Lament of the Slave

Chapter 117: Fall of Mighty

Impossible! It was absolutely impossible to choose all seven skills, even though they were to my liking! Or was it not? [Indomitable Will]. This one had a permanent place in my skillset. Then what about the other four Slave skills? Some could have a replacement among the General Skills, others may not. I suspected that it would be hard to find a substitute for [Master's Shield], but for me to get rid of it entirely?

Fuck! I honestly didn't want to. It was so damn hard to learn how to use the barriers, finding a use for them in combat, and I was supposed to throw it all away?

If I did that with all the Slave skills, except for [Indomitable Will], wouldn't that mean that the efforts I've made since I found freedom on the banks of the Treim have been for naught? On the other hand, it would certainly help me get rid of that damn Slave tag.

Perhaps... perhaps I could replace [Behemoth] or [Wrought Hide] with some General Skill. After all, Deviant of Humanity had no effect on them, just Slave. Then I could keep more of the skills I've already put my efforts into.

"Agrrr...." I growled, pulling at my hair in frustration.

I liked Deckard's approach of going with one's gut more and more. It would be nice not to care and reach for what felt right to me. On the other hand, understanding how the system worked and how classes and skills interacted with each other could have given me so much.

Worrying I was one of the rash ones, maybe even stupid, after all I lacked the local common sense, Lord Wigram tried to explain this to me. He did his best to make me understand the importance of not living in ignorance of something as important as classes, skills, and the system.

Well, I understood that. Coming from where I came from, I wanted to know how this world works, which was difficult without some kind of global network. I missed the internet so much. Not knowing what was going on in the world, what was going on in my country, or in the fucking city next door was so annoying and, oddly enough, terrifying.

The phone was never my addiction, and I could easily do without it. It was just so convenient to have all the information in the world in the palm of my hand. Here, one had to ask and talk to people. Strangers, I saw for the first time in my life.

Not my thing.

The very thought of it made me uneasy, which is why the only receptionist I spoke to was Enola, why the prospect of an evening, a tavern full of strangers toasting my class evolution, made my throat tighten with dread.

Anyway, I'll have to deal with it when the time comes.

Information.

Was there another way to get them? Like newspapers my dad used to read at breakfast? I know. Who reads the papers these days, right? Well, if I came across some, I would.

However, in my rambles through the streets of Castiana, I didn't notice anything similar. The truth is, I didn't look for it. Perhaps...it was time for me to do so.

Not that knowing what's going on in Sahal would help me solve my current predicament, skills.

Which skills to choose, which ones to replace, which ones to get rid of, the same questions that kept running through my head over and over again, with no answers on the horizon. It was overwhelming.

That's why I found this little musing on access to information a nice distraction and a hint of how to get out of this mess. Ask. Deckard might know a thing or two about General Skills. He grew up here and should know the ins and outs of them. Well, at the very least, he mentioned them a few times, gave me some suggestions. Surely a better solution than flipping through all the skills I had access to, as there were a ton of them, with no filter or search option in the system.