Download App
3.93% The Author's POV / Chapter 32: Skills [1]

Chapter 32: Skills [1]

"Report everything that happened since we lost connection to you guys"

Neatly standing in a line, white-clad individuals stood with their backs straight and with their hands behind their back.

In front of them, Thomas stood there looking at them solemnly.

Stepping up, a white-clad individual with a golden ring on his arm spoke.

"Reporting to Vice-Director, during the sandstorm some sort of radio frequency disruptor was installed preventing us from communicating with the outside world."

"We also couldn't communicate with each other, and because of the low visibility I ordered them to stay within one meter radius of the closest person next to them"

Nodding his head, Thomas took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one of them. Placing the cigarette in his mouth, he exhaled a cloud of smoke as he listened to the report.

Puff!

"As demonic energy was detected before entering the gate, using the energy detector we managed to locate the source of the demonic energy"

Pausing slightly, the captain looked around at his team members and said "the eye of the storm..."

"...Hm? The eye? Are you sure?"

"Affirmative"

Frowning, Thomas pinched the middle of his brows and contemplated.

'If the source of the demonic energy was within the sandstorm, then it can be confirmed that this was an artificially created sandstorm...but why create a sandstorm?'

Suddenly, as he was contemplating, a thought struck him, causing him to quickly focus his attention back on the alpha team captain.

"Did you enter the eye storm?"

Shaking his head, the captain spoke "Negative, by the time we arrived at the edge of the storm everything had already started dying down"

"..huh?"

Surprised by this information, Thomas's frown deepened.

"When everything died down, we managed to catch a glimpse of a black castle not far from where we stood"

Interrupting once again, Thomas thought of something as he asked

"...A black castle? Describe me its features"

"Here sir"

Taking out a tablet, the captain handed it over to Thomas who scrolled through the photos. Soon his face revealed a trace of astonishment

"This is the work of a Baron or higher ranked demon!"

"Pardon?"

Confused, the captain tilted his head.

How could a Baron-ranked demon or higher be able to enter an F rank dungeon?

"Here take a look at this"

Pointing at the castle in the picture, Thomas pinched his fingers and zoomed in. Soon the features of the castle became clearer revealing what seemed to be a small beacon.

"This!"

Nodding his head, Thomas's face darkened, and gravely said "Yes, it's a mana compressor"

A mana compressor was a device used by the demons to compress all the mana inside of a dungeon. In doing so, they could create a small bomb with a power equivalent to five atomic bombs. The force released by the bomb was so strong that it would cause the pocket dimension to crumble, resulting in monsters suddenly appearing in the human world. A dungeon overload.

Fortunately, monsters couldn't adapt to Earth's thin atmosphere. Else the consequences would've been disastrous.

Moreover, a mana compressor could only be utilized by Baron-ranked demons or above. That was because only Baron-ranked demons or above could withstand the power of the mana compressor without going insane.

Once a demon reached a noble rank, not only did they become stronger, but their mental fortitude increased by many folds. A mana compressor concentrated all the mana that was directed to it into a ball of thick dense energy. But in order for it to do so, it needed someone to direct mana into it.

This required an absurd amount of mental strength as one needed to direct all the mana in the atmosphere into a specific point. That's where a Demon came in. The Demon would send a clone of their body in the dungeon and through the connection they had with their clone they would direct the mana towards the mana compressor which would slowly condense all the mana that was directed to it. Only Baron-ranked demons or above could do so.

"I can't believe they were scheming such a thing from underneath our noses"

Staring at the tablet for a bit, Thomas looked at the captain and asked

"...Fortunately it seems like the mana compressor has stopped working. Did you find anything else?"

Nodding his head, the captain responded

"Affirmative. We have found a survivor"

"...Ah yes how could I forget that!"

He vaguely remembered hearing something about a survivor, but at the time he was too focused on making sure everyone was alright that it slipped through his mind.

Scrolling down the tablet in his hands, his finger directly paused on a photo.

Though when he had previously met him a mask covered his face, Thomas was instantly able to identify the person in the picture.

"It's him?"

...

Slowly opening my eyes, I blankly stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a moment, then slowly I turned my head to the side. As my head cleared, a strong pungent smell of alcohol invaded my nostrils. The room was silent and apart from my heavy breathing, only the beeping sound coming from the electrocardiogram in the corner of the room could be heard.

A throbbing pain hit my head as I looked at my body which was covered in bandages. Aside from the bandages, long metal wires that connected to the electrocardiogram were attached to my body.

