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You’ve earned the Skill: Combat Sense!
Do you accept it?
[Y / N]
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Caleb didn’t take long to think about it before accepting. After all, for him, it was simple. To have a Skill or not to have a Skill. That is the question!
But, I did give him the choice because I wanted to make sure I’m not forcing him down a path he won’t accept.
Turns out I worried for nothing, and that Caleb was prepared to follow this to the end.
As he accepted the Skill, I pulled my awareness deep into his being and went to work.
Before I explain how I’m giving Caleb the Skill, I should first explain the basics of the connection between the soul, mind, and body. First comes the body, the meat suit that you’re born into, and your anchor to the physical world. From your body, or more specifically your brain, emerges your mind, a force greater than the sum of its parts. As you grow and mature your mind collects fragments of spiritual energies that gather to form your soul.
In short, your soul and body are connected by the mind. After your body dies, your mind still lives on in your soul, which is why my host has both sets of memories from their lives.
The reason this is important is that the Skill I’m going to give Caleb is connected to his mind. While the Skill is called Combat Sense, it’s more like Combat Sensibility.
Carb knows nothing of how to fight, so I have deconstructed and analyzed all the fights I’ve ever seen or have been a part of, turning them into raw data. The basic idea of the skill is to give Caleb access to this data to help him refine his combat abilities quicker than he normally would.
I used Gaia’s information packet as an example and made my own, filling it with all the fight data. It wasn’t perfect and still only had a small number of fights recorded in it, but I would add to it over the lives of my future hosts, making it much more potent.
I pushed the thoughts of the future to the side as I focused on the task at hand. I pushed the packet out of my presence and slid it through and out of Caleb’s soul. I set it to slowly orbit the soul - more for aesthetic reasons than anything - and started the process of linking it to Caleb’s mind.
The mind is extremely complex and each one is unique, don’t let anyone tell you differently. Even with all the knowledge given to me by Gaia, I was still only able to tell Caleb’s general emotions and his focus.
Luckily, the Skill didn’t need anything complex or difficult to work with the mind. I just needed to make a connection so Caleb’s mind could access the information inside it.
In order to make this connection, I had to use causal energy from my own reserves, since Caleb hadn’t given me permission to use his. Something to note for next time.
I weaved a tether out of the energy and secured it to the Skill before extending it out to the mind. There was no physical substance to anything in this space but, if I had to describe it, the mind had the properties of jello. It wasn’t really solid, but firm enough to hold a consistent shape.
I didn’t want to risk causing any damage to Caleb’s mind, so I made the tether as thin as possible. Once it is connected, it should grow and thicken as the mind adjusts to the foreign knowledge.
Carefully, I pushed the hair-thin tip of the tether through the outer membrane of the mind. I waited for any reaction or signs of damage, and carried on when there weren’t any.
With the tether now buried in the mind, I pushed one final instruction into the tether and watched it split apart and spread root-like tendrils.
A second passed. Then another. And then another.
I almost believed that I had failed and began to panic, but slowly a gentle pulse traveled up the length of the tether. The pulse reached the Skill, and after a moment, another pulse traveled back towards the mind from the Skill.
Pulse. Pause. Return.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Pulse. Pause. Return.
Pulse. Pause. Return.
The cycle continued. And with each cycle, the tether grew thicker and stronger, and the pulses came faster and more frequent.
And then, just as I was starting to feel proud of myself, it stopped.
Oh, the pulses continued, and everything seemed to be working fine, but the tether stopped growing. Like, way before it should have.
It had started out thinner than a strand of hair, now it had grown to be four times that. Tens of times smaller than it should be.
I wanted to scream as I looked over everything but couldn’t see anything wrong with the tether or the Skill itself. How could this get any worse?!
“System, open the Status Page.” Caleb said.
…I deserve that.
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Name: Caleb Harrison
Age: 13
Level: 1 (111 / 250 XP)
Title(s): Transmigrator, Survivor, Alchemist
System Points: 42 (10 SP / Day)
Attributes:
* Body: 1 +
* Mind: 0 +
* Magic: 0 +
Skills:
* Combat Sense (Acquiring)
Status: Normal
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I couldn’t exactly say “Sorry, I messed up” now, could I?
Caleb didn’t seem any different or seem to have noticed any change, no sudden epiphanies or sense of enlightenment that I could tell. He took a confused look at the changes to his Status and scratched his head.
