Chương 52: New Skills for Everyone

Evan was intrigued. He'd hoped for a little more support from Lamont than a wooden box the size of a large shoebox, but Catriona's secrecy had sparked his curiosity. He quickly closed all the window blinds in the room, allowing only a few rays of sunshine to stream through the gaps while keeping out unwanted attention. They all gathered around the dining table, waiting for Catriona to reveal the contents of the box.

"I admit I would've preferred my tribe to take a more proactive role in fighting that madman at the Vason Estate, but when I heard you still had an unused skill slot, I thought we could at least make sure you went into the fight with a full skill set." She opened the lid of the wooden box. Inside, at least a dozen skill gems glowed and sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow. Luca let out a whistle.

"Wow, is that a Restore gem?" He reached out, but Catriona slapped his hand away.

"Those are for Evan."

"Oliver and Luca still have an unfilled slot too," Evan explained. Catriona studied both boys for a moment, then nodded.

"I don't think Lamont would mind if you took one too. We have so many of them. Those are just the ones no one from our tribe wanted. We kept them to trade with the Bloodthorn tribe, but Lamont and I agreed that we can spare a few if it means the Vason Estate problem goes away." Luca looked at her flabbergasted.

"Those are your spares? Half of those are uncommon. There are even a couple of rare ones." He pointed at the few orange-colored gems inside the box.

"Do you have any idea how many mana stones the contents of that box are worth?"

"No," Catriona said flatly.

"My people don't care much about mana stones. The Old Forest provides more mana stones than we could ever use." Evan looked at the collection in awe.

"And we can just pick one? Any one of those?"

"Yes, Lamont allowed it." He exchanged a look with Oliver, who looked equally stunned at the sudden opportunity to upgrade their skill sets. Jasper crossed his arms.

"Just be smart about your choices, boys. Don't take the fancy one just because it sounds cool. Think about what you need most." Catriona started to take the gems out of the box and lined them up on the table. They went through the gems one by one, starting with the common ones: Sword, Sword, Knife, Swap, Boost, another Boost, Leap, Scatter, Deflect, and Melt. The uncommon ones were: Pulse, Link, Bind, Veil, Leech, Blast, Protection, Beam, Infuse, and Surge.

The four orange gems were Summon, Tame, Enchant, Cleanse and Restore. Evan let his gaze wander over the collection and let out a long breath. He thought about taking the guild manual out, but knew he would find little about combining any of those with his Celestial affinity in there. For Oliver, the choice was easier. He picked up the blue Gem of Protection.

"I want this one." Jasper nodded his approval.

"Good. This might give you another skill like your Bulwark. Or a self-protective ability." Luca went back and forth between Restore and Cleanse, before he finally chose the Gem of Cleansing for himself. Catriona looked at Evan expectantly.

"And you?" Evan scratched the back of his head. Some of the gems had a crafting or healing focus, so he could strike those off his list. Others sounded appealing or interesting, but were too far from the kind of fighting style he imagined, like Veil or Tame. He wanted a balanced mix of magic and swordfighting. That meant he needed close-range magical attacks.

He needed to be fast and agile so he could zip around the battlefield, getting into fighting range with the enemy, but some kind of control power would also be good so he could bring the enemy to him. He thought about the enemy they would be facing. Spider was fast and could immobilize his victims in a number of ways. Bear was strong and packed a punch. Rat… well, he had that ugly tail, giving him some range, but otherwise Evan hadn't seen much of his fighting style.

Rat had been so much stronger than them that he hadn't been forced to show many of his skills. Evan already had [Teleport], which gave him the ability to avoid attacks, so mobility wasn't high on his priority list right now. He could probably use some extra protection, since his [Starlight Shield] was pretty weak, but he didn't want to go too far in a tank direction, since Oliver already filled that role much better than he did. What Evan wanted above all was to be stronger. To do more damage.

To be able to fight back, not just take strikes or avoid them. He wanted to kick the goddamn living shit out of the Beasts, wipe Rat's arrogant smile off his face with the edge of his blade, and then repeat the process with that crazy Professor who abducted innocent people for his twisted experiments. Without further ado, he followed his gut and picked up the Gem of Blast.

"This one." He didn't wait for his friends' reactions or Jasper's judgment. He just closed his fist around the gem and focused on the system prompt appearing in front of him. [You have bound Gem of the Sword to your Crystal] [You have received a new skill: Super Nova] Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Super Nova. That sounded promising.

[Super Nova - Tied to your Strength attribute Your next sword strike triggers an immediate radial explosive burst of celestial energy on contact. Mana Cost: 57 Cooldown: 30 minutes Increase your Strength attribute to improve this ability.]"Whoa, man, that was quick. What did you get?" Luca asked.

"It's called Super Nova," Evan said, very satisfied with the outcome of his knee-jerk decision.

"That sounds cool," Oliver said.

"And pretty powerful."

"Hopefully it will teach the Beasts a lesson. Your turn, Luca." Luca didn't hesitate to activate his gem.

"Cleansing Water," he reported, after the process was completed, "A pretty standard cleansing skill. Exactly what I wanted. Next time we run into a Earthwyrm I'm better prepared. Oliver, you're next." Oliver closed his eyes and focused on the skill gem in his palm. Even without checking the interface, Evan could feel something was happening. A soft gust of power swept over him, not nearly as intense as it had felt when he'd absorbed his own gem, but at Rank 4 his senses were attuned enough to notice the change.

"Stone Skin," Oliver reported, looking slightly disappointed.

"Darn, I was hoping for something similar to my Earth Bulwark."

"No, this is better," Jasper said.

"You already have one area barrier power. Something to protect yourself is much more useful."

