III-38 Animated (I)

The core function of Animancy is the restructuring of one's soul. It is the only skill, aside from when one is allowed to delve into their Legendary-Tier Skills, that allows you to shape your own story. You become an editor, so to speak, of your legend or someone else's legend at that. 

Not everything can be changed, but the soul itself is valuable and certain details are open to interpretation.

Most treacherously, Animancy allows you to damage this soul itself, to break its structure through contradictions, or to collapse a skill from within by adding things that do not matter. And then there is raw Animancy mana, what I like to think of as the true potential, the possibility of anything. 

It glows with this faintest blue. Blue that seems to melt and settle on the surface of the world, but it never fully sinks in. It is like an injection of ink, a tattoo on the face of reality.

And if you are unfortunate enough to witness someone consumed by Animancy, then you understand the horrors of the everlasting story. Reality does not kill you, not fully, but it can break you so much, that you become part of the world's story, that you are melted in the tapestry of existence itself, yet your consciousness is cleaved. There is no you, and there is only you, but where you begin, and the system ends, who can say?

I suppose I can eventually say, I have looked into this many times, I have tried to commune with the soul scattered. Sometimes I can hear them scream, but there are no true thoughts, no true thoughts but feelings, feelings of terror, pain, confusion and loss, and then there are greater feelings, things I cannot even fathom right now. 

Most I suspect that is the world itself expressed through the narrow funnel of a single being, or maybe it's the voice of the system mocking me, insulting me, taunting me…

-Udraal Thann’s Animancy Notes

III-38
Animated (I)

"Shiv," Uva said, her left eye twitching slightly. "How did you manage to do this, exactly?”

Shiv shrugged, and he gave her an apologetic smile. "Well, I was fixing Can Hu up, I filled a few of his, uh, soul holes, and then I noticed his vitality flickering in a weird place afterward. So, then I had a thought that I wanted to compare what an intact skill looked like and felt like compared to one of his damage skills. I guess I wanted to figure out what an unbroken skill was like so I could figure out how to fix the broken ones.”

"And then," Uva asked as she connected Shiv to Valor. Shiv felt the Legendary Path bearer slide into his mind, and Valor's presence was at once anxious, but also highly excited.

Glad I'm being treated like a magical project, Shiv thought to himself.

"Oh, do not complain, Shiv," Valor said. "This is a good thing. You have not exploded yet. And if you're going to explode now, there was likely nothing we can do to prevent it."

"Thanks, Valor. That's very, very comforting."

"Jests aside," Valor continued. "I think that unless you are interfacing with the Necromancy Skill, I do not believe you will explode. Vitality has accommodated most skills within you. And so, at least by theory, every skill aside from necromancy should be stable within the confines of your Vitaemancy field.”

Shiv gave a grunt of acknowledgement. He guessed that was probably the case, but he wasn't educated on this matter, so he didn’t assume. Frankly, Valor wasn't educated on it either. So in that sense, the Legendary Pathbearer was groping around the dark as much as Shiv was.  What Valor did have was knowledge of Animancy, and right now that was their best bet on understanding Shiv’s new skill.

And his memories there are all kinds of busted too, Shiv thought to himself. And that brought his nervousness back.

"Again, do not worry over much," Valor said. "I think we are about to gain more benefit from examining your Vitaemancy rather than risk utter destruction.”

“Here’s hoping,” Shiv muttered.

"So you reached into Can Hu," Uva said, "and you grasped one of his active skills."

"Yeah," Shiv nodded.

Uva gave him an uncertain look. "And when you reached deeper, you gained his Poetry as a skill?”

"I don't think I gained his Poetry as a skill. It's just… an Animated Skill Infusion," Shiv said.

"And what does that mean?" Uva asked. 

"What does that mean, Valor?” Shiv asked in turn.

"I have no idea," Valor repeated.

"Well there you go, Uva. He has no idea. So neither do I."

This Psychomancer let out a long, suffering sigh. "Shiv. Dear brute. Wonderful cook, sweet, adorable man." She reached out and grabbed him by the sides of his face. Shiv was grinning, and then his grin faltered slightly as she began to shake him. "Can you, just perhaps, stop unleashing mind-bending and soul-shaking surprises so constantly?”

