Chapter 4

When Three woke it was to a world he did not remember seeing, a vast blue opened up before his eyes, stretching further than even his enhanced eyes could see. For a moment he just lay there, marveling in this never before seen sight, then he heard a squeal, something flashed from the corner of his eyes as he felt like a hammer hit his stomach. He coughed, struggling to take a breath as he looked at the offender. Sumi sat on his stomach looking at him with sparkling eyes, she sat back a bit and signed to him while giving him a gentle smile

[I'm glad you woke up, how are you feeling?] A flicker of yellow rippling over her skin.

[I feel great now that I can see the outside world! It means we did it right? What's all that blue!] He asked with his jaw slack as he stared at the seemingly never ending blue expanse.

Sumi's skin turned decidedly orange as she helped him up. [Welcome Three, to the real world!] she said spinning around gesturing at the vast area surrounding them.

All around him were things he had never seen before, he looked below his feet at the strange green softness that was tickling them. He experimentally lifted his feet up and down and marveled at how the small green things bent below his feet yet refused to break the sensation of the thin green stalks underneath his feet was something he couldn't even begin to describe. He dug his toes in, feeling the dirt beneath it. He grinned and looked around, gazing at the tall sturdy looking things in the distance, with a skin of brown and covered by even more green, then he looked back up into the sky marveling at the sheer vastness of it, then he saw something white and fluffy floating overhead he stared as it slowly floated by. Then further in the distance he saw gray things sticking up towards the sky making even the fluffy things flow around them.

Then he gazed at his friends who were all staring at him with a grin.

He blushed [What?]

Yinta grinned at him and threw her arm around his shoulder, he marveled at the somewhat rough sensation of her skin. It resembled the sturdy looking brown things in the distance, trees. [Welcome dear brother, to freedom!]

Valana stood up grinning, her chest expanding as she sucked in all the air she could, then howled at the sky. The rest grinned and joined her with their own howls, Three howled at the sky listening for the first time to anything beyond the crackle of magic, or his own skin grating against rock. Then Klostum tackled him to the ground and they started wrestling, enjoying the physical contest, and the fact that they could actually touch each other now. Soon enough the rest piled on as well and it was a free for all wrestling match. After a while they started breathing heavily and collapsed onto the grass. A grin so wide it was hurting his cheeks spread over Three's face. They just lay there for a while nearly piled on each other staring at the sky. Then Jer stood up and looked at them.

[We still have to figure out what we are going to do next]

Fliít leaped up performing some acrobatics. [Don't be such a spoil sport Jer!, we go wherever! We do whatever! Lets just walk and see what happens!]

[I would prefer having an actual plan so we can..] Jer stated

Strem put his arm around Jer's shoulder, [stop worrying you old fuzzy bucket, for now lets just walk in the opposite direction as that blasted mansion and see where we end up, its not like we know were we are going anyhow!]

The rest nodded, Klostum gave Jer a pat on the back almost leveling the poor boy, [Forward we go for there is nowhere else!]

Jer sighed in exasperation but followed them regarddless as they headed towards the gray things in the distance.

[So what happened after I turned off my mana? My memory is blank from that point onward, I just felt... agitated] Three asked.

The others glanced around. Valana scratched at her chin. [Well you changed, then you splattered hags all over the wall, by the way the main hag was your mother.]

Yinta smacked Valana on the back of the head. [Show some delicacy you mut!]

Valana growled, [Who are you calling mut!]

The two got into a fast signing contest as they argued, interrupted by a question from Three. [What is a mother?]

Everyone froze as he asked the question, they all scratched their chin or head. [Doesn't really matter] Klostum answered as he patted his back. [Because of you we managed to escape and you even squashed some of the hags, now we walk.]

Three shrugged then nodded, and turned his gaze over to the large gray in the distance. He wondered what they would find there, with a jerk of his head Three remembered something.

[Do you guys know how to make sound and sign?]

[You mean this?] Strem asked, he made a squeaking sound, The ethereal boy almost flinched at the sound then massaged his throat, after a few tries he finally got a proper word out.

"You mean like this?"

Three nodded, [I don't know what you said but yes that]

The others froze for a second and stared at him, then Sumi gingerly asked [Do you not remember how to talk?]

