For the rest of the week, we continuously ran the dungeon. As soon as we completed it, we’d requeue and do it again. Eventually, the guards (rather nice guys once you got to know them) would simply collect the taxes and immediately let us back in.
During these delves, I collected data, and Lydia did her best impression of a paladin of… well… given the look on her face, I would have to say Sheogorath. Her smile while she pummeled skeletal heads into dust was slightly unnerving, but I had long grown to accept that it was just Lydia.
By the end of the week, her level swelled to around 50, and she had increased her Mace Mastery and Shield Mastery to level five. Additionally, while she was testing ways to use her now abundant mana, she unlocked the ability Boundless Stamina, which allowed her to cycle mana throughout her body, replenishing her energy and enabling her to quickly recover from fatigue.
Watching the mana flow through her body was fascinating. I could see it rebuild tissue and energize her cells. It illuminated not only her organs, but also her blood as it coursed through her. I entered another state of hyper-focus watching her while she fought, Boundless Stamina allowing my mana sense to see even minute activations of muscle fibers, seeing how her organ systems interacted with mana. The swirl of colors that defined her… and for a brief moment… I knew her.
A status window popped open.
Name: Lydia Lightgrass
Species: Elf
Subspecies: None
Age: 26
Level: 51
Then, a more familiar window replaced it in my line of sight..
Congratulations, You have unlocked the Mana Entity Ability: Deep Study.
Deep Study: Skill governing the ability to read the mana and essence emitted by living organisms providing information about levels, skills, abilities, and active effects. (1/10).
Skill detected, “Autodidact,” would you like to transfer 1000 experience points to level Deep study.? Y/N.
‘What the actual fuck?’
I blinked as I read her status.
‘This will be… very useful…’
So far as isekai skills go, being able to read the status of other people was high on the list. If I hadn’t started out by killing fake cthulhu, I would have felt a little cheated by not having it. However, most isekai protagonists needed it to stay out of danger whereas… I was the danger. Regardless, I knew how useful this was going to be.
‘And level.’
I immediately began raising the skill.
The maximum level for your stage of evolution has been reached. Current Rank (3/10).
I contemplated using the skill again on Lydia but decided against it. She was entitled to her privacy. I could always try it on people with whom I was less connected.
‘I’ll keep this one secret for now… I feel like it will just make her paranoid.’
We repeated our dungeon runs until I observed that her essence channels had begun to back up. She had yet to manifest any side effects; however, I was taking no chances. We departed the dungeon, tipped the guards, and headed back to the hotel.
I saw the usual person manning the front desk. I had forgotten his name, and after a while, I had been too embarrassed to ask, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to test my new ability.
Name: Clinton Jefferson
Species: Human
Subspecies: None
Place of Origin: ?????
Age: 35
Level: 3
Skills: Mathematics (2/10), Text Memorization (2/10), Scrimshaw (1/10)
Abilities: Soothing Soul (3/10)
Active effects: None
Inherent Traits: ?????
‘Huh, I wonder if that ability soothes his soul or soothes the souls of others. Let's focus on it and see what it tells me.’
Soothing Soul: Ability allowing one to reduce the anger and hostility of others.
‘That’s definitely a skill you learn by working in customer service. Next up, origin.’
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Unable to ascertain. You have not been exposed to any background energy matching Mr. Jefferson's place of origin.
‘Well, that's a shame. At least the interface is giving me the reason for the error. Now, the question marks on inherited traits`
Invalid inquiry. Your level in the skill is not high enough to access his inherent traits.
My curiosity sated, Lydia and I headed to our rooms. Once there, we had a brief argument when I asked her to wear some of the diagnostic equipment to bed. She only agreed after I explained that if I could figure out the rate at which her body processed essence while she slept, I could further optimize her training schedule. She was nothing if not dedicated.
******************************
“Wake up!” I shouted, having finished making breakfast.
A groan arose from the other room, followed by several loud crashes. Finally, Lydia staggered out her door.
“You really are the worst at getting up. What’s going to happen if you get ambushed by something you can’t handle in that state… like a kitten or a puppy.”
Ignoring my taunt, she stumbled over to the table for pancakes and began to wolf them down in her trademark elegant manner.
“What’s on the agenda today?” She asked, mouth partially full.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, do table manners exist on this planet?”
She swallowed. “I started doing it to embarrass my parents and it became a habit.”
“It would appear you showed them.”
“Listen, I only had to go to social events where it would be more offensive for me not to show up than to show up and eat like this. Do you have any idea how much time I saved?”
“Oh? Was Lydia a rich girl?”
She took another mouthful before saying, “something like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, since you asked. No, there's no training today. I want you to finish processing your essence, and tonight is the meeting that Magum arranged for us.”
“Wow, that feels like forever ago.”
“Indeed. Fortunately, even with our expenses, the sheer quantity of dungeon dives we’ve done has, more or less, replenished our initial funds.”
“We? How many skeletons did you kill? I forget.”
“Depends. Do I get credit for you not being level seven and incapable of lifting a mace without accidentally bludgeoning yourself with it?”
“Fine. We'll call it teamwork.”
“Right. So, anyway, since OUR funds have been replenished, we will hopefully be able to acquire some magic and skill books that your contacts can’t get us.”
“You never found out more about this meeting? Haven’t you seen Magum twice since then?”
“I didn’t want to spend any more time around that hobbit than I had to.”
“I don’t think he’s a hobbit, just short.”
I sighed and rubbed my temples. “Nevermind. Just wear an outfit that hides your face. I’ll teach you how to Sneak on the way.”
“Music to my ears.”
**************************************
“This… is not what I expected…” I said, to a similarly confused Lydia.
We had spent hours traveling, carefully moving through the city, dodging into alleys and jumping on rooftops, making sure no one followed us on our way to a clandestine meeting… Which is why we were surprised to see a steady stream of masked, but well dressed, men and women walking into a building, passing what was obviously armed security.
“I, uuuh, think we need to change.” I sputtered out, annoyed at my least favorite hobbit.
“Looks like it,” Lydia said, suppressing a laugh at the look on my face.
Fortunately, I was prepared. I kept almost all of our possessions in my inventory in the event that we ever needed to leave quickly. Backtracking a bit, we broke into what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse and changed: Lydia into a formal gown and me into a three piece suit. It had been awhile since I had seen Lydia in anything other than loose fitting house clothes or armor… It was… a bit of a shock. Fortunately, I remembered her spitting out food particles as she talked and regained my composure.
After we changed, there was one problem that remained—our masks. While everyone else looked like they were on their way to a masquerade ball, we looked like we were about to rob a convenience store.
‘Can’t be helped, I suppose.’
We walked to the door, catching more than a few sideways glances. The security guard regarded us skeptically.
“Invitations?” he asked.
‘Fucking Magum.’
“Uh… we don’t have any.”
“Then you will not be able to enter.”
“Wait!” I said, suspecting where this was going, “Would this work?” I asked, extracting Magum’s hastily scribbled note from my inventory.
The guard looked at it, then up at me, then back to the paper, then straightened up and met my gaze with a look of terror.
“I’m sorry, sir, I had no idea. Please forgive my rudeness.”
The poor man looked like he was ready to have a breakdown.
‘Fucking Magum.’
“All is forgiven. Now may we pass?”
“Yes! Of course, Sir! Present this note to the man inside the door and he will usher you directly to the VIP section!”
“Okay… thank you.”
“No Sir, Thank you! May the auction treat you kindly!”
“Yes… You're welcome.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as we walked into the room. I could see the future, and I had a bad feeling about this.
‘Nothing ever goes right at a dark auction.’