The Way Ahead

Level Up!

Athletics Level 50→51

Packing Level 29→33

Obvious or not, Inion’s Token was having a fairly distinct effect on his leveling speed. While he might have normally expected a single Packing level, two at most, from carrying his big stack of logs some twenty feet, three and an Athletics level was way more than he would have expected, especially once he stopped outright carrying the logs and just started dragging them after his pile had unexpectedly collapsed.

He was currently laying next to the creek, panting in exhaustion as Inion sat next to his head, chuckling at his sorry state. Still, he’d let her laugh. It was a small price to pay for what would have otherwise been days of work. All of his logs lay in a line, completely debarked and ready for curing. It was a satisfying sight, he had to admit. Tomorrow, he’d make his dehydration concoction, but for right now, he could barely even move as he desperately tried to drink wat- no, his rehydration potion. Every muscle was beyond sore, and even Breathing wasn’t enough for him to catch his breath quite yet.

Level Up!

Breathing Level 51→52

Edwin couldn’t help but wonder what, exactly, it was that triggered levels. Survival’s effect seemed almost wholly disconnected from what improved it, namely practicing survival skills, and Packing seemed to level from both actually packing up bags as well as carrying around heavy loads. That wasn’t even getting started on the weirdness that was Firestarting.

It had started off only making fires slightly easier to start, but these days he could use it to summon tiny candle-size flames when he Infused it, though he admittedly felt decently confident that the blue fire was what oxygen looked like when it burned. It didn’t explain the blue sparks he summoned, though.

Everything with the System was so confusing, and in the past, Edwin’s brief inquiries about where the System had come from had been met with blank stares. Apparently, it was a question which nobody ever wondered about. The System simply existed. There was no mythology about it. Well, at least not in the Empire anyway, though they seemed fairly nonreligious outside of a few small temples and shrines, there were no stories about its origin or questions about what its purpose might be.

When he had asked about System moderators, he had been very definitively told there were no such individuals, and where had he heard that absurd rumor? As he hadn’t been able to tell Lefi about his personal message from one, he didn’t have an answer. Now, though…

“So, Inion. What can you tell me about Skills and the System?” he inquired, his breath recovered enough to form intelligible words.

Inion’s expression went blank, “Skills are the System’s gift unto you, that you might grow in strength and capability.” Her line was clearly memorized, like she had been given a careful script to follow. Which, Edwin guessed, she probably had. She claimed that the System was very picky about knowledge which should be known here on Joriah, which implied that she knew more about Skills than that line implied. So, what could she tell him? Once he had mentioned a fey world, she had been able to confirm that it was called Arcadia. So, if he made a few shots at what he thought the System might be, that might allow her to explain further?

“Well… okay then. What about the System itself? When was that made? And by who?”

“The System is as old as the world itself. Neither have ever known existence other than in unison.”

“Did the gods make it?”

“The System is as old as the world itself.” Inion winced, “I’m sorry, Edwin. But some things I really can’t even hint at. Some rules are more set in stone than others.”

“That’s… fine, I suppose,” Edwin acquiesced, “But you do know a lot about the System, right?”

“Well ya! You know, I was considered a great sage back in my day,” she struck a pose, looking dramatically into the distance, “Supplicants would travel from far and wide to get my advice on what Skills would aid them most in their endeavors. Not that many actually took my advice, however,” Inion pouted, “They always insisted on taking every skill they could unlock, completely ignoring the fact that they simply didn’t need that many. Sigh,” wait, did she just say ‘sigh?’ “So many promising individuals, wrecked by their lack of self-control.”

The naiad paused for a moment, “How many Skills do you have?”

“Twenty-one. I got a bunch before I knew better.”

“Eh, that’s not too bad. Depends on what they are, though. Are they just random skills that don’t overlap or ones that are just redundant? You don’t need both Block Strike and Shield Block, for example.”

“I do have a fair number of random skills,” Edwin admitted, “I don’t have many actual alchemy-related Skills, honestly it’s more in the direction of a survivalist skillset, which I suppose makes sense given that’s how I got most of them.”

“Oh? Tell me more. How did that happen? Most humans I talk to get nearly that many just while they’re young and their parents’ warnings failing to sink in. But you got yours through wilderness survival, you say?”

“I’ll… explain another time.” Edwin sheepishly settled on, “Telling people hasn’t worked out for me in the past.”

“Oooh. A game,” Inion wiggled her eyebrows, “I love a good mystery. Let me guess! Were you… abandoned in the woods as a child and were raised by wolves?”

“…No.”

“Okaayyyy, well what about-” Edwin cut off the woman before she could pull them too far off track or he gave away something by accident.

“Can we stay on topic, please?”

“You’re no fun. Don’t forget your Bargain!”

“Don’t you, either. To the best of your ability, remember? And not distracting me?”

Inion started to say something, but closed her mouth and started thinking, twisting a lock of hair around her finger, “There’s... room for interpretation there. But…” she sighed, “Fine. We’ll do it your way this time. So, what did you want to know exactly?”

Edwin shrugged, “A few things. Some of them I’m curious about what you, who is apparently so wise in the ways of the System, say in comparison to others that I’ve talked to. They all-”

“Now who’s the one getting off-track, huh?” Edwin didn’t even need to pick up his head from the ground to look at Inion. He could hear the smile in her voice from where he lay.

When no immediate rebuttal came to mind, he switched tactics, “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.” With a jokingly exasperated sigh, Edwin shook his head, “So, a few questions. Is there any limit to how many Skills you can get?”

“Nope! I wouldn’t say you should test that, though. Unless you’re a Wizard. But you’re no Wizard.”

