Skill Stones

While Samuel was thinking about his breakfast, the world was going crazy. If it was one of the known best players, like the All Might from United States or Dark Sword from Korea, it wouldn't be as surprising as this. But an unknown player got not one, but two system announcements. First he made the game go on an update and now, he unlocked the dungeon information from the website.

Once is good luck, but twice is too much of a coincidence. Players started getting curious. Was this the rise of another star?

Because LEO was getting really popular, the companies were starting to get interested on its economic opportunities. The possible rise of a new professional player star caught the world attention.

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"He surpassed me again. I want all available information on him. I'll give you three days to get it done."

In America, All Might, the best ranking player and warrior started to get cautious of this new player.

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"A mysterious one. If that's not luck, we shall meet at the top."

Dark Warrior, from Korea, showed mild interest. Those who shine only for a moment doesn't interest him. Time shall tell his real skill.

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In every country there was a similar response. The big players were busy expanding their influence and just were observing him. He attracted some attention,but it was too early to say if he would become a big player or just a fleeting star.

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"Welcome, WindBow."

Samuel just logged on in the game. Because of the rewards he was almost level 10. Also he received a new skill and a level 10 skill stone. That was something he never heard about.

[Strong Shot]

Pulls your bow to the limit and fires a strong shot at the target. Causes 100% damage and has a 10% chance of stunning the target. Chance of stunning is tripled for critical hits.

Requirements: Archer Class

Samuel got himself some controlling skill. Though chances were low for now, it's still better than nothing. He next was reading the mysterious stone skill description.

[Level 10 Skill Stone]

A stone containing more than one skill. Let's the player learn one of them. Every skill stone has a certain condition attached.

Skills available:

[Tame], [Dagger Mastery]

Depending in your class advancement, the skill will be deleted. Choose wisely.

"Skill deletion? I shouldn't use this without more information. Let's ask about this to someone first and I can choose later."

Samuel got cautious on the condition attached. First thing he noticed was, class advancement are possible. He needs to get some information on that.

Samuel thought maybe he should visit the hunter NPC in Seregard so he returned with George. George as always was harder to handle than a dungeon boss. George actually received lots of materials from Samuel and was starting to get better at those production skills. Also he made some good money as Peddler and leveled quite a bit. He was around level 7 now.

Samuel was first on rankings again. The second place was a leveling maniac so he should catch up to level 9 soon. Samuel asked Grind about the skill stone and what it meant by deletion depending on advancement. He actually gave him a quest to find the hunter inside the forest to learn about that.

Although Samuel had cold sweat on his back, he actually received a simple quest to find the hunter. His bad luck should on cooldown for now.

At the place he was sent to, there was a hut with wolf skins hanging outside. There also an axe for logging outside the hut, it gave indications that someone was living there. Specially the smoke come from the chimney.

"Are you lost, boy?"

He heard a voice behind him. Looking back, there was a tall man, with lean and muscular body, as if every muscle was not for brute strength, but very flexible. He had a bow on his back and he could see a pair of dagger on his belt. They looked like a rare item. The bow was not eye catching, but it gave him a sense of being very well made. Maybe it's power was hidden in that simple appearance.

"My name is WindBow. Village Chief Grind sent me here because I had questions about some things."

"Seregard's chief? Hum.. Well let's go inside, I left the food heating when I sensed a presence."

Inside the hut, the house looked simple. First thing on Samuel's mind was "There's certainly no woman living here". The house was the devoid of many things, especially decorations. Almost as if he didn't live there for long and just got enough temporarily.

"So what do you want? I thought you were just a boy, but you are stronger than a normal villager."

"I heard from Grind you were an experienced bow user and dismantler. I want to learn the dismantling trade if you could teach me."

"If you bring the materials I could teach you."

[Learning the Trade Quest Received]

The mysterious hunter inside the Moon Forest is willing to teach you dismantling as long as you cover the costs. Bring him a monster body and a knife to use in lessons.

Rank: -

Time Limit: 1 day

Hidden Mission: Bring an higher rank monster than common.

"I'll be back in a minute."

Samuel just found another wolf to kill. Although he knew the hidden mission, he didn't have an observation skill. Also, he'd rather just learn it already and not waste time on searching.

"I'm back. Sorry I don't know your name yet."

"Dex. Put it at the back, I'll be there shortly."

Although Dex didn't look like it, he was actually very attentious and detailed. After Samuel got the skill he asked about the still Stone. The hunter actually showed some appreciation instead of it's cold expression.

"Oh, that's a very precious thing you got. You did well in asking before using. Skill Stones don't grant skills the same way books do. When you read a book you receive the complete skill, so the skill becomes yours and can be evolved as long as you achieve the requirements. But Skills Stones need to record more than single skill. So they record incomplete skills using a common trace like class. Yours should be like that right?"

