Chapter 22: Chapter. 22: Penumbral Sense

The skill list was massive, it was overwhelming to even process. An expansive array of entries flooded my vision. Much like the last time a headache assaulted me as I struggled to keep up with the information that entered my brain.

It took me close to an hour to finish sorting and reading— skimming through all the text. Eventually, I narrowed it all down to a few skills I could choose from, it was about as many skills as last time or rather the amount I found useful were about the same.

[Skill ⁠— Battle Meditation (Passive Uncommon) ⁠— Using special breathing regenerate mana amidst the battle. Regenerate a small percentage of mana every second of breathing.

[Skill ⁠— Nimble (Uncommon Passive) ⁠— Skulk, stalk, and move. +3 to Agility (Scaleable)

[Skill ⁠— Piercing Arrow (Uncommon) ⁠— Overcharge your arrow to imbue it with extreme piercing capabilities. Small agility bonus shortly after firing.

[Skill ⁠— Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive) ⁠— Your decisions walk on the path of danger, an instinctual balance that teeters between life and death. Mild affinity to sensing the Penumbra.

[Skill ⁠— Shadow Steps (Uncommon) ⁠— Your steps are quiet and nimble, soft as feathers. Makes your steps marginally lighter. +5 to Agility.]

The battle cry skill still remained, and I placed it at the very back on my mind ⁠— an option to always consider but most likely one that will never be chosen.

[Skill ⁠— Battle Cry (Rare) ⁠— Call the attention of every single living entity on a 5m radius. Friend of foe, all shall attack you.]

It seemed a lot of the skills that were options before were still options now, which was a nice surprise. If I happened to skip on a skill before then I could just acquire it at a later date, but there was something that bothered me. The Guardian… Wasn’t he too… strong? My memories were still jumbled, but even before the Prophecy his skills were stronger⁠— or were they? I pondered seeing the effects of Explosive Shot on the majority of things; it was incredibly strong.

I also had more mana now, it was as if I had used four levels solely on mana. I had to keep that in mind for selecting my new skill, but at the same time⁠ there was a looming question inside my head when staring at the list. What did I need? Judging from the last battle nothing felt particularly wrong to me, perhaps the fact that I didn’t run away, but…

Well that wasn’t an issue, or at least I didn’t think so. I wanted to think of my skills as something to use for battle to get stronger, not as something to use and run away. But then again⁠— I frowned looking at the two movement skills, I seriously doubted just a few points in agility would make me faster. [Skill ⁠— Nimble (Uncommon Passive)] didn’t provide much in terms of description other than the fact that it apparently scaled, so perhaps it was a simple +3 agility. At least so it seemed.

[Skill ⁠— Shadow Steps (Uncommon)] sounded more like something to use for being stealthy versus running away. On paper at least it did not sound like something that would help me escape, or even enhance my movement in some way. If I really thought about it then wasn’t Explosive Shot practically amazing for escaping too?

With all of that in mind I decided to skip on the movement skills for now; perhaps in the future there would be a better one available for me to choose from. I wanted something worthwhile since it seemed I was going to get a skill only every 5 levels, and while I could learn them on my own I didn’t want to experiment for days on end to even attempt to replicate a skill on the list. I didn’t have the time for it after all.

I decided to ignore [Skill ⁠— Battle Cry (Rare)] for now and probably for the foreseeable future.

[Skill ⁠— Battle Meditation (Passive Uncommon)] it seemed great but I didn’t really know how to feel about the fact that it didn’t quantify anything ⁠— no skills did ⁠— but I felt it important to know how much mana I would recover if I picked it. It was passive so at least it would always be activated, but it was still something to worry about. It seemed that skill selections and level weren’t completely tied together. I hadn’t found anything remotely related to fire, or ice, or the likes. At the same time there wasn’t anything that sounded as strong as Explosive Shot.

