It had been nearly three months since his unfortunate conscription to the White Lily, but overall Ril thought it was perhaps the best thing that had happened to him since meeting Gemma all those months ago. He genuinely liked Zed, and Siorraid was a great teacher. Saddie still rubbed him the wrong way, but recently she had disappeared on a mission of some sort, which greatly enhanced his enjoyment.

He had spent almost every day learning with either Siorraid or Zed every possible skill under the sun. At least, that’s what it felt like. The few days where he didn’t train were testing days like that unpleasant foray into the School, or other short exams that Siorraid seemed to spawn spontaneously whenever he was feeling particularly lazy.

Some of the tests were written much to his disappointment, but they had an unexpected benefit. It was because of these exams that Ril could confidently say that he understood nobles, the condition of the kingdom, and battle tactics and a plethora of other relevant topics better than even the studious Zed.

Or at the level of. Who’s counting, really?

In the meantime, he had become skilled with the sword. When Saddie had still been around he had been able to hold his own against her, and even managed to disarm her at times with Zed’s help when she allowed them to tag team her. The several more weeks of training made him itch to test his improved skills against her once more when she returned.

Maybe he could finally beat her.

He also gained minor mastery of other weapons, but largely preferred the sword. There was just something majestic and powerful about the weapon, despite the inevitable and continuous losses that resulted whenever Zed or Saddie chose a spear, glaive, or other polearm.

The spear was just so...cheap, and basic, and boring. Even if it was better in several scenarios.

Ok, many scenarios, but try to walk into a public space with a spear! Swords don’t really have that problem. They were more...discrete, ironically enough.

But those were just the invisible skills that he learned. The normal skills. His character sheet displayed proudly his achievements in his more arcane pursuits.

Character name:

Ril Renar

Statistics:

Strength

9 (10.1)

Intelligence

18 (20.2)

Constitution

11 (12.3)

Wisdom

12 (13.4)

Dexterity

14 (15.7)

Charisma

11 (12.3)

Warp

11.95%

Abilities:

Awakened Blood of the Chromagnum

Awakened Mirror Form

Mana Manipulation (Basic) (Diffuse)

Remote Casting

Telekinesis

Flame

Vanish

Ice

Backstab (Passive)

Darksight

Keen Mind

Mana Prison

Darkness

Agony Attunement

Discern

Silence

Ice Armor

The more minor changes were the change in his warp, and the subsequent change to his intelligence attribute.

His warp had increased by 0.07% which wasn’t terrible compared to the ridiculous growth he had experienced back in Anduin. Siorraid had further reassured him that his warp should stabilize once he stopped gaining new skills.

Or...wait. He said that his warp wouldn’t increase as long as he didn’t acquire skills that didn’t fit him. It was all very confusing and it seemed that no one really understood what increased warp. Gemma had said something entirely different, and had given a more philosophical explanation for the acquisition of warp and its derivatives.

It was a moot point. His warp wasn’t rising which was a good thing in Ril’s book. He shuddered to think of the people who failed to control their warp. Becoming a powder beast was a nightmare in the making, despite the brief period of monstrous strength and peerless intellect that high warp granted.

The 0.1 point increase in intelligence was...barely noticeable, except for on the interface where the change was blatant. Must be a rounding thing.

The real treasure trove were the abilities that he had upgraded. In total there were six of them and they were all beautiful additions to his arsenal.

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Snow to Ice.

Summon and manipulate ice.

The first was Ice. It had upgraded from Snow and basically allowed him to summon shards of ice. Self explanatory and mostly boring, but Ril treasured this ability as it reminded him of Evelyn and his ultimate goal of returning to Anduin one day and fixing the mess he made when he left.

The Silver Spires Tournament was coming up soon. Perhaps he could go and cheer for her. It would be awesome to see how far she had progressed since last they met.

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Darkvision to Darksight.

The Dark no longer hinders your perception. Sight is unobstructed by darkness touched by your mana.

