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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 32: Upgrade
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 17:17:01 +0000 UTCThe instant that the vines met, they began to merge, melding into one another like they were made of soft clay. Edge was surprised to learn that he could feel the skill gaining experience as the process continued.
The magic contained within entangle grew stronger. A sensation like water pouring into a cup. He sensed that when the cup was full, its contents would reach critical mass, and the skill would change on a fundamental level.
Since he had digested a rank-two skill to begin with, the water in the cup was already near the brim. The added skill experience from the copy he’d just eaten was enough to make up the difference.
Confirming what he was feeling, a message from the System appeared, showing Edge a menu that he’d never seen before.
The skill (entangle) 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. Your vines will become tougher than before, resistant to being cut and torn apart.
2. Your vines will appear and attack faster, making them more effective against quick and dexterous creatures.
3. Your vines will be studded in thorns, allowing them to deal damage in addition to restraining your opponent.
Warning: if no option is selected, your skill will remain unchanged and gain a slight bonus to mana efficiency.
It was a best-case scenario. His experiment had paid off bigtime, and his newest skill was about to get even better.
Edge had known that this question was coming. He’d heard plenty of tourists talk about ranking-up their skills while watching the feed. But it was something else entirely to experience it for himself.
The System’s query wasn’t just an abstraction. When each option was listed, he’d been granted a brief vision. They let him know exactly what the skill would do if he chose to take it in that direction. It was far more information than he’d been expecting. Now he could make an informed decision without having to interpret the vague text descriptions.
Which one should I choose?
Edge was already certain that he wanted to pick an upgrade. The mana efficiency route was almost always less powerful than specialization. There were rare exceptions involving complex skillsets, none of which applied to him.
If he were making the decision based on the skill’s utility alone, he would have gone for the thorns. Having an attack that he could use from range was something he desperately needed.
But his situation was unique. He had to consider Skill-Eater’s powers too. Given the nature of his chains, what Edge really needed was a reliable way to immobilize enemies while [Extraction] worked its magic. If they were already wounded when the vines grabbed hold, he would risk killing them too soon if he added the thorns. A juicy skill might die before he could eat it. He’d also lose the option of restraining something without hurting it, which might come in handy sooner or later.
With offense off the table, it was down to a question of enhancing entangle’s speed or strength. Both sounded great and would help him out in the short-term. If he couldn’t catch something with the spell, casting it was meaningless. But it wouldn’t do any good if his opponent could break free with brute force either.
He had to think of the future as well as the present. A day would come before too long when it was time to start eating rarer skills. The monsters, men, and beasts that had them were incredibly powerful, and almost all of them boasted considerable strength.
Thus, Edge decided to make his vines tougher. To become more effective when hunting big game. He could work on landing the skill reliably, even if it wasn’t fast. Set up traps and combos like the one the nymph had used to catch him.
I’ll take option one, durability. He spoke within his own mind this time. He’d been wondering if the System could hear him, inside his own head, standing within a vision of his core.
Apparently, the planetary AI had no trouble navigating this strange space or reading his synapses. It replied to his thoughts without missing a beat.
Acknowledged. Upgrading skill (entangle, rank 2) along the desired path.
At this point, his skill began to glow. The vines slotted into his core began shining before morphing into a new form. The burrowing tendrils became thicker, tougher, and denser. They changed from bright green to a browner hue, coated with a layer that was resistant to slashes and chops.
When he looked at the upgraded skill, he could sense that its cup was empty once more and much bigger than before. Filling it again would require far more energy. Now that the upgrade was complete, his consciousness was drawn out of his core.
When Edge popped back into his body, less than a second had passed while he was away. As he scanned his surroundings, he learned one final detail. Upgrading a skill canceled its effects, and the nymph was no longer bound.
Fortunately, stealing entangle had taken the fight out of it. When it was freed from his vines, the beast slumped to the ground. Instead of attacking, it simply sat down. It held its head between its hands with an expression of existential dread, shrieking like a banshee all the while.
The nymph kept right on screaming, wailing like a child whose puppy had died. Without the beast’s mana to sustain them, its vines turned to dust a few heartbeats later, freeing him as well. Edge rose to his feet and brushed off his hands, ready to end the fight.
Looking at the pious creature, he had to remind himself that this was a vicious predator. An aggressive carnivore that had been only too happy to eat him until just a few seconds ago. That it would seek its revenge the moment that it recovered from the traumatic shock.
He needed to finish this fast, while the nymph was distracted by whatever [Extraction] had done. Even without its skill, it was a formidable foe. With its arm-spikes and teeth, it could beat him in a straight exchange of blows. He had to put it down.
Besides, he hadn’t been the one to pick a fight. He needed to cycle-up and had no qualms about murdering the beast for experience under the circumstances.
Edge didn’t have enough mana left to use elemental blade, let alone another combo using slash. He could always reactivate entangle. But he wasn’t sure that he could finish the job with the strength of his arms alone.
But he did have enough left in the tank to use slash by itself three or four more times. One of the advantages of basic skills was that while they had a low ceiling on their maximum power, they were extremely cheap to use.
He ducked down to retrieve his weapon, then charged. Edge raised his blade high and then brought it down hard, using slash to bolster its momentum along the way. He’d been hoping to end this in a single blow, but it wasn’t fated to be that easy.
A bare heartbeat before his weapon struck true, the nymph snapped out of its daze, snarling as it turned to face him. It was too late to dodge, but not to triage. The beast held up one arm, sacrificing its limb to save its head.
The blade carved through in a great spray of sap, shearing through wood with an impact that Edge could feel in his bones. It cut off the nymph’s hand and kept right on going, slicing into its leg before running out of steam.
He let out a cry and kept right on chopping, putting everything that he had into one last assault.
His opponent was severely wounded, barely able to fight back. Edge wasn’t about to give the beast time to recover.
He kicked it hard to keep it off balance. Then he slashed with his makeshift claw-sword two more times, using the last of his mana to power the strike. Although they had performed far beyond his expectations, the crude bindings broke on the first swing, and the reaver’s claw started cutting into his flesh.
After his final slash, the cuts were so deep that they were scratching his bones. Edge didn’t care. He kept on chopping at the nymph’s head using only the strength of its arms. Until its body went limp, and the life faded from its eyes.
He turned to face the other beast, only to see that it had perished from its wounds. It’s over, he let out a shuddering sigh. Edge had won his hardest fight yet, earning a rank-two skill in the process.
