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(Word Count: 3,001)
I was now standing on a road in the middle of a forest. 'Thank goodness, I'm in the Earth Kingdom' I sighed in relief. Honestly, this was the best option for me. Though Zuko’s ship would be nice, in a way, though I would likely spend a night in the brig before Iroh comes to question me or set me free. At least, according to the fanfiction.
Down the road, I can see a village. I’m not too sure which village it was but hopefully they spoke English. I froze in horror as a thought came to me. 'Crap! I don't have any money, or change of clothes, or a tent or anything! I came in here totally unprepared!' For a moment I wondered if I should just leave this world to gear up, but then again, there wasn't any mention of somewhere where I can get gear in the Library. 'I guess I have to get gear here in the world. I guess I'll have to just get a job. Though if they don't speak English, I'll have to leave to find an easier world to gear up in.' The thought was a bit strange to me. You’re isekai’ed into another world, and the first thing that you need to do is to get a job?
Wait, I didn’t even select a class yet! Feeling dumb, I pulled up my status screen and sure enough I had the option to select a Class. I selected the option and I had two choices.
| Selectable classes: Brawler, Street Rat |
Brawler 0/10
Even without weapons, you’re ready to throw down.
+1 Str, +2 End per level
+10% damage with your bare hands, kicks, and body blows
-10% physical damage received.
+25% learning speed in bare handed fighting.
Street Rat 0/10
Even with only the clothes on your back, you’re a survivor.
+1 End, +1 Dex, +1 Cha per Level
+10% Chance of successful deception.
+25% Learning speed in street smarts, and stealthy skills.
I looked at the benefits of either class. Honestly, though the damage reduction was nice, I wasn’t really interested in fighting bare handed. Though I supposed that the added learning speed for bare handed fighting might also apply to bending forms, which would be insane if that were true here in ATLA. I would have to take it if I ever unlocked bending, but right now the Street Rat offered the street smarts and charisma which was nice, especially if I’ll have to find odd jobs for travel money.
Having made up my mind, I selected Street Rat.
Checking my Status Screen, I saw that I had gained the End, Dex, and Cha points. Wait! I still haven’t assigned the points I had gotten from the Global Level. ‘Man, I’ve gotta get used to this system. I can’t just let points sit like this.’ Then again, I wasn’t too sure on how hard it is to get the points in the first place. ‘I’ll wait until I get a better sense of things.’
I began walking to the village. Hopefully they are kind folk.
Approaching the village, I saw that the forest stopped about 100 Meters away from the village, which was encircled by a small wall and sat next to the seaside cliffs. I was actually descending towards the village so I could see past the walls and see a white stone statue that I could recognize from the series. Chin the conqueror. I couldn't help but sigh. This crazy village.
Well, better than nothing.
There was a sturdy looking asian man dressed in what looked like traditional eastern clothes for hard work. He had an axe in hand and what looked like an empty wooden rack on his back. He was leaving the village towards me. Or rather, towards the forest. 'Some sort of woodsman' I approached the man.
"Hello, sir!"
The Asian looking man looked at him curiously. "Why hello, stranger. You have a curious look about you. What brings you to Chin Village?"
Internally, I began sweating. 'Crap, I didn't think this far. What do I say?' "Er, yes, well you see… My name is Callan Stone and I'm a wanderer. I like to travel to different villages to learn about their history, you see. But I was recently attacked by a platypus-bear and all of my supplies were ruined. Now I have no money or even a change of clothes. I was hoping to find a bit of work during my stay here to resupply. Would you happen to know of anyone that needs an extra hand?"
The man looked me up and down, inspecting me. "My name is Bon Shu. If you're looking for work, I'm a woodcutter. I could always use another pair of hands. Your arms are skinny, but you're a large enough man. For the day's work, I can pay you 10 copper, and I'll feed you lunch too."
Well, considering that I am 5'11", 5 inches taller than the height of the average for asian men, I suppose I do make for a rather large figure here in ATLA. I tried to recall what I knew of the currency system to see if 10 copper was a fair deal. It might be. In any case, I wouldn't starve. Plus, Bon Shu had an honest look about him. I smiled and said "That sounds more than fair. Where do we start?"
"Well, we'll have to head back to my house to pick up my spare axe and rack for you. Then we come back here and start chopping."
Cool. I had done some summer jobs at a lumber yard hauling logs and stacking firewood all day. It definitely wasn't fun, and that was with machines to easily split the wood for them. Those days really stuck with me. Not just because of the hard work, but because I had accidentally smashed a fingernail off. Which was 0/10, would not recommend. This was going to be a long day.
Together, we turned back into the village, and he led our way through the roads. We passed several other people who were watching me curiously as I passed. I nodded politely.
