Baths were amazing. Cyril and Lise had built a bathtub some years ago, and had an enchanter inscribe some useful runes. There were three runes in total. The first two controlled the level of water, either adding or taking an amount away. It depended on how much mana was used, but thankfully, it didn’t even take a full point of mana to fill the bath. The last rune controlled the temperature of the water. It took a bit of fine tuning, and there was a bit of a learning curve until I figured out how to precisely change the heat to my liking, but it was amazing once I got the hang of it.
Lise had been there to teach me at first, since the runes could heat the water far past anything my own body could withstand, if I wasn’t careful and used too much mana. Once I’d gotten the hang of it though, they left me alone, and I was finally able to start getting myself clean.
I spent a long time cleaning my hair, which had all sorts of dirt and plants stuck inside it. That alone had forced me to completely empty and refill the bath three times, once the water became too murky. Luckily, the runes could take care of that as well, so I didn’t have to worry about getting the bath itself dirty, so long as I replaced the water. The rest of my body wasn’t quite so dirty, but I gave everything a nice, thorough scrub, because why not? I had no clue how long I’d been in the river where Cyril and Lise found me, but I was determined to get every essence of it off of my body.
After I was clean, I felt a bit lighter. Partially because I literally was lighter, after getting all the dirt off of myself. But I also noticed I was just in a better mood. Not that it had been poor before, but something about not being gross gave me a reason to be a bit happier with myself, and especially my appearance.
“So, have you thought about your General Skills?” Lise asked me later on, when I sat down in the common room. They didn’t own much furniture, or have many guests, so there wasn’t any fancy sofa. Instead, there was a large pillow made from wool, which worked just as fine as a seat. I was also holding my new bow, getting accustomed to it. It was a bit large for me, but not so much as to make it entirely unrealistic to use. I just needed a bit of practice with it first.
“Well, Identify seems pretty important, so I’m using one slot for that.” Lise nodded, and gestured for me to continue on. “But I honestly don’t know what I should take aside from that.”
“Well, have you looked through all of them?” She asked. My cheeks became an embarrassing shade of red. I definitely hadn’t looked through all of them, even though I should have been doing just that while I was in the bath.
Cyril had walked in a few moments earlier, and didn’t hold back a laugh. “I’d recommend you give them a look before making any big decisions, Luna. But, you’re also young, so you have some time to mess around. Remember that you can switch your General Skills out later, but you’ll lose any experience you had in them. I’m far too old to go about resetting any Skills, but you can play around with them and figure out what’s right for you. Just try not to end up wasting too much time. Skills take a lot of effort and time to level, so the sooner you settle on something good, the better”
“Thanks, Cyril.” He knew a lot more about the System than I did, so his advice was always welcome. He’d been giving me a bunch of information since the fight last night, since I barely knew anything. It was all nice to know, and helped a bunch with forming decisions.
Looking at the General Skills, I noticed that there were two sections. One, was the typical General Skills. The general General Skills, as I called them. They encompassed all sorts of aspects of life. You could pick a skill to help you in something as simple as breathing, or pick a skill like Meditate that would regenerate your mana and boost your natural healing at a much faster rate. Cyril told me there was even a Telepathy Skill, but it apparently only worked with other people who had the Skill, which significantly decreased how useful it was. There was maybe some use for it if Cyril and Lise both took the Skill, but I doubted I could convince either of them to do that. Plus, speaking normally was fine too, even if talking with my mind sounded really cool.
The next were granted General Skills. That list was significantly shorter, so I looked through it first. There were only three.
Perfect Memory: You have lost your memories once. Now, you can keep that from happening ever again. With this Skill, you will never have to worry about simply forgetting something. (Increased ability to quickly sort through memories per level.)
Century Crafting: Over the past century, skilled artisans and novice apprentices alike have evolved their crafts. Nothing is exactly like it was when you first appeared in this world. Now, you can either get with the times, or stick to your own habits. This Skill will increase the rate at which you learn to craft modern, mundane items. (Increased learning speed per level.)
Dextrous Body: Your body is uniquely suited for precision, agility, and nimbleness. So long as you have this Skill, you will be granted a percent bonus to your dexterity stat. (Increased percentage multiplier per level.)
