"Hildegard?"

"Yes, dear?"

"You talked about 'effective' Skill levels being higher than the actual ones before," Malwine noted as naturally as she could manage. She might have grown to appreciate the woman as a legitimately good teacher, but trust was still a distant concept. "How does that work?"

The butler took her time before answering. "What the system considers for most things isn't necessarily your Skill's level—it considers the effective level, after any effects that apply to it. In most cases, you'd use a tonic or another item to get a temporary boost. Depending on its quality, it could be anything from an extra level to a couple."

Malwine nodded. "But they're all only temporary?"

"I believe there are Traits that can serve a similar function permanently, but if they are of low rarity, they amount to little more than a waste of a Trait slot."

She sincerely doubted that—at least for what she had in mind.

As much as she'd told herself she would slowly check each Skill, the revelation brought forth by [Implacable] had sidetracked her plans. Malwine had been waiting for the chance to ask Hildegard for confirmation on that one detail, and now that she'd gotten it, she could hardly contain her excitement for the rest of the lesson.

Certainly, her new Forgery Skills meant a lot of new opportunities would be available for her, once she figured out how to actually edit the underlying mechanisms she was simply examining right now, but the knowledge that Skills and the elements attached to them could be behind Status Effects gave her an idea that superseded most of it.

[Enforced Longevity] had a level test, both to determine its effects and the duration of the former. Specifically, it did indeed test for an effective Skill level, as Hildegard said most things would. That led her thoughts to their natural conclusion.

If she started piling effective levels on [Enforced Longevity], how much could the Curse be pushed back? Of course, she'd still need to level the Skill, but a far-off 50% reduction to the penalty was no longer the ceiling there.

Not to mention, that only applied as far as that specific Skill was concerned—but it was a start.

Before she actually tried what she had in mind, Malwine refocused on the Skill, examining the whole of it once again. She needed the assurance that she was right about this.

[Enforced Longevity]

Any severe or lethal threat to your safety—be that encompassing your body, your mind, your soul, what you hold dear, or all that—will trigger an immediate bonus to all your defensive capabilities. This effect will be greatly enhanced should you actively recognize the threat. You may mitigate negative Status Effects by a value determined by your current Skill level, for as many seconds as said Skill level, at the cost of accruing [Toll].

Any and all Roots you have planted become capable of sharing power, regardless of Affinity compatibility. Your [Toll] may endure a small amount of overflow to be determined by the combined value of your defensive attributes. All Acclimations, regardless of visibility, become easier to progress and will have their effectiveness enhanced. The life extension your core stage provides you will be doubled at all stages. Should you die, time until dissolution for your obit will be doubled.

Interdependent to attributes. Interdependent to attributes. Interdependent to attributes. Trait: None Aspect: None

The first impression she'd gotten from this new sense that came with [System Eye] was that [Enforced Longevity] genuinely felt like some kind of Skill salad, not exactly nonsensical but messy nonetheless.

This was a Forged Skill. I wonder if this actually is a bunch of Skills glued together.

While it still sounded strange as a concept, nothing Malwine had seen implied that sort of Frankenstein's Skill would be beyond the realm of possibility. The notes on the journal also included mention on how Forgers seemed to take from different Skills in order to make custom ones, even if Veit's father couldn't provide any further details on how that worked.

So while Malwine couldn't exactly prove that [Enforced Longevity] was a combination of multiple Skills, she was nonetheless pretty sure that it was.

Like [Unpacifiable], [Enforced Longevity] seemed to be constantly pulsing, except the latter did so with far more elegance. If Malwine hadn't already seen how [Unpacifiable] worked, she might not have been able to recognize that droning action at all. Instead of an alarm, [Enforced Longevity] would trigger an effect, but the detection mechanism was clearly of the same type.

No wonder I got that synergy notification…

Malwine shook her head—she was still more than a bit peeved at how she'd been denied any upgrades over that, despite the event being so far into the past that she couldn't immediately calculate the timeframe as she prepared her mental complaints.

As for the effect in question, it was a 'considerable' boost to Endurance, Dexterity, Resilience, and Luck—literally. There were no multipliers specified there, no bonus percentages. The impression she got was that the bonus was 'considerable', which she could only guess might have meant a type of bonus existed that worked based on descriptions like that.

Somehow. Malwine was swiftly learning that while [System Eye] gave her a great deal of information, she still found herself having to speculate harder than the widow whenever she saw anyone in the census living with someone who wasn't their spouse.

The bonus applied would instead be 'noticeable' if she recognized the threat, though both versions of the bonus seemed to be tested for at the same time. She either knew or she didn't, and the bonus would be applied accordingly.

