Ander awoke the next day sore in every part of his body. His wounds still hurt, but they seemed to be healing well all things considered. Ander leaned back carefully against a fur covered boulder and sighed. He had been in a few close fights since falling into the chasm. The bear was rather scary, but the fear was rather blunted by turning the stupid beast into a rug. The badger was also pretty scary, but with Ander getting a hold on Way of the Wind, it was more a rush than anything. Even without that boulder at the end, Ander figured he would still have won that battle eventually.
His initial battle with the first mutated mariner was terrifying, and it made him grind for a week in order to get over it. And so he went down to their level, killed a few patrols, and got cocky. The spying he had done down at the bottom level was nothing he couldn’t have done at the top. Even if they had seen him at the top, there would have realistically been nothing that they could do. Instead, he decided to hide behind a few thin bushes. He was lucky not to have been spotted sooner. The only reason he survived was his skill gaining a mind of it’s own and intervening to give him skill he didn’t actually possess.
Way of the Wind was an anomaly. He could feel that it was nothing like his other skills. It was far more comprehensive, far more deep than the others. To the point that it brought a foreign mind into his very soul. Ander couldn’t sense any maliciousness from the little spirit. Indeed, the spirit had only helped as far as he could tell. Still, it made Ander uneasy. When Ander found the vision with Walker of Memories, he had accepted the new skill without question. Apparently he should have questioned this too-good-to-be-true thing a bit further.
Unable to go out at the moment due to his injuries, ander decided a bit of meditation was in order. He wanted to explore Walker of Memories a bit further, and hopefully gain information about Way of the Wind at the same time. With a bit of effort due to the pain, Ander centered himself and fell into the void of his skill.
The darkness was the same as he remembered, as were the glowing lines. However, instead of trying to gain a new skill, this time, Ander simply observed for a bit. Immediately, Ander realized that there was far more variation than he had previously realized. Every strand had it’s own hue, it’s own quality. None of the strands had any sort of intent, but they still held the entirety of many of these people’s lives. Which didn’t quite make sense. With a genetic memory, He would expect to only retain memories up to the point where each person helped to conceive the next person in the family line. Of course that assumed this genetic memory had perfect clarity.
Walker of memories contained whole lifetimes in it’s dark abyss. And while Ander felt quite certain that there was a physical component to Walker of Memories, There had to be a deeper connection. But Ander couldn’t puzzle all of this out on his own. There was only so far speculation, however well founded, could get him.
Ander let his will flood out into the void, causing him to rush forward into the forest of beaded lines, until he came to one line, and one bead. He could tell that this bead did not contain a skill like the two that had come before. This bead contained information. Very specific information that Ander very desperately wanted. Ander felt at the bead with his intent, trying to glean as much as he could from it before he went in. Like before, the memory contained within the bead was of two men. However, these were different than the others in a very important way. Both Scori and Senoc as well as Scori’s father and Michael had all been human. These two were Exodar noblemen.
Ander hadn’t noticed before, being so used to being human. But this was the first memory he would see from an actual Exodar. Ander spent several more minutes trying to glean anything else from the skill, but to no avail. Finally he decided that he simply had to jump in.
…
Ansiel banged on the door three times in rapid succession, his mild state of unease causing him to knock harder than he intended. A sound of crashing and curses came from behind the reinforced wooden door, followed by a loud bang. A cloud of smoke issued out from between the door and the floor for a moment before Gadreel threw the door open hacking and coughing in the clear air.
“Ansiel you lout!” Gadreel coughed. “That experiment took me a week to set up just right. Your banging came at the most horrible time.”
“Sorry Gadreel.” Ansiel said, an embarrassed grin on his face. “I didn’t know you were working on something so delicate.” Gadreel sighed.
“It wasn’t anything all that important. Just a bit of a mess really, nothing the children can’t clean up.” Gadreel indicated a group of commoners dressed head to toe in white cloth hurrying into the demolished laboratory. “What was it you needed anyway? It is not often that the great Ansiel of Myrnoch Gorge makes his way down to my humble dungeon.”
Ansiel was silent for a few moments as they walked. Gadreel waited patiently, well used to Ansiel’s thoughtful ways by now.
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“Lord Kyrtech has given us many wonderful gifts. Ever since the transformation into this new species, I am stronger, faster, smarter even.” Ansiel paused for a moment. “However I will admit that one of the gifts makes me quite uneasy.”
“Let me guess. Is it The Walker of Memories?” Gadreel asked, a faint smile on his face.
“Yes. It is… It does not sit right with me. Too much about it is unexplained, and frankly I fear to make use of it lest I fall into some unknown trap.”
