I lay back in the bed, trying to reconcile what I'd understood.

I could get negative status effects from misusing skills. Side effects.

Medicines cured the side effects. At least, medicines that were immediately relevant to curing them…

But….

I knew a bit about how medicines worked.

And they didn't just make pain go away instantly.

That meant that my power didn't just give me information. It also changed my body.

And it changed how medicines and the like affected my body.

Well, the HP thing had been a tip-off.

I had been conscious of the fact that my body would heal fast. 0.12 HP per second meant I could heal from near death in less than seventeen minutes. Which was pretty fast healing.

Medicines acted to heal instantly. The +5 HP had taken a fraction of a second from swallowing the tablet to taking effect.

Which meant that I could go into a battle, get badly wounded, pop twelve aspirin, and be fully recovered…..

That was insane.

Of course, that was a moot point if I got hit so badly that it killed me outright.

I wondered if I should sleep. Somehow, I couldn't. The thought that I might miss a quest alert worried me.

Well, if I couldn't, I might as well explore what else my powers did.

The first I looked at was AP. Let's see what that means….

AGILITY POINTS.

WANT TO DANCE LIKE A BALLERINA? JUGGLE KNIVES? DODGE BULLETS? THE HUMAN BODY IS CAPABLE OF IMPRESSIVE FEATS OF DEXTERITY AND MANIPULATION, BUT NOT ALL AT ONCE.

AGILITY POINTS POWER SKILLS THAT REQUIRE EITHER FINE CONTROL OR GOING BEYOND THE NORMAL LIMITS OF ONE'S PHYSIQUE.

AP: 120/120

AP REGEN: 2.2/SEC.

Okay. So I had skills like Observe, which used MP. Doubtless there were skills that used AP as well.

Could I actually juggle knives?

SKILL JUGGLING: NOT LEARNED.

So I needed to learn a skill first.

Did I actually know anything that required AP?

TEST OF INTELLIGENCE: PASSED.

HIDDEN QUEST REVEALED: UNLOCK HERITAGE SKILLS.

QUEST ALERT: AT VARIOUS POINTS, YOU CAN OPT TO UNLOCK ONE HERITAGE SKILL. ONE RANDOMLY CHOSEN ATTRIBUTE WILL BE TESTED AND A SKILL RELATED TO IT WILL BE UNLOCKED.

YOUR FAMILY NAME AND ITS LEGACY INFLUENCE THE TYPE OF SKILLS LEARNED.

AVAILABLE UNLOCKS: 2.

…. I have a family name?

YOUR FAMILY NAME IS DRAKE. YOU WERE WARNED ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES.

Ah.

UNLOCK HERITAGE SKILLS? YES/NO

I chose YES.

SKILL UNLOCKED: BOOST CAPACITY.

THOSE WHO WORK CONSTRUCTION KNOW THAT IN TIMES OF NEED, ONE MUST STRETCH ONESELF TO ONE’S LIMIT AND BEYOND.

BOOST CAPACITY: 100 AP. DOUBLES CARRY CAPACITY FOR 5 MINUTES.

EFFECTS CAN BE STACKED ANY NUMBER OF TIMES.

What’s Carry Capacity?

CARRY CAPACITY: OH, THE WEIGHT A MAN CAN BEAR. MAXIMUM LIMIT OF WEIGHT THAT YOU CAN LIFT OR CARRY INDEFINITELY. ATTEMPTING TO LIFT BEYOND THIS LIMIT MAY CAUSE HARMFUL STATUS EFFECTS.

CARRY CAPACITY DEPENDS ON STRENGTH. AT LOWER LEVELS, EXCEEDING CARRY CAPACITY RESULTS IN CONTINUOUS AP DRAIN.

CARRY CAPACITY: 30 KG.

Huh. If my Strength is 10, and my carry capacity is 30 kg, then carry capacity seems to be strength times three in kilos.

…. No Wisdom boost?

DON’T GET GREEDY.

