Karolina stared at the supply depot. Natalia, Ada, and Thomas had already gone inside, leaving her to pick her next skill alone. Well, there was no point in delaying it. She wanted to get her new skill and see what was inside of the supply depot as soon as she could.

“Skill Selection,” she declared.

Immediately, three blue boxes appeared in front of her. She began to examine each of her choices carefully.

Rust Touch (F): Gives the user the ability to weaken and destroy metal objects by touching them while this skill is active. The strength of the effect is based on the user’s intelligence. This effect is ineffective on items of rank (D) or higher.

Rust Touch seemed tailor-made to deal with her problems getting through armor. If she had this earlier, dealing with the orc would have been easy. She could’ve just tapped its armor a few times and gotten rid of the issue. Then she wouldn’t have had to rely on exhausting the monster to win the fight.

She could also see a lot of possibilities for breaking down objects beyond dealing with armor. She could get rid of weapons, break out of handcuffs if that was ever a concern, and lots of other things. She also didn’t think she would have to worry about the item rank limitation for a long time, given that she hadn’t even seen an item past (F) rank yet.

Fiery Blow (F): Gives the user the ability to imbue their blows with fire mana. The additional damage dealt by their attack is based on their intelligence.

Fiery Blow also seemed like a good skill. She had seen how useful fire mana-based attacks could be from Thomas time and time again. If she had this skill just minutes ago, she wouldn’t have had to rely on him to kill the slimes.

The most important part of the skill was that it added a magical component to her attacks. That would let her damage monsters that she couldn’t right now, and she really wanted that. She never wanted to be unable to hurt a monster again.

Soul Strike (E): Gives the user the ability to imbue their blows with soul mana, allowing them to directly attack the soul of their target. The length of time their target is incapacitated is based on the user’s intelligence.

The instant she saw Soul Strike, she knew that she was going to pick it. She had been practicing using soul mana specifically to get a skill like this. Her soulsight was her greatest asset, and she was able to choose this skill because of it. It was also a higher rank than the other two skills, and even though she didn’t know exactly how that worked she knew that higher was better.

The skill seemed to be the best of both worlds, letting her incapacitate her enemies even when she couldn’t normally hurt them. Every monster she had faced thus far had had a soul, after all. The fact that the skill incapacitated instead of killed was also comforting. She was going to be fighting humans soon, after all, and she didn’t want to kill anyone else.

She picked Soul Strike, completely certain that she was making the right choice. She tried to activate it, but she wasn’t able to. Her mana must still be too drained from the fight. That was odd, because she felt like she could still cast mana armor twice with her current amount of mana.

Soul Strike seemed to be a very expensive skill. Apparently there were downsides to getting a higher-ranked skill that she hadn’t considered. Well, it’s not like she could change her mind now. She really hoped that she would be able to use the skill once her mana was full again, as otherwise she had just gotten a skill that would be useless for the confrontation with Weber.

Now that she had her new skill, it was time to see what the supply depot had to offer. She pushed open the door, and was surprised at what she saw. The building only had one large room, filled with closed wooden crates. The crates were pretty big, with every dimension seeming to be about three feet long.

Everyone had started opening crates, but they seemed to be doing it pretty haphazardly. Ada was opening one crate after another, leaving the lids scattered on the floor, while Thomas and Natalia were carefully opening crates and inspecting all of the contents before moving on.

"Find anything good?" Karolina asked, making everyone look up from the crates.

"Depends on your definition of good. Some of this stuff seems pretty useless. I did find one item that I really want, though,” Natalia said as she held up a familiar-looking clear crystal. Karolina quickly inspected the crystal, even though she already knew what it was.

Offensive Skill Crystal (F): A single-use crystal that activates offensive potential. When used, ensures that at least one of the skill options for the user’s next skill selection is an appropriate F-rank offensive skill.

Karolina stared at Natalia dumbly, uncomfortably reminded of another healer holding a skilly crystal. Natalia wasn’t Selena, Karolina knew that she wasn’t, but she was still uncomfortably reminded of when Selena had revealed her true colors.

She blinked, then refocused on the current situation. That comparison wasn’t helpful at all. Karolina trusted her soulsight, and she hadn’t seen anything with it that suggested that Natalia wasn’t who she said she was. She hadn’t ignored any signs with Natalia like she had with Selena.

