Chương 5: All The Skills

[Minor Shapeshift (F) 1TP], [Barkskin (F) 1TP], [Seedling Companion (F) 0 TP], [Entangle (F) 2TP], [Nature's Wrath (E) 3TP] Hmm, let's see fast. Right now, I need something that can deal some real damage. Maximus thought, scanning through the neatly arranged list.

[Minor Shapeshift (F) 1TP] – Transform part of your body into an animal part. Possible transformations: Lupine legs, Bear claws, Eagle eyes. Transformations last for 10 minutes. No spirit cost, but it places a burden on the mind. [Barkskin (F) 1TP] – Harden your skin into bark, raising your physical defense by 15% for 30 seconds. Costs 20 spirit. [Seedling Companion (F) 0TP] – Commune with Mother Nature and the spirit realm and summon the spirit of nature to help you in your adventure.

The higher the skill level, the stronger the companion. No spirit cost. [Entangle (F) 2TP] – Summon roots to restrain enemies for up to 1 minute or until broken. Costs 80 spirit. [Nature's Wrath (E) 3TP] – Channel nature's fury into a beam of burning spiritual energy. Costs 70 spirit and needs 5 minutes of recovery to cast again. You can increase the spirit spent to increase the damage dealt; for every 10 extra spirit spent, increase the damage done by 3% and the cooldown by 30 seconds.

I have five points. Can I take multiple skills? He asked, "Hey, you two, can you pick more skills from the list?"

"As long as you have points, you should be able to," Tom answered simply. Maximus nodded and selected Nature's Wrath, Minor Shapeshift, Barkskin, and Seedling Companion. He hesitated for a moment about saving points, but in his current state, he needed versatility and options, and the thought of finally communing with even weak spirits tugged at something deep within him. I should save some points for later, but right now I need to survive. Luckily, I gain double the points thanks to my soul trait.

He smiled slightly.

"All right, I'm ready. What did you all pick?" he asked, voice serious.

"That's private information, man," Tom said sharply.

"I saved your lives twice already. I need to know your skills so that we can work together." Maximus replied in the same calm, unbothered tone.

"Tom… it's fine," Sarah said quietly, exhausted.

"We can trust him… even though he doesn't trust us yet." She took a tired breath.

"I have Fireball, and I picked Barrier now."

"Argh, fine, damn it." Tom groaned.

"I have Strengthen, and I picked Cleave for extra damage." He pointed toward Pete.

"He still has only Taunt." Maximus observed him closely, his body language, the spirit flow, the faint mana disturbances around him, and something tightened beneath Maximus's ribs. He's hiding something. A skill? A secret? Something else entirely? His heartbeat spiked in interest. He also realized something else. It looks like I started with two skills for some reason, probably due to my Soul Traits, and now I have six.

"Oh well," he said aloud with a casual shrug.

"I have five skills, the ones you saw already and three new ones: a damage spell, a transformation spell, and a defensive one." He kept Seedling Companion to himself. There was no reason to explain something they wouldn't understand.

"Wow… you sure are lucky," Sarah whispered.

"Only rare cases start with multiple skills."

"Just lucky, right, Tom?" Maximus asked with a smile.

"Yeah. Sometimes you just need luck," Tom muttered, sweat forming at his temples.

"Good. Let's continue. Is there any settlement or somewhere safe nearby?" Maximus asked.

"That's where we were heading," Sarah said as she pulled out a map from her backpack. She pointed at a small dot labeled Resting Bench.

"How far is it?"

"If we hurry, half an hour," Tom said.

"We just had bad luck running into a hidden lizard."

"Let's go then. Tom, help me with Pete. I'm a bit better now." Maximus stood, sheathed his blade, then paused.

"A second, please." He walked back to the dead lizard, closed his eyes, followed the faint flow of mana into its belly, and cut neatly until he pried out a dark-yellow, thumb-sized monster core. He wiped it clean and stored it in his bag.

"How expensive is this lizard? Could we sell it?" he asked, looking at the trio.

"I have no idea," Tom answered.

"But its hide is of good quality. Could probably make armor out of it, but we have no way to transport a beast this size."

