Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 12: Rank Three
Before Edge willed Extraction to activate, there was something else that he needed to do first. During the fight, he had spotted the stage-one nymph he’d injured hiding in a tree. He was worried that it would attack him while he was busy stealing a skill. Time moved slowly inside a core, but entering one still left him vulnerable for a critical second.
He cast Entangle at maximum range, on the far side of the tree where the beast was hiding. As he was hoping, it looked away when it noticed the vines emerging from the ground. It was only a brief distraction, but it was all that he needed to seal its fate.
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By the time that the nymph turned to face him, he had already cocked his naginata behind one shoulder, taken aim, and hurled the weapon as hard as he could.
Edge had discovered that while his polearm wasn’t designed to be thrown, it was balanced well enough that it was possible to do so. Thanks to his rapid conditioning, he had enough Control to guide the weapon with sufficient accuracy, and enough Power to launch it with considerable force.
As a result, his naginata caught the little nymph square in the stomach. This fellow wasn’t nearly as tough as its big brother, nor did it have a defensive skill like Barkskin. Thus, the blade of the polearm punched straight through its guts—the tip emerging from its back in a great spray of sap.
With a scream, the diminutive predator lost its grip and fell from the tree—dead before its body hit the soil. After scanning the area to make sure he was alone, Edge walked over to the disabled stage-two nymph. Then he reached out with both arms and called upon his ultimate ability.
When the black chains penetrated the creature’s core, he found himself standing in a dense, dark forest that was populated by white-barked trees he didn’t recognize. The air was filled with roiling mist, and hoots and howls resounded in the distance.
This nymph must have migrated from a different biome instead of evolving here. This isn’t anywhere on the Ivory Plains. Some of the branches had animals impaled on them, which was how nymphs stored meat when they were saving it for later. They liked the flavor of rotten flesh, and their glands secreted a substance that kept scavengers away.
It was spooky and mysterious in here—an otherworldly landscape filled with strange sights and sounds. Since he wasn’t under any pressure right now, he took a few minutes simply to enjoy the view. Besides, he might wind up touring this landscape in person one day, and learning more about it could pay dividends later down the road.
He realized that the interior of this central chamber was bigger than the little nymph’s core. It seemed more substantial too. More like a real place and less like a representation. He eventually decided that it must be a difference between stage-one and two creatures. That just like what had happened with Skill-Eater, their inner worlds evolved alongside their cores.
When he was finished committing the details to memory, Edge turned his attention to the beast’s skills. There were five of them in here, which meant that it was still early stage two. But only two of them were uncommon, and better yet, they were both rank four.
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When he saw that one of the rank-fours was Entangle, he realized that he’d hit the jackpot. Not only had he found a duplicate of one of his primary skills, it was advanced enough that Absorbing it might rank up his own Entangle all by itself, which would be the first time he’d taken one of his skills to rank three.
There was no question that claiming it was his highest priority, so he gave his chains their marching orders—not that the living links needed much encouragement on that front. The sword-vines were strong enough rank to resist the black chains for several minutes, during which an intense melee ensued.
Fortunately, the uncommon skill wasn’t powerful enough to deal any damage in return. The animated plants were eventually subdued by living metal and yanked out of the nymph’s core.
When Entangle landed in Edge’s mouth, he braced himself and began to chew. He had eaten this skill several times before, but it was interesting to try a rank four for comparison. In addition to being harder to break down, the flavor was more intense this time around. Kind of like farm-fresh arugula with a spicy poppy dressing. It was the most delicious salad that he’d ever eaten—rich with notes of alien spices.
This version of Entangle was specialized for offense instead of defense, which subtly changed the aftertaste in a way that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Of course, the main difference was the bladed bits, which sliced into his mouth until he thought to shield it with Harden. The tendrils coiled around his tongue but couldn’t do any damage. They kept on writhing and squeezing until his teeth broke them down.
Regardless of the details, it was a thoroughly satisfying experience, and Edge enjoyed every second of it. When the skill turned to goo, he swallowed, allowing the strange substance to glide down his throat, past his stomach, and slide into his core.
You have extracted the skill: Entangle (Common, Rank 4).
You already have this skill in your collection.
Its experience will be added to your existing skill.
This time, when Edge was drawn inside his central chamber and the vines he had stolen merged with his own, the skill kept on shining. He broke into an ear-to-ear grin when the message he’d been hoping for materialized in front of his face.
The skill (Entangle) has advanced to rank 3.
Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.
Upon reaching rank 3, you may control the volume of mana the skill consumes, adjusting its output at will.
When his vines stopped glowing, he took a closer look at his upgraded power. The rank-three advancement didn’t change Entangle’s appearance, like what had happened after reaching rank two. But that didn’t mean the vines were the same as before. Through the energetic link that connected Edge to the skills slotted into his sockets, he could sense the difference.
In addition to a boost in efficiency, he could now adjust how much mana the spell used at will. He could reduce the flow to create a single vine or increase it to manifest up to ten at once, instead of always defaulting to four.
It would let him lay down an army of tendrils faster than before, without the pauses that came with casting the spell multiple times, or summon them one at a time to constrain something small. He would have to test it out to learn the optimal conditions for each case, but the extra control was sure to come in handy sooner or later.
Having his first skill reaching rank three was a major accomplishment, but it was just an appetizer for what came next. Edge only had one more rank to go before he could alter Entangle’s properties again, in a manner even more significant than his choices for rank two.
When he returned to his body, he looked down at the big nymph—thrilled to discover that it was still alive. Before it could expire from its grievous wounds, he willed his ultimate ability to activate and consumed Extraction’s final charge.
