128 (II)

Animated [I]

With everyone ready, a stream of red and white emerged from Shiv’s palm, and it poured against the metallic surface of the ground. As soon as it did, Shiv felt something. There was a tremor within his Vitae, but there was something else: a building pressure. The Skill Infusion was shifting, pressing against the floor. Shiv frowned, and he felt his vitality dissipate, his existence wear thin. He focused on shedding some of his Vitae, and it broke free from him, unleashing a splash of red and white that ignited the ground in a five-by-five-meter patch of glowing Vitae.

As the space below Shiv’s feet came aglow, there came a word… “I,” the ground said, voice high with confusion. Strangely, it now sounded like Shiv, and its speech came broken and jumbled. “Seek, Vitae, so brief, but then, thus, the end hurrah.”

And then the voice vanished, and the glow faded.

As Shiv looked back at his notification, he realized the animated skill infusion was gone, as was the presence of Can Hu’s poetry skill within his Vitae. “I have absolutely no idea what just happened,” Shiv surmised.

“I think I do,” Valor replied. “Animancy allows someone to modify a skill while it is within a soul. It is…” Valor spent a moment thinking of how to explain it to someone not in the field. “It is like rewriting parts of a story and reshaping aspects of someone’s being. Evolutions are major peaks. They are, for most intents and purposes, settled, unless absolutely destroyed or carefully reconstructed. Any contradictions in its legend will have the skill break down, and this inflicts immense damage to the Pathbearer, not so unlike being struck by Necromancy. Even so, Animancy does not let the Animancer simply draw out an aspect of a skill and infuse it elsewhere. Especially not an inanimate object like a patch of the ground.”

“And it had thoughts,” Uva said, blinking.

“What?” Shiv said.

“I sensed a faint trace of mind mana,” she said. “There was thought radiating out from that patch of Vitae. It spoke to us of its own accord as well.”

“So what, did I just make a self-aware skill with my Vitae?” Shiv asked. A sudden rush of discomfort passed through him. “Was it… alive?”

“Alive?” Valor gave a slight and hesitant hiss. “I won’t exactly claim it to be living. But the brief imposition of mental presence must be considered. It could be aware, but not truly living.”

“What?” Shiv said. “How does that work?”

“That is complicated to explain in certain ways,” Valor said. “There are certain faerie species that know they exist, but they aren’t truly alive. They are not organisms, they do not have Paths, they do not develop skills. Some Outsiders are also aware of concepts or people in the world, but they don’t truly live. They are more functional and existential entities rather than actual lifeforms. The same way that there are living things that have intelligence but lack consciousness.” Updates are released by novᴇlfire.net

Shiv tried to conceptualize that. And failed.

“But this has been very useful,” Valor said. His voice was alive with deep enthusiasm. He sounded like a boy who got a new toy, and Shiv didn’t know why at all.

“Why is it that good, Valor? I’m not even sure what I just did. I just planted some Vitae on the ground, it recited some weird poetry, and then it faded.”

“Yes, but the fact that you could is the important part. No one else can, no other skill can take a piece or even a moment, a single act from another skill and infuse it into something. Animated Skill Infusion. I should have thought about its title thoroughly. Animated, meaning that it is active, dynamic, perhaps, skill, denoting a skill, obviously, and infusion, meaning you impart an aspect or a portion of the skill onto something. It was maintained by your Vitaemancy—stabilized within your Vitae, but after you placed it upon the ground, it dissolved. It cannot exist for long without your Vitae or a skill source. How’s your vitality right now?”

“Feels like I lost a gallon of blood,” Shiv said.

“Not great,” Valor replied. “We need to restore you.”

“I already drained the prisoners pretty good. I’d do them again, but I don’t think they’ll survive that. And I promised Null-Mont some people for Elaboration to process, so…”

“So they’re not a reliable option,” Valor replied. “And to kill them this way is truly ruthless.”

“They’re vampires,” Shiv said, scoffing at the fates of the prisoners. “I don’t care what happens to them.”

Valor frowned slightly, but just then, Can Hu returned. “You did not explode,” it noted.

“I did not,” Shiv said with a nod. “Not yet, anyway.”

“This pleases me,” Can Hu said.

“And my skill, well, it was briefly self-aware, but maybe not alive. Maybe it was alive, and it was also part of the ground.” Shiv stared at the patch of floor again.

Can Hu looked at the floor in question, then back at Shiv. It tilted its head. “I do not understand.”

“Yeah, same, Can Hu. Apparently, Valor knows better, though.”

The Penitent slowly turned to regard the Legendary Pathbearer, but Valor was busy casting spells at the patch of ground Shiv had just infused.

