August Intruder - Chapter 27 - Support Skill (Patreon)

It was late when they got back to the mansion. To their surprise they were allowed to take their dinners in their rooms. In fact, they were asked to.

There was a note on the massive dinning, large enough to house all of them, that specifically asked that they take their meals in their respective rooms and not step downstairs for the rest of the night.

Considering the fact that the mansion somehow managed to serve them the same things in the same proportions, picking a plate was easy. It was the second message that was difficult.

Mrs. Ella was the one who’d picked up the card, and had read it with a great touch of worry and confusion. Being specifically asked not to come downstairs was a significant worry. Yes, they knew that they weren’t expected to be roaming the mansion in the middle of the night.

But having it pointed out implied one of two things. One, people had been caught wandering about last night. Two, something was happening tonight that was in their best interest not to be a part of.

Melmarc had a strong feeling it was the former, because it was the less scary option. But there was also the possibility that it could be both.

So Melmarc, Delano and Eroms sat in their rooms, empty dinner plates stacked on the only table in the room.

“Their hiding something.” Delano tossed an orange he’d bought from a vendor outside the museum in the air and caught it. “I can feel it in my bones.”

“Or they just have something that needs to be done and don’t want us interfering with it.” Melmarc laid back on his bed. He’d just finished eating and could feel the touch of sleep coming to him. “Whatever it is, I’m sleepy.”

Eroms was already lying down on his stomach, head turned so that he could see them.

“You can’t be sleepy,” Delano protested. “We haven’t gone through your skills yet.”

Melmarc raised his head and cocked a brow. “You sure we don’t need someone to check the doors?”

Delano shook his head. “I’m sure we’re good today. So you got Keen Sight.”

Melmarc nodded.

“Interesting.” Delano rubbed his jaw. “I’d say I’m not surprised but we both know that’s a lie. And you think playing chess was what gave you the skill?”

Melmarc nodded. “Either that or having to deal with your shenanigans all the time.”

“I don’t have shenanigans, Marc. I have pizazz.”

“I don’t see any pizza,” Eroms groaned from his bed, and Delano looked at him.

“Pizazz, not pizza, big guy.”

Eroms sighed in disappointment. “You don’t have pizazz. You have shenanigans.”

“I don’t understand.” Delano looked between Melmarc and Eroms. “Is it pick on Delano Saturday?”

Delano rolled out of his bed and sat when everyone was lying down. “Anyway, what are our options now?”

Melmarc shrugged. He was trying to act casual about it. “Rings of Saturn, Narcolepsy, Keen Sight, and Knowledge Is Power.”

“Isn’t one of them a sleep defect?” Eroms asked.

“No. You’re thinking of sleep apnea.” Delano picked one of his pillows and hugged it to himself. “Can I just point out how the school’s rule to not bring laptops is stupid?”

Melmarc knew exactly why he wanted a laptop. “Can’t you just message your group with your phone?”

“Don’t have the necessary proxy settings. Someone could ping my IP and know where I am.”

“Is it really a trusted group if you’re afraid of that?”

“Trusted?” Delano snorted. “We’re a group that sometimes discuss conspiracy theories. 90% of them are right paranoid. I bet you we all have conspiracy theories on each other. And we work in the dark web. In summary, no. I’d rather trust Eroms with my food.”

“A chronic neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to control sleep-wake cycles.” Eroms was looking at the screen on his phone.

“Did you just look up narcolepsy?” Delano asked.

“Narcolepsy.” Eroms put the phone away. “It’s a sleeping defect.”

Delano sighed. “Well, there you have it, Marc. So I guess it’s out of the conversation. I’d love to ask why your body wants to turn a sleep defect to a skill, but no. Any pick you’re favoring?”

“Keen sight.”

Delano shook his head. “Unless you’re going for an Intelligence build, or something generally long range, I don’t see the use. Keen Sight helps the Gifted see everything that’s in front of him at once. What’s a swordsman going to do with that.”

“But I’m not a swordsman.”

“It was an example, Marc. Keen sight won’t work.”

It was an odd feeling debating the skills. No one knew what skill options would come next. No one had heard of a Strength type class having Keen Sight, but it wasn’t like it was impossible. There were Gifted out there who didn’t reveal all their skills to the world.

Yes, they were required to reveal them when they registered with the government, but it wasn’t like the government went publishing people’s skills on some poster somewhere. And that’s not considering the Gifted that weren’t registered.