We arrived in front of a small house, and Bon Shu slid the front door open. Inside I could see a central room that seemed to double as a living room and a kitchen, judging by the sitting pillows and central fire pit with a hanging pot above it. There were more sliding doors that led deeper into the house. Presumably to the living quarters. "Lin, I'm back! I have a guest." Bon Shu stepped inside and I awkwardly followed him into the living room.
A woman's voice came from within. "Back already, dear?" One of the back doors opened and a tiny woman with simple robes and neatly made black hair stepped into the room. "Oh, who's this, dear?"
"He's a traveler that ran into a bit of bad luck. He'll be joining me in my work today."
I bowed slightly to her. That’s what they did here, right? "Yes, hello. My name is Callan Stone. As your husband said, I'm a traveler, but I lost all of my supplies when I was attacked by a platypus-bear. Your husband was kind enough to offer me work."
"Oh my, that's dreadful." She covered her mouth with her hand in shock.
"Yes, Callan here will also be joining us for lunch, and possibly dinner."
"And where will he be sleeping tonight? We have the extra bedroom available."
"Please, ma'am, you're too kind. I wouldn't want to impose too much on your family. Just the job alone is already helpful."
"Nonsense," Lin said in a tone that left no room for argument. "You'll be having dinner with us and you'll stay the night here. What sort of host would I be if I let our guest go off alone after facing such terrible luck?"
Though I felt more than a bit awkward at the idea of spending the night in a stranger's house, I couldn’t help but be touched at these people's kindness. I smiled warmly. "Well, when you put it like that, I can't refuse. Thank you, ma'am."
"You can just call me Lin."
"Ahahaha!" Bon Shu laughed. "I figured it would end up like this!" He hugged his wife. "What do you say you make us some nice roast duck tonight? Then Callan here can tell us some stories of his travels over a nice dinner and drink!"
"That sounds lovely, dear." Lin smiled at him.
'Crap. I don't have any stories of any travels.'
"Come on, Callan. It's time for today's work to begin."
Bon Shu grabbed his spare axe and rack and now I was kitted up just like he was. The axe was a standard two handed wood axe. Nothing special, but it was sharp.
We returned back to the forest and began chopping some marked trees. Apparently, trees that are too young didn't make for good wood. You had to let them grow, and the trees that were ready to be cut were marked by him earlier.
‘First things first,’ I took off my sweater. I did not want to get it all dirty.
By the time we had downed the tree we would be copping up today, I was already soaked in sweat. It had been slow going. Never underestimate how hard it is to chop wood. It's a process. But when the tree fell, I received some nice skills to make up for it. No stats though. It seemed like those would not be easy to raise outside of class bonuses. Seeing that, and the fact that this work was killing me, I went ahead and assigned 2 points to Str, and 3 to End.
I gained 4 skills, Deception, which was already at level 2 which made me feel bad, Forestry, Axe Handling, and Wood Chopping.
[Deception LVL: 1/100]
Increases the chance of your lies being believed by 0.5%/LVL
[Forestry LVL 1/100]
Helps you remember types of trees and gives you insight on the quality of the wood. Also gives you insight on the state of the forest, and an innate sense of direction. Gives a bonus of 1%/LVL to all forest and wood related skills.
[Axe Handling LVL 1/100]
Increases damage dealt by axes by 2%/LVL.
[Wood Chopping LVL 1/100]
Increases damage dealt to wood by 2%/LVL.
These three skills combined will make this job a cake walk! Well, maybe not entirely. At a full level 100 in each skill, that’ll give me a total of 500% boost to chop trees, so about 5 strikes in one. Powerful, but not enough to cleave trees in one swing.
As we worked Bon Shu kept telling stories about how he and Lin had met, how he managed to woo her, and stories about some of the folks around the village. I talked about my family, nothing that would give away my alien origins, but stories of childish escapades and so on. As the day passed, we’d managed to chop up the entire tree into usable logs, and we’ve made many trips back and forth with loads of wood on our backs. By dinner time and we were packing it in, I had managed to raise all of my skills to a respectable level. I was also dead tired. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I had never talked to someone for so long. I checked my progress in my skills.
[Deception LVL 2 => 10/100]
[Forestry LVL 1 => 8/100]
[Axe Handling LVL 1 => 12/100]
[Wood Chopping LVL 1 => 12/100]
Also, it looked like raising my skill levels was much easier than I thought it would be, and it gave me some Exp because my Exp bars were slowly filling up. I now had 34/224 Exp for both the Global and Class levels. I also decided to save my skill points for something special.
When Bon Shu and I returned for dinner, we were both given a bucket of water and a rag to wash up before we sat down to eat. Luckily there was a bar of soap to use as well. Lin even gave me a set of robes to change into. They were a bit small for me but they were modest enough. So I also took the time to wash my own clothes and set them out to dry.
