After a month of preparation, everything was finally ready. The party also finished with the training – and weren''t able to pay for further ones. Strangely, selling highly valuable jewelry and gems wasn''t easy. There simply wasn''t much cash floating around in medieval times for someone just walking into a store to buy the newest Ferrari. Or a necklace that cost about the same.


    When checking his Character Parchment for the month’s gains, Prof found something welcome, but strange nonetheless.


    “Master Sieglinde, according to the chart at the entrance, I should have gained seventeen points in the Skills, but I have got six points more each."


    “What’s the problem with it? You got exactly as many points as you should.” the trainer looked uncomprehendingly at Prof


    “But the chart clearly said, I would just get seventeen each! I’m not complaining, I just don’t understand it.”


    “Oh. You do know, that the charts are valid for someone with an Intelligence of 10, no?”


    “Really? But it was not stated, and what difference would an Intelligence of 10 make?”


    “Why would we state for which Intelligence the chart is valid? Everyone knows it''s for 10. It''s the average! You do know, that teaching gets more efficient, the higher your Intelligence is, no?"


    “Ehmmm… No… No one told me.”


    “I would very much like to have a talk with your family and masters. This is a crime!”


    “Not telling someone about such things is an oversight at worst.” Actually, handing a freshly transplanted guy a game rulebook while telling him those are the exact rules for his new home could be considered a crime. Not that Prof was willing to tell anyone, he learned Arkadia’s rules from the Third Edition. Or could sue the afterlife office and Sandy in particular.


    “No, it is a crime. In Greenskin lands, at least. We don’t just try to get excellent and be excellent to each other, we need to help each other to become excellent. Preventing or hindering someone to become excellent is almost as serious as wearing red when you aren’t a Redcap!”


    Prof was in Ostwaldland for a month but hadn''t realized this. He just assumed, everyone was helpful.


    “Nice society you have built! Everyone working to better themselves and helping others to become excellent! With this kind of helpfulness, everyone should be excellent in no time”


    “Not everyone and not necessarily. There are always people, who just don''t want to get excellent. We ship them to the Army or re-educate them in the mines. On the other hand, high-quality training isn''t free, as you know yourself. Although we have free schools for the little ones, the adults have to work hard to become excellent – if it were easy, there would be no point in becoming excellent. Five thousand Points in a Skill? Just another number on your Character Parchment. It''s the way that counts, not the result."


    “Heh, yeah. If I party very hard and long, and put everything into [Party], sooner or later I would become excellent at partying. I would be excellent!” Prof was just a little bit sarcastic.


    “Exactly! As long as you make the effort, everyone would accept your way.”


    “What?”


    “No one said, you would need to become excellent in fighting or science or crafts. I think, you already met or hear about Master Strassenfeger. He dedicated himself to sweeping streets and thus became the only currently living Redcap street sweeper. I heard, there is a Radcap in Dunkelgrünen, who is the best beggar on all of Arkadia! He dedicated himself to [Begging]. Of course, those two are the most obvious examples of over-specialization, but you could be excellent in everything. As long as you strive to become excellent in something or everything, you are getting excellent, and are excellent.”


    “Everything? One could get excellent in, say, [Stealing] or [Lockpicking], and no one would lock you up. I find it strange."


    “Of course, you could become the best thief or burglar or whatever on Arkadia! Why would we hinder anyone to become excellent in their chosen field? That would be a crime!"


    “So is stealing from other people!”


    “Why… Oh, right, you are a Pinkskin and are here for just a short time! I don’t think, you have many Points in [Laws: Greenskinian] and [Culture: Greenskinian], no?”


    “Not really.”


    “As I told you, preventing or hindering someone in becoming excellent, is a serious crime. Stealing money, that was earmarked for training, is preventing or hindering, so if it came out, that a thief stole such money, the Thieves’ not-Guild would be on the thief''s neck in no time. The same is true for stealing one''s tools of craft. Take you for example. You are something like an adventurer or mercenary, so your tools of craft would be your weapons and armor. No one would steal them, since that would be preventing or hindering you. On the other hand, your fancy dancing shoes aren''t your tools of craft, so those could be stolen.”


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    It was logical in some alien and strange way, but again, this was Arkadia, not Earth, and Prof was discussing laws and customs with a Greenskin. If you leave your home, don’t question the logic of other people.


    “The same is true for injuring someone." Sieglinde continued. She was a teacher, so teaching stuff was her job, after all. Prof only hoped she won''t ask for payment. "Injuring someone is preventing or hindering. Before you ask, you have the right to defend yourself and your property. You can injure a thief, robber, or burglar, but not kill them. The first is considered helping them to become excellent, pain is a very good teacher, but killing would be preventing and hindering. And, well, killing."


