“EVERYONE it’s break time” I stop pushing the cart and lie on the ashen floor, completely wrecked.

Another 8 hours of pushing/cooking/people trying to teach us different kinds of dancing has happened and I’m absolutely beat!

Only another 6 hours till we can log off, but that’s 6 hours of learning skills! I’m so excited for this!!!

“Ok… so we’ve got around 6 hours till the big swap over is happening so let’s try teach everyone whatever skills we’ve learnt in the trip” Anoobis calls out from the floor, a needy look embedded in his eyes.

Groaning as I stand up, I point to Grawla, the lady Gnoll “How about we finally get the breakdance style first?”

She nods and gets us all to look at her while she shows us cross step, corkscrew, six step and a baby freeze.

It’s a lot more difficult than it looks, especially for the tired bunch that we are.

“AWOOOOOO” Yeah I’m ignoring Thrash…even if he looks absolutely amazing doing something Grawla called a halo windmill?

Damn fitness junkies.

Right so cross step is alright, corckscrew is fine, six step yeah got that sorted and baby freeze…woop woop.

*Ding*

Nice, breakdance style attained! And that will be used for sakes of gaining xp.

Within around 10 minutes, most people have it sorted and Grawla heads off to get the stragglers sorted.

“Right, so shall we begin with active physical skills?”

“Sorry but Ravenna and I switched since her group are a lot more active” Anoobis does have a good point there “and I haven’t found anything as of yet” Now that’s just a point blank lie…there’s no way you haven’t found anything…hrmm, I’ll get it out of you.

“Alright, proficiencies?”

“Well since we believe proficiencies can be broken down into different styles we’ve been experimenting with different ways of kicking like low kick and roundhouse” It was some form of entertainment watching them.

“And?”

“We got the appropriate sub-skills and until we figure out just what a kicking style would be we’ll be in a bit of a rut” Kale gives a rather unimpressed look to himself.

“At least you’re going somewhere, Sugar how’s the magic going?”

“All of us have learnt mana and intelligence and we’ll be starting on simple spells, we’ve already got a list” He gives me a happy smile and although I’m not too happy about the lack of spells, I am rather impressed he got his entire squad intelligence…somehow.

“How did everyone get intelligence?”

“Intelligence is the ability to solve problems no? Or well that is my understanding of it so I gave them all multiple different logical, mathematical, philosophical problems to try solve or understand that they cannot be solved”

…That is actually really smart. Well I know how to get my intelligence back now I guess…or will the fact that he told me how to do it stop me from getting the skill?

I’ll have to test it out later.

“And lastly for stats we’ve discovered 2 so far” Many ooh’s “The first is rage, gained from extreme anger as far as I’m concerned and we’ve only been able to give it to two people so far”

*Shudder*

I’m going to try forget the moment when I stepped off the cart holding Miss Nameless’ underwear and said hi to Krudel…I could’ve died…brutally…

He was scary…truly scary when he was angry. He didn’t fly into a rage or anything; he just stood there, his killing intent crushing me to the point where his single step forward made me trip and freeze in fear.

I learnt that Krudel is not to be messed with, ever. He could seriously kill me.

Anyways, trying to get that traumatising memory out of my head…

PJ is truly a cunning person; figuring out how to make both Krudel and Zzoid rage in just one day. She even got a kiss out of it sneaky little minx.

It took a long time to get Krudel to understand what was happening and that Miss Nameless was just playing through, moaning me to come back to the cart from under some furs.

I still feel so very dirty since she most likely didn’t understand the situation…

But now everyone’s all good and the situation was cleared so I don’t have a bad reputation, phew.

Moving on to the other stats we learnt:

“We also found flexibility which is exactly as it sounds” Whenever we took breaks, all the girls were trying to do splits, trying to make us do it too which didn’t work out very well for some of us.

I’m not the most flexible person on the planet let’s say.

But I still got the skill after a few hours of doing that so it was completely worth the pain of Baila forcefully opening my legs more than was comfortable.

