Chapter 11

Robin looked absentmindedly at the other orphans as he nibbled on a piece of hardtack. As always, the food here left much to be desired, but by now he was sadly used to it. Still, as much as he suffered his breakfast, his mind was too occupied to complain.

It took him some time to fall asleep last night. By the time everyone else was deep in dreamland, Robin was still contemplating what Rick had told him.

The Grimm were nothing new to him, but to have someone explicitly describe to him the ways and forms in which they were a danger to his life was new. Robin knew why the conversation affected him.

Simply put, it was personal. Until now he only heard people talking about the Grimm as a phenomenon, something dangerous, like a tornado or an earthquake.

Robin, like most people, considered such things as something far away and, because of that, unlikely to happen to them.

It was just like people who crossed the street without looking. They were never hit by a car so they believed that will hold true forever. Then a truck runs them over and they always think "How could this happen to me?".

The same was true for the Grimm. Robin's life was never at risk by a Grimm, hell, he hadn't even seen one. His own mind tricked him into believing they were something distant.

Rick knew about these sorts of things and thus he took an entire hour to make sure he broke any illusions Robin had.

Rick never said "The Grimm kill people", instead he looked Robin in the eye and told him "The Grimm will kill you. Consider yourself lucky if it happens quickly and you don't see them eating whatever part of you they managed to tear off."

That was the difference. Rick made it personal. He never spoke about "people" just about Robin. That was one of the things that impressed and mortified him.

On one hand, he was impressed that Rick knew how to break psychological blocks in mentality. On the other, he was mortified since he took so much time describing to a child all the gruesome, gory, and generally messed up ways he could die.

Granted, Robin was not a child, at least not in mind and soul. Honestly, he was grateful, extremely so. He had gotten lax. Even his control over his behavior has slacked lately. At some point, he completely gave up on acting like a normal child. Thankfully that didn't seem to be a problem.

If he lived in a city, with a normal life and normal family, he might have been under a lot more scrutiny for the strange behavior. But here? The Yiayas didn't give a damn. On the contrary, Petunia, Hilda and Rick were praising him constantly for his maturity.

In Vaco's desert, the innocence and ignorance of childhood were not something marvelous and endearing. They were a burden that had to be endured by the adults and something to get rid of as soon as possible.

It was a lesson. Something that Robin took to heart. He never had any foolish ideas about a second childhood mind you. On the contrary, he was now thankful that he didn't have to limit himself. His proactive mindset was disturbing when found in a normal child, was greatly valued and appreciated by the Yiayas and, probably, any other tribe that lived in the desert.

Speaking about proactive, Robin shoved down the rest of his food and left the tent. Petunia's lesson would start soon and he didn't want to be late. Yesterday they finished talking about how to obtain water, how to collect and make it safe for drinking.

When Robin first heard the topic of the lessons he was not very impressed. He knew about germs and how to boil water to make it drinkable. Fortunately, he still listened and found out this world was not as forgiving as his old one.

Apparently water, the one found around certain places in Vacuo, could contain something called Dust particles. Petunia firmly emphasized that Dust with a capital "D" was something totally different from the mundane dirt.

She said that boiling water with Dust particles in it could lead to dangerous phenomena if there was enough concentration. That ended the discussion on water and today they would begin speaking about this new substance.

Robin was curious, but not surprised. With him being in another world and all that, it was expected that new things would pop up every now and then.

As always he sat in the back row. The morning had just begun, but the sand was already getting warm. Petunia arrived quickly and, since she was not a fan of pussyfooting, the lesson began in full force.

"Dust is a source of energy in Remnant, basically the main one we use. It can be found freely in nature, either in large deposits or scattered packets, depending on its type."

Robin listened attentively, but most of the other kids were either zoning out or half asleep already. The older ones were actually fully alert and composed. Robin could guess that those kids were already receiving training in some other form in the tribe.

He could easily see the divide in mentality and once again contemplated how quickly the Yiayas severed childish behavior once they decided you could be put to work.

"When first extracted it is in rock form. We call it raw dust. Then it is further refined to either powder or individual crystal. Dust, by its very nature, is extremely volatile and dangerous. The smaller the crystal, the higher the chance it will blow up in your faces."

Robin winced. He now understood why sometimes it might be a bad idea to casually boil whatever water you find in the wild. If Dust was easier to activate the smaller it was, then something like the powder that could hide in water was better left unsaid.

Though he had to admit that something that could explode from boiling water was a bit counterintuitive for him.

"Dust comes in many elemental forms such as fire, ice, gravity, etc. These can be combined to form other, more complicated elements that create different effects. Fortunately, this is something Huntsman, scientists, and engineers have to worry about. All you need to know about dust is that it will hurt you if you mess around with it."

Petunia then went on to explain that almost everything was powered by Dust in the big cities and towns. The Yiaya did not have any dust with the exception of a few small appliances and devices. Carrying around something as volatile as Dust was not a healthy practice for a nomadic tribe.

Another thing that Robin learned was that Huntsman were big users of Dust, some more than others. He knew very little about them except the fact that they were trained specifically to fight Grimm.

The lesson continued for some time. Petunia was primarily focused on Dust safety rather than usage, but it was still valuable information that Robin took joyfully.

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