Chapter 27: A skill book (2)
Chapter 27: A skill book (2)
Since the participants of the yearly exam had received more than just an hour of respite, most focused on recuperating and planning for the third exam that had already been revealed to them.
[Third Exam — Navigation!]
Which left more questions than answers.
It could mean simple navigation throughout an unfamiliar land… or a more daunting task, such as traversing an unknown with troublesome baggage known as weak humans.
A lot of participants believed the latter to be the case, as in disastrous monster hunts, many hunters were often tasked with keeping as many lives as possible safe. Not everyone was the strongest or most suitable to fight all kinds of monsters, after all.
Hunter and Aimee were different from them.
The golden-haired woman had received her items from her room, filling Hunter's abode with her high-quality tea as she was brewing her favorite drink. On the other hand, Hunter was perched on the bed, holding a skill book with contorted expression.
He was reading the skill book he had received from a kind sponsor, Sanna, from the White Feather Guild. It was the second item he received from this guild!
The first belonged to the guild leader… then a beautiful soul blessed him and his teammate with another! If it weren't for Hunter's infatuation with the boss and her party bringing him here, he would have thought of going to this very guild.
But since it was naturally not his plan, he at least would do his best to become on good terms with them.
Anyway, learning a skill from a book wasn't as easy as Hunter imagined it to be.
In fact, all problems stemmed from the fact that he didn't have mana. Before, Hunter believed that rewriting a skill book would be enough to fix the issue… but it wasn't the case.
It's not like he can just change the source from mana to blood.
'Skills books… have that kind of convenient mechanic within them that allows people to learn a skill from comprehension… Aimee spent ten minutes on this book and learned nearly a perfect version of this skill, with her understanding enabling her to hide mine and even that black bear's corpse's smell. How do I even begin rewriting that?'
If Hunter used a common pen… that would break the entire book, wouldn't it? If he rewrote it in his mind by changing the mana source to the blood, would anything happen?
A few minutes later, Hunter confirmed that nothing happens when he does it like that.
"Are you a slow reader… or can't understand this book?" Aimee asked aloud with a kind of superior aura, basking her curves in royal aura.
It wasn't just the tea that made her appear like that…
She was making fun of Hunter's reading comprehension!
Hunter shook his head, "I read it a few times… the problem is something you can't fix… no, wait. Have you ever written a skill book or know how these are made? What is the mechanic behind them?"
Choking on her tea, Aimee covered her face with her hand and first fixed herself before replying to Hunter's sudden and odd question.
"Why do you even bother yourself with those questions? It can't be this profound knowledge stopping you from learning a skill, can it?" Aimee asked without a hint of her usual passive aggressiveness… then continued, as Hunter didn't show any reaction to her words, "Skills books are the most lucrative field of every magician associations. These guys developed them, then helped the entire world learn new skills. Sorry to break your bubble, but they will never share the secret of writing those skill books."
Hearing those words, Hunter awkwardly smiled, "I see."
It was too arrogant of him to even think of rewriting the skill book! No, it was so presumptuous that Hunter couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Things weren't so simple in this perilous world, were they? Hunter told himself off from thinking like that, then put the book away, clearly aware that he couldn't learn it during this exam.
Perhaps, he would never be able to rely on those skill books. For now, his only hope to get more skills was only through experiences and the inheritance hidden within his innate skill.
Aimee added a few comforting words, "Hunter First Union has a few magicians living here. Their main job is to convert people's innate skills and experiences into skill books, so if you are lucky, one of them might take you in as her apprentice."
"Sounds like a great idea! Another thing to do after this exam!" Hunter closed the book with a loud thud and put it in his backpack.
"What are the other things?" Aimee curiously asked while sipping on her tea.
"Of course, I want to learn more about origins and become faster. Everyone's so fast here!"
"I see."
No one talked about their main ambitions… or even innate skills.
Aimee and Hunter were still hiding a lot from each other.
But as Hunter understood more of the world and how it worked, he wasn't surprised by that.
Only the dumb person would reveal all of their cards in just one day.
People like those women that wanted to sell themselves to Hunter to keep their lives intact.
Those women without opportunities and prospects were so boring that Hunter already forgot about them.
Instead, he was more interested in Aimee and what it'd take for her to share more of herself with him.
-
[Third Exam — Navigation!]
[Starts now!]
Hunter and Aimee were teleported off their room… each appearing far away from each other.
[Your objective is to traverse through the woodland without notifying monsters of your presence to the safe zone located in the middle of the forest. If you get noticed, you have five minutes to hunt down the monster.]
Two ribbon pearl orbs coalesced in front of Hunter, falling gently onto his hands.
The ribbons untied and dispersed, leaving behind a map and compass, which were means to get Hunter to the safe zone!
'I have tons of experience with maps from my sidekick's occupation in the village. I was always tasked with keeping an eye on the surroundings and trapping the hunting zones. This shouldn't be a problematic exam for me!'
A lone voyage began, then.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel