Seth Richter
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Bk 2, Chapter 5: Inspect
🕑 Added 2024-01-07 10:18:46 +0000 UTChttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1zgyORE8pP4yj7ODqETWfi1PeGmhMOB7zu3zuakbxv8s/edit?usp=sharing
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It was late by the time they left the arena. Elise guided Cayden by the hand as, with the other, he tapped the ground in front of them with his spear.
"What's got you grinning?" Elise asked as they finally made their way to the dorm, Elise holding the door open for him as he felt for the first step in the stairwell.
"Nothing. Just thinking about all the times I was the one guiding you around. Now it's the reverse."
"...when did you ever guide me around?"
"Are you serious?" Cayden asked. Elise didn't respond. "All those times we walked though the Lost Forest and you had your nose buried in your notebook? I had to practically carry you half the time, or else we never would have made any progress."
"I know you helped me out when I was distracted once or twice..." Elise started, but paused when Cayden started chuckling.
"You didn't even know?" he laughed. "I suppose I should have guessed. I know [Focused Mind] makes you less distractible, but I didn't realize it made you that oblivious. What have you leveled it to, anyway?" he asked, shaking his head.
Elise grumbled under her breath, before responding with a mumbled, "...twenty-three."
Cayden's laughs abruptly choked out. "Twenty-three?! Are you serious?"
"That's what I said."
"That's insane," Cayden responded. His highest leveled skill was [Resistance], at only level thirteen – a full ten levels less than Elise's [Focused Mind]. Once a skill hit level ten, its rate of growth slowed dramatically compared to the rate before level ten. He couldn't even imagine how long it might take to level skills after they hit twenty and their growth rate slowed even further.
He knew there were people with skills leveled to the twenties, thirties, and even beyond. But he always imagined those skills belonging to people like his instructors, or to grizzled, war-hardened veterans. Not to someone who was only two years older than him.
Elise, though, didn't seem as impressed with her accomplishment. "It's not that impressive. [Focused Mind] is one of my oldest skills, and I haven't been combining or resetting its level like you've been doing to tier up your skills."
"Still, though. That's ten levels above [Resistance], and I use [Resistance] pretty much every day."
"And you think I don't use [Focused Mind] every day? Plus, you're at a bit of a disadvantage. By its very nature, [Resistance] becomes harder to level as it increases in strength, since you'll need to find stronger and stronger opponents that can damage you to push the skill. It's called the 'leveler's paradox.' It applies to most skills, [Focused Mind] included, but [Resistance] struggles with it more than most."
"I guess. Still seems crazy to me," Cayden said, shaking his head. "What does level twenty-three even do for the skill? Is it even worth it to merge it with another skill at this point? Even if it gets you an overall better skill, the loss of levels seems like it might not be worth it."
"Focused Mind: Increase mind stat by fifty-four percent. Increase concentration for user while reducing ability to be distracted. Can activate without cost to enter hyper-focused state, becoming oblivious to all external stimuli while doubling all previous effects," Elise read off for him. "The hyperfocus effect came after I hit level twenty. And as for merging..." she hesitated. "I'm not sure. Long term, a higher-tier skill would be better, if I could find one that works for me. But it would definitely be disappointing to lose all the progress towards [Focused Mind]. I'm hoping my next class evolution gives me the option to gain it as a class skill. It'd be nice to have the extra general skill slot."
Cayden nodded. He knew it was possible to transfer general skills over to class skills, provided the skill fit well with the class in question. It wasn't something he'd experienced himself, but it made sense that that might be an option for [Focused Mind] with an upgraded version of Elise's [Researcher] class. "How far off are you from your next evolution?"
"Not far!" Elise explained. "I've hit level twenty in two of my class skills, so just need the other three to level up once before I'm ready. If I'm lucky, it'll be in the next few weeks."
Cayden nodded. While it was demoralizing to hear exactly how far his class was behind Elise's, it at least wasn't as unexpected. She'd started as an [Apprentice Librarian] and upgraded her class to [Researcher] about the same time that Cayden had first gotten his [Athlete] class. While class skills' leveling speed also slowed after hitting level ten, the drop-off wasn't nearly as steep as for general skills. For classes, the biggest limiting factor was leveling all four of the class skills (or more, as the case may be) at the same rate, since no class skill could exceed any of the others by more than a single level. With the head start Elise had – coupled with the fact that Cayden had chosen [Test Subject] as his new class rather than evolving [Athlete] a few months prior – it was expected for her class level to far eclipse his own.
By that point, they had made it up the stairs and down the empty hallway to the door to Cayden's dorm, and Cayden waited patiently as Elise unlocked it before leading him inside.
"Oh! Tiana's back!" she called, and Cayden perked up.
"Tiana?" he called.
"Oh, she's not in the common area, but the door to her room is closed," Elise explained, and Cayden nodded before feeling his way across the room and knocking gently on the door to Velic's old room, the one his sister had claimed for herself a week prior.
"Tiana? You there?" he softly called.
There was no response.
"She's probably asleep. It's pretty late," Elise helpfully offered, and Cayden nodded.
"I should get to bed too," Cayden said, stepping back from the door. After Elise's testing, he was feeling physically the same level of exhaustion he'd been feeling mentally and emotionally since dropping [Immutable]. It was probably for the best that Tiana was already asleep; as much as he wanted to reconcile with his sister as soon as possible, talking with her in his current state might end with him saying something he’d regret. A good night's rest before talking would be helpful. "Do you want to crash here? We've got the couch or two empty rooms, and a blanket you can use."
