An Unbound Soul

I surrender. I didn't know what game we were playing or what the rules were, but I'd obviously lost. Today had been one shock after another. I wanted to get back to our cosy little village, where I could pretend the world made sense. I wanted to wrap myself in my bedding and sleep for a week. Forget all about magic. I would become a farmer instead and follow in Dad's footsteps. I was starting to like the idea of growing some sugar beet. They were nice and ordinary. They didn't brainwash you, shock you or surprise you. They didn't casually drop dragons, goddesses or slavery into conversations. They were just plants. They were boring.

Of course, I would have to buy the [Basic Farming] skill, then the [Farmer] class. Skills and classes would spoil my delusions of the world making sense a little bit, but I could cope. Then there were our catkin next-door neighbours, which wouldn't help either, and Kari would probably have an aneurysm if I told her I was giving up magic. I sighed. This was my world now, and it wasn't going to be Earth however much I tried to twist it.

"Is something wrong, little one?"

"Sorry, was lost in thought. Here goes."

Right, allegedly I was sitting in front of a 'library' of some sort. Libraries here apparently weren't rooms of books, as I had foolishly assumed, but a room of desks with crystals set into them. I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, but now that I was sitting in front of it, I should at least grab whatever information I could before running. Five minutes to look up a few things, then we were leaving. I only hoped it could answer some of my questions in that time.

I placed a hand on the black, plate-like crystal Mum had pointed out, which started glowing with a pastel rainbow effect.

Accessing Akashic Library

Connection established.

So it was some sort of extension for the System? Fine. I'd used up my caring quota for today already, so I wasn't even going to ask how that worked. I just wanted to look up what I came for and get out of here. How was I even supposed to do that? Just think hard about the information I want? Let's start with a space mage.

[Spatial Mage] - A mage with the ability to bend space itself to their will. Unlocks related skills. Skills related to mana sense or manipulation gain a bonus to levelling. Levelling boosts intelligence. (Rank 2)

Unlock requirements: [Apprentice Mage], 15 intelligence, two space affinity spells acquired.

Recorded related skills: [Weft Walk] [Item Box] [Distortion]

Recorded class evolutions: [Spatial High Mage]

Woah. That was pretty cool; I not only got the class description, but it also showed me unlock requirements, unlocked skills and class evolutions? But it didn't show any complex affinity classes. Were there not any for space affinity? What did it mean by 'recorded'? Was someone manually entering this stuff, or did it only show options that people had taken in the past? If either of those were the case... I attempted to pull up information on a soul mage class, but there was no response. So I could only see what paths people have already taken, from the look of things. Then it wasn't necessarily the case that space has no complex affinities, but rather that they haven't yet been discovered. Could I view info on those new spells?

[Weft Walk] - Space affinity spell that allows you to tread between the threads of the fabric of reality1, crossing space far faster2 than distance would suggest3. Levelling increases travel speed. (Rank 2)

Huh? It had superscripts? What were they for? Focusing on them showed even more text.

1: This is fancy talk for 'disorienting as all heck'. If you can't [Far Step] without stumbling with your eyes closed, don't even think about wasting soul points on this upgraded version.

2: I measured the increase as 50% per level, so you'll be able to walk at 6x your normal speed at level 10. Or run, if you're feeling particularly suicidal.

3: Mana drain is 2 points per minute, so unlike [Far Step] this is suitable for long distance travel.

The hell? With talk like 'I measured' then these must surely be notes by people who had the skills. This library had comment threads. Yet everything was still in English. Was English used somewhere around here, were these written by other reincarnates or was it translating everything for me? What about my other affinity classes?

[Temporal Mage] - A mage with the ability to bend time itself to their will. Unlocks related skills. Skills related to mana sense or manipulation gain a bonus to levelling. Levelling boosts intelligence. (Rank 2)

Unlock requirements: [Apprentice Mage], 15 intelligence, two time affinity spells acquired.

Recorded unlocked skills: [Speed] [Slow] [Stutter]

Recorded class evolutions: [Temporal High Mage] [Phylogenetic Mage]

[Body Mage] - A mage with a focus on body enhancement magic. Unlocks related skills. Skills related to mana sense or manipulation gain a bonus to levelling. Levelling boosts intelligence. (Rank 2)

Unlock requirements: [Apprentice Mage], 15 intelligence, two body affinity spells acquired.

