Sid POV

  “Evolution is clearly the better path. I got about double the stat points as Rohan for the same skill level.” Varun’s lips curved upward, chin lifted, confidence leaking through in the way his gaze lingered on the numbers than the arrayed crystals.

  Sid agreed with the argument in principle. Varun was not wrong in theory. Evolution rewarded patience and planning. However, they had neither the time nor the resources to chase the perfect evolution path. Nobody did. Not even the first-rate powers in Kaliga.

  Only the nobles of the Kaligan Empire had the luxury of pursuing such flawless builds. They built their paths slowly, each skill evolution reinforced by rare natural treasures and guided by generations of recorded knowledge. Guards, wards, and options to retreat softened the impact of their failures. Sid’s team had none of that. Every choice they made echoed in their next fight.

  “You’re being selfish,” Pallavi said before Sid could respond. She leaned forward, eyes locked on Varun. “You’re putting the rest of us in danger for some extra stat points.”

  She separated the wheat from the chaff and went straight to the core of the issue. Varun might end up stronger later, but without stronger skills he would be weaker now, and that weakness would affect others. It would jeopardize the safety of the entire team, not just his own survival.

  “What did you want to take from this set of common crystals?” Sid asked. He pointed at the cluster of common rank crystals laid out on the ground. The light from above caught on their surfaces, duller than the uncommon ones, though the difference was subtle.

  Sid had already traced every combination in his head. None of the common rank skills paired cleanly into something worth the delay. They either overlapped or required other specific skills to evolve into something worthwhile. Conversely, there were a few excellent combinations available in the uncommon pile.

  Varun blinked, his confidence faltering. His eyes dropped to the list, scanning the skill names, lips moving silently as he traced possible pairings. When he looked up again, the answer was still missing.

  Sid sighed. “Wall Walk is redundant. Dash and Quiet Step could give you something like Flash Step.” He paused, watching Varun’s reaction. “You dismissed the awareness skills earlier. That leaves Mist Blend and Web Sense.”

  Varun swallowed before saying, “Those aren’t useless.”

  “They’re unfocused.” Sid kept his voice even. “They don’t reinforce what you already do well.”

  Sid did not push further. He didn’t need to. Varun’s silence said enough.

  Skill evolution was not the only lever for growth. It was just the first one that they discovered. Sid knew others he couldn’t yet disclose to his team. Affinities and Traits offered higher returns. His own Mind affinity boosted his intelligence and willpower by fifty percent without forcing him to delay combat readiness.

  “We are all limited to five skills each,” Sid said. He met Varun’s eyes, a faint smirk forming despite himself. “Anything without a taker goes back to the camp.”

  “Fine.” Varun swallowed the rest of his words and bent closer to Sid’s book, studying the list of skill names with renewed seriousness.

  No one spoke for a moment. Sid leaned forward, collecting the Ceiling Awareness and Peripheral Awareness crystals. He slid the Mana Web crystals toward Rohan, careful to keep the remaining undecided crystals in the middle, where everyone could see them.

  As the discussion wound down, Sid’s thoughts shifted forward. Keen Eyes needed work. He planned to use it as the anchor skill for his own evolution. If he sped up the loot distribution, he could squeeze in a couple of hours of training before nightfall. He could even rope Varun into a combined session.

  Sid picked up one of the Peripheral Awareness crystals. He absorbed it, then reached for a Ceiling Awareness crystal and did the same. Both were passive skills, similar to Keen Eyes.

  The effect was immediate. His awareness widened, deepened. He no longer felt constrained to a single point of focus. Every object and movement within his field of vision registered at once. The crystals on the ground, the subtle shifts in posture from the others, the uneven texture of the stone beneath them. His attention no longer needed to jump between details.

  Earlier, keeping the Veil of the Mind’s Eye active had required discipline. His focus had to stay locked on the enemy. If his attention slipped past them, even briefly, toward something else, such as a tree behind the enemy, the veil collapsed. Now the rule felt looser. As long as the enemy remained within sight, the effect should persist.

  His field of vision had expanded too. The edges felt farther away. He would need to test the exact extent, but the boundaries of what he could see already exceeded normal human limits.

  Sid resisted the urge to absorb more crystals. He wanted Keen Eyes to remain dominant, knowing that training it would naturally influence the other two passives. Absorbing everything now would dilute progress. Besides, skills climbed faster at lower levels.

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  “I’ll take Drop Strike and Wall-to-Wall Leap.” Varun’s voice cut through Sid’s thoughts.

  Sid glanced up and caught the satisfied, certain expression on Varun’s face. He smiled, realizing that Varun had chosen well again. It was exactly the skill combination Sid had in mind.

  Flash Step combined with Wall-to-Wall Leap could evolve into Flicker, as long as the latter was above level forty. Flicker was one of the best movement skills in this dungeon. More importantly, it’d correct Varun’s issue of lopsided development—caused by his high agility—by boosting his perception along with agility.

  Stats did not exist in isolation. They needed support from other Stats to reach their full potential. Sid had learned that lesson through observation rather than theory.

