Chapter 21: Adam’s Admiration

Adam admired Ariel. Everyone who knew me, knew this about me. What they don’t know, is that it’s more than just looking up to her, and admiring her ability and generosity like all the others. I wish I could be her. Powerful and loving; that’s the woman I see.

Ariel doesn’t just do good things. She doesn’t just help her friends. She loves people, and tries to make the world itself better for everyone. She is no angel sent by god, I know this to be fact. I’ve seen her titles. There is no god to thank for her, there is only her. If worship granted power, I would worship her, and encourage others as well. We don’t need god, we need her. If everyone could learn to be like her, this whole world would be better. If I could be like her, I would be better.

I’m not obsessed, I just understand more than the others. When I asked her for advice on learning to craft like her, she suggested I start with analysis and insight. Analysis to understand what things are. Insight to gain an instinctive understanding of how they can be used. When I used these skills on themselves, I realized that her suggestion was far more important than I’d realized.

Analysis and Insight are both skills that access the world database. They also both rely upon the intelligence attribute of the user. I now understand how to begin work on improving myself.

First, a Personal Database. This will let me store information I’ve gained and access it easily without relying upon my normal memory.

Second, World Information Retrieval. This will let me obtain information from the World Database. The base power is very expensive, but if I limit how much I can access and retain, it becomes much cheaper.

Third, intelligence needs to be the attribute I make my highest as it will govern everything I intend to do.

Now, the great big sneaky trick: Intelligence helps me figure out what information is the most valuable to me. To keep the World Information Retrieval affordable, I had to limit what information I could access and how much I could keep. The access portion is limited to creatures and things weaker than me. The retain amount is restricted mainly by time. However, the time I spend searching the database is not restricted, only how much I take with me when I leave it (about one minute’s worth of study). Copying Ariel, I made this skill only work while sleeping for even more of a discount. So I learn every night, and store the information in my Personal Database.

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Sam’s View

When Adam said he’d focus on crafting to be more like Ariel, I assumed he’d pick up woodworking or something. Instead he’s become the house chef. I’m not complaining, the food is good, just surprising. He’s been spending a lot of time with Ariel, more than any of the rest of us, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t recipes they were discussing. I tried joining in, but I couldn’t understand it. How did the youngest of us, become the smartest? Makes me feel a little bit jealous.

Kelly:
“Instead of staring at them and getting worried about Adam stealing her away, why don’t you work on improving yourself? You know Adam will be staying behind to take care of this place when Ariel leaves with you for another town.”

Sam:
“What am I supposed to train in though? Ariel is so much stronger than me, there’s nothing I can do to help. You’ve got it easy. Training to be a guard and watch over the slums is pretty straight forward.”

Kelly:
“You just need to focus on the things Ariel isn’t good at.”

Sam:
“What do you mean? She’s good at everything!”

Kelly:
*quiet muffled laughter* “If you weren’t so blinded by love and watched over her properly, you’d notice. It’s pretty obvious. I’ll leave you to it.”

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Sam:
“Hey, Adam, you’ve been talking with Ariel a lot, do you know what she needs help with?”

Adam:
“Common sense.”

Sam:
“Huh?”

Adam:
“She has no idea what normal is, and would never be able to avoid notice and attention even if she cared enough to try. If she ever needs something done quietly or stealthily, she won’t be able to do it herself.

“You’ve had a lot of practice sneaking around without being noticed, right? Can you imagine Ariel entering a room and not being noticed?”

Sam:
“... I can’t. She stands out way too much.”

Adam:
“It’s not just her appearance, that can always be changed, it’s also her behavior. Everyone assumes she’s a sheltered young noble at first glance because she acts like a child that knows nothing of the world; gawking openly at everything she sees, and displaying no caution.”

Sam:
“Is there something I can do to help?”

Adam:
“Mostly, I’d recommend honing your skills at acting without being noticed, and your skill at talking your way out of trouble. Ariel might be able to win any fight she gets into with humans, but I think she’d prefer to avoid fights entirely.”

Sam:
“So I need to practice stealth.”

Adam:
“Don’t forget to learn skills and abilities for detecting and seeing through deception. I don’t think Ariel will be good at that, and you know quite well how greedy humans can be.”

Sam:
“Right, I’ll do that then.”