Chapter 84: Evon System for another Earthling

Morning came with Emily kicking Eren out of bed. Literally.

“Get up silly. Your other woman needs breakfast and I’m not making or holding her hand to Selena for it!” She was already pulling her hair back with one hand while nudging him with her boot again.

She was already dressed in her hunting gear with her katana strapped to her back and her old bow hanging from a hook near the door. Eren had a new one now after Oldir managed to find in one of the ownerless houses in the village. It was suppose to belong to an old hunter wannabe that died ten years ago. So both of them had bows now and Eren guessed this new one was still worse than Emily’s but didn’t care much.

Weapons didn’t affect their fight for now.

Eren wasn’t sleepy but still wanted to cuddle Emily and sleep for a few more hours.

Life isn’t fair. I never got a chance to sleep enough.

He looked to his pregnant elf woman.

Even in the early light with messy hair and sleep still in her eyes, Emily looked like the kind of woman video game designers spent months trying to create. Except she was real and the boot mark on his ribs was very real too.

She was holding some grudge for taking his girlfriend from Earth to here without asking it.

Eren made breakfast using the Earth supplies for this morning. He was a little bit wasteful but didn’t care much. He used some eggs, salami and mince and made an omelette his mother loved.

They sat on the living room table, which was small but enough for three people.

He got some bread from the village bakery Lyra and served a canned tuna he’d brought over. Rosa ate like she hadn’t seen real food in days which was almost true.

“Today,” Eren said while Rosa chewed with a small potato in her hand. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms like he was about to deliver important news. “Slime day.”

Rosa swallowed and ate the potato while thinking about his words with concern. She looked cute for some reason. Or maybe Eren had a kink for women who is eating genuinely.

She also looked at the knife Eren placed on the table. It was one of the basic kitchen knives from the Earth shopping trip, just simple cheap steel with a rubber grip that wasn’t fancy but sharp enough.

Rosa picked the knife up with two fingers like it might bite her. “I’m killing a jelly monster with a kitchen knife.”

“No. You will use one of this elven knives. A hunting knife.” He patted the one on his belt and pulled it out to show her.

Rosa didn’t say it but her opinion about killing something – probably a cute slime wasn’t a good idea to her. She didn’t know Eren had to kill a wild cat to get his first level to connect to Evon.

Eren couldn’t say it while knowing she loved cats and took care of at least half a dozen street cats back on Earth.

..

They walked south road toward the forest edge where slimes were most common and Eren was most comfortable about enemy situation. This side was the only place no enemy came. Just usual beast population was around even they were scarce these days according to the cubs.

Eren knew this area so well from his first weeks that he could find slimes with his eyes closed. Rosa walked beside him gripping the knife handle tight enough to turn her knuckles white. She kept looking at every shadow between the trees like something was about to jump out.

Eren walked with his hands in his pockets like they were heading to a park. “Relax. Slimes don’t ambush. They just sit there and wobble until something touches them.” He smiled.

Rosa hated his smile and punched his side. “That’s not comforting.” She rubbed her knuckles after because hitting him was like punching a wall now.

Eren knew Emily and both wolves were following them from about hundred meters back to check the area. Emily moved through the trees without making a sound which was terrifying even for him. Fury kept to the right flank while Rury was supposed to keep to the left but she was probably chasing a smell somewhere.

They found a slime near a fallen log.

It was the basic green variety, about the size of a basketball with a slightly darker core visible through the translucent body. It pulsed slowly like one of those gel stress balls that breathe in your hand.

But it was level one and that was the important part Eren liked.

Rosa stopped walking and took half a step behind Eren’s shoulder. “That’s slime and alive?”

“Don’t be fooled by their slow appearance, they can be very fast when you poke them. And yes, they are very much alive.” He crouched down near it and pointed at the core with a stick. “And it will try to dissolve anything organic that touches it for too long. So don’t let it sit on your skin.” He didn’t say some of elemental ones could send fire or ice pieces to your face..

Rosa pulled the knife closer to her chest. “You didn’t mention the dissolving part yesterday!” Her voice went up half an octave.

“You can do it.” He sounded sure of it and stood back up to give her room. Eren guided the slime toward a gap between two roots using a stick. The creature moved slowly with that wet sliding sound that never got less disgusting no matter how many times you heard it.