He looked around to make sure no one was watching and threw a shaky punch, his body still exhausted from the burnout exercises. I saw another pulse move through the tether and his arm steadied slightly as it whiffed through the air.
It had no form and had little strength or effort behind it, but it was still an improvement over what I’d seen him do against the bullies. He didn’t seem to notice a difference though, as he shrugged and continued on his way.
I looked back at the Skill and the pulsating tether. It was obviously having an effect, no matter how small and there was a chance that trying to remove the tether’s roots might damage his mind. The risk wasn’t worth it.
I racked my nonexistent brain for what could be causing this outcome. Then, it hit me.
I was trying to shove raw analytical data into his mind. The human mind doesn’t run on numbers and formulas, it runs on instinct and experience! Caleb’s mind just doesn’t have the context to apply all the data.
In hindsight, it makes sense. Even if you tell someone to read through a textbook, even if they can recite it word for word, that doesn’t mean that they understand any of it.
The tether grew to match the level of understanding that Caleb’s mind had of moving and fighting…which means it could also be used to measure that understanding.
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Skill Acquired!
Combat Sense {Proficiency: 0.04}
Description: The distillation of the System’s experience and knowledge of combat. Aids in the training of combat skills and movement.
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I flashed Caleb a quick notification to let him know that his Skill was up and operational and was feeling quite pleased with myself.
He read the notification as he walked, his steps a little surer now as his body slowly recuperated.
“System, what does proficiency mean in this context?” he asked quietly, as a villager passed him by on the street.
[Some Skills are proficiency based and can only show their true potential when the host has reached a high proficiency. To raise a Skill’s proficiency, the host must simply use the skill in the appropriate manner.]
[In the case of the Combat Sense Skill, your proficiency will rise as you train and experience combat situations. The closer your proficiency is to {1} the greater the potential you can pull out of the Skill.]
Caleb nodded at this and dismissed the notifications as he neared his home.
It might not have been what I originally planned but the skill seemed to be doing its job. And as I add more data to the Skill, it should compound on itself, putting any host I have on the fast track to being a master of combat.
This didn’t necessarily expand my options for empowering Caleb, but it would take some of the pressure off my shoulders. Proficiency based Skills would let him grow at his own pace rather than an immediate power boost.
The Proficiency idea wouldn’t work for everything, and I will probably have to go back to the drawing board for a few of my other projects. But it would let me be more hands off with future hosts, with their limits only determined by how hard they work and train.
With one last check on the Skill, I retreated into myself and turned my attention to some of my ongoing experiments. Caleb was quickly slowly approaching ‘Level 2’, where he would unlock the Shop. This would be another use for the System Points he collected, as he could buy Skills and Items from the Shop.
The only problem right now was that…I didn’t have any Skills or Items for him to buy. Combat Sense had been my first “successful” Skill and even that hadn’t worked as I thought it would. Which means I’ll have to re-evaluate the feasibility of my other ideas.
I was also strapped for ideas for Items as I had little to work with except sticks and stones. I managed to shape some wood and plant fibers into a bow, only to realize the wood around here wasn’t suitable for it. I knew I could alter the wood’s properties with causal energy, but it seemed like such a waste.
I had only created two “working” Items with what I had available: the ‘loud stone’ and ‘strong rope’. The stone made a sound louder than it should when it hit something, and the rope was stronger and tougher than one would think. That’s it.
I had even tried working with alchemy a bit, only to come to the conclusion that anything I couple make a potion for, I could make a Skill for instead.
It was, all around, headache inducing.
Which didn’t even make any sense! I don’t have a head!
I sighed internally and lamented my lack of resources, or at least my lack of imagination. If I had the energy to spend I could, theoretically, turn any old stick into a dragon-killing superweapon. But most of the energy I collected went towards sustaining my existence, with a small amount put to the side for a rainy day.
This left me with little to play around with as of right now and that frustrated me to no end.
“If only I could just go out and buy what I needed…huh?”
An epiphany struck me. I couldn’t go out and buy things, but Caleb could…or better yet.
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A new Quest has been generated!
Quest: Fetch!
Description: Gather materials for the System.
Needed:
Iron Ingot (0/1)
Animal Parts (0/5)
Rewards: 5 XP, Equipment (1)(Simple)
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Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.