Battle Admin System 9

9 - Demonic Skill Choices

Lillea had evolved. She was superior to her former self. Her fleshy parts remained the same. But the metal arm took on a new look.

Light gray lines flowed down the contours of a flexible black arm. The limb had no gaps, no ball joints, no spaces in its metallic form and acted like a real arm. But with little crooked horns embedded into the shoulder and two diamond shapes glinting underneath.

“Interesting.” Solo’s voice echoed out like a soft-spoken banshee in a metal hallway. “Relax. I can control the arm. See.”

Lillea’s arm rose on its own. The fingers moved, the claws clacking to accentuate Solo’s metallic words.

“Ah. Good. My choice was wise, after all. I can speak like this. But I do not exactly favor it. I’m an arm!” Solo dropped her control and resumed being a metal arm.

Lillea blinked in amazement. She had no knowledge on the effects of Moon Giants and demons bonding through a metal prosthetic. Or any prosthetic. This was an entirely new experience.

Moonstrider Learning V leveled up from 268 to 269!

Right away, she could tell she’d stepped off the beaten path walked by her ancestors. And she hadn’t even dug into the new gains.

You’ve absorbed a unique power source successfully!

You’ve gained 13 System Points. You now have 15 System Points!

Lillea nearly swooned. She’d gained half of Solo’s system points, used and unused. That was one of the biggest advantages of merging with a consenting demon. It was stunning that Moonstriders had given up this practice because of human laws.

The good fortune filled her with so much glee she wanted to scream and rejoice. But she had to hold it together. There was more!

Prosthetic Adjustment (Level 121) evolved to Demonic Prosthetic Innovation (Level 226)!

Lillea found a tree to sit against. She felt dizzy from the constant good news. Since the prosthetic housed the demon, the merger found a middle ground in levels. And it was a direct skill gain! Another evolution.

Yes, the demon lost its former power. But Solo raised the prosthetic into the reliable 200s in level. Lillea hadn’t even read the description yet and knew the transformed arm was a vast improvement.

The description proved her right:

Demonic Prosthetic Innovation (Level 226): A Prideful Shadow Demon lives in your prosthetic left arm. The bond of unique metal keeps you two from consuming each other. All shadow, prideful, dark, and demonic powers are strengthened when channeled through the prosthetic. The arm can self-repair while submerged in preferential mana.

She hoped Ogun would like the change. She cared about his opinion, which made her a little nervous. But the sentimental thoughts soon faded.

She had more gains to review!

You’ve gained new skills in your pool: Shadow Step (Level 1), Prideful Crown (Level 1), Shade Wolves (Level 1), Dark Bolt (Level 1), Black Nether Flame (Level 1), Endless Shadow Field (Level 1), Prideful Shadow Body (Level 1), Strings of Pride and Shadow (Level 1).

Lillea stared at her new skills. She had eight to choose from if she ignored the many others in her pool. And she had three slots she was going to open up.

What will I choose?

***

Lillea was waiting until her giddy excitement calmed down. She was tempted to hunt beasts with her new arm but decided against it. She would only grow more excited and have a hard time thinking logically.

Emotions were powerful. But skill choices and role builds required serious assessment.

Night became day. Gray clouds snuffed out the sunlight.

The cloudy weather helped calm her down. Meditation by the river helped, too. After feasting on the fox and more fish, Lillea felt her hunger satiated and was in a better mood to make logical choices.

“Solo, I want to use 2 system points for an older skill. It helps me take risks and survive. And I think it’ll benefit us greatly.”

Lillea felt comfortable talking directly to her arm, which was strange. It felt less like having a servant demon and more like having a partner. Or something closer. Solo felt more linked to Lillea than expected.

Moonstrider Learning V leveled up from 269 to 270!

My learning skill seems to love this new venture.

“Only 2 points. No more,” Solo murmured like a ghost in a metal container. For some reason, Lillea wanted to see reactions to her metallic demon arm even though she should keep it beneath notice.

Or is it a demonic metal arm? Hm, no. It’s more of a demon than a metal. So metallic demon arm, or demon arm for short.

“Focus!” Solo shouted. “Improve old power. Get the new powers.”

Lillea blushed with embarrassment. She focused on Ravenous Survival and pressed 2 system points into the skill with her will. The skill rose from its base tier to Tier III.

Ravenous Survival III (Level 229): Feast to your heart’s content. Dead or alive, your meal will add to your survival. *Perk 1: Feast on more meat and bone, increasing the density of your body. Injuries and poisons can be healed from excess density. *Perk 2: Feast on more meat and bone. Make your flesh even denser and harder to break.

