The two looked back at the skill books, each one in hand, and looked at each other again.

They stood there, quiet for a moment while their thoughts whirled in their heads. Finally, Zeke had enough of the silence as he let out a heavy–very heavy breath.

“I’ll learn it.”

Zeke looked back at the book again in his hand. The name alone was interesting–Recovery. It sounded like a healing skill, and that was on top of him being able to make barriers.

Considering how the attributes required reflected the same as Barrier Craft before the error popped up, it made sense that this skill would be for him.

As for the other skill, Hawk Eyes–the Dexterity attribute was proof enough. In the end, they knew that they each had to learn the skill book in order to progress.

The problem though is how they managed to survive it right after defeating the wyvern. Sure, they leveled up twice and gained some decent upgrades, particularly Mikella, but that won’t help them learn the skills any easier.

However, he made his thoughts open as he explained why he would be first.

“From the feel of the book, I think this really is a healing skill,” Zeke said, holding the book one-handed. “And I think it’s a really good one. I can only touch, but I can heal all sorts of injuries.”

“Seriously?” Mikella widened her eyes. “So that means we don’t have to rely on those fruits and our Meditation?”

Zeke nodded, receiving a relieved look from Mikella. While the two options to heal themselves were decent, one would be a total waste of food and the other took too long. Not to mention any single thing could easily disrupt them, making the healing take even longer.

If they had a healing skill on hand, they can easily recover their resources without getting distracted by the pain. That might not help raise Pain Resistance anymore, but Zeke honestly didn’t want to raise that skill any longer than necessary. He wasn’t even sure if it was working properly since he still feels aches all over his body. His arm was fixed now, and there was no bone popping out… which honestly grossed him out a little once he imagined that sucker popping back in like nothing happened.

Closing his eyes, he tried to collect his thoughts. As he did so, he mentioned his next plan.

“Once I learn the skill and practice with it, I can heal you when you learn your own.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Mikella beamed. “But… what about you? Are you going to heal yourself? Wait, can you even do that?”

“Looks like I can,” Zeke said, tilting his head at the good question. “It’s not a skill that bans me from healing myself. I sort of wish it’s at a range, but I can only heal those I’m touching, apparently.”

“Does it matter where you touch?” Mikella asked, raising a brow.

Zeke furrowed his eyes in thought. “yeah, I got no clue. Guess I just… gotta learn it to find out.”

He thought he spent enough time stalling to learn the skill, but when he looked back at it again, the memories of him learning Barrier Craft made him pause again.

Mikella, with a book in one hand, used the other to grab Zeke’s shoulders and looked him in the eye.

“Think about it this way–if you learn the skill, you can heal Clara if she ever gets hurt. I think it’s worth it.”

That thought alone made Zeke instantly forget the inhibitions he had for the skill. Taking the skill book in hand, he accepted the prompt to learn the skill, without another second wasted.

For the next few minutes, his entire world was pain. As usual, it felt like his nerves were being fried and his mind was being invaded by an unknown force. It just slid into his brain, deep within the fleshy meat of the center, and just kept stabbing at the parts that controlled the pain receptors of his body to demand more pain than necessary.

His eyes bled, and he swore that this time each of of his orifices bled out. It was not a good feeling. Not at all.

As always, Mikella was there to provide him the fruits. At this point, he stopped caring about the close distance and practically dragged Mikella towards him to get the fruits. She didn’t even get bothered by him and readily fed him the fruits.

Another few minutes of him getting himself together, he breathed while laying on the tiled floor. The worst part about all this is that he can’t even use the supposed healing skill while he was in this state. His voice was hoarse as he finally spoke after all the suppressed screaming he did.

“I wanna die,” He said. “I wanna die so hard right now.”

“Shh… it’s all over,” Mikella consoled him, her voice as soft as velvet. She even brushed his hair with a smile like a mother offering sweet care to her child. “You did so good, Zeke. I’m proud of you.”

He hated to admit this. He hated to admit this so much, but he really enjoyed this moment. He decided to just act like a spoiled child and enjoy the moment before his senses truly returned and got him to stand himself up to his feet. He waved off Mikella’s help, wanting to preserve at least a few percent of his manhood for himself.

“T-Thanks for that… and uhh–”

“This stays between us,” Mikella said helpfully. Zeke offered her a look that spoke volumes of his gratitude.

With his body and mental state returned to normal, he looked at the new skill he acquired.

> Acquired Skill learned: Recovery.

> Recovery (Rare), Level 1

> You can pour mana into any target’s inner workings, recovering them back to their original state. Your overall healing ability increases according to the level of the skill and the current Spirit stat.

