Letting herself out of Pete’s house Beth read through the skill she had unlocked, having said a private prayer it would be what she needed.

Social Tracking (uncommon): Level 1 (9 Trials complete)

You are beginning to understand people and the journey’s they go on.

Once per Trial Cycle you can track a person you know extremely well, as well as requiring one of their personal belongings. Depending on your distance from them the precision of this information will be adjusted.

It wasn’t perfect but it was more than good enough, Going back inside she grabbed Pete’s bag as well as a couple of the broken recorders and the blanket from his bed. Doubling down on his belongings just to be safe. She then screwed her eyes up tight and picturing Pete to the best of her ability activating the skill. The effect was instant and a little alarming, she felt a quiver in her mana core, something she wouldn’t have noticed if not her for basic practise and being in a state adjacent to meditation. But she was sure the skill would have worked without her mana so she wasn’t quite sure what it meant that it had an effect. She opened an eye, then the other, she hadn’t had any confirmation where he was yet and the skill hadn’t mentioned a time delay. She was just beginning to worry when her core shivered again, as though it had been briefly squeezed and a screen appeared.

Social Tracking: Successful

Peter Sanna is currently located on the planet Wittadon.

Wittadon, Beth rolled the word around her tongue for a while repeating it to commit it to memory. She only hoped it could be used in tandem with the ability in the shop. If not she didn’t really have a plan B. It wasn’t like she could go get the next cart to a planet in the middle of nowhere, she’d probably just have to hope for his eventual return. Like the rest of the town. Well like she thought the rest of the town should be doing.

Beth wasn’t about to immediately vanish on her mother though. The Trials did enough of that for her. In fact she resolved to spend a full fortnight at home, preparing and getting ready to leave. This gave her time to continue her training and to polish up her moves to the point where she was confident she could handle whatever Wittadon could throw at her. She also spent a lot of that time explaining to her mum why she felt she had to go. After all her mum had subscribed to the general attitude of the town, and felt he would appear when he appeared like every time before. But eventually she agreed she saw the need. Or at the very least realised she wasn’t getting anywhere and decided Instead she focused primarily on making the most of the time they had while they had it. While still ensuring a heavy level of guilt of course.

Beth also went on a personal mission to help the town out as much a possible before leaving. She shared her own system theories and answered questions about the higher levels, where possible. Weirdly she couldn’t share the new abilities she’d unlocked which felt odd. It was as though she lost her train of thought whenever she went to discuss the affects of hitting level 5. Even once she recognised this as the influence of the system and tried to resist it using the tricks she’d learnt in her Trials she remained unable to overcome them. She felt a little put out by that fact despite the fact But she was only level 2 expecting it to rival the system in all it’s power seemed more than a little unreasonable.

Beth could help out in other ways though. Some others had committed to combat skills and they were scattered and a little dis organised. Beth helped them find each other and work on sharing the insights they had received. Though their skills differed the general improvements and knowledge were transferable in a lot of ways. She even offered up her back yard as a suitable training ground. Much to Suzanne’s chagrin. She also explained the idea of mortgaging a skill something that hadn’t yet been done as well as adding her skills to their ever growing list, keeping back Trial Taking of course.

There had been a slight push after she’d described her levels for her to donate some of her Credits to the church community, a tithe that was common and would be used for any emergencies or agreed upon needs. However she declined, feeling she needed as much person power as possible. Sharing her skills had got her thinking though, would somebody be able to find out that information without her permission, was it something to worry about. She momentarily considered mortgaging Trial Taking between stretches of use but quickly dismissed the idea. It was expensive enough to use without additional costs like that. She would just have to hope nobody she interacted with would have such an ability. She mentally added getting a skill to hide this to her list but she wasn’t all that optimistic. After all nothing on the church skill list suggested such abilities and the skills she suspected might lead to such things would require higher levels than she was willing to commit to. A kid had apparently gotten a level in deception to Beth’s amusement. Once he had been suitably told off and forced to share the details with his father and as such the church, it was clear it was pointing that way. Beth was sure it would eventually unlock the ability to lie on the status screen. However she also imagined that would require reaching level 5 at the earliest as it wasn’t something that seemed possible without magic and Beth didn’t have any interest in spending the next several months doing nothing training such a thing up.

Unfortunately distracting herself around the town didn’t change the fact she had to leave and soon it was the day of her departure. She’d agreed with her mother to leave her token by their front door and to remove it on return so Suzanne could check whenever she wanted if Beth had returned. Originally Suzanne wanted one in the house the church, the town square and basically anywhere else who might find herself so she would always be informed of her daughter’s whereabouts. However Beth convinced her that wasn’t reasonable. Well didn’t convince her per say more put her foot down and refused to do it regardless of her mother’s desire.

Beth had packed more or less all her belongings into her bag. This wasn’t a Trial so she was unsure what she could take. Pete had clearly left it all behind but from the look of it he hadn’t even made the attempt. Beth was willing to make a mess of their house if it had the potential of allowing her to bring it all. It was all crammed into her bag that had been skill-crafted anyway so she hoped that would help things out. Suzanne had baked a sweet loaf as a last ditch effort to convince Beth to stay and the two woman ate it together. Sat side by side with more physical contact than Beth would personally have chosen. Unfortunately for her though she very much didn’t have a choice in that regard. They ended up eating the whole loaf between the two of them. Something that was more than a luxury but the time spent together was worth it. Some small part of Beth couldn’t quite believe they spent time together willingly but she was mostly just happy to have a mother she didn’t want to leave, after spending so many years praying to get away from everything including Suzanne. But she would and eventually she did.

Several hours after she intended to she pulled her mother into a hug and then minutes later finally pulled herself out of it and pulled up her shop. She then pulled up her screen and saying goodbye one last time, pretending not to see the tears streaming down her mother’s face she vanished leaving only an empty space and clattering of belongings behind.

Just above the house a small paper crane stopped in place, it’s wings flapping to keep it steady. Then after a long pause it turned around and began heading up once more away from the home of the person it had been so so close to reaching.