Esti raised an eyebrow. “We knew you weren’t from these lands. That’s hardly a surprise.”

“No, that’s not it,” Tess said. She tried to think of the best way to explain. “Look. You know the moons in the sky?”

Mirari and Esti nodded.

“Where I’m from, we only have one.”

Mirari and Esti turned their heads in confusion. “You only see one moon at a time?”

Tess shook her head. “No. There’s only one moon. Ever. It circles my planet, Earth. That’s where I lived, but then something happened and now I’m here.”

‘Something?’ Hellooo? I saved your life!

 

Tess dismissed the box again, letting things stay quiet until Esti or Mirari spoke up.

Mirari was the first. “I see why you don’t think we would believe your story.”

Esti looked to Mirari. “You understand what she’s saying?”

“Tess is saying her home is very, very far away from here,” Mirari said. “Past the moons and the great sky.”

Esti whipped her head around to look at Tess. “What?”

Tess shrugged.

“Impossible,” Esti stated.

“You’re telling me,” Tess said. “One minute I’m doing my job back home and the next I’m in some wilderness facing a boar that climbs trees.”

“Mounds you did,” Esti countered.

“I don’t think she has reason to lie, Esti,” Mirari said. “Though, it is surprising.”

“Back home I worked in the wilderness,” Tess said. “It turns out a lot of survival practices translate well when you get thrown into a whole new world.”

And a hundred thousand things to see! Like skills! You might want to think about rolling for them.

 

Tess scowled and mentally threw the box into the garbage. She spent a few moments crushing the box before looking back to Mirari.

The Aire Jejende sat with a hand under his chin, pensive. Esti kept staring at Tess.

“Any more questions?” Tess asked.

“Several,” Mirari said. “But many of them would require discussion well into the night. I’m sure by that time you would grow tired of my constant prattle.”

“I still don’t believe her,” Esti said with crossed arms.

Mirari looked at his friend. “She has no reason to lie.”

“I’m not saying she’s lying, per se,” Esti answered. “Perhaps she contracted a disease in the woods? Imagined the whole thing? It’s a better explanation than lands beyond the stars.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Tess said. “I doubt I’m getting home anytime soon.”

Mirari nodded. “Journeys through the woods are dangerous past the pathways. Besides, you still need some rest. The journey couldn’t have been easy. Spend a few days recuperating and then we can discuss what’s next for you.”

Tess smiled. “I appreciate it.”

“You know,” Esti grumbled. “I don’t like you offering my house without my say.”

“Apologies, Esti,” Mirari answered. “I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“Bah. As long as you’re sorry,” Esti answered.

“Thanks, Esti,” Tess said.

“What did I say about using up thanks?” Esti grumbled. “Use it too much and you cheapen it.”

“Then let me repay you in some way,” Tess said. “I can do some chores or try to help you sell those teabags.”

Mirari shook his head. “You shouldn’t have done that. She’s going to run you ragged.”

Esti slapped her friend. “Look at you! Disrespectful in my old age!”

Mirari laughed. “Apologies again, Esti.”

The man stood. “Now, I must be out. One of the farmers mentioned a herd of ardi escaped from their pens. I’ll be needed to help round them up.”

“Jaun Arrats is going to run you to death if you don’t refuse him,” Esti said.

“If not me,” Mirari answered. “Then who?”

Esti clicked her tongue but stopped arguing. Tess got the impression that the two had argued like this many a time. The woman watched as Mirari gave Esti a hug before stepping out the door.

“Idiot,” Esti said. “He’s going to get himself killed one of these days. He’s too nice.”

“Personally, I’m grateful for that,” Tess answered.

“Bah. Go get some more rest. Laubat knows you need it.”

Esti shuffled out of the house, complaining under her breath all the while. Tess shook her head as she watched the woman leave.

Finally! I thought you’d never stop talking! As interesting as it was to watch, I need to see all those new skills!

