Beth hadn’t fully committed to a route back to Leeds when she left Livpul. She knew she needed to head in the vague direction of home but if she was honest with herself she didn’t really want to deal with people at the moment. She was angry and full of energy to the point of bursting and needed to let that energy out. She changed from a walk to a run. Due to her skill this actually caused her to slow down and she could feel herself expelling more energy and having to focus on her breathing. An action that took her concentration off her encounters in Livpul.

Eventually after running for just over an hour she slow to a walk, an unempowered walk, and once she came across a good sitting point, found a log to perch on. It was late. extremely so and though instincts and the moonlight had guided her journey so far she knew it was time to stop.

She was done with Livpul. For good now, there was truly nothing and nobody there for her anymore. Steven had been so obtuse and she couldn’t help wishing he could expand his horizons and stop being so small minded about the world. She couldn’t understand how you could live in the past when the future seemed so bright. She was done with the past. With who she used to be. To punctuate this thought she pulled up the system shop and with practised gestures pulled up the option to change her name.

She quickly input Beth and it floated there above her [Solarslut Beth, 4] for her to confirm. She did so quickly uncaring about the 2 Credits it cost her to do such a thing. Next she pulled up the skill list where her Butter Churning skill sat. She hadn’t used it since arriving in Leeds and didn’t really plan to start in the future. It wasn’t her. Not anymore, this new life had no need for such skills. She focused on the skill in her status and tried to will it into disappearing. To her pleasure it caused a box to pop up that was just what she was hoping for.

First Time Skill Mortgage Explanation You are attempting to remove a skill. While they can never be completely removed they can be mortgaged. This means you receive their credit total to spend and this skill goes into another list. However, this skill can’t be increased, nor activated until a sum total of double it’s Credit total is paid.

Beth agreed and watched the skill vanish and pop up on a new screen she could will into existence by thinking ‘Mortgaged Skills’. Working this out helped Beth to throw off her funk. As far as she was aware Pete didn’t know about this option and she looked forward to telling him about it. She did however still need some time alone to decompress. She’d taken actions to distance herself from the town and the occasion but she still had to think about the fact she’d attack Lewis so brutally.

There was no guilt in her mind regarding it. After all he’d done much more to her emotionally over years than she had done to him then physically. That didn’t however, mean she was okay with the actions she’d taken on a conceptual level. While it could have been seen as self defence, she knew it wasn’t. It was revenge plain and simple and that wasn’t really the life she wanted to be living. She could have killed him. She might have too, if she hadn’t stopped herself. She wasn’t a killer, she was many other things but not a killer. In the end she found herself content with the actions. If Lewis was the type to throw around his power to get what he wanted, and he very much was, then he shouldn’t be surprised when it bounced back and hurt him.

At peace with her actions she bedded down for the remainder of the night. The next morning she planned her route ahead. She had not taken the main path due to wanting to avoid people on her journey out of Livpul. As such she needed to return to the path and get back. She still wasn’t in any real rush to get home. She still had plenty of supplies and no real obligations due to her relative wealth. She decided to aim to be back the morning of the Trial. That would hopefully give her time to chat to her mum and Pete before heading out on her next Trial. The next Trial was going to be a big one. She was determined to finally cross the level 5 boundary and to see what the fuss that everybody had kept a secret from her was.

The route home took slightly longer than she anticipated due to walking through the woodlands being slightly less familiar to her. It was an enjoyable hike though so she didn’t particularly feel the need to rush herself. Getting home she was unsure how long exactly she had before the Trial so made sure to walk over to her mother’s in an attempt to find her. Beth made sure throughout to be focusing on the idea she was walking, rather than searching or anything similar due to the fact that intent was a key part of the Trial type. Finding the house empty she walked to the church. There she spied her mother helping out with some stragglers to the skill stations.

They had been set up in the town while Pete had been away stations with basic supplies to help people guide the direction of the skill gain. They weren’t mandatory and some elected to not change their schedule while the Trials activated, seeing it as God deciding on the skill they most needed next. Beth personally felt that would lead to a scattered collection of low levelled skills but didn’t comment, but did encourage people to focus on a skill when they chatted with her. Susanna had been hard at work with her own level getting herself to a respectable point, [Susanna Oakfenny, 3]. In confirming this Beth realised a horrific mistake she had made. She quickly tucked herself out of sight and cursing at the unnecessary expense changed her system name once more [Solarslut Beth Oakfenny, 4]. Her mother would have been quite upset by the missing surname if she’d seen it.

Susanna and Beth’s only real argument since leaving Livpul had been prompted by their name plates. Beth had tried to encourage her mother to get it changed, if not her first name the surname. After all they might not be looking for her but her name was probably on a list somewhere. A list that would be useless if Susanna changed her name. But she had refused, not even willing to switch to her maiden name. Beth had kept trying to push until Susanna brought up the fact it was one of few things left of Beth’s father. Something she couldn’t argue against. Nor did she really want to. As such, both still went by Oakfenny. Despite the inconvenience Beth was glad to still be honouring her father in some small way. She’d never known him and rarely thought about him but clearly his passing still hung on her mum’s mind in a way it didn’t on hers. It had also been the first time since Newcastle that Susanna hadn’t gone along with things without comment. Another good sign as far as Beth was concerned.

Having amended her mistake Beth quickly checked her overall status screen.

Name

Bethany Oakfenny

Title(s)

Solarslut

Mana Type

Cosmic (rare)

Level

4

Trial Credits

80

Skills:

Walking (common)

4 (20 Trial Credits)

Trial Taking (ultra-rare)

1 (8 Trial Credits)

Half-staff (common)

1 (7 Trial Credits)

Communication (common)

1 (6 Trial Credits)

Bartering (common)

0 (2 Trial Credits)

Once assured everything was in order she headed up to greet her mum. The queue had vanished by this stage and Susanna was busying herself with something on the table causing her to have her back to Beth.

Beth cleared her throat causing her mum to turn around in alarm.

“Go, Go! It’s starting any minute. Quick!” Susanna said grabbing the first thing off the table, a hand crafted flute, and thrust it into Beth’s hands before returning to her knitting. She knitted frantically as though the speed of the action would effect the skill it would be linked to. Beth began to walk back out of the building and as she crossed the threshold she found that rather than outside the church she was somewhere new.