It had been almost four months since Lone's first duel with Swind, and a lot of things had changed. For starters, everyone possessed more strength now, some, more than others.
Lone was at the bottleneck to becoming an A-ranker and just needed a little push to cross the gap. Breena herself had already become a B-ranker with the help of the spirit essence which she'd completely used up now.
Swind had managed to become a G-ranker only six days ago, but everyone was still proud enough of him to throw a little party. He still had most of his spirit essence and directly went to the F-rank bottleneck after his successful rank up. Now he, like Lone, only required enlightenment.
Out of all of Lone's direct companions, Eolande was the only one who hadn't made much progress, which went to show just how much experience she needed to reach the next rank, XX-rank.
Of their other friends, Rachel was already an S-ranker now while Eko became an A-ranker two months ago. Fep and the Demon Princess hadn't managed to rank up, but they had improved their skills and fighting potential. Fep had, of course, made bigger developments than the Demon Princess who still heavily relied on her legendary sword.
Today was actually a particularly special day for several reasons. Finally, Clicker's seal on Lone's passive regeneration was being lifted. There was also the second wave of new keepers being tested today, but Lone didn't care much about that.
Returning from a mission with Rachel, Eolande, and the Demon Princess, Lone slumped onto a sofa in the living room and sighed. "Are we ever going to get any missions outside of the tree? This is a bit ridiculous. I haven't gained any good new skills or anything in four months. Four months! This is so frustrating."
The Demon Princess ignored him and left the room on her own. Clearly, neither she nor Lone's group had made any efforts to become friends.
Eolande laughed lightly. "Why are you complaining? You get to kill things every other day and your combat and production skills are constantly levelling up."
"You're right, but it gets a bit boring killing those Darkness monster over and over again. They can't even tickle me," Lone waved his hand dismissively.
Naturally, since he and his team had returned unscathed from their induction mission, Elder Shan'len was able to maintain the argument that they were well matched with the task of lowering the number of corrupted spawn, so Lone and his team had been charged with a mission to exterminate them every second or third day.
"When was the last time you even checked your skills, Husband? I'm fairly certain that a lot of them should have ranked up," Eolande noted.
"Just use Clicker's power and check for yourself." Lone didn't mind saying this in front of Rachel because he wholeheartedly considered her as one of his close friends now. In fact, she had even been admitted to his group via The Adventurer's Guild branch situated in the world tree itself.
"Oh, I have permission? Don't mind if I do..." Eolande chuckled as she took a closer look at Lone and only inspected his skills that had grown while ignoring the ones he hadn't given any attention to.
Passive Skill: Bastard Sword Mastery
A sub-skill of the [Sword Mastery] skill which is critical for bastard sword-users and passively allows for better handling and control over bastard swords.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 3 [+ 13 levels]
Lone had gained this sub-skill after his many spars with Swind. Ironically, he was even more proficient in it than the Lemurian himself was. This just went to show how untalented Swind was, however, Eolande had to note how persistent and hard-working Swind was when compared to Lone who gained skills with little to no effort.
Passive Skill: Swordspear Mastery
A sub-skill of the skills, [Sword Mastery] and [Spear Mastery] which is critical for swordspear-users and passively allows for better handling and control over swordspears.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Master Level 4 [+ 6 levels]
Naturally, since a swordspear was Lone's preferred weapon, he was very close to maxing out the level on this particular sub-skill.
Lightning Magic Skill: Lightning Wave
A skill unique to the user, Lone Immortus. A powerful, yet crude, application of lightning magic. It has barely tapped into the potential the skill holds thanks to the user's rudimentary knowledge of the lightning affinity.
Allows the Host to gather the prime essence of the lightning magic affinity and coalesce it into a blade with immense destructive capabilities.
Cost: 2,500 MP [- 2,500] Mastery: Expert Level 9 [+ 3 levels]
'Just a tiny bit away from master-rank, huh? Lone sure is proficient in magic, isn't he? I wonder how powerful this skill would be if he could get some proper training in how to wield the lightning affinity properly...' Eolande wondered with a bit of jealousy.