    “The Thieves are known to pay a reward for every thief caught and returned to them. They consider it as training for the pupil. Oh, a lot of thieves just steal to prove, they can do it, and return the items later for a small fee. There was this gang, who kidnaped folks, just to prove they can, and released the captives after a time and billed them only for food and lodgings. My cousin was kidnaped too, and she told me, she had quite a good time. She was rescued after only a day or two, but still keeps in contact with some of the gang."


    “All that doesn’t sound like the thieves could make a living out of stealing…”


    “Of course, they can''t! The Thieves'' not-Guild makes most of their income by collecting the taxes and tolls for the state, providing legal counsel, and smuggling! Well, trading. But, they invested a lot of time and money, so the state would make trading in certain items illegal, so the thieves could trade with the legally."


    “Wait, wait, wait. They trade with illegal stuff legally? How is that possible?”


    “By paying taxes. Look, if it is illegal to trade in stuff, only the criminals would be trading in them, but since there is a market for them, someone has to do it. Since you have an income from the transactions, you have to pay taxes. Anything else wouldn''t be excellent. I''m not very good in [Commerce], but I think the term for only one organization doing stuff because others can''t or won''t is a monopoly."


    Prof started to have the familiar headache, he got every time, someone used Arkadian non-Human logic on him. Sure, for Greenskins it looked like a valid logic and an excellent idea, but even without engaging his [Commerce] or [Law: Various] Skills, he could find a lot of loopholes, any criminal organization – or basically everyone, who hated paying taxes, so about a hundred percent of the population – would find within minutes.


    What would prevent a criminal organization from doing criminal stuff? Especially, when they were the ones collecting taxes? The vague idea of not being excellent? Being good at Tax Fraud could be considered being excellent in one''s chosen field, after all. Neither Saugarten in itself nor Ostwaldland looked like crime was running rampant, so most likely something was preventing the thieves and criminals from doing… well, thieving, robbing, selling red headgear to non-Redcaps, and other criminal stuff. Besides the vague idea of being or becoming excellent. No one becomes a criminal by respecting the law.


    But again, the Greenskins hadn''t arrived on Arkadia yesterday and weren''t just waiting around for some random Central European guy – or a lawyer – to abuse all the loopholes. They probably had seen every last trick more than once.


    “You seem to know a lot about the Thieves’ not-Guild” Prof wondered aloud


    “Why shouldn''t I? It is common knowledge and besides, their headquarters are located right next door. In fact, the honored Redcap Müller, their not-Guildmaster made a policy to support this betterment center personally. We make most of our income from their not-Guild members. We are the only institution in Saugarten, that teaches classes on [Lockpicking], [Stealth], [Stealing], [Forgery], and a few other illegal Skills!"


    “Hey, one of my party members was looking for just those classes! You are saying, she would just have to walk in here?"


    “Of course not! Teaching those Skills is illegal. If she wasn''t a member of the not-Guild, we couldn’t legally teach her.”


    “But you could legally teach illegal Skills to thieves. I see.”


    “Yes, exactly. No one would like unaffiliated, non-supervised, and not registered folks sneaking around stealing, picking locks, and murdering other people! That would turn us into Pinkskin lands! Oh, sorry, no offense."


    “None taken.”


    Besides the headache, Prof actually managed to get one percent each to [Culture: Greenskinian] and [Laws: Greenskinian] from that conversation. He wasn’t sure, it was worth it.


    Living in a country, blissfully unaware of the local logic, strange customs, and even strange laws was sometimes better. On the other hand, NOT knowing the rules may have been even worse. Take the Domain for example. Prof started to get familiar with [Culture], [Laws] and [Etiquette] only at the very end, and most likely broke more than a few laws, rules, and customs unknowingly and unwillingly. Simply because he did not know, they even existed. Doing that in a culture, that was known for their dislike (or hatred) of non-Elves wasn''t the smartest thing to do.


    Mini was right, without Foxy holding his hand and shielding him from the law, he probably would have ended up dead in a ditch within a few days.


    The Domain had one advantage over Greenskin Lands in Prof''s opinion, however. Gorgeous Elven females with little to no clothing on walking the streets.


    Well, even that got old after a time.


    That, and Greenskins weren’t looking at him like he was dirt or fertilizer.


    Prof decided to visit a proper Human country as soon as they sold their loot from the Valley and finished training with the money they got.