“Skills are common. Talent is rare.” ― Colin Clark
[Skills]
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Perception – Lvl 1
Mana Sense – Lvl 1
Life Sense – Lvl 1
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Mana Circulation – Lvl 1
Mana Storage – Lvl 1
Mana Manipulation – Lvl 0
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Matter Conversion – Lvl 0
Energy Conversion – Lvl 0
Create Life – Lvl 0
Assimilate – Lvl 1
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Learn Languages - Lvl 10
Sense Lore – Lvl 1
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Stratigraphic Assessment – Lvl 1
3D- Cartography – Lvl 0
Seriation – Lvl 0
Epigraphy – Lvl 0
Radiometric Dating – Lvl 0
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Classify – Lvl 0
Ecological Assessment – Lvl 1
Biotic Synergy – Lvl 1
As I started to ponder the new page of my status, I was distracted by the sensation of a new movement into my zone of control, small as it was. Dirt shifted at my “upper” boundary and a larger lifeform poked its head into the emerging tunnel. I had a split second to register some small, rodent-like creature, before it spasmodically retreated, backing out of the area at speed.
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I guess more complex organisms can sense when they’ve entered my area of control. Wonder if it’ll come back, or if it will take the path of discretion being the better part of valor? Suppose it depends on how curious it is and how dangerous it thinks I am.
That suggested that I was near the surface, as few burrowing critters go deeper than a meter or two, and 10 meters would be a deep and complex burrow for most animals in my old world.
New world, though, so I don’t want to count on everything being the same. I’ll be curious to see what kind of layout that burrow has and if I can follow it up to the surface.
Somehow, I knew that I could both expand and that I needed to reach the surface, sooner rather than later. That brought me back to my skills.
The skills broke down into some general categories, fairly clearly.
The first group of skills were related to my awareness of the world around me. I was guessing those skills were standard to a dungeon, and that they tracked with what I’d already observed. Perception likely covered the basic physical surroundings, while mana sense and life sense tracked the more mobile elements of the environment – the flow of magic and the presence and movements of plants and animals.
The second group of skills were all tied to mana and included all my mana related abilities beyond simply sensing its existence. It looked like I should be able to direct its flow, store at least some of it, and eventually put it to some use.
*MAGIC! * Oh, I’m looking forward to that!
It really spoke to my inner nerd, having been a fan of fantasy novels since I’d learned to read.
I’ll have to do some experiments to try to level that, once I’m done going through my status. I’ll treat that as something to reward myself with.
The next group of skills were almost all at level zero, presumably meaning I had yet to use them, but got them by default, and, boy, do they seem like “mad scientist” skills! Matter conversion and energy conversion? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that I’m not getting a fusion bomb at level one, but that this is how I’ll expand my dungeon, though claiming the component materials and converting them into the elements I want. I’m guessing assimilating is a way of storing patterns of converted materials for future use?
I wonder if the rules of conservation of mass/energy hold true here, or whether magic changes that calculation? I’d bet that it’s easier to make things out of something else, at least, than it would be to create it from mana directly. That makes intuitive sense to me, at a minimum.
Create Life? That’s a skill? So many questions about that, but I imagine I’ll find the limits placed on it soon enough. At least, I really hope so. Still, very cool, if very concerning from an ethical standpoint.
*MWAH-HA-HA-HA* Cue the mad scientist laughter! *chuckle*
The next group of skills follows a distinct change in the notation, so I’m guessing those may be different from the default dungeon skills and maybe have something to do with my transmigrator status. Learning languages and sensing lore could be a gift for a transmigrator, or a nod to my past life scholarly leanings. That said, I was never great at languages, so any assistance in that area will be a big help.
The final two groups of skills are strange ones and much more technical and specialized than the others. The first of them was quite obviously tied to archaeological practices, mostly geared towards dating, both relative and absolute, as well as interpreting and mapping site development.
I wonder how easy it would be to pick up other useful skills? Am I limited to these, or what’s the potential for growth?
Ecological assessment would seem to be a diagnostic tool, enabling me to assess how the various lifeforms and their physical environment interact. Biotic synergy sounds like it should allow me to predict how changes to living things will impact both their functioning and their effects on the local ecosystem. I’m not sure why I’d have those skills, though admittedly I was always interested in those sorts of biological and ecological concepts. One thing you learn as an archaeologist is how human societies (and by extension all other creatures to varying degrees) both change and are shaped by their environment.
Let's keep going. I'm getting closer to the end, and then I can try to make it all make sense together.
