I stood up from where I had been sitting at the counter.
“Well, I’m gonna head back to my room and try and get a quick nap.” I wasn’t actually tired, but I still wanted to try and get some rest. Especially now while I had a chance, so that when I woke up I could focus purely on trying to get my skills up.
I was hoping that as I got to a higher level and got [Fatigue Resistance] to a higher level that I would need less and less sleep. That seemed to be a common trend across most fiction I read with a system. How well that translated to reality was yet to be determined.
“Alright, make some more of those fruits and other plants that might be usable!” She yelled at me as I walked away.
I waved a hand in acknowledgment, more stuff for her meant better food for everyone here and if they had better food because of me they might be less likely to give me shit.
A win-win for everyone involved.
It didn’t take me long to make it back to my room, from there I went through the song and dance of ‘locking’ my room so no one would try to bother me while I was sleeping. Once I laid down on the bed I felt the drowsiness hit me like a rock.
I guess I was a lot more worn out from my fight than I initially thought.
It didn’t take me long to fall asleep.
***
I woke up, slowly sitting up and stretching with a yawn. I had turned off [One With Nature] when I went to sleep so that I wasn’t constantly seeing a billion different things in my mind while trying to sleep.
As soon as I mentally prodded it to activate, my mind was bombarded with a bunch of info. Even with the five extra minds provided by [Parallel Minds], it was still a bit too much for me to handle completely.
I smiled despite the headache I was experiencing. This was exactly what I had been wanting, an information overload to be able to train my general skills. Both [Parallel Minds] and [Accelerated Thoughts] would benefit from this. I stood up in my room and habitually reached for my sword that I usually kept by my bed with the intention of training [Sword Apprentice]
Only to not find it and remember that Lurks had it.
I scratched my head. Well, that screws with my plans a little.
Or maybe not. I could just make one myself, it’s not like I need to make a real one particularly. I just need something vaguely sword-shaped that I can practice with. I moved one of my minds away from trying to compartmentalize all the information I was receiving, wincing slightly in the process as I moved it to create me another wooden sword to use in place of the one Lurks had.
Now that I thought about it, it was a bit strange that she even let me use the sword. It was such a powerful artifact, at least from what little effort Illesea had put into making it. And yet she was still letting me use it freely. For a given definition of ‘freely’. If I were the one in charge, I would’ve taken it for myself. Rather than let a slave keep ahold of it in any capacity.
I hummed idly while waiting for my new sword to finish up.
The whole situation was very strange, the only reason I could think of Lurks not keeping a hold of it would be… Because Drikith told her to let me use it? Why wouldn’t Drikith want to keep it though? Did he have something better to use? That’s the only thing that possibly made sense… and was a little frightening to think about.
What did he have that might be better than that sword? He was a tier six, but the blade I had was made by a tier seven. Granted she more than likely didn’t go all out while making it, but it was still a great weapon. Hmmmm.
Well, I wasn’t really going to be able to figure this out with the information that I had currently. I might as well focus on something more productive. Like training my skills with this sword that just finished.
I picked up the finished blade and observed it. It was… pretty plain, honestly. Not that I was really expecting anything amazing compared to what Illesea had made, but it was still a little disheartening.
Just more reason to get up there in levels to be comparable.
I wonder if Illesea even knew that I was here. If she did, would she even care? Or would she just leave me to my own devices thinking that my own well-being would be my own responsibility? To a degree, I was of the same mind. I couldn’t just expect other people to babysit me all my time here until I was stronger than them. As shitty as that felt being in the situation I was, that’s just the way the cookie crumbled.
Not much for it then. I took a stance, wincing slightly at my headache before trying to focus on how I was stanced, making sure everything felt correct to my skill and then going from there.
I was about to execute a horizontal cut when I nearly choked, my face going completely red and I immediately killed the grouping of flowers I had in the area.
Something I hadn’t considered, males and females weren’t split up, so naturally some of them were going to get along wonderfully with each other. And with my omniscience in this zone, I was going to get a tasteful voyeuristic view of everything they did with each other.
