Skill Selections

Lindarion sat lazily in the grass, absentmindedly munching on berries. Yeah, berries. He was starting to feel like a vegan. It was the Moonberry he had packed for himself before stepping into this hellhole.

Turns out, Selene didn't need food. But that didn't stop her from eating everything in sight—especially anything he had.

'How the hell does that much food fit in such a tiny body? She's a real glutton.'

Lindarion watched as Selene devoured a berry the size of her entire body.

'…I have no words for this.'

She swallowed it in one big gulp, then—of course—flew straight onto his head again.

"It's training time, Young Master! Get up!"

She tugged at his hair like a damn puppeteer.

'How am I the master when she's the one pulling the strings? Does she ever think about these things?'

Lindarion let out a long sigh before pushing himself up, stretching his limbs. A satisfying series of cracks ran through his joints.

'That felt good.'

"So, Master Lindarion, we'll be starting with the basics of Darkness Summoning!"

Selene hovered right in front of his face, striking a teacher-like pose.

"You can summon a Darkness Entity anytime, and just as easily send it back to the void." Her tone was serious, almost instructional. Lindarion raised an eyebrow at that.

"You just need to command the darkness—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Lindarion dismissed her back into the darkness.

'Alright, time to pick my skills.'

"System, let's start with the passive skill."

Four floating panels appeared before him, displaying his options.

[Passive Skill Selection]

[1. Predator's Instinct]

• Effect: Sharpened battle awareness and reaction speed when facing multiple enemies. The more opponents present, the stronger the instinct becomes, allowing for better prediction of attacks and weak points.

[2. Mana Overflow]

• Effect: Natural mana regeneration increased by 20%. Excess mana passively reinforces the body, slightly enhancing endurance and resistance to mana exhaustion.

[3. Shadow Walker]

• Effect: Movement speed and stealth are enhanced in dimly lit or dark environments. Allows seamless blending into shadows, making detection significantly harder for enemies.

[4. Battle-Hardened]

• Effect: Pain and fatigue have reduced effects during combat. Prolonged fights gradually adapt the body, allowing for peak performance to be maintained longer without exhaustion.

'Yeah, number four is kind of useless to me. The passives that come with Ouroboros's title already cover that.'

Lindarion leaned on his hand, pacing slowly around the well as he thought it over.

'I'll go with the second one. Mana Overflow.'

[Mana Overflow selected! Added to passive skills!]

He instantly felt like his body had become lighter due to the reinforcements of excess mana.

"Now, the active skills, System."

[Please choose two skills.]

[Active Skill Selection]

[1. Dominion Grasp]

• Effect: Summons an invisible force that locks onto a target, temporarily restricting their movement. Weaker enemies are completely immobilized, while stronger ones experience heavy resistance.

• Cooldown: 10 seconds

• Duration: 5-15 seconds (scales with mana investment)

[2. Shadowbound Arsenal]

• Effect: Summons a set of spectral weapons based on the User's mana affinity, which attack in sync with their movements. Weapons vanish after the skill duration ends.

• Cooldown: 25 seconds

• Duration: 12 seconds

[3. Abyssal Rebirth]

• Effect: If the User receives a fatal blow, they will revive once with 10% HP and 30% mana, engulfed in a wave of dark energy that knocks back all nearby enemies. This effect can only be triggered once per day.

• Cooldown: 24 hours

[4. Phantom Onslaught]

• Effect: The User enters a hyper-speed state for a short duration, delivering a flurry of unavoidable strikes. Attacks while in this state ignore a portion of the enemy's defense.

• Cooldown: 15 seconds

• Duration: 6 seconds

[5. Eclipse Manifestation]

• Effect: The User temporarily fuses with their darkness affinity, entering a transcendent state that enhances all stats and grants temporary flight. While in this form, all attacks deal additional shadow damage.

• Cooldown: 5 minutes

• Duration: 20 seconds

'Holy shit, these are insane.'

Lindarion's eyes widened as he read through them.

This was a big decision.

'Abyssal Rebirth practically makes me unkillable. Yeah, that's a must.'

A small smirk formed on Lindarion's lips as he made his choice.

'I'll take Abyssal Rebirth and Phantom Onslaught.'

[Abyssal Rebirth, Phantom Onslaught successfully selected. Adding to skills list!]

Phantom Onslaught was a no-brainer.

'A skill that ignores defense? That was priceless. Even if it only ignored part of it, the sheer value of such an ability was undeniable.'

'I'll open the Mystery Box later, this isn't the best place to spawn a giant dragon..'

He continued with a deep sigh.

'Alright… time to bring back the little brat.'

Lindarion rubbed his temples before commanding the darkness to return Selene.

She reappeared in her usual attire… looking thoroughly pissed.

"Young Master," she said with a devilish smile. A truly demonic smile. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't dismiss me while I was talking."

"Relax, I was just testing something," Lindarion waved her off, lying just a little. Well, it was a test—he was just testing skills instead.

"Hmph. Anyway, today we begin your Darkness Affinity Training!"

'I want to die already.'

"Alright, take out your sword and coat it in darkness!"

'Wait…That's it?'

Lindarion nodded, but Selene's grin only widened.

Something about it felt wrong. However it didn't matter, well, not to Lindarion of course. He was him.

He pulled out his sword and commanded the darkness to coat it.

And it did. Instantly. Flawlessly.

"…Done."

Lindarion's confident tone seemed to shake Selene to her core.

"…"

Her smile twitched.

She had no words.

'How…?'

Darkness-coated weapons were a technique that took years for swordsmen to master.

And he did it instantly.

Selene stared at him, expression frozen in a mixture of disbelief and existential crisis.

"R-R-Right! Now try using the sword for a few moves!"

Selene's voice wavered slightly. Lindarion was too good. Almost unreal.

'That's it?'

Lindarion gave a small nod before executing a series of precise strikes. Clean, effortless slashes, swift cuts, and pinpoint thrusts carved through the air.

The darkness coating his blade left behind inky black trails with each motion, yet not once did his affinity waver. No instability. No hesitation. It moved with him—like an extension of his own being.

After a few more fluid movements, Lindarion sheathed his sword.

Selene just… stared. Jaw slightly open.

Even long after he had stopped.

'…What's her problem?'

"P-Perfect! Now, try forming a darkness orb in your hand."

'Darkness orb? What the hell that?'

"It's a sphere of condensed darkness, you need to gather darkness energy in your palm."

Lindarion poured all his focus into shaping the darkness into an orb. This was much harder than Selene's previous requests, but he didn't complain. He just concentrated.

The darkness began to condense, swirling into a perfect sphere in his palm, crackling with mana.

"Amazing… It's flawless."

Selene's praise felt good after all the crap he had gone through.

'That wasn't so hard. I thought it would be way more difficult.'

With that thought, he withdrew the mana back into his body. No point in destroying the whole field just for a darkness affinity test.

'H-How in the world did he do that first try?!'

Selene's thoughts stirred violently, Lindarion's talents had shocked her to the core.

"Impeccable, Young Master. You're incredibly talented…"

Selene's eyes widened in admiration, but Lindarion just smiled.