“Huh?” Kenny asked, caught off guard by her words.

“I can. As long as the Skill Tree Node required to place it in is the Support Skill Tree. Is it? In the Support Tree I mean,” Val said.

Kenny looked back down at the book. He nodded as he replied, “Yeah it requires an empty Unspecialized Node in the Support Skill Tree…”

“Then I can acquire it from the tome and be able to use it as we venture through the rest of this Trial Grounds,” Val swiftly revealed.

Kenny was confused. The confusion was so evident on his face that Val’s hunger for this book was finally tempered. After thinking about it she was able to understand why he was confused. “I forgot that you didn’t get the full details of everything. You were probably only told that you can not unlock any abilities in your Skill Tree until you awaken the other two Skill Trees right?”

Kenny nodded. Val nodded as well as she further explained, “It is true, but that’s only for Specialized Skill Tree Ability Nodes. Not for the Unspecialized Skill Tree abilities or also known as the Empty Nodes.”

Kenny still looked confused.

Val let out a sigh. “In each of our Skill Trees we have three Specialized Skill Tree Nodes that are already predetermined by our Focus. We also have three Empty Nodes we can fill through Tomes like that one. Those Empty Nodes are there so we can fill them with either survival skills, passive abilities meant to help our Specialized Abilities or just fill in with more powerful abilities or skills. They are called Unspecialized Nodes.”

Kenny took in what she was saying. Tomes and Empty Unspecialized Nodes were a complete mystery to him. He was told at the start of the Trial Grounds that he wouldn’t be able to unlock any of his Skill Tree Abilities until he awakened his other two Skill Trees so he was under the impression he wouldn’t be able to get any abilities unlocked.

But now? Now he was being told that it was only his Specialized Skill Tree abilities and not these Empty Unspecialized Nodes? He needed to find more of these tomes so he could increase his capabilities.

“Oh yeah, there is also one more node that can be unlocked in each Skill Tree. They are called Hidden Nodes,” Val started back up.

Kenny looked at her with a slightly confused looked as he repeated the words, “Hidden Nodes?”

Val nodded. “Yes there is only one in each Skill Tree and each Tier. They represent your Hidden Potential that will help you know which direction you should grow as you Tier up. You can only unlock them through something called Hidden Tome of whatever Skill Tree it is for.”

Kenny nodded as he took in that bit of information. It seemed like not only was he pressed for time, had no one to team with, and had to go on alone until he finally met someone, he also was omitted a lot of information.

He let out a sigh. He couldn’t be mad. He was told he was going to have a huge disadvantage compared to the others. This made him wonder what else he missed through his run in the other two areas.

Kenny shifted his weight from one foot to another and felt his body ripple as he heard the sound of his wet shoes and socks squish. With a grimace he looked down and remembered they hadn’t changed out of their wet swamp water covered clothes yet. Something they were going to need to do soon if they wanted to not waste any time. Remembering what he was doing before he found out she could use the tome, Kenny stood up and went to hand it to her once again.

Once more Val stared at him. She looked wary, like this was an exquisite trap laid down by him. With a sigh he said, “I have no use for it. You can use it so use it.”

“What do you want for it? I…I don’t have much right now and I am not going to use my bod…,” Val started to say but was cut off as Kenny raised his free hand up in the air to stop her next words.

“I don’t want your body. At least not in that sense,” Kenny started. He realized his words weren’t any more helpful so he rushed to explain, “What I mean is, the more you can do the easier it will be going forward. You being able to stack your Slow ability will be extremely helpful to us in the long run. If you want to give me something, then give me the chance to pass this Trial Grounds. After that…I’ll let you decide if the compensation was enough.”

He then shoved the book into her hands and started for the bowl of clean water while pulling off his vest. “For now, learn it or absorb it or whatever you need to do and then change out of those wet clothes, clean them, and hang them to dry. We’ll get some rest while your ankle is healing and then we’ll press on. We still need to finish this area and the next two while finding our triggers.”

Val’s argument that was starting to form slowly fell away as she watched Kenny walking towards the bowl of clean water. Her face flushed slightly at the sight of him pulling his vest off to reveal his back. His physique wasn’t all that impressive. Not like the one she had seen for the last couple of days while she was in that group. That guy was all muscle, broad, and looked to have been chiseled to perfection while Kenny’s was…a work in progress.

