Merchant Of Yliaster

I really need my own place, don't I? Maxwell thought as he moved through the ground under the city, trying to think of a place to complete his advancement. At least, he would have the cave below for this in the future. He really doubted that whoever acquired the field would check a kilometer below the ground.

Even if they did, Maxwell would just convince the owner not to say anything about it. He surfaced near the forest, completely out of the city. For now, he didn't use the cave as he didn't know what would happen to the skill. He knew the system wouldn't just remove the skill, but it didn't hurt to be careful. If it suddenly became too flashy, for example, he would alert the whole city when he used it for the first time.

His outfit morphed to white pants and a simple white shirt. If anything, the new clothes were really convenient. He glanced around him to check if anyone was close, and there seemed to be no one. He chose to proceed with the skill advancement.

Proceeding with skill advancement.

Detected unintended skill effect due to trait: "Partial Ethereal Body".

The result will be readjusted according to the trait.

Infusion Empowerement→Ethereal Duality*

Ethereal Duality*:

Are you physical or ethereal? Decide for yourself. Your being can shift between mana types as your Partial Ethereal Body lets you temporarily loosen the shackles of your physical body.

The skill can be used with all mana types with varying effects. The effects of the skill are tied to the skill level and the ratio of the Partial Ethereal Body.

The Partial Ethereal Body Ratio is updated.

New Ratio: 7:3

The changes were immediate as Maxwell read the notifications as they came. Immediately after the fusion was complete, Maxwell could feel a weird tingling travel through his body, and he felt the information about the skill enter his mind.

What he had done with the infusion empowerment before took minutes until he was one with the element. Now, though, the feeling he got from the skill was completely different.

Actually, it couldn't even be said that this skill was an active one anymore. It felt more like the skill unlocked a potential his body already had before. It was like finally learning how to breathe properly after living your life breathing completely wrong.

Maxwell lifted his hand and willed the skill to activate. He didn't pull in any mana types and just watched his own mana getting infused into his hand. Human mana was pure, and this was even more true for Maxwell, as he wasn't using affinities as people did. His hand glowed with a blue light, and Maxwell could see it gaining a fluid look. It was still there, but it was not completely physical anymore.

It wasn't even using any mana for upkeep, as this was just his body choosing a state to be in. Most of his HP came from his soul, so it could be said that this was actually his body's preferred form. Now, though, it was time to try something more interesting. In theory, he should be able to turn around seventy percent of his body to mana, but he felt that that was far from the truth.

The reason was probably the low level of the skill. He started with something familiar and pulled in earth mana, infusing his body with it. Immediately, his body took an earthly hue, and even without his command, he felt himself starting to sink into the ground.

He let himself sink, and soon, he was going through the ground with a speed incomparable to before. It was nothing too fast, as his physical part still limited how fast he could go through the soil, but he could still move with a speed of around fifty kilometers per hour. It was worth noting that in his darkness self before, Maxwell was easily moving with speeds far exceeding this.

Like a fish, he launched himself upwards, and with a mental effort, changed the mana type he was using. Some of his mana pool left him, and wind mana was pulled in as he was launched upwards from the ground, feeling like he was getting embraced by the wind.

His speed immediately started to pick up at an astonishing rate, and soon, he was flying faster than he had ever moved. It was a bit hard to understand how fast he was going, as he didn't exactly have a gauge for it, but he estimated that he was moving around 350km/h. This was already comparable to some of the better vehicles back on Zephyr. He would definitely be outflown by a plane, though.

This made him remember planes getting destroyed easily by Tier 3's back on Zephyr, and he felt some of his excitement dissolve. He still had a long way to go after all. His thought process was interrupted by notifications. And to his dismay, very loud ones.

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Dexterity Threshold Reached.

Agility Threshold Reached.

Tutorial mode for both stats are terminated.

He wasn't sure what the effect of the tutorials terminating would be, and why did it now instead of immediately after leveling up, but he was fortunate enough not to experience them in his full physical form. Dexterity and agility didn't cause drastic changes like mind and spirituality tutorial terminations, so it was a bit harder to understand what was happening in the air.

He landed on the ground, and he immediately understood that the following minutes would be problematic. He stumbled like an idiot as he landed, and the only reason he didn't crash was that he could control his body by guiding the mana. He quickly summoned all of his mind to the task and started to move slowly.

It was a bit hard to decipher which was which, but Maxwell guessed that the reason he could feel every single little twitch of his muscles was the termination of the dexterity tutorial. He couldn't understand how a normal person could get past this tutorial and still walk.

