those traits are needed and chances are that you’ll do best when evolving into this heritage. The hollow bones trait is part of the reason you’re so light but I think severe malnutrition is mostly at fault these days. Right, next one.”

Reptilian Heritage

+4 Dexterity

+1 Dexterity every 5 levels

Thermal Vision

Bonus growth to all stealth related skills

Gives trait - Coldblooded

Gives trait - Greater Regenerator

Coldblooded

You are three times as susceptible to the cold and cold related statuses.

You take three times as much damage from cold or ice damage.

Greater Regenerator

Base health regeneration rate is 8hp/sec plus 10 hp/sec at every 10 levels.

Any cold related status or below optimal body temperature slows or stops regeneration from occurring due to you being Coldblooded.

“Thermal vision. Forgot about that. Do you have a red tint to everything you’re seeing?”

“Yeah. I’ve gotten used to it but it was kinda annoying for a while.”

“It’s like magic, it’s all about intent. Because you’re coldblooded you’re naturally going to seek out warmer places because you need to in order to stay alive. I don’t have to worry about that because of my feline heritage. Shit luck for you though. Sorry ‘bout that.

“This does let me briefly, and I mean very briefly, explain resistances. Basically you get colder three times faster than normal. Not a huge deal normally but for you it’s a matter of life or death.”

We had finished another trip to the pile and had made our way back to Vilmar again.

“Hey Vilmar, taking a break?”

“Yup. How’s the teaching going?”

“Not to shabby. She hasn’t asked much so I’m assuming she’s understanding it all.”

Both of them looked to me for confirmation of this and I nodded in response.

“So where on the status screen are you?”

“Heritages. This is good actually. Let’s me make another point.”

Lindi turned and addressed me.

“You and I both have very broad heritages. Vilmar here has two specific ones, lion and bull, instead of feline and bovine. This basically means everything about those heritages is better than the other version but also more pigeonholed into certain specializations.

“We can talk about heritages more later so for now why don’t we just work as fast as we can so we can go eat something. They’ll be assigning us new jobs after lunch and I’d rather have this one’s quota met so we don’t have to get whipped.“

I liked the sound of that. Avoiding the post was an automatic win in my eyes and the thought of food made my mouth water. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten.