Chương 11: Chapter 9 — That Skill Belongs to the Saint

"No." Hannah stared at him.

"No what?" Jack looked at the Skill panel again. ANTHEM OF THE SOUL — SSS Same name. Same Rank. Same effects. Same absurd wording. Same Skill.

"It's not bad," Jack said.

"You said 'no' like you just found a tumor."

"Different problem."

"That is not reassuring." Jack closed the Appraisal window. Hannah's private Status disappeared from his view. The orchard path remained. Apple trees. Artificial sky. Gray ash scattered near the roots from the last Vine Rat. Nothing about the scenery looked different. Everything else did. Hannah crossed her arms.

"Start with the obvious one."

"What?"

"SSS." Jack said nothing.

"You reacted to it immediately," she continued.

"So what does SSS mean?"

"Rare."

"How rare?"

"Extremely."

"That's not a number."

"I don't have a reliable current number." That was true. Current numbers were meaningless. Thirteen days into the Dungeon era, most of humanity had not even had their Unique Skills professionally categorized. Fifteen years from now, Jack knew of perhaps twenty or thirty publicly confirmed SSS-grade Unique Skills across the entire world. That number did not belong in this conversation. Not yet.

"What I can tell you," Jack said, "is that if people learn you have an SSS Skill, they will pay attention." Hannah looked down at herself. Cheap sword. Cheap clothes. Twenty-three dollars left after buying Heavy Strike.

"I feel like there should be more lightning."

"There usually isn't."

"Disappointing." Jack agreed. They resumed walking toward the exit. Hannah stayed beside him now instead of half a step behind.

"Okay," she said.

"What does it actually do?"

"You really didn't finish reading it."

"We've established that."

"Unfortunately."

"You are going to become exhausting very quickly." Jack ignored that.

"Anthem of the Soul affects Aura Skills."

"I got that far."

"Good."

"Then there were numbers."

"There were three effects."

"Numbers." Jack sighed.

"First: if a Skill has the Aura tag, you ignore its equipment and Attribute requirements." Hannah frowned.

"Meaning?"

"Normally, some Skills require certain Attributes or equipment to use. You ignore those requirements for Aura Skills."

"So I can use any Aura?"

"Assuming there isn't some other restriction not covered by the Skill, yes."

"That's good."

"Very."

"Second?"

"Reservation." Hannah made a face.

"That word again."

"Some Skills don't spend Mana once. They reserve part of your Life or Mana while active."

"Like keeping part of it locked?"

"Exactly."

"And mine halves that?"

"After other Reservation Efficiency is calculated, yes. Final Reservation cost is reduced by fifty percent." Hannah stopped walking. Jack took three steps before noticing. He turned.

"What?"

"That sounds insane."

"It is."

"You said that very calmly."

"I'm working on it."

"And the third effect?"

"All non-Curse Aura effects are increased by fifty percent." Silence. Hannah stared at him.

"So if an Aura gives ten of something—""Yours gives fifteen."

"And if it costs half my Mana—""Your Skill would reduce the final Reservation after other modifiers."

"And I don't care what stats the Aura requires."

"Correct." Hannah looked down the path. Then back at Jack.

"That's ridiculous."

"Yes."

"Why am I hitting rats with a sixty-dollar sword Skill?"

"Because you don't have an Aura Skill." That ended the excitement immediately.

"Oh."

"Correct."

"Do Aura Skills exist?" Jack chose his wording carefully.

"I haven't seen a single verified public Aura Skill Gem yet."

"But you know they exist."

"The tag exists." Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"That's not what I asked." Jack kept walking. Hannah followed. He had bought himself approximately four seconds. Fifteen years from now, nobody asked whether Anthem of the Soul was strong. The question was how many people could fit inside the Saint's coverage. She was not famous because she personally killed the strongest monsters. She was famous because everyone standing near her became better. Faster. Harder to kill. More efficient. Aura stacking had limits for ordinary Delvers. Requirements. Reservation.

Gear pressure. Build pressure. You could not reserve more Mana than you had. You could not wear every piece of equipment. You could not satisfy every Attribute requirement without sacrificing something else. The Saint cheated. Not metaphorically. Her Unique Skill altered the rules those builds operated under. She carried more Auras. Stronger Auras. Auras that should not have fit together. Then she stood near four other high-level Delvers and made all of their carefully optimized builds better at the same time.

Anthem of the Soul did not simply make one Delver stronger. It changed how much strength an entire party was allowed to have. That was why Jack had recognized the Skill instantly. That was why seeing it on Hannah Reed felt wrong.

"So what do I do?" Hannah asked. Jack looked at her.

"Right now?"

"Yes."

"Ignore the Unique Skill." Hannah stopped again. Jack walked three steps. Again. He turned. Again.

"What?"

"That is the stupidest advice you've given me today."

"It isn't."

"You told me to buy a sixty-dollar rock so I could hit rats harder."

"That worked." Hannah paused.

"That is unfortunately true." Jack waited. She sighed and started walking again.

"Explain."

"Your Unique is currently almost useless."

"You just spent ten minutes telling me it's insane."

"Potentially."

"I hate that word."

"Good. It's dangerous." Hannah gave him a sideways look. Jack continued.

"You have no Aura Skill. You don't know where to get one. I don't know of any verified public one for sale. So the Skill currently does nothing for your next Dungeon run."

"That's depressing."

"Your immediate problems are exactly the same as they were this morning."

"Which are?" Jack counted them.

"Bad weapon."

"Rude."

"No Life Flask."

"Working on it."

"Weak gear."

"Still rude."

"One useful Skill Gem."

"Heavy Strike is doing its best."

"And a Passive Tree you barely understand."

"Spaghetti galaxy."

"Exactly." Hannah sighed.

"That is disappointingly normal."

"Normal keeps people alive." She glanced at him.

"You say things like a fifty-year-old safety instructor." Jack was thirty-nine. Technically. Or twenty-four. Physically. This conversation had become unnecessarily complicated. They reached the final stretch toward the Gate.

"Open your Passive Tree again," Jack said. Hannah did.

"You have one point left."

"Yes."

"Take Cold Resistance." She looked at him.

"Yesterday you told me not to spend it."

"This morning."

"It feels longer."

"You know more now."

"Because I'm secretly an Aura goddess?"

"No."

"Shame."

"Because your immediate route is still generalist, and early Resistance is useful regardless of which direction you take later." Hannah looked at the node. COLD RESISTANCE +18%"So Fire and Cold now."

"Yes."

"Lightning next?"

"Probably."

"There it is again." She selected the node. PASSIVE POINT SPENT Fire Resistance: +18% Cold Resistance: +18% Passive Points Remaining: 0"Done."

"Good."

"I feel exactly the same."

"Find something that breathes ice at you."

"No."

"Then you'll have to trust the number." Outside Greenvale, the Camp looked louder than before. Probably because Hannah had stopped being background noise. Food trucks. Generators. People shouting prices. A man carrying three swords and clearly regretting not buying a proper equipment bag. The smell of something fried badly enough that Jack could not identify it from twenty yards away. Hannah pulled the Orchard Charm from her pocket. Jack had handed it to her before they left the Dungeon.

ORCHARD CHARM Rarity: Magic Maximum Life +5 Poison Resistance +7% It was not Pure Element. Jack remained personally offended. It was also objectively useful for a Level Three beginner wearing almost nothing worth keeping.

"Put it on," he said. Hannah did.

"Five Life."

"Five more than you had."

"You're very good at making tiny improvements sound important."

"Tiny improvements stack."

"That sounds like something GateGuide would say." Jack froze for approximately half a second.

"Do I?" Hannah looked delighted.

"A little!"

"He sounds more annoying."

"That was exactly something he'd say!"

"Buy your Flask."

"Changing the subject!" Jack walked toward the market. Hannah followed, laughing. He had no defense against that. The Life Flask cost most of what Hannah had left. Jack approved anyway.

"Good." Hannah put it into her first Flask slot. Then looked toward the equipment tables. Jack recognized the expression.

"Weapon."

"Boots."

"Weapon."

"My boots are from Walmart."

"That does not make your sword better."

"I like the boots."

"You are going to become expensive to advise."

"You're not paying."

"Emotionally expensive." Hannah ignored him and walked toward a boot seller. Jack watched her go. This was already going badly. She came back several minutes later carrying a cheap Dungeon-made pair.

"They were on sale." Jack looked at them. Then at her sword.

"Weapon next."

"Maybe."

"Not maybe." Hannah smiled.

"You really hate maybe when somebody else says it." Fair. Jack changed subjects.

"Do not tell random people your Skill Rank." Her expression changed.

"Because SSS is rare."

"Because attention is not automatically useful."

"What if someone asks?"

"Don't answer."

"Party members?"

"Not unless they need to know."

"Appraisers?"

"Use reputable ones. Ask what they can see before you consent."

"Government?" Jack paused.

"Not yet." Hannah caught that immediately.

"Not yet?"

"Correct."

"That's different from no."

"Yes."

"Why?" Because Hannah Reed had not existed in the future Jack remembered. Because America's government learning about a publicly unknown SSS Skill holder might change whatever had happened to her. Because Jack did not know whether that would be good. Because he did not know what had happened the first time. Because acting on incomplete information was how people created disasters while believing they were being clever.

"Because you don't need to decide today," Jack said. Hannah watched him for a long moment.

"You do that a lot."

"What?"

"Answer a different question."

"Useful skill."

"Annoying skill." They walked toward the parking area. Hannah lasted approximately thirty seconds.

"How did you know SSS was important?"

"High letters are visually distinctive."

"Uh-huh."

"What?"

"And Reservation?"

"Public theory."

"There are public theories about Reservation already?"

"Yes."

"And Aura Skills?" Jack looked ahead.

"Skill tags exist."

"Uh-huh."

"You already said that."

"It still applies." Jack kept walking. Hannah did not let him.

"And when you read my Skill, you looked like you'd seen a ghost." Jack stopped. There it was. He could deny it. Probably. Badly.

