Liliana swung her legs from the tree she was sitting in, ignoring the guard who was ‘hiding’ in the tree across from her. From here she could just see the village roofs and was about as close as she could be to the action. Emyr and Alistair were on other limbs of the tree, watching with her. Lelantos was below, resting discontentedly at the base of the large oak they’d taken roost in. Nemesis was high on the top of the tree, getting a view of the village that had caused her so much strife. Not that it did much good. Serpent eyesight was worse than a human’s, but Liliana didn’t try to convince Nemesis to come down.

Liliana could send either of her Bond’s to the village, both were suited to a stealth mission, but she didn’t think it was a smart idea. Lelantos was out-leveled by the villagers and if everything went to hell in a handbasket, he’d be in danger. Nemesis was a risk. Liliana didn’t know if their bond was strong enough yet to override the serpent’s thirst for revenge. However, it meant they were left with little to do and far too much nervous energy to sit still. So they’d compromised and found a lookout spot. After supplying the idea that might very well end this entire fiasco with minimal bloodshed, Amelia was a bit more lenient. That, and the camp was down to bare bones right now.

Liliana flicked open her Skill Sheet once more, just for something to do with her time. She hadn’t thought to check her notifications until they’d gotten back to camp originally and had found a slew of notifications awaiting her attention. She’d unlocked yet another sub-affinity, Psyche. One she hadn’t really considered before now, as she had never been comfortable with the information given on it. It was a magical affinity to do with the mind, to put it simply. The abilities described sounded sometimes too much like mind control to make Liliana entirely comfortable with the affinity. However, since getting her ultimate skill, she found herself more receptive to the affinity, though she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to expand upon it.

Already her Skill Sheet was starting to get long to go through and remembering the multitude of abilities she had mid-battle was not an easy task. She found herself often relying on the same skills and reaching for them instinctively rather than bringing her full arsenal to bear.

In hindsight, she could see where under utilized or entirely unused skills could’ve been useful in a fight. But remembering that when her blood was hot, and she was dancing with death, was another thing all together. Liliana considered her sheet with a hum, checking over the multitude of abilities that had grown in her fight with Nemesis, and the new ones. [Poison Resistance], [Empathy], [Featherfall], [Updraft], and [Acrobatics] had all been gifts from her fight with Nemesis.

Affinity

Light

90%

Soul

92%

Life

85%

Illusion

28%

Astral

8%

Wind

5%

Psyche

3%

Quintessential Skills

[Radiant Revelry] Lvl 4

Skills

[Identify] Lvl 67

[Dodge] 56

[Solar Samba] Lvl 55

[Dance of The Windsong] lvl 51

[Regeneration] Lvl 44

[Mana Manipulation] lvl 43

[Leap] lvl 40

[Pierce] Lvl 38

[Persistent Casting] lvl 37

[Stealth] lvl 32

[Dance Of The Vanishing Blade] Lvl 30

[War Maiden’s Waltz] Lvl 22

[Borrow] Lvl 9

[Last Stand] lvl 5

General Skills

[Polearms Mastery] Lvl 65

[Dancing] lvl 61

[Deception] Lvl 60

[Pain Resistance] lvl 53

[Reading] Lvl 40

[Etiquette] Lvl 35

[Embroidery] Level 31

[Writing] Lvl 31

[Persuasion] Lvl 32

[Herbalisim] lvl 31

[Skinning] Lvl 30

[Riding] lvl 29

[Mathematics] lvl 25

[Animal Husbandry] Lvl 29

[Dagger Mastery] Lvl 17

[Dual Wielding] Lvl 16

[Mounted Combat] lvl 16

[Acrobatics] Lvl 16

[Hand To Hand Combat] Lvl 12

[Alchemy] lvl 10

[Wilderness Survival] lvl 10

[Poison Resistance] Lvl 9

[Archery] lvl 3

[Sword Mastery] Lvl 2

Spells

[Light Burst] LVL 53

[Light Burst Coat] LVL 46

[Dancer’s Domain] lvl 40

[Shine] LVL 35

[Light Barrage] lvl 33

[Dancing Doubles] Lvl 29

[Barrier] Lvl 28

[Shadow Sonata] Lvl 24

[Bonding Contract] LVL 22

[Soul Strike] Lvl 17

[Adjust] lvl 16

[Astral Projection] Lvl 15

[Healing Harmony] Lvl 13

[Companion Heal] Lvl 11

[Gust] Lvl 10

[Empathy] Lvl 6

[Updraft] Lvl 3

[Featherfall] lvl 3

She’d also gotten 2 points to Vitality, 1 to Dexterity and 2 to Charisma from the fight. Fighting things far above one’s level truly rewarded you if you didn’t die first. Liliana did wonder why she got no stat points from the assassination, but assumed it was some sort of System penalty for being possessed and technically not the one doing the killing.