 

“You want me to roll for fifty skills on top of what I have?” Tess asked. “Do you know how much work that would be? I haven’t even taken a look at what I have right now?”

Well then just use a better package!

 

Tess narrowed her eyes. “What package?”

The one that’s right under… No. Hold on. Did I forget to—

 

“Forget to what?” Tess asked.

Nothing! Nothing at all! Look, the packages are right here!

Tess’s skill box appeared in her vision. The roll button was now separate from her skill list, with five different options.

Roll
Tier 1 Package	10 xp
Tier 2 Package	100 xp
Tier 3 Package	250 xp
Tier 4 Package	500 xp
Tier 5 Package	1000 xp

 

“…You and I both know this wasn’t there before,” Tess said with disdain.

Pfffff! It totally was! You just didn’t see it because you were so focused on surviving! I definitely didn’t forget to flip the switch after the Blink Panther fight.

 

“Right,” Tess deadpanned. “So, what do each of these packages get me?”

Better chances for the higher skills! Though, I did have to rework the drop rates for the tier 1 package because of it.

 

“So I can spend my 500xp on the Tier 4 package and get a tier 4?” Tess asked.

Get another tier 4! You’ve got one already!

 

A skill appeared in Tess’s vision.

 

Slot this baby into your Tier 4 slot for some quick help!

 

“Yeah, I think I’d rather use something less weird,” Tess answered.

The woman opened the skill list and selected the tier 4 roll package.

 

Ooh! So close! Guess you gotta use that 4 star!

 

“Just for that, I’m not slotting it,” Tess said.

What! No, you can’t do this to me!

 

“Watch me,” Tess said.

The woman opened her skill list again and started looking through the list. A lot of what she got wasn’t useful to her. A skill like Extra air only increased lung capacity, which wasn’t worth the slot it took up. Perhaps in the future, but Tess needed instant power. Of course, looking at the skills presented another problem.

Fireball could be useful though, if only for the fact that fire solved a lot of problems.

 

Tess was leery about using the skill, mostly because of how uncontrollable a fire could be. However, as long as she had some way to contain the flames the skill would be a great area deterrent. Though, studying the skill did reveal an issue Tess had found.

“Most of these don’t give me hard numbers,” Tess said.

She had been hoping to get a better idea of what her skills did, but most of the descriptions were too vague to let her know exactly how hard she might hit.

Of course they don’t give you hard numbers. Do you know how ridiculous that would be? I’d have to list things like base damage along with modifiers for stuff like air resistance, armor, and how close the moons are to the planet! No one wants to read all of that stuff, it’s not interesting.

 

“Scientists would have a field day with it,” Tess countered.

Well, I don’t find it interesting. Plus, it would keep you stuck in this hut for who knows how long. That’s not interesting at all.

 

“Alright, fine. Then, what about these attributes? Ten across the board is weak. I know for a fact I can memorize more than ten pages of a book.”

Oh, that’s an easy one. Those attributes are more like bonuses. Trying to quantify a soul always gives me a headache so it’s easier to just stack things on top. You can work out to increase muscle mass or practice memorization techniques to be better. This just helps out in a supernatural way!

 

“Good to know.”

Oh! And before I forget! Supernatural abilities totally exist in this world. Unfortunately, you’re unable to learn them. Since your body wasn’t born here you don’t have the soul connections plus a slew of other things. I recommend not trying them unless you want cluster migraines.

 

“You mean cluster headaches?” Tess asked.

Same thing.

 

“Anything else?”

If I think of something I’ll let you know!

 

“On that, I’m sure.”

Tess spent the rest of the day going through the skills to determine her best options. She debated about increasing her attributes but decided it would be better to use more active skills. Equipping something like Puzzle Master would be better when she had a lot of the skill down the line, that way the secondary passive would take effect.

Eventually she decided on a broad range of skills, figuring a jack of all trades approach was better than specialization. By the afternoon she had slotted her skills:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew you would slot Emergency Line.

 

“Only because it’s too useful not to use,” Tess said.