Scias spent an entire morning going from house to house in search of useful stuff.
He was hoping to find a map, but since he didn't find one in the village chief's house, he didn't have his hopes up.
And he was right. No map or anything remotely usable, because everything was worn out by time.
He found boots, but they were even in worse shape than his own. Besides few coppers, his time was just wasted.
There was only one thing that pleased him. There were no bodies, human or otherwise.
Scias was glad that his theory seemed correct.
Going back to their temporary base, which was the village chief's house, he was thinking about what skill to create.
Before the house, he found two dead rabbits. That was the result of Vel's hunt this morning.
Scias was surprised that Vel didn't want to explore with him, but rather wanted to spend his time doing his own thing. But, Scias respected his decision.
Before fully immersing himself in creating a skill, he cooked one of the rabbit.
After lunch, the time has finally come.
What skill should System make for him? That question was constantly on his mind.
And the answer he came up with?
Since every skill he would create depended on his understanding, experience and other things, wouldn't it be nice to have a skill that would supplement his lack of knowledge? And when he was at it, couldn't abilities be improved as well?
When he thought about getting the ability 'Enhanced Learning', which was a low tier ability that would increase his learning speed by 5%, why not have skill to increase its tier?
This was his ideal first skill to be created by System—skill to permanently upgrade other skills and increase tier of abilities.
Scias used the skill 'Create Skill (System)' and familiar blue text appeared in front of him.
[Skill Creation (System)
To create a skill, you need to convey clear meaning or idea and System will attempt to create the skill.
The skill must be feasible and must follow the rules of this world.
Do you wish to create a skill?
Yes/No]
Scias chose 'Yes'.
[System Notice
Skill Creation (System) has been activated.
Describe or imagine the desired effect of your skill.
After you are finished, speak aloud 'Create Skill'.]
In his mind, Scias proceeded to describe what he wanted the skill to do. He even imagined it, abilities increasing their tier and skills being upgraded.
It didn't take him long and he wasn't sure if he did it right. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke.
"Create Skill."
After that, he waited in anticipation.
[Skill creation in progress.
…
Skill failed to be created.
Skill with the desired effect is impossible to create.
Try again?]
Scias was dejected. He hoped he would be able to bypass the System. He chose not to try again right now, he needed some time to think.
He didn't want to give up. He really wanted it.
'Perhaps only one of the two effects are possible?' he mused.
Maybe increasing tier of abilities is impossible? Or maybe upgrading skills is impossible?
Thus, he wanted to try create skill with only one of those two effects. He would try first to upgrade other skills.
It was time to try it and he activated the skill.
[System Notice
Skill Creation (System) has been activated.
Describe or imagine the desired effect of your skill.
After you are finished, speak aloud 'Create Skill'.]
Then he proceeded to describe and visualize the effect of the skill he wanted.
To upgrade other skills.
"Create Skill," he said.
[Skill creation in progress.
…
Skill failed to be created.
Skill with the desired effect is impossible to create.
Try again?]
Again, the same message appeared.
He didn't despair and immediately tried it again. Now with increasing tier of his abilities.
Activating the skill brought forth the same text.
[System Notice
Skill Creation (System) has been activated.
Describe or imagine the desired effect of your skill.
After you are finished, speak aloud 'Create Skill'.]
Now, he described increasing the tier of abilities, then spoke, "Create Skill."
[Skill creation in progress.
…
Skill failed to be created.
Skill with the desired effect is impossible to create.
Try again?]
"D*mn it!" he exclaimed and closed the text.
He was adamant about having this skill. Even if the effect was somewhat worse than what he wanted.
He continued contemplating.
He tried to simplify it as much as possible yet, preserving the core functionality.
When he was trying to make skill to upgrade other skills, he was thinking that skills are similar to abilities. If abilities have tiers, won't skills have something like that?
Perhaps he was wrong in his assumption.
Also, he was describing having all his skills or abilities improved.
Perhaps only one can be improved and not all?
Many similar thoughts were running through his mind.
Minutes passed.
After around ten minutes of thinking, he decided that he simplified the effects to the best of his ability.
If this failed, he would try to divide it in two again. First, improving skill, then improving ability.