She didn’t wish to dwell too long on that night in any case, so she dismissed it from her thoughts. Though, the feeling of being violated remained in her mind at the reminder and her arms wrapped around her chest as if to shield her from the feeling. Her nails bit down into the leather of her jerkin as she tried to focus on another matter.

It would be nice if I could chain skills together, like combos in the game, Liliana thought to herself as she looked at her abilities. There were several skills she used together anytime she fought, and individually activating them took precious seconds. Liliana looked over towards Emyr and Alistair, who were chatting in subdued voices. She considered asking them if they knew of some way to do that, but hesitated. Would asking be too meta for this world? Was chaining abilities even something possible?

Liliana looked back to her Skill Sheet and considered it. Perhaps she could try something that was a mixture between [Persistent Casting] and [Mana Manipulation]? An if this, then that situation. Liliana focused on two abilities she used often in battle, and that would not paint a flashing target on the tree she was currently resting in.

[Solar Samba] and [Dance of The Windsong] would be good for her experiment. Focusing on the first skill, she pulled it to the front of her mind. She let it fill her, trying to activate it as slowly as possible so she could examine the skill. She felt strength flood her muscles, empowering them. Her limbs felt lighter, as if gravity itself had loosened some of its hold on her.

She heard some rustling in the tree beside her and felt eyes on her, but she closed her own eyes, focusing her attention inwards. She released the skill and activated it again, once more trying to slowly activate it to better understand the skill. It took several tries and the rustling in the trees got more pronounced the more she turned the skill off and on, but no one spoke up to bother her. When she felt she had a suitable feel for [Solar Samba] she turned to [Dance of the Windsong]. She repeated her action, feeling the skill wash through her. Feeling how her limbs became light, as if she’d become part of the wind itself.

She had to spend less time activating and deactivating the second skill as she learned from her first experiment. Having a good feel for both skills in her mind, she focused on the feel of them both, trying to not tie them together into one but to connect them. It was difficult. The skills kept wanting to slip away from her focus or overtake it entirely. Trying to get them to connect was like trying to connect two south poles of a magnet. They bounced off of each other anytime she got them close.

Liliana could feel sweat beading down her face as her focus dived further inward and all feeling of the world outside of her mind faded. She was growing frustrated, but her stubbornness was a stronger beast by half.

She tried to imagine the feeling of each skill happening rapid pace one after another, but that did little more than actually activate the skills manually, which was not what she wanted to do. Canceling the skills, Liliana turned them over in her mind, trying to find some string to tie them together with.

A glimmer of an idea flickered in her mind, and Liliana grabbed hold of it. Calling her Mana to mind, she pulled a tendril into her focus. It was thin as spider silk and she pulled another, then another and began to mentally weave the strands together, trying to impress upon the Mana her intent. She wanted it to work like a relay. As soon as the first skill it was attached to activated, she wanted it to channel a pulse of Mana to the other end and activate the second skill in the line. Eventually she hoped to daisy-chain her skills and spells together like this, where she needed to only activate one to kick-start them all.

When she felt her cable of Mana was stable and would, hopefully, do what she wanted, she pulled [Solar Samba] back into her mind. The skill was still slippery, but it didn’t bounce away from the Mana like it did another skill. However, getting it to connect was another matter entirely. Just sticking the Mana cable onto the skill resulted in it sliding off like water off a duck’s feathers. Multiple failed attempts, and a dose of more frustration later, Liliana was still sitting with a cable of Mana attached to nothing and a skill she got a feeling was mocking her.

If only I could super glue it on, or plug it in. Liliana thought as she mentally glared at the skill. The idea of a plug made her pull the skill close again, this time examining the way it was made up. Twisting lines of channels made up the skill, not half so confusing as spells, but still a Gordian knot none the less. These woven lines of channels were what was illustrated on spell and skill scrolls, they were what made up the skills and spells used in this world. The channels told the Mana where to go, what to do, and how to do it. Far more elegantly than Liliana’s typical brute force method when she tried to force her Mana to do something new.

Looking over the channels, Liliana tried to find an opening she could slip the end of her cable into. The only issue was she wasn’t sure what channels did what and was half afraid of messing with them for fear of changing her skill into something else entirely. If that was even possible, if it was, though, Liliana was sure she’d be the one to fuck up and find out.

