The Way Ahead

At long last, it was time for Edwin to make his last few preparations before finally tiering up. Sure, it had taken him some four or five months (he’d stopped keeping track at this point) to get these last ten levels in each of his Skills, but now he was just a handful away before his break-even point was reached at long last!

It hadn’t been easy getting this far. He’d managed to get Firestarting to only affect a small area centered around his hand, and his breakthrough on constraining the skill’s shape had allowed him to finally use his Firebombs with a modicum of control, and though he still struggled getting the Infusion to connect properly, he no longer ran quite as much of a risk setting his surroundings on fire.

That breakthrough had managed to get him over the level 90 spike in difficulty, and his current task was trying to turn areas ‘on’ or ‘off,’ enabling him to burn patterns into wood. So far, he had managed ‘square’ and ‘circle,’ but he was hoping to get a few more levels from it before it evolved.

On the other end of the level spectrum, Seeing and Nutrition were lagging behind. The latter he kind of blamed on his tendency to go weeks without eating, which from what he could tell was the only way Nutrition leveled with any regularity. That said, he hadn’t tried setting up an IV drip to see if he could help Nutrition that way. When it came to Seeing, he just didn’t get much practice with it, especially given Inion’s tendency to blindfold him during their training.

As a result, she’d shifted tack lately, giving him tasks which were more reminiscent of an optometrist’s test. It was, if nothing else, a nice relief from the more physically perilous tasks he usually had to deal with. He also spent a fair bit of time trying to combine it with Basic Mana Sense, giving him an improved range where he could ‘see’ mana, but in exchange it only functioned in the direction where he was looking; his omnidirectional sense didn’t work when so focused. His attempts at constraining the area of effect like how Firestarting worked were thus far unsuccessful, but it at least wasn’t terribly strenuous.

Of course, it was offset by all the time Inion was now having Edwin spend waterboarding himself. It apparently helped both Breathing level as well as Purify, but after each session he couldn’t help but wonder if that specific method was really worth it.

Packing, of course, he kept pushing by trying to use it to fly. He was close, he knew it, not that he could vocalize exactly why he felt that way. It was just some combination of his growing proficiency of its use and its own increasing level that pushed him further and further, allowing him to support himself on more and more tenuous supports. The way the Skill worked vaguely hurt his brain at times, as it didn’t fit quite with how forces worked. He still always felt his own weight, but the weight of anything he carried just… slid off. But he could still feel their weight pressing down on him, and they didn’t feel any lighter, just easier to manage.

Edwin rubbed his temples before he could pull himself off topic again, refocusing on what he should be thinking about.

Ideally, he’d unlock the Flight skill now to maximize the effect of his efforts to level Packing, then decline it and re-unlock it after he tiered up once he knew the trick. He had time, after all. For the first time since… Well, for the first time since he started high school a nigh decade ago, the only pressure on him was his own restlessness. It was… freeing. There was only so much he could really do while he was still at Obairlann, which was why his plan similarly included not sticking around once he tiered up.

Yes, it would be smarter to stay and get a solid grasp on his Skills and good bank of levels under his belt, but he couldn’t stand to go through another year out here. He kind of missed human interaction, unbelievably. Who would have thought that months of only interacting with Inion that he might want something more? It was shocking, truly shocking. Plus, it was boring here. The only entertainment he really had- training did not count, it was a wonder he’d stayed focused on it for as long as he had- were his plants, and he’d long since finished cataloguing his alchemical ingredients (other than Hispera, which didn’t grow fast enough) to nearly the full extent of his abilities.

Firevine was the simplest of his plants; every part of it was related to fire in some way. The leaves made good tinder, its sap was highly flammable, and its sticks burned hot and evenly, making them useful for controlled-temperature fires.

Talsanenris acted as magical sugar, giving cells all the energy they could ever need and speeding up their metabolism dramatically. Its leaves and branches were exceptionally nutritious, and when combined a tiny pellet of the leaves and berries could make highly effective energy tablets- essentially stamina potions, Edwin realized.

Sunstalk had something to do with light, and while he was befuddled as to how it worked, Edwin had managed to determine that its invisibility in sunlight wasn’t actually invisibility. Instead, it absorbed and reemitted any and all light it was exposed to, like some kind of sci-fi cloaking device. This process was much faster in direct sunlight, but still functioned in the shade or in darkness, just with colors far less distinct and with a very delayed reemission.

