Skills are Bullshit

Savanna Banana: Heya! Meet me at the campus gym I have something fun to show you! Promise you'll like it!

Jessica: As long as i am back home by 8 i still have my bday to celebrate eith my mom

Savanna Banana: Firstly, please use literally any punctuation or grammar. Secondly, see ya there! <3

On the way, Jessica texted her mother.

Jessica: Ill be home around 8 ill b with a friend so dont worry if i font reply love you

mother: Okay hun see you then.

Jessica then pulled up her character sheet to consider her stats again, now that she had a skill that is actually affected by her stats she was reconsidering saving them. On one hand using telekinesis for a longer time would be fun and likely useful somehow, on the other hand she still has no way to defend herself and can't currently think of any way her rather slow telekinesis could help if she does get into trouble. She was about to add some points to wisdom when Savanna started talking, Jessica hadn't even realized she had been thinking long enough to get to the gym.

"Hey cutie! The reason I asked you here is 'cause there is a zone my school maintains here meant for training. To get in to an existing zone you use basically the same intention as creating a zone but you don't need to push mana out. Some still raise their hand out of habit but its not really needed." To which she then disappeared leaving Jessica alone to hope she does it right, and with nary a thought focused on her GZ skill Savanna was in front of her again, only now did Jessica notice Savanna had changed into full coverage black sports bra and matching short workout shorts making her blush.

"Good job!" This caused Jessica's blush to deepen. "Now that we are in a zone, away from the mundanes, we can talk Ocean, abilities like I promised, and I can tell you why I brought you here specifically." To which she started towards what seemed to be a rack of weapons, and when she pulled out a pair of rubber knives Jessica realized it was actually that. "I want to train you in self defense, we are doing knives because they are lethal unlike normal fists, which is necessary in the Ocean, but mostly acceptable to carry around in the mundane world usually unlike guns or larger melee weapons." Jessica was handed one of the knives and Savanna got into a stance "First things first, you should try to copy this stance, its a very basic stance but is also very equal in defense and offense, a good start."

Jessica tried to imitate her but based on the giggle Savanna let out she was wrong. Savanna came over and adjusted her stance which didn't help Jessica's blush but did let Jessica realize what was wrong. Savanna got back into her stance then said, "now try to come at me, with a knife you will want to go for stabs more but a slash will still damage." After a moment Jessica lunged at Savanna which she easily side stepped and tapped the thigh nearest to her. "Good one, try not to leave your center so much." After half an hour of this Jessica was sore, down 5 HP from some rough falls, and up a new skill.

Savanna was ready to continue but noticed the difference in Jessica's stance and confidence so she stopped them. "What happened? You suddenly seem like you somewhat know what you are doing."

"I seem to have gotten a skill," Jessica pointed at the window that Savanna had politely ignored.

"So that's what that was? I guess now is a good a time as any to explain your abilities, we can do light sparring while we talk." To prove her point Savanna got back into position.

"Well this morning I woke up with a window in front of me, it said I had a quest to do a normal morning routine so I guess I can get quests from seemingly Gaia and-"

"Excuse me, Gaia? Are you certain? That's a big claim and the quest deal sounds more like the fixers, they're a large organization who give tasks out to seemingly random people, though I've never heard of a window."

"Well, later my system spoke to me and claimed to be Gaia, and gave me this item from thin air," Jessica said while pulling out the very real sign, this is the first time she had actually seen it and it fit the description perfectly, if a bit cartoonishly so.

"That doesn't really prove anything but lets continue with the assumption of truth," Savanna said while tagging Jessica.

"Well I also have nametags as I mentioned earlier, but also when I first noticed the name tags I gained a skill which lets me learn more information about someone, it doesn't give much now but I hope it's better at higher levels" Jessica got a strike in because Savanna seemed to be processing what she just said.

"That... you... do you have any idea how rare that is? How broken that is? No wonder Mr. Spiegel got you early if you were using that willy-nilly, scrycraft with any reliably detailed information is the kind of thing sneaky types and news people would kill to get their hands on and you expect it to get more detailed?"

"Well, it didn't with level 2 but maybe? And I don't think it's that much just name, level, a very vague name for their skillset, a title, and their relation to me."

