Aaron Frannz was a human on earth in his previous life.
When he was young his father owned a bookstore that he worked part time at.
He enjoyed study and practice activities within schooling finding a knack for information retention.
He lived his life and learnt after his father's death that one must grow older but growing up was optional.
He inherited the bookstore that his father owned and continued the name Frannz Fictions.
He never married instead, he put all of his heart and soul into converting the old bookstore for the digital age.
the public education being what it was, he learnt how to operate a computer in his youth, so the transition while choppy, was successful.
He found success in multiple market niches around what the kids of the next generation enjoyed.
Japanese literature, translated into English and on the very rare occasion, translated into other languages.
Old board and tabletop game systems that were more popular than ever.
Hell, he had heard tales from his father about how the Churchie's went off their pews about the game influencing the youth with satanic imagery.
Aaron was by no means an utter genius linguist, he merely had enough passion to drive his rigid and methodical side beyond ordinary.
There was a young man he met during this period, he was honest, upright and had a passion for the different stories from other cultures and other so called "childish" entertainment mediums.
So, he hired this young man, tested him and when he felt that his time was coming, he brought the man into his small office, changed after years of stylistic revolution and work.
And he offered the man his shop on his death, explaining how the man showed the same childish excitement and wonder at these items that others laughed at as strange and childish.
The man didn't want to accept, but when he learnt that Aaron had given everything to see his father's shop stay relevant and provide something that he actually enjoyed, the man couldn't deny the old man his choice of successor.
The old man enjoyed his final years as his successor was shown the ropes of ownership and hiring, the shop grew marginally, a mere two additional rooms since its original state his father had brought.
The shop was decorated in an outdated style with prominent support beams made of solid hardwood lumber crossing the ceiling.
Tables and seats made in old fashioned ways contrasted against the back rooms, one was that of a sci-fi aesthetic to it and the other held a more modern appearance, lino floors, plastic tables and chairs, walls decorated by art left by the many years of excited patrons.
Some still came here to the quaint little shop to indulge the old times and the old man got his opportunity to spin fantastical tales of other worlds.
Then finally, the other shoe had dropped.
the old man finally died.
the cause? old age of course.
Aaron wasn't brawny or fat, he was one of the fortunate individuals with a tweaked out metabolism, to his favour in this case.
As he finally closed his eyelids after so long he found himself feeling a floaty sensation, then, a potent tightness all across his parts, then he started loosing sensation in his limbs.
After a while the blackness receded and he opened his eyes only to find...
"Hiya, How ya dooin?"
A woman of indescribable beauty, standing there with a stupid look on her face saying something that utterly belied her beautiful and graceful appearance.
"HEY, isn't rude to say that it was stupid?!" the girl twirled in another direction to Aaron's confusion.
"Whatever, I am done talking to or about you!" she said with an angry attitude.
"GRRRR, Now he has put me in a bad mood, Oi shithead I have summoned you, blah, blah, blah, I have an offer that you wont refuse, will you be reincarnated in another world for me?"
Aaron recoiled at the sudden 180 of emotion on the beautiful girls face.
"D-Does this world ha-" "yes" the girl cut him off "and before you ask, yes you could become a powerful wizard if your reincarnation gift was the Pure sage."
COUGH "I-I wasn't thinking that!" Aaron replied Incensed.
"yeah, yeah, I can hear the narrator scoffing with me about how fake that sounds right now." the goddess replied
"The what?"
"Godly business, nothing to worry about." the girl cleared her throat "Oh, mortal Rejoice, for your wish has come, You have been chosen for the prestigious role of being a reincarnator, You will be given a small range of abilities to choose from in order to thrive on the world you will be sent to, And you will have a majority of the world's information put into your mind, just remember that the information is based on the 'peoples' expression what they understood"
"Ah, ok, wait so there isn't an option to say no?" Aaron questioned and immediately flinched at the cracking sound that emanated from the de-goddess that looked more irritated than when 'something' insulted the Goddesses' expression.
