Chapter 17: Chapter 17
The moment Darius saw this, a wave of cool energy flowed through him, refreshing his mind, body, and soul. It appeared to have restored his HP and MP to their perfect values.
Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, it had alleviated all his fatigue and had either healed or reset his body to the same state it had been as when he had spawned.
This little mechanic could become crucial in preserving his life later on, just like it had saved him right now.
If Darius were to complain, then only because his Conversion Points had stayed the same. However, since his Trasmutation Ability was governed by its own set of rules, he had expected as much. Still, he would have preferred to be wrong on this occasion.
Darius opened his character sheet.
[Name: Darius Stone
Race: Human
Class: Itemancer
Subclass: Magus
HP: 49/49
MP: 42/42
Level: 2
Experience: 5/200
Strength: 7
Agility: 7
Endurance: 7
Intellect: 21
Charisma: 15
Luck: 15
AP: 5
SP: 3
Skills: Analyze - Lv.1
Spells: Sparks - Lv.1, Ember - Lv.1]
Darius rubbed his chin and pondered how to allocate his Ability Points and Skill Points. He could raise his sub-par physical stats to the average amount so that he wouldn't be as useless in battle, but he came to the conclusion that it would be a foolish choice.
Instead, Darius placed 4 points into Intellect, raising it to 25, while sending his last free point into Agility. He felt the changes almost instantly.
His mind felt like it had been cleared of debris that had been blocking his nerve paths, allowing his synapses to fire faster. It was like taking an attention enhancing drug, only this would be permanent without any side-effects.
It was truly an amazing experience, literally feeling yourself becoming smarter on the spot, instead of slowly over a period of time.
Not only that, but Darius also felt his body become slightly limber as if a weight he had been carrying on his back had been lifted slightly, allowing him to move more easily.
Darius smiled bitterly, for he had realized something. He could easily become addicted to the bliss he received when allocating stats, to the point where he might turn into a junkie.
As for his skill points, Darius had compared both his spells with each other. They both did the same amount of damage, but Sparks offered a stun effect whereas Ember offered a burning effect. Darius clearly preferred a way to control his enemy, so he chose to place everything into Sparks.
'Sharing my limited amount of SP between two spells would be the epitome of stupidity. What I need first and foremost is higher battle power to ensure my survival.'
[Sparks - Level 4 Spell
Cost: 1 MP
Description: Send out a sparkle of electricity that can zap foes into a short paralysis. This deals 20% lightning damage.]
Darius was excited by this change. Every additional level corresponded to 5% extra damage to the base spell, while the cost for casting had not changed at all.
The SP had increased the spell's effectiveness in every aspect!
With his 25 points in Intellect, one Sparks spell would now do 5 points of damage! The same Grey Bear could have been killed in four shots! Not to mention, if he scored a critical hit it would now be a massive 15 points of damage!
His Supreme System truly deserved its name. Its ability to enhance its user was mindboggling. Just one level increase and his power had quintupled straight away!
Darius looked at his last 2 Conversion Points and used a little bit of refill his flask. As great and miraculous his level up had been, it had apparently not solved a natural issue that would plague the young boy's body which was... hunger.
He had pre-emptively solved his thirst issue by creating a flask and then re-filling it with water. Now, it was time to prepare some food. Darius was not too worried about this, as he had an idea to save costs.
He took out his iron dagger and thrust it into the carcass of the Grey Bear. Without ceremony, he ripped apart its innards which were quite difficult and painful given his low Strength and the bear's tough hide.
However, he eventually got it done in time. What surprised Darius though, was that a notification popped up before him.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Skinning!]
Darius immediately checked the new skill out.
[Skinning - Level 1 Skill
Cost: 2 Stamina per minute
Description: Expertly remove the hide of any carcass with epidermal skin. The quality of all skinned hide is raised by 5%.]
Just like with the Ember spell, Darius felt a worth of knowledge flood his mind. He went from someone who was clumsily using a knife to tear open hide, to someone who could visualize the lines in which he should move his blade in order to effectively preserve as much of it as possible.
When he came out of his daze and looked at what he did, he almost vomited. Cursing himself for being such an amateur, he professionally separated the hide of the Grey Bear. Alas, just knowing how to do it did not make this task any easier as his body had remained the same.
While holding the slightly ruined hide of the Grey Bear, he felt lost. Yes, he had carved it out intently, but he didn't have any plans to use it! He didn't have the skills of a Tanner, so he could not cure it.
Still, Darius placed it in his Inventory. While he may not have such skills as of yet, he had discovered something interesting. He remembered that Caesar told him there were three ways to learn new skills.
The first was to learn it by teaching others or being taught, the second was to develop it oneself or train oneself in it and the final was through skillbooks. He had no way to do the first one yet, and he had overestimated the second one for sure, thinking only the third one would be relevant until he entered civilization.
But clearly, he had underestimated his trusty companion. The Supreme System had once again displayed its prowess by taking the clumsy acts that resembled a skinning skill and had actually presented him with the full thing.
Not only that, but he had gained the functional knowledge of the skill as if it came from a skillbook, which confused him. If this was the case, then what was the point of learning or buying skillbooks should they exist in stores?
Darius then pondered deeply and could only make a shaky assumption, which was that the Skinning skill was regarded as so basic and simplistic that even mimicking it had been enough to grant him the skill.