I tried to get up. But once I tried to move my upper body, it was instantly engulfed in pain, refusing to listen to me. Slowly, my body sank onto the large white mattress.

Laughing bitterly I could only lay there pathetically, hoping for the pain to disappear. Staring at the ceiling, illuminated with white fluorescent light, a myriad of questions emerged in my head.

How long have I been here? Where am I? What happened? Shutting my eyes, I tried to remember what had transpired prior to waking up in this unfamiliar environment.

-Clank!

But before I could reminisce, the door of the room opened, and a doctor wearing a blue short-sleeved scrub top with a white coat and similar blue colored pants entered the room.

Behind the doctor, a rough blonde individual sat on a chair with his legs crossed and a newspaper in his hand.

"Mr Thomas?"

"...hm?"

-Rustle!

Noticing something, Thomas, who had previously accompanied me to the gate, put away the newspaper in his hands and entered the room.

He looked the same as when I first met him, but differently from last time he was currently wearing a brown suit which was full of wrinkles.

"How are you feeling?"

"…Alright, I guess?"

"That's a relief"

Sitting down next to my bed, Thomas loosened his necktie and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"Do you mind?"

Shaking my head, I turned my head around and looked outside the window.

It was currently nighttime in Ashton city, and the city lights brightly lit the area around the hospital.

"Puff...Ah, just what I needed"

Puffing a cloud of smoke, Thomas leisurely leaned back and also looked at the brightly lit night.

"You did good kid"

"Hm?"

"Because of you, we managed to stop a possible dungeon desync, which would've resulted in a serious loss for us"

Pausing slightly, Thomas deeply looked at the star-filled night "...so after a brief discussion with the higher-ups a decision was made..."

Once again pausing, Thomas turned his attention towards me and couldn't help but let out a dry laugh as he spoke "Well...they decided to grant you a skill"

"A skill?"

Opening my eyes wide, I immediately shook my hands and refused.

"I haven-t nearly don-e enough to receive a skill!"

Although outwardly I looked humble and surprised, inwardly, I was rolling my eyes. 

...I just almost died, this was the least you could do.  Still, although my bewildered reaction was mostly acting, I was still slightly surprised.

If in this world if someone were to ask you what the most sought-after thing was, most wouldn't even think twice before answering 'skill'.

Even though monster parts, martial manuals, weapon manuals, cores were all things that held tremendous value, in the eyes of people their worth was far lower than skills.

Unlike martial arts, weapon arts, or anything that required some sort of mastery, skills could be learned instantly.

Typically a person would spend years learning a technique before they could proudly say that they had mastered it.

However, with skills all you needed to do was learn it and all the information would instantly be transferred in your brain. There was no need to train the skill, as once you learned it you were capable of instantly using it.

It was a total cheat.

In a matter of seconds, you could do things that would generally require someone years of training to master.

I mean who wouldn't want them?

Skills could be found inside of dungeons, and just like cores, you could get them from monsters.

However, the drop rate compared to cores, which was already quite low, was even slimmer, resulting in skills being extremely rare.

And thus once the first skill was discovered, similarly to cores, a huge uproar ensued as everyone started coveting them.

I mean who wouldn't want to become stronger without putting that much effort?

From that point on, whenever a skill was found, huge auctions would be established. A single skill could go up for at least a couple million U in the auctions.

"Hahaha, is helping us not lose a dungeon that earns us millions of U each day not something worth a skill? Plus we aren't really going to give you a high-ranking skill, just an F-ranked one."

"eh...I guess you do have a point, but an F-ranked skill is still a skill..."

"Ah just don't fuss over such trivial thing"

'How can an F-ranked skill be considered a trivial thing?'

I thought to myself, as I once again realized how rich and powerful the black market was.

To call an F-rank skill a trivial thing just goes to show how powerful of an organization they were.

Although F-ranked skills were on the lower end of the spectrum, they were still worth a huge amount of money.

Seeing how they didn't think much about an F-ranked skill, I couldn't help but wonder how many skills they had with them...could they possibly be in possession of S-ranked skills?

If so, then I had really underestimated how influential the black market was...

Even as the author of the novel, I didn't know much regarding the black market as I never dwelled too deep on them in the story.

They were merely a convenient organization that the protagonist used to facilitate his growth.

I just knew the general layout of the organization, the identity of some of the higher-ups of the organization, but other than some other trivial information the black market was shrouded in a veil of mystery.

