“Our hearts resonate at the same frequency as the earth and the universe. Therefore, we are all valuable instruments in the orchestration of the world and its harmony.”

Suzy Kassem

“You know your skills, how to use them, and how they feel. Similar skills will feel the same. So, for example, Flute and Panpipe are compatible skills that could be combined to become Tier 2 Pipes or wind instrument skills. There is a certain resonance between them.” She answered while failing to give the specific steps.

I looked at my skill list excited to consolidate but realising it was probably best to wait for some time alone before I attempted the process. Especially with the suspicious way in which my Grandfather was looking at me. As I thought about it if he had never had a noble’s education he probably had an insane number of weapon skills that he could probably consolidate into some powerful higher-tier skills. It would not surprise me if he had 16 similar skills that could be combined to create a tier 5 skill.

I watched Grandfather as I asked, “What do you need to do?” He looked interested in the answer.

“Well, Kai I would wait a while before attempting it. It is worth thinking carefully about which you wish to combine and which skills you would like to keep separate. So, I would like you to wait and consult me before you attempt it. In order to create the best compliment of skills.” She advised.

“Yes, yes but how do you do it?” I asked again, the entire table waiting on her answer.

“The first step is to pull up your status. Then place your two hands on the two skills you wish to combine and imagine pulling them down out of your Tier 1 skills into your Tier 2 skills while pushing them together if there is sufficient resonance between the skills their compatibility will allow them to combine.”

“Awesome. Will we be doing that soon?” Aleera asked excited to see what her skills would become and to gain a higher tier of skill.

“Aleera we will try to complete your cascades first then move on to consolidation. Kai, we need to focus on your Charisma Stat before we look towards consolidation. In fact, your task will be to focus on learning new musical instruments and building up a performance. To entertain your family, your cousins and then the town.” She disappointed my sister.

We had made amazing progress on my cascade but Aleera’s still had a long way to go and Charisma would rely entirely on my own abilities as none of our cousins had the stat as their highest stat. So there was no easy route to the trait or perk on our island. Lady Acacia had suggested recruiting from further afield but whoever they managed to find would be unable to arrive on the island before Aleera’s 11th birthday anyway. So we were going to try and work on this with the resources we had at hand.

. . .

Later that night once the family had gone to bed, I was once more awake after a short nap. Despite the numbers on my stats, the boost from my trait Durability meant that I would wake up after a short nap at night. It was time to see if I could do the consolidation with my skills.

I started with my languages. I carefully pulled up my status putting a mental and physical hand on each skill English (LV15) and Spanish (LV15) carefully applying mental pressure to them with the physical gesture. The skills resonated as I attempted to move them. They vibrated in the same tone. Getting closer and closer to being perfectly in tune with one another until finally they clicked into unison and I heard them combine into a new Tier 2 skill, Bilingual (Lv 15). It had worked! Resonance was the key.

Once I had created the skill I did the same with Japanese (LV15) and German (LV10) I held them until two skills vibrated at the same frequency but this time when they combined they created the skill Dual Lingo (Lv 12). It seemed that the skill level averaged out between the two skills that you combined.

I left Bussola (LV15) alone although I was tempted to combine it with French (LV7) however I was only attempting this with my otherworldly skills in the hopes of hiding them under another name. Also, I could imagine Lady Acacia having questions about where my Bussola skill had disappeared to if I did that. Not that she wouldn't have questions about the new high-tier skills if I suddenly revealed them.

Instead, I attempted to combine Decoding (LV10) and French (Lv 7) as I mentally grabbed the two skills the tones were further apart and harder to hold together as they grew closer together in pitch. I wondered whether it was my poor French that was holding me back or a certain level of incompatibility between the skills but I persevered and the skills gradually grew closer and closer until finally with a pure tone I received the Tier 2 skill Interpreter (Lv 8).

That was not the end of my experimentation as I now had a lot of Tier 2 language skills to try consolidation out on, Bilingual (Lv15), Dual Lingo (Lv12), Interpreter (Lv8), Linguistics (Lv16), and Translation (LV16). Looking at the new list of Tier 2 skills I still had a lot of overlap. I started with Bilingual and Dual Lingo repeating the steps I had earlier when they were only Tier 1 language skills from my former world.

A few minutes later I was the proud owner of a Tier 3 Language skill, Multilingual (Lv 13)!

Not to be halted there I looked at the other Tier 2 skills and considered which I could combine, Interpreter (Lv8), Linguistics (Lv16), and Translation (LV16). It was a tough decision. Either I could attempt Linguistics and Translation which would allow me to maintain a higher level of skill at Tier 3 or I could attempt Interpreter and Translation which seemed to be more closely aligned.

