Innate Skill
"Alright, the moment of truth."
I muttered as I stared at this disgustingly long needle held in my hands. This was the "Potential Awakener", a syringe meant to awake, well, your potential. Ever since the Dungeons appeared, and the worlds merged 120 years ago, many people had been able to awake naturally, and get powerful abilities. Ever since then, many people had been able to awake daily, even newly born children.
Unfortunately, I wasn't one of those children. I was one of those people who were unable to awaken naturally- of which there were quite a lot, hence the reason this syringe exists- and had to use this syringe.
This syringe wasn't cheap, I'll tell you that much. This thing, along with these 2 spell books laid on my side, costed me almost my savings. I'm talking years and years of saving, folks.
"Dirty bastards," I blurted out, quite pissed. Honestly, I wanted to just buy a potential awakener, but those bastards always had a 'starter pack' of sort, where you could buy the potential awakener, as well as the most common F- grade skills at a discount, as long as you brought them all together.
I lifted the syringe and brought it near my arm. I'm usually not that scared of needles, but this needle is especially horrifying. How the hell am I supposed to inject this?
"Whatever, just think about the magical abilities I would be able to use," I reassured myself, and after calming myself, I injected the needle into my arm.
"SHIT!" I yelped, as I inhaled very sharply. This thing hurts, a lot. But, I managed to calm down somewhat, and injected the content of the syringe.
"Ugh..." I felt a bit nauseous after I removed the needle. This wasn't a pleasant experience, not at all. Even ignoring the pain, this nauseous feeling is annoying.
I waited for a few moments, the pain in my arm subsiding little by little. Aside from this nauseous feeling, I didn't feel anything else. Based on what I read, I should feel quite euphoric just a few seconds after injecting this needle, but I didn't feel anything.
I began to panic a bit, thinking I was one of those "No potential" folks, people who even after injecting the syringe, couldn't actually awaken.
Just as I thought of this, something suddenly appeared in front of me.
[Name: Baku
Huntsman Grade: F-
Strength: F-
Speed: F-
Magic: F-
Innate Skills: <Plunder, Improve, and Amalgamate>
Skills Obtained: None]
Upon this system appearing in front of me, I almost let out a scream of victory. Thankfully, I managed to calm down myself. I checked my stats, and like I had expected, all of them were at F-. Stats ranged from F-, all the way to EX. And the difference between one grade and the other was absolutely massive.
I read my innate skill, and felt a bit confused about the name of my innate skill. Every single person who awaken has an innate skill, skill that is unique to the individual. It was different to buying spell books where someone could get them by simply going to a Hunter organization and getting a skill.
I suddenly remembered the rising star "The Emperor of Magic". That man, based on the news I had heard, had an innate skill that raised his magic stat by multiple grades. When he had awakened, his magic stat was already at C+, far above the majority of the awakened.
Obviously, I was interested about my innate skill, and checked the description of the skill.
[Name: Plunder, Improve, and Amalgamate
Rank: F-
Description: Steal skills of the foes you have killed. Improve them endlessly by spending Golden Orbs on them. Merge 2 skills together to gain a stronger skill.
Restrictions: You cannot use spell books, and are only able to gain skills by killing your foes.
Experience Gained: 0.00%]
I was stupefied by what I had read. This... Isn't this absurdly powerful?! I can steal skills from the people I killed, and not only that, but I can improve them and even merge them?!
As I felt excitement welling up inside of me, I read the restrictions of this skill, and felt a bit confused.
"You cannot use spell books?" I muttered, and glanced at the two spell books besides me. <Wind Blade> and <Water Cannon>, those were the names of the spell books I had brought along with the "Potential Awakener". Ignoring the potential awakener, these 2 spell books alone, after the discount, costed me at least over 60 thousand dollars! You're telling me I can't use these?!
I picked the spell books up, and the moment I wanted to learn them, the system interface appeared once more;
[Would you like to learn <Wind Blade> and <Water Cannon>?]
Upon seeing this, I let out a sigh of relief. Based on the restriction of my innate skill, I thought I wouldn't be able to learn these 2 spell books, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Instantly, I clicked yes, and in the next moment, the spell books shined brightly, before abruptly disappearing into particles. The interface appeared again after this;
[Successfully learned <Wind Blade> and <Water Cannon>]
I was a bit confused, to be completely honest. While the interface did say that I learned them, I didn't feel... anything, really. Usually, when you learn new spells, you gain the basic knowledge about them and how to use them. It's like imprinting memories and information to your mind, but I didn't get any of that. I still felt normal.