Basically, she needed to calm down. She was helping Natalia, Natalia was helping her, it was fine for her to get whatever item she wanted. The crystal was Natalia’s if she wanted it. She just didn’t know why she would. From what she could guess, an offensive skill would be something like Thomas’s Mana Bolts or her Soul Strike, but Natalia was a healer.

“Why do you want an offensive skill?” Karolina asked. “You’re a healer. An offensive skill seems to be the exact opposite of the skills you should be getting, with your class.”

“That’s exactly the point! I don’t want to have to stay back and be useless. I want to be able to fight,” Natalia said.

“Would a crystal that’s so opposite to the purpose of your class even work for you?” Karolina asked.

“Yes, it would,” Thomas chimed in. “Unless an item specifies otherwise, anyone can use it and expect it to be effective.”

“Even if it would work, you don’t need it to be useful. You’re not useless Natalia. Healers are vital—” Karolina said.

“Vital. Weber said that too, that my class meant I’m a vital resource for the camp. I hate my class. If I wasn’t a healer, Weber wouldn’t have kept me locked up. If I had a different class, I actually would have been able to fight back and escape,” Natalia said. She was obviously getting angry.

Karolina was struck silent for a second. Did Natalia really blame her class for that? “Look, I don’t know much about your imprisonment, only what you’ve told me, but even I’ve figured out that Weber is the problem, not you. The ‘only reason’ you weren’t allowed to leave is because he’s a petty tyrant. The fact that you have a useful class is a good thing,” Karolina said.

“Well, I’m glad that I’m useful to you,” Natalia said, practically spitting the words out. “Have you picked out my new prison yet?”

“That’s not what I meant! I’m not Weber. I’m not going to force you to stay in camp. I’m trying to say that your class is a good thing, not a bad one!” Karolina said. She couldn’t believe that Natalia was comparing her to Weber.

“And I’m trying to say that I don’t agree. Healer isn’t a combat class, but I still need to be able to fight. It’s dangerous out there, and I don’t want to have to be protected. Can I have the item or not?” Natalia asked.

“Of course you can have it! I’m just worried, that’s all,” Karolina replied.

“Oh,” Natalia said, sinking into herself. All of her anger seemed to disappear. “Thanks, I guess,” Natalia said, looking awkward.

Ada and Thomas were very specifically not looking at Natalia and Karolina. Karolina couldn’t believe that they had gotten into a shouting match over an item.

As Karolina watched, Natalia closed her eyes and the crystal slowly disintegrated into clear dust. The dust entered into her chest, and Karolina could see it get absorbed into her soul. It was a little unsettling to watch, honestly.

“Sorry for getting so heated. I just thought… I don’t know what I thought,” Natalia said.

“It’s okay. We’re just getting to know each other. Of course there’s going to be a miscommunication or two. Someday, I’ll tell you about how Ada acted when we first met,” Karolina said with a smile.

Inside though, she was getting worried. First Natalia disobeyed her during a fight, putting herself at risk, and now she was picking a fight over an item. She wanted to like Natalia, but she wasn’t sure if they would be able to keep working together after they dealt with Weber.

Maybe it was selfish, but she needed to have a healer on her team to feel secure. She had hoped that Natalia would be that healer, but maybe she needed to keep looking. Anyway, now wasn’t the time to think about this. She still needed to break the awkward mood somehow.

“Actually, that skill crystal made me curious about something. Thomas, I wanted to ask about how skills are classified. I’ve seen leadership and offensive skill crystals, but there has to be more. How many types of skills are there?” Karolina asked, turning to Thomas. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Natalia was still looking at her apologetically.

“No one knows,” Thomas shrugged. Karolina was starting to think that there were a lot of things about the system no one knew. “And skills don’t have just one classification. As far as people have been able to figure it out, it’s a trait system. So one skill might have magical and offensive traits, or any other combination.”

“Interesting,” Karolina said. “Well, let’s keep looking through the crates. Let everyone know when you find something good.”

