Chương 27: Training Skills

"Close your eyes and focus inwards," Healer Castelle said.

"This isn't Mediation or Breathing. Just focus on the skill Soul Sense. Now, slowly and carefully, with as much detail as possible, describe your soul. Don't touch it."

"It feels like something that is me-shaped, but more fluid, right beneath my skin," I slowly replied.

"Good. Don't see inside your soul. Just let your mind pick up on the outline of your soul for now. Each movement, each vibration. Is there a rhythm to your soul's movement?"

"Yes. I think. It is hard to make out precisely, but I feel it surge and settle."

"That is your heartbeat. Your body is influencing your soul. Slowly increase the speed of your breathing and observe the changes in your soul." I varied my breathing for the rest of the lesson, which was finished after an hour.

"How did I do?"

"That isn't the question you should ask. The question you should ask is, did I screw anything up? The answer is no. If you take any lesson away from me, take that one. Stabilize Soul." I felt the wave of Mana hit my soul and enter it with no trace left behind.

"Why didn't you apply that skill when I was concentrating on my soul?"

"You would peer deeper, which comes with a lot of risks. It is tempting, very tempting. Don't. I can't repeat this enough. Everyone thinks they know best. Or that they are special. They know nothing, and they aren't special. Gaining levels in Soul Sense slowly is for the best." I inclined my head slightly.

"I understand, Healer Castelle."

"If I wanted to hold you back, I would never have taught you this. But the risks are immense. Due to the significant risk to users, people heavily frown upon soul skills, as they often lack the usual warnings and safeguards. Now you will focus on Mana Sense. You need to learn to separate and suppress sensory skills as needed. Otherwise, it is easy to disable someone if they have a high-level sensory skill you know is active and can target it to overwhelm them while blocking out their other senses."

"Got it. So, I want to focus on Mana now."

"Yes, same thing. Close your eyes and steady your breathing. Don't focus on yourself; focus on the world and on the skill Mana Sense." Then came another round of instructions, which I listened to carefully. He would point near me, and I would have to detect the stream of Mana passing near my body, not hitting it. My Mana Sense was much more external, whereas my Soul Sense currently focused just under my skin. It was difficult to explain how my brain was interpreting the information.

Healer Castelle told me to take my time, slowly adjusting to the feelings and sensory input from my sensory skills. Leveling them might strengthen them and enable them to pick up details better, but I needed to process and understand those details mentally. It was a key difference in sensory skills and something highly experienced people like Healer Castelle and Tutor Damian knew how to explain.

Skill levels weren't the end-all, be-all of improving one's abilities, there was also using the skill in the best way possible. This increased the level more quickly, but for low-tier skills, a person could brute-force their way to a higher level. It made their use less efficient and slowed down their leveling. The levels represented imprinted knowledge on one's soul. The System leads people to the optimal use of their skills and confirms that for them in their status.

However, just because it was optimal, some skills had more room for improvement than others or interacted with other skills. The System was always watching and always guiding. It was the one veritable god of our world. Some people said that achieving a better status would grant you a better afterlife. Others said that the dungeon was a test by the System and a way to humble people, since even supreme legends like my mother could only go so deep. I hoped she was okay down in the dungeon.

I wasn't sure what to believe, but I agreed on one thing that everyone else agreed on. The System was real, and it was incredibly powerful, as it constantly monitored everyone to display improvement information and provided levels and classes.

"Did you have fun in your weekly training session with Healer Castelle?" Tutor Damian asked me as I entered the library. I had been annoying that I had to stay in my room, away from the wedding and the guests while it was happening. It was good to have the quiet of the mansion return. My hand went up and rubbed the light scar on my neck. I quickly lowered it once I realized what I was doing. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"It was informative.

"Soul Sense and Mana Sense are challenging to separate."

"Ah, skills bleed over. That is a tremendous headache with sensory-type skills. Your low Perception stat isn't helping there either. It is something you absolutely need to focus on. Keeping skills separate allows you to manage them better, especially in combat."

"Combat, really?" I asked, surprised.

"I might not be a fighter, but I read. When you don't want to keep copying the Eldarin Script, you can read these history books. They should also help improve your Combat Tactics," he replied, pointing to the stack of five books on our study table.

"I curated them personally. This library offers a wide selection, but some books are quite dated. I will have to speak with the duke about updating it or having a proper Librarian come through and match the latest published standards of the College of Advancement."

"Is there a public library other people can use?"

"No. Schools and the Adventurer's Guild, which has a semi-public library for its members, receive donated old books. They tried it in the past, but the cost was too high, and it diluted skills for people outside their jobs."

