Chapter 33: More Skills

After dealing with the swarm of dead howlers, Kaius and Porkchop pushed further into the maze, more than happy to get away from the rotten blood and viscera they had left behind. They stopped, sitting down on the dark stone pathway to lick their wounds and rest.

“You got the skill?” Porkchop asked.

“Yeah,” Kaius nodded, chewing on a piece of jerky. “I’m gonna check it out in a second. Next is Mental Visualisation, Then Appraise and Inspect. I should be able to pick those up quickly on the move. The rest will probably have to wait until we get some down time.”

“Go on then,” Porkchop snorted. “Check it. Maybe then you’ll stop fidgeting.”

Kaius raised an eyebrow at his friend. He had not been fidgeting.

“I just didn’t want to distract myself in case we got jumped by another swarm. My skill doesn’t reach far enough to see up there. Not yet at least.”

Chagrin flowed over his connection to Porkchop.

“It was my mistake. A stupid one. I can see the canopy, just didn’t expect to get ambushed from there so I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll be more careful now.”

“Hey now,” Kaius said, his eyes softening. “I didn’t expect it either.”

“Check,” Porkchop replied, bumping him with his nose. “I’ll watch.”

Kaius nodded, pulling up his latest skill.

Low Light Vision:

Level 1

Uncommon

Pierce the shadows with radiant clarity. Unlock the secrets cloaked in the warm embrace of darkness.

Skill that enables perfect sight in low light levels. Ineffective against pitch-blackness and magical darkness.

Each level slightly increases the range at which you can see in low light.

A situationally useful skill, but one he had need of right now. It was often like that with new skills. The system seemed to use some arcane method of weighting practice, effort, and necessity. This skill wasn’t exactly one you could practise, so his sheer effort and need to pierce the gloom had aided him massively in its acquisition. Refined into something more potent, it would be a fantastic addition to his upcoming legacy skill..

The next component he needed to acquire was the first part of his plans for his class selection. With his ideas for runes, Mental Visualisation was going to be vital for holding their complex shapes firmly in his mind. Luckily, he had already been practising without the skill for years – much like he had with runes. Hastur had insisted.

If this was the path he was going to go down, he was going to do it right. That meant having a firm grasp of the fundamentals before he acquired the needed skills and started experimenting with imprinting runic spell formations directly onto his flesh.

Whenever his skill slots were full, Father had changed up their night time routines. With no risk of the system offering a skill prematurely, it was the perfect time. Alternating between lectures on runes, mental exercises, and practise in directing his mana throughout his body.

With enough practice and effort, the need for necessity decreased. He figured if he tried to build a visual map of the maze in his mind as they explored, he would unlock the skill quickly. After that, the rest of the skills for his next merge would require him to start using his Mana actively.

His father had made him spend hours practising moving the resource through his body. How to reach down into his centre to wrap the nebulous cloud of blue in a mental grip.

It was similar to how he directed threads of soulfire during a skill merge. Except he had to direct the resource out of his centre, visualising the energy flowing through channels as he directed it through his body. His first few attempts had been slow. It was all he could do to stop it from dissipating the second it left the nexus of his control, with how difficult it was to hold the required image in mind.

Now, he was competent. Not a master by any means, but he could direct mana through his body with a little effort. Appraise, and all that came after would require him to suffuse his eyes with the magical force. It would be the first time he had actively used it in skill acquisition. Tough, but also something he looked forward to. Finally starting his journey into magic. Even if he would only be dipping his toes in for now.

Kaius bubbled with the anticipation of taking another step towards his class. Towards the power necessary to defeat the Guardian. It was something he could control. Could change with his own power. After getting separated from his father and being at the mercy of the fates, he finally felt like he was forging his own path.

Though, thinking of his future, the notification he had received after eating the Natural Treasure still scratched at him. What did it mean to be Observed? Truly? Even when he escaped he would only be able to ask Father. If he was alive. Anyone else and he risked being branded as a mad man. Or worse, snatched up by someone too powerful to resist to be plumbed for what he knew.

Even if he ignored the risk to his own safety, he didn’t want the news to get out. If people started shoving unclassed into the Depths in an attempt to find Natural Treasures… Hundreds would die, at best.

No, better if he went to one of the larger cities and looked through their libraries on his own terms. Maybe Mystral? It was the home of the academies. If anyone had recorded anything concrete it would be there. Something to think about when he had escaped and found out Father’s fate.

Although…

His eyes flicked over to Porkchop. The meles were knowledgeable. Far more than he had expected for beasts. Their Matriarchs were something else. He might know something.

On the other hand, he knew so little of what it meant. What if Porkchop thought it was something dangerous? Made him dangerous? He’d only known him for a few months. Maybe he should keep it to himself. At least, for now.

Porkchop opened his eyes, noticing Kaius’s gaze.

“Yes?”

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

The two returned to silence, waiting for their resources to recover before they set off further into the maze once more.

…

As the pair descended deeper into the maze, Kaius relied heavily on his new Low Light Vision. It made identifying the thin snaking roots that triggered the grasping brambles far less painstaking. No longer required to slow down to a crawl just to ensure he didn’t miss a hint in the darkness, their pace picked up.

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Though that didn’t mean they rushed.

Not all of the trigger roots were so easy to catch, some barely shifted the flagstones on the path at all, forcing him to lean on the warning pings of Explorer’s Toolkit as they moved. More than once he had to stop fast, his foot hovering mid step thanks to a blared scream of warning in his mind. A closer look would often reveal a root buried deep in the earth. The only sight of its presence a line of almost invisible hairs poking a finger length out from the stone.

The pressure did wonders for his skill growth though.

**Ding! Low Light Vision has reached level 2!**

**Ding! Low Light Vision has reached level 3!**

**Ding! Explorers Toolkit has reached level 7!**

**Ding! Low Light Vision has reached level 4!**

The bubble of monochromatic sight pushed further out with each level, adding a dozen or so strides to the range of his vision. With every increase identifying further traps became just that little bit easier as he was able to survey more and more of the path they took.

Thanks to Explorers Toolkit absorbing Orienteering, Kaius never lost their sense of direction. No matter how many times they were forced to double back and take a new route, he could feel that they were getting closer. Slowly closing the distance to the far off structure that Porkchop had spotted before they entered the maze.

He could also tell that they were spiralling inwards, gradually but inevitably. It seemed that wherever they were heading, the maze surrounded it as a thick wall of bramble.

The entire time, Kaius made the effort to start creating a visualised map of the path they had taken. It was ruinously complex. Every few minutes it felt like he hit a wall in how many details he could keep track of, not the least because he had to split his attention with the far more important task of identifying the traps that laced the maze.

Every time the image collapsed in his mind, when he forgot if a path turned left or right, or he couldn’t remember the exact placement of a trap, he would start again. Tracing a new route through the brambles in his mind.

Inevitably the system rewarded his effort. Though, at first, not in the way Kaius wanted.