Chapter 43: Questions

“…Just as a reminder, for those who weren’t able to finish the assessment last week, your score will be calculated based on your average performance thus far. For those of you who had less than stellar marks before the assessment, this will mean that you need to work harder to increase your marks for the rest of the term.” The teacher concludes.

It’s been about a week, and things are back to normal. Well, mostly. Even though everyone came back unharmed, it’s still a fact that we were kidnapped in the first place. Trust in the academy’s ability to protect its students, particularly for those in the class and their families, has taken a hit. Not to mention the lasting affect it’s going to have on the students involved.

The advanced fire destruction class is usually one of the more energetic classes. Most of the students in it are engaged and enthusiastic about learning the course content, but since the incident, it’s been much more quiet and reserved.

“How can you be so calm, after what happened?” For once, Joyce’s voice isn’t accusatory, but truly at a loss. “You’re acting like everything’s normal, but… We were kidnapped, for gods’ sake!”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a great situation, and I’d rather not relive it.” I say. “But it doesn’t even rank in the top five worst situations I’ve been through.”

“I don’t understand.” She says, furrowing her eyebrows.

Is… Is she actually listening to what I’m saying? Well I’ll be damned. Bad saying, that. Not really fond of being damned.

“Look, I don’t mind talking,” I say, “but I’d rather talk about it somewhere else.”

“Fine.” She replies, after a moment of deliberation. “Is the library fine? I was going to head there to study, anyway.”

“Sounds good to me.” I reply.

The walk – or float, in my case – there, we spend in silence, Machite following dutifully behind me as it carries my things.

I greet professor Kelby as we pass by the font desk, eliciting little more than a faint nod in response.

We head through to the second section of the library, and Joyce frowns. All of the tables already have people at them. It’s part of the reason why I don’t usually come at this time of day.

“Over here.” I tell Joyce, leading her to one of the tables. It’s the only one with a single person sitting at it.

“Shouldn’t you at least ask if he minds first?” she asks quietly as I plop myself down on the other side of the table.

“Relax, I know him.” I explain. “This is Raymond, he spends most of his time in here. He won’t bother us if we don’t bother him.”

“Exactly.” He responds shortly, nodding at me before quickly becoming re-engrossed in the book in front of him.

“Well, if you say so…” She sits down. “So what did you mean, us getting kidnapped wasn’t in your top five most dangerous situations or whatever? We’re only students, how could you possibly have experience with things like that?”

“I get where you’re coming from. I think most people look at me and assume that’s just how it is.” I reply. “‘Look, that’s Gerald, he can fly and he’s good at magic,’ they say. Nobody ever seems to wonder why. Nobody wonders how I can fly, why I understand, why I know all the answers – well, at least most of the answers. People make assumptions, and they don’t question them, or at least they don’t question them nearly enough.”

“I’m here to try and understand, Gerald, not for you to talk in circles.” Joyce shakes her head.

“Fair enough.” I say. “I’ll give you an example, then: why was our class kidnapped?”

“For ransom money, of course.” Joyce shrugs.

“A logical answer. We had no relation to them or other value, after all, so money is a likely incentive. Except for the fact that that’s dead wrong.” I say straightforwardly.

“What?” Joyce blinks.

“They didn’t recognise Simon.” I explain.

“Why would they recognise Simon?” Joyce asks.

I explain further. “If they were in it for the money, they’d want to know who they were kidnapping. That way, they would know how much money they could expect to get from the families and friends and such.”

Joyce nods. “Yes, but what does that have to do with Simon?”

“He’s rich.” I state.

“He’s rich?” Joyce splutters. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Simple. His grandfather, the one that stepped through the portal and saved us that day, is Theodore Glynphael, creator and owner of an extremely lucrative magic tool business which, among other things, is the sole producer of bags of holding.” I say simply.

“What!?” Joyce squeaks.

“Keep it down, would you?” Raymond complains without looking at us.

“Yeah.” I continue. “If they were after money, they would’ve known about him. Actually, if they were after money, they wouldn’t have bothered our class at all. Simon is much too dangerous a target – you saw the aftermath of what happened when his grandfather found out. Plus, reinforcements from the academy were just about to arrive. If they were after money, they would’ve gone after much easier targets.”

