Andaros and Reiya met up the next day near Percy's customary spot. The two had gone to clean up Shiro immediately after buying the items from Adolpho's before realizing it was getting quite late already, and heading to their new homes.

Andaros had logged out, and eaten dinner with his mother before resting for the night in the pod. The pod was a sleeper pod, advertised for their comfort in addition to the normal features of the pods, and as such had replaced his old bed. It was quiet a comfortable thing to wake up in, and the mattress was not made of cheap foam that easily distorted, but of an expensive kind that quickly returned to it's original shape and firmness.

“Hey,” Reiya called out, waving to him as he walked over.

“Hey, how was your night?”

“Good, my sister wants to meet you,” she told him. Andaros had learned she had a twin sister who had begun playing the game earlier than she had, and she was the reason Reiya started in the queendom in the first place. Her sister was the adventurous twin, and as such had chosen a starting point that was unusual for most player, the Veiled Isle. The twins had different interests, and Reiya told him she had been at camp when their parents bought the pods. As a result she had started much later than her sister. Reiya had returned from camp just prior to starting the game, and meeting Andaros. He guessed she had another two full days in-game that she could play before she would have to get off earlier tonight. School would be starting the next day after that.

“Well, we've still got a while before we can get into the cities, and I have something to look into before I go,” he told her. “I plan to get the guardsmen better outfitted before I leave, to ensure my new mother and father stay safe.”

“I'll help, my dad here is in the guard too,” Reiya told him.

“So, I guess we're missing the next coach then,” Andaros said.

“Doesn't matter,” Reiya told him, smiling brightly, “Sis was talking about taking a coach bound for one of the kingdoms in order to get out here, so we might see her on the next coach, since she's only at the first village into the queendom.”

“Can she afford that?”

“She says she can,” Reiya responded, “Apparently there's a clan branch over there, and our family is part of it. Since we're twins, I ended up in the same family as her.”

“So your family is part of a clan in the nearest village on the queendom side?”

“Yeah,” she responded, “Actually, she said the Terasien family was also part of the clan, although there's bad rumors about your family.”

“Oh, that's interesting, what rumors?”

“Something about a beast girl,” Reiya told him.

“That would be my sister, who's been missing for three years. She has creature features, but isn't caelestial-born. It seems people like her are shunned because those features can lead to some kind of instability, and cause them to go insane,” Andaros told here, sighing. “That's one of the things I have to take care of.”

“You have a sister like that?”

“Yeah, she didn't seem to be experiencing the instabilities according to my mother, but they were forced to leave her out in the woods. There's a mystery involved, and I don't know if I'll ever go out that way, but if I do, I plan to check on things, and bring my mom here some closure,” he told her. “So, your sister's planning on coming?”

“She said she might,” Reiya replied, “but I don't know if she actually will.”

“Well, why don't we head over to the crafters, and see about processing these hides we have. If nothing else, maybe they can help us avoid stupid mistakes in the processing.”

The two headed over to the crafting area, and found Crafts Master Jurgen standing in his place.

“Ho, boy, girl, good to see you,” Jurgen greeted them, “What would you two be up to today?”

“We need to process some hides, and thought to come here where we hope we can ask the experts to help us avoid common mistakes,”

“There are no experts here boy, we're not foolish enough to claim to be experts, we're all just enthusiasts,” the Crafts Master told him.

“That's right,” the leatherworking tutor called out as he was walking over, “Those who call themselves experts want others to believe they can no longer progress any further in their craft, and therefore know everything there is to know about it. Anyone worth their salt knows that you can't progress to the absolute end of any path of crafting. There is no true expert, only those further along the path. So, you said something about processing hides? I'll watch over you while you do the work, and give some pointers if you need them.”

“Okay,” Reiya responded.

“I'm not sure I'll be processing any myself,” Andaros told him, “I have some hides, but their rating is higher, so I don't know if it's safe for me to process them with no experience into the skill.”

“Do you have any understanding of the processes in your world,” the man asked after some thought.

“A little,” Andaros responded, “I'm not nearly as versed as I am in skinning.”

“The processes are mostly the same, from what I've gathered. As for the skins being pristine, or not, this actually does very little to the processing, if anything, only changing the degree of bonuses the end result will give when used in creation of armor, items, or weapons. Once you've done the initial processing, you'll be able to see what bonuses the items will add to your creations,” the leatherwork tutor informed him. “Did you purchase the items needed for processing?”

“A trough, a drying rack, and some curing agent, yes,” Andaros responded.

“If you only bought one of each, you only have one hide to process? The curing agent can be used many times, but the hides will all need a drying rack. As for processing furs, you'll need a lighter curing agent, and I'll have to teach you how to do what is needed, as the process is a bit different.”

“I'll go buy more,” Andaros responded, sighing heavily. He quickly left, and returned to find the man and Reiya looking at the trough with a number of hides in it. He bought out a second, and third trough, and the curing agent for each, and then pulled out another fourteen drying racks, all Adolpho's had left.

