Delivery continued

The Games We Play​

Delivery (Conti.)​

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Blake was gripping the armrests to either side of her as I sped through the streets. I was careful not to break the law where anyone was watching, but the moment I was out of sight I was going as fast as I could. The ride back the Agricultural District should have taken an hour.

At this rate, I'd get us there in under half that.

"You must like books a lot," Blake said through slightly gritted teeth as I drifted around a corner in place of actually slowing down.

I glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"To go through all this trouble for one," She clarified. "You must like books a lot."

"I like learning things," I said, figuring she was trying to make conversation to distract herself. "I like knowing things. Books are good for that."

"You don't enjoy reading for its own sake?" She asked.

I mulled over that for a bit before answering.

"Enjoyment doesn't really factor into it. I spend most of my day studying to learn more and become smarter," I said, telling the truth. "It doesn't really matter if I enjoy it. And I've never enjoyed reading stories much, anyway."

She peered at me out of the corner of her eye, apparently forgetting about her aversion to my driving.

"Why?"

I considered remaining silent since it was something that actually mattered, if only to me—but then again, the White Fang had seen my face, as had Tukson, and I wasn't dumb enough to believe there weren't investigations and background checks in my future. If they didn't have a name and a profile to attach to my face by tomorrow, I'd be shocked. Most of my story would be in their hands before long and the rest…well, I couldn't see them guessing that stuff from anything but me flat-out telling them, though at this point I was probably going to have to let a few details slip loose.

The real question was what they could and would do with that information. Generally, the worst case scenario in a situation like this would be that they could try to threaten my family but, uh, even if they had reason to, I imagined they'd change their tunes when they saw my family. Instead, if they were trying to get to me, they'd probably try to blackmail me by threatening to tell my family what I'd done—but there were ways around that. If needed, I could just explain things to my mom, explain that I'd done it to try and save lives after getting wrapped up in a huge mess, and…well, honestly, that might not be so bad. Telling my mom, that is. A part of me had worried about it for a long time and I still did, kind of, because of the likely consequences of revealing everything I could do, but…a part of me wanted her and dad to know.

But the point was, even if they could threaten to tell my parents or the authorities—and even if they'd gotten pictures to prove it or something—I hadn't done anything that bad, not really. I mean, about a million traffic violations, but mainly in an emergency and in the defense of life. A pretty tiny amount of property damage, too, all things considered. The worst I could be accused of was aiding the White Fang, which, yeah, could be pretty bad, but was largely circumstantial—namely, I wasn't doing it for the White Fang, I was trying to save lives. And hell, I was a minor; I could manage. There were a few other things they could do, but I thought I could deal with it if they tried to get at me that way.

However…they didn't have much reason to want to do stuff like that, did they? Not yet, at least. I mean, hell, I'd sort of saved their skins. I couldn't say I really knew these people, much less trusted them, but Blake at least didn't seem like the type to ignore that. And by answering her question, I could create a rapport, become more of a person in her eyes, and maybe learn some things in return—and it might help gloss over what I was guessing would come up soon.

And maybe, just maybe, I wanted to finally say it out loud.

"Because the only stories that ever got told in my house were ones I couldn't live up to," I said honestly. "At least, not for a long, long time. And you? You like stories, I guess?"

She was silent for a long minute, staring out the window before looking away. Nonetheless, she seemed to be getting used to my driving—or maybe I was just getting better at it. I'd probably level up the stat some more soon.

"I like stories," She said. "I just know the difference between them and real life."

I hummed, wondering how to answer that, and silence lingered until we finally reached our destination and got out of Tukson's truck. I put my two skill books under an arm while Blake carried hers close to her chest. Just as I was about to go it, she stopped me with a hand.

"Why won't you be able to return the book?" She questioned, glancing at the notebook having apparently deciding to finally ask. "Tukson didn't ask because of…everything, but why wouldn't you be able to give them back?"