In the end, following the difficulties I had experienced with French and decoding, I decided to go with the two skills that seemed the most closely aligned. Following the same procedure, I merged Interpreter and Translation to create the Tier 3 skill, Polylingual (Lv 12). Sure I had dropped a little in its level but I wasn’t planning on holding onto it but merging it further into a Tier 4 skill excited to see how high I could take this.

When I took the two skills Polylingual and Multilingual though there was now more than one tone. I still had to merge them together but now I was forming a skill chord that reverberated in my head. Finally after what felt like an age but was probably only a minute or so I was the proud new owner of the Tier 4 skill Polyglot (Lv 12). That was sure to come in useful learning the languages of the Compass Kingdoms. Maybe we could get started on Elvish soon?

I wondered what would come at Tier 5 or Tier 6. Although if I was going to attempt to use skill consolidation to get there it was going to take another 8 languages to create another Tier 4 skill to merge and then another 16 languages to create another Tier 5 skill to merge. Whatever skill you got at Tier 6 should be something like Universal Understanding if it was going to take learning 32 languages to get there!

Alternatively, I could just go about as I always had practicing various things in the hopes of getting a skill for it. That is the way it had turned out for the majority of the skills I had gained.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I couldn’t wait for my first Elvish lesson to impress Lady Acacia with how quickly I could pick it up.

This didn’t need to be the end of my skill consolidation if my aim was to hide under another tier, my otherworldly skills. I still had Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20) to combine. They consolidated into Wind Instruments (Lv20) and String Instruments (Lv 20). I would have argued that a Piano was not the traditional definition of a string instrument but who was I to argue with the hand of fate that was the System. It seemed an arbitrary stretching of the nomenclature. Still, it gave me two Tier 3 instrument skills which could be combined further into a Tier 4 skill of Virtuoso (Lv20). Lady Acacia was going to have a surprise when it came to my music lessons as well as my language lessons.

I looked at my new consolidated skill list. It didn’t look a lot smaller to me but I was happy with my new Tier 4 skills Polyglot and Virtuoso. Also if anyone was ever able to look at my skills and status without my permission there were now no longer any skills that would immediately give me away as an old soul from another world. Merely a monstrous genius savant from this one.

Skills:

Tier 1: Swimming (LV51) Running (LV51) Meditation (LV50) ) Time Sense (LV50) Breath Control (LV44) Singing (LV43) Listening (LV40) Knots (LV40) Stitching (LV40) Climb (LV35) Draw (LV35) Diving (LV35) Sailing (LV35) Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Trading (LV33) Dodge (LV33) Knife (LV33) Drumming (LV31) Sneak (LV31) Acting (LV25) Balance (LV20) Calligraphy (LV20) Farming (LV20) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Throw (LV15) Lie (LV12) Bussola (LV15) Mathematics (LV15) Appeal (LV7) Insight (LV6) Ambidextrous (LV 5) Glide (Lv5) Poise (Lv5) Grace (LV5) Charm (Lv5) Composure (Lv5) Martial Arts (LV4) Cook (LV3) Silent Step (Lv3) Deft touch (Lv 3) Posture (Lv 3) Dance (Lv 3) Sprint (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV41) Quick reflexes (LV41) Eavesdrop (LV33) Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Linguistics (LV16) Pain Tolerance (LV20) Stealth (LV20) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) Transplant (LV12) Cartography (LV15) Misdirection (LV9) Haggling (LV6) Order (LV6) Knife Arts (LV7) Poison Tolerance (LV1)

Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV44) Mana Manipulation (LV38) Echolocation (LV35) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Melt (LV11) Deception (LV4) Command (LV4)

Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Virtuoso (Lv20) Polyglot (Lv 12) Stone shaping (Lv5)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv19)

Now that I was balanced as best as I could be it was time to look at improving my mental abilities again. I had avoided focusing on practising my mental skills for nearly a year now but now it was time to start again. Hopefully this time my physical stats and abilities would be able to keep up with the support of the Elvish growth elixir.

. . .

Later that night, time to begin my own personal experiments with what the system and I were capable of when unfettered by the knowledge of what was and wasn’t possible.

The best place to start on my mental powers was in my mind fortress. It had been a long time since I had the stamina to stay awake throughout the night but with the Attribute Durability it seemed to affect more than just my physical constitution but my stamina as well. I was now able to stay awake during the night without being too exhausted the next day. Cat naps were enough to bring me back to wakefulness.

