81 Appraisal Abilities & New Solutions

It didn't take long for Kyren to choose from all the tabs on the talent shuffle. There weren't many options so he quickly singled out the best choices.

The one he decided on caught his undivided attention for some odd reason. It was as though his lucky feeling, which was still active, was urging him to choose it. It sounded ludicrous and it was a complicated feeling to explain, but he felt like his future would be easier if he chose this talent set.

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Infinite Horizon Gaze

Exotic Talent Set (1 of 3) [usage growth-type]

{Passive Ability}

<Healing Scenery> The calmness of staring into the horizon is healing and uplifting for the mind, body, and soul. Any negative outcomes or status effects from any appraisal abilities, such as backlashes and curses, will either be delayed, suppressed, or negated.

<Blatant Scenery> No one and nothing can stop you from peering over the horizon. When appraising, any obstructions or obstacles will be instantly seen through with astonishing ease. They will also not detect your infiltration. This is so long as the obstruction or obstacle in question were not too strong for you.

<Simplistic Scenery> Can't one simply enjoy the horizon without waiting? Any cooldowns for appraisal abilities disappear completely.

{Active Ability}

<Enigmatic Scenery> Without an explanation from you, how will others understand the full depth of the infinite horizon? Anything previously appraised by you will suddenly become either much more difficult or impossible for others to understand or appraise. **Requires [mind/soul] elemental affinity.** Depending on how much information is blocked, this ability's cost may increase ::: Too many variables to determine a minimum cost. Will use mana and mental energy.

<Shared Scenery> Beautiful horizons and scenery are better to view when sharing with others. Choose someone to share your findings, knowledge, or interpretations of anything appraised by you. **Requires [mind/soul] elemental affinity.** Depending on how much information is transferred, this ability's cost may increase ::: Too many variables to determine a minimum cost. Will use mana and mental energy.

<Encrypted Scenery> Others may look at the horizon in the wrong way, and you don't bother to correct them. Anything previously appraised by you can have its information falsified to your liking, tricking those that appraise it after you. **Requires [mind/soul] elemental affinity.** Depending on how much information is blocked, this ability's cost may increase ::: Too many variables to determine a minimum cost. Will use mana and mental energy.

{Description}

See things with so much ease and simplicity that it becomes difficult to not understand and discern them. Hidden secrets become blatant under your gaze, like an object on the barren horizon line. This talent set was invented and used by powerful individuals in the western dynasties, countries, and civilizations. It's often utilized by extremely skilled and gifted combatants of the samurai and ninja classes after vigorous and grueling training on the eyes. It's especially popular among the legendary individuals with the shogun class. This talent will grow after using it more and has a maximum growth that goes along with your level of power. Starting at an incredibly advanced level in your hands, which isn't attainable by mortals, everything shall become as apparent as the breathtaking but simple scenery of a grand horizon.

{Set}

- (1 of 3) Infinite Horizon Gaze> Main Talent

- (2 of 3) Appraising the Horizon> Skill

- (3 of 3) Scanning All Horizons> Spell

{Cost}

24 talent points

"Your choosing a talent, which is inferior to some of the other choices, based on a 'pretty good feeling'?! HAHA, if all people thought like you, everything would collapse!!"

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This was a special type of talent called a "talent set" so that meant this talent came with additional skills, spells, and/or other talents. This was usually why they cost more but it was almost always worth it.

This talent actually came with both a skill and a spell that were both related to the talent so it was a good haul.

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Appraising the Horizon

Exotic Skill

{Type}

Visual Appraisal/Observation

{Effects}

<Ultimate Appraisal> Can appraise a vast assortment of different things. Items, creatures, people, literature, abilities, talents, skills, techniques, movements, etc.

<Thorough Summarization> Generated descriptions will have more details and higher quality.

<Hidden Meanings> Secrets are much easier to discern and identify.

<Character Reading> Can summarize and present information of an individual, even without a [Social Connection], such as learning their opinion of you.

<Soul/Spirit Reading> Obtain additional information from any types of souls.

<Foreign Discovery> Any targets that seem to be of unfamiliar origins and you have no clue about, you'll still be able to appraise and learn from them.

{Preparation}

3 seconds minimum (may increase)

{Cooldown}

Nullified

{Description}

Everything's an open book to you or a simple horizon that's unable to hide anything from your sight. The magnificent rising sun peeks its head over the horizon line and it doesn't escape your notice, just like any secrets of your targets. This skill is tailored for the use of the [Infinite Horizon Gaze] talent set as the second add-on.

{Restraint}

The target must be within your vision.

{Backlash}

- Different targets will require a certain amount of time to appraise, putting you into a [Fixated] state during the preparation period.

