[Name: Arthur Shaw]

[Age: 19]

[Species: Human]

[Class: Mage]

[Title: Child of the Elements (Unique), Goblin Slayer]

[Level: 5]

[HP: 120 / 120]

[Mana: 190 / 190]

[Strength: 10+]

[Intelligence: 13+]

[Wisdom: 12+]

[Agility: 9+]

[Vitality: 6+]

[Elemental Affinity: Fire (Minor), Water (Minor)]

[Skills: None]

[Unassigned Stat Points: 2]

The first thing Arthur noticed as he stared at his ’status window’ was how much his strength and agility had climbed. Granted, he’d been pouring all of his free points into those two, but now they’d almost caught up to his intelligence and wisdom.

He had a rough guess at what intelligence and vitality did, while strength and agility were pretty much self-explanatory, but wisdom? He still had no idea what that was even supposed to do. So Arthur bit the bullet and tapped the plus signs next to his ’Strength’ and ’Agility’ stats again.

[Strength: 11]

[Agility: 10]

The clear ’ding’ of confirmation rang in his ears as Arthur closed his status window and turned to John.

The big guy seemed to be doing the same thing as him, staring into the air with a furrowed brow; most likely at his own status window.

It made sense, Arthur guessed. After all, John had definitely leveled during the camp fight, as well.

So Arthur leaned against a stone column and waited, watching the press of humans and aliens coming and going from the city. The vast majority were still human, but as he looked at the aliens, Arthur was starting to suspect there were no actual NPCs in this game. At least none he’d seen so far. Whether it was the insectoid shopkeeper or the dwarf blacksmith, they’d both given him the same impression: that they weren’t real NPCs, but actual people... or, well, living beings.

Maybe the game was just hyper-realistic, of course.

A few moments later, John’s voice echoed from behind him, snapping Arthur out of his reverie.

"Alright. I’m good."

Arthur nodded. "Alright. Just one last thing left before we head for the mountain range, then."

Under John’s excited eyes, Arthur put his hand under his chestpiece and touched the slim leather-bound book he’d kept hidden since the goblin camp, the ’Water Arrow’ skillbook the Goblin Shaman had dropped.

And the moment his fingers touched it, the system notification flared into view again.

[Skillbook: Water Arrow]

[Type: Magic—Water Element]

[Description: "Condenses water mana into a concentrated arrow, dealing moderate piercing damage."]

[Requirements: Elemental affinity of Water (Minor)]

[Class: Mage, Enchanter, Summoner.]

[User compatibility detected! Would you like to absorb it? Yes / No]

Almost instinctively, Arthur pulled his hand back and let the system message fade, before his eyes scanned the plaza around him. No way he was using this thing in front of so many people.

Without a word, his eyes fell on a narrow side street just off the main road before he turned to John.

John caught the look immediately.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," the big man said before the two of them walked ’very naturally’ into the alley. Once they were out of sight of the unsuspecting crowd, John leaned against the wall near the entrance and continued,

"Don’t worry, just do what you have to do. I’ll stand guard here until you’re done."

"Thanks," Arthur said, before moving a bit deeper into the shadows. Naturally, flaunting a skillbook in front of every player in the plaza was about the dumbest thing he could do. It’d be like waving a bar of gold around a crowded slum.

Once he’d made sure no one else was around, Arthur pulled out the book and called up the floating prompt one more time. This time, he didn’t hesitate and pressed ’Yes.’

Then... the book between his fingers instantly dissolved into faint blue light before vanishing completely.

"...That’s it?" Arthur muttered to himself, just loud enough for John to turn toward him.

"Are you done? Already?"

Arthur hesitated. "I’m not sure. I don’t really feel anything different."

John shrugged. "Just check if you can use the skill."

After a moment of hesitation, Arthur nodded and raised his right hand, pointing it at the empty space in front of him before he said,

"Water Arrow."

...And nothing happened.

Well, almost nothing.

John snorted, then broke into a booming laugh that echoed off the alley walls.

"Pff-ha! That was... that was majestic, Art. Real intimidating stuff, buddy."

Arthur facepalmed, a tinge of red creeping into his face. More than embarrassed, he was actually curious about why the skill hadn’t actually worked.

Well, truth be told, he’d half-expected this to happen. Ever since he’d read that post about the ’Roar’ skill, the one whose owner couldn’t get to activate for some reason, Arthur had suspected something like this.

Still, was it just how the game worked? He didn’t know.

He brought up his status window again, determined to figure out exactly what he was missing.

As expected, however, his skill tab was no longer empty. The skill was right there.

[Skills: Water Arrow.]

Arthur closed his status window and stretched his right hand out again. This time he didn’t focus on the skill’s name, but on the skill itself, trying to trigger it mentally through the skill tab.

...Nothing happened again.

He tried again, thinking of the words in his mind instead of saying them out loud.

Still nothing.

Finally, he furrowed his brows. Clearly, calling out the name wasn’t enough. Maybe the system didn’t care about words at all.

Maybe... just maybe, he had to imagine it?

Arthur did his best to shut out the background noise of the plaza beyond the alley as he tried to picture the skill directly in his mind. No, not in his mind. He pictured the arrow as if it were forming right there in front of him.

The image was clear in his mind’s eye: a sleek shaft of rippling blue, shaped like a long spearhead carved from pure water.

And then, something shifted.

Arthur could feel a strange sensation, one that was difficult to put into words.

It was as if the world around him was responding to him.

The air around him seemed to tighten, as if trying to draw something out of thin air.

And then, Arthur felt... a pull.

Before he could fully process what was going on, the water had gathered.

Thin droplets appeared out of nowhere, coalescing in midair above Arthur’s outstretched right palm. They swirled, twisting together tighter and tighter, until they took the form he’d pictured: a slender blue arrow.

Arthur’s breath caught in his throat.

At the other end of the alley, even John had gone quiet.

He just watched as the Water Arrow hovered in front of Arthur, and then, with a sharp hiss, it suddenly shot forward, blurring through the air and slamming into the far wall before bursting apart with a loud splash.

John let out a low whistle.

"Damn! ...So that’s a skill, huh? Not bad," the big guy said, his eyes glinting as he stared at the wet mark on the wall.

But Arthur didn’t say anything. He was still caught up in that strange sensation around his palm.

No, around his whole body, in fact.

It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

Still, the skill itself was a little strange. Arthur hadn’t willed it to attack anything, and yet the moment it formed, the arrow shot off in the direction he was facing.

He shook his head and let it go. Maybe that was how skills actually worked. Either way, being able to use this after a couple of tries was already a huge success as far as he was concerned. He’d get the hang of it sooner or later.

After sorting out his thoughts, Arthur turned to John.

"Alright, ready to get going?"

John looked at him, clearly surprised.

"You don’t want to practice a bit more? I can wait.", he said.

But Arthur shook his head.

"No need. I’m going to test it out in the forest. The goblins can’t hate me any more than they already do anyway."

John nodded, a grin stretching across his face. "Might as well get back to hunting, then."