Step 1 I refreshed the individual rooms clearing away the mental cobwebs so to speak. I did not change the layout. I kept the same sequence of rooms along with my false status. Before sitting down to see what I could sense. The constellation of stars that represented the town were off to the east but there were 7 stars a lot closer.

The brightest two were clearly Grandfather and Lady Acacia, it was difficult to tell which one shone the brightest but beyond the intensity of minds, there was also the feeling that it would be dangerous for me to interact too closely with them.

Next up was my mother a beautiful star that did not seem anywhere as dangerous but still shone brightly. Moving closer I could sense contentment and slumber. She was dreaming and it was a pleasant dream. Nearby was Father’s star not as bright his mind seemed to be sailing the sea even in his dreams he was excited and racing so fast across the waves that he was close to flying or at least that was the impression I sensed. Insight was at best a vague understanding of how they felt.

Aleera shone brightest after that despite being younger than both Des and Sinis she had honed her mind and with the extra stats Magic, Clarity and Charisma she was stronger than both of them especially now that she had received her perks mighty and resilient. She seemed to be dreaming of the next step in her merchant empire envisioning buying up the children of slaves and setting them free as we had done with Des and Sinis.

Finally, there were Des and Sinis shining next to one another. Des dreamed of building a home with his brother hear on the shore of the lake while Sinis dreamed of sailing the sea free. I wondered if they knew they each dreamed of different things. I also wondered when Insight might become a more effective Tier 2 skill. I had discovered that at its current level it worked best when people were asleep. When they were awake their minds seemed to be able to better defend themselves and I was only able to get the simplest of impressions, a general feeling or desire rather than the slightly more detailed impressions I was able to glean when they were asleep.

I checked to see if I had managed to gain a level, Insight (Lv7) before trying to tackle my next challenge. I was not yet a warrior or a mage lacking the body of the former or the spells of the latter. But what I was good at were my sensory skills and once I had slightly longer legs I would have the ability to avoid the dangers I sensed. I had managed to tie Mana Sense and Echolocation into my internal Heads up display using Parallel Processing. My aim this night was to see if I couldn’t do the same with my Insight skill. The complication to this was that the mind fortress seemed to stop my ability to sense the minds outside of my own. I had mentally created an idea of sensors on the outside of my mind fortress which were now sending their senses to my control room.

I pulled up my map of the world around me. Sense mana gave me the most detail but had the shortest range. Lighting up the world around me in the colours I perceived mana to have. Echolocation gave a greater range and added black and white to the internal radius that mana sense reached before it extended further as simply black and white. This reached further than the mana sense but was limited by the stone around me travelling far further along the open corridors than through the walls.

The next step was to add the minds to my map that Insight told me were there in the depths of my map that my other senses could not quite reach. Having achieved this I exited my mind while pulling the overlay with me onto my external vision. Walking to the wall I opened my secret tunnels watching as my echolocation suddenly extended along the pitch-black tunnel. I headed toward the closest stars pushing mana sense and echolocation as far as they would go while I walked in through the tunnels which were challenging to see only with my physical eyes despite my supersenses trait. Gradually I grew closer to the minds of Des and Sinis perceiving them even through the stone with my . . .

Ding! Mind Sense (Lv1)

I was now able to include the stars that represented their minds to my mini-map that showed me what was beyond the walls separating us despite my echolocation making it through the stone. My map was now a mixture of my skills, Sense Mana, Echolocation and Mind Sense.

But I wasn’t finished there. There were some more skills I wanted to add to this HUD I as building again, Draw, Memorisation and Cartography. The problem with my current method was it was only what I could sense at the time not what I could remember of where I had been before. Using my memories my drawing abilities and my growing skill at cartography I was able to redraw the places I had already been to so far tonight including my room which was now beyond any of my sensory skills.

I spent an hour or two tiptoeing around the mountain building up a mental map of the place which would light up as I grew close enough to sense everything. There were still a few blank rooms as I had not wished to wake anyone but I would get around to them when everyone was up and out. My sneaky map creation wasn’t without its other benefits with Sneak reaching Level 32 and Stealth reaching Level 21 but the largest jump was in Silent Step reaching level 10. Maybe someone was up and sensing me wandering around.

What made me smile though as I returned to my room and my bed was that with Mana Sense, Echolocation, Mind Sense, Draw, Memorisation and Cartography running all at the same time I had finally managed to push through the meridian on Parallel Processing reaching Level 21.

All in all a good night's progress.

Time for a quick nap.

Zzzzzzz . . .