"I'm here for some healing?" Axl said, uncertainly stepping into the room.

  "The pretty dresses and love workers are next door, so I sure hope so," the elf took out a sheet of paper from the empty air. "Name and Lineage."

  "What?"

  "Your Name and Lineage, kid. I need the first for my files, the second to do my job."

  "Ah, Roken, and water-elf."

  The healer put the sheet down and leveled a flat look at Axl. "This is going to go poorly if I don't know what you actually are. So, either you tell me, or I can charge you full price for a bad job."

  "Apologies," Axl said. "An orc just tried to kill me, so I'm a bit on edge. It says Poison-seeped Water Elf, poison-consuming, then the letter G in parentheses."

  The elf shrugged. "Fine. I see a quest to kill you now, so can imagine you'd have to deal with a lot of that sort of nonsense recently. Also your body makes more sense, quite impressive to get such poison alignment already at the G-Grade. So is the healing for you or your friend?"

  "Myself, I—"

  "Hi, I'm Moxlin!" she waved enthusiastically. " I'm a corrupted tincture orb-weaver, G-Grade. What's your name, gorgeous?"

  The healer narrowed his eyes. "I'm Folom of Meft. And are we going to have a problem, spider?"

  "What! No, no! Sorry if I came across too strongly, I'm sure you get too much attention as it is."

  Axl cursed under his breath. "I swear, honorable healer of Meft, she is being genuine and means no offense."

  Folom grumbled and pointed to the side. "Alright, sit at the examination table."

  For the next few minutes, the healer injected Mana into Axl's body, the poking and prodding inside feeling somewhat uncomfortable. It left no cranny unturned, lingering in the brain and the poison absorption organ behind his gills. He paused the probing to ask Axl to describe how his Attributes felt and the kind of poison he was afflicted with, briefly examining a sample of the centipede's poison and the seeping fang from the swarmer.

  "I can't see any problems," Folom said, his Mana withdrawn as he returned to his desk. "Your Attributes feel high, even for an uncommon class in the middle of the F-Grade, so I at least understand how you're not dead yet, with that quest putting such a premium on your head. Your body is unusually undamaged, as seems to be your mind and soul, but I'm not as well-versed in those aspects of healing. Those potions you use for healing are crude, but not actively damaging, and on an unrelated note, I expect you could sell them reasonably well around here, our latest alchemist only barely delving into the art. The poison that attacked your body indeed only tempered it to be more resistant to that kind of attack, your gill filters are a genuinely beautiful construct on that front as well. Frankly, I'm stumped. Whatever's wrong with your alleged weakness, I can't detect it."

  Axl frowned at the assessment, wondering if he just stumbled upon an incompetent healer. "Alright, how much do I owe you?"

  "First time is free," he said. "But this doesn't count. I didn't actually heal anything, after all."

  "So generous!" Moxlin waved her forearms around. "I'm a glyphic artisan, focusing on talismans and arrays. Maybe we can work together sometime? In the healing school, I only know basic triage talismans, but I'm always eager to collaborate!"

  "Maybe," Folom muttered, then turned back to Axl. "I'd like to buy some of those healing potions you made. I'll pay five Medium Burrils for each one—that’s the Orc currency used around here, and that's a premium price for a healing potion. I want to see what it does in detail if it gets used widely around here. To know what to expect with my future patients."

  That was clever of the healer, and a good chance to get some currency without dipping into the dead orc's stuff, so he put out three vials for the elf, who gave him fifteen of the mid-sized blue coins he recognized from his scavenged ring. The transaction complete, Folom turned back to his notes, his body language making it clear they were done here.

  Axl left, even as Moxlin kept staring back longingly at the pudgy elf. He'd barely closed the door before she screeched in his ear.

  "Aiiiiii," she followed the piercing wail with a pair of legs stabbing into Axl's cheek. "Such a beautiful elf! The rounded body and soft curves. Why didn't you tell me that elves could be so attractive? Do you think he liked me?"

  Axl grimaced at his suddenly ringing ear. "He did say maybe to your offer for a collaboration."

  "Oh! I need to learn some healing talismans! Roken—we need to study!"

  Axl took a deep breath, regretting just going along with her latest fixation. How would it even work, a cranky elf with a palm-sized spider? He felt doomed by the idle thought, realizing that Moxlin would likely tell him at some point. Charisma training felt even more necessary to dodge that incoming bullet.

  "Let's just get a bed for now," he said. "Try to find Soffal again, get some more ideas on what to do next."

  The longhouse dominated the encampment, being four stories high, a hundred meters long, and fifty wide. It was also more carefully constructed than the nearby buildings, not simple wooden planks put together with the bare minimum of functional craft, but apparently grown from a single piece of wood. Mana-built, obviously.

