I woke up with no hangover (Regeneration is the best) and ready to heal the world. Or at least those that needed it in Forest Glen. I had a few ideas to try out my new spells and abilities. But first, I pulled out the phone and turned it on. Damn that bastard. It has a 32-digit unlock pin. I can see Zemoculus laughing. Maybe there was some local magic I would use to unlock it but I didn’t know any. I tossed it back into my storage.

  Next, I need to look at what new skill I could select. Then level them up, after all I had 80 skill points and skill levels to decide on. Imagine my excitement. I thought it would only take one point per skill, and one point per level. Nope. The System book Arigulius gave me explained it this way. Different skills took different skill points. To increase a skill level, you had to expend the same number of skill level points as the level. If I selected the skill Animal Mastery, it took 5 skill points. To level it to level 3, took 5 skill level points. Two for level two, and three for level three. So, I wasn’t going to get the 80 skills I envisioned. As for level, that was quite a steep price to pay, so I would need to think carefully.

  I went to select my first skill from a list of over 100 skills. The first thing I noticed was that the cost of the skills varied from one to twelve. There was only one skill at level twelve. It was Shield Breaker. When invoked, it would break through any barrier, magical or physical that was at its level or lower. Justinian had the skill, lucky man. It was his skill not the Warhammer that broke the Litch’s shield. We were only able to defeat the Litch because of it. It was powerful but I needed to review everything before I selected it.

  No, my first skill was going to be something useful in my day-to-day activities. Negotiation. Maybe I could get a decent price from Eldro with it. I selected it and agree to the two skill point costs. I didn’t really feel anything, but it grayed out on the list. I brought up my skill list:

  Skills:

  Combat 10

  Magic 10

  Weapons 10

  Sword 10

  Dagger 10

  Spear 7

  Unarmed Combat 7

  Identification 10

  Partitioned Mind 6

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  Slow-Time 6

  Explorer 3

  Intimidation 1

  Nullification 2

  Negotiation 1

  There it was. Surprisingly simple. I added two level points to it, bringing it up to two. Wait, no it went up to three. I quickly checked my notifications. Master of Skills added one point for every point I added and reduced the cost by one level. So, I put in two points, had two matching points added for four points. Then the cost for level two was reduced to one point, and level three to two points. That meant I had one point toward level four. I should only need to put in one more point to get to level four. I put in one more point, Master of Skill matched it giving me a total of 3 points toward level four. Since Master of Skill also reduced the cost by one point, I met the threshold. Negotiation was at level 4 for the cost of three points. Master of Skills was quite a boon for lower levels, but as I reached higher skill levels, its benefits would be reduced. Still, it would save me quite a few points.

  Unbroken Mind was a passive skill that cost five points. It prevented all forms of mind control. It even prevented charisma from having an effect. It was effective against spells and skills equal to its skill level + five. I bought it and leveled it up to level five. It was the best mind defense I available to me.

  Enough lying about in bed. Time to get up and go about my day. I would have plenty of time to review the available skills. I also want to talk to Gorver and possibly Justinian about which ones to select.

  I had figured it out. Justinian had to be a level 50. Apparently, the Kingdom didn’t want to advertise the fact they had one. He was their secret weapon. If the other countries knew it, they would have been sending assassins every day. There was no way Justinian could have broken the Litch’s barrier, even with Shield Breaker, without him being level 50. I gave thanks to lords of chance, that I didn’t kill Jaster and instead healed him. Justinian would make a fearful enemy. Just thinking about it gave me the shivers.

  I got dressed and went downstairs. Breakfast was waiting in the dining room. Bacon, eggs, potatoes, orange juice, or at least their equivalent. Either way, it was so delicious, I had two helpings. I had turned on Healing Aura to help anyone with a hangover, and everyone seemed to be in a chipper mood by the time breakfast was finished. I then made my way to my Healers office to check in with Fabia.

  Fabia said no appointments were scheduled for today. The wave was not expected to end yesterday, so no appointments today. Tomorrow was another story. It was fully booked, so I had best be ready. She also suggested that I should go to the Adventurers Guild. There might be healing needed there. So that is what I would do. I turned and headed straight to the Adventures Guild.