Karsish sat on the couch, unable to process everything that had happened. Ander sat across from him, a faint smile on his face. They were now sitting in the living area of his hideout, an old treasure room that had been both cleaned and furnished. Ander summoned a bit of jerky from his inventory and offered some to Karsish who declined absentmindedly. They sat there in silence for several minutes, with Karsish staring off into the distance while Ander chewed on the jerky.

“Who are you?” Karsish finally asked. A fair question, Ander thought.

“I am Ander, one of your clutchmates.” Ander replied. He gave Karsish a smile, and Karsish scowled in response.

“That isn’t what I meant and you know it. The powers you have shown are far too much for a simple inborn ability. If what I have heard is true, you fight like you are level 30 at least. Moreover, you were hit multiple times by Cormal’s Crimson Stars Legendary ability, and were walking around days later. Over a hundred men who were following you just disappeared, with no trace beyond some blood here or there.” Karsish stopped for a moment to get himself back under control. “That said, who in the darkest planes are you?”

Ander sighed. He knew this had been coming from the moment he had decided to rescue Karsish, and he still hadn’t figured out what to say.

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you.” Ander said. “You are exactly right in all your observations, but frankly, I don’t trust you enough to tell you what you want to hear.” Ander stopped to think again. He had let the man into the ship, which meant that cat was out of the bag at least.

“Here.” Ander took the amulet off from around his neck and handed it to Karsish.

“This! This is of early creation design just like the ship!” Karsish exclaimed. “How did you find such an artifact?”

“How is not something I am willing to share, nor is where, or even when. But I will tell you that I came into possession of the ship when I found that amulet. It gives me a number of abilities which I have not even started to tap into. For now, I mostly use it for storage and transport of stuff.”

“In the same way you transported me inside?” Karsish asked.

“Yes. The ship is significantly bigger than you were likely able to see from your quick tour. There are multiple dedicated storage spaces inside, and I make liberal use of them.” Ander took the amulet back, and then summoned a chair and a table next to his couch. He then put them away in the same way.

“How much stuff do you have in there?” Karsish asked, not reacting when Ander raised one eyebrow at him.

“A lot. But to tell you exactly how much would get into the where part of what I wasn’t willing to share. Lets just say I stumbled upon a lucky encounter and leave it at that." They sat in silence for another few minutes.

“What level are you?” Karsish asked suddenly. Ander raised his eyebrow again.

“Why don’t you use Identify?” Ander asked. “It would bring up my name and level without issue.” Karsish scoffed in response.

“Use Identify you say? I should just use one of the lost skills. You do realize that Identify borders on magic right? It might not have been banned by the creator, but it requires the same skills as magic, and nobody is learning those anymore.” Karsish then looked at Ander with widening eyes. “Don’t tell me you have Identify.”

“Actually yes. Got it super easy too. Just had to look at stuff for a bit.” Ander rubbed the back of his neck while Karsish gawked at him.

“If the leadership knew they would take you up and out of here in an instant. Identify is too valuable a skill to risk your death to the monsters down here.” Karsish then narrowed his eyes. “Of course, that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you now does it? You didn’t answer my question. What level are you?”

“Fine, I am level 23.” Ander said, deciding to give this little piece of information to Karsish.

“23! How in the darkest planes are you level 23? That is both too high and too low at the same time!” Karsish stopped. “You have a legendary skill don’t you?”

“Yes.” Ander said simply.

“What is it called, and what does it do?” Karsish asked eagerly.

“Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to tell you everything?”

“You said that about the ship. I am not asking about the ship. I am asking about your skills.” Karsish said. “Besides, I deserve to know if my ‘protector’ can actually do his job.” Karshish glared pointedly at Ander who sighed yet again.

“Which one?” that made Karsish go nearly apoplectic.

“Two! Two legendary skills! Unless you have three, do you have three legendary skills?”

“No,” Ander said, chuckling. “Only two. They are called Way of the Wind, and Aeolian Vitality. The first grants me combat ability as well as control over a volume of air. Aeolian Vitality grants me some pretty insane regeneration as well as the ability to heal myself and others. I don’t really know how that one works all that well as it is a recent acquisition.”

“So that is how you survived Cormal’s attack! I was wondering, because Crimson Stars usually tears up anyone hit by it without a problem. It even leaves an expanding burn effect that eventually destroys the entire body.” Karsish shook his head. “Nobody below level 40 should be able to survive that attack. I hear Cormal has the skill all the way to 40.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Doesn’t that skill seem like magic though? The way he can manifest spears like that?” Ander was confused by this, as there were no system administrators before Ander to approve such a skill.

“Skills are a well known way to circumvent the creator’s decree. While they are different from spells in that they are internal, and therefore outside of the decree’s restrictions, they can develop magic-like effects in the higher rarities. It does happen that after a skill evolution the decree suddenly binds it, but that is incredibly rare. That simply means that it crossed a threshold and became a spell. In the case of Cormal’s Crimson Stars however, the spears are still only a secondary effect.”

“What do you mean only a secondary effect, those spears are terrifying!” Ander exclaimed.

