“Close your eyes, focus inwards,” Healer Castelle said. “This isn’t Mediation or Breathing. Just focus on the skill Soul Sense. Now slowly and carefully with as much detail as possible, describe your soul, don’t try and touch it.”
“It feels like something that is me shaped, but more fluid, right beneath my skin,” I slowly replied.
“Good. Don’t try and see inside your soul. Just let your mind pick up on the outline of your soul for now. Each movement, each vibration. Is there a rhythm to your soul’s movement?”
“Yes. I think. It is hard to make out precisely. But I feel it surge and settle,” I replied.
“That is your heartbeat. Your body is influencing your soul. Slowly increase the speed of your breathing and observe the changes in your soul,” he told me. I varied my breathing for the rest of the lesson which was finished after an hour.
“How did I do?” I asked.
“That isn’t the question you should ask. The question you should ask is, did I screw anything up. The answer is no. If you take any lesson away from me, take that one. Stabilize Soul.” I felt the wave of Mana hit my soul and enter it, with no trace left behind.
“What, why didn’t you use that skill when I was focused on my soul?” I asked.
“And then you would be peering deeper, which comes with a lot of risks. It is tempting, very tempting. Don’t. I can’t repeat this enough. Everyone thinks they know best. Or that they are special. They don’t know and they aren’t special. Gaining levels in Soul Sense slowly is for the best.”
“I understand, Healer Castelle,” I replied and inclined my head slightly.
“If I wanted to hold you back, I would never have started teaching you this in the first place. But the risks are immense. This is why soul skills are heavily frowned upon, due to the sheer risk to the users without any warning or safeguards that are usually in place for skills,” he explained before continuing.
“Now you will focus on Mana Sense. It is important you learn to separate and suppress sensory skills as needed. Otherwise, it is easy to disable someone if they have a high level sensory skill you know is active and can target it to overwhelm them while blocking out there other senses.”
“Got it. So, I want to focus on Mana now,” I replied.
“Yes. Same thing, close your eyes and steady your breathing. Don’t focus on yourself, focus on the world and on the skill Mana Sense.” Then came another round of instructions which I carefully listened to and followed. He would point near me, and I would have to detect the stream of Mana passing near my body, not hitting it.
Mana Sense was much more external while Soul Sense was currently focused just under my skin. It was hard to explain the way my brain was interpreting the information. Healer Castelle told me to take my time slowly adjusting to the feelings and sensory input from my sensory skills.
Leveling them might make them stronger and better able to pick up details, but I needed to be able to mentally process those details and understand them. It was a key difference in sensory skills and something highly experienced people like Healer Castelle and Tutor Damian knew how to explain.
Skill levels weren’t the end all be all of improving one’s abilities, there was also using the skill the best way possible. This increased the level more quickly, but for low tier skills a person could brute force their level. Which made using them less optimal and took longer to level them up.
The levels represented imprinted knowledge on one’s soul. The System leading people to the optimal use of their skills and confirming that for them in their status. But just because it was optimal, some skills had more room on what was optimal than others or interacting with other skills. The System was always watching and always guiding. It was the one true God of our world.
There were people who said achieving a better status would grant you a better afterlife. Others said that the dungeon were a test by the System and a way to humble people. Since even supreme legends like my mother could only go so deep. I hoped she was okay down in the dungeon, getting Elixirs to help me.
I wasn’t sure what to believe, but I did agree on one thing that everyone else agreed on. The System was real, and it was incredibly powerful since it watched everyone all the time to display the information regarding improvement and provided levels and classes.
“Have fun in your weekly training session with Healer Castelle?” Tutor Damian asked me as I entered the library. It had been annoying having had to stay in my private room during the wedding and all the guests. It was nice to have the mansion quiet once more. My hand went up and rubbed the light scar on my neck. I quickly lowered it once I realized what I was doing.
“It was informative. Soul Sense and Mana Sense are challenging to completely separate,” I said.
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“Ah, skill bleed over. That is huge headache with sensory type skills. Your low Perception stat isn’t helping there either. It is something you absolutely need to focus on. Keeping skills separate allows you to manage them better, especially in combat,” he explained.
“Combat, really?” I asked surprised.
“I might not be a fighter, but I do read. When you don’t want to keep copying Eldarin Script, you can read these history books. They should also help improve your Combat Tactics,” he replied pointing to the stack of five books on our study table. “I curated them personally. This library has a wide selection, but some of it is quite dated. I will have to speak with the Duke about updating it or having a proper Librarian come through and make changes to match the latest published standards of the College of Advancement.”
“Is there a public library other people can use?” I asked.
“No. Old books are donated to schools and the Adventurer’s Guild which has a semi-public library for its members. It has been tried in the past, but the cost is too much and tends to dilute skills for people outside their jobs.”
