“We make a lot of detours but we’re always heading for the same destination.”

Paulo Coelho

Eventually, we collected a mana core or gemstone from each of the monsters and were finally able to return home. Both Lady Acacia and Grandfather had been fairly gleeful in their collection and I was sure they had their uses. We sat on the boat sailing back to the town. It had been decided that we needed to get the walls manned and some of our more combat-capable citizens out to reinforce the two Compass Knights in their vigil. But while we were sailing, I had time to think and time to contemplate the changes I even had someone to do it with.

“About time!” Callen objected as I started using multiple minds once more. I had been so focused on the trials in front of me that I had neglected to use my most powerful skill.

“Everything happened very quickly.” I defended the fact that I had failed to make full use of my skills in the heat of the moment.

“Well next time spin me up first otherwise you are only working at half capacity,” I argued with myself.

“Fine, fine. I was only coming in to look at the skill improvements and changes to my status.” I replied.

“It’s looking good, but certainly room for improvement moving forward.” He stepped back to watch me go through the announcements. I had some decent gains on my stats because it had only been a week since I last looked. My skill growth had not increased significantly without the time to practice the skills.

Level: 17

Title: Lord

Métier: Singer LV5

Name: Callen Kai Silversea

Age: 5 years 0 months 2 weeks 16 hours 20 minutes 30 seconds

Métier Experience: 100/6400

General Experience: 274,694/819,200

Health: 1010/1010 Stamina: 1010/1010 Mana: 1010/1010 Psi: 1020/1020

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky

Vitality: 101 +1

Endurance: 101 +1

Strength: 101 +1

Dexterity: 101 +1

Senses: 101 +1

Mind: 102 +1

Clarity: 101 +1

Magic: 101 +1

Charisma: 101 +1

Luck: 101 +1

Free Points: 221 (Locked)

Skills Tier 1:

Swimming (LV60) Running (LV55 ->58) Meditation (LV54) Time Sense (LV53 ->55)

Breath Control (LV51) Singing (LV50) Diving (LV50) Sailing (LV50) Dodge (LV50) Knots (LV45) Draw (LV44) Knife (LV44 -> 45) Listening (LV44) Stitching (LV43) Climb (LV42) Trading (LV40) Humming (LV39) Drumming (LV39) Whistling (LV38) Sneak (LV36) Calligraphy (LV31) Farming (LV31)Acting (LV30) Balance (LV30 ->33) Throw (LV26) Bussola (LV25) Mathematics (LV24) Insight (LV19) Glide (LV19 ->29) Poise (LV19 ->25) Grace (LV19 ->24) Charm (LV19 ->24) Composure (LV19 ->24) Lie (LV16) Elvish (LV16) Giant (LV16) Dwarf (LV16) Pixish (LV16) Gnomish (LV16) Koboldogo (LV16) Beastkin (LV16) Halfling (LV16) Appeal (LV15) Ambidextrous (LV15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Silent Step (LV14) Deft touch (LV14) Posture (LV14) Dance (LV14) Sprint (LV14) Inspect (LV10 ->21)Riding (LV10) Rapier(LV9) Spear(LV7) Painting (LV5) Axe (LV4) Baton (LV4) Club (LV4) Dagger (LV3) Estoc (LV4) Flail (LV4) Glaive (LV4) Halberd (LV4) Pike(LV4) Mace (LV4) Morning star(LV4) Quarterstaff(LV4) Sword(LV4) War Hammer (LV4) Archery (LV4) Cook (LV3) Sketching (LV3) Drafting (LV3) Blacksmithing (LV2) Carpentry (LV2) Mining (LV2) Teaching (LV2) Measurement (LV 1) (81 Skills)

Tier 2:

