Next Level Skills

There were multiple changes on the status page.

To go in order, the first thing that jumps to the sight was the Faction name next to my name. This was something common that all the stats page of the party had in common.

Choosing a name for the faction was chaotic, we discussed it during dinner about a week ago. Rose proposed a lot of horrible names together with G… Dante was pushing Cait Sith to be the faction name. While I just shook my head to reject G's last proposal (A*sBusters), Hayley was just looking at our discussion without taking part in it… sinking deeper into her own thoughts.

Hope wanted something playful and was hard thinking and browsing along the books in her mind to get a good name…

I should have just decided this on my own… at least Pinky wasn't here, we would already be called the "Snake Goddess Cult" or something like that.

Hope and Rose were slowly taken by Dante's side while I gave 5 reasons to G for rejecting As*Busters as a name, they decided to support the name Cait Sith coming from Dante.

It's not that I didn't like the name, but I don't want the symbol to be a cat… So I have to decide to go to the Irish and Scottish myths too to pick a different name but still related to the Cait Sith, the Aes Sidhe.

Since Dante used the faeric nature of the Cait Sith to bring the girls to his side, they didn't reject the more generic term Aes Sidhe, the Fae in the Scottish Folklore. I promised Dante to create a rank for him in the future called Cait Sith if the system allows it.

Besides the Faction, now the current Rank and Potential growth were explicitly specified, in my case my potential was unknown since it depends on what I get from the system and not my own comprehension of the abilities. If I want to get to the next rank, I need the system to do it, but this wasn't the case of my friends who's potential was bound to the ability they got when this began so if they get to certain milestone they can go to the next rank.

Other minor changes were related to the points. The system points now were called Esper Points (EP) this let the system shorten attribute points and skill points to AP and SP.

In the attribute area, dexterity disappeared and was fused with agility. I got 5 extra points on agility as compensation for it, so I had nothing to complain about.

Together with D-Rank, the 25 points limiter disappeared so of the AP I received from the previous missions 10 points went to agility which along with the 5 free points raised my agility up to 40 points, and the last 5 points went to strength. Al the other points I received on my attributes were points that system hold due to the limiter. I didn't imagine that I had that many points ready for charisma but since it was the first stat to reach 25 points it wasn't that surprising.

In the attribute area, most of the perks that previously had their own section now were next to the attribute they were related. Some of those perks were with their respective Esper ability if they aren't associated with an Attribute. The only exception to this was Great Impact which became a skill.

The next important changes were in the skill area.

The first was that when I select the skill, I can see details about it.

[Dodge Lv. 3

Experience: 312.453/ 1.000.000

Upgrade Requirements: Agility 35

The users of the skill become more slippery and difficult to strike. The chance of dodging an attack is improved by Skill.LV*5%+5%. Current bonus: 20%]

This was available for most skills, in the case of knowledge skills they were just a reflection of the things I learned with no real impact on actions, but there were exceptions, for example, physics improved my understanding of my Esper Abilities, Medicine helped my vital point view on humans, and Biology on beasts. If I didn't have aura view or my power was related to another area they wouldn't have any effect besides knowing stuff.

I had to use 10 points to fuse my weapons skills into weapon master, depending on the weapon I have in my hands I got certain bonuses but the important part was that thanks to this I was able to perform in a good level with most weapons as if I had practice with all of them before. There are still some exceptions like chakrams and other exotic weapons, but most of them are included.

The system also grouped the knowledge that belonged to the same area into one bigger skill. And those skills that cover multiple areas al were differentiated from normal skill with the Advanced tag, which meant that the cost to upgrade it was double than before. In my case, Physics and Math were now advanced skills. I also obtained the advanced skills Survival and Biology which included: zoology, anatomy, herbology, trapping, tracking, and other knowledge related to each area.

Finally, we have the Esper powers, which were split in passive and active. As the name says, the passive skills are those that are activated all the time, for example, my enhancement type abilities, while the active abilities where those that have to be willingly activated.

Besides the new classification, the main difference here is my new C-Rank Ability.

After the upgrade, the shop was filled with new stuff. In between them, almost all the powers From from the E-Rank were here now available to buy. Some of them were a plain robbery… like the one that I purchased that has appeared multiple times in our enemies… I bought the E-Rank ability Blink.

The main reason that I bought the skill was to start understanding how space skills work from the skill point of view.

Since Paradox inducement had Blink as part of its potential abilities, it was absorbed right away, with training, and time, I could have developed it myself without buying it, but when I got the skill, I had a guide on how to use it imprinted on my mind. The difference was like building something with or without the instruction manual, so I was learning how to use it way faster than how it would happen without buying it.

Seeing how this ability was the cornerstone for my future development, I used the evolution tickets on two of my skill to be on par with the Esper power. That's how Chaotic Zone and Chaotic Combat Style were born. Both have many similarities with my old skills, but since they now applied other effects besides time, they were back to level one after the upgrade. I used points to upgrade them to level 2.

The skill called Rules are Meant to be Broken is a skill that lacked logic or any kind of balance.

It was this ability the one that allowed me to reverse the time flow in an area. The other way I used it was to change the gravity direction and walk on the ceiling, but it was quite exhausting, and I had to use it daily to help Ines. Now that I have more freedom to experiment with it. I'll see what I can do with it.

With my C-Rank power and the evolved version of my skills, two new tiers appeared for the skills.

The Master level once again doubled the cost of leveling up an ability. And legendary tier was worse since it was two tiers above.

The system explained to me that there were currently five tiers for skills.

(Normal -> Advanced(x2) -> Master (x4) -> Epic (x8)-> Legendary (x16))

(A/N: the number between the () is the cost to level up))

The cost was raised exponentially, the price to upgrade my new skill was too high for me to handle for now. Also, it has harsh requirements for knowledge and control, so I'm still far away from doing it.

Regular skills usually don't go over the advanced tier, but there are exceptions.

Meanwhile, Master, Epic and Legendary skills are usually reserved for Esper abilities.

Lastly… but not least.

It was my pet contract.

I clicked Dante name, and a similar status sheet appeared…

[Name: Dante (Aes Sidhe)

Age: 5 yrs.

Rank/Potential: B/A?

Stats:

Strength: 12( )

Endurance:15( )

Agility: 40( ) (Perfect balance)

Intelligence:58(+17) (Accelerated Processing) (Parallel Processing)

Wisdom: 81(+24) (Insight) (instinct) (Animal Senses) (Perfect mind)

Charisma: 50(+10) (Puppeteer) (Adorable)

Skills:

Battle skills: Dodge Lv.3. Scratch Lv. 2, Bite Lv. 1.

Knowledge: ???

Utility Skills: Stealth Lv. 5, Survival (Advanced) Lv. 3, Purring (Master) Lv. 5.

Esper abilities:

Active:

B-Rank: Telepathy (Read Mind, Memory Reading, Memory Modification, Memory Creation, Communication Net, Impose Thought, Thought Implantation, ??) Enhanced Distance (Advanced) Lv. 4, Mind Assault (Master) Lv. 3. Mind Shield (Joint ability)

??-Rank: ---------------

Resonance: Killing Intent]