The pages of the uncommon myriad skills tome fluttered faster and faster. Ronan's heart beat a hundred times a minute as he watched, eager to know what his first uncommon skill would be.

As the tome flipped to the central page, glowing green text appeared. A moment later, the leather-bound book burst in a shower of green light, and a system message flashed into view.

[Myriad Skills Tome (Uncommon)] has been consumed!

You have received the skill [Critical Tempo (Uncommon)]!

Critical Tempo (Uncommon): The fifth consecutive strike you land on a single target will always be a critical hit.

At first Ronan felt a little short-changed by the skill. It wasn't as impressive as the traits had been, and after receiving five of them in a row, minus the one he was forced to sacrifice, this skill was lacking.

However, the more he thought about it, the more he realised it was basically just a pure damage buff. He would need to ensure he didn't miss attacks, and potentially not get hit back in the middle of a combo—depending on how the skill worked—but every fifth attack would deal more damage. Averaged out, it was just a damage increase over time.

And then he had a sudden realisation which raised the uncommon skill's value another notch in his mind. His preexisting skill, critical experience.

He pulled up the description of both skills and put them side by side. Then he laughed and raised a middle finger to the sky. "Fuck you system. I'm going to abuse the shit out of everything I can rip from your grasp."

Critical Tempo (Uncommon): The fifth consecutive strike you land on a single target will always be a critical hit.

Critical Experience (Common): Gain 1.5x more experience when you kill an enemy with a critical hit.

Not only had he gained a damage buff, but he'd gained a guaranteed way to proc critical experience. He already leveled at an insane rate compared to most, but he was about to kick things into overdrive.

The hard difficulty tutorial doesn't know what's about to hit it. Ronan almost wished for the timer to run down faster, so that he could test out his new combo.

1:03…

Although there was one more thing he wanted to test while he still had the time. With that thought, Ronan pulled the chipped sword he'd received as a drop from the goblin warrior out of his inventory.

It was a level 5 item, meaning he could just about use it, but with a penalty to handling, and probably the damage it dealt, too. That wasn't a problem—he wasn't going to use it for its intended purpose.

The very first rare trait he'd received from the thesaurus was mineral skeleton. Now, he wasn't sure how exactly it worked, but the description was fairly straightforward.

Mineral Skeleton (Rare): You are no longer content with an ordinary skeleton of collagen and calcium phosphate, but seek to enhance your natural frame. You can absorb foreign minerals into your skeleton, changing its properties in new and unique ways. Be warned, for not everything you absorb will do what you expect, and not all mutations are beneficial.

So then, how do I go about absorbing a foreign material into my skeleton? Do I need to… cut my way in? Ronan wondered, slightly put off by the thought. Let's start with the obvious options, and work our way up to self-mutilation.

He picked up the sword with his right hand, then had a sudden thought and swapped the blade to his left hand, before pressing it against his forearm. With the cold metal against his skin, he willed the trait to activate.

Nothing happened.

Ronan cursed, and prepared to move on to his next idea, when suddenly a notification appeared. It seemed he'd been too hasty.

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Material analysis complete!

Foreign material identified as [Medium-Carbon Steel]!

[Medium-Carbon Steel]

A common, average quality alloy made by mixing iron and carbon, using ratios in the range of 99.4/0.6 to 99.7/0.3 percent. This alloy is fairly durable, sacrificing a little flexibility in exchange for stability.

Absorbing all of the [Medium-Carbon Steel] present in [Chipped Sword Lv.5 (Common)] will cause the following changes:

+4 Strength

+1 Endurance

-1 Agility

-1 Dexterity

Absorbing all of the [Medium-Carbon Steel] present in [Chipped Sword Lv.5 (Common)] will destroy the item…

Absorb [Medium-Carbon Steel] from [Chipped Sword Lv.5 (Common)] using [Mineral Skeleton]?

Ronan had a lot of questions, and only a portion of the answers. The trait was actually a lot better at explaining itself than the system was at explaining… Well, just about everything. However, there was one burning question on his mind.

Are those stat changes going to persist through iterations, or will they be reset each time?

It was an interesting question. The answer seemed obvious at first. His stats, class, and plenty of other things were reset when he died. To him, it almost felt as though his body was being reset, while his soul and consciousness were maintained.

It was a rudimentary explanation for a phenomenon he still barely understood, but it sort of made sense. If that was how his heritage worked, then any changes that took place due to mineral skeleton would not persist through iterations. Unfortunately, there was a huge wrench in the gears of that logic.

His traits, mineral skeleton included, remained even after he died. Mineral skeleton affected his body, which was potentially being reset after each death, but, and this was a very big but, the trait persisting made it quite likely that any changes it caused would persist along with it.

That was both an incredibly appealing thought, and a terrifying one. Appealing in the sense that he would be able to increase—or decrease—his base stats upon beginning an iteration. Terrifying in the sense that any changes he made to his skeleton would be permanent—even the awful ones.

The trait hadn't mentioned any long-term side effects that could arise from absorbing the steel in the sword, but how could he know that there were none whatsoever? What if he absorbed too many materials and broke his skeleton? What if he absorbed two materials that conflicted, and destroyed him from within each time he began a new iteration, trapping him in some sort of endless hell of agonising death?

It was a truly awful thought. However, Ronan hadn't made it this far by being scared of what-ifs.

No, he was determined to do whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, and protect his planet, and his fellow humans. If that meant risking his life to do so, he wouldn't falter for even a single second.

Absorbing [Medium-Carbon Steel] from [Chipped Sword Lv.5 (Common)]...

Ronan watched with fascinated horror as the sword began to melt into a cold, silvery liquid, which then seeped into his pores and through his flesh. He felt an icy tingle as the liquid steel entered his bones, which then spread throughout his entire body.

I guess changing hands was pointless. Better safe than sorry, in any case, he thought to himself. His idea had been to make sure it was his dominant hand being empowered in the case that the trait worked on a localised basis in regards to where on his body the material was absorbed from.

The sensation filled his entire skeleton, leaving Ronan feeling as though his bones had been dipped into an ice bath while the rest of his body remained outside. It lasted for about eight seconds, before fading away.

[Medium-Carbon Steel] from [Chipped Sword Lv.5 (Common)] has been absorbed at a 100% efficiency rate!

+4 Strength

+1 Endurance

-1 Agility

-1 Dexterity

The first thing Ronan did after the trait had finished absorbing the steel was perform a few stretches. Other than feeling a tad heavier, and not being able to reach all the way to his toes anymore, there was little difference. There wasn't an effective way to test his increased strength in the open clearing, but it wasn't as if he didn't know what extra strength did…

Then, he opened his status. He couldn't be fully certain, but he felt that the way the stats were displayed would give him a clue as to whether they would remain after his death or not.

Stats from items were displayed as a bonus, because they weren't really his. That meant if the stats from mineral skeleton went in the bonus brackets, then it was fairly likely they would reset upon his death. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that if they went into his base stats that they would persist—stat fruits increased his stats directly, but those bonuses didn't last through iterations.

In any case, it would be a clue, one that he would do his best not to obsess over. He would get the truth when he next died, anyway. Based on how fast the tutorial seemed to be increasing the difficulty of his foes, that moment would probably come sooner than he expected.

He wasn't really sure which of the two options he was hoping for, but both would have differing, and equally useful ways in which he could abuse the trait. With bated breath, he pulled up the status, and ran his gaze down the text until he reached the stats section.

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