I start playing few days ago and im alredy loving this

Ok now here are my questions:
1-does gm lvl of such skills as meditation, tactics or eval give an extra bonus to mana reg/damage?
2-Do i need poison skill to use poisoned weapon in combat?or i can poison the weapon with my mule and then give it to my dex (with no poisoning) for use?
3-How does the permagrey thing work here?Ive read somthing about that in the forum but i still cant get the point, lets take this situation:i steal with my thief from a blue player and i manage not to get caught by anyone, still i will turn grey to him.He then attack me: can i defend myself without taking a count or do i need to wait the 2 min criminal timeout?
4-I have sword on one of my chars but at 60 sword 60 tactics 90 strenght with a katana equipped i do a ridicolous ammount of damage, it takes me several hit to kill even a dog.Am i missing somthing?
Sorry for the many questions but its been a long time since the last time ive played this era, I thank in advance whoever will help me