*Author’s Note - Yo guys, I'm back. Sorry for my absence lately, as some of you may have guessed I was mistakenly banned but no need to worry, after all, I'm back now. I've kept you guys waiting for more than two weeks, so I come bearing a new chapter.

Also, for the skill name, I went with PRESSit’s suggestion of [Sensory Re-mapping]. It was the one I liked the most out of all the suggestions ^.^

Skill Book

I ushered the girls out of the room and instructed them to collect all the dropped loot that scattered the hallway.

As I saw them out through the door, I breathed out an exasperated sigh once they finally left. I more or less collapsed down onto a table while my eyes naturally floated towards the giant pool of blood that had collected in the center of the room. Subsequently, I looked down at myself. My clothes, skin, all the way up to my face - the same tinted red shadowed me. I wiped solemnly at my face, a vain attempt of fixing myself, although it did little good.

At this point, I fully realized how tempting Hina’s earlier comment about showers was. A human can only go so long being covered from head to toe in monster blood before he finally snaps.

With no other option left, I sighed again as I fished out another granola bar, with the intentions of filling my still dangerously low stamina bar.

I chewed on a flavorless bar of grain for a minute or two, before I got up with a disgruntled grunt, and began my own inspection of the room. The girls were currently searching through the hallway outside, so I might as well contribute too.

I pushed aside most of the corpses, and thoroughly groped at the floor. My hands reddened with blood, but my efforts did not result in vein. This room, after all, proved to be quite a treasure trove of items.

About 5 vials, 4 red and 1 green resulted from my tireless searching. While 5 may not seem much, when compared to the fact that these 5 resulted from 15 or so Wolves, it indicated that the loot drop rate was somewhere around 30%.

That was a lot more generous than what the minotaurs had to offer.

I carefully inspected the items I found. The red vials were something I was quite familiar with - a health potion. It wasn’t really anything surprising and I quickly confirmed its contents with a quick [Identify]. The green vial though, was something new.

Before I dove straight in and used another [Identify] on the object, I carefully inspected the bottle with a scrutinizing eye. The vial itself was tinted green, complimenting the emerald glow that reflected from the bottle’s surface. Aside from the color, it looked pretty much the same as any other health or mana potion.

Without a second thought, I used identify. A familiar blue panel popped up.

Basic Stamina Potion

A vial of green liquid that can be used to fill a person’s stamina.

Recovers 20 stamina.

[Equip] Skill Bonus

When directly applied by the skill owner, additionally recovers 20 stamina.

When directly applied and used on the skill owner, recovers additional 40 stamina.

After reading through the information, I quickly confirmed that the gist of this green vial was basically just a stamina version of the hp potion. Nothing really impressive.

I was tempted to just straight up gulp the vial down, but I stopped myself. Primarily, I’d like to show the vial to the girls. It wouldn’t feel quite fair if I was the only one who knew about its existence. Besides, ever since I met the two, I’ve been hiding a bit too much about myself. For one thing, I’ve kept the existence of my primary skills a secret. Everytime they asked about skills, I’d brush the question aside, or change the topic.

While I know a fair bit of paranoia is in play here, and while I do think a bit of secrecy is still important, I-I’ve been getting this sort of uncomfortable tingle in my chest at the prospect of hiding something from them.

And this sort of feeling only increased ever since Cielle practically saved my life.

I quickly brushed aside my wandering thoughts and pocketed the 5 vials, while I continued searching. I was already through inspecting the scout bodies and now the only thing left was the Alpha’s.

I expected a fair bit of compensation, especially when I put the Goblin Commander’s reward into play. Something equally as useful as Efhermet should pop up.

With a solid shove from my leg, I pushed aside corpse and wadded through the pool of blood with poorly restrained eagerness.

After a few seconds of this, my hand quickly brushed aside something that was both hard and soggy.

I lifted it off the pool of blood and began earnestly wiping the object clean with my equally as blood soaked shirt. I made slow progress, but after a while, the clear depiction of a hardcover book was in full sight. The cover was a bit too stained with blood for me to properly read, but flipping through the pages real quick, I sighed out in relief knowing that the actual contents weren’t too damaged.

I pulled it close to my face and briefly looked over it before I used [Identify].

