Chapter 77 - Learning a Skill

[ Vengeful Spirit Eliminated ]

[ Supernatural entity incident "Crazy Delivery Dude" has been resolved. ]

[ S-rank awarded for overall Player performance, 150% Coins and Experience Points earned ]

[ Calculating Rewards... ]

[ Player awarded 450 EXP and 450 Coins ]

[ Level Up! You are now Level 5. You have 1 unused attribute point. ]

[ Auction House is now available. ]

[ Player Level: Level 5 (100 / 1200) ]

[ Coins: 945 ]

"...What'd I do?"

Bai Zhi read the pop-up notification carefully, then looked up at the empty couch, a perplexed expression on his face. He was thoughtful for a second, but a growl from his stomach reminded him that he desperately needed to eat, and Bai Zhi put his questions aside for the moment.

There was a lot of food on the table before him, not counting the other seven orders that he had gotten as a result of that supernatural deliveryman, but this was not a problem for Player like him, because he had an Inventory. Anything inside a Player's Inventory was essentially frozen in time, which was how he got the hot water to make instant noodles with, during the Newbie Run.

This novel is available on bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.

His future teammates would definitely question why his Inventory was filled with so much delivery food.

Not all supernatural entities were dangerous, after all. In fact, there were many types. Some were only experienced as phenomena, some were just objects and some could even manifest as a whole region of space.

The one Bai Zhi had inadvertently dealt with was nearly harmless, even beneficial in a sense... though most people who encountered it were in for a rude shock and a hefty repair bill on account of their broken doors.

...Wouldn't you freak out if someone bashed down your door with axes and hammers? The most infuriating part was when it earnestly delivered the food into its victims' hands and brazenly asked them to leave a good review...

After finally eating his fill, Bai Zhi cleaned up the trash and placed whatever he hadn't touched into his Inventory.

He realized that he had filled it with so much stuff that he was quickly running out of slots, but so far, there seemed to be no conclusive method to increase the size of the Inventory.

When he was done, Bai Zhi solemnly retrieved the Perfect-Ranked skill card from his Inventory.

He had originally expected to wait quite a while before he could reach Level 5 and learn this skill, but thanks to the encounter with the Crazy Delivery Dude, he had received the experience points he needed to level up, and with it, one attribute point which he added to his Perception, allowing him to fulfill the requirements to learn the Perfect-Ranked skill.

[ Skill Name: Shadow ]

[ Type: Special ]

[ Rank: Perfect ]

[ Effect 1: Shadow Manipulation - Gain control over shadows, at the cost of Spiritual Energy. ]

[ Effect 2: Shadow Enhancement - User may spend Spiritual Energy to temporarily absorb their own shadow. While shadow is absorbed, stats are increased to 200% of original value. ]

[ Effect 3: Shadow Sneak - User may dissolve into their own shadow, gaining the ability to jump between shadows and greatly increasing their stealth. ]

[ SE Consumption (Effect 1/2/3): 10 / 50 / 100 SE per minute ]

[ Requirements: INT 15, PER 15, CHA 15 ]

[ Learned ]

[ Note: Would you still love me, if you could do it all over again~ ]

After learning it, the full details of the Perfect skill were finally revealed to him.

There was no question that this skill was powerful, more so than Bai Zhi had expected. If he had learned it before entering the small village in the Underworld, he wouldn't have been run ragged near the end and found himself on the brink of disaster again and again.

"Control over shadows..."

Bai Zhi raised his arm and turned his gaze to the shadow it cast on the coffee table. With a thought, the shadow seemed to lift off the surface and fly to the ceiling. Another thought, and it appeared on the floor.

After testing it out, Bai Zhi felt like he had a better grasp on the effect of Shadow Manipulation. Theoretically, the cost of activating this effect was 10 SE per minute, but in practice, using it could consume anywhere from 5 to 20 SE per minute, or more, depending on how heavily the shadows were being manipulated. For example, trying to shape his shadow into something like a Transformer robot had consumed as much as 20 SE in thirty seconds, which was quite a lot considering he only had 300 SE.

However, shadows could hardly do any damage, and Bai Zhi struggled to think of some way to make the most of his new skill. After racking his brains, he concluded that... it would be good for making surgical lamps* obsolete.

Bai Zhi also tested the Shadow Enhancement effect, and was satisfied to find that it increased his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution up to 16 each, but had no impact on the other three attributes of Intelligence, Perception, and Charisma. It was expensive, too, at 50 SE per minute—this meant he could only sustain the buff for 6 minutes, but the increase in power it offered was significant.

Of course, PODS also increased his stats, and they had the advantage of lasting for one hour, but they cost precious Coins to purchase from the Marketplace. By contrast, the option to turn Shadow Enhancement on and off as needed made it highly flexible.

As for Shadow Sneak, using it allowed Bai Zhi to literally sink into a shadow—not only human shadows, but shadows cast by buildings as well. Even before considering the offensive potential of such a skill, it was already second to none in terms of its defensive capabilities.

The only drawback of Shadow Sneak was its high cost. On top of the base cost of 100 SE per minute, to jump between shadows required additional SE, depending on the distance jumped. Jumping was only allowed between shadows within the user's line of sight, and the user was not allowed to move their body while hidden in shadow, but it would certainly shine as a tool to carry out assassinations.

"Not bad. With this skill, I might even consider going back and exploring Shadowland a little more..."

After he had tested the new abilities to his satisfaction, Bai Zhi let out a yawn. A quick shower later, he went straight to bed.

After all, it had been a long, eventful day, to say the least...