Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 10

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 10:

<You better come back again soon!> Olivia sent me a parting message, even though I was quite a distance away from the room where she was imprisoned.

Yeah, I better bring something like a music player with batteries. I think I can afford it now with Sano’s latest payment, but I need to check just how much a portable player costs first. 

Before I reached out to Sano to recall me, I decided to test my skills out a little in a clearing in the forest. Though I wasn’t carrying anything in my hands, the next instant I held the Murasame katana in my right hand, unsheathed and ready to go. I gripped the handle with both hands, slowly exhaling, then sucked in the first breath to activate my skill.

Skills.

[Full Focus Breathing: First Water Form]...

[Water Surface Slash]! [Reversed Slash]!

There wasn’t even any sound of the blade. I slowly relaxed and eyed the tree I had used as my target, carefully backing away.from it. Sure enough, two sections fell away from its sides, having been severed by the cross slashes I had performed. The above section remained balanced precariously on the bottom half for a bit longer, then slowly fell over with a loud crash that made me wince.

The original Murasame from Ivalice taught the Ninja Skill [Water Veil], which was meant to damage and inflict Silence on its target. Based on Matsu’s advice, I had [Edited] the skill to be more adaptable with my own wielding of the blade, particularly when used with the [Full Focus Breathing] skill. It had retained the Silence effect as an attack trait, making it well-suited for assassination strikes. 

However, that wasn’t the only thing I did now that I could use [‘Creation’] more freely in this world. With the amount of LP I had accumulated, I decided to make a few skills and [Bestow] them onto Murasame.

[Sharp Edge] to enhance the sharpness of the blade, [Water Affinity] that would enhance the effects of any water elemental techniques used with it, and finally, the active skill [Tidal Blade], which would wrap the blade with a coating of water that made it strike even more powerfully with the water element. The total cost was four thousand LP, which was nearly on par with an S-ranked weapon mastery skill.

Maybe this might be a bit too overpowered. I thought to myself as I swung the weapon around, making no sound at all despite slashing through the leaves that had been kicked up from the impact. But who cares? It’s fucking cool!

I continued to play around for a few more minutes, before dismissing Murasame back into my [Inventory], and calling for Sano to summon me back to the shop.

“That was fast,” Matsu commented when I reappeared, “You weren’t even gone for a whole minute.”

“That’s due to my control over the flow of time between this shop and the world he’s in,” Sano explained. “Rick, tell them what’s the longest you’ve been away, and how long it was when you came back.”

“He told us before,” Uzume answered, “Over a whole year of gathering all sorts of skills, and only two days’ worth of time passed in here.”

Matsu seemed to be having ideas about what could be done with that much time, muttering about the various worlds from the various fictional media she had consumed. I knew the feeling, but I wanted to get out from under the sword hanging over my head.

“So what’s the situation on the skill retrieval?” I asked Sano.

“The skill holder only died a short while ago, but the god there had some issues performing the retrieval, and promptly informed me, so there shouldn’t be any problem.” He paused for a moment. “Except there is the possibility of encountering his killers.”

I considered what Sano just told me, and worked my jaw around as it confirmed my own earlier mistake. I had been too hasty in accepting his conditions when he named them, because I had been so worried about possibly losing Uzume and my job, that I just signed on for a task without getting more details. It was a really bad tendency of mine, to panic under pressure.

Maybe I should try to get a skill like [Calm Mind] or something… “So how long do I have? Or can I wait?”

“Tap the pad, and you’ll get the details.” He gestured at the tool on his desk.

I did so, and felt the knowledge flow into my mind. It was a modern world where superpowers were easily obtainable through many methods; whether through making a deal with some powerful being, taking a special serum, being blasted by some energy ray, and so on and so forth, it resulted in a real comic book world filled with super science, aliens, and all sorts of tropes that went along with it. Superheroes clashed with villains, often with lots of violence but little actual deaths. The skill holder was one of those superheroes, having been granted power through a deal, except that power was one of Sano’s skills.

