Chapter 18: New Skill and New Rules
*THWAP*
"God damn it!" Loran shouted after once again being struck by the side of a large stick. "What idiot thought this would be a good idea?!"
"Wasn't this your-"
"Yes, Alexx, I know," taking off his blindfold, Loran took a break and looked around.
After last night, many players got up early and headed to the Training Field with the hopes of creating a new Skill. There were ten players, including Loran, who had PER stats greater than 20 and more than two dozen players who came to help. Alexx had also come, curious about the Skill how much PER would be needed for it.
At first, Loran thought that things would go pretty well considering the turnout, but after nearly an hour everyone's patience was running thin. Each of the high PER players were blindfolded and armed with a long stick as a staff, and those who came to 'help' were now taking turns attacking. So far, the only notable achievements were a large number of bruises on the bodies of the blinded players.
"Hm… maybe you guys need more PER?" asked Alexx.
"If you're telling me 28 PER isn't enough to make a Skill, I'm calling bullshit. That's almost three times the normal human limit, I should be able to fight with a blindfold on."
"Then I guess the problem is you just suck too much," Zed chuckled, who was also helping Loran with the training.
"Can you not?"
"No I'm serious, maybe you need to successfully defend yourself without the Skill before the system will create it."
"...Maybe." Loran couldn't help but think back to when he created [ANALYSE] while trying to find flint. At the time he wasn't really sure what flint looked like so after a while he just began taking note of every detail of the rocks he examined. Comparing that to now, he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to block an attack that he couldn't see so he had pretty much just been swinging his staff around while hoping it would do something. If nothing else, Loran was more willing to accept this as the reason than a lack of stats. "Alright, let's go, round two," he said, picking himself up."
"I'm pretty sure this is more like round thirty-six," Zed said snidely, getting a chuckle out of Alexx.
"Whatever." Loran was about to put his blindfold back on…
"I GOT IT!"
...When suddenly a shout came from the other side of the Training Field. The player immediately caught the attention of everyone else and a crowd formed around him in a matter of seconds. Loran also ran over, leaving Alexx and Zed behind as the two more calmly walked over.
The player that managed to get the Skill was Bates, who was looking rather smug despite the numerous bruises covering his face.
"Bates! What's it called?"
"Hey, what are the conditions, come on man spill!"
"What's the effect?"
"Take it easy guys," Bates said, "the Skill is called Danger Sense, and it…"
Not really interested in listening to Bates, Loran used [ANALYSE] to find what he wanted.
[NAME]: Bates
[SPECIES]: Human
[LEVEL]: 10
[EXP]: 600/900
[STATUS]
{HP}: 140.1/160
{SP}: 160/160
[END]: 16
[STR]: 13
[AGI]: 16
[DEX]: 20
[PER]: 20
[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 2
[SKILLS]
[CRITICAL STRIKE] Lv.10
[DANGER SENSE] Lv.1
(Passive) The user opens all of their senses to perceive the world around them.
[HUNTER] Lv.10
[SPRINT] Lv.7
'Wow, that description is about as clear as mud,' he thought, 'not exactly going to tell me what to do, but at least I know it's not a stat problem.' Loran was about to go back to training when he realized something about what Bates had said.
"Hey Bates," Loran called out, "you said this Skill was called Danger Sense right?"
"Hm? Yeah, what about it?"
"Don't you mean that you named it Danger Sense?"
"Huh, no I…" a look of confusion came over Bates for a moment before suddenly being replaced by shock. Bates had been so relieved from finishing this painful training that he didn't realize he hadn't actually created the Skill.
"Wait, so he didn't make the Skill?" one of the other players asked.
"I...uh…"
"Alright, just wanted to clear that up," Loran said, walking back to Alexx and Zed.
"Hold on," Alexx said, "if he didn't make it, then who did?"
"Who knows," Zed shrugged, "NEO had a billion players when everyone got trapped, there are way more than just the people here in the village. By the way," Zed turned to Loran, "was there a reason to expose him like that? I mean, he was still the first person in the village to get the Skill."
"Yeah, but you saw how smug he was being right? There's no way he wasn't going to keep going on and on about it."