"I agree," Evan said, "This is good. It'll allow you to take more damage in a fight, which will prolong the time you can keep the enemy busy and protect us or innocent bystanders."

"Maybe you're right. Let me give it a try." He narrowed his eyes in concentration, and a moment later his skin turned from its usual light bronze tone to a stony gray. The discoloration faded quickly, but when Luca tried to punch Oliver in the arm, he yelped in pain.

"Damn, just like stone," he said, shaking out his aching hand.

"How long does the effect last?"

"Forty seconds. Scales with Stamina." Catriona raised an eyebrow at Evan.

"I would prefer it if you didn't test your Super Nova power in the middle of our guest quarters."

"Don't worry. I'll practice it somewhere safe."

"Like where? I would advise against trying it in the Old Forest. The noise and vibrations from an explosive power would only draw the attention of more monsters. Monsters you're not strong enough to fight yet."

"Thanks for the warning. I guess the Beasts will see the premiere then." They spent the rest of the day in the guest house, taking care of their gear, coming up with strategies for their next encounter with the Beasts, and resting. Now that they knew where they were hiding, Jasper had sent the magical messenger bird on its way, with a message for Alex informing her of the Vason Estate and what was going on there.

Evan hoped the message would reach her fast, and she'd really managed to secure some more high-ranked support for the mission, but he'd already decided he was not going to wait for her. If she arrived before the fight was over, great. If not, they would deal with whatever they found at the Estate alone, and then Alex could either congratulate them for their victory or return their corpses to the Monster Hunter Guild headquarters.

Jasper was still insisting that their quest ended with finding the abducted villagers and that they should wait for stronger reinforcements to arrive instead of trying to fight themselves, but he quickly realized Oliver and Evan had made up their minds about the topic and nothing he could say was going to change anything. Luca was more reluctant, but he was willing to go along with Oliver and Evan.

"We're a team after all, right?"

"I'm coming too," Jasper said, although he sounded very unenthusiastic.

"Alex would rip my head off if I abandoned you now." They went to bed early and left the guest house with the first rays of sunlight breaking through the leaf canopy. Everyone but Luca was ready to depart.

"I'm going to head over to Grainne's house and say goodbye to Ailie real quick, okay guys?" Jasper rolled his eyes, and Oliver looked upset.

"Luca, hitting on a girl is not important right now. We have a quest to fulfill, and time is running out. The victims are—" Luca had already turned around and was racing down the narrow spiral staircase.

"I'll be right back. I'll make it quick, I promise!" he yelled over his shoulder before disappearing behind another tree. Oliver looked after him, mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"I can't believe this guy!"

"Lovebug," Evan said with a grin.

"He got it bad."

"Nah, he's just flirting, right? We know he's a ladies' man."

"Or at least fancies himself one," Jasper said.

"I doubt his success rate is very high."

"This Ailie seemed pretty responsive to his courting to me," Evan said.

"I think she likes him back."

"But he's just playing with her," Oliver said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Jasper pressed his lips together in disapproval.

"He can't possibly consider seriously pursuing her? She's Forest Folk. He's an Outsider. It would never work."

"Maybe, but you know how love can be," Evan said.

"Kinda turns the rational parts of the brain off." For a moment, he remembered Leah. The Leah from the good days they had together, not the Leah who'd broken up with him four times in six years. And there had been good days. Wonderful days. Especially early in their relationship, when they were still freshly in love. Evan still remembered how the world looked through pink-tinted glasses. Everything seemed possible when you're in love.

The memories caused a pang of pain somewhere low in his stomach, but he pushed the feeling back down quickly. No point in wallowing in heartbreak when his ex-girlfriend was literally worlds away. Maybe that was a good thing. This whole world-travel business had forcibly put a definitive end to their on-again, off-again love story when neither of them had managed to end it on their own. Luca did not make it quick. He returned almost half an hour later, cheeks flushed and out of breath.

Oliver flicked him in the back of the head.

"I don't even want to know what you were doing for so long. Let's just get going, alright?" They started their climb back down to the forest floor. The village around them was still mostly asleep, but the first early risers were already leaving their houses and huts. Evan wanted to avoid causing any more unrest within the tribe than they already had, so he quickened his steps. The way down wasn't any less vertigo-inducing than the way up, and he was relieved when he finally felt solid ground under his feet.

Luca jumped down the last couple of stairs etched into the massive tree trunk and landed next to Evan, breaking the twigs and branches below his feet with a crunchy noise.

"Quiet," Jasper hissed, carefully climbing down after him.

"The last thing we need right now is another monster fight."

"I don't know, maybe that wouldn't be so bad," Luca said.

"A few more of those Earthwyrms and I might hit rank 3 way sooner than I thought." Oliver was the last one to reach the ground.

"Do you think Grainne has potions for regrowing brains? Because I think this Ailie sucked Luca's brain right out of his skull." Luca gave him a sly grin before Jasper waved their group into motion. The Vason Estate was about a day's travel away from the Whisperleaf tribe's village. If they made haste, they could sneak in under the cover of night. Evan felt surprisingly calm, considering what they were heading into.

The whole idea of finding the criminals and then standing by while the cavalry arrived had never sat right with him, and Oliver's very obvious plans to go in and fight the Beasts anyway had stressed him out. Now he no longer needed to worry about keeping his friend away from the battle, because he was going to fight it with him, side by side. But before that could happen, they needed to get through the Old Forest unscathed. They didn't make it very far.

Maybe fifteen minutes after they'd left the tree village behind, Jasper abruptly stopped. He stretched his arm out, signaling the rest of the group to halt.

"What is it?" Evan whispered. Jasper tilted his head, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"A noise. I heard something coming from the bushes over there."