“Oh, right,” Shiv said, suddenly remembering. “There are still a few living basilisks left.”

Valor paused. “Ah. Yes. Let’s go take a walk. I wish to see you shape your Vitae along the way.”

***

One of the restrained basilisks let out a loud groan, and Shiv gave it an apologetic stare. Behind the restrained monsters, the Abyssal Gateway was dormant and closed, the arch leading into a blank expanse of grayness. “Sorry, girl. I’ll make this up to you. Feed you something later.”

Can Hu just stared at him. “You feel bad for the basilisk, but not the vampires.”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. “I feel the opposite of bad for the vampires.”

Uva then uncharacteristically spat off to the side. “May they never hear the Composer’s song.” She gave Shiv an approving nod.

The Penitent stared for a moment longer and then, ever so slightly, shook his head. “This wound is double-edged. They may deserve it, but you may also be blinding yourselves.”

Shiv frowned slightly, but Uva didn’t respond at all. Shiv made a note to speak with Can Hu about this issue at some point. Seemed that there was a slight difference in ethics between them.

Meanwhile, there were more tests to perform.

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Alright, Shiv,” Valor said, “what I want you to do now is to reach inside yourself and find one of your skills. Let us see if you can infuse yourself using your own skills.”

“This is some weird shit,” Shiv muttered to himself. But then again, his life now was made up of weird shit. Frankly, weird shit was how he kept living. Because no one else really came back to life.

As he reached inward, he found his own Vitae as inscrutable as Can Hu’s soul. But then Shiv remembered how he noticed the Penitent’s Poetry Skill: there was a flicker in Can Hu’s vitality. The use of a skill causes a ripple.

And the ripple made him think of something else.

Shiv clenched a fist, and he pulled on himself slightly using his gravitic field. He lurched up, and a ripple passed through his Vitae. Shiv followed the waves back to their point of origin, and there he found the Gravitic Wrestler Skill. He slowly snaked through its entryway. His skill had more depth than Can Hu’s Poetryl, and when Shiv reached the very bottom, a heavy power detonated inside his being.

Animated Skill Infusion Gained: Physicality/Grappling Proficiency — Gravitic Wrestler 143 (Master)

This Skill Infusion did not come with a whispering chorus, but rather a membrane of gravity that coated his Vitae.

“Okay,” Shiv called out, feeling something rattle deep within. “Pulled it off.” It felt awkward to have his soul implanted with a gravitic field. A pressure layered him from deep within. Shiv clenched his teeth, resisting the discomfort. “It worked, I think.”

Vitaemancy 57 > 58

“Well done,” Valor said. “Show me your Vitae now.” Shiv cast a swirl of Vitae outward, and Valor briefly reached out to touch the red and white mana, only to find his skeletal hands repulsed by a burst of force.

“Sorry,” Shiv said, his teeth clattering. “Can’t exactly control it. It’s like it’s planted in me, but it’s not actually my skill.”

“But you can infuse it,” Vailer said. “Shiv, I want you to try something very different this time. How about instead of placing the skill infusion on the ground, try placing it in another object?”

The Deathless grinned. “I got just the thing.”

Shiv immediately pulled out one of his bone drills with the flourish of his Biomancy. As it hovered beside him, Shiv narrowed his eyes and channeled his Vitae into it immediately. He repeated the process he’d performed earlier. Shiv pushed hard, infusing the animated skill-whatever that now rested within his Vitae, and with a final surge of effort, it finally unlatched itself as it burrowed into his bone drill.

For a beat, the drill itself shook violently as a film of unstable gravity shrouded it. Shiv’s eyes widened, but as the bone drill hovered there for a moment, it turned to stare at Shiv as if it knew he was there, as if—

The drill jerked as its gravitic field spiked in his direction.

It slammed into his chin and skipped off his face before twirling through the air. Shiv stumbled back, startled by the impact. Uva ducked and ended up pooling wide across the ground, becoming a literal puddle. Can Hu flinched, and its shoulder let out a screeching noise as it staggered away.

Valor didn’t respond at all. He was simply too entranced by the unfolding scene.

“That was remarkable,” Valor said.

“I saw it again,” Uva said, her head rising from a mass of flattened Umbral. “There was a presence of mind there in the drill as well. It thinks. It reacts. The skill is animated and aware.”

“My bone drill just attacked me,” Shiv said, rubbing his face more in shock than pain.

“That makes sense,” Valor said. “Maybe it is alive, maybe it is self-aware, and in its final moments, before it dissipated, it turned its ire on you… because you brought it to life?”

Valor’s words sounded more like a question.