While she was currently the best magic user in their group, Eolande was more than aware that she couldn't match Lone and Sophie's genius. The moment they found a proper trainer to hone their magical talents, it would mark the day that she would no longer be able to hold onto the title of The Wanderer's most proficient mage.
She smiled to herself. 'I wonder... when did I start caring about this group as a whole? At first, it was just for Husband... but lately...' the Tylwyth Teg shook her head and continued inspecting Lone.
Primal Essence Skill: Darkness Form
A skill unique to the user, Lone Immortus. It allows him to merge with the primal essence, Darkness, and grant control of his body to Darkness, enabling the primal essence to exhibit some of his abilities.
The user's control during this state will increase as the mastery increases.
Darkness' powers will grow in this state as the user gains more strength.
Cost: Consent from Darkness and 20% of Darkness' energy. Mastery: Advanced Level 1 [+ 19 levels]
'It's a relief that he's the one getting more power from improving this skill, not that strange element. I still can't trust him no matter how many times we rely on him to deal with the Darkness monsters for us,' Eolande thought with an unusually serious tone.
Passive Skill: Blacksmithing Mastery
A skill critical for blacksmiths and shapers of metal alike. It allows the user to better manipulate a forge and create things out of metal to varying degrees depending on the mastery.
Cost: N/A Mastery: Expert Level 2 [+ 6 levels]
Eolande nodded her head proudly when she looked at this skill's progress. It had gone all the way from advanced level six to expert level two in only four months, and this was thanks to Lone actually wanting to learn about it for once. He was clearly very invested into improving Swind's limbs and creating better weapons for their group.
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Passive Skill: Enchanting Mastery
A skill critical for enchanters and formation masters alike. It allows the user to harness the elements to infuse magic into words and grant temporary or permanent enchantments to things depending on the mastery.
Cost: Dependant on the enchantment. Mastery: Intermediate Level 1 [+ 1 level]
Conversely, Eolande frowned at this one. "Why have you barely improved your enchanting abilities? Are you not paying attention during my lessons? I thought you could learn anything with ease," she teased with a slight pout.
Lone shrugged his shoulders. "I should be able to learn it, but even though I've put just as much effort into enchanting as I have to blacksmithing, it feels like the system itself doesn't want me to learn how to enchant. It's a bit frustrating."
"You could just admit that you have no talent in it," Eolande giggled before she inspected the last skill that Lone had developed recently.
Soul Skill: Soul Binding
A skill unique to soul oracles. It allows the user to anchor a soul strongly to a body for 24-hours [Up from 12-hours].
Cost: 2,000 MP Mastery: Intermediate Level 8 [+ 16 levels]
For some reason, Lone had been using this ability on the world tree inside the dungeon every time they went there. He couldn't give a good reason why. His only response, when questioned about it, was, 'The skill levels up when I use it here, so why not?'.
"I'm kind of surprised that you can't break through the A-rank bottleneck considering you have almost no trouble doing anything else," Eolande commented as she peeked at Lone's status.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 26 Level: 499 [+ 74] Species: Foxkin Rank: B Race: Golden Sky Fox of The Endless Void HP: 9,560/9,560 [+ 2,240] SP: 31,700/31,700 [+ 5,700] MP: 128,000/128,000 [+ 29,180] Basic Stats Strength: 1,124 [+ 320] Vigour: 956 [+ 224] Dexterity: 2,291 [+ 397] Agility: 3,005 [+ 413] Vitality: 3,170 [+ 570] Luck: 373 [+ 20] Secret Stats Charm: 159 [+ 3] Charisma: 240 [+ 14] Magic Power: 12,800 [+ 2,918] Control: 390 [+ 95] Rage: 10 [- 64]
"I'm not sure, to be honest. Though it doesn't really matter. You saw my status, right? My stats are still increasing by a huge amount even if I don't rank-up. I just want to unlock another one of Sophie's abilities, to be honest," Lone sighed.
"That's fair enough... I guess," Eolande replied a bit dismissively. Obviously, she wasn't the biggest fan of Lone's attitude when it came to gaining strength.
