Chapter Thirty: Fade (Patreon)

“Sorry,” I tell her sheepishly. “I’ll clean up. I was just levelling up.” There’s a huff and the rumble cuts out, but no words. Matching action to words, I do my best to clean up. It’s unpleasant, but after I’ve hauled away as much as the mess as I can, and have buried the rest with earth, the smell clears fairly quickly.

Sitting back down in the fading light, I pull up my status screen and look at my new stats.

It’s all much as I’d expected, including the fact that my Constitution ratio is back to 1:10 after restoring my vision. My doubled Wisdom has doubled my mana regeneration meaning that I regain two and a half units per minute. Effectively, that means I could cast a new Lay-on-hands every four minutes. Much better than previously! With the extra point in Intelligence, I also have additional Lay-on-hands casts in the tank. My health points have been increased by twenty, more than half of what I’d had previously. Combined, these three factors could save my life. Maybe another cast of my healing magic would have made the difference in the wolvezard fight, or maybe my higher health points would have meant that I didn’t get as low to begin with. Either way, I suddenly feel a lot better about my survivability in the near future.

One thing worries me, though – I still haven’t made any progress towards my ‘Energy debt’. Is it that the Energy debt is so big that even enough Energy to level up isn’t enough to reach 1%? Or, more concerning, is it that Energy gathered towards leveling up doesn’t actually count towards the debt? I push this question away too - I’ve only been in this world for a few days; I’ve got time to worry about it later.

Ultimately, I’m satisfied with my advancements. Sure, they could have been better, but they could have been significantly worse too. Right, now my aim is to stay at Level One for a while and try to earn as many ‘natural’ points as possible. I figure I’ll accept as many points as I can, the Energy coming mainly from my daily absorption. Since it’s actually possible to increase my stats without using Energy as a shortcut, even if I don’t have enough Energy I’ll know I’m still making progress.

Speaking of progress, there should be something more for me that comes along with my level-up: my new Skill. I’m a little surprised that it didn’t flash up like the message about assigning my stat points did, but maybe it’s not considered part of the ‘level-up’ process as much as just a side benefit. Now I think about it, there’s that nagging feeling of a message waiting for me. Opening up my message box, I click on the new message available.

I pick the obvious choice. A short list of three available Skills forms itself on the blank space hovering before my eyes.

Hmm. Two Skills I really want; one Skill that overlaps far too much with the knowledge I have about tracking anyway to consider choosing. Well, at least it makes narrowing down the possibilities to two easier. As for the other two options… They’re hard, in part because they indicate the direction that I could take my ‘build’ in. Fade is clearly more of an ambusher’s aid, and would definitely complement the archery I’m planning on engaging in. Stun, on the other hand, is much more of a close-range Skill. Or, of course, an emergency escape tactic.

I find it interesting how most of the Skills I’ve been offered have been based on the mental/soul stats. Only Fade mentions ‘bodily control’ which I would guess links to one or more of the physical stats, but even that scales off Wisdom and Willpower. Not what I’d expected. Anyway, I need to choose one Skill for now. Fortunately, I know that at level 5, I’ll be offered the Skills I passed over this time plus some other options, so I can always choose my second favourite then, if nothing better has appeared.

So...Fade or Stun? The choice of saving the Skill point for later doesn’t appeal. I need these Skills now and if I can’t have both now, I’ll at least have one. As for which one… In the end, the choice is evident. An emergency lifeline might be a literal life-saver, but I can’t base my tactics on Plan B: I actually need a Plan A first. Using range was how humans moved past cavemen – range is how I’m going to survive this forest arena. Although, I suppose that with sufficiently high support stats, Stun could be used at range too… I pick Fade before I can overthink it.

I open my status screen again and look at the lines below it that talk about my Skills. There’s a new addition, as expected.

So, now time to test my new Skill. I wonder how to do so for a few moments, before just shrugging and standing still. I think ‘fade’ and then just wait. Nothing seems any different. When I look at myself out of the corner of my eye I can see everything just fine. Is it not working? I hesitate for a moment before poking my head in the cave.

