|I understand that they are rather useful skills but how can two E–ranked skills be better than a D-rank one? Even if you are able to evolve them to higher ranks, they would only become B–ranked atmost. That's their limit.|
I looked at her. We maintained eye contact for a few moments.
Then she sighed.
You're the first newbie challengers, whose mind i cant completely read. You're really something. Are you sure that you aren't from some other world and just snuck here?|
"No, I was born on Earth."
Hm...|
After staring at me for a few moments then sighed.
I dont think you're lying but you're power seems impossible for the current Earth.|
I'm not obliged to answer that.
You know I can kill you with a snap right?|
"You can try if you want."
I have my ways. The fairy might not be my enemy but I know how to defend my self. She wont be able to infringe in my domain of control.
Hm.....|
She just continued to stare at me.
You really are strange. Arent you afraid that I'll actually try it.|
"Nope, not at all."
She again just stared. She then pouted,
Hnng, you're no fun Jin-woo.|
I don't remember us being close enough to speak on first name basis, but I ignore it.
"I have another question, back when I cleared the trial, it said that I lead to the death of 5 people in an adjacent compartment. Was it because of the 3 I had helped beforehand?"
While looking annoyed, she answered.
Yes, the mana you gave to the 3 challengers had helped them in killing a total of 7 people. Since you indirectly helped them before the trial started, they are counted as kills for them and for you too.|
If your wondering who killed how many, the girl killed 5; your friend, 1 and the old man, 1.|
"Wow."
I didnt expect the girl to kill so many. I thought she had a unique disposition, it was a good choice to select her as subordinate candidate.
Even if she just wanted revenge against someone, her adaptability to the situation was great. She'll be of great use.
But I'll have to observe them all to be sure if they are worthy to be companions.
I looked at the fairy.
Any more questions?|
Her bad mood had subsided now.
"Can I know you name?"
Sorry, I cant tell you my name. |
"Then I'll just call you fairy."
Seriously, show a little respect atleast. I'm older than you. Atleast call me noona.|
(Au: Noona is "older sister" from the perspective of a male. It's not necessarily a blood relation, any older female can be called a noona.)
"Why? It doesn't matter at all."
She sighed.
You're really cold.|
"I'm sticking with just calling you Fairy."
*sigh*. Fine. Nice to meet you too, Jin-woo|
First name basis again? Well, it doesn't matter much to me anyway.
"Fairy, when will the next trial start?"
There still is some time left till the next trial. It will begin after all compartments complete the trial or the time limit runs out.|
"Ok."
While I have time I should check my status.
'Status.'
— — — — —
"Status"
Name : Kang Jin-woo/ ???
Race : Human (Earth)
Level : 17
STR : 20 VIT : 20
AGI : 20 END : 20
MIND : 20 MAG: 20
Stat Points : 51
Points : 7,000
□ <<
□ <<
□ <<
□ <<
□ <<
— — — — —
A game like window opened infront of me.
It showed stats, points, it even had numerous headings for skills, traits, equipment, etc.
It used my old name. My true name must be hidden under those question marks. I wonder why?
Before the headings were a □, while infront was the number present content.
When I clicked on a heading, it revealed its contents. Also the □ turned into ◇.
While checking my status I found a few interesting points.
▪︎One, traits were rare. Many had them, many didnt. Those who did have a trait only had 1 trait. But I had two.
◇ <<
• [???] lvl.1
• [10 Pillars]
Even the Fairy was surprised at this. No one, yet, had arrived with two traits. I was the first such case the fairy had seen.
Even if we consider you having two traits as not strange, the trait [???].... I have never ever heard of a trait being blurred hbefore. I cant even check its description. You keep on getting more and more mysterious...|
Even if Ms.Fairy didn't know, I had an idea what it was. I dont have complete control over it yet but eventually I will. That's why it even had level infront of it.
▪︎Two, I had the skills I gained earlier, but each had percentages at the end. This was the proficiency of the skill. As it increases, the skill becomes stronger and also easier to use, but all skills start with 0.1% proficiency. But the strange part was (2/10) written infront of the skills heading.
Doesn't this mean I can only have ten skills in total. This is not usually the case in challengers as some can have upto hundreds and hundreds of slowly growing skills, as according to the Fairy.
The Fairy said that this is most likely due to the trait [10 Pillars] which I had. With it I can enhance skills beyond their original limits.
But remember, [10 Pillars] only allows you surpass the original boundaries of the skills but it does not help in evolving a skill.|
As a matter of fact, evolving skills will become much harder for you due to this, as you will have to grow the skills alot more before they evolve. You should've chosen a higher ranked skill when you had the chance.|
I smiled while ignoring her remarks. More possibilities keep opening up.
Ten skills maybe low for most, but it was more than enough for me.
▪︎Three, I had already gained 5 talents.
◇ <<
• [Slaughter] (A)
• [Intuition] (A)
• [Insight] (A)
• [Mana Circuit] (C)
• [Martial Arts] (C)
They were all high ranked too. I didnt expect that.
▪︎Four, the title wasn't much.
◇ <<
• [Challenger]
▪︎Five, I learned about the stats.
•STR was Strength. The strength and power of each and every muscle and bone.
•VIT was Vitality. My health, regenerative ability and the capacity to take more damage. Ofcourse damage to vital points will be much more lethal, but high vitality increases the toughness of my skin and organs while still maintaining flexibility.
