The nguage of the knots served as the Tide Children’s solution to a life spent braving the cold gray seas. Parchment and paper were far too susceptible to rot in the salt-den air. Instead, they wove intricate patterns into lengths of twine, silk, cordage, or any combination thereof, each knot communicating a surprising level of detail and meaning.

  To my untrained eye, this method of recording information seemed slow and unwieldy, but I realized it was likely a mere reflection of my own shortcomings as one who was not born to a life upon the ever-shifting waves.

  — The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney, 376 AC.

  The following morning was spent a little differently from the st. I began with a basic breakfast, followed by vigorous physical training consisting mostly of calisthenics. As I completely drained my Stamina, I healed the damage to my Health with magic. At the end of this brutal session, I was awarded with an increase to my Constitution.

  I then continued the mental training of my Intelligence and Wisdom, slipping back into the knowledge and lessons of my old world. I still had a few ideas on how to increase my Charisma and Luck, but my attempt to alter the former through interactions with my jailers failed when they pointedly chose to ignore me.

  Late in the morning, the sounds of the bustling city filtered into my cell. I watched the busy scene of people going about their daily lives from my window, and, as I finished my set of pull-ups, a fsh of inspiration came to me.

  A little way outside my cell, in a small square, a market was forming. Sellers had set up many stalls with a wide variety of goods, ranging from the mundane to the exotic: pots and pans, arms and armor, tropical fruit, and even menacing, alien-looking creatures caged in bars of cold steel.

  The merchants hawked their wares with guttural cries, no doubt espousing the quality of their goods and offering bargains. The smell of cooking meat wafted into my cell, and I felt a rumbling in my stomach, which I chose to ignore.

  Regret filled me as I held myself up to the bars, my gateway to the outside world. I spotted a middle-aged turbaned man in furs arguing jovially with a woman cd in fancy colorful clothes of amber and gold. I steeled myself as I prepared to cast a spell. Focusing again on the man, I shifted my attention to the words he was speaking; I blocked everything else out of my mind and cast Identify.

  A swath of information poured into my understanding for the brief few seconds I connected with him, the man’s words transting into my native English. Practicing the new words with my tongue, I had difficulty mimicking the coarse, guttural tones and inflections. I was astonished to find that I could recall his words with almost crystal crity, a feat I would have found impossible in my foreign nguage csses back home.

  I fired off Identify spells at random conversations, sating my curiosity and increasing my vocabury, but also thankfully distracting me from thoughts of home. Driven by a need to understand the men I had sworn vengeance against, I vowed to learn all I could of their primitive nguage.

  After a second round of mental training and rest, I once again pulled myself up to the bars, draining a little of my Stamina. The market was closing for the day, with people breaking down stalls and packing away their goods, but I was still able to catch some words.

  As I continued to listen, I began to understand more of the nguage, this time without the aid of magic. Whether it was due to the lingering effect of repeated use of the spell or my growing intellect, I had begun to grasp the nguage’s structure.

  Each word was a key to a door that opened new meaning, and every assembled pattern of grammar a corridor that revealed higher concepts of the nguage. A notification confirmed my progress with another increase in my Intelligence, and I took a moment to congratute myself for my creative use of magic to learn their nguage, armoring myself with a false sense of superiority as a thin defense against the powerlessness of my situation.

  During a lull in prison life, I noticed that the local fauna had decided to pay a visit to my cell. Small insect-like creatures scuttled into view, about the size of a rge coin, featuring considerable mandibles, two-joint thoraxes, and two pairs of legs attached to an upcurved abdomen. Inquisitively, two or three of them would skitter about my cell when I was perfectly still.

  I threw small loose stones that had fallen off the wall at them, making a game of it. With a lucky strike, I was able to injure and slow one of them. I finished the injured creature with a quick stomp. Blue viscera stained the stone floor, but I was not rewarded with any experience points. The mini-games of this world were a bit of a letdown.

  I undertook another hard round of physical training, earning an increase of one point in both Dexterity and Strength.

  Before resting for the night, I decided to look at my character sheet. I was pleased with the gains across my attributes; thanks to my herculean regimen, my Constitution sat at eighteen points. Also, I noticed that I had considerably boosted my Intelligence and gained a smaller bump in Wisdom, no doubt due to my meditations.

  Casting magic and the active pursuit of understanding had also increased my maximum Mana. The hike in my physical attributes had bumped up my Health and Stamina, and I had gained a marginal increase of twenty points of experience for my efforts.

  It appeared that in this world there were three ways to gain experience: quests, practicing skills, and cold-blooded killing. The st reminded me of the party that had found me, and I vehemently swore to turn them into experience points.

  With my efforts, I had more or less countered the effects of my initial curse. Nodding in satisfaction with the growth of my mental faculties, I curled up on my pile of straw and faded away to an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

  STATUS

  Calling: %^& Level 3 Acolyte of Avaria

  Strength: 11

  Dexterity: 11

  Constitution: 18

  Intelligence: 15

  Wisdom: 11

  Charisma: 8

  Luck: 11

  SKILLS & PROFICIENCIES

  Pain Nullification (lvl.1)

  Power Strike (lvl.1)

  Endure (lvl.1)

  Stealth (lvl.1)

  Rest (lvl.1)

  Backstab (lvl.1)

  Dodge (lvl.1)

  Polearms (lvl.1)

  SPELLS & MAGIC

  Heal (lvl.2)

  Rust (lvl.1)

  Identify (lvl.2)

  Silent Casting (lvl.1)

  GIFTS

  Curse of Entropy: -20% all starting attributes.

  Experience to next level 240/364

  Health: 29/33

  Stamina: 2/28

  Mana: 1/10