Skill Book - Heightened Senses

An old archaic record depicting the ability of the damned monster raise known as the Werewolf. This book allows one person to learn the Werewolf passive skill [Heightened Senses]. Along with it, is a brief description of the Werewolf tribes damned existence.

Effects-

New Skill - Heightened Senses.

Equip Skill Bonus -

Synchronicity with existing skill [Sensory - Remapping]. 50% effectiveness boost.

The aspect that caught me off guard the most was the fact that [Equip]’s bonuses worked on even items like skill books. While I expected something like skill book’s to exist, for them to even fall under Equip’s sphere of influence was something I didn’t even think to guess.

Anyways, as for the skill itself, it was definitely something that would prove useful in the near future, and something that would suite my style of fighting.

The synchronicity aspect of [Equip]’s bonus interested me too, but I had a vaguely rough idea as to what it implied.

With slight hesitation, I mulled over whether or not I should share the skill book with the girls. I did have a spew about the troubles of secrecy, but then again, skill books are rare finds and this skill really did suit someone like me.

In the end, I reasoned that keeping it to myself would be the best course of actions. For one thing, this book’s existence might cause a point of conflict between us. Despite the girls’ agreeable personalities thus far, in this sort of post apocalypse like world, something “valuable” like new skills would be more than enough to incite greed and jealousy among a certain slew of people - of course, this was probably just the paranoid side of me talking, but nonetheless, it wasn’t like that strain of logic didn’t have it’s own ring of truth to it.

And another point to, is that I technically killed the Alpha, so this loot is technically mine.

So it should be fine to selfishly use it for myself. Yeah, it’s fine if I hog it. Besides, if this skill can make me stronger, in the end, I would only be increasing our chances of survival… A little selfishness is fine sometimes.

With that sort of logic I quickly “consumed” the book, although in actuality, all I really did was read through its pages. Before I began, I quickly noted that the pages were transcribed in poorly written english.

The book itself was rather thin. Despite its hard cover, its contents were only about 15 single sided pages of text. It was a short read, made even shorter by the fact that the first two pages was primarily just - as the blue panel had said - a brief description of the Werewolf species’s history.

As I read through these two pages though, A tight knot in my stomach formed and a sense of uncomfortable foreboding welled up in me. The Werewolf tribe was truly a damned existence.

Werewolves were originally named Lycans. Although it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch in logic to say that Lycans and Werewolves were completely different strains of existence.

Lycans were beast like humanoids with the ability to freely transform between Wolf and Man. They weren’t necessarily the friendliest of species, but rather, just part of the heterogeneous mix of races that lived and thrived in what the book describes as Alterworl. Alterworl was apparently the name of the world in which the Lycans inhabited, and like the earth of today, it was a vastly diverse place, filled with both peace and conflict.

In this world, the Lycans were generally regarded as a more battle ready species, and their very race thrived in the conflict ridden areas of Alterworl. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a Lycan mercenary or two to pop up in the wars that sprouted across the globe. Despite their tendency for violence, and their innately gifted physical advantage, Lycans weren’t that super obsessed with war. They too, like many of the races, had their own culture, language, and tradition.

Really, they were a bit like humanity.

Unfortunately, something rather disastrous happened which forever affected the Lycan’s existence.

Something described only as “the Collapse” happened. Rather than a Lycan exclusive event, “The Collapse” was regarded as a world changing phenomena which brought disaster and ruin to all aspects of Alterworl. The Lycans were just among the few races to be directly affected.

In the process of this event, for better or for worse, the Lycans lost their humanity.

They had only one aspect of their existences taken away, but it was more than enough to bring the once thriving race to a grinding halt. After all, what they lost was their most defining feature. The aspect of their lives that had set them apart from much of the rest of the world. The thing that made them special. The thing that had made them unique.

They lost their ability to transform.

The Lycans were prevented from shifting from man to wolf, no, rather, they lost their chance to be either. They found themselves stuck. Stuck between the forms of both man and beast. In such a purgatory like state, the savage mindset of beast quickly deteriorated their human rationalization.

In exchange for their ability to transform and their humanity, they were gifted with increased physical ability and an augmented hostility towards anything that breathed or moved.