She could see the signs of his body adapting to his new stats, but at the same time she could see that there were areas he had worked on before coming here. Not only that, but there were subtle hints his body had experience in fighting.

If she were to compare him to the guy she was able to eye feast off of, while that man was a carefully created picture meant to catch the eyes of everyone, Kenny looked like a worn and torn cloth piece ran through the ringer and always came out stronger.

She wasn’t sure why she compared the two like that, but that was the description she felt was apt. Maybe it was in the way they both walked or how they held themselves. She wasn’t sure, but she felt she could see the difference between the two that way.

Her brows started to furrow as she questioned why she was trying to compare the two. There was no reason to. It was rude to Kenny for her to do that. Afterall, one had ditched her after he felt her slight usefulness, if he even thought that, had ran its course while the other was willing to team up with her regardless of what her ability was. Their priorities were the same, but the methods to reach their goals were completely different.

Maybe that’s what it was. They were both serious about reaching the starting point of the Tower and wanted to ascend it no matter what. One was focused on making sure his teammates had the right abilities while the other wanted to make sure his teammates were serious about ascending.

One didn’t care if his actions were a betrayal to those he had on his team while the other didn’t want any backstabbing. One didn’t care about whether or not he had to switch people out in order for his group to be effective and the other didn’t want to have to keep finding more people. He just wanted a teammate who would join him on his journey.

Val shook her head. There was no way she could read that far into both boys. She was just probably trying to justify both of their actions by putting them in a box of comparisons and differences. She still felt hurt and betrayed when her old teammates ditched her. After meeting Kenny and having him act and say the things he did she was probably trying to protect herself and not think he would do the same. Yeah, that had to be it.

Val looked at Kenny once more before looking at the book. No matter how nice he was right now, he was like her. He wanted to pass this Trial Grounds and start his own adventure. Whether or not she was helpful in achieving that laid in what she was able to do.

She nodded at that. That had to be it. Him giving her this tome was proof that she had her usefulness and she needed to display that going forward. She gripped the edges of the book tightly as her face tightened. She wouldn’t be cast aside again. Not anymore.

Kenny felt his arms drip as he finished running the clean water over them, his chest, face, and legs. He could feel his bare feet on the dry ground beneath him and he felt so much better. He turned to head to the bathroom area, but stopped to look at Val. She had just opened the tome and watched as a strange light glow from it before it washed over her.

He was shocked as he watched the whole thing happened and then grew worried. If those tomes needed magic to be put into them in order to receive whatever laid within then he was going to need to learn how to properly channel his mana. Something he believed she could help him with. However, that wouldn’t be right now. there was too much to do and too little time.

While he did form a team with her hastily, he didn’t regret it. Especially not after finding out what her ability was. That Slow Debuff ability was a blessing in disguise. Something that will definitely come in handy going forward. He just hoped that she didn’t think that was all he wanted from her. Her ability was one thing, and while having people with the right compatibilities in the same group will help them to continue to press forward that wasn’t all he wanted.

What he really wanted in a teammate was someone who he could relate to. Someone he could get along with and form a long time friendship with. Power and compatibility was great and all, but if you couldn’t get along with that person then that will lead to the team’s downfall in the end.

As they talked he could see and feel there was some similarities between them. She was hurt and betrayed. He knew how that felt. While her betrayal and hurt stemmed from something different compared to his, she was still somewhat similar to him. That was why he made those terms with her. He wanted her to understand that he wasn’t like those who had caused those feelings. He didn’t sympathize with her because he didn’t really understand the word, but he understood her…at least a small part of her.

Kenny shook his head before walking into the bathroom and changed. Only the time left in this Trial Grounds will tell if what he hoped for will happen or if he needed to find a new teammate after this was all done.

Time had passed as they rested. They both took turns resting and keeping an eye out for monsters. While they were told safe areas were places monsters wouldn’t enter, they still needed to make sure when they left they weren’t hiding and waiting for them. They ate some food and dried everything that was wet. They knew there was no point in drying their footwear since they were going to get them wet again soon anyways, but they didn’t care.

