“Right 4.5 mils, down 2 mils.”
“Right 4.5, down 2. Copy.”
A thunderous boom shook the trees, followed by an inhuman screech.
“Go another mil right and you’ll hit where its scales are thinnest.”
“Got it.”
Boom!
Screech!
“One more should finish the creature.”
Boom!
You have slain [Forest Monitor](Lv. 16)
Level Up!
Skill Marksmanship has been upgraded from (Exceptional VIII) to (Exceptional IX)
Skill Sniper’s Spotting has been upgraded from (Exceptional I) to (Exceptional II)
Skill Sniper’s Focus has been upgraded from (Unskilled IX) to (Proficient I)
You have free attribute points to assign.
Your party members level up!
Jared stood from where he and Eleisa had camouflaged themselves, starting to head towards his kill.
He had accustomed himself to his new life over the past few days, settling into a routine of hunting or training with Eleisa during the day, then crafting more ammunition in the evenings. His Skills were slowly improving as he used them, although he hadn’t had any significant breakthroughs.
They reached the monster’s corpse and swiftly dismantled it, coming away with teeth, claws, and scales, as well as a sac of some seriously potent venom. That find made Jared really glad he had killed the lizard from afar.
Skill Big Game Harvesting has been upgraded from (Proficient II) to (Proficient III)
They divided up their spoils as per their usual agreement; Jared kept the teeth and claws for bullets, Eleisa got scales, pelts, and anything else Jared couldn’t use, which she generally sold. Any unique or interesting items, such as the venom sac, they did one of two things. If Jared could use it for creating new types of ammo, he did, and paid Eleisa half of its value. If he couldn’t use it, they sold it and split the profits.
He tossed his share to Naomi and they set off back towards town to turn in their bounty. Jared was thinking about possible ways to get a larger rifle when Eleisa interrupted his thoughts.
“Jared, I am curious why you do not have any active Skills aside from your creation Skill.”
He shrugged. “The system just hasn’t given me any.”
After thinking for a moment, he amended his statement.
“Actually, I do have one that slows down my perception of time to help me aim better. It’s just really tiring, so I don’t use it unless I need to.”
Eleisa nodded, chewing on her next words before spitting them out.
“That may be, but almost all ranged fighters, such as archers, have an active Skill to empower their projectiles or give them other effects. You say the system hasn’t given you any, but the GEAS doesn’t give anything for free; you have to show it you are capable of something before it gives you a Skill.”
“Okay, but I don’t know how to do things like you described. It would be pretty hard to show I’m capable of something that I’m not.”
“Difficult, but not impossible. You must remember the feeling of using your other active Skills, and recreate it while performing other actions. This is the way I was taught.”
Jared huffed. “Well if you know so much, why don’t you have more Skills?”
“I have not fully decided on the path I wish to take. Once I do so, I will fill the rest of my Skill slots.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
They lapsed into silence, each thinking about their own development. Jared considered what Eleisa said, and decided to try it.
As they walked, he focused on blending into his surroundings, trying to recreate the tugging in his gut that accompanied his Create Ammo Skill.
For a while, nothing happened, but as he focused, he eventually started feeling something in his stomach, like a slowly spinning ball of goo. It seemed at once ephemeral, and present in his physical body.
As soon as he noticed it, it seemed to assert itself into his mind, not willing to be overlooked again now that it had been found.
Reaching out to it, Jared tried to pull a thread out, like he felt when creating bullets. Nothing happened.
He kept trying for the rest of the walk back to town, but was unable to make the orb do much more than tremble.
Yet another issue for him to work out.
He shook his head as they entered the guild hall, clearing those thoughts from his mind. He could worry about that later. They collected their payment and Jared went up to his room to create more ammo and work with Naomi while Eleisa went to sell her spoils and…do whatever else it was that she did during her free time.
I should really try to get to know her more. Despite working together for a few days, we’re still pretty much strangers to each other.
He made a mental note to have a casual conversation with her over dinner or while they traveled.
Reaching his room, he went over to his notepad, one of his few remaining items from Earth, which he had left on his desk. Opening it, he looked over his work so far, trying to figure out where to go next. Over the past few days, he had been trying to teach Naomi to take the form of a Barrett M82 by drawing and showing her pictures of one, and how it was different from her current form. He hadn’t had much success.