For all intents and purposes, they had become a race of monsters.

What made this even worse was the fact that Lycan babies, birthed from these monsters, would originally be born as a regular looking human baby. This appearance would last for a fraction of a second before the change would began.

It was as if they were brought into this world with a faint glimmer of hope, only for it to be taken away and mercilessly trampled on.

It was at this point that the Lycans lost the name Lycan. The world had begun to describe them only as monsters. They had forgotten the race they had once coexisted with. That knowledge had been quickly replaced by the fear they developed. Fear of the danger which these monsters brought.

The name of the Werewolf subsequently rang out in Alterworl. A name that was quickly associated with both danger and fear.

The history portion of the book ended at this point and I absentmindedly read through the rest of the pages.

Although my eyes scanned the pages, it was quite evident that my mind wasn’t processing any of it. It was too bogged down by what I had just read. The Werewolves, no, the Lycans…

“....”

I lifted my gaze off from the pages, and glanced over at the Alpha’s corpse at my feet. It jaw hung loosely, and its eyes were pale and hollow. The eyes, although hard to tell at first, were definitely...human. But that didn’t matter now. Dead. It was dead. The Alpha was just a corpse, lifeless and hollow.

I had killed it after all, so its only natural that it was dead.

I killed it. It was probably human at some point, but I had killed it. I wonder if under all that mat of fur, and savagery… I wonder if somewhere deep inside… I wonder if a bit of humanity survived.

But whether it was human or not, that didn’t matter, since I killed it. Shoved an ice bomb down its throat… I killed it. It died because of me. I killed it. I killed quite a bit of them. I killed it. Slashed its legs of, cut open their throats, gouged their eyes out. I killed them all.

I breathed out a sigh as I broke my gaze with the corpse. Killing monsters was one thing, but knowing that these creatures were once… human, that killed me. It was the same type of guilt I first faced when I fought against the goblins, but this was much, much greater. Instead of speculation, instead of thinking something along the lines of “They look human, but they’re not”, I knew that these things weren’t just “something that looks vaguely human”. They had been human. Maybe they were still human, under all that fur.

Knowing I killed them. Knowing I killed something that was once human, something that may have been still human, that… I…

“Hide?”

A voice rang out from behind me. I turned around, only to see Hina and Cielle enter the room, their arms full with vials of red and the occasional blue.

“Hide?” Hina said again.

I finally noticed I had been staring absentmindedly at the pair, and Hina’s voice prompted me to shake my head, in a vain attempt to clear out all the uncomfortable emotions welling up in me.

I shifted my eyes over at the vials, quickly counting 14 in total. 10 red, 4 blue, no green. It was a good haul, and such an excess would prove beneficial in the future.

Before I could compliment the two, Hina’s eyes had focused in on the book I carried.

She stared at it for a second, before she asked, “What’s that?”

I looked down at the book and then looked back up at her. “A book.”

This reply prompted Hina to roll her eyes tiredly at me. “ I can see that it's a book. I’m asking why do you have it. Or rather, why are you reading it?”

“This is…”

Before I answered properly, my eyes gazed back down at the last of the pages, as they scanned through the last sentence of the book. Once I had finished, the book glowed a slight tinge of red, before it floated helplessly in the air. I silently followed the book with my eyes, as it reached its maximum altitude before it promptly started to disintegrate.

After 5 seconds, the book was gone, the only remnants of it remained deep within the chasms of my mind.

Hina who viewed the whole scene with slack jawed surprise, once again asked. “W-what just happened?”

Hearing her voice, I broke my gaze with the ceiling as I turned towards her. For a moment I just started, taking slight amusement in her bemused expression. “This is- That was a skill book.”

A familiar ding rang out in the back of my mind as a blue information panel popped up.

“ - and I just finished learning a new skill.” I followed up as I began to read through the faintly glowing box of text.

Due to Skill Synchronicity, you were unable to learn [Heightened Senses]. Instead, appropriate changes have been made to your prior existing skill.

Sensory Re-mapping +

You have experienced the absence of your primary sense, and have lived to regain it.

Skill Type: Rare

Skill Rank: Beginner

Skill Level: 1

Skill Experience: 0.00%

Effects:

-In exchange for the temporary loss or decrease of a given “sense”, one or more may be augmented.