•AGI is Agility. It enhances the speed, agility and dexterity of the challenger. The actions performed become faster and so does reaction time and thinking speed. It's more like twisting the time of the challenger so that they gain a higher dimension of speed. And by enhancing ones dexterity, one can do more complex and finer tasks easily.
•END is Endurance. It enhances the endurance, defense, stamina, physical resistance, all these things.
•MIND enhances mental capacity, concentration and focus, mental resistance, calculative speed, intuition, senses and perception, etc.
•MAG enhances mana capacity, magic power, mana affinity, magic resistance and control, etc.
This about sums it up.
As for the stat points, you gain 3 at each level up. And being level 17, I had 51 right now. I allotted them after thinking about it for a few minutes.
I'd prefer a balanced distribution, so now my stats looks like this.
— — — — —
"Status"
Name : Kang Jin-woo (human)
Level : 17
STR : 30 VIT : 28
AGI : 28 END : 28
MIND : 28 MAG: 29
Stat Points : 0
Points : 7,000
— — — — —
With that, the status has been taken care of.
I looked at the fairy, well atleast I tried to. She had long been lying prone (on her stomach) atop my head. She was casually moving her legs up and down as if she was reading a magazine in bed.
Despite the fact that she is a small fairy, her body structure was like a healthy twenty to twenty-two old lady.
She was actually very beautiful if you paid attention. Blonde hair, blue eyes, red lips, white skin, slightly pointed ears, a beautiful body, transparent fairy wings and neat clothes.
Honestly, if she was human sized and didnt appear as a trial manager, guys everywhere would swooning over her.
Thank you, but buttering won't get you anywhere.|
I remain silent.
The fairies can read our minds.
Just the surface thoughts.|
Even if it's just the surface thoughts, one would be creeped out nonetheless once they find out someone is reading their minds.
They'll be scared.
Even putting aside the fact that people won't like having their minds read, the Fairies are quite tolerant of them.
People will hate the fairies, the Trial Managers, blaming them for trapping them in a cruel world. They will curse at them continuously, even if just in their minds. And fairies will hear it all but rarely take their anger out at them.
I can hide my thoughts in deeper layers on my consciousness and even protect my mind, but the others can't.
Dont worry, we don't hold it against them when they think badly of us. It's only natural for others to feel hate towards the trial managers. As you thought, they think that we kidnapped them to another world.
Because of this, we dont just kill them. Of course if they say it out loud or they try to attack us, we are allowed to kill them for self-defense or as 'insurance for mental trauma'.|
Well, I guess that sounds reasonable. A good thing is that we can communicate with the trial manager with our thoughts or atleast they can understand our needs.
The fairies might be mischievous and sometimes ruthless, but they're very kind.
By the way, the challengers dont know yet that we can read minds. Jin-woo is an exception. Please keep this a secret for now. They might find out eventually but for now we're keeping this fact hidden checking the mentalities of the challengers.|
"I see."
Well, it doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't cause me any problems, I don't mind it.
With that I continue circulating mana. I took another look at my skills.
2 E-ranks.
The Fairy said that, atmost, I could raise them to B-rank. But that is, if I raise them the normal way.
One would most likely raise their skills by grinding them.
Yes, that's correct.|
They even have a proficiency meter too. That way of skill growth would be the regular way. The way that any challenger would grind skills.
But I'm not just any challenger.
I can feel the skills inside my soul.
I can stimulate them, modify them, even enhance them.
By stimulating them, I can raise their proficiencies rather easily.
I can control their direction of evolution.
I can bring out their true potentials.
I can manifest power a regular challenger can't.
There may be others with similar control over skills, but I'm confident no challenger can match my efficiency and level of control.
You're very good at controlling mana.|
I remain silent.
What are you even thinking? Sometimes I cant read your thoughts but many times its just emptiness.|
I still remain silent. I dont need to share my secrets just yet, so I'll continue to ignore such questions.
To be able to perfectly hide your thoughts from a high ranking fairy– you're doing it purposefully too. You really are something.....|
I continue to ignore her.
I focus on one of the skills I had gained.
'[Black Skeleton Reinforcement]'
*
In this world and many others, there exist monsters.
People, whether humans or other human-like beings, have always sought out the strength of these beasts and monsters— trolls, chimeras, even dragons.
This desire, this need, this will for power drove them to create powers that mimic the strength of thsse creatures.
This eventually gave rise to skills that grant the powers of these monsters. And hence, people gained their [Essence] as power.
But this [Essence] only contains a small piece of their power. Its incomplete.
These are weak compared to the actual monster.
But then, there are [Reinforcement]s. Pure and complete.
The true power of monsters can manifest through these skills. Ten [Essence]s barely compare to one [Reinforcement].
They give the raw power of those monsters with no yo little weaknesses. They give access to the characteristic [Racial Skills] and [Racial Traits] of those monsters.
And at higher proficiencies, there is the transformation ability,
The higher the proficiency, the closer the transformation to the creature and the greater the power manifested.
I chose 2 [Reinforcement] skills of few of the weakest (I guess average in normal terms) monsters.
The [Essence] of those monster would've been F-rank skills. But as [Reinforcement] skills are naturally better, their ranks are E-rank skills.
But there is a reason I chose the weakest monsters. They have a wider choice of evolutions available. Since I can control the direction of growth and evolution, I can freely and much more easily choose whichever direction to go.
And since it's a low ranking skill, its proficiency will increase rapidly. Albeit the speed will decrease with increase in rank, it's not a problem for me. I have alot of tim at hand.
Ooh! It's time~!|