Liliana tried to focus on where the channels started, where the Mana first entered to activate the skill. She’d want her own cable close to that, so it could siphon some of the Mana off into the next skill. Focusing on what she wanted to find, the skill seemed to shift until she was looking at an opening in the skill matrix. It seemed to her understanding, much like the opening to a pipe. Liliana twisted and turned it as she thought of how to connect that to her cable.

I need an adapter for the cable, Liliana realized, and excitedly she summoned more Mana to create what she needed. Her excitement caused her to slip a few times in the creation until she slowed down and methodically formed the Mana into what she needed. She ended up with a Mana construct that looked like a funnel with two spouts, one thinner than the other. She fit the adapter into the skill and, holding her breath, she fit the cable into the other end.

Releasing her hold on the adapter and skill, she kept her grip on the cable. [Solar Samba] stayed tethered to the cable and even as she looked, the skill seemed to integrate into the new addition easily until the lines where they were connected blurred. She couldn’t even tell the skill hadn’t always been like this.

Encouraged by her success, Liliana pulled [Dance Of The Windsong] to her and set to doing the same for the other skill. She only had a small hiccup when she saw the other skill had two entrance pipes, she assumed, because the skill took Health as well as Mana. She left the pipe she sensed was for Health alone and stuck to the Mana as she connected the skill to the first.

Liliana pulled back from the skills that were now tethered together by her Mana. Focusing on [Solar Samba] she activated the skill, feeling it fill her with Strength and Speed. She watched the connection of the skills and frowned when [Dance of the Windsong] did not activate. Deactivating [Solar Samba] she looked over the two skills again and saw they were still connected correctly.

Maybe I need to give the intent to also activate the chain? Liliana wondered. Mana was very intent based, especially when doing something new with it. Hesitantly, Liliana activated [Solar Samba], impressing on her Mana that she wanted to activate the chain as well. This time when Strength and Speed flooded into her, it was quickly followed by a second wave of Speed and a distinct feeling of Health drain.

Liliana’s eyes flew open, and she jumped up on her branch and punched the air in excitement. She barely kept herself from whooping in joy though she did do a small dance on the branch, her Dexterity making it no issue to keep her balance even on the swaying surface.

Notifications! I bet I got a new skill from that! Liliana thought excitedly as she stopped her victory dance. Her body felt exhausted, and she flopped back onto the branch, strangely out of breath for so little physical effort. A gnawing hunger was slowly making itself known to her and her body felt cold and wet from sweat coating her.

“What has gotten into you?” Alistair hissed, and Liliana waved a hand at her stepbrother as she summoned her notifications.

You’ve discovered the Skill [Chain Combo], would you like to accept it?

[Mana Manipulation] has reached level 46!

[Persistent Casting] has reached level 40!

[Solar Samba] has reached level 56!

[Dance of the Windsong] has reached level 52!

Liliana quickly accepted the new skill and pulled it up, barely daring to breathe as she looked it over.

Chain Combo

You can now connect skills and spells together in a chain to activate in quick succession without need to manually activate each ability. Chain Combos must be activated by including the Chain Combo name. Otherwise, the skills must be activated manually.

Can currently Chain 3 skills or spells together with a maximum of 2 Chain Combos.

Cost to Chain skills and spells together: 200 Mana per added Skill or Spell

Additional Mana cost for Chained skills or spells:

150 Mana

You have unlocked the Chain Combo screen!

Liliana had never opened a screen so fast in her life when she saw the notification for the new screen. She saw her original Chain was already there. She quickly set to changing the name of the Chain and setting up her second chain, ignoring the Mana drain and growing hunger in favor of her new discovery.

Chain Combo

1st Chain

[Solar Samba]

[Dance of the Windsong]

[Dancer’s Domain]

UP Chain

[Updraft]

[Leap]

[Featherfall]

Liliana wanted to chain so many more things together, but for now she had to settle for having her set up chain and her ‘oh fuck get away, get away’ chains ready. She’d found in this world more than in the game mobility was a massive need for her. She might have more Health than a caster, but she was no tank, and frankly she was growing sick of getting wounded. Liliana had specifically chosen to not be a tank to avoid this problem.

The two new Wind spells would help, as they were mobility spells. [Updraft] gave her a boost into the air of about three feet currently. [Featherfall] slowed her descent and cushioned her fall. So far, it would only protect her from 75 points of damage with her fall, but she hoped it would either eventually combined with [Leap] and [Updraft] into a flight skill or completely nullify fall damage.

Satisfied with her Chains Liliana closed her screens and blinked owlishly around. Alistair and Emyr had gotten as close to her branch as they could and were staring intently at her, a weight on her head let her know Nemesis had abandoned her roost to investigate her bonds strange antics and a whining noise from below told her Lelantos was curious as well.