I was very tempted to take the first Skill immediately, but decided not to be so hasty. If I just grabbed every Skill that looked nice the second I saw it, there was a big chance I’d never get to the really good stuff. That said, Perfect Memory was at the top of the list of possible options. It just sounded too useful to give up. I could think of plenty of uses for it, aside from just being convenient to have.
The second Skill was entirely useless, but it brought up quite a few questions. For one, it not only implied, but straight up told me that I was more than a 100 years old. But that obviously wasn’t the case. My status sheet still said I was only 14, and that was nowhere close to a century. Though, if I had to guess, it all had something to do with the fact that I died and was resurrected. Lise and Cyril had found me weeks ago, in a river. They let me sleep until I eventually woke, but there was no telling just how long I had been out before they found me. It very well could have been 100 years, since there wasn’t any way I was going to remember it.
Dextrous Body wasn’t anything flashy, but I could see its value. From my understanding, it was actually very rare for a General Skill to even include a stat buff like that. Those sorts of Skills were usually in Classes. Either way, it was similarly as tempting as Perfect Memory. One thing I needed was levels. Without them, hunting would be a bit difficult for me. An increase to my dexterity stat could mimic an increase of levels to a certain extent, depending on how powerful the buff actually was. Before grabbing either of the two Skills though, it was time to look through the other General Skills.
For the most part, there wasn’t anything of note. A lot of the Skills seemed to be pretty useless, at least for a hunter, like I was trying to be. Many were purely social, though I wasn’t in a hurry to meet too many people, until I could at least figure myself out. Skills like Bartering, Small Talk, Intimidation, and Soothing Voice were all out of the picture.
Other Skills were a bit more useful, but often lackluster. I could see myself making good use of Running, but it seemed like a bit of a waste to use an entire Skill slot on that. Especially when I could just invest a few points into speed. Walking seemed like even more of a waste. Who would take a Skill for that? The Skill description itself didn’t even do a good job of making it seem useful.
Walking: Before you run, you must first learn to walk. This Skill will make you a much more efficient walker. (Increased walking efficiency per level.)
Moving on, there were other General Skills that seemed a bit more geared for combative Classes. Focus was one of my favorites.
Focus: At the cost of mana, channel all of your attention into a single action for a short amount of time. Your focus will not waver, and your concentration will not be broken. (Increased time given and decreased amount of mana use per level.)
I didn’t have much use for mana at the moment, and this Skill honestly seemed perfect for me. With it, I could focus really hard, and hopefully guarantee more precise shots with my bow. It would also be useful if Cyril ever got into trouble again, and I needed to help. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to get a better angle, or wait for the right moment to shoot.
Top of the list.
The next Skill to catch my eye was Wisdom.
Wisdom: Sometimes, the wisest action isn’t the best. Sometimes, the wisest action isn’t the smartest. With this Skill, your ability to make sensible decisions increases. (Increased wisdom per level.)
It was much more vague than I would have liked, but the possibilities were there. A Skill like that could keep me from doing something stupid - or unwise, rather - and getting myself hurt. Or killed again, if I messed up that badly. Plus, it was especially effective for me, considering I had no real memories. There were no past experiences for me to call upon, which probably meant I was one of the most unwise people on the planet. I wasn’t going to go around doing stupid things for no reason, but I was sure that there would be more times where I’d be unsure of what to do. A bit of wisdom from Wisdom could really help with that.
More Skills, more options. I ended up spending most of the day looking through them all, trying to see if there were any hidden gems. Most of the General Skills were very specific, and entirely useless if there wasn’t a good situation to apply them in. There was one Skill that was extremely good for finding coins that the user lost. Maybe it was useful to someone with a habit of walking around with an untied coin purse, but pretty useless for anyone else. By the time that night was starting to come around, I’d made my final decisions.
GENERAL SKILLS
- Identify (Lvl 1)
- Perfect Memory (Lvl 1)
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- Wisdom (Lvl 1)
- Focus (Lvl 1)
- Dextrous Body (Lvl 1)
Identify: Receive information about a creature’s nature and level. A higher Class level and Identify level will limit the amount of information someone receives about you when using the same skill.
Perfect Memory: You have lost your memories once. Now, you can keep that from happening ever again. With this Skill, you will never have to worry about simply forgetting something. (Increased ability to quickly sort through memories per level.)