It also enlightened me to the reason why I had to hurry. The superhero culture there meant there was an organization that oversaw the heroes, which included retrieval of the dead bodies for proper burial. The killers might be hanging around for some reason, but if I waited too long, the corpse retrievers would take the body, and the skill contained within, to the morgue, which was more heavily guarded due to the things that could be done with a dead body of a superpowered person.

The pad also gave me a quick rundown on the sort of situation I would be inserting myself into. The superhero had tried to interrupt what he thought was a drug deal taking place in a warehouse, only to encounter stiffer resistance that was very much less inclined to be merciful, and had paid the final price for it. I would have to deal with at least six opponents, which were not good odds. Stealth was looking like my best bet.

I think I recognize this world… but I shouldn’t be spending that long there. I hope. “Alright, I understand now. I’m going to need further preparations before I go in.”

“Do you need any help?” Uzume asked me, glancing at Sano, “You can send me with him, right?”

“No, Uzume, this is something I should best do alone,” I told her, “Just wait for me, I’m going to go in and out, as quiet and quickly as I can.”

“Uzume-tan, go get the potions from the third shelf,” Matsu instructed, laying a hand on the other Sekirei’s shoulder to get her attention, “The thin ones. Right, Rick-tan?”

“Yes, those,” I confirmed with a smile. “Also, get me the dark clothes from the clothing cabinet in my training room, along with the bracers and the knives.”

Uzume looked at the both of us, then nodded. “Alright, I’ll be right back.”

Matsu had guessed from my words that I intended to go with the stealthy method, and arrived at the logical conclusion that I would be making use of some Sneaking Potions from Skyrim, which was what she told Uzume to go retrieve on my behalf. 

“You can use the folding screen over there to change,” Sano let me know.

I inclined my head to acknowledge his statement, and went to do so once Uzume returned. 

Emerging shortly after in the ninja appearance, I checked my loadout before nodding to show that I was ready.

“Stay safe out there, Rick-tan,” Matsu said to me, a warning that Uzume echoed.

“Here, take this.” Sano tossed me a skill, which I added to myself. “It will help you keep track of the skill, and extract it when you’re close enough.”

I reappeared in another alleyway, this one cast in shadow. The sky was already dark, and the biggest source of light nearby came from the few streetlights on the main road, though I could see other lit buildings in the distance. As expected of an urban world, some were skyscrapers, while others were just apartment buildings. My current location appeared to be in a factory district, and I saw a few faded posters talking about some candidate running for election in the United States of America.

Rather than waste any more time, I used my skills to locate my objective, which was about two streets away inside a fairly large building that had to be the warehouse. At the same time, there were eight dots marked as possible hostiles, two of which were outside. 

Probably guards. Let’s see… the main entrance over here, but the side one is less guarded and more likely to- no, there are traps. Don’t tell me… “[Appraisal].”

Ninja. Ayakami clan. [Genin]. Currently cutting up the corpse for disposal. Repeated by six.

Corpse. Holds skill [Mega Fister], which is a compilation of-

I canceled the process and moved on to the rest of the information about the dead body, which was currently being dismembered. The more pieces it ended up in, the chances of it degrading and going out of control was quite high. 

I think the pad gave me faulty information. Ninjas. Really?

What was more, the identity of those ninjas confirmed my earlier suspicions. This was the world of Empowered, where the main character was a girl with an alien supersuit that tried to be a heroine, only to suffer humiliating setbacks. The ninjas in this case were an enemy of one of her friends, Ninjette, but the fact they were alive meant that the clash hadn’t happened yet.

Worse was what Sano said about the skill degrading. One of the later plot points was the SuperDead, heroes whose powers didn’t leave their bodies after their death. So they didn’t stay dead, but continued on as immortal zombies. Obviously, this wasn’t public knowledge because of the bad publicity, and the hero organization, whose name currently eluded me, preferred to keep it that way, by having these SuperDead hidden away whenever they found them.

It was highly possible that this skill holder might become one of them.

