Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 4

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 4:

“Thank you for your business,” I recited to the deity, “Hope you patronize this shop again.”

Being back behind the counter and puppeted into retail service felt kind of nostalgic after going through so much to gather skills and equipment. I had about a week of time before Sano returned, to decide just what I wanted to do with my stock of DP and where I wanted to go next. It was convenient that I could perform this work on autopilot and focus instead on thinking about that issue.

One thing I admitted to myself was that I enjoyed the whole adventure aspect of going to Ivalice; taking on missions, fighting monsters, and gathering treasure, all of it was pretty fun, particularly when I utilized some of the various skills I learned. At the same time, I missed some of the comforts I had in this shop. Reconciling both desires was going to take a bit of work for sure.

I didn’t mind doing it alone, but I did find it nice to just interact with the other clan members when we were out on missions, exchanging tips on how to do this or that task. So I hoped to recruit possible helpers in the future. 

Though that’s a bit farther off. I realized, and adjusted it lower on my priority list. Perhaps think about which world I want to visit first, and work from there?

Firstly, I could pick a world where I could get skills to earn more DP, or I could pick a world where I could relax. Or I could do both, since they weren’t mutually exclusive. So the first question was which world would work to my benefit the most?

The door opened.

“Welcome to Sano’s Skill Services!” I recited again, “How may I serve you today?”

“Hi, I need a bunch of skills for this human here.” The god who came in was a child-like one.

Oh, this is new. A god actually brought a human here. I eyed the chubby male, who was mostly naked with a censor bar over his groin area. “Place your hand on this scanner, please.”

“You gods have a shop for skills too? That’s unbelievable!” The man exclaimed.

After the god touched the scanner, the information was sent to my head. This human was going to be reincarnated, so he would start as a child. Based on some of the countries in that world, he was likely to live a peaceful life unless he rushed into danger.

“Understood. The setting of your world has been recorded. I recommend these basic skills to start with.”

The two of them leaned in together to read the message screen I sent.

Since each world had their own systems, of which the scanner was used to identify, only those skills that were compatible would be shown on the screen. This would reduce the chances of the one granted the skill destroying themselves or the world itself due to it. Apparently that had happened before, and the lack of details related to that was unnerving in itself.

“Is that all?” The human sounded disappointed.

“No, those are just the basic recommended options, necessary for a basic lifestyle. This,” I sent another screen, “Are further options that you can add on to them.”

“I can’t afford all of this,” The child said. “At most three.”

“Three?” The male scanned through the list, then made his choices. “I’ll take these then.”

“[Taming], [Farm Cultivation], and [Garden Control]. Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m tired of working so hard in a black company, and I just want to do farming,” The man said earnestly.

I initially thought he’d be the haughty kind, wanting power to play with, but guess appearances are deceiving.

“That’s good then,” The deity smiled, patting the man on the back. “You’ll get your wish for sure.”

As much as I was curious about what might come of his choices, I still had a job to do. “Here’s the total amount to pay.”

The god paid it, and I compiled the skills together, letting the god inspect it before implanting the compilation into the human spirit. With that transaction concluded, they left the shop to go to the god’s world.

In a light novel story, the guy would probably end up in some rural country that he ends up transforming into a superpower because of his skills, but more likely he just made life a little bit better for himself and his family. 

I wasn’t able to muster any further interest in that, and redirected my thoughts back to my own situation. There were so many worlds I would like to visit, that I was at a loss on which to actually choose. 

I decided to look at it from a different angle. Just as the customer earlier indicated, some skills would only work in a world that supported it, and it would suck if I ended up dying because of an incompatibility like that.

So that helped me make up my mind. The first world to visit would be one that satisfied all three requirements. One, a world with skills I could gather to trade. Two, a world I would like to enjoy. And three, a world that can support the skills I had so far.

Like this… it has to be another Final Fantasy one, doesn’t it… I sighed. Aren’t those worlds usually facing some kind of worldwide disaster then? 

I decided to continue thinking about this as much as I could. I still had a week to think about this, and I could consult Sano on what other worlds were compatible with the skills I had.

The door opened.

“Welcome to Sano’s Skill Services!” I recited yet again, “How may I serve you today?”

If the previous god looked like a child, this one was just a ball of light. 

It ‘spoke’ to me.

“So you aren’t buying anything right now, but you wish to know more about the skills?” I received an affirmative response. “Understood. I will explain to you how the skills in this shop work.”

