NOVEL NEXT 9: Skill Issues
Skill Menu Unlocked!
-1000 Aura
Increase Vitality (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Strength (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Agility (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Mind (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Arcane (Level 1 -> Level 2): 200 Aura
Increase Talent (Level 1 -> Level 2): 200 Aura
Unlock Inventory: 10000 Aura
View Spell Menu
View Skill Menu
Current Aura: 900
~~~
Level 0 Skills:
First Aid: 200 Aura
Navigation: 200 Aura
Forage: 200 Aura
Build Fire: 200 Aura
Find Water: 200 Aura
Level 1 Skills:
Second Wind: 500 Aura
Limit Break: 500 Aura
Accelerate: 500 Aura
Insight: 500 Aura
Suppress Soul: 500 Aura
Ninja: 500 Aura
Grappler: 500 Aura
Striker: 500 Aura
Duelist: 500 Aura
Marksman: 500 Aura
Level 2 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 3 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 4 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 5 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 6 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 7 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 8 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 9 Skills (LOCKED)
Level 10 Skills (LOCKED)
For a moment, John was tempted to put more Aura into Arcane and Talent, just to see what Level 2 Spells and Skills he'd have available, and how much they'd cost. He held off. Aside from wanting to spend his Aura on other things, he felt it was better to keep those relatively cheap upgrades in his back pocket for their healing factor. That could end up being crucial.
Besides, the Skill options he already had were tantalising enough. It seemed Level 0 was once again dedicated to the most basic survival stuff, though he was sure he'd be able to upgrade them, like with the Level 0 Spells. Level 1, on the other hand, appeared to be divided into two categories with five options each: the first half of the list were more specialised individual abilities, while the second half seemed to him to be better described as skill sets.
It struck him as a little unbalanced, so he assumed the broader abilities granted by the Level 1s would still be equivalent in overall utility to the specialist stuff. For example, if Ninja included stealth, parkour, poisoning, and a bunch more sub skills, each of them would be a fraction of the potency of Second Wind on its own.
Some of the specialist skills were a little opaque, but he reckoned they somewhat corresponded to the other non-Talent stats: Vitality, Strength, Agility, Mind, and Arcane. Second Wind was obvious. Limit Break probably meant an increase of strength at the cost of damaging himself, which had high badass factor. Accelerate seemed likely to be a time dilation ability. Insight was also obvious, though there was a question of whether it would grant him outside information or just go off what he would've been able to figure out on his own with more time to observe—or, indeed, it could work another way entirely.
Suppress Soul was the one he didn't know what to think of. It was more likely to mean suppressing his own soul so that a monster with its own version of Soul Vision couldn't track him, but it was also possible it would let him interact with the souls of others in some capacity, nerfing their magic or something like that. Judging by the other Skills available, the former seemed more likely.
The really interesting stuff, in his mind, was in the second half of the Level 1s. The Skill sets.
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It took a lot of self-control to not immediately unlock Ninja. In his defence, his interest in the Skill wasn't just because it would allow him to play out a childhood fantasy—Ninja were badass, and the whole point of this bullshit superpower he'd been given was badassery. Out of all the Skills on the list, it seemed the most likely to improve his chances.
But there was something to be said for the sheer utility of the other Skills, too. Grappler, Striker, Duelist, and Marksman would all provide him directly and immediately useful abilities. Grappler and Striker were presumably the two sides of the unarmed combat coin, giving him heightened ability in wrestling or punching/kicking his opponents into submission. Duelist was almost certainly a boost to melee weapons, and Marksman to ranged.
All of them were desirable. Not for the first time, he looked at his Current Aura stat with frustrated longing. 900 Aura would buy him only one Level 1 Skill at the moment. And he had Spells he wanted to unlock, too. Even if he went and picked up that extra 100 Aura to make a second purchase, that still left him having to choose only two, when he was honestly interested in all of them.
It all came back to farming Aura, in the end. Killing weak monsters had served him fairly well, but it was clear there was more Aura to be gained in going after stronger monsters, and doing so in style. The grey jumping thing and the eyeball monster had both yielded thousands of Aura, and he suspected they were both stronger than what he'd been hunting for the last few hours. Well, maybe not the eyeball monster. But that could be explained by the fact it was his first time standing his ground and fighting a monster at all. A narrative element to the system, perhaps. Would he have to set up long term stories in future, when he was looking at having to accumulate tens of thousands of Aura to upgrade himself or purchase new abilities?
The inescapable fact was he was going to have to step up his game. Taking risks went against his nature, but it was increasingly seeming like the Aura system demanded it. He comforted himself with the knowledge that Mana Sense and Soul Vision would still let him pick his battles. It was scant consolation.
John heaved a sigh, letting himself sink into the sofa. Outside, the burning sky tinted the world in a hellish red and cast long, grasping shadows across the living room of the house he'd wandered into. It was a nice place. Plush, stylish furniture, a big TV, plenty of flashy artwork covering the walls—though some of it had fallen in all the mayhem, leaving shards of shattered glass on the ground.
He strode to the window and snapped the heavy curtains shut, plunging the living room into darkness. Picking his way back to the comfortable single-seater sofa, John rested his chin upon steepled fingers, thinking.