She towered over Aaron looking down on him like an exaggerated delinquent. "Oh, So a weeb like you would actually pass up on the possibility to go to another world that has magic in it?" Her neck creaked like a door that had never been oiled.
"N-Never, I j-just w-w-w-wondered if I had a choice in this, I wasn't going to say no." Aaron stuttered out under the murderous gaze of the fully unveiled demon.
"Hey shut up about that demon crap." the clearly evil being yelled, screaming at a voice from above.
"Fuck off, I'm too busy to listen to your shit, Come on incarnator, we got some choosing to do!" She said her arms flopping to her sides in frustration.
Aaron to his credit followed the clearly angered inhuman creature, after he forgot how time worked they found
"Alrighty, so this is how this works, you will be reborn to parents in your new world, since humans don't exist in huge numbers you are more than likely going to become another race."
"so, let me get this straight, I am being sent into another world with better knowledge than normal but otherwise sent as a nonhuman?"
"Relax super-nerd, it isn't quite that much of a shitty situation, you will also get a choice of rej- I mean, quality powers given by magnanimous gods." the goddess said her words barely holding the act in.
"Hey at least I am trying to sell it!" the goddess shouted into the air yet again to the mortal's amusement.
"Look I kinda understand that you are not liking something that is talking about you but can we get back on topic, what are my choices?"
The goddess looked at him blankly before a joyous smile crept across her face displaying her inhuman beauty to the waiting mortal.
"alright, what do we have left, flight that cripples the owner, healing that comes at the cost of your own body parts, Chaos magic... Ehhhhhh.
Skill tree? huh thought this one was scrapped, whatever ohhh beast transformation, I mean depending on the race you are incarnated as you get this anyways but still an interesting one."
"Skill tree? what is that?" Aaron ventured to the blank face of the goddess.
"Ah, well, it is an ability to naturally access a magical technology called a status, in this case skill tree gives you foreknowledge of skill evolution and combination trees, hence skill-tree, problem with the magic is that it has no room for growth, reason a growing power is better than a outright ability is because the more complete and powerful an ability is leads to overload in your soul which usually causes either splitting where your soul resides in two bodes with half of the power or sharing it with your other half or your soul uses that excess power to expand itself, completely erasing the ability and granting the person a little more energy capacity within that container." the goddess explained
"So what is the problem with skill-tree? from what you said it shouldn't be hugely powerful.."
"well that is the thing, it isn't, and because of this there is also little room for growth either, as a high tier conceptual magic, it does have uses, just, it isn't really classified as a true blessing."
"Why, it is still a usable power isn't it? I would have thought that it would be very useful."
"I thank you for the optimism but when I say that it is classified as high tier conceptual magic, what I am essentially saying is that I am giving you a magecraft, and a mage can only have one master-able magecraft, a divine blessing is more considered a supernatural gift which allows the host of such the ability to grow into a divine apostle, If I were to chose I would go for chaos magic instead considering that It enables the use of any magecraft you see fit."
"I feel that there is a but coming."
"Yeah well it isn't called chaos magic for nothing, it is in a word, chaotic, not to mention that chaos mana cannot under any circumstance mix with any other energy type."
"Speaking of energy types, mind explaining them, I don't really understand the vagueness that the information you gave me."
the goddess sighed "there are four major energy types, Mana, Aura, life and force, Mana is exactly that usual one, a malleable energy that is used to ignore the laws of physics to use properly one needs to have a vague at best understanding of physics, then the craft is split between mana manipulation and spellcraft, mana manipulation uses the energy as a semi-substance and applies physics altering properties after that, spellcraft uses the energy as that a all-purpose energy to defy conventional physics. an example of this is ordering mana to gather in a item with an edge and have the mana harden the material of that edge to improve perceivable sharpness."
"Ok, so mana can be used in many ways I take it."
"Yes, mana is the most versatile of all types, next is Aura, the outer expression of lifeforce, an Aura user can have many abilities stemming from a sturdy physique and outstanding fighting ability, Aura users are split between natural and trained practitioners, Natural users come from environments that are very dangerous and as such they naturally have their Aura pores open 25/6, these people have heavy presences and are largely physical fighters, some have more unique abilities but it is generally that a Aura user has an ability that is physical in nature."
