First skills

Outside the Hunters Association building, Kane and his master Abel, who were drenched in cold sweat were hunched over panting. What they just experienced seemed to be taken straight from a horror movie.

"Let's go home first," said Abel before pulling Kane towards the direction of their car. He had a gut feeling that he was still being watched so he wanted to leave right away.

On their way home, Kane was still shuddering quite a bit. This was the first time he felt such primal fear. He was not even calm enough to inspect the new identity card he had been clutching since they left the Hunters Association building.

They spent close to thirty minutes before finally getting home. They quickly went into the building and collapsed onto a sofa to relax their tense muscles before letting out sighs of relief.

"I think we just met earth. Think about it, the earth approves of the creation of towns and cities. When they are created, Hunters Association spawns in a random location in the newly created city. This means that it's an extension of the earth.

I think we triggered this reaction because it became aware of your potential and wanted to speed up your growth. I wonder why" Abel seemed to mutter his last sentence to himself.

When Kane became relatively calm, he remembered that he had not even taken a look at his new hunters association identity card. He looked at his hands but could only see his regular identity card.

He stood up and looked around for the card but he could not find it. He could have sworn he held both cards in a death grip since he left the hunter association. He was even about to trace his steps back to the car.

Abel saw him and already could guess what was happening. "Wait. You didn't lose your card, you just kept it". Kane gave him a confused look which prompted Abel to continue "when you are not using your card it somehow gets teleported into your core and can be retrieved the same way when you will it"

Kane suddenly understood what he meant. He stretched out his hand and thought of having the card when it suddenly appeared on his palm. He was caught unaware by the sudden appearance and clumsily let the card fall on the ground.

He blushed in embarrassment and hurriedly picked it up before inspecting it for possible damages. He heaved a sigh of relief when he found none.

The card was very flat and black in color. It was the size of a grown human adult's palm. It was metallic and very sturdy. It was like a blank slate as there was nothing printed on both of its surfaces. Kane was puzzled by the blank card when the surface facing him lit up.

It displayed an image of him and other information about him as well.

Name: Kane Smith

Specie: Human

Allegiance: Dyssiodia

Age: 4

Class: Grunt realm, tier 1

Status: Trainee (0 contribution points)

Contribution points: 0

There were also four buttons below the rows of information which were labeled Marketplace, tasks, and transfers. The tasks button was greyed out and was not selectable.

"Ok, first of all, select transfers then receive so I can transfer some contribution points to you," said Abel as he stood up and walked towards Kane.

Kane did as he was told as Able took out his identity card. After fiddling with it for a while, he gently tapped the top of his card with that of Kane's card. Kane received a notification that 300,000 contribution points were sent to him.

His displayed information remained the same except for the parts about contribution points that read

Status: Novice (300,000 contribution points)

Contribution points: 300,000

The tasks button also became selectable. "Trainees can't accept tasks but since you are now a novice you can but let's not worry about that for now. Select marketplace then weapons then cold weapons then bows" said Able while looking at Kane's identity card.

"Anything sold in the hunters association marketplace is mostly generic stuff. The really special goods are made by humans. What you can buy here is limited by your class. Oh, weapons are also classified the same way humans are. Purchase the recurve bow and a quiver of arrows" Abel instructed Kane.

The recurve bow now on sale was a grunt realm tier 3 weapon. Each quiver contains twenty arrows. The bow cost 50,000 contribution points and a quiver of its arrows cost 15,000 contribution points.

When Kane made the purchase, the bow and arrows were teleported onto the ground in front of him. The bow was black in color and yellow lines were carved into its body. The bowstring seemed to be made up of unknown synthetic material.

The arrows were made of a metallic material and their arrow heads' edges were bright green as if it was made with another material. Kane tried to pull the bowstring and found it difficult to do so.

Abel saw the downcast look on his face and said "Don't be disappointed it's a tier 3 grunt realm weapon, after all, you will get more used to it as you increase your strength and advance through tiers. Now you should also buy a combat knife".

Kane also bought the combat knife which cost 15,000 contribution points. The combat knife's entire body and sheath were black in color except for the knife's edge which was green in color.

He had spent 80,000 contribution points on his new weapons and felt satisfied. "Now go to the skills section and buy strength, stamina, agility, and endurance training manuals. Also, buy piercing shot and rapid-fire archery skills. In the grunt realm, the core in your body cannot release elemental energy so you can only learn and use body tempering skills" explained Abel.

The training manuals cost only 500 contribution points each while the archery skills cost 2000 each contribution points bringing his total expenditure to 86,000 contribution points. He was now left with 214,000 contribution points.

The skills were teleported over in green plastic tubes. They were written on paper scrolls and the content could only be seen by the one who bought them. Kane opened the strength training manual and looked at it.

There was a sudden beep in his mind as a 'Skill found. Scanning now' message popped up in his mind. When it was done scanning, Kane felt like he had known the strength training technique recorded in the manual for a very long time. He seemed to have the technique in muscle memory.

Abel noticing the surprised look in his eyes said "how was it? You just had to look at the skill once to learn it. You and I are most likely the only ones to have a neural chip. You might not even meet someone else who has it in your entire life. We can learn skills instantly while others have to slowly practice what is written to remember them perfectly.

Although you have learned how to use these skills you actually have to practice them to be able to use them efficiently". Kane quickly learned the remaining skills with increased fervor.

The piercing shot archery skill was merely a technique that made use of the strength training manual to teach the user how to fire more powerful arrows from their bows which had higher amour penetrating power.

The rapid-fire archery skill was a technique that made use of the combination of endurance, agility, and strength training manuals to teach the users how to fire arrows in quick succession. It also improved the user's hand-eye coordination.

Kane quickly accessed his neural chip and was about to check his skills panel and was given a shock instead. "Master the completion rate of the unknown skill that was at five percent had risen to seven percent. Does it have anything to do with my learning skills?"

Abel was surprised. This was definitely good news. "I don't think so. I think you subconsciously understood a little of what the dao was teaching you even when the session had ended" replied Abel.

Kane was disappointed. He thought he had found a way to avoid those painful sessions with the dao. Abel was not bothered as he said "okay, let's head to the basement. For some time you are going to begin training with those manuals to improve your physical condition before we head outside the city walls to begin your survival training".

"Yes, master" replied Kane as they headed towards the basement.

…

On the tenth floor of the hunters association. In the castellan's office, a man was standing in front of the large glass window overlooking the mortal district with his hands behind his back.

"Find that Kane boy and watch him secretly. If that man tries anything that might hurt the boy, kill him and drag the boy here" said the man seemingly to himself.

"Of course castellan" a voice that seemed to drift from the void could be heard faintly before a patch of shadow in a corner of the office disappeared.