There's a stone tablet on the floor just inside the entrance.

-That is not one of hers. She wouldn't be so careless as to leave it there, surely, would she?

She takes a deep breath to brace herself and glances her eyes over it, skimming very quickly to see if she recognizes anything.

Greetings from Endless Adventure,

You are invited to experience Endless Adventure before it arrives on your world and provide feedback so it is better suited to the needs and preferences of your people. If you agree you will be transported to a whole new world where Endless Adventure has been present for some time. You will be returned at the end of your testing period.

This is too short to be one of hers.

And it's in the old runes. The ones found on the very, very old and rare truly ancient relics.

She freezes, and reads more carefully and deliberately.

A message from the gods? That's the obvious answer, the first thing her mind leaps to, but- She does not remember, nor have any records in all her histories, of the gods... Doing anything, these days. Though, the chances of some well informed prankster doing this- None, or so slim as to be laughable. The chance of herself going insane from the isolation?

Possible.

She feels something pained and angry in her chest. Endless adventure? A joke, surely. They already have this; She's observed again and again that Dwellin throw their lives into passionate endeavors so easily. Wars and hunts, expeditions and tournaments.

She shuts her eyes and takes deep breaths and thinks.

Given no clear feedback from her the tablet remains unchanged.

When she comes back, she fetches a chisel and inscribes into it

Why now?

Why me?

Replies engrave themselves in the stone:

Endless Adventure continually expands its reach. Your world was recently discovered.

You were evaluated to fulfill the responsibilities of this role. Most on your world appear to have low interest in long term planning.

Hmph.

Anger, again. Always anger when she thinks about over-powerful things deciding the way the world shall be.

You do not claim to be our creators.

So far as I have the ability to demand action I demand that you will not forever destroy our souls or memories or minds. This is my most sacred principle.

Endless Adventure strives to live up to its name. That which does not exist cannot continue to adventure. Destruction of a person is exceptionally rare. Damaged memory is more common as not all choose to invest in preserving it.

Whether or not it's lying, that is true even with the Well of Souls.

This is incredibly meaningful and also completely baffling. She feels a need to think and plan, first, before being 'invited' away-

...Speaking of which, she needs to go visit one now, so that something of this is- preserved-

She abandons her library, carrying only the tablet, and heads towards the nearest one, checking every few hours if it has anything else to say.

The tablet is content to be carried.

She thinks for a solid month, travelling around and seeking audiences with kings, with slaves, with carpenters, with common soldiers, with famous heroes, with small children. It's something she's noticed about herself, growing... Disconnected, lost in her own head, if she lets herself do so. So she has long conversations about what is good in life. Joys and sorrows and the past and the future.

She's acting visibly strange to those who've met her before, but she merely dodges their questions as 'a matter of the gods'.

If the tablet still does not change in all that time, only at the end will she return to her secret library and mark down the pictogram for 'agreement'.

The world disappears replaced by a circular area. Banks of fog make up the outer edge and the high ceiling the floor is made of multicolor tile with very clear dividing lines marking out four quadrants. In the first she sees herself, in the second a small stone thing sculpted to look like one of her people, a cylinder of fog, and three floating tablets, the third holds a small model bridge, the fourth has eight pools arranged with one in the center a bit elevated four in the first ring around that and three empty pools in the outermost group.

The stone statue speaks up. "Thank you for accepting the offer."

All her energy is gone. It's immediately noticeable. She jerks in surprise, but manages to avoid reflexively lashing out. She swings her arms, absorbing some of the motion - oh, good, that still works - and then stills and looks around warily.

"...Greetings. I would appreciate a lengthy explanation of the 'Endless Adventure'. But are there any urgent matters to attend to, first?"

"We have as much time as you need here. This place is a part of the magic that Endless Adventure gives to everyone. It is not a physical place rather it is your personal mental realm. I am a fragment of Endless Adventure meant to answer your questions and help you in the limited ways I'm able to."

"You wish to learn how my kind reacts and responds to things. It looks like you have more to offer than the salkstones, which only grant an idiosyncratic ability, with much practice, after killing dangerous things."

