Skills and Zombie treasure.
[Anna POV]
Though I don't know Ace well enough due to the short amount of time we've spent together and have mostly just heard his name, I knew from the little time I had to observe him that he was basically a piece of wood or rather stone.
It was as if he was not designed to express his emotions.
His face and voice are essentially flat and emotionless.
Except when it comes to the things of this new world, that is.
Though he doesn't show it with his voice or expression, I could tell he was interested in these things.
So, when I saw him staring at me blankly, I knew he was waiting for me to continue, so I spoke;
"Exactly what I said"
"Cores are used to evolve skills."
"Well, that's if I look at it from my general point of view, which I'm not sure is accurate because I can only reference with the skills I have," I said, about to continue when he interrupted, saying:
"Skills?"
Even with the flat tone of his voice, I knew he was referring to the 'skills' part I mentioned, since to him, I only have one skill, which I obtained from the epic grade skill stone at the beginning of all of this.
"Yes, Skills," I said, continuing, "the skills I now have were brought from the store yesterday with the reward from the primordial chronicle."
"I believe it was called a free item ticket," I said.
"Oh, you got it too?" Ace said before asking me a question.
"How many free item tickets did you get as a reward?" he inquired.
I knew he was asking out of curiosity, and I had nothing to hide, so I answered truthfully and said two.
"Two?" Before asking me another question, he placed his hand on his chin and thought for a moment.
"What was your total performance rating in stage one when the primordial chronicle evaluated you?" he asked.
'Total performance evaluation?'
What is that?
'Is he referring to the notifications that appeared when stage one ended before the reward was distributed?'
'Well, it must be that because I did see something like a total rating or something,' I reasoned, and because I didn't want to keep him waiting, I quickly responded.
"B+," I said.
This time he didn't ask another question or speak as he bent his head lower with his hand still on his chin and went deep in thought, murmuring some words.
"B+? Perhaps that's why the free item tickets are small, maybe",
When I noticed this, I quickly called out his name to stop him from deviating from the current topic.
"Ace," I called out, and when I saw that I had his attention, I continued to talk.
"As I said before, cores are used to evolve skills and make them stronger," I continued.
"I'm not sure how to explain it, but skills have a star rating on them to differentiate them," I said when he spoke, saying;
"Something like a grade?" he asked, and I nodded in agreement.
"So you're saying that even among skills, some are more effective or stronger than others in the same grade based on the number of stars they have?" he asked.
As expected of Ace, I must say.
So intelligent.
But, because I wasn't certain of his assumptions, even though I thought the same, I told him it was possible that it was exactly as he assumed.
He nodded and asked me another question after hearing this.
"You said you exchanged for skills from the store, right? Could you tell me what they are?" He said this as he asked if I could tell him about the skills I bought from the store.
It wasn't a big deal for me, so I only told him the name of the skill rather than its effect to add a little mystery.
"Infuse skill and Telepathy," I replied, but after hearing my response, he simply nodded and entered the building the zombie was heading to before.
Wait,
Are you really going to leave like that?
Are you not supposed to ask more questions?
Aren't you curious about their uses and how they will evolve?
Tsk, what a man.
Not wanting to stay outside alone, I quickly followed him with Chris and the now awake Mia in my arms, who, for some reason, did not react much when she saw what was going on around her.
I hope she doesn't suffer from a silent trauma.
Still trailing the group, I quickly assessed my first skill and requirements to evolve.
...
[Epic Skill: Shadow Summoning ◆◆◆◆],
[The ability to summon creatures of the darkness attribute and sign contacts with them.
The creature summoned will be determined by the caster's affinity for dark magic and summoning magic.
Total number of contracted summon: 0/3],
....
[Epic Skill: Shadow Summoning ◆◆◆◆ can be evolved if the following requirements are met]
[Contracted Summon: 0/1],
[Contracted rank 1 summon: 0/1]
[Collect 500 crystal cores: 1/500]
.....
I could only sigh when I saw the requirements for evolving the epic skill.
'There's still a long way to go,' I thought.
With these thoughts in mind, I followed the others' pace.
...
[Ace POV],
After interacting with the crystal core through the twin blades and placing it in my storage ring. I spoke with Anna for a while and learned some useful information.
Skills require cores to evolve huh?
Or is it because the skills Anna chose and posses are high enough that they require crystal cores?
You should be aware that crystal cores are typically found in monsters of rank 1 and above.
Though I haven't seen one, I can imagine its strength in comparison to unranked like us.
My body did not remain motionless as these thoughts raced through my head as I searched the building for anything that might appear valuable.
At the very least, a zombie would find it useful.
But, aside from the wrecked interior of the building and blood stains with no bodies, I discovered nothing else.
'Perhaps the owner had already turned into a zombie,' I thought as I continued to search the house.
I only came to a halt when I detected a particular fragrance, and it wasn't just me.
The others smelled it as well.
Everyone's guard was up as I followed the scent's trail slowly, without me having to remind them to stay cautious.
Finally, the scent led us to the building's attic.
I took the lead and made my way to the attic with caution, but when I arrived and saw what I saw, I was taken aback.
Zombie treasure?
'Damn'
[.....