Even the government was willing to often put out a reminder that an unregistered Gifted is a walking felon as far as it was concerned. It had also gone extra miles to motivated the Gifted to register.

“What if my next skill is a shitty skill?” Melmarc asked.

The skill selection process was kind of disappointing. It left too many holes for doubt.

“And what if it’s a World skill.” Delano shrugged. “Or what if we aren’t allowed downstairs because the maids are setting up bombs to kill us. Or what if Tracy has a crush on Eroms that’s why she gave him food on the bus and was paying attention to us at the museum. What ifs don’t make the world move forward, Marc. We just do what we have to and hope for the best. So what does Narcolepsy say.”

“I recover my health whenever I sleep.”

“Just your health?”

“I think so… It says ‘full health status,’ so I’m guessing just health.”

Delano made a thoughtful sound. “So nothing else.”

“These aren’t really big on descriptions,” Melmarc said. “For example, I’ve got this one called Knowledge Is Power. All it says is that I’ll release a burst of mana that comes back as information. It doesn’t say how far it goes or what exactly information means in this case.”

“Sounds like an upgraded version of Keen Sight to me.” Delano scratched his head. “But I’m not feeling it. What else?”

“Just those three.”

Eroms raised his head from his bed. “Rings of Saturn is gone?”

“Not really.” Melmarc would rather he forgot it was even there. “But I’m not picking it so let’s leave it there.”

“Kind of unhealthy to discard an entire skill for a personal grudge, don’t you think?” Delano said. “But it’s your skills so your choice.”

Melmarc hadn’t told them why he was against it, and he really didn’t want to. It wasn’t about not wanting them to see him as weak in some way, he had been a child when it had happened so of course he had been weak. He didn’t bring it up because he didn’t see the need.

And they didn’t really care much for it. They simply took his word for it and that was all.

No questions asked…

Melmarc groaned internally.

He’d heard a saying once upon a time that you don’t need to explain yourself to people because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. Technically, the people that mattered didn’t need an explanation.

But it didn’t mean you shouldn’t give them one sometimes.

Now he felt bad about not telling them.

“It’s the skill the Intruder had,” he blurted out.

There was a confused pause, then Delano’s eyes softened in realization. “Oh.”

Melmarc did his best to look casual about it but realized talking about it was not as easy as he thought it would be.

“It’s not exactly the skill, at least I don’t think it is. But it sounds like it. When he… when he fought my mum, he did this thing where he covered himself in a ring of light and shot her with it.”

He frowned, hoping his voice didn’t come out as broken as he was feeling. “I just don’t want to be walking around with a skill that almost killed my mom. I know it’s childish, but that’s the reason.”

Eroms got up from his bed and went to stand behind Delano’s.

Delano gave him a confused and odd look, then ignored him. “If it beat your mom then it must be a strong skill. But skills scale to ranks so it doesn’t really matter. You don’t have to pick it if you don’t want to—ow!”

Delano turned to Eroms. “What was that for?”

Eroms had smacked him across the head. It wasn’t anything painful in Melmarc’s opinion, but it was enough to carry along a point.

A point he was curious to know.

“Our friend just told us something personal and sensitive,” Eroms said. “You first thank him for trusting you, then you analyze.”

“But you didn’t thank him.”

Eroms gave Delano a pointed look and he grumbled under his breath.

Melmarc was beginning to think there just might be the makings of a bully inside Eroms. At least the makings of a Delano-bully.

Delano turned and gave Melmarc a genuine smile.

“He’s right, you know. We’ve known you four years, and you’ve never talked about it. Everybody in school just thinks you passed out and didn’t see anything. And they think Ark saw too much and it traumatized him, that’s why he’s always so violent when it comes to you.”

Melmarc wasn’t sure how much, but he knew Ark had seen a lot more than him. He’d passed out at some point but their father said Ark had been with him till help had arrived.

It was safe to say that Ark must’ve been awake until the Player left.

“Anyway,” Delano shifted uncomfortably on his bed. “I know I don’t say it a lot, but thanks. We really appreciate you telling us.”

Behind him Eroms nodded with a small smile.

Melmarc almost laughed. Trust Delano to casually say they were tight enough to go to the toilet together but be shy around a heartfelt thank you.

Now that he had that off his chest, they could return to the topic.

