A Skill was essentially something one earned, or it came as a privilege from the world.
In both cases, they represented a special ability that a person possessed. Usually, Skills were meant to evolve, not disappear from a person. Since Skills were an intrinsic part of a person—especially those earned—they were a permanent addition to the individual.
Skills, in a sense, could not be created nor destroyed.
… But Rey was an exception.
By using [Merger], he essentially bent the rules a little. He broke down Skills and used them to mold new ones, or more advanced versions of one.
This, in a way, was still following the rules… but teetering on the edge.
However, the complete breaker was [Sacrifice], which caused the permanent loss of Skills, changing them to Stat Points.
In this case, the nature of the Skill was changed into another kind of power—Stats.
It was possible that Skill essence could be lost in the process, but ultimately, Skills would be converted to something else—never fully destroyed in a sense.
Still, according to the rules of the world… Rey could no longer use any of the Skills he had fed to sacrifice. He also couldn't use the Skills that were combined using [Divine Merger] to make his current Skill-set.
"Tch. This sucks…"
Once again, Rey found himself listening to Ater's lectures as they discussed the current problem.
All of this started when Rey asked Ater about what happened to his Inventory, going further to explain the whole [Divine Merger] and [Sacrifice] bit.
The short version of Ater's answer was:
"Your inventory and everything inside it is gone forever."
In essence… all of Rey's money, resources, and everything that he had kept within that space were completely lost to him.
It was beyond devastating to hear.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})'The more time passes, the more I realize just what I've lost by giving up all those Skills of mine…'
He had taken so many things for granted, as they were just a part of his life, but now he was beginning to understand their significance.
'I can't even fly unless I use Magic or change the physical properties of my body somehow.'
Flying used to be so natural to him, so looking at the slight difference in this one Skill, and applying it to a lot of others, showed just how frustrating all of this was for Rey.
"Your power… it prevents you from copying the same Skill from a target twice, am I correct?" Ater asked, staring at Rey's anguished face.
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"I could tell. If you could indeed copy Skills from anyone an infinite amount of times, your problems wouldn't be that difficult to remedy."
"True. Haaa…" Rey heaved a sigh as he sat on the dark Dungeon floor.
One of the first things he tried after getting Merger was to see if he could combine two [Divine Beast Summon] or multiple [Divine Sword Summon] to develop an incredibly OP Skill.
If he could combine a lot of SS Tier Skills, he figured it was possible to create an SSS-Tier Skill.
Not only that, but he could easily sacrifice multiple Skills to create powerful variants of Skills—especially since he could always copy them from his classmates and those around him over and over again.
But…
"It's the same way I can't copy my own Skills from myself. I can't copy the same Skill from someone I already copied from."
In essence, if two people had the [Fire] Skill, he could copy the Skill only once per person. Hence, he would have two [Fire] Skills. However, he couldn't ever repeat the process on either of them. If a third person with the same Skill came about, he could copy from them and get three [Fire] Skills.
That was what Rey understood about his power; hence, its limitations.
"I reckon [Sacrifice] is a lot graver than that, though. Based on the terms, I won't ever be able to use the Skill I sacrifice. That probably means I might never be able to copy it."
There was no way Rey could know for sure, since he would need to find a new target who had at least one of the exact Skills he sacrificed and see if he could use [Doppel] on the Skill.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})'If I can no longer use those Skills, then I really fumbled with the Immortality and Resistance Skills. Damnit… what was I thinking?'
Before Rey could allow his frustration to get the better of him, he calmed himself.
Once he let his thoughts simmer a little, he gave a big sigh and rose to his feet. As he dusted his butt, despite there being no real need to, he prepared Spatial Magic.
"Let's leave then. There's no use sticking around here…"
Rey would be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed. He managed to lose all three of his Beast Summons, with no prospect of ever getting them back.
The Skill to use them was also incredibly rare—an Exclusive Skill that belonged to Alicia. It was practically impossible for anyone in this world to have anything like it.
'Seems I'm stuck with only Ater. It's not a bad deal, but… I wanted more.'
"Why are we leaving, Master? What about the binding vow? Don't you want to tame your new Familiar?"
"Hm?" Rey raised an eyebrow and stared at Ater's confused face.
It was a surprise to see that the usually sharp and competent guy didn't take the hint this time around.
"We can't do that anymore."
"Oh? Why?"
"We can't do that anymore."
"Oh? Why?"
"I mean… I kept the purple egg in my Inventory, remember? All the items inside are gone, so… it's pretty much lost to me forever." Rey felt a little annoyed that he had to explain all of this to Ater.
It felt like he was opening fresh wounds.
'Just take the hint already!' He wanted to scream internally, but he was stopped by his emotion control, and also by Ater's amused reaction to his words.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Oh, that…" Ater stretched out his hand, and a purple egg appeared right on top of his hand, with darkness coating the surface.
Rey's eyes nearly popped in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes.
"How do you have that?!" He yelled out, nearly losing his composure. His emotions even reached the threshold, so the System had to forcibly suppress them.
It seemed he still had a lot to learn in that department.
"I never said you would have to bring forth the Beast from your inventory, Master. This thing has been with me for a while now; since the time it was supposed to hatch."
Rey's emotions were checked, so he was a lot calmer now. Still, he couldn't shake off his confusion.
"I don't… understand."
Ater smiled, shrugging as he spoke calmly. "The Beast is meant to hatch next to its summoner. That is the rule. The egg was transported from wherever it was to your location—same as those Phoenixes who did the same in your battle against Dagon."
"O-ohhh!" Rey's eyes widened as he listened to Ater's tale.
"I managed to contain it before it fully hatched. If you look closely at the egg, you'll see cracks here and there."
Ater had been using the darkness to seal the egg and preserve it until Rey woke up. And now that the moment of truth had arrived, it was finally time to leave the rest to the hands of his Master.
"So, I ask you once again, Master… why are we leaving?"
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Thanks for reading!
I'm sure some of you already had disappointment on your faces as you read the first part of this chapter. Hehehe…
