"Tier 3 Skill, Poison Mettle," Jyorta looked at a sprinkler-shaped Relic, reading the description of the Tier 3 Skill that formed the base of the fused Skill in it, "Poison Mettle secretes poison according to the environment and the target, choosing the most potent poison. The created poison can exist in four states of matter, Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma, according to the will of the user."

'Another Skill that can vary according to the situation and user's will. Damn, depending on the person, this can become an overpower Skill. Also…' Jyorta thought, recalling an incident from his memory. It was the time before the Flying Signature Raid had begun, and Laila was crying, unwilling to part way with her father.

'At that time, Laila's father emitted smoke from his body that immobilised Laila. That should have been Poison Mettle. So, even the degree of harm can be varied. As expected, in the hands of a smart individual, this would turn into an overpowered ability.'

"With such versatile Skills that are potent in their own right and have such a massive potential for growth, it would have been weird if humanity didn't reign at the top." Jyorta expressed his opinion, looking around to listen to the insight of the staff. As a powerful figure, he must have experienced a lot in the Wilds. So, his opinion on the matter would be based on practical experience and would be insightful to Jyorta.

"Any Tier 3 Skill of humanity, when developed to a fair extent would allow the Developer to go against Frenzy Beast Shifters. Even though Tier 3 Skills are also divided into Regular, Elite, and Peak depending on their effects, the lines are blurred when in practical usage. It is because the Skills in themselves don't have any limits, so they all become powerful." The gruff voice resounded, suffused with a hint of pride.

"Also," He continued, "From Tier 3 onwards, the growth of the Skills is dependent on your comprehension of them. So, there are no strong or weak Skills. The only difference is whether you have developed them sufficiently or not. This is especially pronounced in Tier 5, when everyone only possesses one Skill."

Jyorta trained his ears, attentive, hoping to hear more about the Tier 5 Skill. But, seeing that the staff had turned silent, Jyorta was disappointed. Humanity's Tier 5 Skill, Warlord Transformation was mysterious, a significant portion of it unknown even to Transformers.

It was powerful and had a lot of scope for growth. Every Warlord was different from the rest and had his/her own unique path of progression. This made their abilities unable to be countered easily.

It was the reason the Warlord Family in the Floating Spiders were feared. The base material of the Unranked Skill they possessed was humanity's Tier 5 Skill. This imbued in them terrifying power and potential for battles, strategies, development, etc.

It was akin to grasping a portion of humanity's strengths. It was the reason the Warlord Family was the most despised by humans, and another reason Rhachis Ancestor Warlord could continue to develop without limits.

'Poison Mettle also relies on control.' Jyorta proceeded to the next shelf, reading aloud the Tier 3 Skill in the Relic, "Directional Misalignment. It causes the foe's sense of direction to become skewed. Their mind-to-body coordination becomes chaotic, preventing them from even walking. Most effective against Warriors. Takes times against Espers, but once affected, they are akin to punching bags that would crash into the ground repeatedly while their psychic arms flail everywhere. Significant cases were noted where their psychic arms swatted them dead while under the Skill's influence."

Jyorta took in a sharp breath, "This is one scary Skill."

"It takes time to affect and is largely related to the individual's skill in manipulation. But once it takes effect, the enemy is good as dead." The gruff voice chuckled, probably recalling some funny memories in the Wilds where they had toyed around with their foes using this Skill.

'One Skill after another, they get progressively scarier.' Jyorta rubbed his hands to ease the goosebumps that had appeared, proceeding to look at the next shelf, "Fuel Fire?"

The name of the Skill raised his curiosity, making him quickly read the description, "The Skill creates a fire that sticks to the opponent and uses the energy in their body to burn their flesh. Most effective against the psychic arm of Espers. It treats the psychic energy in their psychic arm as fuel to burn, growing in every direction of energy availability."

"This Skill can raise disasters in wars," Jyorta concluded, thinking up of various ways in which he could use the Skill to his advantage. He was inclined to exchange for it when the staff spoke, "This Skill becomes terrifying in the hands of mobile opponents. After all, the speed of the fire's emission is slow while its range is less than 20 metres. It is a close-ranged ability. Some Developers have comprehended the Skill and developed its range to even 300 plus metres, but those are rare exceptions. Relics cannot be improved."