  Varun had agility in spades, but lacked the perception to exploit its full potential. Sid had seen it in action, the moments where Varun reacted just late enough for a blow to land.

  Pallavi suffered from a different imbalance. Her skill boosted her strength while ignoring endurance. Sid remembered her first day, carrying a full backpack without complaint, her fitness obvious. Now she paused more often, resting whenever an opportunity presented itself.

  “That makes sense.” Rohan pushed the five uncommon skill crystals toward Varun. “Anyone else want these?” He kept his tone light and neutral, but Sid noticed how he avoided looking at anyone for too long.

  Pallavi glanced at Sid, searching his face, then shook her head.

  “Yeah,” Sid said. “You already have Flash Step helping you scale walls. Wall-to-Wall Leap lets you move freely once you are up there instead of just sticking to a surface, and Drop Strike gives you a way to attack from above.”

  Drop Strike also provided a strength boost, unlike Varun’s other skills. It would help address his stat imbalance, where agility continued to rise while other stats lagged.

  Sid understood the risk personally. His perception outpaced his agility. Even when seeing danger clearly, he sometimes failed to respond in time, as perceiving an attack mattered little if his body could not keep up.

  Most people in integrated worlds faced the same limitation. Without equipment to smooth things out, early imbalances followed them. Sid recalled watching institute students breeze through that same bottleneck, wishing he had possessed their standard-issue S8 ring sets during his own early development.

  His gaze drifted back to the remaining crystals between them. Varun’s biggest limitation was still perception. Web Sense would raise it, letting him exploit his speed more efficiently. Still, it was a suboptimal choice for Varun. It fit Rohan far better.

  “Now we have a creepy crawler and a web shooter,” Pallavi said in her usual deadpan voice.

  “I’m just taking what’s available,” Varun shot back, his voice playful. “Better than letting them go to waste.”

  Rohan turned toward Varun, jaw tight, and lips pressed into a thin line. “We don’t have to give these skills away at camp. I’ll give up whatever extras I have. Sorry for pushing earlier.” He glanced at Sid, then looked away.

  Varun rubbed the back of his neck, eyes dropping for a moment. Pallavi shifted her weight, her expression softening before she looked aside.

  “We are giving the leftover skills to the folks at camp,” Sid said, his posture straightening. He turned to Rohan. “I’m sorry.”

  Regret flickered through him. He shouldn’t have used the threat of giving away skills earlier to push Varun toward a decision. The team’s differing priorities had collided, and he had chosen a side too quickly. It left Rohan standing alone. He needed to fix that.

  Rohan looked back at him, a strained smile pulling at his lips.

  “I think you should take Silken Snare and Web Curtain. Those two should work well with Mana Web.” Sid kept his tone even, careful not to sound like he was issuing instructions.

  Those were two uncommon skills that worked with magical webbing, similar to the Mana Web. Absorbing both would narrow Rohan’s options in the coming weeks, possibly months. Sid knew Rohan was firm about not using crystals to force skill levels. It was admirable. From a development standpoint, it was even correct. But it was a choice that demanded discipline, patience, and a tolerance for slower growth.

  “How about Silken Snare and Web Sense?” Varun leaned forward and picked up a crystal from the common rank pile. “You could specialize in killing monsters through traps.”

  Sid’s eyes flicked to Rohan before he spoke. “That’s even better.” He leaned forward, unable to fully suppress his enthusiasm. “It’d be great if we had a dedicated trapper. We could trap monsters and train our skills on them.”

  The suggestion solved more than one issue. Sid felt the tension in his chest ease. Rohan’s refusal to use crystals had been gnawing at him. Without crystal leveling, the gap between Rohan and the others would widen quickly. Sid didn’t want him falling behind, isolated by his own principles.

  Specialization offered a way out. During the past week, Sid noticed Rohan fought only when necessary, never with eagerness. Pallavi thrived in close quarters. Varun chased numbers on his status. Rohan planned.

  Trapping leaned toward preparation rather than confrontation, and that played to Rohan’s strengths.

  There was another reason Sid liked the idea. Captured monsters would give him controlled conditions to experiment with the Veil of the Mind’s Path. He hadn’t tested the skill properly yet and still didn’t know what additional effects the natural treasure had layered into it.

  “I’ll think about it,” Rohan said, a sliver of warmth entering his voice.

  Varun tilted his head, eyes narrowing as he looked at Sid. “Are you not taking any uncommon skills?”

  The question felt deliberate. Varun was checking whether Sid practiced what he preached.

  “I’ll take Echo Sense,” Sid said. “It works well with my other skills.” His tone remained neutral. “I’ll keep it with me and absorb it after I evolve Keen Eyes. I’m out of free skill slots for now.”

  Sid reached forward and picked up the Echo Sense crystal. He hesitated, hand hovering over the rest. Then he gathered the three Mist Blend crystals as well. “I’m taking Mist Blend too.”

  Pallavi looked at the remaining crystals, her expression flat and unimpressed. “Are we giving these up?”

  “Wait,” Sid said, extending an arm before anyone moved.