Since this was only my second Skill Evolution (if you count Merging under that umbrella), I wasn’t exactly an expert at figuring out the exact effects of a new and unique skill. Despite this, I felt that finding what I could use Lightning Steps for was well within my capabilities. Its name was certainly much more straightforward than Breath of Mana, and I imagined an Evolved skill was much simpler than a Merged one.

For once, I was actually right.

After testing it as much as my Mana would allow on the road back to Ironhold, I’d discovered a lot of its effects. Passively, the skill seemed to increase my walking speed. My feet lifted as usual, but when I moved them down to complete the motion, I instinctively moved them much further than I was used to.

I didn’t think that it was particularly noticeable, but people thinking I had an odd way of walking was well worth it for the convenience of getting around alone.

Of course, its most useful effect was the active one, which seemed to take after Lightning Cloak much more. By pushing my Mana around my legs in ways that slightly baffled me yet somehow felt completely natural, I could greatly increase my walking speed. Better yet, it wasn’t even limited to walking! I tested it out with gradually more drastic movements, and found that as long as my foot lifted then touched the ground the skill would be able to activate.

As I finished that thought, I checked my Mana to see that it was mostly recovered, and crouched down slightly in preparation to use my new skill. I felt the Mana build up in my legs until, after a nearly imperceptible amount of time, it burst out into arcs of Lightning that surrounded my legs in a manner reminiscent of Lightning Cloak the few times I’d used it.

Then, I ran. Well, it was more like a combination of running and jumping where feet would leave the ground for a second at a time before touching back down. The Lightning lifted me up slightly, pushing me along at the same time, allowing me to run at a speed that must have been getting close to a full on sprint. Unfortunately, this kind of running was tiring, and I wouldn’t usually be able to keep it up for very long, never mind the hour it would take to reach Ironhold, which is why I took a Breath.

The Mana filled up my entire body, then condensed down to my legs. The Lightning, which before I couldn’t even feel, became like a solid exoskeleton, physically holding my legs and supporting their movements such that I barely had to put any effort into moving them in order to reach their full effect.

I didn’t figure this out until I had been running for at least 10 minutes, and my legs had tired from the effort that I hadn’t exerted in over 3 months thanks to my magic lessons, and I took a deep Breath in an attempt to get my breathing under control.

As the feeling of Power washed over me, I realised that there was no reason that Breath Of Mana could only work on Lightning Bolt. I mean, it was a General Skill so it would surely work for other paths as well, right?

And work it did, whilst I wasn’t certain the effect was comparable to what it did for Lightning Bolt, but just being able to run like this was… freeing, I suppose.

It felt like I could just go anywhere I wanted, without having to concern myself with getting a carriage or preparing to spend days camping in the wilderness.

I wonder if this is why I got offered Courier, back on my Awakening?

Going by that logic, I suppose my Skills might also be useful for a Charcoal Burner. At the very least, I could see how being able to summon Lightning would make it easier to burn things, although a Flame affinity would certainly be a lot more effective.

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Soon, the city appeared on the horizon, and I began to slow down so that I didn’t plough straight through the Guards and waiting line of people.

Since I was no longer trying to run as fast as possible, I took a moment to check my Skills, just to see if I’d managed to get any levels in Lightning Steps.

Path Skills Lightning Generator 14 Lightning Bolt 12 Lightning Cloak 2 Charge 9

General Skills MAX Lightning Steps 3 Breath Of Mana 4 Sense Danger 4 Channel Mana 7 Meditation 3

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I’d gotten two whole levels in Lightning Steps, which from what I remembered was slower than what I gained whilst in the sewers, but still quite a good speed. The level in Breath Of Mana was somewhat unexpected, but I’d been using it a lot so it wasn’t too surprising, so I guess it wasn't too unexpected.

What really threw me for a loop was Lightning Cloak. I thought that you were supposed to lose a level in whatever Skill you used to evolve, and I’d even checked after getting Lightning Steps to make sure, yet somehow it was back at level two.

I don’t think I used it at all, right?

I frowned at the level for a few minutes, before something struck me. Metaphorically speaking, that is.

