Shino POV
I got cold sweats as things became so quiet.
I looked around with my heart still pounding hard.
Because everything became so silent, I put up my guard.
I was too confused as things suddenly became quiet.
1, 2, 3… several seconds had passed and nothing seemed to happen.
A minute passed, and nothing happened.
Since nothing was happening, I slowly regain my cool.
What was odd, things were still silent…
Nothing seems to be happening, I looked around and it was certainly clear that nothing was about to happen.
Now that I am thinking a little bit straight, slowly but surely the reason why everything seemed to become so quiet came to me.
It was not because something bad will about to happen.
It was not because some magic effect was affecting the surrounding.
The reason was simple.
It was because of me.
Something changed within me.
-Gulp-
When the reason came to my mind I concentrated and looked at the moving trees from nearby.
Usually, I could hear the slightest sound that the trees make from this distance.
But for some unknown reason, I could not do so.
“Huh?” <Shino>
At first, I was confused.
I tried to concentrate but I could not hear the sound of the trees,
The bushes move with the wind.
The slight sound of things from all around me seems to make no sound.
The reason for this was simple.
It was not that everything became silent nothing changed from those things around me.
The one that changed was me, my hearing all of sudden became significantly weaker.
It was as if the “volume” was reduced from 100 to 10.
I looked at the skill card once again and checked my skill list.
After checking my skills, I immediately realized the reason.
One of my skills, specifically (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II) had disappeared from my skill list.
“What?” <Shino>
I looked at my status card intently and the skill I was looking for was not there.
Even if I tried my hardest to find the skill, it was not there.
“What happened? My skill… disappeared?!” <Shino>
I was so used to having enhanced hearing from the effects of the skill (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II).
Now that the skill suddenly disappeared, my hearing weakened significantly.
No, it returned to what it should be.
Things did not become silent.
The right words to explain this phenomenon was, it returned to normal.
My superhuman hearing ability is now gone.
Thus, my hearing returned to normal.
I was too shaken by the fact that one of my skills suddenly disappeared out of a blue.
I’ve been relying on the skill (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II) to keep myself safe in the field.
It was a very useful skill that allows me to detect enemies before I even encounter them.
Suddenly losing the skill that I rely on for my safety made me feel insecure.
For now, I decided to just gather myself.
As to that, I felt in danger being in this forest.
As such I wanted to leave and get to safety as soon as possible.
Using the skill (Skilless: Rainbow Lizard – Stealth I).
I sneaked past the forest.
It was going all right up until I encountered a small blue-eyed wolf on the way.
This monster can be found in almost all the forestry in the Empire of Artesia.
A weak E-rank monster that is known to be the smartest E-rank monster in the whole world.
Dealing with this monster was not much of a problem for me but as I am right now.
I was uncertain of myself after losing a skill.
What if I lose another skill while I fight the monster?
What if one of my skills fails me in crucial moments when I needed it during my fight with that monster?
I was full of uncertainty at this moment, and that is why I decided to not engage in battle.
-sniff- -sniff-
The blue-eyed wolf sniffs the air.
I knew what this signifies.
“crap at this rate…” <Shino>
The blue-eyed wolf glared in my direction and became aware of my presence.
“GRRRRR” <Wolf>
The monster growled in my direction.
At that moment I knew I could not avoid battle.
The blue eyed-wolf started running at me.
At that moment.
An unpleasant sound echoed.
-Prrrtttt-
“Eh?” <Shino>
I became so confused.
All of a sudden, a high-pitched trumpet sound emerged from behind.
To be exact it came from me, from my buttocks.
The next moment, a strong and unpleasant smell spreads with yellow-colored smoke.
The smell was similar to the smell of rotting food.
The smell was so intense that when the blue-eyed wolf came into contact with the smells ran in the opposite direction while doing a puking action.
Even I felt like puking.
I knew what happened.
Another skill that I wish I never have, had activated on its own.
It was the skill (Skilless: Scavenge Badger: Odor Bomb).
Because of this forceful activation of the skill, my body released an unpleasant smell.
Putting it simply, this skill forced me to fart.
That day I returned to the city still covered with this unpleasant smell.
I did try my best to remove the smell by bathing in the river but the smell didn’t fade totally.
Well, it did thin out a lot but I could still smell the unpleasant odor caused by the skill.
I had to go visit a potion shop nearby to ask for something to remove the smell.
Luckily, the potion shop does sell something like that in it.
“Scavenge Badger”
Is a rat-like monster that looked similar to a Dog sized Rat with white stripes.
