At Long Last

On closer inspection, the scraps of the ring that fell were just the outer edges of it, the actual silver that lined the entire ring.

The red that had cracked and shown through the silver was in fact the actual appearance of the ring, hidden beneath the silver plating.

The red band remained on 6's finger as it continued to heat up, the entire ring beginning to glow as it lit up the area surrounding his hand.

Despite the fact that the ring resembled molten metal at this point, it actually wasn't that hot.

It was still rising in temperature, but so far it felt more like a gentle warmth, like a pocket warmer on his hand, than it did molten metal wrapped around his finger.

Just as 6 began considering removing the ring, considering that it may be dangerous to keep it on his finger as it began transforming, even if the heat didn't injure him on its own, a change occurred.

Without him moving at all, the ring slowly phased through his finger, the red material feeling like a liquid passing around his finger.

It slowly floated into the air, and as it reached his eye level, he could visibly see changes in the material of the ring.

The red looked as if it was pulsating, growing and shrinking in tiny increments as it continued heating up, floating a small distance away from 6.

Then, it lost its ring shape, turning into a growing pond of magma-like liquid.

Continuing to grow, the pond slowly took on a more stable appearance, becoming an opaque red orb.

The orb continued growing, although slower, over the next few minutes.

Then, it began rapidly spinning, rotating with a trace of aggression in its movements.

After a few moments of this, the orb cracked straight down the center. The liquid within it quickly disappeared, not draining out of it but fading away, as if it was being dragged into something hidden within the orb.

Not long after, The outer part of the orb, the part that made the orb it self, began disappearing as well, sucked inward as it was consumed by something inside of it.

Floating in place of the orb, which was once 6's silver ring, was a tiny, glowing ruby, barely the size of a fingernail.

6 reached out to grab it, ignoring the heat surrounding the ruby, pulling it close to him with love in his eyes.

He stroked the ruby gently, as if petting the ruby would somehow make it happy.

Bringing it up to his eye, he looked at the ruby with excitement.

Once he was satisfied with looking at it, he finally looked at the item description.

[Cor-Ruby]

[Type: Crystal]

[Quality: Basic]

[Special Effects: Grants the skill [Intensified Blood Flow] permanently]

[Usage: The ruby must become part of your body, by whatever means you can come up with. The method by which it is added to your body will influence the overall effect of the item]

[Description: Although it isn't the best basic item, it is still useable, if you ignore the flaws.]

The idea of gaining a new skill made 6's mouth water, especially as this would be his first real skill.

He had stealth, obviously, but that was a passive skill that he gained himself from practice.

Gaining a skill from practicing it your entire life and gaining a skill from nothing were two entirely different feelings, even if the description claimed it was flawed.

[Dagger mastery] was similar, as it was another passive, and he simply bought it, as opposed to earning it himself. He also didn't feel like it did that much. There wasn't much he could do now that he couldn't do previously.

If anything, he himself had already been close to obtaining the skill on his own, which meant he didn't gain much from obtaining the [Dagger Mastery].

Buying it wasn't something he regretted, however. It was still a basic prerequisite for any skills that needed daggers, so it was good to have in advance when his only weapon currently was a dagger.

[Intensified Blood Flow]

[Type: Active]

[Quality: Basic]

[Effect: 5%-25% raise to all physical aspects aside from defense. Any attack that draws blood will do increased damage, and will have a higher rate of blood loss while the skill is active.]

[Requirements: A circulatory system.]

[Description: Raise your attack and speed, but lower your defense and increase the odds of you bleeding out. Is it worth it?]

Looking at the description, 6 could clearly see what it meant by flaws.

Of all aspects, 6 lacked defense the most.

The light armor he was using was only good for basic defense, it barely protected him.

Wearing just that light armor also left him very vulnerable everywhere else.

Using [Intensified Blood Flow] could make even a scratch on his arm a potentially large issue, depending on how severe the increased bleeding effect was.

