Fork This Life!

Chapter 49: Power levelling

Registration and transportation. Of the two, registration is likely the simpler. Oh, I’ll probably have some annoyances what with my species and all, but in the end all it takes is sharing a few elements from my status to clear up any misunderstandings. But as for transporting monster corpses… Machite could only carry a couple at most. Of course, I don’t have to carry the entire corpses back. The adventurer’s guild does pay rewards for submitting certain monster parts as proof of subjugation, but in comparison to selling the entire corpse it’s practically a pittance.

Well, that depends on the monster, though. Nobody’s gonna pay you much for a goblin corpse, after all. They stink and their meat tastes bad from what I know, even putting aside that most people don’t like eating meat from humanoids. Basically, they have no special qualities apart from breeding like rabbits. Anyway, what I’m saying is that people will only pay for stuff that can actually be used. Tasty meat, silky fur, tough hides, horns or other special parts that can be used in brewing potions or other magic…

Anyway, I’ll probably need to hire a cart. I’d buy one, but I don’t know that I’d use it regularly enough to justify the cost. Also, I don’t really have anywhere I could keep it. But a cart, let’s see… I’ll just check through my memories of the last time I was in the city… Yep, should be possible to get one with how much I’ve got. So that leaves pushing the cart.

It uh, should be obvious, but I’m not going to be able to pull it myself. Hiring horses or donkeys would be costly, and managing them would be difficult for me. Machite is the ideal choice, the only question is whether they’re physically capable enough. Elementals, generally speaking, aren’t known for their physical abilities. Heck, technically speaking they don’t have a physical form to begin with.

Frankly, it’d be harder to kill Machite than it would be to kill me. Best most people could do is destroy the summoning medium – but that wouldn’t kill, or even hurt Machite. Just prevent them from being summoned here again. Anyway, of the various elementals, earth elementals are pretty much the most ‘physical’ ones. As for how much they can lift, though, well I’ll have to test that out.

Looks like I’ll need to summon another earth elemental. Machite is strong, but not enough to draw a full cart on their own. If I go all out, maybe I can summon a high-tier elemental… Maybe I’d better not. A high-tier elemental would probably require a lot more mana to maintain the summon. Another mid-tier should do fine.

I find myself a suitably small and mana rich rock - mana rich for a rock, that is. The summoning is straightforward and without complication, and soon I have a second earth man standing in front of me. One noticeably smaller than the other.

Checking through my memories, I muse aloud, “Have you grown, Machite?”

There is no reply, as per usual. But they have. I guess they’ve gotten stronger since I first summoned them?

“I think I’ll call you… Slate.” I say, not lingering too long on the name. Not like I spent much brainpower on ‘Machite’ either. “They’ll be your junior from now on Machite. Treat each other well.”

There is no response from either of them. I may as well be speaking to a wall. An earthen wall.

Anyway. What’s left now is to rent a cart and register as an adventurer.

“We don’t allow people to register through magic tool-”

Show them my species. I interrupt the guild staff with the system message.

“…I see.” She blinks. “Well, in that case it’s fine, but I should probably warn you that it could be difficult for you to defeat monsters with your size.”

Show them my level. “I may not look it, but I’m not new to this.”

“I understand. Do you need me to write your details for you?” She asks, showing remarkable composure.

“No, I can do it myself, thanks, if you’ll allow me to borrow your inkwell for a moment.” I reply.

“Of course.” She nods professionally, moving it forwards slightly.

Strictly speaking, the only necessary field to fill out is the name, although it’s frowned upon to leave everything else blank. They don’t even enforce showing the name from your status, so it’s entirely possible to use a pseudonym or fake name.

Anyway. Name: Gerald. Age: not starting that shebang. Gender: male, coz I said so. Level… eh, let’s put above 30. Specialties – in most places ‘magic’ would probably be enough, but this is Arbadak, in the city next to perhaps the best magic academy in the world. Like 80% of adventurers here use magic in some way or another. I’ll put destruction and summoning. Everything else I use is either too specific or unskilled to really put them there. I’d confuse the hell outta people if I put ‘close combat’ on there, heh.

Even if that is technically one of my more powerful methods.

And psychic… Telepathy and telekinesis isn’t really enough to call myself that, I don’t think. If someone told me they were psychic, I’d think they could read my mind and hypnotise me into becoming their best friend or make me a vegetable. I don’t got that.