Recorded unlocked skills: [Strength] [Dexterity] [Endurance]

Recorded class evolutions: [Body High Mage] [Spirit Mage] [Shapeshifter]

There were some complex affinities there, but none that I had access to, such as the rather cool sounding [Phylogenetic Mage] that combined time and life. It looked like I would be blazing a new trail. As for the rest of the spells, there were only three more that weren't a straight upgrade to what I already had access to. [Item Box] was indeed a storage spell, as the name suggested, but didn't suspend time and had a rather limited storage space that maxed out at a cubic metre at level ten.

[Distortion] and [Stutter] were an interesting pair. Both looked to be defensive spells. [Distortion] opened a freely traversable portal, with one or two little limitations. It could be a maximum of one centimetre per level in diameter, lasted for one tenth of a second per level, couldn't admit anything living and couldn't have the entry and exit portals more than five centimetres per level apart. Not exactly useful for travel or logistics, but very useful if someone found themself with an arrow flying at their face and wished to relocate it into someone else's. [Stutter] suspended time over a region of space, freezing an incoming projectile and giving the caster time to dodge out of the way. [Stutter] affected a larger area than [Distortion], which made up for the inability to redirect incoming projectiles.

The remainder worked in exactly the same way as the minor versions, except for being much more powerful. They each had double the mana cost, stronger effects and considerably longer durations of one minute per level, so even at level one would last twice as long as their max level predecessors. The effect for the body enhancement spells was listed as ten plus one point per level rather than a percentage, which made me go and check the ones I already had. They were indeed listed as one point every two levels rather than a percentage, so no wonder it had done nothing at level one. That was a considerable downgrade over the percentage based increase I'd believed them to give. The new spells would give more than double the boost of their max level predecessors even at level one, and the plus twenty to a stat that max level would give was nothing to sneeze at, but for someone with very high stats, [Speed] would be better. The speed boosting spells' effects were confirmed at a flat five percent for rank one and ten percent plus one percent per level for rank two. One further power-up was that all the buff spells could be targeted, rather than only working on the caster.

Frankly, none of the rank two classes were game changing. None of them had sufficient combat ability to stand on their own, nor sufficient utility to make a peaceful living from. At best, I could help Henry carry more stuff with [Item Box]. Maybe I would have to take [Basic Farming] after all, just so I wasn't completely useless until the whole magic thing took off. I could play the role of a support mage, but even if I could keep all the spells up simultaneously, would a plus ten to twenty be any use to an adventuring party? It quite possibly would be for a party of rank twos... I still didn't have enough information on the average capabilities of delvers. One other thing I noted was that every one of these spells had a completely static effect. If this was a proper RPG, shouldn't my intelligence stat give them a boost?

Since I was here, what about the other available magic paths?

[Thaumaturgist] - One who forgoes spells and the nurture of their own internal mana in exchange for control over ambient mana. Unlocks related skills. Skills related to mana sense or manipulation gain a large bonus to levelling. Levelling boosts intelligence. Levelling reduces mana pool. (Rank 2)

Unlock requirements: [Apprentice Mage], 15 intelligence, [Mana Control] [Mana Finesse]

Recorded unlocked skills: [Mana Burst] [Mana Drain] [Mana Supply]

Recorded class evolutions: [Mana Master]

Levelling reduces mana pool? That was all sorts of nope regardless of the other advantages, so I ruled that one out immediately. No wonder Kari never recommended it. Something else I'd noticed is that there seemed to be a general requirement for fifteen intelligence for a rank two mage class. I couldn't see that being a problem, but it was interesting to note.

[Enchanter] - A craftsman who inscribes runes into items to bestow magical effects. Unlocks related skills. Skills related to magical crafting gain a bonus to levelling. Levelling boosts intelligence. (Rank 2)

Unlock requirements: [Apprentice Mage], 15 intelligence, [Basic Runecrafting]

Recorded unlocked skills: [Advanced Runecrafting] [Rune Link] [Disenchant]

Recorded class evolutions: [Expert Enchanter] [Magical Smith]

If I wanted a livelihood, that would probably be the way to go. Interestingly, that one bestowed a slightly different skill levelling bonus than the other classes. I guess the runecrafting skills were classed as crafting instead of magic.

