Brennan dashed forward, kicking the leather ball before Byron could catch up to him. It landed in front of Mellie, who punted it without hesitation. She narrowly hit the chalk ring on the wooden wall, and their team cheered.
[Sprinting (Common) Lv. 54] -> Lv. 55
Two days had passed since his visit to the Village Hall. Currently, the group was finishing another round of ball games after they had gotten together earlier that morning. This included Brennan, given that he could afford to kill a little bit of time and hadn’t resisted the other kids too much when they asked.
Obviously, he would’ve never allowed it if he wasn’t being productive at the same time, but playing outside had its own carefree appeal. Being out in the open air, feeling the rushing wind across his skin as he ran, it was an addictive sensation. A far cry from the smog-choked, concrete maze he’d been forced to brave day in and day out in his old life.
Sure, he lacked internet here, though at the same time, he couldn’t say that wasn’t also an upside. Some parts of life were just better preserved when the state of affairs on different parts of the globe couldn’t interfere with your routine at the drop of a hat. Lacking a veritable treasure trove of information at his fingertips was an almost reasonable sacrifice in the face of that. Almost.
He knew he would’ve been exploiting the hell out of any search engines for the sake of magic if there were any. Online communities providing free knowledge were definitely something he missed, along with the overall level of understanding about the world rather than having things fed to him piecemeal as he gained access to various sources of knowledge.
On a larger scale, anyway. Locally, he was making strides in that respect.
Skill equipped.
[Situational Awareness (Common) Lv. 1] -> Lv. 3
Unlike the rest of his loadout, this one had come from his repository of unequipped skills. He had unlocked it sometime during his Focus grinding sessions, swiftly dismissing it as redundant and unnecessary given the circumstances. It hadn’t been a bad skill in his mind, it was just proving a lot more useful for him in the present.
He did regret not taking it earlier, simply because of the fact that it was now at a low level when he needed it for no other reason than his own reluctance. If he did have it a few dozen levels above what it was now, he would be seeing a lot more benefit out of it. Who could really blame him though? How was he supposed to know that a whopping three of his skills would merge into a single one?
[Lucent Comprehension (Uncommon) Lv. 1] -> Lv. 2
While the increase might seem fast relative to the time he’d had the skill, in reality it was pretty slow compared to the amount of effort he constantly put in to refine it. Over twenty hours already. That was how versatile this skill was. If he applied his concentration to anything, he could attempt to glean its secrets with this and catalogue information about it much better than before.
It worked in tandem with [Situational Awareness], and he could feel how having both skills active enhanced his investigative capabilities. He was no trained detective, nor did he have a dedicated investigation skill, but he would pick up more details about any given scenario than the average person.
For example, Tobin over there had a small hunch to his posture; frustration and dejection over his loss at their inconsequential game. Mellie still rode the high of scoring a goal, Cedric smiled good-naturedly at them, and the rest had lower levels of investment in the game. Liam drummed a rudimentary beat on his thighs, walking towards the middle. The whole group converged, no doubt sensing the game was done. None of them with hostile intent.
That should go without saying, but he was practicing his ability to assess danger through intentions, mostly. There were certainly going to be situations where people weren’t this calm. Most of the things he learned, he could have inferred on his own. The skill simply made them pop more.
Not that it was limited solely to danger. He could orient it around another concept and check the environment for that instead. The reason he checked for hostility was because it was one of the more clear-cut elements to scan for.
All of that was for one of his newest skills. The other, he didn’t have the opportunity to practice at the moment. It would require a surface and something to make figures with.
[Drawing (Common) Lv. 1] -> Lv. 8
The very idea of taking a drawing skill had seemed ludicrous when he was first offered it, prompting him to decline. However, Brennan had later realized that he wanted something to practice his penmanship for the sake of improving his Writing until it reached the next rarity upgrade. Still, if that were the only reason, he wouldn’t have accepted it.
It also proved to be extremely useful for drawing up plans. With Lucent Comprehension, memorizing places in the village was much easier and he only had to put in moderate effort to remember the layout of the surrounding houses and roads. Using that, he planned out a number of waiting spots for his investigation when the next grain merchant came through.
Aside from the plans, he made attempts at putting what his Sense Magic told him to paper, although it was unclear enough that his parents thought he was simply doodling. According to them, he would make a very creative architect one day.
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He ultimately knew it was a gamble, taking this skill. But he wasn’t going to wait around and hope for a better one to pop up either. It was time to get stuff done now, and if he didn’t like it later? He still had time to drop it.
The topic had come up in conversation with his family, who told him dropping skills wasn’t as big of a deal before you Classed. Nonetheless, that didn’t mean there were no negative consequences. For one, it went without saying you would lose the progress you made in the dropped skill. And second, anything you dropped would not be stored in your archive again.
