Chapter 140: Pseudo Skills

  Teresa followed William as they began to make their rounds to the others in the council. The first two they encountered were Jonathan and George, and to Teresa’s pleasure George was standing on his own.

  “Teresa, you’re back! Good, there’s so much we need to talk about!” George exclaimed, happy to see her. Surprisingly, even Jonathan seemed to have a hint of a smile. Does Jonathan smile? She’d take it.

  “Looks like you guys have been busy, glad to see you’re up.” Teresa replied.

  “Yeah, that’s actually part of what I wanted to talk about. I’ve been working closely with Jonathan a lot-”

  You have? Teresa wanted to ask, but she refrained from saying anything

  “-and we’re making a lot of progress. So where do you want to start, the skill registry or pseudo skills?” George prompted.

  “Pseudo skills, definitely, that’s a new one to me.” Teresa answered.

  “Okay, so I was wondering how some skills work, and I realized some of them are a lot simpler than others. Compare and , for example. works by channeling Stamina and Mana into your legs, reinforcing your muscles. When a muscle contracts, Stamina and Mana contained within the muscle moves along with it, aiding the process resulting in increased power and movement speed. Meanwhile channels Mana to your palm, does some weird esoteric stuff to it that changes its properties and converts it into an entirely different kind of Mana, then guides that Mana through a person’s body. One of them is a lot simpler, yeah?”

  “I can agree with that.”

  “In that case, why do we even bother with getting the skill?” George asked.

  “To run faster? I get what you’re hinting at though, but replicating without the skill would require both and .” Teresa said.

  “Correct, thankfully I have both.”

  “How? I thought you had the tank class?”

  “Yes, but I learned anyway. I learned first. I’m pretty in tune with my body, I mean I kind of have to be. I wasn’t able to move my legs, but I could still feel the Stamina move through them when using certain skills. I started routinely draining my Stamina as well to near zero, then focused on how my body recovered Stamina. My traps still award me experience, so when I got my next class level up I got offered .” George said.

  “That makes sense actually, I totally get what you mean. You can feel it a lot more once you drain it and recover, though I haven’t gotten a skill offered or anything.” Teresa added.

  “Just keep trying it, I drained my Stamina to zero several times just trying to figure out how it worked. Next, you remember that straitjacket we got from those bandits? I was messing around with it and found a way for it to actually drain your Mana. Having it forcefully yank Mana out of my Soul hurt, but it helped me become aware of its existence. Next level up, .”

  “How’d you get it to drain your Mana? I thought it just prevented the flow of Mana entirely.”

  “I stuck my hand in it and tried to use to see if it would work if it was only partially equipped. Most of my body emitted the augmented Mana as normal, but my hand couldn’t, and it just kept sucking up more Mana trying to work.” He explained. “But anyways, . Using both and , I can replicate the effects of to make myself run faster, despite not having the skill. I mostly use it to stand for longer periods of time though, but now that my stats are rising it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

  “That’s amazing, so nobody needs to bother learning anymore then huh.” Teresa said, but George shook his head.

  “Actually, it’s still much better to learn the skill. I can replicate the effects, but not as well. When I do it, it’s comparable to someone who just got the skill with it being at level 0. When the skill levels up, it improves various aspects of itself. Maybe it activates faster, maybe it meshes with your fast-twitch muscle fibers better, how a skill improves upon leveling up depends a lot on what you did in order to level it up in the first place.” George explained. “So if you want to use without getting the skill, you can, but it’ll suck compared to the actual thing. I’m not sure if there is a level cap to skills, but if there isn’t then getting the actual skill will have a lot more potential than doing it yourself, unless you have a better understanding of Mana, Stamina, and every atom in your legs than even the System.”

  “So what skills have you managed to replicate?” Teresa asked.

  “I can sort of do , but it takes too much Mana for me to use easily. I have to shove a shitload of Mana out of my palms forcefully, it’s extremely inefficient and it would take a huge Mana pool for that to even be worth using at all. At that point though, you’d already have skills that can use Mana offensively better anyways. Same thing with , I can use it, but I do so by literally emptying out my Soul of Mana and forcing it out of my body in all directions. Hurts a lot, not worth it in the slightest.”

  “Huh.” Teresa said, recognizing a pattern that might be an issue.

  “ I’ve started learning, but I haven’t really seen enough people use it to get how it works. Even if I coat my skin in Mana or Stamina, it doesn’t really do anything yet. I learned it as a party trick, but it’s also not worth it for me. I can shove a lot of Mana through a sword as I swing it as if I was trying to shoot my Mana through the tip of the weapon, and it kinda worked. Less of a ‘slash’ and more of a ‘gentle breeze,’ but once again I think it might be my Mana limiting it. Improving my control skills will probably go a long way as well, though they’ve gotten a lot of experience lately. My control skills are both higher level than I am!”

  This was extremely concerning now. Teresa was exchanging looks with the others in the party, and they all seemed to be on the same page as her. The Prime Avatar had used those exact skills, and it had been the only Avatar to really use any skills at all. Was that a coincidence?

