Trash: Chapter 114 A Mind At Rest Finds Ways to Distract Itself (Patreon)

<<<Author's Note: The numbers for the Skill levels seemed to transfer cleanly, so I've kept them for now. But I also attached them in a Text file just in case. Hopefully there aren't any issues with this, and if not I will try to include these updates on a fairly regular basis, as promised. >>>Chapter 114

A Mind At Rest Finds Ways To Distract Itself

“Right this way,” Ronaldo’s son Junior exclaims excitedly, guiding me into the back of the confectionary shop. I make sure to keep my grimace minimal when he, not taking his eyes from me proceeds to slam his back into the door.

With a practiced ease of movement and smile, he shrugs off the awkward attack from an inanimate object and proceeds to guide me in. Having lived through life two times now, I can see this for what it is, an awkward attempt to flirt. At least I hope it is a form of flirting, otherwise I would expect a lot more wear and tear on the shop.

Unfortunately, I can always seem to notice these types of encounters much easier, which is sad as I can safely say my only attraction to Junior is his proximity to lemon custards. Not that I don’t think that Junior isn’t a catch, but I definitely don’t want to lead him on under false pretenses. I know some guys might get the wrong idea if not nipped in the bud early. Not that Junior seems like one of those people, but just like I did for Mousey, I need to set up clear boundaries at the start of our arrangement.

Reaching out, I place my hand on Junior’s shoulder, partly to get him to stop running into things and partly so I can lock gazes with him. Normally, this is enough to stop anyone from wanting anything from me as my pinkish-purple eyes are intimidating for almost anyone. Though I do try to soften the impact by pulsing a quick burst of Streamline Healing* energy into him, to remove any lingering pain from his sudden slam into the door frame. To no real shock, there was a minor pain that could cause lingering but overall minor pain. Still, I heal it, along with any other issues he might have.

Seeing his body relax, and seemingly expectant look on his face, particularly after I used my healing powers on him, I realize I might have given him mixed signals. That’s when I hit him with the thirteen magic words that can stop any chance at romantic misinterpretations.

“Be careful, you’re too good of a friend to lose to a doorframe,” I reply as I give his shoulder a gentle pat as I can almost see the moment his courage breaks. His deep brown eyes seem to tear up for a moment as he quickly looks away and replies.

“You’re right, thank you,” Junior replies, before gesturing for me to go back to the back and remove all the waste. This time I am able to get everything, even the hidden bins that I could smell but never quite get to when I first began this arrangement a few weeks ago. Now that I was up to a silver in pay, along with the pastries, I really wanted to keep this contract going. Not that I feared for lack of money, but because I felt that contracts were important and keeping my word was one of the most valuable things I could give.

In no time, the deep smells, and even some of the clogs in the underground pipes were cleaned up as I made sure to get rid of every scrap of grime.

Once I was done, I grabbed my custard, sat on what I affectionately referred to as my table and people watched. Or I would have, but first I decided to take a good long look at myself and see exactly how much I had improved since the last time I checked, which was only yesterday so the changes shouldn’t be too much, though I hoped that some of my frenetic leveling continued. Sadly that was not the case.

Class Culmen Vitae* CLASS Skills                                                 Max Level            Current Level

(Unique) Maximum Mana Conversion:                                    500        63 -> 67

(Unique) Streamline Healing*:                                                    500        141 -> 143

(Unique) Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration*:                400        154 -> 156

(Unique) Life Reinforced Movements*:                                   400        49 -> 50

(Unique) Recuperatio Vitae*                                                       400        13 -> 15

My Class skills all showed the signs of solid gains, each going up one to four points, an exceptional leveling rate. But sadly a lot slower than I had been used to of late.

FREE SLOTTED SKILLS                                                      Max Level            Current Level

(Uncommon) Actor                                                                         100        87 -> 91

(Rare) Stringed Instrument (Violin) Specialization                200        37 -> 41

(Uncommon) Dance Specialization                                            100        2

(Rare) Divine Music Resonance                                                   200        142 -> 143

(Rare) Strategist*:                                                                            200        115 -> 119

Even my Free Slotted Skills seemed to be all but stationary, with Dance not even moving. Though to be fair, I didn’t have much to dance about. That said, I did make a vast improvement in violin playing. And at this rate, I should be able to badge out my Actor Skill by next week at the latest.

Yet, it was my personal and Bloodline Skills that had the most and worst growth rates.

Personal/Bloodline Skills                Max Level            Current Level

Trash:                                                    ????                       194 -> 199

Divine Sight:                                       200                        112 -> 113

Soul Devourer:                                  1000                     127 -> 130

Trash obviously improved the most as it is one I used almost constantly. From getting rid of slime, to getting rid of the dead growth from Johny’s chest, to the trash at the back of Ronaldo’s shop. I use that Skill almost everywhere and I believe it is making a difference.

That said, I am the saddest about Divine Sight, as I think it is a Skill that I could use a lot more often than I do currently. Maybe get some shades. I know golden eyes are relatively rare, but Mr. Yi flashes his golden eyes all the time under the banner of the Bloom estate, and no one seems to care. Also, I am pretty sure that Icky can also manifest golden eyes. The fact that I can do so shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Badges Completed: (6)

(Common) (4): Basic Strengthening, Numerals, Letters, Running

(Uncommon) (2) Eagle Eyed, Improvised Weapons

Of course, there are the badged Skills, that I feel having a partial effect on me as I don’t even have to think about calling on them to use them. Running is nearly natural to me now, and then combining those badged Skills with others makes the process a lot easier overall.

This then leads me to my Attributes.

