A week later, Sol sat on the couch in the communal area of his squad quarters and reviewed his progress on his status page.
Na: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner], [Transforr]
Level: 83
Exp: 43,232,500/108,258,700
HP: 1600
MP: 1800
Str: 85 ( 80)
Vit: 80 ( 80)
Agi: 85 ( 80)
Int: 85 ( 80)
Wis: 80 ( 100)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX
Siphoned Talents:
[Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4
Passive Skills:
[Muffled Movents] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 3, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Interdiate Weapon Mastery] Lv 8, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Balance] Lv 3, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 3, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8
Active Skills:
[Ground Shrink] Lv 9, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Manipulation] Lv 8, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 3, [Interdiate Elental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Weapon Empowernt (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana Slash] Lv 6, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv 4, [Repair] Lv 5, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 1, [Vorpal Blade Rush] 2, [Guided Bombardnt] Lv 3, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 4, [Unarming Blow] Lv 2
In the end, he decided to choose [Aggregate] as the talent skill to attempt to break through. It was more mysterious than [Reinterpret], and he believed it was easier to decipher more from it. Since then, he had combined a few more skills as practice, taking much longer than usual to fully understand how it functioned.
Sol blinked once and instantly saw the colored lines expanding out from him, reaching much further and eventually passing through the walls and the ceiling.
’I can imdiately see the lines now; before, it would take a few seconds. I also found out sothing rather disturbing.’
He discovered he could pull and twist the lines instead of joining them to create a new skill, causing so severe side effects. For example, when he twisted the cyan colored string representing [Mana Slash], he temporarily forgot how to use the skill. No matter how hard he tried to recall, it felt fuzzy in his mind. Then he tried sothing much riskier. He controlled the black and purple string of [Create Undead] to twist, pull, contort, and when he forgot how to use the skill, he didn’t stop. He continued until, with one of the pulls, it finally snapped, and with it, everything that had to do with the skill.
He still rembered owning it, but how it worked and how to use it were completely gone.
’I’m glad I chose to try it on [Create Undead], as it was a skill I could never find a good use for anyway. If, for so reason, I ever need it back, I can go to Necropolis and fight the Grave Digger again.’
Though Sol couldn’t rember, the skill was too weak for him to use in most cases, and it had many restrictions. He needed corpses to create the undead and even when he did, there was a limit on the undead he could have at one ti, and it constantly consud mana. There was also the fact that it required desecrating the dead, sothing Sol was never a fan of. Even with [Siphon], he did his best not to be consud by the allure of murdering those with unique talents and skills to take them for himself.
When he wasn’t working on comprehending a law technique from it, he spent his ti improving his other skills or completing missions with his squad.
’I managed to level up [Siphon] to level six, but there were no big changes; the range and limit for how long they could be dead increased. Now I can siphon them with maximum efficiency if it’s been three days and up to a month with minimal returns.’
Sol was never able to figure out why it was so limited by the ti of death, especially when it was used on higher level beings. If they were higher level, their high vitality remained even in death, so in so cases, their bodies were still in pristine condition years after their passing.
’Well, even if it didn’t have a limit on the ti of death, I wouldn’t go around digging up ceteries, so it’s fine. It’s mostly out of curiosity that I want to know.’
For now, he could be satisfied and answered a few questions he had regarding his talent skills. Done reviewing his progress, Sol planned to head to Fabio’s store to check up on him, but Duncan entered the room with a ssage for him.
"Captain, Commander Zaman is calling for you."
Sol didn’t respond; his eyes were wide with surprise.
"Captain? Are you feeling unwell?"
"Stay still for a second."
Sol stood up and circled Duncan, scanning him from every angle. Duncan was extrely perplexed at why he was doing so but didn’t say anything and waited for him to finish.
Duncan followed where Sol’s eyes were looking, but they didn’t appear to be looking directly at him but around him.
"Hey Duncan, can you tell how [Full tal Stride] works?"
Duncan raised an eyebrow as he didn’t understand why Sol was suddenly asking that now but nodded.
"Sure, I use the… I use the umm… What!? Why can’t I rember!?"
His face scrunched up as he tried to recall how the skill worked, but all he could see were fuzzy mories, and even when he tried to go off the muscle mory ingrained from using it for so many years, his own body betrayed him and wouldn’t budge.
"It’s going to be okay, Duncan. I caused it. It should co back in a few minutes. I’m really sorry; I should have warned you ahead of ti."
Sol felt bad for suddenly making him forget his skill without asking beforehand, but he was too caught up in the discovery. It was hard to control soone else’s lines, but he managed to give it a small twist, effectively blocking the skill’s usage for a short period.
Duncan cald down and let out a sigh. "Give a man a warning next ti, alright? I thought I was cursed or sothing. What was that anyway? So new skill?"
At this point, he didn’t know how many skills his captain even had. Ever since he witnessed Sol cast multiple different magics, he wasn’t sure what else he was hiding.
Sol shook his head. "No, it’s a rather old skill. I’ve just been learning new ways to use it so I can break into A-Rank."
"Break into A-Rank?" Duncan was imdiately intrigued. "So that has to do with ranking up... Most A-Rankers don’t disclose the process of becoming one. I’ve always wondered why."
"I’m not sure, but I’ll tell you what little I know later. I think we’re soon going to need as many A-Rankers as possible. I honestly don’t know why we aren’t sharing this information more."
It wasn’t very complicated to beco an A-Ranker; one just needed to continue developing their skill past its limit. Though simple, it wasn’t sothing most people would even think of doing. To them, the system was absolute. If it said their skill was max or ex, it ant it had reached its full potential, and they wouldn’t continue improving it and would move on to other skills.
This didn’t an it never happened. There were many cases of those who continued to work on their main skill past its limit and comprehended a law technique accidentally. That’s how half of the A-Rank adventurers ca to be, while the other half learned of the information through connections or through their travels.
Duncan was a little surprised at Sol’s offer and gladly accepted. "Thank you, Captain. You should get going, though. I don’t think you should keep the Commander waiting."
"Oh, right! We’ll talk later."
Sol bade goodbye to Duncan and power walked towards Zaman’s office, hoping he hadn’t kept him waiting long.
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