"Alright, Aura users are usually melee combatants, you said there were two types of users though."
"Yes, Practitioners have gone through training in order to control their Aura pores and control the flow and intensity of their aura.
These fighters can have abilities that range across the board from controlling others to generating explosions to improving created objects, but the ultimate limitation of Aura is that it holds itself within the laws of physics. You can also see it as a physical counterpart to mana."
"Huh this sounds incredibly similar to a story I read."
"yeah, pretty much stolen, although abilities of Aura users are more simplistic since the other energy types can disrupt their attempts at more complex abilities."
the goddess took a sip from a teacup that seemingly came out of nowhere.
"Phew, ok, onto life users, They have the ability to absorb life from dead creatures and strengthen their bodies after consuming previously living creatures, they usually have intense hunger abnormal physical ability and durability, you can snap all of their bones and they will get back up like it was just something they were supposed to do, Life is the most limited ability only passively granting abilities to their wielders. but a life user can have biological abilities like breathing fire or pheromone control, and such, most people don't know that they have this energy since you are born with it usually."
"Huh for an energy named life it certainly is kinda plain."
"Yeah, and force is the energy that reinforces the laws of physics, you have a bow, the arrow flies faster, you have a gun, the bullet exceeds its usual speed by factors, you want to move with minimal movement, manipulate the forces that make up our world to push yourself with minimal movement. This energy requires a strict adherence to scientific methods, deviation and playing with it can end horribly, enhance oxygen's exchange rate on wood, Instant fire, speed up the wood's elastic properties the bowstring snaps, increase air pressure, you pass out from gas concentration inside your lungs, speed up blood flow, blood pressure climbs through the roof. and a myriad number of things, Why did they add these?!"
"Eh who added what?" Aaron asked.
Sigh "can't tell you that, against policy, anyways, beast transformation is of the life type of energy, chaos is mana, Flight is aura and the healing one is mana."
"what about the skill-tree one?" he asked
"technically neutral, it belongs to portions of all of them since it can judge almost any ability... You are going to take it aren't you?"
"well, you said it doesn't really count as a full blessing, so could I possibly get it for cheap and then a general enhancement or something like that?"
The goddess started tearing up before blurting out.
"Oh my, a mortal that wants to actively take on a completed ability and get something else as a consolation prize, Oh my what are the odds."
"Uhhh, did I say something wrong?" Aaron pried a question at the Goddesses behaviour.
She sighed again before wiping the tears from her eyes "Yes because I don't have the energy to change the ability as it is."
"so why don't you 'scrap' the other powers that you have at your disposal, you mentioned it earlier."
The goddess blinked and chuckled
"Ha you want me to put all of my faith in a single mortal human to restore my power?"
Aaron was surprised for a moment before asking "Am I on a religious conversion quest?"
The Goddess curled up for a moment before squeaking out "Yeah, just a little."
now it was Aaron's turn to sigh "so how much time do you have with my religious devotion alone?"
The goddess blinked "Er, well, I was planning on taking a few mor-"
"Please answer my question."
She slumped her head and looked like she was thinking "Well you have met me so your piety and belief would be utterly pure, and given that I skimp what I can... theoretically indefinitely."
Aaron looked surprised "ok, so you are also planning on bringing other incarnates over and getting them to worship you to maintain what?"
"ehhh, these are getting a little rough for me to answer, but, Worshipping me allows me to gather power for other incarnates. therefore enabling me to scale my power, after all, once you die again, you will come back to me."
"Hmm, can I get others to convert to you?" He asked
"No it can only be people who don't already have a god they worship, otherwise it breaches etiquette between gods."
"Hmm, still it seems doable for me to convert enough to at least provide enough belief for you to live, right?"
The goddess started to chew her thumbnail in thought - eventually she let out the breath she held and grabbed a black and red writhing mass, crushing it in her grasp the motes of shining light were absorbed into her.
"I will use one of the powers I had, and reinforce 'skill tree' It will become a developmental powe-"
"Ah, can I help?"
