“Idiots.”

Everyone turned to face Haywood.

“Huh?” said Karim.

“Don’t rush into it. Jem hasn’t got an attention skill yet. How likely do you think it is that he’s going to learn Kol manipulation quickly if he can’t even focus?”

“I can focus.”

“I wasn’t finished. Jem needs to have mimicked Kol manipulation by the time he goes to university. Yes. But he doesn’t need a class skill straight away. His skill lets him earn it from practice. Jem is going to come with me, to the library where he is going to read through a lot of children’s books on the Kol, the system, the empire, you name it. Hey Jem, what currency does the empire use?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

Nessa sighed. “Sorry, Karim you should probably wait to train with Jem until after he has an attention skill or two. You could probably go out and get a level or two though? We don’t have anything big until the ball and I don’t think Jem will start university until the new term in a couple of months.”

“Love you, sweetie.”

“My attention span really isn’t that bad,” said Jem.

“I’m sure Haywood is going to pick skills that help you process and learn faster?” Nessa turned to look at Haywood.

“That was my plan. Yes. Okay, Jem you’re coming with me. And I presume that we’re done for now?”

Nessa gave a nod of assent. With a flick, Aoife dispelled her ward and Haywood strode towards the door smudging a wardline as he went. The whole thing shattered, and the distant sounds from the corridor once again became audible.

“Come on Jem.”

The two of them were about 200 meters down the corridor when Haywood turned to Jem.

“Jem you know that I didn't actually want to put you in danger, I might have been scheming but I truly did think you were safe the entire time. Some aspects of the class stuff are less than great, but I think things will actually turn out better this way in the end.”

Jem stopped to think for a moment and then the words just fell out. “Oh, I got that impression. The thing is, before all this happened, the mark appeared on me and I thought I was just going to die. So when I came here and I was alive, it all felt a little surreal. All this stuff with you all made it feel a bit more like I’m with friends and it's taken me out of that weird state of mind where I feel like I'm sleepwalking.

“If I had taken the class as planned, I'm not sure if any of the stuff that has happened would have happened and honestly I’m worried that I might have been stuck in that strange state this whole time.

“Don't get me wrong. What you did was totally irresponsible, and you should never do it again but I’m at least a little bit glad it happened. I guess what I’m saying is, as long as you try to do your best by me and you don’t drag me into any of your hair-brained schemes without talking to me first, I think we’re okay”–Jem grinned–“gramps.”

Haywood cuffed him on the back of the head. “Brat.”

They made it most of the way to the library before Haywood spoke again. “I wasn’t actually joking about your Kol capacity earlier. It’s going to be quite small right now so we do want you to start using it more.”

“Won’t stats just fix it though?”

“Wisdom helps, but it’s basically the same as with the other stats and what I told you about bioforms. The only difference is that you grow your Kol capacity instead of absorbing part of a monster to change yourself.”

“How can I start growing it?”

“Haywood shook his head, we do actually want to wait until Karim has shared his skill with you. As a mage class skill, his variant is stronger than the general skill versions you’d get otherwise. If your Kol capacity grows too slowly, or if it continues growing quickly we’re going to have to come up with a cover story when we get to the university. For now, we’re going to find you some books to read.”

Haywood led Jem to a lectern with a blank book on top of it. Haywood poked at it as though it was a phone screen. But nothing was happening.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m using my Kol to control the display. There are a few skills involved, though some can be replicated by spells.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Haywood pointed Jem over to a sofa in the corner of the room and came over a few minutes later with a mountain of books. The top of the pile was almost exclusively picture books, while the bottom was filled with gargantuan books that looked like they’d be able to keep a fire burning for a year each.

“Thanks, Haywood.”

He shook his head. “Back to Haywood. Anyway, I’ve organised them in the order I think you ought to read them. The top few have information on skills, classes and all sorts of other basic things. As you go down you’ll find more advanced things. Have fun!”

Jem spent what felt like days in a haze of parchment and ink. In truth it was only two hours. Haywood clapped a hand on Jem’s shoulder.

“Hey, Jem. Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“No. I want to sleep.” Jem groaned, then sat up properly. “Okay tell me the bad news first.”

“The bad news is you’re going to hate the good news.”

Jem rubbed at his face. “What is it?”

“Those three skills that Aoife made you get?”

“What about them?”

“They’re great because you can merge them into a skill called [Accelerate Thoughts]. The good thing about the skill is that it means you can process things four times as fast. The bad thing is you process things four times as fast. Most of my time just now was spent finding a way to fix that issue.” Haywood handed Jem his notebook. The good news is that you can merge it with [Parallel Thoughts] to get [Thought Management] it combines the previous two while giving you control over them. Your system presence is still high, so we should get you working on that now.

“Merging skills is a bit finicky but I’d recommend visualisation. Try to think of a uniting concept for [Meditate], [Mind Over Matter], and [Clear of Mind]. If I were trying to merge them I think something like a stream blocked by silt, sticks and stones that you clear away. The stream wants to meander so you replace the streambed with a solid stone channel, even over time it does not drift. It’s focused on one thing alone. The water flows, steady smooth and fast.”

Jem wanted to try his idea first. He Had an advantage over Haywood, he knew about something that seemed to combine the three perfectly. He could relate accelerate thoughts to computers. They were after all, tireless, their thoughts were entirely unable to wander and if you really wanted to, you could overclock them to make them process things faster. Jem related [Meditation] to the computer's ability to focus for a long time. [Clear of Mind] to the ability of a computer to focus on just one thing. Then he related [Mind Over Matter] to overclocking. After all that he compared a huma– satyr brain to a computer, and tried to imagine bringing the flesh and blood brain’s behaviour more in line with the computer.

Then he felt something click.

*Ding* Would you like to combine the skills Meditation(D), Clear of Mind(D) and Mind Over Matter(D) into the skill Accelerate Thoughts(C)(passive) Lvl 0?

Y/N

Jem selected Yes.

*Ding* you have Unlocked the General Skill Accelerate Thoughts(C).

“Ukee Ioti.” Jem tried to speak like usual but it felt like someone had drugged his tongue.

“Jeeemmm ssaaayy thaat agaain but slower.” Over the course of the sentence, Haywood’s speech accelerated to a speed that sounded normal again.

“Owekaaee ahye goooht iiiit.” If he had to keep this up, Jem was sure that he’d get rid of the skill.

“Jem for the record it’s horribly unfair that you unlocked it that fast. But now we need to work on unlocking the other ones. [Parallel Thoughts] is obviously next.

“Whydinweooittheothrwayound.” I’m sure Haywood can figure out what I said. Oooh even my thoughts feel fast. Trippy.

“That’s simple. This way you have to finish getting your attention skills before you can do other stuff,” said Haywood. ”There’s no way that if I’m going to the university with you if everyone there thinks my great grandson is dim. Though I also think you being my nephew makes more sense.”

“Ooarstud”. Bastard.

“Understood? Always good to see the younger generation acknowledging they understand,” said Haywood. His grin put the Cheshire cat’s to shame.

“Yoou juust saaaid sorry eler so th you didn’t feel bad fucking me over again.” Over the course of the sentence Jem found a happy mix between speed and clarity. “Bastard.”

“Have fun working on [Parallel Thoughts].”

“How?

“Practice doing multiple things at once of course.”

Jem went to search for a dartboard and a picture of Haywood’s face.