Sense Mana (LV50 -> 51) Quick reflexes (LV50 -> 51) Eavesdrop (LV50) Rebec (LV31) Aulos (LV31) Linguistics (LV31) Cornu (LV31) Harp (LV31) Memorisation (LV30) Recall (LV30) Cartography (LV26) Composition (LV23) Pain Tolerance (LV23) Stealth (LV23) Spellcraft (Lv19 -> 25) Spellsong (Lv19)Order (LV18) Transplant (LV12) Misdirection (LV14) Knife Arts (LV14 -> 15)Haggling (LV11) Mind Sense (LV11) Observe (LV5 -> 10) Martial Arts (LV4) Cruising (LV1) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Treasure Sense (LV1) (27 Skills)

Tier 3:

Expel Mana (LV50 -> 51) Mana Manipulation (LV50 -> 51) Gale (LV50 -> 51) Echolocation (LV49) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV25) Ignite (LV25) Melt (LV25) Command (LV17) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Deception (LV11) Analyse (LV2 -> 5) Racing (LV1) Smuggling (LV1) Seismic Sense (LV1) (16 Skills)

Tier 4:

Parallel Processing (LV30) Virtuoso (LV30) Polyglot (LV30) Stone shaping (LV24) Material Manipulation (LV21-> 22)Mana Drain (LV 20) Seafaring (LV1) Block Status (LV1 -> 2) Flight (LV1) (9 skills)

Tier 5:

Mind fortress (LV20) Multiple minds (LV 1 -> 2) (2 skills)

Skill experience: 12,900

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 143,592

Craft experience: 0

Trade experience: 0

Popular experience: 80,802

Exploring experience: 0

Experience gain since last stat check: 286,300 (Wiped by recalibration)

Experienced gained since Recalibration 40,700

In my Tier 1 skills, it appeared that the dash for our lives had helped my running skill improve. This was an interesting improvement as Grandfather had done all the running for me. It made me wonder how possible it might be to power-level myself with his help.

Timing had been everything to achieving what we had. Too early to flee and they might not have taken the bait. Too quick to escape and they might have changed targets. Too soon to arrive back at the compass marker and they might not have followed the bait into the trenches and off the cliff. The system seemed to have rewarded my focus on timing it correctly with a few levels.

The most levels gained though since the bishop’s arrival had been in my softer social skills that Lady Acacia had been training us in. Their welcome meal had helped them to level the most over the last week. While the largest increase came through the blessing ceremony where I inspected every member of the island present. Admittedly it was still one of my lower-level skills but it would not be so for long at this rate.

Disappointingly, I had not been wielding any weapons against the monsters focused mainly on running away or fleeing by flying. Still, the fact that I had been carrying a knife and prepared to defend myself with it seemed to give me a minor boost in skill. But that had probably come from helping my grandfather cut out the mana stones hidden in each beast.

Tier 2 skills though had passed some thresholds, with Sense Mana finally reaching level 51 alongside quick reflexes. Both had seen significant use in the day’s events. As did my spellcraft in keeping me aloft. Observe had increased alongside Inspect but only for half the levels, it is twice as hard to level my tier 2 skills as my tier 1.

Likewise with my Tier 3 skills the biggest gain was in finally passing the thresholds for not only my expel mana skill but my mana manipulation and gale. All of these skills had been essential to keeping me aloft for so long and not only descending in a stable glide but ascending in true flight.

At Tier 4 my material manipulation had moved up one but the true gain other than the experience for our brief but terrifying fight was a new tier 4 skill Flight (LV1)! I was ecstatic and could not wait to show off again. To try it out again. Having an extra mind running through multiple minds meant that while I could not fool myself there was no reason not to try. My everyday use of the skill had seen it gain one level and I wondered if it might not have gained another if I had been using it during the flight and fight.

The experience I had received oscillated from relatively low for the small skill gains I had achieved to fantastically high for the combat I had been an instrumental part of despite not delivering the final blows. I shuddered to think how much my Grandfather had gained from directly slaying so many monsters. I could not complain about the 143,592 points of experience but was not going to sit there and try and work out how much I had achieved for which animal.

