As with the purchase of any new skill, experiments began. She had gotten used to the fact that the system didn't give any additional information to what was presented to her outright--as far as she was aware--and so it was up to her own testing to ascertain what certain phrases meant or what formulae were behind different functions.

Essence Congruency (1/10)

Use 2 active skills at the same time

Requirements: rank 1 in 2 active skills

First thing she wanted to know was what was classified as an 'active skill'. Was it a skill that stated an ongoing cost? If you imagined skills existing within an 'active' and 'passive' dichotomy, reservoir stone could be evolved into a passive skill which meant an active skill would be the opposite of that. Since the passive would always be ongoing, then perhaps an active skill was one of the instantaneous variety?

She could rule out that possibility straight away; she purchased the skill which meant she reached the requirements. Her skills were: leech, reservoir stone, cleanse, and now essence congruency. Only cleanse was a skill that had an upfront cost with no maintenance fee.

Then, in her mind, that left one possibility; the difference between 'active' and 'passive' was needing to consciously use a skill. Though she didn't have the skills, she doubted that the wells of essence and spirit would be active skills.

I guess that means leech, reservoir stone, and cleanse are all active skills. Hypothesis in place, the next thing to do was to test it.

Before, she couldn't use any of those three skills simultaneously so she began systematically; first was leech and reservoir stone--arguably the most important combination.

She sat herself down on the ground, too excited to think of anything but resolving this question.

Firstly, she focused on a bush within three metres of her, connecting the essence link between her and the bush. She imagined the flow of nutrients, of vital life, flooding her system with health points. At the same time, she struggled to focus on the stone as well, her mind drifting from the bush. The time it took for her to establish a connection with the essence stone, the link with the bush vanished, her essence ran dry and no longer enough to sustain the passage through which the health flowed.

This was... An unexpected hurdle. Though, in retrospect, I should've foresaw it; I've always had to concentrate and focus when using either leech or reservoir stone, even if the time it's taken me to acclimate to the skill usage meant I could set up the visualisation faster. The fact that humans can't multitask and can't split their minds into parallel thought processes should've made it obvious I wouldn't suddenly be able to do that with the purchase of the skill.

So, what do I do? Is this just a wasted skill point? No; I refuse to accept that. Let's look at it empirically; the system has shared information on how to maintain divergent essence flows in my body and, frankly, it's useless knowledge. Nothing relates to what I've already seen or done.

How does essence work in my body? Well, so far, it seems to function in the same way as blood; it flows around rhythmically but pools and gathers where it's needed--and where it's needed is to establish a link between me and something else in order to use a skill.

That's how I use cleanse; by imagining the essence flowing through my body and using that essence to flush out either something inside of me or the essence travels through my hands into whatever I'm holding, aiming to flush out whatever's harmful there. This is manipulation of essence, at least, according to my own understanding.

With reservoir stone, essence flows from me and into an object, much like cleanse does. Hmm.

Cleanse is forcefully using my own essence to clean something. To do that to an external object, I inject my essence into that object through establishing both a physical link (through contact) as well as visualising the object and myself in a closed system.

Reservoir stone is transferring my essence into another object, through the same method as cleanse.

So what's the difference between cleanse and reservoir stone?

Arguably, she should've been practising using the skill, trying to brute-force her way into utilising two skills at once. Even simply trying to multitask may have also been effective.

Instead, she had gotten lost on a tangent on what essence is.

Perhaps thinking of leech may clear it up. What happens there is that I visualise a closed system between myself and a living entity and health flows through that system from one body to another, just like heat diffuses from a hotter body to a colder body. In this case, I never visualise essence at all.

This is all so confusing.

Either, I actually do manipulate essence with leech but it's just not conscious or health points are actually the same thing as essence. I think that's the two possibilities it can be. Or are they just the same thing?

Does this even matter? Maybe the issue is that I take longer to set up the system for two skills than it does for leech to drain all of my essence. If so, then how do I establish the system without the skill taking immediate effect?

I may just be going round in circles, here, but all this thinking is annoying me; I want to find out!

With a huff, she jumped to her feet, impatience exuding from her body as dust billowed out slightly around her feet. She looked at the stone in her hand, an idea coming to mind. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. Her heart thumped consistently, a reassuring thump throughout her whole body.

A tendril of thought reached out towards the stone but instead of imagining a vacuum of essence, waiting for substance to fill the void as it flows from either her or the stone, she decided to take a step towards how cleanse worked; she saw a swirling, whirlpool of energy in the stone, and a swirling whirlpool of energy inside herself, just like how she imagined it when using cleanse. At the start, both were separate, independent pools, but through one nudge of thought, she picturered one particle flowing from the stone into her. Again, with another nudge, another particle followed. And then two more, and the link between the two did not collapse, even though she was full of essence--her bars showing her essence appearing in her vision even with her eyes closed.

