"Well, to start, let us first talk about the Great Steam God. In our belief, we are the coal that burns through our efforts, heating the water that produces steam, powering this world, and manifesting the Great Steam God. The Great Steam God protects us from the evil that threatens our world by giving us his System, and protects our souls in death, bringing us to Steam Heaven when we die, eventually turn to vapor, and are reborn anew on this mortal world. Praise be to the Great Steam God." Chester said, clasping both hands.

"Praise Be!" Cindy also clasped her hands and chanted.

"Hah... well, that's a new one." Asher thought.

"But you also mentioned the Machine God?" Asher pointed out.

"That's the Machine God Cult... it is the technomagical religion of the Great Techno-magocracy of the moon," Chester said, pointing up.

"They worship the cog and the oil, and are the sanctioned cog-priests that run the advanced techno-magical stuff. But they have an eerie tendency to replace their body parts, believing the flesh is weak, and build labotomised automatons out of criminals or slaves... ew." Cindy shuddered.

"Some of them are good... while others are just damn creepy inhumans. And their religious dogma clashes with the Great Steam Church on the purity of the human body. We believe we should be pure coal that burns brightly, and adding filthy metal would pollute our souls. On the other hand, we need their technology, and they need our help. Hence, we begrudgingly have a dual religion." Chester said.

To this, the trio was not really disgusted. In a way, they found the Machine God Cult to be utilitarian... And some Ascended liked replacing parts of their bodies, but not to the extent of lobotomization. Of course, they also preferred their bodies human and unlobotomized, so they decided to keep the cult at a length.

"So I suppose you have religious... Classes?" Asher asked.

"Yes. The mainstream are the Priests of Steam, who have holy magic for humans, and there are Priests of Cog, who heal machinery. Of course, there are also evil god priests, but they are hunted wherever we find them. We also have paladins, holy gunmen, inquisitors, holy agents... plenty of such classes." Chester explained.

"Is there a limit on the number of classes you can have?" Sonia asked.

"That depends on our Difficulty Level," Chester said.

"Oh? How many difficulty levels are there?" Nidawei curiously asked.

"Four!" Chester raised four fingers. "There is the Normal Difficulty, Hard Difficulty, Nightmare Difficulty, and Steam Hell Difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the less restricted we are, but at the same time, life becomes increasingly harder and less safe."

"Doping items, Skill Scrolls, Healing, and Revival?" Asher guessed.

"Yes!" Chester solemnly said. "In Normal Difficulty, we can be revived at any church, even if our body is gone, as long as our natural lifespan isn't over and we are revived on time, even if we suffer a level penalty and loss of equipment. But at the same time, we can only have one fighting class, one production class, and a title at a time, and our skills are highly restricted. However, we can grow stronger through compatible Skill Scrolls and stat-increasing items, and healing items are instant and without consequences. But, if we reach lvl 100 and complete the Tower of Challenge, we can choose to be reborn with most or none of our memories and a gift for completing the Tower of Challenge while increasing our Difficulty Level to the next stage. This is called New Game Plus."

"So reincarnation is common here?" Sonia curiously asked.

"Sure is! Sometimes, higher-difficult people are summoned from other worlds, too! We call them otherworlders, and they sometimes receive special classes, like Hero. In any case, the Hard Difficulty can equip 3 combat classes and 2 production classes. However, their experience gain rate is significantly reduced, stat items are half as effective, healing stops being instantaneous, and reviving has higher consequences, such as forgetting skills and losing stats from stat-increasing items. Of course, they also have a higher level cap, being 300 instead of 100.

Most people are satisfied there, but some daredevils continue to the Nightmare Difficulty, undergoing reincarnation a second time and gaining even more boons. Of course, they suffer even more handicaps, for example, only being able to revive within an hour. But they are the strongest in this world! They can have 7 Combat Classes and 3 Production Classes, equip 3 titles, and can reach lvl 1000! At that point, we call them demigods. But it is said that, if they complete a special trial dungeon, they can reincarnate a third time, giving up everything for higher power, reaching Steam Hell Difficulty... but many of them actually arrive from other worlds." Chester said, wearing a thin smile.

"Grandpa, I didn't know that..." Cindy pouted.

"It is just that rare, Cindy. I only met one once in my entire life when I was a kid... and his end wasn't a pretty one." Chester helplessly said.

Asher and the two women shared a look, their expressions grim. This didn't bode well.

"What happened?" Asher bit the bullet and asked.

"He was an otherworlder... and a criminal. He was old and desperate in search of new titles and power before his natural death, so he started doing evil things... when I met him, he was already hanged, with a sign explaining what happened nailed to his chest, serving as a lesson to any other Hell Challenger out there." Chester shook his head.