"Really? no you know what, fine, I have put this much trust in, let the mortal decide for himself."
The goddess held out the silvery ball of energy out to Aaron as he held it an intuitive image of a large bookshelf in disrepair filled with beautiful books as far as the eye could see filled his mind.
"Huh, this seems more normal than I thought, so what am I aiming to do?"
"weirdo- anyways, you want to set the image you are seeing into an unfinished state or more accurately you are to make the image start in a state where someone could theoretically create a similar image that you have now."
"how many details can I change about it?"
"You should stick to standards, things you know." the goddess put her finger to his forehead and coughed.
"AH cough Could you clean this up, I can practically feel the age of this image, wait that is your image of the 'skill tree'?"
"If you see the old bookshelf filled with pristine books, then yes, I was thinking of removing the books from the shelves and converting the shelves into a sapling, is that possible?"
"Yeah, uh, move your fingers."
Aaron unclenched his fingers from around the orb as the goddess laid her palm on top.
the image shifted in Aaron's eyes, the shelves shifted and shrunk, books being disgorged from the now shrunken shelving, then the blackened aged wood regained it's old lustre and planted itself into the 'ground' of the image.
the goddess was breathing heavily as she said "Like this it should be a growth seed, but it is still too weak to need such a treatment, why would you bother?"
"well, seeing all those books got me thinking... Could you add even more?" Aaron asked innocently.
"Yeah I could, with the power taken from chaos magic, I could add millions of books, why- no don't tell me I already know, should I just do it or?"
"Nah, each book you make needs it's own design based on what are in them, look over to the left of the sapling."
"what- are you kidding me?!"
As he had said, there was a spectral Aaron within the mental image working on the books one at a time, each book was given a different cover or was resized.
"Do you want me to help with this?!" the goddess said indignantly
"I mean, you can just make the extra books, I will be altering their appearance myself."
this brought yet another sigh from the goddess as the conjured her power into the mental image and a hail of books began to appear behind the right side of the sapling.
"Have at it I suppose, other incarnators have finally shown up so I will be busy with them, once you are done ring this." she said as she pulled out a seemingly normal handbell."
"I will probably be here for a long time." Aaron said, Internally thankful for all the goddess had let him get away with.
By the time he was done the goddess had already gotten all of her incarnators to be reborn.
when she then returned to him remembering the first incarnator who she selected she found a very confusing sight.
The orb in his hand had changed to a dull silver and the image within showed a room with massive vaulted ceilings a basement and much room within for expansive bookshelves, a single desk made of a black substance and books piled into stacks varying by size colour and alphabetical order, then the books were categorised by type, magical manuals, spell tomes, cookbooks, physical training manuals. If there was a subject there was a category and a pile with a subdivision.
in the corner of this dimly lit room was a single chair and lamp which sat a single man, reading away at another of the heavily modified tomes, its outer appearance shifting and changing depending on how the mortal seemingly interpreted the text within.
The goddess snapped him out of his reverie with a simple cough.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Peering away from the dull orb that transfixed his consciousness he looked back up to the goddess.
"Sorry for taking so long, there was just so many books and interesting topics, I was tempted so many times to water the tree, but remembering that it would cause dangerous things to happen I avoided it, that said the space within the orb was a little featureless so I changed it into a gothic library, with basement in case of further expansion needed!"
He prattled on about all the features that he put into his own imaginary world as the goddesses' eye glazed over looking at the dull orb.
"Whatever, all other incarnators have been chosen and reborn, it is your turn to go.
She saw the reluctance in Aaron's eyes and spirit, He had spent far too long inside her realm and it may have negatively affected his mind or soul.
Reaching out, her hand perforated his chest painlessly, Aaron squealed before being held in place by the goddess,
She pulled out a similarly dull silver ball from his chest strands of his body still attached and unwilling to give up their claim easily.
She then took the two silver spheres and gently pushed them together.
They seamlessly merged into a single bright silvery ball before the Goddess stopped holding it and collapsed.
"Are you alright?!" Aaron yelled catching the goddess mid fall.