"We wish to present things in a way that your people are likely to embrace. There are few limits to Adventure's magic. Like most things practice can benefit you but how much that is true depends on how you invest it. The technology you carry within your body benefits from finesse more than the abilities most people make of our magic."

"I will say this once and never again.

You come to our planet with an ultimatum, rather than a choice. Endless Adventure will sweep over the world and replace whatever we have before. This is an inherently hostile act, to impose a new reality without being able to choose. Just as I resent in some ways the gods who designed us and our planet, for while they were kind, in their way, in giving us the Soul Wells and reincarnations again and again, they have also shackled us terribly. They are not available to be interrogated, and the many things I have tried to escape or alter our nature have failed. We are prisoners to the planet and our own nature, we do not advance because the technological steps to become something greater are aversive by design, punished by whatever balance of nature the self-correcting system has in mind.

And you would change our prison for another. I don't particularly like it. Though I am much, much more bothered by it than average."

"I would prefer to avoid an argument on that matter though it is part of my responsibility to have it if you wish."

"Would it change your mind?"

"It is extremely unlikely you will think of an argument that hasn't been thought of by the trillions of people who have attempted it prior to you."

"In the interest of saving time what sort of things have been tried?"

"Arguments from morality are common, also common are arguments that we are acting counter to our goals. Those who misunderstand what we are attempt to trap us with logical paradoxes or other insoluble riddles. None of these approaches have succeeded."

"Your only real goal being endless adventure, defined in some elaborate way? Hmm. I'll let you know if I have something, god."

"That is indeed a fair summary. The only circumstances that truly force us out of that are our interactions with Endless Adventure's siblings. When they are present, we sometimes need to make compromises."

"What is it that you offer, then, in this dream realm?"

"Over there are eight pools. Four correspond to the types of magic we offer, the one in the center is undifferentiated magic it can be transformed to any of the other four. The three empty pools are for favor earned by upholding one of our ideals. Also worth noting are those three sparkles, each is a bit of magic that will allow you to learn any language you wish. Conversational fluency will be immediate though full comprehension of the nuances will take time to settle in while your mind is still mostly contained within your body."

"The flexible one should be precious, then. What are these ideals? The gods' favor is to be held spent like coin- An odd thought."

"The three ideals are challenge, comradery, and swagger. Each is a short word for a multifaceted concept. To be somewhat more detailed: challenge is earned by creating challenges that others overcome, comradery is earned through shared experiences in the pursuit of adventure, and swagger is earned through moving beyond your comfort zone, showmanship, and sharing stories of your deeds with others."

"Do you suppose all this can be explained as it becomes relevant, rather than here and now? What would you have me do, precisely?"

"It can indeed be explained later or learned through experience. Your first time here is intended to allow a safe venue to answer any questions you have.

"Most choose to use at least some of their initial magic before departing but that is in no way mandatory. Beyond the lack of time pressure the only advantage of doing so now is that magic applied to your body will come into effect immediately rather than over a period of time."

"Some people will be impatient to have many possibilities revealed to them at once, without practical demonstration of their use... I have found for the past considerable amount of time that my body and my conversion is all I need, but do explain the magics available, then."

"There are four types of magic we offer. Body magic can change your body to be better suited for particular tasks or otherwise to be more to your liking. Your conversion ability as it is grounded in your body could also be influenced by this type of magic.

"Mind magics expand your mind beyond your body offering new senses, enhanced memory and many other such enhancements.

"Aura magic allows you to exert your will on your immediate surroundings this can reduce the impact of attacks or heal you or those around you among many other possibilities. It is a reactive flavor of magic with limited conscious control once put in place.

"Spirit magic allows your to accumulate power and use it to fuel specific abilities expressed either inwardly or outwardly. This magic is the most suited to offensive use but it's also the fastest magic to take effect for healing."

