《Extraordinary Skills and How to Raise Their Level》 Chapter 1 It was the first night of summer holiday with a waning hump-backed moon hanging high overhead. The drowsy stillness possessed the pompous dormitory made of red brick, but a first-year student with frizzly unkempt blackhair, Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi, was still lingering in room 119. He sat quietly in front of his desk, wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt and a red checkered shortas he reviewed the mistakes he had made during the mid-term exam when he suddenly received a notification. "Ah..." Muttered Tsukasa when he saw his mother had called him. Hesitantly,he slid his finger across his phone screen and answered her call. "I heard you only placed 8th on your midterm exam," She said coldly before she stopped speaking for a second, in the background Tsukasa could faintly hear her sigh, "Do you know how much your tuition fee cost?" "...Yes,"Said Tsukasa with a stricken face, "I''ll do my best on the next ex-" Out of nowhere,the chair and his foot had ceased tosupport hisbody. Thescenery of a dull ivory coloured room had swirled and blended like a poorly shot action photograph.A small gasp left his lips when the expected thump of the floor didn''tcome, instead,he continued to fall as the darknessslowly engulfed him.He flailed his arms in the attempt to reach a small bright circle, but to no avail and he quickly fell unconscious. **** When Tsukasa''s eyes snapped open, it was to the frigid and salty blue freaking coloured water.His head was bobbing up and down under the bright blue sky as the strong waves of the sea had had him in their clutches and slowly pulled him to the abyss, trapping him, keeping him from the oxygen he needed when severalwords floating in front of him.
Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi Level 0 Feat Point: 3
Disena: 0
Health(Health regen per hour) 580(100)
Magicka(Magicka regen per hour) 380(100)
Stamina(Stamina regen per minute) 620(17)
Strength 4
Endurance 5
Dexterity 2
Agility 3
Magic 1
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 6
Presence 4
<<< Status >>>
Which Tsukasa quickly ignored as he wasmoving his limbs like some stupid string puppet. There were no coordinated movements, just scratching through the thin liquid that threatened to invade his lungs. With great effort, Tsukasa finally burst to the surface, but a few seconds later another wave struck him, pushing him down. Surprised, from his lips came an explosion of air bubbles. Desperate for sweet oxygen, once again, he tried with a superhuman effortto swim back up to the surface, but with no avail as another wave rolled his body when his head came out. Every time he drowned, he would immediately claw his way back to the surface and drowned again.He did the same thing repeatedly until his limbs had slowed down and he sunk faster. Coldwaterthrust up his nostrils, saltwater cascaded into the back of his throat,hislungs felt as though they''d been set on fire. Slowly,the commotion and chaotic sounds of the sea drowned out to a low hum, gradually muting into silence. Tsukasa had given up on the thrashing, letting thewater to slowly dragged his body. For a fleeting second, he thoughthe would see his life flashingbut he did not. The only thing that he saw was the darkness, slowly seeping in at the edge of his vision as he waited in resignedness for the numbing hands of death to suck away every lastpiece of life left in him, with another sentencefloating in front of hisblurred vision.
Do you want to learn Swim Level 1? (Feat Points left: 3)
Yes No
Without pausing to think what the floating letter was about, Tsukasa did the only thing that made sense - he used the last of his energy and forced his finger to move and pressed yes.
You have learned Swim Level 1!
You will not forget how to swim by any mean.
You''ve become trained in swimming.
Your swimming speed has increased by [Str x Skill level x 0,5] kilometre per hour.
You can hold your breath for [Endurance x Skill level x 5] seconds longer.
