The following morning, I was awoken by the sound of someone banging on my door. I was so surprised that I actually fell out of my hammock so when Burl opened the door, he found me lying on the floor.

“Are you alright there, Rick?’ Burl asked as he attempted to hold back his laughter.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I sighed as I picked myself off the ground. “My Toughness is more than high enough that falling from that height. So basically, all I actually ended up hurting was my pride when you opened the door and saw me.”

This was the final straw that caused Burl to literally break down in tears as he burst out laughing causing a grin to cross my face. It was good to hear laughter again after being on my own for so long. Even if it was at my own expense.

Once Burl had stopped laughing, we headed over to where an old woman was stirring a pot of something that kind of looked like some sort of porridge. As it turned out it also tasted kind of like porridge and had some sort of dried fruit mixed through it.

“This is really good,” I remarked to Burl who nodded in agreement.

“It’s pretty simple but it’s tasty and filling,” he agreed. “So how do you feel about starting your lessons with Vera today?”

“I’m actually really looking forward to it,” I replied once I’d swallowed my latest mouthful of breakfast. “I would like to get some training in at some point as well though.”

“Sure,” Burl agreed. “I was always planning on working with you on upgrading your current spells this afternoon. I just wanted to get you started on learning about our culture first. While I’m sure that most of the others will understand your lack of knowledge some won’t.”

“Like Xan?”

“Exactly,” Burl nodded. “Besides the longer we wait the more likely it is that Vera will talk me out of making her teach you.”

“Yeah, she seems like she’d be pretty hard to refuse,” I admitted without thinking causing Burl to smirk at me.

“What?”

“Nothing,” the old man replied innocently as Drem sat down next to us.

“What are we talking about?” he asked taking in the amused look on Burl’s face and the irritated look on mine.

“Nothing,” I said firmly causing the old man to start shaking in amusement.

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” Drem pointed out.

All I did was say that Vera seems like she would be hard to refuse,’ I snapped. “That’s it.”

“Well, she is pretty hard to refuse,” Drem chuckled. “You’ve complained about that before old man.”

Burl let out a strangled choking sound as Drem turned the tables on and started coughing.

“Alright I think that’s enough of whatever this is for now,” I sighed as I got up. I had actually already finished eating the porridge by the time Drem had sat down so I returned the bowl to the old lady smiled at me politely.

Returning to the table I asked Drem where Vera was since Burl still seemed to be choking on something, I slapped him on the back so hard he fell off the log that he was sitting on.

“Any idea where Vera is?” I asked, completely ignoring the annoyed look that he was giving me much to the amusement of Drem.

“She’s over in that direction,” Burl sighed after he’d finished glaring at me. “She’ll be near one of the wagons and probably reading something.”

“Fine,” I guess I’ll see you guys a bit later then,’ I said as I turned to walk away.

The smile on my face grew by several sizes when I heard Burl grumble something about teaching me my place later. Despite his rather obvious bluster I knew that the old man wasn’t going to make me do anything that I couldn’t handle. He just wasn’t the type of person to do that, and he owed me a lot as well.

Sure enough, I found Vera sitting on the back of one of the wagons that the refugees had brought through the portal with them the other day. Now that I had a bit more time, I decided to examine the wagons that the Yajash had brought with them. They kind of resembled that covered bullock wagons that my own ancestors had used to travel through the rough bush that covered much of New Zealand except for the fact that they were somehow articulated in the middle which allowed them to navigate the rough terrain even easier. Even the beasts that pulled them kind of looked like a cross between some sort of giant lizard, a bull, and a rhinoceros. One of the three horned creatures grunted at me as I wandered past causing Vera to look up.

When she saw me, she frowned briefly before plastering a shy smile across her face. I sighed slightly before reciprocating her awkward smile with a genuine one of my own. Hopefully, she would warm to me sooner rather than later because this was going to get old really fast and that was without mentioning how much more awkward it would make the lessons.

“Good morning Vera,” I greeted the short girl as I slowly approached her. “How are you today.”

“I’m fine,” she replied so quietly that it was actually difficult to hear her even with my high Perception. “Are you ready to start.”

“Whenever you are,” I nodded as I sat down on the grass in front of her. “What are we going to start with?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Vera replied with a sigh. “I suppose we could start wherever you want to start.”

“Alright, how about we start with the System,” I suggested. “Has it always been around?”

“I believe it came into existence several thousand years ago,” Vera replied. “Our records from back then are pretty spotty though. So, we’re not sure about the exact time period.”

“I take it that you have no idea what caused the System to come into being either right?” I sighed and Vera nodded in agreement. “Well, I suppose that if really wanted to know I could just ask the Admin.”