Mitigation for negative Status Effects might as well have relied on a buff—as she'd experienced, it was fairly straightforward, with her attributes receiving a bonus to partially counter debuffs. This was where the test that had made her curious enough to risk asking Hildegard was located. The Skill checked what its own effective level was, and used that number to calculate the effect it would fire off.

The rest of [Enforced Longevity] was what had convinced her someone had stapled several Skills together in order to make it. The part that allowed her planted Roots to share power felt like a flipped switch standing in the middle of nowhere, connected to no other part of the Skill.

Another element checked the values of those four defensive attributes before referencing something that wasn't contained within the Skill—perhaps some formula?—and using that to unofficially raise [Toll]'s maximum. That was what 'allowing overflow' basically stood for.

Malwine had to admit that was interesting. Even just activating this Skill for the first time had made her accrue more [Toll] than what should have been within her ability to handle, yet she'd shrugged it off. It had ultimately caused little more than an inconvenience, with how she'd had to wait before using any other abilities that required the resource.

Maybe I should try and figure out what my maximum+overflow is.

The Skill also included a purely passive effect that similarly applied a 'considerable' boost to the growth of her Acclimations—not that Malwine had ever noticed, given how a 'considerably faster' snail's pace would probably be an oxymoron. The boost to effectiveness was interesting, and she couldn't help but wonder how it would compare to effectiveness bonuses for Skills. In this case, it amounted to a +25% bonus, though this was calculated by a test that sought the Acclimation's value, quartered it, and then simply added the result instead of directly granting a percentage bonus.

Finally, the life extension bonus as well as the obit dissolution delay seemed to be mere passive effects—that was probably for the better.

Examining this Skill had been surprisingly enlightening, even if it showed her just how questionably organized the whole thing was. Not to mention, the existence of hidden Acclimations was quite blatantly implied. It might have taken her too long to notice 'Visible' Status Effects would obviously have an invisible counterpart, but she wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

'Regardless of visibility' was about as overt as implications could get.

In the end, Malwine had hesitated. At what point would letting her decisions be influenced by her desire to counter the Curse be too much? Even if [Enforced Longevity] was useful in any context, her reasons for wanting to give it a Trait that would increase its effective level were simple—a higher level meant higher mitigation.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

She wasn't exactly using [Enforced Longevity] often—hell, even now that she was about to use it, it wasn't even for its intended purpose—yet she couldn't deny the appeal of having it pack a bigger punch.

Having dedicated all that extra time to convincing herself that she was certainly right to do this, Malwine laid out five harvestables in front of her. That was the most she was willing to try at once.

Not having more effective levels on [Enforced Longevity] is so detrimental to my wellbeing. Malwine mentally poked the two Skills she now knew were always on high alert, seeking potential threats. It's such a serious threat to me. If only I had attribute bonuses that could help with this.

Whether or not any non-deities were listening to the jabs she directed at the Skills was beyond her, but doing this without taking the time to be passive-aggressive would have felt wrong.

Before anything else, Malwine tried to be as still as she physically could. While it might have been a relatively unfounded concern, she still didn't want to risk accidentally breaking something the moment she let even a small fraction of her real attributes through.

[Enforced Longevity] activated in the instant she touched the first harvestable, and if Skills could have attitudes, in that moment Malwine would have described it as surprisingly eager. Time slowed, jarring in just how discomfiting the sudden adjustment to her senses was. Downing the tonic to empty out her [Toll] didn't actually take her an eternity to do, but it sure felt that way.

She might have been right at home with the Skill's joy then—the idea of placing this much hope on some near-600 Luck potentially making a difference was probably delusional.

When she accrued [Toll] to reveal the harvestable, Malwine grit her teeth. She would make an effort to do this right. Even with Veit's technique to fall back on, her ability to manipulate remained suboptimal, making her actions look and feel clumsy even when they worked.

{Foresight} seeped into the mana that flowed through her—unequivocally so—and while she still didn't know the ins and out of just how this 'accruing' worked, she had enough of a general idea to believe this would work. You didn't need to have an Affinity to accrue [Toll], but if you did, there didn't seem to be anything that impeded swapping out whichever method harvestables used when revealed for just some good old manual mana application.

For all she'd found them frustrating at the time, Anna Franziska's brief mana lessons were ultimately proving useful—Malwine would never have come up with something like this without that context to work forwards from.

That said, if anyone who actually knew how mana manipulation was meant to work saw this, they might have wept at the sight of this, or so Malwine suspected. She doubted she could be the first to think of this, but she also doubted she was doing it efficiently.

Still, OHeidi's corpse was wiped from the face of the world because of a candle harvestable she'd gotten long before she encountered the sibyl. Even if she thought her {Foresight} stood for preparation and not anything as powerful as true futuresight, she'd be a fool to deny something had to be afoot. Her having that Affinity, coupled with just so happening to get that lucky, would be quite the absurd coincidence.