"I was just trying to help Can Hu," Shiv said, wincing.

"I know," Uva said, her voice becoming gentle. "I'm also aware, however, that everything you do seems to result in strange happenings or mass destruction. It’s…”

"Tiring," Shiv offered.

"Yes," Uva said, "I’m exasperated, surprised, but also increasingly used to the constant. Depending on how this goes, it might drive Adam insane."

Shiv lifted an eyebrow. "Well, thank the system I got figured out how to do this, then.”

“Shiv. Be nice.” Uva chided. She pulled on his ear slightly, as she would with Ikki, and she frowned as he simply grinned at her.

"That feels kind of nice. Are you pulling hard?"

"Not everyone can have your monstrous physicality," Uva pouted. "Some of us just bend in strange ways and abnormal ways.”

"I don't mind that," Shiv said, staring into her eyes. "Sometimes bending is better. Bending is what I prefer—”

Just then, Valor coughed. Which was a remarkable thing to do because he was a skeleton and lacked any actual lungs.

"Oh shit," Shiv shuddered. "Uh, Valor, sorry, I, uh..."

"You forgot I was here again," Valor muttered. He sounded slightly insulted.

"Yeah, you know, something like that," Shiv replied. He was slightly embarrassed. Uva, meanwhile, covered her face, horrified that she had gotten carried away as well.

"Well, in the hopes of sparing Can Hu, the trauma I endured," Valor said dryly, "I think we should begin experimenting with this Animated Skill Infusion, whatever it is. Can you move the skill inside you?”

"No," Shiv replied, and just then the skill began to rhyme again. "Oh, how lovely the moon, how high its rise, far away from reach, but so close to our eyes. So close to our spirits, yet far from our hands. Above all, and within the knot, you gleam down at the land."

This time, it wasn’t Can Hu’s voice that came forth. It sounded like a young woman.

"I remember this," Can Hu said, that voice as well. "That was my first pilot when she was practicing her poetry. I think I gained the skill by reciting this poem to myself when she wasn't aware."

"Of course," Valor said. "All skills have a point of inception. Your repetition and constant consideration of its meaning likely constituted the first moment of true strain for you." 

Shiv frowned at that. "Wait, so I'm pretty sure I recited a poem once. Why didn't I get a poetry skill?"

"How hard did you think about the poem?" Uva asked.

Shiv blinked. He couldn't even remember what poem he recited. Probably something that Georges wanted him to remember, just to increase his vocabulary. “Uhh…”

Uva hummed. “So. You have your answer.”

"I guess I need to remember some harder poems or some shit," Shiv muttered to himself.

"Shiv, focus," Valor called out.

"Right," Shiv said. "What do you want me to do now? I can't really move it. It's, uh, it's not like a solid thing. It's just infused inside my Vitae. I feel a presence there. It recites poetry every now and then, but that's about it."

"That's about it, eh?" Valor said, clicking his teeth together. "And it's still inside of you. It hasn't left yet. It's not dissipating. And so why does it call itself an Animated Skill Infusion? Skill Infusion." 

Valor spoke more to himself than Shiv, and the Deathless stared at Can Hu awkwardly. "So I didn't explode.”

“And I'm eternally grateful for that, Pathbearer," Can Hu said, bowing slightly. "Though I am confused. How did you traumatize a Legend Valor?"

"I, uh," Shiv said. He trailed off, as he eyed Uva, and she simply shook her head, eyes widening in abject horror. "Me and Uva got carried away doing something. But that’s not important right now."

"Secrets held between team members often result in undue friction," Can Hu commented. "I will not judge whatever you wish to conceal, so long as it's not an act of true amorality."

"No," Uva commented, "it's more a moment of accidental and unfocused debauchery."

Shiv coughed in response. "We didn't really mean for it to happen that way, it's just, uh..." 

And once more, his soul recited poetry, interrupting him. "Oh heart, long do you beat, loud is the sound. When you pulse, you, uh, shake the sky, and then you fall through the ground."

"What?" Shiv said, narrowing his eyes. "I don't know much about poetry, but that sounded..."