“So do you think I should wait?”

“For what?” Delano asked.

“I’ve still got like a week before the Bob Slater thing might kick in.”

Delano laughed at that. “Or you might have a few days. You know it’s not like a week is some hard limit. The girl holding the record for longest unchosen skill time has been holding it for months now, and she still has more than one skill offer.”

“So mine might not even last up to a week?”

“You said you’re already losing your active skills, right?” Delano pursed his lips in thought. “It could mean nothing… and it could mean a lot of things. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t use Bob Slater as a mark. Don’t wait it out, normal people don’t.”

Melmarc understood what he was saying. He could just as easily wake up tomorrow and find a world skill waiting for him or wake up and find some gardening skill, too.

Who said it had to be coffee.

He needed to pick the best of what he was offered. And if he was to wait, it was best only if none of the skills were good.

“Besides,” Delano was saying. “World skills don’t only come in the beginning. There are people who get world skills on their support skill selection, and there are people that get it during a skill evolution or upgrade.”

Melmarc remembered that. Skill evolutions and upgrades. If he was being honest, he’d completely forgotten about them.

The more you used a skill, the stronger it got. When it reached a certain level, it got powerful enough to evolve, which basically means it gets stronger or you got the option to upgrade it. But there was also another addition. An upgrade meant the chance of getting another skill.

And another skill was a chance to specialize or diversify.

For instance, an Elementalist that used water could upgrade it and find themselves being offered a fire skill. Such a massive difference was almost unheard of, but it did happen. There was a fire Elementalist who’d evolved one of their fire skills, and one of the skills they were offered along with other fire specializations was a shadow skill, which they ended up picking.

Melmarc took a deep breath. “So Narcolepsy’s out.”

“Rings of Saturn, too,” Delano said. “Obviously a no brainer.”

“So Keen Sight and Knowledge Is Power.” Eroms looked thoughtful. “Don’t they do the same thing?”

Delano brought out his phone and started typing on it. “They are similar, but I like Knowledge Is Power’s description better. It’s not as fast as Keen Sight, but it sounds like it gives more.”

Melmarc wasn’t very sure about that. “It just says it gives information.”

“It comes back as information,” Delano corrected. “And it says here that it’s not a very popular skill.”

“In your group?”

“God, no. On the internet. There’s a guy in Kentucky with the Knowledge Is Power skill. Come to think of it, there are a lot of things on classes on the internet but not much on skills. Anyway, he’s a company Delver, and an Agility type. He’s got the Rogue class. The article says that insider information claims he has the highest survivability ratio in the company, and they always send him into the dangerous portals because his scouting skills have saved more lives than they can count.”

Melmarc didn’t like what he was hearing.

“I don’t want to be in a support team that only goes in to save other Delvers when they’ve been inside for too long.”

“But that’s the catch.” Delano grinned. “This guy is not in the rescue team. He’s in the starting lineup.”

“Still don’t want to be a Rogue.”

“Then make sure the second skill isn’t Rogue-like,” Eroms said.

They fell silent as they thought about it.

Eroms was right. He would be able to guess what the next set of skills would be like just at a glance. All he’d have to do was avoid anything Rogue-like.

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” he muttered to himself.

“So it’s decided?” Delano looked antsy. “We’re taking Knowledge Is Power?”

“It’s the best one we’ve got right now.”

Melmarc was still battling with the idea of waiting. But tomorrow could bring as bad as it could bring good. And now that he was very consciously aware of that, he couldn’t say he was willing to take the risk.

He wasn’t one to gamble knowingly.

“Alright.” Delano clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. He paused. “Wait, don’t you think you should be doing this at home?”

“I wanted to.” And Melmarc really did. “But what if I wake up tomorrow and Knowledge Is Power is gone and I’m left with some other skill like Back Scratcher.”

“I don’t think there’s a skill like that,” Delano said easily.

Eroms played devil’s advocate almost immediately. “You never know. Or he might get a skill that helps him reach hard to scratch places.”

“Or I might get a World skill.”

Melmarc’s friends stopped talking and looked at him.

Delano shrugged. “Or you could. But I don’t feel alright with you not doing this at home.”

“Yeah… I get it.” Melmarc thought about the fact that he’d been present for Ark’s own and Ark wouldn’t be present for his. “You know what? Let me call them. My parents aren’t home so there’s nothing I can do about that. But Ark’s home. Let me just call him and talk to him about it.”