Then again, the heroes aren’t likely to find and collect the body, not with these killers going to the whole bits-and-pieces method. I don’t want to know just what might happen if the skill degrades for that to happen though… Guess I’ll just rush it, as quietly as I can.

Keeping my footsteps silent with [Silent Walking], I got close enough without alerting the pair of guards, and drank my prepared potions. A cold, shadowy feeling washed over me, making my body look translucent to my own eyes, but I knew I was even harder to detect to others. Slipping through the slightly open door, I made sure to avoid the tripwire along the way, and headed for my target.

“Uff, haa… This guy’s really tough to cut through,” I heard one of them complain, followed by the sound of metal sinking into flesh. “Do we really have to do this?”

“It’s what we were paid for, and the client insisted on having this wannabe cut up into twenty pieces. HAH!” Another thunk. “So just shut up and keep cutting.”

“Why couldn’t we just call in some of the men instead? They’re the physically stronger ones.”

I noticed early on that all of those present were women, though I wasn’t going to underestimate them given how perfectly willing they were to butcher a body with their swords, sickles, and other chained and bladed weaponry. 

“The client specified having only kunoichi as guards, because he’s the one paying our fees. Uff!”

“Haa… Haa… Haa…” There was a clatter as one of them dropped her weapon. “I need a break.”

“Fine. Two minutes. Then go switch with one of our lookouts. The rest of you, keep at it. We just need another five more pieces.” The tone of the speaker made it clear that it was the furthest she would go.

I continued to advance, more slowly this time. When I was finally close enough, I felt my throat tighten as I saw the current state of the corpse. Let’s just say that there was a lot of blood, and dismembered was a very apt description. Logically, even if they cleaned up the body parts, the amount of blood left here was going to be a huge clue that something dastardly went down. 

The six kunoichis present were all wearing traditional Japanese masks, and I could see they had varying levels of skills, some of which were pretty attractive to me. 

[Honed Physical Body] [Acrobatics] [Shurikenjutsu] [Transformation Jutsu] [Chain Weaponry Manipulation]... there were also some that were more along the lines of ninja bullshit magic, like [Fireball Jutsu] and [Intermediate Genjutsu].

Hmm, and they’re all quite on guard. I don’t think I could reach the body without one of them noticing me first, and I don’t want to even face them. I continued to think even as the timer on my potions’ effects continued to tick down. Wait…

I appraised their skills once more, searching for any resistance-related ones that would counter my plan. Only one of them had it, and I quickly [Edited] it to become a weakness instead. I also created a few more such skills and [Bestowed] them onto the others. Since [‘Creation’] was limited, I could only inflict it on three others, leaving two who could possibly resist what I was about to do.

Then I made my move, after using my last [‘Creation’] at the cost of 800 LP to give myself [Threat Concealment].

Maybe I should go to the Assassination Classroom world so I can get some of these skills. They aren’t special by themselves, but it’s all in how you use them. Standing up straight, I strolled over to the corpse, or at least the part containing the skill.

In that series, the God of Death, as well as the protagonist Nagisa, had the talent of hiding their fangs until they actually struck, making it easy for them to get close to their targets without alerting them to the danger. Similarly, while I was still invisible under the effects of the potion, I was able to move around without having to focus on sneaking, because the ninjas weren’t registering me as a threat.

I still had a few seconds left, so I snagged myself a few skills from those I passed by in close proximity on the way. [Pickpocket] worked well with [Steal: Ability], especially with my chances of success boosted by my equipment.

“By the way, have you seen the video of that superheroine that has been going around lately?”

“I don’t waste my time watching videos when I could be training, so you’ll just have to tell me about it.”

“She fails so badly that she ends up getting stripped, and the people she tries to fight leave her tied up and gagged for the rescuers to find. It’s become a sort of a running trend.”

“Two minutes are up, so hurry up and get to- wait…” The one wearing the oni mask looked around at the rest of the group, clearly counting the number of people present. “Two, five, six…?”

“What’s wrong?” One of the other kunoichis asked her.

Got it. I had my hand just above the bloodstained part of the chest where the skill was, and pulled out [Mega Fister]. Now to do the next part.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Oni Mask confronted me with her sword aimed at me, while the other hand held a pair of throwing knives at the ready.

