The Author's POV

Chapter 33: Skills [2]

Fortunately, thanks to how advanced the technology of this world was, all my broken bones and cuts were healed overnight. What used to take months to heal back in my previous world, healed overnight. Truly miraculous.

It was Sunday morning, and Thomas came to pick me up.

…It was finally time for me to collect my reward. A skill.

I had originally planned on acquiring a skill when my strength reached a certain level, but it came as a pleasant surprise for me to be able to get my hands on one this early in the novel.

It has to be noted that within the academy, apart from the professors, only a small percentage of students had skills. This was including the third years.

Only the rich second-generation heirs could even have a chance at acquiring a skill, and even then, they could only gain access to at most a couple. They were just too expensive and rare for guilds to freely give them away…

Following Thomas inside of a remote location that was heavily guarded against all directions, arriving in front of a large building that seemed to look like regular storage space, Thomas nodded towards an empty space.

Soon a couple of shadows in the form of two white-clad guards materialized in front of us. I was slightly startled by their appearance, but I soon calmed down. The people guarding this place should obviously be strong, else what was the point of even storing such valuable things here?

After doing multiple checks on Thomas, the guards that were clad in white hid in the shadows completely masking their presence.

After seeing the guards disappearing, Thomas placed his palm on the wall.

-Clank!

A couple of seconds after placing his palm on the wall, a small section on the wall disappeared revealing a small compartment that contained a digital 6-digit lock.

-Beep! -Beep! -Beep!

Arriving in front of the box, Thomas quickly inserted the passcode.

Right after inserting the password, a green light blinked a couple of times, and soon after, in a similar fashion to before, a small circular compartment appeared on the wall.

Opening his right eye wide, Thomas leaned on the wall and placed his eyes on the hole.

-Clank!

-Voooooom!

Seconds after placing his eye on the wall, a loud rumbling resonated across the surroundings and the overhead door slid upwards.

"That's one hell of an annoying process!"

Stretching his back, Thomas grumbled as he waited for the door to completely slide upwards.

As soon as the door opened completely, I felt a blinding light enter my eyes, prompting me to cover my eyes with my arm.

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After the light dyed down, a completely unknown world was presented before me.

A thick metallic scent instantly entered my nostrils as I passed the large metallic gate. Soon, the scent was replaced by an aromatic scent that pleasantly enveloped my nose.

Beyond the door, an open entryway with high ceilings painted with vivid imagery depicting an image of several humans fighting against a demon instantly caught my attention.

The marble floor polished to the point that the lights neatly reflected on the marble, reminded of a clear lake that gently reflected the sun rays coming from the sun. Arriving inside of a spacious room with patterned walls, heavy curtains, area rugs, high windows, and upholstered furniture made of heavy oak, Thomas told me to patiently sit down on a red sofa.

Feeling my body sink on the sofa, I nervously waited for Thomas. To say I wasn't nervous would be a lie. Although there was no one present in the room, it felt as if a million eyes were staring down at me, watching my every move.

Every moment that Thomas was away felt like hours.

Fortunately, the wait did not last for long and Thomas soon came back with a red card in his hand.

"Follow me"

Handing me the card, he urged me to follow him as he walked towards a certain area within the facility.

Nodding, I followed along as I admired the hallway that was filled with paintings, designer pieces, and other artistic décor that made this place feel like an establishment for the filthy rich.

Soon we arrived in front of a large safe door, in which two individuals patiently stood. However, what instantly caught my attention was the fact that although their uniform was similar to the regular guards in the black market, contrary to their white color, theirs was red. Indicating that they had a higher status than the white-clad ones.

…made sense since they were the last defensive line that led to the vault.

Nodding to the guards, Thomas's footsteps halted.

Looking at me solemnly, he said "Alright before I leave, let me warn you in advance"

"You are only allowed to choose one skill, let me repeat ONE skill."

As he spoke, Thomas repeatedly emphasized the fact that I could only take one skill. Looking at me to make sure I understood, he continued

"As you already know, skills are expensive…even for us".

"Though our organization may be powerful, giving away skills to non-members is still a bit of a burden for us. If not for the fact that you helped us solve a major crisis we would've never considered giving you a skill"

Listening attentively, I repeatedly nodded my head. Everything that he said I already knew. His seriousness was understandable as skills were indeed worth a lot.

Pausing slightly, Thomas had a gratified smile on his face as he looked at me who understood what he said. Taking the red card from my hand, he handed it to the guards.

"Another thing you need to remember is that the skill you can choose can only be between rank G and F. Higher ranked skills will be inaccessible to you"

"The vault you're about to enter has three floors, in which you will only be granted access to the first floor."

Lightly chuckling, Thomas teasingly looked at me

"If you managed to repeat what you did again, we might just grant you access to the higher floors"

"I'm good"

Instantly my mouth twitched as I wholeheartedly refused. No way would I want to go through that experience again.

"Alright, I'll wait outside. Once you're done with choosing your skill, you can directly learn it under the watch of one of the guards."

Finishing what he wanted to say, Thomas stepped to the side and allowed me to enter the vault.

"Stand there"

Stopping in front of the door of the vault, the red-clad guard pointed towards a certain point.

-Voom!

Following his order, I stood on the spot that the guard pointed. Soon my whole body was enveloped in red light.

-Ding! -Ding!

"Alright you're all set"

-Beep!

-Krrrrrr

Swiping the card on the vault, a green light appeared following which a loud rumbling could be heard as the door of the vault slowly opened.

"Alright, have fun kid"

Nonechantly waving his hand, Thomas leaned on the wall and took out a packet of cigarettes only to be glared at by the guards causing him to bitterly smile.