Of all the class and skill related stuff, there was still one more thing I wanted to look up. I didn't know the name of the skill I was interested in, or even if it existed in the first place, but given that I had got [Spatial Mage] when looking up 'space mage' it seemed that exact names were not required, so it was worth a try. I filled my mind with thoughts of hiding my status from prying eyes.

[Privacy] - Appraisal type skills operate on you at a reduced level1. Higher level increases the effect2. (Rank 1)

Unlock requirements: Have an appraisal skill of rank two or higher used on you against your will.

1: The skill description doesn't say this, but it can be turned on or off at will for no cost.

2: Effect is a straightforward subtraction of your skill level from the appraisal skill. If the appraisal skill dips below level 1, it will act as a skill of lower rank. e.g. if you have [Privacy] at level 5, then level 4 [Appraisal] will act as if it were level 9 [Inspection]. Note that this is only in terms of information displayed; it doesn't have any effect on the range of appraisal skills.

I blinked at that unlock requirement. I was still worried as heck about that butler. Experiencing that much fear was really not worth it to unlock a skill, but that in itself meant that it should have fulfilled the requirements.

Skills available for purchase:

1 point: [Minor Dexterity] [Minor Endurance] [Minor Intelligence] [Minor Wisdom] [Minor Charisma] [Far Reach] [Minor Slow]

2 points: [Basic Cooking] [Basic Tailoring] [Foraging] [Basic Farming] [Enlarged Stamina Pool] [Privacy]

Yup, I'd picked it up from somewhere since I'd last checked the store. The lack of a ding for unlocking new skills had struck again.

ding

New skill acquired: [Privacy]

Unfortunately, levelling it was almost certainly going to require people to appraise me. That was going to be tough. If it needed to be done against my will, it was going to be impossible... Wanting people to appraise me against my will was an oxymoron.

I could spend all day looking at higher ranked classes and skills and daydreaming about the day I could use them, but we had limited time here and there were other things I wanted to see. First of all, I tried to bring up a map of the world, but the library didn't appear to do pictures at all. Searching for Dawnhold gave me a short blurb about how it had originally been a delver outpost built around a local dungeon, but colonists had been dispatched from the Emerald Nest fifty-three years ago to take advantage of the surrounding fertile plains for food crops. The name Dawnhold came from the time before it had grown into a full town, so whoever picked it probably hadn't intended to name a whole country. And that was something else that everyone had neglected to tell me; we had a dungeon here... I'd asked my dad enough about dungeons that surely he should have mentioned it...

Searching for the earth mother gave me nothing. Searching for the Emerald Nest gave a description of a city that had been created in 'the seeding', which was a rather colourful way of putting it. It had been three hundred and twenty-eight years since it was created, and it initially had a population of ten thousand humans and five thousand beast-kin. Searching for 'the seeding' found nothing either. I seemed to only have luck with place names, which raised an interesting question about the way this thing was interpreting language. I searched for 'the village', and sure enough, I got back a description of our farming village, founded by a squad of sixty colonists fifty-two years ago. Apparently, it did have a designation; 'western farm', which was blatantly a lazy description rather than a proper name.

I searched for the scar, since the name alone was seriously foreboding, but all I got back was that it was a massive, infertile crater in the eastern half of the continent. A meteor strike site? Whatever it was, it was unpopulated.

I searched for 'the forest', expecting the library to know what I meant in the same way as it did for 'the village', and it told me the official name was 'the Emerald Sea', and that it was home to the original settlement of elves. Were all the original settlements named after precious gems? I was about to look up information on the mountains next, but was interrupted.

BONG!

For your research into the nature of the world, [Curious] awards 1 soul point.

Wait, that was wrong. The incongruity dragged me out of my focused state as I rewound and played back the previous few seconds of sensory input. It hadn't been a system notification I'd just heard, which probably had actually happened sometime earlier. It had been a loud bell, right above our heads. I'd heard it a couple of times today already; it was the timekeeping bell. How long had we been here?! I only meant to spend five minutes, but I'd been sucked in, and had obviously been reading for far longer than I thought! I pulled my hand away from the crystal.

Connection to Akashic Library lost

Mum saw my movement and called to me. "All done?"

"For now. I could spend days here, but we should be getting home."

She nodded. "You can tell me what you've learnt on the way."

She put me down and stood up, taking me by the hand. Of the two people previously in the room, one had left, but two more had arrived. That was as bad as meditation; I hadn't noticed the movement at all...