“Just a retrieval specialist. I came to take something this guy had that wasn’t his,” I answered amicably, though I remained on guard.

“What should we do with him?” A monkey-masked person asked. 

“Is he from another ninja clan? Hey, identify which clan you’re with.”

“I’m not from any clan,” I answered honestly. 

“So, a nukenin (rogue ninja) then?”

“We didn’t get paid to kill this guy,” One of the others remarked.

“May I leave then?” I asked, “I already have what I came for.”

“...no. A nukenin will have a bounty on his head, so let’s claim it,” Oni Mask decided.

Right away, the rest of the group tensed, readying themselves for a clash. 

Well, I can’t say I was hoping for this, but then again, this is a crapsack world where people are willing to beat the shit out of each other, and go even further than that if they feel like it. I raised a finger to stop them, taking a deep breath as I felt my skill prepare to activate.

[Blue Magic: Bad Breath]!

A noxious green cloud exploded out from my position, enveloping the whole group. Some of them tried to evade with their reflexes, but the skill itself had been [Edited] to reduce any chances of that. Others tried to counterattack first, only for my other skills to protect me; I dodged some of the chained ones, and deftly caught the thrown shuriken and knives. There were sounds of bodies falling, and a few seconds later, the cloud cleared to reveal all of the kunoichis on the floor.

Wait, there are only… five? Where’s the last one? I looked around cautiously, before finally locating her with [Appraisal]. Oh, I forgot that it was one of the possible effects.

Bad Breath normally inflicted status debuffs like Slow, Confusion, Poison, Sleep, Berserk, and others depending on which version of Final Fantasy it was. The one from FFTA also had Frog included, and from the blood-smeared green frog lying near a crate, that had triggered for one unfortunate kunoichi. 

I didn’t have to worry about them dying from poison since they had the resistance for it, but all of them were asleep as I had hoped. So I happily got to work extracting the skills they had, especially since they had no way of resisting. There was one that enabled pain suppression, allowing them to fight on no matter how injured they got. Too bad it didn’t work when they were suppressed by other methods.

I even nabbed myself some of their weapons, using the concealed compartments in the bags that had to belong to them. While they might not be of any worth to Sano, I thought they could prove useful for loading with ninja-themed skills.

“This one was curious as to what the Ayakami clan was fucking around in a place like this, but to see that they’ve all been fucked over so cleanly? Oyuki-chan is impressed.” Another girl’s voice commented from above.

I paused, then looked up at the new person present. “Is that so? Am I going to have any trouble with you?”

“If you were able to handle five genin without taking a single injury, then I don’t doubt you might give me some trouble.” A quick leap brought her down on some crates, a safe distance away from me.

The kunoichi was stripperific in appearance; hot pants, breast band with a rather sizeable chest, and a leather jacket to accent the amount of bare skin she was showing off. She also had long light brown hair with two small braids hanging from the temples, but while she had the pretty looks of a doll, her stoic expression did much to detract from it. This Oyuki was definitely of a higher cut than the other kunoichis I fought, and she carried her own set of ninja weaponry.

Oyuki was from the same clan as Empowered’s ninja friend, though their relationship was more akin to teeth-clenched teamwork than childhood friends. Aside from her generous use of the word ‘fuck’ in normal conversation, one of the other things I could vaguely remember about her was that she was sterile so that her fighting skills would be more valued instead of the clan wanting to use her as a broodmare. A quick [Appraisal] confirmed that.

“That wasn’t an answer,” I pointed out, “My business is finished, so I intend to leave. Are you going to stop me?”

“This one doesn’t recognize you to belong to any clan she knows of, so the chances of you being a nukenin is high… which means there might be a bounty.” Despite her words, she remained calm and steady, with no intention to attack yet.

“There isn’t, but I don’t think you’ll believe that.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely correct,” Oyuki replied without any change in her expression.

According to what I could see of her skills with [Appraisal], she could definitely do a lot of damage to me if I was careless.

