## Chapter seven, Information

Back in the guesthouse, I immediately started putting my free points to good use. I did as Rondellen suggested and put all 15 in Wisdom. Boy was I happy that I had listened to the man and was laying on the bed. There was no warning or anything I just passed out.

I woke up, probably a few hours later, I felt different, not better or worse but different. I checked my status.

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 13

Coins: 1795 gold, 35 silver,

8 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 10

Dexterity 10

Endurance 7

Vitality 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 45

Available points: 0

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 70/70

Mana: 45/45

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 1/10

[Telekinesis] level 1

Since Rondellen said he would come and get me when it was time for dinner, I thought that I would try out [Telekinesis] once more. My mana bar was toggled on. This time I’d see more clearly how it got depleted.

There was a chair across from the bed, and I thought that lifting it would probably not work that well, but if I could drag it? The chair stood on the right-hand side of the door. So I got an idea of sorts. I focused on the chair and activated [Telekinesis] and got it in front of the door. And then instantly released the skill while looking at my mana bar.

Mana bar:

15/45

The door opened into the room, so my thought was that I maybe would be able to use the chair as a way to barricade the door or make it harder to open at least.

Next attempt, I activated [Telekinesis] once more and focused on moving the chair so it ended up just under the handle of the door. It worked!

*Congratulations, your skill [Telekinesis] has reached level two. Want to expand the range from 5 meters to 10 meters or raise the strength of the skill? Expanding range is self-explanatory. Raising the strength will help you to lift heavier items.*

It felt like a no-brainer, I raised the strength.

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 13

Coins: 1795 gold, 35 silver,

8 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 10

Dexterity 10

Endurance 7

Vitality 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 45

Available points: 0

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 70/70

Mana: 45/45

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 1/10

[Telekinesis] level 2

Huh, apparently you got your mana to reset automagically when you leveled up your skill. Same as when you leveled up, but only the attribute that was connected to the skill reset. Well, that made sense.

I just had to try the new strength so I stood up and lay the old Goblin sword on the floor. Then I sat down on the bed.

Activated [Telekinesis] and focused on bringing the sword up from the floor and into my outreached hand. And it worked. My new amount of mana and the second level of the skill helped, of course. The sword flew right into my hand.

Mana bar:

0/45

So if I should have any actual use of my skill instead of it just being a neat parlor trick, I needed to seriously up my points in Wisdom.

At that time I heard a knock on my door and Rondellens voice through the door, “Green Raven, I’ve put a parcel containing your new clothes and dinner robes. Change into one of them and then come meet us in the dinner house.”

“I will,” I shouted back as I moved towards the door, moved the chair out of the way, and opened the door. The corridor was empty except for the parcel Rondellen had dropped off.

I checked everything in the parcel real quick and then changed into the dinner robe that had the color Caput Mortuum. It felt appropriate considering the events of the day. The robe was all I had thought and more. On the inside there was one discrete pocket on each side. On the back of the robe at waist height, there was a pocket that could probably hold a knife or something slim at least.

The dressing was done, I took one last look at the room and then walked quickly to the dinner house.

I reached the door and was just about to open it when I thought better of it and knocked.

### Rondellen ###

After Green Raven had scampered into his room in the guesthouse, I went straight to Ragnhild, who was sitting in the living room and meditating. I sat down on a sofa and took a couple of deep breaths. I thought the time of fighting Marurade was over. Last time we barely survived, or many of us didn’t. I sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and let my thoughts and feelings wander freely.

By the time I emerged from my deep contemplation and opened myself to the world around me again, I felt Ragnhild’s eyes on me with questions in her gaze.

“I’m afraid that the time of calm and ease is over for now. Marurade and his followers are making a comeback.” I said with a calm I didn’t feel at all.

Ragnhild, serene and totally at peace, tensed at my word and said, “How do you know?”

“It was just plain old luck, or if it was that I accompanied Green Raven today. Anyway, after we went to Ander’s store, he is, by the way, coming to dinner tonight. Or rather he was coming before this happened, now he would have to come either way. Anyhow we went to Pelts Are Us and Glenda seemed to have fallen for the lures of Marurade as we thought but now it’s more or less confirmed. She openly mentioned runes that can be used for evil.”

“So we need to call Rufus, Max, Mona, and Evers over for dinner tonight.” Ragnhild sighed.

“Yes, I was going to get Evers to come over either way to explain to Green Raven about the animosity towards offworlders. With his history, he is best suited for it. And now it will become even more important that the Green Raven will know everything.” I said.

Ragnhild was saying that she would call on Mona and Max and get dinner ready when Alfred came storming into the room.

“I have closed down the Smitty and brought over everything we might need for this new fight against the devils.” He said seriously, “but I also had time for making a portable grinder and roasting machine for making Canfee because that shit will help us I’m certain.”

Even if the situation had the potential to become severe, we all needed the laughter that followed.

“Alfred, you crazy man! Things like this are why I married you even if you are an offworlder.” Ragnhild said and kissed Alfred.

“Okay, time to get everything set for dinner. I’ll get Rufus and Evers. Ragnhild is calling on Mona and Max. You get dinner sorted with Anders,” I said when Anders came in carrying a couple of parcels.

“Alfred, you get your brother up to speed,” I said while turning and starting to mentally call Rufus and Evers and explain the situation to them.

A couple of hours later after calling all of our people together and I left the clothes at Green Raven's door, we were all seated at the round table in the dining house. We heard a knock on the door.

### Green Raven ###

“It’s open, come in,” I heard a voice say through the door.

I opened the door and walked in. Eight people were sitting at the round table, four of whom I knew since earlier, and four were new.