- There is a 0.0006% chance to go into a [Fixated] state after appraisal for 10 seconds.

- Excessive usage of the skill may strain your eyes for a short period of time.

{Cost}

Mental Energy> 200 minimum (may increase)

"Can it tell you the size, color, or style of a lady's undergarments? Uhh, I'm not a perv... this is for a science project! I'm trying to compile information on common trends and shared fashion... I'm being honest!!"

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Scanning All Horizons

{Element}

Null//Mind

{Grade}

Tier III

{Type}

Self Assisting Spell

{Cost}

Mana> 600 minimum per additional target

Mental Energy> 100 minimum per additional target

{Cooldown}

Nullified

{Active Ability}

<Narrowed Down Search> When appraising, choose to look for a specific characteristic.

{Effects}

<Multi-Appraisal> Use appraisal abilities on multiple targets at once.

{Description} Gain the ability to use the appraisal abilities on multiple targets simultaneously. This spell is tailored for the use of the [Infinite Horizon Gaze] talent set as the third add-on.

{Restraint} All targets must be within your vision once the spell activates.

{Backlash}

Nullified

"I've been seeing so many extreme things from you that this tier-three spell, which most can only dream of obtaining, seems really boring and lackluster. You've desensitized me..."

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Trusting his gut instinct, he quickly submitted this talent set as his final option and hit (Yes) and (Confirm).

This wasn't the best talent in the selection given to him, but as he said before, he felt somewhat drawn to it. There were a few talents that had even mythical rarity, with some even being growth-types also. Compared to those, this talent barely passed due to it being unique and rich in abilities.

He would be sacrificing quite a bit if this talent wasn't as amazing as his "lucky feeling" made it out to be. Fortunately, it was still an amazing talent for its ranking so he wouldn't be too unhappy.

According to Leo, this talent wasn't supposed to be this strong in any normal case. This was a major pro about the talent shuffle when comparing it to gaining talents through normal methods. He didn't need to train the talent up or innovate it because it was already close to his level.

Now finished with his business and satisfied with the outcome, he walked back into Maya's bedroom. She was still sound asleep so he simply got back into the cozy bed with her.

He was truly happy that he chose to buy a luxurious bed from the Noble District and moved it into here instead of using his dimensional abilities to create one. Otherwise, the fake bed would feel super uncomfortable. It would get to the point where not a soul could sleep on it.

No one could even lay on it for more than a minute, before feeling an intense desire to get off of it. He even tested it out once in an attempt to save money while still having fancy enough furniture to match the room's style. It was deemed a lost cause and only the real thing would suffice.

But it wasn't a bad thing at all because he also gained exceedingly valuable information by buying the bed.

Typically, Dragon's Desire would activate the instant his nose picked up on it, and the consequence of being around something so expensive and lavish would make it kick in instantly.

This time, however, he was completely fine. After thinking about it a bit, he discovered a hidden effect on the curse called [Possesive Horde]. This generated another solution to the curse besides blocking his sense of smell.

'If it's in my possession, it no longer needs my attention.' This was basically what the hidden effect summarized into and it was a great relief that he didn't always need to be on guard against the curse.

All he needed to do was to unconsciously establish a home base or specific area that could act as his horde for all his possessions. The Spatial Palace acted as his horde area so anything inside of it was deemed his.

This also applied to things that were in his grasp or for-sure in his possession, like when he first discovered the curse. Those fifty silvers from the starter kit were in his hands, otherwise, the curse would've activated instantly.

After privately testing out what happened when Dragon's Desire actually activated, using a platinum coin that wasn't considered to be in his possession, he was stunned. Similar to Dragon's Anger, he lost control of his body and something else insatiable and vile took over. It wasn't a pleasant experience...

Another rule about Dragon's Desire was when someone who wasn't him or wasn't apart of the group of special exceptions, intruded on his horde or used his stuff without permission, the curse would activate with no exception and both Dragon's Desire and Dragon's Anger would activate and chaos would be let loose. No matter the distance or the stealth abilities used, a dragon would find the culprit without fail and punish them severely, as though a tracker was placed on that individual.

Maya was technically using the stuff in his horde by sleeping in the bed, but the curse considered her a special case due to their relationship, and she was given permission to come here, so the curse would never activate.

'God, I hate these curses!! Why do they have to be so complex!?! And the rules keep getting longer too!' A frustrated groan escaped him and he was forced to suppress his irritation as to not wake up Maya. 'If only there was a way to cancel out the negative effects of Dragon's Desire while keeping my ability to appraise the value of something with my sense of smell...'