Three answered with a scratch of the chin, [I don't remember anything other than the cages and you guys.]

The rest shared some glances then Sumi grinned, [That gives me something to teach you! Keeps me busy!]

They did exactly that while walking, the group started teaching him the words that were connected to the signs and images in his head. It took some time before he understood HOW to make the proper sounds. The words where there in his mind, somehow just beyond casual reach, with a bit of effort he could bring them to the tip of his tongue. It would still take him a good amount of time to become fluent but they had more than enough time now and the rest enjoyed teaching him how to talk, they enjoyed being free even more. Relishing the movement, the feeling of exertion, the stretching muscles.

Jer suddenly changed the subject [Did you guys check your perk list, we probably weren't conscious enough to keep up with the announcements it's probably been years seeing how we have grown, so who knows what happened to our skills and perks]

Three gave Jer a blank look, he vaguely remembered something about receiving skills and a perk but he couldn't really remember what they did.

Jer saw his confusion [Just think about yourself and the things you can do it will give you a list of skills and perks, normally children at the age of ten get summoned to the nearest adventurer's post, mage's guild or warrior's school. That opens up the status menu, including all kind of information about yourself, they also use it as an identifier and the government uses it to keep count of the amount of citizens.]

Three nodded that he understood and Jer continued his explanation of how the system worked. [Skill's are something that grows with you, for example someone who hits people with his fist might get the skill bare fist fighting, if he gets better at it the skill will level with him up to a maximum of a hundred, every twenty-five levels the skill alters a bit, gaining a bonus. If you actually manage to reach the maximum level, the skill evolves into a new skill. Once you gain your status you also gain a base level, starting at level one. At level ten,twenty-five,fifty seventy-five and a hundred you get the choice to evolve a skill of your own, lesser mana manipulation can be involved into greater mana manipulation for example. The skill levels you have aren't reset if you evolve this way, they are divided by half instead.]

Three was having trouble remembering all of it but he thought that he understood what Jer was talking about. He though Status to himself and watched his own list open.

{Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}

{Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}

{Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}

{Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}

{Perk : Mana-sustenance}

{Perk : Battered Body }

{Inheritant-Core - ?????}

He blinked at the notifications and told the others what he saw, Strem reacted [Yea all of us have the same four skills, although your regeneration is the highest, our Pain-tolerance is higher than yours, probably because the hag preferred to physically torture you instead using the pain spell]

Fliít followed up [We have the same perks aswell, including the Inheritant-Core, I don't know what it actually is but its probably the thing they pushed inside our body that changed us, ours are of unknown origin just like yours.]

Yinta added some more information [You can also focus on one of the perks and it will give you more information, you should do that to all of them to see what they do]

Three nodded and focused on the first Skill

{Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}

{This Skill speeds up the regeneration of your body.

{Level-25 Acquired : Disease Immunity added

{Level-50 Acquired : In-combat Regeneration added

{Level-75 Acquired : Smaller extremities can be regenerated}

{Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}

{This skill decreases the amount of pain you feel from wounds

{Level-25 Acquired : Localized Pain Removal}

{Level-50 Acquired : Pain-Transferal : Self}

{Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}

{Increases toughness of bones,organs, and muscle tissue

{Level-25 Acquired : Dense Skeleton

{Level-50 Acquired : Internal Shock Absorption}

{Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}

{Toughens the skin, the higher the level the tougher the material.

{Level-25 Acquired : Leather Skin

{Level-50 Acquired : Wooden Skin

{Level-75 Acquired : Bronze Skin}

{Perk : Mana-sustenance}

{This perk absorbs a portion of the users mana to replace food sustenance

when other sustenance is not available}

{Perk : Battered Body }

{Your body has seen more abuse than most, for surviving

thus far you receive a 50% bonus to total health pointsl}

{Inheritant-core : ????}

{Information unavailable}

It took Three a while to read everything, strange enough even though he did not understand some words or what things did the meaning of it came to him regardless. Pain-transferal : self for instance meant that he could take the pain someone else felt onto himself for as long as he touched said person. The list gave him a lot to think about as the group slowly headed further towards the tall gray, meanwhile discussing with each other about skills and perks.