“Oyuki-chan wonders what you’re staring so much for, despite knowing she’s got a rather fuckable body.”

“A functionally sterile one, inflicted by a jutsu.”

“Are you a master of medical jutsu then?” Oyuki continued to speak despite not showing any emotion to my comment. “Yes, this one can confirm that her body is totally unable to have any children, despite being fucked many times.”

“Would you like me to reverse that?” I offered, on a random whim.

“Oyuki-chan doubts that is fucking possible, but it is not the most impossible thing she’s heard being offered for one’s life.” Yet I could tell there was a spark of hope at that.

“You have super science, all sorts of magic bullshit and whatnot in this world, and you find that hard to believe?” I couldn’t help retorting.

Oyuki just looked back at me like she was considering whether to end my life or not, though I couldn’t tell with how little emotion she was showing. She understood that I was offering a deal, returning her fertility to her in exchange for letting me leave.

“I’m just offering here, because believe me when I say that I can do it.”

Apparently, my Speech managed to pass its skill check, because she nodded. “What does this one need to do?”

I knew that the Ayakami clan would take revenge if any of their members were killed, even if I wasn’t going to be around this world much longer, so instead I requested that she play the role of an errant rescuer. For my part, I used a few hundred LP to change [Sterile] to [Fertile] on her, though I wasn’t sure how much she believed me given how bullshit and unnoticeable [Editing] was. I also advised her to get out from her clan given how they were treating her, but she bluntly rejected that as ‘fucking useless advice’.

Well, I did what I could. Time to go.

I had been honestly expecting to run into the protagonist while I was here, but apparently I wasn’t lucky all the time. Not that I knew what I would do when I met her. Perhaps I might have tried to nab whatever skill she had powering her determination, or giving her something to improve her ability to endure and keep fighting. I wasn’t sure.

Maybe I might come back to this world again in the future, because it had quite a lot of stuff worth taking.

Once again, I appeared back in the shop, this time carrying a lot more luggage on me.

“Welcome back, Rick-tan. You were just as fast as before.”

“Did it go well?” Uzume wanted to know. “You’re carrying a lot of weapons. And…” She looked down at my feet.

“I stepped in some blood, not mine, but I didn’t get any injuries.” I looked at the owner of the office. “Sorry.”

Sano made a face, but waved his hand and cleaned all traces of blood away entirely, including what was on the weapons. I thought it was Prestidigitation, but it didn’t trigger my Learning, so it had to be some kind of divine power instead of a skill.

“Here you go,” I took out [Mega Fister] and handed it over to Sano, who tucked it away in a drawer. 

“Good work. That satisfies our deal.”

“Will I have to pay if I want to go to that world again? Hey, it has a bunch of people with interesting skills there,” I defended myself.

“Really? Let me take a look at them first!” Matsu demanded excitedly. 

He shook his head. “Not too often, since this was meant for the retrieval of the skill in the first place. I will let you know when I’m able to get permission for you to go there next time.”

Oh yeah. So what now? I asked that same question out loud. 

“Tell us more details about what happened, if you would.”

I explained how I had used my skills to track the enemies, got in close with my potions, then used [Editing] and [Bestow] to stack the deck in my favor when they tried to attack. After that, I extracted my toll in the form of their skills, and cut a deal with another intruder to let me go without a fight. 

“You can do that with [Editing]?” Matsu asked.

“So far, the only limit is my LP.”

“I guess we should help you get more then, Rick-tan.”

Next to Matsu, Uzume’s head bobbled in agreement, with a blush on her cheeks.

“Ahem.” Sano reminded us of his presence by clearing his throat meaningfully.

“Sorry.” The three of us apologized.

…

“It’s definitely very interesting how some skills can synergize like that, especially in some worlds which are based on games,” Matsu said to me, as we were sitting in front of my laptop. “That’s how you knew where to go and what to do to get so strong.”

“That’s right.” 

“So, Rick-tan, could you help me get the other skills in this Skyrim? I’m interested in seeing what I can come up with if I could experiment with them.” 