“Is Ninra home?” Delano’s voice was so casual about it, but he was anything but casual when it came to Ninra.

Melmarc wanted to comment on it but let it slide. He’ll accept that there’s nothing there eventually.

He brought out his phone and tapped in Ark’s number. Sometimes typing it was faster than searching it since he had it memorized. Along with his mom and dad’s. And uncle Dorthna’s.

And Ninra? He couldn’t be very sure and found himself thinking about what his sister’s phone number was as he dialed Ark.

It was ringing.

The problem with remembering her number was that she changed it like the seasons changed. Why? Because she was good at almost everything except taking good care of her phone. There was that one time she’d lost three phones in one year before college. As punishment their parents concluded that all her phones would be bought by her. They would play no part in it.

Worse was her obsession towards not retrieving her lines. Like, it was the easiest part of getting a new phone and she refused it. She would rather get an entirely new line and go through the registration rather than give her previous information and have it imported into the new line.

Ark speculated that there was a reason for it but she simply didn’t want to tell them. They’d danced around a few possibilities both good and bad before reaching a conclusion that it was impossible to tell.

They’d gone down the online stalker path, so far down that they’d even asked her. She’d laughed and made jokes about how every pretty girl had a stalker before telling them how wrong they were.

Eventually, they’d given up and simply accepted it as one of her quirks.

There was a catch in the call as Ark picked.

“Are you about to get laid?” Ark asked with panicked excitement. “Do you need tips? Tell me you’ve got protection.”

Melmarc laughed.

“No getting laid for me yet,” he said, getting an odd look from Delano and Eroms. “But I’m calling for something just as important.”

“Alright, then. Hit me.”

“I’m about to select my skills.”

There was a long pause on the other side of the call and Melmarc was beginning to worry he’d somehow made Ark feel bad.

Then Ark said, “I thought you wanted to wait for a week.”

Melmarc shook his head, then remembered his brother couldn’t see him. “I changed my mind. I’ve already lost all the combat skills I got, who knows what I’ll wake up to tomorrow.”

“Even Rings of Saturn?” Ark asked in a stage whisper.

“Nope, that one’s here to stay.” Melmarc pulled his skills back up to check, not that he thought it would be gone.

It remained there, the last option, staring at him like he owed it something.

He dismissed the skill. “Still there.”

Then he paused. How’d I do that?

Just to be sure, he thought about selecting a skill and the list pulled up again. He thought of not selecting a skill and it disappeared again.

He was almost impressed with himself. It felt as easy as lifting his arm up and putting it back down.

“I see,” Ark was saying on the other end of the call.

Delano inched closer to him. “Put it on speaker. We’re all part of this conversation.”

Delano was right. Even Eroms was nodding in agreement.

“One moment, Ark.” Melmarc put the call on speaker and dropped it on his bed. Just to be sure, he checked the volume. It was on the highest. “I put you on speaker, Ark.”

“Why? Are you doing something that requires your hands?” There was a shocked gasp. “Are you using two hands to do what I think you’re doing?”

Melmarc rolled his eyes. “Don’t be gross. Delano and Eroms are here, too. They want to be part of the conversation.”

“Oh. So what do we have?”

“Four skills,” Delano said. “But we’ve narrowed it down to Knowledge Is Power and Keen Sight.”

There was a thoughtful pause before Ark said, “Sounds like support skills. You know, the kind you use for the team and not yourself.”

“They are his main skills.” Delano looked at his phone and scrolled through it. “From what I can get, it seems his support skills might not be support based. Most Gifted often get a support skill that works with the main skill they get.”

“So if his main skill feels like a support skill, then his support skill will feel like a main skill.”

“Or at least make him able to use his main skill so it feels like a main skill,” Eroms offered.

“Wow, is that Eroms?” Ark sounded surprised. “Bro, your voice got deep.”

Eroms looked at Melmarc in confusion, then back at the phone. “Thanks?”

Melmarc wasn’t sure what was going on, and he couldn’t really say he’d noticed how deep Eroms’ voice had gotten. But maybe it was because they were always together. Maybe it had deepened over time and he just hadn’t noticed.

“Alright.” There was a shuffling sound in the background as Ark moved about. “Just get all your skills and I’ll go find uncle Dorthna. There might be another useful skill in there.”

Maybe.