“That should be fine, I can't imagine Adolpho has enough for what Reiya showed me to be processed at once. Show me the hides you have,” Sonn told him. Andaros pulled out the items, and Sonn gave a low whistle. “So you've run into one of them already,” He stated, “It's a wonder you're still alive, and I'm pretty certain without our girl here you'd be dead.”

Andaros nodded at his words, not bothered in the least by them. It was the truth, and no amount of getting butt-hurt would change that. If anything, his surviving that battle and saving Shiro had been a miracle. Speaking of which, he couldn't see the horned cabbit. He had left her with Reiya before leaving, and couldn't help wondering where she had gotten to. Looking around, he found her sitting near Teluna, watching her work, while looking around curiously. Her blue collar stood out quite a bit on her white skin.

“She didn't like the smell of the curing agents,” Sonn informed him, “and I can't blame her, that nose of hers is much more sensitive than ours are. Took me a while to get used to it, I can't imagine how it is for a creature like her. Even our girl here was green in the gills until just before you returned.”

“It does smell foul,” Andaros admitted, “but better than the stuff my uncle used.” Andaros couldn't help giving a shrug, and said, “I don't think they can make this stuff smell good, or if they can, I've never seen it.”

“I've not seen such either, or more appropriately, heard of. Well, let's get these things processing, each trough can process five hides. The curing agent can be used numerous times, and I'll have to show you how to do the process that is needed for furs little later. We'll have the two of you work together, otherwise this will be troublesome.”

Sonn began to walk him through the steps of tanning both the furs, and the scaled leathers. Once he had caught up to Reiya, they began to work together.

-----

“Norton, what have you done,” a quietly furious voice rang out in a space within Trinity Online unknown to all players of the game.

“Whatever do you mean, Pamela?”

“It was you who gave the boy that ability, you were the one to okay it,” Pamela responded.

“The boy?”

“Brad Fulton,” Pamela answered in exasperation. This man could be such a pain in the butt to deal with, she constantly considered quitting because of his antics. The owner, and lead producer of Trinity Online was not someone who stuck with the normal game producer roles, and each time she had to deal with pissed off shareholders.

“Ah, that child,” Norton responded as if suddenly realizing who she meant. “He asked for an ability similar to [Lay-on-Hands], and I did, indeed, give the okay for him.”

“Why did you give it to him, and you'd better give me a reason the shareholders will accept,” Pamela told him.

“Special Tier Mythril Pod,” was all Norton answered.

Pamela's eyebrow rose at those words. “Wasn't the last one of those given out ten years ago?”

Norton nodded heavily, “Yet no one came to claim it. I'm sure you understand what happened to the man, you reported on it back then,” he told her. “The boy had to watch what happened to his father, not being able to do anything about it. I'm certain he asked for the ability hoping that he wouldn't be left unable to do anything should something like that happen once more.”

“He was never told about the special ability he could claim,” Norton continued, “he only thought it was a mythril pod, but when he asked for the ability, I granted it. Don't worry, it's well within the boundaries of the ability that were set when we introduced those pods. His mother came to a friend of hers who works for us, and inquired into a pod for him, and she brought it to me, knowing her friend hadn't heard of her husband's deed prior to his death. As you know, I have kept that pod in trust, until the day his son came to play the game. Now, he has done so, and I gave him the pod that is his by right.”

“Did you do anything else I should hear about?”

“I might have given authorization for an upgrade to lifetime access to the girl who befriended him, and her twin sister,” Norton responded, scratching his cheek.

“Please tell me you still had some lifetime account codes,” Pamela responded with a heavy sigh, she just couldn't get mad at him after learning what he had done for the boy, and why he had done it. It helped that the pod was what it was and he should be able to make such a request too.

“Yes, they were my last two,” Norton responded.

“What else,” Pamela asked.

“Gave the boy the ability to cause a caelestial-born transformation in the ones who suffer from those random creature features. I swear, one person goes crazy while having random creature features, and they treat them as if they're all going to go nuts! Worse yet, the copycats made the people distrust them more, and the “solution” the council came up with was the worst crock of bull I've ever heard! It's infuriating that they're using The Creator's name to justify their kicking the kids out to almost certain death,” Norton went into a rant about the plight of the kids that had resulted from one of his experiments, a system that gifted children with special abilities, but included a random feature like those of one of the creatures of Aegis while doing so. It was meant to be a blessing that helped the people of Aegis, and a sister system to the caelestial-born system the sojourners could access under the right circumstances. There was a random chance of a sojourner starting with such a transformation, but the sojourners didn't know it could be accessed in another manner yet.

“You linked that system to the caelestial-born system?”

“I've only managed to make a work-around so far, it works, so I gave it to the boy considering his desire to help others. I'm still working on a way to implement it otherwise though,” Norton told her.