You have 30 metres natural water pressure resistance
Your Health hasincreased by 50
Your Stamina hasincreased by 100
Your Stamina regeneration hasincreased by 3
Your Strength hasincreased by 1
Your Endurance has increased by 1
One second ago, Tsukasa was sure he couldn''t move a single muscle to continue swimming, but now, a sudden burst of energy surged within his body, almost as if he had just drunk two cans of energy drink and a cup of coffee while sitting under thetree shade for 10 minutes.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Though, his need for oxygen hadn''t changed at all.With the feeling of an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose, Tsukasa used the very little stamina that he had left torise rapidly towardthe surface. He stretched out his hands in front of him and began scratching on the water in wonder. His feet moved as if he was wearing flippers,and the saltwater no longer seemed tohurthis eyes. Then, as soon as his head broke the sea surface,Tsukasa expelled a great spout of waterfrom his mouth and nose,replacing themwith more airas though he had never breathed properly before.Not to mention this time, hecould drift on the surface by putting only a little bit of effort. Now what?Tsukasa thought desperately.He jerked his head around to search for something andquickly noticed agreen island, not so farin the distance. Tsukasa propelled forward, though, with every kick, he felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest. The thought ofresting for a few secondshad crossed his mind, but he couldn''t stop, he knew if he were to stop, he would slowly, but eventually kissed the seafloor. He hadto keep swimming, just kept swimming, and kept swimming, swimming without thinking anything. Before Tsukasa knew it, he had reached the land, the white-sand beach to be exact, though he was too exhausted he could barely have enough strength to express them, let alone celebrate with a shout. Wet, shivering, and tired, heonly thought of moving out from thewater, fearing that in one foot of water, he would''ve drowned. Tsukasa walked clumsily though he fell several times, and after falling for several more, gritting his teeth,he chose to crawl like a reptile. His fingers gouging the wet sand, his eyes were fixated at the treeline, and when he arrived at the edge of the green, he stopped just right under the tree shade. This... doesn''t make any sense.Tsukasa thought as he positioned himself and leaned on the tree. If this is a joke, this has gone too far.Then again, he wasn''t sure someone could pull a prank at this scale. Maybe I''m getting kidnapped? Does father or mother have an enemy? Or... some kind of alien had kidnapped me?He sneered for a bit when he thoughtthat. And what the hell was that floating letters about? Was that even real? The effect is real though. They... real, right? Sighing, Tsukasa putevery thought to the side as he slowly closed his eyes. Even though the bright sunlight was makinghis wet face sting, but he still had fallen asleep, a diluted sleep that had brought no rest and no dreams. **** When Tsukasa awoke, it was to the strong cold breeze which made him sneezed and his nose runny. Shivering, herubbed his chestand noticed that he had fallen asleep with wet clothes that hadn''t gotten dry. Tsukasa thought his situation couldn''t get worse, butas soon as he let out a frustrated groan, he hearda thunderous rumbling from his stomach along with a sharp pain on his dry throat. Squirming in the ground to try tosilence the rumbling,Tsukasaaware that he hadn''t eaten anything since he started reviewing his exam result,not to mention, thered blended sky with orange had somehow reminded him with a tangerine. Standing up, Tsukasa swayed a little bit, unsure whether it wasto his sore muscle or empty stomach.Either way, his priority was to search for food and water. Primarily water so he could wipe the sea flavour in his mouth. After gathering enough willpower, Tsukasa started to moveslowly, trying his best tonot exert his muscle. As Tsukasa walked quietly just right at the edge of the treeline, he''d only noticed the tree he had leanedon and other similar treeshad slightly glowing green leaves with translucent white jelly-like vines dangling on their branches. He played with the one near him, squeezing it, spinning it, the thought of eating it had crossed his mind as he imagined the vines should''ve had the same taste as udon. Luckily, right before Tsukasa put the vines into his mouth, fromafar, he noticed a familiar tree.A large palm, growing taller than the rest of the trees,with pinnate leaves and brown ball in the middle. "Is that... coconut?" He muttered as he squinted his eyes, trying to take a clearer look on the tree. Ignoring his sore muscles, Tsukasa beganrunning toward the coconut tree, though, he quickly stumbled upon a problem. Tsukasa thought it was only a few dozen meters high, but in reality, it was taller than he originally thought, maybe 25 or 30 meters high, or maybe more. Sighing, Tsukasa knew hewasn''t able to climb a normal-sized tree in his prime condition, and now he should climb a tree several times higher than a normal tree with muscle aches and empty stomach? He tried to climb it butas he initially guessed, he could only go for three or four meters beforehis arms gave up and he eventually slid down. He tried to kick with naked foot and shake the tree, hoping that the fruits would fall... which didn''t do anything and only make the tip of his toenail cracked. Gritting his teeth, Tsukasa then started gathering some shells and pebbles, throwing them several times to the fruit, though, they barely flew beyond one-fourth of the tree. "Ah, right..." Struck by an idea, he took his shirt off and started putting the pebbles on it. He then tied his shirtwith the vine, making sure no pebbles could come out from it. Spinning the vine, Tsukasa hopedthis would give his pebbles-filled shirt enough momentum to increase his throwingdistance. Lettinghis grip off, he saw his pebbles-filled shirt flew a little bit higher than his last several attempts. His lips curled up, he then tried to do it several times. Reducing and adding the number of pebbles, and even changing them with one big rock, and putting the combination of a rather large rock and several pebbles. None of them worked. Desperate, hestarted putting theclamp''s shells in, praying that it would''ve made a difference. But, the moment he let his shell-filled shirt flew, another blue screen appeared in front of him.
Do you want to learn Throwing Combat Level 1? (Feat Points left: 2)
Yes No
Much to his surprise, the floating letters that he had seen before was, in fact, real. Though, rather than only letters, it had a slightly glowing and slightly transparent blue-indigo pane, which had the same hue as the sea. Apathetically, Tsukasa, of course, clicked on yes.
You have learned Throwing Combat Level 1!