After Val’s ankle was much better and she could walk on it without any issues, they got ready and headed out. The path they walked was both quiet and empty of monsters. It looked like no new ones had spawned and the ones they had fought earlier were all that were left. Something they didn’t like since they wanted to test out their teamwork and Val’s new Stacking ability before reaching the Mid-Area boss. However, it seemed that the Tower had other ideas for them.

After walking for fifteen minutes they came to a circled clearing. The trees had bunched up together forming a wall to prevent anyone from trying to run through them to escape. Vines dangled down from the top of the trees at both the entrance they had walked through and a section in the back. There were several stoned surfaces they could step on to get out of the swampy water, but the wide spacing told them they probably had another purpose.

Sitting in the middle of the swampy area was a massive muddy brown and dirty green colored toad. Its body looked sleek and had a shine to it, like a film of slime was covering its wart covered body. Its eyes were creepy as it stared at them blankly and it was taller than Kenny even on all fours. After a screen popped up they understood that this wasn’t a toad, but a bullfrog.

[Mid-Area Boss. Toxic Slime Skinned Bullfrog. Stat Talent – Vitality.]

“Ugh, even this Mid-Area boss is a Vitality Stat Talent creature,” Val complained as she stared at the disgusting creature.

“At least its not an Agility Stat Talented creature,” Kenny counter. “Could you imagine one of those having the Agility of a Grey Haired Rat? Now that would be frightening.”

Val couldn’t help but both laugh and grimace at the thought. He was right. That would have been terrifying to see. They stopped their bantering as the bullfrog creature suddenly let out a loud croak. The force from its mouth sent a shockwave powerful enough to make the swamp water around it to ripple out in a small wave.

At first both of them weren’t sure why it had done that, but when they tried to move and felt their feet and legs sludge through the water they quickly understood. This was its way of preventing anything from quickly approaching it as well as slowing everyone from escaping its incoming attack.

The Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog lowered its head before leaping into the air right over Kenny. Kenny bent his knees right before leaping forward. While his Spring Step Bracelet allowed him to leap forward quickly, the swampy water beneath him had slowed the movement by a quarter. Kenny was slightly alarmed by this, but then relaxed as he found he was still fast enough to dodge the incoming body slam from above.

As the creature came falling from the sky, Kenny heard Val shout out, “Slow!”

He wasn’t sure if it had worked since there was no glow, any magical, nor physical indication of it working. It was when Val cursed after the monster slammed into the water and cause a wave to crash into Kenny’s chest that he understood it had failed. She called out the same word again, and again as Kenny started his own flurry of strike.

As each of his punches slammed into the Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog’s skin, he felt a shiver run up his arms as his fist raked along the monster’s slimy skin. From afar he wasn’t able to tell, but after being up so close and punching the monster he had discovered the amount of slime that coated the creature was a lot more than the Toxic Skinned Toads he had fought previously.

The thorns on his hand wraps were barely able to brush against the monster’s fragile skin under the toxic coating of slime. Even his necklace that allowed him to have sharper strikes didn’t seem to be helping him for some reason.

Kenny let out a dissatisfied grunt as he kept trying to get past the layer of slime as the monster started getting back up. Right as it started to turn face him, Kenny heard Val let out a victorious shout after she had yelled Slow. To his surprise, Kenny did see a slight difference in the amount of speed the monster had when turning. It wasn’t a lot, but it was still enough to see the difference.

Val sent out a bolt of magic from her wand before trying to stack the ability again. She was successful. As they had walked they talked about her new Passive ability, Stacking. It allowed her to cast and stack her Slow Debuff on a target four more times. There were pros and cons to the Passive ability though.

The pros were that she didn’t have to wait ten seconds after each attempt of trying to stack the Debuff, there were no wait times even after an unsuccessful attempt, and the timer would increase with each successful Debuff.

The cons, each successful stacking of the debuff would be weaker than each of the successful ones landed. Once the timer of the Debuff effect was gone she would have to wait an additional five seconds per successful debuff stacked to use her Debuff again on that target, and lastly each attempt to stack would cost her an additional amount of mana to land the Debuff.

This meant she would need to be careful when trying to stack multiple targets with Debuffs and would need to manage her mana well, so she didn’t run out. Something Kenny believed she would be able to handle well. When he mentioned that Val was taken aback.