“Maximum Skill level?”

That just got a shrug, “If there is, I don’t know it. Might vary based on the Skill and the person if it is a thing.”

“Can you get rid of Paths you don’t want?”

“How do you… How do you not know that one, even by accident?” Inion raised an eyebrow and squinted at Edwin, “How many Paths have you completed?”

“…Seven? No, eight. I had one unlock Mana.”

“And you’re how old?” she asked, incredulously.

“Twenty-two, last I checked.”

“What the Blight are you doing with only eight completed Paths?” the naiad sighed, then started looking into the distance, thinking about something, “You know what, on second thought, it’s to do with your puzzle, isn’t it? Hmmm. I’ll figure it out, I know it.”

“Unwanted Paths?”

“Right, right! Well, so Paths sort of represent the kind of things you could do, right? Well, you just need to take a Path which would exclude the other. You can’t be both a Patriot and a Traitor at the same time, nor a Slave and an Escapee. Taking one gets rid of the other, though you could still get it again, same as any of the others. It also doesn’t get rid of any Skills which advanced from it, it just matters that you don’t have the other Path incomplete in your Status.”

“So a Path which you got for taking over a location would be removed if you completed a Path referring to destroying that location?”

“And vice versa, ya. What have you been up to, hmm?”

“What about other Skills like Status or Identify, which interact with the System? Are there any more of those?”

“Ehhh…. I’ve heard some stories about Notifications, which tell you if you get poisoned or something like that, but I’ve never actually met someone with it as a base skill instead of a Status advancement. There’s also rumors about Skills which can mimic Skills, but I’ve never met anyone with them. Plus there are a few which can help speed leveling,” she pointed at her Token where it dangled from Edwin’s neck onto the grass beneath him, “But those are all really hard to get and have a really small effect.”

“So what does it take to actually unlock a Skill?”

“Oh! That’s an easy one.” She ticked two fingers in the air and counted them off, “Desire and competency. You need to actually be able to accomplish a given task to unlock a Skill, which is obvious enough, but you also need to actually want to improve on the skill in question. It doesn’t matter how good you might be at poking someone with a stick, if you don’t want to be better at it, you’ll never get the Stick Poke skill.”

Inion paused, “That’s probably why it’s so hard to unlock Skills which mimic other Skills or help leveling without advancing them.”

“So then why are some Skills hard to unlock if you have something similar? Like Walking and Running?”

“That’s a new one, actually. Uhhh… if I were to guess, it’s because it’s hard to get into the right mindset to try and get something new rather than practicing something old? Walking affects pretty much all foot-based travel, after all. Lets you walk longer, jog longer, sprint longer, all that. Running just makes you able to run faster. Increases your limits.”

Edwin nodded. That basically matched up with his experiences so far. He could sprint at full speed for some two minutes straight before he needed to start to rest, and with the way Breathing was increasing, he might be able to sprint continuously before too long. He wasn’t much faster, though, beyond what tiny improvements that might come from just constant practice, and maybe Athletics.

“Are there worlds other than Arcadia out there?”

“Yeeeesssss….”

“Can you tell me about them?”

“No.”

So was she bound to just not talk about things not on Joriah, then? He asked as much, not expecting much of a response, or maybe even a ‘I can’t tell you that,’ so was pleasantly surprised when she actually replied.

“That’s the deal, yes. No extraplanar knowledge from me, sorry. The System doesn’t like that sort of knowledge being discussed. I can talk about stuff that’s here, though!”

Knowledge beyond Joriah? Hmmm…

“What’s the fundamental nature of magic?”

“Ooh, going straight for the throat, eh? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t know.” She shrugged, now illuminated by a soft blue-green glow emanating from the pool as the light from the sun faded away, “I know a bit of magic, though most of that is by instinct. I’m no scholar, though even they don’t know it all. Some think it’s inexplicable.”

“But you do magic, right? How does that work in a non-System way? Is the System magic?”

“The System is magic in a way. I can’t go into detail there, though I know exactly how it works,” she shifted slightly as though she were uncomfortable, “but it’s magic in the same way that a dragon’s flight is magical, or a troll’s regeneration, or just the undead in general.”

So undead really are a thing here. Interesting.

“It’s magic in a way that’s just part of what the creature is, and no spell can detect it nor remove it. It leaves a distinct mark when used which is visible to those who know how to look, though. For my kind, it comes fairly naturally with mere practice, which is how I know you have Breathing, Seeing, a Mana Sense of some variation, at least two body-influencing Skills, Packing, and Polyglot.”

“You got all that just from looking at me?”

She shrugged, “Well, your Bargain helps me see you a bit better, and Polyglot is trivial to spot even without the ability to see System enhancements.” So she did get something from the Bargain. If he were to guess… maybe the ability to walk on land and perhaps a general sense of Edwin’s whereabouts? Seemed minor enough, that he wasn’t sure if he had gotten a genuinely good deal or if he were overlooking something awful.

“So anyway, back to magic.” He thought for a moment, “What is it?”

“You already asked that,” Inion paused with a chuckle, collecting her thoughts before continuing, “I think pretty much everyone conceptualizes it slightly differently. I think of it like a flowing river which I can divert into doing something else temporarily, others see it as a long, infinite list of instructions they give to reality, some as a star, others as a sort of framework upon which to build. Some even visualize it like it’s music, resonating with the multiverse itself.”

Hmmm. That was worth following up on, but Edwin had one more subject he was curious about, “What about the moderators? Who are they, what do they do?”

Inion’s confident expression was shattered in an instant, her casual posture wholly replaced with one of complete shock. Even her hair stuttered to a stop, “Wait, you know about the moderators?”