“Phew~, that was a sight and a half!” Kurushimi still couldn’t get over how the raw system looked. It felt like straight out of a sci-fi movie; certainly not something she expected to see in her lifetime.

“Are we gonna have to do that everytime I want to mix a skill…?” Having to do that song and dance with Kurono each time seemed like it would be a pain. After all, she not only would end up combining a lot of different skills in the future but she also would want to spend a lot of time experimenting - seeing what could combine and what couldn’t.

“From now on, you shouldn’t need me to be present when accessing it.” Kurono stated.

“Oh-? I won’t?” Kurushimi replied. That at least made the process a little less tedious. After thinking about something for a moment she suddenly said, “Then-!”

Kurono watched on curiously as did Atelier, who had been quietly observing them since the beginning. With a brief mana expenditure, Kurushimi activated a skill and went into a catatonic state.

“She went into the system again? Is she testing going on her own?” Kurono asked.

Atelier replied, “Hm, I’m not sure. I guess we’ll see once she comes back.”

Some time passed and Kurushimi suddenly woke up, the liveliness in her eyes restored. Although she seemed to have come back from the system, she looked a little disappointed.

“What happened?” Atelier asked.

“Well, I tried combining some skills…” Kurushimi explained the trials she ran through the raw system. Randomly testing all sorts of combinations, she tried mixing many of her skills. However, the results were very meager. “I don’t know why but pretty much every one of them failed.”

“Maybe your skills just don’t mix?” Kurono conjectured. There was a good chance it was the case that most of her skills simply didn’t mix - or at least, you couldn’t just whack any old skill together and expect a result.

Atelier spoke, grabbing their attention. “You might not have the necessary ingredients to create anything else just yet. Rather than randomly throwing things together, I’d recommend having a specific idea in mind and looking for what would go into it.”

“Mm.” She nodded, only being able to give such a simple answer to the detailed explanation. With that, Kurushimi had basically been told ‘You can’t do anything with that yet’ so she decided to put it in the back of her mind and return to the previous discussion of the skills she had researched.

“I’ll begin by quickly learning the skills I can already buy…” Out of the skills she had picked out, Necrosis, Sanguine Siphoning and Craftsman were all readily available. For a total expenditure of 900 points, she bought them all.

Left with Domain of water, Overheal and Magic pistol, she now had the complicated part to deal with; figuring out the requirements. Appraisal allowed her to see very vague hints on what they were, but the hints were far from adequate. But luckily, Kurushimi had discovered a loophole to use for this moment. “Atelier, your appraisal’s level is really high right?”

“Yes, it is.” Atelier replied, curious about her intent.

“My appraisal is a low level, so I can only see so much when I appraise the requirements. But since yours is high, you should be able to see a much better interpretation than I can. Can you appraise these skills for me?” Kurushimi explained, requesting Atelier to use her high-level appraisal.

“Eh, can you appraise the requirements for skills?” Atelier asked, reacting unexpectedly shocked by her request.

“Huh?” Kurushimi idly responded, an air of confusion presenting itself.

Both Kurushimi and Atelier fell silent for a moment until Kurono coughed, breaking the silence and snapping the two out of their freeze.

Kurono: “You didn’t know?”

Atelier: “W-Well, who would guess that’s a thing? Who would randomly appraise that?? It makes no sense as a feature…”

Kurono: “You said it yourself, ‘she has quite the unconventional mindset’.”

Atelier didn’t feel too happy having her words used against her. She could only curse the crappy system, for working in the ways it did. She was 5073 years old and still finding out new things about it. From someone who had barely spent a week here at that.

“Let’s just see what the requirements are then…” With a dejected voice, Atelier moved on to appraise the skill requirements as had been requested of her.

“Yes.” Kurushimi withheld commenting anything. Unlike Kurono, she didn’t wish to spark an argument.

. . .

“Requirements: Owning the skill ‘Domain’, basic affinity with the element and… 100 skill points. That’s what needs to be met to buy ‘Domain of water’.”

“That’s really simple!” Kurushimi was happy to hear that the requirements for ‘Domain of water’ were relatively simple; it looked to be one of the most beneficial because of the electric field she would be able to produce.

Searching for ‘Domain’, the only requirement was 100 skill points with no other tricky tasks she needed to complete. As for a ‘basic affinity with the element’– She was confident that could be checked off, considering her body is 60% made up of the stuff after all. At the very least, she figured that would be enough for a ‘basic affinity’.

[Domain: Marks an area as the user’s domain. Certain properties are granted to those who enter it.]

Since the skill cost a meager 100 skill points, she had no problem buying it in order to unlock Domain of water. However, after checking out the description, it confused Kurushimi on what exactly it was. Normally skill descriptions were very in-depth but this one she found to be rather vague.

“What is this ‘domain’ skill?” Kurushimi asked, hoping Atelier may know about it.

“It is a subset of skills.” Atelier stated.

“Oh, really?” Kurushimi nodded to pretend as if she knew what that meant. “What specifically do you mean by a– subset…?”

“A subset is a specific set of similar skills. The ‘magic’ skills, of which you currently have five, are one of these subsets. Domain is another type that creates a field around the user, generating many different effects like buffing or debuffing those who enter it.”

“Oh, that’s cool~” Kurushimi found these subsets of skills interesting. It seemed to be a unique feature of this system.

“And what is the requirement for ‘Overheal’?” Kurushimi asked.

Atelier replied, “I’m afraid you may have to give up on this one…”

“Why? What’s the requirement?”

“Well, it’s an inherited skill. Meaning it can only be gained by certain races or at the very least, having parents with the skill.”

“So it’s impossible to get…?”

