The Screaming Onion proved lively as usual when Blackthorne wandered inside. A quick glance into the kitchen revealed that Jackie worked busily at chopping vegetables. Scraggles commanded the bar like he was the somewhat scraggly master of his domain. The patrons were an eclectic bunch, rowdy but not particularly problematic.

He allowed a slight quirk to come to his lips. It was a strange sensation, the comfort he felt in this place. A tavern in another world felt more like home than any place that he'd lived for many years.

Blackthorne opted not to bother Jackie at the moment but raised his hand to Scraggles. The Scraggly one nodded to him and gestured to a small table near the kitchen. "That's new..." he said as he walked over to the table built for two.

After reaching his goal, Blackthorne waited for Scraggles to come over and take a seat. The tavern keeper offered a slight smile. "So, you intend to take my Jack away from me?"

Blackthorne eyed the man carefully. "It seems to be what she wants, if that is something that concerns you..."

Scraggles nodded slightly. "It is important to me that she finds a way forward in life. I am not much for the owning of slaves."

"I'm not certain why she has become fixated on me, but my intentions are not to cause her grief. It was something she asked of me," said Blackthorne.

"I know," said Scraggles. "Honestly, I try to stay out of her business when she is off work. Do you know of her husband, however?"

"She has explained the situation," said Blackthorne. "I have never met the man, but I am not a fan."

"Ah, but you do know that once he realizes that you have acquired her he may decide to try and kill you to reclaim her. She is considered a valuable commodity, after all," said Scraggles.

"He's welcome to try," said Blackthorne.

Scraggles looked him in the eye then snorted. "That sort of statement would be more powerful if you were not wearing the most basic gear imaginable and had a few levels under your belt."

"True, but leveling up seems to be a slow process. I have a few sidelines on gaining money, at least," admitted Blackthorne.

The Scraggly one scratched his chin briefly. "I normally do not give advice to people. I've long since given up the life of adventure that I once led. However, I might be able to give you a few pointers that will help you grow stronger, faster."

"By all means!" said Blackthorne excitedly. "I would appreciate it."

Scraggles nodded to him. "Well, for starters you need to consider effort values, challenge ratings, combat frequency, and contracts."

Blackthorne nodded, and Scraggles continued. "Effort values are basically what life in this world is all about when it comes to developing greater power. The more legitimate effort you have to put into a thing, the more experience will build up. Experience converts into actual ability slowly over time."

What the man said made sense. Blackthorne already suspected that the more effort he was forced to make, the quicker his skills grew. "Does that count for only skills, or for gaining levels as well?"

"Both, yes," said Scraggles. "Skill experience is one part of the trifecta of necessary components to gain a level. You have a hidden variable within you that determines the maximum amount of any type of experience that you might access at any given time."

"I see, so no matter what I will eventually hit a wall and won't gain any more experience?" asked Blackthorne.

"Experience is separated into several types. Each skill has its own experience pool. Contract experience has its own pool. Social experience has its own pool..." said Scraggles.

"Social experience?" asked Blackthorne. "Oh, and does that contract experience have anything to do with the wha-ping noise that I occasionally hear?"

"Wha-ping... Ah, yes probably. You receive that signal when you have reached a new milestone in your social or contract experience pools," said Scraggles. "Skills merely increase in level, instead of generating that noise."

"What about challenge rating and combat?" asked Blackthorne.

Scraggles taped his nose. "Combat frequency is a separate pool from your combat skills. It basically fills up the more you fight over a short period of time. "

"Challenge rating is an experience pool that increases based on the actual difficulty of your current endeavor," said Scraggles.

He took a breath and continued, "Fighting stronger opponents gives more experience. Attempts to craft items from more challenging materials grants more experience. The same can be said of difficult to complete contracts or social interactions that matter."

"So, how does it all work? I think that I've worked on all of that at one point or another," said Blackthorne thoughtfully.

"If you gained a level, then yes you did. However, everything I have told you is common knowledge. You no doubt figured it out by yourself," said Scraggles.

"There were a few things I did not know, but I suspected most of what you said," admitted Blackthorne.

Scraggles leaned forward, "Good. I haven't wasted my time. However, do you know the real reason you don't level up as quickly as you would like?"

"Ah, no. Is there a true reason?" asked Blackthorne.