“To begin with, the basic skills can be largely classified into three different types. The active, the passive, and the reactive ones.” I touched the pad and brought out three glowing boxes, each in a different color, to illustrate what I was saying.

“Active skills only work when activated by the skill holder. The trigger for the activation can vary. Sometimes it works by calling out the skill’s name, or when the skill holder adopts the required position. When the trigger is activated, the skill takes effect, and there is often a cost involved, either in stamina or some other form of energy possessed by the skill holder. Thus although it’s called a skill, this can apply to magic spells as well.”

The god bobbed in understanding, and I moved the red box aside.

“Passive skills provide a boost to the skill holder’s normal abilities. It can be something simple like adding a bonus effect to the skill holder’s actions, such as improving the running speed or enhancing the power of a spell. In more complex forms, the skill can enable actions normally impossible, such as a mammal breathing underwater. Compared to active skills, passive skills stand out less, but they can be very important to transmigrators. For example… language comprehension.”

I moved the blue box aside, leaving only the green one in front of me.

“Reactive skills are something like a mix of the two previous types. It stays passive, but they activate when the skill holder encounters something that triggers it. A good example would be [Danger Sense], which triggers to alert the skill holder when there’s a source of danger close by. Otherwise, the skill just stays within the body and does nothing.”

It ‘asked’ for further clarification.

“Another example? Certainly.” I pulled out a different green skill box. “This skill is [Auto-Parry], which can be equipped on a physical fighter. It detects an incoming physical attack, and will control the body of the skill holder to perform the appropriate parry maneuver, thus avoiding damage.”

I went on to talk about the next stage, where the skills were assigned levels based on how well they performed their function. [Fireball Lv1] obviously lost out to [Fireball Lv4] in terms of strength, but the tradeoff was that the latter cost a lot of mana to cast.

“To go even further beyond that, it is possible for several basic skills to be compiled together into a skill set that would provide multiple possibilities under a single name,” I explained to the attentive god, “A simple example would be [Fire Mage]. Fire, and Mage, so there can be passives like [Fire Affinity] and [Magic Affinity], but also with active options. [Firebolt], [Fire Ball], and so on.”

The ball rolled around in the air questioningly, rising up slightly at the end.

“Yes, that is an option offered, under the reactive skill classification. In such a case, there are two possible ways for it to work.” I took yet another two skill boxes out, these ones white in color. 

Gripping one in both hands, I pulled it apart slightly and touched one of the small lights revealed within, turning it green. I repeated the process with the other one, and leaned back to let the god inspect the two. One of them was clearly bigger than the other, but the other bore more links.

“In the case of this one,” I indicated the one on my left, “The skill adapts to the skill holder’s improvement to make updates to itself. As for the other, it contains the higher level skills already, but will only unlock those based on the skill holder’s ability to handle them.”

This time, the god rolled back and forth between the two, ‘wondering’ what the advantages of the two were.

“There are two main things that support skills like these. One is the world you come from, or more specifically, its system. Young worlds that haven’t developed much are better off with the ones that can update themselves, as it encourages the growth of the world’s system.” I repeated the knowledge that was in my mind. ”The second thing would be the skill holder. Their essence, or soul, might not be able to bear the power of a skill if they lack the strength, such as when they are too young. There is a reason why reincarnators often do not unlock their skills until they are of a certain age.”

The god bobbed in understanding.

Wow, look at me giving a presentation of this like I know the whole topic. Then again, all this is only the basics, I thought to myself even as I continued to deliver the explanation. There’s still things like the world system and how people can pick up skills. After all, not all skill holders are transmigrators or reincarnators. Some natives can have their own.

The small glowing ball was a representation of the god’s relative youth, and it understood that some of the things I mentioned weren’t possible for the young world it came from, especially after I learned just how undeveloped it was when the god permitted the shop to scan its divine signature.

This was the equivalent of a young boy going into his first toy store and having a kind salesman explain what toys were available, though none of it was purchasable as all he had was pocket change.

Unlike that initial customer who faced her first transmigrator and needed something to give, this nascent god couldn’t even spare any energy to craft its own skills, so I acted just as the retail persona dictated, and didn’t offer it the guide on how to do so.

Perhaps in the far future, after I’m dead and gone, this god will come back and buy up a whole load of skills to enhance its world’s system, I briefly daydreamed, before snapping back to attention.

“Was I able to answer your queries to your satisfaction?” I inquired, and received a pleased forward tilt in reply. “You’re welcome. We hope to receive your patronage in the future.”

The god floated out through the door, which shut itself behind it.

