He had loved knowing how things worked for as long as he could remember. He had spent a lot of time on his previous incarnation reading scientific magazines and watching documentaries which explained how things worked, how animals did what they did, the physics behind sports, how the body worked and such.
He had seen this martial arts documentary which explained the physics behind several techniques, and to top it all it explained in detail how scenes from several famous martial arts movies were performed. He clearly remembered this movie scene in which the hero jumped and turned several times on a wall corned to get to the next floor. He knew where he had to step and what he had to do to get out of his crib and unto the windowsill. He never had a body capable of performing such amazing feats before, but with his SPD, DEX, STR values way beyond what his brother had at his awakening he was about to put his theory to the test.
Everything had been quiet for a while now, so he assumed everybody in his family was asleep by now. He went as far as he could and ran to the opposite corner jumped and turned three times (he hated having such small legs) and balanced himself on the rail for a second before jumping to a cabinet corner using it to jump to the wall to spring jump unto the windowsill.
If not for the fact that he had just done it, he would not have believed it. He knew what he had to do and had envision it, how his muscles needed to move, where to step, and he had been able to concentrate and “feel” his muscles moving and that had been lucky, as he had been able to make last second corrections to the angle of his jump of waiting a few extra moments for maximum momentum and such. It was a if his brain had been able to micromanage every muscle fiber in his body… he had felt like a parkour artist he had…
DING
Skill [MIND OVER BODY] has been used to generate unique movement skill [PARKOUR]!
+10 [DEX]
[PARKOUR]
Level: 1
Rank: Unique
Description: No matter the terrain or conditions, anything and everything can be your steppingstone. If there is a way, your body will follow.
Effect: Double DEX and SPD for 1 minute.
Cost: 1 MP
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Nice! Thankfully the window was not fully closed. He opened the window as far as he needed and looked at his makeshift rope. Did he need it with his new skill? He tied the rope just in case and let it fall to the yard. He didn’t need to get down, just get come back in, maybe he wouldn’t need it with his new skill, but better safe than sorry.
Now outside he couldn’t see very well in the darkness of the night. His eyes would need a couple of minutes to adjust before he could see well enough to walk past his parent’s window and behind the house, to be able to train in secret. Or did he? His [MIND OVER BODY] skill had generated a new skill by him actively fine tuning his movements. Could he do the same with his eye muscles? He focused on expanding his pupils.
DING. DING. DING
He eyes had adjusted instantaneously. He almost fell backwards from the shock.
Skill [MIND OVER BODY] has been used to generate unique vision skill [NIGHT VISION]!
Skill [SIGHT] has absorbed [NIGHT VISION].
Conditions for levelling up [SIGHT] skill have been met.
[SIGHT]
Level: 3
Rank: Special [E]
Description: Nothing the light touches can escape your eyes. You will be able to perfectly recall any scene seen in clear detail. You will be able to check the stats of all weapons.
Cost: 0 MP
Cooldown: none
So, it didn’t just level up but changed its Rank from Rare to Special. I would like to know what any of that means. Upon looking more closely at the description something was different. He could now see the stats of ALL weapons, and not just the ones made by him. How? Wait a second wasn’t there something about only recalling scene “recorded” using the skills? Can I now recall everything I have experienced? This made absolutely no sense. It was frustrating not been able to ask about these things, for as how would an unawakened baby know about this.
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He went to the clear patch behind the house and trained with [SLASH] with a little wooden sword his father had given him as a toy after he had noticed him look at his brother’s training, until he had 1 MP left at the end of which he returned to his window and climbed back in using his new skill.
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He had been training for a couple of weeks, but his skill had not levelled up yet. His brother had been training this skill for about 2 years by now. Could he have levelled up? Maybe he subtlety ask him about it. He walked to where his brother was training and sat down and waiting until he was done. He started focusing on his brother’s movements. His movements seemed sharper that usual, but not perfect. Was his skill different to his? He seemed to do it perfectly every time, unlike his brother. He stopped focusing and looked at his brother. He had buffed up. He could notice also his speed had improved. As he assessed him. Something popped up.
Ryan Lanton
[SWORDSMAN] Lv. 5
HP: 150/150
MP: 15/15
STR: 21
STA: 20
DEX: 19
SPD: 15
INT: 11
IMA: 3
Skills:
[SUMMON SWORD] Lv.1
[SLASH] Lv.1
[DASH] Lv.1
[PARRY] Lv.1
[THRUST] Lv. 1
That had never happened before? Since when was he able to see other people’s stats? All his brother’s skills were still at level one? His brother had noticed him waiting and had stopped training.
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His little brother was looking at him without blinking again. It really unsettled him. He was weird. All the other little kids were barely waking and uttering word, while his’ talked and walked like someone much older. Instead of having the usual baby fat he had even started to bulge up. How could a baby be like that? He could not concentrate like this for long. He stopped and addressed him. “Hi Ryle. Do you need anything?”
“Why do you train?” Ryle asked.
“Why? To get better of course.”
“Will the skill improve the more you use it?”
“Of course not! Skills always work the way they are intended.”
“Then why train?”
“You see Ryle. I train myself to perform the techniques by myself without activating the skill. What would happen if you just relied on your skill, and you suddenly realize you ran out of mana? But this way, I can still keep on fighting even after running out of mana. It may not be perfect YET, but I’ll get there eventually. Also, if you practice like this you can level up your skill, but the amount of years of training required to level up a combat skill varies from individual to individual and from skill to skill.”
“Years??!!”
“Hahahaha. Yes. Years. But why do you ask?”
“Just wondering. Thank you for your time dear brother. I’ll leave you to your endeavors.”
There he goes again talking like that. Time to go back to training.
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So, it was easier to get skills that to level them up? But he had already levelled up [SIGHT] to level 3. Granted that was not a combat skill, but still. There had to be a way to get it done faster for other skills too.
He brought his Status Screen up and looked for his [SLASH] skill again.
[SLASH]
Level: 1 [1/100]
Rank: Normal
Description: Downward cutting technique with double of your attack power.
Cost: 1 MP
Cooldown: 10 minutes
What was this [1/100] next to the level?
He looked around. His brother was immersed in training again. His mother was cooking. He walked around the house and grabbed his wooden sword which he had hidden in the bushes around the back. He activated the skill and looked back at the screen. Still at [1/100]. That was obvious. He had been using the skill for a while now. If it was that simple the count would have been higher, but he had to try.
He executed the motions without the skill. It was WAY OFF. And the value was still [1/100]. He closed his eyes and recalled the memory when he had learned the skill. He steadied himself and carefully executed the skill taking care to control every single muscle this time using his [MIND OVER BODY] skill to assist him. He looked back at the screen.
[SLASH]
Level: 1 [2/100]
Rank: Normal
Description: Downward cutting technique with double of your attack power.
Cost: 1 MP
Cooldown: 10 minutes
So you have to perfectly execute combat techniques without assistance from the particular skill to level them up, but as his [MIND OVER BODY] skill was a different skill altogether it worked.
This settled it. The extra information I was retrieving using sight was the result of it levelling up. It had first levelled up upon unlocking five skills using it, and afterwards after absorbing [NIGHT VISION]. It seems all skills have specific conditions for levelling up. I tried to focus on the stats and ranks of the skills, but no extra information pops up. Maybe once it reaches level 4, I will be able to get more answers. Or so I hope.
At least for now I can see the progress for each skill if not how to level them up. He was excited. He was going to be doing some research on this. What would he be able to learn? He couldn’t wait to find out.