When everyone was full, Adam asked, “If we've got time, I need to check my mindscape. The troll most likely put me into the next level, and I will probably grab another skill.”
“Got something in mind already?”
“I think so, but I also want to see if anything else has shown up. It’s been a busy couple of days, and it might pay off to take a look.”
Martin looked around the area. Neither of them had seen any indications of danger during the night, so it was likely to be just as safe during the day. Martin had noticed a pungent odor as he neared the fallen tree and its natural cavern. Adam had explained that instinct had made him urinate and rub against trees in the surrounding area, warning away anything that would normally threaten them. The boy had been blushing as he said it. Apparently, he’d only just noticed the gender of his bear form.
Considering that Jay most likely needed a bit of talking to to understand the events of the previous day, particularly without Adam around, it would likely be a good idea to let the boy dip into his mindscape. “Go ahead, but do it in the back of the shelter will you? At least that way, if something nasty shows up while you’re out of it you’re as protected as I can make you.”
Minutes later, Adam was back in the strange void of his mind, complete with table, giant book, and an old, weird asshole with deplorable taste in clothing.
“Good to see you too, kid,” Szellem said sourly.
Adam simply folded his legs up underneath him, and tried to drop back into meditation. He wasn’t leaving his mindscape, he was trying to connect to his skill impressions. He hadn’t noticed before, but he didn’t seem to have the same relationship to them from inside his mind. Namely, that they weren’t in his mindscape like he had been hoping they would. There was also the little problem of them not being inside his head while he was. Adam had no idea where they could have gone, but figured he’d figure it out eventually. As Martin said, there was no rush.
Using the power of his thoughts, he rotated himself around and then stretched out so he could lie down in the air while looking at his Status book. He had a few things he wanted to get done while he was inside, but he had a time limit.
The first thing he had to do was deal with notifications. Or at least the one that mattered.
Level gained!
One skill point received!
Assign skill points?
That put him at level eight, and a total of two skill points. While it was what he expected, he had been hoping for more. He glanced over his status screen after the notification was cleared. The first page was still less helpful than he needed, and included the reminder of his enslavement. Quickly skipping to the class page, he stared at the wall of text. Martin had said that the System responded to intent and motion. Pinching his fingers together, he imagined squeezing down the section that contained the description of his class and tucked it behind the word “Mother”. To his surprise and delight, it did exactly as he wished, leaving a cross-like symbol in its place.
Class: Mother (C) +
Level: 6
Class Affinity: 3.7%
Specialization: None
Boons granted: massively increased strength, reflexes, and senses; Mother’s Endurance; Mother’s Intuition; increased resistances to sleep and pain
Restrictions: cannot use weapons or armor
Bonuses: increased skill gain with cooking, cleaning, and sewing; added skill synergies with certain crafting skills; added effects for certain tools during combat
Skills: 6 (2)
Love: None
Protection: Mama Bear
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Discipline: Shhhhh
Chores: Multitask, Heath Call
Household: Mother Knows Best, Instant Family
The screen had most of what he wanted to see, showing everything that he currently had. Skills, boons, level, and skill points. Not expecting to see any large changes, he simply moved along. He flicked a finger lazily, and the screen changed again.
Specialization: Must be level 10 to choose a Specialization
Skill points available: 5
Love: 0 (2)
Protection: 1 (5)
Discipline: 1 (2)
Chores: 2 (2)
Household: 2 (0)
Massively Increased Strength: Multiplies physical strength.
Massively Increased Reflexes: Multiplies speed of reactions.
Massively Increased Senses: Multiplies receptiveness of senses.
Mother’s Endurance: Keeps a Mother going as long as needed.
Mother’s Intuition: A Mother knows what her children get up to.
Pain Resistance (S): Reduces pain felt.
Sleep Resistance (S): Reduces the need for sleep.
He sighed, once more seeing a lack of changes. He’d been hoping that all of the fighting, or the level up, would have unlocked something else, but apparently not. There was still one idea of how to unlock new skills, but he really didn’t want to participate in what he imagined it required.
The only changes he had seen in the skill listings on the page he was on had been in Discipline. There were two particular skills that had been revealed since he had gotten his class. One was Shhhhh which he had a sneaking suspicion about, but no actual proof. The second unlocked skill implied certain things about how he would have to gain access to the rest of the skills his class held, but he was being difficult.
Stir the Pot was the second skill he had unsealed, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Even the assistance he could get from the skill in both combat and cooking wasn’t worth the cost. Not in skills points, but in the toxic atmosphere the skill could create.
Stir the Pot: This skill lets you stir things up, literally and figuratively. With your Mind. Induces random mental status effects on everyone in the vicinity. Negative effects for enemies, and positive for allies.
Negative: Berserk, lethargy, sleep, confusion, fear, and other similar effects.
Positive: Fearless, bravery, berserk, stand fast, hyperfocus, and others.
Also lets you stir pots with telekinesis.
Originally he was convinced that it had unlocked just from learning to cook, until he had heard one maid tell another to “stop stirring the pot” when she had been edging a couple of arguing guardsmen further along. Realizing another meaning behind the words had opened his eyes to another way he could have accessed the skill. He wanted to believe the skill had unlocked from cooking, but there was also the chance that it happened when he chatted with Ruth about Martin.
It wasn’t just the way he gained access to it that turned him off to the skill, he’d also asked about the “positive” status effects. Martin explained that most of them were used in times of war to keep levied troops from breaking, but were exceedingly dangerous in any other situation. Fearless would have people charging into battle with no concern for anything other than slaying the enemy. Bravery was similar but included a boost to leadership, which was a nice way of saying it inspired people to follow an idiot to their deaths. Hyperfocus made it impossible to see anything other than the enemy in front of you, allowing others to easily flank you. All of them had benefits, such as increased strength, speed, or reflexes, but the cost almost always outweighed them.
Mentally shuddering at the blatant mind control, he moved onto something he hoped would be more useful. In the Love section of his Sky Tome, he found what he was looking for.
Mother’s Love: A Mother’s Love warms the hearts of all who witness it. An aura of warmth and love that supports, strengthens, and heals everyone within range, but is twice as effective with the ones she loves most: her children. No matter where they roam, her children will always carry a piece of her Love within their hearts to be the warmth in the cold, and the light in the darkness.
The one thing that all children truly need.
For the first time, he knew what the skill’s manifestation would be. A fire. He wasn’t certain where it would be, but he suspected it would be in the back of the cave with Jay’s avatar, there to keep it warm and provide a light to see.
With a warm smile of his own, he purchased the skill and opened his eyes as he dropped out of his mindscape. He wanted to feel the skill as it settled in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back inside his mindscape, Szellem watched Adam fade away before looking to the boy’s System link. With a mental nudge, the pages flipped back to the beginning. A smile spread across his face as he watched a change grow even more than it already had. Slowly, the numbers rose, until 3.7 reached 5%. Numerically speaking it wasn’t a big improvement, but if measured in significance and intent it was huge. The first step on a journey of years had been taken, and as was often the case, the person to whom it was most important had no idea it had happened.