Defiance of the Fall

As he walked some ways from the camp he made a new discovery . A skill screen had been added to his various prompts . It hadn’t been there when he bought the identification skill , which is why it had taken him all day before trying it . He surmised it must’ve activated when he got his class skills .

Normal Skills

Eye of Discernment - Proficiency : - . A glimpse into the unknown . Upgradeable

Class Skill

Axe Mastery - Proficiency : Early . The seed of Dao is planted . Upgradeable

Chop - Proficiency : Early . There is greatness in simplicity .

The screen showed scant information , but it did give Zac a few answers to things he had been wondering about . The class skills seemed to have proficiency , and both were at early stage . His Dao seed was at early stage as well , and he guessed that if he progressed in Axe Mastery] , the seed might follow .

Chop] would likely simply get stronger if the proficiency increased . His identification skill had no proficiency , and it seemed that it wouldn’t get stronger . He had wondered about whether he could improve his skill and get more information about enemies , or even be able to identify items .

It was , however , upgradeable . He saw no hint of the requirements , but it was good to know that he could improve the skill into a better one . Chop] wasn’t upgradeable , which was a bit disappointing . He could only hope the description was true , that there was greatness in simplicity .

If he went by his knowledge from video games , then he’d likely need to raise proficiency to the max before somehow upgrading Axe Mastery] into a higher tiered skill . As that option wasn’t available for Eye of Discernment] , he could only hope to find out some clues at a later date .

Of course , even if he wouldn’t be able to upgrade Chop] he’d still try to max out its proficiency . Who knew if the System would reward a Title , or new class quests if he did . The system did like it when people put in effort , after all .

Chapter 40 - Chop

As he walked away from the camp in the dead of the night he was going over his future path of development . He couldn’t just focus on training with the new guidance system all day due to the third class skill requiring large amounts of time battling in the forest .

On the way from the camp he tried using Axe Mastery] in an actual battle with a barghest . He was disappointed to see that the trajectories wouldn’t actually assist him in battle , and completely shut off right before the battle started . It seemed it was purely a training mechanism .

Finally he arrived at a small clearing some distance from the camp . He didn’t want to accidentally ruin his home in case the skill had any unexpected effects .

He started with using a small amount of energy and channeled it through his new fractal as he swung the axe . The energy transformed as it ventured out through his hand and into the axe . As he swung down he could see a translucent edge formed by cosmic energy .

It was like the axe head had gotten a bit larger , as the translucent edge ran a few centimeters in front of the actual edge , and its length was roughly 10 centimeters longer compared to the actual steel edge . The edge created from cosmic energy looked like a copy of his axe’s actual edge , with some faint fractals added along its length .

It wasn’t spectacular but he used a minuscule amount of energy in the strike . He tried using the skill once more , but this time he put far more cosmic energy into the skill . The translucent blade grew quite a bit larger , now stretching noticeably outward . The blade was now over one meter long , making his once short-ranged axe have almost as long a range as the great sword he had commandeered . Luckily the edge didn’t grow downward along the haft , but rather outward . Otherwise it would be hard for him to swing it without maiming himself .

It was out of Zac’s expectation it would grow to this size . As he continued putting in more power into the skill it kept growing , but Zac soon felt that he was starting to lose control over the skill . Suddenly the cosmic energy blade simply dissipated , leaving no trace of ever being there .

It seemed that there was a limit of how large he could grow the blade without it starting to become unstable . After some experimentation he knew that he could keep the blade stable at roughly one meter . Any larger and it would quickly become unstable . The longer he made the blade the shorter duration he could keep it .

It seemed that this was all that there was to the skill . He tried shooting it away like a ranged attack or boomerang , but nothing happened . It was firmly lodged to his axe . Of course , the proficiency was only at early stage , and it might get more functions at higher levels .