Chapter 7: Chapter 6 – Skills and abilities

The forest was quiet once more, the light of their fire scaring away the animals who saw it, the whispers of the leaves were the only sound heard.

Oliver sat, staring at the rabbit-like creature roasting over the fire. Where there would normally be paws there were now hooves, meant not for swift travel over forest ground but for finding even the smallest foothold on the branches of the ever-fall forest. It was actually very goat-ish in many ways, more specifically its bone structure, more designed to run on all fours like a goat then hop along like a rabbit, but still keeping the strong hind legs which let it leap from branch to branch when needed. The evolutionary path of this creature was very interesting.

“Hey Aelin, did you notice whether or not it had a couple of pointed teeth while you were skinning it? Or was the head too ruined from when you hit it with your rock” Oliver said, wondering if it might be a partial scavenger since there was a lack of them in the ecosystem. Well, he hadn’t seen any yet, though that may simply be the lack of variety he had seen, after all, he had only been here for three days.

“It did not have fangs, so no, you haven’t been poisoned by one of them biting you” Aelin said, sounding strangely satisfied at the question.

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that, I just wanted to know if it was an omnivore or just an herbivore, though I guess it’s good that even if I was bitten, I wasn’t poisoned” Oliver said, smiling down at his wounded arm.

“And here I thought you had finally picked up some basic survival instincts, well, in the future, it’s typically a good idea to think ‘I wonder if I got poisoned’ whenever something unknown bites you” Aelin sighed.

The two once more sank into companionable silence, as Oliver went back to staring at the slowly roasting rabbit. The gnawing hunger in his stomach demanded that he not take his eyes off the meal, but Aelin demanded that he wait until he deemed the meal ready. That was probably smart, since Oliver didn’t actually know when rabbit meat stopped giving things such as salmonella… or if rabbit meat gave salmonella. But, just like when it was probably smart that he didn’t let him eat unknown berries to stave off his hunger this morning, it didn’t make him less hungry. Just less poisoned.

When Oliver finally decided that he couldn’t infer any more information from looking at a roasting corpse, he tore his eyes away from the delicious meat, and closed them to delve into meditation. He started his meditation practice the night before with the goal of finding his mana, a goal which had, to this point, eluded him.

He breathed in. He knew what mana felt like, he still vividly remembered the sensation so different from any other. He breathed out. It was not something he saw, heard, smelt, felt or tasted. He breathed in, his thoughts came slower, his mind cleared. Mana, the sensation of it at least. He breathed out. It was different, on a fundamental level. He breathed in. What was the goal of meditating? He breathed out. It wasn’t to find sensations never felt before. He breathed in. It was to clear the mind, to seek peace inside oneself through the exclusion of the material world. He breathed in. It was to leave the mind to be alone and at peace. He breathed out. But if that was true, then would meditation even help? He breathed in. But if the ultimate goal of meditation was to relax your mind until your true thoughts surface. He breathed out. And then recognize the aspects of yourself you don’t like and then change them. He breathed in. Until you were, in the end, left alone with the version of yourself you like the most, floating in the void of your own mind. He breathed out. Content with the person you are even when that person is separated from all sensation. He breathed in. Then wouldn’t that require you to also cut off the sensation of mana from your mind? He breathed out. So, when you become good enough at meditation, you will find the sensation of mana inside yourself, and when that happens, you can use it. He breathed in. Probably.

“If you’re done breathing heavily from sitting still then the twig-treader rabbit is ready” Aelin said.

“Great! Could I get the hoof?” Oliver asked, his eyes snapping open as he smiled.

“I- what? Why? are you going to smash your way to the marrow with your rock or something?” Aelin asked.

“No, well, maybe, I did hear once that the hoof-marrow was the best part of a goat, and this does seem pretty goat-ish. But I do want to study the hoof, after all, what kind of biochemist-hopeful would I be if I didn’t have at least a little interest in unlocking the amazing secrets of a whole new species? And if I decide not to eat it, Garmark can get it” Oliver said, Garmark raising his head to look at him after he said his name.

