Fork This Life!

Chapter 47: Of Gods And A Fork

Sunday. It’s almost fitting that I’m doing this today, although I don’t think the day has the same meaning here as it did on Earth… Well, what little meaning it has these days.

In front of me is the temple. It’s a large, decorated building without being over the top. In every pillar, arch and window you can see the work and care that went into the construction. And, most likely, the money.

The front area is a place of worship, with many shrines dedicated to each god, most of them tended to by a dedicated member of the clergy. Behind that are some rooms were other clergymen are tending to a few injured or ill people. Behind that there are small rooms, presumably where some of the clergy stay, and then a small training area where some paladins and young men and women are sparring and practising magic.

I float in through the open doors and move towards an unoccupied altar, one bearing the symbol of a mountain.

The priest raises an eyebrow as he sees me approach, obviously unaccustomed to flying cutlery. “This is an unusual sight – someone coming through a remote magic tool?”

“You can think of it like that if you like. I have some questions about gods in general, do you have some time?” I ask.

He nods. “Of course, ask away. I’m here to help.”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the gods, so I’ll start with something simple.” I admit. “All these shrines in here, is there one here for every god?”

“All the good ones, so to speak, and most of the more neutral gods; those that might not get along with the other gods exactly but don’t do any harm.” The priest nods. “The darker, less friendly gods don’t have a place here.”

“Right.” I say in understanding. “So, who decides who gets to have a shrine and who doesn’t?”

“Well, the gods themselves I suppose.” The priest muses. “I’ve heard that any priest or devotee wanting to build a new temple gets handed a list from their god. If there were to be one missing, well, who would want to be the one who has to answer to a scorned god? But I’ve not heard of anything like that actually happening before, so who can say?”

“What sort of idiot would want to piss off a god?” I ask rhetorically. “Anyway, someone told me that the stars each represent the gods. Is that all of them, or sort of the same situation?”

“Much the same.” He nods. “But of course, those are built by the gods themselves instead of us.”

“The sun and moon?” I continue the line of questions.

The priest strokes his chin. “I don’t know if any god in particular created those… I have heard among the other priests, although I can’t say for sure whether it is said literally or symbolically, that the sun is the meeting place of the gods.”

I take a moment to take in what he’s told me and think about what I should ask next. Nothing much concrete so far, but in a sense I hadn’t expected anything of the sort.

“Alright, so going away from the sky, gods have… aspects?” I try and find the right words. “Things they represent or something like that? I’ve heard of a god of death, shields, farming…”

“That’s right. Most gods have a single skill, thing, or even ideal that they represent. Sometimes they even overlap, like the gods of combat. Other gods have multiple.” The priest gestures to the altar beside him. “Stigunder, the god I follow, is the god of adventure and exploration. Of venturing into the unknown. He’s often popular with, well, adventurers and explorers.”

“And are gods with more… Aspects, more powerful?” I ask.

His smile turns awkward. “Well, who could say which gods are more or less powerful other than they themselves? It’s not as if anyone has ever seen two gods fighting.”

“You don’t know anything at all?” I say with some disappointment.

He scratches his cheek in embarrassment. “Well, I… It’s not something that’s considered in good form to ask about. But if you must know, then very well. When people talk about ‘powerful’ gods, they are usually referring to one of the older gods, with one of the widest domains. For example…”

The priest points across the room to another altar. “Do you see that altar, the one with the symbol of a dagger? That is the altar of the god of death. People often pray to him at funerals, the anniversary of a loved one’s death, after wars, sometimes even just when one of the livestock is sickly. Which, put together, is very often. Hermenegild is probably one of the oldest and most powerful gods.”

“Older gods? What do you mean, ‘older’?” I ask, confused.

“I don’t know, it’s just how the gods refer to other gods sometimes.” He shrugs. “Maybe they just came into being earlier than the other gods. Death is a fact of life, after all, always has been. More so than the domains of many other gods. Before magic, before war, before exploration and fishing and farming, there was life, and there was death.”

