Hm. While I do see the advantage to funding now, science later, I feel it'd make more sense in conjunction with renting our own apartment, so we've got a place to do said science. Not to mention that the private room presumably costs more, too.
As is, though, I'm in favor of socializing - meet people, learn about the local culture, be in places where we can ask questions - and where people can ask us questions. And given that, we may as well take our time for now; learn about the creatures while we're learning about the people. We can always speed up later once we've gotten a feel for things.
[x][Work] Work carefully.
[x][Housing] Go with Bula.
(And an addendum that I'd be willing to swap my vote to work swiftly & rent a room, if it looks like rent a room has a chance of winning.)
Smoke of Life specifically. It's called Smoke because it's gaseous and evasive, obtained by breathing yet not part of the atmosphere. It can be passed from person to person, though that's untested outside of Nevenal. It cures wounds, it cures aging, it is a substitute for all vital needs, such as food, water or oxygen. Ban on talking about it to outsiders is one of the very few laws that applies to everyone on Nevenal.
My interpretation is that Riley doesn't present as any and has a short slim build in general, but the people around Riley just pick one or the other as they feel like.
Well, this took way longer than it had any reason to. I'll be frank, I can't promise regular updates, but I'm still good for, ya know, updates. My problems are less with ideas and more with actually writing them down.
Bulla nodded and smiled at your enthusiastic answer.
"Alright, it's always nice to hear enthusiasm from newcomers. It often evaporates when they realize they'll be needing to extract a barrelful of guts out of a bloody stomach, but you are ahead on that as well. Now then, some quick introductions. I'm Bula Stargazer, these two," she pointed to the two men behind the carcass "are brothers, Luc and Jean Irons. The Lizardkin over there," she pointed to the scaled one stacking the meat, "is Fish. Strange name, but that's what he goes by."
"I'm Riley Wizz. What's a Lizardkin?'
"You don't know? They're really widespread, even more than us Orcs. Huh, makes me wonder where you're from. They come from, Swamp of Whispers, that's how the world is called?" Fish paused in stacking of meat to give a thumbs up. "Yeah, Swamp of Whispers. Strange place, you can hear thoughts of others there. Makes for honest and straightforward people, and Fish is about as straightforward as they get." Bula paused for a moment. "Okay, you can ask him yourself after work. Jean, can you show Riley the ropes?"
'Sure thing boss. Come here Riley, we have a pig that needs opening."
You followed Jean to another carcass hanging from a hook, this one of a smaller creature with far shorter legs. It was a far more robust build, long legs were an absolute nightmare to balance back at the studies. They just snapped so easily. Jean took a knife off his belt, sharpened it for a bit on a stone he also carried and pulled the creature, the pig, around to show the stomach.
"We always begin cutting from the stomach. Removing the digestive tract is a priority so it doesn't spoil the rest of the meat. The rest of the organs usually go straight after, and then it's your pick what to cut first. it's a good idea to put a bucket under the body to catch any guts that spill, or any other nasty stuff. Like this." Jean cut open the pig from between the back legs nearly all the way to the neck in one smooth motion, guts and blood flopping out nearly entirely into the bucket below. Jean quickly severed them from the body and also cut out the stomach into the same bucket before cutting again, this time horizontally, to open the body up easier.
Jean was good at keeping his knives sharp and making use of that sharpness, cutting out and sorting the rest of the internal organs in just a few minutes, his knife skillfully gliding through tendons and around bones. Liver and heart were set aside to be sold individually. Kidneys and lungs were piled up to be made into sausages, which was why Jean said they 'bucketed the guts rather than throwing them downriver'. The rest of the organs were also swiftly sorted into the two piles, and then Jean moved on to muscle and fat. That was where the main differences from your classes appeared. Rather than separate muscles by groups, Jean cut straight through, and you had to calm yourself after seeing such waste. Jean did not notice your lapse in the attention you didn't think and continued explaining as he cut up the pig in four large pieces, breaking it up at the spine, and then raised a saw to get through more firmly attached ribs. It was too much for you.
"Jean, stop!"
"Oh? You have a question?"
"Yes, or rather, no, or rather several. Just don't break the ribs please."
