Chapter 80: Skill Check
Zhen Liu knew for a fact that “skills” didn’t exist on Valresta, or at least not in the way his wonky hand formula presented it to him. He thought for a moment that this was a case of, for lack of a better term, “game-breaking bullshit”, until it dawned on him.
‘Wait a minute…they do exist!’
The “skills” presented to him weren’t some random thing that the voice in his head forcefully implemented, rather they were what he was supposed to gain if he could cultivate normally.
As warriors cultivate their aether, they unlock special abilities that happen at specific stages of development. For example, warriors at the Aether Master level were able to infuse their aether into objects and living things to an extent while those at the Grand Master level could condense it into an armor that shot up their fighting strength.
However, sometimes when a warrior cultivates a formula, they develop strange little…quirks in relation to their practice.
For example, Zhen Liu’s grandfather cultivated [Abyssal King’s Grace], and now he could breathe underwater as a result of his cultivation. Not hold his breath for a long time, not use some special secret art, he could straight up breathe underwater because he naturally grew gills when submerged in water.
Another example would be his father and uncles, all of whom could develop animalistic traits when they got caught up in the heat of battle.
He once remembered the time his Uncle Zhen Jin was challenged to a duel by some bandit chief calling himself, “The Golden Cobra”, and wanted to prove he was superior king of snakes in the area or something stupid like that.
Zhen Liu didn’t remember the reason for the duel, but he did remember his uncle’s head suddenly turning into that of a giant cobra’s and injecting his fangs into the man’s neck for all of five seconds before ripping out his throat.
Zhen Liu developed a tiny fear of snakes that day.
As he thought over these skills over and over again, he could only come to the conclusion that these “skills” were just those little quirks that other formulas had. Although, this led to more questions.
‘Wait…did I get these skills because that crystal ball was bestowing it, or did my formula just mutate after being inspired by it?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he scratched his chin. Regardless, he could figure that bit out later since right now, he had to figure out these skills.
“Xiao Liu? Are you alright?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine babe. Just deep in thought,” Zhen Liu said as he tried to play off the voice in his head as him realizing something. He told Jin Fang about the kaijin thing, he didn’t tell her about the voices in his head. Evidently, he was so caught up in faking nonchalance, he didn’t notice Jin Fang blushing when he said the word, “babe”.
“I don’t know what ‘babe’ means but something about the way it sounded made my heart flutter and I liked it,” she thought to herself.
For reasons unknown, Nepherage suddenly rolled her eyes while taking her turn at the Go board.
“Hey, Xiao Fang? Could you do me a favor?”
“Huh? Oh yes. What do you need?”
“Mind helping me set up a bonfire?”
“Well certain-wait…a bonfire?”
“Let’s go Frosttusk,” Nepherage said as she got up from her seat, “We need to go set our lord on fire.”
“But…was…winning…,” Frosttusk slowly grumbled. He let out a “small” sigh that quickly condensed into a small ball of ice, before getting up and following Nepherage’s lead.
“Hold…up…”
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It normally takes a lot of effort to build a bonfire, especially in the middle of a desert with little access to wood, but if there’s one thing a mining town in a pseudomagic world has, it’s alternative/weird fuels. Plus, Zhen Liu had kaijin power.
“Mushrooms are ready, milord!,” Nepherage confirmed with a salute after she and Frosttusk had prepared a sizable amount of kindling, which were in this case dried mushrooms known as kindleshrooms.
While Stone Claw City had little in terms of lumber and access to it was tricky, the people had learned to make do by making use of the various fungi that grew in the tunnels below the city. There were a lot of fungi down there and they all had their uses.
‘Kindleshrooms, known for their dense and spongy structures,they can be dried up to make kindling. Three shrooms to the log and they burn cleaner when soaked in alcohol first,’ Zhen Liu recalled as he stared at the woody fungi. He briefly wondered how this could occur in another world, but answered his own question when he thought through it. He flicked the mushroom back into the pile before taking several steps back, leaving a trail of red moss.
Once he was far enough from the kindling, Jin Fang handed Zhen Liu a piece of flint and steel.
“Why are you making a bonfire as opposed to a campfire, again?”
“Because I’m about to stress test something, and I’ll need a lot of fire for it.”
“That…sounds unsafe.”
“Meh. I came back from the dead once, I can do it twice if needed. Now then…”
Zhen Liu squatted down and smashed the flint and steel into each other, releasing a spark that ignited the red moss at his feet like gunpowder. The spark traveled up the moss until reaching the mushroom kindling and exploding into a big bonfire.
The two young Acolytes couldn’t help but step back a bit from the explosion. Even if they were trained warriors, surprising explosions were still surprising.
“Well…time for me to get ready.”
“Ready for wha-Oh my!,” Jin Fang exclaimed before covering her face in shame…and slightly parting her fingers.
Zhen Liu had inexplicably start stripping after the bonfire lit up. First went the coat, then the shirt and finally the pants. He kept the loincloth on though.
“What are you doing?!”
“Well I didn’t want to get my clothes burned.”
“Your clothes bur-wait what?!”
But before she could question further, Zhen Liu rushed towards the bonfire and dove headfirst.
“GERONIMO!”
