Chapter 44 — A Small Windfall (Part II)
On the walk to the [Alchemist]’s shop, Warnel was able to confirm the number of days they had until the high-tide. They would have some time—another tenday and a few days afterward—less than Toren would have liked. He’d have to focus on improving Laiya’s and Warnel’s combat skills.
After the previously Conclave-employed boy had recognized him, Toren kept his Skills in constant use, staying alert for trouble. He was particularly worried about archers and left ‘discouraging anyone from getting too close’ mostly to Laiya and her blade-bare spear. A gaggle of threadbare and not-quite-apprentice-aged youths followed the wagon, smelling an opportunity, but didn’t seem like a threat and kept their distance.
Upon reaching the shop, it took barely a look at the wagon for Nalrevin’s wife, Olba, to pronounce the quantity of tavi fruit and drain worms. Nalreven paid them in silver and a payment note that he said the clerks at the administrative building would honor. He also issued Toren a magically-signed ‘proof of work’ to claim credits for the drain worms obtained.
The gaggle of youths were promptly hired by the [Alchemist] and his wife to unload and guard the wagon, freeing Toren and the Hatterwicks to head to the Church of the Faithful for turns at the Celestial Mirror of Truth. It also conveniently solved what they would do with the raptor and wagon for a while. That Nalrevin knew the youths by name was encouraging.
A diversity of townspeople were continually lining up to make use of Farharbor’s Mirror of Truth but the line moved quickly. Toren got in line with the Hatterwicks. There were still benefits to using the Church’s Celestial Mirror of Truth, and his orphanage-raised paranoia counseled value and anonymity in keeping the god-sponsored nature of his Profession secret. Sponsored Professions meant ‘being fated’ and tended to attract the attention of people of importance.
The eager girls went first, and Falma was practically bouncing with her success. After giving a thumbs-up to her family, Warnel’s youngest ran over to the short line for Kyrella’s shrine, mostly likely to give thanks. Embodied by the Green Moon, Kyrella was the Keeper of the Lifespring Garden, ruling over aspects of life, familial bonds, and nurturing. It was good that the girl was finding a path and patron she was excited about. Toren felt a bit bad that neither of the Hatterwicks’ daughters would be continuing their parents’ [Haberdasher] Profession. Of course, there was a solution to that—should they survive long enough.
After her turn, Laiya stepped to the side to wait for her parents, giving Toren a nod.
Toren acknowledged the elder daughter’s reserved indication of success with a discreet thumbs-up, and his gaze wandered to Horevi’s shrine on the other side of the temple’s public space. He should give thanks as well.
Both Hatterwick parents took their turns, and Laiya was reporting her results to them when Toren approached the Mirror for the first time since he fatefully sacrificed his previous Profession and levels. Laiya’d successfully added the [Mana Transfer], [Spear], and [Religion] Skills, evolved [Sure Cut], and added a new Ability called [Color Permanence].
It was disappointing that the girl wasn’t offered a combat-useful Ability choice. Losing her only current combat Ability when she sacrificed her Profession would also be disappointing, but with having the [Cutting] Skill, there was a fair chance that she would be able to get [Sure Cut] back at level 1 or level 5. If it worked like Toren felt it should, regaining the threshold gains and ranks should go quickly.
Warnel looked confused at his daughter’s report, and Emina snuck a worried glance Toren’s way. “[Color Permanence]? Are you going to continue being a [Haberdasher]?”
“No,” Laiya shook her head. “Eshem’Zel wants us to turn the tools at hand into power to save ourselves and others. With what Toren explained about how we can evolve our Abilities at each threshold and rank, at first I was just thinking that I could extend upon what we did using dye bladders to make the zoots visible and throw ink to blind enemies, but it also felt like I could evolve the Skill into a general ‘permanence’ Ability that could work on cuts and wounds.”
Half-way to pressing his hand against the mirror, Toren stopped, hardly believing what he heard. Unhealable wounds? From a color-dyeing Ability? Maybe it really was by Eshem`Zel’s hand that the girl had been brought to the Black Knight's faith. He shook his head in amazement and reached the rest of the distance, the Mirror’s view of distant stars rippling like water as time around him slowed.
He was impressed by Laiya’s creativity and couldn’t let himself fall behind.
Because of the prior soul-strain, he held off his level 5 Skill selection until he could use the Mirror here. Unlike his personal Mirror shard, the Church’s Celestial Mirror would keep him from making choices too damaging to his soul. The choice to wait hadn’t kept him from thinking about or deciding which Skill to unlock and which ones to slot, though.
Add [Divided Focus].
