“Focus on your salad too,” Mariah remarked across the table, her eyes glaring at Peter.
“Fineee…,” Peter sighed, while Joseph chuckled.
“Tom told me something interesting today,” Joseph said to Peter, drawing Mariah’s attention as well.
“Didn’t he go to train in the evening today?” Mariah enquired, picking up the salad bowl and putting some more veggies into Peter’s plate.
“Yes, he did.” Joseph replied with a laugh.
“He looks so scary, with those cool scars on his ripped body. And to think he is called Tom. He sure has it rough,” Peter found it hilarious. He couldn’t help but snicker at his expense.
“Be respectful, Peter,” Mariah chided, prompting him to meekly apologise.
“Well, the name is appropriate. Isn't he usually a heart warming person? His position demands that he be stricter, that’s all. Whether it be as Vice-Captain or as Instructor,” she continued in Tom’s defence, daring him to make any more jokes. Tom was a good family friend, always taking care of her husband at their job as village guards.
“His Skills play a part in it, too. He has one or two leadership-related skills,” Joseph added from the side, before taking a big bite out of his turkey leg.
“Leaving that aside, I heard you experienced skill high while he was trying to measure your familiarity with the sword,” he said with a smile, feeling happy for his son.
Mariah widened her eyes, clearly surprised. Peter wondered if she would restrict him from sparring until he dealt with skill highs.
“How is that possible? He just advanced a year ago,” her tone was full of disbelief, yet her eyes held pleasant surprise. Peter relaxed.
“It is certainly not unheard of. Exceptionally gifted noble scions do experience it pretty early, too,” Joseph shrugged, having heard of it during his travels before he met her.
“Is it something special?” Peter interjected, feeling left out. Both parents turned their faces toward him.
“Skill high is something that most people experience in their lifetimes unless they were particularly foolish or unlucky enough to not have any harmony in their skills,” Joseph explained after exchanging a glance with Mariah.
“For those that do experience it, it happens much later in their lifetime. The easiest way to experience it is to have multiple skills that harmonise with each other,” Mariah added to the explanation, smiling at him.
“Having a high compatibility with a skill in comparison has much higher requirements,” Joseph followed, groaning. He had been trying to achieve that for so long without any luck.
“Commoners usually experience it mostly in their early 20s at the earliest as far as we know,” he continued, letting his love continue to have her dinner.
“That’s why your case is so unusual. You don’t even have your class yet and barely meet the requirements for the least number of skills required,” he said, resting his chin on his palm, pondering aloud.
It was not unusual. The harmony was between four skills, not two, Peter thought to himself.
“Well, regardless. This only highlights the fact that you have talent in this field,” Joseph remarked with pride as he turned toward Mariah.
She just sighed and nodded. She had to agree. He had shown talent as a warrior despite her wish for him to be something else.“Tom said that you can teach me how to deal with skill high,” Peter told Joseph, looking at him expectantly.“Not now. If you’re done with dinner, go to your room and sleep. You can talk about it in the morning,” Mariah remarked while collecting the dishes to clean.Peter could only nod and stood up to clean his hands before making his way to his room.
…
 
“To conquer a beast, we must first understand it,” Joseph remarked softly. They were sitting across from each other after their morning running and sword practice. Peter listened with full attention.
“Imagine your body as a carriage, and your soul as its driver. Skills are passengers on the carriage,” Joseph said, staring at Peter. Peter nodded to show he was following along.
“When a passenger turns out to be very friendly to the driver, that’s what we call high compatibility between Skill and the User.” Peter nodded again.
“When multiple passengers turn out to be friendly to each other, that’s what we call harmony among the skills,” Joseph continued, smiling as he elaborated with his dumbed-down explanation.
“During both scenarios, the passengers could take control of the carriage from the driver. This phenomenon is referred to as skill high.” It was pretty ingenious of the skills.
“The thing to note here is that the passengers are very skilled in driving the carriage on a specific path. For example, when a swordsmith experiences skill high, he might create the best sword he has ever made in his life,”
“But he wouldn’t be able to fight or farm better even with the skill high?” Peter asked, playing along and making a guess.
“Yes. Precisely. When uncontrolled, this phenomenon is known as skill high. But when controlled, we call it skill immersion. Skill immersion lacks all the potential pitfalls that skill high represents,” Joseph nodded, sitting in a meditative posture.
“In skill immersion, we don’t give skills complete control of our body. We let them provide us with knowledge, but maintain control of our actions. Do you understand?” Joseph said, taking a deep breath.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Peter pondered, then nodded back at him. “But how will we do that?” he asked, frowning in thought. He couldn’t remember at all the experience from yesterday. One moment, he was fighting, and then suddenly he was tossed to the ground.
“First, a person has to identify when they are falling into a skill high. Being aware and having the ability to fall into it on demand is extremely useful,” Joseph said, answering his question from his experience.
“Then it is a battle of will. Immersion would flood you with ideas and ideas, almost like a mental attack. You have to remain lucid and in control in that situation. It is important to remember that you are the master of your body, not your skills. They are only aids.” He warned, pointing out the main issue with the phenomenon.
“I only know of one method to train your will: meditation. It is a slow process. Turning skill high into skill immersion. Even then, it is a constant losing battle,” Joseph sighed, feeling hopeless.
“I have been training my will for two decades now, and I still haven’t managed to fall into immersion on demand. And when I do fall into it, I cannot maintain it for more than half an hour,” he confessed.
“Why is that?” Peter asked. It didn’t seem like it should be so hard.
“A sword needs a whetstone to grind against for it to get sharper. The same is true for us. As we grow, we need a bigger challenge to clash with. That’s why so many people rush into dungeons and wilds, despite knowing the dangers posed by them,” Joseph said with another sigh.
