Levi turned around to the sound of Kelly clapping.
“Bravo, Bravo! I suppose that’s one way of going about it. While that may not work that well in actual combat, throwing Alex out of the circle certainly made for an interesting sight. You should have thrown him farther though, like into the river.”
“I’m not sure I could throw him that far,” Levi replied. He actually thought he could, but only if Alex wasn’t struggling. It was a lot easier to throw someone who wasn’t actively attacking you. But he wasn’t sure anyone would let him test it out. He doubted Alex wanted to become a human discus.
“Before we move on you two come over here and let’s discuss how that went,” Kelly said, motioning for the other two to join her as she sat down on the ground. “Alex, what are your thoughts? You probably have a better grasp after actually fighting him than I do.”
Alex thought it over a second before replying.
“I think the biggest difference is our physical capabilities. Despite being almost ten levels higher it felt like I was too slow, like no matter how I attacked Levi could always dodge out of the way. His blows couldn’t affect me, but the difference in mobility was rather large.”
“That fits what I observed. How did his combat skills feel to you?”
“He definitely has at least one combat skill. Maybe more. It wasn’t just random flailing.”
“Levi?” Kelly, said, turning her attention to the subject of their discussion. “How did our impressions line up against your own? No need to hold back, we’re all friends here.”
He had been debating how much to tell them about his skills and couldn’t come to a decision. Did he tell them a lot? A little? Just what he thought they should know? He knew he wanted to hold at least some of his power back, like exactly what Aecylic Empowerment could do, but if he wanted actual advice on the System and combat and to earn their trust he had to tell them something. That was when he realized he was going about it all wrong. He had started to make a list in his head of what skills he could afford to reveal and what ones he should keep to himself when he realized something rather obvious: he had a lot of skills.
It had come to him when he was fighting Alex and thinking about what they could figure out just by observation. As he was thinking about what they could observe, his mind strayed to the System, and what it told them about his skills. For instance, they knew he gained a new skill every five levels and wasn’t level twenty-five so didn’t have access to a super skill yet. But while the System told them a lot, it also made them have certain assumptions, assumptions like exactly how many skills he should have.
This was when Levi realized that the best way to hide some of his skills was actually to tell them his other ones. For instance, if they thought he only had five or so skills but he actually had ten, if he told them five of his skills they would stop trying to guess what skills he had because they “knew”. It was a neat way to both tell the truth and earn their trust while at the same time withhold valuable information.
“I actually have three combat skills. In addition to my enhancement skill, I also have Brawling, Combat Sense, and Dodge.”
“Three?” Kelly said, cocking an eyebrow. “I guess that covers you on that front. I was going to suggest taking boxing lessons from Alex, but it sounds like you don’t need more control. Alex, thoughts?”
“I agree. I think Levi should focus on getting a class skill that increases either his offensive or defensive power. Perhaps some sort of augment to his physical enhancement skill, as it seems quite powerful.”
“Makes sense to me,” Kelly said. “Levi, what do you think? I agree that based on the skills you possess focusing on more personal enhancement sounds like a good way to go. The only question is how you want to try and go about it. Oh, and don’t forget, while we suspect you can influence the System, it still bases the super skills you have access to on the skills you actually have.”
“Can you guys describe the process a bit more?” Levi said. “I’m a little confused on how the whole thing works.”
“Oh, sorry, I guess we got a little ahead of ourselves. Alex, why don’t you go first and then I’ll go.”
Alex nodded before jumping right in.
“So the armor you just saw in our fight is my class skill. It allows me to form a protective covering out of mana to defend against just about everything. It can be broken by a powerful enough attack, but if only part of it is damaged it regenerates. As you saw, it’s very powerful. All class skills seem to be from what we can tell. They tend to come in two forms: either ones that are very strong and very specific, more like my skill, or ones that are broader and are an overall boost, like Captain Kelly’s skill.”
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“Mine is a more general boost to make my already awesome fire powers even more awesome,” Kelly said, interrupting.
“Yes, that,” Alex said. “But what is more useful to you would be the process for choosing it. You obviously know that when choosing a normal skill you can only choose based on the name, right?”
“Yeah. It’s really annoying,” Levi said. “Do you mean you get a description for the level twenty-five skill?”