Tentatively, one eye opened, and then another. She looked around her, slowly, taking in the scenaey; thankfully, everything remained the same.

Rather than picturing the chaotic energies inside both her and the stone, she relegated it to a feeling. There was strain on her mind, demanding constant attention to what she had just created, but she put more and more of her willpower into not looking inwards. The most equitable example she could think of was typing without looking--a series of muscle movements where actions followed thought, but the thought was general directives rather than specific rules. Even with a visual reference of a keyboard, you could still type.

Likewise, shelving the whirlpool that she imagined but maintaining the connection felt like typing without even seeing your hands. Her mind was in tension, like a muscle held outstretched, ready to be adjusted at any moment. A nudge of intention, a transferral of essence, was simply the muscle moving in response to a command.

The next thing she did was to stare at a plant. Whereas using leech alone had become almost second-nature to her--able to look at something and see the passage between it and herself within a second--she focused her brain on solely the visage of the plant for a moment.

Next, she closed her eyes again, bringing back into focus the two bodies of essence, pools of the essence stone and herself. Then, she imagined a third, independent pool, separated from both the already existing ones but connected through a link.

She maintained this for a few seconds, not even trying to nudge essence into any one direction.

Her eyelids lifting, presenting the plant before her once move. This time, however, superimposed over her vision was the third whirlpool, translucent as any mental image was.

This wasn't enough, however, to get leech to activate. The next thing she attempted was coding--applying tags both to herself, the stone, and the plant. For health to pass from one body to another, she's always imagingined it passing from a health body to an unhealthy body. So, likewise, she pictured her whirlpool shrinking, becoming dimmer and less saturated.

Finally, she let free a tendril of thought, this time directed at the plant. She tried to nudge just one particle towards her but as she did, a whole deluge suddenly flooded the system, a torrent of particles rushing towards her. An incredibe, mental pressure beared down her mind but she endeavoured, closing one eye but maintaining the mental constructs she had so painstakingly built.

Her eye looked towards her health bar as she saw it tick up. It went up by 20 points, then another 20 points, and then another. Respectively, particles were flowing from the essence stone back into her, even without her placing her mind's eye on it, and with her attention solely on the plant.

She stayed standing like this for a few seconds until her health bar reached the top, filled to the brim with vitality, and then she released it all, a deep, heavy breath of relief escaping her.

I-I guess health and essence are the same thing? Or, maybe the system just converts essence to health automatically. I don't know and, frankly, I don't care to find out.

She was exhausted--both from the fight and what she'd just gone through--her body shouted at her in hunger, and she swore she could feel a headache burgeoning. What she needed was food, not more metaphysical things to think about.

And so, in the silence of the forest, she picked up the last boar that she killed and dragged its body back to the stream. Her arms and legs yelled at her for doing so, but damned if she wasn't going to exercise and keep herself fit; you build muscle by progressively going past your limits, not by doing the minimal necessary.

From here, as she approached her rest site, a noise echoed over towards her--though there were no winds to carry the noise, in the silence of the forest, any small sound felt like it was amplified ten times over. She dropped her cargo, crouching low and wandering forwards towards where her nearest 'trap' was located.

There, she found a squirrel monster, it's green coat contrasting the pinkish meat and alerting anyone with basic colour vision to its form. A simple use of leech--making sure she was using reservoir stone at the same time to practise--got rid of the pest and she returned to haul in her cargo.

The meal was unappetising and she dismantled all her traps that she had built. In the hours that she had been gone, there were numerous bite marks in three pieces but the stench of blood and cooked flesh wafted through the air. Without even trying, her average sense of smell picked up on the scent and a realisation went through her mind; she needed to move somewhere else. The last thing she wanted was a boar wandering upon her when she was sleeping, having followed the smell of food.

She ignored the rest of the meat, leaving it to pile up in a grotesque bundle of dried and burnt flesh before wandering off back down the river, retracing her footsteps. She knew just the place to rest, and the residents had recently been evicted.

Back at the first hill she had found--the one which housed the small boarling--the smell the bodies had left was nearly non-existent; she hadn't left them to fest to stink up the place.

She crawled inside the now empty hovel, the sickening smell of ripe boar invading her nostrils, but she resolved to put up with it; on the good side, it should hide her own scent.

The bundle of leaves left in there already made for the foundations of a bed and, with the sun beginning to set and her mind already so tired it was half asleep, she settled herself in for a quiet and peaceful night. Her mind drifted off to slumber, unperturbed by the happenings outside.