He pointed the stick at the center of the slime where the dark spot pulsed. “The core is in the center. Stab through to the core and it dies. One clean hit is enough.” He said this same sentence at least five times already but he was also nervous for this nervous girl. She was an intern elementary school teacher!

Rosa’s hands were trembling just enough to notice it. She held the knife in front of her with both hands like she’d seen in a movie somewhere and approached the slime like it was a bomb.

She stabbed it and the knife went through the gel body with less resistance than she expected and hit the core with a dull crack. The slime shuddered once and collapsed into a puddle of green liquid that started evaporating almost immediately.

Rosa stood there breathing hard with green slime on her hands and the knife dripping while Eren took it in the air.

“That’s it?” she said. Her legs were shaking a little but she wasn’t backing away.

“That’s it.” He gave the knife back to her while smiling.

Rosa looked at the green puddle evaporating on the ground, then at her slime-covered hands, then back at the puddle. “I just killed a monster.” She expected much bigger reaction or some fireworks probably.

“A very low-level monster but yes. Now did you hear a sound in your head. Focus on it.”

Rosa suddenly flinched and pressed her hand to her ear like someone had whispered into it unexpectedly. Her eyes unfocused for a second.

“I heard something.” She said quietly and pulled her hand away from her ear slowly like she was afraid the voice would come back. “Really quiet. Like a woman’s voice but… flat. Almost robotic.”

“What did it say?” Eren stepped closer and studied her face.

“I don’t know. It was too quiet. Something about… level? And a number? ’1’ maybe.”

Eren focused and tried to see if he could catch her system response somehow. Nothing showed up for him but the timing was obvious. She’d killed something and the system noticed.

“Try saying ’status’ in your head. Like you’re thinking the word really hard.”

What the hell is going on?

Rosa closed her eyes and concentrated. Her forehead wrinkled with effort and she pressed her fingers to her temples. After a few seconds she opened them and shook her head.

“Nothing visual. Just… I think I heard it again. Level 1. And something about a stat point.” She dropped her hands and looked at him with a mix of confusion and something that was almost excitement.

[You are Level 1]

-You have 1 Stat Point to use

That was it. No full panel, no stat breakdown, no +9 to everything like him. One level and one point.

She doesn’t have mana either. And only one stat point per level instead of nine. Why does her system sound completely different from mine?

Rosa obviously hadn’t heard the system message clearly like he did. His system voice was crisp and feminine and personal like a woman talking directly into his ear. Rosa’s sounded distant and mechanical and barely audible.

“Did you get a visual? Like a screen or panel?” Eren moved his hand in front of her eyes like he was checking for something invisible.

Rosa swatted his hand away gently. “No. Nothing visual. Just the voice. Barely.” She was confused about his never ending questions but noticed that there was something weird.

No panel and no interface, just a whisper of a system that didn’t seem interested in giving her the full experience. Eren remembered his own first level up with the clear notifications and the encouraging voice. Rosa got a robot mumble.

He didn’t share that thought with her. Instead he tried something else.

“Let me try teaching you a language skill.” He put both hands on her shoulders and closed his eyes. He activated Beastin and tried to push the skill toward Rosa the same way he shared it with Emily for beast communication.

Nothing happened, no system response and no notification.

He dropped his hands and stepped back. “She’s not beast-adjacent,” Eren muttered to himself. That made sense. Beastin was specifically designed for creatures and individuals who had a connection to beast races.

But now that Rosa had system access there was another option. He focused on his own Elvish language knowledge and tried the basic skill-share function that the system offered between party members.

[Skill Transfer Attempted: Basic Elvish – Quality: Minimum]

[Rosa Varga has learned: “Basic Elvish” – Level 1]

Rosa blinked rapidly and grabbed the side of her head. “Something feels different. Like there are words in my head that weren’t there before but I can’t quite reach them.” She kept touching her temple like she was trying to find the source.

Eren gently pulled her hand away from her head. “That’s the language skill. It’ll be rough for a while but you should start picking up words. Basic stuff first. Give it time.”

He got it at master, in other words max level. But didn’t say that to her.

Rosa looked at him with an expression he recognized from their three years together. She’d made the same face when he’d opened the portal.

Like she was confused but didn’t want to show it to him.

..

They walked back toward the village with Rosa staying quiet for most of the walk to process everything. Eren let her be because some things just needed space.

Emily had watched the entire slime kill from behind a thick oak about hundred meters away. She’d expected Rosa to scream and run because that was the reasonable expectation for someone from a world without monsters.

