"Hum, so let me see what this potion will turn out to be." Leo muttered as he opened the inventory and took out the potion. What appeared in his hand was a beautiful rhombus crystal bottle inside of which a clear and fog-like substance was constantly moving and changing color. As he held it, Leo could feel the impressive amount of mana radiating from it.

'Oh, that seems to be good stuff.' Leo muttered as he excitedly cast appraisal on the bottle. 

[Random attribute boosting potion: Rare

Grade: Low

Randomly adds 5-10 points to any of your attributes. Only work for being of Rank D or lower.

Use: 5/5] 

"Holy moly!" Leo exclaimed as he looked at the potion in front of him. He was expecting to receive something good when he took out the potion and felt the mana inside but he wasn't expecting it to be that good. It was a freaking potion that could add up to 10 points to any of his stats and permanently. It was common knowledge that anything that could increase one's stats permanently was a godly item. It wasn't a piece of equipment that could break or a buff potion with limited effect, those points would belong to him forever. Plus if he didn't read it wrong, that potion could affect any of his attributes. Meaning that even the most elusive Luck attribute could be increased with the help of this potion.

'Shout, I am still in the newbie area, right?' Leo asked as he carefully put the potion back in the inventory.

'Luxia, did the number of uses mean I can use the potion five times or I can only drink that kind of potion five times.' Leo asked.

[It's the latter. You can only use the Low-grade attribute boosting potion five times. Afterward, it won't be of any use and you will need to use a higher-ranked one.]

'I see, guess I can't be too greedy.' Leo muttered but he couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice. 

Leo looked at the potion inside the inventory, and after pondering a little took it out again. He was going to take it right now. Since it was something random and he had no control over its effect, it didn't matter when he'd take it. Plus he was very eager to taste such a godly potion. 

After looking carefully at the potion in his hand, he gently twisted its top and opened it. As soon as he opened the bottle, he was immediately assaulted by a wonderful fragrance that almost put him in a trance. Pulling himself out of that state, he stared at the potion with an intoxicated gaze and drank it in go. Once again, he was assaulted by a heavenly feeling he would like to last forever. It was so wonderful that he almost felt like he was melting.

However, that feeling didn't last long and was quickly replaced by a heart-wrenching pain. It was like he was being skinned alive. Luckily for him the pain quickly subsided after ten or so seconds, leaving with a bated breath. 

[Ding….. You have received 7 Luck points.]

“Damn that potion. It was a true roller-coaster. Guess power never comes for free.” Leo complained as he massaged his body.

However, when he saw the system's notification, Leo let go of all his complaints and grinned as if the world already belonged to him. While he had hoped to receive an increase in his luck when he drank the potion, his expectations weren't that high. So he was very happy now that his luck indeed increased.

‘Hehe. Now I should be able to pick treasure by the roadside, right?' Leo muttered, now that he was lucky, life was bound to become better.

'Now, I should test my luck by using the skill card.' Leo thought as he took out the skill card.

[Skill card: Use to receive one rank E or D skill randomly.]

[Ding...You have used a skill card.]

[Ding… You have received the rank D Shadow spike.]

'That's more like it.' Leo grinned as he looked at the description of his first rank D skill.

[Shadow spike: Level 1/5 (0/100)

You can create a shadow spike that deals 130% of your magic damage. The shadow spike can be created anywhere in a 3 meters range around you.

You can create more shadow spikes simultaneously but with each additional spike, the cost of the skill is doubled. Currently, you can only cast 3 spikes at the same time.

The power will be decreased by 30% if there is no shadow around you.

Cost: 70 MP       Cast time: 2s]

'Oh my, that's a scary and powerful skill.' Leo's eyes shone as he imagined the various uses of such a skill. It can deal a scary amount of damage to his target but it can also serve as a powerful defensive skill and stop anyone from coming too close to him.

'I should check the other one and test them out.' Leo muttered as he checked the description of the skills he received after reaching level five.

[Shadow body: Level 1/5  (0/100)

 

Passive: You are a creature born from the shadow. All physical damage you receive will be reduced by 30%. Increase shadow cloak efficiency by 10%.]

'Cool, a passive skill. Seems like my luck has really improved. Now shadow cloak is more powerful and I don't need to be afraid of physical attacks as much as before.' Leo grinned, he was happy, very, very happy to have accepted that mission. He now understands how important those missions are for him. With each one he would have the opportunity to experiment a great leap in his power. He was very eager to receive and do them now.

'Luxia, can I only learn skills through the system or can I learn them through another way?' Leo asked.

