"Skill ranks aren't just about how to use a skill. They're about knowing when to use it and what your skills are." Cerise's father made this observation one evening a few weeks after they had abandoned the village of Trall.
They had roughly followed the road, and skirted a farming village, Endak-on-Road. By the next village they spotted, though, Cerise's father had convinced her mother to at least stop long enough to give warning to their cyr and register, all official like, that they removed themselves from the roster of his citizens.
The village head at Kell-on-Brook had wanted to detain them, but her parents had said the cyr had failed to uphold his duty as a liege by letting Trall Mining Village fall to "rebellious elements". A liege had a responsibility to his freemen, and by failing in that duty Cyr Wendynhelm was no longer their liege, nor they his citizens. They had no intention of remaining on his lands, and provided notice only as a matter of courtesy. Cerise and Mykhal quickly agreed, and they left before the headman could rally some of the more [Warrior] focused village men to keep them.
Another day of travel saw them out of the Kelm cyrlands. They waited until out of the next two cyrlands before openly traveling along any roads.
Mykhal's Forage skill got a lot of work, more than his Navigation skill, even with the help from Cerise and her parents. They avoided hunting, and were lucky to be traveling in the start of the hot season. Berries and nuts were plentiful, and all their Identify skills were able to warn about which ones were toxic.
Cerise had taken to using her Triage skill as a kind of detection skill. Every living being she could see she could use Triage on, whether she realized she could see the being or not, so she constantly scanned around them, pinging her skill just enough to keep its use below her regeneration. That, in turn, led to the notice she got today.
Skill mutation identified for [Triage]. Active-passive aura available now. Refer to profile for more information.
Cerise barely had the presence of mind to tell her mother before opening her profile.
An active-passive aura turned out to mean that Cerise could choose to use her skill as an aura effect -- right now out to a distance of four bow lengths -- by sacrificing some of her mana regeneration. She could go back into her profile to cancel the aura and regain her mana regeneration.
Naturally, she immediately turned it on.
Now, at the end of the day, as they sat together at another cold camp, her father decided to impart some wisdoms on the nature of skills
"The more you use a skill on Purpose -- not just you choosing to use it, but within the purpose of the skill -- the faster you will gain skill experience. Skill mutations are little tricks people find while using their skills that help them to use the skill on Purpose.
"Cerise, what is the grade of your mutation? You should get a feel for it from your profile."
Cerise checked. "I think Common," she said.
Her father nodded. "Good. Being a Common mutation means a lot of other skill holders have triggered it, which also means that the skill has changed to treat that as an on Purpose skill use. Passive experience gains are harder to manage, but they do constantly grow. This is good."
The conversation meandered from there as the two youths speculated on different types of skill mutations they might be able to unlock, with her parents weighing in every now and again.
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A few nights later, at another cold camp, Cerise broached a topic she was more than a little nervous about. She started off a bit round-about. "When we get to this new dungeon's town, what are you two going to do? For a living, I mean."
Cerise's father smiled. "A lot of that will depend on what's there. If it's an ore bearing dungeon and the floors between are tamed enough, I'll hire on as a [Miner]. If not, I have a [Carpenter] class to fall back on, even if I prefer rocks to wood."
Her mother smiled. "As a [Generalist], I can fill in for low leveled work just about anywhere. If we are free to gather as we want, I might even get to open my own food hall."
For once, when her mother mentioned a food hall, an odd idea that she picked up from a caravaneer some years back, Cerise did not feel the need to roll her eyes. "We have the pot still, at least," she agreed. "I'll try to find seeds from now on. That way, if we find some good herbs for flavor, you can grow them when we settle down."
Her father, with a resigned look, said, "You're planning on following Mykhal into the Free Lancers Guild, aren't you."
Cerise nodded. "Yes. We just need a [Warrior] to fill out a triad."
Her parents got pinched looks on their faces, and her mother surprised Cerise. "Well, we can thank Fortuna at least that the pair of you had your knives with you. We'll cut branches in the morning for staves and start spending time training for the skill. It will be good for all of us, I expect."
So in the morning they went looking and found four straight saplings. It took most of the morning to cut them down and trim off the branches. Her father insisted they follow some woodsman's ritual before putting blade to tree.
"For any guardians of these woods, know that we are passers-by, and take from your wood only that which we need. We will treat with respect what we take. As proof of this, we give you some of our blood." They said the words together and sliced a shallow cut along the backs of their forearms. Each let at least three drops of blood fall to the forest floor before Cerise was allowed to use her Heal Wounds skill on them.
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Mykhal mentioned that they had done similar rites before opening a new field at his old village, and there had been the land god's portion given in the harvest feast. That reminded Cerise of something she had wondered about. "Land gods aren't the same as the gods, are they?"
"I'm no priestly type," her father began, getting an eye roll from her mother. "But no, they aren't. There are some as say that land gods are the children of El-Ahrand and Am-Nahar, He of the Wood and She of the Field, and some as say they are seeds of the El-Am-Shaq, Solaris preserve us.
"There are gods and there are gods, just as there are nobles and nobles. It matters not if a cyr or a king orders us hanged; in their domain a noble's word is law. So too the ways of gods and their domains. In either case, it's best to be respectful of them as you go about your business. After all, the crowing rooster finds the pot."
Mykhal saved a few trimmed branches to experiment with making his own bow and arrows. Cerise donated some of her gauze to use to bundle the lengths of wood, and they used their new staves at first as walking sticks.
