Sid POV

  Sid couldn’t ignore the persistent feeling in his stomach that they were being watched. The sense of pressure at the back of his neck refused to fade. Despite what he told his team earlier, he didn’t have an early warning system for danger, no hidden skill that would ping whenever something nasty looked their way. Just nerves and experience.

  He had already done a couple of scans of the surroundings, forcing himself to look past the dancing firelight and check every patch of darkness beyond. Whoever was out there had a higher-level stealth skill that could beat Keen Eyes, or they had a higher-level Keen Eyes or some variant with more range. Either way, he was blind, and he hated that.

  “Are we doing this?” asked Varun, rubbing his hands for warmth. He and Pallavi were standing the farthest from the fire.

  Sid pulled his focus away from the tree line and back to the group. He reached into the left pocket of his jacket and took out a skill crystal. The movement drew their attention. Rohan straightened a little, and Pallavi’s eyes narrowed on the object in his hand.

  “This is Iceglass Shatter, an uncommon skill. It works like a frag grenade,” Sid said, then paused when he saw the confused look on Rohan and Pallavi’s faces.

  “You don’t know what that is?” asked Varun, a grin spreading across his face. “Don’t you play any games at all? Or watch movies?”

  Rohan shot Varun a flat look, while Pallavi shook her head with a small huff of breath.

  Sid cleared his throat to draw attention back to himself before Varun could push the joke. “When a frag grenade goes off, it releases small pieces of metal called shrapnel, and it is the shrapnel that causes the most harm rather than the heat of the explosion.”

  “Got it.” Rohan nodded in response.

  “In this skill, instead of metal shrapnel, it was small pieces of ice that did the damage. The shaman remained unharmed after using the skill, but ice covered everything around him. I was lucky not to get frostbite.” Sid shivered a little at the memory. Pallavi’s brows rose, and Varun’s grin faded into something more serious.

  “How did you kill something capable of that, man? None of your skills should’ve helped you there.” Varun sounded impressed, but there was a hint of suspicion there, like Sid had a skill he had never told them about.

  “After I got out of the Mana Web,” Sid noticed Rohan looking down for a beat, “I went after the biggest threat. I used the trees as cover and Mist Blend to approach the shaman.”

  Pallavi crossed her arms, listening without interrupting. Varun leaned in, elbows on his knees, attention locked on Sid. “Get to the point. How did you survive that skill?” Impatience was clear in his tone.

  “I’m getting to that.” Sid kept his voice steady. “The shaman looked at where I should’ve been, but only found my clothes there. It stopped its charge and scanned its surroundings. It must have gathered that I was stalking it. When it was looking away, I threw a rock that should’ve hit the back of its head, and then an explosion rang out.”

  Varun’s lips parted slightly. Pallavi’s fingers tightened on her sleeves. Though he did not move at all, Rohan’s eyes were fixed on Sid, unblinking.

  Sid let the silence sit for a heartbeat, then shrugged. “So, to summarize, I got lucky.” He stepped forward and handed the crystal to Rohan. Rohan accepted it carefully, as if it might go off if he held it wrong.

  “You are our resident mage. It would help you defend yourself. But be careful of friendly fire.” Sid could not stop himself from stressing the last two words. His gaze flicked briefly to Rohan’s face before he looked away. The faint flinch in Rohan’s shoulders told him the point had landed.

  He knew the Mana Web that trapped him was meant for the assassin, that it came from a place of good intention. So did all friendly fire, ever.

  He took out another skill crystal from his left pocket, feeling its cool, smooth surface against his fingertips as he held it up at eye level for all to see. “This is Enhanced Strength, another uncommon skill. The ability should be self-explanatory. Pallavi can explore and let us know if there are any nuances.”

  Pallavi stepped a little closer, hand already half raised. Sid placed the skill in her hand, and her fingers closed around it with a mix of caution and curiosity. Her eyes stayed on the crystal for a heartbeat longer than necessary, as if she were already imagining the possibilities.

  Sid pulled his hand back and reached into his left pocket again, fingertips brushing against the rough fabric, and took out the last skill remaining there.

  “This is the last uncommon skill we got from that battle. It’s called Power Strike.” Sid passed the skill to Varun. “You can check it out later. I don’t know what it does,” he lied.

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  Power Strike was a very versatile skill. Besides providing a boost to your overall strength, it added an extra oomph to your physical attacks, be it punch, kick, stab, or even grapple. It was much better than Power Slash, which just empowered your slashing attacks, the skill he gave away to Naga as a bribe.

  There was very high synergy between Enhanced Strength and Power Strike, since Power Strike scaled with the Strength stat. However, it was not possible for him to give two of the three uncommon skills to the same person. He wanted to ensure that loot distribution was fair and merit-based, particularly when people like Varun and Pallavi were on his team.