After everyone gave various sounds of agreement, Karolina went over to the nearest crate and pulled the lid off. Inside of it was something that looked like a cross between a chemistry set and someone’s all-natural drug collection. She inspected it, wondering what in the world she was looking at.

Alchemy Kit (F): A collection of tools and ingredients fit for an aspiring Alchemist.

She could see how that would be useful, but not for any of them. She was pretty sure that she had saved an Alchemist at some point; he would probably want this. As she was about to close the crate, she realized exactly the value of what she was looking at.

From her cursory knowledge of video games, she knew that alchemists created potions, and there was an Alchemist in camp. Bringing this back would lead to the camp getting a lot more potions. She closed the crate, still thinking about the implications of its contents, and opened the next one.

This crate was a riot of colors, filled to the brim with different swathes of fabric. She stuck her hand in and felt around, feeling the different textures. It had been so long since she had touched any fabric besides the rough cloth of her gi.

Just as she was about to pull her hand out of the crate, she had a realization. There was a tailor in camp, and in this crate were enough raw materials to make a large amount of clothing. She could finally get out of this ugly karate outfit. She inspected the fabrics, wondering how the System would describe them.

Self-Repairing Fabrics (F): A collection of fabrics that have been enchanted to be self-repairing. When fashioned into clothing, the clothing retains the enchantment.

Not only would she be able to get new clothes soon, but those clothes would never have to be repaired? Today was the greatest day ever.

She kept going through crates. Some of the crates didn’t have anything useful at all, like one that was full of nothing but low quality nature paintings. She found directions to the next location, the Border Fort, but that wasn’t useful right now. She also found a lot of items that she was certain would be useful for other classes, but were useless for the four of them. Ada was the first one of them to find something good.

“Hey, how do you guys feel about enchanted weapons?” Ada asked, showing off a crate full of pointy metal implements.

“Ada, you do know that you’re the only person here who fights with a weapon, right?” Thomas asked patiently.

“Until now, at least. Here, catch,” Ada said with a smirk as she tossed a foot-long wooden rod at Thomas. He fumbled with it awkwardly, but managed to catch it after a few seconds.

“I caught it!” Thomas said, sounding surprised.

“Great job, sport. Now maybe try inspecting it to see what it is?” Ada said sarcastically.

“Oh, right,” Thomas said. After a moment, his face lit up. “Thanks Ada. This’ll be very useful.”

Karolina inspected the item, curious what all of the fuss was about.

Wand (F): A wooden implement enchanted to excite mana. When used to cast offensive spells, their effectiveness is increased.

That was very useful. Karolina hadn’t considered that there would be items that helped with casting spells, but it seemed obvious in hindsight. Before she could say anything, she had to catch a pair of metal items that Ada had thrown at her.

Examining them, Karolina could see that she had caught two solid pieces of brass with four holes and a grip. The holes seemed to be the perfect size for her fingers to fit into them. Were these…

Brass Knuckles (F): A simple weapon designed to make unarmed strikes stronger. This weapon counts as unarmed for the use of skills.

There was a weapon she could actually use? She carefully slipped them on her hands and clenched her fists. She punched the air a few times, the weight of the brass knuckles making her blows feel more dangerous. She couldn’t wait to test them out on a monster.

“Thanks Ada,” she said to her friend.

Ada nodded back, accepting the praise as her due. Just as Karolina was about to get back to opening crates, Natalia spoke up.

“Nothing for me?” she asked.

“Didn’t see anything I thought you’d want. You’re welcome to look for yourself,” Ada said, shoving the crate towards Natalia. The healer looked through the crate for a few seconds, and then shoved the crate back towards Ada with an irritated snort.

“Now that that’s been sorted out, let’s get back to it shall we? We don’t have a lot of time to waste,” Karolina said.

They kept going through the crates, but Karolina was starting to think they weren’t going to get through them all. It had already been early afternoon when they arrived, and they had spent a long time going through crates. She definitely didn’t want to have to walk back through the woods in the dark.

She closed the crate she was looking at and stood up. “I think we’ve spent too long here. We need to get back before it gets dark,” she said.

“But we still haven’t opened all of the crates. What if there are more books?” Thomas asked.

“We’ll definitely come back,” Karolina said. “Okay everyone, pick one crate that you think will be most useful for dealing with Weber. You’re responsible for carrying it back.”

