Chương 2: Chapter 1

The impact is bad, but not as bad as I expected, because there's water at the end of the pit. I plunge into a dark, underground lake, several feet deep. Immediately, I try to orient myself and I swim upward, looking for oxygen. I emerge with a gasp, which is only in part because of the fact that I'm still alive. I can't believe it… this is… Above a small rock formation, there's a levitating rainbow crystal the height of three grown men. I didn't even know a Skill Crystal could be that big.

An Iron Skill Crystal, for reference, is the size of a nail, and a gold one the size of a fist—I saw one from a merchant once. This crystal's color changes from one moment to another, emitting all seven colors that tell me this is…

"A Rainbow Skill Crystal," I mutter in complete stupor, immediately starting to swim toward the rock. The moment I climb on the rocks, I immediately walk up to the Skill Crystal. I'm not thinking of anything. My mind is empty. The sheer surprise from having found a Rainbow Skill Crystal has rendered me speechless—thoughtless, even. I'm not even sure how I would sell this… There's no way I could bring this Skill Crystal outside or safely walk more than three steps outside of the mines without causing a war over it.

If this is an Offensive Skill, it might be the kind of power that obliterates an entire city in one go. But I'd take a Defensive Skill as well. Anything but a Support Skill, honestly. If this is an Offensive Skill, it might be my ticket to becoming one of the most powerful Knights to ever exist. It could mean everything to me—it would change my life. I could finally fulfill all my dreams, I tell myself. I could explore the world. I could go out there.

Hell, I could very well go to the Ocean of Bones, the Cathedral of Steel, and even the Hall of Nightmares… The moment I hesitantly extend a hand over its surface, I feel a reassuring warmth that shakes away the chill the lake's cold water has fused with my bones. Please, be an Offensive Skill… Please, please, please. This could be what I always wanted: my ticket out of Shit's Creek. Never have I ever been this close to changing my life completely and being able to realize my dream.

A moment later, words appear in my mind. The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow - Support Skill)"Of course," I scowl. But it's still a Rainbow Skill, so it can't be that bad. Would you like to absorb The Grimoire Extraordinaire? Normally, one would have a rough idea of what Skill Crystals did, but Rainbow Crystals were too rare—they were the stuff of legends. So, I have no idea what this is meant to do.

"Yeah, sure. Absorb the Skill." You have absorbed The Grimoire Extraordinaire. The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow - Support Skill) This Skill doesn't level up. Effect: You're able to detect all the flaws in any Skill or Item.

"That's it?" I ask no one in particular, flabbergasted.

"This is the Rainbow Skill?!" I can already see all my dreams of becoming a Knight going up in flames. Stolen novel; please report. I open my Skill List to check. Name: Jacob Cloud Skills: Iron Grip Lv. 23 (Iron) Minor Endurance Lv. 22 (Iron) Minor Night Vision Lv. 1 (Iron) Minor Vibration Sense Lv. 1 (Iron) Minor Cookery Lv. 4 (Iron) Minor Strength Lv. 13 (Bronze) Light Lv. 4 (Bronze) Pickaxe Mastery Lv. 15 (Bronze) Minor Mineral Sense Lv. 4 (Bronze) The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow) Every skill consumes mana.

The lower the level, the more mana a skill consumes. And the weaker its effect is. Sadly, I couldn't afford any Mana-Pool-related Skills. They're too expensive, and they all start at Silver Rank. If I ever managed to mine enough silver to go over the quota, I might have been able to sneak some out and trade it for a Skill Crystal. But as you might notice, most of my skills are at a very low level. There's a reason knights are so hard to train. Every skill comes with a very basic general sense of how to use it.

But if you want to master a skill, increase its level until it reaches level 100, then you will need a Tutor. Without a Tutor, it's essentially impossible to level up a skill. The kind of trial and error that I would need would consume so much mana, I would exhaust myself in the first 10 minutes of practice, and then I wouldn't be able to work. And since I need to eat, I need my energy and my mana to sustain me throughout the day. I guess I could try to make some money as a Tutor?

I tell myself, looking depressedly at The Grimoire Extraordinaire. The best Tutors are as valuable as some of the strongest Knights—some Knights, in fact, dabble in tutoring as a side job. I look around the damp place, and now that the light from the Rainbow Skill Crystal has completely dissipated, it's pitch dark. I'm used to this in the mines, I think, and I fire up my Light spell. A small, bulbous, deformed Light appears by my side and barely illuminates the place a few meters out.

I can't even see the walls of wherever I ended up. The bulb hangs by my ear and gives off a weak yellow smear. Most people in the mines simply bring some lamps and use Minor Night Vision with them. Magic is considered too fancy and wasteful in terms of Mana, so much that I'm basically one of the three people in the entire Mana who ever learned the Light Spell, and the only one who keeps using it. I can't count the times that someone farther along the tunnel snorted and covered their eyes in mockery.

"Careful, lads, Jacob brought the sun."

"If that's the sun, I'm the Emperor."

"That glow wouldn't guide a blind mole." The ghost laughter makes me grind my teeth. Maybe I can do something with this stupid Support Skill. Before I can even summon it, I hear a chime in my head. Grimoire Extraordinaire: Light Lv. 1 contains 23 distinct flaws. Then, a ghost grimoire appears before me, and I raise my eyebrows. On this blueish apparition, in bright white letters, there's an entire list of things that apparently are wrong with my Skill.

Before the actual problems, however, there's also a series of statistics on the effects of the spell. Mana draw sits at 3. 2 MP each heartbeat, more than twenty times higher than the average. The beam reaches 2. 4 meters. 89% of the mana bleeds off as heat. Current overall efficiency: 4%"Four percent?" I mutter, incredulous.

"How can it be that low? Come on." I read the first item right below those statistics. Routing the mana through the wrong vein group makes most of it leak away. Recommended vein group — Rising Sun: the thin veins along the wrists and inside each finger. Stop feeding the thick inside-arm veins; they waste the charge. Recommended hand: right hand. There's an anatomical diagram of veins in the arm and hand, with the ones in the wrist and fingers glowing green and the ones in the arm glowing red.

I heard that magic is channeled through different veins, but I had no idea it was this important. I immediately try to feel my Mana, but it feels very sluggish. It takes a few attempts before I can finally channel it through the Rising Sun vein group along my wrist and fingers of the right hand.

This time, another Light appears, but instead of being all crooked and barely making any light, it flashes much stronger, illuminating enough of the surroundings for me to make out more rock formations jutting out of the lake. Ding Light Level 4 > Level 12 I double check The Grimoire Extraordinaire. Mana draw: 1. 0 MP each heartbeat, -2. 2 MP, (-70 %). Range: 4. 9 m, +2. 5 m, (+105 %). Heat loss: 56 % (-33 %). Overall efficiency: 12 % (+200 %).

"Holy shit," I say, speechless. I just tripled the efficiency of the Skill and made it much brighter. Suddenly, I get an exciting feeling in my chest. This is going to be fun, I think, cracking my neck. Very much fun. I run through two more flaws and then stop to avoid using up too much Mana. Ding Light Level 12 > Level 23 Mana draw: 0. 75 MP MP each heartbeat, -0. 25 MP (-25 %). Range: 7 m, +2. 1 m, (+105 %). Heat loss: 37 % (-34 %). Overall efficiency: 23 % (+92 %).

The reflections of the Light off the water now illuminate far enough for me to see the rocky walls of the pit in the distance. I smile widely as I prepare to make my way out of this place, looking at three Skills in particular. Iron Grip Lv. 23 (Iron) Minor Endurance Lv. 22 (Iron) Minor Strength Lv. 13 (Bronze)