This chapter is for RandoUser and UrLocalYuriFanatic for the reviews.
Everyone except the people on watch had gone to sleep. I gave my gear one last check, strapped my weapons down, and walked over to Nicole. She didn't say anything, just gave me a quiet look, the kind that said she wanted me to stay, but knew better than to try stopping me.
I kissed Sol on the forehead. He didn't stir. Good.
The stairwell to the fourth floor was colder than I expected. My boots barely made a sound on the concrete, but I still listened for anything. Nothing but distant growls and low, guttural grunts echoing somewhere deep in the building.
So far, I hadn't used a single active skill. The system said they were there, but everything still felt like… me. The same instincts, the same muscle memory. No flash of power. No sudden clarity.
Part of me wondered if the whole thing was just the placebo effect, stats, and skills thrown on top of what I already knew how to do. But if this system were real, and it was, it had to offer more than what I could already do with a blade and instinct.
If I wanted to understand it, I had to test it. Alone, in the dark, with no one to save me if I was wrong.
Just the way I like it.
I opened my status window and opened my skills tab.
I'd seen the names before. I glanced at them during that time when Viktor was explaining the status window, but I hadn't actually looked at what any of them did. I was too busy surviving. Too busy fighting like I always had: on instinct, training, and muscle memory.
But instincts will only take me so far. Not when the system was offering me and everyone else something more.
I tapped each skill, one by one. Descriptions opened like tooltips.
Active Skills:
Tracking (Apprentice Lv. 5): Highlights signs of movement in your environment. At higher levels, they can detect heat, scents, and mana trails. Apprentice rank allows for basic footprints, blood trails, and disturbed terrain.
Marksmanship (Apprentice Lv. 5): Increases ranged accuracy and weapon stability. Apprentice level improves aim with bows, guns, and thrown objects by 15%.
Deadly Precision (Novice Lv. 2): Increased damage when targeting vital areas. Stacks with Critical Strike. At Novice, grants +10% damage when striking eyes, throat, heart, and joints.
Stealth (Expert Lv. 15): Allows the user to blend into surroundings by muffling sound and minimizing presence. At the Expert level, the user becomes nearly invisible in shadows, leaves no footprints, and emits no detectable sound when moving at a moderate pace. Stamina Cost: 1 point per 3 seconds while active. Deactivates automatically at 20% stamina unless overridden by the user. Effectiveness is reduced in bright light or open spaces.
Appraisal (Novice Lv. 2): Identify basic details about items, creatures, or structures. Reveals rarity, material type, and known effects. Higher levels unlock hidden traits and lore.
Passive Skills:
Combat Mastery (Journeyman Lv. 10): Improves overall combat efficiency. Increases attack speed, stamina conservation, and parry timing. At Journeyman, grants +10% to melee handling and stamina usage in all weapon styles.
Assassin's Reflexes (Journeyman Lv. 10): Enhanced reaction time. Automatically improves dodge, block, and counter attempts by 15%. Activates subconsciously in combat.
Survivalist (Apprentice Lv. 5): Reduces stamina loss in harsh environments. Boosts resistance to hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Also improves trap awareness and basic fieldcraft.
Danger Sense (Apprentice Lv. 5): Instinctively warns the user of unseen threats. At Apprentice, it provides a subtle alert to ambushes, traps, and stalking enemies.
Vigilant (Novice Lv. 2): Boosts perception while stationary or observing. Increases awareness radius slightly while resting or watching an area.
Dual Wielding (Novice Lv. 2): Enables effective use of weapons in both hands. Reduces penalty for off-hand attacks. At Novice rank, it provides a minor boost to coordination and balance.
Hand-to-Hand Mastery (Apprentice Lv. 5): Improves strikes, counters, and joint manipulation in unarmed combat. Apprentice level boosts damage and disarm chance in close-range engagements.
Hunter's Focus (Novice Lv. 2): Temporarily boosts accuracy and tracking ability when hunting or stalking prey. Slight concentration boost when following trails or aiming at vital zones.
Silent Assassin (Novice Lv. 2): Reduces aggro when executing silent takedowns. Increases success rate when attacking unaware targets.
Poison Resistance (Journeyman Lv. 10): Reduces duration and damage of toxins, venoms, and chemical effects. Journeyman offers 40% poison damage resistance and increased recovery rate.
Critical Strike (Novice Lv. 2): Grants a chance to land a critical hit during physical attacks. Critical hits deal bonus damage based on weapon type and strike location. At Novice level: +5% critical hit chance. Synergizes with Deadly Precision and Silent Assassin for increased lethality against unaware or vulnerable targets.
---
I scrolled through them twice. No flashy abilities. No fireballs or glowing swords. Just enhancements: refined instincts, sharper reactions, quieter movement, and better aim.
The skill didn't make me feel powerful. Well, not in the traditional sense.
It made me feel... more efficient in silent killing.
The system hadn't made me into something new. It had just sharpened the edge I'd already spent a lifetime forging.
And now, it was time to see what that edge could really do.
Stealth.
I activated the skill, lifting my hands to check the effect. A faint shimmer flickered across my skin, blending me into the darkness around me. My steps had been quiet before, but now it felt like I wasn't walking at all, just gliding through silence. Weightless. Soundless. I still needed to test it on different surfaces, maybe even in the middle of a fight. But so far? Worth the investment.
I reached the fourth floor and paused.
It didn't look much different from the rest—blood smears on the walls, scattered debris, torn displays, dried gore. Just another piece of this post-apocalyptic shopping mall hell.
Tracking.
I focused, and the world shifted. Subtle blue outlines lit up across the floor and walls—footprints, handprints, blood spatter, and trails I hadn't noticed before. The skill filtered what mattered most. It saved me time I would've wasted checking every dark corner manually.
It wasn't perfect. At level five, I was definitely missing things. But it was good enough.
I narrowed my focus to the tracks that didn't belong to anything human. Something heavy, clawed, and not dragging its feet. It led deeper into the fourth floor, into the dark, broken maze ahead.
Let's see where this leads.
The glowing trail curved around a knocked-over vending machine and led me past the darkened shoe outlet, where half the shelves were overturned and laces trailed across the floor like vines. I moved silently, sticking to the wall, keeping low.
Stealth was still active, its presence subtle but draining. I could feel the pull now, each second costing stamina like a slow leak in a tire.
After a minute, I deactivated it with a thought and paused behind a dusty kiosk advertising clearance boots. Better to conserve energy unless I absolutely need it.
That's when I heard it grunting, low and uneven. I tilted my head.
Goblins.
I crept forward, careful with each step. Up ahead, inside the home décor store, three goblins were spread out in the ruined display area. Leaning on the counter with a chipped pot in hand, one chewed at something stringy and unidentifiable. Another pawed through a torn backpack on the floor. The last sentry stood near a shattered window, clutching a rusty carving knife.
I crouched behind a shelving unit, scanning the layout. No alarms. No tripwires. No eyes on me yet.
Perfect.
I drew a dagger from the sheath strapped to my thigh.
Time to test this.