[No, you can learn skills through other sources that are not the system. ]

'Oh, I see. So what are the conditions for the system to recognize one of my skills?'

[It’s simple, you just have to show a good understanding of the skill and successfully execute the skill by yourself a certain number of times. ]

“Oh, so how come I just need to wish for a skill to activate for it to work.”

[It doesn't mean you can't use a skill by yourself. The system can take care of the necessary steps for the activation of skill or spell for you, so most of the time you just wish for it to be activated. The system will always cast a skill in the most optimal way.  However, each time you learn a skill, you already know everything about it and can use it independently. If you want you can cast a skill by yourself that way you’ll have more control over the skill's power and effect.]

“Oh so that’s to say a skill will always have the effect presented in the description when used with the system help but if I use them myself I can change things like the energy output, the duration, and the power it has.”

[You can see it like that. But keep in mind that you can't just do whatever you want since there is a limit to how much you can mess with a skill without making it unstable and failing to cast it. That’s where the system will be useful since you will never need to worry about failing to cast a skill during a fight. Also by using the system to cast your skill, you can completely focus on your fight. Anyway you’ll have all the time to figure things out.]

“That makes a lot of things clear. I don't think I will bother about that kind of thing for the moment. It is not like there is a problem with fighting that way for the time. Now that we are at it, tell me about the skill point."  

[Skill points are very important. Their first use is to level, upgrade or evolve your skills.]

[You normally level skill by using it continuously. However, you can also directly increase the level of skill by spending skill points.] 

[Skill upgrade allows a skill to reach the next rank. To upgrade a skill, it only needs to be lvl max and you can spend skill points to make it reach the next rank. However, each skill has a limit and you can't upgrade every skill up to the max rank.]

[Unlike the upgrade that makes a skill reach a stronger rank without changing its nature, the skill evolution will create a new and more powerful skill.]

“Oh, I'm glad that I didn't touch my skill point now. They can do so many things but there are only so many of them." Leo muttered as he internally praised himself for his wiseness. 

'Now, I should go fight a little and test shadow spike.' Leo said as jumped from the tree. This time he was looking for bigger and mightier prey. He had bullied the rabbit enough like this. After walking deeper into the forest, he finally found a worthy prey. It was a wolf. A big bad wolf that was almost a meter tall and was full of muscle. There was a violent and savage air surrounding it and Leo shuddered a little when its scarlet eyes looked towards him.  As it walked, Leo could see its big fangs that looked like they could tear him apart in one bite. However, Leo wasn't intimidated by the scary look of the wolf. In front of him, it was only prey. 

[Dire Wolf: Rank E

HP: 300/300

Danger level: Minimal]

Calmly, Leo waited for the wolf to step into his attack range. However, just as the wolf neared him, it stopped and started looking around warily. After sniffing in the air for a second and turned its head toward Leo and started to growl.

'He found me. Not surprising considering how good wolves sense of smell are.' Leo said as he walked towards the wolf. Since the wolf wasn't coming, he would go towards it personally. However, the wolf seemed wary of Leo and stepped back.

'Oh, that's unexpected.' Leo muttered it was the first time a beast was showing fear in front of him. He was glad but he didn't have enough time to waste playing with that wolf.

'Where did you put the pride of the wolf species? Come here little doggo, I won't harm you. You will just feel a little sting.' Leo mouthed as he walked towards the wolf. However, the wolf didn't seem convinced and turned tail to run. Without hesitation, Leo chased after the wolf and activated shadow spike the moment it was three meters away from him. The wolf sensing danger coming from under him tried to dodge but he was a little late and the spike managed to stab one of its hind legs and crippled him. Helpless, it fell on the ground, and without hesitation, Leo once again cast shadow spike. This time the wolf was unable to dodge and the spike pierced its body whole and killed the wolf.

'Powerful.' Leo grinned. He was very satisfied by the power demonstrated by shadow spike, not only was the wolf completely unable to defend against it, but it also appeared instantly, giving his opponent little time to dodge.

'Well, I guess I should experiment with it a little more before concluding.' Leo muttered as he dashed inside the forest. After emptying his mana reserve more than one time and committing a little massacre, Leo was indeed able to get a better understanding of shadow spike. First was that he didn't need to always make the spike emerge from the ground. He could create the spike in the air and throw it towards his target, like this, even if the target wasn't inside the three meters range he would still be able to attack it. The second thing was that when making more than one spike, he could make them appear at different places. And lastly, he could fuse all the spikes and deal almost 400% of damage with that attack alone. 

'And I reached level 6 too. Hehe, now, I can confidently become a local bully.' Leo said as he cheerfully walked towards the clearing.