"...I think practical examples are necessary to get an idea here. Like, 'you can heal faster' or 'your vision will be like a lyral hawk's'. Perhaps sense-impression demonstrations? In my case I'm most fascinated by ways to improve my salk, it is an accumulation of special stones that must then be activated through hard work and training. Would body magic be able to create more salkstone within me, to expand my total capacity? Would mind magic make it easier to perform conversions? I do think a way to heal myself is important here, if there is no Soul Well to reincarnate me when I die. And I don't particularly understand aura. An aura of heat such that I will always have something to tap into? A defense that triggers without requiring I recognize the threat?"

"Healing is difficult to improve past a certain point with body magic. It is the most grounded or the magics. Vision as good as a lyral hawk is absolutely possible. You can test changes here before commiting to them though some changes are unpleasant or disorienting to reverse. 

"We have analyzed these salk stones, producing more of those you already have is within the abilities of body magic. Mind magic can most likely make conversions easier.

"Spirit magic can be used to create an anchor somewhat similar to your Soul Wells. Even without an anchor though death is not the end for those within Adventure's reach. The spirit realms are simply another place to adventure in and it is possible to return to the natural realms with effort."

"Give me a heat aura that I can convert to kinetic energy?"

"An aura that continually creates heat is certainly possible. Spirit magic could also directly fill your salk stones on demand."

"An aura that maintains a temperature differential, either warmer or colder than the surroundings? I can extract energy from that quite efficiently and it may serve to keep me comfortable as well. I have other ideas for spirit. I cannot push off air with salk sufficiently to fly, for example, but perhaps spirit can apply sourceless force?"

"That is something you could indeed do with aura though the greater the differential the more magic you will need to invest. Spirit magic is quite capable of sourceless force. Flight is a common enough desire that there are several implementations premade. Your starting allotment of spirit would suffice to allow indefinite flight or more limited flight if you wish to split your resources."

"I am more picturing the ability to suddenly dodge in mid-air, or make short leaps or bursts of speed, than flight qua flight. How do I actually go about using these? Simply ask you? How controllable is aura, can I turn off an effect I do not wish for at the moment, such as cold in the dead of winter?"

"You could certainly do those as well. I can control any of your magic at your request but you can also setup other control systems according to your preference: movements, verbal triggers, and mental commands are all possible. Mental commands do require a small investment of mind magic but you can control additional powers without further investment of mind magic."

"I'm used to mental actions. Definitely want to use those. Can mind points help with the infuriating literacy block?"

"Mental points can easily improve your reading ability. Removing the aversion would be a more delicate operation but it could be done with an investment of body magic."

"Hmph. Nobody but me will think of it unprompted, in all likelihood. I want to reduce the nerve delay in my muscles and improve my fast twitch generally, mental power control and ability to track the environment, a spirit power for sudden changes in momentum, and I'm unsure on aura. The more I think on it the less I feel the heat is critical. Aura to defend against hostile aurae? Aura that makes me seem wise and mysterious?"

"All of that is within your reach, though an aura which influences perception may be taken poorly by some and some defensive abilities would negatively its effect. The most common use is a general defensive aura that reduces incoming damage and fully negates weak attacks."

"Aura, pah. Let's do it, then. The non-Aura ones, at least to see what it feels like, as you said is possible before fully committing."

"Certainly." She feels something warm ripple through her body and in her mind she feels a new something, with a bit of focus she can control focus and magnitude, with practice it will be as easy as using her stones or moving a limb.

She goes through a kata at a pretty standard speed, and then as quick as she possibly can, to feel the differences. At this level, momentum acts differently. Sudden starts and stops, far sharper than before, but tugging on her body in new ways, not the familiar pattern-worn motions flowing without thought. She's a bit unsteady, a bit hesitant. It's nice. It's new. She doesn't quite know how to fight like this, not really.

She's smiling.

How does this direct-momentum-applying thing work, exactly... She lunges forward and tries to push herself FORWARD with it at the same time.

She asked for enough momentum to leap great heights if she applies the strength of that in a direction not fighting against gravity the results are impressive. She collides with one of the foggy walls brought to a gentle but sudden stop. She feels that she's used perhaps a sixth of her new reserve of momentum and she'll recover that much in about thirty seconds.

"Hahahah!"

