Chapter 35 – What is a skill?

After the fight was over, everyone rushed to the giant bear's corpse and approached Carl who doesn't seem to stop smiling.

Everyone really could not believe what they witnessed. None of them was thinking of Carl as a threat in obtaining the mana stone. But he practically stole the glory.

No one thought of him even being in the conversation of giving the bear the finishing blow, or the idea that someone in the group was actually thinking of ending the monster that point of the battle. It was too early, but the fat boy obviously had real confidence in his abilities, which to them had been something they had to ask.

'What was that speed and power? It's like he suddenly jumped ranks for a second.

'Is he hiding his real powers?'

'But I already checked. He is for sure not special, only a rank 1 body.'

The hunters were debating inside their minds.

They already checked everyone's Centers of Power, and the fat boy was only at the lower levels, borderline normal human. Even now, though he had advanced tremendously and has sharper aura around him, he did not advance which just proves the gap to advancement was big.

The fat boy was a weakling.

"Oi fatso, who told you had the right to swallow that mana stone?!"

Mason was the first one to ask, shoving some guys. He was visibly angry. He did not care about getting mana stones from the other monsters, but a leader-class monster was different. Not only could it be beneficial for one's cultivation, it was especially valuable in the market.

Carl's smile was also making him madder.

The fat boy only stared at Mason and proceeded to ignore him which pissed Mason more than anything else at the moment.

Grabbing it from his back, he brandished his battle axe and took a step forward but he was blocked by Captain Austin's hand. The Captain was staring at Mason intensely.

"I said before the fight that whoever dealt the finishing blow would have the right on the mana stone. Leave him alone." Austin said and gestured for the others to collect the valuable items from the giant bear.

Mason took a step back but he wasn't pleased at all.

"That fatso, he was obviously tricking us. I don't know what he did, but he's obviously hiding his real powers. Who could take a leader-class monster that easy? HUH?" Mason complained.

Captain Austin sighed.

Mason was a battle-tested individual who was also a competent fighter, but he was not a good hunter.

"This giant bear is injured even before the fight." Captain Austin revealed. It, being injured was the biggest reason he decided to attack head-on.

And the veteran hunters nodded their heads in agreement. They thought everyone knew, but it appeared the loudest in the group was indeed the stupid one. It was clear that the bear was injured. For a leader-class monster, it also had no followers which made it even more vulnerable.

Mason knew that Austin would not lie to him, but he was still pissed that the fat boy actually tricked them into thinking he was weak. The fat boy also used the injuries he inflicted himself to rattle the giant bear.

Carl's voice then chimed in;

"I did not trick anyone."

This made the angry veins on Mason pop up again. As a part of the group, Jill had to help Austin calm Mason down, so he joined in the conversation.

He did not care about who gets the mana stone too, but he was pretty curious at the sudden burst of speed of Carl during the battle.

"Were you using a skill then from your breathing technique?" Jill asked.

As a scout, Jill was usually ahead of the group and had separated himself since they entered the climb, so he did not see if Carl was indeed faking anything. But now, he was able to watch him fight. To do his duty, he had keen senses and had trained himself into gauging out the enemy's strength and he definitely saw a surge of mana in his body at one point.

A skill from his breathing technique? As soon as Jill mentioned 'skill', the people in the group who were collecting the valuable parts of the giant bear pretended to continue, but started to eavesdrop more.

Breathing techniques was generally known as the real start to the journey of cultivation. For cultivators, it has two main functions:

First, it would be their initial path to enter a state of cultivation that will allow them to absorb world mana in order to temper their Centers of Power.

Second, it was used in battle and a breathing technique would heavily influence one' battle style. The cultivator had to adapt to the technique's general advantages and disadvantages.

"Skills" however were usually not attached to breathing techniques as though they were common, especially ordinary ones. Since no matter how much someone cultivates with a breathing technique, especially an ordinary one, they would never be capable of unleashing a "skill" unless the breathing technique originally had one.

A cultivator could jump around like a world-class athlete, use excellent martial arts and flashily swing his sword at an enemy and then shout a cool name to their move, but that would not be a real skill.

'Skills' had to have an effect that was related to the breathing technique's teachings and nature.

If a cultivator practiced a sword-related breathing technique, a real skill was something like sending a form of slash to the air where a blade normally could not reach by hand. Using a skill was basically being capable of doing something inhuman.

Carl knew this of course, and he had no problem revealing it. .

"Yes," Carl answer Jill's question, "Mine is an advanced one."

An advanced breathing technique! Some of the hunters looked at the fat boy differently now, with a tint of jealously and regret in their eyes.

Majority of hunters in general was poor. Since they were elementless, their parents were most likely elementless too. They were poor right from the start so their chances of being recruited by a club were very unlikely.

Some children might get admitted to academies, but if they weren't talented enough to fill the void of being an elementless cultivator, they would usually fail and get expelled.

Most hunters then started their cultivation journey with an ordinary breathing technique, probably they got somewhere shady or from an academy.

To them, a 'skill' was considered a luxury since none of them really had the money to pay for an advanced one, and had a teacher willingly teach them. Breathing techniques was easy to use, but few wrongs could lead to incurable injuries, and sometimes even death.

Most families can't pay for the fee to do that. Much more if the child was an orphan.

Ordinary breathing techniques however were thrown around like fake money. In a city, there was always an illegal place you could learn from. Some academies even willingly provides a free one if they see a potential in the student.

Learning more about the real world however, an ordinary breathing technique was just trash.

To veteran hunters, their biggest regret in life was settling with an ordinary breathing technique. Ordinary breathing techniques do not have a skill attached to them. The best a cultivator could do at that point was to cultivate better, and practice martial arts to fill the void of being without a skill and a magic element.

Being at the old range, it was also unthinkable for veterans to switch to another breathing technique, even if they now had money.

Sure they still can, but it will risk resetting their Centers of Power, and that risk, although not as certain also applies to cultivators who had cultivated in their breathing technique for several years.

No one would take such a risk. Only an idiot or someone who had taken such obtained an extremely superior one.

A skill. That would explain why the fat boy suddenly got a boost in his powers. That was not a mere martial arts things, but something related to his breathing technique.

The group cleared things up then and started to check the valuable items the bear provide.

The hunters however still had a giant question in their mind. Even Carl had this worrying thought.

'Who injured the giant bear in the first place?'