Chương 1: Lucky Boy

Skillcards are rare. Finding a copper card outside of guaranteed drops is close to impossible, yet I found a diamond card buried beneath a pillow. Skillmerge El Do Varan was a genius dragon, born once in a century. No, once in a millennium. With nothing to do to pass his long life, he decided to learn all there was to learn. He learned every martial art, every technique, every skill, and when there was nothing else to learn, he started making things of his own.

He mixed the skills he knew to make something entirely new. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 1945429 Skillmerge lets the wielder merge two different skillcards to create an entirely new one. The new card will be a mix of the two used. Already merged cards cannot be separated. The card was translucent, bending and breaking light in various ways. At the back were intricate patterns with a dragon trapped inside a circle, hitting the circumference on several points, trying to break out.

"It's fucking real." I jolted straight up, holding the card up high, as if it was a treasure—which it was. I rubbed it against my cheeks, feeling its coldness.

"Hehe, my own skillcard and a diamond one at that." Realization hit. I was in a rift and in an open area. I absorbed the skillcard. It vanished from my sight with a slight tingle in my chest, which meant the card was now a part of me. My eyes darted all around, looking for anything suspicious. The room was dark, and orange light seeped in through the doorway. The room smelled of herbs, which I had never smelled before but was sure were antiseptic.

The walls were white with a single bed, a cabinet at its side with nothing on top of it or inside. No window or fans, only an iron door with a small, iron-barred window. The room looked like a prison cell, but was not. It was a child's room. I knew because of the dozens of identical rooms I had entered before this one. Each had something different. First had a picture book, second had a doll, third had a stick sword, fourth had marbles in one of the drawers. Every room had something. Something a child would have.

This room had none of it, but the pillow was wet, as if someone had wept on it the whole night. The iron door was open. I took a step out and looked left. The hallway was long, with similar-looking iron doors lined up, and dim orange light lit the hallway. It was meant to make the hallway look warm and pleasant, but it made it eerie. I turned right, but the scenery was identical. Coming back inside, I pushed the iron door closed. There was no locking mechanism from the inside, so I pushed the cabinet to block it.

If another riftwalker were to barge in, it wouldn't be able to stop them, but it would hopefully buy me enough time to get ready. I stuffed the wet pillow between the iron bars so nobody could see inside. That made the room dark; only a minuscule amount of orange light bled in from the gap between the door and the floor. Nowhere near enough to see. I reached for my fanny pack and looked for the torch inside. It was hard to find it among many things in the dark, but soon enough it was in my hands.

The LEDs did not flicker as in horror movies, and the torch turned on, illuminating the dark room in its white light. The bed sagged under my weight. Sorry, little boy or girl, that I am sitting on your bed with my shoes still on. I set the torch in the bed face up so I could see what I would do. I summoned my Skillmerge skillcard and held it between my fingers, still not believing my eyes. If this is a dream, I never want to wake up. I read the contents on the card until every letter was imprinted into my eyes.

I let out a long breath.

"I have never heard about a card like this before. None of the forums ever mentioned any diamond rank walker having it." I spoke in a low voice, just enough to hear myself, but if someone had their ears glued to the door, they wouldn't be able to hear me.

"Nor have any of the stories ever hinted at something like this." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I stared at the card and giggled. My very own diamond card. The highest rank. The doors it will open for me. I will finally be able to enter the higher rank rifts and discover those stories that have always fascinated me. But first, I need to know how the skill works. I summoned all my skillcards. Several of them now surrounded me. I don't know how many there are.

When someone enters a rift for the first time, the Akashic system turns everything into a skill. Breathing, running, fencing, karate. In the system's eyes, everything a person can do is a skill. The cards were all brown, copper ranked or as others call them—poop. Because they literally are. Copper cards are those that do not require magika to work, that is anything a human can do. I started looking through the cards, hoping to find some duplicates, but no luck. I sold the two I had just before entering this rift.

My damn luck. I randomly grabbed two cards. It was Running and Handshake.