“Exactly. Or you get something. The System doesn’t give you a full description, but it does give you a sentence or two about what the new skill will do. For instance, my skill basically told me what I just told you, that it would form a mana shield based around defense, which is what I wanted since I am our main tanker.”
“How many options will I get?” Levi asked. It was hard enough choosing his normal skills, and he was sure he was doing it incorrectly. On one hand he was hoping for more options for his super skill, but the decision paralysis would be a real pain in the ass to deal with if he had to choose between ten powerful skills. And if other people ever got around to hearing about his other options he was sure he would receive a bunch of flak for his decision. Everyone was an armchair general.
“Only three,” Kelly said, jumping in. “They generally are fairly similar, with each one differing slightly. Like for me they all were fire themed, while each one focused on a slightly different aspect within that theme. Of course, I only know the exact of effect of the skill I unlocked even though I’m sure the other two were awesome, but everyone who has unlocked a super skill has had some sort of theme, generally a combination of what skills they have and what they personally think the theme of those skills is.”
“My theme was general close combat and defense,” Alex helpfully supplied.
“So it’s good you arrived here before hitting twenty-five,” Kelly said, “since now you will be able to try and sculpt your super skill. Once you have decided you can come out with the leveling team. There’s only a few people left who have yet to get their skill, so it shouldn’t be a problem to add you in.”
Levi nodded absentmindedly, thinking about what kind of skill he wanted. Then what Kelly said sunk in.
“Wait, you mean most people here are level twenty-five already?” He could understand the combat professions, but everyone? He had to have misheard.
“Yeah, we have a pretty sweet power-leveling deal going on,” Alex said. “I guess you wouldn’t know since you haven’t met anyone, but there isn’t a party system. At least not one we have found. EXP from killing monsters doesn’t just go to the person who struck the killing blow though. Everyone who participates gets a little bit.”
“This is where my awesomeness comes in,” Kelly said, cackling. “Alex kept acting like he had something up his ass saying it would never work, but of course my awesomeness knows no bounds. My plan was genius! Genius I say! And it even worked too!”
Levi was a bit lost. How exactly could you power level without a party system? He was curious, but between Kelly’s mad laughter and Alex’s sour expression he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know.
“Oh, stop being so butthurt,” Kelly said to Alex upon seeing his expression. “You know my plan was amazing.”
Hearing Alex’s long sigh, Levi had a sneaking suspicion that interactions like these weren’t uncommon. But maybe it was normal for someone to be a little crazy considering the circumstances. It wasn’t everyday people were transported to a new world and forced to kill monsters. He was probably lucky to find even some people who were still mostly sane.
“You must be wondering what we are talking about,” Alex said, finally explaining things to Levi. “There was a long discussion about how to level people up, especially the non-combat people like the farmers. Then the captain had the bright idea to power level people, although she didn’t call it that. She came up with a rather, um, interesting idea that…”
“Amazing.”
“Sure, yeah, amazing idea that she would be carried and then kill the monsters, thus helping people level up by giving them part of her experience.”
“Wait, shouldn’t she be carrying them?” Levi was a little confused. Wasn’t it called carrying when you helped other people level up? How was she being carried then?
“No, I meant that literally,” Alex said while shaking his head and sighing. “She wanted to literally be carried. When the captain was attacking a group of monsters with her AOE skills the idea was she would be picked up and held by someone. They would run around holding her while she blasted the monsters with magic, thus they were ‘helping’ in combat so they got some of the EXP.”
“And that worked?” Levi couldn’t help his incredulous tone. That may not have been the dumbest idea he had ever heard, but it had to be a close second.
“Of course it worked!” Kelly shouted. “My idea was genius! Amazing! Alex and his gang of nerds kept telling me how it wouldn’t work, but is this a game? No! If I want to be carried while in combat and someone carries me then they are helping me in combat. Nothing else to it.”
Levi could feel a headache coming on. Now that he actually thought about it, that did sound like exactly the type of bullshit the System would pull. Although perhaps it only worked because of the person involved. If they were right and people’s actions and thoughts influenced the System in some way the people carrying Kelly might earn experience from her kills not because they were actually helping her, but because she thought they were.
It was an interesting thought he tucked away for later. Right now, he had other information to learn from his hosts. It was probably best not to dwell on the intersection of an asshole System and an egotistical arsonist. That way lay madness.