Chapter 15: Skill Trial

The next day, Mel Carlo asked Ank if he could take a day off.

Ank readily agreed, and even gave all the children a holiday.

Mel Carlo wanted to experiment with his skills.

After completing ten backjumps, he obtained the skill [Backjump].

[Backjump: Leap backward to evade attacks. I remember this skill has a two-second cooldown. It’s a Warrior-type skill, but in the game, all classes could use it. It can be used to dodge certain attacks.]

Continuing to try, this skill consumed almost no mana, but the fatigue in his body was real.

Constant backjumps made his legs ache.

Next, he tried [Power Slash] barehanded, making a sword-gripping motion with both hands and swinging heavily forward.

After fifty attempts, it still didn’t succeed.

He pushed on to one hundred tries, still failing.

Maybe it was because there was no weapon in his hand.

Perhaps a wooden stick could substitute for a sword-type weapon, since Warriors could also use staff-type weapons.

As he was about to look for one, Akai and Lili came to invite him to play outside.

There was no need to beg today, and everyone was happy.

For them, days of freedom like this were rare.

“Mel, aren’t you coming to play with us?”

“No need. I’m playing right now. It’s fun.”

Mel Carlo found a long stick and declined their kindness.

He refused because, to him, nothing was more interesting at the moment.

It was like playing a game for the first time—he couldn’t hide the excitement in his eyes.

This could be considered a hardcore version of “Candevin Continent.”

No instant skill tree.

No damage markers.

Maybe not even resurrection.

Just imagining it was a bit thrilling.

It had been a long time since he played such an interesting game.

When a hobby becomes work, no matter how passionate you are, some dullness seeps in.

After slashing ten times with the stick, he successfully obtained the [Power Slash] skill.

Current proficiency: 1/10000.

[Power Slash accomplished. With yesterday’s 6 points in Steal, 1 point in Backjump, and 1 just earned from Power Slash, that’s only 8 points in total. If I practice a little more, I should be able to do a draw.]

But he wouldn’t stop now.

As for [Staff Strike], it seemed to require a staff-type weapon—just smashing down with a staff.

He tried twenty times with a wooden stick but still didn’t succeed, so he set it aside.

[Fireball], he had no idea how to release.

In the game, after learning it, it could be used with one key.

But now, no matter how he moved his hands or imagined it, there was no magic flow.

After twenty attempts, he gave up.

[Maybe in this world, Mage is a very high-end class.]

Rogue skills like Throwing Blade and Slash required daggers or short swords to learn.

He borrowed a dagger from Ank and began to experiment.

After ten tries, he successfully obtained both [Throwing Blade] and [Slash] skills.

Ank found Mel Carlo’s strange movements early in the morning odd, but didn’t ask much.

He could tell Mel seemed to be trying some skills, but it looked childish.

Without anyone teaching him, it would be hard to master on his own.

“I know Throwing Blade. If you need, I can teach you.”

“Thanks, not for now.”

Mel shook his head.

If being taught could increase proficiency faster, it would mean less points gained through effort.

He didn’t need instruction for now, since his attempts weren’t finished.

He tried the Priest’s Grapple and Air Hit as well, but skills involving throws and super armor couldn’t be grasped.

Even following the motions from memory, he failed to learn them.

As for the Knight’s Shield Bash, since he couldn’t get a shield, he had to give up for now.

Lancer skills required a spear.

Using a long stick seemed feasible, and he eventually obtained [Pierce] and [Uplift] skills.

But his current physical stats were too weak—the power he could exert was limited.

It was like a game character’s base attribute template was very low.

All these skills required base stats to boost them.

He had already learned [Dagger Attack] as an Archer skill.

But there were no bows or arrows in the gang’s base, and Mel Carlo didn’t like owing too many favors.

For now, he set aside the less urgent skills.

He couldn’t master Fighter skills either—maybe there was an unknown problem.

Just following the movements should have been standard enough, but without a supporting system, skills wouldn’t activate instantly.

“Warrior’s Power Slash and Backjump, Rogue’s Throwing Blade, Slash, Steal, Lancer’s Pierce and Uplift, Archer’s Dagger Attack—eight skills in total. Too few skills available at level one.”

He glanced at his skills.

They were all level-one skills, appearing in the level-one skill bar.

Whether there was a skill tree or not would only be clear after reaching level five.

Mel Carlo had already tried to learn some higher-level or universal skills, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t trigger success.

Even in the game, those skills required learning from NPCs.

Maybe this world was the same.

It was a world both familiar and strange—similar to the game world he knew, yet with many differences.

Attack skills: [Power Slash], [Throwing Blade], [Slash], [Pierce], [Uplift]

Passive skill: [Dagger Attack]

Utility skill: [Steal]

Evasion skill: [Backjump]

It was impossible to train every skill to the limit right now—neither time nor energy allowed for it.

To quickly gain some self-defense ability, focusing on [Slash], [Throwing Blade], [Backjump], and [Steal] was best.

Because [Slash] and [Throwing Blade] seemed to trigger [Dagger Attack], practicing one counted for two, doubling proficiency gains and with almost no energy cost—just be careful of fatigue.

[Backjump] was the only evasion and movement skill he had for now—a must-learn.

[Steal] was a skill that could be trained long-term.

In the game, mastering this skill made certain playstyles a lot of fun—a near 100% success and accuracy rate for theft, like a saint-thief walking the world.

He didn’t know if this world had class changes.

Given the environment and his physical stats, he’d probably have to follow the Rogue path for now—after all, it had the highest return.

He didn’t think this world was exactly the same as a pure game.

Here, if your throat was cut by a dagger, it might mean more than just a damage number.

If you looked at this world purely from a gamer’s perspective, sooner or later, you’d pay a heavy price.

From the moment he arrived, Mel Carlo had been aware of that.

He abandoned his original name and chose to blend into this world.