"Your Imprint is very nice."
Shiela of Riverdown is a kind, extrely well-endowed, heavily tattooed Beast of the cat variation. Her long black tail swishes side to side in the corner of my eye as she provocatively runs her arm along my new prosthetic.
"Incredible," I gape down at her handiwork, flexing my new, almost identical soulsteel arm; the fingers are all responsive, and the Essence flow is unrestricted. It’s a tad heavier, and the loss in muscle mory makes the movents feel a bit delayed, but I’ll certainly adjust in due ti.
Spending Leara’s money is fantastic. And it’s practically free! What a bargain. She even gave an extra 100,000. I’m truly blessed to have such a great friend.
I can’t tell if it’s the million Gold I’ve spent for her expertise here in the Interrealm Hub, or perhaps her nature, but her temptations have grown quite desperate in response to my stonewalling.
Sheila continues being extrely touchy. I’m enticed to ask if she does happy endings. Will I get banned from the entire Interrealm Hub if that goes poorly?
I sit up on the operating table, shaking away debauched thoughts. "Thank you very much, Mrs. Riverdown. You’re truly a master of the craft."
"You flatterer. No need for such formality," Shiele purrs, batting her feline eyes at . "I’m not even married..."
Small fireworks go off in my mind. But I keep a level head—lots to do on the agenda.
This is a trap designed by the Demon God to test my devotion to the cause, no doubt. If I give in to temptation, everything will crumble.
...
Actually... I might still have ti... I don’t think it’ll ruin much.
Because after our night eting, Leara inford of the inside scoop: that the format was both team-related and multi-day, with the event persisting throughout many days and nights, though she didn’t know anything beyond that.
Generally, Artifacts are either restricted or entirely barred from these events; therefore, my preparation—outside of the arm—will be quite light.
So, really.... I could...
No. Get a grip. I’m making excuses for a distraction. Distractions before the most important event of my life could be lethal. Yank my figurative head out of the gutter already.
"Of course," I give a curt bow out of respect. "Thank you again. Next ti I lose a limb, I’ll know where to go."
"Oh, sweetie, you don’t need to lose a limb to see ."
Gulp.
"I’ll see you later... soon." I whimper out, a bit hot in the face and extremities.
Sheila, the unmarried, ridiculously attractive prosthetic engineer catwoman, chuckles endearingly as I hastily take my leave.
Devils. There are devils everywhere, seemingly never-ending, and never of the actual race of Demons.
I shake it off and make it to my last stop in the Interrealm Hub.
The resident Skill Shaman is antithetical to Sheila.
Antonio is a fat, greasy, Hispanic Human with a thick mustache and an ever-present drunken slur, who, despite not having any tattoos and being a shocking racial caricature, is incredibly efficient at tattooing.
We exchange very few words, although that’s because his Common is quite shabby and, of course, drunken.
Skills are divided, for the most part, by whether or not they can be replicated.
They are similar in structure to Imprints, as they are black tattoos that act as channels of power. The difference is that they can be added or removed by a Skill Shaman.
Skill tattoos aren’t as intrinsic to one’s Soul as Imprints are, so you can add or remove them without an issue.
Almost all Skills are designated as ’Common’ and ’Replicable’, which, save for ’Unique’ Skills, are, as implied, unique to that particular Favored.
I honestly have no definitive way of obtaining Unique Skills. The only person from the novel who had a Unique Skill was Darrow, of course, and he was born with it. Fucking birthright nonsense. Why is the world so against equality? Albeit, so Unique Skills are simply lost to ti, and their schematics do pop up infrequently as loot in Excursions.
Skills are then further divided by rank. Rank also impacts Skill slots.
F, E, and D rank Skills only require one slot. C-rank requires two slots. B-rank is weird because it only needs two slots, but it requires the user to have their stats at a minimum of B-rank.
A-rank Skills require three slots, but can be safely utilized by B-rank Favored. Known S-rank Skills are few in number, mostly relegated to Unique Skills, and require four slots.
A Favored’s power cos from the Soul, and overloading it can be lethal, so the status has been designed by so greater being to emphasize these rank distinctions for the Favored’s safety. Though it is possible to overload on Skills above your pay grade, it’ll co with severe, Soul-altering backlash.
As a C-rank, I only have two slots at the mont, so I’ll be spending almost all of my remaining, donated-by-a-piggy-bank-friend fortune on removing Sunshine-pilled and adding two D-rank Skills.
Sunshine-pilled was just a band-aid for the weakling I was before. Sure, Endangered can be an absolute skullpiercing headache sotis, and it exasperates a deep, lingering insecurity of mine, but honestly, it’s one of my greatest assets.
It often acts as literal foresight. Always having ’hunches’ that get out of trouble is ridiculously good. Almost as ridiculous as Leara Mateiko getting to know things just because her Trait says that she can essentially ’see patterns real good’. That’s fucking horseshit.
I should really do everything in my power to suck up to Leara and help her secure access to the Crystallized Essence Pool so I can gain entry. Traits are practically universal-level powers, so it’s no wonder the Landeskogs have been the top dogs with that overpowered bullcrap monopolized.
Anyway, with a lot of hand signaling and broken communication, I managed to get Antonio to remove Sunshine-pilled—the tattoo was nothing more than a small notch along my spine. He uses a by-hand traditional thod of tattooing, basically hamring a spike into my flesh. Thankfully, he’s quite good at it.
An hour of sitting face down on a table later, and I am the proud owner of two D-rank Skills.
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Slot 1: Efficient Engine→ [Rank: D]
Description: Save the environnt! Like a hybrid car, your miles per gallon is incredible. Passively provides an overall boost to stamina. Less sleep is required to recoup Essence, and less sleep is required to feel energized. You might break down after pushing yourself for many days, also like a dogshit pretentious hybrid car. And you’ll be forced to spend thousands on repairs. So be warned.
Common. Replicable. Passive.
Slot 2: Night Owl→ [Rank: D]
Description: Greatly increases perception and stealth at night. Minor decrease in perception during daylight hours.
Common. Replicable. Passive.
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