Chapter 9: Chapter. 9: Skills & Mana

Born for battle? I had heard an idiom like that in the past. Though I never took it too seriously, even if us Dark elves had an unorthodox lifestyle compared to every other species of elf. But it seemed that their words of accusation had some hint of truth to them, or at least applied to me. Still, The System did not affect me. Everything I had done so far was… my own decision. I took a deep breath.

I felt lost, I kept convincing myself about revenge, however… Was fighting the Knell Boar in the name of revenge? Not really… I felt ashamed at the idea of running away. It made me feel as if nothing had changed, as if I was still the same girl hiding away in a bush ⁠— hoping for my family to survive, hoping that the elves do not find me.

I stared at the corpse of the Knell Boar. Crushed under a tree whose weight I couldn’t fathom. Its diameter, thick and alien to me. It could crush a tree so thick in an instant with a single charge. I stared at my arms, my left arm was broken, but it slowly started to heal after the potion. My right arm had healed from it, but still felt lingering pain. The wound on my abdomen had closed and my bleeding had stopped. Still, that left me with one potion left.

I stared at the ground, the grass was brown and mangled. I had to be more careful from now on. Impulsiveness was going to get me killed. Only one potion left. I had used one from the Everwood Moose, and one more from the Knell Boar⁠— a trend was there. Though the Everwood Moose was unexpected, the Boar was my fault. I shook my head, feeling shame for myself. I still wanted to survive for the sake of my family. Revenge was… I didn’t know what I was doing, but staying alive was the least I could do.

With that in mind I took a quick look at my situation. I had lost practically all my arrows, the only ones remaining were inside the boar. The knife was with the boar as well. My bow was intact, and I had one potion left. I stared at myself and my blood covered body. What was I even doing? No, that was enough doubt. Part of my mind told me I was wasting time idly pondering about my life choices, but I felt it necessary; that said it was better for me to do something with my time. With that in mind, I began to gather my things. Firstly approaching the boar.

[Blair!] Glim called. [I am aware you’re em… doing things, but perhaps take a look at the System Log first?]

“System Log?”

Glim bobbed. [Yes, just think you want to see the System Log! You’ll see a list of the most recent notifications from The System. Useful to well⁠— check rewards!]

I nodded skeptically. Why wasn’t this included in the Basic Knowledge? No, that wasn’t important. I did as told, thinking about The System, and the notifications I had missed.

[System Log:

[Skills Available: Expand (1 New)]

[Feats Achieved: Expand (1 New)]

[Quests completed: Expand (1 New)]

[Level ups: Expand.]

[Kills: Expand.]

Oh. Everything was expandable? It arranged it all in a small list that could be expanded. I quite liked it, mostly because it was⁠— well it was in my mind. Unlike the quests that I could also reference with my eyes, this one was just internal. I thought about expanding the feats category only to be mentally prompted to either check everything, or the new one. There were no words, just a nagging feeling. New. A notification came.

[Feat Achieved ⁠— Bottomless Ambition ⁠— Things of your size are never enough, instead you aim to bring down those above you. +5% to all attributes. +4 Free assignable attribute points.

“Ambition is great, but meeting your match is the worst. This is my mark for eternity.” ⁠— Arkan The Bastion of Shadow, Last Bastion of the Shadow Order.]

I stared. Feats could give attribute points too? I read the quote at the end but didn’t know what to make of it. As I was about to open my status I remembered the other expandable list. In an instant another notification came.

[New Milestone reached ⁠— Skills Available]

That was all it said. Where were my skill options?

[These are the most suited skills for you:

[Skill ⁠— Archery (Passive Common) ⁠— Your path is just beginning as a master of the bow. Minute perception and accuracy bonus based on your agility.

[Skill ⁠— One-handed Weapons (Passive Common) ⁠— Your path is just beginning as a master of melee combat. Minute strength and agility bonus when engaged in close combat.

[Skill ⁠— Explosive Shot (Rare) ⁠— Overcharge your shot to unleash a highly volatile projectile. Small agility bonus shortly after firing.

[Skill ⁠— Nimble (Uncommon Passive) ⁠— Skulk, stalk, and move. +3 to Agility (Scaleable)

[Skill ⁠— Whisperer of Trees (Rare Passive) ⁠— Trees shall help you in unforeseeable ways. Bonus to all stats when touching a tree.]

I paused. There was a Rare skill, the problem was it seemed… weird. It also counted on me being surrounded by trees at all times, which was just hopeful thinking. I sighed, the destruction around me was more than evident, even if I had the skill I doubted that my fight would’ve been easier. Moreover, why was there an Archery skill? Could I combine them?

