Bean stood over the two of them looking at the two hug on the ground. " What's happening are you guys better now?"
Mae let go of E. She wore her most genuine smile since meeting the two of them. She looked at E and up to Bean.
" We got a teamwork skill! I don't know how kicking the snot out of each other worked but I'm so happy! I even got a little bit of experience! I'm not far away from leveling now! E what about you?"
E looked at his class menu again. Nothing changed on it really except under his skills he had another section.
Teamwork Skills- Bar Room Brawlers
Bar Room Brawlers -
You have a great understanding of how your teammates fight in a non-lethal fisticuffs. In a combat you and your party member/s with this same skill have higher coordination when dealing with enemies back to back and can cover for each other's weaknesses. +25 bond for each member included, + 10% Non-lethal Damage when unarmed, +5% Lethal Damage unarmed, +5% Critical hit chance Unarmed. Stacks for each member of party with the appropriate feat.
E continued to look through his menu this time to his Seer class. He suspected nothing new here but was surprised to see another skill had been added here as well.
Study Target - Lv 1
Analyze a target for weaknesses and strengths. The more time allotted allows for a deeper understanding, target must be threatening (combat initiated) for anything higher than 25 percentage.
E also noticed that his Combat Chess skill leveled up to one. Nothing else was changed on it but he surmised it to his understanding of how the skill seemed to slow time down for his responses. E was pleasantly surprised but he realized his health had gone up to 8. From his last notification he was brought down to 2 health with Mae's last swing. He wondered if zero meant death. He still felt as if he could move but was surely dazed before the notification rang out and he healed somewhat.
E looked over at Mae. " Yeah I got a teamwork skill as well. I guess that means there's merit to fighting amongst ourselves. Although this was poor timing at least we got something from it." E looked over at Bean and felt kind of bad. Not only did he have to watch the two of them fight but he didn't get a skill. E felt bad about it all but knew he had to step up to the plate or Mae was gone. He looked back to Mae and tried to apologize. " Look, I'm sorry I brought that up but we need you. I know this is a tough fight, and yes we could die. This is just the first step, we are going to do this and win! I know it. Don't for a second think I won't be putting the coin here towards us. I promised to get you armor right? After this quest we'll spend everything we have to find you some If necessary. I need you guys."
Mae chuckled at him, "Hahaha did you think I was going to leave you to die? At first I thought you'd follow, but then i was just going to knock you out and drag you back to the inn. I'm sure Bean would have complied" She looked at Bean and he vigorously shook his head yes.
" Ahaha, Don't be an idiot. All I was saying is this is not so easy. It's only mid-day and we haven't even began preparing. I guess you have more in you than I thought though, what's your Dex like 14? You're pretty nimble, weak punches but you were good at using my weight against me. You better get on drying that dung or this isn't even happening tomorrow at this rate."
E smiled. He was happy to have reconciliation. " Actually my Dex is 18. But yeah we should get started." E stood up and dusted himself off.
" 18! What that's awesome, That's my strength score! That's your highest skill right, it has to be."
" Yeah it is. I assume your strength is the yours?"
" Yep, what about you Bean?" Mae paused afterwards and realized Bean didn't know how to read. " Oh wait sorry you know numbers right?"
Bean perked up. " Yeah I know numbers! I just don't know these numbers or these words. They look like lines."
E fell into thought. "Wait .... lines?.. Bean do you know Dwarven numerals? Do they look like this?" E took his finger and drew some things that looked like scratches into the dirt. After awhile E had written up to ten.
" Wait yes the last one ! That's what some of them look like, and two look like this one!" Bean pointed to ten and then nine.
This caused E to ponder. " Why is Bean's arithmetic in Dwarven. At least we're making progress." E started to ask some more questions. " Bean was there ever any dwarves where you lived?"
" What's a dwarf? There was goblin's, ogre's, trolls, and little men. Like the Ones at that inn we were at."
Mae grew a questioning brow. " Bean dwarves are short but taller than you and usually pretty husky or beefy. They have a big beard, see anything like that?"
" Ohhhh yeah. No, but those guys would come and trade with us. That's how we got alcohol. They just wanted rocks. They also gave us tools and had us break rocks for them. Everyone thought they were so stupid hahahaha they gave us so much alcohol for rocks all the time we usually just threw those rocks. I ate some when I was really hungry sometimes but they were useless."
E smacked his forehead and sighed. "Well at least they paid you I suppose. Okay did you make trade with them yourself or watch any trade?"
" Hmmm not me but I did see it happen a lot or helped carry the trade. I wanted first dibs on the alcohol."
Mae looked at E and nodded. E decided to tell Bean what the numbers meant. " Okay so even though you don't know what these numbers mean all the way these are dwarven numerals. It's not that hard actually it's the easiest and most universal number system we have. I'll write out some more and you just point to what your other two skills look like."
After some time of explaining and dirt drawing they had gone through to twenty. Bean pointed to two more numbers. Mae spoke out in response to his last designation. " Are you sure ?? That one?"
"Yeah. This one and that one."
"What order do your numbers use go down from top to bottom. Point to them as we go along." E said.
After a few minutes the trio came to the conclusion that Beans stats went as followed.
Strength - 10
Dexterity - 12
Constitution - 20
Intelligence - 9
Wisdom - 9
Everyone was pretty surprised. Bean had the highest stat! But considering his class he was attributed poorly!