He then explained that he thought this because she was mentioning and going over the amount of times she would be able to use the passive ability and trying to think of ways of using it when they would have to fight multiple enemies. Those who didn’t do that and believed they would be able to handle things as they came were those he wouldn’t put much faith in because those were the type of people who would go in guns a blazing and run out of mana before they knew what happened.

Val was both surprised by his response and felt a slight sense of joy Kenny had been paying that much attention. His mindset on people was both refreshing and different than what she had expected. She felt an urge of motivation to make sure he wasn’t disappointed in her, not that she should be worried.

Kenny swiftly moved out of the way before the giant bullfrog could face him and continued to punch the belly. As he moved once more to get away from the face he suddenly tripped and fell belly over on top of the rocky step that was resting randomly in the water.

Kenny cursed as he tried to scramble up. As he got up he heard Val yell out to warn him, but the splash and wave of water that came over the stoned step was all the warning he needed to jump out of the way. As he jumped from the step and landed a few feet away from it, Kenny turned and watched as the Toxic Slimed Skin Bullfrog went belly down, legs extended on top of the step.

To both his and Val’s surprise they both saw the step explode as a loud and slow painful scream escape from the creature’s wide open mouth before it tipped sideways and exposed its belly while it floundered on its back. Kenny wasn’t sure if this was part of anything, but he took this opportunity to rush over and start hammer punching its belly.

Another surprise he discovered was the belly of this creature was not covered in the toxic slime that coated the rest of its body. Something Kenny gratefully took advantage of as he continued to send powerful strike after strike causing as much damage as he could before it flipped back over to its feet.

As Kenny moved to position himself to face the monster’s side he yelled out, “Its stomach is its weakness! We need to get it to land on the steps and have it expose its belly again so we can land any worthwhile damage!”

“Got it!” Val shouted back as she launched another blast from her wand.

Kenny scanned the area to try and find the closest stone step, but as he did this his attention was forcefully turned back to the creature as it opened its mouth and turned its head to launch its tongue like a whip. The distance it went wasn’t long, which made Kenny believe it was meant to deal with any melee ranged fighters.

Val noticed this and called out, “I’ll be your guide, you just focus on keeping its attention on you and guide it to it!”

“Alright!” Kenny shouted back, glad that he finally had someone taking a part of the responsibilities off of him. He would leave the scouting and the support to Val while he focused on the damage dealing and tanking. Something he was totally fine with.

Thanks to Val’s guidance and reapplying of her Slow Debuff, Kenny was able to dodge the attacks the bullfrog attempted while also leading it to any of the stoned steps close to him. After the third body slam and landing of strikes the Bullfrog let out a loud and powerful croak. This was strong enough to make both Kenny and Val stop from moving as the swamp water rippled high enough to wash over their waist.

The slime on the creature’s body started to shift from covering itself and moved towards its mouth as it opened wide. Kenny saw the tongue inside start to shift around and understood it was going to launch it. He felt his eyes wide a moment later after realizing the creature’s target wasn’t himself, but rather Val instead.

Kenny then started to trudge through the murky walk as fast as he could. However, the ripple of water that came from the croak hadn’t stopped as more of them kept waving out from the Bullfrog. He could feel his stamina starting to drain as he pushed himself hard through the ripples of water.

The ripples were preventing him from trying to get in between it and Val. Val had an even harder time trying to move out of the way. Her stamina, much lower than Kenny’s, was reaching its limit making her exhausted and started breathing heavily.

Kenny watched as the tongue launched itself right for his teammate. He gritted his teeth as he swore from how close he was as the tongue ran past him and towards her. He then made up his mind. With as much power as he could muster, Kenny bent his knees and leaped as hard as he could through the ripples just to try and punch the extended tongue.

Hoping the thorns on his hand wraps would cause enough pain to make it stop its reach before it could slam into Val. That or cause enough force to change the trajectory and miss her entirely.

As soon as his punch landed, he got his answer. He felt his hand get stuck on the tongue and almost rip him out of the swamp water. However, the thickness of the heavy water, probably due to the mud that sat on the ground and something else, allowed Kenny to dig his feet down and stop the tongue from going any further. He let out a sigh of relief as the tongue stopped mere inches away from Val’s face and dropped in the water.

