Two skills.

I grew to a level that I didn’t quite expect in some senses, with energy pools of my own resources that I couldn't have dreamed of as a new integrant and now two stats past 1000 points. Even without the Pando’s help to prop up my broken soul, they are both still around that number.

Perception and willpower for days.

I glance at perception and realize that it would come down just below a thousand while I was outside Pando’s territory, so with fifty free stat points to spend, I put the 2 points into it that I will need to always keep it above a thousand. That still leaves me 48 points sitting around, which would be significant in basically anything I chose with all my multipliers.

However, before going to try out my new subclass, I have to choose a skill and learn about the new one from my main class.

Skills:

Perception field - Lv. 10

Perception field Upgrade - Lv. 25

Hunter’s concentration - Lv.50

One Step Towards Connection- Lv.75

One Step Towards Connection Upgrade - Lv.100

Elation overcomes me and some of the happenings from after the class trial start to make more sense. I’m getting a much deeper connection to things without even trying. That exercise tended to narrow my focus and make me ignore everything else as I usually need to reach an almost meditative state, but now it came more naturally to me. Even my connection to my own gut had grown robuster.

That is probably about half of the changes that I felt after choosing the amazing Runic storyteller class.

Someone else might have wanted a new skill, possibly one to complement their current skill set, but I’m not just happy with the upgrade, I’m ecstatic. The only skill I wasn’t the greatest fan of was hunter’s concentration though it did slightly help me to go deeper in my meditation or when I was doing highly focused work. Luckily it’s a skill that came even when I wasn’t consciously trying to draw it out.

Opening my subclass I start to go through each of the skills I can choose.

Runic Storyteller (Scarce) (25 % effectiveness - 0/1 Skills)

Heart Singer – Lv. 10

Runic writer (upgrade) – Lv. 25

Time flies by – Lv. 50

Hands of a storyteller – Lv. 75

Back to Basics – Lv. 100

I can feel that each of these would help me immensely, though some would match my temperament and preferences better. I even feel the flair that the class wanted to impart in the names it chose for its skills.

I go through them one by one, like the heart singer skill. The very class talked about the language of the heart and I could feel that it would teach me in so many different ways, but my highest aim isn’t to become this class. To spend all my time and effort speaking and I can almost feel that it is the type of person that skill was intended for. Or at least someone with a little more inclination in that direction. I want it to add to my kit, not be forced down a path. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I felt better options ahead.

With Runic Writer, came a sense of upgrade. IT would probably take in my space manipulation skill and both get the benefits of a class upgrade and the ones from becoming a ‘higher rarity’ skill.

This would take my Runic language and make it MORE.

But although that would be helpful, there has to be more. By taking this skill, my ability to learn would if not outright be stunted, at least much less challenged. I would lose opportunities to be properly stimulated and to learn from my mistakes.

Which is something similar to the situation of my perception field upgrade that my main class went. That is part of the reason that I didn’t use it even when its current limitations weren’t a problem. And after so long, I was so much better at it than the system version, that both skills could barely be compared in the same footing.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Still, with the slow down of skill acquisition to once every 50 levels, to get 8 skills which would translate into one more skill for this subclass needed me to reach the level 250 trial. So This is a really important choice.

I continue down the list: The Time Flies By skill resembles something that would help me engross another person in my story, though by what mechanism would it help me I had no idea. It might be really good, but it was also a high risk high reward type of situation and I didn’t feel anything compelling me to take the skill. It felt closer to influencing other people and how they interacted with what I produced rather than inherent improvement in my work. That… doesn’t sound very appealing.

Then comes the Hands of a Storyteller. This one seems like the opposite of the previous skill. It’s about creating physical things with stories embedded deeply into them. I feel the visceral impressions that it passes me and I almost want to simply get it then and there, but that would be stupid without checking the last one. And it isn’t going anywhere. So I read the last one to ponder on it.

I touch and taste the system prompts around the last skill with another strange name: Back to basics. Probably not a conscious mantra, but from how often I followed my simple katas and repeated supposedly simple actions to improve my craft, it resonates with my soul. The impressions here are fainter, almost faded beyond recognition.

