Investigation

The next day Ryu woke before sunrise, it was becoming a habit of his waking up to see the sun still sleeping. Something he hates to the core to the heart, when he chose the life of a cultivator he was surely not expecting this. 'Where is my luxurious mansion with a flowery courtyard and enchanting beautiful woman serving the finest wine? I was scammed to join this life.'

Since he got tricked and there is no one to complain about it Ryu raised and prepared to go to class, he had to reach early to perform the role of a detective. He wishes to investigate if his skill was something common that everybody is achieving or if it was an abnormality that is only occurring with him. It being something special of him would be the best possible answer, it would trigger more questions though.

Ryu reached class one hour before it begins, surprisingly he was not the first one to arrive. Luise was there already, maybe it was not so surprising, the study is this girl's hobby, and become a beast researcher is her dream. Understanding her personality and motivation was not difficult at all.

Ryu took a place next to her and started to talk, from time to time he tried to bring the subject of the conversation to the system, leveling and whatever he thought would make her talk if she had acquired a skill.

At first, he tried giving light hints, but when that failed he was becoming more and more frustrated and his hints were becoming straight asks. In the end, he failed miserably, no matter the way he asked Luise would always shift the topic back to beasts.

Half an hour later, more people started to arrive, Ryu gave up on his try with Luise. If he would get an answer at this point it was clear that it would not be with her. He continued in his place chatting with Luise, he was more like just waving his head feigning to pay attention, while in reality he was concentrated on the surrounding people, listening to every conversation waiting for an opportunity.

And the opportunity presented itself, he was looking for people, and someone he knew appeared. To be precise three people he knew appeared: Marcel, Pavel, and Igor. Those guys were much more simple and easy dealing than Luise, Ryu decided to ask them, and knowing their personalities he knew the best course of action to get some answer.

Ryu waited for the three to take seats, he raised and went straight for them, he extended his hand for a shake and started talking.

"Hi, I want to appologize again, I am feeling bad for that day. I am sorry."

"What are you talking about? We have solved that already, you don't need to appologize with us." Marcel spoke and the two at each side agreed with him.

"Where have you been Ryu we did not see you nearby all that time, did you gave up the quest?" it was Pavel that made this question.

"About that, no. When you guys told me that there is no herbs in that place I went far to another place to collect herbs." Ryu said with a smile.

When he said these words the three lowered their heads out of shame, they were angry with themselves, why didn't they do the same. They acted really stupid staying in that place, but they were afraid of losing their precious spot and ended up making a poor decision.

"Did this work? I mean you found a good place to collect herbs." this time it was Igor that made the question. He asked in the hope to get a no as an answer, this way he would not feel so bad with their poor decision, the decision to stay in that spot for days, and even picking a fight to defend it.

"It worked. It was hard to find the herbs, it was my first time seeing them but there was plenty. I got one level with the reward what I've collected." Ryu said trying to make the three not feel too bad about it. His goal was to bring the subject to skills, but it would not work if they think he was boosting and being arrogant. For his strategy to work he needed to make them enthusiastic with the perspective.

The three friends congratulated Ryu, they were close to getting one level but they did not achieve it yet. For some time they kept chatting about the level, stats, and quests, Ryu noticed that there were quite a few eyes looking at them and paying attention to their conversation. It was them that Ryu pulled out his card.

"Ah, there is one more thing. I got one skill there." the eyes focused on him widened.

"Are you for real? That is amazing, Igor got one skill too." innocently Pavel gave the answer Ryu wanted.

"You too? congratulations. I hope your skill is better then mine, I've got an Axe Mastery Skill, beginner level. It is just a human grade bronze skill. At least if it were Sword Mastery." Ryu feigned to not care too much about the skill.

"Axe Mastery Skill is a grow type, you got an amazing skill, mine is human silver grade but it is just a skill to open the ground and make holes." Igor said with a gloomy face.

"Why are you so depressed, this skill is very useful maybe you can make only small holes today but when you got stronger it could be very powerful." Ryu cheered up Igor, hoping that by doing so he could incite the surrounding people to join the conversation.

A slap suddenly hit Ryu on the shoulder making him lose balance and perform a step forward. Angry, he turned to see who was the one to hit him, he was ready to fight whoever it was, but when he turned back he faced a smiling Nura staring back at him.

"So you got one skill. And it is a Axe Mastery Skill. And still you are not satisfied with it. You know this skill evolve right?" Nura spoke one sentence after the other making a break at each one, a reminder that Nura knew his secret. The guy is figuratively pocking Ryu on the ribs.

"It's is not that I am not satisfied, is just that I don't like using an Axe, so this skill would not be so useful in the future." Ryu gave an answer laughing. For everyone except Nura, it was due to the irony of getting a not so useful skill, but for Nura, it was a laugh of embarrassment. Ryu was caught red-handed.

"By the way, you will not introduce me to your new friends?"

After a brief introduction, they continued to chat for a while until Nura throw a bomb into the conversation.

"I got one skill too, it is not big deal it is just sprint." when those words left his mouth everyone in the room looked perplexed at him.

"How did you get sprint? It is incredible." one of the guys eavesdropping on the conversation could not hold himself and mingled the conversation. When everyone looked at him he got a little embarrassed but continued to speak "you said it is not big deal but it is a mandatory skill that every cultivator have, getting it so early is an incredible feat, can you say how did you get it?"

"It is an embarrassing story, actually I was fleeing from a poisonous rat. It was fast and I couldn't fight it, so I decided to flee, you know, to not get poisoned. The skill surged this moment, I don't know why and how, it just happened.

And one more thing, you have misunderstood me, I am not saying that sprint is not useful. It is just that I can't use it properly.

When I use the skill fatigue kick in so fast that the skill is basically unusable. I think that is the reason the shop only opens in level 10, it is for when we get strong enough to use the skills."

"This is the reason then." a girl that was also eavesdropping joined the group "I got a skill too, is wind slash a human silver grade. but when I use it, it just make a breeze.".

One by one all the students joined the conversation and they all talked about their skills, which allowed Ryu to figure out that his high-grade skills were not something normal. Only a handful of his colleagues had acquired one skill and all of them were human grade. There is the possibility of someone be hiding a skill just like Ryu, but still, he got a confirmation.

When the teacher entered the room they went to their seats, Ryu was surprised when Nura went to pick a seat next to Luise.

However, what most intrigued Ryu was what had just happened, Nura joined the conversation and made everyone join too, making them reveal their skills. Ryu was not a fool to not understand what the other had done.

But why did he made this, he would have to ask later. Ryu took a seat beside Nura and the other gave a discreet gesture of thumbs up for him.