Sinbalyne functioned as a combination of nerve blocker and vasodilator. When inhaled, it produced lightheadedness and slowed reactions, and when applied topically it encouraged blood flow to an area. Concentrating it made it lose some of its vasodilation properties, which meant its effects stayed quite local. When it was ingested, the concentrate rapidly induced unconsciousness, applying it topically rapidly caused all sensation to fall away from the affected area, and when injected, it temporarily paralyzed the limb. Edwin was still figuring out the dosages (for obvious reasons he was hesitant to test it on himself), but it was extremely promising.

Molai acted as a magical resistor of sorts. When it was mixed with another alchemical ingredient, especially a fresh one, it slowed the discharge of said magic, meaning that instead of a powerful effect all at once, the potion would slowly have a lesser effect. Sunstalk glowed more softly but for longer, firevine burned slowly, more like a candle than a blowtorch, talsanenris didn’t deliver all its energy at once, transforming the nutrition pellets from a shot of magical caffeine to rations, allowing the life mana to seep into the body over time. Of limited personal use to Edwin, molai and synbalyne worked to make a sleeping potion. Its offensive applications were obvious, but delivery methods were still spotty at best.

By contrast, the seemingly boring glowleaf was ironically the most interesting of his plants. He had noticed some of the originally purple leaves changing color to varying shades of blue or red, and had set out to investigate. Over extensive experimentation, he’d found that contrary to what Zosiman had said, glowleaf did seem to all be one species, but its color was determined by external factors. Specifically, environmental mana.

Because he didn’t know any methods to remove magic from something (his attempts to do so with molai were what led him to realize what the plant truly did), he couldn’t use it to make a magic-detection potion, but Edwin was confident that if he found some way to strip all external mana from the glowleaf, then mix it with molai to help dampen environmental ‘noise,’ he would create a clear potion which would change color depending on the kind of magic it was exposed to.

Overall, Edwin had found his toolkit included magical fire, light, life, and paralysis. Combined with an indicator and a time-delay, he felt decently confident in his initial alchemical repertoire. He’d made a fair number of potions with different uses, most abundant being firevine bombs which closely resembled Molotov cocktails in function, striking something and setting it on fire.

He’d confirmed that Bomb Throwing did work on the firebombs, and it made the flames burn hotter, as well as affect a larger area.

Everything had, naturally, been fastidiously recorded in the Almanac. All his findings, all his formulae, all his musings on the plants and potential uses. He would leave a legacy, and if someone got ahold of it and tried to use it against him? Well… if it came to that, he’d figure something out. He couldn’t help but feel that they deserved it if they managed to pull it off, though he probably wouldn’t feel that way then.

Okay, enough stalling. He needed to actually look at and organize his Paths. He’d been putting off the notifications for so long… this wouldn’t be fun. Or maybe it would be! He needed to look on the bright side as he queried the System.

Instantly, his vision was filled with long-suppressed text.

Congratulations! For developing 6 unique potion effects, you have unlocked the Alchemist path!

Congratulations! For granting access to your Almanac unto another, you have unlocked the Almanac Administrator path!

Congratulations! For going two weeks without eating or drinking, you have unlocked the Ascetic path!

Congratulations! For setting yourself on fire, you have unlocked the Autopyromaniac path!

Congratulations! For developing a number of explosives, you have unlocked the Bomber path!

Congratulations! For developing a system to create bricks, you have unlocked the Brickmaker path!

Congratulations! For turning 1 year old, you have unlocked the Child path!

Congratulations! For spending a year improving yourself and learning about the nature of the world, you have unlocked the Dedicated Student path!

Congratulations! For slaying a Mature Deepwoods Panther, you have unlocked the Deepwoods Panther-Hunter path!

Congratulations! For detonating a powerful bomb and destroying a permanent construction in the explosion, you have unlocked the Demolitionist path!

Congratulations! By spending more than 12 minutes underwater, you have unlocked the Diver path!

Congratulations! For successfully making a basic waterwheel, you have unlocked the Engineer path!

Congratulations! For obtaining extensive training from an elder fey, you have unlocked the Fey Scion path!

Congratulations! For successfully bringing a crop of food to maturity, you have unlocked the Gardener path!

Congratulations! For killing a foe through self-mutilation, you have unlocked the Heedless Hunter path!

Congratulations! For being recognized by the Lirasian Empire as an Ally, you have unlocked the Imperial Ally path!

Congratulations! For growing and harvesting a crop of magical plants, you have unlocked the Magical Gardener path!

