Chương 9

The greed on the floating platform was so thick Ethan could cut it with a knife. Probably. After a period of heavy breathing with darting eyes, he tore his gaze from the stone tablets and lurched toward his backpack. Since there was no time limit on skill selection, he decided to do something about his body first, lest he die from blood loss before getting his skill. He found the backpack right next to a stone monolith. Glad that it wasn't crushed underneath it, he picked it up and dropped everything to the floor.

He was a bit salty that all the effort he'd put into his leatherwork had gone to waste after only a few days of use, but couldn't find the heart to complain. The spatial ring was a game changer after all. Grunting, he undressed at a glacial pace until only his boxers were left. Then, with the help of some vines and barely clean fabric, he bandaged his wounds. The one on his thigh was pretty deep, but thankfully the attack had missed his artery. That would take some time to heal, but not as much as his shoulder.

Thanks to the club strike that almost crippled him at the fight, his shoulder was covered in every shade of purple underneath the blood stains. He took another glance at the pond's still active shield and pursed his lips. Wouldn't it be nice if he could take a bath, clean his wounds, wash his clothes, and maybe fill his battered, half-crushed hip flask while he was at it? No sir, not in these testing grounds. This place was all about teasing, and killing you horribly, but mostly teasing.

Carefully sitting on the floor, he stored his stuff into his ring, except for a single dart. With that, he pricked himself near his wounds, paused for a few seconds, and drove it into his arm before gently lying down to count the seconds until he was numb all over. Pulling out the dart, he stored that one as well and closed his eyes. When he woke up after a dreamless sleep, he was already feeling much better. Looking at the familiar yet unbelievable scene around him, he sighed in relief.

It seemed they didn't kick him out for stalling.

'How long did I sleep for, Ani?'

'9 hours and 42 minutes.' Hmm, not too bad. Ethan rose slowly and changed his makeshift bandages. He pretty much ripped the sticky fabric from his body, but his wounds didn't even start to bleed again, looking almost half healed already. This is some crazy health regeneration. I wonder if it's related to Vitality? Once I leave this place, I should make Ani run some calculations and see what's what. After dressing himself, he started to stroll on the platform and read every description on the stone tablets.

Once done, he picked up his knives and sat in the middle of the kneeling statues. Extending his hand, he sent his mana into his ring and willed his jerky out. Instead of a single strip, all of them appeared in front of his face and fell to the floor. With a straight face, he picked up one of them, blew the non-existent dust on it, and took a bite.

'Show me all the skills in a blue panel. Let's decide on the top ten contenders.' Ani complied, and Ethan started to ponder every skill and possible loopholes, trying to imagine himself in all kinds of scenarios. Time passed in a blur as he marveled at seemingly fascinating applications of magic. In the end, he dropped the number to twenty, knowing that it wouldn't be easy to pick one of them. One thing was certain: Whoever these Inane Cultus guys were, they were not fooling around.

Feeling both excitement and vexation, he started to go over them once again. [Void Wrap]: Coat yourself in void-aspected mana to become invisible at a continuous mana cost. Physical contact temporarily reveals the touching body part or weapon. Good old invisibility. The problem was that none of these skills mentioned the exact mana cost. There was a big difference between 10 seconds and 10 minutes of usage, but still, this was a good one. He didn't care about the temporal reveal either.

As long as he could kill his enemy in a single, surprise attack, it wouldn't matter. However, this would only hide him visually, and others could still detect him by scent or sound. Interestingly, there were other skills that patched those weaknesses as well. [Forgotten Footsteps]: Any tracks, scents, or traces you leave vanish after 10 seconds. This baffled him to no end. He could somewhat understand how his tracks and his scent would vanish, but even the traces? How did that work?

If he snapped a twig, would it become whole again after 10 seconds? Was that some kind of time magic? If so, this one was much more complex than it seemed. Technically, he could kick and break someone's nose and watch them heal shortly after, or give someone money while the skill was active and let it return to him again, since that would be a trace he'd left behind as well. Definitely a weird one, but other than that, it was only mid as an escape skill. [Presence Erasure]: Suppress your presence for 1 minute.

Creatures that are not actively observing you struggle to notice or remember your existence. On the other hand, this was one of his favorites. Right now, he needed a skill that would ensure his survival. While he was hoping for an offensive skill that'd allow him to hit above his level, something to save his ass long enough would be appreciated as well. Not to mention, it was also the perfect ambush skill. The part it said 'remember' was especially intriguing.