The thing was, he had pretty much all the information now. Aside from the Inventory, he knew how the system worked, what it all did, and what options were available to him. The only intelligence he was lacking in was regarding what he—and humanity as a whole—was up against here. Demons? Nuclear mutants? Aliens? Scientific experiments gone wrong? A drunk God's wrath?
It didn't really matter, he supposed. Whether or not he could predict what form the enemy assaulting Earth was going to take and what it wanted, he now had enough data to form an idea of what he was going to be able to do with his Aura in the medium-term future. He needed to call on that knowledge to assess his options and choose the best route forward.
There was an appeal to picking up Duelist first and then Marksman once he'd raised another 100 Aura, or vice versa, which would synergise with his Mana Blade and Soul Arrow respectively. Whether the former or latter ended up being the more favoured option in the longer term, he wanted to ensure he had both on the table. There was such a thing as generalising too much, but specialising too heavily could be a problem too.
His head spun as he tried to theorise all the ways the Skills, Spells, and Stats could interact, while considering what he should prioritise. Having such freedom of decision ironically made things harder. All the options had their pros and cons. He didn't know whether to prioritise combat utility or flashiness. He needed to gain Aura, but to do that he needed to be strong enough to survive encounters with dangerous monsters, but to survive encounters with dangerous monsters he needed stronger abilities, and to get stronger abilities he needed to accrue more Aura, and to accrue more Aura he needed to be flashier, and to be flashier…
And so on and so forth. His thoughts went around in circles like a dog chasing its tail, but this wasn't anywhere near so amusing. He ended up on his feet, pacing around the living room, rubbing his temples as the first signs of a stress headache started to throb. Angry red light snuck around the gaps in the curtains, painting fiery lines across the ground.
John paused, staring at that light with narrowed eyes. Was it just his imagination, or had it gotten darker?
When he'd first drawn the curtains, the world outside had been bathed in a hellfire glow. That couldn't have been more than a few minutes ago, and yet the light he was seeing now seemed more like the hazy light you'd see from a distant bonfire, not the all-encompassing red that denoted the impossibility of the sky itself catching aflame. Was the madness outside finally dying down?
Crossing the room with hurried strides, still mindful of the Aura system potentially penalising him for acting too frantic, he pulled the curtains back open. The sight beyond the window left him blinking.
The sky was still on fire. Disappointment dropped a lead ball in his stomach, but he knew it had been foolish to hope that the apocalypse had suddenly been averted. On the contrary, the flames were clearly burning as strongly as ever. It was akin to the surface of the sun, molten nuclear flame roiling like a stormy sea.
But somehow, a shadowy shroud had been pulled over it, a translucent black curtain swirling between the surface and the flaming outer atmosphere. If he squinted, it was like he could see the wrinkles. Following them, he realised they were all revolving around something in the distance, back towards the centre of the city. The living room he was in faced northward, so he couldn't see it.
It was clear something was happening. A change. The next stage in the end of the world's schedule, perhaps.
Filled with trepidation, John made his way to the front door. His face was expressionless. His gait was calm, slow, unworried. Inside, his heart was slamming out an erratic drum solo. Something was gnawing at the bottom of his gut, and it was having a knock on effect that made the rest of his insides wriggle. If there'd been a Skill to force calm on him on that list, he would've been tempted to take it then and there.
After checking with Mana Sense to ensure there were no monsters lingering, John stepped out onto the house's front garden. Following the dark creases drifting through the sky, he looked east, towards the city centre.
An abyssal void had opened up over central London. Ringed by malevolent purple fire, the perfect circle had to be a mile wide, looming like a black moon that had fallen to Earth. The dark creases cascaded towards it like it was disturbing the very fabric of reality with its weight. An endless flow of ichor cascaded from the gaping wound, pouring down upon the city.
The breath rushed out of John's lungs. Icy needles of pain speared into his brain from too many directions to count. His entire body trembled. His eyes felt like they were going to burst. And yet, he couldn't look away. The abyss was staring back at him, judging him and finding him wanting. It had a gravitational pull. The world warped around it as it pulled everything in, trying to fill the boundless hunger that defined its very existence.
Whatever that thing was, he could feel the weight of its presence on the physical plane. It was a constant itch at the back of his mind. A static fuzz. Goosebumps prickled inside his skull, tickling his brain.
Something overcame him then. An understanding. Comprehension beyond anything related to his brain. It was deeper than that. A level of his existence he'd been blissfully unaware of mere hours ago. The sphere of mana in his navel pulsed. The energy lingering in his brain rippled. Like a wave flowing through his body, he felt soothing warmth spread, touching his muscles, bones, flesh, blood.
Clenching his jaw, fisting his hands at his sides, and glaring for all he was worth, John voiced a promise, "I'm gonna fucking get you one day."
Maybe it was bravado. Perhaps it was an empty threat spoken by a man who feared his own death so much he couldn't even consider it. There was even a possibility he'd lost his mind.
But something in him had decided that thing out there needed to die. It wouldn't be today. It might not even be any time soon by any reasonable time frame.
All he knew was it had to happen, and with this power he'd been granted, he had the potential to make it so.
It wouldn't be easy. God knew, him of all people learning to act badass was going to be an uphill battle. This system was going to force him into situations so far out of his comfort zone it made him want to throw up with nerves just thinking about it.
When he turned his back on the void and strode back inside the house, though, he was determined to meet the challenge anyway.
+1000 Aura