The Way Ahead

Chapter 62: Skillful Applications

Level Up!

Skill Points 551→610

Progress to Tier 2: 787/1590

Basic Mana Sense Level 36→45

Walking Level 40→42

Athletics Level 52→57

Breathing Level 52→54

Identify Level 43→44

Alchemy Level 60→62

Flexibility Level 27→29

Seeing Level 31→33

Sleeping Level 30→32

Outsider’s Almanac Level 82→84

Survival Level 37→39

Visualization Level 42→45

Firestarting Level 45→50

Nutrition Level 28→31

Mathematics Level 39→40

Packing Level 29→37

Mana Infusion Level 65→66

Polyglot Level 36→41

Memory Level 34→36

Wow. Everything except for First Aid and Bomb Throwing had leveled at least once, even Mathematics, which had Edwin confused. He hadn’t been using it that much, had he? Or was that just from normal, everyday use, now boosted by Inion’s token?

Heck, why had Alchemy only leveled two times? And Mana Infusion only a single time? With all of that pottery? He asked Inion as much.

“Well, after level sixty, Skills slow down leveling. It takes a lot of effort to keep growing afterwards.”

Edwin frowned, “But my Almanac skill levels every couple of days, and it just reached 84.”

Inion looked at him strangely, “Really? Maybe it just levels quickly, then. The only thing that even might get it to grow that quickly might be absolute constant use and expansion, but it’s an active Skill, right? Passive Skills are easier to use constantly, but are also harder to push, so I’m not sure what you have going on there.”

Edwin opened his mouth, then closed it again, “You know what, never mind.”

Her gaze redoubled, “How much?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Edwin. How many things in the clearing do you not have marked with your Almanac?”

“…Define ‘things’”

“Anything your Skill works on.”

“I’m… still working through the leaves on one of the nearby trees.”

“How many Almanac entries have you made in the last thirty heartbeats, since we just now started talking?”

“…Twel- thirteen.”

Inion shook her head, “I really don’t have a response for that. Well. Have fun with that.”

Edwin marked off another leaf in the ceiling with Almanac. So what if he recorded every stray thought he ever had with it? Of all his Skills, that seemed to be the one which had no corresponding strain for overuse. It didn’t make sense for him to not be using it constantly, with a bare fraction of his 887 character limit used any time.

Anyway, with Skills out of the way…

Congratulations! For digging the foundations for a building out on your own, you have unlocked the Physical Laborer path!

Congratulations! For creating your own kiln and successfully making a number of ceramic vessels, you have unlocked the Potter path!

Congratulations! For witnessing and taking part in a Wildsong Ritual, you have unlocked the Primal Ritualist path!

Congratulations! For building a house with the aid of an Elder Fey, you have unlocked the Primal Constructor path!

Congratulations! For finishing construction upon the Hidden Workshop, you have unlocked the Master of the Hidden Workshop path!

Congratulations! For settling in the midst of untamed wilderness, you have unlocked the Recluse path!

“Aw. It named it for me?”

“Oh, you got a Path that named here? What did it call it?”

“Wait, how did…” he shook his head, “The Hidden Workshop. I mean, it’s fine, just a bit boring. Can you change it?”

“Ya! Just like you’d do with anything in your Status. Whatcha wanna call it?”

He thought for a moment, “Hmmm… what’s ‘laboratory’ in your feyspeech, whatever it’s called.”

“Laboratory,” Inion answered quickly enough that she must have known she was messing with him, though she managed to- no wait, there was the smile.

“Wait, one moment. Okay, now you can go ahead.”

“Obairlann.”

“Obairlann. Hm. I like it.” It was pretty simple to make the appropriate change now that he knew what to try for, and the notification blinked to comply.

Congratulations! For finishing construction upon Obairlann, you have unlocked the Master of Obairlann path!

Edwin looked through his unlocked Skill offerings. He could say that he wasn’t particularly interested in Digging, Carpentry, Clay Sculpting, Axes or Saws, among others. But there were a bunch that he wasn’t sure about…. This was getting complicated.

“Inion, what sort of Skills do you think I should get?” Edwin asked as he dropped onto his seat by the fire. Without chairs inside, it didn’t make sense to just sit on vaguely stair-like shapes inside Obairlann and be cold when there was a perfectly good fire available, “I want to get something that will be useful and won’t take forever to level. I don’t want to take too many more, though, so… what should I do?”

“You’re an Alchemist, ya?” Edwin nodded, “How many alchemy-related Skills do you have?”

“Uhhh…. Depends how you count it, I suppose. I guess Alchemy and Mana Infusion, maybe Firestarting or Nutrition?”

“There’s your problem. Sure, you can do alchemy, but your Skills aren’t the sort of thing an Alchemist would want. You don’t have any Mixing, any Purifying, any Harvesting, Potion-Making, Bottling, Alchemical Potency, Rendering, Herbalism, Ingredient Assessment, Slow Reaction, Caustic Attacks, Catalyze, Separate… y’name it. First Aid sorta fits a bit, but for the most part, you got nothin’. And you might wanna fix that.”

