It's been two days since Ein fought the Mutant Beowolf, and nothing much else of worth has happened since then. It was still too early to tell if the raid had found success, but the confirmed defeat of an unseen Grimm had raised morale enough for the combatants—guards and soldiers—to find themselves more confident in taking on the empowered Grimm.
Ein himself felt relaxed. Now that he had a ceiling of power, a Tier 1 Remnant didn't feel so foreboding anymore, at the very least, not in Domremy. Speaking of which—"Morning, Artie. Luna." He greeted as he entered the shop. He'd been called over by Arthur a day ago, when the man found his cave home. he said he had something to talk about with Ein and Luna. Ein knew exactly what he meant, but he stayed silent and merely agreed to be there. "Hey, kid./'sup, edgelord." Arthur and Luna greeted back at the same time. "Good to see you could make it." Arthur said as he locked the door. "I suppose it's time to drop the bomb."
"Are you two hosts?" There it is. Ein thought. It was going to happen at some point, he knew that much. He glanced at Luna, who went from lazy to alerted. She jumps back, spellbook at the ready, scowling. "Oh?" Arthur raised his eyebrow. "I expected you to jump as well, kid." Arthur looked impressed at Ein's calm. "Ahah... Well, there's a story there. I'll just tell you later when it becomes more relevant."
The man simply shrugs. Luna meanwhile, began her interrogative questions. "How do you know—What else do you know?!" She shouted as a multitude of elemental skills circled around her waist. "Calm down kid." Arthur chuckled. "I'm a host too—Or at least, I was one." Luna faltered at that. "Wh-What? Wait—but—I got a notif when I touched Ein. Why do I not get one with you?"
"It only does that with people in the same generation as you. You could say I'm er... A predecessor." Luna lowered her book as the spells dissipated. She turns towards Ein with a confused face. "Why aren't you more surprised?" Her question was simply answered. "Rebirth." "Ah."
"Rebirth?" Arthur asked. "That's what my system's called." Arthur's eyes widen. "I see... Hah... Some people just have all the luck, don't they?" He scratches the back of his head. "I wouldn't count it as lucky..." Ein muttered under his breath. "How does it work? Actually, Luna first. Then Ein." Arthur asked. Oh boy... here we go again. Ein sighed before he began his explanation.
---
"I see... So you get stronger by dying." Yeah, that's essentially the summary. Ein thought in response to Arthur's words. "Still... That's definitely a first with strengthening. None of my generation or the generation before me ever had such a... weird disadvantage."
Past hosts, as far back as Arthur's knowledge went, never had such an odd manner of gaining experience. From what little Arthur knew about host history, the most similar system to Rebirth was Endurance system. Even then, even that host only needed to get hurt to gain XP and stats, not outright die.
"Is this how you stayed so calm when I revealed myself?" Ein nodded with a nervous chuckle. "Yeah. I met you for the first time in my last death two days ago. I gave myself away with the inventory. I didn't even know there were other hosts at the time." Arthur found himself amused by that. "Yeah, almost every host reacts that way when they realize they're not alone. It's refreshing, isn't it? To know you're not alone."
Ein simply stayed silent. Refreshing? He was relieved beyond any measure. In a single day, he already felt alone. Maybe not consciously, but deep down in his subconscious, he couldn't not acknowledge the anxiety of loneliness—to be the only one coming from earth? It was terrifying.
"You keep talking about past hosts—how do you actually know of them?" Luna asked. "I mean, it's not like there are host history boo—Hostory books!" Luna punned with a proud smirk, earning her a sharp elbow from Ein and a roll of the eyes from Arthur. "You'll find out how I know soon enough, if you make it to Tier 3, that is."
Ein dreaded the sound of that. They could barely handle Tier 2 as it is. "That should be all. I just wanted to see what kind of kids then new hosts are. It's good to see you have both have so much potential." Arthur patted their backs, though the man hid his anxiety well, hoping that this time would be the end of the transmigrations.
