The presence of little Rylin made life so much better in ways I had never expected. Callia used to have little to no restraint on where her traps and pranks were set. I wasn’t much different, but now with little Rylin in the house, a large swath of safe zones was established. There were to be no pranks anywhere Mom went; the risk of hurting our infant brother made them unacceptable, and my sisters were in agreement with me on this.

  Couple that with my new favorite mode of travel, flying, and Callia is only really able to try trapping me while I’m with my various teachers. This raised the difficulty of catching me from hard to extreme. Though it seems Callia was getting a bit uncomfortable without the thrills she had growing up in the town forest. It was apparent to anyone watching her, and I felt it best to act before she thought of something crazy. Instead of having her run off on her own, I thought maybe exploring the outer forest wouldn’t be as dangerous from the air.

  Sure, birds did exist, and a lot of the top predators could fly, but they were far less common than land-based threats. So my next project was a Callia attack helicopter. The idea would be I operate a flying platform that would let Callia release her stress in the form of violence on the monsters below. I only had enough mana for short excursions, but that might be enough to let Callia blow off some steam. If I make the platform stable enough, it could also function as a prototype for the flying emergency response vehicle for the hospital.

  That was the plan, but it took longer than planned. My time had really been stretched thin between meditations with Nightshade, working as the mayor’s second, being a part-time healer with Crescent, and helping Master Yoren build all the new runic installations across town. However, it seems Callia managed to hang on long enough, having distracted herself with a mix of trying to master the Blade Aura that she saw in use at the festival and immersing herself in Dynamic Meditation. She even earned a new skill, Battle Meditation.

  Eventually I completed what I dubbed the junky duo hover device MK IX. The design was a bit like a quadcopter. It was the easiest design I knew of to hold something while maintaining stability. The whole form was bare bones because I needed it as light as possible to hold both me and Sis for the longest time, so we had an X with a rotary blade spinning on each corner and a pair of seats dangling by rope from the middle of the X. However, despite my reservations, I was confident enough to try using it.

  Sis was thrilled. So much so that she was willing to offer me amnesty for my past crimes, but that was contingent on the fact I regularly took her out hunting. News of my plans for the new flying device blew up into a big event, leading a lot of the townsfolk to go to the wall to watch us try hunting. Dad joined the patrol we would be shadowing from above, and the rest of our family joined to watch.

  From our dangling seats I had a simple set of controls: a joystick that could adjust forward, backward, turn right, and turn left; a lever for altitude; and a contact point for my foot that I used to feed mana. The joystick was all mechanically built with the help of Master Gam; the other elements were runework and enchantment, respectively.

  I feed the enchantments, and we achieve liftoff. The spectators are all cheering while I carefully get a feel for the controls. I had done a few test flights, but going out of town warranted caution. I pushed us forward and immediately regretted it as our chopper suddenly lost altitude. I rapidly increase power to compensate, but we also begin to lose control as our craft tilts dangerously.

  We dip down towards the ground spinning, but the extra lift kicks in, yanking us back up. It’s too much, and now we are spinning in circles. Instead of worrying about our ascending altitude, I focus on countering the spin. Overcompensation is a real hell as we swing wildly in the opposite direction. My mana is burning up fast, so gradually reduce lift to a more manageable level while continuing my efforts to gain control of our spin.

  Our altitude levels out a fair bit off the ground but still under the canopy of trees. I’m finally getting control of our direction, but we are drifting straight towards a tree. I put us in reverse, and we barely stopped before colliding with the tree. I reverse us back into the clearing in front of the wall, and finally we stabilize fully. I take a deep breath and a moment to glance at Callia. Only to get a manic smile in return. It seems I won't be the only pilot in the future.

  The forest is wide enough that we could navigate it if we were careful, but this is our first flight, so instead I stick to the clearing. More practice and developing the essential skills for janky helicopter flight would be first on the agenda before we try carefully maneuvering inside a hostile forest.

