Ashley

I spend pretty much several hours of the day assassinating kobolds and – after gaining several levels – kobold guardsmen before eventually returning to my little hidey hole shed. Mainly due to not having an infinite amount of mana. But the process ends up raising my level all the way to level 57. To the point that I’m actually a few levels above those kobold guardsmen now.

They’re still tough to kill though, simply because of Moderate Destruction Resistance.

Then I begin the arduous process of shopping.

Shopping for skills with my new Skill Points.

{You currently have 443 Skill Points.}

And I mean a lot of Skill Points.

Enough for at least three or four new skills.

I sit down next to my trusty shrine before just searching through my many different Skill Trees.

The first skill I need should be something to help me sneak around. So maybe something to cover perception of me or something.

I search through all of them for a while before settling on four specific Skill Trees. Each one I got from either other users in Official System Events or monsters from those same events.

One of them is a skill directly after the root skill in one of the branches, with the root skill itself being a skill that makes it harder to lose your balance.

{Silent Step – Allows the user to mask any sounds that would be made from their footsteps.} – [Spend 100 Skill Points to unlock this skill.]

With the majority of that Skill Tree seemingly being meant for ease of movement mixed with silent movement. Not necessarily for hiding your presence alone, but that is included in some of the skills.

Then there’s the next Skill Tree, whose root skill is Shadow Step. A skill I’ve used quite a few times over the course of my battles.

There are two skills in it right after the root skill that look useful in my situation.

{Shadow Stretch – Allows the user to stretch their shadow out and connect it with other shadows, expanding it so that they will have a larger shadow to step to.} – [Spend 100 Skill Points to unlock this skill.]

{Shadow Masking – Allows the user to mask any sounds, scents, and movement they make from others for two seconds after using Shadow Step.} – [Spend 100 Skill Points to unlock this skill.]

And last but not least, a more all-rounder skill connected to a Skill Tree whose root skill gave me minor divination resistance, making it harder for something to divine my location.

{Concealment Veil – Allows the user to use two units of mana or one unit of Secondary Energy to conceal their presence from others for one minute or until the user makes physical contact with another being.} – [Spend 100 Skill Points to unlock this skill.]

Honestly, the skills are all good in their own ways.

Silent Step is a permanent one that will always be in effect, but it’s only for footsteps.

Shadow Stretch and Shadow Masking would make a great pair with Shadow Step, both expanding my teleportation capabilities – especially in places with lots of shadows – and making for better assassination.

And Concealment Veil would make for a great overall concealment power, even if it’s only temporary and costs energy and mana.

If I’m being honest, I kind of want all of them.

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But I don’t have the Skill Points for that now.

Or, rather, I do, but I want to be a bit more generalized overall. Not just specialized in…

“You realized, didn’t you?” Chaos comments after my thoughts trail off. “You’re already rather generalized overall in every area except for stealth.”

I purse my lips as I lean forwards a bit.

You’ve got a point.

I have multiple skills to increase my resistance, including but not limited to Resilient Structure, which decreases the damage I take depending on how much health I have, Moderate Destruction Resistance, which just lets me resist anything that would damage me, and multiple other skills like ones that increase the toughness of my skin and bones.

Then there are the defensive skills I’ve gotten now like Silver Barrier and the mana barrier in Mid-Stage Destruction and Lightning Mana Manipulations as well as the many different offensive attacks I have.

I’ve even gotten one massive area of effect attack that targets a very wide area from that idiot who I killed in the council meeting. Even if I’ve yet to use the skill.

And I’ve got several different perception skills.

I have regular support related skills from the basic Mana Manipulation skills for water and fire, and even Minor Regeneration for keeping my healing going even after my health is gone.

The only things I don’t have are stealth related skills.

“You are still inside the Unique Domain anyways, so it won’t take long to get that many Skill Points again inside this place,” Chaos adds, stating a rather good point.

So I go ahead and buy all four of the skills.

And since it took a lot less time to decide than I expected, I just kind of sit here waiting for my mana and Chaos Energy to regenerate afterwards.

A couple hours later I start browsing through the System Forums in my boredom. Only to find some threads about Chaos’s recent… um… actions.

Specifically how he turned one of the Class S worlds in the universe into a hellhole, eventually leading to the deaths of over half their people including their king and the Class S who was most likely targeted by some specific boss monsters.

Well, guess I know what those apologies and the begging was for.

On that note, I’ve got even more messages than before. All saying the same things.

Right. Gonna continue ignoring those.

Although I don’t ignore the message from the Sil Gray Kingdom, which is strongly wishing me luck in the Unique Domain.

Nice fellas.

“They were the first ones to support you after your skill was exposed, both publicly and in private,” Chaos says, sounding like he approves of them as well.

Wait, how do you know they supported me in private too? Do you have ties to them or something?

He answers rather casually, “Oh, we Primordials can always hear when someone says our names. No matter where it is in the universe.”

I stare forwards for several awkward seconds.

And… do people realize that? Also, how is that even possible?

“Most people don’t realize it. Only around half of the Class S powers realize it, and they tend to keep quiet so that most other nations don’t find out, nor do their people,” Chaos says, sounding as if he’s shrugging while talking. “Something about people not liking the idea of us knowing everything when they say our names. And we know because of the System. We did make it after all.”

Right. You mentioned that at the start of the Tutorial.

But… if you made the Tutorial with the other Primordials, why are there so many restrictions on you Primordials?

This time when he responds, he sounds a lot less pleased, “Because of Justicar.”

I open my mouth as if I’m about to respond, only to close it again without saying anything.

That makes sense.

So the System is rigged to notify the Primordials whenever someone speaks their name… wait, doesn’t that mean-

“Yep, whenever someone so much as says the word ‘chaos’ I know about it,” Chaos says, sounding proud of himself for some reason. “Even if they’re not speaking about me directly.”

Wow… how do you even keep up with all of that?

“I leave it to my clones to deal with,” he says, reminding me of his clones. “I don’t even remember the last time I went somewhere in my real body other than for Primordial meetings.”

That gives me pause.

Wait, but didn’t you go to that world in your real body?

“What?” he asks, sounding confused for a second, only to say, “No, that was a clone.”

Excuse me, what?

“Yeah, it was a clone,” Chaos repeats like it’s nothing.

You pretty much turned a world into hell… with a clone.

“Yep,” he says, a little too cheery.

Just… how strong is your real body?

“Let’s just say that if someone were to see my real body, they’d probably regret it,” he says right away. “Anything could happen, and very little of it is good. There’s just too much chaos energy in my real body.”

Oh.

“The other Primordials also have too much of their own energies in their bodies, although some of them still go out anyways,” Chaos says, his tone going rather dry on that second part. “If someone sees Nyx for example they’re likely gonna go insane.”

Remind me not to look if I ever meet her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just cover your eyes myself if you do,” Chaos says as if that solves everything. “By the way, are you ever going to take a look at the Successor Forums?”

I blink at that.

The what?