I took several minutes just to think things over. Two new skills and based on how my path finding skill was growing I started to develop the idea that no skill was truly useless. I then remembered this house had a study with a bunch of books and some might even go over theory of magic and skills and such. I then focused on my skills
Skills. Rank
Class Skills (3 / 3)
Eyedentify D - 36%
Wondering Pather E - 68%
Mana Explosives E - 63%General Skills (1 / 5)
Mana Manipulation D - 64%
Available Skills
Class Skills
N/A
General Skills
Homemaking
Cursing
Ok I was a bit worried, why did I not realize there was a skill cap sooner. I was hungry and tired but this seemed important to look into. I finished up what I was doing in the kitchen then went to the Study.
I looked at the wall of books and used my identity ability. My mind was flooded with a long list of books, any information that had been printed on the spine was available in my head. I then focused on my skill to get the percentage it was now at.
Eyedentify D - 87%
"Damn that was a hell of a jump…"
At best the skill allowed me to cut down how long it took me to search for different books. I had an almost instinctual idea of where all the books were located. It took me only a minute to find three different books that might fill in some of my missing information.
The first book I grabbed was 'Magic and You by Stacy Hopper'. It seemed like a kids book but if it had the information I needed I would not complain too much. To my utter surprise when I opened the book it had popups. It ended up being a dud after only a few minutes of skimming the pages. It was so basic in fact I had more or less stumbled onto most of the concepts already.
The second book that seemed like a possibility was ‘The Complete Collection of Common Skills the Definitive Guide Volume Two By Antony Antson’. This really was just a collection of what might be considered common skills and their basic descriptions. Flipping through a few sections started to give me an idea of what I could expect to see. Cleaning, Fishing, Farming, Gardening, Cooking, Researching, this list was quite vast in fact. I did also notice that many of these skills had some sort of overlap in what they might do. For instance Housemaking vs Housekeeping were very similar although based on my understanding Housekeeping was more of a business like subject. Other skills like Cleaning vs Sanitization seemed almost identical based on the description.
The last book was ‘Anthology of Skill Combinations v1.4 By The Watcher’. While I was no stranger to doing technical research my background was in Computer Science and Systems Engineering, I was just hoping I understood enough to maybe start connecting the dots.
While the last book was quite informative it started leading me down several other rabbit holes regarding both magic and what was called the ‘system’. I had no less than 5 other books open on the desk in front of me, my butt resting on a too short stool. I had been at this for over 3 hours already and was only coming up with more questions.
One thing I was a little surprised about was I never received a new skill for Researching or anything that would match. This told me ‘skill’ requirements were likely far more custom on a person to person basis. I knew how to research and liked to do all sorts of odd research in my spare time. I did not like doing any sort of Housekeeping or Homemaking work.
By the end I decided to go with accepting Homemaking, as it could assist in a number of potential ways.
I spent the remainder of the day cleaning the house where I could. It was far from perfect but it added a small sense of normality to what had become my world the past few days. I then consumed another jar of what turned out to be a mixed berry preserve for dinner.
I finally fell asleep that night in a real bed, I missed my cats and my friends and even my twin brother. I was worried about my cats and I just hoped my brother noticed that I disappeared, even though we worked together our inability to communicate was legendary in the office.
I spent the next morning attempting to heat up my breakfast on the wood stove which sort of worked. I also found some dry tea leaves in a tin, as I was placing them in boiling water I felt the risk of bad tea was minimal.
I needed caffeine or else I knew I would die.
After breakfast and my attempt at manifesting caffeine, I pulled on my 'new' boots (the lack of socks was very annoying to me) and collected stuff I felt would be useful and headed out to find more supplies.
I had luckily found a few more odds and ends during my initial house cleaning including a backpack. It was still a bit small for me but held a lot more than the makeshift purse I was originally using. I figured the approach I could use was just to just systematically check each place that looked safe to enter. I then took a look at my skills.
Skills. Rank
Class Skills (3 / 3)
Eyedentify D - 87%
Wondering Pather E - 68%
Mana Explosives E - 63%General Skills (2 / 5)
Mana Manipulation D - 46%
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Housemaking F - 47%
Available Skills
Class Skills
N/A
General Skills
Cursing
I figured my ability to identify (because I refused to think of it as Eyedentify) would likely rank up today, and I would not be surprised if my ‘Wondering Pather’ skill ranked up as well. Also seeing how rapidly my Mana Manipulation was growing figured I should spend some time working on that somehow. I did remember the ‘tooltip’ indicated I could lay down threads of mana. In fact as I was thinking about it I figured I could spend a few minutes trying to understand the concept.
I started simple, I placed one of the extra light gems on the table then summoned an external pool of mana hovering just above my hand. I then imagined a thread slowly rising out of the pool.
Nothing happened…
I tried it again but with more will and effort, and again nothing happened. I then tried to pull the mana back into my body which I had never tried before but it would not budge. I finally released the pool of energy and let it dissipate into well wherever the excess energy bleeds into. The odd part was I had some level of control of that external pool so I felt I should be able to work on it in some fashion.