Now that I remember how the monster looked like it was very reminiscent of the “Skunk”.
Scavenge Badger was a monster I hunted during these past few days.
When I encountered this monster, I manage to kill it without knowing what skill it possessed.
I easily killed this monster with the use of the Stealth skill I got from the Rainbow Lizard.
I caught this monster off guard that it was unable to fight back and use the skill it has.
In turn, I was not able to discover that this monster had that despicable skill.
[Why did this skill activate all of a sudden?]
Some adventurers would sometimes encounter this monster unprepared.
As a result, they would trigger the “Scavenge Badger” to use this skill.
The unpleasant smell of the Scavenge Badger's skill would stick to their body and would end up having this smell sticking to their body.
It has become a problem thus the people of this world thought of a way to deal with this unpleasant odor.
This is why the potion shop created a "bathing potion" for this exact purpose.
Adventurers would need this "bathing potion" to remove the unpleasant scent from the monster’s skill, (Odor Bomb).
Before I was wondering how would this skill activate.
But no matter how much I tried I could not manage to activate the skill.
That is why I just ignored this skill up until now.
But to think that this skill would have this kind of effect.
At that moment one thing was etched in my mind.
“I NEED TO KNOW HOW MY SKILL WORK.” <Shino>
.
.
.
Noon of the same day.
I wanted to get back to the city before dark so I tried my best to rush back to my room.
I spent an hour in the bath to thoroughly remove the smell from my body using the bathing potion I bought in the city.
After doing so, I went back to my room and sat on a chair next to a study table.
The room was lit by a flowing white mana Stone placed strategically at the center of the room’s ceiling to illuminate my room.
In a way, it looked similar to a light bulb.
The only difference was it was made out of a magical material and activated by mana.
I have my hands closed together under my chin; I was thinking about what happened earlier today.
I was thinking of the reason why the skill suddenly disappeared.
At first, I could not think of a reason as to why it suddenly disappeared, but ultimately, I concluded.
The only reason I could think of was because of the skill (Skilless) effects.
I came up with 2 reasonable explanations regarding it.
I think that the skill that I acquired using the skill (Skilless) has time limits.
Or…
There is a limit as to how many skills I could acquire with the skill (Skilless).
I think that one of these two was the reason why (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II) disappeared.
Initially, I suspect that it was the second one.
Since I lost the very 1st skill I acquired from this skill (Skilless) right after I obtained the skill (Skilless: Sticky Tongue – Sticky Tongue).
But since I was still unsure, I did not know how to react to the effect of my skill.
Because of this experience I’ve realized how complacent I was.
I knew that my skill (Skilless) is a pretty cheat-like ability.
Compared to any other skills I’ve encountered so far; I knew at once that my skill (Skilless) is so far the most broken skill I’ve seen.
I now realized that my skill (Skilless) was not all positive.
I should have known that my skill would have some kind of a boon.
I learned this after losing one of the skills I gained with this skill.
After this experience, I decided to know more about my skill, specifically the negative effects of these skills.
So far, I’ve realized 3 of those negatives.
The first one is the possibility of losing the skills I gained.
The second was that I could not control what Skill I will gain after defeating a monster.
The third is that I don’t have full control over all the skills I obtained using this skill.
So far, I did not even think twice to kill a monster and gain their ability without thinking of the skill that I would gain from them.
The skill (Skilless: Sticky Tongue- Sticky Tongue) and (Skilless: Scavenge Badger: Odor Bomb) were such kinds of skills that you would not want in normal circumstances.
[Well, knowing that there is a possibility that I could lose this skill at some point is a relief.]
“I have to learn more about my skills.”
I said to myself.
I knew that I needed to do this to avoid unexpected or unwanted loss of skill.
In some way knowing more about my skill would help me survive better in this fantasy world.
“I need to know the reason why I lost my skill.” <Shino>
I said to myself.
Was the reason I lost my skill because of a “time limit” or is it because of a “quota”?
If the reason why I lost my skill was because of a skill “quota”, then I need to know how many skills could I gain using the skill.
Assuming that I’ve lost a skill because of this reason then the limit of skill I could gain from (Skilless) is 12.
On the other hand, if the reason why I lost my skill was because of a “time limit” I needed to know how long would one skill last.
If the “time limit” differs for each skill, I need to know a way to determine how would it differ.
I just hope that the “time limit” is not set at random.
My head started hurting,
“Ugh… this is too complicated.” <Shino>
I invested my remaining time before we depart to Riles for investigating my skill, (Skilless) effects.