-Sense loss decreases as Skill Level increases

-Sensory augmentation increases as Skill level increases

-[Exchange rate for augmentation has been changed into the ratio of 2:1, where in exchange for the loss of a sense, the original augmentation of a skill has been increased by a factor of 2.]

-[Passive Effect of Heightened sense of hearing, and smell.]

Looking over at the new panels, I was a bit disappointed to find that I didn’t acquire [Heightened Senses], like I had expected. Instead, a few new additions were added to [Sensory Re-mapping]. Although I was primarily disappointed at not receiving a new skill, I quickly got over my initial sadness upon reading over [Sensory Re-mapping]’s new information panel.

Suffice to say, it had gotten stronger.

As I read through the panel again, Hina’s voice interrupted my train of thought once more.

“You got a new skill?! A skill book… That’s a bit unfair, don’t you think Hide?”

Despite the despondent tone of her voice, looking up at her face revealed she wasn’t really all that mad that I hadn’t told her about the skill book before I had used it on myself. Her lips curved upwards, her expression was rather playful, as she said again, “If you acquired something great like a new skill book, you should have at least told us about it, right Cielle?”

The girl nudged her big sister, which prompted a series of “Ah, um, uh…” to resound out into the hall. Hearing this exchange, I formed a slight smile, as I started reading the panel once more while I replied. “The Skill Book was something that dropped from the Alpha, which I killed, so I thought it was fair. Plus, the ability wasn’t useful for both of you anyways.”

“Hmmm….” Hina drawled out, as her tone indicated she was not convinced.

“... Well, I do feel slightly bad for not consulting with you two before hand.” I continued. “Next time, I’ll tell you guys properly about any item drops.”

“Promise?” Unexpectedly, Cielle was the one who spoke up this time. I looked over at her briefly, before my smile widened, and I replied.

“Promise.”

I quickly closed the panel in front of me as I motioned for the two girls to bring the vials they were carrying over onto the table. We piled up their vials with the ones I had gathered.

Taking a step back to observe her hard earned efforts, Hina sighed out as she said, “We sure did gather a lot didn’t we...”

Cielle and I replied with a nod.

“There’s about ten health potions here, although we don’t really need that much with Cielle and I’s healing skills, it's good to have a lot. There’s also a few mana potions within the mix. Hide, do you think if you and Cielle use some, you’ll get another skill like [Full Element?]”

“Hmm, its hard to say. Although I doubt so, considering it's already been about a week since the Apocalypse, so any achievement bonuses might already be taken.” I absentmindedly replied back as my vision fixed on a particular health potion.

“Oh that’s too bad…” She replied a bit downtrodden. “ Oh?! Is that a green vial? I’ve never seen a green vial before, I wonder what it does….”

As Hina continued to excitedly talk and commentate one sidedly on our loot, I took a step back, and slightly smiled.

[It’s better this way…]

It’s better that the two of them don’t know the truth about the Werewolves- The Lycans. Sometimes its better to keep people in the dark.

[This is the correct decision, after all, those two…]

“Hey Hide!”

My train of thought was once again interrupted by a rather enthusiastic voice that originated from Hina.

“Hmm?”

“Were you not listening?” She asked. “Geeze, Hide you’re pretty absentminded today. Anyways as I was saying, what do you think of-”

Before she could continue, I interrupted her. “Hina, Cielle. There’s something I’d like to say.”

“Ah, um, go ahead.” Upon hearing my sudden declaration, Hina’s original eagerness fizzled out as she awkwardly responded. Cielle on the other hand, simply turned towards me in silence as she fixated her glance at my face.

“...”

“There’s…” I hesitated for a moment. Lost. I tried to grasp at the exact words I wanted to speak out. Staring at the two girls before me, I swallowed down my uncertainty as I pressed forward.

“... Although we did agree to call it a day after we collected the loot… if you guys are fine with it, there’s- there’s one place I’d like to visit before night falls.”

****

As I've said before, sorry for the delay. Hopefully, with only about a week of school left for me before summer break, I can churn out more chapters in the near future. Thanks for your continued support despite my absence.

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