He was sure he had communicated his desires effectively, but it seemed that Naomi was incapable of making that drastic of a change without eating a piece of equipment.
That didn’t keep him from trying everything he could think of.
His current line of thinking was to get Mimi to gradually enlarge and modify herself bit by bit. Unfortunately, there was a fixed amount she could change herself from her base form, no matter how long she held the modifications. That amount did increase with her Skill level, which encouraged Jared. If anything, he just had to wait for her to level her Skill, and in time she would be able to do it.
At least, he hoped so.
----------------------------------------
Naomi looked at her savior’s drawing, trying to imagine herself in that form. Once again, she was able to picture it and start to morph herself, but completing the transformation was just outside her grasp. She needed to find a way to break or change the rules the GEAS had placed on her transformation Skill. She consulted the Skill in question for the umpteenth time, looking for ways to exploit it.
Adopt Shape(Skilled VII) - Take the form of an inanimate object you can see or have eaten. Size and quality of transformation increase with Skill level. Can be used 1x per day. You may make minor adjustments to your form without resetting this cooldown
The Skill said she could take the form of something she could see, and yet, she was stymied. Maybe it was because she was only looking at a drawing, not the real thing. Or it could be a size limitation from her Skill level being too low.
She flailed a pseudopod in frustration. She wanted to help Jared and do what he asked, but it seemed she had some work to do before she could.
Activating Copy Skill[Enhanced Learning](Unskilled VI), she decided to take a different tack than she had been. Scooping Jared’s smaller weapon he called his ‘sidearm’ up from where he had left it, she swallowed it into her Extradimensional Stomach. As she did so, its structure imprinted itself on her mind, giving her an intuitive understanding of its functions. Carefully spitting it out and putting it back, she studied the form of the smaller gun in her mind, trying to shrink herself down without consuming her daily use of the Skill.
She collapsed her barrel in both length and diameter, folding it in like a telescope and removing the suppressor. She pulled her stock in, leaving her with just the grip, action, scope, and about half of the barrel.
At that point, she was stopped, unable to modify herself further. She slammed herself against the system-imposed wall, trying to break through and force herself a little smaller. When that didn’t work, she let herself return to her regular form.
Skill Adopt Shape upgraded from (Skilled VII) to (Skilled VIII)
For the next few days she ruminated on her predicament, trying to find ways around her system restrictions. She was distracted from her thoughts every time they went on a hunt, but even so, she had a lot of time within her own mind, especially when Jared slept. As a mimic, Naomi had no need of sleep, so she used this time for her experimentation.
What she needed was for her Skills to Ascend. When Jared had gone through his Ascension, all of his Skills had Ascended with him. When Naomi had Ascended, however, Treasure Eater was her only Skill to do so, becoming Equipment Eater.
What made the difference?
The GEAS rewarded effort, competence, and achievement. If her Skills hadn’t Ascended, could she assume that she hadn’t shown enough of one or more of those things for the system to reward her? If that was the case, maybe she could get her Skills to Ascend by improving the areas she was lacking in.
She was constantly using her Skills to try and improve, so she didn’t think effort was what she was lacking. Jared seemed happy with her form, so she didn’t think it was competence either. That left achievement.
Jared had several Titles he had gained through creative and impressive use of his Skills. Naomi only had one, and she hadn’t really done much to deserve it.
She concluded that she had to get more Titles. She formed a mouth so that she could smile to herself, happy that she had solved the mystery. Then she froze, as another thought struck her.
How do I do that?
The GEAS seemed to provide ample opportunity for Jared to earn Titles, but it seemed to favor him for some reason.
Probably because the system knows he’s the best. As expected of my Savior.
Titles were generally fairly hard to obtain, and Mimi had no idea how to get more of her own. She would have asked Jared, but she didn’t know how to speak. Also, he would probably tell her something unhelpful like ‘just do it’ anyway. As much as she loved her savior, he wasn’t very good at giving her advice.
But that was only to be expected since he was just a human, while she was a creature that sat at the pinnacle of evolution.
She would just have to figure it out herself.
In the meantime, she would continue leveling her Skills.