"Of course!" Scraggles tapped the side of his nose. "You don't actually live in this world."

"Well, that can't be helped. I'm a dreamer." Blackthorne frowned slightly. Was his dreamer status truly that restrictive?

"Not what I meant," said Scraggles. "What I wanted you to understand is that you don't treat our world like you are a part of it. You come in and out. You spend your days either locked in your room or wandering around alone."

Blackthorne acquired a thoughtful frown. "Are you saying that grinding away at my skills is the reason I have not gained more than one level since coming here? I thought levels came slowly."

"They do, but you can develop faster than you are currently. The real problem is that level gains only occur when you have enough experience points across all aspects of your life to push yourself beyond your current level," said Scraggles.

"So, I just need to do more things?" asked Blackthorne.

"Yes, but that is also not quite what I meant," said Scraggles. He took a slow, deep, breath then looked Blackthorne in the eyes. "Your experience pools drain over time to grant you new ability. You have to have enough concurrent experience across all pools to raise your level. What happens when one pool drains below the minimum needed to gain a level while you focus on another?"

Blackthorne's eyes widened in an almost comical fashion. "I would never gain a level."

"Correct," agreed Scraggles. "At your current level you'll stumble across a few level gains just by living. However, if you truly wish to develop at a regular pace you will need to work on everything simultaneously."

"I see. So no matter how much I grind my skills, or do odd jobs, my level won't increase?" asked Blackthorne.

"Those things help greatly," said Scraggles. He tapped his chin lightly then pointed at Blackthorne. "Your problem is that you don't interact with people enough. The contract experience is no doubt fine, but you don't have enough experience in your social aspects of life to constantly maintain experience levels."

"What does that even mean, though? Do I have to become a social butterfly to advance?" asked Blackthorne. The idea of it alone was enough to make him shudder.

"Not in the least. You simply need to be part of more interactions that actually matter to yourself and the world." Scraggles tapped the table then nodded. "Helping that little girl, and climbing the wall around Jack's heart are good examples."

Blackthorne's eyes narrowed briefly as he considered those words, but it did not take long before a slight smile arose on his lips. He knew what Scraggles really meant, even if the man did not know it. As far as he knew there was no such thing as a main storyline quest for the people from his world, but if he became involved in events that caused him to do important things he would be considered important to the world. That brought a certain amount of experience of its own. Not just jobs, but actual story arcs and side stories needed to be attended to in order to gain levels!

It made sense to him as he thought it over. Contracts and story quests like helping Saelil both produced a wha-ping sound. They were essentially the same thing, but they counted differently since one was simply a job, while the other had far reaching social consequences. If Blackthorne wanted to gain levels more quickly, he needed to become part of a story and see it to its conclusion.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I think I know what you mean, and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me."

Scraggles nodded to him then continued to expand his lesson. He went over a few finer points of life in the world, and how to become stronger. Blackthorne absorbed the knowledge readily. It could prove invaluable in the future.

After his conversation with Scraggles, Blackthorne went to visit Jackie. She offered him a passive expression, and waived her knife around a lot during their conversation, but otherwise she seemed quite content.

Up in his room, Blackthorne considered the events of the day. "There's a lot that I need to do to gain a level."

The biggest blow to his heart was the fact that while grinding was alright for his skill levels, it was never going to be the best way to increase their capacities. He needed to work with ever more complex and difficult materials to keep it growing. Even the few crystals that he made earlier were enough to increase his synergy level. He gained as much from that scant few hours spent at a leisurely pace as he would from a day of tireless grass grinding.

"In a way, I knew that sort of thing already... Grass just isn't good enough anymore," said Blackthorne. It was time to seek out better materials and grind those instead. Tomorrow would prove to be a productive day, several levels of skill should arise from his efforts.

He opted to check his skills menu to see exactly what he'd earned earlier that day. He recalled that his actual synergy skill increased a few times, a testament to the level of work that he'd performed, but he was uncertain of the exact number of improved synergy refinement skill ranks that he'd gained.

