Chapter 75: Two Paths Diverged in the Verdant (Patreon)

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

He’d pulled out all of his previous organization, as he wanted to reassess them with fresh eyes and with advice from someone he trusted more than Lefi. Still, they quickly eliminated some Paths like Slave, Child, and Novice- Paths with little to no or harmful impact. That was followed by the mundane profession Paths, like Brickmaker, Gardener, and Physical Laborer. Sure, they might give him something good, but he also couldn’t confess to being terribly interested in them over their more interesting counterparts. He similarly couldn’t claim to find appeal in his Ascetic, Exile, Rebel, Recluse, Traveler, Revolutionary, and Imperial Ally paths nor their ilk, so those got cut next.

From there, Inion helped him pick out the ones which were likely to give him an Attribute; namely Path Less Traveled, Scout and Athlete. He asked about getting Intelligence or some other related attribute, hopeful that he might be able to get it through Scientist or Researcher, but Inion told him that given he already had mind-related Skills pertaining to research, it was unlikely that he would get the attribute from anything he had unlocked. In fact, shy of something along the lines of a Genius path, he was probably out of luck for Willpower and Intelligence. Edwin didn’t really understand it, but Inion seemed certain, so…

Edwin mentally shrugged. It didn’t matter that much, he supposed. He liked to think he was already smart enough to survive, but was realistic enough to recognize that was an idle hope at best.

Inion also thought there was a good chance that Unkillable would give him Constitution, which he was initially in favor of, but she also said that there were cheaper Paths liable to give the Attribute. Edwin wasn’t sure if it was worth waiting on something that stood such a good chance of keeping him alive, but the 90-point Path was a pretty big commitment.

He’d reassess it once he had everything figured out, but for now he reluctantly set it to the side for the time being. He’d probably still take it in the end anyway. Not dying was high on his priority list, after all. Apparently Path Less Traveled was a Big Deal, because Inion said that it was still a priority even with the cost.

That was when it started getting hard. Virtually any of the remaining Skills he would most likely be content with. Assassin would help him survive by staying unseen, Escapee would help him avoid mental ensnarement, Titan Slayer would give some really great combat Skill that would aid him in taking down strong foes…

Okay, think. If two Paths had the same point cost, the more general one was probably superior for someone like him, who needed broadly applicable Skills rather than a few specialized tools. Unless, of course, he really liked the sounds of the Path. That was also a factor to consider. However, more expensive Paths would give him Skills that were more distinct from what he currently had, and that was generally a good thing, so….

He still set aside Realm Traveler on account of being just too expensive for the time being, World Traveler and Way of the Empty Hand for just more or less being more specific variations of Wanderer and Warrior, Almanac Administrator for not being what he could most benefit from…. It was a painful process, but he slowly narrowed it down.

Hunter and Killer would be cheap ways to get attack Skills, was that worthwhile?

He only really needed one Medic skill, what did he want to focus on?

How many Fey-related Paths should he go for?

Blackstone Conqueror, Stonehide Vanquisher, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter, Superior Alchemist were all likely Trophy Paths. How many did he want? Which did he want? Did he want any?

He only needed one fire-related Skill if he was being honest, but Firestarting had been so useful he should probably take a flame-focused Path to give it a potentially even better use, though he only needed one, and it probably wasn’t going to be Autopyromaniac.

Did he want Skill Researcher or System Scholar? Did he want either? Both? Hmmm….

Master of Obairlann would probably tie him to its eponymous location in some way, and considering he was about to leave, it wouldn’t be the most useful. Unless it would be? Ah, maybe if he already had a teleportation Skill. But probably not yet.

He… probably didn’t need more explosion-related Skills. At least not yet, right? He was cautious about blowing himself up following the assassin’s attack.

Primal Ritualist and Constructor were both rather expensive, and Edwin wasn’t sure if he wanted the nature overtones they brought with them. The natural world was fine, but he was no Biologist.

On something of a whim, he decided to sort them based on what their categories seemed to be. Maybe that would help him figure things out, based on how he wanted his Skill distribution?