  “How long have you been able to do this?” Teresa asked.

  “A few days now? I got the gist of them worked out in just a day, if barely. I’d have a hard time using any of them in combat, but I figured you might be able to.” George answered proudly.

  “Where were you when you learned how to do this?”

  “For what part? Most of it was here in camp, though of course I stepped away from the tents before trying stuff like .”

  That settled it. Cher was spying on The Mall, and Teresa didn’t know how. Whether Cher was still spying on them was another question, one that Teresa intended to figure out soon.

  “Just curious. What were you going to say about the skill repository?” Teresa asked, changing the subject. If they were being watched, she couldn’t let Cher know that Teresa was onto it. Cher wasn’t really a global threat anymore, but that didn’t mean a couple Avatars couldn’t come into The Mall and mow a bunch of people down.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  “That’s where I come in then.” Jonathan said. “Since you left, I decided to consider what you told me. What kind of person would I be to rely on a girl half my age to keep me safe? So I started contributing, and I’ve organized a list of every skill within The Mall. George and I have been trying to figure out not only what skills there are, but how people earn those skills in the first place. For example, the only real requirement for to be offered is to become a level 1 healer while also possessing the desire to heal someone from a distance. Sounds simple, but it complicates things if personality and desire can influence your skill selection.”

  “Okay, in that case how would someone who’s not a healer learn ?” Teresa asked.

  “The short answer is they wouldn’t. The more complicated answer is they might get it offered by replicating the skill on their own, but we haven’t confirmed that.” Jonathan said.

  “It helped me out a lot with learning pseudo skills though, having everything categorized. Plus Jonathan is super confrontational, so you can be sure everyone with non-standard skills has been thoroughly questioned about the events leading up to earning it.” George added with a smile. Teresa wasn’t sure if calling someone ‘super confrontational’ could be considered a compliment, but it seemed George meant it that way.

  “Our goal is to provide a clear path to making the build you want. Up to now, we’ve all had to make do with whatever skills the System gives us, but if we knew how to ‘unlock,’ every skill, then we wouldn’t have to leave so much up to chance.” Jonathan said. “Not that chance is the right word for it, you reap what you sow with skills from what I’ve seen, but you get what I mean.”

  “The requirements for skills change depending on your class. Another common example, . A ranger type can get it by killing two enemies with a single ranged strike multiple times, and even then the exact number of times you need to do this varies for different rangers. Some might unlock the skill in the skill selection by doing this just once, others might need to do it multiple times. For non-rangers, it seems impossible but isn’t. A light warrior decided he also wanted to use the bow, and he managed to get offered after a lot of practice and use in combat. The fact that personality and desire can impact skill selections make it difficult to figure out exactly how he got it, but we’re working towards it anyway.” George added.

  “I’m a big fan of that idea, I’ll definitely take a look at what you guys have so far and contribute what I can from my own skills, though it might be weird considering my class.” Teresa offered. “Another question I’ve been thinking about, why is everyone level 5?”

  When Teresa saw William was level 5, she was shocked. A lot of people had completely surprised her at The Mall with gaining levels, she never would have expected George to do half decent at all considering he used to be in a wheelchair but he hadn’t let that stop him. Now though, quite a lot of people were specifically level 5. Even in Arconette the vast majority of the population was level 0 or 1, but now there were very few people like that in The Mall.

  “That’s actually something we were concerned you might not like, but I’ll answer that.” William said. “Let me start with this, I promise it’ll all be related later, but how do you imagine the world will be in twenty years?”

  “I have no idea, in what aspect?”

  “Every aspect. Imagine you own a grocery store, and you need some employees. You can either hire a bunch of level 0s to stock the shelves, or one level 20 who can do it all by themselves. If you want an accountant, do you want the level 0 or the level 20 with a high amount of Intelligence and Wisdom? Almost every job out there would benefit from being a higher level. Construction, trades, piloting, zookeeping, medicine, pretty much everything. Of course, being high level doesn’t automatically qualify you for those jobs, you can’t code a computer just because you’re super strong, but I’m sure coding would be a lot easier if you could think twice as fast as a normal person.”

  “It sounds like you’re just describing some of the fundamental ideas behind capitalism.” Teresa said, only half jokingly.

  “The point is, a level 0 human sucks. At that point, you’re just working with pre-System limitations in a world where a plant might try to eat you and there are invaders from other universes. Someone offhandedly said that even being just level 5, something easy to achieve safely in large groups, would significantly improve someone’s capabilities. For most people, that’s 30 points going into your attributes, meanwhile nobody pre-System had any attributes higher than 13 as far as we can tell.”

  “I get the appeal of everyone leveling up a bit, but that doesn’t explain this yet.” Teresa said. She didn’t want to sound impatient or anything, but he was beating around the bush a bit.

