They had walked for nearly half an hour in silence, although he had set a pace that had been easy for her to keep up. Ria had no doubts that he could've covered this same amount of ground much quicker without her, so she was grateful for his thoughtfulness. Still, the longer they walked, the more questions she had.

It was Ward who broke the silence, "We still have a ways to go until we reach the village but we're in safe territory. If you have any questions or anything, you can go ahead and ask them."

She hesitated, trying to figure out where to even start with the whole mess. Trying to hedge for time, she asked, "Didn't you say that you were finishing up a sweep? Are you sure that my questions won't distract you from your job?"

He shook his head, "It's routine, I or any guardian could probably do it in our sleep. Aside from you, there's no one out in these woods. It will be no trouble to answer your questions and still keep an eye on things. It'll help the time pass. However, if you don't wish to speak, that is fine as well."

She felt her cheeks heat slightly even as she swallowed the urge to laugh at the ludicrousness of the whole situation. Still, if he was open to answering questions, she might as well take advantage of it. She picked and discarded a dozen questions before she started to start with the most basic and work her way up from there. "When I was examining the Guide, it had all my info. However, two sections just had question marks. Skills and occupation. Since whatever brought me here already seems to know everything about me, does that mean that my skills and job don't translate here? Or do I have to input the data? Or since this is a new planet, do I have to start entirely from scratch and start with some sort of low-level menial job from a list compiled for travelers and slowly work my way up to 'real' jobs?"

He nodded, his expression thoughtful. "A good question, but a rather complex one, I'm afraid. What did you do in your world?"

She cringed at the thought of all the work that would undoubtedly pile up during her absence, not to mention how much her father and sister would probably be freaking out right now. "I was a market analyst at one of my father's companies."

"A market analyst?"

She expounded, "My father owns lots of different companies, he likes to keep his business diversified as insurance against when the markets inevitably shift and change. I helped oversee his publishing division. As it turns out, I discovered when I was younger that I have a knack for telling when something is going to become popular based on what people are currently buying and reading. My father noticed this and started asking me about what kind of books he should publish or market next."

She smiled, "It was like a game for me, I'd read extensively and check out the various markets and news stories to see what was currently going on in the market. Once I had a feeling about it, I'd tell my father, 'Because x happened over here and y is responding this way, this genre of books is going to be in high demand soon.' He'd laugh and promise to pass along the word and that was the end of it. So imagine my shock when my father informed me a few months later that all of my predictions had been accurate and that the publishing division had tripled in size in that time because of my information. He offered to make me chief of the division, but I decided that I wanted to just stay as a trend analyst, didn't want to have to oversee a lot of people and deal with petty politics. I hate politics."

He grumbled, "It's the same everywhere, petty bureaucratic nonsense that is meant to waste time and ensure that nothing productive happens."

She laughed and he joined in. "So true! Anyway, I look at current events and what people are buying, then use it to predict what people will buy next."

He nodded his understanding. "There might be jobs like that in the capital, but nothing in this sector. Still, it is rare for a traveler to arrive with a job assigned and usually it's a very niche skill, like blacksmith or warrior. As a traveler, you have several options that you can pursue as far as employment goes. You can choose from the list of menial jobs that always need filling. You can see if there is an equivalent job and see if there are any openings available, which doesn't seem to be a viable option for you. You can visit the guilds and see if there are any openings available for apprentices and be trained in a trade, although the guilds will vary depending on the location and population size of the town. You could also wait for the monthly government test to arrive and test for a government position, which is a comfortable but still bureaucratic way of making a living."

She blinked, processing all of the information that he had just shared. While everything he said made sense, none of those options really appealed to her. She asked slowly, "Are those the only ways to find a job?"

He tilted his hand back and forth in a 'kinda' motion. "Yes and no. Those are the official ways. However, you can always take a bit to adjust to life here and see if an occupation comes to you instead. There are several unique jobs in any place, so that's always a possibility. However, since you literally just arrived and you have your arrival stipend, you won't need to rush into a job immediately if you are careful."

She had always lived a frugal lifestyle, so she had no problem being careful with the money she had received. Although she would have to figure out at some point exactly how much money she had received anyway. She pushed that aside as unimportant for the moment. "Ok, that makes sense, thanks. What about skills though? And how do they affect things here, if at all?"

He shrugged, "Skills can on occasion influence employment or lack thereof. However, they're just as often related to your hobbies and personal life as they are to your employment."

That made sense, a person's skills could be very diverse. After all, Carl in IT had a hobby of hand painting eggs, one that he could make a comfortable living at if he wanted, but he'd preferred to spend his time troubleshooting technical problems instead. The eggs were his relaxation. "So, how can you see what skills you have or acquire them?"

"Well, you can work towards a particular skill, especially if you are trying to get it for a job. That's what many apprentices do. But most of the time you'll just be doing an ordinary task when a skill will show up. You can then choose to hone it or just leave it be. Totally up to you."

She nodded her thanks, allowing silence to fall between them. Her mind whirled as she tried to process all the new information that she'd just received. Everything he'd said made sense, but how in the world was she going to decide what skill or job route to take? It would take careful assessment and analysis before she could move forward with any surety.

Thankfully, she just happened to be an expert in analysis.