The tent grew so dull that Medeva began to play with some rocks he pulled out of his pockets. Horus glanced at him and then listened to the chatter of the crowd outside and decided to continue.
He still had five minutes to the duel and 9 enemies to extract skills from.
His mind wandered to how hard it would be to do this if he needed the bodies of his enemies to gain their skills. It would take forever to find who he killed in the piles of dead.
With a grimace, he asked the system to show him the next people he was extracting from.
[Soul: Brute(Common)]
[Skills list:]
[Physicality] > 12 > 15 (Common)
[Endurance] > 11 > 14 (Common)
[Pain Resistance] > 10 > 13 (Common)
[Reflexes] > 12 > 15 (Common)
[Basic Axemanship] > 0 > 10 (Common)
The Common heretics obviously had only common skills. To gain the title of Adept, you had to have at least two Adept skills.
His eyes scrunched up as he tried to remember if any of the Brutes used swordsmanship skills or had good Perception. Before just scrolling through the profiles available to him.
After a lot of consideration, he chose the following skills.
[Physicality] > 14 > 20 (Common) [Skill Limit Reached]
[Endurance] > 11 > 14 (Common)
[Reflexes] > 12 > 15 (Common)
[Perception] > 14 > 20 (Common) [Skill Limit Reached]
[Critical strike] > 0 > 21 (Adept)
[Basic Swordsmanship]> 12 > 15 (Common)
[Dash] > 0 > 3 (Common)
[Twilight's True Son] > 2 > 3
He chose to max out [Physicality], and [Perception] since they were both level 14. Then he spread his remaining five picks. The one Heretic with [Critical strike], a [Dagger Proficiency] evolution, made his day.
Looking at his status made him laugh aloud, startling Medava.
◇—Status—◇
Name: Horus
Title: None
Class: Common Swordsman
Skill:
[Endurance] > 14 (Common)
[Pain Resistance] > 10 (Common)
[Physicality] > 20 (Common) [Skill Limit Reached]
[Perception] > 20 (Common) [Skill Limit Reached]
[Reflexes] > 15 (Common)
[Basic Swordsmanship] > 15 (Common)
[Bow Proficiency] > 5 (Common)
[Shelter building] > 7 (Common)
[Cooking] > 6 (Common)
[Striking proficiency]> 10 (Common)
[Trap disarming]> 2 (Common)
[Twilight's True Son] > 3 (Common)
[Tactics] > 1 (Common)
[Violet Maelstrom] > 21 (Adept)
[Prolonged Suffering] > 21 (Adept)
[Critical Strike] > 21 (Adept)
[Dash] > 3 (Common)
Skill Shards: 13
Weapons slot (4): Celestial Steel Sword, Black Mercury Armor, Bag of Holding, Cloudbody Talismen
Quest(s): Silent Scream of the Lamb
Four skills.
Four skills that were at or will reach Adept soon. And he had another three coming up. It only took two for the system to recognise you as an Adept-tier warrior, with four he was already the cream of the crop.
He had always expected he would reach Adept-tier easily, but he expected it would take a few months, not a day.
Turning back to his status, Horus willed the system to display his Adept-tier requirements.
[Checking the skill requirement.]
[Adept-tier Physicality requirement: Ten Skill shards(Complete). Exert 100% of your force in a strike(Progress: 0/10).]
[Adept-tier Perception requirement: Ten Skill shards(Complete). Rely on hearing or sight to follow ten attacks of Adept-tier or higher (Progress: 0/10).]
Horus frowned, rubbing his chin. Right now he was likely using eighty percent of his power in most of his strikes, because of his rapid level rise. It would take some practice but he expected he could complete this requirement in a day.
After the duel he would complete them quickly. As for Skill shards…
They were gotten from battle. Killing a Common tier enemy gave you one and Adept gave him two. Upgrading a Common-tier skill needed ten, so he would need a lot for all his skills.
He rose to his feet, testing his strength and improved skills for a bit. Medeva rose too, eagerly coming to his side.
"Are you ready now, sir."
"Just call me Horus, and yeah, I'm ready."
Mummurs covered as he strode out of the tent and began stretching. The voices of the crowd around their sparring field grew, but Horus ignored them.
He was used to drawing a crowd wherever he went, and he was sure most of them were there for Carrison. His mind had breezed over the fact that she was rather attractive.
Fools. She's here trying to raise her skills levels and gain insight, you're here to see a hot lady fight.
He shook his head in disappointment, just as Carrison walked out of her tent. She was fully clad in her glowing blow armor and helm, wielding a giant halberd that was taller than her.
"Done checking your skills?" she asked languidly. "I can give you a few more minutes to prepare. We just came from a battle and I recover faster than you."
"I'm fine."
He wanted to get this done with and get some insight into how she fought in case they ever had to fight to the death. He drew his sword smoothly.
"Let's start now."
Carrison spun her Halberd with casual flourish. The wind picked up and dust swirled around the weapon. And then she just started walking towards him.
Horus lowered himself into the Luna stance and let out a calm breath, feeling a strange rigidity to his body for some reason. He wasn't afraid of Carrison, or anyone in fact.
This was just a duel, but Horus' entire childhood he was told one thing. Survival wasn't as important as victory.
So this had to be Carrison's Intimidation skill or just the pressure of her intent.
With a sudden burst Carrison shot forward and her Halberd divided the air in an explosive horizontal swing.
The first strike had many of the audience grimacing. They could barely follow what just happened.
And would never pretend they could dodge it.
But Horus stepped back almost too smoothly. His eyes were fixed on Carrison's chest, reading the direction of her torso while he countered.
He used the Dash skill, to come in from her left but she deflected the strike the shaft of her spear.
"How is he reacting to that? You'd have to be Adept in Reflexes," someone in the audience gasped.
"My appraisal skill is too low level to see how many skills he has, but Dash and Reflexes are… common. What the Hel?"
An older member of the on watchers chuckled. "He's moving automatically. No need to fully perceive the attack. Look at how calm he is. That boy has seen death. And he doesn't seem scare to meet it again."