But it seems like they were a far bigger organization than I had made them out to be...especially if they were in possession of multiple S-ranked skills...which were far harder to find.

There were only 18 S rank dungeons known to mankind.

Which was a dramatic difference compared to F-rank dungeons which numbered over tens of thousands.

As the supply was lower, the number of skills that could be acquired was also lower. Moreover, S-rank dungeons were far harder than lower-ranked ones, making S-rank skills that much harder to acquire.

one S-ranked skill could pretty much allow someone to buy a small city. That's how expensive they were.

But it has to be said that, although S rank skills were indeed much stronger than lower-ranked skills, that didn't mean that low ranking skills were useless.

In fact, lower-ranked skills, depending on the person, could turn out to be far more useful than an S-ranked skill.

Take an assassin for example. If they were given the option to choose between D-rank skill [Shadow cloak], a skill that enables the user to hide under a shadow, or S-ranked skill [Tyrant's wrath] which was a mass AOE skill, they would obviously prefer the D-ranked skill which was better suited for their profession.

At the end of the day, it all came down to how compatible you were with the skill.

"Alright, you better rest now."

Standing up, and straightening his wrinkly suit, Thomas flicked the cigarette in his hand and lightly stomped on it with his foot.

"Once you recover, I'll guide you to where you can collect your skill"

Finished with what he wanted to say, Thomas turned around and left the room.


Chapter 33: Skills [2]

Fortunately, thanks to how advanced the technology of this world was, all my broken bones and cuts were healed overnight. What used to take months to heal back in my previous world, healed overnight. Truly miraculous.

It was Sunday morning, and Thomas came to pick me up.

...It was finally time for me to collect my reward. A skill.

I had originally planned on acquiring a skill when my strength reached a certain level, but it came as a pleasant surprise for me to be able to get my hands on one this early in the novel.

It has to be noted that within the academy, apart from the professors, only a small percentage of students had skills. This was including the third years.

Only the rich second-generation heirs could even have a chance at acquiring a skill, and even then, they could only gain access to at most a couple. They were just too expensive and rare for guilds to freely give them away...

Following Thomas inside of a remote location that was heavily guarded against all directions, arriving in front of a large building that seemed to look like regular storage space, Thomas nodded towards an empty space.

Soon a couple of shadows in the form of two white-clad guards materialized in front of us. I was slightly startled by their appearance, but I soon calmed down. The people guarding this place should obviously be strong, else what was the point of even storing such valuable things here?

After doing multiple checks on Thomas, the guards that were clad in white hid in the shadows completely masking their presence.

After seeing the guards disappearing, Thomas placed his palm on the wall.

-Clank!

A couple of seconds after placing his palm on the wall, a small section on the wall disappeared revealing a small compartment that contained a digital 6-digit lock.

-Beep! -Beep! -Beep!

Arriving in front of the box, Thomas quickly inserted the passcode.

Right after inserting the password, a green light blinked a couple of times, and soon after, in a similar fashion to before, a small circular compartment appeared on the wall.

Opening his right eye wide, Thomas leaned on the wall and placed his eyes on the hole.

-Clank!

-Voooooom!

Seconds after placing his eye on the wall, a loud rumbling resonated across the surroundings and the overhead door slid upwards.

"That's one hell of an annoying process!"

Stretching his back, Thomas grumbled as he waited for the door to completely slide upwards.

As soon as the door opened completely, I felt a blinding light enter my eyes, prompting me to cover my eyes with my arm.

After the light dyed down, a completely unknown world was presented before me.

A thick metallic scent instantly entered my nostrils as I passed the large metallic gate. Soon, the scent was replaced by an aromatic scent that pleasantly enveloped my nose.

Beyond the door, an open entryway with high ceilings painted with vivid imagery depicting an image of several humans fighting against a demon instantly caught my attention.

The marble floor polished to the point that the lights neatly reflected on the marble, reminded of a clear lake that gently reflected the sun rays coming from the sun. Arriving inside of a spacious room with patterned walls, heavy curtains, area rugs, high windows, and upholstered furniture made of heavy oak, Thomas told me to patiently sit down on a red sofa.

Feeling my body sink on the sofa, I nervously waited for Thomas. To say I wasn't nervous would be a lie. Although there was no one present in the room, it felt as if a million eyes were staring down at me, watching my every move.

Every moment that Thomas was away felt like hours.