The information I had given to that deity were the utmost basics, since those skills were just plug and play. Personally, I was more curious about the new avenue of item-linked skills, like the Final Fantasy ones that would enable the learning of a skill by using it enough. Furthermore, Sano’s knowledge also included examples of some items that could be considered skill-bearing, kind of like an enchanted artifact. But since he dealt only in skills, I didn’t have any example of that one to examine more closely.

Perhaps that could be something to look for in the next world I visit, I mused to myself. I got to use magic in Ivalice, but the spells there are all basic stuff, just like using an app on a phone. Maybe if I can figure out how to wield magic in that way…

After a few more godly customers who were only stopping by to stock up on minor skills, the phone rang once more. 

My body smoothly turned to walk over and pick it up. “Hello, Sano’s Skill Shop, this is Rick speaking.”

“Hello, hello!” Sano’s voice replied, “Has business been good?”

“Sales have been satisfactorily high, sir.” I feel like he’s alliterating stuff on purpose… 

“Good to hear that! I’ve got a task for you.” His voice grew serious towards the end.

My body snapped to attention. “What do you need me to do, sir?” 

“A world a few clusters over is running low on magic to craft skills, and the gods there have reached out to me for help. I need you to go make a delivery of five hundred mid-grade magic skills to them.”

“Understood, sir.” I felt a bit of freedom return to me, and quickly asked the important question I had, “Which world is that, and how am I to travel to that world, sir?”

“Oh, that’s right. Hmmm…” He hummed thoughtfully. “I thought I’d ask her to go pick you up, but she’s currently busy. It can’t be helped then. I give you permission to access the secret storage and temporarily use the [World Travel] skill for the purposes of this task.”

I shivered involuntarily as whatever divine commandment effect of his words hit me. “Yes, sir…” 

“Good. I’ll send the coordinates of the world through the pad. Make sure to lock up the store as you leave. You can have the rest of the day off once you’ve completed this task.”

“Yes, sir.”

He hung up first, and I could only hang up the phone once I heard the dial tone.

That sort of divine revelation experience is rather stressful… I thought dazedly as I moved to the counter to do as he said.

Despite my shaken mood, my hands worked smoothly, pulling out strings of magic-related skills just as Sano told me. Out of curiosity, I attempted to put [Mana Sense] within myself, and succeeded.

Woah, holy shit. These skills are carrying a heck load of magic power in them. So that’s why he told me to bring these. I don’t know what the world I’m supposed to go to is like, but this quantity of power definitely qualifies as world-shaking.

Just like I told that young god earlier, it was the world itself that supported those skills, so there was no way I could contain all of these skills within myself. However, the knowledge of my job persona taught me a way to circumvent that limit. 

There was a skill called [Dimensional Space Pocket] that could be used to contain all of the skills, keeping them and their power in suspended storage until I could release them to the intended recipients. After slotting it into myself, all those strings of skills were packed away like they barely took up any space.

Man, I’d love to have this skill, but it’s already making my soul ache, and that feels very uncomfortable. I touched the pad again, this time receiving the address of the world.

It was like a reversal of the scanning process I had my customers go through; the information of the world itself was uploaded into my head, along with the [World Travel] skill. I now knew where the world was, who the gods there were, and the situation they were facing with a lack of magic power.

The experience of taking [World Travel] out was vastly different. I dimly understood that it was like a shroud of divine power, except its function was much more akin to that of a bullet train. The power stored within the skill was… indescribable. 

I couldn’t help comparing this part of the experience to unlocking a gun safe and arming myself with one of the biggest, baddest guns stored within.

If this is just one of what’s within the secret storage… then what sort of other skills could be in there? I had tried to peek when the skill came out, but the link only showed me it and nothing more. Maybe I’ll ask Sano later.

With my package prepared and the method of delivery ready, I went around the shop, touching several parts of it according to my persona’s knowledge. There was the feeling of things locking down, and I made my way to the front door as it progressed, casting a shadow over the entire shop. The door closed behind me with a sound like a lock loudly clicking shut, and I [Traveled].

I guess Planeswalking is something like this? Blind Eternities and all that stuff… I thought idly as myriad sceneries passed me by.

Some entities took notice of my presence as I passed close by where they were, but they made no move to stop me. Eventually, I arrived at the destination, feeling a small barrier keeping me from just walking in. 

Reaching out, I placed a hand on the barrier, and used [World Travel] to carefully open a hole in it, to admit only me and nothing else. Once I passed through, the hole would seal itself, and I would have to do the same to exit.

