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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 162: Truth
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 18:00:11 +0000 UTCWhen Jumo asked the question, everyone looked his way—faces wearing a complex mixture of emotions that Edge had no way of sorting out in that moment.
In that instant, the events of the past weeks came to a head. It left him with one last decision to make. Did he really trust these people? And just as important, did Edge want them to be able to trust him?
When he searched his feelings, he decided that he did. After everything he had been through—living beside the hunters while getting to know them—Edge really did trust them with his life.
He realized that he’d been preparing for this moment for days. That subconsciously, he was already planning to tell his friends everything. Well, almost everything. He wasn’t ready to talk about Skill-Eater’s true nature until he understood it better himself.
Edge took a deep breath, looked each hunter in the eyes in turn, then began his story. “Guys. I have something to tell you. Remember when I said that I found a rare core in some ruins? Well, it might have been a bit rarer than that. It’s called Skill-Eater, and it’s the reason that I’ve been able to learn so many skills so quickly.”
He continued, sharing the full account of his adventures, the full range of his skills, and the true nature of his ultimate abilities.
“Warren caught wind of the truth after I arrived in Puppet Town and decided to claim my bounty. He came for me looking for blood, but I was the one who walked away. I wouldn’t have made it if Sakura hadn’t tipped me off. Warren blew himself up, so I didn’t get any of his gear other than a potion and this gun, which only has one round left.”
Edge went through the events of the last few days, until he arrived at the present. “That’s the truth of the matter. I’m sorry for hiding it from you, but I was scared and wasn’t sure what I should do. I’ll understand if you can’t trust me or want to claim my bounty. All I ask is that you give me a few days’ head start.”
Then, for a long while, Edge stood there in silence while waiting to find out what fate had in store. The crew mulled over his words—considering their weight and everything they had experienced together. He didn’t know if this was going to be an ending or a beginning, but he was relieved that the wait was finally over.
Violet was the first person to break the silence. “Of course we’ll keep your secret, you idiot. You only revealed it to save us to begin with and we all have skeletons in our closets.”
“Besides, we like you, and we’ve enjoyed having you around.” Sasha offered Edge a beaming smile that melted his heart as Jumo seconded her opinion.
Trapper gave him a stern look, then cracked a grin of her own. “If you hadn’t been hiding things, the fight might have gone a lot smoother. Then again, it might just as easily have gone the other way. Besides, if we lost you, I would have to find another new crewmember, and that’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“Does that mean?”
Trapper walked over and offered Edge her hand. “Edge Vasher. By unanimous decision, you have passed our test and are invited to become an official member of the crew.” He took her hand and gave it a firm shake. “Welcome to the team. Here’s to growing stronger and getting rich along the way.”
Everyone else offered him a handshake, which quickly transformed into a group hug. Even Blue joined in, although she was careful not to aggravate her injuries. Edge was overcome with powerful emotions—overwhelmed that he had finally found a place to belong and people who valued his existence.
The team stayed that way for a good five minutes, then got down to business. They still needed to consolidate their gains and finish their mission before something nasty came calling. Jumo wanted to see the spellslinger, so Edge handed it over while he pondered how to spend his attribute points. The warrior gave the gun back a few minutes later, still mulling over everything that had been revealed.
While everyone recovered from the grueling battle, they sat in a circle and shared what they’d gained from the quest the System had offered.
Riller and Violet were so happy that they couldn’t sit still. After years of searching and subjecting themselves to incredible danger, they finally had cores of their own. At long last, they could start growing stronger alongside the rest of the team. They were holding onto one another and bawling their eyes out, while everyone else offered touches and words of support.
Not only could they begin cycling-up and spending their potentia, they could slot more skills and handle the drain of powers that were rarer than basic. They had gained another skill slot after binding their cores and would get two more when they hit stage-one.
On top of everything else, they could absorb magicytes from the environment. It would let them use their skills far more often and contribute equally in a fight, without having to worry about magicyte depletion as a result.
In addition to their cores, they had each picked up an uncommon skill as part of their reward. Riller had gained scout drone—the same skill that Warren had used to hunt Edge.
It let Riller create a flying construct that was hard to spot and could travel within a thousand feet of his position. He could send his vision into the drone at will. Although it cost a fair amount of mana to maintain, the skill would improve dramatically as it ranked-up. Even as it was, it would enhance the man’s already impressive scouting abilities—making it easier to track prey and detect incoming threats.