“Sure, but what Skills are most important? How many should I take?” a thought crossed his mind, “Hey, didn't you say you’d never met an Alchemist before me? How do you know what Skills they’d want?”

She shrugged, “I can extrapolate. But ya! You’re the Alchemist here. What’s most important for you? Since you don’t want that many more Skills- let’s say we bring you up to twenty four at most, you didn’t want to take too many Skills yeah? I’d say you probably should stick with that, because there can be some really, really cool abilities which they give you after a couple advancements, really unique in everything I’ve seen, which is a looooot.”

That… didn’t really help. “Well, what about other Skills? I’ve been offered Stealth and Reflexes which have both tempted me.”

She shrugged, “Stick with what you’ll use, if you ask me- which you are. Sure, Reflexes might save your life someday, but you know what else would? Using a Skill you’re good at and use regularly creatively. As for Stealth? Well, if you don’t wanna fight, you don’t have to. Your Flexibility skill oughta help you there, and if you go for a bunch of Attributes- which you should, they’re really useful for a generalist like yourself with lots of Skills- they’ll pick up the slack. Speed’ll take care of all your Reactions skill-”

“Reflexes?”

“Ya, that one. It’ll take care of everything you’d get from it and more, and might even give more of a benefit than the Skill itself. You improve an Attribute with Paths, after all. Skills you need to practice with. Then again,” she looked off to the side innocently, which immediately put Edwin on guard, “I suppose I could help you level Reflexes if you did pick it up, fairly effectively too.”

What did- oh. A brief image of Inion throwing rocks at Edwin and forcing him to dodge them with no warning flashed through his mind. Yeah… no. She would totally do it, too. He shuddered, “No thanks.”

“Awwww. It could have been so much fun, though!”

“Okay, so just focus on what I’m already doing? Why can’t anyone ever offer some kind of useful advice? I swear, you guys are worse than a motivational poster. ‘Just be yourself!’ ‘You’re on the right track- carry on!’ Honestly.”

“Hey! Need I remind you that in my day- oh, stop giggling, it doesn’t suit you. Knock it off! Back in my day, I would have supplicants travel for days to receive my advice?”

“Uphill in the snow both ways?” Edwin muttered before properly replying, “Yeah? Well in my day it was thirty seconds to find ten times as many empty platitudes as you seem to have.”

After a playful glare, Inion shifted such that she was sitting cross-legged. Edwin mirrored her, but pulled himself into a lotus position instead. He’d been decently flexible before Joriah, but having an actual Skill for it brought things to a new level. The fey stuck her tongue out at Edwin’s one-upsmanship, then allowed her legs to pass through each other, momentarily turning to water and reforming once she was properly contorted.

“Okay then. What do you miss most about your world?”

Edwin thought for a moment, “My lab. The internet. Societal structure. A feeling of safety. Libraries. My mattress.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Inion cut him off, “I should have been clearer. What would you want to have here, with you now,” she thought for a moment, processing Edwin’s list, “Did you not have friends that you miss?”

Edwin shrugged, then once he had collected his thoughts spoke up again, “I guess my lab would be most helpful. Also accurate measurements. High-grade chemicals too. And my chem textbook. I’m sure there are lots of useful reactions that I could turn into alchemical equivalents if I had that.”

Inion frowned momentarily at something, then schooled herself, “Well then, okay! You want Skills to make yourself a new lab, and ingredients, right?”

“Uhh… sure. But what about measurements and my textbook?”

“Ah, I don’t know what Skills might help you there. Keep working on Memory, ‘kay? That should help with your book. But you want to get high-quality ingredients and lab stuff, right?”

“…Yes? I feel like I should be concerned.”

“Well, the way I see it, you want your final three Skills to be something that helps you build non-Alchemy things for your pottery and your lab and all that stuff, another that’ll assist you when harvesting herbs or bottling griffin blood or whatever, and a last one that’ll help you get everything to an,” she puffed out her chest and said in a deep, gravely voice, “Acceptable quality,” then broke down laughing at her own joke.

Edwin frowned, “I don’t sound like that!” he tried to defend himself, just to be waved off by Inion, “But… I guess that makes sense. What about if I’m offered some really impressive Skill, like… I don’t know… Spellcasting? Or Teleport somehow?”

“Then just take it! You don’t need to be limited to just twenty four. It’ll just be a good marker! If you hit twenty five or six, eh. Not that big of a deal at that point, though it’d probably be a hassle and a half trying to get it to a decent level, ya?”

“Yeah… yeah. I guess that makes sense. Just that everyone seems to think fewer Skills are unilaterally better. Well, except for Lefi, but I don’t think following his example is a good idea. It works for him, but… Well, maybe one day?”

Inion shrugged, “It’s your life. I really just don’t care. I am helping you to the best of my capabilities, that’s the Bargain, but even if you do something subpar, I still can hold up my side. But honestly, a handful of Skills won’t hurt you. Cap it at thirty at most unless you decide to take the route of a Wizard. In general, if you can replicate the effects of a Skill fairly trivially and won’t be constantly using it, don’t bother taking the actual Skill.”

