Yoshino Aruven had just left a certain room in the Anira City General Hospital. He walked down the stairs and left the building.
He was able to locate where Soura had been admitted because his older sister works in that particular hospital.
Was it unethical to leak the information of an in-patient to other people?
Of course it was.
But Yoshino explained his circumstances to his older sister. Thankfully, she decided to divulge the information.
What would Yoshino do if Soura was not sent to this particular hospital?
Honestly, he did not know. Perhaps he would never meet the female lieutenant ever again. Or maybe he would try his best to find her someday when he was less busy.
Because Yoshino had indeed been busy the past two days.
First, he went back to his home town to retrieve a Sealing Stave. The item contained another one of his sealed skills. The name of the skill was [Buff Mastery].
This was a passive skill. In [Roku Shiki Online], most of the passive skills were rare and difficult to obtain.
Especially the ones called Master Core Skills. These are passive skills that support the preferred game play, character build, or fighting style of a person. They can easily be identified since they have 'mastery' on their name. Although there could be exceptions as well.
On paper, their effects were considered to only give a slight increase on the efficacy of the skills they are supporting. For example, [Buff Mastery] gives a 10% increase in the potency of all positive support spells casted by the user.
For Soura's case, she had probably equipped a [Fire Mastery] skill. This would increase the damage of her fire-type spells to around ten to fifteen percent.
These figures were quite generous already. Raising the proficiency level of master core skills were the most difficult compared to other classification of skills. Raising its effect increase by 1% would already be a huge milestone to one's cultivation!
This was truly ironic since passive skills are effects that would always be active once equipped. Perhaps this shows that the most taken for granted were the ones who had always been there.
Anyway, this theoretically made the passive skills less appealing to cultivate for common people.
However Master Core Skills actually offered more than that. Professionals considered these as staples in any build. Because if handled properly, the increase in control offered by these master cores could actually give astonishing results!
"If I had this skill equipped before, then boosting the aspect of fire was no longer farfetched."
Yoshino complained to himself. He was now inside a public bus. He was staring outside the window while the transport vehicle moved along the city highway.
He had just ridden a provincial bus during the early morning. But he had no time to enjoy the journey. Heck, he did not even have a chance to enjoy his brief time back at their home.
The second reason why he had been busy was because he tried to stabilize the condition of [Buff Mastery].
Yoshino had not only sealed his skills because he wanted to hunt down an extremely rare [Scanner].
The main reason was due to the failure in his breakthrough before. His attributes and parameters plummeted down to Tier 1. This made his inner soul sea unable to contain his once Advanced-Tier skills.
He was supposed to blow up from trying to contain energies beyond his cultivation realm. Similar to an appliance that was plugged in an outlet with higher voltage than its capacity.
However his skills had taken the brunt of his failure. In exchange though, these skills had became unstable. If he left them inside his soul sea, they would have disappeared from him permanently!
He immediately spent his savings to purchase six sealing stones back then. His was plan to reabsorb each skill back to his soul sea one by one.
On a side note, the Sealing Stave was technically a consumable item. But by conducting a special ritual, one could extract the sealed skill safely. This would enable the item to be reusable.
But the said ritual was tedious and inconvenient. Hence causing the item to be unpopular.
In addition, breaking the staves on the spot was faster. And honestly, flashier than the conventional method.
Nonetheless the fast method was technically expensive for a broke university student. Yoshino had bled when Soura destroyed the two Sealing Staves back at the dungeon.
"Well at least one stave is safe now and can be used again."
Yoshino tried to console himself. The bus he was in was currently at the borders of Anira City. He still had some time to reminisce.
He has spent two years on trying to figure out a way on how to read the clue. And at the same time stabilize his skills to accept his now weaker inner soul sea.
He was able to stabilize [Enchant Element] first and [Weapon Call] next because these were the skills that he was most familiar of. Although they had also fallen back down to Basic-Tier in the end.
Still, Yoshino was happy that he could use these effects again. Thus imagine his excitement when he succeeded on stabilizing two of his skills. He immediately rushed towards the dungeon to test them together with a common [Scanner].
That had proven to be a lapse of judgment. But at least he learned a secret from that fiasco.
Yoshino then re-entered the dungeon with four skills equipped. He sealed the two stable skills inside the dungeon boss room as emergency provisions. The fourth, or technically the third unstable skill, was used to escape the area.
That was supposed to be his next target for stabilization. Then another afterwards.
[Buff Mastery] was planned to be last on his list. That was why he left his passive skill back at his home town. Since he was not expecting to stabilize it any time soon.
But things happened unexpectedly and suddenly.
Yoshino unexpectedly obtained the extremely rare [Scanner]. Then he was suddenly involved with the Day Stealer incident.
Nevertheless the incident had given him various rewards!
Venturing inside the dungeon, challenging a Tier 3, surviving against an Advanced-Tier battle, and even deflecting an actual lightning bolt.
These events had raised the proficiency of his three equipped skills tremendously!
He wanted to test if their level was high enough to enable him to stabilize his remaining skills better. That was why he rushed back home to obtain his least stable skill.
And he succeeded!
He was able to stabilize [Buff Mastery] with ease. He no longer planned on un-equipping this passive ever again.
Perhaps this may also due to the fourth skill he had.
Yoshino had gained the skill called [Danger Perception] when Officer Mink died.
In [Roku Shiki Online], an individual could gain a single skill after killing a creature. The term 'creature' here also applied to fellow humans.
That was the reason why Yoshino took back the affinity boost he had given to Soura before she dealt the finishing blow. So that he would not be counted when the female lieutenant landed the kill.
Not because he did not want a new skill. But because he wanted to respect Soura. Any rewards she would receive from that judgment should only be hers. Albeit reward was not the appropriate term here.
Alas, he still received a new skill in the end. Perhaps he was too slow in his reaction. Or rather Soura was just faster.
Gaining a skill through killing was the most unreliable method. An individual could surely gain a skill but he would only receive something random amongst the equipped skills of his prey.
The issue of parameter compatibility comes into play here. One may be able to obtain a skill this way, but that does not guarantee that one could equip the skill.
Learning, studying, and inventing new skills were still the better options.
Although there were still some people who enjoyed hunting others who had lower cultivation to obtain a random skill. The thrill of not knowing what reward they would gain was similar to a lottery.
But let us talk about that some other time.
On an additional note, all new skills obtained using any method would be at Basic-Tier. One must train the skill from the start if one do plan on equipping it.
Well Yoshino was still at Tier 1. Hence the mechanic for obtaining new skills does not affect him for now. But he was surprised to find out that the newly obtained skill was highly compatible with him.
So compatible that the skill could become his key for reaching Tier 2!
"Well, further preparations had to be done first though."
Yoshino mumbled as he exited the bus. He had now reached his destination.
Keshun City.
The Metropolis of this certain country was comprised of multiple cities that were adjacent to one another. Anira might be the capital. But Keshun was the hub for information technology as well as the most populated city.
"Time to visit that person."
Yoshino sighed. He took a step and moved forward. He headed off towards the Office of the City Mayor.
The previous city was under the authority of the Hyugan Nation. Keshun on the other hand was under the jurisdiction of the Magan Empire.
When the world had transmigrated, special dungeons had emerged along with the regular ones. They possessed peculiar characteristics that could put a challenge to anyone who dares to venture inside.
Furthermore, the special dungeons had their own unique name.
And the Magan Empire had gained prominence by monopolizing these named dungeons.
The dungeon that Yoshino Aruven had cleared was named [Rah Qa].