An e-mail from a god

-6th day of AC, 06.04.1052-

-Morning-

"*Achoo!* ...damn it," Leaf muttered under her breath as she walked next to Travis.

"...*Cough* told you," the man replied.

"Shut it," the elf woman struck at his shoulder lightly.

A slight grunt escaped Travis's mouth before he fixed his backpack straps. 'I was never the type to get sick quickly, but Leaf looks like she's going to sneeze her nose off by the evening...' he grimaced slightly at the thought, glancing toward the elf woman.

Her eyes seemed somewhat unfocused as she ignored his stare, her typically fair and bright skin gaining a lot of red, especially on her nose and forehead. It was clear that she had a cold, and a severe one, at it.

"...*Achoo!* That's what I get for sleeping butt naked. Damn, if only I had woken up earlier..." Leaf shook her head slightly and immediately grimaced.

Travis looked away from her and turned forward.

The road between Poiri and Guill was leading them through some forests and plains, and they were unlucky enough to find themselves in the latter at the moment. The breeze that used to run between the trees in the grove turned into a wind that raced through the grass-filled areas, blowing through them time and time again. It was no wonder Leaf actually wore three tunics today, and even with this amount of clothing she was still shaking as she walked.

Just like in previous days, not many people came by them, be it toward or from Guill. However, seeing what kinds of people passed by caused Travis to ponder for a while.

'I did expect a lot of food transfer to go toward Poiri given the situation, but what are the carts from Poiri filled with? Or are they even from Poiri?' He took a moment to listen in as another of the carriages passed by. The thick layer of cloth secured on top of the contents couldn't hide all the sounds made by the items underneath.

A clear, ringing sound entered his ears. It was quiet, no doubt, but most certainly hearable. Travis took a long while to think.

'Metal... definitely metal. Can't tell exactly, but doesn't sound like mithril. Steel, perhaps. Are those tools? Weapons? Hmm... something doesn't sound right. Poiri should hold some of the best facilities for reforming weapons in all of Forna... something's amiss here. Could they have struck a deal with a dwarven clan? But even if, why would they export the weapons yet? It's impossible to make this amount of weapons, even if it's the dwarven craftsmen, no? Hmm... I'll have to try and pry around. Maybe I can ask Aria if she knows anything...' he thought about the white-haired Mage. 'I wonder how she's doing.'

Throwing his pondering aside, he glanced at his Daily Quest. 'Nothing outstanding, it seems. I guess that's all the better for me. I'll finish it within an hour, and that'll be 7 stat points for me.'

His eyes looked at Leaf again. She reciprocated the gaze for a moment before closing her eyes. She leaned her shoulder into Travis's to help with her walk.

"Damn," Leaf said quietly. "I feel like shit."

"...*Cough* Well, maybe we should take a minute?"

"Why?"

"I was thinking that perhaps you have some herbs to help yourself out with this illness?"

"...I don't have any. I really wish we were in a town somewhere on the way. I forgot to resupply in Autir." '...Damn that woman.'

"Oh. But we were in Qual 2 days ago."

"Yeah, and there wasn't even a herbalist. That town was barely bigger than Holia, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Travis replied with a nod.

"Oh well, I'll be fine. Not the first time it's happened. And I doubt it's the last, either. How are you holding up, though?"

"I've been sick before. Nothing I can't handle," he shrugged a little. "Though, I think I'll go and train a bit. Maybe some exercise will help me fight it off."

"Exercise? We both should be lying this off. Exercise won't bring you much good, Travis," Leaf grimaced slightly, trying to discourage the man from what he wanted to do.

"Hmm," he hummed. "I think I'll go anyway. I'll wait for you on the road," he gave the woman a smirk before shooting off forward.

Leaf took a breath, wanting to raise her voice and convince him not to go, but she only ended up letting the air out quietly. She knew he wouldn't listen. It wasn't that he didn't trust her. For all the time she knew him, Travis didn't skip a single day of doing some exercise. Therefore, Leaf decided it was better to let him train in peace. 'Better now than later when it'll start be colder.' she figured.

Still, she smiled a little, seeing the man's back getting away as he broke into a run. In a way, she felt admiration for the man.

'If I were him, I'd get sidetracked every other day and forget to exercise. Meanwhile, he seems to be working like a clock. Every day in the morning, training. Very good consistency. He'll definitely become strong quickly with that attitude.' she thought.

And her expression stiffened as she sniffed a little. 'I wonder, is that what--'

"Necromancer," Leaf heard a woman's voice sound from behind her. Taken off guard, she flinched and almost jumped to her side, a hand reaching for a knife under her backpack.

"??!" the elf woman breathed shallowly for a few seconds as she focused on the woman in a shawl sitting on a low tree branch.

Violet's blue and green eyes were scanning over her posture leisurely but with caution. With nigh-unhearable steps, she came a little closer, within barely 5 meters of the Necromancer.