From there the process is mostly simple. Turns out that a second staff member has to confirm my details along with the one that had been speaking to me so that higher ups who could look at it later won’t think it’s some sort of prank.

Still, before long I have yet another card to carry around. The lowest rank, copper. It’s not made from copper though, it’s just colouring. Think I read something somewhere that they used to be made of the actual metals, but then they had issues with the cards being stolen and melted down…

Now the cards have no intrinsic value and are keyed to their holder’s mana. When supplied with the holder’s mana and a guild device is used on the card, it produces a reaction that allows them to verify it. Practical, cheap on the guild’s end, and reduces the chances of it getting stolen from an adventurer.

With that done, I rent the cart I had in mind from a bemused dude and set off from the city with my two earth elementals pulling it behind them.

All the quests on the guild’s board are in my head, naturally, although due to my rank I can only complete the lowest ranked requests. Not that I particularly mind, completing quests is something I’ll do if it’s convenient. The rank can also go up from selling them enough monsters.

My aim is simply bronze rank, the next one up. I don’t have a particular need for a higher guild rank, but it could come in handy in the future. Once I’ve achieved that – and I don’t expect it to take too long – I’ll stop selling to the guild and instead sell directly to butchers, leatherworkers, smiths and the like. Some are in exclusive contracts with the guild, but not all, and going direct will net me more profits, although it will take a bit longer and require a fair amount of market knowledge.

Thankfully, gathering that sort of knowledge is simple for me, and it doesn’t take much for me to figure out where I can go to get the best prices.

Finding monsters is also simple, and yet not. The city is, of course, an important one, being next to Wehttam. A center of trade and magical knowledge. And, therefore, the roads and areas outside the city are heavily patrolled by soldiers. What they don’t find, adventurers will, meaning there are practically no monsters near the city or roads.

Still, if you move away from the roads, away from the city, then you will inevitably encounter more monsters. And if you know exactly where they are, as well as any other adventurer parties to avoid their area of activity, well then, it’s simplicity itself to just move from one monster to the next.

Any truly powerful monsters have long been driven out or exterminated, so what’s left is only low level animals and monsters. I’d be surprised to see anything over level twenty around here at all. As a consequence, most adventurers around here are also similarly weak, the stronger ones having left for rougher waters. Some quite literally, acting as guards on the trading vessels that go to and from the city.

That is to say, this isn’t a very good place to level up. Maybe some of the adventurers in the city are in parties with all the other members in another city, specifically so they can sell levelling services easier? It wouldn’t surprise me. As for me, well I don’t have much choice other than to make do for the time being. Maybe I could go to another city, I’m fast enough after all. But then I’d have to figure out the situation there, look for another place to rent a cart, so on and so forth… Time I’m not looking to spend right now.

Putting that aside for now, I’ve reached my first prey. The common goblin. Probably from a small group, it’s practically impossible for it to be anything large as they’re basically exterminated on sight like pests. But, well… If it so happens that a couple are outside when the extermination happens, then they’ll start popping up again like cockroaches.

Another benefit of this outing is that it’s a perfect opportunity for practical magic tests.

Hovering behind the small green thing as it forages, I unleash my first spell. Invisible to normal sight but visible to mana sight, a projectile speeds towards it, striking it in the torso. As if it had received a solid shove, it falls over sideways with a yelp.

Force push, literally a spell to move things around. Naturally I upped the juice to give it more oomph, seems like it’s good enough to disrupt balance, maybe knock them down or perhaps move them out of the way of something. Wasn’t meant to be lethal, of course.

A second projectile hits its exposed back, and a loud snap echoes as its spine breaks. A small yet messy hole about the size of a fifty cent coin is visible at the point of impact.

Force spike I call it. Technically speaking, it’s pretty much the same spell, but rather than spreading the force over most or all the surface area, it’s concentrated. A large amount of force on a small area, like hitting it with a hammer. Not really a spike, I guess. But ‘force hammer’ would make me think that it was going to apply a large amount of force on a large area, so here we are.

I inspect the goblin briefly as it screams weakly. Debilitating, but not fatal. I rectify that and end its suffering with a small fireball.

As Auden once said to me, force magic is good at speeding things up and slowing them down. Singular things, or things in a small area, that is. He was right, it’s really not good at barriers. Let’s say I was trying to stop a bullet. I could do that with force magic… If I knew precisely where and when to deploy my magic, because I would need to apply a sufficient amount of force in the opposite direction to stop it dead. Doing that in a spherical or even hemispherical shape would be like firing a bullet’s worth of force in every direction at once, constantly.