Considering his item gained an effect from the thing he killed to fill the ring, it was obvious that this skill was something they possessed, or perhaps it was just based on one of their basic qualities.

If all the spiders he killed so far had one thing in common, it was that they had way too much goo in them, and that their goo was highly pressurized.

With them as an example of how much this skill can effect him, a cut might just end up deadly if he couldn't treat it quickly.

That made this skill a pretty major double edged sword.

Of course, all he had to do was make sure not get hit.

As a matter of fact, this skill blended rather well with assassination. If he remains hidden and takes out his foes with one hit, then he doesn't have to worry about the side effects of the skill at all.

[Most skills, especially of this nature, have other side effects that are not mentioned in the skill description. In Trivrium's experience, the flaws it mentions are not the ones listed in the skill description, but something else.]

"Ah, thank you Trivrium. What do you think they'll be, then?" 6 asked, thankful that Trivroum volunteered information without him asking.

[There is no way to tell without learning the skill]

"I don't think that actually helps me then, but thank you anyways. Do I just like, eat the ruby or something?" He questioned.

While doing so, he was eyeing the ruby like it was a piece of candy.

[That is one method. Most items have their own way of gaining the best effect from them. The most basic, skill books, gain better effects when you fully read the entire book to the point that you understand it in its entirety.]

"So my ruby should have an ideal way then. I'll keep that in mind, though I've already got some ideas.

[There is also always a way to fail. In the case of skill books, misunderstanding the skill after reading the book can cause it to fail, and using the book without reading it can also cause it to fail. Eating the ruby could not count as being a permanent addition, but every items is different in this regard as well.]

6 was the one to not reply to Trivrium for once, instead focusing on the ruby once more while she spoke.

Even if he chose to learn The skill it contained, and it turned out to be terrible, it wasn't the end of the world.

Nothing said he had to use the skill he learned. He could just pack it away and pretend it never existed if the skill was bad.

And who knew, maybe it would have its time to shine still. If the moment ever came where he need a lot of his own blood for something, at the very least the skill would speed the process up.

There would surely be a use for everything, even if it seemed useless.

Keeping the ruby until after this mission to try to sell it, getting enough money to get something less risky, was tempting and could certainly end up getting him the most he could get from the value of the ruby, but it would also mean he would be weaker for the period of time that this mission would consist of.

Coming here to kill spiders, fill up his ring, and get his item was entirely for the purpose of gaining strength before entering the nest, so that he could gain as much as possible from this world.

Not learning the skill would kind of negate this entire trip, and since he would definitely have to deal with Karkum, Cypius, and Plono complaining about him coming here to risk his life again, 6 was determined to gain at least something here.

Even if his gains weren't amazing.

Aside from that, 6 wasn't the type to save up his stuff in hopes of selling it when he could use it himself.

The only real question was how was he going to do it.

Eating it was out of question.

Too simple, and it didn't seem to match the description of the ruby.

The entire item seemed to be centered around blood, so the best idea was probably to somehow add it to his blood.

He could try dissolving the ruby in some of his blood, but then he would have to figure out a way to get the blood, which would then be outside of his body, back into his body, with only the limited materials he had here.

It might be doable on Trivrium, but he didn't have a good chance of managing that here.

He didn't even have a proper container to hold his blood in with him.

Another option was crushing the ruby into pieces and finding a way to inject it like that.

Once again, he didn't really have a good way to do that either.

He could stuff the pieces of the ruby into a cut on his arm, but that was risky.

Breaking the ruby might just straight away ruin it, turning it into some useless pieces of crystal.

Instead, he decided to try the first thing that occurred to him, which was also the stupidest.

He drew his knife and stabbed it into his chest, resulting in a deep wound between his ribs, much thicker than the ruby.

Placing the knife into its sheath, he held open the wound with one hand, and jammed the ruby into his chest with the other.