Rosa hadn’t screamed. Her hands shook and she looked terrified but she stepped forward and stabbed the thing without backing up.

Emily didn’t say anything about it. She just turned and walked back toward to her job of hunting through the trees with Fury keeping pace beside her.

..

That afternoon Emily went to Selena’s restaurant while Eren was teaching Rosa basic Elvish words in the garden. Selena was wiping down tables when Emily walked in and sat at the back corner without ordering anything.

Selena knew that look. She put down the cloth and joined her.

“The women are talking,” Selena said carefully while sliding into the chair across from Emily. She folded her cleaning cloth into a neat square on the table before continuing. She always started conversations with the practical part first and worked her way toward the awkward stuff.

“They’re always talking.” Emily didn’t look at her. Her fingers traced a pattern on the wooden table.

“This time it’s different. Around ten are openly willing.” Selena lowered her voice and leaned forward slightly. “The rest are quietly interested but won’t say it out loud because they don’t want to upset you.”

Emily already knew this since before Eren even came to the village. The population problem wasn’t new but the solution was just uncomfortable.

“My safe period is ending soon.” Emily said without looking at Selena. Her jaw was set tight and her voice was flat. “Nine months. No physical intimacy while the baby grows.”

Selena nodded slowly. She understood what Emily was really saying without making her spell it out.

“Eren’s body won’t wait nine months,” Selena said. She kept her voice gentle but the words weren’t gentle at all. “Half-elf hormones with those stats. You know how it works with men at high levels.”

Emily balled her hands into fists under the table. Her face was perfectly calm but her knuckles were white.

“I know how it works.”

“I’m not pushing Emily. I’m just-”

“I said I know.” Her voice dropped cold and Selena’s mouth closed immediately.

Selena waited while Emily stared at the wall for a long time before standing up and walking out without another word.

..

Back at the garden Rosa was struggling with pronunciation. Eren had taught her five basic Elvish words and she was practicing them on her own by repeating them under her breath.

When Selena passed by carrying supplies from the storehouse Rosa looked up and tried her first real Elvish sentence.

“Te’she-kir!” She said it with confidence and a proud little smile, straightening her back like a student giving a presentation.

Selena stopped walking. She looked completely confused for a second before barely containing her laughter, covering her mouth with her hand as her shoulders started shaking.

Rosa looked at Eren. “What? Did I say it wrong?”

Eren froze. He’d heard what Rosa actually said and it was definitely not thank you. The tonal structure of Elvish meant that the same sounds with slightly different emphasis could mean completely different things and Rosa had just called Selena something that translated roughly to “stupid fish.”

He forced his face into the most convincing smile he could manage. “No no. Perfect. Great pronunciation.”

Selena was still laughing when she disappeared into the restaurant. Rosa beamed with pride and went back to practicing.

Yeah, I am never telling her that.

..

Evening came slow in Evon. The light lasted longer than Earth evenings like the sun didn’t want to leave.

Rosa sat at the dinner table in Eren and Emily’s house eating the meal Emily had cooked. She’d been working on a single word all afternoon after Selena’s reaction gave her confidence.

She looked at Emily who was eating across from her with that neutral expression she always wore around Rosa.

“Beautiful..” Rosa whispered. She said it while looking down at her plate and her cheeks went slightly pink.

Emily looked up. Her chopstick paused halfway to her mouth.

“It’s nice, I mean.” Rosa said in a hurry while pointing at the food on her plate with her spoon. It was the Elvish word for beautiful and she’d practiced it sixty times to get the tone right.

Emily didn’t react for a second before the corner of her mouth moved into something that wasn’t quite a full smile, more like the beginning of one that got stopped halfway. She put the chopstick down slowly.

“…thank you,” Emily said in Elvish. Then she picked her chopstick back up and returned to eating like nothing had happened.

It was the first time she’d spoken directly to Rosa without Eren translating. Two words. But two words that weren’t hostile.

Rosa went back to eating and Emily went back to eating without looking at each other again. It wasn’t exactly a friendship but it was a start.

Thank God. Maybe they won’t kill each other after all.

He hadn’t told either of them about the totem’s warmth yet. He wasn’t sure what it meant and didn’t want to add more problems to a situation that already had too many. But Fury’s words from last night kept circling in his head because the roots were moving and the tree definitely wasn’t sleeping.

Something about that tree is wrong and I don’t know what yet.

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