Chapter 16

Crimson leaned down and tried to touch his toes; he was only able to touch his shins. He had been working on his flexibility while chatting with Lena; telling her about himself and the day he’d had. It was kinda a given that he would be talking to her even if he was working out. She was too cute to leave alone and it would level her up.

He wasn’t quite sure he really wanted to level Lena up. The higher the level was the further she could get from him and he wanted her close. She wasn’t like an A.I. guide like you would see in a video game. She’s more like a familiar that follows him around, and she's way cuter than any A.I.

Currently Lena had to be within 10 feet of Crimson. If she left that distance she would slowly fade away, before reappearing right next to him. She had also told him that he could gain XP for her skill, but she couldn’t level up until the synchronization finished.

Speaking of synchronization…wait for it…wait for it…Crimson stared at the screen as it counted down.

Synchronization complete in: 10…

Synchronization complete in: 9…

Synchronization complete in: 8…

Synchronization complete in: 7…

Synchronization complete in: 6…

Synchronization complete in: 5…

Synchronization complete in: 4…

Synchronization complete in: 3…

Synchronization complete in: 2…

Synchronization complete in: 1…

Synchronization complete.

———————————

“Now it will begin, let it begin! My rise to power!”

“Be glad no one is around to see you master.”

Announcement: Skill acquisition now available.

Skill: [Lena I] activated

Skill: [Balance I] acquired

Skill: [Running I] acquired

Skill: [Fall Damage Reduction I] acquired

Skill: [Runic Language I] acquired

Skill: [Flexibility I] acquired

“Lena, I finally have skills!”

“Congratulations master! How many did you get?”

“I got 5 skills, not counting yours: [Balance I], [Running I], [Fall Damage Reduction I], [Runic Language I], and [Flexibility I]…some of these don’t make any sense.”

“I can help you with that master. You know how it is hard to get skills associated with common tasks?”

“Yeah, Mars told me about that.”

“It’s hard to get those skills because you’re too used to doing them. You don’t need a skill to support the action. For you master, yesterday was truly your first time learning to run, and you started practicing during Synchronization which made learning the skill easier.”

“If it’s possible to become so used to the action, then what’s the point of getting the skill?”

“The bonuses master. Having a skill for basic things will give you specific bonuses. Those could be stats, or increased efficiency of the action, or reduced difficulty of the action. There are also some basic skills worth getting just for the possible evolutions. In a lot of those cases the evolved skill could be extremely difficult or near impossible to get any other way.”

Crimson sat crosslegged, attentively listening to Professor Lena’s lecture and resisted the temptation to hug her.

“That’s cool to know Lena, but that only explains the [Running] skill.”

“Then let’s run down the list master. I bet you got the [Balance] skill at the same time as running. You got [Fall Damage Reduction] when you fell down the stairs for your very first time. That book you studied yesterday? It was filled with runes. Finally you just did a full body stretch for the very first time.

“Master. I think you are very lucky to get some of these skills, and the fact that you were randomly able to meet the conditions is nothing less than a miracle. Normally, you shouldn’t have gotten [Fall Damage Reduction] just from falling down some stairs; the fact that you were somehow able to keep yourself from getting hurt when you fell is the reason you were able to get it.

“The same is true for the [Runic Language] skill. The fact that you had never seen a rune before you started Synchronizing is what made it so easy for you to fulfill the conditions to gain the skill. Then you actually started studying the runic language when most people would just brush them off because they couldn’t understand them.”

“What do you mean I was studying runes?”

“That book you found yesterday was a book of runes master.”

“But…I haven’t learned any runes. How could I understand what they meant if they were runes?”

“Your [World Knowledge X] skill wasn’t just for show master. In the short time you were exposed to it you learned several languages; including the runic language.”

Crimson felt like a moron. First of all he hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t speaking English and second he hadn’t realized that, that book he had been reading was about runes.

“Thanks for telling me all thi-

Skill: Level Up [Lena II]

Dang, she leveled up.