Frostbitten Wayfarer

“Also wait, what did Richard mean by taking their class at level four? You should get your class at level eight?” Emma asked Zoe.

“I dunno. I guess Richard’s species gets it at level four?” Zoe suggested.

“But why would there be that difference?” Emma asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. You know way more about all this stuff than me anyway.” Zoe shrugged.

Emma scratched her head. “You really sure this information’s trustworthy?”

“I mean, the information seems good enough at least. They got Patient Decider right, outside of the requirement. I got it when I turned twenty-five, not sixty. Though if they’re right and it’s half of your expected lifespan, I guess that makes sense. That’s pretty close to how long humans live where I’m from.” Zoe said.

“And the slayer feats make sense too from what you say. It’s still crazy. I think you should be skeptical of what it says, it’s a little outlandish.” Emma said.

“I mean you should always be a little skeptical. Doesn’t mean the information’s not still useful in its own way though.” Zoe said.

“I guess. Lets read some more though, I wanna see what other fantasies this Richard has.” Emma giggled.

————

Now, I’ll not bore you with the specific details of every skill I have. But know that for almost any task you try to do, there is likely a skill that governs your competency at it. If you try, really try to better yourself at something, the system will reward you with a skill.

Go for a run, and try to refine your form. Focus on each step that you take, understand the forces acting on your limbs and your body. Refine your movement, and in time the system will give you a Running skill. If you are a species that can fly, then do the same for your flight.

Mining, Smithing, Woodcutting, Woodworking, Fishing, Sewing, Knitting. Anything you can do, you can be given a skill for, from what I’ve found. It’s just a matter of finding what exactly the system has decided the actions you’re doing are.

For instance, I gained the Woodcutting skill while I was digging with a shovel into the ground. The system decided that what I was doing was Woodcutting, and rewarded me with the skill. Perhaps because of the dense root system I was digging through, however the roots were soft and felt no different from the ground around it.

I could list many more strange cases like this, but I’ll save you the boring details. Understand what the system thinks you’re doing, and play to its hand.

For more interesting skills that I might recommend, Meditation is perhaps the most important. Focus on the mana within and around you, and allow it to be drawn into you. This skill boosts your mana regeneration, and the experience of getting it is fundamental to acquiring a number of other skills down a similar vein.

There are of course matching skills for the other pools, or at least for Stamina. Health has a skill, but I am unsure if it is truly related. The Stamina skill is called Repose, and it is obtained through simple rest. Clear your mind, ignore the distractions around you. Calm your mind and allow your body to recover.

Health’s skill is called Recovery. Frankly, I’m hesitant to recommend it. The effect is extremely weak and consumes far too much mana to be viable, and acquiring the skill is exceedingly dangerous. I would suggest getting a passive regeneration boost like the Vampyric Regeneration from the two planets mentioned earlier, or finding another one for yourself.

However; to get the skill you need to take extensive damage so your health is lowered. I would suggest finding a trusted acquaintance with exceptional control over their skills. And then rather than waiting for your passive regeneration to fix your body, you need to knit your body back together with mana. It is similar in practice to acquiring a manipulation skill.

I suppose Recovery could be thought of as a Body Manipulation skill, in that sense. Force the mana to restore your body to what it was, and you will be granted the Recovery skill. The system is not helping you, and a mistake can cause lasting damage to your body, or possibly death if done poorly. Once you have the skill, it is a much more simple process.

But before you have the skill, manipulating your very body is exceedingly dangerous. I share this because I must, but be aware of the immense risk associated with it and the disappointing results.

I find that among the skills available, artistic skills are the most useful. Enchanting, Alchemy, Smithing, Woodworking. Any skill that may be used to create something of your own design. They are both the most entertaining, in my opinion, and also the most useful. Think of anything you might use in your day to day life. Who created that tool, who made that chair. What skill would be associated with it?

And then go find a way to get it for yourself. I have not yet found a skill that is useless.

Now, to return to feats, I would like to explain my theory on their creation. I do not believe that they are fundamentally different to skills or resistances. I believe that feats are simply a different qualification of skill.

And through this theory, I believe that you can acquire a feat simply by accomplishing any skilled task to an extreme level. Lets go through some to justify my theory.

We’ll start with the slayer series. I believe that these are simply more powerful skills. Slayer of Cosmos grants the Cosmos skill of course. And I have no reason to believe that simply having the Cosmos skill would be weaker than having the Slayer of Cosmos feat along with it. My Fire skill was equally as powerful both with and without the Slayer of Fire feat.

However, when I gained the Fire skill, I showed the system that I am better than fire. That I am worthy of controlling fire. That I conquered fire.

What difference is there between what I did for the Fire skill, and if I were to have slain a Fire Elemental. Is not destroying the very element itself not also proving that you are better than it? That you can exert your own control over it?

I say no. I say they are the same result, but through different paths. And so of course, when you kill a Space Elemental and show the system that you are better than Space itself, that Space bends and breaks to your will, that you are granted a skill to control it.

The Eternal feat that I’ve mentioned before of course is the penultimate evidence of my theory. Along with the other feats granted for reaching level one thousand in skills. It is proof that you have mastered a skill, and for that you are granted a feat that itself enhances and draws out the power of your skill even further.

Feats are no more than skills. I believe that feats, resistances and general skills are all the same thing but simply different categories. Imagine your resistances being merged into your general skills, and how confusing it might end up being.

