Becoming Hard

The hard sensation of the flooring against my cheek.

When I woke up, I found myself in a pool of blood.

Getting up from the suffocating smell of blood, a blood-soaked bathroom came into view. This is the worst. I have to clean this up again? David, the dorm manager, is going to start questioning why I need so many towels soon.

"That cat... the tree cat..."

I looked around, but there was no sign of the black cat. It seemed to have disappeared while I was unconscious. Cats are known to be fickle creatures, but ignoring me covered in blood is harsh.

"Open, Status."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Status]

Akaya Makoto

Level: 0

HP: 1 / 100

MP: 10 / 10

Defense: 0

Strength: 30,000

Skill: 0

Intelligence: 0

Resistance: 0

Agility: 0

Mystery: 0

Spirit: 0

[Skill]

'Basic Stamina'

'Developed Strength' ×3

[Equipment]

'Skill Tree'

━━━━━━『Skill Tree』━━━━━━━

[Skill Tree]

Tree Level: 1

Skill Points: 0

Point Mission: Completed

[Skill Menu]

'Basic Stamina'

Available times: 4

'Basic Magic Power'

Available times: 5

'Basic Defense'

Available times: 5

'Developed Strength'

Available times: 2

'Basic Skill'

Available times: 5

'Basic Intelligence'

Available times: 5

'Basic Resistance'

Available times: 5

'Basic Agility'

Available times: 5

'Basic Mystery'

Available times: 5

'Basic Spirit'

Available times: 5

'Become Hard' NEW!

Available times: 1

[Completed Skill]

'Applied Strength'

Available times: 0

'Basic Strength'

Available times: 0

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

As usual, because of the massive blood loss, my HP is down to 1/100. The Skill Tree pops up so suddenly.

The 'Tree Level' in the [Skill Tree] section has increased to 1. It used to be 0. Apparently, eating that gross walnut-looking thing called the 'Blood-Dried Seed Adam's Seed,' which the tree cat told me to eat before I passed out, caused the Skill Tree to grow.

It's likely an anomaly. Anomalies are strange objects with mysterious powers, a concept unavoidable when discussing explorers and the bizarre world of dungeons. I learned that in class.

"I ate an anomaly... I hope I'm okay."

I touched my body. My skin was warm, and my heartbeat was regular. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Except for the tree growing out of my arm.

I focused on the newly added skill in the Skill Tree window. 'Become Hard.' This is different from the skills I've had so far. It's not a status-related skill. I traced the skill name with my finger to check its details.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

'Become Hard'

Active Skill

Makes what you touch hard

[Cost] MP10

The one who despised the ephemeral

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It's not a passive skill. It's my first active skill. Indeed, this is different.

"Meow (Translation: Because the tree level of the Skill Tree has increased, the tree has grown and you can now access new skills, meow.)"

"Oh, when did you get here? Where did you go?"

"Meow (Translation: I went to get your dinner from the cafeteria before it closed, meow.)"

I left the bathroom and looked at the desk. Dinner, with grilled fish and miso soup, was on a tray. Surprisingly, it's a good cat.

"Sorry, I thought you were an unfeeling cat that would just leave an injured person behind."

"Meow (Translation: Don't worry about it, meow. But you have questions about the Skill Tree, don't you, meow?)"

"Yeah, you mentioned something about accessing new skills earlier... So the 'Become Hard' skill was added because the Skill Tree grew?"

"Meow (Translation: I don't know exactly which skill was added, but if it was added now, that's likely the reason, meow. Normally, the Skill Tree can 'access all skills that have existed up to now,' meow. But the Skill Tree that has attached to you and the 'Blood-Dried Seed Adam's Seed' you just absorbed are only a small part of the Blood Tree, meow. So the accessible skills are limited, meow. However, by absorbing the 'Blood-Dried Seed Adam's Seed,' you can increase the number of accessible skills, meow.)"

"That's amazing. Give me more of those gross walnuts!"

"Meow (Translation: It's called the 'Blood-Dried Seed Adam's Seed,' meow.)"

"Whatever, if that means I can become a great explorer despite having no talent, I'll take it."

"Meow (Translation: Unfortunately, the two 'Blood-Dried Seed Adam's Seeds' I had are already inside you, meow.)"

"I see. I thought if I could access all skills, I could get any skill I wanted."

It won't be that easy.

"Meow (Translation: Well, we'll talk about that later, meow. For now, eat your dinner before it gets cold, meow.)"

I took off my blood-stained shirt, wiped my body lightly, and started eating.

The next day.

When I woke up, the tree cat was curled up on my stomach. I couldn't get up. What should I do? I'm going to be late for school.

"Hey, wake up. I'll pet you."

The tree cat lifted its head reluctantly, gave me a grumpy look, and then moved aside to sleep again.