I ask some more questions, but while the priest provides quite a bit of information about their god’s ideals and personality, as to specifics of the whats, wheres, whys and hows of the gods, he’s almost as clueless as me.

“I think that’s about all the questions I have.” I conclude finally. “Thanks for standing around and answering all my questions. I think it’s helped me understand the gods a bit better.”

“You’re welcome. I hope you come again, though I would appreciate if next time your questions were a bit simpler.” The priest admits.

My apologies, sir, but sometimes questions burn within me, and you were one of the few that could answer them.

…I leave that reply unsaid, and head over to the altar of the god of death that he had referred to earlier. This will be a long shot, to say the least, but at least the question of whether there will be any reply will stop lingering in my head.

“Do you mind telling your god, ‘The fork asks why?’” I ask the priest in front of the altar.

He sighs. “Alright, but I should let you know that he hardly replies to anyone, let alone the millionth person wanting to know why a loved one has passed.” He closes his eyes, and a good minute passes in silence.

“Nothing.” He shrugs finally.

“No worries.” I say. “Thanks for trying.”

With everything I had wanted to do done, I leave the temple and return to the academy.

I create a small flame and snuff it out. Create it again, and snuff it out again. Create, destroy. On, off. I’m more doing it out of habit while I’m thinking than for any particular reason. Forming magic formations has almost become second nature at this point.

Things are going well, I think. I’m getting close to getting the Aerus language to expert, my last base elemental language. Development of the next version of my eye is progressing gradually, and my understanding of several schools of magic increases by the day. And yet…

Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.47% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana.

Mana control is still stagnating. It’s increasing, but incredibly slowly. I know Master proficiency exists, and even that there’s something beyond that, but at this rate it’ll practically take decades or more. In my expert mana control class, I recently learned mana sense and had hoped that it might be that push I needed.

Mana sense (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 13.32% - You have gained familiarity with sensing the presence and flow of mana in the world around you. Accuracy decreases significantly with distance.

No dice. It’s certainly something different, a more instinctive than literal perception of mana, but it hasn’t changed anything. I’m missing something. I know it, I can feel it… I just don’t know what.

My mind turns in circles, going over everything I’ve ever seen or heard about magic and mana, from magic missile to portals. I consider the latter for a while, intrigued about the meaning or method behind the twisting door in space, but fail to learn or perceive anything new from them.

I sigh internally. I feel like hitting my head against a wall right now, but I don’t think it would do much to either me or the wall. Staring dumbly at the fire, I let my thoughts wander; I don’t feel like doing anything in particular right now.

The flames swirl, flicker and bob, sway and waver, my mana trickling slowly away. It dances in the heat as I look at it, through it, without seeing it. Not paying much attention at all to this most ordinary of magical flames.

“Oh. I’m an idiot.” I mutter in realisation as I refocus my vision on the fire, simultaneously scanning through some of my memories.

Mana control (Expert) has evolved into Mana control (Master) due to 100% proficiency

Mana control (Master) (Mid Rare, Passive) - Your practice with magic has led to an incredible familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 500 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.05 mana. You are capable of controlling ambient mana within wis*0.01m

Although a bolt of triumph shoots through me at the message, I’m more disappointed in myself that it took this long. I have excellent understanding and control of mana, yes. But only in a vacuum, so to speak. Ironically the reason it took me so long was that I focused too much on mana itself.

I know how mana congregates and splits apart, how it flows in the air, which materials it flows through with difficulty or ease… But I hadn’t spared a single thought before now as to how it might be impacted by other forms of energy.

Does the mana conductivity of a material increase if it is heated? Does it decrease? What about if electricity is flowing through the material? What about if radiation is present? Sound waves? Ki? Psi? How do they all interact?

It’s as if a dam of possibilities has broken open upon me. Whereas before I had no clue how to further my understanding of mana, now it feels as if there is too much, so many possibilities and questions to explore that my mind is overwhelmed.

