Chương 27: Merging

I followed Shave's advice as closely as I could. When it came to manipulating the skill orbs with willpower, I thought it was going to be much more difficult than it actually was. Along with the instinct of knowing which Skill orb was which, came a faint degree of control. It was like breathing—manual breathing, that was. (Which had the side-effect of making me start thinking about my breathing right then and there. And the second-order effect of me realizing that I could use that on one of my squadmates. What were the chances they'd spent much time thinking about manual breathing before? Did Dupes function differently that way?) That was one of the many trains of thought my enhanced Focus took me on. Thankfully, I could pretty much breathe manually without losing Focus on the Skill orbs, and I had plenty of Focus to spare on mental side-tangents. I pushed the orbs around the Nodespace. First, I selected the Skills that I didn't want to risk. At least, not in my first merge, when I had no idea what I was doing.

Or, not no idea, but more like half an idea. I pushed [Spearmanship (Apprentice)] and [Archery (Novice)] off to the side, making sure I wouldn't end up using them at all, in either merge. Then I sorted the rest into two groups. There were the activity-focused skills, which I could put toward an Art, and then a bunch of 'crafting' Skills. If what Shave said was true, then I could slightly influence the outcome of the merge with the ingredients I used. That logically tracked.

He also implied that the three fodder skills didn't matter, but I didn't buy that. Or, perhaps it was possible to create a weak Art with three fodder skills, but I bet it'd be better if I picked skills that were closer in purpose. I wanted the strongest Art I could get. Ultimately, knowledge Skills would merge together into a stronger knowledge Skill. Fodder for higher-tier merges. Skills that had more to do with an action, with combat, had a higher chance of becoming an Art.

But being a soulstealer, I had a chance of getting a more unusual Art, something removed from my abilities. For my activity-focused Skills, I had [Skiing (Apprentice)], [Knifework (Novice)], and [Armour Use (Novice)]. Armour use was pushing it, but I wasn't horribly fussed. It felt different than the crafting and knowledge skills, because it was focused more around combat. Then, I gathered up the other crafting and knowledge Skills.

I started with [Eye For Framing (Apprentice)], which I had debated internally if it was a crafting skill, but eventually, I came to the conclusion that it fit here the best. Next was [Stealth (Novice)], and I added [Stone Carving (Novice)], [Woodworking (Novice)], and [Etching (Novice)] to the pile. Lastly, I pushed in [Leather Embossing (Novice)] and [Labyrinth Survival (Novice)]. [Labyrinth Survival] was fine. At least, if it encompassed what I thought it did, then it was useful.

I was pretty sure it referred to some of my minor cooking abilities I'd gotten from peeling potatoes, but also to my ability to find traps and avoid them. I didn't want to lose it, so to give it the best shot of sticking around, I used it as the base of my first Skill merge. Then, I needed a secondary Skill. I picked [Eye For Framing]. I didn't need to keep my knowledge of film school perfectly intact, and most importantly, it seemed useful with my Focus.

It would help me observe an entire battlefield, or a combat situation in general. I didn't want to lose all of it. I moved them closer together, then picked three other fodder Skills. [Etching], [Woodworking], and [Leather Embossing]. First, I concentrated on all of them, pulling the orbs as close together as they would go, then I mashed [Eye for Framing] with [Labyrinth Survival], creating the base. They blended into an unknowable brown orb. It was misty and cloudy, almost like Welkinmere. It was unstable.

I had a feeling if I stopped now, I'd lose both skills forever. As quickly as I could, I pulled in the other three, combining them into a slightly larger brown sphere. At first, it felt like nothing changed, but then a pulse of invisible energy raced through my resonance nodes. My muscles quivered and twitched, and my spine trembled. The back of my skull went numb. When the pulse ended, I was left staring up at the top of the tent, with Shave leaning over me.

"What skill did you get?" he asked.

"I'll have to get the reading slate, won't I?"

"No, just focus on it, like you did with the other skills. It should be there, and you should just know it." I drew my attention back into my Nodespace for a second and locked onto the new skill I'd created, then assessed it as best I could. Like with the other skill orbs, it rang out in my mind, and I just knew what this was. [Labyrinth Delver (Apprentice)].

"Apprentice?" I breathed.

"The result of a merge will always be a tier higher than the majority of its ingredients. If you use all novice Skills, the result will be Apprentice-tier. If three or more of the ingredients are Apprentice-tier, it will become a Journeyman Skill." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! I nodded.

"Should I know what it does?"

"If it's a knowledge skill, it will be an evolution of the knowledge the main, original Skill granted you, combined with the effects of the secondary skill and traces of the fodder. At Castle Urcia, there are thousands of Skill merging guides with ingredients and merging chains to get very specific skills, but I don't know any of them off the top of my head. We weren't taught much about merging."

"And if I get an Art? Should I know what it does?"

"Not precisely, but that's where experimentation comes into play. It's far easier to figure out exactly what an Art does after a little experimentation."