They didn’t have to wait long. In less than two minutes Ark was already talking again.

“Alright, Mel. I’m with uncle, D. what skill options did you get?”

Melmarc was suddenly anxious. There was suddenly some level of pressure to this. What did he do if their uncle didn’t like Knowledge Is Power? What if uncle Dorthna suggested he go for Narcolepsy or even Rings of Saturn?

He won’t, right? He already told me I don’t have to pick Rings of Saturn.

But that was when I had other combat skills to pick from.

“Mel?”

It was his uncle’s voice.

“Yes, uncle D?”

“Good evening, uncle D,” Delano and Eroms greeted at the same time.

They’d seen him a few times and exchanged a few words. They weren’t as close to uncle Dorthna as they were with their own families but they liked him from the little time they’d spent with each other.

Though they hadn’t seen each other in a while.

“Are those Eroms and Delano?” Uncle Dorthan didn’t seem surprised. “I like that. It’s good to have people you can trust around you when you’re selecting your skills. I take it that’s what you’re about to do… right?”

“Yes.”

“Right. So what are you waiting for. Ark just went to get Ninra since we think she’d like to be present for it, so just give us a few minutes.”

“Sure.”

It wasn’t exactly how Melmarc had thought the conversation was going to go, but this was good, too. He could feel a bit of the anxiety leaving. Then he could feel another kind of worry setting in.

What if he was making the wrong choice? What if waiting was the better option? He could wake up tomorrow with something better.

Uncle Dorthna cleared his throat on the other end of the call. “Do you know that your silence gets very loud when you’re thinking thoughts that second guess yourself?”

Melmarc was startled. “What?”

“I can literally hear you thinking you might not be making the right choice. So, just to fulfill my duty as uncle of the year, I’m going to ask. What skill have you settled on?”

Melmarc hesitated. “Knowledge Is Power.”

“And what’s the description?”

Melmarc thought about his skills selection and pulled them up. “The Gifted releases a burst of mana that comes back as information.”

“That’s what it says? It comes back as information.”

“Like a scouting skill,” Delano interjected. “But he doesn’t want the Rogue class so we’re making sure he doesn’t pick a second skill that leads to Rogue class.”

“I see,” Dorthna said. “And how are you making sure of that?”

“Well, I’ve got my phone here and I’m looking through every known Rogue skill.”

“That’s nice of you Delano. Are you looking through the Gifted forums?”

“The dark web, too.”

There was a pause.

Then on the phone Dorthna muttered to himself, “Kid’s these days can’t be trusted with the internet.” Then he added to them: “I guess the only better place than the dark web is the government data base.”

“Well…”

“If you tell me you have access to the government database on your phone right now I’m sending people to arrest you.”

Delano chuckled nervously. “I actually don’t.”

“Good.”

Melmarc looked at Delano. “Didn’t you say someone can track your IP address if you checked your group on your phone.”

Delano shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal. You only get to be Gifted once. You can always get me another phone when we get back, if you’re feeling so gracious.”

Melmarc didn’t know how to feel about that. Not the new phone part, the part where Delano was willing to take a risk he normally wouldn’t take for him.

“Has he chosen yet!?” Ark sounded like he was coming from far away. “Tell me he hasn’t chosen. I brought Ninra.”

Delano’s face reddened and he cleared his throat. “Hi, Ninra.”

Melmarc almost laughed.

“Hey, big head,” Ninra called. “Took you long enough to make up your mind. And why is this call on speaker. Ark, change it to video call. Why the hell are we listening when we can also be seeing?”

“You’re not the boss of me. I’ll burn your wig.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

“I’ll throw Spitfire out of the house.”

Melmarc chuckled as he picked up his phone and switched to video call.

“What are you doing?” Delano whispered harshly.

Melmarc was confused. “Switching to video call.”

Delano looked around nervous. “I’m not sure if your sister and I are ready for this step in our relationship. Tell her your camera’s busted.”

Eroms tossed a blue shirt and it smacked into Delano’s face. “Or you can put that on. You look finer in blue.”

“Says who?” Delano was already taking off the white shirt he’d worn to the museum on putting on the blue.

“Says Tracy.”

The video call started, and Melmarc placed it against the headrest of his bed so that it captured all of them in the room as they gathered on his bed.

Ninra, Ark, and their uncle Dorthna filled the screen a moment later.