As they resumed their traveling, Cerise asked, "Why do we offer a prayer before taking the saplings but not the berries?"
Her mother said, "Berries, grasses, sticks on the ground, they come and they go. Trees, however, make the forest."
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That evening, her father used one of his carpentry skills to season the wood. He claimed Cerise's knife to make some small adjustments, and they talked of gods and of gods. At one point, her father asked her, "How much of the healing part of your class do you want? You talked about becoming a [Tamer] and a [Beast Healer], so I'm not sure how much of your wanting is to work with animals and how much is the healing."
"I like it more than I thought I would," she admitted. "I'm still more interested in helping animals than people, but it felt good, right, to use Heal Wounds today, and to move the soreness out of our bodies."
He nodded. In a considering tone, he said, "Few people need to dedicate themselves to a patron, but for those drawn to a god's domain there can be benefits. Just remember the gods are jealous of their dedicants. If you find yourself drawn to Lunaria's Healing and Am-Nahar's Herds, you'll need to pick one or the other, or neither. Don't try to be a dedicate of both or you'll end up cursed by both."
Cerise and Mykhal nodded together.
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The next morning, they began their staff practice. The staff felt heavy after only a few swings, and her father wasn't letting them swing at each other just yet.
Every adult in their village had been expected to have at least one weapon skill. Monsters could attack at any time, and you needed to be able to defend yourself. Blades was second only to Clubs as the skill of choice just due to how easy it was to gain the skill. However, the Blade skill had more non-combat uses, and that was why her mother had started Cerise with that skill.
Her father, though, had the Clubs skill. It synergized with his [Miner] class to help him use his pickax as a weapon. He would be leading their practice, at least until one of the rest of them gained either Basic Clubs or Basic Staves.
The specificity of skills was an interesting conundrum. At lower ranks, a broader skill was not as useful as a more specific one. Clubs, for instance, would provide some insight in how to swing a club-shaped thing without losing control of it and from there how to hit harder with less effort. The Staves skill did the same for staff shaped clubs, but also acted as a prerequisite skill for more active skills like Heavy Blow and Quick Thrust at a lower rank. Cerise had heard of those skills unlocking with Staves skill at Practiced-0, but her father had his Clubs skill at Intermediate-3 without either skill unlocked.
People rarely wanted to amass a lot of skills, despite how useful they were, due to how classes leveled. If the skill was on your class list, whether in a class skill slot or a general skill slot, the experience you earned toward the skills increase your level. With each class level one gained the room in one's soul to gain more skill experience. There was a difference between class skill slots and general skill slots when it came to earning experience for your class, and that mattered more at higher levels. It was rumored to also play into which classes one could take when one was eligible for a new class.
After finishing one's first twenty levels, one could visit a holy place to adjust which skills were in one's class or general skill slots. Also, one gained a bonus general skill slot for every five levels. One could still learn general skills by getting the knowledge or physical proficiency of the Beginner-0 rank while wanting the skill. The slots were used when you merely had the prerequisites.
But, again, spending your time ranking up skills not on your class list just meant time not spent raising your maximum rank.
Cerise's mother, with her [Generalist] class was one of the odd-ball exceptions. All skills could be [Generalist] skills, but the trade-off was that she leveled much slower, and even worse with more specific skills.
People rarely talked about the specifics of their profile. Class types were polite enough to ask about, but not class names. Level ranges, polite. Exact levels, rude.
Classes at levels between 1 and 20 tended to have "novice" in their names, so were called Novice rank classes. From 20 to 40 were the "Initiates", while "Adepts" showed up from 40 to 60. Very few people made it over level 60, at least in villages, so Cerise had never met an "Expert", and the "Masters" of level 80 and beyond were legendary.
Going from level 1 to 20 was possible for a very hard-working, and lucky, person to do in a year's time. That was especially true if they, like Cerise, had worked hard to max out their skills before ascending to their first class. A more normal person would need closer to five years, and ten was not unheard of if you weren't able to make a living with your class skills.
The first few levels of a second class were not difficult, but most people had a hard time taking their total level from 30 to 40. If someone was particularly unlucky, they might have to renounce an ill-suited class and incur class-change penalties for the first 5 levels of their new class. On the other hand, they might be very lucky and find a class synergy that made leveling much easier.
It took Cerise a week of her father's instruction to learn the Staves skill at Beginner-0.
Cerise
Race: Human
Age: 13, Youth
Total Level: 6
Class(es): [Arcane Healer Novice]
Social Strata: Commoner, Freeman
Pools:
Health: Low
Stamina: Low
Mana: Low
Attributes:
Focus: Moderate
[Arcane Healer Novice] (6)
Arcane Healing: B-0
Heal Wounds: B-1
Heal Toxins: B-0
Heal Diseases: B-0
Triage: B-3
Stabilize: B-0
General Skills
Slots: 1, Used: 0
Acting: P-6 (I-9)
Appraise: P-1
Blades: B-9
Cleaning, Basic *: B-9
Cooking: P-6 (I-3}
Cyphers: B-7
Drawing: P-4
General Anatomy *: B-5
General Craft *: P-6 (8)
Hunting: B-6
Logic: P-6 (I-3}
Mana Proprioception *: B-9
Natural Weapon Combat: P-2
Oration: P-6 (P-7)
Potion Brewing *: P-2
Quick Stepping: B-8
Research: P-6 (A-4)
Scribing: P-6 (A-8)
Staves: B-0
Stealth: P-0
General Skill Unlocks
Mana Sight
Mana Scent
Mana Hearing