Ultimate Level 1

It seems humorous how you move across your own hometown like a thief. No one here could probably even injure you and yet you’re hiding and skulking along rooftops.

Max only grinned as Bob continued sharing his thoughts on the reconnaissance that he was doing of the city.

With his stats, moving from rooftop to rooftop was easier than a child playing hopscotch, and each act was so fast that he could have probably done it in daylight and still not been seen.

As you know I’m not ready to reveal myself yet. There is a reason for all this, and I want to make sure that nothing has changed.

It would appear from your memories that the same street hasn’t changed. I agree with your dwarf friend. There are far too many decorations for a moment like this. Surely by now, you realize that the system is simply based on percentages and chances. Everything I have been able to remember and deduce points to your race doing what it can to increase the chance of learning a specific skill. Though it does appear that something may have been implemented that hinders the number of fighting skills for humans.

Partially paying attention to Bob, Max leaped across the main road and stared at the steps he had taken a year ago, seeing the very spot where the skill shard had rested.

The memory of it all played over and from his perch on a roof. He absently rubbed the side of his jaw where the woman had punched him.

It’s like I can remember it all perfectly.

His eyes scanned the street, seeing the place his parents had stood, his mother crying, arms extended toward him. His sister was in tears. Gone was the joy they had all planned.

Inside, the pain of it all was there, and then his vision focused on the corner where the cart had been parked that he had been dumped into.

Anger grew, and his teeth made the slightest noise as he ground them together.

Bob… I have a question: Can you impact or direct the skills someone gets? Sometimes, I was able to consume skills, and other times, I couldn’t. And I’m not talking about the times you kept the power for yourself .

A chuckle came inside him, and Max could sense his skill considering that question, and for a moment neither said a word. The light of the quarter moon was almost hidden as a few clouds moved overhead.

Part of me back then is a mystery. What I could do and what I couldn’t do was driven more by instinct and desire. Like a hungry animal, I searched for whatever I could, needing and wanting to grow.

Not every being has a skill. Take for example, those early goblins you killed. The one that had the spear skill was rare, and it provided us with something we desperately needed. Imagine if, instead, it had the sword skill. Would you then have been a sword user?

Most likely.

Yet, you acquired that skill because it had it and we needed it. After that there was only a chance that you could acquire skills, and those percentages were varied. In time I might be able to figure them out a little more, but just know, they were not high after you started receiving the first few ones.

Yet the stats? They always came .

Correct, but that is different. Even now you will always gain stats if theirs are higher, but there is no guarantee you will gain a skill. The one thing that does affect that is what you kill. A simple monster has a lower percentage. Killing another person or being has a higher percentage. Then, there is a difference in power. Those who are technically stronger almost guarantee a higher yield of gain.

Like Igarra…

Max shifted on the roof, slipping back into the shadows as the moon escaped its hiding position behind the clouds. A pair of watchmen moved along the main street, quietly chatting, their light stone lanterns illuminating the decorated area that would soon be packed.

Inside, Bob howled with laughter and joy.

That was a harvest unlike any other. She was far beyond us, and yet we managed to defeat her only because you had enough skills to wear her down, and I was willing to empty my power reserves to keep us alive. As such… what we gained was more than we could imagine outside of killing another champion or someone most might call a god.

He took a deep breath very slowly and considered how impossible that seemed after facing Phaius and Ockrim.

That doesn’t seem even doable right now… they were… far beyond me.

It is a pity I was still in the process of evolving. You still haven’t noticed the changes, either.

[Skill Description - Consume ]

*****

Consume - Legendary Skill: When killing a person, creature, or monster, the skill holder has an improved chance to consume some of the essence of the one defeated. Health, Stamina, Mana, Stats, and Skills have a higher chance of being gained against higher-level foes. Stats consumed cannot be acquired if current stats are higher. Skills can be upgraded if a higher skill is consumed. No experience may be gained by killing creatures or others. No experience is gained via quests. Consume has an exceptionally higher chance of consuming bonus stats. Consume has become sapient.

*****

Max felt his eyes blinking at the last line. He hadn’t given it any thought to check after Bob had returned, simply glad to have his friend back.

The system acknowledges that you are sapient… what does that mean?

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I’m not certain, but it’s another thread I’m following. For that to be there means that this is expected. How it knows that means it must be planned, or I would expect something has happened before that led to it being added, which only leads to a hundred other questions.