D100=79 +50(Average) +30(Skilled Dismantler)=159
You gripped the spine with your hand and sent out your magic. There was the bone, there it connected to the rest of the spine and here was the joint to the rib. Focus your power onto it, collect all the joints in your mind as one, and then dissolve the sinew and break the bones away. You shook your hand holding the spine and ribs popped away from it. Jean whistled.
"Nice. Faster than a saw as well. But I was going to let you take a hand at this after I showed you how to cut, no need to rush."
"But you were going to cut open the bones! They are just so hard to grow together, I had to practice for years!"
Jean looked at the ribs, cutting off some sinew here and there, his hands working while he talked.
"You a healer then? I dunno much about putting bones back in shape, but not much point here. They'll get cut up anyways when making soup."
Nooooooo.
"Well, if you need any, we go through about ten pigs a day. Just say a word and we can get you as many as you need."
Crap, you were thinking loudly again.
"For now though..." Jean put the ribs aside and poked his knife at the fatty belly of the pig. "This is where we cut for a slab of bacon."
Jean continued cutting up the meat and explaining what was going to end up as what once on the table for sale, but since you hadn't had many chances to eat meat or even food in general, it was all a bit of a blur. You did know what all those muscles were, so you instead tried memorizing by what got damaged and how. Heartbreaking, but you persevered. After Jean finished cutting up the pig and Fish carried away the cuts, you got your chance to try your hand on a fresh carcass under Jean's supervision. He loaned you his backup knife, and so began your first ever attempt to butcher a body for meat. It went… acceptably. You certainly didn't cut straight a ham-to-be and then stitch the flesh back together before anyone noticed. No. Not at all.
As the light coming in through the windows began to wane, Bula declared the day over and you looked over your tally. Since you knew your way around both knives and general anatomy, learning each animal didn't take too long and Jean didn't throw too much variety at you. You've managed two pigs before the slaughterhouse ran out or them, and then Jean moved you onto chickens, which didn't require near as much work, so you got eight.
"Pretty good for your first day," said Jean, as he noticed you counting your work. "Especially since it was only really half a day. I'll see about getting you to try out goats and ducks tomorrow, and cattle the day afterward. That should cover most of what we butcher here."
You had wanted to continue, but you had to admit that it'd be hard to work in the dark, and there weren't any more carcasses left. Instead, you chose to badger Jean with questions about how all those strange bits you found inside animals worked, and when it turned out he knew little, what kind of animals there were. When Bula called you away, you went off full of excitement for tomorrow.
***
When you left the slaughterhouse, a familiar face greeted you. "Mrow." said a large orange cat that you met in the morning and which escaped your hands as you got close to the slaughterhouse. Did it wait for you here all this time?
"Found yourself a little friend, have you? Be careful, cats can get scratchy." Bula smiled, but kept her distance from the cat in your hands. You looked at the cat with suspicion. "Are their cuts that bad? They don't seem to have very long claws."
Bula sighed. "They're not too terrible, but we Orcs heal slowly. I thought it was the same everywhere, but no, apparently orcs heal the slowest of all races that have ever passed Zatos. A scratch gets really aggravating when it stays for months. Not that you have to worry, humans heal freakishly fast."
"Not human." You murmured.
"Ah right, sorry. You look very human though. Where do you hail from?"
"Nevenal Guildhold."
"Must be a distant world, since I never heard of it, and I know of over a thousand."
"Where are you from?"
"Ah, never mentioned, did I? Like most orcs, I'm from Varthurg. A close world, both in travel time and character. Though I am told the two are the same thing in Pathspace. Same rivers, same plains, same forests, but everything is larger than here. How about Nevenal?"
"It's mostly just empty. Rocks and sand as far as the eye can see. Cities are nice, but they don't have all the free creatures like Zatos does." You pulled the cat up for emphasis.
"Zatos is quite fun, isn't it. What did you like best so far?"
Bula told you much about the city and the people here as you walked and talked. The world was called Zatos, after the city you two were in, and the people that lived here were Humans. Zatos belonged to Kingdom of Ways, ruled by King Galeran. Ways was the largest kingdom in the world by far, and was conquering more land with great success so far, which meant that King Galeran was practically never within the palace that rested just half an hour of walk from here. There were a lot of new ideas to learn here, which took a while as Bula had her own questions about how come you didn't know what war was.