With their deaths, their levels, status and skills had disappeared under inspect leaving only their body parts and their tier of monster. Despite their horrifying appearance, speed and ferocity they only appeared to be tier 1 and tier 2 monsters with the occasional tier 3. This finally explained the ease with which grandfather had been able to dispatch them. Not that I would be reassured to face what could have devoured me in a single bite. Perhaps with their differing levels, he would not have received so much experience from the fight seeing as he would have been a tougher nut to crack.

The other large lump of experience seemed to be from my popular experience. Either it had been gained from the welcome meal for the clergy, the participation in the church’s blessing service or my performance in today’s fight. I knew which one was the most spectacular but again was unsure which one the system had rewarded the most.

All of this experience disappointingly did not net me another level. None of it was for singing so it sunk into the general experience and left me wondering whether I should have entered the fight singing for it to be channelled into my Métier. It also left me wondering about my choice of Métier. The experience had not been lost but neither had it given me the growth it could have done. I winced at the thought of picking a soldier and jumping up several levels. But perhaps that Métier would not have worked either seeing as I never actually landed a blow.

It was a question for more experienced minds. But one I needed to ask.

. . .

By the time we arrived at Wester Town a crowd had already formed in front of the church. Worried and anxious they were awaiting reassurance about what was going on. We could not bring it to them. Grandpa Smit seemed to be organizing some of our family and a few other townspeople on one side of the square while the clergy had gathered in front of the church. Instead, father and grandfather dragged the Moasau Eel to the square to provide hard evidence to support the reality of our situation. As the beast was dragged to the centre of the square worried whispers whipped around the crowd. But before they could grow to demands for information they were stopped by someone stepping forward.

“People of Wester Ponente.” Archbishop Grigori’s voice boomed out over the crowd silencing them. “I bring news of a new entrance to the depths of the Lodestone.” His words confirmed some people’s fears and the worried whispered words began to murmur. “Do not worry, in the light of the lodestar, the beasts have been valiantly defeated by the Compass Knights and the noble Silversea family.” He continued quieting them once more and gave credit where credit was due.

On the one hand, it might have been good to step forward here and take control but on the other hand, the people had more faith in the church than they did in us, a new and pubically untested Silversea family. Besides if something did go wrong, we would have someone else to share the blame with. I mean we had left the town to plant a church marker and returned with a denizen of the depths and poor news.

“I will be departing on the morrow to bring this news to the Conclave of Cardinals and the Prince of Ponente as soon as possible while continuing my circumnavigation. However, I will not be leaving you alone. Bishop Bailie and Compass Knight Sir Jaques have volunteered to stay and support your defence of Wester Town and Wester Ponente. I urge you to come together in the light of the lodestar to grow a guard to defend the town and sentinels to watch the entrance to the depths. For while the Light of the lodestar leads us all to greatness it also draws forth the denizens of the depths. They are drawn like moths to a flame. A flame you must guard but in guarding it you will continue to grow. You must be prepared to light them on fire.” It seemed that his plans had been accelerated compared to when we had last spoken. I was still wondering whether this particular problem would have continued to smoulder away without worrying us without the light that the stone marker had brought.

The people of the town shifted with each sentence he made. Shifting back in fear and forward in optimism depending on the line he gave. Fear as he told us all that he would be departing on the eve of receiving such shocking news. Then relief as we were informed that not only would we receive a bishop to help with the situation but also a Compass Knight as well! I was left wondering whether Sir Jacque had volunteered or if this was another speak now, act later shenanigan. “If you have skills and or experience that would help in defending both the town and the island step forward to see Seneschal Smit of the Silversea family. He will ensure that the guard is quickly and efficiently formed and that compass sentinels can be sent to help guard the depths. I will bless those who volunteer and help those who would choose a new métier to face this threat before night falls. Choose well, choose wisely and walk in the Light of the Lodestar.”

With that he turned and returned to the church with his retinue. His swift departure left the crowd silent for only a moment before people began moving much like an ant’s nest disturbed it was a frenzy of action and talk as people tried to work out what this would mean for them, for the town and how they should respond.