The next morning, Lily woke Anika far earlier than she liked. The capybara vibrated with excitement and chattered nonstop about what Tikal would have for her that day. Anika desperately needed coffee to deal with the exuberant rodent, but could not bring herself to drink the disgusting but caffeinated lika tea at breakfast. Instead, she grunted just enough for Lily to think she was participating in the conversation. Thankfully, some of the younger acolytes at breakfast were enamored by Lily, so she had an enthusiastic audience, giving Anika a chance to wake up.

  Leka said she would take them into town again in the afternoon, so Anika needed to find a way to entertain her companion until then, as letting her loose in a practice room in her current state of hyperactivity would likely end with someone getting hurt when a beach ball sized rock dropped on their head. Anika also needed to practice her magic and her archery. Maybe today was a good day to explore some of the nearby rivers and springs that Leka had mentioned. That would give Lily a chance to run around outside and swim and hopefully let her work off some of her excitement, while Anika used the water for magic practice. She would practice archery later. Her body liked the idea of skipping another day. Her back and shoulder muscles felt better after taking advantage of the last two days to rest, but she feared Vok’s death glare if he found out that she didn’t practice today, as he had strongly implied she should practice twice during the lesser week, and if she didn’t practice today, she would have to practice two days in a row. Yes, archery practice would definitely need to be on the list tonight.

  After breakfast, Anika herded Lily back to their room so she could change into clothing appropriate for wandering through the outdoors and swimming. Etalen didn’t exactly have swim suits, but they did have some undergarments lightweight enough to suffice. When she had asked Sinaya about appropriate swimming gear, Sinaya asked why she would need to wear anything in the water. Anika’s face blanched upon hearing that skinny dipping was the norm here. Swimming naked in the woods may appeal to some people, but Anika had never seen the appeal. At times, it was bad enough wearing a swimsuit in public, as she’d dealt with a few immature men in the past who catcalled and whistled inappropriately at her as a teenager at the beach. The idea of being without clothes where any random stranger could see her made her very self conscious. So far, she hadn’t encountered anyone on Etalen (other than Panu, who didn’t technically count) that struck her as the kind to lecherously stare at her exposed body like some individuals on Earth. But she could only force so much change and adaptation upon herself in a week. Becoming comfortable skinny dipping appeared very, very low on the list.

  After dressing in her makeshift bikini and throwing on another lightweight shift dress, Anika braided her hair, using a scarf to tie it up so it wouldn’t get wet if she decided to not put her head under the water. Of all the internet rabbit holes she had fallen into back on earth, the late nights watching historical hair styles and other ways to do hair without elastic bands came in very useful on Etalen. She had yet to see anything resembling elastic on the planet. Only ribbons, scarves and leather ties existed for hair, and clothing often had drawstring style ties or buttons. She desperately missed stretchy yoga pants. The redeeming quality of clothing here was the absurdly soft fabric. Without that, she likely would have been clawing her clothes off her body in stress, which directly contradicted her strong desire to not be seen naked, and that would lead to a downward spiral of anxiety she would rather avoid.

  When talking to Sinaya about swimwear, Anika had also gotten directions to the river that had several spring-fed swimming holes. The swimming holes appeared further into the mountain along the same river that supplied the water around the obstacle course, so Anika would not get lost trying to find a swimming hole in the middle of nowhere. She and Lily walked along the path they normally took to the obstacle courses, and then turned to follow the river upstream. Sinaya said that of the several swimming holes along the river, the closest only required a 10 minute walk from the temple.

  As they walked up the river and began to encounter trees, the dark green ground cover that blanketed the hills near the temple became more sparse, giving way to an assortment of underbrush. The path began to incline, and dirt and rocks took over for trampled grass as they entered the forested mountain. The river, previously around ten feet wide, narrowed slightly as they crossed the threshold of the trees, and Anika could see ahead to where the river split into two rocky streams. They followed the left fork as the river and path wound through the trees, the terrain growing rougher as they proceeded. Anika could hear rustling in the leaves of the trees, indicating birds or other small creatures going about their business. She worried that monsters or other wild creatures would roam the mountain forest, but Sinaya said she would not run into a dungeon area if she followed the river to the swimming holes and she did not seem concerned about other wild creatures.

  A short time later, when the right fork of the river had disappeared through the trees, the fork they followed opened up to a wide bowl on the side nearest the duo. To her dismay, Anika could hear the sounds of people talking and splashing in the water. She supposed she should have expected that people would visit the spring on a pleasant summer morning, but she really wanted to spend the morning alone.

  “Look at that! It’s so big! Let’s go swim!” Lily squealed with glee and began to run towards the water.

  Anika rushed after her and quickly grabbed her up like a parent rescuing a small child from walking into peril. Lily’s little webbed feet continued kicking in the air and she cried in dismay, “Anika! Put me down! I want to swim!”

  “We are going to swim, but we aren’t going to swim here. There’s another swimming hole if we keep walking.”