"Obviously./Thanks." Luna and Ein said simultaneously. "Oh right. Lunes, here." Ein said, procuring half of his alchemical materials from his hike back and forth from Domremy and his base over the last two days, thinking the Host of Apothecary could make better use of it.
Speaking of which, it seemed that coming into contact with another host unlocked previously hidden information. Specifically to Luna, it unlocked information about the (???) labels on herb descriptions, specifying the influence of their creation to due to influence from the Host of Apothecary. Not only that, but the general quality of most of the familiar earth herbs went up to Tier 2.
[GIFTED ITEMS:]
[CHRYSANTHEMUM x34]
[CHAMOMILE x37]
[RUBBER HERB x12]
[AURORA HERB x18]
Ein also discovered plenty of new plants as well, both naturally occurring and Apothecary made. The Apothecary made herb was particularly interesting, seeing that it was technically a baby Grimm? Ein couldn't figure it out for the life of him.
[FOXGLOVE x23]
[QUALITY: BAD (TIER 2)]
[DESCRIPTION: A FLOWER NATIVE TO VALE. A MILDLY POISONOUS FLOWER LETHAL IN HIGH DOSES ONCE USED FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES LEADING TO MANY DEATHS. IN OLD TIMES, IT WAS KNOWN AS THE FAIRY FOLK'S GLOVE. NOT RECOMMENDED TO BE USED AS MEDICINE DUE TO THE INFLUENCE OF (APOTHECARY) INTENSIFYING ITS POISONOUS PROPERTIES.]
There was also another interesting herb. A Mandragora. The root itself looked similar to the mandrake roots he's seen in his previous life, only with Grimm colors. Not only that, but the herb itself was Tier 4. Advanced Common, whatever that meant. By far, the rarest item he's encountered so far, and probably will be the rarest item he'll have for a long while.
He remembers, it was yesterday he first encountered a Premature Mandragora.
---
Ein had been exploring the Grimm infested area of the forest once again. Thanks to his lone presence and his skill, Calm Mind, he was able to sneak around the forest without having to fight, allowing him to explore the forest.
The first thing he noticed, now that he could take his time to look around, was that what was infesting this area of Bois de Domremy weren't just creatures, but that even the water, the plants, and even traces of the air was infested with an odd, Grimm presence. He noticed a black, slimy tendril slowly work its way up a dead, decaying tree, as if to sap the very life out of it.
That's probably not good... Ein thought to himself. He traced the trail of the tendril, deciding to see exactly what the source of the tendril was. With Calm Mind at its peak and his feet softly pressing against the lifeless soil of the forest, we tracked the origin of the trail.
What he found from tracking the trail was the Premature Mandragora. I see... So this thing's what's leeching off of that tree. It was a patch of four odd black, red, and white leaves. There are Grimm plants now? He asked himself. Though he couldn't save that tree, he could stop this plant from hurting the forest any further. He pulls it out of the ground, revealing the Grimm root from underneath.
[PREMATURE MANDRAGORA x1]
[QUALITY: ADVANCED COMMON (TIER 4)]
[DESCRIPTION: A PLANT-BASED GRIMM PULLED OUT OF THE GROUND BEFORE IT COULD FINISH GROWING. ONCE MATURED, THE MADRAGORA TURNS INTO A FULLY GROWN MANDRAGORA GRIMM WITH A SCREECH THAT CAN SHATTER THE EARDRUMS OF AURALESS PEOPLE UPTO 200 METERS AWAY, WITH A 100 METER OMNIDIRECTIONAL RANGE. WHEN A MANDRAGORA IS PREMATURELY PLUCKED, IT RELEASES A SCREECH AT A PITCH UNDETECTABLE TO FAUNUS AND HUMANS, BUT CAN ALERT GRIMM TO ITS POSITION UP TO ONE KILOMETER AWAY. ONLY EXISTS THANKS TO THE INFLUENCE OF (APOTHECARY). HIGHLY POISONOUS WITH NARCOTIC AND HALLUCINOGENIC PROPERTIES, BUT WITH THE RIGHT EXPERTISE, CAN BE TURNED INTO AN ANESTHETIC OR TO OVERDRIVE THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS OF LIVING THINGS.]
