Ludere hadn't thought of all the little eventualities linked with getting his skills the way he wanted to get them. Considering the effort it took to earn a basic skill? Few would blame him for the lack of foresight.

  This, though, this was a step in the right direction.

  He deactivated his new skill. It was getting annoying, constantly feeding his mind theories about how it was supposed to be used.

  Like a child with a new toy, except in this instance, the toy gained sentience and tried to spout out advice it wasn't sure of. There was an impulse, though, one that felt more reliable than the skill’s ramblings. Unsurprisingly, it tickled his mind into finding a partner to make this work.

  Which immediately presented issues.

  Who could he trust with this? If he took the skill at face value, then he could apparently mix and match skills between himself and other people. Which shouldn't be possible.

  That was a thing of fantasies and legendary heroes.

  He was no Hero; heck, he wasn't even well muscled. Perhaps he should've taken the time to train so that his physique could compare to the gladiators, but what would've been the point?

  Was that who he wanted to be?

  Plenty of the ambitious sought their luck in the arena; some for coin, others in desperation. A not-insignificant portion of them came here to earn and nurture skills. Skills that could be his, if he could find a safe way to go about this.

  This… this was his ticket.

  Gia had some interesting-sounding skills. He could… what? Go up and ask her? Swap with her, and then swap with someone else in the hopes that he would get paid? Over and over, until he could afford to leave.

  Would there be consequences if word got out about his new acquisition?

  Probably; he just had to go about this carefully.

  People he knew, first and foremost; he could figure out a system once he'd confirmed his assumptions on how the skill worked.

  Ludere let out a breath and stepped towards Gia where she usually served drinks to the visiting Senators. Black eyes to complement black hair, a common pairing amongst southerners. She had a thin brown ribbon attached to a white tunic, which identified her as one of the many who worked for the Colosseum.

  It seemed as though she was loitering at the moment, likely waiting for more product.

  Her gaze flicked to him, and she raised a brow. "What's got you so excited? You look like someone tipped you ten Dinarii for food, which of course you'll be spending here."

  "Hey, uh…" Ludere looked around, making sure there wasn't anyone watching them. "I know this is a weird question, but what skills do you have?"

  Gia blinked. "Ludere, did I mistake you for a gentleman? You know it's not proper to ask a lady for her skills."

  "I'm aware… but… well, one second."

  He scribbled something down on a scrap piece of paper he had in his pocket, showing it to her without comment.

  Judgement: 5

  Scan: 6

  Athletics: 8

  Skill Swap wasn't there; he wasn't going to risk losing this slip of paper and accidentally exposing the skill to anyone who'd happen to pick it up…

  "So, these are your skills? I always wondered why you're so bad at everything." Gia paused to look at it.

  He rolled his eyes. "Look. Have I ever steered you wrong? I just need you to trust me for a minute."

  She crossed her arms. "Okay, what's going on?"

  Ludere lowered his voice. "I got a new skill. I think that I can swap skills with people. I need to try it out."

  Gia blinked. "My skills are Glam, Hawker and Unarmed Combat. How does this work?"

  Ludere looked back to the other bookies. "I'm going to take five to relieve myself. Yes, again."

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  The non-committal grunt he received from them was enough. The pair walked over to the relief area.

  "Alright, you're going to have to trust me, here. I think that if we do this, we can swap… Care to have the athletics skill? I'll borrow your unarmed combat skill?"

  "This sounds ridiculous, but okay."

  Ludere wasn't thinking; it was best practice to empty your mind when trying to use a skill until you got used to it. It wanted him to do something, practically begged.

  He held out his hand, and she clasped it with her own.

  He reached out, and to his surprise found her skill list pop into his mind.

  He didn't want to think about how she'd gotten her combat skill so high—probably just grappled for fun or something. Hopefully.

  He drew an image of Gia fighting using her fists and held it there, drawing another to encompass his athletics skill. He imagined the skill going to her, and pulled on the image of unarmed combat to himself.

  Ludere let out a gasp and opened his eyes. Gia gave an audible grunt.

  *Ding*

  *Unarmed Combat level 1.*

  *Skill Swap level 1->2*

  "Of course."

  He drew up his skills.

  Athletics was greyed out, inert and useless. But there it was, Unarmed Combat. Added to his repertoire without the intense training that was often needed to earn a skill.

  He felt… grounded.