Attributes Likely

Path Less Traveled 0/90, Scout 0/60, Athlete 0/60, (Unkillable 0/90)

Trophy: Blackstone Conqueror 0/60, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter 0/60, Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Superior Alchemist 0/60

Combat: Alchemical Warrior 0/90, Assassin 0/60, Giant Slayer 0/60, Heedless Hunter 0/60, Hunter 0/30, Killer 0/30, Titan Slayer 0/90, Trapper 0/60, Warrior 0/60

Magic: Mage 0/60, Magical Gardener 0/60, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Novice Pyromancer 0/60, Novice Ritualist 0/60, Skilled Arcanist 0/60

Science: Alchemist 0/60, Chemist 0/60, Biologist 0/60, Physicist 0/60, Engineer 0/60, Experimenter 0/60, Purifier 0/30, Researcher 0/60, Scientific Revolutionary 0/90, Scientist 0/60

Physical: Physical Alchemist 0/90, Physical Arcanist 0/60

Medical: Alchemical Medic 0/60, Field Medic 0/60, Steadfast Medic 0/60

Alchemical: Makeshift Alchemist 0/60, Potioneer 0/60, Practical Alchemist 0/60

Fey: Fey Friend 0/60, Feybound 0/60, Feycaller 0/60, Fey Scion 0/60, Feytouched 0/90

Other: Adventurer 0/30, Daredevil 0/60, Dedicated Student 0/60, Escapee 0/30, Explorer 0/60, Forerunner 0/60, Outsider 0/60, Pioneer 0/60, Skill Researcher 0/60, System Scholar 0/60, Wanderer 0/60

Hmm. It didn’t make things any easier, but it did help him visualize everything better. He had fifty Paths to choose between, and eighteen Skills to go with them. This… was going to be tricky.

He didn’t need that many combat Skills, and so he could eliminate the ones like Hunter, Killer, and Assassin which… well, no, Assassin might be useful given how it stood a chance of giving him some sort of stealth Skill. Well, Trapper, then. Or no. Traps would work well with his theoretically perfect fighting style, wouldn’t they? Setting up hazards and letting people blunder into them? Well, he could take out the 30 and 90-point Paths if nothing else. He wanted to try and use Alchemical Warrior on Bomb Throwing when the time came. But he could probably re-earn it if he tried? He’d gotten it escaping the dwarves, hadn’t he?

Darn it, this was supposed to simplify things!

Fine. He’d take out the 30-point ones- with none of his current Skills really all that combat focused, he’d need something with a bigger impact. He’d also take out Heedless Hunter and Warrior, the former because he felt like whatever Skill it provided would involve hurting himself, which he wasn’t terribly fond of, and the latter because… well, no. He’d leave Warrior in for now, as a nice generic combat Path.

Magical Gardener… nah. He wasn’t likely to keep growing stuff while on the road. It might be useful if he ever settled down again, but not for the time being. Micro-Biomancer would probably be very cool, but more effective if he already had something… Nutrition would probably pair well with it, wouldn’t it? Hadn’t he gotten the two at the same time? It was still expensive, though. Off to the side for now.

Well, with Science, at least the choice was easy! He was a physicist and alchemist, not a biologist. That said, he certainly was more of a biologist than a doctor, so… he moved the Skill over to his ‘medic’ category. Purifier might be nice… he’d see if he needed a cheaper Path. Experimenter, Researcher, and Chemist were all great… but inferior to the others.

Did he want his physical Skill to involve magic or alchemy? Hmmm….

Choosing a medical Skill should have been easy, but did he really want to hyper-focus on alchemy? It might leave him vulnerable if he was ever caught unawares. So should he take Field Medic? It was between Alchemical and Field for the time being at least. But maybe he should go with Biologist? It would be somewhat out of left field, but he trusted his science background far more than he did his half-remembered first aid skills from his days as a scout, so it might work in his favor. Between Alchemical Medic, Field Medic, and Biologist, then.

Potioneer… Edwin wasn’t really sure what that would do. Well, it would help him make potions, that much was obvious, but that was only one part of alchemy, and one he was already decent at for that matter. Shouldn’t he try to expand his capabilities? Makeshift Alchemist would probably help him with difficulties he might encounter from not having adequate supplies, but Practical just sounded… well, practical.

