As the door was knocked thrice, Adam didn't bother to open his eyes while lying on the couch in the center of his official office, which was forced upon him by the Sergeants.
"Unless it is a monster wreaking absolute havoc in our territory, the rest of today is officially my vacation."
His voice was muffled, as he was speaking into the couch, but it still prompted a reply from the person behind the door:
"I come in peace." Megan's voice came from the other side before she gently opened the door and walked in.
Adam looked up and saw that she wasn't alone; rather, she had come with Yuki following her.
"What's up?" Adam lifted himself up, his hair disheveled and his usual six o'clock shadow starting to overgrow.
The two girls stood not too far from him, and Megan spoke with a smirk:
"I was thinking a threesome might bring your spirit back into shape."
Hearing that, Adam's expression became sunken, his voice barely composed by a thread of sanity, as he lashed back:
"Learn thee some manners, thou uncouth wench."
Megan immediately laughed loudly, while Yuki showed an amused face.
"A man resisting the lure of a threesome is surely something," she said, passing Megan a blue ticket for the mess hall's premium meals.
"I told you I trained him well." Megan accepted the bet without grace as she turned to Adam. "Yuki is a great hairdresser; she'll make you look like a hottie once again."
"I'll go set up my tools." Yuki walked to the chair behind Adam's desk, dragged it to a corner, set up a mirror, and began laying out a few tools.
Meanwhile, Megan threw her entire weight at Adam's side, earning a groan from the beat-up young man. Yet, the two were still yearning for each other's warmth on cold days like these.
"I've been looking for a way to cheer you up, and I know how good you feel after a good shave," Megan said.
"I've never had a woman cut my hair before. My father always took me to his barber friend, and that never changed," he said with a longing smile, looking blankly into nothing in particular.
"I remember him, God rest his soul. He was a cheerful fellow at times. Shame! Dad would have hit it off with him," Megan said and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Yeah." Adam nodded with a soft smile. "I'd do anything to meet just one more person I used to know. One more familiar face, even if it were your dad."
"You know… he wouldn't actually mind you so much now. You've grown more into his standards than any of those guys he tried to hook me up with when we weren't together."
"He was this desperate, huh?" Adam asked.
"He knew we'd get back together eventually if he didn't do anything," Megan said, snuggling closer into Adam's arm.
The two then remained silent for a while, watching as Yuki finished her preparations and Megan dragged Adam to the chair.
"How do you wish it to be, sir?" Yuki asked.
"I'm too handsome for a buzz cut. Short and uniform is the way," Adam replied, confident in his looks.
"Buzz his beard, though, and that hair under his nose," Megan added, leaning against the table he was facing.
"Thou shalt not lay blade upon my moustache, lest thou regret it!" Adam protested dramatically, but under the chilling gaze of Megan, he folded silently.
"So I was asking Yuki all the important questions about skills going beyond 10, the effects, and all that," Megan said, looking between Adam and Yuki, who started trimming with skillful snip-snips. "I'm starting to get confused about some parts of these skills and stats, the more I think about it."
"How so?" Adam asked.
"Everything is evolvable with the System, it seems. Skills start with basic forms; then they get archived or reformed somehow, adapting to us. Then there are the classes that get some sort of evolution, as with Sergeant Ajax, being a 1-star Warrior or whatever it is called. Aside from that, you have something like the Might stat and Psyche skill both doing the same; it also goes for the Trick stat and Charisma skill. Feels strange, doesn't it?"
"Could have asked Kave; he's the rules guy, you know," Adam said, trying not to crowd his already exhausted brain.
"He's on the front with Sergeant Ajax; a report came in that some Dire Wolves were grouping," Megan replied with a shrug.
"Well…" Adam shifted in his seat and recounted something even more surprising to Megan: the meeting with the Force Rune, the imminent growth of the Puppeteer Rune, his knowledge about the entire collection of runes, and his speculation about the System's nature as a Rune Construct.
"Jeez! You took all that in one day?" Megan asked with pity in her eyes.
"And had to deal with Senator Carter this morning," Adam replied with a tired smirk.
"Am I allowed to add massage to my services?" Even the passive Yuki knew Adam's condition required more care.
