Astrid finished the sleeping hats, extremely quickly. It was so fast that we couldn't even believe she was able to make them all in just a couple of hours. Sure, it wasn't a big job and each one only took a few pieces to be stitched, but that didn't mean that it was an easy endeavor in any way. Just the sheer amount of scraps she was using would already put any seasoned tailor's head in a swivel. Thanks to a mixture of the new skills she got from the subclass and her own high body attribute, she quickly finished all the projects long before it was time for us to sleep.
For the first time in a while, we were up during the night. No one was super sleepy, and no one felt like there was a need for us to quickly find a place and sleep early so we would wake up in the morning and continue our journey. This was a more comfortable place where we could do whatever we wanted.
And now, everybody seemed to be done with their projects. Or at least all decided to take a break from it. The only person who was still working, more or less, was Michael. He mentioned he had an idea for an upgrade to my staff and was working on a few schematics on the ground, using the dirt as a drawing board. Even then, he was participating in the conversation, which was mostly about our past.
Astrid, in her usual way, said that she only had her father and that her mother died really young. Although something about being honest, the time it took her to get there was a bit unnecessary. It required a lot of questioning from us until the Huskcarver decided to stop beating around the bush and simply sent a message to the System with the full story. Apparently, her mom died when she was born.
Although if it was because of her birth or not wasn't something Astrid truly knew about. She was raised by her dad alone in that cabin where we spent the night once we met. Her dad was someone who, just like her, didn't speak very much. He seemed to be even less approachable than our companion. Which was saying something. Astrid might be a sweet person, but only once you got to know her. At a glance, I don't think that many people would be interested in talking to her.
After that, Michael talked a bit more about himself. He, like he had told me before, came from a family of Hawaiians who had left the islands back in the old world. His parents never saw the ocean, and that's why he was so keen ongoing there. It was sort of a family dream to do so. But there was a strange moment in his sharing when Rex asked if he had any siblings. A question he was asking everybody. Michael just gave him a long stare and replied with a bit of a rasp voice, "No."
If he was trying to hide something, it was pretty obvious he was unsuccessful, but everybody got the hint about not asking questions related to his possible siblings.
Next came myself, and I shared what I could. I talked about Pops, how I didn't remember my parents and how they died in an Eater attack. Most surprisingly, only Rex and I experienced something like that. To the rest of them, the existence of Eaters was either something they knew about but never interacted with until they started traveling with us, or something that only came to be a problem later in their life. It felt a bit unfair. Why was I supposed to suffer if others could spend their entire lives without even knowing that type of fear?
But before I could spiral on those thoughts, we started talking about Riley.
Like Astrid and I, Riley had no siblings. They were just there on their own. Even their parents seemed to be gone. They also didn't know much about them as Riley lost their parents when they were very young, but eventually the people from the village nearby the witch's hut raised them. After a while, they met the witch. And then, Riley started talking about the thing that we were all the most curious about. How they met Wistra.
The story was less exciting than I was expecting. Apparently, Riley simply got lost in the forest one day and had the witch helping them. At the time, Riley had no idea Wistra was not human, and when they went back to the village, people knew that there was an old lady in the forest who could help them occasionally. Riley was interested in that and started going to the forest to find the witch. Eventually, the annoying little kid grew on Wistra, who decided to take Riley in and teach them how to be a witch.
"You know, now that I have the System and I know who Wistra is or… what she was, some of the things she said to me kind of make sense. She kept repeating that for me to become a witch like her, there were a few barriers we would need to cross. And how she wasn't entirely sure how to share the more unique part of their abilities. They were probably trying to figure out a way to pass me the System but couldn't do that for some reason."
"I know that. Did you ever ask the System about that?" Riley turned to me.
"Not really. Is it even going to answer?"
"Probably not everything you want, but it will give you a rough explanation why it's harder for us to share the System with people who are not of our own kind."
"Okay, really?" Riley turned to the side, and after a few moments, gasped. "Would you look at that? There really is a specific reason. I thought I told you."
"But how did you get it then? How did the first human user get the System?" Riley asked.
I smiled. "I never told you guys this?" And they all shook their heads. "Well, come on, it wasn't as weird as you might be thinking. My village was attacked by a pack of Eaters. And while everybody was running away and trying to survive, Pops, my grandpa, seemed to have prepared something for that. He hid a missile. A giant bomb from the old world, underneath our house. And rigged it so it could explode if we pulled the right string."
Michael stared at me with a confused expression, "Did you know about that?"
"Not at all. It was a surprise to me too. But he was about to go down to that bunker under our home and blow up all the Eaters together with him when I asked if the bomb was going to be instantaneous or would it have some time for him to escape. He said there wasn't enough time, so I took charge instead. After all, even though Pops was pretty fit for his age, he was still 70 years old. I was much faster than him,"
I leaned back against the wall, thinking about Pops for a moment. Hopefully, he's ok, and his leg is all better.