He flexed his fingers as he read it, and sure enough, the skill can be used. He tried it out onto himself, despite the fact that he felt better from his skill acquisition.

But now he changed his mind. At first glance, his mana got out of his hand–his target for transferring mana–slowly surrounding the hand with his turquoise-colored energy. Then it just seeped back into his skin, but not in the same direction as how it got out.

It went through another channel, so to speak. This time, it seeped into his physical body and just sprayed itself all over his hand and arm. It spread all the way to the shoulder, leaving his entire arm in a more cooled state compared to before.

He flexed his arm, realizing that the way he used his skill was inefficient. Instead of just spraying it all around, he needed to focus more mana through a more confined pathway across his body. He wasn’t quite sure what that pathway looked like, or what it even is, but he knew that’s how the skill was supposed to work–at least in its current level.

He told all this to Mikella who listened intently. Unlike before, where it seemed like the magic stuff was way out of her league, she nodded in understanding.

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As they planned, they kept experimenting with the skill. Zeke worried whether they were leaving Clara alone for too long, but Mikella assured that this was better since she would rather not show Clara her own painful state just as Zeke did.

If he was honest, he was glad Clara wasn’t here to see the sorry state he was just in. So he practiced with fervor, trying to use as little mana as possible.

It was a bit difficult, if he was honest. He thought he needed more mana as it just kept spreading around his body rather than doing as he wanted. Then he realized something more important.

Mana Perception. That skill was supposed to help him notice the mana not just around him, but within himself. So he mentally ‘toggled’ the skill on, closing his eyes.

He wasn’t quite sure if this skill could be activated like a spell since it felt more like a passive like Mikella’s Acrobatics. However, it instantly put down his worries when he could feel the healing energy from his mana more clearly.

With another few minutes of constant practice, he received a notification–from the one he didn’t expect to show up.

> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 4.

>

> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.

> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.

He certainly felt the skill a lot more than before, though his mana outtake was increasing by the second. Shutting it off, he turned to Mikella. His look instantly made her wilt as she grimaced and furrowed her eyes.

However, he didn’t have to convince her at all. She closed her eyes took a big breath and talked to herself like speaking a mantra.

“For Clara. For Clara. You’re the big sister. You gotta be strong for Clara.”

Zeke wanted to assure her that he can heal her if worse came to worse, but he decided against it. This felt practiced, as though she did this kind of thing all the time and she would just get pissed off if somebody interrupted her self psych-up.

After a few seconds of doing this, she instantly took the book up to her hand and activated the learning process. That took a lot shorter than he expected, proving that she got more than enough guts to go through the pain.

The next few minutes were hard on Zeke, but he knew it was even worse for Mikella. She tried to suppress her screaming, but she failed as she shouted in short gasps. She held onto Zeke as he did the same for her like before, but she clutched her fingers to his skin so hard that they started bleeding profusely.

When the blood started to pour out of her wide blood-shot eyes, he began his casting immediately. Closing his eyes, he turned the direction of his healing energy to Mikella’s entire body.

Thanks to his active Mana Perception, he could tell exactly where his mana was going, and while entering into Mikella’s body proved more difficult than when his mana entered his own body, it eventually passed through.

His healing energy became his eyes for a solid moment, and that was already helping him understand what Recovery was trying to tell him.

It wasn’t just the physical body that was being in pain. Everything was hurting, including Mikella’s soul. Everything was too much to take in, his mind already whirling at the excess of information and receiving a migraine in return. He pushed it all to the side as he wanted to help Mikella, at the very least, heal enough to stay focused.

A few agonizing moments later, Mikella’s body stopped spasming, becoming more controlled. She still grunted in pain, but as he kept pouring nearly all of his mana into her body through the hug they landed themselves in, her disrupted state became more and more solid.

Eventually, a lot shorter compared to his own, Mikella stood back up with her eyes widening like mad. Not in pain, but in shock and surprise.

“That was… wow, that went a lot better than before,” Mikella said, her shoulders kept heaving as she breathed heavily. When she noticed Zeke’s own arms and shoulders scratched heavily by her fingers, she frowned. “Oh god, I’m so sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Zeke waved it off. He even smiled and used Recovery on himself. The simple scratches he got from her disappeared instantly, surprising even himself.

He was still a bit bummed that his Recovery hasn’t leveled from all that, but he was more than happy to not be bleeding anymore as he smiled at her.

“Works pretty well, huh?”

“You’re telling me,” Mikella smiled warmly. That smile almost made him squirm a bit. It was unfair. “Seriously, thanks.”

