Leon felt out his exp reserves and frowned when he felt the amount of high quality exp he had from his stunt. it was barely enough to have a normal level up but not enough to unlock the developmental skills he wanted. it was funny really that leon totally forgot about the developmental abilities until after he reached level three. [lancer] , [scyther] and[artillerist] were the three developmental skills he had his eye on since they gave him direct boons when wielding calamity. there were a whole list of other developmental skills that he was able to get as well but he preferred hoping for another skill or spell instead.
Developmental skills were an interesting subject really since they were things that the one updating the falna could purposefully push towards if they qualified for them after leveling up. this monumental upside came with a down side just as large , developmental skills were static in the boons they granted. this meant that besides crafting based developmental skills that were always useful most other developmental skills gave a flat bonus that scaled based on the person with it. this made them heavily dependent on the person wielding them for the effectiveness they had.
The three developmental skills leon wanted for example each gave a ten percent boost done while using a spear , a scythe or a gun respectively. thanks to the hybrid nature of his weapon however leon would get a flat thirty percent boost at all times so long as he used calamity. this doesn't sound like a huge deal but keep in mind that at level four leons physical attacks would reach a few hundred pounds of force and a flat thirty percent extra may reach up to an additional hundred or so pounds of force.
This didn't even include the fact that his bullet would also be thirty percent stronger which considering the already fifty caliber armor piercing rounds he used was a horrifying boost. while the gun would become more and more irrelevant as time went on against larger or tougher grim the boost would still apply to leons other attacks which would get more and more terrifying. there were of course other developmental skills that he qualified for but most of them were either crafting related. that or situational such as the one for boosting him while in the air which while useful with his wings may cause him to develop bad habits.
Regular skills however were usually more mystical or metaphysical in nature such as leon's devil's due that doesn't actually augment his power at all but made him a horribly effective negotiator. this wasn't even the limit to the things the skill let him do either since he was pretty sure he could include semblances and souls themselves in his deals. he hadn't because of what those things represent , a soul was the literal essence of a person and a semblance was the manifestation of this into a physical space.
Leon was worried that by gaining either of those things he would become corrupted by the influence they would have on him. after meeting ozpin he was more sure of this possibility since the man was a mass of various colors to leon's sharingan. it was like ozpin had been fused with dozens of souls creating a strange mish mash of colors. most of the souls had similar qualities such as bravery and hopefulness which explained why ozpin wasn't unhinged but the various small differences were very clear as well. leon doubted much of the person that ozpin was originally was left after so much corruption.
Despite the huge utility that having access to various semblances would give he wasn't willing to risk going absolutely batshit crazy in exchange. most of the people leon made deals with were very different from himself unlike in ozpin's case so he stayed away from that potential use of his skill. another thing different from developmental skills that regular skill had was that you didn't have any say in them at all . an example of this was the [berserk] skill that drastically increased your power in exchange for an ever increasing blood craving rage that won't end until you get stopped somehow or tire out entirely.
From what leon remembered the few people who gained this skill in orario only used it as a last resort to minimize the likely hood of them killing their teammates. there were also skills that bordered on straight up reality warping as well such as bell cranels [liaris freese] that literally made him grow based on his feelings and the interest others put on him. anyone with any understanding of how the falna works could understand that this was like hacking the falna to cheat his stats to higher points with almost no effort on his part compared to others.
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Yes this whole chapter was basically one big info dump but unlike the rest of the chapters currently out leon had reached the point in the animes story were things start popping off.