And that was how I ended up returning to the awfully cold place of Winterhold, though this time I was planning to speedrun through it. With Matsu’s assistance, she plotted out a series of steps on where to go and what to do, so I just had to follow them. There was also the case of retrieving the analysis skill from Lernen, but I believed that our paths would cross eventually. I had also renewed my uses of [‘Creation’], and was planning to try out some of them while in this world.

It had been weeks since I was last here, about the same length of time that had passed in my original world, but I was allowed to walk back in like it was no problem at all. It took a bit of asking around to get caught up on what had happened since I was last here, especially since how secluded the College was from the city itself. Not to mention that my parting gift had earned me a reputation.

“You! You’re back!” Drevis grabbed my shoulders. “Your book, it’s amazing! Thanks to it, many of our students have developed a new appreciation for Illusion!”

“Glad to hear it. Were you able to perform the spells?”

“It took a lot of effort, but some of our students have successfully managed to cast a Phantasm spell. You must tell me more about your research methods, they could be very helpful!”

“Release me, please,” I asked politely, and he did so. “It’s something that’s only possible due to cross-discipline experience, so someone specializing in only one field would have difficulty.”

“I see…”

“By the way, I haven’t seen a certain annoying Thalmor.”

“Ancano? Oh, he’s gone. And good riddance too.” 

“What happened?”

Drevis’s face grew serious. “Have you heard about the Skilless Sickness?” 

“Only rumors,” I claimed, despite knowing that I was the one responsible.

According to them, certain people over Skyrim had found that they had lost some level of personal skill, but quite a few of them just chalked it down to lack of practice, something they would regain after a while. It was only a coincidence that some of them talked to each other, and put the facts together. Word spread, and the investigations into the incidents began.

As for how it was categorized as a sickness, they discovered that a potion of Cure Disease would help the afflicted recover their lost skill faster, but the results varied depending on the person. There was some similarity to vampirism, in fact; if the amount of skill lost was too much, the potion would barely be any help. Alchemists were making quite a bit of money now that demands for that potion had gone up, especially since there were those who were taking them as prophylaxis.

That was an interesting discovery; so I could technically farm even more skills in this place, if I played my cards right. I knew that the ones I stole skills from would lose access to it, but to think that it counted as an illness in this world? Then again, I didn’t have [Appraisal] when I first visited Skyrim, so I wouldn’t have noticed that on my victims’ statuses.

“And Ancano…”

“He was one of the worst afflicted. No matter how many potions he drank, he didn’t regain much,” Drevis confirmed, “Given that he talked so much about how his skill with magic made him suited for the observer role here, its loss meant that he no longer had the competence. Not to mention that we didn’t want it possibly spreading to the rest of the College.”

Whether it was that the College kicked Ancano out, or that he was called back, the mage didn’t mention how the Altmer had left. 

So I got rid of him, unintentionally. Well, that’s good. Except I don’t know where he might have gone. “Has there been any other changes recently? Like the return of dragons.”

“Some rumors have reached us, yes,” He confirmed, “But please, we shouldn’t stand here talking. I’m sure some of your fellow students would love to hear about your recent exploits, and about how your book has opened new areas of research for them.”

Seeing no way to get out of this, I accepted and allowed myself to be led deeper into the College. I was curious to learn more about what had changed since the last time I was here.

Whether the College questline had started, the progress of the civil war in Skyrim, what the Dragonborn had done, any new magics the mages here had discovered.

And if it was possible to steal the [Trainer] skill.

Afterword: It’s amazing how fast I can just put stuff like this one when I feel like I’m in the mood. I know some people on QQ have suggested visiting a superhero world like DC or Marvel, but I didn’t want to risk going there just yet. So instead, I thought of Empowered, which has quite a lot of cool stuff too. It’s only a brief dip in the pool to start, but expect to see more in the future! 

I wasn’t expecting to return to Skyrim so soon, but my muse just encouraged it that way. There’s so much stuff that’s still left to plunder and steal, after all. And to see what Rick’s thievery has caused so far.