I laugh aloud, possibly traumatising my roommates from the shock. Excitement and glee floods my mind as I consider where to go next. It really is true what they say, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

Understanding how mana interacts with different forms of energy will also deepen my understanding of those energies simultaneously. And rather conveniently, I’m uniquely capable of performing such experiments, possessing the ability to utilise mana, psi and ki by myself. I can use fire magic, and there are resources available for me to learn ice and lightning magic as well.

I don’t doubt that there are some forms of energy I can’t control – divine energy, for one – or even know about, but for now I have plenty to consider. I won’t need to wonder how to improve in mana control for quite a while, I think.

Mana control is the cornerstone of all magic, so this improvement… it’s not insignificant. I’ll be able to form and activate formations faster, and control them better with less effort. And this new ability as well, before I would attract nearby mana passively, even actively through meditation. But now I can directly control ambient mana within half a metre of my body. Can I interfere with other’s spellcasting in this area? Form spells with ambient mana, perhaps? I’ll have to see.

Knowledge enough to explore for lifetimes… Can anyone truly discover it all?

“Are you not going to say something?” The high elf Faida asks.

Having been immersed in watching the sunset, the question causes me some confusion. “Is there something to be said?”

“Usually by now you would have asked me a favour or tried to buy me with gifts.” She says, sighing. “Or to sweet talk me, or… Well, something.”

“Your life sure sounds like fun.” I muse sarcastically. “I hope you have some friends and family you can trust to speak to about things, or that’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

She looks strangely at me for a moment. “And what of you? Normally rumours of one such as you would spread like wildfire – and yet they are few and far between. Do you speak to no-one of yourself?”

There’s a moment of silence, and I sigh. “No, not really. I try sometimes but it’s always been hard for me to trust people. No fault of theirs, my head’s just never been screwed on right.”

“Nobody? Surely there must be someone you confide in, a family member or close friend?” She asks with some surprise.

“Ah yes, forks are well known for their large families. I remember well the time my sister the tea fork danced with my cousin, the splade. Such a scandal.” I say sarcastically. “No, the only person like that would be Ferdinand. Adventurer friend of mine, we were separated somewhat abruptly.”

“Do you mind if I ask what happened?” She says curiously.

“Sure.” I reply easily. “We were working together with some paladins and priests – there was a necromancer who was basically being mind-controlled and one thing led to another. Turned out there was a demon involved, and I realised there was a portal to hell in the castle. Said demon had just left through it, and I was worried there were other portals, so I followed it through to destroy them. Obviously, that left me stuck in hell.”

“Hell? That is to say, the fabled land of hellfire, demons and death? Then, how did you escape that place?” She asks, surprised.

“Luck, pretty much. Didn’t know anything about hell going into it, other than that there are demons there, and it’s a bad place. Once I was there, I had no clue how to get out. Thinking back, I really should have just killed the demon that created the portals then destroyed the last one from outside of hell.” I sigh. “I wandered around for a little while, stuck near a demon city for a bit hoping to hear of a way to leave… Nothing. Then, well, do you know about Dreyer?”

“Dreyer…” Faida muses. “The space magic teacher that’s in and out of the academy sometimes?”

“That’s the one. When he’s not here, he travels to different worlds.” I explain. “He had the misfortune of being in hell at the time, too. Guess he didn’t have anything to eat with, so he tried to summon a fork. Everything from there was pretty straightforward.”

Her eyebrows furrow. “Of all things, and all places, what are the chances of such a thing occurring?”

“What are the chances that you were born as a royal instead of one of the quadrillions of insects that crawl on and under the earth?” I reply simply. “Stuff like that happens sometimes. You can only thank your lucky stars when it works in your favour.”

Looking out over the moonlit ocean atop the lonely mountaintop, Faida speaks a name. “Savoy?”