PRIMARY SKILLS

Dark Magic

Rank: 18

- Sub-Skill: Basic Dark Lightning Mastery

Rank: 3

Conjuration Magic

Rank: 1

Synergy

Rank: 17

- Sub Skill: Improved Synergy Refinement

Rank: 9

[Empty]

SECONDARY SKILLS

Heavy Armor

Rank: 2

Blade Mastery

Rank: 20

- Sub-Skill: Basic Longsword Mastery

Rank: 1

- Sub-Skill: Basic Shortsword Mastery

Rank: 2

Arcane Ring Mastery

Rank: 4

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

TERTIARY SKILLS

Jewelry Crafting

Rank: 7

Enchanting

Rank: 1

Alchemy

Rank: 1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[--]

"Hmm, isn't my dark lightning a little more advanced than it should be?" Blackthorne tapped his lip. Was he supposed to have two ranks in that skill, or three? It did not matter that much in the long run, as most of what he saw on his skill menu seemed within proper alignment with his memories.

"Experience drips in over time, maybe I was awake on Earth when the skill ranked up?" He mused quietly to himself for a time. It seemed plausible that he might not receive a message pertaining to a rank up if it happened off-screen, so to speak.

After scanning through his skill menu he was briefly tempted to use his left over skill points from his previous level up. Seven points would be exactly enough to cause his dark magic, synergy, and synergy refinement skills to rank up to the next milestone. He curtailed that desire after a moment of introspection, however. If he waited till his next level up, those skills might reach that point on their own and save him a few skill points in the process.

"After tomorrow's job, I might be halfway to my goal of purchasing Jackie..." Blackthorne frowned slightly as the words slipped out. The idea of owning someone did not sit right with him. However, it was more of a technicality than anything. More to the point, he would have a permanent party member. Hunting and exploring would be both more fun and slightly less dangerous.

"Best way I know to make money otherwise is to hunt for vita stones and combine them on my own," said Blackthorne. "The scorpions might prove better in the long run, but even with my poison resistance and that ring I made, they are still too much of a pain in the ass to deal with at the moment.

Not for the first time did he lament the fact that what he really needed was more protection. If he slew one or two scorpions at a time then walked back to town it would take forever. There had to be a way to get decent protection that would keep the scorpions from piercing his skin. Even the bonus defense from his ring and breastplate would not stop such attacks completely. The ring and breastplate provided a decent full body bonus when combined, enough to roughly match his breastplate's defense alone. However, he'd taken more than one shot to the chest and received damage when he fought onions. Scorpions seemed to be a slightly more dangerous creature, even without poison.

"I'm close, but I need just a little more defense..." he said.

Blackthorne hopped off of his bed then went back down stairs. He noted Jackie in the corner with two men. One reached out to touch her hair, and she casually slapped him across the face.

His eyes narrowed as he stalked toward the corner of the room, but the situation handled itself before he arrived. The two men cut their losses and left in a surprising fit of reasonable human social interaction. She did not want them, so they went elsewhere. Was such a thing even possible?

Jackie snorted at him when he arrived. "I suppose you want something from me as well?"

He nodded to her and she blinked. Slowly she looked to the side and then lightly lifted her chest upward. "Oh, but I'm at work..."

It was Blackthorne's turn to snort. "Nothing like that."

She grunted at him in a decidedly feminine manner. "I'm busy. I still have to work for a living, even with all of your promises."

"That's what this is about. After tomorrow I'll be close to our goal, but I would be even closer if I could figure out a way to get cheap, useable armor," said Blackthorne.

"Why not just make something with those skills of yours?" she asked him.

He showed her his Lustrous Vital Ring of the Grassland Scorpion. "I can do that, but they aren't quite good enough, yet."

She eyed the ring critically then nodded. "You made that?"

"Yes, but the critters that have the parts I need are poisonous. I need more protection if I don't want to be stung to death trying to get enough material to actually make something worthwhile," said Blackthorne. "Any idea of something around here that might have similar materials or actual armor I could use? Something that isn't poisonous?"

"Well, there is one place that I can think of relatively nearby that someone like you could profit from..." she said.

"Do tell," he said softly.

"If you don't mind fighting the dead, there is the forbidden graveyard. I think you've heard of it before?" she asked him.

"Yeah. I've heard something about it. The concept seemed a bit... odd to me," he admitted. "Besides that, they don't let the ones they dump there keep their equipment, right?"

Jackie nodded to him. "Well no, but the thing is that the spirits of the restless dead that reside there will take on the form they held in life. Sometimes they have equipment that they will leave behind if they are defeated."

