"Gabe Valentine. Not, Vaesteri. In case, that was ambiguous."

"No, it seemed rather evident. I am Opirogius Docenius, or Opero when formality is not a concern, and yes, I'm here to explore and to assess whether this might be a valuable place for my people to settle. So far it has certainly seemed to be as such, though not without it's dangers as well."

"Dangers? You mean the dead city."

"Dark, ominous, extremely creepy and obviously cursed?"

"Oh, good, it's not some new horror then. Terrible place that is."

"Not exactly the first touristic recommendation I would make, no."

They can presumably resume their way to town again now that everyone is acquainted.

Indeed, into town the six of them go.

The locals are exchanging what they know.

Eventually, Gabe asks. "So, what's up with the pepsiman get up?"

"He means your armor. Or suit?"

Okay. Opero can imagine not having dew-armor if you aren't a humorist, or not having it up if you're comfortable with your surroundings and confident in your safety, but not knowing of it seems to confirm that the locals' understanding of vitality simply does not include humor at all, not just lacking a word for it. "It is armor, yes. This is my soul-dew, a product of one of those untranslateables you mentioned earlier, my humorism. It is a sort of substance I can conjure by concentrating, and whose properties and behavior I can control mentally. I've sculpted mine into armor that can protect me from...most danger, which is naturally useful when it comes to exploring strange and unfamiliar places."

"Huh, cool magic system."

"How does it work? Is it something you're born with?"

"In some sense I suppose, but only in the same way that you're born with breath in your lungs and warmth in your breast. It takes a good bit of work to enter the right sort of mindset to let soul-dew condense on your skin, but with the right help it can be easier than learning to inspire your breath."

"Oh, gods. Is it another magic system that requires meditation to use? Ugh."

Thomas sporfles. "Breath goes with spiritism? Does Humorism uses stamina?"

Opero chuckles a little at that. "Where I come from you won't get far with magic if you don't have the patience for meditation, doubly so for humorism. And, yes, spiritism operates on your breath, though I wouldn't say that humorism uses stamina, not in the same way at least. Humorism mostly just takes time, once you've gotten the basics the only things left to do are grow and develop your soul-dew and refine your understanding of the world to better shape your dew's growth."

"Huh, are these the only two magics in your world? Worlds?"

"Or magics that you're familiar with?"

"Information about other worlds is rather secret, to my knowledge at least. I actually didn't know other worlds even existed until I was tapped for this expedition. As for other magics, I only know of Calorism. I can't use it, and don't know too much about it other than going from the name it's got something to do with vital heat, in the same way humorism deals with vital moisture and spiritism with vital breath."

"Seriously? Uh, here we have one world that doesn't know about the rest, but otherwise its common knowledge."

"Vital heat," Henry says, somewhat disgusted.

"Sounds hot."

"Mostly it seems like it makes you immune to heat exhaustion, I think. I've heard if you get very good at it you can do some strange things but the tales are all wildly different so who knows?" Opero shrugs.

"Still, what kind of tales?"