Amusingly shaking my head I headed towards the vault.

-Clank!

Stepping into the vault, the door behind me closed. Soon silence enveloped my surrounding.

Looking up, I could see, large, sturdy bookshelves lining the walls, marching across the floor in colorful rows, stretching all the way to the end of the first floor. A staircase leading to a second level could be seen at the end of the room.

"Wow…"

The endless amount of skills presented in front of me left me flabbergasted. In the F rank section alone, there were no less than a thousand books.

Skills, like in games, came in the form of a book. That's why this place looked no different from a regular library.

Each book had a different color and represented the different affinity of the skill book ranging from, fire, water, earth, and so on.

-You have one hour to select your skill

Just as I was in a daze, snapping me out of it was a cold voice that came from the speaker in the corner of the room.

Quickly recollecting myself, I looked through the G and F rank sections.

Because there were so many skills to choose from, I immediately decided to narrow down my scope of search. First things firsts, I immediately choose to exclude skills that required a high mana consumption.

Because I was not a mage, my mana capacity was fairly low. Choosing a skill that drained of all the mana in my body would be extremely detrimental for me as the [Keiki style] too used a bit of mana whenever I execute a skill. If I didn't use mana, there was no way I would've been able to move so fast.

Excluding that, my scope diminished dramatically. Secondly, I needed a skill that shared some synergy with the [keiki style]. When fighting against Baron of Everblood, I noticed that although the [Keiki style] was powerful, in the beginning, stages it was a fairly subpar sword art. Mainly because once my first move was blocked I could no longer do anything else as shown how Baron of Everblood negated me by allowing my sword to penetrate his body.

I needed something that could buy me time so that I could readjust my stance…or at least something that complemented my fighting style.

Having narrowed it down even further, I decided to look through the F and G sections.

Looking through, I couldn't help but drool at some of the skills. I found some especially amazing skills. One especially caught my attention.

[Fist of fury] : A punching skill that conglomerates all the mana within a certain radius releasing a devastating punch that can leave devastating damage if someone is caught off guard. Monetarily increases strength by a factor of two.

Reading the description of the first skill I picked up in the F rank section, my mouth dropped in an 'o' shape.

"Increases strength by a factor of two?"

…That's terrifying.

Especially if someone who was already super strong used the skill. Imagine one of the heads of the union using this skill. Their punch alone could probably shake a whole mountain.

This skill basically became scarier the higher someone's rank was.

…if this was the standard of F ranked skills, a shudder ran down my spine thinking about the higher ranked skills.

Though I knew some of the S ranked skills that Kevin would later acquire, it didn't stop my mind from imagining the devastating scene they would cause in real life.

Thank god, they were rare.

Looking through the bookshelves, I paused every now and then to get a better understanding of some of the skills.

This continued for thirty minutes until finally, I managed to narrow down my selection to three skills. Two of the skills were F rank, while one was G rank.

[{G} Monarch's indifference] : Skill that enables users to erase all emotions, and act as a supreme monarch that only calculates the best option regardless of emotions.

[{F} Flame sanctuary] : Skill that summons a ring of fire around the user. Apart from the user, scorching heat will envelop everyone that is within the flame sanctuary.

[{F} Winter's breath] : Skill that enables the user to exhale a breath full of frost, resulting in the surrounding temperature within a certain radius to drop below freezing temperature. Reduce enemy speed by a factor of two.

These three skills were the ones that were the most useful for me right now. Not because they were strong but because they fit my fighting style perfectly.

[{F} Flame sanctuary] attracted me because it was a skill that could buy me time. By invoking this skill I could momentarily catch my opponent off guard, and during the time my opponent was surprised I could regain my stance and attack them again.

[{F} Winter's breath] served a similar purpose to [Flame sanctuary], but contrary to that skill this one slowed down the opponent. Unlike [Flame sanctuary] that could be used to end a fight by catching them off guard, this skill was more for a prolonged fight. It could help me gain a huge advantage when fighting as the [Keiki style] shined when the enemy was slower. In terms of synergy, this one was the one that shared the most synergy compared to the other two skills.

Lastly [{G} Monarch's indifference], the only G rank skill in the list, and probably the one that tempted me the most.

One thing that I reflected on from my fight against Baron of Everblood was that, had I been calmer, I wouldn't have found myself in such a dire situation.

As soon as his arm reconstructed itself, I should've noticed the fact that only a part of it healed. I was too caught up by his presence that I did not notice such small detail. Had I done so, the fight would've ended quickly and I wouldn't have had to suffer so much.

Moreover, [Monarch's indifference] was especially beneficial to me who had yet to kill a human. Yes, I did technically kill Lucas and Patrick, but that was in the VR world where I felt no guilt in killing them. Being someone that came from earth where you were preached since birth that killing was bad, I still couldn't bring myself to actually kill a human. At least not yet.

Killing a human in this day and age was something most students within the academy would have to do at least once, as we would eventually be tasked to kill certain villains.

The mental hurdle I needed to push myself to kill a human was much higher than the people that were born in this world who were exposed to such things since birth.

With the aid of [Monarch's indifference] I wouldn't need to worry about that anymore. Moreover with this skill, when fighting against an opponent, emotions like nervousness, fear and anxiety would never cloud my judgment again allowing me to perform at my best during critical times reducing the likelihood of me dying.

Having thought it through, I decided to pick [Monarch's indifference].

Although it was the only G rank skill in the list, this skill, for me, was the most useful out of the three skills I picked. I just had this feeling that regardless of how powerful I became in the future, this skill would accompany me to the end.