“Can't you just link it through [Lay-on-Hands]?”

“It's not so simple, and not ready for integration into larger systems like that. It only works now because {Heaven's Touch] is actually separated from the main healing system.”

“So, we can't use it?”

“Not on a large scale, not yet.”

“About that father,” a voice spoke out from the darkness. “We have plans underway, but it will take a month before we are ready.”

“What have you girls been up to,” Norton asked.

“We're preparing an expansion. We'll be integrating it into the system with HIS help,” another voice spoke up. “HE approves of the modification, and has agreed to integrate it into the worlds, starting with Aegis. The expansion will mostly be on our side, but HE has agreed to add a number of modifications that will be required on that side. HE suggested an event, and parsing in the new changes over a period of time.”

“That's fine, implement whatever HE suggests,” Norton responded.

“I know HE respects our wishes, but couldn't HE just change it all in mere moments,” Pamela asked.

“That's not how HE works, and HE never changes HIS ways,” Norton responded mysteriously. “We'll face judgment one day for our choices, but until they HE won't just change everything without our own actions. Is there a name for this expansion?”

“The Caelestian Era.”

----

Over the course of the day, Andaros and Reiya finished processing the furs and scaled hides of the creatures they had skinned. The process for the scaled hide was different that in their world in that a mix of berries was used to harden the scales, and strengthen the connection between them and the leather that would form from the hide they were attached to. Processing for the Drolf hide had been the most troublesome, and the two worked together with the craftsman tutor to tan it properly. It was a mix of fur and hides, so it had been troublesome to properly cure it. The two got shared experience for most of the processing, as the craft tutor had them work together to tan the hides, and walked them step-by-step through each process. There was an exception, where he had each of them process a single hide of each type by themselves, in which they gained separate experience for it. Andaros wasn't sure why he did this, but he could guess that perhaps Reiya had something to do with the situation. In the end, the two each got two levels of experience in their crafting classes.

You have reached level 3 in Psi-Tech Smith.

You have reached level 5 in Leatherworking.

It was a bit surprising at first to see his leatherworking level had surpassed his craft level, but the tutor informed him that craft levels were not linked to the crafting class level, and could surpass it by a great deal. Crafting class levels had certain requirements, and most of those were achievements specific to the crafting class. Another requirement was crafting experience, but without the achievements required, the class would not level further than a certain point. Each level would have certain requirements, but the first 10 levels were mostly experience based, and gave room for the sojourner to upgrade all their skills sufficiently to make the small achievements required for the level up gates at levels 5 and 10. The level gates were usually simple, but challenging enough to force the sojourner to actually gain some real skill in their crafting class specific crafts.

This was a bit concerning for Andaros, as he really didn't have any skill in his crafting class, nor did he know how his crafting class truly worked yet. He also didn't have access to the requirements for the level gates, so he didn't know what to work toward. Thankfully, Sonn informed him that he could get help in this in the [Crafts Menu]. There he could learn about the crafting class, and find information on the crafts employed, as well as the required materials for making various parts, tools, and products for the class, or with it. He could also find details on basic techniques, and skills used to craft the goods he would be producing, whether parts, or full products.

Looking through this menu, Andaros found many videos of processes he had seen, but there were also instructions and directions for things he had never seen yet, and he would be able to follow these to learn more clearly how to work with the materials, recipes, and schematics of the crafting class he had chosen. After learning about this, he thanked the leatherwork tutor for his guidance.

Once everything was processed, Andaros and Reiya packed up the items they had used to treat the furs and scaled leathers. He insisted she take ten of the drying racks, two troughs, and after checking the curing agents they neutralized and disposed of them with Sonn's guidance. They were mostly used up anyway, only a little efficacy remained, and it wouldn't be worth trying to use them for anything but a very small hide, according to the leatherwork tutor.

Finishing with their project had taken most of the day, although there was some time remaining, so they decided to go hunting for quests to do the next day.

“Ah, Young Andaros, come talk with me,” the Crafts Master called out as they were beginning to leave. Andaros walked over, and Jurgen spoke to him, saying, “I seem to recall you wanted to know where you could mine for ores. Are you still interested?”

Andaros nodded, “Yes, I would be interested.”

“Good, I have the details on the first ore you should work on mining, It's much easier than the stuff the guards will need, and will get you some experience in the mining skill in order to mine the more difficult ores more easily. In addition to that, I have a request for you that will give you a bit of an increased incentive to work hard. I will give you a repeatable quest, it will stay in your quest log, and may only be completed once per day. You need only reach one of the objectives, and may turn in the items. First, we'll start with copper, there's a copper mine to the west around an hour's walk. You'll find miners there, and Odgen can teach you the basics of mining to get you started. You'll just need a set of beginner prospector's tools. Anyway, Copper is the more common metal there, but tin can also be found if you look for it. I want you to mine enough ore, and smelt it into copper ingots, and I will pay you for every five copper ingots. The quest I am giving you allows for some upward mobility, and there are other objectives that are possible to complete, but I'll let you look at the quest details for those.”

