Paragon of Skills

"You will have to prove that you can reliably fight monsters while mining! Mines are often infested with natural monsters despite not having a Dungeon. That is because the Mana in the ores attracts or even spawns monsters. If you have a party, have your guardians defend you while you complete the task!"

"The task consists in extracting the ore from the molten stone while making sure you don't get burned!"

I look inside the chamber and feel the sweltering heat coming from it as we slowly walk into it. Everyone's a bit wary.

There are six pools of lava that form off these trickles alongside the wall's cracks and gather in those pools.

Slowly, six figures emerge from the pools.

[Magma Golem - Level 300]

"Interesting," Orrivane says, and then sends six bolts of Void Magic which turn each golem to dark, cold stone as their core are easily pierced by the Void Mage's attacks. "Huh, they seem to take a while to regenerate."

After Orrivane's attack, the monsters are not reappearing immediately. More cores appear in the pools and the golems are slowly reforming around them. Orrivane tries launching an attack against the cores but a barrier flickers into existence and naturally blocks them.

"Well, lad, what you say you start working?" Boomgar says, wiping some sweat off his forehead. "My tits are getting hot in here. Get cracking those stones."

I look toward the pedestal at the center of the room and see that it's got blazing hot, half-molten stones in it.

I walk toward it and see two Skill Crystals on minor pedestals beside it.

These ones I don't have.

Minor Fire Resistance (Bronze - Support Skill)

"Oh."

Minor Fire Resistance is a Skill that I could see some miners look for. In this vast world, several mines are close to magma chambers just like these ones. Of course, you're not hunted by Lava Golems that reform continuously in this way--that's a bit overkill on Rafnov's part--but you still need some degree of Fire Resistance in order to work in such mine shafts.

Would you like to absorb Minor Fire Resistance?

"Yeah, sure."

You have absorbed Minor Fire Resistance.

Minor Fire Resistance (Bronze - Support Skill)

Effect: You're slightly more resistant to fire.

It doesn't sound that impressive at all, but who knows. Rafnov definitely knows more than I do about mining. I trust his judgment.

As soon as I finish absorbing the Skill I then look at the other one.

[Shard Scatter (Bronze - Defensive Skill)]

"Shard Scatter?" I mutter.

I knew about Minor Fire Resistance. Even Pyromancers have it. But Shard Scatter? I have never heard of this Skill in my entire life.

Would you like to absorb Shard Scatter?

"I guess?"

Once again, I must trust Rafnov's knowledge.

You have absorbed Shard Scatter.

Shard Scatter (Bronze - Defensive Skill)

Effect: Redirect the objects like debris generated by striking stone.

"I guess that when you're dealing with molten stone, you don't want that to get splashed to you," I mutter to myself.

I am already quite resistant to fire, though, thanks to my Attributes and my Class. The Infernal Architect Class makes me naturally more resistant to fire. But I guess that the combo of Minor Fire Resistance and Shard Scatter could still be useful.

Plus, with both being Bronze Skills, I don't have any problem maxing them out.

I focus inwardly on Heavenly Intuition and I run both Skills through the Grimoire.

Grimoire Extraordinaire: Minor Fire Resistance Lv. 1 contains 7 distinct flaws.

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Mana draw: 0.8 MP each heartbeat.

Effect: reduces fire damage by a 1.15 factor in current form.

First flaw listed:

Mana is routed through the Deep Gut veins instead of the Surface Lung veins, causing the fire-repellent mana to pool uselessly inside the stomach. Fire lingers on the skin without dispersing properly.

Recommended vein group: Surface Lung – the branching veins wrapping across the ribs and collarbone.

Recommended hand: Left hand, index and middle finger.

I adjust my channeling, forcing the mana along the green-marked lines glowing over the phantom diagram. The Skill shifts. The suffocating heat pressing on my chest feels lighter, like I just stepped back from the forge instead of standing inside it.

Ding.

Minor Fire Resistance Lv. 1 → Lv. 8

Fire damage reduction: x1.2

"That's more like it."

I start doing the same for Shard Scatter and, soon, thanks to Heavenly Intuition, I'm staring at this.

Minor Fire Resistance Lv. 77 > 100 (Bronze)

Shard Scatter Lv. 88 > 100 (Bronze)

It took no longer than half an hour.

"Lad?! Progress?!" Boomgar has stripped down to his underwear to the great displeasure of everybody else. "What?" He asks, looking around, almost offended. "I'm hot-blooded! I do much well in winter!"

