Leaving the guest house, Prof was surprised that Mini didn’t burst out in fire, and she wasn’t sparkling either, although there was enough bare skin to justify both.


    “Mini, doesn’t the sun bother you?” Prof didn''t know about vampires on Arkadia, but according to most of Earth literature, she should have been allergic to the Sun. The rest said she should sparkle or shouldn’t be able to move during the day.


    “Have you lived in a cave so far?” The vampire replied in amazement. “Why would the sun bother me?"


    “Well, I heard…”


    “Hehehe, did you believe such nonsense? What else have you heard? Precious metals? Stinky plants? Hehe. Imagine someone may be spreading the word that we don’t show up in mirrors or we can’t cross water! Or sparkle! Hahaha! You are so funny! I’m technically dead, not challenged in weird ways or allergic!”


    Prof didn’t say anything further, not wanting to become even more of a laughingstock. He needed to get a crash course on Arkadian species from Foxy as soon as possible. And check, if there was a Skill for species profiling, probably mislabelled or with some other name since he did not remember seeing such in the rule book. Since there was a Skill for literary everything, he doubted, there was no such at all.


    Unfortunately, in the other guest houses, no guest would qualify as a party member, so they left a message behind for those interested to look for them and returned to their own quarters. Mini set off for shopping after the Yellow guest house and promised to wait for them in front of the Reds’ guest house before sunrise the next morning.


    Prof’s designated language teacher was already waiting for them, and he sat down at one of the tables without any further explanation, where some books and a chalkboard were already waiting for him.


    “First of all, you have to learn to read and write, we will only start learning the language after that. Here’s the Elven alphabet, with the Bergian equivalents. Start practicing!”


    The elf letters - 42 pieces, plus fourteen numbers! - somewhat resembled far-eastern pictograms, and Prof was at least grateful that the Elves did not use morphemes, syllables, whole words, or such as the base for spelling, he felt absolutely no desire to learn such a thing. Even learning new letters for a new language was enough for him.


    For the rest of the day, Prof played good schoolboy, practicing the whole alphabet over and over again. Caoilfhoinn looked at the chalkboard from time to time, corrected the writing here and there, and gave advice on the order in which to draw the lines to make the writing more legible. It was a fact, that her new teacher was much more decorative than his first one on Earth – and even all his other teachers – and she was kinder to him even when calling him a caveman and majom from time to time.


    Last but not least, Caoilfhoinn promised that if she didn’t see enough progress, she would throw him out of the guest house and practice archery on him. Prof wasn''t entirely sure she was bluffing, after all, people in the vicinity of Reds tended to suffer lethal accidents. Or so people said. All in all, Prof was more motivated than in kiddy school.


    By the end of the day, Prof''s hand began to spasm. Before going to bed, he copied the entire alphabet as accurately as possible into his little notebook so he could practice a little on the way.


    The next morning, Mini was already waiting for them in the guest house’s common room - and she immediately threw herself around Prof’s neck as soon as she saw him. Her “travel outfit” was even less practical than her previous day’s get-up: to a deep blue evening gown – which, of course, was split up to her thighs and was backless – she wore knee-high infantry boots and a little pink hat with colored feathers.


    Her raven-black, shoulder-length hair, which had a buzz cut on the left, and a girly braid on the right became visible without the veil. The braid even had a pink bow. To round out the well-thought-out hiking setup, she put on a waist-length studded black leather jacket and held a white umbrella in her hand. She didn''t bother to hide her needle-sharp canines and red eyes this time, which made her race clear. For someone, who knew what to look for, at least.


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    As far as Prof knew, she could have belonged to another Elven race, if not for knowing the species from the day before. In front of the guest house, Mini''s mount was waiting for them, chewing on something with sleepy eyes. The food probably had sometimes in the past sleepy eyes too.


    “A scorpionlizard?!” Foxy exclaimed in disbelief seeing the two-meter-tall, dark green lizard. It had two brutal-looking horns and a tail at least two meters long, ending in a wicked bone spike, with long, sharp teeth in its mouth, and a large suitcase and three backpacks strapped to the comfortable-looking saddle.