"Yeah, no biggie, just watched the passed time slip by as incarnator after incarnator betrayed my trust and used their powers too recklessly, I have nothing left but you, please make it count."
Aaron was about to respond but he began glowing and started to lose consciousness as the goddess said, "You may yet prove me wrong."
----------------------------------------
Felix Gemtail was your average 15 year old beastman, his family was one of the poorer ones living in the slums district of the trade city Bastern.
He remembered his past life and his promise to the goddess, having lovingly carved a poor facsimile of her likeness when he was young.
Normally beastmen followed Glousender god of trickster beasts.
to Felix's knowledge, Glousender was something akin to loki mixed with various animals.
The reason that beastmen worshipped him was because he was considered the father of them, the beastmen being originally considered monsters who disguised themselves as human men and women to steal food and have sex.
Nowadays beastmen are just as any of the humanoid races, seen as a standard thing that just exist.
Most have an affinity towards all kinds of illusions.
Felix on the other hand displayed different traits.
For one, he seemingly understood any language when he heard it, a trait that was really only seen in holders of status plates.
Second, he was exceedingly willing to work and on occasion would lift his hands in the air in happiness.
Third, he for his age was unusually proficient in a self taught, all weapons fighting style.
All beastmen had superior physical characteristics, Not spectacularly massive advantages like that of an Ogrilla or Dragonoid, but a pronounced feature that enabled effective physical fighting.
His attentions swapped frequently, One point he was pestering one of the older alchemists to take him on as an apprentice, soon he was annoying the town guards to let him spar with them, then he would pull out a small whittling knife made from cheap monster teeth.
And begin cutting away at some wood.
This time he found himself within the shop of a shitty robot who refused to teach him guncraft.
"You call this properly skinned electric bat fur?" the mechanical voice burred.
He was pointing to the best of his own attempts at skinning.
"Yesh, they are the best skins that I have processed so far, so teach me already shitty robot!"
He said through gritted teeth.
"Ha no, you still haven't produced favourable results despite your unusual instinct, You need to learn those skills better!"
"And I told you I can't, I would need far too expensive equipment, I am using your tools for this and not getting the results you want!."
The machine waved him off, this was the usual response at the end of the day.
"Shitty robot, Oh my fair goddess, I pray for a lightning bolt to fry him into teaching me his skill." He sang out under his breath, his harmonious prayer conflicting radically from his usual tone of speech so much that it catches people off guard when they hear it.
After his heartfelt prayer he accessed his developmental skill "Oh I beseech thee, as source of my wisdom and anchor of faith, open your grand hall so I may intreat 'Guiding lines' "
He felt something stir within his chest, like a single toothed gear winding a crank, after but a moment a transparent screen appeared.
With books across every surface.
"skill directory"
as he said so, the books parted and a list that was never ending appeared within his field of view.
he searched for gunsmithing and tapped on it to see the requirements.
Name: Gunsmithing
Type: crafting and knowledge
Rank: C9
Description:
the art of manufacturing firearms and ammunition for those weapons. Higher levels increase the effective use of materials for creating powerful firearms. higher levels also cause the effective ability of firearms to increase and have higher chances of obtaining a name.
Acquisition method:
Convince the mechanical gunmaker Ol reliable to teach his craft:
Bribe him with sufficient credits that he will teach you; 98%
trainee under him for long enough that you learn by proxy: 50%
Pester and annoy him until he finally teaches you out of frustration: 1%
Evolutions available:
Magical gunsmithing, Advanced gunsmithing, heavy gunsmithing, Arcane gunsmithing, Artefact Creation, God gunsmithing.
"hah, damn it, even at the current rate there is only a 50% chance of actually getting it?!" He scratched at his red fox ears in frustration.
