"Just to make sure, your Overskill is a Pocket Dimension? And considering how you used it, you can access it whenever you want?", Victoria asks me.

"Yes.", I answer.

"How much space has it?", she continued.

"About half a cubic meter.", I see no reason not to tell her.

"Hmmm... Considering the better growth rate... Command shouldn't punish me for this...", she mumbled, and then continued out loud: "Very well. A bit of a waste that we came all the way out here, but let's change locations."

"Where are we going?", I ask curiously.

"Have you ever heard of 'Argus'?"

"The thousand-eyed monster?", I ask, referring to the being from Greek mythology.

"Well, that's what they are named after. For normal people, it's a pretty well known Mercenary company. For people like us though, they are our shadow government, you could say."

"So, like a guild?"

"Well, something like that. Not really though. Argus is the only organization like that after all."

"There are no other's?"

"There were, a long time ago. But they all got unified under Argus when the first gate fell. Anyway, that's not important for you right now.

Normally, we aren't supposed to interfere too much with the recruitment process. Even if we find someone who is a recruit, we are allowed to give them some pointers at best.

But in this case, the situation is a bit different.", Victoria explains.

"Why? Is my Overskill something special?"

"In a way, you could say that. What do you think is the difference between Skills and Overskills?"

"No Idea? Overskills are more powerful?", I make my ignorance known. It wasn't like there was some kind of book on it.

"Okay. Skills, need energy to work. There are all kinds of energies, like mana, aura, psy, solaris, death, prism, healing, holy, voodoo, blood, et cetera. They all differ in what they can do, how well they can do it, how you gather and collect them, and the Stats that decide how much you can collect.

The one thing almost all Skills have in common, besides some rare exceptions, is that they need one of those energies to work or at least a substitute.

Overskills on the other hand, at worst, are normal Skills with a slightly better growth curve and a limit on how often they can be used per day. But! They never need any kind of energy.

Now, that you don't have a limit on how often you can use your Overskill is nothing rare. Rather having a limit is actually rarer.

The thing is, Skills that manipulate space, are something rare. Additionally, they are pretty costly in terms of energy consumption. Things like your Pocket Dimension especially so, since they cost energy just to maintain them, and then more whenever they put something inside or take it out."

"So, while not necessarily powerful, the Skill equivalent to my Overskill would consume a lot of energy and couldn't be used as I do it?"

"Exactly. Though normally that wouldn't be enough either, but we have a big mission coming up. And we have been having a slight problem with the preparations for that. Namely, supplies.

Sure, we have people who can lift a literal ton with one arm, but carrying around several times your body weight on your back, makes it hard to keep your balance when walking, never mind fighting."

"So, you want me as a glorified pack-mule? What does the mission entail?"

"I can't tell you right now, but just know that, if things turn out that way, you probably won't be involved in any of the really dangerous parts of the mission. And the rewards could probably catapult you straight into Tier one."

There were still a lot more questions I wanted to ask, but most of them could still wait. There were two that were a lot more important right now.

"In that case, should I try to increase my Overskills level as much as possible?"

It would be a lot more useful if I had more space in my Pocket Dimension.

"Hmmm... Yeah, you should probably do that. You used all your Overskill points from the previous fights already? On your Stats I guess? And your Overskill is still level one?"

I nod.

"Okay, if you win the next fight, you can increase the Skill to level three. You should also have a good chance at first place, so you could exchange one of the Superpoints to reach level four. Though, you really should keep one Superpoint safe. Those are hard to come by, and you will need it to get to Tier one."

"You mentioned that already. What do the Tiers mean?"

"You know that there is a limit of one hundred on all your Stats?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you are currently a Tier zero. Once you have four hundred total Stats, you can use Superpoints to advance in Tier and raise the limit. Of course, there are other advantages as well. But on lower Tier mission, Superpoints are pretty hard to come by."

"Oh? What Tier is that mission?"

"It's a Tier three mission, but be Tier five and it wouldn't make a difference to you if you stay in the back... Okay, Tier five would probably end up with you becoming collateral even with an escort. But that doesn't matter since it's only Tier three."

That... sounded a bit concerning. But it wasn't something I could worry about right now. There still was one more question to ask.

"I have one last question. My two Skills, one is called Heat resistance, and the other Shock absorption. I wanted to ask if you know what the second one does.", I finally get to ask the question that has been bothering me for far too long.

"I'm not sure, really. I'm no professional, so don't take my word for it.

The difference between resistance and absorption is quite simple. If you think of it in RPG terms, resistance reduces damage by a flat value, while absorption reduces by percentage. Of course, it's grossly simplified like this, and in some cases absorption even allows people to recharge their energy.

As for the Shock part. I honestly don't know. Stuff related to electricity is mostly named as 'lightning' or 'thunder', despite how utterly wrong it is."

"I was thinking, maybe something like blunt force trauma?", I ask.

"Nah, that's just called as 'blunt'. If you haven't noticed any physical changes, maybe it's something mental? I really don't know. Sorry. Actually, now it's my turn to ask questions. How did you find out that I'm a soldier?"

"That's what we're called? Soldiers? Not something like 'Player'?"

"Do you think this is a game?"

"No, not really."

"Damn right it isn't. Anyway, how?"

"You carried an entire box full of books and didn't show a single sign of fatigue. And all that while not exactly looking healthy. Actually, what's up with that?"

Victoria lifts her finger and opens her mouth like she wants to say, before freezing without saying anything. After a few seconds, her hand drops down and she accepts: "Good point."

"So, the elf is finally showing through?", Victoria mumbles.

"What?"