You have received a repeatable, long-term daily quest, [Gathering Metals for the Crafts Master], you can gain more details on the quest within the Quest Menu.

“I'll get to work on it as soon as I can,” Andaros told him.

“I suggest waiting until tomorrow. For now, it's better to increase your strength. There are some enemies that will be difficult with your current strength in that direction. “Perhaps you can take some other quests together with young Reiya and gain some much needed experience. Oh Yes, girl, I have a similar quest for you, but regarding cloth. Here, there is a field of wild cotton to the east, which you can harvest, and turn into cloth. You can ask Teluna to use her spinning wheel and loom to produce the cloth, or purchase a portable version of each, although the portable versions are not very good, they should be good enough for what I expect from you at this point. The main point of this is to let you two practice, and Teluna can adjust the fabric as needed to get it to a decent enough quality for beginners to practice with.”

“Truthfully, these quests are mainly to give you both harvesting experience for your crafts, you already know where to get leather, so you just need to know where the main things for your class are. As for your class, Andaros, the crystals that are necessary for creating your psiber-swords and spirit-guns are currently undiscovered here. Although there may be some, I just don't know where they are yet. I have a suspicion some can be found in the forest further west, partially due to some reports I've viewed, but I can't confirm anything. It's difficult to get the guard captain to send any of the guard out to scout, as it's dangerous out there, and she cares for her men. Make sure you two stay very close to the hamlet until you get to level ten, as it quickly gets dangerous further out due to our situation. There are benefits to being a vassal city to of one of the kingdoms, and we don't have those here.”

Andaros nodded, it made sense that a place that was not part of a larger nation would not enjoy some of the benefits that hamlets or villages that are part of them would enjoy. One of those benefits would assuredly be regular army patrols along the roads, and cleanup of more dangerous creatures around population centers of any notable size. Whereas a small, rural community might not have trouble as part of a nation, an isolated small, rural community would not be so fortunate.

“I... need to get going,” Reiya told him suddenly. “I have to get ready for school.”

“Ah, okay,” Andaros responded, although confused. “I'll see you in a few days?”

“Yeah,” Reiya responded, then turned to the Crafts Master, “Thank you, Crafts Master Jurgen,” she told the man, and then left.

Andaros watched her go, and noticed her shoulders were drooping.

“That girl, thinks you're going to leave her behind,” Jurgen told him.

“I see,” Andaros responded. “Well, I don't have to, when she gets back, I'll help her level up.” He secretly sent her a message through the mail system. There was no whisper chat, so he had to do it this way.

Andaros: Why so sad? Master Jurgen says you think I'll leave you behind? Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, I'll help you level when you get back. Well, assuming I get anywhere without a healer in the first place.

Reiya: Okay! Thanks!

Andaros: No problem, I can't leave my new friend behind. When is your sister supposed to be coming?

Reiya: She just boarded the coach to here. She says when she logs back in from school she'll be here.

Andaros: You're pretty early logging off, it's still morning.

Reiya: It's my parent's rule, I can't be on past noon on a day before school.

Andaros: Oh, I understand. I'm home schooled, so I just log in to the pod and do my schoolwork there. Kinda simple, sit at a single desk in an empty white room, and read the reading material, then do the worksheets. The course work is harder than public school too.

Reiya: Oh, sounds weird. You're not bored?

Andaros: Don't know, I don't think I will be. I just do the required reading, and then do the worksheet for each class, and then I'm done. It's much faster, and I can get help if I'm really having trouble.

Reiya: What about social interaction. My parents don't want to home school us because we won't have enough social interaction.

Andaros: Isn't that what parks, and recreation centers are for? Trinity is also a form of social interaction.

Reiya: Oh! Well, gotta go, bye!

Andaros: I'll see you when you return!

Andaros was actually quite surprised at Reiya's having to leave already, he thought she had another day to play the game before she had to log out for proper sleep. It seemed weird, but who was he to judge? She could get off when she liked, and log on when she liked. As to how her sister would get there without being online, he didn't have a clue. As far as he remembered, the kids in class made a big stink about how the sojourner actually had to ride through their trips, and would face dangers during journeys. They were always complaining about how they couldn't just use quick travel, and practically teleport to their destination. To him, this system made more sense, and would add more realism, but they didn't see it that way. The majority seemed to prefer ease over realism, but those who were into roleplaying certainly preferred the current system.

Well, it was no use worrying about that, or about when Reiya needed to log off, he'd just have to keep track of everything to do with himself, and do his homeschooling at the proper times. Thankfully, the sojourner could actually set reminders for themselves, including early warnings. While it wasn't good to just rely on those, he could still use them in case he lost track of the time. He decided to make a mental note to not rely on those, and instead keep track of things himself. Relying on others to keep himself on time, or safe would be a bad idea, although he did appreciate having Reiya around for the heals.