"Home sweet home," Bula declared, as you two approached a two-story brick house. It stood shorter than nearby wooden houses, but a small tower on the roof raised it above its neighbors. Smoke rose from a chimney, showing someone besides Bula was around. The windows were made from glass, something you have only ever seen in Guildhouses. Come to think of it, near every house here had glass windows. You had guessed it wouldn't be as rare outside Nevenal, if people brought it to trade, but this was a lot of glass. The windows elsewhere were empty holes or had wooden shutters, so it wasn't like the whole city had been glass filled.
"Your house looks expensive." You said, almost a question.
"Yeah, it is. My whole family lives here, we plan to sell it before moving to another world. Much harder to steal a building than gold." She opened the door which was unlocked and motioned you in. The first room was quite cozy, with soft chairs arranged around a small table. Nearby shelves showed off beautiful plates and cups, as well as a selection of tea and wine. You never had much experience with either, and this adventure would be a good chance to experience both. That was what adventures were all about, after all, experiencing new stuff. One of the walls was left pretty barren, and Bula told you that the furnace was just behind it, filling the room with comfortable warmth. The first room was where her family would meet important people that came to buy their maps.
Bula's entire family were dedicated 'astronomers'. She thought that the orc name for this, stargazer, was much more apt and you agreed. In their home world, there were many stargazers looking at the sky and tracking the stars, but the stars of other worlds were mostly unknown, a flaw that Bula and her family set out to fix. They also collected information on Pathspace, producing maps that were quite popular even among merchants, who usually maintained their own maps. Bula aside, her father, Moth, and sister, Glasha, were here with her, as well as Glasha's husband, Yroth. Moth and Glasha were both stargazers and often slept during the day to watch the stars in the nighttime. Yroth was a scribe and usually returned home before Bula to make dinner, or breakfast, for everyone.
"Dad and Glasha are likely still asleep, they wanted to take a good look at the stars just before the dawn today. So the one up should be…" She opened the door leading from the guestroom deeper into the building to reveal a messy looking kitchen and an orc even taller and wider with musculature than Bula, who was standing shirtless and cutting up a large fruit looking thing. "Hello Yroth. Being careless again I see."
The orc snorted in return. "It's too hot with the furnace roaring. And I'll put on a shirt before going to the fire, you know I always do." He looked away from his work and noticed that you were also there. "Uhh. Hello?"
"Hello." You waved at him.
"Yeah, I brought a guest today. Riley here is a new employee, they are an offworlder, a mage, and will be crashing with us for a while, so your talent to make more food than we can eat every single time will not go unappreciated."
This seemed to either be too little or too much for Yroth, so he just kept staring until Bula told him to go put on a shirt. You got a chance to look at the fruit thing, which was dryer and harder than it appeared, and Yroth was dealing with this with duller and heavier knives. Unfortunately, you couldn't take a closer look at how the fruit thing was built because Yroth soon returned. It seemed he had gathered himself enough while he was gone, as he turned to speak to you.
"Okay. Riley, correct?" You nodded. "How about you tell me how you ended up here because Bula is the annoying sister I never wished for."
"And you are an idiot brother I thought I would never have." Bula laughed sitting on a chair, while Yroth steadfastly ignored her, and returned to cutting up the fruit while keeping an eye on you.
There wasn't really that much to tell, even going all the way back to when you got the idea.
"I've graduated basic Lifeshaper course in Nevenal, which was a couple of months ago. It was very interesting, and I did well enough to be allowed to work with rarer stuff. Most other apprentices only got basic chimeras. I was really interested in seeing more complex creatures, but they are very expensive back home. So I decided to leave Nevenal and have some adventure. I joined up with a caravan that had come to Nevenar, and then I ended up in Zatos. That was today. I have already found a hive of chitinous creatures and the cat!" You held up the cat again for emphasis.
Bula was smirking and you couldn't see Yroth's face, but he slowed down in slicing the fruit a lot.
"Oh, also, what fruit thing are you cutting there, I have never seen it before."
"That's a pumpkin." He sighed and put the knife down. "Look, just, how old are you?"