"Research," he said. Hannah stared at him.

"Bullshit." Jack considered his options. There were not many good ones.

"That was immediate."

"Because it was terrible."

"I'll improve it next time."

"That's somehow more suspicious." Jack looked toward the parking lot. Hannah waited. He had spent thirteen days controlling information. GateGuide knew things. Jack Mercer did not. That separation had been useful. Necessary. Then Hannah Reed had appeared wearing a cardboard sign and carrying a Skill that belonged to someone else.

"You know something," she said. Jack looked at her.

"Yes." The answer surprised both of them. Hannah blinked.

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"About my Skill?"

"Something related to it."

"What?"

"I'm not telling you yet." Hannah stared. Then:"Fine." Jack frowned.

"Fine?"

"You keep your weird secrets." That was easier than expected.

"I'm not finished," Hannah added. Of course.

"I'm going to keep asking."

"I assumed."

"Also, 'research' was terrible."

"I'll improve it next time."

"Again, somehow more suspicious." Jack accepted the loss. At Hannah's car, Jack made a decision. Not a large one. Not a promise. Not a Party contract. Just an option.

"If you're going into another public F-rank Dungeon, message me." Hannah looked at him.

"You'll come?"

"Sometimes."

"Why?" Jack thought about it. Future knowledge told him what worked. Other people showed him what they failed to understand. Today Hannah had shown him several things GateGuide had missed. Jobless information. Beginner budgeting. What his Portal Scroll advice looked like when a real person had only eighty-three dollars. What Skill explanations people were not receiving. And, accidentally, an SSS Skill that should not have been here. Solo runs produced loot. Parties produced data. Information was loot too.

"Research," Jack said. Hannah stared at him.

"You just promised to improve that lie."

"This time it's true."

"That does not help." Jack took out his phone.

"Number." She gave it to him. Jack saved the contact. Hannah Reed Jobless Hannah looked at his screen.

"That's rude."

"It's descriptive." She took out her own phone.

"Fine." A moment later, Jack's phone buzzed. He looked. Jack Mercer — Weird Dungeon Guy He stared at it.

"Change it."

"No." He had walked into that one. Jack was halfway to his car when Hannah called after him.

"Hey!" He turned.

"What?"

"If I find an Aura Skill?" Jack considered the question.

"Don't equip it blindly."

"Obviously."

"You didn't finish reading your Unique Skill."

"I deserved that."

"Message me." Hannah smiled.

"So you do want to see what it does." Jack looked at her.

"Very much." That answer, at least, required no lie. Jack was home before the first message arrived. Bought Flask. Good. Then: Also bought boots. Jack stared at the screen. He typed: Of course you did. Reply: they were on sale Jack: That does not make them a weapon. Hannah: they have ankle support Jack closed the conversation. Thirty seconds later: Inspirational guidance btw Jack opened it again. Don't die. Hannah: Inspirational. He put the phone face down. This was already a mistake. Probably.

Jack opened the notebook. Not GateGuide. Not yet. Jobless deserved a proper post. That much was obvious now. But Hannah Reed needed a different page. He wrote: HANNAH REED Age: 23 Level: 3 Job: Jobless STR: 20 DEX: 20 INT: 20 Current Skill: Heavy Strike — Lv1 Passives: Fire Resistance +18% Cold Resistance +18% Native Unique Skill: ANTHEM OF THE SOUL — SSS Current Practical Value: Almost none. Potential: Unknown. Jack stared at the word. Then crossed it out. Extreme. Better. Then he wrote another heading.

KNOWN FUTURE RECORD He waited. Nothing came. Eventually he wrote: None. That was the part he hated. Jack turned to a fresh page. ANTHEM OF THE SOUL Current holder: Hannah Reed — United States Future known holder: The Saint — Japan Same Skill name. Same Rank. Same effects. Possible explanations: Duplicate manifestation. Skill transfer. Inheritance. Hidden identity. False public records. Unknown System mechanism. Possible early death. Jack stopped there. His pen hovered over the final line. He almost crossed it out.

Did not. Possible. Not proven. That distinction mattered. Simple was not the same thing as correct. He knew the Saint's real name. He did not write it down. The name was not evidence. Putting it beside Hannah Reed would make an unproven connection look more certain than it was. Jack refused to manufacture certainty because uncertainty made him uncomfortable. He had seen enough people die from that habit the first time. Emily Miller had been different. Emily existed in the history Jack remembered. Same face.

Same Skill. Same broad path. Federal recruitment was already arriving exactly where it should. History already contained Emily Miller. So leave history alone. Reasonable. Hannah had no known history to preserve. That changed the question. If Jack did nothing and Hannah disappeared exactly as she apparently had the first time— was that preserving history? Or merely repeating an outcome whose cause he did not understand? Jack leaned back. He had learned to distrust the word reasonable. His phone buzzed again. Hannah.

boots are comfortable Jack stared at it. Then laughed once. Quietly. He put the phone down. Emily Miller had shown Jack that history was still there. Hannah Reed had shown him something much more dangerous. He had never known all of it.