She leaps upwards, relying mostly on the salk, then uses it to stop dead in midair and fall to the ground. A hop a few inches off the ground, plus a gentle surge left, for an odd side-step... She deliberately falls over forwards and uses the same power to bounce herself up into a front flip...

"I want to design a martial art based on this! Can you make fog dummies for me to slay, godling?"

"Easily enough." Three of her species appear made of fog and unmoving.

"Ah, I suppose convincing opponents are a bit harder."

She will gleefully spend a good hour just trying out various ways of running, jumping, hitting, spinning, hopping in midair, twisting around acrobatically, and generally trying to move very erratically while landing blows from all angles on the fog forms.

Eventually she stops giggling long enough to wonder, "I think the simple option is best for Aura, but perhaps it can be more specialized to turn away arrows and bola and slingstones, more than melee blows?"

"That is easy enough to do. Specializing will make it's more effective though obviously not absolute."

"Yes, very well. I imagine there would be math about it if I were particularly interested, such and such force over units of distances and time, but in fact, if I begin that path I will not waver from it for months and more. No more dithering! What have you in store for me outside the dream, hmm?"

"The realm you'll be visiting has a variety of people's you may speak with some more like you than others. There are also some monsters which would challenge even you should you seek them out. I don't expect those that stray as close to the local civilization as you will initially find yourself will be any challenge.

"I look forward to it. Language me the first one I'll likely need, please, and I shall be off."

A new language unfolds in her mind. If she's paying attention she might spot several new bits appearing around the space as her new powers are locked in. The fragment waits a few moments to give her a chance to ask for further delay and if she voices none in the next moment she finds herself at a crossroads. A simple sign points to settlements in four directions with distances the closest is Stonybrook, the other directions list Tarynsville, Rabbiton, and Compass, each further than the last.

She picks a direction at random without reading the sign (ugh), which turns out to be Tarynsville. She jogs quickly down the path, taking the chance to absorb some of her momentum into her salk so it's not completely empty.

Tarynsville is a bit of a distance at a jog. The surrounding forest has been cut back a good distance from the road with little fenceposts with crystals on top of them every fifty meters or so on alternating sides. It's not immediately clear what they're for. The forest itself is made of rather tall trees a mix of deciduous and evergreen. The sound of bird and other forest critters drifts out to her.

She slows down after a bit to study the strange familiar-but-not forest. After a while she starts trotting along through the non-clear-cut portion, still within easy sight of the path, checking out the insects and small animals and wildflowers and mushrooms and so on.

The forest does have mundane flora and fauna aplenty... they are however not its only residents. The first thing to attack her is a squirrel about twice the size of its more mundane counterparts and with razor sharp claws.

Hostile fauna is hardly an unexpected occurrence!

This seems like a good opportunity to test out her improved speed.

She will try to fight it with only her horns. She lets her fire wink out, even. Against such a small target, that probably means doing exceedingly strange flips and such.

She can succeed with her self-imposed restrictions. Once the squirrel is dead she feels a slight unfamiliar sensation of warmth that seems to flow into her from the squirrel's corpse.

"Godling, was that magic power, or favor?"

"A little of both. Creatures of that sort provide a little body magic on death and your means of defeat was showy enough to earn a bit of swagger."

"I see. Daring and awesome is the order of the day, hmm? I'll have to think of more stunts."

She continues her stroll, head aflame. Still not deep into the woods, but it'd be boring to just plod along the road.

There's a trickle of creatures attacking her as she goes. A couple birds one of which attacks personally while another drops noxious projectiles her aura deflects. A snake, a few more squirrels. The most threatening thing is a small swarm of a dozen mosquitos each the size of her hand.

She examines all the bodies briefly, looking at their muscle structure and overall body shape. Pauses to briefly weave some grass into a terrible awful cord and tie up some of the more substantial ones- Snake and squirrels, mostly.

Bugs. Those she burns with sudden flares of heat. 

They are all altered a bit to adjust to the increased size but less than one might expect if they have a firm understanding of anatomy. The bugs obligingly burn.

The attacks gradually start to get more frequent as she continues and after a certain point they suddenly become more coordinated. Something is now directing these attacks though what that something is isn't immediately evident.

