Chapter 17

The moment Darius saw this, a wave of cool energy flowed through him, refreshing his mind, body, and soul. It appeared to have restored his HP and MP to their perfect values.

Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, it had alleviated all his fatigue and had either healed or reset his body to the same state it had been as when he had spawned.

This little mechanic could become crucial in preserving his life later on, just like it had saved him right now.

If Darius were to complain, then only because his Conversion Points had stayed the same. However, since his Trasmutation Ability was governed by its own set of rules, he had expected as much. Still, he would have preferred to be wrong on this occasion.

Darius opened his character sheet.

[Name: Darius Stone

Race: Human

Class: Itemancer

Subclass: Magus

HP: 49/49

MP: 42/42

Level: 2

Experience: 5/200

Strength: 7

Agility: 7

Endurance: 7

Intellect: 21

Charisma: 15

Luck: 15

AP: 5

SP: 3

Skills: Analyze - Lv.1

Spells: Sparks - Lv.1, Ember - Lv.1]

Darius rubbed his chin and pondered how to allocate his Ability Points and Skill Points. He could raise his sub-par physical stats to the average amount so that he wouldn't be as useless in battle, but he came to the conclusion that it would be a foolish choice.

Instead, Darius placed 4 points into Intellect, raising it to 25, while sending his last free point into Agility. He felt the changes almost instantly.

His mind felt like it had been cleared of debris that had been blocking his nerve paths, allowing his synapses to fire faster. It was like taking an attention enhancing drug, only this would be permanent without any side-effects.

It was truly an amazing experience, literally feeling yourself becoming smarter on the spot, instead of slowly over a period of time.

Not only that, but Darius also felt his body become slightly limber as if a weight he had been carrying on his back had been lifted slightly, allowing him to move more easily.

Darius smiled bitterly, for he had realized something. He could easily become addicted to the bliss he received when allocating stats, to the point where he might turn into a junkie.

As for his skill points, Darius had compared both his spells with each other. They both did the same amount of damage, but Sparks offered a stun effect whereas Ember offered a burning effect. Darius clearly preferred a way to control his enemy, so he chose to place everything into Sparks.

'Sharing my limited amount of SP between two spells would be the epitome of stupidity. What I need first and foremost is higher battle power to ensure my survival.'

[Sparks - Level 4 Spell

Cost: 1 MP

Description: Send out a sparkle of electricity that can zap foes into a short paralysis. This deals 20% lightning damage.]

Darius was excited by this change. Every additional level corresponded to 5% extra damage to the base spell, while the cost for casting had not changed at all.

The SP had increased the spell's effectiveness in every aspect!

With his 25 points in Intellect, one Sparks spell would now do 5 points of damage! The same Grey Bear could have been killed in four shots! Not to mention, if he scored a critical hit it would now be a massive 15 points of damage!

His Supreme System truly deserved its name. Its ability to enhance its user was mindboggling. Just one level increase and his power had quintupled straight away!

Darius looked at his last 2 Conversion Points and used a little bit of refill his flask. As great and miraculous his level up had been, it had apparently not solved a natural issue that would plague the young boy's body which was... hunger.

He had pre-emptively solved his thirst issue by creating a flask and then re-filling it with water. Now, it was time to prepare some food. Darius was not too worried about this, as he had an idea to save costs.

He took out his iron dagger and thrust it into the carcass of the Grey Bear. Without ceremony, he ripped apart its innards which were quite difficult and painful given his low Strength and the bear's tough hide.

However, he eventually got it done in time. What surprised Darius though, was that a notification popped up before him.

[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Skinning!]

Darius immediately checked the new skill out.

[Skinning - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 2 Stamina per minute

Description: Expertly remove the hide of any carcass with epidermal skin. The quality of all skinned hide is raised by 5%.]

Just like with the Ember spell, Darius felt a worth of knowledge flood his mind. He went from someone who was clumsily using a knife to tear open hide, to someone who could visualize the lines in which he should move his blade in order to effectively preserve as much of it as possible.

When he came out of his daze and looked at what he did, he almost vomited. Cursing himself for being such an amateur, he professionally separated the hide of the Grey Bear. Alas, just knowing how to do it did not make this task any easier as his body had remained the same.

While holding the slightly ruined hide of the Grey Bear, he felt lost. Yes, he had carved it out intently, but he didn't have any plans to use it! He didn't have the skills of a Tanner, so he could not cure it.

Still, Darius placed it in his Inventory. While he may not have such skills as of yet, he had discovered something interesting. He remembered that Caesar told him there were three ways to learn new skills.

The first was to learn it by teaching others or being taught, the second was to develop it oneself or train oneself in it and the final was through skillbooks. He had no way to do the first one yet, and he had overestimated the second one for sure, thinking only the third one would be relevant until he entered civilization.

But clearly, he had underestimated his trusty companion. The Supreme System had once again displayed its prowess by taking the clumsy acts that resembled a skinning skill and had actually presented him with the full thing.

Not only that, but he had gained the functional knowledge of the skill as if it came from a skillbook, which confused him. If this was the case, then what was the point of learning or buying skillbooks should they exist in stores?

Darius then pondered deeply and could only make a shaky assumption, which was that the Skinning skill was regarded as so basic and simplistic that even mimicking it had been enough to grant him the skill.

After all, once learned, he would have to use skill points to level it up. Caesar had stated as much, so even if he coincidentally discovered an old wise man who was a Grandmaster Skinner nice enough to train him, his skill would not grow in the slightest.

From this, Darius learned of an important dynamic for his skills system that could be summed up as: 'Easy to learn, hard to level up.'