Chapter 49: Chapter. 49: Offering From The System

I smiled at the notification, adrenaline pumping through my veins. It felt like a true reward, one befitting of the danger I had been through. And that wasn’t all, my quests had seen some progress too.

[Ecology Dissection III (Uncommon E) ⁠— Progress (9/15)]

[Till They Bleed (Uncommon E) ⁠— Progress (4/40)]

It seemed that kill assists did not count. But that didn’t matter, it looked like I had found a way to complete every single quest I had in my list, including the one that eluded me the most. The one that seemed so much more out of reach at the start than what it actually was.

[Visions of Power (Uncommon E): It is said that the peak exists for a reason. Power to overwhelm, power to surpass the peak; Power Overwhelming. Reward: Guidance Of the Stars (10 minutes). Condition: Reach Level 20 before the Incubation period ends. (16/20)

I didn’t think I would be able to do it, and admittedly I did not fully understand what Guidance Of the Stars represented, what the liquid did or how it worked. But needless to say, it was incredibly important since it was Prophecy related. I took a deep breath hearing the scuffle outside, sometimes it came closer and dust would fall, other times it would become nothing more than residual noise. I shook my head, I didn’t know if the guardians would eventually kill each other, but I sure hoped they did.

Finally, I prepared myself for the notification once more. This time probing it to get the next one.

[New Milestone reached ⁠— Skills Available.]

[These are the most suited skills for you⁠—

Once more, I skipped and promptly turned to Glim who seemed to be amidst indecision.

“Glim, show me the full list.”

Glim trembled. [Wait, before that I must speak to you! I don’t know how to say it, and The System will certainly get angry at me!]

“Angry at you?” I stared at it, it must have been important.

[Yes.] Glim bobbed. [Think about the guardians, they are fighting constantly, no?]

I nodded.

[Have you thought about the times in which they fight?]

As Glim asked that, the battle subsided, then I turned to the time.

[Incubation Period: 2 days 19 hours 25 minutes]

[Take note of it, every time they fight, take note of it.] Glim sighed. [I feel weird advising you this, but at the same time I feel like you needed to hear it. To be honest among all four planets I have a feeling yours is faring the worst. Now, I have not taken a look at the database, otherwise I would be deleted right about now, in a snap, gone. But judging from the things I’ve analyzed, you elves are much more… simple minded.]

I frowned. “What?”

[Nothing, I didn’t mean anything by that!] Glim chirped. [By the way, that worm guardian is totally injured, maybe hit it with six explosive arrows at once, it might just die!]

A snort left me. “I cannot fire that many arrows at once, and even if I could I would be left throwing up blood on the ground.”

[Right⁠—]

“Glim, I order you to tell me what you mean by simple minded!” I decided to force it to explain its insult.

[Ugh,] Glim groaned. [Okay, okay, from the glimpses I’ve gotten at the Dante guy he is a total beast in terms of grinding! He has been setting traps in the forest left and right, that’s why he was so high level while stalking you at the same time! But how many traps have you set? 0, nil, none! You’re simple minded and go pew, pew with your bow! That’s fine, Blair, it totally is! But even on the other elves that I saw, the old geezer did not think of fucking taking cover! Instead he used a human shield!]

I listened as I pondered about things, my mood wasn’t particularly good.

[Then take the little one you buried, Lara the researcher, she is from⁠— well I don’t think I need to risk my life to explain that, my point being⁠. It’s exasperating sometimes! I am supposed to be endearing and annoying, and sometimes I just wanna scream at you but then The System grabs me by the neck! Look, even the researcher theorized a bit about the ants, and even the demon emperor has done numerous things I cannot speak of. You’ve done a lot too, but even though you’re graced by superb combat sense, you don’t think critically. You just go in and think later, or use simple thoughts to deliberate. It’s fine normally, but here? When going out at the wrong time, it will cost you your life Blair⁠—] Glim began to tremble, its light flickered and became red for a second before it became white.

[Whew, I might’ve said too fucking much!]

I stared at Glim with an odd gaze. It cared about me that much? I closed my eyes.

[Hey, by the way Blair, how did we get here?]

“Are you undergoing resets?”

[It seems so,] it mused. [Uh oh, The System is deciding on whether to erase me or not!] Glim panicked. My heart fluttered, it was a weird sense of dread and uneasiness. Even though Glim always spoke of dying, I never thought it would get punished.

“Can I do something?” I asked slightly anxiously.

[O-Oh! You’re totally anxious, how cute! Worrying for me, Glim!] It chirped happily. [Haha, gotcha with that flashing light!]

A headache boomed inside my head, like a pulsating crescendo of pain. But I didn’t lash out at Glim, it had said very useful things.

“Thanks…” I sighed relaxing on the wall.

