CHAPTER 3: SELECTION
At first, one might think this is a gift to the enemy, but in the middle of a life-or-death struggle, forcing a brain to race far beyond its natural limit causes total confusion. A mind moving too fast cannot coordinate with a slow body. Like the other mental skills, this required Edard to look his enemy directly in the eye, and the success of the skill depended entirely on whether Edard was stronger or weaker than the person he was facing.
As Edard reviewed these options, he began to grasp the true weight of his situation. He had four major Classifications. From these four, he could currently use three without any special restrictions. Within those three, he was presented with "Minor Skills"—ten in total. The catch was cruel: he could only pick one minor skill from each major category. He had ten options before him, but he was only permitted to choose three in total. The seven he rejected might be lost to him forever, perhaps never to appear again in his entire life.
Edard looked down at the glowing clock embedded in his wrist.
Longevity remaining: 44 minutes and 53 seconds.
He felt a cold shiver that had nothing to do with the snow. This was the most difficult decision he had ever faced. If he chose poorly, he wouldn't just lose a game; he would lose his life. He needed a combination of skills that would allow him to survive this harsh land, defend himself against the unknown, and—most importantly—find a way to increase his longevity before his forty-four minutes vanished into nothingness.
He turned his focus back to the Dragon Breath classification. He had to choose between two powerful paths: Dimensional Annihilation and Open Annihilation.
Dimensional Annihilation was a fascinating power. It wouldn't allow Edard to enter another world himself, but it gave him the power to touch objects and cast them into a hidden world called the "Dragon Dimension." Once inside, the objects would be melted down and turned back into their purest, most basic essence. He could then harness that raw material or use the original components of those objects to launch devastating attacks.
The other option, Open Annihilation, was also a heavy contender. Almost every skill he had required Life Energy—it was like the money he needed to stay alive. If he ran out of Life Energy, he would be defenseless. Open Annihilation was the only skill that allowed him to destroy things in the real world and "suck" the Life Energy out of them to refill his own body.
It was an agonizing choice. But Edard felt a strong pull toward Dimensional Annihilation because of the mysterious "original essence" it promised. He sensed that having the building blocks of matter would be more useful in the long run. Taking a deep breath, he tapped the screen.
<+1 Intelligence per level>
<+1 Willpower per level>
<+1 Free Attribute Point per level>
Suddenly, a wave of understanding flooded his brain as if he had been born with the power. He reached out his hand and focused the Life Energy swirling in his blood. On his palm, a small, swirling ring of blue fire appeared. It was a beautiful, flickering sapphire flame—unlike any fire he had ever seen back in Kano. It condensed until it formed a glowing blue ball. According to the Immortal Dais, if this blue flame touched anything other than Edard's own body, that object would be pulled instantly into the Dragon Dimension to be melted.
Edard pulled his hand back quickly, half-expecting the flame to burn his skin. But to his surprise, he felt no pain, no heat, and no singeing of his flesh. He tried again, focusing his mind, and the blue fire swelled over his palm once more. He instinctively knew that this flame was a gateway.
However, he noticed a vital detail: as soon as he pulled his hand away or stopped focusing, the blue flame vanished instantly. This meant he couldn't throw the fire like a ball; he had to be close enough to actually touch his target. This was a dangerous realization. To use his strongest attack, he would have to get within arm's reach of his enemies, putting himself in range of their weapons. This made the need for defense or speed even more urgent.
This pushed his mind toward the Cloning classification. He had three choices: Healing, Speed, or Protection.
Healing was vital because he knew he would eventually be wounded.
Protection acted like a shield to prevent the hurt from happening.
Speed was his way to escape or close the gap between him and a foe.
Edard thought deeply. "Healing is like medicine, and Protection is like a vaccine," he mused. But he had a much bigger problem. He looked at the mountain ahead. It looked close, but he had been walking for ten minutes and had barely made progress. If he didn't move faster, he might die before he even reached the mountain. If he reached the mountain and found no one there to help him, the next landmark might be an hour's walk away—and he simply didn't have an hour.
