Ten Skills

Cat Burglar; that term spread like wildfire during that day. I did not expect such an event to happen. After all, we just robbed one of the minor sects in our list. Imagine what would've happened if we had raided someone like a Tang sect or something; this world would've gone bonkers about it. Thankfully, although the rumor of a cat burglar started to rise up around our area, it did not spread up to the other areas and was limited to the places near the Raging Thunder sect; which meant not even their superiors took it seriously because they don't perceive me as much of a threat, which is perfectly fine.

[Liar!]

"Huh?" I looked towards Goldy, who had a smug look on his face.

[I said that you are pretty good at lying to yourself.]

{What do you mean by that?}

[Sheesh, do I have to spell it all out for you? You're kinda bummed out that none of the major sects aren't taking you seriously, right?]

{What? Why would I be sad? Isn't that good?}

[Oh, damn! That's some straight-faced lie that you just gave out! You really feel good about them not acknowledging your skills? Hell, even the rise of this cat burglar into this society, you know that it isn't because they acknowledge your skills. It's simply a term coined to cover their behinds. You're still not acknowledged. You're feeling a bit iffy about it, aren't you?]

Well, I couldn't deny his allegations. I was kinda irked about it. They called me cat burglar because they were so lazy to even get up from their seats. I mean, which cat burglar steals stuff by blasting through doors and stuff? It's lousy, if you ask me…

{I guess, yea…}

[And the way you're being pictured. Although you're secretly proud of what you did, I clearly sense the disdain to the sketch that they drew for the cat burglar. Aren't I right?]

{... As always.}

[Great. So, what are you gonna do about it?]

{Hmm… Build a proper legacy of the so-called cat burglar, I guess? I don't know…}

[Damn, I never thought you'd enjoy stealing stuff from someone!]

{Was that even a robbery, huh?}

[Well, I get what you're meaning by that.]

{So, how many pills were there in that container that we stole?}

[About twenty, if I remember it clearly, which I do, unlike you!]

{Bruh, you don't have to rub in your memory prowess on me. I am clearly aware of the limitations of my memory.}

[Cool, rubbing it over you just felt extremely satisfying.]

{I see. If that makes you happy, who am I to stop it? Anyway, twenty pills, huh? That means six hundred years worth of sacred pills. Cool! I just need about four more pills and I can level up my Qi.}

[What the hell are you talking about?]

Goldy looked at me as if I just spouted some BS. However, I didn't exactly say something that doesn't make sense though! I just have six hundred years worth of Qi pills and I just need a hundred more years. Wait a minute! I could've leveled up almost instantly if Goldy's hundred years worth of Qi didn't leak out back then, right? Damn, I'm kinda unlucky. Is that why he's looking at me like this?

[You're an idiot, aren't you?]

{Huh?}

[An idiot that doesn't know how the Qi level thing works.]

{Well, you would be right on that. Other than in-game experience…}

[Like do you really think that a minor sect like the Raging Thunder has six or so blue sapphire warriors and the pills are for them? No, it's for the same person. Looks like you are not even aware of how Qi levels work in-game. It's either that or you've forgotten about how it works in the game.]

{Hmm… It's highly possible that I actually forgot. So, enlighten me Sensei!}

[Ah, how long do I have to continue explaining stuff to you until you actually understand some of the things that I say? I feel like I'm growing older each time I explain about something to you!]

{That's not possible now, is it? First, you are a soul, right? Souls don't age. Secondly, aren't you kinda immortal? Or wait, do you have to be in the God realm to be at the pinnacle where you completely stop aging? Hmm, immortal… I can't exactly use that term now, can I? After all the Gods here aren't exempt from death. It's just that you lot age slowly or completely stop aging. Anyway, where were we?}

[See, I didn't even explain a thing and you totally went off-topic. This is why I said the thing that I said before. So, let me get to the topic before you go off-topic again. Qi levels… Remember how you have to get to the absolute brim of your personal skills before you're allowed to break through the barrier? Like, if you had something like a Sword art or stuff, you had to level up to like three or something for the system to actually let you level up your Qi. So, although you had about a hundred or a thousand pills of that level, unless you don't level up the related skills, you can't level your Qi up. And you remember what most players like yourself did back then?]

{Gather about ten skills which is like the limit and level them up before you head to the Qi part.}

[Right! Because that's the only level where we could actually learn skills, so people learn the ten most useful ones in their eyes. It's not like you can't learn the skills when you get to level two and stuff, but it's basically useless because you can't exert Qi in those. The ones in which you can use your level two Qi on are the skills you learned during level one and those are the ones that develop alongside you and in the end, it becomes something really unimaginable when you become someone equally unimaginable.Don't ask the reasoning behind the ten skill limit or why the skills we learn during level two end up being useless. Because I don't have a concrete explanation for it. I guess it's what the plot asks for so that you don't end up being too overpowered.]

Even though Goldy said that, I wasn't actually confused about those two. I understand the concept of upper limit is kinda confusing yet understandable. However, the things I worried about were different ones.

{Okay, two things doesn't make total sense then. One, how the hell did I even level up? I never learned any particular skills, so I obviously didn't fulfil the criteria. Well, if you say that getting to level three was due to your interference, I'm obliged to believe that. However, what about the other one then? How did I end up having a Qi level of two. And the second one, I'm at the Blue Sapphire level now. So, if I'm learning any skills now, wouldn't those be useless by the theory that you previously stated?}

[Hmm, let's go the opposite way for this. I'll answer the second question, which would kinda answer the first one as well. You are an anomaly. Scratch that. I'm too good. Yea… Simple as that. You're someone who got to level two of the Qi level without any skills, which is technically impossible. One can only get to that level one limit if you learned ten skills, no matter how idiotic those skills are. And there you are, who got to level two because your body thought that you were exerting Qi to learn skills when it was just getting leaked from your body. So, that's the anomaly part. And the part where I fixed you Qi center is the one which is gonna allow you to learn the skills. Since, you don't have any until now, the bug that you are allows you to learn the skills. This isn't any theory. I made sure of that before I actually passed the core to you. It was something that I never knew before I met you, so that was fun. Someone learning skills when they're in the Blue Sapphire stage, it's fun isn't it? You have to gain three levels of each skill in a single stage. No one has ever done that or ever been able to do that. However, you will be.]

{Ha… You make it sound like I'm something special!}

[Nah, it's just me who's special, who's able to let you level up with my hundred years worth of Qi alone!]

{Well, you aren't actually wrong about that. That is really special. So… Got any explanation for that too?}

[Nah… Wait, I'm super special… Yea, that's the explanation for that. I'm so special that I end up making an anomaly like you into an even greater anomaly.]

{I guess… You're never gonna say that I'm one of a kind, huh?}

[Yea, one of a kind who would've died without my help.]

{Right again. I'm not gonna argue about it anymore. Shall we talk about skills that I'm gonna learn then?}

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