Chương 25: Rare Skill Awakening

['DING!' Race: [Human] has reached level 6 – Stat points allocated, +5 free points] ['DING!' Race: [Human] has reached level 7 – Stat points allocated, +5 free points] ['DING!' Race: [Human] has reached level 8 – Stat points allocated, +5 free points] ['DING!' Race: [Human] has reached level 9 – Stat points allocated, +5 free points] ['DING!' Race: [Human] has reached level 10 – Stat points allocated, +5 free points] [Congratulations, you have reached the first milestone.] [You can now choose one of three ' Common Rank' skills] [Would you like to see the options?] Yes/No"Oh, that's a surprise," Nyx said while slurping down the noodles he'd just bought from the exchange. They tasted quite savory, especially good after a tough night.

"I'll choose later. For now, let's allocate the stats." He swiped the window of options away and brought up his status panel. Currently, he had the highest stats in strength and agility, followed by willpower, which in turn increased his mental energy. Mental energy was basically the same as spiritual energy, a resource that could be recovered by resting or through meditation. Normally, spiritual energy was generated by the soul itself. What the willpower stat increased was the capacity of one's spiritual energy.

"Since I have all the healing spirit stones needed to form a core, it would be best to allocate a good chunk of these free points to it." He currently had twenty-five free points. Of those, he chose to allocate ten to the willpower attribute, bringing the total count to twenty-nine. He invested five into vitality, and the rest into strength. Vitality finally rose to fourteen from nine, while strength reached an all-time high of thirty-six.

Status Name: Nyx Race: Human (D-Rank) Level: 10 Base Attributes Strength: 36 (+30) Agility: 17 (+5) Vitality: 14 (+5) Endurance: 23 (+20) Toughness: 21 (+20) Willpower: 29 (+20) Free Points: N/A Title: The First Slayer Skill: Usurper (Unique)"Looks good." He nodded to himself with satisfaction. Stealing the heavenly demon's kill might have been extremely risky, but it brought him real benefits. Leveling in this world wasn't the same as leveling in video games.

He'd heard people mentioning on regional chats about leveling through killing beasts in the forests and foothills of mountains, but they'd also mentioned how abysmal the output was—you'd basically have to commit animal genocide just for a few levels. That also required spending a ridiculous amount of bullets, and unless you had the infinite-bullets-and-durability mod card, you might as well invest that time on Blackstone Mountain, mining for the Green Ghost Fleet instead.

That was actually where the advantage for cold-weapon holders came in. According to many people's experiences, freely shared on the regional chats, most of those who'd started with cold weapons were also the ones whose unique skills were related to their use. They'd either gotten strength-related, stamina-related, or endurance-related skills, which made the use of heavy weapons—like the ones he'd seen the cold weapon users of the Heavenly Fleet wield—far easier than for the average joe.

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"Everyone has their own set of advantages and disadvantages, I suppose." Nyx leaned back into his car seat, resting his shoulders against its comfy material. After some relaxing, he reopened the option panel for the three skills and pressed yes. [Choose one of the three ' Common Rank' Skills] [Night Vision] [Magic Detection] [Heat Resistance] Nyx's excited expression dimmed at the list of choices. Internally, he'd been expecting something amazing.

"Then again, if every skill provided at level ten were amazing, everyone would be OP." He sighed and considered the choices. Even though they weren't super powerful offensive skills or anything of the like, they were all quite useful. For example, with magic detection, it was likely he'd be able to tell if anyone was using magic on him from far away, concealed. That could help with thwarting any sort of assassination attempt on him.

He'd enraged the two strongest fleets on the plains, and if they were anything like the organizations and political parties back on Earth, they'd certainly send hitmen after him.

"Even though I've made a contract with the Green Ghost Fleet, it's likely they'd find some loophole to still come after me." There were all sorts of strange skills present on this plain—the skill of Shuai, the fleet captain of the Heavenly Fleet, was literally a flurry of slashes that struck out of nowhere. The other captain, Julius, could make zombie-like puppets out of dead corpses. There was also that guy who'd spoken of having a skill that let him summon an infernal legion, whatever that meant.

So, if this skill detected the effects of these skills, which were clearly magical, and warned him before they were activated, it would be invaluable. That was also where the other skill, heat resistance, came in. Frankly speaking, it hadn't slipped his notice that the daytime atmosphere around them had been getting increasingly humid and hot. Having heat resistance could let him actually go outside into those forests to farm beasts for levels.

And since the mines of Blackstone Mountain mainly produced fire elemental spirit stones, it was likely most survivors were going to form fire-type Mana Cores. In which case, this skill could actually prove far more useful to him in the future than it appeared now. As for the last one, night vision—it was obvious. The goggles he'd bought already provided him with night vision. Though, he couldn't imagine himself fighting at night wearing those. They were too obstructive.

"So, in terms of immediate usefulness, night vision tops the list, followed by magic detection and heat resistance." He noted. On the other hand, in terms of long-term usefulness, heat resistance topped the list, followed by magic detection and night vision. With that as his guide, Nyx picked the one right in the middle. He selected magic detection. It came in second in both the immediate and long-term windows, making it the safer choice for him. He didn't want to bet everything on the short term or the long term.

As an average joe himself, he preferred the average. Jokes aside, he clicked on Magic Detection as a new window appeared. [Acquire Common Skill, [Magic Detection].] … Setting that aside, Nyx got back to his collection of rare skill shards. He'd first gotten five from the bronze treasure chest, then stolen five from the Green Ghost Fleet, and finally stolen ten rare skill shards from the heavenly demon's kill. Combined, he now held twenty rare skill shards!

Nyx felt his chest puff up—all the risks he'd taken had actually netted him something significant! Twenty rare skill shards meant two new rare skills. And even though combining them would lead to awakening a random rare skill instead of one of his choice, it still wasn't a bad thing.

"Just like there are no useless Pokémon, only useless Pokémon trainers, there are also no useless skills, only useless skill holders!" With that mindset, Nyx clicked on his first set of ten rare skill shards. The icon immediately began to shine with a purple light before bursting into sparks of pixels, and a new notification panel opened. [Processing the Rare Skill shards… successful.] [Awakened Rare Skill: [Magic Storage]] Nyx promptly opened its evaluation panel, excitement making his heartbeat twice as fast as normal. [Magic Storage] Evaluation: Stores excess mana for later use. Because apparently having a mana core and its inherent storage capacity wasn't enough—you need a fucking savings account for it too. Nyx reeled back from the flare of the explanation. Seriously, whoever had been writing these was either having real fun with it, or working overtime.

Shaking his head, he focused on the internal information that skills tended to provide. Normally, that information was a lot more detailed and nuanced than the evaluation panel. After some probing, he found out that this thing functioned like a little storage portal within him. With a simple thought, he could move part of the healing elemental energy he'd gathered in his lower dantian into this spatial space.

Based on his current estimation—which was rough and approximate for now—he could probably cram in at least a few hundred times the energy he currently held in his lower dantian into this space, and it still might not get full. Nyx clenched his fists at this jackpot of a find. This gave him a lot of possible uses. Once his core was alive, he could continuously pour healing energy into this space, and later, during emergencies, he'd be able to bring it all out at once to massively amplify his healing!

And the more exciting part was, he could do the same with other elemental energies, without them mixing with each other in the spatial storage.

"Now I'm really excited for what this second set of skill shards will bring!" He tapped on the icon, and it too crumbled into motes of pixels, revealing another set of blue, holographic panels.