Chapter 7 - Skills
Lucas decided to name the nursery after the family name. Lucas's full name was Lucas Pasken. So, he named the nursery, Pasken Pet Nursery. As they had decided the name of the nursery, Sery did his job and started designing and creating the nursery's shop sign.
Katheryn sat back at the living room and continued designing the brochure. "Sery, if I design the poster, can you print that too?" Katheryn asked Sery.
[That is easy! It will not take much of my energy] said Sery confidently.
"Well then, I will design a poster too," said Katheryn and she continued with her work. As for Hailey, she was still watching cartoons.
Red and Blue were playing around in the house like cats and dogs. They got their order from Katheryn that they should stay away from Hailey. They followed the order directly because Katheryn was their tamer.
Lucas went back to his room. He saw the bookshelf and half of the space were filled with books. There were more than 100 skill books on the bookshelf. Lucas was amazed. "You copy so many of them?" Lucas asked Sery.
[I do get the data from them but none of the skills here is inferior to those that I get the data from. I modified all of them to be better skills as well as created many more superior skills. I will not recommend any skill to Master. Since this will be Master's life as a tamer, you should choose the skills yourself] said Sery.
Lucas nodded and took the book one by one, read the title, and read the description of the skills. He put the one he thought would be useful on his bed and continued searching. According to what he saw, the skills created by Sery were indeed superior.
Lucas had too many he wanted to learn. He decided to choose every skill he likes and he would choose them again after this. Half an hour later, Lucas finished choosing 30 different skills from the bookshelf.
He sat on his bed and read again the descriptions of the skill books. He would filter the skills he felt unnecessary at that point. He would only choose the best one.
Lucas planned to categorize the skills he wanted to learn. First was the skill only he could use. Those skills were mainly for him to defend himself in case his pets were unable to continue the battle.
The second was the skill he could use to support his pets. These skills were the most important to all tamers. Their roles as a tamer were not only to give order to the pet in battle but also to support them. Something like body enhancement was one of the most popular support skills a tamer would learn.
After choosing for another half an hour, Lucas made his decision. "Okay. These skills will be enough for now," said Lucas.
[You don't have to worry about your mastery in the skills. If you want to speed up in powering them, you can practice the skills in the nursery dungeon.]
[The nursery dungeon can let pets and tamers have an increase in comprehension and development. So, you can master skills easily as well as raising your stats easily no matter your potential] said Sery.
"So, after I learn these skills, I can practice them in the nursery dungeon?" Lucas asked.
[Yes. It is better to practice inside the nursery dungeon. Not only will your comprehension increase, but the time movement inside the dungeon is also different too, so you will have much time to train] said Sery. Lucas nodded and he proceeded to learn the skills he had chosen.
Similar to the cultivation technique, all Lucas needed to do was read the first sentence in the skill book and he would learn the skill immediately. After he had learned all the skills, he checked them in his system.
Name: Fist of The Stone Golem
Element: Rock
Grade: C
Rank: 1
Mastery: 0%
Effects: The user's fist is covered with rocks and the user will launch a set of punch art. At rank 1, the user will be able to use 10 punches. As the rank increases, the number of punches will increase.
Name: Rock Skin
Element: Rock
Grade: D
Rank: 1
Mastery: 0%
Effects: Turn skin to rock to increase defense. Time limit: 1 minute. As the rank of the skill increases, the defense and time limit will also increase.
Name: Body Enhancement
Element: Normal
Grade: E
Rank: 1
Mastery: 0%
Effects: Enhance all five stats (health, energy, attack, defense, and speed) by 5% for 10 seconds. As the skill rank increases, the effects will increase too.
Lucas decided to learn these three skills. The best one was the Fist of The Stone Golem. According to Sery, he created the skill from all the different Stone Golem based skills he found from all the scans Lucas made.
All of them were incomplete and flawed and Sery used all that data to create a better Stone Golem skill giving birth to the C grade skill Fist of The Stone Golem. [I can make a better Stone Golem based skill but I don't have enough data. This is the best I can make for you] said Sery.
The rock skin and body enhancement were similar to Fist of The Stone Golem. They were flawed and Sery made the skill better. Due to more data on the rock skin was available, the skill rank was D. Unfortunately, the body enhancement skill had fewer data and thus, it was ranked E.
[Master, you don't need to worry about the skill's low rank. The skills are now in their complete form. They have no flaws and side effects. They are complete! Due to that, once you have maxed out the rank of the skills, you can upgrade their grade too] said Sery. Lucas was shocked.
"Then, all the skills in this bookshelf are upgradable?" Lucas was shocked. From all his knowledge, the skills humans learned could not be upgraded. Only a few of them were upgradable but those skills were not available to the public. Only those in the big clans and the riches could get their hands on the skill.
"Does that mean the skills available in the shop are not complete?" Lucas came to a realization.
[Yes. They are incomplete. Master should have known that the skill is created by humans and thus, it is normal for them to be incomplete and flaws. Also, only us intelligent systems can make the skills complete] said Sery.
