Woah! What detailed feedback. Thank you so much!!
I agree with pretty much all of that and, yeah, the game's pretty lacking in documentation (and core features) at the moment.
"[C1]" is placeholder for saying that an Action will be on Cooldown for 1 Round (C2 for 2 Rounds, etc). While on Cooldown, Actions can still be used but they cost a bunch more than they normally do. The v010 combat system doesn't properly show that because it sort of just 'ignores' Actions that are overbudget from being on Cooldown. If you're playing as the Emeritus (Professor), Combat is pretty straightforward at the moment. Your starting Actions are all fairly weak but very reliable. Actions work a bit like Pokemon Moves in that you can swap them out, train them, buy and sell them from particular vendors, and customize them (e.g. raising damage caps or changing what Attribute an Action is based on) but are ultimately restrained by your Action Budget in combat. (Note: This is the plan; unfortunately I haven't quite implemented that side of the Character Sheet just yet)
I'm happy to disclose that the upcoming patch will have speed controls for the text writing elements in the settings menu so you can make them as fast or as slow as you prefer. (I also cleaned up a bunch of Prototype stuff such as the button sounds for Combat, which now use the same crunchy/physical-button-y sounds the rest of the game uses)
Agreed on timing, I need to polish all that up before too long.
Hope you'll enjoy this upcoming patch (v015 "Dungeons and Depressions") where I hope to have made a bunch of that more clear and will have introduced the sequel Mystery to Flowers in the Mist as well as the Dungeon type of Mystery. My fingers are crossed that it'll be hitting tomorrow. Please feel free to leave more feedback if you want when I do. And thank you again!