[Hey, now you’re making me feel bad! You know, everything I just said was actually very high risk! If I wasn’t constantly sending reports to The System I would certainly be dead!]

A scoff left me, not before it turned into a smile.

Glim’s company wasn’t that bad. “Just, show me the skill list.”

[Right, here goes nothing!] Glim happily said, before something else came. [Holy shit…]

◇ ◇ ◇

The skill options were vastly different compared to everything I had seen before, but admittedly very few were vastly different. A lot of the list remained the same. That said, once I sorted my list to choose from I was flabbergasted.

[Skill ⁠— All Sunshine (Uncommon Passive) ⁠— Enhance seeds of the sun, those who require the energy of a star to live. Increase hatching rate by 100%.

[Skill ⁠— All Dark (Uncommon Passive) ⁠— Enhance seeds of the dark, those that thrive in the depths and the extreme. Increase hatching rate by 100% (150% from affinity).

[Skill Learned ⁠— Skill ⁠— Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive) ⁠— Every time you slide you are exempt from friction during your slide on the surfaces of contact, effect gradually decreases during its duration for a total of 2 seconds, restrictions to prevent unintended usages may apply. Special skill for ??? (Blair). Small agility bonus shortly after sliding.]

[Skill ⁠— Flash Reload (Rare) ⁠— Pulsing mana through your fingers instantly reloads the weapon you’re holding. Cannot surpass natural fire rate of the weapon.]

[Skill ⁠— Disintegration Fang (Rare) ⁠— Highly corrosive enhancement, only applies to compatible weapons. Cannot damage the bearer. +8 to Strength.]

There was a custom skill. No⁠— I made sure to commit to memory how much time had passed while sorting the list, and how many times the guardians had fought, and… they were very active. They would fight almost exactly every two hours, and two fights had occurred so far.

[Incubation Period: 2 days 15 hours 23 minutes]

I shuffled for the only Prophecy I had in my possession just to make sure.

[E ranked Prophecy: The Undying Wisp. 0d 3h 38m.]

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It was about to go ineffective rather quickly. I closed my eyes. I’ll make my decision after choosing my level 15 skill.

I wanted one that was worthwhile, one that was… good for me. Penumbral Instinct was exceptional at times, and at other times it was a nuisance. I only listened to it when it felt important, otherwise it was background information and even cluttering, but… I did not regret it.

I closed my eyes and went over my options, the first two on the list were: [Skill ⁠— All Sunshine (Uncommon Passive)] and [Skill ⁠— All Dark (Uncommon Passive)] I had only saved them because I did not know what they did; Glim refused to explain, but there was something else very particular about them. Both were affinity related. But I chose to skip them, simply committing them to the back of my mind as a potential option at some point.

Then I decided to ponder over the other two that I found interesting and unique. First was the weirdest one, and the one that I sort of understood what it meant but not quite. [Skill ⁠— Disintegration Fang (Rare)] if my assumptions weren’t wrong, then it only applied to Acidic Fang, the spear I had gotten from the snake guardian. But it was called a type of enhancement.

“Glim, is pushing mana onto my bow an enhancement?”

It floated in silence for a second. [Yes, it is…]

Its reply pretty much resolved all of my doubts. It would apply some type of corrosion enhancement if I used the skill on the spear. The ability the spear had to melt things with whatever poison, corrosive, venom ⁠— was a bit unsettling to me. Knowing it could potentially be enhanced to be considerably more destructive was a weird thought.

That left me with [Skill ⁠— Flash Reload (Rare)], as its description indicated, it would allow me to instantly reload my bow, somehow, I could just chalk it up to magic, but it was weird to think about. I would’ve certainly chosen it if I was in different circumstances, but now I wasn’t so sure. Even [Skill ⁠— Disintegration Fang (Rare)] seemed like a good choice right now, but deep down I also knew that I was lying to myself a bit.

[Skill Learned ⁠— Skill ⁠— Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive) ⁠— Every time you slide you are exempt from friction during your slide on the surfaces of contact, effect gradually decreases during its duration for a total of 2 seconds, restrictions to prevent unintended usages may apply. Special skill for ??? (Blair). Small agility bonus shortly after sliding.]

The skill description had my name on it. My name on a skill. It felt weird to think about it emotionally like that, but the actual ability of the skill did not sound bad either. From what I understood of friction it was the resistance of things rubbing together, if it was removed then… Wouldn’t all slides be incredibly fast? I also was in dire need of a movement skill.

“Glim, would… would the special skill disappear should I not pick it?”

[Yes, it would. Let me⁠— Ooh, oh, I have permission.] Glim coughed, its light flickering. [You see, a special skill is a form of acknowledgement, it's similar to a Feat. Generally they are user tailored, but do keep in mind that it is what The System believes to be ideal for you. There are records of people impulsively picking their special skill and dying shortly thereafter from misuse.]

I nodded to Glim’s explanation.