Andaros decided to see how he would do in battle without Reiya, thinking it would be best to adjust to combat without her around to save his behind all the time. It would also be a good time to work with Shiro, and see what the little critter could do. If what he had seen before was any indicator, she'd be fine in combat, likely more capable than him considering how long she had lasted against the enemy drolf alpha without a healer backing her up.

Heading outside the hamlet, Andaros quickly came across another cabbit, and swiftly found himself struggling to survive. He had become too reliant on Reiya's healing, and hadn't thought to dodge attacks, so the damage he received rapidly piled up. Shiro ended up having to save his behind, and he gratefully thanked the little critter. Over the course of the next hour or so, Andaros worked on dodging, but it was quite troublesome, and dividing his attention between dodging and fighting was not an easy thing when he had already become used to just standing still, attacking, and relying on the healer to keep him alive. He also realized he'd have to get some armor other than his psiber-armor soon, he was only just managing to survive with the suit, but if he had a full suit of leather armor the increase in defense would certainly help.

Despite his realization, Andaros didn't immediately head in to buy some armor, and instead worked on his dodging. It was when he had determined the creature he was fighting would be the last one of the day that he suddenly saw a pop-up window appear.

You have learned the [Dodge] skill, this skill will give a slightly increased effectiveness to your own ability to dodge when you attempt to do so.

After the pop-up appeared, Andaros found it slightly easier to dodge attacks, but it was by no means a huge difference. Finishing the battle was still difficult, and he had to rely on Shiro for help to survive. Andaros realized that if he had started out this way, he likely would adjust much quicker, but after Percy's quest, he had already become accustomed to fellowshipping with a healer and it was a major adjustment to learn how to solo enemies. If it weren't for Shiro, he'd have likely died a number of times, even against the rather weak cabbits nearer to the hamlet. That being said, he was already starting to get used to fighting the cabbits, and had started to get down the dodge timing, which was likely part of the reason he gained the skill just as he was finishing up. What this skill would mean for him in the future was anyone's guess, but he had already learned the value of avoiding damage in combat.

Sitting there and simply taking all of the damage coming his way was a stupid idea, even he had recognized this in the boss fight against the drolf alpha. As long as the damage wouldn't hit an ally, it would be best if he avoided any damage he didn't absolutely have to take. This would help the healer keep up with healing, as he wouldn't be taking massive damage very quickly, like he had with the drolf alpha, or at least not so fast she had a massively hard time keeping up with just normal fights. He hadn't thought to dodge on many occasions while Reiya was in the fellowship, so he had taken unnecessary damage to himself. This had caused her to nearly exhaust herself several times, and he had realized this despite her trying to hide it. Now he knew a method to prevent that, and he would have to do his best during the next few days to get to where he was not a burden for the young woman.

Yes, Andaros had started to think of himself as a burden, despite the fact that he had been a massive damage dealer thanks to his weapons, and a fairly decent tank due to his psiber-armor. All he needed was a bit more armor, and a bit more understanding of how a psiber-knight worked, and he would do quite well. He didn't understand how fellowships worked yet, and therefore had little understanding of the important part he had played in their group. For her part, Reiya thought she was the one dragging the team down, and despite what she had said, that was part of the reason she had left early. As such, they both hadn't fully understood the useful part they had each played in the fellowship. Thankfully, someone was soon to crash the party, and fix their misunderstandings. A whirlwind was coming that Andaros would have a good deal of trouble adjusting to, in addition to other troubles.

Not knowing what would come in the near future, Andaros headed back into the hamlet, deciding to head to Adolpho's and see if he could purchase a basic set of leather armor. It didn't take him long to arrive, nor did it take him long to find that Adolpho had already closed shop. Seeing this, he headed home, and slept in the bed there.

The next day, Andaros headed over to Adolpho's early, and found the man looking rather grumpy. He purchased a basic set of leather armor, and after some thought purchased a set of chainmail armor as well. There were two sets of armor one could wear, and with chainmail and plate armor one was required to wear a set of leather armor underneath or face severe penalties. This was aside from his psiber-armor, which was considered differently than normal armor. Plate armor would have required the help of someone else to equip, but chainmail did not require that, so it was a good option for an over-armor. Adolpho brought up the idea, but he still gave a good price, and so Andaros accepted the idea. Adolpho even informed him that chainmail came in numerous link patterns, and some would be harder in certain places. Chainmail with a thicker pattern would be stronger, while thinner patterns would be more flexible. This actually lead to many chainmail variations, with some providing more protection in specific places. The ones Adolpho carried were the most simple kind, with a chain pattern that was much more open, and similar to what was known as ringmail. The difference was small to Andaros, but it was enough to be worth noting.

