We spend some time talking.

Turns out that Croce is some kind of lore-master, or whatever you want to call it, and is therefore informed about pretty much everything. Not that she tells me everything, she made that very clear to me.

And, as this great keeper of knowledge, she also has various appropriate skills. The most important for me is her language skill. Whatever it’s called, it allows her to instantly comprehend most languages.

Yeah, it’s quite useful, isn’t it? Especially since that was the whole reason for my unfortunate kidnapping.

Apparently, since the apocalypse, and I’ll get back to that in a while, only this one city survives. And some people forgot that other languages exist. So, when they saw an unknown mage speak weird words, they assumed I was trying to cast a spell.

It was all just a big misunderstanding. Which, if I want to avoid in the future, I’ll have to fix by getting a similar skill for languages. Especially if I plan to travel between worlds some more after escaping this one.

Also, this whole language business is also why Croce is so friendly. And I use friendly a bit loosely here, but she’s still much nicer than the other people here, but that could be just because we can actually talk.

Anyway, she has a fascination with languages. Which can be a problem when the rest of the world is gone and only one remains. Which is why she was so excited to speak with me.

Right, am I forgetting something? Oh, yeah. The apocalypse, as the people here refer to it. But it’s really not that bad. Sure, the world has a timer until its eventual demise, but at least it isn’t instant like what happened to Earth. Now that I’m thinking about it, what did happen to Earth?

Either way, the gist of it is that some cultists summoned those scroonusi here. Which promptly destroyed civilization. This city only survived thanks to having a lot of mages and highly skilled people. System skilled, that is.

Since then, they’ve been following behind the eldritch beasts, much for the same reason that I decided to settle down in a spot that they had just passed.

And that’s all, I think. We’ve been sitting here in silence for about a minute now, and I get the sense that she won’t be breaking it anytime soon.

“So, does that mean I’m free to go?”

“Hmm?” she looks up at me, as if awoken from deep in thought, “Oh, right. Sorry, I completely forgot about that. No.”

My hopes begin to rise as she speaks, but then are suddenly dashed with the end of her sentence.

“What do you mean no?” I ask, exasperated. “Didn’t you just explain that this was all a misunderstanding and I haven’t done anything wrong?!”

She looks at me as if I’m the unreasonable one. After a moment of tense silence, she speaks.

“First of all, I’m not the one that decides that. Second, and most importantly, you’re still extremely suspicious. A strange mage living in the dead forest, alone and naked, after the end of all other living beings? Not to mention that according to how much you’ve built in that little clearing of yours, you would have been there at around the time those apocalypse monsters wandered by.”

Oh, so that’s how it is. Do they seriously think I’m one of those cultists that summoned those beings from the Void. Sure, I did do it once, but that was an accident.

Oh, and before I forget. When I woke up here, which I presume is somewhere on the floating city, I had some clothes already on me. Yeah, someone must have put those on me.

“Fine,” I reply, unable to hide my petulant tone, “I can sort of understand that. But what does me being there when the monsters were there have to do with anything?”

Croce gives me an unbelieving look. What did I say this time?! Why must she always make that judgemental face. I’m not the stupid one here, okay!

“How,” she pauses, “do you not know,” her voice escalates, “about that!?”

Wow, she really sounds exasperated. Maybe staying silent when it’s possible would be a better tactic in this situation? Nah, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

“No one, not even people who specialized purely in mental skills, were able to resist what happens when we get too close to them. How did you?”

Hmm, what’s this about? Wait… oh. Oh no. I have Cognito-hazard resistance. Of course, other people wouldn’t be able to bear being near them.

So much more stuff makes more sense now. This is why I’m seeing them only now. They cannot perceive them, so they can’t keep a constant distance from them. As such, they tend to lag behind by quite a bit.

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Good to know, good to know.

“Um, right. So, how do I clear my name of this suspicion?” yes Ra’mon, let’s try to distract her. I’m sure the question doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

Which is quickly disproven by Croce narrowing her eyes at me. Fortunately, though, she lets the topic go for now.

“For now, just remain here and don’t do anything troublesome. I’m going to have to report this and then someone else will decide.”

Damn, okay. “And you’re sure that it wouldn’t be possible to just leave me where you found me? We can act as if this never happened and we never met.”

“No,” and she leaves.

Well, it was worth a try. What am I going to do now though. I can’t practise magic here, now anything physical. Or actually, could I?

There’s that body enhancement skill I wanted. And perhaps I could train it by shaping a gravity distortion to perfectly fit my body! They wouldn’t be able to see that, would they?

Ah, but I’d have to actually get the skill for that first. I have no desire to put myself through that kind of pressure otherwise.