"You're just fat," Zibrek says, displeased.

"And you're... green!" Boomgar says. "And... short!"

"You're shorter than me!" Zibrek seems to actually take offense at the remark about her height for reasons that genuinely elude me.

They're both pretty short.

I start ignoring the chatter in the chamber while Orrivane, still yawning, casually destroys another batch of Lava Golems. Void Magic is truly terrifying and well-deserving of its name as the strongest Affinity there is.

I turn toward the molten stone and, with the pickaxe that was gifted to me by Rafnov, I start hacking at the blazing rocks. Shard Scatter is pretty useful since now I can easily predict the angle at which I must strike in order for me to avoid getting splashed with fragments of molten rock.

Also, I must admit that Minor Fire Resistance is doing exactly what it promised.

With it being Level one-hundred, I can barely feel the scorching heat that was bothering when I first entered this chamber.

In moments, I clear up some pieces of silver from the molten rock without one single drop of molten rock splashing onto me.

"Congratulations, aspiring miner! You did an excellent job! You've passed the test!"

Suddenly, the pools of magma cool off, the temperature in the room goes down noticeably until there's a fresh breeze which makes the half-naked Boomgar shiver and sneeze. The chamber trembles and then another opening appears in front of us.

The ground beneath us stills, and the cooled magma cracks apart into dry flakes. Orrivane stretches his arms, unimpressed, while Boomgar curses as he scrambles to put his shirt back on. Zibrek looks smug about it.

I take a breath and walk forward first.

"Looks like this one's worse," I mutter.

The air inside the next cavern feels heavier, not only hot but sharp, biting. My tongue goes dry at once, as though the Mana itself is scraping against my skin. A deep pit dominates the middle of the room, and inside it, chunks of ore float lazily in midair above a roiling whirl of flame.

"You must mine ore in any condition, my aspiring apprentice! Crack open these ones while resisting the bite of the flames! You can either learn a stronger Fire Resistance Skill or try and dodge them! Good luck!"

I look at the floating pieces of rock and I rejoice that, at the very least, the trial is pretty straightforward. It's about mining some flying stones. It should be relatively easy to accomplish something like that. But what caught my curiosity is the fact that, for the first time since I arrived in here, I have a choice.

Rafnov's soul fragment, or whatever is talking in this Secret Room of the Tomb of Fate, clearly said that I can either learn the Skill Crystal's Skill or try and dodge the flames. But I can already see the catch in a statement like this.

Let's assume for a moment that I was to decide not to learn a better Fire Resistance Skill, right? Ok, what happens later, when perhaps there's no way for me to dodge the flames? I can't focus on splitting rocks and also focus on not being burned alive at the same time. Perhaps I could do something like that in a room like this, but not in the later ones. And if there were higher types of Skill Crystals, me missing the next evolution step and jumping to the highest would make my Fire Resistance weaker than what it could have been.

But I see the point of this trial.

This wasn't meant for someone like me. I have the Grimoire, a Rainbow Skill which makes mastering Skills much easier than it has any right of being. Yet, if it was anyone else here, having to learn even just a Bronze Skill on the spot might take an entire day. What Rafnov started doing in this very room is to test the patience of his apprentices.

Having been in the mines myself, I can tell you that greed and impatience have killed many. So many discovered or dug up new shafts that would lead to, supposedly, great riches. So many just wanted to find a way to reach their quota faster during the day in order to gain one hour or two of free time to spend at the tavern or the brothel. But the thing is, if you rush things underground, you'll only live so long: it's only a matter of time before a shaft is found out to be unstable, just a matter of striking the wrong wall before everything comes crashing down on your head or a gas leak poisons you to death.

This kind of experience is what makes me realize that Rafnov started playing tricks here. He wants to see if I am impatience, if I choose a shortcut that here would just get me a few licks of fire, but later on would guarantee I get killed.

So, I walk toward the pit and take a look at the two Skill Crystals on the small pedestals right beside it.

Fire Resistance (Silver - Support Skill)

As expected, the first Skill Crystal beside the pit is just a normal Fire Resistance. This is the natural evolution of Minor Fire Resistance, just one Rank up. If someone masters Skills in succession and in the right order, the next ones are stronger than they would normally be if you didn't master the previous step.

This is the kind of thing every noble is taught since they're kids but that most commoners don't really care about.

What surprises me, however, is the second Skill.

"Oh, Rafnov," I mutter, "this is..."