“Sadly that’s all for now but we are in the process of finding some more and we’ve got ideas what they could be”

Well seems like not much was learnt in the past 18 odd hours of trekking with the carts, but hey we’ve made great progress through this forest and my cooking skill has even levelled up twice!

“So what do we do for the next 6 hours?” One of the Neris’ call out,

“Work on what you can?”

Gathering my group to one side we bring the cooking equipment and start cooking once again.

“So this has been quite a tiring day, but my have I learnt and seen some things” Baila gives me a smarmy smile.

“The dancing was so much fun, although the break dancing was really strange, but still really cool!” Miss Nameless holds PinkyS’ hands in excitement and they both jump up and down together doing poor salsa.

“I’d still like to do some salsa with Joat” PJ wiggles her eyebrows.

“My loliness was I not good enough?”

“Not by far”

Zzoid acts as if he’s ben shot in the heart, which he metaphorically was, while the rest of us chuckle lightly.

“But hmm we should really try play with speed and light stats” Honey brings us back to workville.

“Alright, Zzoid you sort everyone out with any ideas they may have while I continue with gaining faith or whatever it may be”

I have Thrash and Miss Nameless sitting around the small fire with me, trying to brainstorm how to be nicer to people.

“Well how about we ask them what they need help with?” Miss Nameless finally gives something that isn’t ‘make them exercise because it’ll make them happy’…

“We’ll do that, I’ll take Kale’s group, Thrash take Anoobis’ and Princess take Sugar’s group”

“Who is Sugar?”

“The gnome with a green beard” I point to a meditating Sugar in the vicinity.

Splitting up, I head over to Kale’s Squad who are all doing weird attacks…well guess they’re trying to find different styles?

“Joat what are you doing over here?” Kale stops boxing and dodging with the air and looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m looking to help, if there’s anything I could do, let me do it for you”

Kale claps his hands together with a smile “Fantastic, I was looking for a punching bag”

…

..

.

For the sake of xp and a stat this is alright.

“Sure, punch away”

“Ok, hold your fists in front of you head like this, right fist on cheek and left one hovering slightly forward. Good, ready?”

Hut.

-1 -1 -1 -1 -1

Within a few seconds, all I see is his wild grey hair flinging around as he punches me left right and center going all out on me.

“I’m about to die” I call out from behind my fists and he stops, allowing me to recover.

Thankfully he’s learnt the holding back skill or I’d be very dead right now.

Round 2, bish bash bosh I feel like mush.

…Round 3 here we go ow ow ow please stop punching my side; that hurts.

Round 4 “Alright this time round, I will try my best to knock you out” Well that is relieving…not!

Swiveling my hips to try catch his hits head on, I fail quite badly and end up knocked to the floor by a fantastic uppercut.

And I just lost three seconds of my life.

“You still alive?”

“Well in spirit but not sure about my body” I groan from the floor, god 20% pain is still a real kicker sometimes.

Being helped to standing, I assume the position once more. “Until you get the skill”

“I already got it”

…

..

.

Phew.

Standing down, I give him an explanatory look.

“It’s a unarmed style: Boxing, so hey we’re on the right track here” He gives me a satisfied smile, brushing his wild hair out of his face and gets back to punching, adding a bit of kicking in the midst.

Heading to anotehr of his group randomly, I end up by Grawla.

“Right, what are you trying to do?” I’ve been beaten to a mulch already, it can’t get worse.

“Clawing” She swipes her claws in the air with a light whoosh.

…

..

.

I completely take back everything I just said…but stats before standards… “Do you need a target dummy?”

“I do hope you’re a masochist”

“I’m not sure how to answer to that” I put my guard up and wait for the inevitable.

“Well it’s going to be quite painful so just hoping that you were going to like it”

“I know many masOWchists and I haven’t hearOWd a single one whOW likes being clawed”

Oh great I’ve got the bleed status.

Telling her to stop after she claws me a few times, I rip my t-shirt up to stop the bleeding, which surprisingly does stop it, thanks game mechanics!