"Is that really a bad thing?"

"You don't realize it since you gain skill levels so easily, but for most people, it is a struggle. Dividing their focus after they have decided on their professions leads to worse outcomes overall. The College of Advancement has conducted numerous studies on this topic. While it might seem wrong to put people on planned career tracks, it is the optimal way for them to achieve the highest levels and strongest skills while having synergy with their class."

"So, most people decide at age eight when their status unlocks?"

"Mostly, yes. It isn't easy to change one's skills. A System Priest is not cheap, and such skill adjustments leave scars on one's soul that don't easily heal. That is why official divorces are so rare among the nobility."

"But a bunch of people go into the dungeon."

"Only the first layer to get red cores and make some money. Most don't go any deeper. Even then, not everyone dares to go down there or has the wealth to hire someone to power level them. Crafting is how most people gain experience."

"What about farmers?"

"There are basic skills like Wood Working, Metal Working, that help them out. Creating and maintaining various pieces of equipment gives them experience. Farming also helps them gain experience when they harvest crops."

"But not a lot?"

"Not a lot. Most people only reach between levels 20 and 40 using such methods over their lifetimes. The early levels are simple to get, which is why people have to decide on their professions early on. Otherwise, they will struggle for the rest of their lives in a profession they are ill-suited for. It isn't perfect, but the System doesn't stop someone from making poor decisions."

"I see. What about other jobs than spellblade?" I asked, curious about other options. Damian shook his head.

"That is a versatile set of skills for clearing the dungeon of monsters. What were you thinking of?"

"Something that gives a tier 6 skill?"

"At most, you will find groups of skills, or skill builds or skill groups, as they are sometimes called, up to tier 4. Even those aren't easy to find and are mostly passed down through families or mentorships as legacies. There are specialized schools for certain builds, and the duke has one for farming here in the duchy. But anything beyond that requires an apprenticeship or becoming a Squire. Tier 5 and tier 6 skills are a huge deal."

"There aren't any commonly known ones?"

"There are rumors and stories. The College of Advancement enables its professors to impart such knowledge to students, many of whom become apprentices under their guidance. Doing various tasks for knowledge and tutoring, like Squires do for your mother."

"I was just thinking I could pick from some higher-tier skills and work towards them," I said. It was an idea I had. I was trying to determine if there was an exploit I could use to advance more quickly, but it didn't seem to be the case.

"You and everyone else wish that. People share lower-tier skills fairly freely, but information becomes much rarer at Tier 4. Even your mother could only impart the foundational skills that enabled her to reach the heights she has. For other skills, you would have to branch out."

"Then what about something like flight? Is there a flying skill?"

"There is a spell, but it is Mana intensive. Want to become a bird?"

"Just thinking about skills. Is there a list somewhere of all the skills?"

"Yes, and no, you are not going to get to look at such a thing. Healer Castelle would kill me if I set you on the path to gaining more skills. For now, trust your mother's vision from her lofty height and my judgment. I have reviewed what she wants you to learn. Weapons Mastery and Runes Mastery are very powerful tier 4 skills, which have a wide range of versatility. Not all skills in the same tier are equally powerful, especially in higher tiers.

While it takes a lot of work to build up their foundation, they won't steer you wrong. Wide-ranging tier 4 skills are hard to get and harder to level, but if you build up the proper foundation, there is nothing better if you want to go further to Tier 5 and 6." It was a bit frustrating to have everything laid out before me, but getting more skills would kill me. Still, I could only imagine the powerful combinations one could get. I shook my head and picked up a history book.

Perhaps something in one of these books would inspire my future skill selection. While I wanted to be a spellblade, having more skills would only increase my options. If I acquire enough Tier 6 skills, I might unlock a Tier 7 skill. I wondered what it would be like? I shook my head and began reading about the Eldarin Empire, from which all modern human kingdoms came.

When his own child assassinated the Eternal Emperor, a series of battles and succession wars ensued, which ultimately led to the formation of the modern kingdoms and nobility. The book was dry, mainly sticking to the facts, but it was quite descriptive of the battles. Troops with lower levels were sent out first to preserve combat power and hopefully wear down the enemy's higher-level troops. It was a brutal but interesting strategy.

The lower-level people who survived would get stronger, while also preserving top combat power as much as possible. Titanic battles had an incredible death toll, since no one could retreat. Many people broke mentally. That was why large-scale conflict after the fall of the Eldarin Empire was rare. Combat mostly involved elites and legends. Gathering large swaths of the population to use as spell fodder was something people looked down on.