When Livia told the fellowship what had been going on it truly rocked their world. They all felt like they had coped well with meeting a time traveler, of course her being Human and speaking the same language, albeit in a rushed and at times funny accent, helped a lot. As did growing up with magic and hearing about all kinds of legendary Spells, that you knew were actually real, even if you had no clue how it was possible.

But finding out that the magical [System], that made their very survival and even daily existence possible, the [System] that had saved their ancestors and given them a place in this world, that it could have been improved upon, however slightly, was mindboggling. Especially when you added the fact that one of its new 'Marked' was sitting in front of them.

It meant it was truly possible that even greater ages, than those who had come before, may lie ahead. Something that it was hard to take for granted, out here on the frontier where even basic magic was sort of rare. At least outside of purchased items. And where finding out that Humanity was at war again was a possibility each year. It made hope a rare and beautiful thing, hope that things would get better and not worse during your life time.

This brought them a new source of hope, even if Livia explained that the Mark was because of her being a traveler and not something commonly attainable, because she also told them there may well be others. She knew for a fact there were others, even if she didn't know where nor even when, but others that survived the 85 days.

This was big news for Humanity.

"To make it clear, we can't tell this to anybody, maybe not even every guild member. I saved you all by chance, and we've gotten to know each other, and I do trust you all." She had to. "And I know you have other people that you trust just as much," They had all had that thought, even though they understood the risks. "But so do they, and eventually everybody in Salcret would know. If we get out of here and actually build something worth enough that people will want to take it, we can't have our every secret outed by the first person who thinks to go visit Salcret." They all gave nods at this. They knew what was at stake.

"We're going to have to explain to people that you have a Skill that works better if you talk to it, or something," Oscar chimed in, making Livia blush. "You noticed, all of you?"

[You're hardly subtle.]

Livia was still the only one who heard the voice, but the words were followed by teasing and laughs all around.

Weeks of winter went by and passed the new year, but everybody had their energy lowered by the short and dark days. And the constant wet, as soon as it snowed once it never left. Until spring.

Roldy and Kalle still found ways to work out their Spells, with the aid of Oscar, but for once their progress had stalled. The forests usual nature energies lay dormant and Harold could only access them at the greatest need. Him and Oscar still sparred all the time, and he still went to visit Brunner once a week, but with having to trudge through the snow, there and back, and Brunner working him to the bone more and more the less he showed up, it just didn't feel worth it without his usual energies.

Kalle meanwhile had discovered that moving Oscar and mundane objects around, and trying to push snow and ice, were very different matters. He wasn't yet sure if it was because the snow had some subtle magic energies he couldn't detect, or if it was the temperature or sheer weight, but his [Telekinetic Push] felt like it had digressed to its original level 1 state when he tried it, so Kalle was busy working up to his usual prowess but in the blistering cold. It reminded him of being back at the waterfall and he was forced to take frequent breaks to calm down unless he wanted to be running [Esper's Balm], which didn't seem healthy. He was happy though, learning how his magic interected with different elements was clearly tremendously important.

But for once Livia was the one making the most progress. She'd started to figure out her new [Quest] system, but it took some interrogating Mr Beard to finally understand the hows and whys.

For one it was apparently the case that the [System] had always had the ability to provide things like the [Quest] system, humanity had just never leveled enough classes in that direction highly enough for it to have seen fit to spend the required power activating it. What Mr Beards team had done was create a shortcut that made the function available to but a select few and thus did not force the Human [System] to activate the function and make it available to all fully.

Mr Beard however was not an actual part of the [System] and could not tell her where the other Earthers may be for example. Rather he was a part of her Mark and had only the knowledge that Humanity had accumulated right as they created the [Temporal Magi] Class. Parts of the [System] were still a mystery that perhaps only the ancestors knew the answers to.

For now Livia needed to focus on leveling. Her time in Salcret had not been poorly spent, she had been doing what a [Business Guild Master] did best, scouting for members. The list included all kinds of Classes, although mostly young people who she could imagine actually managing to convince of leaving with them, without Livia having to end up spilling her every secret.

Even if she only planned on recruiting trustworthy guild members it would still take spending some time and getting to see more of their character before she could consider trusting them fully.

It was time to get to work.