…. Well, I did get a power with a mind of its own.

Are powers sentient? Can they think for themselves? Because that would explain oh so much.

… No answer.

SKILL UNLOCKED: MECHANIC.

BROKEN TOOLS? BENT EQUIPMENT? DISMANTLED KIT? YOU CAN FIX IT ALL.

LEVEL 1: YOU CAN ASSEMBLE BASIC EQUIPMENT WHILE FOLLOWING THE MANUAL.

ASSEMBLY OR REPAIR REQUIRES AP DEPENDING IN THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ACTIVITY.

So, I could lift heavy weights, and I could fix equipment and tools.

Paul Drake had worked construction. Likely I was given skills by my power similar to things he knew.

Anyway. Let’s check out the last of the points - CP.

CONTROL POINTS.

CONTROL POINTS: SKILLS THAT USE CONTROL POINTS ENABLE YOU TO INFLUENCE THE MINDS OF YOUR FOES.

CURRENT CP: 210/210

Oh… crap. I have mind-control powers?

AVAILABLE CONTROL SKILLS:

CHARM: COST 150 CP.

...What.

No!

Please tell me that’s not what I think it is!

SKILL UNLOCKED: CHARM.

YOU OOZE CHARM. YOU INSPIRE AWE. YOUR RUGGED VISAGE AND TONED BODY MAKE YOU AN OBJECT OF DESIRE FOR THOSE DRAWN TO YOUR GENDER AND TYPE.

THAT IS THE NATURE OF ATTRACTIVENESS AS AN ATTRIBUTE. THE HIGHER YOUR ATTRACTIVENESS, THE MORE LIKELY OTHERS ARE TO BE DRAWN TO YOU.

THIS IS A PASSIVE ATTRIBUTE, AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE AN OBJECT OF DESIRE TO SOME.

WHEN YOU WANT TO BE LESS PASSIVE? BREAK OUT THE CHARM. BUILD THE DESIRES WITHIN YOUR TARGET TO BE DRAWN TO YOU, TO SEE YOU AS THEIR CLOSEST FRIEND - AND MORE, AND MANIPULATE THESE FEELINGS TO SERVE YOUR OWN ENDS.

USED CORRECTLY, CHARM CAN BREAK YOUR FOES, SEDUCE YOUR TARGETS AND TOPPLE EMPIRES.

USED INCORRECTLY WILL PROVE YOU ARE LACKING IN WISDOM, AND THE PENALTIES THAT RESULT WILL BE …. SIGNIFICANT.

COST: 150 CP.

…. That is seriously wrong.

My power includes skills that allow me to manipulate the feelings of others? To force someone to fall in love with me.

There is no way I’m using this power.

SHORT-SIGHTED DENIAL OF ONE’S RESOURCES IS UNWISE. CHARM IS A STRATEGIC WEAPON. USE WISELY AND RESPONSIBLY TO ENSURE MAXIMUM BENEFIT.

…. I dismissed the text box.

It was a choice, right? I could see what skills it empowered, and use them only if it was ethically allowable.

…. In theory, if I had to seduce a supervillianess or kill her, I suppose I’d prefer the latter.

It was unlikely I’d need to ever use that.

Besides, my power had been throwing me Wisdom boosts for a while now. I suppose to balance that there had to be some way to lose wisdom, too. Control Points - and the Charm skill - might well be a trap, to see how well I could resist temptation.

Maybe if I was an immature kid with very little self-control, I might fall into that trap.

Which made me wonder. How old was I, actually? Most of the people I’d met seemed to see me as a young adult or a teenager.

I didn’t feel like a teenager. I felt … older, mentally.

Anne and I had enough in common - appearance-wise, anyway - that people didn’t question my being her brother.

Which meant nothing. Black hair and brown eyes are the commonest colours in the world. Plus, if we were related in any way, Anne would have recognized me.

No, the mystery of my past would need to be solved in its own time.

After we dealt with finding Paul Drake.