After all, once learned, he would have to use skill points to level it up. Caesar had stated as much, so even if he coincidentally discovered an old wise man who was a Grandmaster Skinner nice enough to train him, his skill would not grow in the slightest.
From this, Darius learned of an important dynamic for his skills system that could be summed up as: 'Easy to learn, hard to level up.'
Chapter 18: Chapter 18
Darius had a limited amount of skill points he would receive each level and it was currently unclear whether he would gain less of them when he entered the Journeyman stage or if they would stop altogether.
His spells would naturally take precedence, so it was unlikely that this skill would ever progress beyond level 1, meaning that Darius would forever remain at the level of an Amateur skinner.
On the pro side, Darius would be able to acquire basic knowledge in as many fields as necessary to make himself somewhat adept. As for the con, it was that he would never progress further and would basically be giving himself a list of mouths to feed.
More skills with a finite amount of skill points was not a pleasant thing and would increase the pressure for him to choose effectively. This was why the saying 'jack of all trades, master of none' had been developed and used as advice for those who wanted to be proficient in too many things at once.
Whatever the case, Darius had a new skill and he would use it for as long as it was necessary. While such a thing might cause headaches for lesser men, Darius had no problem because he knew how to prioritize.
He flipped his iron dagger and plunged it into the meat of the Grey Bear, but not as carelessly as before. This time, he carefully tried to cut along the tendons in order to mimic a butcher.
After doing this for a minute or so, he received another notification.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Butchery!]
[Butchery - Level 1 Skill
Cost: 2 Stamina per minute
Description: Expertly carve up the meat of any carcass with flesh. The quality of all butchered meat is raised by 5%.]
Another misc skill he would never increase but was useful at this moment. Once the knowledge flooded into him, Darius changed the way he held the dagger and began separating the meat semi-expertly.
The end result was a lot of prime cuts that glistened with fat and blood, but also stank like a slaughterhouse. Luckily, he could easily get rid of it by placing what he had collected into his Inventory.
Of course, he certainly couldn't cut up the entire carcass with his limited knowledge, so there was still some meat around certain parts like the ribs, head, and lower torso.
Darius saw no reason to tempt any predators to add him to their meal list alongside this fine carcass, so Darius quickly walked away from the site of the battle.
Now that he had exited the forest, all he saw were endless plains before him, with pockets of trees here and there. There were also a few hills that blocked his eyesight to the horizon, but nothing too jarring.
He spotted quite a few plains animals moving about in their herds calmly, only giving him cautious glances when he got too close.
Of course, there were also predators that began chasing after those herds every now and then. Darius pretended not to see such things and kept his distance when it happened.
However, to remain unmolested through his casual stroll had turned out to be impossible. Eventually, he was confronted by a small pack of hyenas that were giggling menacingly as they took in the sight of this solitary pink skin with tender features.
Darius could swear that if they could speak, they would be thoroughly mocking him. They numbered a dozen and had fully surrounded him where he stood, even making dashes towards him then pulling back when he turned to face them.
He Inspected one of them.
[Laughing Hyena - Level 2 Beast
HP: 5/5 MP: 0/0]
Darius snorted when he saw this. Here he had thought they would be powerful, but it turned out they were just level 2 beasts with health at the level of the Wild Boar. Even the Reticulated Python had been far stronger than any one of them.
However, the issue was that they came at him as a pack of 12, and he only had one hand to cast. Darius had tried double-casting when he had been finishing off the Grey Bear, but although he was able to spam his spells, he had discovered that he was unable to cast more than one spell at once.
Even though a single Sparks could kill any one of the Hyenas, he'd have to fire it off 12 times to clear them all out. Darius estimated that while he might be able to kill 3 or 4 of them by using his spell, the rest would use that time to rip him to shreds.
However, despite his lack of professional knowledge of wildlife, Darius saw an avenue to correct that. He took out the iron dagger and held it in his right hand while he pointed his left at one of the Laughing Hyenas.
They looked surprised by his gesture and were wary of the weapon he held, but didn't back off. After all, he was a trapped prey that they were toying with, so there was no need to run.
Nothing could prepare these beasts for the sight of electrical bolts striking one of their own, shocking the creature to death as it fell into a slump.
Darius shouted and rushed forward with his dagger, waving it around while he pointed at another hyena. Due to his threatening moves as well as the effectiveness of his surprise magic attack, they all scattered backward in fear.
This was the particular racial trait of hyenas that Darius had aimed to exploit. They loved to prey on the weak but would turn tail in front of the strong. By killing one of their own instantly, and charging at them fearlessly, he had temporarily overwhelmed their base instincts and left them in fear.
This wouldn't last long obviously, so Darius cast another shot of the Sparks at a random hyena with his right hand that was holding the dagger, as they were fearfully focused on the hand he used to cast from previously.
His second target had no time to react before it was struck to death. The other hyenas leaped away from their deceased companion in fear and began yipping at Darius with a mixture of fear as well as anger.
Darius understood that they were warning him not to come closer, but he would be a fool to show even the slightest weakness in front of vindictive beasts like hyenas.
He thrust his hand out at a group of the hyenas and they yelped and dodged. He didn't cast a spell obviously, for if they realized that it was possible to dodge his magic, his danger rating would drop severely in their minds and he would be swarmed.
Instead, Darius made a show of clutching his belly while laughing at them. The act of mocking an enemy was universal, and even animals could understand it.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
stone 
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