The soul. Everything revolved around the size - and possibly the strength - of my soul.

Carefully, I held the spoon over the table. Making sure no part of my body was near the shimmering distortion around the edge of the spoon, I slowly slid the dull implement into the wood. The bronze spoon quickly dipped through the wood and removed a smooth curved chunk. Picking up a wooden spoon, I activated my Skill again then watched as the scoop thumped into the surface, halting without entering the table.

Each experiment had gained me both answers and many more questions. Once I knew that I could recover my [Alchemy] Skill, I felt confident enough to perform far more invasive experiments with my Skills. The first question to ask was if it was possible to push past my previous Skill level in [Alchemy] by manipulating the Skill crystal within my soul. The answer? Yes, yes, it was. But unfortunately, that answer came with caveats. Namely, that once I reached my previous Skill level, things slowed to a crawl.

While pressing my Skill to grow, I could feel my soul vibrate and shake, the sensation reminiscent of the explosion that nearly killed me. Instead of driving against this force and increasing the disturbing shaking, I eased back. I slowed my progress to a sustainable and less violently alarming rate. It was slow, staggeringly so, but still far faster than practicing [Alchemy] directly. Moreover, I could see why it worked. It was no longer a mystery of developing a Skill by practicing with the correct mental and emotional state. Now it was merely a case of directing the wisp of mana entering my soul to grow the Skill crystal in the way I wanted.

The limiting factor appeared to be the size of my soul. The larger it was, the more mana would naturally enter my soul as I developed my Skills, and the more room I had to contain the mana freed from my Skills. The two seemed to balance against each other. As my Skill crystals grew, my soul would grow to contain them, and I would draw in more mana. The cycle was a virtuous one that expanded toward ever more Skill growth. I had a feeling that the size of the soul explained why children couldn’t gain Skills until they were older. It stood to reason that if my soul was larger now, then it must have been even smaller in the past. At some point, some fundamental limits would mean that crystals couldn’t grow. It was also possible that the metaphor that my mind had settled on for the Skill list - that of a connective tunnel between souls - was more than just metaphorical. The tunnels could be acting in some way on the mana entering the soul. Yet more questions that I couldn’t answer without extensive testing, some of which would be relegated to the Skill Trainers to test. I was sure that multiple Trainers were currently attempting to learn [Meditation] given widespread mental resistance and manipulation Skills that were so popular in the profession.

No, all I could do was focus on the experiments that were likely pertinent to my own interests and well being. I had to leave further research for the other Skill Trainers. Somehow, I didn’t think the Mages would leave me alone long enough to squirrel out all the details I wanted.

Looking back to the wooden spoon, I considered what the modification meant for me. The first modification I made revolved around the precision and speed effect of [Alchemy]. Changing it from a passive effect to an active effect took a great deal of effort. It felt like trying to drag the crystal through itself. It worked, but I spent nearly eight hours focused on making that one change. Given past experiments, I could recover the entire Skill in that same period. But, once it was done, the difference was staggering. Before, I could trim, cut, smash, clean, peel, and strain with half my attention. The effect was enough to maintain a reliable quality and speed, even with most of my attention resting on the next steps. Sometimes, that was vitally important. Some potions could be complicated and require absolutely precise timing to work. Without such an effect, it might take two or even three Alchemists to produce the brew. With it, I could do the work alone, although with a chance of failure and far more stress than needed.

Alchemy - Tier 1: 35

Creating potions, tinctures, powders, and pills, Alchemy creates from that which is embodied in mineral, plant, and animal.

Passive Effect:

Lesser: Eye for Detail - High chance of noticing details that might harm an alchemical production.

Active Trigger Effect:

Minor: Rapid Preparation - Cutting, grinding, concentrating, filtering, and purifying ingredients is quicker.

Minor: Chemist’s Nose - with a sniff, judge the properties of a potential ingredient.

Major: Empowered Production - with effort, an alchemist can increase a potion’s effect at no cost in ingredients.

With the Skill changed to have an active effect, my hands moved like magic. The herbs and minerals seemed to fall apart, nearly filtering and grinding themselves. My hands would virtually blur as I worked. Then the effect was over, and I was left with sweat on my head and a single potion. Active effects crammed all the power into a single burst, while passive effects were always happening. I could see ways to manipulate my Skills, ways to modify them to give the most significant impact. [Veil of Ice] was a useful enough Skill, but with an active effect focused Skill - and a mostly useless one at that - it paled in comparison to the passive version. Could I shift the active effect to a passive one and gain essentially two forms of [Cold Resistance]? Could I remove the extra effects that I simply didn’t care about and grow the passive effects alone? My test with the spoon suggested it would be slow but possible.

The second experiment with the spoon was far easier to prepare. The metal spoon was non-reactive. It was an alchemic spoon and useful for any compound that would leave residue on a wooden spoon to contaminate further preparations. There were multiple types of alchemic spoons, but the cheapest was brass. But, importantly, no alchemic spoon was made of wood. A wooden spoon was just a spoon. And my [Alchemy] Skill didn’t affect non-alchemy tools.

