Skill Acquisition Confirmed

Shifting his bait and setting down the rope in a more convenient spot he got ready for action. The previous day he had finished carving all twenty-five body slots for the horned orcs, so now he could focus entirely on hunting as and when he wanted.

It hadn’t been too long since the last one died, so he wasn’t sure if another was nearby. Still, he dropped the bait and waited. Like clockwork, within one to two minutes, another horned orc entered, its behavior remained as stale as always.

A flicked stone drew the creature’s attention to the chunk of flesh placed behind the large gate doors, a bit out and to the left of his current position. Once it stepped behind the wooden gate, he released an arrow imbued with the maximum amount of spirit he could muster, with a slight tinge of blue magic.

He aimed roughly at the heart—an easy target given the organ’s size. At nearly twice that of a human’s, located directly in the middle of its chest he was feeling confident after his many days of practice. Additionally, many of its other vital organs were also clustered close by, so regardless he should deal substantial damage.

The shot punched through the back of the orc, gouging out a deep, pointed cavity through to the other side. It staggered, let out a guttural growl, then collapsed, slowly fading. Joseph didn’t relax, however. Another arrow was already drawn in case that sound brought company.

And it did.

Two more orcs rushed in only a few short minutes later. While his pulse spiked, he kept a cool head, waiting. The pair separated slightly, one trailing behind as they searched the room looking for the source of the call.

The moment he had a chance he fired hastily at the closest orc that had just gone out of sight of the other behind the wooden gate. By sheer luck, the arrow pierced its throat and severed the spine, dropping it instantly.

Before the second could have time to notice, he quickly charged the next arrow using a much higher amount of magic, compared to spirit to release the arrow near instantly. He watched as the arrow tore through the orc’s torso at an angle, obliterating vital organs, muscle and tissue with a spiraling cone-like effect.

Level: 10 > 11

He didn’t even try to suppress his grin as he looked at the three fallen orcs. Unfortunately, the admiration of his work lasted only a few heartbeats before he got to work, looping rope nooses around their necks and hauling them up. Eventually all the bodies were stored and arrows retrieved, marking three more tallies added to the wall.

Twelve kills out of the original twenty-five.

Still running on adrenaline and confidence, he threw down more bait. Ten slow minutes passed with no movement, the flood of hormones leaving as his more calm, slower mind returned. Sighing, he pulled up his status, allocating every point into Spirit, but he quickly noticed something off, compared to before.

Available Stat Points: 0 > 5

Staring momentarily, he nodded, his previous hypothesis proven correct as his 10 free choice stat points had been reduced in direct correlation with gaining a class. As slightly disappointing it was, he didn’t regret picking a class in the slightest as it still totaled more points… though a nagging thought still lingered, ‘What if…’

Name: Joseph

Class: Spirit Ranger [E+] (+3 Spirit, +2 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +1 Magic)

Title: Survivor of the Unsurvivable

Level: 10 > 11

Vitality: 5
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 30 > 32
Agility: 15 > 17
Magic: 25 > 26
Spirit: 10 > 18

Available Stat Points: 0

Active Skills: Channel Spirits (E), Spirit Sight (E), Magic-Spirit Communion (E)

Passive Skills: Survivor (E), Spirits Affection (E), Exploit Weak Point (F)

With his new status points gained per level, plus the extra 5 free stat points his grin quickly overtook his frown. Especially as he noticed some new, highlighted text at the bottom. 'I gained a new skill? But nothing popped up… maybe self-learned skills don’t trigger notifications?

Then again, I’ve not had any notifications actually, each time I level up I only realize after checking manually… that’s a little annoying.'

Curious, he checked the effect with a thought, a separate box like usual appearing alongside his main status page.

Exploit Weak Point (F) – Highlights structural or physiological weaknesses, causing minuscule additional damage when struck.

'Useful enough, that should get better over time. Must’ve come from aiming at weak spots with my bow. But if I can gain skills by myself, why didn’t I earn any before?’

Going into a full brainstorm session, he became fully distracted from anything happening around him.

‘Maybe it’s because I was classless. That would make sense—too easy otherwise. Classless might’ve been balanced with raw stat gain but no skills, forcing a choice eventually. Otherwise, it’d be just too powerful, at least at the start.

In most media, tank-like characters with a focus on defense or the physical, can’t just decide to cast fireballs without dozens of hoops to jump through. Stats and classes usually gate what you can do or at least make it much harder to branch out.'

He tapped his chin, frowning.

'So classless gives the bonus stats per level but blocks skill acquisition. At higher levels, that’s probably a strong trade-off. But in the long run? No skills mean stagnation...’ He let out an audible sigh of relief as his thought conversation continued.

‘I’m glad I didn’t stay classless. Even if my choice was mostly about stats at the time, this confirms it was the best choice.'

Annoyance edged his voice as he muttered aloud.

"Still, this changes everything."

His thoughts ran quickly.

'If I can gain skills through actions, I need to exploit that. Combat probably accelerates the process, so that’s priority. I should list the skills I want most:

A tracking or guided arrow skill. Maybe I can train it by forcing arrows to bend mid-flight. Concealment. Presence reduction, invisibility, camouflage—anything to mask me when I leave this chamber. A mobile, glass cannon with camouflage sounds quite useful. Movement skills. If I’m going to take risks, I’ll need agility to outmaneuver my opponents, or run away if needed.

Magic too—fire for light and survival, earth for stealth and utility, water for barriers… maybe, healing would be nice as well. A layered water barrier could evenly disperse impact like ripples on a pond. Combine it with electricity, and it becomes both shield and weapon. That’s worth testing.'

He scratched his notes into the wall with charcoal, planning his training schedule.

Breaking from his routine, he practiced arrow manipulation first. He minimized mana and spirit usage, firing arrow after arrow while focusing on control rather than power. His goal was to curve a shot after all, the faster it went the harder it was.

Hours stretched into a day, then half of another. Sweat slicked his skin, arms aching, but finally an arrow successfully bent around the corner and thudded into an orc corpse.

No new skill.

Grinding his teeth, he was resolved to refine the technique until it was combat-ready.

When his mana had replenished, he lured another orc and drew it behind the wooden gate. A pebble made the beast face his way. This time, Joseph angled his shot mostly downward, aiming essentially at the floor beneath the orc.

He added only a thread of mana, relying mostly on spirit. Too much mana made the arrow unstable, but spirit boosted speed and power without disrupting much control. Firing, the arrow shot out and quickly started to curve mid-flight, striking the faint red dot on its throat.

The arrow drove cleanly into the orc’s throat, making it stumble back with a gurgled cry. Its hands clawed weakly at the wound before its legs buckled, slowly losing strength as it eventually remained motionless on the floor.

Quickly hoisting the body and scanning the room for reinforcements, Joseph pulled up his skill list. No change. His smile faltered.