Skills and Arts

Dux summons a tome from the wormhole. He then opens a certain section of the book while beginning his lecture for the little child.

"Skills are abilities to do many things. Ability to cook, mastery in sewing, tenacious handicraft, you name it. These traits can be achieved, learned by simply trying to do them. Magic is also a part of skill!"

The three-eyed wizard closes his thick book that makes a popping sound and then he looks at Oria. He already memorizes every single detail in that section of the book he read and reexplains them with his own way.

"Most of the time, skills often being misinterpreted as abilities for fighting, though that was not entirely the case. As I said earlier, skills can be anything. Try them out and you'll learn them. Do them more and practice all the time and you'll eventually hit the maximum level.

Cooking is the one of the most basic skills examples. Try to cook something and you'll automatically get a level 1 cooking. Pretty convenient, ain't it?"

Oria scratches her head, looking a bit confused. She mostly understands, but there's something that she wishes to know more of. "I see... so, if skills are about particularly anything, does that mean if I try to cut down overgrown grasses, it'll make a certain skill to appear? Like, Grass Cutter Level 1?"

"(Why cutting grasses of all things?)" Dux thought instantly, surprised by her question. "(Though, Grass Cutter is a quite cool skill name.)

"Well, skills are still pretty much a bizarre system than you might think. Cutting grasses down might induce a certain skill to appear, but not related to cutting grass, mind you. It's more about what tool you use or how you cut them down."

"Oh, I see. Hmm..." Oria sank herself to her own world of thinking.

"Why you ask, tho?" Dux casually asked.

Oria, returning from her mind realm, replies, "Umm... I was just wondering if I actually have some skills already. Because back at 'that' place, I was used to cut down grasses for them."

"O-Oh." Dux didn't see that one coming. "W-Well..."

"So? Do I already have skills like that, Master Dux? I'm really wondering about it!"

At first, Dux wavers whether he should continue teaching, knowing how Oria reacted when remembering her days back at the villainous slave camp. That perspective of his, however, changes when his three eyes looked at her.

Oria, being an eight-year-old child, is full of curiosity, thirst of knowledge, in fact. Her face is eager to hear his answer. Seeing her enthusiasm, Dux pulls his hat, cackles by how his concern is for naught.

"Nyuhuhuh... Well, I wonder about that. Allow me to use Appraisal on you once more."

"Pretty please!"

Dux uses Appraisal on her, and just like before, he didn't say the word 'Appraisal' out loud like before. He just simply gazes at her and suddenly, the status screen shows up at his face.

"Ho-hoh... let's see here..."

His eyes roll down inspecting the skill section part of the screen.

<ORIA ARGENTORA>

Skill List:

[Strategist Lv.2], [Diligence Lv.8], [Hoarder Lv.1], [Survivor Lv.3], [Sickle Lv.6], [E-404 Lv.?], [Magic Processing Lv.1], [Caster Lv.1], [Agility Lv.1]

"(Hm? That's quite plenty for a child like her. Whew, she's potential of a strategist, eh? OOH! She's obtained the Diligence skill!? …Well, that makes sense since she was once a slave, she might have worked so hard to avoid getting abused… Hm, the Strategist skill must've appeared when she managed to escape. But wait... what's this?)"

Dux's eyes are locked on to a certain skill: [E-404 Lv.?].

"(What's E-404? I've never heard of it before...)"

"Master Dux? Is th-there something wrong?" Oria asked in a concerned tone. Dux was being silent the whole time he appraised her.

"Wha—oh, no, there's nothing wrong. That 'grass cutting' ability you say, it appears you're skilled in using a sickle, eh?"

"Yeah!" she smiled. "I used a sickle to cut down overgrown grass!"

"Though, I'm curious, Oria. What's this E-404 means?" Dux ultimately asked.

"E-404? What's that?" Oria asked back.

Dux rubs his not-so-itchy squid head, "(It seems she doesn't even know. Heh, how foolish of me. She's even unaware of the system until now. Obviously, she won't know anything about this. I guess I should keep it to myself for the time being.)"

"Master Dux...?"

"Never mind what I said. I just muttered some 'high-level' words, nyuhuhuhu. ANYWAY! Let's study about 'Arts' now!"

"H-Huh..." Oria wondered about what E-404 meant, but since the wizard told her not to bother, she brushed it off her mind. She happily joins the wizard in his lecture again.

"Now, now... judging by your skill tree, I guess you're quite good for a mere eight-year-old. Oh, I almost forgot. You can see your own skill list by accessing the status screen."

"Cool!" Oria opens the system screen. Dux guides her how to see her skills and how to see their functions. Though, then again, the E-404 skill is showing nothing but glitches. Oria asks about it, but Dux says that it's best to leave it as it is for the time being, which she agrees to.

Dux gleefully explains to her, "We've learned a bit about skills. Now, to implement those skills, we'll use arts. Arts are practically your ability to use those skills you've gotten so far. To get an art, you must practice those skills a lot until you're proficient enough. Once so, you use your creativity and it'll be possible to form an art of your own!"

"Woaaahhh!" Oria sounded excited, fascinated by his explanation. "Is it like when you cook last time?"

Dux feels an invisible arrow struck to his heart. He begins berating himself in a rapid tone. His tentacles twists around so quickly and wildly like they are about to go berserk.

