Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

The School had a class for everything. With [Bookwyrm] eating two of my general skills, I had open slots, and I was determined to make the best of it.

The problem I ran into, the School was also too good at teaching, and general skills had the most options by far. The list was almost literally endless. Even after cutting it down to size I was struggling.

[Parallel Thoughts] would let me split my mind into multiple tracks, letting me think about multiple things at once. I could read and carry on a conversation at the same time. I could cast multiple different wizardry spells while focusing entirely on a fight.

I could rub my belly and pat my head at the same time effortlessly.

And that was the introductory skill, with only one extra thought track. It evolved in a series of well-documented improvements, getting more and more absurd.

I had already picked the skill over similar skills like [Secondary Processor], [The Voices Inside Your Head Are Real], and [Mental Helper], although [Mental Clone] was still on the list. Basically a subconscious ‘mini me’ to talk with and point things out.

The voices in my head would be real! I swear!

There were a half-dozen skills along the lines of [Inner World], [Mind Palace], [Shadow Boxing], and [Internal Trainer]. I could mentally practice or review things. It worked best when I knew what I was doing, but I could literally train in my mind. Fortunately, they were strict upgrades over skills like [Wizardry Testing Ground], and I could safely axe that skill from my list.

Naturally, the skills got absurd when combined with [Parallel Thoughts]. Multiple[Shadow Boxing] sessions going on at once? Dozens of internal mini-Elaines practicing wizardry or sparring? Combined with [Dream Reading], and I could barely imagine the results.

[Wisdom] promised to help me make better decisions, although the skill sadly took time to properly build up enough levels to become potent. I couldn’t just take the skill to help me figure out the best skill to take, although it was tempting.

[Critical Thinking] and [Common Sense] were two skills that weren’t common enough in the world, and both were in [Wisdom’s] vein. Instead of thinking more, I’d think better. The improved thinking speed I got from my companion bond was already helping with thinking more.

[Cold Thoughts] and [Emotionless] had some logic behind them, but I was a little too concerned what conclusions I’d come to while relying on them. Those skills were the harbingers of ‘it totally made sense to start a civil war, it was the only way I could fix things.’

[Timekeeping] was an available general skill, and I’d grown to rely on it for the few short years I had the skill. Sounded silly, but near-perfect timekeeping and alarms had proven their worth. There was something to be said for taking a skill I already knew… but I wanted to have my skills for the rest of my life.

This whole losing general skills and resetting from scratch was for the birds. I very well could end up finding skills were duds, removing them, and replacing them, like I had with [Spotless], but the goal was to grab permanent skills.

[Mental Journal] would let me make notes to myself, and keep them there. That, and other memory skills overlapped too hard with [Astral Archives]. It did give me the idea to make a ‘book’ inside my [Astral Archives] that were memories of me making notes to myself, and having a second ‘book’ of ‘completed’ notes.

Back to the stronger skills, [Imagination] promised to be a fantastically good one. My wizardry was limited by what I could think of, my ability to come up with ideas and think things through was only so good. [Imagination] would let me be more, be better. It was hard to describe… I lacked the proper imagination to do so.

[Curiosity] was the hallmark of intelligence. I was already curious enough to kill a dozen cats though, and I wasn’t sure if leaning into that aspect of my personality would be beneficial. Becoming more distractible?

Speaking of distractible, [Focus] was the best of the mental skills that could help me out. [Hyperfocus] was a bit too much, and [Concentration] had just barely lost in the pro-con analysis.

[Self Control] was another skill that not enough people had. I considered the skill, and it was still on my list, but I had a lifetime of discipline giving me a leg up. [Discipline] was another skill, and they just never ended.

[Comprehension] promised that I’d be able to absorb more information, faster, and it synergized well with [Bookwyrm].

And that was only a small fraction of the mental-type general skills! I’d cut down a list of thousands and thousands of mental skills to just that ‘short’ list.

The meta skills were up next, and [Channel] was on the top of the list. I couldn’t use[Lair] without it, and the skill was a critical prerequisite to get [Blink]. Mostly because a quick back of the napkin math suggested that [Blink] would take 320,000 mana at least to cast, and that was for blinking in place!

They got more interesting from there. [Trigger] let me make conditions for casting spells, and precharge them! A few of my competitors in the Gladiator Games used the skill to devastating effect. [Mages] with it literally spent weeks preparing skills, only for them to go off when needed.

A trigger word was a popular way of letting the spells loose, and they effectively gave themselves a mana pool that was 10 or 20 times the normal size with how many skills they prepared.