  Varun stepped closer to the fire and handed the crystal back to Sid, saying, “I contributed little in the fight earlier. You can take this skill. It’s only fair since you killed almost all the goblins there.”

  “I’m not taking any of the five skills. None of them match the build I have in mind,” said Sid, his voice even before taking on a humorous tone. “Besides, I want you guys to level up and become Tier 1. Currently only Rohan and I are in Tier 1, and it showed in the last fight.”

  Varun’s expression flickered at the reminder. Rohan’s mouth pressed into a thin line, but he did not object.

  Sid handed the skill back to Varun and met his gaze directly, not looking away. “This skill is your share of the loot. I’m not asking you to absorb the skill. You can exchange it, give it away, do whatever you want with it.” He took a step back and glanced between Rohan and Pallavi. “The same goes for the two of you.”

  Sid took out the remaining two common-rank skills and passed one to Pallavi and Rohan each. “That’s Quickstep and Backstep, both common rank, and both should be movement skills based on their names.”

  Rohan rolled his crystal in his palm, testing the weight. Pallavi stared at hers, as if she were already picturing how to use it. Sid let them have that moment before his thoughts turned back to the assassin.

  He wanted the assassin to drop Backstab or whatever skill it was using to claw people’s throats open. He knew about that skill but, for the love of God, could not recollect its name. It did not even drop a Tier 1 skill. Still, four Tier 1 skills from five Tier 1 monsters was a pretty good drop rate. And none of them were elites, unlike the shaman he had fought yesterday.

  “I’ll absorb my skill now,” said Pallavi, taking a step back to create some distance from the fire. She glanced at the crystal in her hand, then at the ground, as if steadying herself.

  Varun closed the distance, stretching his palms out. “Wait. Do you want to exchange skills?”

  Sid leaned forward with interest, noticing a quick glance Pallavi sent his way.

  “No, I like Enhanced Strength.” She shook her head.

  “You can keep that. I’ll give you Power Strike if you give me Quickstep.” Varun tilted his head to the left, with a small grin on his face. It looked like he knew the offer was too good to refuse.

  “Why are you giving away an uncommon skill for a common rank skill?” Rohan had his brow furrowed, confusion apparent in his tone.

  “It’s not just about skill rarity but how well they work with each other. Look at Sid—he didn’t take any of the skills and now he has a big smile on his face.” Varun pointed at Sid.

  Rohan turned to Sid, one of his eyebrows curling up, an unspoken question in the air. Is that true, or is Varun just talking?

  Sid sighed. It was really troublesome masking his emotions all the time. The one time he slipped up, Varun called him out on it.

  “I think he is right, Rohan. It is better if you have a set of abilities that work well together. You can always level up your skills and make them Uncommon rank. You noticed that all Uncommon skills start at Level 21, right?” Sid paused for a nod from Rohan. He also caught the way Pallavi and Varun leaned in slightly, their attention sharpening. “Also, we currently don’t have any means of dropping already absorbed skills.”

  It was easier to absorb skills than to remove them. The most common method was evolving another skill to a higher level and using the skill to be removed as a catalyst. That was where skill synergy came into play, giving you a stronger skill. Pallavi would most certainly be able to get a better Rare rank skill by combining Enhanced Strength and Power Strike, and Sid could almost see the outline of that future choice forming around her.

  Varun clapped his hands, drawing attention back to him. “Do you want to exchange or not?” His voice had lost some of the playfulness and picked up a hint of impatience.

  “I don’t have any other movement skills,” said Pallavi, the tone of voice conveying that she was unconvinced.

  “So what? You don’t move around a lot when you fight. Besides, I think Enhanced Strength pairs well with Power Strike just from the name.” Varun stepped forward to close the distance and extended his hand with the skill crystal in it. He held it steady, waiting. “You are losing out if you keep Quickstep instead.”

  If the source of his knowledge would not be called into question, Sid would have advised Pallavi to exchange—she would get more skill slots as she progressed to Tier 2 and would also have a stronger skill when she did. The institute created its curriculum with the motto: first specialize, then generalize. It ran counter to the conventional wisdom on Earth, where students were first taught everything from science, history, literature and mathematics before specializing based on their interests.

  Pallavi looked at Sid one more time. He kept his face neutral, offering neither approval nor warning. After a couple of minutes of hesitation, weighing the crystal in her palm and Varun’s outstretched hand, she went ahead with the exchange.

  One of the skill crystals turned into motes of light that drifted up in front of her face. The glow washed across her features, and then the light sank into her. A heartbeat later, she dropped to her knees and fell down screaming.

  Double Chapter Wednesday - Next Chapter will be up in a few minutes, to make up for the delay last week.

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