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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 14: Theory
🕑 Added 2024-07-04 17:01:00 +0000 UTCEdge picked up a lantern and walked out of the chamber. It was too hard to concentrate while staring at the remains of the reaver and the drying stains where it had eaten the jailbirds. He sat down with his back against the temple wall, letting the stone cool him off while he thought the matter through.
It was time to decide which direction he wanted to grow in. Edge only had four attribute points and he couldn’t afford to waste them. It made no sense to save them, and it was critical to his survival that he spent them wisely.
The details of the attribute system were nuanced, but the basics were easy enough to understand. There were ten in total. Seven physical attributes and three energetic.
The physical attributes could be divided into two broad categories.
The first was known as vigor. It included power, the raw strength someone could exert. Endurance, which measured how much stamina they had. And durability, the attribute governing the body’s innate resistance to damage.
The second set was commonly referred to as dexterity. It was comprised of reflex, which influenced unconscious movements. Control, which enhanced agility and fine motor skills. Last came speed, which was true to its name, regulating how fast a person could move.
The seventh physical attribute was perception, which some people included in dexterity, but others insisted belonged to a category of its own. Perception measured the strength of the senses, at least the classic five that most people were born with. Boosting it enhanced their raw sensitivity and their ability to pick out patterns and details from background noise.
The big prisoner had clearly been a vigor build, with an emphasis on power. The tall man had invested heavily into dexterity, prioritizing speed and control.
Edge wasn’t sure which kind of build he wanted to work toward yet. Since it was too soon to worry about it just yet, he shelved the issue for now and finished considering his options.
All three energetic attributes were related to the use and potency of skills. First came generation, which governed a core’s recovery rate. Increasing generation let a core draw in more ambient magicytes from the environment, letting its bearer use skills more often.
Next was amplification, which improved skills’ mana efficiency and their maximum output. Last was the attribute that he understood the least, disruption. Having enough disruption would let a person counter skills that were used on or near their body.
Right now, what’s important is improving my combat ability. That means being able to hold my own in a brawl and generating enough mana to use my skills when I need them.
Edge had studied Prison World theory long and hard before activating his puppet. The common wisdom for someone at his stage was to invest entirely in their physical attributes. After all, the more you could fight, the faster you could cycle-up. And the faster you cycled-up, the more you could fight.
Skills required too much investment early on and were best saved for an emergency until you ranked them up. Specializing in certain tactics or skill combos could wait until your core had evolved to stage-one or two, when more attribute points came with each new cycle.
There were various sub-strategies depending on what you were planning to fight and what skills you were using. But most cored individuals put at least three points into speed, power, and durability before spending them on anything else.
However, that was working under the assumption that you would have regular access to mana rich food. Since Edge wasn’t sure that it would be available after the anomaly, he decided to include generation in the mix.
Fortunately, his perk had already improved his attributes, so he was ahead of the curve for his cycle. Wait. I don’t feel any stronger after getting that trait. What’s going on?
He discovered the answer when he took a closer look at his profile and opened the trait menu.
Available traits: 1. Trait slots: 2. Equipped traits: 0.
Unequipped traits: Triple tap.
Would you like to equip this trait now?
Warning, traits cannot be removed unless specific conditions are met.
All of this was news to him. Apparently, you had to equip traits in order to use them. He’d always assumed that it was an automatic process, since the conditions for acquiring traits were tightly guarded secrets. The details were always edited out of the footage released on the feed.
“Yes please.” He addressed the System, figuring that it never hurt to be polite to an entity incomprehensibly more powerful than yourself.
Edge expected some sensations to come with equipping the trait, and indeed there were. But it wasn’t like anything that he’d experienced before. Instead of the surging rush of potentia permanently upgrading his body, it felt like power had been loaned to him. Energy from another place, instead of welling up inside.
The System covered him in an invisible field of magic, bolstering his body’s functions without altering them on a fundamental level. It reminded him of some of the support skills he’d heard about, although the trait was even better. It cost no mana to sustain, could never be disrupted, and had unlimited duration.
Either way, the result was the same, Edge felt stronger, faster, and more agile than before. It was like his top performance had become the new norm, and he could push himself harder and further than ever. It was awesome. But rather than getting used to the changes now, he figured that he might as well get the rest of them over with first.
With that goal in mind, he summoned his Guide, opened his menus, and spent his attribute points. He put one apiece into durability and speed, and the other two into generation, then confirmed his choice.
This time, the sensations were in line with his expectations, although they were far more intense than before. He felt his core ignite, growing hotter and hotter until Edge thought that he would literally catch aflame. I’m burning up. Maybe I should have spent those points one by one.
He opened his mouth to scream. Before the sound could pass his lips, he felt his body… melt was the closest word that he had to describe it. His flesh and bones, muscles and organs, tendons and sinew, shifted like soft clay before reforming into a stable configuration.
It took away the stress and pain that had been pounded into his tissue by days of rough living and surviving the fight of his life by the skin of his teeth. Ahh… that feels incredible. Like a massage and a day at the spa all rolled into one.
But that was only half of the show. While his body was being upgraded, his core was changing too.
His attention was drawn to the channels running between his reservoir and the outside world. Tiny tunnels carved into his skin, commonly referred to as mana pores. He could feel them growing wider, drawing in more magicytes from the air. It was warm and cold at the same time, like a cool breeze blowing on a sunny day.
He frowned when he saw that his reserves weren’t refilling. But then Edge realized that his fingers were itching. Regeneration was powered up once more, draining his tank to finish healing his hand. My stomach feels tingly too. Apparently, there was still some internal damage from the reaver’s talons shredding his guts.
Now that the changes were over, he pulled up his profile. He was eager to check out his stats and be on his way.
Personal statistics: Edge Vasher
Physical attributes (Values in parentheses are provided by your traits.)
Power: 1 (2) Reflex: 1 Endurance: 2 Perception: 1
Speed: 2 (3) Control: 1 (2) Durability: 2
Energetic attributes
Generation: 3 Amplification: 3 Disruption: 1
Core Information
Name: [Skill-Eater]
Stage: 1.
Cycle: 3/7.
Rarity: Unique.
Category: Unique.
Attribute points per cycle: 2.
Ultimate ability: Extraction (active). Uses per day: 3. Cooldown period: 24 hours.
Steal the skills of monsters, men, and beasts, and claim them for your own.
Core trait (unique): Collector.
You can no longer acquire skills through normal means. You may slot twice as many skills as before.
Skills
Skill slots 6. Unused slots 3.
Known skills
Slash (basic): rank 1.
Empower an attack with a bladed weapon.
Elemental blade [ice] (uncommon): rank 1.
Create a subzero blade of ice.
Regeneration [limited] (uncommon): rank 1.
Rapidly heal wounds. Limited regeneration cannot restore missing limbs or organs that are completely destroyed.
An unknown skill (rare) is being digested.
Traits
Trait slots: 2. Unused slots: 1.
Trait: Triple tap.
You’re either a genius, blessed by the heavens, or the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. You won a fight against three opponents that were two stages higher than yourself, and (more or less) landed the killing blow on each.
Effects: + 1 power. +1 speed. +1 control.
Implants (none)
System currency
Credits: 0
Mortium: 1
Not bad Edge. He whistled in appreciation. Not bad at all.
