Imagine an epic story, character, or battle scene. In every setting, the human can punch a hole through the wall or become unkilled. He or she gets this heightened state by using a certain power. Yet once the same power is infused into the wall or a knife, our hero is again in deep shit. The same knife is now a threat, the same wall, impenetrable.

Remember, brains over brawn any time.

Be the strongest man or the fastest man alive. It takes but one genius to create a color, rock, or ice on the floor for them to fall. This isn’t the protagonist being dumb or the writer forcing conflict. It’s a simple brain vs brawn fight.

Be it the real world or a fantasy one, every stat has a purpose and every invincible foe has a weakness.

Take the dumb grass, for instance. Can every tiny grass grow to be a monstrous grass? Yes, but their queen won’t allow this transgression.

Too many queens spoil the hive.

You can assume them to be a disposable weapon for the queen to strike down her foe. For the Queen, the grasslings aren’t just disposable soldiers. They also act as surprise attacks, deception, and much more we don’t even know about.

A powerful army will charge them without knowing about their suicidal one-time skill and die before even seeing the queen. Quiet overpowered now, right?

What if a single assassin infiltrates and takes out the queen? Now, the same assassin can wipe out their entire army. Without a command, they are just grass—awaiting orders.

Every skill and every strategy has loopholes. The point boils down to who gets outplayed by whom.

In the case of Tetsu’s pants, the grass used the rocks as bait, while he used himself as bait. If the fight was purely based on strength or speed, Testu would have been skewered and presented to their queen like Kabab.

There are so many ways to counter the queen. Mind control, ranged attacks, and assassination are but a few strategies Tetsu came up with during his free time.

He had a lot on his mind; you see. With his current focus on ‘Artifacts.’

To summarize the term and its power. An artifact is like finding a wand between muggles. A wish dethroning a kind or a gauntlet’s snap capable of killing gods.

It makes the most powerful being seem like a toddler and vice versa.

Back to the hypothetical knife we talked about. Bump it up a notch and it has the upper hand once more. You are fighting a superhuman? Use this super knife and rob his ass.

Now you understand why Tetsu planned to start creating artifacts.

Tetsu stumbling onto an artifact and learning rune force might be fate or just fluke. Either way, his journey to find or create an artifact was given. Because Kile and Tetsu had already planned for such impossible scenarios during their playtime. None of them knew the impossible would happen but as kids, they made and planned for it anyway.

The problem here is the difference between an enchanted weapon and an artifact. One can light up the dark and the other can light up the sun.

Did Tetsu know the difference?

No, but he saw a dumb rhino make an artifact and his pride wouldn’t let that slide. Being the one with the superior intellect, there’s no way he would lose to a pile of wobbling jelly.

Tetsu peers at the rhino with a menacing smile. The rhino was already facing him with a similar smile.

“It is on.” He lets on the challenge without fully grasping the situation.

Grandma Razz’s technique was simple. You first separate all the questions you have and then match them up with similar concepts.

If philosophy can solve a mental and emotional question, both of them go under the folder named philosophy solutions. Once one folder has drained too much of your time yielding no results, you move to another folder, solving a fresh set of problems.

Tetsu again divided the safe side of the hill into sections, each holding various items and marking on the ground. Tetsu worked on making an object sharp, finding different affinities in wood, and many more projects in between.

The rhino strolled by from time to time, stomping all over his research while eating away his rare minerals. Tetsu got mad and barked at her, but she ignored him as he ignored her. Tit for tat.

During his current muse run, Stealth was one skill Tetsu smacked himself for not acquiring sooner.

Tetsu gained this skill by following the rhino around without her spotting him.

[Ding! Skill novice cover available: Bunker down and hope enemies never find you. Some steps might be necessary, but the more you move, the more exposed you become. Stay still to become invisible. Level: Initiate. Rarity: common.]

One theory led to another, and he gained a tracking skill. Turns out, that getting skills isn’t that simple. One needs to learn the basics of the skill and then prove to the system with their actions and thoughts to gain the inferior version of the skill. That’s what he got every time, at least.

Stolen story; please report.

Tetsu tested and confirmed his theory with his new skill.

[Ding! Skill: Tracker is available: Identify your opponent with a single trace left behind. One step closer to your destination, one step closer to your prey. Prey tend to run when overwhelmed, yet never shall they leave your sight. In your journey, may you never lose your prey. Level: Initiate. Rarity: uncommon]

When he followed his gut and got lucky in tracking down the rhino, the system didn’t offer him the skill. Tetsu had to follow several creatures, make notes, and build up a database with several distinct paw prints, the type of creature, and their habits in his head, and then track several creatures in real life for the system to cough up this skill.

Tetsu could only pull this off because of his many hunting trips with Kile’s dad.

This database not only helped him get a better grasp of his surroundings but also helped him gain a helpful skill in the end.

The massive smoke pollution and cowering inside a hole were parts of the background process Tetsu claims to have forgotten.

Tetsu’s next skill selection also proved this skill-allocation theory by offering him a scaredy cat skill. The system acknowledged his unique cowardice and allocated him a unique skill to run away like a scared little cat.

