[Advanced Senses: 3000 coins]
[Night Vision: 100 coins]
[Super Bones: 5000 coins]
[Water Bullet: 50 coins]
[Wind Blades: 50 coins]
[Earth Dive: 100 coins]
[Poisonous Saliva: 300 coins]
[Acid Ball: 150 coins]
[Very Weak Fire Resistance: 1500 coins]
[Very Weak Poison Resistance: 3000 coins]
[Very Weak Acid Resistance: 2000 coins]
[Underwater Breathing: 500 coins]
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[Coin Count: 35578]
Before Damian, many skills appeared in the primitive shop; some were powerful, while others were useless. Although Damian wanted to practice with his new katana, his skills, his bloodline, and many other things, he hadn't forgotten his primitive shop, his personal cheat sheet. After finishing his second cup of coffee, Damian decided on the skills he would buy, which were as follows:
[Advanced Senses]
[Super Bones]
[Night Vision]
[Multi-Mind]
[Very Weak Poison Resistance]
[Underwater Breathing]
Damian bought all the skills but didn't integrate them immediately, instead heading to his room first. Once he entered, he sat on his bed and chose the [Multi-Mind] skill first. He felt his mind split into two, then four, then sixteen divisions. The sensation of his mind splitting into multiple parts wasn't painful as Damian had expected; instead, he felt a strange, inexplicable feeling. Although his mind was split into sixteen parts, this wasn't the limit of the [Multi-Mind] skill. It was just that Damian's mind couldn't handle more divisions at his current power level.
After the Multi-Mind skill came the [Advanced Senses] skill. After integrating it, Damian's mind was flooded with a massive amount of information from sounds, smells, visuals, touch, and taste, and even his instincts heightened. Thanks to the [Multi-Mind] skill, Damian was able to handle the flood of information and senses in a short amount of time. It took about an hour for his enhanced senses to feel like an old part of him. The third skill was [Night Vision], followed by [Underwater Breathing], and then [Very Weak Poison Resistance].
Finally, he came to the last skill, which he had put at the end of the list for a known reason: [Super Bones]. As he integrated it, Damian felt his bones breaking, piece by piece, from his toes to his skull. Damian gritted his teeth, enduring the insane pain, waiting for it to end. His bones reassembled, interlocking tightly until his skeleton was restored to its perfect state. After the skill integration was complete, Damian let out a long sigh and lay back on his bed, drenched in sweat. His body was so exhausted that he fell asleep without even realizing it.
Twelve hours later, Damian woke up, having fully recovered his physical state. He went to the bathroom to wash up, then returned to his bed and examined his body. His current bones were ten times stronger than his old ones, in addition to his multi-mind and advanced senses. Damian was confident that his current self would defeat his old self in less than ten steps. Although Damian had gained many useful skills, his training hadn't even begun yet. He still had a week until the academy entrance exam, and he intended to make the most of it in every way possible.
The days passed until the day of the academy entrance exam arrived. Over these days, the trio had made remarkable progress, especially the two males. Arthur, with his literal sea of runic knowledge in his pocket and a bloodline that allowed him to see everything—well, not everything in a literal sense, but the point is, his bloodline was disgustingly compatible with his class.
As for Damian, with his [Multi-Mind] skill and his genius, the result of his training could only be stopped by a Great one. Damian had become accustomed to his katana, his skills, and his body's movements, and had even evolved his [Basic Sword Mastery] skill to [Intermediate Sword Mastery].
Before the trio left for the exam, Damian snuck into Arthur's room and gave him the [Multi-Mind], [Super Bones], [Advanced Senses], and [Very Weak Poison Resistance] skills, which nearly bankrupted him of coins. Of course, Damian and Arthur weren't ready to share their power with Aurora just yet.
Watching Arthur suffer while integrating the skills was an added bonus for Damian. He didn't tell Arthur this, but he gave him the skills in the wrong order. When Damian learned the skills, he did so in a specific sequence to minimize pain and difficulty, but the first skill Arthur learned was [Super Bones], which gave him not just strong bones but psychological trauma as well. Arthur could have sworn he saw Damian smile faintly before giving him the skills. He didn't know the reason behind that smile, but after learning the skills, he understood. His only best friend was a crazy psychopath who enjoyed his pain.
Outside a ten-story building, the three stood ready to head toward the academy exam location. They got into a taxi, heading for the test site. Two and a half hours later, the taxi arrived in front of a skyscraper with thousands of floors. The three got out of the taxi and headed toward the building. As soon as they entered, they went to the reception desk, stating their purpose.
"Hello, we'd like to register for the academy entrance exam."
"Of course. You can first fill out these papers, and then one of our staff will guide you to the exam location," the employee replied to Damian, giving each of them papers for their personal information.
After filling out the papers, another employee led the trio past the corridors until they reached a hall filled with tiered seating and thousands of students like them. Some were silent and isolated, others were chatting, some were nervous, and a few sat like nobles among commoners. The hall was filled with all sorts of expressions and personalities, but Damian didn't care about any of them. He walked toward an empty seat and sat down, with Arthur and Aurora by his side, waiting for the exam to begin.
Another half hour passed until the hall was packed to the gills. Suddenly, a strange light appeared in the hall. The light was small but spread at a terrifying speed until it covered the entire hall and all the students within it.
"And so it begins."