After sharing my partial success with Wynn, she pinched the hem of my shirt and, with a slight twist, was able to wring out every drop of water that had soaked into the fabric over the course of my little stunt with the barrel. It wasn’t just my shirt, either. Within moments, the excess moisture clinging to my face, hair, and everywhere flowed to her point of contact and was expelled onto the ground as if pouring from a faucet, leaving me comfortably dry.

  “With that, I must return to my duties, Master Will,” she said with a smile. “Congratulations on your success.” There was no indication she was aware of the utter strangeness that had just occurred.

  When I waved a polite farewell to Wynn it was with the hand not occupied by Fudge’s current demand for contact. Much like my hand, my mind remained on him as well. Rather, it remained on the conclusion to the training exercise.

  Fudge had drawn on Quantum Manipulation in a big way - of that much, at least, I was certain. Behind the relief and affection I felt coming from the Tamer Bond was a deep, sudden exhaustion tinged with discomfort. Fudge had overtaxed his mana. A familiar sensation, since I too was nursing the general aches that accompanied excessive mana use.

  “Good boy,” I whispered for what was definitely not the first time. Rubbing the top of Fudge’s head left his ears flopping with the motion and he continued to lean into my touch. “Sorry for worrying you.”

  The lingering feeling of disorientation I felt was starting to subside as my sense of reality was gradually reasserted. I sat down, literally seeking grounding from the feel of the grass and earth beneath me. Fudge easily shifted to accommodate the change, moving to rest his head on my leg while he laid down beside me. It was a strange thing, to remember such a recent event through two separate lenses. It was that dual perspective, however, that gave me some insight as to the what of events.

  Thinking back, the point in which my memories grew inconsistent was when I decided- or rather, when I didn’t decide to disengage Perseverance while still submerged. That division point, those two states of potential being, were what Fudge manipulated; both existed until Fudge dictated which one the universe would observe… or something.

  I still have no idea how any of this is actually working when Skills and mana are at play, I lamented. It all seemed a bit much given the potential forces involved. I knew there were limits to Fudge’s Skill - he had been unable to use his Quantum Manipulation to any meaningful effect during our standoff with Rosita, for one - I just did not know what those limits were.

  “We will figure it out though.” I gave Fudge a good scratch behind one of his ears to punctuate the point. Fudge grumbled but wagged his tail and it smacked into the grass with a dull thump. I decided to take the gesture as his agreement.

  -0-0-0-0-0-

  Grunts of exertion drifted through the training grounds as a pair of guardsmen wrestled for dominance in the grapple that had quickly made its way to the floor. There was nothing particularly elegant about it; both fighters would regularly take the opportunity to hurl sand at the other’s face or otherwise fight dirty.

  “Criminals will do all they can to escape and the best way to prepare for something is to experience it,” had been Eaehdro’s explanation when I noted the unsportsmanlike conduct.

  It was a sentiment I agreed with, but watching the guards wrestle was not what drew me to the barracks.

  “Do you plan to take a weapon-related Skill?” Eaehdro asked while he loaded his pipe with what was best described as tobacco. It wasn’t, the smell was distinctly different, but it served a similar purpose so far as I could tell. He lit the thing with a cylinder of metal, roughly the size of a finger. Touching it to the packed tobacco was enough to light the pipe and I could only assume that at least one Skill had gone into its construction.

  “It is not a current priority of mine,” I answered honestly. When I Advanced next I was going to take some variation of Mana Sense as one of my Skills, but I was still trying to decide what I wanted to pair it with.

  Eaehdro nodded as if the answer didn’t particularly bother him either way.

  “It sounds like you have some idea, then.” He took a few puffs from the pipe. “Will you be building a Skill off of Taming or is your current plan to prune the growth?”

  I blinked.

  “Excuse me?”

  Eaehdro raised an eyebrow.

  “You do not know?” He looked me up and down. “Right. You are young. An oversight, then.”

  I frowned, not at Eaehdro, but at the unexpected realization that there were possibly important gaps in my knowledge of The System.

  “Can you please explain what I am very obviously missing?”

  “I see no harm.” Again, Eaehdro paused to puff and wandered over to grab a wooden staff from the training rack. “Every person starts with their Core Skill.” He used the staff like a pencil, drawing a rough circle in the sand. “When a person Advances, they gain two new Skills.” He drew two lines extending from the original circle and topped them with slightly smaller circles of their own.

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  I nodded to show I was following along.

  “For most, we view this as the growth of our Skill Tree. As we continue to Advance, we have greater control over that growth.” He drew one line from the rightmost circle. “We- wait, do you know about synergy?”

  “I do,” I replied confidently. “The more my Skills align with Perseverance the more effective they are.”

  “So you know the basics,” Eaehdro noted with a nod to himself. “You are correct, but it is more than that. It is like a chain. New Skills connect to old Skills connect to older Skills connect to your Core Skill. When there is conflict, the Skills suffer, but when multiple Skills in a chain can work together they become more than the sum of their parts.”

