I rub at my aching temples, struggling to get to grips with the message. Clearly what I did was a success – and the process has earned me a new Skill. I focus on the Skill and silently ask for more information about it – usually I’m offered the description so even if I’m not here, maybe I can still get it?

  Fortunately, my interface seems to be in an obliging mood as a new box quickly pops up in front of my eyes.

  The headache is fading behind my eyes, and my skin finally feels like it fits my body again, rather than being a size too small. But despite feeling better physically, I’m troubled.

  I flick back to the previous notification and my stomach sinks. ‘Sacrifice of Master levels’.... I hope that that doesn’t mean what I think it does, but I have a nasty feeling about it. With apprehension roiling inside my belly, I pull up my status screen.

  I was right. And I’m not happy about it. I’ve just lost two levels in my Flesh-Shaping Skill. And worse, those are Master levels. It’s taken me ages to gain them, and something tells me that I can’t just repeat the same realisations to regain them which means it will probably take me just as long to learn them again.

  What if I’d chosen to imprint my Dominate Skill? Would I have been sent back to Journeyman, or would it have just failed to work? I suppose that losing two Master levels isn’t the worst of consequences, though – at least I’ve got something out of it and I haven’t completely messed up one of my most important Skills.

  I sigh and look down at the creation in question. The Energy Heart which used to cover both of my knees with space to spare has changed entirely. Now, it’s an ovoid stone which fits in the palm of my hands. Actually, apart from its colour which remains a pale pink, it looks identical to the stone I absorbed all that time ago which gave me Lay-on-Hands.

  I have to wonder whether the rest of the Energy Heart was used up in the process – the Skill description did mention that Energy could be one of the sacrifices. Maybe if I’d used a smaller Energy Heart or one of those Cores, three Master levels would have been used, sending my Flesh-Shaping Skill back to the Journeyman rank. Or perhaps it would have failed.

  The thought of sacrifice makes me wonder whether that’s what happened between Kalanthia and Lathani – she imprinted her internal matrix on Lathani, and therefore sacrificed part of each of her stats. Is that what the notification meant when it said ‘life force’, I wonder?

  The fact that Kalanthia got her life force – if that is indeed what it is – back with interest makes me wonder whether the same might be true here. I hesitate for a long moment – what if my attempt destroys the stone without giving me my levels back? Then there would be no chance of me being able to leave Flesh-Shaping behind.

  Then again, am I sure that anyone can actually use my stone as it is? After all, I’m the only one here who used a Class stone – what if that is a prerequisite to using any Skill stones? I remember that Nicholas told me to use the Class stone before the Skill stone right at the beginning. Now, that might be because I didn’t have any internal matrix at all – perhaps I was like Noir, coming from a practically magic-less Earth. But it might also be that a Class stone offers the ability to absorb Skill stones which a naturally-developed internal matrix doesn’t.

  Or not. I simply don’t know enough to find out.

  Eyeing the pale rose-coloured stone sitting in my palm, I decide that I might as well try. There are risks in everything; this might benefit me significantly at the same time as not costing me any more than I’ve already paid.

  I focus on trying to absorb the Skill stone. A moment later, a message appears in front of me.

  I sigh again and lean back in my super-comfortable chair, letting my hand rest on my knee. Perhaps it was too much to hope for. After all, Kalanthia did get her blueprint back, but only when Lathani had Evolved. Until she Evolved – or died – Kalanthia’s internal matrix template was implanted in Lathani and inaccessible.

  Which means that I need to find a use for this Skill stone – that or just let it go to waste which I’m not inclined to do. Yes, I could take it with me to Nicholas’ world, but for all I know, Flesh-Shaping Skill stones are dime a dozen there. Though I doubt it considering what I had to sacrifice to create it – how many people would do such a thing and sell it to strangers?

  Then again, I suspect that the higher my rank is in Imprinting, the less sacrifice it will require to imprint something. That said, to get to a higher level would probably mean repeating the process over and over again which, unless it was purely using Energy, would start becoming crippling very quickly. So all in all, unless I’ve missed something vital – which is always possible – I somehow doubt that my Flesh-Shaping Skill stone would be something anyone could buy on a street corner.

  Even so, my whole reason for doing this was to do my best to leave my Skill behind for my villagers to continue having access to it. Taking the Skill stone with me to sell in Nicholas’ world should be a last resort.

  Unfortunately, I don’t think that I’ve succeeded in exactly what I was aiming for – an artefact which anyone could use. Instead, I seem to have created a proper Skill stone which is single-use – assuming that it’s not necessary to have a Class to use it, that is.

  Flicking over to my magic sight, I examine my new Skill stone, and then, out of a desire to compare, pull the other artefact out of my Inventory briefly. As soon as I can, I push it back in, always feeling slightly unclean at touching the black Core, even through a layer of cloth. I did have to pull back the cloth slightly, though, so I could get a good view without the magic of the cloth getting in the way. At the first hint of a pull on my soul, I shove it back into my Inventory, brushing my hands against each other almost obsessively to rid them of any traces of the Core.

  Only after I’ve calmed down enough can I continue my exploration of my own creation. That, at least, doesn’t seem to have any desire to create a connection with my soul or anything else. Instead, it sits quiescently in the palm of my hand, the Energy within calm and self-contained.

  When I peer deeply into the stone, I see a reflection of the pattern of my Flesh-Shaping Skill embedded right in its centre, the outside connections of it weaving in perfectly with the threads of flesh-aligned Energy which composes the Energy Heart itself. Or perhaps I should say ‘composed’ since it clearly isn’t an Energy Heart any longer.

  After my explorations, I think I have an idea of why the black Core is so…insidious. And perhaps why it functions the way it does rather than being a Skill stone. In comparison to my little Skill stone, it seems…incomplete. The connections which make up the heart of the black Core don’t weave in with its container the way that my Flesh-Shaping pattern does. Instead, they flick out from time to time, and emerge in great numbers as soon as anyone’s hand goes near them.

  Perhaps it’s not an issue with the Skill itself – after all, from what I understand, the people the long-ago Pathwalker used her ability on didn’t seem to be drained in the same way as those who were caught by her artefact were. Perhaps she didn’t make enough of a sacrifice, or perhaps her level in the Skill wasn’t high enough, or perhaps she used the wrong Core. Perhaps this only works with correctly-aligned Energy Hearts or specially-prepared beast Cores. I don’t know. But my gut tells me that I’m on the right track here.

  If that’s true, then it’s not a long leap to imagine that samurans could use a proper Skill stone – if they can control an incomplete one, then surely they could receive a properly-made one? Or is that making assumptions that might come back to bite me?

  But I don’t think that it’s making an incorrect assumption to say that only one person is going to benefit from this Skill stone. If I remember correctly, when I used the Lay-on-Hands one, the whole stone broke apart into fragments of light which I then absorbed. I’m presuming the same would hold true of this one since the first notification I read mentioned ‘the user’. Not ‘the users’ but one single user.

  It also mentioned how they would find the journey from Beginner to Initiate a lot easier than ‘standard’ – whatever ‘standard’ means, and that the journey from Initiate to Journeyman would be a little easier. I can’t say I’ve noticed much difference between the progress speeds of my Class Skills and the ones I picked up along the way, but maybe that’s not the same thing. I suppose that Lay-on-Hands did rank up pretty fast, but then I was using it a lot too. I decide to withhold judgement on that one for now, returning my contemplations to a more relevant matter.

  Assuming that it doesn’t require having first absorbed a Class Skill, who would be the best person for me to give this stone to?

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