Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

Ruby flew over the vast desert. Mag perched at the edge of her flank, his hair fluttering on the wind, and watched the scenery rush by below with a rapt gaze. He must have seen it a thousand times before, but from this high, and this fast? Still, Ike chuckled quietly to himself to see the bird so excited to see his own territory from above.

Wisp sat down next to him suddenly, and he glanced over. She leaned forward, so their bodies shielded them from Scar, who was far forward anyways, sitting on Ruby's head so the two of them could catch up. Reaching into her pocket, she showed him a perfectly clear orb. It had no color, nor, to his sense, any mana, but nonetheless, he identified it at a glance. It was a skill orb. An empty one, which should be impossible. Skills formed skill orbs, not the other way around. But here they were, somehow.

He looked at it for a second, confused, before inspiration struck. His jaw dropped, and he snapped up to look at Wisp. "This is—"

She widened her eyes in a silent threat, and he cut himself short. He nodded. This was the skill orb for King's Reign.

A second later, he frowned. He knew he hadn't sensed it inside him, but how had it ended up in this form? So empty he couldn't sense anything to it at all. He knew, in those few seconds he had held the fully formed skill, that it had exuded an immense aura. Something so powerful it shone like a beacon in his mind, and literally generated light all around it, scintillating in a beautiful rainbow halo. This empty orb was nothing like what he'd seen back then. In fact, it was so dead he'd almost thought it was a glass orb for a second. It was only that it was the exact size and shape as a skill orb, so it couldn't be anything else.

Wisp put it back in her pocket, hiding it once more. Ike nodded, agreeing. He didn't know the conditions for the skill to take over again. Best to keep that orb out of his reach until they absolutely needed it, or until they could produce the conditions where he could practice safely.

"What happened to it?" Ike whispered.

"You tell me. It fell out of your mouth like this. I've never seen anyone spit up a skill orb before, so I panicked and just stuck it in my pocket. But it's been like this ever since."

Ike furrowed his brows. He patted his chin. "I saw someone spit up a skill orb once before… but that skill orb looked normal. You know, fully empowered and all. Not… like this."

She glanced at him. "Do you have the skill?"

"No… well, I don't feel it. Let me pull up my skills," Ike replied. He called up his skill menu.

Nothing happened. Nothing responded at all.

Ike blinked. Trying not to panic, he called again and again, but the menu refused to respond. Completely confused, he held up his hand and called Storm Clad to it. On demand, the skill materialized lightning to flicker around his fingers. He dismissed the skill with a wave, and it vanished. He hadn't lost his skills. He just couldn't call up his skill menu, for some reason.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Wisp asked, worried.

"Nothing's wrong. But no… I don't have it," Ike confirmed. He could only go off what he felt, rather than what he saw, but since his skills still operated despite him being blind, he took his skills to be present if he could sense them, and not present if he couldn't.

He didn't want to tell Wisp he couldn't pull up his skill menu. She already had enough to worry about with him and King's Reign. A little detail like that was better kept to himself.

Even so, he was wracking his brains. Since when had he become unable to call up his skill menu? Things had been so busy lately, he hadn't had a chance to check his skills. Not since the trial had started.

Ike shook his head. No, it was earlier than that. He hadn't checked his skills in the desert, either, or after his fight with Mag. Nor… no, that was it. He hadn't checked them since after his fight with Llewyn.

For a second, fear sparked in his chest. Llewyn had done something to him, something to sabotage—but no, that wasn't right. This wasn't Llewyn at all. If the man could do such a drastic action, he wouldn't just take away Ike's ability to call up the menu. Why stop there, after all, if he could mess directly with the System? He might as well delete Ike's skills outright. No, it wasn't Llewyn. Or rather, he couldn't imagine it was, especially since 'Those Who Oppose Llewyn' hadn't mentioned anything about Llewyn being able to hide skill menus.

No. He remembered that battle, and the tumult. The storm pouring down into him, and the sensation that he had gone beyond the limits of the System. Was that it? Was that when it had happened? Since then, he had to admit, he hadn't opened the menu. Had that somehow… corrupted his system, his skill menu, and blocked out his ability to see his skills?

