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[Skill-Eater 2] Chapter 13: Second Course
🕑 Added 2025-01-14 18:00:06 +0000 UTCWhen Edge reentered the nymph’s core, the white forest had changed during his absence. The trees looked distinctly less healthy and had lost half their leaves. However, he was pleased to note that the corruption wasn’t nearly as pronounced as the other times he had stolen multiple skills from the same opponent.
Stage-two beasts must be able to withstand some of the damage Extraction causes. I wonder if that means I can steal three skills from the same creature before it dies. I’ll have to test it out the next time I get a chance.
It was an interesting detail about Skill-Eater’s abilities, but ultimately a matter for another day. Right now, all that mattered was purloining another power and then heading back to town before he lost the light.
The second skill he stole was the other rank-four uncommon. It took on the appearance of a sprawling bush that was basking in a beam of sunlight, with a legion of emerald leaves stretching up toward the heavens above.
Unlike the surrounding trees, this plant looked radiantly healthy—like all its needs had been perfectly met. Since it wasn’t mobile, the skill was helpless to resist as the black chains wrapped around its base and then pulled the bush out by the roots.
When he snapped back into his skin, the living links tossed the tiny shrub into his mouth. Then they retracted through his wrists to slumber within his core. Due to its inanimate form, it wound up being one of the easiest skills to chew that Edge had encountered. It was like gnawing on a stick, which was slightly unpleasant, but painless and relatively simple.
The taste, on the other hand, was exquisite. The wood had the flavor of a vegetable medley—a perfect blend of greenery and spice. It was filled with energy that made his tongue tingle like he’d just licked a battery.
As with most of skills he had eaten, the experience imparted concepts in addition to its flavor. He had an impression of healthy young shoots sprouting from the soil. Of drinking sunlight and growing strong, progressing from a sapling to the peak of maturity.
When he swallowed and the skill entered his core, another update from the System wavered into existence.
You have extracted the skill: Photosynthesis (Uncommon, Rank 4).
Digestion is complete.
When extracting a skill higher than Rank 1, a portion of its experience will be retained if you choose to keep it.
Would you like to slot Photosynthesis now?
Now that he had digested the power, he was granted a deeper insight into how it worked. Photosynthesis wasn’t a bad skill, all things considered. If Edge kept it, it would give him the ability to turn sunlight into food, dramatically reducing his need to eat.
On the other hand, Edge really enjoyed eating, especially since everything on Ord tasted so good after binding his core. Photosynthesis might come in handy in extreme conditions, but right now, he could carry enough food in his pack to last him quite a while. On top of that, he was learning to embrace his life as a hunter, which meant that a meal was never further away than his next kill.
He added Photosynthesis to the list of skills he would consider picking up in the future. But for now, he decided to add its experience to Regeneration instead.
As he’d been hoping, Absorbing the rank-four uncommon was enough to fill Regeneration’s cup to the brim, catalyzing its advancement here and now. Confirming the change, his Guide appeared of its own accord. The wisp of gilded radiance flattened into a screen to display a message from the System.
The skill (Regeneration [limited]) has advanced to Rank 2.
Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.
Additionally, at Rank 2 you may choose to upgrade the skill.
Please choose between one of the following options:
1. Regeneration will take place significantly faster than before.
2. Regeneration will be slower, but its cost will be dramatically reduced.
3. Regeneration will lose the [limited] modifier, allowing it to restore destroyed organs (Note: the speed of regenerating lost organs is significantly slower than healing other injuries.)
Warning: if no option is selected, your skill will remain unchanged and gain a slight bonus to mana efficiency.
As usual, when the upgrade options were displayed, Edge received an impression of how they worked. A series of visions that offered far more detail than the text included with the prompt.
All three choices were great this time around. The first would let him heal more quickly, making even crippling wounds no more than a momentary inconvenience. It would also reduce the blood he lost before his injuries sealed shut, which was always a concern in the middle of a fight.
The second offering would cut the skill’s speed by about 75%. But it would lower its mana cost by over 90%, making the drain trivial with his present Generation. It would let Edge use Regeneration whenever he wanted, effectively removing its cost from the equation when using his other skills.
Regeneration would still be a decent battle heal, although it would really shine during a prolonged engagement, when he would normally have run out of reserves. No matter when he received a serious wound, he wouldn’t have to worry about dying to most forms of attack.
As solid as one and two were, Edge had known from the start that he would pick option three. Ever since binding Skill-Eater, he’d been worried about having one of his organs destroyed, which could permanently cripple or even kill him, even with a full tank of mana.
Puncturing an eye. Having his throat torn out. A bludgeon bursting his kidneys or collapsing his lungs. Any one of those wounds would have ended his adventure if he had received them until now. But after removing the limits of Regeneration, his worries were over.
He still couldn’t afford to have his brain scooped out or his heart ground to paste, but anything else would be recoverable, even if it took a few hours for the process to complete. Edge had nearly lost his eyes on several occasions, which would have been the last nail in his coffin under the circumstances. Door number three it is.
When he made his choice, he found himself standing in his skill garden once more. The beating heart that represented Regeneration was already shining and soon its transformation was complete.
It was only a bit bigger than before, but its heartbeat was stronger than ever, and more importantly, the aura of vitality it exuded was richer and deeper. A soothing mantle of health and well-being that ensured his body would remain in top condition, no matter what kind of wounds he received in the future.
Edge spent a few minutes playing with the skills in his garden, then returned to his body. Now that his hunt had reached a happy ending, it was time to get back to town and move on to his next objective.
There was one last thing he needed to do first. He’d been too busy to worry about it until now, but there was another update awaiting his perusal.
You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is: 16.
You have 3 attribute points awaiting allocation.
Edge had already planned out how he wanted to spend the points he acquired from his next few cycles. At the top of his list was acquiring more Endurance. He wanted to have enough stamina to run all day or fight in a prolonged battle without running out of steam. It would be vital if he wanted to survive another battle against a swarm like the blightlings or take on gigantic opponents like the padamas and garax.
He was already superhuman by the standards of Earth, but he had a long way to go before he could operate at peak performance for hours at a time. He took a quick look around to make sure that nothing nasty had wandered into the region, then sent his intentions into the System. I’ll take three points of Endurance, please.
Every time that a core gained enough experience to reach a new cycle, it generated a form of transformative energy known as potentia. Potentia could be used to permanently upgrade a person’s body or core—a key reason why cored individuals were so much stronger than their uncored counterparts.
Raw potentia felt like lightning in a bottle. Like a promise of power that was only moments away from completion. Now that he had chosen its form, the potentia came surging out of his core. Each attribute came with unique sensations when he increased them via points. Endurance felt like Edge’s heart and lungs were expanding, gaining capacity while becoming more efficient.
Other parts of him were tingling too, as the veins and arteries that made up his circulatory system were enhanced in a similar manner. It wasn’t just the big ones—the alterations went all the way down to the tiny capillaries that fed his tissue.
When everything calmed down a few minutes later, Edge picked up his pack and started walking back to town. He was so excited that he had to resist the urge to break into song—filled with the visceral satisfaction of having ranked up two of his primary skills and gained a cycle along the way.
It was shaping up to be a perfect day, and it wasn’t over yet.
