Chapter 26  

At dinner time, Kai brought out everything he had left of Dora’s rations to share with his family. Laughing at their faces as they tried the exotic food.

They enjoyed it so much, he had to promise he would bring more home next time. Who knew what they would say if they tried a freshly cooked meal instead of days-old rations?

I could ask Dora to prepare something when Mom next comes to the estate to make a commission for Virya.

He realized too late that now Kea was even more convinced he had spent a year lazing around and enjoying life.

Indeed, a good action never goes unpunished. I’m sure if I tell her the truth, she won’t believe me. If I show her my skills and race as proof, she will have an existential crisis for being bested by her younger sibling.

Being a good brother was exhausting.

* * *

The next day passed quickly as Kai made his room livable with the help of his mother.

After clearing and cleaning up, it didn’t look half bad. It wasn’t very spacious, but he managed to fit everything he needed.

On one side of the bed there was a small cabinet with all his possessions. The other was occupied by a desk where he set up a small alchemy station in a corner. While the last corner had a small bookshelf and a big trunk housing all the contents of the boxes that originally occupied his room.

They had contained his father’s possessions. With the help of his mother, he went through everything Rellan left them to make an inventory.

Alana had offered to move them to her room, but he refused. He liked having them around. They spent a whole afternoon organizing everything so they would occupy the least amount of space.

When they moved from Whiteshore, Rellan had paid some people to help them carry all his valuable objects and books. Later they had been forced to sell many of his possessions for cheap during the famine. All the good clothes he bought from the mainland and the shiny stuff, like a letter opener made of silver and a couple decorative paperweights.

The only valuable object they kept, besides the books, was his enchanted pen. It was like the one Dora gave him that could write without ink and never run dry, but the two couldn’t look more different.

The one he got at the estate looked not roughly made, but it was clear the only aim was for it to be functional. Rellan’s was crafted with a different purpose, thinking as much of its beauty as of practical use.

It was all shiny, made of a silvery material that wasn’t silver. Delicate interlocking runes ran across its sides; an artistic choice that added to its mystique. It would fetch a nice price, maybe a few silver mesars, if not even a gold one.

Rellan had been planning to pawn it off, but after the accident, there was no shot they would sell it.

They still had most of his old books and research notes. They were the thing his dad cared the most about, but in Greenside no one would recognize their value or be interested in buying them anyway.

They had only sold a couple collection books to the previous mayor. He didn’t have any interest in their content, but he thought they would look impressive sitting on his shelves. Making him look more cultured.

The mayor was the only possible buyer and knew they were desperate, forcing Rellan to sell them for a tenth of their value.

Kai wondered if that coward had taken them with him when he ran away or left them in his house. He wasn’t sure what was better. For those volumes to be in the hand of a slimy individual or burned away with his villa.

There was also the chance the mob might have looted them, and they laid forgotten in a storage closet somewhere in Greenside. But Kai doubted people during the famine would have recognized their value or cared for something they couldn’t sell or eat.

Kai pushed the gloomy thought out of his mind. He had to remind himself letting go didn’t mean forgetting or that he didn’t care.

Pushing forward and hard work were the only things that would help him make sure nothing like that happened again.

Admiring the neatly piled old tomes, charts and journals, Kai smiled. He had read a couple of them to pass the time before going to the estate. Now he wanted to go through everything and use them to train his Reading skill.

He also had to start practicing Elijah’s exercises and study the books Dora gave him.

Kai sighed.

On top of all that, he wanted to spend time with his family too. He had no idea when he would get another chance to come back home for an extended period. He was a bit worried about Kea and had to make sure she would be doing okay.

No rest for the wicked.

* * *

Kai fell into his new routine. He woke up at dawn, meditated, prepared breakfast for the family and went out—with his mother’s permission—to practice the exercises Elijah gave him. His leg muscles were a bit stiff at first, but they didn’t give him any problem after a while.

He started running the moment he left his house to the sea to optimize his time. He continued along the coast till he reached an isolated beach. He didn't like gawkers.

He missed running on white sand but made his peace with the pebbles of Greenside. They were just an added difficulty like those Elijah's devious mind devised.

Swimming was also not as enjoyable here. The waters were deeper and turbid and the strong cold currents tried to push him offshore.

Come on. You can’t quit after a single day without Elijah breathing down your neck.

Kai had not realized how much easier it was to focus on his training in a place like Virya’s estate. There were no outside distractions and two highly demanding teachers motivating him in their own ways. Some of those ways Kai would have gladly done without.

It had been like getting thrown into the sea without knowing how to swim: it was do or drown.

At home in Greenside things were different.

Every morning he was tempted to lay in bed, enjoying the warmth of sleep a little longer. Just another minute after just another minute. There was no one to demand he get off his ass and start training. He had to gather his own will and remember why he was doing this. He was his only motivation.

He would not settle for mediocrity, scared to leave his little archipelago. He would gain the strength to go and explore wherever he wanted freely. He would go all the way and do whatever was necessary.

He would not be powerless again and take fate in his own hands.

One year ago, Kai was sure he would not have the willpower to do this. His stay at the estate had changed him. Dora, Virya and—spirits be damn—even Elijah helped him change. He had pushed and been pushed far beyond what he thought was possible and made it through.

Standing on a beach of pebbles, Kai finished practicing his stretching routine. He was very close to a perfect split.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed a bit more and kept the position longer than necessary. There was nothing quite like the pain of pushing your limbs farther than they would normally go.

