"There's no way in hell you're naming that thing Mossy, Harold." Livia crossed her arms and wore an adamant look. Kalle, Oscar and Nalai were all nodding gravely. Even the pup seemed to object with a dismayed look.

"Oh fine, we'll brainstorm later," His eyes wouldn't leave the creature, despite him knowing enough to keep his distance and let the pup approach.

Nalai finally hopped down from the boulder and landed with a grace no purely humanoid form could manage. While she did have a torso, arms and hands as you would expect. Meanwhile her legs looked nearly all elk, except for the upper part that was exquisitely balanced where it met the torso. The large head was the most characteristic part, and the large brown eyes. Livia was shaking in excitement now that she no longer felt in danger.

"I need to take my leave, my business here took longer to conclude than I had hoped. If you stay true to your path we will be peers next time we meet," She looked to the three others. "You will come to learn a lot, if you don't like what you hear then I suggest you fade away and live a quiet life rather than oppose us, enemies of the Cloven learn soon to expect no quarter." Her form started glowing and she took two long steps before touching a tree and disappearing in a green flash. Left on the ground was a strange earthen jar filled to the brim with glowing honey, and Harold noticed, to his chagrin, that the last of his apple-drink was gone.

The words left them dismayed, sure there had been rocky parts in the interaction but they figured they were set to part as friends, but the confusing words cast the whole meeting in doubt. At least they all felt certain she was not interested in attacking them, which was a huge relief considering the stranger was clearly high-leveled.

"I suppose we should head back tonight, I don't really want to chance any more random meetings," Said Livia.

On that they could all agree.

The trio woke up at the ruins for a fourth time and felt like it was almost becoming a second home. Livia woke up and hated life, the wilderness, not having a bed. Everything hurt. She craved civilization, or the semblance of it, at any cost. She stared murder at the chipper Harold who woke up with his usual boundless energy and took off because he smelled some berries he recognized. Being Classless sucked, was her final conclusion.

Despite being able to accept a Class her options were severely limited out here. [Hammerer] was an option, but Livia knew she wasn't built for combat nor manual labour. And that was human versus human she was thinking of, let alone human vs. Ogre or any of the other races with Classes she might have to face in this world. Kalle might be willing to lend her his wand to see if she could get [Warlock] but that was just combat in a different style, she was not interested despite the allure of magic. She knew from the books that even seemingly mundane Classes got magical abilities later on if you levelled them correctly.

They were headed back for Salcret, and Harold was egging the mosswolf pup along with continuous bribery. They got lucky with some edible mushrooms along the way, but the mood was one of introspection.

Once they stopped for supper Livia felt that it was time to once again share what was on her mind. "So, I appreciate the support back there, and your understanding why I did what I did," The boys took the words amicably and felt no need to respond beyond a nod. "I thought of a few more things we could do to be better prepared, not that we're likely to face any more dangers between here and Salcret, but still." No objections there. "Let's first off list what we're working with, and if you've thought of something I missed then you better know to speak up, all our lives could be on the line,"

This was the summary they worked with; Livia, 1 Skill, [Big Hammer] followed by Harold, 10 Skills and Spells, [Roar of the Wild], [Nourishing Remains], [Nature's Resistance], [Regenerating Form], [Ruptured Earth], [Bond of the Forest], [Spore of Dreams], [Primal Domain], [Touch of Chaos] and [Voidthorn's Grasp] and Kalle, who was still one level higher and halfway to his capstone, with his 10 Skills and Spells, [Fort of the Mind], [Telekinetic Push], [Esper's Balm], [Escape Room], [Wailing Bolt], [Ritualistic Practice], [Mental Domain], [Prize Familiar], [Mind Blast] and finally [Words of Fortitude].

The biggest unrealized potential was clearly Kalle, he had several Spells dependant on him learning to use rituals and summon creatures from other realms, but he had no Spellbook or teacher to show him a single one, and the only one he had to practice was one to communicate with ghosts, and guess what, the interesting ghosts weren't exactly hanging around looking to talk with teenagers. It was a huge area of his Class that was going neglected, but the plan had always been to deal with that sort of thing once they got to Dormata. When it was all laid out like that Harold realized he'd been so focused on his own issues with realizing his potential that he had not even noticed his friend struggling to an even greater degree. Kalle hadn't been working on [Telekinetic Push] either, it was simply too weak to be useful still, and he could tell that improving it would take a tremendous amount of hours. His main focus, [Esper's Balm], was the one thing keeping him leveling coupled with [Wailing Bolt], which Kalle had yet to fully figure out. At least [Mind Blast] was rather simple in nature, although perhaps even that had some hidden potential if you figured it out more deeply.

"I understand why you didn't use [Escape Room] when you were facing the mosswolves Kalle," The reasons were multiple, first off the Spell was costlier the more targets you needed to trick, since it was ultimately just a mental illusion. And second, it didn't last long enough to give you more than a headstart in a place like a forest. You couldn't hide because of their sense of smell and their speed meant you needed more than a headstart to actually escape. "Despite the primary use being escape it can still serve as a distraction while you reposition. Especially if we face something with a ranged attack this could prove invaluable, you need to be ready to use it right away, and the rest of us need to react accordingly, if we're ever shot at,"

They kept going through Skills and planning for different scenarios, despite the fact they were on their way back to safety. It was clear Livia was serious about just wintering in Salcret, they would need to work tirelessly, once spring arrived they were all headed back out to find a place where they could finally start to build something amazing.