Randidly scratched his chin. Although it was a nice useful boost, and he could wear it, Randidly didn’t think it would work as an equipment for him. For one, if he had it on, would he wear it under his Bone Cloak…? But then how would the wings extend…?

Plus, the fact that both of the Skills were at Lvl 46, and had no way of growing… Randidly wrinkled his nose. Sure, some of the Skills he had yet to train up were at that level, and a few of his spells, but that was due to lack of time. His true bread and butter spells were far above that and had the ability to grow. An item without the ability to grow would boost a person’s strength at the moment, but it would slowly become a weight that held them back.

For the first time in a long time, Randidly remembered that group of people he had encountered with Shal, who had generously given him the Mana Engraving Encyclopedias, asking only for a promise of aid in return. Truly, they were in desperate straits to accept such a feeble thing, but Randidly had benefitted immensely from their gift, and now Donnyton could share that same benefits.

Plus, there was a promise of them being able to teach the runes to Randidly that got them smothered by their competition: the Skill Rune that could grow with the user.

Randidly shivered. Having that ability would put Donnyton at the top of their Zone for sure… but it was a distant thing, one far from the issues they faced presently. Randidly would need to return to Shal’s world to receive that knowledge, and to do so, he would need strength enough to suppress his enemies in the Engraving Guilds.

And right now, everyone in the Raid Dungeon was looking at him, waiting for his decision in regards to the equipment. Well… wasn’t the easiest answer the best, in this case....?

“If no one denies that Thea and Chrysanthemum were the biggest contributors to killing that… Reaping Mantis,” Randidly said slowly. “Let her decide whether she wants the equipment or not. And then if she doesn’t, who it should go to…”

Ace frowned immediately, and Randidly rolled his eyes. Sure, it would be useful for all of the party, but he could sense immediately that Ace fixated on the item. It would give him what he was sorely lacking, a way to close the distance between himself and his enemies. It was intimidating how quickly Randidly could see Ace improving in terms of his hand to hand combat ability, but as long as distance remained a barrier for him…

Alana nodded and began hacking apart one of the other Reaping Manti, extracting some of its carapace to take back to Donnyton. Although it was brittle, it was still rigid and powerful and would serve well as cookware, if nothing else. The best bodies for this were the ones Randidly himself killed, squeezing their soft parts to mush with vines. Although they had died in a bloody manner, he had just ignored the hard parts of their bodies, going for the vital points.

There were some huge perks to having such a high level of Control. One of them was that weaknesses were comically easy to target if the enemy wasn’t skilled at avoiding defending itself. And the Reaping Manti hadn’t been very quick on the uptake when Randidly’s roots came boiling out of the ground

Lucifer seemed relatively uninterested, although Randidly privately thought that he was the one who could use it the most, with his huge, wild weapon. But instead, he was chopping off the unbroken scythe from Thea’s kill, seemingly very pleased with the size and weight of it. After a few test swings, he nodded, satisfied, and began to sharpen it further.

Unlike his jagged cleaver, this would only have a blade on one side, but damage such a huge razor could inflict was slightly intimidating.

Clarissa and Ptolemy would use it, obviously, but it was mostly academic. They were, however, whispering to each other. Most others wouldn’t have heard, but they were wondering whether having the item and using it a bunch would unlock Air Manipulation as a Skill. Which was interesting, but it did reassure Randidly that they weren’t that concerned with obtaining it.

Thea seemed somewhat frazzled. She at first took several shy steps towards Lucifer but seeing him ignore her rather soundly caused her to falter. Then she shot Randidly a glance and walked over towards Drake, of all people.

“You… you’re the lowest Level, right? Maybe you-”

“Thank you for your kindness, but I’ll be alright,” Drake said, bowing slightly. “You are an ideal candidate for the item anyway. The mobility combined with Chrysanthemum’s strength… learning to combine both will increase your strength immensely.”

After one more quick scan by Thea, it was decided. Which made Randidly relieved, because he had a few confusing notifications of his own to parse apart. It was slightly annoying that there had been this much hesitation in regards to the distribution, but it was easy to forget that Thea especially was extremely young and shy. Her recent ferocity was almost blinding in its intensity, so her milder side faded to the background.

The milder side of everything was quickly overrun in the wake of the System…

After giving word to make camp, Randidly looked at his notifications, specifically the second set. At the beginning of the day, Randidly had reached Level 4, as he pushed through the stronger enemies in the forest to arrive at the elf people village. But after this most recent fight, he had reached Level 5, and that wasn’t all.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 5! +5 Stats distributed between Vitality, Perception, Resist, Intelligence, and Control, +3 Free Stats! +1 Stat to a Mental Stat. +1 to a Physical Defense Stat. +1 to a Mental Support Stat. +1 Control. +20 Health, +24 Mana, +23 Stamina, +.5 to all Regenerations! +1 to Health and Stamina Regeneration! +20 Progenitor’s Influence. You have gained the Skill “Phantom’s Lantern (Un) Lvl 1”. You have gained the Skill “Grasp of Lava ® Lvl 1”. You have gained the Skill “Erode Image (L) Lvl 1”.

Phantom’s Lantern (Un): Create a small spirit that floats in a spot. Acts as a relay for the creator’s senses. The creator can consciously shift his focus to the Lantern, and gather sensory information. Lanterns have a small amount of mobility while the creator is using them. Lanterns are easily dispersed. Costs 400 Mana. Lanterns do not disperse on their own. Mobility increases with Skill Level. Survivability increases with Skill level.

Grasp of Lava ®: Cause a hand of lava to erupt from the ground, grabbing enemies and crushing them. Extremely effective at dealing with single enemies. The temperature in the nearby area will vastly increase. Speed and size of effect will increase with Skill Level. Temperature shift will increase with Skill level.

Erode Image (L): When dealing with an opponent who uses an image, strike directly at the image, weakening it. Mana costs depends on strength of the image. Repeated use causes permanent damage to the target’s image, and might cause their Skill level to drop.

Randidly whistled softly. Not only did he receive 3 Skills out of the blue, but two of them seemed extremely overpowered. Having the Lanterns would give him the ability to scout the Raid Dungeon quickly, and the Erode Image Skill… it was a legendary Skill that could attack the other’s Skill levels directly…?

It would be something that he would want to experiment with, but if it really caused damage to the recipient, finding someone to agree might be a bit…

So rather than getting all of his Skills from his Class at once…. It appeared that he got another set of Class Skills at 5, containing the other half of his additions to his Class. Which was nice in a way, because it meant that he wouldn’t need to use any of his non-Class Skill slots, when he kept acquired new Skills…

But it also meant he had more Skills to train…

Truly, the grind was endless.

Humming to himself, Randidly tapped his teeth. This Erode Image Skill… who had given him the addition that had granted it to him…? Of all the additions, it would appear that this was the most powerful, because the SKill was the highest rarity, but that might just be due to the rarity of the effect it provided, rather than the magnitude. Still, if he could have it grow to the point where it was useful against enemies…

Randidly smiled widely, remembering how that Master level opponent had shattered his Skill in his attempt to kill Aethon Thai.

They would pay for underestimating him.