57 Chapter 57. Branching the business
Half an hour into the conversation, the girls managed to somehow derail the conversation back to his experience in the wilderness, reminding him of how sorely lacking entertainment was in the Sanctuary.
"Say, what do you girls usually do for fun? Actually, let me rephrase that. What do both common people and Wanderers use to entertain themselves with?"
Michael felt that the question was still off for some reason but decided to let it be.
Sure enough, the girls looked stumped.
[I think gambling and fighting for fun?](Helen)
[But only the Wanderers fight. And usually, only other Wanderers can watch, since, you know... it's a bad idea to influence the common people.](Mia)
[The gambling is just as bad. Even Wanderers lost their entire fortunes for something as stupid as throwing bones. I really can't comprehend it.](Mina)
[Well... it gets pretty boring at times, so I can understand the need to blow off steam. That's why most Wanderers clear Dungeons for sports.](Helen)
[I mean, what can be better than clearing Dungeons?](Tia)
Hearing the girls talk, Michael felt his common sense as an Earthling decay. To think that the best form of entertainment these girls had access to was gambling and killing monsters...
"What about artistic performances? Like singing and dancing?"
[There are a few groups that tour the continents. Since only Wanderers can use the Waypoints, as normal people, it's usually once every six months or so that they are able to perform.](Mina)
"And? What sort of performance is it?"
[Singing, dancing, and reciting poetry.](Mina)
"What about acting?"
[Acting?](Mina)
Seeing their confused faces, Michael tried his best to explain the concept of acting out a story.
Unfortunately, it seems that the stories themselves were not that well received by the public since most of them couldn't read.
Thinking about it, Michael decided to steal a page from the transmigrator handbook: the goal was to introduce some cards and board games.
'And what better crowd to act as testing grounds than the wealthiest and prettiest women Wanderers in town?'
[You seem to have thought of something?](Helen)
"Haha. Yes. A game from my hometown."
[What sort!?](Tia)
"Well, it's fun but also pretty complicated. There are two games I can teach you, but both require someone capable of woodwork."
[Evelyn can do it!](Tia)
"Evelyn?"
Looking at the childish girl, Michael remembered that she was a Druid Class. She should be able to interact with plants and trees.
However, the woodwork was slightly different than communication. Especially since it meant mutilating trees to certain shapes...
"Uhm... I'm not sure if it's appropriate."
[It's okay. I'm used to sculpting, so I'm pretty good at it.](Evelyn)
Hearing a Druid talk about sculpting with such exuberance... Michael wondered if Hoduin would slap her silly if he heard these words.
As much as he wanted to introduce something like Chinese 'Go,' he had no idea what the rules of playing it were. He read so much about it but never played it himself.
'Plus, it might be a bit too complex for the common people. Chess, on the other hand, should be easy enough.'
"Hmm... I need a square wooden board first, as well as 32 total pieces per set. The board needs to be marked as well. Ugh... do any of you have a piece of paper and a pen?"
[Pen?](Mina)
"Or quill, or whatever is used to write. It's called pen in my hometown."
Michael was amazed to see a particularly interesting quil crafted quite delicately. Also, he was blessed enough to watch the process of a beauty like Mina grinding ink for him.
'Truly, happiness comes from the little things. And in pairs... Actually, they're rather big. Even bigger than Helen's.'
A cough and a rather fierce elbow strike under the ribs woke him up from his fantasy, to which he responded with a very innocent and accusing expression.
The one that admits it is at fault! As long as one doesn't admit it, there's still room for a plausible cause.
"Ahem! First of all, excuse my poor drawing skills and try your best not to mock me too much. The board should look like a square, with all its sides measuring equally. Then, we'll use lines to separate the board. We'll add a total of seven lines horizontally and another seven vertical lines. This is where a small problem comes up. We need to make sure the lines are distanced equally from each other and the edges of the board. Once that happens, it will look similar to this."
The girls looked quite disdainful of his drawing at first glance. Then, upon a closer look, Michael realized that it wasn't the drawing's fault but rather his own.
He claimed that he was trash at drawing, but his hand was unexpectedly steady. That resulted in an even-looking chessboard, even if it was 2D and only on paper.
"*Cough* Next, we'll need to separate the squares created into two colors. Black and white."
[Why?](Tia)
"It's because there will be two players in this game, and the rules of the game pertain to certain pieces being able to be used only on certain colors."
[Here, use this.](Mina)
"This is?"
[I use it for coloring when painting. It's chalk.](Mina)
Michael wasn't sure what stumped him more. The fact that he didn't recognize chalk, or the fact that Mina was that sort of cultured beauty, meeting the classic cliche criteria.
"Great! Thank you. It's back, so it's perfect. To avoid wasting resources on silly matters, we'll only use it and leave the other squares empty. It should suffice since the paper is white enough."
[Okay, okay! Go on!](Tia)
Seeing how even drawing on paper could induce excitement in the lives of these ladies, Michael couldn't help but lament how pitiful their lives have been up to this point.
"We'll start from the bottom left corner. This is the first black square. Going forward, we'll follow the rules of one black, followed by its neighboring square being white."
Quickly, Michael completed the edges of the board, leaving all other squares unfinished.
"Next, we'll paint all squares starting from the first one black, in a diagonal line to the other corner."
[Why?](Tia)
"It's a shortcut to make this easier for ourselves. If we keep following the same pattern from the second row and move upward, what color would the square about it be?"
[Black.](Tia)
"And the third one upward from the third row?"
[Also black.](Tia)
"Well, it's like that for all other squares in this line."
It took Michael another five minutes of explanation and painting to finish a rather clean-looking chessboard.
[What now?](Tia)
"Now, just like in - bone throwing, I think you called it - we need pieces that we can play with. Here is where we'll need Evelyn's help even more so. The pieces should look like this..."