I shook my head and tried to focus back on my training. On the side, I focused on creating a bunch of different fruits again, but this time I also tried to make vegetables. In addition to that I had a third mind to handle making baskets. Having only two minds working on information control made the headache almost nauseating in its intensity. But I powered through it.
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] has leveled 23 > 24
And I was rewarded for doing so. Nice. I wanted to try and see what [Mana Sense] and [Electric Sense] had to offer now that they were in the second tier. Getting them to the first tier hadn’t really done anything for me other than increase their sensitivity to their individual sensory capabilities. Which wasn’t all that interesting.
This honestly seemed to be the case for most of my skills when they made it to the first tier, they didn’t add anything other than an increased capability to their baseline abilities. Maybe that was all that would happen with general skills? I certainly hoped that wouldn’t be the case though.
I guess I’d have to check whenever I got a moment. Right now wouldn’t be a good time, if I tried to add to the amount of information currently being streamed into my brain I would probably pass out.
‘Ping’ [Parallel Minds] Has leveled 1 > 2
Or I’d get a seventh mind to work with. Convenient. I seemed to be getting one every even level, I wonder if that trend would keep up in the later tiers.
‘Ping’ [Fruit Production] Has leveled 5 > 6
‘Ping’ [Plant Production] Has leveled 1 > 2
‘Ping’ [Vegetable Production] Has been acquired.
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 11 > 12
I then immediately got hit with a deluge of notifications, my eyes widening slightly in surprise. I was able to see everything in my room without turning around thanks to my observation skill. So I could see the currently six baskets filled with a various assortment of fruits and veggies. These baskets were significantly larger than the last ones I had made, but it was good thinking from… myself I guess.
The bigger baskets would mean fewer things in total to carry.
It was strange being aware and not aware of what I was doing at the same time. I wasn’t actually sure if I liked that or not. I’d prefer to be more acutely aware of everything I was doing. Maybe I just needed to get used to the skill itself. It was still pretty new. I had gotten it… while I was with Lurks. And I hadn’t really been in a good state of mind to even begin to comprehend how it would’ve helped me at the time.
If I had to make an assumption there was probably some qualification to be able to achieve the skill or have it granted to you. My guess was that having a second mind intimately integrated with my own was what did it. I wasn’t sure how else you were really supposed to go about getting the skill if that was the case… But that wasn’t really a problem I needed to worry about.
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 19 > 20
Perfect. Most of this was pretty slow going, but there wasn’t much I could do in that regard. These skills were going to be a slow burn over time, eventually I’d get somewhere with them. I just needed to keep up the effort. Once I got them all to max level in tier two I’d feel comfortable ascending into tier three. Maybe I’d get another purple class for my efforts! One that I actually earned myself this time.
I redoubled my effort into my skills after that. I hadn’t ever really been an achievement grinder in games before, but that hadn’t ever directly improved my strength in the games. Achievement hunting in the system apparently had a direct influence on power levels. At least from what little I’d heard from other people. Something I’d have to keep track of myself.
Only time will tell.
***
After a couple of hours, I was starting to sweat and had a whole slew of notifications waiting for me.
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 20 > 22
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 12 > 13
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 24 > 1²
‘Ping’ [Parallel Minds] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Fruit Production] Has leveled 6 > 8
‘Ping’ [Plant Production] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Vegetable Production] Has leveled 1 > 4
‘Ping’ [Fatigue Resistance] Has leveled 8 > 9
I stood there taking a few deep breaths trying to internalize the level ups. Nothing impressive. But it was a good start.
If I could keep this up over time, it wouldn’t honestly take that long to max everything out. Or rather max out all the skills that were reasonable. I didn’t have a particular interest in trying to level up [Erotic Arts] any further than it had. The only reason I hadn’t gotten rid of it yet was because Lurks had probably made me take it. I wasn’t interested in trying to piss her off by getting rid of it.
This was good though. I was happy with the progress I had made so far.