"I'm twenty-nine, going thirty in about three months."
Yroth took a moment to consider this. "And how long did you spend learning the basics of this Lifeshaping?"
"Fifteen years."
Yroth nodded. "That explains a lot." He looked at you for a couple of seconds before turning back to the pumpkin. "Well, lucky for me, you're with Bulya so I don't need to care. You're okay with pumpkin stew, right?"
"I've never eaten pumpkin or stew."
'Well, that'll be a chance to find out then."
Neither Moth nor Glasha woke up while Yroth finished cooking dinner and the three of you ate. Yroth stayed up to wait for them to wake up, while you and Bula went to her room.
"My room is a bit of a storeroom, so I should be able to scrounge you a blanket without a problem. But… You'll either have to share a bed with me or sleep on the bear rug.
[x][Sleep] Sleep on the Bear. You met Bula literally today, just be polite and leave her bed to her. It's entirely unrelated to your fear of being crushed by an errant sleepy turn.
[x][Sleep]Sleep on the Orc. Platonically. But hey, it's a thing that friends could do without much worry, which makes you friends. That's how it works, right?
Now that you know where Bula lives, you can chose to spend time after work with someone else without getting lost.
[x][Chat]Bula. She's friendly, talkative and knowledgable.
[x][Chat]Brothers Irons. They know more about the city and what's outside of it.
[x][Chat]Fish. An outsider, seemingly distant. Perhaps new here, like you.
[x][Chat]Yroth. He's a scribe, which is possibly most familiar profession anyone you know here has.
[x][Chat]Moth and Glasha. Stars in Nevenal are… dull and distant. The clouds are also very common.
As long as Riley has known it, Nevenal has been a barren wasteland of sand and stone, with nothing more interesting than moss to be found out beneath outside civilization. All non-sapient life more complex than bacteria was wiped out when Three Heroes conquered the Heavens and slain the gods. Or so the legend goes. There are several competing legends, but that is the one Riley has heard growing up. The actual facts are that there is nothing alive besides moss out there, the entire world is filled with Smoke of Life, and Riley has never seen even a shrine before leaving Nevenal. The vast majority of Nevenalans consider the change of their world to be for the better if they even believe it ever was filled with flora and fauna. Most scholars considering this believe that any wishing for the more regular life have simply left Nevenal.
As there are very few reasons to be out in the 'wilderness' on Nevenal, most people live in cities. The absence of local sources of timber has made those cities rely on either stone or bricks for the construction, although some residents make use of their exceptionally free and long lives to add metals to the construction. It could be for decoration, structural support, or even complete replacement of all other materials. Glass is also very rare in Nevenal, and is one of the few things regularly imported by the Planegate trade.
Nevenalans place considerable effort in cultivating an appearance of inhospitality. The land around Planegate is elevated, permitting any visitors to see complete lack of habitation in all directions save for a single tower where rests the gatekeeper. Gatekeeper's role is to accept incoming trade caravans, taking up glass, live creatures or plants, spices, and books, in return for metal, various tonics, masterwork crafts, and unique pets. The gatekeeper also sells perfectly accurate maps of the nearby area, showing the direct way to the nearest city, just ten days of travel away. Thirteen days if you follow the river, and no, gatekeeper had no food to trade. Caravans arriving to Nevenal rarely stay longer than required to recover from Fading before leaving to worlds anew. Few chose to brave the wastes, in which case, the gatekeeper is obligated by tradition to 'put a spell on the caravan to keep them from starving', a lie to cover up the rejuvenating properties of Smoke. Caravans that make it to the cities rather than turn back after a few days of featureless dead wastes, return with stories of demons, strange of body, incomprehensible of mind, apathetic for mercantilism. The truth is that Nevenalans have a habit of lying on all questions about Nevenal to the visiting outsiders.
The reason for all of this is simple. Nevenalans are well aware as to the value of Smoke and immortality it brings. Were it become known, they would need to change their anarchistic way of life, or have it changed for them by countless conquerors from all worlds. Though Nevenalans have made preparations for the inevitable break of secrecy, for now, the mystery holds.
