Jason just stood back and let Jenny finish her venting. Once she stops talking, Jason coughs. “Well. That sucks. Um, so, what does the skill do?”
Jenny lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head to clear it. “Still a useful skill, even if it is just giving you back what you should already have. I would much rather use both my hands free in a fight. So even if the System was the one to tie the hand back there in the first place, I want that hand free.”
“As for the mechanical part of the skill? Simple enough, it controls how much of your power can respond automatically to your needs. Seeing as you use Energy you already have an idea of how this will work, unlike Qi and Mana users. They use their pools up as they go, while you get less total power in your pool, it constantly refills as you use it.”
“For most people, the biggest benefit of this skill is it allows for indefinite buffs and more passives. Take a mage casting cold resistance on you before heading into an ice dungeon. Helpful, but at some point that resistance will wear off. Either the mage has to be on the ball and reapply the buff or you end up freezing until they notice.”
Jason frowns, “I’ve heard of people doing stuff like that even without this skill. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this skill as some kind of must have before.”
Jenny shrugs, “I wouldn’t call it a must have. If anything, using it for bigger groups can be a downside. One example is if a group is big enough, the person buffing everyone will drink a mana recovery potion afterwards so they can cast combat spells as well. No need to reserve some of their pool for the buffs.”
“As for people doing it? What they are likely doing is reserving the entire buffs cost and manually feeding the spell. You can only keep up as many spells up as you can concentrate on at one time. With this skill, it only reserves a fraction of the cost and is not a burden on your mind. As long as you have the power to cast another spell, you can cast it. Now, any more questions?”
Jason shakes his head, “Not really, you’ve covered it enough.”
Jenny nods, “Fair enough, now for the big secret of learning Power Expulsion. You need to know the skill exists and then try to set up an automatic system.”
Jason waits, but she doesn’t go on. “Anything else?”
Jenny shakes her head, “Nope. You only need to know the skill exists and try to use it. Though unless you get that foundational discovery bonus, you aren’t too likely to get it.”
Jason frowns, “Then why isn’t the skill more well known?”
Jenny shrugs, “Asks the core genius. What do you think people see when they check your title if they aren’t in on the secret? And that is a secret that automatically is revealed when you hit level 100. Kind of makes you think about how much the System controls what we see.”
Jason purses his mouth and scratches the back of his neck. “So uh, what do I need to do?”
Jenny sighs, “Honestly, you don’t need me at this point since you already know a system. If the price wasn’t regulated by the guild, I would offer you half the fee back. You can stay here if you lack a quiet place to work on it. Otherwise you can just go home and practice there. While I can’t return any of your money, if you come in later with some questions about the skill. So, do you want to stay or go?”
Jason stretches, “I think I will head back to where I am staying at the moment.”
Jenny nods, “Sorry for the disappointing lesson. I hope the next time you make use of the guilds’ skill training services, we can provide a better experience.”
Jason shrugs, “You’ve been a decent teacher, and it netted me a discovery bonus. Have a good day.” And Jason heads out of the guild.
Back on the street, he looks left and right before shrugging. If Jason knew the area better, he could take a crossroad. Overall though, he feels it better to be safe than sorry. Plus, if there is one thing he is good at, it is backtracking. ‘If I need to head back to the guild, I will try taking the first crossroad and see where it takes me.’
Mind made up Jason heads back to the wall and across to the road that Peter lives on. From there it is a quick trip back to the house. Once there though, Jason ends up standing outside the door for a solid minute as he wonders if he should just walk in or if he should knock. It isn’t his house, but he is staying there.
The decision is taken away from him though as the door opens up, Gregor ready to head out. Seeing Jason there, he smiles, “Getting back already? You seem a bit conflicted about something?”
A little uncomfortable, Jason pauses for a moment, “I just hit up the adventurers guild and received training for the skill Power Expulsion. Apparently all I was missing was knowing the skill existed in the first place. I wanted the skill, but it has made me a bit short on gold.”
Gregor nods, “That is a useful skill. If I hadn’t gone for another method of enchantment, the skill would be a core one for me. Though now that you mention money, we agreed to buy the mind pearls off of you. Have you turned in the quest yet?”
Jason has a stunned look on his face before facepalming. “Yes, I could have done that.”
Gregor laughs, “Don’t worry, everyone ends up forgetting to turn in a quest one or twice in their life. Don’t tell him I told you, but Peter forgot to turn in a quest for an entire year. It took him stopping by here and me asking him what he got to remember.”
“Anyway, you and the other two can hit up the guild at the end of your time here. I presume you will stop by the guild before leaving to see if there are any quests to pick up so you can do it then. Though I can pay you right now for the mind pearls. You got about 415 of them on your way here, so that adds up to exactly 138 gold and 34 silver. Split between the three of you means your take is 46 gold, 11 silver, and 33 copper.”
Gregor pulls some coins out of his pouch and hands them to Jason. “There you go! Now have a good day. I’ll be back later tonight with an answer.”
Thanks for chapter
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Have a good day
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