I considered [Skill ⁠— Piercing Arrow (Uncommon)] for a few seconds but ultimately decided against it, I already had in mind what the skill did and simply felt that… Power Draw sounded more complex and yet I had learnt that, imbuing an arrow with piercing properties didn’t seem that useful for now; and even if it was I simply felt that perhaps [Skill ⁠— Battle Meditation (Passive Uncommon)] or one of the agility skills were better.

And finally there was [Skill ⁠— Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)] with a weird description. I didn’t understand what sensing the Penumbra was. And I was tempted to pick it but every other part of my being told me it was a terrible idea. Out of all the skills it was the one I had the least idea of how it worked, it was simply… there. What did it mean to sense the Penumbra? It clearly was a term for something given it was capitalized.

I frowned and finally looked at Glim, bobbing silently in position. When it noticed my gaze it immediately shook.

[Oh, no, no! Blair, you already know I cannot help you decide on what skill is optimally the best. All the chests and things⁠— all the things from before are things that The System can sort of overlook, but this?] It frantically bobbed. [No, no! If you order me I’ll die, you don’t want me to die right? Please, Blair!]

I almost facepalmed seeing Glim’s performance. But it at least erased the desire to force it to help me choose from my mind. Glim was helpful, albeit in strange ways such as being a lamp. That said, I wasn't planning on forcing it to help me choose a skill, at least… not yet. I shook my head at it.

“Can you tell me what the Penumbra is?”

Glim paused. [Em… perhaps? It's a bit of an abstract concept, it could be said is what distinguishes the Greats of the Universe, well, you know⁠— Exalted figures; they don’t have any particular names. But it’s basically like a…] Glim hesitated once more. [I cannot quite tell you what it is other than it’s a sense that one develops after hundreds of battles. The Penumbra could be called the dimension that shows the flows of things, but fully seeing it is quite… impossible?] It bobbed. [Well I am assuming this is about the skill you got, then that’s the gist of it, it will allow you to develop a sense for the Penumbra and its dimension I suppose. It will get you a vague sense of the flow of things.]

I pondered about it, it sounded incredibly weird. But it was a Rare skill, if rarities were anything to go from then it was bound to be strong. Though I did not understand how strong it was since it was passive. Versus Explosive Shot which took a large amount of mana from me. Though, it was odd.

“So you’re telling me if I don’t learn this skill it would take hundreds of battles to acquire it? That sounds wrong.”

Glim bobbed. [Much could be said about Explosive Shot or just any skill that uses mana in general, mana manipulation is not easy! Just because you find it easy does not mean others will, enhancing your bow would normally take a few weeks of deliberate practice. And you still would not be able to use it in combat. In short, don’t use yourself as a standard!] It said in displeasure. [Count yourself lucky that you⁠— that you have me of course!]

It had a weird switch at the end, but at least it told me what I needed. In retrospect, how was I even going to use [Skill ⁠— Piercing Arrow (Uncommon)] without arrows? It sounded a bit silly to pick it if it was the case. Everything around me had been melted by the flames, the arrows were no exception and as far as arrows went⁠—

I could get back like two? The ones I used in the Kames before the whole battle started. So overall it didn’t seem like a great time. Thinking about it I let out a sigh, I wasn’t going to be able to use my bow for sometime, at least till I found a way to get more arrows. Perhaps search for more people? Humans perhaps? They seemed easy to manipulate…

I shook my head, they were just vulnerable at that given moment. With all that in mind I selected Penumbral Instinct.

[Skill Learned ⁠— Skill ⁠— Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive) ⁠— Your decisions walk on the path of danger, an instinctual balance that teeters between life and death. Mild affinity to sensing the Penumbra.]

In an instant I felt my senses expand but then everything remained the same. The wind vibrantly howled around me and the dust fell from the ceiling, the charred walls and carbonized ground whispered to me. It wasn’t the same. It all felt still, but when the wind touched, when it collided it called my attention in an odd way. Was it the movement of the wind? I frowned, feeling unsure.

