Jacob returned home to plan his next moves. He looked at the date. 

“It’s February 11, only 18 days to go before my graduation exam on March 2nd.”

He pondered upon what moves to make next.

“I don’t have access to real dungeons anymore since Mr. Adam is not allowing me as I’m on the radar of powerful people. That leaves me with the Dungeon Key I got from that Random Box and the Penalty Zone that I’m sent to if I fail my Daily Quest.”

He leaned back on his gaming chair in comfort with a contemplative look.

“Then there’s also the matter of investigating Kevin and his goons to see if they were involved in the danger I came to be in inside Four Sides of Death. Then there’s someone from Lawson Lions who harmed my mother….”

There was so much he wanted to do but little he could achieve at the moment since many things were unclear. He now had the additional responsibility of getting his mother healed by a healer, so he couldn’t take casual risks anymore.

“Healer… healer huh. Just because she’s got that S-Ranked healing skill, she’s become arrogant and charges so much for her service. Without her skill, would she still be so popular?” he complained. But then it hit him.

“I have a skill creation chance! What if… what if I can create a healing skill and help my mother this way?”

Excitedly, he got up quickly and hit his table with his thigh, breaking it apart into two pieces. At the same time, his gaming computer fell to the ground.

“Ouch.” He felt the pain but his anticipation made him ignore the loyal companion he had for so long. He quickly opened his inventory and selected his Skill Creation Chance.

…

[Skill Creation Chance]

Type: Special

Effect: Can create any skill with appropriate limitations.

Limit: Job-specific skills only.

Description: A wondrous opportunity that is extremely rare in the universe.

…

His face, which was widening into a smile, paused upon seeing the limitation. His imagination of seeing his mother healed by the next day and his father patting him on his back with a proud smile popped up like a balloon.

Deep disappointment made him walk across the room and fall on his bed.

“Dammit!” He cursed. “And here I thought I could meet you again.”

His heart yearned for a familial affection he had been missing.

“What do you speak like? What do you sound like? What things do you like? What things do you dislike?” He wondered.

“And, would you like me?”

Jacob remained silent for a while.

Then he got himself up, looked at the fallen remains of his gaming pc, and put them aside while putting pieces of his broken table together. All this while, his Skill Creation Chance never left his mind.

“It’s not what I imagined, but this doesn’t lessen its value. As long as I can use this properly, I’ll be able to acquire something amazing and I’ll be able to make up for anything missing in my current battle style.”

He sat cross-legged on the ground and searched for undead skills that felt like they belonged to his Job.

“That forum says the best skill is Corpse Explosion but another dude says it's Corpse Poison. She says it's Corpse Infection and that hunter thinks Death Scythe is real gangsta.”

He looked across games, across hunter forms, and noticed his profession didn’t seem to be ultra rare. But no powerful person appeared among people who utilized undead energy.

“Not a single A-Ranker! Forget about S-Ranked Hunters. I get they’re pretty rare. But not a single A-Ranker?” he spoke in disbelief.

He felt worried for himself and then convinced himself that his system was unique. Just because these normal necromancers didn’t do well didn’t doom him to mediocrity as well. As long as his system gave him a path to power, he was ready to take it.

Jacob looked back at the list of skills he had amassed across the web. The GIFs looked amazing as well, and he was able to imagine the special effects in real life after getting a taste of undead spells with his Summon Undead and Bone Spike.

“Hold on a second!” His eyes widened as he had forgotten to consider an important point.

“Won’t my job also unlock skills as I level up? Will there be a second Job Class or third Job Class as I meet advancement conditions?”

He remembered the MMORPGs he used to play. A Warrior used to turn into a Knight who would become a Berzerker or Dark Knight and so on. And every few levels, a new skill related to the Job would automatically unlock.

“What if I take this chance and get a Job Skill that will naturally unlock as I level up and reach the required conditions?”

His heart trembled at the feeling of losing a brilliant chance like this. But so many things were simply his assumptions, and he didn’t want to be overcautious and lower the rate at which he was getting stronger.

“Stability is the sky.”

Adam’s words echoed in his mind and left his lips.

“Yes, it's true that I may create a skill I would naturally unlock. It’s also true that I may waste this chance if I don’t create an amazing skill.”

Jacob took a deep breath with determined eyes.

“But it's also true that I may get another Skill Creation Chance if I make new achievements. It’s also true that an amazing skill can immediately boost my strength and survivability at the moment. After all, it's only when I secure my present that I have the right to talk about my future.”

Jacob knew his decision may come back to bite him in the future. But he also knew it was wise to turn resources into ability. Keeping them for the future when they may be more useful was stupid.