"Terrible," Uva suggested.

"...yeah, it sounded pretty bad."

"Failure too is a part of one's skills," Valor replied. "We are not entirely composed of triumphs. In fact, triumphs are more like cornerstones or columns, while failures are the leftover material building up to them."

Shiv thought about that, and it made perfect sense. Most of his skills were probably shaped more by failure than success anyway. He died constantly, and that fed his growth more than anything. The reason his Toughness was so far ahead was mainly because he just kept dying, kept getting broken, kept getting beaten down, and getting back up. Very little of that seemed like a triumph. Then Shiv did something instinctive. He reached out to find his Toughness, searching for his own Vitae.

"Shiv, what are you doing?" Valor asked. 

"I'm gonna find out how—”

“Stop,” Valor commanded. Shiv did. “We do this carefully. There are a great many unknown variables, and we don't wish for you to rewrite your Toughness skill with an Infusion of Poetry."

Shiv blinked. "That can happen?”

“Yes. Legendary Animancy can achieve such a thing. Imagine leveling Poetry rather than Toughness every time you die."

Shiv shuddered. “Yeah. Wait. Can Animancy work on me?”

“I am… Not certain. You are too aberrant. Frankly, anything could happen with you, Shiv," Valor said. "A great many impossible abilities have already occurred with you. Pathbearers aren't supposed to come back from the dead, after all. Death is also not supposed to make one stronger. Nor is someone meant to simply leave the world and hide from reality by sinking inside their own soul. This abnormality is just another natural aspect of your nature, I suspect."

"Thanks, Valor?" Shiv said, unsure if any of that was complimentary.

"It is normal to be nervous about these developments." Valor held out a hand, and a brief crackle of corrosive mana appeared. Shiv took a step back, and Valor didn't move at all. "Do not worry," Valor said, "I do not intend to touch you this time. I merely need to…" Then Valor's eyes flashed with a pulse of mana. "I still cannot observe your skills and Path. Ever since you obtained that Outside Context Problem Skill, much of you is obscured. Can you bring up your own status?"

"Yeah, sure," Shiv said.

Name: Tanner “Shiv” Lowe

Age: 18

Race: Human

Path: 

Deathless

Feats [2/2]:

He Who Rises From Ash Eternal (Unique) - Allows the Pathbearer to quickly learn new Skills and advance existing Skills through repeated deaths.

Master of Rage (Master) - Allows the Pathbearer to infuse a skill with rage to increase its effectiveness. Consumes the Pathbearer’s anger.

Skills:

Marksmanship 12 (Common)

Baking 9 (Common)

Striking Proficiency 41 (Common) 

Barter 10 (Common) 

Alchemy 2 (Common)

Engineering 1 (Common)
Lance Proficiency 1 (Common)

Acting 12 (Common)

Dodge 14 (Common)
Philosophy 9 (Common)

Psychology 15 (Common)

Deception 12 (Common)
Riding Proficiency 1 (Common)
Leadership 1 (Common)

Pyromancy 12 (Initiate)

Spear Proficiency 11 (Initiate)
Awareness 15 (Initiate)

Practical Metabiology 38 (Initiate) 

Psychomancy 13 (Initiate)
Hydromancy 2 (Initiate)

Whip Proficiency 8 (Initiate)
Analyze 1 (Initiate)

Silver Tongue 27 (Adept)

Dread Aura 94 (Adept)

Frictionless Vector 63 (Adept)

Deepest Edge 64 (Adept)

Berserk 17 (Adept)

Adamantine Adaption 166 (Master)

Woundeater 90 (Master)

The Chef Unwavering 63 (Master)

Gravitic Wrestler 143 (Master)

Strider of the Unbending Path 135 (Master)

The Creeping Void 111 (Master)

Plaguefueled 64 (Master)

Inertial Overdrive 112 (Heroic)

Vitality Drain 54 (Legendary)

Vitaemancy 57 (Unique)

Outside Context Problem 64 (Unique)

Blessings: 

Song of the Vigilant - Allows the Pathbearer to maintain absolute focus while the song is active. The song will expand out from the Pathbearer as a web and form a Resonant Perimeter.