  That particular detail was news to me. Tina and Tulos had told me that synergy was important but evidently they skimped on some of the details. I doubted malice or negligence was a factor, but still, it was annoying.

  “And pruning?” Based on context clues, I had a good idea where Eaehdro’s lecture was heading.

  “We call it that here because most people have Skill Trees, but the process does have other names.” Eaehdro waved off his own aside with his pipe-holding hand before taking another puff. “When you Advance again you get to decide where the next ‘links’ in the chain go.” He drew a second line coming from the right-most circle. “Like this, for example.”

  I used my foot to nudge the left-most circle.

  “What happens to the ‘pruned’ Skill?”

  “It still grows stronger. It can still benefit from its existing chain, but the chain will not grow any larger.”

  I took a moment to think about that.

  “That is not necessarily a bad thing, though.”

  Eaehdro nodded.

  “Right. Better to end a chain than to taint it with poor synergy or an unwanted Skill.” A nearby, definitive thunk signalled the end of the latest wrestling bout. Mana and Skills allowed for notably longer exchanges as the pair vied for control but they always ended up with someone trapped in a pin, lock or some other hold. I turned my head to note the victor and add it to the mental tally of victories I was keeping for no particular reason.

  “To answer your initial question, then, I am definitely not going to prune Taming,” I said when I returned my attention to the conversation. “I want to pick up Mana Sense and Fudge can already help me with my senses, so it seems the best fit.”

  “Well reasoned.” Yet another puff. “It also shows you are on the right track. Think, then, what weapons could the dog help you with?” He gestured at Fudge who was sniffing at a training dummy. “Claws? Technically. Teeth? Definitely. The dog keeps his teeth in his mouth-” Eaehdro moved his hand to point at me instead “-so we need to decide on your teeth.”

  Teeth were not exactly renowned for their reach.

  “So, what? Knives? Daggers?” I asked sceptically. “That is a bit too… personal, for my liking.” I knew that the difference in reach compared to something like a sword wouldn’t amount to too much against something as large as a tehon, but it would surely be better than nothing.

  “From a pure compatibility standpoint, excluding your own teeth, I believe something like that would be best. A custom serrated blade. Short range. A dagger would be fitting. A weapon Skill would also help you mitigate the disadvantages of the weapon.” Eaehdro went to take a puff before hesitating and taking a moment to inspect the pipe’s chamber. The scrutiny lasted but a moment before he once again touched the packed tobacco with his not-a-lighter and resumed his indulgence in the vice.

  I was content to wait while I mulled over the situation. I was not a fighter. I’d never practiced recreational martial arts. My understanding of warfare and weaponry was born of fiction and people ranting on the internet with half-researched opinions. From what I could gather, reach was king; all else being equal, place a person wielding a knife or dagger across from one wielding a spear and the spearman would effectively win every time.

  Skills made things complicated, though. What if the person with the dagger could move so fast that they could get inside the spearman’s reach? What if the spearman’s skin was too durable to be pierced by a knife? It was the sheer unpredictability of the world that gave me a burst of self-granted vindication; Skills like Perseverance and Recovery would hopefully ensure that I might survive the unexpected if little else.

  That’s probably the answer then, I told myself. If my Skills were what set me apart, I had to lean into them as much as possible. For better or worse, my foundation was set. I needed to build on it.

  “You are often lost in thought.” Eaehdro’s words pulled me back to reality.

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “Only if nothing comes of it.” I could hear the question beneath his words.

  “I said that I would trust you,” I said, gaining confidence with each word. I straightened my back and looked Eaehdro in the eye. “Teach me how to fight with a knife.”

  Instead of answering me, Eaehdro placed the end of the pipe in his mouth and held it there with his teeth while he returned to the rack and grabbed one of the wooden training swords. No longer burdened by the pipe, his second hand grabbed the end of the blade and, with no apparent effort, cleanly snapped it off.

  “I will have something better made, but this will do for today,” he said, talking around the pipe that refused to fall from his mouth even as the broken end of the training sword fell to the sand. “Now, watch carefully.” Eaehdro set his feet and slowly fell into a stance, taking the time to explain each movement as he demonstrated a basic form using the impromptu dagger. I’d always thought that, when performed slowly, martial forms looked underwhelming.

  Watching Eaehdro did not change my mind of that fact, especially considering how deceptively simple his movements looked. It was, for all intents and purposes, a thrust. When it was my turn to try and mimic the form, I tried to place my feet just so but even as I enacted the movement I could feel the weight of Eaehdro’s scrutiny.

  “How was that?” I asked when I was done, even though I already knew the answer.

  “You have no idea what you are doing,” Eaehdro said. “That is good. It means I do not have to make you unlearn bad habits.” He walked over and pushed my feet slightly closer together. “ Try again.” I breathed in deeply and urged Perseverance into action. Something told me I was going to need it.

  You can read up to 10 Chapters Ahead over on my . Today's chapter is a chunky interlude to set the stage for some upcoming time skip chapters.