[You cannot.] Glim interrupted.

I scoffed. “Okay, but these options aren’t… great.”

Glim bobbed. [You could see the full list of what you could pick, but I highly advise against it. A lot of the skills are quite useless for you, some are skewed due to your Feats. Such as: High Jump, a rare skill that adds 20% to your jump height, or Tough Hide⁠— you get the point. There is one that lets you call all the bugs in a certain radius; mind you, you only call them, not tame them or anything.]

I paused. “Those exist?”

Glim spun. [As your SGA I should advise you that the suggestions from The System tend to be accurate. Of course, if you feel like no skill is worth your time you can look in the myriad that is the universal list of available skills. But I suggest doing so when having free time, since the list is in the hundreds.]

I frowned and stared at the skills once more. On one hand I could take a look at the list and hope to find something useful. On the other I could pick from the pre-selected skills and hope they would be a fit. Considering it depended on my future I made my choice.

“I’d like to see the extended list.” I took a deep breath.

[Brace yourself. Monsters will not approach due to the destruction.]

A seemingly endless string of letters entered my head in an instant. It felt as if my brain had been hammered and shaken in its place. The sides of my head screamed in pain, as more and more information came.

◇ ◇ ◇

I didn’t faint. That said, Glim was pretty much right on a lot of things being useless. It took me about an hour of reading to skim through them. Some examples included:

[Skill ⁠— Basic Silver Whisperer (Common) ⁠— Your voice is as sweet as nectar. +5 Charm, minute chance to sleep the target if they are in a vulnerable state.

[Skill ⁠— One-handed (Passive Common) ⁠— Your path is just beginning as a master of melee combat. Small strength and agility bonus when engaged in close combat at the price of your arm.

[Skill ⁠— Dislocation (Passive Common) ⁠— Dislocating your limbs is much easier and less painful. The resistance between your joints is lessened and so is their stress.]

The list went on, but at least I managed to gather an actual list of the skills I could pick from. Some of which were already in the initial selection.

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[Skill ⁠— Explosive Shot (Rare) ⁠— Overcharge your shot to unleash a highly volatile projectile. Small agility bonus shortly after firing.

[Skill ⁠— Nimble (Uncommon Passive) ⁠— Skulk, stalk, and move. +3 to Agility (Scaleable)

[Skill ⁠— Battle Cry (Rare) ⁠— Call the attention of every single living entity on a 5m radius. Friend of foe, all shall attack you.]

[Skill ⁠— Shadow Steps (Uncommon) ⁠— Your steps are quiet and nimble, soft as feathers. Makes your steps marginally lighter. +5 to Agility.]

I was honestly quite pleased with my selection of skills, or the custom selection I had found. However, there was something that I found confusing. A lot of the skills were passive. Instead of well, not passive. Active? Something that I had to consciously use from what I loosely remembered.

“Glim…” I called. “Well I think you know what I am thinking.”

Glim shook. [Not at all, I wasn’t paying attention! It’s a conscious thing I must do!]

Oh, that was reassuring, somewhat. “Why are so many skills passive? I think that was the most common thing.”

[Well, you see. Mana is ever-present but not every being can use mana. Passive skills do not require mana, but active ones generally do. Of course, it’s not to say Passive skills are inherently worse, they are just different. Just like me, I am different! I am your companion!] Glim explained.

“I see, thanks.” I nodded, before turning my attention to the skills.

[Skill ⁠— Shadow Steps (Uncommon)] and [Skill ⁠— Nimble (Uncommon Passive)] allowed me to move faster, which… Well Agility had been my highest stat since the start, and at this moment I did not feel like it was essential to me at this moment. Though if I could choose them in the future I would. At this moment I was lacking something for battle. Well, I just needed to stay alive, but… I shook my head, I already knew the answer. I did not want to hide. I needed the strength to live a normal life⁠— whatever that normal meant now.

That led me to the other two options. [Skill ⁠— Battle Cry (Rare)] and [Skill ⁠— Explosive Shot (Rare)] Battle Cry a Rare skill, something that came after Uncommon, or a higher tier⁠— something powerful, but… Drawing enemies and allies alike? Not that I had allies, but it seemed more useful to me if I were to use a knife rather than a bow. Which… I looked around and finally, at the boar. Might be the case.