[Focused Cut] was a broad Skill that improved my precision with any cutting tool. On the other hand, my [Alchemy] active effect only increased my accuracy and speed with alchemy equipment and procedures. Shifting the effect to focus solely on cutting, instead of precision and speed, resulted in the ability to reproduce Mason’s stone cutting trick. Albeit only with alchemy equipment.

Alchemy - Tier 1: 35

Creating potions, tinctures, powders, and pills, Alchemy creates from that which is embodied in mineral, plant, and animal.

Passive Effect:

Lesser: Eye for Detail - High chance of noticing details that might harm an alchemical production.

Active Trigger Effect:

Minor: With My Alembic, I Stab at Thee - Force and penetration with alchemic equipment increased.

Minor: Chemist’s Nose - with a sniff, judge the properties of a potential ingredient.

Major: Empowered Production - with effort, an alchemist can increase a potion’s effect at no cost in ingredients.

Again, I only shifted the mana locked up in the crystal around. I didn’t add or remove any mana. I wanted to isolate the effects of modifying my Skill, not introduce new complexity.

Altering the Skill a third time, I pulled on the concept of Alchemy, stripping the professional idea from the cutting effect. The Skill’s name fuzzed and shifted, the whispers beyond my soul turning into a clamoring discordant mess, but eventually, the noise calmed. The Skill crystal remained, but the name and description were no longer a part of my Skill list. The blank entry felt like an oddly discordant note in my understanding of the way the world worked.

? - Tier 1: 35

???

Passive Effect:

Lesser: Eye for Detail - High chance of noticing details that might harm an alchemical production.

Active Trigger Effect:

Minor: Savage Cut - Force and penetration increased with all tools.

Minor: Chemist’s Nose - with a sniff, judge the properties of a potential ingredient.

Major: Empowered Production - with effort, an alchemist can increase a potion’s effect at no cost in ingredients.

Grabbing the metal spoon, I again triggered my Skill’s active effect and sliced a gouge out of the abused table. Before the Skill’s activation could fade, I grabbed the wooden spoon and repeated the bronze spoon’s feat. Glancing around the table, I snagged the mortar, but the Skill’s activation effect faded before I could test its applicability. Swaying, I tried to remain standing while my pulse pounded in my ears. The active effect was an order of magnitude more draining than it had been. Leaning on the table, I tried to guess if it was the shift to the unnamed form or the generality of the effect - from alchemy to any tool - that was the cause. My guess was the first, but I couldn’t rule out the second without further tests. Tests I wouldn’t undertake until I rested.

Already I could feel my mind tending to drift given the need to dip in and out of [Meditation] to test individual changes. If it was just a case of feeling physically and mentally drained, I would push through. Still, the siren call of [Meditation’s] effect was already leaving me questioning if I needed to worry about the impact of [Meditation], and that was a dangerous sign.

Shaking my head at the fading of the blood rush, I set down my equipment and idly cleaned the refuse of my experiments while I considered what I had learned and what I guessed.

Likely, the Mages were doing the same thing I was. They were creating ‘spells,’ which were custom active effect Skills. Presumably, they were very narrowly defined Skills which offered incredible power in a time of need. On the other hand, given the staggering age that all Mages seemed to reach, they were probably creating passive Skills for health and recovery. I vaguely remembered Skills with improved recovery from illness mentioned about tribes that continually were exposed to some ailments and infections. They hadn’t been of interest to me at the time, but now I was more curious about the active and passive effects. I still didn’t have the full picture, but I could see what the Mages focused on to produce what they wanted. Focusing on a Skill, they could slowly shift it into a new form, eventually molding it into precisely what they wanted. This also meant that they likely created sets of Skills they preferred and then didn’t change them, only growing a select few Skills to grow their souls for more power. Any time spent changing a Skill was time they could have spent developing their soul for more power.

Still, what were those voices whispering in my mind as the Skill changed? What was a better balance: lots of small, focused Skills, or broad conglomerated Skills? I could already guess that my mutated [Alchemy] Skill would be better served if I removed the other active effects. I could create a powerful attack Skill revolving around only the Savage Cut effect.

Should I shift Eye for Detail away from alchemy and toward a more generic detail-oriented visual Skill?

Could I break the two effects apart and be left with two Skill crystals?

If I could, I would have both a powerful active attack effect and a useful passive Skill that enhanced my vision. Somehow, I thought I might be able to. Given my combat talents, I might have a unique edge over a Mage. If I could shore up my resistances to mind control.

Mages seemed to focus on Spells with longer range active effects, often fire, because it kept themselves away from danger. Could I combine close range active effects with my combat Skills along with passive resistance and avoidance Skills?

Sitting in the chair in my new alchemy workshop while my Alchemy Skill was an unusable shamble, I considered what was possible. If I was willing to sacrifice all but [Meditation] and [Teacher of Skills], I could build a set of Skills designed to resist and fight Mages. Long minutes passed in planning before I noticed the wide smile that was plastered across my face.