“I… Why did I never think of that?” Joyce shakes her head at herself.

“Because you didn’t ask yourself the right questions, think them through to their conclusions, and then question your conclusions as well.” I tell her. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Simon’s grandfather happens to be a different extremely powerful user of space magic who also has a plethora of magic tools at his disposal. It would be an awfully massive coincidence considering how few users of space magic are at that level of skill, but it’s theoretically possible. But anyway, enough about that. You wanted me to explain myself.”

“I… Yes.” Joyce nods, a little at a loss.

“Thing is, a few of your questions can be answered by answering other, very simple questions.” I say wryly. “For instance, how is a fork born?”

“Forks aren’t born, they’re made by…” Joyce stops as she realises the implication.

“Precisely. I came into being not knowing where I was or even what I was. To this day, my best guess is that the gods made me this way, and I haven’t the faintest as to why.” I say. “Next question. What can a fork do?”

“Nothing, they aren’t alive.” Joyce replies accurately.

“That’s not far off from what I had in the beginning. It’s no exaggeration to say that I’m only here today by a few strokes of luck.” I admit. “Now, back to your original question. It’s not something that you can figure out just by reasoning through, so I’ll give you a break there. The related questions to have asked yourself, however, are ‘where is he from’ and ‘what did he do before coming to the academy?’”

Joyce rolls her eyes. “Where are you from, then? Across the sea?”

“Odwia.” I state. “Another world. The people there aren’t as open-minded or understanding as people here – and I say that knowing that most of the people at the academy consider me a remotely controlled magic tool created by some eccentric artificer. I worked with an adventurer who I befriended, helped him fight, explore, avoid danger and so on. The guy has a big heart, but it got us into trouble often enough. Long story short, some demons wanted to invade, and I ended up going through the portal to destroy it from the other side and prevent them from rebuilding it.”

“Who would believe a story like that?” Joyce shakes her head in disbelief.

“I know, right?” I agree, not particularly caring if she doesn’t. “But yeah, I literally went to hell and back. Still, it was mostly luck. I’m not all that powerful myself, particularly physically. Trying to carry lots of things around myself is difficult and draining, which is why I have Machite here doing the heavy lifting. Anyway, that’s the answer to that question. But the question you really want answered, you haven’t asked yet, have you?”

Joyce frowns. “What are you talking about?”

Ah, if only I had arms to shrug with. “Why it is that I’m better at magic than you.” She opens her mouth to retort, but I cut her off before she says anything. “Don’t, it’s perfectly understandable. You work your hardest to learn and understand something, and then you see someone who knows more about it than you do, but you never see them doing anything at all. Of course you’d get annoyed by someone like that.”

“Alright, fine.” Joyce says. “You were always such a smartass, and it annoyed the hell out of me. So what?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty fair.” I admit. “I was a bit childish in my responses to you. That’s my bad. I’m not great with people.”

She stares at me for a moment before sighing. “How am I supposed to stay mad with someone who keeps apologising?”

“You’d be surprised at how well some people manage it.” I reply wryly.

“They sound like fun.” She winces. “But fine, I was a bit jealous of how good you are at magic. How do you do it?”

“There are four main reasons.” I explain. “And none of them are talent. First of all is experience. I’ve been out in the world, I’ve been in fights with necromancers, talked with paladins and toppled a false ruler. Because of that, I know that when they teach us fire destruction magic, the goal isn’t to be able to create a fireball over such and such size, and hotter than such a temperature, and then project it out with such a speed to hit such a target. It’s to defeat or kill an enemy as surely, quickly and efficiently as possible. Sometimes, that might mean a fireball. Other times, a fireball might not be quick, powerful or accurate enough, or maybe too powerful. What spell you need to use depends entirely on your opponent and the situation.”

“Alright, I kind of get that, though I’m still not believing you did all that. What else?” Joyce nods.

