Skills were divided into three categories: Occupation, Ability, Other

Occupations and abilities both had Grades, which indicated the person mastery over the skill, the mastery is gained through use and practice which means even if two people have the same skill of the same rank one of them might be far stronger than the other if he had a higher grade

Occupation referred to a skill that would increase a person’s master over a certain field, for example someone with a Cooking skill would become a cook thus it would become and occupation, while someone who had Sword Mastery skill would become a swordsman also an occupation

An occupation doesn’t change with its rank increase, but the speed at which one might be able to learn the occupation is what changes, the higher the rank the faster you can learn, there are also some unique techniques you can only learn when you have a high rank skill

Furthermore, occupations were divided into two branches: None-Combat and Combat

None-Combat Occupations are divided into five Grades mainly: Novice > Apprentice > Journeyman > Master > Grandmaster

Combat Occupations are also divided into five Grades: Soldier > Knight > Elite Knight > General > Warlord

Abilities, unlike occupations, refer to a single action one could perform, for example if your ability is Fireball then you can only cast a fireball, you can’t edit your fireball in anyway, you won’t learn how to use fire if you have it and you can’t make it rain fireballs, well not early on at least

But whereas occupations would have you learn how to wield a weapon or cast a spell, abilities would give you that power directly, without the need for any effort on your part, only their Grade would affect the abilities casting time, power etc.

Abilities are divided into five Grades as well: First Step > Gate > Thought > Instinct > Will

Then there are Other, that’s when skills beyond the norm pop up, an example of this are abilities which have no grade and depend on their own requirements to be advanced, summoning abilities are among those as they have only the rank of the skill and the rank of the summoned being, there is no mastery whatsoever

‘Now let’s list my abilities and into what categories they fall under’

As Shun had stayed up all night he naturally found out what his abilities do, granted he had to look at many many abilities so if anyone was watching, which he was pretty sure of, they would think he was just curious

Occupations: Cooking, Alchemy, Polearm Mastery, Water Element Mastery

Abilities: Long Nails, Eagle Eye, Quick Step, Smash, Unnerving Aura, Stealth, Lucid Search, Soul Rend

Other: Lesser Demon Summon, Therianthrope-Crow, Night Vision, Spiritual Blood Pool

‘Still couldn’t find anything about the Limit-Release, though I did find a skill called Limit-Break which is a one time off skill that makes the user overcome his limits, maybe because it’s a plus that it’s not recorded? I didn’t see anything about plus skills mentioned there and was afraid to ask about them so as to not expose anything’

While he was lost in thought and before he could delve into more info dumps Shun finally arrived at the hall, where he could clearly see many displeased eyes looking at him the second he entered among them were his fellow classmates

“Why are you so late! Your wasting our time not to mention the kings time as well!”

Jack yelled at Shun but instead of ignoring him like he usually does in class Shun actually answered while scratching his head

“Ahh my bad, the books in the library were really so interesting I lost track of time”

He said that to both pull off a “weak” appearance and to properly convey his whereabouts, who knew what the nobles would defame him for after he ignored him yesterday? Might as well already give an alibi

“No matter, I’m sure you all want to explore your new home, but first I must prepare you all sufficiently for any dangers you might encounter”

As the king spoke all the students adopted a serious face while straightening their back, it was unknown what gibberish the king had fed them yesterday that they seemed to have taken the world’s future on their shoulder but Shun couldn’t be bothered to think about it

“I shall send those of you who have an occupation skill to the masters of your field, and those who have abilities will learn from those who wield them, I promise you that Avihal will put all its resources into raising you to be the best heroes this world has ever seen, be on your way, and her ladyship be on your side”

After his speech most students were escorted by groups at a time into their own respective masters, shun on the other hand received a paper slip from a guard indicating where to go

‘How convenient, they understood my requirement of freedom and gave to me so magnanimously’

Thinking sarcastically to himself Shun chucked the paper into his pockets and headed toward the bathroom instead

Once he was inside the cubical he leaned on the wall making sure he wouldn’t fall, the next second he seemed to enter a half asleep state as hi body gradually became stiff

He wasn’t sleeping in the bathroom because of his lack of sleep, he was in fact using his skill Lucid Search, right now Shun was amazingly floating outside his body as he looked down at himself

‘Amazing, so this is what they meant by being able to use skills without practice, it really feels like I’ve done this a thousand times even though it’s my first time’

Feeling that he was slowly getting more tired with each passing second he hurriedly went through the wall and into the outside, as he did the world started becoming blurry, but he could still make out the surroundings

‘Probably because I’m getting further from my body, plus I am looking through a wall right now, I should hurry and find the dude before I pass out from exhaustion’

Soon he located a man with black hair yawning while he stood next to the bathroom door, the man seemed to be muttering something but Shun couldn’t hear nor understand as he was in lucid form

But confirming the man existed was enough for him as he quickly went back to his body, then he came out, washed his hands for at least twenty seconds, and exited the bathroom

“I really thought you would also follow me inside you know, I’m really glad you don’t swing that way though”