“All I know is it slammed itself into my face,” Shiv spat.

“Why?”

“I don’t know!”

“Do it again.”

“What?” Shiv cried. “Why would I do that again?”

“Because, Shiv,” Valor said, reaching out and grabbing the Deathless by the shoulder, the skeleton’s eyes burned with excitement, but also desperation, “this is what it takes to advance the arts. To understand the mysteries of our souls and the System. To get levels.”

“Arts?” Shiv repeated.

“Yes, magical arts. Magic requires discovery, and that requires experimentation.”

“Yeah, experimentation done to me, performed by me.”

Valor held out a finger. “Be brave, Shiv.”

“I am brave. I just don’t want to be hit by my own drill again. It’s godsdamned strange.”

“Maybe it won’t happen next time.”

Shiv gawked at Valor. “Maybe it won’t? That’s the best you got.”

Valor shrugged. “Maybe it really won’t.”

Shiv repeated his previous actions. He gained an Animated Skill Infusion. He transferred the infusion into a drill.

And once more, the drill came at him. But Shiv was ready this time. He snatched the drill out of the air before it could go through his right eye. As he did, he felt the final remnants of his Vitae vanish from within the drill—and caught sight of a faint translucence hinting at the presence of a mind.

“Why?” Shiv breathed. “Why are you doing this?”

“Alright,” Valor said, “Shiv, we make a third attempt.”

“No more drills to the face,” Shiv groaned.

“Agreed. Try another skill. Put it in the bone drill, keep that part consistent, but this time keep it infused with your Vitae too. See if that makes a difference.”

“Alright,” Shiv said, “what skill should I use?”

Valor considered that for a moment. “How about a more esoteric skill? See if you can bind your Biomancy to the drill.”

And Shiv attempted just that. First, he used his Vitaemancy to scour for his Biomancy. It took a few moments of searching, and he had to feed a Woundeater a slight cut he made on himself to locate the skill. After he did, he found himself with the corresponding skill infusion again. This time, his Vitae pulsated with tissue and cancers as he manifested it. Shiv winced with disgust but felt no true pain affect him otherwise. He stared at the drill hesitantly for a moment, and he let out a quiet breath. “Okay, you guys might want to take a few steps back, or maybe more than a few steps. My Biomancy field’s over 200 meters, and I don’t know what this might do, so…”

At that declaration, Uva immediately got on her shield and began flying off. A second later, she returned, looped her arms around Can Hu, and carried the Penitent away.

“Thank you,” Can Hu said.

Valor, meanwhile, stayed near Shiv without any hint of fear.

“I’m serious, Valor.” And then he noticed Valor didn’t have any flesh, and remembered that his bones weren’t actually made out of bone. “Oh, right. You’ll probably be fine.”

“This poses little danger to me. Also, I wish to examine every single detail.”

Shiv infused his Biomancy within the bone drill. It took a considerable effort on his part to push his Skill Infusion into the drill. And this time, he didn’t just leave the Skill Infusion with the drill. He imparted a sustained dose of Vitae as well.

For a moment, it hovered there. It didn’t turn toward him, even as the drill began to change. A stretch of wounds opened along the narrow length of bone. Wounds alike to the one Shiv just fed his Woundeater. He blinked, and the drill began to bleed. Bits of flesh and more sprinkled down on the ground, and the drill remained animated in existence as Shiv continued to feed it to Vitae. A second passed, Shiv felt his vitality drain, but the drill didn’t attack him this time.

Instead, he felt something echoing from within the drill. He felt—

“Hello?” the drill said. Its voice echoed faintly, and both Valor and Shiv tilted their heads in surprise. “Is… someone there? I… Where am I? Who am I?”

“Why does the drill sound like me?” Shiv asked, slightly horrified.

“I do not know,” Valor said. “This is a question I had for you.”

And just then, a new notification appeared in Shiv’s vision.

Skill Gained: Golemancy 1 (Adept)

“Valor,” Shiv said.

“Yes?”

“I just got the Golemancy Skill,” Shiv said, blinking.

“What? How? Golems require a mana core and… and…” The drill hovered before Shiv and Valor, turning its tip from one to the other. “Oh. Well. This is truly fascinating. Shiv. I think you might have just done something entirely unprecedented.”

“What’s that?”

“Most golems are of a magical lore. They are shaped by a magical field and sustained by a mana core invested with the right Magical Skills. But you… you tapped into a skill. And it is composed mostly of Vitae. So. This drill, then, technically counts as the… first-ever pure Skill Golem in existence.”

“Skill Golem,” Shiv repeated.

“I’m a what?” the drill called out.

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