CH451

Immediately, Ben wanted to confirm he was right about what he was feeling and reached out with connect, linking with the man and letting him see the skills on his soul, finding exactly what he’d been expecting. A tier three skill, albeit one that didn’t have a level so it couldn’t grow, meaning he was sitting beside one of the more valuable of the summoned on the planet. All that left was just what it did.

“Akashic record huh?” He muttered, getting to see Verbum almost jump out of his skin while Killi chided him.

“You are not allowed to react poorly to someone else peeking on your soul if you’re going to do it to everyone around you as well, and yes Ben, he’s the holder of a tier three skill like myself. To be specific, he is the first holder of a tier three analysis.”

Okay, stay calm and be casual and cool. Don’t want to go scaring him off more than he already is.

“Uh, Killi, can I leave now?” Verbum tried to beg. “He’s looking at me like I’m a piece of meat.”

“Rude, I’m looking at you like you’re a friend waiting to happen. Like your teacher said, I was also one of the summoned from the human group so let’s get along.”

He held out his hand, only for it to be regarded with suspicion, with the other only taking it when it seemed his teacher was about to lose patience.

“Verbum’s from the pleiaden group.”

It was a name that scratched at his memories, even if he didn’t immediately know why. He really hadn’t taken as much interest in the other groups of summoned as he probably should have, he hadn’t even bothered to learn the name of Yuzu’s species. The only two he knew with certainty were humans and the grey.

Although that isn’t exactly true, is it? He thought to himself, understanding dawning on him. I technically met an orion, even if I didn’t talk to her, and wasn’t it the pleiadens who were the ones that got to deal with that shock when they arrived?

The shock being the discovery that they’d been secretly ruled by another race. The orions, a group of lizard people who had somehow hidden their entire species from a planet of others, ruling them in secret for reasons Ben couldn’t begin to guess at. All at once, Ben couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the other man as his nervous nature made more sense. If he’d had to learn about the existence of the grey watching his world and playing their pranks at the same time he was dealing with accepting the fact that he’d died and been given a new life specifically to fight in an impossible war, there was a good chance he wouldn’t have been in a great spot either.

It also left the problem of not knowing where to take the conversation from there. What am I even supposed to say here? How was it living in a society built on the biggest lie you could imagine? Do you chat with the two orions that were brought here with you, or do you keep your distance? How did the rest of your kind take the reveal?

Lucky for him, he didn’t need to make that choice, Killi did it for him.

“Verbum’s people came here under, let’s say, unique circumstances which can leave him a little cautious, but since you’re both holders of the knowledge skill along with being otherworlders, I thought it might be a worthwhile experience for you to get the chance to talk. Different ideas can grow into incredible things when they meet after all.”

“I’m aware about the whole ‘secret ruling species’” Ben admitted. “Honestly must have been a shock but I can kind of get how you feel. Have you heard of the grey? They were watching my world from a whole other reality and instead of making themselves known they would just pull pranks on us by appearing to crazy people. Well, I guess maybe not crazy people since they were right, but you get my point.”

He said it to try and commiserate together, to have a common point of interest that might help unite them, but that failed too, and spectacularly so.

“They were doing the same to my world too,” He said, hanging his head back with a dead look in his eyes. “Secretly ruled on my world, secretly watched from another reality, dragged into this one by higher powers my people never even conceived of, just so I can die all over again. I’m just waiting for whatever’s next. Maybe this multiverse is being observed by some greater omniverse, or maybe everything is just a simulation and whoever’s running it decided to be mean to me in particular. Hell, maybe none of you even exist and this is all an extension of my own disembodied nightmares torturing me.”

“Uh, I think you could at least verify some of that with your analysis skill, right? Or does it not work like that?”

“How am I supposed to trust an ability I got in this reality if I’m not even confident anything exists!” He yelled back. “For all I know, something else just gave it to me to give me a false sense of security!”

On one hand, a little paranoid, but on the other, I still don’t really think I can blame him.

Killi seemed to be faced with the same predicament. She was placed in charge of helping him learn and grow due to the compatibility of their skills, but she couldn’t do anything for the doubts and fears that plagued his mind.

“Ahem, the way his analysis skill works is it lets him see all of the information the system contains on anything he desires-”

“Allegedly.”

“Based on everything we can see about it,” She went on, ignoring the interjection. “It’s honestly probably the most powerful information-gathering tool on the planet given how it is, but unless one is specific about it, it can provide too much information so he’s still practicing trying to refine what he gets to the most important bits.”

“Interesting,” Ben said, trying not to show his naked desire and opting to make some small talk before he got to the heart of what he wanted to know. “So do you think you got that and your knowledge skill based on anything you did in your first life? I was aiming to be an artist which might explain my three blessed ones and I know others whose skills matched things they would do, but then plenty of people arrived with magic skills despite nothing like that existing on my planet.”

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“I was training to be a rememberer,” Verbum told them, more life draining from his eyes as he did.

“A rememberer?”

“One who’s trained from childhood to remember the history of my people and learn the lessons it contains. Except none of that matters since it was apparently all a lie and I’ve been wasting my life.”

The table fell silent with the bleak statement as Ben did his best to hold back a sigh.

Okay, I’m never getting anywhere with this guy so I think I’m just going to jump down the deep end.

“So when you use your skill, how do you get information from it?” He asked forcefully, not giving room for another depressing rabbit hole. “Is the knowledge forced into your head or do you hear it or read it?”

For the limited form of analysis that Ben had from both his crafting and enchanting, it appeared in a visual form, the characters of the world’s language appearing in his vision when he wanted them to, but he didn’t know for sure if that was the case for a proper analysis skill, least of all one that had made it to the third tier.

“I read it. Why?”

Score score score score score score score!

“As you’ve already seen, I have plenty of jobs, skills, and titles I would want more information on than the system will usually provide and it just so happens that one of my skills can let me see through the eyes of others. What do you say, want to give me a look?”

Without meaning to he’d started leaning towards the other man, with Verbum’s dead expression changing to one of meek fear under that predatory gaze.