[center][h2][color=F0E68C]Asteria[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
[color=F0E68C]“A Soulforged weapon? Sounds terrifying. And yes, the one I met communicated with me somehow…through a dream. I suddenly kind of pity that water spirit,”[/color] Asteria replied.

[color=F0E68C]“Hmm, I see,”[/color] she hummed at the gnome’s explanation of the carry-over benefits. It was a pretty neat deal, and just another reason why underestimating humans would always be a bad idea.

The results of their experiment were not entirely conclusive, having just testing her idea once, but Asteria was pretty sure the mechanic was a bit different to how she’d originally imagined it. [color=F0E68C]“Maybe we just get to speak the language of whichever being we talked to last. The only way to be sure, then, would to go chat to a group that contains beings who speak and understand different languages. In any case, thank you for the cooperation. It was pretty interesting,”[/color] she concluded. 

[color=F0E68C]“By the way, do you intend to pass over all this information to your owner or any other associates?”[/color] she queried casually, though she was truly curious. Even if the gnome assured her everything would stay between them, though, she couldn’t quite trust him enough to discuss the System, though she dearly wanted to. Maybe she could question the gnome about skills and training in general…though given he had asked them for their reason of training and how vague his ideas about it were, that would perhaps turn out to be pointless. But it was certainly something for her to consider over the next two days or so.

She didn’t really comment about Earth, either, because it wasn’t particularly relevant as far as she was concerned. [color=F0E68C]“Oh, that’s plenty of locations, thanks. But…ugh, Myrminors, we have had some bad experiences with those,”[/color] Asteria shuddered. [color=F0E68C]“I doubt we’ll be going to Laketown right now, but it’s worth remembering for later.”[/color]

When she turned to ask Ed his opinion, she noticed he was gone. Shrugging, Asteria cooked herself a small piece of meat similarly to how the gnome had, and consumed it. [color=F0E68C]“Yeah, definitely better than raw,”[/color] she commented. [color=F0E68C]“See ya later,”[/color] she bid him farewell, and headed outside as well. If Mother rat didn’t look like she’d follow by the time they started heading away, they would need to consider whether to nudge her to go along or to just leave her be at the barrow.

[color=F0E68C]“Warming up? Good idea. By the way, which targets do you want to clear out first? I’d go for either the bandits or the mongrels,”[/color] Asteria said. Imitating Ed, she began stretching and preparing for their trip as well. She tensed and released all muscles periodically, then concentrated on trying to stand on her hind legs. Her body wasn’t built for it, but it was a decent strengthening exercise. Then, she started swinging around with her tail-strapped knife, testing how to slash and stab with it, getting used to the reach and motions. Finally, she tried out some evasive maneuvers, dashing in various directions, rolling here and there, and testing out short- and long-distance jumps. She had to get used to moving her body without injuring herself with her equipped weapon.