His Fey paths… Feybound and Feycaller both seemed suboptimal. He wasn’t really inclined to try waking up or dealing with any more, making Feycaller superfluous, and Feybound made Edwin think it might make him more susceptible to fey influence. It would no doubt come with some really impressive benefits, but he wasn’t sure the added benefits outweighed what he’d get from Fey Scion or Feytouched. Fey Friend seemed fine, but the name just didn’t seem quite as impressive to him as Scion or -touched. Petty, perhaps, but he needed some way to narrow down what Paths he was taking, and if it came down to personal preference in the end, may as well get a bit ahead of the curve there.

Adventurer… well, Edwin wasn’t sure what that might provide him. It might give him some sort of general-purpose Skill that aided him as he wandered about, or it might do something tying him to the Empire in some way. Given the Path wasn’t Lirasian Adventurer, he doubted it, but it was still something to keep in mind.

Daredevil would… hmmm. He needed to think about that.

A bit of conversing with Inion and general musing later, he felt like it would probably give him some sort of crash-resistance Skill, possibly evolving Flexibility to improve his capabilities of absorbing falls and blunt attacks. The question was, did he really need that? Between Health and whatever he ended up choosing to enhance his combat and physical prowess, not to mention his current non-Skill proficiency with ducking and rolling, he could deal with most situations well enough. Did he need more? Eh, probably not. It would be more of a niche Skill if his predictions were right. He’d keep it in mind in case he needed an extra Path for some reason, but he’d take it off for the time being.

Escapee was a cheap path with some utility. Keep for now.

Explorer and Forerunner were similar, but Edwin couldn’t say he was terribly inclined to go exploring trackless wildernesses… no, that was flatly untrue. He was still in the mindset of Earth, where there wasn’t anywhere left to explore. He absolutely needed one of them, but which? And was Adventurer close enough to count? Argh! He wanted everything!

Outsider he absolutely wanted. It was the main Path (alongside Path Less Traveled and the Almanac skills) that would let him leverage his supposedly mythical status as an Outsider. Well, Realm Traveler also fit into that mold, but he was not spending that many points on a Path this tier. The unique aspects of it would probably be largely wasted, but if he waited for a Tier or two, well, he might well get some kind of teleportation ability.

Inion had told him flat-out that nothing he had was close enough to teleportation for even the 120-point Path to get him there, but depending on his advancements, he might get there next Tier. Longstrider, which was what Lefi had predicted he’d get by taking Wanderer to evolve Walking, might make it possible- he dropped it on his list of strong contenders. In addition, Wanderer just spoke to him on some level. It encapsulated what he wanted to be in this next phase of his life. It was simple, yet profound

In any case, Outsider was on the shortlist. Pioneer was more debatable, though. It was halfway between his System paths and Explorer…. Would it be better to have more Skills like that, or fewer? Why did this have to be so hard?

Dedicated Student… maybe it would help him learn faster? He already had Memory for that sort of thing, though…. Maybe a focus Skill? That would be appealing, but given it required a year of work to unlock the Path, it was more likely to give some sort of willpower improvement. That was honestly kind of appealing… Hmm. He’d put it to the side for now. While appealing, it didn’t seem like the kind of Path or Skill that would help him with his attention span, which was all he really needed assistance in that regard.

Edwin had no clue what Skill Researcher or System Scholar might get him. Maybe some sort of Skill-identifying upgrade to Identify? But he could already sort of mimic that with Almanac. Should he wait for next Tier and see if they would evolve Almanac? Outsider’s Almanac was already a fantastic Skill, he couldn’t imagine how good it would get if he managed to get it integrated into the System further. System Scholar would be put off to the side for now, then. Skill Researcher, though? He needed to understand the System, and Skill Researcher seemed to fit that bill perfectly.

Tallying them, that left… 36 Paths. Still twice as many as he really needed.

Okay, time to get picky. Titan Slayer was cool, but if he was to take a 90-point Path, it wasn’t going to be that one. He wanted to invest more points where he actually wanted to focus. He wasn’t going to be a Forerunner, leading people to new frontiers; Explorer fit him much better. Pioneer met a similar fate. He’d look at them both again when he was ready to teach people.

Escapee and Purifier were both nice, cheap Skills, but he didn’t want cheap. Ironically, he couldn’t afford cheap. He could spend a few more months getting the points needed for his more expensive Paths if need be, he could push through a bit more training if needed.