The chainmail Andaros had bought had the least armor, at only fifteen points per piece, and had fairly low durability, so it wasn't the best, especially when the cheap platemail Adolpho carried had fifty armor per piece, and double that on the chestplate. The platemail also had roughly double the number of pieces to cover the same amount of body, but platemail was the reason knights needed a squire, well, that and banded mail. You literally couldn't put the stuff on without help, and Andaros wasn't ready to do anything like hiring a squire. He might be able to afford it for a while, but without a steady source of income there was no way he could continue to afford a squire. There were things Andaros needed to do before he would be ready to think of hiring a squire in the first place, so he didn't entertain the idea. Well, there was another way to go about it, Adolpho told him he could always purchase a slave to act as a squire, but Andaros wasn't really comfortable with that kind of thing.

Slavery in Trinity was much like the slavery in The Holy Bible,according to what Adolpho told him, the slaves had numerous protections, and most would be released after seven years, unless they decided to become that person's slave for their entire lifetime. None would be born into slavery, but the master was responsible for their slaves' children until they had come of age. There were exceptions to these rules, but Andaros hadn't let Adolpho continue his pitch beyond that. Adolpho hadn't been very nice following his interruption, but the merchant was still fair with his costs. He didn't know it, but he would soon be put in a situation where he would see those slaves, and learn just how different the situation was compared to what everyone on his home-world thought slavery was.

Andaros quickly headed home, after dealing with Adolpho pushing slavery, he wasn't too keen on being anywhere near his shop at this time. Once he had returned home, Andaros put on his new leather armor, and then donned the chainmail that he had bought. He then walked around a bit, and saw how the armor's weight and bulk affected him. Thankfully, the new leather and chainmail didn't add that much bulk, and were flexible enough they didn't make his movements awkward. The leather armor protected him from the chainmail, and kept it from doing things like pinching his skin, so that was a blessing. The new armor did slow him down a little when he wasn't using his psiber-armor, but as soon as he activated it, the suit compensated for the additional weight and bulk of the other armors, and he was moving just as easily as before. Having a power-armor suit in a fantasy world was certainly a very novel concept, and it made things much easier on him.

Walking out of the house, no one would realize he had any more armor on than before, but his armor value had nearly doubled from what it had been before. Thanks to the psiber-armor, he wasn't even slowed down by the other armors, making it so no one saw the difference as he left the hamlet. The reason for this, he found, was that the psiber-armor had a line that indicated it reduced the encumbrance of other armors, and provided no encumbrance itself. The amount of encumbrance reduction was a set amount, and not percentage based, it was much more than his new armors encumbered him.

Now, armor encumbrance in Trinity Online was not the same as being encumbered from having too much weight on the body. Armor encumbrance acted in such a way that it was very much like in his home world, it would encumber by the bulk of the armor, flexibility reduction, speed of movement, reaction delay, and a range of motion reduction, depending on the armor type. The psiber-armor seemed to counter all of these, and so he was able to move like normal, despite the encumbrance the armor added. The amount of this encumbrance wasn't that much, but it was still noticeable, and Andaros was easily able to see the difference when his psiber-armor was deployed.

The next thing Andaros did was to head outside the hamlet, and head to the area with the cabbits, once more practicing dodging while he fought. It was slow progress, but his dodge skill slowly crept upward, as did his combat class level. Crafting classes didn't level up with combat, which made sense, and he thought this was much more realistic.

His dodge skill slowly raised, as he continued practicing dodging, and he reached level two in the skill within the hour. As he continued practicing, it reached level three, and then started to rise much more frequently. In addition to this, his combat skills began to rise, as did his class level. Skill levels were able to raise by five levels per character level, and each had a maximum level they could raise. As for dodge, it could reach a maximum level of thirty, which wasn't all that high, but by that point it would have enough of a stacking bonus with his actual physical ability to dodge that it would easily be enough. It was also possible there would be other skills that would affect the ability to dodge attacks, but he wasn't going to bet on, nor worry about, that.

When his skill in dodging reached level ten, and the other combat skills as well, he found that killing the cabbits simply was not leveling his combat class fast enough, and decided to ask Percy why that would be so, to see if he had any idea what he should do to gain combat experience faster. With that in mind, he headed back into the hamlet, and over to Percy's usual spot.

“Good Morrow, Andaros,” Percy greeted him, “You look like you must have a question.”

“I do,” Andaros agreed with his words. “Do you know a reason why it might be taking me so long to get to level three in my combat class? The experience has been very slow in rising.”

“Well, there are a few possible reasons this could be so, what are you hunting, and do you have a quest to hunt them?”

“I've been hunting cabbits with Shiro, practicing dodging,” Andaros told him, then asked, “Do I need to have a quest to hunt them?”

