Looking over Daniel's status, she quickly noticed three things.

First of all, were his stats. Those were pretty damn high. Just his lowest stat, concentration, was more than six times her own. Probably a result of his class.

Secondly, his wave level was still zero. She wasn't entirely sure what the waves entailed, but it meant that Daniel hadn't participated in those until now.

And lastly, and most importantly, his talent. Victoria's talent was called Learning, exactly what she knew it to be. And while it may have been a coincidence, she didn't think it was. But that would mean, something was wrong with Daniel's talent. "Incarnation: Mother Earth" stood in no relation to Daniel's actual talent.

At that moment, somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed that one of her High-heels skills had increased to level two, followed by the other again only moments later.

Victoria frowned a little. Her first two skills were goddamn High-heel skills. Other people would have sword skills or archery skills, there were probably even cooking or cleaning skills, she would have been okay with any of those, but High-heel skills?

Actually, that wasn't even the worst. With all that had happened and all the stuff she had to think about, she hadn't had the time to waste a thought on her class. Her class was "Wife" for fuck's sake! What kind of sexist bullshit was this!? She hardly doubted that there was a counterpart "Husband" class.

That was probably why she got those High-heel skills in the first place! What the hell did it even mean with "Wife"? Did this system plan to give her childbearing and fertility skills next?! Or did it plan to turn her into a stupid little wallflower? She wouldn't... no, she couldn't accept that! Whatever it takes, the first thing she would do once they reached the city would be getting rid of this goddamned class!

Earned Skill:

High-heels: Style

Victoria's eye twitched.

Take a deep breath...

Then, breathe out slowly...

Breath in, and out...

In, and out...

She had to calm down and get her priorities straight.

She strove to be the best at everything, she always did. That didn't exclude whatever the system understood as a "Wife". She would be the best goddamn "Wife" in all of existence. And she would kick ass on the battlefield and everywhere else.

And if the system wanted to give her High-heel skills? Then, she would wear them in style and look gorgeous even when ripping out a monster's guts.

And actually, the Balance skill sounds pretty promising. If she got it high enough to do martial arts while wearing High-heels, her kicks would suddenly become a whole lot more lethal.

Okay, good, she had calmed down.

Actually, they had been walking for a while already. And wasn't like she was completely exhausted, she noticed that she was already breathing heavier.

The problem was, even when walking in High-heels through the forest, she should have been able to walk thrice the distance at twice the speed and still feel nothing. She should be in far to good a shape for this.

Was this because her stats were so low? In that case, did it affect her mind as well? That was honestly quite the scary thought. Normally she didn't get angry that easily, and that was because her Willpower stat is so low?

Anyway, she was getting distracted. Now she had a rough estimate of what she had to achieve, and surpass, in the future. Just looking at all those numbers, a bit of a daunting task, but she would manage. She always did. And she would do so while wearing goddamn High-heels...

Breath in...

And out...

Calm...

"Thanks for showing me, Daniel. Actually, there was something I wanted to ask. As far as I noticed, there seem to be three different disciplines here if you want to call them that. Magic for one, then Psy abilities like telepathy and telekinesis, and I guess the aura stuff belong to the physical stats. Could you tell me the exact differences between them, especially Magic and Psy?", Victoria asks.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Very well, I can even explain to you how to use them, roughly... Very roughly. It's actually a bit difficult to explain. And it might be hard to learn how to use them with your current stats.

Anyways. The difference between Magic and Psy, was it?

Let's start with magic. Magic is mostly about feeling and controlling mana to create, modify, and control the four elements. Meaning Earth, my best element, Wind, Fire, and Water.

With magic, there are two important things you need to remember. One, everything you create disappears once your magic stops, and two, you can only control what you created.

Let's take Firemagic for example. While the heat from a fire spell can start normal fires, you will neither be able to control those flames nor will they disappear when your spell ends.

Also, they will always be completely normal fire. This is actually the most important thing about magic. The modification.

I do mostly simple stuff with my stone and earth magic since it's easier to handle in a fight, like making it harder and heavier, but you can theoretically do all kinds of fancy stuff. Correction, I do fancy stuff, it's just not as noticeable. The stone I create through magic? It's not heavy exactly, it's actually pretty light, it's only heavy for my enemies.

Those shoes? If you were to kick someone with them it would feel to them like they are around... two hundred kilograms maybe?"

Victoria looked down at the pair of supposedly highly lethal High-heels skeptically. They didn't feel heavy at all. No, that was the whole point, wasn't it? She had seen Daniel swinging around that ridiculously oversized sword like it weighed almost nothing while it also ripped through the wolf's head like a wrecking ball.

"Though you have to be a bit careful with those mods and figure stuff out slowly. Sometimes you imagine something that sounds cool and useful, but is absolute shit, and sometimes...