Deepwoods Panther-Hunter and Stonehide Vanquisher… they were cool, and trophy Paths were very cool, but he didn’t know if they quite stacked up to their competition. Did he really need four trophy Skills, anyway? He’d rather take the ones based on his alchemical prowess rather than his ability to swing on a vine or burn himself half to death.

Okay. He could work with this.

Two trophy Paths, one or maybe two combat-oriented Paths, two or three magic paths, two or three science paths, one physical Path, one medical Path, one or two alchemical Paths, one or two fey Paths, and up to five ‘other’ Paths. That was a total of sixteen to twenty one Paths, which was right in the ballpark of what he needed.

That just left the question of which.

Attributes

Path Less Traveled 0/90, Scout 0/60, Athlete 0/60, (Unkillable 0/90)

Skill Improvements

Blackstone Conqueror, Superior Alchemist, Adventurer, Explorer, Outsider, Skill Researcher, Wanderer, (One or two of Alchemical Warrior, Assassin, Giant Slayer, Trapper, Warrior), (two or three of Mage, Novice Pyromancer, Novice Ritualist, Skilled Arcanist), (two or three of Alchemist, Physicist, Engineer, Scientific Revolutionary, Scientist), (one of Physical Alchemist, Physical Arcanist), (one of Alchemical Medic, Field Medic, Biologist), (one or two of Makeshift Alchemist, Practical Alchemist), (one or two of Fey Scion, Feytouched)

He stared at the list for a fair while longer, going back and forth on what he wanted, debating the merits of what each might provide. Alchemical Warrior would lean into what he wanted his strengths to be, Assassin and Trapper would help keep him safe, and who knew what Giant Slayer or Warrior might give him.

Mage was a nice, broad Path that would give him more magic; Novice Pyromancer would give him Basic Pyromancy in conjunction with Firestarting; Novice Ritualist may be exactly what he needed to become a true mage-scientist, if he got a Skill that aided him with rituals in general; and Skilled Arcanist had already given him one of his most powerful Skills with Mana Infusion, who knew what else it might provide?

Alchemist again played to his strengths, Engineer might give him some sort of artificing ability to help with mechanical creations, Physicist played to his experience, Scientific Revolutionary was just awesome, Scientist was nice and broad. Physical Alchemist sounded to him like steroids and potions of strength, whereas Physical Arcanist was more of a ‘punch wizard,’ if that memeworthy concept translated to Joriah.

Alchemical Medic was more potent, Field Medic less likely to be interfered with. Makeshift Alchemist helped his resiliency, Practical Alchemist was exactly the sort of thing he needed to push ahead with his bombs and potions. Fey Scion and Feytouched… he didn’t know enough about either (and Inion was no help), but he suspected that Scion would give him fey abilities of some form, whereas -touched would change him to become more feylike. What that entailed, he wasn’t sure.

He just kept going back and forth on what he wanted, what his plans were, and he eventually had to admit he just didn’t know. He could play it by ear, he could push it off just a bit more. After all, he still had some Skills to level and explore fully.

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Edwin worked to eke out a few more levels with Identify, trying something relatively novel and pairing it directly with Basic Mana Sense- something he hadn’t really thought to do until recently. By the end, he had pushed his range up to a good fifty meters- quite respectable and absolutely sufficient for his purposes.

He gorged himself on pretty much anything edible he could find, and with Nutrition, that was a lot. Seeing he pushed by trying to mess up his vision, with sheets of ice and glowing potions, mist and smoke, and pushing through even that.

Most of his attention, though… mostly, it was focused on Packing and Firestarting, his two all-star Skills.

With Firestarting, his primary focus continued to be on finessing it, trying to manipulate its area of effect. He managed to constrain it to just his fingertip, and then push it out to the end of a stick. That allowed him to burn single dots onto wood held over his fire, but that wasn’t enough.

It took him a week, but he managed to get the area burned changed from a dot to a line. Then, a line to a curve. A curve into multiple curves. Curves into simple shapes. Simple shapes to detailed shapes. It took intense focus and significant amounts of time, but he could manage it, in large part thanks to Visualization actually giving him the capability to, well, visualize where the area was affecting.