You''ve become trained in using throwing weapons and throwing things.
Any projectile you''ve thrown thathas weight less than 1kg won''t receive any physics penalty.
Anything that you threw will have an additional [Str x Skill level] damage.
Your throwing distance hasincreased by [Str x Skill level x 5] meter. *Only affect things that don''t receive any penalty.
Yourthrowing speed hasincreased by [Str x Skill level] meter per second. *Only affect things that don''t receive any penalty.
You''ve unlocked Technique(Throwing Weapon) "
For more information, you can view your Technique anytime by thinking¡°Open Menu¡± and then selecting ¡°Technique¡±.
Your Stamina hasincreased by 50
Your Stamina regeneration has increased by 1
Your Strength has increased by 1
Your Dexterity has increased by 1
"...There''s no way, right?" He muttered as he thoroughly read the things that appeared on the blue screen. Tsukasa then silently grabbed a rock around the size of his palm, with half disbelief and half curiosity, he then threw the rock, which then flew straight up to the air and soared past the towering coconut tree. Tsukasa''s mouth left openas he blankly stared at the rock made its way back to the ground,which made himlaughedmirthlessly. Chapter 2 After slurping two more coconuts, Tsukasa unconvincingly muttered "Open Menu."
Menu
Status Skills Techniques (2) Spells Recipes Companions Stores
There were eight options on the menu. Though the spells, recipes, and storeswereunavailable, andTsukasavaguely remembered what Status was, so when he opened Status, he only glanced at it for a few seconds before he continued on the others. When he clicked on Skills, another blue pane appeared, though most of it was an empty pane with only ''Feat Points Left: 1'', ''SwimLevel 1 (7%)'' and ''Throwing Combat Level 1(2%)'' written on it. When he clicked Swim, the screen flickered for a second,turning it into the same screen when he first received Swim skill. Clicking on ''>>>'' at the bottom right of the screen. It now showed him another empty pane written only with ''Throwing Technique (0/2).'' Sighing, even after exploring themenu for about ten minutes, Tsukasa stillcouldn''t find any single information that hethought to be useful. Though, he did find out the screen would appear with one-second delaywhenever he thought the word, and they wouldfloat for about one minute before disappeared or until he looked away. Still, by the time Tsukasa had done tinkering with the screen, he realized that thechill breezehad beenslowly seeping into his bone and had become too unbearable. He wassure there were several other things he should be worried about, but now hisbiggest washow to stay warm. Wounding his way on the seashore, Tsukasa began to search fora dried coconut husk along with some twigs. Though, he only needed to search them for a couple of minutes whenhe already had every material. Notwasting any precious second, Tsukasa hastily duga shallow pit using abig purplish shell that felt like something that came straight from a cartoon and covered them with leaves. He started to encirclethe pit with several rocks in different sizeand then built a pyramid of woods and twigs at the centre. Sitting down, Tsukasa was admiring the result of hiscraftmanship but quickly shook his head. The sky had slowly faded from maroon to a majestic purple, notifying that he didn''t have much time left before he was sitting alone in the dark. Heimmediatelytook asmall shell and began to chipthe husk, creating a small hole at the size of his pinky. Satisfied,he shoved the twig inside the newly created hole and then pushed his flat and smooth hand forward, and then the other.He continued to roll it back and forth, hoping a spark of ember would appear. But, whenthe last light of the sun engulfed by the sea, simultaneously Tsukasa threw away his idea along with the coconut. "This is stupid," Tsukasa muttered in frustration. He had the knowledge, and he remembered all the steps to create a bonfire, but he still couldn''t make a single spark, instead, he only received blisters and scrapes on his palm. Suddenly,outof the corner of his eye, Tsukasa sawgreen gleams permeated. He quickly turned his head. Tsukasa''s pupil dilated and his jaw dropped. A few seconds ago, he was sure the glow in the leaves were dim, but now, the jungle behind him wasradiating galaxies of shimmering leaves as though they were inviting him to go inside. Tsukasa hesitated. He could continue to stay at the seashore, trying his best to warm his body, or he could simplygo into the jungle, which he supposed would be alot warmer than here... Still, there was also thedanger of wild beasts. But while pondering, the sea level hadabnormally increased until it reachedhis ankle. Tsukasa quicklyyelped backwards and, without spending more time to think he immediately went to the jungle. Entering the jungle, Tsukasa wound his way slowly forward, thinking he should be fine as long he went in a straight path. He actuallywondered whether he would be viewed as a source of food. There could be any number of animals stalking him from the moment he stepped his foot. But right now... He was in awe. When he walked,his footprints would glow for two seconds before they faded. When he pressed the fern, one by one the leaflets would slowlyfold inwards. When he moved closer, a knee-high spiral plant wouldsuck downinto a tube in the ground so quickly it seemedthey simplyvanish. He was not an outdoor personbut the scenery was breathtaking. If only he had brought his phone with him, he woulddefinitely have taken pictures until its memory full, heck, he didn¡¯t even mind taking his first selfie in here.