With the bone wolf now accompanying us, dad and I began a leisurely march back to the village, or more specifically our house. It wouldn’t do for any of the villagers to see my new minion and go running in abject terror, so Daniel offered very politely to range ahead of us. I could have easily had the wolf stay a good range behind us as dad and I walked together, but truthfully I think he was a little unsettled and just wanted the space to think. I appreciate his understanding of my proclivities, but there’s a huge difference between talking about someone doing necromancy and seeing someone do it firsthand.
Magic is amoral, and trying to decide which spells are ‘good’ and which are ‘evil’ is a fool's errand. It should be noted though that the colloquial ‘dark magics’ tend as a whole to make people uncomfortable, which is what led to their group classification in the first place despite being disparate in most cases. All things considered, I was pretty lucky Daniel agreed to my plan in the first place, no need to push him out of his comfort zone.
A few times as we walked, I heard the sharp whistle Daniel often used as a signal, coming to a stop and telling the bone wolf to hunker down in the brush. We would wait anxiously, at times for minutes on end, before a repeated whistle came and we continued ever onwards. What took us only thirty minutes that morning, ended up as a nearly hour-long return trip. The uncomfortably slow pace did allow me to regenerate most of my mana pool, but that was the only positive I could find.
Our path had us trace a wide ark around the perimeter of the village and approach our house from the outward edge. Neia met us at the back door with a worried look in her eyes, and though she wrapped me in a hug before letting me inside I could feel her apprehension towards my new canine companion. I ushered the bone wolf into the living room while mom and dad took a seat at the table, I didn’t want everyone to feel uncomfortable around him.
Side note, my bone wolf will definitely need a name at some point. Assuming I start to keep multiple minions in the place of a normal party, which isn’t strictly necessary. Using species names would still be inefficient.
I could already hear mom and dad talking as I wandered back into the kitchen. It was strange for it to be the middle of the day and not have the cookfire lit, but it just made me all the more aware of our more pressing concerns.
“I spoke to Leigh this morning while I was in town ‘shopping’.” Neia sighed as I took my seat. “I had hoped there was some misunderstanding, something I’d missed, anything.” Mom wiped away a tear and steadied her breathing. “The poor girl nearly melted into a puddle when I told her we wanted to help.”
Mom mumbled something else, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of splintering wood. Dad’s white-knuckled grip on our table had shorn off two large chunks, his stat-boosted physicality reducing the wood to splinters. He took a deep breath, and I could have sworn the room rumbled when he stood up. He wrapped mom in a hug, trying to soothe her tender heart. “We’re going to help her Neia. This stops one way or another.” The grim tone in his voice wasn’t lost on me.
As the two of them mourned Leigh’s heartbreaking home life, I felt it was my best opportunity to speak up.
“I will be back to full mana in a few hours I think. The mental stats I have should have granted me a much higher regeneration rate, but I think my lack of full system access is creating an artificial bottleneck. All things considered though, I think we should wait until nightfall. Might be easier to avoid being spotted?” My last sentence was framed as a question and I cast my gaze to Daniel, hoping he had more experience on the matter. He nodded back my way with a tense look.
“No need to make ourselves miserable all day then.” Mom huffed, standing up from the table and clapping her hands together. She waved a hand through the air behind her, and the fire pit of our ceramic stove roared to life, the lingering wood catching instantly. Daniel muttered something about ‘keeping up appearance’ and stepped out the front door to go on patrol. I figured I might as well use this chance to ask mom about her magic skills, specifically why she hadn’t been using them when I was growing up.
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“Hey, mom?” I piped up, getting out of my own chair and joining her in the kitchen proper as she sorted the morning shopping. “That thing you do with the stove and the ‘woosh’ and your hand? Is that a magic-based skill or is it a spell you know? I can feel the mana, but I don’t remember seeing you do that when I was little”
She just smiled and gestured me over to wash a pile of carrots. “Most people don’t form spells manually unless it’s related to their class. It takes a lot of theoretical studies to learn the more complex spells.” Mom explained to me very gently, taking the washed vegetables whenever I finished one and peeling them into a small bucket of scraps. “One of my general skills is called [Household Magic]” She continued, detailing the kinds of abilities it granted her. Lighting small fires, sanitizing water, and minor cleaning were among the primary functions.
“At higher levels, it can even be used to heat food, chill liquids, or add flavor. Chef classes have far more specialized skills though.”
Frankly, I still don’t see the appeal of the skill. Anyone with a decent class would outperform it by picking up a single more specific skill. Though recalling my mother’s class list she was highly specialized at every turn, and her precious class slots likely couldn’t warrant such a choice. It also had a certain appeal when I consider all the neighboring villagers with classes like [Farmer] or [Rancher]. Their classes likely didn’t give them access to such skill choices as to replace household magic.
Neia must have noticed me getting lost in my thoughts again, as she let out a small laugh and drew my attention back to the current moment. “You get this look on your face when you think about magic. Sorry, it’s just too cute” She smiled, pinching my cheek rather forcefully as I tried to skirt away.
“At a certain point though Sweetpea, you’ll take your own magic for granted.” Mom began another lecture. “Not everyone will have the skills, or [Skills], that you do. Spend some of that thinking energy and spare a thought for everyone else, and you’ll go a long way.” Her tone was gentle, but I felt like there was more context than she let on. I’d grown used to cryptic half-stories at this point, mom had potentially centuries of life before my birth, let alone meeting dad. There were likely to be some experiences she wanted me to learn from even if she didn’t want to discuss them.
Over the course of the morning, mother and I shared some comfortable small talk as best we could manage with the looming dread. We spent most of the time standing in the kitchen, prepping food for lunch and dinner, getting the majority of the work out of the way, and giving us something less exhausting to think about.
I’m not sure how we got on the topic but at some point mom and I were discussing skills, capital S, and the remaining general skill slots I had. “Have you thought about what you want to do with the last seven slots? I haven’t been pushing you to pick up skills, but the sooner you can earn levels in them the better. A lot of kids underestimate rollover xp you know.” Mom began her casual droning explanation, more a lecture than a conversation.
I know she means well, but still, it can be incredibly boring to listen to.
Frankly, I did have ideas about what to get with my remaining seven slots. I plan to train with dad for two skills in the vein of [Combat Maneuvers], even just [Dodge] or [Evasion] could go a long way to keeping me safe. A physical buff like [Athletics] could be good as well.
Similarly, training with Leigh could help me qualify for a crafting skill. Nothing too specific, but a general [Craftsmanship] or [Tool Profeciency] could pay dividends in the long run if I need to imbue items or enchant weapons. I have two slots earmarked for those.
The remaining three slots are a bit of a toss up though. Ideally, I would like something magic related. Mom could probably help me in that regard. However, in my first life, I drastically overlooked utility skills, so getting feedback from Neia and Daniel, perhaps even Leigh, about good utility skills for everyday life or non-magic-related scenarios could be enlightening. I’m sure any slots I don’t fill out mom will choose for me anyway. I’d rather not get saddled with another [Cutie Patootie] skill.