Back up and getting clawed for 1 hit point at a time before the bleed kicks in.

Jesus bleed status is terrifying…1 hit point a second till bleeding stopped and it stacks…

Getting too close to death for my own good a few times and recovering many many more times we finally stop this clawing business as Gawla looks open eyed at what I’m assuming is her notifications.

“So did you learn a style?”

“Ummmm no, but I learnt a few other things”

“Ooh what did you learn?” Not what was planned but hey new things are good things.

“Well the claw skill, then some stat called darkness for clawing someone repeatedly to the verge of death and then natural weapon proficiency…oh and that you’ve got a pretty fit body” She casually adds the wink onto the end.

…

..

.

Oops, but ooh natural weapon proficiency…how did no one get that before?

Or better question is why didn’t anyone tell me this before? Must’ve been Braxel’s doing, I can almost feel it.

Hmm, well whoever is holding back some delicious skills, I will find them out very soon.

*ding*

Ooh I should look at my notifications

Congratulations! Through mostly Selflessly helping others you have discovered an Exquisite Stat

EXQUISITE STAT: Light

Points in Light will increase your aura of Light

Light cannot be added until it is of a higher value than Darkness

Xp increases by 20%

AURA: Aura of Light, beginner [lv1] (Aura) (Disabled)

You have a subtle Light aura which surrounds you:

Beings that are able to detect your aura will find it to be Good

Cost: none, Duration: Permanent, Cooldown: None

xp increase by 15%

Due to coverting someone to evil, Darkness has increased by 1

Well I got the stat and all that beautiful xp!

Though I still count as evil which isn’t good…

Well let’s get some food!

Returning back to the small barbeque, I see Zzard and Zzand tending the fire, making sure the kraken doesn’t burn.

They’ve even made some berry paste, although the supplies for that are quickly dwindling.

“We were given cooking duty” Both look unhappily at the fire.

“What did you two do?” I feel like this is some form of punishment from Zzoid.

“I tried to make Zzand angry” Zzard looks down guiltily.

“And?” I look towards Zzand who gives the same guilty look to the fire.

“I tried to make Zzard angry”

I just shake my head at you two.

“But at least we got the rage stat” They both look happily towards me.

“So you were planning to give eachother that skill then!”

…

..

.

Oh nevermind… you were just squabbling like the younglings you are…

I am seriously wondering what they did to eachother in like…oh Aiag it’s been 3 hours!

How did they spend the past 3 hours, better question, how did I last being literally a punching bag for the past 3 hours?!

Let’s try to erase that thought and move on with my life.

“Well you two shouldn’t be fighting that much ok, so cook eachother a delicious meal you numpties” I give them both a small chop and a pat on the head before swiping a skewer.

At least they’re both complaining together towards me as I take what was their food, whoops.

Hey I’m helping their brotherly bond…totally planned.

And talking about helping, let’s go find my fellow light seekers.

Now where are Anoobis and his lot?

Partying with Thrash I see they’ve gone quite a distance away from everyone. Hrmm what could they be doing?

Strolling over to Anoobis’ group, who are doing some weird cult ritual? I’m not sure I should be present for whatever’s about to go down.

I mean Anoobis is sat in the midst of a hard concentrating circle of people in complete silence, eyes closed even. What else could be happening but some odd cult ritual?

“Glorious” Anoobis suddenly points towards a blue penguin-beastman (I’m guessing from the oily looking skin and the beak) who replies with a beep.

Bursting out of their concentrated positions, everyone but Anoobis sprints around maniacally for a few moments, dropping to the ground in a silent seated position, acting as if nothing ever happened.

…

..

.

O…k?

I have no idea how to help them do whatever they’re doing…

“Thrash” Anoobis points blindly towards Thrash and he silently stands up and walks to the middle, taking over Anoobis’ spot.

I’m not surprised in the slightest that he’s joined this strange cult ritual…

“Joat” Thrash points behind himself, pointing straight at me

…

..