How would I do that though? Cast a weaker version of the spell and think about how my body resist pressure? It worked for digestive system, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work here.

Ahh! But do I actually want that kind of skill? Damn it, this is agonizing. Why couldn’t the System be more structured? Classes would be a great addition to it.

Let me just check my skills. Maybe that’ll give me some inspiration.

Level Up!

Fortified mind – level 66 -> 69

Languages – level 43 -> 45

General knowledge – level 43 -> 46

Visualize – level 54 -> 56

Focus magic – level 28 -> 30

Meditation – level 52 -> 54

Digestive system – level 22 -> 28

Hmm, okay, that didn’t help at all.

Let me just go through the reason to get a skill like that.

Right now, my mind vastly outstrips my body. This was clearly demonstrated to me when the assassin-guard knocked me out. Not only did they move so fast I could barely react, but I also couldn’t resist the blow to my head.

The first part, reacting, should be taken care of by silent step. While it isn’t focused on fast movement, is helps. And I can tier it up into something more suitable.

Then there is the whole being knocked out in one strike. I have nothing to resist that. Well, maybe a ridiculously high-level mind skill would help, but I think this is mostly a physical thing. So, I need something to make me sturdier.

Maybe a skill like hard bones or something would be better for this specifically, but I’m not living in an isolated bubble. Eventually I’ll get into other situations where such a skill wouldn’t really be of much use.

Pressure resistance on the other hand… Well, if I understand human biology enough, the skeleton is there to maintain shape. So, such a skill would also reinforce my bones. Except that unlike a skill specifically for bones, this one should also have an effect on other stuff. Admittedly, I’m not exactly sure what else, but I think muscles and skin should also receive some benefit.

Then there’s a new fact my new skill, focus magic, taught me. A skill like pressure resistance may activate only when I’m actually resisting pressure. Which could render in meaningless against blows to the head.

Okay, I need some more arguments. What have I experienced recently that would have benefited from such a skill?

Oh! The Void summoning ritual! When the portal or rift or whatever was open and the eldritch thing on the other side had access to this reality, a huge pressure descended on the area. So great that I couldn’t even move.

Yeah, that decides it. I don’t care if the other benefits outweigh the cons. This one thing is enough to take it.

I open the list of skills available to me. Shit, it’s not here. Apparently, the weak pressure from when I was floating isn’t enough to unlock it.

Very well then, here we go.

I create a mental image of my body in my head. I’m going to need this if I don’t want them to detect my spell usage. Hopefully, as long as I don’t leak magic outside of my body, it’ll be undetectable.

Meditation helps me get into the proper state of mind. I’m going to have to cast a pre-shaped spell. Which is something I haven’t tried yet. Obviously, it’s possible, I did manage to cast the spell with the border already half formed, but that was just that, half formed.

Good, now ready all of my thought streams. I need to catch the flow of magic as soon as it appears.

Sitting as still as possible, so as to not mess up the shape of the spell, I cast.

Mana leaves from somewhere deep within me and focus magic activates. I take hold of the magic and shape the spell, while making sure nothing actually escapes beyond the boundary of my skin.

Only a couple second pass, and the spell is established. Let’s hope I did it correctly. Now, to get the skill.

Slowly, gradually, I start increasing the pressure. Or rather, I deepen the spacetime distortion, causing my gravity to increase.

As stress under which my body is rises, I strain with physical effort. My bones almost feel as if they’re creaking. But they’re not, it’s just an illusion created by my mind. I hope.

More and more, the pressure rises, slowly nearing what the Void creature managed. I don’t let myself get distracted by that accomplishment. I have to focus on my body.

My bones are definitely resisting. They’re strong, but also a bit flexible, which helps carry the burden.

My muscles and skin, I’m not so sure about. There’s probably something happening with them, but not much stands out.

What does stand out are my innards. Those definitely feel the pressure the most. I hadn’t realised it before, but my organs are hollow. Which means they are particularly compressible. This may not have been such a great idea after all.

Against my better judgement, I continue. Even if my body isn’t as awesome as my mind, it’s at least at the peak of mortality. That has to count for something.

After a while, I can’t continue anymore. Maybe I got the skill, maybe I didn’t. But I’m at my limit and there’s always another time.

I cancel the skill.

Ouch! Bad idea, bad idea! That is not something I should have done! Oh, fuck! Why did I do that? I know that divers have to ascend slowly because of the pressure. How could that have slipped my mind?

Sprawled out on the bed, I breathe heavily until I recover. Meditating helps a bit. At the very least it calms my nerves.

Oh, System please! Let this suffering be worth it!

You have learned the skill: Pressure resistance!

Accept?

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! How much brighter the world feels now! The colours more vibrant, the air more refreshing!

It almost seems worth it. Hopefully it really was.