“You shouldn’t bother Sibao like that,” Vera scolded me before blushing when I smirked at her. “I mean, Sibao is a god. It’s not our place to bother gods with questions.”

“A god huh?” I grunted. “I guess that’s as good a way of explaining what they are as any. That’s not what they claim to be though.”

“I wouldn’t say that around anyone other than me or Burl if I were you,” Vera told me in a surprisingly firm tone. “Drem might be alright as well but other than that the others are pretty much all believers. And definitely don’t say anything like that around Xan.”

“I guess that you and Burl already knew then?”

“Of course, we do,” she sighed. “All Keepers know that. So do the Priests if they’re honest about it but there aren’t many of them left.”

“You just let the Priests lie about Sibao being a god?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow at Vera who sighed in irritation.

“That’s not entirely accurate,” she sighed. “Or at least that’s the way that I think of it. You might disagree.”

“Feel free to explain it to me then,” I suggested. Despite her extremely shy nature it was clear that Vera was both highly intelligent and quite opinionated. In fact, was willing to bet that those to things were the reason that she was as shy as she was.

“Well, there is a bit of information that we’re missing as to both the origins of the System and the Priesthood,” she began. “But our records suggest that the Priesthood used to simply be formed from people who had caught the interest of Sibao and were given the ability to speak with it. I believe that you have a similar ability?”

“That’s right.”

“Somewhere along the way, probably about the same time that our ancestors split from the Redians things started to change,” she continued with a smile. Apparently, I had been slightly mistaken about Vera. She was a much better teacher than I thought she would be. Her voice was easy to listen to and it was obvious that she was knowledgeable about this subject as well which made it interesting to listen to. “People started relying on those who could speak with Sibao more and more until eventually a religion started to form around them. Some of them tried to prevent this from happening but others seeing the chance to gain power encouraged it.”

“And Sibao still gives these Priests the ability to speak with them?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem to fit with what I know about them.”

“Not every Priest can speak with Sibao,” Vera explained. “There are definitely some Priests that can but there are also those who lie about their abilities. It can actually be pretty hard to tell sometimes which is which even for us.”

“But there are Priests want to change things?”

“There used to be,” Vera agreed. “I don’t know how many of the Priests that feel that way are left though and the two Priests that came through the portal with definitely don’t. In fact, I’d recommend that you stay well clear of them.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” I agreed. “At least until I get stronger.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Vera all but snapped at me. “I may not like Ferl or Tebol but they’re one of the main things keeping the refugees together right now.”

“Alright, alright,” I said holding up my hands placatingly. “How about we move onto a different subject.”

“Yes, I think that would be best,” Vera agreed as her face turned red. “What would you like to know about next?”

“How about that thing that you mentioned earlier,” I suggested. “The split between your people and the Redians. That seems like an important thing for me to know. Especially considering its relevance to the current situation.”

“Very well,” Vera agreed. “That does seem like a good idea. The split between our people was something that began around the same time that the System came into being, but things only got really bad about five hundred years ago. However, as she had mentioned earlier a lot of the records from the time that the System had come into being had been lost so there were a few things that they didn’t know. What they did know was that monsters had been incredibly rare before the System had come into being and after it had appeared, they had suddenly become much more common and had wiped out a lot of the cities that existed back then.

The people who survived formed two different groups. One group decided that the ways of the old world were wrong and decided that they would retreat into the forests and try their best to live in peace with the dangerous new world that they’d found themselves in. The other group retook several of the cities that had been taken over by monsters and rebuilt their society as best they could.

At first both groups got along pretty well but as time went on and the people who would later become the Yajash that existed today developed greater magical powers their relationship started to turn sour. Realizing that these new developments actually made life easier in the small communities that the Yajashians had created the people who had previously joined the other group started to move into the forests to join them. Most of these people were those who had developed some form of magical ability and their loss was the first step in the downfall of the Redians.

At first neither side noticed anything wrong but as time went by the Redians started noticing that it was becoming more and more difficult for newer generations to use magic and their spells cost more MP to use. At first the Redians weren’t too worried by this since their technology was almost as effective as magic but eventually, they concluded that magic enhanced with technology was even more effective and tried to tempt more some of the Yajashians to join them.

This actually turned out to be partially successful and the Redians also started undergoing a sort of magical revolution. Sadly, the same problem that they were having before started to rear its ugly head once more but this time they couldn’t convince any of the Yajash to come and live in their cities. This was because some members of the Yajash had started to develop the Nature Shaping Skill allowing them to create buildings, tools, and weapons with great ease.

