String Absorption

His emerald hair brightened as he walked towards the border entrance of the forest. His dignified posture and calm demeanor were truly extravagant sights to behold. His silver-plate armor shone when struck by sunlight, while his golden, luxurious sword was beautifully placed on his waist inside a blemish-free scabbard.

Every step he took was filled with utmost awareness and unwavering confidence as they entered the Forest of Eldia.

"Duke!" A messenger appeared while gasping for air.

"What is it, Halmuth?" Damian asked.

"The message you've ordered has finally been delivered. The duchess and the young master are waiting for your triumphant return."

The seriousness in Damian's eyes, the composed demeanor he had, and his dignified posture instantly disappeared after hearing the messenger's delightful words.

"Really? Well, it can't be helped then~ all men! We shall finish this task quickly and return victorious!" Damian yelled out loud.

The knights who saw their Duke's change of personality stood in awe and said, "U-Umm, yes, by your command!" They responded in a loud tone.

Then they continued venturing and entered the Forest of Eldia, which was known to be the land of the Accursed Monster Beasts.

Meanwhile, in the Echevalier household

Axel excitedly got out of the bathroom and fidgeted a bit, saying, "I can't believe it. I now have a subskill! Is this for real!? Is my skill really unique and special!?" Is what he thought....

.....

.....

But after asking Nanny, I found out that every awakened skill has subskills added once it grows stronger and users learn a bit about their skill's capabilities.

But the number of subskills being acquired depends on the rank of the individual's skill.

As for me... as an E-rank skill user, I can only acquire at least 1 subskill, I guess?"

"Fuck!!!! Just when I thought that my E-Rank skill could be special! I'm truly going to live forever as an E-rank weak-assed skill user." As Axel scribbled on his wet hair and frowned, his eyebrows began bumping against each other.

While Axel slowly got dressed, his thoughts wandered.

My subskill is string absorption. Do I just absorb strings...? What the heck... Is my skill really just for production work!?"

While I still have time, I might try and do some research on it."

Axel immediately got dressed and went outside of his room. Helena quickly noticed, as she wanted to bring some snacks to Axel's room.

"Young master? Where are you going?" She asked.

Axel then turned around and replied, "I'm just going to the garden, nanny."

"Okay, I'll bring your snacks there, young master."

"Okay nanny, thanks!" Axel replied with a big smile on his face while he hurriedly ran, heading towards the garden.

Why is the young master so cute~" Helena mumbled in her head as she felt pleasured just by seeing Axel's bright smile.

In the flower garden of the Echevalier household.

Different types of flowers bloomed around the vicinity of the garden, while trees were scattered around and gave off shaded areas in the broad daylight.

Axel, who usually practices his skill, used the flower garden as his training ground since it was peaceful and quiet.

Axel raised his arms and waved them all over the place.

"How do I use my subskill?"

Using the String Manipulator Skill was a bit weird at first since there's a keyword needed for it to be activated."

"String release" was the keyword for releasing strings on my palm. Depending on how many I wanted, I could release a lot of strings simultaneously. But it consumes a bit more mana, since skills are powered by mana after all."

Now let's see, "String Absorption!"

.....

Silence occurred, and nothing happened.

....

Huh? Why isn't something happening? Let me try again, "String Absorb!"

Nothing happened.

*Beep!* 

As a skill status message appeared in front of Axel.

*Keyword for Sub Skill: String Absorption is "Absorb"*

Oh, so the skill status also gives advice now, huh? This is a first..."

"Young master, your snacks are here." Helena said as she placed the delightful sweets on a small round table with two chairs placed beside it.

"Nanny, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, ask me anything that worries you, young master." She replied in an instant, with a gentle tone.

...

.....

There, we both sat on the chairs while I ate some of the sweets she brought, while the tree gave us shade against the sunlight and the calming breeze enveloped us, exuding a relaxing ambience to breathe.

"Nanny, Does your skill status also send you some messages that you can consider as advice?"

"Oh, you mean this? Skill Description." She uttered while a skill status window popped out in front of me.

*Skill Description*

*Skill: Elementalist, Skill Rank: A, Skill Affinity: Wind, Subskills Acquired: Piercing Wind, Typhoon, Wind Arrow Reformation, Wind Leap.*

*Skill Elementalist: Able to conjure and emit based on the skill's affinity.*

*Sub-Skill Description*

*Piercing Wind: Conjuring the Wind around the Caster and sharpening it into a long-ranged transparent spear that can be thrown.*

*Typhoon: Gathering a mass amount of wind around the caster's surroundings and releasing a large tornado that can obliterate anything the caster desires.* (A large amount of mana is required.)

*Wind Arrow Reformation: The caster is able to grasp the wind surrounding him/her and reform it into a transparent arrow.*

*Wind Leap: The caster can quietly move around and be one with the wind.*

Huh? Was that even possible? Based on Nanny's sub skills, I can say her specialty is Archery..."

"Young master? Why are you staring so intensively?" Helena asked.

"Oh, it's just that I'm a bit surprised. I didn't know that these descriptions existed. It wasn't written in the books I've read about skills." Axel replied.

"Oh, did the Duke and Duchess not tell you, perhaps?" Helena said while she gasped slightly.

Well, I didn't give them the chance to, since I was totally unsatisfied after obtaining my skill, which I considered useless. But to think that skill descriptions existed, I never once knew my skill's real capability."

"Thankyou nanny! You're truly a blessing in disguise!" As Axel happily said with a bright smile and ran towards the garden.

Helena instantly became flustered after seeing Axel's cute side once more. "As long as it can help you, young master!" She said happily.

Axel immediately stood beside a tree and uttered, "Skill description!"

*Skill Description*

*Skill: String Manipulator, Skill Rank: E, Skill Type: Growth, Subskill Acquired: String Absorption*

*Skill String Manipulator: Able to Control, Release Strings.*

"What the heck?"

*Subskills Description*

*String Absorption: Able to absorb "anything" and materialize it to the user's strings.*

"Anything!? Is this for real?" Axel shockingly spoke in a loud tone.

So basically, the growth type means I can upgrade my string? Not my rank? Now I get the gist of it..."

So if I try this...."

Axel then placed a rock in front of him and pointed his palm towards it. "Absorb!" he uttered loudly.

His palm instantly released a massive amount of string that devoured the rock and slowly disappeared.

*Skill Materialization: Solid String Acquired*

Yes! Finally! This is what I've been waiting for!" As Axel felt excited, he was finally able to experience something truly worth it.

The despair he suffered and the anxiety that weighed on him instantly vanished after he truly knew his skill's capabilities.

Now let's try it. "Solid String Release!" He said loudly.

Then a single string came out of his hand, and he noticed that it was totally hard as a rock and was a bit thicker than the usual string he released.

Finally... my soft string had evolved into something useful...."

Maybe I can release my strings through thought. Let's try it out. Solid string release!" Axel mumbled in his head.

The skill still activated and released a solid string from his palm.

This is much better than saying it out loud. Just thinking about expressing it out loud makes me feel embarrassed." He pondered, wearing an embarrassed expression.

"Now that I've finally known my skill's capabilities, I must absorb everything I can to make my skill more powerful! Kuhahaha!" Axel murmured to himself while grinning in a scary way.

Nanny Helena, who secretly sneaked behind Axel and watched him from afar, could not understand why Axel was laughing all by himself and had an arrogant expression on his face.

"Maybe this is how kids act at their age when no other adults see them." She mumbled in secrecy.

Chapter End.