.

Yeah I’m not joining in on this ritua-

“Anoobis” Thrash points towards Anoobis with way more confidence and accuracy than should be normal…especially since his eyes are closed. “Hino, Sino, Glorious”

…Thrash has got some seriously good senses.

“Come on Joat, get in the circle” Glorious beckons me over.

Well I probably do have better things to do with my time, or I did till I smelt a most delicious skill.

Almost jumping into Thrash, I take his place and sit down in the middle, closing my eyes and listening to the mad shuffle of feet before a sudden silence.

Urm…so I need to point out somebody and the correct person…without looking.

Alright, this is a game, this is completely possible

…

..

.

Can’t hear anything, can’t smell much except sweaty people and ash, nor can I see them. Well this isn’t happening.

Maybe it’s a beastman only skill? I mean I swear I saw only beastmen in this circle.

Ooh maybe it’s a game of chance? That sounds a lot more likely…well in my case anyways.

Right, let’s point over there….. “Blue penguin-beastman, whoever you are”

*ding*

“Name is Anon”

Opening my eyes first thing that hits me is the big blue screen of sweet notifications

Congratulations! Through winning against the odds in a game of chance you have discovered a new stat

STAT: Luck

Points in Luck will increase a variety of things

Do you want to put this stat on one of your stat slots? YES/NO

Xp increases by 10%

Well this was totally worth it! So that’s what they were doing!! That’s a fantastic way to get this stat!!!

Definitely adding it too!

STAT: Luck has been added to your stat slots. It has used up 1 stat slot.

Luck will start at 10 due to Hob-goblin race.

Due to Luck being 10, you have learnt the Lucky Roll skill

SKILL: Lucky Roll, Beginner [lvl1] (Passive)

When throwing dice or yourself in hopes of not losing you have uncanny luck to land in a favourable situation

0.01% chance that you will end up in a favourable situation

Luck bonus: +0.1% chance

Xp increases by 5%

So I’ve got a 0.11% chance that I’ll be lucky when rolling in some way. Huh, better than 0 I guess. But jeez to get ot 100% I’d need a luck of 1000…which would be absolutely godly in hindsight…100% chance to win dice games and 100% chance to dodge everything when rolling, oh I’d love to see that someday.

Anyways, I’ve learnt what I think I’m supposed to learn from them so let’s away!

Jumping up, I let Anon have the middle as I leave the circle bounding towards Miss Nameless and the hope of more xp (though skills would be appreciated).

And I feel like I’ve jumped from strange to weird; They’re all in groups of 4 sitting and saying the most random words I’ve ever heard, and I’m sure most of them aren’t english…

“Vlam”

“Liekki”

“Lasair”

…alright?

I decide to concentrate on another group…and things get wierder; they’re speaking in sign language, or well just doing small gestures towards eachother randomly?

The third group is studying some fire elemental cores, cracking them, casting detect magic and in general playing with them it seems.

Miss Nameless is nowhere to be foun-oh nevermind she’s with the mute lot.

Seems like she’s having fun…

“Right Mages, what have we got?” Sugar stops playing with his core and stands up, which doesn’t really make much of a difference to his height.

“I believe we’ve got a theory as to what words we could use” The white deer-beastlady speaks out for her group

“And we’ve got an idea on what gestures are necessary for it” The wispy kobold represents his group.

“Right then give me your theories and let’s test it out” Sugar beckons everyone into a tight circle.

“So our theory is that it doesn’t matter what language is used, as long as the keyword is correct the spell will work. Our keyword is Flame” The white deer-beastlady starts the conversation

“Thank you Wirra” Sugar points to the wispy kobold to continue

“Snapping of the fingers should do it or a finger flick if it is to be directed, that is our assumption”

“Keruskegh are you sure?”

“This is what we’re going to find out” He simply replies to Sugar’s skepticism.

“And to top it off if we crack the elemental cores we should get fire based mana to use. Alright, everyone ready?”