We opened the door to leave, only to find Mr Dapper waiting outside and looking straight at us.

Today had already been the most intense day of my life, and I was including the day I was born in that count. And now it looked like it still wasn't over. [Inspection] told me that the butler was called Cliff, which didn't match his image at all. It also told me that 'dapper gentleman' was not actually a recognised species, and that Cliff was, in fact, fully human. My burnt out brain was a little disappointed at that, for reasons I would never be able to articulate. Maybe it was his class?

"If you can spare a few minutes, the Lord would like to have a word with you."

Crap. He might like a word with us, but I really did not want to have any words with him. We had a long walk home, and given that I just spent far longer than intended reading, we should get going. Hopefully Mum would turn him down.

"We do have a long journey home, but of course I can spare a few minutes. Why did you wait for us here, though? Why not come in?"

What? No we can't! We can't spare any minutes! We needed to get out of here now! Argg! Unfortunately, I couldn't say anything to contradict her without giving myself away.

"It wasn't important enough to disturb your reading. I trust you found what you were looking for?"

Mum looked down at me, and I had to give some sort of answer. Not trusting myself to speak right now, I managed a quick nod.

"We did indeed."

"That is good. Then if you would please follow me."

Cliff led us through a couple of corridors before we stepped into one that was considerably more ornate. Not flamboyant or showy, but enough to make it clear this was the domain of nobility without slipping into ostentatiousness. In other circumstances, I'd have been glad for the opportunity to see it, but right now it felt more like I was walking to my own execution. Every step I took was harder than the last, until we stood before a large and decorated door. Cliff knocked, and a voice from inside bid us enter.

The door opened, and a man stood up from behind a desk. By this point, I was in no fit state to pay attention to any details. I was vaguely aware of them sharing greetings, and it seemed that Mum had met him before, but before I could process that, I was distracted in the worst possible way.

ding

Skill [Privacy] advanced to level 2

Whoever this person was had been looking straight at me. He looked away after the notification, but I knew it had been him. I'd just been appraised, and it had boosted my new skill with a single use. As the town lord, he must have high-level skills. He knew. This person, who was probably responsible for the brainwashing, knew I was immune. My new life was over before I had even reached adulthood. Cliff was still standing behind us. In the absence of any options, I just stood there, shivering. Would Mum try to protect me? She was only a rank two tailor. She would be massacred...

I was brought back to reality when they started talking about my trait. Particularly because he immediately shot down the theory of it being a straightforward intelligence boost. He pointed out that my trait must grant actual knowledge, too. Unlike Richard, he must have seen it, and knew exactly what it was. It was all I could do not to throw up from pure nervousness. Even if he'd not seen anything, my current behaviour would be enough to tip him off all on its own. I just hoped that whatever he did would be quick and painless.

"I should let you be on your way. Peter, I look forward to your future with interest."

What? He was letting us go? But... why? He probably just didn't want to get his office dirty. Whatever, it didn't matter. We needed to get out of here. We needed to run! I clung to Mum, following her out of the manor and then she picked me up and carried me out of Dawnhold, during which time no-one bothered us. Was he really letting me go? Were we safe? Some of the tension left my body, and I noticed I was crying.

"I'm so sorry. I should... I should never have brought you here... I didn't expect..."

I looked up at Mum, who was stammering out an apology, and she was crying too. Of course she would have noticed my behaviour; there were no magical mum mind reading skills needed there. And of course it would upset her; she would have no idea why I was so frightened... It wasn't her fault, but I had no idea what I should be doing now. "It's all wrong..."

"What's wrong?"

What wasn't wrong? Nothing made any sense! "Everything! All of it! He was right. It wasn't just intelligence. I know things. I was born knowing things. And they're all wrong! Or even worse, they're right and this world is wrong."

"Everything is okay. We've left town. We'll be back to our village tonight, and everything will be back to just how it was before."

Back to how it was before? Of course it wouldn't! How could I ever forget that the whole population was being mind controlled? Or that the town lord had seen my full status, and could have me assassinated at any time. "It won't! I know now! I can't just forget!"

"What do you mean? I want to help, but you need to let me understand."

"I... I can't. I... Why do I have to be immune? Why can't I just live in the same blissful bubble as everyone else? I don't want this..."