Fortunately, the wait did not last for long and Thomas soon came back with a red card in his hand.

"Follow me"

Handing me the card, he urged me to follow him as he walked towards a certain area within the facility.

Nodding, I followed along as I admired the hallway that was filled with paintings, designer pieces, and other artistic décor that made this place feel like an establishment for the filthy rich.

Soon we arrived in front of a large safe door, in which two individuals patiently stood. However, what instantly caught my attention was the fact that although their uniform was similar to the regular guards in the black market, contrary to their white color, theirs was red. Indicating that they had a higher status than the white-clad ones.

...made sense since they were the last defensive line that led to the vault.

Nodding to the guards, Thomas's footsteps halted.

Looking at me solemnly, he said "Alright before I leave, let me warn you in advance"

"You are only allowed to choose one skill, let me repeat ONE skill."

As he spoke, Thomas repeatedly emphasized the fact that I could only take one skill. Looking at me to make sure I understood, he continued

"As you already know, skills are expensive...even for us".

"Though our organization may be powerful, giving away skills to non-members is still a bit of a burden for us. If not for the fact that you helped us solve a major crisis we would've never considered giving you a skill"

Listening attentively, I repeatedly nodded my head. Everything that he said I already knew. His seriousness was understandable as skills were indeed worth a lot.

Pausing slightly, Thomas had a gratified smile on his face as he looked at me who understood what he said. Taking the red card from my hand, he handed it to the guards.

"Another thing you need to remember is that the skill you can choose can only be between rank G and F. Higher ranked skills will be inaccessible to you"

"The vault you're about to enter has three floors, in which you will only be granted access to the first floor."

Lightly chuckling, Thomas teasingly looked at me

"If you managed to repeat what you did again, we might just grant you access to the higher floors"

"I'm good"

Instantly my mouth twitched as I wholeheartedly refused. No way would I want to go through that experience again.

"Alright, I'll wait outside. Once you're done with choosing your skill, you can directly learn it under the watch of one of the guards."

Finishing what he wanted to say, Thomas stepped to the side and allowed me to enter the vault.

"Stand there"

Stopping in front of the door of the vault, the red-clad guard pointed towards a certain point.

-Voom!

Following his order, I stood on the spot that the guard pointed. Soon my whole body was enveloped in red light.

-Ding! -Ding!

"Alright you're all set"

-Beep!

-Krrrrrr

Swiping the card on the vault, a green light appeared following which a loud rumbling could be heard as the door of the vault slowly opened.

"Alright, have fun kid"

Nonechantly waving his hand, Thomas leaned on the wall and took out a packet of cigarettes only to be glared at by the guards causing him to bitterly smile.

Amusingly shaking my head I headed towards the vault.

-Clank!

Stepping into the vault, the door behind me closed. Soon silence enveloped my surrounding.

Looking up, I could see, large, sturdy bookshelves lining the walls, marching across the floor in colorful rows, stretching all the way to the end of the first floor. A staircase leading to a second level could be seen at the end of the room.

"Wow..."

The endless amount of skills presented in front of me left me flabbergasted. In the F rank section alone, there were no less than a thousand books.

Skills, like in games, came in the form of a book. That's why this place looked no different from a regular library.

Each book had a different color and represented the different affinity of the skill book ranging from, fire, water, earth, and so on.

-You have one hour to select your skill

Just as I was in a daze, snapping me out of it was a cold voice that came from the speaker in the corner of the room.

Quickly recollecting myself, I looked through the G and F rank sections.

Because there were so many skills to choose from, I immediately decided to narrow down my scope of search. First things firsts, I immediately choose to exclude skills that required a high mana consumption.

Because I was not a mage, my mana capacity was fairly low. Choosing a skill that drained of all the mana in my body would be extremely detrimental for me as the [Keiki style] too used a bit of mana whenever I execute a skill. If I didn't use mana, there was no way I would've been able to move so fast.

Excluding that, my scope diminished dramatically. Secondly, I needed a skill that shared some synergy with the [keiki style]. When fighting against Baron of Everblood, I noticed that although the [Keiki style] was powerful, in the beginning, stages it was a fairly subpar sword art. Mainly because once my first move was blocked I could no longer do anything else as shown how Baron of Everblood negated me by allowing my sword to penetrate his body.

I needed something that could buy me time so that I could readjust my stance...or at least something that complemented my fighting style.

Having narrowed it down even further, I decided to look through the F and G sections.