The first thing I saw within the barrier was a misty white space, with mild rainbow hues. This was the so-called divine realm of this world, where the gods resided. I didn’t make any move to go searching; my enhanced senses already picked up on some presences approaching my location, having detected my entry.

“Who dares enter- A human!?” A fierce-looking god with a long white beard was the first to confront me. His eyebrows were similarly long, extending horizontally beyond the sides of his head.

“Delivery from Sano,” I announced.

“Sano? Who’s… Ah!” This time it was a goddess who spoke, looking rather quite beautiful with a necklace of flowers and a scarf that floated around her. “You’re the one he sent to deliver the magic skills we asked for?”

“Yes, goddess,” I nodded.

A third god approached me, this one looking like a young child with braids in his hair and simple smock-like clothing. “Where are they then?”

“Here they are.” I opened up the space pocket, and began pulling out the strings of glowing boxes.

“Oh! Ohhh! Ohhhhh!” 

That’s quite the over-the-top reaction… Then again, My eyes flickered around to examine the realm I was in, I can definitely feel the lack of magic power now that I’m here. I continued to withdraw the skills, until the pocket was finally empty, and I extracted that one to hand over too.

Other gods began to show up, all with unique appearances, and the skills I took out were passed around. From what I could see, some of them were being broken up to release the magic power to fill the area, while others were being sent out like shooting stars, towards what must have been the mortal realm. The majority were kept in storage, and I ended up asking why.

“This world has been experiencing great wars recently, and the mortals have been using up a lot of magic in doing so,” The goddess explained sorrowfully, “If we did nothing, the world would run out of magic, and many more would die.”

“The skills you brought will buy us a bit of time to do what we always do,” The first god added, stroking his beard.

“Which is?” I prompted.

“We summon a person from a world with a lot more magic, and use that connection to drain off some of the power they can spare. Don’t worry,” He reassured me when he saw the look on my face, “We only do this with worlds and the gods there that agree to the exchange.”

“Say, you’ve done us a huge favor by bringing all these. Is there anything you’d like in exchange?” The child god asked me. “Go ahead and ask.”

Oh wait, I’m not in the store now, and there’s no defenses preventing me from getting stolen away by the gods if they want, I realized, but looking at their kind features, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about that with these gods. Maybe that’s why Sano had no issue with sending me to deliver the skills here.

Unfortunately, my job persona took over. “I apologize, but I’m not allowed to accept any gifts for a job I’m already being compensated for. If you wish to express your gratitude, please patronize Sano’s skill shop more in the future.”

My reply appeared to take them aback, before they leaned in to examine me.

“Oh, I see… so that’s the sort of agreement you made,” The old god realized, “Are you alright with that?”

I nodded. “I’m fine with it. Is there anything else?”

“Convey our thanks to Sano, if you would. And please, do come by to visit our world if you have the chance,” The child god told me, “We’ll gladly welcome you!”

I bowed, and took my leave through the world barrier. 

As I [Traveled] back to the shop, I couldn’t help but think that I seemed to have seen those deities before, though their appearances were somewhat different from the fictional series they must have appeared in. 

Oh well, it’ll come back to me eventually. Anyway… I glanced at some of those that reacted to my passing by. I wonder if Sano’s power is keeping them from coming after me? 

That question remained unanswered, even as I entered the shop and put [World Travel] back into the storage. Just as Sano said, I was freed from the control of my job persona the moment I did that, and the first thing I did was to try and see if I could find the skill I just deposited.

As expected, I had no luck doing so. I knew that the secret storage existed, but I couldn’t find it at all. After a few minutes of useless searching, I gave up and headed back to my room. I spent a while enjoying the changing scenery from the window, then spent some time texting my family back in my home reality.

‘What are u eating today?’

‘Gonna cook for myself again’

‘Good. Keep practicing. Send pics of your dishes when u free’

They were also curious about what sort of work I did, but I was able to provide a cover excuse. It was true that I was given a new job duty for today, and whether I might do more of it in the future remains to be seen.

I did wonder what would happen if I went into a world where the time difference worked against me. Would my parents come searching or not? Or would I end up as a missing person, time slipped to the future like Rip Van Winkle? 

I decided not to think too much about it, and worked instead on keeping my body in shape.

While I had traded a lot of the skills over to Sano, I still had some I kept for myself. In reality though, there were conditions to using them. For example, an attack ability required a target, and I didn’t have a safe one to use in this room, not unless I wanted to destroy the furniture. At the very most, I could cast buffs and debuffs on myself.