Naturally the Redians weren’t happy about this but they knew that they couldn’t do anything about it in their current state so instead they started to try and breed people specifically to be mages. Once again it looked like it was working but with each generation the Redians started to look a bit different. They became more bestial and quicker to anger. Even worse their breeding program once again proved to only be a stopgap method. It lasted longer than the other methods that they had tried but eventually it became less effective and eventually it stopped working altogether.

By this point diplomatic relations with the Yajash had worsened dramatically due to the Redians destroying the forests to power their cities and the Redians decided that they would try a different tactic. Kidnapping Yajashian citizen and using them in their breeding programs. Vera actually remembered the day that she heard about the raids. Apparently, she was only seven or so at the time but judging by the look on her face as she told me she remembered it like it was yesterday.

Yajash managed to drive them back at first due to the overwhelming power of their magic. While the Redians did have things that sounded like they filled the role of a tank on the battlefield they weren’t particularly useful if the ground swallowed them up or the air was sucked right out of them. Then once again everything changed as the Redians obtained new technology that allowed some of their number to stand toe to toe with even the greatest mages among the Yajash and create new weapons of destruction like the Devourers.

“And the rest as they say is history,” I finished for her with a sigh. “That was one messed up story.”

“It sure was,” a man’s vice said behind me and I turned around to see a young Yajash carrying a bow standing behind me.

“Can I help you with something or are you here to see Vera?” I asked politely.

“I’m here for you,” he replied with a smile. “Drem sent me to find you. We were wondering if you could tell me where the best place to hunt was?”

“I can do better than that,” I nodded as I sent out a call to my minions. “My minions will lead the way to where I did most of my hunting. Unless you would like me to join you?”

“No Drem was very clear that you were busy,” the man replied. “I’m Lecan by the way. I’m one of the scouts under Drem’s command.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I replied as I stood up to shake the man’s hand. He stared at my outstretched hand for a few seconds before grasping my wrist. “I suppose that I should warn you about a couple of things. I’ve named the creatures that you will be hunting Bugs. They’re four legged creatures that somewhat resemble some of my minions.”

I went on to explain the different types of Bug that I had encountered so far. According to Tane there was a nearly unlimited variety of different types of Bug but the ones that I had fought were among the more common types. Lecan seemed quite interested in what I had to say but noticeably unimpressed with the actual strength of the bug which made sense since he was a soldier so even though he looked younger than me his Level was probably much higher than my own.

“If you see any grey creatures with multiple tentacle limbs run,” I told him seriously once I had finished telling him about the Bugs. “They’re called Crawlers and while smaller ones might be weak, they’re a hive creature so they’re never alone. According to Tane there could be hundreds or possibly even up to a thousand members of this hive. So far, the strongest Crawlers that I’ve seen are around Level 30 but Tane has told me that there are several varieties stronger than them. So be careful.”

“What did you do to anger them?” Lecan asked curiously causing me to sigh.

“The first animal that I encountered on this world was a Crawler and it seemed to be alone, so I killed it in the hope that it would be edible,” I explained.

“Was it?”

“Nope,” I sighed. “The meat was poisonous. Not very poisonous but it was also absolutely disgusting.”

“Well, that sucks,” Lecan said. “It sounds like you had a pretty rough time of it.”

“Things got a lot better when I got here and teamed up with Tane,” I explained. “They’ve been very helpful in teaching me things about their world and protecting me from the things that I can’t deal with yet. Just remember that if things do go wrong my minions will hold anything attacking you as long as they can so that you can escape.”

“Sounds good to me I suppose,” Lecan agreed. “Alright, I’ll head back to the others now. Good luck with your lesson.”

“Now then,” I said as the man walked away. “Where were we?”

“Well unless you have any other questions, I was thinking that we would start with some basic writing and reading,” Vera replied.

“Just the one last question then if you don’t mind,” I said quickly. “I was wondering why Yajashians seem to be so against fire. Fire is just another part of nature. In my world there were a number of plants that actually required the area that they grew in to be burned down so that they can grow. Is it just because of the Redians or is it something else?”

“It’s because of the Redians,” Vera sighed. “The few truly powerful mages that the Redians have had over the years have specialized in fire magic and they wiped out entire swathes of forest when they fought monsters. That is basically the only reason though. Over time it slowly became more difficult for us to use fire magic.”

“So, it is still possible for a Yajash to learn fire magic and I don’t mean just the basic stuff like lighting a campfire?’ I asked curiously and Vera shifted uncomfortably before responding.

“Yes, it is,” she replied quietly. “Especially if the person in question has a Soul Aspect that gives them fire magic.”

“I see,” I nodded slowly. “I’m guessing that you know someone with that sort of Soul Aspect then?”

“Yes, I do,” she agreed. “But that’s enough of that for now. Let’s move onto your reading and writing lesson for the day.”