“What I mean is that like your skill Way of the Wind, Crimson Stars is primarily a weapon based fighting skill. It focuses on the spear and other long weapons, and allows the wielder to summon fire to augment their attacks. It was only recently that Cormal gained the ability to manifest those flying spears, and they are significantly weaker than his normal attacks.” Karsish gave Ander a pointed look to drive that point home. Cormal was weak at range, and still would have one shotted Ander if he had been hit somewhere vital. Ander shuddered. He needed to get stronger if he was going to be able to stand up against Cormal any time soon. Curious, Ander fell into a trance and entered his Minds of the Void skill. He raced along and came to a thread glowing with red flame. Ander could feel the skill from here, Whomever this was, they had the Crimson Stars skill. The thought of a third legendary ability made Ander salivate, but it would have to wait for another time. The void tentacles were getting closer and he was still in the middle of a conversation with Karsish. He opened his eyes to see Karsish staring closely at him.

“What?” Ander asked, a bit uncomfortable.

“What did you just do?”

“What do you mean?” Ander asked. He had been in the skill for a fraction of a second, not nearly enough for Karsish to notice.

“A powerful feeling just came off you. I don’t know, but it felt empty and unsettling, and it went away when you opened your eyes.” Karsish said.

“I was using one of my skills. It isn’t legendary.”

“Oh. What was it?” Ander sighed and proceeded to tell Karsish about Walker of Memories, and how it had evolved into Minds of the Void.”

“So let me get this straight. Your real skill is like my Archive of the Ancestral Sage, but better?” Karsish asked.

“I don’t really know. Your skill feels like an inheritance. Mine feels like a civilization has been dumped on my head. In the end, getting all the compatible skills cultivated by a single sage over dozens of years might just be better than the hodge podge I have, even if they are of higher rarity. Karsish snorted in response, but then seemed to take a moment to consider.

“I suppose all my skills are highly compatible, but they are the skills of a researcher first and foremost. As much as I would like to, I can never learn the necessary skills for fighting.” Karsish looked a bit wistful at this statement.

“Why not? I won’t be able to get you a legendary skill, but I can help you get other amazing fighting skills if you want.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, I really do.” Karsish said. “But to be honest, my soul space is already maxed out, and I still haven't received a fraction of the Sage’s skills. I will need a class to even receive the majority of the skills that old man had when he died.”

“I am confused, how do you intend to level up?” Ander asked.

“This is the reason fighting monsters is so popular despite the danger. It is by far the fastest way to level hands down. But you can get levels by leveling up your skills too. Your level will never lag far behind the average of your skill levels. Also, if you get crystals of various kinds, you can absorb them for levels as well. Beast cores are the major one, but there are other kinds of crystals you can absorb. It takes a lot of them, but it can be worth it.”

They lapsed into silence again as each one thought about what had been said. Finally Ander sat forward.

“Enough of this for now. Is there anything you need to level your skills? While you might have to stay here for a while, I don’t want to force you to stagnate because of it.” Karsish thought for a moment.

“I saw that you have a desk set up with paper and writing utensils, and that will help with a large part of what I need. Really all I need at this point are books. Are you up to stealing from the library?” Ander snorted, and then summoned a bookshelf full of books.

“I don’t know what you will find, but the place I got the amulet from had a bit of a library. I haven’t had the chance to go through it, but maybe you can give me the cliff notes.” Karsish didn’t bother responding. He simply lept from the couch and flew to the bookshelf, and started to look through its contents.

“These are treatises on chemistry, physics, mechanics and artifice. Every one of them is advanced. With time and my skill I will be able to make sense of these.” Ander deflated a bit, thinking he would have to acquire better material, but Karsish turned around beaming with delight. “You have more right? I would hardly call a single bookshelf a library.” Ander laughed and summoned several dozen more bookshelves and set them up against the walls anywhere he could find the space. Karsish was ecstatic.

“With this, I will be able to level all of my skills, and far faster than I could at the library.” Karsish trailed his hands along a number of the books. “They had no material remotely as fine as this!”

That made Ander quite happy. He hadn’t liked the thought that he might have caused the man significant inconvenience. But if he could level faster here than he could elsewhere, then maybe it was all for the best.

“Well, in that case, it is time for me to go and hunt us some food. I am afraid it is going to be fried spider on the menu for quite a while.” Ander laughed at the grimace that Karsish gave, and then left the hideout to go deeper into the ruins. His goal was fairly simple. He needed to hunt some food as he had said, but he also needed to do some disposal. Ander found a stairway leading down and took it, and it was not long before he was attacked by a spider that looked like a black widow, but was the size of a rottweiler. It was only level 10 however, and it was quickly dispatched and added to cold storage.

Ander was attacked three more times like this by spiders of approximately the same level. Surprisingly, each was of a different type, which was far from what Ander had expected when he heard the elves here had raised spiders. He had assumed that they had raised a single type, but there were all types here. Ander did decide to target the tarantula like ones however. They seemed most likely to have good meat. But for the sake of experimentation, he did get other kinds. Eventually, on the fourth floor, he found what seemed to be a nest of smaller spiders. They were acting oddly, making trails more like ants, but that made them exactly what Ander had been looking for. Ander summoned several bodies from the morgue and let them flop to the ground near the entrance to the nest. After a few minutes, the bodies were found and dragged inside.

From there, Ander found two other nests of spiders that acted in the same way, though they seemed to be of different species. He gave each of them a tribute of dead Crimson Stars members, and was left with little over half of what he had previously. He would wait until the spider ants were ready and give them the rest at that time. For now, it was time to get cooking his own meal.