E was surprised so much that he wanted to know more. It was still mid-day but they really had to get on the ball or they would fall behind. E continued to think about what he could do to use Bean in a better capacity. Constitution usually meant they had more Health points and were higher in fortitude. Which was great, especially for a tank. As a ranged fighter and his small statue Bean was poorly equipped to become a tank and from what he thought Mae would fill that role well enough until an appropriate member came along. He also began to wonder why his class stone gave him that class over his other options. There had to be more to it.
After a few hours the trio made well due preparations for the battle with the spiders. Bean had gathered a decent amount of sticks and stones. E had lined the bottom of the pits Mae dug with her sword with sharp broken ends of sticks and branches. He also made some standing torches and spaced them accordingly to the plan. Mae had gone and lined the retreat on both sides with brush so either the spiders couldn't retreat fast enough or they the trio could, if they got lit ablaze. E was just waiting on the dung to finish drying. Bean walked over as E was deep in thought.
" Hey I got an idea. Why don't you fight me now. If you two got a skill I could too."
E had also thought about this but was hesitant. " Bean. As much as I want to, I don't think today is the day for it. I know it's unfair but I still have to recover. Mae as well. Plus if we tire out before this battle begins we're sitting ducks. We got really lucky that we didn't seriously hurt each other. But I was thinking about it and I think I know why we got skills in the first place."
Beans eyes lit up. " What really how ? Is it cause you got your ass kicked?"
E smirked with a doubtful expression.
" No. I think it's because we got to know each other more. Basically we hadn't seen each other fight and by knowing how, we got a skill that works well with each other. I also think it has to do with our efforts. We really went at it ya know? So the more familiar we get with each other's capabilities the easier it is to learn a skill. I think that also works for yourself alone. The more you understand your ability the more you can create, so experience in a way. If you listen to me in battle I won't steer you wrong, I've been thinking about your skills. Sure you can't read but their names usually sum it up pretty well. For instance my Long shot skill is a skill I can use to increase my longer distance shots ability to hit it's mark. I think yours should fall into that category. So let's say your Throw anything skill. You've never thrown a javelin before right? So you have a javelin class but you can throw anything, peculiar right? Pretty sure you can throw ANYTHING. Well I'm sure as long as you can pick it up. I'm pretty sure your Berserker skill is similar to Mae's. Mae has Rage she can activate when she is mad or something and I'm pretty sure your anger situation falls in that category. Eat anything, well we both know that's not 100% true hahahaha not without a 'circumstance'. So that's why I'm trying to figure it out until we can teach you to read. Notice how I told you to get stones? And I told you to keep calm? I'm going to help you figure this out. That's what friends and party members are for! With my guidance I'm sure you will get stronger."
Bean was listening on in astonishmemt he never thought E had been thinking about him when he made the plan for this fight. " Awesome E, your so smart! Okay I will follow your lead."
E felt he did good at exploring the way to explain to Bean that he could help him with his Seer skills without outright telling about them. He just had one more caveat to introduce. E was also happy that Bean was his first test subject because he seemed a little more trustworthy of E then Mae. She outright denied him, or introduced contrasting ideas to his plans. Even though they held merit, she wouldn't blindly follow his battle plans.
" Okay Bean there is just one more thing I think will help and it may even help me get a skill! Since I'm the party leader I was thinking well, when it comes to people who don't follow my orders. Not saying Mae doesn't she just doesn't always agree. What if someone did? Your my right hand man and I trust you. You've proven yourself on the battlefield the other day right? You have resolve! Courage!" Bean stuck up his nose and puffed out his chest, falling deeping into E's fanciful word smithing. " Bean, since I'm a prince what do you think that makes you guys? Your my Knights! My special forces, my best men, but most importantly my best friends. I don't want this to sound harsh, but nothing should kill me with you guys around. It would be your duty to die for me."
Bean lost his grandstance. E noticed so he back peddled a bit. " A duty so grand and important entire kingdoms of people would honor you. You're name could go down in history and I would garnish your name in stories far and wide." Bean grew a resolute look. E had him. " All you have to do is follow every command I tell you. Trust me when I say I won't lead you astray. Your success is my success, my strength is your strength and back and forth they share. I'm not saying anything I say at normal times I just mean in battle. Listen to all of my commands. And we will be victorious."
Bean seemed to agree. He nodded at E and grew an air about him. He stuck out his pinky. " I pinky swear, I will follow your every command in battle. I will be your right hand. Your words you say, are mine to listen to the best I can." Bean smiled as he tried to emulate the vocabulary of someone proper. E chuckled and they clasped fingers.
Mae came strolling out of the forest nearby she had used the restroom. She walked up to the duo just as the dung began to burn a bit. E was waiting for this the char lit easier. He wasn't happy with the smell of dried shit on a stick but the needs must.
" Alright you guys ready for the last thing we have going against us? Manepedes in this region go by a different name and if it's one of them we could be totally fucked. Ever heard of a Dryder? Half dark elf, half spider. Dark magic makes them and they are strong. If that's what's in there we set the church on fire."
Mae's mouth floored. Bean still held his resolute grand stance. E was hopeful he was incorrect. But the battlefield was ready,all the pieces were in place.