Skill Creation in the Fantasy World

Amidst a field of countless corpses, a lone man stood, his sword gleaming with fresh blood in the dim light.

His crystal red eyes had a satisfying gleam as he grinned ear to ear while taking deep breaths to calm his exhausted body.

"Haa.... Maybe.... Maybe I went a little overboard."

Felix glanced at the system's screen that displayed his current amount of skill points.

[Skill Points: 8210.]

Earlier he had about six thousand skill points, and now it increased by some two thousand after he killed more than 20 of the Rank 2 Bladefiends.

He didn't expect there to be so many of them gathered all together, including the hundreds of the Rank 1 Bladefiends that he trapped and defeated using Sinkhole and Earth Spikes.

At this moment, his physical body was at its limits.

He had already long since used the Terra Drain skill several times to regain his stamina and health, hiding in the ground for a few minutes, but that didn't mean it could provide him with unlimited stamina to keep on going.

'I gotta do something... If I want to deal them that is....'

Felix took a deep breath as he stared straight at the two huge Bladefiends who slowly made their way towards him.

'They're the Rank 3 Bladefiends! To think they remained hidden when I was dealing with the rest of the pack.'

He couldn't help but scowl at their late arrival.

As of now, there weren't any other Bladefiends left, except for these two.

But for Felix to kill a Rank 3 being, he needed to use the Cursed Domain skill which only worked well with a larger crowd.

It made his enemies fall into a state of chaos with infighting and mindless reactions, allowing him to take advantage and hit the killing strike when they least expected.

'First, I need to take a step back and bring my stamina back to normal. Then I've to upgrade some of my skills.'

Felix thought as his body started to submerge into the ground, alerting the Rank 3 Bladefiends who sped towards him to stop his escape.

Fortunately, they were quite far away from Felix as he completely vanished into the earth when the two monsters stomped their way to his spot.

'System, upgrade the skills Agility Burst, Battlefield Awareness and Terra Drain in this way. Also, remove their limitations and enhance their effects.'

[Affirmative.]

[Processing the skills power scale.... modifying the skill....estimating the possible points required..... skill successfully modified.]

[Skill Name: Agility Burst (Upgraded)

Description:

•Allows the user to instantly triple their movement speed with a slowed-down mind. •The user becomes extremely nimble and flexible in their every movement.

•The skill duration is 1 hour and the skill cooldown is 20 minutes.

Cost: +540 Skill Points.]

[Skill Name: Terra Drain (Upgraded)

Description:

•This skill constantly absorbs the earthen energy from the ground in touch with the user, regaining their lost stamina and health.

•It can also be used when the user is mobile, allowing for recovery during running, combat, or other actions.

•The skill duration is 1 hour, and the skill cooldown is 20 minutes.

•The user will return to a normal state when the skill duration ends.

Cost: +680 skill points.]

[Skill name: Battlefield Awareness (Upgraded)

Description:

•Grants the user 360-degree awareness, heightened perception and clarity in combat, allowing instant analysis of all combatants within a 30-meter radius.

•Enhances reaction time, predicts all the movements in the range, and highlights enemy weak points, also reducing the risk of ambushes or sudden threats.

•The skill duration is 1 hour, and cooldown is 20 minutes.

Cost: +2000 skill points.]

[Does the host wish to spend 3220 skill points to upgrade the skills Agility Burst, Terra Drain, and Battlefield Awareness?]

While the two Bladefiends were searching for him among the corpses in confusion, Felix read through the new information of the three skills as he nodded in his head.

'Alright, all these skills have been enhanced and their skill durations are increased to 1 hour. Although it costs me a lot of skill points, they're all much needed against a larger crowd of enemies.'

Felix gave a last glance at the details and agreed to the system.

'Upgrade them all!'

[Ding!]

[Successfully upgraded the skills 'Agility Burst', 'Terra Drain', and 'Battlefield Awareness'. Do you want to change their names?]

Felix dismissed the option to change the names of the skills as he slowly peeked his head out from the ground.

'There they are...', he glanced at the two Bladefiends who were still searching around the corpses of their kind for him.

'They're kind of dumb, but I can't let down my guard. Also, the two of them look different from each other...'

One of the Rank 3 Bladefiends was tall and burly, its limbs thick and strong with reddish grey fur.

The other Rank 3 Bladefiend was short and thin with dark blue fur, jumping around the place in an agile way like a monkey.

'One is heavy and the other is lightweight? So the big one must be slower than the smaller one, huh.....'

Felix mused as he thought of an idea to deal with the two monsters.

'Alright, let's try it that way!'

Moving a bit farther away from the two Bladefiends, Felix slowly came out from the ground as he made some noise.

"Oyy! I'm over here!!", he waved his hands with a wide grin.

The two Rank 3 Bladefiends turned their heads rapidly in his direction, and without waiting for a second, they dashed towards him as they threw aside the corpses.

Felix waited for the two of them to get near to him, and when they did, he turned around and started running away.

Seeing the boy getting away from them, the two Bladefiends increased their speed in case they lost sight of him again.

'Hmm... Just as I expected.'

Felix smiled as he glanced back to see the shorter Bladefiend getting much closer to him than the other one.

'Earth Swimming! Quicksand!'

He stopped suddenly and used two of his skills, his body slowly sinking into the ground as the shorter Bladefiend reached near to him.

