An Unbound Soul

We re-entered the delvers' guild, Bluvre rather embarrassingly carrying me in piggyback. Embarrassing for me, anyway. All three other members of the party found my situation as amusing as Vyre did and didn't seem overly concerned that I'd almost killed myself. In Vyre's words, it was my own choice, so there was no reason for their team to feel guilty about it. That was perfectly true, and it wasn't as if I wanted them to feel sorry for me, so I laughed along with them, as far as was possible with everyone staring. It occurred to me that I seemed to be a rather different person now than I had been in the beginning, when I was constantly scared of everything and always wanting to play things safely. I'd been doing some very unsafe things recently, and it wasn't even as if I was desperate to complete the quest, knowing that the failure penalty had been removed.

They had to deposit me in my room, because even [Dexterity] wasn't sufficient for me to walk right now, and there was no way I was crawling my way through the guild. I'd expected them to drop me in a hospital somewhere, but apparently there was a limit to how fast wounds could be healed, and with me having already downed two health potions and an antidote, there would be nothing a [Life Mage] could add to the process for now. They seemed to think I'd be fine after a night's rest, even without a healer, which sounded rather implausible to me. I'd have to seek one out tomorrow.

I lay in bed, without even stripping my armour off. I stayed awake, keeping [Endurance] up to help purge the poison faster, and looked over the messages I'd missed.

Endurance increased by 1

Skill [Strength] advanced to level 10

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 9

Skill [Endurance] advanced to level 9

Skill [Mana Perception] advanced to level 10

Skill [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist] advanced to level 8

Skill [Enlarged Stamina Pool] advanced to level 11

Skill [Enhanced Mana Recovery] advanced to level 9

Class [Body Mage] advanced to level 13

Not a bad crop, given that I'd lost the fight. If ever I was going to rank up a title, I would have expected [Survivor] to have had a boost from my health dropping as far below zero as it did and me only holding on with [Endurance]. The maths was a bit complicated, given the poison, but I must have been more than ten points below. Ah well, surviving was the important thing.

It took almost an hour for the poison to break down, after which I finally let [Endurance] expire, and soon dropped into a deep sleep.

I woke the following morning, aching all over and still down by ten points of health, but at least more mobile than I had been. With the aid of my physical buffs, I could finally remove my armour and have a wash, now able to see the nasty gash across my stomach. It was very obviously not completely healed and finding a [Life Mage] shot straight to the top of my to-do list for the day. Hungry as I was, I didn't even want to risk eating right now; given the position of the wound, I wasn't sure my intestines were intact. I made sure to keep [Endurance] up again, now able to run it indefinitely, as long as I spent some time funnelling mana whenever it got low.

Thankfully, when I walked into the bar, I spotted Theodore and his team of newbies seated at a table, still eating. I was up late, and most delvers had left for their day's work already, but that team were never in a rush. Anton saw me walking over and waved.

"Morning. Not in uniform today?"

"Nah, I had a bit of an accident yesterday, so need to take a few days off. Actually, I was hoping Theo... umm, your teacher could help." Oops. I forgot he didn't like being called by name.

"Oh?" Anton asked with interest. "And what sort of accident did the little genius of the delvers' guild manage to have?"

"This sort," I responded, lifting up my shirt.

The whole team stared. "What the hell did that? No, never mind that. How the hell are you still walking?"

"I tried to solo the eighth floor boss with my eyes closed," I answered, with a completely straight face. It was true, too. I simply neglected to mention that I had senses that were in some ways better than eyes.

The newbie team continued to stare.

"I took out four assassins, a hero and two knights before things went pear-shaped, so didn't do too badly. The last assassin caught me by surprise by throwing his dagger. Didn't know they did that."

"Fine, I'll give you a [Heal]," Theodore muttered, cradling his head in his hands. "And in return, please stop corrupting my team with your insanity."

"Me? Corrupting people?" I asked innocently. "Never," I added with a grin.

Theodore blasted me with his magic, restoring half my missing hit points and shrinking the gash down to something that didn't look like my insides might use it to make their way outside.

"That's the best I can do for now. I still need to look after this bunch all day, after all."

"It's fine. Thanks a lot."

I grabbed myself some breakfast and joined them at the table, repeating my story in a less flippant manner. Even Theodore was staring in disbelief after hearing that the wound he'd just seen was its state after drinking two health potions. The way that my tumble across the floor had torn the dagger through me had caused a far messier wound than a simple slice or a stab would have done.

It was unlikely any of this team would be attempting to fight bosses while relying on nothing more than the flows of mana for their perception, but hearing of other peoples' methods would still be good education for them. They were actually progressing pretty well, with Anton and Lee having reached level eight and the other two only one level behind. It wouldn't be long before they reached rank two.

ding

Skill [Appraisal] advanced to level 12

Oh, awesome. Checking up on the newbie progress apparently came with even more rewards.

With my most important task of the day dealt with, I moved on to the delvers' shop; I had armour in need of repair and potions to restock. Unfortunately, I was currently rather skint, and I didn't really have spare silver coins floating around to buy potions. I decided to stick with a single health potion and no antidote, resolving to stay at floor five or above for a bit until I'd earned some more. Yesterday's experience had been educational, for sure, but burning through my entire potion supply and having all the loot go to Vyre's team made it an expensive one.

