You Really Are Amazing, Natsuki Subaru

"Rules are rules. And I don't know you. There is no tab. Do you have 2 Coppers or not?" Kalé sternly shut Mark down.

"No. But I have something better," Mark said as he began to strip.

Kalé raised a brow as the boy removed his outer cloak before placing it on top of the front desk.

"This right here is a custom-tailored Kolzig-Bondra Academy cloak. Easily, it's worth a Gold piece."

"Hmm…" Kalé reached for his pocket and donned the monocle once more with a squint.

'This fucking guy…'

Kalé inspected the fabric, running his fingers along the lining, craning his neck to read the inner tags of the high-quality cloak.

"Alright, I'll take it. However, I should warn that it does have the name 'Mark di Abbott' on it if that's okay with you."

"It's no issue."

"Then pleasure doing business," Kalé said, outstretching his hand to secure the deal, to which Mark reciprocated with a firm shake.

'Shrewd bastard didn't even offer to give me change. Fine. Take the overpay and run. This Skill is a fleece in and of itself, so the joke's on him.'

With his book in hand, Mark began to leave the Skill shop. However as he touched the door, a system prompt appeared.

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

Skill Detected:

► Would you like to begin Skill Integration?

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'Yes.'

After his reply, both of Mark's arms automatically brought the book into his embrace; a squeezing hug.

The book phased through his chest, his muscles twitching and jittering in response.

A frigid wave dispersed throughout every vein and artery in his body, emanating from the core of his soul.

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

Skill Integration Complete.

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

'Status.'

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

Name: Mark di Abbott

Age: 18

Race: Human

Class: None

Title: End's Apostle

[Level: 1] Novice

◄ Strength: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Vigor: 0 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Insight: 0 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Dexterity: 0 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Intelligence: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇►

◄ Arcane: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Faith: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Charisma: 1 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ► +3

◄ Luck: 0 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

➥Unallocated Shards: 25

◃───***Skills***───▹

Skill: Hidden Hand → Grade: F

Description: A fragment of the ultimate puppeteer, the Hand unseen. Extends the user's reach by 5 meters. The invisible hand can only be seen by the user and those with an Insight stat greater than the user's own Strength stat. With each increase of the Strength stat, the hand's reach is increased by 1 meter for a maximum of 15 meters.

Cooldown: 24 hours upon the destruction of the Hidden Hand.

Scales with Strength

◃───***Arts***───▹

◃───***Affinities***───▹

◃───***Items***───▹

➥You have 1 new notification

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

'A notification?'

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

From: Demon God End

•Hi again. Look, I know you might have a lot of questions, but I really can't say much. You might've surmised that I'm in a weakened state; so I can't do much for you directly, but I can help you through the system on occasion.

As for William von Westergard, your job remains the same. But don't worry, you'll have a lot of time to complete the mission. No rush. As you are now, you should avoid him at all costs.

Anyway, I've realized now that I've been a bit of a jerk to you. I'm very sorry. And I apologize for my outburst. Please take this gift as an object of my gratitude.

Love you, my Apostle.

( ˘ ³˘)♥

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

'The fuck? What is he, my boyfriend? Manipulative bastard. Yeah, yeah, shower me with gifts asshole. You've royally fucked me, so the least you could do is give me something to wipe my tears with.'

Speaking of…

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

You have been given a Class:

✩ Shredder of Weave ✩

Description: What's better than a powerful Skill? More powerful Skills! As the Shredder of Weave, your skills can upgrade and mutate as their respective Stats improve.

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

'At least he's trying to give me the illusion of choice, somewhat. Appreciate the gift, but fuck you. Keeping me in the dark won't keep me obedient, it'll only just fuck both of us over.'

It was an incredible gift, but still not very useful in the short term. But in the long term, the possibilities would be endless—at least depending on what 'upgrade and mutate' exactly meant.

The threat of death would definitely keep Mark obedient, however.

"Hey kid, are you gonna leave or what? Stop loitering."

Mark had been idly standing in front of the door the entire time. All this system stuff was a time-consuming process.

"Apologies. Thank you again."

And with that, Mark took his leave.

***

Exiting the Underground was simpler than entering. Mark walked out of Kalé's Skill Emporium, saw a sign pointing him toward the exit, and followed.

Upon reaching the edges of the circus cavern, he was escorted into another dark room by another robed priest. The room then ascended back up to the chapel.

'Now all I have to do is go home and grind Strength…'

Rather than spending all of his Stat Shards right now, it would be more efficient if Mark worked on Strength, and then used the Stat Shards once he became more bottlenecked; the early levels saw the most growth.

The chapel's exit put Mark at the backside of the hilltop chapel. To get back to the Kriophorus, he would need to walk around the side paths back to the chapel front.

But before that, the most pressing matter was learning the ins and outs of his new skill.

With the Skill Initialization, Mark knew how to use the Skill instantly. As if it had always been a part of him.

Mark took off the white mask, holding it in his right arm. Then like flexing a muscle, he activated his skill.

Blue wisps began to outline his arm, the visual representation of the Skill. The Hand was translucent like a ghost but luminescent like an LED.

As he commanded it, the arm swiftly stretched out to five meters. Mark began to retract and extend the arm, the mask waving back in forth in the hand's grasp.

'It's not exactly like the Gum-Gum fruit, though it seems similar. It's not elastic like that.

Mark played around with the mask, tossing it up in the air and catching it on the way down.

'It's a bit hard to aim, I think I might need to focus on Dexterity as well.'

Mark only had a rough idea of what he wanted his 'build' to be. And unfortunately, this Hidden Hand Skill kinda ruined that idea.

He assumed that learning Swordsmanship would be extremely difficult for him, especially compared to others at the Academy who had been training their entire lives.

While the System didn't manifest until age 18, that didn't stop aristocrats from preparing their youth. Mark would end up outmatched physically compared to everyone else.

Which is why he had planned to go full into magic—the Arcane stat. But to use the Hidden Hand Skill effectively, he would be forced to focus a lot of energy and attention on physical stats like Strength, Vigor, and Dexterity.

Though fortunately William in the original novel was the classic Magic Swordsman. Therefore, Mark knew how to obtain a lot of high-tier Spells and Arts.

But without the Bolstered Core, spreading his Shards thinly across both physical and magical stats would be ineffective. It was quite early, and Mark had plenty of time to pivot to either of the main paths.

Well, besides Faith. Faith cantrips relied on a Patron. And to have his power lie in the hands of a higher being, especially End? No way.

He'd figure it out as time went on. What he had to focus on now was the skill he had just acquired.