Chapter 188. Skill Synthesis (7)
“Shin oppa, here!”
“Thanks, Elfa.”
“Ehehe.”
A rabbit-eared beastman girl, Elfa, handed me a bowl of soup. I gave her head a pat and took a sip. It was a beef cream soup with an excellent taste. After all, I was the one who brought it! All hail instant food!
“How mysterious. Just putting some powder in water makes such flavor… Neither the Floor Shop nor the Residential Area has such items.”
“It’s expensive, so be thankful.”
“Ooh, as I thought, Crown Prince is really generous. These tiny bits of meat must be expensive too. I wonder what kind of meat it is…”
You might be curious what that meat is, but this hyung is worried for your future… I hesitated on whether to tell him the truth or not but seeing him so happy, I quietly took a spoonful of soup. Then, a light breeze blew next to me.
[Master, I came back from scouting.]
“Good work, Sharana.”
[The sky has really weird creatures. They look lifeless on the outside, but their brains have extremely active mana.]
“How many are there?”
[Close your eyes.]
When I did so, Sharana put her forehead against mine. With our extreme intimacy, she could transmit images to me with this.
“Crown Prince? What are you doing all of the sudden?”
“Shh.”
I put my finger on my lips and silenced Ren. Then, I closed my eyes and looked at the evening sky appearing in my sight. A star similar to Earth’s Sun was setting, dying the sky red, and a few clumps of clouds were scattered here and there. Filling up the sky was a countless number of winged creatures. Trying to count them was useless. I couldn’t help but sigh.
“Huu, there are so many…”
“You finally understand why we must travel through the mountains?”
“It’s quite overwhelming. Do you think there are other survivors?”
“I’m not sure… but I sure hope so.”
There was only one mountain range left until the plain. As there would be a rocky mountain in the middle, we would have no choice but to be completely exposed in this area.
“Once we get through the rocky mountain, The Forest of Tranquility will await us, a forest that was once a holy land. Here, the flow of mana becomes calm, making it hard to fight. More importantly, it becomes difficult to track someone using mana, so we won’t have to worry about pursuers from the rocky mountains.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to set up a base camp at Forest of Tranquility then?”
“The Forest of Tranquility is a holy land, but at the same time, it is also called a graveyard. It is fine to stay there for a day, but if you stay any longer, a grim reaper will come reap your life. It does not matter whether you are a human, beastman, or El Patiz. Staying in the holy land for more than a day would only hasten your death.”
There sure were strange places… I grumbled and unsummoned Sharana. Then, I gulped down the soup. Then, I opened a canned coffee while I waited for the children to finish eating when Elfa and another beastman girl asked curiously.
“Oppa, what’s that?”
“Is it food?”
“It’s a beverage. You guys can drink it when you’re adults.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“I want to drink it now!”
“No, you won’t grow taller if you do.”
I quickly chugged down the coffee and crumpled the can before one of the children could reach it. Seeing me easily crumple the can with a mermaid drawn in a green circle, the children exclaimed in surprise. It seemed they were just curious. I told myself not to drink coffee in front of children.
“It’s only been a day, but they really are attached to Crown Prince.”
“Really.”
“Shin oppa is handsome!”
“He’s kind and strong!”
“He’s close to Wolf-nim.”
“But Ren oppa is still more handsome!”
To be honest, I thought I was more handsome than Ren, but seeing Ren’s happy expression, I stayed silent. If Ren came to Earth, I decided to call Officer Podori1.
After dinner, we set off again. Even in the dark environment, my Evil Eyes continued to petrify all monsters that attacked us. As I ran, I thought about ways to become stronger to better ensure everyone’s safety. Like in Luka continent, I couldn’t be sure what to expect in a foreign world.
I was, of course, talking about Skill Synthesis. Although the result was random, the result from the synthesized pocket watch skills was very satisfactory. It was definitely worth synthesizing skills that I didn’t use or skills that overlapped with others in use. I already had some candidates in mind.
“Crown Prince, we should set up camp here for the night. Once we get through here, we’ll be at the rocky mountain, where we won’t be able to stop to rest.”
“You’re right, let’s set up camp.”
With that, I took something out of my inventory and placed it down on the ground. Ren tilted his head.
“What’s this? A triangular, half-transparent giant crystal… Is it for some ritual?”
“Go in.”
“Go in? You can go in?”
“Wow, it’s so big!”
“Cozy! It’s so comfortable!”
The children fearlessly ran into the giant crystal. Right, this was none other than Crystal Lair2! A high-tech camping tent that even worked underwater! It was large enough to fit 20 people and magically provided fresh water and bread infinitely! It was sitting in my inventory like a useless piece of junk, but I finally found the use for it!