"Thank you, sir." Jyorta nodded in appreciation, concluding that the staff had learned of his desire through his facial expression and body language. 'If I don't find anything better, I'll exchange for this Relic.'

Within a couple of seconds, he derived numerous ways to make use of the Skill while in conjunction with his aura personifications. The effect would be terrific, especially in the labyrinth of Frenzy where the width of each path was 10 metres, and the height of the ceiling was 30 metres. This implied the Relic can be put to ample use.

He nodded, his choice leaning towards the Relic with the Tier 3 Skill, Fuel Fire as he looked at the next shelf, "Raging Momentum…"

He frowned, noticing the lack of description for the Skill. Seeing his expression, the gruff voice sighed, "This is a new Skill that has popped in large quantities over the past few years. Not much of it is known except that it can create a collective aura wave when many Developers use it in unison. According to what I have witnessed, the aura wave they create is always different. Most of the times, the leading figure activates his/her aura personification and the aura wave turns into that."

"Ahh," Jyorta exclaimed, "Is it like that cobra shown in the screens when the vice principal participated in the battle against the Swarm?"

"Yes," The gruff voice answered, "Raging Momentum was also used at that time. For some reason, when it is activated, the resulting aura personification turns strangely…sentient."

"Sentient?" Jyorta's eyes widened, hearing the staff continue to speak further, "Yes, but it doesn't happen often. There are various peculiarities in this Skill while the result of its effect is largely…inconsistent. It is a new Skill after all, and every Developer develops it into different paths. So, the compilation of its effects will take time."

"I see," Jyorta was no longer inclined on selecting it, proceeding to the next shelf. He didn't wish to take a Relic whose effects have yet to be established. Jyorta sighed, "Warriors have such a wide variety of Skills to use and develop. They seem… interesting, unlike Espers where our abilities have been the same from start."

"Do you know about the theory of evolution?" The gruff voice chuckled, as if he had heard Jyorta's statement numerous times. Seeing him nod, the staff continued, "The simpler the organism, the greater its evolution in a time frame, as compared to a complex living being. In the Silicon era, humanity was considered to have evolved to their peak, or had been close to it as compared to other living beings."

"With the appearance of the Wisdom and Frenzy Parasite, a whole new path of evolution appeared. In that, we can split the evolution into two: the body and the mind. Humans were the most sentient and intelligent species even before the parasites came into being. The product of the evolution in the mind resulted in Espers." The gruff voice turned silent.

After a couple of seconds that felt like a minute of silence, the staff continued, "Our intelligence has been superior, at the peak of evolution. Back then, it was believed that we were only using 3-4 percent of our brain's potential. Espers just tap into that potential and unleash it without any side effects. That is why the abilities of Espers has remained the same."

"Warriors, on the other hand, tread through the evolution of the body. Human bodies are fragile, so it has a lot of potential for development, hence why so many Skills arise." His tone then turned solemn, "But, that doesn't mean Espers cannot develop beyond the passive build-up through the Wisdom Parasites."

"Wisdom is humanity's greatest strength. Haven't you heard this slogan numerous times?" Seeing Jyorta nod, the voice spoke through laughter, "Even when we were limited in the usage of our brains, humanity still reached the stars. Now, after tapping into its full potential, what we could accomplish has no limits."

"The wisdom of humanity," Jyorta muttered, the slogan resonating with him. Even by simple comparison to his past and present life, what Jyorta was capable of inventing had widened. In the future, when he became a Wave Controller or higher, he would be able to accomplish even more.

Human brains could only process limited information at a time. Even then, humanity came up with ground-breaking inventions one after another. Now, every Esper was a walking talking supercomputer, with the advantages of human thinking. Just the sheer thinking and planning they could process was something unimaginable during the silicon era.

The gruff voice concluded, deciding that he had spoken enough, "On paper, the Esper abilities of humans and Frenzy Beasts is equal. But, that is only when comparing the brute strength they can erupt with through their psychic arms. In other areas, humanity trumps them by a large margin."

-------------------

I'm exclusively releasing the comics, "Principled Jewellery" and "Arthropod Implant" on my Patreon. Check it out and support further releases. Prologue is free to read.

https://www.patreon.com/overlord_venus

-------------------