“You were gone for a long time,” Maria said once I climbed up the hill with a few jumps. Eleanor was there as well, but she didn’t interrupt her task, her blade dancing between different forms, deaf to the world. “And, what’s in that huge bag?”

“There was a small development. Not all Farmers were able to upgrade their skills naturally,” I explained even as I put the bag down.

“How many of them?” she asked.

“About ten percent,” I said.

“Good,” Maria shrugged. “Then, they can stay there and deal with the logistics or something. We don’t need to replace them,” she said.

I paused. “Why?” I asked.

“Because they can’t upgrade their classes,” Maria said. “But, with all the secrecy you insist, we can’t do that. They have to stay there for the whole six months. We can’t afford to have a second location.” I continued to look at her, unable to contain my shock. “Did I say something wrong?”

“I mean, why would I want to replace them,” I said. “It’s an opportunity.”

Maria looked at me in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“Did you know that some people couldn’t naturally upgrade their skills even if they hit the limit?” I asked.

“Well, no,” she said. “But, it wasn’t exactly something I explored. Getting the skill stones is almost always the better option,” she said.

“Assuming you can purchase the exact skill you want, of course,” I completed.

“Naturally,” she said, tensing slightly.

“It’s not a personal attack,” I said. “Believe me, I much rather get the best option rather than accidentally killing myself experimenting.”

“Fine, let’s focus on why it’s an opportunity,” Maria said. “It’s probably just their perks or something.”

“That’s the interesting part, it’s not,” I said. “I have already checked the most obvious suspects. It’s not the level or the perks,” I said even as I opened the bag, showing the pile of paper inside.

“You can’t expect me to read all of it,” she said.

“Of course not,” I said, affronted, pulling a small booklet. Like I would never try to do a presentation without a handy little summary. Having two thousand people that I could order around made tabulating the data much easier, especially since I didn’t need to deal with the guard schedule, thanks to the trees being enough to keep them safe.

Naturally, I asked them not to pass level twenty-five, as the higher their Nurture, the better their new class would be. There was no punishment for refusing to listen, as all of them were adults. If they wanted to waste the potential opportunity in front of them, I couldn’t do anything.

The presentation included all the data I was able to collect. “As you can see, there’s no meaningful correlation between their levels, perks, or core demographic data.”

Maria looked confused as I showed all the ways it was unrelated. “And, is that … good? Why are you so excited about being unable to find the result?”

“Of course I am. It means there’s another variable that affects everything,” I said, then paused. “Well, either that, or I have committed some kind of systematic error somewhere in the process, resulting in useless data.”

“Is that likely?” she said. “It sounds obvious.”

“It’s far more common than you can imagine, especially when dealing with people,” I admitted. “For example, about the experiments about learning patterns —” I started, ready to share some interesting anecdotes, only to be interrupted by a cheerful cry from Eleanor.

“Yes!” she shouted.

Once I turned toward her, the source of her excitement was obvious. A sharp edge of mana, was noticeably under control as it extended from her blade, absorbing it from the steady flow of the crusher.

“Congratulations,” Maria shouted even as she moved to hug her. I chuckled as I watched them from a distance, happy with the success.

Eleanor looked at me. “What are you doing there, come here,” she ordered.

“Thanks. It won’t be comfortable when I’m dressed like this,” I said as I knocked on my armor.

“Nonsense,” she said as she moved to my side with one step, Maria still hugging her. She pulled me into the hug, which was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life, for the simple reason that all three of us were wearing armor. The sound we made was not too dissimilar to a car crash.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

They didn’t seem to care. “So, did you receive A new skill?” Maria asked enthusiastically once we were separated.

“Well, no,” Eleanor said. “But, since I achieved a mana attack, I can’t be too far off, right?” she said even as she moved in front of the crusher, and repeated.

I strongly doubted that was the case. I had three examples for that skill upgrade. Two of them happened on the first attempt, but my third one, Cleansing Meditation, only happened once I had pushed it to the limit.

Still, I said nothing as I watched Eleanor repeat her attack, her cheerful mode slowly dissipating into panic. “Why — is — it — not — working,” she growled.

“Let’s take a breather,” I called, stopping her.

“Is something wrong?” Maria asked as she looked at me, and Eleanor wasn’t too far away.

“Not necessarily,” I said, gesturing for Eleanor to sit down. She looked frustrated, but under my sharp gaze, she followed my invitation. Maria did that as well. “Now, before we start talking, I want you to remind both that Eleanor has just achieved a mana attack, and that’s a great win.”

“Using a specialized weapon that would shatter against any half-decent opponent, and with a giant machine behind my back,” Eleanor replied. “Hardly a useful trick.”