Though Nevenalans try to gently shun organized outsiders, singular wanderers receive a much warmer welcome. Though still kept in the unknown about Smoke unless they become trusted enough, they are welcome to visit the Guildhalls or tour the cities.
Both the life and the economy of Nevenal is wrapped around the mysterious substance called the Smoke of life, often shortened to Smoke by the locals. It is gathered in the body by breathing, although the actual volume of air breathed, or even if it's air that's breathed, is irrelevant. Smoke substitutes itself for all the needs of a body, such as food, water, air and even rest. It does not make Nevenalans completely free of their bodily needs, however. Supplanting these needs costs Smoke, and the quantity obtained from breathing is simply not enough to cover all of them. Most Nevenalan cities are built close to a water source or have plentiful wells, so the need for water is fulfilled, leaving the need for rest and food. This leaves most Nevenalans sleeping for about ten hours per day to maintain their Smoke reserves. All who have experienced the Smoke can manipulate it somewhat, mostly meaning that they can transfer it to other living creatures at will. Nearly all trade inside Nevenal uses Smoke as currency, and since it quite literally grants more time in the day, the prices remain fairly constant.
It is impossible to hoard Smoke to any real degree. As a body, or as some suspect, a soul, fills with Smoke, the person is faced with a choice. The smoke will naturally diffuse out of their bodies until an equilibrium is achieved, or they may try to contain the smoke within them with their will, which will inevitably result in the Smoke combusting and settling permanently into them. Nevenalans call this an 'infusion', and it results in some considerable benefits, but not without drawbacks.
There are five stages of infusion with Smoke of life recognized by Nevenalans, alongside the Breathless who have never breathed it. Those who have barely felt its touch are the Youthful, they will never age while within Nevenal, but that is it. Should they leave Nevenal, they would be entirely indistinguishable from Breathless, except for their greater experience betraying their true age. Just beyond them stand the Ageless, they have breathed deeply and taken a permanent mark from the Smoke into themselves. They will not age, except when suffering from wounds or disease, both of which they'll recover from swiftly. Most Nevenalans are Ageless, though it makes little difference from being Youthful to them, as only rare few ever leave Nevenal.
Embraced is the most that can be achieved alone, but even this is rarely sought for by Nevenalans. Those that have fully committed themselves to binding Smoke to themselves gain extraordinary vitality, most diseases are entirely incapable of affecting them and any wounds less lethal than decapitation heal within hours even with no medical assistance. Lost limbs take considerably more time to regrow than mere wounds, but simply pressing severed arm or leg to the wound usually results in a successful recovery. However, it is not for no reason that Nevenalans are reluctant to become Embraced, for there is a price to pay for such endurance. Change of form, change of skill, change of mind, all become increasingly difficult. Training of any reflexes takes several times longer, any Lifeshaping procedures need multiple applications to make the change stick rather than heal to how it was before. New knowledge becomes harder to memorize, old habits harder to break.
To become Immortal requires several people to overcharge one Embraced with Smoke. Their body becomes permanent, any changes eventually recover back to the original form. This effect extends past the body itself, affecting any accessories and clothes, returning the Immortal exactly to how they looked when they became such. This effect also corrodes any foreign matter and magic around the Immortal, making them difficult to entrap. Any injury that wouldn't outright kill a Breathless heals in seconds, and if torn apart the Immortal will regenerate from the largest remaining piece. It is theoretically possible to put down an Immortal long term by removing them from Nevenal and repeatedly destroying their body until they stop regenerating, however any contact of the remains with Smoke of life will see the Immortal resurrected. Minds of the Immortals become so rigid that they take months, even years to absorb information, making it exceptionally difficult for them to participate in society. Some have, in desperation, attempted to highlight new memories by doing something intense and often traumatic right afterward.
Eternals are not discussed in polite conversation.
