Chapter 18: Skills?

"Huff, huff, huff."

Lorian took heavy breaths as he focused on his progress right now. He was at the same old rock that he usually sat on and refined his path on.

Right now, he was trying to develop his combat potential. As of now, Lorian was among the weakest Path Masters in the entire world. 

Not only did he not have a single skill, he also didn't have an artifact that he could properly use and manipulate. 

Although Lorian was still relatively new as a Path Master, the main objective of any Path Master was to develop a skill when they first ascend.

But because of his implications and his lack of mana, Lorian didn't have enough mana to properly start developing skills.

Most newly ascended Path Masters will usually gain benefits from their own master or have a higher aptitude to increase their mana.

Lorian was a special case; not only did he not have a master, but he also had an extremely low aptitude and didn't have any foundations.

Lorian had a cold gaze as he went back to completing his skill, trying his hardest to manipulate the Runes within his body using his mana.

Skills could be summed up as a group of runs tied together that can activate a special ability. You could think of it as a puzzle; each piece of the puzzle was like a rune. You slowly but surely concoct the pieces together until you get this new skill that you can use.

Every path had its own ways to accomplish this; it was an extremely difficult task to do, and often most path masters had to rely on inherited knowledge to begin the creation of their own skills.

Lorian was in a completely different situation. The time path was a less commonly seen path, and although it couldn't be considered weaker than any other paths, it meant that information and opportunities regarding that path would be limited.

But at the same time, because Time Path isn't very widely spread, it also allows you to gain an upper hand in battle.

If you had one of the common paths, you could easily gain skills and information, but that came at a cost. You could have a seriously hard time in battle, most of your skills could be well known and be exploited, or your weakness could be easily found out by the opponent.

Every path had its own unique skill set; although each path specializes in one particular thing, it covers others as well.

Take, for example, Fire Path. Fire Path specializes in offense, but that isn't to say that Fire Path didn't have any healing or moving skills as well. It was simply that offense was the strongest part of the path.

Because of this, all paths were essentially equal in overall power, and the only reason a path could be stronger than another was simply due to the path master's own ability.

As of now, Lorian lacked an offensive skill and a movement-type skill. As of now, Lorain needed an offensive skill over everything else. He lacked a way to defend himself and could be easily killed out here in the forest.

The only reason he had survived in the forest was due to his intricate knowledge and skills that he had accumulated over the past lives he had.

Because of this, Lorian had been staying alive, but any slight change could be the death of him. Due to this, Lorian desperately needed an offensive skill that could be used to protect himself.

As he concentrated on slowly piecing every Rune together and creating the skill, he could sense the mana leaving him as he tried to do so.

Mana was required for this process; in order to move the Runes and combine them together, mana was required. This mana had to belong to oneself and could not usually be off outside resources. 

Although there were some methods, Lorian couldn't use the Nature Refinement Method because the mana that was used belonged to nature itself.

He was simply refining mana from nature and borrowing it to use temporarily. The mana would eventually leave his after being left untouched, and it didn't meet the requirements for creating skills.

Time quickly passed on as Lorian slowly created the skill; after a long time, Lorian had finally succeeded in doing so!

When he felt himself completing it, the system suddenly popped up, showing his results.

[You have acquired a new skill!]

[Blade of Continuance (F) Has Been Obtained!]

Lorian saw the skill and let out a sigh of relief; after so long he had finally obtained it!

Afterwards, Lorian quickly took this time to check his stats.

Race: Human 

Strength: 6 

Speed: 8 

Stamina: 8 

Intelligence: 100 [MAX] 

Path: Time 

Aptitude: D 

Mana: 3

Path Rank: 1 

Path Progress 17/450 

Skills: [Blade of Continuance (F), Heavenly Hourglass (EX)] 

Path Attributes: [Perception of Time (SSS)] 

Blessings: [Blessed by Fate] 

Curses: [Cured by Fate] [Curse of Chaos] 

Artifacts: Quest Scroll [Rank 1] (Borrowed)

Lorian was quite satisfied with this but also felt troubled at the same time. Even though he had currently resolved the problem of battle strength, he was now running extremely low on mana.

His mana had now dropped down to 3, and that would not last him very long. Sooner or later he would have to use more mana to create more skills, and using these skills in turn will also require mana.

Lorian thought to himself before thinking of several solutions he had used in his past lives. Each one had its own benefits and consequences. Lorian had to choose a way that could benefit him the most, but at the same time he had to think about the future as well.

With the past couple of lives, Lorian did not feel his pressure, but now he could clearly feel this pressure.

Lorian's eyes lit up, and he smiled to himself before closing his eyes and looking up at the sky. The sky was now setting, and he probably should be going back soon.

Even though Lorian had completed a good amount of work in one day, which was numerous times faster than regular Path Masters, Lorian still felt that this was not enough.

Thinking of this, Lorian walked back to the city with a stern look on his face. He quickly headed to the inn that he was staying at and did the same old regular schedule.

Eat, check his room, clean up, then sleep. This process was a natural habit that Lorian had, and with that being said, Lorian closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.