"5 days have passed," Violet stated. "Anything to say?"

'I didn't even hear her. Damn it.' Leaf thought but kept her complexion neutral. "Not much to be said. There are things about him I can't explain yet, yes, but all I'm seeing so far is just a Psion."

The young woman stared deep into Leaf's, seemingly trying to detect if she was lying. Her black hair fluttered slightly in the breeze. "I can tell there's something more on your mind."

"...this thing," Necromancer took her backpack off, and quickly rummaged in its side pocket, getting hold of a runestone. Rising her hand somewhat, she showcased the item to the Rogue. "This is the thing he used to walk through Autir's walls."

"...May I?" she asked, extending a hand.

Leaf hesitated, looking at Violet for a few prolonged seconds. While she understood why the woman wanted to have a look at the runestone, there was a feeling of guilt weighing down her heart. She didn't ask Travis about taking it. She took it only because of the agreement she came to with the woman in front of her. An agreement that only came to be because Leaf couldn't lie, she was curious. But of course, she didn't let any of it out.

She sniffed a little, looking at the runestone, and back at the patiently waiting Violet. Eventually, she sighed before throwing the item.

Rogue quickly got hold of the item, inspecting it in the sun's beams. It wasn't heavy, nor did it seem significant at first sight. If anything, it looked like a regular stone she could pick up from just about anywhere. However, after discerning its features for a short moment, she noticed the engraving on it.

"A runestone..." Violet spoke, a little absentmindedly.

"You know what that is?" Leaf raised an eyebrow.

"...I heard about them," Rogue replied, focusing her eyes back on Necromancer. "Supposedly, they're made with mana stones. But it takes a lot of practice and knowledge to successfully make one, and they have feeble durability. There are very few people who can create these things, hence they're rather rare. I didn't expect to see one anytime soon."

'Travis has at the very least three more of those.' Leaf thought but didn't say it out loud. "So, are you satisfied?"

"...one last thing. That box he has in his backpack. I didn't notice it before you reached Autir. Did he get it in the city? What is inside?"

"...no idea," the elf woman shrugged lightly. "He definitely got it in the city. I know he opened it a few times, once every day. I tried to open it when he was asleep, but the thing wouldn't budge. It seems to be enchanted to only allow him to use it."

"Any idea on its contents?"

"I know he took a few snippets of paper from inside. But every time he opens it, there's a flash of light, so I can't be certain if that's all."

"Do you know what the papers say?"

Leaf didn't answer, instead getting a hand into her pocket. Within a few seconds, she threw a small piece of paper toward Violet.

Rogue quickly snatched the thing from the air and read its contents.

=A little bluff goes a long way=

"...?" she glanced back at Necromancer, who shrugged in response.

"I don't get it, either. Every piece of paper from there has something akin to this."

'It sounds like something you'd say to a child to teach them about the ways of the world...' "Peculiar."

"What?"

"Is it not?" Violet asked. "Why would he carry a box with him that only he can open, proceed to do so once a day, and only take out things like this?"

"You make it sound like you already know why."

"I don't," the black-haired woman shook her head. Her hair flailed lightly, showing Leaf the low ponytail that hit on her shoulder. "I'm just stating that something about that box is special. What's the point of a box that contains such useless things? Why did he buy it in the first place?"

'She does have a point. But it's not like Travis will just say it if I ask, will he? He never opens the box near me.' "That aside. I did my part. Your turn."

Violet looked to her side, a tiny bit of uncertainty stirring in her eyes. Then, she parted her lips, "Red Crown has been investigating internal affairs of Forna's Kingdom for the past 8 months. I'm not allowed much information, but from what I do know, it's something about Rruta Kingdom's current state."

"Rruta's been through a civil war last year. Obviously, nobles of other countries would be interested."

"Yes, but... it's about something else. It's not about the nobles directly. What I hear time and time again is 'Truthseekers'."

"...?" Leaf frowned slightly.

"I don't know what that group is," Violet shook her head. "But from what I was told, they may be responsible for spurring the civil war in Rruta, but it's all hearsay."

"So why did you come to Forna instead of Rruta? That's the opposite direction."

"I just follow my orders, Necromancer. I'm but a Scout for Red Crown. My superiors decided to come to Forna, and we merely follow."

Leaf sighed lightly. She could emphasize Violet's position. A mere decade ago, she was in a similar position herself.

"...either way, that's all I have to say. I'll be going, now."

"Wait. Give back the runestone," Leaf said, taking a short step toward the woman.

Violet stopped in her tracks, and turned around, throwing the item toward Necromancer. "Until we meet again," and then, she cast <Stealth> mid-step, disappearing into the forest.