He tried to get the Skill to help his breathing, and while he got a few levels in the latter, Firestarting didn’t seem to do much. It was probably for much the same reason he didn’t make iron rust, some intentional safeguard crafted by the System to avoid such a major and obvious side effect. Or maybe he was totally wrong about how the Skill worked. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time.

Edwin didn’t stay idle on Packing, either, though he made much less headway. Progress in the manner he was already trying felt akin to hitting his head against a brick wall. He needed some sort of fundamental shift to his approach, but what?

-----

Edwin’s balance wasn’t improved by Packing, he had found. However, between Flexibility and Athletics, his ‘natural’ balance was nearing the peak of human capability. Thus, he was able to sit not exactly comfortably, but at least competently, while balancing on the top of his stick.

However, while using Packing, he should have theoretically been able to lean to the side and not overbalance, it didn’t work so well in practice. While the stick didn’t just push into the ground thanks to Packing spreading the weight out across the ground, it didn’t provide any support to the rest of his body. It all just came from the stick.

It didn’t stop him from trying to lean out as far as possible, though. He felt like if he could master this, he might be able to master flight. Unfortunately, it hadn’t borne fruit yet.

This time, he was attempting something different. Mana Infusion through Packing helped strengthen objects, but what about if he tried to use it on two different things simultaneously? He threaded a trickle of mana out of his foot and into the wooden rod supporting him, and without letting it finish, he also connected it to his shoe, trying to reinforce them as a single object. It wasn’t the first time he’d done this experiment, naturally, but it had never worked before.

It didn’t work this time, either. The stick filled up with mana and refused to smoothly bridge the gap to his boot, which frustrated him to no end. It shouldn’t make that much of a difference, should it? He could Infuse and reinforce objects made from different materials no problem, so why was this different?

He kept working at it for a while longer, but as night began to set in, he nearly gave up. What even was the issue? It wasn’t like there was any fundamental difference between the leather of his boots and the wood of his stick. It was all just carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen once you got down there, just arranged in different ways. They may not have been held together by molecular bonds, but then again, neither was a lot of the wood! They were all just different cells, vaguely kept together by electromagnetic forces in the form of friction or bonds. That wasn’t different from his boots and his stick! He’d cleaned off the bottom, it wasn’t dust getting in the way.

What could be the difference? Edwin cast his mind back to Earth, trying to figure out what kinds of bonds Infusion used to determine what was a single ‘object,’ though he could still Infuse an object made of multiple materials.

Hmmm… hydrogen bonds? Van der Waals? No, that applied to everything. Gah, OChem was so long ago. Was there some kind of structure involved in holding cells together or something? A framework of some variation? Though that wasn’t true for metals- though metals were essentially just one giant molecule, so maybe they got a pass- and it wouldn’t be true for water. Literally just gluing the two together should do the trick, and why was glue special. A lot of the time, glue was just vaguely hydrogen bonds, but hydrogen bonds existed between everything. The only thing that made glue special was that it seeped into microscopic pores and just stayed there, displacing the air!

And then it clicked.

The first thing Edwin noticed was that he no longer needed to work on balancing in order to stay perched on his stick. Instead, his entire body felt remarkably sturdy, as though he were wrapped in form-fitting foam or buried in sand, though without the pressure associated with the latter.

“Huh. Hey Inion! I think I got it!” he called out.

“Did you? Good job! Let’s see!” Inion was over in a flash, and snatched his stick out from under him. Edwin half-expected to find himself dragged along with the pole, having used it as an anchor. Instead, he found that his support immediately vanished and he crashed to the ground.

“Uhhh… Guess not,” he groaned. “I could have sworn that I had it that time. It felt so different.”

“Well, whaddidya do?”

“I was thinking about what utter nonsense it is for magic to treat ‘objects’ as distinct in any real meaningful way, especially those made of varying types of materials. Hmmm….”

Edwin experimentally tried Infusing the rock he was on, and some minutes later when it was complete, he tried imagining much the same thing as before- that the two objects were held together by the exact same forces as the forces within the same object, albeit in a much weaker manner.

That didn’t work.

Okay, what was it then? The glue?

A lot of the time, just utilized hydrogen bonds, but hydrogen bonds existed between practically everything. What made glue special? It just seeped into microscopic pores and just stayed there. It was as though air was a liquid that could harden into a solid.

If glue made two things the same, then so should air!