If nothing worked, he would go back to the drawing board and come up with something simpler.
'Let's try it,' he thought.
[Skill Creation (System)
To create a skill, you need to convey clear meaning or idea and System will attempt to create the skill.
The skill must be feasible and must follow the rules of this world.
Do you wish to create a skill?
Yes/No]
Scias chose 'Yes'.
[System Notice
Skill Creation (System) has been activated.
Describe or imagine the desired effect of your skill.
After you are finished, speak aloud 'Create Skill'.]
Scias began very clearly and in detail describe and visualize the effects of the skill he wanted.
First he described having permanently improved effects of one other skill of his choice.
Then, he described having permanently improved effects of one of his abilities.
He was adding more and more information.
The skill would be based on his overall strength, like level, mana capacity and similar.
If he was too weak for the skill, the skill would be locked and he would be unable to use it until he gets stronger.
When he was satisfied, he eventually spoke, "Skill Creation."
[Skill creation in progress.
…
…]
Now he waited.
When the skill didn't fail to be created even after half a minute, he was slowly beginning to rejoice. In every previous attempt, the text appeared within several seconds.
After a minute, new text appeared.
[System Notice
Skill 'Resonance Core' has been successfully created!]
"Yes! It worked!" Scias exclaimed. "But what is this name 'Resonance Core'?
He quickly accessed his skills.
[Skills: 2 (0)
Skill Creation
Resonance Core (5 days)]
Now he focused on 'Resonance Core', curious about the 5 days.
[Resonance Core
A skill that improves the effects of any skill/ability.
The improvement depends on your current level.
Every skill/ability have a limit to their improvement.
Cannot be used to improve itself.
Cooldown: 5 days]
As he looked at what the skill does, he was satisfied, very satisfied.
Even though he wanted something like this, initially he wasn't very hopeful. Now that it worked, he was pleasantly surprised.
'Let's choose some abilities to test this skill,' he thought with a grin on his face.
[Abilities
Class ability: Mana Sense (Mid)
Allows detection of mana sources within a radius proportional to your level and mana capacity.
Neutral ability: Enhanced Learning (Low)
Increases the speed to learn new knowledge by 5%.
Random ability: ???]
Now the 5% for increased speed of learning didn't seem that bad.
Still before choosing 'Enhanced Learning' over 'Mana Sense', he tested if he can sense mana in his surroundings.
Last time he tried it was when he entered Dark Forest for the second time, when he fought his first Water Hare.
That time, he was able to sense mana only in his immediate vicinity, barely a step away in all directions.
Scias focused on spreading his senses.
This time, he sensed mana much further than last time.
It took him a moment to adjust himself to this feeling.
He could sense mana all around him in radius of approximately twenty paces.
This was much better than last time. Also, it means that as he grows stronger, his own mana sense would grow as well.
That caused his hesitation to disappear. He resolutely chose 'Enhanced Learning'.
[System Notice
Ability Enhanced Learning has been learned.]
Now he checked the new abilities he could get.
[Abilities
Class ability: Arcane Insight (Low)
Increases understanding of magic by 5%.
Neutral ability: Physical Fortitude (Low)
Increases physical strength and resistance to fatigue by 5%.
Random ability: ???]
'Now this is interesting. Either I improve my magic or my physique.'
As a mage, having better understanding of magic should be a no brainer.
But also as a mage, relying solely on magic and neglecting his body is not good.
He wouldn't have problems with fatigue, he could get rid of it with his spell. What lured him was the increased physical strength.
Because he already had 'Enhanced Learning', getting 'Arcane Insight' seemed redundant to Scias.
Thus, he chose 'Physical Fortitude'.
[System Notice
Ability Physical Fortitude has been learned.]
Now finally came time to improve one of his abilities.
Expecting no need for physical strength, he would improve 'Enhanced Learning' first.
"Resonance Core," Scias said to activate the skill.
[Skill 'Resonance Core' has been activated.
Choose a skill/ability to improve.]
He chose 'Enhanced Learning'.
For a moment, he thought that it failed because nothing happened.
Suddenly, he felt his whole body tremble, down to his very core.