Lillea felt a mixture of emotions. She should’ve raised this to Tier III earlier. She also felt bitter about the origins of this skill and the ravenous giants who’d taught this to her.

She had more insight on why they were so tough now. She also knew they would have this skill up to Tier V. Maybe up to Tier X to receive the fourth perk.

They aren’t who I’m hunting. But at least I’m more aware of their dangerous power. Just in case.

Moonstrider Learning V leveled up from 270 to 271!

“Not happy?” Solo asked.

Lillea calmed down. “It’s complicated. Can you see the skill?”

“Yes. It’s a good skill with good perks. No wonder you can take so much damage. If I was still by myself, I would be angry with you. But we are Lillea Solo Moonstrider now. So I’m glad.”

If Solo’s happy with the spent system points, then I’ll be happy, too. Grimmer would certainly be happy when Lillea required them to double their services for her.

Next up came skill eliminations. It was easier to decide on what wouldn’t work before making choices. This part turned out simpler than expected. She knew Shade Wolves and Prideful Shadow Body wouldn’t work for her.

Shade wolves summoned wolfish shadow specters to attack. This would seem like a good thing for anyone. She could attack multiple enemies at the same time. With more levels, tiers, and perks, the wolves would most likely become self-sufficient and dangerous. Like having a personal wolf pack.

Lillea put this skill aside because she wanted her actions to be as direct as possible. She also wanted the ultimate control in deciding another’s fate. Just in case she decided to change from using lethal means to nonlethal means at the last second. Shade wolves wouldn’t synergize well with her Moonstrider Athleticism, either. Letting a summoning skill pickup the slack would throw-off her build.

The Prideful Shadow Body skill was eliminated because of system mechanics. Body enhancers weren’t skills that doubled-up efficiently. In fact, Moonstrider Athleticism and Prideful Shadow Body would compete with each other, halving their effectiveness to fit within Lillea’s build.

Maybe she could switch from athleticism during the day and shadow body at night, but that wouldn’t make sense. Her athleticism covered all her bases. Prideful Shadowy Body was redundant and not as good. It lacked the training speciality of Moonstrider Athleticism.

Thus, eight choices became six.

Lillea listed out the remainder.

Shadow Step (Level 1): Be one with the shadows, rising and falling out of view. Step within a shadow and submerge yourself into a domain where you reign. Resurface from the shadows just the same. This skill costs 3 system points.

Lillea nearly bought Shadow Step right there and then. Her mind reeled with possibilities beyond just combat applications or increasing her survivability. Her Moonstrider Learning was having a field day as it connected the dots.

Moonstrider Learning V leveled up from 271 to 272!

She only held off to review her options fully. And 3 system points was a huge expense! It made sense for it to be costly, though. Movement skills like these were some of the best skills to have outside of pure teleportation. Then again, the other skills were just as costly or close to it.

Prideful Crown (Level 1): Be proud of yourself. The subjugation of magic deserves a nice headpiece. Conjure a dark and horned crown. The crown will weaken or negate hostile magic affecting the wearer. This skill costs 3 system points.

This was amazing. Lillea tried to remember if Solo had used this during their fight. She hadn’t. Maybe she was committed to other skills. There was another reason why this skill might not have come up.

Its cost.

High-level defensive magic was notorious for being more expensive compared to offensive magic. More importantly, this skill could be used by anyone other than the conjurer.

The implications were staggering. Though, Lillea wondered why she would let anyone else wear the crown other than herself? A unique question.

Dark Bolt (Level 1): Spellcasters love tossing out their spells. Toss this back and see them tremble in fear. Conjure and shoot a dark bolt from your hand. The impact delivers force damage and magic disruption. This skill costs 2 system points.

Bolts were the most common spell-style skills. They were so simple spellcasters would accidentally learn them without books. Most advanced spellcasters replace bolts with more intricate acts of magic.

Lillea wasn’t a spellcaster. She was a battler. A specialized warrior with a keen mind. Sorcery was only a means to an end, making her greater at battling others physically, magically, and mentally.

But something about Dark Bolt called to her. It matched well with Prideful Crown’s ability to snuff out hostile magic.

Having these two abilities would make Lillea a nightmare for spellcasters or spellswords. To be honest, she had the good fortune of not fighting a talented or powerful spellcaster among the smaller races, yet.

