Weird Skills

'Hey, you're gonna tire yourself out at this rate. It's not that I don't want to become a monster's sumptuous dinner but it is, so just stop running without knowing where you're going!'. I knew that I couldn't see the mountain anymore and I most likely was distancing myself from it with every step I took: 'If I stop, I'm as good as dead, I'll stop once I'm sure there's nothing coming after me.'. 'I suggest not doing that and climbing a tree instead, we might be able to pinpoint our current location then.'.

I took a quick glance at the top of the trees surrounding me, some had heavy foliage while others were completely bare: 'I'm not an expert but I don't think trees that look this similar should be this different while this close to one another.'. I touched the bark of one of the naked trees, it was brittle, easily crumbling apart between my fingers: 'I think I read somewhere that the older the tree, the tastier the bark. Care to give it a try?'.

I gazed at the bits and pieces left in my hand, I needed something to eat and hunting in this environment was out of the question. I steeled my resolve and started munching on the bark, I was repulsed and forced myself to not regurgitate it all, that's when I felt something hitting the top of my head: 'Hey! Hey! Check your Status right now!'. I don't really know what I was expecting to see yet I opened it in anticipation.

[Skills Obtained: Tree Connoisseur (LV 1), Empty Talk (LV 1), Search (LV 1)]

I couldn't believe it, I actually got skills from eating tree bark: 'There's only one thing left to do. You have to eat this entire tree!'. The tree was about 5 meters tall, that would take me weeks, I must have gone crazy for thinking of doing such a thing: 'You have to survive 100 days, I don't think wasting a few to eat this tree would negatively impact your objective. Don't you agree?'. Well it was true the forest had been quite safe until now, so there's probably no risk of me being attacked in the days to come.

'Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about. Now it's only a possibility that you might get more skills by eating this entire tree, but even if there's a one in a billion chance, you have to take it!'. I needed all the skills I could get, with my arm gone there now was only a slim chance I might survive, if all I needed to do to keep myself alive and well was to eat a tree then I should just do it, right? 'Stop questioning yourself, eat it and be done with it.'.

'There is one problem, this is all being broadcasted live to the people back on Earth. I don't want to ruin my image and be called: "The Tree Eater" or something. Just imagining the jeers that I'd receive from strangers while walking down the street or the passing glances of disdain...No, I wouldn't be able to live with that, I can't do it.'. I turned my body towards a random direction and walked away from the dying tree.

'You'll get me killed with that attitude. Be bold! Courageous! Uncaring towards the populace! Don't you want to become someone I can be proud of?!'. I sighed and observed the palm of my remaining hand, could I really change for the better... 'Have you ever noticed how the lines on our hands seem to section them into neatly arranged pieces? It always reminds me of the story of Frankenstein.' 'What? You're saying you think humans were created by being put together piece by piece? Wait, is now really the time to be going onto another one of your conspiratorial tangents?'.

'If not now then when? When is man supposed to ponder about his own existence if not in times of extreme danger?'. 'Huh? You're in extreme danger?'. 'Well yeah, is that not the case? I thought I heard someone saying I was in grave danger or something.'. 'You must be hallucinating, you look better than fine if you ask me, dashing even. I'm pretty sure I'd be able to lend you a job as a model if you took care of that weird hairstyle and hid your handicap in some way.'.

'Consider the job done! I can confidently say that I've perfected the art of hiding my handicap. It has long surpassed the realm of mere illusions, I fear that not even I truly know if my birth defect is real or not. Ah, my genius supersedes my own consciousness, how tragic!'. 'Since when is you not having a left arm a birth defect? You had one a few hours ago.'. 'Did I? Are you sure about th..'

[Empty Talk has reached LV 100]

[Challenger Fan Yu is awarded the following Titles: Enigmatic Herald, Lonely Speaker]

[Skill Empty Talk has evolved into: Thoughtful Gibberish (LV 1)]

[Skill Enigmatic Speech (LV 1) was derived from: Enigmatic Herald]

[Processing...]

[Skill Void Whispers (LV 1) was acquired from: fusion of Thoughtful Gibberish and Enigmatic Speech]

[New Skill obtained: Poison Resistance (LV 2)]

[You should prop yourself up, some worms have already made your nose into their nest]

I hurriedly got up and sneezed a few times, I worriedly checked my body for anything that might have infested it: 'You're fine, well technically you're still on the verge of death but it's better than nothing.' [I concur, you should feel grateful towards the Limit Sky system for having granted you a resistance Skill]. I was still trying to catch my breath as I had coughed out a few spoonfuls of dirt, but it was true I was grateful to whatever oversaw Limit Sky.

I backed up from the dying tree I had never left the side of in reality: [To actually eat a hallucinogenic substance as your first meal in a new world, you're undeserving of your high Luck stat.]. 'I was about to say the same thing. It's almost like our minds are connected.' [Well, I won't get into the technicality of things but yes, that is the case.]. I was too physically exhausted to even conjure a response.

I blinked a few times and attempted to remember what had happened since the moment I had stepped foot in this land: 'Good luck with that, I can't even remember what I ate for lunch.'. [A trivial attempt, your mind is still quite foggy from the bark you ate. I suggest keeping our current goal clear and advancing towards the mountain range.]. 'That's what I've been saying since the beginning, I'm just too headstrong to heed my own words.'.