The tremor went as quickly as it came and then, a new text appeared.
[System Notice
Ability Enhanced Learning (Low) has been improved by skill Resonance Core.]
Scias breathed a sigh of relief after the tremor receded.
'That's why it's called 'Resonance Core',' he thought, remembering the feeling.
It made him feel like he had a connection with the ability. That he resonated with it for a moment.
He took a moment to recollect himself, then he checked the improvement.
[Enhanced Learning (Low)
Increases the speed to learn new knowledge by 5%.]
He was disappointed. Nothing seemed to happen.
He thought that the improvement was so small that it didn't even register.
'Am I too weak?' he thought.
To test if he really can't use the skill for 5 days, he accessed the skills information.
[Skills: 2 (0)
Skill Creation
Resonance Core (4 days 21 hours)]
The skill name was grayed out and he really couldn't use it.
He noticed the time of the cooldown changed. At first he thought it was because he used it and it was now showing the remaining time until next use.
Even the skill description was changed, from five days to four days and twenty one hours.
He stared at it for some time, thinking it would change, but nothing happened.
Then he remembered something he read.
Physical strength can lower the cooldown of skills and he picked up an ability that increased his strength.
'That's how it is,' he mused.
All of a sudden Vel showed up, startling Scias.
Coming back to his senses Scias noticed that the sun was already setting.
While making dinner, he told Vel what happened to him with the skills and abilities.
***
Vel spent some time scouting ahead and relayed the information to Scias.
The path from the village headed southeast and after around half a day of walking, it connected to a bigger road.
Vel didn't see any signs of people when he was looking around.
After a late breakfast, they set off.
Scias wore the black leather clothes he found. He also didn't forget to take the pouch with money he discovered.
He was contemplating on leaving his water skin behind. After all, he used magic to make water.
But then he thought, what if something happened and he was unable to use magic? Thus, he took it with him, keeping fresh water inside at all times.
After ten minutes of walking on the sun, Scias started to complain about the heat.
Vel was up in the sky, not hearing him.
Scias projected his thoughts to him to complain, how discontent he was and he didn't know why it felt so much warmer today.
Vel felt as usual, so he flew closer to him to see what was going on with him.
The only thing different was his clothes.
"I'm fine. Maybe it's your clothes?" Vel told him.
'My clothes?' He looked down to see his clothes and it hit him.
He was fully covered in black leather clothing. The material seemed of high quality, and it was thick.
Scias felt embarrassed that he didn't think about this problem. All he thought about were having nice new clothes. Now he suffered for it.
The feeling of embarrassment was projected to Vel and he laughed at him, flying away, to watch ahead.
'Should I take them off?' he thought.
He touched his clothes and felt they were hotter to touch than his own skin.
Thus, he decided to take them off and carry them, switching them for the shabby clothes he pieced together from all around the village.
Continuing his walk, nothing significant happened. They took occasional rests. When they felt hungry, Vel hunted some small game for them to eat.
As Vel said, around half a day of walking, they arrived to a crossroad.
The path they walked connected a to a well maintained road.
However, at the intersection, there were multiple signs and roadblocks.
When Scias got closer, they became visible. He was curious what they were.
Going around the roadblocks to the main road, letters on the signs became visible to him.
'The same language as what the System uses,' he thought, reading the signs.
'Danger'.
'Do not enter'.
'Monsters'.
'Dark Forest'.
'Elder Black Dragon'.
And other similar signs were placed there. All warnings about danger, to keep people out.
'It wasn't my fault I was there,' he thought dejectedly.
Vel kept to the sky, no one in sight.
"Which way will we go?" came Vel's question.
Scias stopped looking at the signs and began thinking.
They came from northwest and this road would take them either northeast or south.
The road northeast would likely take them around the Dark Forest.
Scias wanted to get away from the forest, not to move near it.
"We'll go south," he said.
"South?" Vel finally came clean and embarrassingly confessed that he didn't know what he meant by that.
Thinking about it, Scias wasn't surprised. He explained the concepts of cardinal directions.
They had some time before sunset, so they decided to keep going for a while.
Before night fell, Vel spotted a forest several leagues away.