That sigh of relief was quickly replaced as he felt a sudden jolt forward as the giant bullfrog retracted its tongue back to its mouth, bringing Kenny along with it. He let out a surprised shout as he felt his body skip across the water and towards the creature. The ripples and waves from earlier had stopped, but he still felt the water splashing onto his face and body as he was pulled towards the monster’s open mouth.

Right before Kenny was brought into the monster's maw, Kenny shifted his body to place his feet out to land on the bottom half of the Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog’s jaw while throwing his hands up to latch on the top, preventing it from closing shut on him and having the monster’s tongue from being fully retracted.

As Kenny stood there trying to stop the monster from eating him, Kenny had a random thought that popped up. This damn amphibian has a huge freaking mouth. How in the Tower’s name was it so wide and looked like it could swallow him whole? His thought was shaken away as he felt the creature do something he hadn’t taken into consideration. It jumped high into the air and positioned itself to do a body slam into the water.

“Oh fu…,” Kenny went to shout as he felt the rush of air indicating they were coming down fast.

Water suddenly washed over his entire body right as he closed his eyes and mouth, preventing any of the dirty liquids from being swallowed. As soon as he felt the water fall off his face and body, Kenny blew out as much air as he could to make sure he got the swampy disgusting water away from his mouth.

Before he could open his eyes he felt the monster jump right up into the air one more. Another wave of water rushed over him causing him to curse internally. He almost didn’t close his mouth in time as they came down. Something he was starting to get pissed about. He could hear Val’s shouts during each time the monster jumped.

After the third jump and body slam into the water, Kenny felt his grip on the bullfrog’s top jaw start to slip as his feet did the same. That’s when he realized the monster was trying to use the water to make him slip right into its mouth.

Kenny shifted his hands and feet enough before angling them to slid out of the monster’s mouth right in time as the creature’s jaw suddenly slammed shut. To Kenny’s happiness he was outside of the monster’s mouth. However, his hand was still stuck to the creature’s nasty tongue.

Feeling annoyed by this creature and a rush of energy that came out of nowhere, Kenny took his stuck hand and wrapped it around the creature’s tongue. He felt the creature bent down and readied itself for another jump, but Kenny had a different plan for it. As It launched its body up into the air, Kenny slammed all his weight forward as he swung his legs under the creature.

To both the Bullfrog’s and Val’s surprise the bullfrog didn’t go straight up into the air. Instead, the monster’s face dropped down and caused its whole body to flip over before landing straight onto a stoned step causing it to explode. The force of the slam was felt in the swamp water as a powerful wave of swamp water was pushed out before it came back in.

Kenny, soaked and pissed, breathed heavily. A smile slowly formed as he let out a laugh that made Val confused until she received the same screen message he did.

[Congratulations! You have defeated Mid-Area Boss, Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog. Exp earned. Tower Credits earned.]

[Calculating results.]

[Fighting the Mid-Area Boss with only two people has been taken into account.]

[Calculations completed. Appropriate loot suitable for performance and involvement has been determined.]

“Damn no Title this time?” Kenny muttered to himself as he stood up and ripped the disgusting tongue off his fist.

Kenny blanched as he felt the water running down his body. He felt his hair stick to the side of his head and a few strands dangled over his eyes. He blew the strands from his face only to regret it as they came back and splat against his eyes.

Kenny let out a sigh of defeat as he looked down at his hands. While he wanted to fix his hair, he wasn’t sure if trying to do it while wearing his thorned hand wraps was a smart idea. He did have a high Endurance stat, but the irritation he would get from the scratches would be annoying. Taking off the hand wraps and then putting them back on would be the same thing.

His worries about his hair were taken away as he heard Val shout out, “Holy crap! I got a Title!”

Kenny turned around and looked at her. He could see the excited smile that was spread across her face as she stared at the screen. It was in her eyes as she turned to look at him, mouth slightly open still grinning. “I got a Title Kenny!”

“Nice,” Kenny said, a warm smile slowly growing on his. His complaint of not getting another Title this time round gone from his mind as he saw how happy Val was. “What’s the Title?”

