After Ash’s initial shock died down, he still refused to talk to me. Instead, he had decided to start a staring match, leaning his head on his hands while he concentrated on trying to give me a withering glare. It would have worked, if it weren’t for the dry man’s calming presence. He seemed amused by Ash’s exaggerated jealousy, but eventually managed to calm him down.

“If you’ve both recovered from your dramatics, I’d like to get back on topic. Unlike you two, I don’t have all day. You were saying something about rushing your advancement, Arthur?”

“Right. The thing is, I’ve been told that it pays dividends to delay a class evolution for a while if you can squeeze some skill evolutions in beforehand. Supposedly, that would improve the next class you get.”

“You’ve been told correctly, in that case. The value of evolving skills can’t be underestimated.” The dry man affirmed.

“Normally, I would continue to heed that advice. Unfortunately, I’ve found myself at a bit of an impasse. My friend and I have been… stirring up trouble in a neighbouring country, and we’re not quite done yet. We’ve been a bit out of our depth for a while now and I fear it may get worse before it gets better, which leads me to think that tiering up might alleviate some of the risk involved. At this point, we’re too far in to give up, so running away isn’t a compromise either of us is willing to make, either.”

Both men took a moment to consider my situation, until, eventually, Ash was the first to speak.

“Since you came all the way here, I’m assuming you have some wiggle room when it comes to timing. How long do you have before your self-imposed deadline? Maybe you can place your focus on a few specific skills and get them to the cap in time?”

“I’m expected back at our temporary base in a week, which wouldn’t give me enough time to tier up the one skill I have my eyes on, unfortunately.”

At this point, the dry man intervened.

“Let’s talk specifics. I am not going to ask to see your status, but walk me through the skills that you’re keeping in contention.”

I nodded, pulling up my status screen just for me to see.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Hollow essence knight] LVL 100 Strength 1317 Constitution 1376 Dexterity 1317 Intelligence 484 Wisdom 868 Affinity 876 Free stat points 20

Skills:

Passive:

[Overloading combustion core](48%), [Dark flow sight](34%), [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](59%),

[Sapphire Mental palace](N/A), [Dark Form](91%), [Crawling road](18%), [Weak mana sense](N/A), [Blackened essence(formative)](50%), [Hollow essence return](22%), [Essence lifespan](50%), [Adaptive physiology](N/A)

Active:

[Ghost apparition](74%), [Corrosive mark](39%), [Relentless orbs](67%), [Sword laser](46%), [Onyx chain wind](68%), [Aura dash](5%), [Hollow manifestation](23%), [Eidetic sacrifice](0%)

“I only have four skills that I would realistically evolve, even in normal circumstances. One of them is at ninety percent, while the other three are at about seventy. Everything else is at sixty or lower. Of those skills, the skill at ninety percent would give me a larger boost in power than the other four combined, so that’s the one I’m truly pining after. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time to tier it up! It took me months to get this far and the final ten percent are going to take much longer than a week to get…”

“Now you’re really getting me curious, kid. Come on, spill! What skill is it?”

It took some more convincing on Ash’s end, but, eventually, I relented and told them about the specifics of [Dark form], my one and only healing skill. Calling it a healing skill wasn’t doing it justice, to be honest. My entire strategy centred around this very skill and the pain immunity it provided. I had been told that mana overload was anguish to any other person, after all. I was only holding onto that particular advantage through [Dark form]’s many powerful effects. Tiering it up and achieving tier 6 would prove a world of difference in combat. With some luck, it could even allow me to go toe to toe with tier 5 classers like Dalius. Hells, even the inquisitor!

After I was done explaining how the skill worked and how I got so much skill progression so quickly, both men sitting across from me seemed impressed, though Ash was more vocal about it. By that I mean that he started acting like a jealous toddler until the dry man shut him up with a pointed frown.

“This skill does seem particularly powerful. It explains much when it comes to your recent accomplishments. I echo your thoughts when it comes to the magnitude of the advantage that tiering this skill up might bring you. Then again, every classer must make difficult decisions at times. Luckily for you, I believe I can help in a more direct manner than simply giving advice.”

“Really?” I asked, my hope rekindled.

“By all logic, it should have taken you years to advance your tier 5 skill this far. If it weren’t for the stress you constantly place your body under, you wouldn’t have gained more than 25 percent progression. Your overloading strategy helps in this matter, since it forces your skill to almost constantly be active. From the sound of it, you have gained significant progress in dire situations as well, however. If we put your body under even more stress for the coming four days, we might just be able to get you those final percentages.”

As the dry man explained his reasoning, a sinister smile gradually grew on his face.

“…Even more stress?” I asked hesitantly.

Ash was kind enough to rephrase the dry man’s plan.

“How does ‘being on the brink of death for four days straight’ sound, kid? Because that’s what he really means…”

A few hours later, the three of us arrived in a wide open clearing. Quite a distance away from Necropolis, the place was deserted apart from some dead shrubbery, the type that you could find everywhere in the between lands.

Strangely, the density of dark-affinity mana was even higher in this area than it was elsewhere in these lands, something that I had only come across a few times. Even then, the scale of the shift was far more dramatic.

“Remember this place, Arthur? This is where the war took place a while ago. It’s since been scavenged clean and the bodies have been repurposed, but the mana created by the dead still lingers.”

My eyes widened, realisation setting in. Now that I though about it, there was something familiar about the geography of this place. Not familiar enough to make the connection myself, mind you. No, the battle had been far too chaotic for that.

The increased mana density would be useful to fuel my [Dark form] skill as the dry man’s plan took place, whatever it turned out to be. An inch away from death, huh? I could handle an inch…

After a bit more walking, we stopped in the centre of the clearing, where the older man turned to me.

“So, the plan is simple. I will attack you and you… will stand there and take it.”

If something about the dead-pan stare I answered his monologue with amused the dry man, he didn’t show it.

“Right… so I just need to recover from the wounds you give me. Seems simple enough. You think this strategy will work?” I asked.

Suddenly, my legs gave out and I fell to the floor. Surprised by the sudden shift, I tried to right myself up by pushing my hands against the ground, but quickly realised that they weren’t responding to me either.

Laying down on the dry crust of the earth, I strained my neck to look up, finding four grey whip-like appendages staring down at me, their pointed ends stained in the bright red colour of fresh blood. My blood, I realised, seeing my four appendages laying on the ground a few feet away from me in every direction.

I was distracted from my reverie by the dry man’s dull voice.

“It’ll work, all right. So long as I can find your limits within a reasonable amount of time… You can thank me later for taking four days out of my exceptionally busy schedule, young man. I won’t even ask for a favour in return...”

Something told me that I had underestimated this man’s sadism. When the developing stumps that were supposed to grow into new arms and legs were cut off mercilessly before even getting halfway there, my suspicions were affirmed.