{You have added the [Divided Focus] Skill}
Initially, he had been worried that [Divided Focus] would conflict with or weaken his benefits from [Focus Rage], but when his mind wandered while doing the repetitive tasks of harvesting the tavi fruit, he happened upon a slight epiphany.
When he fought, he was never doing just one thing. He might be focused on a single opponent, but even landing an attack required more than one task. Whether it was footwork to maintain the ideal distance, anticipating his opponent’s movements, deciding the path of the strike, choosing how to follow through to avoid a counter and create new chances, evaluating the effectiveness of the attack—all of those tasks were performed at the same time to further a larger task: defeating his opponent.
While he could use [Focus Rage] to improve a single task at the exclusion of everything else, that was inefficient and wouldn’t improve his overall effectiveness. The Skill was much more effective when applied to a goal—then all the tasks furthering that goal would be enhanced by the [Focus Rage] Skill. In this way, [Divided Focus] would supplement [Focus Rage], maybe to the extent that the two Skills might merge into a single evolved Skill.
The highest priority choice done, Toren moved onto his next choice.
Add [Unassailable Tower of the Mind].
{Failed. Insufficient soul density. Insufficient core space.}
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Yeah. Pretty much what he expected. It was a viridian-rarity Skill and probably came with powerful benefits, so he had to at least try.
There was one other he wanted to try. He had put off [Physical Conditioning] last time in favor of [Intimidate], but now that he wanted to use [Burning Blood] to push his limits and increase his physical Attributes, not trying to get it now would be stupid.
Add [Physical Conditioning].
{Warning: Insufficient soul density. Functionality may be reduced due to limited core space. Recommend removing or merging skills. Proceed anyway?}
Toren raised a mental eyebrow at the difference in the two responses from the Mirror. He must be just short!
Show available skill merges.
{Available skill merges:
[Theravos Language]
[Wilderness Harvesting]}
Oh?
Show skill merge for [Theravos Language].
{Combine [Theravos Language (Speaking)] and [Theravos Language (Reading/Writing)] into [Theravos Language]? Warning: Skill level will be revised.}
Ah. That’s why he hadn’t done it. His reading and writing Skill had been low at the time and he was worried about becoming stupider—or at least sounding stupid. Stupid people got taken advantage of and treated worse. That, and the [Holy Sisters]’ lessons were already frustrating enough! Why would he want to relearn all that?!
Toren chuckled to himself.
Of course, now he knew that knowledge and capability already gained wouldn’t be lost. He would just lose the current assistance and collective knowledge provided by the Skill beyond whatever level it got revised to.
Yes.
{You have added the [Theravos Language] skill.}
Show skill merge for [Wilderness Harvesting].
{Combine [Foraging], [Butchering], [Tree Felling] into [Wilderness Harvesting]? Warning: Skill level will be revised.}
After witnessing a hangman’s tree not even a sandglass prior, Toren found himself even leerier to lose the guidance from [Tree Felling] than when he lived in Greenvale…
Yes.
{You have added the [Wilderness Harvesting] skill.}
One bronze-rarity and four iron-rarity Skills had become two bronze-rarity Skills. Would it be enough?
Add [Physical Conditioning].
{You have added the [Physical Conditioning] Skill. Synergy with Profession detected. Slot as Profession Skill?}
Yes.
Relief washed over him at getting the two most important choices successfully added. Waiting to use the Church’s Celestial Mirror of Truth had been the right choice. The only thing left was to hope the level revisions had gone in his favor.
Show status.
{Name: Toren of Theravos
Race: Human
Age: 20
Profession 1: Level 5 Burningblood Berserker (4300/10000)
Mana: 72/72
Strength: 16
Constitution: 13
Dexterity: 14
Agility: 12
Wisdom: 12
Intellect: 8
Will Power: 18
Perception 15
Appearance: 8
Charisma: 8
Luck: 10
Attribute Upgrade Points: 4
Traits:
Sacrificial Guardian
Abilities:
Burning Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Mid
Control Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low
Flurry of Blows (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low
Ability Upgrade Points: 4
Profession Skills:
Severe Wound Recovery 5
Focus Rage 3
Combat Awareness 3
Berserker Knife Arts 1
Spear 9
Club 8
Pain Tolerance 5
Physical Conditioning 5
Intimidate 3
Skills:
Danger Sensing 1
Stealth 18
Mana Sensing 14
Wilderness Harvesting 12
Theravos Language 11
Religion 10
Meditation 5
Divided Focus 1
Hunting 20
Archery 19
Running 12
Wound Binding 8
Arithmetic 4
Bone Strengthening 3}
