Laira, after minutes of lying motionless on the forest floor and trying to make sense of her memories with little progress, finally decided to open her System notifications.
However, the additional information only served to confuse her even more.
New Skill available!
You have shown your control over the mind, perfectly executing a skill without System assistance.
Reward: Loki’s Illusionary Shro̵̪͔̫͌ud
Loki’s Il̵̹̩̎lusionary Shroud - ? - Copper I You cha̵͕̓nnel Loki’s poŵ̶̧̧͖̠̥̜͔̱͕̥͉̰̦͇͇̹̪͓̭̟̫͓̞͙̺̈̂̈́̂͗̈́̔͊̉͐̔́̍͌̏̿͊̈́̊̂̋̃͘̚͝͝͝ͅer through̴̰͓̾̓̓͑́̅̽̃̇͘͝ your mind, ma̵̒̒̉͗͝king others see realities that have once existed. Effect:
Ǘ̴̹sing man̸͈̗͌̏̾̓͜a to call upon Lo̵͌ki’s divine power and channel i̵̤̖͛̿̅͜t through yoú̵̢̊r mi̵̤̖͛̿̅͜nd, you sȟ̴̨̪̺̳̟roud yourself in a̵̻͈̿n illusion.
Illusi̵͍̻̩͎̥̠͓̬͝ons must recreate realities you have experienced before.
Dura̵̻͈̿tion and the n̸͈̗͌̏̾̓͜ú̵̢̊mber of minds affected increase mana drá̶̭̽̄͑̈́̃̌in.
A̸̍ĉ̸̣͖t̵͐̃i̷ṿ̵͂a̵͝t̸͓́̑͜ion̸͚̰͘ ̶̧͑ŝ̶͉̀s̸̡̩̋͐ë̷͎͂͜ ̵͖̟̓s̴̖̀a̵͜͝s̵͚̑̓d̵̗̃s̸̝̋̐d̷͇̕͝ͅ ̸̼̒ͅn̶̛̳̅n̷̢̩̾̿ ̷̮̥̽̊ą̴͖̅ś̷͉̼̐o̴͔͛y̴̧͉̍͂ỉ̶̼̞̅ĝ̶̣̝h̵̳̏b̵̳͛r̷͓͉̄̐ ̴̙̄̒C̴̔́or̶͋rr̸̻̃p̷̰͉̀̕i̸o̵̬̣͒͋n̷̍͠. Ẅ̵̛́e ̶̻͇͝ḅ̴͘à̷̌r̷̗̀̇ ̷͍͒̅ļ̸̀v̵̿̆ā̷͇͔͑ṣ̵̨̈̎ÿ̶̟́̓.̴̭̆ ̶̛͕̈
̷̫͒̍
̴̡̬̎̈B̶̯̲̽l̷̟͗͑ ̶̝̊̔ć̶͎l̶̲͌͑s̸̾͗c̸̫̈́̃i̷͓͒ͅġ̴̑r̷̢̹̔g̸̞̑,̶̝̘̌ ̸̢͓͂La̶i̷r̷͍͗a̴.̸̛̖
What? A skill? When did I do that?
The image of a boar charging her resurfaced in her mind. She remembered… being utterly scared. She remembered pure dread coursing through her veins as she stared into the incoming beast’s eyes. And then she screamed, and something other than sound had left her body.
Was that what it means with skill? It certainly did feel strange. But I don’t remember how I did that. Or even what I did.
The next thing she knew after screaming was that she woke up, in this moonlit darkness, feeling fatigued and absolutely drained of energy.
For some very strange reason, she couldn’t help but have the feeling of a deja vu.
Not the waking up at night in the forest part, but the charging boar and the realisation of her own, imminent death. As if it wasn’t the first time she was in that situation.
Anyways, what’s this Loki’s Shroud thing? Isn’t Loki a god from Norse mythology? I thought we were in a new world?
Continuing to read through the description only opened up more questions than it answered.
From the text she could see that it was probably connected to that weird Mind alignment she got, both from the weird text color and the mention of, well, mind, but the rest was just confusing. When did she channel divine power? How would one even do that? And what does it mean with ‘realities you have experienced before’?
The thing was, even if she did use that skill, she didn’t remember what kind of ‘Illusion’ she actually created. She didn’t remember anything.
But judging from how she was still alive and how the boar was now lying dead a few meters away from her (she had finally figured out what the thing lying on the ground was), her using the skill must have been quite effective.
The last, unreadable line in the description also concerned her. Especially since she was pretty sure the last word was her name.
She read through the description a few more times and kept pondering what it meant, but after a while she got tired from that too. There was only so much she could figure out by lying on the ground and thinking about the issue.
But every time she tried to move, she simply collapsed back onto the ground after a second or two.
