Chaste led Theo some distance until they crossed a road well-travelled, made of dirt and down-trodden muck. The road went north-to-south with little to no places of reference as far as Theo could see. Well, there was that slightly dark cloud all the way north.

  Chaste pointed Theo in that direction. "There's a town over there, just past the horizon. You'll get there in an hour or two if you keep a steady pace."

  "You're leaving me here?" Theo asked with a clearly disappointed tone.

  "I am. Sorry, friend, but I don't do villages. Besides, you're safe along the road. Here, have this," he answered, tossing Theo a small, clinking pouch.

  Theo opened it, finding metallic coins inside. It was enough to add a hefty weight to the pouch.

  "Chaste, I can't-"

  "Trust me, that's nothing. It should allow you a few days' worth of a roof and meals out here. Enough to get on your feet, you know."

  "Thank you, Chaste. For everything. Without you I would've been dead twice over already," Theo said with a gentle face and a thankful voice.

  "Really, it's no problem. If nothing else, I should be thanking you. You've proven to me the Goddess is still out there. It has revived a dying fire within me, so to speak. If you're ever in Ercheat, let's meet up! See you later," Chaste said. While talking he had both been climbing atop his horse and started riding off slowly.

  Theo simply waved as a true friend rode off without him. Somehow, this kind of farewell seemed just in line with what he knew of Chaste. He had to smile.Wait, how would he get in touch with him when he got to... Ercheat? Where even was that?

  With a humorous sigh, Theo turned north and started walking along the road towards the nearby town. The meadows were pretty to look at, but offered nothing of particular interest to snatch his attention away, so he mostly just kept an eye on the black smoke in the distance. It was later revealed to be chimney smoke from the village he was heading to.

  Having decided to keep a tight lid on the sigil weaving for now, Theo didn't weave anything on the road. He did remember that he had a message that offered some guidance related to skills and stats, whatever they were, so he found the message in the log and accepted the offer.

  Regarding skills:

  Skills are by far the most important thing to grow in Aera. To learn skills, you must show that you are diligent in its studies, determined in its usage and repetitive in its execution. Skills are earned this way, but they are also improved the same way, requiring constant attention if you seek to be a master of the art.

  Skills not only show how masterfully you can execute an action or series of actions. They also provide benefits to stats. At Level One, the first level of any acquired skill, you gain +5 points to all stats, meaning +5 Physical, +5 Mental and +5 Vital. This stacks additively with all skills you obtain.

  At Level Two, there is no additive increase in any stats, but a multiplicative increase of 5% to each. This stacks additively with every skill at Level Two you have.

  A Level Three skill is similar in that it adds no additive points, but provides an additional multiplier of 20% to all stats. This stacks additively with every Level Three skill you have.

  Regarding stats:

  The three stats each affect a different part of you. Physical increases your strength, agility and dexterity, making you more effective at doing physical tasks.

  Mental increases your intelligence, wisdom and critical thinking, making you more effective at doing mental tasks and helps with decision-making.

  Vital increases your vitality, endurance and constitution, making your body sturdier, more resistant to harm and its ability to heal.

  Each stat can be trained individually to add an additional multiplier to the stat being trained.

  "Phew," Theo whistled after reading all that text. "Skills and stats are like maths heaven with all those multipliers, huh? Is that no less than three multipliers explained?"

  He counted them again, checking if he'd missed something. It was definitely three, alright.

  Using himself as an example, knowing he had at least 5 points in every individual stat, it was pretty simple. He had a base of 5 physical, 5 mental and 5 vital, all given from his one Level One skill, Sigil Weaving. He might have more, but he wasn't sure about that.

  Adding the multipliers of all of his Level Two and Level Three stats, he had a whopping... five points in all stats. Okay, he might not be the greatest of examples.

  He immediately found the flaw in the system. Well, calling it a flaw might be presumptuous. If he only had one skill, but that skill was trained to Level Three, he would have a massive six points in all his stats. Six point three, to be exact.

  If it took years to get a skill to that level, he was already most of the way there! There seemed to be no reason at all to focus on his sigil weaving skill. Then again...

  If he had a hundred skills, each at Level One except his sigil weaving, he'd have a baseline of 500 points in all stats. The Level Two multiplier of that one skill would add a massive twenty-five points to the mix. The Level Three multiplier? Another 105 points!

  Needless to say, the strength of this particular system was all about managing how many Level One skills you had to improve the baseline an optimal amount, balanced against how large the Level Two and Three multipliers were.

  Of course, it was only easy in theory. He didn't know how long it would take for him to gain skills, nor how long it would take to increase the level of one. Chaste said most people had a Level Three skill or two by the time they reached eighteen, seemingly a general adult age even in this world. If it took eighteen years to get there... Theo would really have to get a move on.

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  Then there was the question regarding his stats. He figured they weren't high, but knowing just how low they were was also important. Figuring there should be a system-related screen for it, all Theo had to do was try.

  'Stats' he thought, trying to will something into being. Surprisingly, it worked. What was perhaps more surprising was that he hadn't attempted this far earlier. There was even a bonus list that appeared, saving him the trouble later.

  Theo's stats and skills:

  Health: 100% | Mana: 6 | Stamina: 99%

  Physical: 6 | Mental: 6 | Vital: 6

  Level One skills:

  Sigil Weaving

  Theo whistled. He didn't think he'd been given an additional 500% of his current stats back when he got his first skill. Was he 600% stronger now? He didn't feel like it. Maybe the progression wasn't as direct as that.

