Some More Skills and Appraisal

"Wha... What is this voice...?" Oria stuttered, unable to comprehend those hardly audible voices.

But it doesn't end there. Faruk, in his all-seeing eye form, also heard that glitching voice. Faruk immediately determines it's from the system knowing how the voice sounded like despite its terrible quality. He—as a former Guardia—is more shocked than Oria, the holder of that crypted skill.

"...!"

"F-Faruk..." Oria looked at her guardian, who's currently floating in an empty glare.

"..." the Observer closed its eye. Faruk becomes restless. Being an ex-Guardia, Faruk knew pretty much about everything about the system. He understands about how the system works and how the voice of the system will sound when certain events happen. But never did he hear a disturbing voice from the system like now.

Oria is perturbed by his silence. She lightly touches the floating iron ball, careful not to surprise her master while calling out for him.

"F-Faruk... Faruk...!"

Eventually, the Observer ball reacts in a sudden twitch.

"...!" the iron ball opened its eye once again, revealing the little girl calling the dragon's name over and over.

"Faruk...! Faruk!" Oria nearly cried. She's more scared that Faruk gotten disoriented than the creepy voice she just heard when she got that encoded skill.

The Observer blinks twice. Then, the Silver Dragon finally speaks, "Oria, is it?"

"Faaaruuk!" without even allowing the iron ball to blink, the child caught it, hugging it tightly.

"H-Hey!" the dragon responded in surprise.

"I thought something went terribly wrong when you suddenly froze like that...! Please don't do that again...!" she slightly cried, looking at the Observer as she holds it out.

Faruk looks at her in the eye, then laughs a bit afterwards in a casual tone, "Haha. My apologies, Oria. It seems I was entangled in my... wave of thoughts. Pardon me if I made you worry."

"Oooh... please don't do that again..." she begged.

"I will try. But still... whatever that sound was?" Faruk then asked about the voice.

"I dunno... it sounded so scary!" Oria replied quickly.

"Figures. Is there any change in your status screen?"

"Uhh... let's see... Display Self Status!"

A screen appears before her.

<ORIA ARGENTORA>

Cond : None

Surprisingly, there's nothing changed at all. That is, on the top part of the screen. Faruk and Oria join forces into looking at her own stats. One by one, they look whether there's a change or not. Fortunately, there's nothing out of the ordinary. ...Except when Faruk notices Oria's skill section.

[E-404 Lv.?-#!]

"Hey, it wasn't like this before...!" Oria stated as she noticed the difference in that particular skill.

"You're right. Hmm..." Faruk proceeds to look at her other skills. "Are there any changes on your other skills, Oria?"

"Uhh..." Oria takes a quick look at her skills. "No...? Only the weird skill has changed slightly."

"Hmm... so, that voice we heard earlier... was it saying that E-404 skill has leveled up?"

Oria shook her head. "I don't know! O-Oh, Faruk, you heard it, too?"

"Well, I already told you, didn't I?" the dragon replied.

"Really? I... I must've missed it, hehe..." the girl rubbed her head.

"Putting that aside, it seems that we're still in the dark about that E-404, huh...?"

"I guess..."

"Well, it's no use thinking about it all day when we don't even know what that skill even does. So, let's keep it behind our heads and move on with our training for the moment, yeah?"

"A-All right..."

After a short discussion, the two agreed to let the encrypted skill be for the time being so that Oria can focus on her training. With that, Oria says goodbye to the plant she grew and cutely waved her hand at it while she and the Observer-form-Faruk leave the area.

Twenty minutes into their walk, Oria suddenly stops midway in a surprised look.

"What's wrong?" Faruk looked back at her.

"I heard a rustle... from there...!" she pointed her finger at the bush right in front of Faruk.

"Hmm...? Ah, this is what I've been waiting for!" he said vigorously.

From the bush, moves out a rabbit. Though, it's no ordinary rabbit. It has a needle-like horn, and its eyes are comparably different than a normal rabbit with a sharp pupil, much like a wild animal. Because of that, they're labeled as monsters.

"We've yet to reach our destination but doing a little detour along the way won't hurt at all. After all, you'll never know what you'll find while exploring around."

"The rabbit looks cute, though..." Oria crouched, trying to get a closer look at the horned rabbit.

The Silver Dragon sees the enthusiasm of the child can be threatening to her own good, so he immediately warns her. "Better keep your distance, child. You don't want to get hurt by it, do you? That 'cute' rabbit is a monster."

"Eh?" Oria looked at the cute creature again, then she noticed the pointy horn protruding out of its forehead. "W-Whoa..." Oria stepped back hurriedly.

