18 - Skills

Ake took a seat under a random tree in a rather secluded place just outside the walls. The girls were out of town in their little scamming plan, and best of all, he had a whole week all to himself.

It was about time to rack up some passive [Skill] and find out what it could do.

He started by arranging rocks and counting them, and there was no reaction from the System. There was no such thing as Numbers skill, so it was as expected. He continued with simple addition and deduction and as expected, it responded.

[Skill recognized]

[Arithmetic Skill recorded]

“Sweet,” Ake muttered. Sweet and simple.

According to Liara, the [Skill] would make counting anything much simpler until he wouldn’t need to even think about it. It had sounded absurd to his ears at the time but he would give it a try even if to prove her wrong.

Ake think of two sets of random numbers in the thousands and try to add them up.

And the answer came in an instant.

He checked the answer manually and was surprised it was accurate. He tried with different numbers up to a million and every time the [Skill] added and deducted perfectly. The only difference was a tiny mana was spent when the number got too little too insane.

Ake wanted to say he was excited but what was bubbling inside him was indescribable. The [Skill] had literally turned him into a living calculator.

He tried multiplication and division exercises next and he was speechless for a moment.

[Skill recognized]

[Arithmetic Skill upgraded]

[Mathematic I recorded]

“Yyeeeess!!” Ake yelled out loud.

The excitement was uncontainable when he could do an instant multiplication and division inside his head. He continued the [Skill] upgrade with Geometry to get [Mathematic II] and Algebra to upgrade it up a whole other tier.

Those two topics had taken some time but with [Mathematic III], he could calculate the wall's height or anything by just looking at it. He didn’t even have to get the accurate measure.

Numbers would appear in his sight, stating the estimated angle and the result of what should have been a complicated calculation. The numbers would go up and down as if there were a living scientific calculator inside his head when it had better estimated or more accurate numbers.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

This meant he could throw a rock and could estimate how much force he had used just based on how heavy he thought the rock was and how far it went. Needless to say, the reverse also would be possible and it would be as accurate as the measurement he took.

But when he included Mathematical Logic inside this frenzy, the world had literally changed before his very eyes. Ake got the skill upgraded to tier four, but by that time, he was just seeing numbers everywhere he looked.

His sight was filled with numbers and possibilities until he forcefully shut it down. Something told him that any longer the [Skill] would drive him crazy. He was probably staring at everything and nothing for hours as it was already past afternoon by the time he shut it off.

Finally, he had to admit, that the passive [Skill] would have a huge impact on his life. It was either he wanted the [Skill] to be involved or not. He was glad that he had such a choice as not all could be or should be decided by pure maths.

Ake laid on his back thinking about other passive [Skill] he could get.

Most others get combat-related skills like [Strike] which Liara's father had taught her. It was a very broad skill according to her as she could use it with all kinds of weapons. She also inherited the [Claw] shard from her mother but she kept it hidden for an obvious reason.

Sila got her [Hide] skill which she used along with the rare [Veil] shard. The combination made her unnoticeable unless under certain circumstances and being around a [Seeker] or its [Class] variant.

The girls had revealed their cards during their talk about the plan to trick the Guild about the real origin of their ability. He was just glad that he had turned the other girl’s opinion around as she no longer suspected he was trying to steal Liara away from her.

If he was being honest to himself, he also didn’t have any romantic feelings towards Liara even if he was physically attracted to her. Ake had never believed in platonic love, but if anyone had asked him, his feelings towards Liara were as close as they could be.

He simply didn’t have the urge, and oddly enough, he couldn’t explain it even to himself. Ake still didn’t believe in platonic love because whatever he felt right now would not stop him from sleeping with her. If the two broke up, or the universe suddenly aligned and they invited him in, he would be glad to join the fun.

That argument aside, Ake didn’t think he should endure any more groundbreaking passive [Skill] right now. After all that, he didn’t think he could handle anything else.

He would rather unlock those common [Skill] the two had talked about, preliminarily, [Strike] and [Hide]. One was probably impossible to him than the other but he would be glad if he got only one of them.

Ake headed to the murderous rabbit den or at least its vicinity for such activity. He still remembered how to get there and the rock he had picked up along the way would serve his purpose well for today.

The first thing he wanted to try was to sneak around the creature, downwind, where it could smell him as easily. Ake was flat on the ground as he was guided by [Ethereal Sense] and guarded by [Ethereal Arm].

Ake could tell that he probably looked like an absolute freaking idiot from above but it was all for science. His eyes could only see nothing but dirt and grass stems, but thankfully for his magical abilities, he knew he was making good progress.

The killer rabbit was smelling the air as it stood confused on its two feet. It probably heard the rustlings but could not find anything with its eyes.

The stealthy rock flew towards it in a horizontal ark, hitting it at the back of its head. Perhaps from pure instinct, the killer rabbit evaded at the very last millisecond, causing the hit only to glance at its skull.

The [Ethereal Arm] spun for another round but the rabbit had decided that it wanted nothing to do with the outside world anymore. The creature scurried into the hole and hid under the ground in a blink of an eye.

No [Skill] was recorded yet as it would take a lot of tries for things he didn’t know well enough. It was not like he had been a hunter all his life.

The maths had already been drilled into his brain and used for years already, that was probably why it was instantly recognized and recorded. He just didn’t want to touch on calculus or anything that advanced for fear of what it would do to him.

This whole thing was like hitting two rabbits with one stone as he would get closer to leveling up if he ended up killing one. Ake smiled as he stalked among the tall grasses toward his next victim.

The level-up, of course, had been beyond his expectations. In other words, he was able to have loads of options and loads of fun during the physique customizing phase for whatever reason.