Well, let's just say, making dark-fire that consumes everything sounds cool, but don't do it. I tried. It burned literally everything, including air. It was a big, black explosion and the only reason I didn't hurt myself was because the flame was heatless and I ran out of mana before it reached me."

During Daniel's explanation, Victoria had already got several different ideas, though she also quickly noted to keep all-consuming-fire as a last resort.

"Then, there is Psy. Psy is almost the opposite of magic. It's, as far as I understand it, about controlling that what already exists with nothing but your mind.

Like this, for example.", Daniel says, as he makes several leaves float up from the ground and float around his head like some magical elven crown.

"But you can't only affect the physical world, but also the mental. Though I can't show you much of that. I only know one Psy based mental skill, and that is a defensive one. Though I know for a fact that ghosts like to use fear auras. Seriously annoying that shit.

Actually, now that I think about it, magic that affects the mind should be possible as well, though I really don't wanna know how much mana that uses.

But, the most interesting thing about all this is probably how Psy and Magic interact with each other.

For example, if two people fight, one using Magic, the other using Psy, and they both throw rocks at each other that cancel each other out perfectly, the magician would be slower and less efficient than the Psy user. Because the magician not only has to throw the rock but also create it, which takes time and mana.

but if those two rocks were thrown at another Psy user, that one would need less energy to telekinetically block the normal rock than to block the rock made with magic, despite both being exactly the same on the physical level.", Daniel finishes his explanation.

"So they have both their advantages and disadvantages... And how does Aura fit into that?", Victoria asks, now curious how Aura would interact with magic and Psy.

"Well, it doesn't, not really. Aura is pretty much all about enhancements, making stuff that's already there even better.

I like to divide it into three levels. The first level is self-enhancement, basic stuff like stronger skin, harder bones, increased strength and speed, or enhanced senses, though I'm not so good at the last one.

The second level is what I call armament-enhancement. So, things like making your weapon and armor stronger and sharper. It's less efficient than self-enhancement, but you need to be able to do that if you want to, let's say cut a rock with a steel sword without instantly blunting it.

As you probably noticed, I prefer to create a weapon with magic, which has the advantage that I can just make a new one if it gets damaged and I don't need to carry it around with me. Besides the fact that's a magical sword is, of course.

The third and last level is what the system dubs as Sword-arts, or Ax-arts if you use an ax I guess. Basically, you go one step further and enhance your action, doing things like the classic flying-sword-slash, or that gale move that I used on the second wolf. Though, again it's even less efficient.

Actually, I think there might even be a fourth level, but I can't do that. But if my theory is correct, that would mean you enhance the effect of your action. Meaning, something like a bleed effect. But as I said, I can't figure out how to do that and the Aura cost would be insane. Probably something an assassin-type fighter might want to learn. A single high-cost-high-effect-attack that causes the target to bleed out from a small stab wound."

"And how can I learn to use them?"

"Well, it's simple, but also difficult. It has a lot to do with vague feelings.

Aura for example is pretty simple to learn. You try lifting a weight that's just heavy enough that you can barely not lift it, or try sprinting faster and faster until you reach your limit, and when you have reached that limit, you try to go over it.

That way you have a good chance of activating your aura. It's gonna be extremely inefficient and has a high chance of leaving you wasted for the rest of the day, but you should be able to get a feeling for how to use it. Then you just need to try and replicate that feeling.

But, well, with your current stats your aura is so little and weak that it may be difficult to recognize it before you run out, even if you activate it.

Psy is... Well, it's easiest to start with telekinesis. What you want to do is basically mentally commanding an object to move, until it does. Feeling like an idiot in the process is mandatory.

I can't really explain telepathy to you, but you should be able to figure it out if you got a good understanding of telekinesis. They are kinda similar, but also not...

Anyways! Last but not least, Magic! It's the only one you don't have to forcibly activate to get a feeling for it because your mana is constantly flowing through your body. But it's also the hardest one to feel. As a rule of thumb, if you can picture your blood vessels strangely clearly, it's probably your mana. Then all that's left is to pull it out of your body, give it roughly the right shape, and have a clear picture in your head of what you want.

Oh right, just a warning, but you won't get any skills for things you can't do relatively reliably. Normal skills only make you better at stuff you can already do. I for example still don't have the juggling skill. I tried, but most of the time I'm just throwing rocks in the air and fail to catch them. What I mean to say is, some skills are pretty hard to get because they have a high threshold.

No, what I really mean is, don't try to learn Aura, Psy, and Magic skills until right before you go to sleep. You probably won't get them on the first try, and I don't want to carry you the rest of the way. Using all your Aura leaves you wasted, using all your Psy gives you a headache, and using all your Mana, well it just makes you feel like shit in general."