He would’ve picked the skill if it had a rarity tag of unique, but the common tag only helped in consoling him. There were millions of scaredy cats like him and it was okay to be one, too.

“Thanks for proving my point, I guess.” Tetsu shrugs and saves the skill, solving one tiny mystery of the system.

Tetsu was getting used to his bad luck and even laughing over his own situations at times.

Luck is something no one can control, so he focuses on stuff that he can. Knowledge reigned supreme and Tetsu consumed, questioned, and developed every piece of information he came across.

He stole the massive bees, tiny stingers. Boy, was he happy size mattered! He made them sharper and almost poisoned himself to death. Luckily, he gave himself a shallow cut, and the poison from a level one monstrous bee only lasted for a week before he made a full recovery.

“Poison is still a thing? Should I be worried about bacteria and viruses too?” He twitches and pushes the thought away. Yet another worry for future Tetsu. “Back to the experiments.” He refocuses his mind.

The cornerstone of the technique lies in movement. You hit a roadblock, you catch another road that goes in a similar direction and see if they connect. If they don’t connect or lead to the same destination, get back and try another similar route.

This helped Tetsu solve many roadblocks, as he also made many more. Tetsu followed this technique until his theories met. It wasn’t his first time using this technique, after all.

As the saying goes, a single spark is enough to create hope, and this wasn’t Tetsu’s first spark.

[DING! Skill: Edge cut is available: Refine the edge to a sharper point, for no blade stays blunt until the skill edge cut is active. Sharpen any blunt object to a degree, allowing them to cut objects they previously couldn’t scratch. Mana expenditure is based on the size and power of the object. Level: Initiate. Rarity: Rare.]

This skill resulted from a stupid experiment, where Tetsu wanted a sharp blade to cut or dig through tough tutorial stuff. Most of the branches and rocks were tough, and his hastily constructed shovel and knife were borderline useless. But this side of the experiment connected with another experiment to solidify his runes.

The most stupid reason to lose is to have someone erase your hard-drawn runes. Even a smudge can disrupt the rune’s form and spoil Tetsu’s entire plan. The solution to this came in the form of a skill. Not exactly a skill but an idea, the skills description provided.

Tetsu considers etching the rune deeper into the item. This meant until the whole chuck of the rune was removed, the rune would still be considered intact.

Intent and willpower played a huge role in this, as Tetsu has to first trust in himself and place intent over the innermost carvings of the rune.

Now, to test this theory out, Tetsu smiles and retrieves a small charcoal shard from his pocket. With his new bee stinger tied onto a small stick, he deepens the three runes already present. His intent and ‘will’ were ever present with every line he drew.

Next, he rubs off a few layers from each rune and throws the shard.

On his very first attempt, he succeeds, getting applause from his inner sage.

This excitement carried him toward his next step. Tetsu carved out a few scars around his body.

Why scars?

Because wounds heal and scars don’t, and yes, this is true masochism, and Tetsu realized this while carving his initial scar. Yet you can’t blame the guy. He needed something to protect himself before the artifact was ready and what was better than one of his three powers?

“Self-sacrifice Two-point-O. Masochism.” Tetsu imitates the joker’s laugh.

She always spotted him trying to run with the pants and rest without them. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? She kept telling him, but he never understood.

“And also,” she glances over the many scars covering Tetsu’s body. Before, he at least tried to protect himself, but now, he kept actively harming himself.

“Maybe giving him some protection was the wrong move?” The rhino wonders.

“Humans are one crazy species.” She shrugs and gets back to leveling. Unlike her stupid pet, all she had to do was eat and level and later protect her family in the new world.

“Alchemists... I am coming for you-lot.” She digs in and chews faster.

At a distance, Tetsu had no words to explain what he had witnessed. The jelly part of the rhino smashed its face all over his collected items. Once there was no place left, it raised its jelly body covered with sticks, stones, leaves, stingers...

“Wait! That’s poison.” Tetsu yelled, running towards her.

The rhino raises her head nonchalantly, sticks and stingers still sticking over her gelatinous body. The jelly breaks the already present items inside into smaller fragments before pulling in the rest.

Tetsu activates an etched rune at the bottom of his feet and another on his thighs. Tetsu’s speed increases tenfold, from a zombie’s limp to the fastest athlete’s sprint, by using his mana as fuel. He consumed more mana than a supercar, but he didn’t care, as he required speed to save his friend.

For the first time, he was happy to have sprung to action and not wondered about the best-case scenario. He kept practicing, and it finally paid out.

Would it be better to stop and remove his pants?

Maybe!

But speed was of the essence, and he pumped every single bit of his mana into the rune to reach his goal.

His sudden burst of speed shocked the rhino. That dumb human was barely able to move a second ago and now he sprinted toward her, calling her... stupid?

Tetsu saw the bee horn stop mid-way. They always had a communication barrier separating them, but now she heard him and understood.

“Stop, you stupid piece of jelly.” He yelled, waving his hands.

Still on the sprint, Tetsu didn’t want to stop and lose his friend over some miscommunication, so he planned to sprint by and snatch the stinger away. Yet as he steps closer, he smashes into an invisible shield.

“Totally forgot...” He grunts.

The rhino smirks at the human and sucks in all the ingredients.

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