That finally left me with, [Skill ⁠— Explosive Shot (Rare)], something that was admittedly cryptic. But not much more cryptic than a lot of the other skills. Even if the other skills explained what they did, it was still inconcrete; just a general idea. But I needed an offensive skill⁠— something that helped me take down foes like the Knell Boar or the Everwood Moose with much more ease. Right now what I lacked was fire-power. Not agility for running away, nor a skill to help me with nearby foes.

With that in mind, I selected that skill. Even though it wasn’t the shiniest of them all, nor the most powerful objectively speaking.

[Skill Learned⁠—

I ignored the rest of the notification knowing what it said already, and moved onto my status. I had points to distribute.

Name: Blair | Level: 6

Race: ??? (E-Grade)

Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition]

Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN),

Universal Inquiry (NaN)

Free attribute points: 10

VIG: 26 | END: 36 |

STR: 23 | AGI: 41 |

PER: 35 | WIS: 13 |

Skills: [Proficient Archery (Passive Uncommon)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)]

Attunements: Dark plants (I)

Prime Currency: 100

10 points. I smiled. Vigor had helped me a lot in the last fight, so I put 4 points into it. Making it an even 30 ⁠— which got bumped to 31. Aside from that, I felt lost. Something about putting all 10 into Vigor felt wrong to me. That left me with 6 points. Which I didn’t really know where to invest. I didn’t feel like I was lacking in any way for now, at least from what I could tell. I shook my head and closed my status, thinking about using the points later. At the same time, I had spent a long time dealing with system notifications. In retrospect they were kind of tedious, but it was something that needed to be done. Perhaps I was going to get used to it later.

Well, now there were other things I had to do. With that in mind, I headed to the boar, its blood still fresh. I grabbed my knife, cleaned it and stowed it away. Next came the arrows, unlodging them from its body took me a couple of seconds per arrow. The boar’s hide was tough, extremely so. It felt like touching a leather covered stone rather than something organic. As the process continued the more disillusioned I felt, I only gathered the arrows whose bodies were still straight.

In the end I gathered about six arrows. My clothes had ended up in a worse state than before, but they were at least still usable. Enough for modesty at least. But it also served as a reminder that I needed new clothes soon. I shook my head, I needed more arrows to get things done. Making my own arrows was out of the question, as much as I wished I could just make more.

Where had I used arrows? I retreaded my path of destruction. Taking in the sheer amount of trees that had been destroyed, wood and blood filled the place with the occasional broken arrow.

Few minutes later, I had gathered two arrows and was back at the lake. Where I saw the Loa Vulpes that I had killed. They still had arrows in them. Which I gathered as soon as I was next to them. That left me with eleven total arrows. It was a far-cry from what I had before the fight, but I was just happy that I was still going to be able to use my bow.

I sighed next to the campsite. The destruction to one side of the forest was so painfully obvious. I turned to the Loa Vulpe wondering what to do with them, perhaps I could skin them and make new clothes⁠— though I doubted if I’d be able to do that. So I had gotten into a fight, lost a bunch of arrows, gained some levels and a new skill from the boar. What a way to go. I paused, not everything was a miss, I could still try my new skill, and after that I could deal with quests.

I set all my arrows but one on the ground, given that my quiver had been smashed into nothingness. And then grabbed my bow. I nocked an arrow and aimed at a fish that swam in the distance, it was about 10 meters away, since I wanted to be able to retrieve the arrow after the fact.

As I aimed I had a weird feeling in my head, it was like an instinct. Was this the skill? An almost imperceptible instinct arrived at my head, it was like knowledge, but not quite. I listened to it and followed the strange feeling, gathering unknown energy inside of me I guided it to my fingers⁠— moving it through my body felt as if warmth went from my very core to my arm, which was odd. Said warmth never existed for me before, yet it was as if I was suddenly aware of it. As my fingers got heated up, I tried to spread that heat towards the arrow.

In a short second, the arrow began to glow a bright green. Was this the skill?

[Good job Blair, that is indeed the skill! You picked it up faster than I anticipated. I was giddy thinking you’d ask for guidance!] Glim confirmed it.

I got familiar with the warmth I was feeling, and then let go of the arrow.

An unknown shock rippled, I lost my footing making me fall into my back two meters from where I was standing. Why had I been sent back?

[That was recoil.] Glim explained.

The arrow streaked through the air. As soon as it made contact with the water, an explosion occurred. Water erupted onto the air, the watery torrent rose to triple my height before it came down, and mist lingered. The calm lake water continued to rage from the disturbance. The fish was gone, erased from existence; the arrow much the same. It was reminiscent to the trees blowing up. I had done that? My fingers felt cold, and slightly pained from the string. The warmth that I felt in my body had been reduced considerably. Was this mana?

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