Chapter 16 - Special dice

Zarin stared at the dice for a couple of seconds and then turned towards Ais, but she had disappeared once again.

'Why do I feel like that detective guy from the comics' he thought to himself, as the disappearance act of Ais reminded him of something from his life back on Earth.

After a short reluctance, he picked up the pouch, letting the dice still in it so he wouldn't come in direct touch with them.

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UNIDENTIFIED ITEM

Description: An item requiring the [Appraise] or similar Skill to identify it.

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Zarin's curiosity was triggered by the notification. It was the first time he had seen this kind of notification. Still, it wasn't that unexpected as he hadn't found many items to identify.

He had read about the [Appraise] Skill, which seemed to be a generic skill anyone could learn no matter their Class.

Some Skills had class restrictions, like nobody except a Dice Master could learn [Dice Summoning]. Also, some Skills were available to move than one Class, like [Sword Mastery], which only Warrior-based classes could earn.

Most Classes belonged to at least one type of base Class of Warrior, Mage, or Rogue. However, some classes belonged to more than one, which looked to be the case for Zarin.

He had access to MP, which was the energy for spellcasting of Mages, as also access to Warrior Based Skills like [Sword Mastery].

But Zarin hadn't found a way to use his MP or restore it. Also, none of his current Skills were using it, meaning they weren't considered spells.

'It seems I need to find a way to earn the [Appraise] Skill soon.'

As he had that thought, he remembered something that happened a few weeks ago, the first night he studied the Journal.

After spending some time studying it, he got a chance to make an identify roll. He didn't have a notification panel back then, letting him know that the Journal was unidentified, but that didn't make him reconsider. He would try either way.

He brought out the two dices from the pouch and looked at them from different angles. He noticed that even if both had the same exact shape, that was their only similarity.

One was red in color, while the other was blue. The red one was a bit lighter than the blue one, but its surface felt rougher. As for what was on their side, they didn't have numbers or at least no numbers Zarin could recognize.

Each side had a carving on them, and there was no side with the same carving as another, even between the two dice.

Since there were forty different carvings, Zarin was confident they weren't numbers. Even if he didn't know what the carvings meant, he could tell that all forty were of similar origin.

The more time he checked them out, he started to notice some similarities with the Enchantments on the kitchen tools of Lady Emlyn's. Still, they were, at the same time, quite different.

He had actually 'borrowed' some of those tools with the help of Eddie and some guard friends of his, and even if he couldn't use them, he had tried to study them. To use them, he needed a source of power, which in theory, he could use his MP, but his MP still wasn't getting regenerated.

Still, it was useful to have them for research purposes, and even if he had no luck till now, he hadn't given up.

He brought out one tool that was meant to create a stream of water with enough force to not damage the dishes but help in cleaning them. He noticed that parts of its Enchantment runes were close to one side of the blue dice.

He spent close to two hours studying the dice, with the second one being only studying that one side.

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You have studied part of Special Item enough time to get an Identify Roll.

Die Type: D20

Complete Success Number(s): 20

Semi-Success Number(s): 10-19

Failure Numbers: 2,9

Total Failure Number: 1

Do you want to make the roll now?

YES/NOW

Warning: The roll can't be repeated or manipulated by Skills. In case of Total Failure, the item will get destroyed.

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Zarin grinned after reading the notification.

The die this time was a d20 instead of a d6, and he had more possible numbers to succeed than before.

Still, his chance of success now was 50%, while before, it was a bit over that. He also had a chance of getting his item completely destroyed, which wasn't the case before. But still, he wasn't worried about it.

The chance for it to happen was 1 out of 20, and he didn't believe his luck to be that bad.

'Did I just jinxed myself?'

Zarin remembered many stories of people being in a similar situation. The chance for the worst to happen was minimal and close to unthinkable, but nonetheless, it happened.

He started having second thoughts about making the roll. If there was only the failure option, he just had to find a way to learn the [Appraise] Skill, but if its item was destroyed, he couldn't do anything.

He also noticed that the notification mentioned that he had studied 'PART of a Special Item' this time. Therefore, if he succeeded, he would only do so for that one side, but if he tolled a Total Failure, the entire item would be destroyed.

He decided to keep studying the side to see if maybe he would get another try with better chances.

He had spent the morning hunting Demon Wolves for lunch, and he usually would be training his Skill at that time of the day. Still, he considered the item to be worthy of staying behind one day. Even if he didn't know what it was, the challenge to learn more about it meant that it was something incredible.

And so, ten more hours passed of him trying to study the blue die. Since he hadn't noticed any similarities to the runes of the red die with what he had, he put it away for now and focused on the blue die.

He successfully triggered an identify roll with one more side of it, which had the same exact chances as the last one.

He could not make any progress with any of the other sides, and he could feel like it was impossible to do so with what he had, but still, he kept trying.

It was getting late, and he was getting late from preparing something for dinner. He luckily had some provision he could use, so he didn't have to worry about it.

At that point, he had the blue die on his palm, and he was staring at it intensely as he kept thinking about what to do.

After some intense thinking, he closed his eyes. Then, he focused on picking the YES option on both identify rolls without watching. In that month, he had become more familiar with using the System and found out that he could interact with it just by thinking. He didn't need to pick things by using his fingers on the panels.

He heard the two dice summoning in front of him, falling to the ground, and starting their rolls. Each pause between the sound of each roll felt an eternity to him, but he kept his eyes closed and was praying.

The dice stopped rolling in only a few seconds, and the result was decided. Zarin had heard the slight sound of the dice disappear, and the two panels with the result appeared in front of him.

He took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes to check what he got.

As he opened and read the panels, he was frozen in place by disbelief.

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SKILL LEARNED

You have learned [Burst of Frost] (C-Rank)

MP Cost: 30

Range: 20 meters

Cooldown: 40 seconds

Lvl: 50/50

Description: You shoot out a beam of freezing energy toward a target within range. It deals cold damage equals 300% of the users' [Mind] and has the chance to freeze an enemy and restrict them. The success of freeze restriction is equal to the user's Mind.

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SKILL LEARNED

You have learned [Wind Rocket] (C-Rank)

MP Cost: 30

Range: 20 meters

Cooldown: 40 seconds

Lvl: 50/50

Description: You create a forceful beam of wind toward a target within range. It deals bludgeon damage equal to 300% of the user's [Mind] and has the chance to push an enemy in the opposite direction it hit them. The success of the push is equal to the user's [Mind], and the distance depends on the size of the target.

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Not only did he get two new offensive Skills that also had second secondary benefits, but they were already at their max level.

This could mean only one thing. He had rolled a Full Success at both.