It's not that it’s impossible. But only as a short reaction, rather than say an earth barrier which you can put up and maintain for a pittance when it isn’t being damaged.

Putting barriers aside, how does punching something hurt it? Is it not just speeding it up or slowing it down a large amount, very quickly? Force magic can naturally do such a thing. It’s basically a magic that punches. Of course, that means that it could be blocked easily with most barriers, but that’s most magic anyway.

Now, the other goblins are… There.

With two earth elementals pulling the cart, even rough terrain or muddy ground is no hindrance, and so long as I keep supplying them with mana, they know no fatigue. As such, travel is smooth and… Perhaps not fast, if it were to be compared to a horse on a road, but a decent pace is maintained.

There are only three goblins in the group, living in a hovel in the ground with an entrance camouflaged with branches and dirt. It’s a simple matter for me to worm my way between them and sneak my way inside.

A flash of light sparks in the dim lighting, causing the three to instinctively close their eyes and shield themselves from the source – a simple light spell. When they open their eyes again a moment later, they panic, waving their arms and tripping over themselves, blinded.

If they had more presence of mind, perhaps they would think it strange that they were blinded so easily; the flash wasn’t that bright. Perhaps they would even touch their fingers to their eyes, which would be sufficient to dislodge the layer of darkness there. Only the simplest of spells, and yet their effect is so significant.

I conjure an orb of water on the head of one of the goblins, who begins to choke and flail around. Hm, less than ideal. I’m having to manually control the orb to follow the goblin’s motions, and I’m less than perfect at doing so, not to mention it potentially takes my attention away from other things. Perhaps if I were to make a droplet of water the ‘core’ of the spell, around which the rest was formed? Then I would only have to direct that into the opponent’s lungs and the spell would do the rest.

Well, at the very least it’s very distracting for the opponent.

Dispelling the water, I cast another spell before also removing the darkness from their eyes. The result is immediate as the goblins blink and charge at each other, biting and clawing. In their eyes, the others appear as dark, forbidding figures.

With their panicked, confused state they didn’t even think twice before assuming that the ‘figures’ were the ones responsible for what was happening.

Would such a method work on more intelligent and skilled opponents? Maybe for a short time. It has its flaws after all, there’s nothing stopping them from recognising each other’s voices, skills or mana if they pay attention. Or rather, the only sense that it disguises is sight.

At this point, the goblins are in a terrible state. The one that I’d been testing the water orb on had barely had time to breath before the others attacked him, and was quick to die. The others were clawing and punching each other, with small wounds all over their bodies. And yet ironically they were both too weak to be able to kill the other quickly, prolonging their own suffering.

Although goblins don’t sell for much, them causing damage all over their bodies will still cut into my profits. A pair of flaming arrows puts an end to the fight.

The elementals lumber in and carry the bodies back to the cart.

I feel a bit sorry for them, but I can only find out so much about how effective a spell is by practicing on dummies. Not to mention illusion magic can’t be practiced on inanimate objects, and although the ones I tested here could be tested on a willing subject, many others could cause actual harm if I were to do that. Much better to test on beasts and monsters.

Although I doubt it’s much relief to them, the best I can do is just to test a few things per monster, to ensure their suffering is brief.

So, where’s my next test subject?

In the evening I head back to the city, the cart piled decently high. Around the side of the adventurer’s guild is a path for carriages, carts and the like with a large entrance. I enter and sell off the bodies.

I can’t help but wish I was able to dismantle the bodies, which would be a good increase to the profits. Sadly, I just don’t have the physical capabilities, and I don’t think I could instruct the elementals precisely enough to do it well, so I have no choice but to just let it go.

Regardless, money is money, and it’s a welcome trickle into a shallow pond with a broken dam. Wish it were a waterfall, though.

…Waterfall. Why in the hell didn’t I think of that in the first place? I complained about there not being enough monsters in the area, and what is there, literally right next to the city? Only an entire freaking ocean.

Guess I just didn’t think about it because it’s not humanely possible. How hard is it to swing a sword underwater? How long can you hold your breath, and how deep can you really go? How hard is it to escape from something that has adapted and evolved throughout generations to survive in that environment? Even a lot of magic – elemental magic at least, which is most of what I know at this point – is severely limited in such an environment.