Like who or what you really are? A “skill” that is sapient… which means that the other two skills are also most likely able to become as you are…

If they are able to become like me, the real question becomes: Are they simply monsters fed by their desires to grow, or are they able to plan and reason? Which is more dangerous?

With the guards moving out of sight, Max stood up and glanced across the city in a specific direction.

Why are you standing still? We both know you’ll do it. Just get it over with.

Sighing, he leaped upward, grabbing on to the air spear Bob had summoned, and rode it in the direction both of them knew he had to go.

***

It… is a wreck…

Gazing upon the property he had grown up on, pain radiated in his heart. The fences needed desperate repair, the house looked disheveled, and the yard was overrun with weeds.

He could see that the number of sheep had dwindled down to almost nothing and that the ones still around looked underfed and not cared for as they should be.

This is my fault… I should have sent money or—

No! Do not blame yourself for what was cast upon you. You and I both know you did what needed to be done, and you couldn’t help without showing your hand to being alive. Finish what is required, and then you can help them.

Wincing, Max knew Bob was right. Every part of him wanted to run out there, using his Wood Mastery skill to reshape the fences, mend the broken house, and to quickly clean the ground. He could throw endless amounts of gold at this place, making it into the home it had once been, but what really hurt was what he knew.

How much has my family suffered if their home looks like this?

Once again the pain in his chest was lessened as the rage he had to fight each day as they drew closer and closer to Alundra grew.

You shall fix it like you do everything else. Now then, let us return back to your friends. I have no doubt they are anxious and—

A sound in the middle of the night cut Bob off, and Max’s heart plummeted off a cliff.

There in the darkness over the sound of the occasional sheep that bleated or the blowing of the wind, came something he hadn’t expected or imagined.

A baby?

It took a moment for the cry to register in his head, as it came a few more times, and a light illuminated a window frame.

Max moved without waiting and ignored Bob’s concern, coming to stand just a few feet away from the window.

Inside, he heard his sister shushing. Each second felt like agony, and seeing a small opening in the curtain that hung inside the window, Max peered through it.

There, his sister Stacy stood, holding an infant against her chest as she bounced it up and down.

“It’s okay little one… Mommy is here.”

Cries came, and she moved out of sight, the sound of a chair creaking and soon the noise of a child sucking sustenance from its mother’s teat.

She’s… a mother… how…

His knuckle popped as the answer came, and Max trembled outside.

Caleb… I’m going to—

No… you won’t. That isn’t you, and we both know it. Breathe, and return to your friends. You are on the cusp of losing control, and I can feel it. All this emotion and things you are seeing and remembering has made you raw. Do not mess up the plans you have because you give in.

He had to fight the urge not to laugh out loud, to fill the dimly lit area where he stood with a sound that would be so pure it would wake everyone.

This is bad… you’re holding me back from losing control… oh how the roles have reversed.

Yes, and now I see how much of a pain it must have been to deal with me.

Max leaped into the air, grabbed the spear that was waiting for him, and held on as Bob took him away, only allowing himself the opportunity to laugh as he streaked across the night sky.

***

Tanila massaged his head, letting him settle down as Max told her what he had seen.

“I can’t imagine what you’re going through, but soon it will get better.”

“How? She can’t chase her dream of being a warrior with a child,” he replied. “Part of me wants to rip Caleb’s head off… the other part of me wants to drag his ass here and make him man up and help with his child. Yet I know it’s probably better he’s not here!”

She nodded and ran her nails across the bald skin, giving a gentle kiss, and shrugged.

“That’s what I love about you Max Hoste,” Tanila whispered. “You understand family, and I know you will be a great father.”

Snorting, he looked up at her and smiled.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“Every day… not just in words but how you treat and care for me as well. I pray you know that I love you just as much.”

Sitting up, Max took her chin in his fingers and pressed his lips against hers.

His other hand was still on her stomach, the tiniest of bumps present.

“You know the child is growing but so slowly… It still amazes me how long it takes for an elven child to be born.”

“We shall see,” Tanila replied. “From what you have said, they are growing faster than usual, and if what I… believe, and this child is what many will fear, it may come sooner than some expect.”

Max nodded and then rubbed a thumb slowly around her navel, smiling as she twitched slightly from the touch.

“Either way, our child will have both of us to raise them and know they are loved. This, I promise.”

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