Unexpectedly, an odd feeling appeared inside of him. It was as if he was missing something and he couldn't think of it.

He opened up his interface and looked over the talent set carefully as he scratched his head. The feeling told him that it had something to do with the talent set, and it got stronger now that he looked at it. Again and again, he examined each ability until he remembered what he previously said.

All he needed were the negative parts of Dragon's Desire to go away so he could enjoy the... appraising ability.

'Aah!! There's no way!'

His disbelieving stare was immediately drawn to the very first passive ability of the main talent, Healing Scenery.

'Wait, is it possible for this to work on the curse?!'

'Hmm, doesn't it say that it also nullifies or suppresses curses? So could it-'

'Then what do I do?' He realized that he got his hopes up a little too high so he toned his excitement down a bit. His expression became solemn as he stood up from the bed, ready to immediately get to work.

He desperately welded to relieve the pressure, stress, and danger of his curses. There wasn't much he wouldn't do just to get rid of them.

Leo explained some possible methods of creating a skill under these conditions, but due to the uniqueness and strictness of the curse, there weren't many options. He soon chose the method with the highest chances of succeeding, but it would be tedious.

.....

Many hours have passed and Kyren was still trying to derive a skill from his racial curse. It was a longer process than he initially thought. Compared to innovating a skill or spell, as he did for Dragon's Breath, inventing one from scratch was an entirely different story

He realized when he created the spell, Absolute Invulnerability, he had a much easier time along with better results, most likely because of the environment in the Turbulent World. Luckily for him, his mental energy was fairly large, so the more he invested in the visualization, imagination, and manifestation of the skill, the quicker the process was.

Inside one of the larger training rooms in the Spatial Palace, an enormous and diverse variety of creature materials were each sitting on pedestals in a long and straight line. The training room was a simple white cube that was large enough for Kyren's dragon form to fly around for a bit.

The room was a branch dimension of his main dimension so it wasn't considered to be apart of his dragon horde. He was forced to hold his breath so he didn't activate his curse prematurely.

At the very last pedestal towards the end of the room, a dark and tattered large piece of cloth was neatly folded on top of it. Some kind of evil and sinister haze was coming off of it like smoke. The cloth itself quivered as if possessed by an evil spirit. It was a five-star creature material dropped by a half undead, half spirit behemoth called the Uncanny Aberration of the Yalon Cheif.

Kyren looked at the rags with a funny look, not wanting to do what he was about to do.

After grabbing it, officially putting it in his possession, he unwillingly bent down and sniffed it, then immediately reeling back. It reeked of death and misery, making him shiver and almost gag. There was a hint of a particularly delightful aroma behind all the muck and filth that didn't revolt him, and it was his curse detecting something immensely valuable.

"This one's worth exactly 88 platinum, 74 gold, and bla-bla-bla... How many more times do I have to do this?!"

There were hundreds of pedestals currently in the row he was sniff-appraising, but this wasn't the only row he's completed. He's long lost count of all the legendary items he's smelt, and he was getting sick of it.

All the sweet aromas of valuable materials were intoxicating and almost addicting, but not everything had a nice smell to go with it. Plus, it was getting old and menial after hours of doing the same thing over and over while committing an exhausting amount of mental energy to examine every detail and action.

His mental capacity was also not strong enough to fully utilize his vast mental energy. He was only human in real life after all, not a genius like Maya or some monstrous demon brain creature abomination (which was another one of the behemoths he killed).

His mental capacity was a major flaw that he would absolutely need to fix at a later date, but for now, he was stuck using brawn over brains.

"Ugh, bring on the next set..."

[Dimensional Storage] portals tore themselves open in between the materials and the pedestals. Each material inevitably fell into it due to gravity, and another portal appeared above the pedestals with a new item dropping down and replaced the previous one.

The new item in front of him was some kind of gigantic ice-blue blob of goop that looked like a ripped off chunk of Jell-o.

Great feelings of displeasure could be seen on his expression as he began to get suspicious, "What is— Your only bringing out the bad ones on purpose, huh!?!"

"Oh right, I'm technically only a mid-ranked behemoth so I would've probably died to this thing. *Sigh* Let's get this over with..." He Ignored Leo's skillful dodge to his accusation as he leaned in and smelt it while reluctantly putting his hands on it. Despite the unpleasant slimy, sticky, and freezing feeling in his hand, the smell was actually decent this time. "Hmmm, is that icy peppermint gum I smell.....?"

*Ting*

He began to unconsciously state the price value out loud like he usually did when his speech trailed off. The satisfying chime of the notification he's been looking for all this time finally popped up and immense relief flooded into him.

"Hehe, that's two curses I no longer need to worry about..."

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