“I got this for you, uncle D,” Ninra was saying as she handed their uncle an empty coke bottle.

Dorthna took it graciously and placed it somewhere out of view.

“Alright then,” he said. “The whole gang’s here. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Melmarc nodded. He pulled up his skill list with a thought.

[Narcolepsy]

The Gifted regains a full health status when they fall asleep.

[Knowledge Is Power]

The Gifted releases a burst of mana that comes back to them as information

[Keen Sight]

The Gifted notices everything within their eyesight.

[Rings of Saturn]

The Gifted wraps a ring of pure raw mana around they’re body and can attack with it.

Now that he thought about it, he actually had a question about the skills.

“The skill selections and the words we see are the body’s interpretation of things, right?” he asked. “Like these are the things my body knows I can do.”

“Right,” Dorthna answered.

Everyone seemed to be paying attention to the question.

“So why is it that the details of the skills are so few? Is my body trying to hide things from me?”

“Nope.”

Ark leaned in too close to the video, almost taking up the whole video space, and Dorthna flicked him on the head with his finger.

When Ark moved, he continued. “It’s the best your body has so far. It’s like when someone knows they can jump, but they don’t know exactly how high. Or you know you can lift fifty pounds, but you don’t know if you can lift a hundred pounds because you’ve never done it before.”

“Oh.”

That made sense. So his body knew it could release a burst of mana that could come back to him as information, but not how far it could go or how much and what specifically was categorized as information.

It was nice to know his body wasn’t playing tricks on him.

It hadn’t been a determining question or anything like that, just a curiosity. With that sorted out, he selected the skill.

[Would you like to choose Knowledge Is Power? You will not be able to renege on this decision.]

[Yes/No].

“Yes.” Melmarc really hoped he wouldn’t be making the wrong decision.

He wasn’t going to get something as cool as breathing fire, but he really hoped he wouldn’t end up with a class no one paid attention to.

There was a brief pause, then the skill description came into display.

“Alright,” he muttered to himself. “Let’s see what we’re working with.”

Delano said something but Melmarc didn’t hear it, he was too busy looking at the extra information on his skill.

What he did know was that Ninra smiled at whatever he’d said.

Knowledge Is Power (Mastery 0.00%)

*While skill is in effect you can neither inflict damage nor be damaged.*

Conclusion of skill will end inability to deal damage or be damaged.

Conclusion of skill grants conditional mastery of all information received for eight minutes.

All threats, allies, and neutrals detected are highlighted for eight minutes.

Skill perks:

Agility +2 Balance +1 Mental +3 Mana +1

…

[Melmarc Jay Lockwood, a selection of supporting skills have been listed out for you. Would you like to view them?]

[Yes/No]

Melmarc read the details in front of him two more times.

“What did we get?” Ark asked, excited. “Do you suddenly know everything?”

Around Melmarc, Eroms and Delano waited in anticipation.

“You good?” Delano asked. “You’re not going to be stuck with some rogue class as a skill condition, right?”

Eroms shook his head. “Skills don’t work that way, D.”

“I know that, but what do you expect me to think when he’s just staring at nothing like that?”

“Uh, it’s not bad,” Melmarc said finally.

“Of course not,” Dorthna said. “All skills are good and useful in their own ways. Even a gardening skill can be useful if applied properly.”

Eroms leaned close to Melmarc.

“Your uncle sounds like he knows a lot about skills,” he whispered.

Melmarc flinched from the warm breath against his ear. “Yeah, he used to be a Delver.”

“No.” Eroms paused, as if thinking. “I mean he talks as if he knows a lot about them.”

Melmarc had no idea what that meant, but he wasn’t going to argue it. So he shrugged.

“Read what you’ve got to us,” Dorthna said.

Melmarc returned his attention to the skill and read the details for them.

“Plus three to mental,” Delano said. “So you’re, like, really smart now?”

“Quick!” Ninra interrupted quickly. “What’s the square root of three thousand and forty-one?”

Dorthna turned and pinched her cheek. “Plus three to mental, not plus three to super-computer.”

Ninra rubbed her cheek, while Melmarc tried to pretend he hadn’t actually tried to solve the equation in a split second.

Ark was looking at him funny.

Don’t you dare, he thought as a small smile stretched Ark’s lips.

“You tried to solve it.” Ark burst into laughter. “You really thought you’d suddenly become computer smart.”