Perfect Memory hadn’t gotten an updated description, which was a bit unfortunate. I wanted to know a bit more about the Skill, but it looked like the System was intent on keeping it vague. Oh well, I was still sure that it was strong, regardless of how much I knew about it.
Wisdom: Sometimes receive mental nudges when making unimportant decisions, informing you of which would be the most wise. (Increased frequency and importance per level.)
Wisdom was apparently the sort of Skill that I wouldn’t get any real use out of until later on, when it properly leveled up a bit. Once it did though, I was sure it would come in handy… I just had to figure out how to level it in the first place.
Focus: At the cost of 100 mana per second, channel all of your attention into a single action for a short amount of time. For 3 seconds, your focus can not be broken. Any channeled Skills you use during this time can not be stopped by non-magical means, aside from death. (Increased time given and decreased amount of mana used per second per level.)
I wasn’t too happy with that Skill. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t amazing for me. Channeled skills were usually stronger than normal, at the cost of needing larger amounts of time and mana to use. They were also apparently mostly common with mages, and I wasn’t planning on that. A hunter didn’t need to cast town-destroying spells. An arrow in the right place would do perfectly enough. That all said, the most important flaw was that I didn’t even have enough mana to activate it for a single second, let alone three. I literally couldn’t use the Skill. I’d have to replace it with something else, but I figured I could save it for another day.
Dextrous Body: Your body is uniquely suited for precision, agility, and nimbleness. So long as you have this Skill, you will be granted a 10 percent bonus to your dexterity stat. (Increased by 2 percent per level.)
Again, nothing flashy, but the numbers sounded good so far. 10 percent was nothing to scoff at on its own. As it was, that would amount to an extra five points added to the score, which was about the equivalent of a single level’s worth of free stats. It was only decent right now, but the Skill’s value would increase quite a bit the more it and my Class leveled.
Overall, I was satisfied with what I had, barring Focus. I’d need to do some thinking on it tomorrow, but for now, I only wanted to get a bit of practice in using the new Skills. Mostly, that meant Identify. Everything else would be a bit hard to level, or just couldn’t be easily practiced with. Wisdom, Dextrous Body, and Perfect Memory were both passive Skills. And I couldn’t use Focus, so practicing with it was out of the question.
For now though, I was just going to go out into the nearby forest and Identify everything I could. Active Skills all leveled up by using them a bunch. Identify wasn’t any different, but I imagined it’d get old pretty quickly to use the Skill on any and everything I came across.
That was a problem for the future, though. For now, I was excited to actually use a Skill, even if it was considered a “standard” one. The two from my Class were both passive skills, so while I was technically using them, they didn’t do anything as cool as an active skill.
Cyril led me through the forest. We still had plenty of meat from the wolves and sheep, so I wouldn’t be getting any hunting practice done today. Instead, he was showing me around, so that I wouldn’t get myself lost in the future. It was a nice gesture, but Perfect Memory would have prevented that from happening. Even after telling him that, he still insisted on accompanying me, just so that I wouldn’t get hurt. This was the same forest that the wolves had come from, and we both doubted I’d live if even a single one could sneak up on me, so I didn’t disagree with him coming along.
There weren't too many larger animals, which meant hunting might be a bit more difficult than I assumed it would be in this area. On that note, small rodents were easy to spot, and also very abundant. I found that each of them was very low level, after using Identify. Even I was higher-leveled than most of them, but I did get a few levels for using the Skill on them!
System Notification: You have leveled up Identify! (Level 1 → 4)
It was surprisingly easy to level up at first, but I knew that would only change as the level increased. Still, it was nice to see the number go up. Also, that hadn’t been the only Skill to level up.
System Notification: You have leveled up Perfect Memory! (Level 1 → 2)
It happened when Cyril and I were on our way back. We knew the direction, of course, but I was able to remember the exact way we came. After retracing our steps back home, I received a level. I could already tell how much of a pain it would be to level the Skill later on. Hopefully, with some experimenting, I’d find an easier way to go about it.
Dextrous Body and Wisdom hadn’t really done anything. I hadn’t been expecting them to, but it would have been nice. And Focus obviously didn’t increase either. I hadn’t had any illusions of that Skill getting any levels.