"I'm envious of you kids. You're all so talented," Eolande sighed as she looked at Rachel's status as well.
Status Name: Rachel Redtail Sex: Female Age: 22 Level: 754 Race: Foxkin Rank: S Race: Crimson Foxkin HP: 6,000/6,000 SP: 9,760/9,760 MP: 188,240/188,240 Basic Stats Strength: 302 Vigour: 600 Dexterity: 415 Agility: 704 Vitality: 976 Luck: 122 Secret Stats Charm: 62 Magic Power: 18,824
"Oh? You turned twenty-two, Rachel?" Eolande asked with a smile on her face.
"Huh? H-How did you know?" Rachel looked slightly panicked before a look or realisation filled her eyes. "Ah, yo-you looked at my status?"
"Bingo! Are you doing anything special?" Eolande questioned.
Rachel's face turned a shade of crimson bright enough to match the colour of her fur as she stuttered, "S-Swind said h-he'll make som-something for me..."
"Oh really? what?" Eolande's inner gossip-queen was dying to find out everything that Rachel was hiding.
Lone frowned and stored the book he was reading. "Leave the girl alone. Come on, Master, teach your apprentice how to enchant since I'm so shit at it," Lone said as he dragged Eolande away. He briefly turned around and winked at Rachel. "Good luck."
Rachel lowered her head and blushed. She sat still as she twiddled her thumbs impatiently. 'He said that he would be finished soon, didn't he? My heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest... this is so uncomfortable! I want to see him already! It's my birthday, after all!'
Truly, it was amazing what people would cling to. A tiny action of goodwill, a gesture of kindness, this was all it took to enamour one person with another. This rang true double so for the lonely and desperate.
Being the most talented of her clan was very stressful for the young Foxkin. Not to mention the fact that she was being used as a bargaining chip to strengthen the relationship between the Crimson Foxkin Clan and the western world tree's Council.
All Rachel ever wanted was to be happy. However, her life had been nothing but endless training to prepare for becoming the Matriarch, and then to help increase her chances of being selected to be a world tree keeper.
Rachel hated her tails. It was their fault that her life had been so miserable. 'If only I hadn't been born with eight tails'. 'If only I cut them off, maybe they'd leave me alone'. 'If only...'
One man brought her out of this downward spiral. One man treated her as nothing more than a girl. Not a tool, not a plaything, not a chess piece, just a simple girl. That was more than enough to make her heart race and flutter at the thought of him.
It was during these thoughts, that the door to the living room slowly swung open and a certain scaled-man walked through it.
Walking up to Rachel, Swind sat next to her and placed a small well-decorated box on the table in front of them. "I'm ss-sorry for keeping you waiting, it took longer to make than I originally thought it would," Swind said as he scratched his head lightly with his brass arm.
"No," Rachel shook her head, "It's fine. Lone and Eolande were keeping me company until a few seconds ago."
"That's-ss good. Well, Miss-ss Rachel, if you wouldn't mind, please, open the box," Swind requested with an unusually expectant tone in his voice.
"O-Okay..." Rachel replied bashfully.
She pulled the package towards herself and carefully took off its lid only to reveal several red-ribbons of some sort. "What're these?" Rachel asked with curiosity overflowing from her voice.
"Well, Miss-ss Rachel, I've always-ss thought about how beautiful your tails-ss looked, and I guessed that they would be even more beautiful if they had ss-some adornments-ss on them. ss-So, I took the liberty of making ss-some ribbons-ss for you. I once tried to do that ss-same for Mr immortus-ss, but he aptly refused me for ss-some reason," Swind explained as he sulked ever so slightly.
Rachel's mind went blank. 'He thinks my tails are beautiful? They're not just symbols of my talent, or fluffy things to grab and torture? He... I... I...'
"I love you," Rachel unconsciously blurted out.
"Pardon?" Swind asked as he stared right at the small girl.
Rachel turned stiffly like a machine that hadn't been oiled in years and squeaked, "Eh?"