    “Sure, what else? I don''t like horses.” Mini shrugged and climbed up into the saddle “Forwards, Binky! Adventure and orgies are waiting!”


    This time, neither Prof nor Foxy reacted to the teasing, a half-seen smirk on Mini confirmed to Prof, that the vampire is just seeking attention.


    On the way to the dungeon, Prof interrogated the girls about the surrounding countries, the vampires, and the species he might encounter.


    As it turned out, Forestdeep, from where Mini came, lay north of the Bergian kingdoms – Felseberg, Wanderberg, and Spieleberg from North to South - and the Halitchian Empire, and East of the Dwarven mountains. It was not a country in a strict sense, but rather a conglomerate of independent estates, species, and groups.


    Black and Gray Elves (as in both Fae and half-blood elves), Humans, and various undead found their place there in the same way as the last representatives of dying out species, whole lesser species, or persons who had fled or drifted there. Once someone got there and was able to fit in, they were greeted with open arms, regardless of gender, race, or specialization. Survival was not guaranteed due to the chaotic conditions of the place, so in return, the average level of the population was much higher than elsewhere, and a lucky and tenacious person could carve out their own estate in the area.


    There were no fixed external borders, it varied on the season in which estate considered itself part of Forestdeep or whether outside countries regarded a place as part of the greater "forest". Based on Mini’s narrative and Foxy’s comments, Prof simplified the local laws and politics in such a way that everything was lawful for which one had enough power to get away with it.


    The locals left the rest of the world alone and were somewhat friendly to Bergians, Elfs, and Dwarves (the latter were sometimes regarded as part of Forestdeep, despite everybody denying it), but the Empire repeatedly tried to invade them. The latent power of Forestdeep was made clear as all attempts at invasion had turned into a bloody fiasco. The locals called them dejectedly “Gifts of Blood”.


    Mini originated from one of the Westernmost duchies where the nobility consisted of vampires. She didn''t tell much about her previous life, but from the comments she dropped, Prof had the feeling that she might have been a trusted vassal. Two years earlier, Mini had the opportunity to go through a Ritual and join the nobility. Her new race provided plenty of advantages, but in return, Mini lost twenty Levels and hundreds of Skill Points.


    Prof considered the exchange a bad deal at first, but after the women explained that vampires don’t grow old and wouldn’t die from natural causes, he realized the business wasn’t so bad after all. After the Ritual, Mini was given the opportunity to explore the world and was basically told not to return until she reached Level 10 again.


    Since then she toured Felseberg, Wanderberg, and part of the Elven Domain. She had no further plans and was thinking about cutting through the rest of the Domain, looking at a place called the Valley of Torments in the West, and/or visiting the Greenskins. She even heard of Human territories West of the Domain with beautiful beaches and delicious food (Prof suspected, she wasn’t talking about food).


    The Valley of the Torments was the place West of the Green’s area that Foxy had previously warned Prof about. It was a river valley of “country size”, although neither of them could give exact dimensions. Prof tried to fix it on his mental map based on what was said, but unfortunately, there were no common points of reference. Prof calculated that its North-South extent might have been at least four to five hundred kilometers, and East to West one hundred and fifty to two hundred.


    It used to belong to the Domain, but after the appearance of the Greenskins, it became a battlefield. Due to an unknown cataclysm or some high-level magic, both sides practically gave up on it, and since then a kind of no-mans-land (or probably no-elves or no-greenskins-land) spread between the two factions. According to some accounts, it was possible to cross the valley, but it was no life insurance to do so. Therefore, if one wanted to travel in an East-West direction, it had to be done in the North, through the Dwarves’ mountains, or in the South over the sea.


    Since Dwarves were mentioned so often, Prof asked about them, expecting the standard Tolkien-ones with long beards, continuously drunk and waving around axes and war hammers. Unfortunately, he vocalized his expectations and earned echoing laughter.