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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 122: Safe
🕑 Added 2024-10-11 17:01:06 +0000 UTCAfter entering town, Edge started walking along South Street.
He did his best to look frustrated and bored instead of euphoric. As if nothing more exciting than a poor day of hunting had occurred while he was out on the grasslands.
He kept expecting word of Warren’s death to catch up to him, or news of the devastation that their battle had wrought upon the prairie. But nothing of the sort had happened by the time that he made it to Izzio’s to drop off his haul.
Since the butcher knew him better than most by this point, Edge left his meat with one of the apprentices, so that he didn’t have to worry about the man noticing anything unusual about Edge’s appearance or mental state. He told the woman to have the butcher pay him whatever seemed fair the next time he passed by the shop.
His next stop was the bounty kiosk, since he was certain that there would be Credits waiting for him there. One of the little ironies of Prison World was that most of its bounty hunters were wanted themselves, especially manslayers as infamous as Warren. Plenty of people who had lost a friend or lover were willing to pay to get their revenge, and Warren was no exception.
Edge waited until no one was nearby, then ducked inside the building. When he stepped inside the kiosk and the privacy screen flickered to life, his Guide appeared of its own accord. It floated over to interface with the bounty board, flittering about as it updated the registry with his latest accomplishment.
He let out a low whistle when he saw how many Credits had been added to his account. Another thirty thousand creds. Warren had more enemies than I’d realized.
He would figure out how to spend the bulk of them later. If Violet could repair his armor, Edge only needed to buy a few small items to round out his kit right now. Everything else would be provided by Trapper’s crew. He would add whatever he made on the hunt to his total, then make a big purchase when he got back to town.
Right now, he was too tired, stressed out, and elated to even think about it. All Edge wanted was to head back to his room to decompress from his close brush with death. He got a strange look from Rita when she passed him on the stairs on the way to his room. Shit, did I forget about something obvious?
When he stepped into the bathroom, he realized that he had. A large patch of his hair was missing, along with one of his eyebrows—seared away by inferno or the explosion from the manslayer’s implanted bomb. Whoops. At least only Rita and Izzio’s assistant got a good look at me, and my hat is covering the worst of it.
He was about to shave his head to hide the evidence, but then an idea struck him. Although it wasn’t damage in the traditional sense, maybe regeneration would restore what he’d lost if Edge could convince the skill that his missing hair was a form of injury. After all, generating new hair cells shouldn’t be all that different from the countless other kinds of tissue that the skill could restore.
He decided that it was worth a shot. First, he sent his awareness into his core. Once he was standing in his skill garden, he walked over to the beating heart that represented regeneration. Curious if trying to communicate with his skills could make a difference, he knelt beside the heart and started to speak.
“Hey there, little guy. I almost got blown up today on two separate occasions. Thanks a million for stitching me back together, and, you know, all the other times that you saved my ass. I was wondering if you might be able to help with my hair and eyebrow situation too. To heal my appearance, so to speak. I understand if it’s not possible. But if it is, I would really appreciate it.”
To Edge’s surprise, the heart started rolling around in excitement. He had the sense that it was able to understand him, if only on the most basic level, and that it had agreed to his request.
The idea of developing relationships with his skills in such a literal sense was a totally novel idea to him. He spent a few minutes talking to each of them, complimenting their powers and thanking them for their service. When he was done, he left his core and turned on regeneration, eager to find out if anything would happen.
To his delight, his skin began to itch, and then fresh hair began sprouting out from the bald patches on his scalp. Not only was the skill able to repair the damage, it stopped the growth at exactly the same length that it had been at before. Soon, he couldn’t tell that anything had happened, except that his new hair was pristine, while the rest of it was matted, tangled, and dirty.
Laughing out loud at the strangeness of it all, Edge proceeded to strip and then stepped into the tub, ready to wash his troubles away. He sat down in the basin, then turned the shower on at full blast, making the water as hot as he could stand and then letting it all go. The stress, the fear, the certainty that he was going to die, all melted and then flowed down the drain, leaving him feeling immensely better than before.
Before he turned the water off, he decided to give his brand-new skill a try. He imagined the flow parting around him instead of breaking over his head, then activated repel water for the first time.
It turned out that using a versatile skill was going to take some practice. Instead of diverting the flow like an umbrella, a bubble of mana extended past his body. A transparent barrier that threw all the water onto the floor, hard enough to fling it into the next room.
Edge was so surprised that it took him a second to react, letting water spread across the floor before he shut off the skill and the faucet. He scrambled, using every towel in the room to soak up the mess before it could drip down into the floor below. Shit, Rita is going to kill me. I’ll have to find a way to make it up to her.