“I still can’t believe you actually kept that beast” Aelin muttered.

“It’s a cat, and you stepped on his tail” Oliver rolled his eyes

Oliver grabbed the hoof, and indeed it was quite interesting, namely on two points, first of all was the fact that it had a deep and wide groove in the middle of the hoof. But why? It did make the two sides of the hoof pointy, which would be useful for both fighting and finding purchase, but a smaller but groove-less hoof would do the same and be harder to break. Ahh, it was so the twigs and smaller branches could get stuck in there, making sure that the rabbit doesn’t fall in rainy weather. Then there was the more obvious but still interesting detail, which was the ridges on the bottom of the hooves, facing backwards. They were clearly there to provide traction when going up, and, if his theory was correct, then the front hooves would have front-facing ridges, to provide traction when going down. How interesting. Oliver tossed the hoof to Garmark and started to eat the meal, curiosity satisfied, and when he was done, he once more took his meditative position, and continued his search for mana.

Oliver woke up feeling rather tired, far more so than he normally would, and as he used his arms to push himself upright, a sharp stab of pain immediately shot through his left arm. He looked at his forearm in confusion, not because of the wound, he knew where he got that, he wasn’t that forgetful, no matter what Aelin said. The tear into his arm was from when he and Aelin fought twig-treader rabbits yesterday, and one of them bit him, which in itself was surprising since, over the last couple of days which they had spent hunting them, they usually kicked rather than bite. But the reason for his surprise was that when Aelin got wounded, he was healed completely when he woke up at dawn. Well, he assumed he was fine right after waking, but he wasn’t completely sure since he himself slept for far longer than Aelin.

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“Hey Aelin, do you know why you healed over-night when I didn’t? Did you get some notification about it from the system? Or did you put all your attribute points into constitution?”

“I didn’t get a notification, no, and we both agreed that it would be foolish to use our points without knowing more, and if you just asked instead of guessing ten times I would explain” 

“Sorry for my scholarly curiosity, now could you please explain how you healed the mighty mauling of a level seven creature's bite in a single night while I struggle with a level three rabbit's nibble?” Oliver asked with a smile. 

Aelin rolled his eyes before answering “it was my racial ability called Anart. We had it before the system as well, but the system must have made it better. It is an organ filled with undefined flesh that is able to be spread to injured parts of the body to heal faster. It is mostly used for the many tears you always get when wandering the hills and mountains of a proper nature, but it works for wounds too” he said from where he stood overlooking the forest for threats, probably not even seeing the majestic beauty of the forest as the shadows and the light of the early morning played together, like children who knew one would move away soon, and thus played like they never had before in the falling leaves.

“Wait, we have racial abilities?” Oliver asked, finally stumbling out of his staring contest with the morning sun.

“Did you not check the only two other tabs we had outside of the main status?” Aelin asked, eyebrow raised in silent judgement.

Oliver immediately waved his arms frantically as he tried to defend himself “I was about to, really, but right before I had the chance to do so ran into you, and I couldn’t just not help you until I had investigated my status more thoroughly. After that, well, you told me about vernacular of vastly varied worlds, so I thought that was the starter ability we got and that was it. As for skills? Well, I thought we would have to level a couple more times before the system gave us any skills, I thought, perhaps it would grant us skills at level five, you know?”

“No, I don’t. Why would you just assume that the system would grant you skills? Why not, I don’t know, learn them yourself?” Aelin said, his other brow rising.

“Huh. I suppose you’re right. I know nothing” Oliver said, looking slightly perplexed at his own realization “Oh well, better to know now than later, right?” he smiled.

“Better to know before than now” Aelin said.

"Fair enough" Oliver said, recognizing the truth of the sentiment before he sat down on a smaller branch facing out over the ever-fall forest as he swung his legs among the falling leaves, enjoying how they bent on the winds he created, his sitting spot was right and slightly above the branch they had slept on, and he pulled up his abilities page.