[EX] skills!

For the past two weeks, Aster has been living happily in the hospital.

He participated in physical therapy to loosen up his stiff muscles that had been laying still for seven months, he completed the daily quests issued by the system and most importantly, he learned about the current situation of the earthlings and Gaia. It would be an understatement to say he was pissed off.

'What the hell, I can understand them being angry about their 'reinforcements' being shit but taking it out on Earthlings is a bit too much'

But what surprised him the most though, was that something like Titans existed and Blake and some other girl killed one of them.

'Looks like he became a big shot while I was sleeping huh, good for him. I guess some people are just meant to be in the spotlight no matter where they go.'

'But those Titans though, extreme adaptability and the power to absorb the powers of their enemies... That's just like those novel mc's! I wonder if I have an ability similar to gluttony.'

[No, the host does not possess any ability similar to that extremely popular slime]

'Figures, but I wonder if I can gain an ability like that.'

-[Host Name: [Benefactor of Gaia], Aster Gaelcius]

-[Level: 1] [Exp:60/100]

-[Race: Human(Earthling)]

-[Titles]:[Benefactor of Gaia]

-[Personal traits]:[Earthling], [Gaia], [Sloth], [Soul striker], [Malleable soul membrane]

[Hp:50/50] [Energy:40/40] [Mana:0/0]

-[Attributes]

[Strength:5] [Agility:4]

[Endurance:4] [ Vitality:5]

[Mana:0] [Intelligence:0]

[Dexterity:5]

-[Pseudo attributes]

[Comprehension: 0.63]

[Spirit: 0.23]

[Elemental affinity: None]

[Available attribute points:18]

[Techniques]:[Mana recovery meditation(Beginner)9/100%], [Basic body strengthening(Intermediate)41/100%]

[Unique skills]:[Overwrite], [Erase], [Inscribe], [Rewrite], [True sight Lv 1]

[Passive skills]:[Mana sense Lv 10(78%)], [Mana control Lv 10(76%)]

[Resistance skills]:[Paralysis resistance Lv 1](description: Decreases the chance of being inflicted paralysis by an attack is decreased by 5%, paralysis via substances has it's efficiency decreased by 5%)

[Status: Recovering]

The reason why his [Comprehension] went down is because he made the mistake of using his unique skills to test them out. All of his unique skills require super high comprehension to use and when he used it without meeting the requirements, loss of hp along with some brain damage occurred.

He diligently completed the daily quests the first 6 days after he woke up but there wasn't any more Daily Quest after that.

'Daily quest? More like Weekly Quest'

But he didn't stay idle though, he made his daily quest. 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10km run every day. He took inspiration from a certain bald man for this quest. With intense exercise, his muscles tore and that was the ideal condition to practice [Basic body strengthening].

Nourishing his cells with his Aura did wonders for his muscle development and recovery, the amount of stats he gained from a week of exercise combined with the body strengthening technique was way more than just practicing it 24/7.

He also leveled up his [Mana sense] and [Mana control] to their former glory and beyond. They were maxed out now and for them to level up further, they needed to evolve into [EX] skills. In order for a skill to ascend to the next stage, naturally increasing the proficiency or using skill points is needed.

The condition for ascending via naturally increasing proficiency was a bit harsh as he needed ten times more proficiency than normal while he needed 10 skill points each for them to evolve but since he increased his proficiency 5 times faster, it was obvious which path he would take.

Unlike Earth, Gaia was overflowing with mana. Aster closed his eyes and immediately sensed about a million tiny pieces of mana all around him.

Aster grinned 'I'm gonna get two [EX] skills today! But before that, add 6 points to mana, 6 points to intelligence, and 6 points to endurance.'

[Mana:0 >>> 6]

[Mana:0 >>> 60]

[Intelligence:0 >>> 6]

[Comprehension: 0.63 >>> 0.69]

[Endurance: 4 >>> 10]

[Energy: 40/40 >>> 100/100]

Aster immediately felt something change within his soul and his body and he liked the change.