Every year there was grumbling that it should be banned, that it was basically arcanite. The counter-argument was that it was a skill, and anyone could take the skill. [Delayed Casting] was similar to [Trigger], and frankly, intelligent use of [Trigger] could replicate anything [Delayed Casting] could manage.

Interestingly, it combined well with [Imagination], but not [Parallel Thoughts]. I didn’t need to think more, I needed to think better.

[Automatic Aim] was a skill Artemis could use, but Radiance made life easy. At the same time, it could be good for wizardry spells…

… eh, I was trying to justify a bad choice. I happily crossed that one off my list.

[Twincast] was the best of the ‘doublers’, and like the name suggested, it ‘echoed’ any skill a second time, at the same level of [Twincast]. The upgrade path was obvious - [Triplecast], [Quadruplecast], it just went on and on. It was great for penetrating armor and hardened positions.

[Imbue] could let me have one skill deliver a second skill.

[Range] was a simple but powerful one. The range of all my skills would be increased.

The list went on and on and on.

Speaking of [Range], that also touched on the whole section of meta aura skills. Increased range, the ability to shape an aura, the ability to exclude people from an aura, compressing it… the list was just as endless, and I’d cut that train of thought off at the knees by saying I’d take the general meta version, not the specialized one.

[Preset Skill Casting] was the last meta skill I was considering. It let me ‘design’ a series of skills to cast in particular ways, along with time intervals between each casting. The higher the level, the more skills I could pack together, and the more sets of skills I could ‘save’.

I felt like I lacked the [Imagination] to properly appreciate all the things I could do with it! Then again, most of my skills were standalones.

There were emotional skills. That list I’d rapidly cut down to just [Joy], a skill that improved my appreciation for the little joyful things in life. It was awfully close to being a drug, and it was just barely toeing the line for what I considered acceptable mental changes on myself.

After all, in a way it changed me just as much as something like [Imagination] would change me.

Lastly were the more ‘normal’ general skills. [Running] would give me a hand with my minor dexterity issue, as would [Traction]. I wanted these skills forever though, and I would slowly get back in balance… especially after dumping the last of my free stats into my dexterity, and classing up [Bookwyrm].

[Prayer], [Sweeping], [Climbing], [Flying]... basically any and every activity could be a general skill. At the School, it was only too easy to find out exactly what each skill did, and how to get it.

“What do you think?” I asked Iona and Auri.

“BrrrRRrrrpt.” Auri conjured up a pair of mage hands to grab her head, then wove her head around in a big circle.

“Yes, yes, you’ve got a huge headache. Thinking about this hurts.” I rolled my eyes at the bird’s antics.

“Haven’t you mentioned something about spellbooks a few times now?” Iona asked me.

I nodded.

“[Bookwyrm’s Hoard] plus spellbooks sounds utterly disgusting to me.” I confirmed. “As long as I’ve thought of the array and drawn it out, and I have quality spellbooks to use, I’ll always have an arsenal on me.”

“Isn’t that 90% of what [Trigger] does anyways?” Iona asked.

I was so proud. She was using percentages in normal conversation! Correctly!

“Right, but the mana pool expansion is pretty nice, and it’s on sorcery, not wizardry. No penalty.” I said.

“Much more limited though.” She said.

I nodded in agreement.

“Brrrpt! BRPT!” Auri demanded.

I tilted my head and thought about it.

“That’s… a pretty good idea. Which categories do you think?” I asked my girlfriend.

Her eyebrows wrinkled in concentration.

“If it were up to me, I’d take a pair of social skills. Why insist on doing everything yourself, when you can form bonds with other people, and lean on their skills and abilities the same way they lean on you? Plus, making more friends? Yes please! End of the day, we’re just two people. A dozen, a hundred people can do more than we can. However, that’s me. That’s not you, and we both know that. The way I see it, you can expand in one or two of three directions.” She slowly spoke, working her way through Auri’s question. “You can improve your mind with a mental skill. You can improve your magic with a meta skill. Or you can improve your body with a more general skill.”

That snapped the whole discussion into focus for me.

“Right, let’s ditch the general skills. I’m pretty happy with my body, and I’d like to focus on magic and mind.” I said.

“What synergizes well with your current skills?” Iona asked. She probably had some ideas of her own, but was asking good questions to help me better frame the problem and think of things.

“Everything.” I grimaced. I’d already cut the stuff that didn’t work well.

“Brrrpt!”

“No, we can’t just burn the skills and pick the surviving one.”

“Brrrpt, brrrrrpt.”