Over the course of the dinner, I pulled an Usopp and ended up talking about my family vacations like they were from my own travels. The Moab arches, "great towering arcs of stone, thought to have been made by nature's earthbenders, but really they were carved by powerful Airbenders long ago!" Yellowstone Park, "shimmering pools of reds, blues, yellows, and jets of water shooting up into the sky! If it weren't for the smell I would have thought I had been taken up into the spirit world!" The Grand Canyon, "The great divide, that endless maze of canyons. If it weren’t for the guide posted there, I would have been lost!"
They ate it up. They also asked a lot of questions like "why is your hair yellow?" Or "why are your eyes so wide?" All in all, it was a good night. But as soon as I was on my futon I passed out.
~ CatAR ~
I ended up spending the next few days in Chin village, and so long as I never spoke badly against Chin the Great, everyone was actually nice people. Who knew? Except for the mayor, Tong. He was weird. I didn’t just help out with Bon Shu, but also around town. The blacksmith’s, the tailors, the baker’s, the bar, and the tanners.
At the tailors, for pay I had received a backpack and 3 changes of clothes. At the blacksmith I got a simple jian sword and belt. The sword was worth more than my labor, but the man said that it was just sitting there, and he wasn’t likely to sell it anyway. I made sure to swing the sword around a few times to get the skill. At the Bakers and Bar, I just made money. At the Tanners, I was paid with a nice pair of boots. All of my other gear, bought with the money I made. Rations, socks, underwear, coat, knife, bedroll and tent, etc. I was left with only 5 copper, but now I was fully geared for travel. I even picked up a large straw hat because I burn really easily in the sun and there's no sunblock here.
By the end of these few days, I had gained 1 Str and 1 End naturally. I even leveled up twice, just from leveling my skills. From the 2 Global Levels, I gained 5 stat points and 2 skill points. With my stat points, I put 3 in Str, 1 in End, and 1 in Dex. Sure, I could have saved my skill points until I was able to raise my stats naturally to 10, but I don’t have the Stat Leveling module. Which means I improve my body at a normal rate. If 10 represents “peak human” then in the long run a measly 3-5 stats just wasn’t worth the exhausting years it would take to get there.
Not to mention I don’t think that it's even possible to get 10 in everything. 10 strength would be like a powerlifter, 10 endurance would be like a marathon runner, and 10 Dexterity would be like an olympic gymnast. They need to specialize and dedicate their lives to get where they are.
STATUS SCREEN
NAME: Callan Stone
TIER: 0
GLOBAL LEVEL: 2 230/322 Exp
CLASS: Street Rat 2/10 230/322 Exp
STATS:
Str: 4 => 9
End: 5 => 11
Dex: 5 => 8
Int: 7
Wis: 6
Cha: 5 => 7
SKILLS:
Skill Points: 4
[Deception LVL 10 => 35/100]
[Forestry LVL 8 => 21/100]
[Axe Handling LVL 12 => 25/100]
[Wood Chopping LVL 12 => 25/100]
[Persuasion LVL 37/100] *New*
[Hammer Handling LVL 12/100] *New*
[Blacksmithing LVL 10/100] *New*
[Sword Handling LVL 8/100] *New*
[Knife Handling LVL 11/100] *New*
[Sewing LVL 16/100] *New*
[Cooking LVL 19/100] *New*
[Leatherworking Lvl 11/100] *New*
WP: 0
[Persuasion LVL 1/100]
Increases the chance of them being persuaded by 0.5%/LVL
[Hammer Handling LVL 1/100]
Increases damage dealt by hammers by 2%/LVL.
[Blacksmithing LVL 1/100]
Increases the quality of items you make by 2%/LVL
[Sword Handling LVL 1/100]
Increases damage dealt by swords by 2%/LVL.
[Small Blade Handling LVL 1/100]
Increases damage dealt by small blades by 2%/LVL.
[Sewing LVL 1/100]
Increases the quality of clothes you make by 2%/LVL
[Cooking LVL 1/100]
Increases the taste/quality of food you make by 2%/LVL
[Leatherworking Lvl 1/100]
Increases the quality of items you make by 2%/LVL
I had to say, having close to 10 in Str, End, and Dex, I felt like an olympic athlete. It was a good thing I only placed my stats after I left, because when I woke up the next morning in my tent, I even looked like an olympic athlete. I may have grown another 2-3 inches as well. I even gained a point in Cha. Marveling a bit, I poked at my new muscles and abs. ‘Never had those before.’ It was a good thing that I had predicted this, it was a cliche transformation after all, and had made my new sets of clothes a bit larger than necessary. Now they fit perfectly.
With the skills, I could really see the difference that Street Rat was making with the added learning speed for Deception and Persuasion.
Feeling a confidence I had never felt before, I set off to find the Eastern Air Temple where the Guru Pathik is waiting for Aang.
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