Chapter 17 — Revisiting Skills (Part I)
Having gained himself an hour to get done what needed doing and returning his attention to mending the bone, Toren found himself in an odd mental situation. Almost his full focus was required to maintain the narrowed effect and not waste his dwindling mana reserves, but the itch like tiny ants crawling through the join had long reached a level that he needed something to distract his mind.
At least, the pain had diminished to a dull ache that only twinged sharply when he made the mistake of breathing in too deep. The leeway that gave him made the itching all the more unbearable.
Slowing the healing did make the itch less intense, but was it better to endure less for longer? Or would he be better served speeding up the process?
Maybe if he could turn the process into a sort of meditation? The [Holy Sisters] at the orphanage had all championed the usefulness of the [Meditation] Skill, but Toren had avoided adding it as a Skill, worried that if he took too many [Priest] Skills, one of the gods might have granted him a priestly Profession on his Profession Day instead of letting him choose.
Accepting [Religion] as a skill had already been a risk, but it had made his daily classes with the Sisters easier and was thought to increase the chances of having a sponsored Profession offered—and maybe it had.
That aside, there was a reason to limit one’s Skills. Not only was there a limit to what a body or soul could sustain, but that limit also affected the quality of Professions and Abilities offered. Conversely having the right combinations of Skills and experiences did increase the chances of meeting the prerequisites for rarer Professions and Abilities. So, it was a balancing act.
In his case, none of that had mattered. His master, Sellim, had strongly advised taking the basic [Hunter] for his first Profession regardless of what he was offered and made sure Toren had the required Skills. After everything the old man had done for him, Toren hadn’t wanted to disappoint.
Now… his situation was different.
He had a viridium Profession and needed to focus on surviving long enough to even reach the next Ability offering and free Skill selection at level 5. Toward that end, it was time he addressed his Skill situation.
In light of his new Profession, there were two Skills already unlocked that he wanted to add right away.
You have added the [Meditation] skill.
You have added the [Bone Strengthening] skill.
Just like with adding [Pain Tolerance], mana flowed from the World Spirit and engraved new designs into the inner portion of his core. Memories of years of lessons on meditation enforced by the [Holy Sisters] during his time at the orphanage crystalized into near perfect recall, soon joined by the times he had spent listening to the sounds of the untamed wilderness while trying to improve his senses.
Similar to his memories related to meditation, memories of his time training with Yana, the bruises and soreness from getting hit with training weapons and falls to the hard ground, were also written into his core. Having both lost their parents in the flood that washed away their village, they had often trained to the point of minor injury, determined to not be victims ever again. After breaking his collarbone not a single day into his new existence in the colonies, breaking a major bone was another thing he wanted to never happen again.
Toren checked the results in his Mirror shard, and was pleasantly surprised to see that [Meditation] had been engraved in his core at level 4 proficiency and [Bone Strengthening] at 3. He had put in a lot of time engaged in meditation exercises while trying to gain [Mana Sensing], an effort ending in failure and his having to use his previous level 5 free Skill to obtain it. He had thought that effort wasted, but apparently that wasn’t the case, and the time spent had unknowingly put him almost halfway to the ‘Proficient’ threshold for [Meditation] even without having engraved the Skill.
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Those two out of the way, Toren was more than curious what new Skills he might have unlocked since leaving on the disastrous tavi-harvesting expedition. Scrolling the ‘unlocked’ Skill list showed that it had indeed grown since he had last checked, and not just with Skills related to surviving Yana pushing him off the cliff, some were undoubtedly provided by his new Profession.
[Combat Awareness]
[Courage]
[Danger Sensing]
[Focus Rage]
[Harness Emotions]
[Intimidate]
[Physical Conditioning]
The combat and survival focus of the newly available Skills reinforced that it was still an open question whether he was a suicidal idiot or not—purchasing an infested land-claim outside the safety of the walls while still only level one wasn’t a point in his favor. Regardless of the answer, the day’s events had already made one thing clear as a mountain stream: with his life at risk, he couldn’t hold back any longer on choosing Profession Skills to build his Profession progression around.
[Severe Injury Recovery]
His eyes widened upon seeing the gold-rarity [Severe Injury Recovery] in the list, and with a quick scan through the rest confirming that it was the best recovery skill available, he immediately added it.
You have added the [Severe Injury Recovery] skill. Synergy detected with your Profession and the [Burning Blood] ability. Slot [Severe Injury Recovery] as a Profession skill?
Yes.
The memories engraved this time were of his recovery from a failed boar hunt and the extensive injuries sustained after Yana shoved him off the cliff—both had resulted in days spent in a [Healer]’s care. As the engraving completed, Toren could feel the Skill begin to help him guide [Burning Blood]’s healing, improving its effectiveness and efficiency and subtly changing the itching from the bone mending.
Between the feel of the synergy and the acknowledgement of it as a Profession Skill… had unlocking [Severe Injury Recovery] caused [Burningblood Berserker] to be offered as a Profession choice?
Toren pushed away the useless thoughts. He only had a limited amount of time before the guards would kick him out of the governing hall, and he needed to be ready to face the unscrupulous opportunists that would no doubt waylay him given the chance.
The problem was where to start? Should he try to slot everything useful? Toren didn’t know how many Profession Skill slots his new viridian Profession could support. The iron-rarity [Hunter] Profession was able to support 5 iron and 1 bronze skill at level 15. Surely, a Profession that was costing him a 100% XP penalty could support more.
But. Even if it could, selecting for Skills that would give him better Ability options to choose between would be the better choice.
He also needed to consider how his current skills might fit into that puzzle. Of the Skills he already had, weapon Skills were sure to be important for the Profession. And, even though it hadn’t happened for him with his [Hunter] Profession, there were known examples of weapon Profession Skills evolving to Profession-specific Skills when reaching the level 10 ‘Proficient’ threshold. His [Knife] Skill was already at the threshold and would be a good test.
Slotting the [Knife] skill as a profession skill.
...
Skill evolution detected.
Evolve [Knife] to [Berserker Knife Arts]?
(Warning: Skill proficiency will be revised.)
Hells, yes!
Even with the ongoing itching he was doing his best to ignore, Toren cheered in his mind. Not just Profession-specific, but an upgrade to Arts? Accepting the evolution was another no-brainer.
His memories of training knife combat were soon joined by new aggressive knife forms featuring much less of a focus on blocking. Even at level 1 proficiency, Toren was impressed enough that he didn’t even hesitate to slot [Spear] and [Club] as well in hopes that they would also evolve to ‘arts’ upon reaching level 10 threshold. Disappointingly, his favored [Archery] didn’t slot or evolve.