"As long as I don't fall asleep…" Adam replied and glanced at Megan. "And if it feels too good, I may need to avoid getting stabbed tonight."
"Don't worry about me." Megan smirked and turned to Yuki. "He earned the full course."
"The threesome it is," Yuki affirmed, her grips tightening over Adam's trapezius: "Hairdressing, massage, and light skin care."
"You have supplies for all that?" Adam asked in wonder.
"As long as it isn't food, and people weren't particularly looting it, it is still in abundance, it seems," Yuki replied, but then changed the topic: "Let's talk about the skills, though."
"Yep." Adam appreciated the shift to a more serious topic, "I got the Artifice Skill at level 10. The System is giving me an option to Archive and pick a new evolved skill based on it, or keep leveling it beyond level 10."
"Yes, that checks with what I got, but I didn't believe I would benefit, though. I made my choice to continue leveling it up," Yuki replied as she was working. "But I soon found out I was right."
"You serious?" Adam's eyes widened, and a similar reaction came from Megan.
"Mhm!" Yuki nodded and faced Adam through the small mirror in front of them. "This only applies to you and me, since we are Sages."
Adam made the gears of his brain churn before quickly connecting the dots.
"The Sage skill still benefits from a skill even above level 10?" Adam asked.
"At least for the Senses skill," Yuki replied. "As you know, the Sage can be a bit annoying if you leave it on, since it uses the brain to its best potential to deduce and brainstorm stuff. Combine that with enhanced sensory perception, and you can process anything like an AI assistant in your brain."
"That's super useful! How do you get this skill?" Megan asked with a glint in her eyes.
"You innovate," Adam replied.
"Or you achieve something intellectual," Yuki added.
"Well, seems like a pain in the ass," Megan opted out.
"But here's the thing: with what Yuki is saying, her Sage skill can utilize her skills better than she can. Meaning that if level 10 is the peak of the mundane level of the Senses, for example, the Sage can do extrasensory perception shenanigans."
"Wait!" Megan frowned. "Is that how you could shoot dire wolves before they jump from under the snow?"
"More or less," Yuki replied with a shrug.
"So…" Megan thought for a while. "She's like an Esper."
"If you combine the Sage and the Senses skills in this logic, then yeah," Adam agreed.
"How would the Artifice skill work in that regard then?" Megan asked.
"Since Artifice is the technology and crafting skill, he'll gain a supernatural intuition into machines, maybe develop an empathy link with the Sacred Code," Yuki concluded.
"Oh, hell no!" Adam almost jumped out of his chair. "Solana would turn me into a Code Host."
"She is not turning anybody into a Code Host." Megan immediately held him back. "Especially not you, her dear Brother-Commander."
"Let me guess…" Yuki halted her scissor action before asking, "Some sort of a guy strapped to a terminal all day long to commune with the Code?"
"Yep." Megan nodded.
"Worse!" Adam cried. "Awake in both Realspace and Cyberspace at the same time, they literally communicate with two worlds, a mind-breaking replacement for machine intelligence and a way to prevent AI development. Like… a brain with a Kernel Sub-brain Node, and the body is basically a Nugget."
Yuki frowned at the last bit of information, so Megan explained.
"Nugget is fan terminology for Quad Amputees. Code Hosts are Espers who are tuned to the Sacred Code, and since they don't need limbs, the Script Monks simply snip-snip them off."
Yuki paused for a couple of seconds before shrugging it off.
"I know people into that kind of shit."
"So let's just get back to the topic of skills, please," Adam interrupted before the conversation took a drastic turn.
"So you won't continue leveling Artifice?" Megan asked.
"No, not at the moment. I won't benefit from it in my skill," Adam replied.
"But here's the thing, I mean no offense to your great skill, oh grandmaster of artificing…" Megan bowed dramatically.
"Yes, yes, sing thy praises, thou peasant," Adam relaxed in his chair with a playful tone of his own.
"… but you simply didn't reach the apex, right? I mean, no human can just stop getting better with practice; this is just… stagnation at this point."