Did it get experience from Lightning Steps?

It would make sense, since they basically needed me to do the same thing, but it was still pretty surprising. I wondered if, perhaps, it would be possible to evolve all of your General Skills with the same Path Skill in order to get it to some ridiculously high level. Well, that’s probably not a particularly good idea, and if I were to try it I’d be forced to use Lightning Cloak, which barely has any levels as it is.

I was startled out of my thoughts as I felt the familiar sense of unease that Sense Danger gave me whenever I neared Ironhold. It hardly had an effect whenever I left the city, almost like I wasn’t in danger even when faced with monsters right in front of me. Not that that could be true, it was probably just hard to notice because I was used to this level of danger already.

Shrugging, I put the thought out of my mind and nearly closed the screen, before I noticed something odd. Sense Danger’s level was, for lack of a better word, blurring. It almost looked like it was vibrating so fast that I could hardly keep track of where it was. After a few seconds, its speed ramped up before it seemed to spin around and came to a sudden jarring halt, becoming just as static as every other number. When it did, I saw that it had actually increased from four to five.

… Does this happen every time I get a level? Why?

Ignoring that, I greeted the Guards at the gate and was welcomed by the warm yet uncomfortable embrace of the city that was gradually beginning to feel like home.

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Now that I had no more Jobs lined up, I decided that now was as good a time as any to find another Job. Or, more accurately, the next day was. So after getting a night of rest and having a filling breakfast, I headed back to the Job Hall in search of something new.

Evidently, just these simple hunting Jobs weren’t going to get me a level anytime soon. What I really needed was something dangerous, something risky. Something… on the third Job board.

I know I know, I should be sticking to what’s safe. But none of these Jobs were even difficult, anyone with a combat adjacent Path could handle them with no trouble, what I needed was to find a monster that was at least level 13. That would be my best chance at another level.

So, with that in mind, I headed to the third Job board. It was much more sparse than the previous ones, so either there were just less people putting jobs here, or they got cleared out a lot more often.

Not that I’d be able to figure out which, instead I took to studying the offered Jobs with the hopes of finding something decent. After just a few minutes, I found one that would likely work just fine, and if it didn’t I’d just do another one.

Hunt Giant Crabs and bring us their bodies.

30 copper per crab, with no upper limit on crabs brought in.

I could probably just stay there and hunt crabs until I level up, getting a whole bunch of money in the process. It sounded like a win for me, and these people asking for them probably really like seafood so it’s a win for them too.

Actually, how long would this take? I might need to stay there for multiple days, so I’ll probably be needing my pack. Plus, it would be rude to leave without at least saying goodbye to Finch.

So, before I left, I returned to the Inn and collected my stuff, making sure to stop by the bar where Finch was working on something before I left.

“Hey, Finch, I’m off to do a job hunting Giant Crabs for a while. Don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but it’ll at least be until I get my next level.”

“Good luck to ya then. I’ll keep yer door locked ‘till ya get back. But don’t go getting killed, will ya? Giant Crabs are tricky beasts, an’ their shells are tough.”

“I will, thanks. See ya.”

And with that, I left. Just walking through the city regularly was easy when I was just going to the Job Hall and the inn, but now that I was going out of the city, I could barely keep myself from using Lightning Steps. It was just so exhilarating, and my regular walking speed hardly compared.

Subconsciously, I ended up leaning more into the passive effects of Lightning Steps, feeling myself beginning to move faster and faster, until I had to forcefully slow myself down so as to not be a nuisance to the people on the street with me.

Eventually I made it through the gate and, almost as soon as I could, built up Lightning in my legs before using Lightning Steps to blur across the road. I couldn’t help the grin that crept onto my face as I ran, feeling supremely lucky that my supposedly bad Skill choices actually ended up being some of my best skills. It almost made me wonder what I could do with my other ones. Would they become this fun to use as well?

With so much going well for me, it was hard to imagine the possibility of something bad happening. It was like the incident with the Rat King was so bad that the Gods were making up for it with incredibly good luck.

Things are really going great.