"Let me test something." Maximus placed a hand over the corpse and imagined storing it in Subspace. If it's anything like Subspace Magic, it should work, right? The lizard's corpse trembled once, then vanished entirely with a soft woosh. Maximus smirked. Just as I expected.

"Holy shit! Man!" Tom yelped.

"How did you unlock Inventory already, and how is it THAT big?!"

"I have no idea," Maximus lied smoothly.

"I just wanted to test it. So… everyone has this ability?" This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Well, usually you unlock Inventory at level ten," Tom stammered.

"And even then, it only holds a few small things. You just… You just stuffed an entire four-meter lizard inside it. Before level ten!"

"Interesting," Maximus said with a shrug.

"Well, I have no explanation. It's just how it is." Tom spoke as he grabbed Pete, who was slowly regaining color.

"Alright, alright, keep your secrets, not like we need to trust each other… and look, we'll keep it a secret. And regarding the lizard, you earned it. No complaints here."

"Good," Maximus said simply. Tom braced Pete under one arm; Maximus took the other side.

"Now let's go before someone else comes," Tom muttered, scanning the horizon. Maximus nodded, and the two of them carried delirious Pete away from the battlefield, moving quickly in case another predator, or something worse, decided to investigate the explosion.

They dragged Pete together, stopping only when necessary to catch their breath, Maximus's weak human body struggling with every step as he practically collapsed under the weight of supporting another person when he barely had enough stamina to carry himself.

"I mean, man, I'm grateful, we all are, but how the hell are you this weak? You can barely walk without gasping like an eighty-year-old smoker," Tom muttered, half incredulous and half genuinely concerned.

"That's what I'd like to know as well," Maximus grumbled. This old Maximus truly abused this body. Pathetic.

"It sounds really weird when you talk about yourself like you're someone else entirely," Sarah said softly.

"Let's not mock him, Sarah," Tom said with a sigh.

"People with memory loss can't really connect who they were with who they are now. I saw a lot of cases like that in the hospital. Even if he is pretending he does seem quite confused; I will give him that."

"I truly remember nothing about my life before the Planes," Maximus said, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as he leaned heavily against Pete.

"Believe it or not, it is the truth." He let out a ragged breath, letting his physical exhaustion mask the sharp calculations running through his mind.

"I was meaning to ask. Did you three know each other before all this?"

"We all went to the same gym," Tom explained.

"We knew each other, but only on a surface level. When the System chose us, we were all in the same place, so we ended up here together." He seems honest enough, at moments, Maximus thought. He still didn't trust Tom, not even remotely.

"So… the place you come from," Maximus continued, probing for useful information, "how strong is the strongest person?" Tom frowned, eyes narrowing slightly.

"I have to say, man… how can you fight like that, yet not remember basic stuff from home? Even with memory loss, you should remember some things."

"I cannot remember what I cannot remember," Maximus said with a shrug, keeping it deliberately vague. Alright… he's getting suspicious. I should tread carefully.

"Anyway," Tom said, shifting Pete's weight, "the strongest back home are the S‑Ranks, and above them stands the Dragon Queen, Valeria Briggs, the only SS‑Rank in Europe. She keeps the S‑Ranks from going wild and handles the hardest dungeons and raids."

"I see…" Maximus murmured. Best not push for more. Dungeons and raids… probably large hunting grounds or magical rifts. A dragon queen, hmm? Damn dragons, even here. He grimaced inwardly, then froze as he felt a ripple of disrupted spirit energy behind them. Minor Shapeshift: Eagle Eyes. His vision sharpened instantly as his blue eyes flickered and morphed into avian yellow, the world snapping into an almost unnatural clarity.

A moment later, he focused, and the distant landscape zoomed in as if he were looking through lenses. At the site of their previous battle, a tall man with vivid red hair towered over a smaller, feminine figure clad in tight black leather armor, her stance poised and her movement reminiscent of royal assassins from his old world.

"Hey," Maximus whispered urgently, "we might be in trouble. Let's hurry; there are people behind us."

"Crap, damn it…" Tom muttered under his breath.

"If they're skill hunters, we're screwed."

"Tom! Don't say that!" Sarah snapped, slapping him on the back of the head.

"You'll jinx us!"

