Chapter 22: Skill Manuals

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Skill Manuals

Eric decided to take the following day off from dungeon diving as well.

His brush with death against the Gorgefiends remained a sharp, sobering reminder of his mortal limits. Even when half-dead, mutilated, and blinded, a peak Mortal Stage monster had shattered his shield, cracked bone, and nearly crushed his ribcage into red mist. Blindly rushing back through the rift without solidifying their attributes was an open invitation to an early grave.

Over the course of the morning, Coal polished off the two cloudy F-rank Riftspawn cores. Just as Eric had calculated, the low-tier crystals yielded steep diminishing returns for a Level 4 beast, offering barely five to six percent experience each for a combined gain of 11%.

Next came the true prize.

Eric retrieved one of the dense, walnut-sized **E-Rank High-Grade Mana Stones** harvested from the fallen gorgefiend and placed it before the crow.

Coal swallowed the stone with greedy enthusiasm, but the sheer density of refined beast mana proved immense. Even after an entire afternoon of deep sleep, the crow remained curled in a dormant mana cocoon atop the folded wool blanket, his internal beast core slowly grinding down the rich energy.

*He’s guaranteed to trigger a breakthrough once that core absorbs,* Eric thought, watching the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of Coal’s obsidian feathers. *I need to pull my own weight and keep cultivating.*

For two full days, Eric barely left his straw mattress except for shared family meals and brief stretches. Guided by his upgraded Rank-D Appraisal and Rank-C Skill Comprehension, ambient environmental mana flowed into his pores, circulating cleanly through his energy pathways before condensing into his Mana Heart.

By the evening of the second day, he summoned his status panel.

│ STATUS PANEL (PARTIAL)

│

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 2 (33%)

*Thirty-three percent,* Eric calculated, rolling his shoulders until his joints popped with a satisfying snap. *Once Coal finishes digesting that titan core and crosses into Level 5, the soul feedback surge should provide more than enough momentum to push me straight to Level 3.*

"Yawnnnn..."

Eric collapsed backward onto his mattress, staring up at the weathered pine rafters of the attic ceiling.

"Cultivating for forty-eight hours straight is mind-numbing. I need to diversify my combat profile... but how?"

He tapped his chin in thought, his eyes suddenly going wide.

"Wait... skills! I have a literal Rank-C Skill Comprehension talent sitting completely idle! Leaving my skill slot totally blank is basically throwing away my biggest innate advantage. How did I overlook this?"

Eric scrambled off the bed, grabbed his rugged smartphone from the desk, and logged into the official Beast Taming Association trading portal.

He navigated straight to the registered skill repository.

The digital marketplace was structured strictly by manual tiers. Under the foundational **Low Mortal Grade Skill Manuals**, awakeners could purchase digitized manuals to master entry-level F-rank combat techniques:

* [Basic Swordsmanship (Rank F)] — Fundamentals of edge alignment, footwork, and kinetic thrusts.

* [Mana Arrows (Rank F)] — Basic arcane projectile condensation for ranged support.

* [Paralyze (Rank F)] — Low-potency lightning jolt capable of disrupting beast nerves.

* [Basic Spearmanship (Rank F)] — Thrusting drills, stance stability, and reach control.

Higher up the catalog sat Mid Mortal Grade Manuals unlocking potent E-rank arts like *Flame Slash* and *Iron Skin*, but those listings were locked behind astronomical price tags and guild verification tiers.

Even the entry-level Low Mortal manuals made Eric’s jaw clench in disbelief.

ASSOCIATION MARKETPLACE LISTING

Item: [Basic Swordsmanship Manual]

Classification: Low Mortal Grade

Skill Granted: Basic Swordsmanship (Rank F)

Price: 50,000 Credits

"Fifty thousand credits for a single F-rank sword technique?!" Eric groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Are these publishing houses out of their minds?!"

While fifty thousand credits was easily recoverable with a few solid days of high-yield dungeon hunting, burning a twelfth of his entire debt repayment on a beginner manual while the syndicate’s deadline hung over the orphanage felt like sheer madness.

"Sigh... forget it for now," Eric muttered, locking the phone screen with a dry, defeated sigh. "Let’s stick to raw cultivation and beast leveling first. At early Mortal stages, physical constitution, agility, and beast synchronization provide far more reliable combat survivability than an unrefined F-rank sword slash anyway."

He flopped face-first onto his pillow, letting out a muffled groan into the linen.

"Being dead broke hurts ten times worse than taking a broken arm."