“I was just checking,” Melmarc grumbled. “Had to be sure.”

Delano was quick to add his own opinion. “Well it didn’t say anything about intelligence, so maybe we’re on the path to Agility?”

As long as it wasn’t the Rogue class or anything scouting, he would be fine. At this pace Melmarc had all but accepted he’d end up in a supporting role, but he didn’t want anything too supporting. If he did end up in something like that, then he’d have to talk to his parents.

Self-defense classes wouldn’t cut it anymore. He’d have to go for something more offensive. He’d heard that Delver schools taught classes like that, combat classes that were not about self-defense.

Some mentors did the same during the one-month training program that Gifted needed to go through before resuming at the Delver school of their choice. That was for those that wanted to be Delvers and not just Gifted.

“Mental is actually a powerful stat.” Dorthna’s voice brought Melmarc back. “There are skills out there that actually affect a person’s mind, and those with mental are more resistant to it than others.”

“So he’s already preparing himself against those kinds of people.” Eroms looked as if he was suddenly relieved.

“Yes,” Dorthna said. “But no. What’s happening is that he’s preparing himself for the skill. It’s how skills work. You gain the ability to do something, then your stats adjust so you can better handle the skill.”

“Makes sense.” Delano had moved from them get something from the cabinet. “He’ll need a strong mind to understand all the information he’ll get if he’s to get mastery over them.”

He came back and plopped himself down on Melmarc’s bed. He was out of the view of the camera so he wasn’t showing on the video call.

He held a ceramic cup in his hand. “I got this from downstairs.”

“Are we pilfering now?” Melmarc asked in a whisper.

“Borrowing. Had a feeling we’d end up picking a skill tonight.”

“And what does a cup have to do with that?”

Delano shrugged. “We’ll see. How about you try using the skill. Let’s see how it works.”

“I’m strongly against that idea,” Dorthna interrupted them.

Delano suddenly looked sheepish even though his face wasn’t showing on the call.

Eroms raised his hand like he was in class. “I agree.”

Melmarc looked between the both of them. “Why not?”

“Because you’re only half a Gifted right now,” Dorthna explained. “You get two skills because one is designed to support the other, in a way. At least that’s how it goes normally. So let’s assume someone has the ability to set themselves on fire, their second skill will come with something that will also play the part of fire resistance.”

Melmarc thought about it. “Oh.”

So that was why support skills were important. Imagine setting yourself on fire before getting your support skill.

That would be unintentional suicide.

He wondered what would happen if he used Knowledge Is Power without a support skill.

Something told him there’d be backlash from the returning information. At least that was what it sounded like. He couldn’t see anywhere else that something could go wrong. Maybe the information would be too much for my mind to process and I’ll turn into a vegetable?

“So what options do we have for the next one?” Ninra asked. She looked happy but not excited.

It was an odd mix.

She did say the effect kind of wears off after too many family members becoming gifted, Melmarc remembered.

He pulled up the new notification.

[Melmarc Jay Lockwood, a selection of supporting skills has been listed out for you. Would you like to view them?]

[Yes/No]

He read it once more before answering. “Yes.”

Many Delvers didn’t walk around talking to the air so he was hoping there would be a way to interact with the notifications without looking like a madman talking to himself.

Maybe thinking it also works.

After all, he’d been pulling it up and down with his thoughts so far.

A new notification popped up.

Please choose a skill you feel will best support your use of Knowledge Is Power.

[Puppeteer]

You have complete mastery over self for eight minutes upon conclusion of skill Knowledge Is Power.

[Life Steal]

Mana burst from skill Knowledge Is Power contains a necrotizing effect that comes back with a portion of stolen life-force.

[Chaos Counter]

You counter all skill effects and status debuffs applied on you within three minutes of skill Knowledge Is Power conclusion with a seven seconds delay.

[Bless Your Kindness]

Conclusion of skill Knowledge Is Power grants +0.15 increase to all stats for eight minutes and a potential status buff based on number of life forms detected.

[Would you like to select a skill now?]

[Yes/No].

Melmarc read his options and almost laughed.

The last option was just begging to be taken. An increase to all stats, and status buff based on how many people were around him.

Compared to the others, he thought it was basically a steal.

He had the least idea of what Puppeteer was supposed to do. What exactly was mastery over self? Was it a mental effect or a physical one? Would he suddenly be able to feel his own kidney or suddenly be able to control every muscle in his body?

