Spending my Skill points, I quickly dip into my Core space, curious to see what happens. It’s different from before when Lay-on-hands transformed into Flesh-Shaping. Then, the changes were located only in an area which had already been transformed by the Skill. This time, the changes are all happening to areas of the weave which were previously untouched.
The weave...hums. I’m not sure how else to describe it. It’s not an audible hum either, more something which I feel within. I hadn’t felt it before when gaining a new Skill – is it because I’m now in my Core space when before I wasn’t? Or because my stats have increased significantly since that time? Or because I’m more familiar with my internal matrix? Or even because it’s more than one Skill suddenly growing? Perhaps it’s a mixture of all of the above.
Either way, it’s different from my experiences before. The weave hums and vibrates, light seeming to flow and collect in three spots on my internal matrix. The spots are all in the same sort of area, peripherally close to what I think are my Tame and Dominate Skills. They’re not nearly as close to those Skills as my Companion Bond addition is, though.
It’s one reason I’m pretty sure that I know which of the Skills is Dominate, and which is Tame. I’d inspected my internal matrix again after gaining my new...is it a Skill? It’s more like a potential development of Dominate. And that’s obvious in the weave. Instead of occupying its own space, Companion Bond is intrinsically connected to Dominate.
In comparison terms, it looks a little like a polarised electron cloud. Most of its ‘body’ is out to one side of Dominate, but I can see threads which weave their way around the whole of the Dominate Skill. Interestingly, there are also a few threads which touch Tame, giving me hope that it might be possible one day to offer Sirocco, for example, a Companion Bond. If she was willing to give up the control that it would require. Or maybe a Companion Bond converted from a Tame Bond would be different from a Dominate Bond?
Anyway – that isn’t what I’m here to see. Even as I consider Companion Bond, my new Skills have been weaving themselves into place. I quickly see that the three are forming a triangle, a bit off to the side and below Tame and Dominate. If directions even mean anything in this place, that is.
Interestingly enough, as the Skills weave themselves into place, I notice similarities between them. I guess that’s inevitable, considering the nature of them. As they grow, I also see tendrils reaching out to touch each other. At the moment, it’s only a couple of threads, but it makes me wonder whether these three Skills could one day be woven together to create one catch-all Skill. Whether there’s any additional benefit to that, I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out over time.
Finally, the process seems done. The light which had collected into place to weave the new threads dims and flows back into the rest of the matrix. I suppose it makes sense that I wasn’t able to choose my Skills with a damaged matrix if that was what needed to happen in order to weave the Skills into place.
It’s done now. I pull out of my Core space and access my status screen.
Name: Markus Wolfe
Race: Human
Class: Tamer
Level: 12
Energy to next level: 100%
Energy absorption rate: 29u/hr
Energy towards debt: 85%
Intelligence
36
Mana: 360/360
Wisdom
34
Mana regeneration rate: 850u/hr
Willpower
42+8 (+20%)
Health regeneration rate: 40u/hr (-20%)
Constitution
19
Health: 190/190
Strength
18
Stamina: 110/110
Dexterity
16
Stamina regeneration rate: 160u/hr
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Class skills
Dominate – Novice 2
*Companion Bond
Tame – Beginner 9
Fade – Initiate 1
Inspect Fauna – Beginner 1
Inspect Flora – Beginner 1
Inspect Environment – Beginner 1
Non-Class skills
Flesh-Shaping – Novice 5
Stealth – Novice 1
Animal Empathy – Novice 6
Meditation – Initiate 3
Energy Manipulation – initiate 7
Sensation Management – Beginner 5
I nod in satisfaction at the new additions to my Skills. Perhaps it seems stupid to go all in on Inspect Skills, especially when there were some other interesting options, but to me it was the logical choice.
Tracking was as much an easy elimination as the last time I looked at it. Nothing has changed in my reasoning not to go for that one. Stun was still a bit of a temptation, but the fact is that I have close-combat potential with my Flesh-Shaping. And frankly, I think that, as long as I can get a handle on it, Flesh-Shaping will be far more versatile than Stun.
If Flesh-Shaping is a scalpel, Stun seems to be like, well, a stun grenade. A burst of mana to lock my opponent in place. Great in certain circumstances or as a last-ditch escape attempt. The problem is the lack of control it offers me. It says it in the Skill description – I have to empty my whole mana pool for the effect. And the effect isn’t even that great – one to ten seconds of stillness.