“I disagree, but let’s not focus on that for now. I just wanted to remind you that, we’ve been working for merely a day, and we’re already seeing results. Under any sane metric, that’s an incredible achievement.”

“I guess,” Eleanor muttered, while Maria nodded at me in gratitude.

“Now, let’s discuss why there’s no upgrade in your skill,” I said. “The worst case is that it’s a method that only works on Common skills, or using a skill stone somehow invalidates that path.”

Eleanor looked tense at the possibility, but Maria spoke first. “Do you think that’s possible?” she said.

“Possible? Yes. Likely? No,” I said. Admittedly, I wasn’t exactly confident in that conclusion, but I didn’t want to demoralize Eleanor any more than necessary. “That’s just the worst-case scenario, and I wanted to mention it.”

“What else?”

“What you have used is the simplest form of a Mana attack, with a density similar to my Rare Mana Forge. Every different skill has a distinct way of using Mana and Health with every upgrade after Rare. There’s a chance that we have to copy the Epic or the Legendary variant of a mana attack to trigger the skill.”

“That sounds complicated,” she said.

“It’s not simple, particularly since we don’t have a sample for it. But I’m sure we can figure out a way around it if things come down to that.”

“It means you have another idea,” Maria said.

“Yes. My own experience mainly relies on how I managed to improve Mana Forge. At that time, not only was my skill Common, but it was also still below twenty-five. And, even when I had upgraded to Rare, successfully creating a mana alloy gave me several points of skills.”

“Meaning, the Common variant counted that as an even bigger achievement,” Maria completed, understanding what I was getting at. Eleanor looked at her, looking confused. “He’s saying that, there’s a chance for an upgrade if you manage to get several points in one attack.”

“So I have to use it in combat,” Eleanor said, her forlorn expression immediately replaced by a vicious smile at the possibility of solving the problem in a way she favored. She stood up, ready to jump.

“Wait a second,” I said, stopping her again.

“What?”

“We still have things to discuss,” I said. She looked at me, impatient. “What if attacking the boss monster is not enough to solve the problem, and increasing your skill further only makes it harder,” I suggested.

That probability was enough to make Eleanor sit down, but I could see that it was a close call. Without the credibility I had built up on her, it might have easily gone in a different direction.

Though, it wasn’t enough to stop her from pouting.

“What are we going to do?” Maria asked.

“We have three paths, which could be run in parallel. First, we’re going to work together and see if we can design an Epic Grade mana attack,” I said.

“Do you think we can do it?” Maria said.

“Yes, especially since the System is not really stringent when it comes to measuring success,” I said. “Half of the alloys I created while I was speed-leveling my skills weren't fit to be used even as a butter knife. But, since they were made of a metal the System treated them as a higher level, it still gave me points.”

“Really,” Maria said. “That easy?”

“Is it any easier than killing monsters that others have wounded,” I said. “Every class has its advantages,”

“Fair,” Eleanor cut in. “What’s the other method?”

“We’re going to try to understand the factors behind the skill upgrade,” I said. “If we can isolate the critical variable behind it, maybe we can focus on that aspect.”

“Makes sense,” Maria said. “What’s the third method?”

“Before suggesting it, I want you to remember you can easily veto it, and I won’t be offended, alright.”

Maria looked at me, suddenly tense. “It better not be…” she growled.

I had no idea what she was thinking, but I decided to go fast just in case. “Improving my Forge skill is another option,” I explained hurriedly. “That way, not only will we see if skills could be upgraded above Epic, but if I can reach Legendary, I can forge even better weapons, which should be helpful for better attacks.”

“That’s it?” Maria said, her growing fury replaced with a smile. “It makes perfect sense. Why did you look so tense?”

“Because it kind of benefits me too much, and I don’t want to come across like I’m trying to benefit from the situation,” I said. Also, it was my guilty conscience speaking about my previous actions, but I kept that part silent.

No need to go poking around healing wounds.

“Don’t think about it like that. The stronger you are, the better,” Eleanor said, giving her entirely unbiased opinion, even as she caressed the hilt of her new sword.

Maria noticed that as well if her chuckle was any indicator, but she let that slide. “Exactly,” she said instead, then looked at Eleanor. “Of course, it means you have to go around helping the farmers upgrade their skills and collect their data while we work,” she said.

“I can do that,” Eleanor said.

“Of course you can. You just need to be careful of a few principles while you help them and record the results,” I said. “Let me write that down.”

“Sure,” Eleanor said, smiling, but as I quickly filled one paper and moved on to the second one, that smile trembled a bit. It turned into a neutral expression as I filled the second paper, and a frown replaced it as I was filling the fifth. “Is it too late to change my mind?” she asked, exasperated.

I just chuckled, but continued writing.

After all, a solid experimentation protocol was important.