Obviously, Prof was utterly incapable to understand the Elven monetary system. Or the Elven political system.

But he tried.

He wasn’t exactly stupid (with an Intelligence of 18, you could not be stupid, after all – being a moron transcendence the Stats), but the systems were alien to him. That he tried to understand how everything worked meant he probably viewed Arkadia as his new home and not some sick game. Although, a few Travellers did try to understand everything, but only to find some loophole to cheat the System or the Arkadians.

Well, those never lived long.

Mostly they just messed up their “Build”, as they called it, and found an early grave. Those that had more luck with their “Build” were hunted down even faster. Or bound to be used as shock troops.

Despite his problems with understanding the monetary system, Prof managed just fine. Of course, the prince’s warning helped too, but the Traveller spotted the more obvious attempt to be fleeced, and dodged those arrows. It would be interesting to see, how his [Commerce] held up in a live situation.

He was good enough, though, to order some kind of overcoat made from the Dire Bear fur from the furrier and tanner, and haggled the cost down to an almost acceptable amount. The overcoat was quite an interesting piece, it kept the wearer cold in the Summer and hot in the Winter – even as a concept, not even counting the finished product. Foxy had to note the design, maybe the Office could do something with it.

At the town office the prince excused himself – not surprisingly, that was what they discussed – and let the steward handle the Traveller. Prof was presented with a task to exterminate a pack of lizards. Foxy already knew about the task and what kind of lizard needed to be hunted, she was primarily interested, if Prof would jump into action without knowing anything. She even signed to the steward not to give any more details. She gave Prof some pointers, but wanted to know what he will do.

Well, he visited the local hunter – not a bad idea. Since Prof could not understand Elvish, Foxy was able to talk with the hunter in peace and translate to Prof what she wanted. Actually, he even believed that the Elves were not able to distinguish between two very different kinds of lizards. He was quite trusting, maybe even a bit naïve… Well, it was good they could put the blame on an old author, who mixed up the two species in his novel. Foxy made it look like the author was a Master and wrote a book on [Monsterology].

Again, he proved not to be stupid, and wanted to collect a party to hunt the lizards. For some reason he did not go to the village office, but visited the other guest houses. Why he wouldn’t check the place where all adventurers and such registered themselves, but to a bar, Foxy couldn’t understand. You could find only questionable characters in bars…

“I'm sorry, he said, I'm retiring! I got an arrow in my knee!” the punchline of an old joke about an adventurer greeted them when they entered the White guest house. The joke was old, but still good, and something like a running gag in the adventurer’s circles.

Foxy quickly observed the patrons: three low-lives, a merchant with his bodyguard, and an… that was interesting! The provocatively clad woman was a Vampire! Probably a noble from Forestdeep. What was she doing in the Domain? She quickly took a look at her Character Parchment. It was mostly what she expected: she was crazy, but had an interesting spread of Skills. What gave Foxy pause were [Stealth] at 101%, [Camouflage], [Disguise] and [Acting] on 99% each and [Con] at 90%. With [Camouflage] and [Disguise] one could obfuscate Skills and Perks, everyone knew that. Probably not Prof, though. Everything pointed rather to a spy, an infiltrator, or… an agent. The clothing may have been the costume of an “oblivious bimbo” persona. She had a very bad feeling about her.

Of course, the Traveller did not heed her warning, and started to chat her up, and wasn’t interested in her warning at all. That was why “oblivious bimbo” was such a well-liked method to ensnare Travellers. The Vampire overplayed it a bit, that went in the direction of “perverted slut”. Yes, that was a common persona too, but not in the Domain, though.

He learned enough to ask for the Vampire’s Character Parchment, but still did not know what to look for. He was interested only in Skills for fighting, and probably [Sex] but wasn’t able to spot the Skill that gave Foxy pause. Or, if he spotted them, could not understand the meaning.

It was really like Travellers grew up in a cave!

He even invited her to join the party and go back to the dungeon together!

