My map had led me to an old pre-war house. Although the buildings both on its left and right side had been renovated to comply with modern safety regulations, its wooden façade stood unbothered by the centuries moving by.
It seemed out of place in this city, just like me. Internet reviews hadn’t lied, I was already getting a good feeling about this.
I pushed the old wooden door open. It creaked as it led me into a cosy, candle-lit nook. The windows were covered up by thick curtains, and all walls were hidden behind rugs. Candles floated in the air as if suspended by magic. Despite the scarce light, I had no trouble seeing my surroundings. Opposite the main door, a pair of curtains created a narrow passageway into the next room.
This place really did give me the strangest feeling. With only fabric around me, it was hard to assess how wide or tall the room was, and the patterns woven into the rugs, and those painted on the curtains, swirled about, like endless clouds of whimsical wonder.
“Come forth, young lady.” A female voice called out from somewhere deeper within this palace of linen.
I spun around, briefly disorientated by the voice and the fabrics. But I found my bearings quickly enough and pushed aside the curtains to enter the next room.
Dragon Eye
A+
Oracle
Time Walker
Eye of Neith [Ac]
Wondering Mind [Ac]
Shift (Human, […])[Pa]
Dragon Eye +
It seemed my skills had picked up on the owner of this place before I had. As soon as the notification window disappeared, I got to take a better look at the Oracle. They were sitting, arms folded under their chin, behind a round table. The table was covered in the same embroidered fabrics that filled their whole shop. Their face was hidden behind a large hood, although the cloth did allow for an amused smile to slip under it.
“I am glad that I have helped level up one of your skills, darling.” The Oracle said in a smug voice. “Take a seat, won’t you?”
“Hello. Yes, of course.” I replied.
I glanced around before noticing a stool half-hidden under the long tablecloth. I pulled it out and took a seat.
“So…” I trailed off, unsure if I was meant to speak first, or they would.
“Well, how about a proper introduction?” They said while maintaining that same amused smile.
Their ESW appeared before my eyes.
Madame Astra
Older than my tongue and younger than my teeth
-
Oracle
--
Knows more than you think
Can see the future
“And you, darling, are?” Madame Astra asked.
“Not this good at customizing my ESW.” I joked as I displayed my own status window.
“Oh, no, no.” The Oracle waved a hand, in a displeased motion. “None of this, please. I have my own means of knowing you are a very unlucky Courier. I am asking who you are as a person.”
“Umm, well that’s a complex question.” I replied. “For now, I am just a barista with a poor relationship with my family and some slightly unbalanced skills.”
Madame Astra nodded. It seemed she was agreeing with the last part. But seeing how she knew my class I still had hope she’d help me. Then I realized I had shown my ESW not even thirty seconds ago. I didn’t know if this was the ambience of the place, or the soft and enticing way she spoke, but something was starting to mess with my mind.
As if reading my thoughts, Madame Astra replied:
“I am not playing with your mind, dearest. It seems you have a hex placed on you. You may have noticed that your wisdom statistic has been permanently reduced.”
“Wait permanently?” I suddenly jerked up. I had thought that was a side effect of me reincarnating and not knowing much about this world.
“Well, every curse, and every spell, and every hex can be removed with the right tools. I have heard ‘Amber tears of Saint Catherina’ do wonders for people in your predicament. Although, I am not certain they will help you specifically.”
I was about to ask for more clarifications, but the Oracle didn’t give me a chance.
“May I have your hands, dearest?”
I extended my palms over the table, and she gently took them. I couldn’t help but notice how rough and wrinkled the skin on her hands was. It felt more like leather than like human skin. A deep purple light emanated from below her hood, no doubt a sign that she was using some kind of skill.
“Oh my. Saint Catherina won’t be much help to you dearest. No help at all. But there is joy to be had in knowing that I was wrong. Your predicament is not permanent.” The woman said.
The light under her cloak disappeared, and she looked up at me with that same amused smile before saying:
“Have you tried picking up a book recently, maybe that will help you increase your statistics?”
Stolen story; please report.
I gave her a disapproving look. If this was her idea of a joke, it wasn’t funny. But this old lady clearly wasn’t trying to offend me, so I just let it slide. This seemed to be one of those ‘generational gap’ issues.
“I have actually come here to ask for help with my skills.” I said. “I’d like to have them sorted, and annotated if possible.”
“Mhuum, yes.” The smile vanished from Madam Astra’s face. “I still remember times when people your age came to me to have their future read, to see if they could become great adventurers, or find great riches. Now it's all business talk. The world does not need women of my profession anymore.”
There was something in the tone of this woman’s voice that made me feel bad for her. Maybe this was just a tactic to get more people to buy her services, but the sales pitch was working. Except, I still could only spend my own money in this place, so I couldn’t do this even if I wanted to.
Once again, having seemingly read my mind, Madame Astra spoke:
“Oh, don’t worry about it darling. You are sweet. Let me see what I can do for your skills.”
I extended my hands forward once more, and she nodded before taking them.
“This might take a while. You youngsters always have too many skills nowadays.” She spoke.
This time, there was no arcane light emanating from her eyes. Instead, she sat there, holding my hands, and in complete silence; deeply focused on her task.