“You don't need to have a quest, but a quest will make things much faster,” Percy informed him, “but without a related quest, the experience gain will be much slower. Cabbits are also much lower in experience gain than Enri, or Drolf are, although they're the perfect opponents for practicing the dodge skill until you reach at least level twenty in the skill. If you want to continue hunting them to raise your skill, I suggest you see the guard captain and get a quest to hunt them. Gaining a quest to gather their hides from the crafting class master will also assist in this. Otherwise, you can get a quest to hunt the Enri. What is your dodge skill at?”

“Level ten.”

“Ah, then Enri should practically not be able to touch you so long as you actively try to dodge them. You could likely raise your combat class level to three quite quickly if you were to hunt them, especially with a quest from the guard captain to do so. The guard headquarters is down the same road that all the class trainers of combat classes are down. I believe you should know where that is,” Percy responded with a smile.

“I see, thank you very much,” Andaros told the man, “I'd better get going.”

“Good Morrow to you, young psiber-knight, I pray you will have success in your endeavor.”

Andaros headed off, and stopped at his class trainer along the way, only to find there were no new skills or abilities available yet. He then continued along the way until he found a building with a large shield one it's face. Many people were coming and going from it, and it just so happened that his father in the world of Aegis was coming out of the building with his patrol mates.

“Andaros, what brings you to guard headquarters?”

“I'm currently in need of more combat experience, so that I can raise my dodge level further,” he told his father.

“Ah, I see, well, you can speak to the captain about that,” came the reply, “It takes her okay to receive such quests from guard headquarters.”

“Ah, I'll be sure to speak with her,” Andaros replied, then nodded, and headed into the building.

Inside, he found a simple setup with a desk in the back, and two desks to each side of the large room, with doors leading into other rooms of the building. A sign sat above the back desk indicating it was the desk of the guard captain, and another one said “New sojourners inquire here.” above each of the other desks also sat a sign indicating what they were for. Seeing this, he headed to the desk at the back, where a woman who looked surprisingly similar to him sat writing out some paperwork.

Andaros walked up to the desk, but stood there waiting patiently as she filled out her paperwork, not wishing to disturb her progress. She seemed to ignore him, and continued writing, but as soon as she had finished writing, she looked up and addressed him.

“Well, this is interesting, I had heard you were a caelestial-born, but I didn't know you'd look so much like my own kind. Why did you just stand there and wait?”

“I didn't wish to interrupt your duties,” Andaros responded to the woman, who appeared to be around thirty years of age.

“I thank you for that, but one of my duties is to deal with you sojourners, and register you with the sojourner's guild,” the quava woman answered. “Here, fill this paperwork out, you could have been doing this while I was finishing up my previous paperwork. Here's a quill, dip it in the ink, and remove a little before you write, otherwise you'll just make a mess.”

Andaros didn't comment on what she said, he simply nodded, and carefully dipped the quill into the inkwell, then cleaned it off enough it wouldn't be a problem, before he began writing on the piece of paper. One of his class teachers had been enamored with old ways of writing, and had taught his classes how to use such things, and even things like ink stones to write. It had taken him quite a while to learn how to do it, but he had managed in the end.

Seeing his skilled use of the quill and ink, the guard captain gave him a surprised look, but he ignored it, and continued writing, being careful to not smudge his writing. With a practiced hand, very practiced thanks to that teacher, he soon had finished writing his information on the form he had been given, and cleaned the quill before placing it in the holder beside the inkwell.

“I'm surprised you know how to do this. Are you a noble on your home world,” the woman asked him.

“No, I just had a teacher who was very much enthusiastic about such things, and taught us how to write with a quill and inkwell,” Andaros answered truthfully. “He always told us how much more refined the handwriting of the people of that time was than the present age of our world.”

“Well, I must say that your handwriting is quite a bit more refined than many I have seen, even among the people of our world,” she told him.

“According to the teacher, my handwriting was only barely acceptable,” He said, giving her a wry look.

“If that's barely acceptable, your teacher must have had higher standards than any noble, or royal I know of,” she responded, shaking her head. She took his paperwork, and then brought out a machine, and a metal plate, then placed the paper on one side of the machine, while placing the metal plate in an area that looked like it was meant to stamp the metal. She carefully aligned both items, and then stamped the plate. As she did so, the paper and plate began to glow, and after a few moments the paper disintegrated. After that, she pulled the press back upward, and pulled out the small plate, which had changed color, and now looked like some kind of card. “Here you go, you're a tin ranked sojourner until you gain enough reputation. You can use the card at any sojourner's guild in the larger cities, but in the smaller ones you may use them at the guard headquarters to take quests. The cards also act as a general identification, and a passport for sojourners like you. Now, to use this card at our guard headquarters, I require sojourners to take a bit of a test. While I say it is a test, it is broken down into three parts. These parts are rather simple, but there are many who simply fail to complete them. Here, take this paper, it details the quest, although the parts will only be revealed upon completing the part of the test before them. I hope you will complete this test, rather than giving up too quickly.”