“Hello, Green Raven,” I heard Rondellen say, “sit down and we will tell you everything we know about offworlders and why they come to PAERD, shadow warriors, and Marurade.”

I sat down and surprisingly was offered a cup of Canfee. It came from a strange contraption that was not even near a coffee-maker from back home. Alfred had a big smile, and I now noticed that all eight people had each a cup of the steaming liquid.

“Before we start with all serious talk and discussions, I want you to drink from your cups. It's Canfee. The first of its kind, and something that under other circumstances would be a big hit here. It’s all Green Raven’s creation. I only made the Canfee-maker after I saw how he made it.”

the, for me, new people around the table and Anders sipped carefully from the cup with Canfee, but soon I heard ah and ohs from them. After explaining everything about Canfee, we all started to settle down. Ragnhild used [Teleport Item] and the food arrived. It was almost the same as yesterday, but the meat was different. When the food came, the mood also changed from cheerful to somber. Even if I was curious, I felt it wasn’t time to ask what the meat was. Not that it mattered, it was as delicious as the one we had the day before. We ate in silence and soon the food was taken away.

“Now then,” Rondellen spoke up with a serious voice, “it’s time to tell why offworlders are not well-liked and why we all are gathered together here tonight. But first, the people you haven’t met before will introduce themselves, Rufus you can go first.”

“Yes, I’m level 65…”

“Before you say anything more,” I interrupted, “can I inspect you all? My skill [Inspect Being] is only level 1.” They all agreed that it was a good idea. And what did you know? My skill is now level 3 and the range has extended to 50 meters.

What I got to hear that evening was a lot. The condensed version was that the friends, Ragnhild, Rufus, Ever, Mona, and Max along with Ragnhild’s father Rondellen had fought against the Devil Marurade and his followers. In addition to my new friend's levels, I also got to know their skills. As I had guessed, Ragnhild had both [Teleport Item] and [Teleport Being]. They told me that Shadow Warriors almost always fought on the Devil's side. PAERD had long had a declining population and one of the ways Userus combated it was to bring in people from other worlds. At the time when this all happened, two young brothers from a different planet got the offer to come to PAERD. They became known as Alfred and Anders. They fought alongside Ragnhild, her friends, and Rondellen. Along the way, Alfred and Ragnhild got married, but they were among the only few who chose to fight on the side of the people of PAERD. Most of the offworlders got lured over to fight for Marurade. He offered great riches and unimaginable power. He could grant 10 extra points on each level up. During the war, it became known that he had something called Running With Devils that granted the extra points. The way it got explained to me I figured out that it somehow had to do with the in-game ads that the game had. Not that it made any sense.

Now full of food and new knowledge, I got into bed that night with a lot more questions. We decided I would start training the next day, and Evers would bring his daughter, Eonde, for me as a sparring partner. Anders would train us. Rufus, it became clear, was quite the crafter, and he would make sleeping bags out of my three Wood Wolf pelts.

The next morning, I awoke with a great deal on my mind and was quite tired as well. It had become a late-night and early morning. I was awoken by someone knocking hard on my door yelling “Time!” Over and over and then stomping off.

When I came into the kitchen and was handed a hot steaming cup of Canfee, I was grateful.

After a hot breakfast with something close to egg and bacon and more Canfee, I was ushered by Alfred to a location of the house I had yet to see.

“From now on you will call me Master Anders or Master when we train.”

“Yes Master,” the gravity of the situation had become more than clear last night, so calling him Master was not an issue for me. Back on earth, I’d balked at calling anyone that, but then again back on earth, I was a nobody. Here, I felt I had been allowed to become someone. Calling Anders the master while he trained me, free of charge, mind you, was something I’d gladly do.

The room we entered was a square room without windows. There were wooden training swords and shields on racks on one side and there were training dummies in one corner. The floor was covered with that kind of gravel that you normally see on a clay court at a tennis tournament back on earth. I started to imagine that I’d probably try that health potion I had in my [Inventory], sooner rather than later.

While I was looking around the room and familiarizing myself with it, I smelled more than heard how a third person had entered.

### Eonde ###

My father called me over last night and told me that the thing we had trained for the larger part of my life was about to start soon. But first, we should help his old friends to train an offworlder who had just arrived here. Offworlders were not popular among regular folks for obvious reasons. The Bondlaeppers that my father and his friends had called themselves back in the day were not regular in any sense, and two of them were offworlders themselves, or that was at least what my father had told me. When I was younger I couldn’t believe it. All the stories people told were about what monsters offworlders were. Now that I am almost an adult, (I turned 17 last month), I knew better. They were just like us. There were good people and bad ones among them, the same as us, the natives of PAERD.

I reached the house of Alfred and Ragnhild. On what looked like a normal two-story house there also was a basement with rooms for different types of training and a vault for valuables that few knew about. And that’s where I went. The first time my dad showed me the door down to the basement I was amazed at how ingenious it was. So easy yet no one that didn’t know if it would ever think of it even if they looked for it.

On a table in the living room, there was a bowl filled with stones, both round and square. Before my father told me why the bowl was there, I thought that it was just another art installation that was plentiful around the whole house. On the square stones, each side had a different color. You used [Inspect Item] on them while holding a soul stone that only the Bondlaeppers and the ones they trusted had. When you used the skill, on one of the square stones an ASCII art kind of picture of a keyhole would appear and you could release the soul stone. Then you used [Inspect Item] again on the stones until you found another square stone showing the picture of a key. Holding them together on a section in the wall in the corridor towards the kitchen, the wall would get pellucid. Through it, you would find stairs going down to the basement.

I heard Alfred’s voice coming from the sword training room and went in there.