He understood Chaos Counter but had questions about the seven seconds delay. Did it mean there were seven seconds before the counter took effect?

Life Steal was basically a no. It said nothing about being discriminate. While he didn’t think the necrotizing effect would affect allies as well, he just couldn’t picture himself stealing life force from his friends.

And what happened if the people around him weren’t Gifted?

“Are you just going to leave us hanging?” Ninra asked. “I swear it’s like people get Gifted and just can’t stop staring at their notifications.”

“Just the way you couldn’t stop staring at your poster of White Flair when you were in high-school?” Ark grinned.

“I was just a teenager, and he had eight pack abs.”

Ark shook his head. “That’s gross.”

“It is,” Eroms agreed.

Dorthna was smiling. “So what did we get?”

Melmarc read it to them.

“Is it just me or am I getting dark mage vibes from Life Steal,” Delano said. “Necrotizing effect. Isn’t that like when your body starts rotting when you’re alive?”

Eroms nodded. “But it gives life boost, so it could probably make him tanky.”

“I don’t know.” Melmarc scratched the back of his head. “It doesn’t say anything about distinguishing between allies and enemies. I don’t want to end up being a one-man team.”

“That’s true,” Ark said. “Wouldn’t want to be in a team with someone that’s sucking my life out of me. What of Puppeteer. That one sounds Agility based.”

“Too vague,” Ninra countered. “Mastery of self. What’s that even supposed to mean? Is he going to suddenly become very zen or start using 100% of his brain power? I say Chaos Counter. At least it works to keep him alive. And if enemies can feel the mana burst, they’ll be in a hurry to attack him. It’ll keep him alive.”

“And the seven seconds delay it’s talking about?” Ark asked.

“We can always try out the skill and see what it means.”

Melmarc noticed uncle Dorthna was quiet. Eroms was quiet, too. But Eroms was always quiet.

He checked on his uncle on the phone and found that he didn’t even look like he was thinking. He was just waiting.

Each person went back and forth with it, giving their opinions. Ninra also liked Bless Your Kindness but didn’t like how vague the idea of what kind of buff was given was.

“What happens if he gets a buff that allows him eat more?”

“I don’t think buffs work that way,” Ark opposed.

“Some do, actually.” Dorthna looked up and away in thought. “I knew a Delver who had a buff called Consume. What it did was, it made you really hungry, and the more you ate, the more mana you got. It was a really interesting skill. Amazing for intelligence based Classes so he always had a team that wanted him.”

Ark looked surprised by that. Eroms, too.

Dorthna didn’t pay their expressions much attention. “So what’s it going to be, Mel?”

“Puppeteer’s too vague.” Delano dropped the cup beside the bed and came back into view. “I say we go with Bless Your Kindness.”

Ninra disagreed. “I say Chaos Counter.”

“Chaos Counter feels like it’s trying to help him get away. Sounds like a Rogue matchup.” Delano shook his head. “Bless Your Kindness.”

“Life Steal would be good if not for the whole lack of discrimination thing,” Eroms muttered.

The debate was brief, and one thing that was certain was that Life Steal was discarded. So it boiled down to three options.

“I want Bless Your Kindness,” Melmarc said after a while. “It gives bonus effects to all my stats—”

“For only eight minutes,” Ninra pointed out.

“A lot can happen in a fight in eight minutes. And it also gives a status buff, and it doesn’t have a time limit for that one.”

“A lot can happen in a second,” Dorthna corrected. “You’ll need all the advantages you can get.”

“I’m taking Bless Your Kindness.”

Delano looked at him. “You sure?”

Melmarc nodded. He was also curious about what kind of status buffs it could give him. It won’t be anything bad, he hoped. Those would be debuffs, and it said buffs.

He brought up the skill list again and chose.

[Would you like to choose Bless Your Kindness? You will not be able to renege on this decision.]

[Yes/No].

“Yes.”

A moment of discomfort filled Melmarc as he uttered the word. A small pain pressed down on his stomach as if Eroms had suddenly sat on him.

“What’s happening?” Ark asked from the phone, panic on his face.

Melmarc held back his discomfort, tried to keep it from his face. A part of him had an idea of what was happening, and he really didn’t like it. He really didn’t want another contaminated skill taking an offered skill.

Please not Bless Your Kindness.