“First Time Stacker,” Val stated, still amazed. “I get a five percent bonus to my Intelligence Stat. Holy crap Kenny! Is this how you felt when you got your first Title?!”

Kenny felt the infectious joy she was exuding and thought back to when he got his first Title. He was confused since he didn’t have any idea what Titles were, but he could remember some excitement in seeing his stats grow, even if it was a small amount. “My first reaction was more confusion, but I guess you could say I was excited. Not as excited as you are right now, but I did feel some excitement.”

Val closed her mouth and felt her cheeks flush. She let out a few breaths to calm herself. Before either of them could say anything they both heard two thumps coming from the side. They turned to see two loot chests resting on the last two stoned steps that weren’t destroyed in the fight. Kenny looked at Val and asked, “Shall we?”

Val smiled once more before replying, “Yes, we shall.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A loud rumbling laughter filled the room causing half of the occupants to cover their ears. The viewers had just finished watching Kenny’s and Val’s fight with the Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog.

Some were impressed with how fast the fight took, others were not impressed with how Kenny handled the fight. One found the whole interaction from the moment Kenny got his fist stuck on the frog’s tongue to the way he used that same tongue to body slam the creature on its back right on top of a stoned step.

“Hahaha! He does not disappoint,” Gunnar bellowed as he slammed his fist on the table.

“I don’t know about that,” Estrella said with a frown. “Even with a teammate he still fights like a street thug. Although, with a teammate like her who can only place a single Debuff I guess he’s still stuck doing what he’s best at.”

Majority of the people in the room frowned at her comments. While a few agreed that his method of fighting the creature, especially the way he landed the final kill, was crude compared to what they were used to, they also felt he was handling things the best to his ability. He wasn’t fighting to earn style points. He was fighting to survive and pass this Trial Ground.

While everyone was busy judging him, Vesely was happy that he found someone he could team up with. While they judged her for only having a Slow Debuff ability, she saw the same thing Kenny did. Compatibility. Compatibility to slow down the enemies while Kenny beat the ever loving crap out of them. Not only that but her use of the wand could also help him get the creatures who were in the air since his reach ended at the end of his arm.

“I think he’s an idiot for wasting that perfectly good Skill Tree Tome of Magical Stacking on girl who could only use a single Debuff,” Mimi suddenly stated.

Everyone turned their attention on the woman. She could feel the stares and questioning gazes upon her. Explaining herself further, Mimi said, “We all know that buffs are helpful to a team. They can increase any stat that can make the target better at combat while Debuffs only target the opponent. Sometimes there are Debuffs that can only afflict a single target and only that target until it wears off or the target dies right?”

Murmurs of agreements along with some nodding were answered as Mimi continued, “We also know that the ability given from that Tome allows a person to stack Buffs, Debuffs, or the like up to four times, at least right now it can.

The stacked effects also lessen the more the user successfully lands their ability. I feel it is a waste because someone who can use Buffs can get more out of that Stacking Ability than a person who uses Debuffs. Stacking Buffs on your team is so much more useful than stacking Debuffs on a target. It’s a waste.”

“I don’t know about that in this case,” a new voice joined in.

This voice belonged to a short slim looking female with bright azure hair and emerald, green eyes. Protruding out above her head were two long floppy bunny ears that extended straight up then back down over her head.

She looked meek and was wary when everyone turned to look at her. She was about to clam back up, but after seeing a few encouraging nods she pressed on, “While I can agree with you about the ability and its effects and who I believe can best utilize the ability, I don’t think his decision in giving the tome to her was wrong.”

“Oh? Do you really think so? I didn’t you of all people, Lizzy, would say that,” Mimi said in an icy tone as she glared at the woman.

Lisandra, or Lizzy as some people called her, felt a cold chill run down her spine as she saw the look given to her. She felt a hand of encouragement touch her shoulder making her turn to look at Christian who was sitting next to her. He gave her a rare smile that gave her the courage to continue speaking boldly what was on her mind.

“As a full blown Support Class Mage that utilizes both Buffs and Debuffs, I think I have more knowledge on the matter. The Stacking ability is essentially the one ability many who use Buffs, Debuffs, Curses, and even Hexes need to seek out if they wish to bring out their abilities true potential. While I can agree with Mimi on the effectiveness the Stacking ability can be best used through Buffs, that’s not always the case. I believe its effectiveness is best determined on the team composition.”