Interestingly, the store had some custom made mythril accessories in stock. Nothing I could afford right now, but they weren't insanely priced. The guild wasn't buying higher ranked ingots at the moment, apparently waiting for some bureaucratic process to settle on a new pricing structure, but the store had obviously got some mythril supplies from somewhere. Bluvre's ring wasn't a one of a kind. If the guild did start buying mythril again, I could certainly solve my money troubles that way; whatever price they settled on, there was no way it would be less than the old selling price of silver.

With that chore done, I needed to decide what to do with the rest of the day. I would have quite liked a rest back at the village, even though I'd only left there a couple of days ago, but I wasn't going to be jogging anywhere without a bit more healing. I could go back to the library, which would certainly be restful, but I was interested to see what more the research institute had done over the past week.

I managed to make my way there without being pelted by any rains of fragmented metal, which was an improvement over my last visit, but I didn't even make it into the building before hearing someone call my name. Simon was cycling towards me on a pretty normal looking bike. He came to a graceful stop next to me, utilising perfectly functional brakes. They weren't hydraulic, so he hadn't mastered that within the week at least, but it wasn't the bulky rod assembly from last time, either.

"Greetings. I'm glad you called in. I was hoping to quiz you for a bit about the gears; I've had a few more ideas, but still haven't quite got it working reliably."

"I doubt I'll be any more help than last time, but no harm in taking a look."

He jumped off and carried the bike back to his workshop, and started showing me his gear experiments. Surprisingly, I found that I could help. I didn't think I'd have any idea how to hook up the gears to hand controls, but once I saw his attempts, I found I could see exactly what he was trying to do, and make suggestions for improvements. I ended up spending the entire day there, with Simon bashing out new components as we talked. And then, just as he was experimenting with our latest design...

ding

You have formed a new skill: [Engineering]

Class [Body Mage] advanced to level 14

Two class levels in two days. I was back on another roll!

"Oh, awesome! Another new skill!" Simon exclaimed happily.

"Oh, you got it too? Congratulations," I said, before spotting the extra detail in his exclamation. "Wait, another new skill? Glasswork?"

"Yeah, the team working on glass got [Basic Glasswork] a few days back."

So I was right. I wonder why it got added to my shop? I suppose I had helped out a little. Maybe not enough to form the skill, but enough to fulfil the unlock requirements. Glasswork seemed to be an odd term, but if it matched the pattern of the other craft skills, it probably included everything from production to glass-blowing to whatever it was that a glazier did. Another rank one skill added to the shop. Unlike [Engineering], because looking at my status, that one wasn't. I'd just got a rank two crafting skill to add to my ever-growing stockpile of skills.

The addition of a craft skill meant I'd unlocked a rank two skill of every category, but I still had no upgrade for [Jack of All Trades]. Maybe I had to actually purchase them? I had enough soul points to get [Secrecy], and it wouldn't be a complete waste if it didn't do anything. Call it vanity or paranoia or whatever, but I really appreciated knowing when people appraised me.

My musing on titles was interrupted by noises from the corridor outside, and when Simon opened the door to stick his head out, excited chatter came flooding in. "Sounds like it wasn't just us two," he commented, before heading out himself.

Now that he mentioned it, last time I was here I did manage to give more tips on clockwork and steam engines than I thought I knew myself. Did everyone on those two projects get the skill? Did anyone who ever did anything involving a gear or a mechanism of any sort get it? Forget limiting progress; the System was a ridiculous cheat when used like this. Now anyone in the world could download the research conducted here for the price of some soul points. Or at least, those who met the requirements, whatever they may be.

I sighed at the general ridiculousness of it all, then splashed out the points for [Secrecy]. Might as well.

ding

New skill acquired: [Secrecy]

Skill [Privacy] consumed by superior skill [Secrecy]

Skill [Secrecy] advanced to level 2

Title [Jack of All Trades] evolved to [Jack of All Trades 2]

What? I seriously got a title upgrade for that? I was hoping for it, but I didn't actually expect it to happen.

[Jack of All Trades 2] - You have purchased a vast number of skills spanning all available categories before reaching your third rank, and have unlocked even more. Skill purchase costs reduced by 2. (Rank 3)

Lazy naming aside, it only reduced skill costs by one more point. Downside; it would have little impact above rank two. Upside; rank one skills were now free.

Skills available for purchase:

0 points: [Basic Cooking] [Basic Tailoring] [Foraging] [Basic Farming] [Weapon Proficiency: Dagger] [Weapon Proficiency: Sword] [Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Sword] [Weapon Proficiency: Axe] [Weapon Proficiency: Mace] [Weapon Proficiency: Flail] [Weapon Proficiency: Polearm] [Weapon Proficiency: Bow] [Weapon Proficiency: Thrown] [Hunting] [Musician] [Weapon Proficiency: Fired] [Basic Glasswork] [Basic Masonry]

3 points: [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] [Extended Stamina Pool]

Well, why not? I know Mum mocked me for my lack of self-control last time, but my secrets were already out in public, so I couldn't think of any reason to hold back this time. Maybe buying eighteen skills at once would get me yet another title?

I mentally willed the System to grant me the set of skills. That turned out to be yet another foolish mistake, something else that I seemed to be on a roll with these past couple of days. As my vision swam and I was struck with a migraine that felt like my skull was being used as the container for the next steam engine experiment, I screamed.