Click.

Ah. There we go.

So had Edwin been unintentionally hindering himself by trying to ease himself into supporting himself through air alone? The secret was just to persuade the magic that air was part of ‘him’ and so Packing should apply to it? That was… well, it made sense. It wasn’t overly simple, it wasn’t super obvious, it wasn’t some basic trick that he should have gotten ages ago. Rather, it was hard work, practice, and a good understanding of the fundamentals of the universe.

The feeling of support he got from Packing like this was unusual, but not uncomfortable. All the weight of supporting himself, no matter how miniscule, was gone, though he was still able to move more or less freely.

“Yeah, I got it,” he settled, drawing Inion’s attention back to him. “I just had to apply science to everything I’ve mastered so far. Not easy, but I might be able to coach someone through the process.”

“Can you teach me?”

“No, someone with Packing, obviously,” He sighed. “Besides, you can already fly… aaand you’re just messing with me. Anyway.”

“What’s keeping you up? Mana or stamina?”

“Mana, I think. I don’t have Stamina, though?”

“Ah, everyone has Attributes. When you unlock one, you just get a number for it and have it strengthened. I think six or seven is what you might normally start with?”

“Huh. You couldn’t have told me this before because..?”

“You didn’t ask,” she teased.

“I could have sworn that I did, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Nope.”

“How long can you keep it up, do you think?”

“Uhhh….”

There was a slight ongoing drain on his mana, but it didn’t seem like it would run dry any time soon.

“Indefinitely, maybe? There’s just a trickle of my mana going into it.”

“Really? Can you do anything beyond just sort of floating an inch above the ground?”

“I don’t want to try and accept any Skills, though?”

Inion reached out and whacked his head, breaking his concentration and dropping him to the ground, “Ow! What was that for?”

“You know that you don’t need Skills to do something. It just makes it easier. Now, start floating again and push more mana into it.”

Edwin grumbled but complied. Now that he knew the trick, it only took him about a minute to get into the proper mindset needed for him to levitate, but it didn’t make it any easier to maintain. Sensing his own mana was easier than sensing any outside of him, but pushing at the mana didn’t seem to really do all that much. Or rather, he was already pushing as much as he could at the Skill, and that was what was just barely allowing him to hover.

“I don’t think I can. My mana manipulation Skill is stuck at level nine.”

Inion looked at him, disappointed.

“Hey! I didn’t know any better! It was like my fifth day here,” he defended himself.

She sighed, “Well, you can always try to improve without the System, or hope that your Skill helps with the cost in some way once you take it.”

Edwin could only shrug helplessly, “I guess?”

He checked his notifications. Sure enough, the message he was hoping for was present.

You have unlocked the Flight skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

He declined it for the moment- accepting it now would throw off everything he’d been working towards- content in the knowledge he could re-unlock it shortly, once he had all his Paths completed. In the meantime, he decided to peek in and see how his Skills were going.

Level Up!

Skill Points 1473→1508

Progress to Tier 2: 1590/1770 (Avg level: 78/77)

Basic Mana Sense 77 → 82

Breathing 75 → 76

Firestarting 90→ 94

Flexibility 74→ 76

Identify 71→ 80

Mana Infusion 83→85

Memory 56→57

Nutrition 69→73

Outsider’s Almanac 124→ 125

Packing 83→ 92

Seeing 70 → 72

Visualization 78→ 80

Well then, Edwin thought with a smirk, Time to get started.

Name

Edwin Maxlin

Age

1 year

Race

Extraplanar Human

Class

Sapper

Attributes

Mana 5

Health 7

Skills

Magical

Basic Mana Sense: 82, Mana Infusion: 85 (Basic Mana Manipulation 9)

Physical

Athletics: 81, Breathing: 76, Flexibility: 74, Nutrition: 73, Packing 92, Seeing: 72, Sleeping: 73, Survival: 76, Walking: 74

Mental

Polyglot: 59 (Language 36), Mathematics: 74, Memory: 57 (Research 50), Visualization: 80

Combat

Bomb Throwing: 49 (Throwing Weapons 48)

Utility

Firestarting: 94, Alchemy: 83 (Improvisation 14), Outsider's Almanac: 125 (Status 22), Identify: 80, First Aid: 82