Anxious, I lifted my hand, and calmly tried casting the skill 'Water Cannon'. You may very well question why I am using this skill in my apartment, as that seemed like a stupid idea. And I agree with you on that. However, I honestly didn't care if this skill ruined my apartment at this point, as it was a fairly tame skill, and really, I was quite excited and especially nervous about what was going on.
...I waited for a few moments, but, nothing happened. I tried again and again, but it was all in vain.
At this point, I began to feel a bit worried that something had gone wrong, and immediately brought up my status;
My stats were still the same, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything was exactly the same.
But that's the problem, everything was exactly the same! Literally nothing changed! I frantically looked at the <Skills Obtained> section of the status, and it was utterly empty;
[Skills Obtained: None]
The wind blade and water cannon should've appeared there! Where the hell were they?! Even if my innate skill blocked me from learning new skills, that didn't mean it should be able to erase the spell books I'm trying to learn!
Instantly, I looked at my innate skill ability, and felt a bit conflicted about what I saw.
Everything was the same, except for the very last part of the skill;
[Experience Gained: 0.58%]
The experience for my innate skill had clearly changed after I "learned" those 2 spell books. Damn, well, at least those spell books weren't for waste, eh?
"UGH! Who the hell am I kidding?!" I shouted with pure frustration as I gripped my head in a panic. 60 thousand! 60 thousand dollars, gone, for less than 1% of experience!
Damn it!
"Alright, alright, phew, let's calm down a bit..." I muttered to myself, trying to be as optimistic as possible. Even though I got less than 1% of experience for my innate skill, at least those spell books weren't gone for nothing. Besides, Innate skills are arguably one of the most important, if not the most important skill to an awakened. It's the skill that was unique to them, and no one had it, at least not to the same caliber.
Besides, my innate skill is absurdly powerful, for sure. Although I haven't tested it yet, but just from the description alone, it obviously is powerful. I can steal skills, upgrade them endlessly, and even merge them to get something even stronger!
I let out a sigh as I thought about the true strength of my innate skill. I was so bumped out with my spell books that I didn't fully realize just how powerful my innate skill is.
"Well," I started, "Might as well test it."
In just a few minutes, I had managed to get my backpack, my weapons, and my hunter's license. Although I wasn't an awakened, I still was able to get a hunter's license. Any person, regardless if they are awakened or not, could get a hunter's license. Of course, that license wasn't highly ranked, and would only be at rank F-, meaning you are only allowed to enter dungeons that are graded as F-. Not even F, just F-.
That's partially because F- dungeons were relatively easy, as long as you were athletic and experienced. I was a hunter for almost 8 years now, and despite the low rank of the dungeons I went through, they still brought quite a good amount of money- money enough to live comfortably. Not anything absurd, but it was still good.
I got out of the house, and took a cab to the nearest dungeon near me, a dungeon I had already cleared countless of times; [The Inferior Goblin Tower].
Within a few minutes, I appeared at this disgustingly tall dungeon, or rather, tower. Its height easily exceeded hundreds of meters. There were many dungeons like this scattered around the country and the wilderness. The higher the grade of the dungeon, the larger it was. If I recall correctly, the highest known dungeon in the human region is at rank B+, and spans thousands of meters in height alone.
I went to the entrance of the dungeon, where there were many guards. Not anyone is able to enter a dungeon, they'd need a hunter license, just like I do.
Thankfully, the guards knew me, and didn't bother to check my license nor ask any series of tedious questions. One of them kindly smiled at me and said;
"Be careful."
I nodded upon hearing this, I was already used to it. Although a rank F- dungeon could be cleared by an athletic person, that didn't mean it was risk free. It was still dangerous, and countless people have died inside due to being reckless. Fortunately, I wasn't one of those people, and hopefully I'll never be.
After the guard let me through, I was met with an extraordinarily large gate made of what appeared to be metal. I calmly touched the gate, and in a flash, my surroundings changed. I was no longer in front of this gate, instead, I was met with an extremely long, empty hallway.
This meant I had officially entered the dungeon.
Alright, time to test my innate skill.