Lucas caught on something. "… Then, do you mean to say that the founder or one of the members of the clans of those big clans has a system like you too?" Lucas was shocked again.
[Perhaps. Maybe there is real genius in the clan but I am 100% sure that most of them have an intelligent system. I don't know what intelligent system they have but they must surely be as good as me] said Sery.
"Anyway," Lucas snapped back from his shock and said, "I just need to work hard mastering the skills to rank 10 and then, I can upgrade the skill to a higher grade, right?" Lucas decided to let matter regarding the intelligent system to the back of his mind. They were not his enemy and thus, it did not matter to him.
[Yes, Master] Sery replied.
"… Let's go to the dungeon," Lucas said suddenly.
[Huh? Aren't you going to train first?] asked Sery.
"You said that the dungeon can increase my comprehension. Also, the time difference is massive inside the dungeon. Hence, it is better to train inside the nursery dungeon," said Lucas while smiling.
[At your current power, you will have a hard time inside the dungeon] said Sery. He was worried about Lucas.
"I will be fine," said Lucas. He did not seem worried about it.
[…] Sery was silent for a few seconds before he said, [Alright then. It is your decision, Master]
Lucas went out of his room and saw Red and Blue playing in the living room happily while Katheryn was still busy with the laptop. Hailey was as before, glued to the television.
"Mom, I am going inside the dungeon. I will be back before dinner," said Lucas.
"Hmm?" Katheryn looked at Lucas and asked, "Didn't Sery said that you need to increase your power first before going in?"
"I think that training in the dungeon will benefit me more," said Lucas and he added, "Sery said that the dungeon will increase my comprehension and the time moving differently inside the dungeon and thus, I will get more time training there."
"But…" Katheryn looked worried but she saw Lucas was smiling. Katheryn looked conflicted and decided to let Lucas go.
Lucas got to Room No 3 and saw Fury training hard in the dungeon on the huge screen. Not only that, but he could also see Fury's stats while he was training. When Lucas saw the stats, he was shocked.
A day had passed since Fury entered the dungeon and his health had increased a lot. From 3 to 15. 12 stat points increase in an hour (real-time). "For real??" Lucas did not believe it.
[Fury's compatibility with the dungeon is high. It is normal to have this kind of stat burst. Not only that, but Fury is also a Stage 1 Rank 1 monster and this is a Stage 1 dungeon where monsters from Rank 1 to Rank 10 roam around. This place is suitable for him. Once Fury advances to Stage 2, this dungeon will be useless to him] said Sery.
"Ah! Is that so?" Lucas said and then, he saw Fury's near death counter and he was shocked again. "137 near death?!!!" Lucas exclaimed. It had only been an hour since Fury got inside but he almost died 137 times.
[I told you that the dungeon is dangerous. It will be fine if you meet Rank 1 monsters but they are not the only ones living in this dungeon. Rank 2, 3, 4 up to Rank 10 monsters are roaming around in this dungeon] said Sery.
Lucas saw Fury teleported once again to safety and he was stunned. "… Is there any way for him to survive in this dungeon better?" Lucas asked.
[There are zones where only a specific rank of monsters will be available. When you get in, I will send you to the Rank 1 Zone. If you want to train your body, just stay there. Don't go to the other Zone. As for Fury, let him train like that. He can learn better that way. Also, Fury is in the Free Zone. All monsters from Rank 1 to Rank 10 can be found there] said Sery.
"… How big is this dungeon?" Lucas asked. He had a feeling that it was massive but he had no idea how massive it was.
[As big as this planet. All dungeons have the same size. As you know, none of the dungeons in this world had been fully explored by tamers. Even the lowest Stage 1 dungeon had never once been fully explored by tamers] said Sery.
[The reason for that is the size of the dungeon. Other than that, the dungeon is filled with many dangers. The nursery dungeon you get is not as dangerous as the real dungeon. In this dungeon, there are only five different species of monsters and they are all Tier 1] said Sery.
[In the real dungeon, not only the rank, there will be monsters of different tiers available. There will be tens to hundreds of species of monsters available in a single dungeon] said Sery.
[There are zones available in the real dungeon too but treasures can only be found in the Free Zone. In the Free Zone in the real dungeon, you might meet a Rank 1 Tier 1 rabbit monster at first when suddenly, you will meet a Rank 10 Tier 3 rabbit monster at the next second. There is a lot of unpredictability happening in the real dungeon] Sery explained everything seriously.
He added, [The dungeon we have now is child's play. It is not as dangerous as the real dungeon. However, it can still easily kill you, Master]
"…" Lucas was speechless. He knew the danger of a dungeon but he did not know the details of it. This was the first time he had heard what truly lies inside the dungeon. He also finally knew why humans had never once completed a dungeon. There were many other reasons but he finally knew the main reason.
[Well~ Master did not need to worry. Before Master enters the real dungeon in the future, just copy that dungeon and train in our nursery first. Everything will be fine. Besides, Master's pet will undoubtedly be different from normal pets. So, Master's journey as a Tamer will be smooth] said Sery.
"…" Lucas felt that it would not be as easy as Sery had said.