The Skilled

After separating from the Hunters, Lorn followed Sybil to her house. There, he learned about Hunters, Spirits, plus the various boons and skills.

People with powerful souls could sometimes receive the attention of the All-seeing and receive boons and skills from it. They would be able to see their Status and receive the boon of Enhancement with two Lv.0 skills: Rejuvenation and Strengthening. One could call these two the foundation of Hunters. One allowed them to recover quickly after Hunts and the other allowed them the physical capability needed to keep up with Possessed, monsters and other Hunters.

From then on, they would hunt for souls, which allowed them to receive better skills or more boons. When living things died in the One World, their souls materialized briefly for the victor to absorb. There were murderers who became killers so they could absorb people's souls, but most hunted the Possessed and the Monsters to become stronger.

The main reason was that the absorption rate for the same species was quite weak. For example, for Lorn's 'F' rank Spirit to level up to 'E' rank, he needed to kill 100 humans, or 10 possessed, or one monster.

And when he reached that level, depending on his actions, he could receive stronger skills on the Enhancement tree. For example, Danton became a Rogue because he preferred to sneak around and kill things cleanly. Shekh, on the other hand, walked the path of a warrior.

But it wasn't like Enhancement was the only choice offered to Hunters. Sybil herself received the boon of Manipulation, her skills centered around gravity.

Point of Gravity turned her into an anomaly in the gravitational system, allowing her to pull or push at objects with a straight force. And if the object she was trying to affect was heavier than her, she was the one to be pushed or pulled around.

The force of her skill was great, but unlike traditional Manipulators, Sybil couldn't make an object move sideways from her perspective. Things could only move away from her or at her.

On the other hand, the mayor had skills that allowed her to control the earth in any way she wanted, despite having the same boon. Of course, she was limited by her spirit's strength, but she definitely had more options.

Aside from Enhancement and Manipulation, Sybil knew five other boons:

- Specialization

- Conjuration

- Invocation

- Devotion

- Ascension

Specialization encompassed anything that fell out of the norm. Any skill that didn't belong to the other boons appeared with the Specialization boon. They were mostly support-type skills, or passive skills. Sybil's Spirit Visualization was a skill of this sort. It allowed her to see spirit with her eyes. While most others needed to feel it with their sixth sense, she had it much easier.

Conjuration was a boon that allowed Hunters to create things using their spirit. It was an exceptionally useful boon that thrived at the hands imaginative Hunters, but it was on the rare side. And most of its users were people who loved to hole up in some place to invent and create, so it was hard to become strong with it.

Invocation was an extremely useful boon that allowed Hunters to chant. They did not receive many skills, but they could basically replicate the effects of all the other boons by vocalizing their effects. Hunters with this boon were also trustworthy, as lies negatively affected the strength of their chants.

Devotion was a boon that appeared to people who dedicated their whole being unto one thing. Sword masters would receive the skills that allowed them to encapsulate their weapons in spirit, to sharpen them, to make them longer, etc. This boon was often considered one of the strongest. Only experienced masters or gifted devotees could receive it. With spirit and skills strengthening their beloved craft, they could only become more formidable.

As for Ascension, it was a boon exclusive to the One Emperor. Skills that allowed him to tap in to the domain of the divine. No one really knew what it did, but the skill that allowed him to execute the citizens most likely came from that boon. And although many challenged his throne in the past, none survived to tell the tale.

There were definitely other boons in the world, but due to Sybil being stuck in Silt, she was sadly unaware of them. The big guilds in the cities definitely had more information, so perhaps in the future, they were going to learn more about them.

"Now that we're done with the basics, let's get unlocking your skills," Sybil declared.

Lorn nodded. Finally, they were getting to the good stuff.

"The process will be much easier for you, since you have my help," Sybil said. "I'll control your spirit and make you use a skill. You just need to imagine what I tell you to imagine. After that, you need to memorize how your spirit behaved during my intervention. We'll start with Spirit Visualization. Imagine a prism reflecting a rainbow off a single ray of light."

Instantly, Lorn's mind saw the cover of a certain album.

"Spirit Visualization allows for exactly that. It gives you lens that allow you to see the colors hidden in a ray of white light."

Lorn felt Sybil tugging at his spirit. Hers grew tendrils and directed Lorn's mist towards his eyes. A thin lens encapsulated his eyeballs. When his eyes suddenly started seeing the things he was feeling with his sixth sense. In front of him, he saw the Sybil's orb-shaped spirit growing tendrils and controlling the mist-like substance leaking out of his head.

Sybil's spirit was orange, while his was reddish. But somehow, his spirit looked denser than Sybil's, even though his assumed the form of a mist, and hers assumed a more solid form.

"F ranked spirits are red colored," Sybil explained. "E – orange, D – yellow, C – White, B – Blue, and A – Purple. But although my spirit's a rank above yours, its quality is still rather lacking so it looks rather feeble. I'm sure the other Undying also have thick spirits like you."

Lorn nodded.

"Check your status," Sybil said. "How much did your spirit fall?"

[Spirit (F): 62%]

Lorn saw that a third of his spirit was already gone and it was still depleting at a rapid pace.