  “But this one is here and I don’t want to walk anymore!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Anika sighed. “You don’t have to walk if you don’t want to. Besides, I heard the next swimming hole is even better than this one. Don’t you want to swim in the best swimming hole?” She added a bit of enthusiastic intrigue to her voice, hoping to sway Lily’s emotion towards curiosity, despite not actually knowing if the next swimming hole was better or not. For her sake, she hoped that it was, as she didn’t want to lie to her companion… she just really didn’t want to be around so many people. She supposed she could tell Lily that… but this just seemed easier.

  Lily stopped running on the air and complaining and immediately purred happy pew pew noises, “I want the best swimming hole! Let’s go!”

  Anika pulled Lily against her chest and shifted her arms to cradle her, figuring it was a smart idea to just hang onto her while they walked around the swimming hole to prevent any accidental dives into the spring. She stuck to the path rather than walking close to the swimming hole, hoping no one would notice her. As she walked around, she saw about 20 people in or lounging around the water. She didn’t know any of them personally, but she definitely knew they were all very naked. She averted her eyes, not wanting to stare, despite their clear comfort in their birthday suits.

  The path beyond the first swimming hole narrowed, with occasional pits or roots providing hazards on the path. Historically, Anika did not handle obstacles well, having fallen due to poor coordination and agility many times in gym class. But, now that she had gained stats from levels, she figured she might have slightly better balance. That wouldn’t prevent her from wiping out if she caught her foot on a root or rock, but she felt it might prevent her from wiping out if she accidentally stepped in a divot that previously would have resulted in a twisted ankle and a fall. She wondered how her body would change as she gained more levels and continued this regime of physical practice. After five days, she wouldn’t normally expect much change in her body. She’d tried working out before, and even after several weeks everything still felt just as painful and difficult. But stat points gave her a bonus beyond what her body could do naturally. How fast would she change if she continued to level up so quickly? Did stat points imply some super human cheat code, automatically granting her perfect abilities? Or would she still need to suffer through hours of boring physical training to make any difference? She supposed she would know in a few weeks.

  The stream to her right flowed through a rocky area, creating mini waterfalls and shallow rapids as the river widened in response to its terrain. The splashes of the current and falling water temporarily drowned out the sounds of birds and animals in the trees. On the far side of the river, Anika could see small creatures that looked suspiciously like the squirrels they had fought in the first dungeon, though these squirrels appeared normal sized. Did all animals on the planet have an oversized monster equivalent? She imagined, with horror, a pack of wild lidoks showing up and deciding to play target practice using their special ammunition on her half-naked, swimsuit clad body. She shuddered at the thought. Gross.

  “Anika, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing! Just looking at the squirrels over there and wondering if we would see other normal animal versions of the monsters we fought in the dungeon.”

  “Some animals can have monster versions! But some are only animals, and some monsters are only in the dungeons. Some non-dungeon animals might attack people outside the dungeons, but they usually live higher in the mountain because they don’t really want to be near people.”

  Anika nodded, “I’m glad to know I don’t have to be looking for something to attack me anytime I wander through the woods. That god-granted knowledge comes in handy at times!”

  “Sometimes I have a lot of knowledge and it’s good. But sometimes I feel like I should know something but don’t. They gave me a lot of knowledge but it’s hard to understand it all! It’s all jumbly in my head.”

  “If I had a bunch of knowledge shoved into my head I think it would be all jumbled up too. When I learn things, it’s always one thing at a time, and in a logical order. The gods just shoved a bunch of facts in your head and probably didn’t think about how it would be organized.”

  Lily squirmed in Anika’s arms, “I want to walk! Walking is good for thinking, right? So that will help all the knowledge.”

  Anika put Lily down beside her and kept walking, “I don’t know if walking will help organize all that information, but a lot of people like to think on walks. I was doing a lot of thinking on our way out here when we weren’t talking.”

  “I was thinking too! I thought about how yummy the jiri fruit at breakfast was. I really like jiri fruit! And then I thought about swimming and how the river looked like fun to swim in. And then…”

  Anika smiled and nodded, occasionally grunting words of affirmation and acknowledgement as Lily continued to detail every single thought she had over the first part of their walk, like a five year old regaling the story of what they did at school that day. The cute and innocent baby capybara delighted her now, but Anika hoped she would mature as she grew and wouldn’t act like a perpetual child. She worried how things would go in battles as they got to higher levels if Lily acted without thinking, or if she continued to have the child-like mindset.

  Anika wasn’t even sure if she would really be able to manage in a real, life or death fight when her experience in video games had taught her that death was temporary and resurrection just a matter of lost time, money, or experience. Both of them lacked any concept of the reality of battle, and that concerned her. They both shared the same naivety towards the realities of life on this world and battle in dungeons. Somewhere in Lily’s head of god-granted knowledge, Anika knew she had an understanding of what they would face as they got to higher level dungeons and more difficult fights, but would she come to terms with it before they got to those types of battles? And how could Anika best prepare herself for the types of battles they were likely to face?

  Not quite ready to face the reality of her future battles, Anika tried to push those questions aside. Ultimately, she did not see a choice besides doing her best to prepare herself by practicing her magic and her physical skills. She knew she had the strategic mind to succeed and come up with strategies in battle that would lead to their success and survival, she just needed the real world skills to back that knowledge up. Too bad she couldn’t just enter a training montage with a cool soundtrack and come out on the other side practiced and ready to go.