If activating this skill knocks me out for so long and drains me of all my energy every time I use it… isn’t it kinda useless?
Sure she had probably only survived because she had used it, but it would be a problem if she collapsed every single time in the future.
Though it does say the mana required depends on the duration and number of minds affected. How long was it active?
Maybe if she only used it for a short duration, or on a single mind, it would be okay?
For a moment she thought about activating it again, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be a very smart thing to do.
She didn't know what mana was or what it felt like, but she was pretty sure she was empty of it now.
Better to recover a bit and then try again…
And since she couldn’t move, recovering meant to continue lying on the forest floor.
Not how I imagined my first night here…
She sighed and closed her eyes.
I just hope Cleo is alright. The illusion meant she probably didn’t see me, right? She must be confused. Hopefully we can meet up again soon.
Laira knew Cleo was strong and smart, so she should be alright. She should probably worry more about herself. Even with that skill, she still didn’t have any actual combat capabilities.
Everything will be okay… we will just meetup at that camp, we all wanted to go there after all.
Only once she thought about the camp and their water source, did she notice just how dried out her throat felt.
****
Jett was having a hard time.
He dodged the swing of the sword and quickly stabbed forward with his own sword, but his opponent easily stepped to the side, having already predicted the attack.
“Come one Lukas, I don’t have time for this.”
The blonde haired man scowled and feinted a strike. Jett ignored it and slashed, his opponent opting to parry it and move back.
The clangs of metal kept resounding through the trees as they kept their duel going.
“This is such a waste of time,” Jett said after a while, disengaging briefly.
Lukas also halted, breathing unevenly. He pointed his sword at Jett, his face a grimace of hate.
“You should have thought about that before killing my teammate,” he spat.
Yeah, I should have. I got too greedy seeing a weak person that I briefly forgot who he was accompanied by on day two.
The other person of the two-man team was an easy kill, he had only had one passive skill, the standard Axefighting.
Which netted him 1 more Copper I essence, bringing him to 2 together with the leftover essence from yesterday.
But Lukas was different. That guy already had three skills, one of them active and two passive.The reason he had three already, was that one of his passive’s he condensed himself. He had already been an expert in medieval sword fighting back on Earth, and once he applied his knowledge here, the System quickly acknowledged it.
From what Lukas had told Jett in previous regressions, he initially got a prompt to pay 6 Copper I essence, but he kept simply using his sword with different styles, slowly figuring out what the System wanted to see. That way he managed to whittle the cost down to a whopping 1 Essence.
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Although his alignment helped him a bit there, adding to his already existing knowledge and enhancing his understanding of the sword, it was still mighty impressive.
Yeah, he was kind of a monster. And one of the strongest fighters in Alyrra later on.
But his skill in the sword wasn’t the main reason why Jett was having so much trouble at the moment. Jett was also skilled, much more skilled actually, at using the sword.
No, it was the other two skills that annoyed him.
The other passive, Swordsman's Intuition, made it easier for Lukas to predict an opponent’s attacks, especially if they were using bladed weapons, like a sword… or even a dagger.
Which Jett thought was a bit of a bullshit skill.
He is just lucky with the match up, if I had any other weapon…
Although Jett was grumbling about it, he knew it was a smart choice, since a lot of participants had chosen a sword or a derivative of it.
His other skill, the active one, was actually less of an issue, but still a permanent threat. It was the classic Empowered Strike, giving his sword more speed and power than it deserved.
Lukas had only used it once so far, but Jett was aware he could use it at least a second time before needing longer to recover.
All of this meant he couldn’t overly commit with his attacks. Lukas, with his sword-fighting talent, his pseudo-prescient skill and the possibility of giving an additional speedup to his own attacks, would simply be faster and strike him first.
Which led to the current, annoying stalemate.
“You know, if we do this for too long, we might get overrun by newly spawned beasts.”
Lukas, who had started approaching him again, sword ready, raised an eyebrow.
“How would you know?”
Jett shrugged. “I got a skill that tells me things about the Tutorial. You should make it back to Bert’s camp before noon, it will be safer.”
“You seem to know all our names, hm? But,” Lukas twirled his sword and then slashed out, “you still have to die for what you did.”
Jett stepped back and then immediately forward when the sword passed him.
He fainted with his sword, which made Lukas side-step awkwardly, giving him an opportunity.
He stabbed forward with his dagger in the other hand, straight at the undefended side of Lukas-
Too open. Too obvious.
He stopped and decided to instead use his dagger to simply parry Lukas’ counter strike. His opponent was teasing him with opportunities to strike, but he knew he would only suffer if he foolishly tried to take advantage of them.
He took a glance at the floating blue textboxes next to him.
New Skill available!
