I wake up in another wagon, this one with a wall entirely consisting of bars. [That can't be good protection from the elements.] The bars are spaced only about five inches apart, so there's no hope of slipping through. The rest of the wagon seems to be made of sturdy wood. Oh yeah, there also seems to be someone else in the carriage, but I'll think about that more later. For now, I need to check my stats.
I open my stat window, looking for a specific skill. [Ah, there it is!] There, listed at the bottom, is a skill called Lesser Sleep Resistance, at level 1. I was very glad to see it there, as it served to confirm at least some aspects of this world's skill system. Thankfully, this world seemed similar to those that I had read about in its skill system. In most of those stories, skills level up from use. Based on that system, after being knocked unconscious so many times I expected to get a skill from it. And behold, there it is! Lesser Sleep Resistance Lvl. 1. What a mouthful, but, based on the name, it would help keep me from being knocked unconscious while not keeping me from willingly sleeping. [Though I'm a little worried about the 'lesser' prefix and the pitiful level. I really doubt that it'll actually do much.]
I then checked my level. [Still Lvl. 1 I see… I guess it's the type that levels up when you kill something.]
I spend some time waiting around, but quickly grow bored. I look out the barred window and see five different men moving around, working to pack up camp. The four that had captured me, as well as a fifth that I assumed had been guarding camp, move around like busy little bees buzzing about their hive. I'm honestly surprised that they don't have slaves to do that kind of thing. I mean, what type of slaver doesn't keep any slaves of their own? Well, I guess they're the type that put profits above anything, including their own convenience. I mean, I can't say I don't understand. I too lived a profits-first lifestyle. Not even my wife had been able to stop me… well, let's move on to more cheerful thoughts!
Once everything was packed up, Lord Anger Issues, err… [Gorbson] , came by to give me one last warning. "You try to escape one time, and you're dead. And I'll find a way to make even [you] howl in agony during the process."
"Don't worry about me, Honorable Sir Teacher Gorbson! I shall stay in line like a good elementary student!"
At that he looks at me in confusion for a moment before muttering "Bah… he really is a loon" under his breath. I think that's rude of him, but, like a good child, I choose to be seen and not heard. He walks away from the wagon and a moment later we start moving.
I try to entertain myself by looking out the window for a few minutes. [Dust. Dust. Dust. Ooo! A skeleton!] That quickly grows boring, so I decide to take a moment to think. [This really is crazy… I've been working so hard these past few days just to survive that I haven't really thought about the fact that I'm literally in another world. Maybe it's because I had already accepted that my time on Earth was done… but even then, I seem to be taking this too much in stride. Come on! This world has magic for crying out loud!. Maybe I really am as crazy as that skill says I am. Well, regardless of how I feel, there's only one thing that I can really do right now.] And with that thought, I sneak up on the girl that's sleeping on the other side of the wagon jail.
I look over the girl closely, and am quickly shocked to see how poorly she's clearly been treated. Her long brown hair is so filled with dust that a mop would be envious, and smudges of dirt cover much of her poorly clad body. My clothes, the ones I was reincarnated in, aren't in very good condition themselves. My shirt had been fully incinerated by Gorbson, and my pants, clearly cheaply made to begin with, had experienced significant wear-and-tear in the last few days. However, her clothes literally consist of a brown sack with a few holes. She has no shoes, and her feet are covered in caked on filth. I look at her closer and see that, under the dirt, she is covered in almost as many bruises as I am. It seems that Gorbson had had a lot of fun breaking her. I don't really care about this nameless girl that I haven't even properly met, but even I'm a bit disgusted by what has happened to her. And if Gorbson had meant what he implied, when he said that he had methods available to break her that couldn't be used on me, then her treatment had been even more despicable than at first glance. Though I guess that's a bit ironic coming from a guy who murdered [his] wife. Ahem… moving on…
I wait for what feels like hours for her to wake up. Eventually I tire of waiting, however, and flick her on the forehead.
"Huh?! Wha… what's going on?!" She sputters out incredulously.
"You weren't waking up," I reply matter-of-factly. "I'm getting bored, and I figured that you would be more entertaining if you were awake."
"The sun is still high in the sky! I fell asleep shortly after they dumped you in here, and it doesn't look like more than an hour has passed. And I don't wake [you] up when they dumped you in here, now did I? Hey, are you even listening?"
"Huh? Sorry, I got distracted by a beetle crawling through your hair." It's always a good idea to show blabbers early on that you won't listen when they dump their mess of words on you.