The Cold Tooth Lord was notorious for melting the flesh off of a giant’s bones. The old human was annoying. But he was a prime example of what she could battle in the future. The church had similar human monsters with heavens-granted might.

Black Nether Flame (Level 1): It isn’t enough to be a pyromaniac. Let’s burn up the insides of our victims, too. Light a body part or a single item on fire. The black nether flames deliver damage like any flame would. But they also burn the mana channels of a target. This skill costs 2 system points.

Lillea felt stuck. She couldn’t decide between Dark Bolt or Black Nether Flames. Dark Bolt would be outside of her warrior expertise. But the mid-range implications and magic disruption against spellcasters would open up options.

However, Black Nether Flames sat within her wheelhouse. Its range was short for now but it could extend with higher tiers. Burning the flesh and the mana channels of her enemies sounded terrific.

However, fire attacks were one of the most common elemental abilities among adventurers. It was a staple against fending off monsters.

The prevalence of fire abilities pushed the rise of fire defense skills, too. Lillea played with fire abilities but realized she would fall into a common trap novice adventurers suffer. Being easy to counter.

Endless Shadow Field (level 1): It can be bright during the day. Not a problem for you. Open a gate into the shadow domain and fuse it with your surroundings. No matter how bright, the shadows will persist, if you can manage the cost. This skill costs 3 system points.

Lillea stared at the line ‘if you can manage the cost.’

She knew right away this skill would run her mana channels ragged. It would work better for a spellcaster with diamond-forged channels.

Lillea could feel her demon-enhanced channels were better than her old channels. Yet, Lillea imagined Solo wouldn’t waste precious channeling on this skill.

Out of the six skills to survive the initial cut, this one was the most likely to be eliminated in the current round. A crying shame, though. It would’ve been nice to access a shadow gate whenever she needed more shadows.

Strings of Pride and Shadow (Level 1): Shadow powers pride themselves on flexibility and ingenuity. This skill is power and creativity combined in one. Conjure up to five shadow strings from your hands. These strings can cut, entangle, or be left in place like webbing. The webbing application requires concentration to maintain. This skill costs 3 system points.

“You must have this skill,” Solo said. “You have no choice. This is my favorite skill.”

Without even purchasing Strings of Pride and Shadow, Lillea considered herself 3 system points poorer. Now she had 10 system points to work with and five skills to choose from.

After some deliberation, Endless Shadow Field fell out of favor. Four skills remained. She had enough points for all four if she was willing to empty out a fourth skill slot.

She was not.

Lillea knew she couldn’t wait to think about her options. By the time she would leave the river bank, it would be close to a month since leaving Cold Tooth.

Right now, her goblins might find difficulties disrupting bandit operations on the road between Cold Tooth and Port Precipice. They might’ve held out as long as possible while waiting for the calvary, as humans would say.

My goblins. Lillea’s chest hurt thinking about her green-skinned servants getting into trouble or dying for her because she was late on arrival. She had no doubts they would rough it out longer than they should. Some goblins might be dead by now. The hurt turned into a burst of irrational fury. My goblins!

Lillea struggled to calm down. She meditated to help control her emotions. She felt Solo was being strangely quiet and eyed the metallic demon arm suspiciously.

“Something enraged you?” Solo asked.

“My servants are waiting for me. Some might’ve died on a job I was supposed to complete weeks ago.”

“Ah. You share my pride.” Solo chuckled. “They’re our servants. Is it not justified to be angry when our servants are harmed? Anyone who dares must be punished!”

“I need more time to decide.” Lillea muttered.

“Do you really need more time?”

Lillea looked up at the sunset. She hadn’t slept today. Ideally, she would select her skills, practice them tonight, and sleep through the day tomorrow.

But the world was not an ideal place. She was the Unofficial Cold Tooth Lady and so-called goblin queen. She was making her loyal servants wait on her for too long.

“How far is the secret place of great power?” Lillea asked.

“A few hours away at your speed. You can go upriver before entering inland. Behind the thickets is a little cave only humans would fit into normally.”

“Normally?”

“We have a certain skill in our pool that’ll get around space issues.”

Lillea nodded, confirming the second skill to be purchased. She was now down to 6 system points and three skills.

No, if I’m being honest with myself, one of the last skills is an element with many counters. She could focus on beasts and monsters. But Lillea wanted her abilities to remain just as effective against humans.

Consequently, she now had two skills remaining to choose between. And she only had a single open slot remaining.

She hadn’t bought anything yet, so she could always change her mind. But time was of the essence. Lillea must finally commit, and do so quickly.