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There were no immediate changes to how I felt about things other than a weird sense of being aware of the wind; or well⁠— the places it collided against. I ignored it and stared at my status, finding joy in how things had changed.

Name: Blair | Level: 10

Race: ??? (E-Grade)

Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition]

Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN),

Universal Inquiry (NaN)

Free attribute points: 0

VIG: 33 | END: 36 |

STR: 30 | AGI: 41 |

PER: 38 | WIS: 27 |

Skills: [Proficient Archery (Passive Uncommon)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)] [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)]

Attunements: Dark plants (I)

Prime Currency: 100

I could still remember how happy I was to gain my first skill, and now I had a total of 4! It was great! Though none of them used my attunement of Dark plants, and the currency was still a bit of a mystery. Though part of me also felt bothered that I hadn’t gotten another Feat yet, but Glim had said they were rare, so perhaps I had just gotten lucky with the Knell Boar. I stood up from the bottom of the cave and looked up, it was almost odd to see the enemy’s perspective, though it was all in the past now.

I followed my footsteps back, finding the steep rock somewhat hard to get up from. Eventually I arrived at the clearing from where I shot the Boreal Kame from, and continued towards the surface. It was about halfway through when a breeze of wind hit me, but it was different.

Something had changed about the wind. I stepped and felt a sudden sensation of being right, a nagging feeling in my head told me it was the right path to remain unperturbed. With a brief pause I stepped back and a feeling of slight wrongness hit me. It was wrong to go back? With a frown I continued testing the feeling of right and wrong, as I made my way upwards, and when the light was barely visible along the curves of the cave something else happened.

Blue white and red lines filled my vision, but they were immaterial and ethereal. As they clashed onto me the red branched into blue white and red, and so did the blue. It was like a constant flow, but in certain places they weren’t present. Was this the Penumbra? I stepped on blue and the feeling of being wrong returned, when I stepped on red it felt wrong, but in a different way. The white path gave me the sense of being correct like I was used to.

With a gust of wind my ears twitched, as footsteps approached, they were careful and delicate. I looked at myself and realized that the fact that I was unarmed was more than obvious. I quickly closed my cloak and draped it over my head, perching my bow on my back and just like that⁠— I looked much more threatening, or so I liked to think.

The footsteps neared the cave and the lines seemed to shift, but just like they shifted, they faded too. It was like a sea of feelings in which none could be relied upon, but amidst the chaos there were a few places that never changed from their color. I stood following my feeling of doing the correct thing as the footsteps loomed closer, and as soon as the sounds entered the cave; the tide changed once more. The feeling of right was replaced by wrong, I moved to the white once more; though it was closer to a grayish transparent hue than white. As the footsteps got closer the gray lines slowly shifted with the steps. The steps seemed wary but not hostile, they belonged to a bipedal being. There was no armor rattle so it wasn’t a horned person. Perhaps Human?

As I saw the red shift with it and come closer, and the blue drift further away, something popped in my mind. What if I stepped on red? I took a step forward to just test.

“Holy fucking shit!” The person jumped back with swearing and hurriedly grabbed their knife at their waist. He seemed oddly familiar? I tilted my head. He took a few deep breaths to scan me head to toe. “You… You’re not going to kill me right?”

I also scanned him feeling slightly wary of him.

[Human. Lvl. 6]

“No.” I said, losing all interest. I wasn’t sure if I was much stronger than him, but at least I felt secure enough to run away should he try to attack me. All he had was a knife. And his eyes seemed to widen as he too got my level.

Simply following how I would approach the situation if I was the other side, I made my decision.

I placed my hand at my waist inside the cloak and grabbed onto my knife. Feeling much more confident, I walked forward, he took a step back and gave way as I passed by him.

“Wait,” he called. “Who are you?”

Who am I? I pondered for a second before making my decision. “A Deep Dark Elf.”

His eyes shifted and looked at me once more, before finally he had a moment of realization.

“You, you’re the one that took my arrows!”

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