Haste is a very useful spell, given how fast chores can be completed with it.

I hope the next world I visit can support the use of these skills though.

…

It felt like the days were passing by very slowly as I waited for the next time Sano would show up. Instead of lazing away just watching anime and reading manga, I was reviewing my Japanese textbooks and exercising along with the videos I found online. Some were normal fitness videos, while others… I found some of martial artists showing how they wielded weapons like a spear or a rapier, some of which I had stored away as well.

Customers came and went. Getting new skills for their world, or restocking stuff for the ones visiting there, it seemed like every customer was a new and unique one. Sometimes I had to intervene to stop them from purchasing a skill that would cause a lot of destruction, other times I had no trouble selling multiples of that skill. It varied depending on the world the gods came from.

Finally, the day for Sano to show up came. I was worried when the shop began to close and he still hadn’t appeared, but he finally teleported in just as I was about to head back to my room.

Like before, I met him in his office, and received my payslip, which I barely batted an eye at. My attention was mainly focused upon the catalog of skills.

I was expecting it, but most of the good stuff was still out of my league, even with all the skills I had collected for Sano. The ones that were available were minor ones, like status resistance or martial technique boost. 

So much for my fantasy of being a superpowered isekai traveler. 

That means it’ll just take more work to get there. I looked up to see Sano watching me patiently. So this is the power of controlling the supply against my weak demand.

Rather than waste time trying to haggle for lower prices, I asked for some time to consider my options, and got it. Carrying the catalog with me, I returned to my room where I had assembled a large group of notes on the worlds that I would want to visit. They were pretty comprehensive, listing out the benefits and disadvantages of each world. A quick glance at the clock let me know I had three hours to make my choice, so I got started right away.

It took me an hour and a half to make up my mind, but once I did, I didn’t hesitate to return to Sano’s office.

“You’ve made your choice already?” He asked before I even sat down.

“Yes, but before that, I also have a few other requests.”

“What sort of request?”

“Could you expand the room for me to do other stuff?” I asked hopefully, “You know I still have some skills from Ivalice, so I’d like a training room of sorts where I can practice with them.”

“That’s no problem for me. It won’t even cost you that much from your paycheck, so you should have enough for passage to the next world. Even with the conversion of the skills you have in you.” Sano paused. “Unless you wish to go to another version of Ivalice?”

“Maybe next time.” And not the FF12 one, because I didn’t play that yet.

“So what skills would you like?”

“Here,” I held out the paper on which I had written my selections.

“Let me see…”

Sano scanned through it, before nodding. “So that’s the world you’re going to then? Try not to draw too much attention from those extraplanar beings while you’re there.”

“I’ll do my best not to,” I promised.

This time, it was my turn to wait as the god went to work on crafting my insertion package. He brought out the minor skills I asked for first, putting them together like Lego pieces. At his prompting, I extracted the skills I had so he could convert them into a functional format. All of them were finally crammed together into a large silver box, which bore several sparkling points floating within it. Sano examined it for a while longer, then handed it to me.

Despite its size, the box went into my chest without any trouble. Unlike the first time, I definitely felt different.

Oh, I can finally use those skills without the need for a target! “[Status].” I checked over the information in the window that popped up. Yep, I can swap them out without any trouble.

“I’ve made it so none of the natives will notice you bringing up the window,” Sano informed me. “Now, are you ready?”

I nodded. “I am.”

“Off you go then. Make sure to get me lots of skills while you’re there!”

…

I know this is how things started, but as beginnings go, this is a rather shitty one. I thought as I let myself get pushed into a cart with my hands bound in front of me, along with several others.

One of them was unconscious, even as the cart began to move. My fellow prisoners were dressed shabbily, though some of them wore chainmail armor beneath their clothes. I just waited, checking my status screen and putting in some skills to handle the coming chaos.

The surroundings were filled with trees, and the cold air would have been horrible to bear if not for the [Cold Resistance] I purchased from Sano. As it was, the misty environment was bad for visibility, though I could tell we were beginning to go downhill.

The unconscious guy began to stir, looking around as he did. The one sitting next to me noticed, and looked at him.

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right?”

Afterword: Yep, the next world is Skyrim! Great place to get lots of skills and other stuff! I was initially at a loss for what world to go to next, because there’s just so many cool options with skills to grab. I eventually settled on Skyrim because of how great a game it is, with its sandbox setting. Look forward to the next chapter!