Chapter 12: Chapter 12 System Questions

Nathan considered Vhala’s words. She’d just told him he could be the best and earn fame and fortune on a righteous cause. To his millennial self, it struck a bit of a nerve and triggered a sense of suspicion. It sounded like it was too good to be true, and therefore probably was.

On the other hand, Vhala seemed entirely sincere. And she was right that the Talents Nathan had acquired were pretty absurd in the context she’d described. It seemed like magic stood at the pinnacle of might in this world, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Nathan’s current Talent made him mostly immune to it. After he developed it, it would presumably get even better. And given some levels and a smart build to provide him with plenty of stamina, Nathan could recover from almost any blow that didn’t immediately kill him.

And that was the difference between Davrar and Earth. Nathan didn’t have great power in either place, but he could acquire great power here. And there were great wrongs to right with that power, if he could resist the temptation of power for it’s own sake. Nathan closed his eyes, and released a deep breath. He wasn’t committing himself here, but it was definitely a step toward becoming a person who could bring down Giantsrest.

A Killer

Then he turned back to Vhala, who had been watching him patiently. “Thank you for that. I needed to decide what I was going to do here. But I think you’re right. Adventuring sounds good. I will accept your Insights.”

Vhala looked relieved. “That’s gladdening. To give you expectations, Artha said he’d continue talking to you about Rage. His clan specializes in Rages, and he’s definitely got some class skills about it, so hear him out. Wiam said he’s already working with you on something to do with magic. Not sure what you can get out of it, but he thinks it’s worthwhile and if you agree that’s between you. I’m not sure about Emerald. They said they’ve got a few ideas, but you’ll have to talk to them to figure it out. As for me, I want to give you a choice.”

She looked around, at the forest and hills they were passing through. “The first option would be to teach you about ranging the wild. Finding paths, food, tracks. Hiding camps, hiding yourself. I can help you guide your next class development in a more ranger-focused direction, and if you don’t want that, we can get you a utility skill or two that’ll help out. Are you interested in that?”

Nathan considered for a minute and shook his head. “It sounds useful, but I don’t want to specialize in operating in the wilderness too much, especially with what you’ve said about where my potential lies.”

Vhala nodded, dreadlocks bouncing on her back. “The other one is something I learned from my ma, and a bit of a personal secret. I’d ask you to swear to not sharing the Insight for this one around. It’s a specific utility skill focused on perception. Called [Notice], though I’ve got it developed past that. Means important things stand out to you more. Sounds like something you’re interested in?”

Nathan was nodding along, and as soon as she gave him the chance, voiced his agreement. “That sounds useful in almost all situations. Is there a catch?

Vhala’s dark lips quirked. “Not everybody agrees. It isn’t a craft, it doesn’t make you stronger, help you run faster or hit harder. Lots of people would rather learn [Easy breathing] or the like. But no, it just helps you see and hear more than you would without it, and figure what’s important from all that. Do you want it?”

Nathan thought about it for a second, but this skill sounded priceless. “Yes. And I swear on my honor not to tell anybody else the Insight without your permission.”

Vhala paused, quirking her lips at the oath. Then she began explaining. “The basics of it are to accept that you don’t notice everything that you see.” She gestured around them, to the forested mountains. “There’s a lot of detail here. Different rocks, slopes, trees. The wind, movement. But you don’t notice it, because not much stands out. If I were to ask you where the tallest mountain we passed was, could you answer?”

Nathan shook his head. He’d heard something like this before about how unreliable eyewitness testimony was. “I also couldn’t tell you what color clothes Dwoh and Sora were wearing.”

Vhala nodded, enthused. “Right. And those details aren’t a big deal. But if you train at it, Davrar can help you see more, and figure out what’s important without thinking about it. It’s a hard skill to pick up, but what you gotta do is realize how much of the world you’re missing, and try to pick up more. Not just limited to sight either, and if you only work on sight you’ll get a worse version of the skill. Make sure you think about smell, touch, sound, as well as temperature. There’s some tricks to it I can share later, but everybody does it a bit different and I don’t want to send you off in the wrong direction.”

They walked in silence for a bit, while Nathan appreciated the natural world around them. It was a severe but beautiful landscape, with slopes of evergreens punctuated by sheer walls of gray rock. The occasional ruin or enormous carving gave a sense of weight to the landscape, as if grand events had once happened in this valley, even if there were more like it. Nathan struggled to notice as many details as he could. The shape of the rocks on the trail they walked, and the pattern of new growth from a wildfire on the opposite hill.

After a time, Vhala interrupted. “Seems you’re on the right path. Keep trying, but keep thinking about how you notice details, and why specific things stand out to you. It’s not just practice, it’s an Insight that I’m building you up to. I’d be pretty surprised if you got the skill before we got to Gemore tomorrow, but the Giantraiders will be sticking around town for a bit, so we’ll keep working on it until you get the skill.”

