My Parasite Skill System

Thanking me for my help, "Well then–you will have to be paid for your work, Emerald!"–they didn't take long before going away, in the distances, where I followed them.

The logic was that I was likely to stay with them for a long time. Knowing that obviously, I could and should get my hands 'dirty' if you will, from their standpoint.

As I so much wanted to have something for me, anyway, I was happy to accept.

Today, walking along with the Party towards today's goal–I was the porter.

And as things were, it got me attention: "You sure it won't be too heavy, Emerald?"

"He's not your average kid, I'm telling you!"

"Still though, if it's too heavy … maybe you should take over. Just in case."

"No, no, no!–that, I won't! Seriously won't! Bah! What's she saying, now!"

And it didn't end.

I was good, though. Really. The stuff was empty for now, so, sure, that's that–but we'll see.

I wouldn't give that up. I wanted to do it. Plus, there was the fact that I looked so much cool right now.

I had one awesome inventory, and one set of terrific tools. This would help me carry stuff, and these would help me … I don't really know how to use them.

Holding them all out in my hands, all of a sudden, one hand came and whacked itself on my shoulder!

"Heh, heh, heh, my little dude!–don't you worry about these little babies for now. … The great me'll teach you all right!"

I nearly dropped the tools. But it was okay since I didn't, right?

Still walking onward, I was at the forefront of the marching group.

Alongside me, a little falling behind, there were Leader and Bumped.

"Careful, Bumped. Stop playing monkeys. Rude monkeys."

Playing the rude monkeys, right.

Bumped grumbled to that call.

Ultimately, he stopped that.

Then it was Leader's turn in talking to me: he brought up the fact I didn't know where the Party gathered each day.

Agreeing with him, I said I didn't. They had failed to tell me. I couldn't really know. It wasn't my wrong, but I still felt like saying 'sorry.'

And so I did. But: no, no, no; it wasn't for me to apologize, he painfully said.

When I thought I would be blamed for being late or something ('cause yes, I'd been late too, given the fact I didn't know much anything)–he insisted: they accepted me and agreed that I come with them today … and so it was Clumsy Babe's fault.

She had been clumsy–as per her well-chosen name–enough to manage not to give me the instructions I needed.

And so, Leader only got to enlighten me about the where and when of their daily meetings.

To all his explanations, I only replied "Okay."

To which he replied too, "Okay," a bit chuckling for some reason.

We were still walking and weren't even halfway through the long route. And they didn't want to run! Can you believe that?

So, nourishing our conversation along the way, I was to be part of it: "And … say, how do you learn a skill, Leader, Bumped?"

"How do you learn a skill … as in, what?"

"As in, how do you learn a skill, Leader."

"Hmm … well, you'll have to be specific, here."

Being specific like he asked, I gave the details I had to give, supposedly. I didn't actually know how to explain that. What was there to say?

Still though, Leader trying his best with me provided me with an answer.

So, yesterday, he basically said, I went with Clumsy to the guilds. Why did I do that? To learn be learning skills, then? Was that it? That it was.

Bumped chimed in and said he personally thought I just wanted to be hanging out with her. I mean, when you look at the lady (whose name wasn't Clumsy Babe for nothing) anybody would wanna be hanging out with her.

I chuckled at that when he laughed at me.

And he continued saying I wasn't so small–and yes, that was true, I was a big man–but I probably shouldn't be that much hurried in my pursuit of the ladies; I was still kind of small, he said (even though I wasn't).

Leader laughed a bit too, but quickly shook his head and resumed: "I'll have to say I agree with Bumped, though," he explained.

To him, too, he just thought I'd be visiting or whatnot, out of simple curiosity, for some reason. I had no reason to do that … but my character already was strange enough with that, so he thought maybe I was just messing around.

But no: I wasn't.

There were also many facts that indicated I didn't need to know about skills. First off, bluntly, they saw me making plenty of use with some skills. And secondly, I wasn't a new one in the world of fighting–they couldn't be more wrong, but somehow, I inwardly agreed with them–and so that was that.

Rather than they teaching me, maybe I should teach them is what they were saying, I think, probably.

Still though: I explained I was genuinely asking. How do you learn a skill?

I wanted to know. This was part of what I had to do. If it were me only, I knew how to learn that; but I wanted the humans' way.

After a long series of questions and answers, we worked our way towards the end of this explanation.

I already knew much. And the 'much' that I already knew was easy enough to me. I go visit; pay the entrance fee–which wasn't usually paid in coins–and join a guild; go to an instructor; request the learning of a skill and pay for it; follow the instructor's instructions–and there you go.

With time and effort, if the instructor didn't indicate otherwise in the first place, it was rather easy to learn, they said.

What about the 'follow the instructor's instructions' part, though? What I retained was that basically, put simply enough, you just had to mimic what you saw.

–"And okay!–that's all I wanted to know! … Thank you, Leader. Thank you, Bumped."

Fishing for intel was something I kept getting better and better at.

Telling me how utterly obvious it was that I loved asking questions, they acknowledged me. Agreeing with them, I acknowledge myself, too.

Silence fell on us again. It was a good kind of silence. A silence that the three of us liked very much.

Aside from our footsteps' sounds, and the other threesome's rather low chattering behind us; we no longer listened and simply walked.

Very soon, we arrived at the hunting grounds.