Before Prof had his talk with Mini – well, she had to finish with her new magical toy anyways – he decided to distribute his free Skill Points. He didn’t expect to get a new Perk, they were an exception on Arkadia, not the rule. However, there was one waiting for him.

Attention!

Because you have reached Level 5 while constantly battling sapients, animals, and dungeons without killing any sapient creature, you have been gifted with the Perk Captor. From now on sapient enemies will have a higher chance to surrender and will not fight to their last breath!

Prof needed a few minutes to come to the realization, that indeed, he did not kill any sapient creature in any of the fights he participated in. Every last casualty was due to his party members – although he captured a few people and those died horribly not much later, the deed was always done by someone else.

It's nice to have someone to do the dirty work so one could enjoy the perks – like back on Earth, countries outsourced dirty industry to other countries just so they could tell everybody how green they were. Well, Prof outsourced murder – did that make his party members Central Europeans too?

As for his Skill Points, Prof did plan out his advance a long time ago, so he finished in a short time. 25% each went into [Valuation] and [Looting], and 30% into [Commerce]. As long as he was in the Domain, he planned to put the rest into some social Skills, but he was done with the Elves for the foreseeable future, so he had a bit to spare. He decided to put everything else into [Observe], to be done with it.

His Skills started to look a bit more rounded, it was time to invest in some hobby now – [Art: Drawing] and [Art: Painting] would probably finally get the attention they deserved. A few Levels, even if he spread some Skill Points around, would be enough to start making memorabilia.

Prof still had to wait for Mini to finish – an Endurance of 18 was good for a lot of things, obviously – so he directed Bianca to the discarded piles with the implication, she could keep what she liked.

“So, Prof, what did you want to talk about?” Mini asked after a time that felt definitely too long.

“Well, Shinead and Foxy. And why they had to die. I do think you two overreacted a bit with that. And what about this about Foxy being some secret agent? Why did no one tell me previously?"

“Stop whining, Prof. First of all, Arkadia tends to have a marked influx of people from the larger Multiverse, and with all the problems they are causing, most species, civilizations, and cultures have some kind of organization to watch out for you Travellers. The Elves are not even the most diligent and strict in this sense, as far as I know. Of course, a large part of the Travellers get themselves killed in short order, obviously, they are either utter morons, think, Arkadia is just some game with unlimited life, or have some delusions of being some kind of summoned hero."

“You seem to know a lot of this. Are you a secret agent too?”

“Me? No. At least not the kind Foxy was. I’m technically nobility at home, so I have to look out for dangers to my Estate. That could include Travellers, but they tend to have an even shorter lifespan in Forestdeep. If they can make a home for themselves, they are welcome, the same as everyone else.”

“So, you are not watching me?”

“No. I don’t care either way.”

“Ok, back to Foxy. What was she trying to accomplish, and why keep it a secret?”

“You probably realized already, Elves don't like other species and people. If said person is not even from Arkadia, they get really paranoid. They find and survey Travellers, and dispatch those they deem dangerous or disrupting for the Domain. Foxy was your case handler or mender."

Arkadia obviously had a Green Card system with Immigration Offices all around. Did the agents refer to each other with initials? Prof should have claimed refugee status early on – being dead otherwise would have probably given him a good chance. Or claimed citizenship in Wanderberg, he came into existence there, after all. Probably it did not work that way, however – even on Earth countries were stingy with such. Especially when it came to Central Europeans.

“How do you know all this?”

“Foxy told me. Pillow talk. For someone being Paranoid, she was somewhat naïve.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shunned. You don't know how that works, do you?" Prof shook his head. He remembered reading something about it in the Afterlife Bureau but only remembered, it was bad "So, every point you have in Shunned, be it whatever, your Charisma counts as one point less. Foxy had four points in Shunned, so her effective Charisma was five. Do you follow?”

“I think so, five is really low. But if I remember correctly, you have Shunned for three points too, and that would give you an effective Charisma of what? Eight or so? You don’t seem so ugly to me.”