The first harvestable shifted to reveal an open flower, and Malwine wasted no time moving on to the next one. She could examine them once they'd all been revealed. A coin sang as it slipped from her fingers, hitting the ground. Two crystal bottles followed, but she held on to hope as the final harvestable revealed a tiny medallion, dangling chain and all.

She didn't move to view them until her Skill ran its course, soon relaxing abruptly.

Malwine found she did not like the flower. Not at all. Its silky silver petals were fragile enough that she felt uneasy handling it, but the description did it no favors.

[Blooming Ode of Ore]

Harvested by Malwine Rīsanin Revealed by Malwine Rīsanin

Blood of the sea, this flower still blooms.

Beyond the Skills she'd started this life with, this was the first thing she'd encountered to be labeled as Unranked. Nonetheless, her curiosity was not enough to keep her from shoving it into a proverbial corner within her inventory. While she doubted she could get away with ignoring it forever, this was precisely the type of thing that warranted the full 'this sounds like a problem for future me' treatment.

As Malwine had predicted—much to her chagrin—the small bottles were consumables. Strangely enough, she hadn't found herself in possession of far too many identical tonics this time around, not that this was that much better. Neither potion was explicitly ominous, but she wasn't exactly eager to find out just under what circumstances they might actually be useful.

Guardian's Concentrated Breeze

Harvested by Malwine Rīsanin Revealed by Malwine Rīsanin

Perfect for when one's Existence must be zealously guarded from external forces of the transcendent kind. Consuming this elixir will trigger a state of pseudo-stasis that will prevent anything short of true physical injuries from causing harm for a full day.

✨ Onesie Upgrade ✨

Harvested by Malwine Rīsanin Revealed by Malwine Rīsanin

You're growing up! Now, now. The complimentary onesie might have been limited-edition, but nowhere does that say it must have limited options! Fully submerge it in the contents of this bottle to unlock new features.

Ridiculous name aside, that elixir was certainly not something she wanted to find herself needing to use. Ever. Nothing good could come from something with a name that sounded like it tripped and fell out of a Xianxia.

Remember. Harvestables can also be random. Waves, they're supposed to mostly be random.

Malwine dedicated a few minutes to just silently reassuring herself. Everything was fine.

Everything was so fine that it had taken her longer than it should have to notice the second one wasn't even something she was supposed to drink.

Wait a minute. Why the fuck is that onesie upgradeable? She didn't even know where that thing was anymore! Malwine barely paid attention to where her few worldly possessions in this world went, let alone what happened to the random onesie she'd gotten when she woke up for the first time in this life.

That onesie would most definitely not be getting an upgrade anytime soon. What in any Devil's name could be new onesie features anyway?

At least she'd gotten past the three less relevant reveals—sighing, she sent the bottles in question to her inventory. These harvestables… Two were concerning and one had her questioning whether everyone in this world had to deal with their complimentary onesies suddenly unlocking some upgrade potential, but this sure beat getting even more additions to her [Toll] restorative collection.

Trait Generation Token (Effective Levels)

Harvested by Malwine Rīsanin Revealed by Malwine Rīsanin

Add a random Trait geared towards adding effective levels to the Skill it is connected to. The specifics of the Trait will be generated upon use, but may go no lower than +1 or higher than +5.

Malwine grinned at the coin that rested in her open palm. Had she not prioritized examining all the revealed harvestables, she might have used it then and there.

Considering what remained, she was glad she did not.

[Medallion of Overflow]

Harvested by Malwine Rīsanin Revealed by Malwine Rīsanin

It is said that, long ago, people carried their bonuses in the items they wore instead of within the sanctity of their own panels. Those days may be gone, but there is value to tradition.

Activate this medallion to generate a Trait attached to your chosen Skill, which will add as many effective levels to it as your current cultivation stage's value. The choice of Skill cannot be changed, and this depiction of a medallion will cease to be upon usage.

While her eyebrows tried their best to reach her hairline, Malwine reread the description twice then thrice, and then some more. There was no way she was misinterpreting this—this was something she could create a growing Trait with, basically. The first component of that trio that determined her total level would always be growing, even if her cultivation was bottlenecked for the time being.

This was far, far better than she could ever have expected. The actual token felt redundant now, and it went to join the rest of the harvestables in her inventory.

Just how much of a difference would this make? Malwine had no idea, and in truth, the idea of putting that to the test without going to the middle of nowhere terrified her, but that didn't stop her from turning it into [Enforced Longevity]'s brand new Trait—[Everflowing Overflow].

Despite her having two Skills geared towards survival, this one included, the simple potential brought by having added this to her arsenal reassured her more than anything else could.

[Meditation] wouldn't stand a chance.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.