I wasn’t sure how much time I had before our shift out in the mines. In fact, would I even be going back out there? Or would Lurks have me fighting again? I guess I would find out when the time came.
In the meantime, I had a few things I wanted to try before I took the baskets out to Jolene.
Looking at the baskets I had twenty of the massive things filled to the absolute brim with produce. It was interesting that the skills for fruit and vegetable production didn’t completely fall under plants. You would think that’s exactly what would happen.
Maybe it had to do something with the fact that I was directly producing the end result rather than the plant and letting it create what was needed. I nodded slowly, that made more sense in my mind now that I thought about it.
I focused on using all seven of my minds on information control. The headache nearly overpowering my mind died down to a barely noticeable ache that was hard to tell if it was simply lingering pains from the past couple of hours being in that state or something that was just relevant to the moment of trying to process more information than I could still properly handle.
Whatever, it didn’t really matter right now.
I focused on a group of people and activated [Mana Sense] to start with. Immediately they lit up brightly. I instantly noticed a couple of different things about this. Initially, mana had shown as just a colorless hue that caused people to glow.
But I noticed that they each had a group of different colors filling up the aura now. Very similar to what Adam had with his enchanted armor. Had my skill leveled up the second I tried to observe him and I was then able to notice the different hues in that fight? Interesting.
A lot of people had different shades of the various colors. Using [Identify] on them gave me a couple of theories in regard to that as well. My assumption was that the stronger the skill being used was and the stronger the class in general the brighter and more pure the hue of the aura would be.
So for example, someone with a purple class that was a high level making their skills stronger would have a more pure colored hue of their aura for a defensive skill than someone using a similar skill at a lower level or lower class rarity. Maybe the class rarity didn’t play as much into it, but it did play a part in class strength, so there was probably some merit to the theory. Definitely something I’d have to figure out going forward.
But it was nice to see an improvement in the skill. I turned it off and activated [Electric Sense] instead.
I didn’t… really notice anything different. I could more prominently make out the electric signal flowing through the body, or so I thought. It was kind of hard to tell. It was also happening really fast. I wasn’t entirely sure what I could do with this information.
I…
Wait…
WAIT!
Oh lord, I'm so stupid. How could I be this braindead? If I had a nature class that used wood. I could sense nature with it, and manipulate wood and plants and stuff.
Why couldn’t I do the same with electricity? Why wouldn’t I be able to manipulate it the same way with my lightning-based classes?
If I got good enough with my manipulation I could potentially even intercept electrical impulses through someone’s body and prevent them from taking action. Hell, I could even take it a step further and probably completely take over their body.
Actually, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. The thought made me feel a little sick after everything that Lurks had done to me. I wasn’t so eager to inflict that on someone else.
Oh man, this could be good though. I just needed to get an electric manipulation skill and level it. From there I could become nearly unstoppable. It’d be great.
Just as I was about to sit down and work on getting the skill, I noticed someone make a turn down my tunnel. I frowned slightly recognizing Gorlin from the skill. David’s effective secretary.
What could he possibly want right now?
Sure enough, Gorlin came to a stop outside my door and was raising his hand to knock when I manipulated the wood of the door and caused it to swing open.
Gorlin was standing there with a surprised look on his face, obviously not expecting me to open the door before he knocked.
“What do you want, Gorlin?”
My tone came across a little harsher than I wanted it to. It’s not like it was Gorlin’s fault that David was an ass after all.
Gorlin stood there for a few more moments before recollecting his senses and telling me why he came.
“David told Gorlin to fetch you, and he did. Wants to talk to the long-eared one. Follow Gorlin, he takes you.”
I sighed and stood up. I wasn’t particularly eager to come running every time he fetched for me. But I wasn’t exactly doing anything pressing other than skill training… Which I’d much rather be doing in all honesty. But maybe, just maybe this would be him trying to mend the relationship in some way.
I didn’t hold out hopes that it would be the case, but the least I could do would be to hear him out. If I didn’t like what he had to say I could just ignore him and leave.
Well, only one way to find out.