Karolina looked sadly at the crate full of fabrics. She couldn’t justify bringing it back now, but she would definitely come back for it. She desperately wanted new clothing soon. She looked between a few different crates, but ended up picking the crate containing the alchemy kit. The possibility of more potions was too tempting to pass up.

She looked up to see what everyone else chose. Natalia had grabbed a crate full of enchanted arrows. Hopefully at least one of the people joining them for the attack on her old camp was an Archer.

Ada, on the other hand… "Here, carry this," Ada said, handing Thomas the heavy crate of weapons. "So you can feel like you're doing something."

"Feel like I’m doing something—I killed the slimes! All of the slimes!" Thomas spluttered.

"Well, any of us could have done that. Hardly worth mentioning," Ada smirked.

“Ada, you have to carry one too,” Karolina interjected.

“I know. This one’s just more my speed,” Ada said, patting a much lighter crate filled with communication crystals.

“Thomas, you don’t have to—” Karolina started.

“No, no, I’m happy to help Ada out. It’s obvious that she just can’t handle a crate this heavy. There’s no shame in her admitting that,” Thomas said.

“Oh, screw you,” Ada said as she grabbed the crate back from Thomas. He smiled smugly, then picked up the lighter crate. Ada was still pouting as they walked out the door.

“Ada’s kind of a lot,” Natalia commented as she walked up to Karolina.

“That she is. I like her, though,” Karolina replied.

“I wanted to apologize for getting angry at you earlier. I just… I’m done being told what I’m allowed to do. That doesn’t make it okay to yell at you, especially when you’ve been so helpful. I mean, you’re going to help rescue the people in my camp tomorrow! Anyway, that’s what I wanted to say. I’m sorry,”’ Natalia said.

“I’m sorry for getting angry, too,” Karolina said. Maybe Natalia would work out as a teammate after all.

They all set off, the sky starting to darken a little. They should be able to make it back to camp before it gets dark, but it would be close.

As they were walking back to camp, Karolina saw a goblin out of the corner of her eye. This was an excellent opportunity to test her new skill.

Her mana had recovered a while ago, and she felt like she could use Soul Strike now that her mana was full. She had been a little worried that the skill would be too mana-intensive to use even with all of her mana.

She quickly set down her crate, then turned to face the others. “I’m going to test my new skill, Soul Strike, on that goblin,” she said quietly. Thomas looked interested, Ada looked excited, and Natalia just looked tired.

She walked over to the monsters, finding after a quick inspection that it was level 12. It snarled at her and raised its rusty dagger, but she nonchalantly knocked the weapon out of its hand after using a quick burst of Combat Perception.

While the goblin was still flailing from losing its weapon, she grabbed it by the arm and started channeling Soul Strike. It took over a second before the skill finally activated, but she wasn’t disappointed when it did.

A burst of purple erupted from her finger, traveling through the goblins’s body until it slammed into the goblin’s soul. She watched the spell fade away as the goblin’s soul stayed unnaturally still.

The goblin was paralyzed, not moving an inch. Its face was still stuck mid-snarl, arm outstretched to grab the fallen dagger. After a few seconds, its soul suddenly started to move again, and the goblin stumbled backwards, looking confused.

“That’s it? It knocks them out for a few seconds?” Ada asked, skeptical.

“Are you kidding? Completely paralyzing an enemy for a few seconds in combat could be the difference between life and death!” Karolina replied, still watching the goblin carefully.

The monster lunged for its weapon, but Karolina was ready for that. She kicked it in the chest, and the small green monster flew backwards. It slammed into a nearby tree, dying on impact.

“Well, that’s done. Let’s keep going,” Karolina said, dismissing the screen congratulating her.

“Yeah,” Natalia said, staring at her. Karolina wondered if killing a low-level goblin was that surprising to the woman. When she didn’t say anything else, Karolina dismissed her and kept walking.

Looking up at the sky, she was pretty sure they were still going to make it back to camp before it was dark, barely. Tomorrow, she was going to attack another camp with her friends and whoever Aaron could scrounge together, but she was too tired to think about that now. Today has been a crazy day, and she was ready for it to finally be over.