When Cyril and I had gotten back, it was already dark out. He, Lise, and I shared a meal. Then, I had another bath, and was off to sleep. It was a bit early still, but all that thinking had made me tired. And I had to do even more the next day… I wasn’t sure how I could possibly have so many things to do, after only having been alive for two days. Well, fourteen years technically, but it wasn’t like I remembered much of that. Even now, there were only two real memories, and one of them barely even counted as such.
I laid my head against the pillow. It didn’t take long for sleep to take me.
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The burly woman turned her head and spotted Luna almost immediately. She was going to run, but noticed her allies were already charging into the camp. She couldn’t go back by herself. The army would assume she abandoned her allies, and Luna would be punished severely.
The problem with that was that she was now forced to fight. Or flee the army, but she didn’t like her chances of surviving that, over her chances of surviving this battle. There was an entire elite unit in direct service to the Council of the Republic that was dedicated to hunting down any deserters. She had no clue how they even found out if someone left in the first place, but Luna wasn’t planning to find that out either.
The beast of a warrior was charging at her, leaping at her with an axe ready to be swung. Luna activated Burst Movement, and dashed out of the way. It didn’t use mana, but it did make her much more fatigued than what was normal for the distance traveled. It was a Skill that needed to be used sparingly, which was a shame, considering someone much faster was trying to kill her.
Luna ran back to her group, shooting arrows blindly behind her. She couldn’t afford to take even a single hit. Her vitality just wasn’t high enough to get her through a wound as terrible as what the obvious leader of the bandits would inflict.
Just before she got to her allies, Luna managed to pick up the sound of air being displaced behind her. Something was coming, and fast. Luckily, it had been aimed high, so she tried to dodge by using Burst Movement to run a bit faster and lower her head quicker. Even then, something hard and heavy crashed into the back of her skull, sending Luna flying forward. She was just able to see a thrown axe literally split someone’s head in half just before she fell face-first in the dirt.
Luna immediately sprung to her feet, and ran behind cover. The remaining bandits were barely even a threat, after how many Luna had taken out on her own. They were cornered and dispatched quickly. With everyone’s enhanced speed, it’d all only take a few moments.
But that still left the leader. She was visually upset about us all killing her underlings, and took out her frustration on each soldier one by one. The first man was literally squeezed to death. Her hand wrapped around his throat, and squeezed until his head popped off. A painful way to go, but Luna didn’t allow herself to spare him even a single thought. She’d be next, if she didn’t do anything.
She loosed arrow after arrow, but most didn’t connect. The bandit leader either dodged them, or just let them bounce off of her vitality-enhanced skin. By the time Luna’s quiver was empty, and her mana pool was depleted from multiple uses of Mana Arrow, everyone else was dead. The burly woman stood in front of her. They both knew it was over.
“Normally, I’d just kill you on the spot, but I’m not so terrible as to finish off a little girl like that,” the woman said. “I could probably make a pretty penny from selling someone at such a high level for your age…”
She grabbed Luna’s arm, and dragged her through the camp. Luna didn’t struggle, even as she was pulled through the blood and guts of her former allies. She was probably going to end up dead no matter what, but she’d take the chance to live, if it was there.
The bandit leader snapped a metal collar around Luna’s neck.
Name: Luna Maret
Age: 10
Race: Human
Mana: [Locked]
CLASSES
[Locked]
STATS
[Locked]
COMBAT SKILLS
[Locked]
GENERAL SKILLS
[Locked]
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Archer: You have learned of the powers that a bow can bring. Rather than relying on your own skill to fire arrows at your enemies, rely on a Skill instead! (Granted Skill: Archery)
- Child of Death: You have killed many, and have almost been killed just as much. With this achievement, should you die too young, you will be granted a second chance.
Now, she just needed to find a way out of this situation. And out of the damn collar too.
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I woke up in the early morning, feeling well-rested. The dream-memory was still fresh in my mind, but it wouldn’t leave. It was one of the main reasons I chose Perfect Memory. Whenever I saw something from my past, I wouldn’t forget even a single detail. Now though, I wasn’t sure I was happy about that. There was no way I could eat breakfast after seeing someone's guts spilling out after their body was bisected at the waist. And honestly, I only hoped I’d be able to actually sleep at night if that was what my dreams were going to show me.
I hadn’t seen much of the world yet, but I was quickly becoming aware that I didn’t like seeing others suffer. Especially not in brutal, murderous ways.
System Notification: You have leveled up Perfect Memory! (Level 2 → 3)