Fifteen minutes done.

Without wasting a breath, he passed to performing sword stances with renewed vigor. Slash. Cut. Dodge. Feint. Pierce.

His eyes burned with determination as he went through the routine of all the other weapons. Quarterstaff, spear and knives.

After he was done, he allowed himself to collapse onto the ground exhausted and covered in sweat.

Noticing the flashing light in the corner of his vision, he allowed the notification to appear.

*Ding*

A New skill has been added to the Archive! Spear (lv1) – Improves your ability with a spear.

Kai smiled. With that he got offered a skill for all the weapons he practiced. The description was barebone like usual. A Spear skill helped you be better with a spear, that was it.

He had not yet decided what weapon to choose, but he might drop the quarterstaff. He didn’t dislike it, but a spear could do most of what it did, with the pointy end as an added benefit.

Speaking of skills, it had been a while since he last looked at his progress.

Skills:

Running (lv69>73)

Swimming (lv67>71)

Meditation (lv58>60)

Awareness (lv47>51)

Herbology (lv41>44)

Acting (lv31>36)

Keen Eye (lv1>17)

Processing – Plants (lv1>14)

Reading (lv1>10)

Gardening (1>10)

Mana Sense (lv36>38)

Mana Manipulation (lv1>4)

Alchemy (lv2>3)

In little more than a month since he reached Orange, his skills had gained a significant number of levels. It was only to be expected. With an increase in attributes, what before seemed an unreachable peak, was now within grasp. Even his highest skills had a short jump of a couple levels.

His advancement had also made him realize another important fact he hadn't considered. While he doubled his number of skills, he had not doubled the hours in the day. Twice the skills didn’t mean twice the XP gains. He could focus only on so many skills at a time. It was a huge net positive, but not the literal doubling he imagined.

That was like complaining he had too much money. Kai was thrilled with his breakthrough, even if his mind couldn’t help but fuss over a few details.

Keen Eye and Processing – Plants flew through the first levels. He had been practicing them long before he obtained the slots to take the skills.

It was like when he borrowed the experience of his previous life for the first levels of Meditation and Swimming. If he were to train with a spear for one more year, and later take the Spear skill, he would also jump through the first levels.

While you could get proficient at something without a skill, there was a good reason people gave it so much importance. If he were to take the Spear skill first, and then train for a year, he would see many times the progress he would have made otherwise.

In addition, while you could lose part of your ability with a spear if you didn’t practice for ten years, that didn’t happen if you possessed a skill. Your progress was forever ‘retained’ in the skill. You couldn’t lose it or get rusty.

That was the theory at least, but—as Virya taught him—reality was complicated. The skill level was like your raw power or potential, how far you could push your ability.

You also needed to know how to apply that raw power to get the maximum result possible. You might be potentially able to do something, but never think of using your skill that way.

It was like vertical versus horizontal progression or mastery. A vastly higher skill level would always win. However, if the difference wasn’t large, a slightly bigger number didn’t count as much as your mastery of a skill.

To return to the spear example. On one side you had a hermit who trained with the spear alone in a cave. Never putting his skill to use against anyone else. On the opposite side, a veteran warrior who trained the skill on the battlefield and risked his life many times.

Let’s then assume the two had the same skill level and attributes. They meet and decide to fight.

While technically they should be able to accomplish the same things, in practice the veteran warrior would win every time. The hermit had the same skill level and potential with a spear, but he didn’t know how to make use of it properly.

That knowledge could only be gained through clever training and application of your skills. It was also an expertise you could lose if you did not practice it.

At least, that was how Kai understood things. It was amusing to think this was the very first lesson Virya gave him when he went to the estate. At the time he had not really understood what she meant. Only now, a year later, he felt he finally did.

While you might be tempted to find the fastest way to train a skill, and repeat that thousands of times, it was important to find new ways to use your skills in different situations. Only then could you master a skill and be able to use it to its full potential.

As Kai walked back home, he wondered if he should talk about this with his family. He was sure it wasn’t common knowledge in the archipelago.

The concept of skill mastery seemed obvious after you understood it, but it was a nuanced subject. If you didn’t consider it important, it wouldn’t take long for it to be forgotten.

Observing the people in the streets of Greenside, he wondered why this information wasn't taught from childhood. He knew he had a skewed view after spending a year training and being taught to accept nothing but the utmost best from himself.

Most people didn’t seem very interested in improving their skills. He could understand how a farmer didn’t care to optimize his tilling time if he earned enough to feed his family. But didn’t that farmer have other hobbies?

It felt like most adults had a strange apathy towards the Guide that he didn't understand. How could people have a super convenient way to check their progress and help them improve, and not use it and strive for more?

He didn’t expect everyone to have the ambition to become the best in the world, but it seemed that most people had no ambition at all. They wasted such a wonderful gift for no apparent reason.

The citizens of Greenside went about their day looking bored and in no hurry to improve their lives. Maybe he was missing something.

Spending a year at the estate might have changed my view, but I don’t get it. I’ll have to ask Virya when I go back.

He could also ask his mother, but she would say he was being too judgemental and judge him a snobby brat in turn. He was only confused why someone with a clear path of improvement would not make use of it.

I’m not an arrogant brat, I swear. I just think I'm better than most people. That’s all. Kai joked with himself.