'Hopefully not. Bitch.' thought Leaf with a sigh, sniffing a little and spitting to her side. Checking the runestone in her hand, she fixed the backpack on her back and pocketed the item, setting off in the direction where Travis was.

-Meanwhile, Travis' position-

The Apostle was jogging lightly forward, looking at the status screen to his right and confirming that he was just about to fill in the required amount. 'Man, these runs are becoming longer and longer, but also easier and easier every passing day.' he breathed a light sigh before he coughed.

'I almost feel like I can almost take on Penalty Quest by myself. I'll have to prepare accordingly, but after I finish Cecilia's quest, I'll consider trying it.' he nodded to himself whilst stepping a little off-road and dropping to the ground, beginning a quick set of push-ups. 'Wait... since when do I think of Teacher by her name? I didn't even realize... Well, I suppose it's not like she's around.' he shook his head a little, getting the sweat off of his face.

Moving his arms as quickly as he could, he did a set of nearly 50 push-ups in under 2 minutes. Confirming that he had finished that exercise as well, he sat on the ground, taking a few deeper breaths. 'Man, the first Daily Quest took me nearly 2 hours to do. Now I'm doing them in barely 30 minutes. They really are just free stats.' he looked at his hands and rolled up the right sleeve of his tunic. The muscles of his hand appeared slightly more pronounced. '...seems like increasing Strength has an effect on muscle mass. The question is, will it keep increasing like that...? I hope not. I don't want to look like a barbarian from Vutan.' he shivered at the thought.

Deciding against straying with his thoughts, Travis stretched his back a little before getting up and unsheathing Pacifist. 'The last objective before the optional one is to hunt down no less than 52 monsters.' he glanced back, in the direction where he came from. 'Leaf must be roughly 2 kilometers away. There's a good chance I'll be able to fulfill it. Let's go.' he couldn't explain why, but he felt a small smirk press itself onto his lips. Without waiting for anything, he shot forward between the trees, looking for his prey.

-20 minutes later-

'31, 32...' Travis thought, keeping track of the monsters slain by his hand. 'Hmm, it's even easier than I thought. I guess even that little increase in Sense did make a change.' he swiftly connected his steps, avoiding a rat's bash. Without skipping a beat, he turned on his heel and planted a strong kick in the monster's stomach, sending it whining away. Without caring for it much, he simply went onward, slashing at everything that came across his path.

Eventually, he glanced to his right and noticed that the base condition for today's quest was finished. Breathing a small sigh, he sheathed his weapons, opting to not engage any more monsters than he already had. There was little point in taking time to kill them anyway.

'RALS, 3 points into Sense, 1 into Intelligence, and 3 into Wisdom.'

[Processing... finished.]

'Good. All stats officially have 50 or more points.' he nodded to himself. 'The progress is not the fastest, but it's definitely there. What will be important now is to make up for the difference that surely has appeared in the past days.'

He looked to the sky. The hour must've been no later than 10. That meant... he quickly unequipped his backpack and rummaged through its insides. Within a few seconds, he was holding the box from Rulebreaker. Not waiting for anything, he supplied it with mana. Today, he received another snippet of paper.

=What are the defining racial traits?=

'Hmm... this sounds much more like a direct question than a rhetorical one. Let's see...'

6. What are the defining racial traits?

[What makes one stand out? No, honestly, it’s not a trick question. What is ‘it’?

Is it your appearance? Or your class? What is it?

It’s difficult to really tell, isn’t it? You could say appearance is the most defining factor, and you’d be right. How you look is what people’s initial thoughts about you are. Expensive clothes make people think you’re a noble, wear some worn-down pants, and people will assume you’re a beggar. Most won't care about your intellect if you don't look good, and might overestimate your abilities if your smile gleams with gold. It’s an unfair world, I tell you. But that’s beyond the point.

When you think about it, the races of Casali can be neatly divided into groups, can’t they? You have humans, orcs, elves, dragons, and so on and so forth. All of them are different from each other in some ways, be it body build, fighting capability, or even style. Even between human kingdoms, there are different societal systems in place.

Here’s the thing: Every race has its own defining traits. 99% of the time they are there because they help. Beastkin has a second pair of ears on top of their heads to allow for better hearing. Undines have scaled bodies to resist pressure and mitigate movement slowdown underwater.

But think about it in a more ‘RALS’ way. What do all those things give them that can be expressed through the System? That’s right: stats. All those things give certain races different innate bonuses to their stats. Beastkin have higher Sense than other species, trolls have abnormal Strength, and so on.

Defining those traits is one thing. But think about it differently. How can you use yours to your advantage?]

'...I mean... yeah... but... again, not super useful. It is, once again, common knowledge to figure things like this out. Really, this whole Rulebreaker seems out of touch with reality.'

Suddenly, a notification sprung in front of him.

[That's because they are.]

'??!' Travis felt his heart skip a beat as he made a sudden jump backward. 'The hell?!'