Attribute              Base      New TOTAL

Strength               165.25 -> 169.17

Dexterity              194.71 -> 198.76

Stamina                187.11 -> 191.16

Perception           236.42 -> 241.12

Intelligence         213.22 -> 217.92

Mana                    193.372 -> 197.692

*Mana: (Equal to Intelligence divided by 10, Plus Mana Bonuses).

*Life Mana           89  ->        91.2

**Luck                  19.95  ->   20.47

In all, my Attributes are coming along nicely. I am still not quite certain if I am missing something to have my Class open a new spell slot, but I feel that I am getting closer all the time to what is needed.

Then again, I’ve gotten a lot of gains and a lot to show for my work, even if it seems to be at a much slower rate than it was last week. Though, that pace I was on was a much more frenetic pace that was close to causing burn out, so I am a little relieved that it is over.

That said, I will make it a point to work on my Skills more. I am still far too cautious to want to dance, at least not in public. I am almost confident enough in my abilities to pull out my violin and begin playing, but instead I decide to work on one of the easier to progress Skills at my disposal.

Just as I know that my eyes automatically adjusted to my earlier bloodline sight ability, allowing me to see Spirits, even without activating the Skill. I have a feeling that my newly upgraded version of Divine Sight will offer a similar ability, once it reaches its new maximum rating. As such, I decided to watch people while utilizing my Divine Sight.

Immediately upon activation I feel a slight itching sensation as my eyes adjust to the now golden hue of light that seems to be amplified by the rays of the golden sun that are glowing all around me. Even for a slightly colder winter day, the lights are bright enough to seemingly aid my Holy energy infused Skill. Something that makes sense when you think about it after the fact, but don’t quite realize it at first, when all you really use the Skill for are in darkened arenas, and for forays into spirit rifts.  

The effect of the solar light amplifying my Skill is readily apparent, as I can almost feel an odd tingling at the sheer volume of shadows that are all around. Shadows that by all means should not exist.

We are talking shadows that seem to glow on the underside of tables, on the underside of chairs. While there should be shadows there, these shadows seem to glow in an odd way that causes my eyes to ache slightly at how wrong they feel.

Seeing them, find that I am no longer just people watching, but I am location watching as well. Quickly scanning down the street, I see that there are a number of these glowing shadows that seem to stand out to my sight. It is only after I stare at one that is under a table in Ronaldo’s outdoor courtyard that I decide to act.

I find it odd that I am the only one who can see this, as I know for a fact that Mr. Yi and others have been down this very street. It was only once I remembered the slightly odd shattering sensation in my mind that allowed me to see the subtle use of Skills on me. Skills that were not empowered by magic, but raw abilities. Skills that were designed to illicit an emotional response from me by the two ROW officers that I remembered something had happened to allow me to see that change, that shift in spectrum.

Remembering that sensation, I go back to my first tab and take a second glance at where my Seals are, and that’s when I find out something impressive had happened.

Name: Catarine Bloom

Age: 16

Class: (Unique) Culmen Vitae* (5/5) (Maximum Potential 7)

Magic: Life (5/7) – Class Linked Only, Holy (2/7)

Seals: (3 / 7) – Holy Sword of Slaying seal, Divine Notes of Precision, True Sight of Enigmas*

I had gained a new Seal, another unique Seal as indicated by the marking, True Sight of Enigmas*. Wording that was both vague and surprisingly offered insight into what I was now able to see. It’s not like I could suddenly see through lies, or manipulations, but I could see the effects of other more subtle powers trying to obscure the truth.

Realizing that this new Seal also seemed to play an importance in why my eyes suddenly felt itchy by observing all the dark and lingering shadows that had no right to be so intense, I moved.

Going forward, I found the table and I merely meant to lift the table up to inspect the shadowy form more easily. But my Strength was apparently much more pronounced than I expected, that or the large metallic table was lighter than it appeared for I easily lifted the table, and revealed the shadowy form to the light.

“What are you—” Ronaldo began, but stopped his comment as he saw me reach my hand in and pull out a clearly glowing and smoking stone from the bottom of the table.

The stone felt odd, solid one second and then a gooey slime that sent tingles of pain down my hand the next. On reflex I tried to use Trash on it, only to cause the slime to suddenly awaken and start shrieking in my hand.

“SHRIIIIEEEEEKKKK!!”

A psychic wave of pain echoed out, causing a minor sensation of pain to tingle in my head. I knew that if this sensation lasted much longer, it would likely cause a severe headache, but it was only at the annoyingly loud neighbor range for me, right now. The range where you almost hope they will stop the noise on their own, but realize if they keep it up for a few more minutes you will have to become ‘that neighbor.’ That was the level that this shriek was at currently. Also, the creature began to move, raising a slew of dark tentacles up that all seemed to sizzle and melt under the light. Which, only seemed to amplify its pain.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see how the shriek wasn’t just affecting me, as it also seemed to affect others around. Ronaldo grabbed at his ears, like that would do something, while Junior who was right next to him had already doubled over in pain and had a faint trail of blood coming out of his nose. Yeah, this was something I needed to deal with quickly.

Seeing it in this state, I realized it almost looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite explain why. But I had time for comparisons later, for now it was action time.

Taking the violently squirming tiny-tentacle monster in my hands, I did the only thing I could do. I took it and slung it violently at the ground.

There was a squishing sound as the ball of goo seemed to expand on impact. Blessedly, the shrieking sound ended, but that didn’t seem to be the end of it, as I could already see it slowly curling back together like an overly annoying splat ball, one that didn’t know when it was supposed to just rupture and be done with it all.

“Well, looks like we need to do this the hard way!” I say to myself as I prepare for my next step.