Chapter 51: Skills and a Chat

Chapter 51: Skills and a Chat

[ Phase-shift has begun. Pausing all Interface functionality until shift has been completed. ]

[ Phase-shift complete. Calculating changes. Removing notification suppression. ]

[ Phase-shift Rank: S ]

[ Firmament base has been established. Ranking function unavailable. Information restricted. ]

[ Congratulations on completing your first phase-shift! Please note that the Interface may take time to fully calibrate to your Firmament base, depending on complexity. New skills offered will be tailored to your Firmament base. ]

"Well, that doesn't tell me much, considering how I built it," I mutter. I don't regret it in the slightest.

"Why he talking to himself?" Akar demands, looking between Mari and Tarin. "He hit his head?"

"It Interface," Mari says.

"He call me old fart!" Tarin complains.

"I can hear you all," I grumble. It's more of an affectionate grumble than anything. I've grown to like the crows a lot. Ahkelios, sitting on my shoulder, snickers at me, and I give him a playful flick that makes him yelp and scramble to defend himself. I go back to my notifications, ignoring the way Akar immediately starts cooing over Ahkelios and the way he absolutely eats up the attention.

[ Once calibrated, the Interface will attempt to track your progress towards the next phase-shift. ]

[ Due to events specific to your phase-shift, you have been awarded the following skills:

Durability: Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Speed: Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A)

Strength: Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A) ]

That's a lot of powerful new skills all thanks to the three crows here. I bow my head towards them, suddenly grateful, and they all stop mid-conversation to stare at me.

"What you bowing for?" Mari asks.

"You've helped me a lot." I shift slightly, uncomfortable. "And I'm a lot stronger for it. If I don't thank you now..."

I trail off. I'm running into a truth I'm trying to avoid the longer a loop runs, the more attached I'll get to the people within a loop. I don't try to avoid interacting with others; that seems like a long and lonely road, and one that will detach me from the realities happening within a loop.

But losing them every time I loop is almost worse.

"Stupid," Mari snorts, but she's hiding the fluff of her feathers that I know means she's pleased.

Akar doesn't react nearly as much, not knowing me as well, but she seems sort of gruffly accepting. "You more manners than Tarin," she says.Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

"What day today? Tarin roast day?" Tarin complains. He hops experimentally, kicking out a leg I'm surprised when I see a flash of black lightning trail behind his kick, something I hadn't seen before and then I realize it's a combination of the phase-shift and Tetrachromacy making me even more sensitive to Firmament. "Good you grateful! You not forget us, yes?"

"I don't think I could if I tried," I say with a laugh.

Ahkelios, perched on my head, chooses this moment to pipe up. "I'll make sure he won't forget! Every time he does, he's going to owe me moss."

"I still owe you moss," I say dryly.

"He'll owe me twice the moss."

"I don't think there's that much moss in this forest."

"He's slandering your forest," Ahkelios cries, pointing at me dramatically, and I laugh along with all three of the other crows even Akar, who seems amused and delighted by the little mantis' antics.

But the moment of lightheartedness passes quickly. There's a lot we have to talk about and a lot I need to test before I'm ready to head out towards the Great Cities. Ahkelios seems to sense the change in my mood, and he settles back down on my shoulder, the look on his face growing serious.

Ahkelios, to his credit, doesn't respond immediately he takes the time to think about it, before slowly shaking his head. "I don't want to avoid it before I remember it all," he says eventually. "If we're going to work on helping me remember everything... it's better if I deal with my issues before they come back."

"Okay," I say.

And that's all I say a quiet acknowledgement of the way he's choosing to deal with his problems. The silence stretches between us, but Ahkelios scoots around on the floor until he's leaning with his back against my ankle, a quiet acknowledgement of our friendship.

I smile at him, small, and let him munch on his flowers in peace, taking the opportunity to look at my Interface instead. There's a notification I missed before.

[ Due to events specific to your phase-shift, the Interface will now grant you a choice between four skills instead of three when banking your credits. ]

Great more decision paralysis.

Not that I'm complaining, really. I take a glance at my stat sheet, trying to see the options I have available and what I need to investigate.

[ Loop 13 in progress. ]

[ Status:

Name: Ethan

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Reflex Skills: Mental Acceleration (Rank C), Intuitive Analysis (Rank C)

Speed Skills: Firestep (Rank C), Triplestep (Rank E), Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A), Acceleration (Rank C)

Firmament Skills: Temporal Fragment (Rank D), Firmament Manipulation (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C), Tetrachromacy (Rank C)

Inspirations:

The Mirror Twice Shattered (Firmament, Unique)

The All-Seeing Eye (Reflex, Rank A)

The Void (Strength, Rank Unknown)

Open Dungeons:

The Empty City (Rank S)

Credit Distribution:

Strength: 30 (179 banked)

Durability: 256 (84 banked)

Reflex: 101 (124 banked)

Speed: 194 (79 banked)

Firmament: 156 (100 banked) ]

This list is going to get... very inflated, I suspect. I'm hoping there will be a way to consolidate skills at some point the Eye just adds to my list, which means this is just going to keep growing. Remembering every option I have is already getting a bit untenable, so skill consolidation is something I'm going to have to look at soon.

For now, I just play around with Tetrachromacy, feeding more Firmament into the skill and watching the flow of Firmament around me, the way every piece of furniture in this hut is embedded with it.

There's a qualitative difference. It doesn't take nearly as much will to move my Firmament, and it flows significantly more smoothly through my body.

I wonder how different my next fight will go.