In the sky was a silver moon shining down on those who bore the 'nocturnal' in their genes.
It shone on mountains, rivers, valleys, and forests for the wolves to howl at.
Crickets were bringing about percussion as the cool winds blew throughout the lands and fireflies drifted like lively snowflakes.
Athelei sat by a campfire with many of the Harmonic Knights, survivors, and merchants. Despite the tragedies, the ale brought merry songs and laughter to the group. Athelei watched as people danced, sang, and got acquainted with what would be their companions for the following weeks.
He was carefully chewing the meat and potatoes in his stew as he smiled and resisted the urge to join them.
It looked like fun, and he was a kid. Perhaps he could even try jumping through the campfire to the other side—after all, his father, Trien, had done exactly that more than once. And what's more, it was to save him.
To distract himself from the memories, Athelei constantly kept an eye on his Cosmic Interface as he surfed the Information Network. He was trying to be the best info sponge there could be. His chat with Thallium Yan had helped clear the fog of his way and now his searches were more targetted.
His plans now considered and involved the 'specific' such as what type of person he wanted to approach, a few notable people from Avina, as well as several famous places around the great city.
As for the general information, Athelei had become aware of Illyas' current state of affairs. With the looming war, the terrorists, and the latest noble balls. Thallium Yan had also told him who the Exiled were—they were devious people who were on nearly every country's wanted list. The only place they belonged to was the dangerous Wilderness.
She also lectured Athelei about the etiquette and conduct of Illyasian nobility since they had the chance. Future lessons would continue as they travelled towards Aren. After that, Athelei just had to practice every now and then as he went with the merchants to Avina.
Furthermore, Yan had called Harley over to discuss teaching Athelei a few combat skills he could practice despite his tiny body. They decided on half an hour each day for footwork, dagger skills, and battle strategies. They could fit this much in half an hour simply because they found out how smart Athelei was.
They felt as if his memory could rival purple Users like Thallium Yan herself—which secretly was exactly the reason why he can remember so much. The [Passive Effect] of Appraisal was amazing.
Behind their backs, Athelei would be laughing at this.
"My excitement levels have lost the ability to go down," Athelei muttered to himself as he drank every last drop of soup from his bowl.
It was just about bedtime now. Athelei accepted a sleeping bag from the Harmonic Knights and made himself comfortable near the cinders.
Tonight was his second night away from home, and his first night sleeping under the stars.
Normally, we'd greet him with a "Sweet dreams!" but it didn't even take a moment before a near-invisible fog blanketed the entire camp.
Athelei smiled as he made a few 'stretches' in his fog-body. He then proceeded with some 'morning exercises' for his consciousness to stay in tip-top shape.
Athelei drifted out of the camp to experiment with different shapes, sizes, and consistences. He had fun playing around for a good hour and realised he was somehow becoming better at controlling himself.
It was something he never felt before as an infinite being. His consciousness was practically omnipotent back then.
'That's refreshing beyond measure,' Athelei's excitement went up once more as he took on the form he had preferred over an infinite number of forms aside from his natural look.
He focused on each part as he drew details with the smoke and fog. He started with an outline of a humanoid being, but on his back was the start of a pair of wings. Athelei then crafted a few small spheres out of the smoke and allowed them to orbit him at differing distances and orientations.
Things were going well until Athelei felt something disturb the creation of his wings.
'That's weird. I should have enough mass for at least two pairs of wings...' thought Athelei as he scrunched his brows. He heightened his focus, visualizing each detail as much as he could. It resulted in barely discernable feathers on the wings that were trying their best to sprout and spread.
But something kept barring him from creating his wings.
After two more hours of this, Athelei was about to give up and attempt another form when he felt a lock break.
Fwooosh!
A gust of air blew across the small clearing Athelei had found for himself when he spread a pair of grey, feathery wings.
Athelei glanced at his wings and realised how clear they were—it exceeded his current capacity to manipulate the fog and clearly bore more mass. It looked to be solid, real, even. Though, it looked like it wouldn't allow someone to fly. It was too small and most likely could only cause slightly larger amounts of drag when moving around.
'This is even weirder,' Athelei thought to himself. The wings were better crafted than the rest of his humanoid body, and he could materialise or dematerialise them seamlessly whenever he wished.
He looked like a grey angel with his completely grey form, standing at about a meter in height due to his young stature, and small wings fully spread. He also took on the colours of black whenever he lay in the shadows and strayed away from the moonlight.
'It seems like even my wings are in the infancy stage... What is this form's relationship with the Nightwalkers?' Athelei continued to ponder on why there was such a unique interaction between Sleepwalking and the concept of having wings. 'I mean, Nightwalkers have the word 'walker' in their name. Why the wings?'
Athelei was utterly baffled and decided to shove those thoughts to the backburner for now. He had to grind up his Examine and Appraisal as much as he could.
He allowed himself to once more disperse into a multitude of separate particles and spread across the forest around him. Dozens of small screens lit up like glowing butterflies as Athelei's experience points skyrocketed.
He smiled to himself as he recalled a particular article he found on the Information Network. It was a simple yet effective technique that made it easier to make the most out of every use of one's Analysis Skills.
It mainly included techniques that meshed well with Judgement, but Athelei was discovering that it worked nicely with Examine and Appraisal as well.
The core of the technique included the concept of 'groupings.' It turned out that using Analysis on single targets differed from when your target was a group. There were details that were either omitted or included depending on what one analysed. It even worked for different parts of the same whole.
Examine even had bonus surprising effects when you first use it on an object's individual parts while it was in a state of disassembly before using Examine again when it was reassembled.
'There are so many intricacies to such simple skills.' Athelei remarked as he tested as many techniques as he could. He was so obsessed with compiling his list of techniques and their respective effects that he felt himself blink and the sun was already rising.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
=} User: Athelei (Tier 0 User) {=
=} Interface Authority Level: 0.35 {=
=o=o=o=o=
=} Skills {=
- Cyan Analysis Skill: Examine (Level: 2/5) (Exp 1236/2000)
- Purple Analysis Skill: Appraisal (Level: 2/5) (Exp 112/2000)
- Orange Analysis Skill: Judgement (Level 2/5) (Exp 1008/2000)
- Trinity Analysis Skill: Inspect (Locked)
=o=o=o=o=
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Examine, when paired with Athelei's rather invasive fog-body allowed for so many opportunities to use the Analysis Skill for experience points. It was unlike the other two which lose their experience bonus when used on the same target within a certain timeframe.
For Examine, the technique Athelei applied did not boost how many times he could gain experience from one target, unlike Appraisal and Judgement. It instead allowed it to reach its soft cap much, much later while providing bonuses that did not take up too much of his Interface Authority Levels. He gained more information and experience each time that it could not compare with the other two skills while he was in his fog-body.
"It seems like I could comfortably set myself at Tier 1 before the merchants pass any dangerous area." Athelei thought as he rearranged his plans a bit more in consideration of his rapid levelling.
He then returned to his body before most of the caravan's participants woke up. The patrols could barely differentiate from the regular early-morning fog and the super-thin grey fog that was Athelei's fog-body.
"Haaa~" Athelei yawned as he moved, with soft footsteps, to the nearby river.
He drank a bit of water and washed up as much as he could. It was a bit cold but that was fine. He needed to wake his body up with discomfort so that he could start practising his Mystic Patterns.
'It seems like this will be my routine for any normal day from now on until the foreseeable future...'