"It's 60, and it's running out fast," he hurriedly replied.

Sybil stopped interfering with his spirit and the colors and shapes he was seeing disappeared from his vision. His Spirit started slowly regenerating.

"As I thought…" Sybil said. "Since people with at least E rank Spirits usually use this skill, it's too much for you. Let's see what happens with Strengthening."

The two of them learned the skill, and Lorn soon felt its effects on his body. Instantly, he felt heavier, stronger, and faster at the same time. His dense muscles did not feel stuffy like he expected them to, but felt just right. It almost felt as if he was wearing an exoskeleton supporting his whole body.

When he checked his Spirit, it was at 40 percent, but depleting much slower this time.

Sybil nodded. She explained that for skills that lasted a longer time, a large portion of the spirit was used to first use it, then it depleted at a fixed pace. That explained his spirit dropping to such a low number so quickly.

The two of them took a small break, waiting for Lorn's spirit to become full again. Since the two other skills used much more mana than the first two, they needed him to be in top shape before attempting to cast the skill.

While the two waited, Sybil explained how she used Point of Gravity and Gravitational Pull. Her most common application was to use Point of Gravity and then pull at something heavier than herself. That way, she could yank herself off the ground, making her jumps much higher and unpredictable.

Another way to use it was to pull something small towards her, and to dodge out of its way, basically catapulting an object towards his enemies. Sybil didn't have a need for that, since she had Gravitational Push, but it was definitely an option.

If she used Gravitational Pull on something without using Point of Gravity, then it just fell faster.

Lorn asked if the skill could be used on humans, but sadly, she could not affect anything living. He could still use it on people's clothes, but the clothes needed to be heavy to affect them in any substantial way.

Soon enough, his spirit refilled. Quickly, the two unlocked the two remaining skills.

With four skills unlocked, Lorn received 0.2 Strength and Agility, 0.4 Willpower, and 0.2 Sense.

Every time a skill leveled up, depending on the Hunter's spirit rank, a fixed amount of stat points was added. Every time they received new skills; a relevant stat was multiplied. And every time their spirit ranked up, they received a mix of fixed stats, unlocked new ones sometimes, and were blessed by the divine occasionally.

Blessings were often passive skills or resistances. Immunity to poisons, quicker spirit regeneration, increased strength for certain skills, etc.

With every skill unlocked, Sybil went out, leaving Lorn alone to practice. He needed to be able to use his skills without Sybil's aid. But things didn't go so smoothly for him.

Utilizing his spirit was harder than he realized. He thought it would be okay since Sybil made it seem so easy, but there was a reason he was unable to use Rejuvenation when he was first bitten. He needed to first maintain a clear image relating to the skill's effects. While doing that, he needed to control his spirit to do certain things.

When he first tried to use rejuvenation, he managed to order them to gather on his wound, but he realized that he was even unable to do that now. The only reason his spirit moved back then was due to the desperate situation. In a calm, controlled environment like this, it was still and unmalleable.

His spirit resisted his control, the same as a paralyzed limb, refusing to move. Except, this particular limb was invisible (normally), intangible, with the only way to affect them being mind-control.

Lorn did not give up and diligently attempted to control his spirit. The task was hard, but not impossible. Since he succeeded once, his confidence was high. And since Sybil showed him how it was done, he was much more experienced compared to a complete newbie. After five hours, he managed to use Strengthening. From then on, the other skills became easier to use as well.

Lorn decided to take a rest after he managed to cast each skill by himself.

He was eternally thankful to Sybil. With how hard the process was, even with her help, he was sure he would've been stuck trying to work his spirit for weeks otherwise.

To show his appreciation, he cleaned her house and started making food.

It was hard because he was so used to modern technology, but he eventually managed to start a fire and mix some ingredients in a pot. The food ingredients were more varied than what Lorn expected, but there was a severe lack of spices. Lorn searched far and wide, but he could only find a single vial of salt. With how treasured the thing seemed, he decided not to use it without Sybil's permission.

As he finished cooking, Sybil came with two Soulless carrying a bed, a few candles and some books. They quickly put them in a spare room and left.

Sybil thanked him for the food and they both dug in. They ate in silence, and when they were finished, Sybil decided to clean and urged Lorn to read or rest in his room. Lorn nodded, said his goodnights and went to sleep. Although Sybil's house looked rather empty, Lorn knew it was considered wealthy for the time. A spare room was not something found in a medieval house so often.

He lied down on the bed and checked the books. One was a short collection of folklore, the other was something the mayor wrote on the country of Vox, and the last one was a compendium of monsters and possessed.

Lorn decided to check the first one, but as he finished reading about a warrior who shot down six of the seven original suns that inhabited the world so people could live better, he felt bored and started practicing his skills. He cast Spirit Visualization and started controlling his spirit. Being able to see it helped him control. It really felt like he was learning to use a new limb.

The skill managed to level up once during his training.

Before he went to sleep, he checked his Immersion, which had become 56%. All the learning and the practical training he did today had great effect on his Immersion. It was proof of his growth, but he definitely needed to log out tomorrow.

He was somewhat fearful of the potential damages, but in all honesty, it was out of his control. The only thing he could do was to log out responsibly.

…