"I will die on the road before I ever find a Great Cultivator if I don't hurry," he realized. "What good is a healing skill if I run out of time and die before I can use it?"
He made his choice and pressed the screen.
<+1 Intelligence per level>
<+1 Vitality per level>
<+1 Agility per level>
One could say that at this very moment, there was nothing Edard wanted more than to test this skill and see for himself: had he truly made a noble, worthy choice? Or was this merely a blind gamble in the dark?
With that thought burning in his mind, he reached into the Life Energy stores of his body and spent forty points. Instantly, he summoned that clone, which no human eye can see except his own. He merged his essence with the clone. He thrust his hand forward with all his might.
In that heartbeat, Edard's mouth fell open in pure astonishment; his speed had increased beyond any human measure or imagination. By his quick estimation, just that single forward swing of his hand proved his speed had jumped by one hundred meters every single second. Think about what that means: it means every ten seconds, Edard could cover an entire kilometer.
He had definitely not made a blind choice.
Relieved, he turned his focus to the final major Classification: Psychomancy. He stood before a crossroads of choices: reading the thoughts of cultivators, striking terror into them during battle, slowing down their thinking, speeding up their thinking, or sensing exactly where they were located.
You could say that if Edard had not already received that technique called Spiritual Sense, which allowed him to perceive his surroundings, he would have chosen Mind Sense instantly. Mind Sense would have given him the power to know exactly where his enemies were, even if his eyes could not see them.
As the skill's description explained, every human being, whenever they think, releases a certain kind of Life Energy from their brain. If Edard chose this path, he would be able to feel that energy rising from the minds of men while they thought. But because he already possessed Spiritual Sense, he felt these two skills performed the same duty. To him, picking it felt like picking the same thing twice.
Yet, there was one detail that kept pulling at his attention. The range of Mind Sense was vast—it reached 100m even at the starting line, whereas his Spiritual Sense was limited to only thirty meters.
He paused, remembering a cold reality: he only had one choice left, and whatever he picked would mean the total loss of all other remaining skills. He pushed that worry aside and looked at the next options: Fast Thinking and Slow Thinking.
If he were back in the world he left behind, these would have been wonderful tools to help his school friends think faster and calculate their way through exams. But in this harsh world of Masar, he doubted their use.
As this thought crossed his mind, a small, wicked smile touched the corner of his lips. He imagined that Astronomy professor—the one who had kicked him out of class. What if he could reach back and reduce that man's thinking speed while he was giving a lecture? The man would start speaking slower and slower, his words dragging until he looked like someone who had completely lost his wits.
On Earth, he could have used such power to terrify anyone who stood before him, or even to increase his own reading speed and mastery. But right now, his heart told him that wasn't what he needed. He was talking about survival.
His Dimensional Annihilation—the skill that produced that sapphire-blue flame—gave him a way to fight. But Intimidation would give him a way to handle enemies who got too close. What if an enemy was far away? What if they were flying in the sky or were too fast to let him near? In those moments, he would have nothing but to hide in the darkness. He needed a way to strike even when a man was far off.
The power of Intimidation was undeniable. Imagine being in the middle of a fight and Edard uses this skill to paralyze you with terror for one second. In a battle, even a second is enough to send a man to the afterlife.
But the thing that made him hesitate was Mind Read. This skill had called to him from the moment he saw it.
Imagine being taken to a world you knew nothing about. The first great problem would be who to trust. How would you gain knowledge about the world and the town you found yourself in? Would you just jump out and ask every person you see, "Where am I? What country is this? What language do you speak?"
Doing that would make people look at you as if you were mad. They would realize you are a stranger, a target to be dealt with. He knew Earth had countless countries and continents like Africa. How many continents were here in Masar?
Edard stood there, weighing these questions in his soul. If he could read minds, he could find every answer without anyone ever knowing he was an outsider.