"I… I don't know…" I replied honestly. Today's experience had really scared me. I didn't know if I was brave enough to go into that forest again. I thought a bit more and finally replied "Yes, I think I will try to find that herb again. I will make sure to go to the right place this time". I looked at Janet and gave her a weak smile while trying to show that I was fine.
Janet continued to stare in my eyes as if trying to find out if I am speaking the truth and I really will be fine on my own. She glanced at Val who was looking at her with a midler expression than the one she had shown so far and looked back at me again. She thought a bit more and finally asked me an unexpected question.
"Do you know how the energy - experience system works?"
I was confused and asked "What system?"
"Sigh, I thought that might be the case. Energy/experience system is how people get stronger. That is how Val and me became so strong."
I suddenly started feeling hopeful again. I had an awful day so far. Did I finally catch a break? If I can get stronger, maybe I won't have such a hard time trying to survive anymore. I had never been good at anything except stealing. Since young, that is how I had survived on the streets. I didn't want to continue stealing, so I tried to become an adventurer.
"How does this energy/experience system work?" I tried to ask as calmly as I could to hide my excitement.
Janet again looked at me for a few seconds. It looked like she was reluctant to talk about the specifics. It didn't really seem like she didn't want to tell me about the system since she brought it up, so it confused me for a second. Finally she started the explanation.
"It's not that complicated. When you go out and push yourself to perform a task, any task not just a guild quest, you gain experience of doing that task. This causes energy to build up in your body. No has been able to find what this energy is and where it is coming from. This energy is just there as your potential and doesn't automatically get used to make you stronger. Actually I take that back. It's not that it doesn't make you stronger, it does. But the process of unassisted conversion is just very slow. So slow that even if you worked your entire life on a farm, you will never become as strong as me or Val. That is why normal people are so much weaker than adventurers."
"So what you are saying is that there is a way to use this energy faster?"
"Yes… it's possible but you need help from the guild. The guild has a special tool that was invented by a great magician more than 200 years ago. This tool is called Transference tool. They use this tool you allocate your energy to various attributes like strength, agility and magic."