Shun said to the air while he was looking to the right, to others he would seem to be talking to himself, and it was a fact that he didn’t even know where the man was right now, but he knew he existed, and since he had been yawning it would probably be the same man that h thought followed him to the library, now all this could be Shun overthinking things but he wanted to bet on it, he wanted to bet that this was the same man that had been with him since yesterday, if there was anyone there

“Hmm, you’re quite the perspective one, ah just so you know I also don’t swing that way”

The man he saw moments ago appeared before him, now that Shun looked closer he could see the man had dark eyes that matched well with his dark hair, dark cloths, dark… well it fit the bill pretty well for a stealthy character

“But even though you have Stealth you shouldn’t have sensed me, tell me boy is your skill really just stealth”

The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at Shun, he seemed to have figured out something, but Shun merely laughed

“Haha, with the way everyone is treating me right now I wish it wasn’t, if only it was one of those higher rank skills like Ghostly Steps”

“Heh don’t we all boy, but your skills aint all that bad, Stealth and Soul Rend are pretty good when combined together, they make great sneak attacks when someone is preoccupied ith battle”

“Yah? Can I hit them with a pan while I’m at it?”

“Hahaha! Boy your something aint cha, hahaha id really love to see that, someone sneaking on another with a pan”

The man’s vigilance seemed to fade away with Shun’s joke, for one it was funny and secondly it really came from Shuns heart as he knew that was the only way he could sneak attack someone in stealth, he couldn’t possibly use stealth with a polearm now could he?

“Tell ya what kid, since you got so much talent in stealth that you even sensed me how about I teach ya right away? You were supposed to go to that old hag to learn about souls but let me tell ya she can’t even muster up a Soul Shock let alone teach ya about Soul Rend. Anyway you were supposed to come to me after she throws ya aside after seeing ye skill”

“Oh? I am to learn Stealth before mastering my attack ability?”

“Off course, what use are you if you can’t stay hidden until the last crucial moment, Soul Rend is a mid to close range skill, if you wanna make use of it in battle when you can’t wield any weapon you gotta first be able to make your way to ye enemy only then can you make use of the fleeting moments of carelessness to provide an opportunity for your teammate to rip them apart, who knows maybe you’d shred their soul to pieces before your partner shreds their body”

“Alright, I don’t want to be an experiment to that women either, you make her sound like some mad scientist”

“Hah! ya haven’t heard the half of it, come with me and I’ll tell ya all about her on the way”

The two chatted about while they headed to w residence far north of the castle, this place seemed to host a lot of soldiers and maids, once they arrived in front of a room in one of the buildings in the wall of the castles borders the man stopped

“Aight here is yer room, now ya don’t get any of those fancy rooms like the others but ‘ey at least ya don’t have to mingle with ‘em stinky nobles ai? Well anyway I will come fetch ya tomorrow morning at five, till then have some sleep and I’ll get someone to fetch some food”

Finished with his words he turned around and started heading out, as he did he said something to Shun before vanishing from sight

“The names Vince by the way, just Vince”

‘What a nice outro’

Shun thought to himself, but turning to the big door he could only sigh to himself, he could already guess that there would only be a dormitory like room inside

And sure enough he was greeted by a double bunker bed when he entred the room, there was also a chair and a nightstand, that’s all there was to this little room

“Haah” Sighing again he complained to himself

‘It’s not like I don’t want a classy room with maids waiting on me as well but I would rather be poor rather than being a war asset’

As he thought about the fate that he had escaped by being “useless” he smirked to himself and all his worries were dashed away, so what if he had no fancy clothes or money? If you wanna enjoy those you gotta live! After reading through the books depicting the various surroundings of the country he chanced upon a few interesting records

In those it was mentioned that the Avihal Kingdome, which was in the center of the Serpent Continent, was surrounded by five different areas, three of which were kingdoms, on desert, and one beast land, all of which were hostile toward itself!

How did it survive all this you might wonder? Well that was by summoning heroes off course.

Each five decades the kingdom would summon heroes with the blessing of lady Levia, then they would wage war using the trained heroes and strike the kingdoms down, as long as they keep repeating this process the other kingdoms would not be able to muster up any force to mount a decent resistance

As for the heroes? They sure were heroes, the valiant heroes that “sacrificed” themselves for the country, they gave their life to protect the country, all the books were full of endless praise for their deeds, but Shun never read once about the heroes returning after winning the war, that was because, the war couldn’t be won at all to begin with, the heroes were just tools that would be exhausted until the last drop, all the way till the maximum amount of forces they could take out from the enemies before they too would be “sacrificed”

‘Well, to each their own path, no use thinking about the fate they chose for themselves’

To Shun his classmates had indeed chosen this path themselves, after all nobody stopped them from asking about the war they would be fighting, it was their choice to live in the delusion built for them

Seeing the bed at the side he yawns loudly, and even though it was still quite early he chose to sleep now, who knew what terrible training awaited him tomorrow? He never thought for a second he was going to get off easy either