To put that into perspective, if he threw away one of his uncommon skills today, that was it. He would lose it forever and be no closer to unlocking it once more than an ordinary person. In Brennan’s position, that could ruin his entire life, since he was even more dependent on his skills to stand out at this age.
He had of course known about the fact that skills could be dropped already. The issue was, he had at no point considered it a viable plan of action. Because any skill he dropped would be giving up part of his major headstart, and that was utterly unacceptable.
“When’d you start running like that?” he heard someone say behind him. Turning, he saw it was Byron standing there, out of breath. “You’re almost faster than me.”
“He has a skill for it,” Junia answered for him. “It’s the only body skill Pa could get him to take. I dunno why he still hasn’t tossed it though… Doesn’t suit him.”
“I beg your pardon,” Brennan shot back, donning a mock offended expression. “My aptitude for running is great. I mean look at me, I was born to do this.”
“You were born to be a wiseass,” his sister retorted.
“Childbirth may serve many purposes, o forerunner of the family line. ‘Tis the way of the world, I fear,” he said.
“There you go again.” Junia rolled her eyes. Then she muttered under her breath, “Who talks like that?”
Honestly, it wasn’t that serious. Sprinting was more of an addition he had chosen to keep in case of involuntary combat, which he most certainly wasn’t ready for. As Byron had highlighted, he wasn’t faster than the older boy yet. He was just getting close due to a skill and superior technique. And perhaps a bit of negligence. There was no doubt he’d fall behind again if Byron chose a Class that boosted any of his physical attributes.
But that was still a few years out, given that there was only a three-year age gap, still younger than Junia who was six years older than Brennan. His older sister would actually be Classing in the not-so-distant future, and he could tell from her posture on some days that it unnerved her.
Last week, she had officially become Henry the Tailor’s apprentice. She’d always had a fascination for clothing, evidenced by the fact that she was wearing a fairly unique outfit at the moment, but putting a title on it had made it a bit too real for her.
Part of Brennan had expected her to go for a housekeeping Class like Doris. Maybe it was hypocritical of him, if one considered that he wasn’t planning to be a glorified construction worker like George either. Get faster updates on g.com.
Whatever she decided, he didn’t care too much. It would have no long-term impact on him. If she wanted to weave fabrics, that was fine in his book. Unless she started using him as a dress-up doll like she had when he was three. In that case, he would have to take precautions.
The others walked closer, with Cedric having picked up the ball. As the oldest boy in the group, he had also more or less decided on his path. Quartermaster or provisioner, it was one of the two. What stood out to Brennan wasn’t the specific Class, but rather how he was positioned to take up a seat on the future council of Craswidge. His leadership qualities were distinct enough that there was almost definitely skill use involved.
Mellie, the ace striker of the hour, was on track to become a nurse. Or medic, Brennan wasn’t sure what the exact term for it was. The point was, she wanted to help the sick and elderly. From what he’d heard, the village had been all too happy to hear that, for there was no such thing as too many people working in healthcare. In his head, he wondered if her bright, loudmouth personality would survive the stresses of watching people die on a regular basis.
She might surprise me. Crazier things have happened.
“Who’s good to go again?” she called out, a triumphant grin on her face.
“I think everyone’s had their fill, Mellie,” Cedric replied kindly.
“Who said I was done!?” Tobin shouted.
“Almost everyone,” Cedric corrected.
They laughed and joked some more, Agnes taking her place at Brennan’s side. The girl had been on the other team, but if she was bothered by her loss, she was remaining quiet about it as usual. She did give him a thumbs up though.
“Kinetic Balance?” he asked, receiving a nod as answer.
The gesture was one he had taught her in case she wanted to tell him one of her skills had leveled without having to utter any words. It made their interactions a lot simpler if he didn’t have to decipher her movements when she was trying to convey something to him while getting around her preference for not talking.
“That’s solid,” he praised. Internally, he was even more impressed. Contrary to him, she already had a physical skill in uncommon-rarity. Her stance looked more refined as well, but he was likely imagining that. To match her progress, he would have to double his Sprinting level in the next year, which he could tell was going to be grueling if he wanted to manage it.
Superior mobility would be immensely helpful for an assistant in his upcoming investigation. Out of all the kids, she was his only prospective helping hand, so he would have to be prudent about utilizing her skill set in the most efficient way possible.
He would have the rest of the day to think it over. Tomorrow, they would begin, but for the time being he was free to deliberate and plan. For the rest of the afternoon, he was little Brennan having fun on one of the last days before his sister became busier with her job. Come the next morning, he’d be Detective Kerrick.
Okay, not really. He would probably just stand around for a day and see nothing of consequence, but the title had a nice ring to it. On the off chance that he did expose some kind of illicit activity, he hoped there was a reward to be gained. If not, the levels he would get from sensing strange magics should be sufficient.
Otherwise, it might be time to steal a magical artifact for himself.