Asher, Sonia, and Nidawei had wary looks. They also considered doing something bad for a title. Luckily, they didn't.

Chester then slapped his forehead and apologized. "Ah, look at me, tactlessly blabbering unlucky stuff. Sorry about that."

"It is fine, Mister McNab. Can you please tell us how to acquire... legal talents?" Sonia inquired.

"Ah, right. We don't usually pursue titles, and the guild has most of them recorded and available for purchase. However, we do have a common sense book about it. It should be useful to you... Especially in your current weakness." Chester warily said and sipped his tea.

"Thank you, Mister. That is very helpful to us." Nidawei gently smiled and said.

"You already paid for it, beautiful madam! If I didn't show you something this simple, I would feel guilty." Chester smiled.

He then turned to Cindy and pointed to a bookshelf, "Cindy, bring me the thin yellow book on the top shelf."

"Okay, Grandspa!" Cindly trotted to the bookshelf, tiptoeing before picking out a yellow book.

She then looked at the title and frowned.

"Grandpa, it says it is called Sleepless Nights with a Thirsty Vampiress."

Asher, Sonia, and Nidawei's expressions turned odd, and Chester's expression became constipated.

"The thin one, not the thick one! And return that book to the shelf, dammit!" Chester yelled.

"Okay! Okay... sheesh." Cindy pouted, putting the book back on the shelf. She then looked around and found a thin yellow book.

"It is called Common Title Sense and You." Cindy read aloud.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Chester nodded.

Cindy brought the book to Chester, who lightly blew the dust on it, wiped it a bit, and handed it over.

"It isn't much, but it should give you an intuitive understanding of how titles work here."

"Thank you, Mr. McNab." Asher took the book and opened it.

"Only around 15 pages? Easy enough." Asher thought as he opened it.

"Eh... You don't need to read it here. You can read it in the inn, if you want." Chester rubbed his head as he saw Asher casually flipping through it.

"Don't worry, I am almost done reading," Asher said, already at the 10th page.

"What...?" Chester asked, confused, thinking he misheard it.

"Done," Asher said, handing the book to Sonia.

Sonia also took the book and started casually reading it.

"W-Wait a minute, you read it? All of it? I mean, it is short, but there are still 15 pages..." Chester asked in disbelief.

"Mister, that book would take me half a whole afternoon to read..." Cindy narrowed her eyes.

"Don't worry, our race has a very high comprehension level." Asher lightly smiled.

As he said that, Sonia already passed the book to Nidawei, who also started reading.

"May I be so rude as to probe your Comprehension value...?" Chester warily asked.

"1,000," Asher said, maintaining his smile.

"1,000..." Chester's jaw went lax.

"Impossible..." Cindy shared the look.

"Here is your book back, Mr. McNab," Nidawei said, placing it back on the table.

"It was helpful, Mister. Now we at least have a direction on how to do things." Sonia smiled.

"If you have any more useful books, we would be happy if you could share them with us," Asher added.

Not believing it, Cindy grabbed the book, opened the 9th page, and asked.

"What was written on the Slayer Series?"

"A person needs to kill a set number of monsters of the same type to obtain a slayer title. These titles grant varying stats, skills, and damage bonuses to that type of monster." Asher played along and fluidly answered.

Cindy flipped to the 6th page and asked.

"And what of the craft titles?"

"That requires one to do a process related to crafting enough times, and of consistent quality, to qualify for the talent. Once one masters all the fundamentals, all the titles will fuse into a craftsman title. From there, it can be improved by making better-quality items." Sonia said.

Cindy then flipped to the final page.

"Then... Dungeon titles?"

"Those who complete dungeons can automatically get a Dungeon Explorer title. But if you solo boss monsters or clear an instance dungeon quickly enough, you can get special titles. Some bosses also give special titles if certain conditions are met." Nidawei answered this time, having an amused look.

Thud*

"All true... Holy shit..." Cindy cursed in disbelief.

Smack*

"Ouch!" Cindy cried out as her rear got spanked.

"Language, Cindytha!" Chester growled.

"Ooo... Sorry, Grandpa..." Cindy sulkily said, rubbing her rear.

Chester then looked at the trio and apologized. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Asher waved his hand, not caring how Chester disciplined his kids.

"Mr. McNab, we still have many questions to ask about this world. I hope you can fill us in." Sonia said.

"And we would also like to read the books on that shelf. If I understand correctly, we can get titles from reading books." Nidawei seriously said.

"Eh... knock yourselves out..." Chester warily said.

"What kind of freaks entered my village?"