Looking through, I couldn't help but drool at some of the skills. I found some especially amazing skills. One especially caught my attention.

[Fist of fury] : A punching skill that conglomerates all the mana within a certain radius releasing a devastating punch that can leave devastating damage if someone is caught off guard. Monetarily increases strength by a factor of two.

Reading the description of the first skill I picked up in the F rank section, my mouth dropped in an 'o' shape.

"Increases strength by a factor of two?"

...That's terrifying.

Especially if someone who was already super strong used the skill. Imagine one of the heads of the union using this skill. Their punch alone could probably shake a whole mountain.

This skill basically became scarier the higher someone's rank was.

...if this was the standard of F ranked skills, a shudder ran down my spine thinking about the higher ranked skills.

Though I knew some of the S ranked skills that Kevin would later acquire, it didn't stop my mind from imagining the devastating scene they would cause in real life.

Thank god, they were rare.

Looking through the bookshelves, I paused every now and then to get a better understanding of some of the skills.

This continued for thirty minutes until finally, I managed to narrow down my selection to three skills. Two of the skills were F rank, while one was G rank.

[{G} Monarch's indifference] : Skill that enables users to erase all emotions, and act as a supreme monarch that only calculates the best option regardless of emotions.

[{F} Flame sanctuary] : Skill that summons a ring of fire around the user. Apart from the user, scorching heat will envelop everyone that is within the flame sanctuary.

[{F} Winter's breath] : Skill that enables the user to exhale a breath full of frost, resulting in the surrounding temperature within a certain radius to drop below freezing temperature. Reduce enemy speed by a factor of two.

These three skills were the ones that were the most useful for me right now. Not because they were strong but because they fit my fighting style perfectly.

[{F} Flame sanctuary] attracted me because it was a skill that could buy me time. By invoking this skill I could momentarily catch my opponent off guard, and during the time my opponent was surprised I could regain my stance and attack them again.

[{F} Winter's breath] served a similar purpose to [Flame sanctuary], but contrary to that skill this one slowed down the opponent. Unlike [Flame sanctuary] that could be used to end a fight by catching them off guard, this skill was more for a prolonged fight. It could help me gain a huge advantage when fighting as the [Keiki style] shined when the enemy was slower. In terms of synergy, this one was the one that shared the most synergy compared to the other two skills.

Lastly [{G} Monarch's indifference], the only G rank skill in the list, and probably the one that tempted me the most.

One thing that I reflected on from my fight against Baron of Everblood was that, had I been calmer, I wouldn't have found myself in such a dire situation.

As soon as his arm reconstructed itself, I should've noticed the fact that only a part of it healed. I was too caught up by his presence that I did not notice such small detail. Had I done so, the fight would've ended quickly and I wouldn't have had to suffer so much.

Moreover, [Monarch's indifference] was especially beneficial to me who had yet to kill a human. Yes, I did technically kill Lucas and Patrick, but that was in the VR world where I felt no guilt in killing them. Being someone that came from earth where you were preached since birth that killing was bad, I still couldn't bring myself to actually kill a human. At least not yet.

Killing a human in this day and age was something most students within the academy would have to do at least once, as we would eventually be tasked to kill certain villains.

The mental hurdle I needed to push myself to kill a human was much higher than the people that were born in this world who were exposed to such things since birth.

With the aid of [Monarch's indifference] I wouldn't need to worry about that anymore. Moreover with this skill, when fighting against an opponent, emotions like nervousness, fear and anxiety would never cloud my judgment again allowing me to perform at my best during critical times reducing the likelihood of me dying.

Having thought it through, I decided to pick [Monarch's indifference].

Although it was the only G rank skill in the list, this skill, for me, was the most useful out of the three skills I picked. I just had this feeling that regardless of how powerful I became in the future, this skill would accompany me to the end.


Load failed, please RETRY

Gifts

Gift -- Gift received

    Weekly Power Status

    Batch unlock chapters

    Table of Contents

    Display Options

    Background

    Font

    Size

    Chapter comments

    Write a review Reading Status: C32
    Fail to post. Please try again
    • Writing Quality
    • Stability of Updates
    • Story Development
    • Character Design
    • World Background

    The total score 0.0

    Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
    Vote with Power Stone
    Rank 200+ Power Ranking
    Stone 71 Power Stone
    Report inappropriate content
    error Tip

    Report abuse

    Paragraph comments

    Login

    tip Paragraph comment

    Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

    Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

    GOT IT