A part of me had kind of hoped that she wouldn't notice—but I wasn't actually surprised that she did. I considered staying cryptically silent until she gave up, but I was going to have to use the skill books soon and it was gonna be hard to do that without her noticing, what with the light show and the vanishing books and the instant skill in stuff. I could try getting out of sight, but that might just make it even more suspicious when I came back plus talent and minus books. Given that, she might well make the connections all by herself.

So I told her the truth.

"I'm going to devour them for the knowledge they contain within," I admitted, smiling at the look she shot me. "Hey, you asked. You can see for yourself, if you want."

I held out a hand and she gave me one of the books she'd taken from Tukson's.

You obtained the skill book 'Practical Medicine.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I tapped the yes option with a knuckle and watched the book shatter into light and vanish, feeling the knowledge flow into me as it did so. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, before opening them once more.

You've obtained the skill 'Medicine.'

I looked at Blake, whose eyes had widened slightly as my power took effect.

"I told you I learned fast," I said.

"Is that…your Semblance?" She asked.

"Pretty much," I said, figuring it was probably even partially true. "It's kind of complicated, though, so give me a second?"

I knelt down, lifting my real prizes.

You obtained the skill book 'The Forge of Souls Creates Life.' Would you like to learn this skill?

This time I pressed 'Yes' and blinked when a window I'd never seen before appeared.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: INT 25.

So, some skills have prerequisites. That was…fairly unsurprising, honestly. There wasn't enough information to say if it was limited to just stats or if some skills required knowing others—but the latter seemed likely. This, thankfully, didn't seem to be one of them despite being the third in a set, and INT 25 wasn't an issue. I hadn't intended to put points into INT yet, but…actually, now might have been a good time for it. I had enough points to reach it and my chosen goal for Wisdom. But first, I should check the other book as well, to see if it had something similar.

You obtained the skill book 'Meditation: The Soul of the World.' Would you like to learn this skill?

'Yes.'

You cannot learn this skill. Required: WIS 55.

I hummed to myself.

"Something wrong?" Blake asked.

"Not…really? It's hard to explain. It's not an issue though; just my power being finicky." I answered distractedly before turning her way and holding up the book. "Actually, you know Tukson pretty well, right? Do you know anything about this book?"

Blake frowned at it for a moment, expression considering.

"It's old," She said. "I glanced through it once about seven years ago, when Tukson first got it, but neither of us could make sense of it. Tukson said he'd gotten it from a private library, but whoever wrote it translated it strangely. It's a crude direct translation rather than a transcription and since most of its written in parables and metaphors. There are a lot of what we think might have been poems or rhymes but they don't make a lot fo sense in another language. Tukson figured it might have made sense in the original language but…"

She shrugged.

"Tukson kept it in the back for a while, trying to figure it out, but put it up front after giving up and putting it on display. There are a few interesting things in there, like historical accounts that were used as references and even mentions of the original war with the Grimm, but its...hard to read. But I guess that's not an issue for you, is it?"

She stared at me with interest.

"You can understand it, right? There were mentions of how it supposedly worked, which kept Tukson interested for quite a while, but…does it…?"

"I'll tell you in a second." I said, frowning at the book thoughtfully.

It was a significantly higher prerequisite, which implied a more powerful technique—for some definition of power. I checked my Status Window to make sure and confirmed that I had forty points to spend, just enough to manage both. Did my bonuses from Aura count towards the requirement? I doubted it and it wouldn't matter one way or another but I should probably check.

Wisdom first. Partially because I really wanted the Skill Book I'd gone through all this trouble to get, especially now that I knew it was apparently something amazing, and partially because I'd originally planned to increase Wisdom to fifty, but mainly because, well, it was Wisdom and it had served me fairly well so far, in terms of staying alive. I'd go to fifty-five and then decide if it was worth investing in any more or if I should switch my focus elsewhere. If I considered ten to be average and thirty to be exceptional, then a fifty-five in Wisdom—or a seventy-one point five if, as I suspected, the bonuses didn't count—should serve me well for a long time. Once I was at that point, I could probably rely on the decisions I made in terms of my other abilities.