"That is more than most but I can't find the words to make you understand. Moving on, what else you got?"

"Well obviously things I do turn into skills, I have numerical stats which when I level I get points to raise however I please, and I get achievements for notable things I do, though they seem to be mostly Gaia being sassy." Jessica let Savanna take that in while she took hits from the sparing, sometimes getting a lucky hit in.

"You are bullshit, genuinely complete bullshit, I trained so hard to get where I am and you just..." Savanna took a deep breath to reign in her frustration. "It's fine, it's whatever. Anything else?"

"Well, I don't take permanent injuries, I just have a HP bar." She thought a moment more while Savanna was astonished then remembered earlier after Savanna left her alone. "Oh yeah! Like I texted you I managed to make a telekinesis skill so I can throw swords around like a Jedi." To emphasize her point Jessica let go of her training dagger and it took flight heading towards Savanna.

"A Jedi? Well since you seem to have stagnated after gaining the knife skill why don't I teach you swords?"

Jessica's eyes lit up, "can I throw my sword?" At which point her mana ran out dropping the knife.

"Probably best to wait until you can manage to hold the knife for more than a minute," Savanna said with a giggle before she went back over to the weapons with both knives and traded them for swords. "This is a bit different but has similar core ideas to the knife, biggest thing is you'll want to aim for slashes more than stabs." She handed Jessica a sword and demonstrated a stance, corrected her, and lead her through some movements all again but for swords this time.

After 30 more minutes Jessica had another weapon skill and just a few more lost HP from fails.

"Woo! Kinda lame you don't seem to be getting better from sparring but at least you know how to defend yourself, which is useless without a weapon." Jessica's excitement at learning swords was doused by the realization she still didn't have a weapon. "Which is why I want to give you this." Savanna walked over to her bag and pulled out a well crafted plain leather sheath holding what seemed to be a combat knife, Jessica gave it an observe.

'Ka-Bar Knife

A well crafted steel knife made by a Fish to rival the mundane Ka-Bar brand of knives, due to Fish crafting techniques and materials it is slightly superior to the mundane brand.'

"A quality knife is a good first weapon for anyone, especially since you can get away with carrying this in mundane spaces," she said while handing it over.

Jessica pulled it and gave a few practice swings and jabs, it felt really good, she sent it flying with telekinesis for several seconds and found it maneuvered quite well through the air as well. "Thank you so much, not sure how much this will stop me from dying but it is better than my fists, though I don't think the ability to carry it around mundane spaces is super necessary, because I also have an inventory that acts a bit like hammer space." Jessica then opened said inventory and flew the knife right into it. 'Huh, good to know I can use telekinesis to put things in my inventory.' She thought as she took the sheath and attached it to her hip.

"Well I don't think my abilities are anywhere near as interesting, I have trained a large chunk of my life in a variety of weapons and a few martial arts and I have a small talent for conjuration magic which lets me do this," Savanna was suddenly coated in slightly transparent black armor and wielding a sword that was a fair bit larger than the ones they were just training with. "I mean I can summon any objects for a time but combat wise this is me."

"Huh, I guess 'Blade-Mage' was rather accurate." Jessica was about to suggest they experiment with her other abilities but a glance at the time reminded her she had plans. "Shit, I've gotta run, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah of course, have fun!" Savanna said as Jessica left the zone.

As soon as she was back in the real world Jessica power walked out of the college and started the walk home. She was very lucky to live so close to her college but that didn't make a 30-60 minute walk any shorter or more interesting. Usually she would be on her phone and following the main road but this evening nothing on her phone seemed nearly as interesting as this morning's distraction so she decided to take a shortcut she usually avoided.

This town wasn't exactly unsafe but a dark alleyway feels creepy and dangerous no matter where you live, dangerous enough to be worth avoiding when she isn't fully focused on the walk. As she entered the alleyway she felt more anxious about it than usual, in the back of her head she remembered what Mr. Spiegel said about her being in more danger because of her abilities and decided to pull her new knife out of her inventory. Halfway though the alleyway she swore she heard something and as she turned to look the world lost some of its color and text appeared in front of her vision.

You have been pulled into a Grave Zone, you cannot leave until the keeper allows you to or you gain control of the zone.