You could have the Fire skill, and the Fire resistance, both would simply say Fire. This would be needlessly confusing, so they are split up into Skills, Resistances and Feats. However, they are all ultimately the same thing. Rewards for accomplishing tasks.

————

The book continued on in a passionate ramble about the nature of the system and skills. Richard seemed convinced that the system was created, but had no ideas as to who would have created it. He seemed averse to the idea that a god created it, if gods were a thing and existed then somebody at some point would have seen them as they travelled the universe. But he’d never heard of any substantial evidence to one existing.

He thought it much more logical that the creatures people referred to as gods across the worlds were simply species from other planets far more powerful than theirs. Richard too was seen as a god in many of the worlds he had visited.

He listed off a few more feats and skills through his ramble, but nothing stood out to Zoe as being very interesting. There were skills for everything, she knew that. It didn’t matter if Richard told her there was a skill for travelling to other worlds, of course there would be.

A few of the feats seemed interesting enough, but he tended to list groups rather than specific feats and what they did. There was a group for total skill levels, and another group for accumulation of achievements. Travel to so many planets, acquire certain number of resistances or resistance levels. Accumulation of lots of random tidbits tended to lead to a feat, according to Richard.

To Zoe’s welcomed surprise, he hadn’t gotten a similar feat to Patient Decider for not taking his class after all of his years. It was just Patient Decider and then nothing else.

Emma laughed while she read aloud. “And thus I conclusively prove that feats are the same as skills! His argument is literally just that feats sometimes give skills and so they must be the same thing. I’d say that’s pretty good evidence that they’re very different things personally, Mister Richard.”

“I mean, yeah I agree with that. But the information’s good, at least. That’s a lot of feats and skills to work towards.” Zoe said.

“Ah ah ah!” Emma clicked her tongue. “Just skills, no feats. Remember, they’re the same thing.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Richard.”

“So, which feat are you gonna get first?” Emma asked.

“I was thinking I’d go get Slayer of Cosmos tomorrow. Find an elemental, kill it. Simple.” Zoe smirked.

“But seriously though? I think I might want to try getting Repose, personally. I’ve heard of it before but I may as well finally actually try it out.” Emma said.

“You’d so suck at that. You know you have to sit still and do nothing to get it right?” Zoe said.

Emma shoved Zoe on her chair. “Yeah but I got meditation, I can do this one too.”

“What level’s your meditation at now?” Zoe asked.

“It’s high enough!” Emma scowled.

“Which is?" Zoe pushed.

“One. It’s still one. I never did it again.” Emma said.

Zoe laughed. “See? You’d suck at Repose too.”

“Okay, maybe.” Emma said.

“I think I might try out getting some of the other manipulation skills personally. You should try them too.” Zoe said.

“But mana stuff is so boring!" Emma drawled.

“Okay, well what about other useful skills for you then? You could get leatherworking I guess? Or smithing? Help you maintain or make your gear?” Zoe suggested.

“Yeah I could do that. I like working with my hands. All the magic mumbo jumbo goes way over my head though.” Emma said.

The two sat and talked about what they might like to work on for a few more hours, and then Zoe left. Emma decided she’d try and get some skills that would help out with her housework and making her own gear. And Zoe decided she was going to get as many skills as she could manage, even if they might be a little boring.

If nothing else, she’d get a bunch of skills to try enchanting things with, which was a nice benefit. She could imagine even the less useful skills like mining to have some interesting effects if she enchanted things with it. Mining might be a good addition to her frost projectiles.

Or maybe one day, her fire balls and lightning bolts. Could she enchant a lightning bolt? It would be full of her mana, and if she had the ability to create and manipulate it, then it would be able to stick around long enough for her to flash an enchantment onto it, she thought.

But would it be able to store an enchantment? She had no idea, but was excited to maybe one day find out.

Zoe made her way to Kaira park and sat down, eager to take a break from the dangers of Moaning Point and spend a few years or maybe longer just working on bettering herself. She’d already found a possible solution to the immortality problem for Emma, too.

If she could somehow get Emma a space and time elemental to kill, then Emma would be immortal. Or maybe she could coach her to getting the Space and Time skills at some point. Immortality seemed so much more in reach than it did before, and Zoe felt a sense of relief from it. There wasn’t any pressure to find something, to fix a problem. She was excited again, for the future.

For a moment, Zoe thought of going back to John’s books and asking him for some more direct help, but as quick as the thought came, it vanished.

Zoe looked around her at all the wisps of light that floated through the park. The first skill she wanted to get was Wind. She had the resistance already, and figured it would be a good start. Earth was a close second, both elements were available in large quantities all around her and she had both of the resistances. But Wind won out as she imagined herself flying through the air on a bundle of wind.

She watched the wisps and tried to see how they interacted with the wind. They, for the most part, didn’t. Gusts of wind blew through the park and rustled the leaves. The trees tilted, and Zoe’s white hair blew across her face and would get stuck in her eyes and mouth.

But the mana wasn’t affected, it carried on its gentle path towards wherever it was going. The exception was when Zoe did something. When she summoned a frost projectile, or enchanted something, the mana reacted.

Some would be repelled, forced away by the pressure of the dense mana that Zoe spewed into the world. While other bits were attracted towards her. If she meditated, she could see the swirl of wisps around her as she absorbed them to restore her pool.

She felt a little lost. Even if she used her mana manipulation to push something around, that wouldn’t be wind. That was just mana itself being used to push things. There was something more fundamental that she wasn’t understanding, and she was determined to figure out what it was.