Chapter 95: Skills of The Unparalleled Handsome Arcane Human.
[Registered Skills] →
∟ Skill: Physique of Arcane Trickster
∟ Skill: Trickster’s Assistant.
∟ Skill: Draconic Resilience
∟ Skill: Card Of Arcana
∟ Skill: ???????
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Five skills appeared before me.
Only five?
Seriously? I swear I had six before evolution.
Shouldn’t I have more by now? Isn’t evolution supposed to be an upgrade, not a clearance sale?
Yet, somehow, there were just five. And all of them seemed... new.
Hell, the last one didn’t even have a name. It was just question marks. Which, honestly, felt suspicious as hell.
Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised if that was the actual name of the skill.
A skill designed solely to make me question every life decision I’ve ever made.
Fitting, really.
Well, I will know once I check.
As for the other four skills... I could more or less guess what had happened.
The similar ones had probably merged together during the evolution.
Yeah... that was the only explanation that made sense.
Or at least, that’s what I was going to tell myself because the alternative was that the universe just deleted my skills out of spite.
And frankly, that sounded way too believable.
So, I decided to start with the first skill.
Physique of Arcane Trickster.
As soon as I focused on the name, a new window appeared into existence before me.
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∟ Skill: Physique of Arcane Trickster
Type: Passive
◈ Description: A body reforged by paradox, the heart of a dragon, the chill of Hel and the soul of a trickster bound as one.
◈ Effects:
✦ Nearly impossible to read intentions or emotions.
✦ Can mimic any emotion with perfect realism.
✦ Greatly enhanced adaptability. The body adjusts to heat, cold or mana corruption instinctively.
✦ Moderate resistance to both flame and death-type damage.
✦ Muscles and reflexes naturally align with intent, allowing seamless transitions between illusion, feint and strike.
✦ Rapid recovery from non-fatal wounds but increased fatigue afterward.
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I stared at the text for a few seconds, letting it sink in.
A dragon’s heart, Hel’s chill and my trickster soul, all wrapped into one body?
Now that was a whole new level of poetic bullshit.
The skill sounded like it was describing a cosmic masterpiece but the actual effects?
Yeah, those were basically the same as before.
Not a trace of draconic might, no deathly aura of Hel, just my old adaptability and reflexes wearing a fancier label.
Apparently, I had gone through divine evolution just to unlock the deluxe edition of my old skill set.
And it got better.
The whole "hiding and faking emotions" thing?
Straight-up copied from my old [Poker Face].
The fifth effect was just [Flexible Frame] with a new coat of divine polish.
The third, fourth, and sixth effects did seem new... but they were mostly passive.
No flashy transformations or cosmic explosions.
Just quiet upgrades like a system update that promised "improvements" and gave me a slightly different loading screen.
Tch.
Without any further bullshit, I dived straight into the next skill.
Because at this point, if the universe was going to keep scamming me with fancy words, I might as well get it over with quickly.
The next skill was the one that tied me to my so-called partner in crime.
The Trickster’s Assistant.
A new window appeared as soon as I focused on the skill.
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∟Trickster’s Assistants →
Type: Passive
Effect: Every trickster needs an assistant—whether it’s to spread chaos on stage or to serve as a loyal butler behind the scenes. Bound by whimsy yet incapable of harming its master. You can see the growth of your assistants. You can have one extra assistant for every rank given they fulfill some requirements.
Assigned Assistant:
✦ Bearlo (Loyalty: 100%)
✦ —
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This skill was mostly unchanged.
Hell, even the system didn’t bother dressing it up with any poetic bullshit this time and just slapped on a new name and called it a day.
Honestly, I almost felt insulted.
At least lie to me with style, damn it.
The only real change in this skill was the addition of more "companions" per rank up.
Or as I prefer to call them—slaves.
A change I didn’t mind in the slightest.
Hell, my rank-up to E-Rank had already given me an extra slot.
Which meant I could assign myself a new butler any time I wanted as long as those requirements weren’t harsh.
What more could a man ask for?
Well... maybe a way to steal the skills the heavens keep hoarding but I guess that’s still in testing.
After giving it one last glance, I moved on to my third skill, the one that had probably swallowed my [Ember Sense] and [MinorStrengthBoost] in its all-you-can-eat evolution buffet.
Draconic Resilience.
That was the name.
Probably the result of the Fire Dragon’s Heart... which, honestly, sounded way cooler than whatever the skill would probably turn out to be.
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◈ Skill: Draconic Resilience
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Type: Passive / Active
Rank: Unique
Effects:
✦ Enhances all physical and sensory perception to a level rivaling true dragons.
✦ Allows creation of a Sensory Domain, perceiving movement, mana flow, and killing intent within range.
✦ You can ignite your Mana Heart, surpassing your normal physical and magical limits for a brief duration.
✦ Once the Mana Heart burns out, it requires time to regenerate, leaving the user drained and severely weakened for approximately thirty minutes.
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Now this was actually a useful skill.
The perfect evolution of [Ember Sense] and [Minor Strength Boost], finally, something that didn’t feel like a poetic scam.
A small miracle in this cosmic comedy I call life.
And honestly, I wanted to try it out but I didn’t exactly have the luxury of time.
I had already wasted enough of it on the whole dying and coming back to life thing.
If I wanted to make it out of this cursed forest alive, I had to reach the first layer before the academy’s extraction spell triggered if it hadn’t triggered yet that is.
Otherwise... I would be stranded here for a full year until next year’s batch arrives.
And given my luck, I was pretty sure the forest would personally celebrate that by trying to eat me again.
I could try testing it on the go, but... meh.
That felt sloppy.
If I was going to try it out, I wanted to do it properly, not just wave it around in a panic like some caveman discovering fire for the first time.
Besides, half-assing things wasn’t my style. (Except when it was.)
I moved on immediately to my next skill because once I finished checking them all, I still had to figure out a way out of the second layer.
But this one... this was different.
This was the skill I was most excited about.
And honestly even if it got me stranded here for a year, I would still waste some time testing it.
Some temptations were just too good to resist.
I focused on my next skill...
Card of Arcana.
The moment I did, the air around me seemed to hum faintly, and a new system window unfolded before my eyes.
This was it.
The thing everything had led up to.
The one skill I had earned through blood, death and a generous amount of cosmic bullshit.
I swear, if this turns out to be a dud... I’m suing Fate.