Nevenalans are thought to be humanoid, though widespread Lifeshaper practices make this difficult to track. Currently, a Nevenalan can look indistinguishable from any other race, though often they will choose to add some personal flair that trueborn of that race would never possess. Unlike humans, they eschew authority, taking up the mantle of leadership only on rare occasions, and even then they usually seek out peers to share the perceived burden. The advent of Smoke of Life rendered all land worthless and adoption of Smoke as currency made any already dubiously required attempts at taxation impossible. It did not take long for most positions that dealt with collecting and spending taxes to collapse, from tax collectors, to kings, to armies. What followed was a period known as Wars of Spite, as Nevenalans collectively came to realize their newfound immortality and the benefits it brought. Numerous marauding bands were faced with people who could burn their wealth rather than lose it, in full knowledge that they had the time to recover it all. Prisoners and slaves could not be kept in groups larger than three, otherwise come morning the marauders would find a furious Immortal that had corroded the chains into dust and would not fall to any weapon. As the Wars of Spite petered out, the largest remaining organizations were the Guilds, bound no longer by the need to plan forward to maximize profits, but finding new purpose as collectors of knowledge. As Nevenalans found themselves in abundance of free time and lack of obligations, the numbers picking up a craft and joining the guilds swelled drastically. With the laws of the land enforced by whatever ruler owned it evaporating, it fell upon the guilds to manage all the people to prevent conflict. Though officially there are no laws binding all people, in practice, there is considerable overlap in many laws enforced by the guilds on their members.
The advent of Smoke of Life rendered all land worthless and adoption of Smoke as currency made any already dubiously required attempts at taxation impossible.
Hmm. The entire bit about a lack of currency and trade (without smoke) seems a bit dubious overall.
Even if most of your livelihood is taken care off, and there isn't anything critical to spend on, there would still items be items that this 'smoke' could not cover simply due to its slow regeneration, and need for some 10 hours of sleep a day.
Things like paper or leather that require long periods of collecting and processing the raw ingredients far exceeds what even a few days of 'smoke' could cover.
Even a simple iron knife would be far in excess of what anyone could pay for without a solid trade good, as mining and later processing iron ore, and wood, could take any one person a few days, and then most of a day to smelt it down and form it.
Hmm. The entire bit about a lack of currency and trade (without smoke) seems a bit dubious overall.
Even if most of your livelihood is taken care off, and there isn't anything critical to spend on, there would still items be items that this 'smoke' could not cover simply due to its slow regeneration, and need for some 10 hours of sleep a day.
Things like paper or leather that require long periods of collecting and processing the raw ingredients far exceeds what even a few days of 'smoke' could cover.
Even a simple iron knife would be far in excess of what anyone could pay for without a solid trade good, as mining and later processing iron ore, and wood, could take any one person a few days, and then most of a day to smelt it down and form it.
A person can store more than a day's worth of smoke within them and 10 hours daily is an average across both people and a lifetime. People within Nevenal can go to sleep at will and can sleep for however long they wish. They could sleep for a week, or a month, or even an entire season just gathering Smoke for whatever future purpose. Riley is near broke, with under a week of Smoke remaining in them, and consequently has to eat and drink and sleep to keep their age from creeping onwards even in their Ageless status.
There is a limit to what can be traded with smoke though, and that is primarily handled by through the Guilds. For a small fee, a guild can mark down an exchange, and then the buyer is required to regularly make payments of Smoke until the deal is settled. Failure to do so will see the guild that marked down the exchange send out their enforcers to resolve the problem.
Additionally, the Guilds and some exceptionally wealthy individuals will hire people to act as Smoke batteries. They go about their days as usual, except they carry months of smoke within them that can be called up on short notice.
They're not too terrible, but we Orcs heal slowly. I thought it was the same everywhere, but no, apparently orcs heal the slowest of all races that have ever passed Zatos. A scratch gets really aggravating when it stays for months. Not that you have to worry, humans heal freakishly fast."
When you left the slaughterhouse, a familiar face greeted you. "Mrow." said a large orange cat that you met in the morning and which escaped your hands as you got close to the slaughterhouse. Did it wait for you here all this time?
"I've graduated basic Lifeshaper course in Nevenal, which was a couple of months ago. It was very interesting, and I did well enough to be allowed to work with rarer stuff. Most other apprentices only got basic chimeras. I was really interested in seeing more complex creatures, but they are very expensive back home. So I decided to leave Nevenal and have some adventure. I joined up with a caravan that had come to Nevenar, and then I ended up in Zatos. That was today. I have already found a hive of chitinous creatures and the cat!" You held up the cat again for emphasis.