He figured people like that had already trained their bodies to the degree that most things were instinctual, so they could get used to it better. He simply didn't see any other way, as even with 104 in the dexterity stat, Maxwell still needed a considerable percentage of his mind to just control this aspect. He could cheat for this stat, as his soul was way too high for something like this.

He knew better than to do that, though. Using a part of your mind to constantly monitor every little muscle you have was a bad way to live. While Maxwell could pull his awareness from his separate thoughts, the things those thoughts did still formed memories when he fused with that part of his mind again.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to control his body without actually thinking about it. Immediately, he could feel a cramp in his arm as pain exploded inside the limb. This will take some time, won't it? He asked himself through the pain. He temporarily started to use his mind again and started to test what the deal was with his agility.

This was much simpler, and Maxwell could immediately see that overcoming this would be even easier by cheating using his soul stat. The agility tutorial did only one thing as far as he could feel. It made you feel like you still had your old speed range when moving.

That was hardly the case, though. If you wanted to move at ten percent of your speed, now that would mean that you would just crash into a wall like an idiot, as that speed was way too fast. Now that the tutorial was over, Maxwell moved either too fast or too slow as he tried to do regular motions.

The reason why this could be easily circumvented by his soul stat was simple. Maxwell could slow down the world with his increased perception, making his movements more easily controllable in the slowed-down world.

That, though, was an even worse way to live. If the strength tutorial followed the same pattern with agility, Maxwell definitely wasn't looking forward to it. What he experienced now wasn't even the full effect, as he was still in ethereal form.

He sighed as he slowly let his body return to his physical form. I really should have trained athletics more… Maxwell lamented, and got to work. It was a bit ironic that he was having his second encounter with tutorials once more in the forest.

Gendor felt frustrated as he tried to understand the market of this world. With his means, it hadn't been hard to learn the language, as his cerebral implant still somehow worked, even turning into a skill, but learning how to become a merchant from scratch was proving to be hard.

He hardly knew anything about the kingdoms and empires around them, and he didn't know the resources he would sell and buy. To everyone else, he was just like a fool, and information couldn't simply be found in computers, as this planet's policy on technology was even stricter than he expected.

He knew that only nobles could use technology before coming here, but he did expect that some leeway would exist. It turned out that the layman didn't even know anything about technology, let alone be able to use it under certain conditions.

This limited him to the things called books, and books had a habit of transferring information slowly. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. He was more tired due to boredom rather than physical tiredness. His stats were pretty high, so he hardly felt things like that anymore. Even if he did, he could just relax tired muscles using his high dexterity.

This, though, made him think of something. Gendor was an assassin trained in martial arts since he was a child. His body was a weapon, and when the inevitable tutorial termination happened, Gendor only needed to recalibrate himself by doing some basic exercises. He, of course, had cramps due to dexterity, but even those were pretty mild.

He glanced from his book towards the kid lying on a bench on the other side of the room. Bob was still learning the language of this kingdom, as the boy didn't have any way to make this task any easier, except for a rudimentary increase in his mind stat.

Why he was suddenly interested in the boy was a different matter, though. Considering the boy's level, he was sure that Bob actually faced some of his physical tutorial terminations until now. At least, he was sure that the boy should have faced the vitality one. Gendor had a simple question. How did a boy without any training managed those tutorial terminations without them being a massive pain in his ass?

"Hey kid," he said in a relaxed tone. The boy gave him a look of hope that made him chuckle. Bob found everything more interesting than learning a language, so he could almost hear the boy begging in his mind to do something else.

"What? Are we going somewhere?" he asked with excitement, jumping off his bench.

"No, I just wanted to ask something," Gendor said, watching the boy's expression turn ugly for a second. "How were your tutorial terminations?" he asked, not letting the boy start ranting about how boring it was to study.

The boy gave him a thoughtful glance as if he couldn't understand what he was talking about. Just as Gendor was starting to think that the boy's stats were more all-rounded than he thought, he saw an expression of understanding dawn on his face. "Oh, you mean those notifications? I slept through them, and I could never understand what the deal was. Were they important?" the boy asked, sounding curious.

Gendor's expression didn't change; the same relaxed smile still could be seen on his face. "No, Bob, don't you worry about it," he said with the same tone, receiving a puzzled look when he didn't continue speaking.

Gendor was starting to think politics wouldn't be so important in the future after all.