'Acquired skills'
Passive skills:
enhanced physical ability: Level 5
enhanced senses: Level 5
increased battle sense: Level 3
Handicraft: level 9
Knowledge: Level 10
Active skills:
Knife technique: Level 6
Sword technique: Level 1
Axe technique: Level 1
Spear technique: Level 1
Unarmed fighting technique: Level 1
Club technique: Level 1
Poleaxe technique: Level 1
Bow technique: Level 1
Throwing: Level 3
High speed movement: Level 5
Power attack: Level 7
Sneak attack: Level 9
Smithing: Level 3
Alchemy: Level 3
Skinning: Level 9
Leatherworking: Level 5
External energy manipulation: Level 2
Anatomy: Level 5
Clergyman: Level 10
Aura user: Level 3
Focus battle Aura: Level 9
Aura Manipulation: Level 4
Unique skills:
Guideline: Level 2
+skill tree
+Directory
+Status magic
+Guided action
Aura core: Level 1
+Focus Aura
+Battle shroud
+Extra output
Aspect enhancement: Level 1
+partial enhancement
+Illusion waltz
+Aura control
"My god, this list is a mess, I suppose 15 years of learning is not going to be a small number of recognised skills, though the low level of guideline is a little curious."
Truth being told, Felix was quite the combatant, able to use Aura in all the fundamental ways, not manifesting a special talent or ability yet, and his fox-kin transformation able to increase his own Aura control ability, very versatile as well knowing forms and styles of many weapons, His previous goal was to learn how to materialise weapons out of pure Aura.
He gave up with how difficult it was to learn the extra output Derivative alone, never mind the required 10 levels in Aura manipulation and focused battle Aura.
Otherwise he was a very proficient and adaptable rogue, Not quite a match for highly skilled individuals, merely holding several tricks against the truly powerful, Illusion waltz was a combination of his fox beast man heritage, High speed movement and battle shroud.
He can dash around slower enemies leaving behind illusionary presences that radiate Aura and willingness to fight.
Then he goes in for a single potent strike, a mix of power attack, sneak attack, focus battle Aura, high speed movement and knife skill lead to him offering devastating opportunity strikes.
his ability in attacking is enough to take down most monsters in the nearby forest and on the lower steppes of the mountain range.
After the first strike he dramatically drops in attack potency, and outside of knife combat he is a amateur at any other combat style, enough to throw off an attacker but a master will be able to exploit the unpolished movements in the stances he uses.
That and his uses of Aura are basic at most, unable to perform any advanced techniques nor having a specialised ability due to the use of Aura.
A good way to think of him is as a rogue, lots of tricks, but in a straight up fight he is underpowered."
During this little self assessment, a scent that Felix was intimately familiar with spoke up guffawing as he said
"Hey, if it isn't a little fox I see? wanna earn some extra off the top girly?" the boar man spoke his words dripped with sickly lust.
Felix was considerably androgynous, with a feint surge of Aura his body shifted.
"Sure! Haha, mama will be very proud of me if I get extra!" The previously gruff deep monotone was instantly replaced with a high pitched girl's voice, practiced over many nights.
The boar man laughed the pig nosed laugh that they had, It wasn't that all of them were like this, being in the poorer districts had their demerits.
It could be said that all fox-men however were exceedingly willing to do most things for a quick buck.
Felix travelled away from the worker's district, most boar-men were workers, something about being incredibly easy to feed mixed with a massive body built for labour made them cheap enough that they could live better lives than the poor districts.
Felix's pockets and gut were heavier than when he started, but he merrily trod home. His previous experiences from his old world holding little merit or sway in this world it seemed.
He opened an oriental sliding door as three smaller fox-men clung tightly to his lithe body, sniffing and pouting.
"It isn't fair that big brother can go out on his own when he comes back like this every time!"
"I want to be able to go outside!"
"I wish I was as good as big brother!"
Three small and high pitched voices complained only to be hushed by a demure motherly voice.
"Hush now~ Felix is doing his best for us all~ How much... Extra~ Did you get?" the woman asked putting bizarre emphasis on extra.
"I got 200 more credits than usual for the family costs."
The woman's eyes gleamed at the announced situation of their finances.
"Wonderful!~ If only your daddy could be here to see how fine a man his son became!~" The woman sighed out.
Felix always caught himself finding his mother's perverse way of speaking to be a little unsettling, especially when considering that she was the owner of a brothel within the poor district.
