Before heading back, Prof climbed a large tree on top of the hill for geographical reasons.

Every little detail to his mental map was welcome, the climbing rewarded him with parts of a creek and a lake to the map. Since they didn’t expect another predator and Kendrik also didn’t wanted to hunt on the way back, they started running. Prof again blessed his Luck that he was able to enlist the ranger’s help, they completed the one day journey till noon. On his own Prof wouldn’t have been able to do so, and couldn’t even have found the Dire Wolf. He had still a day left, but on his own he probably would have been searching for the next week.

As soon as they reached the village, he washed himself and cleaned his clothes as much as he could. Who would have thought, that washing clothes was governed by the Skill [Housekeeping]? Certainly not Prof.

Have you ever had the misfortune to get your underpants pink, despite NOT washing it with anything vaguely pink or red? Prof was lucky, though, he just managed to make his clothes wet, but the dirt and blood stayed on them. Probably he needed detergent, soap and a washing machine, to at least have a chance to wash his stuff and make it not-pink. He saw two possibilities: first, raise his [Housekeeping] to a higher level and buy washing stuff, or secondly, pay someone to do the cleaning.

After a long deliberation of two seconds he opted for the second. He was ready to head for Lady Jotabor, when Hajni informed him that lunch was ready. Prof was the type that could be bribed with a good lunch or dinner (or here in Medievalia with any food) so he postponed his meeting with the feudal lord (Feudal Lady? Noble? Noble Lady) immediately. Lunch was the usual porridge this time with boiled vegetables.

Prof considered how many porridges one could eat before it becoming boring and how long would it take for him to hate even the smell. He hoped, someone discovered at least the secret of pottage or better yet, how to roast a chicken on open fire. Prof needed to learn how to cook (his [Cooking] Skill was at 58%) fast, or find a more civilised place where “food” had more variety than porridge. After lunch, while drinking the sub-standard piss they called beer there – yes, he definitely needed to find a more civilised place! - Kendrik turned to him.

“My friend, we will hold the Leveling Up Celebration in a few days, I hope you will come! If you hadn’t approached me with the hunt for Spots, it would possibly have taken years! We had to celebrate!”

“Leveling Up Celebration?” Prof had an inkling, what that was. It was in the name, after all! “So, you celebrate leveling up here, Master Kendrik? Where I come from, we didn’t do it.” Of course not, since nobody leveled up on Earth.

“That’s strange. I though everyone on Fenria has such a celebration! We commoners don’t level up as fast as soldiers, adventurers or nobles so each and every one is a significant event, the higher the level, the more significant! And please just call me Kendrik, I’m no one’s master!”

They shook hands on being on first-name basis – being polite is well and good, but after a time it gets tiresome and offensive after all. Obviously, helping the ranger level up let Prof harvest enough… reputation points?... to make Kendrik level up to the next… reputation level? Prof was a bit annoyed, that there was no mention of the points.

After a short after-lunch rest Prof took the wolf’s head and started his walk to the mansion. At the entrance to the village he greeted the old people sitting there and reported his success to Captain Bela – although it was not him that gave the task (and sent him into certain death), Prof felt it was always good to be on the right side of the law enforcement. That, and let the old warrior feel important – both had nothing to do with the fact, that Old Bela could beat up mortality migrants as Prof was without much effort. The Captain clapped Prof on his back and escorted him to the mansion.

“I heard, Kendrik leveled up!” Never underestimate information spread in a small village! Light speed is probably just crawling around in a parking lot looking for a parking space in comparison. “Although I lost the bet, I own you a thanks. After a while leveling up is just so rare, Kendrik almost gave up his next. It is very important in small villages as ours to have a few higher leveled individuals!”

“About that, Captain, I do have a question. I haven’t found any information about how far the next level is, how much EXP I get for this and that, how much is awarded for completing of a task or quest. No one explained it to me yet. I would have thought that defeating a higher level monster with such a low level as I am would grant me a Level.”

“You have to come from a strange place, indeed” the old soldier scratched his neck

“However, it is true that no one knows why, when and how we level up. It’s a mystery. An old friend of mine had the theory that it is not important what and how many you defeat, or what and how much you do, but why and how. For example Spots. If you just hunted him down for sport, you probably wouldn’t have moved forward to your next Level, but if you would have saved someone from immediate danger, it would mean much more. But this is just a theory amongst many. It may be true, or it may be wrong. Others say you get EXP only for tasks and quest, but not for killing things. Or leveling up is a divine gift, no one has any influence on it just the Heavenly Game Master. There is only one thing, everyone agrees on: we don’t know how much EXP we need for the next Level on purpose.”