I stood up from where I had been sitting at the counter.
“Well, I’m gonna head back to my room and try and get a quick nap.” I wasn’t actually tired, but I still wanted to try and get some rest. Especially now while I had a chance, so that when I woke up I could focus purely on trying to get my skills up.
I was hoping that as I got to a higher level and got [Fatigue Resistance] to a higher level that I would need less and less sleep. That seemed to be a common trend across most fiction I read with a system. How well that translated to reality was yet to be determined.
“Alright, make some more of those fruits and other plants that might be usable!” She yelled at me as I walked away.
I waved a hand in acknowledgment, more stuff for her meant better food for everyone here and if they had better food because of me they might be less likely to give me shit.
A win-win for everyone involved.
It didn’t take me long to make it back to my room, from there I went through the song and dance of ‘locking’ my room so no one would try to bother me while I was sleeping. Once I laid down on the bed I felt the drowsiness hit me like a rock.
I guess I was a lot more worn out from my fight than I initially thought.
It didn’t take me long to fall asleep.
***
I woke up, slowly sitting up and stretching with a yawn. I had turned off [One With Nature] when I went to sleep so that I wasn’t constantly seeing a billion different things in my mind while trying to sleep.
As soon as I mentally prodded it to activate, my mind was bombarded with a bunch of info. Even with the five extra minds provided by [Parallel Minds], it was still a bit too much for me to handle completely.
I smiled despite the headache I was experiencing. This was exactly what I had been wanting, an information overload to be able to train my general skills. Both [Parallel Minds] and [Accelerated Thoughts] would benefit from this. I stood up in my room and habitually reached for my sword that I usually kept by my bed with the intention of training [Sword Apprentice]
Only to not find it and remember that Lurks had it.
I scratched my head. Well, that screws with my plans a little.
Or maybe not. I could just make one myself, it’s not like I need to make a real one particularly. I just need something vaguely sword-shaped that I can practice with. I moved one of my minds away from trying to compartmentalize all the information I was receiving, wincing slightly in the process as I moved it to create me another wooden sword to use in place of the one Lurks had.
Now that I thought about it, it was a bit strange that she even let me use the sword. It was such a powerful artifact, at least from what little effort Illesea had put into making it. And yet she was still letting me use it freely. For a given definition of ‘freely’. If I were the one in charge, I would’ve taken it for myself. Rather than let a slave keep ahold of it in any capacity.
I hummed idly while waiting for my new sword to finish up.
The whole situation was very strange, the only reason I could think of Lurks not keeping a hold of it would be… Because Drikith told her to let me use it? Why wouldn’t Drikith want to keep it though? Did he have something better to use? That’s the only thing that possibly made sense… and was a little frightening to think about.
What did he have that might be better than that sword? He was a tier six, but the blade I had was made by a tier seven. Granted she more than likely didn’t go all out while making it, but it was still a great weapon. Hmmmm.
Well, I wasn’t really going to be able to figure this out with the information that I had currently. I might as well focus on something more productive. Like training my skills with this sword that just finished.
I picked up the finished blade and observed it. It was… pretty plain, honestly. Not that I was really expecting anything amazing compared to what Illesea had made, but it was still a little disheartening.
Just more reason to get up there in levels to be comparable.
I wonder if Illesea even knew that I was here. If she did, would she even care? Or would she just leave me to my own devices thinking that my own well-being would be my own responsibility? To a degree, I was of the same mind. I couldn’t just expect other people to babysit me all my time here until I was stronger than them. As shitty as that felt being in the situation I was, that’s just the way the cookie crumbled.
Not much for it then. I took a stance, wincing slightly at my headache before trying to focus on how I was stanced, making sure everything felt correct to my skill and then going from there.
I was about to execute a horizontal cut when I nearly choked, my face going completely red and I immediately killed the grouping of flowers I had in the area.
Something I hadn’t considered, males and females weren’t split up, so naturally some of them were going to get along wonderfully with each other. And with my omniscience in this zone, I was going to get a tasteful voyeuristic view of everything they did with each other.
