Chapter 23: Tier Perk

"Please have a seat."

The clerk behind the counter said.

Yoshino Aruven then found a bench to sat on. He was currently inside a lobby. The Office of the City Mayor to be precise.

To be honest, he wanted to waltz inside the building, cut on the line, and walk onwards like he owned the place. The people who were waiting in the cue would supposedly scold him for trying to  pass them by. He would then slap them in face because the secretary would personally call him and show how privileged he was.

In fact he was rehearsing his suave lines deep in his mind.

But none of these happened. He was expecting such situation to occur. But no, that never happened!

The clerk at the lobby even told him to sit down and wait for his turn.

The novels Yoshino read would have had this kind of scenario. But none of that happened now. Perhaps such things were difficult to pull off in real life? Or maybe he was on the wrong genre all along?

Yoshino sighed. He decided to gather his thoughts. He had to ponder on the important matters anyway.

He had obtained a possible key for reaching Tier 2. But how do you get a breakthrough exactly?

In [Roku Shiki Online], there were sub-levels within a Tier. These were namely: Rookie, Adept, Mid, Expert, High, and Peaked. One could only attempt for a breakthrough once he had reached the Peaked-level.

So how could you reach the Peaked-level then?

First, one must obtain and fully equip six skills from their current Tier. That would be enough to propel an individual towards the Mid-level.

This might be easy for the Basic-Tier, since they could readily receive basic skills upon obtaining them. That was why people would look down at someone if they figured out that the person was lower than the mid-level of Tier 1. Because really, how hard would it be to find six basic skills to equip immediately?

Actually, it was very hard.

Obtaining new skills were one thing. But being able to equip them was another. One must develop their parameters based on the requirements of their desired skills. One also had to check if his compatibility with the skills he wanted to equip was good enough.

And the list could go on. So let us leave that argument alone for now.

Nonetheless, this mechanic would become more challenging once an individual reached the higher realms. Because one would have to improve all of his equipped skills one at a time. Thus whenever two of your equipped skills had a breakthrough, your sub-level would rise.

Next, in order to improve further from the Mid-level, one must master their current Tier Perk.

Perks refer to the special functionality that was available to an individual for each Tier attained. Every Tier would possess their own additional techniques.

One would be considered as Peaked-level when his mastery of the available perk reaches the fourth level.

For the Basic-Tier, the perk was called Skill Combination.

This particular Perk pertains to maximizing the synergy of one's skills in order to yield a collective effect that was greater than the sum of each piece. A good example of this was the [Enchant]: Fire Fang and [Enchant]: Lightning Fang.

This was a combination of Weapon Call, followed by Void Fang, then Scanner, and then Enchant Element. By casting these four skills in sequence, Yoshino had produced a high damaging attack.

But one could not simply achieve this feat by casting skills consecutively. One had to practice the optimal timing for activating each skill in sequence in order to tap on the perk's full potential.

Each skill added in the sequence would increase the difficulty of the activation timing. Therefore, a four-fold skill combination would be considered as attaining Perk Level 4.

This might be too difficult to attain for some Classes. However, worry not because the Master Core Skills were here to save the day.

These passive skills would count as additional fold when performing a Skill Combination. This means that if an individual had equipped a Master Core then activated a skill, that would already be considered as a two-fold skill combination.

In other words, with the help of a Master Core, an individual would only need to activate three skills in sequence in order to reach the Peaked-level!

This would also mean that Yoshino was actually someone who could perform a five-fold Skill Combination now that he recovered his [Buff Mastery].

The Tier suppression characteristic of the dungeon named [Rah Qa] had rendered Yoshino's option of cultivating to Tier 2 unappealing. Instead, he had spent the last two years rediscovering the potential of the Basic-Tier Perk.

Yoshino was confident that he could even perform a six-fold Skill Combination now!

This would explain why he was able to overpower the officer named Pailong two days ago. Even though he only had three skills (plus one because of the obtained reward) his Perk level was certainly higher than the senior officer.

