Everyone stood up and went on the ground as they lined up in a row per Senior Jing's instructions.
Senior Jing sat on an aesthetic sofa chair that she took out before them and said, "Now assign your attribute points and check your skills."
Everyone nodded as they opened their status panel and checked their skills.
[_Skills:]
—> {~ Novice Fire Control, Boosted Strike, Recovery, Art of Flame Blade ~}
'Let's see the Art of Flame Blade,' Arankar thought, a bit excited.
[Art of Flame Blade]
_Grade: Epic.
_Level: 1st.
_First Art: Fire Enchantment.
_Second Art: Generates at level 2 evolution.
_Third Art: Generates at level 3 evolution.
'Fire Enchantment? So it's basically coating my sword with flame and giving it a fire attribute power to make it more powerful. But it could also have other uses. To evolve it….'
Arankar focused on the level tab of the skill, and soon a new small panel appeared that showed the requirement to evolve the skill to level 2.
[Evolution condition: Kill one hundred monsters higher leveled than you with Fire Enchantment.]
'Fire Enchantment seems interesting.'
Arankar felt that Fire Enchantment could be used in various ways, and he was looking forward to testing this Art and exploring its uses.
Afterward, he took out his Katana and inspected it.
[Sanguin Katana]
_Grade: [ Tier-1 / Epic-rank ].
_Power: [ Pierce: C+, Slash: B ].
_Effect(s): [ Blood Loss level 1, Boost slash-type damage by 10% ].
_Durability: [1000/1000].
He then checked other skills, but they were simpler.
[Boosted Strike]
_Grade: Common.
_Effect: Consume mana to power up any of your body parts or a weapon with volatile mana for three seconds.
'Hmm, this skill's evolution can be very drastic depending on how people use it before evolving it.'
The condition to evolve this skill directly from Common to Uncommon grade was to successfully execute this skill one hundred times and get at least fifty kills of monsters using this skill; the level of monsters was irrelevant.
Afterward, Arankar checked Novice Flame Control. This type of skill that comes from affinity is gradeless. Such skills only have [ Level ] as an indicator for skill evolution. People can only evolve it when they learn to control their affinity-related powers better and achieve higher mastery over the element.
[Novice Flame Control]
_Level: 1st
_Effect:
->Flame Control Range: 10 meters.
->Fire Spirits: 100
'I see. So that's why I could feel those fire spirits communicating with my soul. Hmm, this is an unknown level of flame control, but it seems way weaker than starting level of Arankar world.'
'Interesting.'
Next, Arankar focused on Recovery.
[Recovery]
_Grade: Common.
_Effect (Passive): Boost stamina recovery and natural healing factor.
' This is helpful. But leveling it up will be a bit of pain,' Arankar wryly thought as he saw the condition to evolve it to 2nd level.
[Condition to evolve: Survive a fatal injury or recover from 100 wounds.]
Arankar felt Senior Jing's gaze on him and quickly distributed his status points.
'No need to increase magic or mana. My current mana pool and mana potency are enough.'
[_Stats:]
—> {~ Strength: C(5/10) ~ Agility: C(5/10) ~ Stamina: C(5/10) ~}
—> {~ Magic: C ~ Mana: C ~}
"Are you done, Arankar?"
"Done," Arankar nodded with a smile, feeling his entire body enhancing as he added five status points in basic physical stats.
"We'll start with Ekin," Senior Jing said as she looked at Ekin. "Prepare your skills or whatever you need to do for an immediate battle against a monster."
After saying that, Senior Jing waved her hand as a burst of mana whirled around her. Shortly afterward, a seven meters radius magic circle appeared on the ground to their right.
The lawn on that seven meters radius burned before a demonic bronze fence rose from the ground at the circle's border, turning it into a surface-level battle ring.
Once the battler ring was ready, Jing thought momentarily before waving her hand as some eccentric symbolic words appeared.
'A summon!'
Everyone thought. Summoning skills would take time according to the length of its incantation.
Senior Jing finished her incantation in two seconds as dark silver magic formed atop the battle ring, from which a dark silver slime appeared and landed inside.
"Your ranking will be based on how fast you kill this monster," Senior Jing said before glancing at Ekin, "I'll count the time once this monster attacks you. Go."
As he jumped and landed in the ring, Ekin already had his dagger in hand.
And Ekin used his best skill right after landing.
'Shadow Swipe.'
His dagger-holding hand moved in the air as if he was attacking, despite the monster not being in his range as it was 4 meters away from him!
But something happened.
The chaotically moving slime monster was stabbed by a shadow dagger that came out of its own shadow!
'Deadly skill,' Arankar thought. 'If he decided to become an assassin and evolve it further.'
*Clank!*
The slime monster's body turned steely after the dagger stabbed it.
The shadow dagger vanished, but Ekin was already dashing at full speed toward the warrior slime.
'It's transforming?' Ekin thought as he jumped to attack, but he saw the slime monster quickly taking shape as it turned into a warrior with a giant shield and a sword.
'Shit!' Ekin saw the slime warrior ready to swipe its sword at him and cursed.
He quickly swiped his leg while controlling the wind around him and changed his direction before landing two meters away from the monster.
'Wind.'
'That's a killer combination.'
Everyone immediately deduced that Ekin also had wind affinity along with Shadow affinity.
But Ekin was in a pinch as he saw the warrior approaching him at full speed!
'Why is he not moving?' Everyone wondered.
Ekin didn't move and narrowed his eyes as he stayed down, looking at the incoming slime warrior.
*Swiiis!*
The moment the warrior raised his sword to slash at him, He did a half roll before jumping off from his hands, and that too with such power that he jumped three meters high!
'Heh, die,' Ekin thought as his lips curved into a grin while he was in the air.
'Impressive!' Arankar's eyes shined as he saw Ekin's split-second decision from his sharp observation to win this battle.
Ekin landed on top of the warrior monster and locked its neck with his legs before swiping his dagger at the warrior's neck with ice-cold precision, fully intending to behead this monster warrior with a dagger no less!
This feat requires high mastery over the dagger and Ekin's slash...
*Sheen!*
...Accomplished it.
The head flew off, turning the slime warrior into a dark silver puddle.
This slime warrior was transformed to counter Ekin after it observed his skills and got attacked by him. That's why it was fully armored.
The only open part of its body was its neck, and that too with a small opening.
But Ekin found that spot quickly and even planned to kill it in such a short time frame.
"12 seconds," Senior Jing calmly said before turning to Daniel. "Your turn. Prepare yourself and go."