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The light faded. He looked down. A perfectly clear green skill orb sat in his palm. It weighed a little more than it had before, too, as if it held the gravity of all the orbs it had absorbed.

He hesitated another moment, then laughed. No reason not to. After all my hard work, I might as well go for it. Ike gripped it tight. "Absorb!"

Green light shone again. Beams shot out from between his fingers. Warmth poured into his arm, coursing into his core.

The skill orb vanished. Ike pulled up his skill menu. Giddiness roiled in his stomach. He grinned wide, excited. What did I get?

[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Abyss Dweller]]

Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | … | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 5

Common: All-Around Runner Lvl 6 | Razor Handling Lvl 9 | Spear Handling Lvl 4 | Axe Handling Lvl 4 | Sword Handling Lvl 6 | Bow Handling Lvl 1 | Primitive Crafting Lvl 7

Bronze: Sensory Enhancement Lvl 5 | Mana Manipulation Lvl 3

Silver: Flurry of Kicks Lvl 1

Rare: Salamander Healing Lvl 9 | River-Splitting Sword Lvl 4

Unique: Lightning Dash Lvl 8 | Lightning Grasp Lvl 5 | Lightning Clad (Forearm) Lvl 4 | Lightning Clad (Calf) Lvl 3 | Lightning Caller Lvl 1

His brows furrowed. Flurry of Kicks? It made sense that it was a leg-based skill, but kicks? Only the rooster had really used kicks. The hens had preferred to peck. He frowned, then shrugged. I didn\'t have a kick skill yet, so I\'ll take it.

Who knows? Maybe that was why it was so imperfect in the hens. It was more perfect in the rooster than in any of the hens—he could say that for certain. I\'ll keep an eye on it. See if it\'s the same, if I ever find another imperfect skill.

Looking back at the rooster, Ike lifted his sword. "That can\'t be the only skill it has. This thing was huge. It\'s got to have a real skill, not just an imperfect skill."

Loup looked at him, then wagged her tail and scooted in, eager for the first bite of rooster meat.

"It\'ll probably be gamier than the hens, girl," Ike warned her, then paused and rolled his eyes at himself. She\'s a wild wolf. I\'m sure she doesn\'t mind.

It took him a while to saw into the rooster. Even in death, the dense muscle and thick bone resisted his blade. Loup helped, darting in to tear off a bit of meat for herself from time to time. In the ruins of the battleground, Ike slowly dismantled the rooster.

--

A wall of bone stretched before him, nigh impenetrable. His blows only scratched its surface. Ike narrowed his eyes, then darted toward it.

"Raaaaagh!" With a battle cry, Ike finally broke through the bird\'s sternum. The ribcage fell open, revealing the chicken\'s organs. Loup instantly darted in, stealing some unidentifiable part of it and darting away. Ike stood back, wiping his brow. Bonebreaking is hard work. No wonder the bone breakers back at my uncle\'s plant were always so buff.

He grabbed the upper half of the ribcage with his hands and shoved it up and over. It fell on the other side of the chicken. He gazed at the organs, searching for skill orbs.

Light emitted from under the chicken\'s heart. Ike\'s eyes widened. He shoved the heart aside, excited. There it is!

The heart flopped out of the way, revealing a melon-sized ball of light. Thousands of sparks swirled slowly in the orb\'s depths, forming a ring around a dark center. A transparent shell surrounded the ball. Ike pulled it out. It resisted his pull, then popped out all at once. The shell was hard and slick with blood. The orb warmed his hands, not just warm from the body, but emitting its own heat.

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Ike frowned. He turned the orb around in his hands, confused. This isn\'t a skill orb. What the hell is it?

Curious, he sent a pulse of mana into the orb. Instantly, the sparks responded, flying to his mana. They swirled around it, shaping his mana into a spark, then drew the pulse of mana into the same orbit they followed.

Ike\'s eyes widened. Hold on. No way. Is this the chicken\'s core?

He touched his own core, then looked at the transparent orb in his hands. Mana circulated in it. It flowed in some predefined pattern that the mana itself sustained without guidance. By all accounts, it looked like a core.

He grinned. Bet I can absorb this mana. He put both hands on the core and drew from it. The sparks darted to his hands, and heat flowed into his body. Ike guided it into his own core. There, he reshaped it, circulating it according to his own pattern. His core filled almost immediately. The chicken\'s mana was denser than his, each spark equivalent to great clumps of Ike\'s mana. Letting out a breath, Ike released the orb.

