94: Burn it

Sitting down near the fire, I pulled up my status and finally got a good look at the skill options that the system said I could choose my replacement from.

Part of me wanted to wait until level twenty-five, especially since I was fairly certain I would be hitting twenty-four in the next hour or so with the rate Lily was hunting.

But it wouldn’t hurt to review my options, right?

Congratulations you have 1 available ability selection.

Choose from the following options:

• Feast of Power
• Mana Pan
• Gourmand’s Insight
• Flame Control
• Handle the Heat
• Clean Cut

Huh, it didn’t give me the full skill breakdown like on level-up?

Was that because I had already seen these skills?

Straightaway, there were some that were no longer useful to me—and even when I tried to think outside the normal on the skills, I couldn’t see where they would assist me. For those, it was Flame Control and Handle the Heat.

Both of these options were covered by Crisplet’s presence. I was also tempted to rule out Mana Pan, but honestly, having Milo was useful, sure—but I needed to regularly get cooking equipment made from him to fit fairly unique meals.

I also had to recognise I wouldn’t always have Milo there to make me a tray, or a pan, or a pot for the rest of my life. That said, I do also have Crisplet now, who can build stuff, but something tells me I won’t be able to serve a dish on a tray made out of hot coals and ash.

I also wondered if this could be used as an emergency defence—maybe I could make a large pot of something and use it as a shield of sorts in a dangerous situation?

Then there was Feast of Power. This seemed useful, although limiting. If my memory was right, it allowed me to produce a special meal once per day that would be deemed a “feast of power”, and this meal would provide stronger buffs and longer duration. Again, I tried to think how this could be used outside the norm, but I was coming up short.

Gourmand’s Insight very much was what it said, and although it seemed really nice to know what people liked and disliked—as I’m sure you could use that information to your advantage if people didn’t know you had a skill for it—where could I use it?

This one didn’t seem likely for me to take.

Lastly was Clean Cut. I ignored this pretty quickly back when I hit level five, because at the time I already had Knifework, and I didn’t see a reason to get Clean Cut as well. I was also worried it would be useless—but having seen mana infusion in several skills and the results; it was making me wonder just how powerful that cut would be.

That was especially on my mind after trying to chase down an enchanted knife, almost getting ripped off, and even now with a decent-quality knife, I still couldn’t even scratch the dragon tail. Probably not the drake either. But even the Chironid was a challenge.

I could absolutely see a use for it, if it did what I think it did, but ultimately I was in no rush to select a skill, so I’d wait till I had a discussion with Milo and see how close I was to twenty-five before I selected.

“How ya’ holding up?” Liane asked, sitting next to me.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I’m angry at the orphanage, and at all of those who lied to us and set us up for failure.” I sighed.

“Understandable. I don’t really speak of it much, but I came from an orphanage as well,” she said.

“Really?” I was shocked at the revelation.

“Yup. I suspect a large reason I got rogue was because I used to steal a lot of food to survive and shared it with my friends.”

“What happened to your friends?” I asked, wondering if she had a similar experience.

“Most are probably dead, honestly. Like yourself, they didn’t prepare us. Unlike you, they had more freedom on the streets and learned a thing or two to survive that way,” she said in a sombre tone.

“I got lucky. I found a good party and leveled very quickly,” she continued.

“This party?” I asked, gesturing around us.

“No, actually. I’ve only been with Hari and Jen for a couple of years at this point. It was a group that mainly operated out of a town far to the north,” she explained.

“Did your orphanage lie to you as well? What did you do?” I asked, curious.

“They did, and it was a large part of why I leveled up so fast,” she sighed, hesitating before she continued. I didn’t interrupt.

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I wanted revenge. It’s probably a thought that crossed your mind—I wanted to kill them all, every single one of them who lied to us and used us,” she said bitterly.

“Did you?!”

“Sort of. I went back. I found the people who did it to me, and I had them at my mercy. I could have killed them,” she said softly.

“Could have? So you didn’t end up killing them?” I asked.

“No. In the end, what I got was information, and may have threatened a little. Which reminds me—we should check back in one day to see if my threats held,” she said with a smirk before returning to the point.

“I got information about why. The people in charge of the orphanages are, well, nobodies. They are often old orphans themselves, and many of them are doing the best they can with little to no money. If I killed them, they’d be replaced by the end of the week with more expendable people.”

She took a deep breath. “The issue, Trev, is the system itself, and that comes from the top. I’ve not given up my efforts to have it changed, but I’m not strong enough to effect change yet.”

“So what? It’s not their fault they set us up to die?” I shook my head.

“No — not at all. It is absolutely their fault. But unless we change at the top, you’d be killing an endless number below. You don’t want that much blood on your hands,” she said.

“And how do we do that?” I asked, curious if she had a plan.