I laughed at the little pyro’s logic.

“Okay, I’ll make you a promise. If I get stuck on a bunch of skills, and they’re all good, I’ll write their names on a piece of paper and let you burn them all. I’ll take the last skill standing.”

A really fancy way of generating a random number.

“Well, we’re at the School, best place in the world for skills. Do you think you can pull off any mergers?” Iona asked.

I thought about the problem from that direction.

“[Lucid Dreaming] and [Dream Reading] are similar.” The wheels in my mind slowly turned as I worked through the problem. “I cut [Lucid Dreaming] for having no benefit at all, because of [Dream Reading], but it’s in the same category as [Shadow Boxing]. If I take the right variant, it should be able to merge with [Dream Reading], and let me do anything in my sleep, not just read.”

Iona gave me a brisk nod.

“Excellent! What else?

“[Channel] and [Blink] or [Lair].” I was getting excited. I’d let myself get overwhelmed, but looking at it from the lens of ‘how do I upgrade my current skills’ let me kick the can down the road, and give myself a solid powerup. This was something like a once in a lifetime chance, to use the School’s knowledge and resources for my own.

[Reading] and [Comprehension] could get merged, although I was being a little greedy trying to merge everything into the skill. [Astral Archives] and [Hunger for Knowledge] were already both top-tier skills, being an evolution of skills I’d evolved a couple of times already.

It was helpful for removing options. I was still on the fence on mental or meta skills though.

I did have two skill slots… ignoring synergies for a moment, what were the best skills in each category?

“Do I need to think more, or think better?” I asked Iona.

She didn’t even blink at my non sequitur.

“More.” She instantly replied. “Elaine, I love you. I’m biased here. But you are the single most brilliant woman I’ve ever met, if a bit of an airhead. I can barely read your notes,-”

“Hey!” I protested. My writing wasn’t that bad!

“-not like that.” Iona rolled her eyes and ruffled my hair. “What you’re reading and studying. I can’t imagine you even smarter, and if we’re being completely honest, I’m afraid you’d completely leave me behind if you went deeper. That’s not to say you’re not a complete idiot at times, but you’re a genius. Think more. Two of you at 100 is better than one of you at 110, right?”

I shuffled over next to Iona, giving her the biggest hug I could while burying my head in her chest.

“Love you too.” I sniffled out, murmured into her shirt.

After that little speech, [Parallel Thoughts] went to the top of my mental skills list for a ‘final’ skill.

We held each other for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other’s company.

“BrRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrpt.” Auri made some snoozing noises, breaking the moment.

“What meta skill is best for each class?” Iona asked me.

My mind raced through the skills, and the answer became obvious.

“[Imbue]. It’s the best for my healing class. It’ll let me attach a heal to [Nova Lance] or [Kaleidoscope], and both have a longer range than [Wheel of Sun and Moon]. Plus, no distance penalty! Yeah, I could blast harder or more, but end of the day, I’m a [Healer], and [Imbue] is perfect for it.”

Mostly. There was the question of what would happen once I upgraded [The Dawn Sentinel] and [Wheel of Sun and Moon] merged with [Dance with the Heavens]. It might render the skill moot.

At the same time, I wasn’t going to try to play the grand guessing game of “what were my skills going to evolve into, and what was optimal for that?”

“Great! Are you all set with your general skill plans?” Iona asked.

“Yeah! Thanks again. When are we poking at your skills?” I asked the blonde.

She grinned.

“After we go shopping! The letter of credit finally made it, and Sigrun posted it before I left for the School! I’m looking to turn Fenrir’s scales into an aketon, and he needs a full suit of armor. Going to find one of the high level crafters looking for a project, and pay them. We all win!”

Iona had explained the letter thing before. She was a recognized Valkyrie, and could access some small sums from The World Bank - not to be confused with The First Bank - but to spend significant sums, she needed proof.

“Isn’t he still growing?” I asked.

Iona nodded.

“Yes, but Ashala got me a set of estimates. Given her level, I’d be surprised if Fenrir ended up a centimeter off her ‘uneducated guess.’” Iona snorted to let me know what she thought of Ashala being ‘humble.’

“Shopping! Let’s go! I need to pick up a good pair of enchanted boots. Do you think I can buy an improved Deception Ring? One that guards can’t see through? More people to heal in mortal lands than Immortal lands after all. Oh! And books! We should see what books they have!”

I shot out the door.

Shopping trip with my girlfriend!

It was a shame I only had a little more than a year left at the School. How quickly time flew by!

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