If he was escaping from an enemy who was already actively observing him and hid behind a tree to activate this skill, would they struggle to pinpoint him, or better yet, forget about him? If he was going to find himself in front of the drake after leaving, this skill might be his salvation. [Void Swap]: Instantly swap places with any inanimate object of similar mass within 50 feet. Pretty simple at first glance, yet it all depended on how he'd used it.

He could fill his storage ring with rocks as heavy as himself and place them on the battlefield, swapping between them as he wished. Or maybe he could find a small but heavy and dense ore and throw it before switching places, whether for escaping or pursuing. More importantly, these skills were all rank-1, and he had to rank them up… somehow. In the higher ranks, could he swap places with living beings?

Doing that in a one versus many battle before getting a lethal hit would allow him to both escape and take out an enemy at the same time. Could he swap other people without moving himself? There was definitely some potential here. [Spatial Quarantine]: Erect a 10x10-foot barrier that isolates the space inside; no sound, magic, or physical matter can pass through either side for 5 seconds. Another skill that was great for ambushes but could also be used to trap his enemies to escape himself.

Although five seconds wasn't much, it could still block otherwise deadly attacks. [Vacuum Shell]: Erase the air in a tight sphere around yourself to instantly extinguish any surrounding fire magic. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Now, other than being a true menace to fire magic users, that could end up as a perfect tool to drown others, probably not as rank-1, but even throwing the enemy off for a second could change the outcome of the battle.

[Trail Blade]: Infuse a weapon with spatial lag; Emits a visual illusion of a strike that forces the enemy to act early. Your actual, invisible attack lands a second later, striking while their guard is recovering. An innocent yet sinister smile formed on Ethan's face as he thought about this one. If he could control the illusion as he wanted and strike with a completely different move, there would be many who died in his hand, not knowing how.

[Black Hole]: Create a miniature singularity at a point within 60 feet that violently pulls all nearby enemies toward its center. Another one that reminded him of his favorite MOBA game, not really fit for his style, but still an awesome skill. If he could find some other AOE skills later on with good synergies, he could step up his Exp grinding game by a lot. Even as a standalone one, this was good for both escaping and pursuing.

[Anchor Pull]: Plant an invisible spatial anchor; reactivate within 1 minute to instantly snap back to that exact spot. He could cover a lot of distance in one minute and send everyone on a wild goose chase by placing other anchors again and again. Even in a battle, this could be used to teleport around in the most critical times. He would need to lure the enemy and move accordingly to the anchor's location, but it was a small price to pay. Although there was a better alternative for that.

[Blink]: Instantly teleport to any unoccupied space within 30 feet. Other than being his go-to superhero ability when he'd been a kid, this had great potential when combined with his sharp battle awareness and high Agility. There wasn't much unique application that came to his mind, but the skill itself was unique enough. It could be a foundational skill that he designed his build around. [Void Fang]: Infuse a weapon strike with void energy.

The wound continues to deteriorate for 5 seconds after the initial hit, preventing it from being healed by external means for 10 minutes. Likely the best offensive one, simple and direct. Although he preferred finishing the fights as soon as possible, he knew that there would be times for drawn-out battles. The more wounds he'd stack with this skill, the deadlier it would become. Not getting any heals for 10 minutes was also an amazing perk.

[Omnisight]: Expand your perception into the void dimension, allowing you to see through walls and solid obstacles within a 30-foot radius. Hmm, why did I leave this one? It must be the damned smut novels clouding my judgment. I need to find a way to erase them from my mind. Ethan stood up and patted the back of his cloak. He did a few stretches and switched to some light calisthenics.

The experiment for raising the stats in a traditional way was still going on without much progress, but he was planning to stick to it for at least a month. Done with that, he returned to mulling over his options. As for [Omnisight], it would've been an immense help if he'd had it in the nightmare village, both for exploring and discovering hidden predators, but it wasn't really a priority skill for his current situation.

[Hoarder's Rift]: Open a weightless, personal inventory space that can hold up to 10, 000 cubic feet of non-living matter. This one lost its appeal due to his new ring, but it was still worth considering. He didn't know how many cubic feet his ring's space was, but he'd guess it was a bit smaller than this. Rather than its bigger space, this skill's value lay in its potential. It could turn into something really special in the higher ranks, maybe even allowing him to store living beings.

