Jason hops back onto the starting platform and no other poles are lit. Suddenly it hits him and he sort of just slumps over. For the first time in this life he felt completely worn out, both in body and mind. From the side John shouts over, “Oy, you should have gotten the skill. Check what level it is at.”

With a quick wave to confirm he heard him Jason pulls up the messages he had missed.

Extreme Exertion

+1 Strength

Completed Guided Exercise

+1 Agility

Unconscious Cultivation and Energy Use

+1 Energy

+6.5% Cultivation Experience

Skill Gained

Desolate Traversal Technique

A combination of traditional parkour and energy use. While considered a basic skill it is highly ranked among them. Generally learned by rogues it is however open for anyone to learn.

Initiate Level 3 - 63.2%

Rank: Normal Beginner

Type: Passive, Movement

Effects:

Traction Assist - Based on predicted goal the System will slightly modify the friction between user and any surfaces they are in contact with

Powered Grip - Through the use of energy a user can temporarily stick to surfaces

After checking the skill Jason yells back, “Yeah I have the skill and it’s at Initiate 3!” He is actually surprised at the stat ups. Those tend to be quite rare and require impressive amounts of effort.

Hearing that John is actually relieved. While making it to Initiate rank was surprising the level reached wasn’t too shocking. Satisfied at this he starts filling Jason in on some of the details, “Good job, that is above average. Though you only managed it as you got lucky and triggered Powered Grip. That tends to be a bottleneck for most people. Anyway since you learned it within the first day lets get you learning a second skill. Normally the skill would be something like hidden weapon use and how to hook it up to their main weapon type. You however have something most of our recruits don’t. You have a sturdy body so can probably survive to learn the skill. Now follow me.” and he slaps the wall behind his back and a hidden door slides open.

After catching his breath Jason follows John through the door. Inside looks more like an alchemist lab rather than a thief hideaway. Though there is a distinct lack of any glowing liquids you would expect in such a place. In fact a lot of the bottled liquids are colorless or look like some common drink. Once he is in the door closes behind him and John continues, “Now as you seem to have half a brain you will have realized this is a lab for poison production. No I won’t be teaching you how to make it, rather to resist it. There are a number of methods to develop the resistance. Most rogues get it from exposure to small amounts when making them. You however get to do it the hardest way that isn't just getting poisoned over and over. Hopefully you can deal with pain. While my special concoction won't kill you, in exchange it will cause horrible pain which cuts through all resistances. Honestly if it wasn’t because you have to choose to be affected by it this poison would be impossible to make. That's the secret though. There is only one chance to learn the skill from this poison and it takes a while. Combined with how the poison stops working the second you want it to, you need to want to keep feeling the pain to gain the resistance. Sure the longer you last the more results you get but most can’t even last long enough to gain the skill in the first place.” Then he grabs a small vial and hands it to Jason, “Now do try to last long enough. This isn’t the easiest poison to make and we don’t keep much of it around”

Taking the vial Jason uncorks it. Before he can down it a sickening odor flows out. He can’t even think of what to compare it to. There just isn’t anything in his memory that quite matches it. Grimacing, he quickly downs the small amount of liquid though even once it is gone the vial still stank. Then it hit.

pain

The Pain

THE PAIN

and a pop up

Extreme Pain Detected

Stop the Pain? Y/N

Jason shakes his head no and the pain continues

Then the pain gets worse and the pop up appears again Once again Jason denies it. The last moments of his previous life were still worse.

Time seems to trickle by for him. Second after second the time passes and the pain worsens. Yet still he perseveres.

He loses 1 hp. Not from the poison but his nails digging into his palms. Then he spasm as the pain starts to randomly sweep through his body. For a short moment it even stops completely though that only makes when it comes back worse.

A thought manages to trickle through his mind, ‘what about the glassware in the room?’ If he could pay attention to the world, then he would notice his worries didn’t matter as he was now in a padded room. The open trapdoor in the ceiling would make it clear that this place was setup with this in mind.

Finally after a minute has passed the skill is gained. If only Jason was able to notice it. Unknowingly he continues on past the point he could just stop. Finally the pain reaches a new level of pain. It is now something unknown to him and worse for it. Now without knowing it he selects to end the pain. However it doesn’t just end but rather slowly fade away. Probably best for a person's sanity that way. Then Jason, finally free of the pain faints.

Once again John is impressed as he knows how bad it gets after a minute. Down into the pit he jumps, just to grab Jason and then jump right back out. Nodding to himself he has to admit that this kid is quite the odd one. Just seeing a new traveller getting both his starting skills up to initiate during the training was worth training him for Penny.

Jason wakes up in the Guilds bar, leaned up against a barrel along the wall. Quickly he stops himself from trying to remember what happened as he knows that way only leads to pain. To take his mind off of it, he checks out his new skill.

Poison Resistance

Does what it says on the tin. A skill based resistance. As there are many types of poison the System has decided it is best like this rather than a stat as this allows more variety without littering the stat line with entries like ‘elven paralysis poison resistance’. Uses the best percentage for a poison.

Initiate Level 1 - 2.7%

Rank: Exquisite Beginner

Type: Passive, Adaptive

Effects:

Immunity to Trash rank pain poisons

Trash rank non-damaging poison resistance - 52%

Trash rank poison resistance - 34%

Low Normal rank poison resistance - 10%

Normal rank poison resistance - 1%

While he is doing so Penny walks over to him, “So it looks like you had quite the experience there. Don’t worry the rest of your little group is still training. I didn’t want to mention it yesterday but you all will probably only get to head out tomorrow. Unlike you, they seem to be more in line with the average learning speed and will likely have to finish some last things up tomorrow morning. My advice is head back to your inn and turn in early. It isn’t quite night yet but close enough.” and so Jason did.