In the bathroom, I checked my status. The sink was broken, so the water overflowed if I ran it too fast.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Status]

Akaya Makoto

Level: 0

HP: 100 / 100

MP: 10 / 10

Defense: 0

Strength: 30,000

Skill: 0

Intelligence: 0

Resistance: 0

Agility: 0

Mystery: 0

Spirit: 0

[Skill]

'Basic Stamina'

'Developed Strength' ×3

[Equipment]

'Skill Tree'

━━━━━━『Skill Tree』━━━━━━━

[Skill Tree]

Tree Level: 1

Skill Points: 0

Point Mission: 'Perimeter'

[Skill Menu]

'Basic Stamina'

Available times: 4

'Basic Magic Power'

Available times: 5

'Basic Defense'

Available times: 5

'Developed Strength'

Available times: 2

'Basic Skill'

Available times: 5

'Basic Intelligence'

Available times: 5

'Basic Resistance'

Available times: 5

'Basic Agility'

Available times: 5

'Basic Mystery'

Available times: 5

'Basic Spirit'

Available times: 5

'Become Hard'

Available times: 1

[Completed Skill]

'Applied Strength'

Available times: 0

'Basic Strength'

Available times: 0

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Today's point mission is 'Perimeter' again. I wonder if this ever changes. Hopefully, it will change to something easier. But I've gotten used to this, and considering the possibility of getting something more challenging, maybe it's better if it stays the same.

Today, I definitely want to unlock the new active skill 'Become Hard.' As a Silver member, I should get 2 skill points.

"Meow (Translation: If you get skill, it will be easier to control your power, meow.)"

A sudden voice came from the bed. I turned to see the tree cat slipping out of the window. Was that a one-point advice?

That day, I spent most of my school life without moving much. I made sure not to touch anyone, and I pretended to take notes in class without actually writing. If I let my guard down, I might accidentally punch a hole in my tablet with the stylus. That must be avoided at all costs.

After school, I changed into my tracksuit as usual and started running around the perimeter. I returned to my dorm room before dinner.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Today's Point Mission]

Let's work steadily every day!

'Perimeter'

Run around the perimeter of Hero High School 10/10

[Reward]

2 Skill Points earned!

[Streak] 11 days

[Steady Rank] Silver

[Point Multiplier] 2.0 times

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thank you again today. I live because of these points.

Today's acquired skills are two. 'Basic Skill' and 'Become Hard.'

The reasons for acquiring them are the tree cat's advice and because it's a new skill.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Status]

Akaya Makoto

Level: 0

HP: 100 / 100

MP: 10 / 10

Defense: 0

Strength: 30,000

Skill: 100

Intelligence: 0

Resistance: 0

Agility: 0

Mystery: 0

Spirit: 0

[Skill]

'Basic Stamina'

'Basic Skill'

'Developed Strength' ×3

'Become Hard'

[Equipment]

'Skill Tree'

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Wait, that's different."

I realized after obtaining it that the dexterity skill was actually quite good. I felt like my body finally belonged to me. Each time I increased a strength-related stat, my body would feel a bit strange, as if I was trying to handle objects with overly long chopsticks, making it difficult to manage. But now, those chopsticks felt much shorter.

This must be what it means to gain the skill to control my own body. If just one point in basic dexterity could make such a difference, I should have taken it much earlier.

Now, for the important part: the 'Harden' skill.

"It costs 10 MP to use. What should I test it on? What do you think, Tree Cat?"

No response. I looked around the room, but the Tree Cat was nowhere to be seen. Seems it wasn't always going to be around to help.

I decided to figure it out on my own and picked up a towel. Once pure white, it had turned pink from wiping up so much blood. Closing my eyes and focusing, I found that I instinctively knew how to use the skill.

"Activate skill—'Harden'."

The pink towel, which had been hanging limply, now stood upright like a sword pointing towards the ceiling.

"It really did harden."

I knocked on it against the desk. The towel had the hardness of metal, completely solidified. However, after about ten seconds, it flopped back down, succumbing to gravity once more. The effect duration was quite short.

"I'm exhausted... Must be because my MP is depleted."

Using 'Harden' once had completely drained my MP. Considering I might gain more active skills in the future, I probably needed to boost my MP. After all...

Skill Tree

Tree Level: 1

Skill Points: 0

Mission: Completed

Skill Menu

Basic Endurance: 4 more availableBasic Magic: 5 more availableBasic Defense: 5 more availableAdvanced Strength: 2 more availableBasic Dexterity: 4 more availableBasic Intelligence: 5 more availableBasic Resistance: 5 more availableBasic Agility: 5 more availableBasic Mystery: 5 more availableBasic Spirit: 5 more availableSoften: NEW! 1 availableStick: NEW! 1 available

Completed Skills

Advanced Strength: 0 availableBasic Strength: 0 availableHarden: 0 available

The Skill Menu was getting increasingly crowded. New skills were appearing at an alarming rate.

4o