“Is that really a bad thing?” I asked.
“You don’t realize it since you gain skill levels so easily, but for most people it is a struggle. Dividing their focus after they have decided on their professions tends to lead to worse outcomes overall. The College of Advancement has done a lot of studies on this topic. While it might seem wrong to put people on planned career tracks, it is the optimal way for them to achieve the highest levels and strongest skills while having synergy with their class,” he explained.
“So, most people decide at age 8 when their status unlocks?” I asked.
“For the most part, yes. It isn’t easy to change one’s skills. A System Priest is not cheap and such skill adjustments leaves scars on one’s soul that don’t easily heal. That is why an official divorce is so rare among nobility,” he explained.
“But a bunch of people go into the dungeon,” I said.
“Only the first layer. Most don’t go any deeper. Even then, not everyone has the courage to go down there or the wealth to hire someone to power level them. Crafting is how most people gain experience,” he explained.
“What about farmers?” I asked.
“There are basic skills like Wood Working, Metal Working, that help them out. Creating and maintaining various pieces of equipment gives them experience. Even Farming helps give experience, when crops are harvested.”
“But not a lot?” I asked.
“Not a lot. Most people only reach between level 20 and 40 using such methods over their lifetimes. The early levels are easy to get, which is why people have to decide their professions early on. Otherwise, they will struggle for the rest of their life in a profession they are ill suited for. It isn’t perfect, but the System doesn’t stop someone from making bad decisions,” Tutor Damian explained.
“I see. What about other jobs than spellblade?” I asked, curious about other options. Damian shook his head.
“That is a versatile set of skills for clearing the dungeon of monsters. What were you thinking of?” he asked me.
“Something that gives a tier 6 skill?” I asked and he chuckled.
“At most you will find groups of skills, or skill builds or skill groups as they are sometimes called, up to tier 4. Even those aren’t easy to find and are mostly legacy passed down through families or mentorships. There are specialized schools for more certain builds, the Duke has one for farming here in the Duchy. But anything beyond that requires an apprenticeship or becoming a Squire. Tier 5 and tier 6 skills are a huge deal,” he said.
“There aren’t any commonly known ones?” I asked.
“There are rumors and stories. The College of Advancement allows its professors to impart such knowledge to students, many of whom become apprentices for these professors. Doing various tasks in exchange for knowledge and tutoring like Squires do for your mother,” he explained.
“I was just thinking I could pick and choose from some higher tier skills and work towards them,” I said. It was an idea I had. I was trying to figure out if there was an exploit I could use to advance more quickly, but it didn’t appear to be the case.
“You and everyone else wishes that. The lower tier skills are shared fairly freely, but once you get to tier 4, information is much rarer. Even your mother would only be able to impart the foundational skills to reach the heights she has. For other skills you would have to branch out,” he explained.
“Then what about something like flight, is there a flying skill?” I asked.
“There is a spell, but it is Mana intensive. Wanting to become a bird?” he asked.
“Just thinking about skills. Is there a list somewhere of all the skills?” I asked.
“Yes, and no you are not getting to look at such a thing. Healer Castelle would kill me if I set you on the path to gaining more skills. For now, trust your mother’s vision from her lofty height and my judgement. I have reviewed what she wants you to learn. Weapons Mastery and Runes Mastery are very powerful tier 4 skills, which have wide range of versatility. Not all skills in the same tier are created equal, this becomes more true the higher the tier. While it takes a lot of work to build up their foundation, they won’t steer you wrong. Wide ranging tier 4 skills are hard to get and harder to level, but if you build up the proper foundation, there is nothing better if you want to go further to tier 5 and 6,” Tutor Damian explained.
It was a bit frustrating to have everything laid out before me, but getting more skills would kill me. Still, I could only imagine the powerful combinations one could get. I shook my head and picked up a history book.
Perhaps something in one of these books would inspire my future skill selection. While I wanted to be a spellblade, having more skills would only increase my options. If I got enough tier 6 skills, I might be able to get a tier 7 skill. I wondered what it would be like?
I shook my head and began reading about the Eldarin Empire, which modern human kingdoms all came from. When the Eternal Emperor had been assassinated by his own child, there were a series of battles and succession wars, that eventually took shape as the modern kingdoms and nobility.
The book was a bit dry, sticking mostly to the facts, but it was quite descriptive for the battles. How low leveled troops were sent out first to preserve combat power and hopefully wear down the enemy’s higher level troops. It was a brutal but interesting strategy. The lower level people who survived would get stronger, while also preserving top combat power as much as possible.
Large battles had an incredible death toll, since no one could retreat. Many people broke mentally. That was why large scale conflict after the fall of the Eldarin Empire was rare. Most combat was confined to elites and legends. Gathering up large swaths of the population to use as spell fodder was heavily looked down upon.