Tilting her head upwards to look at the sky, she watches as a dot quickly grows in size to the form of a man landing softly nearby with a gentle gust of wind. With a deep bow, he asks, “Lady Faida, is there anything you needed?”

Nodding slightly, she replies, “Is it possible to confirm if there is any truth to anything he has said?”

“His grace, your father, already ordered us to investigate him, actually.” Savoy inclines his head, causing Faida to let out a small sigh. “We couldn’t find out much about him, unusually. And before his enrolment at the academy, nothing at all. We were actually able to confirm that when he enrolled he was accompanied by the master space mage, Dreyer. It’s impossible for us to confirm if he came from hell before that, but I think it is possible, even likely, that he came from another world.”

Faida nods thoughtfully. “It does lend some credence to his words, at least. Thank you for your good work as always, Savoy.”

Savoy bows. “Always a pleasure, Lady Faida. In addition – a thought, if I may?” At Faida’s nod, he continues, “With his grace’s permission, we could include a truth seer among the ground team. While I doubt his grace would be eager to spare one to join my team permanently, short-term assignment ought not to be a problem.”

Faida nods slowly. “Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. You have my permission to contact father about this.”

Bowing once again, Savoy launches into the air.

“It would be nice to know that someone isn’t lying to get close to me, for once.” Faida mutters, looking gloomily at the moon.

“Ah, it is finished. My masterpiece!” I exclaim.

“Oh, you’re finally done with that eye tool thingimajig?” One of my roommates comes over.

“What? Of course not.” I reply in the negative.

“But you just said-”

“I was being theatrical! Moment ruined now. Many thanks.” I huff.

He scratches his head. “Uh…”

“Kidding. Relax. Anyway, yeah I’ve finished the design for my second prototype for my artificial eye magic tool. Theoretically, it should work.” I say happily.

He walks over and looks at the blueprints for a moment before shaking his head. “So what’s the difference between this and the first one? You said something about waves of light, but I don’t get it at all.”

“Well, if I had to explain it simply… This isn’t exactly correct, but compared to the previous eye I made, the one I’m currently using, this new one will have a toggle on it. As well as normal vision, I’ll be able to switch on heat vision.” I explain with relish.

“Heat vision?” He tilts his head. “So, you’ll be able to see heat? Can’t quite picture what that’d be like. What sort of uses would it have?”

“It’ll be like anything with any heat is a light source. The hotter, the brighter. I’d be able to tell roughly how hot something is without having to touch it – not that that I’d be able to tell from that, but you know what I mean.” I say facetiously. “It means I’ll be able to see people in the dark, even if they’re wearing clothes that would make them hard to see. Even if someone’s invisible, depending on how it’s done, I’ll be able to see straight through it.”

“Seriously? Just like that, you can see through invisibility?” He gasps.

“As I said, depends how it’s done.” I verbally shrug. “If the person who developed the spell is aware of it, it’s an easy fix. Even some animals have the same ability, you know. Fact of the matter is that no method of stealth is perfect, no shield can’t be bypassed. You just gotta manage what you can.”

He rolls his eyes. “You say that, but not everyone is here to learn how to fight.”

“Perhaps not, but personally I think everyone should learn at least some basics, something they can use defensively or offensively.” I say. “Even if you don’t go looking for fights, some will come looking for you eventually. And if that happens, you don’t want to be a fish out of water.”

“Maybe.”

“Anyway, I gotta get started on actually making this now. Seeya later.”

“Seeya.”

A string of curses greets me as I enter the workshop.

“God damn, why does this thing have to be so fucking complicated? I mean, I know why, but fuck this is ridiculous!” The guy bangs his fist on the bench in frustration.

“Uh… You right there mate?” I can’t help but say, noting that he’s the only person in the workshop at the moment.

Clearly not expecting anyone to be here, he jumps in shock. “Uh… Yeah, fine, fine. Just harder than I was expecting… y’know? Really need to figure this thing out soon.”

“Want me to take a look?” I offer. “A second pair of eyes could offer a new perspective.”