  Slowly I adjust our heading, and Dad has the patrol team follow us from below. As we travel, the noise from our device draws in all sorts of smaller monsters that have gathered around the edges of the woods. Sister goes to town shooting down at the bugs trying to attack the patrol team below. We gradually complete a whole loop around the non-sea-facing portions of town. Callia had managed to shoot three extra-large quivers of arrows down into the bugs. While it was undoubtedly fun, we were going to need an ammo solution if my sister wanted to keep coming out here.

  As we get back to the starting point, my mana is starting to get concerningly low. I have to push myself to the max to lift our craft to the crest of the wall, but I can’t quite get us onto it.

  “Bail!” I push aside my control console and jump for the wall. I can feel myself impacted as mana exhaustion shuts my mind down. I lose consciousness so fast I don’t even have time to mourn another doomed invention. Sis would be fine; she was much better at jumping than me anyway.

  Ick

  Callen and Callia sat across from each other, and between them sat a drink made of the most disgusting foods in town and 4 shot glasses. Callia had presented Callen a challenge: Whoever had the lower highest-level skill in each tier would have a shot of what she had dubbed the Ick. Callen looked at the brown shifting substance that reeked of a foul odor and went back to Callia.

  “You know, regardless of how this goes, we are both going to suffer, right?”

  “I don’t care; I swore an oath to see to it you will never know peace! I can’t risk baby Rylin, and you are always flying your glider everywhere! If I need to suffer to inflict suffering on you, so be it!”

  Quietly Callen resolved to move his prototype quadcopter up on his agenda.

  “Fine, but when you regret this, don’t blame me!”

  At the same time, both activated their statuses.

  Callen and Callia both carefully read through their status, finding the highest of each tier. Callen knows Callia has more high-level skills, but his foundational skills have always grown even as he diversified. His high level meant that the advantage was his. Meanwhile, Callia had always chosen to refine her skills to the limit over Callen’s playing around with countless skills, and even if he had a higher level, it was just fluff built on useless skills.

  Tier one :

  Callen Focus lvl 91 vs. Callia Archery lvl 92

  Winner: Callia!

  Tier two :

  Callen Meditation/Sense Mana 89 vs. Callia Bow Mastery 77

  Winner: Callen!

  Tier three :

  Callen Control Mana 84 vs. Callia Instinct 74

  Winner: Callen!

  Tier four :

  Callen Runic Mana Projection 56 vs. Callia Empower Motion/Instinct Track 49

  Winner: Callen!

  Callia just stares in disbelief. There’s no way, but somehow he had beaten her in every higher tier!

  “Stupid mana skills are always a tier higher than they should be.”

  Callia, in resignation, poured out the first shot and offered it. Callen grabbed his shot of Ick and, with great effort, forced it down. Callia, seeing her chance, took the bottle of Ick and chucked it out the window. Then she jumped out the window and flashed away. Callen just leaned over and groaned before dragging himself into the restroom to vomit whatever it was he had just drunk.

  The reason Callen's high level skills are growing faster is because while Callia spends countless hours training Callen pushes his skills in diverse methods enabling him to break through Skill Barriers easier.

  (also why did ChatGPT put a wig on the helicopter?)

  World Lore : Skill names / Tiers

  Skills are not a unified concept for someone Provoke might be a tier one skill for another it might be higher. The difference in tier will have the higher tier mastery always out perform a lower tier. The reasons for the difference are often attributed to the circumstances in which they are acquired. If someone angered a dragon they might earn a tier 4 provoke, but they will also earn a free disintegration. Their are some commonality between skills typically in progressive mastery skills.

  tier 1 : jobs / normal actions

  tier 2 : tool mastery / mundane specialty skills / foundational sense skills

  tier 3 : Mana's minimum (mana sense is the exception)

  tier 4 : Elite specialty skills with effects exceeding the perceived capabilities of someone's stats

  tier 5 : Divine minimum mortal maximum