Chapter 26

Once Markus could no longer see the Solar Flare Legion, he returned to the Skynet and passed through its barrier. Landing atop the fortress’ ramparts, he looked toward the Laegur Beam Cannon. It was a massive metal construct spanning over thirty feet long with its barrel covered by arrays. Attached to the base frame were three Mana Reactors.

Frisk stood nearby, inspecting the cracks that ran across its surface. It had suffered damage from the colossal amount of condensed mana coursing through it when it fired earlier.

Ignoring Frisk, Markus made his way inside the ramparts through an opening in the floor. He walked through several corridors and entered the surveillance room guarded by two soldiers. Amongst those inside was Yara, arms crossed against her chest. She leaned from side to side, seemingly anxious.

Markus walked up and repeated what Torg said, then inquired, “Do you believe him?”

“If he hasn’t changed, he shouldn’t be lying,” Yara replied, pushing aside a strand of hair blocking her vision.

Markus hummed. “I hope so. We don’t really have many options.”

…

Keith stood on the ramparts some distance from Frisk, deep in thought. He had watched Torg closely during the battle and scrutinized his every move. Torg represented the ceiling of combat strength in the Grandsky Realm, and with him being a mage, he was a good person to reference where Keith’s current power stood in the grand scheme of things.

Obviously, Torg was much stronger than Keith.

At least currently.

Out of the whole fight, Keith was very interested in Torg’s Inferno Blaze Embodiment, and seeing it in action gave him a strong urge to create a skill of his own.

Inspired by Torg, Keith started thinking about Mana Manipulation and what he’d learned about arrays over the past few months. He then recalled the Lauger Beam array Frisk showed him and the potential of casting skills through arrays.

Keith grew more excited the more he thought about it.

While he didn’t know much about the process, he knew just who to ask. Pulling out his magic tablet, Keith sent his Aunt a few questions.

After that, Keith returned to Frisk’s side as his assistant.

Besides Keith, Frisk had a team of mechanics, engineers, and metalsmiths at his beck and call, and under Frisk’s lead, they dismantled the Laegur Beam Cannon on the spot, separating it into over a hundred pieces.

“It’s a bit worse than I expected,” Frisk muttered.

At his feet were dozens of damaged components. The arrays were in poor condition, with some runes missing parts of their structure, and the metal had partially melted.

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Next to Frisk, a female dwarf fiddled with one of the components and remarked with surprise, “The alloy we used is already the toughest we can make, yet a single shot took out 40% of its durability. I doubt the Laegur Beam Cannon could fire again without imploding.”

“Hmph,” A handsome elf pushed up his glasses, saying, “I told you we should’ve made an alloy focused on mana conductivity.”

At his comment, the few metalsmiths promptly descended into an argument, each pushing their viewpoint. Frisk stood in the middle as they bickered around him. Making alloys wasn’t his specialty, so he listened without saying a word.

After a minute, he put the discussion to a halt with the raise of a hand. Everyone turned to look at him. Coughing lightly, he said, “The Laegur Beam Cannon V1 is a rushed product. Before, we didn't have time to test which alloy worked the best, but now we do. I want a compatible alloy produced as soon as possible.”

An engineer brought up their concerns, “What about the budget?”

“Unlimited,” Frisk answered, eliciting smiles from everyone.

Hours later, Keith walked in through the front door of his house and grabbed a premade meal from the kitchen. Sitting at the table, he laid his magic tablet beside his plate. He was so busy earlier that he hadn’t had the time to see his Aunt’s reply until now. Anticipation building, Keith read her message in between mouthfuls of food.

By the time he finished, he had a thoughtful expression.

It turned out that creating a skill was a limited opportunity. According to Serilla, you could create a skill with the System’s assistance a single time, with further opportunities requiring certain achievements. As for which ones, she didn’t know.

She explained that per the System’s requirements, you must be responsible for at least 40% of the skill’s creation. You could reach the 40% threshold with knowledge, prerequisite skills, or a concept. The System would fill in the blanks.

For Serilla’s Void Shadowstep, she took the concept of shadows as a base and leveled various defensive skills to narrowly meet the threshold.

“Huh,” Keith leaned back in his chair, a glimmer in his eyes.

What he envisioned depended heavily on his understanding of arrays and mana, which he had studied intensely for months. In addition, the few skills he wanted to incorporate into the self-created skill were already beyond level 500.

In that case, wasn’t the 40% threshold easily reached?

There was only one way to find out.

“System, hi, how are you? I want to create a skill,” Keith voiced out, feeling somewhat awkward.

A second went by before a notification appeared.

You currently have one skill creation opportunity.

Would you like to begin the skill creation process?

“Yes,” Keith spoke aloud, finding it surreal to interact with the System in real-time.

A moment later, a large screen popped up containing multiple empty sections he had to fill out with information. The first section needed Keith to list what effects the skill he wanted to create would have. It warned that the difficulty of creating the skill would increase depending on what he included.

Keith spent some time writing out the details. After that, he moved on to the next section, where it showed his contribution to the skill’s creation – currently 0%.

Below, the System said it could scan his mind with his permission to see if he possessed whatever was needed to increase his contribution.

“That’s vague,” Keith shrugged, then gave his approval. He wasn’t afraid that the System would harm him.

Looking around, he wondered what the System would do when his contribution percentage abruptly ticked upward.

5%...

10%...

30%...

78%...

Hovering around 80%, it finally stopped at 81%.

Keith whooped in delight as a notification appeared.

Contribution threshold reached.

Confirm skill creation?

“Yes!” Keith nearly shouted.

In the next moment, Keith jumped to his feet, alarmed by the sudden movement of mana in his chest. Thanks to his Mana Manipulation skill, Keith saw a new array form next to all his other skills. Unlike how Frisk or anyone else formed arrays, the process was magical. It was almost like a pair of invisible hands were fluidly weaving countless strings together.

From start to finish, it took less than a second.

Two notifications appeared soon after.

Congratulations! You have created the Quickdraw skill!

Congratulations! You have acquired the Novice Skillcrafter title.