“Why, thank you! Flatterer! So yes, five is extremely low, with three you wouldn't be able to function without help. So Foxy grew up and lived her life while everyone looked at her and saw dirt…"

“But everyone was courteous and polite to her!” Prof interrupted

“Not to her in person, but to her position. No one wants to mess with the Bureau she is working for. It is internal security, after all. And Foxy had a reputation, even I have heard about the Rabid. So, back on topic, my effective Charisma would be eight, indeed, when and if the other person cares about me being a Vampire. You don’t, so the Perk doesn’t mean anything to you. In my Estate being a Vampire is even considered a positive Perk, so my Charisma at home is fourteen.”

“So, Shunned is relative? But Foxy hasn't liked you in the beginning, and you still ended up together."

“See, it is here that the innate Blood Magic comes into play. I can enhance every Stat, Perk, and Skill I have with it. I simply boosted my Charisma to the nominal value, everything else was done by my happy and irresistible self. She saw my gorgeous self and with me not treating her like dirt ended up in my pillows. With that, she lost the game."

“What do you mean?”

“Prof, you should pay attention to Skills and what they do! Why is it that no one teaches Travellers how Arkadia works?!?!"

That was unfair – Prof has even read the most official Rulebook there probably was!

“I have 190% in [Sex], Prof. Do you have any idea, what that means?”

It probably meant that Mini could have made a career of being vaguely horizontal or on her knees. Everybody wanted a secretary just like that! Or two.

“You are good at it?” Prof hazarded the question.

“Yes, I'm good at it. Being good at it enables me to emotionally influence my partners and extract information from them because they are in love. Or are horny. Or whatever."

Prof was quite sure, this tidbit was not included in the Rulebook. Neither were others, he learned since he arrived on Arkadia. What else was there?

“So, if Foxy was my assigned mender, why didn’t she teach me all about the Skills and how Arkadia works?”

“Simply because that's not their job. Most countries only care about crafters and easy-to-influence slaves. You are obviously neither. Foxy and her superiors probably hadn't decided yet when to dispatch you. Plus, this whole Valley expedition came up, you were most likely a good pawn or free help. I wouldn't have bet on your long-time survival. Why teach somebody important stuff, when you will most likely kill him off in short order?"

It was Central Europe again. The masters only cared about cheap and quality workforce or cannon fodder (maybe free money), and let everybody else rot.

“Surely, you would have helped me?” Prof tried to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Not necessarily. I don’t care either way” Oh, that light was just the headlight of a speeding semi with a caffeine-addicted overworked, underpaid Central European driver. Or worse, an Eastern European one…

“Look, Prof. I do like you, but even I wouldn’t go out of my way to save you from stupidity or the Elven Internal Security or whatever they call it. It’s the Forestean way: you fend for yourself and either you fall or become strong. If you get strong, you can fight stronger enemies for higher stakes. Don’t base your survival on other people’s help – they will stab you in the back as soon as it is in their interest.”

“So killing Foxy was in your interest, I get it. Mass genocide is bad.”

“Mass genocide, as you put it, is bad as soon as it reaches my home. Or Forestdeep as it is. No one cares about other countries or species. If they wanted to kill off the Bergian lands, and only them, leaving Forestdeep out of it, I wouldn't have cared. Probably no one in Forestdeep would have. But again, some old surviving monster maybe would have. But it is a moot point, they wanted to kill off parts of Forerstdeep, and that could not stand."

“Interesting point of view” actually, Earth worked quite like that too “What about Shinead? She was asleep and was even against the whole plan! Why let her be killed?!”

“Oh, Prof, you still don't understand. Shinead was a proper Elf, a Red Elf even. If it wasn't Guillermo here, but someone else, she would have dragged you to a block happily, if it was for the Greater Elven Good. And, as I said, she hated your guts, only Foxy's presence kept her from leaving you in a ditch, dead. I expect that she would have fabricated a situation, where she saved your life and so paid back the blood debt already, where it not for Foxy. Without the blood debt, you would be dead within an hour. As for Sharpclaw killing her? Well, she had the motive, the means, and the chance and successfully completed the task. No one in Forestdeep would condemn her."

Prof was certain, he never wanted to visit Forestdeep after this revelation. It wasn't a place that guaranteed continued survival. At least not in a way where he could enjoy an easy life.

Maybe later, when he was really high level. Surely, they had some awesome sights to see.