But I can feel the intended use. It will prompt and provide insight whenever I perform simple actions. For someone else specialing in one or only a few fields, it would be both better and worse than for me.

Someone else, like Alex, would spend most of his time on the basics of a spear and that would propel him to even greater heights of skill. BUT… I was always pretty close to the basics, compounding different skills in novel ways to achieve effects from much higher skill levels. So I wouldn’t reach quite as high as he with any single skill, but I believe that overall I would get even greater benefits.

Even without that logic chain, something called me to it. A stronger pull than any of the others. With my Connection to the World upgrade, I wanted to trust my gut more than ever. So I get ready to tap the skill, but my other half reminds me of what had just happened.

“Wait. Get into position inside our soul and let me tap the button. I will wait ten seconds before pressing it and trying to catch up. This isn’t a new subclass or anything, but it might prove useful.”

I freeze my finger and surrender my body to him while doing exactly as he suggested. I climb all inside the 100 meter radius bubble that holds the system constructs in a relatively small space right at the bottom of my soul before I strap myself to the chair. I’m some 60 meters away from where the action will happen, but that is still close enough to get just about everything that I want.

Ten seconds later, I sense a small but significant shift in my surroundings. The pushing force to take me out of this space grows stronger, probably around double or triple the normal strength, but I can basically ignore it. There isn’t even any shaking that made me want to puke like going on a rollercoaster minutes after an all you can eat buffet.

That pushing stops growing, then that same freezing locking me into place staring straight at where all the action was going to happen comes at the same time that the Aether constructs enter the sides of my soul.

At first nothing changes, all I see are Aether constructs unfolding like the skills I acquired before. But as soon as it enters the system portion of my soul, a very faint process that I might have missed without watching for it starts.

Fractal patterns overlayed on rune like symbols, loosely connecting all the little Aether constructs in a net. The dazzling order in which everything attaches to the main construction and the visual songs that come from it seem to have deep meaning.

It all comes in a much simpler and more digestible way than my last experience over here. I thought that my dual mind skill was amazing to witness but even if this is much subtler in many ways, it teaches me more. I learned about how the system works and actually seeing this other layer on top of it…

This is in another realm. It is smaller but it carries the same sense as my sub class acquisition. I failed to notice this aspect the first time I entered this place, but I suspect even increasing my stats will carry a hint of this. Though I might not be able to notice it’s much subtler than this.

I have to be here every single time to experience this. Even with simple changes. To witness perfection coming into place and to learn how I can replicate the feat. Then it’s over and I go back to the physical world ready to test all that I got with my class and subclass.

I take a simple step forward, which would ordinarily be completely automatic trying to get a sense of my new Back to Basics skill. Even my perception field by now could barely find any faults in my moves, as I feel the near perfect pressure curves from my feet to my head, the momentum that each of my muscles imparts on my body and on the ground, the fluid motions that I had practiced my whole life and that the system had helped take to a whole other level.

Then I take off running at a normal pace, something that I have a skill for and I get the same feedback.

But even with all my perception, the field and my attention to detail, there are hundreds of things my skill points out. Hints of trade offs that I don’t even realize I was choosing comes to me. Each particular foot placement comes with an infinite list, or batter yet an instinct on how to improve.

My mind spins.

This gift is from the system. It’s a real reward. It feels uncorrupted. I can even feel a hint on how I could step forward while letting the wind part before me.

I can feel what would be like on the be on the other side of the divide reaching level 101 in my running skill. I don’t know how to get there but at least now I have a map showing me where I need to get to.

I let each of my moves grow and grow while idly thinking of my actions. How they are building up my foundations and the height I could eventually get with foundations like these.

Then I sense that I’m going further than before and I try to measure by how much. I seem to be about 1 percent faster, 1 percent stronger, 1 percent more precise and then the answer to all that comes to me.

+1,25% effectiveness while telling a story.

Now this is very interesting, because if anything can be a story, maybe everything should be a story.