Kurushimi couldn’t help feeling a little dejected. Although, it wasn’t unexpected that some skills would have an absurd requirement or simply just aren’t accessible to her.

Seeing her disappointed eyes, Atelier thought for a second and gave an answer. “It isn’t completely impossible. If you can find a monster with the skill, you could try to steal it using ‘what’s yours is mine’. But other than that… I can’t think of many other ways.”

“Hmm, alright. And what about ‘Magic pistol’? Please let the requirement not be too bad…” Kurushimi prayed that she wouldn’t miss out on the magic pistol as well. It was useful and practical, giving her more ranged fighting options although she mostly wanted it because she found the idea of wielding a ‘magic pistol’ to be cool.

Atelier smiled. “I looked into that already and you should be able to do it. Rather, I think this one is perfect for you.”

“Oh?” Kurushimi was happy to hear it.

“To learn and summon the magic pistol, you need to understand the inner-workings of a ranged weapon. The best way for you to do that is to try crafting one yourself.”

“Ehh? I need to craft a gun??” Kurushimi’s face contorted, instantly filling with worry. She may be from Earth, but she was no gun expert. She had no idea how to construct the parts or how they are made. Moreover, wouldn’t she need some kind of gunpowder or something? Would that be possible with blood and shadow alone like with her katana and glaive?

Atelier simply laughed, shaking her head. “Don’t panic, it doesn’t say you need to make a gun. Only some variation of a ranged weapon. Anything will do.”

“Oh, I’ll craft a bow then.” Kurushimi let out a sigh of relief. “A bow should be easy to make and should be pretty useful.”

A bow was much more manageable than a gun. And, compared to her katana and glaive, it was a lot easier to make. The body was self-explanatory in its creation. For the string, Kurushimi would need to mess around a little; she guessed changing the ratio of shadow and blood may help produce a more elastic composition.

“You’re crafting another weapon?” Kurono suddenly appeared, asking a question. Her sudden entry into the discussion made Kurushimi jump a little. It was quite common that Kurono would randomly appear like this—it was something she had been doing since they first met.

It was a theory of Kurushimi’s that she was using this time to sleep, although supposedly the gods didn’t sleep so in the end she was an uncertain one. As she was lost in her thoughts, Kurono’s remark brought her back to reality. “It’s going to take a lot of blood.”

Atelier nodded as she responded, “Mm, I expect it to. It is the only material other than shadow that is being used after all. Especially since the shadow is mostly used to create the shape, that means there’ll be a considerable amount more blood used than anything else.”

Atelier’s response showed her extensive knowledge on the topic. The way she could deduce how the blood and shadow was used in the weapon’s creation was as if she had been there with Kurushimi to experience the process.

Knitting her brows, Kurono made a complicated expression. “She is going to have to severely wound herself again for this…”

“Mm, that is something I will have to do.” Kurushimi had gone through the procedure of making both her katana and glaive twice, counting the previous runs. A lot of her blood was used in their creation and now would be no different. However, it was something she had to do. Besides, she had managed to build up a much greater tolerance to pain than before. She didn’t like it but she wasn’t too bothered.

Kurono looked dissatisfied by Kurushimi’s response.

Atelier suggested, “Then how about we get a canisfang or something to heal off immediately after?”

Kurushimi: “That isn’t a bad idea!”

Kurono: “Wouldn’t it be better to try using the canisfang blood instead?”

“Kurono, I don’t mind using my own blood. And I can’t control other blood as well as my own anyway so it’ll be hard.” Kurushimi couldn’t control the blood of another nearly as precisely as her own. She was getting better at it but she was still unsure about using the canisfang blood. She didn’t want to tank the quality of the bow.

“It isn’t just worrying, I’m not that far gone.” Kurono said mercilessly with a blank face.

Kurushimi simultaneously felt annoyed and disappointed by her remark. In what way is worry ‘far gone’? Isn’t that a little too harsh? It truly is a cruel world if you can’t simply express worry for your peers and nothing more.

Disregarding the wound inflicted upon Kurushimi’s heart, Kurono continued. “This is a good opportunity to train blood magic. Experimenting and breaking away from what is comfortable is the fastest way to level up and improve a skill.”

“You have a good point.” Atelier agreed.

Kurushimi realized a moment of clarity from Kurono’s point. It was a good argument. A very good one. When had she grown so complacent as to instantly pick the easier of two choices? ‘Challenge yourself; it’s the only path which leads to growth’ She couldn’t remember exactly who said that quote, someone with a nice voice…

Kurushimi blinked profusely, straightening her face before declaring with new determination, “Alright-! Let’s do that-!”

. . .

The ground rumbled and trees shook. As leaves fell down in droves, birds and bats quickly flew out. Kurushimi didn’t actually know until now that there were any in this world, let alone this forest. She hadn’t seen any of them until now. “I suppose you have to stay hidden to survive.”

It made sense, they were small and defenseless. They needed to stay hidden from the monsters that may try to eat them alive. However, the critters of the forest were the least of her concerns right now.

She had been hopping from tree to tree, making use of fleet footwork, blink and dimensional magic portals to quickly traverse across the branches whilst staying hidden. This was all in the search of a canisfang—of which she had been successful in. But as she was about to execute the capture of one, the ground started shaking out of nowhere.

“Atelier, has this ever happened here before?” Kurushimi asked Atelier, a local resident of this area. In the best case scenario, this was a common occurance she would be able to explain…

“No, this is the first time. Rumbling of this scale isn’t common here.” To Kurushimi’s dismay, Atelier had no idea what it was.

“It sounds far away…” Kurono stated. She appeared to be thinking hard about something, concentrating on listening to the surroundings. “It doesn’t sound like anything near. More like something far away is creating a large shockwave.”

“Is it an earthquake…?” Kurushimi asked.