"Skill hunters?" Maximus asked. Tom swallowed.

"Max, not everyone out here is nice and helpful like you, buddy. Some people hunt Trial Participants. Anyone with skills has a chance of dropping a Skill Gem when they die. It's rare, sure, but for hunters, it's a gamble worth killing for." What a twisted, brutal place… though Veridiyum wasn't exactly a nice place for the weak either, Maximus thought grimly.

"Let's hurry. I can see the gates of the village ahead. We should reach it in ten minutes if we push." He tightened his grip on Pete, ignored the burning in his lungs, and forced his battered human body to move faster as the shadow of the approaching strangers loomed behind them, while stuffing his mouth with sour seedlings.

As Pete finally stirred awake from his pain-induced unconsciousness, he blinked through the haze of pain and confusion, only to find Maximus and Tom dragging him between them while Sarah stumbled behind, sweat running down her face in pure panic as she shouted, "They're getting closer, fast!"

"Prepare your Barrier," Maximus ordered sharply, adjusting his grip under Pete's arm even though his own body screamed in protest, "we need to buy as much time as possible. We're close to the village." Behind them, the same duo Maximus had seen earlier kicked up a trail of dust as they sprinted across the rocky terrain, gaining ground with terrifying speed.

"What's going on?" Pete asked, voice strained.

"Skill hunters…" Tom muttered through clenched teeth, his expression darkening.

"Leave me behind," Pete groaned, pain etched across his face.

"You can outrun them if you leave me…"

"Enough," Maximus snapped, frustration cracking through his voice like thunder.

"I did not drag your heavy bottom all this way just to drop you now. My legs feel like they're filled with burning tar, and I am utterly sick of this miserable day."

"You sound like an old man," Sarah managed to crack a tiny smile, though worry immediately swallowed it again. Then, a shadow blotted out the sun. Sarah screamed as her Barrier ignited reflexively. A tall man, the one Maximus had seen earlier, came crashing down from above, having leapt dozens of meters with monstrous strength, summoning a massive falchion mid-air and slashing down toward them with the intent to cleave someone in half.

"Sarah, as I explained, now!" Maximus shouted. Sarah, trembling but focused, raised her staff and cast another Barrier, and then a third wrapping around the man's blade itself, spending the entirety of her remaining mana in the process. The spell-wrapped falchion struck their twin Barriers with a loud, vibrating clang, and the combined force sent the red-haired attacker flying backward as if he had struck a rubber wall instead of magical shields.

"How did you know that would work?" Sarah gasped as they resumed running, Pete pushing with his single good leg and somehow managing to increase their pace.

"I remembered that I read somewhere that barriers from the same caster have the same polarity," Maximus explained breathlessly, excitement flickering in his eyes despite their situation.

"If you strike one with another, it creates a repulsive force." Spell theory still functions the same in this world, perfect, he thought, almost giddy as they reached the outer gates.

"Who goes there?!" a guard shouted from atop the battlements.

"We're new participants! We have an injured member, and Skill Hunters are hunting us!" Tom yelled.

"Alright, hold on!" the guard called back as he moved to open the wooden gates. The sounds of pulling chains and grinding cogs filled the area. But before Maximus could relax, a sound of mana hissing behind them triggered his senses. He shoved Tom and Pete aside as a dagger sliced through the air exactly where they had stood a heartbeat ago.

"Ohooo… nice reflexes," a female voice purred mockingly. A cowled woman stepped forward, only her deep emerald eyes visible from beneath her cowl.

"Sarah, behind me! Tom, protect Pete!" Maximus ordered, pulling his blade free as he activated Minor Shapeshift. His legs twisted, bones reshaping into digitigrade lupine limbs with clawed feet, tearing through his ruined shoes. He activated Barkskin next, and an ethereal bark-like membrane grew across his body. A ragged gasp tore from his throat as his mind reeled from the sudden, jarring sensory feeling of the transformation.

Ignoring the sense of shifting muscle and bone, he forced his newly reshaped limbs to drive into the dirt. And then he lunged at the cowled woman, speed exploded beneath his lupine legs, as he sought to force the attackers back and buy the others a chance at reaching safety, just as the red-haired man sprinted back toward them with murderous intent.