“Knowledge. I know a lot of things that you, and a lot of the other students don’t. I know why fire burns. I know why the sky is blue. I know what water is made of. I know the speed of light. Why blood is red. What happens inside your body when you get sick. And a thousand other things that I can apply and use in my magic to make it stronger and have many different effects.” I continue.

“That really doesn’t help me, you know. I’m already using almost all my spare time to study.” Joyce complains.

“Hey, you’re the one who asked. Kind of.” I reply. “Third is perspective. You’re focused on getting good marks, the best in your class if you can, right?”

“Of course.” Joyce nods seriously. “I’m not here to play around.”

“Well, this is going to sound a bit cruel to you then, but…” I say. “Marks don’t matter. Not much, at least. Of course, passing the class is important, and getting good grades is always a plus, but in a year, nobody will remember who was the top of the class this term. Nobody will care. If you go far enough, people won’t have even heard of this academy, let alone the class. What’s important is learning the tools and methods, and the spells, that will help you in the future. That should be your goal first and foremost, anything else is secondary.”

“I…” She shakes her head. “Whatever. What’s the last reason?”

“Quite simply, time.” I state. “I don’t need to eat, sleep, or anything else normal people do. That means I have maybe ten, twelve hours more per day to do things. And I have no family to care for, no job, nothing except the academy right now. I spend some time with my few friends during the day, which is probably why you haven’t seen me in the library, but all night while everyone else is asleep, I’m studying and practicing magic. I’m not learning things much faster than you, I just have more time.”

“Oh.” Joyce blinks, looking a bit disappointed. “That makes sense. I was just hoping, y’know, that there might be some way for me to learn faster.”

“No shortcut to success, I’m afraid.” I say, in the verbal equivalent to a shrug. “But if there’s one thing you take away from this, let it be perspective. I went to a school once before. Not a magic school, granted, but a school. I went in with an attitude similar to yours. I wanted to be the best in the year, I tried my hardest. It grated on my mind and my spirit. Towards the end, I hated every moment of my learning. And what did I get for it? A couple years later, I’d forgotten half the things I’d learned. I didn’t even bother mentioning my grades to other people because outside of school, nobody cared. It ended up just being one big waste of time and energy.”

“I’ll think about it. Thanks for answering my questions, even if I’m not sure how much of it is true. And sorry for snapping at you all the time. I’ve been a bit stressed lately, even before that happened.” Joyce admits, standing up. “I’d better start studying again. See you again some other time.” She looks at Raymond. “You don’t mind if I keep using this table?”

Raymond shrugs.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She says, half to herself.

“See you.” I say as she walks away and starts looking amongst the bookshelves.

As I start to ascend to leave the library, Raymond speaks without raising his head. “Interesting story. How much of it is true?”

“I don’t joke around with things like that. It’s all true.” I reply.

“Hm. You know, from a story like that, an individual with some imagination might be led to think you weren’t always the way you are today.” He notes without any particular inflection, almost like a… interested disinterest.

“Is anyone?” I ask rhetorically. “Perhaps the greatest skill that any of us have is the ability to adapt, to change to suit our circumstances. Sometimes we change for the better, other times for the worse. I wonder occasionally what my younger self would have to say about some of the things I’ve done. Would younger me have made the same decisions, the same mistakes? I think sometimes that I was the smartest I ever was when I was just a child, and the years have only made me dumber. More knowledgeable, but dumber.”

“Which is, of course, entirely related to what I said.” He responds with dry sarcasm.

“Sometimes you couldn’t pry my mouth open with a crowbar – metaphorically speaking – and other times I just seem to ramble. Maybe that’s just one of the ways I adapted.” I sigh. “But I should be going. The others will be wondering where I am.”

He shrugs in reply, and I make my way out, leaving him to read at his table. Surrounded by people, but somehow giving off a feeling that he was entirely separated from everyone else.

After our heartfelt chat, Joyce and I become the best of buds. Well, that may just be the slightest exaggeration, but at least we aren’t swapping verbal jabs every time we pass each other. Our interactions still aren’t friendly, per se, but they are at least void of hostility. Polite exchanges, perhaps.