His hands wouldn\'t let go. Mana kept flowing into him.

Startled, Ike shook his hands. The orb stuck persistently. It refused to release his hands. More and more mana flowed into his core, overfilling it. Ike struggled to circulate his mana. Excess mana spilled out of his core, flowing into his passages. It burned fiercely. His mana passages shredded away as the back flow clashed with the forward flow. His healing skill activated, siphoning some of the mana, but it wasn\'t fast enough.

Ike spun around and smashed the core on a nearby tree, trying to knock it off his hands, destroy it, anything. The core looked as delicate as a blown glass ball, but it smashed the bark off the tree rather than shattering itself. The shockwave of the strike flew back up his hands and arms. He couldn\'t release it. He couldn\'t knock it free.

Ike gritted his teeth. I need to get rid of this excess mana, but how?

The Clad skills! Ike activated both his Lightning Clad skills. They siphoned the mana away. The pain faded, and Ike sighed in relief. Thank goodness. I—

Before he could finish the thought, the mana surged from the core faster than ever before. Once more, it began overflowing his core. His stomach burned in pain, and his body tensed.

Ike grimaced. I need more! More Clad skills.

Forcing himself to think through the pain, he drew the formula for the Lightning Clad (Calf) skill back into his mind. He drew it out, thickening the shape of the spell and lengthening it so it covered his thigh. The skill wavered in his mind, the formula not quite right, but he had no time to fix it. He forcibly activated the skill.

Lightning darted up his thigh. It trembled, unstable. Rather than let the skill collapse and start over, Ike poured more mana into the skill. One of the lines of the skill snapped. Ike grimaced, but pushed on. It doesn\'t matter. I\'m going to force this to activate anyways.

Another line snapped. Another. The skill trembled, on the verge of total collapse. It stopped siphoning enough mana, and his core began to burn again.

No! Ike forced more mana into it. The ruins of the skill barely held up. All at once, they crumpled.

The mana flowed backward. It clashed in his passages and tore them apart. His whole body shook. Ike staggered and spat up blood. Everything hurt. His vision blurred. He barely kept his feet, his legs shaking like a young deer\'s.

If I pass out now, I die.

Ike shook his head, fighting his way back to clarity. He drew the skill into his mind again, the shape of it, the lines. Everywhere the mana had snapped a line, he thickened the line and added supporting flows in and out of the critical point. With no time to waste, he drew out the skill on his thigh again.

Once more, mana flowed away from his core, providing instant relief. This time, the framework held. A small line at the bottom of the skill snapped; he widened it. A supporting flow halfway up the skill faded; he cut it, and changed the supporting flow to touch lower on the cross line. Mana scoured the skill\'s shape, but this time, the skill held firm. In the few places it broke, Ike quickly fixed it. Lightning crackled around his leg. The skill took form. Even without looking at his skill list, Ike already knew he\'d see Lightning Clad (Thigh) the next time he checked.

But more mana poured out of his core. Still too much for his body to bear, even with his clad skills active. Ike turned his attention to his biceps. Using the strengthened version of the skill\'s framework, he drew the skill up from his elbow to his shoulder. Compared to his thigh, his bicep took the skill easily. Mana flowed from the core to the new skill, alleviating his pain, but not eliminating it.

Ike bit his lip. What else? He activated Lightning Dash and Lightning Grasp. Lightning danced around all his limbs, only his chest and head dark. Still his mana overflowed.

He activated Flurry of Kicks, Sensory Enhancement, River-Splitting Sword, and Salamander Healing, using all his skills at once. He sprinted circles around the battlefield, leaping logs and downed trees with mighty kicks, slashing the rooster\'s core at invisible enemies. One last skill remained unused, but he eyed it warily, unwilling to activate it. Lightning Caller.

I\'m not even sure I can activate it without achieving its prerequisite stormy weather…and even if I could, I don\'t want to get struck by lightning. That\'s adding more problems to the problems I already have, not solving them!

Loup ran circles around him, yipping in excitement and wagging her tail. She jumped wiggled her body, as if trying to imitate the strange gestures Ike made. Every now and again, she let him run away from her just to chase after him, all her fur blowing back and her tongue hanging out in excitement.

"I\'m glad someone\'s enjoying this," Ike muttered.