But when it did almost reach him, the Bladefiend found the ground soft and loose, making every step of it unstable.

By now, Felix had already submerged halfway into the earth as he used another two of his skills.

"Dust Blast! Earth Spikes!"

The two attacks fell on the short Bladefiend, further slowing down its movements until Felix could finally go back into the earth.

'Let's do this!'

The moment he sank, Felix sped through the underground as fast as he could and reached all the way back behind the two monsters' rear.

'There! Sinkhole!', he urged as he peeked out and glanced at the burly Rank 3 Bladefiend who was separated from the shorter one.

An enormous hole suddenly opened beneath the Burly Bladefiend, making it lose its footing as it fell with a startled howl and crashed to the bottom of the hole.

"AWHOOOUU!!!"

The short Bladefiend turned around in shock upon hearing its partner's desperate howl.

But instead of its burly ally who was nowhere to be seen, it only saw the human boy they had been chasing.

The boy stood before a hole in the ground, with a sword in his hand as he grinned wildly.

"Why don't we have a one-on-one?"

The short Bladefiend frowned in anger as it raised its head and howled sharply to the extreme.

"AAAWWWHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Another strikingly similar yet rough howl joined it from the hole behind Felix.

"AAAWHHOOOOOO!!!"

Felix scratched his ear with his pinkie finger as he turned on another two of his skills; Parabolic Hearing and Battlefield Awareness.

"Challenge accepted I presume...."

Shifting his weight forward, Felix kicked off the ground as he activated Agility Burst and clashed with the Rank 3 Bladefiend head-on.

"Black Horizon Sword Arts: Third Technique"

"Assault Impact!"

His sword clashed against the Bladefiend's arm blade, but before he could push forward, the monster sent him flying with a powerful swing.

Felix barely had time to react as he was hurled through the air, while the Bladefiend staggered back a step from the force of his speed.

'My body's too weak to face it head-on.', Felix thought as he pondered about creating a skill to also improve his physical strength.

But it was a mistake getting distracted during the battle as the Bladefiend closed the distance between them quickly and swung its arm blade.

Felix quickly raised his sword to block, but the moment their blades clashed, a powerful shock ran through his body, making him shudder from the impact.

'SHIT!'

Panic flashed across his face as he frantically parried the Bladefiend's relentless strikes, his arms aching with each clash.

He barely managed to keep up, somehow matching its speed just enough to keep the attacks from slicing into him as the Agility Burst skill greatly helped him.

'Dammit! It's stronger than I expected!'

Despite being at a disadvantage, there was a huge grin on his face as Felix eyed closely the movements of the monster.

'I can see them. All of its attacks! Where they'll hit and how they'll arrive.... It's all clear to me!'

The effects of the Battlefield Awareness skill proved more efficient in this close-ranged battle, as earlier he was mostly using his other long-range skills in battles.

Along with that, he also understood where the Bladefiend's weaknesses were. It gave him some ideas on the combat skills he could create against such enemies.

"AAGHWWOOOO!!!"

The Burly Rank 3 Bladefiend who was trapped in the sinkhole howled angrily, its voice seemingly louder than the last time as Felix realized his horror.

'Is it using its arm blades to climb out of the hole?! This is not good! I better hurry!'

Felix devised a simple plan as he used the force behind one of the Bladefiend's attacks to propel himself back.

He retreated all the way to the hole and peeked at the Burly Bladefiend who was truly doing as he had thought.

'Eat this! Earth Spikes!'

A number of spikes emerged from the walls inside the hole and attacked the Burly Bladefiend, but the monster remained resilient as it destroyed the spikes using its body and stayed put at its spot.

'It didn't fall? What about this then?! Quicksand! Dust Blast! Earth Spikes! Cursed Domain!'

Felix unleashed several earth-attribute skills while standing firm at the edge of the hole. At the same time, he focused his baleful energy straight onto the Burly Bladefiend below.

"AAWWHOO!!"

The monster finally lost its grip on the wall, its arm blades unable to hold on any longer as the torturous energy seeped into its mind.

With a painful howl, it crashed to the ground, writhing in agony.

'It finally fell.... Oh shit-!'

Felix's instincts screamed at him, triggered by his Battlefield Awareness skill.

He spun around just in time to face the Short Bladefiend, who had silently sneaked up behind him, arm blades raised for a vicious strike.

As he was warned by his skill of the incoming attack, Felix's body moved on its own as he jumped backwards and counterattacked the Bladefiend's strike.

His clumsy and delayed attack didn't provide much defence against the Bladefiend's arm-blade strike, which slashed into his body and pushed him off the ground.

A rush of pain hit Felix as he fell off from the edge of the sinkhole, his fresh blood spraying out in crimson arcs in the air as he stared around blankly.

'Huh? Is that my blood?'

Felix had a weird look of realisation on his face as he fell deeper into the hole, passing by the Burly Bladefiend, who was desperately clutching the walls to climb out of the sinkhole.

His body hit the ground with a dull thud, and he lay there motionless, indifferent to his wounds as his thoughts spiralled out of control.

'I was stabbed... It hurts... The blood... it's real. The pain... was real. That means... I'm alive...', he closed his eyes for a brief moment and opened them back slowly.

"Yeah..." Felix scoffed, a grin creeping across his face as pure madness flickered in his eyes.

"I don't care about the pain. As long as I'm alive.... I shall remain."