Name: Tesla

Level: 1

Race: Pictis(Mimic Slime Variant)

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 7

Intellect: 14

Wisdom: 6

Skills:

Bonded Companion - Level 21

[Bonded Communication] - You are now able to communicate telepathically with your bonded companion. The maximum range is increased as the level of the skill rises. Capability of communication is modified by intelligence stat.

Camouflage - Level 4

Jumping - Level 4

Running - Level 6

Shapeshifting - Level 1

Storage - Level 4

Thievery - Level 2

I scanned Tesla's Stratum immediately. "You can speak!"

Yup yup! Tesla ran in small circles on the bed. I can!

I'm not ashamed to admit staying up way too late talking to Tesla. Telling her stories from Earth. Like stories about Einstein the cat, classes at school, being bullied, or life in the children's home.

She, in turn, told me what she could about the experiments on her. She didn't have the intelligence from before, so it was mostly her telling me how scared she was. After she woke up, having absorbed the slime she had been forced to consume was a different story.

I hid! The man with the ugly hat came into the room, and I hid. He looked right at me and never saw me. Eventually, he opened the door to look for me again, and I ran!

She was exuberant because she was finally able to talk to me and ask questions. But eventually, we both tired and fell asleep.

--

Morning!

"Morning, Tesla." I groaned and stretched before rubbing at the sleep in my eyes. I reached over and scratched Tesla behind her ears. "We've got training tonight. Would you like to work on our skills before then?"

Food first. Tesla's stomach rumbled with a high pitched sound before mine rumbled in response.

"Agreed. Food first!" I chuckled.

I climbed out of bed and picked out one of the new gray outfits. After getting dressed, I stepped out into the living space and saw Lena and Arterian preparing to step out of the house.

"Oh, good. You're up. A message came for you from Wisham." Lena had a scowl on her face as she said this. "It said that you'll have training this evening since Athena works until then. Wisham and Athena will come to get you and take you to your training space." Lena sighed. "I want to do some more alchemy with you before then, I'd like to set you up with more potions just in case Wisham gets you hurt again."

"That sounds great!" I responded.

"Food's on the table." Arterian said as he waved and walked out the door. Tesla waved back as the door shut, and I watched his jaw drop. I chuckled as I grabbed food for Tesla and me, and we scarfed it down before heading outside.

I could totally get used to this perfect weather. No overbearing sun in the sky and the wind is soft and relaxing. I've not seen rain yet, so I have no idea if it ever rains here.

We made our way to the bench in the garden for now. "I want to work on my Wind Manipulation."

I am going to work on my camouflage and Shapeshifting. I think they are related. They at least feel similar to me.

We both got to our skills. I need to adjust the way I think about things. Wisham was using his Wind Manipulation to fly. I bet that is a perk he got, but it could also be pure skill. I sat there, thinking more about how air works, and how I could lift something other than dust. My freshman year of science class was coming back to me with one of the simple experiments we did.

I knew what I had to do, so I closed my eyes and pictured a small sealed pocket of air. Inside the pocket, I filled it over capacity making a balloon of dense air. I opened my eyes and held the image in my mind while moving it around the garden. Keeping the image without moving it used minimal mana. However, when I moved the balloon, the amount of mana spent increased by a variable amount. I assumed that the amount of mana consumed was based on air resistance. I dropped the construct.

"Time for something more tangible." I created another construct after finding a small stone. Once the compressed air filled the balloon, I set the pebble on it. The rock sunk a little bit, but I was still able to hold it up. I could already tell holding something up was using more mana, though it wasn't a lot. I'm sure it would be something I couldn't keep up if I switched to a bigger rock.

I moved it around until I ran out of mana. But I felt a tangible change as the skill leveled up. I watched Tesla stretch and move while waiting for my mana to regenerate.

"How is it going, Tesla?" I prodded

Tesla jumped up onto the bench I was sitting on. Hmmm, not great. I think I'm stretchier than before. But I'm having trouble making any lasting changes. My shapeshifting skill has gone up one level.

"Back on earth we have something called a sugar glider. They use a membrane between their fore and hind legs to float and make longer jumps. Why don't you try something like that?" I suggested while pulling lightly at the skin on her leg to give her an idea of what I meant.

That doesn't sound too difficult.

I sat there watching her, I could see the skin lengthen down to her paws and stretch from the middle of her stomach instead of right at her joint. She seemed to be content trying that, and my mana was almost full, so I turned back to my training.