“Kalanthia?” I ask tentatively. There’s a huffing sound, and she lifts her head from where it’s lying on her massive paws. “Can you tell me if there’s any effect to this?”

To what? In answer, I reactivate Fade. Kalanthia huffs again, but this time I detect a slightly curious sound to it. She stands up and pads over to me, sniffing at me and twisting her head one way and then the other.

“So?” I ask after the silence draws on. Shifting a little, her eyes fix properly on me again.

A strange sensation, she tells me. I could hear you and smell you, but when I looked directly at you, my eyes told me you were not there. Huh. Interesting.

“What about when you didn’t look directly at me?” I ask, curious.

I could catch a glimpse of your form, but only because I knew you were there. There was something about the Energy around you which tried to convince me you were something other than what you are.

“Thanks, Kalanthia,” I say after a few moments of thinking. “I just got this new Skill and was testing it out.”

Ah, the benefits of being human, she says sagely, turning around to curl back up on her bedding. I notice Lathani snoozing away in a little heap nearby. Something in her words catches my attention.

“Do you not have Skills?” Perhaps it’s a little intrusive, but the question just slips out. She looks at me for a long moment, her golden gaze unreadable.

No. Beasts, however advanced and powerful we are, don’t have Skills: those are the purview of humans alone. Humans, she says, in a world which is apparently uninhabited by the same. Just more proof that wherever Kalanthia is from, it’s not here. But that’s beside the point.

“So what do you have? I mean, you made my cave with magic or something.” She turns her head a little and huffs, her version of a shrug, I think.

Beasts advance as we gain more and more control over Energy, first that of our own bodies, and then that of the outside world. No Beast’s control is exactly the same as another’s, unlike human Skills. With that, she puts her head down on her paws, obviously done.

I'm curious but don't want to bother her with my questions so I just thank her again and then go back outside to leave her in peace. Very interesting… If I put it in Earth comparisons, it sounds like...well, if we compare Energy to cookie dough, Beasts are using a knife and humans are using a cookie-cutter. They might approximate the same shape, but the cookies made with a knife are always going to be slightly different, whereas the ones made with the cutter will be identical. Unless the cookie dough sticks in the cutter, but maybe that’s taking the metaphor a bit too far.

Well, at least I know the thing works, and I understand its limitations a bit more too. I’ll still need to be quiet, and it will be better to approach prey from downwind. Plus, creatures which don’t rely primarily or at all on sight will probably not be much affected. I guess it wouldn’t affect heat-sensing abilities either, but I get the impression Kalanthia doesn’t have those. Still, the fact that it worked to an extent on something as powerful and intelligent as my nunda protector indicates how well it will do on other creatures.

It’s a bit disconcerting that I can’t actually tell whether it’s working or not except by it’s effects. I can imagine that when I use this to hide from some creature, I’ll be at risk of soiling my pants, not knowing if I’m hidden in plain sight or not. At least breathing doesn’t seem to count as moving - it would rather limit the amount of time I could use the Skill if I had to hold my breath!

Now, what does it use as fuel? Stamina or mana? I activate it again, watching my status screen to see how it affects me in numerical terms: the bars always in my vision are good for approximate measurements, but not for finer detail stuff.

After several goes, I discover that it mostly consumes stamina, but also a bit of mana. It seems to be a one to four ratio, so for every minute I’m in Fade, I consume one unit of mana and four of stamina. As my stamina is the much lower value, that currently limits my Skill use to eight minutes at maximum, taking into account my stamina regen. Not all that useful now, but if I dedicate some points or training to the Endurance part of Strength...

With my level-up done, my Skill picked and tested, and my new stats experimented with, it’s now time to pick up some resources for my first priority tomorrow morning: creating a chimney. It may not be necessary for survival, but being able to light a fire in my little cave without worrying about dying from smoke inhalation seems like luxury. A luxury I desperately want.