I shook my head and tried to focus back on my training. On the side, I focused on creating a bunch of different fruits again, but this time I also tried to make vegetables. In addition to that I had a third mind to handle making baskets. Having only two minds working on information control made the headache almost nauseating in its intensity. But I powered through it.
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] has leveled 23 > 24
And I was rewarded for doing so. Nice. I wanted to try and see what [Mana Sense] and [Electric Sense] had to offer now that they were in the second tier. Getting them to the first tier hadn’t really done anything for me other than increase their sensitivity to their individual sensory capabilities. Which wasn’t all that interesting.
This honestly seemed to be the case for most of my skills when they made it to the first tier, they didn’t add anything other than an increased capability to their baseline abilities. Maybe that was all that would happen with general skills? I certainly hoped that wouldn’t be the case though.
I guess I’d have to check whenever I got a moment. Right now wouldn’t be a good time, if I tried to add to the amount of information currently being streamed into my brain I would probably pass out.
‘Ping’ [Parallel Minds] Has leveled 1 > 2
Or I’d get a seventh mind to work with. Convenient. I seemed to be getting one every even level, I wonder if that trend would keep up in the later tiers.
‘Ping’ [Fruit Production] Has leveled 5 > 6
‘Ping’ [Plant Production] Has leveled 1 > 2
‘Ping’ [Vegetable Production] Has been acquired.
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 11 > 12
I then immediately got hit with a deluge of notifications, my eyes widening slightly in surprise. I was able to see everything in my room without turning around thanks to my observation skill. So I could see the currently six baskets filled with a various assortment of fruits and veggies. These baskets were significantly larger than the last ones I had made, but it was good thinking from… myself I guess.
The bigger baskets would mean fewer things in total to carry.
It was strange being aware and not aware of what I was doing at the same time. I wasn’t actually sure if I liked that or not. I’d prefer to be more acutely aware of everything I was doing. Maybe I just needed to get used to the skill itself. It was still pretty new. I had gotten it… while I was with Lurks. And I hadn’t really been in a good state of mind to even begin to comprehend how it would’ve helped me at the time.
If I had to make an assumption there was probably some qualification to be able to achieve the skill or have it granted to you. My guess was that having a second mind intimately integrated with my own was what did it. I wasn’t sure how else you were really supposed to go about getting the skill if that was the case… But that wasn’t really a problem I needed to worry about.
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 19 > 20
Perfect. Most of this was pretty slow going, but there wasn’t much I could do in that regard. These skills were going to be a slow burn over time, eventually I’d get somewhere with them. I just needed to keep up the effort. Once I got them all to max level in tier two I’d feel comfortable ascending into tier three. Maybe I’d get another purple class for my efforts! One that I actually earned myself this time.
I redoubled my effort into my skills after that. I hadn’t ever really been an achievement grinder in games before, but that hadn’t ever directly improved my strength in the games. Achievement hunting in the system apparently had a direct influence on power levels. At least from what little I’d heard from other people. Something I’d have to keep track of myself.
Only time will tell.
***
After a couple of hours, I was starting to sweat and had a whole slew of notifications waiting for me.
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 20 > 22
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 12 > 13
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 24 > 1²
‘Ping’ [Parallel Minds] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Fruit Production] Has leveled 6 > 8
‘Ping’ [Plant Production] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Vegetable Production] Has leveled 1 > 4
‘Ping’ [Fatigue Resistance] Has leveled 8 > 9
I stood there taking a few deep breaths trying to internalize the level ups. Nothing impressive. But it was a good start.
If I could keep this up over time, it wouldn’t honestly take that long to max everything out. Or rather max out all the skills that were reasonable. I didn’t have a particular interest in trying to level up [Erotic Arts] any further than it had. The only reason I hadn’t gotten rid of it yet was because Lurks had probably made me take it. I wasn’t interested in trying to piss her off by getting rid of it.
This was good though. I was happy with the progress I had made so far.
