It didn't take long for us to reach the house that Genevieve mentioned. It was just outside of the road. By going for about 100 meters [328.0 ft] to the left we easily reached it. But calling the place a house wasn't really fair. It was mostly a shack. A place where pretty much no one would use as their home. It looked more like an outpost than anything else. The kind of thing that forest rangers would use to sleep through the night, even though it wasn't as tall as the ones that should be in the middle of a forest.
As a matter of fact, the building itself was just three or four meters [9.8-13.1 ft] high. It also looked a lot newer than everything else and less well made, in a sense. Not that people didn't care about making a proper building, but it wasn't like the constructions from the old world. The materials seemed to be more ramshackled, something that was made with whatever was available instead of pieces of wood and metal that were pre-built for a specific purpose.
We quickly walked up the steps and reached the house proper, which was basically just one single room with various windows. Even Bessie, the horse, was going to sleep with us in this area. And Genevieve promised that she wouldn't crap everywhere. Then again, if she did, I wasn't going to clean it up.
Once we sat down, everybody took a moment to gather themselves. Astrid was double checking if her axe was fine, Michael was counting his arrows, Pamela was just sitting in the corner while hugging her legs. Maybe this ordeal was a bit too much for her and she was going to return with Genevieve. At least, that was what I was hoping would happen. I did promise that I would take her somewhere else, but if she decided to just go back, I wouldn't be the one arguing for her to stay.
This still gave me a chance to check with the System about everything we gained during this quick hunt. The first and more obvious benefit were our levels. As that one small crab hunt gave me not one, not two, but three levels in total. That was even more than what I gained by fighting Emperor Flathead. I was now at level 16. And since I knew that Astrid was pumping everything she got into Body, I decided to add the three points I gained into mind. Letting it sit at 15 while body remained at 12.
Since I was increasing both attributes at once, it was a bit hard to tell what each of them did individually. And now it was a good time as any to figure out.
Unfortunately, despite the level, and one more point of Energy getting me to a total of 14, I only got two new skills.
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Formless Crustacean Shell - Active - Aspirant
Cost: 1 Energy
One of the most paramount ways to protect oneself is the development of a sturdier carapace.
Particles form around the user's body to increase the natural resilience of the skin, emulating the shell of a crustacean.
Duration: 1 minute.
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Quick Swimming - Passive - Unranked
Passive
All life started in the water, and that's where you thrive.
Allows your body to move with more strength and precision when underwater
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But I didn't get any extra memory, which meant I couldn't add any other skills unless I remove something from my list.
Those skills were just OK, but nothing actually seemed to be worth swapping. Even if having a defensive ability could be incredibly powerful. But I couldn't bring myself to let go of any of my current skills. They all sounded good. Great even. Every single one of them was extremely helpful in one way or another.
{Memory Bank}, {Energy Storage} and {Body Regeneration} were three that I was not about to let go. {Formless Series} was also something that simply couldn't be replaced. {Compression} was the skill that I used the most and also the most versatile of them all. {Formless Ice Devil Lunge} was my big attacking skill. It would always be several times stronger than any of my regular attacks. {Formless Emperor Swipe} also was proving to be very useful, especially when combining it with {Compression}.
{Firestarter} was an excellent survival tool. Besides, it let me make fire with my hands. It was very hard to not see something like that happening and act natural. That was just so cool. Also, it was the type of skill that I was confident would result in something good later on. Maybe not right away, but eventually it would become something that let me imbue my attacks with fire. Or some sort of elemental effect. I was confident that this was the next evolution of the skill. Or maybe even something more impressive, like hurling fireballs with my hands or being able to create a flamethrower from my fingertips. The possibilities were numerous and I very much wanted to explore them.
The last was {Predatory Sense}. Which could be argued it wasn't as good of a skill as the others. After all, once I was fighting, the skill was mostly useless. But at the same time, I couldn't just ignore the benefit that it brought me. Several times during our journey I had felt a presence or an inkling that something was approaching us. Only to soon realize I was right and there was indeed something getting closer.
If I had given up on the skill, I might not be able to notice those minute changes in the environment and let myself be caught off guard by those roving beasts. Then again, it was also possible that the skill wasn't the one noticing incoming predators, but instead I was the one who was able to connect the dots related to the small changes in my surroundings. But at this point, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to test that or not.
As I was staring at the notification, thinking about the skills, a question popped into my head.
"Say, System? Can I change the names of the skills?"
[User desires to change the names of the skills?] the System asked.
"I mean, I don't think your naming sense is bad or anything, but I'm thinking about the Formless Series and it doesn't really seem appropriate."
[Inquiry, what does user mean when it says appropriate?]