And what if one of my Bound is biting or attacking the being at the same time? Would they get caught in the effect, or does the stun only affect my opponent? Also, this seems good against a single more powerful enemy, but more often than not I’ve been facing up against weaker but more numerous enemies. Would Stun be able to be used on multiple enemies, or just the one I’m facing? Because if it’s the latter, it isn’t a good addition to my arsenal.
Flesh-Shaping, on the other hand, offers me the same ability to paralyse my opponents, and in a much more efficient and long-lasting way. If I could send magic into an enemy and block or damage their spinal cord, they won’t be able to control any limbs beyond that point. Or if facing an invertebrate, I could grow the creature’s exoskeleton to stymie their movements. And I won’t necessarily have to empty my mana pool to do that.
Sure, Stun offers a more fast-acting Skill, but that’s not enough to make me want to take it – I suspect that with enough practice and wide enough disparity between our mental stats, I’ll be able to do the same with Flesh-Shaping. So no Stun.
As for the Skills offered at level ten, I’ll admit to being tempted. Being able to hear or see through my Bound would be pretty awesome, despite my feeling of unease about the ‘tightly-controlled Bond’ mentioned in the description. Clearly, it would also work with trust which was all I really needed to know. The reason I didn’t take either of those was because...I can already do it. Sort of.
I remember accidentally going into Fenrir’s mind when I was investigating the source of the flashes of Energy that entered my system from the outside. I was in his thoughts, smelling what he smelled, seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard.
I’ve also had memories passed across the Bond from my Bound, showing me things from their perspectives, though admittedly that’s not in real time. And, as I recently saw with Bastet, it’s also not necessarily true to life, or what I would have seen if I’d been present.
Still, it’s enough for me to have a good feeling about being able to develop those Skills by myself, no Skill points necessary. I don’t have any confidence about being able to develop inspection Skills by myself, though I suppose I might have been able to develop a second after getting to know the first.
If I’d only chosen one of the inspection Skills, I would have then been able to take the final Skill which I’ll admit did intrigue me. For all that I don’t like the idea of being a puppet-master to my Bound, if one of them trusted me enough to let me control their limbs, I can see some ways I could use that.
Though, I do question what the benefit of being able to puppet a Bound is if you can’t actually see what you’re doing. Either Bond Puppet has to have some sort of connection to the Bound’s senses implicit in it – in which case, why have separate Skills for seeing and hearing through the Bond – or it seems pretty useless. Well, I suppose it could have been useful to be able to puppet River in the lizard-folk village if I’d needed him to do something within the area I could see. But then wouldn’t it be easier to just order him with the Bond to do whatever?
After all, I can’t help but think that puppeting one of my Bound would take practice. I’m not used to their bodies; would I gain an instinctual knowledge of how to move their limbs or would I just have to work it out for myself? Because in the case of the latter, it would really be more helpful if I could just be present in their mind at a distance and then tell them what I wanted them to do, rather than trying to do it myself directly.
And frankly, if I succeed in repeating what I did with Fenrir, though this time with my Bound’s permission, I reckon that that would be superior to any of the offered Skills, especially since they were all individual.
So, with no reason to save four of my points for any of the level ten Skills, I’d decided to go all in with the inspection ones. Curious about how they work, I dismiss my status screen and stare at the first thing my eyes alight upon. A bush.
Inspect Flora, I invoke, paying close attention to the sensations within me. It’s only because I’m being so attentive that I feel a faint movement of mana flow from my Core, through my body and out through my feet. There I lose track of it, only detecting it a fraction of a second later when it returns to my body. It re-enters my body and I feel a sudden wave of knowledge hit me even as I sense a notification waiting for me.
Common bush: Myceria Xilapse
Edible: Yes (leaves, flowers, branches, roots)
Alchemical uses: Unknown, soothing balm (flowers)
Medical uses: None
This bush flowers twice yearly and loses its leaves only when temperatures drop below 0°C. The flowers exude a scent which soothes the nerves of those who smell it.
Close message? Y/N
The notification matches the information that I received upon the return of the pulse. In fact, if anything, I got more information from the pulse than I did in the notification. The pulse also told me that the plant is healthy, not sapient or sentient, and a long, long way from evolution. Still, it’s all useful stuff, especially the fact that it’s edible. I might not try just stuffing the leaves in my mouth, though – they look a bit difficult to digest.
So far pleased with what I’ve learned about that new Skill, I decide to try the next.