“I-It’s alright, I told you,” Zeke said, honestly feeling embarrassed at the praise. “Anyways, your skill?”

“Oh, right!” Mikella slapped her forehead in realization as she popped her skill notification to him.

> Acquired Skill learned: Hawk Eyes.

> Hawk Eyes (Rare), Level 1

> Your target will never escape from your sight. Weak points of your targets will be shown to you, and damage will increase upon striking them. Your perception of their weakpoints and damage increases according to the level of the skill and the current Dexterity stat.

“Whoa…” Zeke stared at the skill hard, unable to believe the skill’s potential. “You’re literally built to tear your enemies apart.”

“I know right?” Mikella said with a cheeky grin. “That can work really well with Acrobatics. Plus, I think it’s like a self-buff too.”

“Does it use mana?” Zeke asked, believing that it’s more like a spell than a skill.

“Let me try it out.”

Mikella said before closing her eyes. It looked almost forced, as though she coudln’t help but to do so upon activating it. When she revealed her eyes, Zeke nearly flinched at the sight.

Her normally (stunning) brown eyes became sharp yellow, completely ridding themselves of any whites, like a literal hawk’s eyes.

It was almost disturbing to see the sudden change, but when he adjusted himself to the change, it was actually… charming. Like seeing an otherworldly human exhibiting powers beyond belief.

“Wow, Zeke, you’re… totally glowing right now,” Mikella said, her facial expression showing more shock as her new yellow eyes kept staring with such intensity at him.

“Wait, really?” Zeke said, looking at himself.

“Particularly, your chest, stomach, head, and… well, your crotch.”

Zeke couldn’t help it. His hands went straight down to his crotch.

“Well, that is definitely a weak point,” Zeke said, his face flushed as Mikella laughed out loud.

“Haha, sorry, I should’ve explained. It’s like the skill is telling me that I can kill you instantly if I struck at any one of those weak points.”

“Huh… guess I just suck that much at fighting?”

He knew he was pretty bad, considering he left all the fighting to Mikella. However, he did felt a bit shitty hearing that. However, Mikella shook her head vehemently in opposition.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I think every human being is like that. Obviously I’d die too if you hit me in all the areas I mentioned to you.”

“Ooh, that’s what you meant,” Zeke nodded.

Humans were always weak in a lot of areas. If anything, it’s incredible that they can survive as a species for so long since just every little thing can kill them.

“I wonder if the knights would show their necks glowing…” Mikella said, looking down. Her eyes still seemed to be focused so intently at something despite being in her own head right now.

“Your eyes definitely look like they’re glowing,” He commented off-handedly, but it surprised her as her yellow eyes widened.

“Wait, my eyes? They’re glowing?”

“More than that. They’re literally hawk eyes. It’s kinda… really cool, actually.”

It took a while, but he grew charmed by the eyes. Though that’s because he was by her side as an ally.

As an enemy? He’d be scared shitless right now.

“Whoa, for real? Oh, I hope I don’t scare Clara with these…” She looked excited, though she instantly frowned at the idea of scaring her little sister.

“Do they cost anything?” Zeke asked. “Do you feel tired, cold?”

“They don’t feel like it’s costing me anything… but I do feel a bit… colder, I think? I’m not sure.”

She looked at herself, rubbing her arms as though she was too confused to even tell if she was cold. Zeke nodded.

“It’s your mana. It’s hard to tell, but you are using mana for the skill… oh! If you keep practicing with them, maybe you can even get Mana Perception. It’s definitely useful to tell how much you’re using your mana.”

“Oh, so this is how you use your mana… wow, it’s weird.”

“Yep, totally,” Zeke smiled. “But it feels super cool to use, right?”

“Fuck yeah it is!” Mikella grinned wildly. “Magic rules!”

She practiced with her skill, and Zeke even offered putting up a barrier to see if she could still see him glowing up like before while standing behind the barrier. To his joy, she couldn't spot a single glowing part on his body. She did, however, spotted some spots in the barrier where she knew she can break it in one shot if she hit them.

That made Zeke pause. He wanted to experiment exactly how to improve those weak points she mentioned before she stopped it all.

“Wait, let’s go find Clara first. She’s probably worried sick about us.”

“Oh, right,” Zeke shook his head. “Where is she–”

Right before he could even ask, a loud piercing cry of a girl echoed out from beyond them. His heart sank as both their eyes turned blank in horror. They looked back at the source of the cry with Mikella already running in front.

“Clara!” She shrieked as Zeke followed her dash to her sister.