Not to mention, his artifacts could always be stolen, while no one could touch his skills, as far as he knew. [Treasure Hunter]: Sense hidden portals, dimensional breaches, and spatial anomalies within 100 feet, allowing you to slip through unstable gaps without harm. Ethan always loved exploring and adventuring. Figuring out mysteries of the forgotten past while making bank sounded like a dream come true. It was just that he didn't think he'd keep stumbling upon hidden realms and such. Were they even that common?

What if he'd get the skill and never find anything noteworthy for years? [Fold Distance]: Compress the space beneath your feet. For the next 10 steps, each step covers twice its normal distance. One of the best movement skills he'd seen so far. The first time he would use this in a battle could catch his enemies off guard, and he could use it as a bait-and-switch to create even more openings. It'd need a lot of time to get used to it since it'd mess up his footwork completely, but still worth considering.

He could even use it for traveling long distances in the higher ranks. [Pocket Shield]: Open a tiny, invisible portal in front of your palm that swallows a single incoming projectile and drops it harmlessly into the void. Pretty good, but using his palm while holding a knife was troublesome, and it was a bit restrictive in its usage. Thankfully, there was a better alternative. [Fabric Tear]: Open two small, linked tears in space for 5 seconds. One appears within 5 feet of you, the other up to 150 feet away.

Anything that enters one exits through the other. Not only was this useful to avoid hits, but it was also perfect for sneak attacks. His darts could cover a long range, and he could have more time to keep his distance until the sedative kicks in. Honestly, a ranged fighting style without giving up his knives sounded great. [Void Snare]: Distort the space within a 15-foot area, reducing movement speed inside by 50% for everyone but yourself up to 10 seconds.

A different variation of [Fold Distance] with some ups and downs. Being an AOE skill would definitely help in close combat, but due to its small range, it wasn't good for running from or toward an enemy. It did have great synergy with some of the other skills though, making him spend quite some time fantasizing about having access to all these skills. [Phase Skin]: Shift your body partially out of phase with reality for 3 seconds, reducing incoming physical damage by 80% and magical damage by 20%.

One of the better defensive ones, although he didn't understand how that damage reduction exactly worked. Hypothetically, if a part of his body phased out of reality and a sword passed through it, would he still get some internal damage or something? What if he used it on his head? Could he still see during that time? Three seconds was a long time; what if there was still some object in that same place when he was about to materialize?

A short description was nowhere enough for explaining the mechanics of this odd skill. [Null Point]: Create a stationary point within 30 feet where all kinetic force is nullified for 2 seconds. The final one was also one of his favorites. Freezing even a part of his enemy, no matter how small the area, would be fatal when they were on the move. It all depended on how he used it. He could trip others at the most unexpected times or even freeze himself to feint an attack.

What would happen if he used it on someone's heart and kicked them hard on the chest? Ethan rose again and started pacing around between the stone tablets, considering the cons and pros. It took him another half an hour to come to a decision. No matter what he'd choose, he knew that he was going to miss the other skills dearly; no point delaying the inevitable. Maybe I'll check out this academy in the future after all. Bastards really know how to grab attention.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he nodded to himself and walked toward the skill tablet he'd decided to get. He stopped a step away and raised his right hand, placing it on the rough and cold surface. With one last look into his close surroundings, he chased all other thoughts and focused before sending his mana and letting it carry the information back to him. Just like before, the inner workings of the skill imprinted into his mind at once, making him feel like he'd always known this.

There was so much wonder, yet he didn't spend any time. Ethan used his new skill, [Blink], at the same time he learned, appearing right in front of another stone tablet in the same position. He sent his mana with a thought, and another skill's details rushed– He didn't care. There was only one thing in his mind, and so, he [Blink]ed. The monolith he was facing changed again as he sent his mana as fast as he could before using his skill one more time.

He vaguely noticed that his mana was dipping fast; he only had one last time to use the skill, but it didn't matter. This time, he didn't feel the touch of the stone on his palm and failed to send his mana. When he pressed his hand, it went through the monolith. All the stone tablets were in a liminal state, and the next moment, they were all gone. Perhaps only a second had passed since he learned his first skill. The skill was instantaneous, and so was sending the mana he'd already gathered in his hand.

The only thing slowing him down was his thought process. In that brief period, he managed to [Blink] two times and snatched two more skills. He really didn't expect it to work, but the evidence spoke for itself. Looking at the three piles of debris–excluding the leftover from his Void Manual–Ethan threw his head back and roared with laughter.