Nodding decisively, I raised my base Wisdom to forty-three and pressed 'Yes' again.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: WIS 55.

As expected but good to confirm. I added another twelve points to my Wisdom, taking the base score to fifty-five and giving me seventy-two after Aura's passive buff. The moment I finished, a new window appeared before my eyes.

The skill 'Nature Affinity' has been created through WIS rising above 50.

Nature Affinity (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

Long ago, Man, who was born from dust, realized the power of nature and the light that shines within all life and turned its wrath against the soulless Grimm, burning away the darkness. This skill increases the users sensitivity and control over those forces, improving their affinity with the elements.

25% Increase in Mana Recovery Rate.

10% Increase to Elemental Attack.

10% Increase to Elemental Defense.

50% Increase to Element related skill effects and Dust use.

I stared. I did that a lot with my power, but…but…

…Wow. That was…impressive. Not only the skill itself, but the implication contained within it—that there were similar benefits for raising other abilities above fifty. And was it just fifty? Would something similar happen if it was raised above another number, such as a hundred? Then…what skills would manifest where?

A part of me was eager to find out—but I stayed calm. I'd intended to raise my stats from the beginning by training my body hard, but I had to be careful about it. I needed to raise my INT to twenty-five now out of necessity, but I could improve my other stats relatively cheaply through normal means, which was more effective. Raising a stat became more difficult as the level increased—I could safely assume that simply from what I'd seen with Vitality and how Strength and Intelligence hadn't improved a second time yet. The cost for raising a skill the mundane way became greater and greater over time.

The value of my points, however, was different. One point would increase the stat by one, no matter what its value, with no additional effort beyond what was needed to level up in the first place, though that itself increased over time. That is, raising my strength from ten to eleven via training required relatively little effort, but trying to raise it from fifty to fifty-one would likely be very difficult—and even more so to raise it above, say, a hundred. But the same point I could use to circumvent that small amount of effort could also be used to circumvent that massive effort. Baring special circumstances like this one—or stats like Wisdom that I didn't know how to improve easily—I should train my abilities the mundane way while they were low and gather points to raise them further once they were higher.

I nodded to myself, I drew up my Status Screen again and spent all but one of my points on INT, raising it to twenty-five before pressing the 'Yes' buttons again, this time watching as the books dissolved.

You've obtained the skill 'Soul of the World.'

Soul of the World (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

Since long ago, Man learned to harvest Nature's bounty and wrath alike, using it to forge hope and life from the hostile darkness. All living things possess Aura, the light of the soul, and Nature's power runs through the World, sometimes crystalizing as Dust. This technique enables the user to directly touch and take in power from the World, drawing strength from the world to survive within it using meditation.

Increase HP recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Increase MP recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Increase Stamina recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Aura (MP) can be improved through meditation.

You've obtained the skill 'Soulforge Restoration.'

Soulforge Restoration (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:50

Within the darkness, Man learned the truth—that the soul is something infinite in distance and unbound by death. By releasing it, they found immortality even in death.

Without Dust, 50 HP restored, low-ranking Illnesses removed.

With Dust, 50 HP restored, 50 MP restored, low-ranking Illnesses removed, low-ranking Status Effects removed.

God my ability is cheap.

Taking a deep breath as the knowledge filled me, I stood and faced Blake again.

"Let's finish this before it gets any later," I said, stretching.

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Name: Jaune Arc

Class: The Gamer

Level: LV13

HP: 600/600

MP: 725/725

STR: 11+3.3 (30%) = 14.3

VIT: 12+3.6 (30%) = 15.6

DEX: 10+3 (30%) = 13

INT: 25+3.3 (30%) = 32.5

WIS: 55+16.5 (30%) = 71.5

LUK: 10

POINTS: 1

MONEY: 100 Lien

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