Icon of the Paindrinker - Allows the Pathbearer to manifest the icon from their body. The icon will magnify the damage and pain Pathbearer and all nearby enemies and objects suffer.

Curses:

Favored Archenemy - An orc will always be able to sense your presence, regardless of guise or appearance. An orc will always have a sense for where you are. Regardless of dimension, world, distance, or time, you are marked for an eternal war.

Active Animated Skill Infusion

Poetry - Lyrics Like Flowing Rivers 77 (Adept)

As he did, he found an extra section at the very bottom titled Active Animated Skill Infusion. "I still don't get what that means," he said, gesturing at the notification.

"Me neither," Valor replied. "Let's try something. Do you have enough Vitae left to spend?"

"Feeling pretty cold on the inside," Shiv said, "but yeah, I might have a few seconds left. I probably need to go drain something afterward, though."

"Good," Valor hummed as he looked around, and then his eyes fell on the ground. "You said that the world has a film of vitality infused over it."

"Yeah," Shiv said, sounding uncertain about where Valor was going with this.

"And you could consume almost anything, including parts of reality."

"Yeah," Shiv confirmed again, "why?"

"Is there any Vitae veiling the floor?"

Shiv eyed the ground, and it was the faintest glow only slightly brighter than the layer over general existence itself. "Yeah, but it's not really alive, so. I don't know, Valor, if you're going to have me drain that—”

"No, not drain. Contrarily, I want you to deposit some of your Vitae there. See if you can cast the Skill Infusion like a spell.”

Shiv wasn't sure what Valor meant, but he nodded anyway. Instinct was about to guide his hand. "You guys might want to take a few steps back," Shiv said. "Last time when I used my vitality on reality, I tore a bit of a hole open, and magical stuff started flying out. Lightning and fire and stuff.”

Uva immediately summoned her shield to guard her. Valor remained in place. Can Hu quickly left the room. "I will return in a few seconds if this prison remains undamaged. If not, someone must inform Adam of your deaths.”

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 pressure building there. The Skill Infusion was shifting, pressing against the floor. Shiv frowned, and as he felt his vitality dissipate, as he felt 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 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 do not know what just happened," Shiv said.

"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 composing his thoughts. "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 as well, 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 second 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?”

"Living?" Valor gave a slight and hesitant hiss. "I won't exactly claim it's 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 an organism, they do not have paths, they do not develop skills. Some outsiders as well are aware of concepts or people in the world, but they don't truly live. They are more functional and existential entities rather than actual life forms. The same way that there are living things which have intelligence but lack consciousness."

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 poetry on the ground 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, 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 prisoners for Elaboration, 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.”

And just then, Can Hu  returned. "You did not explode."

"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.

Can Hu simply stared. “I do not understand.”

"Yeah, I had that reaction too, Can Hu. Apparently, Valor knows better, though."

The Penitent slowly turned to regard the legendary path-bearer, but Valor didn't notice him. Instead, he was casting spells at the patch of ground Shiv just infused.

"There are still a few living basilisks left," Shiv muttered.

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.”

Ta-hu just stared at him. "You feel bad for the basilisk and 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 a 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 as he heard what the penitent said, 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 morality between them. 

Meanwhile, there were more tests to perform.

"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. Franky, 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 and slowly snaked through its entryway. His skill had more depth than Can Hu’s poetry skill, 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 his body rattle deep within. “Pull 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 called 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. He drew it out 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 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 it gravitic field spiked in his direction.

It slammed into his chin and skipped off his face before twirling through the air. Shiv stumbled back, surprised by the impact. Uva ducked and ended up pooling wide across the ground, becoming a literal puddle. Can Hu flinched, and his 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 mound of flattened flesh. “There was a presence of a mind there in the drill as well. It thinks. It reacts. The skill is animate 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. This was a theory rather than a certainty.

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

"Why?"

"I don’t know!”

“Do it again."

"What?" Shiv said. "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 said.

"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 to 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 somehow 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. “Oh, right. You’re probably fine.”

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

Shiv repeated the actions he performed earlier: he 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, though, 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 wound eater. 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.

“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 said.

“I’m a what?” The drill called out.