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[Did you know you encountered a Bonus Monster as your first encounter? You were extremely lucky to be able to see an enemy numerous people have been searching for their entire lives. They'd beg you for even a shred of information, you know?] [I'm still reeling from the shock being an Unwilling brought me, there are so many advantages to being one, a lot more than what your so called companions told you prior to my birth. I would love to exhaustively elaborate on the benefits you were given, but I am, I'm sure to your dismay, unable to tell you according to the rules set by Limit Sky] [A Handler, the sheer awe people will have once they hear what you are will make you...] ['Who is the Operator?' you're surely asking yourself, in truth...] [Birthing new skills is something...]

I knew I was getting nearer to the foot of the mountain I was told to go to, yet I could not rejoice as the entire trip, though calm and tranquil, was still an agonizing experience I had wished would end a countless amount of times. I had been continuously assaulted by a barrage of dialogue from the voice that had appeared in my mind as a result of me acquiring [Void Whispers].

'But you cannot deny his usefulness, though he keeps on repeating that his glib tongue is being restricted by Limit Sky, there still are tidbits of information I was able to garner from all that he said, didn't you?' 'I don't care about all that, I'd be more than happy to give up everything I learned from him for the opportunity to sit in silence for 5 minutes. ' 'Technically speaking, you didn't learn anything, I was the one who gathered all the information and restructured it inside our mind.'

[Shut up both of you, I'm trying to piece together our current situation.] I stopped moving for a brief instant: 'Are you making fun of me? You were the one who wouldn't shut up a minute ago!' [Kid, it wasn't me. No? Well... It was since he was you and I am you as well, but we're a hell of a lot different.] 'I'd say it's official, we've gone over the edge of madness. There's no rescuing you anymore. For your own inner voices to have personality disorders isn't something I'd ever have thought possible.'.

[Pipe down and open your ears this time, Void Whispers has reached LV 2.]. 'Does it have any significance apart from reminding me of what I just went through?' [It means you now can make the skill stop working, but there's a catch.] I couldn't care about his next words, I willed Void Whispers to stop functioning and braced for the grand reveal.

'Did it work?' I waited for an answer. Time passed ever so slowly as a wide smile carved itself onto my face. 'Finally, peace of mind. Ain't it great?'. As reassurance, I waited for an answer. 'Nothing.'. I was about to celebrate when I realized something was afoot: 'No answer... That's not normal.'. Yes, there should have been an answer, that was how it was before. 'I should have answered. Why didn't I?'.

An ominous feeling crept up on me, I tilted my head upwards and gazed at the sky. All I could see was a batch of clouds, yet I sensed something else. Something was rapidly coming down towards me, I was sure of it. I should move out of the way, I should have moved out of the way, I will move out of the way. What? I'm still in the exact same place? But that thing is getting closer and closer to me. I didn't want it to reach me, I'm sure of it, I needed to dodge it, NOW.

I failed.

[Skill Broken Mind (LV 64) was lost]

[Skill Rapid Thinking (LV 4) was lost]

[Skill Sensory Boost (LV 3) has transformed into Skill Tree Sensibility]

[Skill Search (LV 1) has transformed into Skill Tree Suggestion]

[New Skill acquired: Reality Shift (LV 1)]

[Challenger Fan Yu is awarded the following Titles: Cognizant yet Unaware, Pity for the Deluded]

[A Unique Skill has been acquired: Am I Crazy ? (LV 1)]

[Processing...]

[Challenger Fan Yu lapses into unconsciousness]

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Why was he sent here ? He had rarely ever been told to descend from the mountaintop, past occurences had simply been the arrival of Cataclysms on the territory he supervises. A quick beatdown and the rest usually solved itself but, as he shook the Earthling he held in his paw, he couldn't help himself from questioning the orders he had received.

He took out a gold needle out of his pitch black torso and inserted it into the Earthling's cranium, although his curiosity got the better of him and he pried open the Earthling's Inner Status with his curved claws: 'Peculiar'. The Inner Status of a Challenger usually took the form of an ever-changing maze, each characteristic hidden behind a sealed door. The difficulty of solving the maze by finding and breaking through each door was often proportional to the strength of the Challenger, and as an Operator, he usually had no trouble uncovering every characteristic.

This Earthling's Inner Status wasn't hard to solve, it even was weirdly simplistic as no change had occured to the maze for the past minute. Nonetheless, it was with a certain degree of experience that the curved claws reached deeper, discovering with mild surprise a second maze, an entirely different one which also boasted a much higher degree of complexity.

He sped up the process of solving the maze as the golden needle had almost finished sewing back the Earthling's psyche. He paid attention to every characteristic this time, and was quite surprised to encounter another maze behind one of the sealed doors. 'No change. Layers.'. He found his hypothesis quite amusing and decided to leave the Earthling's Inner Status before he woke up.

'Leave him one of your elixirs.'. This thought suddenly appeared in his mind. He grimaced and reluctantly spat out an orange vial out of his torso before burrowing into the ground and swimming back to the mountaintop.