Chapter 7: Chapter 7: First skill

"Ah, I forgot to mention, but you don't get notifications when new skills become available. You have to check the store periodically."

Bleh. Say that sooner! Right, what skills do I have available now?

Skills available for purchase:
2 points: [Inspection]

Yes! Buy buy buy!

ding
New skill acquired: [Inspection]

Seriously? I get a notification for that when I literally just bought it myself, but there wasn't one for the skill becoming available in the first place? Whoever designed this System didn't have any UX experience. Oh, I should have checked to see if I could read the skill description before buying it. Drat. I must remember to try next time. I guess it doesn't make a difference this time because I was going to buy the skill, regardless. An appraisal skill is a must have for any isekai adventure after all!

[Inspection] - View the identity of a target. Higher levels increase range. (Rank 1)

I looked up at dad. I'm pretty sure that him carrying me counts as being in range.

David, Human

Really? That's all? Sheesh, I need to upgrade this to [Appraisal] or better as quickly as possible. But I can't even afford a rank two skill right now. I need more levels! But usefulness aside, at least it worked.

"Yesh, I have ith!"

"Well done, I'm proud of you. But if you don't mind me asking, can you read?"

What? Where did that come from?! Oh poo, I've just spent ages reading system messages right in front of him. My eyes were probably wiggling back and fore while he was watching. Even if he couldn't see the interface, it's not like I'm invisible myself. I screwed up again...

"No..."

"It's okay, I wouldn't expect you to. No need to look so panicked over it. Anyway, lets head home."

Huh? What just happened? He was blatantly watching me reading, but as soon as I denied it, he instantly believed me. Yup, again I feel I must berate my parents for being far too trusting. Suits me just fine, though. As dad carried me back home, I continued firing off [Inspection] at anything that came into range, which turned out to be around a metre. Or 'unit', which as far as I could tell was about the same length. Hmm... The name 'unit' was supposed to come from the System, but the [Inspection] description just said 'higher levels increase range' without explicitly saying what the range was. Maybe there was some way to get more detailed skill descriptions?

We made it back home just as the sun was starting to set, vanishing behind the tree line to the west. I looked at the door to our house.

Wooden door

And the inspection skill proved its worth once more. I never would have known I was looking at a door had it not told me. We stepped in and dad handed me off to mum.

"Mission successful. Our little boy has learnt his first skill."

"Congratulations, little one."

I looked up and smiled.

"Thanw you."

Lucy, Human

Suddenly my vision blurred, and I felt extremely nauseous. The room started to spin, and I couldn't hold my focus on mum.

"Hey. Little one. Peter! What's wrong?!"

What... happened? I feel awful... Fighting through a sudden fugue, I managed to bring up my status.

Name: Peter
Species: Human
Class: Commoner (Level 3)
Soul Points: 2
Health: 8/8
Stamina: 3/8
Mana: 1/16
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 4
Endurance: 3
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 9
Skills: [Inspection 1]
Traits: [Abnormal Soul] [Early Bloomer] [Curious] [Xenophilia]
Titles: None

Seems that [Inspection] consumes mana. Silly me for assuming it was free and not checking. Just one point grace separated me from enforced nap time.

"Nothing wrong. No mana."

"Oh, silly child. Don't worry us like that! I know you're excited about getting your first skill, but be more careful not to overuse it."

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"Another important point that my own dad enjoyed quoting at me every time I did something stupid is that neither intelligence nor wisdom provide you with common sense, so remember to think before you act. Anyway, you've had a busy day. It's time you had a sleep."

To be fair, it certainly was, but with my mind still buzzing after all of today's activity, I knew drifting off would be a difficult task. I was stuck in the horrible situation of being over tired but being unable to sleep. I lay there waiting for my mana to tick back upwards, taking some of my nausea with it. At the rate it was going, it would take perhaps an hour to go from zero to full. From the limited information my parents had provided, supposedly I needed to learn to sense mana before I could start using it, but [Inspection] uses mana and I had no trouble using that. Is there a distinction between 'magic' and 'a skill that uses mana'? In any case, it wouldn't hurt to try to feel out my mana.

I closed my eyes and tried to feel my mana increasing. When it was almost empty I had very much felt the effects, but until then I hadn't noticed at all that it was draining. I'd gone from completely normal to semi-conscious with one skill use. That wasn't the same as stamina, where I could feel my body getting heavier and sluggish as it drained. If a prerequisite for magic was learning to sense mana, then getting out a feel for the state of my own pool would be a good start. Without cheating and reading my status, of course.

I was woken up by the sun shining in through the window. Wait, when did I even fall asleep? So much for being buzzing. I guess that laying down, ignoring my senses and trying to feel out my mana was kinda restful. Given the time it takes mana to regenerate fully, it was no wonder I couldn't stay awake for the whole thing. My pool was definitely full now after a good night's rest, but I still couldn't feel the difference. I fired off [Inspection] at my cot to use some up.

Cot

Helpful as ever, I see. Status said that my mana had dropped to fifteen. I looked around to find something else in range.