  Axl walked in through the large door at the short side facing the middle of the encampment, into a large room that took up the entirety of the ground floor, with a large set of stairs at the far end. Beds were lined up against the walls and in several rows along each side, all triple-bunks, a few enclosed rooms evenly throughout. About two-thirds of the beds Axl saw had the blue pillowcase, the ones in white largely close to the entrance, there still being a few deeper in. All but two of the individual rooms had a strip of blue cloth on a hook at the door leading in, and he figured those rooms were perhaps for those that earned the right to a private space.

  Not wanting to take a bed too far into the building, since that might be presumptuous, he settled for one just behind the first private room to the left of the entrance, at the bottom of three bunks, the top two already taken. Only a handful of the over one hundred beds in the room were currently occupied by sleeping figures, and one bed in the corner had a couple in the middle of loud, enthusiastic sex, which Axl tried his best to actively ignore.

  He turned the pillow cover inside-out and made a specific fold on the neatly tucked bedding, if only as a simple indication if somebody coarsely messed with his claimed bed, say to leave an unwelcome surprise under the sheets. He then left for the training courtyard, which occupied nearly a full half of the encampment grounds to the north, opposite to where all the artisan's huts were located.

  Two dozen grey orcs and a pair of brown-skinned elves were sparring with each other, a single orc overseeing the group, Soffal by her side. The heavily armored orc noticed Axl standing at the edge of the training ground and waved him over.

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  He approached, trying to eye the others to gauge their relative power as they trained, but not wanting to use [Mana Shroud] in case any could detect it and would take offense. Overall, they were all slower than the orc he and Soffal had just killed, and only a few looked like they had Strength that Axl couldn't match, a finding he was reassured by. The orc next to Soffal, however, seemed like an entirely different category of warrior.

  She had dense musculature and a balanced pose that felt genuinely threatening, even if she wore a loose, simple linen shirt and trousers, the even off-white color matching her grey skin. Unlike any other orc around, she didn't have fangs poking out from either her bottom or upper teeth, and her facial features were softer than the usual angular orc's. Strangely, she also was missing her right arm, which wasn't a recent wound, since her shirt was neatly tailored to have no armhole on that side. Axl grew strangely nervous as he approached her, slowing down as he got near to the two, apprehensive. He even started to sweat as he reached a thin line in the soil before them, the boundary of the sparring area, and where he intuitively felt he should stand on to greet them.

  "Not bad," the one-armed orc said, her voice unnervingly neutral. "You sensed my threatening posture at twelve meters, even if I'm guessing it's your body doing so alone."

  Soffal nodded. "He also crossed swords with Lokpar twice and survived. Might have beaten her too, if I didn't step in."

  Axl bowed to the pair. "Thank you for the invitation, I—"

  "Do not bow," the female orc nearly spat. "It puts you off-balance and limits your vision, the gesture inefficient in any battle stance. You either willingly weaken yourself before a matched enemy willing to capitalize on the advantage or belittle a lesser opponent unnecessarily."

  "We just don't do that here," Soffal added with a chuckle, "even if it's popular with you elven cultivators."

  "Understood," he said, in a way relieved, the gesture always feeling somewhat awkward to perform so often, despite Roken's extensive experience with the practice. It never felt genuine enough, too much like empty ass-kissing.

  "My name is Suliana," the one-armed orc said. "I have been sent with this contingent to oversee training and further my own F-Grade progress. As guests to our Longhouse, the two of you may purchase any of the services we offer, make use of the free training of the courtyard, and join in groups to scavenge for natural treasures, hunt specific beasts, or delve rifts, the standing information for all this being handled by our shamans on the second floor of the Longhouse. Soffal here mentioned you may need training, but I now see the problem is far more extensive. Why in the name of every possible weapon's spirit do you limit your Attribute access like this?"

  Axl's eyes widened, hoping he'd found the answer to his questions. "I don't know what you mean, to be honest, and the healer found nothing wrong with me. I recently finished a rift and was quite a bit weaker afterwards, even if my Attributes went up. Do you know why?"

  An eerie calm descended onto the courtyards, Axl turning to see that the sparring matches that had previously been going on behind him had all paused, every eye staring at him in disbelief.

  "You actually survived a rift in the G-Grade?" the nearest Orc asked, his voice oscillating between admiration and jealousy.

  A loud slamming noise erupted from behind him, the entire contingent flinching in surprise.

  "Did I say you could stop?" Suliana's voice was loud and unyielding. "This is not a puppet show for you to gawk at, your trainers here to serve refreshments at your leisure. Three laps around the Longhouse hill. No weapons, no early return when attacked."

  Axl saw the shadow of barely contained dismay in the faces around him as they shuffled off in a jog, angry gazes equally leveled at him and the orc that asked the apparently offending question.

  Suliana approached, now holding a quarterstaff. "Spar with me, guest Roken, and I might detect more about your problem. Your artisan friend may wait to the side."

  "Sure thing, scary lady!" Moxlin scuttled away, jumping onto a stool next to Soffal. She looked up at him and gave him a tiny wave, which he returned paired with a smile before turning back to the courtyard.