But when he asked her about it
"Hush Felix~ overthinking things is baddd~ You're not a bad boy are you?~"
A very awkward moment later and his mother understood his objections with her way of speaking.
"We can take some time free, though I do have to ask felix~ How do you get so much?~"
Her voice flowed like a song, though much more alluring than any songstress.
"I find that rather simple, Returning customers, I wear the same outfit every time I go out and patrol the district to find what I want to do, Those who call out to me remember me because of this outfit. That and offering 'discounts' if they tell their friends about me." Felix explained.
His mother crossed her arms under her plentiful bust before tightening the display.
"Oh~ I didn't know I raised such a conniving son~"
"Says the demure fox-woman who has been pulling the same act for so long that she can't stop doing it even when it makes her children uncomfortable."
she pulled back in mock shock at the accusation
"Oh~ How dare you~ Insulting me in such a manner~ AH, it makes me... so lonely~" She said smiling in the way that would usually steal the onlooker's soul.
"HA,HA,HA, jokes aside how are we doing at the moment for cash?" Felix asked
The fox-woman took the small bag from Felix, counting out the individual slivers of metal.
"Well~ Since you have a stable.. Consumer~ base, we are making... Headway~ in our family funds."
Felix sighed, oh how he desperately wished for the ability to move his family's fate.
"Well I am going to take a walk, it is still warm enough for it without stress." as Felix turned around the three who were silent till now spoke up.
"But big brother, you said if I could count to 100 without skipping you would read me a story."
"Brother you still haven't learnt to sew."
"I want to practice transformations, I want to be able to turn into a pretty girl like big brother."
"Ok enough~ Felix needs some time alone~ A little pent up I suspect~" His mother teased
"Ma, unlike you I don't like constantly doing this to scrape by, I want us to be able to live like normal families."
Felix confessed, his mother silent and knowing.
Felix left the quaint little oriental house, walking the city until he reached the wall to the forest.
Looking around he briefly activated his transformation and leaped over the 5m tall wall and over into the forest.
activating the full transformation was a trump card, so he kept the partial transformation active for now.
He slinked through the forest, steps as light as the air around him.
Curious to why he never got the sneak skill once, he had queried his guideline.
Skill, definition:
An active representation of one's knowledge and ability to apply said knowledge from experience.
The level between 1-10 represents the level of understanding one possesses of the fundamentals of the skill, beyond level 10 is a derivative or higher skill, expressing mastery over a subject of fundamental knowledge and the extension of one's skill into a more advanced practice.
this usually takes the representation of a change in name within one's status.
Answer
Your ability to sneak has nothing to do with actively learning a technique, instead it relies all on instinctive knowledge given by your heritage.
In a sense he had high tier sneaking skills, but it was not observed by his status magic since it fell outside the classifications of a skill.
'technically since it is a magic I innately have access to I could change the standard formulation of the magic in order to detect such things, but I will leave that for another occasion.'
Felix thought to himself.
He moved quickly, listening closely with the two ears at the top of his head.
He heard a rustle of leaves, a muttered curse.
Biggest problem with having status magic, while you could see all of the skills and potentially your stats, languages were a whole new kettle of deadly snakes.
Sure, Felix was passible in certain dialects of the various beast-men, but that was because of his transformation abilities and the fact that he was a sex worker when he didn't try to learn profession skills.
But even Felix could tell that the voices he heard were from a pair of women, one spoke in a guttural voice, full of life, the other squeaked in a barely intelligible slanguage, Like seriously, it was barely comprehensible mishmash of different words used in slurred ways that defied comprehension.
So Felix decided that the headache to come was worth it to tell what the two women were saying.
Channelling his aura into his ears and focusing his Status magic throughout the dense energy weave he spoke quietly "As a user and initiate of Aura, holder of divine blessings, I hereby invoke 'comprehend languages'." A spike of pain ran through his head, Aura wasn't meant to be used this way, and this proved it.
Having mana would have given him the edge but the requirements were not worth the hassle.
Side-lining his debilitating headache, he listened into their conversation, seemingly they didn't notice him chant the invocation.