“So you going to tell us why you’ve activated and deactivated your skills about a hundred times and went damn near comatose for three hours?!” Alistair hissed at her, his voice flirting the line between whispering and straight up shouting at her.

“Three hours? Wow,” Liliana hummed as she summoned bread from her storage and bit into it.

A quick check of her Mana and Stamina showed why she was so hungry. Her Mana was down to a third and her Stamina was at a fifth. She’d probably been burning her Mana and Stamina like crazy, playing with her skills and forcing a new ability. Interesting thing to know intense mental focus could burn Stamina as well, but it made sense. Liliana wolfed down an entire loaf of bread and what probably amounted to at least half her weight in jerky and bread before she felt sated enough to answer her brother’s question. She may also have been getting some manner of joy from his progressively more frustrated expression.

“I discovered Chain Combos,” Liliana said quickly, watching Alistair and Emyr intently.

Silas had never talked about Chain Combos in their practices, and Miss. Beckett had never mentioned it either. She wasn’t sure if it was so commonplace, like the Invincible myth, that it was expected she’d already know. Or if it was advanced information she wasn’t supposed to know yet, or worst of all, completely unheard of.

“Yo-You. How? Wha-? Chain Combos?!” Alistair’s voice raised in pitch progressively until he was practically squeaking and Liliana tilted her head curiously. Alistair had a rather expansive vocal range, color her impressed.

“Yes.” Liliana nodded as she relayed a more detailed explanation of events to her Bonds. She sent a record of her memories to them as well, as plain words still tripped both her Bonds up. She could feel them examining the information as new and almost instantly the two went into a meditative state to attempt it themselves.

“That’s supposed to be something we don’t learn until Academy,” Emyr remarked, his voice holding a bit of astonishment, and bemusement, in it. For him, it was the equivalent of shouting in surprise.

“Whoops?“ Liliana said, shrugging, though internally she breathed in relief.

So she didn’t come off as dumb beyond saving, nor as some kind of prodigy inventor. Chain Combos existed and were known, just an advanced ability. Liliana could understand why others didn’t come upon it naturally. She’d had to pull a lot of knowledge from the game and Earth to make it function. And even then, it had taken her hours to achieve. She couldn’t imagine those without her knowledge coming upon it easily.

“‘Whoops’, she says. Whoops, like she’d just accidentally tipped over a glass. Not achieving an ability, that’s one of the hidden secrets of the Academy,” Alistair grumbled as he rubbed his face roughly.

“Wait, it’s only known in the Academy?” Liliana asked, fear replacing relief. Oh, that could be bad.

“No, it’s just a selling point. Typically, it’s taught to higher ranked officers in the military as well. Other lands have it too, but none make it common knowledge. Though I suppose technically anyone could stumble upon it, and some classes seem to unlock it easier than others,” Emyr explained and Liliana deflated a bit, though she still felt wary. She hadn’t meant to uncover a state secret, she just wanted to clean up her skill sheet!

“It’s starting,” a voice called out to them and the teens froze. Almost immediately, Liliana’s discovery was forgotten as they turned their heads towards the sleeping village. It was time to see if Liliana’s idea would save the lives she hoped it would.

Nemesis Stat Sheets:

Status Sheet

Name:

Nemesis

Age:

2

Level:

141

Species:

Dicentra Serpent

Genus:

Flowered Serpent

Rank:

5

Health:

2,000

H-Regen:

+20/1.1sec

Mana:

6,940

M-Regen:

+94.2/1.1sec

Stamina:

1,000

S-Regen:

+10/1.1sec

Magic Power:

7,421

Magic Control:

10,345

Experience: 986,754 /2,016,400

Vitality:

200

Endurance:

100

Strength:

105

Dexterity:

377

Wisdom:

694

Intelligence:

942

Speed:

701

Charisma:

60

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

Affinity

Earth

70%

Dark

57%

Poison

32%

Quintessential Skill

[Vengeance] Lvl 1

Skills

[Identify] Lvl 185

[Garden Song] lvl 175

[Consume] lvl 150

[Tracking] Lvl 145

[Stealth] Lvl 141

[Dodge] Lvl 136

[Poison Resistance] Lvl 134

[Enrage] Lvl 130

[Venom] Lvl 102

[Antidote] Lvl 23

Spells

[Minimize] Lvl 182

[Earth Manipulation] Lvl 173

[Earth Spike] Lvl 157

[Earth Scale] Lvl 156

[Earthquake] Lvl 145

[Shadow Cloak] Lvl 138

[Shadow Wave] lvl 122

[Poison Coat] Lvl 101

[Poison Brand] Lvl 92

[Poison Cloud] Lvl 54