Chapter 42: CH. 42 | A Failed Gamble

He steadied himself, taking a long breath and slowly exhaling. Theo pushed himself up and turned to walk over toward the cashier’s counter.

Thalia and the others turned to look at him. Theo asked about the skill cards they’d bought, they showed them to him.

Thalia held up the two skill cards she’d purchased, while Lily and Aya had each bought just one. As Theo walked closer, Lizzy instinctively pulled out a class skill card, one specifically for the knight class.

"Before you choose, you need to understand two things: skill upgrades and skill tiers."

Lizzy laid out three sample cards in front of Theo, each displaying a different skill illustration. But he also noticed another distinction beyond just the artwork.

"There are non upgradable and upgradable skills," Lizzy explained, "See this ladder symbol here? That means the skill’s upgradable, and if it’s missing, it’s not."

"Got it," Theo said.

The woman went on to explain another important detail, skill tiers. She laid out four tiers Theo needed to understand, divided based on the standard skill rank system used in an individual adventurer’s status panel.

"A card with a green frame marks a low tier skill, usually ranging from F-Rank to E-Rank. Low mana consumption, most of them aren’t attack or defense skills."

Lizzy picked up a second card with a blue frame, "This is intermediate, or what people usually call mid tier, ranging from D-Rank to C-Rank. This is where attack skills start showing up, mana consumption’s noticeably higher compared to the previous tier."

Finally, she picked up the last card with a red frame, "This is high tier, a lot of adventurers buy these. The skill range starts at B-Rank and goes up to A-Rank. Dominated by attack and defense skills, mana consumption’s pretty steep, and some of these skills even come with real consequences for using them."

Theo took it all in, but he remembered Lizzy mentioning four tiers of cards, while only three were laid out in front of him.

"So, what about the fourth tier?"

"That’s the supreme tier, the strongest and most mysterious skills out there. Not many shops carry them. From what I know, the skill range spans from S-Rank all the way to SSS-Rank."

"Because of how powerful those skills are, supreme tier skill cards are extremely rare, only academies and royal kingdoms are likely to have them," Lizzy added, "If you’re looking for something like that here, I’m afraid you’re out of luck."

Theo nodded. He himself had no idea what skill to actually buy, given his classless status. But Lizzy’s explanation about upgradable skills and skill tiers left him curious about something.

He picked up a card with the ladder symbol, marking it as upgradable, and showed it to Lizzy, "If I upgrade this skill all the way to max, does its rank go up too? Would its power end up matching the tier above it?"

"Let’s say this card is F-Rank. If I max it out, would its power end up equal to an E-Rank skill?"

Lizzy shook her head and took the card back out of Theo’s hand, "No. Upgrading a skill does boost its power and mana efficiency, but it doesn’t automatically make it as strong as a skill from the tier above."

"I see."

"So, what skill are you going to buy? I’ve got more skills for the knight class than any other class here."

"B-But he’s actually—"

"It’s fine, Thalia," Theo said, cutting her off, "I’ll try out the skill and see. Maybe I’ll be surprised."

Theo turned back to Lizzy and asked her to show him low tier class skills and common skills. Lizzy looked a bit confused hearing "common skill," but she went along with it anyway.

She laid out every skill on the table, splitting the two categories apart, class skills on the left, common skills on the right. Theo noticed something different about the common skills right away.

Common skills had no tier and no upgradable symbol, everything about them was plain and unadorned. He didn’t need to ask why, since he already understood the reason.

Theo scanned every card spread out in front of him, from the class skills to the common skills. He studied the artwork and read through each description carefully.

After taking his time deciding, Theo finally settled on two skills for himself. One sword attack skill from the class skill set, and one swift pace skill from the common skill set.

"All right," Lizzy said, picking up both skills.

"Are you getting that ring too? Seems like you’ve really taken a liking to that useless ring," Lizzy said.

"Yeah. I’ll take it."

"That comes to eighty copper total, forty five copper for the mid tier class skill, twenty copper for the common skill, and fifteen copper for the ring."

Theo tapped his inventory bag and paid off the full amount. Lizzy accepted it and handed the cards over to Theo. With that, they’d bought all the new skills they needed.

"Let’s head out," Theo said, and Thalia nodded.

He thanked Lizzy and said his goodbyes. Theo and the others left the magic shop behind, now headed south.

According to the map Yasa had given him, there was a level 1 danger zone south of the city, not far from their current location. That spot was a far better option compared to going all the way back to hunt Watery Slimes or Black Ants.

Thalia walked closer to Theo, "You bought a class skill? But you don’t even have a class."

"I’m just curious, maybe someone classless like me can still learn it."

"If it works, I could buy more class skills after this."

"And if it doesn’t?" Thalia asked.

Theo smiled and let out a short breath, "Then it just means I’m fated to only ever use common skills."

Thalia listened to what Theo said, telling him there wasn’t much she could do to help him with that.

Still, she made it clear she wouldn’t abandon him, no matter what limitations he had to deal with.

Theo thanked Thalia. Lily and Aya both tried to reassure him too, since they were well aware of Theo’s situation. Theo felt grateful to have party members like them.

They walked through the south gate, and by then it was already two in the afternoon. They only had about three hours left before nightfall to train their skills and hunt monsters.

The distance from the south gate to the level 1 danger zone took about fifteen minutes on foot.

In the distance, Theo spotted a wide open field crawling with rabbit shaped monsters with long fangs, roughly the size of a teenage dog.

Right before they entered, Theo stopped everyone and told them to stay alert.

He also warned them against attacking the monsters individually, and to hold off until they’d all learned their new skills first.

Thalia and the others listened. They moved in and settled a good distance away from the cluster of monsters. One by one, they pulled out their skill cards and began learning them.

Theo did the same. He took out the class skill and tried to integrate it into his personal system.

[Please wait! New skill is being added]

[Synchronization process starting]

[Warning!]

[Skill failed to synchronize with host class!]

He gave a small smile. The system panel in front of him confirmed his attempt had failed to add the new skill.

That meant what Thalia had said was right all along, class skills simply wouldn’t work for Theo.

Thalia had already succeeded in learning her skill, her body briefly glowing blue before the light faded away. She turned right away to look at Theo.

"How’d it go? Did the skill work?" Thalia asked.

Theo let out a short sigh, turning to Thalia as he put the class skill card away, "Failed!"