“Ah – no, no, that’s fine.” He stammers, flustered. He seems to think for a moment, then says, “Need to get it done on my own. If the professor thinks I cheated I’d be in a whole lot of trouble, right?”

“Right…” I agree, somewhat perplexed. “Machite, put the stuff down on this bench, thanks.”

I start work on the magic eye mk 2, but I can’t help but pay a bit of attention to the frustrated artificer behind me. The guy just weirded me out a bit. I get being so engrossed in your work that you don’t pay attention to the world around you, but his excuse for not letting me help him was… questionable at best.

Sure, you don’t want to get caught cheating, but there’s no harm in getting a second opinion or a bit of advice. Still, I can’t afford to spare much attention to the guy. I want to make sure I don’t make any mistakes here. To say that I’m a bit excited for this to work… Would probably be an understatement. In fact, so long as this works it means I’ll be able to try and sell the one I’m currently using, and start getting a welcome bit of income.

Money makes the world go round… Well, perhaps not literally, but it is important.

Status

Name: Gerald

Race: Living Fork

Level: 33

Experience: 6419.0/7600

Gender: None

Age: 2 years (local time)

Allegiance: None

Fame: 1

Strength: 6.5 (65.0)

Intelligence: 54.7

Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0)

Wisdom: 54.5

Charisma: 6.0

Luck: 12.1

Hardness: 26.94

Durability: 18.54/18.54

Mana: 1094/1094

Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88)

Psi: 545/545

Psi regen: 5.47/min

Ki: 35425/3542 (35425)

Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day

Unspent stat points: 0

Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you.

-Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness

-Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity

Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race.

-Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race

Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others.

-Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction

Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy.

-Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction

Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food.

-Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food)

-Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food)

Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2

Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse.

-Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1

Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo.

Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2

Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead.

Skilled – An individual with many different skills. You may now rearrange the skills in your status.

Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability.

Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability.

Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait.

Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait.

Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced.

Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you.

50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species.

Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive.

Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better.

Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food.

Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest.

Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways.

Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10.

Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis.

Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100.

Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi.

Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced.

Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you.

Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%.

Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body.

Stat unlock: Ki.

Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease.

Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction.

Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times.

Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you.

Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point.

Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.18% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance.

Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 6.93% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type.

Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.

WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera.

Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min.

Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability.

Mana control (Master) (Mid Rare, Passive) 2.53% - Your practice with magic has led to an incredible familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 500 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.05 mana. You are capable of controlling ambient mana within wis*0.01m

Mana sense (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 15.52% - You have gained familiarity with sensing the presence and flow of mana in the world around you. Accuracy decreases significantly with distance.

Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.41%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects.

Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot.

Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent.

Formation casting (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.38% - You have an excellent grasp of casting magic through formations. Small increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations.

Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 25.18% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally.

Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 40.12% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells.

Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 26.72% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic.

Summoning magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.16% - You have a good grasp of summoning magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting summoning magic.

Illusion magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 16.43% - You have a good grasp of illusion magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting illusion magic.

Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 67.73% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic.

Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 23.24% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic.

Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.52% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic.

Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 32.63% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic.

Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 41.79% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells.

Wind magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 5.14% - You have a good grasp of wind magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic.

Force magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.34% - You have a good grasp of force magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting force magic.

Artificing (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 23.15% - You have a good grasp on the craft of designing and building magic tools. Slight increase in the ability to recognise the use of unfamiliar magic tools.

Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.63% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to.

Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly.

Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge.

Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation.

Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.51% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Aquan language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 1.07% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Aerus language – Written (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 23.84% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time.

Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient.

Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 26.68% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient.

Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages.

External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki.

Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points.

Metallurgy (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.32% - You have decent knowledge of common metals and alloys.

Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience.

Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 89.28% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those.

Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 99.25% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once.

Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency.

Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency.

Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes.

Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear.

Charges remaining: 8

Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you.

Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat.

Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds.

Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble.

Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles.

Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill.

Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill.

Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity.

…However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you.