Congratulations! For healing yourself from the brink of death with the aid of another, you have unlocked the Medic path!

Congratulations! For arranging the mass sale of products you created, you have unlocked the Merchant path!

Congratulations! For surpassing level 120 in the Outsider’s Almanac Skill, you have unlocked the Outsider’s Almanac Specialist path!

Congratulations! For transcribing an entire book into another form, you have unlocked the Scribe path!

Congratulations! For your efforts to uncover the fundamental nature by which Skills act upon the world, you have unlocked the Skill Researcher path!

Congratulations! For having traveled 1200 miles while away from your home and settling to another permanent residence, you have unlocked the Traveler path!

Congratulations! For surviving a life-or-death battle and successfully attacking a powerful foe during its course, you have unlocked the Warrior path!

Huh. That was a lot, and yet it still ended up being… quite a bit smaller than Edwin had anticipated. Then again, it wasn’t like he’d actually done anything all that noteworthy over the past year, not in comparison to his first five or six months on Joriah at least. He’d just been focusing on improving his Skills, which ended up being reflected in the relatively anemic Path selection before him.

“Hey Inion, is it normal to get a Path for reaching level 120 in a Skill?” he asked his friend, who wandered over to where he was reclining.

“I can’t say I actually know the answer to that. Why, didja get something?”

“Outsider’s Almanac Specialist, yeah. Ninety points, any guesses what it might do?”

Inion barely even needed to think, “Either take and enhance the Skill it’s based on, giving it a straight upgrade to efficacy, or give another Skill a lot of synergy with it. For you, it might take… Visualization, and allow you to include more detailed images in your entries. You can include images already, right?” she frowned.

“Yeah, I can. It’s a bit tricky to do so, but probably not worth another Skill. Anyway, you want to help me figure out my Path ordering?” he asked, looking at his massive pile of Paths to choose from.

Adventurer 0/30, Alchemical Medic 0/60, Alchemical Warrior 0/90, Alchemist 0/60, Almanac Administrator 0/60, Arsonist 0/60, Ascetic 0/60, Assassin 0/60, Athlete 0/60, Autopyromaniac 0/60, Biologist 0/60, Blackstone Conqueror 0/60, Bomber 0/60, Brickmaker 0/30, Burglar 0/60, Butcher 0/30, Chemist 0/60, Child 0/12, Daredevil 0/60, Dedicated Student 0/60, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter 0/60, Demolitionist 0/60, Diver 0/30, Engineer 0/60, Escapee 0/30, Exile 0/30, Expert 0/60, Explorer 0/60, Fey Friend 0/60, Feybound 0/60, Feycaller 0/60, Fey Scion 0/60, Feytouched 0/90, Field Medic 0/60, Forerunner 0/60, Gardener 0/30, Giant Slayer 0/60, Heedless Hunter 0/60, Hunter 0/30, Imperial Ally 0/60, Killer 0/30, Lecturer 0/30, Lumberjack 0/60, Mage 0/60, Magical Gardener 0/60, Makeshift Alchemist 0/60, Master of Obairlann 0/60, Master of the Ruined Tower 0/60, Medic 0/30, Merchant 0/30, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Novice 0/12, Novice Pyromancer 0/60, Novice Ritualist 0/60, Outsider 0/60, Outsider’s Almanac Specialist 0/90, Path Less Traveled 0/90, Physical Alchemist 0/90, Physical Arcanist 0/60, Physical Laborer 0/30, Physicist 0/60, Experimenter 0/60, Pioneer 0/60, Potioneer 0/60, Potter 0/30, Practical Alchemist 0/60, Primal Constructor 0/90, Primal Ritualist 0/90, Purifier 0/30, Pyromaniac 0/30, Razer of the Ruined Tower 0/60, Realm Traveler 0/120, Rebel 0/30, Recluse 0/30, Researcher 0/60, Scientific Revolutionary 0/90, Scientist 0/60, Scout 0/60, Scribe 0/30, Skill Researcher 0/60, Skilled Arcanist 0/60, Slave 0/12, Steadfast Medic 0/60, Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Superior Alchemist 0/60, Survivor 0/60, System Scholar 0/60, Titan Slayer 0/90, Trainee 0/60, Traitor 0/60, Trapper 0/60, Traveler 0/30, Unkillable 0/90, Wanderer 0/60, Warrior 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Woodsman 0/30, World Traveler 0/60

Okay then. He had his work cut out for him.