"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to plan out some more tests for [Immutable], and I've got a meeting with Basura early tomorrow."
Cayden shrugged. "Suit yourself. You think the other tests for [Immutable] will be ready tomorrow?"
"Perhaps. Maybe the next day. I'll let you know."
"Sounds good," Cayden said, and then he yawned. "I'm going to bed, though. Lock up when you leave, please."
And then with a final goodnight to his friend, Cayden made his way to his room and collapsed onto his bed. Within moments, he was asleep.
--
While vitality was most useful in preventing and recovering from sicknesses and injuries, it also – like any of the other stats – had more esoteric effects. Such as lessening the need for sleep.
Cayden's vitality wasn't near to the point that his schedule would differ noticeably from others his age, but it was enough that, when he woke up the next morning at his usual time to the tolling of the first bell ringing out over the academy, he felt none of the exhaustion that filled him the night before.
It took longer than it used to, but Cayden managed to stumble through his daily morning routine on his own before entering the common area.
"Tiana, you up?" he called, to no response.
He shrugged. She had always been a late riser in the orphanage as often as the luxury was allowed, and he was happy to notice that some things hadn't changed during their separation.
He would wait until she woke up. In the meantime...breakfast.
The dorm had a small kitchenette area. Nothing large or sophisticated, just big enough for a runed heating pad, sink, and cupboards for storage. Cayden had always taken most of his meals at the dining hall, along with the majority of the rest of the students, for the higher quality ingredients and professionally made dinners. But for something simple in the morning? The kitchenette was enough.
Feeling his way around the room, he found the cupboard he was looking for and pulled out a half-eaten loaf of bread. And then he felt along the top of the counter until his hands located the knife block. Taking a deep breath, Cayden focused on [Inspect].
Medium-quality serrated knife, six inches. Sharp.
He moved on to the next after reading the text that, despite his blindness, appeared in front of his eyes.
Medium-quality straight-edge knife, six inches. Dull.
He pulled out the butter knife for later, making sure to set it on the counter where he could easily find it.
Medium-quality serrated knife, ten inches. Dull.
Cayden smiled before pulling out the larger bread knife from the knife block and slicing himself two thin strips off of the loaf.
It had been a surprise when Elise had first recommended him to take [Inspect], at least as much as anything could be 'surprising' while [Immutable] was active. How much use could the visually-based skill be while he was blind?
The answer, it turned out, was 'a lot'.
Inspect (active) (lvl 1): Learn more about the targeted person or object. Revealed information is dependent on the user's current understanding of that person or object. Minimal mana cost.
Despite its usefulness, he'd rarely used the [Inspect] skill after joining the adventurer's guild. Its main purpose for delvers was to identify the quality of different supplies and gauge the exact levels of approaching monsters. But with Elise to thoroughly research dungeons before each delve, as well as providing him with all his potions and assisting him with his shopping, the skill was hardly necessary. The only time he truly felt the lack was after coming to the academy and sparring with his fellow students, where the skill could have alerted him to the classes – and thus, the potential skills – his opponents possessed.
Without sight, Cayden thought [Inspect] would be a dead skill. But apparently it didn't actually rely on vision to trigger. 'Seeing' the target to be inspected was only a requirement because vision was the sense most people used to 'target' objects within their minds. As long as Cayden knew the location of what he wanted [Inspected], the skill would trigger.
Though even that wasn't necessarily a requirement. Cayden could still activate [Inspect] while facing a random direction, but it wouldn't tell him anything useful unless he could specify exactly what he wanted the skill to target. In this case, if he were to try and [Inspect] the counter without first holding the knife block, it would just tell him [Counter], or even just [Kitchenette].
Despite the limitations, it was an extremely useful skill for someone who had just lost his sight. Being able to identify what he was holding in his hands – even if it was as inane as differentiating his toothbrush from someone else's – was useful. And Elise explained that, with practice, he should be able to push beyond the 'holding in his hands' limiter if he could develop his perception to the point that he could reliably target objects with his other senses.
Of course, he could've simply unsheathed his claws and used them to cut off a hunk of bread. He didn't even particularly enjoy toast, at least not any more than he enjoyed regular buttered bread. But, tiny though the growth may be, practicing navigating without his sight was a form of training, and Cayden refused to slack on training.
Fifteen minutes later, and after only a single minor mishap where he dropped half a stick of butter onto the heating pad without realizing it, Cayden was eating his overly-buttered toast when he was interrupted by a knock at his door.
"Coming!" he quietly called, mindful of his still-sleeping sister. After wiping his hands, he shuffled across the room to open the door.
"Cayden! Have you heard the news?"
"Jeremy! I didn't realize you were back from your delve already," Cayden responded. Jeremy was the first friend he'd made at the academy, a fellow frontliner and a formine – an unusual ant-like race that Cayden had yet to see anyone else possess. He was one of the few other non-nobles at the academy and had spent most of the last week with his old adventuring team delving dungeons around the capital. "And no. What news?"
Jeremy's response held none of the joy that could be heard in Cayden's voice.
"It's the queen. She finally made her move against the nobles."
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