Chapter 4: Skill Acquired

He let out a few ragged breathes as sweat ran down his face. He got off the bed to realized that he slept in the same clothes he wore to come in.

He pulled off the coat and boots and made his way to the bathroom. He washed the sweat off his face in a hurried manner.

He was still shaken and the drea-no, nightmare, was proof of that.

'It seems these dreams are going to become a regular occurrence.' He thought as he let drops of water stream down his face.

'That's enough sleep for today.' He noted as he pulled off his shirt and used it to dry off his face.

'I suppose now would be a good time to go to the library.' He mused as he went to the living room of the apartment to take out a new and loose sweatshirt from his bag.

Putting it on, he also changed out of the boots and into normal white sneakers. He went to the kitchen and fortunately for him, he spotted a collect of kitchen knives. He picked up two of them, gripping them tightly. The next moment, they disappeared into thin air before appearing in his palm again.

'So this function is also available.' He thought. He had been trying to figure out the features of the system since it didn't come with an instructions manual.

Though it was available, the problem with the inventory was that it was limited. He didn't know the exact size but from what he could feel it was a about two meter

'So far this is one of the most useful ones.' He thought as he let the knives disappear again, this time not bringing them back.

He fished out an empty bag from his box, stuffing a notebook in it and then left, locking the door behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora walked into the tokyo central library after dropping his bag in the designated area. Ignoring the librarian who offered her assistance, he went straight upstairs.

The ground floor was for fiction, fantasy and other unneeded books. The second floor was where the educational and non fictional books were kept. The floor after that was the computer room for those who wanted to do further research. Though not just anyone could enter that room, they needed clearance for that.

He didn't bother himself with that since he had no interest there. The seats around were filled with people of ages mostly above thirteen. The shelves were labeled according to what topic you were looking for.

Looking around, he made his way to the science section. The first rule of the library was 'total silence' but it seemed some else had other ideas. The volume of a phone nearby increased loud enough for everyone to hear.

"…more kids have gone missing in the past few days. If you have any information or you see something suspicious, please contact th-" The staff who had been positioned on this floor immediately seized the phone.

"If your going to use your phone, put it on silent. That's your final warning." The man said in a clipped tone.

"You don't tell me what to do. I'm going to do whatever I wa…" The boy started but Sora tuned him out and continued on his way.

He reached the shelf and took his time to peruse the shelf, making sure not to miss anything important.

[Do you want to learn 'Astrology Mastery']

[Yes] or [No]

[Do you want to learn 'Arithmetics Mastery']

[Yes] or [No]

Different notifications popped up as he touched each book but he dismissed them as these weren't his target.

It took more time than he would have liked but he eventually found it halfway through the second row.

[Do you want to learn 'Engineering Mastery']

[Yes] or [No]

He let a victorious smirk show on his face as he picked it out and continued searching for anything that could be useful. He looked through the rest, some of them generating a prompt related to this particular one.

Sighing at his slight misfortune at not finding anything else, he carried the related books to an empty table. There were four books in total.

[Do you want to learn 'Engineering Mastery']

[Yes] or [No]

Upon holding the first one, he received the first prompt again. He held himself from accepting, dismissing it and opening the book.

He wasn't sure what would happen if he accepted. The book could disappear and it would be a hot topic if people witnessed it. On the other hand, he could figure out if it was possible to gain a skill by actually reading the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was when he was about thirty minutes into the book that he received a notification.

[*Ding!*]

[You have gained 'Engineering Mastery'!]

'Finally!' He thought, letting out a sigh of relief but didn't drop the book. He continued for about an hour before packing the books on his palm and taking them to the librarian downstairs.

Seeing the boy come downstairs, she frowned in recognition.

"How can I help you?" She asked with a forced smile.

"I want to borrow these books." He stated, not caring about her thoughts. She raised an eyebrow while looking at the books he brought.

'Guide to Machinery, Design paradigms, Theory of Machines…' She then took a look at the boy standing patiently in front of her.

'He can't be more than thirteen and he's interested in these kind of books? No wonder he's weird.' She thought as she processed his request.

"You need to fill this out this form before you can be allowed to do that." She said, giving him a sheet of paper from the pile beside her.

She watched as he silently filled it out before returning it to her. While she inputted it into the computer, Sora had his eyes on something else.

•••••••••••••

[Template Name: Sasuke Uchiha]

[Template Progress: 6.5]

[Skills]:[Engineering Mastery Lvl 4]

•••••••••••••

'It's slower than I'd like but it's a start.' He thought as the librarian stored the now stamped form in a labeled file and handed him a slip.

"The due date for return is two weeks from today. You're free to go." She said with a smile that wasn't as forced as before but still forced.

After retrieving his bag from the section it was kept, he stored the books and made his way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The distance from his apartment to the grocery store on foot wasn't much so returning home didn't take too long to quickly grab a few things. Of course he paid with the allowance money Kaito had given him.

Upon entering the apartment, he dropped the grocery bag on the kitchen counter. Removing his shoes and taking an apple out of the bag, he made his way to his room with one of the books out in his hand.

He plopped on his bed and continued from where he left off while taking bites from the fruit in his hand.

A few minutes later, he was a page that displayed the inside mechanism of a landline phone. An idea came to him at that moment as he quickly got off the bed and towards the living room.

He sighted the ancient phone sitting on a small table. Taking out the knife from his inventory, he carefully dismantled the device. He recognized most if not all the parts that he scattered from the book.

'Now to reassemble.' He thought as he reversed his actions. He took a peek at the book once but that was it. Putting it back together was harder than dismantling it but as he did it, he seemed to get the hang of it.

Within the next twenty minutes, the landline looked exactly how it looked before he dismantled it. His sight was obscured by multiple notifications.

[Engineering Mastery has leveled up!]

[Engineering Mastery has leveled up!]

[Engineering Mastery has leveled up!]

Though he didn't finish it before he exited the library, he was able to get three levels from actually reading the book. This time he got three levels at once from actually using the skill.

'The fastest way to level this skill up is to actively use this skill. Eventually this phone won't cut it. I'll have to find more complicated things to work with. But for now…' he thought as he brought up the knife and once again began to disassemble the landline.