4 Endless Possibilities (Part 1)

The following morning, Eol woke up to find a tray laid out on his desk. On top were two pieces of bread, some cheese, and some fruits for him to eat. In addition to that, there was also a metal cup filled with some sort of liquid for him to drink. When he went over to pick up the cup, he found it held water for tea or coffee that had long gone cold. As he looked around, he saw that there wasn't anything else inside the room except for the clothes he wore when he arrived on the island. 'I guess someone brought this to my room when I missed dinner last night.'

Eol quickly got dressed in his cloth clothes and brown boots. The first rays of light from the rising sun shone through his window as he wondered if he should wait for someone to fetch him for breakfast. He rubbed the back of his neck as he cracked the window open, allowing the morning sea breeze to carry the aroma of the flower garden into his room. 'Come to think of it, there was a common room downstairs for pioneers while they live here. Maybe I could check that out.' After taking one last look at the room, he headed down the stairs into the common area, where almost everyone else was already awake and chatting quietly in small groups.

'Ah, seems like everyone else has already started to get to know each other.'

"Good morning." Eol greeted them all with a smile before making his way over to an empty table. "Everyone's up early."

"We have to be ready by the time Tael gets here," Rokuko, the goblin girl from the day before, said with a yawn as she passed by with a plate of food. "Everyone's been talking about what to do once the week is over and arguing over their theories of what happened to us."

Eol nodded along with her explanation but decided not to reply aloud. Instead, he simply took a seat as he waved back to a few others who acknowledged his greeting. 'I guess everyone has their own priorities. At least I'm not being shunned after Tael singled me out yesterday. Though, I guess getting electrocuted and collapsing after creating a skill is nothing to be jealous about.'

"Hey, mind if I sit with you?" A gruff voice said from behind Eol as he turned to get a look at its owner.

"Eh, sure," Eol said to the bulky figure as it sat down next to him. "You're... Dojun, right?"

Dojun was a highland troll of around twenty years old. Apparently, he was quite tall for his race, which meant his head nearly reached the low ceiling. His body was covered in thick muscle that made his entire frame appear more than twice the size of anyone else in the room. The only things that seemed out of place were the white hair on his face and arms. The rest of his skin was grey and rough looking, like that of any other member of his species.

"Yeah, that's me," Dojun grunted as he picked up a piece of bread from his plate and began eating it with a single hand while holding onto the edge of the table with another. "What's wrong? You not going to eat?"

"Oh, I thought this stuff was a snack or something before someone takes our order," Eol replied with an embarrassed grin, earning a bellow of laughter from Dojun.

"Nah, this is breakfast." Dojun grinned as he shoveled another piece of bread into his mouth. "Bread, fruits, and cheese. That's it. I asked around, but this seems pretty standard. Meat's expensive in this world since it comes from monsters. Pretty crazy, right?"

Eol nodded along with Dojun's explanation. It wasn't so strange to him, considering how much meat dropped from monsters in games he had played. 'I guess this means I'll have to hunt some monster for more than materials.' He shrugged to himself as he looked out the room's window at the sea beyond.

"Ah, good morning, everyone!" Tael said as she walked into the room like a summer breeze. She had a smile on her face, though Eol could see a hint of tiredness lurking beneath her expression. "Sorry about yesterday. I just got caught up in work and didn't realize you'd missed dinner."

"Don't worry about it," Eol replied with a shrug as he met Tael's gaze.

"Right, well, let's get started! Everyone, please follow me." Tal announced to the room at large, earning more than a few grumbles.

Most folks had barely started their breakfast, while Eol hadn't had anything yet. 'Damn, I should've grabbed something when I had the chance!'

The group made their way through the building, back to the training room they had used the day before. It didn't take long for everyone to shuffle inside and line up. However, Eol could feel the tension in the air exuded by his classmates.

"Alright, everyone," Tael began once all were gathered, "Let's go over what we learned last time."

"Yes, ma'am!" All of them called out in unison as Tael smiled at them. For the following several minutes, they discussed the pros and cons of using skills. As well as remembering to limit the power of a new skill during creation so they didn't make something that would leave them severely weakened or kill them.

"Excellent! Now, with that in mind, I want you all to create a skill following those guidelines. You must have something in your arsenal that you can actually use. There's no need to pair up today, but feel free to ask each other for advice."

Eol could have sworn he heard a few guys sigh at Tael's serene smile as they wandered off to pick a training dummy that was close to her. He watched them for a moment before turning away from them and heading toward the rear of the room.

'A new skill, huh?' Eol sighed as he checked his stats. 'When I created the Flame Body skill yesterday, it came out as a Will-type. But Will is my weakest stat.'

