“You want to be the Sovereign of Shandria?” Cedez finally regained her wits after Dave's absurd claim.

“Not particularly,” Dave shrugged. “Alaster Rim does though and he’s a small part of me now, I suppose.”

“You want me as part of your ghost legion then?” the foxgirl rubbed her dark chin thoughtfully.

“Yes,” Dave nodded. “If we’re to take control of Shandria and other Shadow cities and to stop the invasion, I want your skill and the ability to control the Ward.”

“So what you’re saying is that you want me inside you?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, grinning mostly at Remicra who flushed with several shades of red.

Dave rolled his eyes at her.

“Hrmmm… does someone need to be dead for you to absorb their soul?” Cedez asked.

“I… err,” Dave paused. “I think they need to be dead. I cannot hear the thoughts of someone alive.”

“You heard my thoughts when I was the Ward-beast just fine,” Cedez pointed out.

“Okay… I think that they need to be disembodied,” Dave said.

“Do they?” Remicra tilted her head. “You said that you could see my soul and I definitely have a body."

“True,” Dave acquiesced. “But then you and I are… closer than anyone else.”

“Svenn! Get in here!” Cedez yelled into the workshop.

“Yes?” One of the elkin teens emerged into the living room of the cottage, covered in sawdust.

“Dave, try to grab Svenn’s Moldmancy!” Cedez ordered.

“Give me your hand please,” Dave asked the moldkin. “I’ll try to define your soul.”

“Very well, Sir Dave,” Svenn nodded with a feminine head, offering a dusty, thin hand.

Dave gripped Svenn’s fingers. They were cold, definitely not alive. He extended his Phantomancy senses outwards, peering at Svenn’s soul.

He saw a brilliant silver-green aurora, thousands of shimmering green stars dancing across Svenn’s hand and body with a wisp-like connection fading into… elsewhere.

“Oh,” Dave blinked. “I can see your soul. Well, damn… I guess I really got better at Phantomancy last night."

“Now grab his skill and integrate it with yourself,” Cedez insisted.

“But his soul is… alive,” Dave pointed out. “I’ve never tried to take a skill from someone who’s alive.”

“First time for everything. Svenn won’t mind, he’s a big boy,” Cedez said. “Right? You won’t mind if Lord Dave nibbles a bit on your Moldmancy?”

“I do not mind,” Svenn affirmed. “I have endured far greater pain and horrors at the behest of the fat bastard and his men. I trust Sir Dave.”

Dave reached out with his soul and tried to pull information and power out of Svenn’s lime-tinted constellations. They resisted, pulled back and sparked at the invisible invasion. Svenn wasn’t a fractured soul or a dungeon.

“Feels odd,” Svenn said. “Like something is trying to pull at me from within.”

“Don’t resist it,” Cedez said. “Dave - pull harder!”

Dave spread a multitude of silver-blue tendrils out of his soul and grabbed a single green star before it could get away, at first pulling gently and then with a powerful tug, ripped it out of Svenn like a loose tooth.

Svenn winced ever so slightly.

[New skill gained: Moldmancy!]

[Phantomancy Skill gained: Expertise Embezzlement]

a shimmering, blue screen announced from Dave’s magisteel ring that Remicra made for him.

Tiniest, barely discernible knowledge blossomed across Dave’s mind. An innate understanding of what it was like to be living mold. Dave’s eyes went wide.

“Holy shit,” he said. “I know Moldmancy… the very basics of it.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Ha! Knew it,” Cedez grinned. “You can take skills from the living!”

“I can take skills from the living,” Dave agreed, his eyes wide at the implications.

“But can you give skills to others?” Remicra suddenly injected herself into the conversation.

Dave stared at his partner. “Maybe?”

“Give me Svenn’s skill,” Remicra wrapped her clawed hand around Dave’s.

Dave isolated the microscopic green spark in his soul and pushed it across his fingers into Remicra.

[Skill lost: Moldmancy]

The blue screen announced.

[Phantomancy Skill gained: Talent Trade]

“It worked!” Remicra's scales flashed with blue and violet tones. “I definitely feel like I could manipulate mold… if I had more of whatever it is you just gave me!"

“How much more?” Dave asked.

“About a hundred times more,” Remicra said. “That felt like the tiniest morsel of power and knowledge, a fraction… maybe a hundredth of a skill. I cannot control mold with it, but… I can sort of sense Svenn better.”