We will be leaving for Riles with Viscount Gilbert in three days.
As I was too unsure of what to do, I decided to stay still in the inn while trying my best to discover the effects of my skill.
In my opinion, this decision came to be the right thing to do.
After all, I am now quite sure as to why I lost the skill (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II).
This time I am quite sure of how it works.
During these three days
I’ve lost 2 more of my skills.
The skill (Skilless: Small Blue-Eyed Wolf – Hearing I) and (Skilless: Green Leaper – Burst I).
From what I can remember, I obtained these skills about a month ago.
Somehow, I am quite sure that the reason that I lost these skills was because of one reason.
The reason was because of a “time limit”.
The limit is most probably be 1 month or about 30 days.
Since I was not particularly counting how many days from when I obtained the skill to the day it disappeared, I could only approximate, I was not quite sure.
I came to this conclusion as I lost my skill without gaining a new skill and the timing and sequence of the disappearance of the skill were too obvious.
Now that I discovered the reason why I lost my skill.
I am more confident that I can keep myself safe.
“I need to know if I can gain the same skills I lost.” <Shino>
[I hope I can.]
As I found the skill (Skilless: Horned Rabbit – Hearing II) and (Skilless: Blue-eyed Wolf - Smell I) to be very useful.
I went out in the field to hunt for these two monsters before we depart to Riles.
Luckily, both the Small Blue-eyed wolf and the Horned Rabbit are monster that is commonly found here in the empire of Artesia.
I managed to find a Horned Rabbit and a pack of Blue-eyed wolves.
With this, I managed to gain the skills I wanted to obtain.
[Thank God]
[Now I learn that at the very least, I can re-learn the skills I’ve lost once… Thank god.]
“Wait? Does this mean that I need to hunt for these two monsters monthly?” <Shino>
[Oh well, it’s a small thing for my survival.]
“Alright from now on, I shall utilize my skill better.” <Shino>
I did manage to learn a lot in these past few days.
I think there is still a lot to learn as to how my skill (Skilless) works.
But as long as I am cautious and observant with my skill, I think I can manage to work it out.
I don’t want similar instances to what happened with my skill (Skilless: Scavenge Badger - Odor Bomb).
If you’re asking how my (Skilless: Scavenge Badger – Odor Bomb) is activated.
It was because this skill’s activation is triggered by my will to “Escape”.
Yes, the trigger of this skill is my will to “Escape”
Now that you think about it, it does make sense.
This skill is used by the “Scavenger Badger” to escape from predators and harm.
At that time, I wanted to escape from the blue-eyed wolf, I was on my way to escape.
That is why the skill is activated on its own.
[As How I discovered how these skill works were one of the most embarrassing moments in my life. Please don’t ask me about what happened]
Anyway…
I got myself prepared and ready for my next adventure.
I was just thankful that this happened before we departed Riles.
At least I was able to learn more about my skill before the quest started.
If I had encountered this problem during our trip, I may not have had the leeway to investigate how my skill (Skilless) works.
I am glad, now I have discovered a lot about my skills.
I together with some adventurers and some of the people of the Viscount departed for Riles.
******************
Narrator POV
It was quite some time since the event in Altus, the march of the undead occurred.
The reason for this phenomenon was still unknown.
The Mind and Leaders of the Adventurer’s Guilds around the world spread this phenomenon through their intelligence system.
The most probable reason for this unprecedented event was attributed to the Demon Lord’s Army trying to do something shady behind the shadows.
This made the Adventurers Guilds all around the world to be more vigilant of the Demon Lord’s Army’s movements.
Meanwhile, the real perpetrator of that event was doing their usual business.
A little Imp girl who wears Miko Clothing and a voluptuous female Succubus wearing Lolita Clothing was looking over a sphere of distorted space.
This was one of the little girl’s abilities as the goddess of Spacetime.
She created a sphere of distorted space to spy on the movement of the people who pique their interest.
Namely, the 28 heroes that the Artesia Empire summoned 2 months ago.
Behind the scene, these two mischievous goddesses are brewing another event with their all-mighty authority over the laws of the world.
“Uhm…” <Male>
“So? what do you think?” <Luna>
“Quite fascinating don’t you think?” <Stella>
The Goddess of Spacetime and the Goddess of SoulCycle enthusiastically speak to a person sitting nearby.
“Uhhh… You two…” <Male>
A voice of male replied with a problematic voice.
“What?” <Luna>
Luna looked at the being sitting opposite a table with an excited child expression on her face.
“??” <Stella>
Stella showed that same person with a smile.