I wasn’t sure how much time I had before our shift out in the mines. In fact, would I even be going back out there? Or would Lurks have me fighting again? I guess I would find out when the time came.
In the meantime, I had a few things I wanted to try before I took the baskets out to Jolene.
Looking at the baskets I had twenty of the massive things filled to the absolute brim with produce. It was interesting that the skills for fruit and vegetable production didn’t completely fall under plants. You would think that’s exactly what would happen.
Maybe it had to do something with the fact that I was directly producing the end result rather than the plant and letting it create what was needed. I nodded slowly, that made more sense in my mind now that I thought about it.
I focused on using all seven of my minds on information control. The headache nearly overpowering my mind died down to a barely noticeable ache that was hard to tell if it was simply lingering pains from the past couple of hours being in that state or something that was just relevant to the moment of trying to process more information than I could still properly handle.
Whatever, it didn’t really matter right now.
I focused on a group of people and activated [Mana Sense] to start with. Immediately they lit up brightly. I instantly noticed a couple of different things about this. Initially, mana had shown as just a colorless hue that caused people to glow.
But I noticed that they each had a group of different colors filling up the aura now. Very similar to what Adam had with his enchanted armor. Had my skill leveled up the second I tried to observe him and I was then able to notice the different hues in that fight? Interesting.
A lot of people had different shades of the various colors. Using [Identify] on them gave me a couple of theories in regard to that as well. My assumption was that the stronger the skill being used was and the stronger the class in general the brighter and more pure the hue of the aura would be.
So for example, someone with a purple class that was a high level making their skills stronger would have a more pure colored hue of their aura for a defensive skill than someone using a similar skill at a lower level or lower class rarity. Maybe the class rarity didn’t play as much into it, but it did play a part in class strength, so there was probably some merit to the theory. Definitely something I’d have to figure out going forward.
But it was nice to see an improvement in the skill. I turned it off and activated [Electric Sense] instead.
I didn’t… really notice anything different. I could more prominently make out the electric signal flowing through the body, or so I thought. It was kind of hard to tell. It was also happening really fast. I wasn’t entirely sure what I could do with this information.
I…
Wait…
WAIT!
Oh lord, I'm so stupid. How could I be this braindead? If I had a nature class that used wood. I could sense nature with it, and manipulate wood and plants and stuff.
Why couldn’t I do the same with electricity? Why wouldn’t I be able to manipulate it the same way with my lightning-based classes?
If I got good enough with my manipulation I could potentially even intercept electrical impulses through someone’s body and prevent them from taking action. Hell, I could even take it a step further and probably completely take over their body.
Actually, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. The thought made me feel a little sick after everything that Lurks had done to me. I wasn’t so eager to inflict that on someone else.
Oh man, this could be good though. I just needed to get an electric manipulation skill and level it. From there I could become nearly unstoppable. It’d be great.
Just as I was about to sit down and work on getting the skill, I noticed someone make a turn down my tunnel. I frowned slightly recognizing Gorlin from the skill. David’s effective secretary.
What could he possibly want right now?
Sure enough, Gorlin came to a stop outside my door and was raising his hand to knock when I manipulated the wood of the door and caused it to swing open.
Gorlin was standing there with a surprised look on his face, obviously not expecting me to open the door before he knocked.
“What do you want, Gorlin?”
My tone came across a little harsher than I wanted it to. It’s not like it was Gorlin’s fault that David was an ass after all.
Gorlin stood there for a few more moments before recollecting his senses and telling me why he came.
“David told Gorlin to fetch you, and he did. Wants to talk to the long-eared one. Follow Gorlin, he takes you.”
I sighed and stood up. I wasn’t particularly eager to come running every time he fetched for me. But I wasn’t exactly doing anything pressing other than skill training… Which I’d much rather be doing in all honesty. But maybe, just maybe this would be him trying to mend the relationship in some way.
I didn’t hold out hopes that it would be the case, but the least I could do would be to hear him out. If I didn’t like what he had to say I could just ignore him and leave.
Well, only one way to find out.