“Is that bad?” Dave asked.

“No,” Remicra shook her head. “That’s good. He doesn’t look as odd or as dead to me now, as if he’s part of me.”

“Give Svenn a large piece of Remicra’s Forgemancy,” Cedez said bossily.

Dave arched an eyebrow and looked at Remicra.

“Svenn could increase his metalworking skills if he had my skill,” the dragoness nodded. “Go ahead.”

Dave nodded and began to pull as many sparkling violet stars out of Remicra as he could grab.

“Hmm… I think I have a better idea,” he said.

As he gathered a section of Remicra's soul, he carefully carved a massive piece of his own soul away and slowly slid it into the empty spaces formerly occupied by the violet shimmers.

The process took him a while, but eventually a small part of Remicra became that of Dave.

[-1 LV in Phantomancy!]

a new notification flashed in his eye.

[New skill gained: Forgemancy!]

“What?! Did you just…” the dragoness uttered.

“Yes I did,” Dave grinned, feeling exhausted and extremely smug. “I gave you a level in Phantomancy.”

“I’m… I’m a bloody level zero Phantomancer!” Remicra uttered in disbelief.

“What?! You can give out Phantomancy?!” Cedez barked with exuberant excitement as she stared at Remicra.

“Only to Remy,” Dave said with a yawn. “It was… very unpleasant. I don’t think I could carve more levels out of myself. I feel like I am on the verge of passing out and… if I do this again, I think that I will lose my skill-trading powers. I think I need to lie down for a bit.”

Dave retreated back to the couch and closed his eyes as his head started to spin. He felt exhausted, like a train had run him over several times.

“Can you trade skills too now?” Cedez demanded, staring at Remicra with a jealous look.

“I’m level zero,” Remicra shook her head. “I don't have a crystalline core in me that would utilize the skill properly, such would take a long time to grow... I presume. There’s no expansion options associated with the skill yet. I think that if I kill some monsters or absorbed the dead… the skill might grow.”

"Could you make me into a Phantomaner?" Cedez turned to Dave. "I'm willing to give up as much Shadow as you desire!"

"If you behave," Dave waved off the greedy foxkin, not opening his eyes.

"I'll behave!" Cedez exhaled. "I'll do anything… don't you understand what you can do? What… we can do?"

"What?" Dave asked.

"We can trade skills… even sell them. Confiscate skills from criminals. Reward people we trust with skills," Cedez clapped. "The potential of what you can do is absolutely incredible!"

"Our army could be unbeatable in its versatility, if we seize skills from our enemies," Svenn agreed.

"Shoo. Let Dave rest," Remicra sat down next to Dave on the couch waving at Cedez as if she was a pesky fly.

"Easy for you to say, you're already a Phantomancer," Cedez crossed her arms.

"Out," the dragoness repeated, sending a dangerous glare at the foxgirl.

"Fine," Cedez acquiesced. "I will return in greater numbers."

Dave let out a chuckle from the couch as Cedez left with Svenn in tow.

"What?" Remicra asked.

"It's… trivia from a film called Star Wars," Dave explained, settling his head on Remicra's lap. "The exact quote is - the Sand People are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers. Undoubtedly Chadwick pilfered it too."

"Pilfering plays is far less exciting than pilfering skills," Remicra mulled. "So, why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Dave asked.

"Give me a piece of your soul," she said looking down at him with a stern expression. "What if a transfer of your core skill went catastrophically wrong, permanently breaking your biggest advantage?"

"Another you from another world… from a dream we've shared, a Goddess with violet eyes," Dave confessed. "She told me that you're… broken. That I need to wake you up, fix you. This is hopefully a step in the right direction. If you can see my soul then maybe you'll be more awake… be more?"

"Be more?" Remicra raised an eyebrow. "You didn't even bother to ask me if I wanted this."

"I didn't want to be alone," Dave confessed. "My skill is changing me, making me drift elsewhere. I don't want to lose myself or lose you. With a shard of my soul inside you, I'll always be able to find you, know that you're alive."

Remicra's frown lessened.

"Since the first moment I saw you working the lighthouse smithy," Dave confessed. "I could not leave you. Wasn't that obvious?"

"Well then, your idiocy makes a certain kind of sense now," Remicra's expression softened further as she patted Dave on the head.