Harvesting skills

Before Ashton's fist could connect into Chainy's face, the latter had drifted backwards swiftly evading the attack while making Ashton almost stumble into the ground.

Before Ashton could regain himself, Chainy had spun himself in a circular motion to slash the dagger in his hand at Ashton as he knew his company was not going to make friends with him first until after a quick fight with him.

Ashton was quick to drift his head back by bending his back at a quick reflex, the sharp blade of the dagger almost grazing his eye ball but it seemed the dagger knew its owner than its wielder as it emitted a wild gust of mana technique control sweeping Ashton off his feets and sending him to falter backwards without falling.

Ashton managed his balance by dragging his feets through the ground causing the settled dust to ripple in the air and creating a foot line with his boots as he got dragged backwards. As the dust began to settle back down to its initial position, Chainy began to click his tongue against his teeth and he said,

"Your dagger is one sly weapon."

"Eh?"

"It knows its owner rather than its wielder best…and it's cutting my chances of drawing blood from you with it into pieces."

"You had better hand it back now when I'm asking nicely. I got it on credit and I am the only one who is allowed to wield it till I pay for it back in full."

Chainy clicked his tongue against his teeth again while subtly shaking his head in disapproval of Ashton's words.

"You don't have to tell me that. I'm sure I can wield it against you if I apply a little bit of my mana technique." He shrugged looking at the sword properly for the first time since he had hijacked it from Ashton.

*CHIME!*

The system interface announced its new update with a chime and without further ado, it began to materialize the update.

[You have stronger equipment not in use]

"What's that?"

[You have elemental magic to counter your rival]

[How to use: Channel your elemental core through your thoughts and emit its progress]

"Can I even do that?" Ashton asked Callista in his thoughts.

"Yes you can. Just do it the same way you did while you were attuning." Callista replied.

"It isn't that simple."

Callista rolled her eyes while slamming her palm into her face in disbelief. "Okay, you have to get furious about that dagger of yours in his hand. It's yours and yours alone!"

"I get it now." Ashton replied with a smirk ensuing on his lips. He tightened his fisted punch and he could feel the arcane magic rushing through his blood vessels wanting to course out immediately but he put it to a stop as it was not yet time to manifest his elemental ability.

"Wield the sword if you think you're worthy enough to make it listen to you." Ashton challenged raising his head.

"Then I will return the favor of allowing me to weild your sword by slicing your head off!"

Ashton let out a small chuckle as Chainy said those words to him. It felt stupid, silly and intriguing at the same time as he had never expected to meet a rival who was this daring.

"I dare you!"

"Alright then." Chainy smiled, sticking his tongue out of his mouth like a joker. "I will end your pain with one single slash!" He roared and began to advance towards Ashton in a dash.

He swung the dagger at Ashton and the latter was quick enough to let the magic coursing through him flow out meticulously, swiftly countering the attack.

Chainy was not going to back down easily and he continued to swing the dagger and the latter was good at deflecting each attack making sparks to fly about even though Ashton had no sword in his hand.

Ashton finally summoned a great creed of magical whims and an advanced magical flame exhumed on his fisted palm which also turned his eyes into balls of flames and with a single strike, he sent the magical flames towards Chainy hitting him in the chest and making him falter backwards about a yard away from where they had been sparring.

Ashton did not allow Chainy to regain his balance as he ran towards where he had faltered to in a blur flash and the moment he had gotten to where Chainy was, he grabbed him by the throat with an attempt to deliver a blow into Chainy's face.

But before that could happen, his system materialized again with another notification.

[You have unlocked a new skill]

[Skill: Destruction strike]

[How to use: Summoning a destruction strike will weaken your rival during a fight and it can also serve as a barrier to falter their attack]

[To activate destruction strike, 3 stat points are needed]

"Did I just acquire a skill by touching Chainy?" Ashton asked Callista as he was surprised to acquire a new skill even though he hadn't made a strong attack at Chainy.

"This is strange!" Callista, who was also surprised, exclaimed.

Ashton let go of his hold on Chainy and within a blur flash, he grabbed him again ready to know the secret behind the new skill he had acquired.

Then again, his system interface materialized.

[You have unlocked a new skill]

[Skill: Earthquake strikes]

[How to use: Summoning an earthquake strike falter ever attack that comes your way in a brief second giving you an opportunity to stand firm and initiate an attack before your opponent regain themself]

[To activate earthquake strike, 2 stat points are needed]

"Now I get it." Ashton said to himself with a smirk fast rising on his lips. He stood up properly and took his hand off Chainy as well then he asked. "Tell me, how can you talk?"

"Because you can too." Chainy subtly replied getting up from the ground oblivion to what was happening with Ashton.

"So you speak like a normal human and not that alone, you also speak in our normal language?"

"Well, I had to decode your language…we do not speak like this in my clan you see."

"How is that possible? How can you decode the language I speak within a short period of time?" Ashton asked again with disbelief in his voice.

"It takes an average human baby three years to learn its mother tongue while it takes beings like me only a few seconds and as you can see, I am not fully human and my intelligence quotient is maxing above 286 which is still considered weak in my clan as I am moderately gifted." Chainy replied heaving a sigh of dejectedly as he finished saying that to Ashton.

"286 is considered weak? That's horrendious. What's the highest intelligence quotient in your clan?"

"999…and that belongs to the chief of my clan. He has become a full human as he had maxed above the profoundly gifted."

"Tell me about your clan."

"Well, we had better be on our way to wherever we are going before sundown. I will tell you about us as we walk." Chainy uttered, stretching Ashton's dagger to him.

Ashton collected it and with one final look at the dagger, he put it back carefully into its sheath and turned back at Chainy.

"What happens at sundown?" He asked.

"You sure do have a lot of questions. How did you get here in the first place if you do not know some basic things about this world?"

Ashton scratched his hair a bit and started leading the way forward. "My journey here is unprecedented so I had little time to learn a few things about this world." He replied and then turned at Chainy abruptly. "Now, tell me about this clan of yours."

It seemed to him Chainy was trying to ignore that question by trying to drift onto another talk and he was going to try his possible best to fish out an answer from him so as to quench his wild spreading suspicions. But one thing was sure, touching Chainy would make him harvest more skills as it seemed he was indeed a strange being.

"My name is Ashton." He finally introduced hoping to keep good terms with him like a sly snake.

"I knew your name the moment I saw you and also the reason why you're here is to get an antidote for your dying friend– Marcus." Chainy blurted out in a relaxed tone like he was about to threaten Ashton with his next statement.

"H–how do you know this?" Ashton asked again, increasing his defense level as it seemed Chainy was no normal being but a potential threat to him.