I set the same experiment up again but paid close attention to how I enveloped the small pool of energy in my hand. It took me several minutes to realize but it was no longer in contact with my body, it was floating just above my palm. In fact what I saw as ‘my’ mana might have been more of an interaction between my personal energies and the now external energies in the palm of my hand. I instead try to manipulate my personal mana and reshape that barrier around my hand, which did actually cause a change.
I spent the next few minutes experimenting with that, but I was still unable to form a thread with the mana.
I then realized I might have overlooked the concept entirely and tried to extend a tendril of energy that was still connected to me. That did the trick I imagined extruding a connected thread without already having a pool or more.
The further it got away from me the harder it was to control but I was eventually able to touch the light gem and very inefficiently feed it mana. I then checked my Mana usage.
Mana 66/105
Mana Manipulation D - 67%
“Fuck me! That ate up more energy than I expected…”
I decided to take a break from this and go house hunting.
The morning was a bit warmer and not as windy as the previous day. That made me realize I had no idea what season it was. I could be in the middle of summer for all I knew. Whatever the name of this planet was, it was very Earth-like, gravity felt normal, and I even recognized several types of trees. I figured the day night cycle had to be similar to Earth as well as having similar seasons. If I found a time keeping device I could start to answer some of these questions.
The first place I decided to start was the shed in the backyard, it was about maybe 10 by 12 feet in size and looked pretty much like a wooden shed. This surprisingly had a more substantial padlock style lock that was quite heavily rusted.
“Fuck… I didn't find any keys while I was cleaning… if I could find a pry bar that might work…” I only realized about 30 seconds later that I would likely find a pry bar in the shed.
“Fuck… how do I get in there.” I then tried to kick the lock, but that really didn’t work too well.
“Ok lock, you leave me with no choice but to use explosives…”
I then moved to the side of the shed and extended a mana tendril to the lock, I then started feeding it energy. I didn't know how much it would take but I didn't want to try and infuse it directly. The lock quickly started to bounce against the door as it became unstable then it sort of just popped.
Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Mana Manipulation skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank C costs one (1) General Point
Mana Manipulation
Rank D - 100%
You have developed a solid foundation for mana manipulation in your body. You can spin multiple threads with relative ease, the range of your threads increases.
This ability is ready to rank up. You do not have enough general points to level Mana Manipulation to Rank C.
“Fuck yes… wait… what’s a general point…” I asked the universe. I then checked my mana again.
Mana: 22/105
“Well let's hope there's a general point in this shed…”
There was no general point in the shed, I did use my identify ability to get a quick catalog of what was inside. It turned out to be mostly wood working tools, and some more generic tools. I did find plenty of scrap materials like leather, wood, and even some iron. It took me a while to locate as well but I found two cloth wrapped bundles strategically placed and well hidden. Unpacking them I discovered what might be a short sword in a smaller hand as well as a light crossbow, I quickly identified both objects.
Gnomish Short Sword - Good Quality
Gnomish Light Crossbow - Good Quality
After a few more minutes I even found some crossbow bolts and the crossbow string placed in an oiled leather pouch. I then quickly identified the two new items.
Crossbow String - Good Quality
Crossbow bolts - Good Quality
Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Eyedentify skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank C costs one (1) Class Point
Eyedentify
Rank D - 100%
Your range has increased and you can spend mana to glean information about obscured objects.
This ability is ready to rank up. Would you like to spend one (1) Class Point to upgrade to rank C?
Getting information about obscured objects could be valuable but I was unsure if it was really worth a class point at the moment. I wasn’t even sure how often I would be getting class points even. The most logical solution was to just buy it when it was needed.
I found it a little odd that both were hidden. I ended up placing the crossbow inside, still disassembled and wrapped back up. I then fashioned a loop to keep the short sword on the backpack, I tried to attach it to my pants but they kept falling down.
The second house I explored was not too dissimilar to the place I had taken over. It was similarly set up and furnished but the style was a bit different. It was organized a bit differently but the bedrooms still looked like bedrooms and the kitchen and dining room both felt similar. This one did not have a shed outback but I did find some tools tucked in a less well appointed study that seemed more like a workshop. Just like the first place it seemed they were in the process of having dinner then left in a hurry. I found some sealed jars and started to organize this pantry as well. Seeing as how this place was right next door it would make for a reasonable place for additional storage.
I was still bothered by the lack of evidence as to why the town seemed to have evacuated. I figured maybe tomorrow I should locate a town hall and see if any records or notes had been recorded.
The third house was much the same as the first too but the fourth finally had a major difference and it left me kind of annoyed. The forth was clearly designed for a race that was close to my own stature. The reason why I was annoyed was because the fourth house had looked like a good candidate as well when I was looking for locations to set up camp. It was basically a coin flip that set me up in the smaller accommodations.
While I was at the fourth house I took the time to select several articles of clothing that looked like they might fit. I even found a pair of boots that fit better than my original pair.
I was soon heading back with my latest hall of supplies when I was struck by a familiar acrid smell.