"I mean, the whole concept of the Formless Series is that it's a skill learned by following the form of other things in the universe. Right? From like animals to stars and maybe landmarks or something. The idea is that I am going to learn from those things and make my own version of their movement or whatever it is. Right?"
[That is an apt description of the skill, yes.]
"Exactly, then why are all the actual skills named after something very specific? Isn't the whole point that it's formless. That it doesn't have an actual shape?"
[System has organized skill name as such to follow the type of creature that was killed in order to acquire said skill.]
"Okay. But every time I use one of the skills I hear the name in my head. The full name of the skill. It's a bit distracting. Why not simplify it a bit? Instead of {Formless Emperor Swipe} it's just {Formless Swipe} and then on the description you say that there's like an emperor variant because that's where I learned it from. Then if we get particles for a different variation, you can just add it to it instead of just having the skill be always the same."
[Analyzing user's suggestion.]
But before the System could answer, Genevieve sat by my side and started speaking.
"I don't think I ever thanked you for what you did."
"Thank me?" I frowned, looking at the woman.
"I mean, we were all being accessory to murder. Even if we didn't know it was going on, we did benefit from it. If you didn't show up, we might never have realized what was going on."
I shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know if many people would agree with that sentiment, but you're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help, even if things didn't actually work out well."
"Why do you say that? You saved everyone. Isn't that the definition of things working out?" Genevieve tilted her head.
"Because Amelia is still around. The murderer is still very much able to do it again."
"She won't. We have people keeping an eye on her all the time. She won't get a chance of doing something like that again." Genevieve's voice was full of confidence.
I just sighed at that. "If you say so. Honestly, I don't see how keeping her alive will result in anything that is not more problems."
"Do you really think we should have killed her?" Genevieve asked.
"I do. I really do. Even if she was a great leader who knew how to rule over a village. That doesn't change what she did. And more to the point, it doesn't change the fact that she could do that again. If another giant crab or another thing in general appears that seems to be able to protect you, what's stopping her from doing it all again?"
Genevieve blinked. "We are. We're not going to let that happen."
"Are you not? You think that someone who controlled an entire village for however long in order to sacrifice people to a giant crab for what years? Decades? Is not able to manipulate people into following her again? From what I understand, no one was even worried about what was happening to the people who went missing. I mean, seriously. How many people just decided to leave the village after the festival and no one batted an eye? I doubt people were that oblivious to everything."
Genevieve just stared at the ground for a moment. "I'm not going to say you're wrong. But that's not how everything worked. We were cautious and did think it was strange."
"Then why didn't you look for them?"
"Because..." Genevieve paused.
"Let me guess, the matriarch said everything was fine?"
Genevieve couldn't help but nod. "In many, many, more words than that, but yes. She convinced us that everything was okay."
"And what's stopping her from doing the same thing again? Convincing everybody that whatever new thing she discovered is better and safer for the village? Even worse, what if she got bored tired of jail and just tried to leave and manipulate whoever was in charge to do so? Also, before you even try to come up with an excuse. What about the other two? The head fisherman and the foreman? They were there. They knew what was going on. They tried to send the crab after us. No one said anything about going after them. I remember when we were leaving, the two of them were in the back of the crowd. What's that all about?"
Genevieve let out a sigh. "Amelia took the fall for everything. She said everything was her plan. She decided to do on her own and that the two of them didn't know anything about that. They also gave similar reports, and it was already hard enough to convince people to arrest one of them. All three was just impossible. They were… they are pillars to our village."
I shook my head. "Pillars that were surrounded by corpses. Never forget that."
"I won't. And I'll do my best to make sure no one falls for Amelia's manipulation again. I promise."
I got up and shook my head again. "Keeping her alive is what makes that a possibility. If you had gotten rid of the problem, you wouldn't have to worry about protecting people from it. If you can't see that, I have nothing more to say to you."
I walked off and sat by Michael. He was still staring into the distance, but that's when the System popped up with the answer to my question.
[Analysis complete. Users' suggestion has been accepted. {Formless Ice Devil Lunge} name change to {Formless Lunge}. {Formless Emperor Swipe} changed to {Formless Swipe}. The information about where those two skills came from have been added to the description of the skills. In the future, if a user is able to acquire more skills that fall into the category of an already acquired Formless skill, the current skill will absorb the relevant attributes instead of generating a new skill. Congratulations, user Cassandra for improving Formless Series rank.]
But before I could even stop to look at the new rank and see if there were any changes, Michael tapped my shoulder and sent a message through the System.
Michael: So, this feels weird, but do you mind helping me pick my class? This fight got me to tier one.