You have received a quest, [A test from the Guard Captain]

Complete the tasks given, in the order they appear, do not be quick to give up, there is a reward at the end for those willing to put in the hard work.

Part One: Kill 50 cabbits

Andaros looked at the quest details as the paper disappeared as soon as it touched his hand. It was rather surprising, but he had seen a number of surprising things already, so he ignored that, and looked over the details.

“Is there any time limit to this,” he asked.

“No,” the guard captain responded, “but many give up before ever completing it. The third task you will get is random, and I have no control over it, but the other two are pretty monotonous, as they involve the two most common creatures in this area.”

Andaros could understand why many gave up before completing this quest, if the first part was like this, killing fifty cabbits was quite the chore, and there were two parts following this one. They were the weakest creatures in the area, but also the most difficult to hit that he had come across. It was even more difficult without a healer, as he couldn't sit still, and since both he and the creature were moving, it became much harder to hit the cabbits.

“I'll get to work,” he told the woman, and left the building to head back to where he had been hunting.

“Ah, young Andaros, I could use your help,” Percy called out to him as he was heading back.

Andaros turned his way, and noticed that a young man was standing near the old man. “What can I help you with,” he asked the old man, already having an inkling as to what he might need help with.

“Young Magnus here needs help with his fellowship quest,” Percy explained.

“Sup,” the young man called out.

“Oh, sure, I've got to kill a bunch of cabbits anyway,” Andaros told Percy as he walked over.

“Yes, they are quite the prolific creatures,” Percy responded, ignoring Magnus's . “The enri too are fairly quick to propagate, but the drolf have been brought under control for now, so the third part of his quest has to be changed. As Magnus is a Magus, he can contract with a creature, much like you did with your horned cabbit, although it is a bit different. I would appreciate it if you can help him with his search. There are a number of creatures that will be good companions for a magus, but unfortunately the cabbits are not one of them, otherwise his quest would be easy.”

You have been offered a quest, [Help Magnus], do you wish to accept?

Andaros said, “I'll accept the quest. Which of us should lead?”

“I suggest you lead,” Percy told him, “but his leading would increase his ability to contract his companion by a slight bit over your own.”

“Huh?” Both Magnus and Andaros let out an unintelligent response to his words.

“Wait, my class has a bonus for leadership, yo,” Magnus called out.

“Indeed, the Magus class does give a special bonus to contract your companion creature, but Andaros is a caelestial-born of the Caelestial Qillin, and has a caelestial-born bonus nearly identical to it. In addition, his Paladin specialization psiber-knight class has it's own bonuses. While those bonuses will not help much in the search for your companion, they certainly will help in combat.”

“What kinda bonuses we talkin' here,” Magnus responded. The guy sounded like a thug, but looked completely like a scholar.

“A five percent reduction to all incoming damage for all fellowship members, to start,” Percy responded, his eye twitching a bit.

“Yo, yo, yo, that's hot man, you da boss, invite me, fo' rizzle,” Magnus cried out, leaving Andaros a bit tongue-tied.

Letting out a sigh, Andaros formed the fellowship with Magnus.

“Don't you want to know the other bonuses,” Percy asked.

“Nah man, I'm down with my nizzle being da boss,” Magnus responded.

“Who says my nizzle in a regular conversation,” Andaros asked, shaking his head. “Let's get going, and tone down the gangsta speak a bit, if you keep that up, it's going to be troublesome for the natives to understand you.” He turned, and began walking.

Magnus quickly followed him, “Nah man, I ain't gangsta, dis's jus' how ma fam'ly talks, ya feel me,” the young man explained.

“No, I don't feel you,” Andaros told him, “Look, just speak a bit more normally, you're drawing a lot of attention for this little hamlet.”

“Eh?” Magnus looked around, and saw a large number of people looking their way. He had been so animated that everyone in the area could hear him. “Yo, Yo, sorry my nizz, I'm just so jazzed ta finely be playin' dis game.”

Andaros let out a sigh, this was gonna be troublesome, the guy wasn't bad, but he talked like a wannabe gangsta, not a gangster, but the guys who tried to be like rappers and gangsters, and had some skewed image of what they were.

“Sorry man, when I get too excited I slip up, and start talkin' like my pops,” Magnus apologized after a moment.

“Sounds like a gangsta wannabe,” Andaros responded.

“Nah man, my pops is Shorty Do'thang, he's the real deal,” Magnus responded.

“Shorty do things? Never heard of him,” Andaros responded.

“You neva' heard of Shorty Do'thang? What rock did you crawl out from under, he's only the most popular rapper on the planet right now!”

Andaros let out a sigh, “No, never heard of him, let's just get to what we're supposed to be doing, and get this quest over with.”

Quest objectives:

Defeat cabbits 0/25

Defeat enri 0/25

Help Magnus find a companion creature suitable for his magus class 0/1