Darksight extended the range that he could see in the dark. In the pseudo darkness of the Warrens, his vision was barely obstructed. Unfortunately, the ability stripped the environment of all color, which made exploring the depths not nearly as satisfying as it could be.

The second aspect of the ability was what made the ability really useful, as it synergized with his next ability extremely well:

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Shadow to Darkness.

Create and manipulate darkness.

Shadow had upgraded to Darkness, which allowed him to create patches of darkness independent of a source of light. The inky black substance was tougher and could support more force than the previous shadows that he had formed. It was also completely opaque, more like ink than true shadows. That is, it was opaque for everyone but Ril. Darkvision made Darkness actually useful in combat because now he could blind his opponent while leaving himself completely aware.

Dumping shadows over Zed’s eyes during a match was fun, until the nimble man returned the favor and shrouded the area in his own Darkness. The subsequent slugfest left many bruises but provided the unique if somewhat frustrating experience of training the next skill that he had upgraded:

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Sense to Discern.

You are able to discern the environment around you.

Discern was a strange one. Before, Sense had given him a vague feeling of things around him. It flared whenever he was in danger, but overall seemed to be mostly silent. Now that the ability had upgraded though the stream of information was ceaseless.

Now, Ril constantly felt everything in a rough sphere around him. It was a vague sensation, like when someone touches your back, but still sharp and obviously there.

It didn’t allow for any fine detection, but Ril could now easily give the rough outline of any object within his range in his head.

It seemed that Discern faded with distance, all sensation completely fading away at nearly two meters away, with acceptable levels of sensation at around one meter away. Solid objects also seemed to block or slow the ability, making “feeling” what was on the other side of a wall only feasible if the wall was made of paper.

While disappointed that he could not see through walls, Ril was hugely relieved that the ability couldn’t see through clothes.

That tidbit of information had gotten Ril curious about the ability. It clearly didn’t work as just a passive perception around his person. It emanated from him in some way. The strangest observation happened when Zed had thrown a net at Ril during training.

To Discern the net was completely solid.

When Ril had asked, Siorraid had just said that the ability had a low resolution.

Further testing had revealed that any hole smaller than around five centimeters and any wall thicker than two and a half centimeters was “solid” to his new sense.

Despite the relative simplicity of the abilities effect, it took Ril quite a few days to get used to the new sensation, but once he mastered the sixth sense he was able to incorporate it into his fighting style seamlessly.

Tripping while backing away and sneak attacks were a thing of the past now.

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Muffle to Silence.

Silence sounds around you.

Silence was a straightforward upgrade to Muffle. Now, while under the effect of the ability, RIl could speak loudly right next to someone's ear and they still wouldn’t be able to hear him. It was mildly amusing to Silence every other word that Hauke said at the dinner table. Hauke had been desperately confused, but Eren had caught on annoyingly quick and had given him a flick on the nose.

He had been forced to eat the rest of the meal under the influence of Eren’s Empyrean powers which had been an utterly humbling experience. Needless to say, he didn’t use his abilities on his friends without their permission any longer.

Congratulations! You have upgraded the ability Frost Armor to Ice Armor.

Cover your body in ice armor, blunting physical blows and reducing your body temperature

Lastly, once Siorraid had discovered his ruse at the School Ril had shared his newly acquired ability. Siorraid had shown him how to upgrade it. The armor was able to form much faster now, and its form was more defined. Taking on the appearance of full plate armor rather than a blue white icy coating to whatever existing armor he was already wearing.

The armor could take significantly more abuse now. Not that he had needed the defense in the School, but in the training hall with Saddie and Zed Ril still wished that the armor was more durable.

All of the upgraded abilities brought home an annoying limitation of his. While his abilities were powerful. His mana pool was not. When fighting at full force, Ril was barely able to sustain the style for more than five minutes before he would collapse from mana exhaustion.

The only real ability that he used with impunity was Awakened Mirror Form. Its power and utility far outweighed its measly mana cost.

Ril smiled, dismissing his character sheet, satisfied with his progress.