Her education included everything she could get her hands on.

"So what's with only having stone enough for the watchtowers?"

"We could get more but wood is a bit easier to come by and it's just the outer layer of the wall. It's efficient for the outer layer to be cheap to replace. And the wood grows unnaturally quickly as the system tries to spread the forest into the area we keep clear."

"...Yeah, I can imagine."

She pokes at her gloves with her power; those need fixing.

Her power seems satisfied at being given something streightforward to focus on and whispers about how to harvest leather from the squirrels she's carrying and actually improve the durability of her gloves her power can let her seamlessly merge the new leather into the old and even treat it to be the same color.

"It's a hard life but we manage to stay safe, we might actually be the safest settlement in a hundred miles. We even have regular communication with other nearby settlements thank whatever gods exist for satellites."

"...That's how far things have been - brought down - by this?"

Something straightforward seems like it's something she needs, just to let herself process that.

"...If I could be sure it would be safe, I'd just start evacuating the universe after hearing that."

"If a settlement falls then the system increases the difficulty level because there's less population. Well, that and the monsters can get points from orbs and meat the same as we can. It becomes a feedback loop that concentrates people into fewer and fewer enclaves. In many ways it's still better here than in some cities though. We have enough food to feed everyone. And we've learned to keep up with the new challenges the system throws at us and keep ahead of the power curve."

"...If whoever designed this System still exists, I am going to have words with them."

"I think there's a great many people who feel similarly. Though honestly, given how rigid the system is, I don't have high hopes for its designer, assuming it even has one, being receptive to feedback."

"If they're not around, then I'll just have to usurp their position.  They're clearly unfit, regardless."

"That would be a big change if it's possible. Nobody has found a path yet. According to the statistics it provides to Users who pass certain milestones the System has over three quadrillion users. Our world is simply one of the latest that it's integrated."

"Well, I do have an out-of-context power, so I have a bit more hope it's possible than I might otherwise.  Though I hope you'll forgive my not getting into details.  What the System knows can't hurt it, and all that."

"And what is your out of context power? So far I just know it involves being teleported in a way not fully under your control which doesn't seem that useful."

"That wasn't the power, that was the price I paid for it.  And like I said - I'm keeping its precise nature quiet, for now.  Of course, if the System is in fact reading my mind, that's probably moot, but nonetheless."

"It certainly seems like it is, you've paused in the ways people tend to when they use a non-verbal system interface."

"...You were watching me for much longer than I knew.

"Yes, I did reconfigure the interface - but that's a separate question to whether it's actually putting in effort to decode my thoughts, the ones I don't make legible to it.  Or whether it's reading yours."

"We have people watching from our walls at all times and I'm one of the people called when something unusual happens. As for whether the system reads minds for planning purposes, I couldn't say. It hasn't really needed to that I've seen it holds all the cards. It doesn't give out telepathy powers though for whatever that's worth. Mind control yes, telepathy no."

"...Well.  That's scary as fuck.  Almost makes me want to do something kind of stupid."

"Honestly it's not as scary it sounds... mind control is pretty easy to protect yourself from if you have a few mental points to spare and even without defenses there's ways to snap someone out of it."

"Ah.  So I don't, for example, need to Skill self-hypnosis to absurd levels?  Well, that's good.

"...How hard is it to get a point P+1 if you have point P?"

Also, can you convert points backwards?

"Self-hypnosis is one of the approaches I've seen for protecting against mind control. It's effective. And there isn't any sort of experience discounting. I would have gotten the same amount of points from those squirrels as you."

Point conversions are not reversible

"I see."

...

Do skills boosted by the System retain their applicability outside their immediate domain?  e.g. a chef knife-fighting with their supernal food-preparation skills?

Subskills with cross-purposes applicability are not limited to specific contexts.

Oh, good~

How do supernal skills grow?

System augmented skills are enhanced by use of points