Lizzy looked around for a brief moment to see if anyone had anything to argue. When no one said anything she pressed on, “In the case of this Kenneth and Valerie, Kenneth giving her the Skill Tree Tome of Magical Stacking was the best choice rather than holding onto it and waiting to give it to someone else. Valerie may only have the Slow Debuff, but that one single Debuff can and, when presented with a much harder and tougher creature, will be a life saving thing. Kenneth is, as we are seeing, essentially a pugilistic or brawler type fighter.”

“Sure, Buffs could come in handy for him, but having to constantly switch from his current to a temporary stat increase will take a toll on his body. He will grow tired after constantly switching making his body confused. Especially since they are on a timer. He would eventually breakdown and have to sleep it off and might even sleep the whole Trial Grounds away if he is not careful.”

“Having someone who can slow the enemy, like we watched them do with the Toxic Slimed Skinned Bullfrog, will allow him to jump on the opportunity to take advantage of their slow reaction speed, movements, and land powerful strike after strike killing their opponents much faster and easier. Honestly, I was shocked when he saw and openly yelled out his satisfaction when learning about this young girl’s ability. His appreciation for the ability and understanding that there are no bad abilities showed that he is very capable of adaptation and sees potential in abilities that others would easily discard.”

Many people in the room grew shock at that last part of her long winded explanation. They all knew who she was talking about. The comment was jabbed at Estrella and her favorite in the current Trial Grounds, Victor.

Vesely was pleased with Lizzy’s snip at Estrella. The very meek and timid woman who always remained silent unless talked to directly had never done this before. However, Vesely had noticed the displeased look in the smaller woman’s face when Estrella made comments about Val and how those who seemed to be nothing but support types were kind of a waste unless they had specific abilities. Especially those who had Debuffs.

When Victor kicked Valerie off his team in the guise of her not being compatible enough for what he envisioned, Estrella praised him for having the best insights loudly. Lisandra on the other hand was pissed. Even though many couldn’t see it since she had kept her face neutral, Vesely could see it in her eyes.

Lisandra was one of the best, maybe even the best, Supporters out there. Her use, timing, and combinations of mixing and throwing out Buffs and Debuffs when they needed to be used in stead of just blindly or religiously throwing them out was what brought her to where she was today. Many of those who use support like abilities or can only use support-like abilities aimed to be just like her. She was their inspiration and motivation.

Vesely smiled as she looked back at the screen seeing Kenny and Val smiling and laughing as they talked about Titles. She was glad he didn’t dismiss the girl nor her ability. It showed that he really looked at the possibilities the girl could bring if they joined as a party.

The comment about how there were no bad abilities only stupid people who don’t know how to utilize them had both made many people in the room, especially Lisandra, surprised and quite pleased. It told everyone that he wasn’t just looking at the ability itself, but the potential and possibilities they could bring.

Something that wasn’t mentioned was he didn’t just jump at making her his teammate because he needed to form a team. He had actually taken the time to get to know a small bit of her. She could see him assessing her not by her strengths, but rather her mentality and how well they could get along.

She was shocked and was taken aback when he dropped her in the water, but after what he said and then offered to carry her she understood what it was he was doing. She approved, both with his method and her reactions.

“You can bark all you want about what happened, but the fact still remains these two still need to get through two more areas and awaken their last two Skill Trees,” Estrella suddenly said, sounding bored with all the talks while looking at her nails. “Unlike my favorite and his team that are already in the last area and have found all three of their triggers. So unless they actually pass, which I still believe is a slim chance, everything they do right now could end up being a waste. What I’m more concerned about is that specific tome is the only one of its kind that has appeared in the Trial Grounds this time. If they don’t make it then it really will be considered a waste.”

Ayla, feeling tired of the useless bantering, finally chimed in before anyone could react to her words, “While it is always great to hear the difference of opinions, we have some more fights to watch.”

Everyone turned to look at the orb, most were happy that someone found a topic change. While it was both surprising and entertaining to hear the wallflower of the group finally say something on her own, they really didn’t want to hear anything more from Estrella. A few gave Lisandra a nod and a smile before getting back to their work.