You have proven your mastery of the Sword, showing skill far beyond that of a novice.
You may pay 1 Copper I Essence to acquire the following skill:
Swordsmanship - Passive - Copper I No longer the beginner you once were, you now begin to show serious skill in wielding your weapon. Effect: Expand your instinctive knowledge and skill of the Sword, significantly improving your abilities against armed opponents and adding a minor improvement to your abilities against unarmed opponents and beasts.
New Skill available!
You have proven your mastery of the Dagger, showing skill far beyond that of a novice.
You may pay 1 Copper I Essence to acquire the following skill:
Dagger Fighting - Passive - Copper I No longer the beginner you once were, you now begin to show serious skill in wielding your weapon. Effect: Expand your instinctive knowledge and skill of the Dagger, significantly improving your abilities against human opponents and adding a negligible improvement to your abilities against beasts.
Still no change, hm.
It had taken him quite some time to get the initial offers of 4 essence, the System unusually stingy because of his lacking alignment.
But then he had quickly brought the cost down to 1 essence.
He could afford both of them with his 2 essence now, but it was useless to buy them. Jett already knew how to fight, the skills provided nothing he couldn’t already do.
Since he didn’t want to waste the essence, he was trying to get them to zero. Which was really the only good thing about his fight with Lukas here. It enabled him to emulate the basic Swordsmanship skill in a real fight, hopefully letting him push the cost all the way down.
The only reason he was trying to get the basic skills in the first place, was because he was in desperate need of combat skills. His usual strategy of getting a few aligned mana skills through the quests and then adapting them to his needs and condensing new skills, didn’t work. He didn’t have an alignment and he didn’t want a weapon alignment.
Using his mana shaping skill also didn’t work, he didn’t get the neutral version and he didn’t have any elemental mana inside of him.
So he was instead aiming for the Copper II and III version of the basic knowledge skills.
Those were expensive to pay for with Copper I essence, but he could emulate them well enough that he could bring the cost down to a reasonable level.
Not to zero, since starting at Copper II they would make you better in ways that were only possible with System assistance or via upgrading your biology.
But he could do everything apart from that, so he should be able to bring them below 10 Copper I essence. Perhaps even to 6 or 7.
Which was still a far cry from the 2 he currently possessed.
He sighed in resignation and once again contemplated simply running away.
Lukas was more athletic than him, so it would be difficult, but it should still be possible.
Jett sidestepped another slash and tried to quickly stab with his dagger at the extended hand, but Lukas had predicted it and was already out of range.
“Annoying,” Jett muttered.
Lukas stepped back and shook his head. “You know, it’s weird. Why exactly are you fighting back?”
Jett stopped as well, confused. “What do you mean? Should I just let you hit me?”
Lukas shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. But you look so bored and tired, as if the only reason you don’t wanna get hit is that it will annoy you.”
“You aren’t even scared,” he pointed accusingly with his finger at Jett, “at least not of death. The only time you seem truly uncomfortable is when dodging strikes that would incapacitate you, but wouldn’t be lethal.”
“Isn’t it normal to be afraid of pain?” Jett replied, also shrugging his shoulders.
Should I try attacking him while he is talking? He is a bit far though…
Jett was pretty sure that slowly walking up to him and then striking would also not work.
Lukas laughed out loud. “Yes! Of course it’s normal. But most people would be even more afraid of death than of pain. However you don’t seem to care at all. So why, why don’t you just let me kill you and let this charade be over?”
Jett furrowed his brows and considered it for a moment.
Yes, I could simply regress and do things again… then I could gather more mana treasures on day one and be faster with acquiring combat skills.
So why… why not just start over? Lukas is good enough to give me a clean, painless death.
He hesitated and opened his Status again.
STATUS
Name Jett Rivers
Race
Human Grade
Ungraded Alignment Ǜ̵na̶lig̴̯͂́ne̵͗ď̷ Essence
Copper I 2
Skills [1/5]:
Elemental Mana Shaping - Active - Copper I
His alignment still had this weird, buggy look. This was the main reason he was hesitant to die right now.
What if even more of the System got bugged if he regressed again? What if that put a limit on how often he could still regress until the System became completely unusable to him? He didn’t know if anything like that would happen, but he really didn’t want to risk it.
No, better figure out as much as possible in this regression and then implement everything in the next one.
He shook his head at Lukas.
“No, sorry. I’m unsure if it's a good idea now. Maybe next time.”
Lukas looked at him stunned, not expecting him to actually consider it. He opened and closed his mouth in confusion, then shook his head and let out a sigh.
“You really are a bit crazy, aren’t you?”
“Perhaps. Now, can I leave or should we try and get this over with?”
Lukas stared at him with clear hostility and readied his sword again.
“Only one of us will leave here alive.”