Although I did learn some interesting and useful things in the light creation magic class, unfortunately it does appear that some of the things I wanted to learn fall under the umbrella of illusion magic. Still, it’s not the end of the world. Upon realising that I wouldn’t be learning those particular aspects of magic in the class, I turned my attention once again to the library and perused a few tomes on the subject.

Illusions. The art of affecting the mind and the senses. But not just to fool, trick or beguile them. Illusion magic can also be used to enhance the senses, or to share senses with another. For example, say you are standing on the ground with a bird flying above you. You could, assuming you know how, cast a spell to see what the bird sees, and hear what it hears. The same sort of spell is used in my ‘eye’, but instead of sharing the sight of someone else, it’s what the magic tool sees.

In other words, it’s the type of magic I need to learn if I want to go about replacing my lost senses at some point. At this point, though, that goal is slipping through my tines like wet spaghetti. It just isn’t very viable as a straightforward spell. To cast it in the usual manner, I would practically need to cast two spells in tandem, one to focus incoming light into the area covered by my other spell, which would be ‘reading’ that light and transferring the information to me.

Not that I’m saying it’s impossible to cast two spells at once. It’s entirely possible. But ensuring that the two spells remain at a constant distance and relative angle from each other, and then again from me so I don’t get insanely disoriented, while trying to do whatever else – reading, writing, and so on – just isn’t feasible. I might be able to work out a third spell to deal with the positioning problem or work it into the other two spells somehow, but then I’d be managing either three spells at once or two complex ones.

And I haven’t even started thinking about the other senses. Hearing and speaking shouldn’t be too complex once I learn magic related to air and motion – more precise and complex motion, that is – but I haven’t the foggiest how I would go about replicating taste or smell.

So it seems, at least for now, that I won’t be able to get much further along that line of thought until I learn how to make magic tools. So I guess I’ll be doing basic artificing next term.

Darkness magic in its simplest form, as far as I’m able to observe, seems to act like a barrier of some kind that blocks and absorbs light – and only light. It can’t be touched or interacted with in any way by anything else. Possible uses, I don’t know, blocking the light from getting to an opponent’s eyes? Obscuring something from sight? Assuming the enemy party doesn’t rely on sight, it seems absolutely useless, at least how I can use it at this point.

Water magic. What’s there to say? It’s water. Can you drink it? Sure, but it’s magic after all. It’ll just disappear from your stomach once the spell stops being maintained. Practical uses? Creating bad footing, splashing people… The classic pressurised water cutter is also a possibility, I think, once I learn some more. Probably not very effective unless I can get to an incredible amount of pressure, but mixing in some fine particles as an abrasive, potentially from earth magic, could help ease that requirement a bit.

Fire magic has increased my range of offensive options, of course. It’s fire. I can make walls of it to obscure vision, trap an opponent or prevent them from following. Fireballs - of course. I can make small, incredibly hot bolts of fire to pierce through opponents and quite a lot of other things. No, I haven’t tested to see if it can melt me. I’m not that stupid. Fire magic comes with its own risks, though. Magical fire can produce normal fire, and it’s difficult to control that once it starts. Of course, it’s possible, I just don’t know how to do it. That falls under alteration magic, not destruction magic, after all.

As for formations, that’s more of a difficult subject. It’s more theory-based than any of my other classes, but I think I’ve learned a lot from it. For example, the formation commonly used as a base for elemental magic is a hexagram, with each point representing one of the elements. It’s simple, multi-purpose, and effective. Empty formations, as they’re called, for other types of magic range in form and function. Some may have no circle, some are based on a pentagram or decagram, others, as in the case of holy magic, may be based upon the holy symbol of a god or goddess, while still others require the formation to be composed of specific materials.

Just learning some of them and understanding what types of magic they can – or rather, should – be used for will make it much easier for me to understand magic formations drawn by other mages in the future. I’ve also learned how to design more complex formations that include one or theoretically multiple subformations, although I’m going to have to do a lot of practical, methodical and careful experimentation as well as gain a deeper understanding of the methods involved to get to that point.