'Hmm, increasing intelligence naturally increases comprehension, I haven't tried to add attribute points directly to comprehension so I would like to try that someday as I would need a lot of it in the future. Spirit is increasing nicely too, I'm almost average in terms of cultivating speed now.'

While completing his self-made Daily quest, Aster realized the severity of the 50% increased energy consumption from his trait [Sloth]. It just didn't mean that he would get tired twice as fast, he would consume 50% more energy from everything that he would do. When a person accumulates more fatigue, their energy consumption rate also increases. Getting an injury makes things worse.

However, what makes things even WORSE is his [Sloth] trait, it increases the energy consumption rate overall from injuries, fatigue, and normal rate which stacks up and ultimately makes him tire way faster.

He sighed 'Looks like I have to get rid of [Sloth] in the end.'

Although increasing strength decreases the energy consumption, his points weren't enough to make any significant decrease in it so he just added points to energy.

'Well, it would disappear on its own after I start grinding like crazy.'

With that thought, he commanded the mana particles around him to take many different shapes, ranging from weapons to basic shapes. He even started to write random sentences using mana to further increase his mastery over it.

***

A couple of hours later

[Mana sense Lv Max has evolved to Mana sense [EX]]

[Mana control Lv Max has evolved to Mana control [EX]]

[Two skills have evolved to the next stage, 500 credits have been awarded]

'Haha, my first [EX] skills. I wonder if anything changed.'

Passive skill: [Mana sense [EX] Lv 1]

[Progress: 0/500]

<[Description: 10 You are able to clearly perceive mana around meter radius you]>

Passive skill: [Mana control [EX] Lv 1]

[Progress: 0/500]

<[Description: You are able to skillfully manipulate the mana in your sense.]>

'Hmm, nothing changed except the progression requirement. That's kind of disappointing really, but it's still early to judge. Let's level it up one more time.'

***

[Skill [Mana sense [EX] has leveled up]

[Skill [Mana control [EX] has leveled up]

Passive skill: [Mana sense [EX] Lv 2]

[Progress: 0/550]

<[Description: 20 You are able to clearly perceive mana around meter radius you]>

Passive skill: [Mana control [EX] Lv 2]

[Progress: 0/550]

<[Description: You are able to skillfully manipulate the mana in your sense.]>

'Hmm the radius of mana sense doubled. It used to increase by 1 meter every level up when it was just a normal skill. I guess that's the difference between normal skills and [EX] skills, the latter's growth is way more than the former but the requirements increased drastically.

Pretty good trade off, I would say. The description of Mana control is still the same but mana sense increased so it's range also doubled. Nice. I should focus on upgrading my [Mana recovery meditation] for now.'

***

Meanwhile, somewhere on Gaia:

"Are you leaving Blake?" A woman asked.

She had long white hair that reached her waist along with emerald green eyes, she wore a simple white dress that highlighted her voluptuous figure. This was Noelle Alabaster, a role model for many young women and the crush of many boys of all age.

"Yeah, I will be out for a bit. I won't be long" a deep, manly voice said.

The owner of that voice had golden hair that reached below his broad shoulders, a stunning height of 213cm along with a body that anybody would describe as 'Godly'. He wore simple gray shirt with loose pants that did a poor job of hiding his otherworldly physique.

He wore sunglasses to hide his iconic fiery orange eyes. He certainly changed a lot over the months. This was Blake Emberson, the hope of humankind.

"You know they would scold you for leaving without their permission right?"

"Do you seriously think I give a shit about that, Alexandra?"

"Don't call me that!" Noelle hissed.

"Yeah sorry, it slips my mind sometimes" he quickly apologized except his voice didn't sound apologetic at all.

'I wonder how he would react if he saw us now?' He wondered.

'If what he says is right... then he will be stronger than me or Noelle.'

'Let's see if it's true'

***

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