"Here."
Nyx tossed Raven a scroll.
After some minutes of walking, during which Raven's mood was somber and he thought back to all the events of two days ago, they finally arrived.
When he first saw it, rows upon rows of reflective windows greeted him, before he eventually followed her inside.
The interior wasn't anything special, the only thing worth noting was the polished marble floor.
When the receptionist saw her, she greeted curtly and handed the scroll to her.
Then, they entered an elevator, going to the basement floor.
And now, Nyx tossed a scroll towards him.
Even though he was distracted he managed to catch it easily.
Before he could ask what it was, Nyx was already speaking.
"That is a lightning type scroll."
Her words drew Raven out of his thoughts.
"When you were in the hospital, I had some extra tests run on you to determine your element, I did it so I could have a skill scroll ready for you when the operation was over."
He looked at the scroll.
On it's side, there was the insignia of a blue lightning bolt, signifying the category this skill belonged to.
'So affinities can be discovered with simple tests.'
It reminded him of blood tests.
"Which skill is this?"
He asked.
While Raven was still burdened by the realization in the car, he didn't let it show.
His tone was still the same.
"Lightning Strike, Remodeled."
"...."
His silence was enough to show he had no idea about the bizarre name of the skill.
"You're free to train here for as long as you like, when you're done you can find me on the top floor."
With those words, Nyx turned around and went back into the elevator.
'Surprisingly, she knows I'm not in a good mood.'
Perhaps, that was why she left.
From what he had seen, Nyx seemed like the insensitive type.
'Whatever.'
He chose to redirect his focus to the scroll.
Raven sat on the ground and began unrolling it.
When he was done, he found himself staring at long lines of text that he didn't understand.
___________
[Please input your blood on the lower-left of the scroll]
___________
"What the....?"
It took Raven a moment to remember that this was how skills functioned in this world.
Everyone had a status screen—but only the protagonist had a system that gave him quests—and certain otherworldly treasures and items could interact with it, allowing it to display more than the usual stats.
'I read so many novels in my past life that I forgot the unique system of this world.'
Skills guided you through the learning process, and sometimes required some additional "things" before they could be learned.
Thankfully, this was a normal skill scroll.
Raven mentally prepared himself before biting into his thumb to draw blood, he wasn't a certain someone who could bite into himself with just a thought, after all.
On the lower-left there was a line of blood imprints, so Raven inputted his close to theirs.
Almost instantly, a screen appeared in front of him.
___________
[Synchronizing 0%]
___________
The skill was synchronizing with his soul.
It took a few minutes, but as soon as it was done, a translucent blue screen materialized right in front of him.
__________
[Name: Raven Hesse]
[Rank: Adept (Mid)]
[Affinity: Lightning]
[Innate Ability: Not available]
[Skills: Lightning Strike (Remodeled)—Early:
-Allows the user to coat his/her hand in lightning, alternatively, the user can also strike from distance.]
___________
"The fuck....?"
Those were the only words that came out of his mouth as he stared at the move's description.
It wasn't because of the Innate Ability slot, he had already seen that when he experimented opening his status screen in the hospital; Raven didn't think much about it, from what he knew he would probably awaken the same Innate Ability as his sister when the time came.
It was vague, incredibly so. There was no description of what would happen or how coating his hand in lightning did anything to his attacks.
And, he didn't know what it meant by "strike from distance".
It could mean anything from controlling a bolt of lightning to strike from above to sending a bolt of lightning out of his palm.
'If it's the second, wouldn't it be more like chain lightning?'
That wasn't important right now.
The first order of business would be getting something he could test this on.
"This is supposedly a training hall even though there are no dummies in sight."
Surely, he couldn't be expected to hit the wall.
And even if he did, he doubted if his attacks would be able to scratch it.
"Training dummy, level 1, activated."
A voice echoed around the empty space.
Raven barely had time to pinpoint the source of the noise before something appeared before him.
A humanoid form, but not exactly humanoid.
Even though it seemed human—even it's appearance seemed human—there was no mistaking the dull, lifeless gaze in it's eyes.
Like it didn't exist.
But existed at the same time.
For some reason, Raven found himself staring at it.
If not for his knowledge of the world, Raven might have actually believed this was someone. The look was there, after all.
'I wonder if the dummies had to be like this.'
Perhaps it came from the author's twisted sense—the madman who could make you emotionally attached to a character, then kill them, probably doing so with a smile on his face as he imagined the readers reactions.
Raven went a considerable distance from the dummy, getting into a stance before darting forward.
He closed the distance between them in seconds, he was moving far faster than the average human.
His fist crashed into the dummy's guts, causing it to reel forward as saliva flew out of its mouth.
"This...."
He murmured, stepping back.
The dummy had already gone back into its standard mode, standing straight, as if it hadn't been hit by a brutal punch just now.
"....feels like I punched a real human just now."
Raven would know.
He had gotten into a lot of fights in his past life, stealing from the bodies if he won.
"Technology really is advanced."
Dummies were never expanded upon in the original, except having bodies that mirrored regular humans.
And technically, something as unimportant as training dummies didn't need to be expanded upon.
He moved back again, going back roughly the same distance as before.
'For skills, calling their names out aren't really required.'
'But I suppose when I get more skills, I'll need to at least think about their names so I don't get them mixed up.'
Raven drew a slow breath, focusing essence into his hand in a steady stream.
Then, it began materializing.
A faint hiss cut through the silence.
Sparks formed at his palm.
It was almost as if the air around him sharpened. And in the air, Raven could smell the metallic tang of ozone.
'Lightning Strike.'
[A/N: Adding this book to your collections and supporting with powerstones is greatly appreciated]