The Skill in question was one I had heard of time and time again, mainly due to the fact that the self-proclaimed highest pro-ranker was famous for being the one who purchased it.
The thing about these high-quality Circulation Skills was each one had a limit on how many could be purchased from the Arkadia Shop, and without hesitation, when I saw the name crop up on the list, I moved on instinct, buying it.
[Thank you for your Purchase; your Item has been deposited into your Inventory.]
With my act of purchasing said Circulation Skill, it was forever removed from the Shop, and knowing what I had done would affect the future, I swiftly changed my display to that of the event quest.
{Descent of Arkadia: 10,011 Years.} *-2 Years*
{Current Influence: 33 Years} *+2 Years*
’Damn, only set him back by 2 Years; unfortunately, meh, at least I’ve stayed in 7th place…for now.’
***
Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.
Thousands of miles away, in Mosfellsbær, Iceland, a teenage boy with blond hair and blue eyes could be seen throwing a tantrum of epic proportions.
CRASH, BOOM, CRASH
"WHO DID IT? WHO F**KING BOUGHT MY SKILL! RAHHH!"
The young man, who appeared to be in prime athletic shape, rippling with tensile muscle, stood at six foot one inch and was sporting a basic set of combat gear from the Arkadia Shop, a leather vest made of monster hide, a pair of golden hide vambraces adorning both forearms, with a matching pair of boots, and slacks, rounded off the outfit.
On his left hip hung a sharp yet aged hatchet, and on his right was a fierce-looking shortsword.
With high Nordic cheekbones, broad shoulders, and certain other physical traits setting him apart from his peers, this young man was the physical embodiment of what one would assume the Vikings from history looked like.
To some extent, they would be pretty spot-on because he was no human; no, he was from one of the few Myriad Races who had integrated into humanity thanks to their extremely similar appearances.
"Arnar, if you do not stop destroying the furniture, so help me, Odin, I will rain hel’s fire down on you for the next fortnight." Halting the young man in his tracks, a voice akin to a bell chiming rang out from the other room, making Arner freeze in place with evident fear plastered across his face.
The young man, named Arnar Kvasirson, was better known as the former self-proclaimed most powerful Pro-Ranker of the future, and right now, his fury knew no bounds.
The special Skill he had spent years cultivating had vanished from his Arkadia Shop, rendering him stunned at first before the unbridled rage took over.
"I apologize, Mother; I saw a rodent and was trying to kill it…" As far as flimsy excuses go, Arner knew it wouldn’t suffice, but since he had been rather erratic for the last few years, his mother, Gersemi, waved it off as happenstance and went about her day, leaving the young man alone to stew in his anger.
"I will find whoever did this if it’s to become my life’s work, so be it; I will not rest until I taste your blood and see you squirming under my boot!" Arner growled through clenched teeth as he began searching for a way to mitigate the losses of the Particle Circulation Skill that would have become the foundation of his strength in the future.
Unfortunately for him, if Arner had been even a tad bit more intelligent, he would have suspected the 7th place ranker on the Timeline Ranking Board since the uptick of two years happened at approximately the same time as the Skill vanishing from the Shop.
As Vain and Narcissistic as Arner was, it shouldn’t be surprising that he constantly checked both the Timeline Ranking Board and the Arkadia Shop, so he should have noticed the changes in Nexus’s counter but didn’t, a mistake that would no doubt affect him for years to come.
***
**Back to MC**
’Heh, I’m sure that bastard is pitching a fit right now; it serves him right for all the trouble he caused me back then,’ wearing an antagonistic smile befitting of my role as the Highest Rank Villain of the future, my eyes flicked to a certain name on the Ranking Board.
While many didn’t know the Top Ranker’s true identity and only knew him by the Hero Alias Devastator, I was different.
When I first spotted his name, a deep sense of annoyance filled my chest, as the guy was as disgusting as they come, which is frankly surprising coming from me.
There wasn’t much I couldn’t tolerate, from annoying attitudes to straight-up vile actions; however, something about Arner Kvasirson, Devastator, annoyed me on a fundamental level.
I’m not really sure if it was his young master-style attitude or the cocky way he spoke, but he annoyed me more than walking through a swamp filled with gnats in the dead of summer. *Pretty damn annoying!*
To make matters worse, he was one of the few cocky bastards who had made it his mission to "Bring me to Justice," even going so far as to call me "HIS, Villain," so even though he had a losing streak to me of 0 wins eight losses, he continuously chirped about beating me, and all that BS propaganda known to come from the mouths of Heroes.
The only time I ever got him to shut up was when I used my Talent to learn his true identity hehe; you guys should have seen the look on his face back then; it looked like his soul left his body in the middle of a battle with diarrhea.
’Still, only two years from taking that Skill is a bit bothersome, which means that all I’ve done is set him back a few steps. Sigh, I don’t doubt that idiot will eventually find a way to circumvent the loss of his Skill, so I can’t let this small victory get to my head.’ Letting that thought bounce around my mind for a second, I reached up to my display panel, opened my Inventory, and withdrew the extremely expensive golden book.
Unlike my Psy-Tag technique book, this one was embossed in gold and, frankly, looked extremely valuable.
Running my fingers over the raised letters, I felt giddy as I read its name, knowing that my strength was about to SOAR!
’Hidden Vestiges of Physicality’