"Urk! D-Don't remind me that. To be honest, I'm not proficient in cooking. In fact, I suck SO bad I might make an abysmally peculiar dish that either only a monster can eat it or the food itself became a weapon for me! GRAAAAH!!! Why I'm so BAD at cooking!?"

After throwing a tantrum, he gradually recovered from his self-anger by letting out a long sigh.

"...*sigh*... So, yeah. I've no arts that relates to cooking. Yes, I have cooking skill, but TOO LOW and in addition, I rarely cook. Like, super rare."

"O-Oh..." Oria is stunned by how he overreacted about his cooking skills. It feels like she just witnessed a volcano erupting and calmed down. "(Now that I think about it... Master Dux was cooking that fish and suddenly, the fire got so big and burnt the fish into charcoal.)"

"Nyuhuhu. Back to topic at hand, the most common example of an art is when fighting a foe. For example, when fighting a monster, you might want to get rid of them quickly as possible. Instead of simply striking them using a straightforward method with a weapon, you can use your creatively made art!"

"S-So... I have a sickle skill... so if I practice using a sickle, I can create an art?"

"Nyuhuhu, precisely."

"But I don't have a sickle..." said Oria a bit disappointed.

"No problemo!" Dux took his wand out, then gestures at her to take hers out too. "That's why I gave you that wand. At the behest of the Silver Dragon, I will teach you one unique skill that will allow you to form a weapon. Only then you'll be able to make your OWN arts! Prepare yourself, Oria Argentora!"

Oria, ever the excited one, nods. She's even more eager to learn now.

"Please teach me, Master Dux!"

...

..

.

"Since you have a gazillion amount of mana, I don't think it'll be any problem for you. Observe."

Dux points his wand upfront. He channels his mana to it and shortly, the wand transforms into a knife that's made of light. Oria is stunned, totally amazed by that.

"This is the [Weapon Witchcraft] skill. It allows you to create a temporary weapon by using a magic wand as the catalyst. For this instance, it's a knife that I made."

Dux swishes the knife around, throwing it midair, and catches it afterwards in under five seconds. The weapon then reverts to a simple wand.

"Now, you try it! Remember the basics of using magic? Focus yourself and channel your mana to the wand. Then, imagine that you're grabbing a knife."

"O-Okay... here goes..."

Oria then redoes over how she practiced magic. By focusing on the wand, she channels a tiny speck of mana to it and tries to imagine a weapon. ...Instead of a knife, she thought of something else. A tool that she regularly used to cut overgrown grass.

"Ha...?" Dux is left dumbfounded by what he just saw.

Oria created an arching blade of light protruding from the tip of a medium-length rod that also formed from light. Much to Dux's surprise, Oria didn't make a simple sickle, but a grim reaper-like scythe. A large one that didn't fit her small stature.

"I... thought I told you to imagine a knife, not a big scythe, Oria..." Dux moaned.

"O-Oh, right... I messed up. I'm sorry, Master Dux," said Oria while cutting her mana channeling, reverting the scythe back to a wand.

"But man... that scythe looks awesome. Huh, does that mean the skill 'sickle' of yours isn't actually about you using a sickle, but a goddamned scythe!?"

"I'm sorry, Master Dux, I'm not sure what's a scythe is, but I was told that it was a sickle. They had me use larger ones to cut grasses in the field when we're travelling around," Oria stated, not even realizing she reminisced a bad memory.

"G-Gee... it's been a while since I saw a scythe user. (If that's the case...)" Dux unintentionally summoned his warlock cane. "(That can only mean she'll be proficient in Scythemanship…)"

<Weapon Witchcraft Lv.1 obtained!>

"Oooh! Master Dux! I heard a voice! I've learned the [Weapon Witchcraft] skill!" Oria said nearly shouting, celebrating her achievement happily.

"(Hmph... I guess there are things that she's so afraid of back at the slave camp and things she's not too scared about. I wonder if she's already forgetting those hellish days... that, or perhaps her bad memories were overshadowed by her glowing curiosity and her eagerness to learn.)"

"Master Dux! Look, look! I can create the sickle again! Heehee, it's so cool! The white color of the light is also pretty!" Oria shouted all happy-like, admiring her creation.

Though, she still needs to control her mana channeling. The weapon she created didn't last forever. It reverts to its normal state a few seconds afterwards.

"O-Oops! Ahaha..."

Dux comments in his mind, "(Heh. What a strange child. There're too many mysterious things about her. But even so... she's still a mere eight-year-old.)"

"Nyuhuhuhu, you did well, Oria!" Dux complimented. "But your mana is still unstable when you channeled it to your wand. You need to focus some more! Oh, and this time, try to make a knife instead of that big scythe! It's more stable that way." he advised.

"Mm! Understood! I'll do my best!"

Dux witnesses a great potential within the child. She's a fast learner. He knows that if the little girl is trained properly and extensively, she'll become a great magic user in the future. But the wizard refuses to train her too much, knowing that her psyche is still actually labile where sometimes she's able to overcome her past and sometimes just reminded the word 'slave' would make her faint.

Faruk Argentora also told Dux the same thing before he let Oria go with him.

...After a considerable amount of training the Weapon Witchcraft skill, Oria eventually learns how to form a small knife and maintain its form for a long time. And afterwards...

<Weapon Witchcraft Lv.2 reached!>

Oria achieved the next level of that skill.

With that done, the squid wizard gives her an offer.

"Now's your chance to make an art, Oria!"