  Not only that, but he instantly realised how lucky he had been with his Boon. The threat of impending, possibly explosive doom notwithstanding, the ability to 'see through the veil' and the extra thousand mana he'd spent figuring out the world primer had likely skyrocketed his advancement. With just one singular mana without his only Level One skill, when would he be able to try weaving the sigils?

  As it was, even now, he didn't have enough to combine two of them, let alone experiment with them as he had done. How long would it take him to figure out as much as he had? How many skills would he need to get to be able to keep his experiments going?

  The wandering young man reached the stubby stone wall of the town when he was done contemplating how weak the world thought he was if he just had a single point in all of his stats. It wasn't so much a wall as it was a border, though it might keep the laziest of cows from jumping over it, he was sure.

  While entering the town drew a couple of eyes his way, the elderly man holding tight a deep brown cane in his shaking hands keeping a vigilant, retired gaze, Theo was surprised to find the town so empty. He expected people to... be there?

  He heard some hubbub in the direction of the town proper, so he waved a friendly wave to the elder who was trying to stare him down and headed further into town.

  The buildings were tattered, built with half-rotted, uneven planks and pre-rusted nails by the looks of it. The worst thing was, they didn't even look that old, just shabbily built with crude, third-rate materials.

  Further toward the centre of the town, Theo started seeing people moving about as he expected them to, carrying goods by hand or pushing them by wheelbarrows. He noticed an old-timey pub or tavern just to his right as he entered into what must've been the town square, dead in its centre. It had by far the most sound coming from it, though the most amount of people he could see was instead gathered in front of a lavish villa that contrasted more against every other building around than black did against white.

  Over a dozen people stood outside as if waiting for something, and Theo noticed most of the others casting expectant glances that way. None of them seemed to notice him, which he was pretty happy about as he noticed their rough clothing situation. Having his own shirt in tatters, he might not seem too far removed from them at first glance, though he was quite certain he was the only one around with denim trousers.

  Among the other dilapidated buildings around the town square was a shop of some kind, a workshop with an inordinate amount of black smoke rising from the backyard, a few houses that paled in comparison to the extravagant villa and a nondescript shed. There was a pretty, large tree in the dead centre, with bricks ornately encircling it without so much as a layer of dust on them. The working men and women that crossed the square gave the tree and its neat bricks a wide berth.

  Theo spent another moment looking around, noticing what the people were carrying around, amongst other things, so he'd have an inkling about this world's development level. He saw them carrying bricks, newly cut lumber and wood shavings and bags of flour. There was even some cow milking going on, though the cow was smaller and leaner than any cow he'd ever seen.

  After taking in the sights, figuring they were at a rather mediaeval level, Theo headed into the tavern. It was the closest building to him, but it was also amongst the few that had two storeys, so he was hoping it had rooms for rent.

  The door was wide open and a pungent stench of brew oozed out of the doorway without filter. He headed inside, barely able to breathe without striking an awful grimace. A young woman with tied-up, golden hair walked the floor amongst a medium cast of white, dirty and bearded men, except the one who was a head and shoulder taller than the rest, his lean, clean-shaven face looking rather gaunt in comparison.

  The crowd eyed him the moment he was fully inside, though only the woman's and the lanky man's eyes stayed with him as he took in the ramshackle interior. The floor was wet in spots, though not sticky, and a dripping mop with a bucket of water stood mere inches away from him. One stool near a wide counter stood on three of its four legs and several tables were chipped from wear and drunk burden.

  "Newcomer?" asked a gentle, joyous voice. The woman placed the final glass of brown gloop from a rather fine-looking tray down in front of a burly customer before heading his way. She smiled, showing a slight dimple on the right of her stretched mouth. "Any way I can help you?"

  "Hi. I'm, uh... travelling. You don't happen to have a room I can rent for a few days?" Theo asked, looking toward a spiral staircase in the far corner.

  "You betcha I do," she said with a wink. "You're just in time! Every bit helps at this time of year."

  She headed past Theo and up to, then behind the counter, dropping down for just a moment before popping up with a rustling ring of keys. Theo joined her at the counter.

  "You seem to have struck upon trouble," she mentioned, eyeing his tattered shirt. "You have coins?"

  She seemed worried he wouldn't be able to pay after noticing his attire. Theo opened his pouch of coins, gazing down into the metallic darkness within. He took a coin out and examined it, finding it adorned with the number '20' inside a circle of what resembled neat welding.

  "This enough?" he asked in a playfully confident voice, hoping she wouldn't take advantage of his lack of knowledge if she didn't know about it. It seemed to work.

  "Aye, enough for five nights and meals," she beamed. "Here for the rank?"

  Now that she'd quoted him, he was feeling a bit more relaxed, and five days seemed good enough to start. Doing the maths, it cost four coins per night with an included meal. Now, if only he could manage to sneak in a question about baths.

  "Then let's start with five nights," he responded with an equally wide smile. "When's, uh... the rank? he added, just in case it was something culturally important he really should know about.

  "Losing count of the days out there in the great, big wilds, huh? It's in three days! So, baths are included every second night here at the Barge, just so you know. You seem the clean type, what with you looking... clean and all. And, umm... Might I ask you to pay up front? As I mentioned, with the rank and all..."

  "That's perfectly fine, thank you," Theo said, handing the coin over to her. She eyed it like a fistful of medicine for her ailing father before she unceremoniously dropped it down the neck of her shirt.

  She handed him a key with the slightest of blushes, pointing him toward the staircase.

  "Last on the left. The bathing room is right across from there. Just flip the sign on the door when you're in there so I won't ‘Barge’ in on you," she grinned playfully.

  Theo thanked her, accepted the key and was on his way up the stairs when he opened the message he'd gotten during their conversation.

  Congratulations! You have earned the Level One skill Calculation.