“That is a wise fear, Ansiel.” Gadreel replied. “There are many potential pitfalls with such a skill. I am sure you noticed that it is only epic instead of legendary?”
“I did, for all of its potential use, even gaining other legendary skills, I cannot figure out why it is not legendary itself.” Ansiel shook his head in frustration.
“It is actually quite simple as long as you have the right information. There is a fundamental difference between epic and legendary skills. Epic skills give vast and comprehensive abilities. They are usable in a wide variety of ways and create the cornerstone of one's powerbase. That is unless you have a legendary skill. All legendary skills come with a mind of their own. A spirit which elevates the skill into something greater. Most skills are simply engraved on the soul, whereas Legendary skills gain their own, if still conjoined soul. This means that there will always be a new part of your mind that is wholly optimized and devoted to the skill. Mind magic might be able to mimic the effect to a certain extent, but never to the degree which a true legendary skill can achieve. Moreover, there can be additional effects based on where the soul of the skill originated from. Many people who create legendary skills bud their own soul, cutting off a part and reattaching it to be used for the skill. This method works, but there is another method. If you are able to find a willing soul, you can use them instead of budding your own soul. This allows the power which that soul held to infuse the skill further, granting them additional effects.
In fact, there is a perfect case study that you can access using Walker of Memories. This poor fool by the name of Senoc made a legendary skill. He was totally devoted to mastery of weapons without the use of magic, and was trying to find an evolution to the weapons master skill.”
“There is no evolution of the weapons master skill.” Ansiel said, frowning.
“Precisely. So instead he combined a bunch of his skills together, and attracted the attention of a wind spirit. The wind spirit bound itself up in the creation of the skill granting the skill a wind aspect. At first the man was overjoyed, until he decided that the skill wasn’t really his skill and went on some long quest to get the wind spirit removed. It was quite tragic. He ended up a cripple at the end, unable to hold even a paring knife without nearly being torn apart with soul pain. That aside, for the time that he used the skill to its fullest, he was a true terror on the battlefield. The wind moved with him, aiding his every movement so that they cut with the power of a hurricane.”
“Have you taken this skill then?”
“Oh Creator no!” Gadreel laughed. “Taking Legendary abilities in that manner is an incredibly risky proposition. I cannot accurately predict what will happen if I try. You can if you like, you will be fine more likely than not. But I am quite happy with my powerset. The risk is simply not worth it.” Ansiel was taken aback by the declaration.
“What would happen if I took the skill?”
“Again, I am not exactly sure. Most likely is that it would forcibly bud your soul, forcibly attribute it, and then weld it back on. It would leave you with some soul damage that would heal eventually. And then you would be fine. My soul has too much going on to bear such damage well, but you would likely survive well enough. The other option is that it might grab a new wind spirit, or even take a slice of the ancient wind spirit to use. I don’t know. But as Walker of Memories is a rare skill and not a legendary one, I will not take any risks. It is simply not smart enough for contingencies.”
“So that would be one of the major risks of using this skill?” Ansiel asked, “Potentially damaging my soul?”
“Yes, quite. Unless you find a friendly spirit, or decide to bud your own soul to create a mind for the skill, it is quite likely that you could damage your soul by using Walker of Memories. And Legendary skills are not the only problem that could crop up. If the person you are inhabiting is hit by a Gesh, curse, or something of the like, you get hit by it too. I am pretty sure that there is a way to separate yourself enough from the host to avoid this fate, but it would require some very risky experimentation far beyond my desire to perform. That said, If you analyze a memory before you go in and eject at the first sign of trouble, you will most likely be all right.”
“So you are saying I shouldn’t use the skill?” Ansiel asked. “I have a hard time believing that Lord Kyrtech would grant us something so dangerous.”
“I am not saying that at all. I use Walker of Memories consistently. I simply don’t use it to gain any skills. You can use it that way. As I said, I am quite satisfied with my powerset and you are in far less danger than I am. However, I do advise caution. And review some of Senoc’s later memories, that will give you a better idea of what is going on.”
“Thank you Gadreel. Your advice is always good. But I do have one last question. How come there are so many strings in the voidspace? I had expected to see nothing as we are the first of this people.”
“It is simple. Even though we have undergone the transformation, we have not lost our connection to who we used to be, allowing continuity between the humans of the past and the Exodar of today. Lord Kyrtech does not throw away any useful thing. The Children will only have us to rely on for now, due to their Ancestral Memory. But to those of us who are proven Loyal, we are allowed the connection to our past. Now, was there anything else that you needed? My experiments won’t test themselves!”
“No.” Ansiel said. “Thank you Gadreel. Your advice is always appreciated.”