I repeated my training twice more before Tesla nearly shouted in my head.

I've got it!

"Oh! That's great! Show me!" I focused on her as she lifted her front paws and rested on her hind legs. I could see the thin membrane, but it looked like she had it almost entirely perfect. I poked at it and rubbed it between my fingers. "You did an amazing job!" Tesla was radiating contentment, so I scratched her head. "Try jumping to the rock at the top of the waterfall. Make sure you spread your limbs to stay in the air a bit longer."

I watched as Tesla jumped a handful of times until she got used to the slightly longer jump. "Keep it up, I want to try to give you some more lift with my Wind Manipulation."

Okay!

Tesla kept jumping back and forth between the rock and the bench. I formed an updraft on the third jump, and Tesla managed to grab onto the top of the seat. She nearly toppled over because she didn't have much to grab onto. "Sorry!" I yelped.

Not a problem. I'm already finding that I don't really get hurt when I fall. Watch.

I watched Tesla climb the tree behind me and climb out onto a branch. She jumped off a limb that was 58 feet off the ground, and I stood up. I watched her fall to the ground and kind of go flat before popping back up. It reminded me of the water balloons that the orphanage kids threw at me and didn't pop on impact.

"That was terrifying." I said while kneeling down over her, "Are you okay?"

A little dizzy, but I'm fine. ...I think. She wobbled a bit to either side.

"So how did that work?" I asked, confused about how she managed to come out unscathed while I stroked the fur on her back.

I just start Shapeshifting. The skill allows me to stretch without any issue. Making it hold a shape is a LOT more complicated.

"Woah, that's crazy." Skills and perks are insanely powerful. "I want to work through all of my mana one more time before heading to the workshop. Are you going to come too, or are you going to do something else?"

I'll probably stay here and take a nap. The chemicals I can smell on Lena hurt my nose. That room will be worse, I can tell.

"Alright," I chuckled while scratching Tesla behind her ears.

I finish up by holding up three pebbles until my mana bottoms out. I say goodby to Tesla and give her another scratch before heading inside to the workshop.

"Good, I was going to come to find you soon. I've got everything ready that I wanted you to make. First is just a handful of potions. I'm going to have you make them a little different, so Tesla can have them too if needed. Second, I'm going to show you how to make tablets. These can be eaten, and they have the consistency of chalk. But they will give you an increase in your capabilities if you find yourself in a situation that's putting you in a tight spot, like last time." Lena said the last bit with a bit more force than the rest. I didn't want her to dwell, so I kept her talking.

"What kinds of things can Tablets help with?"

"Tablets can give an increase to your base stats. Helping with speed, or damage, depending on what is needed. They can also provide a boost to adrenaline or quicken your response time."

"Ooh, that's nice." Mission success.

"We'll use the Skuld Liver you brought back as the ingredient for the stamina potions. Then we'll use some other things I've got here in the workshop." I wasn't sure how much I wanted to consume the Skuld liver, but if people do it here, it couldn't be too bad.

We made the healing, mana, and stamina potions. Lena was able to step in for the sections where she had already worked on the recipes to make them turn into peak versions of the potions.

The tablets were about what I expected. We made potions using various ingredients. Flamepod fruit, Shadow's Bounty, and Morscale were the primary ingredients in a Speed Tablet, a Tablet of Hiding, and a Tablet of Defense.

Total, I made 10 of each potion, and 50 of each tablet. I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I checked my Stratum afterward.

Name: Jak Rollins

Level: 4

Race: Human

Class: None

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 19

Intellect: 17

Wisdom: 15

Blessings:

Identify

Skills:

Alchemy - Level 24 - [Perfect Measurement]

Bonded Companion [Tesla] - Level 16

Cooking - Level 3

Jumping - Level 5

Mana Blades - Level 12

Running - Level 3

Wind Manipulation - Level 21

[Air Compressor] - Air pressure can be manipulated with high efficiency. Dense pockets of air can be moved around at will with minimal mana expenditure. Air can be compressed to be solid.

Curious, I tried using Wind Manipulation to make a small pocket of highly compressed air. I set one of the beakers on the space and felt the barest change in mana draw. I moved the compressed bubble around, and the beaker barely followed. Friction is going to be an issue.

"How are you doing that?" Lena started talking, and I looked up to see her staring at me in shock.

"I hit level 21 in Wind Manipulation earlier but didn't realize. It gave me a perk to make the air practically solid." I answered as I fiddled with adjusting the pocket to encase the beaker.