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Still, Tsukasa walked through the foliagewhile looking around like a tourist in Hell. He would always stop walking whenever he saw the ferns closed their leaflets, scanning the environment to make sure nothing would jump out from behind them.Sometimes, he couldthe occasional hoot or howl, though he wasn''t sure whether it was real or justhim being paranoid. He supposed having some sort ofweapon would ease his mind. He knew how to make one, though, after his failed attempt to produce fire, hefiguredhe would fail and scrap his own workat the end. Instead, hedecided tomakea camp as his priority.He was sure the ground wasn''t the safest place when it came down for resting. Tsukasa walked another five minutes beforefinding a warm and good spot, or should he say a good tree.A multi-trunk alien tree with the appearanceof a chalice. Not terriblytall buthad thick and long vines which he supposed, would make it easier for him to climb. He climbed the vines, sticking to the thickest vines close to the centre trunk. He cringed a little when he felt the sharp pain in his palm but still continued climbing. After climbing somemore, Tsukasa found a gap, justbig enoughfor him to enter. Inside, He guessed this was the place where all the trunks grew upward before they curved outward. The atmosphere was making him felt as if he was standing inside of a bowl. Perfect as a restingspot as he didn''t need to worry about falling down. He placedhis foot through the gap and then slid in after it.It took some doing to clear all the leaves and the small twigs, but hearrangedhis sleeping spot in a relatively comfortable manner where he could lie down without bending his feet. Now that he alreadynestled in this tree, he could only hope he had climbed highenough to be out of range of wildanimals. As night came, the air was cooling quickly. Thankfully, getting surrounded by this many branches andmillions ofleaves hadprotected him from the cold... Not too much, but it was still better than sleeping anywhere near the beach. Now, his biggest concern was how he may actually be able toget a few hours of sleep. This way his first time spending the night on outdoor, but he supposed he couldsleep just fine, considering he could easily fall asleep on the beach. Slowly, Tsukasa allowedhis muscles to relax. His eyes to close. The last thing he thoughtwas it was unfortunate he didn''t have a way to silence the rumbling from his stomach. ***** *Snap!* The sound of a breaking branch wake Tsukasa. How long have I been asleep? Four hours? Five?He thought as he stared at the blue screen in front of him.
Do you want to learn Hide Level 1? (Feat Points left: 1)
Yes No
Rubbing his eyes,Tsukasa knew, or at least, assumeda skill notification would appear whenever he had successfully done something. So, if he were to take this skill notification with that in mind, it seemed like while he was sleeping, he apparently was also hiding from.... something. The thought of how careless he was making him shudderedandTsukasa immediately spent his last feat point.
You have learned Hide Level 1!
You''ve become trained in hiding and camouflaging.
If you have a cover or concealment, others creature with [Wisdom] lower than your [Presence +Skill level] can''t detect you.
You''ve unlocked a new Spell(Illusion) "Chameleon Skin" level 1
You''ve unlocked a new Technique(Stealth) "Hidden Presence" level 1
You''ve unlocked a new Recipe (Cloth) "Cloak of Camouflaging" level 1
Your Health regeneration has increased by 10.
YourMagicka regeneration has increased by 10.
Your Stamina regeneration hasincreased by 1.
Your Agility hasincreased by 1
Your Presence has increased by 1
You now have 40 status points! Your Feat Point has increased by 1!
The lastbonus was unexpected and Tsukasa''s lips curled up. Still, while he was wondering what kind ofskills hehad just received... *Snap! Snap!* The sound appeared again.It was not the sound of abranch under someone''s foot, but the sharp crack of something thicker. *Snap!* Tsukasa judged it to bea few dozen metersto his right. Slowly, noiselessly, he turned himself in the same direction. For a few minutes, there was nothing but blackness and some scuffling. *Snap! Snap! Snap!* Through the branch. Tsukasa saw a... creature of some sort. A large humanoid withthick elongatedarms and stunted legs. Its blood-covered knuckles each dragged a blue-scaled humanoid with webbed hands and feet, though, the one on the right was missing its lower part of its body. The giantopened his mouth, showing flat black teeth that Tsukasa thought perfectfor grinding bones to paste. *Snap!* The same sound echoed when the giant bit the blue-scaled humanoid''s arm off. It ate so noisily, crunching the blue-scaled humanoid as though they were nothing but crackers. The excess of soupy drool and blood spilt over its bulbous lips. and with no signs of embarrassment,it wiped its mouthon its sleeve and burped. And immediately snoredright under the tree Tsukasa was in.