“I need to check, because I’m not sure how Polyglot is working here… what do you mean by the ‘route of a Wizard?’”

“Building up Skills manually instead of using Paths. Use Firestarting to get Stoke Flames or Summon Spark, leverage that to get Fireball, you know. It’s a more tra…. I can’t say that.” She snapped her fingers, “I can’t say that.”

Huh. So Polyglot could use self-assigned terminology. Unless the System was gauging how English worked based off of his thoughts? Hmm.

A passing thought, a half-remembered question from months previous, bubbled up, “Is there any way to remove Skills? So far as I’ve heard, there’s no accepted way, just contradictory rumors.”

“Ooh! Good question! I’m pretty sure that I can… yep! Got the all-clear. You see,” Inion’s voice cut out altogether as she tried to say something. Her mouth kept moving, but no sound came out. She realized fairly quickly something was up, though, and it returned a second later, “is still in effect. Huh. So she’s still alive then? I wouldn’t have ever guessed. Sorry about that. I forgot about that Bargain. I have to keep a secret as long as the person I Bargained with lives, and I kind of figured she would have passed on centuries ago.”

That was what it looked like when a Bargain came into effect? That was interesting, along with the idea that Inion was apparently the weaker party in that Bargain, where she couldn’t break the terms, “So where does that leave me?”

She shrugged again, “Can’t explain that much. [……….],” Inion threw her head in the air, “That’s not even a secret! It was common knowledge!” she grumbled, then snapped attention back to Edwin, “But Skills! What are you currently being offered? That’ll give a good idea for what you might naturally level!”

Edwin flipped through his still-open prompts, giving Inion a quick rundown of what he had available. The naiad stroked her chin in consideration, “I think Construction, Purify, and Harvest are probably the most interesting there.”

“Construction?” Edwin asked, “Why Construction? Purify makes sense, and maybe Harvest as well? But I would have thought you’d point me more at… well, I don’t know. But something other than Construction.”

“Construction is a fairly broad Skill.” Inion explained, “It’s a crafting Skill that covers pretty much anything that involves multiple parts, though doesn’t help with any magical aspects of that assembly. You can use magical materials, but it’s no Potion-Making or Enchanting. Similar to Assembling, but it also aids in making the pieces rather than just combining them. Whatever you need to make should fall well within its scope, and you’ll have quite a few banked levels from constructing Obairlann. Because it’s so broad, you won’t get the strongest benefits from it- rather like your Athletics skill, as it happens- but it will aid you in many endeavors. And! It should level any time you make essentially anything. Possibly even Alchemy, though I don’t really know about that.”

“I guess. Purify I understand as well, heck, I was tempted myself. But why that instead of something like…” he picked another Skill he’d been offered which seemed to fit the ‘make higher quality’ bill, “Precision? That might help with my whole ‘wanting better measurements’ problem.”

“Well, when were you offered Precision?”

“Looks like towards the end. Maybe when I was trying to get that last knot whittled out of that log?”

“And Purify?”

“Pretty early on, probably from setting up my distillery one morning…. Ah. You’re saying that Purify is more likely to be used?”

“Ya. Precision might be more broad, but it’s also kinda similar to high amounts of Perception. Purify is something you were complaining you didn’t really have the right tools for, right?”

“True.” While he had primarily been trying to think of how he could make better tools, it had mostly slipped Edwin’s mind that he should try and get Skills that would replicate what higher-quality instruments could accomplish. Probably because he wasn’t thinking about getting a lot of Skills, and he couldn’t afford to replace every tool he might normally need with a Skill.

Purify, though… Purifying ingredients was probably the single biggest contributor to experimental replicability. He didn’t need a Stirring skill, but a distillation or decontaminating one? Yeah, he could use that.

“Round it off, I suppose. Why Harvest and not Gather?”

“That’s an easy one. Gather helps you find places that have stuff you might want, Harvest helps you to actually get it.”

Edwin blinked, “Don’t I want both, then?”

Inion motioned uncertainty with her scale-balancing hands, “Maybe. But Gathering is less important if you already know what you’re looking for or need to know exactly what you want. Gathering, especially at normal Levels, can only guide you towards things you already know where they are. By the time it would be an actual help, you probably won’t need it. Harvest, though, should help you preserve more magic in whatever you take and’ll make it last longer! Super useful.”

“Last question, I guess. Shouldn’t I try for a Skill like Potion Brewing?”

Inion shook her head, “Nah. Too specific for you. Sure, you’ll use it when practicing Alchemy, but not even always then. It doesn’t seem like you’re all that interested in only, or even primarilyusing Potions, but you want to branch out somewhat, right?” Edwin nodded, “There you go. Learn how to replicate what you need here, with what you have at hand.”

Edwin couldn’t say that he was exactly sure about it all, but… he did kind of need new alchemy equipment, and the reasoning made sense. Crucially, it matched up with his own thinking.

You have unlocked the Construction skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Purify skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Harvest skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Yes, yes, and… yes.

Construction

We can build it. We have the technology.

Create nonmagical objects

Proficiency increases with level.

Purify