He was able to complete his Skill Combination before Pailong could execute his!

In a world where Tier 1s could barely combine four skills, Yoshino could cast six. This meant that he could cast his combinations faster than a typical Peaked-level Tier 1.

In terms of power, a six-fold combination would probably be as strong a single Tier 2 attack-type Skill.

This advantage was huge enough that even a Rookie-level Tier 2 would have difficulty keeping up with it.

"Sir, the mayor is now ready to meet you."

The voice had snapped out Yoshino from his thoughts. The clerk had approached where he was sitting.

"Thanks."

Yoshino replied. He quickly rose from his seat and headed to the direction he was pointed at.

However,

[Weapon Call].

A small dimensional gate had manifested in Yoshino's right hand. He pulled out a 30 centimeter knife. He then swung the magic weapon as the nimbly turned around.

Clang!

Zeta Blade was able to block the slash from a dagger. The two blades were now pushing against each other. The enemy weapon was being held by the clerk who approached.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Yoshino asked. He exerted more force as he tried to push his magic weapon forward.

[Danger Perception] was a passive skill that enables the user to detect imminent threats in the surrounding.

This skill was probably the reason why Officer Mink could avoid the fierce attacks of the female lieutenant. Coupled with mind manipulation, her evasion had been off the charts.

And Yoshino could use this now. Albeit a Basic version of that feat.

The clerk pushed back in return. But instead of giving an answer, two more clerks had approached.

The clerk on the right had just conjured a fireball in her hand. She threw it towards the young man in university uniform.

Yoshino grinned. Compared to Soura's flames the incoming fireball was substantially weaker. He took a step backwards instead forcing against the dagger-wielding clerk.

[Enchant Element]: Fire!

The buff skill could raise the affinity of the user to one of the elements available in the area. With the help of [Scanner], Yoshino had locked-on the incoming fireball. He grabbed the chosen element with an increased resistance.

Technically, raising one's affinity to the element used by an opponent for attacking could only provide a decent defense. However there were multiple enemies right now. One of them would certainly be weak to the element he boosted.

"Fire Fang!"

Yoshino casted the skill combination towards the dagger-wielding clerk. The attack was a bona fide five-fold combo. The clerk was unable to defend against it.

But the clerk on the left had conjured a whip filled with electricity. He then attacked the young man.

[Enchant]: Electric!

Although Yoshino could only boost one element at a time, his proficiency in using the skill was extremely high. He could switch elements in a blink of an eye.

This time he combined [Enchant] with [Scanner] and [Danger Perception]. With the help of his Master Core, he able to execute his plan.

Redirecting the electric whip towards the fire-using clerk. Unfortunately, the clerk was able to defend against the attack.

Three more clerks had rushed forward. The effect combination of Scanner and Danger Perception had enabled Yoshino to estimate the power-levels of the new enemies. They were all at the Basic-Tier.

Five versus one. If those Trogan officers before had insisted on fighting him, Yoshino would have been on a similar situation.

A fireball was approaching.

An electric whip was rushing forward.

A slab of rock was thrown.

Despite the incoming attacks, Yoshino grinned. There was no point in holding back anymore.

Six-fold Skill Combination!

"[Enchant]: Storm Fang!"

Instead of throwing Zeta Blade, he held the magic weapon tighter. He slashed at the incoming attacks with great force.

The attacks were successfully deflected!

However,

Four more clerks rushed forward.

Are you kidding me?

Yoshino grumbled in his thoughts. He could not voice out his complaints this time. He would rather focus on keeping the enemies at bay.

He managed to distance himself. With his proficient casting,  he could afford to have a shoot out of spells against that many clerks.

But then five more clerks appeared.

He struggled to maintain his distance.

But then six more clerks arrived.

Then seven more.

"Enough!"

Yoshino threw his Zeta Blade. But it was not for the activation of [Void Fang]. It was towards the floor instead. He then added,

"I concede."

He raised his hands in defeat. However the mob of clerks did not accept the surrender. They bombarded him with various projectile attacks.