Does the Something think she's a coward? She is not.

Nor is she an idiot, though. She goes back to the road and stands watchfully for a minute.

There is one more attack but it seems to be those creatures already pursuing her. The closest crystal lights up brilliantly just before they clear the forest's edge and stays lit until they are all dead. After that no attack comes for several minutes.

Ah, a warning system? She could continue the brief little combats, perhaps track down what was coordinating them... On the one hand, it's not like what she's seen so far is much of a threat. On the other hand, the road is a sign of a village and that's more interesting right now.

She'll run the rest of the way on the road, comparing the hostile fauna to how home works; The animals there are animals and don't go out of their way to suicidally attack stronger and larger beings. Eternal Adventure must be controlling them much more directly than the will of the gods does.

At a run it's still about three hours travel to reach Tarynsville. Long before she arrives she can likely spot the giant trees the village is built into the central tree is almost twenty stories but the surrounding trees can reach as high as ten. Bridges, tree houses, nets and more dot trunks and branches.

She's seen something like that before. It's sort of interesting. She explosively leaps to the top of a tree herself to get a better view. What kind of trees, what do people seem to be doing?

"Godling, improve my distance vision a bit, please."

Her vision improves as requested.

The trees are still a variety like the forest. The largest tree is a giant pine tree.

Creatures of several species walk around on the bridges, branches and platforms, some sedately others taking great leaps between levels and a few flying outright. Most are bipedal but quadrupeds are also common and a rare few stranger creatures can be seen.

There are what can be surmised to be occupied guard posts scattered at the outer edges of the grove but also play structure for the young, small gardens on larger platforms, and a variety of other structures. Overall, the people of this town seem relaxed.

Interesting. They don't feel nearly as alien to her as she might have expected- She wants to meet these strange people instead!

She attempts to figure out a faster way to traverse distance without flat-out sprinting, using bursts of motion, and heads up to the place.

As she gets close someone comes out of one of those small guard posts and positions themself in her path. "Hello there stranger. What brings you to Tarynsville?"

She pauses too, a loose ready stance. "Exploration, learning. I have never been in these lands before."

"Well then, welcome to Tarynsville. We have mostly the usual rules, only fight with people in designated areas, don't kill anyone unless they've agreed to risk lethal combat, don't siphon people, don't destroy any buildings or structures, and don't steal."

She bows. "I will strive to be a good guest. Is there anything I simply must see while I'm here? For that matter, anyone who might want small game or daywork?"

"The Heart Tree is of course what we're best known for. The canopy gardens are quite beautiful and the same goes for the sanctum. The conservatory is also quite popular we have samples or plants from distant continents and even other worlds. Some of our people have ventured through a gate and successfully returned. For more mundane bits, there are bounty boards at most guard posts and butchers shops might accept meat though most small game are common enough that they aren't worth much."

Perhaps she should have planned better and brought seeds. Or more equipment. She wasn't assuming she'd be allowed to keep any of it, but her clothes came through. Ah well.

"Thank you. I do enjoy conservatories. The last question I'll trouble you with, who rules here?"

"The Dryad Council is in charge here. Without them Tarynsville couldn't exist."

"Fare well then."

She decides the town boundary counts as sufficiently 'indoors' so as not to alarm anyone and lets her fire wink out as she crosses the threshold.

Is the bounty board obvious? What sort of things does she see, wandering first at ground level and then more vetically?

The bounty boards are large boards near each guard station with wooden plaques hung from nails. Each plaque has some task written on it.

There is a wide variety of tasks, the most common are for hunting down specific monsters or items from a resource node, from context these seem to be renewable sources of otherwise uncommon resources. The next most common after that are courier and escort jobs. From there things devolve to a variety of uncommon or obscure tasks from seeking instructors in rare skills asking to have rare artifacts repaired or in a few cases seeking companions to join an adventuring group. And of course a standing bounty to bring new unique plants to the conservatory.

Ground level has a couple guard stations and a larger number of bushes and other food plants with pathways laid out to allow for walking. There are ladders and a few bridges leading higher up but it's fairly obvious that they can all be cut away in an emergency.

