It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 102 - Questions

"So I need to ask you a few questions about Skills and Talents and all the other good stuff." Aarav started once they were out of the room and on their way back to the lab, the Slime cradled in the Potion Master's hands.

"Hmm, what would you like to know?" Haemish replied.

"Okay, I notice that there is something that changes with Skills when they get to level ten, and then I am assuming that it happens again at subsequent levels as well?" Aarav asked, remaining guarded with his knowledge; he wasn't giving away anything he didn't need to. Am I being pointlessly overcautious?

"Ahh, you mean the Plateaus!" Haemish replied with satisfaction.

"Oh, that's what they are? I figured there was something special about them."

"Yes, indeed, you are correct. As you have rightly identified, the First Plateau is Level ten, then another at twenty-five, then forty-five, seventy and then one hundred. Those are the first five and the primary ones." Haemish glanced down at Aarav in his hand with a small crease in his brow. If Aarav had to guess, he would say the man was dissatisfied, but for the life of him, the Slime couldn't know why.

"Okay, I have a couple of follow up questions. First, what do the plateaus do exactly and second, if these are the primary ones, then it means there are other Plateaus, so what are they?" Then he waited patiently for the answer.

"Well, the Five Primary Plateaus are one of the things that I had planned to tell you about anyway. I suppose there is no harm in a little overview now," Haemish said, then proceeded in lecture mode. "The Five Primary Plateaus are, in essence, five pivotal points in a skill or magic's progression. It doesn't matter what the particulars of the Skill or Magic are; those are points that we as wielders have some control over the outcome of our abilities. You are right in that there are more, but that is not relevant at the moment. You are probably a long way from getting any Skill to Level one hundred!" Haemish said with amusement.

That's what you think, buddy!

"Okay, so we have control over the Skills and Spells, but what does that mean? How do those abilities change and why at those particular levels?"

"Those questions are worthy of a scholar, but they are honestly a little too complicated to answer right now. I will get to that later once you understand what Skills and Magic are all about." Haemish continued. "What you need to understand for now is that we have some control over how our Skills progress at these unique points in the progression, and we called those pivotal points Plateaus."

"You said that already." Aarav replied dully. He hoped this didn't become one of those times where the teacher decided that repetition was vital.

"Hmm, well, it is important after all!" Haemish sniffed at the Slime in his hand. They had made it down to the floor of the lab and Aarav only just noticed. Haemish seemed to have picked up the pace a little while explaining. I swear this guy is invigorated by this training stuff.

Indeed, despite Haemish huffing and grunting, there was a slight smile on the old Alchemist's face. "As I was saying before being interrupted. We can make adjustments to our abilities within reason, and different Plateaus will allow you to make different amounts of adjustments." Then he went off on his own and started spouting random words like he had forgotten Aarav was there. "Latent energy... build up...specific energy capacity..."

"Huh? What is that? Can you explain properly, please?" Aarav had to bring the man back, who blinked a little and then grunted and continued speaking as nothing had happened. This guy!