The first theory would have explained a few things to Prof. The Dire Wolf was disturbing to the village, but did not present an immediate danger to anyone – so Prof killed it without good reason (but not for sport), but Kendrik saved a person in direct life danger, namely Prof. Of course, they went out of their way to be in mortal danger in the first place…

The essence of the theory would be that farming – not digging around the dirt, but massacre animals and monsters indiscriminately – was out for an easy level up, and the best way was to help people in mortal danger. If farming was the key, the Locals surely would have figured it out thousands of years ago, and there would be not even a stray cat left on Arkadia. Prof could agree with farming not being an easy way, in a lot of games he played he felt it almost be a cheat.

For not seeing the progress to the next level was a bit harder to understand, but could be explained as the other side of the coin: if you knew how much EXP that cat gave you, you would have a validation to start farming. That, or Arkadia’s master was just an asshole.

Arriving at the mansion it was Bela who knocked on the door and gave a crisp report to the lady. Prof let him, simply so the captain could feel important, and since that annoying parvenu-perk. It was better to deal someone else with upper class twats in Prof’s opinion. At least so long he wasn’t an upper class twat himself, and have people to deal with plebeians who wanted something from him. After the report was made, Lady Jotabor turned to Prof.

“What you promised, you delivered. I gracefully allow you to remain in my village and deal with tasks here. You can rent the serf’s quarters for two silvers a month, food, I assume you are proficient enough to provide for yourself.”

“As you wish, my lady.” Prof didn’t want to thank the obnoxious woman, but didn’t forgot politeness either. “Master Kendrik told me, one third of the loot is yours.” Prof took the impressive loot out of his pocket. Lady Jotabor just looked at it, and waved Prof away.

“I don’t need trash like this, you can keep it!”

“As you wish, my lady.” Prof had enough of the Lady. Two silvers for a serf’s quarters without food was probably exorbitant (and calling his hard fought for loot trash – although it being trash – wasn’t nice either), but as far as he found out, there wasn’t much in the way of quarters in the village. Maybe a barn or another or somewhere on the ground.

Yay, capitalism and monopoly!

You need something of a limited commodity, the sole provider could set the price – take it or leave it. Prof took it.

As it transpired, the serf’s quarters was a three by three metres shack made of boards and leaning against the wall or fence. The only furniture was a three-legged chair and a small desk, but Bela promised to get him some straw so he could make a bed for himself. Prof wondered, why there was a tavern in every last hamlet with comfortable beds in every story he read, and why has he had to provide his own bed for an overcharged hole. Probably this was the way back than in the medieval times – if you were a stranger in a new place, you could sleep in the gutter.

After the lodging was sorted out, Prof started to help himself level up a bit.

“Captain, Sir, could you help me out with the tasks in the village?”

“Let’s seeeee… There isn’t much, really, mostly gathering plants and firewood from the forest, sometimes an animal gets lost and needs finding. Oh, and probably Hajni and Kendrik would be grateful for some help. And, if you want, you can help my son in his patrols, he has a too large a territory to cover on his own.”

That was about what Prof feared to have in a small village out in nowhere. Basic fetch quests, a bit of reputation building stuff for the authorities, so nothing much to write home about. Prof already planned to take an apprenticeship with Kendrik, and would so probably spend some times in the woods, so fetching stuff from there was obvious. But patrolling seemed to take up a lot of time and time away from strolling through nice forests elsewhere. Just to be sure, he asked the head of security.

“Captain, Sir, I would like to help out with the patrols, but I planned to join Kendrik as an apprentice, and I don’t think the two would go well together.”

“Oh, that’s no problem at all! Someone needs to check the Western Border too, there are a few farms and coal burners out there, my son can only visit them every other week. If you can take a look around there every other day, that would be a huge help. We can’t pay much, but I can give you two coppers and dinner for each day you do patrols. What do you say?”

The payment wasn’t much, but at least Prof had dinner checked for every other day – and he was certain, he could harvest a lot of reputation point from Old Bela. Assuming, reputation points were really a thing.

“I think, I can manage that. You have a new recruit, Captain!”