Aside from the third hint, Horus understood how all of his skill pillaging would work.
Common skills he could take only three levels of them. But for the Adept-tier skills which he didn't already have, he guessed that he was gaining the Adept-tier skill at full level 20, skipping Common-tier completely.
This is insane… picking Adept skills means I can just skip leveling from Common.
He couldn't get his family's class, [Crescent Swordsman], but once they saw how quickly he grew and the different skills he had, they would have no choice but to accept him.
He forced a smile onto his wooden face. He wasn't the most expressive person but this moment deserved a smile. Even if it was so hard to pull.
The final hint about skills harmonising in him, he had no idea what that meant. Soul stress happened in people with more than one class or conflicting mana types, but he guessed his skill could navigate that.
He decided to check the other stats instead.
[Soul: Berserker (Adept)]
[Skills list:]
[Bloodforged Body] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Violet Maelstrom] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Berserk] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Whip Proficiency] > 0 > 3 (Common)
[Voice of Rage] > 0 > 3 (Common)
[Prolonged Suffering] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Reflexes] > 12 > 15 (Common)
[Perception] > 14 > 17 (Common)
This one had much more skills to pick from. Horus had a feeling it was the second Berserker that he fought, which had been healing due to Sever's attacks and also used a Shout skill. Voice of Rage was definitely a Berserker skill.
So the skills he could select depended on what his enemy used to fight him…. That meant he would be getting a lot of class skills. Though he liked that natural skills like [Reflexes] were available.
There'll probably be more of them as I advance.
Like Violet Maelstrom. He asked the system to expand the skill so he knew what it could do.
[Title: Violet Maelstrom]
[Rarity: Master]
[Description: Gather all the despair around you and absorb it to empower your attacks.]
Master rarity? So this skill was really unique to the Weeping Berserker…. He also liked how the skill worked. It would be strong in places like this and active battlefields.
But something else got him very excited.
[Title: Prolonged Suffering]
[Rarity: Heroic]
[Description: You have suffered and therefore you must persist. Rapidly recover from injuries and exhaustion.]
Regeneration was a class skill mainly open to Berserkers, Monks or some Barbarian classes. The Berserker Horus killed healed from any attack without condition, but most regeneration skills required you to do something like being enraged or deflecting attacks.
This healed you regardless of anything. And he was instantly getting twenty one levels of this.
Skills with higher rarity have more abilities. At just Common-tier you could only heal yourself, but at Adept-tier he would be able to do more.
He actually laughed at the absurdity of it all. This instantly reduced the number of things he had to fear were drastically disappearing.
He decided to check the rest of the skills before he made a decision.
[Title: Bloodforged Body]
[Rarity: Adept]
[Description: Your body grows more durable the more you are injured.]
[Title: Berserk]
[Rarity: Adept]
[Description: You build up energy through attacks and rage, which must be released.]
[Title: Voice of Rage]
[Rarity: Common]
[Description: You can stun enemies with a great shout.]
The Berserker's skills synchronised with each other very well. Like all classes.[Prolonged Suffering] and [Bloodforged Body] worked in tandem to keep the fighter alive and [Berserk] made them stronger the longer they fought.
These were skill evolutions too. [Bloodforged Body] was the evolution of [Endurance], [Berserk] was the evolution of [Physicality] and [Violet Maelstrom] was likely an evolution of [Pain Resistance].
All were tailored to the Berserker class, so it was rare to see other classes with these evolutions.
Choosing [Berserk] or [Voice of Rage] would be too suspicious. My strength would grow to Adept-tier suddenly and I wouldn't be able to contain Berserk according to its description.
They'd think I became a heretic suddenly. And Berserk is antithetical to my style.
But [Violet Maelstrom] and [Prolonged Suffering] were easy picks.
He wanted [Bloodforged Body] too, but his [Endurance] jumping to Adept-tier would also be noticeable, and he could just hunt down another Berserker for the skill later.
[Whip Proficiency], [Reflexes], and [Perception] were nice, and by evolving them they would become a lot stronger, but he could probably get them from the other 9 people he killed today.
He chose the skills immediately.
[You have gained the skills; Violet Maelstrom and Prolonged Suffering.]
[Violet Maelstrom] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Prolonged Suffering] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Twilight's True Son] > 1 > 2 (Common)
Seeing the final notification made him smile. What abilities would he gain by leveling up [Twilight's True Heir]? He would definitely gain more levels and more skills to choose from. But what type of extra abilities…
He didn't feel his new skills immediately, but then [Violet Maelstrom] kicked in and he could see a purple stream of mist flowing in the air and being drawn to him. It was the misery and despair in the camp.
He could also sense where it was stronger. If he went to where the injured were, he could probably increase his absorption rate.
And his body could contain the energy for a decent amount of time, waiting to enhance one of his attacks.
To test his regeneration he cut a thin line into his palm with his silver dagger, then watched as the blood dripped from his hand.
The bleeding stopped after six seconds and the wound closed in twelve. After twenty seconds the injury was completely gone.
He smiled truly for once. He had just grown substantially stronger. With the cut to his palm, Horus even felt less pain. His new Adept-tier [Pain Resistance] skill was putting in work.
He checked his status.
◇—Status—◇
Name: Horus
Title: None
Class: Common Swordsman
Skill:
[Endurance] > 11 (Common)
[Pain Resistance] > 10 (Common)
[Physicality] > 14 (Common)
[Perception] > 14 (Common)
[Reflexes] > 12 (Common)
[Basic Swordsmanship] > 11 (Common)
[Bow Proficiency] > 5 (Common)
[Shelter building] > 7 (Common)
[Cooking] > 6 (Common)
[Striking proficiency]> 10 (Common)
[Trap disarming]> 2 (Common)
[Twilight's True Son] > 2 (Common)
[Tactics] > 1 (Common)
[Violet Maelstrom] > 21 (Adept)
[Prolonged Suffering] > 10 (Common)
Skill Shards: 15
Weapons Slot (4): Celestial Steel Sword, Black Mercury Armor, Bag of Holding, Cloudbody Talisman
Quest(s): Silent Scream of the Lamb
His old [Pain Resistance] skill was still there, so this must have been the harmony his skill hint was talking about. If [Pain Resistance] reached the Common-tier limit, he could probably upgrade it and gain a new skill entirely.
Or even fuse his two skills to get something rarer.
He tapped his lap in anticipation, crossing his legs more. Behind him Medeva was completely silent, only glancing at him every once in a while to check if he was done.
But now he was moving on to choosing skills from the Common-tier enemies that he defeated, and the main thing on his mind was getting some of his natural skills to Level 20.