With some quick sketches that immediately drew another bout of contempt from the girls, Michael finished exemplifying each piece.
Then, he continued detailing what each one was called.
"This one is called the Pawn. In every set, there would be a total of 16 Pawns. Eight will be black, belonging to one player, and eight will be white, belonging to the other."
[Uhm... I'm not good at painting. Most wood that I use is brown...](Evelyn)
[I can help.](Mina)
Seeing the girls' excitement, Michael held back a chuckle and continued.
"This one is called the Rook. There are a total of four pieces per set, two white and two black. This one is called a Knight, the same as the Rook regarding its numbers. Also, the Bishop..."
[The Church's?](Tia)
"What? No? Or... yes? However, you want, I guess."
[The Church's!](Tia)
"Eh... yeah. Then, the Church's Bishop follows the same pattern, with four pieces split equally between players. The final pieces are the King and the Queen. They are unique pieces, and each player has only one each."
Michael learned from Lorath that there were once Kings and Queens on this continent, but recently, the nobles wouldn't allow that anymore.
The highest position of authority in a city was usually the mayor. Also, even if the continent is split into different areas, neither the areas nor the total continent makes up a whole country.
The Necromancer's thoughts were abruptly stopped when he saw what Evelyn meant by 'sculpting.' The woman simply poured her Spirit into a large wooden stump, basically 'terraforming' it.
"That's amazing!"
[I learned it from Teacher Hoduin. He said it's a good training exercise to learn how to utilize your Resources as a Druid better.](Evelyn)
Ten minutes later, a brown square board and 32 familiar pieces of the same color stood on the table in the pavilion.
Mina took over and brought out some small jars of paint, after which she proceeded to dip the pieces in.
Finally, Mia used her Wind magic to dry out the paint on the pieces while they started working on the chessboard.
Unsurprisingly, Mina's drawing skills were much better than Michael's, drawing perfect lines on the board, after which Evelyn sunk those lines to create the small ditches between the squares (at Michael's request).
[There! It's done! What now!? How do we play?](Tia)
"Well, first, we'll arrange the pieces on the board. This is how they must look like before every game."
Seeing Michael arrange the pieces, Mina had a thoughtful expression on her face. Finally, she couldn't hold her curiosity back any longer and asked.
[These Pawns, are they supposed to be the soldiers?](Mina)
"Smart! Yes, it could be seen that way. Chess can be considered a game of war, where each player must use their smarts and tactics to win. Let's start with the basics. How every piece moves."
Michael grabbed the Pawn in front of the Queen and moved it forward two squares in a very dramatic fashion.
[Two squares forward?](Helen)
"Both correct and wrong. The rule dictates that the Pawn can move two pieces forward only from its starting position. After we moved it, it could advance only one square at a time. Also, it can only advance but never retreat."
[What!? But... that's so cruel...](Evelyn)
"That's true."
[That's the purpose of a soldier.](Helen)
"Don't feel too bad about it. The Pawn is the most special piece on the board."
[How come?](Evelyn)
"Well, like I said, it can only advance, but once it encounters another piece in a square ahead of it diagonally, it can take over that piece and remove it from the chessboard."
[So the pieces can attack as well?](Tia)
Seeing the woman's sparkly eyes and remembering Wizard Chess from a certain blockbuster, Michael swallowed hard and imagined the possibilities.
"Well, as you can see, the wooden pieces are just that, wooden pieces. If you have a way to enchant them to move like normal people do, that would be sincerely awesome."
The disappointment on Tia's face gave Michael his answer. He shrugged and continued to explain.
"The reason why the Pawn is the most special piece on the board is because it can be promoted."
[Hmm? Like in the military?](Helen)
"Similar. If one Pawn makes it all the way to the enemy's backline, it can be promoted to any of the other pieces. Be it a Rook, a Knight, a Bishop, or a Queen."
[Not a King, though?](Helen)
"Have you ever seen a King that would allow a Pawn to take its place?"
The conversation continued with more explanations of the rules of piece movement on the chessboard, taking over an hour until Michael was done talking.
Fortunately, the girls didn't seem too bored. On the contrary, they wanted to play a game and see how it goes.
The new chessboard was immediately put to use as a match between Helen and Michael began.
Two hours later, two more boards were produced, and Michael wanted nothing more than to find a hole to hide himself in.
He was a decent player back on Earth, even averaging around 1,500 ratings on the online sites. However, Helen beat the crap out of him after only three or four games.
'This is illogical! I can barely hold onto my pride by drawing with her or pulling crazy, suicidal schemes. Even those work less and less. The hell is this!?'
Just as Michael sat on his back on the grass, listening to the girls talk and laugh, Mina moved to his side and sat down.
[Don't let it bother you. That girl is messing with you.](Mina)
"Helen? How come? Did she know the game previously?"
[Nope. But how high is your Intelligence stat, and how high is hers?](Mina)
"What!? That works like that?"
[Of course, it does. After you invest points in Strength, aren't you stronger than the previous self? Likewise, there will be a difference in how fast your mind thinks between a Level 9 newbie and someone who has already crossed Level 75 and opened their Paragon Board.](Mina)
Looking at the smug Helen fighting with Tia on the board, Michael's eyes twitched. She was obviously eavesdropping on his conversation with Mina, yet she still dared to act smug!
"Hehe! It's all good! I'll deal with her later. Thank you for comforting me."
[Don't worry about it. This game is pretty fun. It will do much to alleviate our boredom.](Mina)
"Well, it's only the first game. There's another I can teach you. However, we'll need better materials to craft. Not sure we can use wood unless it is very thin."
[Hmm? Is it similar to Chess?](Mina)
"Not really. It's called Poker."