  The loss of Athletics was strange, but it seemed that the new skill had some applications, in terms of motion. Not as much as Athletics, of course, a fact which Gia seemed very enthused to demonstrate.

  She was jumping around like a toddler, face all red and flushed and broken into a smile. There was something in the way she moved that made her look more… he didn’t know. It wasn’t bad, though.

  "You gave me a skill? Holy Soup. This is amazing. I mean it's level one, but I'll take it. I feel lighter, like I could run forever, and…" Her face darkened. "You can't tell anyone about this."

  Ludere shrugged; he was more focused on the niggling of a new skill. “Of course, of course. For now, can you help me figure this out?”

  Gia narrowed her eyes and scanned their surroundings. He could tell what she was going to say, a little sparring match between them would be alarming to anyone who knew her.

  They'd never fought, but even he was well aware that she wasn't a pushover.

  Something told her he could take her, though—maybe the skill?

  If her skill greyed out as his did, then she'd be working at a massive disadvantage compared to her normal, while he had a small boost with the first-level skill. It would be damning.

  But he could feel it in the back of his mind, this skill didn't belong to him. It was like his brain had binged a book's worth of knowledge, none of which mattered if he didn't apply any of it. Like… he didn’t know, it felt as though the skill would leave if he didn't take the opportunity to solidify it.

  "Fight me," he said.

  "I think not. I don't know what to do with my hands. I've done a lot of punches and… This just feels unnatural."

  She jumped around for a little longer, peeving Ludere a bit. He could do the same; it wasn’t exactly complicated, but he'd tire out much faster than if his skill was active.

  He could fight, and that was great.

  The way Athletics had multiplied his actual talent, though? He felt weak without it.

  "Look, I don't know how much time we have, but… I think we need to level up these skills if we want to keep them."

  Gia stopped her jumping and looked over. "You sure about that?"

  "I don't know," he huffed. "I'm just doing my best with what this thing is trying to communicate."

  Gia stared and pursed her lips.

  "Alright, I guess. Show me your stance, first."

  Ludere nodded, getting into a stance that he thought was correct. Correct enough, at least. He knew nothing about unarmed combat except for the images flashing through his mind, and the occasional match that prohibited weapons.

  Gia took a moment to inspect him. "Your stance is pretty basic—feet are a bit too wide, though. Bring them closer, as well as your arms. Easier to block that way."

  He followed her instructions without question, he didn't feel like challenging the knowledge of someone who managed to get a skill to thirty. His highest skill was nowhere near that, and he was still aware of how wrongly his body moved now that it was inactive.

  Knowledge ingrained so deeply wouldn't just disappear alongside the skill.

  She showed him how to throw a proper punch and how to fall, before he got the notification.

  *Unarmed combat 1->2.*

  He pumped a fist.

  "You got a skill level?" Gia said, then frowned. "Wait, I need to do that, don't I?"

  He shrugged. "Honestly, we shouldn't have started with these two skills—I was… I didn't know what I didn't know."

  "Ludere, you Euphridia-damned scoundrel. Meet me after the last bout, and we'll work this out."

  Ludere was more than happy to continue their lessons. As a matter of fact, he could barely move without thinking about stance and positioning now.

  "Don't you need to get back to work?"

  A senator's aide flagged Gia down.

  "Rek. You're right."

  Ludere sighed and walked back into the clerk's office to resume his post.

  He had to take it slow, though. He relied on Athletics more than he thought, because now he walked like a geriatric. It'd come back eventually, though, however long that was.

  When that happened, he would be able to fight unarmed, and walk like a normal person.

  Ludere smiled at the boy as he walked up to him.

  "What's got you going? You look like you need a cane or something." Erebus looked at him askance.

  "I'm just a little out of breath, is all."

  "You, out of breath? I always see you running laps and training with the… Yeah you don't look right."

  "I'm fine." The last thing that Ludere needed was any sort of scrutiny. He had enough of that before he could swap skills. But there was no line right now, so he could indulge Erebus. "Gia just been helping me with a project."

  "A project? On what?" Erebus narrowed his eyes.

  Erebus had the type of close-cropped curls that made everyone think he was southern. The boy tried to be intimidating by matching it with one of those masks with the face cut out.

  It didn't work most of the time, but the customers found it amusing.

  Who'd be intimidated by someone whose strongest skill was most certainly Numeracy?

  Well, they changed their tune once they saw his tallies.