“Daad? How do skills work?” young Perytos asked. “Well, you see boy. The system is stingy with its rewards. Sure, it wants us to grow our strength and comprehension, but only if we make the effort. Without a will, there isn’t a way.” The tall man reclined in his chair, after a moment he continued.

  Once you unlock the system- Don't give me that look, it’ll happen soon, don’t you worry.” “Ekhem, as i was saying... Once it is unlocked, you will have ten skill slots available, they’ll be empty, useless, at least for a while. Only when you push yourself, and I mean really challenge, will something happen. Whether it’s fighting, hunting, maybe even cooking doesn’t really matter. When you really do it, not just something slightly hard but something straining your whole being, you will be able to choose a skill from a list.“ He focused, his beastly, yellow eyes narrowing.

  “The system evaluates everything you do. Do something noteworthy? It adds a relevant skill to the list. The skill will grow whenever you use it, since the soul is an everchanging thing. Every ten levels, you will be able to upgrade the skill; change it in a slight, yet significant way.”

  He put his finger up; his face absentmindedly recalling the time when he himself was taught about the system.

  “The upgrade can be practically anything. Maybe you want your punches to hit harder, your stealth skill more potent, or... get your cooking skill to guide you to the best ingredients, making food prep a breeze. It seems like a small change, but every ten more levels you can add onto that once more. With dozens of levels, it will truly grow powerful. But you have to be careful, every new function will cost you more soul spark to use, so unless you use an upgrade to get energy from other sources, you will have limited features to upgrade. An exception to that are modifiers, they don't necessarily give more options to the skill, but they change the effect, like I just said you can make the skill take in other sources of energy.”

  The small Perytos, previously lightly interested now listened with all his attention, drinking in every word. “It creates a link to the energy source, whether they are emotions, vitality or other, even more esoteric sources. The link allows that energy to be funneled into the skill to function.”

  As if remembering something he added. ” There are infinitely many modifiers and upgrades in general, however one stands out. You can make a skill activate for a short period and do a specific thing. Those are called abilities, and they use a lot of soul spark, but they have more significant effects than just passives. Taking the punching skill for example, it can make your next punch many times more powerful than it should have been, or...” The man leaned in, taking advantage of innate curiosity of the boy.

  “You can have your veggies instantly chopped for your cooking.” The little boy screamed in outrage. “Daaad stop with the cooking! I want to know more about skills, not dicing onions.“ “You see my boy...” He smiled faintly as he said. “I taught you everything i knew about skills. So... you better run unless you want me to make you chop veggies!”

  Laughter and screeching could be heard as a little Perytos was chased around the house, filling the air with joy and peace.

  The now grown-up Perytos cleared his throat and wiped the tear forming in his eye. Those were good times, simpler ones. But he needed to move on, those times were gone now. Despite that, he committed every word and moment to memory, hoping to carve the scenes deep into his mind.

  He went ahead with the upgrade- he thought about how he wanted to change the skill. It crystalized in his mind, a vision of him, no longer overexerting his strength suddenly, but using it with precision. His status abided, easily able to make the change. He displayed the changed skill:

  "Oath Resonance(A Healthy Mind is A Healthy Body)"- A skill choice that is given to all who have acquired an oath, being tailored to your oath or oaths. This skill passively improves the capabilities of your body, increasing: strength, toughness, speed and endurance. When your' cognitive functions are reduced this skill will not activate, same happening with lack of focus and determination, however the stronger your will the bigger the boost will be. The strengths of the effects can be moderated, allowing for precise usage, scaling with your mastery.

  Affinity: Oath, body, determination. Soul spark cost: as this skill is tied directly to your oath it is powered by the energy of the Universe, reducing the cost from intermediate to very low.

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  The change to the skill hadn't come out of nowhere. He struggled to control the skill, when it activated, he surged instantly. It broke his concentration most of the time. He had thought that maybe he could increase the strength of his body even more, given his inability to shake off the undead, but he also realized that he needed precision as his foundation, not brute power.

  With one thing out of the way, he had a skill selection to go through from defeating the group of undead.

