With the system notification, Karl checked his stats to see how he was doing on points. For the longest time, he was either just saving enough for a skill, or completely forgetting that they existed because it was so far to the next Skill. But now it seemed that he was getting a rather significant number of them all at once.
But before that, there was something to test.
{Whoever currently has care of the little ones, can you check if they got Skill Points from the battle? I got a reward for completion, so there is a chance that all the System Active combatants on our side got a point or two that they can use for skills.} Karl messaged to the team.
{I got two points. That’s enough for a whole skill. Sister Rae said that she would talk to me about them later, once we’re finished packing.} Sybil agreed.
{The others all got two points as well.} Dana responded after a minute’s pause.
That was a good sign. If they were all getting the same achievements that Karl was, then they should all have fully active systems, and not flawed or partially active ones.
Karl looked at his own numbers, and found that he had actually been racking them up at a rather prodigious pace.
He had received points from the Graska Trial, the Cathedral Core Upgrade Trial, and a few of the fights that they had along the way, totalling twenty-eight points, on top of the twenty-five that he had just received.
He only had three skills available, though.
{Packmaster Skill Tree}
(50 Points) [Follow Me Little One] Directly teach a known skill to a compatible target.
(50 Points)[Pack First] Removes the usage and targeting limits on {Evolution} but adds an increasing materials cost every time it is used on a bonded beast.
(50 Points) [Territorial] All attacks by the Packmaster have a chance to cause {Intimidation}
Pack First wasn’t a priority right now, as he didn’t need to evolve any of his beasts, much less much than once where the skill would supersede the limits on Evolution.
Territorial was a useful skill, as intimidation would put him at an advantage in nearly every fight. However, in his current situation, the unfortunately named [Follow Me Little One] was the skill that he needed the most.
That skill felt distinctly like the System was trolling him, but Karl had so many skills that were along the same lines, that it only made sense that he would get something of that sort. Especially with Skill Merger available, he could create a whole new skill, and then just teach it to someone.
It would be brilliant, and he could save an immense amount of time in the training process.
But even better, he could teach advanced skills to a beast of a similar or identical species. He already knew that they would be compatible, all he had to do was teach them, and they would gain the prerequisite to pass their next growth bottleneck.
Karl looked over at Niall and realized that the real cheat code was not training baby Cerro, but helping the older Elites who had grown without complete Systems. They were slowly reaching full activation now, but they would be so far behind the new generation that would be able to upgrade their Class at Commander Rank and gain all new powers, as well as picking all the Class skills along the way.
As formidable as Niall was, he was likely a dozen useful skills short of where a Royal Rank Rogue would be in the future, and who knew what sort of skills an Overlord Ranked advanced class that started as a Rogue would be.
The man in question obviously noticed Karl giving him an assessing look, and waited expectantly for an explanation.
{Skill Learned} [Follow Me, Little One]
[Skill Points Remaining] 3
“I got a bonus of Skill Points, and used them to learn a new teaching skill.” Karl explained quietly.
“What sort of class build are you even going for? Teal Dragon Cleric? Blue and Green mixed together.” Niall joked.
“The skills are intended to help me train my beasts, though they’re also useful to help train beasts for others, and in certain cases, other Elites.”
Karl focused on Niall, and a skill that he would definitely want to have if it would work on him.
[Offensive Adaptation] Is incompatible with humans.
[Void Body] is incompatible with the target.
{Skill Teaching Request} [Limited Invulnerability]
Niall got a confused and offended look on his face, then it turned to joy after a few seconds, and he pulled Karl into a hug.
“What’s with that response?” Karl asked.
“Nothing. Just a strange System Message.”
{Pack Master Karl Offers Knowledge} Skill [Limited Invulnerability] will be transferred to the loyal hatchling Niall.
No way was the Overlord willingly repeating those words out loud.
“Did it transfer properly?” Karl asked.
“Indeed it did. This skill is absolutely broken. No wonder you act like you’re immortal in combat. For most purposes, you are.” Niall agreed, then his eyes went vague.
He was clearly pulled into a system menu of some sort, so Karl waited for him to finish and come back to reality.
It took nearly five minutes before the Rogue came back to consciousness with an amused smirk. freewebnσvel.cѳm
“Well now, isn’t that interesting. I just learned one of the most fundamental secrets to the System, and it was entirely accidentally.”
Karl chuckled. “That it unlocks hidden class options if you get an oddball skill that’s capable of becoming more powerful than your current Rank?”
Niall nodded. “My new class is Stalker, and apparently, I have a vast wealth of Skill Points that I could never access before.”
“Sister Rae will be overjoyed. You will be able to play together even more effectively once I manage to teach her a similar skill.”
The Rogue winced. “Perhaps not making the Immortal Bloodbath Spider invincible as well would help people sleep better at night.”
“I can’t even guarantee that it would work. I tried and failed twice with other skills before I found one that you could learn.” Karl paused as he saw Niall waiting for an explanation.
It didn’t seem like something he couldn’t say in front of Danni, so Karl continued.
“First, I was going to teach you [Offensive Adaptation], the skill that Sister Rae has that increases her damage permanently every time she hits a target of a certain type. For an Inquisitor, that skill would be outstanding. But apparently regular folk can’t learn it at all.
Then I tried to teach you [Void Body], a combined invulnerability and healing skill that was improved from Cara’s [Limited Invulnerability] and [Trollish Regeneration]. But that’s incompatible with you in particular. I don’t know who it might work on, though.
Then the third option worked.” Karl finished.
Niall nodded. Limited Invulnerability was already good enough. Combining that with the insane self-healing of Trollish Regeneration? That was just disgusting. “Wait, do you have all of those skills?”
Karl nodded. “Not all of them are active anymore, as I’ve improved some of them. But yes, I know all three.”
Karl got another brilliant idea. {Invalid Target} [Night Haunter] is a species exclusive skill.
Well, it was worth a shot. If they had a Rae equivalent Elite on the Inquisition, the Church wouldn’t have to ask for Rae in the future.