“So I need to ask you a few questions about Skills and Talents and all the other good stuff.” Aarav started once they were out of the room and on their way back to the lab, the Slime cradled in the Potion Master’s hands.

“Hmm, what would you like to know?” Haemish replied.

“Okay, I notice that there is something that changes with Skills when they get to level ten, and then I am assuming that it happens again at subsequent levels as well?” Aarav asked, remaining guarded with his knowledge; he wasn’t giving away anything he didn’t need to. Am I being pointlessly overcautious?

“Ahh, you mean the Plateaus!” Haemish replied with satisfaction.

“Oh, that's what they are? I figured there was something special about them.”

“Yes, indeed, you are correct. As you have rightly identified, the First Plateau is Level ten, then another at twenty-five, then forty-five, seventy and then one hundred. Those are the first five and the primary ones.” Haemish glanced down at Aarav in his hand with a small crease in his brow. If Aarav had to guess, he would say the man was dissatisfied, but for the life of him, the Slime couldn’t know why.

“Okay, I have a couple of follow up questions. First, what do the plateaus do exactly and second, if these are the primary ones, then it means there are other Plateaus, so what are they?” Then he waited patiently for the answer.

“Well, the Five Primary Plateaus are one of the things that I had planned to tell you about anyway. I suppose there is no harm in a little overview now,” Haemish said, then proceeded in lecture mode. “The Five Primary Plateaus are, in essence, five pivotal points in a skill or magic’s progression. It doesn’t matter what the particulars of the Skill or Magic are; those are points that we as wielders have some control over the outcome of our abilities. You are right in that there are more, but that is not relevant at the moment. You are probably a long way from getting any Skill to Level one hundred!” Haemish said with amusement.

That’s what you think, buddy!

“Okay, so we have control over the Skills and Spells, but what does that mean? How do those abilities change and why at those particular levels?”

“Those questions are worthy of a scholar, but they are honestly a little too complicated to answer right now. I will get to that later once you understand what Skills and Magic are all about.” Haemish continued. “What you need to understand for now is that we have some control over how our Skills progress at these unique points in the progression, and we called those pivotal points Plateaus.”

“You said that already.” Aarav replied dully. He hoped this didn’t become one of those times where the teacher decided that repetition was vital.

“Hmm, well, it is important after all!” Haemish sniffed at the Slime in his hand. They had made it down to the floor of the lab and Aarav only just noticed. Haemish seemed to have picked up the pace a little while explaining. I swear this guy is invigorated by this training stuff.

Indeed, despite Haemish huffing and grunting, there was a slight smile on the old Alchemist’s face. “As I was saying before being interrupted. We can make adjustments to our abilities within reason, and different Plateaus will allow you to make different amounts of adjustments.” Then he went off on his own and started spouting random words like he had forgotten Aarav was there. “Latent energy... build up...specific energy capacity...”

“Huh? What is that? Can you explain properly, please?” Aarav had to bring the man back, who blinked a little and then grunted and continued speaking as nothing had happened. This guy!

“What I am saying is that it had to do with the ambient energy and what energy you can consume from the air and what you can generate yourself as you use your Skills.”

“Wait, wouldn’t using Skill drain your energy? Like expending Mana or Stamina when you use a Spell or Skill?” Aarav asked. It seemed apparent to him but somehow, what Haemish was saying still seemed right. It left the Copycat feeling less confident of his words by the syllable.

Haemish noticed, which was surprising considering he seemed oblivious most of the time. “Yes, you see the logic in what I am saying. Mana, Stamina, and even Health is all we can feel, external energies or the more tangible visible things that we can quantify. But the internal or intrinsic energies give you Skill and Level experience, and that is also somewhat measurable and tangible but less so than the three resources I just mentioned.”

“So if I understand correctly, what you mean is that there is a difference in the energies that we use that constitute Mana and Stamina and the energy we take in as experience? Like a sort of exchange? And Health is also a little like Mana and Stamina?” Aarav felt he barely kept his head above water with the explanations Haemish tossed around. Trust a scholar to make things complex. Surely someone can explain this more straightforwardly!

Haemish nodded, impressed. “Yes, exactly like that, you are exchanging different types of energies, it is a little more complex in reality, but you have to understand the core of it! Faster than most! Though most learn this at the age of nine or ten, and you seem older even if you are not, you act like it.” That put a damper in Aarav’s puffed-up head, and he deflated before his head could even start swelling.

“Yes, well, some people are mature for their age, I’ll have you know!” Aarav stated he might be just over six months old in this world, but he had twenty-three years of memories from which to pull.

Rubbish memories, a rubbish life, phobias, street smarts, and a lot of baggage! That’s what I got. Aarav found himself once again wondering whether staying with just the Resh part of his brain would not have been the more solid choice. Could he purge the Aarav part and start over? But then wouldn’t he lose what made him, him? Ghaa! Stop getting in your head!

Haemish slimed at the minuscule Slime in his hand and patted him on the head. “You are doing very well indeed, little Slime!”

Aarav used the active part of Zen Meditation to calm down after that condescending remark. Haemish doesn’t know I have enough life experience to be considered an adult. Then the analytical part of his mind took over, and he thought about the situation for a moment. Getting trapped here temporarily could be a blessing in disguise. Considering they are teaching me what they would do to their children, I’m a child in their eyes. They won’t treat me like a threat if they consider me as such.

A short “Thank you, Haemish” was Aarav’s only reply.

“Oh-ho, so you are becoming serious now! I can work with serious.” Haemish chuckled. “You seem to have grasped the basic concepts of the Skills and other things. Ah, here we are!”

Aarav realised they had just reached the lab. The Copycat hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings. At the same time, they spoke, enraptured by what Haemish had been explaining and cursed for not paying more attention to his surroundings. He had learned that skill on the streets, but there was something about being in this world and in this body that just kept pushing him off into dreamland. He was going to have to do something about and quickly. A dopey man quickly became a dead man on the streets and in a medieval world.

Haemish set Aarav down on the same counter he had been mixing potions yesterday and nudged the Slime forward gently. “So, are you the type of person that never finishes what they start? Or are you the type to always complete the job set before you?” Haemish asked, then nudged the Slime again. Aarav was getting irritated with that. “Potions?”

Aarav was not enjoying Haemish mucking him around. The mention and sight of his beginnings of Potion Craft brought something else to mind. “Haemish, what were you doing when you took a sample of my body?”

Haemish ignored him, and Aarav could tell this was intentional because the man kept casting furtive glances at his Slime pupil over his shoulder. Also, Haemish was pretending to tidy up, and it looked like you could eat off the floor. Aarav should know; he had done just that yesterday.

“Haemish...?” Aarav’s uncertainty and alarm rose when he did not get an immediate response. The Slime on the counter could not focus on the incomplete potions in front of him instead of watching the pacing man. Haemish could not stay still for a moment, and it didn’t bode well for his answer.

After what felt like hours but likely was a handful of seconds, Haemish finally spoke. “Well, as to that....”