Chương 107: Chapter 112: Much to Do

"Should I start correcting my usage then? To not develop bad habits or something? Or maybe get another aura skill?" He smacked his thin lips as he sipped from the glass, satisfied.

"Depends. As I see it, you can either go back to the basics like everyone else, or you can double down on the thing that comes more naturally to you, going the opposite way, mastering the outside and then focusing inside. It's not impossible, just unconventional. Regarding your skills… that is more difficult to answer." I waited for him to finish his glass. He was thinking about something. Then he took out a plate of some kind of meat skewers and took a bite out of one, gesturing for me to do the same.

I took it and chomped down on it. It was delicious. I didn't know I could miss simple salt like this. The meat was hot and cooked to perfection. The inside was tender and juicy…

"So," he continued with his mouth full.

"If you wanted maximum offensive power, you could fill up your ten slots with aura related skills and be done with it."

"That easy? Just buy the relevant skill and become unstoppable?" He smiled as he chewed.

"You're smarter than that. There is no simple solution to this problem. Doing that will give you enormous offensive power, but what about defense? What about awareness? An assassin would stab you in the heart and be done with you while you sleep, despite you being the most powerful between the two."

"I have a sensing skill for that."

"Does it work while you sleep?" he asked while regarding me with a roll of his eyes.

"Touché. So one skill for sensing danger even when I sleep?" I asked him. I knew it wasn't the correct answer. I just wanted more information.

"How about when you'll have to face some being on another planet, where you don't have air breathable for your race? Are you going to just die then? Or let your opponent go if they escape to such a place?" I took a calming breath. It wasn't working.

"Can you please get to the point?"

"The point is that there are too many situations in which a skill would be useful, and we have tools and magical artifacts for doing most of the things we need, like breathing in a sulfur based atmosphere, or underwater. If you start buying a skill for any problem you'll find yourself out of slots very soon. What you need is to understand what you want going forward, and go for it. Anything else be damned."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"It doesn't look like good advice."

"It's the best advice."

"How so?" Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Because if you survive for long enough, you'll have to start to live." He said it, and all the fun and jolly tone he used until now went out of the window in a heartbeat.

"Three of my ten skills are related to teaching, because that is what I love, and I spend most of my time doing just that. You have no idea how many people, friends and lovers I saw becoming a shell of what they were by pursuing another level, another little improvement, without living their life as they should.

They got the best skills and the strongest classes with the best synergies and bonuses, and in the end they died in a ditch somewhere, or they simply offed themselves, because a life of constant strife destroyed them from the inside out." There was harshness in his voice, but sorrow too, so much sorrow. A silence fell between us. We both nursed our drinks. I thought about what he said. Let's be optimistic for once. I free myself from the curse, I kill the bastard that cursed me, and then?

Should I just pursue more power? It's a fun thing now, but what about in a hundred years? A thousand? Would I still think the same as today? Probably not, but I was living and doing my things even without a class and skills. I had my hobbies, my life, and I never needed a multiversal System interface to tell me who I was and what I could and couldn't do. Maybe his worldview was different because he was born in the Nexus, or maybe I was the naive one, to doubt the words of a centuries old blue alien.

"Let's say I want to go toward the power route for now, and I'll keep a couple of slots free for the future, just to stay safe. What do you suggest?" He raised his glass and downed the drink.

"In that case, know that the System shop is not available outside of the tutorial. Acquiring naturally any kind of skill is extremely hard on your own, even with a teacher. So go for something that you would have trouble acquiring, or that would be impossible for your race to acquire. A resistance type skill would be good, better if it pairs with your aura. You know how I managed to get three slots with teaching skills?"

"No, I have no idea. Is it because you're a good teacher?" He scoffed.

"Well yes, of course. But no, it's because in a battle that nearly cost me everything I had, I had an epiphany. I merged four aura skills into one. Creating a skillset. Usually I wouldn't advise this route to anyone, but you're in the tutorial, and apparently pulling skills out of your ass is your talent, so maybe you should think about it."

"Are you still mad about the mutated barrier?" I asked in a joking tone. He pointed a finger at me.

"That was total bullshit, it shouldn't be possible!" Then in a lighter mood he went on.

"Yes, in part it's for that, but also because during our spar you made your dart resonate with your aura. Your skills were syncing. Fucking ridiculous…" I thought about it. If I could take Aural Manifestation and merge some other skills into it, maybe some skill that overlapped even slightly, I could make everything work better. They would be stronger. But if I couldn't, I would get stuck with skills I couldn't remove anymore. A gamble.

"I'll think about it. I will still try to see if spellcasting is something I can seriously pursue, and about my hexes and curses, I am invested in that too. Despite how I fight, my hardest fight I won with those tools. If I could merge them with my aura skill… I don't know, I already have a trait that points me in that direction."

"It is a possibility. I know you're cursed already, and I learned a thing or two from your aura, but I'm not sure you really want to go that route. It will be a painful one. Curses of the level you sent at me are a joke. The ones at the higher tiers would unmake even the strongest will. But you know that, don't you?" I finished my glass. I felt a tad woozy, but I was much better.

"I do." I stood up from the chair.

"Thank you Vix, for the pointers and the alcohol. I will be back for some training I think, but for now I have other duties to attend to." He raised his glass to me.

"Come by anytime. You'll find out that I'll be more than willing to smack you around a bit, for a fee this time! And on another note, send to me your fierce companion, the angry female."

"Alya? Of course." That's one way of describing her, I suppose. I waved him goodbye as I exited the training hall. I took back all my equipment and made for the shop. I had much to do.