D1C2 - Skill

  As the text ended, a small upside-down triangle appeared. Ugh, I’ve played too many RPGs. This goddess is really happy-go-lucky huh…

  With a flick of my mental finger, I proceeded to the next message screen. Once again, text started appearing. I wonder if there any way to speed up the text speed. It would be really nice to have options menu at the moment. Even better would be a help screen.

  Wow… just wow…

  I’m absolutely speechless, does that airhead goddess know that she just gave me power over probability? From the the looks of it, the bad status really drags this down but in the end, power is still power. But first, let’s figure out how this even works. “Skills” don’t exist, at least, they don’t on Earth. Do I shout out the skill name? Dammit, I’m not a 8th grader. Maybe a set of actions, but wouldn’t that mean I can only use it after I’m born?

  Ah! I’m an idiot, don’t I have a bot right here who can answer my question?

  “Hello? Um, mister is it? or is it missus? Anyways, would you mind telling me how to activate or use this skill?” I asked the monotone voice.

  “Query processed. Answer: This skill can be activated by thought.” It replied.

  Alrighty! That’s what I like to hear.

  Let’s do this. First of all, I have to consider what I want, fix the image in my mind, then “activate” the skill. Let’s see, what do I want… A lot of things, but I’ve only got 6 stacks and I can’t use them all within this week. Crap, I don’t even know what time it is, how am I supposed to measure the passing of time. It’ll really suck if I have the [Abuse] status when I’m born. I don’t want to suffocate on my own umbilical cord and die a infant!

  Ok, ok, let’s think about this. Right now I’m a baby, my senses haven’t developed and I’m trapped in my mind without any references to mark the passage of time. Right. I wonder… In the end it’s because I have no senses, maybe if I can somehow use my newly acquired skill to develop my senses somewhat, I’ll get a clue or two as two what time it is. Of course I could always just wait a long time, long enough that a week will pass for sure, but this wasn’t ideal since I’d probably wait so long I’d be born without doing anything else. I really wanted to be able use the skill while I was still within the womb as I’d be able to influence my bodys development.

  I fixed the thought of have “Better Senses” in my head and thought of the skill, activating it.

  ‘Yes.’ I pressed.

  Without even a chance to think about what I’ve gained the window disappears and is replaced by another one.

  For the most part I understood what was happening, but the last window really confused me.

  “Mister, can you clarify for me? If I do not cancel them out, exactly what will happen?” I asked.

  “Query processed. Answer: If canceling out is not selected, then you will experience all effects. Let us use taste as an example. Your palate would be able to identify a wider range of flavors, however, at the same time, you would be unable to taste one of several basic flavours such as sweet, salty or sour.”

  Huh. Might as well cancel them out then, I’ll still come out on top anyways since it’s 6 to 3.

  ‘Yes.’ I pressed.

  As the the number hit 0, a wave of pain overcame me. My eyes burned as if I was having laser eye surgery, my ears felt as if my grandma was still alive pulling on them. Not to mention the splitting headache that finished this killer combo.

  Arghhhhhhhh! The PAINNN.

  IT BURNNNSSSS.

  IT HURTTTSSSS.

  Poof. I black out, although it was already black to begin with.

  I woke up to the familiar blackness and a blue window. I must have blacked out from the pain. I sincerely hope this was worth it. I glanced at the window to see what surprises it held now.

  Fuck you. The blissful feeling of no pain could have told me that. At any rate, my mood was still very good. After checking a few windows and a few questions, I was able to determine exactly how I had improved. Since I could not actually use my senses, I had to rely on the windows and words of Monotone-san. Hearing was a no brainer, I was supposed to be able to hear better and pick up sounds that were made further away. Simple.

  Eyesight was a bit tough though, double focus mean exactly that. Normal humans when looking at something, focus on a particular spot, this region is called the “Dual eye overlap”. What improved was that somehow, I two “Dual eye overlap” thus two focal points available. Of course, for this to happen should have another pair of eyes, but I don’t. When I asked the Mr. Toneless, he replied that my brain was rewired to to accept two points. Don’t look at me, I’m just thankful I don’t have another pair of eyes.

  Last but not least was the weird “6th sense”, I knew science had tried to explain it away as the subconscious picking up clues the conscious missed and then forming conclusion based upon these clues. While this seemed somewhat believable in theory, I never put much stock in it. During my many surgeries, my gut feeling saved more than one person. Asking Artificial voice yielded no results, for some reason, this was the one thing he or she had refused to explain fully.