"So much for the system of numbers and letters making things easier," I muttered.

"Just be thankful you don't have to learn an Art from scratch." I nodded, then pulled my mind back into my Nodespace. I needed to complete the second merge, and I had just enough spare Skills to pull it off. What did I want for the base? For all the talk of potential randomness, [Labyrinth Delver] wasn't horribly random. This was my best chance at getting an Art, and I couldn't waste it. I could still guide the outcome slightly, even if me being an Atoning might make it drift slightly.

The resulting Skill was going to be Apprentice-tier no matter what, so I needed to focus less on the perceived strength of the ingredient skills and more on what I actually wanted the skill to become. If I wanted to make an Art, my best shot was to start with something that was activity-based. I ruled out [Stealth (Novice)] and [Stone Carving (Novice)] because they were just knowledge and crafting skills.

To be fair, the line was painfully blurry, but [Skiing (Apprentice)], [Knifework (Novice)], and [Armour Use (Novice)] all felt like something that I could actually apply to a combat situation. Technically, it was all still knowledge, but if I wanted an Art, I needed to start with something that was usable like that. [Skiing] was fine, but I didn't want it to be the base. It would be helpful as a second addition, though.

It had weight, and the ups and downs of the jumps felt like the force manipulations that our Arts were supposed to be. It could use my knowledge of jumping and landing, or redirecting my motion as I swerved down a hill. But considering what I needed right now, I debated between [Armour Use] and [Knifework], before finally settling on [Armour Use]. I needed something more broad, something heavy. Something that let me keep a firm stance and was grounded. Knifework was too refined, too precise.

I could use a spear for that. The Art needed to be useful for offense and defense, too—I had plenty of offense right now, but I was pretty vulnerable. So I started with [Armour Use] and merged [Skiing] into it, then snagged the remaining three skills I had deemed worthy of the task, then merged them in, creating another swirling brown sphere. Instead of pulling myself out of the Nodespace right away, I locked onto the sphere and assessed it, and realized that I already knew what it was.

[Art: Basic Gravity Manipulation (Apprentice)] I ripped myself out of the Nodespace and bolted upright.

"Oh my god."

"What happened?" Shave asked.

"Did it work?"

"I got an Art," I replied.

"Gravity Manipulation." The two main skills—[Armour Use] and [Skiing] had influenced it just enough. Nudged it enough in the right direction. Shave blinked a few times.

"On the Pillar, Levi! That's incredible."

"What can I do with it?"

"Let's go to Galliard, and just check the slate for a second," Shave said.

"You don't believe me?"

"I need to see it with my own eyes." So we travelled to Galliard's tent. He was just putting the slate back into a padded chest when we arrived, but Shave said, "Apologies for the intrusion, commander. I would like, as a sergeant, to request that we get to use the reading slate again. For Levi."

"Why's that?" Galliard asked, turning to face us.

"He completed a Skill merge, commander. He has an Art." Galliard raised his eyebrows.

"How?"

"I…I have been working hard on a bunch of obscure skills," I said.

"And certainly, our time in the Labyrinth helped." After all, I had to explain how I had a skill called [Labyrinth Delver].

"Very well," Galliard said, then retrieved the slate. I took hold of it, and although nothing near the top had changed, my skills now read: Skills: Spearmanship (Apprentice), Archery (Novice), Labyrinth Delver (Apprentice), Art: Basic Gravity Manipulation (Apprentice) For a moment, I considered whether any of the knowledge I'd actually accumulated was gone. Apparently, a faulty merge could do that—it could literally erase memory. But that didn't seem to be the case.

I couldn't resonate any of the Skills I'd merged, but now I had three very useful abilities and a vast mark of accumulated knowledge.

"By the Pillar, Levi…" Shave said again.

"See?" I replied.

"How did you do this?" Galliard said, walking up to me.

"At Homecamp, perhaps a devoted Dupe could have managed this, but out here?"

"Sir, I've been working hard every day."

"Not a 'sir'."

"Sorry. But…I've been working hard. Every day, when we travelled out on the watchtower report duty, I practiced as much as I could."

"Yes, but it is still nearly impossible."

"Almost every waking hour."

"When you're not fighting with your brothers, that is." I gulped.

"That was one time." Galliard took another look at the slate, then sighed.

"The highly motivated Dupes get sent to the good battalions too soon and find themselves killed in battle far too early—aside from the sappers. Out here, you won't find anyone who'll put in the work. We're just satisfied with making it to Iron. You don't belong with us, Levi."

"Th—thank you?"

"Do your best you can, for now. I'll see about having you transferred to a different battalion. Perhaps one better suited to your capabilities."

"Thank you, Commander."

"Don't thank me yet. And it's no guarantee."

"Still, thank you."

"Now, no more using the slate until next month—we can't go setting a precedent, now, can we? If there's nothing else, you two are dismissed."