  “We set up a mandatory program with three different categories. Given the fact that we are in an apocalyptic situation, staying at level 0 is just asking for something to kill you. The Mall won’t survive that way, so we did what many pre-System countries had and implemented a mandatory military service until you reach level 5. They are all trained first to be comfortable with their weapons, then they are allowed to choose between three groups. There’s a massive group with a lot of supervision that goes out monster hunting they can join to help maintain the surrounding area along with the route to Blue Waters. It’s extremely safe, but it also means anyone who goes with this program will get a pretty wimpy class once they hit level 15.

  “Then there’s the option to do the same thing with a medium sized group with less supervision. It’ll be faster, a bit more risky, but if they choose to continue leveling up they will probably get a decent class. Lastly is the option to do it with just a party of five in a pre-scouted area. Much faster, way better class options, also more dangerous. It’s the second fastest option we have.”

  “Only the second fastest?” Teresa asked.

  “Well, there’s a fourth choice we don’t officially recognize, but it is still allowed. You can always walk the dog.” William said.

  “Walk the dog? Like Mijo?”

  “Exactly. He already likes to go out on his own to hunt monsters, and he’s happy to have people tag along with him. Anyone who’s willing can go with him, but they do so with the understanding they will likely be dealing with monsters at Mijo’s level. Mijo can take care of it by himself if need be, but if you willingly choose to level this way it’ll give the best class options possible while also leveling you up incredibly fast, if you manage to contribute anyways. It’s actually pretty safe, Mijo will protect people, but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying if Mijo messes up. He’s an incredibly smart dog, he must have been pretty darn smart even before all of this, otherwise I figure you’d see a whole bunch of dog Completionists.”

  “How many casualties have there been so far from this?” Teresa asked.

  “Five deaths, too many injuries to count. The deaths were all from the most dangerous program available, and it was a result of them choosing to hunt a Portal we didn’t scout ahead of time.”

  “And what’s the age range for this?”

  “It started out as 18 to 70, though that didn't last long and there are some exceptions. I chose to participate out of my own free will, and I came out of it feeling better than I did in my prime. I may as well be in my twenties again, and once the other folk my age saw that a lot of them wanted in on it too, so there are plenty of older people participating as well. The System may have put 16 year olds through the Tutorial, but we all agreed that 16 is too young, though of course there are younger folk who are interested in monster hunting anyways. We figured trying to keep a teenager in a glorified campsite until they turn 18 would be impossible and cruel, so we let them shadow the large groups. They don’t fight, they just watch to get an idea of what it’s like. We aren’t letting any of them fight for now, though we may be willing to make exceptions if they do well in their studies and train alongside the others in camp.”

  “In that case I’m fine with it.” Teresa said bluntly.

  “Really?” William asked. Jonathan and George also seemed surprised by this, but Teresa shrugged it off.

  “Normally I’d hate the idea of mandatory military service, I think I’ve made my stance against excessive authoritative power clear, but times aren’t the same as they were pre-System. I mean, I’m pretty sure South Korea had mandatory military service, but I never really considered them evil for it. I definitely didn’t like the idea, but I grew up in the US which had plenty of absurdities around its military budget so it’s not like I can really judge. Besides, it’s only level 5, it’s not like you’re conscripting everyone for years. If joining the military for a week or two pre-System would give me superpowers in exchange for fighting literal monsters that threaten my home, then I would probably sign up.” Teresa explained.

  “That’s relieving, we all thought you would be against this.” Jonathan said.

  “If we were fresh out of the Tutorial, maybe I would be. I don’t know, I don’t think I was naive but at the same time maybe I was just a bit. Going through the Contaminated Zone, seeing people at my level die en masse while the rest of us still had to keep pushing forward, I don’t know. I think my sympathy for those who aren’t adapting died. I left just to find my family, and I wound up in a war fighting to keep people safe. The idea that some people can sit around living like normal while others give their lives to protect them is more than a little upsetting.” Teresa admitted. “I can’t help but think that if I can get to this point with my leveling, then everyone else can too. If anything, level 5 might be too low.”

  “We’ll see about making changes once everyone hits level 5 first. By the time someone hits level 5, they’ll understand how nice it is to have improved stats. We’re hoping it’ll be the nudge that gets people moving on their own, plus it helps a lot with the food situation by bringing back plenty of monster meat.” William said.

  “There are actually a few things I want to check out, but first I think we’re going to do a quick sweep around The Mall and make sure there aren’t any high level Portals nearby while we’re here. Is there anywhere in particular we should check out?” Teresa asked.

  “Well, Saylee is busy in Arconette right now so we can’t give super detailed directions anywhere, but there are a few places…” William said.

  Teresa had an ulterior motive of course. Sure, killing some monsters might help clear her head and give her experience, but really she wanted to make sure there weren’t any Avatars nearby. If push came to shove, she could just use to find what had the highest level nearby.

  She took a deep breath as William talked. It was nice to be back in that forest, even if it was just for a little bit. For now, it was about time for some old fashioned low stakes monster hunting again. Oh how she missed it.