"Hmph. There is not— Ahh! Get off me!" She flailed around for a bit until she managed to knock the little beetle out of her mop of hair. Just because I was only pretending to not listen to her blabbering, certainly doesn't mean that I'd lie about something as important as a bug after all!
Anyways, I actually did have a purpose for waking her up (beyond being bored, of course.) I was hoping to receive my stereotypical plot dump from this character. While it was doubtful that a slave would know all that much, she should be able to explain some of the basics as to how the world worked. I know that some people complain about plot dumps in novels, and as one of those people, I very much understand their perspective. They would like for their [hero] to slowly unravel the mysteries of the world on their own. However, it's a bit different in real life. If I don't understand even the basics of this world, it could lead to very negative consequences that I won't be able to recover from. So, with that in mind, I prepare to have a long talk with Ms. Blabbermouth.
"So," I begin, "I'm not from around here."
"What do you mean? I mean, I'm not really from around here either. I was born hundreds of miles away in a little town in the mountains. But when you say it, it sounds more like you're from a different country."
"Close. I'm from a place very far away and very different from here. And so I have some questions I'd like answered."
"Oh? And what's in it for me?" Greedy scum, trying to wring a poor man's nonexistent pennies from his pockets?
"Well… I don't really have anything I can give you now, but I'd owe you a favor. And I always do my best to uphold favors."
"Hmm… Well, I doubt that I'll ever get to collect on that favor as we're sure to be quite far apart once we're sold. But I guess it doesn't really hurt me to tell you whatever you want to know. Ask away."
"Alright. First off, where are we now, and where are we heading?"
She didn't seem to find anything odd about that question as she answered "We're currently in a region of the Eroen kingdom known as the Arentor Plains, just south of the northern border of the kingdom. While I'm not certain where we're going, the nearest city I'm aware of is Cataczech. I don't know much about the slave trade, to tell you the truth, but I wouldn't be very surprised if you were bought in Cataczech. There is a fighting arena there where people pay to watch slaves fight. That's where really good fighters will probably be sold. Otherwise, You'll probably be purchased by the army as a grunt soldier. The Eroen kingdom is at war with the kingdom of Aren to the north, and the army will take any cheap soldiers that it can get. As for me, I'll either be sold as a domestic slave or to a brothel."
"Don't you have to be pretty to work there?" I ask innocently.
"Sh-Shut up! I'm pretty enough! Although, in this case, I don't know if I want to be considered pretty…"
"Sure, sure," I say placatingly. "Anyways, next question: what are skills and how do they work? How are they gained, and what function do they serve?"
"Eh? What do you mean? Skills are… well, skills. They just are as they are: a record of an individual's various abilities in a number of fields. They are gained and leveled up through doing the thing that corresponds to the skill. Fighting with a sword will raise swordsmanship, getting stabbed by a sword will raise pierce resistance… though you would probably die long before you level it up. As for the function they serve… well, they bestow upon their owners certain abilities and capability. This is clear for resistance-type skills, which give increased protection depending on level. As for combat skills, there is some debate as to whether the skill actually endows abilities or just serves as a record of already existing abilities, though I am not well versed on the intricacies of the argument. You do realize how weird these questions are right? I wouldn't be surprised if you asked me about levels at this point…"
"Well that's nice of you! So, how do they work?"
Evidently she had lied, as she seemed even more surprised by this question than the previous. "I was joking! Umm... how to explain… Alright. Level strongly impacts combat ability and only combat ability. One just needs to kill living beings, and one's level will rise. Only a small amount of the opponent's experience will be passed to the killer; the rest will disperse. Still, this starts a cycle where the strong will keep getting stronger…"
I've learned everything that I need in only three questions! I knew that I could rely on Ms. Blabbermouth!
"Alright! Thank you for your assistance! I'll remember to repay your favor someday!" I say magnanimously.
"Wait… that's all? I expected hours worth of questions! What do you plan on doing over the next couple days until we arrive at our destination? I wouldn't mind answering any other questions that you have! I'd feel guilty if I received a favor for answering only three basic questions…"
She really is a blabbermouth! The prospect of having to go even a few measly [days] without talking already has her begging me to keep talking to her.
"Well if you won't ask me about myself, then I'll just have to tell you. My name is…'' and like that, she begins a lengthy monolog that I ignore. What's that fly doing? Why is it so dusty? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? There are always so many things to think about! I don't have time to listen to this noisy woman.
Eventually, when I can't handle the ceaseless droning any longer, I finally say "Why don't you tell me something interesting about yourself? How about your level and skills?"
