It’s Year 734, I’m four years old and learning [Pottery]. People aren’t as keen on teaching a four-year-old [Carpentry], even a reincarnated one who knows to be careful with sharp objects, but clay is okay. It will be a useful thing to pass on to the low-tech goblins, as well as potentially having applications for skyships. I’m not sure what exactly and there’s more that goes into ceramics than a toddler (is a four-year-old still a toddler?) playing with clay. I like unlocking more crafting skills, though, and I’ve been enjoying working with my hands making various things.

Corwen’s village workshop is large and is comprised of many areas, most of which are not very kid-friendly. I wouldn’t be allowed in here at all if I weren’t a reincarnator who knows better than to touch weird magitech things I don’t understand. Just because I can’t activate them doesn’t mean I can’t mess things up somehow, after all.

General skills can be learned by anyone of any class, and since you don’t actually forget anything thanks to the system, you will always be able to do that thing you did once as a small child. And since the sort of engineering I’m planning on doing requires a lot of different skills and materials, it makes no sense not to try to unlock as many skills as I can when I have a chance. They all still synergize into the base skill, Crafting. I’ll learn [Tailoring] too once they let me play with needles. In fact, I will probably go down the list and see how many of them are reasonable to unlock as a small child.

The other thing I’m working on in between that is [Aura Sight]. I’m starting to be able to measure the difference in auras between human and goblin, between male and female, Basic, Elite, and so forth. Anise lets off more female vis than Hazel, but still emits female vis. One of my uncles lets off no gender vis at all. And after figuring out gender and species, I get a welcome notification, but not the one I expected.

Skill acquired: Clairvoyance (Vis Analysis)

This isn’t one of the skills mentioned in the Corwen big book of general skills. Wondering what it is, I go to examine Anise’s aura again.

Category Person Race Human Gender Female Rank Elite

Oh. Well, that’s convenient. It probably should have surprised me less that this exists. Presenting data in a coherent manner is something the system does well. Anything can be quantified, even magic and ideas. The more things I learn how to identify in a being’s aura, the more things will appear on its identification screen.

“I know you’re just working on [Aura Sight] but you’ve got a really odd look on your face,” Anise says with some amusement.

“I just unlocked a new Clairvoyance skill the last two Corwen reincarnators failed to discover,” I say.

“Oh, nice!” Anise exclaims. “Congratulations! What does it do?”

“I can see part of your status screen.”

“Ooooh,” Anise says. “That’s awesome! Are you sure you can’t teach it to me?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve been told that they require the Soul attribute.”

“Ah, so you’re saying all I need to do is ritually murder somebody,” Anise says, almost managing to sound like she just might.

“Let’s exhaust other options before resorting to ritual murder, can we?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Anise says. “You sharing the data with the party would be good enough.”

“What sort of skill would I need for that?” I ask.

“There’s several skills that can do that,” Anise says. “Sadly, I don’t know any of them. Divination has one. Aunt Heather’s not a mind reader but there’s a lot of things she can tell, like your [Aura Sight]. She does with magic what comes to you naturally. It wouldn’t surprise me if you had a way to do it as a general skill.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try, at any rate,” I say.

I haven’t actually tried to do this. I haven’t thought to. I couldn’t remember being psychic.

The connection is made like flipping a switch in a familiar room.

Skill acquired: Clairvoyance (Telepathy)

With it comes a memory, unbidden.

I stand on the bridge of a starship looking out at a black hole. We’re as close as we dare get. We can only hope it’s close enough to reach with our psychic powers. Vis isn’t affected by gravity or blocked by solid objects, after all.

Before I can see what I saw in the black hole, I snap back to the present.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Skill acquired: Recollection (Flashback)

“What in the Void was that…” I mutter.

“I got it!” Anise says. “Just race, gender, and rank? And here I was thinking you’d seen something funny. Or bad? I can’t tell. I’m not that good at reading faces of even non-reincarnators. You’re always making weird faces.”

Sanity: 3/10

“That was… seven points of Sanity damage,” I say.

“Right, let’s get you to the hearth,” Anise says. “Get some tea or sweets into you before you try anything else.”

Old Aunt Myrtle gives a cup of hot herbal tea and a small sweetcake. Not quite a cookie, more like if someone made a cupcake in a shot glsss. I look up at her wrinkled face and examine her aura.

Category Person Race Human Gender Female Rank Heroic

What a difference that rank makes. Her sister, Aunt Heather, is Legendary rank and looks like she’s in her twenties. Aunt Myrtle, though, seems to look older by the day.