Everything still worked, or else he would have been in far more of a panic. And not only that, but he could still meld skills, obtain new skills, and level up skills, which he knew because of his steel hands and feet techniques, and the fact that Body Reforging Art and Storm Clad had both grown stronger during this encounter. In other words, everything was operating as normal. The only difference was that he could no longer see the System himself.

It was disconcerting, but since it had no immediate effect on his health or battle process, he could only put it to the back of his mind. Instead, he looked at Wisp. "We have to do something about this."

"No kidding! I mean, it's super powerful, but if you can't use it…" she trailed off and shrugged.

"Yeah. And like this, I don't think we can give it to anyone else," Ike said. "Plus, it, uh, evaluated me. It checked how I had passed each trial, and approved of it. I think, unless you ranked first in those trials, you probably couldn't absorb the skill, anyways. Or at least, it would be way more dangerous than giving it to me."

"Spoken like a true tyrant," Wisp joked.

Ike gave her a look.

She put her hands up. "Don't worry. I don't want it. That thing is scary as shit. Losing control… I'd rather die. But it's too powerful to ignore. It might be the key to beating Lord Brightbriar. We have to do something about it."

"Yeah. I was thinking, maybe somewhere really secluded, we could give me a ton of room and just let me sort things out?" Ike suggested. Read exclusive adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

"It's a possibility, but do we have the luxury of that much time? Lord Brightbriar might've sat on his ass these last few centuries, but he's moving now. If you want to keep your homeland from being a puppetted wasteland, you have to counter him before he completely wipes the place out," Wisp said.

"You say, like it isn't your homeland," Ike said playfully.

She looked him dead in the eye. "It isn't."

Ike startled. That's right. The region we came from is where Wisp was born.

"But that doesn't mean I want all my tasty prey puppetified. I'm team no puppets. In fact, the faster we stop Mr. Puppet, the more prey there is left for me," she declared boldly.

Ike chuckled a little at that. "That's right. Let's protect your prey."

Wisp nodded. "See? It's a battlecry we can all get behind." Her smile faded, and she touched the skill orb in her pocket. "But what the hell are we supposed to do about this?"

"I don't know. But maybe someone else does," Ike suggested. He turned, facing ahead, toward the land they'd come from. The land he wanted to protect from encroaching puppets. "The King's city is said to be the most powerful gathering of mages anywhere. If someone doesn't know there, they won't know anywhere."

Wisp nodded. "It's worth a shot."

"Better than trying nothing," Ike agreed.

"What're you guys talking about?" Scar asked, plopping down opposite them.

Wisp and Ike exchanged a glance. Ike spoke first. "Nothing. Just trying to figure out our next plans."

Scar nodded. "Speaking of, according to Ruby, there's a nice hot springs resort just up ahead. It's run by some fox spirits, but as long as she's around, they shouldn't try to eat anyone. Want to try it?"

Another glance. Ike chuckled. He nodded. "I suppose we could go pay Mont a visit."

Wisp shook her head. "We did see a dragon fly overhead the first time we went, didn't we? We shouldn't be surprised it's popular with dragons."

Scar looked from one to the other. "You two know the place?"

"Yeah… well, it was under attack at the time, but…" Ike ran his hair back, then laughed. After all that time in the trial? He could use some time to do nothing but relax. "Sure. Let's go, for fun this time."

"Sounds good to me," Wisp agreed.

"I'll go tell Ruby." With a big smile, Scar jogged off toward the dragon's head once more.

Wisp leaned in. "Think she heard?"

"Not enough to be meaningful," Ike muttered back.

Wisp nodded. "We're in agreement? We don't tell her?"

"No. Gods no. We don't tell Mag, for fuck's sake," Ike agreed.

Wisp nodded again. "It'll be our little secret, then. Just you and me."

On Ruby's head, unseen by the two huddled so close together, Scar glanced back, her brows raised. A small smile appeared on her lips, and she nodded, then turned away once more.