Violet had gained travelers’ boon, an aura that increased the stamina and health regeneration of anything friendly within ten feet of her position. The effect was small enough that it would only help a little in battle, at least until she ranked it up. But it would let the crew push themselves harder with less downtime and recover from injuries faster than before. It would be invaluable on long hunts, and even more critically, it offered the team their first source of magical healing.
Jumo and Sasha had upgraded their cores—transforming them from basic models into uncommon, elemental-aspected variants with passive ultimate abilities. Sasha now wielded a flame core, which would enhance the output of flame imbuement and any other fire-based skills she acquired. One of which had been included in her rewards.
Fire breathing let her project a cone of flames from her position. It was a solid ranged attack, and even more valuable, it let her dish out damage over a wide area. It would be perfect for dealing with nimble opponents and swarms, like the crab monsters that had ambushed the hunters on the Painted Lands.
Jumo’s new core was an earth type—the same kind that Earl the Earthhammer wielded. Like Sasha, Jumo had picked up an uncommon skill that paired with his elemental core. Piercing javelin created a stone weapon that reminded Edge of the heart-render spellshot Warren had fired, with a few notable differences.
At rank-one, Jumo’s skill could only create one weapon at a time. It had a range of about fifty feet, and it couldn’t change course after launching or hit ethereal targets. Instead, the skill specialized in raw damage and penetration. Having piercing javelin would make it easier for the crew to hunt creatures with defensive skills, natural armor, and high Durability, not to mention the armor of human opponents.
That just left the crew’s leader. Trapper already had a specialty core, so the System had offered her a rare skill and two uncommons. She wouldn’t have had the slots for them, but the fight had pushed her up the final cycle of stage-one.
Her incredible use of traps over the last few days had cleared the requirements for her core’s evolution, and she was able to evolve on the spot. Going forward, the crew’s leader would be one of the most powerful people in Puppet Town and a force to be reckoned with.
In addition to sense life, manifest trap, cleanse, and manipulate air, she now had snipe, which would increase the velocity and accuracy of her ranged attacks. Next came sense vibration, which would supplement sense life. The skill would let her detect nonliving creatures, burrowing opponents, and things that were beyond her field of view.
As nice as they were, they weren’t what had the crew’s leader quivering with excitement. Her rare skill sounded incredibly powerful, and Edge couldn’t wait to see it in action. Quagmire turned a large patch of sand or soil into quicksand or mud. It could bind or even drown smaller opponents within a matter of seconds, and slow down big bads like the padamas and garax.
It was a wide-area disable that didn’t require the extensive prep time of manifest trap, making the crew’s leader more effective in ambush situations going forward. If she had been wielding quagmire when the shadowreavers assaulted the crew, she could have defeated them without his assistance.
Edge had made out well for himself too. On top of the cycles and the epic skill he’d gained from the fight, he had picked up another great trait, two Skill-Merger Tokens, and an Auxiliary Skill Slot. His mind was already hard at work, trying to decide which of his skills he wanted to combine. He had until his epic skill finished digesting in three weeks to make his first selection.
The auxiliary slot was exciting too. It would let him swap out skills as needed to adapt to whatever situation he found himself in—boosting his versatility without having to give up a power in exchange. He was eager to fill it right away, then keep switching it around whenever he found something that he wanted to try out, or that sounded useful or fun.
Now that the fight was over, the hunters had two things that they needed to do before they left the Breadbasket and made their way back to Puppet Town. The first was to collect the most valuable parts from the garax, and anything that was salvageable from the remnants of the padamas.
Then they had to hike to the border of the Ivory Plains and observe any changes to the neighboring biomes. Trapper already had a location picked out where they could see for a hundred miles in every direction.
But that would have to wait until morning. Right now, the team needed to collect the resources from the beasts while they were still fresh, then make sure that nothing tried to steal them during the night.
In short, now that they had raked in the cycles, it was time to ensure they got paid.
Comments
BlackFire13th
Wonder what skills edge will chose to merge. Most obvious option is slash and double strike. He could also merge slash with iceblade. Also now the crew knows he could bring Riller along to hunt down nymphs. Riller gets to practice with the scout drone, edge get to rank up entangle, win-win.
