Foster entered his room and locked the door behind him. As he undressed, he looked at the small spirit that was already on his way to his small 'nest' on the bedside table to continue sleeping over there. He held his shirt in his hands for a moment, noticing its slightly weird texture. Looking at it more closely, it didn't really seem like normal cotton. For a moment, while holding onto his shirt, Foster was practically stunned by the flood of his own thoughts that entered his mind. If this wasn't cotton, then what was it? It didn't seem like wool either. Then was it some sort of creature that he couldn't even imagine, or some grotesque plant that was growing in fields somewhere nearby?
"I don't know anything about this place at all..." Foster muttered slightly to himself. He just watched his friend's body grow in size, possibly permanently, in literal minutes. And it was caused by a crystal pill that was left behind when they killed a giant, humanoid rat in a non-euclidian space that had formed underneath this huge city. And then, Foster visited a talking boar and an orc who can talk to an energy he didn't even know existed a few months ago. This all just seemed completely ridiculous in his mind. It all seemed... fake. Like a game, or a dream that wasn't actually happening. But, just now, his friend did something that could have very, very easily killed him. Even then, Foster was still far too casual about this whole situation.
Letting out a loud groan, he dropped onto his bed, "Maybe I have to take this all a bit more seriously..." he thought to himself, turning his head toward Aster, "This is all real... and I'll be living here from now on. I can't just fuck around like I used to." He said to himself. When he was still on earth, even if he didn't try to actively learn something, he would still find out about it somehow. Things that were common knowledge, that were either taught to every little kid, or were mentioned on TV every once in a while. The sort of stuff you picked up on by simply living.
But Foster didn't have that sort of knowledge in regard to this world, because he simply didn't care enough to figure it out yet. Sure, he asked Octer and Lynol about some basic stuff, like what big countries there are, important religions, how the monarchy worked in this country they were in, and of course, what sort of races existed in this world. However, he had no idea about things beyond that. He was just assuming things to be largely the same as on earth, but that was impossible, if he just thought about it a bit more. That meant that he had a decision to make.
"Either, I fully commit to the 'I'm from a foreign country and don't know how shit works here', or I actually do the effort to try and figure out even the most basic bullshit..." Foster groaned quietly to himself. If even the simplest things, like fashion, were so absurdly different here that Foster couldn't figure it out properly even after a full day of trying to put outfits together that his friends would like, then how was he supposed to figure out anything at all?
"Aster, what'd you think? You were born in this world, you gotta at least know something, right?" He asked, turning his head toward the being that he very well knew lived in a forest away from civilization for nearly all of its life. Aster slightly lifted his head, locking eyes with Foster through that small white mask. The two of them stayed like that for a moment, before Foster finally gave up, "...just keep sleeping, bud, don't worry about it."
Triumphantly, as if he just won something, Aster laid his head back down to continue napping. Foster turned his head, looking at the ceiling above him, letting out a deep, exhausted sigh.
---
"You did what?!" Kyla yelled out, jumping up and slamming her hands on the table in front of her as the group had gathered in the inn's restaurant, drawing the attention of a few people toward them. With an awkward expression, Octer scratched his cheek, before slightly waving at everyone that was looking toward them. Foster placed his hand on Kyla's shoulder to try and pull her down and relax her, "I feel the same, don't worry. But in the end, he was the only one that could take it anyway."
With a deep grumbling, the cleric crossed her arms and sat back down, as if pouting, "You could've at least waited until I was around... I could have probably helped if something went wrong..."
"Right, I'm sorry about that. I really am. But... it felt like, if I hadn't taken it then, I might not have been able to take it at all." Octer explained, "It was a decision I had to make for myself right that moment, or else I would have been too cowardly."
"Isn't it fine? Just because he did something unexpected doesn't mean that we should stay hung-up on it. Especially you, Foster. You've done absurd things more than once without talking to us about it." Lynol pointed out, before he took a bite of his food laying in front of him, not looking up from the plate the whole time. For a moment, Foster felt like protesting against that statement, but he couldn't really say anything. In the end, he was right. So instead, he figured he would change the topic. There was no reason to continue talking about this the whole time, since they had discussed it more than enough already. And since Octer seemed fine, everything worked out pretty well, anyway, "I do feel a little bad, though. Octer and Lynol got the item drops from the boss monster, and I'm going to get something from Sam when he's back. You're the only one that didn't really get anything out of the dive."
"...What are you even talking about?" Kyla asked with a wry smile, looking around nervously before leaning forward to whisper to the group, "You showed me a unique boss monster that never appeared before in the history of the world dungeon... that's more than enough!" She pointed out, grinning excitedly at the thought, "Although, I do feel a little bad that I wasn't able to take any notes on it... the fight was too intense for me to focus on that sort of thing..."
"Oh, that's fine, I already wrote everything down." Foster pointed out, pushing his hand into his bag, taking out a small booklet. It was different to the one that he took his astronomy-related notes in. He had bought multiple of these, and was planning on using this one to take notes on everyday, common things that he had to know about if he lived in this world, like how much the money in this world was worth, for example. And beyond that, he had written some notes on the boss monster last night, since he wasn't able to sleep too well.
Lynol raised his brow, finally looking up from his food, "You took notes on something like that?"
A bit confused, Foster looked back, "Huh? I mean, yeah, why wouldn't I? I said I'd take care of the whole flow-of-information stuff in regard to this, and Kyla mentioned how important it is for others to know about this boss monster in case it appears again all of a sudden. So obviously I wrote down everything I could remember." He explained, flipping the book to the page in question. It was completely filled with notes on anything that Foster could remember from the fight. Things like the size of the rat itself, and the size and weight of its spear. The sort of things that the rat seemed to focus on during a fight, and blatant weakpoints that Foster might have been able to see, but wasn't skilled enough to take advantage of yet.
"How did you... huh?" Kyla let out confused, "This is so detailed, how did you remember all of this?"
Foster leaned his cheek onto his hand as he started to explain, "I mean, I remember the way most of the people I've fought move, I guess. Most of them were self-taught, like I am, so they didn't have any pre-set patterns like you have with martial arts. Whenever one of those weirdos tried to come after me, obviously I had to know how they fought so that I could defend myself properly, right? If I prepare to fight an in-fighter, but they turn out to be an out-fighter, even I'd be in trouble, I guess."
Lynol leaned over the table to look at the notes. He glanced over them, before turning his sight on Foster, "You can read someone else's movements to this degree of precision, but you can't even follow through with basic stances in a clean way?"
Foster and Lynol locked eyes for a few moments, until the former of the two turned his head back toward Kyla, not wanting to engage his friend with this too much. If he did, it probably wouldn't turn out too well for him. Foster could still feel the muscleaches from Lynol's training even a few weeks later, "Erm, anyway... I hope those notes are enough for now?"
Kyla stared at the pages with a broad smile on her face, her annoyed expression from earlier nowhere to be seen, "Enough? This is absolutely perfect!"
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