NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 74 - Slotting Skills
Alexia
“So, nothing?” Astrid asks after I leave my portable house the first morning after the Tutorial, and I just shake my head and respond, “Nothing.”
No matter how hard I thought about it while trying to get to sleep, I couldn’t figure out a reason for the hellfrost dragon to just ignore my existence. Unless he’s just an honorable and competitive type of person, but those don’t often make it to being Ascendants.
Then again, he’s a Class S species. And almost all Class S species make it to being Ascendants in their lifetimes.
Unlike all Class species before Class S, Class S species don’t have a finite lifespan.
They, or I guess it’s now we, don’t die to old age. It’s just impossible. Even with time magic.
“I think I’m still more surprised by the fact that he appeared on this island just like you did than him being in this Block at all,” Astrid mutters, making me nod my head in agreement. Because it really is odd.
I purse my lips for a second before suggesting, “Maybe the Legendary Feat holders were just all placed in nearby dungeons in the Blocks they’re in?”
Astrid seems to think it over for a second, only to shrug. “Maybe. Won’t know for sure unless we run into more, but I’d rather avoid that for now.”
True.
Running into more Legendary Feat holders would just mean more problems.
Luna suddenly squeaks from my shoulder, bringing both my and Astrid’s gazes towards her before she flaps her wings once, squeaks again, and flaps them again.
I frown before slowly nodding my head. Astrid just frowns.
“Got it,” I tell her with a pat on her little head, making her happy.
“You… understood that?” Astrid asks, bringing my attention fully back to her as I nod my head and answer, “Yep. Not sure when it started, but I started getting clearer impressions of what Luna has to say at times even if she can’t speak.”
“Huh…” Astrid mutters, but I ignore the look she’s sending Luna right now. A look that clearly says that my twin wants the little bat for herself.
“Luna said that one of the islands near us is getting closer,” I tell her, snapping Astrid out of the staring stupor she was in as she exclaims, “What?”
“With that in mind, let’s hurry to that Safe Zone you mentioned,” I tell her while looking around to make sure I didn’t forget anything. “I wouldn’t want to miss the chance to hop islands after all.”
After a brief questioning by Astrid at which point I tell her that Luna heard the islands getting closer via her echo location, she immediately brings me to the Safe Zone she mentioned. Which happens to only be a few hours away at a swift walking pace. Something that surprised me.
Then again, I never went around the outskirts of the island. There aren’t very many powerful monsters on the outskirts after all, so there wasn’t a reason to.
The Safe Zone in question is a small clearing with an even smaller pond in it and nothing else. The only reason we can tell that it’s a Safe Zone is the feeling of passing through a rift when we enter it, along with the fact that the gray outline over the words in the corner of my vision turns purple, letting me open up my unslotted skills list to sort through and change out my skills.
And the very first thing I do is change out Dungeon Map for Tutorial Champion, which should give me an edge against everyone and everything I fight now. Because there are extremely few skills that give a boost to the effectiveness of one’s stats.
That said, from what I was taught in class, about twenty-five points in a stat is a single factor in terms of strength. But it also varies with species a little. Generally a human with twenty five points across the board is twice as powerful in each area as a human with one point across the board though.
So skills are more important than levels, especially at Tiers 1 and 2.
In fact, gaining levels in Tier 1 is more important in regard to getting new skills than it is for growing stronger physically.
I glance at Astrid to find her also messing with her screen, of which are invisible to me. Then I focus on mine again. Specifically on the active and passive slotted skills.
Hmm. Quantum Phasing is still a no, since back when I was at level 35 and had about 3000 soul, I could only phase for a quarter of a second before almost completely running out. To the point that I ended up crippled when I tried using the skill the first time, leaving me open to threats.
Or rather, I would’ve been open to threats had I not been in a Safe Zone about to go to sleep when I tested the skill for that very reason. Since it sounded too good to be a skill I could use.
And now that I have almost 9000 soul, I should be able to keep it up for about three quarters of a second before losing all of my soul.
Not a very good skill to use at my level still. Even at the cap of Tier 1.
Most of my other active skills are all pretty meh as well in comparison to my current slotted ones. The only one that can compare is Quantum Resonance, which is just a pure boost to my physical capabilities at the expenditure of soul.
Which I might consider swapping with Quantum Echo, but I’m still on the fence about which of those skills to use.
There aren’t any better passive skills that I have available though.
I glance at the Quantum Veil skill before frowning.
That skill’s honestly pretty useless. Probably one of the worst ones I’ve gotten.
Even if someone had divination or scrying magic, they wouldn’t be bothering to search for me right now with it. And I highly doubt it’d be able to go across the Dimensional Wall anyways. Pretty sure that would take at least a Tier 4 divination skill to do that.
And divination type magics are rare affinities in the first place. So unless some former Ascendant decides they want to randomly lock up someone with a divination affinity and try to force them to level all the way to Tier 4 or 5 at least a decade or two down the road – a very generous and unrealistic time frame even with their help – and then force them to scry for my location, the skill is useless.
It’s too bad the identify feature of the System is just a function and has nothing to do with magic. It would’ve been nice to find a way to block that. Something no one else has ever found in existence.
Not that it matters anymore now that my face has been shown to everyone.
I frown for a few seconds before eventually shrugging and just swapping out Quantum Echo for Quantum Resonance, even if only temporarily. Since I want to see which of the two skills I like better.
Then I close out of the screen and begin waiting for Astrid to finish up herself.