“I decided to give up on becoming sharper to spend life with your mother,” he smiled, caressing Peter’s hair. He didn’t regret it a bit.
“Don’t worry, I will become the whetstone to grind against for you in a few years,” Peter promised him. Joseph didn’t have to risk his life chasing greatness… Peter would be his challenge.
Joseph smiled, then laughed. “Come, let me guide you through the meditation today,” he said, gently caressing Peter’s hair again. He couldn’t be any prouder.
…
Chew, chew, chew.
Peter spared a side glance at David. “What are you eating?”
“Pickled cucumber,” David muttered in a bored tone, staring ahead while offering some to Peter.
Peter lightly slapped his palm away and sighed. “No thanks.”
“How did you do it?” David asked, still munching on the cucumber.
“Do what?” Peter asked back, looking at the stars. He loved watching stars.
“Skill high.”
“You ask me?” Peter looked at him properly. “Who do I ask? It sort of just happened,” he added with a shrug.
“I see.”
They fell into a peaceful silence for two minutes.
“Sometimes I feel jealous of you. You are good at everything that you do, and whenever I do something wrong, people praise you and tell me to be more like you.” David meekly confessed, with a guilty look.
“David…” Peter sighed.
“I get that, you know. You’ve always been weird. I didn’t mind it before when Charles and Monica were with us. I told Dad about it.” David carried on, standing up and stretching his body.
“What did he say?” Peter asked, guilt surfacing over the whole situation. David was just a kid.
“He said that the village is too small for someone like you. He told me your father was like this too and that if I don’t want to be left behind like him, then I should try harder.”
Peter just listened quietly from his position on the grass bed.
“Maybe I won’t be able to surpass you, but I could at least stand beside you. I’ve decided to follow his advice,” David said, turning to look at Peter with serious eyes. “I won’t be left behind.”
Peter could respect the fire in his eyes. He nodded back with a smile, “Good luck, my friend.”
…
Peter followed his father to the backyard, training sword in hand.
“Stop laughing, this is serious. My best friend feels jealous of me,” he yelled from behind. He was seriously worried.
Joseph chuckled but responded calmly, “You’re making it a bigger issue than it is.”
“Really?” Peter shot back.
Joseph sighed and turned to face him. “The only advantage you have against him is that you’re exceptionally mature for your age. He’ll realise that soon enough.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “In fact, if anything, you’ll have to catch up to him. He’s older, and the stat gap between you and him is only going to increase once he gets his class.”
…
Peter didn’t see David for the next week.When they finally crossed paths again, it was during the evening sparring session.
Peter had been on a losing streak all week. Everyone he faced was older and bigger than him, each more skilled and boasting higher stats. In David’s absence, he’d been forced to spar with people at least eight years older. Mana reinforcement helped close the gap a bit, but not enough.
So, when David returned, Peter felt genuinely happy to see him.
Tom immediately called the two over to spar against each other. Peter was ready, hands itching for action as he stood across from David.
David held his weapon of choice, a wooden version of a battle axe with a hammer on the back. Both stood a meter apart when Tom stepped back and muttered, “Begin!”
Peter raced forward at once, closing the distance with determined eyes, sword raised for a midsection slash. His eyes widened as David let out a war cry, forcing him to turn his sword upward in a hasty defence. That swing was too fast.
A grunt escaped him as he struggled to stop the axe from digging into his shoulder. It was heavy. Peter tightened his grip and pushed back, managing to create some distance between them.
But David wasn’t giving him any time. He followed immediately, swinging the hammer side of his weapon at Peter’s knee with alarming speed.
Desperately, Peter dodged, abandoning any pretence of pride, and rolled sideways. He realised he was on the back foot. Barely managing to stay unharmed. David controlled the battle with his momentum.
The rest of the spar didn’t go any better. Every time he dodged one swing, David's weapon was already coming down for the next strike. In the end, Peter failed to dodge in time. The final hit landed clean, and he lost the spar.
“That was brutal,” he muttered, sweating from the activity as David pulled him up from the ground.
“Thanks,” David replied with a grin.
“I—… Fine. That was brutally cool. I didn’t know you were that good with that thing,” Peter admitted, walking off to the side to give others their turn.
“Where were you for the past seven days? I was about to visit your house in a day or two.” He said, sitting down in a corner to rest. His breath was still high.
“Father was busy at the shop, finishing a big order. And Mother was sick. I was taking care of her,” David explained, raising his palm to stop Peter from interrupting. “She’s fine now, you don’t have to worry.”
“That’s good then,” Peter nodded, sighing in relief.
Looking around, he spotted Noelle and Sasha standing nearby in a small group. He shared a glance with David before the two of them walked over.
“What are you all talking about?” Peter asked casually, stepping among them.
“Oh, hi, Peter. Done with sparring?” Sasha welcomed them with a smile, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“I might get called once more later,” he replied, nodding toward a pair of boys who usually sparred only with each other. Both had bows slung over their backs.
“We were just discussing teaming up and heading into the woods to catch some game,” Noelle explained, nodding at them.
“Is that safe?” David asked, curious. Once in a while, his meek attitude from his childhood showed.
“Of course it is. We’ve done it multiple times already. As long as you stay near the outskirts, all you’ll find are harmless small creatures,” the brown-haired boy assured him, a casual smile on his face.
“Yeah, the guards regularly clear the outskirts of dangerous beasts. Small creatures thrive there without predators. Easy prey for our arrows,” the other boy added, patting his bow proudly.
“Do you guys want to join us? It’s pretty fun,” Noelle offered, looking between Peter and David.
Peter hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. “I’d love to, but Mother would skin me alive if she found out…and she will.”
Noelle nodded, unfazed, before turning to David. “What about you?”
“Sure,” David said, nodding with a glint of excitement in his eyes. “It might help me get a better class.”