But I’m not human. I don’t need to breathe, and I won’t be affected by the water pressure – at least, not by anything but the deep trenches… Probably. I can reshape myself to be more hydrodynamic, and easily move myself about with telekinesis or absorb. While offensively I may be limited to short-range flash boiling enemies with fire in terms of magic, with absorb I’ll… Also be limited to short ranges, but still.

I really need long-range underwater methods. How could… Maybe… Uh… Alright, let’s shelve that for now. Frankly, the increased density of water as a medium makes any projectile attack less viable.

And my earth elementals will be useless underwater for obvious reasons. I’ll need a water elemental to transport the corpses. Fortunately, it’s easier to lift most things in water than it is in air. Something about buoyancy, I don’t really know. Maybe I get the water elemental to move it to the shore and an earth elemental to move it from there to the cart… That should work.

Why do I feel like I’m becoming a summoner now? Except unlike most people, I’m using them as manual labour rather than combat forces. Well, such is life.

Anyway, I’ll need a new medium for a water elemental. Unlike an earth elemental, it’s not quite as simple as picking up any old rock off the ground. It’s water, so you need something to keep it in. But you also need to make sure it doesn’t leak or get confused for a potion or drink.

The simple solution is to seal a small amount of water completely, usually in glass or some other clear material (you want to see it, right?). Naturally, such things are sold all over the place in this city, in various forms from a plain bubble to incorporated in jewellery and other adornments.

I just buy a small, reasonably priced one of acceptable quality. I don’t care what it looks like, but at least it shouldn’t shatter if it gets bumped the wrong way, right?

Summoning the water elemental was a simple matter, a mid-tier as planned. I call it Mary, short for marine. Couldn’t really think of many names related to water, that popped in my head, good enough for me.

Unlike the Machite or Slate, Mary doesn’t look humanoid, or even have much of a concrete form at all. It’s more like they’re in whatever form is convenient or pleasing to them at any particular time.

Hit a little snag in that I can’t speak Aquan. Gave it a go based on my understanding of the written language, but I quickly gave up, as it was clear that Mary was having trouble understanding me. Instead, I just write out any instructions in Aquan using mana, easy enough for a magical being of the elements to see even if I don’t concentrate the mana enough to be visible to the human eye, as I found out.

Once I figured that out and sorted how I would transport the bodies, hunting becomes a breeze. I was quite correct in guessing that there would be a lot of sea creatures. Outside of the small area of water which the city can manage and keep clear of anything dangerous, the ocean is teeming with wildlife of all sorts.

After some adjusting, I can soar through the water just as quickly as I can through the air using absorb, which means that pretty much nothing can outrun me. Mary can’t move quite as fast, but she still slips through the currents of water with the ease and speed one would expect of a being of water literally in their home element.

As an added benefit, I get to re-test the viability of my spells, this time underwater, and as expected most of them suffer greatly. Unexpectedly, fire magic, albeit only at practically point-blank distances, is very effective at killing water creatures.

Although water can take a lot more heat energy before rising in temperature than air, this also means temperature changes underwater are generally small and gradual. When exposed to sudden, significant changes in temperature, most fish just can’t handle it. Of course, normally it wouldn’t be possible for fire to burn underwater, but magically created fire is capable of such – technically speaking it doesn’t seem to be the same as normal fire, and doesn’t require oxygen to burn.

Through one method or another, it doesn’t take long to rack up an impressive quantity of kills, many of them at decently high levels – at least, in comparison to the scrubs I fought the day before. Due to the distribution rates, I didn’t get much experience, but it was enough that I would guess that every one of the others would have levelled up at least once.

A good start to the power-levelling, if I do say so myself.

Status

Name: Gerald

Race: Living Fork

Level: 33

Experience: 6843.2/7600

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) 7.18% - 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) 49.29% - 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) 3.26% - 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) 24.16% - 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) 19.44%: 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) 19.79% - 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) 43.20% - 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) 29.89% - 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) 10.62% - 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) 24.65% - 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) 83.47% - 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) 32.20% - 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) 51.38% - 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) 42.57% - 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) 49.21% - 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) 17.57% - 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) 16.40% - 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) 28.48% - 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) 4.21% - 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), 1.12% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing.

Aquan language – Spoken (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 23.07% - You have a large vocabulary but terrible pronunciation, and have difficulty making yourself understood.

Aerus language – Written (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 48.80% - 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) 29.17% - 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) 16.74% - 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) 90.61% - 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 (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.14% - You are excellent at doing multiple things at once. Average increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, average 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.