"Yeah, no shit Clark. Have you gone mad? You want to let go of running?" I cursed myself for the stupidity. If I remove my running skillcard I will literally forget how to run. Encounter an enemy I need to run from, and I will walk at its face. A good way to die. I remembered the one experiment I read, where they gave Walking skillcard to an amputee. Guess what happened. Nothing. What did the scientists expect? For him to walk on his stumps?

I felt shame for making a joke about a disabled person, but my excitement to test my new skill washed it away. I can sacrifice Handshake, I don't need to shake hands, not that anyone does. I need to find another useless card like this. My eyes glanced over the myriad of cards. Cooking, Walking, Swimming, Bargaining, Masturbation. The fuck. I grabbed the card. The system made a skillcard out of this too? I screamed on the inside.

Masturbation Adam was alone in the forest with nothing to do, and the image of Eve won't leave his mind. But she was nowhere to be found and little Adam wouldn't go down. So Adam clasped his hand around little Adam and tried emulating the pleasure— I slammed the card on the mattress; the bed creaked from the sheer force.

"I don't want to read this right now." I tossed the card aside. Yeah, I can't use this card. I fear what it will become after merging with Handshake, and I can't forget that skill either; it has its uses. I regained my composure and started to look for something else. Something useless. And a minute later, I found it. Dancing When Amilia heard the birds chirp and the melody they made, her feet moved on their own. Her moves matched that of the tune. She discovered dancing.

Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 1478. Dancing gives the wielder basic understanding of how to dance. When was the last time I danced? In middle school? Definitely don't need this. I desummomed all my skillcards except Skillmerge, Handshake and Dancing.

"So, what do I do now?" I held Handshake in my left hand and Dancing in my right.

"Umm… activate Skillmerge?" All three cards started to glow. Handshake and Dancing left my hands. Skillmerge flew up from the mattress. All three cards circled each other, then Handshake and Dancing started mixing into each other like clay of different colours. Which you can differentiate at the start, but after repeated mixing, they finally become one. Dizziness hit me. Something I have never felt before. I fell forward, on my belly, and the cards fell on my back.

My magika was drained, because none of the copper skills use magika, I completely forgot that higher ranked do. Whatever innate magika I had was drained. I lay in that uncomfortable position for five minutes before I had enough energy to move. I grabbed the cards on my back and brought them in front of me, and sat straight. One was diamond, and the other was copper. I was kind of disappointed, expecting to gain a silver card, but this was okay. I read its contents. Lindy Hop Mikhael was a man of freedom.

Nobody or nothing was ever able to confine him. He loved dancing yet found all the dance forms too restrictive and confining. So, he made a form of his own, with a lot of hopping. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 88775 Lindy Hop gives the wielder basic mastery over the Lindy Hop dance style.

"I did not know that, another story in my collection thanks to the Akashic system." If it was anyone else, they would have grieved on gaining another copper skillcard and a non-combat, a dancing style at that. But it did not matter to me; I live for the stories, and that's what I got, though it was now useless to me. I might sell it if I get a good buck out of it. Something smashed at the iron door, before the cabinet could fall and the door could open, I desummoned my cards.

Another smash, and the cabinet fell; the iron door creaked open. Orange light bled in, blocked by the figure of a man. Taller and more muscular than I am.

"What are you doing here, Clark?" It was Hanz, an old colleague of mine. We were part of the Round-Ring-Wright-Guild. It was supposed to be a place where low rank riftwalkers like us would band together to survive in this harsh economy.

"Not going to answer, are you?" Hanz's eyes moved through the room, scanning for anything that I might have tried to hide. When he didn't find anything, he looked back at me.

"It matters not. Give me all your skillcards." But the guild started bullying every other riftwalker who wasn't part of them. Annoyed by their antics, I left.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't left the guild." He put his hand forward, demanding my cards.

"Come on, take it out. I know you have MMA. I want that, and anything else that would sell well." Hanz was talking, but instead of looking at him, my eyes were fixed on his stretched-out hand. An instinct rose within me; I wanted to grab it. I did so and pulled at his hand.