"So, I triggered the bomb, ran like hell, and the Eaters exploded behind me. I thought I was safe, but it wasn't going to be that easy to run away. One of the Eaters, who I think was damaged by the explosion, kept chasing after me. I think it was injured in that blast, though I'm not sure of that. But considering the fact that I killed it, I don't think it was in perfect shape."
"You killed an Eater without the System?" Riley asked.
"Yes. Well, sort of…. It's complicated. I had a lot of help. But yes, I am responsible for that kill even before I had a System. Let me continue," Everyone seemed to be very interested in my story all of a sudden.
"So the Eater came after me and tried to attack. I dodged, and it slammed one of its tentacles on a tree, but the tree wasn't stable and it ended up falling on top of it. Likely hurting it even more. Unfortunately, to escape the attack, I had to tumble away and ended up downhill. Got really hurt in that fall. I couldn't run anymore, but the Eater seemed to be in really bad shape. It was already bleeding that weird white blood that they have. And it jumped at me."
The image of that moment flashed across my mind. Despite all my current power, it was hard to forget the fear. Only after a few deep breaths that the story continued.
"I was so pissed at those things for having killed my family. The people who I grew up with. When I saw that there was this giant metal pole by my side, I just raised it, hoping that the Eater would get hit by it. Maybe I could at least hurt it a little as payback. It worked surprisingly well. But it was also not going to let me go unpunished. The moment it got close to me, it also impaled my stomach with one of its tentacles. I think it could have still killed me back there. But lightning struck the metal rod just at that moment. Electrocuting both of us. And now, here's where things get really weird."
When I said that, Michael burst out laughing. "Now? Now is when things get weird?"
With a smile, I continued, "Pops gave me a necklace. One that my grandma gave to him. And it started to glow. Apparently, this necklace had some sort of meteorite or something on it, and that meteorite had a piece of the System inside it. I think. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure about that part. But the electricity activated that System and because there was so much electricity coursing through me and the Eater, both our versions of the System and the System of the Eater started to talk. Then, the piece that was on my necklace managed to fix itself since it was half broken and embedded itself into me. I have no idea if this is how things are usually supposed to be or if there's another, easier way to pass the System to another species. But it took me almost dying and killing an Eater at the same time for the System to transfer itself to me."
"What happened next?" Rex asked.
"Well, it wasn't fun. I spent a few days having to use {Body Regeneration}, which was one of the skills that the Eater had, to fix my stomach. Because there was a giant hole in it. And I dragged myself to a nearby cave so I could be safe from any other Eaters that might be roaming the area. I spent almost a week there alone, barely surviving, and if it wasn't for the fact that this cave was used by our hunters, I wouldn't have had food and water for the first few days. Then, when I started to get a bit better, I climbed back up out of the cave, started hunting, and only when I got to tier one I managed to leave that place."
"It took you a week to get to tier one?" Riley asked with a frown.
But we all just shot daggers at them with our eyes.
"Yes. Took me a week to get to tier 1. Not all of us had the chance of killing a tier two being to help us level up," I huffed.
"I know... I was just surprised," Riley protested.
Still, I continued, "Since we are on the topic, it's likely that it takes even longer for people to get to tier 1. The only reason it was that fast for me was because of Quick Tier 1 Evolution. Which, by the way, it's not something that comes from us, it comes from them. The Eaters."
I gave a moment to process that, but no one seemed to mind that information. "Either way. When I left the cave, I was chased by another Eater. And this time, I fought it without any help. There was no lightning from the heavens to save me. I ended up killing it by using its own leg. I shoved it into its mouth and used {Compression} to make it grow until the entire body just snapped."
"Brutal," Astrid smiled.
"It was awesome too," despite how long ago that happened, it was a moment of pride for me.
"Still, some time later I arrived in Madison. A village nearby. Pops was there, and some other people that survived the attack. I shared my System with Pops, spent some time there. Eventually we went back home to see if there were any survivors, only to find that there was a giant Eater's nest back there. We freaked out, ran away, got chased. To save Madison, I attacked the Eater, which everyone saw, but they didn't see me fighting it. In their minds, I was just sacrificing myself. When I got back, they all assumed that it was going to come after me once again. Even though I already had killed it. So I was exiled, and started traveling."
Leaning back a bit more, I got comfortable, using the pillow hat to avoid hitting my head on the hard wall.
"Went to a different place, saw a bunch of racist assholes, left, went to another place. Saw a dickhead of a guy beating a kid because they were not noble or some shit. They asked me to stay in that village, protect them. I told them to fuck off, they tried to stop me, I broke a house down, and they let me go, and then I met Astrid. After that, I think... yeah, I think after that we told you about everything."
There were still a few questions that I was happy to answer, but eventually my turn ended and we all turned to Rex.
"What about you, little man? What is life with the Rodenti?" Michael asked.
#### Author's Notes ####
Michael is clearly hiding something. But what could it be?