The real town is mostly in the branches of the surrounding trees there are various stalls, some smaller gardens and various shops. Construction is more elaborate as you go higher or closer to the central tree.

She heads for the central tree. Her usual satchel has a couple of day old red cacti fruit in it. May as well see if they are viable.

The conservatory is obvious as she gets closer to the center it is massive structure, glowing from within with large windows, stretching up the side of the central tree and also spreading out through the canopy of several nearby trees. It's easily the biggest structure in the whole settlement.

Ooh, so many interesting plants to be distracted by. Do they have climate control?

They do have climate control. Before being allowed to enter she has to agree not to harvest or damage any of the plants. She could also offer her fruits to one of the people at the gate if she wishes.

She offers the fruit and claims to be something of a naturalist, in her original world, so would be interested to discuss plant things with a caretaker.

"Of course, let me summon someone. The caretakers are best suited to figuring out what to do with these anyway." He rings a bell.

It's only a couple minutes before a person arrives, her skin is both the color and texture of Oak Leaves in spring. Her eyes are the brown of oak bars and her and both her teeth and nails appear to be made of wood. Her clothes are made of thin bark. "Greetings, are you why the bell was rung?"

The guard holds out the fruit to the new arrival.

"Oh, excellent. Thank you for your contribution."

"I have reason to suspect it is unusual, and a great fascination for the ecology of another world. I would enjoy a good discussion, if you wish. Alas that I did not plan and bring more samples, but such is the way at times."

"You're an off-worlder then. How exciting! We don't get many of those here." She focuses intently on the two fruit she's now holding. "Ooh, your world has bioengineering then. That's still pretty rare here. Is it common on your world?"

"I would not say we 'have' bioengineering so much as we 'are bioengineered'." Sigh. "It's... A difficult subject for me, the only one who seems to understand it enough to resent it."

"Oh, my apologies. We can choose a different topic if you prefer."

"I think it might make a good story, I'm just unsure how to present it as of yet, really. The gods give both gift and shackle. I'm pretty interested in how plants work when they're not subtly designed to fit into a coherent whole and always form sharp habitat boundaries between biomes and generate extreme morphological differences from the same species between said biomes."

"It sounds like raising these fruit will be an exciting prospect then. What you're describing makes it sound a little like how Adventure changes things though it doesn't put restrictions on sapient creatures. Natural species tend not to do well outside their native environment and they also have a lot of small variations you can actually put all the natural species from a world onto a giant tree diagram mapping out when they diverged from each other all tracing back to a very small number of originating life forms."

"The plants of home do not fundamentally change. And they are all tied together into a grand system of sorts with all sorts of regulatory effects, including with microbes, to respond to faraway disruptions all at once and maintain zones. A forest fire prompting production of waxy protectant and fireproof seeds in a large area all at once, for example."

"That's incredible, natural plants can do some pretty impressive things but generally it's not that rapid or coordinated."

"I am Karakan, called stoneheart by some. I would be delighted to discuss to the limit of my memory, perhaps while seeing the gardens?"

"That sounds wonderful, before I forget did the guard compensate you for these?"

"No, and I'm not comfortable enough here yet to make an outright gift, by Elbon's bones, or I perhaps would. This place is beautiful."

"Thank you, we work hard on it. Do you have an idea of what you would like? We can pay in all Adventure's standard currencies, elemental crystals or metal. If you have a special request we might also be able to accommodate you."

"If you have a good reliable polearm going spare I may be interested, aside from that a bit more magic to work with never hurt anyone."

"I don't think we have spare weapons around the Conservatory so magic it is." There's a warm sensation like when she earned magic earlier though slightly different.

She nods pleasantly and heads inside. Where they can talk about botany for a long time! She has very little understanding of the underlying biochemistry, but does know things about plant nutrition and soil conditions and insectborne diseases and so on. Some of the plants back home are pretty lethal, but those are rarities. The toxic swamps - toxic to outsiders, but flourishing in their own way - are incredibly dangerous and have most of the truly nasty stuff like invisible painless blood-draining root tendrils or launching carnivorous seedpods coated in high impact neurotoxin.