[Calm down. It's all fine.]

'...'

[Oh, right. You were asleep when I did the test. This is Redion speaking.]

'...Redion? How?'

[It's a new feature of RALS. I'm surprised it actually took me this long to come around and implement it. So much simpler than having to drag you to God's Realm.]

Travis formed a perplexed expression, or rather, his best estimation of what it should look like.

[What's with that sorry face? I expected you to be a bit more surprised or something, and you look like I've just run over your dog.]

'...Uh, I guess I'm surprised? Hard to say.' Travis thought, making sure to relay his thoughts toward the conversation. 'Honestly, so much has been happening these days that hardly anything really shocks anymore.'

[Well, I suppose that's true. Suddenly opening your mind to a much greater world must feel like a lot. A small thing like this may not be as... extraordinary to you, anymore.]

Travis frowned a little as he glanced around, making sure that he was alone, near the road.

[Either way, continuing my thought: Rulebreaker IS absolutely out of touch with reality. I'd say 400-something years spent doing nothing and not looking at Casali does that to you.]

'...I got nothing of it.'

[I suppose that's fine. It's not something you should be troubling yourself with anyway. Well, now that I'm sure the chat system works, there's only one more thing left to say. I spoke with Tanya, and we have agreed to cooperate a little.]

'Cooperate?' Travis frowned slightly.

[I want to say that you shouldn't fight Tanya's Apostle first when you meet them. Of course, I'm not going to stop you if you really feel like it, but Tanya did say she'll talk with hers so that you two could work together. At least until the final stage, you can treat them as your ally.]

Travis didn't reply. Redion's words were... kind of dual-sounding to him. He wasn't supposed to fight against the Apostle of Hunts, but he wouldn't be stopped if he did. He was given a choice... for later to ponder on.

[Now, I think that's everything. Unless you have a question on your mind?]

'...A couple, yes. For starters, mind telling me something about this whole Rulebreaker? I've seen evidence of their existence and even reactions to my actions, but... who even are they? They're not a god, are they?'

[I can't tell you a lot. You're right, they're not a god. They were chosen to be a referee in this Apostle's Competition because they noticed a couple of loopholes and agreed to help fix them. Uh... anything else I can tell? No, nothing comes to mind. Any other questions?]

'...you know, I wanted to ask for a piece of advice on skills.'

[Well, as long as I can answer.]

'If I wanted to break through a mental barrier, what would be the best skill for that?'

[...Hmm. There are plenty of skills that can break through a mental barrier. It's really up to your choice. With enough magic power, even a <Suggestion> can break through eventually. But if you want to really break through quickly, skills like <Domination> are great. Very powerful, but the drawback is that they have little utility outside of breaking through WP. I didn't think you'd be the type to go for such skills. What happened?]

'There's a mental barrier that I want to shatter.'

[Oh, right. You mean your sister's-- No, wait, almost made an error. Your sewn-sister's state. Is that right?]

Travis nodded, his expression turning slightly glum. 'I can't help but be worried about her. Just who in the world would dare to do this to her? And what did they do to her to hide it under a barrier?'

[I can't speak for the person who did that, but the way I see it is simple: sometimes when a person wants to disappear, they need to erase all traces of their existence from everyone's minds. It doesn't mean the Psion responsible for something like that is inherently evil. Maybe they just wanted to stay hidden.]

'...You're saying that person knew Crystal and decided to cover up their tracks by removing her memories of them? That sounds... even worse.'

[I'm just throwing an idea around. Again, doing something like this may not have any malignant roots. But if you really want to test it for yourself, you'll need to get far stronger. For now, I'd advise simply growing in power.]

'...I know. I wouldn't be able to do much about that barrier anyway. I can tell it's powerful. Leagues above the current me, no doubt.'

[Good to see you have some common sense every once in a while.]

Travis looked to his side while letting out a sigh. It wasn't a great answer to his worries, but he decided not to ponder on that too much.

[If that's everything, I'll be going.]

'Yeah, I think I have no further questions.'

[Just in case you get any, you can ask RALS to make a note and send it to me. Then we can schedule a meeting in a less... surprising manner. Good luck.]

And then, the notification disappeared, never to be seen again. Taking a quick second, Travis glanced to his sides and sighed again. 'I'm not sure why, but I feel like Rulebreaker's advice doesn't seem that bad all of a sudden.'

What to do, what to do... the man took his steps toward the road quickly.

Glancing in either direction, he took note of how the road was rather empty. A shimmer of light made its way between the trees' coronas, showering the ground with a myriad of bright spots. The temperature seemed to be slowly increasing as the man leaned on a tree nearby, waiting for his elf companion to make her way toward him.

'I wonder.' a thought crawled into his mind. 'Did other Apostles receive some advice from a person like Rulebreaker?'

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[A/N: Happy Easter!]