There was a reason why I wanted to check my profile information. I had used my class Skills several times since I received them, and I wanted to check if any of them had levelled up by now. The way the skills' desciptions were worded, and common sense, suggested that I might be able to make my already-powerful Skills even more advanced. Eagerness filled my heart as the blue screen opened. Sure enough, all three of my Class Skills were level two, having gone up by one from all my battles.
Lvl.1
Raven Dawn
ADULT
Abilities: Daemonic Transformation, Normal Fire Manipulation [Rare]
Strength: 17 [+]
Defense: 14 [+]
Magic: 35 [+]
Mind: 25 [+]
Class: Storyteller
Skills: Story Weaver [Lvl.2], Artist [Lvl.2], Illusions [Lvl.2]
Curious about what levelling up my Skills up had changed, I clicked open the Skill descriptions of all three of them, watching the new blue screens pop up one after the other and covering the ones below them. The top-most box was the Illusion Skill.
Illusions
Category: Class Skill
Raven, you should not be looking at this while walking. The screens are translucent, but it is like texting and driving... That's the term, right? Just focus!
You can create realistic illusions. Simple. While a target is under said illusion, you can control what they see, hear, smell, etc. The illusion is not real and would not hurt the target physically by themselves, but few can see through them. At Level 2, you can put 4 people under this Skill. Mana Cost is decreased slightly and your understanding of the Class Skill has been boosted.
[0/10 Uses to Level 3]
I frowned. The Skill description looked different from the previous time I had seen it. My System Workers could change the italic portion at will? That could be a piece of useful information in the future, but for now, they could just talk to me through the bolded System notification things. I did not know what those messages were called, but that really wasn't the point. A sweet sensation bursted in my heart as I found the change to my Skill. I could use this power on more people at once, and the amount of 'hidden currency' I needed to use was also decreased alongside it. Despite that, I made a mental note to boost my Magic stat a bit more with my New Gems the next time we rested.
Next. I mentally commanded the blue box showing my Illusion Skill to close, and another screen popped up in front of my eyes.
Artist
Category: Class Skill
What did we say about texting and driving? We are nice(r), but we will block this if it would help you.
If you draw any item in any medium and with anything, it would become real as long as you want it to be real. If the 'item' is an animal, plant or other, it becomes alive if you wants it to be (yes, it can come out dead, but that's not fun) and has all the properties you want it to have. It might be better to write those properties down, though, unless you want a flesh-eating plant instead of a little pet because of a stray thought. At Level 2, Mana Cost is decreased slightly and your understanding of the Class Skill has been boosted.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
[1/10 Uses to Level 3]
I hummed. What does my understanding of the Skill mean? I had skipped over this portion for the previous Skill, but now that both Illusions and Artist had that boost, I was curious. Did it let me I could draw better for Artist? Create stronger monsters out of my imagination? None of them seemed to be that connected to the Skill's special effects. Instead, they were tied to my own artistical talents and expertise. I mulled over it as I left the System interface open, but could not come to a conclusion. Eventually, I decided that I would be able to figure that part out the next time I used the Skill in a fight, so I did not need to waste time brainstorming possibilities that might just be getting me further and further from the truth.
As I removed the Artist blue box, I expected to see the Story Weaver Skill hidden underneath, so I was surprised when I saw a countdown timer and an image of a well-drawn and intricate lock, together with a mildly annoyed System message.
Time Remaining: 1 hour 59 minutes
ERROR! System Screen Locked!
You really have to force us to do this, don't you, Raven?
I grumbled as I closed the screen, which was glowing silver instead of the usual blue, but my disappointment vanished quickly when I finally realized what my System Workers were trying to tell me. That understanding sent me into a well-disguised panic. I sent a hastily-crafted message to Hydra, 'Hydra, do you sense any danger?'
While waiting for his answer, I tried my best to listen for any hidden sounds and also kept my eyes out for any sign of danger. However, I saw and heard nothing.
"No, hatchling, nothing,' The dragon replied, confident, 'Why? Your sixth sense blaring?'
Instead of answering with words, I sent an emotion wave that showed a negative response. It was hard to describe what our bond was like, but our minds had grown close enough that we did not need words for every telepathic exchange anymore, which was a good sign. Maybe, hopefully it was not a bad thing. I wouldn't know.
After Hydra reassured me of our relative safety, I relaxed instantly, relieved. If even he could not detect anything, we should be fine. The System Workers on my team was probably just paranoid and did not want me to die. Maybe the longer I survived, the more likely they could receive their 'pay rise'.
I finally realized how wrong I was when a sharp claw grazed my arm, leaving three deep gashes and a lot of blood. I growled and swung my arm forward with as much force as I could muster, sending the creature flying off my arm. It landed with a thud somewhere nearby. Kaelen yelped and encased us in a protective shield of shimmering yellow and casted a healing lightning bolt on me. I thanked her quickly and sank into my Illusion Skill. Our invisible enemy could either be using a similar ability, or was plainly invisible, but I was hoping that the Skill I had could hint me towards its general location. I was not disappointed.
This was either a part of my Skill that I had not explored in the previous times I had used it, or the supposed 'boost' that came with my new understanding of the Skill granted by my increase in Skill level, but it worked, and that was all I cared about. In my mind's eye, I could see a reconstruct of the part of the Forest Grounds that I was in. There was a few balls of energies of different colors and sizes all around me. On my command, the Skill allowed me to zoom in on the enemy that had hit me a few seconds ago. The murky brown ball of sticky-looking energy was about half a metre outside of Kaelen's shield, but it was also constantly moving, the energy rolling forward and crashing into the spot where our barrier should be. It fell back, but soon restarted the cycle of ramming itself into our protective dome, being rebounded back by half a metre, and trying again.
It was resilient, for sure.
I opened my eyes again, muttering a rough plan to my companions (and Saskia), "I know where it is. If it is not too difficult, Kaelen, can you keep the force field up a bit more? I'll use my illusions Skill to counter whatever it is using to hide from us."
As soon as I received a nod from Kaelen, I dove back into my mind, creating a safe and fake environment. In that illusion, the creature would feel safe revealing itself to us. It took a while to decide on what scene to use, since I didn't really know what monster we were dealing with, so I instead settled for a circular patch of clearing filled with tall grass, with rings upon rings of trees surrounding the grass. It normally would not work well to change the surroundings up too much, but I had a feeling that this would work.
Once I was done, I held the image in my mind as I made out the rough location of the enemy through Illusion. Once I located the energy ball, I tried something new. I took the scene of the clearing and trees and pushed it gently but firmly into the sticky brown structure that might have represented its mind - since Illusions worked on the mind.
It worked, and the picture slid in without too much resistance. Relieved that it was not like the horned wolves, I returned to reality and watched the results of my hard work unfold. After a few minutes of restless waiting, during which there were no more force field rams, the little beast finally showed itself. It was a small, pristine white rabbit, with murky brown eyes and two disproportionally long horns of the same color as its eyes. It sniffed the air nervously, but it must have detected no danger, because it stayed visible. A few seconds later, before we could even react to the reveal, a large creature jumped out and devoured the little rabbit whole.