"Anything good?" asked Blackthorne.

"No. It's rusted or badly damaged trash for the most part. Useless for the vast majority of people outside of the occasional lucky find," she admitted.

Blackthorne scratched under his eye with the back of his thumbnail. "Majority of people.... meaning I might be able to do something with their drops?"

"You have synergy abilities right?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it seems rare in these parts..." said Blackthorne.

She shrugged at him. "Give it a try. Even if you can't find anything good, you might be able to use the parts to make something you can sell—" Jackie leaned forward provocatively and wagged her kitchen knife around under his nose, "and then buy something you like."

He chuckled politely then said, "Thanks. I'll give it a try, soon."

Jackie signed languidly then drew back. "Fine, but one word of advice."

"Yes?" he asked her.

"Magic," she said. "You can use it, right? Not just synergy?"

"A little, yes," he said.

"Good. Undead are supernatural creatures. It takes a massive amount of damage, or inordinate numbers of blows to their weak spots to slay them without magic," she said.

Jackie flexed her muscles a little then offered a saucy wink. "My racial affinity to celestial powers would let me punch and kick them with greater effect than the damage produced by a normal sword or hammer. Yet, if you tried to fight a dead man with your bare fists, he'd eat you alive."

"How are they against dark magic, like lightning?" asked Blackthorne.

"Not as good as fire, or celestial power, and not as useful to slow them down as say an ice spell... but it'll do," said Jackie.

Blackthorne grinned at her. "This might work out beautifully."

She snorted at him. "If you come back to me as an undead, the deal's off."

"What, the most important thing on my rotting and diseased mind would be you, but you wouldn't have me?" he asked her in an attempt at playfulness.

"No. Suffer an eternity without me," she replied with a wave of her kitchen knife.

He laughed with a bit more emotion in his tone than usual. It was nice to have someone to joke around with whom he did not have to pretend to like due to work circumstances. "I'll keep that in mind."

She spun away from him with a flourish. Her hair flared out beautifully, and her bare hips swished to the side provocatively. "Such things are for the living only."

Blackthorne started to say something, but a voice in his head called out, "Look at you salivating after her like a dog in heat. Degenerate."

His expression tightened slightly, but he managed to say, "Well, I'd come back with my shield or on it, but I have no shield."

She snorted at him then tapped her lower lip with the tip of her knife. "Yet another reason you fail as a man."

"Tell her the other reasons. Go ahead... Tell her about how much your sick degenerate ass loves your little sister..." snarked the voice inside his head.

Blackthorne did his best to ignore the voice in his head. "Being a man is overrated. I'll cry like a little bitch at every sunset, and you'll just have to deal with it."

Jackie looked back over her shoulder, her expression incredulous for a split second. Then, as though a damn had burst, she barked out a raucous laugh followed by a strangely musical sounding giggle. She quickly slapped a hand to her mouth to stifle her outburst, but it was too late. She'd done something girly and adorable. Now she would have to live with the consequences.

She turned away from him once more the quietly said, "Yeah... you do that. I have to get back to work."

Blackthorne snorted then titled his head sideways slightly to get a better view. The voices screamed at him inside his head, but this was his way at lashing back at them. If they insisted he was a pervert, then dammit he would be one today! "I hate that you have to go, but it's lovely to watch you leave."

She snorted loudly and waved her kitchen knife in the air a bit as she walked away. However, she put a little more wiggle in her walk as she moved. The exaggerated sway of her hips kept his attention for quite a while, and even garnered the appraising glances of several tavern goers.

The voices railed loudly inside his mind, even as his face tensed further. The shrieking venomous hatred spewed by those voices caused him to lift his hands slightly as though he intended to clutch his head. However, he stopped himself mid-movement and fought back. "Oh, shut up. You're just a bunch of noise in my head," he said coldly inside his private thoughts.

Enraged by his denial of their righteous venom, the voices grew louder. However, Blackthorne wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned away. Each step toward the stairs that led to his room were filled with exceeding amounts of mental pain and emotional anguish as the voices tore at him. However, he persevered. For the moment, he managed to keep his inner demons at bay by sheer willpower alone. There was no way to know how long, or how often, he might manage such a herculean feat, but for now it was a start.