“Okay. I have a White Skeleton Warrior for close-range attack. I have a White Skeleton Archer for long-range attacks but I have to test its ability to know if its amazing as well. Then I’ll get Daily Quests which I can use to increase my Attributes. Hmm… what am I missing?”

He took a few moments to think this through.

“Armor, weapons, and skills to survive,” Jacob concluded.

He knew Dash would help him run faster, and Tenacity would increase his survivability. But there was nothing to defend him front death blows and ambushes. Heck, he didn’t have anything to heal himself apart from those Band-Aids that randomly dropped from Random Boxes.

“This is not stable.” Jacob shook his head.

“So a survival skill it is and it also has to be related to my Job. What could it be?”

Jacob again went into research mode and spent a lot of time on his pc until the evening. But even after his legs went numb after sitting cross-legged for a long time on the ground, he didn’t find a satisfactory solution.

“Turn myself into a Lich and hide a part of my soul in a Phylactery. Heck no! Zombify myself to not have any fatal human weaknesses? Not happening. Become a Spector and be able to fly and escape when in danger? Doesn’t sound cool. What else is there?” Jacob wondered.

He kept a list of survival skills he found on the web in a document. Then he went to look up information about his Graduation Exam since it was just 18 days away.

After researching his school forum, he concluded a few main points.

“It’ll be held in the Goblin Kingdom dungeon which is a Peak E Rank dungeon that can evolve into a D Rank dungeon anytime. I guess they want to clear it as often as possible to avoid letting the mana accumulate and help that dungeon evolve.”

Jacob was a little reluctant to face the goblins since his recent experience with them wasn’t very pleasant.

“We’ll be given a Return Stone each from this year onwards and can exit the dungeon anytime. But we need at least one goblin ear to pass the Graduation Exam. The more ears we get, the higher our score, and the top scorers from our City will get additional rewards.”

Jacob looked at more information about it and concluded, “Nice!”

He realized the only two things that mattered in this dungeon dive. Survival and killing efficiency. The authorities had decided to give them Return Stones this year onward, so if the students got into a life-threatening situation, it was easy to leave the dungeon. This greatly relieved him as he had a bad experience of being stuck in a deadly situation in Four Sides of Death.

Jacob also remembered how he would be focusing on the Intelligence attribute from now onwards since it directly influenced his MP. He had not ignored the connection, and he opened his system to take a look.

…

[Status]

Name: Jacob Maxwell

Level: 11

Class: Necromancer

Title: Demonic Hunter

HP: 100

MP: 26

Tiredness: 0

…

[Attributes]

Strength: 28

Stamina: 23

Agility: 21

Intelligence: 26

(Available points to distribute: 0)

…

Since it was bedtime, he slept and woke up early the next day to do his Daily Quest. He added all points to his Intelligence and looked at his MP while showering at his house.

…

[Status]

Name: Jacob Maxwell

Level: 11

Class: Necromancer

Title: Demonic Hunter

HP: 100

MP: 29

Tiredness: 0

…

“It takes 5 MP to summon each of my skellies and 2 MP per minute to keep them in this world in the daytime, and it’ll be 1 MP per minute at night. Since I have 29 MP and recover 11 MP per minute, I can summon 5 skellies at a time and easily maintain them. Each minute I’ll also recover 6 extra MP which I can use for 6 Bone Spikes. Great!”

He left for the concealed portion of the playground at his Blue Hunter High School to test his other skeleton. The guard allowed him inside since his name was added to the list of students who had awakened their talents this year.

Jacob walked in and felt it was quite cold despite the shining sun which had peaked at noon. There was a faint mist in the area, and he folded his arms since it felt warmer that way. He kept walking inside where there were more trees, since he wanted to test various aspects of his White Skeleton Archer.

Bam!

A twenty-meter-tall tree in front of him shook after a loud sound and tilted forward in his direction.

“Dammit!” he cursed and ran to the side.

Boom!

He was hit by some branches, and faint red marks formed on his back. Then more branches hit him as he fell forward flat on his face. This time his nose greeted mother earth. Thankfully, mother earth was kind and only left him with a small red bruise instead of the usual bleeding he had experienced upon such an injury.

He looked behind and saw the two-meter thick tree trunk with plenty of branches fallen on the ground and thanked his quick thinking for deciding to move to the side. He didn’t want to imagine the future where he ran behind in terror.

‘Get that nail out of my mind! I’ll not be hammered by the tree trunk like a nail into the ground!’ He worked hard to dispel his imagination. ‘I’m fine! I’m still here!’

“Oh, so there was someone there.”

A melodious voice spoke, and he turned his attention to the speaker in rage, ready to give them an experience of his classified dictionary of curse words.