It seems that I have made a grave error. Ein felt the ground beneath him start to shake. In a rush, Ein plucked the rest of the Premature Mandragora, stabbing them with his tin knife to kill them instantly, and booked it out of there, using the still living trees as his cover. He climbed up the trees, and with his dexterous feet, he sneaks away undetected, once again carried by Calm Mind.
He would not be doing that again for a while. Maybe Luna'd appreciate this?
---
That was not a fun time, if he were to be honest. He narrated himself to have dexterous feet, but in reality, he almost slipped multiple times.
"Holy shi—Tier 4?" Luna gaped, looking at the Premature Mandragora's description. "Are you sure I can take—No, you know what? Gift horse rules. Thanks." She very eagerly took it out of Ein's hands with a grin. The rarest ingredient she's gotten her hands on was Tier 3 at most. She ran straight to her room to study the newfound plant. "How excitable." Ein snickered. "Well, I'll be off, Artie."
Before the teen could leave, Arthur got his attention. "Hey kid, catch." Thanks to Ein's DEX stat, he caught the object Arthur threw at him. A device. He recognized it from the show. "I'll call you on this scroll I need to talk to you again." Arthur waved him goodbye with those last words. It was time for Ein to return home.
---
Nighttime, or specifically, according to Ein's scroll, 9 PM.
"Ninety-eight... Ninety-nine..." Ein grunted as he performed a set of pushups. The last of his newly made routine, the second last objective on his checklist. Sweat dripped from his forehead, making sounds of liquid dripping as the sweat hit the dirt floor. "A hundred!" He dropped to the floor, panting tiredly.
[STP: 3/30]
Other than the prospect of stat gain, he also learned that exercising with the intent to improve drained his STP reserves. He did try to outsmart the system, thinking that as long as he didn't think about his intent to improve, it wouldn't drain it.
It didn't work.
He even had a counter on his scroll to track all his activities.
The principle of the routine was simple, one exercise for every stat. With his collected resources from Day 3's incredibly boring supply run—He didn't even encounter any Grimm up until he went into the Grimm infested part of the forest—He had plenty of tin and copper to spare. And upon comparing the weights of a bar of tin and copper, he decided to use copper weights for now. He'd melt it back down once he got his hands on a proper iron deposit, but it'd do. The weights would be his STR training.
Next is his VIT training, pushups. Improving his core strength must have something to do with vitality, he reasoned.
For DEX, he reasoned for juggling. Using his forge, he crafted some lightweight tin balls to juggle to enhance his timing and reflexes.
That was another thing. From his preparations for his exercise, he'd been able to find out that his stations were perfectly capable as simple, normal crafting stations. The forge for example, was actually functional enough to let him craft items without the usage of Rebirth's crafting menu. God, I feel stupid now. He thought, facepalming at his own stupidity. He could have just crafted his bronze gear himself and it would've been so much cheaper. He sighs. What's done is done, I guess.
For AGI, he just ran around his base for a while. Five kilometers, he decided, would be his goal for every day, using the scroll to track it.
Lastly was his INT. He borrowed a random everyday book from Domremy's library and simply read through it. That was it, really. Today the book he borrowed was an engineering textbook from some guy called Arthur Watts about Mechashifting. He seemed like an intelligent guy, in Ein's opinion. I hope he's doing well for himself. He thought before a sleepy yawn came over him.
"God, I am not looking forward to this." He said before entering his Leaf Tent to sleep. After drying his sweat off, of course. It didn't get rid of the stench though. Guess that's another new goal. Ein thought. Maybe I should move my base closer to a river? My Campfire and Tent have got two more uses left, anyways. With that thought, he'd decided.
Tomorrow, it was base building time.