It was a kind of smile that looked sweet at first look but with that Goddess’s awful personality, he knew that behind that smile was something very sinister.
“I knew that you were up to something all this time. But for you two to be toying around with those heroes.” <Male>
“Hmnn? Is there a problem with that?” <Stella>
Stella asked.
“No… not really. Does Gaiah know about your activities? This world is under her jurisdiction after all.” <Male>
“Ah, if that is what you’re asking then the answer is, yes she knows what we're up to.” <Stella>
Luna butts in to explain what was going on.
“To be exact she was the one who asked us to act this way since she can’t interfere directly with how this world progresses. She wanted to do something about the heroes to do their jobs properly and defeat the demon Lord that had been her pain for the past hundreds of years. Well, in a way you can even say that this whole thing is actually her idea.” <Luna>
“Hmmm… that’s why you’ve been doing these kinds of things these days huh?” <Male>
After hearing about the reason why these two goddesses were doing their mischievous acts for these past few days had picked up a small, thin rectangular box lying on the table.
-Click-
He then pressed something at the side of the rectangular object and one side of the box glowed.
At the same time sound came from that small object and the guy started tinkering with the box with his hand.
Luna who was quite familiar with and interested in that same object came over to the table and asked the guy what he was doing.
“What are you doing?” <Luna>
“Playing…” <Male>
“What are you playing?” <Luna>
“uh… some Gacha games.” <Male>
The box-like object he was holding was something that should not exist in this world.
Not so long ago, the only person who had this item was him.
In the first place, this object should not exist in this world.
This world is not technologically advanced enough to create the such item.
It was one of a kind...
Not until the 28 heroes summoned by the Empire accidentally brought the same item from their world.
A smartphone.
“Hmnn? Wait… does the internet even exist in this world?” <Luna>
Luna asked the male with a half-hearted tone while trying to look at the screen of the phone.
“Not perse…” <Male>
“Then can you play Gacha games with your phone?” <Luna>
He lifted his arm and pointed at an object sitting idly in the corner of the room.
It was a router.
“I created that thing to be able to connect to the internet of that world.” <Male>
“Oh… Nice… as expected of the God of Creation.” <Luna>
As if he remembered something, he placed his phone over the table once again after rolling some Gacha pulls from his phone.
On the back of his head, he was hoping for some good luck and placed his phone upside down to make some sort of suspense out of his Gacha pulls.
He wanted to see the result of his pull for later.
“I heard from Themis that her oracle would be heading to Riles too.” <Male>
After hearing this, Luna and Stella reacted displeased to his words.
Stella's brow cringed while forcing a smile.
Meanwhile, Luna let out a groan.
“Ehh??” <Luna>
The God of Creation, Origin did not miss this reaction from Luna and Stella.
“This might become problematic later… Ughhh…” <Luna>
“??? Is there a problem?” <Male/Origin>
Origin asked with odd interest.
“Actually... Themis did not want us to mess with her Oracle.” <Stella>
Stella replied in Luna’s stead.
Stella placed her left hand over her cheeks while giving off a problematic expression.
She did not want to involve a certain personage in their plans.
For the past few days, Luna and Stella had been setting up something big in the country of the half-bloods, Riles.
Again, their purpose was to instigate havoc for the 28 heroes summoned by Artesia Empire about 2 months back.
They already made preparation and created scenarios to lure the heroes to set foot in that place.
That place was in Riles.
One of the heroes caught in their little prank was Uesaka Shino.
Without realizing this fact Shino had her foot into the two goddesses’ trap.
Some time ago, Uesaka Shino caught the attention of one of the goddesses during her time in Altus.
Her performance on the stage they prepared at that time pleased the Goddess of SoulCycle, Stella Nightfall.
As the Goddess wanted to see her performance on the stage they are preparing in Riles, she instigated a scenario in which Uesaka Shino would find herself.
Just as Stella had planned, Shino willingly stepped into the palm of her hands.
Stella used the opportunity to control the Viscount of the place where Shino was staying.
The Viscount is just one character in the big event they are brewing in the south.
They will be using the Viscount as a chess piece for their game.
The Viscount is a noble of the Empire of Artesia.
As a noble, he is tasked to investigate and help in the conflict happening in Riles.
The Viscount did not need to use adventurers to accompany him on his journey to Riles.
He could have gone to that place with the soldiers in Kaleen.
Even without the help of adventurers, he could reach Riles without much problem.
Using Stella’s ability to manipulate souls, she convinced the Viscount by controlling his thoughts to come up with a conclusion to include adventurers in his journey to Riles.