I take a deep breath and center myself. I do not want to think about that black hole any further right now.

“Is there a way to increase your Max Sanity?” I ask.

“Plenty,” Aunt Myrtle says. “Have you tried meditating?”

I make a face. “I was really hoping you wouldn’t say something like that. Isn’t there some magic tea that can do it?”

“Certainly,” Aunt Myrtle says. “And if you can bring me the ingredients from a Heroic-rank dungeon, I will happily make it for you.”

Maybe I’ve been going about this the wrong way. I’m not good at sitting still doing nothing. I am good at zoning out doing something repetitive. Things like pottery and painting are good for that, too.

Once I get my Sanity meter back up to full, I test to make sure that I won’t take further Sanity damage unless I try to push that memory further. I can send status screens and messages to my party. We make sure to test the range of it and determine that it works only to party members, and only if they’re within ten meters. I cannot send a message to someone who isn’t in my party, and I’m not even sure how the system decided who was in my party or not. Every message costs a little bit of Inspiration, though, which is basically just mind stamina, so I can’t keep doing it forever. I’m sure the range will go up and cost go down as I level it up, most likely.

Some days later, I finally get the other skill I’ve been working on unlocked after managing to make a small clay bowl that isn’t completely lopsided.

Congratulations! You have crafted a Poor quality vessel.

Skill acquired: Crafting (Pottery)

I follow this up with an attempt to paint it that does not even slightly improve the quality. I can practically feel the system judging me for my efforts. I wasn’t aiming for the olive green color this wound up when mixing these colors and it’s not even slightly even.

“Hey, nice bowl!” Anise says, either trying to encourage her son or just having a complete lack of taste.

“I finally got that skill unlocked,” I say.

“Great!” Anise says. “Congratulations on one more step on the path of learning everything about everything. Anyway, I came looking for you because there’s an unknown skyship approaching and thought you might want to see.”

“Absolutely!” I exclaim.

Setting my “Poor quality vessel” aside, I follow Anise outside. Above the walls, a much higher quality different sort of vessel approaches. While the flying school bus was awkward and utilitarian, this skyship is practically a work of art. The violet silken sails are graceful, and the smoothly curving hull has been painted with a mural depicting a woman in a red dress surrounded by pink roses.

“Wow,” I breathe upon seeing it. “Whose ship is this?”

“Dunno!” Anise says brightly. “No one was scheduled, so they’re probably wanderers or adventurers. Or wandering adventurers, whichever. Doubt they’re adventurers, though. Their ship isn’t nearly heavily armed enough.”

Aunt Heather is already crossing the square to meet them at the docking tower before they even arrive. Anise and I invite ourselves along.

The visitors are a colorful sort, although given that we Corwens tend to wear an awful lot of black wool, that’s not much of a bar around here and these travelers vastly exceed it. They’re wearing paisley patterns in the most eye-searing combinations possible. I feel like I’m getting a debuff just looking at them. I really hope they aren’t here to sell clothes. Some of my idiot relatives might take them up on it and I might take Sanity damage if I had to look at this every day.

“What brings you to Corwen, travelers?” Aunt Heather asks.

“We are performers!” exclaims the most hideously dressed of them. “The name is Jasper Kelso Crux. I and my merry crew are here to regale you with song and dance, juggling and acrobatics, and even stage plays! Will you permit us to enter your fine village that we may entertain you?”

A status screen pops up in my third eye as I examine Jasper.

Category Person Race Human Gender Male Rank Heroic

I don’t get much of a threatening vibe from him. (I’m trying to analyze “vibe” in some ways Clairvoyance can quantify. So far it’s not working. I will probably need to be more specific.)

“Very well,” Aunt Heather says. “Our guest house is open to you. We do not have a stage, but I’m sure you can make do.”

“And who is this little one looking on over here?” Jasper says, stepping over to me creepily. (If this guy offers me candy, I’m out of here.)

“I’m Drake!” I say. “I’m going to build a skyship when I grew up!”

“Is that so?” Jasper says. “An up and coming engineer, are you?” He chuckles, and turns to give a bow to Aunt Heather. “On behalf of my crew, I thank you for your hospitality.”

The welcoming committee stands aside to allow the brightly colored guests to leave the ship and head down into the village.

I think I’m going to be spending some time looking at them with my eyes closed to see if there’s anything interesting I might note about their auras. I can tell the difference between humans and goblins now. Perhaps I can tell apart humans by origin. Even if not, getting new subjects to examine is a good thing.