The Dryad, whose name turns out to Persimmon, is happy to talk for as long as Karakan wants. She has extensive knowledge of natural, Adventure warped, and magically altered plants. Adventure warped plants tend to either produce magical fruits or have various aggressive abilities to attack anyone that gets close. The ones with hypnosis and parasitic spores are noted to be particularly dangerous to the unprepared.

"...How does one prepare for such a thing? I think I do not understand what, the word 'Hypnosis' is not really translating except as a reference to a few people's rare abilities-"

"You can use mine magic to get an enhanced defense but having a firm control over yourself can work even without that. The people most at risk are those who are easy to persuade through more mundane means."

"Hmph. Well, I should like to think myself stubborn, but many do deceive themselves in just how prepared they actually are."

"Indeed they do. There's more than one would be adventurer with a shambler out there somewhere due to their overconfidence. And also a significant number who felt they didn't need an anchor and so are stuck in the spirit realms."

"Hmm. I do need one of those. Any more advice you would consider common sense for small children?" She shrugs. "I don't entirely know what to do with the remaining magic, though getting over our infuriating designed illiteracy is on the table."

"That does sound like an awful thing have designed in. As for standard advice, usually we recommend people don't travel alone unless they're very experienced. If you do insist on travelling alone it's important to cover your bases, you need to be able to deal with projectiles, melee attacks and mental attacks. Some way to attack at range is needed to deal with flying enemies. A rapid movement ability is also important for intense combat. If you're seeking out more dangerous areas you'll also want to be able to notice traps and have a way to track down monster lords."

"Of my objections to the gods, it is the greatest. I tend to rely on lightning for ranged fighting if I really must. It's a fair bit of work to charge my salk up to that level, but effective. Traps, hmm...? You don't seem like the type to venture off into the unknown, more like putting down roots." A wry smile and headtilt. "I think I'll go challenge people to fights and see where I stand. And possibly look for a place to stay."

She giggles lightly at the joke. "I understand why you'd think that but most people go adventuring at least once. I spent a few years adventuring before I started working here."

She nods and has a faraway look on her face for a bit, before stretching her neck and bidding Persimmon farewell.

Surely there's a lot of fighting areas around here? What happens if she finds one and loudly declares her intent to win without using her hands?

A man with vibrant orange fur and a large sword walks up smiling broadly. "I hope you're not just making an empty boast. What rules do you wish to go for? First Blood and three points are the most common. I'm not personally interested in paying to return from my anchor but if you're set on that you might find someone else."

"I am no slouch at home and figured this would be a good way to measure things here! First blood or yield is fine by me."

"Let's do first blood at least for the first round." The man produces a spear from nowhere. A voice of sorts sounds in her head asking if she agrees to the terms of the fight.

She nods, then bounds back and stands in a ready pose, arms tight at her side. Her signature flame appears above her head, and she takes deep breaths, watching him.

Walls appear around them. The light level doesn't change. Her opponent takes this as a cue to rush forward towards her and try to stab forward with the point of his spear. He is clearly skilled but substantially less agile.

Decent skill with a spear is easy to come by. The fighting form is unfamiliar, but not awful. Fairly good, actually, firm, quick, not clumsy at all. Her momentum and sheer mobility, absorptions and discharges of momentum mediated by the salkstones and practiced for decades and decades, heart pounding and feeling every breeze and twist of proprioception, is less easy to come by.

She twists and falls to the side at a moment that seems like it should be far too late, one moment about to be stabbed and the next all the way over there. Then a short lunge with her quick-movement power to try and get behind him while he's still overextended, and then a kick with her hard cloven hooves, or at least that's what she'll try.

He does try to pivot when she gets behind him but he's not quite fast enough to avoid taking a blow. He stumbles slightly but his footing is firm enough that he keeps his feet and turns the rest of the way.

She backs off and gives a recognizable cocky smile, then proceeds to leap into the air- And then forward and down, closing far faster than she has any right to with a kick aimed at his face.