With that out of the way, he slid into bed and closed his eyes, letting the sounds of Puppet Town coming in through the crack in his window wash over him. For the next few hours, he just lay in bed, savoring the fact that nothing was trying to kill him. Enjoying the sensation of being warm, clean, and as safe as he was likely to get in his new life.
He tried to pass out early but gave up an hour of tossing and turning later. Edge was far more relaxed. But he still too keyed up from his battle with Warren, and excited by the prospect of heading into the field on his first big game hunt, to sleep when he wasn’t actually tired.
Instead, he began replaying the showdown in his mind, doing his best to learn from the fight. Both from the mistakes he had made and from what he had observed while battling the experienced manslayer.
When he was done reviewing everything that had happened, grading each move that he’d made, Edge pulled up his profile to check out his progress, taking in the incredible gains that he had acquired in such a short span of time.
Personal statistics: Edge Vasher
Physical attributes (Values in parentheses are provided by your traits)
Power: 6 (7) Reflex: 5 Endurance: 6 (7) Perception: 7
Speed: 6 (7) Control: 4 (5) Durability: 9 (10)
Energetic attributes
Generation: 9 Amplification: 12 Disruption: 2 (3)
Physical conditioning (Attribute points may be conditioned up to five points each)
Power: 3 Reflex: 3 Endurance: 4 Perception: 3
Speed: 2 Control: 2 Durability: 4
Core Information Name: [Skill-Eater].
Stage: 1.
Cycle: 7/21.
Rarity: Unique.
Category: Unique.
Attribute points per cycle: 3.
Ultimate abilities
[Extraction] (active). Uses per day: 3. Cooldown period: 24 hours.
Steal the skills of monsters, men, and beasts, and claim them for your own.
[Overdrive] (active).
Uses: 1. Cooldown period: 1 week.
[Overdrive] increases your Amplification by (10 x stage) for thirty seconds. Activating skills will not require mana during this period. You will be severely exhausted for thirty seconds after [Overdrive] is complete.
Core traits
Collector (unique) [Alternate advancement].
You can no longer acquire or rank-up skills through normal means. You may slot twice as many skills as before. Additionally, you will gain an extra skill slot with every new stage.
Devourer (unique).
You may Absorb an unwanted skill, freeing its slot and granting a fraction of its experience to the skill of your choice. Be advised, the return on this exchange is significantly less efficient than [Extracting] a duplicate of an existing skill.
Skills
Skill slots 11. Unused slots 2.
Known skills:
Slash (basic): rank 2. Path: penetration.
Empower an attack with a bladed weapon. The edge of the weapon will be magically sharpened while the skill is active.
Conceal (common): rank 2. Path: erasure.
Erase your scent and heat signature while you remain still. Visually, you will appear to blend into your environment. The last twenty-five feet of your trail will be removed on activation.
Entangle (common): Rank 2. Path: Resiliency.
Create burrowing vines to bind your target. The vines are resistant to cuts and tears.
Leap (common): rank 2. Path: assault.
Jump with explosive force. Increased Durability for ten seconds after activation.
Double strike (uncommon): rank 1.
Create an offset double of any melee attack.
Elemental blade [ice] (uncommon): rank 1.
Create a subzero blade of ice.
Regeneration [limited] (uncommon): rank 1.
Rapidly heal wounds. Limited regeneration cannot restore organs that are completely destroyed.
Repel water [versatile] (uncommon): rank 1.
Push water away from the user. The shape of the repulsive field can be changed at will.
Shadow step (rare): rank 2. Path: Armored shadow.
Transform into shadows. The cost of transforming your gear is greatly reduced.
Traits (2 of 3 trait slots are filled)
Triple tap (equipped)
You are either a genius, blessed by the heavens, or are the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. You managed to win a fight against three opponents at least one stage higher than yourself and (more or less) landed the killing blow on each.
Effects: + 10% to Power, Speed, and Control (minimum gain of 1).
Trait: Wanted.
You have found one of the 21 unique cores in existence, which has painted a target on your back. In fact, checking out the bounty board is probably something you should do sooner rather than later.
There’s a good chance that this is going to end spectacularly badly for you, and I can’t wait to watch it all play out. This trait might help you live a little bit longer, but I’m not holding my breath.
Effects: + 10% to Endurance, Durability, and Disruption (minimum gain of 1).
Implants
Heart-guard (common)
Size: Small (1 implant point). Aether type: Silver. Charge: Empty.
This implant generates a barrier to protect the heart when it detects incoming damage.
System currency
Credits: 30600
Mortium: 10
What an insane day. Edge let out a long sigh. I hope that my exam goes a bit smoother than my training.
Comments
Bryan Dickerson
Thanks for the assist and kind words.
Bladehawk256
"every town in the room" should be towel in the room. Great book btw
Bryan Dickerson
yes. Thank you.
Eli Gray
Shouldn’t his heart guard implant be empty? Since he used it to save his life from Warren?