  Axl took a few steps back as Suliana approached, her posture intimidating and strict, and he was genuinely afraid of her, somehow. He looked around for a practice weapon to use, then saw a rack of wooden weapons tapered with bundles of cloth to the side.

  "Use your main weapon, but no skill, techniques, glyphistry, active Intent, or other forms of empowerment," she said, taking a neutral stance. "Yet strike to kill. You will be unable to harm me, and if you do, then I deserve the low death."

  Axl ignored Soffal's eye roll and barely contained smirk, immediately focusing on [Webcutter], gripping the handle, his body slightly curled into the sheathed sword. Slowly, one step at a time, he approached his opponent, who stood still, quarterstaff unmoving.

  He tried to focus on balancing his body's Attributes, but the feeling was off-kilter, unable to get that sense of getting his body fully aligned with what he needed it to do. Still, he approached Suliana, trying to make the best of the situation, and with every morsel of Strength and Agility he could muster, unsheathed the sword to slash at her hip.

  The quarterstaff moved to perfectly deflect the blow, a seamless turn using the other end of the weapon to sweep at his feet. Axl noticed the counter and took a step back, avoiding being thrown on his ass but slightly off-balance from the failed strike.

  As he took a moment to recenter his posture, the quarterstaff kept its flowing arc towards his shoulder. Too late, he brought up his sword to block, the attack hitting him fully before his blade reached the cloth-dampened wooden stick.

  It had only a fraction of the Strength he was applying, but it was enough to push him slightly to the ground, costing him a moment to regain his balance, and the other end of the quarterstaff was now barreling directly at his gut.

  This time, the strike hit him squarely and entirely, pushing him three meters back, his legs shaking.

  Suliana rapidly moved to close the gap, so Axl took a step forward, his legs screaming as he stabbed the sword at her face. She sidestepped it perfectly, the quarterstaff striking his right hand, making him loosen his grip on his weapon. With only his left grip, he turned the sword towards her and slashed sideways.

  Her body contorted to duck below the slash, and another strike on his left hand made him drop the sword. Without hesitation, he kicked at her crouched figure, but she dropped her own weapon and grabbed his leg. In a twisting motion Axl couldn't follow, he was on the ground, Suliana's knees on his lower back and neck.

  "We are done," she proclaimed, and got up. "Rise. How do you think you did?"

  Axl dusted himself off, spat out the sand in his mouth, and re-sheathed his sword. "Very badly. My Attributes feel suffocated, but that's not why I lost. You were moving slower and hitting less hard than me, limiting your Agility and Strength to below mine, but the flow of your strikes was seamless, one leading to the next as if the perfect counter for everything I did. It was like you planned the entire battle in advance. And that was just with what I could follow, the grappling move you did at the end on my leg I couldn't even see how it worked."

  Suliana paused for a moment, one eyebrow slightly raised. "Much of that is correct. What do you think is the problem?"

  Axl paused for a moment, feeling he wasn’t being asked about his Attributes. "Actual theoretical knowledge of how to fight? Like forms?"

  "Pursuing martial artistry is one avenue for improvement. Are there others?"

  Figuring the answer to that was yes, he thought a bit further. Thinking he had something, he looked down at his sword, its curve and sense of flowing momentum. "Connection with my weapon? Something like Intent? But to be honest, I don't know what Intent is, really."

  "Then do not speak of concepts you do not pursue. What else?"

  He thought again for a long while, then thought back on every part of the fight. "Other than my messed-up Attributes, no, I don't."

  She nodded. "Good, recognizing your own ignorance is a suitable starting place. I believe your issue is that you follow either the Balanced Path of the Oocile sub-system or a related form of cultivation common to the area beyond the vale, and that you are insufficiently using all your Attributes at once."

  Axl's eyes widened as he realized this was obvious—he had two new Attributes that he barely knew what to do with and had not even started exploring. The problem was so obvious he felt like a complete fool for not realizing it immediately after leaving the rift, and also explained why [Attuned Drill Strike] didn't work anymore. The Skill, after all, scaled with the lowest of his Attributes, it made sense it wouldn't work if he didn’t know how some of them even operated. It even explained how he got the Skill to work in the first place, it wasn’t an inspiration that activated it directly, it was his increased understanding of how [Mana Shroud] improved all his Attributes, likely doing barely enough of that to qualify for the Skill to turn on.

  "I see you believe that I am right."

  "Yes," Axl replied, purposefully bowing deeply, unable to restrain himself. "I thank my teacher for the priceless lesson."

  "Nonsense," Suliana muttered, even as the hint of a smile peeked from behind her practiced neutrality. "And for failing to follow the most basic of instructions on that bowing nonsense, you may join the rest of the students in their jogging."

  "Yes, teacher!" He gladly proclaimed and ran off to catch up.