"Oh, right you are, clever maid," Adam said, his eyes brightening. "I just realized that, honestly, and if I may say, I bet the skills I will get will be more specialized versions of Artifice."
"You will have your achievements, then be given a choice of three skills. Mine weren't impressive, but they can actually be more than just passive," Yuki said.
"My guess was right on the money, then," Adam said.
"But you can still opt back for your older skill, right?" Megan asked.
"Yes. You can also choose not to Archive it," Yuki replied.
"Then why Archive it to begin with?" Megan asked.
"I can answer that," Adam answered before Yuki could reply. "Because you would have two versions of the same skill sharing all the experience that could have gone to the newer skill. Archiving simply stops it from growing so that the younger skill can grow further."
Megan checked with Yuki, and the latter nodded twice, confirming Adam's guess.
"You're having the Sage skill figure that out, huh?" Megan asked.
"Yep!" Adam made two thumbs up. "Three voices in my head are having a hot debate about it as we're speaking."
"I don't think I can envy that," Megan said in an exasperated tone before asking, "When will you choose your new skill, though?"
"I wanted to discuss it with Kave, but I think I can't wait until tonight," Adam said and brought up the message screen from his System.
≪ Your Skill [Artifice] has reached the threshold as a mundane skill. Would you like to Archive it? Y/N ≫
≪ Warning! Archiving a Skill by fusion or reaching its mundane threshold means you can no longer level it up, but it will stay in effect. Instead, you will be granted one of three skill choices. ≫
Adam raised a hand and pressed the "Yes" option before waiting for a System reply.
≪ Reviewing your Achievements with the [Artifice] skill… ≫
≪ Skills Generated! Choose one of the following… ≫
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[ Toy Maker ] < Skill, Rare >
You are a creator of toys who takes joy and pride in making the best tools possible. You have created and assembled miniatures of all shapes and sizes with nothing but plastic, resin, and love.
With this skill, the joy you possess from making toys will spread through them to those who are nearby, and as your craft and art increase, so shall the popularity of your toys, their aesthetic beauty, and their joy factor.
————————————————————
Adam read the first skill offered aloud with a frown. Once he finished, he almost cried:
"Toys? Did this System bro just call my minis toys? The nerve! I thought the Runes made this System, not your father."
"Leave my pa out of your damn mouth!" Megan almost kicked him, but she resisted the urge. "The skill is powerful, though. If it could spread from your summons, everyone around the Civilian camp will be in very high spirits."
"I understand. The Wartopians will be walking, talking propaganda machines. Tempting but dangerous," Adam replied.
"Onto the next, then," Megan decided.
————————————————————
[ Rune Stitching ] < Skill, Rare >
You have achieved a great feat by restoring a rune from the brink of destruction: a point where even the most expert Runesmiths would have given up.
As a pioneer in the rarely explored Rune Stitching field, your ability to restore dying runes and reactivate them is maximized, guaranteeing more survival chances for the rune.
————————————————————
The moment Adam saw a skill with the word Rune in its name, he literally gasped, prompting worried questions from Megan and total silence from Yuki.
It sounded like a great skill, but Adam soon rejected the idea:
"It is about repairing runes, and we barely have any," he said and shook his head.
"But it can be a lead to that technology," Megan interjected.
"Yes!" Adam nodded but still sighed. "Just a step in a different direction than what we need, if you ask me. It could help us reverse-engineer all we know about the runes."
Finally, it was the final skill.
————————————————————
[ Spirit Geometry ] < Skill, Rare >
Those who have experienced a profound metaphysical experience beyond the veil of reality are more attuned to the spiritual nature of things. Those who understand the fundamentals of the supernatural have a different magnitude of profoundness in their perspective on things.
This skill gives a deeper understanding of the spiritual patterns of things, thus deeper knowledge of how to understand and utilize such patterns in more practical ways.
————————————————————
Rather than a skill built on something he achieved before leveling the Artifice skill to 10, this skill was based on something after it, and it didn't look simple at all.
The moment Adam read that skill out loud, the two girls fell silent, and Adam was given time to think.
The choice was between the love for his craft, the need to learn more about runes, and the path into the unknown.
To him, this was not an easy choice to make.
******
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