Laura Emilie Geneviève Dubois de la Sablonnière
S
Courier
Social stealth adept
Luck
59/100
MP
12/100
Strength
11
Dexterity
17 = 11 + 6 (class benefit)
Constitution
8
Intelligence
14
Wisdom
9 = 13 – 4(unexpected side-effect)
Charisma
11
S+ Planar Shift [Ac] (upon death)
S Short voyage [Pa] (0 MP)
S- Long voyage [Ac] (upon death; min radius 5 km)
A Backtrack [Pa]
A Dark Vision [Pa] (see in the dark as if it were daylight. Ineffective against skill-induced darkness of a higher level)
A Environmental Awareness [Pa]
A- Black Trail [Pa]
A- Mind Stop [Pa]
B+ Mirror [Pa] (get a read for the crowd, and mimic their emotions)
B+ Starlight [Ac] (when cast on a weapon, increase damage by 1/5 strength %)
B+ Walk [Pa] (walk for days without feeling tired)
B Faintness [Pa]
B Fitness [Pa] (no cramps or sores for you after exercise)
B Speech Comprehension[Pa] (understand languages you cannot speak)
B- Dragon eye [Pa]
B- Memoire [Ac] (Flashback but better)
B- Run [Pa] (run for days without feeling tired)
C+ Second breath [Pa]
C Mocking bird [Ac] (Imitates voices and phrases; English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese)
C Restoration [Pa] (regain luck points over time)
D+ Black Square White Square [Ac]
D+ Data Analysis [Pa]
D+ Holding Void [Ac] (a pocket dimension to store all your non-perishable goods)
D+ [Microsoft Office Suite] [Pa] (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)
D Outsider [Ac] (helps you stand out in any way you see fit)
D+ R [Pa]
D+ Traitor’s Lament [Pa] (+1 to strength and dexterity when stabbing someone in the back)
D Straight Blades [Pa] (damage increase by 1/10 strength % when wielding straight blades)
D Metamorph [Ac]
E+ Warm Heart [Pa] (People approach you with a positive mindset)
E Bones of Ice [Pa] (Resistance to non-magical poison)
E Marksmith [Pa] (Shots fired with a pistol do not go wide)
E Platinum Skin [Pa] (Resistance to blade attacks)
E- Blackout [Ac] (temporarily disables sources of light within a radius)
E- Runes of Jericho [Ac] (Earth-based attack)
++ more skills to display ++
“Oh wow!” I couldn’t help but exclaim when I saw my new ISW.
Not only were the skills sorted by rank and alphabetical order, but Madame Astra had annotated most of them. I had made the mistake of choosing to have a look at my full list of skills one day, and had to take a Dafalgan afterwards; the experience had given me a headache. But now I was surprised to discover that I had a few rare skills, albeit at very low levels. Maybe I could level them up one day, and get a better job. Although I doubted, I could level them beyond ‘B’, since most high-level skills were innate.
“There you go, darling. I hope you like it.” Madame Astra said with a soft smile. “Some of your skills seem to be class-specific. Short voyage for example is a teleportation skill, but I have no idea what the ‘0 MP’ note is supposed to indicate. Perhaps you could ask for clarifications from whoever put it there.”
I awkwardly laughed. I wasn’t sure if that last comment suggested that I was an impostor in this body, or if Madam Astra thought that I was incapable of annotating my own skills.
“Well, thank you once again.” I said as I reached for my wallet.
“Wait a second, darling. From one uncommon and unbalanced class to another-” The Oracle pulled off her hood, to reveal an owl-like face.
Her nose seemed to be a mixture between flesh and a beak, and her eyes were definitely too large to be human. tiny feathers covered every inch of the skin above her cheeks and seemed to grow even amongst her loosely pulled-back hair.
“Oh,” I said, as the realization hit me.
She was a low-level shifter. One that was stuck between human and animal form. Which didn’t make sense since shifters were a class of their own. But I didn’t want to say anything for fear of sounding rude.
Her lips formed into that familiar amused smile.
“Yes, as you see you do not have the worst passive skills, darling.”
“No, I guess not.” I agreed. “So, do you have any tips for me then?” I eagerly asked.
“Oh, goodness no!” Madam Astra exclaimed. “Truth be told, if I could live the rest of my life without doing any of this boring skill sorting or class nonsense, I would! No, I just wanted to tell you to be careful and not do things or go places people of your class shouldn’t do or go to.”
I frowned just a little, and then sigh. It seemed as if Madam Astra was truly worried for me.
“I am not planning on.” I reassured her.
“Your future says otherwise.” She shook her head. “Perhaps you do not plan on going anywhere dangerous now, but I see a dangerous path ahead. Not to alarm you though,” She suddenly shook her hand, accentuating her point, “You will never be in mortal danger. But those you love might.”
“Etienne…” I whispered. “Do you see anything else?” I promptly added.
Money was no longer an issue. If she saw some danger surrounding Etienne, it was my duty to prevent it, and I would use my father’s credit card to do so.
“I see your child giving up his nature for you. I see twin stars orbiting around you, and I see one of the stars going dim, as the other blames you for it. I see you giving a life that wasn’t yours to give. I see you climbing a mountain that should have been destroyed. And, I see you reading a tome of great knowledge while riding through the fields.”
“Oh.” I said again, in disappointment this time.
Not only did I not have a child, but none of these ‘prophecies’ seemed to mention Etienne. Although that last one did hit a chord. I believed it was about me reading “The guide to modern immortal immorality” before coming to this world.
I reached again for my wallet, pulling out the amount stated on Madam Astra’s website. I wasn’t sure if I should take my credit card out as well.
“As I said, this is just a little something from one uncommon class holder to another.” She said with a smile, before pulling her hood back over her head. She seemed to wear it to play into this mysterious fortune teller narrative more than anything else.
“Thank you.” I said with sincerity. Because I was truly thankful for her sorting of my skills. The validity of the rest had yet to be determined.
We bid each other farewell, and I set out to my next destination: Plan B, or the National Library as I called it. I wanted to take full advantage of my day off to finish this business with my skills. Who knew when I’d have the luxury to stroll around Paris like this again?
[https://i.imgur.com/GfBl0kA.png]