Stella did the same to the people with him.
As if natural, he posted a request in Altus asking for adventurers to come and join this expedition.
As a personal rule, she made a vow to herself to not “alter” the wills of the heroes she wanted to play around with as it will not be as “FUN” for her.
Originally, Stella wanted to hook Hayasaki Keikain into her trap but he did not bite into her trap.
She wanted the heroes to willingly step into her plot, and just as planned Shino took the bait.
It was not only Shino, others were caught in these two goddesses’ ploys.
They are manipulating things around the heroes so that they would eventually find themselves in Riles.
Once those heroes gather in the target location, they would start the party.
Just like what they did in Altus.
Not only that.
The two Goddesses were also setting up their dark intentions on the other side of the world.
One of those is in the forest of Giah, the place where the “Hero”, Hano Ryuusei was heading to.
An event that is purposely set up for the heroes and the others they wanted to play around with.
In a way, the event happening in Riles is mostly set up by Stella, while the event prepared in Giah is set up by Luna.
The stage is now set.
The ploy is in order.
All that is missing are the main actors.
This is why the two goddesses are doing their best to gather the heroes in Riles in one way or another.
The last thing they wanted was the presence of an individual whom they are not allowed to touch.
It was Mizusawa Kazue.
The Goddess of Judgement had been very protective of her potential Oracle.
Luna and Stella did not want her presence on the stage they prepared for the other heroes of the play.
That is why they looked so troubled after hearing the fact that the Oracle of the Goddess of Judgement will be attending their little prank.
But out of nowhere.
“Alright… I think I could help with your little play.” <Origin>
The two goddesses made an empowered beam.
Origin had been close with the Goddess of Judgement.
If there was a being capable of appeasing the Goddess of Judgement it was Origin.
Origin had been very interested in the Oracle of the Goddess of Judgement whom he had been hearing about lately.
The opportunity came for him to interact with her.
A small grin appeared on Origin’s face.
“REALLY?!” <Luna>
“Well, I’m a bit interested in Themis’ Oracle anyway.” <Origin>
“Okay! That’s great!” <Luna>
“Fufufu, it will be fun.” <Stella>
Looking at Stella, Origin wanted to remind the goddess of Soulcycle to not overdo things.
“Hahaha, well just don’t make things too complicated OK? Even I can’t stop her when she becomes angry.” <Origin>
“Fufufu, don’t worry… fufufu.” <Stella>
“ROGER THAT!” <Luna>
Origin looked at both Luna and Stella who reacted happily at his cooperation.
“Did you understand what I said?” <Origin>
“Alright! Now that Origin is participating, I think I can think of something stupid to use his power.” <Luna>
A portal was created by Luna.
The two girls entered the portal.
“See ya’ later Origin!” <Luna>
Stella silently entered the portal while waving at the God of Creation with her mischievous smile still painted on her face.
He shook his head.
“Ahahaha…” <Origin>
An awkward laugh exits Origin’s mouth.
“Just what trouble did I just get myself into?” <Origin>
It was just about 2 months ago since they came into this world.
The two goddesses came back to where they were supposed to be, acting as the rising E-rank adventurers.
Luna is the talented Magic Knight who is skilled in using Ice magic while Stella is the brilliant Ninja who is skilled in moving in the Shadows.
“Those two had been busy lately. To think that two months ago they did not even know how to enjoy things in this world.” <Origin>
Origin remembers the time when the two goddesses visit him for the first time.
At that time, they did not have mortal vessels.
This time around it seems that the two goddesses are enjoying their time getting stronger with their relatively weak mortal vessels.
Origin knew that Luna and Stella had been working as adventurers as of late.
He knew that little by little they are gaining some reputation for being “talented adventurers”.
He knew that those two had been having a good time on their vacation.
He could not help but feel motivated looking at them and their lively attitude.
He wanted to see what they were up to.
Origin picked up his phone and looked at the result of his Gacha rolls.
“Ah… a trash roll… again…” <Origin>
He snorts.
He opened the drawer of the table and threw the smartphone in it and closed the drawer with it inside.
He then picked up a quill pen placed atop the table; he also placed a bunch of papers over the table.
He started working on the paperwork piled up in front of him.
“OKAY… ~Time to work.” <Origin>
Author Note:
I just realize that a year has passed so I make this to change things up!
Well... 10 days had passed since the 1st chapter I just realized it yesterday when watching the news.
About COVID, and stuff...
Then I thought...
"Oh didn't I start writing my story at this time of the year?"
And poof, here we are!