Samuel didn't get that complete and incomplete skill, but he understood all else. Looks like stones skill are limited in some way. Also, stones will always have multiple skills following some pattern, like his stone which gives "Archer" skills. Maybe multiple classes in a stone is possible if it follows another pattern, like Ice skills for multiple classes.

"I think I get it, but what does it mean incomplete."

"Stones are used to get used to a style. The stone you showed, for example, it's good for archers to decide their future path. Hunters will depend on tamed monsters to protect them and specialize in long range and traps. Rangers will become more versatile. Although their long range skills are not as good as Hunters, they compensate it by getting skills for close and middle range."

"So if I can get skills from my advanced classes. That's very attractive."

"Indeed. But they are very limited too. You can't rank them up and if you advance to an incompatible class, the skill formula will conflict and you'll lose it. So think carefully about your future."

Samuel was startled. So that's the limitation. This makes it good to have a feel for advanced classes.

"Thanks, Dex. This was very helpful."

"You're a promising man. Just be careful on your adventures."

Samuel was almost level 10 so he would be able to use this soon. He decided to grind some wolves till then. The wolves a little deeper from the cottage were higher leveled. They were Black Wolves ranging from level 7 to 10. Although it took a long time he finally level up. His dismantling and skinning saw some improvements.

"So it's a kind of test driving, but if I choose wrongly I'll have to find the skill again."

Samuel was thinking the pros and cons.

Ranger looks to become a kind of warrior archer. They can even equip one handed swords besides daggers. It's a class to become an all rounder. The problem is, a Jack of all and master of none. Though he doesn't have any weaknesses to exploit, he doesn't have very strong points either.

Hunter are specialized for long range. Their bow skills increases. They aren't very strong at close range, but to offset that hunters have trap skills and pets. Although that means it's a class pending to PVE strategies. Traps are difficult to use on humans.

"Hunter it is."

Well Samuel found Hunter a lot more enjoyable. He doesn't know if there anymore advancements after hunter and ranger, but every advancement should make the class strong points even stronger. So hunter who clearly specializes in bows skills should become even stronger from long ranges. Ranger should have increased power at medium and close range.

"Although I've played like a ranger until now, hunter class seems more fun. I like using my mind as much as I like using my body."

Samuel expectations about the class was high. Since its strong and weak points were exposed, it would require careful planning to maximize its strong points while minimizing its weak points. Just thinking about that, he couldn't wait to start playing like that.

[Tame - Extra]

Can use monster as pets. Capturing monster is dependent on level difference, rarity and hp %. The maximum number of pets is dependent on skill level.

Can have up to: 1

[Tame - Extra 1/5]

"Great! I don't see limits on which monsters can become pets. Most probably I can capture anything that's not too unique or sentient, like another human."

Samuel wanted to test it immediately so he started exploring a little. There were a lot of wolves around and it wasn't a bad pet to start. Though not much of a tanker, if trained well it could get very useful.

Since he started playing, the monster he saw the most were wolves and spiders. After killing so many wolves, he could see which wolves had higher agility or strength. Though he wasn't very accurate, he felt like he could at least sense if a wolf had a special talent in any stats.

He killed all the average ones who didn't look like anything special. Until he found a different one. He didn't even fight it but he could feel the difference. There was a wolf blacker than the others. There were three wolves glaring at it, as if they were ready to fight for something. But although they had higher numbers, they were cautious of that lone wolf.

"Being this cautious in a 1 vs 3, that black one should be promising."

Since last update, the monster follow more the real life ecosystem rules. So monsters also fight among them for dominance.

The black one suddenly leaped. He was considerably faster than a normal wolf. He quickly pushed one wolf to the ground and bit its throat. He couldn't get a good bite at it, but it was good enough to leave a bleeding gash. It immediately jumped away, the others were just about to bite him back.

The three wolves didn't let it get anymore space. They were keeping it surrounded and using their teeth and claws for damage. The black one was trying to use its increased agility, but the wolves didn't let it. It counter attacked when it could, but Samuel noticed it was prioritising defense.

Although it was encircled for 5 minutes now, it received as much damage as it gave to the two healthier wolves. There were gashes and bite marks on its front and back legs but almost no serious wounds. The wolf it attacked first was finally tiring out. The blood escaping its wounds finally started to make effect. The bleed damage piled up until its hp was less than 5%.

The black wolf finally bared its fangs for real. It suddenly leaped to a wolf with 73% HP. The wolf avoided most of the damage, but still lost 12% hp, getting to 61%. The black wolf turned and finished the almost dead one. With only two left, it could fight a lot easier. Soon the two wolves couldn't stand up to the black one and died. As it was about to rest, a human voice spoke to it.

"You're good. I guess you'll be my first one."