Woollen blanket

Still fifteen, so it obviously doesn't take a whole point per use. Makes sense, since I must have fired off dozens while out yesterday. Certainly far more than sixteen. A bit more experimentation revealed I could get three shots off per point of mana.

ding
Skill [Inspection] advanced to level 2

Already? It's only been a day... Although it is the first level of the lowest rank skill, and [Early Bloomer] gives me an additional boost, so it can only get slower from here. The range increase seemed to be around a third. If it was linear, I'd have four times the starting range by level ten. That would make it more usable, but not exactly something you could use on an enemy mage or archer at long range. Hopefully, the higher rank skills improved range further. The quality of information it displayed didn't change in the slightest, which wasn't a surprise since the skill description didn't claim that it did.

With my mana down by half, I concentrated on feeling out any differences from when I was full. There was... perhaps an emptiness would be a good description. Not like hunger or anything physical. Just a feeling that something was missing. I fired off [Inspection] a few more times to drain some more, while concentrating on the feeling.

Nappy (soiled)

Arggg... I'd got pretty good at detaching myself during feeding and changing times. Of course a baby wouldn't have been left half a day and the whole night without attention. Perhaps I'm in denial, but that's my right and I'm clinging to it. Alas, this time I'd spoiled my illusion with a poorly timed [Inspection]. Seriously, I can stand now. Surely they can let me use the real loo? I don't think my parents quite knew how they should treat me, given the disconnect between my mental abilities and my physical growth.

That distraction spoilt my concentration. Despite searching, the feeling of emptiness from before was no longer there. I think that my regeneration is too slow to feel the gradual changes, so starting from full and dumping half my mana in one go seemed to be the way forward. Mana seemed to regenerate the complete pool in one hour, so I'd have to wait half an hour for my pool to refill. Stamina was presumably the same, once the passive drain from being awake was subtracted.

"All clean and dressed. You're very quiet this morning. Feeling better after yesterday?"

"Yesh, thrying tho feew my mana."

"Oh? Don't you want to wait for some advice first? Well, I guess there's no harm to it. I need to finish off Kendra's dress, so I'll be working this morning. Call if you need me."

Dad had already left for the fields before I woke up. While waiting for my mana to return, I toddled around the room, doing my best not to fall over.

ding
Dexterity increased by 1

Wow, today has been a good day already. It's slightly concerning how my dexterity is outstripping my strength and endurance, though. I haven't had a boost to either for a while now and am in dire need of some more. I suppose that dexterity is something that can be trained more easily, whereas strength and endurance literally need me to grow up. The extra dexterity made an immediate difference to my walking. Training in this world was weird. I wonder what would happen to a fitness enthusiast visiting a gym in this world. They would hear a ding and suddenly have to go and find an extra weight to attach to their machine.

That killed enough time for my mana to return, so I sat down and concentrated as I drained half my pool. I managed to grasp at that feeling of emptiness again and held on to it as I drained my pool further. This time I didn't hit any unfortunate distractions and managed to keep a grasp of the feeling as it intensified. I tried to keep hold of the feeling as my pool slowly refilled, but without the rapid changes drawing attention to it, I could feel my grasp slipping. I lost it completely after a minute or two. It was like one of the videos from back on Earth with a camouflaged object bouncing around a screen, and then it stops moving and immediately gets lost into the background. Still, maybe what I had done was enough?

Skills available for purchase:
2 points: [Meditation] [Mana Sense]

Huh? How did I get two? Three cheers for successfully unlocking [Mana Sense], which is the skill that mum mentioned yesterday, but where did [Meditation] come from? I guess now would be a good time to check if I can read skill descriptions from the store.

[Meditation] - Relax and close off the world around you to increase stamina and mana regeneration. Higher levels increase regeneration rate. (Rank 1)
[Mana Sense] - Vaguely perceive the presence of mana in your immediate vicinity. Higher levels increase acuity and range. (Rank 1)

Indeed I can. The descriptions looked the same as looking at something from my own status. My best guess was that I'd unlocked [Meditation] last night. I guess you could call the time I spent before sleep 'meditating', if you squinted a bit and twisted the definition to breaking point. I can't afford both skills in any case, so [Mana Sense] it is. I could wait for Kari to visit, but I probably needed to get [Mana Sense] to level ten, so the sooner I started the better,

ding
New skill acquired: [Mana Sense]

I looked around, but as far as I could tell, nothing external had changed. I certainly hadn't developed any new super-senses. Trying to feel out my own mana pool was more successful though; I could now grasp the feel of my own internal mana easily, and could sense where there was a hole slowly being filled by a trickle coming in from outside. I did my best to follow it, but it didn't seem to be coming from anywhere. Or perhaps it was coming from everywhere. 'Vaguely' was certainly an apt description of this skill. Spending some more mana, I found I could now tell with relative ease the fraction of my pool that remained without having to check my status. Hopefully that will prevent any more repeats of last night. I could also, heh, 'vaguely' sense the mana leaving my body as I used [Inspection], although where it was going I had no clue.

The rest of the day was spent toddling around the room and practising my pair of skills. And also napping. I'm still a baby, after all. Having an excuse to take random naps whenever I felt like it was a perk I was going to miss. There were no more skill or stat gains, but today had been quite productive enough as it was. No need to get greedy.

ding
For your efforts to uncover the secrets of mana, [Curious] awards 1 soul point.

Oh. Never mind then. Thanks System!