"Heheh. This mammal monster is no threat at all. It can barely hurt you for how slow and predictable it is! Though, it is best not to let yourself get hit by its horn. (Somehow... it reminds me of a certain devilish rabbit that also has horns... and they'd eat anything...)"

"Gulp! W-What am I supposed to do?" Oria asked in a concerned tone.

"Hm. First thing to do. It appears Dux hasn't given you the [Appraisal] skill, yet, eh?"

"Uhh, yeah, I guess not... he DID offer me, but back then, I was so scared because there was a scary monster attacking us, I can't even move my body."

"Then, that monster you and Dux were facing must had a [Threaten] skill active. That's why you're scared to it. This rabbit here doesn't have that skill, so you're not going to be scared by it."

"I... I see... what's the difference with your [Intimidation] skill?" her curiosity popped up.

"Hm. The only difference is the intended target of that skill. [Intimidation] meant to scare off monsters while [Threaten] was meant to scare people."

"I see. But kinda strange, I'd say..."

"Hm, why?" Faruk wondered.

"I mean... when I first met you, you look so terrifying, my body turned numb!" Oria stated in a childish tone. "You're so scary, so scary in fact that I can't fathom how horrified I was back then. Though... when you began to speak with me, that fear reduced a lot. Does that mean... you also have [Threaten] skill?"

"...Hmph. So that's how you truly thought of me..."

"A-Ahhh, no-no-no, that's not it! I didn't mean anything bad, I'm just—"

"Heheh, I jest. I gotta admire you once more for your astute thinking. Indeed, I have both [Intimidation] and [Threaten] skill. The moment you formed a contract with me, you're basically unaffected by that skill of mine. That explains why you no longer fear me."

"I... I see. Those two skills are similar in a way, don't they? The difference is just the effects on whom and what."

"Prrrecisely," Faruk replied. "Hm. I commend your line of thinking."

"Heehee. Thank you!"

"Very well, then. We've spent enough time chatting, that rabbit is fleeing. Look."

"Oh, no! W-What should we do?"

Faruk spins around the little girl, stopping behind her. "Nheh, don't worry. Let's continue our journey. I'm sure we'll find another one along the way."

"Okay..."

They continue their trip once more. This time, it takes thirty minutes until they find another monster wandering around. Surprisingly, it's another rabbit monster.

"There, Faruk!" Oria pointed to the said monster.

"Hm. I saw it."

The rabbit monster looks understandably restless, since it's still within the range of Faruk's [Intimidation] skill. It's urging to escape further, and probably going to book it the moment it notices Oria.

"What should we do...?" Oria asked quietly.

"Hm. The first thing you should do when encountering a monster is to use [Appraisal] skill on them before attacking them. That way, you'll learn more about that monster. Here, I'll grant you a Skill Point. Use them to unlock the [Appraisal] skill in your status menu."

<1 Skill Point(s) achieved!>

"O-Ookay... umm... where is it?" she asked, confused of where to look for the [Appraisal] skill.

"Oh, right... I haven't told you that, yet." Faruk hovered near her face. "About Skill Points, you obtain them through doing quests properly or through leveling up. But for this instance, I'll grant you one Skill Point for you to get the [Appraisal] skill. To unlock a skill, press the Skill Tree button and select the [Appraisal] skill, the one with the magnifying glass."

"O-Ookay..." Oria followed his instructions carefully. Without any issue, she finally got the [Appraisal] skill.

<Appraisal Lv.1 obtained!>

"I got it, Faruk!" Oria said happily.

"Good. Now you know how to access and unlock skills. Now, let's give that new skill a try. Go appraise that rabbit!" Faruk ordered in high spirit.

Oria, influenced by his passionate voice, grows extremely excited to try, "Oookay! Here I go!"

Full of adrenaline, the little girl holds her hand to the rabbit from a distance and shouts. "Appraisal!"

A status screen appears.

<Horn Rabbit>

Desc: A rabbit with a sharp horn.

"..."

Everything goes into dead silence. The rock might be even better in staying silent. Oria didn't expect to see a mini status screen that displays little to no information at all aside from the obvious ones.

"...that's it?" she asked in disbelief.

Faruk, oblivious to what she's feeling, replies, "That's it."

"That's all?" Oria asked again, this time in a higher voice.

"Yes. That's all," Faruk stated. Just a second later, he realizes what's his protege is talking about. "Hm. That's all you get for the time being. After all, your [Appraisal] skill is still on level 1."

"Nnn..." Oria melted into a pouting expression, disappointed.