The next morning, there is an unexpected visitor in front of the tree. A small bundle of joy jumps on Melwin's back. It is none other than the wolf pup that Ben rescued. Ben goes to the odd couple. When the cub sees him it jumps off her fathers back and runs to Ben. Head on the ground, butt up in the air. The tail wags back and forth excitedly.
Ben tilts his head slightly. When he hears a dark voice "She wants to play with you. That's the only thing she has in her head. She can understand you but can't speak yet." Ben thinks for a moment and gets a wooden stick, which is left over from the fire last night, and throws it. The boy looks at Ben questioningly "come on get the stick."
Malwin growls "We are not trained dogs. For us, playing means roughhousing." But a ball of fur is already scampering around with a stick in her mouth. Ben just laughs and Malwin shakes his head. "Girl, where has your honour gone?" But the little girl ignores her father.
Ben spends the morning with the two wolves. He has also learned that the wolf pup does not yet have a name. She still has to earn one, Malwin explains. That's how it is with the moon wolves. Only the strongest survive and earn a name. The weak ones die and are not worthy of a name. Ben thinks this is a bit cruel but has no right to say anything about it. It is not his culture and he respects the culture of the moon wolves.
At lunchtime Ben decides to eat something and opens one of his meat rations. He looks around to make sure no one is watching. Feeling safe, he gives the pup a few pieces of meat and strokes it gently.
"I see you've made a new friend Ben." Surprised, Ben turns around. There stands the dryad with a smile. "Apparently so. How are you today Anabella?" replies Ben cheerfully. "I'm fine, thank you. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you. We sisters have been discussing how we can help you and have come to the conclusion that the best thing would be to give you a basic education. As you have already discovered yourself, you are totally inexperienced when it comes to many mundane things. Would you be okay with that Ben?"
Ben shrugs his shoulders. He himself knows about the problem and it's not like he has to go anywhere either. Currently, this is his home. "Well then, we should divide your training into several sections per day. In the morning, when your mind is still fresh, you have magic and general knowledge with me.
In the afternoon physical training and hunting with Malwin and his daughter. Both have agreed to help you. As a thank you for your help. But be warned, the training will be exhausting. In short you are a weakling with level 1.
In the evening comes mediation and probably the most important for you the right handling of cards." "Okay I understand the learning and conditioning but why meditation?"
"We sisters have thought about it for a long time and think it might help you find yourself. The basis of meditation is to turn within and reflect on yourself. To understand yourself and open up to the world. Many learn this skill because it has other benefits as well. By opening oneself, the body and mind can recover better. In plain words, higher mana and stamina recovery."
"The skill sounds too good, what is the downside of it?" The dryad smiles as Ben remarks that her description is too good. " As a beginner, it takes a long time to fall into meditation. It is a trance like state. Your senses are weakened and you can't move during it or the trance will dissolve." Ben shows that he has understood.
"But today we will start with herbalism, this will help you in your excursions. There are many helpful herbs and every adventurer should know what they bring." She says the last sentence with a wink. . The dryad disappears into her home and brings back a large book. "So this is the one book with the most common herbs and how to use them."
Ben sits on the floor with the book and reads it diligently. As the sun slowly sets he decides to stop for the day. He opens his interface and wants to see how high his skills are he sees the hero system. A question comes to his mind and he goes to Anabella.
"Hey Annabella, what is the hero system? How does it differ from the normal system?" "The hero system has two differences. The first is the hero quests. These are automatically generated and mostly relate to the user himself.
The user is a champion of justice as an example , so quests are generated that correspond to his beliefs. The quests could be saving people or defending against a monster stampede. This does not necessarily mean that the quests are always right. Sometimes they mislead you due to misinformation from the user side. Speaking of quests. The rewards are generated from mana but how that works is beyond me.
The second difference is that you level slower but are much stronger. The hero system is a blessing of Gaia and allows you to absorb more life energy. This in turn results in a stronger body and more mana than someone at the same level as you. Actually, the boon only has benefits if you don't mind taking about 2.5 as much experience." When the dryad is done explaining, the Ben opens his hero system. While explaining about the system, he remembered that he had a quest like that and he might have already completed it."
Quest: Illusion
Summary: Not everything seems to be as it should be. Find out the truth about the threat Maxwell is afraid of.
Task:
- Find out more about Maxwell. (completed)
- Find out more about the threat (completet)
- Escape the Illusion (Hidden) (completet)
- Destroy Maxwell's tracker (Hidden) (completet)
- Find out more about yourself (Hidden) (completet)
(This quest is about yourself and cannot be refused. Keep these quests to yourself to get the maximum reward).
Reward: depends on quest progress and completion
Quest completed
Hand in Yes / No
Note: The quest can be continued. The more hidden objectives that are completed, the more rewards there are.
Ben considers and consults with the dryad whether he should hand in the quest. After some time they both come to the conclusion that it is better to hand in the quest and receive the reward.
Ben presses yes on the interface as it disappears. "Huh my interface is gone and I can't summon it again." "I think your reward has something to do with the interface. Nothing can be done about that now, but how about something to eat? There's still some of yesterday's stew left." Sitting around the campfire they both talk about herbs and Anabella asks Ben about his knowledge.
Suddenly he hears a voice " Sour cherry herb can also be used for stamina regeneration. It can also temporarily increas the manhood, if it ... " Ben looks around but except for Anabella and the two wolves. "You hear that too?" Anabella looks at him questioningly " What am I supposed to have heard?"
"The voice that just said that sour cherry herb can also be used for endurance recovery and increase in manhood. Whatever increase in manhood means." Anabella blushes and is about to start answering when Ben hears the voice again. " By increase of manhood is meant the masculine potency of a man's limb." Now Ben also blushes when he hears this.
Did he really just ask the dryad that. "Um unknown person thank you very much for the information .... Would you come out and introduce yourself. It's rude not to show yourself." Ben asks timidly.