Everyone nods, even me; I’m excited to see if this works.

Sugar grabs a core between two fingers, ready to break it.

“Ahem” *Snap-Crack* “Ignis”

…

..

.

“FIREEEEEEEEE”

Sugar holds the tiny burning piece of cloth proudly above his head while the rest of his group jump up and down in utter joy, hugging, dancing, crying

…

..

.

I mean there’s over-reacting…and then there’s this.

“WE DID IT, WE’VE MADE MAGICAL FIRE!” Rakshak (oh it’s been a while) grabs hold of me trying to shake me while shouting into my face.

Wow I mean it is sort of a big deal but it can’t be that fantastic?

Gently pushing myself away from the magic fanatics, I go scouting for a Sugar.

I find him reveling a lot less than the others; he’s busy having a whispered conversation with the old crow-beastmen I once sprinted around the village with.

“So you’ve made magic” I walk into the conversation, since I’d want to know what it’s all about, just a little nosey.

“Yes, but we used the core as a catalyst so it didn’t use much of my mana and instead of creating the fire it was more like I controlled the existing fire that was released when I broke the core. I cheated basically” His final explanation I do understand and I guess I understand the rest to a certain extent; with the way he cast magic, if he didn’t have any cores he wouldn’t be able to cast any more.

BASICALLY they’re partying for nothing…and looks like a few of the more wise looking people get it and are quickly returning to their deep concentrating selves.

Right that was rather interesting but I don’t think I’m going to learn anything more here, so let’s go back to my group and see what they’re all up to.

…Wait a second; I think I might actually be able to help them.

Checking my inventory…oh I forgot that I died and dropped it, agh that isn’t good. Man I do hope someone pick-

…

..

.

Thrash, can I have the leather book you picked up please

…

“Girl, here it is” Thrash appears by my side surprisingly silently for such a big guy, with Tarakiel’s diary.

I’m hoping its just coincidence that he picked it up, not because it probably smelled of me…

Right, ignoring my overthinking mind, I thank Thrash and watch him go back to the ritual circle of Anoobis’ wierdos in the distance.

Alright, I’ve got the book now for some paper and ink.

Heading over to the carts where the Village Elder is still awake; tending a squirming Nathan, I ask him if he’s got anything to write with and on.

“It wasn’t necessary so no” He doesn’t look up from Nathan, focusing on dabbing the sweat ridden, wrinkled forehead gently with a damp cloth.

Well that’s that plan out the wi-I’m an idiot.

Opening up my notes page because derp I’m really tired and my brain is definitely not working whatsoever…

“Princess” I call over to her causing her to jump up and hop over excitedly.

“I learnt so many interesting things to do with my hands. Did you know you can speak to people using gestures?” She’s been introduced to sign language I see. “Look I learnt hello” She gives me the finger

…

..

.

*facepalm*

Sharpy is going to murder me…

“Princess, you only say hello like that to people you don’t like”

“Oh, it is not a nice thing to do then?”

“No so try not to do it often”

“Oh ok” She looks a little downtrodden so I produce the leather book

“But look what I have for us to play with” Her eyes grow wide with excitement, since she knows it contains magic.

“But I don’t have any souls to use” She raises her eyebrow…actually wait she doesn’t have a left eyebrow.

Huh never noticed that before.

“We’re just going to learn how to use your spells and then use that knowledge to help the others learn their own magic”

*Clap*

“That’s a great idea, I wasn’t really helping them much before”

I motion for her to sit down and we open up the leather book.

“Ok so first things first, when you look at the words, are they in english?”

“…No, they’re using the english alphabet and a few other strange symbols but it’s grammar isn’t correct”

“So you just know what the lettters mean?”

“Yes, like that means day and that letter means blood” She points out the corresponding letters and neither look like what they mean.

“Alright…erm, let’s start with the alphabet” Might as well learn it so I can read the bad bits and remove them from her sight…yes that does sound like the one good plan I’ve had in a while.

“Erm, ok so F means b…