When I dreamed of adventure and of learning magic, before arriving on this nameless world, I would have never imagined it to be in the closed confines of a strange smelling hut, in the company of two topless women.

Granted, Gilfeiths aren’t mamals, which makes their lack of modesty much more alien and unsettling than arousing.

I’m getting used to it though.

But really we need to know. Do they lay eggs or what?

Anyways.

Datari turned out to be a rather kind woman. She eyed me suspiciously at first, but accepted to give me some pointers on magic as long as I “don’t make a nuisance of myself”. Which seemed like a bar of competence within my capabilities. Learning their tongue, that I don’t even know the name of yet, is probably more important but less exciting, so I started with magic. I'm rather hopeful that I can keep picking the language up as I go.

And so, she told me to “find inner peace and listen to the world and the flows” and tell her when I got something. I guessed it was about the same as trying to meditate, so I sat down comfortably against a wall on top of a cushion while she resumed working on some kind of herbal paste.

Meanwhile, her daughter was weaving close by. She looked much like her mother, being a short and dark skinned women (which in the case of gilfeith translated to a dark shade of red, like a splatter of red wine against wood) with a kind sort of look. maybe because of how her very curved horns pressed against the sides of her heard in a non threatening way. She had the same sort of herbal paste that her mother was preparing applied to various ugly looking burns across her torso. I honestly would have been hard pressed to tell which one was the daughter and which one was the mother had I not known the mother was caring for her daughter.

Now that I think about it, I realise I'm basically incapable of placing the age of a gilfeith. Well, beside Guemeros who's obviously older and the young, who are obviously not fully grown yet. They all look like they are in their thirties to me, but here I am, facing a mother and her daughter both looking eerily similar. It doesn’t help that I don’t know the age of any of them yet.

I forcefully break my meandering train of thought.

Meditating is hard.

Bob has been silent, he seems to have a much better handle on closing off his perception of the outside world, and even of the little inner world that we share in my mind. Meanwhile for me, it’s really hard to try and to stop my thoughts in order to somehow feel the tiny grains of mana that are supposed to be everywhere. It just sounds silly, having to magically feel the magic.

Anyways. Deep, slow, and steady breaths.

…

At least it’s a good opportunity to rest my tired body.

- - -

Damn, learning magic is boring.

Forcing myself to clear my mind over and over again for hours, ignoring the occasional villager visiting Datari or the occasional chatter between the two women. Trying to percieve some elusive and isoteric thing.

I stayed somewhere between three and four hours before feeling too frustrated. I tried to learn a few words from Datari but it seemed I was slipping very quickly in the nuisance zone, so I thanked her and left, walking casually back towards my house.

I did get a two percent progress on mana sense during the afternoon thanks to Bob. If I don’t have a breakthrough I might just let him progress on that on his side until the system makes us both much better at magic.

I hope the system does that.

I can perceive your status and have none of my own so I’m pretty confident that if the system wants to do something for me you should benefit too. But if it’s only through whatever that mutation is, you might get screwed.

Seeing the ruined house again brings a small smile to my lips, despite how poor it is, it is mine. I’ll have a lot of work to bring it back to more livable conditions, but spending some time on it daily, I should progress quickly. I’ve recuperated a little from the ordeal of this morning, and all the others I’ve been through in the last... Not even a week yet, just five days. The sores and pains aren’t pleasant but they are also the mark of my body growing stronger. I will grow in this town. I will hold on to every scrap I can get. I will take every improvement I can reach for.

And that will be my first step in the long road to make the Knowledgeable pay.

Hey Marc, I’ve been wondering about that, are we sure you won’t just get those memories back upon leaving the Study?

Yes.

Well no, not absolutely. But it's not just that I feel it in my guts that they aren't coming back. Even thinking rationally: for one, there was nothing saying that the effects of their stupid Unknown Context would be reverted in their terms. Next, I would have never agreed to this if I really knew what it entailed, I’ve been obviously scammed and if they are going to antagonize people, why bother doing something that would be purely a convenience for me?

And anyway, it doesn’t matter. I can’t assume things are going to be alright once I’m out. I can’t even assume I will get out. They told us, didn’t they?

Staying in the study until biological death is desirable, as it is optimal for maximum data gathering.

If I get a chance to walk out and things are alright, then I would have prepared myself for nothing. In any other scenarios, there’s no reason to hold back. I will find them and do my best to break their past, see how they like it.

Nothing else makes sense.

Vindicator progress +2%

The system agrees. I still have a grim smile of satisfaction at feeling the progress notice when I enter my house. Immediately past the curtains, I notice a slight, irony smell, the smell of blood.

A dead bird is on its back on the dirty ground, its throat slit under the obsidian beak, still slowly leaking the last of its blood. Its four dark wings are broken, wide open and forming ugly angles.

With my mind still quickly clipping through wild fantasies of revenge just a second ago, I can’t really help it...

I break out in laughter.

How cute.

Somebody tried to be spooky and instead just offered me lunch for tomorrow.

- - -

[Outside, barely a dozen meters away]

“I’m telling you, the stranger found the cursed bird and laughed. That disgusting ape is bad news, we should chase him away! Just the anomaly of his arrival caused the death of two of us already. Good people traded for a madman that laughs at threats!”

“The chief is convinced the anomaly was an isolated thing, and he’s no more disgusting than the snidaus of the far west. And if one of those ever wandered far enough from the water to end up here, you wouldn't be acting like this. You should be ashamed, the guy is level one and you’re afraid of him."

…

“But he’s weird. Makes my skin crawl just seeing him.”