Chapter 365 (2/2)

*****

Thea spat out a mouthful of blood, collapsing. All four of them lay on the ground, groaning, while Alana stood above them, her expression bright.

“Haha! Truly, there is nothing better than some light exercise.” Alana said, looking truly refreshed. She grinned around at the others, who were in various stages between exhaustion and death. “So I suppose this is as far as you can manage. Still, an excellent effort. I was serious, by the end.”

Alice groaned and shifted, using her shield to attempt to stand. She failed, and just collapsed. Learning from her mistake, the other three people remained on the ground, just panting and trying to gather their wits.

“So, what did we learn about Skills?” Alana asked, looking around at them all.

Thea pressed her eyes shut. What she mostly learned was that she needed more Skills. It seemed that Alana, and to a lesser degree the three others around her, possessed at least 4 active Skills each, which raised their attack power. Thea had Heavy Blow, but using it was almost second nature at this point. Beyond that, she had Bear’s Fury, that gave her bonus Stats, and Retribution Strike, that did extra damage based on damage that she had taken, but neither held a candle to the strikes and charges that other people had.

It made her profoundly sad, and left her feeling slightly unlucky. After all, she had almost 100 PP saved up, Thea just wasn’t sure what sort of Path she should choose. Now, however, she was going to put some more points into her Brawler II Path, in the hopes she would obtain something powerful at the end.

“You have them,” Doug said sarcastically, managing to get up to his knees. Alana rolled her eyes at him.

“Other than that, of course.”

Alice hesitated, then said. “Well… it seems like you have multiple Skills for each action. And a Skill to use in the face of different eventualities. Basically, everything we threw at you, you had a Skill to counter it.”

“Ah good! That’s a start.” Alana said, accepting a bowl of soup from a man who walked around, offering them. The four’s soup just sat on the ground next to them. Thea’s stomach contracted, too bruised to suffer the presence of the food. “But of my Skills, what do you think made the most difference.”

“That light that improved your strength and speed. Absolutely broken…” Doug muttered.

Alana just laughed.

“Well…” Thea said, surprising herself. “Taking care of those bursts was doable, because it's pretty easy to notice… but the Child of the Sun Skill… its constant right? Just blinds the opponent a little constantly. That’s what annoyed me the most.”

“Ohoho, smart too, bear girl?” Alana said, but her voice was pleased. “Yes, that’s more on the right track. That also boosts my combat ability by the smallest margins, and my senses and predictive ability. Small across the board, but it adds up. It’s why keeping Physical Fitness and Fighting Proficiency and your individual weapon proficiency high are important; those are the things you don’t notice, but slowly edge out the opposition.”

“So those are the strongest Skills?” Thea asked, somewhat surprised. Her focus had been so much on the active Skills, she hadn’t really considered the passive ones. But it made sense that it would have a huge effect over time on their strength.

“Well, there is disagreement on that front for sure,” Alice pointed out, looking at Alana for confirmation. After she nodded, Alice continued. “...for example, that Skill of yours is indeed powerful. And Glendel’s Lvl 30 Skill… We’ve all seen him execute a Tier II Raid Boss with it, and extract it’s essence.”

“Glendel… is a special case. His Class is incredibly rare. But take for instance Lucifer. Do you know what his highest Leveled Skill is?”

When everyone said nothing, Alana smiled a small, bitter smile. “It’s called Tenacity for Life. It’s one of the only Rare ranked Skills on record. And it gives him a boost at… living. For whatever activity he deems fit for living, he’s just a little bit faster, stronger, better at it. And everytime his life gets close to ending… that Tenacity he has grows. Some say he’s almost Lvl 100 in it, and that’s why he is so strong. That’s why he treats his life so carelessly, so it grows more quickly.”

Then Alana shrugged. “But that’s just two very stark examples. You may choose whichever path you think is correct, but both of those individuals were blessed, in a way, and are far beyond what most people can hope to achieve. Just be aware of these issues, and use them as a guide, going forward.”

Thea nodded seriously, the wheels in her head slowly turning.