I’ve also gotten the Ignitae language skill up to expert, so I’ve set that aside for the moment and started work on understanding the Aquan language, the elemental language of water. It’s my third elemental language, and I feel like I’m starting to see similarities between the languages. Or, rather, similar differences? It’s like… Each language is a puzzle piece. It has gaps that another language might fill, and it itself might fill a gap in another language. Whether or not that has any meaning or practical purpose I don’t know, but I think I’m learning this language a bit faster than the ones before.

Despite the tumultuous event that occurred, the term once again comes to an end, and, after a short break, the new one begins. A bit of time has passed now since the whole kidnapping event, and it’s starting to recede from the forefront of people’s minds. People are starting to relax again, get back into the normal order of things.

I wish that the same could be said for myself. But a part of me wonders, even as I study, even as I develop and formulate new spells, exactly what their intentions were in kidnapping us. A part of me wonders whether we have truly seen the last of them. I, as a student, am of course not privy to whatever investigations or happenings related to the matter may be occurring, but I can’t help but think that if there was no further threat, that they would have announced as such.

A part of me wonders how they knew where we would be. Was it just that the same sort of thing is done every term? I mean, there are a host of spells that could be used to detect or locate our group once we were outside the academy. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that they used one. But was our kidnapping the goal, or merely a single part of a larger plan? If the latter, and assuming that plan has something to do with the academy, then they likely have informants, contacts and/or moles inside the academy.

Theoretically, I could observe someone over an extended period of time. It wouldn’t be too difficult to ascertain whether they display any suspicious behaviour, at least if they did so outside areas that block my vision. But the whole student body, and perhaps the teachers too? Not a chance. I don’t have nearly the time and brainpower – so to speak - for that.

I envy how others can perhaps let sleeping dogs lie. Forget about it, move on. But if there’s a chance something is going to happen, I want to be ready for it. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s surprises.

Too many questions. Not enough answers. Uncertainty and doubt cloud my mind. I can’t work like this… Well I probably can, to be honest, but I don’t want to. Questionable motivations, questionable solutions.

There’s no good plan, so it’s time to see if Joe really has answers, or just more questions.

Gerald's Status

Status

Name: Gerald

Race: Living Fork

Level: 33

Experience: 6419.0/7600

Gender: None

Age: 2 years (local time)

Allegiance: None

Fame: 1

Strength: 6.5 (65.0)

Intelligence: 54.7

Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0)

Wisdom: 54.5

Charisma: 6.0

Luck: 12.1

Hardness: 26.94

Durability: 18.54/18.54

Mana: 1094/1094

Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88)

Psi: 545/545

Psi regen: 5.47/min

Ki: 35425/3542 (35425)

Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day

Unspent stat points: 0

Titles

Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you.

-Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness

-Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity

Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race.

-Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race

Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others.

-Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction

Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy.

-Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction

Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food.

-Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food)

-Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food)

Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2

Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse.

-Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1

Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo.

Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2

Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead.

Traits

Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability.

Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability.

Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait.

Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait.

Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced.

Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you.

50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species.

Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive.

Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better.

Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food.

Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest.

Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways.

Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10.

Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis.

Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100.

Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi.

Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced.

Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you.

Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%.

Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body.

Stat unlock: Ki.

Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease.

Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction.

Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times.

Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you.

Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point.

Skills

Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance.

Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 5.38% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type.

Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability.

Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient.

Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency.

Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat.

Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency.

Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent.

Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble.

Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.35%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects.

Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points.

Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.

WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera.

Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 84.26% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those.

Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear.

Charges remaining: 8

Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.83% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient.

External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki.

Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot.

Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.39% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana.

Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes

Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity.

…However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you.

Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds.

Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you.

Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min.

Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages.

Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill.

Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill.

Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles.

Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 73.93% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once.

Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge.

Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.62% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to.

Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly.

Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 37.19% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells.

Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 68.06% - You have a firm grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations.

Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 24.67% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells.

Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 31.10% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic.

Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally.

Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation.

Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.16% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 42.42% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic.

Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 23.84% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic.

Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.04% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 92.75% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience.

Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience.

Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 19.09% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic.

Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.94% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic.

Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 96.72% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic.

Aquan language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 64.32% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time.