I was able to move it more easily than before. I added another beaker and found it took a decent amount more mana to hold it up. I put the beakers away, since I didn't want to break them, and started adding some books. I was able to hold around 3 to 4 pounds before holding them up was too much.

Before I could test more, Lena shuffled me out of the workshop and back to the garden where we grabbed Tesla. Lena finally was able to work up to petting Tesla. Then we went inside to get some dinner before Tesla and I were to be picked up by Wisham and Athena.

We had made some light conversation while Lena showed me more ways to use alchemy to improve my cooking. Perfect Measurement helped a lot to get the spices right. Tesla had something that could have been called a conversation with Arterian. It was one-sided while Tesla answered with nods or headshakes. I chipped in if it was too complex of an answer.

We finished an early dinner, so Tesla and I showed off what we had learned back in the garden. I spent my time making multiple compressed platforms to hold items. Eventually, Athena and Wisham came in through the gate.

Wisham rushed over to me when he saw me holding up 6 different rocks that I spun around me. "Got a perk I take it?" He asked while rubbing his hands together.

By the time he finished asking, Athena was walking over with Tesla in her arms. "Yeah, I can move things around with Wind Manipulation now. I'm limited by weight though." Wisham got me working on a complex motion with the floating stones. Eventually adding a couple more to my maelstrom of pebbles after removing the heaviest ones.

At some point, Lena and Arterian had left. I never got the chance to introduce Wisham to them. I was fresh out of mana, so we headed over to talk to Athena. I started to introduce Tesla to Wisham, but he waved me off. "I already know about her. Congratulations Jak, most people don't even know about advanced bonds. I'm going to let Athena run today's practice, and when you get your legs under you, we'll start incorporating your Wind Manipulation. That perk of yours will allow you to be tricky to fight. I'll explain more later." He said the last as I started to ask what he meant.

"Athena, I'd suggest starting with physique and tactics."

"I know my job, Uncle Wisham." Athena said, exasperated.

Wisham headed back out the fence and left Tesla, Athena, and myself alone to train. "Would you like to work here? Or would you like to work somewhere else? The End has training rooms I could get Martin to let us use, I'm sure."

"What benefit does the training rooms have over here?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"They have dummies you can use, and some various weighted weapons. We'll have to make use of the dummies later in your training, but we can do the first day or two here."

"Let's just stay here," I offered. "No point losing the light walking there and back.

"Okay. First, I want you to hand me your weapons. We'll be starting with fist fighting."

--

I proceeded to have my ass handed to me. Athena threw me and taught me how to fall properly. She taught me how to keep a balanced stance to keep my feet from tangling myself up when moving. She even taught me how to throw a punch. Eventually, we moved on to learning movements that reminded me of Tai Chi. It was difficult to follow the instructions at first, but it became more natural over time.

We were sitting in the grass, and Tesla was on my lap. I was startled out my stretch when Athena screeched. "No way!!"

She stared at me as I just cocked my head to the side. "What's up?"

"I just earned the Teacher skill AND leveled it to 21! In less than half a day! I got a perk to allow me to speed up teaching when working one on one." Her enthusiasm made me smile, and it made me curious about what I'd find in my skills.

Skills:

Alchemy - Level 24 - [Perfect Measurement]

Bonded Companion [Tesla] - Level 16

Cooking - Level 3

Jumping - Level 5

Mana Blades - Level 12

Physique - Level 1

Running - Level 3

Wind Manipulation - Level 21 - [Air Compressor]

"I only got Physique to level 1," I said with a frown. "Everything else is a lot faster to level up."

I could see Athena thinking.

"You might not actually be cut out for fighting," Wisham said from right behind me, making me jump and fall over into the dirt. Wisham smirked at me as I looked up at him. "Lots of people aren't meant for physical combat. You'll want to see if you can shore that up before you, Athena, and Tesla head out into the countryside looking for trouble."

"What do you mean by shore up?" I asked.

Wisham put his hand on his chin. "You could fill many different roles. Something most people overlook is a utility focus. Controlling a battle is just as important as fighting." I looked over at Athena and saw her nodding fervently. "I brought these books like you asked."

Wisham dropped a stack of 10 books from the air. "These should help you get a basic level of strategy and a decent idea of the animals and monsters surrounding the Kingdom of Rune. There is also a primer on Wind Manipulation."

Shortly after that conversation, I said goodbye to both Wisham and Athena. It had been dark for a while, so Tesla and I headed inside the house. Both of our stomachs were rumbling.