"Yeah."
"Probably," the two agreed.
"Anyway, give me a minute," Loran said, putting his blindfold back on, "I want to try something first." The Skill description said that the user 'opens all of their senses' and so Loran began focusing more on what his remaining senses told him. Until now, he had mainly focused on listening, but if the Skill required more than that he would have to concentrate harder.
He focused on tuning out the sounds of the other players sparring until he could hear the rustling of the grass in the wind.
He concentrated on his skin until he could feel the distinct movements of the breeze.
Taking a deep breath, he could smell the crushed grass mixed with the scent of dirt all around.
"That's a minute!" At that moment, before Loran could try to make sense of these various sensations, Zed decided it was time to resume training and launched a new attack at Loran's leg.
Loran made no attempt to block the attack and was struck on his right leg. 'I guess… he's behind me!' Using the experience of the last hour's repeated beatings, he estimated where Zed was probably attacking from. Concentrating on his senses again while turning to face Zed, Loran realized that he was just barely able to feel the movement of the wind a split second before the attack landed. Furthermore, he could make out the soft sounds of footsteps on the grass and the faint scent of sweat. 'He should be… there…' Having limited the areas where Zed could be, Loran began listening closely for the sound of the staff cutting through the air.
After a few seconds, he heard the attack coming in and moved to block. Unfortunately, he was just a little too slow and took another hit to the shoulder, but he was right about where the attack was coming from.
As the sparring continued Loran's blocks were becoming more and more accurate. After a little while he even tried to send a few of his own attacks at Zed, however, that was stopped as Zed quickly reminded Loran that only one of them was blindfolded while the other was playing nice.
*DING*
Soon enough, Loran was given the prompt to learn the new Skill.
"Alright, I think I got- OW you can stop now!" Loran said as he was smacked again by Zed.
"Sorry." Despite saying this, Zed took one last swing at Loran's hip.
"Ow. Seriously, quit it."
Zed chuckled as Loran removed his blindfold.
"So, do you know what the requirements are yet?" Alexx was interested in the Skill due to how reliant his playstyle was on not getting hit, and every advantage he could get was welcome.
"Give me a second to read the message first," he said as he skimmed the display. "Sorry, it doesn't say anything about the requirements, how much PER do you have?"
"Uh… I have 8, do you think that'll be enough?" he asked jokingly.
"I'm gonna have to say no," Zed said.
"Well Bates has 20, that's only two or three levels away right?"
"Yeah, but it would take all of my points."
Zed shrugged. "Still seems worth it to me."
"So, what's the Skill like?" Alexx asked, wide-eyed.
"It's… sort of fuzzy right now." When Zed had attacked him after getting the Skill, the sensation Loran felt was extremely vague. It was too difficult to say what it felt like and he could only compare it to that weird feeling of being watched, but with more direction. "It'll probably get clearer as it levels up, let me just…." Loran's voice trailed off as he was looking at his menu.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEVEL UP {Danger Sense}?]
[COST: 110 EXP]
[YES] / [NO]
"It- it costs more."
"What, to level up the Skill?" Alexx asked as Zed quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it just costs more for some reason," Loran said, confused and frustrated that the game was throwing an additional cost at him, "I mean, it's only an additional 10 EXP, but why is it more expensive?" After thinking for a moment, Loran turned to look for Bates, seeing him walking away from the Training Field. He ran over, shouting, "hey Bates!"
Bates turned around, surprised that someone was calling his name, but almost visibly deflating upon seeing who it was. "What do you want?"
"Have you leveled up Danger Sense yet?"
"Yeah, I always keep some EXP saved up."
"How much did it cost?"
"The EXP cost? Same as usual, 100. Why?"
"Because for some damn reason," Loran sighed, "mine is more expensive."
"Wait really?" His frown slowly turned into a shit-eating grin. "Hahaha, that's what you get for ratting me out!"
"Yeah, yeah." Loran brushed off Bates' comment and walked back to join Alexx and Zed, who were now heading back into the village for lunch.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
rival_Thoughts
rival_Thoughts Follow me on Twitter for regular previews of upcoming chapters, and check out my Patreon for additional chapters.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone