Thank you for your feedback! You increase skills by performing skill checks, which are indicated by red pluses. The pluses also indicate difficulty. You're right to assume that I have taken some inspiration from literature in my story. I'd like to include references from literature and other mediums throughout my story in the future. I also appreciate you pointing out what you saw on the character menu, this will be fixed in the second update coming soon. I appreciate you for trying my game, it really means a lot to me! :)