At least his reactions when the Vampire was standing in the Sun was funny. Obviously, he expected her to burst out in flames or sparkle or something like that. Everyone on Arkadia knew, Vampires were just dead people, and being dead gave nobody an allergy to sunshine – imagine a battle-site bursting out in flames! Without alchemist and mages doing anything, that is. Sure, there were people with Allergy: Sunshine, or some Extreme Disease, but that you would find on their Character Parchments.

What next? Goblins being dumb, lazy arrow-fodder? Dwarves with beards? Zombies being contagious?

Well, they were, but they spread only diseases. If they weren’t interested in personal hygiene.

She promised herself to give him lessons on Arkadian species, otherwise he would make an ass out of himself – he was lucky no one heard his theories about Elves. Even Foxy, who had to work with moronic Travellers for a long time, was close to hit him.

First, he had to learn Elvish – so Foxy left him in the care of Caoilfhoinn and went to investigate the Vampire. If she was another agent from Forestdeep, and was after her mark, it would be problematic, to say the least. She wasn’t aware if Forestdeep or one or more the Estates had an organisation like the Little Sisters, but secret organisations usually don’t advertise their existence. There was no gathering of Traveller-hunting organisations in nice taverns to discuss specific technics either.

At least Foxy wasn’t aware of such.

So, if the Vampire was another agent and was after her mark, she would probably have to fight her. If she was a spy or infiltrator, working against the Domain, she would definitely have to fight her. There were a few possibilities, where they would have to fight each other – and her Skills and Perks for fighting were higher than Foxy’s. In the worst case, she would have to fight without preparation and maybe even get surprised.

Foxy disguised the interrogation as an interview for the new party member, she wasn’t prepared to identify herself as an agent just yet. It became clear early on, that the Vampire was only acting and presenting a perverted, easy face to Prof, with Foxy she presented a funny but sharp one. Foxy wasn’t sure, if the second face was acted too, but it didn’t feel like so. However, the Vampire had too many mental issues to pin her down on. When the interrogation ended, Foxy was quite sure the Vampire wasn’t an agent, but a freshly turned trusted vassal who were sent abroad for Leveling.

She was provided with quite a few magical trinkets – not that she confirmed having them, but Foxy spotted them nonetheless. About half her rings were magical, providing some bonus for this or that. Her clothes were not magical, but high quality, giving some effect or another. That was not really surprising, Vampires were vain and rich, and liked to flaunt their wealth. A poorly-clothed Vampire was a disgrace for their family and Estate. Her taste of style wasn’t that extravagant either, but maybe a bit too on the other side of still accepted.

In the outside world, at least. The Elven view on clothing was rather liberal, if one didn’t wear any, no one saw any problem with it.

Still, she planned to use dream magic later to take a look into her subconscious. Next night they will have to camp together anyway, hopefully it was not too late by then.

Next morning, Foxy was surprised by the mount the Vampire had with her. Not, that it was a Scorpionlizard, a notorious mount in Forestdeep, that she already knew, but it’s Level. A Level 20 Elite was a force to be taken serious. Even before her “accident” Foxy wasn’t sure she could have defeated the mount on her own. Now? Even if all three of them co-operated well, they would be dead in short time.

Of course, it was named Binky, the mythical mount of an ancient Forestean hero. Well, ancient as in he lived and died a few millennia ago, but was still around as an undead. A skeleton or bone knight, if Foxy remembered correctly.

The journey the dungeon started well enough, Foxy used the time to teach Prof a few thing about Arkadia, even the Vampire joined in from time to time. Of course, that dumb Traveller had to make an ass out of himself: he asked about Dwarves and told them what he “knew” about them.

Yeah. Bearded Dwarves, constantly drunk, waving warhammers around, being the best smiths everywhere, talking in a strange accent… Ridiculous!

At least he got the accent right, Dwarves spoke in a shrill, high-pitched voice, completely unable to pronounce the sounds b, d, g, p, t and k correctly, and having massive problems with l.

The only sawing grace was hearing Mini laugh. She did have a really cute one, light, rolling one, with a little hint of hysterics.

Maybe…?