Vhala turned, and went to walk away, looking over her shoulder as she departed. “One more thing. It’s easier to get skills and Talents in dangerous situations, the more dangerous the better. If you can spare a moment during a fight, focus on an insight you’re working on. Just don’t get killed. Anyway, I’ll send Emerald over. They wanted to figure out what you were interested in.”

A few minutes later, Emerald approached Nathan, raising a hand in greeting. They spoke quickly, if with a stronger stutter than usual. “T-there’s a f-few things I could teach you. D-do you know what k-kind of thing you’re interested i-in? You p-probably can’t get my c-class, and the special T-talent I h-have might not be useful to you…” They trailed off, uncertain.

Nathan had a reply ready. “You’ve seen me fight. I want to be better at it. I know it’s not common for utility skills to help you fight better, but I saw how well you were able to dodge earlier. Are there any skills that you can teach me for that?”

You are reading story Ends of Magic: Antimage LitRPG at novel35.com

Emerald was silent for a moment, then spoke. “Yes. But you’ll n-need to take it s-seriously. What I have d-doesn’t sound like a fighting skill. It’s…” Their shoulders hunched, and they kicked a rock. “It’s a d-d-dancing skill. C-called [Dancer’s Footwork]. If you’d r-rather, I have a Talent that makes my armor l-lighter.”

Nathan answered. “No, the dodging skill sounds interesting. I bet it helps you keep your feet and dodge around like I saw during the fight?”

Emerald’s awkward hunch froze. “Y-yeah, it does. But it doesn’t s-sound like a skill for f-fighters. I-if you learn it, d-don’t tell anybody you have it. They will m-mock you and ww-won’t want to w-work with you.”

That surprised Nathan. Whatever, that sounded like macho idiocy. The skill still sounded pretty useful. He considered the armor Talent, but he got the feeling it was a bit of a waste of a Talent. He asked Emerald to teach him [Dancer’s Footwork]. They started running him through footwork drills on a relatively smooth piece of bare rock, emphasizing keeping weight on the balls of the feet, smooth pivots and driving legs to quickly change direction.

“Emerald, can I use stamina during the workout? Will it prevent me from getting anything out of it?”

Emerald shook their head. “No, you s-should use stamina on this i-if you can. People with stamina can exercise l-longer and harder than other people, so in addition to stamina they tend to be s-stronger than o-other people. Just b-be careful, it w-won’t save you from being sore and w-we still have a ways to w-walk.”

They kept up the drills for a bit longer and Nathan was starting to get the hang of it. The movements were smooth and he was expecting the skill to pop up any second. Unfortunately, Artha came to get them since they’d fallen far behind the group and they had to run to catch up. The rest of the day passed in travel while Nathan thought about the skills he was trying to learn.

With those leg exercises and all this running, his legs should be killing him. But they weren’t. It was almost certainly his regeneration working when he spent stamina to move and healing low-level muscle damage. But Nathan wasn’t sure if that meant he wasn’t gaining anything from exercise or if he now could generate muscle at superhuman rates. With his regeneration focusing on new cell generation, his guess was that it would help generate muscle mass. Cool.

That evening, they made early camp in the lee of an ancient roadbed. Nathan kept away from the center of attention, trying to stay away from Eldred and his vanguard after Wiam’s warning. They’d broken out some sort of liquor and were toasting a successful mission. After helping with the camp setup, Nathan figured it was a good time to sit down and try something.

Specifically, he wanted to try to develop his [Focused Mind] skill. It was capped, and he had the lessons of multiple traditions of meditation to draw on to figure out the appropriate Insight. Nathan settled down, cross-legged, and started to meditate. He dedicated his attention to the practice. First, calming the breath and quieting internal dialogue. Then, finding the spotlight of attention and diffusing it to fill his entire mind. He wasn’t observing his mind from some own point within the mind. He was his mind, and his consciousness was spread throughout.

Nathan opened his eyes, but did not let go of his meditative state. The world resolved itself before his eyes, made of color and light. He gazed broadly at the scene in front of him. The sun was gone, the landscape softly illuminated by the world above. Nathan kept his gaze wide, aware of the world beyond himself. His consciousness pushed out beyond his body, filling the world. Or rather, filling the model of the world that was contained inside his brain.

The world that Nathan saw around himself wasn’t true, physical reality. It was a model of the world constructed by the fallible sensors at the end of his nerves. It wasn’t always accurate, and it was a representation of the real thing, not the real world itself. Even now, looking out at the world, Nathan was stuck in his own head. But that meant what he was seeing was inside his consciousness, and he could expand his attention beyond himself. He wasn’t located in a ball of awareness inside his own head, or even inside his own body.

Everything I experience exists within my conscious mind.

With the thought, and the feeling of certainty, a blue box blossomed.

---