"Those are private things, you know…"
"You literally just told me your entire life story!"
"Fine, fine! You're so pushy, you know? I'm not a fighter so I'm only level 3 from the occasional animal that I've killed. As for skills, I have Lesser Charm Lvl. 2, Lesser Thirst Nullification Lvl. 3, Lesser Heat Resistance Lvl. 3, Lesser Cold Resistance Lvl. 1, Lesser Coquetry Lvl. 1, Moderate Garment Mending Lvl. 2, and Moderate Housework Lvl. 1."
Huh. There really are skills for everything. Skills for housework and flirting even?
"Alright. I've gone, so now it's your turn."
"I'm level 1. My skills are Greater Pain Resistance Lvl. 6, Greater Madness Lvl. 5, Lesser Sight Enhancement Lvl. 2, Lesser Hearing Enhancement Lvl. 2, Lesser Resistance Lvl. 9, Moderate Heat Resistance Lvl. 5, Lesser Cold Resistance Lvl. 4, Moderate Thirst Nullification Lvl. 2, Lesser Sleep Nullification Lvl. 4, Moderate Swordsmanship Lvl. 7, Lesser Melee Magic Conduction Lvl. 2, Magic Sensory Lvl. 1, Lesser Magic Manipulation Lvl. 1. Huh… it looks like some have leveled up since last I checked."
Ms. Blabbermouth's mouth was hanging open, for once not incessantly blabbering. However, all good things must eventually come to an end.
"So many skills and such high skill levels… and yet such a low overall level, lower than mine. But still, I was so proud to have two Moderate tier skills, and yet you have two… though that madness level is very worrying…"
"Oh? How so?"
"Lesser Madness is quite common in old people. Moderate madness is considered to be caused by severe mental disorders, and the individual will either be killed or be disposed of for the good of the community. Greater madness? That's the realm of psychos, and is incredibly dangerous. And you're already more than halfway through it… I thought that you were crazy, after watching you laugh while being burned alive, but this exceeds reason. If those slave traders were at all responsible, then you should have been put down like a rabid dog on sight. And your pain resistance is so high as well… you probably got both of those skills from the same place, right? And your swordsmanship is obscenely high leveled for an individual at level one."
"Hold up- did you really just call me a rabid dog?"
"Oh… um, sorry, it just slipped out. That's just the comparison that is usually made to those with high madness skills."
"Well that's a shame. I thought that you were complimenting me. Anyways, if responsible people would put down a rabid dog like me, who will actually purchase me? I doubt that Mr. Anger Issues would go through the trouble of bringing me all the way there if he didn't think he could sell me."
Her mouth opens and closes a handful of times as she tries to formulate her thoughts. You know, I'm getting rather good at making her shut up! I just need to keep saying things that fluster her, and I can keep her silent indefinitely! Now if only there was a better way to silence obnoxious people forever…
However, before I can remember how to permanently shut people up, she composes herself and answers my question. "Well, in most cases he probably would have. However, the war that I mentioned Eroen is having with Aren isn't going the greatest, so a city that is relatively close to the border will take any troops that it can get. Even insane troops can serve as cannon fodder, after all. Furthermore, you're a lot better behaved than most of the lunatics, and have a really high swordsmanship skill. If the slavers have you kill a monster or two before we reach our destination, you could level up and be worth enough that your ability to behave might be looked at, as opposed to being disposed of regardless of behavior due to your madness level."
"So you're saying that if I'm a good enough fighter then they'll be willing to ignore my madness skill level, and judge my sanity based on my actions?"
"Yes… although your actions are a bit worrying in themselves."
"And they'll probably have me kill a few monsters before we reach the market?"
"Yes, an increase in level will greatly raise your value. As a magic swordsman, you are inherently worth quite a lot. Not everyone has the natural proficiencies necessary to even be a mage, and swordsmanship is a notoriously hard skill to raise. Even with your skills, however, people will still be reluctant to buy a level one soldier."
"That's nice. Now please, shut up."
"That's rude!"
"Not as rude as you. Now shut up. All this talking has made me tired."
"You only got up thirty minutes ago!"
And those thirty minutes have been oh so long. "Well, it's been thirty minutes of you incessantly blabbering."
"But you're the one who woke me up in the first place…" She says something as I fall asleep, but I'm too busy to notice.
"Oi! Wake up you lazy son of a b%&@#!" Well, those are some choice words to work up to!
"Yes, mother!" I call out in a sing-song voice while falling back asleep.