  You have been rewarded for overcoming your limits with a skill selection, you can select (one) skill:

  Opening the list, he saw the previous choices appear, but under them were new ones. Since the reason for rejecting those skills hadn't changed, at least for now, he would consider only the new additions.

  "Beast tongue"- Due to cooperating and communicating with a beast this Skill his has been displayed for you. This skill improves your ability to communicate with non-verbal entities. Displaying your emotions and intentions will be easier along with the increased ability to read other beast's emotions and desires. Affinity: Beast, language, empathic. Soul spark cost: Low.

  "Thick blood"- Due to suffering many flesh wounds this Skill had been offered to you. This skill will actively thicken any blood leaving your body, you will bleed out slower, and surface wounds will begin clotting faster. Affinity: Body, blood. Soul spark cost: medium.

  "Improvised weaponry"- Due to using a weapon not suited to you and being unprepared for battle this Skill has been offered to you. This skill will increase the viability of any weapon, making its edges sharper and more durable to impacts, the effect lingers for a few seconds after losing contact with the weapon. Affinity: Weapon mastery, Survival. Soul spark cost: intermediate

  "Protector's bullrush"- Due to rushing mindlessly for the help of another this Skill has been granted to you. This skill will slightly increase the duration an opponent is stunned after they are charged. This skill comes with the ability to increase the speed and momentum of your charge, making you harder to stop and react to. This skill will not activate when not used to help another being. Affinity: Empathy, Crowd control, Brawling. Soul spark cost: passive cost: minor, Active ability: as this ability uses energy generated from protecting others its cost is reduced from Significant to Moderate.

  "Survival instinct"- Due to having survived in a deadly environment for a prolonged time this Skill has been offered to you. This skill will make your instincts regarding survival stronger: you will have a greater chance of finding supplies and protection when deferring to "gut feeling", also you will instinctively recognize hazards in any environment and its denizens. Affinity: Survival, instinct. Ocular. Soul spark cost: minor-moderate.

  Once again, his options didn't disappoint. All of them, at least at surface level, seemed great and worth to have. However, taking a closer look, he discarded some of them. "Thick blood" while usually a fantastic ability to build off of was in his case- redundant.

  His wounds already sealed fast, so he had no need for the skill. Ideally, he would get his Oath resonance upgraded so that it would be his main body enhancement skill. He didn't want to have many skills for one purpose; it was a waste of the limited skill slots. He needed to widen his capabilities, not improve upon existing ones; that could be done with skill upgrades, not slots.

  He moved on to the next two skills on his list.

  "Beast tongue" and "Protector's bullrush" were really useful skills for sure. The other one even came with an ability in the base skill! Nonetheless he would not really benefit from the skills. Communicating with Mercel better was not really a priority; he already was getting better at reading the wolf. The bullrush, however, was not in his style. For whatever reason he felt slight resentment at charging headfirst into a fight recklessly.

  Perytos fake coughed when he remembered that was the reason he was offered the skill in the first place. That was different, it was a special situation. He deluded himself knowing fully that he would do it again in a heartbeat.

  The last two skills sat on the picked apart listing. They had been the hardest to turn down. The ability to upgrade his weapon was especially tempting. Weapons and gear were equalizers against a fight with a beast after all.

  Perytos had been fighting with a small pocket knife since the caravan, there was no better choice after all; Twigs and branches would snap where he to use them as weapons. He would be able to take his newfound combat ability to new heights with the skill. It was exactly what he needed. He was just about to pick the skill when he something gave him pause.

  Survival instinct sat lonely on the sore end of the selection. It wasn't flashy. It didn't help him fight stronger opponents. At the tier he and Mercel were, however would it really matter at all? They would most likely get mauled by any opponent not residing at the bottom of the food chain; weapon skill or not they were helpless.

  What would save them was avoiding fighting in the first place. The skill was perfect for their circumstances; it offered protection, supplies and a deep attunement to danger. All were things they were in dire need for.

  No longer seeing the reason to stall, he picked the skill. The system's interference had been swift, and the piece of Perytos' soul hosting all his skills and slots filled out a tiny bit. The lone comet orbiting the radiant sun of his oath now gained a sister. The two orbs flew without a care in the world.

  Perytos opened his eyes.