“Ooooh! How revolutionary!”
“Wow, this would be perfect for staying overnight in the dungeon too.”
Everyone went inside and began to rest comfortably. As Crystal Lair even had an automatic alert system, it would wake us up when hostile beings neared it. If only it had wheels, it would be perfect!
“Crown Prince, aren’t you coming in?”
“I have something to do.”
I waved my hand and told them to rest. I walked a little ways away from the campsite. Lotte followed me to guard me.
“Skill Synthesis.”
When the circular stone slab suddenly appeared in the air, Lotte flinched and took a step backward. I smiled at her and touched Gale Track from my list of skills. Then, with a strange sensation, a small clump of light appeared in my hand. I placed it in the base skill slot and placed Blade Rush, a good single-target charge skill, into the supplement skill slot. I didn’t want to juggle with two separate charge skills and hoped that a skill that combined their good points would appear.
Of course, just combining them like this would be boring, so I added the Dash skill, which granted bonuses to my running movements. Feeling that it wasn’t enough, I even added Thunder Beast. The light flashing from the stone slab became brighter. My heart raced as I activated Skill Synthesis.
[You obtained the unique skill, Wind King’s Rage.]
[With an unpredictable path and unfollowable speed, you charge forward, carrying a powerful lightning and wind power. When you collide with an enemy, a spear of lightning will appear and pierce through the enemy, after which a powerful wind will blow the enemy away. The enemy’s mana will be absorbed, increasing the charge’s destructive power by 10%. At any point, you can explode out with a powerful energy at a target. Currently, at level 1, the charge’s destructive power can be increased up to 150%. As it is too powerful, after being fully charged, this skill cannot be used again for 3 hours. When uncharged, the skill can be used again after 10 minutes.]
[You created a unique skill! Unique skills are skills that possess strength on par with a God’s powers without receiving the breath of a god! This grand achievement causes all gods to focus on you. Gods related to storm and lightning become especially interested. You obtained 3 skill points. Current skill points: 4]
“Good.”
As I had already created a unique skill before, I wasn’t particularly surprised. Gale Track, Thunder Beast, and Blade Rush weren’t ordinary skills. Dash couldn’t be ignored either.
In any case, I was happy with the result. Just like I wanted, I would be able to use this skill regardless of whether I was facing one target or multiple targets.
Surprisingly, this skill didn’t have ranks like Thunder Beast, Dimensional Travel, and Peruta Circuit. In such cases, it was much harder to raise the skill level, but each level would show a sharp increase in power. It was a skill that had surpassed the notion of being ranked. It made me feel especially giddy.
“Alright, that’s enough rejoicing… Skill Synthesis.”
This time, I used White Lightning Consecutive Strike as the base skill and put Thunder Tempest into the supplement skill slot. I didn’t put other skills in this time as it would be too wasteful to put any of my remaining skills in to supplement an attack skill.
[You obtained the skill, ‘Lightning Spear Storm.’]
[With a powerful whirlpool of lightning, you draw in nearby enemies, striking out consecutively with a white lightning-imbued spear. Each strike uses 0.1% of your mana, and the final strike uses 10% of your mana to deal a powerful explosive lightning damage to all enemies.]
Although I didn’t get another unique skill, it became what I designated a ‘master skill.’ The skill was more than what I expected. Peruta Circuit certainly had such an ability. Now, I was able to draw in nearby enemies near me! It seemed like a skill that would appear in games, but I decided to ignore it.
“Alright, next…”
To realize a skill I had thought of before coming to this world, I picked a few skills. This was also the reason I decided to wait until night to use Skill Synthesis.
However, once I placed all the skills in the stone slab’s slots, I canceled Skill Synthesis.
“… It’s not enough.”
If I continued, I felt that I wouldn’t get the skill I wanted. Perhaps it was the effect of Spirit of the Mixer, or perhaps, it was just a warrior’s intuition. Regardless, I felt that it wasn’t wise to synthesize the skill. Of course, before I regretted it, I would have to decide before I finished crossing the mountain range. I shrugged and went back to the tent with Lotte. It would take more energy to climb the rocky mountain. I had to get rest when I could.
However, what we faced the next day wasn’t the aerial unit of El Patiz, but a completely unexpected massive, terrifying enemy.
Translator’s note:
I thought the Skill Synthesis stone slab was rectangular (as slabs generally are), but apparently, it was circular! My imagery!!!
I hope everyone understands the Wind King’s Rage skill. The word “charge” is used in two meaning there – one as in “to rush forward” and another as in “to collect energy over time.”
1. The police mascot in Korea. ↩
2. A reward Shin got in chapter 153.