98 Merging Skills

Zachary woke with a start and sat bolt upright on the sofa. The morning sun was already beaming through the window, adorned with drawn silk curtains, on one side of his apartment's living room. The light rays reflected off the glass-top of his classic rectangular coffee table, blinding him momentarily because his pupils were—still dilated from sleep.

He cast a cursory glance at his wall clock and noticed that it was already 10 AM. Only then did he remember why he'd slept in the living room instead of the comfort of his well-furnished bedroom.

The previous evening he had purchased the Snipe-it-like-Pirlo Juju from the system shop. He had immediately gone through the mental conditioning required to learn the skill but had blacked out during the process. He couldn't help but tremble on recalling the mind-numbing pain he'd gone through the previous night.