A deep crease appeared on his forehead as he covered his mouth while crossing his arms over his chest in thought. 'The only way around this problem is... Is it possible to infuse an item with a Mind effect? Or maybe even two different ones?'As soon as he finished that line of thinking about how to solve the issue, Rokuko walked up behind him with a plate full of food.

"Morning," she greeted Eol cheerily as she placed the tray on a desk not far from Eol's training dummy. "Here's your breakfast."

"Ah, thanks," Eol said with a nod before looking back at Rokuko and opening his mouth to speak. "Wait, I thought we couldn't bring food with us?"

"Oh, um, you see, I noticed you didn't eat anything, and I mentioned it to Tael. She asked me to get you something." Rokuko replied with a bright smile.

"Ah, so that's it." Eol smiled at the small goblin before thanking her again.

Eol picked at the sweet fruits that strangely tasted like cream. 'It seems that anything is possible in this world, huh?' He pondered his dilemma about creating a new skill while savoring the strange flavors on the plate. 'What would a mind-type skill even be?' After his experience with creating Flame Body, he knew he couldn't take it lightly.

'It has to have some sort of benefit if I'm going to invest time into making it. Maybe I could give it a unique effect. But what could I do for that? Perhaps I could infuse myself in a way to make myself invisible? Nope. That won't work since it'll just burn out my mental pool faster and leave me powerless when it runs out. Besides, I doubt my Mind stat is high enough for that. What else is there... Ah! It'd probably be best to pair it with another skill, but then... no. That wouldn't help, either.

'I should ask someone.' Eol thought aloud as he looked around the room. A few of the others were still busy practicing their skills, while others seemed to be taking it slow and thinking through their option like he was. 'If I can't figure this out myself, I'll have to ask for advice.'

He quickly crossed the room toward Rokuko and Dojun, who had been sitting together all this time.

"Hey," he said quietly, once he reached them, "Do you think you could help me with something?"

"Sure thing," Rokuko replied with a cheerful smile before turning her head away from him slightly. "So, what's up?"

"Ah, right." Eol nodded before looking back at both of them. "I've got a problem."

"A problem?" Rokuko asked curiously.

"Yeah." Eol scratched the back of his head awkwardly while looking between the two of them. "Well, I've been trying to think of a skill to create for a while now, but I keep getting stuck on it because I don't have any idea what kind of effects would possibly trigger a mind type. I was hoping you guys might have some ideas?"

"Hmm..." Dojun grunted and tilted his head to one side as he pondered over the question. After several moments, he turned to face Eol again and shrugged. "Nope, sorry man, not really sure how to answer that one."

"Oh, um... well... is there anything that comes to mind? Anything that could be used for a mind-type effect or skill from a game that has that kind of effect in it already?"

Dojun gave the question some serious thought before shaking his head. "No, nothing springs to mind. Sorry buddy."

Eol frowned in disappointment, though the corners of his lips curled into an embarrassed grin. He wasn't exactly happy about being rejected like that by Dojun, but he knew he couldn't expect too much from someone like him, who preferred bashing things with melee attacks.

"Uhm, I may have an idea," Rokuko said in a low voice. "I mean, I'm no expert, but there was a game on the market a few years ago that was interesting. I didn't play it much since it was harder than I expected, but the skills in that game had flavor text. You know, those bits that give a bit of information?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Eol nodded.

"Well, there was an ability in it that caused a stun effect. But the text said it messed with your target's mind by delaying their brain from processing information from their senses." Rokuko said in a thoughtful voice. "Maybe something along those lines? Though, I'm not sure if that would require a high Mind stat to work."

Eol's eyes widened as he listened to the goblin's explanation. 'That sounds perfect if I can get it to work!'

"Thanks, Rokuko! I owe you one!" Eol chuckled as he returned to his own training dummy.

'That was a really good idea she had. It doesn't even need to be powerful or last long. A moment of hesitation is all I need to gain the upper hand in a fight. I'll need to make sure and thank her properly for this.' Eol nodded as he picked up a training sword from the racks.

He took a deep breath as he tried to create a strong enough image in his mind that could translate to the type of skill he wanted to make. 'Sealing all their senses will probably be too much at this stage. But there's also the issue of trying to make it weak enough that it can be used multiple times.'

'However, if it's too weak, it may be unusable. Damn, I should've asked them what their stats are to get a better idea of what the average is!' He frowned as he considered going back to ask them. 'Nah, I can't. It might be considered rude to ask for personal information like that. I'll just need to go with my gut on this one.'