Well that was that. I selected Frictionless Slide.

[Skill Learned ⁠— Skill ⁠— Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive) ⁠— Every time you slide you are exempt from friction during your slide on the surfaces of contact, effect gradually decreases during its duration for a total of 2 seconds, restrictions to prevent unintended usages may apply. Special skill for ??? (Blair). Small agility bonus shortly after sliding.]

A very minute part of me felt giddy with excitement, but it wasn’t the time for such things. I quickly stood up and decided to test my skill. If I was going to use it in combat then I had to make sure I understood it completely.

◇ ◇ ◇

The first attempt was painful. I slid, losing all control and crashed against a wall, smashing my ribs against a protrusion and causing rapid bleeding. Whatever momentum I had seemed to be carried over into the slide, it was a one to one thing. Finding out that took me one health potion.

The second thing was after the slide. It wasn’t as rough as I imagined it to be, but the sudden gain of friction when trying to undo the slide would cause a massive shift in the center of gravity. I hit my head against the ground twice, scraping it with minor wounds. The slide seemed to gain some semblance of friction not too long after starting it, easing the friction until coming to a total stop.

The third thing was the slide itself. It seemed a lot… Weirder. If I knelt on the slide it would still count, if I slid with only my knees it would count, if I slid at an awkward angle it would count, if I slid sideways, backwards, sleeping⁠— it would count. The skill was a lot free-er than I initially projected, but it wasn’t that bad.

Time passed, and finally I looked at the time and Prophecy.

[Incubation Period: 2 days 11 hours 49 minutes]

[E ranked Prophecy: The Undying Wisp. 0d 0h 6m.]

I felt confident in the new ability I had gained. I would call it the best I had. The only drawback is that there seemed to be a small one second gap that would prevent me from chaining slides. But, I didn’t know what else to expect from a skill that was for me. In the end, I fiddled until there was only one minute left in the Prophecy.

[E ranked Prophecy: The Undying Wisp. 0d 0h 1m.]

Sitting on the ground I sighed.

[Would you like to learn E ranked Prophecy: The Undying Wisp?]

“No,” I stowed it away as the time ran out.

Soon some of its brightness died, and the crystal in my hand became an orange fiery one, but it was devoid of Prophecy.

[Mana Crystal (E rank) Fire affinity type. Mana purity: Excellent.]

Instead, it had become a mana crystal, but one that I had never seen before or heard of.

“Is it valuable?” I decided to ask Glim.

[Very… great skill you got!] Its initial word dragged quite hard, confirming my suspicion.

I nodded and pondered, it worried me. The ants seemed to be after the mana crystal on the roof. If they saw the one I held, wouldn’t they do everything in their power to get it? I sighed and decided to safeguard it on my backpack, before pausing.

I frowned before turning to the report on the wall. I recalled reading something like that in it, and then I paused not too long after.

Oddly enough they cannot sense them unless said energy is released.

I didn’t know what it meant by release.

[Stimulate. If the crystal is stimulated by foreign mana it will release its energy.] Glim explained. [This⁠—This is included in your tour. No classified information here. Mana can be extracted from mana crystals, but they are also widely used in weapons of mass destruction. Instability of the mana causes a similar phenomenon to Explosive Shot, but much more… aggressive.]

“So…” I raised the crystal. “I am carrying a highly explosive rock?”

[Er, well it's more like if it were to blow up you would die in about a second, and your actual consciousness would vanish as soon as the explosion wave touched you… That is assuming it blows up in your hand, of course. In a way, it’s a hot potato, a really really dangerous one!] Glim chuckled.

I looked at the mana crystal in my hands before deciding to stow it on my backpack, and then I paused, taking it out and setting it on a corner of the room instead. Explosive Arrows were already unstable, let alone this rock.

[If it gets hit by a skill it will just shatter and disperse. You need to overwhelm it by injecting it mana.] Glim elaborated.

Oh. I grabbed it and put it back on my backpack, this time without care in the world. He should've said that first.

The ground shook, and the guardians roared and shrieked. Right, it was beginning once more. I sighed, they truly fought every 2 hours or so.

[Incubation Period: 2 days 11 hours 33 minutes]

I sat down and made my decisions. I really wanted to go out there and slay things. I grabbed my knees, they felt soft and devoid of rashes. I wanted to face either of the guardians. This time around I felt like I had a chance.

I did quick math, and decided something.

I would go face it when the time had thirty minutes left. It would probably be halfway through its recovery, but that didn’t matter. I grabbed my quiver and got to work in making arrows, using all my mana in the process. I could make twelve arrows before running out of mana, then drinking some mana potions I could get way more arrows.

It was time for preparation, I wanted to kill that ice worm bastard after all. Hadn’t I wanted to take on that level 20 Rime Worm? Now it was time to meet its maker.

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